School Board Meeting: December 16, 2014

001and what it's all about, two students from the Achievable Dream. And they're going to help us open the meeting with an invocation and a pledge of allegiance. So I'd like to welcome Ivy Edlow and Torin Saunders. Ivy and Torin, we're going to ask you to come up one at a time. First, I'm going to ask Ivy to come up. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Don't be nervous. And then proceed to give us an invocation to open the meeting. And then Torrin will follow with the Pledge of Allegiance. So come on up, Ivy. Welcome. Good evening. Superintendent Kilgore, Chairman Stodgill, school board members, and all present. My name is Ivy Etlow, and I am currently a sixth grade student at an achievable dream middle school. An achievable dream, we believe that dreams can become

002reality. This evening, I would like to share a poem written by Amanda Bradley. Follow your dream. Take one step at a time and don't settle for less. Just continue to climb. Follow your dream. If you stumble, don't stop and lose sight of your goal. Press to the top. For only on top can we see the whole view. Can we see what we've done and what we can do? Can we then have the vision to seek something new, press on, follow your dream? Thank you. Ivy, that was fantastic. Thank you so much. Torrin, you want to come up? Lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance, but first tell us a little bit about yourself. Hello. My name is Torrin Saunders. I'm in sixth grade, and I go to an achievable dream middle and high school. Good

003evening. My name is Torin Saunders. I am a sixth grader at an achievable dream middle or high school. It is my pleasure to lead us this evening in the Pledge of Allegiance. Please stand. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. You may be seated. Torin, you did that like you have a career in leading folks. Thank you. And I'd like to thank Torin and Ivy for really showing us what we've got in terms of future leadership in our youth. You did a great job tonight. I think we all agree. Let's all give them one more round of applause. And I think we'd like to also recognize the family members who helped

004them get here this far along in their journey. If you would please stand so we can recognize you. And if there are any members of the Achievable Dream School here tonight, thank you. Thank you for what you're doing for our children and leading them in such a demonstrative way to show us that the future is in good hands. Okay. Next we're going to proceed to item 1.04 which is board recognitions and as our custom the superintendent. We have some very special recognitions tonight. Some students who I think really represent what we mean when we say college, career, and citizen ready. Tonight's the best of the best. So Ms. Price is going to help us and we'll go down front. Tonight we are pleased to recognize several high performing college, career, and citizen ready students. During

005their junior year, more than 1.4 million students across the country took the 2013 preliminary SAT and entered the National Merit and National Achievement Scholarship programs. These privately financed competition programs evaluate scores and recognize high performing students, those with the highest PSAT index scores in critical reading, mathematics, and writing skills qualify for recognition in the National Merit and National Achievement programs. Tonight the school board and the superintendent are proud to recognize nine Newport News students who've earned recognition. These students again that are being recognized tonight are the highest scores in the state on the PSAT. National Merit Semi-Finalists represent less than 1% of U.S. high school seniors and are among the highest scoring students in each state. Our 2015 National Merit Scholarship Semi-Finalists include Christian May from Warwick High School. Would you please come forward Mr.

006May. Also named a National Merit Semi-Finalist is Louis Rizzi from Menchville High School. He's unable to join us this evening. To advance to finalists, Mr. May must submit a scholarship application that includes his academic record, participation in school and community activities, demonstrated leadership abilities, honors and awards, and of course, great SAT scores. He will compete for one of 2,500 National Merit $2,500 scholarships or 5,000 other corporate-sponsored or college-sponsored National Merit Scholarship Awards, which will be announced in May. So we wish him all the best. Thank you. National Merit Commended students are in the top two-thirds of the approximately 50,000 high scores on the PSAT. Some of the commended students will be candidates for several scholarships sponsored by corporate and business partners of the National Merit Program. Please join us in congratulating the 2015 National Merit

007Commended students. Kiera Holt from Woodside High School. and also name National Merit Commended students Victoria Baker from Warwick High School, Benjamin Growl from Warwick High School, and two others that are unable to join us this evening, Benjamin Lambert from Warwick High School, and Elizabeth Soroka from Heritage High School. We wish them congratulations as well. Every year, about 1,300 National Merit Program participants are awarded special scholarships provided by corporations and business organizations. To be considered for a special scholarship, students must meet the sponsor's criteria and entry requirements of the National Merit Scholarship Program. This year, one Newport News student was named a special scholarship candidate, Wesley Jordan from Menchville High School. Mr. Jordan? I'd also like to take a moment to honor Tanti Brownlee from Warwick High School. Was she able to join us? Oh, Tanti,

008there you are. Please come on up. Tanti earned recognition in the National Achievement Scholarship Program. Of the more than 160,000 students who entered the 2015 National Achievement Program, a group of about 3,100 outstanding participants are referred to colleges for their potential for academic success. In late September, a roster of these students' names, high schools, and tentative college majors was sent to higher education admission officials to enhance admission and financial aid opportunities. So Tanti was named a National Achievement. student referred to colleges congratulations please join me in one more round of applause congratulating our national merit and national achievement scholarship program honorees for this year as they make their way back to their seats I'd like to take an opportunity to recognize the family members that join these outstanding students this evening would you please stand

009and be recognized We thank you for the support. I'd also like to acknowledge their school administrators that are joining us this evening. Would you please stand to be recognized? Again, we wish them well and their future success. We know they'll do very well in college. At this time, we're going to take about an eight-minute break so that our honorees and their families may leave if they choose to do so. In the meantime, our viewing audience will have an opportunity to view this month's school board spotlight. So we'll stand in recess for about eight minutes. Thank you. This school year, the students and staff at Heinz Middle School will read over 42,000 books. It's part of the school's goal to tackle the 40 book challenge. And each day, students and teachers are not only increasing the

010volume of books read, but they're also raising their joy of reading. Inspired by The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller, Principal Dr. Amanda Corbin-Staten and Reading Specialist Kathy Bohens decided that challenging each student and staff member to read 40 books during the school year would be a huge step towards increasing the overall literacy focus at Heinz. Students are motivated to read across genres, which increases their exposure to different writing styles, themes, and increased vocabulary. The challenge isn't a competition and it's not graded. It's simply a personal goal for each Heinz Spartan to increase their literacy skills and have fun along the way. As students complete a book, they log their accomplishment in their reading response notebook. They use a graph to visually see the different genres they've been reading. They list and rank the books they've

011read and write a response about how the book affected them. In some classrooms, teachers encourage students to post book recommendations or powerful quotes to decorate the walls. Students even share what they're currently reading on the morning show. And staff members log their reading status by decorating doorways or walls. There's even a section in the library full of reading recommendations from the principal. And just after a few months into the challenge, the transformation across the school is amazing. Through setting and achieving goals, good reading habits have replaced negative attitudes. The number of books being checked out of the school's library has increased by over 3,000 books. The Fall Book Fair's profits increased by more than $1,500. Teachers and students find more in common by chatting about books they've read. And this community of readers has influenced

012those outside the school by increasing parental involvement and the number of books being donated to the school. Already, some students have completed reading their 40 books, but they aren't ready to slow down yet. And neither is the rest of Heinz, as they continue to check out more books and increase their excitement for reading. To celebrate Hilton Elementary's 95th year, the Herons took to the streets in grand fashion. Hilton's PTA hosted the first annual Hilton Hustle 5K, taking energetic runners and walkers along the picturesque roads of historic Hilton Village. The entire Hilton community came together to make every mile count. Over 250 people participated in the 3.1 mile race or the one mile fun run, including over 19 staff members. And many Hilton students enjoyed running in both races. Everyone was encouraged to have extra fun

