RPS School Board Meeting - March 4, 2025

001RPS award business meeting for Tuesday March 4 2025 and order rall please mad Mr P here Mr car here Mr per here Mr here M rzy Harris pres b mrar m here we have a thank you at this time we'll ask for um translation so this is announcement thank you good evening everyone for anyone that's here that needs interpretation from English dis we do have that available we have interpreters in the back for anyone that is watching via Zoom we do have interpretation available there as well um just a quick reminder to everyone to please speak directly into the microphones and one at a time so that our interpreters can hear everything being said and now I will make this announcement in [Music] thank you thank you and now we'll have our plge of Allegiance

002a moment of silence Dr Harris mam us Inge of Allegiance flag United States of America thank you now item 1.04 Pro the minutes of the January 21st February 3rd February 4th and February 10 10th 2005 school board meeting Madam chair I motion to approve the minutes from January 2 uh 1st February 3rd Fe 4 and February second it has been moved by Mr hedp and seconded by Mr car to approve the minutes of the January 21st February 3rd February 4th and February 10 2025 school board meetings Madam Clerk first let the rec reflect that M Rizzy has joined the meeting and Mr P yes Mr rard yes Mr K yes Mr H yes M rzy yes yes m b mrar m Fernandez yes item 1.05 adoption of the agenda Mr principal Madam chair to adopt

003the agenda second it's been moved by Mr P and seconded by Dr Harris Mohamed to adopt the agenda Madam cler Mr person yes Mr car yes Mr yes Mr H yes yes Dr mam yes m b Mr Jafari yes just for yes and now for one of our favorite parts of the evening our recognition we start all 2.01 our student representative Mr Camas thank you madam chair and good evening I'm delighted to introduce you to Terrell Williams C from hugut high school our March 2025 student representative to the school board Terell is a senior at hugenot where he participates in the marching band jazz band leader ASL Club quiz and is a threeyear member of the superintendent student advisory Council Dell's Awards and recognition include homecoming King recipient of the policy Pathways youth public service

004award certificate of recognition from hugenot for exemplifying the Falcon ideal of responsibility and completion of the Monument Avenue 10K in his spare time Terrell enjoys play the trombone and band competitions cooking and running upon graduation plans to attend a fouryear college and get his certification as an em he then plans to start training to become a firefighter please join me and welcoming toal Williams for good evening board members superintendent cameras and guests thank you for the opportunity to speak with you tonight I'm here to the importance of our School's after school programs programs that have shaped my high school experience and the experiences of so many of my peers since my freshman year I've been involved in several after school activities including band I've been involved in drama club film club run Club student council

005battle the brains I stand so yeah these programs have not only allowed me to explore my passions but also give me a safe space to express myself build confidence and connect with positive role models I've valuable skills like teamwork leadership and time management lessons that go far beyond the classroom but while these programs are making such a difference in students lives there's one major issue funding too often I've seen teachers coaches and Club sponsors pay out of their own pockets for supplies competition Fe or Transportation they do this because they believe in us and want us to give and want to give us opportunities but that responsibility shouldn't fall on them it's simply not fair without proper funding some programs are forced to limit the number of students who can participate or cancel trips that

006could expose us to new experiences that means students are missing out on potentially on potentially lifechanging opportunities investing in after school programs is is about more than just activities it's about investing in students Futures these programs help keep students safe engaged and connected to their school Community they offer mentorship Foster creativity and give students a sense of belonging I know that as a senior the ch I'm advocating for tonight may not impact my own experience but they could impact the experiences of my younger St of younger students like my brothers who will walk these hallways long after I graduate I want them to have the same opportuni as I did and even more our schools are full of bright creative and talented students with the proper funding and support just imagine what they could achieve

007I urge the board to prioritize funding for after school programs so every student no matter their backg can discover their passion unlock their potential and Thrive thank you so much for your time and consideration thank you so much trell and on a personal note it's been a pleasure having you on the advisory Council for three years I don't can't imagine the council Without You on it you bring such uh wonderful energy insightfulness um such a thoughtful perspective um and and a lot of humor as well and so I'm going to miss you a great deal congratulations and well done thank you moving right along we will go to item 2.02 recognition of Black History Month say wi Mr K thank you madam chair uh the school is still scoring the essays and so they have

008asked if we can bring this back in April a [Music] hint I'm sworn to secet that just means that the essays were so profound a little longer to we will be anxious but also keep patiently waiting for to hearing who wins next up we have um recognition proclamation of arts and schools month Mr Camas thank you madam chair arts and schools month March 2025 whereas Arts education composed of Dance Theater music and visual arts provides immeasurable educational benefits and is essential to the academic social and emotional development of students and whereas we believe all RPS students should be afforded the opportunity to explore expand and enhance their talents and where as RPS is committed to providing Equitable access to high quality Arts education recognizing its power to inspire creativity critical thinking and self-expression and whereas

009RPS offers opportunities for learning by creating exciting Hands-On and rigorous Visual and Performing Arts programs at every school level and whereas Arts education nurtures future artists innovators and leaders while strengthening communities and enriching the fabric of our community and whereas Richmond Public Schools joins the National Art Education Association and supporting the Youth of our community in their intellectual development through Artistic Endeavors and reinforces our support of Arts in our schools now therefore be a proclaimed that Richmond Public School recognizes and celebrates March 2025 as arts in our schools month and encourages everyone to join in this celebration and as is our practice once we're finished with all of the proclamations we will invite up the relevant Personnel chrisy Joe I love the enthusiasm uh just to make it more efficient for everybody thank you now

010we'll receive uh the proclamation for national school um Social Work week thank you madam chair National School Social Work week March 2nd to 8 2025 whereas National School Social Work Week is an opportunity to honor RPS social workers who play a vital role in supporting the well-being and success of students by addressing social emotional and behavioral challenges that impact learning and whereas School social workers serve with love as advocates counselors and connectors uring students and families have access to critical resources including mental health support housing assistance community services to ensure Student Success and whereas these dedicated professionals Foster safe supportive and inclusive School environments helping students overcome barriers and reach their full potential and whereas the theme for National School Social Work Week 2025 unite to ignite celebrating our impact reflects the collective power and

011passion of school social workers who bring School communities together and create positive change in the lives students families and schools now therefore be a Proclaim that Richmond Public Schools joins the school Social Work Association of of America in recognizing the week of March 2nd through 8th 2025 at school Social Work me and encourages everyone to join in this celebration thank you now we receive the proclamation for National read Across America week and day Mr Camas thank you madam chair read Across America day March 2nd 2025 whereas from public schools recognizes the importance of literacy and the lifelong benefits of reading and we as read Across America Day celebrated annually on March 2nd inspires children and young adults to develop a love for reading and to explore the world through books and whereas promoting a culture

012of reading helps build critical thinking creativity and a deeper understanding of diverse perspectives and whereas Richmond Public Schools encourages students Educators families and communi members to come together in promoting literacy through Reading activities book celebrations and engage in discussions now therefore be a Proclaim that Richmond Public Schools recognizes and celebrates March 2nd 2025 as Reed Across America day and encourages all schools and community members to join in this celebration and read above thank you I know many of our colleagues have signed up to be a part of read Across America we're really excited about um engaging with five Scholars so thank you next up we have Proclamation for National procurement month that's right National procurement month March 2025 whereas Richmond Public Schools procurement professionals play a critical role in ensuring that schools Educators and students

013have the resources they need to succeed and whereas procurement professionals up hold principles of public trust and fiscal responsibility while working diligently to secure the best value for our schools and taxpayers and whereas these professionals collaborate with vendors Community Partners and RPS staff to ensure that purchases align the divisions core values Equity engagement and ex and whereas procurement model observed annually in March recognizes the expertise hard work and dedication of procurement professional in public service and whereas the contributions of the RPS procurement team are essential to creating safe well equipped learning environments that Empower student learning now therefore be hit Proclaim that Richmond Public Schools hereby recognizes March 2025 as National procurement month and encourages everyone to join in this celebration and buy something and finally we'd like to receive the proclamation for food and

014vegetable week fruit and veggie week March 24 to 2025 whereas richond Public Schools is committed to promoting the health and well-being of its student staff and community and whereas fruits and vegetables are rich in essential vitamins minerals and fiber that support overall health reduce the risk of chronic diseases and contribute to academic success and lifelong wellbeing andas encouraging students to make healthy food choices and develop lifelong healthy eating habits is a key component of Richman public school's commitment to student wellness and weas fruit and Reggie week is an opportunity to educate and Inspire students staff and families to enjoy a colorful variety of fresh fruits and vegetables as part of a balance Di and whereas Richmond Public Schools in collaboration with parents caregivers Educators and Community Partners will promote fruit and veggie week through engaging

015activities educational programs and healthy meal options now therefore be Proclaim that Richmond Public Schools recognizes celebrates March 24 through 27 2025 as fruit and veggie week encourages all schools and community commity members to join in this celebration and have a care time let's do some pictures yeah let's start withell and if you have any family or uh friends and staff from hugut if we can all come on down and take a picture [Music] yes two one to you are we Balan [Music] here all right thank you workers need any carot Across America acoss America wait's in front of ex ex wonderful all right we three two one smile all right there anys or all right three two one sa turn up [Music] turn all right check the sh thank you congratulations and many thanks to

016each of you it is women's MTH and just sitting here thinking for a moment all the schools that we have in the city of Richmond named after women and I'm sure you will recognize the names lucil BR Lis Harrison Jones Mary Scott Elizabeth red Mar Francis M over and shepher did I miss anyone did I say Mary Scott but just think each of these ladies led the way for us to continue to do as we're doing today then some so all the women in the house thank you very much to all the men that support us we love you too but shout out for women let's not forget we would not be here if it hadn't been for [Music] and now moving right along to 3.01 oh I'm sorry I thought that was announcements Noor

017now we at announcements Mr car M Rizzy Mr hedback Mr P thank you madam chair um I just wanted to recognize that Dogwood Middle School put on an absolutely incredible production of Frozen JR this past weekend and um I just want to thank all the teachers and the administration that supported that and um there was just Joy shining from that stage and parents and community members with happy tears and I just think it's also um relevant that it's Arts month as well and the Arts were definitely on display and then I also um just wanted to shout out the Richmond Technical Center I visited there last week and a bunch of businesses had come in to um hold mock interviews with the students there were probably 15 to 20 businesses there and um teachers were

