RPS School Board Meeting - June 6, 2022

001Hello? Yeah, testing, testing. Testing, testing. There we go. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining us for our June 6th school board meeting. The the Thomas Jefferson band is a bit delayed due to traffic. So we're going to proceed with our meeting and then when they arrive we're going to stop and allow them to Gather themselves so they can provide us our performance Madam clerk roll call vote, please Miss door here. Miss white president miss Gibson Here. Mr. Young. Present. Ms. Rizzi. Here. Dr. Harris-Mohamed. Present. Ms. Burke. Here. Ms. Page. Present. Ms. Jones. Here. We have a quorum. Thank you, Madam Clerk. We have our translation service announcement, which is next. Thank you so much for being here. Good evening everyone and welcome to Huguenot High School. If you do need interpretation services from English

002to Spanish, we do have interpreters in the back of the auditorium. They will be handing out headsets. Just as a reminder to everyone, please speak clearly and slowly into the microphone so that the interpreters can interpret everything to our audience that's watching via YouTube or Zoom. And secondly, please speak at a normal speed. I know that there's a time limit for public comments, but the interpreters need to be able to capture what's being said. Thank you. Thank you so much. Next, we will have our Pledge of Allegiance and our moment of silence, which will be led by Mr. Cameras. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. I THOUGHT YOU WERE GONNA SAY

003SOMETHING I REALIZED NEXT SCHOOL BOARD COLLEAGUES WE'RE GONNA HAVE THE APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES FROM MAY 2ND AND MAY 16 SCHOOL BOARD MEETINGS MAY I HAVE A MOTION I MOVE THAT WE ACCEPT THAT WE APPROVE THE MINUTES OF THE MAY 2ND AND MAY 16 SCHOOL BOARD MEETING THANK YOU THANK YOU IT WAS MOVED BY MS. JONES AND SECONDED BY MS. PAGE ANY QUESTIONS SEEING THAT THERE AREN'T ANY QUESTIONS Madam Clerk, roll call vote, please. Ms. Dorr? Yes. Ms. White? Yes. Ms. Gibson? Yes. Mr. Young? Aye. Ms. Rizzi? Yes. Dr. Harris-Mohamed? Yes. Ms. Burke? Yes. Ms. Page? Yes. Ms. Jones? Yes. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. We are now at the adoption of the agenda. I have a couple of items, school board colleagues and ladies and gentlemen. I have a request to defer. the action

004on policy 5-62, the pupil evaluation and grading policy to June the 21st. Also, I have a request to move up 6.02 and 6.04 directly after public comment. Any questions? Mr. Young? Thank you, Madam Chair. I concur with those recommendations, but if it's the will of the board, I'd like to include immediately subsequent to What would now presumably be 4.014 point or two if I understand? correctly a 4.0 3 to pertain to Arthur Ashe specifically the Arthur Ashe Center You would like to add mr. Young a discussion on the Arthur Ashe Center under board action items or that Use that's board action. We're not taking action. No, but not unlike 6.4 and 6.02. So in other words, would move. Right after that. Yes, ma'am. So that would be a 3.02, 3.03, 3.04, Arthur Ashe. Okay. Correct.

005Ms. Doerr? Can you just repeat the grading policy number? Absolutely. It's currently policy five, where the policy is 5-62, which would be under board action items 4.01. Okay. Yep. Ms. Gibson? Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to request just in terms of the order, I've heard from so many parents from community high school in particular, and the emergency protocols are very top of mind. So in the discussion, if we could put it in the order that first we did discuss the emergency protocols, then we discussed the Chromebook audit, and then we discuss the Arthur Ashe facility as requested by Mr. Young. So to be for clarity and for procedural purposes, you would like for 3.02, excuse me, 3.02 to be the emergency protocols, which is currently 6.04. And you would like for 3.03 to be.

006the Chromebook audit update, which is currently 6.02 and 3.04 to be the discussion on Arthur Ashe. Am I correct? Yes, that's the correct order. Thank you. So for everyone who's watching and who's here and all of us, we have a request to move a couple of items on our agenda. 6.04 would now be 3.02. 6.02 would now be 3.03. And adding the Arthur Ashe discussion to 3.04. Any other questions? Ms. Burke? Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a question regarding the Ashe. Since it wasn't Ashe Center, since it wasn't on the agenda, do we have some new information? that we need to address tonight or this is just going to be a general discussion the reason i'm asking is it's not on the agenda so is the administration ready to present or will mr young

007be presenting our agenda this evening is very lengthy so the reason i'm asking is ash we just want to talk about it or Do we have anything concrete to discuss? Ms. Lilly, thank you, Ms. Burke. Ms. Lilly is going to share some information and possibly discuss this in close. So my question is, are we going to address that now or in close then, as you stated? Ms. Lilly is going to share with us some information in open. Okay. And then if the information that she provides to us is not sufficient, for the members who are requesting to discuss Arthur Ashe, the rest of that conversation must be enclosed. Thank you for clarifying that. So Madam Chair, what you're saying is that discussion had already taken place for a second as to what was going to

008be added to the agenda. Ms. Lilley and I spoke earlier. It was a request. And she has, at our last meeting, we asked her to bring forth or bring back some information. I'm aware of that. She's bringing that back tonight. But other pieces of information, I don't know what they are. We may have to go into close. We're anticipating. That's a great concern, Madam Chair. Thank you. Ms. Page. Could you recap what she just stated? with the rearrangement of different agenda items? Yes. The request was to move up to discuss earlier 6.04 and 6.02 after public comment. And we have a request to add the Arthur Ashe as a discussion as well earlier. Ms. Page? So regarding author ash, you said to discuss. So where are you moving that on the agenda? Mr. Young, if

009I believe, asked to have that after public comment. So it will fall after 3.03 after the Chromebook audit. And again, I don't know what board members are going to be asking about author ash. I'm not, I'm not clear. I am only aware. of the update or the ask that we requested of Ms. Lilly as a board from the last meeting. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, so we are at the adoption of the agenda with the noted corrections. Can I have a motion to adopt the agenda with the noted corrections? I move that we adopt. We need to do that separately. Oh, separate? Okay. So we don't amend first? I'm sorry, to amend the agenda. I move that we accept the amended agenda, right? So what am I? We're going to move to amend the agenda as

010described. So I move to amend the agenda as presented. 3.0 moving items 6.02, 6.04. to items 3.02, 3.03, and the addition of 3.04 at the office. Yes, ma'am. And to remove. I'm sorry? Remove item 4.01. And to remove item 4. Oh, yeah, I didn't circle that one. Remove item 4.01 from the agenda. Second. Hold on. We're not moving all of 4.01. We're just removing the policy 5-6.2. Yep. Okay. Mr. Young, did you second that? Yes, ma'am. Okay. So it was moved by Ms. Jones, seconded by Mr. Young to accept the amendments to the agenda. Madam Clerk, roll call vote, please. Ms. Dorr? Yes. Ms. White? Yes. Ms. Gibson? Yes. Mr. Young? Aye. Ms. Rizzi? Yes. Dr. Harris-Muhammad? Yes. Ms. Burke? No. Ms. Page? Yes. Ms. Jones? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Next, excuse me. Next,

011we have our recognitions. No, ma'am. I'm sorry. We have to adopt. Thank you. I'm sorry. All right. I move that we adopt the agenda as presented. Is that correct? As amended. As amended. I'm sorry. Second. We have Ms. Jones moved to adopt. The agenda was seconded by Mr. Young. There aren't any questions. Madam Clerk, roll call vote, please. Ms. Dorr. Yes. Ms. White. Yes. Ms. Gibson. Yes. Mr. Young? Aye. Ms. Rizzi? Yes. Dr. Harris-Mohamed? Yes. Ms. Burke? Yes. Ms. Page? Yes. Ms. Jones? Yes. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. We're going to move to 2.03 because our ban from Thomas Jefferson is not here yet. And because it's the end of the year, we do not have a student representative. Mr. Cameras? Thank you, Madam Chair. And good evening. I am thrilled to read the proclamation

012for LGBTQ Plus Pride Month, June 2022. Whereas Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Pride Month commemorates the events of Stonewall Inn in June 1969 and celebrates the contributions made by LGBTQ Plus community in promoting equal rights and equal opportunity for all Americans. And whereas LGBTQ plus pride month is just one way that we can honor both the obstacles and strides of the LGBTQ plus community, including the LGBTQ plus students and staff of our school division. And whereas everyone should be able to live without fear of prejudice, discrimination, violence, or hatred based on gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation. And that right should be acknowledged at all levels of public education. Whereas RPS collaborates and partners with LGBTQ plus groups such as side by side and GLSEN and encourages the formation of gender and sexuality

013alliances or other student clubs to provide support and resources for the LGBTQ plus community at RPS. Whereas RPS upholds the commitment to creating a welcoming, inclusive and affirming environment that embraces all student and staff identities. Now, therefore be it proclaimed that the school board of the city of Richmond and Richmond Public Schools recognize June, 2022 as LGBTQ plus pride month and call upon all schools and community members to join in this celebration. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Cameras. Next we'll have our public comment. Madam Clerk, can you review the public comment policy, please? Conduct of speakers. Speakers shall state their full legal name prior to addressing the school board. Speakers will address the school board as a whole rather than individual school board members, the division superintendent, school board attorney, clerk, or any other staff

014member. The school board will listen to comments but will not respond during the public information period. Persons appearing before the school board will not be allowed to one, campaign for public office, two, promote private business ventures, or three, use profanity or vulgar language. If a community member's comments during the public information session relate to school-based issues, the chair may refer that individual to Richmond Public Schools Administration for one-on-one consultation and follow-up. It is important that all community members who wish to participate in the public information period abide by the guidelines set forth in this policy. Refusal to abide by the policy will result in the forfeiture of the remaining time that has been allotted to the speaker. Community members may express their views in writing in lieu of any oral presentation. Comments received in writing

015in lieu of an oral presentation will not be read during the meeting, but shall be posted to the school board platform board docs. Thank you so much. The following individuals have signed up for public comment. I'm going to read those names in order. And if you were not able to sign up, absolutely come on down, sign your name on the clipboard, your first and last name. And thank you for that. And if I mispronounce any portion of your name, please charge it to my mind and not my heart. Alexandria Phipps, Rachel Hefner, Jennifer T. Vanarnam. Kiesha King, Tamara Lofton Pickens, Catherine Marchetti, and Dr. Robinson, Dr. Carney Robinson. If you would please sign the clipboard while you're waiting. Thank you. Hit the one with the person. Can you hear me now? Awesome. Good evening community

016members, school board members, and others who are in attendance. My name is Rachel Hefner, a community member and chapter leader with Virginia Organizing. I am here again to share my support and affirmation for the adoption of Students, Parents, and Caregivers Bill of Rights. The time and energy that our chapter has dedicated these past two years cannot be captured into a three-minute public comment. But I want to again share some of the community outreach that our chapter has done to compose this document. Our goal is to always incorporate directly affected individuals into the totality of this organizing process, from picking our issue to standing before you today celebrating the end of our campaign. Over the past two years, the Richmond chapter has organized listening sessions. tabled at community events, delivered Know Your Rights education events, and

017included directly affected individuals to create a document that reflects the stories of Richmond City public school families. Throughout the summer and fall of 2020, our chapter met with several dozen parents, students, and teachers, shared the first draft with 15 partner organizations. in the city of richmond including the advocates for richmond youth the welcome center side by side and other spaces of trust for rps families in the beginning of 2021 our chapter spoke with families in the southwood apartments peter paul 65 early college students at reynolds college among many other community events we also spoke with several of you as board members during this time THE SUMMER OF 2021 INCLUDED MANY ADDITIONAL OUTREACH EVENTS AT LOCAL LIBRARIES AND RPS EVENTS WHERE WE SHARED THE BILL OF RIGHTS DRAFT AND ASKED FOR FEEDBACK FROM RPS FAMILIES. I

018am immensely proud of this grassroots approach to not only gathering community input on the concerns, but also developing the leaderships of our RPS parents, students, and staff as we include them in the rest of our chapter advocacy. I urge the board to adopt the Bill of Rights tonight to signify not only the support of the Virginia Organizing Richmond Chapter, but the countless RPS community members who contributed through stories, valuable time and dedication to create this document. Thank you. Thank you. Next. Good evening. My name is Catherine Marchetti and I'm an early childhood special education teacher at Maymont Preschool. You might remember me from when I spoke at the September 20th school board meeting explaining how the shift in preschool hours from a six-hour day to a seven-hour day had created numerous safety issues for our

019littlest learners, including how students are now in the building longer than our amazing instructional assistants. and which means that literally half of the staff in preschool leaves the school before the school day is even over for students. This leaves teachers out of ratio, which, mind you, is legally mandated by the VDOE and creates hazardous situations for our students and our ability to safely supervise them. I know that many of you expressed concerns during that September meeting, and I'm sure you were all hoping that this issue had been resolved by now. Unfortunately, I stand here on June 6th, and we're in the same predicament we have been since the first day of school. And we now have teacher pre-K teachers and IAs who have worked in an almost entire school year without a lunch break, without

020a planning period, and honestly, barely even time to use the restroom during the day. To say we are exhausted is an understatement. We cannot be the fun, engaging, prepared teachers that our students need and deserve when we are burning the candle at all ends and being asked to do twice as much with zero planning time to do it. We are with our students from the moment they walk in at 730 a.m. until buses are done around 3, 315. For the record, that means that. Three and four year olds in RPS are forced to have a longer instructional day than high school seniors in Chesterfield and Henrico. That is not equitable and that is not developmentally appropriate. We have to do better. These babies are exhausted. I have little ones who literally fall asleep at the

021lunch table because they're so exhausted from having to get up and catch a bus at 630 a.m. Our pre-K families are amazing, but it's literally impossible for them to drop off their preschoolers and drop off their second or fourth grader at the exact same time to be at an elementary school. How can we expect them to be in two places at once when the drop-off time is the exact same? We've spoken to our early leadership team, and while I know they are just as desperate to find a solution for us, they have unfortunately been told by Mr. Kammerer that there's absolutely no way that the bus schedules can change. We are short on buses and short on bus drivers. And trust me, we love our bus drivers and recognize that that's a very real concern.

022Unfortunately, the other reality is that I've been asked by five different coworkers to write a letter of recommendation for them because they can no longer sacrifice their mental health and are looking for employment elsewhere. We are losing amazing veteran teachers and IAs that we desperately need because they cannot commit to another year of running themselves ragged into the ground with no lunch break and no planning period. I ALSO FIND THIS BUS ISSUE REALLY CONFUSING SINCE PRE-K CONTRACTS OUT THEIR BUS SERVICES WITH FIRST STUDENT TRANSPORTATION. THE FIRST STUDENT BUS DRIVERS HAVE TOLD STAFF THAT THEY ARE CONTRACTED AND HAPPY TO PICK UP AND DROP OFF STUDENTS AT WHATEVER TIME THE DISTRICT WOULD TELL THEM. BUT LET'S SUPPOSE THAT WE DIDN'T NEED THAT WE DID RELY JUST SOLELY ON RPS TRANSPORTATION WHICH AGAIN WE DON'T WE CONTRACT

023OUT. But why could the preschool day still not revert back to the former six hour day and have the preschoolers be picked up before elementary school students get out so they can still make it back to the elementary school for bus runs then? We've offered these and so many other solutions but are continually shut down saying it's a transportation issue and preschool hours cannot and will not be changed. I just really urge you to all. You know, we've been patient this year. We've tried to make it work, but we are hungry and exhausted. You have to change back these preschool hours. It's not fair to our students. Thank you. Thank you. Next. Hey there, everyone. My name is Jennifer Van Arnam, and I teach pre-K at Maymont Preschool. First, I'd like to say thank you

024to Mr. Cameras for always responding to my emails. Tonight, preschool teachers are here to address a very important issue. We need to change the preschool hours, y'all. Until this year, preschool has always been a six hour day for our students. However, this year, the school day has been extended an extra hour. A seven hour day is entirely too long for three and four year old children. It is not sustainable for teachers or students. Many of our students are boarding their buses prior to 7 a.m. They often fall asleep on the bus and then have to wake up to get off the bus and thus start their day groggy, confused, and grumpy. student arrival is 7 30 a.m while dismissal is seven hours later this day is entirely too long students have more meltdowns tantrums and

025behavior problems due to the day being too long for them this day is also not sustainable for preschool teachers the arrival time for teachers is 7 20 while student arrival begins at 7 30. preschool teachers who by the way have the same credentials as regular teachers are then with their students for the entire day without so much as a lunch break. Pre-K dismissal time is between 2.30 and 2.45 each day. However, many of us have students that are not picked up on time. This happens on a daily basis. It is not unusual for some of us to have students until three and sometimes even longer. These are all points that have been brought up repeatedly by RPS preschool professionals. These hours are not working for students or staff. Preschool should be a six hour day.