013by wearing their own creative costumes during the hustle. Kids of all ages wore a variety of get-ups, and some of the best costumes were awarded prizes at the end of the day. The Christopher Newport University boys basketball team volunteered their time to lead a group warm-up, ensuring all the participants were stretched out and ready for a morning of running. And the 7th Transportation Brigade from Fort Eustis and Fort Story supplied water for the thirsty runners. PTA Vice President Amy Clickenbeard organized a small army of volunteers, sponsors, and community organizations to make this first Hilton Hustle a groundbreaking success. Through everyone's efforts, the PTA was able to raise over $9,000 to fund various Hilton events throughout the school year and support meaningful charities. For Principal Barbara Nagel, one of the greatest successes of the day was

014the strength of community, positive energy, and sense of togetherness that the hustle created. The shirts for the Hilton Hustle were purple since the race was on the same day as the walk to end Alzheimer's. Raising awareness and funds for Alzheimer's care and research is important for Hilton since one of its students' families is affected by advanced Alzheimer's. A contribution from the PTA, along with staff donations, will be given to the Alzheimer's Association in honor of the family. The Hilton Hustle provided a great physical activity for families to participate in together, and has motivated many to continue their fitness routines. It also gave an entire school the opportunity to create a meaningful new community event where families, students and teachers could cheer each other on. The entire third grade at Riverside Elementary unified their efforts to

015help create a very festive Thanksgiving for many families in Hampton Roads. During the first two weeks in November, the young students organized a Thanksgiving canned food drive to benefit the Virginia Peninsula Food Bank. The third grade teachers were approached by members of Alpha Phi Omega, a co-ed service fraternity at Christopher Newport University, to join forces in collecting and donating canned goods. The third grade teachers quickly adapted the opportunity into a grade-wide eye care project with an emphasis on service learning. First, students researched the facts and statistics about hunger worldwide. This helped put the issue in perspective for the students and motivated them to help their community, especially with Thanksgiving approaching. Each class was assigned a specific task related to the food drive. Heather Justice and Kimberly Kinder's students got the project rolling by designing and

016creating posters to advertise the food drive around the school. Chrissy Lowe's third graders continued the advertising blitz by writing catchy scripts to read on Riverside's morning television show. Sheldon Stewart's class was in charge of organizing the storage boxes in the school's front lobby. And students in Sarah Wolcott's class wrapped up the event by counting the school's donations. The entire school collected 340 non-perishable items for the food bank, with the second and third grades bringing in over half of the school's donations. The food drive was a huge success for Riverside Elementary and a bright Thanksgiving for many thankful families in our community. Welcome back to our meeting for December 16th, 2014. We're going to proceed with the rest of the agenda. Next on our list is audience with individuals and groups. This is our period of

017time to hear from citizens and folks who want to provide some comments. And we don't have any cards tonight. But we do invite folks to come forward and let us know how we're doing and what you think. So having no cards, we'll move on to item three, the consent agenda, which contain the minutes of the special meeting and work session of November 18th and the minutes of the regular session of November 18th, as well as financial reports, which include a revenue report dated November 14th, an expense report of the same date, and a child nutrition report. We also have a personnel report and acknowledgments in that package. Unless board members have a reason to discuss any of the information in those reports, I would just ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda. So

018moved. Do I have a second? OK. Moved and seconded. Poll the board, please. Ms. Simons? For. Mr. Stodghill? For. Mr. Ashby? For. Mr. Brown? For. Mr. Hicks? For. Mr. Hunter? For. And Mr. Scott? For. Motion carries 7-0. To section 4, action items. Item 4.01, we have some for action tonight proposed course recommendations for the year 2015-2016. And we've heard a report on that in previous meetings. And in general, this includes adjustments to course curriculum to really to strengthen the CTE engineering, civil engineering, architecture courses that we teach, as well as to adjust some of the arts and music program coursework into an honors structure so that we don't have a disincentive for students to not participate or disincentive and allow them to participate in these courses and earn the same kind of credit that they

019would in a normal honors course pursuit. so I didn't intend to give a report but I did it so do I have a motion yes sir recommendation of 2015 and 16 second Ms. Simons? 4. Mr. Staccio? 4. Mr. Ashby? 4. Mr. Brown? 4. Mr. Hicks? 4. Mr. Hunter? 4. And Mr. Scott? 4. Motion carries 7-0. Next on the agenda, we have an agreement for Newsome Park and Sedgefield that the school board has to enter into, which is called a memorandum of understanding, which lays out a structure that the state has put forward for schools, for those two schools, which requires that we put a plan in action. We notify all the interested parties and that we get regular reports on how the progress in those schools is going. And a whole series of methodologies to

020make sure that the school board, the school, the superintendent, all of the players in improving the performance at those schools will work together. This is something that the Department of Education is requiring of us to do. I think board members have seen these two memorandum of understanding. So I need a motion to approve that. So I can sign it? Do I have a motion? So moved. Second? Second. Ms. Simons? Four. Mr. Staccio? Four. Mr. Ashby? Four. Mr. Brown? Four. Mr. Hicks? Four. Mr. Hunter? Four. And Mr. Scott? Four. Motion carries 7-0. We had talked. I think we had an executive session last month, and we announced following that that the board's intention was to extend the superintendent's contract for another four years based on the current level of compensation and not increasing those amounts. The

021purpose of this really is to establish and continue stability. We believe in our superintendent, Dr. Kilgore. The board feels, I think, unanimously about that. And as we move forward into next academic year, we did not want to have this issue begin to be unresolved. So this is a natural time to move ahead and express our support and pull together and put the focus on the next four years. So do I have a motion to approve the contract? So moved. Second. Second. Pull the board, please. Ms. Simons. For. Mr. Stachow. For. Mr. Ashby. For. Mr. Brown. For. Mr. Hicks. For. Mr. Hunter. For. And Mr. Scott. For. Motion carries 7-0. Okay, I will direct the superintendent to... to just address some of the clerical issues in that contract and bring it up to date. And then

022we will execute that sometime in the near future. Thank you. Thank you all for backing our direction and our superintendent and continuing the work. I think we need to give our superintendent a round of applause. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. thank you very much for this um i feel quite honored it's a wonderful job it's a wonderful board to get to work with and i just look forward to all the good things that we're going to do together and i really do thank you very much so thank you did you have something you'd like to I think you can read it. Mr. Ashby is going to read the motion that we intended to read into the record. So let's go back and just make that a part of the official. Let me do this

023officially. Mr. Chairman, I move that the school board with the superintendent's concurrence terminate the superintendent's present contract ending June 30, 2016 and enter into a new contract beginning December 16th. 2014 and ending June 30th 2018 the terms and conditions of the superintendent's pricing contract will remain the same but the only change being the contract's length tonight no no and I just I just wanted to kind of underscore that we all took it on the chin Okay. Do I have a second? Second. All aboard. Ms. Simons. Four. Mr. Staccio. Four. Mr. Ashby. Four. Mr. Brown. Four. Mr. Hicks. Four. Mr. Hunter. Four. And Mr. Scott. Four. Motion carries 7-0. We've been doubly endorsed. Okay. Two votes can't be there, huh? I just wanted to say that the board is interested in trying to make sure that

024we conduct our matters in a transparent way and that we've deliberately and intentionally worked through this contract extension to be transparent and and to come and talk in our meetings about what we intended to do before we did it and you know it was for you to what two and a half years ago that we didn't do it that way and we really took it on the chin so we I just wanted to bring that up all right moving on to section five reports and information. The first item under that is 5.01, a resolution concerning the funding of public education and Mr. Finneran is going to lead us through that report. Present tonight last month you approved the school boards legislative program which had as one of its key provisions Positions a priority position on