018going over resumés with their students and getting them ready and it was just a really great experience for our students to have that career and work Place riding us that we always talk about um so I just wanted to recognize that work that they're being that they're doing and I know Dr de for and our principals in the audience um and then finally I just wanted to wish a belated happy birthday to our colleague my birthday was Saturday and I'm am 27 it's a 32y old wow that work out glad to be 52 wonderful thank you Mr thank Madam chair I know that we'll be officially up recognizing our spelling the award winner in the uh in a future meeting but I would be remissed since uh uh he is from JB uh Fisher one

019of my elementary schools in the fourth district uh Nica barovich mov uh he spelled Goliath and proved to be a giant in the spelling be so I'm glad thank you thank you Mr personal thank you madam chair uh colleagues set your calendars and all of the hoarders Among Us please set your calendars because the Albert Hill yard sale is coming in April on the 26 I announc this now because they're taking collections for the yard sale through March on Wednesdays and Saturdays uh this is very important because as Mr Williams Ford pointed out that after school activities require dollars and in the past things like the yart sale at Albert Hill help fund such things as cheerleading uniforms soccer jerseys basketball jerseys and a host of other things at PTA so April 26 Albert Hill

020yard sale you can get more information at alard sale.com thank you Miss B thank you madam chair um I have two announcements to make number one on Saturday March the 15th the links Incorporated is sponsoring a national health Expo it will take place at Martin Luther King liing school superintendent ceras has agreed to place this on our RPS direct last year we had about 500 persons it is an international effort across the country as well as the UK and the Bahamas what we do is we have activities Health paraphernalia doctors persons to address our health at any age and every age of course fun for our children free food lots and lots of fun but you can get your heart checked out kidneys the whole n yards Dental screening and it is free everyone is

021invited to attend ML King I believe the time is 11:30 a.m. but it is'll be on our social media page as well that's on Saturday March the 15th is in the East C parking lots of food lots of fun and at the end of the day you find out something extra about yourselves or the person beside you in terms of loving up on each other as a community effort also on Saturday March 29th the Richmond chapter of the L Incorporated James River Virginia chapter Incorporated and Commonwealth chapter corporated of the L excuse me for this particular event on March 29th is just one chapter links Night at the Museum Part atrian the fundraiser for the partnership we have throughout the city however Franklin Military Academy this organization has been around for 73 years of service

022and um Frankl Military Academy we that is our signature project this year colel Hudson the principal is going to be our honorary chair we raise monies and then some to support Health the Arts housing education we give scholarships so um that is on social media as well but it will be on my website and it is sponsored by the Richmond ly at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts on Saturday March 29 6: p.m. it's a funfield evening on behalf of our children we also support the veterans at the um Veterans Hospital the list those on because the organization is over 70 some odd years and we are a service organization so I thank you to those persons that will be attending either of those two activities or just keep us in your thoughts and prayers

023for continued success as we do the best that we can and beyond for our young people in the city of Richmond thank you thank you m thank you Dr Harris mohamd thank you madam chair I just wanted to take an opportunity to thank the administration for um encouraging our payroll team to submit some communication about some changes within our payroll so I'm hoping that staff and RPS will will take heed to that and read that um and prepare more than thank you Mr jaar thanks Madam chair I just wanted to take the opportunity to uh thank the the family group at o Child Care development for the invitation and also to extend an invitation to uh those in the eth district and those with they desire to participate come out participate in the family discussion

024that we're going to have there a week from uh today from 1 to 1:45 again that's over on on bfield Avenue in the southide at the CH here at the U O CH Dev Center thank thank you Mr faroo thank you madam chair last Thursday February 27th I attended the Angola documentary screening done by John Marshall High School at the Black History Museum and we had several of our John Marshall students speak about that trip um and it was really really inin and moving really exciting to see all the hard work by principal Monica Murray and all the RPS staff including our Community Partners that have put this trip together for a couple years in a row now and we'll keep doing it but it was really moving to see how hard people work to

025create this experience for our students and what amazing Advantage our students took of it you know they did such a great job representing us representing our school system and our city I just want to give all props to um principal Murray the staff and our partners who made that have thank you thank you Miss R thank you madam chair um my schools haven't had any recent events so I feel a little left out about that but I will say that um now that fruit and veggie month is coming up or what week and read Across America I'm looking for some invitations thank you thank you um and I'd like to also this was highlighted last night but um this is my opportunity to really um call them out Cardinal Elementary um has been one of

026three schools that have piloted tal at their school and we had our first visit yesterday so I just wanted to give kudos to um principal gregas and everyone else that is serving in their capacity to ensure that we continue to have wound services for our students I also like to um um give a shout out I was at the um national board certification Penning ceremony and we had one um associate who was repinned on last night for Renewal this is a very vigorous program and so um her last name escapes me so please forgive me but her first name is is Lindsay um I think it's Lindsay Williams Lindy Willam Lindy Williams I was close um I would be remiss if I did not just acknowledge her for her efforts it's one thing to um

027to be pinned it's another thing to go back and have it renewed and so just want to just thank her for her efforts and all that she does for RBS all right and with that we will move forward to our public information session uh M Richardson could you please um go over the guidelines yes comment of speakers speakers shall State their full legal name prior to addressing the school board speakers will address the school board as a whole readed individual school board members the division superintendent school board attorney Clerk or any other staff member school board will listen to comments but will not respond during the public information period persons app for the school will will not be allowed to run campaign for public office two promote private business ventures or three use profanity or

028L language if the community members comments during the public information session relate to school based issues the chairman referred that individuals who rich in Public Schools administration for one-onone compliation and followup it's important that all committee members who wish to participate in the public information period AB go policy refusal to a POS result in theature of the remaining time that has been allotted to the speaker Comm members May Express their views in writing and R oral presentation comments received and writing in of an oral presentation will not be read during the meeting but sh go to the Schoolboard platform board dos thank you we have a quite a number of pre-registered speakers um and so we will be sure to honor those who have pre-registered um for those who have not um we will if

029there's any time that is remaining we will certainly love to hear from you as well um our first uh pre-registered speaker is Sharon Gilbert you could come up as you come up if you could um remember to sign your name and if you could ensure that the mic is turned on thank you so much greeting superintendent Camas and distinguish school board members my name is Sharon Gilbert I'm the administrative office associate at William Fox Elementary School and although I'm not feeling that well this evening I felt like it was imperative for me to be here to address you all um there's the situation as far as the budget for next year uh that I'm concerned about as well as sever of my colleagues and I'm just uh asking that you vote uh to eliminate the

030proposed healthc care uh increase for RPS employees as a proud Rea member I stood before some of you on last year around this time fighting for collective bargaining for administrative office Associates as well as office Associates and to me personally um to increase the health premiums would be kind of a slap in our face that's just going to negate the increase that we so uh graciously work hard for so I would appreciate if you would take that into [Music] consideration um to me and the others who are at the table doing negotiations and my other concerns um has already been out in the media about the the the help line or the the line for employees to call and have uh concerns and all address it has been working it is my prayer that that

031is up and running soon again because there's a lot of things that are going on within IND District I'm know Olivia Pope I can't solve everything but I get phone calls while met my Des at William Fox about concerns whether it be for salary um we don't know who works downtown we don't know who does what I used to be able to Rattle off an extension for every employee of every Department because I used to work in City Hall at one point before I was at will box we need to have our talent office and our finance office properly staed we are tired of listening to um ourselves uh Le voicemail messages when we just definely want to be heard and talk to a person a lot of things can be resolved in a matter

032of moments if we could just speak to someone and the working conditions were brought up at our last meeting I was kind of appalled and embarrassed we need to know what's going on in those areas I would advise any of you especially you uh Mr camers to go and take a look and listen to these people's concerns because you have to take care of us so we can take care of the students who are our future and they'll be our future doctors lawyers teachers so please take care of RPS and help make RPS great again thank you lebrand Jones La barar I'm sorry La barar Jones is she present Melanie Winters Melanie Winters and as you're coming up just so that we can kind of have a a nice flow here I'm going to also

033call up the next person if you could just pass that back so they can sign their name as you're speaking that way we can kind of help things flow a little bit and that is Clara clell if you could if you're present if you can come to sign your name because you are next to speak she not here then Alison Hall just add put aair and then we can have a nice FL appreciate that hello my name is Melody Winters I'm an American Sign Language interpreter but this evening I'm here tonight to speak on behalf of the Union because I'm on the Raa board Kon office and finance update thank you for listening to the many employees who courageously share their testimony the last meeting while it was uncomfortable to hear it was necessary we

034are relieved that the chief of talent was placed on leave pending an investigation in the two days she was in the office following the last school board meeting the harassment and tension continued with that said I think it's important to highlight a few things about her tenure and this role during the chief's tenure at The bdoe Lure Department substantial delays in issu licenses were reported as she said to workers herself she has no direct HR experience that lack of experience was evident in the chaos under her leadership for that department directives and plans changed constantly and folks longstanding workflow was disrupted in her absence now workers have reported collaboration efficiency and overall much improved working environment all of this makes me wonder why was she hired and why her core leadership was allowed to exist

035for so long I understand sometimes we have to hire the best candidate possibly from a small pool and that their credentials are what they are however the vdoe used to require director level and higher positions to be approved and reviewed by this board we recommend that you return to that to avoid nepotism cynicism favoritism and unqualified hires we also want to point out that things are going quite well for the talent workers now with the chief of staff serving in an interm capacity workers reported working with the chief and other times in the past with no issue all of this begs the question do we even need a chief tailent officer if directors and those that supervise are given the autonomy to work together and get the work done why is this expensive cheap position

036needed when workers are empowered to take the initiative and encourage collaborate they do their jobs well and they do not need micromanagement RPS should consider the number of senior level positions it has compared to the surrounding counties and compare that to the size of their District we suspect the numbers would be enlightening and could save RPS a lot of money when budget cuts are needed speaking of the budget we are grateful that the board and the superintendent have eliminated the healthc care premium increase for workers thank you this was the right thing to do and will continue to show potential employees that RPS is a district they would want to work in and our students will have fully staffed schools with qualified professionals they deserve it also honors the real life struggle that many RPS

