001I brought that to everybody. The old way. Okay, well, you can give us a thumbs up when we're ready. Oh, there's a patch. Is it for more of our glasses? I'm not sure. I think it's to convince everyone they need to come. >> Everyone we good? Yeah. Everyone on the left we're good? We're good. We're good. Everybody good? Good. I do wonder. >> We're good. Yeah, optics. All right, the May 12th, 2026 school board regular meeting is called to order. Ms. Treski, please call the roll. Mr. Cherry. Here. Mr. Link. Here. Dr. [clears throat] Jamison. >> Here. Ms. Quintana. Here. Ms. Traig. Here. Mrs. Watkins. Here. Mrs. Apfel. Here. Thank you to all of those attending the meeting in person, full house tonight, and those that are joining us via the RCPS YouTube channel. Um,
002and thank you, I believe I saw um the mayor join us this evening as well. Thank you for coming. Um, next is the approval of the agenda. Is there a motion and a second to approve the agenda as presented? >> So moved. Moved by Mr. Cherry. Second. Moved by Mr. Cherry. Is there a second? Second. Seconded by Ms. Quintana. Is there any discussion? All those in favor, say I. I. Any opposed, say no. And [clears throat] the motion carries. The agenda is approved. Please keep the following in your thoughts. Family and friends of MK Bishop, supervisor of early learning, on the passing of her grandmother. Family, friends, and co-workers of Ms. Shelly Breiby, special education instructional assistant at Highland Park on her passing. Please join me in a moment of silence. Thank you. Please rise
003and join me in the Pledge to the Flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, everyone. Um on to recognitions. We are about to begin a series of special recognitions. Mr. When we do recognitions, Mr. Chris Perkins will adjust the ropes here at the front next to the podium to allow easy access. When your name is called, please start to your left, proceed forward, and you will be able to greet the board members with a handshake. Afterward, you'll be guided to the side of the cafeteria for photos with Ms. Mitzel. We will begin with resolutions this evening. Now, without objection, I would like to reorder the recognition portion of
004our agenda. We will move the resolutions presented by Delegate Rasul to the final item of the recognition portion of the agenda to accommodate his arrival time. We will begin instead with student representatives. Is there any objection? Hearing none, we will proceed with the meeting. On behalf of So, on to the school board representatives. On behalf of the school board, I want to sincerely thank John Lopez Ortiz and Steven Wade for their service this year. You've represented Patrick Henry and William Fleming High Schools and all of our students with distinction. When the school board created this role in 2022, we made a commitment that student voices would have a real seat at this table. Um at this time, I'd like to recognize my fellow trustees Ms. Quintana and Ms. Trigg. Thank you very much for working
005with our representatives and and ensuring they had um a trusted liaison to help them um become acclimated on the board and to thrive throughout this past year. So, I will turn it over to you all, Ms. Quintana and Ms. Trigg, would you all like to say a few words? Ms. Quintana? Um first of all, good evening. Um this is the first year that Ms. Trigg and myself um are the I guess head sparring the um student representative. Um and it has been a great experience. I hope it was a great experience for you. It was great to get to know this young man and um see all their um goals and dreams that they have for the future and I cannot wait for them to come back and tell us all they have achieved. Thank
006you. Thank you, Ms. Quintana and Ms. Trigg. Hello, everyone. Definitely want to congratulate our student reps as they're moving forward, both attending colleges. Um we would definitely want to give you a token of our love and appreciation and hope that this can carry you out through your times when it gets a little tough. So, I'm going to read you what we have for our college survival kit. You'll have a band-aid for when lights life gets a little tough, Chocolate kisses to remind you that you are loved. Eraser, it's okay to make mistakes, just don't give up. Gum, stick to your goals. Kit Kat, breaks a breaks are always good to take. And that sometime is the hardest one that us adults don't um follow, so definitely learn to do that now. Marker, leave a good
007mark wherever you go. Peanuts, some days will be nuts, but tomorrow is a new day. >> [laughter] >> Pencil, list your blessings every day. Penny, for good luck wherever you go in life. Post-it notes, to help you remember what's important. Rubber bands, stretch your mind and be flexible. Smarties, be smart and work hard. And I also like to add work smarter, not harder. Snickers, laughter is the best medicine. And Starburst, always remember to reach for the stars and congratulations. >> [applause] >> John Ortiz, will you join us? John, go ahead and come on around [applause] so you can go around the front so you can shake all of our hands. >> [clears throat] >> Okay. Congratulations and there's a whole bunch of stuff. Everything I read is in that box. >> [laughter] >> Thank you.
008Thank you. Thank you. We appreciate [clears throat] you. >> [laughter] >> Wait a minute. Congratulations. Thank you. >> [applause] >> We look forward to welcoming our newest student representatives beginning July 1st, and we are grateful this tradition continues to grow. On to the Superintendent Student Advisory Council, Dr. White, please introduce your student advisory council. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Good evening, everyone. Uh, you know, when I created my student advisory council in uh 2022, it came from a belief that um people closest to the experience have uh should have a seat at the table, which is why I also have meetings with our uh Roanoke education uh um uh association, as well as the teacher advisory council and business advisory council, because I I believe that perspectives matter. And so, this has been really wonderful
009to continue with our student advisory council, so that our students can continue to tell us what's working well and what's not working so well. And trust me, if you ever want to know um get some candid and honest feedback, ask our students, because they will tell you exactly the way that it is. And so, I just value their opinions and their feedback uh because Roanoke City Public Schools, we're not just one story, right? We're made up of several stories, and our students have diverse experiences and backgrounds, and they share their experiences with me, and I just love working with them and getting their advice and their um opinions, their feedback has given us really valuable insights, and has resulted also in real change. A few years ago, the students on my students uh advisory council
010clearly told us that they wanted us to focus on mental health services and to take the stigma out of mental health services and therefore we were then able to launch Hazel Health at no cost to our students as well. Again, those that type of feedback has driven real and resulted in real change for the organization. And this year the students walked into our meetings and talked about artificial intelligence such as the guardrails schools need to have in place, the safety questions that we should be wrestling with right now. They talked about teacher pay and what it means to have educators who feel valued and who stay and the importance of our teachers staying in place. And so when you look at what's reflected for instance in this year's budget, it has student voice as part
011of that process. So I just want to again just say thank you to our students for sitting across from me, standing with me and with our team. And what you'll find our students are thoughtful, they're kind, they're conscientious, they're smart, they're witty, they're fun, they're committed young people. They care about their country, they care about their community, they care about the environment and they also care about each other and I'm so so proud of them. They're working really really hard and it's a pleasure to acknowledge them. So thank you to all of the students who served this year, um whom I call my babies. They they know they know that they're not babies and I know that they're not babies but they're and I know for the parents who are here, they are your babies
012but they're also our babies too. And so I do for those who are returning, I look forward to continuing to work with work with you and to our graduating seniors, I look forward to shaking your hand on June 5th. So so with that we're going to start with the the recognition. So let's get started with the with the list. All right. So, when I call your name, feel free to to come on up and uh so that the school board can shake your hand. All right. First, we're going to start with Jarvis Ivory and Allison Wong from James Breckenridge Middle School. >> [applause] [applause] [laughter] >> It's all right. Come on around. It's a blockade. Right around this way. You can start at that end. Come on around. Thank you. Next, Thanks for serving. >>
013we have Elise Abner from John P. Fishwick Middle School. >> [applause] [applause] >> You can Thank you for everything. Appreciate you. From James Madison Middle School, we have Tamara Lewis Brown. >> [applause] >> All right. From Lucy Addison Middle School, we have Sharaya Perry. >> [applause] >> From Woodrow Wilson Middle School, we have Elizabeth Bryant and Tucker Kootsey. >> [applause] >> We also have Sanai Brazouli, Hannah Turnbull. Very good. There That's for you. And Alaya GRACE STRONG. >> [applause] >> THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING. I appreciate you. That is for you. >> [laughter] >> Wait a minute. We might be out of order. All right. Where are you? You're Hannah? Yeah. Yeah, I got you. There you go. That's for you. Very good. Thank you, Hannah. Congratulations. Which one? What? Okay. Good to see you. Thank
014you for everything. That's for you, too. Do we have Tucker and Tucker and Sanai? All right, from Day Tech and Road Tech, we have Rishard Acres and Malia Brown. >> [applause] >> Thank you for everything. And Jaden Robinson. Is Jaden here? Uh Denasia Rosser. Is Denasia here? >> [applause] >> Yes. Amelia Delaro. >> [applause] >> Of course, Stephen Wade, also. We give [applause] him a hand. All right. Very good. Let's moving moving on from Forest Park Academy we have Destin Hairston. Destin here? >> [applause] >> Also Kylie Batson couldn't be here but we want to acknowledge Kylie. [applause] From the Governor's School we have Lawson Freeland and Aaron Thompson. We want to give them a hand. >> [applause] >> Very good. We have Aaron Thompson. Thank you so much. Thank you. Aaron Thompson. It's coming.
015From Noel C. Taylor we also have Shamika Alexander. And Very good. >> [applause] >> Thank you. Thank you for being on my advisory council. We also have Tanaya Clements. >> [applause] [clears throat] >> Good job. I got it this morning. Thank you for being on my advisory council. We also have Alexandria Ray. >> [applause] >> And Lazarian Graham. >> [applause] >> We have Alexandria Ray. Thank you. Thank you. It's you. I'll meet you right down. Let's come down to the end and I'll meet you right there. All right, from Patrick Henry High School we have Adler Alls. >> [applause] >> Thank you. Thanks for doing Alexandria. Thank you. Also have Savnam Banihashem. We also have Devanshi Shah Shahadri. >> [applause] >> Thank you. We have Layla Cork. >> [applause] >> Archer Eads. Is Archer here?
016>> [applause] >> We have Phoenix Finney. >> [applause] >> We know that this is athletic season, so there's a lot there are a lot of conflicts. It's okay. We want to give Noah Johnston a hand >> [applause] >> being on the advisory council. Samuel Kamara. >> [applause] >> Samuel's coming? Oh, very good. Thank you. John Lopez Ortiz. Come on around, John. Come on back around. >> [laughter] >> Thank you so much. Thanks for joining us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We also have Adriana Mack. >> [applause] >> Good job. >> We have just um Jocelyn um Marroquin. Thank you for being on the advisory council. Zanari [applause] Page, also thank you for being on the advisory council. Adriana Rivera. >> [applause] >> Harper Rouse. Thank you, Harper. Arnez Starkey. Arnez? All right. Um Shamsi.
