School Board Meeting - June 10, 2022

001and identified in the motion authorizing the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered in the closed meeting. Second. Moved by Ms. Carlson, seconded by Ms. Lee, that everything that we discussed in the public, in the closed session, rather, was included in the motion for the closed session. Ms. Johnston, could you give the roll call, please? Mr. Oberg? Yes. Dr. Acuff? Yes. Ms. Lee? Yes. Mr. Alcaro? I was not in the meeting, so I will abstain. Ms. Coulson? Yes. Ms. Osborne? Yes. Mr. Page? Yes. Motion carried. Motion carries. Thank you. We have two motions coming out of the closed session. Ms. Doberg? I move that we approve the appointment of employee A to the position set forth by the administration. Second. Moved by Mr. Oberg, seconded by Ms. Lee that we approve employee aid for the

002position given to us by administration. Any discussion on the motion? If not, Ms. Johnston. Ms. Osborne? Yes. Ms. Carlson? Yes. Mr. Oberg? Yes. Dr. Acup? Yes. Ms. Lee? Yes. Mr. Alcaro? Yes. Mr. Page? Yes. Motion carried. Thank you. All right, Mr. Oberg. I move that the board approve the appointments of administrators as set forth by the resolution set forth by the Human Resources Department. Second. Moved by Mr. Oberg, second by Ms. Lee, that we approve the administrator set forth from Human Relations. Any discussion on the motion? If not, Ms. Lee. No, Ms. Johnston. I mean Ms. Johnston. Sorry about that. Ms. Galston. Yes. Ms. Osborne. Yes. Mr. O'Carroll? Yes. Ms. Lee? Yes. Dr. Acuff? Yes. Mr. Oberg? Yes. Mr. Page? Yes. Motion carried. Thank you. We will now have the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you,

003and now our moment of silence. Thank you. We will now entertain a motion to approve the agenda for tonight's meeting. I move we approve the agenda for tonight's meeting. Second. Moved by Ms. Osborne, seconded by Mr. Oberg, that we approve the agenda for tonight's meeting. Any discussion on the motion? If not, Ms. Johnston. Mr. Oberg? Yes. Dr. Acuff? Yes. Ms. Lee? Yes. Mr. Alcaro? Yes. Ms. Coulson? Yes. Ms. Osborne? Yes. Mr. Page? Yes. Motion carried. Thank you. We will now entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda for tonight's meeting. I move we approve the consent agenda. Second. Moved by Ms. Osborne, seconded by Ms. Lee that we approve the consent agenda. Discussion? I would like to pull item 3.10 for discussion on fee schedules. Ms. Johnson, could you please take the vote to approve

004the consent agenda minus item 3-10? Ms. Osborne? Yes. Ms. Colson? Yes. Mr. Oberg? Yes. Dr. Acuff? Yes. Ms. Lee? Yes. Mr. O'Carroll? Yes. Mr. Page? Yes. Motion carried. Thank you. Okay, Dr. Acuff? Aye. Yes, a few months ago we received an email from a student's capstone project where he and his group advocated that we eliminate athletic fees for our students. They are currently $75 per sport, and they made the argument that that was a very inequitable fee structure and that for many of our students. participating in athletics is a key part of their high school experience. And I know that Dr. Haas and his team have looked into this, and I will defer to him. Mr. Chairman, would you speak to this, please? Thank you, Dr. Acuff. Yes, Ms. Acuff, we've looked into this. The

005fee schedule was set for $75 per student with a cap of, I believe, $300 per family. number of years ago when we were in significant budget straits I think that that staff is in agreement that this is perhaps not where we want to go for the future if if the board would care to entertain Passing the fee schedule without the athletic fee staff would be happy to bring forward bring back a proposal To address whatever loss of revenues that are associated with it Currently, the budget for next fiscal year includes about $92,000 in estimated fees to be received. We believe that we could come back with a good proposal for that for the future, but we would ask that the fee schedule be approved without that particular fee so that there would be no inadvertent

006collection of it over the summer. I don't recall when we did away with academic fees. It's been at least three or four years ago, and this is a fee that is remaining on the ledger books. So I would certainly be in favor of that. I would also, but I also, since we're talking about it, I wonder if you could look at the AP test. I know those are reduced based on need, but I was wondering if we could look at that. So with the AP testing, no students pay for that if they say they can't afford it. We provide funding to all the schools to cover those costs. So the fee is there. If the board wants to entertain Removing it we can do a study on the impact financially, but if you want to

007look at that We can look at that, too Well, it's it's noted as reduced or no fees based on need the same way that the athletics fee is so I don't know How those are how are those different? We don't provide though the only difference is that we do not provide funding to the schools to offset the The not collecting of revenues around athletic fees, where with the AP testing, we provide funding to schools to offset for students who do not pay to take those. That's the only difference. But we could come back with you with some numbers on that, too. Yeah, I would appreciate that. And that AP goes to the college board, right? Yeah, it actually goes to. The AP goes to the College Board to pay for individual tests, whereas internally, we

008can absorb, one of the reasons we can absorb the athletic fee is because that's funding that goes into the general fund, and then we redistribute it out to the schools for their... For the athletic funding that they need each year. So with the athletic fee, we think we can cover that based on my conversations with Mr. Zimmerman with one-time money for this coming school year. And then we would build into the budget to not count on those revenues for fiscal year 24. So we have. pretty simple solutions to that. The urgency around that one is that pretty soon they would start collecting it in July. So that's the, if we could move forward with that, and then we can come back to you with a report on how much. It costs to do AP testing,

009you know, like get an overall picture of what students are paying in terms of the numbers of tests and everything. And we can come back with you for a dollar amount for that. And we have a little lead time on that because the students, obviously, they don't order the tests until as you get into the spring because they wouldn't take tests again next year until May. Would that be all right? Yeah, that sounds good to me. Thank you. With respect to the athletic testing, I'd just like to do a shout-out to Johnny Harrison, who was the Monticello student who sent me the email in the fall. So what's the pleasure of the board on athletic fees? I would like Mr. Zimmerman and his team to come back with a cost estimate. I guess we already

010have done that and we can absorb it. So, okay. Let's absorb it. Let's absorb it. So pass the fee schedule without the athletic fee. Correct. Yeah, and then have information about that and the AP test. About the APs, yeah. Yeah. Okay, so what is the consensus of the board? Are we saying that we will absorb the athletic fee? For the next school year, and then they'll come back and build it into the budget for future years. Yes. That's my understanding. Yes. Are all board members in agreement with that? So we will absorb the athletic fee for this year and then have a staff report coming back to us for subsequent years. For the AP? For AP. And for the athletic fees, I think we need to vote on mr. Chair I mean, I think I

011think we have to approve I think we have to approve the absorption of the athletic fees for this next school year and Then give direction to staff to build it into the budget for FY 22 23 23, 24. I'm in a time warp here. I think we just need to remove the athletic fee from the fee schedule. Yes. Okay. And then pass the fee schedule. Thank you. That is much cleaner, Mr. Zimmerman. We can adopt 3.10. I move that we pass 3.10, the 2022-2023 fee schedule, minus row 6, the athletic participation fee. Second. Moved by Ms. Carlson, seconded by Mr. Oberg, that we approve item 3-10-06 in the consent agenda. Any discussion on the motion? If not, Ms. Johnston. Ms. Carlson? Yes. Ms. Osborne? Yes. Mr. Alcaro? Yes. Ms. Lee? Yes. Dr. Acup? Yes. Mr.

012Oberg? Yes. Mr. Page? Yes. Question period. All right, thank you. And that takes care of your concern too, right, Dr. Acuff? Yes, thank you. All right, now moving to our next agenda item, spotlight on education. Well, first, to introduce our board members and to make sure that our mics are all working. Dr. Kate Acuff. Kate Acuff, Jack Jewett District. Mr. John O. Elcaro. John O. Elcaro at large. Ms. Katrina Carlson. Katrina Carlson, Rio District. Ms. Judy Lee. Judy Lee, Rivanna District. Mr. Dave Oberg. Dave Oberg, Whitehall Magisterial District. Ms. Ellen Osborne. Ellen Osborne, Scottsville District. I'm Graham Page, Samuel Miller District. And Mr. Kofi Mason, now student rep. Kofi Mason, student rep, and I'm a recent grad of Almar High School. Thank you. So Kofi will now have the opportunity of introducing our spotlight on

013education as a recent grad of AHS. Thank you. This week we completed our high school graduation ceremonies for our four high schools with 1,033 students earning diplomas. The state tells us that about half of all high school graduates in the Commonwealth receive advanced studies diplomas, indicating that they have mastered an especially rigorous curriculum. Here in our school division, according to the most recent statistics from the state, nearly two out of every three of our graduates earned an advanced diploma, well above the state average. Niche, the national education assessment organization that uses millions of data sources to arrive at their rankings, gives us their highest score, an A-plus to our school division for our college preparation programs. Many of our students who graduated this past week will begin their college education as incoming freshmen in a

014few months. In a few years, however, it will be possible for our graduates to not only receive their high school diploma on graduation day, but to also have earned more than 60 college credits. They will have a range of options before them. They can enter college as a junior, enter college as a freshman, even with 63 college credits so that they are able to qualify for freshman privileges such as housing, or they can go right into the workforce with an associate's degree. That's because of our new program this year. our early college scholars program, which is housed at Monticello High School, but includes students from Albemarle and Western Albemarle as well. This year, there were nearly 50 sophomore students in the inaugural class with a goal of continually expanding enrollments each year. Teresa Godden, who

015leads the program, was not quite sure what to expect from this new program, particularly given the participation of students from other high schools. Ms. Gooden is here to tell us a little bit about how this first year unfolded, lessons learned, and why this program is so important to a division that has placed such a high premium on student choice. Also with Ms. Gooden are two students who were in the program this year, Hania Sanad from Monticello and Cameron Buck-Walter from Albemarle. Hania and Cameron briefly will share why this experience was such a great fit for them and talk about their experiences this first year. Good evening. Thank you so much for giving us the time to come and talk about our program today. I am Teresa Gooden, and I oversee the Early College Scholars Program

016for Alamo County Schools, which is based out of Monticello High School. This program allows students to earn an associate's degree for free at the same time as graduating from high school. So there are 63 credits on the table that we can give our students that they can either take to a four-year school or graduate with an associate's degree and have a leg up. on employment. Many jobs require associate's degrees. And what we're trying to do is expand this program, offer more and more choices of classes so we can have a diverse group of kids and they can have a lot of options for what they take. The program is housed at Monticello, but consists of students from Albemarle and Western. One of the reasons I was really excited to lead this program is to create

017a really strong cohort of students to support each other from the three schools coming together. And my hope was realized. When I see them in the cafeteria and I see them around Monticello High School, they really do support each other. And there's become a pretty strong bond among them. Following this year, we will continue to have the program for rising sophomores and more and more course options come available junior and senior year. So I would love for two of our top students, Hania and Cameron, to tell you a little bit about what they've experienced with early college. Hello, my name is Cameron Buckwalter and I am a sophomore Albemarle UCS student. I would like to thank Ms. Gooden for giving me the opportunity to speak with you this evening. When I entered high school as

018a freshman, it quickly became clear to me that the traditional path of high school did not challenge me enough academically in certain areas. When I learned about the UCS program, I was immediately intrigued by the opportunity to take more interesting courses while also advancing my academic career with the chance to earn college credit. In my two semesters with the ECS program, I have also been given the additional side benefit of meeting like-minded student peers across the county that I would not have otherwise met. Furthermore, I already feel more prepared for college by having learned how to better communicate with my professors, and I liked being introduced to a college environment while still in high school. An example of this would be my PVCC public speaking course that was taught by Ms. Julie Olive. Ms. Olive

019was extremely kind and very helpful in providing useful feedback and adapting the assigned speeches towards a younger class. I think her class was an amazing experience and I thought she was a great professor. Overall, I'm really glad that I chose to participate in the Early College Scholar Program. I appreciate the wonderful opportunity to earn college credit by taking these interesting courses and I would like to advocate for the expansion of the program. I frequently have other students ask me about the program. and they're often surprised to learn of its existence and the head start it offers for college. I am grateful to have learned about it in time to take advantage of the program. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge Ms. Gooden and Mr. Johnson's hard work and dedication towards the UCS program. Thank you

020for letting me take a few moments of your time this evening to share my experiences with the Early College Scholar Program. I'm a sophomore at a Monticello High School. I'm really thankful for this opportunity to be here and talk about my experiences in front of the school board. I chose to do this program for a number of reasons. The first one being that I wanted to complete at least my bachelor's degree before I age out. of my parents' legal status since I'm an immigrant over here. The second one being that I wanted to get an experience on what it is like to be in college. I did get my experience and it was really helpful. The classes were a bit hard and more demanding than my regular high school classes, but the professors were really

