RPS School Board Work Session - April 7, 2025

001lost it. I haven't even checked yet to be honest. Good evening everyone. Like to call this uh schoolboard meeting or work session on Monday, April 7th, 2025 into order. Um roll call. Mr. Percal here. Mr. Ricard. Mr. Farooq here. Mr. Hedgepath here. Miss Rizzy, Dr. Harris Muhammad, Miss Burke, present, Mr. Jafari present, Miss Fernandez here. Madam Chair, we have a quorum. Thank you. And then we will do our pledge of allegiance and moment of silence. Miss Rizzie, if you can lead us. All right. Next up, we'll have the translation service announcement. Good evening, everyone. I'm here on behalf of the language justice team of RPS. If anyone needs interpretation from English to Spanish, please come see me in the back of the room. We have interpretation headsets for anyone that needs one and interpretation in

002Spanish is also available for those watching this meeting through Zoom. Um, please as a reminder everyone speak clearly into the mic. Um, I will now make the same announcement in Spanish. Thank you. Next item is 1.04 adoption of the agenda. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. It's been moved by Mr. Hedgepath and seconded by Miss Burke to adopt the agenda. Madame Clerk. Mr. Percal. Yes. Miss Ricard. Yes. Mr. Farooq. Yes. Mr. Hedgepath. Yes. Miss Rizzy. Yes. Dr. Harris Muhammad. Yes, Miss Burke. Yes, Mr. Jafari. Yes, Miss Fernandez. Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Moving right along to Dreams for RPS. Uh item 2.01, receive Dreams for RPS goal number one, school accountability ratings. Thank you. Good evening, board chair, vice chair, um school board, and our superintendent. Tonight we welcome the opportunity to share

003the new accountability system for the state enacted this school year. Our central office team and school have been work and our schools have been working hard to adjust to our new reading and math SOS, new assessments including item types along with the new accountability system. As we have received information during the school year, we have adjusted our practices to the changes to help our students to be successful. Thank you to the school leaders, teachers, support staff, and the central office team who are on the front lines every day serving students. Thank you to our parents for their support. And thanks to our students who work hard every day to meet the challenges before them. We are excited about everything in which we are um doing for our students with the new accountability system and the

004new SOS. Um but I will tell you it's a lot of hard work and adjustments being made right now. Valenta Wade will start with um talking about our accountability system and then John Grove will come and discuss how we have adjusted where our schools have um um based on their last SOS how they rate presently and um I will be back at the end to answer any questions. Good afternoon school board members and superintendent cameras. My name is Valencade and I am the manager of testing and data systems for RTS. And as my colleague stated, I'm going to give you an overview of our new accountability system. Um, so first I want to give you a bit of a some background of where the state was and where we're heading just so you can understand

005why the change is so important. Um, traditionally Virginia always had two systems. They had a state accreditation system and they had a federal accountability system. The state accreditation system satisfied all of the state regulations and rules and federal accountability satisfied all the federal rules and regulation primarily ESSA that every student succeeded in. The issue was though although they were using the same data set our student achievement for the year each system had different numbers so they never aligned. So talking to stakeholders about the differences between the two systems was really hard and then having them to understand which data do you use for which particular reports was very very confusing. So what the state has done they com they combined two systems into one. So now we have this one accountability system for Virginia. So

006there's three primary frameworks, one for elementary, middle, and high school. Um there are multiple variations of the frameworks um for schools that have special situations such as Richmond Alternative and Franklin Military. They're are combined schools and so their framework is a derivative of the middle and high school framework. And so just know that there's different variations of these three main ones, but today we're just going to focus on the elementary, middle, and high school. U one thing I hope you notice as you look across the grade bands is that as we get to high school, the readiness indicator significantly increases. And one of the main reasons for that is that if all of us do our jobs correctly, by the time a student finishes high school, they're ready for what we call the three E.

007That's enrollment into secondary education that is postcary sorry um enlistment into the military or employment with a high wage job that is the ultimate goal of all of us as educators accountability data. Um, with that being stated, I'm not saying that I got and I say earth science is still very important. Um, because the students who take earth science in the middle school, if they pass the class, they get a standard credit and when they pass the class in the SOL test, they get the verified credit towards high school graduation. So, it's still a very important test, although it's not included in our state's accountability system. As far as the progress for English learners, all students, this is not a grade level. All students in grades K through 12 that are English learners are required

008to take a English language proficiency test every year. And they are required to have a certain amount of progress on that test every year. And so that's where you see that 10% for the English progress across all grade bands, elementary, middle, and high school. We get into growth. Growth for elementary and middle school is very similar. They just have different rates. U growth for elementary is at 25% and for middle school is at 20%. I actually like the growth model that the state has adopted because it really looks at the individual students test history to determine what their expected growth measure should be. I will say the only hard thing about this is that a student's expected growth measure is not um identified until the student takes a current year test. So it's not a

009lot of project predictions you can make with the growth but it doesn't occur until the student takes their so test in this um also for growth um students have to have two previous so records. So what does that mean? That means for grades three they will not have a growth measure um in the system. Um, another positive thing I like about the growth system is in the past growth was only measured for those students who fail the SOL test. But now growth can be accounted for for all students whether they pass or fail. So every student in our district or student in our state has an opportunity to show that they have met their expected growth. Um for the readiness indicators for elementary and middle school um you're going to see the five C's performance

010test that is still being developed by the state department. So we don't have much information about what that's going to look like in the future. So for this current school year the five C's will not be included in elementary or in the middle school um indicators. So for the readiness indicator for elementary it's going to be 10% all on chronic absenteeism and then readiness for middle school will be 10% chronic absenteeism and then 10% on advanced course work. I do have to stop and say that for advanced coursework for middle school it is only including math advanced course work. We hope that in the future they will include science you know take science and learn advanced courses and maybe So right now for this year, the advanced coursework will only include math. And so that's

011pretty much the elementary and middle school framework. When you look at high school, high school is probably the the most different. You look at the data um because it's taken more of a federal approach. So it's not a new approach. It's just taking more of the federal rules than it had been in the past. When you look at the high school data, it is all cohort based. So that means it's only looking at the data for graduating seniors in the cohort. It means students that started the ninth grade the same time four years ago. Um so when you look at the reading, the math and the science, it's only looking at one specific test for each subject. For math, it's looking at algebra one specifically. The only time algebra 1 is not used is when

012a student has taken algebra 1 in middle school. Then it's the next math course, which for our district would be algebra 2, but algebra one is used for math. You look at science um for for high school, the only test they're looking at for science is biology. But yes, students are still taking chemistry. Yes, they're still taking Earth science, but the only test that will be measured in this accountability system would be biology. Um and then for reading, there's only one reading test in high school, which is the 11th grade reading test. When you look at the graduation rate for high school, the FGI is more of a federalbased uh format that we're following here. It's very straightforward for graduation. It is only the number of students who are graduating in four years divided by

013the number of students in the cohort. So significantly um different than what we had in the past. We were able to look at applied studies and students who may have earned a GED. And then the last and the biggest indicator outside of the ready mastery is the readiness indicator. Um and that's going to be as it is listed. So unlike elementary and middle school which you see for high school readiness would be as listed. So that means um 5% chronic absenteeism uh 5% from the GCI or the uh the six year graduation rate which is includes applied studies. And then the big indicator for that one is the ready for life the three E. We'll talk about that in a few seconds. I do want to say that a big change this year is that

014every student who takes an SOL test will be accounted for some way. As a student takes a test in elementary and middle school, the lowest points they'll count will be 0.25. In high school, the lowest they'll account um they fail the test will be 75. Um so there is a index model that the state has adopted to ensure that all students are accounted for in their account. And I'm this is this is just a page that I already talked about about the readiness indicator. Um eventually we'll know more about the 5C performance test. Right now we don't have that information from the state but as soon as we get it we'll make sure we share with you all. And here is the three E. I will tell you that the board the state board is

015having a meeting in May to discuss more changes to the employment um indicator. So this may change as of the next board meeting in May. So as here you can see the different ways students can earn points um in enrollment, employment or listening. Remember this is a cohort model. So your denominator is going to be the same. So students don't have to get points in every single category. You see they get the highest they can in each in one of them. But if you do have stu students that get uh points in multiple ones. Um once we look at the data and we get our numbers all tallied up 90 points and above will give you distinguished between 80 and 89 is on track between 65 and 79 is off track and then anything below

016the 65 will be needed into the support. Then there's a red box. The red box um any school that's federally identified that's um identified as TSI or ATSI. I know that's a lot of acronyms and that will be a whole another meeting about what that means. Can't do it today. U any school that's um identified by um ATSI or TSI will go down and indicate. So if you are on track, you'll go down to off track. Um similarly, if a school is identified as comprehensive support, they will automatically go into the need support category. So if the school is on track and they are also identified as CSI, they will go into the need some big changes um to our state system as far as a calculation of business rules. Um usually English learners that

017were enrolled in our district or our state for less than 11 semesters were excluded if they did not pass. That's now changed to three semesters which is about 1.5 years or less than 11 less than less than a year. So that's going to be a big change in our data we report out on on this fall. The in sizes um previously if you had a student group um at 30 or less you were not included in that calculation but now that number has changed to 15. So if you have a size of 15 or more in the student group you will be included that student group will be included in the calculations. Um again a cohort model just a reminder that graduate uh high schools on a cohort model and you're not looking at ninth

01810th 11th grade you're only looking at the 12th graders that are in that cohort model. So this going to be a big difference in our insides look at the high school data. All right. So, I'm gonna change switch it over to John so he can talk about our data and where we are. Thank you, Miss Wade. Um, good evening, school board members. My name is John Grove, director of data analytics, and I'm here to present our intensified focus in high school and quickly the uh states release data and results um based off the new model. This slide right here, how did high schools perform based on last year's data? What you can see here are all of our high schools and then all of the uh new accountability indicators listed above to begin with the

019mastery indexes, WEDA, chronic absenteeism, FGI3 rates. Um you can also see the weight um with and without WEDA that's EL progress. Um but what I want to really draw your attention to tonight is open high and the math mastery index. The big question is why does open have the lowest math mastery index? That's really, you know, surprising to me when I first saw this given that they also had the highest proficiency rate. And with that being said, we really wanted to explore why this was the case. And what um when we did that, what we discovered is next slide, how critical our participation rates are. Right? This is critical because something that Miss Wade mentioned before when it comes to the mastery index for high schools, the lowest a students can essentially the amount of

020points they can receive on the so as it relates to the mastery index is 75. However, if they do not test, it is zero. And so that's why all of our schools overall and by reporting group have to be above 95% or higher. That's kind of the wiggle room that this state allows. And what you could see here is for math, science, and reading, the participation rate by cohort because remember this new model is very cohort heavy. And so what you can see here is cohort 24 and 25. Um this data was pulled uh during the winter time, so it didn't have our winter asphalt data applied to it. Um we pulled this from the the state's SSWS website. And what you can see here though, I just want to draw your attention to is

021a lot of the big increases that we see going from red to green from cohort 24 to 25. And currently right now, we're working very hard and closely with our schools to monitor that. We push our participation rates as high as possible. The next big topic here for high school is our ready for life indicator. I just want to provide you all with some rationale and some data on our progress here. So why is the 3E rate critical? Number one, it is the most heavily weighted indicator for our high schools, 25% of the total score. And so with that being said, we have invested a lot of resources, time, and capacity to increasing this outcome. Um, below is an example of what you can see with Armstrong High School with a 54% 3E rate. And

022that's actually what the state reported based off last year's data and what we are projecting as an 80% increase for Armstrong because we're dedicating that time capacity towards this outcome. And what you can see here is going from 54 to 80 increases the total score to above 80% total points. And that is critical if we want to get all of our schools beyond track or better. The other piece here to this slide here, um, uh, our team, our our data team, um, we've compiled all of this data together so that schools don't have to do that manual work of getting all that data. I mean, it is a lot of data. It's AP exams, IB exams, KIPP exams. What we do is we just take all that data real time and it's available in our

023trackers. So, it's easy access to all of this. And what we're also able to do here then on the next slide is to aggregate that data so that we can model um given all of that 3E data where our schools are as it relates to this 3E rate. And this saves our schools obviously a lot of time in that manual data entry and collection and really focuses our schools and teams on filling up those buckets and ensuring that we maximize all of our points. And then lastly here for the school year 23 24 data, the state released um accountability data based off the new model based off of last year's data. And that's what you see here for all of our schools. You can see the school federal identification status, overall score, the rating, and

024then all of the indexes, um, excuse me, the indicator values to the right for all of our school, excuse me, schools in Richmond public schools. Um, and to summarize what we see here, we have five schools that are identified as distinguished, uh, seven schools that are on track, seven schools off track, and lastly, 24 schools are identified as needs intensive supports. Thank you, Mrs. Wade and Mr. Grove. Have any questions? Yes. Um, before I think I saw Mr. Farooq's hand raised, but before that, Mr. like to share. Thank you, Madam Chair. I I did want to draw everyone's attention to the next slide, slide 24, as an example of the impact of that red box that was articulated. The beginning of her presentation, she articulated the goal of the new state system was to have

025state system and the federal system say the same thing. In reality, the state system and the federal system still do not say the same, but they've added a rule to force them together. And the most glaring example of that is the comprehensive school comprehensive support CSI category. So, I'll make it very concrete. You look at Albert Hill, it would have had last year a score of 85.9 which would have made it on track. The second highest. So under the state system, it would have been on track. However, because of that added rule, it gets bumped down to the bottom. And so that is the impact of that red box. Why it's so Absent that we'd have many more. So that is a very important element for everybody. Um I hesitate to speak for the Virginia

026Board of Education, but my understanding is they wanted the two systems to say the same thing. And so when the state system said on track, but the federal system said CSI, they decided to force the state and then Mr. Hedge. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Cameras answered my question. I was going to ask, is there a list of schools where we can examine these changes? So, thank you for answering that question. I guess my followup is as a lay person, can someone explain to me what is it that's not happening at that school that the federal system like can someone explain the difference to me? In short, the federal system to its credit requires performance by subgroup. The new state system may not have been uh apparent in the quick rundown that just received but

027nowhere in the new state system was there any match sub. So, in the past, you had to show a certain level of performance for your economically disadvantaged students or your black students or your white students or your uh students with disabilities. The new state system does not have those with the exception of English learners via the federal system maintains that and it is more demanding. So, that's how they Mr. Hespath and then Mr. Perl. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Dr. Wiggins. U I'd be remiss to say that I'm that I'm disappointed that the uh state still devalues social studies. It doesn't include it in the uh in the accreditation process, but that's neither here nor there. Uh what I would like to uh have some clarity on is uh when a school's labeled as