017Um Tishie Banji. >> [applause] >> All right. What about uh Giselle Arias? Is Giselle here? >> [applause] >> All right, very good. And then from William Fleming High School, Ian Cioppa. Thank you, Ian. And I think that that is there anyone else here who's on the advisory council who we did not call your name and you did not you were not recognized. All right, did we get everyone? Let's give all of our student advisory council members a big hand. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Dr. White. Next we have the 2025 Winter Fine Arts Recognitions. Mrs. Whit Sorry. Mrs. Trigg needs to just one thing. Where John is going to Oh, yes. We pause. Back to Mrs. Trigg. >> I'm sorry. I wanted to let you all know that John Ortiz is
018going to William and Mary in the fall. >> Yeah. Congratulations. [applause] Go try. Congratulations. Stephen Way will be attending Virginia Western Community College and then transferring into Virginia Commonwealth University. >> [applause] >> And before we go too far, I also wanted to make sure that you see Ms. Mitzel standing in the corner. If you were just recognized, if you could please take your certificates on over to Ms. Mitzel and she's going to make sure to memorialize the moment. So, thank you for being part of our Student Advisory Council this year. >> [applause] >> Yes. All right. Next, we have the 2025 Winter Fine Arts Recognitions. Mrs. Whitney Johnson, now can you come forward to introduce the recipients? Thank you. Good evening, Madam Chair, Vice Chair Cherry, Superintendent White, and members of the school board. It
019is a distinct honor to stand before you tonight to celebrate the championship season of our fine arts programs, and I genuinely just want to say thank you to our board for the support for the arts. We feel it each and every day. So, thank you. Throughout the months of March and April, our secondary music ensembles participated in rigorous state-mandated assessments. These evaluations are the culmination of months of disciple prac- disciplined practice, and the results we are sharing tonight speak volumes about the caliber of talent and instruction within Roanoke City Public Schools. We first want to acknowledge William Fleming. I do want to say that our band director and orchestra director both have concerts this evening, so they are at William Fleming this evening with students. But, we're going to honor them nonetheless and make sure
020that they get their awards. But, starting with Fleming, um am thrilled to report that the Symphonic Band, under the direction of Mr. William Satterwhite, earned an overall superior rating at the VBODA District 6 Assessment. Um I would like to extend this extend a special thank you to Mr. Satterwhite and the Fleming administration as it successfully hosted 29 visiting bands for this massive regional event. 29 bands, [applause] yeah. And we will also celebrate the William Fleming Orchestra by director Yi-Wen Evans uh for her excellent rating of the 2026 All-Virginia Band and Orchestra Directors Association at VBODA in Lynchburg on March 11th, 2026. So we will make sure that uh Yi-Wen and Will both get their awards. >> [applause] >> But as we continue to celebrate Fleming, I would like to congratulate Ms. Hannah Hervey and please
021invite her up. Ms. [applause] Hervey is the choir director and very popular. >> [laughter] >> Uh Ms. Hervey is William Fleming's Chamber and Concert Choir, and I'm so excited to say that they traveled to Radford University and returned with a unanimous superior rating, the highest possible marks in the Commonwealth. Woo! Yeah. >> [applause] >> Awesome. Thank you. Good job. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. >> [laughter] >> Are you good? I don't have enough hands for your awards, man. And then That's a good job. I can't hold them all. You want to go? Congratulations. Is that okay with you? Yeah. You bet. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very much. >> much. Congrats. Thank you. Excellent. >> [applause] >> Let's hear it for the arts for Fleming. And
022I feel like I have to acknowledge theater as well. William Fleming did an incredible production of Mean Girls this spring too, and I see some Mean Girl audience members that were in the show. They may be outside taking pictures that were on the advisory council. But let's go to Patrick Henry School successes in the arts. The success continues at PH where the wind symphony conducted by Mr. Alex Schmidt earned a superior rating at the district assessment. Most notably this performance qualified the ensemble for the prestigious Virginia Honor Band Award. This is only the fifth time in school history that the program has achieved this elite status. Mr. Schmidt, if you could please join us. >> [applause] >> I CAN SEE HIM STANDING THERE. CONGRATULATIONS. I WOULD LIKE TO please call Mr. Jeff Midkiff to the
023podium. >> [applause] >> Patrick Henry continues to excel with Mr. Jeff Midkiff leading both the Patrick Henry High School Chamber and Concert Orchestra, which also received superior highest ratings at the VBODA event Orchestra Directors Association in Lynchburg on March 11th, 2026. >> [applause] >> Well done, and I have two awards for you. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations. >> [applause] >> And if I could please invite Mr. Brandon Mock, the Patrick Henry Choir director. >> [applause] >> Patrick Henry Chamber Choir earned a superior rating while the women's and men's choirs earned both excellent ratings for their performances at Radford University. But hold on cuz I'm still going to talk about you. But while our ensemble shown as a whole, we have two individual students who reached the pinnacle of state level achievement in choir. Archer
024Eads, who is at a baseball game right now, and Charlotte Halley, who is also involved in a spring sport in or selected for the All-Virginia Choir after earning the highest scores in our entire district for their respective vocal parts. They represent represented Roanoke City Public Schools with pride in Richmond this past April proving that our students are among the very best vocalists in the >> [applause] [applause] >> And our women's and men's choirs again, excellent ratings for their performance at Radford University. I have all of this for you, too. So, you want to you had do you want to shake you want to shake your hand if we could okay. Congratulations. Hi. giant stack the problems to have >> [laughter] >> Congratulations. Oh, there we are. Might need a hand truck. Yeah. These accolades are
025more than just ratings. They represent the dedication, teamwork, and high academic standards our directors and students maintain each and every day in the arts. Whether through hosting regional events or qualifying for state level honors, these programs continue to serve as ambassadors of excellence for our division. Thank you. Thank you for our your unwavering support of the arts in our schools, which provides the foundation for these incredible achievements. >> [applause] >> Thank you. Thank you very much, Ms. Johnson. And again, could all of our um recognitions for the arts, for the Winter Fine Arts, please find Ms. Mitzel in the corner and she will make sure to get your photo. Next, we have the support staff the 2026 support staff of the year recognition, Mr. John Michael Deeds or Ms. Bailey. Uh can you come forward
026to introduce the recipient? Absolutely. Good evening, Chair Aipol, Vice Chair Mr. Chair, members of the board, Dr. White, citizen representatives, and everyone watching. The Virginia Department of Education participates in a national recognizing inspirational school employees called RISE Award, a program established by Congress in 2019 to honor classified school employees who demonstrate exceptional commitment to supporting high-quality PK-12 education. The award highlights individuals whose work strengthens school communities, uplifts students, and exemplifies excellence in service. Nominees for the RISE Award are evaluated using criteria established by by the US Department of Education, which include demonstrating outstanding work performance that supports student learning and school operations, contributing meaningfully to school and community involvement, exhibiting strong leadership and commitment in their role, earning local support from colleagues, administrators, families, and community members, and enhancing the public image of classified school
027employees through professionalism and dedication. On Thursday, April 30th, during the annual Support Staff of the Year celebration at the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center, Mrs. Joanne Hamidullah was named Roanoke City Public Schools Support Staff of the Year and selected as the division's nominee for the Virginia Department of Education's RISE Award. Mrs. Hamidullah, would you like to join me? >> [applause] [applause] >> All right. So, Mrs. Hamidullah, known affectionately as Miss H, is a special education instructional assistant at Hurt Park Elementary School, where she works in Mrs. Tiffany Austin's self-contained classroom. She leads small group instruction, provides individualized behavioral support, and plays a vital role in creating a structured, nurturing learning environment. Judges noted her as remarkable um and her noted her ability to make a positive, lasting impact on both students and staff. A dedicated
028RCPS graduate herself, Mrs. Hamidullah has served as an instructional assistant for 14 years across two schools. Her nominators emphasize emphasized that while her students may require additional time and support, Miss H never lowers her expectations. She brings out the best in every child. Her sharp wit uplifts her colleagues even on the most challenging days. As one nominator wrote, she is the person who steps in before anyone asks. The person who sees what needs to be done and does it. And the person who consistently places students at the center of every decision and action." We'd like to play a a short video clip honoring [laughter] you, and then we'll let you shake hands. Are you good? Okay. When I first started, I was a sub for Roanoke City Schools. So, I did long-term subbing. One of
029the principals at one of the schools called and asked me would I consider taking a permanent position. And that's how I got it at Lincoln Terrace for 7 years. And I've [music] been here for about 7 years. And now we're going to work on our oral or Roman. We're going to work on the R. I'm an instructional assistant [music] in the special ed department, and that means the kids with special needs. And so, maybe a variety of diagnosis [music] that they have, and we have to program their treatment according to what, you know, >> [music] >> what they have or what their needs are. We each have a table and we each do different things. Like, I'm doing the writing part. Good job, Roman. >> [music] >> Oral and down. Some of them come to
030you and they can't [music] they don't know how to write, and they don't know how to write their names and stuff. So, you start on that, and then once they learn one letter, teach them one letter at a time, and they master that and you move on to another one. And to see them at for the first time master [music] that one letter, it's very amazing. All I do is come to work and to do what I can for the kids to be [music] treated like I would want somebody to treat my child. That's all I do. And so I guess somebody saw that. Take your time, slow down, we're not in a race. You know, I'm not out for the titles and stuff. I'm just [music] out just to make a difference. What do
031you say? Thank you. You're welcome, sweetie. Good job today, okay? >> [applause] >> In recognition of her achievements, Mrs. Tommy Dollar received a $1,000 award from Train, the Support Staff of the Year sponsor. Additional sponsors included Pinnacle Financial Partners for the second place sponsor and ESS for the as the third place sponsor. Mrs. Tommy Dollar, the school board is proud of of you and all of our support staff members. Congratulations and thank you for all you do. >> Congratulations. THANK YOU. >> [applause] >> THANK YOU. UH CONGRATULATIONS. MISS BAILEY, SHOULD MISS H also go with Miss Mitzel for another photo? Is that okay with you, Miss H? >> a lot of photos, Miss H. She's got some spunk. >> [applause] >> And Miss H, did she want to say anything or she did you want
032to say anything? I'm tapped out, but I appreciate I appreciate everything that everybody has done and be a part of I'm so honored and so humbled by this. Thank you. >> [applause] [applause] >> Thank you. Um, and now um, on to Delegate Rasul um, with some resolutions. Um, if you could please come forward and present your resolutions. Thank you for joining us this evening. Oh, good evening everyone. Good evening. Pleasure to be with you all. Serving double duty. My daughter's on the soccer field over here. >> [laughter] >> Game's just ending so I'm like darting over here acting like I'm looking professional for a moment. The uh, it's a 2-2 game. The >> [laughter] >> I don't know what's going to happen. You know, it's against Salem too. So it's like uh, no disrespect Dr.
033Seibert. The >> [laughter] >> um, It is the pleasure to be with you all. We have two two resolutions that we passed in the General Assembly. Um, uh, to um, uh, honor two individuals in particular. First I'm going to um, ask uh, Lou Bishop to to come up with me. Celebrating the life of Dr. Rita Bishop. This was passed right at the end of session and we'll have a full size um, presentation copy that we're going to hand deliver to uh, to Lou here. Um, uh, shortly. Um, you know, Dr. Bishop I I I've I think that um, we've been fortunate as as far as Roanoke City Schools are concerned that we've been sent superintendents for the time. And there was a time uh, some years ago where roughly a third of our students weren't
034graduating on time and Dr. Bishop um, came in and brought some structure and direction where uh, some was needed. Um was able to not only do that, but also uh instill a sense of of pride in being able to invest in things like the arts and music. I remember the first concert that we had here in Roanoke City with some of the wonderful new programs and instruments that she brought forward. Life is coming full circle as I have two daughters at Patrick Henry, both in the band. Um able to check out some of those instruments and and participate as well as many many other individuals. The General Assembly and the House of Delegates in particular passed House Resolution 209 celebrating the life of Dr. Rita Bishop. We are actually approximately on the one-year mark of
035her passing. And for someone who put 50 years into public education, we are certainly honored to have her 15 years that she gave to Roanoke City Public Schools and to get us to a place where um where in the middle of a pandemic, we were able to have a successful transition and now we continue to thrive in in many ways. So there are a lot of accolades. I won't read through all of it, but I will say as an individual who cared very deeply and very strongly about her service to the wonderful and beautiful students here in Roanoke City Public Schools, that the House of Delegates do hereby pass House Resolution 209. It was with great sadness that we commemorate the the loss of Dr. Rita Bishop, a revered member of the Roanoke community whose
036kindness and generosity touched countless lives wherever she would be. And now I'd like to welcome my friend Lou Bishop to say a word. >> [applause] >> She wouldn't want me to say this, but it was 54 years of education. [laughter] Um Rita accomplished a tremendous amount in that 54 years, and particularly here in Roanoke City. But what a thrill for me to sit here this evening and see the wonderful work that Dr. White you have done and the board that you have done. And I I just think it's fantastic that Roanoke City can be very proud of the Roanoke City Public Schools and the leadership that you all have provided. So thank you very much. >> [applause] >> And now we are excited uh to be able to commemorate the Roanoke City Public Schools um
037Teacher of the Year. We um we are asking our schools to do so much more than just teach our children. We throw almost every one of society's ailments at at our schools, and our teachers have to deal with with so much. Many of you have heard of some of my tales of substitute teaching here and there, and I will tell you one place that I am afraid of. And that is middle school. >> [laughter] >> Um there is predictability in how the high schoolers will act. They will act and they will act up, [laughter] and you've shaken your head, you know what I'm talking about. There is no predictability in middle school. [laughter] And there's a special place in heaven. I would like to invite Ms. Manns to to come on up Um, to to
038receive THIS RESOLUTION. [applause] UM, SO THE GENERAL Assembly passed House Joint Resolution 224 uh, commending your it's a public service. They should allow you to board the airlines early just like every one of the veterans. [laughter] James Breckenridge a middle school I believe for 11 years that you've worked so many different ways to uh, be able to invest in children who are finding their way. I know I was busy trying to find my way in middle school. I certainly was was acting up a bit. Um, and we appreciate your investment especially in a region and in a school division that certainly is able to try to conquer so many challenges in different ways. We really can never say enough thank you to you. Um, I could I could do a day here and there but
039to do it day in and day out you are really on the front lines. And so with House Joint Resolution 224 we are commending and there are a whole host of accolades in here. But commending her unwavering commitment to her students and to the well-being of the community she serves. Casey Manns has embodied the ideals of the education profession earning the praise and admirations of Virginians and is certainly of the greater Roanoke Valley. And so the 2026 House of Delegates and we even got the Senate to concur to this. >> Wow. >> got the Senate to do some work. >> [laughter] >> Um, hereby commend you on being named teacher of the year in Roanoke City Public Schools for the 25-26 school year. Congratulations and thank you so much for all of YOUR WONDERFUL WORK.
040>> [applause] >> THANK YOU, MADAM CHAIR, MEMBERS OF THE BOARD. Thank you so much, Delegate Rasul. Thank you very much for being here and I'm sure Ms. Mitzel would love to get pictures with both um Delegate Rasul and the recipients, um those who accepted the resolutions. Ms. Mitzel, yeah, over to the side. You want them all in here to get two? Okay. Um so, on to the personnel list. Is there a motion and a second to approve the personnel list as presented? Move. Second. Moved by Dr. Jamison, seconded by Ms. Watkins. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. >> Aye. Any opposed say no. And the personnel list is approved. On to citizen participation on agenda and non-agenda items. Mr. Cherry, do we have any sign-ups for agenda or
041non-agenda items this evening? >> Yes, we have three that are signed up and before we call your name, I will read this. School board values open communication and we look forward to receiving your comments. We encourage all participants to engage in civil discourse and ask that you keep your comments respectful in helping us achieve this goal. To ensure regular opportunities to address the board are available and that the board has time to conduct its business, up to 30 minutes is allowed for public comment at a regular board meeting. Citizen comments offer an opportunity for the public to inform the board. The board and superintendent generally do not respond to comments made or questions posed. All individuals are urged to provide written copies of their comments or other material supporting their views to the clerk of
042the board who will ensure dissemination to board members. Staff present at board at the board meeting and whenever possible will assist you with your inquiry. Please state your name for the record and state whether you reside in Roanoke City or not. We do ask that you keep your comments to 3 minutes. Speakers may not cede their time to another individual. There is a light at the center of the podium. That light will turn yellow when you have about 1 minute left. All right, the first speaker we have is Miss uh Suzy Shed, Miss Roanoke Valley 2026. Good evening and congratulations to you as well. Hello. Good evening, distinguished members of the Roanoke City School Board. My name is Susanna Shed and I am the current Miss Roanoke Valley and I'm here to advocate for a
043medical health professions class to be added to this school system and I do not reside in Roanoke just to clarify. As many of you know, we are facing an epidemic like no other. Experts predict a global health care workforce shortage by 10 million by 2030. In the US alone, 1 million nurses are needed to close the current health health workforce gaps. The Association of American Medical Colleges projects a total national shortage of up to 86,000 physicians by 2036. 40,000 of them being primary care physicians. The Health Resources and Services Administration projects an increased total shortage of 124 to 187,000 physicians within in next 10 years. Without enough physicians in these critical fields, communities all over the country are struggling to receive basic preventive, acute, and affordable care. And most of these communities are rural communities
044that get affected by these shortages. As a local title holder, I work closely with the public school system and have created an educational curriculum specifically geared towards elementary students to empower them to pursue a career in medicine. I also educate them on the 26 different healthcare careers through reading Healthcare Heroes by Courtney Booth. However, in our middle and high schools, our students are ready to comprehend more of the healthcare field. There are over 200 medical career options. And with the continued downward trend of healthcare workforce, we need students more than ever to pursue a career in medicine. Many school systems, such as the Roanoke City School Board, have wonderful programs such as CNA licensure or EMT certifications. But this elective course would specifically be geared towards teaching students about all medical career options, not just
045the licensure. The goal would be taking career options and splitting them into similar categories as the units. And then, instead of traditional tests and quizzes, students would be encouraged to volunteer and or shadow medical professionals in those fields. Thank you for listening to my request today, and I hope you'll consider adding a class such as this to Roanoke City Schools. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. If I do mispronounce your name, I apologize and you can correct me so I can get it right. Uh the next speaker we have is Reagan Corpening. Um good evening, members of the school board, superintendent, and student representatives. My name is Reagan Corpening, and I'm an 11th grade student at William Fleming High School. And today, I'm here to talk to you about the things that have been
046changing in my school. And I do reside in Roanoke. I was informed last week about one of my teachers being moved into a position that required him to step down as a drama teacher and instead focus on English literature at both Fleming and Patrick Henry High School. I was also informed about the same thing happening with Patrick Henry's drama teacher and how he will be the new theater teacher for both schools. I, as a student who has done theater for my whole high school career, think that this arrangement is unfair for both teachers and the students who participate in this extracurricular program. Not only does it limit the time given to each school between one person, it also puts a mental strain on the teacher having to deal with both Fleming and Patrick Henry. Every
047year both schools do two shows, one in the fall and one in the spring. That's four shows in total that one person will have to somehow manage and successfully do by themselves. That can be a lot on one person and by splitting his time between two schools that are 7 miles apart from each other with two totally different productions being done at the same time, it doesn't seem plausible enough to truly work. All I ask is that you take a moment to reconsider this idea of changing teachers. Thank you for your time. Thank you. >> [applause] >> All right. Our last speaker is Aaron Thompson. Hi, my name is Aaron Thompson and I am a member of the William Fleming Colonial Theater and I'm here to speak out against the moving of our director, Mr.
