001The December 9th, 2025 school board regular meeting is called to order. Miss Tresy, please call the role. >> Mr. Cherry, >> here. >> Mr. Link, >> here. >> Dr. Jameson, >> here. >> Miss Quintana, >> here. Miss Trigg >> here. >> Mrs. Watkins >> here. >> Mrs. Apel >> here. All right. Um, thank you to all of those attending the meeting in person um and those that are joining us via the RCPS YouTube channel [clears throat] and I'm glad everyone that was able to make it here was able to drive in safe. Um, I wanted to share that due to a prior obligation, the auditor's overview typically is presented during the opening portion of the board meeting will be provided later this evening. Um, next is the approval of the agenda. Is there a motion
002and a second to approve the agenda as amended reflecting the removal of the recognitions portion and the addition of the agenda item titled school performance and support framework or SPSF update to the superintendent reports. >> So move >> second >> moved by Mr. Cherry seconded by Miss Kintana. >> Is there any discussion? >> Hearing none. All those in favor say I. >> Any oppose say no. And the motion carries and the agenda is approved as amended. Also, please note that the recognitions portion is just going to be rescheduled at a later date. Um, this was um due to the inclement weather why we decided to move that portion of this evening's agenda. Um, [snorts] [clears throat] on to our moment of silence and pledge to the flag. Please keep the following in your thoughts. family
003and friends of Loretta Williams, former employee that served RCPS from 1977 to 2011 as an administrative assistant at multiple locations throughout the division on her passing. Family and friends of Lorie Va, former school board member that served from 2008 to 2017 and served as vice chair from 2015 to 2017 on her passing. Friends, family, and co-workers of D. Thomas, science teacher at Patrick Henry High School, on her passing. Family, friends, and co-workers of William McDow, building manager at Forest Park Academy, on the loss of his father. Family, friends, and co-workers of Michelle Maddox, an operations team member at Patrick Henry on the loss of her mother. Family, friends, and co-workers of Vivian Sanchez Jones, a student support specialist at Patrick Henry on the loss of her father. Family and friends of Linda Hammond, former Ruffner
004science teacher who supported numerous science fairs on her passing. Please join me in a moment of silence. Thank you. Please rise and join me in the pledge to the flag. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for its one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay, let's continue with the personnel list. Is there a motion and a second to approve the personnel list as presented? Moved. >> Second. >> Moved by Dr. Jameson, seconded by Ms. Watkins. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. Those opposed say no. I >> I. >> And the motion carries and the personnel list is approved. On to the consent agenda. Is there a motion and a second to approve the consent
005agenda as presented? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Moved by Mr. Cherry, seconded by Miss T. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor say I. Those opposed say no. >> I. >> And the motion carries. The consent agenda is approved. Ms. Watkins. Please tell us about the gifts that have been received by RCPS. >> Thank you. The board accepts with gratitude the following donations. Mr. Greg Auststerhos provided a gift of $1,000 to the McKenna Vento program. Straight Street provided a gift of 38 air mattresses to the McKenna Vento program and the estimated value of that donation was $1,140. We thank our partners uh community partners so much for pouring into our students and their families. Um especially Straight Street when you know they are supporting our students themselves and they you know
006they could use donations and and support and volunteers themselves and for them to give back to us also. um it really shows um what an exceptional program that is. And so I want to thank Straight Street and u Mr. Greg Austster House um for all of their donations and to all of our community partners. If there's anyone else that wants to partner with us, we are here with our arms and hands open. Thank you. [laughter] >> Thank you, Miss Watkins. >> On to citizen participation on agenda and non-aggenda items. Mr. Cherry, do we have any signups for agenda or non-aggenda items this evening? >> No, we do not. >> Thank you very much. And on to the superintendent reports. Dr. White, please provide your updates. >> Thank you. And good evening, Madam Chair, members of
007the school board. Uh this evening, uh we're bringing forward several items for your information and for your consideration. approval of the local gifted plan, a staffing report from a human resources team, an update on the school performance and support framework, a preview of the 2627 school year budget, um an update on the TRUP funding application, and an update on the boundary study. So, before we get to our agenda, I would like to highlight a few items for this for the board and for the public's information. First, I hope everyone was able to stay safe and warm over the past week and enjoyed all of their snow days. Um, that's it's over. [laughter] >> Hate to bust your bubble. It's over. Uh, as of right now, and anything can change overnight, right, Mr. Perkins? Anything can
008change overnight. We'll monitor it just like we've been doing all day. Monitor it overnight. And if anything changes, we'll let you know, but it's not likely to change. Come school on time tomorrow. So that's that's what how we're planning right now. Uh [laughter] and so speaking of winter break, don't forget to join me for our winter story time. It's coming up on on December 22nd at 7 o'clock. So gather the entire family. Get gather everybody around. Get in your favorite PJs. I'll be in my favorite PJs. And then get your cocoa. We will be sending home those hot cocoa packets uh to all of our elementary school students and it's always a good time. So, and I'll be reading uh two stories as I always do. Remember, early literacy is so very important. And so,
009I would ask the entire family uh to gather around and let's support early literacy and have a little fun while we're doing it as well. So, December 20, Monday, December 22nd at 700 p.m. Uh, and so those hot cocoa packets will go home on Friday, December 19th. Uh, the tickets are on sale also for this year's Breakfast with Santa, which will take place this Saturday, December 13th, from 9 to 11:00 a.m. And this is the sole fundraiser for the Help the Homeless Fund, and will feature a meet and greet photo opportunity with Santa, performances from the Patrick Henry High School's production of Elf Jr., the musical, and if you missed it, you missed a treat. They our students, our staff members, they are so so amazing. Um, but our kids are so talented and many
010of them will be performing uh at the at Breakfast with Santa on Saturday. Uh, there will also be a performance by the Monterey Elementary School choir and of course carols and crafts and more. So, all attendees will also receive access to a special virtual story time with Santa as well. So, tickets are $10 for adults, $6 for children under 18 and RCPS staff, or $25 for family fourpack. And tickets are available online on our website and clicking on the breakfast with Santa information um in the orange banner. And tickets will also be available at the event. Now on Tuesday, November 25th, we hosted our annual take your legislator to school month event at William Fleming High School. Joining us were Senator um State Senator David Sudterline and delegates S Russul and Joe McNamera. uh Mayor
011Joe Cobb, uh Councilman Nick Hagen who's here with us this evening. So, thank you for joining us at the Take Your Legislator to School Month. Uh and several of our schoolboard members as well um joined us. So, thank you for that. During the event, we discussed the school boards and the the divisions legislative priorities and learned more about the priorities of our elected officials. Uh members of the public who are interested in learning more can visit the schoolboard page located under the leadership menu on the RCPS website and click on legislative priorities. Lastly, we are very excited to share that Ronok City Public Schools has received the trusted learning environment seal from the consortium of school networking. We are only the third school division in the Commonwealth of Virginia to receive this recognition, which is
012the nation's only student data privacy framework designed specifically for school systems. So, congratulations. [applause] Earning this seal means that RCPS has strong measurable has taken strong and measurable steps to protect the privacy of uh student data. This also meets one of our strategic plan goals. So congratulations again to Wesley Williams, our executive director of technology and his entire team as well as our entire division because it takes all of us to make sure that we are emphasizing um student data privacy. So congratulations. [applause] So to begin our report this evening, I will ask Archie Freeman, our chief instructional officer, as well as Laura Kelly, our supervisor of gifted programs to come forward to present the five-year local gifted plan for the school board's approval. So come on up. >> Thank you, Dr. White. Good evening,
013Madame Chair, Mr. Vice Chairs, members of the board, Dr. White. This evening we come to bring to you this something that's preliminary that we do every so often in regards to our local gifted plan. Uh Miss Laura Kelly is here tonight who is also celebrating a birthday today [applause] to present our gifted plan and to answer any questions you may have for asking approval of the signature of our superintendent tonight. >> Happy birthday. >> Mr. G going to lead us in the >> No, no, no. [laughter] >> Thank you. Good evening, Madame Chair, school board members, Dr. White. Thank you for allowing me tonight to go through our local gifted plan and how we are serving and meeting the needs of our advanced and gifted learners. Um, there we go. Um, I've got the PowerPoint
014that I think you have all on your um desktops there. Every, as Mr. Freeman said, every five years the local plan needs to go through review at the state level and ours went through last year. We received recommendations and accommodations that we then took into consideration of adding or deleting from our plan. And tonight we are presenting it for your approval. So I'm going to start with who and what is the gifted department. We are within the special education and exceptional children's department. However, our students fall in every single department of Ron Oak City public schools. We obviously are in the academic department. We have gifted resource teachers that provide services, our Plato programs, differentiation advanced programs, our English language learners, our fine arts programs, and our world languages. That's all in the academic departments.
015In the instructional department, we have special education and that we have what is considered 2E, which is twice exceptional students. They are students that have an IEP 504 and a gifted identification. And then we have in our student and success and support services department, we have our advanced courses, our governor school and career and technical. The local gifted plan tries to enco encompass all of those areas within it. So who do we serve? We have nine Plato classrooms. That is for our third through fifth grade students that are GIA. GIA is general intellectual aptitude. That is for students that have been identified both math and reading. That's how they will enter into the Plato program. All 17 elementary schools feed into those two Plato programs. Highland Park has six classrooms and then Fairview has three
016classrooms. our six gifted resource teachers. Five of them are at the elementary level serving all 17 um schools. We have one that services our five middle schools. They are serving approximately,00 students a week by either pull-in or push out services. They can be our GIA students that again that general intellectual aptitude. Those would be students that have chosen not to go to our Plato programs um or at the upper levels. our math specific students, our reading specific students stay at their home school. Um, we have talent pool for our kindergarten to second grade students and differentiation means those students that didn't quite make the threshold to be formally identified, but we still see something in them and we continue their services on a year-to-year basis. Our advanced courses, we have approximately 2,650 students that are
017sitting in an advanced course this year. which is amazing. Um, our governor school has approximately 130 students that are enrolled this year. For a moment, the diamond that is over on the left hand side, we spend a lot of our time in that high quality tier one instruction, but we also spend some time in our tier 2 and three with our intervention and remediation. I'm here to say that we definitely need to be spending our time also in our tier 2 and three for our advanced learners and our gifted learners, which we do with a lot of those different programs off to the right. But we do have students sitting in a general education class that are identified. So, we need to make sure we're meeting their needs. This is in the local gifted plan.
018So, I just wanted to highlight what um the continuum of services that we offer throughout K through 12. Our middle school courses, we have many opportunities for our students to um participate in advanced courses. They can choose to only participate in one, two, three, or all four. are any of the ones that have an asterric next to it. It is a high school Carnegie unit. So, they're taking high school courses at the middle school level. So, algebra and geometry at in the math pathway. We have earth science in the science. And then we are very excited next year the world geography that will be a high school credit course that will be offered to our eighth graders. So, that's not currently offered but it will be next year. all of our science advanced courses, the
019students must participate in the science fair. Um each year the advanced opportunities at the high school level um we have governor school, advanced placement, dual enrollment, world language, our CTE which is our ROE and day we have many industry certifications that students can lead leave when they graduate our visual and performing arts as Dr. White just said with ALF, we have many talented VPA students. Very excited about our summer residential governor school. I just lifted up 10 applicants for adjudication for VPA. Um, and they are now doing their auditions. And then once they get those scores, I'll receive them, review them, and decide who will go on to the state level. I also just received applications for the um academic programs for the summer. And I apologize. I'm going to go back real quick to
020one slide because I missed something and I knew I would. On this page, I was telling Miss Kresky [clears throat] that I would miss it. The norms and screening. We use local norms for identification, which means that we are looking at our students at their school level, at their city level, and the national level. That provides us opportunities to identify more of those underrepresented populations. And the same with our universal screening. We I thank you for the support that we have universal screening, meaning that every single first grader takes an aglier, every second and fifth grader takes a Kogat and we find students that way that may not be lifted up by a teacher recommendation. I just presented at the national um gifted association in November on this and Ron Oak City was highlighted that
021we were one of seven schools that we made that 8020 representation. Um no school in Virginia makes the hundred. So if you have 80 or 50% um EL students, do you have 50% of EL that are gifted? Nobody makes the 100%. But we were one of seven schools that did make that and that's a huge accomplishment and it's I really believe it's because of the local norms and the universal screening. Sorry I forgot that. And then um when you receive this PowerPoint that is a link to the local gifted plan so you won't have to hunt and peck to find it. We have a local gifted advisory board that meets every um four times a year and we have representations from teachers, principles, parents, um our supervisors from all four content areas so that we
022can constantly be looking at our plan and reviewing it. This is for your knowledge for later on. If you don't remember what one of those acronyms stand for, that hopefully will help you. Um but they are in the gifted plan. and then I am open to any questions that you may have. >> Thank you, Miss Kelly. [clears throat] Does the board have any comments or questions for Miss Kelly? >> Big thank you for the uh acronym page. >> That should be an index on every presentation. [laughter] >> Um yes, Dr. Jameson. >> Yeah, I just have a Thank you so much for the presentation. and it it's really helpful and it's nice to see the overview. Um, >> local norms and universal screening, how long have we is that a relatively new? Is that a
023shift in how we've gone about this? It's been a long time since I sat on the committee. So, >> no, we have been doing it I have been with Ron Oak City for 12 years. We started it on after my first year. Okay. We have been doing it for 11 years. However, nationally, it is still not the norm. >> Oh. And we are leading in that and I do as I said with that research and Rono lifted up into that I believe that that is because we have been doing the local norms for as long as we have. >> Great. Great. >> And universal screeners and the state is proposing and we're keeping our fingers crossed that they may start um requiring every division to do a universal screener at second grade. It hasn't passed
024yet, but we're keeping our fingers crossed that that will happen. >> I'm And this is curiosity rel. I'm assuming what that helps do too is account for developmental differences in children. >> It does. It accounts for that and also your socioeconomic disadvantage, many of the different components. Um it doesn't take one day in the life of a child. It takes more multiple criteria into account. And I just had a question. Talent pool. I'm not quite sure what was what does that mean? The talent pool. >> The talent pool is our K2 students that when the gifted resource teachers at the beginning of first grade will go in and do whole classroom lessons, they are looking for students that are thinking up and beyond their peers. And then we do the nagliary. That's another dipstick to
025find those students. And so they are not formally identified, but we're seeing something. And so the gifted resource teachers pull them once a week. >> But that's the system. When you said we may have seen something, it was probably out of one of these processes >> possibly there or it could be a late bloomer and it could be a fifth grader that all of a sudden with the Kogat universal screener, somebody that didn't show up in second grade may show up in fifth. >> Very good. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate it. Yeah. >> Have you ever identified it going backwards? you saw something, you identified something in second grade and then followed that child to the fifth grade and something fell off and then you had to kind of figure out what was going on.