025funding for k-12 education and the resolution that you have before you today It's been on it's in your packet. It was on board Docs is really a really focuses more attention on this position and it is really an initiative of a lot of organizations including the Virginia School Boards Association and the Virginia Association of School Superintendents to express their concern about funding for K-12 education. And the next couple of slides are going to put this in context and kind of show us why this resolution has been brought up at this time. On this, there's a lot of words on this because there's a lot to say about funding for K-12 education and how it's changed over the past year since 2009 to today. One of the first things we'll see on that slide is that

026K-12 education, percentage of K-12 education... that's part of the state budget has actually dropped from almost 35 percent to 30 percent. I think it's actually a little bit under 30 percent now. So you can see that the state in terms of its priority for public education has dropped quite a bit. The state per pupil funding has dropped I think that's about $500 or so per student. If you do the math, 30,000 students, that's $15 million right there. So that's a lot of money. The state continues to transfer funding out of the general fund, which is a primary funding source for K-12 education, into the lottery fund and the literary fund. And what that does is reduce funding in the future through what's called the re-benchmarking process, when they look at what the general fund... spent

027and provided two years ago and what it should provide in the coming bi-annual budget. So when you transfer these funds out, it actually reduces funds for future education. It also takes money out of the literary fund and right now we'll see in the next Next slide that literary fund is designed to provide financing for school construction and renovation. And by transferring all this money into the Literary Fund, it's reduced the amount of money that's actually available so that now we have a backlog of, the state has a backlog of 39 school construction and renovation projects dating all the way back to 2007. So if you wanted to get a loan through the Literary Fund, you'd probably be out of luck for... quite a number of years, partly because of this transfer of money, of obligations

028into the Literary Fund, which takes up money. It takes money away from what the true purpose was. Anyway. This is continuing. Just this past June, we saw $43 million transferred out of the general fund into the literary and lottery funds. So it's something that's continuing to go on. We've talked about it a lot with our legislators. They have not been able to stop doing it. And so this is one of the reasons this... resolution is coming before you. Also with average teacher pay dropping 5.8% since 2009 and Virginia ranking 37th in teacher pay, this position in the resolution will ask the state to really consider making teaching a more viable and attractive position. There's a need to increase teacher salaries to keep up with states around us and just to keep up with inflation in

029general. And finally, Newport News Public Schools, to take it from the statewide to the local, Newport News Public Schools is actually down $24 million in this current budget when compared to the actual budget in fiscal year 2009. And as a result of that, Newport News Public Schools has cut 492 full-time positions. That's nearly 500 positions out of the school division that are not here anymore. So you can see we've tightened our belt. I think the school, obviously the school division has done a great job of managing this tremendous loss, but there are some things that need to be done because it seems to be continuing. We just got in a, it's not on here, but a list of major state K-12 funding policy changes since 2009 that add up to $1.7 billion in reductions since

0302009. There are 12 of them, so they're being called the dirty dozen of... of policy changes. All these changes are not positive changes. They're all changes that actually reduce the amount of money that comes to K-12 education through policy. The next slide is something you actually saw last in your last legislative report, General Assembly report. It's a quote from the Virginia Education Association. As I said before, back then, I don't usually quote from other people or other organizations, but this one was so on target, I thought I'd use it once again. And just to quickly read it, as funds have been cut, classes have grown larger, and this is statewide. Elective courses have been eliminated and after-school programs have been eliminated. We are doing very little to attract and retain the best teachers to our

031classrooms. And I think this resolution that you have before you today is one answer to the next question. Is the disinvestment in the education of the next generation and our failure to support the teaching profession beginning to take its toll? I think the answer would be yes. A lot of people think that, and that's why this resolution is before you. The resolution is very simple. There are a lot of whereases, a lot of information that come before it. It ends up just asking the General Assembly to immediately increase the state's share of funding for public education to a level of quality that is prescribed by them in the standards of quality and expected by the Commonwealth citizens. That's just a short report on this resolution. It will come back to you for approval for a

032vote. In at your January meeting and if you have any questions, I'd be happy to try to answer I would I think it would be given that the time clock is going to unfold relatively rapidly in January with the upcoming General Assembly session I would suggest that we put this up for an action item tonight So if somebody could make a motion. Let me get back to my seat for that. Well, before Mr. Finneran goes away, if there are any questions, I think now would be a good time to ask them. I did have a question. So can you explain a little bit? about why moving the obligations from the general fund to the literary literary fund actually decreases the amount of money we have for capital improvements meaning building schools and maintaining schools yes

033For example, moving obligations to the literary fund means that we're now paying for, actually the real example is we're paying VRS, we're paying retirement payments out of the literary fund. So if we pay $50 million in retirement funds, I'm just making up that number, out of the... Literary fund that's 50 million dollars statewide that the state does not have to put towards school financing school construction or renovation projects. So what they're doing is creating another obligation within those funds and on the literary fund it's mainly been the VRS payments, the retirement system payments. In the lottery fund they have taken out every bit of construction money. and a little bit of renovation money. And they've actually put in things like textbooks. So we are now dependent upon the Virginia State Lottery to pay for textbooks.

034And again, it's pushed other things out. So that's sort of a short example of both. And when did the state take out the construction CIP funding? I'd say that was probably about... Five years ago. Okay, because I think that's something the public really needs to understand is that the state is not giving us CIP money anymore for construction. That's right, and we used to get about $1.1 million a year or $1.2 million a year from the state for construction. They also used to provide us, maybe a decade ago, money for renovation and repair. It was called a maintenance fund. That went away about 10 years ago, I would say. Okay. So it's been a steady erosion. Thank you. Any other questions? Not yet, sir. Mr. Brown? Yes, Mr. Brown. I'd be interested to know, just

035in terms of our elective courses, since 2009, by subject area, which courses or how many courses we've lost or had to transition out due to budget. I realize you don't have that answer now. I think the educators behind me are glad that I don't have to answer now because I probably gave you the wrong answer, but we can find that out. I don't think we have used that as a cost-cutting strategy to cut out electives. No, we have not, have we? No. But we can, we'll research that again, but that really has not been one of our strategies, is to cut classes, cut offerings. If it's on the class, if it's in the curriculum and young people sign up to have that as a class, then we offer it as a class. And I may

036have misled you a bit. When I was reading that quote from the Virginia Education Association, again, I said it was statewide, but it may have led you to think that that was just, locally as well, you probably would find electives cut in other school divisions. Yeah, I think that just having spoken to citizens, there is a... idea out there that somehow we've cut the arts especially but in Virginia well at least with us we have not cut the arts what's really suffering is our capital improvement budget and our maintenance budget and the number of teachers and the number of kids per class it's not that we've decreased the opportunities for our kids and I think we can be proud of that We've done very little to class size also. So that's really not an area

037that we saved a great deal of money with. We have done something to class size, but I think we increased about one, two. And we had that discussion the other day. We think we're probably at a level that we're okay with that. Have we had an increase in the lottery funds per se? I mean, I hear all the time, all this money. Everybody playing lottery in there. We need a mega lottery business, three or four states joined together. It doesn't necessarily come to us. I want to know. I can look at some of it. I don't have that right in front of me. I can look to see if the lottery funding has increased. I didn't expect you to have, but I think I would like to know that. Yeah. The problem is that even

038if lottery funds increase, More more obligations are transferred into that pushing out things such as cool school construction and renovation So it lottery is now paying for things that used to be paid for in the general fund and the lottery was the gravy That could pay for extra things now that that gravy has kind of gone away And and what's in the lottery fund is really all all things that used to be paid for out of the general fund Mr.. Scott I think what Mr. Brown was trying to state about the electives, let's say if we, let's use our high schools for instance, if we had a certain elective course there and then they didn't have enough students to meet the class size. As far as funding is concerned, did we have to make a