048Bayliss, to the position of an English teacher for both Patrick Henry and Fleming. And I reside in Roanoke. Having Patrick Henry's theater teacher work at both schools teaching drama is unfair to Fleming and Patrick Henry cuz they are Fleming is losing their director and PH would have to share theirs. This will put stress on the teacher in having to direct four shows to full ability which are held at the same time in the spring and fall for each school. Scheduled for two schools and give his full effort for it. He will it will also put stress in having to commute back and forth between schools. Not only do the teachers feel stressed, but so do the so do both theaters with having less director guidance and more scheduling conflict. This is why each teacher should
049stay at their respective schools to teach at the school they love and prevent future stress. Thank you for your time. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Madam Chair, that ends our citizen comments and participation. Thank you, Mr. Cherry. On behalf of the school board, I want to thank everyone for taking the time to speak with us. As we said earlier, we do value the feedback of our community. Public input is important as we make decisions on behalf of all students in Roanoke City Public Schools. Moving on to the consent agenda, is there a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda as presented? Moved. Second. Moved by Dr. Jamison, seconded by Ms. Quintana. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Those opposed say no. The motion carries and the consent agenda
050items are approved. Ms. Watkins, can you please tell us about the gifts that have been received by RCPS? Absolutely. It's my favorite part. The board accepts with gratitude the following donations. Atlantic Bay Mortgage Group provided a donation of $1,000 to Hurt Park to sponsor students on a trip to Jamestown. In celebration of Teacher Appreciation Week during May 4th through 8th, all RCPS teachers received free Domino's Pizza thanks to the generosity of the following community partners. One Roanoke, $3,000. Branch, $1,000. RCPS Education Foundation, $1,000. Roanoke City Council of PTAs and PTSAs, $200 for a total donation value of $5,200. Our volunteers from One Roanoke even took the time during the week of May 4th through 8th to serve pizza at several of the schools so they could say thank you in person. Um I just want
051to thank our community partners, especially for this and as many ways as we can to show gratitude to um our unsung heroes who are our staff and and teachers. Um we should do that and I thank you so much for partnering with us. If there are any other community partners who wish to partner with Roanoke City Public Schools, we welcome you. Thank you. Thank you very much, Ms. Watkins. On to the Superintendent's reports, Dr. White, could you please provide the Superintendent's updates? Very good, thank you. And good evening, Madam Chair, Mr. Vice Chair, members of the School Board and student representatives. This evening we are bringing forward items for your consideration and information, including an update on the boundary study, approval of text uh textbook adoption for elementary math and secondary social studies, approval of
052the '27-'28 school year, approval of a budget amendment for the current '25-'26 school year, and approval of programmatic recommendations for the '26-'27 school year. So, before we get to our agenda items, I would like to highlight a few items for the board and for the public's information. On April 30th, I was honored to attend the Roanoke Regional Chamber Chamber's inaugural State of CTE event alongside our school board, our students, many of our students, division leadership, and CTE leaders and staff. And we were proud to join our regional partners from Roanoke County, Salem, Botetourt, and Franklin County schools as we continue to collaborate and not compete uh in building strong pathways that prepare students for high-demand careers. A special thank you to our students uh who shared their experiences and insights and to our businesses who
053partner with us to ensure our students graduate with a diploma and a resume. And I'm proud to announce that Roanoke City Public Schools is also the recipient of the five of five best of 2026 awards in the Roanoke Star Magazine. Uh Keiana Fields of Hurt Park received platinum for best educator. >> [applause] >> RoaD Tech received silver for best vocational school and RCPS as a whole received bronze. And Patrick Henry High School received bronze for best public school. So [applause] again, we are absolutely RCPS proud. I'd also like to give a special congratulations to our educators who recently graduated from Radford University's Educational Leadership Program. Uh we were proud to partner with Radford to host this cohort. Special thanks, Dr. Williams, for your leadership as well and to all of our district and division leadership
054team members who participated in that cohort. Uh they've worked extremely hard to balance being educators while also returning to the classroom and being students in their own right. And we are again RCPS proud of them. Uh last, we have several public input opportunities available right now and I want to encourage our students, our families, staff members, teachers, and community to share their feedback. As you will hear in just a moment, we have a survey open through May 18th to gain feedback on proposed attendance zone changes. Uh additionally, the bi-annual public comment period is open through May 29th for our school resource officer memorandum of understanding. So, please take a moment to visit rcps.info/ provide your input and please weigh in when you get a chance. Now, on to our report this evening. We'll start with
055the boundary study update. I'll ask our chief operations officer, Chris Perkins, to come forward to provide an update on the boundary study. So, Mr. Perkins. Thank you. So, Madam Chair, Mr. Vice Chair, members of the board, I think Dr. White left off something from the Roanoke magazine. >> [snorts] >> She was the bronze female star of the Star City recipient. >> [applause and cheering] >> WE KNEW SHE WOULDN'T BRAG ON HERSELF, so we'll brag on her. So, it is my pleasure to bring to you an update and a recommendation that we would ask for your approval at your next board meeting. I want to start with first, just recap the purpose. The purpose of our boundary study, which we have been working on since the superintendent arrived with direction from that that time, the school
056board. We have went through several phases of this and I'll explain some of that history in just a second, but we have arrived at a recommendation for the first phase. You may remember that about this time last year, you approved the phase approach on how we are going to balance our attendance zones, our enrollment across our district, create good feeder patterns, and essentially address or in the end, with the end goal of addressing the overcrowding at several schools, including our high schools. Some of the things that we wanted to do with this first step in our first phase was to ensure that we have the appropriate enrollment for Preston Park and we want to relieve some overcrowding at Monterey in this first step. Uh we the boundary committee, which I will introduce here shortly, uh
057had a couple of things that they wanted to accomplish. One, they wanted to minimize student movement and the impact on families. Uh two, uh as a district, we wanted to make sure that we had good use of our facilities and we wanted to maintain between an 85 and 90% uh functional capacity at each of our schools. This allows us to provide room for growth for future uh years. It also allows us uh to if there is programming that is needed for the school, it allows us uh to put that programming in the school because there'll be room as we balance those and address the overcrowding. Picture's worth a thousand words. Um this right here is what uh Preston Park looks like in its current building. If you remember in 2021, uh if you were on
058the board at that time and if you were not in 2021, uh we uh brought forward a capital improvement request to build Preston Park Elementary School. Uh we are going to open that school this summer. It is on time and on budget. >> [applause] >> Uh you notice that we're having to conduct instruction in the hallways and that is not conducive to a a good learning environment. At Monterey, you notice that is a full classroom. Uh the thing about Monterey is they don't have any preschool classes at that school. It's the only elementary school in Roanoke City Public Schools that does not have a preschool program because of the the uh crowding crowded situation at that school. Um we have with us in attendance some of our boundary steering committee. So, uh members of the
059board, I will call you if you'll just raise your hand, uh but those in attendance, as I call your name, if you will please stand. Uh first, I'd like to recognize uh Chris Link, member of the school board, for sitting on the committee. Thank you. Uh Ms. Deidra Twigg, member of the school board, for sitting on the committee. Uh division leadership, uh Dr. Cindy Williams. Thank you. Please stand, and we'll we'll congratulate them at the end of this. They're not done. Let me just say this. They've got about 5 years worth of work that this committee's going to work [laughter] on. Dr. Williams, you need to stand back up. Uh Melissa Eckart from data analysis, Mary Catherine Bishop, preschool, Walter Dowdy, transportation, Jamae Gray, special education, Will Krauss, principal, assistant principal, Keonna Fields, parents, Kim
060Corpening, Dana McKenzie, students, Faith Perdue, Shane Wilson, school best school-based staff, Laura Hogan, Tamika Jones, Sherry Ambrose, and Dajanea Taylor, >> [snorts] >> and REA representative, Lindsey Grubbs. We can give them a round of applause. >> [applause] >> What we What I want to recognize about this committee is that they provided great input to our partners, Future Think, who I will talk a little bit about here in a second, also. They had to review five different scenarios. Our experts brought to them different scenarios. They worked through those scenarios. It took time, extra time outside of their busy days, and they provided that input, arriving at the fifth scenario, which is what we will bring to you for a recommendation, and hopefully your approval. Uh we're also conducting, uh as Dr. White said, a survey of
061requesting feedback from the community. We have uh and I'll recap this again later, but we've had a virtual town hall, a in-person town hall, and we're going to cover a lot of the same information with you tonight so you have uh the full picture of what those scenarios look like or what this scenario looks like. First before we get there our partners at Future Think and I want to introduce or talk to about them briefly. They're not with us tonight but they will be with us at the next meeting. RRMM started this process for us if you remember when we finished the feasibility study they joined us in helping us look at high school overcrowding. And from high school overcrowding we knew we needed good feeder patterns and we knew we need to address other
062things from the feasibility study for elementary schools. Particularly and they introduced us to Future Think and they've been a long-standing relationship between RRMM and Future Think that that they've worked on several projects throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia. Future Think is an educational planning firm. They've this month they celebrate their 20th year in business. They are their president is Tracy Healey. Her GIX or GIS mapping experts are Rick Stein and Tyler Spears and they have worked with over a thousand plus schools across the nation helping them look at boundaries and attendance zones and sort those out. Just a reminder you were presented with a feasibility study kind of going back to that timeline when Dr. White was asked to look at the boundary study. We determined quickly after that that we needed a feasibility study we
063need to look at all of our buildings what those building what made up those buildings and and look at all of our enrollments in those buildings and looked at the functional capacity on how we were providing the best educational atmosphere that we could. From that that we presented to you the board in April of 24 Future Think put together a list of projections and I'll talk about some of those projections as I go through here, but they looked at using a cohort method and if you'll remember at the joint meeting with city council and the school board, I presented a lot of this data. But they used a cohort method, live birth records for the city and other things and provided us projections, a high, a moderate, and a low. And they recommend going with
064the moderate projection. >> [snorts] >> And that moderate projection indicates that over the next 10 years our high schools will stay relatively stable, meaning they will remain overcrowded for the next 10 years, but as you we look at live birth rates, we expect to have short small decline across the district of about 507 students is the estimate in this projection. Of that, the majority of that would be at the elementary level because of birth rates that we are seeing coming out of COVID. Now, they are rebounding a little bit, but we don't know we don't think that that will will help us, so there will be some reductions at the elementary level as we go through. And as part of this recommendation, we have considered those projections in the and and what we are recommending.
065As a reminder for everybody watching and and you the school board, we are in the first phase. Preston Park is the immediate driver. Preston Park is coming online in August as I just said, and we needed to help Preston Park. It was on average the last several years about 109% of its functional capacity. As you saw in the pictures, overcrowded. Monterey [snorts] needs a preschool and some other programming, and so we hope to relieve them in this first step. This first step was not or this first phase is not complete because next fall of '27, we're going to address the high numbers of enrollment at Round Hill and Westside and hopefully get them well below 600. Phase two, we're going to look at the educational use uh specifically Hurt Park, Lincoln Terrace, and Fairview. They
066were identified in the feasibility study as uh having some some limitations based on the design of those schools, which are open campus. And then the third phase is to address the overcrowding conditions uh specifically at Crystal Spring, Highland, Wasena, and Grand. And uh and as you can tell, we've stretched this over about 3 to 5 years as we work through this process. What families should know and and and what we have been sharing is that um as I said, Preston Park uh is above functional capacity. We will open that school. Monterey lacks uh the space for preschool. Uh Fallon Park, a beautifully recently built school, is underutilized. It's below its functional capacity, and we want to to right-size that school. And then Lincoln Terrace and Round Hill provide some minor boundaries adjustment at this phase,
067uh but we will be looking, of course, at Round Hill and Westside in the second part of phase one. Uh our students, uh we know that their transition is going to be difficult. So, we're going to provide orientation events at each school. We're going to provide counselor assistance. And uh we're going to have communication to ease the reassignment of these student transfers uh as much as possible as we move into this if this is the recommendation is approved. We'll also uh make sure that our academic support services uh will not change across Roanoke City Public Schools. All of our schools are accredited, and we're very proud of that. And they provide the same level of service as any of our schools. And so, we'll make sure that that will continue without interruption. And then for
068our family communication and stability, uh we'll make sure our families receive these updates and opportunities to ask questions, provide feedback. And we know what we've been through with transportation, and it will be minimal impact on transportation. In fact, our goal long-term for this is to get us out of a four-tier schedule and back to two bells. So, the numbers and the impact based on address, as you can see here, there is some movement and I want to provide a caveat before I go through these numbers. Special transfers and programmatic transfers will be dealt with on a case-by-case circumstance. What I want to do is set people at ease. For instance, if they've had a permission to transfer to a school that we are talking about, they have that same opportunity and we will continue that.