021kind. and they were able to help me. It really did allow me to reach my full potential and accomplish things that I didn't realize I would. I held myself back last year in ninth grade because I wasn't confident that I could handle harder classes, but taking this program has proved me wrong. The program helped me to be more organized, careful on what decisions I make, and more importantly to have more confidence in myself. I believe this experience is really helpful to me. Probably the best thing I like about this program is how it prepares me to be ready for college so that I can already know what to expect. The only recommendation I would make for this program is to offer more classes mainly in the math or in the science field. because I feel

022like it could really help students because those subjects are usually the hardest ones. Other than that, I'm really grateful for this program and I hope it grows and continues so other students would be benefited as well. Okay, thank you for this opportunity. We enjoyed being able to share this awesome program with you. Thanks. Thank you, Ms. Gooden. Ms. Gooden. Ms. Gooden. Ms. Gooden. Before you leave, yeah, do any board members have questions for either of our two students or for Ms. Cutton related to the program? I'm sorry if I missed this. How many students participate in this program? So we have 47 this year. We've got 21 from Alamoa High School, six from Western, and the rest from Monticello. And we're going to add another almost 40 next year. So that will be a total

023of 80. Okay, thank you. Yeah. Any other questions for us? Just how do students find out about this? Do they find out in their freshman year? talking with our guidance counselors or how does this work? So that's a great question. I'm trying to put the information out in many, many different forms so everyone can access it. So some things we've done is the county has made a presentation about all special programs like JROTC, Center One, et cetera. We were a part of that presentation. I also did a screencast of a presentation I did for the AVID class at Monticello. with narration and sent that to all freshman seminar classes. So they were all exposed to that in freshman seminar. And finally, the counselors know about it. And when freshmen come to meet with the counselors

024for next year, they have the opportunity to discuss it further. I'm also very visible in the school and friendly and always happy to talk about the program. So anyone can contact me as well. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, I have a question. How do students from AHS and WAAS participate? Great. It's similar to the academy. They use the same satellite stop as the academy. And so they come over this year. They're here for a half a day. Next year, it will be a full day. So they will be at Monticello one full day every other day. And then they will take the bus back to the... pick up location in the afternoon. How is it different from just taking dual or AP classes at your base school? That's a great question. Well, it's just kind

025of more of those credits. Also, with this program, you actually graduate high school with a degree. You have college credits. You have an associate's degree. So basically, you're coming into your future with more resources. And so you can think about it as kind of an expansion of the dual enrollment AP courses, but really focused because we have a pathway to get this degree. So if students are in this program for the three years in Alamo County schools, they will be able to earn the degree and 63 credits. Most high school students maybe come to like 35 or so credits. So it gives them the structure as well, which I said before, I love the cohort. So it's a really neat opportunity for kids to kind of bond and support each other. Where does the associate's

026degree get awarded from? PVCC. So does that mean that if you obtain that associate's degree, you're automatically admitted into? One of the universities of Virginia? That's a great question. Well, Virginia, it depends on the school. So it depends on the school, which is something that's always hard to say because I want to say yes, no, or whatever. But schools are different. Some schools, I would say most state schools, do not accept the reciprocity agreement because the kids have to have a high school diploma before doing their two years of school. In these situations, students will not have guaranteed admission, but will go into their freshman year with the degree and the 63 credits. They will go in as a freshman, and they can take an opportunity of freshman housing, the cultural part of being in

027college or freshman year, and either have a reduced course load or be able to graduate early. There are a few schools that will honor the reciprocity admissions agreement, but that might interact as far as your freshman year experience. The other thing that's important to know is if you get this degree, you don't have to go for that agreement. So say I want to apply to UVA as a regular student. and I want to have my first year experience, I can still do that with being in the program. So it's pretty flexible. Thankfully, more and more schools are putting information online, so there's a place where we can look and get names of schools like that. There's also a new website called transfervirginia.org, and in that, schools are starting to jump on, unfortunately not Tech or

028UVA, yet. But you can actually plug in the courses you're taking through Piedmont and see which schools give you credit. JMU, for example, takes all 63 credits of the program. Some schools, especially, for example, an engineering program, often they want students to take math at their campus. So there is, again, depends on the school, but most of the state schools will take near, if not all, of the credits. And JMU is the... best example of a state school nearby that honors that. And we've had students, I've worked a lot with the green program and they've had many successful students. There was a student that went out of state to an engineering school and he was able to transfer 42 credits, but there, and this is on the website, there's a testimonial by him saying why

029he's still really glad that he did the program. So it's a little bit complicated. I know that we've had a lot of discussions at the board level, and I know at Central about student mental health, especially with stress around AP courses, that you don't quite see the same level of stress in dual enrollment courses. And I was just wondering what you're doing in the program to monitor that student stress and see where it is. Well, that's the great thing about having these three schools come together and building a cohort. Basically, while kids have classmates that they can rely on, these kids in the program are going to be together in classes all three years. So they will be together as a cohort as they go through classes. They will still be subject to the AP

030limit, but my hope is to have more and more dual enrollment options as I think it's better to not have to rely on one day and one test. So if you were going with an AP test for this program, if you had a bad test day, you don't get credit for that class. Whereas if you take a dual enrollment class and you do well, you get the three credits. We're also working really closely with the guidance departments to partner with them and support students in that way. Also, I love being there as a resource for kids. I'm kind of right up in the cafeteria of Monticello. And so thankfully, a lot of kids have taken advantage of that and coming for some support. And I appreciate that. I just want to make sure that we

031have a structured way of monitoring that. I mean, we talk about that student stress all the time, and I hope that it's more than a soft thing. I mean, like, so that we actually have numbers around that with this program. Okay. Sure. Numbers around, can you elaborate? How stressful kids are finding that. Okay. Yeah. So this is our first year, but definitely open to that. I really appreciate those concerns among our students. So that is something that we definitely have to be mindful of. The reason why I talked a bit about the cohort is I've just already seen how it kind of decreases stress. However, that's a great point. And we will need to continue to work with counseling. And then as we build the program, I'm very open to ideas. of ways of kind

032of collecting that information and also providing those students with support. Thank you, Ms. Gooden. Thank you so much for having us. And thank you to your two students for being here with you. We are now ready for our announcements and school board superintendent business. And I'll start that off by recognizing that this is Mr. Mason's last night, last official meeting as our student board rep. We had our retreat that had been scheduled for June 13th, and that's been canceled. But we'll keep Mr. Mason on the RSVP list. for that retreat so that we can let you know when it's going to be. And then you can still come with us on that retreat. Thank you. Thank you. All right. But our letter to Mr. Mason. Dear Kofi, first thing first, congratulations on your remarkable academic

033and service career with our school division, which reached a high point this week with advanced studies diploma you earned from Albemarle High School. Of course, by our board, the high point of your accomplishment occurred twice a month when you joined us as a representative for the more than 13,000 students in our school division. When we created this position, we hoped our student representative would contribute a perspective about which we only could speculate. You removed all speculation. As we work through the important challenges and opportunities before our students, their families, and our staff, it was refreshing to hear your views on what mattered most and what worked best. One of our founding principles for this position was to help make students better community leaders, and we found in the process that you made us better as

034well. Among the goals you outlined as student representative was to make more information accessible to underserved communities so that they could utilize the vast resources available to them and to address systemic inequities that impact student access, achievement, and success. We want you to know that although your term as student representative is coming to an end, our devotion to achieving your goals will continue to strengthen. Thank you for the benefits of experiencing your thoughtfulness, your advocacy of students, and your strong moral compass. Best wishes for much extraordinary success as you prepare to embrace new and even more limitless opportunities to make our world a better place. Sincerely, Graham Page Care and other members of the Albemarle County School Board. Do you have any words of wisdom that you'd like to share with us? No words of

035wisdom, but I am greatly appreciative of this opportunity to be on the board with you all, and I look forward to seeing what the county does. Thank you very much, Kofi. Thank you so much for your service. Now, another resolution also in recognition of another person that we are losing tonight for last official board meeting, Dr. Bernard L. Harston. Whereas following more than 40 years in public education as a teacher, school administrator, community leader, and now as an assistant superintendent of Albemarle County Public Schools, Dr. Bernard Harrison will be retiring on June 30th. And whereas Dr. Harrison's contributions to student learning over more than four decades has reflected the words of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who, speaking of the purpose of public education in 1967, advised students to never allow anybody to

036make you feel that you are nobody. Always feel that you count, that you have worth, and that your life has ultimate significance. And whereas Dr. King also advised that our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter, there comes a time when one must take a position that neither is safe political nor popular, but he must do it because content tells him it is right, he said. And whereas few matters are more urgent, carry a higher moral purpose, or more essential to our prosperity as a nation, than is the equality of opportunity in education. And whereas Dr. Harrison's impact is experienced through such programs as bullying prevention, African American teaching fellows, M-Cubed, culturally responsive teaching, and his work with students to develop one of our nation's first anti-racism policies adopted

037by a public school division. And whereas in our performance of programs developed by Dr. Harrison have received national and state awards of excellence for Albemarle County Public Schools, and whereas among his honors in his selection as the Industrial Arts Teacher of the Year for the state of Virginia, And whereas Dr. Harrison's work has not been limited to this school division, he has twice received national recognition for regional student mentorship program. and having made possible more than $160,000 in scholarship to students in nine school divisions. And whereas teachers and students today in classrooms across the division are benefiting from research-based strategies and techniques that are true to our school division's goal of thriving students, affirming and empowering communities, and in providing equitable transformative resources. And whereas Dr. Harrison has dedicated his career to creating greater awareness

038and commitment within our school division, the responsibility to lift all children and lower and remove all barriers, not because it is a politic, but because it is right. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Albemarle County School Board expresses its appreciation and gratitude to Dr. Bernard Harrison for his life-changing contributions to thousands of our students, their families, and our staff that will endure long after his retirement. And be it further resolved that the Board extends its best wishes to Dr. Harrison, Gwen Harrison, and their family that this next important phase in their lives be healthy, joyful, and rewarding. Dr. Harrison to come up in knuckle bump or shake hands? Yes, we can have that. I also have... Okay, but first, do any board members have anything to add to the resolution? Any personal items? Personal

039statements? Yeah, I'll add. When I was running for office... 2017, I got to meet a lot of people. And I remember the day I met you, Bernard. It was in Agner Hurt. You had no idea who I was. You were talkative. You were friendly. But what I remember most was you were really passionate. You speak powerfully. You speak maybe colorfully and enthusiastically. And you wanted to help me. understand what was going on. You continued to offer me support and advice. because you cared about our students is what I took away from it. So much so that, I mean, I hesitate to say I don't remember everyone I meet, but I don't remember everyone I meet, and I remember that interaction because I walked out of that school. And to be fair, I had no idea

040who you were. So I thought you were just a really passionate parent who was at the school who was talking to me, and I was like, hey, man, I like it. I can roll with this. And I found out later that it was your job as well. You have an impact on people you meet. I appreciate that you used it to help the lives of our students, and you had an impact on me as well. Dr. Harrison, I hope you know how much I care about you. I think you're one of the finest people I've ever been associated with. But the best compliment I can give you is that as an administrator, you never stopped being a teacher. And you have been my teacher, my mentor. And you've made me a better man, and I

041appreciate it. I'm going to miss having you around. Dr. Ashton, could you come up and give us a series? Oh, I'm sorry. Okay, I'm sorry. There was a lull. Okay. There was a lull. Right, all right. I was taking a deep breath. I can't remember when I first met you, Bernard, but I do know that I went to one of your very first equity conferences where I was sort of introduced to the concept that is now represented by this ocean of turquoise T-shirts. But I know you've been quite patient with me in teaching me about culturally responsive teaching and what it actually meant. And I absolutely am persuaded that you are the reason that our anti-racism policy is more than a policy and a poster, that it is in the process of being embedded in

042everything we do at Albemarle schools. And I think that's an incredible legacy. Dr. Harrison, as I was thinking about our work together, I've appreciated so much your candor. And just as Dave said, I feel like you've made me such a better school board member. But truly, the thing that makes me emotional right now is how my son is going to benefit from and all of his peers and all the children who go to school here in the future are going to benefit from your work. And I'm really grateful for that. I've got a slightly different approach to this because Bernard and I have known each other six and a half years since we've been on the school board. And we're roughly the same age. And we've spent most of our 60s knowing each other. And

043so I've got some words that I just wrote down today that... express my feelings but aspects of you that I have great respect for. Shy, withdrawn, oh wait that's the wrong list, hang on. 1952, Gwen, green triumph, culturally responsive teaching, diversity and equity committee, advisory committee, dedicated. genuine, thinker, visionary, accomplished, listens, opinionated, proud, focused, lifelong learner, in your face when necessary. To Mr. Oberg's point, lifelong teacher, loves to laugh, inquisitive, is a builder and a rebuilder, totally transparent. And one of the things, Dr. Harrison, that I have great respect for is that I never leave a meeting like this or an individual meeting wondering what you meant by what you said. It was clear. And I have great respect for that. And you will be missed. Thank you very much. Dr. Harrison, I want to