039cut saying, hey, we can't provide this class. We only have like five students in it, you know, per team. And we've always done that. Okay. That really has nothing to do with budget. Okay. And more to do with the use of the staff. Right. And we also can offer it virtually for young people. We can do that. Okay. Mr. Stodgill, I have a question. I'm sorry. Mr. Stodgill, are you done? I'm sorry. Are you? Your question, she said. I've got a question. What I was going to state, I think when we went to one of the SBA meetings, they described how they broke down the lottery funds. And once it goes into that funding, it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to come to schools. You know, that all the money or all the funding there

040goes to schools. They have it set up to where there are other. programs where that money can be moved into. So at that time, the percentages or why we receive a certain amount, there's no rhyme or reason to it, and that's how we keep losing out. So in order for something good to happen, we need a policy set to say either we need a percentage of it or they need to cover all the programs that we used to have in our school system. Mr. Fenneran, I just would like a little bit of clarity. State per pupil funding has decreased, but in what way does the decrease in pupil funding affect us? Does that mean less computers per student, or in what way does that affect us as far as students are concerned? Well, I think

041you... The total, it really isn't, it's the per pupil funding is an example of how it impacts us. We have about $500 or so less per pupil. The total... reduction though is today we have 24 million dollars less money in our budget than we did in fiscal year five years ago in fiscal year 2009 now that can manifest itself in a variety of ways from not being able to do repairs that we need to do on buildings to you know the state is now Teacher rate, yeah, teacher raises. Again, we talked about that. They're at almost 6% lower when indexed for inflation than they were in 2009. The state has really required us to go to a longer term for replacing buses. And that's, again, across the state. Buses are older. So there's a whole

042lot of ways that that really shakes out. Can we have a motion to adopt this resolution? Sure, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to make the motion. Sorry, Ms. Suggs wants to enter the mic. That's what I was going to do. Okay. Okay. Staying corrected. Let's have a motion to move it off the report agenda onto the action agenda. Mr. Chairman, I'd like to make the motion. The resolution for... concerning funding public education be moved to an action item this evening? Second. Okay, moved and seconded. Poll the board, please. Ms. Simons? For. Mr. Staccio? For. Mr. Ashby? For. Mr. Brown? For. Mr. Hicks? For. Mr. Hunter? For. And Mr. Scott? For. Motion carries 7-0. Now a motion to adopt. I move that we adopt the resolution. Second. OK, moved and seconded. Poll the board, please. Ms. Simons.

043For. Mr. Staccio. For. Mr. Ashby. For. Mr. Brown. For. Mr. Hicks. For. Mr. Hunter. For. And Mr. Scott. For. Motion carries 7-0. Thank you. All right, item 5.02, we're going to hear a report on English as a second language. It's a program update by Ms. Vasquez. This will be fun. Please come forward. Welcome. Thank you. All right, well, good evening. Good evening. Good evening, Chairman Stodgehill. and Vice Chair Ashby and Dr. Kilgore and members of the board and all those present. Tonight I have the opportunity of sharing with you about our ESL program in Newport News Public Schools. And as you may well know, our ESL program serves students for whom English is a second language. So we're gonna talk a little bit about the students and the program and some additional supports we have

044for the students and their families tonight. Alright, as you can see we have had a lot of growth in our student population over the past 12 years. In 2002 we had about 223 ESL students whereas today we have 1,224 students. So that's a 549% growth which is slightly above the growth that the state level has seen. Alright, so with this growth come a variety of students and so I want to highlight that for you tonight. So of the 1,224 students, majority of our ESL students are at the elementary level with 61% and about 28% of our students are at the secondary level. Of these students, 55 languages are represented. So majority of our students are native Spanish speakers, about 67%. And then some other languages to highlight for you are 5% of our students speak

045Arabic, 4% Nepali, and 3% speak Vietnamese or Dari. Alright, this slide highlights the home countries of our students in the ESL program. A total of 57 home countries. This is the country of birth for our students that come to us. The top eight countries that are represented in our population are above on the slide. And it's important to note that the majority of our students actually are from the United States. And the next slide actually shows the other countries represented in our population. So quite a lot. And with that comes quite a lot of ability levels for our students pre-K through 12. So it's important to keep in mind that some students come to us with a prior education in their home country and some students come to us with very limited, if any, education

046in their home country at all grade levels. So we'll look at some of the levels of proficiency that our students have across the division. This is the English language proficiency level of our students. Level one students are students that come to us with very limited English, so may know a word or two of English or may not know any English at all. And then our level five students are kind of comparable with their same age peers in their amount of discourse that they're able to have in English. So you see the whole range there. We've had an increase. in our level one student population so we've addressed the program to meet some of those unique needs that these students bring to us. Alright our program spans pre-k through 12 so we service ESL students even

047at the pre-k level all four of our ECC sites. In addition, we service all of our ESL students across all 24 elementary schools. This year we have a unique program addressing the need of some of our very intensive level one students that come to us in grades second through five. And this is a newcomer center located at Saunders Elementary School. And it's all day ESL for these students, so they get very intensive English instruction before going back to their zoned schools. In addition, we've also started a dual language immersion program this year at the kindergarten at Palmer and Saunders, and this is in collaboration with World Language, something very exciting that has begun. So half of the day they learn in English and the other half in Spanish, and this is a real asset for

048our students that are native Spanish speakers in our program. At the secondary level we have centers across the division to better address the needs of our students. So for middle school our centers are located at Dozier and Gildersleeve Middle Schools. And we support ESL students in the English class daily, those that are very intensive. And then we have an ESL resource class for those that are less intensive but still need English language support. We also have special support to address the ESL alternative assessment to the SOL, known as the VGLA at the middle school level in particular. In high school, Denbigh and Warwick High School are our centers and students that are ESL students in high school have a variety of courses that they can take in order to help build their English language proficiency

049and to address their needs based on their proficiency level. So for instance, we have ESL 1, 2, and 3 that students can take and they can receive an English credit for those classes. We also have ESL Languages and Cultures. for levels one through five and students can receive an elective or world language credit for their class. Alright, here's some of our ESL performance. As you can see, it follows along the trend with the state level. So the state is in red and Newport News ESL population is in blue as far as our performance goes. So unfortunately, our trend is slightly lower than the states, but we do follow and align with the state in our reading and math. And keeping in mind, research says that it takes about five to 10 years to acquire a

050language. And so our students are faring fairly well considering the amount of growth that they're expected to make and take the SOLs. So that's an example here for reading and math. In math, we've had some growth over the past three years. And then here are trends for science and history. And once again, history, we've had some growth over the past three years. Now our ESL on-time graduation rate I think is very telling. It pretty much is in line with the trend that we have as a division as a whole. Blue is Newport News public school students overall on-time graduation rate and the red is the ESL student population. Now just to let you know the kind of transient and the trend overall the going up and going down is really based on the amount of

051students for that given year. So it can be 30 students to 28. So the percentage looks a little bit different because of that. But overall, the line is right along the course of Newport News. All right, so now you have the opportunity to hear from our two newcomer teachers and get to see some of the classes in action. It's a lowercase h. Can you find the uppercase h? Where's the uppercase h? If you need help, you can look at the word wall. Here. Uppercase h. I see a lowercase a and it's yellow. Like this. Yes. Okay, so a, apple, f. A, apple, f. Make sure you look at the picture, okay? You want to make that connection, you can use a letter. and the sounds. B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B-B- What is this? Straw. Our job here is to