069If it's a programmatic transfer, we will continue that as well and work with them. I can tell you that the 11 transitioning that we have designated as transitioning out of Preston Park are part of that special transfer or the the programmatic transfers. And so, we will work with those families to make sure that we don't interfere or disrupt that. Transitioning in is 124 students for a net increase of approximately 113 students. At Monterey, where we need to free up some space, not only for our for our students, but our staff, we're looking at transitioning out 141 students and transitioning in about 52 for a net decrease of about 89 students. All of these are projections and we have considered based on our moderate projection from our partners at Future Thing. For Fallon Park, Round Hill,
070and Lincoln Terrace, Fallon Park is five students transitioning out, 63 transitioning in for a net increase of 58 students. Round Hill is 22 transitioning out at this step and 12 transitioning in for a reduction of approximately 10 students. And you see there Lincoln Terrace out 12 and 16 in for a net increase of four. Keep in mind that Round Hill and Lincoln Terrace will be part of the the second part of this phase so we can get Round Hill under. Keep in mind, Round Hill is our third largest school. Let me say that again. The third largest school uh uh and they outdo all of our middle schools behind our two high schools. Uh so that that is the largest number of students in that school and we want to make sure we get it
071below 700. Uh and we're going to be closer to 600 with uh what uh I think this team will work on. What families should know and we've provided this. This is all posted on our website. Uh what is changing? We have targeted boundary adjustments to relieve overcrowding at Preston Park and Monterey. The schools involved are Preston Park, Monterey, Fallon Park, Lincoln Terrace, and Round Hill. Will my child move? Uh some students will be reassigned and excuse me, let me go back. Some students will be reassigned. However, in those five schools there's approx- just over 2,600 students. Uh less than 10% approximately 9% of those students uh will move. Uh we will work with them as we said and the families to do that. So that's that is a minimal uh change uh based on uh
072to meet the need of Preston Park and Monterey. >> [snorts] >> Uh when will these changes occur? Uh if approved, we hope to implement those in the 2026-2027 school year, so in August. Uh how will the students be supported? I've mentioned that, but we'll have transition activities, counseling supports, and family communication. Uh transportation, I've said they're they're minimal, but our goal is to reduce uh ride times for elementary students and all of our students in the end. Uh how can parents ask questions? We've provided and I will show you the QR code at the end of this. Uh we provided them with a link, we provided town halls, and uh we also provided a number if they just want to call and say, "You know, I don't want my child to have to go through
073this." And we'll work with them uh uh for a transfer consideration as we work through this. Uh will my student have to move again? It is our intent and our plans to limit students to no more than one boundary change as we work through the the entire uh three phases. Will parents be notified of a change of school? Yes, we will directly notify parents uh after the school board votes on the recommendation on Tuesday, May 26th, if approved. Parents can anticipate a notification prior to the last day of school. Now, the reason we say the last day of school is that if you approve this, we will need time to load the shape files, which are the GIS files or the graphic information system or the geographic information system into the the uh GIS uh
074database with the city for our attendance locator to actually work. We'll have to load those, make sure it works, and then they'll be able to type in their address, and they'll know if they are impacted. Now, we other ways for them to know that they're impacted, and I'll talk about those in a minute, but that's why we we want to make sure we can get all of that loaded and ready to go. Uh How will parents be notified? We will mail letters. We will do robo calls. We will do emails. We'll be on social media. We'll have open houses. We'll make sure they know everything that is going on. They will have the opportunity to visit their new school. We thought we could uh do a sneak peek uh last week at the town hall,
075but we were installing some floors, and there were some strong odors in the school, and I didn't want anybody passing out, creating a lot problems cuz we're all on time, and we'd like to stay on time. So, um and if parents have questions after the end of this school year, who do they contact? Uh Dr. Williams uh will be heading up uh the transfer and and the and the questions after the the school year ends. Uh and you see there her number, and uh she will uh take those and her team at the Department of Academics and Accountability will work through as as many things as possible to help our families. So, let's talk about what the the changes actually look like. Now, here, I know you can't tell a lot from this, but there
076is some changes from the current attendance zone uh to the new uh recommended attendance zone. So, let's zoom in in detail. Uh in the uh northeast side of Preston Park, uh uh, working with our partners at Future Think, we identified a section that would, uh, minimize student movement, but have, uh, good, uh, student or or there's, uh, good, uh, population of of students that, uh, would, uh, attend or Preston Park and help us with that. Uh, it helps us keep the neighborhood intact. It helps us keep the diversity of the school. Uh, and so that's the first area uh, that, uh, we would recommend changing, uh, which is, uh, technically, if you look at that, it's from about, uh, Trincol to Huntington Circle, if you're familiar with the city. But we do, I will show
077you how we have posted these online, uh, and, uh, at the town halls, we actually put them on large poster boards so they could see the actual address and block numbers. Uh, this is another focused area, uh, and it where we are, uh, working as on the west side of Preston Park, uh, with the, uh, pink is actually Round Hill. Uh, we're taking a portion of Round Hill and and, uh, enrolling those students at Preston Park if approved, and then some small portions of Preston Park are going to Round Hill. The [snorts] the the largest change, uh, involving Monterey will be working with Lincoln Terrace's attendance zone, and extending that toward, uh, Holland's Road, uh, and, uh, if you're familiar with Bluestone in that area. Uh, and then on the, uh, south side of the
078attendance zone, which, uh, Lincoln Terrace is actually the lavender or the light pink color, uh, the teal color is Fallon Park, uh, and we're extending Fallon Park and recommending that it moves west, uh, and a slight movement north of about a tenth of a mile, uh, to, uh, achieve the proper enrollment to increase the functional capacity or increase the functional enrollment at uh, Fallon Park. Now, as an example, we have posted these block numbers on our website for each school impacted that I've identified and I'm not going to go through all of these addresses, but rest assured that it is online, it was on poster board, and parents had the opportunity to go up, find their block number, and say, "Yes, I've been impacted." When we load it, other parents who did not attend either
079or have not been to our website, they'll be able to go into attendance locator, type in their address, and it will show them which school would be their attendance zone. I still want to note again special transfers and programmatic transfers, we will work with those families. This is the a little bit of the timeline that we have shared and the QR code that we have shared with parents. Our virtual town hall occurred on May 4th. Our in-person town hall occurred on May 6th. Our survey started May 4th, we will keep that open through May 18th, and I have a update on that survey for you tonight. And our tonight's presentation is your update, and then we'll be asking for your vote on May the 26th. So, a little bit on the feedback survey. We've had
080a total of 58 comments and and returns on that survey. It the uh the breakdown is parent responses or guardians. We have teacher and staff, we have community members, and we have student responses in this survey. Out of the 58 responses we received, 34 demonstrate or report support for the action, 17 are against the action, and seven have not decided on the action at this point. We We had good feedback at the in-person town hall and uh of the parents that were there. Myself and other members staff members and committee members answered lots of great questions for those parents. And guardians that were in attendance as well as staff because we know there's staff questions too because when you when you move students staff follow students and and when you decrease in one school increase
081in another that's some of the things and and Mr. McGee is here to discuss some of that if you have questions. Just in summary Preston Park has an appropriate enrollment starting day one. That's our goal. Monterrey [snorts] is relieved of overcrowding receives increased programming opportunities. And this is the first of several steps within the three phases to reduce overcrowding elementary schools as we work to balance what we have currently. And with that I'll take any questions you may have whatever they may be. Thank you very much Mr. Perkins. Um we'll go ahead and start with our student representatives and also welcome Mr. Wade. We will come back circle back to recognize you when we get to the committee reports so I make sure that uh uh we get to recognize your service this year. So
082Mr. Wade or Mr. Lopez Ortiz do you either of you all have any questions regarding the boundary presentation at this time? None. Okay, thank you. Ms. Trigg Ms. Watkins I do. Um I have one question. I had four and you answered three of the four questions. Uh you answered the question um um the data behind the banner boundary selections change selections. You answered the question um uh about students um teachers moving when students move. Um, and then this last question that I have, um, is is this going to create overcrowding in the middle schools? So, no. Our middle schools, except for Breckenridge, are below their functional capacity. Breckenridge is right at it, but we added an addition. And where we're having some crowding issues at Breckenridge is actually the cafeteria. Okay. Um, so, uh, Dr.
083Dowdy has done a great job working with his team. Uh, we're looking at how we can relieve some pressure for them, uh, by expanding that cafeteria, potentially. Uh, not towards the new addition, but it towards the back side of the school. Uh, so, we'll work with Dr. Dowdy to continue that. Uh, but, uh, and with our projections, our our our middle schools, before our after our elementary schools, will see a a reduction, uh, as an expectation enrollment over the next 10 years, uh, before it reaches our high schools. So, we don't believe that we're creating any cuz the the feeder patterns have not been adjusted yet. We're just adjusting the enrollment at the elementary schools. Uh, so, those feeder patterns will stay the same for each elementary school as they feed into our middle school.