037workers deal with to pay their bills and make ends meet we cannot afford any new expenses so thank you with the talent Chief's absence I am pleased to share today that via email we finally reached a tenative agreement for the central office unit which includes protecting the working conditions of ASL interpreters and learning conditions for our students it's Rea stance that the impa that we've been in for almost a year now with this unit is due to the chief's lack of knowledge of how collective bargaining Works her bad fake bargaining and retaliation of ASL interpreters we are so appreciative that the administration was reasonable and worked with the union and employees and Labor Relations to reach an agreement we look forward to presenting the full agreement for a ratification to our members as soon as

038possible followed by the board approval Fairfield rep retaliation the rep at Fairfield Court informed the principle that they had concerns with the third staff meeting being called during that month and it's a violation of the CBA a few days later the rep was called into a meeting with only 15 minutes notice and the administrators were told about frivolous concerns they had with the work preferments that had never been raised before this sounds very similar to the grievance the board recently resolved with a bua teacher that was put on a pip after speaking up about the mold at the school our question for the board regarding the PIP is what data do we have to show they actually improve student outcomes and aren't just a way for administrators to check outspoken staff regarding the grievance process

039we don't trust the grievance process and I have seen time and time again how the board or Administration would either refuse to hear retaliation grievance as the case in the former Rea president that the school board fired or has closed written sessions holding held we need to be accountable for the folks filing the grievance but they don't get to speak to their experience that five minutes yes ma'am okay thank you very much we would just ask that an alternative to the grievance process thank you thank you thank you next up we have James sorry Allison Hall and James R Smith will be right behind you and then M Taylor will be right behind him two of you could make sure that you've signed in thank you PA good evening everybody my name is Alison Hall

040I'm the enrollment specialist for all elementary middle and high schools I'm here tonight to speak on behalf of a group of central office employees who are in specialist positions who have not received any compensation adjustments for over three years despite being affected by last Spring's decompression process because of our roles were're not represented by Rea at this time I understand that tonight's agenda includes a vote on the budget and I recognize much discussion has already taken place I also want to acknowledge that I'm bringing this issue forward at the last minute nevertheless I appreciate the opportunity to share our situation before the decompression many of us had already gone two to three years without a pay increase we remained hopeful that we might receive even a small adjustment last year however the reality of decompression

041was not only that we received no increase but that some of us would go more than a decade one a common point in discussions about decompression is that no employees pay was reduced while this is technically true the reality is a little bit more complex under the new system my base salary was reduced by over $111,000 to prevent an immediate pay cut a decompression amount was added to my contract to offset that reduction my understanding is that each year as I move up a step on the pay scale and my base salary increases by 1.17% the decompression amount will decrease to keep the total salary unchanged however at that rate the this means that my salary will remain stagnant until 2039 I'm currently 33 years old that means if I stay in this position I

042won't receive a raise until I'm 47 even if I advance to a coordinator role I still wouldn't see a salary increase for another six years I cannot speak for the personal sacrifices that my colleagues are considering to remain in jobs they love but I can speak for myself I estimate that I have about one more year in my apartment before I'll be priced out and forced to move if I stayed for 14 years I'd probably have to move every 3 to four years as I get priced out I also live with a chronic illness that requires ongoing medication and medical intervention each year I've been forced to alter my care schedule due to financial constraints each year my take home pay effectively decreases as the cost of living Rises while my salary remains Frozen in

043the uh in the amount I was hired at I love my job I love the work I do I love my colleagues I love my director I love the office Associates and School staff that I work with and the families that I work with every day and it would break my heart to leave this position but if things continue I might be backed into a corner financially and not have a choice my request tonight is to prioritize increasing compensation during the 25 26 contract year for all RPS employees who have not had a change in their pay inp Years thank you so much thank you James R Smith is next we have Manny Taylor after that and then Cassandra Staples if you have not already signed in if you could sign in and then Kenya

044Williams thank you Mr Smith thank you James Smith local 592 we represent the principls a directors Associated directors I'd like to give a shout out to the ones that are here present with signs asking for a fair contract now these are my people but more importantly they are your people they respect the school board they enjoy working for Richmond and they do a good job for you so first things first we've been negotiating since 2023 still do not have a contract it's very disappointing but I will say this our last negoti ation session was more productive than the previous six months there was one reason for that there was one person missing I'm not going to jump on her name but everybody knows who was missing last negotiations we want to thank you for the

045productive work we got done and we look forward we have another session this Thursday we look forward to another session to be just as productive so we can get this wrapped up so not to jump on anybody but there was a road block and we think y all cleared it and we want to thank you for that uh I was going to address the increase in uh medical cost but it sounds like you all resoled that so thank you very much for that and um we look forward to getting a fair contract round up where asking for a lot of things that has no cost to RPS and we would like those things seriously considered there's no budget impact whatsoever um we know we can't get everything we want we just want a fair contract

046and we want to the whole group wants to keep doing a good job for y'all for parents and for the students thank you very much thank you M next up we have M Taylor for that is Cassandra Staples Kya Williams and Al blunts thank you good evening good evening my name is Manny Taylor and I am the labor union organizer OFA local 804 I'm here to speak out and also hello to all school board members congratulations on your reelection or elected very trendable I am here tonight to speak on behalf of the people transportation department as their exclusive union representative as we stand at the brink of finalizing the collective bargaining process I want to acknowledge the significant progress we have made together thank you superintendent cameras for actively particip in the process your involvement

047is greatly appreciated we are at a pivotal moment and while we have achieved important Milestones such as reverting to a uniform 6-hour schedule addressing some key concerns and moving forward towards implementing a rotational signning system for activities there are still critical issues that need to be resolved specifically we must retain and maintain the practice of after school run pay managements intent to eliminate this longstanding Provisions would undermine the wage increases we have secured effectively moving us backwards we are prepared to escalate this matter to a panel if necessary as we believe the pupil transportation workers deserve fair treatment however we hope to reach an amicable agreement that leads to the ratification of of the collective bargaining agreement as going to panel will ultimately incur costs for everyone involved we are asking for the continuation of

048practices that the school board has honored to date I must also address comments made by the auditor regarding alleged violation by drivers these claims are unfounded and not reflective of actual practices it is crucial to understand that transportation workers are salaried not hourly and they are not in violation of Fair Labor standards act or are they in violation of Virginia overtime laws as the artist just suggested changing the pay structure for after school runs could potentially jeopardize participation in after school programs as was mentioned by the hugot young man um Mr Terell this is vital for our students these programs however these runs are not mandatory for our drivers nor are they contractual Pupil Transportation workers are deeply invested in the wellbe of our children they performed this important work out of love and commitment

049to our students I've spoken with many of these dedicated workers their consistent sentiment is I do it for the children however it is important to remember that these workers also have families they make significant sacrifices often starting their days as early as 5: in the morning ensuring that our buses operate smoothly transporting our children safely to school and back home after many activities they plan the bus routes and provide an extra set of eyes as a precautionary measure often well after Sunset their dedication deserves recognition and appropriate compensation one minute we expect Lial wages for ourselves why should we expect the same expectation for those who enable our children's education we incentivize our teachers resource officers School leaders and even attorneys because we value their contributions today I ask you to demonstrate to our puber

050transportation workers that their work is is essential to the functioning of our school system without them there will be no school they deserve to be compensated with 2hour minimum pay for after school runs and this is not a request but a continuation of what we and they have relied on to support their families in our school system I urge you to revisit the salary decompression roll out which is not holding our workers harmless and consider our CBA ask of an additional 8% salary increase to offset is impact furthermore it is vital to ensure the safety of all workers and and include us in the discussion regarding the relocation of both the North and mechanics compound scheduled to happen this June they'll be homeless thank you thank you Mrs Taylor next we have candra Staples after

051that we have kimya Williams blunt and Helen Ms de if you all can ensure that you signed in good evening hello my name is good State and I've been a bus driver for 28 years and I'm currently um employed on the soft compound um myself and my co-workers are asking that you keep the two hours after school program practice in place because we feel like that this practice has been helpful with our income and as well as this is a practice that other schools as well as um resource officers are participate in after school teachers as well as custodians and our safety operator they all get incentive to stay after their contract hours and you just ask that you you know do the same for us and um we know that um the KN compound

052is going to be displaced in a little bit and we ask that you relocate them to areas close to the compound that they're currently at maybe clock Springs when fox move out or either Nora because at the soft compound is currently 160 drivers plus monitors and administration and it's only three restrooms with two with Excuse me with three stalls bathroom stalls and it's always a weit the parking is bad and we parking on unraveled heels and it's just unsafe thank you thank you next we have kimya Williams after that we have our blunt ell mkin deina my apologies if I pronounce your name wrong sh Waller ber Lewis if you could ensure that you've signed in Miss Williams good evening I don't see good evening my name is k as you all know I'm a

053driver a Compu Transportation I represent a group who are crowd members of the V Public School family we deeply committed to to to the important work we do in the school division our dedication to our children drives us to work t and we believe that it is time for us to be compensated f for our efforts now that we are so close to ra to ratify our CBA we need your support to make that happen I have the opportunity to stand before superintendent Hamas and School Board numerous times to voice concerns on behalf of the people transportation department particularly regarding our compensation this okay Val employees shouldn't have to try so hard especially when most of our work hours are dedicated to transporting students to and from school and all their activities the work that

054we do is super important and is necessary um one of the significant challenges we face is the potential removal of our 2hour minimum for after school activity runs which I just 11 which has been in place for a very long time the audit that does not ACC and perect the nature of our work is putting thatt at risk our responsibility we honor simply transporting students as we ensure they reach their activities safely wait for them to finish account for all the students manage specialized home drop off I do door stops expend doing events which um reduce Staffing clean our buses ensure they are fueled and return to the compounds we take pride in this work because we care for the children we serve even when it is the expense of time with our own families