026That was the length of the day until this year. The school board actually voted not to extend the preschool day in 2019. Somehow, last year, they included the time change in the vote for the new bell schedule without any time for public comment. Preschool teachers are being told that the hours will not change due to the bus schedule. This is not acceptable. You have the power to make this change, a change that will make the school day more developmentally appropriate for our students and more sustainable for staff. lastly i implore you not to refuse changing back to a six-hour day until at least one of you accepts my open invitation to come to maymont and be a guest in my classroom for the entire day from arrival until the last little friend is picked up

027at dismissal until that happens it seems ludicrous that people Until that happens, it seems ludicrous that people that have never spent a day in a preschool classroom have the power to make this decision while blatantly rejecting the input of preschool professionals. Thank you. Thank you. Next. Hi. Oh, there we are. My name is Alex Phipps, and I am an ECSE teacher at Maymont Preschool Center as well. I am fully licensed. I have my master's degree. I spent many years training to do what I do, and I feel like I teach at daycare. I do not have time to write IEPs. I do not have time to plan for my classroom. I really don't have time to do anything. I'm with my kids from 7.30 until they are picked up at 3. I barely have time

028to sanitize the things that they put in their mouth. This is not quality education. This is babysitting. And it's really difficult for me to understand how a good change for the high schoolers, having them start later, has had such an adverse effect on our younger learners. It does not feel fair and it is not sustainable. Thank you. Thank you so much. Next. Good evening, school board members and superintendent. My name is Mrs. Tamara Lofton Pickens, LP. I am currently the intensive support teacher at RBA. Thank you school board members for your efforts in ensuring that RBA continues next school year and for years to come. Thank you superintendent for coming into RBA and addressing the concerns of staff and faculty. Thank you to human resources, the team for your efforts in communicating with the RBA

029staff and sending out placement letters. I stand in solidarity with passing the Student Bill of Rights. I come to you this evening to bring up some concerns. Number one, ensuring that there is a transition plan in place for the scholars returning to in-person. Some scholars have never been to an in-person school. Number two, when will families find out if they will remain with RVA or have to transition back into the person? Number three, there was a news report on Friday, June 3rd, that RPS had more than 20,000 laptops worth $5.8 million that were never issued or assigned to students. This is in addition to the $1.5 million of CARE Act. money that did not go to the scholars that are currently in the RVA program on top of the funds that were allocated to the

030scholars homeschools instead of coming to RVA. I bring all this up to show the fact that RVA could be fully funded had the funds been utilized correctly. RVA does not cost seven million dollars. Most of that cost is from virtual Virginia. Number four, is there a plan in place to correct the delay in communication with RVA parents when they will find out if their scholar can stay in the program or they will return in person? I will end with this. Richmond City Public Schools and all stakeholders should consider coming together and working as one. The divisiveness in fighting is detrimental to providing the best educational opportunities for our future. RPS United is the best way to move forward. A healthy discussion with solutions will provide those opportunities that should be afforded to all scholars. This

031is my hope. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Thank you for your time and your patience, and God bless you all. Thank you. Thank you. Next. Good evening, RPS School Board and community members. My name is Dr. Cindy Robinson and I am the proud principal of the Richmond Virtual Academy or RVA. I stand in solidarity with those for passing the Student Bill of Rights and with our preschool teacher friends today. I am excited to share with you that on this past Friday, May 27th, 2022, I received a staff placement letter indicating that it is the district's intent that next school year I will continue to be the proud principal of the Richmond Virtual Academy. I am also thrilled to confirm that every current RBA staff member received 2022-23 placement

032letters. and an opportunity to accept or decline a virtual or in-person position commensurate with the one they currently hold. Just four months ago, my team and I stood before you and shared the troubling experiences of our virtual students, families, and staff. and urge the board to protect the option for families to engage in virtual learning by transitioning our current program to a school of record and to ensure that the district follows its policy regarding staffing protocols during a program reduction by providing placements to every RBA staff member. You heard our petitions, provided consistent and transparent guidance, and ultimately ensured that both of these requests were honored. I am eternally grateful for your governance, your leadership, and your courage. Tonight, I thank you. Moving forward would not be easy. Resources for RBA, as is the case

033across RPS, will be limited. But that is not the challenge I am referring to. As with any struggle, there are scars, open wounds, disappointment, and mistrust that remain. There are things that my team and I experienced this school year in the workplace that should never be okay. Statements and assertions involving me that were both misinformed and inaccurate. Actions implemented against me that were discriminatory and against school policy. Words said to me that were discouraging, intimidating, and hurtful. And while there were several school leaders and board members who spoke up and sought to assist, thank you, there were several others who remained silent or sought to silence our efforts. Healing is hard in the absence of honesty. Trusting the process is challenging when there is no acknowledgement or accountability for wrongdoing. And so moving forward will

034not be easy, but nothing ever worth having is. I will never regret standing up for my students, families, and staff. And given the choice to do it again, I would. Because that's what it means to love. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love perseveres. And so we will, we must continue to persevere. Here's to RVA, every student, family, staff, and member. Every school board member who stood up for us. Thank you. This time. Thank you. Next. Hello. My name is Gray Dwyer and I'm a math teacher here at Huguenot. First off, I stand in solidarity with the Virginia Organizing Group and their Student Bill of Rights. I stand in solidarity with Dr. Robinson. It's appalling to hear what she has been through, especially as a former student of

035hers at VCU with the RTR. And I stand in solidarity with preschool teachers as a fellow high school teacher who has had no lunch breaks all year and whose planning has been filled with SOL testing duties for the past four weeks. That's right. We've had four weeks of SOL testing at Huguenot. We have not had a normal week. And that's not even what I'm here for. As the events have unfolded over the past few weeks, it is clear and it's becoming clearer and clearer how police failed in many ways to protect the children in Uvalde, Texas. My heart skipped when I read the Associated Press report that agents had trouble breaching the classroom door and had to get a staff member to open the room with a key. This is just months after Fox Elementary

036went up in flames due to a similar key mismanagement issue. I'm not sure what has been done since then to address the security flaw in our district. And even more key issues ensued last week, actually, here at Huguenot. I was wrongfully reprimanded by a security officer and an administrator for not having my classroom locked and closed at all times. Nowhere is this policy written down officially or unofficially. So I got scolded for a rule about keys that doesn't exist. And my reputation hurt yet again. The key issue here in Huguenot at Fox in a way pales in comparison to that of Rob elementary. Uvalde's key mismanagement possibly cost children's lives. And meanwhile, we have learned that officers in Uvalde stood by for an hour, failing to do their job to protect children and instead barking

037threats at parent. panicked parents, handcuffing them. This brings me to my main concern. As light is shed on the police failures in Uvalde, Richmond Public Schools must respond and own up to its own mistakes made within our district the day following the shooting. At my school, business continued as usual, even though we were told there would be increased police presence. We went on with SOL testing like nothing happened and it was jarring. Since then, we don't know why police were needed that day in the first place. I was much more horrified to find out they were searching kids at the middle school, actually searching them, their bodies and their belongings. Teachers at other schools reported their students being fraught and anxious from the random searches. And I cannot understand why nothing different occurred at Huguenot

038High School, but middle schoolers all over the district were being searched. Is this really the district's idea of care and safety? It is more like a mix of neglect and sensational punishment. Thank you. Next. Good evening, Madam Chair, Madam Vice Chair. Superintendent Cameras, honorable members of the Richmond Public Schools School Board, my name is Darrell Turner and I am a preschool teacher at Blackwell Preschool Center. I just want to let you all know first that I stand in solidarity with my colleagues and I can personally attest to some of the conditions they are describing as they are happening in my building as well. I am also the vice president of the Richmond Education Association and this evening I have come to speak on behalf of the Richmond Education Association. I just wanted to let you

039all know that the Richmond Education Association is in support of the Student, Parent, and Caregiver Bill of Rights. It is aligned with several Virginia codes that support its contents. So I urge you all to adopt this bill and support all of our students throughout the district. Thank you. Thank you. Next. Hello, my name is Sherry Roberts. I'm a general education preschool teacher at Summerhill Preschool. And I just wanted to say that I hope that you all will change the preschool hours. It's been very hard on our students, as you have heard. Thank you. Thank you. Hello, my name is Julia Scheidemantel. I am a Richmond City resident as well as a member of Virginia Organizing. I have been a part of our effort to create this Bill of Rights since the very beginning two years

040ago. I just want to echo everything Rachel Huffner said, that we have spent an immense amount of time speaking to parents speaking to community members, speaking to you all, speaking to community organizations and working with lawyers to make sure that we can create a plain language document that is accessible to all parents. The importance of this document has been expressed over and over and over again, somewhere that parents can and students can look back on and see. explicitly what their rights are, something that can be easily translated into other languages. The diversity within Richmond City Public Schools and the language diversity is immense, and those parents need something that they can look up as well. So I also would like to stand in solidarity with our preschool teachers and express my concern about the seven-hour

041school day as well. Thank you very much. Thank you. Good evening, school board members, superintendent cameras. My name is Charlotte Hare and I am a CTE, actually the only CTE teacher at Richmond Community High School. It is great hurt and harm I stand before you tonight. As most of you have read and seen by now, there was an incident at my school about three weeks ago. We had an intruder over the weekend. I walked in Monday morning not long after the custodian to find blood and glass everywhere. Nobody told anybody what had happened. Nobody came to see about us. Nobody from downtown came. Not one school board member came. If you can stand in front of Fox Elementary and watch it burn down, then you need to come check on us. See, we're the jewel

042over on Brooklyn Park Boulevard that keeps this school system afloat. Oh yeah, we keep it afloat. I'm the only teacher in this division that has students who has earned trophies and awards nationally recognized by Wise Financial Literacy for the past 10 years. But nobody knows that. I'm here because my staff, my colleagues, my students were traumatized by what happened in that building. and traumatized yet again when nobody came to see about us. And traumatized yet again when we had to relive the situation last week when the PTA requested a meeting, a virtual meeting with Mr. Cameras. I shared with him then that I would be here tonight because somebody has to say something because we are in a bad place. I did not know that the people in front of me were going to share

043these things. But as a teacher for over 30 years, at this point, based on the information that has been given just tonight, I give RPS and F in love and equity. You can't tell me that you're leading with love when nobody came to see about us. Nobody said check on Ms. Hare because she saw blood and glass. Nobody's addressed publicly all the lies and misinformation that was told and how we were thrown under the bus. under the bus, stomped on. This has to happen, has to change. We need an equity audit by somebody else other than Richmond Public Schools. See, I come with some solutions. We need training for all of these protocols. What was supposed to happen once the night security guard informed their supervisor? What should the superintendent have done? Let's train some

044people, test them, and certify that they can do these protocols. This has to stop because I'm afraid of what will happen next. Thank you. I'm not safe. That's time. Thank you. Next. Good evening. Thank you all for listening to us, or at least giving us time to speak. I'm a preschool teacher at Maymont Preschool Center. I teach special education. I had a bunch of ideas I wrote down Friday that I planned to spend the weekend writing what I would say to you. That didn't happen. Instead, I wrote IEPs and I wrote lesson plans and I made a personal book for my students to help try to get through the emotional damage that they are still experiencing from the pandemic and being at school. Not only have our hours changed to seven hours and teachers get

045about 15 minutes in the building that they're paid for to clean up, prepare tomorrow's materials, organize, write their lessons, write their IEPs, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. One of the things I wanted to talk about and actually get the numbers together for you, but I couldn't. I had to sleep. I have to eat. These are needs. Is the amount of testing. have always done PALS. We have always done each division, Head Start, VPI, special ed, a few of their own tests. However, in the last two years, it's all been combined together and we all have to do all of it. The amount of time that teachers are sitting in the hallway, individually testing children, takes up the first nine weeks of school. We are not actually teaching and meeting our students and developing

046a classroom for nine weeks because of all that testing and assessment. We have been told that none of that testing and assessment is going to change. We have been told that we will continue to use creative curriculum and we will continue to use the expensive online gold assessment product that goes with that that takes a lot of time out of the classroom as well. Our students are all preschool, not just special ed, and probably all children across the world have suffered immensely in the last two years from the lack of socialization, especially preschoolers that have never even had that socialization. This was that year for them, and they didn't even get it this year. We have got to shorten the burden of teacher... testing so that we can start to teach and nurture and love

047and care for our kids so that our kids can get to kindergarten, elementary school, middle school, hopefully high school, hopefully feeling like a whole person instead of feeling rushed around to do this and test that and do this and that schedule and this schedule and their teachers feeling the same way. We need to change. Thank you so much. Next. Hello, my name is Jeannie Bowker. I'm an RPS parent of three. I'm concerned about the alarm issues in RPS highlighted in an investigation by CBS Problem Solvers. According to that article, RPS alarm systems have had issues since well before the Fox fire, including at Carver, Mary Mumford, and at Fox. After the fire, a study by the alarm company found that at least 25 Richmond school buildings had alarm panels that were not tested properly. This

048is a systemic failure in RPS operations, a failure of processes and protocols. I'm concerned that RPS leadership is failing to fulfill some of their most fundamental and important responsibilities. When you combine these alarm issues with other crises over the past year, from the school meals debacle to the lack of cleanup of blood at community high to the results of the Chromebook audit, it's clear that there are red flags in how the administration communicates and organizes itself. While a convenient excuse, this is about more than a single chief operating officer or wellness officer or school officer, which we haven't had since long before these crises. This is plainly alarming. The administration has made it clear that the buck stops at the top and it's time for the administration to take responsibility for these ongoing issues without

049blaming, say, an underpaid hourly employee. For example, communication and organizational failures are why we have teachers and students stressed that we have a school calendar that goes later and longer than every other school district in the region. I worry that all of these issues are just the tip of the iceberg. At the very least, it's clear that they are not one-off events, but symptoms of operational and communication issues that have metastasized throughout the system. Why at this point should we feel confident that even the most fundamental safety protocols are being observed? How can we be sure that our kids are safe from fire, from bad food, from crumbling exterior walls, from lack of AC, from rats, or from whatever else might try to get through a door that won't latch? Something needs to change. Thank

050you. Thank you. Next. Who do I give this to? It's a sign-in sheet. You can just leave it right there, Mr. Jewell. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I'm what's left of Marty Jewell, former city councilman and a member of the Richmond Crusade for Voters. Needless to say, I've been hopelessly political all my life. Proud of it. Proud of it. But I've never seen such a political mess here in the last few months. And I've seen with RPS schools. Just this year, I don't want to go all the way back. There's some dog in this cat, man. I've never seen such a mess. And too many of these issues seemingly can be only characterized as malpractice. And I won't go into those details. We're working up a narrative that we can bring to Mr. Cameron's and

051the board and see what over the summer we can reconcile and repair. We don't need to make a federal case out of it, but damn it, we've got to fix it. These kids are being disadvantaged. We're here. I'm with Virginia Organizing Project tonight, and we're advocating that this board approves the student parent bill of rights. We shouldn't have to ask for a bill of rights. Candidate McAuliffe last November, running for governor. stuck his foot in his mouth saying that parents don't have the right to tell schools how to run their business. Boo! He said it right, but he said it the wrong way because he should have said that's to be done through this board. Parents will through this board. And so I'm hopeful that you all will hold district meetings, town hall meetings so

052that you can learn. what's on parents minds that you can come to us and solicit our help to see if we can form more PTAs so that you can learn what's going on in our school rooms. These folks ain't make that up and so I plead with you I plead with you to work with us and we guarantee we're going to work with you. We need to learn the facts and where things get unbuckle, we need transparency. Don't hide the ball. We can get through this stuff. Otherwise, it's going to be a real Donnybrook come election time. Thank you a lot. Thank you so much. That appears to conclude our speakers for this evening. Is there anyone? that would like to speak with the school board and superintendent at this time during public comment? Is

053there anyone else here that would like to speak during public comment? Is there anyone else here that would like to speak during public comment? Thank you. Can you sign the board? Thank you. Good evening. My name is Beth Almore. I'm a teacher in RPS and I live in the fourth district. Just wanted to... speak to the fact that a lot of community members, parents, teachers, and students are not thrilled with the calendar and the fact that we're going past Juneteenth this year and next year. Right now, my sister-in-law's at the beach and she teaches in Chesterfield. I know their calendar's very different to ours. but I've done a lot of comparing of calendars over the last few days, comparing ours to Henrico because it's most similar to Henrico's. And there's some very simple tweaks we

054could do to next year's calendar to allow us all to be done by Juneteenth. And I actually suggested these tweaks last April. not two months ago, but a year ago and a few months ago, April, 2021. And I wanna thank Mr. Young, well, we're not supposed to refer to people by name. I'd like to thank two of the school board members, because they actually answered me when I gave those suggestions. So not gonna get into the weeds with it, but there would be some very simple tweaks. Just one example is January 2nd. I'm not really sure we... need to have January 2nd off after a 14-day vacation. Someone pointed out to me earlier this evening that's a federal holiday. Henrico's not observing it. So that's one day. We only need to find two and a

055half other days and we can end our calendar next year before Juneteenth. And that is all I wanted to say this evening. Thank you. Thank you so much. And I'll email you those suggestions. Please and thank you. And could you see the superintendent as well? Thank you so much. So anyone else present that would like to speak during public comment? Anyone else present that would like to speak during public comment? All right. Thank you all so much for participating during our public comment period. At this time, we have all been anxiously waiting for the ban of Thomas Jefferson High School. Mr. Cameras, would you like to do introductions? Thank you, Madam Chair. The Thomas Jefferson High School Spirit of Richmond Marching Band is under the leadership of Dante Chambers, Director of Bands, Mack Jones, Assistant

056Director, and Crystal Chambers, Auxiliary Coordinator. The group is 39 members strong and strives for excellence using the acronym DRUMS. Discipline, respect, unity, musicianship, and showmanship. Along with being members in the marching band, the students also perform in the band's program concert ensemble and compete within smaller groups. Spirit of Richmond will be performing a medley consisting of popular songs from the past and present. Please welcome the Spirit of Richmond Thomas Jefferson High School Marching Band. I know you're very proud. I don't know about you all, but I saw some future Norfolk State University members of the Spartan Legion band and TJ's band. What an awesome performance. And I must give a special, special shout out to my goddaughter who is in that band, Miss Davion. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Thank you again. Let's give them another round