052create a nurturing classroom environment where they can achieve high levels of English proficiency in the areas of reading and writing and listening and speaking. Goodbye. All right, I'm glad you got to see the students in action. We have a variety of students in our newcomer program. All right, some of the additional supports that we provide for our students and their families are our ESL Welcome Center. This is located at Watkins Early Childhood Center, and it kind of serves as a one-stop shop for our students and their families to help them along the registration process for Newport News Public Schools. So all families come here, and we have an ESL registrar, an administrative specialist that assists them in the process and utilizes language line in order to interpret the registration paperwork so that the parents understand

053the process and what they're filling out. In addition, we have an ESL assessment specialist that assesses the students on site to see where their English language proficiency level is and whether or not they would fall into the ESL program. Another support that we've started this year is our Parents as Educational Partners class. This is a very exciting new offering that we have for our families and our students. So parents attend English classes at a school in our district, and they learn about Newport News Public Schools while they're learning English. So they learn about the process and the culture of American schools. And then in addition, the students actually receive additional homework assistance and tutoring while their parents are in the class. So that's an exciting opportunity that we've started this year. Alright, and now you

054have the opportunity to hear from two of our students from Warwick High School and from Mr. Morales' class there. And they're going to share with you in their words about their experience coming to America and being in our school system. So without further ado, I'd like to welcome Deepak Biswakarma from Nepal and Brian Bustamante. from Honduras and they're going to share their story. So Deepak first. Welcome. Good evening everyone. Today I'm going to share my presentation. I'm Deepak Viswakarma and I'm from Nepal. Nepal is a very beautiful country with beautiful mountains and green forest. People used to go to my country because we have the tallest mountain in the world, Mount Everest. It has been almost five years I came to United States with my family. I can say United States is the best country

055of all kind of people. Here is equality and love for everyone. I am enjoying U.S. very much. In fact, my family too. I am a student in Warwick High School. I am very proud to say my school, Warwick High School, is the best school of all. Because everyone I know in school are truly caring and loving. All the teachers are helping students to build their future powerful and bright. When I first came in the US, I was very scared because I cannot speak English like others. I can understand nothing. When I first time went to school, I went to go back to my country. No one talked to me and no one even looked at me. I tried to be friends but I was unable to make friends then because I cannot talk English. Imagine

056a kid alone in a hog sheep sitting and there is no one on sheep. That kid tried to escape but there was only water he can see around him. How will you feel? I was in the same situation. I tried to my best day by day and I met some friends. I used to sit alone in lunch, not because I talked to no one, but no one talked to me. I was a bad student and lazy student for all my teachers because I never used to do my work. I was not lazy or bad but what if I never do do not know what is the homework remember I do not talk English I asked no one nothing because I do not talk English English English is my second language but but days after days

057I struggle and learn English from ESL class and here I am today at last I came to know one things Failure is not an option, but it's a choice. So we need to stop making bad choices. Instead, we should take advantage for opportunity. We should talk good advance for opportunity like I did. We should do our best to expect best. We change our way and do our all the best to accept. Best as a result. Thank you for all listening. Thank you. Hi, good evening. My name is Brian Bustamante. I'm from Honduras. I'm 15 years old. I have been here in the United States for two and a half years. My life here in the United States has been great. I learned a lot. of things in the schools and in my favorite subjects that

058are math and ESL. When I take for the first time ESL, I feel weird because the English that they were talking was totally different from the one that I learned in my country, Honduras. After a few weeks, I start to learn the pronunciations. I don't tell it perfectly, but I try to. I still having trouble talking with people because I think that would sell something wrong. But I know that I will learn like all the students that have been taking ESL classes. The best things of ESL classes is that you know many people. You start to know people from many countries like from Mexico, Guatemala, China, Nepal. other countries. For me, that is the great part of being a ESL student. I like to have the classes of ESL. I would like to have ESL

059always and learn all the English possible and became a great person. Thank you. Thank you, Brian. Thank you so much. And thank you, board, for this opportunity to share with you tonight. I'll open up if you have any questions. Mr. Hunter. Oh, yes. Hello. That's fantastic that these two gentlemen came up, and I know that's wonderful. Welcome to America. Also, how many of the parents do not speak English? I do not know the exact facts of the amount of parents that do not speak English, but the majority of our parents do not speak English. Do not speak English. Mr. Ashburn. Great job to the two students. Phenomenal job to work and leadership in what you're displaying and demonstrating in the situation and setting. And it just really shows and shares what Newport News Public Schools

060is about. You know, every child, every day, no matter whatever it takes, is being displayed and demonstrated in the situation. how we have the ability, regardless of where the child comes from, to have children to be college, career, and citizenship ready. Again, to the two students, your words were extremely powerful. The experiences in which you shared were very, very powerful. And just thank you for being a part of our school system. We really welcome you, and we know great things are going to continue to happen for you. I echo those comments as well, that it's fantastic to see that our schools are able to bring in so many kids from all different parts of the world and to help them to graduate on time and be college and career and citizen ready. Just the one

061question I had in regards to the level one through level five, and you mentioned that I guess it takes about five years for a child to get all the way through the program. What does it take or in terms of middle school or high school student when they come in because we have the program the immersion program for grades two through five what kinds of things do we do for middle and high school students who are coming in for the first time and they are level one? Okay, so what we've done, we've restructured our program so that every day they get ESL. So at the high school level, they have a double block of ESL, so that means they get ESL every single day, but they also get English credit for that class. And then

062in addition to that, they get another class of ESL. language and cultures every other day. So it's at least three courses that they're taking that are specific to ESL to give them that foundation when they go into high school. And then similarly in middle school, they have ESL support in English every single day and then an extra class that they can take depending on their ability levels. So that's what we have in place at this time. Mr. Brown just asked my question. I was going to ask the same thing because I am concerned about kids who join us in high school with very little English. And I'm wondering if we should maybe look at some kind of early career option or how we can support these students as they transition from high school. Because I

063think that it can be very challenging to go from into college if you don't have a solid academic foundation? What needs to happen next is my question. Well, I know we're working on a variety of things, and we're looking at our resources and the program that we're offering right now, and we're actually continuing to have meetings to discuss what we can move forward with to better support our students. So we're still in the process of creating and making it even. more appropriate for our students along the way. So it's a process right now, but we are looking at various options for the future. From the PEP program, when the parents attend that class, that the students are able to receive extra assistance with their homework and studies, are there any additional opportunities for them to

064receive extra assistance besides being at the PEP program with their parents? What type of extra assistance opportunities are also provided? Okay. Well, right now, PEP is the only additional piece. that is provided outside of the regular school offerings other than the ESL courses. So that's what we have for this point in Juncture, and we've just started implementing that this year. So we're hoping to expand that program as the years go on. But there is the same tutoring available at all the high schools for all the students and at the middle schools and the same... middle school, SOL periods, and so all of that is extra help within the school day. I do want to make sure I recognize you guys for a lot of hard work. I mean, really, in this one year, we've got

065the dual immersion program. We've got this new newcomer center. We've got this pet program. I mean, I think that you all are really making strides in serving our immigrant communities. So I do appreciate that. Thank you very much. Thank you. Anything else? Thank you, Ms. Vasquez. And thank you, Deepak, and thank you, Brian, for sharing. It's tough to come up, even in your native language, and speak at that podium. So thank you. Y'all are pros at it. Thank you. All right. Next on the agenda, Ms. Brooks will lead us through a series of policy revisions. I will say that one of the policy revisions that's being driven by the state at this point is to update our purchasing. policy on fuel. And there is a pressing issue because of the drop in fuel prices for

066us to lock in a deal. So after her presentation, I'm going to ask that we move that particular policy up for an action item, and then we vote on it. So, Ms. Brooks. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice Chairman, members of the board, and Dr. Kilgore. It is a pleasure to be here this evening to share with you eight new and revised policies this evening. As you know, one of the major roles of the school board is to set the policy direction for the school division. So, we're very fortunate as a committee to have two board members on the committee with us. This year, we have Mr. Stodge, Harold, and Mr. Hunter. In addition to our board members, we have a principal representative from each level, a teacher representative, our legal counsel,

