Stafford School Board 12/13/2022

001One last question from the meeting tonight on the items. Let's add them to the agenda at the end of the time. Trailer to trailer. We're going to alternate. That's getting pulled. We already have it. Yeah. Okay. All right. So let's add in 4.04, the trailer. Action item. I Okay. ...in regards to where we're at currently with our special education services for our students with disabilities. But before I dove into that, I wanted to talk about what is special education, talk about the service continuum, as well as specialized services, how we train our staff, and then beyond, going beyond in regards to the direction we're going into supporting our students with disabilities. So what is special education? Special education is a federally and state mandated requirement to support identified students under IDEA with services through what's

002called an individualized education plan. And that plan consists of services, goals, and accommodations that are individualized for our students that are identified under IDEA. It's also important to remember that this is free to our parents and we want to make sure that we are educating our students with disabilities with their typical developing peers as much as possible. For our students with disabilities, they can be identified as one of 13 disability categories, but they can also qualify under numerous ones. So there was a document that I put together and it's in the packet and it looks like the one that Alyssa has at the top of her. Yep, right there. So this is a document that we are going to be sharing with parents that outlines what's called the child find process. And you might hear

003this word being thrown around a lot. And this is a very important process because not only is it what's best for our students and identifying students that require services, but we're also required by law to identify students that live within our jurisdiction. through 21inclusive to determine if those students qualify for services under IDEA. Now for parents listening in, if your child is ages 2 through 5, you want to reach out to the Child Find Office. We have an office that oversees identifying those students, providing resources and supports for our families, and then also doing the evaluations to identify if they should be receiving services under IDEA. For students that are K-12, they should reach out to their base school. And if they don't know who their base school is or have any questions, they can

004also reach out to our office. So once somebody identifies or is suspecting a disability, we have 10 business days to meet as what's called a student education committee meeting. Now just because we're suspecting a disability doesn't necessarily mean we'll move forward with any sort of evaluations, but we have to take it into consideration and then we move forward with evaluations if the information does show that the student potentially could have a disability. Now Virginia is known as a consent state, so before we move forward with any sort of evaluations, we need consent from the parent. If we do identify that we are moving forward with an evaluation, we have 65 business days to complete those evaluations. And then if we find the student eligible, we have 30 calendar days to create an IEP, as I

005talked about earlier. And then once the student is eligible, we have to meet at minimum yearly to discuss the IEP, and then every three years to discuss the eligibility of the student to see if they continue to qualify. And then the document that I put together for you is a one-page summary that we are going to be sharing with families so that they are more familiar with the process. And then we can help them through any questions that they have if they reach out to our office. We're holding off on questions you said, right? Yes. So before we start diving into what services are available to our students, I want to talk about some common language that we're going to be discussing over the next couple minutes. We're seeing a lot of level one and

006level two services. Level one services are services that our students would receive in the general education setting, in the mainstream classroom. Those are going to be those level one services. Level two services are services that students receive in a self-contained or a pull-out program. where they're more individualized for meeting the needs of the students through their IEP. We also have our public day school which you know as Heather Enfield and the Stafford High Public Day and those are for students that require some additional supports that our public day school cannot meet so those students are placed in those programs and then if the students do require more and have need more supports and have more unique needs then we take a look at our private day schools which are schools throughout the Commonwealth that specialize

007in specific areas of need for meeting students with significant needs. Then we have residential placements, which typically Stafford County Schools doesn't propose students go to a residential placement. That's for students that would stay on site at the facility and they get their education during the day. It's typically placed through the community or through parent placement, and then we follow suit with providing instruction for those students. So very rarely do we place the student, but we're responsible for their education when they go. And then as you can see, homebound and homebase is at the bottom of this list because this is going to be the most restrictive. This is where students are in their home receiving instruction. They don't have access to peers. They have very limited access to teachers. So homebound and homebase is on

008a very limited basis, and we have to make sure that we have a transition plan for students to come back to whichever program we've identified for those students. And the big difference between those two, homebound is when a doctor recommends it, homebased is when an IEP or 504 team recommends services that students would be receiving in the home. Looking at this service continuum, the main reason I wanted to show this to you is as you can see, we want to make sure that all of our students that have been identified as having a disability have access to general education. That is so important. It's also important to see it is a continuum. So students shouldn't always stay on one lily pad, per se, if you want to call it that. Where if we have students

009that are in private day, we should always be having conversations of how can we get that student back to the public day setting? How can we help them transition? And if a student is on home-based, how are we going to help that student transition to a step-down program so we're able to give that student access to typical developing peers and to get them ready to transition into the community? And then services range from, as we already talked about, level one, level two services, behavioral supports, or collaboration with community stakeholders. We always want to make sure that we're providing support for our gen ed staff so they're able to provide support for our students when they're accessing the general ed setting as well. And then we also have related services such as occupational therapy, physical therapy,

010speech and language therapy to provide students access to those services so they can access the general curriculum. So we provide a plethora of training for not only our special ed teachers, but also our general ed staff because they also have a lot of exposure to our students with disabilities. So we want to make sure that we're providing them with rigorous training and support so that they're able to meet the unique needs of all of our students. And as I shared earlier, our goal is always to make sure that our students with disabilities have access to the general education setting as much as possible. This is a pyramid to show our current number of students that have been identified as having a disability in Stafford County. The top number there, 105, is the number of students