028needs intensive support, what's happening in that school? So what uh versus off track? Uh what is what does that look like once they get that that So for our schools who are comprehensive school improvement and I just want to add that three of our schools um came out of that rating last year. So I just want to applaud those schools as well because every year we are seeking to put more layers in place. So the schools that are comprehensive improvement which have to be in that for three years. They don't just um for one year they have great performance and they are able to um not have that rating. They have to stay in three years. So it's really a threeyear what is our plan for each school. The schools are different. So I could

029go through um what was the plan at each of the schools in order to help them. For some of the schools and um superintendent cameras talked about this some of um for our schools it was subgroups. So we were looking at students with disabilities. We were looking at black students and and economically disadvantaged. So we made sure that we put certain layers in to help those students achieve which is why we were able to decrease the number of student number of schools that were CSI. So our CSI is the comprehensive school improvement which means there are multiple layers that school has that needs to be improved. And so what we do is look at what those layers are with John and Valenta looking at the data. We come up with a plan with the principal,

030the principal directors, and we all make sure that those things are in place in order to improve what are those lower areas for that school. And so that's what we have to do. For example, one of the things we're going to do this upcoming school year, this summer, is for our comprehensive schools who are in elementary, we are making sure that we are working with um having their coaches to go through some um some additional coaching that will help them to be able to better help their schools as well. So, um we already use a gymnight coaching cycle, but they will get additional coaching in order to help their schools. So, we try to put in additional layers in order to make sure those schools have what they need. Um, we also at the beginning

031of the school year, we go into those schools first and foremost with our division team and we look at where are their areas they need support. Is it they have a new coach in math or new coach in reading? So, they need some help. Do they have long-term subs or teachers that um are novice? And so we take all of that kind of looking at the profile of the school and where the needs are and that's how we assist them to help um so that they're not comprehensive school improvement. Thank you. May I add briefly? Uh I I do want to note the the label needs intensive support would be welcome if it came with intensive support. uh it is not yet clear what the state will provide in terms of that intensive support. In

032fact, it is uh the the very small amount of funds that have been allocated are not even within the realm of what would be considered reasonable to support students across the Commonwealth. And so, um you know, I want to state very clearly on behalf of the administration, I welcome a high bar period. will stop. I also welcome the support to meet the high bar and I think if we're going to have labels like needs intensive supports then it is incumbent upon the state to provide the resources for those intensive supports and to be quite frank I have yet to see Thank you Mr. Cameron Mr. Pible thank you madam chair uh I just want to follow up on the discrepancy between the state and the federal I understand how that works today. How does this

033work next week? Where are these standards held? Are they at the Department of Education? This may be rhetorical and I apologize. Are these held at the Department of Education, which may not be around in a week, and then the state goes back to doing whatever it wants. Is this is this a long-term discrepancy that we have to factor for, or could this go away? Um before you answer the question, I want to clarify one of the reasons why uh we requested for this presentation to to happen is to really um give some insight not just to the the newer board members, but I think um as a as a board to understand what this new accountability system um looks like. And while I appreciate the um presentation, um it would have been helpful to have

034like that basic um 101 of of the things that have changed that were kind of similar to that presentation that I believe the old board received back in October, November time frame. Um I say all that to say that some of the questions that you're hearing is around things that has not been um presented to the new board as of yet. So I just want to as we move forward with the answering of the question just clarifying that you know some of the the basic um fundamental things that were shared with the board back in October um the new board has not had the opportunity to hear. Thank you madam chair. Um Mr. First of all, to answer your question, uh it it's hard to speculate exactly what will still exist tomorrow, a week from

035now, a month from now. Uh the federal accountability system is enshrined in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, so it would require a change of Congress. Um but that could very well happen. Um so, so I don't know. As for the state system, um it rests with the Virginia Board of Education and the members of the board of education are appointed by the governor for uh four year terms I believe that is and um all but one um have been appointed by the current governor. But given the one term limit here in Virginia, there will be a new governor uh a year from now. And so what that will look like Thank you u Miss Rizzy and then Dr. Harris Muhammed and then I have questions. Thank you Madam Chair. Um you know I want

036to highlight some background noise. Okay. Um I want to you know refer back to what Miss Wade said. Definitely. Um I think it's good like ideal measuring growth. Um but then the system itself seems very complex and um it's not intuitive. It feels like and so I wonder how we adequately communicate these changes to our stakeholders and if we can some assistance because multilayer like I said it's not really so um help with that would be really appreciated. Um I feel like you know with this new three semester requirement language learners um and without any additional funding it's almost like high in the sky like possible we don't get I mean a lot of extra funding support and you know I'm I'm asking this because I'm not I certainly know that open high school for

037example is a school that has many others. So if they have maybe two students don't take that can send them down based on population that that concern but I think I guess my ultimate question is you all know how what's happened to us other districts and other school districts also kind One minute came or Miss Williams, Dr. Williams. Um, so for other school divisions, yes, they have some of the same difficulty that we are going to have. It is just that we have many more schools in CSI and so that is what um impedes our progress to be able to move forward and it is hard saying to schools that you were accredited last school year. You've been progressing in the right way. You're doing the right thing but you're going to stay in these

038intensive support until your three years are out wherever your three years are wherever you are in the pro process. And so that is very difficult for schools and for communities and um how we continue to u message that is very difficult. Um just using Albert Hill as an example you know um we could look at Thomas Shep you know different schools who you know have done so well and have made such progress and now they are going to fall in that category no matter what they do. And so that's very hard for schools who we've celebrated the kids and the teachers and and everyone. So it is difficult and with so much new this year with the new so we've talked about the accountability system, but new SOS um for reading and math, the new

039assessments, new item types, there's been a lot of adjustments we've had to do this year and it all wasn't released at the beginning of the school year. So like when things were released at Christmas, we had to like pivot and try to make sure that we include those things um so our kids can be successful and so our teachers can feel like they are doing the right things for children. And so there's a lot of work in the background that we try to do to adjust um and so it is it is very difficult and we do need to do a lot of messaging. Of course we are involved at the central office level. Um John meets with schools all the time. Um our team our principal directors because every school has a different profile.

040So, we have to make sure if it's black, well, what are you doing? As opposed to something Shimberazzo might be doing. And so, it's it's a lot of individual work with schools that happens. Um, but I think where we need to message even more is to our families and community so that when um data is released and um different things in September and October, people understand what impact they see. Well, okay. I thought we were doing Yes, we were. But it depends on this new accountability system. So I think there is more messaging we need to do to our communities. Yeah. Um it seems that we need to find other ways to incentivize Dr. Harris Muhammed B. Thank you. Have a couple of questions. I'm not clear on um the participation rate in particular for

041open high school [Music] and in the area of mathematics. So I don't this question is for anyone that can answer. Um, how explain to me how did CO impact the 2024 cohort with math testing when that cohort would have either been leaving middle school entering nth grade or for some entering eighth grade and then the next year entering nth grade. So, I'm not quite sure how CO impacted that cohort because and if so, then why wasn't the waiver utilized? because you have students that to Miss Rizzy's point, you have students that have met the math requirement in middle school. So there unless they're on the advanced academic track to receive an advanced diploma, then they're their um math their math verified credit has been met. So talk to me a little bit about I'm not

042clear and I might miss I might have missed something but I'm just not clear how co impacted. Well what we what we saw with particularly in math was a lot of the the COVID waiver happening I believe during the middle school years for open students um as it relates to algebra 1. So, because the student um opted out of algebra 1 um and when they got to high school, they're looking for algebra one first as it relates to that participation rate. Um in terms of the waiver, I'm wondering so you actually you just said it. So that's what I was referring to when I said waiver. So okay, then that part is correct because many of them could have received that waiver in middle school. Um and so so I guess with knowing that then

043when we make the selection for that that particular school because that enrollment is one of the lowest enrollments of the specialty schools we're going to have to do it different. We're going to have to make sure that even though the the co waiverss have expired, but open is going to continue to have this issue under this new accreditation system and with participation rate if we are not clear on how we're going to select those students too. Um, are all students at open high school on advanced diploma track? Do we know that? I can double check, but I'm pretty sure yes. I would I would assume yes, but I I can absolutely okay because they may come in with it, but they can drop down and they're not supposed to be able to go back up.

044So, I think that is information the board um could use. And then also I would be open to have a one-on-one meeting because I have additional questions that I'm still not clear and I'm just using open house as an example, but I'm still not clear on base how you how we worded or the team worded the information with those participation rates and the slides prior to that. Just not clear to me. Um so I look forward to scheduling some time with individuals to talk about that. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Burke. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you all so much for your report. You know, I love data. However, this was I need to take a remedial course or whatever because this was a lot of information and thinking back to what we had

045earlier, this is different. So, I too, as Dr. Muhammed just stated would like to have an opportunity to go through step by step as I'm very concerned regarding the off track and these intensive intensive supports. That's so unfair. That's so unfair for schools that are thriving and thriving and and be at the top level. So I do hope as stated earlier that there's a some type of awards program in place or recognition within the schools or whatever but it's to come to work every day knowing you giving your all and children also our students when we see data like this the data is good because we see growth but the way in which we are labeled is is unacceptable. It really is. It's unacceptable. So my thought here is not knowing how we're going to

046move forward budget wise, but we need to find a way. My other thought also is in regards to maybe having some community events to explain this more so because there are persons who don't have children at public schools, but they're taxpayers. I have many in my neighborhood. All right? And first question they ask is we're giving you all this and this is what we're getting because they don't see the full picture. So, but we just continue with that RPS direct which people read every day and know about it and just just being mindful that our schools are not performing as bad as as the community may think because of the labeling and this labeling. And it's also unfortunate because as we move forward, I don't know how in the world this is going to be

047done. I my hats off to the teachers. You're learning new um standards and you're teaching at the same time. We talked about that before. So all of that we really have to embrace and embrace and stroke and lift both up and let our parents and community know that we're giving it our all what we have to work with and then some. But at the end of the day, it's like when you get to that level, you push back. And I know why. I do know why. But um great feedback if I didn't say this already on participation rates overall because I I know about picking up the phone to call parents or having someone to go pick them up. That's we get 90 some odd percent and then some in schools. That's excellent. That's awesome.

048That is awesome. So something must be worked within the schools to have people report. Thank you. Absolutely. And we would be more than happy anytime any of the board members individually or as a group would like to um learn more about the accountability system and um what we're doing in certain schools, please let us know. We would be more than happy to do that. Yeah, we will absolutely appreciate I you know she used the Miss uh Burke used the word um remedial, but I mean and I think we have to go back to the basics because we've been operating from a system that we no longer operate out of. And so I think it'll be helpful for us to really understand so that we can properly communicate it um to our communities um and the

049families um that we serve as well. Um, yeah, back to basics. I have a few questions, but I saw Miss Ricard's hand, so I'll I'll say mindfully. I didn't know if it was possible to get a sense of where um schools that are identified as CSI or TSI, how many years they are into that. I think that's just helpful to know if they're just at the start or they only have one year left. Um, and then I just wanted to echo what Miss Burke said about information community members. You know, we go into these district meetings and neighborhood association meetings and people want to know and if there was something that talking point and then they can share it with their neighbor when their neighbors maybe complaining about the schools and also CSI schools are

050three years we can't provide you the information where the schools PSI ATSI schools are yearly so we can move out of those a little quicker. Thank you. So I just have um couple questions and comments. Um I have a a few questions and a comment. So my first one is I know that the categories have shifted right and we no longer look at you know the economic disadvantage and um you know students with disabilities. How can we ensure that we still are providing them the level of support that they need? Right? Um even though it's not something that we're required to call out, it's still extremely important for our students that we give them the help that they need. So I would like to understand what the plan of action is regarding that so that

051no child falls through the cracks. I'll stop there. So even though the state accountability system as superintendent came said does not necessarily say that within the system because a federal accountability is entered into this. We still look at students with disabilities, economically disadvantaged or black students and our data. When John is putting our data together, all that we do is click a button and we can see at each school exactly where we are. But we don't stop there. We look at the students and exactly where they are. For example, for students with disabilities, sometimes it's about going back to their IEP to see to make sure that um what we have in there is going to be the route that will help them to meet standards. Um sometimes it's about um if we're looking at

052our um English language learners um our multilingual students, it it is looking back to see what additional language pieces that we need to put in place in order to assist them. So we are still doing that on a consistent basis because that's the only way that we know how to make sure that every child is receiving what they need. So even though it doesn't list it necessarily, it's you have to have it because like when a TSI school, it is TSI based on students with disabilities or some subgroup of students. And so we still have to continually look at that and that's where the school improvement ratings um force you to do so. I appreciate that clarification. Um and then I think it's important to also note or highlight this as we, you know, are

053in the process on the heels of budget discussions and um the need for funding to really truly make sure this is a part of the story that we tell. um and understanding what the ask are with this new accountability system, how many more resources we really truly do need to support our efforts because while we've had some amazing successes in the past, we're at a blank slate right now. We're starting all over from scratch. And I have no doubt in my mind that we will rise to the occasion. It will take some time and um it will definitely take us working together. Um however, you know, funding is going to be something that is going to be extremely important. And so if we can, if we're not already including this in the conversation as we

054talk about the why behind some of the resources and funding that we need, I think will be essential and ensure that we um keep this top of mind. We would love to to know that information. Yes, absolutely. Thank you. Yes, sir. Mr. Jafar. But anyway, um if you did explain it already overall overall, what I would consider and then I see others that are there in other areas that currently are meeting the vote. Just circle back and kind of correlate that help me understand how we arrive at those fluctuations. Um if you look maybe at um Fairfield Court which is a 78.5 which is very close to being at that 80 in which they need because they are federally identified at this point they are needs intensive support. So, the number doesn't even matter. If

055you look beside there where you see the federal ID and you see CSI, TSI, um, if it's a TSI, it's going to drop them back a level. If it's comprehensive, comprehensive school improvement, it's going to be needs intensive supports no matter what their score is. And that's part of what is very unfair to our schools um here and all across the state because you can be making great improvement um as a CSI school, but you're going to have to come to the end of that before you're going to actually get the score that is going to show. So that's why you see such a discrepancy in the scores. If they are federally identified, they're either going to drop back a level or either they are going to if they're CSI being in need in test