067and myself as a policy administrator. As I said, one of the major roles of the school board is to set the policy direction for the school division. And the administrative staff works on the guidelines and the procedures to implement those policies. So board policies and the implementing procedures support all of the work that appears here before you on the strategic plan. So this evening I'd like to share two new policies with you. The first is on the use of our school buses by organizations outside of the school division and the second new policy is regarding lactation support. In addition to the new policies, I'd like to review six revisions that are being proposed to policies, and these are on a wide range of subject areas, including budget hearings, kinship care, student fees, staff wages, overtime,

068and purchasing authority, which Mr. Stodgehill referenced earlier. Now in total there are about 16 budget documents that support these policies that I'll share with you this evening and they all appear before you on board docs in your electronic folders. So the first policy that I would like to review, which is a new policy and procedure, is beginning with the use of school buses for non-school purposes. Now as we all know, the major purpose or the primary purpose for our school buses is to transport our students to and from school and for school activities. But this policy provides the conditions and the approval process for outside organizations that wish to use our buses. So under this new policy, the school board would permit the superintendent to honor or to review requests to use our buses under

069two conditions. The first is during a declared state of emergency in our city or in the state. and that's when our buses are used to respond to the emergency. And the second is in cases where the outside organization will enter into agreement with the school division. Now, under the Code of Virginia, only... state agencies, the City of Newport News, and agencies that support our students and the elderly are allowed to enter into agreement with the school division to use our buses. So we develop procedures in terms of how that transaction will take place, all of the documentation that is required when someone requests to use our buses. all of the insurance certificates that are required, as well as the billing arrangements for the use of our buses. Our next or second new policy is that

070of lactation support. And this policy requires each school to designate a non-restroom location that is shielded from public view where any mother who is either employed by the school division or is enrolled by as a student may express milk. Now all school divisions are required to have this policy in place and this is the result of fairly recent General Assembly action. Now next there are six current policies and procedures that we are proposing to revise and I'd like to share the first one with you this evening and that is on budget hearings and reviews. We are initially revising the budget hearing policy to align it with the Code of Virginia. The policy addresses the presentation of the superintendent's recommended budget in March of each year, and it also emphasizes all of the opportunities for the

071public to provide comments during the budget review process. We developed new procedures that will allow the superintendent to recommend a public hearing schedule as a part of the school board's annual calendar. And that's the calendar that you approve at your organizational meeting on July 1st. The procedures also include where the public may review these documents, and that's in this building, the administration building, online, and at our city libraries. The next policy is the admission of resident students. Now under a new state requirement, students who are in a kinship care arrangement in Newport News may be enrolled as students in the school division. Now kinship care is the full-time care of a child by a relative. who has been given the authority to act on behalf of the parent who can no longer care for the

072child. And in many cases, this is due to job loss or financial challenges, serious injury, and in some cases, incarceration. And in the past, most school divisions required parents and the relative to go through the court system to obtain legal guardianship. However, under this new provision, and this is a state requirement, students living in the temporary arrangement in Newport News schools and Newport News and the city of Newport News may be enrolled in our schools. We did develop procedures and the procedures include all of the legal documentation that is required by the parent and the relative to complete. And currently this provision is only in place through June of 2016. So it has a very short life. Our next revision is to our policy on student fees and charges. And in keeping with the state

073code, once again, we're revising our current policy to specifically state the school board's authority to permit schools to charge student fees and to recover funds for loss or damage to school board property. we develop new procedures that address what fees may and may not be charged as well as the provisions that are made for either reducing those fees or waiving them. And some of the fees and all of the fees are included in the new procedures and they reflect the fees that are included in stay code. And you're quite familiar with these. For example, fees that may be charged are like class dues, fees for field trips. for summer school when it's for enrichment or advancement, for overdue lost or damaged library books, and for behind the wheel instruction, and for transcripts, and that's only

074after a reasonable number have been provided to the student at no cost. Fees may not be charged for transportation. textbooks, summer school when it's for remediation, and also online courses that are necessary to meet diploma requirements. So all of the fees that may or may not be charged, as I said, are included in our procedures and they reflect the provisions that are in the Code of Virginia. Now we're also required to provide a list of our fees and we have included those as an exhibit to the policies and procedures. We will review that exhibit annually, all of those fees, and once reviewed and updated we will disseminate those to our students and families and post them on our website. Next are revisions to our staff wages and salaries policy and to our overtime policies and

075procedures, and we kind of work these two jointly. We revise the staff wages and salaries policies to state that staff wages and salaries are based on employees' regular work schedules. So employees do not receive wages for scheduled holidays or scheduled non-work periods. So for example, the salary for a full-time employee who is to work on a 245-day schedule, the salary is based on pay for 245 actual days of work. It does not include holidays or scheduled non-work days like winter break, spring break, and the like. There are cases, however, when... employees may be called in to work when other employees are not and this is typically in the case of inclement weather. So we also revised the policy to clarify the wages and salaries for employees who are asked to work during these periods of

076inclement weather. or scheduled non-work days. And in conjunction with that policy, we streamlined our overtime policy and moved a lot of the operational information that was in the policy to our procedures, which are actually our guidelines. And we also added information or guidelines to those procedures. to ensure consistency in calculating overtime pay for employees who work especially during inclement weather and those periods, as I said, that are scheduled non-work days like winter break and spring break. And lastly, we are revising our purchasing authority policy to allow the school board to give the school division the authority to purchase energy at a fixed price for future use. And this is what Mr. Stachiel referenced earlier. And it's with the exception of electricity. Most school divisions and municipalities in Virginia purchase their electricity too. through cooperatives. But

077this will allow us to really take advantage of the lower fuel costs. And as some of you may recall, we have been doing this in the past. However, we are now required to include it in policy to continue to do this in the future. So we developed new procedures that addressed the execution, the monitoring, and all of the reporting documentation that will be required between the school division and the energy supplier. So that concludes, not quite, our next steps. The policies, with the exception of the purchasing authority, will come before you at your next board meeting for action, and that's January 20th. And once the policies are approved, we will post the policies, the procedures, and the exhibits on our websites and disseminate that to our school and public libraries. Now this concludes my report

078this evening, and I'll be happy to answer your questions. Thank you, Ms. Brooks. Questions? I just have one. Yes. In reference to the kinship, it has to be somebody related, obviously. Yes, and it says biological or by marriage. Oh, okay. I was just thinking if there was maybe a mentor that wanted to help out, that's out of the question. It says biological or by marriage. Okay. Yes. And so, but that's something that we could examine, but it does define kinship as those. Connected, yes. Along the lines of the kinship care. Yes. As I read the policy now, it looks like the. the relative that's taking care of the child has to get the power of attorney, still has to go down to the courthouse, right, and file that power of attorney. And an affidavit. And

079an affidavit. What is the, I guess, what is the distinct difference between the previous policy and this one in terms of the process that the relative has to go through to declare the kinship? I think the legal guardianship was much more extensive, and I think Ms. Spratley could speak to that. My understanding is that there would be a custody change, meaning the court would award custody to the person before they would have the authority to enroll the child in school. And they would waive all rights to making any of those decisions. Okay. So legal guardian status is still a policy, but attention is being added as a less onerous type of policy. Right. And as I said, it's only in effect through June of 2016. It just allows more flexibility without having to actually have