011that are currently in private or residential placements. 801 is the number of students that are currently in preschool or speech and language or any other sort of ancillary disability. 869 is the number of students that are currently in our level 2 classrooms or our self-contained programs. And then the 2,459 is the total number of students that are receiving level 1 services for a total of 4,234. To give you all an idea, we started this year off at 4,100 students. And those are students that could have transferred in or students that we've identified that currently were residing in Stafford County. Now let's talk about moving forward. We're always looking at how we can better support our students with disabilities because if you take a look at the numbers, that achievement gap is growing and we want

012to make sure that we are able to support our students and we want to update our staffing standards as well as get our students back into their base schools. So what our current practice is, as I mentioned, we always want to make sure that we're giving our students access to the general curriculum as much as possible. But for students that require more unique services, sometimes if the building doesn't have the setting for that student, we have to look at a neighboring school that has that program. And if that neighboring school doesn't have space, then we're looking at placing that student maybe halfway across the school division. So that's something that we need to do better with. So we want to get our students. as back to their base or as close to their base as

013possible. We are going to have some scenarios where students are not in their base, but they're going to be less and few and far between and less as compared to where we're at now. Where we want to go as well is we want to take a look at reducing the staffing ratio for our program so we're able to meet the unique needs of our students as well as emphasizing that the IEP teams still and will always have the authority to determine what the access to each level of service and program that the students will need. So if you look over to the right there at that first bullet in regards to the 60 percent That identifies that level of service where a student will be identified as a level two service, but that's not going

014to be a hard number of 60%. The IEP team is still going to drive that decision because we might have a student that has 55% or 50%, but there might be a unique need where that student does require access to that program. Again, it'll be very few situations, but the IEP team will still be driving those decisions for the supports of our students. And the communication with our community is going to be essential and it's going to be very important with this process. So before we move forward with anything that I just mentioned about shifting our students back to their base, we want to make sure that we're corresponding with all families that potentially will be impacted with this shift. We're looking at potentially doing a survey with absolutely follow-up phone calls with any questions.

015And then information and feedback sessions. That's something that our office and myself take a lot of pride in with working with our families, talking with our families, and working through these situations. Because again, as I said earlier, the IEP team is going to be driving a lot of these decisions. So we want to make sure that we're supporting the student when they do transition so we're meeting the needs of those students. And then, of course, following up with our SEAC, which they've already been notified in regards to what this process is going to be looking like. And then we want to follow back up with them with any updates. We also have some exciting things going on in regards to our Undetermined event. We're meeting twice a month right now. We have a committee of

016about 10 of us with building-level staff as well, and we are very excited to be hosting this event here in Stafford County. As we get those updates, I will continue to let you know. We're going to have an interest survey going on to families this week, and we will keep you posted in regards to what that's going to look like, and that will be at Mountain View High School from 8 to 2 on March 4th. We're also expanding our post-grad program. We were actually just approved for a competitive grant called Start on Success, which is going to expand post-grad opportunities for all students with disabilities of giving them access to paid internships so that they can actually have access to jobs in the community. And we're actually looking at potentially having Stafford County Schools hosting

017some of these students. So we're currently working through what that process is going to look like. So very excited about that. as well as we're going to continue to communicate with potential improvements to our level two service earlier about getting students back to their base and improving the staffing ratios for our students. So again, thank you all for your support. I want to see what other questions that you might have. I know, Ms. Halstead, you said you had some questions. Yeah, we do, just a couple. But thank you all for your time and here for answering the questions. Yeah, can I just start? I just have a couple. So the disability, when we talk about access to... You were talking about like right in the very beginning and then over here so there's a whole

018bunch of things here So when you go over this with the parents all these are hyperlinked to some access point that they have So if I have a child with a disability, but like let's say I'm also And I'll give you an example of a parent that's contacted me in the past Like she just doesn't have access to things for herself right now because they're in a bad situation So what kinds of services do we provide because like? Getting to the doctors doesn't cars. She doesn't have you know, it doesn't have access to those things Do we provide other services to them? Absolutely We have we have a social worker that is assigned to every building that can help families with access Community resources and we also have community resources that can help support families

019in need So they just need to reach out to their building level administrator and then they can lead them in the right direction in regards to accessing those services and supports. So we're not just like we can support them with other external things which will help the school process, not just the school process. Absolutely. Okay, cool. So I just wanted to double check that. So is that what the ombudsman's job is? Is that a community advocate? Because I know I've worked with them with elder care before. Sure. So there is an ombudsman that is at the VDOE state level. And they field a lot of questions that families have throughout the Commonwealth. And then if they have specific questions that they feel that the school division needs to be made aware of, then they will

020call us and they will say, hey, this parent just called. You might want to follow up with them on some basic information. A lot of times they're able to answer the family's questions. Like for example, we had a family that called up and had a question about the VAP. So they called up them, they told them about the VAP, and they just let us know to say, hey, this family reached out. And then we reached out to the family to make sure that we were able to provide them information on that alternate assessment for students. So is there a reason why the parent would go to them and not directly to us first? Just something that the state offers. I mean, typically a lot of the families come to us. We don't get a lot