055our days start early in the morning and and stretch Way Beyond 9 pm I urge you to recognize our need for fair compensation at and support the main the maintaining about 2 hour minimum for our after school runs app has served as us well today has been okay um the division provides itself on equality we see incentive pay awarded to teachers resource offices and custodians for special assignment and placement is hard to staff school and also placement and hard to staff schools we now ask that you extend the same equity and recognition to the pup transportation department acknowledge the vital role we play in the division and allowing us to return to act to our after school bur pay together let's work as a team to ratify thank you thank you our blunt is next

056after that it's Helen mck deina Nel Waller Bice Lewis Van Shelton those who are waiting if you can ensure that you signed in thank you Mr blunt good evening my name is Al Jun I work at the uh Fleet garage for RTS over on 6 Street at 6 Mar I'm here to bring attention to several uh urgent safety con concerns that I have personally observed at the uh at the fleet Gage these these issues are crucial to ensuring a safe and healthy environment for myself and my colleagues uh some specific CS are as follows uh storm drain safety um apparently we actually have just regular plywood covering the waste water drain due to a missing cover this allows uh gas SE gas to see through uh emergency exits all of our Windows uh and many

057of our e doors and facility are sealed and blocked leaving minimal means of escape and the event with fire and many of you know we had fire not that long ago um water damage in mold in the ceiling of the supply room Le rins leading to visible mode and growth this affects indoor air quality and pooses significant health risk to the mechanics ventilation issues this building lacks proper ventilation ducts which could if we had to prevent carbon monoxide emissions from the buses from uh from dissipating this place this mechanics at risk by working on and starting busers in the enclosed area uh unsecured wires numerous wires running throughout the building are not secured or harness uh there are some clutters from fire hot has there significant clutters throughout the building a lot of this because

058the building really just to small inoperative exhaust system the exhaust system in the main Bay is currently inoperative with further ex exacerbates the issue of Co emissions we want to emphasize how essential it is these concerns regarding workplace safety be taken seriously our school representative L has made several visits to the compound documenting the issues with photograph and communicate these concerns through emails to M J fox and staff over the past month addition safety concerns were raised addition our safety concerns were raised during our colletive final bargaining mediation and a uh walk through was unfortunately cancel due the Implement weather it's my hope that these safy concerns will be addressed as soon as possible to ensure immediate AC is being taken to bring about resolved and finally I'd like to bring your attention that our

059department received a 10% brace last year while this may seem generous important to note that this increase coincided with the roll out of salary decompression initiative and we didn't see that thank you thank you Helen mckin the is next IM we have three minutes 52 seconds minut thank you good evening good evening distinguished members of the board my name is Helen mck DEA I served as the manager and the director of talent Acquisitions for Rich public schools from October 2018 to January 24 sorry 2024 I stand before you today to speak on behalf of not just myself but also my colleagues who have endured similar mistreatment at the hands of the chief of talent Maggie Clems when I first accepted my role with RPS I was hopeful I was proud to join the district where

060I grew up educated in RPS schools with a deep investment in the success of the community unfortunately my experience in this Ro from August 2023 to January 2024 was far from what I had imagined can I you may thank you thank you from the moment I began working under the chief of talent I encountered an incredible hostile work environment the chief's leadership style was not just unprofessional but destructive her approach made it clear she did not value the skills and experience I brought to this District more troubling she did not value the contributions of the HR team who had worked diligently in the absence of consistent leadership for years in November 2023 I reached out to members of this board hoping for support and understanding I shared that my experience wasn't just about my own

061mistreatment but about the toxic environment that had developed in HR morale in HR morale was at a all low staff were afraid to speak up they were afraid of retaliation and most of all they felt unsupported by both leadership and this board I was dismissed dismiss has just an angry black woman resistant to change but let me make one thing clear my issue with the Sheep had nothing to do with change it was about being asked to follow a leader who lacked the necessary experience and ex exhibited a leadership style that in that thrive of on power not competency some of the issues that I experienced by the chief was that she undermined my um leadership and she encouraged my staff to bypass me and to go directly to her not only my staff principal

062leaders and vendors I was excluded from meetings essential to my role my team was made to feel that they had to report directly to the Sheep time thank you thank you thank you Chantel Waller thank you as she comes forward Miss Wallace she's not here then Bernice Lewis would be the next person colleagues are we all okay with we have one more after um this leou that pre-registered with them and are we all okay with moving forward um on the agenda for the sake of time because it will not allow for us to have any more public comments thank you thank you so much my name is Van Shelton I am a Senior Resource human resource uh specialist in HR um and I just came here to thank you tonight um good evening U mad

063chair superintendent and School Board we appreciate the opportunity to express our concerns last meeting regarding the environment and the issues in the town office we wish to inform you that since the absence of the chief Town officer we have observed a significant Improvement in the team's morale and productivity specifically the office atmosphere has now has now character is now characterized by reduce stress and anxiety improve collaboration and increased efficiency we are now able to work with greater ease and timelessness timeliness free from previous micromanagement and detrimental work environment so I just want to again thank you for your attention to the concern and your consideration of that feedback as we look forward to continue our positive improvements thank you thank you now we'll transition to external reports with 5.01 receive quarterly financials from Patrick Henry

064School of Science and arms if you all would last um the presenter to to walk through before you transition out we would appreciate it thank you um good evening everyone um thank you for having me today um I have a short update because um the school year just well not the F school year the Year just started so um so if I can just give you a quick I'm just on notes so our operations account we have n what have $913 Which F month to month we try to keep a minimum of $1,000 so we would expect another transfer um and our prob1 C3 account we have $194,000 and 94,6 $69 giving a whopping total of15 252 um we officially tooked off a um a in fundraising um expert with for our third floor reconstruction

065um I don't have Financial updates on that I look for that next month so in the next um meeting I'll put up that you have a you will have an update of where we are in the status of for and where we are making out with our B that is pretty much all I oh any questions Mr thank you madam chair it's not a question but I just wanted to mention that um I um came to visit the the third floor from the rement of one of the board member back in December and was pleased to see that there's been a lot of progress since um you know I I was on the board there from to 20 so it was nice to see that um so I'm excited for Patrick Henry's future and um

066and seeing that third floor come to fruition so thank you for being here thank you I appreciate you for and I appreciate the board's efforts and you help us accomplish thank you and I would beiss if I didn't give you an update the kids are learning the kids are laughing the kids are happy thank you m oh never mind it was just it was just that I visited and um that space is so beautiful I can't wait to see what it'll look like once this time um so did we just fix the chairs I'm very excited to get up [Music] there um yeah um it's transformation and gr I'll be happy once we uh get the uh the out and go um just because I'm the treasurer and I keep the money I see those

067invoices every mon um so I look forward to good things happening on the horizon thank you I appreciate everyone in the room all the Educators all of the staff members all the ministrators thank you we see you we appreciate you and all the board members I'm sorry umal purp have a um I have a ASO today I have the principal with me so she can give you any education things you may just kind of Chang where thank you everyone thank you we appreciate you sh good evening board superintendent and guests thank you so much um for this opportunity uh I'll just give you a educational instructural update I'm Miss Hudson I'm sorry I'm the princi P School of Science and Arts I'm been a happy employee very Happ employe for 13 14 years now um

068first I'd like to say when it comes to literacy and instruction we were proud to welcome our superintendent along with our principal director Miss Jones they visited youly walkthroughs and observations and we were able to meet with our student with our staff and go over those observations to support that instruction we are fourth in the district of vs and we're very excited about that and meeting the challenge of our superintendent our students in our reporting groups have grown tremendously and we hope to increase by the end of the year this spring we happily would like to announce that we received our school Improvement Grant and our year round school Grant this past week and this will help the students an intercession and receive enrichment during those periods of time and we're proud to also announce

069that we had over 400 applicants for Patrick this fall and approximately 200 are for kindergarten for 46 seats so good luck to everyone um when the lottery is done this Friday we want to thank you for your visitation um we look forward to seeing you in the coming days um we also did a schoolwide field trip to promote integrated curriculum where custodians Cafe staff tutors and the entire building attended sole areial Al mland two music dance physics creative expression and of course literacy and it was the entire building that attended this field trip and thanks to our parents and to our fundraising efforts we were able to knock down the price so that families did not have to pay the full price of $25 for and last but not least our current day kcks off

070next Friday however we have a surprise for our students on this Thursday where we will have an aviation visit to the campus and without giving a surprise away the back parking lot will be clear for this Aviation visit so if you want to come by at any point in time visit Vatican room please just come by visit and we look forward to our grand opening in the fall thank you so much thank you next up we will receive head start training school board chair um a super superintendent and school board members um I am um excited about welcoming back this year Nat V who is going to provide training to the school board again as you know as part of what we have to do for our Head Start Grant is ensure that board which

071is one of the governing bodies of pet star along with policy Council has the um training um every year and so this is an opportunity to sit back and have that training that we um that we have every year Mrs Dennis we wanted back because she is absolutely fabulous she keeps you entertained and she makes sure that you have all the knowledge you need in order to make decisions involving Head Start and so um afterwards we will answer any questions you they have um about the training um and so now we walk awesome all right so thank you all for inviting me back um thank you superintendent and board I'm T Dennis and I'm by way of North Carolina leaving here on my way to South Carolina um anyway so I'll be on the streets

072tonight rolling while y'all are take your nap and hope you won't have to be here long so to try to go through the most important pieces um you'll be getting some handouts is three one is the power point one is your governance board packet and then there just the template of your um of your presentation as you go I did make a couple edits to this so I can make sure that you had some of the 2025 information that came out today so you can be um on um in line with where we're going with this so hopefully I got the clicker going not moving as we're going so there we go so in this presentation you're required annually to receive the Head Start performance standard training and governance training um here to ensure that

073you understand what your your role and your responsibility is to ensure that um you are fiscally and legally um operating our Head Start program um as of compliance with um our standards hopefully you have this book in your possession um if not we'll make sure that you get the new current because there have been some amendments as of August of 20125 I think 24 um in that so we need to make sure you have it because your isly and legally responsible for every performance standard that we have in this book it is online I strongly encourage you to Google head start. and bookmarket so that you are making well informed decisions about our monies that we provide for you so when you get our money and Head Start you are required to comply to every

