RPS School Board Meeting - June 20, 2023

001good evening everyone and welcome to the meeting of the Richmond Public Schools school board for Tuesday June 20th 2023 Madam clerk roll call Miss door Miss White president miss Gibson here Mr Young president miss Rizzy here Dr Harris Muhammad president miss Burke here Ms page Miss Jones here we have a quorum thank you madam clerk we'll now have our translation services announcement good evening everyone my name is Louis Martinez and I'm the language Justice coordinator if there are any folks in the audience that need an interpretation from English to Spanish we do have our interpreters here in the back and I'm handing out headsets to anyone that needs one for anyone that's watching virtually we do have interpretation available through Zoom as well and now I will make this announcement in Spanish Matthew mccant here

002though Mr Stanley we can't hear the interpretation message or can't hear his mic testing yeah it's definitely better my apologies I'll start over thank you we do have interpretation available in English and Spanish for anyone in the audience that needs that we also have interpretation available through zoom and now I'll make this announcement in Spanish thank you everyone thank you we're not 1.04 approve the minute 20th a free school oh I'm so sorry I skipped from 1.03 we will now have our Pledge of Allegiance and moment of silence please stand thank you you may be seated and now we are at item 1.04 approve the minutes of the March 20th April 10th and April 17 2023 school board meetings it's been moved by Miss Jones and seconded by Dr Harris Muhammad to approve the minutes

003of March 20th April 10th and April 17th Madam Clerk this door Miss White yes Miss Gibson yes Mr Young aye Ms Rizzy yes Dr Harris Muhammad yes Mrs Burke yes Miss page Miss Jones yes motion passes thank you we are now at 1.05 adoption of the agenda yes Miss Gibson thank you madam chair I would like to revise the agenda uh to include at item 5.01 a discussion of gun violence and RPS safety protocols and I'd also like to amend item 7.02 23 24 Staffing update to also include the language and contract discussion second all right so you're proposing an item 5.01 discussion of gun violence and safety protocols and then repeat what you said the second and then item seven point zero two currently reads received 23 24 Staffing update um uh to have

004it read receive 23 24 Staffing update and discuss contracts and contract discussion Ms Jones yes I've got Ms White I don't know Ms Jones that's why you have a go ahead thank you madam chair I'm not sure what I want to amend this but I would like to have a closed discussion um on the human eye commencement ceremony we've got several items that are we going to include the other items for amendment in this motion are we going to do two separate motions to amend the agenda um I feel like we should go ahead and get them all out well well yeah it'll be a lot for me to remember but I think we should go ahead and get them all and want to win um one vote would you like for me to go

005over the other items that we I'm I'm happy to include that in the motion to include it I mean it would be a discussion of student matters in closed session we are I think yes we've got a list of additional items that would include the student matters that's fine no the the graduation is not one we need to add that so we just have other uh amendments to make and we can just vote on all of those at one time if that is okay with you yeah okay yes ma'am the grad the the issue that Miss White raised would be included in the item that Mr Young had suggested earlier oh that's all right matters yes all right it is okay so did you hear that Miss White it's already here okay so we have

006um to include student matters in closed session at Mr Young's recommendation we also have to add a closed session to follow public comment right for briefing by legal counsel on the ash center and we also have to add board action items 6.12 received for approval Head Start transportation and students with disabilities waiver yeah and we would like to have Miss Gibson A Min her motion to those additional pieces and why is it so we're gonna I mean folks are sitting here so we're going to go into closed so uh yes Mr Wolf cannot stay late okay he has asked if we would do a closed session to have uh you know him brief us so and then we'll come back into open and continue that's fine so as a courtesy to the public I just

007would like to identify a time frame for that discussion so that folks know when we will be we will go in at 6 45 we will come back out as soon as we're done I would say 7 15 7 20. that's rather late I you know that's what I'm proposing we can get to reject it um it is what Mr Wolf said he could do uh I don't know I have concern about um so we can do yours and then we can add we can do a separate motion for that okay okay Madam chair yes um I would like to um participate via virtual as soon as I leave so we can add that to Ms Gibson's Miss Gibson are you fine well wherever it is most I think that's a separate motion we'll have

008to do this time all right I did not want to lose that yes thank you thank you thank you board colleagues all right so first we have Miss Gibson's motion and that motion is to add item 5.01 uh a discussion of gun violence and safety protocols and then let's see seven point zero one a zero two receive 20 23 24 Staffing update and in contract discussion all right so that was moved by Ms Gibson and it was seconded by Mr Young Madam Clerk Ms door Miss White yes Miss Gibson yes Mr Young all right Mr Rizzy yes Dr Harris Muhammad yes Miss Burke yes Miss page Miss Jones yes motion passes thank you madam clerk okay so now um I will move to amend the agenda to include me down um agenda item Five Point

009let's see oh so I want to yeah I'm suggesting that we go 5.02 behind what Miss Gibson is just added to add a discussion of rescheduling the 717 board meeting to 7 10. okay so that mm-hmm I'm getting all of them okay so you know and we'll explain that when we get to it if you know um then I propose we amend the agenda to add board action item 6.12 approve Head Start Transportation waiver and students with disabilities waiver and then uh we would also amend the agenda to go into closed session after our public comment period to receive an update from attorney Wolff regarding the Arthur ash center so that the record reflect that miss Page has arrived I believe so Madam Clark is that all we would still need to include the student

010matter in the second closed session okay and add a student Mata add the student matter to Second close session second like me to repeat um so we're going to add agenda item 5.02 which would include a discussion of the rescheduling of the 717 board meeting to 7 10. we will add item 6.12 approve Head Start Transportation waiver and students with disabilities waiver we would amend the agenda to go into closed session after public comment to receive an update from attorney Wolff regarding the author ash center and then we will add to those closed session the student matter so that was moved by Me seconded by Mrs Burke Madam Clerk Mr s white yes Miss Gibson yes Mr Young all right Miss Rizzy yes Dr Harris Muhammad yes Miss Burke yes Miss page Miss Jones yes

011motion passes thank you now do we need to adopt the agenda as amended okay I move that we adopt the agenda as amended second so I've moved and um it was seconded by Dr Harris Muhammad to adopt the agenda as amended Miss door Miss White yes Miss Gibson yes Mr Young aye Mr Rizzy yes Dr Harris Muhammad yes Miss Burke yes Miss page Miss Jones motion passes thank you madam all right we will now move into our recognition 2.01 recognition of Early College Academy class of 2023 graduates thank you madam chair and good evening everyone tonight we welcome the graduates of the class of 2023 Early College Academy this remarkable group of 34 students has graduated with both their high school diploma and their associate's degree by embracing the rigorous challenges of college level work

012they have not only excelled academically but have also demonstrated exceptional dedication and persistence as they embark on the next chapter of their educational Journey or Venture into the professional world we remind them to carry the spirit of excellence and determination that has brought them this far the future holds boundless opportunities for our ECA graduates and we have no doubt that you will seize them to invest in and uplift yourselves your community and all of Richmond if we could I know we have a number of our ECA graduates here I'm going to read the ones I think are here and if you can all come on down and we'd love to honor you and take a picture so saisha Anderson Wilbur Arias Bryce Carrington Elizabeth Childress Kayla green lamika Harris Jasmine Johnson Finn Jones Vlad Jones

013Kamaya King Jade Williams Aquila Williams and Sydney Wright so let's um come on down let's get a picture and then if we could have yes and if we could have I know we have the fine folks from Jay Sarge here in Candace and then if there are any family members or teachers if you could all come on down after we take the picture with the students all right so next um as many of you know our relationship with Carolyn chambliss is soon coming to an end and we wanted to take a moment to thank them and especially attorney Lilly who has been a tremendous support for our board for many years and who will truly truly be missed attorney Lilly we have some flowers for you and we think you should come up and take

014a photo with us I think any board member who wants to join all right we are now moving into item three public information Madam Clerk conduct of speakers speakers shall State their own legal name prior to addressing the school board speakers will address the school board as a whole rather than individual school board members the division superintendent school board attorney Clerk or any other staff member the school board will listen to comments but will not respond during the public information period persons appearing before the school board will not be allowed to one campaign for public office to promote private business ventures or three use profanity or vulgar language if a community member's comments during the public information session relate to school-based issues the chairman prefer that individual to Richmond Public Schools administration for one-on-one consultation

015and follow-up is important that all community members who wish to participate in the public information period about other guidelines set forth in this policy refusal to abide by the policy will result in the forfeiture of the remaining time that has been allotted to the speaker community members May Express their views in writing in lieu of any oral presentation comments received in writing in the living oral presentation will not be read during the meeting but shall be posted to the school board platform board Docs thank you madam Clark we have three speakers who are registered uh that will include Madeleine mcclenny Melvin hostman and Douglas Harrigan we would start with those three if you are here and then anyone else who would like to speak may follow please approach the lectern write your full name on

016the clipboard and speak your full name before you begin to deliver your presentation yeah I see him good evening school board members my name is Melvin hostman I am a fifth district resident and a teacher at Huguenot High School I have not come before you to talk about the events of the Huguenot commencement held on June 6. I know that some of you were there with me as those events unfolded I hope that you and all that were there are making use of the resources that have been provided by the district and the community to help process and heal from the trauma that we collectively and individually suffered on that day June 6 was important for another reason as well it marked the first time in 40 years that a contract was sent to teachers

017to sign that was a product of collective bargaining and negotiation this is an especially big deal for me personally as I am the Rea building rep at Huguenot and I have served on both the collective bargaining committee as well as the negotiation team on June 6 I had already received three communications from colleagues prior to arriving at school and I arrive early these workers are reaching out to me to ask why none of the language we negotiated around additional duties was included in the contract language the district has sent them to sign as I settled into my day I was shocked to confirm this nothing about planning time being protected nothing about additional pay for covering classes or for testing Etc in fact the contract took exactly the same as it did last year with

018the exception of the increase in base salary that we had negotiated since that morning I had been attempting to figure out why this is the case to no avail I finally advise my worried colleagues to sign the contract as presented in under the understanding that RPS will be legally required to follow what was one at the negotiating table other districts with more robust histories of negotiation have language like this in the actual contract or sometimes attached to the contract in an addendum of some sort I'm concerned that workers who did not follow negotiations closely or who are new to RPS may not be aware of the rights and concessions that were won in this process these concessions will increase not just their pay but their qual the quality of their working conditions as well in

019addition I am concerned that the present language does not enshrine these concessions on the level of illegal binding contract signed by both employer and worker this situation is especially odd given that during the month of May we worked with District representatives in an ongoing basis to rephrase our negotiated concessions into what the district called contract language why is contract language not in the actual contract that process doesn't make any sense that the language we've worked on is not in our contract I look forward to discovering why this language was not included in our contracts and to learn what steps the administration plans on taking to resolve this important issue thank you very much thank you next speaker good afternoon my name is LaKeisha Williams I am a parent a teacher and a resident of the

020eighth District I come before you tonight for several topics the first one as a parent I'm asking that you revise and review the student code of conduct to not only make the language available to students and staff but available to parents to understand that the activity and things that our children may get in trouble to that the students will be able to understand the second thing is transportation Transportation has become to be very very unsafe with the most recent is that summer school buses did not show up to a lot of bus stops this morning I don't know if there are bus stops or bus hubs from the school-based level we were told that hubs were assigned versus stops buses didn't show up either way to expect my second grader who was picked to attend

021summer school to walk to Hickory Hill from my subdivision is not safe um also the activity that go on on buses there's been several instances that the bus driver has had to stop buses due to students behavior on the bus and I don't feel that bus drivers has been supported from a parent's point of view my husband has taken several videos retrieving my children off of the bus and that of things that has put the bus driver safety in danger the next thing is that when students have allergies or food preferences that the cafeteria is not notified unless it's a medical necessity I have a child as a vegetarian and he does not be provided any other options outside of being forced to take the meat option on his tray the second thing I will

022address you for is being a staff member as my time has come to a close as a preschool teacher of 16 years at Broad Rock Elementary School I defer that you review your preschool policy and things that is included in there to make it more easy and efficient for preschool teachers such as mental health for students students with disabilities when teachers refer them for services or to be reviewed for not meeting their cutoff points that those things from teacher standpoint become to be real I also would ask that each board member visited our preschool centers to make sure that everything that's included in the creative curriculum that all Preschool teachers IAS Librarians media Specialists that they have an opportunity to have the material that is required to execute that curricula there are several materials that

023are not provided by the district that is in that curriculum that makes it inequitable to be able to execute a lesson unless you spend your own money I thank you for listening to me and I would love to know what my future endeavors may be thank you next speaker uh be sure you turn on the mic and push that little button yes good evening School Board I'm not Madeline mclenny daughter of Francis wooden mcclenny and excuse me I have with me Don Elizabeth Thornton all the way from Texas who is a first grade student of Miss mcclenny but my understanding is the protocol is that she should be here she would be if she could not be and I would like to know um Shannon Rizzy if or superintendent I have permission for her to

024say what she wants to say attorney Lilly are you gonna give me some guidance here um it would be up to the board but that is not in line with your protocol for colleagues it seems that there is consensus that it's is there anyone opposed okay there's all right I think we are going to need to take a boat there are those who believe that the policy should not be suspended okay we need a motion and a vote and they won't want to move well actually Madam chair just for clarification it's a protocol it's not a policy so uh I just wanted to make that clear for the public there is a difference between the two they're both written but you don't have to suspend a protocol I I just wanted to be clear all

