RPS School Board Work Session - March 3, 2025

001here we have for testing testing testing you hear me micone there we go wonderful at this time we'll have translation services announcement thank you good evening everyone my name is if there's anyone in the room that needs interpretation from English to Spanish we do have interpreters available they'll be in the back of the room for anyone that's watching through Zoom we also have interpretation available through thank you so much and now we'll have the colge of Allegiance and moment of silence Mr hedge P Julius flag United States of America thank you and before we before we adopt the agenda I believe there is an an amendment Madam chair uh I would move to amend the as follows toer items 4.03 receive the 25 audit plan 6.03 receive 2024 AIT review and 604 receive wh report

002and adopt the agenda as it's been approve it's been motioned by Mr P and seconded by Miss Burke to confer the following items 4.03 receive 2025 audit plan 6.03 receive 2024 a review 6.04 receive with report and adopt the agenda as amended Mr person yes Mr car yes Mr Mr HED yes M Rizzy yes Dr Harris Mohamed yes m b yes Mr darar yes M Fernand yes thank you please thect that Mr welcome we'll move right along to 2.01 receive dreams for RPS goal three High School SOS good evening Madam chair Vice chair school board members and superintendent cameras um I'm excited to stand before you today to bring you an update on go three we'll be talking about our Winter High School so performance um and I'm happy to share with you that on

003our win performance we are up we' us this terminology about RPS On The Rise we're definitely on the rise and so in every subject we saw games we also um saw in our sub groups in black and economically disadvantaged we saw Gams and two we saw double digigit games and so while we know we have a long way to go we know that we actually need to improve we want to thank our schools our teachers our school leaders for the work that they've done um to uh support our Scholars and show this increase and so now my team is going to do the presentation John Grove will go through the data points um and Dr Bale and Cassandra will talk about our academic response so that we'll have even greater results in the spring thank

004you good evening school board members my name is John Grove I'm the director of data analytics and I'm here to present our Winter High School so results before diving into the data I want to bring your attention to the right column here um and in this column we provided a winter to Winter comparison to give better insight into our year over-year progress as it relates to high school proficiency I want to emphasize the impact that the 4x4 schedule has on our data you can see last year's proficiency increase from Winter to the end of the year was by 5 to %. so we typically see that increase one of the main reasons is that our schools can remediate and retest students who were unsuccessful during their winter so now to summarize the divisions results here

005RPS is continuing to improve student outcomes and has substantially increased winter proficiency across the board in all four subject areas reading with a 5% increase math with a 3% increase science 9 history 7 now the following section here is a comparison of reporting groups and tests by subject for reading we see gains in all reporting groups besides our white reporting group I also want to highlight a double digit increase in proficiency for our black reporting group here 10% for math because of our increased Middle School 1 Algebra 1 enrollment Algebra 2 outcomes are critical for our high schools as more students will be scheduled into this course after Health r one the 10% increase in Algebra 2 is a huge win for a division and lastly for both history and science we see increases in

006all reporting groups across the board the only decrease we see on these two slides are the test where it's a smaller n size such as chemistry with only 26 students tested smaller n sizes typically have more potential for variance then lastly for the data to highlight some of our high school results you can see by subject all of our schools here second um and I want to begin with highlighting Armstrong they saw a double digit increase in math reading and Science and I want to emphasize their scence or their math data 85% Proficiency in math which is huge for Armstrong is absolutely excellent and secondly I want to highlight here it's also seeing improvements in all four subject areas with the biggest gain in science 21% Proficiency in science um which again is huge and

007then lastly Richmond High School for the Arts nearly doubled their reading proficiency um this will significantly impact one of the biggest factors we have on our graduation rate and that is the reading s for our multilingual students also not the decrease in end size here for history um and this is due to the history PVA being implemented and piloted the first semester which Miss Bell will present more information on thank you thank you good evening good evening here fernandz School Board member superintendent cameras my name is Cassandra Bell and I have great pleasure of serving as your director of curriculum and instruction so high school perform performance continues to improve as you've heard reflecting the dedication of our teachers our principls our coaches our interventionists uh as well as our division staff and most notably

008our Scholars targeted instructional support and professional learning have contri contributed to measurable gains across all content areas see if I can do this right all right so we'll start with reading uh you heard we had a 5% increase winter over winter um I would be remissed if I didn't speak about um some of the additional supports that we've been able to add to our staff this year last year we went almost the entire school year without a division um English High School specialist and so we're able to hire Miss Angela Moore this summer and she has done a tremendous job as is evidenced in our data uh to directly support schools from supporting department shairs and supporting our few uh Ela coaches um at the high school level to going in and working with Scholars

009with tutoring to modeling and co-teaching with teachers uh she continues to provide support directly to schools with monthly meetings regarding partment shairs as well as supporting our principles through our cluster meetings uh and boots on the ground in every uh aspect that she can um but she's not doing that singularly she's doing that of course with our coaches and our interventionists um as well as our other teacher leaders and most importantly our Scholars we will continue to uh work with our department chairs uh and provide professional learning in second semester uh particularly around the 2024 English standards of learning that will be tested for the first time this spring uh so that leads me to math we all know that's my favorite so we did see a 3% increase in our winter over winter uh

010scores uh on our high schools and first semester um we saw that double digit gain in Algebra 2 as John spoke about and that is directly related to our Middle School acceleration where the majority of our Middle School eighth graders take Algebra 1 so what we did do um was adjust our sequencing for high school a little bit so that um our students would uh matriculate from Algebra 1 in 8th grade to Algebra 2 in um 9th grade and so we've uh put in uh quite a bit of an effort to ensure that we supported our teachers with professional learning uh and pro supported our teacher leaders as well to ensure that our Scholars were prepared for Algebra 2 I think you can see that evidence in our data there as well um in science

011we did see that 9% increase sorry on there 9% increase in science um we also have uh some great leadership in science uh again would be remissed if I did not um uh speak about our uh high school well secondary science uh instructional specialist Miss Amy San she supports both middle schools and high schools uh as well as our history um instructional specialist Jamar Phillips who supports p12 so all of our schools uh and providing that direct support so they have uh delivered and developed professional learning um and they Implement that through our PL series that we developed for High School uh as well as n PLC monly department meetings um but really HED in on the 4x4 schedule ensuring that our teachers um followed the uh comprehensive curriculum and utilize all of our resources

012um as prescribed including our cumulative review and our academic Blitz um as well as our Assessments in accordance with um each course's paent calendar um we did speak just briefly about the decrease in chemistry um that again was attributed to our uh ins size uh much smaller numbers there only one class really assessed uh so we will have the vast majority of our Scholars assess in second semester and we expect to see um large gains there in chemistry we also will be providing some uh intentional professional learning to support our chemistry teachers as well as our Scholars um and then with history uh we did also Implement our pilot um I no control okay my control has left me so we did Implement our pilot with our pvas our Performance Based assessments for history in

013world history 1 in VA US History um at rhsa uh and we believe that was a huge um accomplishment for us it was very successful um while we only saw 70 students pass the history pbas uh it's a pass that means you had to um pass three out of the four pvas so there's one PVA uh really per marking period that aligns with our curriculum uh and it's just a natural progression of our curriculum students will take that PBA at the end of that um section of course workor and students had to pass three out of four in conjunction with um showing Mastery or proficiency in the course itself so uh that's through our checkpoint assessments and our inters um and while again we only have 70 uh students uh passed we did have uh

014just about half of our students passed two out of four uh and so for us that is that's a huge accomplishment because students are able to really synthesize what they're reading um and really dig into that claim evidence and reasoning that we want all of our Scholars to tap into particularly as it relates to uh English uh and so we are scaling that uh pilot this semester to all of our Comprehensive High Schools so we're really really excited about what that's going to mean for world history one courses and VA us um and how that's going to impact our overall accreditation um as well as um making sure that we're providing the proper supports to our teachers and ultimately our Scholars evening good evening Madam chair school board members superintendent cameras my name is Willie

015Bale principal director of high schools and to bring it home we have had midyear reviews with all of our high schools as and what we call those one-on-one sessions as well as Championship habits to continue to see how we can support them from the division level um I like to since I was a former coach we've made some we think some halftime adjustments and two of those adjustments that we've made as we looked at progress monitoring where we failed in the first semester is to we are adjusting the bail schedule a little bit to add more additional time for our Scholars and during that additional time there will be more intervention time as well as continuation of the professional learning series that we've already started so it allows teachers to have more PD as well

016during the school day reason one of the one of the reasons that we went to this because we saw that during the first semester our after school numbers were a little bit low so we want to make sure that we reach every kid while they are with us from 9 to 40 one of the other U initiatives that we adjusted was U looking at more targeted support in our English Math Science and History as you've heard from my colleagues already and that's just piling on additional support bringing in everybody we can to make sure that we continue to move in the right direction um the technical assistance sessions that we have which we focus on the new accountability model we never lose foresight with that especially the 3E where we're looking at the enrollment enlistment

017and employment that is huge um instructional walks where we're giving our teachers support we see some weaknesses and we're able to do some things now as we look at alignment and some other things that we expect our teachers to make sure that is occurring in the classroom one of the major focuses is the 7030 ratio we call it a 7030 where 70% of the kids are owning their own learning and 30% for the teachers are providing direct instruction but we want the kids to be leaders of their own learning and we are seeing a lot of that uh especially in the first semester which I think was attributed to our Gams so with that uh you okay I turn it back over to Chief Jefferson for the mother Lear and Dr blackw could not be

018here tonight but I think as you know we have uh p a lot of resources into our multilingual um uh Scholars and so with that there are three things that we're doing in particular the first one I'm really excited about because I love professional learning we've done professional learning on uh seven steps and we've done it with every single educator I think in the past we just worked on lead teachers and we taught Lead Teacher strategies but we're all teachers of literacy if you teach history science math but again we have we have to support all multilingual students and so we've done a number of trainings that were mandatory and some that were optional as well we also have increased the number of bilingual tutors that we had within our schools um because again it

019takes a skill set in order to support our M lingual students and so we have leaned in and we have supported there um and those are things we be done for multilingual uh Learners and so with that happy to take any questions that folks have before we take questions Mr C would like to share something thank you madam chair I just wanted to reiterate our gratitude to our high school teams especially our principales and teachers who are working so incredibly hard and it is incred gratifying to see at the midpoint gains over last year and I did want to reiterate a point that Mr Grove made about Algebra 2 there are many folks who said when we pushed Algebra 1 in the middle school that we were pushing too hard and what we are finding