084So, it shouldn't create any over crowd. But, that leads me to the second part of that question. If we're going to leave the middle schools alone, the feeder patterns are not going to change, that could be another disruption for student going into middle that has gone into middle school who had a change in elementary school. Potentially, yes, but there's 3 years of middle school. And so, depending on where they are in elementary school, we've looking at about 3 to 5 years for the elementaries to be finished. Uh, keep in mind that the the schools themselves already cover the same number of students. Okay. For those feeder patterns into our middle schools. So, we don't anticipate that that will create a problem. But, we all each year we have to re-look based on the recommendation from
085our consultant, we have to re-look at all the scenarios. Because there's a couple of things that our consultants can't really or can't get a grasp on for their prediction. For example, immigration and the the movement of migration within the state and from outside the state and outside the country. We don't know how that will impact us, so we'll have to run those scenarios again and look at those each year. And that's something we have to do anyway because we got to go through our capital improvement plan to do that. The other thing that they have a hard time predicting outside of live birth rates and the cohort methodology, which is where they track each grade, is our ability to track the afford- affordable housing initiatives that the city has placed on you know, as as
086a priority. And we that affordable housing will impact cuz people, you know, if may move in. And so, we've got to constantly pay attention to that. But, our plan is to not move a student more than once. And but, when we decide, remember we've got overcrowding that's going to last for at least 10 years at our high schools. Our high schools are really the next area we need to look at and continue to look at because we I mean, we've we've made recommendations to this board and we want to make sure we stay on that. But, our middle schools right now, unless there's some significant changes that we can't predict, we feel pretty you know, pretty certain that they'll stay stable. But, we'll look at that each year. Yeah, I that it makes me think
087about um the housing that was the apartments that were created over at the old Marriott space and if that contributed to the overcrowding at Fleming. So, I I can tell you the apartment complexes are our most vulnerable area when it comes to overcrowding. If you go down 460 and you look at all the apartments going in there, we expect to have uh some some migration to those apartments. We also on the south side of our city in southwest, we have some apartments going up, some duplexes and triplexes. And so, we we have to pay attention to that. Okay. Uh so, each year uh we're committed, and each and the superintendent knows this, that as a division, we talk about this anytime we present a capital improvement plan or a capital maintenance plan, we've got to
088look at the enrollment. It goes also through staffing uh through Mr. McKee's office in HR. Mr. McKee has to look at the enrollment and how it impacts staffing uh so that he can provide uh you know, the proper staffing reports to the superintendent and to you, the board. Okay. I appreciate it. Thank you for the time. Yes. Thank you. And um since you had brought up the teacher movement, I don't know if Mr. McKee wanted to add anything about how that process will go or any timelines um therein after this school board uh Good evening, uh members here. Uh Mr. Vice Chair, members of the board, uh student representative, and Dr. White. So, in terms of the staffing, we're looking at um the number of positions that have to move from um Preston Park to
089Monterey. And so, once we get the vote, we'll be able to identify those positions, and then we plan to um notify those individuals as soon as the vote um happen. But, we want to do it sometime um by um the middle of June. You meant from Monterey to Preston Park. >> What did I say? Yeah, opposite. [laughter] Opposite. Yeah, the opposite. I meant from um Preston Park from Monterey. I'm sorry. You got me all mixed up, man. So, from [laughter] from Monterey to Preston Park, yes. >> Yes. So, the order of operations is the school board has to take a vote, and then you have to see how the student population will move, and then that will determine the amount of staff. >> Yes, ma'am. And then we will identify um the the principals, make
090sure they're well aware, and and we'll identify the individuals impacted. Um if it's before school's out, we like to have those conversations in person. Um, so they know exactly they have enough time to prepare um, for the move. Did anyone have any questions for Mr. McKee at this time for Okay. Um, Ms. Quintana, any questions regarding the presentation? No, just thank you. Mr. Link? I do. You mentioned uh, as part of your commentary if if a family is um, concerned about a move, uh, our CPS will work with that family. We have existing mechanisms for appealing an attendance zone. Um, are those mechanisms sufficient for this process? Yes, sir. You You have a policy, a school board policy that talks about transfers. Uh, and and you allow in that policy in uh, section five, I
091think uh, bullet D. You allow the superintendent for if there is an event or an emergency to address transfers because we have a a window when transfers are received. And so the superintendent has the ability to address that. This is an event which would allow those transfers to open back up under your policy and the superintendent has that ability. And Mr. Link, when we um, bring this back for your approval, um, what we'll do is have the the date that window, the new window for parents because we understand that there are extenuating circumstances and that um, families have individual kind of circumstances and may want to um, be able to share that and to to have that taken into consideration. So we'll bring that um, forward at the next meeting uh, when we ask for
092your approval as well. Okay, so our existing policy has a window in which that requests for reviewing uh, attendance zones or whatever is supposed to take place. Uh, it sounds like that window in a traditional year has closed, but as part of this vote, we're going to extend that window to accommodate families just getting caught up to this process. Yes, there there is allowances and flexibility within the policy to do just that. Okay. Thank you for that question and clarification. Dr. Jameson. I think I have two questions. One, just for the benefit of all of us, could you remind us why the 85 to 90% functional capacity is an important number? Yes. Uh so, as a school board policy, you have a target of 95%. The reason we went below that based on our projections
093is that we want to have this uh we want to be able to plan for the future. And if there is programming, for instance, if there's an increase in students with disability enrollment, uh we want Dr. Pontius and his team to be able to provide services at their neighborhood school for the students that may that may need it. And right now, we bus our students with disabilities to locations where the programming exists, and we want to have that cushion to do that. Second is our preschool. We want the ability to have preschools at all of our elementary schools, and because preschool is a different funding mechanism, and enrollment is different for preschool, and it's very fluid, uh we want to make sure that we we know we leave room for that. And then, we want
094to make sure that we also have room because of we don't know we don't know how to predict the how immigration will affect us. And we don't know how to predict how the affordable housing, as already mentioned, will affect us. So, we talking with our consultants and our and our who are experts, they said it's it's a good to have a target under what your policy requires so that you can do those things. And we have room because we have some of our schools that are under the functional capacity. Let me explain functional capacity. Functional capacity is our is is the student-to-teacher ratio by classroom. So, if we have, for instance, VDOE says at the fifth grade level, you can have 24 25 to one student teacher ratio. We want to have be able to
095receive money from the state in classroom reduction efforts, and we also want to make sure the teachers can provide that level of rigor for instruction, and it be received. So, smaller class sizes create better educational environments. And that's that's a vision from the from the superintendent and you as a board that you have a voice. And so, we would that's why we chose the 85 to 90% to allow for that growth. Thank you. Thank you. That's a helpful reminder. Um and then I the my other question is for those parents who are going to be affected, are we tracking in some way the number of families along those corridors who are acknowledging, like in some way to us, I got it. This is this impacts me. Do you follow me? Here's my concern is that
096some some this could have been me back in the day, checked out parent is cuz they're busy, life is busy, and you suddenly put your child on a bus and they're going the opposite direction of where you >> [laughter] >> So, I'm wondering if we're doing anything to ensure that affected families, we know they know, right? They're It's not just because we I I applaud all the efforts. This is not a criticism on the efforts we had, but you know, are we are we ensuring all of this when we look at those numbers, you know, they're they're big numbers, but they're not huge numbers, that absolutely everybody has, you know, been told and has said back to us, I I know, whether I like it or not, I know. Correct. And we we agree with
097you. So, our intent is to provide mailers, provide emails, provide robo calls because we know we have identified the students who are currently enrolled in Roanoke City Public Schools as they are designated to move under this recommendation. So, we know who they are. It's the ones that we don't know, which would be a a process that we already have in place. As an example, our community empowerment center, when they go to register for school, is a great place to do that. Or our registrars at each school as they register. So, we we can cover that. The existing students, we intend to say, "Your child as they is is attendance boundary has changed. Your new school is X, and we want to make sure we get that out." And we have them by student ID, by
098name, and by address already identified. The only thing that we may that may fall through the cracks is if someone moves and we're not notified of that move. But, we are in some way to for everything that we think we can feasibly know, we are trying to communicate. Thank you. >> Absolutely, yes. Um and I I guess I I have a a quick comment, and then I'm done, and it's really more for the board, um than it than it and a reminder to all of us. I mean, we know that our high schools are overcrowded. We know that they're going to be for 10 years. I can't help but say the very first thing I ever did on this board in 2017 was walk Preston Park, and we started talking about overcrowding. It's taking going
099to take off the fall It happened my first day in this job, and it won't be opened until after my last day. We don't have the luxury of waiting, and I know there's realities. Don't lose sight of it. The pandemic had an big impact on us losing sight of boundaries. This is a huge crisis, and I just don't lose sight of it. Cuz it's that long even when you're staring at the problem. That's all. Thank you. >> Thank you. Ms. Quintana, did you have a comment or query? >> Just to, I guess, piggyback on Dr. Jameson. Um the ones the students and families that we know or will be affected, will they be notified before the end of the school year? So, our intent is if if this is approved at your March or excuse
100me, your May 26th meeting, our intent is to get all the shape files loaded. We have a list of all the students that are currently enrolled in Roanoke City Public Schools that are impacted. We intend to make those notifications. Email, snail mail or postal service. Uh we're going to put it on Facebook. We're going to put it out as many places we can get there. Again, the the only situation that we can anticipate where we may have an issue is if we don't know you've moved and we haven't been advised yet. So, but we hope to cover that uh at for enrollment into school uh so we can get that covered. But, uh that's the only uh anticipated issues that I can and the team uh can determine at this point. Thank you. Madam Chair.
101Thank you. And do Oh, yes, Ms. Trig, please. Can I make one suggestion that for those students that are impacted that we give them like a some kind of formal welcome or orientation to their new school? We will. Absolutely. It's already in the plans. We will have orientation events. Uh we encourage parents and because we're proud of all of our schools, we encourage parents to visit the school. Uh because we've had some feedback where I don't want to go to that school and that's not fair to the school. Uh so, we all we ask is give it the opportunity, visit our school, talk to our teachers, talk to you know, to the to the staff there because they're all great. They are. Thank you. Um and Vice Chair Cherry. Yes, so back to the survey
102and feedback, they have until the 18th? To the 18th, yes, sir. All right, so just wanted to remind the community of that because we do want to hear from them. Um I think we we're in the 50s. We'd love to hear from it cuz these are very sensitive topics. And um we want to make sure we give every opportunity that we have. And the only comment I have cuz everybody's asked my questions. Thank you. >> [laughter] >> But awesome transparency. I think with these topics the most important thing for me is how transparent are we to the community? What do they know? We want to make sure that our community is very aware of what we're doing. Not just what we're doing. They get a chance to see the data that we are basing our
103decision-making off of. That's very important. So again, just want to say thank you from operations guy to operations guy. Thank you, sir. Yes, sir. Thank you very much. And thank you again to the board as well for um the thorough discussion on this topic because we know that it makes a a big difference to a lot of people um moving forward. So, um thank you very much. All right. Very good. Thank you, Mr. Perkins. Next, I'll ask Dr. Cindy Williams, Chief Academic Officer, and Dr. Wendy Durham, our Executive Director of Academics, uh to come forward to recommend elementary math and secondary social studies instructional materials for the board's consideration. Dr. Williams. Good evening, Madam Chair, Mr. Vice Chair, school board members, student representatives, and Dr. White. Dr. Durham and I are here tonight to share
104information about our spring 2026 textbook adoption for elementary math and secondary social studies. This process is designed to help us align our instructional resources to the Virginia Standards of Learning for math and history. All of the textbooks that we reviewed are on the state approved list. It also provides high-quality instructional materials for teachers as required by House Bill 2777, which requires us to have aligned materials HQIMs for the four content areas. Also, we want to make sure that we ensure access of all these materials to help us prove in student outcomes and this work supports pathway one, academics and post secondary success of the strategic plan. So, this process um follows policy IIAA where we appoint um evaluation committees to review and evaluate the textbooks. We have specific criteria that we establish and we share.
105We provide uh notice to stakeholders so they can review the materials and um provide us feedback and comments and that's all incorporated in the decision-making process. Along with um considering adopting new textbooks, we always pair it with professional learning because we want to support our teachers and instructional staff. Uh we will have informational sessions um before we um leave for the summer break. In the summer, we'll have in-person and virtual sessions and of course when teachers come back in August, we will have professional learning opportunities. And then throughout the year, our instructional supervisors and our instructional coaches support our teachers um during PLCs, faculty meetings, grade level meetings. This [snorts] time I'd like to ask Dr. Durham to come up and share more about the review and selection, but I also want to say thank
106you to her and to John Barris who is our math supervisor and Crystal DeLong Moorefield who is our history um supervisor and all of the committee members cuz this is a collective effort over many months to make sure that we pick the correct materials. Thank you. Good evening, Madam Chair, Mr. Vice Chair, members of the board, and student representatives and Dr. White. Thank you for having me this evening. I'm here to present to you the elementary math textbook adoption and our secondary social studies. So, as Dr. Williams explained, we do have a committee and we do have several processes that we go through in order to adopt our textbooks. We have to get feedback from all of our stakeholders and we did that with math on our professional development day on February 20th, 2026. We
107had our curriculum review with the representatives from our finalists from our two top choices for math core programming and that was from Kidum and from Eureka Math. We had over 300 teachers provide their input that day which is awesome. And we gave them a guide to provide feedback to let us know what they thought about the programs. And we also have a core program adoption committee for math. We have 64 members who are a part of that committee and to help us to select the to get the feedback and to help us select that math textbook. And we also got some feedback from our community through our open house at the community engagement center and we had some math nights at Fishburn Park and Morningside. After we collected all the information and the data from
108our math uh feedback, we found out that we have received 201 responses and 178 were for Kidum. So, that is what we are going to recommend for you guys tonight. Kidum is a highly aligned program and textbook for to our Virginia standards about 90% for all K-5 across the spectrum, so that's tight alignment to our standard standards and we're excited about that. It offers us engaging mathematical task. It gives us opportunities for our students to have that mathematical discourse. It encourages that problem-solving. And we These are going to be digital resources for our students, but I want to make sure that we are are clear that these are textbooks that are online. It is not a program where students sit down in front of a screen and work out and and sit for an hour.