057of applause. I just wanted to make sure Mr. Young heard me say Norfolk State. I wasn't sure. Testing, testing. Okay. That was awesome. We needed that. I saw some of you in the audience trying to get down. We needed that. Yes. That was awesome. Thank you so much to everyone that's a part of, they're waving at us, part of that awesome ensemble. So we should send our students to Norfolk State so they can enroll in the band. Okay, all right. I'm not gonna start an argument. Go ahead, Mr. Cameras. I just wanted to recognize Christy Jo Adams before she heads out the room, the head of our music and arts. If you saw my RPS direct this evening, you know that RPS has won an award for its music education, and that is largely due

058to the leadership of Christy Jo Adams. So can we please give her a big round of applause? Thank you. That was awesome. I'm just, I don't know, I feel like I'm on the campus of Norfolk State University again. Okay. Just 40 pounds lighter. Okay. All right. Next on our agenda view, I remember we moved some things around on our agenda. So we are now at 3.02, which is the discussion of the emergency protocols. Mr. Kamras. Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe this was a board business item. So I defer to the board on exactly what would like to be discussed. Yes, sir. Thank you. Ms. Gibson? So we're talking about the emergency protocols? Correct. I'm sorry, Mr. Cameras, do you have anything to share with the board? No, not at this time. This was in

059board business. I understood it to be a matter of board discussion. It was not an administrative business, and I was not informed of the need to prepare any presentation on this. Is that correct, Madam Chair? That is correct. You were not informed that you needed to provide a presentation on emergency protocols, that this is a board discussion for us to discuss our emergency protocols. Ms. Gibson, would you like to start the conversation? Sure. Okay. We could use some emergency protocols. This past year, we've had a school board down. We've had more than one occasion of students, middle school students, bringing a loaded gun to school. We had a hallway that looked like a murder scene. We have students getting pat down after a national tragedy. We must do better. And I can tell you myself,

060and I know my colleagues have made multiple requests asking to see what the protocols are. I know that that request was made after the incident at Fox and that has happened again. most recently with the issue with the blood at the school. And so I guess my question at this point is perhaps for our legal counsel, we need to... i i i have to guess we need to tighten up our our board policy to to force us to have some uh more clear documentation and so um i i would like to uh direct our our legal counsel to to look at at precedent in terms of policy um and i'd like to hear from the administration in terms of a timeline on putting together this type of documentation because there's nothing, nothing, nothing more important

061than the safety of our students. And if a school burning down and for a school to be in the state that it was in is not a call to action, then I do not know what is. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Kamers. I'm going to take my mask off just so I can speak a little bit more clearly, if that is okay. First, Ms. Gibson, as you well know, we certainly do have a plethora of emergency protocols. And so to articulate that we do not is not only inappropriate, but I would argue irresponsible. Number two, we have taken a number of measures. over the last several years to increase the safety of our schools. As you well likely remember, we spent several million dollars on lock upgrades about four years ago. We have since begun

062the work of refreshing those upgrades to ensure that every teacher is able to lock their classroom. We know that there are some that are not able at this time and are taking those efforts. Earlier this year, I directed our head of security months in advance of Uvalde to review our active shooter plans with every single one of our principals. to walk their buildings to ensure that those plans reflected the latest thinking and the latest updates to their buildings. Those plans were submitted to our head of security, reviewed, approved, and training is underway with staff based on those new plans. Excuse me, we do not. We do not. Excuse me, ma'am. Ma'am. Thank you. Yes, thank you madam chair having said all of that I Certainly agree we can and should do more and we are

063working to do exactly that I think one of the challenges we face and we are not unique in Richmond this is a challenge all across the nation is How to maintain our schools as welcoming and inviting places? While at the same time trying to do everything we possibly can to prevent someone who is most likely mentally ill with an assault weapon from causing mass destruction. And so we are redoubling our efforts. I take this extremely seriously as superintendent, but also as a father of two RPS students myself. to ensure that we are taking every single possible precaution without turning our schools into quote unquote hardened targets like a military installation. Because I don't think that's what our students, staff, and families ultimately want. I certainly concede as it pertains to Richmond community that there were

064several missteps. I take responsibility for those. I have addressed what those issues were within the organization, clarified my expectations about what should occur in a situation such as that. Going forward, I expect those protocols to be followed and to be followed 100% of the time. So again, we have a vast set of emergency protocols. I'm happy to provide anything that the board would like. Obviously, there are some things that it would not be appropriate to share in open session, given the sensitivity of those protocols. We will continue to work doggedly to protect our students and our staff and make sure that they all go home at least as well as when they came to us. I wake up every morning with that as my number one priority. And it will always remain so. Thank you.

065Thank you, Mr. Cameras. Ms. White. Thank you, Madam Chair. I do have a couple questions because I was the person who had been asking about safety protocols for a while. Now, Mr. Cameras, I just heard you say that kids go home the same way that they came to school. Do you really think those kids went back home the same way? when they saw blood everywhere, a crime scene. These are the same protocols, just a different incident that was used at Fox Elementary. I base it negligence. There was no SOPs. I asked for the SOPs several times. I asked... How is the protocols when one person called the other person on the phone? Who do they supposed to contact? I believe you're on that thread somewhere. So you probably got the same call that the custodian

066got, that the night security received. And I was a little upset myself when Charlotte came down here. I have two kids too. in Richmond Public Schools and to see a crime scene and no one stopped it and then I'm not really sure if this was correct was the principal just knowing it in the morning that's the same thing that happened at Fox almost same thing what kind of protocols do you have in place that everybody is not notified. What kind of SOP do you have? So let me tell you about SOPs, standard of operation procedures, that someone cannot pick it up and try to do whatever is needed to do. We're making excuses here. This is not an excuse. This is negligence. And I saw your email, you gave us the timeline and who was

067really responsible for this. And now I hear that you're having accountability with the same issue. But you took action. You took action with the night security. But now you are saying that you are responsible. What action are you taking among yourself? Thank you, Ms. White. Ms. Renzi? And then Ms. Jones. Yeah, I just, what I want to say is that, you know, the very next day after the incident, what I heard primarily is that the security measures were directed at our students. You know, I know about the searches at the middle schools. Certainly we need to be concerned with what our students are bringing to school, but on that particular day, I don't think it was appropriate since. Nationwide, collectively, we were under the trauma of experiencing an incident where an outsider entered our schools.

068So I just don't think that that kind of increased security was appropriate on that day. I also heard from several school administrators that the additional security was in the form of an officer who showed up, hung outside for a couple hours and left. And I'm not sure really what that did either. But I think my biggest area of concern is that the security measures were turned against our students. And I just, I completely see that as double trauma. Thank you, Ms. Rizzi. Ms. Jones, before you go, Mr. Camers would like to speak. Mr. Camers. Thank you. Ms. Rizzi, you raise a very important point that I do want to address. One. With respect to the presence of RPD the day following the Uvalde massacre, I did personally ask Chief Smith for additional presence because one

069of the biggest concerns we have when incidents like that occur is copycat incidents. And so having additional police presence can be a deterrent. Obviously, nothing is 100% foolproof. RPD, though, does not have the capacity to be at every school all day, every day. They did the best with what they had and rotated throughout the week. So some schools did not see a police presence, and that is why. As for the searches, I did consider exactly the very point that you made, and it does certainly concern me. At the same time, again, given that copycat attacks are a concern i felt on balance it was an appropriate step to take i will continue to struggle with where this line is as we are all the board and myself placed in a nearly impossible place to make

070the right decisions to both protect our children and ensure again as i noted that the environment that we're creating for them is a positive and productive one. And so I continue to do my very best to find that balance and will continue to work with all of you to continue to try to find that balance. But on that morning, I felt the number one priority was to do everything we could to prevent any copycat attacks. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Jones and then Ms. Gibson and then Ms. White. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thanks. I am trying to get a deeper understanding of, I know this discussion is supposed to be centered on emergency protocols and I've heard things of negligence and we've kind of talked a little bit about what happened and taking responsibility, but

071our... we as the governing body and as a member of the policy committee, are we going to address one if there is a policy that exists pertaining to emergency protocols and start there? Or are we going to continue to kind of go down this path of what happened? Who's the blame? Who's at fault or look towards moving forward? I'm not sure if a policy is, I know we haven't discussed it in the policy committee, so I'm not sure, or are we looking to discuss emergency protocols tonight? So I'm just trying to get clarity and understand what are we actually doing as part of this discussion. Thank you, Ms. Jones. And very quickly, if I may interject, we have not discussed. emergency protocols or procedures in the policy committee as of today. Ms. Gibson? Do we

072have, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, follow up. I'm sorry, Ms. Gibson, follow up. Do we have a policy though? Ms. Lilly, do we have a policy on emergency protocols? There are several different policies because we're talking about various incidents. So there are several different policies that may apply, but we do need to, we can look at those policies and see where there is a... if the board believes that there is a gap that needs to be filled or those that need to be tightened that can be done in the policy committee. Yeah. So madam chair, I recommend that we bring that forward during the policy committee tomorrow and address whatever concerns with Ms. Lilly that we have for that, those specific issues. And I know Ms. White mentioned like the SOPs and all those types of

073things. So maybe we can. just talk about those thank you thank you and that um you might have missed that invite but i rescheduled it to june the 22nd ms gibson Ms. White, and I believe I saw Ms. Burke and Ms. Page. Thank you, Madam Chair. So, yes, to be clear, the specific request is documentation. And so it's, you know, in order for us to discipline an employee, you know, we have to do our part to ensure that they were properly trained and had the understanding of what those expectations are, and it is incumbent upon us to ensure that it's documented. So... because this is important, I'd like to put a motion on the table to direct Mr. Kamras and the administration to develop documented standard operating policies or procedures related to emergency protocols to

074include communication plans by the start of the 2022, 2023 school year. Thank you. There is a motion on the table made by Ms. Gibson. Second. And it was seconded by Ms. White to direct the superintendent to create a SOP for the FY22-23 school year. And did you have a, did you say by when? By the start. By the start of the school, by the start of the FY22-23 school year. Correct. Okay. Ms. Burke, I'm gonna go to you, Ms. Page and then Ms. Renzi. I'm sorry, Ms. White, I'm sorry, go ahead. Okay, Ms. Burke, go ahead. Yes, she deferred to you. All right, thank you, Ms. White. Thank you, Madam Chair. There are several policies, having been a principal in Richmond Public Schools, not very much has changed regarding that. what my constituency continues to

075ask me because there are certain protocol in place when persons that open the buildings that and that's going into the weeds per se of job responsibility and i i like the suggestion that mrs jones just made in terms of the committee getting together and maybe putting all that on one at a glance sheet per se because the policies are already listed as to what the correct protocol is in terms of if people are following it that's that's in terms of the accountability piece and to hold people responsible what my parents are asking me in the seventh district in the eastern of city of richmond many of our children board the buses in the morning or walk to their bus stops and they walk across blood sites They work across students in their neighborhood that have

076been gunned down the night before, the morning of. And it's unfortunate because it gets to the point where as we shouldn't take for granted that this is the way in which we're supposed to live. So I ask whatever committee or motion that is passed or move forward that we put in this protocol piece as well, the mental health aspects of that. And that's what my parents in the East End continue to ask. because every day there's something South side, East end, but, and we've, I've lived it. We've lived it. We've gotten better, but we've just pushed it back. It's still there. So, so far as seeing, we don't want any child to see that, but. We've opened the doors at schools in the morning, but there is protocol in place and responsibility as well. So

077whatever committee or whatever action is taken, I just ask that the mental health piece be addressed because we can put all these rules in place. And at the end of the day. as stated earlier, and we have had a situation and I'm not gonna state what it is in terms of copycat. So children are scared, parents are scared, faculty members are scared, I'm scared, but we all are at risk. No such thing as children at risk. We all are at risk. And I don't like to use that terminology because it should be, we all should be at a promise. But being realistic, please, all the rules in the world, just like we have rules with what guns can be bought and not bought. The easiest thing for a child to get his hands on right

078now is a gun at any age. But at the end of the day, where is the mental health support? Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Burke. Ms. Brinsley, did I skip over you? I know Ms. Gibson, Ms. Page is after Ms. Burke. And then. I'm going to finish up on this side, Ms. Renzi, then I'll come back to this side. Ms. Renzi, and then Ms. First of all, I have a question about Ms. Gibson's motion. Would this protocol that's being developed by administration be in lieu of or in conjunction with whatever the policy committee will do? I mean, I personally would rather see this proposed by the policy committee first and then. No, I mean, or is it instead of, I don't know. Go ahead. Ms. Gibson, would you like to respond? Thank you, Madam Chair.

079So I did want to make an amendment to the motion to address the feedback from Ms. Burke. I think that that was a good suggestion. So the revised, if Ms. White is on board, the language would read to direct Mr. Kammeris and the administration to document emergency protocols, also referred to as standard operating procedures to include communication and mental health supports for students and staff. by the start of the 22-23 school year. But I mean, look, y'all, we don't want to wait. And so governmental groups are often criticized for being kind of bureaucratic. And we do have policy that says that these things should already exist, to be frank. This request that I'm making, I shouldn't have to make. And so I think it is our responsibility as a board to ensure that these materials

080are documented with urgency. And look, I mean, I'm in the policy committee. Sure, we can put it in committee again, but at the end of the day, I hope that we all agree that we need to have this documentation in place as soon as possible. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Renzia was. I just wanted to reiterate. exactly what miss burke said you know i think that instead of well you know if we must search our students the day after a mass shooting so be it but that definitely needs to be coupled with and in fact socio-emotional support should be prioritized um i have just heard from too many teachers who say they could have used support and many many students who um really were upset and actually further upset by the fact that they were

081searched instead of like their trauma being addressed. And I don't, I have not heard of any cases where there were additional socio-emotional supports deployed that day. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Page. And then I'm going to come back to Ms. White. I'm sorry. Thank you, Madam Chair. So my question was in line with my colleague, Ms. Rizzi. So it sounds like we are circumventing the policy committee because if we have a policy committee and we are the policy makers, why not address this in the policy committee and then bring it back to the board for after the two reads for adoption. Cause it sounds like we are reinventing the wheel. This conversation is going on all over the country and we are hearing politicians talking about teachers being armed and with no funding for training.

082no funding for mental health, because that's really the core issue, mental health. But we are asking for this. I mean, we have a tendency to just make a decision without any intentional discussion based on best practices, you know, what's working, what's not working well in the school division. So if we have a policy committee, I'm in support of the work being done through the policy committee and for the recommendation is brought back to the board. Because I'm not in favor of reinventing the wheel. I'm about solutions. We got to stop. It has happened. Now we need to address. How are we going to prevent this from happening again? Thank you, Ms. Page. Ms. White, thank you for being patient, Ms. White, and allowing people to go before you. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. And

083I'm going to come again. And what I want to say this time is, because I've heard some other things added in, but RPS, we need to layer our security. And I heard about the copycat and... the incident in Texas. But 24 hours before the Texas incident, let's get real, board, we had a gun in one of our prominent schools here in Richmond. Let's talk about that. The SOP, I don't have a problem with the policy committee doing the SOP, but we need to expedite that. We can't just say, well, we're going to do it today or we're not going to meet tomorrow. We're not going to meet today. And our safety protocols are under right now. They're under the radar. It looked like every two weeks there's some type of incident. We had the community

084one. We also had the Franklin one with the gun in. the desk, let's look at what's going on. Because if it had been another school, it would have been brought out. Let's be fair with our children. I have kids in Richmond, two Richmond schools. Some of you don't have no children in Richmond schools up here. So when it comes to safety, that's my number one. So if you want to do something about safety, Schedule a policy committee to whatever Ms. Gibson, yes, Ms. Gibson wants to do. We need to come together and we need to make sure that these policies are in effect. And we need to make sure that why they didn't have metal detectors? What does your care and safety act? What do they actually do when a gun is in there in

085the schools? What do they do? do they call the police officer they don't have a gun they don't even have a baton stick so what are they what are they doing and we must really address in our policy the number one thing that is going on in richmond public schools bullying we're not addressing that issue for some reason That's why our children bring guns. This ain't the first gun. This is about the fifth gun in the last six months. Let's get real, school board. Thank you. A couple of things I want to close out on, if I may. I'm sorry, Ms. Jones, go ahead. I just want to bring it back to the beginning of the conversation, which I requested a meeting. from the start because i'm again just trying to seek clarity because it

086sounded like based off of this motion that we don't have any standard or a standard of operation procedures in place and if we do why are we duplicating efforts so i requested a meeting i am very real about it and we are saying hey let's move forward but yet we are now saying let's direct the administration and so i recall saying that as this governing body and a member of the policy committee that that is something that we should be on top of so I'm not sure about the the not talking and all of those things. Maybe I wasn't heard when I said it the first go around. But I mentioned that and I would love to see us address these issues ASAP because it is very critical and it is very key. And again,

087whether you have children in school or not, we are all still a part of every district and every community in Richmond City. And so I'm not going to discount myself and what my responsibility is. because I no longer, no longer have a child or student in RPS. Please let me know when we're going to move this forward expeditiously. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Jones. A couple of things. I'm going to start at the end and go back. I don't want anyone to think that Richmond Public Schools does not currently have any protocols or policy in place to address emergency safety protocols because we do. Let's take that and let's talk about what the real sense of urgency is. And that is, if I may say, we need to review what we currently have in place.