020now is not only are more than 90% of our middle schoolers taking Algebra 1 but then they are going to high school and passing the algebra two exam and so I think it is a demonstration of the fact that if we expect greatness of our students they will demonstrate greatness and so I'm just grateful uh to this body and those who have come before you for investing in that higher bar in middle school and we are beginning to see the benefits of doing so thank you thank you Mr cameras I see Mr hedan Dr Harris Mohamed and thank you madam chair uh Mr cherson thank you so much for that report it's a lot of positive uh information I wonder I think at this point maybe most most of the our constituencies under understand s

021sols but um I wonder if maybe you could elaborate a little bit on the difference between the so and the pbas um and kind of beyond the supports that that our multilangual learner language Learners gain from that but what other like what like as far as like what it's being tested um and you know why we made that move yeah and um and I'll let Cassandra bill can add on to it but again most States including the Boe has has offered this as an alternative assessment and I see it as an authentic assessment right because when you sit down and do so in most cases you're doing ABCD right it's multiple choice but what the uh PDA does is we actually select different tasks that shows students their writing ability their interpreting ability and so

022forth and so from there there's a rubric that's aligned with it as well that Scholars get in advance so that they know how to meet the bar and from there they get to apply what they've learned through an authentic authentic task and it's also graded by um our teachers right and so not the teacher that taught them but another teacher and so teachers are also learning what they need to support with as well as they actually create the assessments do like to add on that thank you for the question um so our pba's performance-based assessments are um authentic assessments that are built into the curriculum um they are not uh developed or necessarily selected by RPS they are provided byoe and So based on those um alternative that's we're able to build an into our

023curriculum and so with this incorporation of this alter assessment it becomes a natural progression of the learning that students are doing so they're able to really articulate their understanding of skills and it's not just one moment in time on one day that I might not do that well on I can truly show my progression of learning throughout the course of the semester and so again it's built into each marking period so as students kind of progress through world history one as they progress through VA US history and they go through all of the components of the course they're being Us St they go and it's not just uh one uh performance task it's actually a compilation of learning throughout the course of that particular um uh semester and so through each marking period students are

024having multiple opportunities to engage with their um learning and they're having opportunities to collaborate with one another there's a lot of um uh okay collaboration there's a lot of discussion there's a lot of student ownership uh and then ultimately when they do sit down to do their final draft of the conformance assessment they've had a lot of gos at it and they've had opportunities to really dig in and and think deeply about what they're learning and so and we believe that it's a really good authentic way for us to ascertain whether or not students have mastered the skills um that they're being assessed on um and not just necessarily a multiple choice test right they're actually writing authentically about what they're learning um and so we do think that it's a a great opportunity for

025our Scholars thank you absolutely thank you Dr Harris Mohammad thank you so much before I ask my questions I just want to point of clarity from Mr camon when you said exams were you referring to so or semester exam when you said they improved um the students the the push that we had in Algebra 1 on the Middle School level it demonstrated the students improved growth I'm summarizing um in Algebra 2 on Algebra 2 exams I just in my mind exams are different from SOS so I just wanted to get that clear that Clarity before I ask my next question yes thank you m chair yes I was referencing yes thank you my first question I'm not sure who can answer this um because there was a drop and the number of students who participated

026in the winter so assessments 23 24 I'm combining two question compared to the students for the winter 2425 there was a 133% drop in our Caucasian subgroup or that group of students so the first question is how are we addressing the need to ensure that we met the 95% participation rate in that group because we had a drop and then um per the data there was 62 students there's a difference of 62 students from the winter 23 24 to the fall excuse me winter 2425 what do we know about those 62 students so both of those questions directly addressed your participation rate but they're different I don't know if the 62 students which some group they're in because the data doesn't tell us that but I would like to know because we're currently on different

027participation rate plans in our division how are we addressing those subgroups with those results and ier to John says specific question um what you're referring to is critical to this new accountability model that participation rate absolutely critical um with that being said we share here this past month participation rates based off of for high school they're cohor right because the new accountability model very cohort heavy um and we shared that data with high school so they absolutely know what students um have or have not taken the so as it relates to the subject area um I was trying to reference the data point that you were talking about SL seven got you for the reading um and you're referencing the end size of our white reporting group one from 38 to 22 correct I'm actually

028referencing three things okay so the subgroup because white is still a subgroup right I'm referencing the ins size from 2324 which was 650 compared to 2425 which is 588 am I not correct that's a confused the overall I I I was going to say am I looking at the wrong thing I need to back all the way up um but I'm glad it was you and not me this time thank you um um so I'm referencing that insid and then the third thing is there were you see that 13 of course the 133% difference we don't know of the 62 students what subgroup they're and so you've answered the because you didn't tell us I don't know if they're economic disadvantaged I don't know if they're black and economically disadvantaged I don't know if they're

029white and economically disadvantaged so do we know who those um not currently but I absolutely we can look at the N size per school to figure out um where these students fall well you kind of answered that you said the schools are they identified right yes each student who did not test so it could be some of those 62 students right so that responsibility I think is on the schools to inform you all of who those students are so we can capture them yes but I wanted um just to say I am very pleased um with the data that we have seen I'm an advocate of a 4x4 I'm very familiar with the 7030 um work working with Dr Bell in the past and that method works that has shown to work and so I'm

030excited about the work that we're doing together I'm excited um that we have members of the day that can understand the importance this is going to lead into my final piece the budget right so when it comes to science we we saw some gains there but we have one person working with science curriculum on a k through 12 level two okay I I would think it needs to be four because the curriculum is very different um and then we heard with reading how I think that um and since we're discussing a budget tonight voting tomorrow um I think it's just very important for me as a board member who who appreciates um supporting individuals with that content level based knowledge so they can focus on that content thank you yeah Dr Harris Mohamed before I

031answer the question about science the one thing that I will say that we have done differently last year and this year is Dr Bell has implemented the championship habits where we actually go into schools and the entire leadership team is there and they're able we do classroom observations but they're able to respond to the data for example we're talking about Ela data the ELA Department here is there the coach is there the principal the AP they're able to speak to the data so we can be responsive in real time and not wait until the last minute um and then the piece where you're talking about about individual students we have something called technical assistance where we go line by line with their students that need additional support but to your question about a secondary science

032specialist and so we did propose it in the original budget and of course there were some things that had to be cut I mean just based on prioritization however um I have had conversations with title one team uh Sydney Gunter and we have like we've done in the past year just actually written a position into title one the only issue with Title One we have to wait for it to actually be approved then sometimes we don't get it until October and it's hard to find a quality candidate from from an external division but within an internal division we don't want to move a great teacher out of the classroom because then it leaves us with a science vacancy mid year or in October or November and so again we are planning to we have we

033have in the title one budget to hire for someone now but again part of it is just around the timing and so if it were an opera budget better because it will be sustainable it will also be a higher during the summer because we know that that money is in the budget pending waiting approval for TI thank you Miss B thank you madam chair thank you and kudos to this team you know I'm excited when I see double digits when I see double digits of improvement that means that somebody's doing what they're supposed to be doing then some as uh Dr M Bell stated alignment alignment so it's so important that whenever and wherever we walk and where we are present and observing management by walking around thank you Dr LEL um I appreciate that

034so very much hearing that because we inspect what we expect so number one alignment with v the data shows it all right number two the consistency across the curriculum you stated no matter what's being taught and I see the improvements from place to place point to point to subject number three thank you Dr Mrs Bell for you know I have to think about acronyms PB and c and all the rest so when I hear coach I'm saying that of Coach sit here okay um that is authentic and I thank you for stating that PBA stands for a Performance Based assessment which is required by the State Department of Education so we are on the right page at the right time the data is showing it what my concern is or my questions are number one

035I am very concerned as my colle to my right Dr haris muhamed just stated U when I see 10% for Armstrong asss 21% for even 26% Improvement percentage wise for Rich Community but then I see St schools I'm not going to call the names of that there but theyve had double digits in a negative sense so my question is going back to what Dr Mr Bell stated regarding professional development and not just that um the the schedule being different to allow for professional development but also for students since they have ownership which is awesome that's that's half the plan but they can have ownership but if they don't have the study skills or the support my question is what's in place to help those students that 26% negative that that's not that that's particular school

036I'm thinking of on the North side is St okay they they're 37 completely um they are approved not approved what what's the word accredited thank you I it was a word a line acced but um so I want to know and I know what you said about not pulling someone this time of the year but you got the money to do it so because you have the money do so there's a retired person out there or someone just getting out of college or there somebody out there someplace that can go into that spot to support those children those students so we can't even though they may have more time in their schedule to study my question is what's the game plan moving forward we just can't leave them out there thank you yeah thank you

037for that advertisement so if there's anybody out there who wants to be a science coach whether you're retired or just want to support uh the position is posted um and so with that let me address the two questions so the first question is around study skills and soft skills and so I'm happy to say and I am a huge fan of Abid we are really got maniacal about implementation of avid and Avid what it does is prepares kids for college and so they go through study skills how to annotate to find the purpose for reading those soft skills that they need to be successful time management it's all in the advoc curriculum and so part of it is we started with like one to two aid classes because we we had a limitation in terms

038of the number of teachers that taught a it but we found creative ways to expand it further but also we've done the training with all teachers we expect for them to implement it within their classrooms which is the best practice right it's just not the elective alone and so that is how we're supporting with the study skills and then the feast around how we supporting kids that have gaps it really is around I think you spoke to this in um Dr mandre and I talk about this all the time about coherent curriculum right so we're in alignment with the tier one instruction but our tier 2 and tier three resources align to support the curriculum because there in the past I think I did it as a teacher too we put the kids on a

039program but it may have not been aligned with the actual skills that they needed that aligned to their sixth or eth standard right and so we've been we used earn and we used the resources that the state has recommended that are aligned with our curriculum um and then the other piece that Dr Bill spoke about was the intervention so we do have intervention classes to support Scholars we've also given principles flexibility because as Dr bill says we are starting to see that a lot of our babies don't come after school like they used to or before school because of all the competing interest and so we actually have to get them through our locus of controlers while they're there and so we've we've implemented intervention schedules where like one day a week there focused on

040intervention if I'm a teacher that is really good in teaching um uh reciprocal formulas I'm just making something up but a certain math skill then you will teach that math skill to the students who need that support um to uh to fill in the gaps and so we be strategic with intervention thank you you know I want to first start to by saying that I really do truly appreciate this work these games I think every year that we get presented with this data I kind of want to like caution us about making too much of it just because the ins size in total is generally like less than 5% of our total student body um and so these numbers are great how they represent the entire group we'll find out at the end of the