025right so we will vote to alter the protocol is anyone going to make a motion I'm not going to make a motion right now I just want to be clear that when this occurred in 2022 the board denied that and so because of this very same reason and we had something very similar in 2021 I am not for or against someone calling in the speed but when we I also want to remind the board that we've had people come and um others allowed them to give them their time so we just need to be consistent with whatever we do I'm happy to yield my time okay um well we need emotions still we can allow uh Ms mcclenny to yield her time and allow the speak these go ahead speaker to call him so move

026vacuum okay thanks full so it's been moved by Dr Harris Muhammad to allow Mrs mcclenny to suspend her time and allow the caller to speak and tell me her name again please Don Elizabeth John Thornton Johnson okay and it was seconded by Mrs Burke Madame Clark Miss door no Miss White yes Miss Gibson Mr Young aye Ms Rizzy yes Dr Harris Muhammad yes Miss Burke yes what did you say Mr yes okay thank you miss page you say yes thank you Miss Jones yes motion passes I'm going to restart the time for three minutes okay um Miss Thornton here you go all right can just do a technical can you hear me yes they're nodding their hits and thank you so much tell me when I can start go all right and thank you for

027allowing me to join you from Dallas Texas Mrs Francis mcclenny my God puts people into your life for a reason I believe that Francis mcclenny was put into my life when I was a child as a part of my Foundation the bricks that she laid built upon the peers and the beings that my mother and father laid have made me the person that I am today my name is Dawn Elizabeth Thornton Johnson and Francis mcclenny was my first grade teacher at Ginter Park Elementary School in 1973. child feels special loved and valued no matter who they were she had a sweet and caring demeanor but also that forgiving firmness that young children need oh if we only had more Mrs mcclenny's teaching our children today my mother was an educator and always said that the

028parent is the child's first teacher how lucky and blessed my childhood peers and other children were to have Mrs mcclenny as their first teacher her classroom was full of excitement challenge creative expression and structure that made me feel safe confident and eager to learn at the age of six I remember always wanting to help in her classroom from helping to decorate the educational bulletin boards when teachers used to trace letters and objects on construction paper cut them out by hand with scissors and use the staple gun to create inspiring colorful vignettes of learning for children if only this Instagram culture could fully experience their five senses of their body as we did in the wonderful world of Mrs mcclenny I had an incredibly unique privilege of knowing Mrs mcclaney in her work environment of my

029first grade classroom as my teacher but also in her home environment as the mclenny family lived two doors down from my family on monsters in the neighborhood of dinner Park this is Francis mcclenny was a had two of my childhood girlfriends uh that were my lifelong friends I can say that the legacy of this school and the woman who filled The Heirs in the Halls continues to live in all of us Ginger Park Elementary School most definitely should be named after Francis mcclenny time it's time thank you so much absolutely thank you next speaker good evening members of the school board my name is Andrew Morgan you may have seen my story on channel six um I'm here just to reiterate uh the email that I sent the story that was on channel six um

030we all lost everything that day my claim was not satisfied uh we got fellow co-workers here with me today that their claims were not satisfied um just would like you to take into consideration everything that we lost that day um it's hard to rebuild 22 years of tools with just ten thousand dollars just wish I would do what was said that would be done and take care of the mechanics to keep the buses on the road get the kids to school thank you next speaker good evening school board and superintendent thank you for the opportunity to speak with you tonight my name is Jim Adams I'm a resident of North Church Hill in the Seventh District and I want to ask your help to follow through on a promise you made some years ago five

031years ago or probably a little bit longer than that members of the school committee came to my neighborhood and said would you please allow us to take away your Park Ethel Furman Park and build a new school there and we promise we will build you a better park on the property that George Mason school was originally built on the community got excited of course for a new school in our neighborhood and said absolutely we will live without our park for what we were told at that time would be no more than a year and a half the school was built it's beautiful um and the neighborhood celebrated that there was some controversy about the tearing down the old George Mason building but that was um that was a decisions were made and Bricks were saved

032to build a an entrance way to the park and the park was built in part by the school board but it didn't follow through on some of the promises our community felt were made to us the land was cleared but no no input from the community was made about the park um our biggest concerns are that the park contains no picnic tables no benches most importantly it contains no lighting it's pitch black dark at night there was an incident some weeks ago that required our council member Dr Newville to take funds out of her budget to put in emergency lighting to protect the safe environment for kids um the land is cleared and the amenities that were promised are not there the Richmond parks department has told me and our members of our community that

033they stand ready to build water features walking trails to add lighting to add benches to add picnic tables most importantly to add the lighting for our community they insist that they are not able to move forward with those plans until they actually own the property the property now is in your hands awaiting our com the parks department he promises to rebuild it and the way it was promised they tell me that it's in your hands to Surplus the property and turn it over to them we already have a neighborhood friends committee we already have neighborhood volunteers who pick up trash and water the plants we ask that you move quickly to Surplus that property allow the parks department to come in and fill its commitment to our community and and place the name Ethel Furman

034back on the website of Richmond parks department if you look on the parks bureaus uh web listing there is no notation of Ethel Furman Park we look forward to the time when that name returns and the park is usable again thank you next speaker management chair we have 16 minutes left in the 30-minute public comment period thank you good evening chair Rizzy superintendent cameras and School Board I'm Kim Gray RPS parent former School Board member and I've come tonight to speak in favor of the renaming of ginner Park to Francis W mcclenny no one knows what it must have felt like for her as the first black teacher at Gunter Park but she endured being the first and went on to become the principal of that school she's touched the lives of thousands of children

035and administrators and teachers within Richmond Public Schools she spent her entire career in Richmond Public Schools and came back after retirement to help build our Virginia preschool Initiative Program I cannot think of a more worthy person to Grace the front of the denim Park school so thank you for your time tonight thank you next speaker hello sorry I'm Tisha Irby I'm gonna make this quick as you can hear my little one is crying short people all right two things sorry the um I just lost track of good sorry um summer school um I am a new parent of a ninth grade and going to be a rising 9th grade as I always preached communication communication communication I'm not sure who do I talk to but I spoke with some people I spoke with my child

036counselor and she agreed with me and I want to reach out to the proper people to make this situation safe um I talked to my school board rep too um where we live I feel like for high school they have hubs I'm confused about the hubs I don't know what that is like I said I'm a new parent I do my research but I just feel like the school we should reach out to parents and let parents and families and students know what our Hub stops are what our regular bus stops are because where we live at my son has to go to two locations and there are what three locations there are schools community community um hubs like parks and recs or churches and where we live at our closest are to elementary schools

037we have a Zone school and we have another school in our location one that I used to work at I put it out there boxy Rex luckily I'm not working there because I'm like on return to leave I just had a baby um not sure if anybody else is going through what I'm going through but as I speak I speak for me I don't like the bus stop hub because my son is in ninth grade he has to take Sol because he missed about two points sucks but yeah so he has to go to summer school at 8 30. and it's over like at 11 30. so I keep them there a little longer so he could enjoy his summer because they have the high school enrichment program and I love that program because they

038go to trips and stuff like that so he won't get home to actually the bus stop says 3 40. but my son came home today at 4 28 because I had to meet him at a bus stop pub at Broad Rock Elementary mind you it was raining when parents don't have transportation and beat their child at that bus stop hub 30 seconds we are far away my child can't now walk from his house to all the way to the bus stop you would need a car and then he was like I could ride my bike okay hide your bike gonna get on the bus leave your bike there at the school grounds and decide to pick it up safety that's very concerning to me how my child standing outside of the school grounds maybe maybe

039wrong Rock was not even open because the summer school's not there for the elementary they are Francis what my child supposed to do I have six kids time thank you next speaker good evening my name is Crystal bacon and I'm a teacher at Henderson Middle School and um in 20 2018 the White House released A Five-Year Plan for stem education this report outlines the administration's goals and approaches for advancing stem education as well as the workforce over the next five years the report describes three aspirational goals building strong foundations for stem literacy increasing diversity equity and inclusion in stem and preparing the stem Workforce for the future it further outlines Pathways to achieving these goals developing and enriching strategic Partnerships engaging students where disciplines converge building computational literacy and operating with transparency and accountability the

040Virginia Department of Education also sees the importance of stem education aligning it with the profile of a Virginia graduate recognizing that in today's economy people are required to be critical and creative thinkers excellent communicators collaborators and community-minded citizens if you were to ask me the goals of RPS in regards to stem education I wouldn't know what to tell you but if you stepped into my classroom you would say clear evidence of each goal I mentioned previously I became a stem teacher for the sole reason that I did not want to see another girl of color pushed out of a stem space whether that be a classroom a camp or career I wanted to inspire black and brown students to tap into the abilities they already have and build them up to what our communities really

041need lastly I wanted my non-black students to see that stem can and should be diverse I wanted them to be able to trust their black and brown counterparts in the classroom and be willing to step outside of the box if you step into my classroom you would see me pushing for stimulator receipts you would see me encouraging creativity and exposing my students to every opportunity they have you would see me pushing them beyond their limits that they believe restrict them and if you step into my classroom you just might see chaos but amongst that chaos you would see learning and you would absolutely see love if you simply walk into my school and I'm not my classroom you may find me collaborating with another colleague whether it be the counselors about getting our eighth graders

042into all the specialty schools helping us with the National Junior Honor Society initiation program or you might find me in another classroom assisting with a student who may be having a problem or a student who needs mediation or just helping friends resolve an issue regardless of where you find me in any school building anyone can tell you that I'm an excellent educator and that I'd want nothing more than to see the students of RPS excel in stem and push forward the goals of U.S stem education thank you good evening School Board my name is Carmen Ward and I am an employee of Richmond Public Schools for 36 years I am speaking in support of Miss Crystal bacon whom I have known all of her life I have served and still served as her mentor I

043am aware of the circumstances surrounding her case please review the letters that you all have received on her behalf I am requesting the retention of Miss bacon with RPS thank you thank you Madam clerk where are we with Tom seven minutes 52 seconds are there more speakers okay seeing none this concludes our public comment period thank you so now colleagues we have um agreed to go into close briefly to meet with attorney Wolff Madam clerk should we just uh how do we read into clothes Mrs Burke has the closed okay store has the motion to reopen after closing all right thank you yes pursuant to sections 2.2-3711a 7 and 8 of the code of Virginia I moved that the school board of the city of Richmond convene and closed session for consultation with legal counsel

044and briefings by staff members or Consultants pertaining to actual or probable litigation for such consultation or briefing an open meeting would adversely affect the negotiating or limited litigating posture of the public body and regarding real property and consultation with legal counsel unemployed or retained by a public body regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel same here second thank you so it's been moved to go into close by Mrs Burke seconded by Miss White Madam clerk Mr Miss White yes Miss Gibson yes Mr Young aye Ms Rizzy yes Dr Harris Muhammad yes Miss Burke yes Miss page Miss Jones yes motion passes we are now enclosed Miss Dora will now read the motion to go back into open I move that the Richmond School Board directed its clerk to call

045for a roll call vote of the board's members that to each the best of each members knowledge one only public business matters lawfully Exempted from a meeting requirement by Virginia law were discussed in closed meaning which is certification resolution applies and two only such public business matters as we're identified in the motion competing in the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered by the Richmond schools it's been moved by Ms door to go back into open seconded minus Jones Madam Clark Miss door Miss White yeah Mrs Gibson yes Mr Young aye Mr Izzy yes Dr Harris Muhammad yes Miss Burke yes Miss page yes Miss Jones yes motion passes thank you we are now at item 4.01 receive update on dreams for RPS goals seven enrollment thank you madam chair I will be brief given

046that we have a long agenda ahead of us uh just a couple of slides here one just a reminder going uh from last year into the year that just concluded we saw about a two and a half percent increase in our enrollment about 500 additional students obviously we will track that closely and be able to report once we have our fall membership number but the item that we are most closely tracking now is our preschool enrollment obviously we want to get as close to 100 as possible and so you'll see there on Slide Five the data for Head Start and VPI and VPI is broken out by three-year-old and four-year-old please note this was from at the beginning of the month where uh the percent filled numbers are now into the 60s and I can

047give you the update as of just a couple of days ago a head start we are now at 64.4 percent and VPI at 61.2 percent with VPI three-year-old at 55.7 and VPI four-year-old at 63.6 with a total uh Early Childhood preschool number of 62.7 that puts us um significantly ahead of uh last year at this time and I want to credit um not only the the preschool team under uh Dr Wiggins but also the enrollment team under uh Mr Hostetter everyone has been working exceedingly uh hard to ensure that we utilize every last seat so looking forward to continuing to update the board on this throughout the summer and into the fall but wanted you to know where things stood at this point thank you Mrs White thank you madam chair uh Mr cameras I

048have one question looking at uh I think you saw the slide five and looking at the seats the summer has 15 46 and remaining to be placed is 651. what are the issues that we are actually experiencing that we can't enroll our get our children uh placed because we still have 651 what are those issues thank you Mrs White um It's a combination of issues typically a lot of families um wait until right before the start of school to enroll their children that's just um kind of a common practice and so it takes a lot of effort for folks to do the enrollment paperwork and such prior to that we have expanded our Outreach doing enrollment events for example in all of the public housing Communities going to homes to try to encourage folks to

049enroll earlier and it is having an empath impact we are seeing higher numbers now than we were at this time last year there's also just a number of immunizations and other things that families have to get to be fully enrolled and that takes a little bit of time as well so it's all of those factors but again I do think we're on a a better path than we were last year and I'll know even more over the next month and and we'll see where we are at that point any other questions colleagues I have one uh Mr cameras just as a point of clarification um are we staffed 100 you know to accommodate 100 if we happen to meet that goal we are we would be able to um to meet the needs of all

