School Board Meeting 3/13/2025

001I'll let county school boards in session. Madam Clerk, please take a roll. Mr. Collick. Mr. Cunningham. Present. Mrs. Perkins. Here. Mr. Wooster. Here. And Mr. Marsh. Here. And Mr. Collick is a bit under the weather this evening. Mr. Chair, I move to approve the agenda for closed session as presented. Second. A motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, Madam Clerk. Mr. Cunningham? Yes. Mrs. Perkins? Yes. Mr. Wooster? Yes. And Mr. Marsh? Yes. Motion passes. Mr. Chair, I move to approve the agenda for open session as presented. Second. Motion and a second. Any comments? Hearing none, Madam Clerk. Mr. Cunningham? Yes. Mrs. Perkins? Yes. Mr. Wooster? Yes. And Mr. Marsh? Yes. Motion passes. Mr. Chair, I move to go into closed session to review the personnel report posted on board docs under personnel tab number

00218.1 as authorized by Virginia Code 2.2-3711A1 for purposes of discussion and consideration of prospective candidates of Olive White Public Schools for employment, contract changes, transfers, salary adjustments, supplemental contracts, deletions, supplemental pay. resignations of Isle of Wight County Public Schools employees and to discuss matters involving three religious exemption students that would involve the disclosure of information contained in the scholastic record concerning students as authorized by Virginia Code 2.2-3711A2. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, Madam Clerk. Mr. Cunningham? Yes. Mrs. Perkins? Yes. Mr. Wooster? Yes. And Mr. Marsh? Yes. Motion passes. Madam Clerk, do we have anyone signed up to speak in closed session? No, sir. Thank you, ma'am. Let's go to closed session. Holloway County School Board is in session. Mr. Chair, I move that the closed meeting was conducted

003in conformity with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act as required by Section 2.2-3712D of the Code of Virginia and certify that only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements were discussed and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion by which the closed meeting was convened were heard, discussed, or considered. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any comments? Hearing none, Madam Clerk. Mr. Cunningham? Yes. Mrs. Perkins? Yes. Mr. Wooster? Yes. And Mr. Marsh? Yes. Motion passes. Would everyone please stand for a moment of silence and the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you, Mr. Wooster. Good evening. Come on. Good evening. Good evening. That's right. We've got a full house tonight. It is March 13, 2025, and we are in Westside Elementary School. for our regular monthly

004school board meeting. And we do have a full deck tonight, so we're going to kick it right off with Isle of Wight Achievers. This is Briggs. All right. Yes, we have a great group of folks here tonight. As we start, let me just remind people the vision for Isle of Wight County Schools is to create a learning environment that will enable every child to discover his or her unique gifts and talents. The Isle of Wight Achievers section of our board meeting gives us an opportunity to recognize and celebrate our students and staff for their unique talents and gifts. And the majority of our honorees tonight have one thing in common. They placed at the State Beta Convention, which was held back in February, March? Thank you. A little detail I didn't write down. And so

005it was well represented. Tonight we're recognizing students from four of our schools, because guess what? There are four more that we're going to recognize in April. And all of our winners from Beta are eligible to compete at the national level, which will take place in Orlando, Florida, in June. So we are going to start. with our friends from Hardy Elementary. And the way we do this, you already have your certificate. Your sponsor should have given them to you. When I call your name, you're going to bring your certificate up. Ms. Susan Goetz is going to greet you here and hand you a pin. You're going to stand in front facing the board so they get to see you as we read these accolades. And then after we get through with your group, we are going

006to have you go to the backdrop. and we're going to do some photos there. Mr. David Elliott will come down to take photos. Family, that is the time for you to come on down and get photos of your little darlings up here. And then after that, what you do is up to you. Sorry, but let's get started with Hardy. These are the students that placed at the Junior Beta Competition. And when I call your name, please come up. Gabriel Denny received third place in the fourth grade language arts category. So come on up, Gabriel. Brandon Gardner, third place in fourth grade social studies. And you're going to face them. I know it seems a little weird, but that's what we do. Yemi Onide placed third in fourth grade spelling. Izzy Balance placed third in elementary

007creative writing. Bryce Parsons placed first in fourth grade math. Jackson Gray placed first in elementary digital art. Jared Blunt placed first in elementary speech. And we want to also have their sponsors come up. Sponsors are Ms. Heather Stafford, Anne-Marie Wuerl, Jasmine Sabian, and Morgan McGrath. If you'll come up as well. And we want to congratulate all of our friends from Hardy Elementary School. And now we're going to have you slide over to the backdrop. You've been here before. You know how this works. And Mr. Elliott's going to get you all set in place. And parents, you're welcome to come up front. We won't let them leave before everybody has had a chance to get a photo. It goes pretty quick. All right. Since it's up there on the screen. Up in front. All right, let's

008see. Everybody get their pictures? Last call? We did? All right, congratulations, Hardy Elementary. Great work. Okay, next is Westside Elementary School. Westside's actually got two beta clubs because their elementary group is fourth and fifth graders, and their junior group is sixth. So we're going to start with the elementary group first. When I call your name, please come up with your certificate. Roger Flaherty Cross, third place on-site painting. Riley Jocelyn, second place creative writing. Avery Nutter, second place, Health and Physical Education. Max Christensen, second place, Fifth Grade Social Studies. Max also placed second in the Performing Arts Solo, so congratulations, Max. Sofia Poje, second place in Fifth Grade Spanish. Maggie Garner, second place, Cake Decorating. Ivy Cole, second place, On-Site Drawing. Annie Kate Hickerson, second place, Speech. Marketing and Communications Team. First place, Leah Hoggard, Riley

009Joslin, Pippa Powell, and Aaron White. The Quiz Bowl Team. First place, Henry Browder, Louis Wright, Noah Price, and Benjamin Phelps. Let me ask the sponsors. Do you want to do the other group, or do you want to do them all together? All together. Moving on, you guys stay there. The Junior Club is going to join you up front. Owen Zwick, third place, sixth grade math. Matthew Mattson, third place, sixth grade social studies. Emily Meyer, second place, color photography. Ori Brown, first place, sixth grade science. The book battle team, first place. Ori Brown, Olivia Peavy, Benjamin Rhodes, Evelyn Skinner. The marketing and communications team, first place. Trinity Henderson, Matthew Mattson, Vaughn Moody, and Alice Thompson. Oh my gosh, and co-sponsors are Ms. Shea Wildey and Ms. Hilliard. If you all come up and join your kids.

010And one more quick announcement. Alice Thompson and Max Christensen were also invited to be a premier performer at the National Convention in Orlando in June. And this is Max's second invitation. Awesome. Congratulations, West Side Beta. And if you guys will head over towards this backdrop, Mr. Elliott is going to do his best to get you in order for a photo. Families, once again. Come on down. You want to get a photo? We'll keep them up here until you're done. All right. How about our parents? Come on. Parents, your turn. Yeah, get in the front. Everybody good? Well, once they start leaving, we ain't getting them back. There we go. All right. Everybody good? Congratulations, Westside. All right. Moving on. Smithfield Middle. Smithfield Middle has a big beta club. Let's just say that. Hodges third place

011mixed-media junior Sabra Gardner third place on-site art painting junior car third place robotics junior Natalie Fleming third place poetry Anna Hornback second place digital portfolio Savannah Miller second place jewelry Blake Williford second place math eighth grade Reagan Robinson second place painting Ella Smith and Layla Thompson, second place, Accessorized Design. Ellen Stevenson, first place, Social Studies, eighth grade. Lilia DeLong, first place, Spelling, eighth grade. Carter Hickerson, first place, U.S. History, seventh grade. Gabrielle Major, first place, Digital Art. Dylan Fusen, first place, Performing Arts, junior, Instrumentalist. Literature, third place. All right, this is a long list of folks, so let me read them all. Lily DeLong, Ella Smith, Colin Stevenson, Anna Waugh, Addison Sanders, Sabra Gardner, Bentley Yates, Matthew Schneider, Preston Tolley, Dorian Skinner, and Baylen Rogers. I know some of them that I called are already

012up here. Campaign skit, second place. Another group. Carter Hickerson, Kylie Reynolds, Elena Nunez, Mackenzie Colvin, Savannah Miller, Blake Williford, Matthew Schneider. Grat book, third place, Mackenzie Colvin, Madison Bogard, Emma Garner, Eliza Yurkovich. Technology, first place, Samuel Thiel, Michael Oyelami, Colin Burnett, Jackson Whitmire, and Nathan Nelson. Carter Hickerson, if you're up here, Carter, raise your hand. Carter Carter's oh darn okay Carter Hickerson was also elected junior beta for Virginia State vice president so congratulations to Carter Representing Smithville middle and I like a school sponsor mr. Ryan Nance so mr. Nance Come join your crew and while mr. Nance is coming forward Let me add Smithville middle was recently notified that they have been recognized as a school of distinction by the beta organization Good job. All right. Congratulations, Panthers. So now your turn to go to

013the backdrop. Mr. Elliott's going to get you all lined up over there for a photo. Families, photo op time. And we'd also like to recognize additional sponsors, Ms. Rebecca Cox and Ms. Tisdale. My apologies. And Ms. Browder. I was like, why is she up there? Do you want to open your certificate right there? Open your certificate? There we go. There you go. Perfect, Bentley. Perfect. Tall guy in the back. Hang on. No, don't. Hold that pose. Find your people. Look right at them. All right, let's see. Any more family? Wait, wait, wait. Wait, wait. All right. Congratulations, Panthers. Nicely done. Our final school for Beta, Smithville High School, and this was a return to Beta for Smithville High. This time we will recognize we have Kaylee Williford, who had third place in performing arts, so

014dancing. John Worthington, third place, social studies, 10th grade. Cameron Hicks, third place, speech. Anthony Harkins and Amma Maddy, second place, marketing and communications. And sponsor, Zachary Kempf. Come on, Mr. Kempf. Okay, very good. Sponsor, Zachary Kempf. Oh, yep, I think I did. And there's Cameron. Congratulations. We want to congratulate Smithville High on an outstanding performance at the Beta Convention. Good job. We're going to have you guys go to the backdrop, and I bet we have some parents that might be coming up to take a photo, because we like big kid photos too. And while they're doing that, I'll just, as a reminder, just say that we will be recognizing Windsor High, Georgie Tyler, Middle, Windsor Elementary, and Carsville at our April meeting. Just didn't want to think. People, we forgot them. We did not. Are

015you good, Mr. Elliott? Okay. We got a couple parents. All good parents? Congratulations, Packers. All right. Now we have our Seniors of the Month. Okay. Now moving into our Seniors of the Month. Starting with Windsor High School, the senior of the month for March from Windsor High is Laura Branch. Laura's academic accomplishments are impressive. Her enrollment in five advanced placement and six dual enrollment courses reflects her dedication to challenging herself academically. She has consistently earned a spot on the principal's list and was selected to attend Virginia Girl State, further demonstrating her academic excellence and leadership potential. In addition to her academic achievements, Laura is a well-rounded individual who has excelled in extracurricular activities. As a varsity soccer goalkeeper and former JV captain, she has shown strong leadership and teamwork skills. Her participation in varsity golf,

016scholastic bowl, and beta club further illustrates her diverse talents and commitment to contributing to her school community. Laura's involvement in the Student Booster Club highlights her enthusiasm for fostering school spirit and supporting her peers. Laura's contributions extend beyond the classroom and athletic field. Through her volunteer work with Millfield Baptist Church, she has demonstrated empathy and compassion by creating and delivering bags of hope to those in need and serving as a team leader for Vacation Bible School. Her approximately 82 hours of service reflect her dedication in making a positive impact on her community. Quote, Laura Branch is a well-rounded student who effectively balances her academic responsibilities with extracurricular commitments. She is kind, thoughtful, and takes great pride in her work. As a natural leader, she consistently asks insightful questions that foster meaningful discussions both in and

017out of school. She continually challenges herself by enrolling in advanced coursework, which demonstrates her strong work ethic. her pursuit of excellence, and her resilience as she overcomes obstacles with grace and determination. Laura is dependable, dedicated, humble, and most deserving of this award. And that's from Ms. Leslie Mooring, science teacher. Laura has been accepted to Virginia Tech and is waiting to make her decision after she hears back from her other applications. She plans on majoring in either cinema or pre-law. Congratulations. Good job. So Laura, we'll have you stand over there. Family. And I know the family's back there. Come on up, family. And Mr. Elliott's going to get some photos, and you are welcome to join Laura in the photos as well. I think we'll get one with just Laura, and then we can get family

018in there. All right, there you go. Come on, branch family. Yes, the baby of the bunch. Congratulations, Laura. Well deserved. Okay. From Smithville High, the Senior of the Month for March from Smithville High is Jan Carlo Segura Aguilar. Is Jan Carlo here? Oh, we don't see Jan? Aw. Well, I'm going to read about Jan, and we'll certainly invite him to come in April. Jan Carlo is an ELL student who has only been in the United States for three years. He struggled grasping the language but has now made huge gains. He is an honor roll student who has earned a $6,000 merit scholarship from Old Dominion University. Jan Carlo is a very kind young man who is liked by his peers. He is the first ELL student from Smithville High to attend college. He is a