041year I feel like um also um I would like an explanation of like the first chart maybe John could do that um because I don't know how user friendly these charts are for our communities um for example and I'm on the first chart with all the totals so that's what page five yeah all right so we see history the inside is 1055 and that's the group that tested that winter in 2324 okay then end of the year proficiency 43% what does that end size represent that end size represents the winter plus the spring and um most people don't know but it's actually the previous year summmer data as well so really three assessment windows together there's not a lot of Summer data uh to report in there but it does include SU data so it's

042still not representative of the entire student body no correct corre Excuse me yes it is for high school as well so I put a note there at the very bottom those end of the year proficiency numbers are only showing our high school Proficiency in those four sub I see okay thank you um so that yeah that that then then clarify some of this so um if we think about our entire High School than student body I think what would this represent maybe know off the top of my head I would have to dig into that yeah so it's still not necessarily a representative sample and that's that that's a little bit of concern but I say that every year sure um and then okay and then um you know I encourage people not to panic

043too much about the white ends because the end numbers are so small right that a shift in maybe one or two students can impact that that result and so I think people shouldn't make too much of that I don't think can I pull on that really quickly because I do want to actually address um something that Dr Harris Muhammad said about it as well um the N size for reading um which you all notice has decreased a big factor to that was actually Franklin not testing students this winter and probably testing them this spring and they have and actually that's a um pretty good data as releas that reading proficiency because typically those students do very well um in terms of the proficiency so if they did test this Winer our proficiency would have been

044an increase and they tested last wi I hope that makes sense and that was 38 students that brings the N size close to that 650 number but it's not quite there it's missing probably a class across the board yeah thank you and then the last thing um you know I heard you kind of throw it in I'm not really sure that we can draw a causal link from these results to 4x4 schedule I mean certainly it could be a fact but I don't know that we say that certainty well we have seen an increase since we have implemented the 4x4 but I think the other thing that we've done over the past two years is something called platooning right so we've actually given schools um the flexibility if there's a course that they feel like

045should actually be taught the entire year and then test it in the spring they had the flexibility to do that for example you saw open open did not give any Assessments in the winter they will test in the spring and so that's an option that we've given schools so that there's flexibility if there's a course AP course that may be somewhat more rigorous they may need an entire year versus half the year so sure I mean and flexibility is great I just I feel like it's not necessarily scientific to credit these results with a full B yeah I think it's with the instruction and the support of the central Office Team and so there a lot of different factors but I was just noting the adjustment that we made that I think has also helped

046us um make some games any other questions or feed can I write it please what about seconds what about nth graders and after who are who fail Algebra 1 there's no information on the chart about that thank you no because um the result thank you for the question um there's no data here specifically about AF um albra functions data analysis uh because those students do not actively take an that um course along with intensified algebra are utilized to um support kind of those foundational skills that students need to successful um and so our students that take intensified algebra actually have a year-long course and they take the algebra 1 so um as nth graders in the spring are students that take afda um typically were not successful in algebra one so they would take algebra

047one again in second semester and they would be assessed then and so then they would be included in the data that we would have to share in the spring thank you Mr rzy had a follow question then Mr Jafar thank chair another thing I wanted to mention is I think SOS are like the minimal standard and I you know I'd like to hear more about what we're doing with college wedding um and and a job I currently have now we're looking at like um persistence rates of RPS students in college chemistry math and they struggle like almost 100% of them dropped out of engineering and so we need to really make sure we're putting in what we have and this is including my child right so we we need to make sure we're putting in

048what we have to to make sure our children are college ready Y and we have invested a ton of time um in those efforts very graduation efforts um how to get students more dual enrollment we have really been died into that um this year but also trying to ensure that we increase our performance on our assessments yeah we we'll continue to stay tuned and and stay mrar well good evening and let me just start by saying I just commend the division the work that it's done it's one thing to come up with a strategy sitting in offices with the executives but to see it carried out and result in the kinds of Gams that we see here that's where the re the road so so I really want to commend the hard work because only

049through hard work do we get this but also through looking ahead um the decision to to get the AL one early on instead of waiting until they got certain LEL like that we're going to see uh great things from that as well and as long as we continue to do that across the board um I I think that it should serve us all well and as well as my colleague was pointing out it should correct should go far Incorrect and on those Engineers that that decided that perhap they hang um what I'm really glad to see however is that with existing staff we've been able to do that and so to my to the superintendent just may well go towards some of the positions we last for you know they're already doing the work now

050so we can like s back around and take a at what ask but I'm just kidding again thank you thank you guys for the hard we see the result Y and the last thing I'll say is to your point the reason why I love Aid and the teaching of soft skills one of them is grit and persistence and we've seen some kids they have the academic um Crow right but if they don't understand grit and they don't understand resilience and persistance a lot of them because they have been supported by teachers and staff really closely in high school when they get to College they don't persist because they don't have that support mechanism but we'll continue to talk about how we support them to and through college but again we got to do the things

051for high school in middle school first but we'll continue our work with that thank you moving right along next we have 3.01 discuss proposed fiscal 2026 estimate of needs Mr Camas thank you madam chair based on the board's guidance at our last budget work session we have produced a budget that reflects an increase of and thank you for your Indulgence 30.8 million of an increase um which is uh a sling down as it were from the initial uh presentation which called for about 43 million of increase you'll see uh there are of course far fewer things in the Pres presentation slide 12 is the beginning of uh the details part one which continues on slide 13 of note in priority two Talent all of the collective bargaining Agreements are still there going on to Priority

0523 Wellness we really prioritized our Mental Health Partners and increasing pay for our care and safety Associates we had a couple more higher by one of our friends in the counties just this past week and so we feel that that is absolutely critical on priority four uh we prioritize maintaining our family Leons which are so essential to our Chic caps andm work and then really on operations it was mostly about covering the costs of increased um expenditures based on inflation uh for everything from technology platforms to utilities I do want to note on slide 21 we have added in under the Schoolboard section the professional development line and the Foya platform line and then uh also on slide 22 I want to note the absence of the cost savings related to cost sharing of the

053healthcare increase so you won't see that here which means it is no longer uh part of the proposed budget uh with the CIP budget we made one modification adding in the MLK uh preschool HVAC for uh Dr Harris Muhammad's uh request for a total request of 14.8 million with that I'm happy to take any questions the board happy Harris Mohammed thank you madam chair Mr the cameras are we still still considering Outsourcing our custodial services and if so do we have data that supports that change and if so where can you point me in that direction in the um Revis presentation thank you Mr Camas thank you madam chair um we do not have that in the revised followup Madam chair is that coming to the board under consider consideration during this budget season the

054reason I'm asking is because we haven't we haven't had an in-depth discussion about Outsourcing versus stand internally and the data has been collected to determine it and also because we're going to be moving in the near future to look at auditing our talent office that hopefully within that audit could demonstrate to the members of the board what we need to do to grow and support the hiring um not just within the custodi department of facilities but within hope thank you m chair thank you Dr Harris Mohammed uh at this time we are not engaged in uh a process to contract broadly for Cal services with the exception of when we have something emergent for example Cardinal the lightning strike we had to um contract uh but but this budget does not anticipate uh doing so

055at a large scale Year Mr thank you madam chair um superintending cameras for this new student information system I know funds become available in July and my guess is we would put all in our peeve then or have we already I'm just one worried about the timeline and stressing out the whole division but particularly people in the schools on implementing and information system Mr cers thank you madam chair thank you for the question Mr rard um actually the prior board already approved the contract for the new information system this is just paying for it um and I'm looking at Miss fox or Miss I don't believe the new system comes online fully next year there's a yes I'm getting to not there is a ramp a process of preparing for it over the course of

056next year such that it would start in 20 18 mons thank you what was Mr P thank you madam chair uh superintendent switching to the the capital Improvement budget um I I know you're not a prognosticator or reader tea leaves but you had mentioned before that typically they're around 2 and half million ration per 14 I know that we've done some shifting from New School builds into Capital Improvement setting expectations for ourselves what is the likelihood that we will receive $4 milon in capital recruitment Mr I do have a side hustle reading T and interesting but clearly [Music] clearly I do I would say the likelihood of us getting 14.8 million is exceedingly low um as I've shared with the board previously we typically at 2.5 million last year was an aberration in part because

057of the 10 million that was a reality at from the new school construction fund I will also note as everyone in the richro Richmond Metro area is acutely aware the city has some very significant infrastructure needs of its own and so I think there will be significant demands on those Capital dollars from the city side thank you madam chair um thank you superintendent for uh presenting a modified budget that I'm sure was a lot was was challenging to cut because as we talked about at our last meeting there were so many things that are just we would we would think are basic necessities that we need to uh to to to provide for our kiddos and the adults that work with them um I am an eternal optimist um and would love that we would

058get all of what we uh we we need uh I say need because yes they're wants but they're also needs right they're they're not frous asks um but I do want to be realistic to your comment about the the state of the budget from the city and and and what we'll get from the state and and of course who knows from the federal government and at this instance um so I and we talked about this before but but making sure that we are prioritizing those needs that won't be able to be met this time that we're keeping the catalog of those and um and we U have deliberate talks between now and uh when we officially accept our budget uh about that I think it's just going to be a really difficult conversation to have

059um but I wanted to thank you and also acknowledge that that we have more cutting to do unfortunately probably thank you mam chair m Mr car thank you madam chair I just wanted to point out that you know just because session is over can continue to push for representatives to advocate for more school funding especially infrastructure funding um you know we know you go back to jar that the the state has not kept pace with funding um CIP budgets and so we need to make sure we're continuing to put pressure on our representatives to rectify that thank you Mr car thank you madam chair um for my board colleagues um I know we early on did the early commitment for new higher bonuses and um principal of Richmond Academy let me know that it was

060it's already been helpful in helping recruit and lock down so I know superintendent cameras I asked about retention bonuses and um I think particularly for our hard to staff schools which I know there's debate on it is helpful um because Rich Success Academy still has a bunch of vacancies and we need that school staff so thank you Miss B thank you madam chair and thank you so very much superintend the cameras I know this was a hard task um we know what we need and we know what we want but you cut us down to the Bare Bones so as Mr HED just stated um it's it's we're keeping the main thing the main thing and that is student performance student outcomes so number one the Assurance piece regarding our um faculty and staff I'm

061thankful because I was not in favor of what was on the table you get a raise and then you use it for insurance so I'm so happy that was change because we have to have certified persons in place to teach our children to take care of our nutritional Services the whole gamut per se in terms of um taking care of our students to make sure they have what they need we can't Excel and move to the next level if we don't have happy persons in place to do what's necessary so I'm very happy that um I look forward to the budget coming back to us in so many months to revisit as Mr hpack just stated I'm going to be positive as well and maybe we'll get some extra money and technically we'll be extra