109It's just where they'll access the instructional materials, where they'll see the textbook, where they'll and they can actually do some assessments online through this program. And the assessment information that we get from the assessment will modify the teachers instructional resources and provide her or him with their instructional resources that they need to help address the students during that what they how they performed on the assessment. So, we're excited about the adaptive quality of that technology resource. So, we are looking at the digital resources. Our teachers will have though print materials for their textbooks, for their teacher editions. And if we ever need any kind of printed materials for any students with special needs or accommodations or we just need some print materials, we will be sure to get those and purchase those as needed. So,
110we're super excited about this program. This is the most adopted math program in our CIP. That's the consortium that we are a member of and every and it's the most favored one. Mr. Barris was on that committee and reviewed lots of different math programs with that committee and it came out in the top with CIP as well. So, we're right in line with our neighbors and what they're choosing. So, it is fully funded by our grant. Mr. Barris and his team applied for a a math grant through the VDOE. So, yes, this is some great funding that we will use to pay for this textbooks and it's going to cost us about $720,000 and it'll give us a 6-year adoption that provides us with our student teacher digital license, our teacher print editions, and our
111in-person and virtual trainings. And we will we're going to continue that support for our teachers as Dr. Williams mentioned. We will have some summer training and we will have some ongoing training throughout the year for our teachers for math. So, that's the update on math. And then we also had the same time we had our secondary social studies going on and we had our community review and selection processes process processes, excuse me, happening for our secondary social studies. Um the last time we had an secondary uh social studies book adoption was 2012. So uh we were excited to explore some new materials in this area. We did the same thing that with social studies that we did with math on the professional development day. We set up shop and our teachers were able to come
112and review. We provided that guide so they could provide feedback. So we were um did that on the 20th. Uh we had a core program adoption committee. There's fewer secondary social studies teachers than um elementary math teachers. So the committee was a little bit smaller. So we only had five people on that committee because it's a smaller group of people. Um but we did have all our all of our middle school and our high schools were represented in those different areas. And then we had an open uh community review. We had some feedback some coming in from some community members on February 20th from 2:30 to 6:30. These are a list of all the different books that we chose that we reviewed and we provided uh is available for our teachers and our stakeholders to
113look at. And you can see these are on the list as Dr. Williams mentioned from our uh the Virginia Department of Education. And coming out from top we um received 10 uh feedback from the There's 69 secondary social studies teachers. We had 10 of them actually voiced their opinions. We received some input from one community member and the committee took that feedback. They reviewed the the books and the selections and this is what came out on top. We selected Five Ponds Press for grades 6 through 8, McGraw Hill for eighth grade geography and uh ninth, 10th, and 12th grade social studies, and W. W. Norton for 11th grade U.S. history. If you know any If you are a formal history teacher or if you've worked with a history teacher, you know that these are different
114content areas. So, we are picked the best uh the publishers and the best textbook that matches that content area. So, that's what's different for history than it is for math across the board. So, we're recommending that we purchase class sets for each one of our teacher editions for each one of our secondary classrooms in our schools. That's going to estimate us to cost around $291,000 and $291,118. And we have budgeted for this in our FY 27 budget. We will continue to use all supplemental resources. Our teachers have tons of technology and online resources. So, we have lots of supplemental resources that will continue to help our students in in our classrooms with social studies. So, I'm bringing to you tonight, I'm asking and recommending that we vote vote to approve Kidum as the high-quality instructional
115material for our elementary math, Five Ponds Press for social studies in grades 6 through 8, McGraw Hill for 8th grade geography, 9th, 10th, and 12th grade social studies, and W. W. Norton for 11th grade U.S. history. And I'm we're prepared to take any questions. Thank you very much, Dr. Williams and Dr. Durham. Um does the board have any comments or questions? We'll start on this side. Does anyone on this side have any comments or questions? Thank you. Madam No. Not even from our student who's using a social studies textbook adopted in 2012. No, the I didn't I didn't mean [laughter] to call you out. Um that that was a long time ago. And on this side? I have no questions. Good job. I know. Um I do want to clarify. So, for the social studies,
116when you say a class set, you mean physical books in the classroom and then the online materials will be the supplemental materials. >> Um and it wasn't noted on the slide, but again, I presume during the review that it's all aligned with Virginia curriculum. >> These are from the video we list. Yes. >> Perfect. Perfect. Okay, that that that would then therefore be implied. So, thank you very much. So, without any further questions, is there a motion and a second to approve the adoption of Kidem as the HQIM or high quality instructional material for elementary math, Five Ponds Press for grades 6 through 8 social studies, McGraw Hill for 8th grade geography and 9th, 10th, and 12th grade social studies, and W. W. Norton for 11th grade US history. >> So moved. >> Second. Moved
117by Mr. Cherry. Is there a second? It was Ms. Tray. Seconded by Ms. Tray. I had no idea. Um, is there any further discussion? All right. All those in favor, please say I. I. Any opposed, say no. Very Thank you very much. The motion carries. The instructional materials for elementary math and secondary social studies are approved and also kudos for that innovation grant, too. >> Yes. Very good. Thank you, Dr. Williams, Dr. Durham. Next, I'll ask our chief instructional officer, Archie Freeman, to present the 2027-28 school year calendar for the board's consideration. Mr. Freeman. Thank you. Good evening, Madam Chair, Vice Chair Cherry, members of the board, student representatives, and Dr. White. Um, before I mention anything about the calendar this afternoon, I do want to take time to say thank you to those that
118have served over the years on the calendar committee. Um, especially those administrators, professional staff, classified staff, parents, and also to our Oasis team, cuz each time that we met, we had corrections or modifications we had to make to the calendar, they quickly made those adjustments so we could go and have our next meeting. As we know, we want to remain maintain our compliance in our calendar. So, we do have 180 days um, for our calendar. We also have a minimum of 990 instructional hours. We actually have more than that, so it will exceed it, so we have built-in time in our calendar in case we have inclement weather or emergency closings. Three calendars were developed for voting. All three of those options allowed the semester to end before winter break. Um you have already received
119it in previous communication and documentation in your Friday packet giving you a summary of each. I'm excited to announce that we had 1,180 survey responses this school year. >> Awesome. Which is 52% of parents and guardians and 48% of employees. Uh with option three being the actual option that we'll be presenting tonight for you all for approval. Option three does allow for school to start on August the 10th and it does also allow for winter break once again to enter Excuse me, to semester to end before winter break, but it also allows for us to have a work day upon returning from winter break, graduation taking place before Memorial Day weekend, and our spring break would be at the end of March, and that spring break does go along with the Botetourt County approved calendar,
120but it does not go along with the Roanoke County calendar. I think we'll find out that most of our parents don't want to be home with their students on spring break sometimes. >> [laughter] >> So on tonight, we want to have the calendar committee members respectfully recommend that Roanoke City School Board approve calendar option three with the votes of 50% of the votes um for the '27-'28 school year that starts all teachers August the 3rd, first day of school August the 10th, first semester ending before winter break, a work day upon returning from break and the school year ending May the 25th with a service day on May the 26th. Thank you very much, Mr. Freeman. Does anyone have any questions or comments for Mr. Freeman uh regarding the calendar? Okay. I've taught when you
121finished before break for for the semester, it's glorious. So, and and the work day after break. I will say, Ms. Freeman, thank you for your ongoing work on this calendar over years and years and years. I have been a thorn in your side occasionally about this, but thank you for working on improving the process and and getting good results. And thank you to everyone who submitted responses on the survey. So, with all that said, is there a motion and a second to approve the presented calendar option number three for the 2027-2028 school year? So moved. Second. Moved by Ms. Quintana, seconded by Ms. Watkins. Is there any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say I. I. Those opposed say no. And the motion carries. The 2027-2028 school calendar is approved. Thank you so
122much, Mr. Freeman. Thank you. And before I take my seat, I want to remind >> [laughter] >> the public that we start our 2026-2027 school year calendar being August the 11th as the first day of school. Just a reminder that it's going to be a Short summer. Thank you, Mr. Freeman. Next, I'll ask our Chief Financial Officer Kathleen Jackson to come forward to present recommended amendments to the 2025-2026 General Fund and Capital Fund budgets based on changes to state budgeted funding for schools and projected year-end spending. So, with that, Mrs. Jackson. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Good evening, Madam Chair Mrs. Apel, Mr. Vice Chair Mr. Cherry, members of the school board and Dr. White. As Dr. White stated, we do have some changes that we want to make both due to um, changes that the
123state made to the state budget and just as we're getting a little bit closer to the end of the year looking at um, our anticipation of actual expenditures and making sure we have appropriate amounts budgeted uh, by category. So, um, jumping in um, to that. Uh, the the biggest area that impacts this budget amendment is the bonus funding. So, the General Assembly did amend the current year budget to add uh, funding for a bonus for um, school staff in the current year. Um, the state calculated that amount based on the state share which for us is about 2/3 of the cost of an average of a $1,500 bonus for standards of quality positions. Um, so, uh, it's important to remember that the standards of quality don't include a large number of the positions that we
124actually need to meet the um, student needs and uh, the things that that the state code says are are necessary. So, um, I I wanted to take a a few minutes just to kind of dig into that. It's an opportunity cuz we do get questions about SOQ positions, not SOQ positions, um, quite a bit and that's understandably um, not something that that is terribly clear. So, I I'm going to use this opportunity to dig into that a little bit and provide some context. Um, non-SOQ positions are not extra types of positions or things that um, we choose to do that the state says necessary. It's more of the things that the state says are required. And so, I just have a few examples here to kind of put that in context. Um, kindergarten aids for
125example, the state funds 66% of an average salary cost for just over 11 kindergarten aids. We employ 26. Um, and you can see next to that I put kind of the teacher to student ratio um, there. So, I I think I hope you'll agree with me that none of our ratios are ridiculously small or anything like that. We employ about one for every two kindergarten classrooms in that area. The state provides 66% of an average salary for just over 40 school counselors. We employ 60 and a sort of the biggest variance there is instructional support and supervision in the form of assistant principals. The state funds 2/3 of an average salary of about 8 and 1/2 for a all of our schools. We employ 45. So, you know, that's one for every 200 and almost
12690. We would have one for every 1,500 students. So, I think anybody who's been in a school could probably imagine what that might be like if we'd staffed at that level. So, so that's what we're talking about when we are discussing in these situations where it's wonderful that the state has provided some funding to allow us to do a bonus, but there's significant local dollars that would be needed to truly be able to provide $1,500 per person because of all of these, you know, there would be no way to say, "Okay, you 11 kindergarten aides, good on you. You get the bonus. You know, the other 15, sorry." So, we do whatever we can with that we get. We we want to do for everyone. So, that state calculation is about $1.5 million, a little
127over 1.5 million that was added to the state budget for the state share of a $1,500 bonus, but it will cost us approximately $4 million to do that level of a bonus for all staff. So, we are certainly going to endeavor to do that. We are working to be able to put that in place by June 30th at $1,500 for full-time, 750 for part-time, but our ability to provide that actual dollar amount will depend on available funds year end. So, that the actual dollar amount of the bonus that everyone receives may have to vary depending on the funds we have available. You may recall that last year the state provided a portion of funds. They calculated it based on an average of $1,000 per SOQ. Our staff got closer to $500 because we couldn't provide
128the the enough necessary funds to get all the way up to that level. So, we will do our level best to get up to that point for this bonus for staff who are currently employed in the current year. Again, to make sure that that happens before June 30 for our existing staff. A couple other areas where you'll see we're requesting a change is an increase in budget and for utility costs. We are anticipating that our utilities are going to come in a bit higher than we had anticipated. So, we are requesting it to to move some funds chiefly available through salary lapse and and vacant positions in other areas into our operations and facilities category to make sure that we have enough funds budgeted for utility costs. And then debt service is another area where
129we didn't have the full information initially in the debt repayment schedule that we were provided. So, we consequently under budgeted a bit for the amount of funds that we were expected to pay back to the city for debt service related to school facilities. So, we need to increase that category as well. Lastly, in our capital fund, we are requesting an amendment to that budget to align the expenditure budget to where we're anticipating we'll be based on the progress of our construction projects. As you'll recall, the city reappropriated almost $18 million dollars funds that um the school board had previously saved for um specific projects in our capital improvement plans and and the city allowed us to keep those funds for those ongoing projects. Um we have about 8 million dollars, a little over 8 million
130of that were remaining at the beginning of this year for those projects. And so um we are looking at total expenditures for it's chiefly Preston Park, but um the projects that were approved and um the expenditures that were what what's encumbered so far and what we think is actually going to hit in this year. Um that project won't won't quite be done by June 30th, so it will continue into the next year, but um we are requesting an amendment based on what we think might hit hit in this year based on our current level of encumbrances >> [clears throat] >> in the capital fund. So um reviewing that, so we have the 1.5 million additional in state funds on the revenue side, and then you'll see an increase in instruction um for uh adjusting for
131that bonus pay payment, um 900,000 addition to our operations and facilities, and 158,177 in our debt service uh budget based on the the updated um debt repayment schedule that we received. And on the capital fund side, um you see we have an adjustment of um about 2.4 million dollars to increase um that uh projected spend to about 3.4 million um for the year in the capital funds based on where we feel feel we'll be by year end in the Preston Park project, so. Uh I will stop there, and our request to you tonight would be to approve the amended current year budget as presented, but I'm happy to take questions or comments. We'll We'll on this side, Mr. Wade, Ms. Trigg, or Ms. Watkins, any questions from this presentation? I'll be right there. Just a
132comment. We were already like we're adjusting with nothing to pull from. How are we doing this? I'm not sure I follow your question. >> Well, I mean, we were already up against a really, really tight budget and just you know, making these adjustments and giving the bonuses and all of that feels like we're going to be even tighter. Um I I mean I you'll see a little later in the meeting that I I do I am it's looking like we are going to be really tight in the budget this year, but we certainly um are are working to make use of of every cent that is provided to us and so um we are projecting that our expenses are going to come in a bit under budget based on our experience thus far. You'll see
133that uh in a few minutes, a little later in the meeting with our monthly budget update. Um so we will be using those funds which is primarily it's not exclusively but primarily in personnel and benefits um through vacant positions and that sort of thing to move into allowing us to hopefully um get up to the full $1,500 bonus by year end. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Thank you. And yes, Ms. Jackson did note it, but um the expenditures and revenues will be touched on in the in that financial forecast coming up. There are some nice slides there, I think. So, on this side? Nope. Mr. Link? One tiny clarification. You're rounding down some of our expected capital project expenditures based on how Preston Park is progressing right now. It's not going to be done by June
13430th. Correct. Those funds are going to sit somewhere to be available for us to finish out Preston Park in fiscal year 2026-2027. Correct. >> Yes, they're in our capital fund and so we are permitted to retain funds that as long as they're appropriated by the governing body, which they have been for those types of ongoing projects as long as they've been budgeted for those specific projects, which they have been. So we're taking those funds out of our existing budget, we're putting back in the capital fund where they will happily live. They're already in the capital fund. We're just updating the portion of that available funds that we think is going to hit in this fiscal year to make sure we have an appropriate amount budgeted. To finish out the project in 2026-2027. Okay. Okay. >>
135And my understanding too is that basically we still have the last two phases at Preston Park, which is demo and then building up of the external park area where the old school is. That is correct. We expect the new building to be turned over to us for with a certificate of occupancy on July the 20th and then all of the demolition and the field installation through winter of 2027. Right. Thank you very much. Did that clear up your question or any other questions or comments about that portion? Dr. Jameson? I would just add to Ms. Watkins' concern from this point just as a reminder to all of all of those listening. Part of what we're looking at is a new approach to year-end spending. This is previous years when we've talked about having a fund
136balance, this allowed us to use every penny much more strategically because we knew that there was a a fund that we would account for if we were over and under. I I want to say all that because to for two reasons. One is what you're proposing is I think the appropriate risk tolerance we now have to consider. Right? We are trying to skate in as close to zero as possible and in a budget our size, that's an enormous undertaking and to applaud you for doing this because [clears throat] if the preliminary numbers are right, I am sure this is keeping you up at night because I've worked with you a long time. >> [laughter] >> But this is I mean those folks who have not been in governmental budgeting before, when you have a zero-based
137budget, this is the reality when you do not have a contingency fund to pull from. So, these conversations will be annual now. So, thank you for doing your best with all of this in a brand new process and system. I just want to publicly acknowledge the good work and I know the stress it's causing. Thank you. Um thank you, Dr. Jameson. Mr. Cherry? Yeah. I was going to say new realities here. So, thank you for adjusting and pivoting and um yeah, this is where we are. So, thank you for giving us this information. Thank you very much, Ms. Jackson. So, with all of that said, is there a motion and a second to approve the amendment to the 2025-2026 budget in the general fund and capital fund as presented? >> So moved. Second. Moved by
138Mr. Link, seconded by Ms. Trig. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor, please say I. I. Those opposed say no. The motion carries. The amendment to the 2025-2026 budget in the general fund and capital fund is approved. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Jackson, and don't go far. Uh so, uh let's get to a review of the 2026-2027 programmatic budget recommendation for the board's approval. And before we proceed, uh I want to provide the community with um some important updates. As you know, yesterday City Council approved its budget, which included the the change in the amount of school uh funding provided, which Ms. Jackson will provide information on tonight as well. God bless you. Uh and um Ms. Jackson first presented these programmatic considerations at the January 27th work session, and they