019mentor for other ELL students. He helps new ELL students navigate the building and he helps them with their coursework as well and helps them with the English language. He will also be the first member of his family to attend college. Jan Carlos serves as a role model for other students. He is a polite, hardworking student who shows determination in attaining the high goals he has set for himself. And that's from Ms. Vargas, Spanish teacher. Jan plans to attend Old Dominion University after graduation and major in psychology. And we will reach out to him and see if we can get him here in April. But until then, congratulations. Well deserved. All right. And our last recognition tonight. Each quarter we recognize one of our support staff members who has gone above and beyond the call of

020duty. Anyone throughout the division is invited to submit nominations. A panel reviews the nominees and selects the quarterly winners. Our 24-25 third quarter ABCD award winner is Otelia Smith, food service worker at Westside Elementary School. Where's Otelia? Come on up, Otelia. While she's coming up and getting ready to stand in front of you, let me read the nomination. Otelia does amazing work, and she always goes above and beyond in the kitchen. She always gets to work on time and completes her duties, and if there's ever anything that needs to be done, she always gets it done quickly and efficiently. When her supervisor's out of the building, Otelia holds down the kitchen operation and makes sure breakfast and lunch service runs smoothly and efficiently. Otelia is a team player, and she can perform all of the

021tasks in the kitchen with little to no assistance. She is dependable and trustworthy. Now, as part of her award, Ms. Smith is receiving a $50 Visa gift card thanks to the generous support of MRH Contracting. And she will be receiving a personalized plaque created in the Smith, Ohio, Makerspace. We need Ms. Smith running communications because we had a communications snafu, and that's why we don't have your plaque, Ms. Smith. You have a certificate, but we are going to personally deliver that plaque to you as soon as it is ready to go. So you'll be seeing us again soon. So congratulations, Ms. Smith. We love you. We're very proud of you. And we'd love to have you come over here and get a picture. Okay, aw. And if there's any family here, but I know she's

022got some Westside family and food service folks here to support her as well. We'd love to have you come up. Mr. Ruffin, Ms. Couch, I know you're there. Okay. Those are tears of joy, right, Ms. Smith? Those are tears of joy. Okay? And I'll just add that this is the first time we've done a food service one in a while because food service was outsourced, so they were not our employees. So we're delighted to have one of our food service employees being recognized for ABCD this year. Congratulations once again, Ms. Smith. And that's going to conclude our Olive White Achievers for tonight. Thanks to everyone who came out, their family and friends that came to support them. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Briggs. Next up is Westside for Ion Instruction. Good evening, Dr. Kramer, school

023board members, parents, and other guests. My name is Annabelle Chandler, and I'm the president of the Ecology Club. Joining me tonight are Chloe, Jordan, Zoe, and Alicia, who are dedicated members of the club. as well as students from Westside Elementary's art classes and beta clubs. We are here tonight to present our ongoing service project, the beautification of our courtyard by transforming it into an outdoor classroom. The Ecology Club conducted research on the benefits of outdoor learning for both students and staff, which is our main goal. Studies show that outdoor learning enhances creativity and reduces stress, leading to improved focus and overall well-being. Good evening. Good evening. My name is Addison Robinson, and I am the Junior Beta Club president. I have Evelyn, our vice president, and Alice here with me tonight. Our courtyard was in

024a state of disarray with broken tables, rusted benches lined the sidewalk leading to the library, rocks everywhere, and the spaces used to reduce overcrowding on the playground. This is not only an eyesore, but a hazard as well. So before the transformation began, all parties involved had to determine needs and ways they could help. It was determined that we would remove old broken furniture, move the greenhouse to a more equitable area where purpose old rocks, move picnic tables from the lower courtyard to the classroom area, create a sitting area where students can talk with one another, paint the tables and affix the tops so they could be used for writing, as well as many other ideas. Back in October, the Ecology Club began studying different types of plants so it helps sustain our outdoor elements. In

025doing so, we began to plant seeds to have a starting point of our outdoor learning space. These plants are growing indoors while we await the moving of the greenhouse. When students take part in caring for the plants, they develop a sense of responsibility, teamwork, and learn about the life cycles of plants. It is a tangible way for students to see how things grow and change over time. The Westside Ecology Club waters plants every two days so they can get the necessary nutrients to grow. We're looking forward to having a Westside Garden in the future. We're preparing to go to the Botanical Gardens on March 27th. The Ecology Club is gathering paint and other supplies to start painting water that has been collected during the beautiful vacation. We are also looking to create, design, and plant

026our stunning four-oil work, Formula Land's WSES, in the bottom of the courtyard. This apartment floor will create a breathtaking entrance offering a great and welcoming atmosphere for guests, parents, staff, and students to step onto the website campus. My name is Pippa Pow. I'm the elementary beta club president. I have Roa, our secretary, with me tonight. Beta members from both clubs removed old broken furniture. Once all the broken furniture was removed, our members worked together to move seven picnic tables to the upper courtyard and move older furniture to the lower courtyard, and then repositioned them so that students can visit and talk with one another. For several days buckets were placed around the courtyard in effort to encourage all students to pick up rocks so they could be relocated. Buckets and buckets of rocks have been

027moved around bases of trees. At some point we hope to assist the Ecology Club with their rock garden or even add a little reptile to the courtyard. My name is Alice Thompson. I have Tessa and Tatum here with me tonight. We are from Mr. Jernigan's art classes. Students will work with Mr. Jernigan to create and paint murals on the Mudita hallways and on the fence panels. Once this is done, we hope to brighten up the space by painting the picnic tables. Then we will affix plexiglass to the top so they can be used for writing. Currently, the tables have holes in them. Our vision is coming to life. We have received a grant from the Aloha Education Foundation for this project. We have sought donations from Ace Hardware on Main Street as well. So now

028it's time for a donation drive. These flyers were added to the family huddle and... Information about the drive was shared on our daily Eagle News. We have also encouraged our teachers to add them to their weekly newsletters. We have shared with you our goal and our vision for an outdoor classroom. Our ultimate goal is to have an outdoor classroom that inspires young minds to become lifelong learners and be ready for the world around them. Any questions? Not a question so much as a recommendation. Perhaps when you're done, Principal Johnson could work to get some sort of a plaque. in the new outdoor classroom and identify all those that were involved. It was a memorial, so to speak. It's an awesome project. So I see you have a flyer for donations. What do you guys need

029the most of? Now's your chance. I guarantee you there's at least 3,000 people watching you right now. Really, really big pots so we can plant stuff in them. We need plants. If you have questions on the plants, please contact Mr. Johnson or Ms. Wildey. We need paintbrushes and paint rollers so we can paint the murals and the fence panels. And I believe that's it, correct? We also need soil and outdoor paint to paint the picnic tables. The paintbrushes, they cannot be small. They need to be bigger. Okay. Thank you very much. Maybe Principal Johnson can send this flyer to us electronically and the board will push it out as well. Thank you. Madam Clerk, do we have anyone signed up to speak? Yes. In accordance to policy BDDH-E, presentation of information on any subject will

030be concluded at the discretion of the board. No person will be recognized to speak more than once. Citizens scheduled on the agenda to speak will be permitted four minutes maximum time for their presentation. Delegations will be requested to limit their speakers to two. Persons speaking are asked to be specific, state the issues for the board's consideration, and attach a copy of your prepared remarks. If you have prepared remarks, they should be given to the board clerk. Please do not approach the board members. Any matter relating to specific students will be heard by the school board only in a closed meeting. And first we have Dr. Denise Tynes. Good evening, Mrs. Tynes. Dr. Tynes. Good evening, Chair Marsh, board members, and Superintendent Dr. Kramer. I come before you this evening in multiple capacities. As a former

031member of the school board, as a dedicated educator, as a citizen, as a graduate of Allawhite County Public Schools year 1975, which is my 50th anniversary this year. But most importantly, I come to you as an advocate for the students of Allawhite County Schools. I am Dr. Denise Joulette Newby-Tines, District 1, Smithfield, Virginia. The tradition of students' recognition at our school board meetings was established with profound educational purposes. Research and experiences consistently demonstrate that such recognition serves multiple critical functions within our educational ecosystem. Foremost, it provides formal validation of students' achievements. When we publicly acknowledge students' achievements, we communicate their diligence and excellence are valued by the entire educational community, which can significantly boost self-esteem and motivation. These recognitions also establish powerful models of excellence. When students witness their peers being honored for academic, artistic

032expression, athletic, or community service achievement, it inspires them to pursue similar excellence. From a community perspective, these ceremonies strengthen the vital partnership between our schools and families. They provide structure opportunities for parents, guardians, and community stakeholders to participate in celebrating student success, reinforcing their investment in our public education system. The formal setting of a school board meeting also provides a dignified environment that elevates the importance of the recognition beyond classroom acknowledgments. The presence of elected officials and the educational leadership signals to students that their achievement have significance that extends throughout the community. Perhaps most importantly, these recognitions serves to center our public, excuse me, to center our policy discussions on their ultimate purpose, student success. One minute. They remind all present board members, administrators, teachers, and community members alike that behind every policy decision are

033real students whose educational journeys we are entrusted to support and protect. Therefore, I respectfully and earnestly advocate for the continuation of the student recognition component within the monthly meetings. This tradition represents an institutional commitment to celebrating students achievement that align perfectly with our district's mission of educational excellence. Thank you for your consideration respectfully submitted by Dr. Denise Newby-Tines, educator community advocate. Thank you. Thank you ma'am. I don't want to mess the last name up with Logan. Is it McLeer? McAlliver? Logan McLeer. Good evening members of the Isle of Wight County School Board. My name is Logan McAleer and I am a member of Smithfield High School's Drama Club. Today I'm here to talk about the lack of a budget for Smithfield High School's theater department. Not only do we not have the funding to get

034the resources needed for each production, but there are issues within the auditorium that affect every organization that uses our stage. Ultimately, and arguably most importantly, theater classes are the backbone of many students' educational experience and studies have proven that courses in the arts foster skills like creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence. For these reasons, I ask that we dedicate a portion of the budget to our theater department to ensure it has the necessary resources to provide a safe and quality experience for the members of our Smithfield educational community. The most immediate reason why providing a proper budget for our theater department is the multiple organizations that utilize our stage for their events. For example, it was embarrassing to recently host the Virginia Symphony on such a neglected stage. With the stage being rough, patchy,

035and able to give splinters to people just sitting on it, it's a necessity for us to fix the stage, especially since it is a platform for other events such as Liberty Live Church, Spelling Bees, various performances, and award ceremonies. Another issue is that in order to put on shows, we need to have lapel mics that work properly and that we can rely upon. Out of our 16 mics, six don't work properly, only two of them are reliable, and eight of them need to be set up with an additional receiver to work. Funding for drama would allow us to put on quality productions without the stress of worrying if our equipment will even work. The last major issue is the overall lack of money that the arts, especially theater, get. For the past few years, the

036theater department hasn't been given any money to use to put on shows or fix our equipment. The only money we have come from Ms. Loveless, the theater teacher's class budget. The rest we have to get from fundraisers. When asked about this subject, Ms. Loveless said, the money for licensing uses all of my allotted classroom budget. The rest of the money comes from fundraisers. End quote. The money that we make from these fundraisers then goes into costuming, makeup, and finally making the best sets we can with the things we already have. However, what we already have isn't in the best shape. Right now, we only have three flats. One works fine, one has wheels that are broken and don't roll slash turn easily, and one doesn't have wheels at all. How are we supposed to fix

037our broken equipment when we struggle to get the funds for the basic show needs? What makes this even worse, however, is when we tried to book our show days, we were told we had to pay around $1,000 just to be able to use our school stage to perform. This is absolutely ridiculous since our stage... Since it's our stage and it isn't helping our already limited amount of money. On top of that, getting the rights to do our show, The Wiz, was around $2,300. This already puts us at $3,300 when the amount of money we started with was $4,300. This leaves us with very few resources to use to actually put on the show. Now you might be wondering what importance giving a budget to the theater department has. Theater has been around since ancient Greece

038and was a major part of their community. To the Greeks, the theater wasn't only a place for entertainment, but also education, community connection, as a way to improve a person's psychological and emotional state, and a platform for artistic expression. These things aren't only pertinent to the ancient Greeks, though. A quote by senior Sierra Payne says, I've always had a struggle with finding myself, but theater has finally given me a space to do that. One minute. It is my complete safe space. I would be nothing without theater, end quote. Nowadays, in our ever-increasing and challenging world, theater was evolved from a place where people might go just to have fun to a place where people feel safe and able to be themselves. Also, a study by the National Endowment for the Arts states that, and I