056of support. Even if they had 100, it would not matter. Thank you so much. Um um as uh several of our colleagues have asked if we could just um circle back with a a more digestible um you knowformational guide for us that we can share with the community. We'd appreciate that. Thank you. All right. Next up we have um 2.02 2 receive an update on dreams for RPS strategic plan goals. Thank you, Madam Chair. This conversation is the uh perfect uh perfect one to follow the one we just had. In short, we feel it is important that we press pause on setting targets for a number of our goals. Given that the underlying metrics are changing rather significantly, we'd recommend that we wait until all the tests occur this spring and we have all the

057accreditation ratings and then the summer when we know where things settle out, we can then create targets based on that. We've talked about the new rating system. I I do want to note this element where if you're rated CSI, you go straight to needs intensive support. That is a a new change that was recently released. Um so it is a a recent development uh that school systems around the Commonwealth are grappling with. In addition, as you can see, and has been reported, we have the screenshot from the RTD from late March, just a couple or really a week ago, the Virginia Board of Education has taken the first steps to change the cut scores on so. So, not only have the standards changed, but they're changing the cut scores. And the goal is in many

058ways a lotable one which is to have the uh sort of highest standards in the country uh to align the SOS with the standards that are in the NAPE the national assessment of education progress which is kind of known as the nation's report card. It's the only test given all across the country or at least it has been. Who knows what will occur going forward, but what this means is in layman's terms, it'll just be a lot harder for kids to get a proficient score on the SO. I want to be clear, I 100% support a high bar for our students, but I also want the board just to understand what this means is SOS are going to go down in Richmond and across the entire Commonwealth. It could have nothing to do with how

059kids are actually performing. Kids could actually be performing better, but because the cut scores are being changed, a school that's at 70% proficient could very easily be at 40% proficient next year with no difference in terms of student learning, but the cut scores have changed. The only reason I'm bringing this up now is one to begin to get everybody uh to wrap your heads around this because this is coming, but also because it doesn't make sense for us to set five-year targets when we don't even know where we are. Because the numbers that we have from last year, I don't think are going to bear a lot of resemblance to the numbers we're going to have at the end of this year. Uh despite the fact that I think our kids are actually growing quite

060rapidly, but the cut scores are going to be different. So, um, all that to say, we want to see where things shake out. Of course, we'll bring that all back to the board and then based on those new cut score proficiency levels, we can create targets that Mr. First of all and Miss Rizzy. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to kind of echo that and go back to the CSI, I'm also a little concerned if the federal government, if the US DOE is compiling the metrics for CSI, could we end up with orphan data, nobody's there to compile it? Could we have schools stuck in limbo for years, just stuck at CSI because no one's no one's home compiling the data? I understand that this is a this is a congressional mandate, but if nobody's at

061DOE to compile the information, Mr. Cameron, that is certainly possible, Miss Rizzy. Thank you, Madam Chair. [Music] Um, you know, this is extremely frustrating to like put our students in this position where they have we're now having certainly is laudable, but require this without additional support to require this without speaking with our students and letting them know that they are great and that these new regulations have nothing to do with who they are, what they can achieve because I I can just see this like sending some young people into a state of depression or just feeling like why doing this. Um so you know just that I haven't seen any outreach to our kids who are human beings and understand this It's is frustrating. Um, and you know, it really does feel like although all

062of our schools are golden, it's like the state and the federal government want us to bold out of straw, right? You're not giving us anything extra to meet these very high um bars you're trying to set for our kids. You know, we want them to achieve. I mean, that's that's not a question. But, you know, if you're not giving us any additional resources, if you're not in this ship with us, you know, it doesn't feel like I haven't seen any of them here to and check in with us. Um, this just feels arbitrary and unfair. Thank you, Miss Rizzy. Dr. Harris Muhammed. Thank you. I understand that the cut scores have changed to Board of Education wants to raise the bar. So, this is a perfect time that we can talk about aligning that with

063our budget. So, I look forward to talking to how we can ensure that we have those additional supports in the schools that are TSI or CSI. I also look forward to talking about how um within the means that we have, we're going to have to be very creative. we were talking about that anyhow when we found out the new accountability system was happening there's some things and I agree with everything that that individuals have said on the day but I just believe my mindset is or not I believe my mindset is my mindset is that we recognize what we can control and what we can control is being able to make sure that we work with our talent office to u make sure that they are pulling applications of certified individuals or individuals near to

064certification, putting them in schools where they are best fit. Making sure that we continue supporting professional development divisionwide for every school for our principles, for our assistant principles, for our teachers, for the academic team. Having new so cut scores is very frustrating. I am not in any way um downplaying that. I just believe that we can't control that we can't control that piece, but what we can control is some of the things that I just shared. And so, we know that we've discussed that there have been some challenges within our talent office. So, how do we help support the administration to make sure that individuals are not emailing us as board members because they applied four months ago and they haven't heard anything? That is going to impact how we move student outcomes. So in

065addition to that, one minute, we really don't know if the scores that we received last year is going to be apples to oranges this year because we don't have student detail by question from the cut scores this year. So until the principles, the assistant principles and the teachers who are teaching the so content area have the student detail by question to say even though they don't have Shanda in the algebra 2 class from last year but they have another student wait to say that I just want us to be careful with that because we don't know that yet. So until we get the student detail by question this sheet. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Burke. Thank you so much. And I agree with Dr. Harris Muhamad just stated. I'm going to ask one question of

066those of us, those of us that are at this table as decision makers. I want to leave this table thinking that our students will rise to the occasion and then some. I don't want to leave the table and put the message out in the community or they're going to fail or they're not going. But I understand the conversation. It's a conversation that has to be had. But you, Dr. Harris Bahama, just turn that table around that it goes with HR. It goes with what's happening in the schools. It goes with time on task. It goes with do our students have the correct materials in their classrooms. There are little things that are expected of us that we can control and that we can do. But I'm leaving this table thinking that I know no matter

067what happens at this four or this whatever else, at the end of the day, I want our teachers to understand that we're going to do all we can to convince them to see that they have what they need. We're going to do a better job with addressing just behaviors that need to be addressed in a different manner. We're going to look at our tutors who are currently working with our students. Rather than having three children, they may have to have four students or five students. Maybe they already are. But we're going to have to put the metal to the pedal and then some. So, I'm going to leave this table thinking that, okay, this is what month of the year? This April coming around for this coming school year. Let's make sure that our teachers

068have what they need because we do have resources that are not in place for all right thinking that every student that's coming to school and his or her parent sending that child to school to learn and and do well and that we celebrate that. But I don't want it to get out per se that even though we know we're going to have challenges, but let's let's let's let's show them what we're working. All right? We say our students are scholars. We say our students are scholars. We say our students are scholars. So if they're scholars, we have to do more than saying they're calling them that term, that label, and sitting here tonight stating that, oh, woe was me, is going to be not a good fit. And we know we have challenges that we

069have, but let's just do it. Just let's just do it. Just let's just do it. I gladly will sit at the table. Gladly will speak with parents and students, and I know everybody else here as well. And that's why we're here because we believe in our students and those students that are being taught and nurtured and cared for in the schools of which they are. So if we know we have a you know you all know this study where a group of students that had challenges were put in the classroom and were told I can't think of it was a PSJ whomever that they were brilliant and they did rise to the occasion. I've seen it happen and it can happen, but we have to have the right people in the right spot and give

070them what they need. If they lose it, replace it. Time. Thank you. Thank you. Um, very well said. And as we've we've shared earlier, we have no doubt that our scholars will rise to the occasion. And as Dr. Harris Muhammed said, we will just continue to control what we can control. Miss Rizzy, underfunded, and I understand we can do a lot. We already have But I also know that in this world where education technology is changing where standards are changing to match what's changing out here beyond the K12 world we are going to 30 seconds and so I don't want to say that like if without that support our students certainly they can We want people in this country because we can say we're going to replace any qualified teachers. That's because we have no

071choice. Thank you, Miss Rizzie. And yeah, I mean, I I absolutely agree with the sentiments of my colleagues. Um, which is why I think it's important segue into our next session, budget, why we really have to compare apples to apples and connect the why behind what we're requesting to what's being required because it is a new accountability system. Um, bar has been raised so high. I think it's going to be extremely important important to paint the picture of why we're requesting the amount that we are um and also educating those um around us to what we're truly up against because it's the reality is we are um it's going to be an uphill climb for sure. With that, we'll move forward to um 3.01 one um and receive an update on the mayor's proposed uh

0722026 budget. Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to just give a a very high level on the mayor's proposed budget as it pertains to schools. As has been uh widely reported, the mayor's budget provides an additional $9.6 $6 million in operating revenue for RPS for next year and 2.5 million in additional capital improvement dollars for next year. I do want to express gratitude to the mayor for those additions. This is a tight fiscal year for the city and I know Mayor Avoa cares deeply about schools and about our students and has worked hard uh to provide those increases particularly at a time when other departments are seeing cuts. At the same time, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that that funding is well short of what was anticipated in the school board's

073approved budget. As a reminder, just the collective bargaining commitments for next year in our approved budget come to6.5 million in new spending. So with 9.6 in additional revenue from the city, we would need to identify an additional 7 million in funding to meet our collective bargaining agreements. I do want to note it is my intention of course we'll follow the direction of the board but I am hoping to identify reductions in other areas of the budget so that we are able to maintain those commitments as I do think that is important for maintaining our staff uh which of course are critical to the success of our students but this is not going to be easy and we are going to have to make some reductions in order to be able to do so. So, it

074is a u a complicated picture. On the one hand, um I am grateful that we are seeing an increase again while many parts of the city are not. On the other hand, this is short of what we need and we are going to have to come up with some reductions. Towards that end, what I propose after conferring with the chair is that the administration would begin work on a revised budget proposal that would be based on the revenue levels that are currently understood from the state and the city. While we all collectively continue to advocate for additional resources, um we would be prepared uh for the May meetings uh to discuss a revised proposal if that were necessary at that time. Um and the interim of course would be engaged with each of you about

075um how to get to that that revised number which again is going to require some significant reductions. Um again, uh the goal is to be prepared if the numbers as they currently are are the final numbers, but also continue to advocate to expand the pie as much as is possible. Uh I do want to say one word just again about the capital budget. You may recall we submitted a approved budget, the board did for 14.8 million in new capital expenditures, the mayor's budget. um as we expected and as was the case in many prior years from the city allocates 2.5 million um again I understand there are many many infrastructure needs in the city which we all became acutely aware of the first week of January and so I know the demands on those funds

076are significant but I do also want to remind everybody that 2.5 million does not go very far when it comes to capital expenditures just one elementary school roof could be somewhere between 1.5 5 and2 million. So that money will go rather quickly. We will need to prioritize how to use it. With that, I'm happy to take any questions. Thank you, Miss Burke. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Superintendent Cameras, for uh that report. And at some point, we have to do what we have to do. So um and I will state this and I think all of us were not in a state of shock but to hear the report from the budget. However, since then so much has been brought to our attention across the board of cuts being made. So my question

077is and that's what my colleague to my left and I I said you know I've been thinking about that. I didn't I have not looked at the vacant property piece, but we have a lot of property that's for instance that that's up to that should be on sale. For instance, we're going to get money from the Arthur Ash Center and there are other properties as well. We may have to creatively look at doing our own um using what we have. So, I'm asking from the committee vacant property, who's the chair of that? Mr. bill, right? Okay, great. At some point to look at that and and um get that list and maybe we can move forward enough for the next year or two. I don't know, but I'm asking because the likelihood of our getting

07820 million more is is unlikely being sincere. But my question is are there other means rather than cutting that we can look at at this time to fill the gap? Miss Rizzy, I don't know. Um, okay. So, as far as about vacant property, we have a meeting on Wednesday. You know, we don't have like large dollar properties per se. Um, and we'll offer you a report on that. The minutes are on We can actually bring it. Um Arthur Ash deal that's 5.2 million and I was glad to see that in the city attorney. Um but that won't happen until they get to phase four of the diamond district um plan and who knows when that and so I don't I'm not sure property is going to be a big u help for us. There are

079properties that we for example, want to purchase some of what's low, but that property is very expensive and we have so many, you know, um, plan for our children and we don't want to let go. As Mr. Hathaway said, they are making more. I don't remember what he said, but basically said there's no making property and property is at a premium right now. So, have to make really choices about what we want. But I appreciate Miss Burke and um Mr. Hedgepath. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Rizzie for stating that. Um I'm a firm believer in in in um real estate and right now that that is great to always great to have real estate but at the end of the end of the day once we receive that listing there may we may be in

080a better place financially for some decisions we need to make Harrison Jones the lot beside that I understand um but there are other properties as well maybe once we see that it may not be many millions but it be it will be more millions than we currently have. So I look forward to that report. Thank you so much, Mr. Hedgepath. And then Mr. P. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I to continue on with what Miss Burke was talking about. U the the property where Thompson Middle uh sits adjacent to Hugenat High School. Uh know I know Southside's growing at a at a very fast rate and so we need to be considerate about holding on to property. Uh however subdividing that maybe uh since we own the Hugenot property beside which is sizable. So that

081like could be maybe an option. I'm not sure that but but certainly I would would hope that the vacant properties committee would uh would would entertain that. Um my other uh point is that um because we and I and I saw this later in in a in a report that we have over 40 million in in needs um for our capital improvements just this year and uh like the 24 year and the 25 year. Um, I noticed that there are there's about three 34.5 million unencumbered um in the uh project with Woodville. Um, my question is about it is uh is that money sitting there gaining us interest? And if it's not, since the city has dedicated 200 million to us uh in 29, is it a possibility to and my understanding and with that

082project too is that it is it really is absent the money. Everything else is is in line. Um yet every proposal that was on our report showed that every option would was bringing up a deficit uh for it. Is it possible to spend that unencumbered money on the things that are are crippling our buildings right now? Uh since it isn't gaining any interest for us and prioritize Woodville as the very first new school that we build as soon as we have one minute the uh the 2002 29 or if it's funded before that. I know that's a tough conversation, but that's just a thought that I had. Mr. Cameas and I I saw your hand as well, Mr. First. Thank you, Mr. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just uh Mr. Hedge on your specific question, I