044thank you for that. for the opportunity to get to know you and I've always been able to tell that at your at heart you were a teacher because a lot of times I would come to you with questions and you wouldn't give me the answer you would just ask me things to make me think and figure it out for myself and lead me down the right path and I just want to tell you how much I appreciate that thank you all And I can only echo everything that has already been said. So, Dr. Harrison, will you now come up? Mr. Chair, can I ask a point of personal privilege? Yes. Can we not do a fist bump? I'd rather wait until later and get hugs. Okay. All right. All right, then. Is that the consensus

045of the board? Sure. Okay. All right, thank you. Right, I know, I know. You don't have to hug John. Dr. Haas, do you, well, Dr. Haas is scheduled to do the announcements now. So you can come up, respond to everything that has been said, and then take care of your announcements for tonight. With Dr. Haas leading off, I think, the announcement. for this. Real quick, are we still on school board business or we're not there yet? We're on announcements. I just want to get it out of the way. You said it. I'm sorry to jump in and this is probably wrong timing, but the school board retreat We were supposed to announce and publicly announce that has been canceled, so I didn't know if we were moving on to the next sessions. There's conflicts. I'm

046going to be at a funeral. There's other conflicts. So we will set a new date, and we'll communicate via email to say that. And Mr. Mason will be notified when the new date has been set. I just wanted to liven up the room by mentioning a funeral, pausing it up, you know. So I'm going to cede any announcements I have to Dr. Harrison so he has the time. The school board does have a tradition, though. However, when a school board member leaves the board, the board awards the departing member an apple, a permanent apple, not an actual apple, that they can take with them to commemorate their time on the board. the board. I would like to award that to him as he comes to the podium to take on the next part of our

047school board meeting. thank you. I' m not quite sure how to follow that. It takes me back to 1981 where I had the first opportunity to stand in front of maybe about 700 or 800 people to respond to the Virginia Teacher of the Year Award. And there was a podium in front of me and my knees were shaking so badly that I just couldn't control myself. And I get that same feeling right now from all the wonderful comments for having an opportunity to be an educator. There's no better career for anyone to have than to be an educator. We produce all the doctors, the lawyers, we produce them all. And it's not a job, it's a career. So I appreciate this opportunity to work with all of you. I'm going to give a hug to

048each and every one of you. This is what it's about. I tried to hide the fact that my mama made a crybaby. Jennifer, you got something? I am excited to see the thought-provoking concepts making a difference in our schools and I want to see how many people are transformed by this training and how many of my peers and other educators are there and sharing their experiences, sharing their own tricks and trading stories about success. To me it's... That is the biggest reward is to see that we have helped the students more, we have reached out to the students more, and that we have closed that equity gap in the best way we can. I'm going to the equity conference this year because I'm very excited to see what other people have learned this year and

049what their process has been like. And I can't wait to share what my process has been like this year. It's definitely very informative, and I hope to see you there. So officially, good evening, school board members, Dr. Haas, my favorite superintendent, and meeting observers. I'm Bernard Hairston, at the moment, your favorite assistant superintendent of school and community empowerment. I trust that you board members have observed the group in the teal-colored T-shirts. You out? And hopefully there are smiling faces and proud faces. They represent the 159 educators who completed the credentialing process this school year in CRT. CRT, that's the only thing we know in Albemarle County. It's culturally responsive teaching. CRT, that's who we are. They represent a 130% increase over the previous year of credential staff, despite the unforeseen challenges of navigating a third

050straight year of this pandemic. They also represent a 93% pass rate, which is a 6% increase over the previous year. They represent 99% of your schools with a range of 2 to 13 educators completing the process this year. They represent growth from a 13% to a 23% of educators who are practicing as culturally responsive teaching credential educators from the beginning of this year to current state. Beginning of the year, 13%, current state, 23%. They represent 183 micro-credential and 125 certified staff in various positions who are positioned to return as equity leaders next year. Okay? They're ready to set this place on fire. I would like to do an informal two-question survey with, I think there are probably somewhere between 35 and 40 folks, as I estimate. Who I'd like to do this without turning around

051because I don't want to like Influence them by turn around looking at them to influence their their way of responding so um there are two questions or two responses and I'm gonna read them first so that they'll have a little bit of think time and Then we will read them again, and then they'll raise their hands so for the first question John Oh, would you like to like kind of do like a? Kind of an estimate observation. Kate, would you do the second question? Would you mind? Okay. Not now, but let me read the questions first. Okay. Prudential folks. Okay. We're going to ask you to raise your hand if you believe your CRT, professional development training, has been one of the most effective and relevant sessions in your career. The second question will be.

052Raise your hand if this credential process has improved your capacity to close achievement gaps and this has been one of your most effective years teaching. You got that? All right, I'm going to turn around. All right, so first question, first response. Raise your hand. if you believe your CRT professional development training has been one of the most effective and relevant sessions in your career. No, not yet. So, John O, did we get at least a 70% response? You got at least a 70% response. Did we get at least an 85% response? We got at least 85%. Did we get over 90% response? We got over 90%. I think I'm stretching my, I'm going to stop there. I'm stretching it. I'm stretching it. Not only did you get everybody in teal, but you got many people

053in red raising their hands. So, yes, 110%. Thank you. Thank you. Affirmation. I didn't know how it was going to go. Second question. I believe. Raise your hand if this credential process has improved your capacity to close achievement gaps and this has been one of your most effective years of teaching and our leadership. Be truthful. Kate, did we get 60%? Yeah, we got 60. Did we get 75%? Yeah, I think a little north of that. Did we get at least 95%? We got more than that. Outstanding. Y'all don't make me cry. I would like to invite these special guests to receive a personal congratulations from our school board for a job well done this year and taking yet another step towards understanding the power of reaching them to teach them. Congratulations. Thank you so much.

054Congratulations. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Harrison. And we're going to see a lot more of Dr. Harrison tonight since this is his last official night being at a board meeting. We will now move to public comment. Vice Chair, Ms. Carlson. Give me a moment. So tonight we have 10 speakers. I'm going to start by reading the public comment guidelines. The school board invites and actively seeks the public's input in the matters relevant to school board governance and provides for time during its business meetings to hear from Albemarle County residents and community members. Before public comment starts, I'm going to announce the order in which the speakers will comment. You will have three minutes for comments. You'll be notified when you have one

055minute left. The yellow light will come on, and when the red light comes on, that means your time is done. Speakers during the meeting are those submitting written comment should state their name and address our Magisterial District further speakers should limit comments to those matters that are relevant to school board governments are the operations of the school division Although the school board will not respond to comments made during the public comment period School board members may address comments at the end of the meeting agenda under other business So like I did the last time I'm just gonna go ahead and read all ten names So, you know where you stand and they can expect when you're gonna come up We have Helena Clem on Amy Gertner Cheryl Knight Caden Wright Amanda Moxham Vernon lecti Laura

056Harrison Mary McIntyre Aaron wise Achenbaum and Kristen Johnson. So miss Clem on you were in here Good evening. My name is Helena Kleiman. I'm a resident of the Rivanna District, and I'm a teaching assistant at Red Hill Elementary School. I spoke at the last school board meeting, and I'm here again because I know that my comments from the last meeting resonated with you all, and I wanted to keep the momentum going, continue to share perspectives that I don't think you are hearing, and have a conversation with the board about exactly why collective bargaining is so important, not just to teachers, but to classified staff as well. Like last time, I'm here this evening to urge the school board to form a task force that includes members of the board who would work with the AAH

057to revise our collective bargaining agreement so it would meet all of the requirements. of our needs. Classified employees deserve and desire collective bargaining just as much as teachers so that we can have a voice in our contracts and our working conditions. And this last school year has really been proof of how badly we need it. It was a tough one. The transition from in-person to online to in-person with masks was really hard for students and educators alike. I'm a TA in our Bright Stars classroom and policing mask use with four-year-olds not easy. And despite our absolute best efforts, my students had to quarantine two separate times during the last school year. During those times, I was still at Red Hill because I'm a fully vaccinated adult and I worked as a TA in other classrooms

058and as a substitute. After the first time I was a substitute, I was leaving the school for the day and one of our lovely office staff she told me she's like don't worry. I'm gonna make sure that paperwork is in the US sub. You'll see it in your pay and I said, oh thanks. Not really thinking it was a big deal. She tells me it's a lot more money and it was. I was paid significantly more money when my students were at home quarantining than I am when they're in the building with me. We all know that the relationships between students and teachers is absolutely integral to their success. In fact, positive student-teacher relationships is often touted as the single largest classroom determiner of student success. How can I possibly be paid more when the

059students that I'm forming these relationships with are not even in school? It was a huge wake-up call to me that TAs are incredibly undervalued when I was paid so much more as a substitute. I am the first person that my students see in the morning and the last person they see before they leave. I make sure that they have breakfast if they're hungry. I put band-aids on them. I am there with them and their classroom teacher and their essential teacher all day. Collective bargaining would give me a voice in my contract so that I and TAs like myself could advocate for the importance of our positions because we deserve to be compensated in a way and work in conditions that are reflective of how much we do and how important we are to student success.

060Collective bargaining would bring those things like a living wage and tenable working conditions to all ACPS employees. We have a chance to be on the cutting edge of labor reform in Virginia. What we choose to do sets a precedent that could have a huge impact on both teachers and classified employees all over Virginia. Let's set one that empowers them. Thank you for those comments. Ms. Kleiman. Good evening, members of the school board and Dr. Haas. My name is Amy Gertner, and I'm a resident of Whitehall District. On Sunday, May 29th, I walked into the Linden House with my mother's weekly laundry and noticed a stack of newspapers on the counter. On the front page of the Daily Progress is a picture of me standing with some of my favorite people. 15 minutes later I get

061a phone call from a hospice nurse. My father was actively passing. As I walk past the papers again, I think how hard it has been to be an educator, a daughter, and an advocate over the last four years. The colonnades is very nice, but it was my conversation with a CNA named Laura the day I toured that let me know this was the right place. Before I knew anything about collective bargaining, I knew Laura must feel respected by her employer, paid a fair wage, enjoyed her colleagues, and had the resources to do her job well. She'd been there for 25 years. When we arrived, I asked Laura how long she thought Dad had. She looked his legs and feet. She said, I don't know God's plan, but I think two or three days. Laura called

062on June 1st at 7.30 in the morning. We should come. It would not be long now. I said goodbye to my Zoom Bible study, called my brother, and left to pick up my mom. I thought about what I was going to say to Laura. She needed to hear again today why Dad was at the colonnades. Mom could not come in with me at first. Laura walked in, and I sat by Dad's bed. She showed me how blue his feet were turned, and I watched her hold them. I told her she was the reason I chose the colonnades. I saw her gift and her passion for her work. I was so grateful for all she had done for Dad and being a mentor to others. A school board member visited our school last month. I thought

063they had come to see Luis Flores. Dr. Kaiser had just read his we notice write-up at the last school board meeting. The school board member did not leave the front office. How disheartening. They didn't come to meet the one ECPS employee that was highlighted for his exceptional work. At the last school board meeting, you went over numbers from the Gallup survey. I'm here to remind you that those numbers represent a heartbeat. It does not matter if you're 10 years old or 89 years old. People matter. Tonight, I'm wearing my father's last favorite shirt, stains and all. Life and relationships are messy and hard, but no one writes a love song, a poem, or a letter of gratitude for a number. Numbers don't make the heart sing, the spirit soar, or the imagination dream. Employees' satisfaction

064is low and a... EA was the fastest growing local in the state for a reason. The EA supported, encouraged, inspired, and gave a voice and hope to 1,400 ACPS educators. HR and administrators cannot solve this problem alone. You need the EA to be part of the solution, and I think you know it. Many educators are not physically or emotionally able to be here at the eve of the last day of school. Some of the speakers tonight will express their anger and frustration. Right now, I'm lamenting for you. You are missing out on getting to know and work with... people who are dedicated, who want nothing more than to have a conversation with you about the students they love, their colleagues who are struggling, and how to work with you to make things better. Thank you

065for your time. Thank you for those comments, Ms. Gertner. I'm sorry about the passing of your father. The next speaker will be Cheryl Knight. It's a little hard to go after hearing Amy's comments. My name is Cheryl Knight. I live at 1119 Merriweather Street. I am thankful to be with you here this evening. It's really great to see you, Mr. Oberg. We've missed seeing you here. And good to see all of you. This evening, I have a slightly different public comment. I'm actually really happy, Kofi, that this is your... last board meeting, I actually wanted to share with you how meaningful it was for me as well as many, many other educators in the county that you spoke for teachers and educators. On the night when we were discussing or when the board was discussing

066collective bargaining and I know everyone that I spoke to was just in awe and So thankful for that. So thank you for using your voice. It really does make a difference and It's not much But I did want to offer you a t-shirt We stand together. And just to share that feeling. I'm very excited for your future. And I look forward to hearing what is next for you, Kofi. Thank you so much. So the next speaker is, thank you for those comments, Ms. Knight. The next speaker will be Caden Wright. Hi, I'm Kayden Wright, a freshman at Albemarle High School and a resident in the Valle district. On Tuesday, I planned an experiment. At approximately 11.40 a.m., I exited Albemarle High School without permission from a principal or parent. When I left, I walked to