026We certainly constantly are looking at but once identified always identified. We are never going to go and say, "Miss Watkins, you were, you know, gifted in second grade and now in fifth you're not." [laughter] That won't happen. Um, but we will constantly be looking at making sure that we're meeting your needs. >> Thank you. You're welcome. Uh, Miss Mr. Link, >> I lied. I have a question. [laughter] I changed my mind. Um, I'm sorry I didn't catch it the first time. Can you please explain again the cohort that we are now in? No one hits 100%, but we hit 80%. Can you go back and go through that again? >> So, I co-presented with somebody from Chesapeake and during her dissertation, she looked at all 132 divisions to see which divisions were finding students that
027were from four categories. African-American, um, economically disadvantaged, um, Hispanic, Latinx, and EL or English learners. Okay? >> And looking at how many were representing according to their population. >> Okay? >> So, if we had 20% EL students, do we have 20% gifted EL students? Okay. >> And nobody made 100% mirroring their population. Okay? But there were seven divisions that had an 8020 representation. So giving a little grace there, but we were only one of seven that hit all four categories. >> Thank you for doing that. >> You're welcome. >> Um, thank you for that information. And as somebody who came into the division with elementary age kids right postco, you know, this was one thing that I remember sitting down with a gifted resource teacher to find out what does this process look like and
028what does it mean? Um, so, um, and I didn't realize that, uh, you know, I, you know, all my kids have been young enough, um, like a lot of us with elementary kids to take the Kogat and the Nagiary coming through. I didn't realize that other divisions didn't do that. But I also know that we use there's a whole rubric with a lot of inputs that go into trying to help identify um, students there. Um, so I do appreciate that. I liked your note about, you know, maybe it going statewide, maybe a note for PG&L about making sure it's a funded mandate there. >> That's what they're trying for. [laughter] They truly are trying for that. So, we're keeping our fingers crossed. >> Got it. And then I also noted you had the various middle
029school offerings um and not being identified in elementary also doesn't preclude you from being able to enroll in those classes as well. Um, and um, and I also noted the science fair, which I have a current sixth grader, so it's a gift that [clears throat] hasn't stopped giving yet until December 19th. So, thanks for that. Um, I had to move the poster off the table so we could eat dinner tonight. So, um, so anyways, but thank you for all of that information. So, if there's no other further questions, is there a motion and a second to approve the 2024 2029 local plan for the education of the gifted as presented and authorize the signature of the superintendent? >> So, move. >> Second. >> Moved by Miss Watkins, seconded by Miss Kintana. Okay. Um, is there
030any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say I. Those opposed say no. I >> Thank you so very much. >> Thank you, Miss Kelly. The motion carries and the 2024 2029 local plan for the education of the gifted is approved. >> Enjoy your the rest of your birthday. >> Happy birthday. [laughter] >> Thank you, Mrs. Kelly. And thank you, Mr. Freeman, as well. I'll now ask our chief human resources officer, uh, Dominic McKe, to come forward for the annual staffing report. He will be assisted by members of his human resources team. Mr. McKe. >> Thank you, Dr. White. Good evening, Madam Chair, Miss Apel, um, Mr. Vice Chair, Mr. Sherry, members of the school board, Superintendent Dr. White, and all those joining both in person and on RCPS YouTube channel. Um, this evening
031I'm joined by Miss Jennifer Bailey, executive director of human resources, and Miss Carrie Gates, executive director of professional learning. Together, we will provide a comprehensive overview of our current workforce, share progress and challenges in recruitment, retention, and professional growth, and outline strategies that position us for continued success. Our commitment remains crystal clear. Every student deserves exceptional educators and support staff and every employee deserves unwavering support, recognition, and opportunities to grow because our employees are the heart of our success. Or put another words from from Mr. Deeds, um if you remember last year, he said, "If we don't feed our teachers, they will eat our students." [laughter] So, I'm still trying to process what that means. Um but this report reflects not only where we stand today, but where we are headed um toward a workforce
032that is diverse, engaged, and equipped to meet the evolving needs of our students and schools. You have your staffing report in front of you, this right here. >> I do. >> And we we will be referring to it throughout the presentation. Um, I want to take this time to thank the entire HR department, uh, the marketing department, Oasis, and the print shop for helping us put the staffing report together. So, a quick overview, we will look at our current status of our workforce. We'll look at our vacancies when it comes to our central office vacancies as well as our school-based vacancies. And then where we where we go from here in terms of recruitment, retention, and professional growth. So, as you know, we updated the strategic plan. Dr. um um um Dr. Schultz and his
033team helped revamp the strategic plan. We moved from from pathway six to pathway four. We went from two goals to three goals. And our three goals are that we will um proactively recruit and hire a highly um effective workforce. The second goal is to retain employees by fostering a rewarding work environment and offering competitive benefits. And our third goal is to facil facilitate professional growth opportunities for all of our employees. Throughout this presentation, we will reference targets and objectives that will align with these goals. These are detailed in pages six, seven, and eight of your manual. I always want to do that. I always want to, but I'll stick to my day job. [laughter] >> Seven so bad. >> Huh. I've been waiting I've been waiting all day to say that. the these are in
034your in pages six, seven, and eight in [clears throat] your um in your manual. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> Oh my god. At least it means something. >> It does. I know. In context. >> It's not nothing, it's something. Um [laughter] so, we'll start with our overview of our staff. We have 2395 full-time staff. Um 83 um excuse me, 73% identify as white and 27% identify as minorities. Again, this information can be found in in on page 31 of your staffing report. [snorts] And we we always in your staffing report, you'll see it um the numbers compared to this year as to compared to last year. So, we're we are still continuing to make grow make make movements. Next, moving to our teachers. Uh we have 1,212 teachers uh full-time teachers with us. And of those,
03583% identify as white and 17 identify as minorities. Again, this information can be found on page 34 of your staffing report. Now, as you compare the diff the the year and last year, we're still making we still have a ways to go because again, this doesn't mirror our our students nowhere close, but we're still making progress and you see that maybe not the percentages haven't changed, but if you look at the numbers closely, you see the numbers are are are increasing. So, we we are making progress. Next, we want to look at our generation boss staff. You're probably saying, "Well, what what what is the purpose of this?" It's twofold. One, if you look at um we'll start with baby boomers. There's a shift. Um last year it was a they were at um 15%.
036This year they're at 13%. So they shifted 2% down. Now I'm going to jump down to Gen Z's. Last year they were at 13%, they went up to 15%. So they went up 2%. Well, the reason why we want to look at baby boomers and Gen Z is because especially baby boomers because if th when they start to retire, which they will this year, next year, and the year after, we have to make sure we're we're prepared for that retirement cliff and make sure we um recruit early and often to make sure we can fill those positions. And in addition, Gen X um is going to be part of that group, too. Oh, that's you. Okay. I thought you guys were Gen Z's. >> That's cute. >> You like that? You like that? >> That
037was [laughter] cute. That was cute. I I love GX. >> Yes, >> we have some sense. [laughter] >> But >> that's pretty good. [laughter] >> But to to look at Gen X and millennials, those are the majority of our workforce. Millennials. >> Okay. [laughter] >> Cuz I got a purple tie on today. Is that why? Okay. >> But not only that, we also have to figure out what supports do these generation employees need. So, for example, for baby boomers, they want to be recognized their accomplishments and years of service through awards, acknowledgements, and we do like challenge coins. Dr. White does challenge coins. We do rec recognition awards such as teacher of the year, support staff of the year, leader of the year, and we hear you baby boomers. You want they want the service
038pins back. So, we're we're working to bring those service pins back. They want them. We've heard them loud and clear. For Gen X's, they want us to provide leadership opportunities such as new teacher mentors. And Miss Gates will go more into that. For millennials, they want to offer channels for anonymous feedback. They love to give feedback but don't want to be don't want to be attached [laughter] to it. Mr. Cherry. So, we've done that by doing stay surveys and also doing staff perception surveys. So, we've done that as well. And last thing with Gen Z's, they want to make sure that they we provide them a variety of professional development options that allow choice and flexibility and that and Miss Gates will talk a little bit about that as well. But the biggest things to
039to throughout all the generations to ensure that they have work life balance as well as they they have professional development and planning with their people. >> Oh, >> break you by. >> It's a new building. I know. >> Yeah. Can you Okay. [laughter] I don't know where the battery went. >> Oh, okay. >> Thanks. Wow. You see teamwork right here. >> He's a Chicago. >> See, here we go. I knew that was coming. [laughter] >> People about a battery. >> I forgot. Baby boomer Sooner. >> Oh, [laughter] no. >> I mean, because they did make the CFP, so I see Tennessee. >> Okay. [laughter] >> All right. Okay. I I'll get back to Okay, next we'll move on to our um our our vacancies for central office staff. So, keep in mind you have two
040dates up here. You have October 1st, 2024, then you have October 1st, 2025. We will also go into what is the updated vacancy as of December 1 because these numbers have improved. So, you see right here, you see that our vacancies have improved or decreased um from October 1 last year to October October 1 this year. And um so as of December 1st, our vacancies are administrators, we're still sitting at one, professional staff, we're still sitting at we're at two. And then classified staff were at.3. >> So I don't know how we're going to find that.3 position, but we will find it and we will fill it. >> I'd like to have three of a job. >> You like that? [laughter] >> Next, I'll move on to schoolbased staff. I'm going to spend a little
041bit of time on this so we can peek behind the curtains a little bit. So, as you see right here, October 1 um of 2025 for our teachers, we're 11.5 vacancies. Professional staff were at four and then administrators were at zero. As you remember when I when we reported back on the beginning of school, we were at three teacher vacancies when we opened the school. Um so, that was something to to definitely to celebrate. Um so, so let me go back up to teachers and and and talk through a little bit those vacancies. So, as you remember that um we added 35 new EL positions because of standards of quality. We also added 22 additional teaching positions to lower class sizes and to help with special ed case loads. And then since October 1, we
042had 19 teachers resign or retire. So, with all of that being said, as of December December 1, we're sitting at three special ed teacher vacancies. So, we've worked um very hard to make sure we get keep those numbers where where we need to be. Of course, we want it to be zero. Um, and we we're working really hard to get that number, but we're we're very proud of that. So, for professional staff, those these are one of our challenging um in terms of um employees because a majority of the vacancies are with speech pathologist. And so, we're working hard with special ed and with marketing department as well as when I talk to other school divisions, they've gone to to a third party to hire for these positions because they're just hard to fill. And
043that's something that we've done in the past and we'll definitely look forward to in the future. So with our professional staff, we started out with um four vacancies as of October 1 and as of December 30 December 1st, we're sitting at 13 vacancies and nine and a half nine nine nine.5 are speech pathologists. So that's something that we really have to work on. And then lastly, looking at administrators at zero, that looks phenomenal. We want to keep it that way. But keep in mind, we had five principles um vacancies that left. Three were promoted to um um central office positions. One in this division, two the other two another division, other two divisions. We had one leave out of education completely, another one moved because of family reasons. And we were able to fill those
044positions with four internal assistant principles. Um so we were to promote from within. And then assistant principles, we had um 15 vacancies. And of those 15, remember four moved up to become principles and nine were filled with internally from teachers and u mentors and whatnot. And then central office, we had one position filled by a principal within Reno City. And then so as of December 1st, we're still still sitting at zero. So we're proud about that. So I do want to point out that throughout this, it took several departments to make sure we get the numbers where they were. And this was led by Dr. Shawanda Jackson, our director of recruitment and organizational engagement. Angela Carr, our lensure coordinator. Doug Martin, professional staffing coordinator. Paul Browning, classified staffing coordinator. Claire Menel, director of communications, also
045academic instructions, um um hiring managers such as the principles, program directors, assistant principles, instructional supervisors, and the special department. We all when we say we are one, we all really work together to make sure we fill these vacancies. I just want to talk about two more challenges with this group. one is that with the teachers, we have a high teacher um absenteeism rate. Um and if you that's on page 24 of your uh manual and you'll see that the the numbers are much higher last year than they were this year. Uh or excuse me, much higher this year than they were last year. So, we're working closely with we're setting up a teacher um uh task force to look at absenteeism and what are what are some recommendations they can bring forward to us to
046bring to you in terms of how can we fix the teacher absenteeism and also looking at schools that have a high absenteeism rate and see what we can do to to figure exact see what things we can bring forward to figure out how to lower that absenteeism rate because when we have high absenteeism of course we don't have enough subs to fill them so then we have a problem with with subs filling them as well so we want to make sure that ESS is on that team as well. So, we can all work together to figure out um how we can make this thing work. And the last thing, one of the um I know the vacancies, we're proud of of of how many people we've hired and whatnot, but we have 167 profession um
047provisional licensed teachers. That's up from um back in 2022, we had 140 and last year, we had 125, which was our lowest. This year is our highest. So, we have to make sure we give them that wraparound support. Miss Gates will talk about the the mentoring program that we have that's strong been for the past two years. She'll go into that. We also want to work with academics and instruction to make sure we also provide that continue wraparound support as well. Next, I want to talk about our classified vacancies. As you see 69 with the IAS, it pops out um really uh you know it it it's something that we really have to work on. Um we have one building ops, we have zero administrative assistance and then we have zero in terms I mean
04813 in terms of school security and financial uh support positions. So just to give you a little bit of background as you know we had eight IAS move up to into teacher positions. Over the past three years we've had 25 total IAS move into teaching positions. So that's phenomenal but that's leaving us with vacancies in terms at the IIA level. So what we what we've what we've done is our assistant uh director of recruitment organization effectiveness uh Morgan Stru has is working with special ed as well as with Paul Browning our classified staff coordinator Victoria Thornton our HR specialist again Claire Mitzel with the communications department and then our special ed they started meeting on a weekly basis in August then now they move to a monthly meeting to see exactly what we can do
049to to get those vacancies down and really keep our um keep our IA so that number from 69 on October 1, now it is down to 23 as of December 1st. So what that group is doing is working tremendously. Our building ops is sitting at two um vacancies and administrative assistance still at zero and then our other is down to three. So with that concertive effort of focusing on our classified staff um those um everything's coming to fruition and it's working. I want to end on well just my part not the staffing part is the um our class sizes at the high school we're sitting at 23.1 at middle school we're sitting at 16.4 and elementary we're sitting at 15.5 please understand that this is just an average that the actual class size really depend
050on the grade level enrollment and whatnot. So we have some classes like at the high school at Fleming and PH are sitting at 32 33. Um at elementary we have some um grade levels like at Monterey sitting at 23 24. So again this is an average when you look at us across the division looking at high school, middle school and elementary. So I will pause there and see if there was see if you guys have any questions about the data >> on this side. >> I was okay she's >> Miss Trigg, >> I'd like to say great job. >> Thank you your numbers. I know you're working hard. And I was looking at this middle school and I was thinking, "Woo!" Cuz seventh grade and breaking ridge. >> Oh. Oh, classes are huge. Yes. Yeah.