062you stated in the beginning we have what a $43 million listing of facilities items that need to be done so that continues to pile up so thank you Miss rzy for stating to call our state constituency but I also hope that we reach out to the federal level as well because we depend upon those funds for little things that many of us just take for granted and when you sit down look at the whole budget and study it meals um transportation Peaks or special programs that's that's I hope that we collectively as decision makers parents persons in the community reach out at the state level and I must state that our representatives for the Richmond area have been very supportive they have been very very thank you very much and again I do look forward

063to um receiving a budget back from the city but hopefully more funds that ask thank you I'd just like to add um a word of thanks to the administration for really um coming back with a modified uh budget we understand that um that was a difficult act but it was done in short so thank you so much um I too am pleased to hear that we are um indeed not um intruding on the health care of our Associates who work so hard to just bring joy and um and empowerment to our our students and so thank you for hearing the claring call and adjusting it accordly um mental health is something that is always um um important for particularly our students here in richan public schools and I'm really glad to see that you're able

064to um maintain um the focus on our our Health Care Partners excuse me our Health Partners um rbha Child Savers and CIS are all all an intricate part of ensuring um that we address the needs of every child um in and outside of the classroom and so just want to highlight um thank you for keeping that as a priority as well as uh care and safety um which is something that is huge we need to ensure that every school remains safe and secure and so we uh I certainly appreciate you emphasizing the need to be competitive to retain but also attract um Talent um not just for csas but but for our teachers as well um and those bonuses do help um and really excited to hear the testimonials that will come from hiring um

065with these competitive methods so thank you so much for you while we wanted it to be something different um I'll remain optimistic as well and hope that perhaps they'll leave a little bit on the table we shall see thank you Mr cams thank you madam chair and uh thank you to the board again for the clarity of your guidance that was incredibly helpful I also just want to thank Miss Chang and Miss braa for their work over the last few days to get everything ready in short order particularly the big 200 Page book uh which is the formal one that m uh so beautifully pulls together so expeditiously so um special thank you to her and I think she's in the back can you wave so I can see you there you are thank you

066all right moving right along to board business 4.01 receive legislative update good evening M School members superintendent Camas um have provided a presentation for you tonight that outlines some of the outcomes of this year's legislative session so I'm just going to add a few additional points to that for your consideration this evening um I will say that this year's General Assembly session was a very traditional short session um it ended on February 22nd and uh the general assembly was amending their two-year budget so they were not creating a new budget they were coming in deciding what changes they wanted to make to uh the end of this FAL year and for the upcoming fiscal year um the ga is a little spooked right now about what the financial situation is going to look like for

067the State uh due to what is happening at the federal level um due to that they have done a couple of things uh one of those is that they have extended their 2024 special sessions so that at any point in the coming months the Speaker of the House and call back the house within 48 hours notice to reconsider what's happening at the federal level and take a look back at the state budget that they have already pass so over the coming months as the financial landscape comes into a little bit clearer Focus um we might see some additional legislative meetings Happening Here in Richmond uh the house put together a special subcommittee uh that is formed from legislators especially in the northern Virginia and hampon Roads areas to help advise and and take uh that

068information under consideration um I would love to note for you uh a couple uh points that uh were presented to that special emergency committee um these were points made by the Metropolitan Washington Council of governments the W Cooper Center for Public Service at UA and the Virginia Employment Commission um they noted that as many as 315,000 federal workers reside in Virginia that is 10% of Virginia's total Workforce um we know that's mostly concentrated in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads um if we look at the stated goals of the Doge efforts um there might be as much as a 75% reduction in the federal Workforce um that could uh send the the unemployment rate for Northern Virginia from 2.8% to 99.6% um we will also see some impacts here in Virginia looking at 2.6% unemployment currently

069projected to go up to 4% so we do anticipate a lot of uh a lot of reductions and federal income tax withholding that could significantly affect the state budget um and of course I will remind you about what happened in 2008 the state faced a $25 billion doll shortfall and one of the results from that was the support staff cap uh that this year was finally raised um so we are very excited about that but we are also going to be watching very closely to see what happens with the state budget um moving on to the support staff cap um we are very excited that the general assembly lifted that after 15 years that was a uh that is $233 million I'm sorry $223 million the state will have to infuse into the budget every

070year to continue to support that um but we are very happy that that has passed um that was our top legislative priority um so we're grateful to have some of that funding back for our support staff um the new support staff rate is 27.8 n support positions per instructional staff um so that went up from 24 is what the support staff was currently limiting us at um the uh another big thing that the general assembly did in their budgets was they put an additional $1 million towards the J L subcommittee that's continuing to look at all the big funding formula recommendations uh the existing uh staff of the money committees felt like they needed some extra help with doing some project management further engagement as well as uh updating all of the models of what

071how much uh those recommendations would affect School divisions we now have kind of two three year old data so they wanted to do some updates so we can really look at each of the recommendations and what impacts they would have on school divisions across the Commonwealth so we expect a lot more conversation this summer and in to the fall about what those recommendations might look like um for them to consider in the 2026 session um I would also note that the legislation that we might have previously shared with you about uh efforts to delay the new state accountability system uh those efforts did not pass um there was a bipartisan vote to reject that legislation in the Senate um as well the uh s so the legislation that was proposing to offer SOS and languages

072other than English that also failed as well um so does appear that the general assembly has signed off on the new accountability system going into place for the timeline that board of education has already approved they received Federal approval of those changes about a month ago as well and um I would just like to end tonight with reminding you that every month is a good month for advocacy there's no specific advocacy season we want to be doing it year round um I do encourage you to reach out to your legislators and thank them for their investments in public education this year the house and the Senate were very very unified in their approach to public education so we are very grateful for that um we do have the reconvene session happening on April 2nd so

073the governor by the end of March has to tell the general assembly what he would like to do with the budget he can approve what they presented to him he can veto it Al together which has happened before or he can do his line item Vos um those all have to be severable he can't go in and do too much that's why previously he issued a veto of that because he couldn't do the little things that he wanted with those line items um so on April 2nd we should know uh what the state of the budget texure looks like and whether that budget will be put into place or whether there might be further discussion about it we certainly might know more about the impacts of the federal landscape on Virginia's budget by that point

074um so in April we will have further updates for you in the meantime I do encourage folks to reach out to the governor I know we talk a lot about our legislators and legislative advocacy uh but it is the governor that has to approve the budget um so we do encourage you to go to the governor's website um there is a contact form and we encourage you to ask the governor to approve the budget um and then uh we will continue to follow up we will have a form letter that folks can send out uh that will help provide some framing for what we are asking of him and otherwise I will look forward to reporting back to all in April and I'm happy to take any questions M Rizzy Miss SP Mr Stanley could

075you talk a little bit about what happened in the general assembly regarding schools construction and CIP yes ma'aming yes ma'am absolutely um and the governor's proposed but well let me start by saying that there was not really too many specific bills uh that passed the general assembly the one that most people have heard about was the bill that allows localities to do a voter referendum for 1% additional sales tax to go towards School construction that pass strong bipartisan vote is with the governor right now the governor has previously vetoed it uh so we were saying if he changes his mind this year um there is potentially a 2third majority that could overrule his veto it is like a one vote margin on that 2third majority um so we will see what happens if he does

076veto if the general assembly might overturn that veto which they were not able to do last year um and then with the budget and the finances of what the state can do for school construction uh the governor and his in budget had two different lines 150 and 40 for $290 million to reinus the school construction assistance program that's the fund that was created a couple years ago that weed funding for Fox Elementary School and the new Career Technical High School on Mor Street um unfortunately due to some of the investment in the support staff cap and they very clearly tied these things together in some of the budget language um they pulled some of that funding back and only are investing $150 million to replenish the school construction assistance fund um so at least that

077gets us back up to having some available balance but we continue to know there's about $25 billion of needs so that will continue to be your your advocacy thank you madam chair thank you Mrs D you always keep us up to date and I appreciate it so much I'm glad to hear what you stated regarding the JLo report because that's about the whole state of Virginia and U as we all well know and um my thinking as others nor Virginia always seems to get more than we do in this area for many reasons but this J we're all the same vote so uh my question to you is as you stated just not our legislators but our governor as well to S A cards um do we keep any data per se in terms of

078what we do know that persons are um sending calling I'm a person that's going I've run to call them um often times emails whatever else I know how many I get so I can only imagine at that level what they get so face to face and thank you for what you've done with that and the superintendent and team as well of going there face to face um so my question is number one do we keep in the data per se of knowing how many students have written letters or parents or this constituency is there anything in place that we would pretty much reference and number two you stay at your templates have we already already received that that're going to receive that soon and my last question is I know that delate mcquinn had a

079bill on the books regarding substitute teachers I don't know whether that was passed or not it did pass I'll have to double check one out all right and I believe this one of long-term sub in place they teach for so many days then they have to step back and maybe get rehired but her bill was listing that it would just be a Continuum which is which would be perfect rather than taking that break and you may end up with a whole new teacher in place not as certified teacher per se to teach what they're teaching it their substitute for the long-term substitutes I believe that that bill did pass and changes the uh time frame it doubles the time frame I can't remember this number of days I believe that did pass excellent I was

080there on that day when they were back and forth on that so I didn't hear the followup and Madam chair to address M bur's first question um a lot of our communication is still open school is folks doing individual emails and phone calls um there certainly are those platforms out there when you can do form letters to check how many are going out we don't have unfortunately something like that place this time thank you thank you I just like to add Advocate Advocate Advocate now is the time to reach out to the governor and share your passions and desires and um so just we can just inore the community to continue to Advocate um because we we need him to say yes and um our voices matter so just encouraging everyone to use them thank

081you thank you m step 4.02 receive contracts good even good evening Madam chair superintendent cameras and members of the school board my name is Alison Davis and I'm the the director of sign and compensation thank you for the opportunity to provide you with an overview of our employment context and our tenative timeline for approval and distribution first school board policy 7- 5.2 professional staff contracts contract have been submitted to the school board for first Greening we have four contract types two for teachers for professional staff and two for support staff our teacher contracts are the annual contract with professional Personnel issued to probationary teachers assistant principls principls and instructional supervisors for a term of service of three years our continuing contract with professional Personnel contracts are issued also to teachers assistant principles principles instructional and

082instructional supervisors who have satisfied the probationary term OB service of three years excuse me our support contracts are the notice of appointment issued to all support staff and our final contract is the notice of appointment for people transportation and those are issued to our bus operators our tenative timeline for contract first presentation for first read to the board today on March 4th through 28 make any adjustments to contracts if requested by the school board April 8th present final contract language to the school board for approval also present the reelection list to the school board for approval and if contract language and reelection the re-election list are approved on April 8th we anticipate the contract distribution during the first week of a or excuse me during the week of that was a brief presentation but I'm