050of these students thank you this is why second question with the cameras are we um doing immunizations at public housing are we taking some type of um medical truck there to do immunizations so that we that can pretty much all they have to do is just enroll thank you Mr Waite um we RPS can't do some of the immunizations vdh has to do them but we are partnering with them to offer those vaccinations in a number of different locations in fact um I've I can't recall the data the the specifics but I've included in RPS direct a number of opportunities for families to go and get their vaccinations for free and as I recall we had that information again today an RPS direct and we'll continue to get that out through all of our normal

051channels and I will check with the team to see if there are plans for vdh to go to all of the public housing communities if not I will talk with them about doing stuff Dr Harris Muhammad yeah yes Mr cameras thank you for the presentation I have a question for um or a question pertaining to the students that are out of Zone not out of District but I out of Zone students who are a part of our enrollment do we um collect data on the percentage of students that are out of Zone and if we do um can we determine from that data that is collected who determines um the tuition that they pay to the division so I out of those students is a part of our enrollment they have to apply correct if

052they're coming if they live in Henrico and they want to attend John Marshall I'm just use it because the lines Mark they're very close who deter who makes that determination that they are accepted as an AutoZone student and also um how do we track pain tuition the enrollment team uh and the local school team uh would assess each case uh individually um and the tuition rate actually the board adopted the tuition rates um I believe at our last meeting or the meeting before so it articulates exactly how much you would pay for preschool elementary middle and high follow-up so who tracks that I know we set the rates absolutely but who tracks that because the board doesn't that's out of our purview but who tracks it that would be the finance team okay um looks

053like we are ready to move now to item 5.01 and I have that as gun violence discussion safety protocols uh thank you madam chair you want me to speak Ms Gibson okay um uh thank you madam chair and uh board colleagues for um uh allowing this discussion this evening obviously I um you know this is a discussion that I am um I I did know I did not want to have um but it is it is critical that we have it uh you know as a reminder in October um you know families and students brace themselves when we discovered that a student brought a loaded gun to school at George with um earlier this uh you know a month or so ago there was a shooting at um uh at George with high school um

054earlier this year there was an incident at one of our elementary schools that involved the gun I am scared you know as a parent I'm scared um as a member of the school board I feel that uh we have we have to do something um and I am employing my board colleagues to consider what this action looks like in February I introduced the um the recommendation that the board uh add to our budget some staff that would report to the board that would be basically an auditor focused on on on school safety um and to remind the board and the public you know our our purview our scope of responsibility is is somewhat limited you know we work on the budget we work on policy but when it comes to the day-to-day operations of the

055schools um you know this is not this is not our role but we do have the ability to control and to oversee our staff and our staff includes the superintendent our board and our board Clerk and our audit team um and and the audit team plays an important role they are the district's checks and balances and um it is glaringly obvious that there are uh things that are not getting checked and and and as a district we are falling short and failure at this point looks like loss of life so we've had a myriad of issues this year in addition to the issues with gun violence we've had issues with students that are are leaving the building um the issues are are growing increasingly problematic I mean I I don't even I do not have

056words um and so I'm asking the board to reconsider this higher um for an auditor that would be focused on student safety and I also implore my board colleagues to consider what else I I want to support whatever we can do to address this I'm open to suggestions I hope we all are open to suggestions but we're only going to make a difference if we are honest that there are problems that need to be addressed um you know a community discussion uh policy changes um please please be open please provide the ideas that you have and please support this consideration for this critical role um that we that I believe we have no choice but to consider as a district thank you Mr Young thank you madam chair and first I'd gladly support Miss Gibson

057as relates to her request of us but another place to begin pertains to threat assessment teams only at the last meeting to adopt this Gibson's nomenclature employed or colleagues and I would do it again relevant to threat assessment teams and for folks perhaps who are in audience or listening who have less familiarity relevant to what if the threat of team is comprised of among other things the Richmond police department and counselors social workers Etc but my point is to say that right now our posture as a district pertains to what we characterize as substantive threats the Miss Gibson's point that just doesn't cut it uh colleagues we will this evening uh be considering our score policy document and uh at the risk of belaboring the point uh from last meeting but I'll make it again

058among other infractions or offenses that right now presumably don't warrant a threat assessment team review include for example if a student takes another student's possessions by force well in my opinion the school board members worldview that merits of threat assessment team review I was really appreciative for Miss Williams she spoke in public comment earlier and and spoke to something that all of us are unfortunately familiar with and that's an increase in incidents on our buses and specifically bus drivers having to pull off on the side of the road even on one occasion a busy highway to address the threat on the bus right now again if you re review our policy if you review the score document that we've been requested to vote on this evening I can tell you right now I will not

059support it absent amendments but that document does not provide for a threat assessment team review if the offense pertains to putting other person's welfare and Jeopardy on on the school bus so uh Madam chair colleagues I would uh one affirm Miss Gibson's request to the board I'm prepared to support it but two it seems to me that a very logical place to to begin relates to threat assessment teams and provide for more threat assessment team reviews and in lieu of what we're doing right now I.E solely identifying or reviewing threats that we characterize as substantive instead we review all uh all threats and what's more since Miss Gibson I don't know that she intended to do this but she kind of cracked the door open for me yours truly did introduce in the spring immediately

060subsequent shooting at George with ten point plan and uh I saw at the risk of stepping out of line when I uh when we had a conversation here earlier a few meetings ago there were a lot of head nods and don't anticipate that everyone will support everything in it but to miss Gibson's Point those things that we can support let's adopt and uh and to that end I hope that we will reject uh the score policy document this evening recognize we'll have additional conversation about about that later in the evening but absent increasing the scope pertinent to threat assessment team reviews particularly to Gibson's Point uh what materialized on June the 6th uh it seems to me we'd be doing a real disservice to our students and to our teachers and families thank you Dr

061Harrison 's mom take Mr Young's momentarily please testing testing thank you for um this discussion I first want to thank RPS team I don't want to start saying the names of so many people that were um helping on June the 6th and so I want to take this opportunity to thank them I want to thank the the young lady our one of our school resource officers who literally put her arms around me and um move me out of the way and had me escorted to a room where we were sitting together um I just want to thank our team our RPS team for doing what they can what they could at that time I want to also thank the VCU team who was present um and just personally want to say thank you to my

062school board colleagues who um in the midst of that we nothing else mattered what we did not agree on at the last school board meeting did it did not matter when your life is flashing before your eyes it just did not matter so you know thank you Miss White thank you Mr Young thank you Miss renzi thank you Miss Jones for um just being there together we had a front row seat on June the 6th what really mattered and Mr cameras I'm sorry Mr cameras thank you that I didn't do that on purpose it was a moment in my head um you weren't in that room but thank you I really appreciate that um we had a front row seat of what truly mattered and what should matter and why we're all sitting on this

063day is and it is past time for us to have honest conversations about our processes and procedures of our safety protocols I am looking forward to the report that Mr cameras has shared with us via email that should be compiled in 30 days because I deserve not just as a school board member but somebody's wife and somebody's mother as well as the hundreds of individuals who were present to know what happened why did it happen and who would be who would be held accountable for what happened but we first have to be brave enough to understand why did the events occur on June the 6th um I'm not okay and I'm going to say that in the most transparent way that day anyone who was there I am sure is not okay and a part

064of this process a part of reflecting on what occurred and if you were present is about taking care of your mental health and it's and taking care of what truly mattered and what truly matters as I heard a school board member say I'm not on the school board to fight for my life I'm on the school board to fight for other lives and none of us should be placed in a position that occurred on June the 6th it is beyond time for us to have honest conversations about what is truly happening in all of our schools and what responsibility as a School Division we have to ensure that our safety protocols our processes and our procedures are being followed based on our written policies and I have some concerns again I am going to wait

065for our report by our division leadership and also I'm curious as to the report from law enforcement which is going to also say a lot so I am in support of looking at our policies and our procedures and practices excuse me protocols to see where we need to strengthen any of our peas our practices our processes and our policies to ensure that we do not have this situation or situations that we have had in the past happen again thank you thank you Miss Jones and then I'd like to make a comment this is thank you madam chair um I'll say this but I've been saying it this is a very multi-layered issue there is not one answer there is not one solution it is a collaborative approach and it needs to be solution oriented we

066cannot blame we cannot um sit here and pretend to your point that you know there aren't conversations that need to be happened techniques happen but we also have to be mindful that this should not be a reactive conversation right this is a conversation that should be happening on a regular basis because these are the situations that our young people are dealing with every day so we blow it up and yes things are a little um questionable at this moment but I if we're going to be employed as a board to um speak about policies and speak about the things that we should be doing as a boy I want us to remember that these conversations have been had we are talking about positions that report to us I recall us asking questions regarding processes and

067procedures and next day we was called bullies because we were asking about the safety of our young people I was called a bully because I asked and so we have to stop making this an issue when we want to make it an issue I'm interested in hearing what our administrative leadership um Safety and Security team has put together since this incident to hear what they think should be happening moving forward and how we can support that whether that be increased staff funding and not take the role of police officer or take the role of counselor because that is not what I do but I can support it and I also know the real issues that we really need to be addressing which is housing and security which is racism which is all the things that

068factor into why we have a very prevalent and dominant issue and if we are not going to talk about it I mean we we really need to stop we really need to stop so whether it's a community here and whatever we saying we need to do let's do that because this issue has been something that we all been talking about but we ain't talking about it in the manner of solution we're talking about it as a reaction and so I would like to hear what is in place what is going to be steps taken forward since this matter has happened in how we can support that thank you so um you know I want to Echo um Dr Harris Muhammad's um recognition of the many people who stepped up that day and um provided support

069for our community it was um there were so many people out there working to take care of one another in the midst of what was a very um chaotic um just horrible crisis and so I could name them by names but there were so many and um to that young man in a black shirt who forced me to go back into the theater I don't know who you are but I I really I fought you but I do appreciate what you did [Music] um you know there's one p I don't want us to end up focusing on we do not want our schools to mirror penal systems and there are um signs and I'm talking about people who are involved that our children are struggling with mental health and as Ms Jones says this is

070a multi-layered multi-faceted issue and putting uh punitive Band-Aids will not address the underlying issues and so you know we need to get together we need to talk well you know a lot of this is going to be the administration's job but we need to work on how we can better monitor what our children are experiencing and help them manage struggles with mental health um now there are so many others certainly housing our families struggling you know we hear very frequently about families who are you know their parents are working two and three jobs take care of them I mean this is a reality for many of our homelessness and so this is all feeding into this Nationwide issue we're having right now with young people and violence and it's incredibly these are the most vulnerable

071people also in the most vulnerable situation and and we have to work together to address it I believe Mrs Burke is next and then miss page thank you madam chair I'm glad we're having this discussion this evening thank you so very much um I agree with you madam Chan in terms of be mindful of how we move forward as a team because a lot of what what's happening has been happening for years we've just got to this point per se with the isms with policing schools one year then the next year no police in schools score booklet um not appropriate which I've always agreed with that even as a school principal that is not a friendly document but I know the state department has certain guidelines in place my concern is that we the last

072meeting was suggested that maybe we have a task force or a committee and someone said we don't need to have any more commitments but I don't want us to get in a position whereas we're in a tail span do we as a board know our policy as well do we as a board know our score booklet well do we as a board um not understand but know our protocols what the procedures are um with the threat assessment teams I too don't want us to be in a place whereas is already an institution per se but a school should be an environment where relationships are flourishing and children and adults should feel safe and thriving so we've talked at lengths about having more support for mental health but that's as far as we get we have

073some support there but being mindful too we're not the only school system suffering it's all over the country it's all over the world so moving forward I do hope once the reports come in from the police department or even before that we at some point we do need to move forward collectively but as we move forward there needs to be some sense of direction we know what the problems are we all can list them from school to school from preschool to the 12th grade there are challenges and a lot of them go back to what's happening in the community in the homes and then it spills over into the schools and as I've shared recently with the parent we're doing the best we can but we need you to help us with that too so

074our parents Also may need supporters that up to us to give or some other entity but at some point what my concern is moving forward yes gun violence needs to be addressed school safety needs to be addressed um threat assessment teams need to be assessed assessed mental health support needs to be assessed score booklet needs to be assessed but I don't want to be sitting here next year still assessing and we haven't done anything so what I'm asking is that we put into action some platform and I know we're still processing what happened that you cannot it's graduation but at some point because we all are hurting we all are hurting all are hurting so what I'm asking is at some point can we leave this table tonight or in our meeting in July and

075decide this is how we want to move forward with some framework otherwise the discussion continues continues continues we've been talking about the score booklet for the last four or five years and before this Administration so I just want to move forward with some answers and we don't have all the answers at this table we do not have all the answers we do not have all the answers and I'm at a point whereas I'm not pointing any fingers or blaming anybody things happened but how do we move forward in such a manner does anybody here have the answer I don't think so but I think collectively and with the right support in place that we can move forward to address the 10 items that Mr Young mentioned or five items what Miss Gibson mentioned and move

076forward in a collective effort and to believe it or not the worst plan works well if you have complete buy-in if people trust you and believe in what you're trying to do for them the worst plan will work so it's time to move forward from because this plan right now is not working because they really technically there is a plan but across the country it's not working so I look forward to our as a group coming together and making one solid decision if not tonight after we get the reports if that's going to make a difference we know what's going on even before what took place which my heart is broken as a parent and a wife and a mother just just it's it's nobody since his or her child to any setting to be