021of calls from VDOE, knock on wood, because I feel that we do a really good job of making ourselves available to our families. So that very rarely happens. Okay. Residential placement, what is, is that age from like? Like what are the actual typically it's different facilities are different But the ones that I'm most familiar with miss Halstead is the age of 18 Okay, so it is after sort of school age kind of kid. Okay. Yeah up until the age of 18 up until the age, right? All right So we would would we have those students here with the like up until they're ready for residential placement because I know we had one that's like up to 22 or something right don't we have a secondary piece of the student is aged between 18 and 22

022and they still require support then the community would have to step in to provide that additional support. Again, the education typically isn't the issue there. We could provide the education. It's where that student is living. That's why we typically don't propose a residential placement because that's more of the community placing them. So very rarely do they not know what to do with the student from age 18 to 22. Education is typically not the issue. Last question. The pyramid. How is this dispersed across the county? I'm assuming it's not nicely put, like, hey, we have 100, and we've got 10 of these in Hartwood, 10 in, you know, Widewater, 10 whatever. Like, what does this look like on a map in terms of where these kids are located? I mean... Yeah, they're actually there's a pretty

023even distribution I would say between 10 and 15 percent of our students in various schools receive special education services You know we do have some limitations on reporting that data because privacy because you may have single digits right because obviously a hundred and some odd students out of For the school of 600 or just even that that could be a very small number Maybe even single digits right particular school zone and we wouldn't that for small and reasons but in general We have we have an average of what is it thirteen and a half percent of our students across the division But that does fluctuate between schools between So impacting the ability to kind of... That was the last question. You said it was your last question. There are a lot of things that are

024only half true. I know, I know, but we need to give everybody else a chance. Why don't we circle around and see what comes after you. Maya? Great, we're just going back and forth. Maureen? My questions are going to, I think, mostly be with our privately placed students as far as oversight. continuity of, I mean, I understand that they have an IEP schedule and meetings, but how often do we follow up with the schools that they're placed with? Do we do regular visits or do we just rely on positive or negative feedback from our families? And the one thing that I learned during COVID is that the families who are privately placed didn't have access to free lunch at the universal school. And of course, it makes total sense when you think about it, but

025at the time, I hadn't thought about it. So if those families, especially because families with medically complex children tend to be strapped for cash in general, if any of those families are eligible for free and reduced meals through the national program, I would like to know that we have to make sure that the families, because I do know that these schools virtually provide meal service, families have to pack. So I can address both of those. And then the first one is we have two transition coordinators that oversee all of our students in both private and residential placements. They meet regularly with each of the placements that we have students in, as well as students that are in residential placements. We actually visit students that are in residential placements to stay connected with them and the

026families. And that's something that, again, we want to make sure that we stay in the loop on. And then if there are any sort of concerns with programs, which we had some concerns with a program a couple of years ago, we don't have any students there anymore. So that's something that we're currently working out with each of those facilities and making sure that we're providing those supports to those students. In regards to the lunches, that's something I can look into. That's something that wasn't made mention to me. What was made mention to me is that the students did have access to those free lunches because that's something that we've talked to with each of those facilities. But I'm going to look into that because that's not okay. They could do the meal pickup. But like

027last year when lunches were still provided, you know, at regular everyday school, the families were packing when we weren't doing the drive-by pickup. Gotcha, gotcha. So, and again. The universal free meals is no longer a thing, but we still do have free and reduced lunch opportunities for some of these kids. Thank you. You can get back to us. Sarah. Sure. So we're talking about sort of when we move kids back to their closest school, that we're also going to potentially be consolidating some of our staff so we won't have quite so many paras maybe or whatever. Whatever it is. Will we sort of keep track just to sort of, I'd be interested in keeping track of how many dedicated aides we currently have assigned and if that number goes up as a function of that.

028So I have that number and then we can track the number? Terrific. Correct. Just to see whether that happens. Yes. And then it's just a question as we were sort of listening to someone. Have we looked at all at whether there's a relationship between family SES and... children being identified for services? There is a relationship for sure and that's definitely something that we will be attentive to. I will say there may be some correlation but not causation. Just because you are a student with disabilities does not mean that you are... What I was referring more to was that there's sort of a... and I have no idea whether it's reality or not, but sort of a belief that families where the parents are more on it, those children will get services, and that children whose

029parents maybe are not so on it may be less likely to be identified. So I was just curious. It sounds like we don't really necessarily know. Well, that sounds like it's natural, particularly if there's a language barrier or parents aren't aware of the... Right, but we're supposed to be, I mean, the child is the child. You bring up a really important and good point. I think if there's anything, and I'll let Dr. Hummer opine on this some more if he needs to, but I think it's important to note that that may be the case initially for many families, but eventually we start seeing some warning signs at the school level that make identification easier. All right. So one of the things you said was about improving services in the future. You name the idea of

030moving kids closer to their home, and so that's the part of the where, but I guess I'm curious as to what changes or improvements do we have for the what? So that's a two-fold process. The first fold is inclusive practices. We need to make sure that our students with disabilities have access to the general curriculum as much as possible because that is where they're going to get access to the curriculum and instruction and those supports so that we can start to move the needle in regards to closing that achievement gap. So that's going to be that first piece. The second piece is... We really need to improve our staffing standard for our students. That staffing standard hasn't been adjusted at the state level in over 15 years. And as our students come to us with

