001I like this hammer. The June 24, 2025 school board special meeting and workshop is called to order. Mrs. Tresky, would you please call the role? Mrs. Apel, here. Mr. Mr. Cherry here, Mr. Link here, Miss Quintana, Miss Trigg, Mrs. Watkins, Dr. Jameson. Thank you. We appreciate everybody who's here this evening and those of you who are joining us via the live stream on the division's YouTube page. Um, so this evening, we'll move right on to the approval of the agenda. Is there a motion and a second to approve the agenda as presented? Second. Second. Seconded by Mr. Link. Is there any discussion? All those in favor? I. Those opposed. We're short staff tonight. Everybody's going to have to, you know, do all the moving in a second. Is there a motion and a second to
002approve the personnel list as presented? So moved. Second. Move. Second by Mr. Cherry. Uh is there any discussion? All those in favor? I. Those opposed? Mr. Freeman who is joining us this evening. Do you have any announcements to make? Yes, ma'am. Good evening, Madam Chair, Madame Vice Chair, members of the board, to those that are watching us by Facebook and YouTube, and those that are joining us here tonight. We are pleased to announce that Miss Stephanie Davis has been recommended for and has accepted the position of principal of Morningside Elementary School. She will officially begin her new role on June the 25th, 2025, meaning tomorrow. Yep. Miss Davis currently serves as the assistant principal at Grandoning Court Elementary School. She brings a wealth of experience and a strong educational background to her new position. She
003holds a bachelor of arts in mass communication from James Madison University, a master of education and elementary education from the University of Virginia, and an education specialist degree in educational leadership from Virginia Tech. Prior to her current role as assistant principal at Brandon Court Elementary School, Miss Davis served in the following roles. Administrator special education coordinator at Benj Benjamin Franklin Middle School in Franklin County. Instructional coach at Suntag Elementary School in Franklin County. Third grade teacher at Wendy Gap and Lee M. Wade Elementary School in Franklin County. A teaching assistant at Preston Park Elementary School in Rono City. These diverse experiences have equipped Miss Davis with a strong foundation in both instructional leadership and classroom teaching, making her exceptionally well suited to lead Morningside Elementary School. Please join us in congratulating Miss Davis on her
004new role. Thank you so much. Good. Good evening, Madam Chair, Dr. Jameson, Madame Vice Chair, Mrs. Apel, members of the board, student representatives, and Mr. Freeman. Thank you for the opportunity to serve as the principal of Morningside Elementary School. I look forward to working with the students, parents, community, and all stakeholders to ensure that we focus on utilizing our resources to provide effective first instruction for all students. As the principal of Morningside Elementary, my vision is to create a positive and inclusive school culture where students and staff feel safe, valued, and genuinely excited to come to school each day. I believe when students have a sense of belonging, they are empowered to engage deeply in their learning, grow with confidence, and reach their full potential. As a servant leader, I'm committed to increasing student achievement
005and supporting our teachers by providing the resources and the respect they need to deliver consistently highquality instruction so that every student has the opportunity to to thrive. Our goal at Morningside Elementary will be to cultivate critical thinking and academic excellence while supporting students overall well-being. We will focus on literacy, academic growth, and mastery to to ensure that our all students achieve at high levels in alignment with the revised strategic plan. Morningside Elementary will be a place where families feel welcome, students are challenged and supported, and where every learner is given the opportunity to build a strong foundation for future success. Thank you again to the school board and Dr. White for this opportunity. I am truly honored to serve as the principal of Morningside Elementary and excited to begin the important work ahead. So much.
006Thank you. That's exciting news. Uh so this evening we're going to go to the superintendent reports and uh anybody watching can see that we have Mr. Freeman and we're delighted to have you this evening. Dr. White and members of the staff are actually presenting at a conference right now. So we are delighted to have you Mr. Freeman. Would you please provide the superintendent reports this evening? Yes ma'am. Thank you again madam chair and good evening again to everyone. I'm pleased to be here on behalf of the superintendent this evening. Tonight, we're bringing forward several items for your information and consideration. These include the approval of the amendment to the 2425 general fund budget related to dispersement of employee bonuses, the approval of the plan to distribute employee bonuses, an update on student health services, an
007update on cell phone and wearable electronic guidelines, a first reading of policy revisions, and the quarterly update from the Office of Constituent Services and Government Relations. Before we get to our agenda items tonight, a few highlights and items for the board and the public's information. We had a great first week of our summer program last week and are excited to have many students back in our buildings this summer. As a reminder, I do want to mention there will be no school next week um June the 30th through July through July the 4th. Additionally, registration is still open for our staying safe by staying connected summer camp, which will take place the week of July the 21st. And that registration is available on the RCPS website. I do want to mention that if your students were
008already registered to come to our summer program, we know we've had individuals reaching out to them to still come to the program. They are still able to come. So, please make sure you call the school. You can call one of our teachers, one of our administrators. We do have an opportunity to still have our students still come even though we're still further along in the program already. So, the star program is still available to those that were originally invited to be part of the program. I encourage our families to and staff to attend one of our summer stock academy performances of The Little Mermaid Jr. later this week. Our students have been working hard for preparing and learning the show just in under two weeks of rehearsals. They will be performing Patrick at Patrick Henry
009High School on Thursday and Friday evening at 700 p.m. We do want to take this time to say thank you to our fine arts supervisor Whitney Johnson and the many parents, staff, and high school students who are working so hard to support our fifth through 8th graders in this program. And finally, I am pleased to share that the Virginia Department of Historic Resources has approved the RCPSA's applications to place the original Lucy Addison High School, which is the location of our new community empowerment center on the Virginia Landmarks Register and National Registry of the Historic Places. That is great news. They will be installing a historic marker in honor of Miss Addison outside of the building. So, we do want to take time to thank the school board for your support of these projects as
010we work to honor the building's history and educate the public for generations to come. The marker will take place take several months to manufacture and we'll provide more information later this fall about a special dedication ceremony. We are also excited that the main community empowerment center sign is being installed this week. So, if you happen to drive by the Orange Avenue intersection, look up at the hill, you will see that the work is happening. And as Dr. White often says, it is happening. And we are very excited to be putting the finishing touches on the building to begin services in July. And I do want to personally take this time to thank Claire has done an excellent job. So, we'll take some time to thank her for that. So, on tonight for the 2425 general