139have been discussed uh several times since. Uh the recommendations coming to you tonight for approval were presented and discussed in detail at our previous workshop on April 28th based on community feedback. And I want to sincerely thank our students and our families and our staff for staying engaged throughout this process. So, Ms. Jackson will now walk us through uh those recommendations again. And I'll turn it back over to you. Thank you very much. Um so, we'll start just uh again, this will be because we had such an opportunity for a robust discussion on these topics last meeting, I won't um dig in quite to that detail again this evening, but certainly want to provide a summary of what is being presented and what we are requesting your approval for this evening. So, um just a
140reminder, I always want to start with kind of our priorities that we use in beginning this process and considering um changes that could possibly be be made. We looked at um programs or services that, um, might require specialty transportation, um, additional routes that add cost. Um, that was certainly a big consideration of things that we looked at. Uh, do the programs or services go above and beyond what is required by standards of quality, as we just had discussion. Um, I think we can all agree that standards of quality are are the low bar that we don't want to get down to, but nonetheless, we certainly need to consider at the very least we have to do um, what is required by standards of quality. So, anything, um, that that falls within that area is off
141the table. Um, we have to to do those, um, those services. Um, are additional personnel required to provide the program or service? And lastly, can we provide the program or services in some other way? Can we retain that, um, in a different different model, um, that would be less costly? So, that's kind of those are sort of the guiding principles that we used throughout this process. Um, so, the items that are, um, on under consideration that we are recommending for your approval this evening are reduction to activity bus services, um, after school activity buses, um, from school to home at the middle and high school, uh, levels. Um, we are uh, our recommendation in that area is to reduce, not eliminate, activity bus services and limit it to the time periods where, um, our our
142research into use it usage, uh, showed they were most used, which is Monday through Thursday during the spring athletic season. Um, so, we project that savings, our original projection, eliminating completely would have saved about $350,000. So, our our recommendation to you, um, with this modified approach, um, we project will save about $232,800. Um, on the, um, specialty gifted program Plato, um, our recommendation would be to uh, uh, move towards a reduction in that area, which in the 2026-27 school year would include eliminating third grade from that program. So, retaining the existing students who will be fourth and fifth graders next year, consolidating that program at one location. It's currently at two. That one location would be Highland Park Elementary and to continue offering transportation for those families that indicated that they do need that that
143service in order to be able to continue to participate in the program. So, um our our personnel related projected cost savings are about $448,000 in that area. Transportation is a big area, but all of the transportation savings kind of tie together, so I'll get to that in just a second. Um we are recommending a reduction to the number of Virginia Preschool Initiative three-year-old preschool classrooms going from nine to three. Um these are not special education related services, so I want to be be careful to clarify that we are not suggesting any reduction in special education services, um but a reduction to those Virginia Preschool Initiative classrooms. So, that would um have about a $430,000 projected savings on the personnel side. And then on the transportation side, both the the Plato changes and the VPI changes
144um would free up buses that can then allow us to rely less on contracted point-to-point individualized transportation services, which um we've been increasingly had to do for required services for students with disabilities or students experiencing homelessness, for example. So, we will collectively with all of those changes by freeing up those buses and enabling us to use them in another way, we project that to reduce our transportation costs by about $542,600. And then we have several cost reduction areas that we are recommending to help us reduce our budget. The bulk of the remaining remaining recommendations are in the facilities and operations area. So you see here I know we've talked a lot about reducing our budget for facility maintenance, so deferring some needs in that area by about $650,000, reducing our contracted services for crossing guard
145duties using some existing staff to take that place. Some reductions in the technology equipment area about $200,000, reducing our mowing frequency, >> [clears throat] >> deferring replacement of equipment and supplies for athletics about 145,000, deferring drainage improvements on the Addison soccer field about 175,000, so we would put that off. Eliminating the lease for one additional evolve system, so doesn't reduce what we have, we were hoping to add another. We've taken that off the table, that's about $70,000. And then releasing [clears throat] some leased vehicles for the operations area would save us about 22,000. So all of those items together would reduce our budget by about 141 1,471,000. And then other areas of reduction that are being proposed, kind of loosely trying to group those together, professional learning related or staff engagement. So we are looking
146at significant reduction to our budgeted budget for conference travel for staff about $300,000, eliminating the letters training. There are some free modules available from the Virginia Department of Education. Admittedly, we went with letters cuz we felt like it was superior, but there there is are alternatives available. So, that would save about $190,000 and then reducing or eliminating some of our staff development activities and events like convocation would save about $55,000 totaling about $545,000. And then lastly, we are intending to eliminate our use of MAP testing, our our assessment for students, about $80,000 savings there. And then an overall sort of division-wide reduction of budgets for materials and supplies across all schools and and departments would save about $108,000. So, all of those items with the personnel-related costs in the first couple of items would save
147the division about $3.8 million. If you take the personnel part out and just look at the transportation and operational savings, we're just under $3 million in savings from these recommended changes. So, our request is approval of the changes as presented this evening for the 2026-2027 budget. Thank you very much for that [snorts] rundown, Ms. Jackson, on the details. So, we'll start with our student representatives, which I'm also going to note that you have 15 minutes, I think, till they turn into pumpkins at 9:00. Yep. And so, I also don't want to be remiss to make sure that we recognize Mr. Wade, and we do have some things for you for your participation with us this year as a student representative. So, thank you very much for your service. So, do either of you have any
148questions or comments on any of those line [snorts] I any of those programmatic items as presented by Ms. Jackson? None. And Mr. Wade? Um, I had one. So, the Plato kids that go to >> Yeah. So, the Plato So, the Plato kids that go to Fairview, would they have to transfer to Highland Park since you're trying to just put Plato program over there? Correct. Yes. All of the students currently in Plato would continue to be served. Those that are moving up to fourth and fifth grade, um, we would just consolidate them all together in classrooms that would be at one school. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for asking that and I do, um, I know that that was one question that we did get that was not fully explored at the last meeting was how
149the site was chosen, um, with the contraction of, um, Plato to one site, how the site of Highland Park, um, was was chosen, uh, and recommended by the administration. Um, from an operational perspective, uh, the majority of students in Plato would tend to Highland Park. Uh, Highland Park, uh, will reduce two classrooms, uh, because they currently have six. It will go to four. So, we have space at Highland Park for that and, um, we will provide transportation. I think in a survey, uh, approximately eight families would need transportation, uh, overall out of the 148 currently participating. And then that would be reduced cuz we don't have new third graders as they transition into fourth grade. Uh, so, we'll be able to cover that, uh, because it's a central location as well in the city. Uh,
150it's, uh, is problematic because we have a lot of buses and parents and walkers at that location already, uh, but it's still only two, uh, class or two grades and total of four classes. Thank you. And thank you for that question, Mr. Wade. Um on this side, Ms. Trigg, do you have any questions or comments regarding this presentation so far? I just have a comment to just stress for anyone that's listening and viewing and it goes back that even though we are reducing Plato, we still have gifted and talented through the schools. It is a great program throughout our elementary schools. As Mr. Perkins stated, all of our elementary schools are amazing. Um I can speak to that as a parent as my son was in the gifted and talented and he chose not to
151go to Plato because he loved being friends with everybody in the school. And then he also got the opportunity to even help lower grades. When he was in the third grade, he went to his old second grade teacher after he finished work and he helped tutor those. So there is opportunity. He did test highest in his elementary school and so I don't want anyone discouraged who cannot get into the Plato program or do not have it for third grade. The child will still be successful in Roanoke City Public Schools. Thank you, Ms. Trigg. Ms. Watkins? Um I don't have any questions, but I did want to say um something a little different um or additional do um something additionally. Um I just wanted to to thank all of the parents, teachers, students, and contributors who
152have um voiced their opinions, who have um shared their comments, emails, questions, contacted us in um different ways, who've participated um in when we um have had uh surveys or um given you the opportunity to speak. Um also in that acknowledgement, I want to also acknowledge from the board's perspective, we see that everyone has something that they're passionate about. There's a program or um a you know, uh something that everyone feels or targets as the most important thing to them that they don't want to be reduced. And so I just want everyone to know that we have considered everything that we can possibly consider. We have mulled over this. We have asked the hard questions. We've taken your questions and brought them out. Um you guys the the staff has done all the research. We've
153researched some things ourselves. We've circled back around. We've made adjustments where we can. This is one of the hardest decisions that we have had to make as board members and we don't take it lightly. Um but it's important for folks to remember that we cannot stand on this issue you know, we can't we can't say that we're going to take from this and give to that. We've been trying to protect the classrooms. We've been trying to make sure that we hold on to our very very important and talented uh staff um in all uh positions in our organization and in the division. So this is hard, right? But we have considered everything that has come our way and and then some. Um a lot of us our kids are either currently going through um Roanoke
154City Public Schools or have been through Roanoke City Public Schools and um I just need everyone to understand that we are not insensitive to all of the concerns that people have. Thank you very much, Ms. Watkins. Um well put. Um Ms. Quintana. I don't have much to add. Um I'll piggyback on what Ms. Watkins said. Um for me personally being here my second year with you guys, this was very rough. Um I want to tell the staff, administrative, teachers we see you, we hear you. We are sorry. We feel it. That's all I can say. Thank you, Ms. Quintana. Mr. Link. You answered it. I had a question about how we were choosing Highland Park as the right infrastructure for Plato and you answered it. Thank you. Dr. Jameson. Yes. Um I guess I also
155have uh some general reminders. It is it is that we have been talking about this since the middle of fall 2026. This budget isn't new. I want to commend everybody in echoing Ms. Watkins' comments about the participation. We've watched these recommendations change as the circumstances have changed and we have been we've watched these recommendations come and reflect um the emerging will and the opportunities as the context has changed. Um so I want to thank everybody who's touched this that this has truly reflected the immediate changing circumstances for over 9 months, really. Uh we've been talking about this for a long time and also to remind everybody uh that this is the second half of our budget cuts. This is not our first. We've already cut to find 10 nine, some of them a lot of
156money. Um that involved over 60 positions to be lost and people who lost their jobs. And while these are painful and these are hard, by my account, this is about 30 positions additionally we didn't cut. These These cuts are saving 30 other jobs. Yeah, approximately. And I think it's really important to bear in mind the significance of what has we've done this here and this is the second version of what we've done. So, thank you for all your hard work on this. Um, these are all important things. Nobody wants to make these choices. But now we're talking about saving livelihoods Yeah. and people who depend on this income. So, thank you. I think I think these are the apt and appropriate recommendations and they certainly will have my support. Thank you, Dr. Jameson. Vice Chair
157Cherry. Yes, so thank you all to my colleagues for your comments and questions. And again, just echoing, um, yes, you you will get my support on this today or tonight. Um, just echoing what our superintendent always says, that this is a people business. Um, but when I look at people, I don't just look at the students or the staff, it's kind of trickles down. This whole thing affects the staff, the student, the parents, the families. Um, so please do not think we just come in here tonight and just voting I or nay. Um, there's a whole lot of process goes be- behind the scenes. One by one, or position by position, we have, uh, stayed late nights, multiple conversations all day, maneuvering through our own personal work schedules to make sure that we make uh,
158the most um well aware and informed decision. Um, so I just wanted to make sure that, you know, the community does know there's a whole lot of whole lot that goes behind this process. And again, thank you um because I know you and your team have been added um as well punching the numbers and trying to see what works best for our division and our students and our staff. And again, just making sure that we preserve um as much as we can during this time. So, uh just really want to echo all my colleagues. Again, thank you. Um, this is not easy, but it it is time to make the hard decisions. So, uh thank you all so much. Thank you very much. Um, I do want to just again um note that you know,
159that we had the personnel and now programmatic, but there's still one step left before we adopt this budget, which comes in June. Can you remind me when we did have to delay that in the past due to the state um projections? What What did that look like, you know, for a final line item adoption of our budget? So, we have had years where we have asked you to make your work session at the end of June a special meeting so that we could bring you the budget for approval at that point when it when the state has been particularly late in completing a budget. Um at So, I think what I would say is if we get a little further in the next couple of weeks if if we're hearing, "Okay, we're going to have
160a budget." And the turnaround would just not be doable to get out get the whatever information might be available into a final budget that's based on that that final state budget uh by the June meeting, that we would go ahead and ask you, "Let's let's take care of it one time. Let's push it back and approve it at the end of June." Um, if in the next couple of weeks we still are hearing nothing, I think my inclination would be to go ahead and move forward with the information we have and bring you the budget at that June meeting uh the normal June meeting which I believe is the 9th and um then we would just have to amend it uh soon into the new year based on whatever information finally is approved by the
161General Assembly and the Governor. Got it cuz I do know that our workshop is on the 23rd and I believe the 23rd is the day they come back together. Um so I think Dr. Steeber, does that sound right? June 23rd? Uh the veto session was April 23rd so the Governor has until May 23rd to to decide to sign or let other things go into code without action or veto bills. So that the May 23rd is action. The reason that's significant for the state budget is because there's the last state budget decisions depending what happens with the some of the legislation um and so there's a number of bills that are currently unresolved that have funding associated with them and so the budget conferees do not want to meet until they know how many dollars they
162have to confer about. Got it. I'm sorry to interrupt you but um can do They want to So we're going to pause and say goodbye to our student reps who By policy they have to leave at 9:00 p.m. >> Yes by and it is 9:00 p.m. so Thank you all very much. >> [applause] [laughter] >> Congratulations. Thank you Brittany. Thank you and we'll see you at graduation. Yes sir. I like it. I appreciate that one. Yeah. Come on. Congrats. Thank you. I thought you were marrying right? You know that's where I went to school. So Really? Yes. Yes. Yes. I sure am. So long time ago, I won't admit how long. Congratulations. And we'll definitely see you on the state legislature. >> [laughter] >> Yes. All right, it's 9:01. Okay. Thank you all. Thank you
163very much, Mr. Wade, Mr. Lopez Ortiz. So, the governor has until May 25th. May 20 May 23rd. May 23rd. And until some of those revenue generating provisions are resolved, they won't know what's there. So, there's obviously the the resolution of the data center tax, but there's also like the the cannabis legalization. All those things have revenues or expenses associated with them that until those things are resolved, they won't know what kind of revenues to expect. And so, that's where most of the budget conferees have not met. I did talk to a budget conferee uh late last week, and he said he expects that, you know, he's probably thinking we're looking at mid-June for a budget. I said that something could tip and move more rapidly, uh that there's apparently getting close to some sort of
164compromise on the data center piece, but um until the until after the governor's timeline, um there's probably not even going to be at meetings of the budget conferees. Okay, thank you for that update. Um So, um I did want to make a couple notes as we come to um this motion regarding programs. Um and everyone up here has done um a really commendable job in the discussions both here at our meetings, but also in the one-offs with community members, with staff, with parents, with um people at the schools, with the administration, and um, you know, as you noted, the the the recommendations regarding programs account for about $3 million in the contraction of the budget out of more than $10 million that we were trying to contract. So, even if we get a state budget
165and it turns out that we only needed to contract our budget by 10 million total, programmatic reductions still only account for a small fraction of that, and the majority is still the major bite in contracting the budget comes out of personnel. And so, um, you know, as we know what the budget realities are, um, I know we've there's been conversations about how would we build back in if there's more budget than the conservative budget that say we approve in June. Um, and again, we would still have looked at how we're budgeting and how we're contracting the same way. Are we at standards of quality? Are we meeting Can we meet these needs in through other mechanisms? Things like that. And so, to protect the classroom, we would look at building back through personnel first. And
166so, I just wanted to note that the programmatic changes can only make so much difference in contracting the budget. The bulk is the people. And um, Ms. Watkins said it very, very well, but basically everyone everyone here, everyone in the administration, everyone in this community has had to make compromises. Um, because we know that any contraction in one area, contracting in maintenance, that's going to have an impact on learning, but that may have saved, you know, a position over here or contracting on So, everything had a push and a pull and everyone here had to try to decide what would have the least bad impact or continue to allow us to reach for our strategic plan on behalf of every student in RCPS to meet every know every student by name, by need, and by
167strength. And so, you know, there's real concerns about class sizes, about early childhood literacy, about retention, about discipline with, you know, administration numbers, with, you know, what aids we are able to provide to support our our teachers and and with what we can provide with regards to maintenance. And so, um there has been a systematic approach to how we've approached the cut the decisions regarding the contractions and how we'll build back. We really appreciate the engagement. I I Dr. Jameson pointed out that it hasn't been a dictatorship of this is how we're going to make the cuts and, you know, it has been back and forth. You haven't seen all the conversations that have happened here, but really trying to make sure that we're being careful with how we make long-term decisions that have long-term
168impact for the schools. And so, we really appreciate all of that and we recognize that the authority, you know, bestowed upon us by City Council to make these kinds of programmatic decisions, we have a duty to all of our students. >> Right. And that's been taken very seriously and we still have that line item budget that will be, you know, the final adoption of this budget coming up in June, but um thank you for all of that and thank you for the leadership of this administration to help guide us through this process in a way where we can still keep the goals of our CPS in reach. Um so, with all that said, is there a motion and a second to approve the programmatic changes and budget reductions for 2026-2027 as presented? >> So moved.