031more unique needs and require more additional supports, we have some case managers, Ms. Randall, that have 24 students on their caseload. On top of overseeing four grade levels, overseeing numerous subjects, it's a lot of work for them to be providing the individualized support that our students need. So if we can reduce that staffing ratio for those staff, it will be able to, in turn, provide more individualized support for our students so that we can close that achievement gap. And I've actually got one more to add to that. Something that we've heard a tremendous amount from why they're being, and many of our kids have through anyone's fault, but based on our ability to provide space when they have siblings that attend other schools. There's been a number of requests that we've entertained for folks to

032attend the same school as their siblings attend in the same neighborhood that their siblings attend and if they have friends in the neighborhood for those friendships and those bonds and some of the social structures to still be in place as well as some of the academic supports that we neighborhood school. that we are not able to access right now. And we feel like that's an improvement, but we also have some hurdles to jump through and some conversations to have. I think that we've got some parents who understandably would have some trepidation about any kind of move whatsoever. The good news is that we are able to provide services in a lot of our elementary schools as is and that the number of students that we would have to address might be minor and we're also

033looking at lots of different approaches to do that where it might be phased in if we need to to better accommodate families. This is in part honoring some requests that they've made as well that we should look for ways to not other those kids. who are being served in our with disability and they are they need to be in the least restrictive environment that serves their needs and that in many cases can be their neighborhood school and to that extent we should provide that and my second question is and i was trying to understand is it possible for a child to be labeled as level 2 and level 1? Sure, sure. Based on the level of service they're receiving. So if a student is in a self-contained setting, but then they go into a general

034education classroom with para support or with monitoring consult, that would be a level 1 service because they're in that general classroom. Okay. Yep. So you said that we have 65 business days in order to get a student evaluated and figure out their IP and their placement. That's like a third of the school year. What's our average time in getting those students? the services that they need. Great, great question. I don't have the average time right in front of me and that could be something I could see that we can track. However, what I will respond to is that that establishes those banks on the river. You have 65 days to do this. So we like to get those done as soon as possible. But we have to remember that a lot of times when we're

035doing these evaluations, having the staff to do them, sometimes that's typically what hinders us to get those done. I could take a look to see if we could track that number. I'm just curious. And also, how many people are involved in these evaluations? How many different teachers? Yeah, great question. So at minimum, you need a building-level designee. You need a gen ed teacher that knows the student. You need a special education teacher. And you need an evaluator that is able to interpret those test scores. And then, of course, the parent you want to involve in that. So those are going to be at minimum. We also have diagnosticians that do the educational testing, so that adds another layer to that conversation of psychological scores versus educational scores, so it doesn't put the psychological just in

036that one seat. And then based on the other needs of the student, there might be some autism supports that the student needs, so we might have the autism coordinator there. Or if there's some speech services, there might be a speech path there. So it ranges, but at minimum are going to be those five folks that I mentioned. Great question. I have a question about the follow-up, your next steps here. And this has the parents and the SEAC. What are the next steps with the current teachers? current special ed teachers how are we coordinating with them about any proposed change on the delivery services yeah so we've already communicated this to principals and the department chairs and they've communicated with their staff and then once we work through the logistics in regards to what the shifts

037and the moves are going to look like we're going to work very closely with patrick and hr to determine how we're going to have those meetings with each of those staff something else we've talked about too dr taylor is we would set up maybe town halls with those staff as well to see if there's any sort of questions that they might have overarching so that we can discuss those as well. That's something that we also talked about as well. I'm going to backtrack a couple months. You know, when I first heard about this, it was, you know, threw away. a building administrator and it had been put forth as this is what we're going to do. Now, you know, it's a proposal, which I think is good and I'm not making a judgment on it

038because I'm still gathering the information. But when you said we communicated this, it was communicated this is what we're thinking about. We'd like to get some input. I mean, we're looking to parents for input. We're looking to SEAC for input. I would think we would want to look to our SPED teachers for input, not just this is how it's going to be done, just what are your suggestions on, you know, if we go this way, you know, how can it best be phased in, how can it best work, what are your, you know, what do you have to think about this? Because... They're going you know you have the town hall and you tell them this is how it's going to be done or ask us your questions But as we're putting it together I

039I would think they would be in the best position to to give us suggestions and to make this proposal even better So if we haven't done that I would suggest that we you know consider Because I've heard from a couple That you know have concerns about it, and it perhaps. It's just not knowing you know all the facts but those facts are still being worked out so you know they they know their students at least the students that have now and hypothetically we're going to be serving the same set of students maybe in a different setting so that that's just something that I would ask and the same thing with the with the building principals you know because this is going to be a change in the delivery within their schools I would Want to

040hear you know their feedback and their suggestions and and how do they think it would it would best? Fit you know with them. I just don't want to say well. We've told them this is what we're going to do I'm going to play my own answer and look after chase. I'm so what is there any particular bottleneck and stamping that is currently causing us any stressed and getting these things done. What was the last part you said? Getting them tested or identified. No, no. We stick to our timelines as a matter of time. No, I'm just wondering if there's a bottleneck. Is there any particular staffing position that maybe we're getting it done in that time, but where there's a bottleneck, where we don't have enough staff in that particular position, or we don't have

041enough resources? I mean with our psychologists we are covered in regards to coverage but it would be nice to get to one per building so that we could potentially lower that number of days for evaluations. Diags we're fully staffed in that regard. Social workers we would like to get to more one per building so when they get involved from doing social histories and such but I would... OTs, well we're fully staffed with our OTs but we do need some more and that is something we're taking away. Fully staffed is, you know. I guess my question is, is fully staffed enough is what I'm trying to do. No, no, that's why we're looking at our staffing ratios to improve them, absolutely. And that is part of our conversation. For our schedule it's always been because the