083happy to answer any questions that you may have about the process or contracts of course first Mr Camas thank you thank you madam chair and thank you M Davis I just want to note we are trying to move up the timeline this year to get contracts out earlier uh than we have in years past obviously it can reduce anxiety and uh ensure that books are all set for next year so thank you M Davis questions mzy so um correct me if I'm wrong um superintendent camera so does that mean that underlined line on the first slide will change it'll be earlier than May first is that correct as I understand the policy I have to make sure you have it no later than May first okay all the process is going to start ear thank

084any other questions Dr M thank thank you for the presentation when it comes to the language and each of the contracts particularly annual contract with professional Personnel continuing contract for professional Personnel when and if that language changes how will the school board knows if the language needs to change sometimes statements have to be added into the contract based off of budget I've seen that happen before so how how would we deal with that we ran into a similar problem last year and we had to continue we we had to delay we had to submit a one page addend them we had to come back to the board change the date that the changes were made I just don't want us to run into that again this year Mr Camas thank you madam chair thank you

085Dr Harris Mohammed um so I think there were two issues last year Mr Davis correct me if I'm wrong um one was this question of issuing contracts prior to having an adopted Schoolboard budget adopted comes after we get it back from uh the city council we make final decisions uh it is permissible to uh issue contracts before that point um and those contracts are as always uh subject to the finances of the school system and it it says so in the contract the second issue was related to uh decompression and a lack of clarity about the difference between one's annual base pay and then the decompression adjustment and so uh we have rectified that to make it clear so that employees will see their total compensation number which will prevent the confusion and anxiety that

086occurred last year so I think in both of those cases we have addressed the underlying issue M Davis would that be that is accurate fin I'll follow up can we just Ure that well go back my recommendation is it's a recommendation that if there are any concerns with contracts out of any of these categories that our staff know where to go like it is clear they go here they go here they go here they go here many of them don't know and they follow up or they reach out to board members and then we go through the channel of the superintendent so I just want to make sure that for those who are watching that if they when they receive their contract they have any questions about their contract the wording the verbiage anything that

087they know where to communicate and then we have those people in place that will follow up thank you thank you Dr Harris mam we will definitely send out a communication that is very clear for our employees for who to contacted they have questions thank you any aspect of their cont yes thank you so much I think there was a question that wasn't addressed by Dr Harris Mohammed and that was um if there are changes that need to be made to the contract at any point how and will we as a board be made aware Mr K thank you madam chair um St correct my I'm Ry but there are no changes to the contracts from last year with the exception of being clear about the total compensation is that accurate that is accurate yes no

088changes are being made to contract language unless is tax thank thank you no other questions thank you moving right along to 404 received for first three policy committee recommendations Dr Harris mam thank you so much Madam chair Schoolboard colleagues before you are two um important policy revisions and recommendations this is our first read um if you have any questions regarding the search and seizure policy which is very um congruent or congruent to what the current language is in the general assembly and legislation and then a new policy that we unpacked in our and out during our policy committee is -4.2 inter Scholastic Athletics policy which is going to benefit our students who are athletes we have taken a position as a school board for many years led by former School Board member and chair Don

089pages that we give Credence and understanding and um some I don't want to say wiggle room but Grace to our students who who desire to serve or play a athletic um Sport and this is not just their traditional Sports um debate teams and all and all of those activities so when you have a moment take a close read reach out to me if you have any questions and I will try to follow up with you between 24 to 4872 96 hours was that wegg Mr Mr H thanks Madam chair thank you Dr Harris Mohammad and to the administration for uh making the requested edits that we talked about during the policy committee meeting which was robust and uh really appreciate the conversation so one was changing uh sex to gender when it came to the

090the searches I'm really appreciative of that and then the second one was for the uh the the the burden of proof on the student performance uh for for the athletic waiver is no longer on the teacher but on the athletic director who will look at the performance via the learning management system which would be you again less burden on the teacher and not a very easy thing to do since it'll be on on learning management system so I just wanted to say that I'm in favor of both of the of the policies so thank you for that Harris mam thank you Mr thank you madam chair thank you Mr hash for that and to the policy committee it it takes um multiple eyes to read policy and to make sure that it's that is non-discriminatory

091that it's Equitable and that is excellent so thank you very much and to your point um I think we all were on one Accord about removing that burden from our classroom teachers which Mr Camas is going to have to strengthen not just the athletic directors because it is the respons responsibility but also our school administrators they must know where their students are when they're an athlete because um it is very clear we have taken a stance at Richmond Public Schools that they are student athletes and not athlete students and so we want to make sure that we model that in our policy so Mr Camas thank you um and Mr St thank you and to the academic team as well um thank you for um and um care care and safety team for um working

092with us the policy committee showing up and being engaged um is is very important to me and I appreciate um that and this is why policy committee meetings are only an hour maybe an hour and 20 minutes because we we come prepar not that but I'm just saying it is it is important when when they show up and they're engaged and we communicate so we can meet the needs of our students thank you thank you any other feedback wonderful moving right along I don't believe there's any first Rec um so we will move to 5.01 receive an update on care and safety good evening Madam chair Mr Vice chair school board members and superintendent cameras this evening we will Spotlight our school health services and so I'll be joined at the podium with nurse coordinator

093Candi borne she'll introduce herself and then share a little of the highlights from our school health services this year good evening Madam chair superintendent cameras board members I am so excited to present uh all the wins that Health Services have had over the last three years I'm excited to talk about how we currently are fully staffed with four CNAs 43 RNs two nurse specialists a clinic attendant and a administrative office assistant that allows us to provide multiple supports throughout our schools some of our schools have have more than one nurse because of the capacity such as River City Richmond High School of the Arts Hut we're able to give our students those wraparound supports in regards to uh Health Services some of the other initiatives that we have implemented over the last three years is

094bringing in school vaccinations to our students Co was one of the things that allowed that created a huge gap in our students rece receiving those health services so we decided to meet our students where they are and bring immunizations into the school setting today yes we have provided 1,816 students with t ninja cako vacines we've seen also during our Clinic events we've been able to provide school entrance physicals during our summer events and also during before school events last year we partnered with Shore Hospital to provide school entrance physicals for our students that did not either have health care or we're meeting barriers to receiving Healthcare and getting those appointments through their pediatricians and that's something that we're going to continue to do that allowed us to do 91 school entrance physicals and 162 sports

095physicals to help our student athletes get those things that they need wonderful the other thing that I'm excited to talk about which was a year in the making is our tea health initiative yes yes yes tella health and today I'm excited to report we had our first tella Health visit element School our wonderful nurse Melody Rosa was able to reach out to Dr wior and we were able to provide a a Spanish speaking family with connections to care for health a and it was a wonderful experience we were even able to invite the parent in and they were able to participate in that so I'm so excited to talk about our tele health initiative so one down and how Lord knows however many more to go we look forward to expanding that initiative we also

096are so proud to talk about our project Adam for those of you don't know part of our legisl that's coming out if I think it's passed or it's coming is the cardiac response team in our school so RPS and Health Services has done a wonderful job of being proactive we currently have two schools that have received project Adam designation nurses are working on providing um project Adam designation to multiple other schools our current two schools that have received designation are shimazo Elementary School and MLK preschool yes and those nurses have done a fantastic job in providing cardiac response teams to those two schools and we look forward to expanding that initiative across the district the next thing we talked about um next thing we were able to do was partner with signal Wellness last year

097and we able to receive and replace our over 10 year-old defibulators initially we got defibulators from a Brant with Richmond police and fire and we also so we were able to replace 16 of them through Grant funded monies from signal Wellness we also got Boe Grant funded monies where we receive 35 Soul defibulators currently all of our middle and high schools have three defibrillators which puts us in compliance with project Adam already it also provides us with a resource for our Sports and our athletes when they're participating in those things that we have defibulators within a Brisk three minute walk next that we are always early in compliance is our electronic health record one of the other initiatives that we used this year was We implemented our snaap electronic health record what we purchased was

098the Medicaid billing side Medicaid billing is something that is going to allow us to bring funds as we talk about the budget bring funds into the district and because now Medicaid billing is not only mandated to students with IEPs but we can build for services that students receed in the clinic that would be a I'm excited to know that we're going to be able to bring more funds so when we have those shortfalls hopefully Health Services can help contribute to Bringing more money into Richmond Public Schools continuing on we have Naran that we have another legislation that's come out that we have already been proactive with we currently have more than two doses in each school we have four doses in our preschool four doses in our elementary and up to six doses in our

099middle and high schools and we have been proactive in implementing those things that are coming from the vdoe as far as Naran and opioid overdoses so we are more than prepared to be able to respond to those types of emergencies should they arise and next is our emergency go bag which is something that we implemented um you may have seen this if you were at graduation last year you saw this wonderful red bag being rolled around by one of our School nurses it allows us to be prepared on the go for some of those emergencies that may happen those bags are equipped with an amboo bag with luuc Co monitors with stop the bleed kits should we have to respond to any type of medical emergence and lastly most of the things that we have

100initi initiated in Health Services have complied with some of the legislation as our Naran complied with House Bill 1473 and our project Adam initiatives are in compliance with House Bill 1695 thank you I welcome any questions Miss rzy Miss bur thank you so much for this presentation it's wonderful news I just have a couple of questions um just for clarification um how is it that you're getting a word out about the tele Health just so that people know that it's available so we currently rep paltin in three schools Carver Elementary cardo Elementary and Fairfield Court Elementary so we are providing we're using our media platforms we're also pushing that out through our school's communities through remind messages in their school uh PL and then with the medic Bill billing do you have infrastructure for that

101like I understand medic laws are sometimes complicated in Billing difficult do you have people you know kind of C to start you know actually processing those claims yes so Medicaid building is something that the district already does with certain other entities like uh physical therapists and occupational therapist nursing is just one piece one more additional piece so yes we have instruction to be able to I welcome the opportunity Mis thank you ma'am thank you so very much and I see why you're smiling and so elated and congratulations to you and all you're doing it's been years if ever I've heard we' been fully stacked with our and nursing assistance and two in some schools that's overdue so I'm I'm wondering how that happened I'm thinking before answer yes I'm happy to tell through our wonderful

102superintendent and dreams for RPS when we got a significant amount of money during Co we were the it was initially a fiveyear plan to staff all of our buildings with nurses but some of that funding allowed us to FastTrack that program and allow us to put nurses in the buildings ahead of schedule so while Co is horrible as it was it did a wonderful thing to allow us to be able to support our students and give them nurses in every building thank you so very much because as a sh we of nurses and healthare professionals and I remember over the years we would lose many nurses that would leave us and go to the area hospitals or other Health Care on the spot facilities because of the lack of pay so I'm glad to hear