067Hilltop Grocery, a store near Albemarle High School, and I purchased several items. Afterwards, I walked back to Albemarle. I re-entered near the gym and rang the school's doorbell. I was holding a brown paper bag and I was quickly let in without question. Not only was I able to leave Albemarle without detection, I, an unidentified stranger, was let back into the premises of school without identification. Now, I had Gatorade and candy in my bag, but what if I had beer, drugs, or maybe even a weapon? School security has to be improved. Why is there no legitimate security ensuring the safety of students and teachers? Why don't we have school resource officers? so many discipline insecurity measures in our schools neglected. This year teachers and students have been sent to hospitals. for due to altercations in school

068altercations that could have been resolved earlier, if not entirely avoided, had the school board made the health and safety of this division a priority. This year, our schools have been so devastatingly overcrowded that for the majority of the school year, Albemarle High School was forced to have four separate lunch periods a day. This year, several organizations made by concerned community members have worked tirelessly to. Provide the school board of solutions but neither the superintendent of schools nor the school board bothered to give them any of them and a legitimate official platform to speak in fact this administration would rather listen to skewed and effective data presented by Gallup than the real Experiences of people who care about the school division and its students this year teacher Teachers have been treated like commodities and students like

069plundered resources. Your disconnection from our school system has degraded the education that Albemarle County Public Schools provides. The way this school system operates is unsustainable. We are playing with fire, and are you willing to take responsibility when someone is burned? Thank you for your time. Thank you for those comments, Mr. Wright. The next speaker is Amanda Moxham. Good evening. My name is Amanda Moxham. I'm in the Rio District. For six years, I actually worked as a certified Gallup performance coach. So the data that you all saw, that consultant absolutely skewed the data to make you all more comfortable, and I want you to know that. I spent six years as a certified coach through Gallup working at Northrop Grumman serving 80,000 employees. and working directly with the four different quartiles of leaders and where they

070fell and helping them plan not only their action planning but also how to do employee engagement with the style of making sure that you're the facilitator and not forcing things. What really disappointed me most outside of just his commentary that he shared with you all to sort of lighten the blow of that data is the fact that Right before he presented, you had a complete slate of teachers and staff who literally served up for you on a silver platter, collective bargaining, which is a number one key employee engagement tool. So they stood here, they told you everything that they needed to be engaged and feel supported. Then you saw data that showed that. And then it got really sort of shoveled away. And I think the disconnect there is really disappointing. If I was leading

071this division and I had all of these teachers telling me exactly what they needed and that they were literally spending their extra hours sitting here while doing their lesson plans, preparing to speak to you, and that gets pushed by the wayside, it's literally why the engagement data is what it is. It's pretty simple. I also wanted to share with you that I have had my youngest child at Almar County Public Schools for the first time. She'd been in private school previously and really wanted a public school experience. She's in fourth grade and she will not return next year by her own choice. The school environment, even at fourth grade, is not conducive to her being able to be a safe... a safe and comforted learner. She had an amazing teacher. It was a teacher that

072we've known that my other children have had, and it was a great experience with that teacher. But the school environment in particular is not focused on anti-racism at all. If you look online, the 2021 to 2022 school year equity dashboard does not exist. I've been looking for it, waiting for it. We're a whole school year behind. There was no talk of anti-racism in her school. I went with them on their Jamestown settlement field trip last week. And again, you know, you're going to Jamestown and speaking with people representing Native Americans who are literally whiter than the whitest person you've ever seen. One woman I was actually worried she was going to get really badly sunburned, and she was representing Native Americans. And that is what our children are being taught. And that is what is

073spoon-fed to them and told that that is acceptable. And it's really just not. So that's fourth grade. I just really hope that the school division stops checking the box with the anti-racism policy without actually putting teeth behind it and doing something. Thank you. Thank you for your comments, Ms. Moxon. The next speaker will be Mr. Lecty. Good evening. My name is Vernon Lecty, and I'm president of the Albemarle Education Association. On May 12th, the ACPS School Board voted not to authorize collective bargaining resolutions submitted by the AEA at that time. On May 26th, the results of the Gallup Survey on Engagement were offered to the board. This survey is part of an effort to meet the goals of the ACPS Strategic Plan to support efforts to attract, develop, and retain the highest quality staff. A

074big takeaway from the results is that to meet the goals of the Strategic Plan, something needs to change. The results emphasize that county needs a culture of engagement and that the current culture needs to shift. Too often, ACPS employees are given an opportunity to offer their advice and give their feedback on specific issues or in advisory panels. However, when issues persist without action being taken by administration or actions contrary to the advice offered, it specifically demoralizes employees and causes them not to be engaged. Why be engaged when far too often your advice has been ignored? A meet and confer process gives all the power to implement change up to administration decisions and none for workers. Someone recently described the meet and confer to me as meet and beg because that is basically all the power

075workers have in the process. How would a meet and beg process help shift our current culture? If you want your workforce to be engaged, you need to demonstrate that you are actually willing to treat us as respected professionals. The process that you engage with us should be in a relationship where we can come together to make those changes necessary, protected in a legally binding contract. This is an actual substantial culture shift that could help to attract, develop, and retain the highest quality staff, especially if Albemarle is one of the first localities in the state to do this. Over 69% of ACPS teachers want to initiate this process through collective bargaining. That is a form of engagement. When you deny them that right, how do you expect them to be engaged or expect them to be

076engaged in a meet and confer process, which seems to be more of the same culture? When over 70% of your transportation workers tell you they want to initiate a relationship through collective bargaining, that is a form of engagement. Drivers can tell you what changes they need to see to attract, develop, and retain the highest quality transportation staff. How do you think our professional transportation workers feel when they are asked to work together with you on bargaining? a better contract, they're told no, and then see via press release that the division is advocating hiring individuals to do bus rounds without commercial driver licenses or removing the need for CDL drivers by having students ride the cat buses. How can you expect workers to be engaged when these are the actions the division chooses to take instead

077of engaging in contract negotiations with its workforce? Over half of all ACPS employees have signed an authorization card in order to have the right to bargain with you collectively. Through this process, we are telling you how we want to engage with you. Too often individuals say they support reforms in concept, yet they take no efforts to aggressively pursue it. ACPS workers have told you they want bargaining rights. The board has said not at this time and to wait to learn from the actions of others in Virginia. Our Gallup results state clearly, if as a leader you do not take responsibility for generating a culture shift that creates an engaging workplace, chances are no one will. When will you do this? Thank you for those comments, Mr. Leckley. The next speaker is Ms. Harrison. Laura Harrison,

078I'm in the Rio district. I'm here tonight to call out the blatant anti-blackness of this school division and of this board. First, thank you to the two school board members who actually support teachers and staff as evidenced by your actions during the vote on collective bargaining. To the rest of you union busters, I'd like to point out that your actions are not only grossly unsupportive of staff as a whole, but they're steeped in anti-blackness and racism. Those who would benefit most from collective bargaining are your lowest wage earners who are historically and currently majority people of color. Folks who because of white supremacy have never had a seat at the table without fighting for it. You had the opportunity to change that, but you went with the status quo. Anti-black, racist, and classist. Here's some

079other examples of ACPS racism. One, at Agner Hurt, blacks-only and whites-only graffiti was written in the school. In his response to parents, the principal simply called it inappropriate and could not bring himself to use the word racist. Students received reminders to be kind to one another instead of any actual anti-racist education. Two, no public statement about the racist violence in Buffalo until several days later, and even then, the message was only sent internally. Three, we've heard from BIPOC students who requested time and space to process the recent violent deaths of BIPOC elementary students in Texas. These ACPS students reported that teachers and admin were silent or did not offer any tangible support. Four. This board's commitment to the white supremacist value of civility and the way it restricts clapping and other shows of support, this

080is not culturally responsive. Additionally, there's a huge disparity in the way the teachers were handled and the way that parents advocating for black students were handled. We were threatened and unlawfully arrested. That is anti-blackness. You are not an anti-racist school division or board. It's outlandish that you brag about an anti-racism policy when the administrators you put in charge are not equipped with the tools to address racism or support students experiencing racial trauma. You're failing and there's no accountability. Just more undeserved pats on the back and euphemisms. The audacity of all of you, but too. To sit up here and think you actually should be in charge of anything to do with our children is utterly disgusting. Thank you, Mr. Page and Ms. Lee, and to the rest of you, there's one way you can make

081this division improved right now, and that is to resign. Thank you for those comments, Ms. Harrison. The next speaker will be Ms. McIntyre. Hello, I'm Mary McIntyre. I live in the Rio district. I teach at Jack Jewett Middle School and I have two children in Albemarle County Schools. I want to say that it was really clever moving the CRT presentation to the announcements instead of doing it where it was on the agenda. And I can't help but think that that was done so that you wouldn't see all of the teal shirt people standing up in support of collective bargaining, which is inevitably what you would have seen. But unfortunately, they have all left. Something I learned as an Air Force spouse, is the acronym SME, Subject Matter Expert. The military recognizes that they have highly

082trained and experienced people spread across their ranks. And when it is decision-making time, the SME's opinion is heavily weighted. It has to be that way because no colonel or general can know everything all the time. It's not efficient for them to even try. We are the SMEs on meeting our students' needs, our own needs, and what is working and not working in our schools in this quickly changing world. We are the face of the division for families. but we are not treated as experts by you and your staff. Our concerns and suggestions based on our daily experience are viewed as inconvenient complaints and sometimes are not even sought in favor of opinions from people who are not experts in what is happening in our classrooms today. Ask yourselves why the City School Board is approaching

083collective bargaining completely differently than you. They looked at all the same information you got from the state, or lack of, and said to themselves, yes, there are a lot of holes, but our employees are important enough to us to at least try to figure this out together. You said to us, you are not worth the time, money, or work that this would take, and your lives just don't sound bad enough yet. Their superintendent stood up beside the CEA president and pledged his support for his employees in the collective bargaining process, while ours said, I won't stand in your way. At a time when you can't get more than 75% of all of your employees to answer a Gallup survey with multiple reminders via email and staff meetings, 95% of all the employees in my building

084signed a card in support of collective bargaining. 95%. When you rejected collective bargaining, you rejected them. No matter the words that came out of your mouth, that was the message that was received. And when your overall employee satisfaction is in the 14th percentile, that is shameful. An immediate way to start improving your abysmal employee satisfaction score and maybe have a chance of mitigating the effects of the looming teacher and employee shortage would be to create a task force as the city has done with their employees to write a resolution together acceptable to both sides. That is what we were attempting to do when we submitted our initial draft resolution. Give us more than empty words. Give us more than crumbs that fall off the table. Give us collective bargaining rights and allow us to become

085true partners in this school division. Thank you. Thank you for those comments, Ms. McIntyre. Next up, we have Ms. Wise Achenbaum, who, although is retired, is coming back. Yeah, well, I still have a day. You still have school. Yeah, but I'm going to return anyways because this is really passionate for me. Return as much as you want. I just asked if I could still be in the collective bargaining idea. You're probably getting sick of hearing from all of us. But this is the only way we can move forward. I truly care about this profession, and that's why I'm here a day and a half before I retire. Because public schools do matter. Over 25 teachers or staff from our school, we got a list today, are leaving. And there's other dismal effects of teachers leaving.