039quote, students who have arts-rich experiences in school do better across the board academically, and they also become more active and engaged citizens, end quote. The theater department is important to many students and is beneficial to the community, but faces many challenges due to inadequate funding. From an outdated and messy stage to a lack of a budget, not only are our performances hindered, but so are the positive outcomes that can come from the theater department. I urge the board to work with us and allocate a portion of the budget so that we may continue to inspire and provide a safe space for the students to thrive. As Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said, the arts can no longer be treated as a frill, end quote. The arts are essential to the development of our students, our

040school, and our community. Thank you for your time and your consideration. Hey, Logan. I want to clarify one thing you said. You mentioned that the theater club or the theater department wanted to book the auditorium stage and it was going to cost $1,000. Yes, sir. That is what my director, Ms. Loveless, told us. Can we look into that, Doc? Absolutely. Appreciate you, man. Thank you for your time. Teresa Finch. Good evening. I'm not as eloquent as the people before us. Just got off work, kind of tired. Chair Marsh, school board, Dr. Kramer. It's nice to see you guys this evening. My name is Teresa Finch. I am currently your CTE Technology Education teacher at Georgie Tyler, but I am previously the STEM teacher here at Westside. So I want to speak tonight as a resident,

041as a business owner, as a parent of a Smithfield High senior, and as a teacher for your district. Very invested in the county. I know it's budget season and tensions come and you've heard all these requests. Tonight I am actually not making a request. We've all seen my Facebook posts here and there. I apologize. Sometimes they're heated. But I want to call out, there are two presentations tonight that actually have impacted me greatly, one as a parent and also as a teacher. The gifted program. So you're going to hear about Gifted this evening, what Ms. Rogers and Ms. Truitt are doing. My son is a firm believer in that program. He's actually currently a senior at Smithfield High School, APDE, Gupp School for Technology, and somehow convinced Ms. Cuffee to allow him to take virtual

042Virginia comp sci classes. That's only going to happen in Isle of Wight. You guys have invested in my son. to the point that he has applied to MIT, Caltech, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, Stanford, and Carnegie Mellon, and has been accepted to the majority of them. This would not have happened without our programs and our staff here. So when we're looking at budgets, please keep these hard-working people in your mind, including those teachers. The next presentation is the Tech Department. Now, Mr. Cooperider, I know I'm a pain in your side. I gave him a hard time, and I'm going to apologize now for the tech orders I'm putting in tomorrow, because there's a lot. They have asked, we've asked for Promethean boards. We all have one-to-one computers. The amount of tech are millions and millions of

043dollars. That is one of the smallest departments we have. There are, what, six techs running the buildings, working on all those computers and Promethean boards, and we won't talk about Georgie Tyler's lab, because I can have Alexis in my room every day. I want you to consider them. When we talk budgets, we never talk about our hourly workers in our tech department. Alexis, Chris, Dan, Tim, and I'm missing someone. Brian got promoted, but these guys always have my back. Tech is there when we need them, and they work wonders for us. They bend over backwards, and I think that the community, and that's why I'm standing here, because we never, I want it on record, and I want. all of Isle of Wight, to your whole heart, all of our people work. One minute. So

044when it comes to budget season, it's not I got the parents and the kids, they love us, but all the rest of our community out there, think of what we do for these kids and think of what all of the staff do for them too. We can't do it. It takes a village. So school board members, be persuasive. Is there a county, please? Fight for us. I have some big plans to get out to the community next year so that we can be more invested outside of our walls. And I think that's what's going to help us. So thank you, everyone here, for all you do and staying in here to the 12, midnight, 10 o'clocks that you do and dealing with all my emails and all my work orders and all of the crazy

045that I ask of you. And I'm just one person. So that is why I'm here. Thank you very much. Keep up the work. Thank you, ma'am. Martha Jackson. Martha Jackson, District 3. We are delighted. I'm sorry. Let me start again. Good evening, school board members and Dr. Kramer. We are delighted to hear and see the winners tonight from Beta. I want to say a big thank you to the Westside Elementary School student presenters. You presented extremely well in the hot seat tonight with the eye on instruction. I don't think many of us could get up here and do what they did tonight. It is the best and most interesting and gratifying portion of the meeting. March is designated as Women's History Month. It has been said that women who rock the cradle rule the world.

046They influence, they love, they support in the crucial role of bringing up children from conception to adulthood. School board members are often driven by a desire to improve education and community. Serving on a school board can be a challenging and time-consuming job, often with little recognition or thanks. And we recognize that you face unique challenges as women in a traditionally male-dominated field with resilience and determination. And we hope that you will continue to strive for the best for all of our students. A little history. Ann Barrett Martin was the first woman to serve on our school board. Others that came after, namely Marjorie Keeling, Pamela Edwards, Dr. Linda T. Morgan, Barbara Olin, Julia Perkins, Jackie Carr, Kirsten Cook. Tina Hill, Vicki Hulick, Renee Dial, Dr. Denise Newby-Times, and Brandy Perkins. We also want to shout

047out the team of women who serve in various capacities and roles in the administration office. We owe you a big debt of gratitude as well for being a dynamic force for public education. Thank you, ma'am. That was the last speaker. All right. Thanks to everybody who came out to speak tonight. We'll move over to our student liaisons. Camera, please. The rollout of the weapons detection system at Smith Hill High School has been pushed back to Tuesday, March 18th. Following the implementation of the systems, I'll be trying to get feedback from the students and keep everyone on the board informed. For some announcements, this month our debate team won first overall at the VHSL Regionals competition for Region 4A. Almost everyone who competed advanced and those who did advance will be moving on to Super Regionals,

048which is this Saturday. In other news for FBLA, Future Business Leaders of America, Smithfield High School saw two students compete in the regional conference. The team was able to place first in the coding and programming competition, and together, the pair that did place first will be moving on to the FBLA State Leadership Conference on April 4th and April 5th in Reston, Virginia. And then this Friday, March 14th, will be an asynchronous day, and the following day, March 17th, Monday, going to students are going to be off to additionally last week on March 5th Kristen felt one of the physical education teachers in Smithfield middle school was tragically killed in a collision in Carsville miss felt who is 50 when she passed had been working at Smithfield middle for 27 years ever since she graduated from

049college She stayed despite having a near 45 minute commute simply because she loved SMS. To honor her memory, last Wednesday, students and staff members from both the middle school and high school wore red and orange Virginia Tech colors to represent the school that she'd been a lifelong fan of. Ms. Felt's legacy and impact on the students of Smithfield Middle School and Smithfield High School will carry on forever. She will be missed. Thanks, Cameron. All righty. So today we had our Tri-Rivers game against Southampton, but it was also the senior day for any of the senior students who were participating, so that was very, very good to see. Next we have our spring sports. They're all starting up again. I think our first games are next week. Our speech team is heading to States March 29th.

050We had a really good... Really good showing during the super region so very excited to see what we do in states lastly The bathrooms at Windsor High School. I know you're probably tired of hearing it especially dr. Coleman, but um you know They they still aren't too Too I guess the standards you would call it. You know there's lack of toilet paper, lack of paper towels, soap. And teachers are having to, again, buy their own soap just so students can walk in the classroom with clean hands. So for that, I just think that it is necessary to have the necessities. And so for that, I'll keep bringing it up. So thank you. Thanks, Connor. May I respond? Yes, sir. Please do. Mr. Chair. So I will mention this a little later in my superintendent's update.

051We have started facility walkthroughs and ironically, interestingly, we saw Connor in the hall and I did say to him, share with us what the concerns are. So we are working with. Our contractor and with our team and Dr. Coleman. So I applaud you and thank you for holding us to account. I'm going to ask you to continue to bring this up, but we are working with the school administrators and with the contractors to ensure that those issues are addressed. But thank you for sharing. Thanks, gentlemen. We've got one hour in. Is everybody good? Do we need to take five? Take five? All right, let's do five minutes. Hi, can you guys hear me? Okay. Yes. Yeah, I can. Yeah. All right, we're back in session. You're up, Ms. Briggs. Calendar. Yes, sir. I'm bringing this

052back to you for hopefully approval tonight. You saw it last month for first read. And I'm hoping the board will take action and approve this calendar for the upcoming school year. If you do have any additional questions, I'll be more than happy to do my best to answer them. Any changes since last month? No, sir. I'd certainly welcome a motion. Mr. Chair, I move to approve the 2025-2026 school calendar as presented and attached. Second. Motion and a second. Any comments? Ms. Briggs and everybody who was involved, I appreciate you guys working through this process again. Thank you. Madam Clerk. Mr. Cunningham. Yay. Mrs. Perkins. Yes. Mr. Wooster. Yes. And Mr. Marsh. Yes. Calendar's approved. That moves us over to 15.2, Early Retirement Incentive Program. This is Sullivan. I'm happy to answer any questions that you

053might have about our E-Rip program. Any questions from the board? Let's just make a plug. How many participants do we actively have in the E-Rip program? We currently have 13. Okay. 13 individuals that are providing 25 days of substitute services in exchange for health insurance coverage at the rate of an employee. So it's a mutual benefit. It benefits retirees and it benefits the school division. Yes. And this is an action item? Yes. Anybody willing to make a motion? Mr. Chair, I move to approve the early retirement incentive program. Second. I'll move the motion and the second. Any comments? Hearing none, Madam Clerk. Mr. Cunningham? Yes. Mrs. Perkins? Yes. Mr. Wooster? Yes. And Mr. Marsh? Yes. The ERIP is approved. Moving right along. 15.3, student yield analysis. Dr. Coleman. Mr. Chair, school board members, Dr. Kramer.

054This will be the Tichlin Vice. Student yield analysis. The contract for the student analysis was either, I didn't receive that until later, so you have a copy of that at this time. There were three copies, three different companies that actually applied for, well, we went out and we received quotes for the student yield analysis. Tischler & Weiss was the company that was chosen, and at this time, We're asking for an action item to move forward. But just before we move forward, I just want to go through the six tasks so that all of the community understands exactly what's going on. With the student yield analysis, task one would be the project initiation and the data acquisition from the community in order to put the analysis together. Task two will be the cohort for the student

055projection methodology. Task three, analyze and map existing residential subdivision data. Task four, map currently developing and approved residential subdivision data. Task five, preparation for the projection of future school needs and locations and site criteria. So, once again, one of the big things with this report is going to be the projection, not only of the school needs, but the site criteria. And that's the expert opinions that we needed to move forward. And in the end, to assist us in the preparation of the subdivision yield analysis. This is something that the school board requested, and this is the company that we have chosen to move forward with. Thanks, Dr. Coleman. And just for the sake of... I guess transparency and letting everybody know what we're doing. We've been discussing this for quite a while, and Isle of

056Wight County is actually utilizing the same company to do their own study focused on countywide growth. That is correct. So this, if approved, this will, what's the word I'm looking for? complement their efforts and it will allow us to continue working with the county on looking at the developments and the growth that it brings with it and student population growth and potential locations for either a new school, school add-ons, rezoning, so on and so forth. So this, I think. What's most important is this isn't necessarily something that requires board action, but because of the nature of this specific endeavor, I think it's probably appropriate to take board actions. That is correct. We've got the full support of the board moving forward. And I have bent the ear of a member of the Board of Supervisors,

057and it seems like they are also on board with this effort. Yes, sir. So this will be an action item for all board members. And if we approve it tonight, how are we going to fund it? That is when I will go to the CFO and sit down and talk through scenarios. Okay. And she just gave me a thumbs up, so. If I may add, Mr. Chair, we've had preliminary discussions about funding this, so I think we have a plan to move forward if approved. Okay. Excellent. Any other comments from the board? Yes, sir. Please. Just to make sure, I know the public can't see the price. Have we discussed that, how much it is? Earlier, there was a board member sent out to just the board members concerning the price and the reason why

058we chose Tishler and Weiss also. I apologize. I do not have that information in front of me at this time, but I can get that information. So what does exhibit B? as it could be should have been the contract in itself. Okay, okay. But we don't have, tonight at least, we don't have what this is going to cost. Yes, this is going to cost $76,200. I can actually get my computer and I can look up all the rest of the actual quotes, three of them. One was a little lower than Tischler-Bice, but at the same time. We don't need different data analysis portions was not the same. Yeah, we don't need that. We, we, I, I just want to make sure the public knows what they're going to be paying for. That's understandable. The total

059amount, at least. So I'm good. Thank you. Thank you, sir, for bringing that up. And I think to your point, it's my understanding that the contract that the County entered is there in about the same cost. So yes, we're about on par with where we need to be. Absolutely. To make some educated decisions moving forward. Yes, that is correct. Anything else? All right. Well, I'll make a motion. Board, I move to approve the selection of the Tischler-Weiss as a vendor for the student yield analysis. Second. Any comments? Madam Clerk? Mr. Cunningham? Yes. Mrs. Perkins? Yes. Mr. Wooster? Yes. And Mr. Marsh? Yes. Motion passes. And Dr. Kramer, if you just keep the board informed if we need to reach out to the county for any reason and increase those skids moving forward. Certainly will, Mr.