103that and thank you superintendent C to you and I look forward to that continuing um my question is um was already asked for say by the tell Health um is that for student body only or or can staff fault staff also do privileg to that it is for our students and we are trying to support our students to keep them healthy in school and ready to learn so an example of that would be if a nurse if a student comes to the nurse's office and they have some type of brash or they're just not feeling well and it's something that a doctor needs to look at the nurse can reach out to the mother if the tele Health consent has been signed and say hey this is something that I think needs to be looked

104at by the doctor the mom has signed a consent the nurse gets the doctor on a phone they do a tella Health visit within the clinic the doctor will look at the student the mom can either be present or not be present and if it's something that needs a prescription the doctor can send that prescription to the child's uh Pharmacy and if it's something that the child can go back to class for the child will be able to go back to class and it doesn't fool that parent from work and have to miss work and then pull the child out of school in order to see the do that's excellent um I'm look forward to seeing that in place and I'm so glad that the schools that were select there power schools I to see

105it across the board and my question followup is so students must sign off in the beginning or you sign off to get tele Health Services when when something arises for sale so we sent out when we started this initiative we sent out a big push of consent forms across all the schools um so it it can be done at the beginning of the year the nurse can actually call on the spot and get consent so it's not it's something that we like to have for the whole school year and they need to renew consent from school year to school year excellent same as we do with the U Media Services yes all right my last question I should say not just a question but the health care um thank you for choosing ML King and

106shim Moro it's a study that not for other reasons as well it's study that's that's taking place right now at the time VCU that um majority because of if you live in a certain area let's say most your your life time is pro projected to be 20% 20 years different as opposed to living another part of the East and a lot of it goes back to the heart so at the end of the day what you're doing is selecting those thank you so very much for that there's ample D support that selection and I was surprised when I saw it and and but there are other um organizations initiatives that are being form right now in Partnership but thank you you're on it I'm going take that back to the committee because maybe we can

107connect and take it to another level AB thank you so why did you choose those two schools it's actually the nurses they are they're working on politin so each nurse is the champion for their own building so the nurses are Champion their School population to get oh Dr Harris M thank you so much I am just so excited because in 2223 I spoke with Chief Parks about teleah health um and I from the day spoke very strongly about ptin that program um in our school Visions to reduce the absences of our students um because of dental care I care hearing and then most importantly that immunization so I'm excited um about that being a part of RPS and then so kudos to you all kudos to the team Mr Camas thank you for um hearing

108the vision hearing my plea that we really need in our school Division and then lastly not a question or just an observation just a comment that I just wanted to share that we have some beautiful women in the room wearing hot pink and the reason why we're wearing hot pink is because this week ladies of the minland region of alpha Capa Alpha celebrating our 72nd minan Regional Conference I just wanted to make that statement known because the ladies in hot pink are doing a great work um in that school Division and those that are not hot pink that are members of our sorority um we're getting ready to paint the town pink and green this week and so thank you so much for the work that you all have done my heart is full with

109that tell health because it is greatly needed um heard Miss Burke statement that study and the reasons why that you all chose those schools are spot on because the data is there so thank you thank you Mr first thank you madam there um I meant wear my hot pink BL clean um first com Tom um thank you so much for doing immunizations um you didn't mention MMR but when I read these stories coming out of Texas it breaks my heart that we are in the 21st century and it it breaks my heart because if parents want to believe disinformation that's great but it's the kids suffer so thank you for doing that my question is uh the Naran this is great um where is the Naran located have we given thought to is it centrally

110located in the nurses office is distributed so the nurses usually do an assessment of their buildin to determine where are the best places for that so you may find some Narin located in our uh defibrillator boxes but they in our emergency red bag there's definitely a dose excellent thank you yes m thank you madam chair um you mentioned research and BCU are they interacting engaging with children or how is what is that the health Hub I don't know I'm not familiar with it so we do we partner with BCU on multi-assets WE partner with the Children's Hospital of Richmond we also partner with uh VCU School of Nursing who provides us with resources for physicals and uh during our summer and um fall months as well and then what's the research study no research research

111so there's no research I think she buto is conducting research no no not I'll thank I'd like to first uh just thank you for your enthusiasm and passion it's very clear that you are passionate about what you do and it reflects in every slide every detail all the data so thank you so much um I also love to hear that the amount of autonomy that I hear that you're allowing for the nurses to really understand where they are and and and do what works for them I mean I think that speaks volume to your success but I would encourage you to continue to go down that path because um you know we perhaps could have a pilot in every school for one reason or another um so thank you for that um shout out to

112Cardinal who is one of the three schools that um have T Health I actually had the the opportunity to to to see the setup on site um and just really thrilled to hear that we had our first um case today um hopefully it wasn't anything too um Earth shattering um nonetheless and then also to hear about uh physicals which is huge I mean it's just it's immensely important to allow them to to be able to um to thrive and not have those barriers just because um a mom or dad can't take off or they don't have the proper documentation to do so it's really essential to to ensure that we have we give the students what they need um and then also at the end of the day wrap around Services is what it's all

113about we can say all day long let's just teach the children right but um they have needs that need to be met and so just thank you for your Forward Thinking Miss parks for your leadership um and just ensuring that we continue to have that wraparound Services mindset um my only question that I have is as it relates to the Naran and while I'm excited to hear that we have it it's also unfortunate to hear that we need it in all schools so my question to you is um is there any data at this point to get an understanding of drug usage in schools um and um just just trying to get an understanding of what other services are there I know when we serve on the disciplinary committee on marijana usage and things of

114that sort have come up and I don't know if this is more of a question for you or for Miss Parks um but I would be interested to hear the data as relates to drug uses parly now that it's been um made legal and is very well accessible to our students because it does impact their performance and education so in regards to the ncan usage we've over the last two years only had to administered three doses um and those were due to precautionary measures we had students eating edible gotten really really sick and so just as a more cautionary measure we administered it because obviously there could be some things that we don't know um that are in those but there is no holistic data set um that we have on an arcan usage but

115as far as the number of disciplinary infractions happy to share that with you I don't have that data in front of me but we do have it I think we should I think we have to revisit um because of the amount that I anticipate that we'll see in terms of um what we find during searches and things of the like we may need to consider some stronger polic surrounding that just kind of putting that out there for my colleagues to consider but would love to to hear more about what that data looks like thank you so much thank you thank you we are now at 5.02 receive an update on summer school good evening schard chair superintendent cameras members of the school board my name is Sydney Gunter and I am the director of academic

116programs and supports um I am one of the directors on the team that works with the cni team secondary Pathways team that supports a lot of our supplemental programs one of which is summer school which I have come to share with you today our plans um we are excited it is the time of year again for summer school so planning is underway I will say summer school is not just an academic team effort I know it's a short six weeks but it's like a many school week so it takes all of our teams to run Summer School from transportation to school nutrition services care and safety teachers office Associates everyone helps to support summer school so we are grateful that the teams are up and running um to get our summer program started I just

117want to share um some brief um numbers from last summer right after I know I presented at the end of the summer but after the final wash we were able to collect our summer school numbers and we had an increase of 700 students last year Su so that programming last year that we implemented really um has had an impact over the last few years we want to continue to bring our kids to summer school to experience the enrichment they have um in the summer um and the aggregate days they attended 50,8 53 days for our kids just in that six weeks the number of kids we have times the number of summer school days 50,000 extra days of school in the summer right so if if you do the not MTH person but if you

118do the math I promise that's right um and so our program this year um is uh going to be building bridges so that is our theme and it means three things right and so I will talk about our summer bridge program expansion but also um a lot of bridges right we have we got a lot of bridges in our city so what a great um sort of stem Focus for our science classes um and also Bridges sort of highlight connections and inclusivity this summer which we also want to um highlight in some of our community circles and mindful moments this summer um the overview this summer is that we will have pre through 8th grade summer school June 9th through July 10th and high school will start on June 9th but it will be one

119week longer as it has been in the past to give the high school students an opportunity to recover those credit stores graduation Monday through Thursday again which are the operational days of the school system in the summer um and there's a slight change if you notice in our hours so prek through fourth grade is lock together fifth graders will go to our middle school that is our bridge program give them an opportunity to experience middle school before actually going to middle SCH this summer so we are excited about that holidays of course will be juneth and then July 3rd which is play and summer graduation is July the 17th so please put it on your calend our core programming this summer um will be similar to last year and that we will offer um pre

120and kindergarten Readiness so those kids who are rising kindergarteners will come in that program pairs a kindergarten teacher with a PRK teacher to get some of those kindergarten skills um we will of course have the Intensive literacy Math and Science enrichment and our curriculum and instruction team is busy planning this year because not only only will they offer some of that remediation that the students need but they're planning a curriculum that will expose students to what they will see in the upcoming grade level so if I'm a rising seventh grader I'm also going to see some foundational seventh grade content to prepare me for the next school year we will also have of course intensive academics for our middle school students our bridge program for our eighth graders which I will talk about um in

121just a second in credit recovery for our seniors and our overage under accredited students will be able to take initial credit hses to support them towards graduation we will Infuse local Field Trips Again like we did last year we did college tours last year we visited the James River last year we will do those experiences again this year um and one change this year is that our bridge program students will have the opportunity to visit their upcoming students so we'll talk about that in a second as go to um we're also going to partner with the mayor's Youth Academy again last year the CIT were able to come support summer school and the students in the mayth academy so they will be back again to support us in summer school the Summer Bridge programs um

122we are expanding this year so last year we had the 8th to nth grade program this year we will have an eighth to nth grade program and a fifth to sixth grade program so that's really important to expose those fifth graders to what's up and coming for Middle School for the following year um and so we will give all fifth graders an opportunity to attend summer school which is different than previously where we invited specific students who needed remediation this year all fifth graders are invited to attend um and those fifth graders again will be in the middle school summer school sites and they will um the students from the RPS 200 school will be invited so we don't traditionally invite the RPS 200 students to come to summer school because their school year starts

123the week right after summer school ends but the fifth graders from the RPS 200 schools are able to come to summer school this year so that they can experience the bridge program is welcome so we didn't want to leave them out because they will be going to middle school the next year um Martin Luther King and Lucille Brown will be our summer bridge program sites um and within our bridge program um the uh secondary team has done a phenomenal job planning experiences so some of our community Circle themes just so you can get a taste mind for Mondays where they will um be working on conflict resolution and self- advocacy skills technology Tuesdays where our edtech integrator team is going to come in and teach them some digital citizenship and we are also transitioning to