083I want to clarify the funds for new school construction. That is not cash, it's debt capacity. So, there's nothing in an account gaining interest or not gaining interest. It's just our ability or rather the city's ability to borrow uh to build new space. Um I do want to note that um again just to do the the quick math we had 200 million about 140 of it is going to the new RHSA right that takes us to about 60 10 million of it last year was reallocated for school maintenance for the precisely the reason United which leaves let's just call it 50 million um that is first by board action slated for the new CTE center then Woodville. Uh so we are um well underfunded as it pertains uh to Woodville, not to mention every other

084school um that is coming down the pike. Um I also do want to note while um the disposition of properties is a potential source of income down the road, I do want to uh make sure it's clear for the public. RPS cannot sell property. All we can do is surplus it back to the city and then the city can sell it to a developer. They can lease it. They can give it away. They can do all sorts of a number of things. Um but at that point uh it is out of our hands. um we can give we can surplus property with the intention that certain things happen to it and if it is sold the proceeds uh do come back to RPS in terms of uh construction dollars but um that process is a

085is a long one and sometimes it's in the best interests of the city or development to not sell the property but to lease it for a dollar for 50 years or things of that nature. So, um, it's a little bit Sorry not to It's a fire alarm, guys. We have to exit, right? Let's everybody expeditially move forward so we can exit the building until we understand what's what. We'll be recessing the meeting until we return. Well, good evening again everyone. We um will uh reconvene the meeting for um the work session of April 7th, 2025. We want to thank everyone for your patience. We did have a fire um alarm that went off and so we had to vacate the building. Uh we are happy to say that everyone is safe. Everything is fine. It

086was a false alarm and so we will continue with our discussion. I believe according to my notes, Mr. Pible was next. We were in budget conversation. So all right. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh I was just following up on my colleague uh Miss Rizzy as chair of the uh vacant properties committee answering Miss Burke's question. Um just to reiterate and and superintendent sort of covered the point I was going to cover. Uh we're not real estate agents and we can't really sell any of our properties. They can only revert to the city. That puts us in a bit of a bind there. And even if even if we were to get the proceeds, they would not necessarily be market value. But what I'm guessing um Miss Burke and Mr. Jafari were over there scheming about

087is trying to find some revenue sources from those properties, setting up some ice cream stands, etc. Some some way to get get continued revenue, which I think we could certainly look at. The other thing I would caution all of us in our thinking about selling vacant properties or or somehow uh dispossessing ourselves of vacant properties is that's sort of analogous to selling our car to pay the month's rent. Um, and you know, maybe maybe that's something that seems like a good idea that month. Uh, but what are you going to do the following month? So, what do we do next year? What do we do the year after that? Uh, when we don't have those properties and as Miss Rizzy pointed out, uh, Mr. Hathaway's comment, echoing Will Rogers is, you know, invest in real

088estate. They're not making any more of it. So, what happens years from now when we need those properties to build more schools, uh, use schools on a temporary basis as we're building other schools in other locations, um, Thompson as an example, uh, we don't have that property. If we had to go back and try to find property at market values 5 years from now, 10 years from now, that would that would be a non-starter. So, that's all. Thank you. U, Mr. Jafari was next and then Miy Mr. Jafari, can you move a little bit closer to your microphone? For instance, in the case of the ass center for $5 million, were we able to that or we able to have any or do they basically give us what they value? How how does that work?

089Mr. Cameras or MZY um very briefly um that was a negotiated settlement between the school board and the city. So that amount was negotiated. Um, and you know, I was involved with all of that negotiating and it was very difficult. There's a long list of documents that you can pull up to look at stages of that. But if you look search news articles about it, you will see that the city at first. Their argument was that it was not used as a school and therefore surplus its you know we don't they won't give us anything. So it was a long process now and I will tell you 5.2 million dollar is not the market the author Ashley but it's what it's what we could negotiate and they also agreed to pay um the what is

090it theos no it's the overflow storm water yeah they they agreed to do that in perpetuity at the author I mean at the altria And we also owed some taxes like north of 500 maybe 400,000 that we owed in taxes on the Altria building. They agreed to give that. Yeah. So I mean it wasn't the worst negotiation but certainly the author Ash Center I believe is worth way more than chair totally agree when when you're looking at present present market value that's one thing but what I think was totally ignored was the market of the building wanted to come and rent it as a venue because Arthur Ash is offer And so I think we we definitely were undersold and that's obviously three days from my presence here. But um when when I when I

091look at that we the negotiation we don't really have any say so in and we get what they give us but we have to be able to push for something higher particular out in situations like that. Uh yeah, I had a couple questions too, but if you want to go ahead and ask um you know, I just want to state that, you know, we're here talking about going off potentially be green spaces or sites of new schools for our students um to meet needs that it's clear the state of Virginia hasn't been meeting. There are so many reports that indicate that schools have been underfunded in this state for a very long time and I don't want us to feel that somehow it's fully our responsibility to meet a shortfall that doesn't belong to us

092and so I just want to to emphasize that I I kind of not I don't like the idea of selling off very valuable properties for pennies on the dollar 30 seconds um when it's really statewide issue of underfunding schools, especially school maintenance and construction. Thank you. Um, pardon me. Having some technical difficulties and trying to navigate that as well. Um, so a couple of things I I what I do appreciate is the dialogue that we have tonight because I think this is what's going to is what it's going to take for us to really reimag how we get to our our goal which is, you know, obviously we need capital for infrastructure and that is top of mind for all of us. We certainly appreciate um Mayor Avoola's um increase of the 9.6 million. Um

093obviously there's still a lot of work to be done and it's going to take, you know, the collab to continue collaboration. We've already had conversations with our, you know, our colleagues, with city council, with the mayor's office to really rally around the one thing we all know that is important is which is our scholars. Now, that being said, I would be apt to um lean toward conserving the properties that we do maintain because overpopulation is a huge concern and if we're not if we are short on um property that we can obtain, then we're going to have to use the property that we have. And so, um, but I do want us to continue this conversation and, um, and thinking through what it looks like for us to get creative about ways that we can,

094um, work as a team to support those efforts. I have one question. And I lost it, but it's okay. Um, I think that I've I've shared kind of what um was at the top of mind for me, but I think that at the end of the day, we are trying to work as as well as um everyone else to um navigate a very difficult situation. There's no revenue dollars, new revenue dollars that are coming in. And so this is where we we talked there was some conversation just during break around you know bonds different things that we can do um you know fundraising you know partnerships um collaborating with other cities to see what they're doing that works well. So um say all that to say that this is is healthy dialogue and one that

095is you know we continue to welcome as we think through some of the challenges that we face. Mr. Hback. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to follow up on the conversation that we had before the the fire drill. Um that u you know, I asked Mr. Cameress that you know what are we able to access that money um in the unencumbered um you know uh monies and we are if we ask city council to reallocate it. Um, you know, I'm I'm again I'm I'm an eternal optimist, but I don't think that we're going to be able to fund our capital needs in the next year. Um, not to the extent that we need. Um, and I mean, we were we almost had the ability to raise our own revenue for school construction, but then

096the governor vetoed that uh after the general assembly passed it in a bipartisan manner. So, uh, 30 seconds. I would be in favor of and I wonder what the appetite is of my colleagues to request if not a portion then you know what's remaining in that fund to fund all of our immediate uh, CIP needs. Um, because again, yes, it might be there for funding of school new school construction, but if we can't maintain what we have, um, I I just worry that that's going to make things worse in the long run. Thank you. And your um feedback in inspired um me remembering what that last question was. Um there was a reminder from a constituent that we have funds that are collected yearly um by the lottery. um we've had had not heard anything

097about that and as of late and so just wanted to to ask the question uh Mr. Cameras if that is the case and if so where are we allotting those funds the state lottery funds go into the state allocation but Mr. Stanley knows this far better than I do so I would ask him to come and speak to Good evening, Madam Chair, Mr. Vice Chair, Superintendent Cameron, school members. Um, the lottery proceeds are are both help supplement the uh general the the K12 education funding streams that we already receive and then a lot of that money goes into the literary fund. The literary fund is uh been primarily used for two different purposes over about the last two decades. It has been either to use used to fund the uh state required contributions towards BRS

098for our teachers retirement and it has gone towards school construction. Um which those funds which I will tell you a little bit more about in a minute. Um some of those are going into the school construction assistance program which is the program for us to apply for competitive grants to assist our school construction projects. So there's no there's no like uh bucket of money that's just sitting there unused. that money is being sent to the literary fund and sent to school. Thank you for providing that that feedback. It would be nice to just see over the course of the past I don't know 5 10 years, however long we've received it where exactly the funds are going and you know just I'd be curious to see um where the funds have been allocated. Absolutely. I

099know we uh receive an annual report from Virginia Lottery every year that shows the total amount that's been given to the city of Richmond. Um, but because it is kind of woven into the underlying distributions that localities receive, I don't know if there's clearer uh breakdown of what the funding has actually been used for. I think just be looking at our budget how we're generally using our state. And if that's the case, then I I would um I would hope that we could put some a measurement in place because there should be a level of oversight into whatever processes is coming from, especially that it's it's going to literacy funds and school construction. Just want to be clear on what that want to understand what that looks like. Apples to apples. Thank you. All right,

100we have some hands. Um, Miss Burke and then Miss Rizzy. Thank you, Madam Chair. being mindful when those funds many many years ago when the lottery were put in place general assembly was totally diff that general assembly that put that in place when the next general assembly came about things were changed so the assumption was that we're going to get lottery money as a chunk of money for each school district as Mr. Stanley just stated, it's just all lumped together in whatever is given to the city. So what the general assembly used to give us, they cut back funds. In other words, rather than giving us 100,000 for general funds, per se. I hope that makes sense. The amount is not the same. So we all want to know where the where the lottery money

101went. It's just in a pot of money. It's different different than what it was 20 years ago. I think the lottery has been around what 20 30 years. Yes. So, it's not it's not they don't give us what they used to give us. I I understand that. I someone specifically stated that the lottery provided gave $9.6 million to schools on X Y andZ year. And so that was news to me and so I'm trying to identify how that money is being utilized in Richmond public schools. So that's the the the the source of my question. Miss RZY. Thank you, Madam Chair. And um yeah, that money goes into a general pot that then gets distributed to different school systems. So, it would be hard really to trace it. And then it is my understanding that

102way back when this was established, they actually said, "Okay, you're going to get lottery funds." But then they cut school budgets. So, it wasn't even really time increase in funding. Thank you for your feedback. Any other thoughts? All right, moving right along to board business. Um 4.01 receive legislative update. Good evening again, Madam Chair, Mr. Vice Chair, Super Cameron, and board members. Um, it's a quick followup. Uh, I did just pull up the Virginia Lotteryy's website. Um, and in fiscal year 24, Richmond public schools received $27.9 million in lottery funds. Um, those funds were all distributed to us through our uh, normal funding formulas. Um, and then of course, as I also said, we've tapped into additional lottery funding because of the school construction program. Um, we've received $20 million for the new CTE high

103school, uh, $5 million for Fox, and a few other smaller, uh, awards as well. Uh, so we'll be happy to follow up with that for you and provide further analysis of how those funds are used. Uh, but very quickly, a legislative advocacy update for you all tonight. Um, we just had the Oops, I think Daryl and I are fighting over the controller. Uh we just had the reconvene session of the general assembly last week. I'm sure you all have seen the news. Um the big headline is that the general assembly rejected the governor's proposal to scale back the elimination of the support staff cap. Um the governor had proposed uh rescending about twothirds of the support staff cap funding that the general assembly approved. um he wanted to put $300 million into the state's rainy

104day fund um as we considering what type of financial impacts the state will have given uh what is happening federally. Um the general assembly did reject that. Um the the governor also had proposed a few other small education investments on things that were in his original budget or his original budget. Um things like uh a private school uh scholarship program, more investment into lab schools. The general assembly rejected those items as well. Um, the one place where the governor and the general assembly found agreement last week in regards to public education was school construction. Uh, the governor sent down an amendment that provided an additional $50 million back into school construction funding for that school construction grants assistant pro school construction assistance program. Um, I believe that takes the amount of funding for the current

105bianium to I think $360 million will now be available um in new school construction grants. I know the team is currently working on their application for one for Woodville Elementary School right now. Um there were a handful of other items done by the general assembly last week. The governor sent down many vetos as well as amendments to bills. Uh the general assembly generally rejected most of the governor's actions, which means that pretty much all of the bills the governor vetoed will stay vetoed and not enacted. Um that includes things like the 1% uh local sales tax referendum option for localities. Um and then the governor recommended amendments to many bills, most of which were also rejected. Um one uh small amendment that he made was to the cell phone free education bill. Um the general

106assembly passed a bill uh asking requiring school boards to have those policies adopted. Uh they specified that cell phone free education should be during regular school hours. Uh the governor's amendment was for bell-to bell just as RPS has defined our own policy. So, um, they were able to come to some agreement on that change. Um, I'm not going to go into detail on some of the other topics, um, that I put on my slide for you tonight, but if you do have any specific questions, I'm more than happy to answer those for you. Um, the big next step that we will be looking for is what action does the governor take on the budget? Now that the general assembly has considered his amendments, uh, he now has 30 days to decide whether to approve the

107budget. Um, if he doesn't if he does nothing in 30 days, that new budget becomes law. Um but he can still veto the entire budget. Um so he has 30 days to do that and if he does then it will force the general assembly back into a special session prepare a new budget for him to consider. Um so we are hoping that that does not happen. Um initial reading of the tea leaves uh seem to indicate that they think that the governor will proceed with letting that budget go into effect. Um, so fingers crossed, uh, by the beginning of May, we will have good news to report to you that we now have a budget that includes full elimination of the support staff cap. Um, so we're very excited about that. Uh, and I think

108that is my presentation for you this evening. I'm happy to answer any questions. Miss Burke, and then Thank you, Mr. Stanley. And as I stated earlier, I really appreciate the update. really appreciate it. You referenced the uh funding the grant opportunity for Woodville. Is this the one that's on pause or this is another one? This is a different one, Mr. Excellent. So, we're working on that. What was the uh the prior grant application we made for Woodville was through the Environmental Protection Agency at the federal level. Yes. Um that's the one that we are worried that we might not get. Uh this is the state school construction assistance program. Um we've received previous funding for the new CTE high school on Mory Street as well as Fox other small. What would you suggest that we