060Chairman. 16.1, pass. Gentlemen. Good evening board members. Dr. Kramer. I'm gonna go ahead and just speak for a moment and then we're gonna be having a special presentation from zone are So I know we've had several conversations about zone are in my view So just really for the general public that's listening. I want to kind of tie it all together before the presentation Zone art has been totally invaluable to our department So it provides us with the real-time tracking data that we need for the decision-making process Like I said the last meeting you know we can see all of our assets and see where they are Right down to the fact that we have historical data. We can see how fast the vehicles were traveling. It's very very useful For the Transportation Department, so we

061are getting ready to pilot my view that's going to be happening this spring We're going to be piloting it at cars votes getting ready to begin very very shortly So anybody that's listening you'll know that information will be sent out by the school about how to sign up We'll provide all the details from the Transportation Department. So that is coming and I know we've been talking about it a little bit So at this point, I'm going to turn it over to zone art for a special presentation on Z pass I know we have had discussions about that as well. Yes All right, can you guys hear me maybe a little bit louder if you can if possible All right, you're good sir, can you guys hear me? Yes. All right. We got him Yeah, I

062can hear him pretty well. So how's it? Yeah, so I'm Demario. I'm from Zonar. I'm the account executive here. I've been working really closely with Matt and the rest of the team on piloting the MyView parent-facing app. I don't know if he kind of gave you an insight of what MyView is. MyView is our parent-facing app that allows parents to... track the bus on where the bus is actually at, right? So it gives the parents the visibility of knowing that where the bus is at. It only gives them a visibility during a certain geofence or a certain range, right? So if the bus is 10 minutes away, it gives the parents visibility of where that bus is at, right? But it only gives them a certain period of time. So when the kids get on

063the bus and when they're getting ready to go home. from school, but they won't be able to track the bus anymore once the kid is off the bus. So me and Matt, we've been working really closely to get that going for you guys, working with your IT department, providing a lot of documents and legal forms to show, you know, where the data is being stored and things of that nature. So we've been working really close with you guys on that. And hopefully we're at a point now where we can get that on your buses and you guys can get that going for the parents. And on top of that. we have another solution called ZPass ridership. ZPass is our scanning device, which it's a RFID scanner that would be installed on your buses. And what

064that would entail is each student would get a card. And on that card, it's not a lot of information. It's just their student ID and their name, right? And that's what associates their information. But each student is given a number. So when they scan, it's not their information that is being provided. It's that number that is on the card. And that number is associated in your system with their name. So what that entails is it gives the parents the visibility to see that their kid scanned on and scanned off the bus. Right. So what happens is the parents can get alerts on their phones via email or via text. And that will tell them that, hey, Johnny scanned off the bus this morning. He's at school. Hey, Johnny scanned on the bus. He's on his

065way home. Right. And he scanned off the bus at this location. So it gives them all that information via, like I said, text message alert or email alert, whichever one they prefer. But it also kind of goes, I don't know if you guys have any students that might particularly like. Medicaid reimbursements, right? Some school districts have that, where this kind of keeps track of that for you. So if you have to provide documents on, hey, we have certain students that we get Medicaid reimbursement for, here are the students that scan and ride the bus. So that is another add-on for ZPass that a lot of school districts really like is because that kind of keeps track of what they were keeping track of, you know, an old school way, kind of does it for them.

066And what it also does, it is it kind of alleviates the phone calls that you're getting from parents that are asking where the bus is at. Right. So if Matt and those guys are busy or the drivers are on the road. Right. And you guys don't have the time to notify parents. For an example, if there's a snowstorm during school. Right. And the kids have to get home and parents are calling concerned where their kids are at. This right here, we're kind of. eliminate all those incoming calls and you guys happen to answer that phone those phone calls and get back to parents you send a mass email alert out everybody it'll all go through the my view every parent get that alert you guys aren't answering the phones the drivers are focused on driving

067getting the kids home safely um if there's traffic or anything in that nature that kind of helps with you know the incoming calls and being able to answer those in a in a timely matter um I didn't have an actual PowerPoint put together, and I apologize for that. And I had one of my colleagues was supposed to join, but he had something come up. Eric, he's our sales engineer that's been working closely with Matt and an IT department to provide more of a technical understanding of where things are being stored, data and things of that nature, security purposes. You guys are really diligent about asking certain questions, which is really good. Eric was the guy that was actually providing all that information for you guys. So yeah, that kind of sums it up and what

068ZPass is. It's really a app. that parents download on their phones, really user-friendly. It combines with MyView. So when you guys get MyView and ZPass, they're two separate services, but they work together really well, right? So the parents won't have to download additional apps for both services. It's just one app that they'll have to download. Super user-friendly. They have to put their information. You guys will issue a code to the parents. that they will have that will give them access to the app and the school's information. Right. So, but yeah, that kind of sums it up as far as what ZPass is and what it's all about and what it entails. Did you guys have any questions? Okay, I've got one question when you are referring to the RFID log on, log out. Just hypothetically

069speaking, if a student were to forget their card, drop their card on a bus, is there some sort of timeout timeframe where the system would alert you to that, or would it keep the student on the bus for the duration? Sorry, let me turn my volume up a little bit. So are you asking that if a student drops his card, when is it alert that the student didn't scan off the bus, essentially, if I'm hearing that correctly? Correct. Okay. That's a good question. I don't know what that looks like as far as the timeframe on when the systems kind of like clear out and like, hey, such and such didn't. scan off the bus right like what's going on i don't i have to i can find that out i just i don't know that

070off the top of my head as far as what that looks like as far as like you know alerting the parents it's been a few hours johnny hasn't scanned off the bus right um what's going on so i i don't know what that looks like in detail as far as like what that time frame is, right? But I can definitely find that out and present it to Matt once I reach or get with my technical team and they can answer that for me as well. When we have that information, we'll share that with the board. Any other questions? Yeah. Okay, I've got one. Let's just say you got three kids. They want to play games. They swap out cards. So how is the I mean the parents thinking oh, yeah, my kid just got off

071the bus No, your kid did not get off the bus. He or she is still on the bus because Little Joey just swapped this card off with with Jane. How do you How do you make sure you got the right kid with the right card? Is there some type of? pin or something that he or she would have saying that this is my car. It's not the other person's car. Yeah, that's a really good question. I would assume, right, that one, the kids aren't able to get off the bus. that isn't their primary, primarily bus stop, right? So the driver itself should be able to recognize that, hey, this isn't the kid, this isn't his stop. Why is he scanning off this bus, right? So I think that goes apart in the driver being aware

072and knowing which kid typically gets off at what stop, right? And for the younger kids, right, we typically have these whole the hole punchers that are in the cards zip tie them to their backpack there's no way for them to swap them out they're there they're zip tied on they can't take them off they just scan it off on their backpacks and let it be you know let it be it but for the older kids I think it's more so the driver being aware that this kid particularly doesn't get off on this stop and there hasn't been any permission or any notification from the parents that this kid is able to get off his bus at this particular stop where I think it's more so the driver should be, has to be more aware of

073that. Hey, there's something that's not right about this. You know, the kids are swapping cars or this kid is getting off the stop. And that's a good scenario that the gentleman just explained. And it's a good question, Mr. Cunningham. Now overall... With the system, of course, there will be hurdles. And what you just described is one of the hurdles that we're going to face. We're going to have to continue to work through that. It's like a neighboring division that already has the system in place. And they have went through hurdle after hurdle trying to figure out the overall possibilities of the systems and the things that actually occur, from the cards being lost to the cards being switched, different things of that nature. We just got to continue to work through it. As the gentleman,

074the vendor just stated, it's going to be a lot of training to the bus drivers it has to occur. And that's why we're starting small and we're going to work our way through this process. So, but there's a very legitimate example there. And certainly, too, with the rollout, you can maybe just talk about this briefly to Mario. There will be an education system that we will teach the students and the parents how to use this. Of course, though, you're relying on 10, 11, and 12-year-olds to do it the right way. There will be hiccups, but we will, you know, communicate, I guess, the expectations of the program. That will be one of the big pieces as well. Definitely, definitely. And that was one of the reasons why, you know, it's important to kind of do

075it before my school starts. So if you guys were looking to implement ZPass for next year, I think I spoke to Matt. I'm like, hey, it'll be best to do it during the summer. So that way during the summer, everyone gets familiar with it. Right. You do your training, you find your hiccups, you get, you know, all the kinks out of it. And then when school starts, you have a smooth rollout. don't wait until the beginning of school to do it and you start having issues and parents are wondering what's going on and you're you know so it's important to get that done before school starts right figure out the issues do your training train your drivers right you know send out a mass email to the parents which we would we can help with

076that right we have literature to send out to the parents that'll show them how to download the app input the information right so the goal is to get this done before next school year right so i would hope to get this on your buses um once matt and those guys get incorporated with my view they're familiar with you know the app itself The ZPass, the ridership side of it, it's just an add-on. So these guys will already be familiar with how to navigate through the app. It's just adding another thing for the parents to kind of get familiar with. You know, you would want to get that kind of implemented and figured out before the school year starts. And when August hits, you can just send out an email, hey, this is what our new

077service is. It looks like at this, whatever, you know, and get the parents up and running so that whether, you know, you're not dealing with the. the confusion and the hiccups and answering questions during the middle of the school year. Absolutely. And that was a good overview of the Z-Pass system, but I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page. Tonight was just to give you a little information on the Z-Pass and the whole system in itself. We're going to be moving forward with MavView, and you'll get a better understanding of... the tracking systems from my view before we even get into ZPass. As the gentleman just stated, it's going to take a while to roll out the ZPass system. So we're going to take little steps at a time and

078walk our way into it. So are there any questions concerning presentation this time? Thank you, Mr. Chair. You gentlemen alluded to other divisions who are using this technology. Mr. McFann, are you able to share with us some of the other divisions in the Hampton Roads area or in Virginia who are using this technology? Yes, I can provide that. Off tops, you know, I'm trying to think of a customer that I'm using in the Virginia area right now. You can get that to us, Salida. I can provide that information for you, right? I can get that information for you. And also, I can also see about maybe connecting you guys, because what I've done before is in other counties and states is the two districts can communicate. You can reach out to those guys and be

079like, hey, how do you guys feel about Zonar? How do you guys feel about ZPass? And they're honest with you. Hey, this is what we look, this is how we feel about it. This is what we don't like about it. So if that's something you're interested in, I can definitely find a school district that's near, that's using our services, and you guys can possibly communicate with those guys and get some feedback from them. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Are there any other questions? Just for clarity here, the MyView is what's on the proposal for the budget, not the ZPass, correct? So we are proposing funds for MyView for next year. So our pilot, which would be beginning ASAP, is going to be a small portion. So we're looking for the funds for

080fiscal year 26. Got it. Okay. All right, sir. Appreciate you giving us a little time this evening. Yeah, of course. Of course. I appreciate you guys allowing me in the meeting. And if there's any other questions, let me know. I'll provide that information to Matt. And I think I have two questions about the refreshment of the data. If the kid doesn't scan off the bus and you guys are looking for a district that is using our services and would like some feedback from those guys. So I have some homework on my end and I'll provide that to Matt. And then if there's anything else that comes up. please feel free to reach out to me or matt and i'll be happy to help you guys thank you sir thank you all right all right you

081guys take care see you yep mr fike i'd be interested uh once you guys do your little pilot program personally i'd be interested in getting some feedback from some of your bus drivers what kind of an additional task or a burden is this put on a bus driver I think they've already got a pretty full plate, so what are we adding on to the bus drivers? Yeah, the ZPass piece would. Now, my view is almost going to be, quote, unquote, invisible to the drivers, so we won't see much of that with the pilot. But when we get closer to look at the ZPass, there is a component that will involve the drivers. Just my initial reaction, I think that my view is a no-brainer. The ZPass, I think, maybe a little bit more selling to

082do on that. Sure. A lot of unknowns. Yeah. Depending any other comments, I guess we can move on. Appreciate you. Thank you. Thank you. 16-2, extended school year. Good evening. Tonight I have a few things for you, the first of which is extended school year, our proposal for this summer. It is for information purposes, and I'm happy to answer any questions if needed. Just for the public, just give us a quick overview of what we're talking about here. Of ESY? Yes, ma'am. Who's it served? What's it about? When's it happened? So on and so forth. Well, ESY is Extended School Year Services. It's in place for students who have significant disabilities that without these services, their progress would be in significant jeopardy for the next school year. So, for example, what we do with our...