124Canvas and so students will have an opportunity this summer to actually use canvas so they will be prepared for next students and teachers receive canvas training work at Wednesdays and on work at Wednesday study habits they will be working on time management and those types of things and then turn up Thursday where they will team building activities um and other fun things to get get to know each other um so we are excited for those things um and I think the kids will have a lot of fun as well um the bridge program will also incorporate as I said before a day where all of those students will go to their upcoming school so they will take a field trip and the the actual Middle and High School principles are busy planning with their teams

125what that will look like when the kids come to them that day so we want to give them a school tour we want them to meet the school counselors the principal some of the teachers um get a taste of the electives that they may experience the following year um and just have an overall sort of fun time and a pep rally right so they are excited to become future um Ro for future Falcons um next year I love it sorry wait um our summer sites this year um we have eight Elementary School sites miles Jones Southampton ra Rock GH Reed Swansboro Henry Marsh Lois Harrison Jones and Overby Shephard so thank you to the facilities team um for preparing those sites for us um one change is that Broad Rock will be a standalone Summer

126School site this year and that's just because the enrollment with the broadrock GH re and J Francis so the trio the enrollment is is booming at those three sites for school it's a great thing but um sometimes it poses a transportation challenge we there so a standalone site and will be together Luc Brown of course will host the Middle School South School MLK will host the north side um middle schools and high school will be at RTC and hugenot again I have talked to Dr MAA and Mr s and I let Mr s know the New Richmond hospital for the Arts is ready we are coming to him for we've been he's been ourm um and then the final timeline for um student registration and summer hiring the student registration will open April 7th so

127that is the day we return from Spring Break um we will send out remind messages to families to All Families the littles the elementary students will get a letter the summer school um invitation for middle and high school students will be the same as it was last year they got a blue email so their RPS email account um and that seemed to work very well for registration for the for the older students so we will do that again along with the remind messages um teacher hiring will be March 17th is when it will start April 11th is when those forms will close and we will start hiring teachers on April 14th summer school hiring is sort of a reciprocal process to staff conservatively and then we build as um more students register so that we

128can sort of do the the balance of the right number of teachers and um again we will be hiring summer principles like we did last year of admin certified staff to build bu our leadership pipeline um we will hire summer school interns who are um folks who are in admin programs right now who are um getting the internship hours and then we will hire summer school office Associates again for the second year um for CBA so our 12 month office Associates and buildings um have a break and don't have to work summer school so we have um other folks serving as the summer school office um and that is my update this morning I will hopefully have more to share with you um after pictures all of our experiences and field trips later on this

129thank you for your presentation Mr C and then Dr hereis mamed and then Miss B thank you madam chair um I have a few questions um the first is I love the transition day for our students and I guess one question I had was if students can't make summer school what about do students just miss the transition day because I think that's so important for all our students so do they all get invited for that transition so we will give families an option um if your student can come to the attire summer session you can come to that day um of summer school to bridge to your next um school and so we'll make the registration process for that um clear on our summer school website it'll be a separate registration just for that day

130for families who don't register for summer school and I just really appreciate that because families have told me how much they would love that and I just think it's great that we're doing it and then um just another question with the 9312 Credit Recovery does that um is that strictly for courses or are there so testing windows that they could take advantage of as well so it is both it will be broken up into two sessions the first three weeks will be just the remediation and test session for students who just need to recover um verified credits second three weeks will be for students who need to actually recover the course credit and take s tests so they will have an opportunity to do and then I I think my last question might be for

131you and superintending cameras I know in the original budget there was A4 million dollar for um summer school so that's not in our new budget so how is summer school impacted or what what what are we changing Mr Camas the short answer is I'm not Shar but we're going to try to figure it out and I'm happy to bring that back to the thank you thank you for that response um Mr P thank you for catching that Mr car I really appreciate it thank you for the presentation I'm excited so we have mindful Mondays we have technology Tuesdays work work at Wednesdays I didn't catch Thursday turn up Thursday turn up Thursday so work at Wednesdays and turn up Thursdays I'll be present um not that Mondays um or Tuesdays so just saying um I

132really appreciate the thought behind thinking about our fifth graders Rising sixth graders remember having a conversation in 23 what did that look like because we were missing at pieace um the transition um until Miss rard asked the question that was very valid about those that are not attending summer school so thank you for that um is there another opportunity prior to the school opening for another recap part two a transition and the reason I'm asking is because fifth grade or Elementary period is you follow me we we do together we go to lunch together restrooms are very um micromanaged if you will so going to a middle school level is total freedom in terms of what I just described right there is not that handheld we're going to follow you now I will say Martin

133Luther King Junior Middle School still has that um that fifth grade transition that thought process in terms of we know you're bigger we know you're older however um it is a new place for you and it looks very different are we thinking about having a part two but just to reach out another another opportunity for those fifth graders that don't attend that one day transition to come you know have another opportunity right before school and those who did come may need a refresher that is not something that we've embedded in summer school but I know a lot of the middle schools have that transition night where they invite families but not just students but families to come um and maybe you know one day after work they will invite parents or grandparents and the student

134to come have that experience again to um so that's something that I can take back to the summer school team um to to discuss but we hadn't embedded a second opportunity um within our summer school program yet thank you so much for that not yeah so we we also exploring some other options that we will U present to uh superintendent cameras and then hopefully to the board because our neighboring divisions do something different to ensure that they have like a stagger start to ensure that sixth graders go on the first day and ninth graders and so we're looking into that but again we going to run it past superintendent Camas once we have all of the data and a very tight proposal and then of course we'll break it before the board reques plan Miss

135B and then Mr jaar thank you madam chair and thank you it sounds exciting um I would just want to go is just St it because of the title of each days this this is excellent this is excellent um my question is number one you mentioned earlier that this past year you had 700 more students and you had previous my first question is what what happened what caused that which is a great great U great data to share our numbers have been increasing since Co of course coming to summer school but I think the programming is attracting students this is the about the third year that we have started to ined additional enrichment type of programming in summer school um I think also keeping the day longer attracts more fam so if you remember pre-co

136summer school was over about 1:30 you know and kids went home but I been keeping it until 2:30 and 3:30 enables more kids to come um because families do not have to worry about where their child is going to go at 1:30 or 12:30 so I think those things have contributed oh manag so was this the 700 increase was that High School level Middle School Level Elementary level do we have the D SE and I have a question for ask a reason for asking this line of questions yeah I I can I can actually provide information on the exact summer school sites and how many students at each site um but it was about 200 more students at from 8 to 12 is how we break it up to report in the state about 200

137more students from that grade band and then from k to7 um were the other 500 students we increased and so I think that 200 increase really had a lot to do with the eighth grade summer bridge program where we invited all eth graders at summer school best excellent because often times students will come the first day and you see I don't have to go to summer school I pass the grade so I I I appreciate I look forward to coming to visit to see um some of the activities that will take place because that does what you serve for lunch as well as um what activities in addition to the academics that always holds them in place my last question is regarding the um I love the idea of going to a middle school high

138school on particular day and you stated that if a student is not enrolled in summer school he can come she can come to school on on that particular day and so how how has that worked out I mean do you provide transportation that come to the school the whole school just just how would that be I'm thinking about the accountability and being responsible for the students that show up yeah yeah so for the students who are not enrolled in summer school the plan as of now is to um have a separate registration for them to register to come on that day to their upcoming site parents will have to bring them to that visit on that day and they will go directly to the um site so they wouldn't come to the middle school they

139would go to um Martin Luther King or they would go to hugut that day directly and would not ride the bus all right thank you Mr jaari thank you m chair again congratulations this a very well out plan uh I really like the uh the enticement if you will for midle school to be able to see that CH and and would help motivate them and keep them engaged but if I recall correctly you you said something about a collaboration with the May mayor's summer program could you elaborate on the extent of it and some that I'll take some there sure the mayor's Youth Academy has students who participate um who are interested in education who've expressing interest in education um and so they they work during the summer for the marage Youth Academy and so

140we are able to place um those students in our uh middle and eleat school sites to support and they support an office um they support you know students in classes who be tutoring and so we put high school students in middle schools and middle school students in elementary schools the middle school students are the counselors in training um and so they're able to get some experience in schools um the May Academy paged them to do that do that program in the summertime so it was a great Partners last year seems like uh just yesterday you were presenting to us last year um but I just really appreciate how you continue to just raise the bar from year to year and the theme about uh I you said something about bridging say it again Building Bridges

141Building Bridges and just the thought process behind that you know allowing um folks to you know perhaps travel and do some um you know uh be able to to visit those sites and so on and so forth so just thank you just for just your passion around what you do um I I wanted to just call out um the need to have a standalone school I and I know that I'm redundant in saying this but just um as we think about population particularly on the South Side I'm not surprised that we've seen an increase um in the amount and I think that a lot of it has to attest to the curriculum and the great work that you all are doing but also that there is um some overpopulation happening on the south side and

142I just don't want that to be missed on anyone um that's listening um but there is a need there's a need there my my only question is um the schools that we are utilizing for summer school are any of these schools um and this might be a question for you Mr Camas um uh on the list for facilities maintenance and if so have we considered what might happen with that regard yes our first stop in selecting Summers SCH sit is Mr haway um and D's team um and so we first have to consider which schs have facilities projects in the summer and we stay away from those very wise thank you so much thank you for all you do appreciate you all right um typically we would um use other informational items as something that

143perhaps can be read but just wanted to call out um item 6.05 6.06 and 6.07 collectively to receive an update for Richmond High School of the Arts William Fox Elementary with bille Elementary School yes um so just just for protocol purposes are we allowed to just ask for these and have make presentations it's for um a particular presentation it's about to take place per um Mr Cam's request good evening Madam chair Mr Vice chair super cameras and the school board Dana Fox coming to you live for the last time as Chief Operating Officer of RPS um I do want to extend my gratitude to this board it has been a joy to serve you U while it's been short it's been an absolute pleasure of mine um I also want to extend profound gratitude to

144Super internate cameras for and what was maybe a stroke of gen or a momentary laps in judgment um CH me to be um so if you will indulge me for just a second I had stood at this Podium probably maybe a hundred times now over the years and and presented to the school board I've been humbled by the school board I've been supported by the school board and I've I've grown in this capacity and in this space um and realizing now as I'm leaving that I have not given the shine and the opport opportunity to my directors um that they so rightfully deserve and and need to give credit where credit is due and not Everyone likes to present at the podium um we have a lot of directors who do a wonderful job I