011fund budget amendment. So to begin our report, I I will ask Kathleen Jackson, the chief financial officer, to come forward to present details regarding an amendment to the current budget's general fund. If approved, this would allow for bonus funds to be distributed by June the 30th. Wonderful. Thank you so much, Mr. Freeman, and good evening, um, Chair, Dr. Jameson, Vice Chair, Mrs. Ael, members of the school board. Um, as Mr. Freeman stated in anticipation of um the school board um approving the plan to move forward with the bonus funds distribution that we've received from the state by June 30. This budget amendment does not change the total budget, but it does move funds between categories um just to make sure that um we have the right money in the right place to um accommodate those
012bonus payments. the vast majority of our our staff of course fall in the instruction category. So, um we are proposing and requesting your approval to um adjust our budget to reduce our administration, attendance, health, and technology categorical budget by $1 million and increase our instructional category budget by $1 million. Um we do have the ability to do that through um some some cost savings, some salary laps, and some positions in administration that have um not been filled for the entire year. um that and and some savings in um health insurance costs and that sort of thing. So those are the main reasons why we have that availability and um so that'll just help us be extra sure um that we have the budgeted funds in the right place uh to make to move forward with
013that um that bonus. So all right, thank you Mrs. Jackson. Uh so before we ask for a motion in a second, are there any questions you'd like to ask uh from the board at this time? We talked about this at length at our last meeting. Everybody feel All right. Is there a motion and a second to amend the 2024 2025 general fund expenditure budget as presented? So moved. Second. Second by Mr. Cherry. Again, is there any discussion? All right. Hear all those in favor? I I opposed. Very good. Thank you, Mr. Jackson. Thank you, Mrs. Jackson. Um, I would now ask Miss Jackson to basically stay there to present information regarding our plan for distribution of the bonus by June the 30th based on the board's discussion at our last meeting. Yes. Excellent. Thank you.
014So, now that we've made sure that um we feel confident we have the budgeted funds in the right places to move forward, um we are bringing to you this evening for your approval the plan for moving forward with those bonus payments um for June 30. So, um as we discussed last meeting, um we do have a state funding that was calculated at an average of $1,000 per standard of quality position. Of course, we have many more positions than that. Um so our proposal for you this evening um based on the discussion last meeting would be to distribute the full amount of state funding that we have received to support bonuses. It's just over 1.45 million total uh distributed to Ronick City Public Schools um to um distribute just that state funding by June 30. We
015will certainly look at where we are budgetarily with um any funds that might be remaining available as we close out the 2425 school year and bring that back to school board for further discussion if there is funding available that we might be able to look at to try to get us up closer to that full thousand um at that point. But at this point, of course, because it only um is calculated based on standards of quality positions, and we would propose providing a bonus to all of our employees um who meet the qualifications. Um the the bonus amount at this point would be closer um to about 550, maybe a little more than that for full-time employees. So that's our proposal. at this point use the state funding um to provide uh a bonus to
016all employees who meet their qualifications um not just standards of quality positions. Um we propose that employees who have signed their contract to return because this is um stated in the state code uh or the budget uh bill to be intended as a retention bonus. So employees who signed their contract to return to Ronic City Public Schools in 202526 will qualify for the bonus. Um employees who serve as executive director, assistant superintendent, chief or superintendent level position do not qualify for the bonus. Um so those are the criteria um is set in place and that is amendable to the school board. We would ask for your approval and we will move forward. Very good. Are there any comments or questions for Dr. for from Mrs. Jackson? I I gave you a degree. Well, I did
017wanted to just make a comment just saying thank you. I know we had to make an adjustment to make this happen and I know it was a tight squeeze to get it done by June 30th and I just want the public to know that we did have to uh move some things around uh just to make sure that this happened. Uh but we will just wanted to clarify that we will be getting closer to 1,000 in the fall just depending on what's left. you saying? Um, we'll certainly look to do that if we can. It's it's a little too difficult at this point with the year not quite closed um to to know for sure. We're we're fairly tight on the budget this year. Um so um don't have that level of of knowledge or
018confidence at this point in the process to be able to say with certainty yes we can put some local money in to try to make this better. But um once we're working through the closing process and get into August and September and have a better idea of where things are settling. Um, at that point, that would be an appropriate time where we could bring this back to the schoolboard to discuss if we if it's looking like um we do potentially have some funding available um on the local side, then we could come back with sort of a round two uh to try to get that bonus amount a little bit better for employees. If I may, Mr. Cherry, I was in agenda planning uh which for the public is just a few of us to
019trying to actually get the meeting together. We discussed that only do this part of the motion so that if there's money, it'll come back to us for another discussion. Got it. All right. And I definitely do want to I wasn't here the last meeting, but I did watch wanted to thank all of the parents and the teachers and the staff that did come to speak up because at the end of the day, we are here to hear your voice and your voice does matter. Uh but I, you know, I just wanted to make sure I pointed that out because I wasn't here and that we do continue to be and try to be as competitive as possible when it comes to compensation. And I think uh as a division, we've done an incredible job since
020I've been on the board of a lot of staff raises, even with a tight budget. Uh we're still giving a raise. It's not as substantial as previous years, but it's still something. So, um I just wanted to point that out. Again, thank you for your work. And I think I've talked too much. Okay. Mr. Link, any questions or comments? No, ma'am. Thank you. Very good. I have one quick question. uh and it's a for later question I suppose would be if there are funds available uh when we have finished true chewing up the budget and if we have hired any new employees between now and then would they be qualified for the new for that bonus distribution and maybe that's uh we'll talk about that as we go that would have to be part of
021that that discussion and decision about what the qualifications would be for receiving any additional bonus funds at that point, which first we need to know if we have any money for that in the first place. Yes. Very good. Very good. Thank you. Uh all right. Is there a motion and a second to approve the employee bonus distribution plan as presented? So moved. Second. Seconded by Mr. Link. Is there any discussion? Those in favor? I. Those opposed. Very good. Thank you for making that happen. and I echo all the thanks and thanks for everybody who made their voices heard. We're excited. Yeah. Thank you very much. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Jackson. And please thank your teams. We know we worked extensive hours in order to make this happen for June the 30th. We're very
022appreciative of that. Next, we will have our chief operations officer, Mr. Chris Perkins, to come forward to present an update on the future of our student health services in regards to student nurses. Madam Chair, vice chair, members of the board, ladies and gentlemen, I come today with an update and a recommendation following the Koreans un or Korean clinic's unexpected uh decision to discontinue oversight uh with the Korean school nursing program. Um our proposal, let's just get the bottom line up front, is to bring the nurses inhouse. Um so this the proposal that I will uh am bringing to you will also help us maintain continuous uh nursing services uh as we move forward. Uh it's crucial to note that Corrian's decision does not reflect on the excellent performance of our nursing staff. Uh their nurses