074dollar um we are required to ensure that um for every dollar you get you ensure high quality Early Education and Care for our children children headart is a federally funded local design initiative so they give you the monies from the feds um in Washington it comes down into your region your region gives the money to you who are no longer now a grantee you're now a recipient as of August of 2025 the language is changing so with that funding you have the opportunity to do amazing things for our young children to ensure that they have that School Readiness but also gain those comprehensive services that they required to have as well in what they're doing so I'm in here you're physically legally responsible I'm not sure where I'm supposed to point to make this thing

075up um there we go I'm going backwards I should be going forwards in here I'm GNA skip that there we go so you're a critical piece to all of this okay so when we talk about Head Start we're not daycare and I share that people all the time as an alumni of Head Start we are not daycare you're committed to providing high quality Early Education and Care for our youngest citizens in your community well part of that is we provide Early Education experiences we also ensure comprehensive services around education nutrition health and safety social and other services that can impact or impede our children's learning development but also the unique thing about our Head Start program is we ensure that families are considered their child's first teacher not the person that is in the possession

076that child for six and half day we put families right smack in the center of all the services that that we provide I have a question for you guys this is a test how many children do you currently fund and serve um it is my understanding that we fund anywhere from 680 kids to up to 813 kids okay is she's around you're in the game but when the feds come in you can't be around got to be specif ready tell us I think it's you would know go en for your kids not your enrollment you got so the office of hand provided you all money to serve 86 children 86 you need to know that at all times if you go down the street at the 711 and somebody see to you and they know

077that you're on this board officer head can have somebody ask you how many children you currently serve you serve 86 children in your program 614 of those children are in Your Head Start program so they're three to five years of age 56 of them are Early Head Starts 0 to three out of that 86 children 10% of those children need to be identified with the disability so you get funded to serve 86 children I can tell you right now as of today I have three programs that I've worked with in the past they're having to give back millions of dollars to Washington DC because they are not meting their attendance and you don't want to be in that hot seat these are historical Head Start programs that started in 1965 68 and they're having to

078get back their money so at all times you are the the person hers who are responsible for every dollar fiscally and legally responsible for the board our mission is committed to ensure that our children get the services that they need and we are committed to ensure that our families are engaged a time like this we all have to be on our a game with head we know that it's on the chopping block we know public school is only child involved what has saved head start for the last since 2020 is because we were under Health and Human Services we were not under education you were a recipient of our funding but now because you are getting Health and Human Services and public school money you got a two for one on the table so you

079got to show up or show out otherwise you may not be here next year they're coming for everybody when it comes to our children Zer to five as an Alum now I'm not going down without fight because I know what these children have the right to deserve they deserve the right to have high quality Early Education they have the right to have a head start I'm from North Carolina so I tell we get a head start a Smart Start even start but we G to start right and we're going to finish great in what we do in Head Start so with this being said we provide those comprehensive Services we're going to hold you accountable for every hearing screening every vision screening every educational screen that these children have if we don't have it you're

080out of compliance you don't get a choice when you look at your performance standards and I hope you choose to take your time to read these books everywhere that you see a read in these books that's a requirement you have no choice if you take my money and where's my friend I don't know where he's at he asked me did I bring a dollar today no I didn't bring you a dollar because a dollar ain't worth nothing I brought you $100 not because I'm trying to show off but I know that the quality of high high quality Child Care is expensive so you can't get nothing for a dollar now even had the dollar treeing so when we talk about every dollar that you get for 86 children you are accountable for playgrounds for the

081meals for the cops for the education of the staff the professional development training the hiring and the firing the compreh the comprehensive services and the benefits so if you take our money you must comply Head Start is a national program on this map it shows you that we have 10 regions in which we operate out you are in Region Three right you need to know that so if somebody walks up to you they ask you what region you are in headart you're in Region 3 I also gave you at the bottom of your PowerPoint what's called a head start locator you can go online and understand that we are all of the 50 I'm sorry all over the country Puerto Rico Virgin Islands in uh of the peninsula areas in which we serve our children

082so when we think about where we are in here understand that Head Start is almost a 13 billion train $1 13 billion okay so it's a$1 13 billion train that we are responsible for serving 1,600 granes or recipients around the country $13 billion and when we talk about what we're providing for our children we need to understand that it cost a lot to serve our children if you got talk to the average parent who paying for their child care they take it seriously for every dollar because that that's the difference between gas personal hygiene products if I have to take a day off work because my child care is not in place that impacts not only that family it impacts your community so the facts of head starts and the backs of many women have

083ran this country for the last 60 years so we have to understand that if you take our money you must comply to what we ask you to do in that Head Start turned 60 this year in May so we expect superintendent you have one of those long sheets and we need to be a part of it recognizing us that in May Head Start turns 60 years of age and I hope you all take advantage of that and you showcase every year that you received a grant showcase the high points of your program and What Makes You amazing now more than ever you need to tell your story you need to tell your story people need to know who your alumni are in this prog we need to know who they are any head parents in

084the room probably not they probably put babies to sleep but when you see our parents there is a law that says when you see a head start parent you need to say thank you and greet them with respect and kindness because they owe us nothing we owe them everything so we have to change the way in which we work with our families so over the past 60 years we've done some amazing things in headon and on this screen you see some of our noted alumni that have been talking we've developed Senators NBA football players my favorite Shaquille O'neal He was a and amazing things happen and he own almost everything right we have leaders in Girl Scouts business owners so Head Start turns out great production in our communities we we want to have more

085terrils I think that was his name we want more terrils but for teril to happen terrils have to have a head start they have to have a medical home they have to have a dental home they have to have Family Style Dining they have to be treated with kindness we understand that the kids can head starting to come to us many of them come from vulnerable families so when Lyon Johnson um was thinking about Head Start in 1965 his goal was to bring our most vulnerable children and families to the Forefront and offer them an enrichment program for a minimum of eight weeks in the summer and in8 weeks I was at 8 week it changed my life we know the impact you have programs that have to run 13 1380 hours a year that's

086your baby school 0 to three and your preschools have to run 1020 10 20 1,20 hours a year and within that we need to make sure we maximize each of those hours the first 2,000 days of a child's life will determine the outcome of where they are by the time you are three 80% of the adult grain that you will have is form at and framed by the time they sit in your seats in your first grade the formation of what kind of temperament what kind of human they're going to be an adult as an adult has been framed by the time they get the first gr and unfortunately if they have crisis situations or vulnerable situations that they're in and we don't get in front of it it's harder to help them to make

087it to those outcomes so when I'm looking at data and hopefully you will join me after this presid presentation asking for data about attendance about the number of meals that you served you need to know that how many hours they spent outside playing because that's what we do in Head Start you need to have data to help you as our governing board as our leaders to make well informed decisions when you hear Head Start your eye should turn to wherever that conversation is because Head Start holds a lot of our communities together we almost learned that lesson three and a half week ago when they shut our PMS system down and our money got frozen we were less than 5 hours from having a CO 5.0 they shut our money down that Monday at 5:30

088that Tuesday at 4:15 they turned our money back on if that money would have not gotten turned on at 5:00 would have had another crisis because Head Start money is not just for the children but think about how many businesses you partner with food medical dentals Transportation staff that were getting ready to be unemployed everybody who works for a head start from your procurement people to your cafeteria staff to our teachers would have not been able to show up cuz that money would have not been here so at 4:15 somebody walked across the AIS and said hey we are a byar initiative we got to turn that money back on because we're can collapse the country head start alone could freeze our country so when we think about what we want I want you to

089challenge yourself as a board um member when you see our children as governing for people when you see our children I want you to stop asking the question what are you going to do when you grow up we need to start asking whom might you become enrichment because when we change our language we change our mind cuz see I'm 55 years old I'm still trying to figure that life out but as we're thinking about our children who might they be when I'm gone I've had some amazing years but if I leave today and I'm not here what might these children become I know I fought a good fight and you should be able to say when you lay your head down at night I fought the War on poverty for Head Start children and did

090it in good conscience and I was a good Steward of the dollls and the resources that they provided for us head start again is around the whole country the whole initiative was committed to Breaking the cycle of poverty we also know too that as of two weeks ago we no longer can show off our red white and blue so we can't even show our logos anymore okay we also know the administration of Children and Families and the US depart Department of Health and Human Services can no longer show their logos as well we also know that there's terminology that we no longer can use so if you got pronouns on your website you must take them down if you're getting Federal money so we have to get in compliance as we go in your I'll

091make sure you have that information of the to-do list that you will be responsible for in there so head star has a variety of program options throughout the country in 1995 B Clinic Administration initiated having zero to a threey old put into our Head Start bures I will tell you if you're going to be on the math of Head Start in the future conversion needs to be in your future and I'll talk about that in just a second as we go through here George Bush or what we call Pa paa Bush and his administration he asked for an overhaul of all the headstar performance standards in which we operate out of NE okay so in 2007 he asked for an overhaul it took 10 years to overhaul almost 10 years almost 10 years to overhaul

092these performance standards almost each performance stand that is in this book is now backed up with research and evidence based okay that's what T so all the universities all the research hubs in the world anybody whose work they sought in Early Education had their fingers on the the the thresh of this document in here they change the man the mandatory regulations they streamline what we're looking for for children as Obama the um former president Obama was coming into administration his platform was $1 saves US 10 down the line we know that that number now is about $1 to every $50 think about how much it cost to be incarcerated mental health issues diabetes heart disease not owning a home being unsheltered all of that that $1 on the front end gain changes the outcomes for

093children in here I also provided you some data when we look across the board because part of your job is to be able to continue for the next five years doing a wage compatibility study and ensuring that our salaries are in lineing with the public school so because your school hopefully you're already done but infant care minimum infant care in this country right now averages about $25,000 a Year y'all are short changing yourself when I look at your budget and look at your data y'all store reporting around 9 to 10,000 you can't get on high quality child care for 9 to 10,000 your child care market rate for infants to be a head start slot is a minimum of 25 your preschoolers is 195 now let me add to that when you're serving vulnerable children