077hurt none so I just want to move forward collectively and I hope that uh that's what we're going to do in the Seventh District we're going to move forward collectively thank you thank you madam Clarke thank you madam chair thank you um you know I do want to mention um that it is on our agenda for the next meeting to have uh safety presentation from the administration to meet our new director of Safety and Security Miss Paige I believe you're next and then I see Ms Gibson's hand thank you madam senior this topic is far too important to make a hasty decision this is not a school issue this is a community issue and and several of my colleagues have mentioned around the table this is multifaceted this is you know what goes on in

078the neighborhood the community spills over into the school so I do not want to make a hasty decision but I do agree we need to test the superintendent where you madam chair you did say it's on us in the next month our next board meeting next four meeting so as a part of that you know I would say task the superintendent to develop a Safety and Security protocol and provide a timeline I mean we need to have a discussion it doesn't need to just be us and at the table we need to have all stakeholders involved to support our young people to support our families this is not an isolated issue and I'm not supporting anything we are making a hasty decision on um without discussing you know a plan of action on how to

079take care of it I I just can't support me I just cannot support making a hasty decision because this is far too serious you know we're talking about gun violence um there are so many issues that need to be addressed and I'm not willing to make a hasty decision regarding this I mean because what happened at the graduation no one ever thought it would happen here in Richmond but now we have become a statistic a part of the statistics we are not immune to what is happening in the country you know Parkland Sandy Hook I mean the list goes on and on and on and I I'm just It's upsetting enough as it is and we do need to be solution focused for the plan with the action plan thank you madam chair thank you

080Miss Gibson and then Mrs White thank you madam chair I um I'm gonna speak right now out of turn and I'm going to speak as every parent in this school district and what I am saying as a parent as every parent in this school district we must make a hasty decision that's what I am going to say today we must make a hasty decision we have had a student die and and we are going to sit on the stage and say I'm not ready to make a hasty decision I agree we need to talk about Solutions I have put a solution on the table I agree that the administration needs to have its new security come up with protocols and we as a board must make sure those Protocols are followed it is our responsibility

081to make sure that the protocols are followed and so I will put a motion on the table that we will hire a senior auditor who is focused on school safety second that's why thank you madam chair I am just glad to see that my colleagues are really serious about this I talk about safety every every meeting so what we need here is some structure we don't have any structure for safety and like my colleague said and I did say it I came to fight for the children here not fight and when I mean fight like we were at a graduation yes I was injured but I was saving someone else's life and what I want to see in our security training someone addressed conflict resolution we haven't addressed that yet and I've been bringing it

082up from elementary to 12th grade we still haven't I want to know the training that the security do not just the Department of Justice training we got to have some other type of training where we coordinate with our city police department so when we're ready we're already prepared and we're ready not just getting ready because see our children as you see we talk about we don't want them to go to prison the pipeline but that's where it seems like it's going there's retaliation and yeah yes we know it's games we can't hide it as adults and teachers and staff we know what's going on in our schools and we're trying to hide it we already know the morale in your school shows so I'm with everyone else I want to see what's something different let's

083strengthen our school security we got to make sure that we have the right mental health in the schools you just can't just get any agency and expect to do some difference we don't have any data and I'm still seeing the same thing when I go into schools and I go into schools almost every week the same behavior yes it starts at home but then we have the kids for eight hours eight hours so how do you think our teachers feel how do you think our staff feel they're getting cursed out too I walked in there and seen them it's no difference we have to have structure and we have to have leadership at every school it starts at the top for me and I'm just tired of keep saying the same thing every we need

084something with security I'm almost ready to say let's put police officers in every school if we can't do what we need to do teachers are free other students are free because people are bullying them children who are children just going to school to be children good children are being bullied why why because they don't want to join that group that's why they're being bullied that's why they're being hit on and you can't send every child to the alternative school we just can't because the services aren't there either they got to be specialized and we don't have Services there because other comprehensive schools don't want can't deal with those students you put them in rands so when you put them in Rise where are the services in rands how are those students being taught do anybody

085come by to see that where's the specialized services those are the kids that were just put out the schools so we're talking about security here again aren't we where's the structure and I'm looking at leadership thank you Miss Dora thank you um uh my um heart goes out to everyone that was there that day and I can't even imagine the trauma that everyone on this stage who was there is experiencing so um I ache for you and I ache for our community and I want to thank the RPS staff and the community and everyone else for um their strength during these difficult times um uh I'm you know it's obviously just heartbreaking on a number of different levels to Ms Nicole and Ms rizzy's point that this is a multi-faceted issue and yet once again

086schools are getting blamed for all the problems of the world and being asked to fix all the problems of the world and it's um incredibly frustrating um I in terms of action I agree that Swift action needs to be made um I but I don't think that we can solve it all alone and so um one thing that I would propose is making sure that we are discussing these issues on a regular basis at all future meetings so I'll defer to miss Rizzy and Miss Burke if they think that's appropriate but I think having a standing agenda item like we do with some of our other things this is should rise to the level of one of the most important things that we're focused on um in regards to the motion on the table um

087I'm not opposed to the auditor idea however my experience with Auditors is that they are past looking and reactive and not necessarily always proactive and so I am wondering if my colleagues would be open to an amendment that it is a FTE a senior level FTE but that addressing safety diagnosing and creating solutions for our safety issues but I would like to hear from our new director of safety before um before actually writing the job description for him or her miss page I think thank you madam chair um so back to the question about the security auditor can um Miss Gibson answer what is the scope of the work for this position so I'm I'm surprised that there's question the the work of an auditor is to um to audit the work of the school

088district so it's not the auditor's job to come up with recommendations that's the that is what the district does we are oversight and so it is our responsibility to make sure that the protocols and policies of the district are followed and right now we're not doing that right so the administration and the district can put forward a rule that says excuse me every every side door will have a guard and a metal detector but right now we have no one to make sure that's actually happening okay um we're a little out of [Music] Idol um thank you madam machine uh Ms White has her hand up and I think then we need to you know deal with emotion that's on the table I just wanted to um thank you madam chair I just wanted to

089say we just received a director of security maybe we should just give him a chance to put those protocols and policies into place I mean I see him right here tonight let him at least do his job I just said structure and Leadership so he is the leadership of directory of security let him put his ideas to where he needs to put new director of Safety and Security you could at least raise your hand please for us and we will meet you officially at the next meeting but yes this is Mr cameras would you like to yes this is Mr John Beasley our new director of Safety and Security um he will of course be a part of the presentation at our next thank you John all right so it has been moved by Ms

090Gibson to establish a position a chief auditor of Safety and Security position for the board and it was seconded by Mr Young Madam Clark Miss door asked for an amendment coach yes what was your Amendment the store please remind me it doesn't seem like it's um I'm happy to repeat it if Miss Gibson and Mr Young would like but otherwise it doesn't it would be overstepping our role as the board to have someone coming up our role is oversight and this would be a person to do oversight my my amendment was along the same lines of um waiting until the director comes in I do agree that we probably need to enhance our team I'm not sure on auditor is the correct position I'd like to hear from our director it doesn't seem like that's

091appropriate as part of this Mission so I'm happy to just rescind my request thank you madam clerk Mr no Miss White no Ms Gibson yes Mr Young all right Miss Rizzy also like to hear from our safety and security officer first so no Dr Harris Muhammad director no at this time Ms Burke no it's Paige no it's Jones no motion fails all right thank you we are now moving to 5.02 and that is the discussion of rescheduling our July 17th board meeting to July 10th on the reason for this request is that um Mr cameras Mrs Burke and I will be out of town for conference and would like to see if our colleagues are amenable to moving the meeting to July 10th do any of you have questions or yes Mr Young I'm just

092one of nine to take it for what it's worth but I'm unavailable okay I'm available I just have a question the conference that the leadership will be attending what is the conference that the leadership will be attending uh let's just see Harvard accelerating board capacity Institute thank you it's Miss door the 10th is better for me so I'm supportive of that okay Dr Harris Muhammad the 10th is better for me I'm on vacation the 17th okay so are we able to do this by consensus or should we do a vote okay it looks like we've got a quorum so we will go ahead and move that meeting to the 10th thank you colleagues all right we are now at 5.03 discuss Legal Services we need to do five point yes yes I'm sorry 5.03 received

093for first read General Assembly policies board members um if I may Senator um board members in your policy revision summary packet for this particular agenda item you have um what we customarily do each year is to update the policies to reflect the general assembly actions from this past year or this past session as well as some that may have taken effect um that were enacted during the last session but took effect um or will take effect um in the coming days um you have your policy summary there I will bring to your attention that there are there is a new policy there that's reflective of your ability to have protocols in place for or policy in place for electronic participation in committee meetings and that's there for again that's news album that's your attention there

094are other revisions that um update current policies the policy revisions mirror the vsba model policy and um I will bring your attention to two policies that are at the end of that summary that are listed as administrative policy requests only because they were policies that relate to State Guidance with respect to heat related illness prevention and student athletes sudden cardiac arrest those two are new policies that are there for your consideration and the summary is um there to speak to the rationale for the revisions for each policy any questions or comments board colleagues and thank you attorney Lilly all right now we are at what is now 5.04 discuss Legal Services thank you madam chair I am pleased to share that the firm that the board approved a contract with has signed the contract and

095is now under contract with Richmond Public Schools the chair and I I think had a very productive introductory meeting uh with the two principal attorneys and we are beginning the transition process and I want to thank Miss Lilly for all of her assistance with that as well I do want to note they are um not only open to you but encourage a hybrid model with some in-house council with them as as support and so we will be looking to them for some guidance on that job description and and that process as I think they could be quite invaluable um I think that's it anything else Mr Z I did have some discussion with attorney Lilly and I I agree that you know at some point we also need to work on protocols or how to

096how it went to interact with legal services um particularly as a cost controlling measure um you know every phone call every email actually does generate a bill and so we want to talk about guard rails and protocols for how we will be interacting with the new firm and we'll hopefully do this in consultation with them did I characterize that conversation well thank you yes ma'am all right thank you all right friends comments board colleagues all right we will now move to item 5.05 update on director of school board audit systems Services I'm sorry Services position um the um audit committee did not have Quorum last meeting so Ms Rizzy Miss Paige and I are independently going to be reviewing the submitted resumes um and and I will send out an email to the board to

097invite anyone else to also review those resumes um and the next step will be to begin scheduling our first round of interviews any questions all right 5.06 receive for first read revisions to policy 8-5.1 wellness policy thank you madam chair um as you can see in the documents uh just a few updates to our wellness policy some items related to the shop some to meals water access food and beverages School sponsored fundraisers nutrition nutrition promotion I won't go through the whole list but you can see there um there's just a little bit of changes there in addition so if the board has any questions please feel free to reach out to me and we will take it up for Action next week thank you all right 5.07 receive for first read contracts over one hundred

098thousand dollars thank you madam chair as you can see in the documents we have two items this evening one is for all of our social and emotional learning Partners including Richmond Behavioral Health Authority rbha Child Savers um communities and schools and of course scan all of the information is provided in the presentation second item is for Avid which is a program that we use at a few of our schools and you can see the information in the presentation as well my humble request is that the board suspend the rules and approve the SEL contracts this evening so that we are able to put things in place right away on July 1 in preparation for next school year thank you any questions yes Mr Young Madam chair we just had a really important conversation this is

099an element of that conversation I gladly concur with the superintendent relevant to suspending rules uh there too I would propose for my college consideration that we suspend rules and vote this relevant to a second read and vote this evening pertinent to the aforementioned contracts is there a second second okay Mrs Burke is seconded um Mr cameras I just have one quick question you know we're looking at the rbha um I've mentioned before the the training that they provide I just wonder if there's a possibility that they could do that for our teachers or staff and that could be another conversation but since we're here I'm certainly happy to look into that absolutely all right thank you so it's been moved by Mr Young to approve the social emotional contracts listed here uh seconded by Mrs

100Burke any discussion all right Madam Clark just to clarify it was the motion to suspend the second reason suspend the second read yes and approve the contracts this door yes Miss White yes Miss Gibson abstain Mr Young aye Mr Rizzy yes Dr Harris Muhammad Mr Burke yes Miss page Miss Jones yes motion passes thank you okay we're moving now to item 6.01 we see for action of personnel actions we already know we're going to go into close to discuss Personnel matters 6.02 received for Action the exclusive representative for the transportation and Fleet Maintenance unit thank you madam chair the laborers International Union of North America also known as liuna was elected as the exclusive bargaining representative for the transportation and Fleet Maintenance unit normally I would ask for your formal approval of Leona as the

101exclusive agent however the teamsters who was the other candidate is challenging the election therefore the board cannot certify Luna until the challenge is adjudicated as soon as it is that will bring the resolution to the board for formal approval thank you thank you all right 6.03 receive for Action the early site work contract for George with high school that's 6.12 thank you madam chair I am delighted to bring forth the early site work contract for George with high school this is the contract to do all of the work uh in advance of uh the the main event which is uh the actual building as we have discussed many times uh there are actually two significant pipes that need to be relocated uh underneath the athletic fields where the new building ultimately will be along with

102a few other items that have to be taken care of before the construction can begin in Earnest as with the SEL contracts I'm humbly asking for the board to suspend the rules and approve this contract this evening for the following reason um the money will be available as you well know on July 1. um our meeting isn't until our next meeting isn't until July 10. it's not a long time but if it is approved this evening we could have the contractor begin on July 1 and and not July 10. um I think everyone is eager to get things rolling we'll have the formal groundbreaking on July 15th at George with um and everybody is invited to celebrate in that very exciting occasion thank you new discussion okay so I moved that we used to spend