051That's what I said. Average. Yes. Yes. Yes. >> But great job overall. >> Thank you. >> Um, excellent. I still go back to the little folder that we had, Eli, that had >> Oh, [laughter] >> challenge. The challenge you had when you [laughter] came in. Um you >> I loved it though. I loved every minute of it. >> Exceptional exceptional work um of the teams. >> Um the question that I have is when I think about all of the work that you guys have had to do to try to um bring people back in from losses. >> Do you know about how many losses total there have been from October to December? That's it. What what you explained sound like a lot of people. Mhm. Mhm. >> And that's concerning to me that because we
052we were the place to be. >> Yes. >> Right. Everybody was coming from different divisions wanting to be on this train. >> Am I to feel like the high is over and we're struggling to compete. >> It's a little bit of concern because I mean there's many different variables. Um people are leaving because of because of um you know mental health. They're leaving because of student discipline. Many different variables in terms of why they're leaving. Um, we typically average about 25 teachers we lose in on a year in a year. So, as of October 1, that is kind of high. So, we're monitoring to see what we can do. Whenever we find out that they are going to resign, we do try to reach out to the principal to see if they can we can
053rerecruit them. There's anything we can do to um have them unresign. Um, but it is Yes. Yes. Yes. But but we do keep track. We have exit ser exit interviews as well to see exactly what's going on. But it's a it's a multitude of reasons. they're not going to other schools cuz what we do is we have a gentleman's agreement in Virginia. Um if you're under contract after June 15th um you have to get permission from us to to interview. So we don't have people leaving from us going to another schools. Sometimes they're just going out of education completely. >> Wow. >> I do know also that the and the research will bear out that there are a lot of and you'll see this when when Mr. McKe talked about the provisionally certified >> uh
054teachers. uh there are several teachers who are entering the profession now who are not taking a traditional pathway right and therefore there's a there there's a steep learning curve uh coming in. So a lot of times you'll see that these vacancies are due to folks who have not had a traditional pathway have not had a student teaching experience >> maybe you know have come in and then have that steep learning curve and then choose another another path or and they also have personal reasons and other kinds of things. uh discipline uh sometimes will show up there as well uh and support. So I applaud the HR team and our principles as well to try to meet teachers where they are uh even if they've had a non-traditional um pathway to teaching. >> I think you
055mentioned that to us before about people coming from other careers. >> So yeah, >> and and to add to that, we have the the mentor program as I mentioned before, but we also want to add that wraparound support. So, one thing we're working on is is starting in January and February, we want to those new teachers um that are new to the profession that only have a bachelors or maybe have I teach, we want to pull them out of the classroom for two or three days, not in a row, but throughout the semester to to give them that that support they didn't have coming because they didn't have educational background. So, but we have to weigh that, okay, if we pull them out, we'll be able to find a sub and whatnot. So, we have
056to wait. I'm doing 67 again. I'm sorry, but I'm just [laughter] but but we're trying to plan ahead and make sure that we get ahead of this. Um um so that's something that that's on our radar as well. >> Is that a national trend too? >> Yes. Yes. There there's still um not enough people going into education, getting educational degree and coming into teaching. So that's why you see a lot of school divisions looking at alternative pathways and we've latched on to I teach and local license to help us bridge that gap. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. this side. Anyone? >> I just wanted to say >> let Miss um Can go first. Go ahead. >> Okay. Sorry. >> You're good here. [laughter] >> Um I just want to say thank you, Mr. McKe,
057because I know it's a lot. Um and you guys are amazing. Um appreciate all the work you do. >> Thank you. >> It's amazing. >> Being your doctor, I don't want to >> you don't have you don't have to say anything. So, [laughter] um, do you >> That was not intended to come off snarky. No, you're [laughter] it's not requisite that you have comments. >> I do have comments. >> Um, >> on all of the well, most of the preceding slides before this that I can remember, it's easy to see the target is zero vacancies. >> I'm curious. I've been staring at this. Uh, to put this into context, >> what are our targets for average class size? usually about um 21 22 is the target. Of course, we like to get a lot lower
058than that, but that >> at all age groups or does it >> well you have to have like K through three you there's certain numbers like the 19 to 22. It depends on which school and title one and whatnot. So at K through three they have to have 19 to 22 depending on the school. Um but we're looking at really 1819 to be at that sweet spot in terms of what we're looking at class averages. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, I think it's, thank you for this. I mean, Miss Watkins asked a lot of the questions I was going to ask and also gave me the little flashback of where we started. So, [laughter] having this clarity of data is really helpful. Um, I think so my questions are and I would like to take
059a minute. Uh, we're I'm going to ask a question also about kind of turnover and these questions because that's what we've talked about >> and I think to your point turnover is normal in any organization. I mean the question becomes when do we end up in flux and beyond what we expect. >> So and I'm glad you're looking into all of the things uh that you said about kind of the turn rates and the accelerated pace of all that. >> Um I guess and I think that >> I think that I just heard the answer to one of my two questions which is um 167 professional teachers is both a success and a concern. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. So that's that's what I kind of noted here on on that to so this
060is just a third >> uh so I'll look forward to seeing what we're doing about all that but >> um >> you mentioned ESS you know with our substitute teachers are substitute teacher teachers a pipeline into employment. Oh yes. Yes, we we we um recruit from ESS as well. Like if they have a bachelor's degree and they want to teach um I want to say we had eight or nine ESS subs become teachers as well. So yes, that is a pipeline. But then when we still from then we then they have less people. So it's like Rob and Peter I'm doing six seven again. Okay. >> Right. [laughter] >> Do we have um >> uh do we and I assume a lot of those teachers become provisional provisionally licensed? >> Yes. Mhm. >> I'm wondering
061when they're um a substitute teacher, are they getting I'm thinking about that learning curve question. >> I'm pretty old now, so I remember substitute teachers pretty much. Huh? >> You're Gen Z. >> Oh, that's cute. [laughter] Um and no, I talk to them all day. Um I love them. Uh thank you. the is there what I'm wondering about through our ESS who is a wonderful partner this isn't a critique is there something more we should be thinking about with our substitute teachers that help them really experience a more realistic job preview >> than what we do now right I mean if we're thinking they're provisionally licensed and if we think there's some additional churn that comes out of that I'm wondering if there's something that we can do not to scare them away but to
062>> to not make the shock value so big when they come through. So >> that's something that we can look at. But the the positive part is that is that they're already in our building, so they know what to expect in terms of climate and culture. Um, so we can definitely work with the paper. >> No, they don't. They [laughter] No, they don't. >> And they shouldn't have to. It's just it's a mentoring question I think I'm asking. >> That's something we can work with to look into. How do we bridge that gap? >> Yeah. >> It'll be in the book next year. Just to let you know, [laughter] >> I'll be watching from Zoom. >> Oh. [laughter] We'll mail you a book just in case. >> Thanks. Thank you. >> Or staffing report. >>
063Um before I ask my question, definitely thank you for this information so far. I do look forward to hearing from the rest of the team. Uh but again, this is incredible data and definitely gives us a uh perspective on where we are. My biggest question, I know we're all talking about turnover, um but I also wanted to bring up absenteeism. Do you think, because you you mentioned this, do you think that has a lot to do with the shift in age demographics? It's a loaded question, Mr. Cherry. [laughter] Um, now I I think there's a lot of different factors that go into why people are missing. It could be FMLA, it could be mental health, it could be a lot of different things. So, I don't know if there's one right answer to what, but
064I think what will what what will come of this, we're going to look at that teacher um task absenteeism task force. Hopefully, they will give us answers in terms of why are people missing because they are boots on the ground, so to speak. So, we're looking to get information directly from teachers. They'll be on that committee as well. >> Yeah. And I mean, again, just speaking to that, I know when I first came on the board, we were heavy with the great resignation. >> Then now we're really talking about job hugging. So, now we have a generation. I don't mean to speak for um my culture, but that's that's my age demographic, but we do have a >> a demographic to where as long as we got the job, we will do the bare minimum
065as long as we keep the job. So, just wanted to see what type of avenues, what are we doing? I know we have mentorships, we have all of that, but I know as a millennial and even the Gen Z's uh just wanted to make sure that we are kind of >> putting our foot in there in their perspective to kind of see uh what they need and what's doable for us as a division going forward. I think that'll really help us as a urban school division. So, >> just want to throw that out there. >> Yes, sir. It'll be in the book next year. >> And I would say that, you know, thank you for that question. I I know that and I want to thank our uh the REA. We meet with the REA
066monthly and I just in in talking with them as well as talking with uh teachers as we visit schools. I I don't think that um we should be naive about what our teachers uh face on a daily basis and that um particularly when you've chosen to serve an urban school division >> then again we we love serving in an urban school division. Our students are beautifully diverse, but with that diversity comes additional challenges that um their fellow teachers may not may or may not necessarily have to deal with in other uh divisions. That means pouring your whole self into the work that you do. That means additional planning. It means additional kind of um love and and care and support. And sometimes um working with families at a different level that takes a toll sometimes.
067And so I do when we talk to the REA, they they're talking about things like building in um PTO time or building in mental health days or um providing that type of balance. So I think as we look forward to uh the next you know kind of budget season and those kinds of things, we need to listen to that to those concerns and take into consideration the real demands uh on our teachers uh on a daily basis and recognize and appreciate um what they're up against every single day and um and see that because it's a it's a domino effect. So then as a teacher once that my next door neighbor teacher is out and if I'm having to take on that teacher's workload then that's an additional strain on me and then therefore I'm
068more likely to be absent the next day or the you know next week. So there is a domino effect and I do think that we need to again I'm I'm grateful for the partnership that we have with the REA. I'm grateful for uh the teachers advisory council because they're bringing these real issues to us and thanks to our human resources departments and our principles because as we're hearing that then we can then do something about it. But I thought I'd take a minute to share that feedback with you um because that's what we're hearing and I think we need to acknowledge that particularly moving forward. >> Thank you so much. And that's so important even as a young leader. >> Yes. >> I'm getting it almost every day at at my own job where it's
069like hey Mike I just need a day. >> Yes. And if that means I need to be off and I mean that's why we get paid to figure that out right as leaders. So thank you all so much for addressing that. That's something that I definitely am sensitive to. So thank you all. >> Can I just add Dr. White reminded me that the RA meeting we had an aha moment. Um and we got a compliment as well as a suggestion. Um so what one of the members said was like you guys do a great job with the new teachers and making sure they have the support they need. You do a great great great job with the retirees but what about us in the middle? M >> and I was like, "Aha." So, we want
070to figure out ways how we can appreciate um our our staff that've been here 16 17 years um and show them gratitude of what they do. So, that's something we're working on as well. >> They're grateful. We you know, we talked about that. That's what they're speaking of just in addition to the pay recognition. Yes. >> So, the the you know, no one discounts the the the power of that pay recognition and they appreciate that. We talked about how we moved the entire scale up a few years ago, 14% for our teachers. uh so that we could be competitive in the region. And so they they're appreciative of that. But they said in addition to that um what other types of incentives, recognition, um attendance incentives can we build into place? Again, that's going to
071take funding and and uh sustainable funding to be able to do that so that we can keep those promises to our teachers. Um but it is something that I think we should look forward to as particularly as we're previewing the budget for the next season. >> And Miss T, you had one more thing. I did and I'm glad that um Mr. Cherry and Dr. White brought that up. I wanted to know what um type of culture may be in the schools with the teachers that may have the more absenteeism. Is there any kind of um like you said incentives would be a great idea may not be monetary because you know that's a little narrow for us but yes even if it's like coffee on Friday or donuts or something like that and that may
072say minute but >> sometimes teachers look for just a small little reward or even a what um employee of the week or something like that >> and just to >> find ways that they probably could boost the morale within the because where I may not be fitting in in one school where [clears throat] another school I might excel. So it may be some different cultures that are going on there. I don't know how easy that would be to >> figure out, but that may be something that could help. >> I think one part would be that the teacher absenteeism task force. They will help with looking at the climate and culture within their buildings. We're really going to try to look at to make sure we have a teacher on there that's from a hard
073to fill school. I know they don't speak for the entire school, but they can give us perspective in terms of what that will look like and what incentives they would need in terms of to keep them coming. Um, you know, especially on Fridays and Mondays and after tech games, people get the hokey flu and everything like that. So, we're just trying [laughter] to figure out things, you know, they never miss a U game, so I don't know why. So, >> I mean, even like an incentive of decorate their classroom for the next year or whatever they get to choose. I mean, just something like that. I think anything could possibly help. >> Yes. Yes. >> Um, thank you for all that, Mr. McKe. And I'll I do look forward to um you know hearing updates
074throughout the year about that teacher absenteeism. >> Yes. >> Task force. >> Um I did want to note um >> that I one of the things that I do love that I've really seen evolve even just during my time on the board is that there are multiple opportunities for professional growth for all of our employees. so that employees really do have the opportunity to find meaning in their job within RCPS in lots of ways whether that's upward mobility maybe that's from IIA to TA to teacher to admin and so on or whether that's as a mentor and um and I also >> I don't know if you're going to toot your horn about your mentor numbers um or not but um but the the retention numbers >> he's [laughter] the retention >> I'm keeping my
075hands the there's there's the retention of the mentees which means we're supporting our new teachers but the retention of the mentors is also very high. So the mentors finds meaning by doing that work too. And I don't know how many stay interviews you manage to get for your IIA since that seems to be one of our weak points. But I'd be curious I don't you know if there's if it's worth it all you know mentors for other um subgroups as well. that slide is forthcoming so we have information as well. >> Great. Okay. >> All right. So, I'll turn over to Miss Bailey and she'll she'll talk about our retention and recruitment efforts and then she'll turn over to Miss Gates and she'll talk about our professional growth. >> Thank you, Mr. McKe. Good evening.
076>> Good evening. Um, so at RCPS, um, people are at the heart of everything we do from those who serve our students every day to those who, um, who for those we're working to attract to our community. Um, tonight I'm excited to share our story. It's a story of people, purpose, and the intentional work that is elevating recruiting and retention at RCPS. Do I have a slide? Okay. So, at RCPS, recruitment isn't just a once a year task. It's year round, all hands- on deck commitment. We often say it because we truly believe it. Everyone is a recruiter. Filling vacancies and meeting the needs of our students requires collaboration at every level. From HR to school administrators to supervisors, staff, and our higher education and community partners, each play a critical role in attracting and
077retaining exceptional talent. While we continue to use a multi-channel recruitment strategy, our focus remains clear and consistent, building strong relationships long before positions open. Applicants find RCPS in many ways through digital campaigns, social media, community partners, and word of mouth. But our strongest and most meaningful connections still come from personal engagement. Be before going further, I would love to recognize our marketing department. Um, thank you Claire and your entire team for keeping RCPS visible, vibrant, and competitive. Your work continues to drive results. Over the past two years, our proactive online campaigns, targeted ads, and website engagement have supported more than 10,000 applications. It's over the last two years. Our teacher job fair continues or continue to provide candidates with early access to interviews, helping us to identify strong talent sooner in the hiring cycle. So,
078new for 2024 and 20 202425 school year, we had the RCPS interview um fair, we welcomed 158 attendees, which resulted in 34 accepted offers, which was our strongest fair yet and a clear indicator that this model is working. We expanded our reach through walk up Wednesdays hosted at local libraries and now the community empowerment center. We have held nine of these events so far with seven more scheduled through March including our next session tomorrow if you're not busy. December 10th from 1 to 3 at the community empowerment center. Of course, everyone is welcome and um Morgan Strather um is doing such a great job with that. Um, our lure coordinator, Angela Carr, has completed 70 preliminary lure reviews. By guiding candidates through step-by-step requirements, she directly contributed to the hiring of 25 new teachers. All
079of these efforts propel Pathway 4 forward by strengthening our talent pipeline, streamlining hiring, and building a workforce that truly reflects and serves our community. You can find more details on pages 10 through 21 of the staffing report. Before we shift to retention, um we do want to highlight a key challenge. Um we've noticed that a lot, not a lot, but some of our classified applicants are running into roadblocks with the application system. In response, we've expanded personalized guidance. Um, this is supported by Victoria Thornton and members of our HR team. Um, we've added a hands-on approach to help every candidate successfully complete their application. So, this could be a language barrier. This could be a technology barrier. Um, people are coming in and needing help and we're meeting them where they need where they need
080us to be. Um, and we're not going to stop there. We are going to continue to enhance these supports. Our ongoing goal is to simplify and speed up the hiring process, making it clearer, more intuitive, and more efficient as we work to reduce the time to fill and deliver an exceptional candidate experience. Now, let's shift to the retention rates. This is an area where RCPS continues to truly shine. The data found on page 41 of the staffing report shows strong competitive retention rates that reflect real stability in our workforce. Teacher retention has risen to 89% matching our highest level in 5 years and surpassing the national urban district average by seven points. Right. [applause] Our professional staff retention is also holding steady at 89% marking a promising rebound after last year's unusually high turnover. Administrator
081retention remains in the mid to upper 80s which much of that movement representing happy turnover which means promotions, career advancement and retirey retirements. Um which all of these signal a healthy internal pipeline. Classified retention is at 85% well above the urban averages and significantly higher than the lows of school year demonstrating that our targeted supports are making a meaningful difference. Overall, RCPS continues to outperform other school divisions because our employees are choosing to stay. A special thank you to John Michael Deeds for his impactful work in employee relations which has significantly contributed to these outcomes. Together these results demonstrate that we're creating a positive and supportive environment that keeps people engaged in the long term and we are just getting started. Our goal is to boost overall retention by 15% by 2027. [clears throat] Okay,
082so this year our retention work our retention work focused on strengthening the systems that matter most to employees because leadership matters. We made a major investment in supervisor training to ensure consistent expectations and stronger support for staff across the division. This included enhanced FMLA training delivered by our FMLA specialist Melissa Hensley. Our referral program continue to reinforce both recruitment and retention with [clears throat] 151 referrals resulting in 102 hires. >> Wow. >> Demonstrating employees confidence in RCPS as a great place to work. Through radar meetings, we identified staffing needs early and provided targeted support to principles. Thank you to Dr. Shawanda Jackson for leading that effort or this effort. Um, insights from stay and exit interviews echoed a clear trend. Supportive leadership remains one of the strongest drivers of retention, underscoring the importance of continued
083leadership development. Okay, let's talk about open enrollment a little bit. So, this year we didn't just update our open enrollment process. We re-imagined it from the ground up. We shifted from a passive to active enrollment and it has been nothing short of transformational. I had the privilege of leading this initiative alongside our phenomenal benefits coordinator Celeste Brown and together our whole HR team and our board set an ambitious goal. We wanted to ensure that every benefit eligible employee would be able to sit down for a personalized one-on-one session with a licensed benefit counselor and our employees showed up. So far, over 2100 employees have participated. This is a huge level of engagement. These conversations empowered staff to truly understand their benefits, compare options with confidence, and make the best choices for themselves and their families.