094who are experiencing homelessness who have disabilities who have parent members who are struggling with addiction and mental health children that have been sexually abused physically abused emotionally abused children who have been abandoned children who are moving who do not have a a hung or permanency that number can get as close as $30,000 a child that's a teacher salary in early childhood and many of our Head Start teachers that's two teacher s so we're talking about we need to compensate our Workforce and we're talking about where we need to be with this under former President George Bush This overhaul which came in effect November 7th 2016 anybody knows what that date was for members y'all should know this November 7 2016 there you go it was election day president Donald Trump won that election President Obama

095was going out the door he signed and gave us some money but that that first turn President Obama didn't read he gave us some more money and as he walked out the house Co happened we got even more money that's why Head Start was thriving during Co everybody else was stressing over finances Head Start was doing good we were okay because our money was protected under health services so we got three big checks during that Co experience money going out of one in administration one coming in and Co it allowed us to be able to prove what we do so everything in this book is linked to research everything went towards the research was about getting effective practices and principles now getting qualified staff that have education experience ensuring we have a high quality curriculum

096for our children looking at how we're engaging our families and our communities ensuring that our children have comprehensive services so that they can ensure that they will be ready and successful in school so when we think about what that dollar went to it went to overhaul these performance standards your policies your laws that you are required to ensure that are implemented your goal is to provide oversight you provide the oversight your policy counsel gives us a Direction your families give us something to talk about some discussion so you make the final decision not the teacher in the classroom not the center director not your amazing Head Start director you guys found a gy trust me I go across this country you hire a well qualified candidate who has a lot of wisdom knowledge expertise and

097amazing voice don't sleep some will come get her she's amazing trust me I do my homework I go around to a lot of programs I get to vet candidates I Ved you you just don't know it okay so when I found out who she was I can all my sisters she's been around for years y'all found a gym don't take it lightly she can be there to help bring that insight and that wisdom to the table about his use that resource that's here so with that you have in your packet information about the frames that you got um responsible for I'm going to go through the high points of that so that circle is your management you should have three four pieces of paper that are attached together think there's a first sheet on it

098that looks like this but in your packet there's a man wheel okay behind it you have a management wheel that talks about that dark blue talks about you are legally responsible I think it's the third document okay so this is your this is the part in which you run the whole show up okay so when we talk there you go there you go take a picture with it y'all like to take pictures around here okay so leadership and governance you're that dark blue that says that you're legally and fiscally responsible for everything that goes on in our so with this whoops I went the wrong way going back going back right here so every year you get your funding I'm sorry your your funding drops in but your your your W letter is for a

0995e period of time okay Head Start shifted y'all in 2022 16 from a community service kind of model to a business model so everything we do now is in a sphere of a business model okay so with that your money comes to you awarded in a fiveyear project Grant award okay you're recipient of that dollar every decision that you make as the governing board the leadership must be attached to data and evidence and documentation can't be just hard stuff you got to be a to see some attendance after you got to be able to ask them to send you up reports when they come and present to you how is Head Start you need to know where your attendance is how many meals that have been served where are your staff vacancies what kind of

100trainings have you offered your parents they have the parents done satisfactory surveys to see if they're using it we need to figure out if there are any um barriers or burdens that keep parents from being engaged where are the most qualified candidates in your community have you recruited them towards your program y'all need to go slide down the slides y'all need to go get some finger paint di on y'all y'all need to go rock some babies that's what you do doesn't make sense so with that your data drives how you have discussions and dialogues it drives how you make a decision because you're working hand in hand with your policy C you should have a meeting once a year where you're in your policy counsel and best practice should be at least two where the

101policy counsel and the government Bo comes together and they sit in the room and y'all talk because y'all got a whole bunch of work we all getting ready to do a head start okay so with that drive it drives how you spend money so there procurement people when y'all told them somebody told to go spend some money no y'all go spend some money because we don't turn no money back to Head Start that's right if you get money back to Head Start shame on you okay I spend it the grantees I work with they see me comeing they like oh my God hide your credit cards yes because we want to spend the money to have quality we're not going to buy cheap furniture for the classroom that's going to tear up in two months

102we're going to buy high quality toys that promote education and play we're going to send our teachers to trainings that don't cost $10 anybody go to a $10 training you're going to bring in the best of the best to train you and your staff you need to go to the Region Three conference you need to go to the Head Start conference right and be seen that's right you need to teach your parents to be able to walk into this board meeting and to go downtown to the town halls and to be able to go to the legislative halls and advocate for high quality Early Education and issues that impact our children and their families you're required to do that you're supposed to recruit kids so if I ask you next year how many kids you

103recruit you at least need to recruit a 10 to be in the program so when they're saying the numbers are low and attendance don't look right it's your fault it's my fault it's the staff's fa everybody should have Flyers you need to use that locator any time you see a kid I don't care where I'm at it's he in Head Start let me tell you about Head Start Head Start is a Fally funded initiative local design you need to do an application to see if you qualify because taking the day care burden off many families and their student loan off their back we can live we can live okay so you have a responsibility of giving the def final decision on everything that happens so headart needs to be providing you a report for your

104delegate agency and the um your actual Head Start you need to know where your kids are in their progress if they're Meeting those goals um as they're going I was as a slide that I put in here that you did not get but I'll resend the presentation back to you the Govern government board must ensure that we're meeting the well-beings looking at our fiscal but we also need to have you involved in the community assessment process um that we got going on you need to be looking at data but you also need to be thinking about in the future hint hint hint hint you need to be thinking about converting slots you need what's that right your face one that means we need to be thinking about the younger kids z to three okay y'all

105have the preschoolers on lock y'all got that done with but we need to get the little people in because we know that 80% of their brain is framed and foundational by the time they by the time they get to you four years old that's hard work and the reason I'm suggesting you convert because then you can go towards high quality as I explained it to the group this morning that I worked with we had trained from 9 to one when you think about the kids that you serve you're not getting typical middle class American children you're getting children that have vulnerable abilities right so that means if when we were little when I was little and I was with my grandma we all knew who the family and our our community was in crisis we

106knew who that family was now when you come to our head start all the kids in the classroom is in crisis because we serve the most B so if I'm at a preschool classroom with 18 20 children in there and they have average childhood exposure and experiences in their pathway those two teachers are struggling during the day y'all that's why you have so many behaviors but what you can do through conversion is reduce that for every three children that are preschool age you convert into an infant slot get them in earlier get the conversion going into your program that changes the social emotional climate for your children that ensure higher quality that allows you to do a little bit more elastic of things that you can do with those dollers you put families back in

107the game of what we're doing write these three words down if you don't listen to nothing else I say this is how you save yourself when it can the office ah Head Start people come purpose so every one of our performance standard starts with a purfect statement so when we look at your job on here you have a purpose statement of how you operate your purpose statement 13011 says that you this agency must establish and maintain a formal structure um of a governance that includes government body policy counsel at the agency level policy committees um at the delegate level and and a parent committee do you know your parent committee reps do you know your policy counsil reps if you don't know them you need to have a list you need to be corresponding and

108communicating with them ongoingly in your program policy Council again is responsible for the direction you're responsible for the decision parent committee is responsible for the the drive in which we go in here okay the three words you need to write down purpose you need to have a plan and a process so whatever you do it links to a purpose towards an outcome towards a goal of what you're trying to get to so we just say we're getting children ready to be successful for kindergarten kindergarten is only mentioned one time in this book and that's under transition we get children ready for school we prepare children to be ready for life so you only see that word one time under transition so when parents come to you and they say I got to get my baby

109ready to go that's not what we do here we have standards and we have expectations we're preparing children to be successful citizens in society what does that mean they vote they pay taxes they're healthy in relationships they hold jobs they own homes that's what we're working towards in our programs okay so we think about what we do in here our priorities and Head Start for 2024 is ensuring that our kids have high quality than got five minutes I I'm speed up here we go the accent high quality Education Human Resources earthy and parent engagement is your critical piece I'm getting ready to tell you right now since I only got five minutes what you need to focus on that management will I showed you under that you need to ensure that you as a board

110create a culture of safety for children families and staff I will make sure you have this writing number two you need to ensure that you work with your human resources to ensure that every policy procedure practice that you do in Richmond Public School links to mental health mental health should be in transportation in the cafeteria on the playground in the classroom greeting our parents coming and going mental health needs to be interwoven human resources also should be looking at pay parti you have until August 1 2031 to ensure that all your staff are PID just like the book school so your head start teachers need salaries need to match does that make sense so you are on imperative you have five years to get this plan you need a plan now your purpose is to

111ensure salaries are at the public school level your plan is over the next five years this how we're going to do it the process of how we get things okay also two you need to look at your earthy process for the next three to six months you need to be asking about the earthy process in here you don't have this sign I just added to it because I made a list today I sitting in the car for two hours waiting for this meeting so in there you need to make sure that the family services staff are using the national Head Start calculator to get kids into the program we're looking at that income housing calculator because again now we can look at this mom and we can qualify families in that make 30,000 because now

112we can look at your light bill your water bill your grocery all the expenses that come along with raising a child okay so we got more things that can help more families qualify for these slots attendance you have to have 85% of your children in the program at all times so attendance issues in C through 12 just don't happen they start early life they start with kids who don't have bedtime rituals family style experiences at home they don't have routines and rituals in life so if we get on it early you don't have an issue later on in public school conversion of slots which I just mentioned you also need to make sure that you and your staff have training on diversity inclusion you need to ensure that your staff have training about how to

113handle families that are dealing with Isis because it's real I saw a raid about three weeks ago I'm sitting in my caret going to head start and there was a raid right outside one of our programs so with that we need to make sure they're trained you also need to be moving towards Ai and headst we need to be thinking about Ai and what does that mean in technology that's big money okay suspension and exposure of our children in our programs we can't suspend if we suspend a child out of Head Start they need to be going into a developmental day or a clinical hospital or they need to be going into um a special CARE program we need to ensure that you have a preventive maintenance plan a prevention maintenance plan that you approve

114this includes your emergency preparedness plan ensuring that in this plan here that if something happens to your facilities and your materials Services can still go on because you probably got some ceilings and some roofs and some kitchens that need to be overhauled that's big budget stuff okay so with that that preventive maintenance plans needs to be there the last two integration of mental health and hygiene throughout your whole program you need to overhaul every policy before your next school deal you need to look at every form every handbook every manual and you must approve it we can't approve anything and go for it your calendars need to be approved the the forms that you're using with your families and your staff every form every manual needs to be overhauled in there again we're looking at