103the rules and approve the early site work contract for George with high school second so I've moved to approve at early site work it's been seconded by Ms Jones Madam Clerk this door yes Miss White yes Miss Gibson yes Mr Young aye Ms Rizzy yes Dr Harris Muhammad Miss Burke yes Miss page Miss Jones yes motion passes thank you very much okay we are now at item 6.05 [Music] um receive for Action recommendation to establish an LLC for William Fox Elementary solely for the purpose of securing historic tax credits thank you madam chair as we discussed at our last meeting I do believe uh this uh pursuit of historic tax credits is one that is worth us doing I do believe it could yield us approximately net to two and a half million dollars that

104the school system can use at its discretion um and so I'm asking for your authorization to go ahead and establish the LLC which is needed for the transfer of the credits as a reminder the LLC would be owned 99.99 by RPS and only 0.01 percent by a future investor once the project is complete and the credits are transferred we will buy out the investor for one hundred dollars at which time RPS will own a hundred percent of the LLC and then can dissolve it at that time thank you yes Mrs White thank you madam chair I have a couple of questions Mr cameras and I hope that we're not establishing a LLC to slow down the fox built because we already received our insurance claim the special allocation and the city funds but my question

105is because I believe I heard the last time someone said um when we talk about government and when we're talking about Federal because I've already I've done my research on this so who is we have in a taxable LLC so who's going to pay the taxes um which would be about 400 000 to 500 000 which we have a LLC for 33 million also I heard also the last time we were talking about well Walker did it Walker School the government school they did it but what we failed to say to everyone is yes they did but they had to create it as a government entity which they changed it to a charter school because you have to change of Youth so we're looking at trying to change Fox as a charter school because you

106have to be able to have incoming you have to have an income generating income for this property so the taxable LLC you may pay a dollar a year but we have 33 million dollars which we have already have to ready to build so there is no way I'm going to go for a LLC I'm ready for a fox Elementary to be built so can you tell me who's going to pay that taxable taxable LLC who's going to pay the taxes that's what I want to know because uh LLC they do pay that dollar a year you have to know the federal and government unless someone comes here and gives us some type of insurance claim let us know about how they actually going to do this talk to someone and give a whole brief into

107the board otherwise I cannot agree and I'll speak for a second district I cannot agree to for LLC second district is ready for Fox to be built we have the money but we didn't have the money no one wanted to do tax credits but soon as the city gave us 15 million we ready to do tax credits so no I'm speaking for second district they're ready to be on Fox Elementary School thank you thank you madam chair um thank you Mrs White for those questions let me try to clarify a few things one um absolutely under no circumstances is Fox becoming a charter school to there are no taxes that the LLC would pay this LLC is created under Virginia law not federal law and its sole purpose is to be the receiver of the

108tax credits and the seller of the tax credits it will not have to itself pay any taxes third this will not affect our timeline of opening in the fall of 25 which is what we have always publicly stated Sports I do want to note that the only reason that we are able to apply for the credits is because the only funding that qualifies is the 15 million from the city the insurance payout does not qualify for historic tax credits nor does the state construction Grant so that is why the conversation sped up in Earnest After we receive those funds from the city finally as I outlined in the presentation this would yield the division about 2 million dollars that it can use as it pleases without affecting the construction of fox and um given our

109boundless needs um I I think it would be wise for us to seize this opportunity to bring that Revenue to the school division Mr Young Madam chair I concur with the superintendent is uh it is an opportunity for us to maximize the minimum to stretch every dollar and to respect the the taxpayer for uh for who she and and he is I.E the folks that pay the bills so that to that end I would move that the school board establish an LLC for Fox Elementary solely for the purpose of securing historic tax credits second it's been moved by Mr Young to establish an LLC for William Fox Elementary so only for the purpose of securing historic tax credits was seconded by Mrs Burr Madam Clerk this door yes Mrs White no Mrs Gibson yes Mr

110Young aye Mr Rizzy yes Dr Harris Muhammad Miss Burke yes Miss page for voting okay you want to abstain Miss Jones yes motion passes all right we are now at item it is actually 6.05 I misspoke um the last one 6.05 received for second read and action 2023 24 student code of responsible ethics thank you madam chair um Dr Dalton is here to answer any questions um but she of course did her presentation at our previous meeting and uh we await the board's decision thank you Mr camera school board members good evening I am Dr Dalton I'm here to address any questions or concerns that you may have in reference to the first read of the score document Mr Young followed by Miss White oh thank you madam Vice chair I spoke to this a

111moment ago but uh reiterate the point I don't believe that the document is ready for Prime Time absent Amendment I'm prepared to make a proposal there to this this evening but I do think I heard a lot of consensus or perhaps I shouldn't ever state state but I did hear some support around the table perhaps for reworking the document to address uh presumably uh in addition to my concern specifically the fact that level three offenses aren't included uh or some of these level three offenses at least aren't included in threat assessment team reviews but I suspect that there are other colleagues that have other concerns so I proposed uh colleagues that we not vote on this this evening I don't believe it's ready for Prime talk if we do vote on it yours truly was

112surely vote thank you Mr Young Miss White hi Dr Dalton thank you for being for this presentation I just had a question about the code of conduct and I was looking at the um I guess the glossary um when I was doing the second read it just seems so long and in depth the glossary for most of our parents our our audience and I think it was the definition of terms on page 31. um it just looks so um and that pretty long and some of the things that I did not see is like um when we have panels and we actually decide what things that the students can actually go into I was wondering where were those located um like for instance if we say a child is suspended with provisions and things like

113that where is that located in here to actually give the parent ideal of what um What alternative um the child can receive from the panel okay so um those are process that we talk about during the panel hearing but in reference to suspensions expulsions and appeals those are found on page 26. and it does address the process of um suspension pin and a panel hearing okay then I have another question in here does this reference anything about Homebound and home-based in here so in reference to home-based instruction that would be found under the section for exceptional education of which we can provide those services for students who have exceptional services or 504 plans that can receive home-based instruction if and when they are out of school for certain um violations but you don't have them

114coded as separate right that is you don't have them separate no so homebound is basically for students who have medical concerns and cannot be in school and they can receive instruction that way so that's not something that would be found actually in the code of conduct but if that's something that we need to address we will be happy to look at that and put in the appropriate section can you say that one more time what was the definition I couldn't hear you homebound is for students that are out on medical leave okay thank you you're welcome thank you Miss Gibson thank you madam Vice chair um so I am not prepared to support uh adopting a document this evening for the reasons that I shared at our last meeting and and to be brief the

115concerns that I have are primarily that you know we need somehow we need to to codify a requirement for Progressive discipline and I I just think that we're not um that it's become too easy for us to um to fall to default to The Most Extreme Measures that are outlined in the document um and uh and I think in addition to that and as I I have just to restate you know I don't believe that we have adequate resources in our schools to be able to execute on um on restorative and and other measures that would I believe best support our students and um and address the uh overly punitive disciplined measures which are um are not supporting anyone in the community um in any way so those are the hesitations that I have and

116I've I've said that before and I again I would ask the administration to um to to present to the board an outline of of a staff recommendations in order to really be able to um to do this work with Fidelity and I think that this document is another example right of where we have policies in place and they're not being followed and so um you know again like this is something where an audit of some type and I think if we were to do this an audit it would be uh overwhelming to us to to to recognize all the ways and the misses and steps um that that happen on a daily basis in the school district um in in in in doing this work and and I don't say that with um uh judgment

117because the fact of the matter is is that we simply do not have the resources in the building that we need to have thank you thank you Miss White thank you um Madam chair Dr Darden I do have a question whether I have a statement I should say I'm here and um my colleagues and do not accept this code of conduct but I have to um defend the code of conduct the committee because on the committee there is a person that represents almost every school there every division that we have there so I'm not sure how you would do this Dr Dalton because I'm hearing from my colleagues saying well this don't accept that don't accept this but when it boils down to again is structure and Leadership that you must follow for this code

118of conduct is in black and white whether the leadership choose to use it or not this is what they get when they don't follow the directions and I know I'm on the committee I know Miss Jones is on the committee and I think everyone that's sitting behind you pretty much on the committee so I'm not sure how you're going to entwine what the other board members want to have on here but I know we went back and forth with principles assistant principals everybody that was there we went back and forth and they seem to be following this in their schools some schools may not some may I mean like I was talking to you I said the dress code I've been to schools that is no dress code some do have dress codes so I'm

119just not sure um I agree to it because we worked hard on it and I know that you had representation from predominantly almost every school there that's all I have to say thank you Miss White Mr cameras thank you madam meister and and thank you for that Mrs White I did want to just reiterate the point you just made which is there is a committee that works over the course of many months to make whatever revisions this group of individuals feels are necessary and um I would agree we all want more Mental Health Resources we all want um more support for students who are struggling at the same time as we do with adults we do have to hold our students accountable and um we try to do that in the most loving way possible

120but I can't stand by while a lot of really good people in our schools continue to be denigrated for doing not only what we ask them to do but what is required by state law most of the score is written by the general assembly would that be accurate more or less Dr Dalton yes and just to reiterate we follow the model got it from bdoa yes and so I'm happy to entertain broader changes but I think the venue for that is the committee that Miss White and Miss Jones um have have led or participated in um this this past cycle so of course always want to do more to ensure that our practices are as restorative as humanly possible that we are doing everything we possibly can to de-escalate and to avoid discipline at the

121same time we do have to hold our young people accountable for their actions and this is is part of that effort and I fear that if this document is not approved this evening I'm not exactly sure how to direct Dr Dalton how to advise her and therefore I do worry that we won't have a board approved score going into next school year thank you just don't thank you madam chair I just wanted to add to the conversation that one of the things we did discuss as a committee was getting out into the community to help kind of dissect the scores so that parents get a deeper understanding of what the codes actually mean what the repercussions are and also we need more training in the schools and I know that we talked about that without

122the dogs and chief parks and so those are things that you know we're thinking about what are the ways customers White's point there were a lot of Administrators there who are doing amazing work in their buildings and so thinking about how we can take some of those best practices and Elevate them to other schools because again and I'll just say this and close we also should bring forward the dot the data of the schools because we are you know we don't want to make this if it's every school because we do have schools that are actually implementing the codes in a very loving way and making a change of difference in some of that so it is a bit of a chicken and egg situation but we do um as it relates to the score

123are bound by but we also are finding ways to work through it but we need more attention in terms of training and really helping parents understand and read through it versus just handing them a book on the first day at school thank you Mrs Burton thank you ma'am chair thank you Dr Dalton and thank you Ms White for that reflection in terms of being mindful of all the persons that work on that committee and it is a lot I've worked on that and I'm glad she brought that before us and also with the superintendent just stated regarding the general assembly writing those expectations I know you have a deadline to meet we have a deadline to meet but my concern continues to be that at some point as we meet with persons in the community

124as Ms Jones stated or in schools the score document is not a friendly read for anybody I don't care what your background is but I know it came to us in that manner so that's a project for us to Embark upon Beyond Richard Public Schools but in the means because it is punitive that's the way it's written but in the meantime all I ask for moving forward maybe wouldn't come into your department Mr superintendent maybe it's under yours per se in terms of having an at a glance or a friendly one or two page document because it's it's about time you slip the page 35 to page 34 and then you see what tier and you have chaos going on so there are I'm glad that Miss Jones stated that we do have persons that

125are following the documents and they're probably principles that's been around for a while because the document has not changed in many years has it Mr Dr gold it has not changed people change the community has changed but that document has not so all I'm asking for moving forward superintendent cameras this will come unto you my request is that we have a friendly as we talk to people you can talk to people but when you give them something to follow up on if it's not friendly who's who's going to understand that it's not a friendly document it's how many pages in all 63 or more than that all in red and different colors and it's it's 47 Pages 47 was something I read tonight 63. I don't know what it was but um in all seriousness

126I will vote in favor of it because of the timeline but I don't like the document and right now because general assembly is controlling that at this level we can control having a another document as a as a at a glance whatever the terminology now is for something a quick go-to so that our students our parents and our faculty and staff persons understand that as well I think we will see more consistency or as Ms White stated earlier structure so maybe when I knew um person for security comes before us because that's this technically this is our go-to for making decisions of which his department will follow up on so it all should come together at some piece rather than being piecemeal thank you thank you madam chair and and thank you uh Mrs Burke

127yes we will work with the a joint effort between the engagement office and the hearing office to revise the um at a glance that we have right now to make sure that we're meeting the needs of our families and our students we'll do a little bit of field testing we'd love to have your eyes on it if you would like yes ma'am I understand um so we will we will make those revisions um and share that with the board for feedback and so that we do have a a good um offering for our families thank you yeah and I want to add you know I mean I think it's striking to me that um Dr Dalton and Mrs Burke have um identified the fact that our society our children have changed yet this document has

128not so maybe there's a need for a call for our general assembly to look at these policies and think about ways that they could evolve yeah yes Mrs Parker I have any time left I'm reflecting there is in that document when it's time for us to call outside the police department correct is that in there to call the law if it's something that's I don't want to State what it is correct yes all right this is a question that's been on my mind do we currently have an mou with the police department of the city of Richmond I'm reflecting upon the conversations earlier I know we were at one time revisiting that but I haven't seen that so are we still working on that because or maybe there's something else our security person will bring

129to us as well is there an up-to-date mou we have one before George Floyd when all that situation took place then we went back and forth no police yes police the last I heard it was still on the table so I think if that hasn't been done then um I suggest that we move forward on that not for the purpose of coming to schools to um engage students in a in a a manner of redirecting or correcting but maybe redemand re-directing their behavior and stuff such a sense that um this is what's going to happen if you do that more so of uh Pals type program which we used to have so if the mou isn't at some point um I hope that we do because that may address us for other situations that could