023maintained full coverage throughout the 2425 year contrary to some people's belief uh with an impressive 3% absentee absenteeism rate. uh that is below the national average for health care. So our nurses did a great job. So I'm very happy uh that we will have the opportunity if approved by you uh to bring those that fine staff on board if they choose to do so. Bringing in-house services as we recommend stems from careful consideration and market realities. While Curillion has been in a unique position to provide nursing services through an outsourcing program and a valued partner, our last request for proposals in 2023 uh yielded minimal and cost prohibitive results. Uh the only other uh proposal we received was almost a half million dollars more than curillion. So that indicates there's limited external interest in school
024nursing as an outsourced uh possibility. So therefore, an in-housing model is the most realistic and cost effective effective path forward. Our financial analysis projects that an in-house model will cost approximately $3.15 million. That's including personnel and non-personnel uh costs. This is comparable to our estimated Korean clinic and student health budget for fiscal year 26 that has been approved uh which is just over $3 million. Curillion has committed to a six-month transition from through December 31st, 2025. Uh providing a crucial lead time for us to implement our plan. During this period, July to December, we will focus on robust recruitment. We have worked with uh the human resources team Dominate McKe uh to establish uh some uh job descriptions and processes on how we will uh conduct the recruitment. uh developing specific uh RCPS policies and
025procedures. Uh the uh pediatric director has agreed to a full year uh from Curillian to help us with this transition. So that's great and occupational health services uh is going to remain with Curillian. They wanted to do that. We also want to ensure a sim or seamless continuity of care. So our goal for RCPS nursing staff is to be fully operational by January the 1st, 2026. uh and we will work closely with Coridian for a smooth transition for our staff and students. So the ask at our next board meeting uh we respectfully request your approval uh to bring school nursing services inhouse and I'll take any direct questions you may have. Very good. Are there any questions for Mr. Perkins? We'll start with you Mr. Link. Um maybe uh first off um at least in
026a in an informal poll of seven-year-olds in my house uh the nursing staff in RCPS plus gets very high marks. Uh she thinks very highly of nurse Monty at uh Granite Court Elementary School. Um is there any opportunity to um keep based on their familiarity with our student population? Is there an opportunity to keep the personnel that we have and bring them in house as so in our plan of implementation uh we are we are we want to keep our nurses. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And if they choose to come on we want to keep them in the schools that they're currently in. Yeah. uh and uh we believe that there has been there's been enough contact that we've had with the existing staff that we believe that we can make that happen. Of course, they
027have to go through a process for us. Um and while we know Coran has a process in order for us to be, you know, uh you know, in line with what we do for all RCPS personnel when they're hired, we have to go through a background and a hiring process. So, we will we will do that. But working with Mr. McKe's team uh they have really refined the process for hiring uh through ex some extensive experience in their job fairs and so we're going to follow that similar process where we can make offers uh if if approved uh prior to the background so the offer would be given pending a background investigation. So thank you Mary. Oh that was the same exact question. My daughters have uh grown attached to the nurses we have as
028well at Highland Park. So, um they always make them an excuse to get a band-aid. So, uh I was to say I'm glad to hear that we are going to try to do uh some retaining of what we have. So, you answered all my questions. I appreciate it as always. Um my only like question is kind of logistical is you know if this impacts you know if we have to vote for any sort of budgetary reason or categorically if you know we have to move something from one category to another if we're but if so anyways I don't know if you can answer that now or we wait for till next month. So, so in the process, uh, and we we've looked extensively at how we can do this financially, and while most people think
029outsourcing is a cost savings, as you've heard me say, we're we're just slightly above what we have currently budgeted. And uh, and but that includes some contingencies because you don't know what you don't know because remember, we haven't had our own nursing services for a long time in Reno City public schools. But the good thing is we have a lot of processes in place. We have a lot of experience in place that can work through this with our with the Curillian team that are have been good partners with us. It's just a focus change for Curillion uh on what they're going to focus on as a as a in their industry. But um I think we can do this and with that contingency factored in at 3.15 million I think that is uh extremely uh
030consistent. And when I saw the final figures when we worked it out, I felt really good about it. And I won't speak for Miss Jackson, but I think Miss Jackson felt good about it. Yeah, I I'll just say so I I mean that estimate is slightly higher than what we have budgeted in that particular um cost center budget at this at this time. But um it's very close. And so I it doesn't bring me pause at this point. Certainly, we'll watch it closely as we work through this process and hire folks and really see um as Chris said, we don't know what we don't know as we start to hire folks and where they fall on pay scales and all of that. Um certainly we'll keep the board informed if it would require a change
031to our budget, but at this moment I don't expect it to. Uh that's actually along those lines. What I was thinking about, I was looking at you, Mr. McKe is the reason for the year-long support from the pediatric nursing manager, pediatric medical director. Pediatric medical director. I mean, recruiting for nurses is an entire different specialty. Now, is that part of the kind of support we're going to get? No, we're we're going to depend on our HR team, but we're going to we're going to go ahead. Well, just in terms of knowing which networks to tap I mean, you know, yes, we're going to lean on their knowledge in regards to where to look. Um, that's the kind of things they'll they're going to open a chain of conversation with you. Yes, that's But we will
032use our marketing and everything like that in terms of where to find nurses, but our main goal is to of course hire as many nurses as we can as quickly as we can. Yeah. I And I asked mainly because I know how hard you've worked on the where do we find them channels for all our other employees. This is a this is a brand new category. Where do we find them? So, that was um and this is just a cure. Will they then be on 10-month contracts? will be a combination of 12 10 and it'll be 10 10 and a half 10 10 and a half. Okay. Uh okay. Let me clarify. It'll be for the the school-based nurses, but we will have a a supervisory team that will be at 12 months. Okay. Yeah,
033that makes sense. That makes sense. I think those are all my questions. Are there anything? That's exciting. Thank you. You all got on top of that really quickly. So, thank you for finding um a resolution. Yes, Mr. I have a cur curiosity. How long has it been since we had in house nursing staff? Oh, at least 10 years. I think 2015. Okay. Yeah. Well, before me. Yeah. And and you get that report, sir, since you're new to the board. Uh that comes in December in the outsourcing report. And I'll have the exact number then. I can't wait. Yes, sir. So, very good. Thank you, Mr. Perkins. Our next item is regarding updated cell phone wearable electronic device guidelines for our high school students. You going to walk up there and talk? Well, Dr. Jesse Major