109do over the next 30 days? This would be a great time to send the governor a very very simple message. We don't need an elaborate template. It is please approve the general assembly's budget. Thank you so much. Thank you Miss B. Mr. Pipal. Thank you Madam Chair. Thank you, Mr. Stanley, for this report. U real quick question because I don't understand um if you know the answer to this. The the grant fund for new school construction you said is up to about $300 million change. It it's my understanding that a new school cost round number $150 million. So if the entire state has a funds of $300 million, it's two schools for the entire state. How does that do you get some sort of you know couple million dollars to help seed other divisions? My

110understanding is divisions are eligible for approximately 20% of the cost grant funds. Um so they're competitive grants. Um there is a scoring matrix. Uh localities that have high fiscal stress index scores actually receive a better waiting. So that is why Richmond public schools by our applications have been very competitive. Um, but it is certainly not enough to fully build new schools across the state. It is only about 20% of the total cost that they're willing to provide. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you so much. Thank you all so much. Next up, we have 4.02 received an update on the memorandum of understanding with Virginia Board of Education. Thank you, Madam Chair. The state is quite the topic tonight. Uh per our discussion, and I do have to give credit to Dr. Harris Muhammad for

111her advocacy. We have uh drafted a letter from the board to the Virginia Board of Education regarding our progress on our memorandum of understanding and requesting that we be relieved from thatou given our progress towards uh many of the items that were articulated in the firstou. I do want to clarify ourou is between the school system and the Virginia board of education, not the Virginia Department of Education. So, it's ultimately a question for the board. Um and so the the question uh before you tonight and of course does not need to be decided tonight, but uh is whether uh to proceed with submitting said letter and if so uh what if any edits or adjustments the board would like to see. Again, that decision does not need to be made tonight, nor do any edits

112need to be submitted tonight. But we did want to bring this forward uh for the board's consideration. We have the letter and also the supporting memo which outlines all of the information. Um, and as you can see, we have done quite a bit since this was put in place in 2017. Uh, and I certainly think uh it is worth us at least requesting uh this step, but of course defer to the board. Happy to answer any questions. I see Miss Burke, Miss Rizzy, Mr. Perl, Dr. Harris Muhammed. Thank you, Madam Chair. Superintendent cameras, the letter that's attached to this is absolutely excellent. that listing of all that was done has been done. it needs to be given to the press and then some. I thought it was it was a good time to reflect on

113my end, but the manner in which it was organized or choice of a better word, that's what folk are looking for. Proven points, that's proven data in place. I want to take some of it out and send it to all my constituents. Seriously, I guess I have to ask permission for that. reference you, but everybody needs to see that what you had the contents in that letter. It was excellent. And that's what I'm talking about when I stated earlier, don't say what we can't do because we can do it. And that was proof. That was proof. Well done. Thank you, Mr. Cambers. Thank you, Mrs. Burke. I do need to give credit to uh Miss Chang and Mr. who are the ones who drafted the letter. Thank you. Uh, Miss Rizzy, thank you, Madam Chair.

114Um, I'm just curious. I know that sometime last year, um, Dean Holmes before she left said that she was going to update Emily. Did that not happen, Mr. Cameron? Uh, no, Mr. Rizzie. We have not yet received any new guidance. Mr. Pible, thank you Madam Chair. Uh, as to the question, do we send the letter? Yes. And then some. Um, I I think it's brilliant. I I'm a huge fan from getting out from underneath the only update I would do to this is just to highlight if not Richmond, then who? If not now, then when? Richmond is up everywhere. This is the purpose of anou. If Richmond is not a candidate for getting out from under the MOU, who is? And if not now with these upward ticks, then when? So, yes, absolutely. Thank you,

115Dr. Harris Muhammed. Thank you so much. Uh, as you all know, at least the returning school board members know that I have been been a strong advocate for revising our memorandum of understanding. And I'm glad that we are at this point. And to be very clear, the previous state superintendent, publicly announced that she was intentional about revising and several school divisions. That has not happened. Um, and so one of my concerns that I have is making gains was not the only reason for us being placed on a memorandum of understanding in 2017. It was also going consecutive number of years without um fully accredited schools. And I know we're moving into we're not moving into we are 10 toes deep into a new accountability system. I'm in full support of requesting a revision to our

116current memorandum of understanding and I have shared um over the past four years the rationale reasons that um opportunities for our currentou to be revised to be fully released from theou I'm deeply concerned because we have not met that main benchmark that is required for us to meet as all school divisions and that and that is to have all schools fully accredited and so making gains is just one part of us being on theou. Um I I think we we have I'm very proud of the work that the school division has done that our teachers and our staff has they have put in the work also our academic team also our manager of testing um along with that entire office has done some amazing things in terms of identifying um some major subgroups so we

117can address that head on and not at the tail end. So in summary, I support sending a letter as I always have done, but I will not support um requesting Richmond public schools to be removed fully from the memorandum of understanding. Thank you. Thank you. Any other thoughts? Uh I myself would be in support of um submitting a request to from theou considering um that we will be transitioning to a different landscape I think this is the perfect opportunity to request it and um I'm fully I fully support it Mr. cameras. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh just because this is a uh important decision, I would feel more comfortable if the board were willing to vote on record on this matter. Um if you are open to that, it does not have to be this

118evening, but that would be wonderful if you could do that tomorrow. Thank you. Um, I didn't speak in the microphone, so just for those who are listening, um, I I think it makes a ton of sense. Um, I do think we should just digest it overnight as we've had this this discussion. Um, make sure there aren't any additional questions and then tomorrow we can revisit it for a vote. Miss Burke. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um my thoughts as well regarding not knowing which direction the department of education will be moving. Um I'm not fully in favor of asking to be removed fromou memorandum of understanding because that gives us the opportunity to get more support from the state. Um, and all of all 44 of our schools are not fully accredited. And that's just one

119of many items. As I stated, what was written was excellent, but at the end of the day, if our data does fall back, we will be right back on it. So, um, I I don't need to sleep on it anymore. I already know that I'm not going to vote in favor of noou, but I am in favor of one because that also to me that shows a relationship of trust with the state department and also a relationship of we want support. Years ago with you received a lot of extra support financially that has not happened currently with this administration or the one before. But you did have manpower. All right. So, um, moving forward, I will not vote for in support of doing away with it, but I am in full support of revising and

120taking some of those mandates off and to give us more freedom per se. But until we are fully accredited, and that can happen, I'm not voting in favor. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Burke, Mr. Jafari. Thanks, Madam Chair. um definitely on board. I'm I'm looking at and loving these improvements. They make this another part. So, I'm I'm really commending I know Dr. Harris Muhammed that's that's a part of what she does. So, I'm also applauding the superintendent for their efforts in putting putting this together. Um, as I look at it and come down the pike here, I'm thinking um, you want some recognition for the improvements that we've made and and on the one hand I can understand asking for a release. On the other hand, I can understand some of the pitfalls that might

121allow us if we come from under it all together. So, I guess I got two questions. Maybe the superintendent can respond to this. Um, how do the other districts compare? Do are there any other Virginia districts that have have been allowed to come totally from under theou uh remaining work to be done? And and and uh my second question is how about uh a release from the a condition release? Is that something that could work so that we all could get behind that? That kind of spits the difference. In other words, we continue to work towards improvements that we're seeing here. Uh we don't meet them. We go back under it totally. But again, I do think that this kind of work should always be commended and lorded particularly in in like we're seeing where

122the goalposts are constantly being moved. So when you have this, it's it's critical going back I think to what uh colleague said earlier, we're dealing with people, young youngsters and students who have been asked to put out and they're one minute. They're really putting out and so we have to do something to send a message to them and their family that we get it. We understand and so what whatever it takes, we need to be able to ask the state to kind of meet us on that. Thank you, Mr. Farooq. Thank you, Madam Chair. Question for Mr. Camis or anyone in the leadership team that directly has worked with VDOE on theou. Is there a guesstimate or a summary of how much we have gotten over the years and resources because of theou I don't

123mean technical assistance. I mean direct funding or resources, materials, anything that helps us actually meet those requirements. To my knowledge, and I could be wrong, we have not received any direct funding as a result of being in anou. We have received technical assistance. The office of school quality has provided supports of of various kinds. Um we have also received more compliance requirements as well. Um so uh there there certainly have been many very diligent and hardworking folks at the office of school quality who have lent their expertise and support to us and and we are certainly grateful to that. Um I I do want to know since we've talked about this sort of 100% accreditation element which is required is actually the requirement to be relieved from theou. Um it is important to note that

124neither Henriiko County nor Chesterfield County and I say this with great respect have 100% of their schools fully accredited. Nor does Fairfax County. Um, and so I I do think this is a bit of a double standard. And while certainly we have a number of schools, we have moved demonstrabably in the right direction. And so I think to Mr. Persal's point, if I may, if there were a school system that demonstrated the benefits of being in an MOU, perhaps it is Richmond. Are we where we need to be? Of course not. Not even close. Uh, but certainly headed in the right direction. And finally, to connect back to an earlier comment, if I were told tomorrow that because of the number of CSI schools that we have and schools that are going to be labeled

125needs intensive support, uh that that is why we will remain inou. If that came with an entirely new funding stream for us to provide the necessary supports, then I'd say God bless. Let's stay in the Thank you, Miss Rzzy, Dr. Harris, Miss Rzzy, Dr. Harris Muhammed, and Mr. Perl. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I you know, Jason took the words right out of my Mr. camera took the words right out of my mouth in that um I know that our um neighbors don't have 100% accreditation and are not underus and so and and yeah I mean I'm repeating everything everyone else says so maybe I should stop but the fact that this doesn't come with any kind of extra financial support um makes me question why we even need I'm not sure if that question

126by Mr. Jafar was answered, but to my knowledge, there are no school divisions that are current currently in aou status has been relieved. I can't speak to if they requested it or not. There's always a list on um the newly red redesigned and I say that loosely website um of the list of schools that are in the current and in current status of Emily and and I just want to be clear very quickly. It may not be financial support. They may not have issued us a check but to the superintendent's point we have received a mountain of technical assistance. we have received um a mountain of support, direct support for our principles and sometimes as a division we weren't always welcoming of that support um over the past 40 years but the support has been

127there. So that was my time so I'm end. Thank you uh Mr. Pible. Thank you Madam Chair. It it's hard to overlook the preponderance of districts that are onus, those being urban districts. Mr. Cameron used the word double standard. Um, when you look at Petersburg, they've been under anou for 20 years. Have they progressed? Have they gotten out underneath that? I don't know. If you want to help RPS schools, lower our LCI. Don't put us under anou. That'd be pretty simple, but I don't see that happening. So, I'll leave it at that. Um, my question is was already answered and regards to what support has been received and so for asking that. Um, this gives us something to consider and think about overnight. Um, we'll come back tomorrow and we will um continue the discussion

128um and and put it to a vote. Um what I'm hearing are two options either to eliminate it alto together or um to request for it to be updated. So those are the two things that we would want you all to consider for tomorrow. Dr. Harris Muhammed, you are at a time. So if it could be 10 seconds or less, please. I just would like for the superintendent to ask because of our current status of our TSI and CSI schools if we need to be underou because we may not need a vote. Thank you, Dr. Harris. Looks like we're already ready for our next transition to point uh 4.03 receive an update on Early College Academy. Yep. Good evening, uh, Madame Chair, vice chair, school board members, uh, superintendent cameras. Uh, Courtney Ward, our director

129of secondary success pathways, is here to give you a very brief update on our early college academy. Good evening. Pleased to pro provide an update from the fall 2024 semester of ECA. The first slide goes over the enrollment for the juniors and seniors. The seniors are the class of 2025 that will be graduating in May. Um for scholastic achievement, an update for the seniors, we have several students who have scored a GPA above a 3.74 and 38 students are projected to earn their associates degree, which is awesome. We have three seniors who will not earn an associates degree, but they are still going to remain enrolled, and they will still be able to earn available college credits that will transfer when they go to college in the fall. Next slide. As far as our juniors,

130the combined average GPA is a 2.85 and we do have nine students who again have scored above a 3.74 on their GPA. Next slide. Um, I do want to highlight here, I know this is a piece of concern among many people about the number of students who have been dismissed from ECA in the fall 2024 semester. There are 11 students who did not meet the qualifying GPA of a 2.75 and so they have of a 2.5, excuse me. So they have been dismissed from the early college academy. There are seven students who are on academic probation. I do want to offer some of the supports and solutions that our department will be putting into place with the Reynolds Community College. Next slide. Um, one area we want to close the loop on is onboarding procedures

131to ensure one, students understand that this is college. The expectations are a little bit higher than high school. Um, and to make sure that they're able to balance their high school requirements with college requirements. Um, also requiring that students attend the orientation event in August and then providing additional training for our ECA coaches to ensure that they're prepared when students come on board to support them. Next slide. As far as student services, we um want to make sure that students are aware they can meet with their professors. professors have office hours and other support structures like weekly skill sessions to assist them. School counselors at the students zone schools will also be a point of communication to ensure students are engaged. And then um there is a spring break study session that we will heavily

132encourage our students to attend so that they are not um missing out on that information. And lastly, with communication and growth, we do recognize that a greater and stronger line of communication between RPS and Reynolds is necessary for students to be successful. So, we will schedule a bi-annual meeting with the director of dual enrollment at Reynolds, with our manager of college and career pathways, Candace Finani, Chaplain on my team, and the ECA site coordinator. We'll also hold monthly meetings with ECA coaches and RPS counselors to make sure students have wraparound services. And lastly, getting ready for next year, our um incoming class is 51 students total coming in for the cohort that will graduate in 2027. Um because we had 11 open spots from the students that were dismissed due to the due to their

133GPA, we were able to offer those seats to the incoming group. And so instead of 40 students, we have 51 that will start in the fall. I'm happy to answer any questions if you have them. All right. So Mr. Pible, Miss Ricard, Miss Rizzy, Miss Burke. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for this presentation. Amazing. Are the GPA averages weighted at all? No, the GPA are not weighted. They're standard at Reynolds. So, if I take an AP class in my high school, my GPA is weighted. But if I take the same class at Reynolds, it's not. Correct. But the course for credit at Reynolds is for college credit where with the AP class, you have to pass the AP exam with a certain score in order to get the college credit. Right. So, it but

134it seems interesting. I mean so they are performing at a college level to your point but they are still in high school correct so if we take the seniors numbers their average is 3.3 if we add a half point GPA that puts my slide here that puts the combined average for all of the seniors if you take 3.33 and add five would be 3.83 three. If we're trying to compare apples to apples with their AP counterparts, I think the big difference is that AP courses are taught at the high schools at the comprehensive and specialy high schools. And so students don't have the same experience as being on campus at Reynolds. Um, which sets it apart for dual enrollment versus AP. Um, so while it's not weighted, I think it does give students who do