130take place and we would get more support from them as well but not in a manner of coming into the schools to this is how our offices do now it's more of a support but mlu doesn't need to be in place if it's not the place thank you yes I'm sorry man I'm sorry yes we're uh working on updating the mou uh we'll of course bring that to the board for consideration um and I I do want to say um you know officer Minton who is over uh the sros and his team um they continue to be extraordinary Partners truly um and and not just in moments of Crisis um they do literally thousands of things that the public will never know about because that's their job and they prevent so many things from happening

131so I just want to just publicly recognize and thank them okay uh it appears that we are waiting to see if there's going to be a motion that we accept the score document as with the um amendments thank you good move by Miss Jones that we approve the score document with the presented amendment seconded by Mrs White Madam Clerk restore yes Miss White yes Miss Gibson no Mr Young no Miss Rizzy yes Dr Harris Muhammad Miss Burke yes Paige yes Miss Jones yes motion passes thank you Madam Clark did you receive the message that Dr Harris Muhammad is in place yes we need a motion to allow her to participate virtually so Moon second okay it's been moved by Ms Jones and seconded by Miss Gibson that Dr Harris Muhammad will now join us virtually

132Madam Clerk Mr Miss White yes Miss Gibson yes Mr Young aye Mr Izzy Dr Harris Muhammad Miss Burke yes page yes Ms Jones yes motion passes and we wait for her to because she on um I believe she was logged in I can't see that I am thank you okay all right all right then we are moving along to item 6.06 receive for Action recommended name for Ginter Park Elementary School thank you madam chair I am thrilled to bring forward our final recommendation for the new name for guitar Park Elementary and that is Francis W mclenny Elementary School I move that the school board of Richmond renamed Ginter Park Elementary School to be uh I'm sorry Francis W ow mclenny elementary school second second it's been moved by Ms Gibson and seconded by Ms Bert

133to rename Gunter Park the Francis W mclenny Elementary School we have a question okay Mr Young uh sorry not an inquiry just a brief statement but Madam chair thank you for indulging me uh colleagues I don't support Banning books and I don't support canceling speakers and I do not support renaming schools I vote no thank you madam chair all right thank you Mr Young yes Mrs one thank you madam chair um I am so glad to see this uh was revised Mr cameras from the last time although I am a person against um naming schools names I'm sure that this um school will be named after Mrs mcclenny looks good all right Madam clerk Miss door yes Miss White no Miss Gibson yes Mr Young no Miss Rizzy yes Dr Harris Muhammad yes Miss Burke

134yes Miss page no Miss Jones yes motion passes all right next item receive for Action recommended name for John B Carey Elementary School thank you madam chair I am thrilled to recommend as the new name for John B Carey Elementary School the lowest Harrison Jones Elementary School thank you Mrs Burke thank you madam chair I move that John B Carey Elementary School be renamed the Dr Lois Harrison Jones Elementary School second second to it Dr Harris Muhammad I I couldn't hear you but I thought you would all right it's been moved by Mrs Burke seconded by Rizzy to rename John B Carey the Dr Lois Harrison Jones Elementary School Madam Clerk question Mrs oh okay Mrs page and then Ms Gibson okay miss Page this one with statement um I support the person um um

135I just don't support naming a school as a person I know we've done it in the past but I just don't feel comfortable and so at this time is not nothing against a person so I want to make that clear and the same thing is getting a part nothing against the person but just do not support naming of school at the person thank you [Music] uh thank you madam chair um I very much do support naming schools after people because we have important discussions like the one that we're having today um and uh I think that um you know appreciating the people that came before us is critical so that we can learn from them um and consider uh the things that they discovered as we move forward um and I uh very much do

136support the the recommended name but I also wanted to shine a light on another individual who made a big difference in the uh Carey community and that's uh is Barbara gray who graduated from Virginia Union University in 1947. she set off on a career in education in the Arts that continues 70 years later she served as principal of several Richmond schools she worked with Architects on the renovation of numerous school buildings and contributed to restructuring programs at many more while she was also a principal at John B Carey Elementary the school was named one of the nation's 15 model schools in the United by the United States Department of Education and so well I know we are not able to recognize every individual in this way I think it is important that we Embrace this

137opportunity to um to uh appreciate the the efforts of the many individuals who have made such an impact on on our communities here thank you yes we stand on the shoulders of many Giants and honestly some of them are unnamed so um the Motions on the floor Madam clerk for clarification are we saying doctor or we are just starting with our first name because the presentation has just Lois and you say you stayed at Doctor Mr cameras yes um technically school names don't have the um title thank you for example Martin Luther King Middle School is not Dr Reverend Martin Luther King Middle School so I think in this case it would be Lois Harrison Jones thank you Mr Miss White no Miss Gibson yes Mr Young yeah Miss Rizzy yes Dr Harris Muhammad yes

138Miss Burke yes Miss page no Miss Jones yes motion passes okay we are now at 6.08 receiver action recommended name for Benford Middle School thank you madam chair I am pleased to bring forward as the new name for Binford Middle School Dogwood Middle School Mrs White thank you madam chair with the cameras I just have a question based on all the names that I've seen here you you mean to tell me that dog would came out of the this whole big group of names Dogwood middle in the presentation may I Madam chair yes uh these are the three names that the renaming committee called uh down as finalists and then we actually did have quite a few uh public speakers come um and speak for Dogwood middle any other comments questions yes Ms Gibson um

139thank you madam chair um you know I I uh wholly respect the work um but I do think that this is a missed opportunity um again there's um there's just there's just so much work I mean I I remember I I sat in the kitchen of Ms Binford I don't believe Binford that we that the school is currently named after right but there's a Miss Binford who um who was a great teacher in the district and um you know there are just so many other individuals um that make Richmond Richmond Richmond and um and you know a dogwood is a is a lovely tree but um I just uh I I I I do feel like this is a uh it's bittersweet um and so I'll be abstaining thank you um I I want to

140add um certainly I think Mr cameras knows this is not my favorite name um but I do know how much engagement took place and how um deeply the community was involved in this and so I will be supporting it though it's not certainly um yeah my favorite choice either any other discussion all right so I move that we um rename John B Carey Elementary School I'm sorry I'm reading um I'm sorry I know I know it's been for all right that we um renamed Benford Middle School Dogwood Middle School second okay there's a sec I I move that we um change the name of Benford to Dogwood it's seconded by Miss Jones Madame Clark your store it's white no skippson abstain Mr Young oh it's Rizzy yes Dr Harris Muhammad yes this bird yes Miss

141Paige yes Miss Jones yes motion passes okay now we are at 6.09 received for Action recommended name for George with high school thank you madam chair I am thrilled to bring forward as the new neighbor George with high school the Richmond City High School of the Arts I do want to note it's a slight modification from uh Richmond High School of the Arts with the edition of the word city which uh is very helpful when we use shortened names for schools for example Richmond Community we sometimes call Community um otherwise the entire name has to be written out every time that we refer to the school in a discussion yes ma'am Madam chair if I made Mr cameras can you repeat that again yes ma'am um oftentimes will in presentations or discussion refer to a

142shortened version of a school's name for Simplicity so for example um uh John B Carey we have referred to as Carrie um in this case Richmond High School of the Arts is hard to uh shorten because you wouldn't call it just Richmond High School and so we're proposing Richmond City High School of the Arts in the same way that we have Richmond Community High School and we call it sometimes Community um the shortened version here could be City or Richmond City again it's just a matter of convenience for the board and the public if the board would prefer not to include the word City so be it I was just trying to address that as a as a logistical matter thank you question so the committee put forward Richmond High School of the Arts and

143you're saying Ed Richmond City high schools of the Arts yeah yes again I'm just proposing it uh to make things easier logistically but if if if the board wants to stick with the Richmond High School of the Arts that's fine uh we'll just go with um rhsa when we need to uh speak briefly of it I'm sure yes if the committee supported put forth Richmond High School of the Arts I would support that and the administration was fine for them any other discussion okay well I guess okay I moved that we rename George with high school the Richmond High School for the Arts second all right for the Arts is it foreign okay all right um so yes the Richmond High School for the Arts all right second all right so it has been moved

144by me and then seconded is it in the store yes this page I thought it was Miss page okay yeah Miss door seconded again but okay Miss Paige you second it all right Madame Clark Miss door yes Miss White no Miss Gibson abstain Mr Young no Miss Rizzy yes Dr Harris Muhammad yes Miss bird yes Miss Paige yes Miss Jones yes motion passes all right our schools are renamed thank you all right thank you all thank you all right we are at item 6.10 received for Action contracts over one hundred thousand dollars thank you madam chair uh given that the board suspended the rules and already approved the SEL contracts we have nothing additional at this time next 0.11 receive for Action budget transfers over ten thousand dollars uh same we're good on this one

145thank you all right now we're in item 6.12 approve Head Start Transportation waiver and students with disabilities waiver thank you madam chair uh these are just two small waivers that the regional Head Start office uh asks us to get board approval on one is for transportation for our Head Start students we don't use harnesses because we don't use them for any preschool students which is okay we just need to have the waiver approved the second is uh under a head start reg's the target for students with disabilities is 10 percent of the student population that is served we are at eight percent again that is okay we just need to have the official waiver approved by the board and Dr Wiggins can answer any additional specific questions thank you good evening any questions for Dr

146Wiggins well it doesn't look like we have questions Dr Wiggins thank you for thank you all right a move that we accept the labor Transportation way before a head start and is it disability yes okay second so it's been moved by Ms Jones that we approve the Head Start Transportation waiver and students with disabilities waiver it was seconded by Dr Harris Muhammad Madam clerk Miss door yes Miss White yes Gibson yes Mr Young aye Ms Rizzy yes Dr Harris Muhammad yes mrsburg yes Miss page Miss Jones yes motion passes we're right now item 7.01 we receive update on teacher retention task force thank you madam chair um I'm going to ask uh Mr Robinson to come up um as he led the task force work um as you can see um they did quite a

147bit of work and put forward uh several recommendations um that we are eager to dig into further along with a proposed spend plan for the one hundred thousand dollars that the board approved for Teacher retention uh with that on in terms of routine Mr Robinson uh thank you superintendent cameras chairwoman Rizzy assistant chair Ms Burke and the rest of the school board uh the teacher retention task force came together with one mission that was our initial goal to retain productive and talented workers and reduce turnover by Foster in a positive work environment that promotes engagement shows appreciation to employees and provides competitive paying benefits and encourages a healthy work-life balance as you can see next time man oh uh the task force included quite a few members representation on all levels across all districts and

148um we want to thank you all for encouraging us to make sure that everyone was represented represented we reached out to several schools to get new representation on the committee and we had a very solid working group of about 15 folks um Redbox started with 19 but you know life gets in the way sometimes and folks can't finish their commitments um we started off as a part of the teacher advisory Council that's that meets with Mr cameras every year and from that the teacher morale group turned into the teacher task force um in our first few meetings we just worked on the projects of change for this year and then uh as we got more direction from you all we expanded that we expanded the group um our main focus of data that we collected

149was a survey of teachers from past teacher advisory councils we looked at the projects of change submitted by all the teacher advisory councils for the past couple years we interviewed Talent office Personnel the directors of employee relations and talent acquisition to see what trends then of course we heard from teachers on our teacher Town Hall um we also looked at the Merc climate survey data and the retention data that was presented to you all before we made all of our recommendations and we made a list originally made a list of 10 recommendations but we ended up cutting it down to nine because some things kind of flowed with one another um we're going to go through each key point that we made in the recommendations the first of course was the bolster um English language

150learner support uh the main thing we got from teachers is that they struggled to communicate with students and their families as you know they're about 16 predominant languages spoken in RPS and although the majority of our teachers only speak English so the recommendations was that teachers would take World language courses taught by other RPS teachers that we have on staff of course they would be stipend similar to adjunct professors and all teachers would apply to take these language courses and of course the number of classes will be determined by teacher demand and then of course there was a recommendation that we work with the engagement office to partner with more Community organizations to provide opportunities to meet our ell population in the community to have community events where teachers can meet parents meet their communities

151and more importantly learn about some of the cultural differences that are starting to come into the City of Richmond um the second key recommendation was of course we had a lot of teachers in exceptional education and a lot of lead teachers were upset that they could not complete their legally required work due to the extra demands that were placed on them um just to sum it up some teachers were saying that they are the first ones pulled for duties they're the first ones pulled for coverage while they have extra case work and caseloads that they're legally required to do another input that we got from a lot of new teachers were they weren't allowed the opportunity to grow in a core subject area before they would move to a different core subject area and they

152thought that that affected their ability to serve students so the recommendations were won whenever there's a transition within the school that you have teacher input on those Transitions and what I mean for example if you're a new teacher and you're learning second grade and then all of a sudden your administrator wants to move you to fourth grade well you know second grade curriculum but you don't have time to learn the fourth grade curriculum and so you understand exceptional services that you provide but you don't know the core subjects that you need to provide services with so they want more teacher input on that and then one one another thing that recommended was all schools have a a written a written coverage policy a policies that they follow when they we know that sometimes schools get

153crazy and you pull whoever you can and we found out that when you do that you're disproportionately affecting your um ell teachers and your exceptional education teachers so they want a written policy that says if there's someone out this is what we're going to follow to get coverage and they feel that that will be more Equitable and give them more right more time to do their work uh key number three provide more support in-person support and mentorship for new teachers um some teachers feel that they don't get accurate adequate support or mentorship in a similar content area an example being I mean first grade teacher but my mentor is a fifth grade teacher and so there's a little I guess a subject barrier we're trying to relate and so one of the things the committee