083in our IEP meetings and with our students is we look at data over breaks throughout the school year to determine if students regress over those breaks and if so how much time it takes those students to recoup the skills that were lost. If the team feels that over the course of the summer break that student would have a hard time recouping any skills potentially lost in you know for the next school year they would go ahead and qualify that student for the need for extended school year services. Coming to ESY in a building, as is written here in the proposal, during the month of July is one option. We have some kiddos who benefit simply from having instruction provided. so that they can do that at home with teacher consulting parents. There's options, but the

084one that you have in front of you really is given to you guys for information because there is a cost to it. So we just want to share that information with you. Questions, comments? And roughly how many students do we have estimated? We're thinking this summer we might have about 15 students. Last year we had fewer. I think we had about 10. So we just are budgeting for 15 should that need be there. You'll see also that we are expecting about five teachers. It's a small student-to-teacher ratio because the needs of the students who require this service are pretty significant. All right. So this is your proposal. What's next? Do we have to approve this moving forward? No, it's just for information. Okay. It's required, so we move forward. We'd just like to inform you

085guys as to what we're doing. Thank you, ma'am. Appreciate it. I'm next. All right. Yes, you are. One more thing from me tonight. You also have in front of you our draft of the 2526 annual plan. This is our 611-619 grant that we apply for each year. This draft has been to our SEAC, which is our Special Ed Advisory Committee of Parents, for review. After tonight, it goes to the public for their input, and then we'll come back to you guys next month for approval. And you presented this last week during your advisory committee, right? Correct. And I'm happy to answer any questions you guys might have about the annual plan this year. I think we're good. Thank you. All right. Ms. Briggs, you're up again, ma'am. Good evening. We had a request from a

086few board members to look at the format we currently use for recognitions, what we call all the white achievers, which you witnessed earlier tonight during the meeting. And as part of the discussion, we decided it would be a good idea to survey the community and stakeholders, employees, students, family members, to get their feedback. So I'm presenting you with that information. We had 316 responses and you notice we had employees, parents, community members. We did have a few students as well that responded. And now we did ask them to identify all of the groups with which they're associated. So we could have had an employee, parent, and a community member. So some of those numbers, they were going to exceed 316 and I just wanted to explain the why. So they were checking all the categories

087that they would be affiliated with. Then we asked. Have you had a family member or yourself been recognized during a school board meeting? And pretty even split for that question. We did give them a table of information as to the current format, sort of comparing to the proposed format. And we had 61.5% that preferred to keep the current format. 38.5% were interested in having it modified. And then we had open-ended questions. So we have some feedback related to people that I think I have two that, well, one, excuse me, that talks about keeping it the way it is. One of the common themes for people, though, that did mark modifying it. we had said board members may not be required to attend because we're still working all of that out. And there was quite a

088bit of feedback that said they should be required. If you do change it, it should be a requirement or at least something where board members, some board members are there even if it's a rotating basis. They didn't, the ones that even said we could support changing it kind of drew a line with board members may not be attending. So I just wanted to share that with you. And some of these are a little lengthy, but I will say that the comments we got were very thoughtful comments. All of the comments we got were very thoughtful. I want to thank the people that participated. This was sort of one of those surveys that I hit or miss, didn't know what we'd get. So I felt 316 was a good response for this one. and I can

089do my best to answer questions, but I've kind of given you the data there. Thank you, ma'am. Yes, sir. Any comments? No comments? Okay. Ms. Perkins? All right, Ms. Briggs, appreciate you putting that together and working through that. All right, moving right along. 16-5, the summer school plan. Good evening, Board, Chair, Dr. Kramer. Tonight we are presenting on our Summer Scholars Academy, A Summer of Scientific Wonders. And Board Chair Marsh, we'd like to appreciate and thank you for your recommendation to jazz up the title. So we did not go to summer school this year. We even had somebody say, is this the same program? I'm like, well, it is. We're just changing the title to make it a little bit more enticing for families. You've got to sell it. Yes. A lot of our logistics

090are the same. We are at Hardy Elementary again, kindergarten through eighth grade. We are starting the week a few days before the 4th of July. However, we do have the third off and then the fourth off. So they still have a longer weekend. So it's about 15 days. So it is a little bit longer than what we had last year. Still the same hours, the teacher workday, all of that good stuff, transportation. We'd be happy to support piloting MyView, whatever. ZPass, I'm not really sure which one we went with, but like, but happy to support transportation with that over the summer school if that would be of an interest. Food services, of course, and then coordinating with ESY. We do have principals this year, so we are so excited to have Miss Jamie Barksdale. She's

091the assistant principal at Westside Elementary. She is going to be one of our principals along with Mr. Matthew Summit. He is our Hardy assistant principal currently. And then we have a fabulous intern, Mr. Zachary Kempf. He was actually here with the Smithfield High School beta. He is an intern, and he is a go-getter. And so you have our coordinator supporting. I'm Haley Kupreiter. Stacey Rogers for elementary math and gifted we have tip dr. Tiffany Truitt secondary English and then Kristen for mellow secondary math so we support the content For human resources, we have a total of about 11 teachers who teach K through 8. We have three reading interventionists. We've kind of broken them out so that they can serve K1, 2, 3, and 4, 8. We do have a nurse on staff. And then

092we have a maximum number of 180 slots. We have 15 students per classroom. And we're trying something new this year with an application to really get more families involved and have more of those spots filled so families can apply for summer school. And then we also are doing the student recommendation. teacher recommendations. So the schools will recommend students as well. So we've really kind of opened it up to make sure that all of our 180 slots are filled. We really focus on math and literacy. So we have the majority of the day is spent on math and literacy intensive remediation for math, reading, and writing. We focus on those power standards. This year we will have a pre-test and a post-test, very explicit to see how did... how was our instruction in terms of improving

093student learning. And then this year, instead of sports, we have a science integration. So science will be incorporated into the math and literacy through hands-on lessons and then also some definitely great books. And we are excited again this summer to partner again with the United Way through their Summer Elite Program. They first approached us last summer, and we integrated. That's how we were able to integrate our sports theme and do all the extra fun stuff. So we do have that partnership again this summer. And so they are really providing funding for some enrichment opportunities. We are adding, instead of the PE teacher this year, we're going to have a science resource teacher. So each class will get to go to science resource once a week and do some hands-on investigations. We know science is an

094area where we need to put in a little bit of work. It's one of our tougher spots, so that's another reason for our science integration this summer. We're going to have two math acceleration teachers to help those kids who are below grade level in math and really give them some small group one-on-one support. And then last year, we had two gifted enrichment teachers for students in grades three through eight. We are expanding it this year to first through eighth grade gifted students to come again this summer and do the Lego program based on science. And so with that, we are going to get some more Lego education kits to support that addition of the first and second graders. We're going to have the hands-on materials for the teachers to use in the classroom. with the

095lessons. We're going to get a science kit for every student to take home and do science at home with their parents to involve their families in that education. Some books. Haley's done a great job of getting books from Scholastic, all themed on science. And each kid's going to get a bag to put those books in to carry home. And then some more reading acceleration materials to support those reading interventionists to meet the needs of our students. Also again this year we're going to do some science themed field trips, add a little bit of fun and excitement to our summer school. So we will be getting t-shirts again for them to wear on the field trip days. It's just easier to find them when we're out and about. And the field trips for... The first two

096Thursdays are going to be after school hours. So we will leave at the end of the school day, 1230, quarter one. And it will be in the afternoon. We're going to go to Bolaroo again in Western Branch. The kids absolutely loved that last year. And we're going to be able to tie in force and motion with the science theme. And then on July 18th, we're going to go over to Hampton Air and Space Museum. It's nice and close. It's not very far. And do some things with the Air and Space Museum. And then our culminating field trip will be. the whole day we're going to go to Richmond and our K-2 students are going to go to the Children's Museum because it's a little bit more applicable to them and then our 3 through, I

097should say 8th grade, I'm sorry, 3 through 8th grade students will go to the Science Museum up in Richmond which has amazing exhibits and just to give them some really good hands-on. experiences up there as well. The great thing about this grant is it's going to be for all of our K through 8th grade students. We always invite our ESY students to come along with us and then of course the gifted students will also have the ability to attend those field trips as well. So that partnership really helps support our students and then really focusing on those K through 3 babies improving their reading and their math with some of our materials. Any questions? Connor, please. Thank you. So coming from the southern end of the county, Hardy is a bit of a ways. So

098can I ask why that location was picked? Sure. It had previously been held at Windsor Elementary for several years. And so last year we did move it to Hardy because Hardy was a brand new building. We've tried Westside, but Westside. The struggle is we have kindergarten students and west sides of 436 school while it's a little bit closer to the southern end. And so I think in the future we'll look to going back to maybe alternating. But since Windsor Elementary had hosted it for so long, we were trying to give that building a break. And that's why we moved it to Hardy. Good. Thank you. Thanks, Connor. Good question. Anybody else? How do you encourage the parents that have children that really could benefit the most from this? How do you? How do you encourage

099them to get these kids enrolled? I'd like to take this because my amazing counterpart here is so good at advertising and we've created a flyer for our families. And we have been very proactive in putting it in the report card. So every student gets this flyer to come home with every report card. So if the report card is saying, hey, your child is struggling or looking at the grades, there's the flyer right there that says the family could apply for summer school. The other thing that she has definitely encouraged as well is to have our teachers. put a comment section into the report card to also advertise and then also having conferences to really advertise for summer school. So I think as far as, those are new things that we've done this year to really

100help. Get the word out and encourage families to send their kids to summer school and I'm we're hoping through the response last summer from the LEAP programming adding all the extra incentives and Incorporating a fun theme to it. I think more heard about it and they had a good experience So we're hoping word of mouth to you will help bring in some more families. Like my child was recommended a lot of times some parents say no you know I don't want my kid to go to summer school but we're trying to make it fun and engaging and not just a half a day of school per se. It's not summer school what is it's Academy. Yes that's right. Summer Scholars Academy. Just thinking out loud Dr. Kramer what do you what do you think about

101reaching out to our good friends at the Smithfield Times and maybe Tidewater Newsweek newspaper and Maybe putting together a pitch and some lessons learned and some positive outcomes from last year. Absolutely. I mean, the press, they've been very generous to us. So there's an opportunity to write some information up that we can share to the larger community. Thank you for the recommendation. Yeah. What about WHRO? Absolutely. Great ideas, gentlemen. Reach out to our colleagues at WHRO. They are always looking for ways to promote our school divisions. We are one of the 21 owners, so absolutely. Thank you. Good call. Sell it. Yep. Anything else? Thanks, ladies. Thank you. Switch that hat around. That's good. All right. Hello again. Dr. Truitt and I are here to present you with some gifted program updates and our plan

102revisions this evening. So we wanted to start by giving you a little bit of background with why we are here a year early for revising our gifted plan. So back in 2023 when Dr. Kramer first came, he approached Dr. Truitt and I about developing an academic rigor committee. He had heard through his listening talks that academic rigor was a place where we had an opportunity for some growth. And so Dr. Trudeau and I comprised a committee of parents, teachers, various administrators, instructional coaches, and we started the work back in February of 2023. That work consisted of three subcommittees. We had a subcommittee who focused on our gifted program and our advanced coursework, general education, and then special education, that tier one. And through that work, they developed three-year action plans. Year one, they focused on

103what can we do next year. Easier fixes, not necessarily budget implications, just what could we do to promote more academic rigor? And that work has continued since then. The next year we met several times with the committee. They developed their year two and three action plans. And some of the things that came out of that work was the middle school gifted elective that was started this school year at the middle school. I know the middle school we've been... I know Dr. Truitt could speak more to it. We've gone back and forth between pulling them out of certain classes, pushing into English class, pushing in during wind time. And so we then landed on the elective course for those middle school students. Something else that came out of it was our elementary pull-out instruction for our

104identified case two students. Our current plan just mentions the push in for 30 minutes. And so we wanted to get those students out with their identified peers to do more interdisciplinary. critical thinking activities and then also our division-wide elementary middle school gifted field experiences that we're going to talk about a little bit here so that's just a little bit of the background so a lot of things have led to us coming to you a year early to revise our plan to make it what's best for our students in our division with their unique gifts and talents So like Miss Rogers said, one of the things that we implemented this year was our middle school gifted field experience. So this opportunity was provided to any student currently enrolled in our enrichment. elective and that class is

105comprised primarily of identified gifted students but also students who demonstrate high academic aptitude who may not be identified as gifted but could also benefit from these rigorous learning experiences so we the class is comprised of cross-discipline units so they're learning you know they're writing flash fiction in this particular unit they studied squid and how Technology companies have learned about how squids adapt and have implemented some of that into technology. And so we went to the aquarium and we dissected squids that day. And I will let you know, as somebody who attended the field trip, it was an incredible field trip at the aquarium. But we brought about 60 kids, and they had one educator to kind of lead all of us in this dissection work. Every single teacher and parent chaperone was walking around and

106helping with dissection. So it was not something we expected to do that day. It was very hands-on, but it was just an incredible time for them. And so that is one thing that we implemented that was not originally in our gifted plan, but felt like it should be part of our revised plan. You're also doing something this spring, correct? Yeah, so actually next week our kids who are enrolled in the second semester course and kids who are not enrolled in the course but are identified as gifted will be kind of embarking in that Virginia 250 exploration. So they'll be going to the... St. Luke's Historic Church, the museum, and the county courthouse to kind of explore ways in which Smithfield and Ala White in general has played a role in America's founding. Just to give