088We do have a policy committee in place. The board has demonstrated trust with the policy committee to address policies of any board members concerns. This would be a policy. that will be discussed on the policy committee with one of the superintendents, Desi-Nee, present with our school board attorney. We would address all of those policies that mentioned, speak to, demonstrate, or describe. what the safety process procedure or protocol currently is in our school division then in that process we bring back to the school board after the school board attorney vets what the policy committee has come up with because that's the process and then once that has been vetted we bring it back to the school board for a first and second read. Sometimes it has been with this board that we have voted and adopted

089that policy, new or revision, in the second read. We have done that in the past. So I just wanted to clear that up. We do... and in no way saying we do have something on the books that is written. I am not saying that it has worked. I am saying we currently do and we need to review what we have. What I've also heard is the timeline that's pertaining to the motion. It's very important to understand the three P's, the protocol, the process, and the procedures. Then there is a fourth important P, and that's policy. We have to address the policy, review the policy, and ensure that the policy is working for our school division, which through... the trust of this governance team the policy committee has done and we will continue to do i

090would like for the policy committee to have the opportunity to address the policies that need to be reviewed to stay in sync with what we already have done i also heard earlier that the division it is recommended for the division to do a equity audit i have written that down in the policy committee will address that as well with the school board attorney and the administration doesn't need um so moving forward um i just would like to ask the school board to allow the policy committee and this is up to the board to address the policies that we're asking to be reviewed and the safety protocols and bring back and it is a sense of urgency to bring back. to the school board in July, the policies that we will work with the school board

091attorney with to address what needs to be addressed. This is not taking a backseat to our safety protocols or emergency protocols. Listen, we have to be able to review and bring back to the board. what we see that needs to be reviewed. There is a problem. Houston, we have a problem. Let me be clear. Something, somewhere, someone dropped the ball. But the sum one cannot be discussed in an open session. That is for a closed executive session with the superintendent. But the other two we can address. And so I would just like for the board to think about allowing the policy committee to address the policies that directly discuss safety protocols and emergency protocols within the school division. And at your pleasure, we will move according with that task and bring it back for review.

092And we can suspend the second read. Let's not forget that. We can suspend using our policy to suspend the second read and have a first read and vote during that first read. So thank you. I just wanted to share those things. Ms. Gibson. And we do have a motion on the table and it was seconded. And then Ms. Page. Thank you, Madam Chair. So. we already have policy that says that the administration should have procedures in place. The policy exists. And it is our responsibility as a ward to ensure that policy is followed, and that's what I'm trying to do this evening. I have children in this school district, and I don't feel that they are safe. And I know that I'm not the only one. And if we do not agree to move forward,

093we're taking some type of action to ensure that these policies and procedures are documented clearly. If something happens, if something happens, it is on us. And so I would like the motion to proceed as planned. And I'm on the policy committee. And I can assure you, I am not offended if this happens, because at the end of the day, we need this stuff documented. We need it. We cannot, we could not, we can, we, we, I'm sorry, I'm going to get upset. I'm not, I mean, you guys, there are times when I'm surprised about the direction that we take as a board, but this is absurd. We need to have, we need to see the written documentation. We owe it to every teacher and every student in this school district. So go ahead and vote

094against it. but I'm going to do the right thing. Thank you. And I do want to say, and I'm not going to speak for any individual board member, excuse me, but I believe all nine of us, 10 of us, including the superintendent, hold safety at first, the number one priority in the school division. I'm a 30 year educator going on 31 years. I hold safety as a top priority. priority as a previous principal previous assistant principal i hold it as a top priority one of the things that i have heard as the chair from several school board members almost all of us and the superintendent is can we make sure that we address our policies and following the policy and that's what i'm trying to facilitate we have a policy committee let's use it as

095it has been supported and trusted to do. And I appreciate my school board colleagues doing so because we have done that and we have done a mighty great work, the entire committee, and we have held the administration accountable with these policies. But I will move accordingly and lock, step, and key with the will of the board. Thank you. We have a motion on the floor. Can we have a reread just for clarity and then we'll vote accordingly. I'm sorry, Ms. Jones. I just wanted to add to Ms. Gibson's point that I'm willing to hold an emergency meeting. And I know we all are busy. We have a lot on our plates, but I am open to holding an emergency meeting to moving this forward because it is critical and it is very key. And I

096don't want to wait to over the summer and we get busy or we're not in place to continue to oversee what needs to happen so i'm open to an emergency meeting amongst the policy committee if that is where we need to start and i just want to go on record saying that i am not saying do not support the motion i'm just saying let's start with what we already have and if all we need to do is add um mental health piece or other pieces or we need to make changes let's do that so that we don't continue to duplicate efforts and we do need to move on this asap so i am open to an emergency meeting to do that just let me know absolutely um the policy meeting can look at having an

097emergency meeting prior to next week i will reach out to you all and miss lily will look at some dates we also want to understand that graduations are next week um not that so i'm sorry miss lily was just saying we have a meeting on the 22nd is that right so that'll be our emergency we do have a okay i stated that earlier that's okay we do have a meeting on june the 22nd and um we can discuss all of that on the 22nd at our policy committee meeting at 6 30. yes miss white then we're going to vote I'd like to thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to say to Ms. Jones, thank you for the emergency meeting. Because not many requests that you ask for emergency here, you normally get them. I'm not

098on your... policy committee but if you need me i'll come just for the safety part now don't put me on there but just for the safety part i'll be on the safety sure it's june the 22nd we we were already meeting so i don't want to get this i don't i don't want to get this women can i pull back my I mean, I second her, but since it is emergency now and I see the follow-up, it's going to move with urgency. It is. Okay. Long as it's moving with urgency because this is urgent. We had an agenda already. Thank you, Ms. Jones. Absolutely. That June the 2nd, excuse me, June the 22nd meeting. And I'm not sure if Ms. Hadesco is here, but we had some policies that we were bringing forward. This discussion,

099policies and procedures, excuse me, not procedures, policies will be addressed at our policy committee meeting. And it is a sense of urgency for every single one of us on this dais. Ms. Dorr, I think you, go to Ms. Dorr. You're good? Okay. All right, we have a motion on the floor. I would like for that motion to be repeated. Ms. Page has her hand up. I'm sorry, Ms. Page. Thank you. I have a question. So based on the comments and feedback from board members, yes, this is a sense of urgency. So my question is now, are we willing to pull back the motion and let this process work through the policy committee? Because now we do have an emergency meeting to address this. And we were already scheduled to meet June 22nd. But this is

100going to take precedent. So my question is again, are we going to pull back the motion? Because it sounds like we are saying the same thing, but not saying the same thing. We're saying the same thing and we're saying what we desire, what we want, what is different and what we're hearing is the timeline. That is the major difference that what I'm hearing and the motion is indicating, well, Ms. Gibson, you want to address? Are you willing to pull the motion back? No, I'm not. Okay. I'm not. Yes, ma'am. So the VSBA is very clear in this point. The board writes policy. The administration writes procedures. We already have policy in place. The policy committee is in place to vet new policy. We have policy in place. I'll read it to you at length. It's

101policy 6-2.8, I think. It already exists. So what I'm suggesting is that we do our job as a board, which is to direct the administration and Mr. Kamras to do and develop the emergency protocols and procedures that need to align with policy that already exists by a deadline. Okay. That is policy 6-2.8. And just for clarity, the policy committee, we also review current policies that have been outdated and not revised. So we don't just look at new policy. We are required to look at previous policies as well. I just wanted to give some clarity on that. So we have a motion on the floor, school board colleagues. Ms. Renzi? Yes, I mean, I'd be willing to support both. Both are review of the policy by the policy committee and asking for a presentation or at

102least some information regarding protocols and procedures. I'd be willing to look at both, but I don't think we can do one or the other. I think we need to do both. Both must happen. I think what I am... No, not what I think. What I am saying is allow the policy committee to work with the superintendent's designee, as we have done in the past, with our policies, then bring, because whatever the superintendent is going to draft or present, when it goes to the policy committee, Ms. Hadesco has been present to share that information as the designee. then we as a policy committee, we do our thing. We review it, we unpack it, we domesticate, we do all of that, and we bring it back to the board. That has been the procedure. And we can,

103and two, our NSYNC. And I don't want us to fight against each other, if you will. And I know we're not. What I think is that we develop the policy committee, and I'll be there too, to help if needed. And then, you know, I understand it should align with the protocols and procedures. Correct. So, you know, the administration then would be responsible for developing both. Correct. Okay. Correct. We will be responsible for unpacking the current policy. One of them is 6-2.8. There are others Ms. Lilly is going to bring forth for our review. And then we go, the policy committee does not direct the administration. We bring it back to the board. And as a board, we direct. We share with the superintendent what our pleasure is on that. So yes, we do need both.

104And so the motion is on the table. Thank you. And I just want to, I didn't want to, I don't want people to think fight like we're, you know, physically or mentally fight. I'm just mean, what I was saying was we are saying the same thing. We really are. We stop and just listen to each other. We are saying the same thing. Madam clerk, we're ready for a roll call vote. I need clarification on whether or not Ms. White withdrew her second. Okay. Ms. White, did you withdraw your second? I'm sorry. As I heard the clarification, no, I didn't keep it. Okay. You did not withdraw your second? No. Okay. Would you like me to read the motion? If you can, for clarity, please. Thank you. We direct Mr. Cameras and the administration to document

105emergency protocols, also referred to as standard operating procedures, to include communication and mental health supports for students and staff by the start of the 2022-2023 school year. Second. Thank you. We've heard the motion repeated. It was seconded by Ms. White. Madam Clerk, roll call vote, please. Ms. Dorr. Yes. Ms. White. Yes. Ms. Gibson. Yes. Mr. Young. Aye. Ms. Rizzi. Yes. Dr. Harris-Muhammad. Yes. Ms. Burke. Yes. Ms. Page. Yes. Ms. Jones. Yes. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Next, we have... Again, we made some changes to the agenda. Our Chromebook audit discussion, our auditor is on his way down. Board members, also the audit report was uploaded in BoardDocs for your review. I'm trying to see. Good evening, everyone. How are you all? Good. So I'm bringing forward to you today a couple of things, Jess. Internal

106audit updates through. And so we'll go through a couple of things, including the Chromebook audit and an overview or review of what happened with the Chromebook audit. Next slide, please. all right so today um fiscal year 2022 audit plan um here's just a few things where we are uh student activity fund audits um we're completed with the 21 of course we completed that in november of 2021. fy 2022 has not started yet it will start at the completion of the fiscal period uh roughly around late july early august uh next one up is student the turnover audits you hear you guys that that join a lot of the uh Finance committee meetings, we do those a lot. Those are whenever we have new turnovers or new principals and or finance officers in the school. We

107had about seven of them this year. I want to say seven. That is currently in wrap-up and reporting for the overall audit report. Next one. The topic, go back, I'm sorry. Distribution of Chromebooks. We'll look at that in slides three through eight. And then there's the budget audit. Of course, this is a special request audit, an audit that was special requested by the board. That is currently in the planning phases. In your board docs, you would have received a form. or a document, one of the major concerns or one of the objectives of the audit is to look at the FTE counts and the changes within the audit and within the budget as of FY23 for this year. I can say though, just quick update on what we've done and what we've known so far.

108I met with the budget team along with Mr. Desco on Friday. It appears that this audit should be pretty smooth. A lot smoother than a Chromebook audit. However, there were some changes and of course they had to make some process changes and that's what it looks like what may be going on. It's just some process changes. We had to get to a place and of course like anything else when you make a process change sometimes it's a small hurt there or a small discrepancy from what was being done in the past. But we'll get into that a little later. um and then there's last one which was on the fy22 audit plan the procurement car audit um we won't we'll reassess that audit all together next slide please any questions up to this point before

109i get into the distribution of chromebooks okay thank you ma'am um so distribution of chromebooks um so just a little background about this audit and i'm gonna kind of look at my computer if i can So back in March of 2020, and I'm not going to read directly from the slides, you all have that in front of you. But back in March of 2020, the school system elected Richmond Public Schools Administration due to the COVID pandemic, the school system was shut down indefinitely for that year, the 2019-2020 school year. And at that time, in order to continue and not... pretty much go with the loss of learning. The school system made, and the administration made a decision along with the school board to go virtual. And that's a hundred percent distant learning. At that point

110in time and up till roughly right around the audit period. We used the COVID-19 or the CARES Act funding is what funded the program. There's a one-time funding from CARES Act and we use that to start our distant learning program. So historically, Richmond Public Schools was on its way at some point, but this was very much historical in the whole activity because now to date. All of the kids are one to one just like they are in Henrico County and the other surrounding localities. So if we could go, if you could slide up for me just a little bit right there, that's good. So we're going to talk about a few of the key processes. So let me go back. As of March 14th, 2022, which was the conclusion of our audit. There were approximately

11144,000 Chromebooks in the system. And the system we use, and I'm skipping out to this bullet point here, process owner systems and procedure documents. So we use a system here, a proprietary system owned by TIG or Technology Integrated Group, which is our vendor who operates and help us operate the program. We use a system known by TIPIST. And so whatever we buy from 2019 up to today, Those Chromebooks are in Tempest. That's where we log them at. That's where they're logged. That's the inventory system. And so in Tempest, there are approximately 44,000 machines in Tempest with a value of $12.6 million. And the $12.6 million is not the value out the box. This is the replacement value taken from a fee schedule on the Chromebook. It's located on the Chromebook usage device agreement, which is

112which the kids sign and the parents sign at the time they take control or ownership. I don't want to say ownership, but they take control of the Chromebook for the year. And so the replacement value is $282.51 per replacement. That's for a machine itself. Okay. And so some of our key stakeholders in this whole process is technology, asset management team. Also again, technology integrated group, which we will refer to here and after this TIG. And then there is academic team, which is school leadership and that's the principals, principal directors or principal directors principals, along with the school staff and the designated staff who are, who's designated at the schools to pretty much own the process of getting Chromebooks distributed to students and collected. Okay. And then we have one process document that we use as

113the guideline and it's known as RPS student Chromebook procedures. Any questions so far? All right, next slide. Go back one, please. There you go. So our audit scope. So we use the scope for this particular audit. July 1st of 2019, which was the start of... the 19, the 1920 school year, all the way through September 30th of 2021, which was the beginning of this current school year. And the reason why we use that as a scope in which we tested out a use for some of our testing is because that timeframe is when we were 100% virtual for the most part. Okay, if anybody can remember, we came back from virtual in the spring sparingly, but most of we were 100% virtual that year. The objective of the audit itself was to confirm the actual

114counts of Chromebooks that were purchased from July or from the COVID year or when we went out on pandemic up to the current. and as well as determine if the processes, procedures, and things that were in place were operating as they should. All right, next slide, please. So the audit findings, and I think this is a big part, so hold on for me real quick. All right, so within the audit... Within the audit there were three major findings within the entire program up to date. Again, I want to I want to make it really specific that we were looking at pretty much just the inventory of the Chromebooks. We didn't focus on a lot of how the Chromebooks were turned off, where they turned off, when were they not being used, things of that nature.