154said was that we should go back to investing to one-on-one mentors to a similar subjects and what we do instead of teachers being voluntold they would apply for this process and they would work with the teachers and this program would be run by the RPS career coaches out of teacher and Leadership teacher leader Pathways office that way they will run a complete program they will give them extra support on how to build the teachers up and so that they would monitor it from day one they set program run through Google Classroom another resources that we had and so and lastly they wanted to partner with more Community Partners to make sure that new teachers are honored and supported a little more they don't think that they get the recognition uh key number four is to

155create programs and provide support that address student behavior issues we know that since the pandemic we've seen an increase in negative student behaviors uh some of the recommendations of course were more trauma informed professional development opportunities for staff you know one of the key things that came out of this committee was our staff is they're starving for that help for that that trauma-informed care they want to do more so as a district we need to step up and provide them what they need uh more mental health supports for students course Behavior interventions conflict resolution restorative justice programs these are all things that are in the works but they also want more mentorship especially on the elementary school they want boys and girls the Big Brothers Big Sisters we had a program before the pandemic called

156Brothers United that kind of felt a lot fell out away with the pandemic they want that and they want more school right school-wide recognition for the students that are doing well they feel that a lot of negative behaviors are being taking the attention away from the students who deserve it and they want a clear transparent cell phone policy and transparency of student of student referrals meaning when a student gets referred to an OP to the office they want to know what actions have been taken we found out there's some inconsistencies across the district some teach some teachers immediately go in and find out what happened some teachers aren't and so they're asking for just more transparency with student referrals all right key number five enhance feedback with building Administration they want to provide teachers with

157more opportunity to provide direct feedback on building Administration uh one of the things they recommended was they wanted teacher input on the climate surveys uh when we dove into the survey specifically The Merck survey we found out that there were a lot of info a lot of information where we didn't know what it meant they want more open-ended opportunities for people to have to respond to these surveys for example a teacher may put something down that they're dissatisfied and only American says School contacts division context what does that mean and so they want those surveys to have options for teachers to go in and type in what that means so that we aren't left to assume what what is meant by school context division context leadership context we need more specific examples um and then

158of course they want to initiate an action plan buy the this by the school based on that survey data to improve the climate and lastly they ask that retention data be used in administrative evaluations uh key six is lesson plans um I mean I'm not supposed to be spend this big secret when I say our teachers are a little overburdened with the lesson plans and so they want a committee that can establish a lesson plan for every Sol objective in the city the a model lesson plan a starting point for every teacher so that when I pull up I'm just history person so when I pull up world history 0.2 there is a lesson plan there for me to base all of my instruction upon a model lesson plan and so they said that would

159be a good start not only for new teachers but for veteran teachers who's struggling with the cumbersome paperwork load of lesson plans um seven improve culture uh some teachers feel that building administrators engage in retaliatory behavior and so what they recommend is that professional development or knowing your rights be available to not only teachers but administrators examples of how to file a grievance explanation of job descriptions according to State and local code and then they want professional development from employee relations in partnership with the Rea so that everybody knows their rights from day one when they start working in Richmond Public Schools key number eight hire from within the district some teachers feel that there are limited opportunities for growth in the district um the recommendations of course grow your own programs for administrators higher

160Administration within RPS but more importantly they want a growth pipeline an established pipeline for example if I'm a new teacher and I come into Richmond and I want to be a principal in seven eight years whether the jobs that allow me to grow as a teacher so that one day when I want to be an assistant principal or principal I had that recommend I had that resume built and we have our pipeline of principals and leaders ready to go and lastly they want more funding for tuition reimbursement um for them for those that want to pursue different degrees those that want to pursue different professional developments they want the school board to increase the money for professional development and the last key number nine was they had so much fun on this task force that

161they recommended that this be a permanent group this will be a permanent group that meets every year to come forth with recommendations they feel that this problem of teacher retention this problem of teacher recruitment isn't going away and so the best way to do that is for teachers to have a seat at the table to make recommendations um they really love the town hall and as someone who was in charge of the Town Hall I was a little nervous about things to go but it was a very very very productive time we got a lot of work done a lot of good information the good suggestions from our teachers and more importantly our teachers left feeling hurt and so they're recommended that we do this quarterly and that to give you an example we talked

162about safety and we we didn't feel comfortable making a statement for all the teachers so we said well if you have a town hall next year that'll be our first topic with the teachers of safety so that everybody gets a voice at the table and then of course they want a monthly teacher newsletter that has professional development opportunities and different programs for growth within the district and so with that the proposed budget of a hundred thousand dollars of course 12 000 would be stipend for the world language teachers who will be teaching the course um the world language courses for our teachers three thousand for books and supplies for those teachers Mentor teacher support they really think that we can keep our teachers if we get back to that one-on-one personal touch so they decided

163that's where the bulk of that money would be going for new teacher support in addition to the already new teacher program we had now obviously participation in this would be optional because if I have a 10-year teacher coming from another District I don't need that actual support I don't want that program but if I'm a new teacher fresh out of VCU Virginia state I may want that uh 20 000 was set aside to create a committee to create those lesson plans we know I mean work ain't free so we need to pay those folks who are creating those lesson plans Master Teachers and folks who've been doing the work for some years and last five thousand of courses going to a culturally responsive professional development to learn more about our communities and the people that

164are in Richmond and the people that we serve and so with that they closed out with a statement they said they would like to thank Administration and school board for allowing their voices to be heard as they tackle the Nationwide issue of teacher retention we'd also like to thank the many teachers and central office employees Who provided feedback this is valuable feedback influence recommendations performed by the task force we hope to continue this sense of cooperation and open communication as we move forward addressing the many issues causing teachers at least leave the field lastly we want to thank children caregivers parents and communities of the great City for allowing us to serve with love and I will follow up later with an actual concrete plan because we finalized this in the four-hour meeting we had

165last Thursday morning and so we're following up with a plan on how we're going to implement this after me with engagement academics Wellness office to make sure that these are things that we can Implement going into the school year Mr Young thank you madam chair first I just want to commend Mr Robinson and his team and I was so very pleased when I reviewed the report this weekend in anticipation of this meeting and candidly I saw a a lot of a lot of content a lot of subject areas that we've had a lot of discussion about and it was really affirming to let us see you articulate it and and really profound way that you and your colleagues did I just want to pull aside for a moment and address a couple of a couple

166of the issues and and I don't presume to suggest that the the committee is prepared to endorse what I'm going to speak to next uh but uh but I will take moment to uh to endorse uh what I think I inferred from what was just said by Mr Robinson I.E There's an opportunity to act and uh and act with expediency as soon as for uh for August for uh for the next academic year and specifically I'm going to refer to cell phones we've talked about it nausea up here and I think we need to talk about it some more but what we really need to do is to in my opinion preclude our secondary students access to cell phones and I recognize that your report didn't prescribe that solution but you did acknowledge that there

167is an opportunity for improvement so I appreciate that and then the other uh one of the one of the other really important elements relates to lesson plans and again uh I don't want to speak for the committee so I'll just speak for Jonathan but uh for me it's an opportunity to de-emphasize the prioritization of lesson plans because candidly uh my opinion often it's just Mickey Mouse uh busy work uh in fact I think your report even referred to uh busy work if if I recall correctly and uh and so that's an opportunity going forward and then lastly uh what we address all the time I.E people don't quit jobs they quit managers and the truth is that those survey instruments are invaluable they are invaluable but I really appreciate the recommendation to drill down on

168some of those buckets for lack of better ascription and we've had a conversation in fact Incorporated in our budget that is about to expire in a few days of 360. review pertinent building leadership so I share all that to say Madam chair that I just commend Mr Robinson and his team of teachers for doing a really really terrific job and I do most sincerely hope that this group's work won't just sit on a shelf and collect dust dust but instead that we do move with XP agency presumably as soon as for for the end of August when most of our minus two schools go back go back to schools thank you I'm going to make a comment and then as Bert and Ms White use your hand up okay um you know as someone who

169spent a good chunk of my career as a K-12 teacher this report literally made my heart sing um there's so much here that I think would improve conditions for our teachers and give them voice and give them agency and allow them to feel valued um and so thank you kudos for this work this is really good um and let's get this newsletter I didn't even know you didn't have a newsletter but let's get this newsletter going as soon as possible and I really am looking forward to seeing what you return with in terms of more concrete actions you'd like us to take thank you okay um Mrs Burke and then Miss White and then miss Gibson foreign thank you madam chair Mr Robinson well done this was so much information and my heart is singing

170as well I wish we started meeting that with this because he made so many great points number one I'd like to share it's about relationship building and I think your spearheading as being an experienced teacher and national teacher of the year you've been the route and you continue the route so to share your journey and to hear from them as well means so much I really like the idea of those hidden rules expectations when you stated in terms of the request of what is the expectation per school when someone is absent what is the plan but I do think that's something that needs to be considered from collectively no matter where you are but that's that's a good start and I was really pleased to hear that your report wasn't only about the teachers but

171about the students when you stated that student teachers want to have more celebrations for their students that are on point that are doing well that are bringing up their grades that are making good choices what about those students they should be celebrated often we shouldn't have to wait until the end of the year or the middle of the year really if you want to change behaviors it has to be done daily weekly or monthly so I I can't wait to read about that plan in your newsletter and lesson plans I was surprised to hear that you know when you have your GPS you have to have a direction someplace of where to go doesn't mean you have to use the step-by-step line by line but a beginning teacher in particular having some outline some plan

172in place which we did at one time have that under the state department but um I like the idea of that already being in place because it does take a lot of hours and then you also know if you receive that from your school system or a higher level per se that it is correctly aligned to the sols so you don't have to spend a lot of time trying to find and I think there may be some plans in place already but not as extensively as what they're asking and I love grow your own but as we are embracing those other steps of of you can be more than a principal or assistant principal that you can create create your own job I've seen that in Richmond Public Schools so I do hope and that

173really comes about through professional development visiting other schools doing research so your report to make a long story short was excellent I do hope you meet more than one time a year you know the um Miss Wise of his saying quarterly I don't want to not that we have more to do but meet me but it I think it makes a difference because there are certain months of the year that we as Educators have slumps yeah we have slumps use this after each quarter or the end of a semester so I'm just as our students have the fourth grade slump or whatever but um thank you for your report well done I can't wait to see what you're going to have before us moving forward but this was this has perked me up and I

174thank you for that well done I think thank you madam chair uh Mr Robinson I'd like to Echo some of the same things uh to your team well job well done um some things that really did impress me was the teacher Town Hall as well as culture the culture climbing survey I really uh live by that if you're done if it's done right it will improve your whole organization especially things that I am read um and I'm glad someone said promotions within the teachers it seemed like we recycle almost every job but we don't see I don't see much mobility in our teachers coming on our Administration and they are just as uh educated as anybody else some of them have two three four degrees but I don't see that Mobility there and one thing

175that I didn't see but I I would hope that Richmond Public Schools one day and they may have in the talent office or eeo office is a mediator because the board does get a lot of emails from teachers they think that we can solve everything and we can't solve anything the only thing we can do is forward it to Mr cameras so therefore there needs to be a mediator between certain problems and issues that they have um that was one thing I did not see and the biggest thing that I love to see is when I go into the schools I Believe Miss Burke had just spoke about it was the school's absence what do you do when you got 10 teachers missing how why do you have 10 teachers missing uh we're trying to

176retain teachers so why are they absent so those things yes good job done and um I'll be looking at it more often thank you let's get some thank you madam chair um and thank you so much uh for this overview um uh I am uh I've been eager to hear the the feedback from the um from the workforce and it sounds like some really good discussions were had um and I and I want to empower you and others and um Union leadership to um to continue to hold us accountable um and I and I think the way the path to making that happen is to think Beyond ideas and and and move to policy um because these ideas are are great right but as a as a governing body there's nothing we can do to

177ensure that those things happen but if you come to a board with policy recommendations that we can then adopt um then then this board and future boards will are required to um to to maintain those standards um and and this is an important uh point to emphasize um given some of the concerns that we've heard about um contracts right so a discussion about Collective uh about teacher retention can ignore the work of collective bargaining right and um I was incredibly disappointed to hear that the contracts that have gone out do not include the language that was adopted during collective bargaining this is the elephant in the room right now um and so um it doesn't make sense that we need to have policy that says that the contracts have to have that language but if

178if that's what needs to happen that's what needs to happen and so um and so what is the recommendation for that policy language um the Personnel um uh protocols uh procedures that are in the district these are procedures that haven't been updated in some cases since the 80s right so I um encourage teachers and Rea Administration to come with the language that that's current right um if the administration's not going to update those things and there are things that need to be updated help us help you by making those recommendations um I believe exit interviews should be conducted by Union leadership um and what are the vehicles by which the district can do to um to help facilitate that process um you know we have heard of teachers that are outspoken um that that that

179see opportunities to make things better in their building um and then they feel punished by building leadership and then they're unable to find other positions in the district we've heard this again and again sometimes anonymously and so what is the policy that we can enact to stop that right um these are um unfortunate things that we are faced with as a reality but um but there are ways that we can address them and so I implore you to communicate that to the teachers that you work with um to to come to the board and come with policy recommendations because that's that's the way that we make change and we ensure that we are required to um to adhere to it thank you miss Page and then Miss Jones thank you madam chair Ms Robinson good