107you ladies a plug, as you know, that's my kid up there on the right. We did know that. I did not know it when I took the picture, though. So when the school year, at the beginning of the school year when Tenley found out that she was going to have, what's the, it's not gifted, what do we call it? Academic enrichment. Academic enrichment. Yes. She was so disappointed that she didn't get to go to art right off the get-go for her first year of middle school. But the first week, that was gone. She comes home all the time talking about. the cool stuff they do. That's great. She had nothing but good things to say about the field trips. And just to give a little plug, they did an art history unit as well last

108semester, so she got a little bit of art in there. Oh, yes. And so we also took this idea to our elementary students. And I'm going to talk here. It's a short video. Our elementary identified students are also getting to participate this year in two field experiences. Our first one was back in January. We brought all of the kids to the Smithfield Center in Smithfield. And they participated in an elementary STEAM day. They got to rotate around with a group of students from all five schools it was within their grade level so they weren't necessary just with hardy kids if they're from hardy they had kids from all the schools that had students in their grade level and they went to a science station a thinking station engineering art and then a math station and

109one of the beautiful things i liked about this day was that we also got to incorporate some of our middle school students they applied to be a mentor for that day and they received some training on just working with the students and on their station and those middle school students students who came that day. They stepped up, they led the stations, they didn't ask for a single ounce of help. As soon as I showed them their materials on their table and those kids came, it was like they were naturals. They were totally in their element and it was great to see. So I'm gonna hopefully play this quick video. So overall, the day was a huge success. We had over 100 students there. And to rotate stations, all I had to do was say something

110one time and they all got quiet. And I think my favorite quote was from a student from Carrollton who told Mr. Brennan that they were so good because they were so engaged and they were thinking and having hands-on investigations that day. So I'm already looking forward to planning next year's. And then like middle school, we are doing a spring field trip. We are going to the Science Museum in Richmond just in a couple weeks on April 7th and 8th. We're splitting it over two days so that... I worked with Mr. Fike in transportation so that we could find he's got a substitute bus driver who does not run a normal route so that way we could stay a little bit longer and not have to come back before that middle school route so that we

111can have a longer day since it is a little bit further of a trip. So we are very excited about that. And it's got really well feedback from our parents and our students alike. And so that was kind of our update, things that we've added that have come out of that academic rigor plan. And then these are our proposed changes to our plan as it relates to our students. So our current reality is that in our plan, it states that all students in first and second grade receive science pushing. They do. They get a lesson once every two-ish weeks, depending on the school. Carrollton and Hardy have more first and second grade classrooms, so the teacher is not able. to get in there weekly because they have seven or six on the grade level and

112there's just not enough time in the day but so we are adding that they will still be getting that we are required through the DOE to do a talent development and so this is that talent development where our GRT our gifted resource teacher gets into the classrooms to put her eyes or his eyes on the students and kind of notice and identify some of those students earlier before the COGAT screening in second grade. So they will still be getting that monthly and then our students in K-2 who are identified will also be pulled out for services 90 minutes a week and they'll be doing interdisciplinary units, getting to do some creative writing, some different art, math, history units with their identified peers from their grade level. Moving up to third through fifth grade, our students

113right now are served through the cluster groups and then the pull-out services of the Math Plus class. The teachers of those gifted students are their teacher of record for math, and so currently our gifted students are only getting services in math. And while those teachers do... a great job of incorporating other subjects as they can. That's also an SOL-tested subject, so that does become a little bit difficult at times to really do a lot above and beyond. Our teachers have done a great job with it, though, but it's... It's time to move on I think and so we are proposing that students in grades three through five to be served through cluster groups still so they're going to be grouped with their identified peers and then get pull out services for 120 minutes weekly. They'll

114have the opportunity. We wanted to put this in here that they'll have the opportunity to make up work missed during instructional time. However, they won't be required to complete it. unless it's a quiz or a test grade. Previously, some student feedback was in the prior plan before the one we have now was that they were being required to make up all this work when they were being pulled to do other work. And so we wanted to be clear for our teachers and our students that they'll be given the work, but they don't have to do it if they don't want to. Because I know some gifted students are going to want to take that work, go home and do it that night. But then some may not want to. And so we just wanted to

115be clear and make sure that that was understood. And then we also want to add in the field experiences for our students because we found great success with those and we want to make sure we continue doing those in the fall and spring semester. And then something else we want to add, through our academic rigor committee work, we have found a really great academic rigor. flip chart book that we want to, Dr. Truett and I want to work with our gifted teachers and do a book study and train them on how to incorporate more academic rigor for all of our students, not just our gifted students, for everybody. And so then we would do a book study training with them and then the goal would be those GRTs would go back to their schools, work

116with the teachers in their building to help provide them with more strategies to improve the academic rigor in our classrooms across the whole school. In addition we added like miss rogers said the optional uh middle school gifted elective for students in six through seventh it's actually called academic enrichment because it's you know it's it's offered to students who are not identified as well um our change to that would be um only offering it to sixth and seventh because of the way our current block schedule is set up most of our eighth grade students who are identified as gifted are taking spanish and also potentially want to take and so we're not seeing the enrollment numbers that would justify continuing that in eighth grade at this time and because we are really looking at increasing the

117rigor for all students that additional time for that particular GRT will be used to coach teachers in all content areas about raising that academic rigor in math and science and history. And that's also supported by the DOE's new accountability system, which recognizes that we potentially have, as a state, neglected our high-achieving students and will reward us additional points kind of in that accountability model by getting them to pass advance. And so we want to make sure that those students are getting the education they deserve as well. Again, the middle school elective is not even in our current. gifted plan but we everything that we put in our gifted plan is what we have to be held accountable for so we want to you know make sure that we're held accountable for that does not mean

118we can't do additional things for those eighth grade students hopefully we've proven by now that we will do things outside of the plan if it benefits our kiddos in addition another change one huge amount of feedback we've received from parents and from students is our model as it currently stands like Miss Rogers says we recognize giftedness is in general aptitude meaning students show giftedness in all content areas but because we only service in math plus students are actually only getting services in math not all students are gifted in math And so the idea is that if we have cluster classes now in the middle school for English and math, we can also provide some. more rigorous academic experiences for them outside of just limiting to them that one content area. That will also prepare those

119students more effectively for those advanced math and English classes that they have the opportunity to take at high school. But we know that that work will have to be supported by the GRT and so that's another reason why we're pulling back on that eighth grade class to provide them more time to work with those teachers because it's going to be a shift. Additionally, our current plan, we service identified gifted students by providing them the opportunity to take honors, AP, DE, or apply and potentially gain acceptance into GSST and GSA. We do not feel that that is enough. We provide all of this support until eighth grade, and then we kind of just say. Here you go, you know make good choices and so We want to kind of follow what miss Rogers put in place

120with elementary school course It'll look different at the high school, but to offer two gifted seminars per year for our high school students So providing opportunities for identified students at both Windsor High and Smithville High to get together maybe take, maybe, you know, meet with some people from our local community to kind of talk about career pathways or applying for colleges or engage in, you know, Socratic seminars, just an opportunity for them to get together. Because really these kids have been together in some way or form K through eight, and then they don't necessarily have time with their identified gifted peers once they reach high school. So these are just kind of our proposals. This is considered a first read, so we're here to get feedback. But we do, before we ask for questions, kind

121of want to share some feedback that we have received. We've taken this to multiple feedback groups before bringing it to you all. We've met with gifted resource teachers. We've met with parents. We've met with our central office staff, administrators. And just kind of some of the feedback that we received is as follows. So one concern that was brought to our attention is that the amount of time seems to be reduced for third through fifth grade. And Ms. Rogers, do you want to speak to that? And that is true because math is 90 minutes a day. However, they're going to be getting services to... push them and excel them and enrich them. Where right now they're just getting their standard math instruction with a little bit of acceleration, a little bit of enrichment. So they will

122get 120 minutes a week with a gifted curriculum that's going to be interdisciplinary so that they can really experience a lot of different things other than just math with a little bit of English sprinkled in when we have time or science or history. So that's... It is a little bit less, but it's going to be more valuable time with the GRT. Some positive feedback we received is that many of our parents and middle school students were excited about the concept of having cluster classes in seventh and eighth grade. One thing that we're not seeing in our Algebra I classes, which is a year-long high school class that students have the opportunity to take in eighth grade, is a significant amount of students scoring in that pass-advance. Because really what happens is they go from seventh

123grade math they potentially miss out on a year of eighth grade math and go straight into algebra. So this cluster course can work in that kind of eighth grade math alongside the seventh grade content so that they can be better prepared. And of course, you know, eighth grade cluster English will be new, but many parents were happy about that because they believe, you know, that their students will also have the potential to be successful in an English class, not just math. And I think just our gifted resource teachers who are really the true heroes of this work, we would not be sitting here advocating for all of this without them pushing us, are very excited about the opportunities for additional professional development for them. I think because of the accountability system in which we live,

124we often focus on our content teachers, our math, English, history, and science. But to provide them... professional learning that will help them grow all of our teachers is something that they're very excited about. So what questions do you have for us? I applaud you. I'm super excited about all this. I really am. We often hear about figuring out how to catch up the kids that are struggling, and that's absolutely important. But at the same time, I know that we've got a lot of kids that are, they need more of a challenge. You made comment about introducing a flipbook to give, I think the word you used was academic rigor to all the students. I think that's awesome. I've heard my kids come home numerous times, and I ask them all the time, what did you

125do today? How was your day? Did you have fun? What did you learn? All the standard parent questions, right? And a common response I get is it was boring. And so that tells me that they're not being challenged. I guess I've got some conflicting opinions or thoughts, and I don't know the answer, but we hear about the reverse inclusion courses, and I think that's an awesome concept and an awesome program. But at the same time, we've got kids that are probably not being challenged as much as they could be because they're focused more on the kids that are trying to catch up or at least maintain the minimum. So if you guys can progress in that way, I think. kudos to you what do you need from us I don't know I think it's awesome

126just continue to support yeah doc Thank you, Mr. Chair. As Ms. Rogers stated, upon my arrival as superintendent here two and a half years ago, as you all recall, I met with numerous people in the community. Some of you, even before you became board members, met with me, our staff, our students. And a recurring theme then was we are a good school division and in some ways a very good school division. But one of the challenges was... Many people didn't think our students were being challenged to the extent that they should be. And as I was meeting with staff, the reason these ladies were selected to lead this new committee is because their passion and the work that they do, and it was actually palpable when I met with them. I could see how passionate

127they were about this work. And we selected them to lead this work. I applaud what you all have done. I applaud the... committee members our parents and staff members and i think some students who have also been included as a part of this work so i think as they said and stated mr chair just supporting this we're trying to find ways to provide some additional support financially so that they can expand and enhance some of the efforts that they have cited here but I wanted to take a moment just to thank both dr. Truitt and miss Rogers for their leadership as well as numerous other educators coordinators teachers administrators and perhaps most importantly our parents and students for their active engagement Offhand, approximately how many students do we have that are identified as? When I

128ran the numbers on Monday, it came out to 425 currently identified. Out of 5,300 total across? Yeah. That's a pretty significant chunk of kids. Does that correlate with how we do on the SOLs? Kind of, sort of. I would say we have room for improvement. Yeah, I would agree. Personally, I also coordinate secondary English and history, and my past advanced numbers are not where I think they should be, and so I think there's work to be done. I think that's where that academic rigor piece for all will come in is we'll see some improvement with the past advanced students because I feel the same about elementary math and science. I would like to see those past advanced numbers increase more. If y'all find out some of the parents' concerns are kind of coming to fruition,

129are y'all able to pivot and change things up with them getting less time and all? Will y'all be able to? change things up if you find them. I believe we would have to bring it back to you all to make any major amendments to the plan. But, you know, I do want to stress this is the bare minimum. Like, what we put in the plan is like... You have to do this. I don't know of a single gifted resource teacher who does not go above these amount of minutes or offer opportunities outside of this. But that's just what we have to hold ourselves accountable. But if we felt like it was not successful, we could revise and bring it back to you guys. Do you need something from us to do more with this? my

130boss said money thank you doctor Kramer for your heading you know getting this stuff changed anything else go forth and conquer thank you ladies is everybody good we're at two hours and some change okay moving on ma'am good evening I really don't have a whole lot to tell you tonight. We're eight months into the school year, four months left. General fund's looking good. We are current on all of our grant reimbursements. The only thing just to reiterate is that our health insurance fund, the claims are still at about 35% higher than they were this time last year. Thanks for bringing that to attention, ma'am. And so what do we, I just want to bang the drum and draw attention to it. So part of this isn't a budget meeting, but a part of our budget

131proposal is adding 1.7 million to the health fund. Yes, sir. And that cost is going to be, if approved, coming from the operating budget, not out of the employees' premiums. Correct. That's what we have proposed, that it is absorbed by the district entirely. Comments, questions from the board? I've got a few that I've cherry-picked out of there. On the check register, I noticed that you have several transactions totaling $6,600 for MHB. Can we talk to that a little bit? They provide equipment repairs for food services. That's the same company that donated a gift card to Mrs. What was her name at? Otilia Smith, right? Is that the same company? No, sir. No? Okay. Who was it? Who did the gift card? Two different companies. My bad. And there's a line item in the check register

132for $20,000. It's a school board of the city of, and it's cut off. Virginia Beach? Sure. Can we talk to that? That was the, I believe, the second semester tuition for a SPED student who actually resides in St. Mary's Home. And that's for one child? Yes. Okay. No one else has any comments? You got the books looking good, Ms. DeVere. We appreciate you making it easy for us. Thank you. Dr. Coleman, support services, please, sir. Mr. Chair, school board members. Dr. Kramer, operations report, operations update. Two items we're just going to discuss. Of course, it's the Windsor High School Sinkhole update. This is just an update of what's going on in the Windsor area. Of course, the temporary repair was completed. RFP went out to bid. closed two weeks ago, and here's the updated status.