034actually is going to help me tonight. Um Dr. Jesse Major, the executive director of our alternative program, student accountability and special projects will assist me with the presenting this information and update this evening to the board and to the public. So, we thank you all for this opportunity. Um, and I'm just going to start off by saying a few things because some of the information we're going to give you tonight, I wanted to bring it to um, we wanted to bring it to everybody's attention to make sure that we bring it back to the public because we had voted and we've also made the changes and now we're moving forward. Um, so of course off and away for the school day understanding the new RCPS cell phone guidelines. You have the clicker. Would you like
035it? a few things. Thank you. I just wanted to remind the public um that we was informed last year in July the 9th, 2024 in our schoolboard meeting. We went through a lot of information where we reviewed current information regarding the use of the cell phones. We provided a recommendation to that time to Dr. White and to you all regarding the policy update and changes if it was needed, a recommendation on what we were going to do next, and logical consequences. I do want to take this time before we get any further to thank the task force uh the group work group that has been working diligently um that has been consisted of administrators, teachers, um parents um we've had multiple meetings um you'll see the meetings listed for this school year but there are
036some from past school year also. Um, so on August the 13th of last year, we made a recommendation based off the governor's executive order number 33 and and during that time, the cell phones were actually one of those that was away during elementary and middle school. And then at the high school level, we was making it available, excuse me, during lunch, and we also made it available during classroom transition time. Um, so we did ask for an update and approval during the December the 10th board meeting. And since then, we've had multiple um multiple task force meetings in order to address where we're at, where we need to go, what would be the next course of action, even looking at options on how we can make sure we're enforcing logical consequences. And we've had that
037trial run during the school year. We did see that discipline. We have not did a breakdown of the discipline versus cell phone, but we did see discipline did decrease this school year, but you'll get an up updated report when we do our data report of course with academics. But we also referred back to some of the research that we had stated earlier in the year. Um the executive order number 33 as we all know in 2025 general assembly passed the house bill 1961 and senate bill 738 where it requires school divisions by law to adopt policies that restrict student phone and smart device use meaning bail to bail. And of course, Rono City Schools is committed to creating these learning environments where students can stay focused, be respectful, and ready to learn. So, as required
038by the code, we must restrict restrict student and smart device use throughout the entire school day. So, to comply with this, we also started this summer, starting with our summer high school program, making sure we go effectively that we would not have any cell phone use during the day. So, it is bell to bail. Uh we know this is going to be an adjustment for all of our students at the high school level. So those that are watching, parents, we need your help in support. I know Dr. Ma is going to mention it some more too as we're moving forward with even the new school year. There are some things regarding logical consequences that you're going to hear. There's also information regarding how we're supporting the staff, supporting the administrators. Um and we actually started
039our leadership academy with principles and assistant principles today for the next two days. And then we have another one again in the month of July and we will briefly touch on cell phones but there will be additional information that we'll be providing to them. So when it looks like cell phone free what it looks like in practice all devices must be silenced and stored away during the school day. That means yes you can have it on the bus unless it's distracting the bus driver or causing an issue on the bus then they cannot have it on the bus. But right now it allows us to have it on the school bus. But when you get off the bus, when it starts the first bell, cell phone should be put away until the end of the
040day. Um, with that being said, I'm going to let Dr. Mer now take over. Right there. No, no. Right there. So, good evening, Madam Chair, vice chair, and the board. Thank you for the opportunity to speak about the work we've done in support of cell phone free school environment. certainly an important initiative. I'd like to begin by discussing how students will be informed of the guidelines and ideally the information uh shared about the expectations of the guidelines will be a review for students. Um however to ensure sorry here we are however to ensure that there's clarity and consistency we will begin the school year with student orientations where the guidelines will be introduced or reintroduced at the start of the school year and the guidelines will be delivered through grade level assemblies or schoolwide assemblies
041reinforced in the hallways through posters and and in the classrooms where our staff will model uh and reinforce the expectations ations of the schoolwide guidelines. We also recognize uh the need for strong parent and guardian partnership to support this important initiative and students and and their parents and guardians must sign off on the guidelines as part of the RCPS code of conduct. Additionally, to support a strong schoolwide uh implementation, schools will provide and grant a grace period. In fact, that grace period will extend into the first two weeks of the school year where students will be reminded of the policy and provided with verbal warnings. And this is aimed, of course, at supporting a smooth transition to full enforcement, which begins in the third week of the school year. When full enforcement begins, we will
042use logical consequences, progressive series of consequences when and if violations occur. The first offense, the device will be taken by the classroom teacher and returned at the end of that that period. Parent will be notified and that in incident will be documented in synergy. The second offense, the device will be um stored and held in the office. The parent notified and the student will be able to retrieve their device at the end of the day. In the event that there is a third guideline, a referral will be generated. Parent must pick up the device and the student parent will sign an acknowledgement of further consequences. um basically working out an an agreement that's mutually acceptable for the parent and the student about what will happen in the event of a fourth offense which could include
043keeping the phone at home locked in an office. So, how will staff be supported? And I'd like to point out as as Mr. Freeman noted that uh we've worked all year to develop a toolkit or a series of resources to help support our staff in implementing this initiative and that includes um a rationale for the guidelines which talks about the goals and the purpose of of our our cell phone guidelines FAQs to help our community understand uh the the purpose of the guidelines. We've created scripts for our administrators when violations occur to share with um to share with parents. We've provided uh talking points for various grade levels, high school and middle school to help our administrators explain the guidelines in an age appropriate way. Um but I think we all know the success of
044this uh initiative is really going to be predicated by the entire school system modeling the guidelines and of course consistent enforcement of the guidelines. Um and and that includes total and shared accountability for everybody and by everybody. That said, we we also recognize that the enforcement of this policy may likely lead to challenging interactions and it's essential to keep those interactions both positive and constructive uh to the greatest extent possible. And in that spirit and as part of the toolkit, uh building administrators will provide staff with guidance in responding to misconduct. and schools will also retain discretion on how they choose to manage um enforcement systems, documentation, parent communication within a con within the common framework of progressive discipline. However, there are some universal postures that will really help enforcement and minimize loss instructional time.