086It was a real gut punch when we heard that you didn't accept collective bargaining. I talked to one staff that's leaving that's going to another private school. And when I got into education, I was a single mom. I couldn't afford to think about going to a private school because I need to pay for all the bills. But this teacher is going to a private school. He's going to make the exact same amount. And he'll have 15 students in his class. And that is very appealing. There are many people leaving. It's really not about the money because I think we can sustain ourselves. And it's about having a say. There's another wonderful teacher leaving Charlottesville High School. And I said, why are you leaving? You're such a good teacher here. And she said, because they're going

087to start collective bargaining. So there's so many little things that can happen if it can change. And we know those little things. We need to keep our children safe as we have children, teens coming and letting you know. Many times during this year, I didn't feel safe. It was a very odd situation. I'm glad I'm getting out. But the other piece, and as I see this, is just little pieces like you pay, you don't pay for when I have a whole lot of sick bank left. And so you've created a situation in schools where because you don't pay for sick leave or personal days when the person leaves, that the people take off. They don't come to school. They get subs. So it's a really bad situation, although you pay everybody $2,000 to leave. So

088take that money and do you understand what I'm talking about? It's just a situation where it's easy to, it would be better to pay the teachers a little stipend to stay rather than screw up the whole school and have a billion subs. It's an unnecessary situation. So there's all a lot of little unnecessary situations that could be changed if we had a voice. So let us have a voice so we can keep a strong public school system. Otherwise, multiple private schools and homeschoolers will pull funds from public education, and public education won't be what it used to be, strong. Thank you very much. Thank you for those comments, Ms. Weiss-Eckenbaum. The last speaker that I have on the list is Ms. Johnson. I'm speaking in Ms. Johnson's place. My name is Martha Lehman. I'm an

089elementary school teacher at Red Hill. I said my name is Martha Lehman. I have been a special education teacher at Red Hill Elementary School for six years. Three working with students with autism and three working with students with emotional and behavior disabilities. I'm also a Golden Apple recipient this year and a DR teacher at Red Hill where we have had six of our teachers complete the micro-credential process. I'm a former Albemarle County Special Needs Bus Assistant and Special Needs Teacher's Assistant. I'm the wife of a former Albemarle County bus driver and the mom of a former Albemarle County Bee-based special education student. I'm also the mom of a current Bee-based special education teacher in Albemarle County. I am here representing my family and all of my colleagues. We all feel passionate about our students' success,

090but these jobs can feel unsustainable. Personally, I can't remember ever taking a lunch or a planning period, and I work at least 60 hours a week. I love my job, and I wholeheartedly believe in the necessary work of culturally responsive teaching. but it isn't sustainable. My doctors have repeatedly suggested that I find different work, and I've considered it this year. My son, who is a young and gifted special education teacher, is leaving education this year. and he's written something for me to read. I am finishing up my sixth and final year working for Albemarle County Public Schools as a special education teacher and for the field of public education overall. This was the job of my dreams. I endured working full-time, attending school part-time during the school year and full-time during the summer for three

091years to get to where I am now. I am leaving because my dreams no longer include working Sorry for a state institution that waits until enough of us are six to begin prioritizing our health and safety Pays us less than any other state in the nation compared to similarly college-aid Educated workers and expects us to shoulder our burnout with the time without the time to care for ourselves and our families My spouse told me recently, you know, you are exploited when you have to have an appreciation week I am leaving because I am not going to be exploited anymore. If you want to avoid more educators leaving for the same reason, then it is in your best interest to recognize the collective power, agency, and voice that educators possess and have always possessed in our

092communities. We are losing a bright and compassionate student advocate and educator. Allow those of us who are staying for now to be part of the decision-making process that impacts our students, our work, and our well-being. I am waking up tomorrow morning at 5.30 to have knee surgery. A big part of that is because of the work I do, and it's worth it. I also have narcolepsy, I have kidney disease, and I have migraines. And I keep doing the work I'm doing, but it can't last forever. Thank you for those comments that concludes our public comment period Thank You miss Carlson. We will now move to item 8 1 the superintendent's recommendation Regarding the renaming of Mary secret our elementary school Thank you very much. So at this time, I'm going to invite Karen Waters Wicks

093to the podium to Share the process as well as the recommendation Thank You. Dr. Haas Good evening school board members glad to be here with you tonight My name is Karen Waters Wicks and I'm delighted to have the opportunity to take on the responsibility of facilitating the name review process. I'd like to thank Jasmine Fernandez for her excellent mentorship and preparing me to take over this role. She has been just a phenomenal leader in doing the name review process following Mr. Alcaro and I thank her for all of her hard work with me as well as Dr. Hairston for his confidence in me in taking over this role. As you know, Mary Carr Rear Cycle marks the seventh school under review and I'm excited for you to learn this evening about how the committee engaged

094with the community throughout the process and particularly the work that they did with the students. First, I'd like to remind you of the directive that you all gave to the superintendent for all schools in the division named after the individuals you wanted them to undergo a review process to ensure that these designations would align with the division's values, which are equity, excellence, family and community. and wellness. Jennifer, how do I move the slides? Is it enter? Is it the arrow? Thank you, doc. Okay. Wait, so what did you do? The button on the mouse? Susie, pay attention. You're going to have to do the next one. In addition to our division's values, we're guided by three intentions throughout the review process, reflection, accessibility, and inclusion of all voices. The purpose of the review process is

095to reflect on the past and to reaffirm our school's values and aspirations. Through the use of QR codes, surveys, community meetings, and social media, as well as emails, we've been able to offer several different modes of participation throughout the process. And as with every process, we value and we actively work to hear from all stakeholders. We want to include first and foremost the students because after all it is their school and we also are making sure that we hear from our families, from the community, as well as our staff. So far the school, you all have taken action on six names and I want to make sure that... The community, as well as the board, is recognizing that just because a school is reviewed, it doesn't necessarily mean that the name will change, as we

096have seen with the retention of the names of Virginia Murray, as well as Broadus Wood. So it's now my pleasure to introduce Principal Steve Saunders, who's going to provide you with a quick overview of the school, as well as... our advisory committee. Good evening. My name is Steve Saunders and I'm proud to be the principal at Greer Elementary School. Our school opened in 1974 and we serve over 500 students from preschool all the way to the fifth grade. We are the county's most diverse school. We welcome students from over 35 countries and have 35 spoken languages. First, I'd like to thank our name review committee for their dedication throughout this process. As volunteers, they have been instrumental in ensuring that this process has been carried out with fidelity. Their participation and ideas help to make

097this process successful, in part, because of the diverse perspectives they represent. The committee reflects the diversity of our school division, including equity of voice and thought. The committee includes perspectives from community members and families, as well as staff members. In terms of staff... For the first time in the name review process, we have one of our school counselors as our chair, and we have one of our custodians from the building services department as part of the committee. And while the policy does not require a student representative, the advisory committee was very intentional in engaging students all throughout this process, which Ms. Lee will share in just a second. And with that, I'm honored to share one of our school counselors, Susie Lee, who was the chair of our committee, and she'll walk you through the

098rest of this process. Good evening, board members. My name is Susie Lee, and I'm one of the school counselors at Greer Elementary. And I am the chair of the name review committee for Greer. And I'm excited to share with you tonight about some of the ways that we were able to engage our community and our students. So I'd first like to take a moment and talk about outreach. So some ways that we reached out to our community were through community flyers with QR codes. We had student-made signs around the school that were made by our after-school program. We had press release. We posted it on our Greer Elementary website, and the PTO posted it on social media. We used Remind, which is a way that we communicate with our families. So we used text messages

099and email. We also posted it on the school name review webpage. And then we also had student announcements, which we had several different students help me make that announcement in different languages, including Spanish, Pashto, and Arabic. We also went out during car pickup time and distributed flyers to our probably at least 75 to 90 or so parents that were there for car pickup. So as far as the surveys go, we had two surveys. The first gave participants an opportunity to share their ideas for names, their knowledge about Ms. Greer's life and career, as well as a familiarity with the four values of the school division and the guiding principles of Mary Carter Greer Elementary. After that, we put out our second survey, and we listed the top four names that came out of the first.

100So for survey one we had a total of 449 respondents, 220 came from our online survey, and then 229 were student responses. And then for our second survey we had almost double, 759 total responses, 360 online survey respondents, and then 394 student respondents, all the way from our pre-K up to fifth grade. So we had a big part, we had a lot of student involvement there. All right, and how we got our public participation involved, we had two community meetings, we had emails, we had letters from members of the community, we had phone calls and photos from family members from Theodosia Lemon. Marsha Howard and Manfred Jones. And then we had some speakers, including Teresa Leslie, who is the great niece of Mary Carr Greer and a member of the Ivy Creek Foundation and Board

101of Directors. We also were delighted to have Dr. Virgil Wood, who is a former student of Mary Carr Greer, and it was great to hear from him. He zoomed in all the way from Texas, and so that was really... Quite delightful to hear from him. And then also Sue Earhart, who is the executive director of Ivy Creek Foundation. And we were grateful to have all of those speakers come and share and give their insight about Mary Carr Greer. So let's talk about Mary Carr Greer. So I just wanted to share some quotes that came from the community that we thought were very powerful. One student wrote that Ms. Greer had inspired so many young people to fit themselves for better things of life and to render unselfish service to humanity. The 1948 ATS yearbook was

102dedicated to the school's beloved principal who kept before them the ATS motto. character, courage, and perseverance. That was from Diana Foster, who is a member of the teaching community for 40 years and an Ivy Creek volunteer. And then our next quote is again about Mary Carr-Guerrera. As the first woman principal of the Albemarle Training School and a vigorous member of numerous civic groups supporting equity of education for all children. Ms. Greer was an undaunted force within the greater Charlottesville communities. Her courage and brilliance are exactly what should inspire our children and our citizens today. And that's from Laura. who is the past president of Ivy Creek Foundation. And then lastly, at our last public meeting, Sue Earhart shared this. Mary Carr Greer supported her students by encouraging them to be something, which was her motto.

103She would open her home to students in the winter so they could continue to go to school during inclement weather and when buses were not reliable. She traveled to student homes and discussed ways to get into high school or college with their parents. So just from those community meetings, we just had an end from letters from the community. We had an outpouring of just great things about Mary Carr Greer that. that were reflective of her person and her values. So let's talk about student engagement. This is the fun part. You get to see how our kids were involved with voting and involved with the process. So you can see the pictures here. So our after-school students created signs that we posted around the building. We created a ballot box, which I will say the kids

104were very excited about when we came into the rooms with that box. They were excited about voting. They voted on both surveys. students helped me translate the information about the survey in different languages during our career morning announcements. And then one of our fourth grade students came down to help me talk to our preschool class where many of them speak Spanish and he helped me translate the information about the survey. So the committee was committed to ensuring that students were able to experience and engage the voting and understanding of what the process was. I'll continue to show you some pictures. So those two boys there at the top, they were the ones that helped me translate during the morning announcements. Then we have the students that helped make the ballot box. And then our students

105making some of the signs that went around the school. So we had lots of student participation. Recommendation. As a result of all of the research, public comment, and survey results, the committee voted to retain the name Mary Carr Greer Elementary based on the criteria below. Mary Carr Greer's contributions align with the division's values and the school's guiding principles. The committee took into consideration all stakeholders' voices. In particular, the votes of the members of the Greer community and current students. The majority of the students, as well as the community, voted to retain the name after learning about Mary Carr's Greer's service and involvement in the community. So that is our presentation, and we will take questions if you have any. Are there any questions from the board members? I don't know that it's a question so

106much as what a process you went through. And it seems like it was so well organized. It involved all aspects of the family of career. Congratulations. Thank you. Thanks. Well done. Thank you. Are there any other questions before? All right. Well, Ms. Waters-Wicks, Mr. Sanders, and Ms. Lee, thank you all for your great work with this. Thanks so much. As our next step. This item will be placed on our consent agenda for the next meeting, and we will have it on the consent agenda for approval. I was just wondering, formally, do we need the recommendation from the superintendent, or is that? I support the recommendation of the committee, and it will go on the consent agenda for the next meeting. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Kass. All right, moving to item A2,

107and his second appearance for tonight, Dr. Hairston, giving us a report on culturally responsive teaching certification presentations. Good evening, again, board members. Bernard Hairston, assistant superintendent. The clicker is now working. Don't know why it didn't work for the other group, but it's working. I will tell you up front. that this will be an amazing 30-minute presentation, an eye-opener for you all, with probably many questions, likely praises, and a desire for more information about this incredible CRT model. homegrown CRT model is an effective evidence-based approach to closing achievement gaps. We will share how this unique process is shifting teaching from an art to a science. In addition, you should look for steps taken by Lakeside Principal Megan Wood, Brownsville Elementary teacher Paula Gately for how they applied a deeper understanding of culture to improve student achievement.

108Our culturally responsive teaching is about student achievement and closing achievement gaps. Our equity specialists were hired and the program designed to close achievement gaps. We should not lose focus of that. In addition, you should look for intentional steps taken to validate their approach to teaching to and through culture to make curriculum and instructional decisions that differentiate, it's rigorous and relevant to students in front of them. They will represent two of the 56 educators receiving the certification credential. which provides the highest yield for closing achievement gaps. They will provide evidence of how their professional development training transferred to professional growth and how they applied the work to obtain concrete, not abstract, evidence to validate student growth. Their presentations should also offer additional clarity to the only CRT program endorsed by Albemarle County Public Schools that has

109been in place since 2008. Ms. Woods will share an abbreviated version first of her four-year plus culturally responsive teaching certification journey. School board members and staff should look for how she made leadership shifts to unpack her understanding of the three characteristics of our CRT model and document the evidence of growth. Ms. Wood. Thank you, Dr. Harrison, for the wonderful introduction, and thank you for the opportunity to share. My journey with you all I start I want to start with this quote. It's from dr Tatum's book the process of REC racial ethnic cultural identity development is not so much linear as it is circular It's like moving up spiral staircase as you proceed each up each level You have a sense that you have passed this way before but you're not in exactly the same spot

110and when I read that I read I read her book as part of this process and when I read that it just really resonated with me because as dr. Harrison said earlier this process started when I first started at Lakeside and I'm going to take you I'm going to look back a little bit and kind of bring you forward to where we are today. I'm going to use the word we a lot when I share my presentation because even though this is my journey, this journey was done side by side with several people. Dr. Mindy Moran, a lead coach, Natalie Farrell, another lead coach, Ms. Jen Sablette, the two equity specialists that supported me at Lakeside this year, Ms. Leslie Wills, Ms. Leilani Keys, all of these people walked side by side along with me

111and my staff to get to where we are at Lakeside. So this isn't just about me. And so when you hear we the we is all of those people so I just want to clarify that for you So when I got to Lakeside We spent a lot of time looking at the data looking at the student experience and in 2018 and 19 it kind of became clear that there were a lot of opportunity gaps for students depending on what courses students were enrolled in that indicated that they had certain access to certain classes and so that didn't settle real well with me and so we started to look at how we could increase opportunities for students. And so meeting with teachers and other people in the building, we looked at what was happening with our