133I had an opportunity to talk to Mr. Bowman today, and he provided me with an update regarding the Church Street pipe repairs, and he said certain information that he can share right now and certain information that he can't. One thing that he can share is that VDOT is utilizing a district-wide pipe rehabilitation contract. As you know, Mr. Chair, from the meeting, the last meeting that we had, the funding wasn't there because it wasn't planned out but he's found a workaround and he's using a um the district-wide pipe rehabilitation contract and that was approved yesterday now at this point mr bowman is awaiting the contractor's schedule and we'll share those details with us as soon as they become available In the meantime, he stated that he could assure the superintendent, Dr. Kramer, and the board that

134VDOT is actively moving forward with the Church Street pipe repairs. And the work schedule will take place this year. So it came directly from Mr. Bowman, so I wanted to make sure that I delivered that message. Thanks, Doc. I can only assume that this particular problem is... a small part of a much larger problem that we've seen in Windsor in general. Absolutely. You see it on various campuses around the drainage pipes. All right. All right, next. This is a financial overview of custodial grounds in the maintenance contract. Several months ago, at least 18 months ago, it was requested of me to look at the food service, child nutrition. vendor and see if we can work bringing that back in-house. We've run that back in-house. It's been some hurdles and we still are working through some

135items. Now it's been requested that I take a look at the other items, the other areas that we outsource at this time. And that is going to be the custodial grounds and the maintenance contract. What I have here is a general overview of what we have outsourced at this time. over all three areas and we're just going to go through this step by step just to make sure that we get a overview ideology of what's going on with this contract now the slide here um slide presents an overview of the staffing and associated costs for custodial grounds and maintenance personnel within the district district the total annual cost for these services That you see right here is the two million three hundred fifty two dollars two million three hundred two thousand dollars That is just

136your ground workers. How many custodians we have in the division and the general maintenance The next slide is the non payroll cost this is the management the Signs rugs all of the items that is purchased the vehicles that we're under contract for The workers compensation payroll, DRS, retirement placeholder, what we would be paying. And this is more of the total non-payroll cost that we would be paying if we weren't under contract with ABM. Sir, what do you mean management cost? Management cost will go into the management that ABM currently has. It's similar to the best comparison. When we changed over the food service, child nutrition, we still had to hire a director. We still needed individuals doing payroll. We still need individuals doing those sort of management activities to ensure that we're running smoothly. the

137current custodial with the current grounds, they still have managers out there. They still have supervisors out there. It's just that we do not see it because it's one big lump sum. That's the staffing above and beyond what you just got it. Right. What is the placeholder, VRS placeholder? Now, if we, let's go back one slide. If these personnel came in-house, general maintenance, we brought eight individuals in-house, 44 custodians in-house, and let's just say a point for our workers, and they became IWCS employees, we would have to pay them the VRS and different things of that nature, health insurance costs, different things of that nature. So that is an overall. projection of what these let's see 52 was it 54 close to 60 individuals would actually cost pros and cons of internal custodial grounds and outsourcing

138the services the cost control of course is more predictable budget and spending direct oversight ensure it's consistent work quality, provide stable jobs, benefits improving staff morale. Those are some of the pros, cons. Of course, there's going to be higher upfront costs that I'll get to in a second. from payroll vehicles and suppliers, requires strong management and oversight to maintain efficiency, benefits, payroll burden, retirement costs, different things of that nature that we have to work through. The pros of outsourcing, of course, it can reduce immediate payroll and benefit expenses, and that's why we went to it from the beginning. No need to oversee hiring, training, scheduling the staff. And, of course, the cons are the long-term costs may increase. due to vendor price hikes, and also a loss of direct control over service quality and employee

139performance. That's something that Mr. Collick pointed out. Now, as we evaluate the financial and operational implications of these services, It is essential to consider all factors, including cost efficiency, service quality, and long-term sustainability. And that's something that me and Mr. Kahlick, me and Ms. Perkins, we've talked about over and over again. Now, based on the projected in-house costs... It's going to be a startup cost. If we said we're going to get started today, bring everything back in-house, we're projecting maybe $5.5 million startup cost just based off of these projections and the cost projections that we didn't include. So similar to bringing these 60 individuals back in-house in a whole different professional area, we are going to actually need right now we're leaning and falling toward needing more human resource. individuals, we will definitely need new

140positions in human resources to help with this undertaking. Definitely when we're looking at custodial grounds. So it's some of those costs that we didn't take into consideration. Now, while bringing services in-house provides direct oversight and potential long-term benefits, and outsourcing to vendors offers flexibility and may reduce certain administrative liabilities, a more thorough comparison of service delivery models, including performance metrics, will be critical in determining the best path forward for this district. So I would like more time before we make any decision concerning moving back in-house or not. But overall, it will be, I was asked to give you a proposed cost of how much it would be today if we brought everything back in-house, and it would be about $5.5 million to cover the cost of everything, get everything situated. Plus, it would be the

141hurdles that we have to go through. It's not impossible as we've just seen with child nutrition. It's not impossible. But I would like to say nearing the end of the second year, I mean first year with child nutrition, there's still hurdles that we have to jump. I mean you've still seen this F-par corrections and different things of that nature. The same thing will occur with custodial grounds and maintenance if we decided to do this. So it's six in one hand, half a dozen in the other. It's what the board wants to see. how you want to move forward. So $5.5 million for a startup. Startup. Just a startup. Yes. What's your estimated annual? I would say that it would be very, very close to what we're paying now. It would be maybe the 4.3, 4.2,

1424.3 every year. We're not going to save. We're not going to save. the millions of dollars in these areas because Right now we're budgeting certain way is just like I would say that the economy One thing that he was the custodians in Windsor High School. So in-house right now, what we will probably do if we're in charge of it, I would probably have to hire more and stick more custodians over there until we can get this fully, fully under control. Right now, under contract, we don't really have that leverage. We have the leverage once a year to actually. add more money and add more custodians in based off of budgeting, different things of that nature. So in the end, it would even out. Buying our own supplies, different things of that nature. It would add

143morale to the custodians as... When I was a principal, the custodians actually belonged to the principal, and they were part of the team, and they were part of the organization to the extent of wearing shirts and working along with them. Okay, yes, that piece is probably gone at this time, but overall, that's the change-off that you have. That's the change. So it's going to be a board decision, but I can continue to look through it and research it. Thanks, Doc. So I know this was something that Mr. Collick had asked for. Yes. I'll shoot him a note later, and if he's not watching, I'll draw his attention to the video and make sure he watches this. Right. And if he has other questions, I have more information I can share with him concerning it. But

144once again, this is not a pro or a con. This is just the information that's being presented. Thanks. Anybody else? Are we able to break this contract up and just do some of it in-house, or is it kind of an all or nothing? You can break the contract up. The contract can be broken up at the time of the renewal. It can. So if you're asking, can we just do maintenance and grounds, yes, and we can bring back in custodial. We can break it up the way that we need to break it up. But I will say you get the greatest discount when you have all three, and that's just the way the model is set up. All ready good? Thanks, Doc. Appreciate you putting that together. Good evening, Board Chair, Dr. Kramer. I just

145want to thank you for allowing me to talk to you this evening just to let you guys know what your tech department has been doing this year and what we're still going to finish out this year doing. One of the major things that we've been working on this year is a lot of audio enhancements. For instance, we replaced Windsor High's gym. Within, I think it was about three weeks after we were notified about it, we got a new one in there. It had actually dated back to the original build of the building, so it was definitely time. We just didn't know there was any problems with it. We've also replaced Smithville Middle's gym system, as well as built an entire PD space at the new admin building, which is one of our audio enhancements, as

146well as visual. We've also added a lot of PA systems for new system, new... programs such as the patient care center we needed to add. That is for emergency communications to ensure that everybody can hear announcements and emergencies in the building. We've also done large volumes of deployments this year. We replaced all the teacher laptops. We've swapped in 950 Chromebooks as well as 500 MacBooks to ninth graders. We did all that without interrupting instruction in any way. We actually were meeting with principal, our teachers on their breaks and on their planning times in order to swap their laptops out. We did that over a period of about three months. Some of the major projects that we've done this year is we replaced our virtualization system. This is not only for security, but also for power

147savings and general management capability. We've upgraded our firewall and we've doubled our internet speed in the school division. We've also done some serious security enhancements. We have a new visitor management system that's been on back order now for several months, but hopefully we'll receive it by the end of the year. That is... Just to upgrade the Raptor systems inside the buildings right now give them a nice big screen and make a little bit faster We've added many new badge readers throughout the division as well as those that we continually repair for instance we are adding door 12 at Windsor High School currently. We're just waiting for materials. And of course we've supported Mr. Brinkley and his project with the weapons detection systems. We don't have a whole lot to do with it, but anytime he

148needs help, we're over there giving him a hand. We've also done a lot of work within schools. Currently I'm working on projection system upgrades in three elementary schools. Those are for large volume flex spaces such as cafeteria nasiums is what I call them. We've done A lot of camera replacements such as Carsville and Carrollton have gotten all new cameras this year. And currently the project that we're working on is replacing all of Windsor Elementary's cameras. We are also working on interactive whiteboards. So as I told you at the last meeting, I can afford out of my current operating budget a very small number of interactive whiteboards. And so I am proceeding with that purchase currently. I ordered them in January. This upgrade is going to be for libraries, music. ROTC, I think, is getting on

149those sorts of spaces that are the walls on those rooms are just very difficult to put a projector on. There's like maybe rafters in the ceiling, something along those lines. We also assisted Ms. Ford with adult ed in a certified training center, which is a really big deal for her in the adult ed and uplift systems. This is just to give you an idea of some of the major programs that we've built automations for this year to save staff time, as well as ensure data accuracy. Security of data transfer. One of these you'll be able to see is actually Zonar MyView that we've been talking about with Mr. Fike. And entertainingly, I didn't actually notice it until I put the presentation together, but there's also Savas MyView, so it's the same program name, different company.

150That is for the VLA and Virginia Literacy Act. But you can see even with food services, we had a lot of work to do when they came in-house in order to get their new point-of-sale systems up and running. And these are the KPIs, the key performance indicators. I want to point these out just to show that we stay busy all the time. Of note, I did want to mention I originally put on here 12,436 feet of cabling that we pulled in the new admin building. It's actually wrong by a lot. I originally counted out the number of feet each run was going to be, not the amount of cable we pulled. So the amount of cable we actually pulled was closer to 38,000 feet of cable, which I ran the numbers compared to what it

151cost out of Hardy, and that's about a $200,000 cost that we absorbed by doing it with our network technician and techs that we have currently employed. And then some, you know, we have the live help desk that 630 calls have come in so far this school year, as well as, and Connor may be able to test this, I'm not sure, but we repaired 312 screens this summer. Each one of those screens is a $300 cost and three and a half man hours. And we did that all in-house when it was cost effective to do so. We repaired 300. It was actually closer to 500 that were broken. but some of those were under warranty, so we just shipped those out to Apple and let them repair them. So I was trying to be nice and

152quick, but if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. Mr. Cooper, you're a humble man. Humble. Mrs. Horrible with names. Mrs. Finch gave you high accolades. Kudos to her. You owe that lady lunch. But she's spot on. So I'll just throw some numbers off. This is just my observations after sitting up here for two and a half years about you've got about 5,400 students and 830 staff, plus or minus. That makes somewhere in the ballpark of 6,230 customers. All right? That's not counting the parents that call you fussing all the time, which I'm sure happens. We do. If it's anything like my organization, it consists of about 80 people and two of you. constantly Jeremy and Kim at my place of employment get peppered all day long every day because their email doesn't

153work the printer doesn't work the scanner doesn't work I can't make a call on my whatever you know either ways you've got over 6,000 for how many people we actually have for technical staff I would say it's about 10.5 okay let's say 10 people for over 6,200 people. In my work, we've got two people for plus or minus 80. You've got nine schools, a central office, the vehicle maintenance department. You're doing emails, laptops, tablets, phones, school buses, MyView, handheld radios, weapons detection systems. You guys are rock stars. I tell Dr. Coleman not to hesitate to toot his horn because he does a lot of stuff. And I know you do too, Ms. Goetz. This is your chance. So it's Mrs. Finch now. The public needs to know all the stuff you're doing with very little.