135ECA like that entry to college experience. Um, we're hopeful that students who do ECA will of course continue and get their bachelor's degree and so on afterwards. Um, some students are challenged by having that AP exam over their head. You know, they may do very well in the class. Um, but if you're not a good test taker, you struggle on standardized assessments, you may not get the college credit. So, it I'm glad that we're able to offer both sides of that coin. Oh, absolutely. I just want to cut them a little slack. Thank you, Miss Ricard. Yeah, thank you for this. Um, I was over the ECA program for Chesterfield does it differently. I love the way we do it. It's better that they go to Reynolds. I just want to say that Chesterfield, it

136was all localized and I had to manage Monik's ones and I appreciate that you're talking about more monthly check-ins. Will that involve the students themselves as well? I guess I only asked that because I had growing pains and what I learned was before they had their first big paper, we would meet with them even at the school level and check in and maybe offer some tutoring or editing or just an additional set of eyes or thought about this just to give a little more support. um because sometimes they're afraid to go into their professors, but they might be more comfortable with their high school coordinator or counselor. I think that's wonderful feedback and I think it's something we can incorporate in our practice. Yeah. Thank you, Miss Rizzie. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, I personally

137am a huge proponent of dual enrollment courses over AP just because it's guaranteed credit, right? And though they don't get weighted when they transfer to colleges. It's GPA neutral. They just see the credits. Um so it feels more like you know if if you're not a good test taker which my son was not right that you get the credits for based on the work you've been the entire first semester. Um I wish we could go back to alle cart right because students were able to take classes in their interest areas and um that seemed to be a really good thing you know I'm sure that we have some kind of agreement with rentals that prevents us from doing that now but it just seemed um to benefit a lot of students who didn't necessarily want

138to get an associates but also wanted to take some classes like I want to think about being an entrepreneur I'm going to take a business class, for example. So, I I really do miss the fact that our students aren't able to do that. Now, um what I hear from most students um that I encounter who are in ECA is that they lack social connection, right? They miss their schools, they miss their classmates. Um so, I'm wondering um how many social activities are scheduled for these students? um team building, right? Or times where they can study together and and and actually interact and engage with one another so they're not so socially isolated because they do express that. Yeah. So, um I mean that would be my question like are you all looking or considering um

139doing something like that so these students can become a cohort. they know each other and they're not um you know they just say I miss the activities at school you know one minute I think that's a part of the orientation events that's held in August before um students start class it's almost like the the um week before college starts at you know a regular college when students are getting their bachelor's degree where it's only freshman on campus so I believe the cohort experience is there could we beef up what we do with them at orientation Certainly. Um, and it may just be putting all those students in um, an Instagram group or let me not date myself because I'm not much for social media, but um, just having them able to connect with things together

140um, throughout the year. Thank you, Miss B. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, everybody knows that I love this program. I think it's one of the best I love what best programs ever we could offer our students and I appreciate so much what Mrs. Mard stated regarding uh checking in on students and following up with students. However, I'm not a happy camper this evening at all. We only have six students from Armstrong. Four have been placed out of the program and two are on probation. So, we're talking about I'm very I'm very upset about this. Very upset. So, what was in place to avoid this? And the reason I'm asking is and I brought this up last year that there is one school and I see they're doing extremely well. When the students get off the

141bus, they go straight to study hall. So what and then also knowing the challenges that my students have at Armstrong. I'm livid. I am absolutely livid. And we also talk talk about equity. This is an example in a negative manner. If you know a student is failing and it is very hard. Many of our students have never put a foot on a campus. And as I talk to parents and talk to students, not just in my neighborhood, but and beyond, the nurturing they get on the school grounds, they don't get at Reynolds. And that's what they're accustomed to doing. They're accustomed to having someone to say, "Did you work on your paper last night? What do you mean you can't write? What do you mean you don't have but two lines?" We're failing our children.

142So my question is, number one, what is already in place? We have two on probation. How are we going to save those two? School is almost over. I want to know. And number two, are we still paying for these spots? Are we paying for these spots that the children, the four children, I'm just talking about now. Are we paying for those students? Are they still getting money for empty seats? Then I have a followup. Thank you. So, I share your concern. Um, we did have a a candid conversation with our partner Reynolds. And I say that we are partners because we've had a deep partnership. If you looked at the senior cohort, we had very strong numbers. And part of that was because of the mentor program and the communication that we had. Day Sergeant

143Reynolds went through some transition and leadership. Uh, and really I think it was in September orientation was missed. um some of the communication pieces were not there. And so um what I have committed to and also uh Miss Vinie Chaplain is for us to be further more proactive with Reynolds to ensure that uh we get what we are paying for. And so uh the other piece that we have identified is that there are some scholars who need additional supports. some of the students who did not make it. Uh they chose to act, they were working jobs, they had other responsibilities. And so there are things that we need to put in place to support them because college is a different environment as you talked about if they don't have that connection. Um and think about

144a high schooler interacting with a college professor and some of them may not have the skill set or the the soft skills to advocate for themselves. So we will continuously have conversations with Reynolds about the services that they provide but also we will inhouse the counselors do support the scholars uh from this as such as Miss Ricard talked about but we do need to beef up the support that we provide but I will be honest uh there was some uh the orientation there were some missed opportunities due to turnover and leadership. Madam chair, please. Miss Burke, again, my concern is this is April. These students have been in the program a whole year. I understand a part about the working. Some have shared that with me. Some don't have a relationship with their professors at

145all. The professors treat them as if they've been in college every day and then some. And I know there was also a turnover in staff. But to see am I, you haven't answered my question. Number one, what are we going to do for those two students plus the others that are on probation? Not about what conversations we're going to have for next year, but what's going to happen now? And number two is, are we paying for those empty seats? So, we had the spring break academy and also counselors are providing more hands-on support for the scholars. And in terms of are we paying for the seats for this year, the answer is yes. But as was pointing out, we would actually shift those 11 seats for the following year uh for the students that were

146dismissed. My other question is in regards to the I thought the the um equation per se for membership had changed. But my question is maybe I don't know exactly what that is. I know how students are support our why why does one school have 12 and another school just has four or five for this coming term and hugenat is doing a great job great job so what's whatever's working over there because it's evident that between Armstrong and Richmond High School of the Arts something's not clicking and I don't want to know what Reynolds is doing or has done. Thank you. I'm done. Thank you. So we based this year's enrollment on the number of applicants by school instead of enrollment from the school. We did get feedback from the schools that they felt it wasn't

147equitable for every school despite size to get the same number of seats. Also it wouldn't be equitable to a lot those seats by size if you didn't have as many students interested in attending. And so this year students were admitted were accepted based off of the number of applications that were submitted and then the review committee looked at qualifications from that pocket of students. Was that something we voted on in terms of the structure that you all decided in terms of you said that you decided to change the route in which applicants were reviewed and approved. Was that something that you brought to the board? I don't believe so. So that is something that we would like to be a part of that conversation. Dual enrollment I know for me personally is something that is

148near and dear to my heart. I was a dual enrollment student. Um I share concerns. The note that I had was about page five and you know the amount of students that um while we have some success, this is a great opportunity for all students and you know we certainly want to make sure that they've embraced the opportunity um with open arms and you know the numbers do reflect um some challenges and I I I think I heard you say it was some enrollment issues or um of J Sergeant Reynolds or I'm not really sure, but someone said and I I agree this is now April. So, how can we proactively put some measures in place to ensure that something doesn't um that this doesn't fall through the cracks um moving forward? And to M.

149Ricard's point um to just you know certainly ensure that we are connecting with them um to to make sure that they are empowered when they step foot on campus. And to be clear we have we had conversations with Reynolds in October but we have been providing support uh from the school site since November after we had the conversation with Reynolds collectively. Understood. I appreciate that feedback. Um that said, but we still have, you know, on slide five, you know, there's seven students that are on probation and 11 that have been dismissed for various reasons. And so if that is the case, I just wonder why we are where we are now. if we were we've been you know consistently giving them the feedback and support that they deserve why are we in April now saying

150hey so the data provided is the report on fall 2024 progress okay so the new semester started in January and so the students who are on academic probation they have been receiving targeted support we will continue to do that but these GPA calculations are from of first semester performance, not necessarily uh real time on where they are now. That's very helpful to know. Thank you for saying that because I had concerns if this was where they were standing as of now. But we can provide real time updates on the students who are on academic probation just to ensure again that they are meeting requirements to stay. Yeah. In real time that would be very helpful for us to understand. Dr. Harris Muhammed, I don't know if Okay. Then Mr. Farooq and then Miss Ricard. If

151Mr. was before me. I'm not sure who was. I'm just Yeah. Is there a cohort of coaches for the cohort of students? So my the question that I'm asking is if there were 47 or 42 students, surely one coach cannot support all 42 students. But are do we have coaches on the RPS staff side or the Reynolds staff side that take a group of students out of the ECA and they work with those students and some the reason I'm asking is um a dual reason a lot of this and and I I don't want to describe it as mishap but level of concern um possibly could have been prevented had the students had those coaches assigned to them. So using the same analogy that we have for and I may mispronounce it for for our

152um Ghana program kagana program. We were intentional about decreasing their chronic absenteeism which also reflected the increase of their graduation rate. If we take that same model, we already have the model. You all created the model. You all presented to us that model in 2021. Use the same model and the same tenacity to save these babies. We don't need to reinvent the wheel. Y'all got it. Make it happen. Do what you do to make kids successful. Then the conversation would be different. In that model, accountability is on those students. That model allowed us to have midyear graduations. Use the template that you already have. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Harris Muhammed. Mr. Thank you, Madam Chair. As a new board member, I appreciate your patience as I ask some questions. For slide five, are these

153just seniors in high school or does this include the juniors as well? It includes juniors and seniors. Yes. Okay. So then the appropriate way for me to interpret this when I go back to enrollment in slide two is say for example for John Marshall High School 10 total students there's about five that are either on academic promotion or dismissed. Is that an accurate way? Okay. Thank you. This regard um thank you and I'll keep this brief. I appreciate you talking about the orientation and lessons learned. Similarly, had them as well. I don't know if um it would if you would be able to bring students maybe this rising seniors to talk to the juniors maybe even about things they learned or strategies or yeah, if you have a job this is going to be hard

154and here's what I've done. Um because they're living the program and the kids might really Yeah. And back to Dr. Harris Muhammed's question, there are three coaches that are provided by Reynolds and the counselors are assigned at each school um a case load to support. However, as I said, we will take ownership for the breakdown and communication and ensure that we have greater collaboration, but we don't have someone like a RPS staff member that is the coach or that owns this particular project such as early colleges. And so again, it falls on uh Miss Vinnie Chaplain and also our specialist for secondary counseling. Um so we don't have a direct person within RPS. is the school counselor supporting them in addition to the Reynolds uh coaches and the other pieces. The coaches from my understanding

155after having conversations were new to the role. Um and so in terms of their level, you know, to support them, it was new to them as well. Mr. Hedgeh, just really fast, I it's probably too soon to to uh note, but the success rate of the grace that you gave the students like did they take advantage of meeting with the professors did they take advantage of re submitting assignments I'm wondering because maybe the root of the challenge is time uh for them versus something else so just thank you so when you all circle back with us to give us the update on real time um feedback if you could add that as a part of the conversation that would be great and just a reminder that At the end of the day, we want you

156to feel empowered to um do what is necessary for the programs that you have in place, but we are here to partner with you and from a level of governance, it's important for us to know what decisions are being made that impacts um our schools and students. So, we appreciate you. We appreciate all you're doing. Thank you. All right. Um moving right along to 4.04. 04 received proposal for the stagger start um for 2025 2026 school year. Mr. Cameras. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um and this is for everybody from the administration who is still on the agenda to be as brief as is possible given the time. Thank you. I appreciate you saying that before my presentation. Good evening, school board chair, vice chair, members, and of course, superintendent cameras. My name is Lata Waller,

157the proud principal director for middle schools. And I'd like to share with you our proposal for a stagger start for our rising sixth graders and ninth graders for the upcoming school year. Um what you have in front of you um and you've had access to is our proposal that our bless you that our rising again our rising sixth graders and nth graders would start on the what is currently scheduled to be our first day of school and then all remaining secondary school um students our seventh 8th 9th 10th 11th and 12th graders um would actually start on the second day of school. This is actually consistent with a number of school divisions that are already I see a couple of nodding heads that are already doing this work in Reicho County as I've talked to

158my counterpart um in um Henri Reicho is also considering this and they their school board will actually be looking at um whether or not they're going to be adopting this in their May um school board session. The rest of the presentation has pretty much the rationale about why we want to do it. The primary one is just making sure our scholars have a great start. And when we look at um what our scholars um face as they're going through those major transitions being great adolescence that they are, we want to build a successful program. We want them to be able to go into their new school to feel the support, to see the support, and to be able to connect with those individuals without having all of those older scholars um there are with them.