112students and we decided that the next step would probably be that we needed to eliminate some levels in our core classes. And so that second half of that first year, we really started to plan for what that might look like. And so we said, well, if we're going to eliminate these levels, what are we going to do to prevent that structure from being recreated in the classroom? And so we really started to ask ourselves, well, how can we prevent that. And that's when we realized we really needed to think about the principles and the philosophy and the foundations of what differentiated instruction looked like. And we really started to focus on how can we support differentiation in the classroom. And so that 19-20 year, we worked really hard. We meet frequently to engage in professional

113learning as a group. And we really focused on what differentiation practices would support. unleveled classes and structures. And so that 19-20 year, we spent a lot of time looking at strategies to support learners and really focused on flexible grouping. And then we moved into the 2021 school year, which you all know was interrupted by the pandemic. But we didn't lose those values in focusing on differentiation. The question then became, how do we differentiate in a virtual environment? and how do we support kids in a virtual environment. And so that first half of the year, we focused on how we were going to do that in a virtual environment. And then as students started to come back into the building, and we all know this, the research says it, that the relationships between the student and

114the teacher are really, really important. And so we realized that because students were coming back from such a disruption, that we really needed to focus on building strong relationships and building what... Tomlinson refers to as Invitational Learning Environments. And an Invitational Learning Environment is one where kids feel supported, there's trust, there's strong relationship between the teacher, there's an emphasis on growth mindset. And in order to do all of those things, you have to be culturally responsive. And so we really talked about how those two concepts overlapped. And this year we really focused on how we can use CRT and differentiation and marry those two concepts together to provide a really responsive classroom for our students and so that's kind of the the history and the timeline and just the thought process of kind of where

115we were and where and where we've we've come so So these are the resources. This slide is just a resource of all of the different texts that we have used this year to support the work that we're doing because it's complex. You know, humans are complex, learning is complex, and it's really important to be well-versed in the strategies that we use. And so these are all of the resources that we used as we engaged in the professional learning. And so I just wanted to bring attention to the different types of texts that we use. The first characteristic of culturally responsive teaching is really doing some self-examination of who you are. We had a lot of conversations about personal preferences and how that shapes the decision-making and the instructional decision-making that you have in the classroom.

116And so as we went through the professional learning experiences, I would survey the teachers and kind of get a gauge on what's the effect. And so these are the two questions that I asked at the end of the year. Lots of conversations about like how does my culture shape what I do in the classroom? And so I asked teachers these two questions at the end of the year. I consider my students culture when designing experiences more than previous years after engaging this year's professional learning and you can see the majority of them responded very positively to that. And then the second one is I take into consideration how my cultural preferences might be sending either covert or overt messages to students when making instructional decisions. So those were things like talking about what type of

117books we're reading in our lit circles and how am I making these instructional choices and maybe how can I get some more feedback from kids. And so teachers then self-reported. I said, okay, so give me some examples. If you're saying this is what you're doing, you feel like this has had an impact. Give me some examples. So these are some just quotes from teachers from that survey. And the trend that you'll see in these quotes is that really they stopped thinking about, they started putting the student perspective first, or they would pause and think, oh, you know, this student may have done this in the classroom and I'm perceiving it this way, but really maybe it's something different, right? And so it was just a way for them to articulate that because we had done

118some professional learning around a variety of different things, such as like microaggression, or representation or storytelling or any of it. We had a lot of conversations about those things, so you could tell that it had shifted their thought process on what messages they were receiving from students and how to incorporate that. So that's how we addressed characteristic one, and that's how teachers reported that the professional learning had impacted their classroom. The second characteristic really focuses on instructional practice and data and assessments. And so we implemented two equity audits, one at the end of the first nine weeks and one at the end of the semester, looking at common assessments, because that's something that we have embedded in our practice throughout the last four years, is ensuring that we have common unit assessments and common quarterly

119assessments. The equity audits, teachers reported that that helped them consider their data in new ways and through new lenses. And then we also implemented a revision policy. in alignment with the grading practices because we wanted to make sure that kids had multiple ways to demonstrate their learning and so they were also reported that the revision policy provided them ways to alternatively assess their kids which is also a component of differentiation so you can see that teachers responded positively to both of those questions and then their comments align with those a lot of the teachers found great value in the equity audit because it gave them a different way to look at their data. It also, we're engaging as a division in a book study at the leadership level about PLC+. It also allowed us to

120ask that other question about who's benefiting from instruction and who's not benefiting from instruction. So those equity audits really supported those strategies as well. And then out of the mid-year conversations about the equity audit, it was beautiful because it seamlessly transferred into the third characteristic, which is building partnerships with students. A lot of teachers picked that specific strategy after looking at their mid-year data and identifying students who were being successful and students who maybe needed a little bit more support. They were intentionally seeking those learning partnerships. And the thing about a learning partnership to note is that it's not just reaching out to the student is being very intentional about the conversations that you're having with the students. So it's like sitting down and having individual goal setting meetings with them, talking about where their

121learning is, talking about where they want their learning to go next. And so it's not just building a good relationship and asking them what they're doing on the weekend. There's really some intentionality and strategy behind those learning partnerships. And so teachers... indicated you can see that we had teachers respond very positively to that they've partnered and collaborated more with students and families and colleagues to support their learning because of the work that we did with CRT this year. So those are the kind of the three things that we did and I know this I'm going really fast but it's just an overview of the whole process that we went through as a school and the impact. that we feel like it had was it increased the number of We definitely increased the number of certification

122micro credentials this year We had zero fully certified staff members last year and we now have four we have one school counselor one classroom teacher and two administrators And we went from one micro credential teacher to eight teachers and counselors. So we have increased our our certifications. And I think that one of the reasons that that was so successful is because we did it as a cohort. We did it together, not in isolation. And then, you know, the compilation of all the work that we've done these last four years as compared to the 18-19 pre-pandemic data, this includes our growth scores as well. We've nearly eliminated the achievement gap in reading and math for black students. We've reduced the reading achievement gap for students with disabilities. And we've increased reading and math performance for economically

123disadvantaged students. So those are the overview and scope of the work, but I just really do want to reiterate, I want to go back to that quote. It's like the spiral staircase. It's something that we started in 18-19, and we've continued to pursue. And we started it with grounded in the principles of differentiation, and we've continued to work on that for the last four years. And so with that, I think I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Gately, and she is going to give the classroom. We will save questions for both of them at the end. But for a principal who's going through this process, their challenge is somewhat unique, but there are advantages as well. So a principal, a classroom teacher, and you'll hear directly from Paula in just a little bit, she's

124got a set group of students, 20. 25 if you're elementary, but for a principal the advantage or the greater challenge she has multiple students with different titles. Her parents are her students. Her teachers are her students and the students of her teachers are her students. And she has that big picture of having an impact that trickles down. And so that principle is so important. And what Megan has done, she has impacted structures that's going to have a profound impact on how they're doing business in the future at that school. So I want you to now take a look at a teacher, more focused, and you will hear from her. and she will share an example of what high quality instruction looks like from a certified CRT elementary educator. So school board members and staff, you

125should look for how she shifted her practice through this certification process to validate the closing of achievement gaps for her two lowest achieving students while advancing every student in the classroom. Ms. Gailey. Good evening, board members and Dr. Haas. My name is Paula Gately, and as Dr. Hairston mentioned, I am a fourth grade teacher at Brownsville Elementary. I'm really excited to share with you tonight my journey through culturally responsive teaching so that you can hear about this really transformative process from instructional staff such as myself. While this process has taken me through learning and professional growth in all three characteristics and has resulted in... Evidence such as improved student-teacher relationships, student-family partnerships, improved student academic mindsets, improved overall class climate. Tonight I'll be focusing on the impact of culturally responsive teaching on student growth and

126literacy based on my work in Characteristic 2, focusing around instruction, teaching to and through culture. So the first step typically, as Megan mentioned, in the process is going through an equity audit where we're really critically analyzing data, looking for inequities and looking for achievement gaps. And so in this process, I was asking myself what patterns were present between academic achievement and cultural and identity factors. When I disaggregated my reading data as well as school bus referral data from the beginning of the year, I noticed that my African American students were not yet achieving equitable outcomes in reading. Looking at this data closely and critically really illuminated this achievement gap in reading proficiency between these students and the rest of my class. So a big question that all credentialed and micro-credentialed CRT educators ask themselves is

127really how can we adjust our instructional practices and strategies to really intentionally disrupt those patterns that we notice and improve our problems of practice, things that we just need to do better at. So through this journey, I really made a shift in understanding the importance of moving away from thinking of instruction like... big toolbox of strategies that I could just pick and choose from and really focusing on aligning my instructional strategies with the cultures of my students. Ultimately I became much more accountable for my students growth for their data and I learned how to teach to and through culture with culture at really the front of instruction versus being an afterthought. So here you can see one of my first steps when I really took action with this. When I figured out how to align

128my instructional strategies with the cultural values of my students, I went back after my equity audit and took another deep dive into data, looking at the scores of some of my focus students on various assessments and aligning that and looking for correlations with their learning preferences and their cultures. So I noticed some patterns in this work and I wanted to figure out how my students' cultural archetypes, whether they identified as being more individual or collectivist, whether they preferred oral or written modes of expressing their knowledge, or whether they preferred open-ended or directive learning. I was looking at that in correlation with their scores. So some major patterns that I noticed here were that when I disaggregated the data in that way, I was designing instruction for mostly... individualist type students and there are more individual

129students in my class so I can see possibly why I was doing this. However, my focus students both identified as being more of a collectivist cultural archetype and so I realized the instruction I was designing wasn't fully meeting the needs of those students. I also noticed that a lot of my assessments and class activities tended to favor students who preferred to show what they noticed through writing. But I realized that my focus students and many of my other students, that just didn't align with their cultural archetypes either. So I knew I needed to make a shift to teach to and through their cultures. This quote from Zaretta Hammond comes from CRT and the Brain, one of our primary texts that we use for culturally responsive teaching. And this quote stuck out to me. Students with

130increased brain power can accelerate their own learning, meaning they know how to learn new content and improve weak skills on their own. This really stuck with me because one of my goals was not only to use differentiated instructional strategies that match my students cultural archetypes so that they're successful in my class but ultimately so that they can understand how they learn best and they can feel empowered in the future as confident and independent learners and be able to direct their own learning and understand that about themselves. So to see how I did this once I learned more about my students and dove into some data, two of my main takeaways were that I needed to provide more of an oral and written balance for students in my instruction, and I needed to plan more activities

131that aligned with the collectivist archetype of my focus students. So for oral and written balance, I wanted to give my students a lot of empowerment through choice. One example was, you can see in the pictures there with the cool shades for privacy reasons, celebrating their learning orally. You can see some students doing that. They were preparing a book talk for their group. Or other students with the same content were expressing their knowledge through writing. They were creating a biography flip book. The quote on the bottom actually comes from one of my focus students. She shared that she wanted to do book talks more because it was easier for her to talk about stuff that she knows and she likes to teach her friends that way. So to me, that really showed that she was understanding

132how she learned best and becoming a more independent and empowered learner, which ultimately is my goal. Additionally, for planning more collectivist activities, I plan more opportunities for students to process learning as really interdependent groups where the success of that whole group is celebrated. So you can see photographs there of my students engaging in skits, STEM challenges, Minecraft. And my other focus student indicated that they liked working in a group because they get to do what they're good at and help the group, and it made them feel important. So for some evidence of how this actually impacted student growth specifically to literacy, both of my focus students made significant gains in reading comprehension over the course of this year, and the achievement gap between those students and their peers is closing. My first focus student in

133blue began the year by performing about 42% below the class average, but by quarter three was only performing 14% below the class average. My second focus student, who you'll see in red, started the year not yet ready to attempt the comprehension activities that you're seeing here. Those weren't zeros based on actual score and intellect. They were zeros based on... just not feeling ready and safe and having a strong enough academic alliance and partnership to attempt those activities. But you can see when they started to, their scores increased rapidly. The student is only 18% approximately below the class average now. You can also see that in yellow, the class average of all my students steadily increased throughout the year, which was very exciting for me to see. I realized too when looking at this data that

134my class grew by an average of about 26%, but especially focus student number one, the one you see in blue, grew by about 54%, which exceeds the typical rate of the rest of my students. Additionally, looking at reading fluency was another area of improvement that I noticed. And this one, the different colors mean the different quarters. And you can see at the bottom how I have focus student number one, focus student number two, and then the benchmark. So when we talk about reading fluency... We're thinking about the student's ability to read with an appropriate speed, accuracy, expression, and it really helps readers because when they read fluently and they can decode those words automatically, they're not struggling and stumbling over the words. They can actually focus on comprehending and understanding. And so you can see