115to ensure that there's no burdens or barriers that are preventing staff and Children and Families from being able to be a part of headst finally you need to come up with Innovation you need to be working with your parents your policy counsel and your staff your content people Your Head Start director your leadership team to ensure that you're coming up with Innovative strategies to be able to serve families so as I'm closing governing boards you're legally and fiscally responsible for the program in which you operate out of you need to read this packet that I gave you that's called program governance to ensure that you're meeting please make sure that you're having some kind of training at least monthly added to this or getting an email or a document that keeps you moist about headart

116I challenge you to bookmark the performance standards I challenge you to go to head.gif know that you're responsible to systems and services you're responsible for ensuring that the decision makings and data is a part of it and finally you're responsible for making a safe space for all our children families is there so you got to get relational base to ensure that children have those successful outcomes developmentally and school ready all right I've used up all my time thank you so much please use this resources to make well informed decisions about our children zero to five thank Youk so much passion we are fired up to appreciate you thank you thank you colleagues are there any questions Miss B and Dr Harris moham come so fast thank you so very much you were fired up and

117you have fired us up thank you but thank you for sharing your background experience yes I do recall started okay in one of the are C my parents yes right so my backg so what you share today this evening I just hope it's gone all through me event but you given us a charge I accept it thank you for traveling and the next time you have two hours to call me we can have some yes ma'am safe travel thank you thank you I am concerned regarding the cover of this program financially moving forward but you're speaking I hope you add the White House speak there as well if you haven't already because you need to be there please go just a tank of gas just a tank of gas and I think Head Starts GNA

118make it but we all have to be in the same agreement or what we're going so it's big i g I've given you the top 15 charges as I'm reading the White House bre there's a big meeting happening next week I we don't have privy to the information but I do monitoring as well and there's a private meeting that's happening in at the White House next week so he's invited expertise across the country to come in and they're looking at it Head Start is a part of that agenda that they're talking about so we will be here we don't know what we're going to look like we're projecting that whatever impact he gives head start is probably going to be around June so you need to be thinking about what does this mean to your

119public school what is this going to mean to Head Start and we'll reach out to our public legislators as well and they should be there next week thank you so much appr you thank you yesam Dr Mohamed and then miss Miss D thank you so much for um filling the room with such knowledge and your lived experiences and I'm glad that you spent some time with our policy counsel and being able to um prepare our parents and our policy Council executive team which I believe is phenomenal they are strong they're knowledgeable and what they don't know they want to learn so you were the best person with your body of knowledge and your walking experience to give that training to them and also give the training to us I'm so glad that you mentioned professional

120development um and also way to talk about holding seats instead of eliminating seats um and the charge of us looking for the children um to bring them in and so I am hopeful prayerful thank you and I look forward to going to the National Conference yes um and I'm hoping if my colleagues are able um that we that they will go as well it is amazing to see people speak who were once a child and Head Start and now is monitoring the program or um servicing in the regional role so I'm excited thank you so much for being here safe travel God thank you thank you m thank you mad chair so you know without feeling too much about my age I am probably one of the first cohorts of kids who attended Head Start

121so let me be a living example what's possible thank you for sharing [Music] thank you I got a meeting next week the families awesome in my district so the information that you provide is instrumental I appreciate it thank you yeah appreciate thank you I inform them much better now there you go thank you any other questions thank you st thank you very much forward to see this time year all right moving right along to our budget items receive for approval F white 26 operating andp budgets Mr cameras thank you madam chair I first wanted to just say thank you to the school board for your partnership and collaboration in crafting this budget do you believe it reflects our Collective priorities and our desire to take care of our students our staff and fund our strategic

122plan the budget has an increase of $3.8 million organized around our five priorities academics with investments in literacy multilingual Learners and graduation priority two Talent meeting all of our collective bargaining agreements priority three Wellness investments in mental health and safety priority four engagement investments in attendance and Communications and finally priority five operations continuing to invest in our buildings and our technology systems in addition a capital budget that calls for $14.8 million the new Investments for everything from HVAC systems to roofs to Ada requirements Athletics and more I do want to note for the public uh for the board's wisdom and guidance the healthcare provision has been removed so uh there will not be any increase for our employees and with that and given uh no uh additional feedback since our last meeting yesterday I welcome

123the board's approval of the FY 26 budget Mr javar would you like to do the honors thank you madam chair I move to approve the rich Public School school board 2026 budget including 445 m710 469 for the General Revenue fund m773 for the special Revenue fund and4 million 800,000 for the capital Improvement plan that man Che it has been moved by Mr Jafari and seced by Mr hedpack to approve the RBS School Board 2026 budget Madam CL Mr personal yes Mr car yes Mr per yes Mr H yes M rzy yes Dr Harris Mohamed yes m b yes Mr jaar yes M yes thank [Music] you Mr C I just want to say thank you to the board for a truly collaborative effort and I look forward to continuing our advocacy for every last dollar

124for our students which I think we can all agree and as our extraordinary speaker just shared they certainly deserve I couldn't agree more we still have a a climb ahead but um this is a start and um just be reminded that there is a wish list of items that we don't want to forget about and would like to keep top of mind but I also would like to thank the administration and my colleagues for a collaborative effort and also for those who um share their thoughts and feedback um from the public helped us to guide our decision for what's best for RPS Dr hereis muham thank you madam chair um few days ago I was prepared to vote no this evening but I believe in the work that we're going to do I'm going to

125trust the process um and not only hold the administ administration accountable through questions but also us um we have many needs in the area of literacy which impacts every facet of instruction for our students and regardless family of if we get additional funding or what we're asking or not we're going to have to be courageous about the cuts that we're going to have to make unapologetically that is where we are um so I voted yes this evening because I shared with you I was going to vote no that's where I was going to stand but I'm going to trust the process because that is what I share with my constituents let's trust the process and then if the process gets a little muddy along the way then we have to have some honest conversations about

126the direction that we need to go because when we are looking at our data which we're all here for student improved outcomes we have to really be honest about if every school is Equitable in our school division and then what does that look like because Equity doesn't look the same from one end of the division or District to the next so we got to start having some honest and courageous conversations about supporting all of our students regardless of those code so thank you thank you Miss B thank you madam chair congratulations colleagues and congratulations to our constituency our children um our parents teachers faculty and staff I am elated that we got through this process um respectfully yes we shared our needs and desires for each of our districts of which we represent but at

127the end of the day as the M Den just stated regarding the process trust in the process we did have a purpose which is student student achievement but we also as stated earlier must make sure that all the entities around us have been taken care of thank you to the superintendent and his team that did a phenomenal job of putting as I stated in the beginning from the very first wish list per se every item was listed that we discussed that we asked and also that our community asked but at the end of the day we had to be realistic Andress them things but we work so well together collectively and I appreciate apprciate that sincerely because we're spectacular by ourselves but as a team we rock so I thank you I thank the cabinet

128and I think we owe ourselves a big celebration because we only going to continue to move up correct move forward at the end of the day it's not about us it's already stand so thank you for the opportunity well done thank you colleages moving forward we're going to move on to board action items first re see for Action Head Start update good evening again I just wanted to um add to the presentation is that our delegate um which is Petersburg also had a training yesterday during their board meeting and um we have to make sure that for everything we do our is doing as well so I just wanted to make sure that I say that um also I want to publicly thank Miss Burke for continuing to be our education consultant for the board

129and Mr first of all for taking over from this door um for our financial that is also a part of our regulations that we must have on our governing board so I just wanted to mention those things because there are a lot of things we have to do to stay in compliance so it's good for you all to know some of those things is there something you need to hold on yes yes there are um documents that you must approve for Petersburg their financial statement also um our financial statement and the minutes from each remot board thank you Mohamed thank you I would like to make a motion to approve the Petersburg delegate minutes and their financial reports and also de Public Schools Financial reports for the month of January as well second second RPS

130Financial final rep okay so it's been moved by Dr Harris Mohammad and seconded by Miss Rizzy uh to approve the Petersburg delegate minutes and financial reports for both Petersburg and Richmond that have that right Madam CL Mr person yes Mr car yes Mr yes Mr hedg yes M rzy yes Dr Harris Mohamed yes m b yes Mr yes MZ yes thank moving to 7.02 receive for Action policy committee recommendations Dr Harris Mohammed thank you so much Madam chair I did not receive any questions pertaining to the policies that are currently presented before you this is our second read um which at this point we vote after our second read and I if there aren't any questions I'm ready to make a motion to yes ma'am my apologies that I been ask submit this ahead of

131time but I do have a question as relates to early graduation just couple points of clarification if you could indulge me for a moment um if um we could go to page one lines eight um through 11 where it says um the candidate must be eligible to earn the minimum of the standard diploma within the academic school year should not switch diploma types for the sake of early graduation my question there is is um I was an early graduate and so this is kind of um you know near and dear to my heart I I recall distinctly in my temporary year changing from a standard diploma to a magnum diploma um why are we limiting or are we limiting them to that to upgrading the the it is my understand Mr okay it is my

132understanding that we're not providing any hindrance or limiting the student that's my understanding how however um the switching of and I wish I had my notes because this was a question that I asked in particular um I recall it was being stated that um our graduation um oh my go she was the principal of open High School can can yes yes thank you she was indicating that the students who desire to graduate early um this was put in part when students come for us come to us for a different from a different division and I'm hoping I'm not mixing two of her things together this is what happens when I don't have my notes I'm sorry um and I'm putting you on the spot no you I'm I'm trying to read trying to go back

133to that but Mr can you add some clarity I will do my best I I believe what this is articulating is a student who was intended to get an advanced diploma cannot at the last minute say wait I'm gonna get a standard diploma so I can it does not preclude anybody from going the other direction from standard to events which sounds like you did that and graduated 16 um okay so my only feedback is then that language is not as clear as it could be because it it does seem like there's a limitation there um and without that Clarity I would not have understood that to be the case and in addition to that if they are Desiring to graduate early if they want to um seek early graduation they have to submit a plan