145think I can say with confidence that my directors prefer not to be in this space um however they uh are here and they they showed up to support me today they took me to a great lunch this afternoon and um are really here to see me off and I wanted to make sure that they got the appropriate shine and that you all can put a face with the name for the amazing work that has been happening with the operations team and that will continue to happen in my absence so with that um we are here and first here is Miss ingred fny Reynolds she is our amazing director of Transportation here we have Bobby hathway who needs no introduction but is our incredible director of facilities here we have Michael Bourne who is our risk

146manager and has obviously been very busy over the years the born legacy and then everyone knows misser starts who is our executive office associate and also the very glue that holds this team together if ever there's a question it's always just ask eer um so she's here as well then we have John basa who is our director of construction and is really moving the needle with all of these projects that you've been seeing and then the amazing Jason Brey who is our director of Technology Services um who has done incredible work since he's been here and I do want to give shine to Melissa whis who is our director of procurement uh she's going to kill me if she's listening but she is expecting a baby next month and so she's not feeling great today

147so she's not here but I wanted to celebrate her as well so this is the amazing operations team and I know um just with them it you won't even notice that I'm gone cuz the work is going to be continuing and they're absolutely incredible so really when had an opportunity to give them some shine and confetti so thank you guys office and then our faces that is a good ide I'm get a all before you give your final presentation on behalf of all of RPS we just want to say thank you to you Dana for the extraordinary work you've done over the last few years uh I think it was a stroke of Genius U hiring you into this position and all you need to do is drive down M lithian or an Avenue or

148see the amazing uh Chromebook covers that our kids now have my own son is incapable of breaking his Chromebook because of these things uh not to mention and perment bless you um transportation the whole n yards everything done I mean oh my gosh all the HV systems and roofs and everything else that you and Bobby have taken care of uh and of course sorry Michael we've been keeping you busy but uh D no matter what the issue was you were always there and ready to tackle it and to do it with professionalism and with Grace and uh it's a huge loss for RPS but we're happy for you to take your next step and um you will always have a home here RPS so with that we'd love to give you your flowers and if

149I could invite the board can we take a picture with this I really was G to wear my pain bler [Music] now so if come on side now we're even um Mr Jafar and Dr Harris Mohamed could you switch places please so the pink can show up this is better here we go one two um so Richmond High School of the Arts uh the project that brought me here I won't bore you with this detail I do want to shout out that this week is women in construction week um so i' be remiss if I didn't celebrate that last 20 years has been my career in construction and in the construction industry only 11% um of folks who work in the industry are women so I want to shout out Kim Wilson who works for

150RPS she is our construction project manager for RFA and then Melissa Lis and Mary Beth Reed who are construction procurement ladies so uh RPS is rocking and rolling with ladies and construction uh Rich High School for the Arts we can just kick it to the photos uh that is moving right along if you've been by there I hope you have as you go drive past it every week is something different and new brick is going up on the building is very exciting it's very real you can see um what that building is becoming rapidly so this is just some updates uh as we go through here's the auditorium which is going to be amazing you can see the cafeteria and the gymnasium um so it's going to be a lovely lovely school you can see

151the updates there as well happy to take any questions on rhsa before we move on to the next it is near and dear to my heart and I have interjected myself and made sure I was on the invite list for the ribbon cutting person has a question thank you m just real quick because I actually got an email from a constituent um are there solar panels on this high school or will it be it will be solar panel ready so we have to decide how we're going to go forward with that situation it is a lead building a lead Pro uh William Fox Elementary School that is moving right along uh we are closing in on our substantial completion date which would be over the summer uh and then we will welcome students in August

152you can go to the photos this is the new administrative um welcoming area reception area I guess as it were lighting fixtures this is the new security vule that is in the main lobby main entrance there uh and then this is the third floor mezan where you see the glass on the left side that is actually the spot where the fire initially started for this project or for this building um but now it's going to be a finished mezanine space for breakout groups and and different things it's very exciting it's absolutely beautiful any questions on when Fox on the tree um Ste out and this is her baby but we will we will grow seeds okay so Woodville Elementary I'm excited to share out what the design is for Woodville um we are still working

153through design you can keep going please um go one more time one more time okay so this is uh the aerial of the design development this is scheduled to be a net zero building so does how you can see a lot of um solar panels there on the roof and different things go one more slide it'll show you the main entry there for Woodville with the blue metal paneling and and all of it the buff brick this was all part of the community engagement um sessions where we chose I say we they chose um the colors and the and the things that they liked with that I do want to update everyone on this project where we are with design uh we did submit for the EPA climate Justice grant that is a Federal grant

154uh as of right now that has all been sort of put on H and we don't know where we're at with that um it's been kind of radio silenc for for that um effort you'll go back to the main slide go back one one more okay so um we did submit the grant for that there's two different scenarios when it comes to the grant I'm sharing all of this with you as I on the door but it is going to be a conversation that we need to have um or you all need to have uh so with the grant there's two different versions of this if we proceed with the project as it relates to the Grant and how it was required by the grant uh is a larger footprint of a building did you

155want I watch I'm just on I know this is you should say your to and this work has been a huge part of the process as well but for the for the grant there are some requirements that we had to have we had Community Hub partner which added sare footage to our building which is the YMCA they would have their own space um it makes the project more expensive to pursue it as it is required by the Grant also if we were to be awarded the $20 million that does not mean we have $20 million for construction that means we have $20 million and a lot of stuff has to come right off the top because it's a Federal grant so we have to pay Davis bacon which are prevailing wages we have to pay

156the additional square footage for the community Hub partner we have to have a full-time person that's a grant funded position so there's money coming right off the top of that 20 million and when we do the math um we're clearing probably around 13 million of that so no matter how you slice it we are at a funding deficit based on our $200 meals tax um and whether or not we win um this the grant if we do not hit the grant we can then scale the building down it becomes a little less expensive than what you see and all that is detailed in this slide um but again still at a funding deficit based on what we have left from the 200 million and what we've used that for I will say the city has

157um promised the FY 29 $200 or 200 million meals tax the only way maybe this could get funded ahead of time is if they could front some of that money not knowing what the debt capacity is not knowing what those conversations look like um that's a conversation for for you off for another time um with different FES but just wanted to name that where we are in the process is is through design and development but we cannot put this on the street to bid until this is a fully funded project um so just naming that and if we wanted to stay on track for 2027 opening we would need to get this on the street by June of this year in order to hit that Target so uh naming that for the group and again

158everything's detailed in that slide but very excited for what it looks like Miss Burke's been um a great part of the design committee and the steering committee for this project we've had some really wonderful involvement from um Dr alen Miller with Woodville and um a lot of folks have really engaged in this and they're very excited about the project and again is in that zero um energy school so happy to take any questions on that I just wanted to give everybody kind of the lowdown as where we are um and unfortunately without knowing anything about that Grant it's hard to know which which way we're we're going there but happy to take any questions he Mohamed and then Miss B thank you madam chair Mrs Fox thank you so much for the presentation thank you

159for the work you and your team um I just appreciate the work that you have done and keeping the your ears on the ground in the ground in the mud with grants possible funding that we can get and um you have been an individual that you know it's a saying about breaking the glass ceing um you actually kicked it through for other women in the state that come through and do the work that you're doing so kudos to you for that and I wish you God speed on the next season that you have thank you Miss thank you madam chair I I Fox just can't look at you it's working on this project regarding wood and this is not my first time having served on a committee to school you have been extremely Thal you

160have included everyone from the school level Community level the style with which you have brought us together I really appreciate it and cannot thank you enough for that um from the very beginning Miss Fox shared that Miss B right now we don't have the full funding I put all my and all my thought and will continue as Mr hedg has stated to be positive that money will come from some place because our children need this so much so I thank you so much on behalf of all of our students but the ti Island TI Island students with the Seventh District who are very very happy and need a new school on so many levels but thank you thank you thank you I'm glad we took the pictures that we've taken um I'm glad that John

161right sitting in the back because he's been truly your right-handed person regarding this project and I do hope that we continue to move forward I don't know where the is coming from but I'm will find it because we know at the end of the day our children need what we need and then other schools to come and just not in this new school but the HB systems is already stated I know how many schools in our district that had so many needs especially during Co and after you all made it happen you you have a great team I think you've also you allowed that team to Blossom you respected their levels of expertise and I thank you so much for that we may have to call you to say is this County where you are

162just something and then some because I just wanted to say thank you you will be missed it's always great to leave when you're leaving on a good because you can always come back thank you so much Mr thank you m um I know I said this I'm going to say publicly and um you know when when Fox friend down was disruptive my came to work with me and then they went to First Baptist which was so lovely the First Baptist open their doors but my children were sitting on the floor for months learning not months but at least a month um and I was serving on the PTA and you gave us a tour of Clark Springs and we could just tell the work you have done and the hours you put in to make

163that Building B for our kids and we've had wonderful years there and I'm so grateful um and we' continued to meet with the Fox Community and give updates and you are beloved in that Community for your work and um I just want to say thank you thank you madam chair um Miss Fox I just just wish I think there are people who haven't seen you in action and I've been out there and I've been in negotiating rooms with you and I've been incredibly impressed um by your knowledge and expertise and um we certainly just going to miss you because you know behind the scenes you were doing a whole lot that a lot of people can never imagine it's very appre it it definitely I was not for nothing and your impact your footprint will

164be here for a very long time well um it has been an absolute pleasure don't do it to um work with you learn from you grow with you I remember our very first meeting and um after back I had mentioned um to Mr Cameron how impressed I was with you and he reminded me of how new you you were in the role um it just speaks volumes to just who you are your work ethic I mean it's very befitting for us to give you flowers because you deserve them I mean you are going to Le some very huge shoes to fill um I have no doubt that Mr Cameron still no pressure um F those shoes but you always we I appreciate you um it's been an absolute Joy yeah so I will not get

165emotional but just know that um you'll be greatly missed by by us all thank you for all you've done and all you continue to do and um God's blessings to you on your journey ahead not just on a professional level but personally as well thank you is a great his and thank you k for indulging us um and thank you for asking us to to ensure that we called her out I was surprised to see that she was here tonight she would be here so I'm very glad that we were able to say our well wishes to you and with that I believe we are now closed who has the motion Mr Madam chair I Mo the school board of the city of Richmond in me in close session to one discuss the assignment appointment

166promotion performance to motion salaries disciplining or resignation of three central office employees as author by Virginia code 2.2 A1 two for consultation with legal council employed or obtained by a public body regarding issues related to a vendor contract negotiations and policy and process implementation as authorized by Virginia code 2.23 7188 and three for consultation with legal legal counsel and briefings by staff members or Consultants pertaining to actual or probable litigation regarding cases related to the Monroe Park Incident as authorized by Virginia code 2.2 seconded by Dr Harris yes yes yes we are now in close my colleages as soon we soon we go back and get settled soon we can come out and open up thank you