115We were looking at the actual machines, when did they go out to the students, if parents if the parents were actually filling out Chromebook usage device agreements, and also was the, or were the schools charging the fees according to the sheet or according to the agreement? So with that being said, there were three major findings here. One is the managing and overseeing of the one-to-one program. The second, Chromebooks being collected and delivered to and from schools. And the third is the school level processes, okay? And these are just highlights. Again, because we've already uploaded the actual report, you can find the actual report on BoardDoc. So these are just highlights. And so again, we talk about Tempest. Tempest actually showed, and we're looking at finding number one, so managing and overseeing the program. Tempest showed

116about 1,750 inactive students still having Chromebooks assigned to them. And these are students who... They're no longer enrichment public schools by nature of what we looked at in the system. We just looked for inactive students and we went through and found 1,750 of those. 63 out of the 60, out of the 1,750, 63 of those students have two or three Chromebooks. So that means out of that 63 kids may have two or three or they have two or three Chromebooks still. Of that, So from that total of the 1,750 kids, there are 1,816 Chromebooks with the value of $513,000. So what does all that mean to us? Overall, what we're really saying is that the process is to collect Chromebooks when kids actually leave, whether they're leaving because they graduated or whether they're leaving because

117they've moved, anything like that. We're not properly going, at the time, we are not going to get the Chromebook or we're not asking for the kids to turn the Chromebooks in. Parents are allowed to leave and we never go track down the Chromebooks for the most part. Okay? And then there are... right around 10,000 students with the active status in Tempest who had not had a Chromebook. And I just want to be clear for the record, Tempest is the source of truth. While we went in schools and one of our observations was kids are using, the teachers are using Google Sheets and internal inventory and type of systems. They may be using those, but if they're not putting it in Tempest, we didn't count it. We looked at it. Some are keeping really good records,

118some are not. And it's just too arbitrary to go and subjective to see that. So approximately, and again, 10,000 students or so did not have a Chromebook assigned to them in Tempest. Okay. And then here's the big one. So approximately 20,000 active and available spare Chromebooks were noted with a value of $5.8 million. and these were not assigned to students. Again, we have 44,000 books of 44,000 machines listed in Tempest. 20,000 of those machines are not assigned to students. And it is pretty much customary based on our conversations with surrounding counties, along with our own internal team, that we would have only purchased 10% more than the enrollment. At each school it would have been 10% more than enrollment. So approximately 2,000 computers at that time was all we should have had in overage. However,

119in Tempest, and along with our confirmation from TIG, there are 20,000 extra machines. So right now we may be a two to one division. Okay? And then Tempest shows Lastly, on the missing chrome, or the management and oversight of the one-to-one program, TIPIS shows approximately 2,000 students who have between two and five computers in their possession as of today, or as of March 14th, let me say that, as of March 14th. So one student, they may have two, another student may have five, all depend on how they were given them in loaner situations. Okay, I'll stop right there because that was a lot. Any questions? Ms. Doerr, Ms. White. Thank you, Mr. Parker. I have a question and then a comment. So first of all, thank you for this report. This is exactly what we

120wanted when we hired an auditor. So I'm very glad to have someone that can dig into these complex issues and these data. One question on the 20,000 laptops that are still in storage or not assigned to students. I was going back through my email when we approved the laptop purchases in 2020 during the pandemic. And roughly, we purchased enough to cover, maybe the administration can confirm this, but we purchased enough to cover our student body plus. that contingency roughly 25,000 or so. So I know that we only purchased in the last couple of years about 25, 26,000. Maybe the administration can confirm that. So it seems to me, could there be a clerical error within Tempest for those 44,000 laptops or the 20,000 that are missing? Because we only have, and we know that our

121students have laptops right now. So just. Seems to me like the math doesn't quite add up there. So I'm wondering if this speaks to an asset management problem where we need to offload old assets that are perhaps five, 10 years old, which is a huge problem, but a different problem than students, a bunch of laptops sitting in inventory that we can't give out to students or that we're not giving out to students. Absolutely. So I'm glad you asked that question because when we first went, when Latonya and I, who's back there, she's actually here. So when we first discovered it, One of the first things we did was get on the phone with TIG because we use TIG as a third party agent for us. They do all of the work pretty much from purchasing

122to deployment into the school on our behalf. And so one of the first things we wanted to do, and we had two or three conversations plus some emails. What is this? Is Tempest actually confirmed to be correct? Can you put confirmation on that? And their response was yes. So we have 44,000 machines. My, I want to say, and Daniel is here today, but he probably, I want to say yes, that is correct. And it could be a combination of things from replacing computers to getting computers back. Once we replace them, but we never retired assets, maybe things like that. It could be a combination of things that really drove this number up. But again, that speaks to a higher issue of asset management and inventory management. So there's a chance that, yes, once cleaned up,

123because I know the schools are actually, as we speak right now, working through trying to really clean up what it looks like in the surplus category, that that number could come down. Madam Chair, may the administration confirm how many laptops we purchased roughly from during the pandemic from 2020 till today? Madam Chair, may I? To the best of my knowledge, we only purchased about 25, 26,000 Chromebooks. We'll certainly go back and re-verify that, but in the vast majority of those are being used by students every day. So I do believe. A very significant portion of that 20,000 is likely older devices that need to be taken out of service or could be duplicates, things of that nature. highly confident there are not 20,000 Chromebooks sitting in a box anywhere. I can say that with near

124certainty. Really, I think this is a reflection of old assets that have not been exited from the system, duplicates, other issues such as that. I do have one more comment, but I can wait until everyone goes around. Thank you. So yeah, so I think, again, I think this report was excellent. I would just say that obviously it's sparked a lot of interest in the media as it should have. I would say. working in finance i'm working with auditors on a daily basis one thing that i just want us to encourage is to avoid the use of terms that could perceive bias from the auditor so just a recommendation for next time i thought that the phrasing of excessive use of devices or excessive devices in storage was illustrated a little bit of bias and so

125i think the facts that you provided around devices and storage and the fact that we only want 10 more than 10 not no more than 10 in storage is an excellent way to kind of fact base your argument but i do think that it was a little bit misleading to the public because the public now thinks that we have 20 000 laptops sitting in storage that we can't get we haven't given to kids and what we've just illustrated from this discussion is that that's not the case well if i may As we know right now, we do have 20,000 machines until we can, until the process is carried all the way out, because we don't have a way, and these machines are not being reconciled. There is no inventory process. I want to be very

126clear about that. I agree. I agree. And so as of right now, according to T and my confirmation and our office confirmation, those 44,000 machines exist. That's part of the mitigation process that is a part of The management was fine. Heard, heard. But we do have 24,000 children in RPS, almost all of them with a device. So by the math, there is no way in possibility that in the last year, because it was just confirmed by the administration that we ordered more than 25,000 devices. So it does not make sense that those devices are sitting in storage. Other than to illustrate exactly what you said, which is that we have old devices. greater older than 2020 that we have not retired nothing older than 2020 in that but we just said that we only purchased

12726 000 devices then then purchases come from because there are also replacement machines in there from 2020 when kids have when they have replaced them there are also machines where there were warranty machines that were sent there it there needs to be a huge cleanup and i'm going to be very clear about that There needs to be a huge cleanup in Tempest. If we're going to use that as source of truth, then it needs to be very accurate. As of right now, if that's an inaccuracy, then that lies on the people who run Tempest, which is the administration and that technology team. Because as of right now, again, you look at Tempest today, if you go to the management response, which is in the report down a little bit, they even confirmed that they have

128over 40,000 machines in Tempest. We cannot run from that fact. The machines that the system says that there are 44,000 machines in there or 40 plus thousand machines. Let me say that. Ms. White and then Ms. Renzi and then back to Ms. Gibson. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you for this presentation. I did have a question because I know that you had. your first shipment of Chromebooks because a lot of the students did have iPads during the pandemic. And then when they came back to school, there was another shipment of Chromebooks. I'm not sure if that's the same amount that you are actually speaking of, but my question is, Since we're going back and forth whether we had this amount or that amount, can you get the invoice that has the actual total of

129the computers that were purchased? Yes, ma'am, I can provide to you for that. The actual totals that were purchased over that time. And again, I want to be clear, I will have those invoices, but there's also a system difference too, which will speak to some other things. Okay, and my other question is, who was responsible for collecting and why is that person not held responsible? That would be a question for the administration. You're talking about, that's an administration question. Now, as understanding a process, who would be responsible according to the process is the machines were to be collected at the schools and then they would be carried back to TIG so that they could be refreshed and go through the summer refresh processes. But how could that happen when you don't have a process? You

130would know. That's an administration question. I get you. Okay. I understand. I'm just asking. And then the other thing I would have a problem with is that if we still have 20,000 active Chromebooks, in about five years, they'll be obsolete and there'll be time for it to. So the good thing is active in this situation means that they're available for use. So they're not actually on as of right now. But the moment they go on is when the timetable starts according to when their depreciable life starts or the life of the Chromebook. So they're still sitting here. And this is how it was explained to us. So the Chromebook still sitting here hasn't been open turned on anything like that. it has not yet been used. So they still have enough Chromebooks, or the administration

131has enough Chromebooks to use for the next three to six years as retirement is coming up on the first set. And this is my last question. This might not be your question either. How is, since we have this many missing, is this going to be considered as a write-off? At this point, it would be. At this point. If they are actually considered missing. Again, the technology team is working with the schools right now as a part of their mitigation strategies to confirm the actual inventory in schools again to make sure that those inventories are at level and correct. So they're working with the schools to confirm what they are. But if they are deemed missing, it will be a write-off. So the ones, the children that is not in school, those would be considered a

132write-off? Okay. Thank you. I would get clarity from the administration about how they'll handle that part, though. The board will as well. Yes. Yes. Ms. Renzia and Ms. Jones, and then back over here. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Parker, for this presentation. I just want clarity. Like, you know, we're saying that there are 44,000 laptops out there somewhere. I'm sure it's not hard to find the invoices to prove that. We'd like to see it. I AM QUESTIONING THOSE WHO ARE SAYING OLDER ASSETS. ARE THOSE CATALOGED BY TIG? THE ONES OLDER THAN THE INITIAL CHROME BOOK DISTRIBUTION? NO, MA'AM, THEY'RE NOT. OKAY. SO THAT WAS IMPORTANT TO NOTE. AND I'D LIKE, YOU KNOW, THAT THE DATES INCLUDED WITH THE INVOICES. FOR THE WHICH ONES? FOR ALL OF THEM, THE 44,000. OKAY. I GOT YOU. So I'm

133understanding that what you just told or you answered Ms. White's question. So that $500,000 of missing laptops from students who are no longer with us would just be a loss? Yes, as we know it, but that would be an administration question, a question for the administration. Okay. And I had another. Okay. So can you tell me about the 10,000 plus students you have here who've never been assigned a Chromebook? So absolutely. So when we look at the 10,000 students, and again, this is why the tempest status is important because we use tempest as a source of truth. These students actually may be in the system. They may have a Chromebook, but again, we were at several schools walking through this with the teams that do it in the schools. Kids. on spreadsheets. They did not

134have the name listed on spreadsheets and they were not in the computers neither. I mean not in Tempest. They weren't in Tempest neither. So they weren't in the two systems. So now that begs the question, but when we walk through the classroom, there the child is with the Chromebook in his or her hand. And so if the child is using the Chromebook, here's the risk. The child is using the Chromebook. We haven't logged a child as having a Chromebook and then they take it home. Well, when they come back tomorrow and they don't have another Chromebook, we just hand them another one. Now they have two Chromebooks and it just keeps escalating and escalating and growing and growing just like that. So it appears to me that by school now we've got to go back

135and try to get some accurate records. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Jones. And then Ms. Gibson. Thank you. Hey, Mr. Parker. How are you? I'm well. Thanks. So you mentioned TIG as your confirmation and how you received this information about the 10,435 students that are active and then approximately 20,000 students, 672 who are also active. um and and well you said active and available space spare chromebooks with a value of 5.8 million dollars so i guess i'm trying to understand how are when you went to pull this information what did you just receive like a list of numbers that totaled what's in the system how are we pinpointing um because you mentioned that this is a source of truth so how do we know for certain that the that there are 20 000

136um additional compute computers out there um if we are only going by just a record number like i'm trying to get clarity on how we because essentially what we're saying is right now is looking at these numbers is kind of like 30 000 if you calculate the 10 plus the miss and plus yeah so how do we how are we calculating that and then i think someone already mentioned this the invoice to what we brought i think there one on the value of these actual computers, we would have had to do a large procurement. And so what was the process and what did we actually procure? I think that that is important to add to this conversation because I too agree that something is just not adding up and I do want us to be

137clear. And I would like for us hopefully by maybe the next meeting on the 21st to have some documentation that shows us for a fact that these computers do exist. Because right now, it's like we're talking about something that's kind of like in osmosis because it's just a system. And if we can't say for certain that this system is accurate, then I think it's also unfair to provide a report that says it's accurate when we don't have the proof. So I just, I think that would be a little more helpful going forward. If we can have some, like you saying one-to-one, can we have some one-to-one documentation that matches up with what we brought based on what is saying this system is, you know, what this system is saying we actually have. So again, um

138so on our our alliance we we have to rely on what we have right um and when i say what we have because tempest is our source of truth we rely on tig tig does all of the purchasing for us so we could send in an order hey we need more and they'll just purchase more and then we said this is a this is the risk or the the problem with having very loose controls um We send in, hey, we need some more. Kindergarten one doesn't have any more. We need 20 more computers, and it starts to add up. Likewise, when the computers break and they replace them, they place them in an unassigned bucket, and they're ready to be reused or they're ready to be redistributed to kids. And so now we not only

139have a replacement computer, we have a fixed computer, which can also be used. So we now have two computers versus. one computer if that makes sense follow up madam chair um but who authorizes these purchases i'm not i'm for certain a teacher can't just go and take and order five computers if her student is black you know so who who authorizes these purchases someone has to have some level of purchasing authority and we need to be able to compare and contrast based off of that purchasing authority. So if we cannot provide the documentation that shows that whoever is responsible for that purchasing authority, whether they went in and purchased five or 5000, that to me is also something that should be able to be compared to take. And I think it doesn't matter, you know.

140how many or how less but someone has purchased an authority and so I would like to be able to see that information to align it with the system and then we can then instead of waiting until we close or whatever have you so thank you um for this information I think it's really um detailed and I know we talked a lot as you were doing this process and so I'm happy um that we finally have moved through it but I I would like to see some additional um uh levels of um documentation to support these analysis thank you thank you miss gibson thank you and then miss page and then back over here Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to say, I think that one of the most important things that the board has

141done in my tenure on the board was to bring in a true audit department. And I want to emphasize that, you know, our staff as a board has critical importance in student outcomes, like many other things. the way that this whole thing works governance it's threefold one is our policy two it's the documented administrative procedures that align with our policy and the third is the auditing process which ensures that those procedures and policies are followed and without all three it just doesn't work and this team can and should be auditing so much more because once we have the emergency protocols in place by the start of the next school year like we want we now will we need the audit team to ensure that those protocols are followed the audit team could be looking at

142our maintenance procedures our special education procedures our school nutrition procedures all of those things And so as we look at our budget, I implore my colleagues to look closely at how we can grow this department because it's critical. This department and our board clerk, because that's constituent services. You know, this is, this is, our department is critical and this isn't us being excessive and wasting money. You know, this, this, this is critical work. that impacts our students in very real ways. And so thank you for the work that you've done with the limited team that you have. And I am committed as a board member to supporting that work and to growing the department because this is where we ensure that we have truly crossed our eyes, you know. That one. Thank you. Yes, ma'am.

143Ms. Page. Thank you, Ms. Gibson. Thank you. I would just like to restate, Madam Chair, if this item could be, Mr. Parker, thank you again for your report. Madam Chair, can we add this to the agenda at the next meeting to include providing the board documentation of the purchases of Chromebooks, laptops, what have you, because the numbers don't add up. But I think documentation, your supporting documentation will be very helpful as we move forward. So Madam Chair, I would like for this to be added on the next agenda to revisit this issue providing the documentation. Have it noted. Thank you. Ms. Renzi. Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Parker, I'm going to reference the full report and ask about a procedural issue you identified. We found a gap in the process related to collecting excess aging

144and or damaged Chromebooks from the schools. The current process of Chromebooks being removed from RPS schools by TIG is manual and lends itself to miscommunication and mismanagement of inventory. The following is a general description of the process in areas where additional controls are needed to improve the process. And then further, we observed a TIG pickup for several computers, but a drop off of only one replacement computer. This caused the school to have a reduced Chromebook inventory. However, the Tempest system does not have a real time indicator for Chromebook inventory when this occurs. This leads to a risk associated with inconsistency inventory management at both the district level and the school level. And then you go on and kind of describe and suggest what could happen. Is there evidence now that schools are thinking, are looking

145at this and thinking about ways to streamline and correct these processes? Yes, ma'am. If you scroll down, there's a management response. and they dated when they're going to, they're actually working right now to develop those procedures and protocols to put in place and better work with TIG. And I think maybe even, I think that response speaks to them actually right now searching and researching, maybe possibly moving vendors at some point as well. Maybe. They're going to do their comparisons to see what's the best move for them. It's Burke and then Mr. Young and then? I will close out the discussion. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you, Mr. Parker, as well for your report. Very interesting, but not surprising in terms of unaccountable laptops before we even got to this point. And my question is,

146I have three questions. The computer labs in the class schools, because several schools do have computer labs. were they included in the count with the Chromebooks? So these Chromebooks, so the current Chromebooks that are in Tempest, they're only related to Chromebooks that were purchased as a result of the COVID and going to this new process in the 19-20 school year. I understand that. My question is... When you go into the schools, because some schools have one lab, some schools have two labs. Yes, ma'am. Some of those labs, and also the carts. I've been in schools where we still have the carts, and the carts are Chromebooks. Yes, ma'am. For large group instruction. I've seen that. So my question is, those Chromebooks that are on the carts for large group instruction. In addition to, and there

147must be a difference because teachers have explained that to me. Maybe the newer ones work faster than the older ones. I don't know. So my question is, the laptops that are in the computer labs and the laptops that are on those carts, are they included in this count? The laptops in some schools, here's the inconsistency for you. In some schools, the laptops that are on carts are included in this number. because they are using the extra laptops in the school which are the 10% of the enrollment. They are using those that are on carts as loaners in some schools. In other schools, some of those schools still have older laptops that are on older carts that they are charging and using for that program in that. computer lab slash library i've seen both happen yes

148ma'am and my question is again the we talk about the accountability piece so how will that be tracked per se because some of those parts i've seen it going around the schools are they counted in the count you say yes they may be there may not be i know also some older laptops are there but my question is with the numbers that you have given which i look forward to an updated report on this but are they included in that? So maybe you'll let us know at the next meeting what the number is, or you already know. How many are on the carts that are new Chromebooks and how many aren't? Old Chromebooks. Yeah, new or old. Right. Okay. I mean, you know that already. I can tell you that the ones that are on

149new carts, they are in this number. They are in this number. The older Chromebooks are not in this number. So the older Chromebooks, we weren't buying Chromebooks before. COVID, I thought we had regular laptops. Laptops and some Chromebooks. There were some Chromebook purchases as well. Really? Yes, ma'am. Interesting. Interesting. Wasn't aware of that because they do look different. I'd rather have a regular. laptop than a Chromebook. Yes, ma'am. My other question is, and I've had parents to call with me, call me to share this. And I'm thinking about one student in particular, she was, mother was so upset. Her son has special needs. And when he would get angry, he would destroy the Chromebook. And I think he destroyed around three that I know of well, but the mother was so appreciative. because the school

150always did give him another one to replace so he would not get behind in his lessons, especially when we were all virtual. But she was apologizing, but behavior-wise, mental health-wise, that's something he had no control over. So I know as you stated, some students may have three or five. He may be one of those students listed. Now, if they are returned to the school, is that counted or not counted? You don't know, we don't know. Right, we don't know. But the process says, the procedure says it should be counted. They should bring it back into the school, receive it as collected, and then it will come off. My last thought, Madam Chair, if I may, just like return, I'm thinking back to some of the counties that have had laptops or Chromebooks for years, their