134like their family the student the school counselor they all have to be involved um policy council members help me it's not just Shonda wants to graduate early and we are not having this discussion at 15 or 16 also um and M camon thank you because that made me remember more dep in addition to that um there was a there was discussion about students who transfer from another School Division we get that a lot um that you know aspire to um because we're on a 4x4 double up on some classes to try to graduate early that was also a discussion as well because their GPA I don't want to say I may forget but yes that was the discussion as well appreciate that so um my next question was around line 11 along the same lines

135with says students must be a current junior or senior in my scenario I was a sophomore and I shift it to a senior why are we limiting it to just Junior and sophomore if we see someone who has the potential to graduate early um I have a couple more questions I don't know if you want to answer that when you were beautiful and young there was no such thing called age doesn't matter it doesn't and you still are but when we were all in school we did not have to battle verifi credits the way that we have to ver the way we have to battle them now and so the way that our academic and instructional track has been laid out for our students which I think we're getting stronger it is not likely that

136a sophomore will be able to move to be a senior because of the number of Veri credits that they have to have their ninth grade year their 10th grade year with the exception of I know of a situation very recently of someone who moved from um the educational system in New York and was transferred to um specifically RPS and because their standards are higher than ours he came came in already at in a position where he could graduate early I mean it's unfortunate to hear but yeah um that being said just something to consider Case by case we did ask her that um and that's why I stated earli about students and I should have also said out ofate students we also have students that come from Florida which have very different graduating standard than

137Virginia also Pennsylvania so we talked about those states where students would moov from to us and if they took certain amount of math and science already in middle school they will be positioned to graduate as a 10th grader or 11th gr so miss um Vinnie said that's a case by case they look at that case by case so perhaps um at a later date I don't want to hold up our um vote tonight amending it to include that case by case spaces so line 11 yeah um and then my last question is around line 69 and six and 70 um students who graduate early shall receive a GPA and a standard as to percentage but shall not be included in the numerical ranking nor be eligible for selection of valorian or salatan can why I

138mean can you help me understand I mean if they have the numbers to support a GPA that it's um look at 68 through 70 okay um and that's on page three um that shows that they're exceptional why would they not be considered for that because they're graduating early they're not with their Nal and so that's one of the um that's one of the discussions that young people must have with their parents the school counselor that um so I don't want us I I do not want to make it seem like it is a negative but um to pre Mr cam you can jump in any time to um because I don't want it to come out wrong but to pre I don't want to say prevent that's not the word ask the question a different

139way would they not be reclassified as a senior if they're graduating early so in in my mind if they're if they're reclassified as a senior shouldn't their GPA be in consideration for that award I mean when we look at College um ccept and that is a huge honor and if they had the highest GPA it would seem to me that they would be considered and I don't know if this is a federal situation can you help me kind of understand that mam chair if I could ask Mr Jefferson to come up somebody who stud such would they be considered part of the cohort that's graduating in or not so part of it is because they graduating early they're not graduating with their cohort and so Cort it's cohort to cohort right and so in our

140minds it would not be Equitable for them to be calculated as a valorian salutatorian because they're not Regent with their cohort okay and in some cases they probably they may not even attend graduation too so those are things that we consider oh they will they will good they will go gr and I try to I think I do say cohort because of their cohort they're not in that c so theoretically if they had the highest GPA in their cohort could they be eligible for validatory and their cohort and they cohort but they probably have moved on to college Etc so it's not really a so so once they are certified once the superintendent certifies them as graduates they can't come back and say look I need to be salor am I correct once you certify

141once you stand up there and say y'all ready to I certify you I get that I think it's just a point that I'm trying to make in reference to honoring those who really show excellence in academics and not limiting them and what they're qualified to receive so we have had robust conversation about about this and we have also looked at surrounding counties and uh other states to see what they do and this is also a practice but to your point we will celebrate those who graduate early because it is something that's great and Monumental so we'll find a way to celebrate them but we just don't think that it's Equitable to actually have them be the Valor loran if they're not graduating with their cohort thank you for that feedback sorry I just Ste out

142a long time one comment mron um there is a small uh change that um Madam chair would like to make on l91 she Ste out but we will discuss that you know I can give that to you thank you okay thank you y so again not to hold up the the vote tonight I'm okay with moving forward with the vote and just sharing my recommendations for Amendment yes I will um afterwards thank you not Amendment but a change thank you for the corre thank you colleagues I move that we approve the summary of of revisions to policy 3- 3.18 5- 4.6 8- 2.1 and 4-37 chair May a second it has been moved by Dr Harris Muhammad and seced by um Mr h m cler Mr yes Mr car yes Mr yes Mr HED yes

143Mr yes Dr haris M yes yes Mr yes thank you moving along to the consent agenda do we have a a motion person so move to adop theend Second has been removed by Mr peral and seconded by Dr Harris uh mam to approve the consent agenda M Mr B yes Mr Carr yes Mr yes Mr H yes Mr yes Dr Harris Mohamed yes m b yes Mr jaar yes M yes thank you and now for 9.01 new business Dr Harris Mohamed Miss rzy thank you I would like to know if it's possible for the school board to re to receive updates on the richond public school sea committee their trainings the executive board and their trainings the dates um if they're publicized can the school have those dates on our School Board calendar um and

144also if we can extend an invitation for them to attend a school board meeting so we can hear about the work that they're doing thank you thank you could you repeat that one more time so that Mr P can capture it sure can the school board receive updates on the Richmond Public School seat committee our special education advisory Council their professional development the executive board and their professional development and extend an invitation for them to attend our school board meeting and give us updates on the work that they are doing and then like to add how can we support them thank you m thank you m chair I do think that this is something that we are going to need to deal with at least for a couple of meetings conversation and there is no

145rush on this I'd like to um request that the Administration consider um updating the board on um AI guidelines that have been in our schools any training that occurs um related to the use of AI um any guides for students that have been developed and then just you know even with our vendors are we using any AI technology that you know we could highlight or talk about or discuss I mean this is um a development that basically impact every field of studying and every um subject and so I think it's time to start have serious conversation about thank you Miss Ry Mr HED thank you madam chair I agree with you miss Ry just wanted to update you that the policy committee did request that the administration craft an AI policy so that would be

146congruent in line with the with your request so I that [Music] Mr lies to share very corny jokes as we go through our yeah we don't get please share I'm not ready Miss I love that Madam chair I love that love that idea across the board period it does work must ask sheev students are and adults as well you don't have to think it's what I would like to have coming up forward our Early College Academy while looking at the data that we received just before going budget um I want I would like to know what support has been put in place because my one my schools um about five students we have 40 slots I believe but now we're down to 30 so my question is something we talked about earlier having in place

147some supports for our students I don't know it would be the study hall Feast that Dr Bell mentioned yesterday or um some support from J or support from school counselors whatever I just don't want to lose any more students so we our our plan early was to move forward to add more students but if we have five children students excuse me young scholars stepping out from one school that's a r flag so my ask is that we have some supportive a supportive plan in place for those students that are remaining to receive some support because a lot of them are not accustomed to the rer and those students that uh step back this is just their first full year I believe they were 10th graders or 11th graders moving in class of 2026 so the

148numbers are not acceptable so I appreciate that thank you so much under the wire bless you bless thank you madam chair you I just wanted to double back and clarify there are some very ethical and appropriate uses for AI um I think we do our kids an injustice to ban it because they are going to need to know how it works in appropriate uses for it going forward so I just wanted to clarify we're not approaching this as though it's the boogeyman we just want to teach the eal use of it it is the wave of the future not it is here that's theal and then thank you madam chair um so uh superintendent did have some slides yesterday on uh theou with the Virginia uh state board and I would like for it possible

149in in an upcoming meeting agenda to talk a little bit more more about that and get Bo imp on that because I do think that's an important piece to revisit have cannot agree more I think um it's certainly dated and and it's probably time to revisit it not only to just educate us as a new board but to um reimagine what it could look like with the new standards that have been put in place so thank you for raising that we can add that on our next agenda I think that would be great Mr h thank you madam chair colleagues Mr cameras I would love to suggest I know we just voted on our budget we have a lot more budget work to do this spring that as we move forward with our strategic planning

150process including some of our smaller meetings that we're planning to have that we brainstorm and think about are there opportunities for us to use this strategic planning process to also have relevant budget discussions and perhaps as that happens through the year that's also an opportunity to engage our staff our stakeholders there's the budget always um people have a lot of interest in it obviously for good reason they have a lot of questions and so um ways that we can do a budget discussion in the context of our strategic priorities something I'd be interested in and I mentioned this to miss Richardson as well I would love for next year when we have our budget hearing in the winter or February whenever we do it that that be perhaps at one of our schools or a

151bigger more public location the last thing I'll say is regarding AI I would love to when we plan to have a more a revised AI policy in our policy committee perhaps we could also then let our stakeholders know ahead of time and have a more robust discussion in that committee thank you madam chair thank you um there are a couple things that I'd like to add as well um the first um if we could address the safety concerns that were raised by our transportation um members um some of what was shared tonight was concerning to me and I'm sure our colleagues and so we would want to understand what those implications are and what we need to do to get that corrected if there are any things that would cause um our Associates harm um

152also I believe that the new board has not received a presentation for the facilities report the robust facilities report that was shared um and so I I believe that is you know High time for us to get an understanding of of what that and I know that we are in transition but I think it's still appropriate for us to be educated as we think through the budget so we really truly can understand what our true all of a priority but um if we could just get a better understanding of what our critical items are because I think that's going to help us gauge what we need to decide in terms of the budget and then um for the new U members um but just overall education I would like for us to revisit um the

153data surrounding um our students and families and the homeless population and children in transition um I think that will also be helpful as we think about um some of those line items that we share for the budget um just understanding how vast and important those wraparound services are for our families and I think um just bringing awareness to that would be quite helpful as we move forward if there is nothing else I need a motion for quote than I move I move that the school board of the city of Richmond a CL session to consider the assignment appointment promotion performance demotion salaries dising or resignation of specific public officers appointees or employees of the school yes okay if you would add the first part well sorry man my complete motion in addition to what I

154already mentioned was to discuss the assignment per motion appointment performance the motion salaries dising res of three central office employees as authored by virgin code 22- 37111 thank you it's been moved by Mr seconded by Mr yes yes yes yes yes yes remind you we