042OT shares buildings and then when we're scheduling things, you know. it's basically her schedule that dictates the days and then our schedule on top of that and it's because she's spread over you know multiple sites and if i can add to that mrs sigmund a lot of our positions are mandated by state requirements in regards to soq so our special ed teachers our slps there is no state requirement in regards to ots there's no staffing right and it's here i'm just saying like we always get the service that we need something's not right. Well, that's something we can perhaps look at in the future. I know for many, many years we didn't have a focused teacher at every school. When we had a goal, it took us probably a decade to get to it, but

043we finally have a focused teacher in every school. So if there's something that would significantly enhance the delivery... then maybe that should go to the FAB to see if we can build a plan for that and build it into the budget or the five-year plan or whatever. Unless it seems like there's SOQs that need to be improved at the state level. We'll hold that for our 4.03 plan for lobbying the state legislators. All right. If any other questions come up, send them to Dr. Taylor, and he'll get your answers. Thank you, Dr. Hummer. Thank you, Dr. Hummer. That was a good one. All right, 4.01, day school MOA proposal from county government. I want to start this item by saying I got a call from Mrs. Bomke after the VSBA conference. She was on a

044panel with the head of the VSBA, and she, just finishing up her term as the head of the... the Virginia Counties Association. And a lot of the discussion was talking about how we now have this better, improved relationship, and a lot of it has to do with communication. And so she, you know, asked me, and I sat in on that. I was impressed with the discussion. But, you know, she asked me what the status of the MLA was, and I said, well, you know, I don't know because we didn't, receive any request for discussion as far as we're concerned we still have a MOU because there's two parties for an MOU and there's nothing in there that says one can drop out so she suggested that we have you know a dialogue and then and

045asked us to take a look at this and give some feedback and you know what we would like to see so This is one here now. I think we saw it. We may have seen it a while ago I know when I first saw it on it had been sent to dr. Taylor and and you know He was asked to sign it and I said well the board needs to give authorization to sign that so I think it Now, and this is administrative in nature, but because this has a fundamental change that relates to board member membership on a committee, the red line proposed amended version makes one substantial change, which is the removal of a... committee made up of board members and staff to just a committee made up of staff as a steering

046committee the board had indicated that it would like to have meetings with county counterparts and into to use this as an opportunity to have dialogue over the day school and so county government did make this change with the Board of Supervisors and then sent us the revised MOU without a discussion about it. So I am bringing this to the board to seek your direction on this document. It does seem as though that there are members of the supervisors who would like to revisit this topic, as Mrs. Healy said, and potentially go back to having the day school committee in which our current MOU that is already in place is satisfactory. And there is no need to sign anything and to just leave it alone until it's time for us to have a new MOU for

047the 23-24 school year, which would be this summer. Because our current one is in place until June. It is. And I would suggest the board consider sending this to the Finance and Budget Committee for review because a lot of it has to do with the fiscal impact. If you think some of it should go to government, you could... you know, referred to governance as well. But just to take a look at this. But the bottom line is that what... Mrs. Blumke wants to do is open the communications between the supervisors and the school board. And this is a really positive thing. So if we can look at this and give some feedback, I think it's really too late, given that we're already into January to make a change for this year, since we've got something

048in effect. But thinking in terms of beginning July 1st, if we want to make a change, what would we propose? You know, they voted on this and sent it over, and I guess, did they vote on it? Well, I think if you want to talk about communication, then maybe it would have been nice if they'd communicated this before you voted on it and sent it over. Well, but it's a new day. But, well, putting that aside, I... I'm not comfortable with something that's all staff mediated. I would like to see at least one representative from the Board of Supervisors and one from the school board who is, and I think that at the very minimum should be our recommendation, but I agree with you that we shouldn't be doing anything at all. I also am

049kind of confused as to where we stand to them because we are under the, you know, we have the MOU, we're under the MOU, but they also failed on the MOU that they don't want to meet anymore. So if we're not going to approve any iteration of this and we're back to the MOU, they're not on that. We never left the MOU. We didn't. They did. They can't just be on that. Well. So we send it back and say, okay, this is the term until the end of the year, and we'll discuss it. I've marked this up a bit, but really it's where do we stand today. You know, we have a, I guess we have a major report due at the end of next month. Yes. And who are we giving that to? To

050ourselves? I was going to say to ourselves. We're doing a good job. We're giving the data to the committee and the committee's giving it to them and to us. And I'm like, you're giving us our own stuff back? So that's why I think their proposal needs some consideration. Their proposal seems to be great. understanding of what the process is. I'm just, I have just a question about the, I mean, maybe we don't know it, but the mentality of not proposing that moving forward, like not having this dated for the upcoming school year as a way to build that bridge for communication. Well, this is dated for right now. That's what I'm saying. So, I don't know, like, that's my question. I know they're asking us to look at this. because we want to open... Well,

051they backdated it. They backdated it. That's what I'm asking. What would be the point of doing this and not asking us to consider it moving forward? It would seem more of an exercise, the fact that it's backdated, as opposed to the true nature of what we want it to be. And so, to me, I'm not okay with approving something that... of an agreement that was six months, started six months ago. I'm not all right with that. If we stick with what we have and we're the only ones involved until June, so be it, and then we can revisit and re-look at the terms that they have. But I also agree with Dr. Warner that I think there does still need to be representative of both boards there. What I would propose is that FAB look