084And a special thanks to our CPS leaders, administrators, principles, managers, supervisors, um just for helping out with um reserving rooms for your employees to meet with people, providing subs and things like that so that open enrollment could happen without a hitch. This is more than just an operational win. It's a cultural shift and one of the most impactful steps forward we've taken in benefits education. Our comprehensive benefit package remains competitive in the region directing directly supporting pathway 4 and our commitment to offering highquality compensation and benefits. Another corner another cornerstone of retention is cultivating professional growth and celebrating excellence. These efforts keep our staff motivated, inspired, and committed. And at the heart of it all is a is one simple truth. Leadership matters. This year we expanded leadership development opportunities for teachers and aspiring administrators
085helping them envision long-term career pathways within RCPS and um Carrie Gates will go um a little deeper into that. um HR our HR team we created a parah educator one two and three pathway to support instructional assistance with structured development and advancement while implementation was delayed due to budget constraints it remains a priority for the future recognition programs continue to elevate excellence across the division employees consistently tell us that feeling valued and supported is one of the biggest reasons they stay at RCPS, which is why both formal recognition and everyday appreciation remain central to our culture. In addition to teacher of the year and support staff of the year, we introduced new recognitions for principal of the year, assistant principal of the year, and central office leaders of the year. Once again and throughout all
086of this work, leadership matters and it continues to be a huge driver of employee satisfaction. And now I'm pleased to hand it over to Carrie Gates, executive director of professional learning. Thank you. >> Good evening everyone. Thank you, Miss Bailey. Um, I'm not going to mention which generation I'm a part of, but I can't do this one. [laughter] >> So, uh, Mr. McKe shared the status of our workforce, and then Miss Bailey, um, provided an overview of recruitment and retention. And then tonight, I'm just going to highlight four key areas that support these efforts through uh, professional growth. And so beginning on page uh 68 of our staffing report, you're going to find all of our professional learning offerings, course descriptions, the alignment to the strategic plan, and of course all of the information about
087our wonderful instructors. And so the first um area I want to talk to you about tonight is new employee support because starting strong matters. And so research shows um effective onboarding increases retention by re uh reducing early turnover. And so new this year, instructional assistants now receive role specific training during new hire orientation. We also restructured new administrator orientation uh to include an introduction to our community, the students we serve, and essential leadership knowledge. And this is not just for our principles and assistant principles, but for any leaders we get throughout the year. Teachers attend new educator orientation and receive ongoing support throughout the year uh through our great beginnings mentoring program. And then every new teacher, whether they have 24 years or four years, is paired with a sitebased mentor. Last year, we extended
088that support to secondyear teachers. This year, we've extended it to our third-year teachers. And yes, Miss Apel, I am going to toot our horn about our mentoring program. So, currently we have 116 mentors that support 266 teachers. This is a huge investment in the success of our teachers. And when we surveyed our mentees last spring, 94% of them said that they were either satisfied or very satisfied with the support they received from their mentor. And that's just an incredible number. Um studies confirm that mentoring programs build teacher capacity and commitment which are linked to retention. While mentoring alone doesn't guarantee retention, it is a critical factor. And so we do in the third year of this program, we are tracking retention rates. Last year 93% of our mentors and 81% of our mentees stayed within
089Rowan Oak whereas the year before we had 92 that stayed and 79 that stayed. So we are just very fortunate um to have such an incredible group of mentors in this division. They are very dedicated and they are doing um important work. I just want to share a fast story. We were doing a mentor professional learning last Thursday. You of course you know what Friday was. And so in the middle of our professional learning we received the phone call and the whole room erupted into cheers and the snow day phone call. They erupted into cheers. They started doing the way, but then they got back to the work of really quickly of talking about how they could support new teachers. And that just really talks about how committed they are. So, I just want to
090acknowledge that. I also wanted to acknowledge our great beginnings leadership team, April Coats and Lori Sidell for the wonderful work they do with mentor professional learning in ensuring we remain with our objectives and intended purpose. Oh, skipped that. Okay. So, a strategy in our strategic plan is supporting career advancement growth opportunities. And this is um important for keeping great people in Rowan Oakuck City. And I just want to share a few examples. Last year, I told you about the one apprentice that just was graduating and we hired them at Hurt Park. Well, this year we are we have two new apprentices at Hurt Park. One was an instructional assistant last year and then the other was a William Fleming graduate. Both are on track to now becoming teachers. In May of 2026, as part of
091the Radford Administrator Cohort, 14 teachers and staff will graduate with their master's degree in educational leadership, positioning them to become principles or other leaders within our division. And yes, we did have them sign a stay agreement, so we will retain them. Um, and so a unique feature of this cohort is that some of our RCPS leaders teach this course. For example, in the supervision and evaluation course that's taught by Dr. Williams. This semester, members of our HR team were asked to come in and talk about performance management, leadership co uh culture and climate and professional development. So, building our principal pipeline was identified as a need. To address this, we launched the aspiring principles program with 14 principles and leaders completing a year-long program to strengthen the skills they need to become principles within Rowan
092Oak City. And also we have a partnership with VCU and we have two staff members that are completing an aspiring min uh administrator program there as well. Another strategy we have within the professional growth is to advance mentoring programs and leadership development. This past summer 172 school and division leaders including our building managers for the first time ever came together for our leadership conference. topics included strategic thinking, change management, conflict resolution, skills that are all essential for strong leadership. And then research shows that developing teacher leaders helps with ro uh teacher retention. Our mentoring program plays a key role in building that leadership capacity. So during our November professional learning session, mentors brought a real classroom management challenge to the table. Our leadership team introduced a consultancy process framework. Then we got out of the
093way. We stepped back and we allowed our mentors to share their expertise with each other and collaborate on solutions. Targeted opportunities are role specific. From some of our school climate data, we learned our employees wanted more consistent and effective feedback. As a deck, as a redirect result of this information, managing employees was developed and offered to strengthen skills in this area. All of our supervisors that evaluate employees, including our building managers, participated in this session. We offer professional learning to all staff, including our classified employees. Examples include C-Pilot, Canva, and Excel. These were all top requests from our educational needs assass uh needs assessment from our classified staff. And then on my last slide, there's just some feedback about what some of our employees are saying. I won't read that all to you, but you
094can read that. But we do get some positive feedback and we do go through and review the surveys from all of our sessions. And so I appreciate this opportunity this evening to share some of the good work that is being done by many to support our recruitment and retention efforts. And then I will turn it back over to Mr. McKe to close out our presentation. >> Just want to see if there's any additional questions. >> I don't think so. >> Okay. Thank you, Dr. White for your leadership and thank you board for your commitment to our employees and students and just appreciate that all you guys do to allow us to do what we do. >> Thank you Mr. McKe and thank you to the team. Thank you. >> All right, moving on to our
095um SPSF uh update. Just today the Virginia Department of Education released the school performance and support framework which we uh call SPSF. uh they res released those results publicly and as you know we had originally expected this information to be released by the end of September. Um last just late last week uh the VDOE shared that uh the the results were available for school divisions to review and that they would be publicly released today. So, our office of accountability and strategic initiatives or our Oasis team uh has been diligent in reviewing and analyzing the results quickly. Uh so, as you will hear, they have already identified some discrepancies there. So, we do plan to provide a more detailed report at your January workshop, but in the spirit of transparency, we wanted to share the initial
096information that we have uh since it was just released at 2:00 today. uh we wanted to get the information to you and to the public uh as soon as we could. So what you will hear from our Oasis team is that while our schools have been making progress, many of our schools like many across the Commonwealth uh have been labeled as off track or needs intensive support under the new labeling system. And these labels do come with additional opportunity for funding and support which we are grateful to the VDOE for um and for making those resourc resources available uh to us. It's important to state clearly that RCPS continues to grow and make academic progress. The new framework does not tell the full story which you'll hear in just a minute. So we will continue
097updating the school board and the public on our progress as we have done throughout this school year. Now, this evening, families will receive a letter from me. I believe they already have. Yes, they already have. Will receive a letter from me uh with information about the SPSF and what these results mean because again, transparency is a priority and has been a priority of this administration since the beginning. So, we will continue to work with our schools and families to help them understand the new system. And at this time, we have Dr. Jonathan Schultz, uh, our executive director of accountability and strategic initiatives, and Melissa Eckert, who is our assistant director of accountability and strategic initiatives, to provide additional details. So, I'll turn it over to you, Dr. Schultz, >> Dr. White. >> Good evening, Madam
098Chair, Mr. Vice Chair, members of the board. Um, we are here to provide the latest update uh the on the Virginia Department of Education school performance and support framework. Um, We have been coming to you, if you recall, over the last 15 months since we heard about the new changes that were coming to the accountability and accreditation system uh to try to keep everybody u in the division and on on the board uh informed as to what those changes were going to uh be. That started back at the September 24 board meeting where we uh introduced the fact that they were planning to separate the accountability and accreditation systems. uh in October of 2024, we introduced you to the different categories and uh the framework components and how the scores were going to be calculated
099for the schools. Uh we shared the projections with you based on the previous year's data in February and we came back to you in September and just kind of reminded everyone about the process and uh shared the video release timeline. Uh in October, we spent quite a while working together on the complexities of the federal identification process, which you'll hear a little more about again tonight, and its impact uh and ramifications for the schools. Um and tonight, we're here to share the accountability and uh accreditation results. So, I'll turn it over to Melissa Eert Eert, our assistant director, who will talk take us through the uh BDOE timeline. So last year the BDOE introduced the new accountability system and our team worked to stay on top of the evolving business rules as they developed the
100system over several months. Um this year they were expected to release the results as we know in September. Um but that release was paused due to data discrepancies that were being reported across the state. So what they did instead was they started to release batches of preliminary reports for divisions to review behind the scenes. So my team analyzed each of these batches of reports and notified the VDOE of over 100 corrections. Um they also had a third party validate their data. Um so ODU spent a few months in that process and when that was complete um they released the results to divisions on December 3rd. Um and then despite ongoing data concerns um and repeated assurances that we would have at least one week for review um they released the results publicly today. So as
101I mention [laughter] as I mentioned um we found over 100 discrepancies um in the BDOE's reports and so those discrepancies included um issues between their data and our data as well as discrepancies within their own uh data within their own reports. And so we kept a log of every correction that we submitted um which helped us confirm whether or not that concern had been addressed in the next batch of reports. Um so here we're just giving you a glimpse into the error log um to kind of give you an idea of the scale of the problem um and to show how almost all of our schools were affected. Um, and we also wanted to note, um, in that red box there, you can see that we were still finding discrepancies in the final reports that
102were released last week. [clears throat] If you remember back at the beginning, part of the process that the VDE was going through was to separate the accountability and accreditation systems. Essentially wanting to keep those two things separate. So we can start by sharing that um based on the accreditation piece all schools in Muro City are uh fully accredited for this year which means well that means that we successfully dotted all the eyes crossed all the tees and um handled everything well in terms of operating our schools effectively. Basically that means did we meet everything that was in the code of Virginia that we that we are required to make sure happens. Um on the accountability side, this is where the school performance and support framework comes in. Um as we've talked to you several times
103before, essentially the the way the way that the system is built is for um schools to earn points or score points based on various um aspects of student performance. Primarily the so tests are a big piece of it, but it also includes includes a growth measurement um chronic absenteeism and some other pieces that we have talked about in the past. Uh and then the VOE will label schools based on uh the points that they earn. So schools um with 90 points and above will be labeled distinguished. Uh school schools scoring in the 80s would be labeled uh on track. Schools scoring between 65 and 79 would be labeled off track and schools scoring below 65 points would be labeled as needs intensive support. However, I would uh draw your attention again to what we talked
104about at your October meeting, which is that line underneath the table, which indicates that if a school is federally identified as needing uh uh being eligible to receive targeted support uh for a an individual group of individual student group, um then that school automatically has their performance category category lowered by a level. That's we've expressed our concerns to you about that decision that the BDE has made. Um the primary concern from a data standpoint is that's the piece of data that we have not been able to see throughout the entire three-month process. And the first time we got to see um it was Wednesday night. So that is a bit of a concern with all of the other data pieces uh data questions that we've had um in that background piece. In addition, uh we've
105talked before about the fact that that identification is based on choosing a school in the state that and and the characteristics of that school at that certain percentile. um and that next year that will be a different school. So trying to hit the targets uh trying to have a moving target there is going to be an interesting uh challenge for our schools to face. So with that said, this chart shows the um basically hot off the press um results for each school. You can see the the schools in the lefth hand column and uh column two shows the framework score for each school. You can see that we have scores uh schools that scored in the uh 90s, 80s and 70s. Um all of our schools all of our schools scored um se at least
10670 points or higher um which as you can see in the second category should have put everybody as either disting distinguished on track or off track. However, we did have eight schools who were identified as needing additional support uh targeted support for uh the performance of a group of students and so those eight schools had their uh performance category lowered according to the the rule we were just mentioning. So again, we're just trying to provide a very high level overview tonight based on the uh the short time that we had to to prepare. Um but um the initial claim from the VDE was that the previous accountability system was uh was was complicated. it was hard to understand and that it likely um overinflated or over reported levels of um school success throughout the state
107because there were not very many schools that were not uh accredited every year based on that system. So their proposal was to replace it with a system that the claim was that it would be simple, it would be easy to understand and very easy to work with. Um over the course of the past year, I think we've learned that the SPSF is far from simple or easy to understand. Uh when you get under the hood, the the data and the calculations are actually far more complex than the uh old system. Um so if you recall when first time I came to you to talk about data in September 24 we said we promised that we will make sure that everybody understands the new system and how it works but that our best bet moving forward
108was was to make sure that we took the opportunity to hold ourselves accountable and that's what we we did the way we uh built the redesign of the strategic plan and that was to focus on our so scores not our not adjusted so scores not not with anything in them but just our straight pass rates and as we showed you in September um our schools are heading in the right direction in terms of the academics. So we uh stop there and uh leave time for questions. >> Um and before [clears throat] I open it up for questions, I also want to note that they've only been able to sit with this data for a very I don't even think you're at double digits of days. Correct. >> 8 8:20 p.m. on Wednesday, we got an
109email that said, "Hey, you got it." 8:20 p.m. >> 8:20 p.m. on Wednesday [laughter] because they wanted >> and and and also so this was released for transparency purposes, but um also please note that this will be subject of future agendas to delve into this more. Um, and before there's any other questions, I did want to um I wanted to make sure I was correct and what I saw on one of the um slides is that I know on the log there were corrections being made as of December 3rd. Are there is it still but somewhere else it said ongoing. Are there still corrections being found in the data as of today? >> So, we did go through all of the reports last Thursday and submitted all of the discrepancies that we found. Um, however,
110those corrections that we submitted were not reflected in the public release today. >> Got it. Okay. So, and as far as we know, so then you'd have to get the corrected ones back to then check again and see if there's any further corrections. So, Got it. Okay. >> Just highlight that process a little bit. So, apparently the VDE was receiving so many um corrections that they put a form up that said you have to submit the corrections through the form to which they never respond. they don't acknowledge that they've received it and they don't tell if you fixed it. So our what our team has had to do is just check every day to see if there's an update and check to see if the correction has been made but or so we don't know
111if the correction was if they disagreed or if they just hadn't looked at it yet. Um and they also didn't tell you when the updates were coming. So you just have to kind of go in and check every day to see if it's been fixed. So uh I I suspect that they're a little overwhelmed at this point. So I'm not sure how quickly we'll hear back on those current ones. >> Thank you. Um, so I will open it to this side first. Did anyone have any questions at this time knowing that we will delve into this um a lot more deeply at a future meeting? >> All I want to say is thank you because I know it's frustrating and yeah, it's frustrating. So, thank you. >> Yeah, I would uh just uh uh you
112thank you with um four work days. One of them was supposed to be a snow day. two of them were supposed to be snow days. So, thank you for getting this amount of work turned around in a very short period of time. Um, I I think this system is a little mind-numbing when you think about the extrapolation of some of the data, which I'm sure we'll talk about later. So, thanks for your hard work on this. >> Yeah. Um, on this side, Miss Trigger, Miss Watkins, >> I just want to clarify one thing. I just want to hear it again. Um, so that I'm sure I understand. Um, and I know you said this before. I know you said this before to us and we went through a whole exercise where you >> Oh, yeah.