151first year or two sounded pretty much like what we're going through right now. And I think you referenced that. And moving forward with a solution, I don't know exactly how we would address that. It's just like media center books where children return them or they don't return them, but we want them to take them home. So I don't know how this could be addressed because we don't want any child to sit in any classroom without having the technology that he or she should have. So moving forward, I look forward to your recommendations. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. So if you look at the report, the full report on board docs, again, this is just highlighted what I'm doing now, but the full report, there are recommendations there as well as the management actions as to what

152technology is going to do, as well as how they'll collaborate and what the school, what academics and principal directors will do to kind of push this forward and try to mitigate and put some procedures in place and implement some new controls to get. a better response on return and distribution or distribution and return. Thank you, Ms. Page and then Ms. Jones, then Mr. Young, and then I will close it up. Mr. Young, thank you. I wanted to end up over here. Thank you. Real quick, Madam Chair. Just as we added to revisit this, the next board meeting, as we, this is something else to add to the policy committee. With the recommendations, as we tighten our internal controls, we need to also review or to see whether or not any policy changes, modifications, because we'll

153keep talking about this, but if we do not put controls and internal controls in place, we will continue to have this problem. one and this is another item to add to the agenda and to the policy committee as well Thank you. Thank you. Duly noted. Mr. Young, and then I will close out. I'm sorry, Ms. Jones. I'm sorry. Yeah, I'll be really quick. I just had two additional questions for you, Mr. Parker. In terms of receipt of computers. So when those computers are purchased and essentially input. entered into the system, is there any physical record that those computers even exist? And are there any photos? How do we actually track? So if you're saying that we have additional 20,000 computers and they were bought, how are they received? And how do we have proof that

154those 20,000 computers exist? So within Tempest? So for every computer in Tempest that we look through, there's a sales number attached to it, there's a PO number attached to it as well. Not just an asset number and whenever, it's an actual purchase date, a PO number, and a sales number that's attached to that machine in Tempest, if that makes sense. So then to my original point, we can track this through procurement. I would love to see that. Thank you. Now when I say we can track them down, that doesn't mean, and let me be clear when I say that, we can track down that there is a computer. Does the computer exist at the school or wherever that computer should be? I can't tell you that because those computers are also assigned to schools. If

155you look at the table that was provided in the management response, there are 7,000 computers at TIG's warehouse. There are also another 12,000 computers in the schools. Each one of those schools, each one of the 12,000 extra computers are assigned to a school. However, when we went out and we did our testing, when we went to the schools, because we actually visited schools, we went to go see and observe and count every spare computer in the school. And we did not count. I got you. I was just talking about the 20,000. If there's a purchase order number attached to that, then we can verify that that computer was actually bought. That's what I mean. Gotcha. Yeah. Thank you. Mr. Young. Thank you, Madam Chair. First, Milton, thank you to you, to Latonya for all of

156your hard work. Really commend both you and Latonya. So that's first. Second, it is the responsibility of this board, our fiduciary responsibility to safeguard all of our assets. And of course, our Chromebooks are but one of many. Your audit spoke to 17 or more than 1,700 students that have departed the district. and more than 1800 devices that because of said departure are no longer, i.e. Chromebooks are no longer in the district. Colleagues, I think it's incumbent on us as a board to make every good faith effort to retrieve those Chromebooks, recognizing that the likelihood is that a significant percentage relevant to attrition. is some things most unfortunate, but I do think we should make every effort, every best effort to one, convey our gratitude to all 1700 of those students for their time, their tenure

157in RPS, to welcome them back, pray that they will return to RPS, but in the interim to contact students to request that they return those devices. So Madam Chair, if it's your pleasure, I would move. the following motion the school board directs the rps richmond public schools administration to the extent practical to contact former students in possession of rps issued electronic devices to request return of chromebooks thank you madam chairs Thank you. There was a motion on the floor that in summary states that we authorize the administration to every extent possible to retrieve all Chromebooks that are currently with inactive RPS students. It was, and that's the summary. I know that's not your exact motion. I know you would get that to Madam Clerk and it was seconded by Ms. Jones. With the understanding, we

158have a motion and I also have some things that I want to share. Ms. Ramsey? Yes, I have a question about the motion. Well, actually, I want to ask Mr. Parker, is that occurring now? Yes, ma'am. Actually, the principal directors, along with technology, they're working with the schools right now. So we speak to try and track down some of these computers, as well as, again, if you read the entire report. and you look at the management responses there in their responses, they're doing many of the things we're talking about right now to help mitigate the risk, as well as bring some confirmation and clarity to what's going on with the entire program and move it forward so that we are as cost efficient and we're moving in that manner. Thank you. I have a couple

159of things and I know we have a motion on the floor. I want to ensure the public that unpacking this Chromebook audit and understanding the processes and procedures will be handled swiftly by the school board as a whole. There is a serious concern and a serious problem with our internal controls that too will be addressed by the school board. It is a coming upon us to review in this. weighs a little bit into diving into the procedure. But because of the seriousness of this audit, we must be able to see as a school board every purchase order. And you know, I'm getting ready to go with that because I'm very familiar with purchase orders. That's going to tell the school board who authorized. the purchase of these additional Chromebooks or Chromebooks period and the amount.

160Every purchase order and every school division has a purchase order number and a tracking system. We will get to the bottom of if the information is inaccurate or if the information is accurate. In both instances, the board will govern accordingly. Our entire constituency is looking at us right now. You want to know why? Because this alludes to Ms. Dorr's point earlier. This is categorized right now in the public as fraud and waste. And I have a problem with that. We have to move. collaboratively and swiftly and I appreciate the board allowing you because we made it very clear there were three bullets and we were not going to intervene into your process this is a clean audit the documentation will be provided to us by the next school board meeting so we can review that

161and I and I am almost certain that this discussion will have to move into close because we're talking about money The policy committee can look at creating a policy because what I didn't hear is do we have a current policy that addressed this? Shonda breaks a Chromebook or Shonda loses a Chromebook, but Shonda family does not report that Chromebook lost or stolen, but the school gives Shonda another Chromebook. Houston, we got a problem if there is no record keeping. There is a train and a line of accountability that has been lost. It is our job to govern that and it will be governed. We may need to look at if we need a policy for replacement costs. Every Chromebook that is issued to a RPS enrolled student is property of Richmond City Public Schools. When

162you leave the division and you take that property with you, you owe us. So do we have a policy for that? And if we don't, that's on the governance team. And we don't know about these things until this happens. This is 101 organizational management. There has been a breakdown in processes and procedures that do not exist equitably at each school. Where does that come from? Because it's too many schools. This number is too large for me to believe that one school or two schools created a process and they followed their own process. It sounds like schools were doing similar processes that arrived and was verbally categorized from somewhere. That's why the invoices is critically important. to find out the who, because we're going to do the what. That's our job. But I do thank you

163for your team and the effort that you put into this Chromebook audit. We are going to move in a collaborative manner along with you to make sure that one, if we only have 23,000, approximately 23,000 students, that we're only ordering 10% of the enrollment because we don't need old, new laptop Chromebooks, 20,000. We don't need 5,000 sitting somewhere not being utilized. That's a fact. And so this is a concern for, I know, the entire board. Because I heard it this evening, we're going to continue to allow you to do your due diligence so we can be prepared at our June 21st meeting with the invoices and the other documentation that would describe how this happened. Because here's the thing, however the narrative is written in the public, we have to control how we move from

164here. And we have to be on the same page. So documentation is key. And it may be surprising, it may not feel good, but it's going to happen. Because this cannot, what I do know, it cannot happen again. We have to be mindful. It sounds like we're willy-nilly just signing invoices and approving purchases. And that may not be the case. And if it is the case, then we need to stop that as well. So thank you so very much, Mr. Parker, for this information. We do have a motion on the floor. Mr. Young, before we proceed with your motion, I would like to ask if you would like to remove your motion off the floor, off the table. You were still like, okay. Because Ms. Rizzi asked the question, are we already doing that internally?

165reaching out to families. So I just wanted to make sure that you're okay. All right, we have a motion on the floor. Mr. Young, can you repeat your motion, please? Gladly, yes, ma'am. The school board directs Richmond Public Schools administration to the extent practical to contact former students in possession of RPS-issued electronic devices to request return of Chromebooks. Was there a second? Yes, Ms. Jones seconded it. Ms. Jones seconded the motion. We are at the phase of roll call vote. Madam Clerk, please. Ms. Dorr? Yes. Ms. White? Yes. Ms. Gibson? Yes. Mr. Young? Aye. Ms. Rizzi? Yes. Dr. Harris-Muhammad? Yes. Ms. Burke? Yes. Ms. Page? Ms. Jones? Motion passes. Thank you so very much for that in-depth and lengthy discussion. It was needed. We have some work to do, and we are going to get

166that work done. Next on our agenda is 3.04, the Arthur Ashe discussion. Ms. Lilly, you have some information you would like to share with us? Just an update from the last meeting at this point. The two questions that I was charged with getting more information about were, the first was about the funding related to the... funding from the proceeds of any potential sale of the authorized center. And the second question was information regarding a replacement facility that was referenced in the letter that was received and discussed during the last meeting. And so based on those two questions, I spoke with the city attorney's office again, and they provided information to reiterate their position that they did not believe that because the authorized facility is not a school facility, it would not. move through the path

167of surplus property and the proceeds of those sales would would not necessarily then be credited to the special reserve as it would any other surplus facility the response i got was that nevertheless the city has expressed through their council that they're open to having conversations with the board regarding this is to the second piece about the replacement facility conversations about the needs approaches on replicating the programming historically offered at the authorized center and they state that through the request for offers their expectation is that those teams would develop and provide a solution for a replacement facility that would allow for enhanced programming and that the city is open to using the proceeds from the sale of the authorized parcel to help fund that private or city-owned replacement facility. And so there are a couple of

168outstanding questions that... I did follow up with in response to that, you know, to solidify the school board's role in the management and control over any replacement facility. I just don't have that information at this time on those questions. So that's the update from as I was charged with providing in the last meeting. Thank you. So hopefully, Mr. Lilly, by our June 21st meeting, you can have those questions answered by the city attorney's office. I will follow up again. Thank you so much. Mr. Young. Thank you, Madam Chair. And candidly, as disappointed as I am in the city attorneys. legal response, them opining on what is very obvious legal question. I mean, the truth is that state statute in Chapter 22 couldn't be clearer relevant to the responsibility pertinent to management of the RPS portfolio.

169And further, City Council, in acknowledgement of the school board's responsibility pertinent to management oversight of our portfolio, our capital portfolio, adopted an ordinance that provides for the sale of RPS property for proceeds to return to the district, specifically to our students, to our teachers. Candidly, there is nothing. There's absolutely nothing either in state statute nor in the city ordinance that distinguishes vis-a-vis a facility that's operated for academic purposes, vis-a-vis a facility that's used for athletic purposes. So to invent one now is to do just that, to invent one. And it's candidly most disappointing that legal counsel at the city was unable to, address or to assess rather as much. Colleagues, I would remind you that the Arthur Ashe Center is not the only facility that we anticipate will be developed imminently, but we also agreed

170that the property on Westwood, i.e. the technical center, would soon thereafter follow. Ten acres there. likely exceeds $10 million in value together with Arthur Ashe talking about $18 million that in my opinion is owed to our students in Richmond Public Schools. So I do look forward to conversation with our council relevant to options and welcome the discussion this evening first in public. But I do think it's incumbent on this school board to convey that. Our every expectation is that every dollar and cent relevant to the sale of the Arthrash property, all four acres of it is returned to the students and teachers of Richmond Public Schools. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Ms. Gibson. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just, I want to state, I mean, I, Richmond has made it very clear. that we

171need to address our facilities. And so it is astonishing that we would be at a place where we needed to ask. that we would be compensated for property that we own when we've been through this before. This is the very same thing that happened with West Hampton and we were promised facilities that we'd be able to use and it never happened. So I feel very strongly that the board should take legal action. I would like to have a discussion regarding our legal options and if that has to happen in closed sessions, so be it. We've been talking about with Can't Wait, Fox Can't, this is money that would go to our students. And I just can't reconcile that the city would basically be marketing property that they don't own. And at best that there would

172be some question without any discussion with the board. And then after the fact say, oh, you know, perhaps we can work something out. I'm not gonna get duped. This is very valuable property. And many of these discussions that we have is about valuable property. And essentially, I mean, we have a lot of property in the city and I know that there are developers that wanna use it. And whether we agree or not with having it be sold, there is no question that we should be compensated so that we can put that money back into the city and back into our students. Otherwise, we can't call ourselves supporting public education. It's just lip service. Thank you. Ms. Rizzi and then Mr. Young. So I have a question and then a statement. So it is my understanding

173that there are both, there's both an ordinance in the city code that provides for the return of proceeds of our property back to schools. There's also a state statute that says the same. And then my question is, have we both maintained and paid utilities on this facility over the years? Can anybody answer that for me? Has that come out of our budget? Yes. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Mr. Young? Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to, at the risk of belaboring the point. George Wythe was referenced immediately subsequent to George Wythe. We will build out a new current technical high school, what we affectionately refer to as Altria property at Maury and Route 1. Next on the list is Woodville, which this board also directed administration to issue a request for proposal pertinent to

174a new end or renovated Woodville. Colleagues, between Arthur Ashe and the technical center property, we are talking about Woodville. This conversation relates to a new and or renovated Woodville Elementary, the funds to provide for it. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Young. Seeing there aren't any more questions or comments, school board colleagues, what is your pleasure for to address what Ms. Lilly is asking clarity on, I believe is. One, I know she will follow back up, as she indicated earlier with the city's attorney, on those two questions. Yes. And then hopefully by our June 21st meeting, we'll have a response from the city's attorney's office. And depending upon what that response will be, we can continue to discuss this matter in a closed executive session. Mr. Young. Thank you, Madam Chair. I think you addressed, I

175just want the public to be cognizant of that we are going to have another conversation this evening relevant to this subject. This evening, we did not read into close for legal, so we cannot discuss legal in close. Then absent that, then it'd be my request of my colleagues that this board draft a letter to be issued by our attorney to the mayor's office, to the Department of Economic Development, advising that it is our expectation that all city ordinance along with state statutes will be will be adhered to as it relates to the Arthur S. Center and that includes the obligation that this body would need to first surplus, quick claim deed to property and with the expectation that proceeds from the sale to be returned to students and teachers at Richmond Public Schools. if I

176may, Ms. Dorr, very quickly, what I would like to see happen is for Ms. Lilly to obtain, to complete her work by addressing the questions that we asked her to find out the last board meeting, and then based on what we receive, then the will of the board, the board can decide on what the next steps will be. I don't want us to put the cart ahead of the course before we have any information pertaining to the questions that we ask our school board attorney to ask. That's me. That's my preference. But I also will stand, you know, whatever the will of the board decides, then we will direct our school board attorney accordingly. But I think. that would be the most collaborative way. And before you go again, Mr. Young, I'm gonna have Ms.