045And we're really going to encourage our staff to to avoid power struggles. Um we want our staff to to stay to stay cool in these interactions. Um, and recognize that you don't need to engage in a direct conflict with the student. There can be delayed consequences. Allow the student to know that the office uh and the administration will be informed of the violation in due time. Remain calm and be brief. Use a calm and tone. Use a calm tone and and nonverbal or I should say neutral body language and and keep your responses short and non-con confrontational uh to reduce the potential for escalation. Of course, when dealing with misconduct, we want to provide our students with choices. Um encourage students to to to make good choices and follow the the guidelines. Offer choices, not
046ultimatums. Encourage responsible behavior. remind students it's never too late to make a good decision. And you know, ultimately this is going to be a year of learning as we implement this these guidelines and schools will be encouraged and supported in developing systems and we hope to learn from our schools in terms of the effectiveness of the systems that they do in fact um develop within their sites. Uh it's a year for all of us to learn as we implement. Uh this slide is really an internal document or an internal slide I should say for for our staff. It really uh simply uh reiterates the consequences one through three, the progressive consequences. And number four provides a little bit more nuance in terms of identifying the resources and supports that uh are available to our to
047our staff in the event that they encounter non-compliance. That concludes how we're going to manage this uh this initiative for the summer and 2526 school year. Any questions? Let me share just a little bit more information in regards to communication and I have to again thank Miss Mitzell. Um I don't know if you probably seen the social media post and reminders in regards to the cell phone use and of course we've read some of the comments um that's been also listed under the social media post. Um, but this is also, as we know, something that we must do to be in compliance, but also we want to make sure that we're providing those tools like Dr. Major stated that our teachers have what they need, the principles have what they need to have the um
048tools needed to have success in the classroom and to manage this. We do know that there will be, yes, discipline will probably be busy for the first two weeks of schools with reminders. Um, some of them would test it. Again, this is where we need our parents to be able to work with us in partnership and I think that acknowledgement form that's part of that toolkit will be able to assist us in making sure we get this through. So, there will be some some days it'll be challenging, but we'll work through that. Thank you, Dr. Major. Thank you, Mr. Freeman. Uh questions from the board. Uh Mr. Cherry, I'll start with you. No, no questions. We have a plan in place. Um so, like you said, it is going to be an adjustment. I think
049you know the first couple weeks of school is always challenging. So uh I think we are in good shape and I appreciate you all's update on this policy. Thank you for the update. Thank you. Um one I wanted to um I think I heard it at uh central council PTA meeting but what can Mr. Mr. Freeman, can you remind us the policy on if a cell phone purportedly gets damaged when when it has been confiscated at school because I think that was when I first you know heard clarification. Yes. Thank you, Mrs. Ael. So to let you know that that's part of actually our language and the student code of conduct um that if we confiscate anything is not going to be a liability of us. that that's accurate is written in the code for
050the signature. But that's why the parents have to have that acknowledgement form and notice. We try to put everything out there in writing. We think Mr. Collins, I think, assisted us with this too to make sure because if it's taken, it's not going to be the liability of the school system nor the liability of that individual. Right. Um, and secondly, I know part of the reason, you know, we were looking forward to this update is to see how it is going in summer school for the high schools because the the elementary and middle have had this policy in place, but this is new to the high schools. So, how is that going anecdotally? Someone asked Dr. Poland to come up. She's been overseeing some of the high school pieces for the summertime. Okay. Good evening.