113illustrated how complicated this is, but said that if a subgroup did not perform well, that change that reduced the level for the entire school. Is that correct? >> Correct. >> Okay. Thank you, [laughter] Mr. Cherry. >> Um, I'm going to hold my question. I guess wondering if there are any schools that improved um you know um from that but uh I'll hold it for as we continue to discuss >> we we we uh as soon as we have a chance to go deeper we know we have some successes to share out of those and some pieces we know we have Lucy Addison for example is going to have have some good stuff come come out of this as well but we're not at a point where we can so >> here's all the pieces and
114we don't want to miss anything. Okay. So, I'll save mine. Thank you. >> Um, and I did want to note or make sure that I um am understanding correctly to piggyback off what Miss Watkins um brought up. So, our schools can be any school division or school can be dropped a level if in comparison to the base school um we have scored below them in any subgroup. But what I wanted to make sure that I understood is the base school is determined based on how they scored overall compared to the whole state which every time a correction is found changes. >> Well, so I think at this point they're going to lock it in at that level. But yes, my understanding is that part of the reason it was delayed is that as errors were
115found and scores changed, the school that was being used as the baseline school most likely was changing, which then changes the list of schools across the state who um would be identified based on relative to that school because it's very specific to that that school as the target school. So corrections could change the base school which could change the subgroup comparisons which could change our you know ratings if you will. So I just wanted to clarify that I had that correct. Um and then yes oh sorry it was just sigh. Um and then I just also wanted to note um as you you said it but I just also wanted to point it out that we have schools that are federally identified. that means we get extra supports for those schools. Um, I just have
116to say it feels like a punishment that our school that schools get dropped a level simply because they've been identified as getting extra supports. if they are, you know, I have a philosophy about what assessments should tell you and if they are scoring a certain level by those assessments, it shouldn't matter what led to that, whether it was that you got extra supports from federal identified or EL services or whatnot. So, that is just a an opinion of my own. Um, so yes, Miss Watkins, something you want to one last thing, and this is this is this ties back to our budget and funding. I heard Dr. White say that there were opportunities or funded supports, but as I understand that it's more of a grant and not a long-term solution. Is that correct? >>
117That's correct. Yes, >> that would be if I may, Miss Watkins, the the pro we are certainly appreciative of the opportunity for resources that additional resources that would help schools where we >> Yes, >> it's December. Um, and whatever that process is going to be is going to take it has to take at least two or three months from here before we would be able to see that money and then it would need to be spent by June 30th. So it's it really becomes a yes, we're going to help you, but is how's the timing going to work on that actually being able to make an impact now? >> Yeah. I mean, from a principal's perspective, and Mr. Freeman, I see you standing up back there, so why don't you come on up, but from
118a principal's perspective, um it's really difficult if again, we appreciate any kind of grant funding that would uh come to support our students, support our schools. Half the year is already over with, right? So then to have to spend that there there there are restrictions on what you can spend the money on and and the timing of it. But Mr. Freeman, I I see you're there. Go ahead, >> Dr. White. Thank you. You said [laughter] exactly right. Actually, we have just a little sneak peek today regarding the timeline and it is a quick turnaround time. Um we do know we can say that the deadline of the turnaround for the application is the end of January, but you got to go through all of the criteria. Then you have to have it all encumbered. Usually
119like what they did this year is around September, the middle of September. So to get it this late as Dr. White stated and it's it's only used on specifics of professional development, after school tutoring, you cannot use it in personnel um unless you're paying them to stay after school and pieces like that have to be attached to evidence based strategies they have in place. So there's a whole checklist that our principles will go through with our whole entire team to make sure we're in compliance. And it's only a certain amount. TSI you get a certain amount. ATSI a certain amount you get in CSI of course. So that's where we're at. >> Happy holidays. >> Yes. >> Exactly. I have a question. [clears throat] >> Um with that application the monies since we are ending
120earlier this year. Does that have anything to do or they tell us an exact date that they want us to use the monies by or they >> all exact date is already established for every district in the state of Virginia. >> Wow. Okay. >> We actually ending our regular time this year. This short summer this summer. >> Okay. [laughter] Yes. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. Sorry. Sorry. >> We starting earlier. We starting earlier. >> Short summer. >> Yes. Short summer. [laughter] >> Got it. All right. Um, well, thank you again very much. And there's just one other little tidbit I was going to toss out is there the scores for the schools are on a scale of 100, but it isn't a true percent as a lay person or you know like we normally think of that
121it's you know you can you get 10 out of 10 questions right is a 100% or eight out of 10 is an 80%. It's just on a scale of 100 but it's not really a true percent. >> Correct. and the issue that we've talked about before with the growth where only half of the schools can act only half of the growth growth points that they say are out there were actually available to schools. So while it sounds like every school could score those could get to [clears throat] those points it that was not actually possible. Well, thank you very much. And I know um that people who love data hate being rushed to get through the data. And I I I look forward to what you get to do and what you get to communicate
122to us about how our students are learning and how our first tier instruction is going once you've had some time to sit with the data. So, thank you very much. >> I pray you get what you need. [laughter] So, errors corrected, um clarity. I you guys are really really smart people but your hands are tied >> and I understand that. Thank you. >> Thank you both. >> Thank you Dr. Schulz and Miss Eert. I would like to thank our entire team um for your hard work especially over the past several months and especially over the past few days when we had a very short turnaround time to analyze these results. And so as uh as you shared the release data still contains some inaccuracies and inconsistencies um mismatch student counts and that kind of thing.
123Um so we are um we appreciate your quick work in turning uh analyzing and flagging those issues that needed to be reported and we thank the VDOE for being receptive. We we want them to um continue to work with us and to collaborate with us uh to fix those discrepancies so that we can have again continue to be transparent with the public and with school board about exactly where our schools fall. And just um on a side note, I guess as you all know, Renuk City, and you've heard me say this before, we are a beautifully diverse uh school division. And we're proud uh of our diversity, and we're proud to serve students with varying um strengths with varying needs and varying challenges. And it it is unfortunate that the new labels that are put
124on schools do not capture that full picture of progress like you saw in the last slide. um that we have made gains in reading and in math. We've made gains when it comes to chronic absenteeism. We've made gains when it comes to our discipline as well. So, those um daily improvements highlight the hard work of our students and our staff and our families and show that RCPS is on the right track and it is unfortunate that the label doesn't reflect that. And so, um we just I just want our teachers and our principles and our staff members to know that we see you. we see you, we appreciate you because when you can get a label like that, it can be demoralizing and it can be really kind of heartbreaking when you know that you
125are working hard every day. So, I just want our staff to know that we do we see you and we appreciate you and we appreciate the hard work that you do every single day. [applause] Um, I also would say that as we are preparing, I'm going to ask Mrs. Jackson to come forward to give us a preview of the 26 27 um budget. And I would say again um from my vantage point and I'm sure from many of yours as well, this is not the time to cut the budget. This is not the time for us to cut funding. when we look at the diversity and we look at our um diversity and our diverse challenges and needs that this time again what this system the new labeling system does show us it does show
126us how complex our needs are. It does show us that we are not like our neighbors. Uh it shows that we are beautifully diverse but that we do have several challenges and that because you know again because we have those challenges and we are in a people business we need to make sure that we're investing in our people that we are investing in highquality instructional materials and again this is not the time this is the time for us to stand united um as Sheriff Hash said today during his swearing in ceremony uh that united we stand divided we fall. So I think it is important for us to stand on one accord as one city with with the same purpose of supporting our children, supporting our the teachers and staff members and the adults who
127support our children every day and to get behind our schools in a way that we know that we are continuing to strengthen our children so that they can graduate with a diploma and a resume. And with that, Mrs. Jackson, >> you very much for that introduction and welcome. Good evening, chair, Mrs. Zapel, vice chair, Mr. Cherry, members of the school board, and Superintendent White, we are um going to sort of really kick off. I know we've talked about it a little bit, but um thinking about our development of the next um fiscal year's budget today. Um so I want to start with um going through our timeline and um share a little bit about um some state level information um and budget development at that side because of course this will be the start of
128a new bianial budget at the state level. So I'll share a little bit about um what that entails. So um just to kind of set the stage with our timeline. So here we are at December 9th um schoolboard meeting. Uh Governor Yncan's budget is supposed to be released on the 17th. Um, we won't have we'll we'll get information certainly at that point with with that release. We won't have the exact details of what does that mean for us. The Virginia Department of Education takes the information and um does provide more detailed um per school division to let us know exactly, you know, how that would would uh translate down to each individual school division. So sometime over winter break probably we will get access to that information and be prepared to update you with that
129at the first meeting in January. Um of course general assembly uh starts the middle of January through the middle of March though that could go longer. Um sometimes that does get extended. And um then we will talk budget pretty much at every meeting that you have for the foreseeable future. um leading up to we'll have a public hearing in February and then request um your approval preliminary of the preliminary high level budget uh in March. We are required to provide a budget estimate to the city on or before March 15th. So that's kind of our first target date and then of course we continue to keep developing the budget um as we get more information from the state or the city about revenues and that sort of thing and keep looking at our expenditure needs.
130um uh ultimately before we bring you the final detailed budget for approval in June. Um of course you do know that um the city is looking at changing how they fund schools. So um sometime uh hopefully by January that's sort of the last estimate that we had when we last met um that we might have some u more firm information on what that might look like in terms of any final um funding uh plans for that. So we'll be keeping our eye out for that. Um so let me talk a little bit about um state funding and kind of some things that we're hearing out of the general assembly. So of course the the general assembly money committees have been meeting and um getting information about u what the the status of funding is at
131the state level. So um the source of this information is the house appropriations committee uh retreat that was in November. So, I just wanted to give you a little idea of of what um our legislators are hearing. So, the state did end fiscal 2425 in a good position. Revenue were up about 6.1% over the prior year. So, that exceeded their forecast by a little over half a billion dollars. That's certainly favorable. Um 312 uh million of that went into the state surplus, the revenue reserve. 184 million of that um was set aside as a reserve for potential federal reductions. So that is funding that is a that is available it's set aside but that could be budgeted um in the current or future years uh by the general assembly and in the current year um
132so far so good as well. um revenue growth in the first third of the year um has been favorable and actually uh so much so that revenue could actually contract 1.7% for the remainder of the year and the state could still meet budget. So that's that's certainly a good start to the current year. Um so looking at um sort of the the forecast assumptions that the the state is hearing about um this kind of shows there's an upside scenario a baseline and a downside scenario of u possible uh impacting numbers and and revenue uh possibilities for the state. So, Virginia is forecasting to kind of look at a little more conservatively looking at that those downside numbers um just given uncertainties particularly at the federal level and that sort of thing. So, what does that
133mean? Um the the forecast shared uh at the House Appropriation Committee retreat um was the potential for about a $4.3 billion additional revenue over the next bianium um including uh almost a billion dollars uh in in excess of what was budgeted in the current year and then the next two years. So um certainly favorable compared to the the adopted budget um that is in place at at present uh in the current year. So, what could that mean? That could mean um some some adjustments. That is part of what happens at this point in the year that we don't just look at the future budgets, but we look at where are we in the current year budget and the governor has an option and the general assembly um to make some changes to the current year
134budget. They call it the caboose bill um to update the current budget. So, um there's about $2.2 billion potential uh that could be available to make adjustments in the current year. Um the the estimates that you see here uh take into consideration only using about um half a billion of that in the current year and um and also incorporating those the 184.5 uh million that's set aside um for the potential reduction in federal funding. Um so as you can see here um you know certainly substantial uh revenues remaining after the current year uh the base funding um if if this if the state were to kind of follow this model um going forward. So um certainly favorable but of course um you know that that's several billion uh in additional revenue above and beyond the
135current adopted budget in the current year but unsurprisingly there are of course um substantial increased expenditures anticipated as well. So I'll just focus on those related to um public education. So rebenchmarking is something that happens at the beginning of each bienium and that's um the process through which um sort of the standard calculations for determining K12 education funding are updated. So all of those formulas that the state uses to determine their funding of schools look at things like average teacher salaries and and they have to take into consideration um how those averages have changed. Um the base data that went into that two years ago was from 2022. So now they have to update it to 2024 uh information. They take into consideration any uh portion of any raise that the general assembly might have
136funded um through the state budget. Um uh inflationary changes. All of that gets factored in to the existing calculations. So you can see here that the estimate of what that uh cost will add just with with no changes at all to how we fund education just ma making an update to the base data that those uh calculations are based on we'd be looking at 426 million additional in the first year of the bianium and uh just under 418 million additional in the second year. So, that's something that's kind of right off off the top that needs to be factored in um with the next state budget. Another thing that is updated every two years is the local composite index or LCI. So that is a calculation that the state uses to determine how much of
137basic you know bottom line education funding that they use in calculating what they'll put towards K12 education how much that the state should fund versus how much the locality should fund. So generally speaking the state looks at it and says the state should fund about 55% of these these basic levels of support and the locality should fund 45%. but they use the local composite index to take into consideration that some localities have uh have more ability than others. So the data that goes into determining that composite index are listed here, the true value of property, adjusted gross income for the locality, um taxable retail sales, they look at our average daily membership, our student enrollment, and then the total population. So this chart that you have here just kind of gives you an idea of
138what has changed since two years ago when this was updated. How much have these factors changed? The blue line is Rono City. The orange line is Virginia. So just to give you an idea. So the the one that stands out most to me is true value of property. Um you can see we have an over 21% increase compared to two years ago. the statewide big increase there as well but only about a 16% increase. Um so you see uh the differences um that we have experienced versus the state. So perhaps not surprisingly based on that our composite index for the next bianium is actually a little bit higher than what it is in the current year. So our composite index currently is 33.88%. So um that is the local share. The state share is just
139over 66%. we go up to 35.03% in the next bianium. So it's about a 1.15 percentage points increase. And just the the numbers that I have on here, this is just to give you kind of a sense of what could that mean. So looking at just basic aid um just that one line of state funding and in the current year what that's budgeted for by the state currently if that composite index change were to be put into effect this year that would immediately reduce that basic aid funding by almost a million dollars. So um of course there are other variables that will come into play as the state develops next year's budget. Um but just to to be aware that whatever they decide um is the overall funding of education, they will fund a little