177Dorr go. I think that would be the most collaborative way and just making sure that we are getting some accurate information before we decide as a board what we're going to do. Ms. Dorr. Thank you. Not exactly related to this point, but I also would add to the discussion that if it is the will, once we figure all this out, I think we also need to have a discussion about how we are going to address RPSS athletic needs should the... yeah um so i don't know how all this will play out but if arthur ash the arthur ash center is quick claimed back to the city and we can come to an agreement then there's also the the issue of the fact that that facility is used by rps for important sporting events and so

178i would encourage us to have that piece of the conversation as well and then to ms rizzi's point we spend quite a bit of money on maintaining the facility so i think that should also i think that's a good point that should be added to the discussion Thank you. And I believe Ms. Lilly is making those notes. Mr. Kammer, thank you, Ms. Doerr. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to note that the Ash Center has traditionally been used for more than just athletic events. While that is its primary purpose, we've also used it for academic competitions, convocations, musical celebrations, and many other uses as well. And I just want to make sure we don't lose sight of that. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Young, then Ms. White. Yeah, really grateful to my colleagues for

179the conversation. My concern, my concerns, and I recognize there's value in what you're proposing, Madam Chair. My concern is the train is pulling out of the station rather fast on this, and I anticipate a wrecking ball over at the Arthur Ashe Center probably sooner rather than later. That's the first point. And the second point is that I too welcome collaboration, but to be frank, it takes two to dance and not sure that we have a willing partner. And frankly, months ago in the fall, the director of economic development stood in front of city council committee and said that they're, in a paraphrase, but that the city does not have to have a conversation with the school board relevant to this subject. And it's been a consistent contention since then. So I... Madam Chair, perhaps this

180is an example of you're a glass is half full kind of lady and glass is half empty kind of guy. But I do think it's incumbent on us to move with most expediency because of the likely impending raising of that facility. Thank you. So school board colleagues. I just want to hear from you what you would like for Ms. Lilly to do. Is it to come back to us at our June 21st meeting with the two questions addressed or suggesting what Mr. Young has indicated by sending a letter to the city attorney? I don't know what the letter would include just yet. I've shared my thoughts and what I would like for us to do, but I'm one vote, one person, and it will be up to the will of the board. Ms. White. Thank

181you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like Ms. Lilly to also address the three economic developments that are going around with the new structure and the renovation structure of Arthur Ashe and to include What part does RPS play in those new economic development plans? Ms. White, that's exactly the question and trend that I've been going down. that's already a part of the questions. And certainly that's what I'm waiting for final feedback from. Clearly from the letter and the information that I provided via email to you all, the city is interested in sitting down with the board, if that is the pleasure of the board, to discuss the replacement facility and to discuss the needs that it would have in a replacement facility. the other piece of it though is i want to solidify as i

182said a little bit ago the board's role in operating and managing that facility if a replacement is is is um built can i follow up yes um Yes, I understand that part, Ms. Lilley, but the part that I'm concerned about is that the economic development plans have already been produced, and I've already seen the actual structures. So if we, as a board, comes in and say, well, we don't want this or that, it has already been produced. I just want to make sure what part will we play in those three economic development plans. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Thank you so much, school board colleagues. Next, we will have received for action the policy 3-3.6 payment and payroll procedures policy. I can, no, oh, I can speak to that if you wish. So basically, policy 3-3.6

183was a payroll policy. This is the second read of that particular policy. Excuse me, I'm sorry. There were To remind board members, the policy revisions were proposed by the administration to, I'm sorry, that's the wrong one. The policy revisions were proposed at the request of a school board member to clarify and codify the current practice of issuing payroll to employees in accordance with the division's established payroll calendar. Policies revisions were vetted by and approved by the policy committee. So this is the second read of that. I was reading from the summary of revisions and there have been no questions or comments since the first read for this particular policy that were raised to my knowledge. Correct. I didn't receive any either, and the policy committee did vet this and we brought it forward to you

184for approval. Mr. Young? Madam Chair, if it's your pleasure, I'll move for action adoption of revised policy 3-3.6 pertinent to payment policy procedures as written. Second. Mr. Young, move to accept policy 3-3.6 payment and payroll procedure was seconded by Ms. Page. If there aren't any questions, Madam Clerk, roll call vote, please. Ms. Dorr. Yes. Ms. White. Yes. Ms. Gibson? Yes. Mr. Young? Aye. Ms. Rizzi? Yes. Dr. Harris-Mohamed? Yes. Ms. Burke? Yes. Ms. Page? Yes. Ms. Jones? Yes. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. We are now at to receive for action. We're going to have an update by the superintendent for the agent and deputy agent. Mr. Kamers? Thank you, Madam Chair. I am recommending Ms. Hudasko as my agent and Dr. Harris as my deputy agent. Thank you. Your agent will be your immediate designee? Yes,

185ma'am. Okay, thank you. Ms. Dorr? I move that we accept the superintendent's recommendation for Ms. Hudasko to be the agent and Dr. Harris to be the deputy agent. Second. It was moved by Ms. Dorr to accept the recommendation from the superintendent for agent and deputy agent. It was seconded by Ms. Jones. Any discussion? Madam Clerk, roll call vote, please. Ms. Dorr? Yes. Ms. White? Yes. Ms. Gibson? Yes. Mr. Young? Aye. Ms. Rizzi? Yes. Dr. Harris-Mohamed? Yes. Ms. Burke? Yes. Ms. Page? Yes. Ms. Jones? Yes. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you so very much. Next, we will receive for action personnel items. If you have any questions that require foreclosed, please let us know. If not, Let's go through our personnel actions. Thank you, Ms. Odeska. Yes, good evening. The Talent Office recommends the following for approval.

186The nomination of six employees, the change of contract of 87 employees, the resignation of 31 employees, the retirement of six employees, the non-renewal of one employee, the name change of one employee, and the untimely passing of one employee. Thank you. Are there any questions about the personnel action items as presented? Ms. Burke and then Ms. Renzig. I guess we'll have to go into close. I have a question about numbers 60 and 61. 60 and 61? Yes. Ms. Burke, I did respond to you this morning via email. Perhaps you had an additional question on that one too. I did reply to you on those two numbers this morning, but happy to answer any additional questions you may have. Ms. Burke, you would still like for us to go and close? Okay, sure. Can I come back

187to you, Ms. Burke? Ms. Rizzi? Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. I'm not sure, Ms. Sodesco, if you can answer this, but I'm looking at there are six nominations. They're primarily custodial and instructional assistants, and then 31 resignations. Quite a few of those are teachers. I'm wondering if this is going to affect how we're looking in the fall in terms of staffing, especially at the teacher level. Great question. We bring all of the, thankfully no, we bring all of the next school year nominations to the June 21st meeting. Normally that's because contracts would have been issued. Obviously this year we have some challenges with the budget, but it is still the intent that there will be quite a meaty personnel actions next time with all of the new nominations. Okay, thank you. So these are just

188folks, as you can see, that actually are starting right now versus starting next year. Ms. White. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Ms. Hadeska, for the presentation. My question is, I see quite a few for change of contract. So does that mean that you have completed all the contracts or you're just doing a group of change of contract? um great question so yes there you'll see that there are three big buckets for the change of contract and if you note the um date those are all for would be for next contract year so that's in advance of issuing the contract that they would be issued a contract of differing length and should am i stopping am i misspeaking oh okay and those three buckets are some notable changes in our food and nutrition staff to

189better staff the organization some modifications of contract length at the stem academy after two years of planning and an extension of length of the behavior specialist to support summer planning thank you Ms. Burke You're good. You're good now. Thank you. Thank you. Awesome. So do we have a motion to accept the personnel? Yep. So move. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. I'm happy to make the motion too, but, um, uh, related to personnel, um, this time of year, there's always a lot of movement in and out. Um, I think it would be, um, I would love to request whenever is appropriate, Madam Chair, a discussion of the resignations that we have this year and how that compares to where we were last year and the year before to understand, are we facing higher than average resignations as

190is going on across the country, or is it comparable? And whatever the numbers are, I think we should look at them in the face. address them as a board and figure out what we're going to do this summer to beef up recruitment, etc. And how we're going to address that. So I would love to have that discussion. Our plan is to do so in July as folks then have well, again, it's all going to depend when we issue the contracts, but people have generally until June 30, to either return or not return. So July would be then probably when we'd have the most accurate data and could look at broader retention stats. I agree with that because then we're going to ask for it again. Yeah. All right. We had a motion by Ms. Jones

191to accept the personnel actions as presented, seconded by Ms. Page. Is that correct? Yes. Thank you. We had a robust discussion. Madam Clerk, roll call vote, please. I'm sorry. Ms. Durer? Yes. Ms. White? Yes. Ms. Gibson? Abstain. Mr. Young? Aye. Ms. Rizzi? Yes. Dr. Harris-Mohamed? Yes. Ms. Burke? Yes. Ms. Page? Yes. Ms. Jones? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. Madam Clerk, do we have any requests for board travel or district activity requests? Not this week. Thank you. Next, we will have received for action the Virginia Organizing Student Bill of Rights. And school board colleagues, I will start here. I did not receive, I don't think Ms. Lilly received or the other school board attorney, Ms. Thompson, any additional questions or clarity or the need for clarification for the Virginia Organizing Student Bill of Rights.

192Are there any questions, Ms. Dorr? I move that we accept the VA Organizing Student Bill of Rights. Second. It was moved by Ms. Dorr and it was properly seconded by Ms. Jones to accept the Virginia Organizing Student Bill of Rights. Any questions? Seeing none, I'm sorry, Mr. Young. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just briefly, I just wanted to convey my appreciation to Virginia Organizing. Really did a terrific, terrific job on this. And it really is outstanding work relevant to student rights. So I commend the organization and all the persons that had a role in putting it together. And it's why it pains me to vote against it because as outstanding as it is relevant to students, my concern pertains to the teachers and do believe that comes up short pertinent to teachers specifically. pertinent to religious

193liberty and believe that it has a, there's language in the document, has a chilling effect relevant to teachers' religious liberties. I referenced at our last meeting Supreme Court litigation that's now at the Supreme Court pertinent to Kennedy Bremerton. For that reason, I must vote no, but nonetheless pertinent to student rights, it is outstanding and commend the organization and the folks who are still here with us this evening. Thank you for those comments, Mr. Young. Madam Clerk, roll call vote, please. Ms. Dorr? Yes. Ms. White? Yes. Ms. Gibson? Yes. Mr. Young? No. Ms. Rizzi? Yes. Dr. Harris-Muhammad? Yes. Ms. Burke? Yes. Ms. Page? Yes. Ms. Jones? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you so very much. Great work. Great work. Next, Mr. Cameras, the recommendation for the Fox Design Services Procurement Method. This was school board

194colleagues uploaded to BoardDocs. Thank you, Madam Chair. Given the hour and our desire to conclude by 10, I'll be very brief. As it indicated in the presentation, my recommendation is to move forward with the emergency procurement method, given the desire on the part of, of course, all of us to see the young people returned to Hanover Avenue as soon as is possible. In addition, As noted in the presentation, the next phase of the shoring work would involve removing sections of the roof that were damaged, which would expose the brickwork to the elements and put them at even further peril. If we take the traditional procurement route, we would recommend holding on that, which of course is going to delay that shoring work. Nonetheless, of course, whatever the board decides, we will proceed with. Thank you.

195Thank you. Are there any questions? Ms. White? Ms. Renzia. Thank you, Madam Chair. I would just like to reference and thank you, Mr. Cameras, for that information. And I did send my questions in from the last board meeting that you stated to send them to Mrs. Dana Fox. And I received, respectfully, I would defer to the administration. for direct responses to your questions. So I'm not sure why my questions was not answered, but I want, I'm asking again, the same question, seeking clarity. Because what I read regarding the policy for the Virginia Public Procurement Act, which is VPPA, and the City of Richmond Procurement Policy Professional Services, says that it shall be procured using competitive negotiation. But if our procurement professional on the construction team and our attorney, Ms. Lilly, can assure the board that

196moving forward, Well, if emergency will not hold us to any risk, that if we get a protest, we will not spend money going back and forth. Because it wouldn't be a protest, it would be airtight. So again, I'm not a professional. I'm going on what I read. And again, if the attorney says the board is alignment with the policy and our procurement services as emergency is not outside of that policy, then I'm fine with moving forward with this emergency. I am not going to fight about it, but I want to know what is right because I do not want a protest. going back and forth, using the money that we can put in to Fox Elementary. So can I get that answer tonight from one of the persons that I asked at the last board

197and I was deferred to the administration? Unless you can answer that for me, Mr. Cameras. Thank you. I certainly cannot guarantee that there would not be a protest that often occurs in a traditional RFP process. So I certainly cannot guarantee that tonight. Mr. Lilly, can you... based on the policy, not to guarantee that it won't be a protest, but I want to know based on our policy. Right. And so you and I. I'm sorry. Before you go, Ms. Lilly, I just need some clarification. That's okay. When you say protest, do you mean people? Okay. Thank you. That's what I thought, but I wanted some clarity. Right. From a protest suit. Ms. Lilly? Right. Well, it's a protest, but. Nonetheless, on the issue of the emergency contracts, as you and I have spoken offline, Ms. White,

198I can attest to what the policy provides, what your school board policy provides with respect to emergency contracts. There is a definition that says an emergency is an occurrence of a serious and urgent nature that requires Richmond Public Schools to take immediate action to protect personal safety or property. And then under that particular subsection, and this is in policy 3-3.4, the process for moving forward through that emergency, those steps are listed. And as I mentioned to you in our discussion, I can attest to the policy. I cannot provide the justification, nor is it my role to provide the justification for whether or not this instance is an emergency. The determination of that and the information regarding the justification it's from the administration or should come from the administration procurement. And if that is sufficient to

199rise to the level of this particular definition, then the board can take an action under the emergency contracts provision. The board can also suspend this policy and decide that, you know, that as they can any other policy to take action and to declare this an emergency. So I cannot, as I indicated to you, I'm not going to, be able to justify that it is an emergency or not. That's not, you know, I can tell you that you have the basis to, and the wherewithal to declare it an emergency if it fits your, number one, if it fits the policy definition, and number two, if the board wishes to take outside action other than that. Thank you, Ms. Lilly. Ms. Vinzi? So, yes, Attorney Lilly, I'd like some clarification. Is it up to us to determine

200whether it's an emergency or will it be up to some kind of, I mean, an external body? I don't want to run afoul of the Virginia Procurement Act. Right. In this instance, the administration has approached you all to make that decision. And in your policy. outside of that, because of the nature and I can't speak to that, I don't want to speak for the administration, but in your policy, and this has happened before and you all recognize that the administration can declare, can. can determine that certain things meet this definition and move forward and then advise you that they have declared, you know, that they have procured services or goods on an emergency basis. So to my knowledge, the question is before you as the board to decide, and the administration has asked for you

201to weigh in on that. And so no one from the state could come back and say, no, no, the Public Procurement Act. provides for emergency bases. Your policy narrows that to provide the framework of what is, what you all should be looking at as an emergency, right? and then per your definition, and if it fits, then you can move forward as long as there's justification and documentation in that particular file as to how this was declared an emergency, the basis upon which it was declared an emergency. Now to Ms. White's point about protests and things like that, I'll echo what the superintendent mentioned. We can't guarantee under a normal circumstance that that will not happen. And so I just wanted to be clear as I explained to Ms. White over the phone offline, that is,

202I can't, I am not going to sit here and say, yes, this. justification supports one way or the other. It is a justification has been provided that there would be an emergency. If it fits this definition of an emergency, then you have the basis to make that statement. So then my question is, if a vendor filed a protest, we are responsible legally? That's not always the case. The protest is a different process that I can explain that to you outside of this, but a process is a different process that doesn't necessarily result in, I would dare say it doesn't necessarily always result in litigation. There is a review. And if somebody raises an issue with the process, there is a review and you move forward from that. I can provide some more procurement kind of

203conversation outside of this and incorporating that in so that it fits neatly, but I can't speak to what avenues, if you will, a protest would take because I don't know the basis of that protest, nor do I know what that person would be looking for. Thank you, Mr. Young, and then Ms. White. Thank you, Madam Chair. For a person to perhaps are less familiar with the exciting world of public procurement. What we're discussing this evening is IE emergency authority pertinent to procurement, IE no competition. Essentially, RPS calling an architect and saying, would you like this contract for several million dollars? That is what we're discussing. I know for a fact that everyone in this room and likely everyone in RPS would concur with my sentiment that we have to move most expeditiously as it relates

204to getting our students back over at 2300 Hanover Avenue. I do have real pause relevant to... For example, the Virginia Municipal League and their guide and their document relevant to emergency procurement and providing guidance to elected officials. They provide an example of what constitutes an emergency and dare I say, hiring an architect is a bit of a... bit of a stretch. There's a reason that we competitively bid. There's a reason that both state statute and Virginia Municipal League guide speaks to even when you use emergency authority that it's always best practicable to solicit competition. So Madam Chair, if it's your pleasure, I would move an alternative approach. an alternative approach that if this body agrees to in three months would allow for us to have a contract for design services specifically. Madam chair, the school

205board directs the Richmond Public Schools Administration to release a request for proposals for architectural engineering services for renovated Fox Elementary at 2300 Hanover Avenue by July the 6th, 2022, and to be prepared for... and to be prepared to award a contract for AE services contingent on school board approval by September the 6th, 2022. Thank you, Madam Chair. Second. Thank you. There was a motion made by Ms. Young, seconded by Ms. Gibson. Mr. Young, can you repeat that motion one more time? I was writing as you were speaking. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Gladly. The school board directs the Richmond Public Schools Administration. to release a request for proposals for architectural engineering services for a renovated Fox Elementary at 2300 Hanover Avenue by July the 6th, 2022, and to be prepared to award a contract for AE

206services, architectural engineering services, contingent on school board approval by September the 6th, 2022. So to put it out by the 6th and then to approve an award by September the 6th. That's my words in summary. Okay. All right. Any question about that motion that's on the floor? Ms. Berg? Thank you, Madam Chair. Mr. Young, just for clarification purposes. So you're saying not to have an emergency. Your plan that you're suggesting is better than the emergency process. Is that correct? Oh, is that a regular? This would constitute an expedited procurement process. So this would be in lieu of an emergency. So instead of RPS just calling an architect or two architects and inquiring if they would like to have a contract, we would instead put an RFP on the street for folks to bid with expectation

207that a month from today. said RFP would be on the street and that we would be prepared to award that contract then two months later for three months. And we had a long conversation about another school project, IE George Wythe, and I often spoke to what Henrico did just as a frame of reference. So Henrico released their RFP for both a new Tucker and the New Highland Springs in October of 2018 and they closed those contracts in December of 18. So I adopted the timeline, the ENRICO timeline. Thank you. Ms. Page and then Ms. Doerr. Thank you. I would like to hear from Ms. Fox, the administration, to provide some feedback, professional feedback, the pros and cons. regarding the recommendation that Mr. Young made. Ms. Fox, if you would like to come up and share

208your perspective. Okay, are we on? To be clear, for the emergency procurement justification, the justification that we are utilizing would be the historic element of the property. So that... is what has been determined as acceptable justification through procurement, simply because Fox is a registered historic site and has also been listed to one of the most endangered sites in Virginia with Preservation Alliance of Virginia here recently. That is the emergent need. And that is our position if we have that option is to exercise that option simply based on historic and based by definition. Sorry, there's a fly. By definition of what an emergency procurement actually is, and that's to act urgency over. life or property and this is property. So we're not taking into account anything to do with community outrage or monetary anything. It is

209simply that we have a historical structure that we are trying to urgently preserve. So that is our position for that. With the emergency procurement, we are looking at posting for at least 10 days a request for qualifications from firms, and that could be as many firms. And actually, we have a handful that we've already reached out to. or they've reached out to us as well to have this conversation. So it would not be us picking up the phone and just calling one. We would post this for 10 days, a request for qualifications. The qualifications would be based on their experience with historical properties, with water and fire restoration, and also whether or not they have the bandwidth to complete this work in a timely fashion. So that is our... would be our procedure for the