135in the benchmark the average growth between quarter one and quarter three is about 10 correct words per minute. That's how much we like to see them improve. But you can see that focus student number one increased their fluency by 24 words per minute over the course of those quarters. And focus student number two increased by 22 words per minute. So amazingly enough, both of those focus students exceeded. pretty much double what we would anticipate for the benchmark, which shows that they've grown significantly. So I hope that through my presentation and also through Megan sharing, you've been able to see how culturally responsive teaching is really transformative and powerful, both for school administrators, for school classroom teachers, and just really any adult or professional who works with children. So I'm thankful that I had the opportunity

136to share this with you. And if you have any questions, I'm sure Megan and I would be happy to answer. So needless to say, this work is challenging. It's unique. And it is a process, but it will get results. It will get results. This is evidence of it. And so just think about if every teacher could have an impact on two students, what is it going to do for the achievement gap? That's what we're trying to do with our culture sponsors. We have to really continue to have those high expectations, not water the program down because people are going to say it's too hard. Think about that child who's underachieving. If Paula had not reached those kids, they would have continued to focus. to be less successful maybe this year, the next year, and the

137next year, but she put the energy into it, and she had a great impact, not only on those students, those two students, but the whole class. And Megan is doing the same thing, but at a broader level with her students. Any questions or comments? This is amazing. I love both of these presentations, and one of the things that is so important to me is I've been talking with Bernard and others about... show us some examples of how it's happening. All the trust and the belief and the faith that it's happening, but laying this out like... This presentation and Megan's presentation and the narrowing of the achievement gaps for African American kids, I mean, it's just phenomenal. That's all part of what we're all looking for. And so thank you both very much. I had two

138questions. How did you pick the reading material that Ms. Wood had in her list? And then two, how many administrators did it this year? I know that was something we had asked last year. Try to get more administrators doing it. Go ahead. Yeah. So the list, we use CRT in the brain, which is the one that the division uses across the board. And then talking to the equity specialists, Leilani Keys and Leslie, and other professionals, like other lead coaches and stuff, that's how I picked the books. So there's books on differentiation by Tomlinson and Dr. Christy Dubé in that list. And then there's also other books that were recommended by other colleagues. Okay, great. Thank you. Yep. I will have to get back to you on how many administrators were credentialed this year. Dr. Harrison,

139you're not going to be able to say that for much longer. I will get back to you, but I wanted to be accurate, but I saw at least one administrator in the back. Me, me, me, me, me. Craig was here, too. Craig Doma was here. Let me see. Help me out. Mr. Smith. Craig Smith. I'll have to check, okay? But it continues to increase. I don't even know if this is a question. I think it is from Mittens Wood. How has this changed how you allocate your time? I mean, you know, it's much more data-driven and individual student-driven, but you are also setting the tone for your whole school. So I'm just interested in... time allocation for you, but also for classroom teachers in terms of the additional time for prep, preparation perhaps, smaller class

140sizes, which we continue to work on. But any kind of feedback in terms of that? Sure. So one of my goals when I became a principal was never to hear a teacher say, this is just one more thing. Right? So the goal is always to be able to provide a conceptual framework to show how all of this fits together. So that's what I tried to do by focusing on differentiation. It allows you to take practices of culturally responsive teaching and put it into a larger conceptual framework. And so we engage in professional learning at Lakeside. very frequently on Tuesdays during our planning periods and we go in and we we have Discussions we bring articles we talk about what does it mean to do this work? And so I've embedded the work in the day

141And so that's the in the goal is to always have it aligned and I work with teacher leaders It's not like I come in and like my cure's the lesson plan for today But I get feedback from the teachers about where are we where do we need to go? What is the data showing us? You know, it's it's always been an expectation that we have common assessments and that we have PLC discussions about that the the equity audits that have been created by the Dr. Harrison's office allows us to disaggregate that data in a way to break it up by demographics that allows us to ask some questions that get us to where we need to be. So it's aligning all of these best practices and when you align them then you're not scattered. And

142I'll add too from a classroom teacher's perspective It's definitely a lot of work embarking on this journey and really diving into the data in this way. But I think I would rather spend extra work knowing that what I'm doing is working than to do a little bit less and then not make the same progress and sort of feel like I'm throwing spaghetti on the wall and seeing what sticks, so to speak. So to know that it's effective. And to know that it has that impact on students, yes, it is a lot of work, but it's definitely worth it. And it's been helpful, too, having our cohort. Megan mentioned the teachers working in a cohort. That's been helpful, too, to be able to share ideas, go through the book study together as a school, bounce off

143ideas, share practices. And when multiple teachers on a team or in a little cluster are working on this work together, it's not like one teacher is taking on all that work in isolation. Are you seeing in the classroom, in addition to improved reading scores or math scores, this is another fuzzy question, improvements in their self-esteem and their social-emotional health? Absolutely, yes. With the full credentialing process, I also dove into characteristic one, which is really looking at yourself and how you see through your cultural lens, and then characteristic three, partnerships. And for me, even though I didn't speak on that tonight, specifically the partnerships piece and forming that academic alliance with students and their families, that I saw just tremendous gains in my students, especially those two focus students, seeing themselves as, confident and capable learners.

144My focus student who on the first graph wasn't feeling ready to attempt a lot of comprehension activities, I had a really sweet moment at the end of the year towards quarter three where he wrote on his paper out of frustration, I can't do this. And then we had a little pep talk about it and he erased the apostrophe and the T and left, I can do this. And I have chills just talking about that right now. It's those little moments that really show this process helps. students really see themselves as learners and see themselves as confident and capable. We need you all to understand that this is not an overnight process. It takes, well, how many years did it take you to get to this point? This would be my second year essentially in the

145work. She's an exception to the rule. How many years did it take you? Four years. It takes at least three. That first year to really start doing the research, processing it. The second year to start practicing. It's almost like being a scientist. You take a hypothesis, you test it, you examine it, you determine what's working, what's not working, you make adjustments. It's a continuous process to get the results that they're getting. Sort of based on that. Ms. Gately, will you have any method of following up on, especially your two focus students, to make sure that the gains that they have made won't be lost next year? Sure, so I'll be in a different school in a different position next year, but I know that Dr. Harrison, I don't want to give a spoiler alert, but

146I know that the division is, and I've been working on Dr. Harrison with sort of like a CRT mentorship where focused students, they would have a teacher for one year, and then the next year, that teacher from their former year would work with their current teacher, sort of extending that net of support. We did a pilot on it this year, and it was just really incredible to see the teachers sort of follow the students, and the students have that extended net year after year. So next year, I'm hoping to stay in contact with my students, whether it's a part of that official mentorship program or whether it's just me outreaching on my own. We will continue that program. Yes, good. Okay. And really the same question to Ms. Wood, too, because... If any changes are

147made where you are, how will you be able to make sure that the progress that you've made will not be lost? Well, I think it's... You know, it's partnerships. It's always about partnerships, right? Like when I started, I'm very serious about the fact that while this was my example of what happened at Lakeside, it was not, that was not me. I mean, that was us, right? And so it's making sure that we continue to foster those relationships and we build those relationships and that we keep what's most important at the center of the conversation, which is our students. And so in transitions, you know. You build that partnership and you sustain that partnership. And so that's the plan is to build those partnerships so that they that that work continues. Mr. Page, we develop talent

148and then we take advantage of that talent. She's walking into a new position as. Director of Professional Development. We're already having conversations how she can take those skills learned as a principle to develop a curriculum around how you effectively establish a PLC structure, Professional Learning Community Structure, with embedded components of credentialing your staff. through culturally responsive teaching. So how do you truly integrate the culturally responsive teaching credentialing process through a planned curriculum and applying it through the PLC structure? And so we're talking about how she can bring in grade level or discipline area instructors, take a 5th, 5th grade. Teachers bring them in for a PLC training session to be developed by this expert. Train them first week of school. They're looking at pre-assessment data. The next two or three weeks, they're looking at equity

149audits, making decisions. We're going to capitalize on this. So I just have a comment and a question. The comment is I love this work and I appreciated this in particular because it just shows how responsibility and accountability for closing the opportunity gaps that we have is at every single level of the division. central every, you know, teachers administration just at every level. And I, I really love how then it becomes to, you know, impact each student. And I, that's why I really loved your part of it as well. So, and then my question is Dr. Harrison, at which point do you feel like we have critical mass where it's not two students, one school, you know, and I know these are just examples. Yes. I think, We'll probably begin to see the critical mass next

150year. And the ideal is, and we're tracking the percentage of folks who go through the credentialing process school by school. We're tying that into conversations regarding the administrative performance appraisal. We're tying it into goal setting. And so principals need to have conversations with setting goals with their... you know, administrator who's doing, they need to have, principals need to have conversations with their individual teachers, but we need to make sure that they're doing the work because they value the work, not because they're being, they're being directed to do the work. And so that critical mass, 50, 60 percent. So. of the staff who are endorsed through certification. The micro-credential is just focusing on a strength in one of the three areas. We won't see the impact until we have a significant number of folks who are

151going through the certification process. That's the strength of the program. Any other questions for board members? Just one more quick one. Bernard, Dr. Harrison. What is it? It seems to me that the CRT training or certification is heavily into elementary school and middle. Do we have representation at the high school level? Yes, programs are growing at the high school level. At Monticello High School this year, we had 13 folks to go through the credentialing process at Strong. Okay. 12 at your school? So, yes, it's growing. Last year at Western? I think it was about six this year dropped down a little bit, so it's growing. We have an equity specialist who's going to be an assistant principal at Albemarle High School, and it should change. Thank you. Any other comments? Okay, thank you all, Ms.

152Gately and Ms. Wood. And Dr. Harrison, before you leave. I'm sort of paraphrasing this, but there is an old African proverb that says, we come back to old watering holes, not just for water, but to continue old friendships. So do you bind to that in what you've been working with with culturally responsive teaching? I don't know what you're saying, Mr. Payne. I don't understand what the heck you're saying. Okay, to break it down, I noticed that you kept using the word we when you were talking about what would be happening next year. So how much retirement will you be? And then there's retirement. I'm just saying. Right. Yeah, you can reconsider. And I can spell retirement. One of the few words I can spell, and I have a definition of it as well. Okay, all

153right. Thank you. Right, yeah. Thank you. All right. We'll take a 10-minute break. We will come back to order and continue with our agenda. Dr. Harrison again. Yes, sir. Presenting to us information on anti-racism policy. Yes, sir. Looking forward to it. Once again, good evening. Joining me for this final presentation of the night will be Jasmine Fernandez, project advisor and anti-racism project manager. Speak up a little bit. Can you just talk more into the microphone? We don't want to miss a word. Thank you, sir. Our objective is to provide an update on the implementation status of our anti-racism policy and offer recommendations for moving forward. As a reminder, the evolution of the policy began by directing the Office of Community Engagement to develop the policy. In August of 2018, eight students representing each of our

154comprehensive high schools were selected to engage in a project-based learning model. They received training on how to conduct research, interview stakeholders, which included parents, students, internal staff responsible for curriculum and supervision, and external community experts in areas identified as a need to know more about or requests from the students. They submitted five working drafts. for your feedback from September to December. And the policy was adopted in February of 2019. In school year 2019-20, we focused on developing internal structures for building sustainability. For example, the project manager and steering committee were established with monthly meetings to develop a logic model to drive the implementation of the policy and the 17 regulations and they did this strategically. In addition, several tools were introduced such as the annual anti-racism evaluation report that you all received. In school year

1552020 through 21, we provided 100% of our staff the opportunity to engage in foundation training to build our understanding of racial consciousness. We focused on how to apply the protocol and strategy concepts introduced in Glenn Singleton's book, Courageous Conversations About Race. Extensive training was provided to division leadership on facilitating these conversations. The school board, you all, the superintendent's cabinet, and all principals and department heads received monthly training on the content and had access to support staff to assist with site-based facilitation when requested. Follow-up sessions were conducted in all departments and schools with limited expressions of concern. Limited expressions of concern. Now here are two of 14 quotes from staff members of a reluctant principal who was initially uncomfortable leading and engaging staff in these conversations. They were shared with me. because of the principal's outreach

156for more direct coaching as a facilitator. I'll just share two of them. The first one, I appreciated that we are diving into this topic as a community. Looking forward to many more conversations like it. Favorite faculty meeting thus far. The second comment, after going through the CRT process, this was a much different conversation. What I realized with the rating scale and how it was phrased was that I can easily have conversations about race with children, but having those hard, controversial conversations with adults is much different. Adults should know better. But when I hear something racist, it is hard to step up. This makes me mad at myself for not supporting different races. Thanks for sharing this process that will allow me to have those difficult conversations. Now, a takeaway is we will continue to grow

157our comfort levels to engage in intraracial conversations as responsible educators who realize that these skill sets are necessary. to appropriately serve students and staff representing multiple races as responsible public school educators. School year 2021-22, we focused on strengthening the capacity of school and departmental leaders to address acts of racism. For example, the steering committee developed an anti-racism decision-making tool that is comparable to, in potential, effectiveness our equity policy checklist. That's something I know how you all value that but this decision-making tool can be just as effective. Division leaders were trained on how to apply it through several real-world case studies throughout the year. The tool is assisting with addressing issues in areas such as budgeting, hiring practices, program and event planning, and reacting to discipline and personnel related issues. This tool can also be credited