154I applaud you. You guys are doing a bang-up job. Couldn't do it without my team, sir. That's all I got. I had to get that off my chest. Thank you. Yes, sir. You want to say something, Doc? They do amazing work, and I don't want it to be lost. You said, in addition, we've been talking often about how much money we've saved for the new central office, and you mentioned a number, over $200,000 that you've helped you and your staff save the district as a result of doing that work in-house. So they do amazing work, you and your team, and a superintendent who often annoys you because the printer's not working. So they do great work, and thank you for acknowledging that, all of you. You got it, sir. And we're going to annoy him

155again, so he has to manage my PowerPoint for me. All right. So thank you, Mr. Chairman, and good evening, everyone. Quite a few slides this evening, so I'm going to move through this rather swiftly. And we will start with the February IELTS Award recipients. There we are. Top left, the Inspire Award recipient was our very own Mr. David Elliott. All right, we'll save the applause for the end because other people need their applause as well. We love you, David, but we're going to acknowledge it. All right. All right, go ahead. Give him his moment. Thank you, David. All right, now everybody else is going to be angry with me because they didn't get a solo applause. Top right, the Succeed Award recipient was Dairy Queen of Windsor, one who recommended them, but they do great

156work in the Windsor community, and thank you, Dairy Queen. Bottom left, the award, the lead award recipient was Lachelle Chapman, one of our wonderful food service employees at Windsor Elementary. And bottom right, the Empower Award recipient was Tricia Christopher from Sentara at St. Luke's. And they do a great job of supporting our staff. They allow us to have meetings there. And that beautiful mural that was painted was there at Sentara at St. Luke's. In addition to applauding for our awesome Mr. David Elliott, let's give all of them a well-deserved round of applause. Next, we have Project Adam. Congratulations to the students and staff at Hardy Elementary and Georgie Tyler Middle for becoming Project Adam Heart Safe Schools. This is a significant accomplishment, and we're very proud of you, Hardy Elementary and Georgie Tyler Middle. We

157appreciate all that you are doing to keep our students and staff safe. And if you see the photos there, thank you, Mrs. Perkins and Mr. Collick were able to join us for that. occasion and we had, I forget the medical doctor's name, who has been a lead in the state, but he is there in the photo as well. Next, we have our DEA presentation in collaboration with the Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA. An agent from DEA came to Smithfield High on February 18th and at Windsor High on March 10th to discuss the dangers and harmful effects of fentanyl and other drug usage. I thank Mrs. Goetz and the administrators at both high schools for coordinating these events for our students. I think we can all agree that we need to do as much as we can

158as a school division and as a community to educate our students about the harmful effects of drugs and ways to keep them safe. And I think both of you, hopefully Connor and Cameron were in attendance for that occasion. Any comments about what it was like? It was very informative, and I just appreciate them coming out to make us aware of the dangers of fentanyl. I basically agree with what Connor said. You learned a lot from the presentation. Thank you both. And again, thank you, Ms. Goetz, for working with DEA to coordinate that. Next we have a facility walkthroughs along with Dr. Coleman and members of our operations team. We conducted facility walkthroughs in our schools to make note of any facility concerns and to ensure that buildings are well maintained. Connor has assured us that

159we need to do a little better job there. We made a list of those concerns and we're working to make the necessary improvements. Although we only have photos from Carrollton Elementary, we walked through all schools with the building administrators. I think Hardy Elementary is the only school we have remaining to complete and we know that they should have fewer concerns than any other given that they have a new building. Our Isle of Wight Grow Your Own Isle of Wight is proud to announce our participation in the Virginia Department of Education's Grow Your Own Registered Apprenticeship Program through the U.S. Department of Labor's Competitive State Apprenticeship Expansion Sub-Grant. In July 23, VDOE was awarded $1.78 million to support the launch of Grow Your Own apprenticeship programs. In addition, VDOE's grant was expanded with $6 million more

160in funds to support the apprenticeship program. School divisions then partnered with universities to develop high-quality, accessible pathways to becoming a teacher while being employed by school divisions as paraprofessionals. Isla White is partnering with Old Dominion University in order to support five of our instructional aides who hold associate's degrees in obtaining their bachelor's degree in education with an accelerated program at no cost to the apprentice. Upon completion of their degree, these highly qualified teachers are then committed to teaching in our classrooms for three years. In addition, The grant will support funds for mentor teachers in our school division to support the apprentices growth. These candidates were selected the first week in March and will begin coursework in May. The candidates are Riley Holden, Holding from Carrollton Elementary, Caitlin Jones from Hardy Elementary, Claudia Shalar from Smithfield

161Middle, and Heather Jordan from Windsor Elementary. And the fifth spot should be announced next week. Thank you, Mrs. Sullivan and your HR staff for making this happen and congratulations to the candidates. And I will add as well, and please correct me if I'm incorrect, this emerged Mrs. Sullivan as a result of our interaction with state superintendent upon her visit here back in the fall. And she was so impressed with what's occurring in our division at the visiting Windsor Elementary's Early Childhood Program entitled Little Sprouts. Thank you. Had a little brain freeze there for a moment. She was so impressed there that she invited us to be a part of this grant. So when you're doing good work, other good things come your way. So impressed that the state superintendent invited us to be a part

162of this. I think that's impressive. Next, we have the JROTC Blood Drive. Thank you, Smithfield High JROTC, for organizing a community blood drive this month. The blood drive collected 69 pints of blood, equating to the potential of 207 lives saved. Our JROTC runs four blood drives a year in October, November, February, and in April. We have been the number one donating high school in the state since 2015-2016. I didn't know that until as of late. Thank you, Smithfield JROTC, and thank you, Smithfield High School, for the great work you're doing in our community. Next, the Culinary Arts Program. Isla White culinary arts students participated in the Virginia ProStart Invitational held at Hotel Madison and Shenandoah Conference Center in Harrisonburg, Virginia. The team composed of Alexandria Washburn, Aidan Kerr, Christina K. Towns, Charlene Sanderson, and Julia

163Lette brought home the first place prize in Isla White's first ever appearance at the event. Additionally, Aiden Kerr took first place in the state's first ever napkin folding competition. Did not know that there was such, but we have the fastest napkin folding person in the state in our schools. So great job there, Aiden. The team was coached by Chef Nick Hagan. and Chef Scott Horn. The team will be headed to the National ProStart Invitational held in Baltimore, Maryland on May 2nd through May 4th and will represent the entire state of Virginia. So congratulations to the Culinary Arts Program and again congratulations to Smithfield High School. Great job all. One of our graduates from our CTE program, Ms. Natalie Kramer, no relation. has done very well for herself and Lieber, Lieber, pardon, thank you, Mining Equipment

164Company. This month she came out to speak to our welding students and provided a welding demonstration. Thank you very much, Ms. Natalie Kramer, for coming back to share your experiences with our students. And we see the photos there. Our building trade students have been assisting with work on the new central office building, for those of you who did not know that. As you see from the photos, these students assisted with putting in door frames and doors. Thank you, Mr. Rogers and building trade students, for your contributions to our new CO building. What a great experience for our students, and we appreciate the assistance at central office. Thank you, Virginia Symphony Orchestra, for visiting Isla White County and for the wonderful performances last week, professional performances. Several of our elementary and middle school students were able

165to attend. I was also able to attend, and I can attest to the fact that the performances were first rate. Thank you, Dr. Truitt, and I'm sure that there are others who assist it for coordinating these efforts. And I think we're only one of a few school divisions in the Hampton Roads area with this amazing partnership. And I tell you, board members, if you've never attended, I encourage you to find time to attend next year. And actually occurring on the very same day was the Tri-Rivers Basketball League was started, and it was started 10 years ago to provide an opportunity for all students to enjoy being part of an organized team. The league is composed of several schools, including Smithfield High and Windsor High. Those two schools faced each other at Smithfield High last week.

166The game was full of excitement and sportsmanship from both squads. Thank you all for making this a wonderful event for our students. And again, I would encourage a number of our board members attended last year. I'm not sure about this year, but if you have not have not attended that event, I encourage you to attend that event as well. Thank you, Mrs. Bradshaw and her fifth grade class at Westside Elementary for allowing me to join you for Read Across America. I enjoyed reading two very good books. What the Road Said, awesome book if you've not read that. And You Can Be a Friend. Mrs. Bradshaw's students were awesome and were very engaged in the reading. They asked many great questions. And again, thank you for inviting me to be a part of Read Across America.

167And we encourage all of you. to volunteer your time to be a part of Read Across America. Our students really enjoy when they have guest readers. So again, please participate. We are super thrilled to congratulate Mrs. Dena Hubbell, the Isla White Teacher of the Year from Carsville Elementary, who was recently announced by the Virginia State Superintendent, Dr. Lisa Koons, as the Region 2 Teacher of the Year during a surprise assembly. at Carsville Elementary School on Tuesday, March 11th. Region two consists of schools in the Tidewater area. We are so proud of you, Ms. Hubbell, and congratulations again. And I think she's the first region, help me staff, Ms. Getz, Ms. Sullivan, she's the first region two teacher from Isle of Wight since... 1996-97. A round of applause for Mrs. Hubble, our Teacher of the Year,

168and representing all of the Hampton Roads area. We are so proud of you, and she is going to be invited, help me, Ms. Briggs, to the Governor's Mansion coming up, and we will keep you abreast so she gets to hang out with the Governor as a result of being the Regional Teacher of the Year. And while we had our state superintendent here, Isla White was very pleased to present a picture signed by our students, our staff, our administrators, and school board members to the Virginia State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Dr. Lisa Coons, during her visit to Isla White County. This was the state superintendent's second visit this school year. I think we are one of her favorites, and you can tell her I said that. She visited earlier in the year for the Crunch Herd

169Round the Commonwealth. And actually, if you look there, that's the picture that was taken, the photo that was taken. And all of you signed that photo, our students did, and she was surprised and very pleased to receive that signed photo. So thank you all, and thank you, Dr. Coons, for all that you do for Isla White. And last but certainly not least, I thank members of the IELTS Read program at Hardy Elementary for inviting me this week to speak at their meeting. There are approximately 36 members of the IELTS Read program who volunteer their time to work with our students one-on-one. And during my visit with the IELTS Read volunteers, they shared some wonderful stories with me about how they enjoy working with our students in the area of reading. are so impressed with the

170students there at Hardy and so pleased that they can come and provide support to our students. And we're looking at expanding this hopefully to other schools in our division. So certainly wanted to give them a shout out. And Mr. Chair, no, I went a little long this evening, but thank you and that concludes my superintendent's update. Thanks, Doc. A lot of good stuff going on. Lots of good stuff. Yes, sir. Y'all want to get on out of here? Wait a minute. Tomorrow is what they call it. Asynchronous day. Yeah. Y'all can take off if you want to. Appreciate y'all sticking it out. I'll be sending you an email tomorrow. Make sure you're monitoring it. Okay. We've got a few more action items to power through. I think we're close to the end here. 18.1, that's

171the personnel report. Sir, action item. Mr. Chair, I move to approve the personnel report as presented, a copy of which can be obtained from the school board clerk. Second. Any discussion? Madam Clerk. Mr. Cunningham. Yes. Mrs. Perkins. Yes. Mr. Wooster. Yes. And Mr. Marsh. Yes, motion passes. 18.2, another action item. Mr. Chair, I move. to grant the exemption from compulsory attendance for students REX 2425-05, REX 2425-06, and REX 2425-07. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, Madam Clerk. Mr. Cunningham? Yes. Mrs. Perkins? Yes. Mr. Wooster? Yes. And Mr. Marsh? Yes. Motion passes. 19.1 is our consent agenda. Mr. Chair, I move to approve the consent agenda as attached and presented. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? Madam Clerk, thanks for knocking out all those minutes. That's a lot. You're very welcome. Over

172to you, ma'am, for the vote. I'm tired. Mr. Cunningham? Yes. Mrs. Perkins? Yes. Mr. Wooster? Yes. And Mr. Marsh? Yes. Motion passes. And last action item is 20.1, second read. Mr. Chair, I move to approve the policy for second read as attached. Second. Motion and a second. Any discussion? Hearing none, Madam Clerk. Mr. Cunningham? Yes. Mrs. Perkins? Yes. Mr. Wooster? Yes. And Mr. Marsh? Yes. Motion passes. All right, let's wrap it up. Board comments. Who wants to go first? It's easy. I'm tired. You're tired? Ms. Perkins? Mr. Wooster? Nothing? Okay. I'll follow suit. Thanks for everybody and all the things you're doing every day. Dr. Kramer? Nothing else, Mr. Chair. Thank you for a great meeting. And next week we have, I guess, a little plug for those watching. I think our next work session

173is Tuesday. 5 o'clock is it? Is it 5? I think it's 6pm. I think it's 5 o'clock. It's 5, thank you. 5 o'clock. And it is 8.56. We are adjourned. Yeah, I'm trying to get out of here. It's not too bad for me, but I'm still ready to go home.