210emergency procurement and that's taken from the state of Virginia Department of General Services and worked in that way. So that would be our process for emergency procurement should you all elect to go that route. But the justification that we are presenting is simply based on a historical structure that we are actively trying to preserve. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Renzia? Ms. Fox, I'm not sure you addressed how that would differ from doing an RFP in July and closing it, you know, in October. So if we acted on how I just mentioned with the emergency procurement, that process would be complete and no more than two months. So should we have that decision tonight, we can then start that process tomorrow and be done. in two months or less uh is there a cost differential as

211it relates to the firm well the firms between emergency and doing a you know rfp process that mr young is proposing yes in terms of the work at the school But again, the justification cannot be monetary as it relates to emergency. But for transparency, should we wait? We've already had work started at Fox simply to finish the fire investigation. And that is the shoring work that the contractor has begun. They did the shoring work in the center of the structure. So working from the center of Fox on the third. City Council Chambers, Floor down shoring that area to provide safe access for all the entities to finish their fire investigation, which they have they have started and not completed so that shoring now is. City Council Chambers, Basically, steel membranes that are holding steel structures

212that are holding up framing they removed items, so we would need to leave those in place. or remove them, removing them would obviously create a risk to collapse. Leaving those in place is likely, we'd have to rent those monthly and it's going to cost us about $9,400 a month to rent. Or if we think it's going to sit for longer than seven months, we could purchase them, purchase the shoring gear for about $61,000. from that we did have from the city and i need to follow up with the city i haven't yet because i wasn't sure on the direction when we applied for permit for the shoring and the city you know required that part of that permit was to brace the entire building we did not do that because we were trying to act

213expeditiously to get the investigation done so we only did that portion of it so Should we have to proceed and complete the work that we've been permitted for through the city? Again, I don't know that that would be required, but should we have to proceed and do that exterior wall bracing? We're looking at about $70,000 for that and then renting that equipment also for about $7,400 a month. Does insurance cover any of that? Yes. How much of it? I can't speak to that, but they do cover us shoring. I would be careful to say for how long and for how much, I don't know what they would push back on with that. Ms. Dorr and then Ms. White. So the procurement option that is put before the board, not Mr. Young's option, contemplates a roughly

214four to six month process. Is that correct? for the traditional rfp it would be six months six months okay yes ma'am um can you um speak to the feasibility of um mr young's proposal that um i think is a shortened proposal that um enables us to complete this by september 6. i i can appreciate What Mr. Young is putting out there and I can see the compromise. I just want to be careful because for Fox and he referenced Henrico, those were prototype RFPs and the scope of work was prototypical. The scope of work for Fox is not going to be, please build a prototype for this square footage. We have to write that scope. I say we, the collective construction department. um we have to write that scope we have to do our due diligence

215to understand exactly what the need is going to be for that building and that includes bringing in other other resources so engineers structural engineers and the like so um i it gives me pause that it would be in a month that we would have to have all of that fleshed out and accurate to post as um as a scope of work for an rfp Not to say that we can't do that. I'm just worried about how fast we would have to do that in that time frame. You mentioned that there have been a couple of construction firms that have contacted you. You said a handful. Is that one? Is that two? Is that five? Design firms. Design firms rather. Yes. And to be clear, the construction part of this would be traditional bid, competitively bid.

216For the design firms, we... are doing debriefs for George with for the firms that did not get the final selection. So we have been in conversations with multiple firms and they've also asked we've had firms reach out to us and ask questions about hey what's your plan for Fox. So I'm confident that we're going to get more than just one or two in terms of the request for qualifications and if we wanted additional information we could add to that for a request for information as well. But again, we can pick up the phone and say, hey, this is coming. We are posting this for X amount of days. But just in the handful of firms that we've had from with, they've expressed interest in that. Ms. White. Thank you, Madam Chair. Ms. Fox, I have

217a question relating to the emergency. You said it would be two months. And I do know that right now, since the building has been stabilized, it also has to be gutted. Where does it come in? Where the historic restoration contractor comes in? And I heard you keep saying money, money figures. Are we using historic taxes, grants? Because I also, I did speak with the endangered historic. today also. So who would actually be writing this historic for us justification? Will it be you or the procurement person for construction? The procurement. Okay. So if it was an emergency, the two months will come, I think you said, we're not getting an architecture, we're just going to get a designer and comes right in following the gutting of the school, how would this work process? For the emergency?

218Yes. So it would be the design firm. So the architect engineer firm would be who we would post those requests for qualifications to. And what. What I intend to do either way is have the contractor that is on site now doing the shoring. They would proceed, regardless of the pathway, to clean out the structure, clean out the debris off of the third and second floors because that is substantial weight. And as it rains and things get heavier, we want to reduce that risk. So either way, I will have them clean out. the debris as it relates to shoring the building doing the selective demolition and some other things for the emergency declaration or emergency procurement that could all take place in tandem with us getting the design firm on board because that work is likely

219going to take about 60 days or more to do the the shoring and the structural stuff the cleaning up would likely take two to three weeks but i want to do that regardless because we need to do that so is there going to be anything to cover like the roof or a torp or anything to put on top or just going to go with that until you clean it out and then just move to the next phase correct there there is no way to cover what is what is wide open there and there would be no effective way to do that right now. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So we have a motion on the floor made by Mr. Young. Mr. Young, can you read your motion one more time? And it was seconded

220by Ms. Gibson. Yes, ma'am. The school board directs the Richmond Public Schools Administration to release a request for proposals for architectural engineering services for renovated Fox Elementary at 2300 Hanover Avenue by July the 6th, 2022, and to be prepared to award a contract for AE services contingent on school board approval by September the 6th, 2022. Thank you. Madam Clerk, roll call vote on the motion. Ms. Dorr? No. Ms. White? No. Ms. Gibson? No. Mr. Young? Aye. Ms. Rizzi? No. Dr. Harris-Muhammad? No. Ms. Burke? No. Ms. Page? No. Ms. Jones? No. Motion fails. Thank you. So we're back to the recommendation that the superintendent has asked us to consider. Ms. Page? I would like to make a motion. I move to receive for action the recommendation for Fox Design Services procurement method. Second. Emergency. It was

221moved by Ms. Page to accept the recommendation by the superintendent for the Fox Elementary School emergency procurement. It was seconded by Ms. Jones. Ms. White. Excuse me, Ms. White. Thank you. It was seconded by Ms. White. Madam Clerk, roll call vote, please. Ms. Dorr. Yes. Ms. White? Yes. Ms. Gibson? Yes. Mr. Young? No. Ms. Rizzi? Yes. Dr. Harris-Mohamed? Yes. Ms. Burke? Yes. Ms. Page? Yes. Ms. Jones? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you so very much, school board colleagues. Next, we have the recommendation for Clark Springs. Ms. Page, I'm sorry. Yes, thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to state for the record, it is now 10 o'clock in our board norms. We agreed to end our meetings at 10, but we have yet to adhere to our board norms. Thank you. We have yet to adhere

222to the timeframe of the board norms and we are working towards that diligently. So thank you so very much. Yes, we have yet to adhere to the timeframe, 10 o'clock, of our board norms. Yes, ma'am. Thank you so much. Mr. Camers, the Clark Springs roof replacement recommendation. Thank you, Madam Chair. Given the hour, again, I'll be very brief. As a reminder, we have 2.5 million in CIP funds allocated from the city for this coming fiscal year. We also have a slate of projects that this board approved to use with those $2.5 million. And therefore, I would not recommend using any of those funds for the Clark Springs roof. That said, We are expecting about four and a half million in additional maintenance dollars from the state per the budget that was passed by the General

223Assembly last week. It has yet to be officially signed by the governor, so it is still pending, but... It is very likely that that will proceed at that number of 4.5 million, and if that is the case, I would recommend using up to $600,000 of that tranche of funding to replace the red section in the presentation of the Clark Springs roof. Principally... to improve the experience for students and teachers and to protect the investment of approximately $800,000 that we have already made in the building. We would want to make sure that those repairs stay up to date and that we do not need to invest further dollars because of the roof. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Young, Ms. White. Madam Chair, unless my colleague from the second was prepared to. Move for adoption. And I

224would move adoption of the superintendent's recommendation relevant to expenditure of $600,000 for the Clark Springs roof or partial roof replacement. Second. Second. Thank you. It was moved by Mr. Young to accept the superintendent's recommendation for the Clark Springs roof replacement, and it was seconded by Ms. White. Any questions? No questions. Ms. White? Thank you, Madam Chair. I have a question for Mr. Cameras. If this is approved tonight, can we ensure that this roof is put on before the next school year, before August? I mean, the red section. I don't know, Ms. White, but I will certainly try my best, but I cannot guarantee that. Thank you. Thank you. Madam Clerk, roll call vote. Ms. Dorr. Yes. Ms. White? Yes. Ms. Gibson? Mr. Young? Aye. Ms. Rizzi? Yes. Dr. Harris-Mohamed? Yes. Ms. Burke? Yes. Ms. Page?

225Yes. Ms. Jones? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you so much, school board colleagues. Next, we will have for first read our FY2220. I'm sorry. Ms. Burke? Madam Chair, because of the hour, I'm asking that you will hold us accountable for reading 5.01, 5.02, 5.03, 5.04, and 5.05. And tonight just discussed the receive extended day update and moving forward under board business. I ASK FOR THE FACILITIES ASSESSMENT TO BE DISCUSSED. I'M FINE WITH PUTTING THAT ON THE NEXT AGENDA. OKAY. SO MY SUGGEST, I'M ASKING THAT. SURE. ARE WE AMENABLE TO READ ON OUR OWN THE FIRST READ AND THEN BE READY FOR ACTION AT THE NEXT MEETING. AND TO ADD 6.03 FACILITIES ASSESSMENT AS LISTED. YES, MA'AM. AND THAT, AS YOU INDICATED, MS. BURKE. everyone doing their homework. And that would limit the length of discussions because

226you're asking the questions, Ms. Burke, prior to the board meeting, if I'm correct. And that's what we're trying to get us to do. And I agree with you. If we can be held accountable to do this reading on our own, then the staff will not be here this late. They can, and we don't have to continue to move things up. Right, because everything on the agenda is important. Exactly. So I agree with that. Ms. Jones and then Mr. Young and Ms. White. Yes. With the movement, if this is accepted of all of five point. Section 5, the 5.05, the receive a first read contract or 250, I have some questions about that. Sure. And would like to, maybe we could send you via email. Yes, please, because I have some as well. Yeah, because I

227don't, it says first read contract. I don't see a contract in here. In board docs. I didn't see it. Yeah, I don't see a contract. And I have a couple of questions about these firms that have been awarded. Absolutely. Thank you. Absolutely. Thanks. Yes. If I may, Madam Chair? Yes. And then, Ms. Jones, can, and this is for everybody, CC me on the, or vice versa. Yes. Mr. Cameras? Yes. If any board member has any question about any of the items in Section 5, if the board defers them, if you could get them to me and the chair. By the close of business on Wednesday this week, that would give us time to research and June 8th. Yes, ma'am. To provide all the follow up. I'm going to say by 6 p.m. because your close

228of business and my close of business is after five sometimes. Mine's like 11. But yes, ma'am. Yes, I think that's appropriate. Also, board members, be reminded that I sent you the email on your three budget items. You don't have to have three budget items. additionally, but I just want to note that as well. So we have a recommendation made by Ms. Burke to defer those items. And I want to be very clear to my school board colleagues that we have to do the reading. We have to do the homework. Okay. Ms. White. Thank you, Madam Chair. You are absolutely correct, but I'm looking at one at five. 5.01 is there any possibility because i see her in the audience that maybe she can give us um for the gifted plan especially in governor's school i

229want to hear more of about that i mean maybe not tonight but maybe come back to the next yeah june the 21st right because you didn't say anything about the people that are still out there in the audience Correct. But a lot of this that Ms. Burke recommended under administration business applies to several people in the audience. And this is going to help us. do our homework, have these questions ready, send the questions to the superintendent. And I always say that, send the questions to the superintendent, CC me. So when we come to the board meeting, we can just do this. We can ask the questions that we can move along. So I am going to ask for, before I ask for that, Ms. Jones. Really quickly, I was going to say, what about the

230score, though? Because I know that there are some changes that have been made to that. So when we are saying as a first read, are we suggesting that we look at the changes and then bring those back to this and send questions in reference to that? Yeah, for a first read, because tonight we're going to review those changes, correct? Right. But here's the thing that I'm going to say. If people hadn't read that anyway. We were going to spend, it's nine of us times six minutes, another 54 minutes on what we didn't read. And I'm just being very honest. Yeah. So we're going to teach ourselves to do that. And it's hard, but we are going to have to do it. So yes, the answer to that is yes. Send the questions to Mr. Camerons,

231Ms. Hadesco, the agent, and CC me. So it would have gone to three different people. Yeah. I mean, I'm aware of what was in it. I was on the committee. I just was speaking to Ms. White's point about the folks that we do have here that we've asked them to present. But if we're not going to, I just want to thank them for coming out and being here and recognizing that trying to save time, we're going to move forward and we will. have everything that we need because there are several things in that manual um that are also set to be implemented sooner than later so we need to make sure that we review and be ready on the 21st and we can suspend our secondary policy that says for second read and adopted that

232night we've done that before okay so yeah that would be helpful i know that it's a lot of work that have been done by the committee on that. Yes, it has. And it was a very, it was a collective effort to get it to as close as being ready and ready to train and all the things, some of the things that we actually are speaking about, about the safety and all that is incorporated in those changes. So we definitely need to look at it and have our questions and be ready to go on the 21st. Absolutely. Thank you. Yes. So for clarification, for the record. We have all of section five. We have established a consensus. I'm going to ask. I've looked to my left and I see a consensus there and I'm looking to

233my right and I see a consensus here. Mr. Young, I know you had something you wanted to share. I just don't think it's fair to all the folks who have been sitting down there for a few hours, but I think we should sit here and do our job because they did theirs. That's my that's my thought. You're right. I understand that too. Mr. Cameras, I asked the superintendent because they don't report to us. They report. I serve at the pleasure of the board, Madam Chair. Good answer. Well, it was a good answer. So directors. Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, ma'am. I understand they've been waiting here all evening, but do they want to be here for another hour or two? Can we ask them? Yeah, and I was going to ask, do you all want to

234be here another hour or two? Because they would have to come back next meeting anyway, correct? Correct. For second read. Correct. We're just going to kill two birds with one stone. Correct. And I will assure this of you all team, if the school board does not have, does not complete their due diligence, we're moving on. We are moving on. It is our job. You present, we ask you to present the information that as you've done so, we need to do our job and we need to read it and we need to have these questions sent to the superintendent so he can send them to you so you can address them when you come and present and then we'll vote. But I'm looking forward to... I have it right here. I'm looking forward to excusing the

235policy for a second read so we can vote on your information on the 21st. Does that sound good? Awesome. Thank you for the thumbs up. Checking for understanding. Mr. Camas. I wasn't checking for your understanding. I was checking for your understanding. Understood. If I may, I would recommend perhaps at our June 21st meeting, we place these items at the beginning of the agenda. Absolutely, because we do that with some other stuff. Yes, ma'am. So they can come right after public comment. Is that good? Yep. All right. So be ready for after public comment. So that's the whole section five, correct? That's the whole section five. They're going right after public comment. All right. Awesome. all right and thank you all so very much for action on the next agenda just so i'm correcting that record

236yes yes ma'am and school board colleagues if i may i sent you the email with the update for the retreat we don't need to discuss that you have any questions you can reach out to me and um And if there are board members attending committee meetings, you know you're responsible for submitting those reports. New business, is there any new business? If so, can we keep it under two minutes? Ms. White, then Ms. Gibson. Thank you, Madam Chair. I would like to add on the next meeting, the preschool concerns. and also the Head Start program. Head Start is already going to be up there. But I want to continue to put it on there until they get those corrections. They had 120 days to do those corrections. Correct. So I would like for that to be

237on our agenda until those are completed. Yes, ma'am. Duly noted. Ms. Gibson? Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to reiterate the request to discuss the preschool program in our next meeting. I'd also like, and I've made the request before to just have a presentation regarding transportation. That obviously impacts the preschool program, but I think it merits its own discussion. But I think the most... critical thing that we need to discuss is the calendar for the upcoming school year. We've received a lot of feedback on the calendar this year. To be frank, it just hasn't it it's it's there been some issues and the extension of the school year into the end of June is simply not working. And I know firsthand that kids are not learning. Right now, as we are, you know, nearing the

238completion of SOLs. So, you know, the calendar is simply not aligned with how the school year works, end of story. And so my hope is that we can revisit the calendar, have the administration provide some alternate options so that we can make adjustments so we don't repeat the same mistake again next year. We also, if I may, need to provide them some suggestions. we can start with that. I'd be happy to do that again. I mean, you know, basically for me, the feedback is the same. I didn't vote for the calendar the first time. Okay. And then also the homebound program. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. Announcements. Any announcements from my school board colleagues? All right. I just want to remind everyone that graduation starts next week on the 13th. Check your calendar

239and I would love to see you all there. The RPS slash REA retirement banquet is June the 13th. I will be present for that. and continue to check your emails for any upcoming special meetings. And thank you so very much. If there isn't any more questions or concerns. I would ask that everybody just give me two seconds to pass out regalia before you all leave. Yes, before they leave. Thank you. If there isn't anything else for the agenda, I adjourn the school board meeting at 1017 on June the 6th. Thank you.