180job job well done um this is really good work especially the recommendations about grow grow out grow your own um programs because I often hear this that's where the work needs to be done growing you know grow our own grow your own and you know creating that pipeline I think that is very critical you know as we talk about teacher retention because a lot of times if you don't feel valued or you know there's opportunities for growth then you know you tend to move on and it's hard for you to retain teachers so again I just want this I don't want to just say what everybody has to say but this is really good work and I'm looking forward to seeing the next steps again thank you Miss Jones Thank you thank you so much

181for the presentation I only have foreign recommendation hire more money for the culturally responsive professional development we have 24 plus thousand kids we need more money and let us know how we can support that thank you okay thanks Madam chair I had a comment I had my hand up but okay go ahead Dr Harris that's okay thank you just let me know when I can speak go ahead thank you Mr Robinson thank you for the presentation and thank you to everyone who participated in this journey with you Mr cameras is there any way um that we can add the language and the contracts from the collective bargaining and if not then how are we going to um distribute that information to our employees thank you thank you Dr Harris Muhammad I believe the board amended

182the agenda to talk about that in just a bit so happy to talk through that at that point that's fine thank you so much 24 Staffing update and um contract discussion thank you madam chair given the hour um I won't say much about the Staffing update you can look at the numbers there as for the contracts let me be 100 clear just because the collective bargain agreement isn't in the contract um that doesn't change anything the collective bargaining agreement of course is still in effect and will continue to be in effect 100 without question full stop period um if the board would like us to send out a copy of that agreement to all employees I'm more than happy to do that you just didn't want to complicate the process of getting contracts out by

183revising things that would invariably um cause a whole lot of questions anytime anything is changed in the contract understandably it makes folks somewhat trepidatious they want to make sure that nothing has been changed in a way that negatively impacts them so my recommendation would be I'm happy to uh send the communication out to um the entire force uh include the collective bargaining agreements um and re-clarify of course they continue to remain in effect um and so happy happy to do that uh this week Miss Gibson and Miss Jones thank you madam chair um I am incredibly disappointed um that the language is not there um and I don't I think that we need to send an amendment that is also signed or an updated contract I mean you know if if we've made a change

184that said um you know that this is an additional right that you have I don't it doesn't make sense to me that we think that it's going to cause bad confusion not to include that language so um I'm not sounding as intelligent and as I'd like to at this late hour but um the process of developing these contracts it's it occurred too late um I think the board should be reviewing the actual draft of the actual contracts before they are gone out um and I think that um we need to to send out an amendment with expediency the teacher that spoke this evening on the topic made a good point that you know new teachers coming in without seeing the language in the in the contract there they don't know what their rights are um

185and um and so it it the language should be in place so um I don't know if there's a support on the board to um to require that Amendment but I am definitely in support of that um we also I believe should be putting a timeline to having that done I mean I this year we've gotten more Outreach about contract concerns and questions that we ever have before um I am unclear that we have some new grades that I'm not sure when they are adopted but like there's like a grade 128 and then there's also a grade 1.8 28.1 it's included me why we have multiple grades um for the same job um there are folks that are um you know told that they're unrenewed at late notice um the processes uh is flawed and

186it needs to be improved um you know we're talking about teacher retention and this just does not seem like like a reflection of of where we need to be as a district um and I guess I'm I'm just a bit at a loss of words right I mean the work to to to to to get where we are with collective bargaining I mean this was a this is a big deal and then to find out at this time that we've then sent out contracts that don't have the language in place um you know it's uh it's just not it doesn't it doesn't feel right so I um I'd like us to take it a step further Beyond just sentencing something out I I do believe that the teachers um and staff members deserve to sign

187contracts with the agreements that have been made thank you Ms White I'm tired me too uh quick question is this from superintendent cameras can you explain um what the understanding is I know the board approved bonuses we've been did that for like new hires but how does that relate to um collective bargaining um because there seems to be some confusion around that because if we are approving compensation for new teachers or new hires I think we've heard this before but if you could just think very clearly how do they have something to do with each other should we be Consulting with the Union when we make these decisions as a school board or can we do this I'm just trying to get some clarity on it I believe the the board is entitled to approve

188things like bonuses um you know outside of the collective bargaining agreement when they are in addition to um obviously I'm not a lawyer so I would ultimately defer that to lawyers um but um you know the the contracts they had a certain set of items that were delineated for discussion those were the items that were discussed um but again ultimately I think that's a a question of legal interpretation um but I I do want to respectfully push back against this narrative um that I think is being proposed this evening that anything untoward was at play here um I will say again to everybody watching and on the tape the cbas of course of course remain in effect for every single employee this process is already a rather complicated one I do not think it would

189make sense to reissue contracts at this time knowing that most teachers are now off doing whatever it is they desire over the summer break I think that would cause an extraordinary amount of confusion and anxiety I as I shared earlier I'm happy to and I'm committing to sending out a very clear communication to the entire force reiterating that everything that this body and the rea approves continues to be in effect and we will make sure that it is implemented um again I think that the simplest way to handle this going forward is that we send out contracts we append the CBA and note that everything enshrined in the CBA um is part and parcel of their contract and they will have that in front of them when they sign and so that is what we

190will do next year and for this year I'll go ahead and send out that message this week to the entire force Mr cameras I just have a quick question have you or your staff investigated how this is done in other districts that have collected bargaining um I mean I can I I there are no other jurisdictions in Virginia but I can I can speak to my experience in Washington DC in which case um you know the contracts were over a hundred I'm sorry the the collective bargaining agreements um got over a hundred pages long so to um include that language on the contract is is rather cumbersome but I'm happy to explore what other jurisdictions do um it was always just understood in for example DC that the collective bargaining agreement is in full effect

191has the full force of District policy and so every last bit of that did not need to be included in the actual contract that was signed um again um I'm happy to do as as the board directs but um uh I think again the simplest way is to send out a message this week and going forward uh we'll append any of the collective bargaining agreements and make it clear that they are part of the um in essence agreement that the teacher is signing to you know I don't have a problem with that but I would like to know um you know have someone do some research on how this is done in districts that have collected bargaining Nationwide happy to thank you uh Miss Gibson I have a recommendation that I think should be fairly

192straightforward to execute and that would be that we upload all of the collective bargaining agreements to board docs um in the section where our policies are absolutely happy to do that thank you okay we are now moving to 7.03 receive update on the summer school and 200-day pilot thank you madam chair um Dr Wiggins is here to answer any questions you have on those matters given the hour um Dr Wiggins maybe not do a presentation just take any questions if there are any good evening again questions for Dr Wiggins Madam chair I have a question about summer school are we I think I heard Mr Cameron say that we are at that point yes okay go ahead thank you thank you thank you Dr Wiggins um let me pull up my questions okay so who

193will the term I have several questions um who will determine what classes to merge that are less than five students and I'm speaking these questions are pertaining to the high school level second question how would that impact the summer school staff and their pay if we're merging the classes and then the last one when will the administration decide to merge the summer school classes on the high school level all great questions so first of all the summer school staff the the principal and the other administrators that work alongside the summer school principal they decide on when classes need to be merged I will tell you they're not emerged immediately because of course we're still registering students even during these first few days of school so they are the ones who decide when they're going to

194be merged and then what happens next is it is part of summer school teachers it's part of their understanding it's part of I believe it's in the contract I am not positive but I believe it's part of them understanding that sometimes they are not needed that doesn't happen an awful lot so when that happens um you know then we do not have them continue with summer school but I will have to check with Sydney to Mrs Gunter for any documentation around how often that has happened and what we do after that point but yes sometimes we do have to merge classes but it doesn't happen immediately because we need to make sure we get all of our students in first thank you thank you Mrs White and then Mr Young thank you madam chair uh

195Miss Wiggins I just had a question because I remember our parent was uh talking about that earlier was your hubs how are those designed around holiday design do you know you found the trend yes Transportation decides on our hubs um because unlike during the school year and you know we are covering all of the city so um we can definitely look at additional stops um you know but we've gone with this Hub method for the lab for the last few years and so um you know those are the questions please any parents should reach out to miss Gunter or the Summer School site to tell us if there is you know a long distance away we try to not we try not to have it cover so much space but unfortunately with summer school and

196trying to cover the whole city with less buses it makes it a little bit more difficult which is why we go with the Hub sites thank you thank you Mr Young and then miss page just really really briefly of course I'm super excited about the 200-day pilots and I'm also super excited that uh the new this board Administration respectfully will be micromanaging uh the additional time and or instruction and I'm also super excited that uh that we're accommodating uh variants and two schools can go their separate ways I did uh I did have a question though um this probably I could have asked offline but of the two I saw Fairfield emphasized it seemingly at least what was presented on paper when I was revealing emphasized out of the building and field trips a little

197bit more and of course that spoke to me and my interest again acknowledging that we're not micromaging but uh so my question my question is if Cardinal is also emphasizing outside of the building and field trips and perhaps it just wasn't Incorporated in the in the report or maybe that maybe there is a real distinction or variance variance so if and if we know so um we're very excited also about the 200-day pilots and um the two schools and all that um the good things that are planned and being planned Fairfield um has really emphasized um some out of the box um out of the building kind of activities for the students to expose them to different kinds of activities Cardinal is planning some as well but we wanted to make sure that we incorporated

198all the things that were planned but we're still planning in the midst of that so they proposed to have some things too but that was a very much an emphasis in a Fairfield court is to have some of those activities and so you could see some of the differences between the schools and what they were planning so but yes that is a big part of what we want to do is exposing our students to activities and Fairfield court has already already planned quite a few um are you doing this to you you're good okay uh miss Page and then Miss White um thank you madam Chambers um yes it's late Dr Wiggins so getting back to the hub so you're saying the Hub location is during the school year are different than the Hub locations

199for summer school yes ma'am um because during the school year of course we're in zone so we have many more stops than we have over the summer so what is the cut off or you know the walking distance for students have having to go to the various Hub locations because you know on the south side is very widespread and um so that's a question you know that's out there how far oh how far do we expect out young people to walk to the various Hub location so I do not know that for sure but I will make sure that I find out I'll connect with um Mr miles and our transportation department and he can give me a bit more guidelines about how he puts together the Hub location he and his team of course

200and put together the locations but I'm not for sure how far it is from one location to another so but I will find that out and get back to you okay thank you because in the south side I mean like many other places you know same thing is a huge issue so absolutely thank you thank you I look forward to your response yes this is why thank you madam chair Miss Wiggins I just have one more question on your metrics for Success were there for the two schools carnal and Fairfield Court Elementary you have the increase for the proficiencies by the grades when should the board receive some data on that so we would not have that data until the end of next school year of course um so it's going to take the entire

201school year but we will have metrics along the way like we'll have the VGA we will have our early literacy assessments like when we come and present to the board about Pals and all of those other assessments so we will be able to give updates along the way but for the final scores of course it's the end of the school year thank you Dr Wiggins all right we are now at item 8.01 received for Action board travel and District activity requests yes ma'am we have four tonight one Dr Shonda Harris Mohammed and she is requesting funds for um our Collective power restoring ourselves liberating our boards meeting in the amount of ninety dollars districts five Miss Rizzy attendance and the Council of Greece city schools Leadership Institute that was mentioned earlier tonight as well as

202Miss Burke district 7 in both in the amount of 427.80 Ms adore has requested that the balance of her District activity funds thirty five hundred dollars be donated to Thomas Jefferson High School summer it's been moved to accept the district activity request by Ms Jones is there a second second um and so Madame Clark Miss door yes Miss White Miss Gibson yes Mr Young Epstein Mr Rizzy yes Dr Harris Muhammad yes Miss Burke yes Miss page Miss Jones motion passes thank you uh new business any new business um okay this is white I'll get you in just one second I know that Miss Dory you did request a standing item on Safety and Security so I will make that is that what you were going to uh okay exactly okay all right any other new

203business all right we are at um we're gonna can read other informational items we are now at announcements the announcements close to cameras yeah thank you madam chair I wanted to just remind everyone again about the groundbreaking on June 15th for July 15th it's late for the Richmond High School for the Arts um that's that's one two I would like to invite the entire board on July 24th for the first day of the RPS 200 schools we want to do a celebration to welcome the students back um and we'll have more information about that as well okay Ms White go ahead what's the cameras when is Fox Graham breaking well yeah I mean they're already doing the work um but we you you were at the press conference that that kind of was okay we'll

204have a grand opening that's that's all right um we are now about to go into closed um who has that do you have that okay we're still into section 2.2-3711a7 and eight of the little Virginia I moved at the school board of the city of Richmond convene and closed session a consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members or Consultants pertaining to actual or problem litigation where such concept Consultants consultation or briefing and open meeting with adversely affected negotiating or litigating posture of the public body and regarding missile properties let's pause I think you have the copy from earlier and there should be um you were and that's my my apologies Miss Gibson has the one before the second closed session no thank you pursuant to sections 2.2-3711a1 two and the school the code

205of Virginia I move that the school board of the city of Richmond convene in closed session two one consider the assignment appointment promotion performance demotion salaries disciplining or resignation of specific public officers appointees or employees of the school board or for discussion consideration or interview of prospective candidates for employment and the personal actions for today and the performance of specific public officers and two to consider the admission or disciplinary matters or any other matters that would involve the disclosure of information contained in a Scholastic record concerning a Richmond Public School student second it's been moved by Ms Gibson to go into close second hit by Miss door Miss door yes Miss White yes Mr Gibson yes Mr Young aye Ms Rizzy yes Dr Harris Muhammad yes Miss Burke yes Miss page Miss Jones motion passes