080a court order showing that you have custody to enroll in childless school. You do have the authority, of course, to act on behalf of the parent, but you don't have total custody. Just in terms of our own policy in Newport News schools, so if a child is, say, living with a relative and the relative comes and says, I'd like to enroll them in the schools, if they don't follow this whole process, what happens to the child? That's the part that I'm... curious about do we still enroll the child provisionally or do we say we're not going to enroll the child but the child is in that? How do we eliminate limbo for the child? And our registrars work very well to do that with our schools because our goal is to have our students in

081school, of course, and to be educated. And so our registrars have a full realm of situations and circumstances in terms of student enrollment. So they will work with that parent and that relative. to do the best they can to ensure that the child is enrolled. So they will work out the steps and really help them through the process to ensure that the student is enrolled. But our registrar, our registration supervisor has been paying close attention to this and has actually worked out a training for registrars. And as I said, even prior to this situation, we've had those in the past. And so they've been very trained and very skillful. working with parents to do that and relatives any other questions comments I had another question just in regards to the the student fees portion in

082terms of looking at the policy that the principals had that discretion to reduce or waive fees. The only concern I have in looking at that paragraph is that the policy not being uniformly implemented across the district that some students end up paying a fee and others don't because if that's a, what are we defining as the specific hardship? student in order to make that kind of an exception just so that there's a so there's an there's an objective criteria for for making that reduction exactly and I know in many cases it's a free reduced lunch is one of the bases for making that decision for economic hardship and then as I said that's pretty much definitely used across the board okay then I am going to ask for a motion to move to the action

083agenda the revised policy dja on fiscal management do i have a motion to move that onto an action item status so moved i second that motion pull the board please Ms. Simons? For. Mr. Staccio? For. Mr. Ashby? For. Mr. Brown? For. Mr. Hicks? For. Mr. Hunter? For. And Mr. Scott? For. Motion carries 7-0. Okay, next I need the motion to adopt the revised policy, DJA on fiscal management, to authorize the superintendent to move forward and procure energy. So moved. Second. moved and seconded poll the board please miss Simons for mr. stodgill for mr. Ashby or mr. Brown or mr. Hicks or mr. hunter and mr. Scott motion carries 7-0 okay thanks and as mr. Hicks says get the gas well the price is low buy low sell high all right moving on we have Three

084items on the agenda the attendance report the membership report and the construction report those those reports have been in the board members packets Unless there are any comments or questions about them Then I will move on any comments or questions, okay Next comments by our superintendent. Thank you very much. I want to begin this evening by congratulating our newest National Board certified teachers. We have two special education teachers who've earned National Board certification. One, Kathy Barthelome at Gatewood Peak and Carmen Downs at Minchville High School. National Board certification is really one of the highest credentials. that you can earn in the teaching profession. Only about 1% of the teaching staff earns that credential. So I really congratulate these teachers for advancing their expertise and our expertise when we work with them. And we will recognize

085them at our next board meeting. I want to talk a little bit about a very neat event that took place last Friday, our engineering design challenge for our elementary students in Newport News. After this design challenge, we do one of these each quarter, we had our fourth and fifth grade students, they were champions representing each of their elementary schools, and they had to build, they had to design and build a robotic arm that could recover artifacts from the sunken treasure of the USS Monitor. And the Mariners Museum helped us develop the design challenge and they were there at Newsome Park to help us give advice or not advice but to have test runs with the young people as they tried out their inventions. Our winners for the day, we the team from BC Charles are

086in first place. Hilton students came in second place and Newsom Park came in third. So it was quite a neat day and it was really a 21st century day where you saw young people get a problem, solve a problem, work together, refine their design, and really come up with something that they could be very proud of. Speaking of being proud, our budget office earned a meritorious budget award for the 14-15 annual budget. This award is presented by the Association of School Business Officials, and this is the fifth year that our budget office has won this award, and so we want to congratulate Mary Lou Rosso and Pearl Tal and Jennifer Caballero for their hard work on the budget and the document. All right. I want to thank our students and our staff who are really

087spreading the holiday cheer and also the holiday spirit this season. Many of our new students are collecting and distributing food and toys and clothing to families all across our community. And I really appreciate their citizenship efforts and making this community really a better place for all of us. And finally, our winter holiday begins on Friday for our students and their teachers. The administrators' offices will close the following Tuesday at 1145, and then we will all come back to work on January the 5th. So I do wish everybody a safe... happy and fun holiday and do something nice for somebody during the holiday we everybody would appreciate that and speaking of doing something nice again I want to thank the school board for your confidence in me and for letting me stick around a little while

088I appreciate that very much so thank you thank you all right having none we will move on to matters by the school board and I'll suggest starting tonight with Ms. Mead and announce that it's her 18th birthday. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. Screams and songs and claps and hugs and everything. So very, very, it's very great to end my day with you all congratulating me. Thank you so much. That was a really great, fantastic event. saw some incredible creative designs you'd be amazed at what some of the kids came up with. I really liked to see that and to see children applying science and engineering to solve a problem because that's that's really what engineering is all about so that's fantastic to see and just looking forward to the program continuing to expand to our middle

089school and high school students and we did we did crown a winner and it's great to for those kids to be recognized as the best engineers at their grade level. in the city, you know, so really congratulations to those kids and it was a fantastic event. Many things have occurred since our, you know, between our previous board meeting and this one, a lot of events, so I'll just try to highlight a few of my takeaways. We have the Virginia School Board Academy for Challenging Schools, and I'm very happy to say that the board went out there and forced in terms of showing their support for how much we care about our challenging schools and learning about the things that we could do to make a difference. And one of the key takeaways from that. session

090was the use of after-school programs and how much they are effective in closing the achievement gap for kids. So after-school programs is going to be something that is a focus area for me, especially as we get towards our next year's budget. That'll be a priority for me. And so with that, I just want to say Merry Christmas to everybody and Happy New Year, and I'll turn it back over. Yeah, I also wanted to mention that Almost every member of the school board went up to VCU for the challenge schools task force with the Virginia School Board Association and We received a presentation when we were up there from the NNPS administrative team and They talked about what we're doing locally to address this issue of extended learning time. It's one of the tools that research

091has shown really does help our struggling students and low-income students. And we are doing quite a bit with that in Newport News Public Schools. And I would say, as we get into the legislative session in Richmond, that it really is something that I think our legislators should be looking at. Increasing funding for summer school would be way to address some of the challenges we have with low-income students and making sure that they get the best quality time with our highly trained teachers so thank you for presenting at the challenge schools task force and everyone happy holidays I believe today is the first day of Hanukkah and have a wonderful Christmas thank you Just a reminder on the 20th that we have the North District food drop where we'll be disseminating the food that has already

092came in. This event will start at 11 a.m. One of the things that will happen in this event, those students who had B average and above grades are able to enter for winning a bicycle. So if you have your report cards, if you're watching or the parents that are watching and your students have a B average and above, they can bring in their report cards and possibly go home with the bike. Excuse me. Next, they will be handing out free food, free turkeys, free haircuts. There will be plenty of children's activities, wellness screenings. Also, free coats will be given away by Mr. Charles Black. Of course, Santa and Mrs. Claus will be there. Excuse me. We'll be doing a lot of activities of course like Zumba line dancing Jazz musicians also will be playing the

093sweet instruments It's just gonna be a great event if you get a chance just swing by for a second If you have any good still to drop off, then go ahead and drop them off. If you just want to see what's happening, just want to see the spirit of folks and how others are given to to each other. We just want to kind of pay everything for it. Always look out for those less fortunate yourself, even if you are. not as fortunate as others, you know, there's still someone who's possibly even less fortunate than you are. So that's the only thing that I could pass on. And I would like to wish everyone a happy holidays. And I think the board members for all the support they've given me and the community, Dr. Kilgore. I