052at this, see if there's anything in, when I say this, look at their proposal, see if there's things in here that would enhance our program or our relationship in working with them, and then let's take a look at how do we move forward. We need to look at ours, and maybe ours is outdated now. Maybe we need to re-look at that, but come up with some hybrid. But whatever we do is most likely not going to take effect until July 1st. But we're going to have to start now. Now meaning January if we're going to have something in place. And then just take a look at it with a dab and see if you say, well, you know, there's some good things in here and maybe we should consider them. And then what we can

053do is go back to the supervisors and ask them to assign someone to work with us to come up with something that we both are comfortable with. that meets the needs. I personally would like to see the superintendent and the county administrator involved in these. I don't like the idea of the school board giving or our agents or... chief financial person giving data to the steering committee and then reporting it back to the school board and reporting it to the student. That doesn't make sense. Especially when one of us isn't there to kind of guide what we're actually looking for. Because they'll be putting in a lot of work and effort to present us stuff that may or may not be the questions we want answered. But if one of us from each side is

054actually there to kind of... guide that or you know include this or phrase it like this so that we get it in the way that we are ready to receive it or need to receive it we'll just make it more efficient. Well if you want to if it's you know if you're willing to take this as the fab to take a look at both of them And then report back to the board saying, well, we think what we have is just fine and we should stick with it or they make some good points or we want to look at some changes. You don't have to tell us what changes, but if you want to make some changes, then I think before we start digging in and making changes, we go to the supervisors and say,

055we're considering this, but we want to make some changes and do you have somebody that we can work with so that we're getting input on both sides and we're not just doing it. UNILATERALLY HERE. IF WE COULD DO THAT AND GET STARTED, IT'S GOING TO TAKE US MONTHS, I WOULD THINK. AND THEN, OF COURSE, WORKING WITH THE STAFF THROUGH. Dr. Taylor on what we really need because this is important. Yes. This serves a number of students and I tell you with Eliza, your suggestion about the playground, what would you and Maureen? You made the suggestion on the playground, look what happens. We're going to have a playground there and it's going to be pretty darn soon. But if you hadn't brought it up and raised it and then we... took it over, it wouldn't have

056happened. So communication is important. And the important thing here is that maybe there was, not maybe, there was a lack of communication, but now they're reaching out. So let's take advantage of that. I absolutely agree. I just think that we have to craft an MOU that is mutually beneficial and gives the structure and the support to the day school that it needs. Exactly. Well, not only that, they want information about our privately placed students in this MOU2. So now it's not just the students in private placement. It's let's discuss all of our private placement students. I mean, it includes not only day school students, but also the private placement, which we know they pay for. But they call this the day school, which people think is, oh, it's only 24 kids, when really it's... All

057of our privately placed kids, it's all the kids in the Heather M. Fields School, it's all the kids in Stafford High Public Day. Anybody in residential, it's all of those really high-as-need kids. I think that should be should that looks like this or governments should look at this and make sure we both look at it In January yeah, and then we can we you know we can put it on our work session to share those of those we Plan to plan out to the supervisors and you know, after that may be in February. Because they're going to be tied up with budget. Remember, they don't like to do anything else when they're doing budget. Yeah. We may have budget. This is budget. I know, but we can multitask. We can multitask. But I think having

058that and governance both look at it saves time. Yeah. And I think it's great. And Dr. Warner, since you had been out because you were on both of them for the maximum time, why don't you sit in on the... Both of those meetings, if you can. If you can, because I think you have some good insight. You just have to remember. Missy? Somebody text her. Somebody remind me. Remind Liza. We're both going to text her. That doesn't count against discipline. Okay. Okay. All right, so that's good on there. 4.02, proposed new regulation 31.13, parental notification concerning instruction material. the sexually explicit content thank you madam chair as the board knows you have a policy that's up for adoption that is required to go into effect before the start of the new year that policy is

05931 13. We have drafted a regulation to correspond with that policy. As the board discussed during its retreat, we will also be looking at violent content and reporting back to the board as to our recommendations for how to address violent content at a later date. We bring this new regulation, which does not require board approval and would go into effect should the board approve policy 3113 later this evening. But we wanted the board to have an opportunity to review, discuss, and make recommendations and feedback to us before this policy were to go into effect if the board approves it and with it this regulation. Well, just to be clear, this new policy is... statutory requirements. So we'll be in charge if we don't approve. Right. It's not like we're doing this in our own volition

060or making this choice. Correct. So I just had a reading through it and just had a question. Are you on policy or are you on general? Policy. It says, parent rights and responsibilities. And at the end of the first paragraph, it says, such a request from the parent must be in writing within two weeks of notification sent to principal and the teacher. This is, I assume, an alternative assignment. Got it. So if I'm a teacher and I put together a syllabus at the beginning of the year, and it has all this information in it, are we saying that the parent has two weeks from the time they receive the syllabus to let... the teacher know that they're going to want an alternative assignment when that comes along. Okay, you're actually in the regulation. Right. That's