051We have had a few little bumps in the road. We do have our high school students who are participating and attending this summer are students that um do maybe struggle um and need some additional support um but they have been very compliant. We are really encouraging our our staff to make sure that we are engaging with our students that we're encouraging them to either finish their work or you know to be engaged in class and we have really found that that has worked. Um our administrators have been very diligent. We started with um our faculty making sure that they knew um you know hey no cell phones even at the middle and high school level um and they were very receptive. So we started that from day one. We don't want to see staff phones
052unless there's an emergency either. Um so that has been very receptive. Um and we have we've not had any major concerns or issues this summer. And so we have about 170 high school students um at Fleming this summer. So it's going pretty well. That's a small number compared to the 2000. Yes. Yes. Uh any other questions? I mean I think it's strikes me that this year our kind of pilot run before full implementation has gone relatively well. Is that fair? I listen I gauge this by how many emails I am or am not getting. So that's my only metric. Um I didn't hear a whole lot about this. How what what big pictures this in terms of the the canary in the coal mine. We can maybe understand have a better sense of what to
053expect. Well, I would say that we had a lot of conversation in our work group. Um we have to make sure and I think Dr. Major said it too. First, it starts in the classroom and Dr. Poland mentioned it. The account accountability has to start with the teacher enforcing but also the teacher not being on their device at any given time too. Oh, so we have to make sure of that. So there be some layers here um for in order for us to be fully enforced in the fall. Um as let's just be realistic all of us are glued to our phones for some reason. So we have to make sure that the adults in the classroom is enforcing the policy, teaching with full instruction in the classroom, effective first instruction, and then making sure
054they're holding the students accountable. Then we as the administrators are holding the teachers accountable. So that's why we've created this toolkit to have a whole new process to make sure um for those you probably wouldn't getting a lot of emails. We heard some concerns, but as we were hearing them, we were making sure was being addressed. That that strikes me as a successful process. I mean, if that's what's I mean, not that it's perfect, but that it is being in intervened in along the way. Um, so that that seemsful to me. Good. Well, thank you so much. Appreciate the update and good luck. Thank you, Dr. Maser. Next, I will ask Dr. Alan Seabbert, the constituent services and government relations officer, to provide a first reading of the policy revisions. Madam Chair, Madam Vice Chair,
055members of the board, encourage you to get your handydandy little reference guide. Uh, this is a work of policy and regulatory art uh that Mr. Eresky's put together. You have these uh do you have these handy? Do we have Did we get it last time? Come on. I don't have to read it. Should be at your spaces. I do not have one here with me. Should be at your spaces. Sorry about that. Okie do. Well, good evening also Mr. Freeman and colleagues, attendees. Uh, thank you for this opportunity to present first review of drafts, policies, and regulation updates. Uh, as you all know, this board subscribes to the Virginia Schoolboard Association's uh, policy service. The policy service maintains a model policy manual that is updated both by section uh to ensure that the entire manual
056is reviewed every five years as required by board policy BF and also that when there's changes to code of Virginia case law or best practices. The summer update is generally the largest and most significant because it includes all the required pieces from the 2025 general assembly that the board's required to implement. First, I want to thank the division leadership team and superintendent's policy, governance, and legislative committee, including Dr. White, Miss Katana, Mr. Link. Uh, their work uh was extensive and will save you a lot of time tonight. Also, the work by the division leaders and their teams have has been very extensive. Um, we've gone into the weeds uh the PGL committee and the team and over 80 policies and regulations. uh their diligence permits me to summarize 180 pages of updates tonight hopefully very
057briefly to the extent possible. I do want to point out, and this is something you often ask me to remind those who might be watching, we do aspire to maintain the copyrighted VSBA versions whenever possible because that gives us an extra level of legal protection. And then what you'll see in several cases is where we are moving some local policies into VSBA language, we're creating local regulations to maintain the local flavor uh to make sure that we're keeping things working there. Aspiring to re brief this evening does not minimize the importance of this work. uh policy is right up there with your budget and your employment pe people to to what you do to help the division operate well. Um this is first review and we would ask if you have any questions or suggestions
058certainly try to entertain them tonight but if you have feedback we would ask that you have them by July 2nd if possible. Division leaders who are continuing their work. Board attorney David Collins is also reviewing this assembled set of updates before we request adoption in July. Special thanks to board clerk Kim Tresky for organizing this quickly and doing the challenging work of rendering all the input from all the different offices into board docs. It is not a user-friendly tool uh for editing editing information. The booklet in front of you contains over 60 substantive updates to policies and board regulations and notes approximately 20 other non-substantive changes in legal references, cross references, and just language, pronouns, etc. that have already been reviewed and advanced by the PGL committee. In a few instances, BSBA's recommended new policies,
059but thankfully in more cases, our local review of wholly local policies has allowed us to delete over 15 outdated local policies and that we found were redundant or perhaps even out of step with the VSBA copyrighted language and so we are recommending those be removed. Uh we're actually hopefully deleting more than we're adding. I wish the general assembly would do the same thing with the code. Um, I will focus our attention tonight on the first 10 pages of your booklet of the summary charts. These are the pieces required by general assembly language. And then we'll conclude with the five-year review of local policies. So, starting there on page one, you'll notice as you go through the first 10 pages there, General Assembly had a lot of emphasis on student health and safety. That's understandable. Uh,
060but lots of language in terms of how we manage our crisis management plans, our threat assessment teams. You have brand new policy about opioid antagonists. Uh then having them on hand and keep them in stock. That requires that uh Joel Jeter's team come up with regulations, soups regulations on how we're going to maintain that stock and keep track of those things. Safety drills was also tweaked. Um new concerns about uh high temperature events and CPR CPR and AED devices and how we're going to have them at events including uh games. All those things have been addressed and the policy and the team is working on implementation. Moving over to page three, we get into some other things about contracts and um substitute teachers. There was a number of uh code sections that were changed that
061affected both employee people who we can employ and people who our contractors can employ in terms of what are barriers to employment. Uh that that that standard was softened a bit but main that was anything endangering children or moral interpretive was covered. On page four, we get to professional staff development. The general assembly is always dabbling in professional staff development. This year, however, they did move more toward recommended in May and that you can and a lot of things they do, we already do and they're just have language now that we may do what we already do. But they have invited the Department of Education to create an index of required teacher training. they figure before they keep adding to teacher training and or as they have plans to limit how much training we can
062do locally that maybe the department should index what is actually our currently required. Um so that that's going to be interesting to see come forward. When you get into um page five you see a list of IEP considerations in all cander these are things that our IP teams already are considering for children but now they're required to be considered so policies adapted to to think about those things as well. On page five there, you have one of your new policies, IGBJ. That's a brand new policy to rep to cover some code that came out about uh helping encourage young people who are performing at high levels get into advanced coursework. Um, but there's some some opt- out provisions for families there as well. Um, on page six to bring us to where we just were
063with Mr. Freeman and Dr. Razer JFCM that is a brand new policy and that is student cell phone smart device possession and use. This policy is the VSBA model but it has a section to implement to insert the language that was just presented to you earlier. So between now and when we come to you for final adoption we'll be able to insert the language that the task force uh Mr. Ree and Dr. Maer just presented put that into the policy and have it ready for you for adoption for consideration adoption on July 8th. Um, as we continue, uh, head on over page nine, uh, you know, there's, uh, we the Wesley Williams team is always working on how we use student devices and and and service providers. We obviously keep student data very, very secure.