140bit of a smaller share of that uh that amount. So So that's something we need to pay attention to and um that will impact our state funding of it. >> Mrs. Jackson, can I Yes. Just make sure I'm clear. So because our city brought in more revenue [clears throat] in the last bianium, our state share of dollars could go down at the same time our city is cutting our education budget. >> Yes. >> I just wanted to make sure that's the statement. Okay. Okay. Uh, another factor that uh, significantly impacts state funding of education is our enrollment or average daily membership. Um, I it's important to point out when I'm talking to you about me about enrollment or membership, I I'm talking about funded average daily membership or ADM and I emphasize that because that's
141a number that the state uses to calculate the majority of the funding that they provide to school divisions. So that doesn't include every student because sometimes the state funds certain things different ways. So the best example I can give you is preschool. We do get state funding to help offset the cost of preschool and prek. Um but that's calculated separately. That's not included in basic aid and standards of quality and that's a separate pot. So that is excluded from this funded ADM number. So, I just want to point that out um in case anybody, you know, looks at that and thinks, "Whoa, I thought we had over 13,000 students. You're only talking about 12 something." You know, that's the reason that this is just really talking in terms of how the state determines funding for
142us. So, what you see here is um uh both our fall September 30 number and then our our March number. So, the the blue line is the fall membership count and the orange line is the spring number. So both of these graphs show you the same thing. The one on the right just shows uh a few more years. Um so the one on the left is kind of the point um to show you over the last decade or so what our numbers have done. Um but I included the one on the right just because it it stood out to me so significantly of how much we fluctuate now compared to precoid. Um it it was alarming and jarring to me to see how we were pretty steady. Um and then ever since COVID we have
143had such fluctuation up and down as you can see there. So um that just makes projecting and u therefore budgeting state funding um a little bit more difficult. So you can see that we went up quite a bit um last year. We went down a bit in the fall of this year. So of course we don't know spring of this year yet, but given how our numbers tend to track that spring number is usually a bit less than the fall number. So that's what we will anticipate. So we'll have to uh think carefully about what number we choose to use in projecting state funding for um 2627. So um now moving on from state um just a little bit about city funding. Of course we don't have updated information and as I mentioned um that
144may be a bit delayed this year. Usually we get a first look at that in the middle of December. Um but um if council doesn't vote till maybe January or so on any changes to how they fund us, it'll probably be sometime after that that we would get an idea. Um but just to kind of give you a a background of where we've been um in terms of funding from schools. So um we did were budgeted u the 106.9 million in 2425. You'll hear a little bit more about this when we receive our audited financials later in the meeting [clears throat] for 2425 this year. But we were required to uh return uh fund balance or funds that sort of we had in savings um that prior uh city councils had allowed the schools to
145keep. So that is reflected in those financial statements that 20.5. We weren't able to return all that we were um directed to return in the memo from the mayor because some of those funds were committed. So that's kind of a an accounting rule and following proper um uh accounting and auditing procedures that that directive came after the end of last fiscal year. So we couldn't make that change as of June 30. So we will have we will do that before the end of this fiscal year. So that's why you see that um reflected there. So um >> but Mrs. Jackson, if I could just interject here. However, although those funds were committed by the school board, the school board will now need to act and take action to uncommit those funds to return those funds
146to the city. >> That's correct. Yes. To to comply with that directive. Yes. So, >> um also um I just while we're here, I I also wanted to make sure my understanding is clear and then for the public as well. So when we say when you [clears throat] say return the funds to the city, they have always been in city treasurer controlled accounts. >> Yes. >> But they remained on our books and I think again the auditor will um kind of go over this. So they will not be on our books. But we could not spend that money willy-nilly just because it was on our books. We still had to go through an appropriation process to have the ability to spend it. we could not just spend it without um approval and oversight. Correct. >>
147Correct. Okay. >> Yeah. It just sat on sort of our side of the ledger. And so, but but you're right that it's always in bank accounts that are managed by the treasur and and all of those funds are still sitting in a bank account managed by the treasurer. So, that has not changed. Um it's just sort of the control of those funds and the the expectation of that they would that that would be sort of a formality. They were committed to to education purposes previously. Previously that was the intent was that that would remain the case regardless of what year they were spent in but that is that is no longer the case. So >> got it. And additionally, something that will fundamentally change and I um that we may discuss further on at this
148meeting or other meetings as we go through the budget is I believe Dr. Dr. Jameson has pointed this out before is that when those monies previously remained on the school's books when we developed budget, I believe you stated that there has not been a single year you've been on the school board where we didn't develop a budget that that pulled from some amount of fund balance to develop our overall budget for the year. whereas including this current fiscal year but coming >> in order to maximize efficiency and effectiveness while minimizing risk >> and so this will be the first year that but and again that then that budget would be developed and still have to go to the city to get approved but um but this will be the first year that there will be
149no squish if you will for us to delve into if our needs-based budget um if there's not enough support from state and federal federal and local revenues. So, >> yeah. >> Okay. >> Yep. That's a good point. And sort of to that end, um [clears throat] we were um encouraged to use fund balance based in the current year to to make ends meet when the city um flatf funded education in the current year. So, we did do that. Um so um you know but it's just important to know as we're looking ahead in the development of the next year budget that you know at this point we do not have indication that um the the almost 7 millions that was reduced from from city funding by that flat fund um will be restored. So we're
150not expecting that um and um a potential reduction in in further funding um again still being discussed. So nothing is final yet, but um based on that, it's just important to know that we will not be in a position to continue to fund everything um that is included in the 2526 budget beyond this year. So, uh, you know, even if state and local funding does go up, um, it is at this point anyway, it feels unlikely that that increase would be enough to, um, continue our current level plus any additional inflationary adjustments that just naturally happen, contractual increases, that sort of thing. So, um, that that's something just that we're all going to have to kind of think about and and work carefully on. I will note that um we will dig into the expenditure
151side of the budget uh in earnest really getting started at that January workshop talking about personnel. That's the biggest part of our expenditure budget. So, um I'll just remind you and the public that that's where we'll be prepared as we always are um to really dig into that that side of the expenditures and and look at what um we can and can't do at that point. Um after we hopefully we'll have some more information on this on at least the state side of what revenue may look like. So, that's where we are for now. Um but I'm happy to take any further questions or comments. >> Okay. Um we'll start from this side. Any any questions or comments from the side at this point in the budget development um from Miss Jackson? I have just
152one um but the changes to funding this year and was there also a change to how we receive our payments or when we receive operate >> um from local funding. Yes. Um, and how did that impact? >> Trying to think if that took effect this year or last year. I think this year was the first year. Um, previously we received one 12th of the the budgeted funding for schools um on the 15th of the month or or the closest business day to it. Now we received those funds at the end of the month. Um so that was you know kind of a basically a twoe delay of um when those funds and then from that point forward it's it's still monthly. And but did that impact anything as far as you know what we pay,
153how we pay, [clears throat] when we pay of our expenses? Did we have any negative any any negative impacts from that from? >> Um I you know nothing major. I I mean obviously the um the interest on those funds um what did not happen because we had a two-e delay. So, so that um affected a little bit of you know any additional uh income that we might have had from those funds um being in a schoolboard account to to support education. But um that's the main difference. >> Got thank you, >> Miss Kintana, Mr. Link, Dr. Jameson. Any questions or comments at this time? >> No questions at this time. Thank you for your work. >> You are amazing. I have uh just a process question. Are we returning to this discussion of the vote
154for the uncommit? >> Um it is not on today's agenda. >> Okay. I will hold my questions then. >> Um >> thank you. >> Yes, >> Mr. Cherry. >> No, just looking forward to that timeline how we navigate through this. So, thank you so much for keeping us a breast. >> Thank you, Miss Jackson. Okay. Um, moving on to our next >> stay right there. >> That's right. >> Find it. >> An update on the TRUP funding application. >> Sure. Um, and so, um, I know in the in the the local funding policy as that is in place currently for the current year, uh, or or I should say for 2425, um, we do have the, uh, we no longer are guaranteed to receive a true 40% of, uh, city funding, but we do have
155the, uh, ability to apply to the city for up to 40% of any um, positive variance between actual local uh, tax revenue and um, what was what was originally budgeted. So, um so we've had a a lot of discussion about um what we would apply for um if there are any funding funds available. Um we kind of tabled that discussion when we shifted our attention. So, I'm I'm delving into the next agenda item a little bit because they are related. Um we we looked at uh we really really were focusing on the need for addressing overcrowding at the high schools and and adding trailers there. So, um the more expeditious pathway um felt like uh perhaps we could address that through a request to reappropriate some of the funds, the fund balance that was in
156the school board's um capital fund um that had not been reappropriated yet and ask for um permission to use those funds to to for that purpose. Those funds already exist. Um whereas I know um we are unsure at this point. The city is still in the process of their audit of um knowing what if any true-up might be available to us that we could apply for and then what that process would be. So um so we have you you approved uh an appropriation request to forward to city council. So um that has gone forward to the city for consideration. I know that the city manager had some questions. I asked for some more detail which we then did provide. So, um, we did, uh, receive an update from the mayor just yesterday, I believe, that
157they're still considering that. They're they're still looking at that. So, that has not gone to council, um, yet. So, um, so that's where we are with that. So, we were kind of paused in our, um, process for requesting any true up. Um, still still not having information on what if any amount might be available, what we would ask for. Um, so we turned our attention to that appropriation request and so that is still in process um and being considered at this point. >> Say they are still considering I'm sorry. >> No, I think >> say they are still considering it. Is council considering it? Is it on their desk to consider? >> I I assume not just because it has not been on a council uh agenda, but I I don't know the answer to
158that for sure. >> Um yes. So we so as you know the school board voted and um again we sent the appropriation request to the city. We really can't answer that question in terms of because we don't know what's on council's uh desk but we did ask that the um for the council to take it up for their consideration in November. [clears throat] Um then there were questions. So we did provide answers to those questions. So we were hopeful that it would u appear at at their December meeting. uh it did not uh so it is our understanding that it has not made it to their agenda yet. So um we will continue to inquire but uh these two items are kind of together that we do not have information yet about the true funding
159application and we do not have information about the appropriation request. >> And when did we approve the appropriation? >> Uh on October 27th I believe was the meeting date. Uh October 28th, excuse me. >> October 28th. All right. And we're still waiting. >> Okay. >> Council's next meeting is in January. No, there may be one more. >> I think. Yeah, I think there should be one more in. >> Oh, next week. >> Monday. >> There we go. >> Okay. >> But we are expected to I'm sorry. >> Hold. Well, so Miss Kintana, did you have a question about the appropriation request or the true about the appropriation request? >> Everything. Yes. But we expected to vote before the January meeting um to like return back the 5 million like that the >> So the the
1605 million I apologize Miss Jackson. Um >> sorry >> I I think I can probably answer the question. Um the five million has been committed and so by the board so the board >> can't commit it has to take action. that is not on this evening's agenda and that's something that I think we may hear more from with the auditor uh but or tonight or but it's not not something that we're taking care of tonight >> tonight is that see my thing is >> do that before the end of this fiscal year so that's what I >> that's what I needed okay thank you >> thank you Miss Jackson um any other questions about the appropriation request from any of the board okay and um and And then as far as the trueup funding application,
161again, this is going to be a standing item for us because we need to be prepared to apply for it. So, I do think maybe we need to kind of put a pin in like re-up our list of things we would apply for. Um, I know we had a couple things on there, some capital um expenses. Um, but u maybe we should also keep in mind, you know, like we've heard about the task force for um um absenteeism or things like that. you know, if there's, you know, things that we can keep in mind, but we don't really have a dollar amount on what that would be. >> We're still waiting on that. >> Um, so, all right. Thank you. >> Has the true request um been formally requested um or has it just been
162verbal conversations asking our partners on the other side? >> Yeah, we've we've had some conversation about kind of what that process would look like in general. I think we've gotten guidance from the mayor that that would just be sort of a letter from you to council requesting that, but um but we we've sort of hesitated because we don't they're still working on on closing the year and and knowing what their final numbers are um to know what if anything is even available. So therefore, what we could ask for, >> right? >> Okay. I guess my my thought is that perhaps as a board we should consider at least sending a letter just asking formally for um the information on how to apply for the true up rather than just a conversation. >> Can certainly do
163that >> from guidance >> from conversation to movement guidance. Do we need to uh vote to authorize our school board chair to sign on our behalf or can we just do that >> for a letter? >> If the board wants to take action on it, they should vote on it. >> Call a motion. So, for the school board's consideration, I would ask if if you're going to consider an action of that nature, I would ask that you also um hold just for a second to get the um boundary study update as well because we have it's not just the true up funding uh application that we're um that we're waiting on um that we have several items that um we have not heard anything about. So, it's the TRO funding application. It's also um the
164appropriation request that has not been presented as far as we know has not been presented to council for consideration. And then there are other um solar projects that we are u that we could potentially lose funding for as well if we do not have um if we don't have any action on that. Again, we're doing our best to try to answer the questions to making sure that we're dotting the eyes, crossing the tees, and fulfilling the request of um you know, from the city. Um but so I would ask if >> I would say bundle it all the things that we're waiting on, we need to bundle it. >> With that, um if there are no more questions for Mrs. Jackson, I would ask Mr. Perkins to come up to give the boundary study update
165as well as uh to maybe follow up on this measure, Mr. Perkins as well to talk about the >> Thank you, Miss Jackson. >> Again, that's [clears throat] not an agenda item, but I think it is related. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. White. Um Madame Chair, Mr. Vice Chair, members of the board, ladies and gentlemen, uh quickly not as long as the Boomer Sumer group, [laughter] the boundary update. We did hit a road bump, a slight road bump in the uh boundary uh study. Uh we had a there when we were looking at our DPA, our data processing or data privacy agreement uh with the company we're using, they use uh AWS, which is Amazon's web services and Amazon web services store or have servers that are globally located. Uh and we do
166not want our data uh being stored offshore. Uh so we have worked through that. There was so that slight speed bump has been um has been negotiated. Uh but we we do have a milestone that we were expecting on December 15th. We think we might still hit that milestone. Uh but uh I'm not going to guarantee that milestone will be hit because of the DPA uh issue. Um uh also I do want to update the board uh on an issue that we're having and I want to start with um saying this. Our contractor uh which is Secure Solar Futures is not asking the city for any concession that any normal person doing business in this city would expect. We are following the processes. But what I am here to voice on the behalf of our
167contractor is that customer service requires consistent application of the code. And remember, I'm the retired police chief of the city, so I understand what consistent application of the code means. And we need reasonable, timely communication from our city. That's all I'm saying. I'm not asking for any concessions on behalf of our contractor. But what is at stake is $19 million in savings for this district and our city because we need roofs replaced that cost millions of dollars and we get free roofs with this process. We get reduced energy costs, sustainable reduced energy costs. We should be leading the state with our projects. And we have a bump. And here's the bump. We have had 10 projects approved under the Virginia existing building code. That is the standard for existing buildings in the state of Virginia.