169Second. Moved by Mr. Cherry, seconded by Ms. Watkins. Is there any discussion? All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed say no. The motion carries. The programmatic changes and budget reductions for 2026-2027 are approved. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you to the school board. Thank you for your engagement. Thank you for your your care, your concern, your heart. And thank you for your work and your leadership, your guidance. Thank you to our our parents and to our staff members and to particularly Mrs. Jackson and her team as well. So, with that, Madam Chair, that concludes my report. Thank you very much. So, on to the division financial perspective, Ms. Jackson, would you please present the financial forecast? Yes, ma'am. Good evening again. So, we're reporting to you this evening through the month month of
170March. Um So, I will jump right in. On the revenue side, so based on our experience through month March, we are projecting overall revenues to be forecast about $5 million below budget based on our experience thus far. Um but as we discussed a little bit ago, we are also projecting that our expenditures will come in below budget. I did want to note that I did go ahead and factor in our projected cost for the bonus based on hopefully getting all the way up to the the $1,500 bonus amount. So, that is factored into that projection of being about $4.7 million below budget uh based on experience thus far and uh upcoming costs that we anticipate, namely that bonus. Um, so based on that through March, um we are uh forecast to be uh comfortably below
171our appropriation amount, so no concern there. Um, but of course we do have to look at how much money we actually have uh when we're looking at expenditures. So, as we noted, um we're projecting be about 5 million below budget um on the uh revenue side and only about 4.7 million below budget on the expenditure side. So, were we to end the year uh based on that, we'd actually be about $300,000 over budget. So, as we were just discussing, very, very close. Um, so, you know, if the year continues to track in that manner, we might not quite be able to get up to that $1,500, but get very close. Um, so we'll be be watching that closely, and we are in the process now of um asking our departments to kind of make final
172decisions and get purchase orders in for year end and that sort of thing so that we can uh have the best information sooner rather than later to to try to get us uh to that point without going over. Um, moving on to our food services fund, here also we are forecast to be uh a bit under budget on the revenue side, about 393,000 when we compare against that 3-year average uh of prior years um through the month of March, but again here also we are forecast to be um better than budget on the expenditure side, almost a million dollars. So, um here too comfortably below that appropriation amount, so no concern there. Um, we did adopt a budget in the food services fund to use a portion of fund balance um on some operational and
173equipment needs, about $730,000. So, were we to end the year based on our experience thus far, we would still use some fund balance, but uh quite a bit less, about $160,000 um by year end. Um based on that experience. And lastly, um looking at that capital fund, which we just discussed a bit, um we had just under $18 million appropriated for continuation of CIP projects that were approved. Um we used just under 10 million of that last year, so we had uh and we've used about 750,000 so far this year. So, we have 7.33 million remaining available in that fund for those ongoing projects. Of course, the the most substantial of which is Preston Park. So, that is what I have for you today as of March, and I'm happy to take questions. Does anyone
174from the board have any questions or comments for Ms. Jackson? No questions. All right. Thank you very much. And Ms. Jackson, regarding the financial statements, is there anything unusual to report with the financial statements? Um I'm happy to take questions if you have any about the details there. The only thing I'll note is that every every quarter we do add some information. We add details of expenditures, um our purchasing data. And so, as this is reporting through March, I just wanted to to bring that to your attention that there is that additional information um that we add every quarter. So, I just commend that to you for your information of our procurements for the last quarter. All right. Well, thank you very much. The statements will be received and filed. >> Thank you. Okay, on
175to committee reports and ongoing business. So, um first up there Oh. >> [laughter] >> Yes, and the first item there with regards to ongoing business is a third amendment to the superintendent's employment agreement. Um so, as a result of the board's prior action at its meeting on March 24th, 2026 to adopt an ordinance authorizing a reduction in force, and a 5-day furlough of certain administrative staff, including the superintendent, during the 2026-2027 school year, the superintendent's contract must be amended to provide for the reduction in salary. Amendment of a superintendent's contract requires that all members of the school board be notified at least 30 days in advance of any meeting at which a vote is planned on the amendment, unless the members agree unanimously to take the vote without the 30 days notice. Is there a
176motion and a second for the board to take a vote on amendment of the superintendent's contract without the 30 days notice? So moved. Second. Moved by Ms. Watkins, seconded by Dr. Jamison. Is there any discussion on this motion? Madam Chair, I do want to make a statement on the leadership of our superintendent, uh leading by example. Um you don't hear this often, so I wanted to say thank you um because we're not just dishing it out, but we're also experiencing it ourselves in real time. Uh that speaks to that to leadership, and I just wanted to tell you thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Cherry. >> [sighs] >> With that said, this requires a roll call vote. Ms. Tresky, please call the roll. Mr. Cherry. Yes. Mr. Link. Yes. Dr. Jamison. Yes. Ms. Quintana.
177Yes. Ms. Traeg. Yes. Mrs. Watkins. Yes. Mrs. Apel. Yes. The motion carries. Therefore, is there a motion and a second to amend the superintendent's contract dated March 20th, 2026 to allow for a reduction in her salary for the 5-day period during the 2026-2027 during 2026-2027 that she will be on furlough as further stated in amendment number three, a copy of which is made part of this agenda. So moved. Second. Moved by Mr. Cherry, seconded by Dr. Jamison. Is there any further discussion? Um this requires a roll call vote. Ms. Tresky, please call the roll. Mr. Cherry. Yes. Mr. Link. Yes. Dr. Jamison. Yes. Ms. Quintana. Yes. Ms. Trigg. Yes. Mrs. Watkins. >> Yes. Mrs. Eapoe. Yes. The motion carries. Amendment number three to the superintendent's contract is hereby approved, authorized in the salary reduction for
178the 5-day furlough period during the 2026-2027 school year. And thank you again, Dr. White, for your leadership through all of this. We are one. I abstain. On to reports from committees. Does anyone have any reports to give from committee meetings that you have attended? >> I do, Madam Chair. >> Okay, it looks like we actually have a bunch, so let's just I think I saw almost everyone had a finger. So, we'll just start with with Ms. Trigg. All right, I have the curriculum committee meeting meetings. The division curriculum committee met virtually on April 15th, 2026 with the members receiving updates across several key areas. Dr. Williams shared progress on summer programming, including planning and anticipated participation. Dr. Shows provided an overview of upcoming SOL testing, highlighting a proposed two-day testing option for grades three through
1795 in reading and math to help reduce student fatigue, as well as an all-hands-on-deck volunteer effort to support testing logistics. Dr. Durham updated the group on optional No, on textbook adoption for elementary math and secondary social studies as she presented tonight, and also led discussion on proposed revisions to the kindergarten report card to improve clarity and alignment with instructional goals. Additional updates included plans for kindergarten screening and registration with attention to timelines and outreach. The committee also discussed broader considerations around student screen time, reflection on the importance of balance and student well-being. Thank you, Ms. Trigg. Ms. Watkins? Our report on the student wellness subcommittee. Um on April 23rd, we met as the school wellness subcommittee, um and started by attending the Flavor Fest at William Fleming, which was great, by the way. It was
180fantastic. Um it was a great way for students to try new foods and give feedback. Um and we continue to see strong engagement from events like that. And and I'm glad that we do them. Um we also talked about um in our in our meeting, we also talked about access, especially around community eligibility, and making sure students and families can easily connect to Medicaid and SNAP supports, um potentially through the community empowerment center. So that's just another great way that the um empowerment center um supports our entire community. Um over the summer, RCPS will operate Sun Meals for Virginia through the summer food service program, where any child 18 and under can receive breakfast and lunch on site at no cost. And if eligible families um um um also receive SunBucks, which um provides $120
181per eligible child to help with groceries during the summer months. Um but just to clarify, the SunBucks are not for every family. Um children who already receive SNAP, TANF, Medicaid, and are in foster care, or identified as un- un-homed will be automatically eligible. Um other families who believe that they may qualify can apply online through the Virginia Department of Social Services, and they can do that beginning in June. Um and then finally, um one other um really great thing to note is um at the beginning of I think last school year, um Vice Mayor um um Maguire and I had uh coffee at Starbucks, and we talked about a um uh share the share carts um that were widely used before COVID. Um where we um where we were trying to eliminate waste. Um well,
182we worked with the division um leadership, and there's now 26 share carts across schools. So, they're back. Um they're widely used. They help cut down on waste, and they also make sure students who are still hungry can get additional food. It's a really positive and productive meeting we had, and I was really glad to hear that um this is just one of the ways that we do um collaborate. Right? So, that was really great. Thank you. Thank you very much, Ms. Watkins. Um Ms. Quintana? Oh, you didn't have No, okay. No other community reports. Um Mr. Link, did you have any? Dr. Jameson. >> Uh very quickly, just that the uh Roanoke Valley Governor's School hosted their graduation. It wasn't a meeting, but they had a wonderful event. Uh most of the graduates are going
183to Virginia Tech, UVA, and William & Mary, but they had a wide variety of graduates represented, and it was a very nice affair as it usually is. So, it was it was and they they they say very funny things. That's all. Thank you, Dr. Jamison. >> [laughter] >> Uh Vice Chair Cherry. Yes, the Superintendent's Community Engagement Committee held its quarterly meeting on April 22nd, 2026. During the meeting, the committee reviewed the division's community engagement efforts and explored ways to expand and deepen our involvement with all varieties of stakeholders. And if you all remember, in our retreat, we had that activity where we listed our stakeholders and how we can get more involved in partnering with them. So, the committee discussed the need to further engage with partners in the real estate industry, faith-based entities, and
184others who have expressed interest in supporting Roanoke City Public Schools. Um Also, the committee is working to celebrate partnerships through social media and potentially more formally during a in-person state of the schools event. Uh if the board has any engagement-related questions, recommendations, or creative ideas to share with the Community Engagement Committee, please let us know. So, uh definitely thankful for Corey Alderson, who's doing a wonderful job um with our Community Engagement Committee and with the CEC, the Community Empowerment Center. Uh thanks to the vision of our superintendent. So, that's my report. Thank you, Mr. Cherry. Um with regards to the Superintendent's Policy Governance and Legislative Priorities Committee report, um the super this um committee met on April 15th to receive an update on outcomes of the 2026 General Assembly and to review spring updates to
185policies and regulations, both of which were presented to the full board during the April 28th um board workshop. The policy revisions were adopted on second review earlier this evening, and Dr. um Siebert shared the board's General assembly advocacy outcomes with count city council legislative committee on May 4th. The committee also discussed recommending a legislative position for VSBA's consideration for the purpose of pursuing funding for virtual student health services statewide. You know, another carryover of our, you know, student voice and other voices um and please expect an update on this effort at the May 26th, 2026 school board workshop. Lastly, the committee reminds the board that the VSBA summer policy update, which primarily implements legislative changes from the general assembly, is underway. If you have questions, considerations, or recommendations for the PGNL committee, please let us
186know. I think that's all the committee reports. So, um is there any ongoing business that needs to be discussed? It is a lot. So, as we look to reminders, there are several events that are listed on um that are listed. We've got retirement dinner, avid graduation, which that will be very exciting. The CTE extravaganza, holiday um and board workshop, and CTE sign day. There's a ton of things coming up, not least of which is graduations. So, with that said, thank you for attending our May meeting. Thank