159Um many of the individuals I've talked to, a number of um principles support this. Exactly. Every single principal um in secondary supports this. I've talked to the parent advisory council um the superintendent has. They all support it. um the middle school transition external partner meeting that I um had and the internal partners all supported it. Um really the only individual that said that they didn't fully support it was one that just said they didn't feel that their particular child um you know needed it but supported it for all other scholars. I'm happy to take any questions that you have. Um Mr. Hespath and then Dr. Harris Muhammed, Mr. Card, thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, thank you very much. I I think this is a great idea. My only question is for transfer students um who

160are coming from another division or from another uh feeder pattern within the school system. Um is there something already in place for them? And if not, could they be included in this uh in this initiative as well? We wouldn't dare not include them. So all at the beginning of the school year, all of our um schools are reaching out continuously to ensure that they um have every single scholar that is zoned to be in their school included in all communication. Anyway, this would not take the place of open houses that happened at the beginning of school. So of course those scholars would be um in attendance. Miss Nope. Dr. Harris Muhammed and then Miss Ricard. Sorry about that. Thank you. Who are the external partners that you met with? Sure. So, I was charged with

161doing middle school transformation um at the beginning of the school year basically to help um support and find creative ways without a lot of funding as we talked about earlier this year to support our um middle schools and to um ensure that they're on the path for success um not only with the social emotional aspects of our scholars but also academically. So the external partners included a number of um our parents um that have scholars that are either in middle school or that will be attending. Um CIS was included. Um next up higher achievement those in those um partners that are already sort of in the schools. Um I know you know u the program that's currently at MLK. they were in um invited and included and um just really happy that they were able

162to meet outside of the regular school day when we were available um to give us feedback on a number of initiatives. This one um rose to the top as something that we felt that we could do that would be um the most impactful and the most leverable. Yes, I like this idea. One of the additional things to this is that the students that are transitioning to middle school um how the pouches are done, how um they are monitored, how they are how their their backpacks, their clear backpacks are searched is very different from the elementary school level to the middle school level and from the middle school level to the high school level. So, I'm thinking about when I saw the presentation, I thought about that. Um, just because in the work that I do,

163I'm like, this is awesome. So, it will eliminate a couple of things. The anxiety because going from fifth grade to sixth grade is is huge. It is a major it is a major difference. You're going from being monitored to being loose in in in some way. Not loose. Not not all the way. Yeah. Not all the way loose, but you know, there is still some some grip on them, but you know, you're not being escorted, if you will, to the bathroom or to the lunchroom, those type of things, right? Yes. Um, and so the mental state, the level of mental state, I always believe the summer, the summer vacation was not enough to prepare students from fifth grade um to middle school and then from 8th grade to high school. So, I support this. I

164like the idea. Um, I just I think that we could use a little more communication outreach to our parents that typically do not um attend some things that we may have for one reason or the other, right? Um, I I believe they want to be there and they show up in in the best way that they can. And so I want us to be able to meet them where they are so they will be aware because we will always have that few that say well we weren't aware um that we were discussing stagger times or if it's approved that it was approved. So I just really appreciate you all thinking out of the box um and think about how we can serve all of our students. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you Miss Ricard

165Rzie. Um thank you. I was really excited to see this. I've had middle school parents ask about transition and be concerned. And I think this is a great way to show them that we care about the anxiety that their kids are feeling. Um, also have been in a school district that has done this for a number of years and it is really successful. And I think it's exciting to think about how it could even grow. So for instance, how could upper classmen become student leaders and the team building and mentorship? They could ride the bus with everyone else. So, we're not providing extra transportation issues. That's not for the first year. Let's get it going. But I think how could we even augment the experience for our sixth and nth graders and make them feel

166connected and excited about their new communities? Thank you for that feedback. Thank you, Miss Rizzie. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, so if this started, when would it would it be be in effect this fall? That's the plan. Yes, that's what's being proposed. Yes. Okay. All right. Um, is this something we could vote on tomorrow? Preferably. Yes. There's a lot of work to do and and if you know me, I like to do things in decency and in order. And I really want to um ensure that all the excitement that we've built around this um comes to fruition and we can get things moving. Um thank you so much for the presentation. This is something that you know my colleagues and I have asked for as well as the community. So completely on board with it.

167My only feedback is to communicate and execute like overcommunicate. Make sure and I and when you communicate, if you could um express the why, the excitement around the why. Why are we having them come in early, make it feel more exclus exclusive like um we're giving you that white glove treatment so that you are, you know, prepared for the up and cominging school year, setting you up for success. Um and then I also like what Dr. Harris Muhammed shared about just some of the things we don't really think about like they will be searching your backpacks a little bit more thoroughly. They will be ensuring that certain things are happening throughout the day. Um how they um uh store away phones and different things like that. So I think that would be appropriate in that

168process as well. But we are definitely on board and I believe this is on the agenda for tomorrow for us to vote. Awesome. Um so yes. So yes um Miss Burke and then Dr. Harris Muhammad and then we really have to move forward with the agenda. Thank you for your report and you stated something that I sincerely appreciate. Knowing you, it will be done well. And number two, does that mean we're going to have the red carpet and the balloons similar as what we did for the 200 day schools? Because that first impression, that first day of school will make children want to come back the next day. So, not only will you hear about it, I would invite each and every one of you to come out to your individual schools or others to

169actually see it. Um, all of our schools will have a number of items that they have to cover. You know, they'll talk about how score is different from the elementary school is different from the secondary score and they're going to meet their teachers and all those things. But every school because every school is different, has a s a certain culture and climate about it um and personality even. It's going to be exciting. I'll be there. Thank you. I would like to offer some help. I can't speak for my schoolboard colleagues, but one way we can help um get this out there is maybe do a Zoom, maybe a quick hour Zoom with each schoolboard member in each district or two schoolboard members um with their corresponding districts to help you, you know, we'll be your

170cheerleader or be the team's cheerleader just getting that out. I'm just coming up with an idea since we're talking about meeting people where they are and those different things. Thank you. I appreciate that. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'm always good for a Zoom call and and just so you know, I'm always open for any type of communication and in the community. So, yeah. No, it's okay. Just I was just sign up is essentially what I'm saying. Okay. Mr. Pival, we all feel the same way as colleague. out. Miss Aby's looking for you at You're gonna come to the first day. Absolutely. All right. Okay. Eighth district. Okay. Thank you so much. I'm moving right along. Um colleagues, just want us to be cognizant of time. I know we were thrown off a little

171bit because of the um the fire alarm, but it is 9:15, I believe, and we have quite a few items still left. And so I don't think we're going to make the NCAA final. We're going to be in as ESPN highlights in a second. But um just be mindful as we move forward that we still have closed agenda items as well. Okay. With that being said, um 4.05 received for first read of special education and comprehensive coordinated early intervening services annual plan. And that was a mouthful. Welcome. Good evening everyone. Um I am Rosie Volley and I'm the director of exceptional education. I am here to share and present our annual plan for special education as it relates to our IDA grants. Um so just a quick overview just a quick overview. The grant is

172really a shared agreement that we have with RPS and BDOE and it just outlines how we're going to utilize the federal money that's provided via the grant. Um we are asking and requesting that it is approved so that we can meet our deadline of the May 9th submission. Okay, next slide. This this table here just gives you an overall five-year trend. It shows how much fund how much money was allotted to us over the past five years. Um what we have for our projections for 2526 is just the anticipated amount based on what we received this current school year. So this just out outlines the five-year trend. Okay, next slide. This particular slide is just given an allocation summary. It gives you insight on what we utilize our um federal funds for. Currently the majority

173of our funds are utilized for salary and benefits. And that is of course used to ensure that we have additional special education teachers, um our instructional assistants, any related service providers that we may need as as well as like interpreters or anything of that nature. Um in addition to that, we have some funds that are allotted for materials and supplies. So if there are anything additional that we need or schools need related as it relates to materials and supplies, assessment um information, any type of equipment that is also used and allocated um for our particular grant. also if we require any contracted services. So some of our related services are provided via contractors and so we all lot fund for that particular area. Um we also have what is called our CCIS and it's going

174to there's going to be another table at in a later slide that really breaks that down but what that is is that we provide intervention services for our students that have not yet been identified for students with disabilities. RPS is currently disproportionate in um overidentifying African-American students in the area of emotional disability and other health impaired. And as a result, we have to set aside 15% of our IDA grant to say that we are putting in some preventative measures to ensure that we don't continue to overidentify our students in that area. So again, another slide will come to kind of break down what that looks like. And then finally, we have our proportionate set aside. And what that is is just we have to set aside funds for any um families that have parentally placed

175their students in private schools within Richmond and they require services via individual service plan because they are identified as students with disability. Okay. So I think we skipped some tables but we can if that's fine. No that's okay if we can go to the next slide. I just made sure that the plan was um entered in here for your reference. So the 611 table is here. What this is are funds that are allocated for all of our students with disabilities, preK through 12. So, we can use utilize the funds for those particular areas. It outlines again our salaries and benefits. We have approximately 117 positions that are paid out of that particular grant. Um, and then we have an amount of $94,000 that's set aside for proportionate set aside. That is again a projection based

176on what we had this year. And that is something that VDOE provides us based on the number of parentally placed students we have in the division. And we have um currently 23 students that are parentally placed in private school that are receiving special education services. Okay, next slide. This table is for 619. And these funds are specific for just preschool services. So we can only utilize this these these grant funds for preschool students. And again, the majority is for salary and benefits. We have two positions that are currently paid out of the grant. um one is is a special education teacher and the other is an instructional assistant. Again, we have an amount that's for proportionate set aside. We have two students that are currently parentally placed in private schools that are preschool students. And

177we also have again some um money allotted there for materials and supplies just to ensure our preschool students have what they need and our teachers have what they need in the classrooms. And then the last slide is the allocation table for the CCIS funds that I just mentioned. Um, of course, these are not additional funds. These are 15% of what the IDA grant allotted for Richmond public schools that we are required to spend again for preventative measures. It outlines what we utilize the funds for, again, salaries and benefits. We currently have eight positions that are paid out of the grant um and those are eight behavior interventionists. We also have materials and supplies and other um indirect costs. Of course, we're purchasing manipulatives and deescalation tools to help you know in that particular area. Okay,

178any questions? You did so well. We have no questions for you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Appreciate your time and presentation. Moving right along to 4.06. Receive a first read um for CTE Perkins Grant. Hi, good evening. Um, madame chair, vice chair, superintendent cameras and board. I am Dr. Rhonda Turner. I am the manager for career and technical education for the division and I am presenting the 2526 Perkins grant application for first three. Um, this grant application is due at the end of April and so want to kind of expedate the process if possible. Um, let's see. The Perkins grant supports funding for RCT programs which consists through middle and high school. Um you can go to the next slide. So I provided a three-year trend of the funding. Um we as Dr. Valdi

179mentioned with her grant will not know the exact amount until VOE awards it for this upcoming year and so we based our grant application on our current award amount. So those numbers may change slightly. Um these are the categories in which we use our funding. Um the majority of our funding is used for equipment um non-consumable items for instruction um e resources so ebooks online resources for our courses. Um we also are able to support sorry we're also able to support um students with internships. that we pay students um as interns during the school year and during the summer. Um dual enrollment um costs for our CT courses which we currently just have criminal justice. Um and then any excess fees for testing. Uh next slide. I provided a detailed um description for the categories

180just mentioned. Um next slide. Um we are presenting a new course for the upcoming school year. um in hopes of a partnership with Richmond Fire Department, so firefighter one and two. Um and then those are just some of the areas in which our funding will be focused on for the upcoming school year. Any questions? Miss Ry, um I don't have a question, but I don't see this on tomorrow's agenda for vote. So, I think you want us. We'll be sure to make an amendment and to include it. Thank you. We were working double duty while you were talking. My apologies for speaking over. Um, thank you so much. Um, Dr. Harris Muhammed, thank you for the presentation. When when is this due? April 30th. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. Moving right along to

1814.07. Receive update on Head Start. Good evening again. Um, Superintendent Cameron and I are going to tag team this one. Um, but I wanted to um bring about um the change in scope that we have previously talked about. The policy council voted um last week to um have a change of scope for our RPS early head start and head start program that would reduce the number of seats by 200 as you see in the presentation. So it is up to the school board now to decide if um they agree with that change of seats of the change of scope um for 200 and um to agree and vote therefore or um you know have another um perspective on what the change of scope should be. I know it's a very hard decision and um we've

182heard a lot of um discussion about it but that is where we stand at the current moment um for the change of scope. Hammer. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Dr. Wiggins. Um, as we noted in the presentation, uh, my chief concern is that we don't wind up in a situation where the school board and the policy council are at odds and we end up in impass procedures, which would take time and prevent us from submitting our application, uh, which we have to do within the next basically 10 days. Uh and so if the board felt strongly uh that 200 was too much, then I would respectfully ask for an emergency request by the board to meet with policy council like tomorrow to try to hammer out some agreement. Absent that, I would counsel the

183board to move forward with the Dr. Harris Muhammed. Ultimately, I do not agree with the high number with the fact that we had until 2027 to obtain the number that the regional office was asking us to obtain. I do encourage my schoolboard colleagues to move forward with supporting what the policy council has agreed upon because we are in a very deep catch 22 where if we do delay the vote, then most likely we will be at an impass but not only at an impass it would delay not guarantee the approval of the new scope moving forward. So for me at the end of the day it's about the children that we serve as I know it is for you. Um, it's unfortunate that we have to take this amount of a stance right now, but

184I think some of you know how loved or how much I love the policy council and um enjoy working with them and know the hard work that they're doing. Um, so I, you know, with with with deep um agony and and I'm serious about that because 200 200 seats is a lot um at one time. I I do support us moving forward and supporting what the policy council has thus voted on recently. Thank you. Anyone else? Thank you. This is a hard decision. It's it's it's it's hard to make, you know. Um we I think we've done all that we can do in terms of having conversations, partnering, get an understanding of what needs um that policy council has. We had a very robust special meeting to discuss um the options. But at the end

185of the day, if um the subject matter expert is sharing that they believe 200 seats is what we should cut, then you know, it it gives me heartburn as well. Um but more than anything, we want to remain compliant. Um and we've done so much amazing work and in maintaining this grant, I certainly don't want us to lose it over something that we can try to avoid. So, but thank you for all of your tireless efforts and policy council for everything that they're doing to ensure that we stay compliant. Um there are no easy decisions here and we appreciate all of your efforts. Thank you. And um thank you to policy council because we had many many meetings. This was very hard for them to um because their children are actually children in the program

186and so it was not an easy decision. Um, but with the finite amount of money that the grant is, they're trying to still make it work. And so I just want to say that I appreciate them as well. And thank you to to you all. Miss Burke. Thank you, Madam Chair. Dr. Wiggins, is it possible that we can get a schedule per se because maybe we want to drop by schedule of when they have their meetings or either that could be added to the calendar? Absolutely, I will do that. Um, I will provide a schedule to our clerk. Um, and she can provide it to you so you'll know when the meetings are. They would love to have board members there. Yes. And just a reminder also that we did um socialize having a um

187you know a social event for us to to get to know one another as um co- lababorers and so we look forward to sharing more about that in the up and cominging weeks and months as well. Dr. Harris Muhammad, do we need a formal vote as we've done in the past to be on record to support the decision of the policy council to change the scope of sequence? We will need a vote. I did not know if you wanted to wait until you know scheduled for tomorrow. Okay, that's what I Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Um before we move forward to the next item, just want to share with colleagues um to to see if we can get a consensus since it is 9:30 and we approximate that our close would be about

188an hour and a half to two hours um which we'll have to think about as we're going to close. If we could perhaps move um 5.02 and 5.04 04 to tomorrow's agenda to give us a little bit of space for our discussion later this evening. Are there any concerns with that? Thank you. And the only reason why we're not moving the other two is because they we have colleagues the the staff has been waiting very patiently and we want to be respectful of them coming out and and preparing their presentation. All right. We have to make a motion. Correct. Or do we just move forward? Understanding from prior um situations and Miss Haney can um correct me. You all have come to a consensus on making that change and so that has historically been sufficient

189but I will defer to Miss. She said that's fine. Yeah. She just kind of mouthed it, but thank you. Yes, we gota we had to change that. Okay. Thank you so much. Yes. So, the consensus is that we will be moving items 5.02 to 5 point and and 5.04 to tomorrow's agenda. With that being said, we'll move right along to 4.08 received for first read policy committee recommendations. Thank you. Um before you colleagues the policy committee report um the policy committee met on March the 18th and we discussed the AI policy. We also discussed um adding language to the evaluation committee to the policy 1-5.1. We discussed the discipline committee policy which you see before you. Um school board committees hiring and employment fraudulent and wrongful acts and wellness policy. And so this is for

190your first read to be very brief. If you have any questions, you can reach out to me. You can send me an email and um I will try my my due diligence and my very best to answer the questions as clear as I can. Miss Rizzie. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I don't know what the procedure is, but I would like to have at least one of these policies taken out and discussed as an agenda item on at a future board meeting. It would I guess it would have to be next one or whenever it is. You know, we have room to put it on there. I mean, that is just a request I make, but I don't know on that. Which um policy are you referring to? Uh 7-2.5 employment of family members. Yeah.