16810 projects were approved. We had multiple meetings. October 23rd, our contractor met with city permitting and it was agreed that we would continue this process. Our contractor was contacted on November 10th and said that after a meeting that the city would no longer apply the Virginia existing building code to engineering surveys that they were going to apply a more rigorous uh and stringent code, the Virginia construction code, which is for new construction. What that did was slow down the process. And first let me say we are trying to comply because the only recourse we have is to apply or to appeal to the loi local building appeals board. So, we're complying and so our contractor put together all of the requirements that we believe is against the Virginia or not consistent with the previous 10
169and they are requiring us to do more stringent under the Virginia construction code which we do not believe apply. That more stringent work has now been delayed even more because we haven't had any timeline from our permitting department explaining when these will be met and approved until today and they could not read the plans. So our engineer for our contractors agreed to sit down and go over them. The mean the the the reason is the reason that I'm being passionate tonight is our contractor has investors and the investors have agreed to put up $15 million. They met yesterday with the investor and the investors have two options to pull out completely or to reduce the funding which delays us even more in our efforts for sustainable energy and to bring savings to our city. And
170all we are asking is for consistent consistent applications when enforcing the code. We will go through the appeal process. We don't ask to change. And then it was well it's a safety issue. I've spent 35 years in public service talking about safety. I am not going to put kids, staff or community in risk of safety. If it is truly safety, why have we not had the 10 previous issued permits approved and inspected? Why have there been no questions about those? That's why we believe it's arbitrary and bureaucratic to cause or to require our contractor to jump through hoops. >> Has there been a change in guard? >> No. It was a meeting that was held November the 7th with the same people that our contractor met with on October the 23rd and we were notifi
171our contractor was notified on Octo November the 10th that the change in the more stringent requirements would be mandated by the city that is not consistent application of the code. So again, if if the board would wish to take action in terms of uh communication, um my ask would be that we would kind of package uh these requests together because these are the things that we we would like to ask uh for greater communication on. Um we just need to know where where we stand. um we need an update on the true-up funding application on the appropriation request as well as where we stand with this um with the solar project. No. >> And and to be fair, I would like to add that Vice Mayor uh Maguire has been very supportive and has asked
172the same question to us, why the change? And Mayor Cobb in a meeting asked the same question of permitting, why the change? And the response is um that we were and we were not even told directly. We were we were copied and there was an email chain that indicated it was a safety concern. Um, and all we're asking is for consistent application, which any person doing business our city should expect. >> Madam Chair, >> what the safety concern is? >> I was going to say yes. Do we have >> a concise idea of what is the safety concern that they have? >> Uh, they went to a seminar. Uh, they did not provide us with that information. uh we reached out to the presenter of that seminar and we received it in about two hours
173and it's an interpretation. It's really what it boils down to which is why our only recourse is to go through uh the local appeal building or local appeal board. >> Um and I I have [clears throat] been um you know in some communication with the mayor regarding trying to get some context here. Um but um my curiosity was where are we in the status of my understanding was at as of this time RCPS and our contractor is in a holding pattern because everything has been submitted to the city and we are waiting on the city to finalize permits that are analogous to >> 10 previous projects that we've already done. But but but everything has been submitted and so it is waiting for the literal stamp of approval to move forward at this time. >>
174So PH was held up and it was approved in a day. Today we received notice that they couldn't read the plans. Uh our engineer, our contractor's engineer has agreed to sit down and and read the plans for them so they understand. Remember, we have a signed and sealed engineering document that says these roofs can maintain this structure, which is a uh ballasted uh solar panels that are on top of our buildings. And remember, they're already in place on 10 buildings under the process that we have followed up to this point. >> Mad uh >> Madam Chair. >> Yes. Yes. I would like to move that we as a board vote to allow our chair to sign a letter on the school board's behalf that inquires after the status of three items. The current status of
175the trueup funding application, the appropriation request, and the solar panel uh permitting process. and that's second. >> Um, so moved by Dr. Jameson, seconded by Miss Watkins. Is there any further discussion on this particular motion at this time? Um, I I do have a clarific clarification question for Dr. Jameson regarding communication about the trueup. Are are you requesting communication solely so only about the process or also about the dollar amount? >> I would request uh I think my motion is to ask for a timeline of process and expected response to the items listed. All items listed you. All right. Any further discussion regarding um this matter? Okay. Hearing none, all those in favor of this motion say I. >> I. >> Those opposed say no. Hearing none. Dr. Jameson's motion carries and um a letter
176will be drafted um and can be signed on behalf of the board by the chair. Um thank you, Madam Chair. And that concludes my report. >> Okay. Miss Jackson show tonight. >> Actually, it's really [clears throat] not. >> No offense when people are leaving during our show. [laughter] >> I probably wish that she could >> up tonight. Yep. >> We have the most important person to me anyway yet to come. We finally get to present the audit for you. But first, before we get to that, um we do have our monthly um financial update and um so I'll I'll start there and we are reporting to you for uh the month through the month of October. So um I'll jump right in. Um just looking at our revenue forecast for the general fund um based
177on our experience through October, we're forecast to be about 360,000 um above budget. So, still tracking really close to budget when we compare against the three-year average of actual experience um in the prior three years. So, uh tracking very close to budget on the revenue side. On the expenditure side, um we are looking continuing to look favorable um forecast to be about 4 million below budget based on um experience through October and comparing against that three-year average of actual uh in prior years. So, um, we do look at what was appropriated and, um, kind of trying to track where we might fall by year end if we were to continue the year in the same manner as we've experienced for the first, uh, the first four months of the year. So, we do did have
178an appropriation of 275 million approved. So, um, if our experience thus far were to continue through the end of the year, we would be, um, looking at a a potential use that's, uh, almost 7 million less than what was appropriated there, um, in the general fund. Looking at the food services fund, um, revenue forecast to be a little bit above budget compared against that three-year average, about 72,000 um, through the month of October. Um on the expenditure side, um we are forecast to be below budget by about 1.4 million. I do have a note there. Um that is an anomaly. Uh we did have some some questions, some billing questions that uh led us to hold off on paying our our bills until we got that clarified. So that's going to that's going to reset
179itself. So that that's kind of um a a sort of a one-time anomaly based on us holding off until we could get get clarity and make sure that we were being build um accurately. So you'll see that um reset itself in future months when we c when we catch up with that. Um so but if that were to stay um the case as we compare against the the three-year average and we look at what was appropriated um that does put us by almost about that same amount about 1.8 8 million below the appropriated amount for that fund. Um we do still talk about fund balance in the food service fund because um those are federal dollars that that are required to be used just for food service purposes. So we did budget to use uh
180about 730,000 out of uh fund balance um in that fund. So, of course, were we to end the year based on that experience and particularly the reduction in expenses that um were reflected through October, we would actually be in a position to put about 720,000 back into fund balance. But again, we'll we'll see that reset when we catch back up with those those invoices. Um and the last fund that we u we want to keep track of is our capital fund. Um, so we did have an approp appropriation approval at in later in the spring of just under 18 million. Um, used almost 10 million of that by year end last year. We have about 420,000 uh expended as of October 31st of this year. So that leaves us um with 7.66 million uh of
181the appropriated amount left unspent. Of course, the biggest portion of that is Preston Park. Um, and then we do have some other projects that were specified when that was appropriated um that are still in process like paving and um some work at other schools, but the biggest chunk of that amount is of course the ongoing Preston Park project. So, I will stop there and I'm happy to take questions or comments. >> Is there are there any questions from the board at this time regarding the financial forecast? Um, Dr. Jameson, >> uh, just a quick question. Have we begun developing a process to put out for um requests for funding uh use of this year funding should we find oursselfves with unspent funds as we approach the end of the fiscal year? Have we started developing
182that process to figure out how we would strategically deploy every red penny? Um we we [laughter] have certainly started those conversations amongst my team and um we're certainly looking at um honing how we we do projections. As you will hear from our audited financial statements, we had a a very large uh healthcare related adjustment after June 30 that affected our financials for um last fiscal year. Um we can't have that continue. [laughter] So, so those are the kinds of things that we are absolutely looking at of uh you know we need to make some changes to how um how we're projecting those kinds of costs um in terms of utili we are self-funded so in terms of the actual utilization of our uh our health insurance and how are we going to make sure that
183we have enough funds um >> prior to year end going forward. All of those things are absolutely related to that that um we don't have a a firm final procedure in place but we have absolutely started that discussion of what needs to change in our procedures um to >> and and hear me say every year there will be some amount of surplus we hope [laughter] as we're approaching year end right in in a governmental fiscal responsibility method that's always going to be true. So whatever process we have should account for all years going forward since we don't have any squish which I am sure is an official fiscal term. [laughter] So >> you are right. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you Miss Jackson and it's back to you again. Let's look at the financial
184statements. Is there anything unusual to report this month? I don't have anything additional to add but I I'm certainly happy to take any questions >> questions. Okay, hearing none. Thank you. The statements will be received and filed. >> Thank you. >> And without further ado, this evening we have the external auditor's overview of the division's annual comprehensive plan. Mr. John Aldridge, partner with Brown Edwards will be present will present an overview of our comprehensive financial report for the fiscal year that ended June 30th, 2025. Mr. Aldridge, thank you very much for coming and um we thought we were doing you a great service by moving this towards later in the agenda, but thank you very much for your patience and will you please um present your overview. >> Yeah, thank you. Thank you all so
185much for having me tonight. It's uh it's a pleasure to see you all and uh the fact that my office is here in Reno, this is fine. It's it's it's no but I I tell you what, I do appreciate and respect you all because uh usually I come in here and scoot out once I do my thing. So, I got to really see all the things you get to see each meeting. So, I have a newfound appreciation for the level of detail y'all go through. Um, but again, the other thing I'll mention to you too with y'all being a school system in Reno, if you have any really smart students that like finance, wealth management, please send them my way. We would love to mentor them, talk to them. Um, some of our best candidates
186come, you know, we want them to stay in the valley. I mean, I'm from Reno, grew up here, and so we really want to get these young people back in in into the accounting world. And like I said, we've got 70 people or so in my firm just in Reno. So, we'd love to to be able to talk to some of your students. >> Yeah. Yeah, we would love that. So, >> I have a nine-year-old who already is hustling this the uh you know um her entrepreneurial spirit. >> Good. Good. We would love that. So, in your uh packet of information there, you have several documents for me. And the one I really want to focus on tonight's the the one that says annual comprehensive financial report. Uh and you have that one there. And
187so, I'm going to go through a few pages and and if I skip one, just yell. We'll keep this fairly uh back and forth as we go through. But if you have your document there, if you looked on page 11, I just want to point out something real quick. And on page 11, we have the uh school board. It's a certificate of excellence from the Association of School Business Officials International. Uh your financial report was submitted for a an award from this organization. Um there are things that you have in your financial report that are above and beyond what you have to have in an audit. So, the fact that you uh get this award and the one on the next page, page 12, the GFOA award, just shows the level of reporting that you're
188providing your citizens, the folks here in Reno. Um there's just a lot of information here, frankly, you don't have to have. And it just takes it to a new level uh that I want to point that out. And as you know, Yeah. Just [applause] just your staff. And the other thing I'll tell you, they put this report together 100%. I mean, this isn't Brown Edwards. They do it, hand it to us. So, it's fantastic how they do this. But if you go over to page 17 um in the document, I just want to point out something to you all here. As you know, each locality in Virginia, including school boards, um have to have an audit every year. Okay? That audit then gets presented to the governing body and it needs to be done by
189December 15th. Okay? So tonight I'm presenting that audit. The second paragraph where it says, "In our opinion, the financial statements referred to above present fairly in all material respects." This is an unmodified or a clean opinion. So that's as good as it gets. So y'all had a clean opinion on the financial statement. So always like to point that out. So you did have a clean opinion. That's [applause] have one. We definitely want to talk, but y'all y'all had a clean opinion. >> You would have been earlier. [laughter] >> Yeah. Yeah, I would have been earlier. But and then a couple things I want to mention to you all. If you have your document, go over to page 29. And I just want to hit on a few things and and a few things I'll I'll
190add upon what Miss Jackson said earlier and y'all talked about, but on page 29, I always like to remind school boards in Virginia this um you see there the statement of net position. And this looks at the school system with all your various functions, whether it be nutrition, uh the activity funds, everything shows up here on this one page on page 29. And the thing that's unique I want to point out to you all is this. And this is a Virginia thing. You notice there that there's a line item that says capital assets. Okay? It's non-depreciable and depreciable. Virginia is one of those crazy states where you cannot as a school board issue debt. Okay? You're just not allowed. You cannot go out and issue bonds as a school board. So as a result, what
191Virginia says is in your case, city of Rono, all that debt related to Reno City Schools has to be on their books. Well, then the locality has the choice, all right, we want to keep the assets on our books as well. So like all your new school buildings that have debt related, they're sitting over on the city's books. They're not on yours. So a lot of people look at this and they're they question like, "Hey, this is a little bit lower. I knew we had more buildings than this." That's what's going on. The other thing I want to point out to you all on here, look down on the liability section. The last one there, net pension and other postemployment benefits liability, $125 million. Okay, that almost all of that, a little over 100 million
192is your pension, okay, for your your teachers. The way it works in Virginia is there's a calculation that VRS does. They tell you what you have to pay each year into the fund for your pension plan. You guys are making that payment. Okay? You're not doing anything wrong. But what it does is saying, "All right, the number of assets we have set aside today compared to our calculated liability, what's that look like?" And if you did that math, you're going to come that you're $125 million short. Okay? It's not cause for alarm. Almost every school system in Virginia is going to have a similar number based on their size because how it's calculated. But I do just want to point that out. You know, here's your options. You can go ahead if y'all got 125
193million laying around. Y'all could just [laughter] pay it all and put in a trust fund. Nobody has that. So, >> oh good. >> Yeah. So, we don't have that. All right. Now, let's look at a couple other things if you would. On page number 31, again, I don't know if you have the overhead. um for this one. But on page 31, I want to point out a few things to you all and we can talk about this. You can see there we've got your various funds of of the schools. We've got the general fund, we've got the food services fund, we've got the grants fund, the capital fund, and then the school activity fund. All right. If you look in the middle of the page there on the liabilities section, you see the number we've
194been talking about due to city of Reno return of fund balance. So that number the 20,877,137 that is the amount of funds or funds that will go back to the city of Reno. Okay, that's the calculation. We have worked with the city on their side, with your staff to reach this agreement. Okay? Um it's not like we didn't broker a deal. We didn't do that. But we're just on both sides working with them to get to the amount. So Reno City will show on their books an amount due from the schools of 20 million uh 8771 137. So the two amounts will match up. So they will have an amount just like that on their books. The other thing I will mention to you all and and if you want to think about it and
195how will this look this is how what'll happen and just I'm making it real simple for you. Notice up there that cash and cash equivalents $31,599. Just think of it that's now going to become basically $11 million because that's what's going to happen. Cash will go down to satisfy that liability. Okay, we've already picked it up and run it through the the revenue and expenditures, but how it works going forward is your cash will just go down to to satisfy that liability. The other thing that I'll mention to you all while we're here is down in the fund balance section. Miss Jackson mentioned this. You see there, y'all got committed for transportation syncing fund $250,000 and then you've got an amount committed for transitional costs associated with the end of pandemic of $5 million. You
196all as a school board voted to commit those funds. Okay? You all act as the highest governing body of the of the school board. So the fact that you're the ones that committed those funds, you also have to be the ones that uncommit those funds. So y'all will take action whatever date you decide, but it really needs to be before June 30th because we need to have should happen in this year. Okay? You will vote to uncommit those funds and then the same thing will happen. It'll either be a due to or you'll settle it up during the year. the cash will move during FY 26, but you guys will uncommit it and then Miss Jackson and her team can then go about recording the transaction and sending that money back to the city. Um,
197so that's what's going on. So, originally it was they were going to look at it as all one thing, but the fact of the matter is they we could not do the uncommitting part because it was already after year end. It has to be done before year end, June 30th. So that's that's why that piece is still sitting there. So I'm going to hit pause because I know that's a lot to absorb before I go any further. Any questions on that piece? >> I actually have a a couple of questions. It because this is still throwing me a bit. So end of pandemic relief funding I'm assuming were federal sources of funds. >> No, no, that was just local local fund balance that we set aside anticipating that because when the federal funds went away
198that >> this was just the titling of it correct that we might >> for that takeover. >> Yeah. When that big of an I mean that was almost $und00 million that we had an additional funding over three years that went away that that takes a little time to adjust back to um sort of more normal levels. So that's why we identified that um for that purpose. So when we um Okay, thank you. That that helps. So because the request to return the fund balance came after last fiscal year and we had already committed it is that this is an amount that was not has [snorts] not been reappropriated. It was not appropriated with this year's budget. >> Correct. So the portion that is included there there is an intended use of fund balance in the
199current year that that we are keeping on our books. Um and that's part of the we discussed that with the city to make sure we were all on the same page of how everybody wanted that to look that that is included in um our our appropriated amount for the current year. Um, so right, >> you know, I I guess we could consider that five million as part of that 10 million um that was appropriated, but at the end of the day, it it would net to the same amount that would have to go back to the city. >> And uh this is just out of curiosity, what happens if we don't vote to uncommitt it? [laughter] >> That's um good question. Um, >> a David Collins. >> That's that's definitely more of a legal question,