158to an increased openness to discuss and confront acts of racism because the process encourages steps to engage thought partners as part of the process. The courageous conversations about race training aligns with the use of this tool and others such as the culturally responsive and anti-racism curriculum assessment tool. This is a good slide. provides us with a recap of our five broad areas of focus of the policy communications, the leadership and administration, curriculum and instruction, training and policy enforcement. and how we work through our 17 regulations through those five broad areas. This slide presents the current state of our implementation plan or process. The red dot indicates that Efforts are in motion in all 17 of the regulations. The yellow dot indicates that 10 of the 17 or 58 percent are in progress. And the green

159dot indicates that 7 of the 17 have been fully implemented. So I'm going to turn this over to Ms. Fernandez, who will share examples of those in progress and those fully implemented and share some additional pieces of information for you. Thank you, Dr. Harrison. As mentioned, my name is Jasmine Fernandez. I have served as a project advisor and the anti-racism program manager for the last three years. As it relates to the status of the regulations, as mentioned, there are 17 regulations in total. However, many of these regulations require sub-strategies and projects to be carried out before the regulation itself is fully implemented, hence why some regulations are still in progress. For example, let's take the six bullet curriculum and instructional materials shall be examined for racial bias. One of our lead coaches guided an elementary

160school through the process of conducting an equity audit of their library books. This is the first step in eventually developing an elementary book list that reflects racial diversity. This is to say that some of these regulations won't be on the left column of fully being implemented for another couple of years. With this in mind, before we unpack the challenges and recommendations for deepening this work, we wanted to take some time to uplift some of the highlights and successes. And I would be remiss if I didn't take the time to thank our division-wide anti-racism steering committee. All 30 members have been instrumental in allowing us to reach some of these successes. We've spoken at length with you about many of these efforts, especially the use of our culturally responsive anti-racism curriculum assessment tool, the impact of

161our courageous conversations about race theories, and the student equity advisory seats town halls. However, a few more recent successes and highlights we wanted to bring to your attention tonight. The anti-racism orientation. As you are aware, 99% of full-time employees, that's a little over 2,700 employees, and all of you have completed the orientation. A more recent update related to this project is the infrastructure we've put in place this spring for all new employees. We are in the process of embedding the anti-racism orientation into our professional learning management system, PLMS. So that next school year, all new employees will have access to the orientation during their onboarding, and it will be easier to track completions. Number two, anti-racism decision-making tool. As Dr. Harrison spoke about, this tool has been crucial to helping to develop the proficiency and

162capacity of our leadership team. In addition to what he mentioned in terms of the purpose of the tool and the monthly case studies, I would like to uplift that these were real-life scenarios occurring in our schools and departments, where members of the leadership team on a monthly basis express vulnerability in sharing how they addressed the issue and their lessons learned. Together in small groups, we processed the matter further and offered additional suggestions for continuous improvement. Number three, community sessions. We recently partnered with the Open Doors program to facilitate a few public trainings. We facilitated the anti-racism orientation during the fall. And in March, we led a group of 25 clergy members from the Charlottesville Clergy Collective through the orientation as well. Five of those members will be attending Saturday's equity conference. This said, engaging in

163anti-racism work is no easy task, especially during these trying times. This work is mentally and physically exhausting. but also deeply personal and necessary. There have been a range of challenges over the past couple of years, particularly in the last two years. Some of these challenges include ongoing racial trauma, from the use of racial slurs in schools to the increase of racist acts and gun violence towards minoritized communities. The continuation of racial trauma has taken a toll on students, staff, and families here in Albemarle and across the country. And while we want to be mindful of not re-triggering students, there's also a ton of research that outlines how racial trauma can impact student behavior and performance. We have to hold space. We have to hold space and resources for allowing students and staff to process the

164tragedies occurring here in our country and abroad, especially as our county student demographics have changed. And we continue to welcome refugee students and families. Another challenge has been the misinformation associated with critical race theory and culturally responsive teaching. This has resulted in efforts here locally and across the nation that have aimed to alter our work of creating an anti-racist, culturally responsive school district. And as such, some educators have and continue to experience anxiety and fear about which discussions to have in their classroom. And in the midst of creating affirming anti-bias, anti-racist school communities, similar to health workers, our educators have been essential. They have continued to sacrifice and juggle multiple hats. It's been challenging to deepen our anti-racism work across the division in the midst of addressing the day-to-day operations while still being short staff.

165And lastly, as a result of the staff burnout and limited capacity, the design and implementation of the anti-racism regulations have varied. We haven't been able to dedicate time and make the same level of progress across all of the regulations, but I can assure you that this continues to be a priority. So how do we move forward? How do we sustain this momentum in this work? First, program oversight. As you all know, the search for the new assistant superintendent of school and community engagement is underway. The new assistant superintendent will work alongside a dedicated program manager to continue to monitor but also scale this work further. In the interim, the anti-racism policy is embedded in our strategic plan, as you know. And so the Office of Strategic Planning, Accountability, and Research will continue to monitor these

166deliverables as well. Number two, training. We recognize the need to provide additional training separate from the anti-racism orientation to staff and the broader community. We have to offer more access points to the community, including members who have concerns about this work, so that they can join our trainings to better understand what it is that we do and so that they can be a part of the discussion around how to move this work forward. And lastly, continue to institutionalize anti-racism. As we already discussed, the policy is embedded into our strategic plan, but we have to continue to apply this lens in all aspects of the division, from curriculum to recruitment and retention efforts to how we monitor our contracts to who we decide to partner with and how we continue to make communications accessible and culturally

167responsive. The application of anti-racism has to be consistent across the division, and we recognize that this is an area of continued growth. And with this in mind, I know it's late. Bear with me. I'm almost done. As we think about the regulations that are still in progress, we believe that the following efforts should continue to be prioritized next school year. Number one, curriculum. We ask that the school board please review and approve the redesigned middle school advisory curriculum this summer. There has been a ton of work that has been put in this spring to redesign the curriculum to ensure that it's both age appropriate while also still reflective of racial diversity. Principals are presenting the curriculum framework to parents and guardians for feedback to ensure that families feedback helped to drive the lessons. The Department

168of Instruction intends to bring the curriculum to the board in August. This year, the Department of Instruction has continued to also make headway in utilizing the anti-racism culturally responsive curriculum vetting tool to update their frameworks for each content area. We've also seen a number of teachers who were certified in culturally responsive teaching this year use the same curriculum vetting tool to audit their instructional resources. This process, however, does take time. I want to emphasize that this takes a lot of time to do this for all grade levels and content areas. But we recognize the urgency and the need to continue the work of refining the frameworks for each content area through an anti-racist lens. Two, equity needs assessment. Per the regulation, we are required to conduct an equity needs assessment to gauge disparities across the

169organization. Department of Human Resources, as you know, circulated a Gallup survey, but as we train our educators through our culturally responsive teaching framework, we have to look at both quantitative and qualitative data. And so we recommend that they be follow-up focus groups. This upcoming school year is spearheaded by the Department of Human Resources with support from the Anti-Racism Steering Committee as needed. And lastly, reporting acts of racism, which is a particular regulation that many of you here have asked about and have had follow-up questions. Per the regulation, we have to have multiple modes available for students and staff to report acts of racism. This year we relaunched the anonymous app alert system, but we recognize that sometimes there are false reports. And so we are recommending that we not only institutionalize the use of the

170anti-racism decision-making tool, which includes reflective questions aimed at reducing and eliminating racial harm. But we also ask that all administrators use our new internal code, Incidents of Racism. Through the use of this code, we will be able to identify hotspots and provide support as necessary. There will be training on this this summer and during the fall we will continue to support administrators on additional PD around the use of restorative justice practices. And if you see here to the right, I want to bring your attention to this diagram. Again, this is a reminder that this work can't happen in silos. All of these efforts from curriculum to equity needs assessment to reporting acts of racism, all of them contribute to advancing our goal of becoming an anti-racist. and culturally responsive school district. Finally, like Dr. Harrison,

171this is my final address to the school board. It's bittersweet. I would like to leave you with a quote I shared with the Anti-Racism Steering Committee. It's the exact quote I said to you all during my first address when I joined the division. I think it's very important to reiterate that this work takes time. In order for the outcomes to be successful and sustainable, we have to be intentional about the implementation of this work. One of my favorite African proverbs is, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. We need everyone to do their part in moving this work forward, and that includes everyone in this room. I encourage you, the school board, and all of those who still remain here, and those watching from home, to

172keep going. Continue to engage in self-reflection. Continue to ask questions of each other, of the division, because now more than ever we can't afford to water down our efforts. And I look forward to rooting for all of you from afar and seeing how you elevate this work in the months and years to come. Thank you. And at this time we'll be happy to take any questions. Just a question about the middle school curriculum. That would be with the anticipation of presenting something to us in August. That would be then for the following school year? I believe August would be more informational. I'm looking at Ms. Collins to see in terms of just timeline. Yeah. Bring it to the board and to begin. Oh, okay. That's what I was asking, if it was a year-long pause.

173Thank you. Thank you. Any other comments or questions for Ms. Fernandez or Dr. Ariston? I'm very sorry to be losing you from the division as well. You've done amazing work here, so thank you very much for that. Thank you so much. Yeah, this is really a sad meeting. We are losing Ms. Fernandez, Mr. Mason, and Dr. Harrison. Not good at all, right? But thank you so much for everything that you've done. Miss Fernandez. Thank you so much. Mr. Page, if I could just have a moment. I just really want to thank Jasmine. It's been great working with you for three years. It seems like a really long time ago when Jasmine came on board in 2019. In fact... I got to meet Jasmine through a conversation I had with Ross. There have been some connections

174from New York, and she was heading down this way. And I would say it was amazing just right out of the gate because Jasmine sent me her resume, sent me her background, and I was like looking at this and thinking, wow, how can we... Capture this person to come work with the school system. We had coffee over outside of Millie Joe's We talked about things and I just thought wow this if we can swing this this will be great fruit because as I say sometimes Having someone like Jasmine is like having someone from the future that comes from a place That's perhaps more cosmopolitan a little farther along and just can replicate the work, but she did more than that She did more than just bring the work. She adapted her approaches to Charlottesville Nap

175Mall, which is a place that... As she pointed out, we're going to need to take time to do this. And really, just an amazing application of emotional intelligence. But you may recall, she jumped into two of our most contentious projects at the time. First was Kronos, our time and attendance program, which you don't really hear much about anymore. And that's because she got right in there, sight unseen. We asked her to... take it on, became one of the project managers for it, and just moved that project along. And now, you know, we go in, you do your time card, or every Friday I go in and approve my time card. It works literally like clockwork, like it's supposed to. And also, we were steeped in the Paul H. Kale name review, which really, in some

176respects, it turned into a bit of a quagmire. And then Jasmine got involved and moved that project forward. Since then, she has led multiple projects. She's lended a hand in multiple projects to move them along and has done a great deal to push us in our perspective about family partnerships. She has really shared her work and also her heart with us over these last three years. And one last thing I'll say is I'm really, it's really a lot of fun to work with Jasmine. I mean, all the other things that she brought to the third floor, she brought a lot, she brought fun. We had, you know, I think we're more fun now in some respects. And that was quite a task to pull off while you were also learning how to drive over this

177past year. I still don't have my license. True New Yorker. Jackie is heading to Harvard. She was accepted to attend Harvard to work on her Ph.D., and so that's her next step in life. And I always ask her to remember the little people when you move on to that next phase. Thank you very much, Jasmine. It's just been wonderful working with you. Thank you. Thank you so much, Dr. Howes. Thank you all. Thank you so much. Thank you, Ms. Fernandez and Dr. Harrison. All right, our next item, the school board salary public hearing. Ms. Johnston, do we have any public comments? If not... Ms. Carlson, do you have a motion related to item 8-5? I move that the school board set the school board member salary at $7,916 with a chair stipend of $1,800 per

178year and a vice chair stipend of $35 per meeting chaired commencing on July 1st, 2022. Is there a second? Moved by Ms. Carlson, seconded by Ms. Delacaro, that the salary that she quoted in the... Could you repeat those figures one more time, please? $7,916 for each school board member's salary, a chair stipend of $1,800 per year, vice chair stipend of $35 if a chair or a vice chair chairs a meeting. Thank you. All right, you've heard the motion. Is there any discussion on that motion? If not, Ms. Johnston. Dr. Acuff? Yes. Ms. Lee? Yes. Mr. O'Carroll? Yes. Ms. Osborne? Yes. Ms. Coulson? Yes. Mr. Page? Yes. The motion carries. Is there any other business from either the board members or the superintendent? No, it's just that Katrina Coulson and I will be sending out a

179couple of dates for our rescheduled retreat. We're looking at either the 9th or 10th, which is either the Friday or Saturday of September, or the following. week. We've historically had them, well, the first several years I was on the school board on a Saturday, but we'll send something out to see if you can register your preference. Okay. Thank you. We've been looking for that. Any other business? If not, the meeting is adjourned.