191Okay. Um Madam Chair, may I I want to make sure I understand the ask first. So So this is the first read. So this is where we typically discuss it. Are you asking for us to move that another day or I'm just want to make sure I'm following your request. I would like to have a separate discussion of it instead of voting as a block on me. So the vote wouldn't be today. That's scheduled for tomorrow. The discussion is today. So So if you wanted to discuss policy 7-.25, this is you can discuss that today if you'd like. I mean, I don't think we have time. I I just would like to see it on the future agenda just to have a public discussion of it because I think it's just um significant enough that

192our that we need to have a discussion before voting on it. Dr. Harris Muhammed followup. Madame Chair, 7-2.5 is currently not in alignment with um the state law. And so we need to get this in alignment with what the state law currently says. And so that's why I'm I don't have a problem with pulling it out and discussing it, but the Mr. Stanley, you can Oh, there you are. Thank you. As always, you come to the rescue. I'm so sorry to interrupt Dr. I just wanted to clarify that these policies are first read through tonight. So they won't be up for vote for secondary until May. So we have an entire month review and then to clarify for this one are most of the changes here on this one um meant to align with state

193or this has a state changed its policy in terms of like hiring relatives? Yes ma'am. I think state law did change at some point in the last few years. uh to allow for some waiverss. Um and when the uh legal council reviewed that policy, they encouraged us to align our policy to state law. Um however, you still could choose to not include uh that new waiver process in our school policy. We're just presenting to you what was what was done state. So, schoolboard colleagues, that's my report. Thank you. Um, moving right along, let's um, well, before we move right along, I just want to make sure we're clear. So, the discussion for today is to review the policies, provide feedback, questions, and be prepared to discuss and vote in May. Thank you. All right. Um

194and then we'll move forward to 4.09 receive for first read contracts over 100K. Thank you, Madam Chair. We are bringing tonight for first read a signage contract as we have a number of projects in the queue. This is first read. If you have any questions, please reach out to me and we will be happy to answer them. Thank you. Thank you. Moving right along to administrative updates. We'll receive now um 5.01 receive an update on care and safety. Is that better? It's green, but it just got green when you told me. So, good evening. I am Angela Jones. I'm the director of culture, climate, and student services. And I'm joined by our associate director, Jason Cooper. And we have provided um a lengthy and robust presentation, which we are not going to go through slide

195by slide this evening. We actually presented um fairly before the new board came on. And we wanted to be sure that you had an overview of the work that we do with regard to student services, culture, climate, mental health. Um I would just invite everyone to see just what has happened in our community over our most recent spring break. And I think that illustrates all the need that we have um right now in our division. Um and so we are super excited to work on our tier one supports for children. I'm always excited to build robust things proactively. Um I'm saddened that we have to do so much work at our tier three highest level. um which includes our work with our partners that are doing phenomenal mental health work with our students. Um but

196the information is before you and I know you've had it and we are happy to entertain any questions at this time. No, Dr. Harris Muhammed, thank you. Thank you to you and your team always being available. Thank you so much for the work that you did. Thank you, Mr. Cameras. I just want to say thank you to uh both of you as well as Chief Parks for the extraordinary work you do taking care of our young people 247 365. Uh it is truly a labor of love and we're grateful to you for it and our students and families are better off because of Thank you. Thank you. And I'd like to echo those sentiments as well. Um I see firsthand a lot of um the different cases that come in through disciplinary committee, but then

197also um you all are the first line of defense when we get the tragic news that we received um over um spring break and I understand the weight of what you all do and um couldn't say enough how grateful we are for your tireless support of our scholars. Thank you for everything that you all do day in and day out. Um, Miss Burke, I thought I saw a hand. Mr. Miss Burke, I just like to dto all that said and then some. Excellent report. Anything you don't know is here. And you all do a lot. So, I too say thank you. Thank you. Keep doing what you're doing. And there may be some other support out there for you that come free. We'll talk about it later. But thank you. Thank you so much. Look

198forward to talking about that. Thank you. Thank you. We like free. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Um and moving right along to 5.03. Receive an update on environmental literacy plan and we appreciate your patience. Good evening again. I am waiting for my awesome team to come up here. You all um see Cassandra Bale who comes. Um these are three members of her team. This is Linda Terry who's the manager of math and science who does a great job. And here is Amy. Here is Wendy and Amy. Um who if you think one person can't make a difference, they absolutely can. Wendy just is science and elementary her by herself. That's our complete science department. And here's Amy, who the complete science department in secondary. All of the gains you see us making in science

199because of these two people along with Linda. I mean, I just can't say that enough. And so, I wanted them I know we're doing environmental literacy plan, but I actually wanted you to see their faces and the work they do every day. Um, because it is huge. And I just want you to know PE one two people can make a difference for our schools. And so we're trying to get them a little bit more help. Um but they have done such a great job bringing literacy not just the environmental literacy plan but making um science come alive in our schools. Um and they enter that with literacy as well. So um they are in the warehouse all the time putting supplies together. If you know anything about science, it takes time. And so, and there's

200a lot of consumable things in the experiments and all the things. So, they have to order them, go to the warehouse, pack them up, take them over to the schools. They just do a lot of work. And so, I just wanted to them to have an opportunity for you to see them and all the great work they're doing. Um, we have a fabulous academic team that supports schools every single day. And I just want you little by little to meet them. Um, so environmental literacy plan. Um, I am not going to all of the details are right there in the plan. Amy, excuse me, Amy and Wendy, they really did the work around this along with RPS teachers, community partners, and students. Um, our environmental environmental literacy plan has really been coming alive. We are

201looking forward within the next um because I want to talk a little bit about where we're going. You can see the plan as it is. But I also want to talk about that as the work continues, collaboration with RPS ELA, our English, math, and history department will take place on crosscurricular ideas as well. That's another part we're looking to do um to make his to make connections with history and the culture of Richmond as related to the James River watershed. Um and the focus remains on student centered learning in authentic environments. Um, I just want to give you a little bit of this. Research indicates that Richmond as recently as last summer was generating enough heat in order to create weather in the atmosphere above it. Preserving and developing green spaces in the urban environment

202is essential for addressing issues such as this. Um, I just want to end with that. There's so much more I could say, but based on time, we're going to leave it right there. I think brought the plan with them that they are going to share with you. Andy, is there anything you wanted to add while we're passing? If you could step up to the mic for us, please. Thank you. Thanks. We just really appreciate your time and your support. We know that um at least several of you um gave your time conducting an interview um detailed interviews with um our team. Um we appreciate um Mr. Camera's um part of the the plan um there in the beginning and um we just welcome any of your questions um and look forward to um carrying out

203um the plan uh together with um teachers and Miss Burke, Miss Rizzy, thank you so very much. I wondered who I did that interview for. So, it's it's great to see you in person because I wondered who the new science person were. Of course, I know. But I'll share this with you. Many of our students don't know about the river because they don't go across the river. So, to have experience such as this is absolutely excellent. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And I gladly will join you all at the river anytime. Thank you, Miss Rizzie. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, you know, first of all, you know, I think we all care about our environment. I mean, I've been reading how, um, climate change actually is partially responsible for all of the pollen we're

204experiencing right now. So, it's very real um, and kind of scary in some ways because it confuses birds, right? And, you know, there are other creatures that like are in trouble because potential climate waterways etc. Um so is this work incorporating the work that we did last year with the blue sky fund and that's that would be yes absolutely so this has actually been a a project a grant uh funded project from Noah um that has took place over three years and so during um the first year or two of the project. It was focused on getting input from stakeholders, various parts of the community. Uh and our community partners who participated directly in the writing of the plan with us and our teachers and students was Blue Sky Fund, um Alliance for the Ches

205Bay, and our Danger River Park System educator. Um, Mr. Edgebath, go right ahead. Thank you very much for this important work. Uh, Southampton Elementary is my neighborhood school and I know it's at the top of the watershed and it's very important um that our kiddos understand it. Um, I saw that you work with the master master naturalists. I was wondering if maybe uh what have you been able to work with the cooperative extension master gardeners in the city? I know they do a lot with the the Richmond libraries. Um but I wonder if that I didn't see them on the community partner map so I just was asking about that. Yeah, that's a great question. Um and so one of the aims um that you'll see in the environmental literacy plan is identifying community partners

206and also identifying the ways in which they're currently working with schools so that we can ensure equity um throughout the division. Um we're really excited and proud that the um document is a unifying document bringing together um efforts that have already been going on for quite a long time in the division. Um and at the same time um helps to identify um pockets in the division where uh more work is needed and to connect um those folks with um community partners um and to continue to as a living document um grow our list um and make sure that we bring onto the list anyone who is missing. Thank you. Um, one thing that I would like to add is thank you. Um, you know, it's I'm very proud to hear the of the success that

207you all have had um with a very small team, but one of my first reactions is I turn to Mr. Cameron and said, "How can we fix this?" because although you all are working diligently, um if we could provide you additional resources, we got to figure that out some kind of way. No pressure. I know, no pressure. Uh but I just I want I want to say that out loud to acknowledge that I understand that what you're doing is not easy. And for example, if someone were to become ill or something were to happen, it's not quite sustainable. I'm just being honest. I mean, they could get married tomorrow and they deserve time off, right? Um, that said, I I thank you so much for the presentation. I'm always data driven and I would just

208love to see through data, right, what the success has been, what goals we're trying to achieve and how we plan to get there. So, I would just love for that to be included in the next presentation. We'll have to do a part two. But I also wanted to add um that because of our title one budget, we actually entered um two coaches, two science coaches into our title one budget. So we're going to have one for elementary and one for secondary. So at least they can be a team of of two for each level. That's a start. Thank you. That's great. That's great news and great work. Um Miss Burkin, I think um Mr. Cameras had something to share. This is absolutely awesome. So what what this is for each teacher or each school? What's

209tell me what what this? Absolutely. So this is what we like to call a you know a public facing document that kind of uh describes and provides some information not only for the community but for our surrounding partner school systems you know in Virginia uh as they themselves kind of embark upon similar journey in developing their own plans. Um, and we are lucky to be able to be one of the first in Virginia to have created a document such as this. Um, it is proudly displayed on our curriculum page on the RPS web page. Uh, we we do pass them out. We just had our science showcase last week and we made sure that they were there. It was very a wonderful event in all of our community partners that participated in this with us

210were there to interact with the community and spread the word. Uh and that's where our partner specifically Alliance for the Technique Bay um is doing a lot of work in sharing our our plan and work that we put in not only regionally but on a national level as well through their um different um workshops and conferences and things that this is excellent. Thank you so much. And the list of partners now I know why cars and trees were so kind. We're getting ready to plan a theater a school and they just dump right to it. So I asked the superintendent if I may ask you are we going to do some PR pieces on this across the country. I mean what stations what news has anybody written the is this is our selling point you

211know we want to get off things and move on. This is excellent right here in our city. So my question is Mr. Cameron. I actually um talked to our comm's director today, Miss Schwank Alyssa, and so we actually talked about some things that we can do to really lift science. So I we actually had that discussion today. So um so yes, we hope to see some things coming and the superintendent may have more to add. cameras. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I just very briefly wanted to share some data. Over the last three years, the Commonwealth of Virginia has increased its science proficiency by three points. During that same time, Richmond Public Schools has increased its science proficiency by 14 points. I can say with a great deal of certainty that's because of Wendy and

212Amy. I think if you ask any principal in RPS, they will say how much they appreciate what they do every day. Do you think it speaks to the power of what single or double people can do? And anybody who says that we are bloated, just tell them about Wendy and because we are not. Thank you, Miss RZY. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I would like to just add, you know, yes, our science scores are doing better, but you're also working to create better humans. And I think that's super important. Um, we need that now. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Okay. So, we're moving right along for close. Who has the Mr. Madam Chair, I move that the school board of the city of Richmond in close session to discuss the terms

213of the employment contract of a central office employee and to receive legal advice. on the same issue as authorized by Virginia Code 2.2-3711A1 and A8. Number two, to discuss the performance and possible discipline of two office employees and to receive legal advice on the same issue as authorized by Virginia code 2.2-3711A1 and A8 and number three to discuss the performance and assignment professional personnel and to the discuss an employee grievance matter in personnel case number 2025-03 as authorized by Virginia code section 2.2 3711 A1 and number four to consult with legal counsel regarding settlement demands appointment of council for litigation and issues involving civil rights law as authorized by Virginia code 2.2-3711 2-3711A. Can I get some? Thank you. It's been moved by Mr. Jafari, seconded by Mr. Miss Berg. My part, pardon me. Um,

214Mr. P. Mr. Bible. Yes. Mr. Ricard. Yes. Mr. Farooq. Yes. Mr. Hedgepath. Yes. Mr. Rizzy. Dr. Harris Muhammad. Yes. Miss Burke, yes. Mr. Jafari, yes. Miss Fernandez, yes. We are now in close. Thank you, colleagues. If we could move so expeditiously to close session, we would greatly appreciate it due to the