061what I'm asking, Jeff. We were actually, when we added that in, we were really focusing in on the 30 days notice. In order for a teacher to react and then negotiate with the parents about alternative materials, I will tell you, we did not. We were not thinking about the syllabus at that point. It says up above, it says, there's something in here that says provide, yeah, will be sent by email, given in person, or provided on the course syllabus. So, I mean, for me as a teacher, I would be very comfortable with that, right? I mean, I'm a fan of tell me what we're doing for the semester and then let me plan accordingly as opposed to the teacher. And I know there are teachers who don't do syllabi and all of that, but, you

062know, I would much rather know at the very least two weeks after the school year starts who needs an alternative assignment for the semester. I think it's a very good question. And quite frankly, Like I said, I mean, we were thinking about the 30 days. Like if I notify you and you leave in 30 days, I'm going to have a lesson on something. And then I would hope that I would have at least two weeks to respond to the parent and make sure we get it straight. We could certainly make a slight tweak to this to say two weeks prior to the implementation of the materials. I like it the way it is. I didn't know if you were looking for another option. No, I want them to decide right away. Right. I would like

063people to get this. If a teacher gives them a syllabus, and if I were a teacher, I'd back them, sign, and approve that they got this syllabus. Honestly, we have to. Our kids get a participation grade. Well, it depends on the teacher. Some do that, some don't. Just about all of mine. do at Middle and High School. That is the intent and that's the notice. I think that's out of respect for the educators. I just want to make sure that that was the intent. That that was either. It can be very disruptive if parents can come in throughout the year and say, well, wait a minute. I didn't know they were reading this. I didn't know they were doing that. Unless they give notice 30 days. Like unless they change something. If it wasn't on

064the syllabus and they couldn't be doing it, then it's a 30 days. So, yeah, that was the intent. We were trying to be respectful. I think so. I agree. both sides there any other questions on that policy array all right so that's going to come to us tonight all right that gives us to plan for running state legislatures My recommendation is that we have a subcommittee out of governance that consists of two or three people and it's our job, whoever's on that subcommittee is required to contact two or three of our arranged meetings with our state legislators for lobbying our needs. So I'm going to say that in governance we talked about this and I think we really did see the value and importance of us being more involved. on the legislative end of things.

065I mean, really, that is part of the expectation of our rule is that we're going to effectuate change, not just what we can do here, but what we can do at the state level. And so I do like the subcommittee idea, but we wanted it to be sort of the entire board sort of being responsible, maybe working in tandem teams. On a calendar for an issue to make sure that if it's coming up or if it needs to come up and I definitely liked the way we did this having them come to us so that we could host them in a sit-down meeting and maybe we need to talk about whether that's also feasible by senior show Yeah, what I don't know how many delegates will be after we're split are we still just to

066delegate this way we're three now What are we now? We're 1, 7, 28. Chief of staff. I really appreciate when older people like you get involved in the community. Oh, that's awesome. I'm sorry. Who's chief of staff said that? We're voters. Just like my daughter in the whole people bus. The millennial whatever. Listen, I told them the other day, my daughter called the DC Trails bus, the old people bus. It was at Park Ridge, probably taking the kids on a field trip. She goes, those are the old people buses. I'm like, thank you. This old person appreciates that. But anyway, so I don't know how we would want to go about it, but I think we talked really about sort of like a calendar, almost like we could do it like the disciplinary hearing one

067or whatever and put us on rotation so that we're splitting the effort, unless we had a particular legislative issue that we were super passionate about. Yeah. I like that idea. It's a short session year, so it's a good year, too. Yeah. Well, it makes sense to put people where they live. Like, if you don't live in somebody's district, you might not be the right person. Right. Or if you have a relationship with one of the legislation, whether they're, if they represent staff or. Right. Well, even if you have a relationship and they don't represent Stafford, we still need their support. So I would sit down with Jennifer McClellan and say, hey, you know, there are things we need. But I don't know, technically as a board, do we really want to be lobbying people that

068don't represent our area? No, but if we do know that there's, I would say that if we do know there's a sticking point somewhere. But if she's on a committee that might oversee education, just because they're not. You know serving the constituents of that we are yeah if they are on an education committee or a finance committee like yeah there doesn't hurt to have You know, there's a reason to reach out to those people. I also think we look at these we made these changes So if terrorists got or Phil Scott in this particular instance came to us and said, you know Would you be willing to meet with another delegate? They have questions specific to it I mean, it behooves us to be available for that as well. Capital conference or whatever. Capital conference

069is kind of a waste, in my opinion, just because I think that they're not really focused. There's a meeting with a lot of different people. There's, you know, VSBA is giving their spiel on what they recommend. I think that if we set up appointments. outside of that, I think we get a more attentive audience. I agree. And I think that it's better for us to advocate for the things we need or, hey, the state needs to change the SOQs because for ESL students and for our learning disability students, we don't have adequate coverage and, you know, those standards haven't changed. I think that we have to be more targeted. But I don't think we can depend on the lobbyist. I don't know if the Board of Supervisors still has one. This was a great idea,

070but we didn't get good turnout. Well, it's step one. Yes. And I think that you have to realize that just step one isn't as far as you go. You know, you don't just like vomit it all on the table and then say, hey, there it is. We're done. We're done. It's a process. How come it didn't work? We have to stay in the office. We said do this. What's the matter with you? We need to like schedule ourselves to be very active through the process. Whether, like you say, whether we team up or whether, you know, however we want to do it. I just still think that. We have a really solid, easy thing to understand what we're asking for, and I think it makes it really good for us to advocate for it. And