094guess wish you guys a happy new year because there's a good chance that I probably won't see you until the next new year. So I wish you guys a happy new year. Thank you. I just wanted to wish everybody a happy holiday. I was involved with the same activity, so we don't need to repeat that. I really enjoyed it. The most important thing is that we have a safe holiday. That's it. Mr. Hunter. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. As I always say, there's great things happening in Newport News Public Schools. A couple of things that have happened that I've attended. Again, I did owe the Virginia School Board Association a new conference in Williamsburg. It was a fantastic time for us to get together and be with our other colleagues and see best practices and how

095we to educate our students in the 21st century. So again, thank you for sending me. And again, the school board was well attended. Also, I'd like to thank the principal and the school counselor down at Hilton Elementary School. I was there for their career day, a phenomenal day, fantastic showing. Also, I'd like to give a special thanks to... Angela King, she's the Newport News Green Foundation Executive Director. She's currently working with Crittenton Middle School as well as Riverside Elementary School and Hilton Elementary School, getting them involved in green space, watershed, water storm activities, as well as gardening and planting and things of that sort. And she's doing different objects and different... subjects to coincide with our SOLs. So again, fantastic job. I also attended the IB program, the Viva Voce. Oh, that was phenomenal. Seven

096students presented their papers. I'm going to tell you, I can truly tell you that these seven students that presented are truly going to be future leaders of the country or maybe the world. They did phenomenal. So, you know, great things are happening in Newport News. I'm going to tell you that there are great things happening. Also, one... Here, locally, Newport News has the school academy that I attended. And thanks to Ms. Mary Lou and Mr. Frank, I don't see him today, their wonderful staff. What an incredible welcome they gave us there at the HR department and also giving us an overview of how HR actually works. And this is what us boards are due diligence supposed to do to understand how things work, how people are employed. how you know best practice to use the

097funds that we have how to get the best bang for our buck and i'm going to tell you newport news is doing a bang up job mary lou thank you very much and your whole staff your whole team i really enjoyed it look look forward to coming back and seeing you again and as of today again another education we're about educating and not only just our students about our board members so today again i went to a webinar today attended mr brown and about finance and how we are the best to use the monies that we have because we really have the fiduciary responsibility of ensuring that the school is operated in the manner that it's supposed to be operated and to use the money as best as we can in order to educate our

098children. So, again... That being said, I don't wish everyone, the students, the teachers, the support staff and departments, from the janitors, the custodians, to the bus drivers, and to the administration, a very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year. Thank you. Thank you. Well, I have two things. Too long. I have two things I'd like to comment on. Carl, thank you. Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Vice Chairman. I'm crushed. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I might have just very, very brief. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. But basically, I would like to echo some of the comments in which Mr. Hunter said but not only is Newport News our school board going went to HR but we actually have an academy that's going on and down what our school board members are doing is we are learning

099and growing and developing Because we have an awesome responsibility. We have been given a task of I'm supporting the superintendent senior staff and the Newport News public schools family and we cannot do it until we really know What the whole core and nucleus of everything is so before we went to a discipline review committee workshop and session and then we just simply learned about all the great things that are happening in the Human Resource Department too. So I think it's phenomenal that growing and developing is an ongoing situation and ongoing experience. I, too, got to go to Newsome Park, and it was really phenomenal to see the elementary engineer design challenge because you saw some great things. You saw children working together. You saw them thinking on the highest level. They were not just thinking

100on a literal or basic level, but they were thinking on what's called a cognitive and a metacognitive level. I mean, you just simply saw 21st century learning and happening in that situation and setting, and the thrust of energy that was in there, I think, was absolutely, absolutely phenomenal. This coming Saturday, I'm a proud member to say that I'm a member of the Virginia Peninsula Chapter of the 100 Black Men of America, and we are going to be working and doing some things this coming Saturday with some children from Newsom Park, John Marshall, Magruder, and Sedgefield Elementary School. We have what's called a Secret Santa Project. And I really would like to also thank, their new name is not Parent Involvement Specialist, they are now... Safe liaisons. Safe liaisons. And those. Family engagement. Family engagement. Oh,

101we have a new name of week. But they actually work with parents and work in the community, and they have been helping us to identify young children, and we're going to be able to play Secret Santa, do a brunch for them this coming Saturday in Newsom Park. I just work here. Which is really, really phenomenal. Finally, I'd like to say just two things real quick. One is I am very, very glad that our school board went ahead and moved the resolution of funding public education to an action item. Because this is really very, very important. As Mr. Finneran was going over his report, you know, I was really kind of saddened or hurt because of the amount of money or reduction of funds that's going toward education. And we as a public must realize that

102our greatest resource, our greatest investment are our children. They are our children. So anything which board members or the community can do to talk to state legislators and people in power to really understand the importance, the significance, the essentiality of funding public education to help our children. In order for our children to be successful in the 21st century, we've got to grow them. We have to grow them eclectically and holistically. And when we begin to value that and do that, then our children will be successful. Also, you know, it was also mentioned that There's been a reduction, but Newport News published schools on time graduation rate still going up Okay, which is really good the amount of the achievement gap still closing in that situation or setting The amount of children that are going into

103gifted service still growing and developing. So all those things we have been able to do and we just commend our Newport News Public Schools family. Everybody from the superintendent all the way down to the night custodian working at the smallest building because people have understand the essentiality of really developing our children. So we just simply thank them for that. Lastly, I just wish everybody a safe and happy holiday. And that's my comments. Thank you, Chairman Stajic. Sorry. Sorry we, um. I just got off my list. I think they're in the holiday spirit. Well, two things I wanted to comment on. Any organization requires stability to accomplish its mission. Tonight, what we did is, together as a board, ratify and get together on agreeing that the leadership of the division is going to be stable and

104it's going to continue to be strong and where you look at school divisions that are making progress, stability is there. But beyond stability, we have true leadership. And we have, I think, bold leadership. So I am glad that the board was able to get together and move ahead to continue our superintendent for another four years. And welcome to the next four years. Thank you very much. Lastly, and I hope Mr. Finneran is not offended by this, honestly, I think he could come before us at the microphone and in the most calm and dispassionate way tell us that our car is on fire. And we might not actually hear it and realize that he just said our car is on fire. But for the last five minutes, years I've watched him come forward and make the

105presentation that he made tonight and there is a certain amount of in in your calm balanced presentation there's a certain there's a certain over calming effect what I heard tonight and I want to translate it is we as Virginians our leadership in Richmond continue to sort of play a shell game and move the money out of the general fund that should be there for education and move it into other little categories that that by the time it's explained to you you know we're the General Assembly moved money out of the general fund to the lottery and the lottery fund to pay for certain parts of education well the analogy to that is If we're at home in our family budget and we're talking about our kids' education and saving for college, well, honey, this year

106we're not going to save so much for college. We're going to count on that check from grandma or from grandpa. And this year, my daughter's college education fund is going to be whatever they give us. Well, and maybe that year you get some money from grandma and grandpa. And it goes in and it works. But the problem with this is that what we're seeing is that education for the children of Virginia is a constitutional guarantee. And it says that all children will receive a quality education. It doesn't say all children will receive a quality education if... people play the lottery numbers, which is really what it's turning into. And one day, if by chance the lottery somehow tails off and people stop playing it, there's going to be a big cry that the reduction for

107money to education is down because the lottery's down. Well, it's not down because the lottery's down. It's because the citizens of Virginia have not held the feet to the fire to fund it. And we've allowed to slowly fall asleep and buy this business of the money to run education can come from somewhere else. So I just wanted to put some real fire into this. It's not as though we're going to be able to sit here and pound the gavel and get it to change. But make no doubt about it. Year in, year out. This this funding for education continues to move off into other areas and it may not be there one day I'm sorry. I ended up on a negative note, but Happy holidays and with that we're adjourned