064These are some new requirements for um, the vendors that that we work with. Um, then we get over on page 10, there was just some updates to some other uh, policies. And that brings me to top of page 11, which is interesting. You required in policy to review policies every 5 years. You're required to review a couple things every couple of years, but review is different than adoption. You have two policies that the code requires that you adopt annually, and those are on the top of page 11, BDD and BDDL. And this is about electronic participation in schoolboard meetings. So when we ask you to adopt the policies um next month, you will be renewing the adoption of those provisions. In the middle of page 11, you see a list of policies that VSBA reviewed
065but did not update. So the review date on those changes. You also see a large set of policies that the PGL committee looked at that were non-s substantive changes. Your policy already permits the clerk to update cross references and legal references as those come through. When we get to the bot bottom half of page 11, we move into local board policy regulations for update. So the team is always reflective and learning from practice and um learning with good experiences. So for example, you have a a new board regulation and this just about uh bus scheduling and routing procedures. This just puts into your policy manuals a regulation under the governing policy. Uh the the really robust and sound processes that have been in place over the past couple years and successful. You have a brand
066new GBR, alcohol drug-f free workplace. Uh, this was a board attorney, Mr. Collins, worked with HR uh to identify an area that we probably needed to bolster. And so that is accomplished with that board regulation. Moving over to page 12, we get into the set of five-year reviews. And this is where I really want to commend the team for very thoughtful work uh to look at wholly local policies that many of them have been although they reviewed five years ago they were adopted times before that and so it it becomes a careful process of do we still need this and why and what you see here there's a number that have been revised some of the becoming board regulations to anchor them into the BSBA policy but we have at least 15 that we're recommending
067be deleted these are again wholly local, outdated, often redundant policies. In some cases, they're actually conflicting with the VSBA model policies to some extent based on interpretation. And moreover, it's better for your policy manual that people, for example, don't see a reg a policy on, oh, we pro we prohibit discrimination based on 504 status. Well, we do. That's covered in our discrimination anti-discrimination policy. So, having it in two places actually is problematic for users and readers of the policy manual. So you see the reflection and the the recommendations of the team there. And then again at the bottom of page 13, you see there were a couple that we decided to leave as were. Then your next 170 pages um are the red lines of each of those in the summary chart that we encourage
068you to take a look at. And um again, if you have any questions, come up, let us know. But they're organized by sections. So you have the VSBA ones first where we're pretty much have very little flexibility what we can and should do because they're out of the code and then what we're recommending with the local ones and why. So that's the policy updates for first review and if you have any current questions happy to answer them but also Miss Tresy will receive your feedback before July 2nd if possible. Does anybody have any questions for Dr. Sebert this evening? I I would just I feel like we do this every time we speak, but I would just like to take a minute and uh tell my young board members how lucky we are to have
069you because when I came on this board, you probably remember about one workshop every other year, we got 400 pages in front of us that we were expected to have read and we were go through and did you see it? It was the longest workshop meetings we've ever had. uh this process is s and it's this has got much more uh m much thorough integrity to make sure we're consistent than when you do that sort of work. So, thank you so much for implementing this kind of approach and process. We were always reviewing them, but this makes me feel much more confident about our overall policy uh consistency. Thank you. But the team brings the expertise and Kim does all the work. Well, well, thank you to all of you involved. So all right. Thank
070you Dr. Sebert. I would ask you to remain at the podium to provide your quarterly update on your office. Okay. Hopefully at your place you also have your handout. The handout is a little different this month because it does not have the chief of trends on the back because like we did last year we're giving this you know slightly before the quarter ends. So we want to give them the ample opportunity and we will update that in the form of a memo. But uh I'll go to my presentation. So couple of things. first slides you're very familiar with but we do this as by at your direction to keep the community informed that we have the constituent services office. It is in accordance and alignment with international ombbuds association standards of practice uh and how
071we operate the office. the we also built out a a very thoughtful and robust approach on how we approach concerns. And this is because we we don't we want people to have p places to go to get help and and and have their concerns heard, but we never want to disempower the schools and the people who are doing the work. So we expect people to start at the schools. We expect our principles to help people start with the teacher. And it's part of the process we have to begin at the source, but then know that there are some people that can help you. and specifically an office if you don't know where the source is or what policies might be involved where we can help you with that. So constituent services you have a policy
072KA that requires that we have a protocol and a feedback system. Part of the things we did during the policy, governance, legislative committee meeting last week was to look at alternatives to the current ethics point that we use and uh that pro that that was received well by the committee and it has been endorsed and we'll be moving forward and probably bringing you some more demonstrations in the future of what we think will be uh a better tool for for the future. But using that current tool, the community feedback system in the last quarter, which again a little short through through June 20th, uh number of cases decreased from quarter 1 from 11 to nine. Um this is actually a decrease from the previous quarter uh previous year, quarter 2 in 2024 um of 15.