200but I think some would uh some would take the approach that they still would trump you. Not a good word, but they still would um have sway supersede you uh since they give you the budget that they could on your behalf just say we're uncommitted. >> Yeah. I mean, they could come take it. Right. >> Right. Um >> someone Okay. Um and my understanding this was um we had our audit committee meeting a week ago and this was I had very similar questions of so we have to vote to uncommit monies so that they would revert to the city's books and that was the understanding that I got but is this kind of analogous to how the board voted to move monies from fund balance to capital fund. It wasn't appropriate or anything. We had
201just said we will only use these funds for capital purposes. But then those funds were not the ones that were not appropriated yet, not spent yet because of the change in understanding with the city and those funds, those were reverted back. Um >> yes. So, we had voted for them to be for something in particular and we weren't going to use them otherwise, but because we had never gotten them appropriated, >> that was like an 8 million that >> Exactly. This might help you on that. If you just flip the page over real quick on page 32, um you can see there in the capital fund on exhibit 4, page 32. Uh notice there the transfers and what you did is transferred $8.3 million out of the capital fund, moved it back to the general
202fund. So it's part of that $20 million number. So the that 8 mill So basically $8 million went back. So, if it's part of the 20 million that's going to go to the city, they did um working with the city. You all are keeping $8,82,000 in the capital fund, >> but that's the unspent already appropriated monies from the May 15thish um appropriation request we did of 17 whatever million that was in our appropriation report, of which 7.9ish hasn't been spent yet this year because it's for Preston Park. Correct. Okay, good. be confused with the remaining 8 million that was what we did our appropri appropriation request from for the trailers because that was what was left in the fund ahead of this audit report where we hadn't determined how we would >> trail >> agree
203the money on the >> so that's part that that's included uh as just said in the 20 million being returned we're asking through that appropriation request for it to come back to the schools for this particular purpose if that makes sense so as of June 30, it goes back to the city. >> But we're asking in the current fiscal year if the city would consider letting us have that back for the purpose of the the trailers. >> Clear as mud. >> Oops. I got it. >> Um, >> thank you, Mr. Aldridge. >> Yeah. No, that's that's good. All right. So, um, couple other things just to mention to you all while you have the financial report. But I do want to uh talk to you about if you had and went to page number 69
204in the report and this is your budget. Yes. Is it 67 in yours? [laughter] >> 67. Yeah. I I've got kids in college and they haven't shared that with me yet. So I [laughter] >> Yeah. >> 69 used to mean something. >> Yeah. So on schedule A there on page 69 you've got the budget for the general fund and you can see there the city of Reno the original budget was 106,900,000 and so what happens is that 20 million or so gets netted against that amount. Uh, so we show it as 86. Uh, because that's honestly you could do it either way, but this way is probably proper because you wouldn't want to show an expenditure for 20 million. You just really reduce what they gave you as the proper treatment there. Um, and then
205you can see what the Commonwealth gave you. And then here, as uh Miss Jackson mentioned, look at total expenditures. Y'all budgeted 248,750,000. uh they came in at 249 986. So unfortunately this would fall under a budget non-compliance. Um this would have to be deemed a finding from an audit standpoint since you spent more than your budget. I'll she's done a nice job of explaining what happened, but as you know, you're self-insured. So being self-insured, you're always prone to ups and downs. You don't know what's going to happen. And I think if I recall the bill that came in for June was approximately about $5 million more than anticipated or something like that. Yeah. So it was about $5 million more that hit at the 11th hour. Okay. Because again what happens with self insurance there
206might be a two threemonth lag until you get the claim. Like the person goes in June and it doesn't make it your way until the 1st of September. So when your staff's coming before you in July, everything may look great. When they come to you in August, everything's getting a little little diceier, but all of a sudden we get to September, a claim came through and it's really hard to gauge that and that makes it tough. Uh so they've been staff has been in contact, I think, or they're going to be with with your actuary, your insurance company, how we can better estimate that uh in the future. Uh what happened in this particular case? Again, there's so much privacy, you're not going to know exactly, but we need to know how we need to
207budget, you know, so we don't get hit with this $5 million surprise. Uh because again, if it wasn't for that, there wouldn't be a budget non-compliance because you only went over $1.2 million. It truly is this this one thing that hit. Um and again, what I will tell you this settle up with and because I think it's important to mention this, the settle up with the city, the give money back, it has nothing to do with this, okay? this is totally separate from that. So, that didn't cause uh this budget item to to pop up. So, just want to point that out. All right. And then just a couple other things I'll mention to you all while I got you on page 95. Uh this again is a great example of history. Um you know,
208again, being a person that likes numbers, I really like this one. But on page 95, you can see for the last 10 years the funding uh that you have received for the school system. And you know, a couple to look at, it's a lot of numbers on here, but if you look at 2025, you all received 167 million from the Commonwealth. Okay? If you went all the way back to 2016, the Commonwealth gave you or provided $83 million. So, it's almost doubled in a 10-year period what the Commonwealth has done. So, the state of Virginia does a nice job with education. I mean, I'm sure there's some things y'all would like different, but the Commonwealth, considering if you went back and looked at your ADM, it's basically the same today as it was 10 years
209ago. It's 13,700 and your funding from the states doubled in that period. So, just just want to point that out. The state does a nice job. The other thing you can see the city of Reno um they gave you all or provided uh right at 79 million back in 2016. Uh this year was 86 because of the settle but before that was $106 million. So again you can see the trend there. And then finally the last thing I'll mention to you on this particular docu uh document is on page 102. Um, I told y'all that you don't have this the debt on your books, okay? All that debt is sitting on the the city's books. And if you ever wanted to know how much debt was sitting on the city's books on your behalf, you've
210got it right here. And you can see at the end of June, they're carrying $110 million of debt that's related to school facilities and projects. So, uh, that's on their side. What I will tell you is you guys make the debt payments. I mean that's that's they're not paying the debt on your behalf. [laughter] >> Yeah. >> We know celebrating. >> Yeah. No, no, no, no. It's not but but just to put in perspective, y'all paid for debt service this past year. A little over $10 million. So y'all got debt of 110 on their books, but you're paying it. So y'all paid right at $10 million of principal and interest this year on debt. Um the only thing not completed on this audit is nothing not your fault at all. It's the federal government's fault.
211Is we have to also test the federal money that comes through the school system. Okay? That's called a single audit. Usually when I'm here, I tell you the results of that. Well, shockingly as it may be, the the um guidelines only came out three weeks ago. get out of >> the final guidelines three weeks ago. So, we've got all these localities in Virginia where we're finishing up the audit only to have to tell the client we're technically not done yet. We still have to come back and test the federal money. Um, so you will get a separate report with that and list if we have any issues there. So, I just want to let you know that your staff didn't do anything wrong. It's just the federal government. Okay, you're you're 18 months after you're
212in. Here's the rules. I mean, so it's it's kind of how we have to test it based on that. I don't anticipate things changing much from last year, but I've already been surprised with one client of mine. The rules did change on it was a HUD housing urban development grant. Uh some rules changed on that. So anyway, stay tuned for that. I know you can't wait, but um the only other thing I'll mention to you all is like I said, we audit the activity funds as well in the schools. Okay? We look at those. Uh we had a few minor suggestions there. Nothing uh I would worry too much about. Things like collecting money in the classrooms. Few [snorts] instances where it's sat there for a couple days. Um you know, just minor things the
213staff is aware of. They're working on. And then like I said, finally, I I just uh need to brag a little bit on your staff. They have been great to work with. Um [applause] it's Yeah, I would say the same. uh some of their counterparts across the street trying to settle up this amount due to do from. A lot of times the accountants are the ones that are all right make it work. And uh they've done a really good job of working and getting to a resolution here. Um and so with that I'm happy to answer any questions y'all have. >> Is one thing that's sticking in my mind? How is it possible for our 80s to be the same 10 years ago? >> It's Let's see here. I've got a Go ahead if you
214want to answer that. That's probably how that even >> I mean I mean really our enrollment h I mean as as we saw when I was talking about budget that it in recent years it's gone up and down quite a bit but um but for that re you know we were kind of on a on an upward trajectory uh you know maybe 15 years ago 10 years ago um pretty steady but since co we've been up down up down up down so we are kind kind of when you look across that whole time pretty similar >> in mind said we were projected to decline. >> Um, and so when when when I got here in 2020, uh, we were projected to decline, but that hasn't been >> increasing. So >> many municipalities did decrease. In
215fact, >> yeah, there's if you wanted to look at that in particular, it's on page 107 and you can see the um, it's a nice statistical table there. It actually went from 13585 to 13706. So it went up a little bit 120 over a 10-year period. So again, but yeah. Yes, ma'am. >> I guess the only thing I would say is thank you for all of your hard work. My understanding is that your team has been instrumental in helping us make sure that all the eyes are dotted and the tees are crossed in a somewhat turbulent time uh for accounting and financial purposes. So, thank you for all your hard work. I certainly appreciate it and all your time tonight. [laughter] >> No worries. Any other questions? >> Oh, I don't think so. Um, thank
216you very much. Very much, Mr. Aldridge and umate your report tonight. >> Thank you. >> Um hey so with that it kind of feels like uh December seems an appropriate time for like the budgets of years past, present and future like [laughter] you know. So um but >> and to keep in that same vein, we're moving on to committee reports and the first thing I wanted to share is about the joint city council school board finance task force which is ghost of budget future I suppose. Um so with that said um I do think it it was very helpful I think in the timing of the audit report um to note some things just about that you know we saw that there was an unanticipated late expense that then impacted our overall expenses for the
217year and um that was something we kind of started talking about is how do we go about if our funing policy changes moving forward. How do we make year-end expenses in June with an unknown healthc care claims that come out way over budget in September when we finalize our books? What do we do? How do we do that? And um something that u Mr. Aldridge did note is as the funding policy go you know if there are changes to be made that um it would be wise and prudent to make sure that not just you know Dr. Jameson and I have been on that committee. We've been reporting out that we've had say the lawyers making sure we're looking at it that we're up, you know, to standard with respect to Virginia code and things
218like that, but also to make sure that there's a financial um expert who looks at it to make sure that there's the what of what the policy says, but then there's the logistical how with regards to accounting to make sure that we take into account. So, um, if there's any language about encumbrances or assigned funds or things like that at our fiscal year end compared to when we close out our books, um, things for us to try to keep in mind. So, um, I did want to report out about the joint um, city council schoolboard finance task force. Um, that group has met three times. Dr. Jameson reported out on our last meeting which was in November. Um the city's proposed terms have been reviewed and the schools have provided an impact analysis um to
219the city um about how the current proposal would impact our um our needs-based budget. Um we as a board do not endorse the draft terms as they are written. Um and as part of the joint finance task force with the city, we continue to advocate for the needs of RCPS. Ultimately um while of course RCPS we will provide context and impact and the need um of our division ultimately it's city council and city administration who would write and potentially approve any policy changes regarding the funding. Um, we were scheduled to have further meetings um with this joint finance task force as of tomorrow, but that meeting has been postponed for further review by city representation for some of the things that we've already provided. Um we do know that with the changes to the fund
220balance policy or how we have been operating with that as seen in tonight's audit um that like I mentioned the language of any policy it would be future policy it would be important for the auditor to re an auditor or a financial expert to review that to ensure how we do that um like I said especially with regard to incumbrances or can we can we assign funs um for health care expenses or things like that. And I know um Mr. Aldridge did say he might be able to, you know, share some samples that other divisions or other um um organizations use regarding incumbrances because that's not something we have done in the past and it's something that has been discussed um with uh the joint finance task force. Now, we are very thankful that our
221city council um has funded us above the minimum requirement and that's been noted in multiple articles and and we've noted that too. We thank city council often for how they have funded us over the years. But it's also important to note that an independent JARK study was done that the minimum as set by the standards of quality for the commonwealth is well below a true minimum of what would be acceptable educational um provisions for all of the students in the Commonwealth. And um Miss Jackson has highlighted that at the joint city council school board meeting and also at the take your legislator to school event where she showed there's the standard of quality which is the minimum requirement which for example was one amounted to one kindergarten aid for about every 10 kindergarten classes that
222we have. Well, we fund or we we expense one for every two kindergarten classes. So, just by funding above that minimum standard of quality that has to be balanced from something. Um Sam uh Delegate Rasul um noted that the state of Virginia is still trying to work towards the gold standard of counseling ratios. So we know that the students of Rowan Oak have certain higher needs based on our population. And so we choose as a board to approve a budget that's a needsbased budget that meets our students at a ratio that isn't funded at the which is the minimum standard of quality by the state and those other funds have to come from somewhere. So um so we just wanted to note that you know there's what is required by a minimum standard but then
223there was required what you know ethically by us for a needsbased budget for our students and our staff. Um and also it was also noted that we pay our debt service. So it's also important when we're say if we're trying to get a gauge or if others in the commonwealth or others in our of our stakeholders are trying to get a gauge of are we spending enough or the right amount or what is the right amount how do we compare whether it's compared locally or to other divisions that are like us um to try to make it an applesto apples comparison. And a lot of times when we're being compared to other divisions we we do pay our own debt service they don't. Well, if you take that out, then we're really in line percentage-wise
224with how much um with other localities um with how much funding and revenue comes into the city. So, um we just really want to emphasize that education is an investment. And um other things to report out from that audit committee meeting um because I also report out about that is that there was an annual simplified comparative report for the city that was shared. And um something that struck out, you know, that stuck out to me is that what we do to educate our students with a diploma and a resume is we provide them the ability to earn a living that is very close to say the median income of Rowanog as it stands right now. And that that's something that's like a publicly available report for the city. So education is an investment in our
225students, in our families, in our workforce development, in the health and welfare of our city. And so I just wanted to um give that update about our joint finance task force. >> Miss Apel, can I just add uh one thing? I'm on both of the same committees with Miss Ael and I just would say this. Hey, this process has been interesting on the heels of going over the audit because a it makes me realize that we are actually the city actually funds us above the minimum but not nearly as much above the minimum as I thought. So that is that was been an interesting realization when you take the $20 million out of fund balance. Um the number is uh is still lower than that and we appreciate every dollar but it is not as
226much over as I thought. And I also would like to say that I believe that it has been the commitment of this board for the nearly nine years that I've been on it that our students don't just need above the minimum, they deserve it. And that has been the commitment and the heart of this bo board under two superintendent and the entirety of my term. So that's all I want to say about that. >> Thank you. Um so to continue on reports out from other committees um as I mentioned the audit committee did meet um last week and we got a big preview of the audit as presented by Mr. Aldridge this evening and we also as mentioned um delved a bit into the annual simplified comparative report city um other committees um is there
227anyone um Miss Trigger or Miss Watkins any committee meetings to report out from Miss Kintana Mr. link >> transportation was rescheduled. I look forward to it this week. >> My quick report is simply that the RVGS uh regional board is meeting in it's February 2nd and I am going to be unable to attend that meeting. If somebody is interested in knowing what happens at the gov school board meetings and you'd like to go as our representative, then please um let me know and I'll give you the or or or yeah or Miss Winterwear who could give you the date and the time. >> They're quick if that is any encouragement. [laughter] >> Great. Um >> February 2nd, 6:30. Yeah, February 2nd at 6:30. >> Okay. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. Did you have any
228committee meetings to report out from? >> Nope. >> Okay. And the technology was supposed to meet, but we had to reschedule that meeting. And I think that that was it for um committee reports. Um and um regarding the VSBA fall conference update, um tonight the board would like to share that during the VSBA convention on Thursday, November 20th, it was announced that Miss Joyce Watkins was elected to the Virginia School Boards Association Board of Directors. [applause and cheering] will serve as the legislative positions federal relations committee chair >> for the 202526 school year. Congratulations, Joyce. >> Thank you very >> um would anybody like to share any of their key takeaways from the VSBA conference before we move on? Okay. Um, moving on to ongoing business. Um, the one bit of ongoing business I did
229want to share is I saw it come through the email that um, BSBA holds these weekly Zoom updates on legislative advocacy. It's Fridays from Richmond. Um, I do catch those because they go through the bajillion. Um, that's like squished. >> Yeah. It's real. >> Same same glossery. Um but um all the bills that have anything to do with education and potential education impact and they just run through them and then you can kind of keep track and it is great often time like anyway I've I've sat in my car while the kids play at the park and just like you know keep track of what um what the bill you know what bills are coming through and if they get through the house or or if they get through one side or the other and
230if there's a partner bill and things like that. So, it's a especially since um you know we have some our um representation as far as advocacy and that's a big thing that we do. Um I do find it very um informative and it's very easy and you can just sign up for the Zoom meetings and attend or not and um and that's great and um Miss Haney our um who has we've worked with um is usually one of those who does that and she's great. So um moving on to any other ongoing business >> breakfast was >> yes reminders. reminders. Breakfast with Santa is Saturday 9 to 11. Get your tickets. And then winter break um is coming up and then you can see our other future meetings. And um of note is that January
231schoolboard meeting and the May school board meeting. Um if you had put them in your calendar, make sure you have updated the correct location because we had to flop locations. So just make sure January will be at William Fleming not here and May will be at Patrick Henry not here. Um so I think um just our thoughts to all our staff, students, and families. Be safe not just tonight but as you travel over the winter break because we won't see anybody else. After that and hearing no further business, >> this meeting IS ADJOURNED. HAPPY HOLIDAYS. Happy holidays everybody.