073So that was so again normally things in my office and in the reporting system heat up at the end of the school year. Um promotion, graduation, contract renewal, those things heat up. And also the start of the school year there's there's lots of activity there. Those are usually but uh the the community feedback system had less continue to be responding to these in less than 24 hours and and resolving cases in an average of 4.7 days. Um some take longer than others. Some we do the day we receive it because it's pretty straightforward. Um some some require investigation and work from the team. Visits to my office increase from the from the first quarter. Again, that's not uncommon. Uh that was up to 73. Uh it's also more than it was in the second quarter
074of last year. However, visitors remain primarily employees by parents and uh we also had a pretty good increase in partner agencies at the end of the school year. Lots of organizations reaching out curious who do I talk to? This is what we can do. This is what we're curious about. Visits were email correspondents, phone, and um I'm I'm moving from saying office visits or school to just I'm going to move things just to workplace. That's by and large because this building, this opportunity where I serve, um, it might not be where people would want to come to for a confidential visit. So, I'm actually moving more of those to alternative locations, including at the CEC where we still have space where it be a more discreet place to meet with someone who has something they
075want to share. So, here's the what you have on your handout. Uh, 100% of your feedback of your community feedback system cases were web. This is important. um over the years has been well over 95% have been web- based because the new tool we're looking at would be entirely web- based. Uh the expectation would be that if you want to make an anonymous thing, you would need to use the web-based tool. Uh but of course, people do occasionally call me and don't want to tell me what their name is and that is that is fine as well. But the the phone option of ethics point would not be in the K12 insight piece. But it's very underutilized and we think part of the cost factor that g that ethics point brings again uh largely employees
076using that that tool to remain anonymous. Um in terms of outcomes we we did a lot of those some of those are resolved in less than a day or a day is because they were suggestions and so people are happy to you know suggestions anonymously. We still give them a response and then you know some cases we do take the time where it's necessary to to conference with an employee. That was the biggest action taken in the last quarter. In terms of what visits to my office, again uh school workplace, I said that's going to be my new nomenclature uh for for for meeting with folks and uh again largely employees and again high resolution rate. I did uh update you know when I uh sometimes the board had questions when I refer something to
077a best point of contact. Uh I wanted to ensure that in fact that I check in with those people that that resolution was achieved. So, I've re renamed that referred and resolved uh to make sure that uh the follow-up was done. And in general, a lot of these are inquiries. You see an action taken, answer provided. That's what's necessary. A large number of no action required. Some people just need to be heard. They need to talk things through. They want to brainstorm and and have a thought partner on something. And at that point, they can choose if they want to do a formal process or an informal process or uh or things like that. And then all again administrative reviews mean we take a look at how we do things and best points of contact.
078So those are the um the highlights of the last quarter and then here you see the the graphical trends. Again the use of ethics point uh has continued to decline and remain pretty low. This is another reason why we think for the expense of that tool we can bring a new tool to bear that will serve more parts of the organization. and then uh and then visits my office spiked again in the second quarter just as they did in the in the second quarter a year ago. So, anything on that before I move into government relations? That's great. Oh, I'm sorry. Um can you go back one slide? I was just curious about why like I no uh forward one I think I might have uh with the graph the graph. Okay, gotcha. Um I
079think it was your second last slide. I was curious why like I compare the year prior and I noticed you know that uh the ethics point cases went down compared to quarter two a year ago but the other ones went up and I was like you know typically they kind of seem to trend the same but then I was so I was curious if you had an explanation of that but what I also I'm wondering actually if the total is the same but people feel more comfortable communicating with you as opposed to being anonymous or I don't know if you if there was something in particular because usually if there's a flurry, there's a flurry in both. The the the anecdotal piece would be is that it's it's gratifying, professionally gratifying that many of the
080calls I receive begin with someone told me I should call you. And so I I think that that word of mouth uh has been has been helpful that that that people were suggesting other people to give me a call. Um, and yes, the 73 was identical this time last year in terms of office, but we did we ended at different times. So, good. Okay. All right. And your policy governance legislative committee, uh, in addition to doing 80 policies and regulations also received an update on on where we are. So, um, uh, we met on the 16th. We did the policy work. We also are, you know, moving forward with getting prepped for your legislative policies and positions. So, that will be the work of the committee coming up. In particular, we're looking forward to Dr.
081White is still serving as legislative chair for region six. And we she will be hosting in conjunction with Dr. Hicks from Salem the region six super lunchon with legislators. That is going to be on August 4th. That's our first bite of the apple. That's that's the administrative side. Then we're looking right now at at at the first maybe that week before Thanksgiving as your target date for your lunchon with your your coffee and conversation with your legislators to provide your positions out there. And so we feel good about that. The other things the committee talked about were two. One I already shared that u we looked at using a new tool versus ethics point as that contract comes to a close what we could do there to have a different tool get more more more
082features. And secondly, uh, Advantage Strategies, who's been your consultant for a number of years, has had a change in staffing. Kathy Burchcher's moved on to other things. Um, Emily Webb is extraordinary. She's moved into that role. But, um, we're we're thinking critically about, you know, again, the the value proposition of of that cost level service. Maybe there's a lower level of service we could negotiate with them. Um, but that's something the committee will be working on as we head to the fall. Um, any questions? Questions? I have just a is is that lunchon with legislators legislators a little bit later in the summer than it was previously? Yes. I I was thinking of in terms of timelines. It seems like we're going to be getting that a little bit later than we usually do. So
083July is is turning out to be a very heavy travel month for legislators. Um especially when they want to be back in time for, you know, supporting election season and whatnot. So July was very heavily traveled but already what we found and this will be true for us in 2627 as school divisions are starting earlier. Um although that date worked with many of our legislators um has been problematic for some of our partner school divisions because it's during their convocation and things. So one of the things we already have on the draft agenda will be to look at June probably for 2026. Ah that makes sense because I'm remembering the full legislative calendar that we use internally and yeah that makes sense. Good. Thank you. Any very good Thank you, Dr. Sbert. Thank you very
084much. Thank you, Dr. Sbert. Madam Chair, that concludes the report. All right. Thank you, Mr. Freeman. Uh we will go on to the work of the board. Um the we don't really we will be meeting again um on July 1st at 5:30 p.m. to have a bit of a mini retreat where we can talk about well we'll we'll be talking about some items related to many many of these things and we'll we'll talk about more more about that then but basically it's just a get our shop in order on July 1 to have some conversations as we go into the new year. This is the last school board meeting of this school year and the next time we meet we will be into the next school year officially. Wow. I know. Are there any questions
085or thoughts before we move on from the board? All right. Well, no further business. Oh my goodness. Meeting is adjourned.