071I think it's just more important for us to advocate for what we need than what the SBA thinks the state needs. Right. I agree. Just as a matter of there's a few ways I don't know you know you want to jump in on how you would foresee this as well to support you what you guys need at the staff level or whatever but To do the rotational thing but are we would we be calling and advocating for all the legislative changes a few at a time? Prioritizing whatever that may look like and then we want to establish Talking points or whatever so that we're all on the same page because I think we need to make sure that if we're all reaching out to our delegates and being actively involved in it that we're all

072saying the same thing. So good news. You have them in priority order. Right. And there are the talking points. So you're good to go. And we trimmed down the list of things that we brought to you. In governance, you all did a really nice job of paring it down, in my opinion, to the stuff that matters most right now that's most relevant. So teaming up and making appointments to see them in Richmond. absolutely and the sooner you get on the field trip that's right the sooner you can get on their calendars and I think that the clutch decision point you you all have hit the nail on the head is when can I meet with you in your office in Richmond yeah I agree because that will maximize that. If we could get the list

073for who's on the education and finance committee's too that might be helpful. Yeah, the two education committees, Senate Health and Education and then the House Education and then the two money committees are the decision makers in this space. So we can absolutely provide committee lists and contact information to the board and leave it to the board to set up appointments and pair up. We should schedule it so we're not stepping on each other's toes. That's right. We're going to have to coordinate this. I'm going with Susan. Just putting it out there now. Is she driving a bus? I want to go with mine. Do not do this like you did the budget town halls. Oh my God, I was just going to say, you and I need to take a road trip. I don't know

074where the back would be. That would be epic. In the back of a sheriff's vehicle. Oh my God. I'm driving. I'll take my husband's Corvette. No. I'm in. I'm in. I am so in. I don't want to go in January. I have two names. All right, so just to close what we've learned, though. We'll send out a solicitation this week to board members and fill in some dates when we know that they're in a good session. Put down the people that we know represent the Stafford area. It doesn't have to be where you particularly live, but the county of Stafford, all the delegates and the senators. And so we can try. We'll make sure that we cover everyone with a visit. Yes. We'll try to do two visits in one day if we can. Yeah,

075I agree. Perfect. So somebody might have to do it twice because I'm not going by myself. I'll go every time I have to. Yep. I think you'll have a great time. All right, so that brings us to our new item 4.04, the proposed trailers. Susan, you want to start us off? Sure. So I was looking through. I don't have the handout in front of me. Chris is going to pass out copies so that everybody can have them. So one of the things that came up, and this is one of the reasons why I was asking Dr. Hummer about the kids that were in... I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think

076that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I think that's a good point. I guess I'm curious

077too, I'm seeing like at Falmouth they have one and a half special education one, but four special education two classes. And my wonder is, what is their current? number like if this is the one that's being projected what is their current one so I can see what's the same what's different but also if we take away if we redo our special ed program and how we offer the services is that going to change those classroom numbers and then if we subtract out a teacher workroom does that bring us into four short classes instead of five and a half, six, whatever it is. And because I noticed that when you go, Falmouth might be a little different, but in Hampton Oaks. You could if by dropping a teacher workroom Could you then drop yourself into not

078needing four? So that's like I'm just seeing that there's a bit of a negotiation there So you got a couple of things and I think I can answer just about all those questions But I'll lean on Chris to add to that the first big thing is This represents the potential of us doing some some moves and thinking through that. But if we don't, it's like whack-a-mole. You're going to add the same amount of trailers, it just is going to be where you add the trailers. So if you don't move some special education classroom from one school, you're going to have to add the trailers to the school that you didn't move them from, that you moved it to. Because you're there. You're out of space. So you've got that. At the very bottom of this

079sheet on the left, we've positioned some of the capacity standards changes to not take effect until later. So the guaranteed workroom has already been pulled. But when you looked at the individual sheets for the individual schools, it was not. For which piece? So like the one that was right after this, that showed the worksheet for each individual school. Some schools didn't have it, but some of these schools that we're advocating trailers for did. And so by taking that out, it can knock them from being deficient, the tipping point, five classes, to the keeping point at four. So if they don't have a workroom now, we are implementing it in year four or five. Some of them have a room that you can't take a workroom and convert it to a classroom. Maybe not a classroom,

080but some of these were like for special ed, so you're putting a half and a half. You could potentially gain, if you want to take that workroom and convert it to a half a classroom is what you're saying? Yeah. So you're not going to put a K-5 classroom in there, but you could put maybe a pull-out or resource space in there, depending on it. So it depends on that layout of that workroom, right? If it is a big square box, then yes, you could. Some of them could be built out with stuff that does not mean that you could just convert it to a resource or pull-out. So some of them, the juice isn't worth the squeeze on reducing the teacher workroom even if it's temporary. But when we're talking about a modular campus versus

081not putting a modular campus, that to me is concerning because not all of these, not all, but in some of these instances, I don't know what they're, you're telling me you need six special ed classrooms in that school, whether, and level one I thought was, why is it say, one and a half classrooms level one when those kids are pushed in. I didn't understand that. So they would still receive some special education services in terms of additional support and they may require some additional, like they may have an accommodation that might be that they do all of their assessments in a quiet space. So they may be in a different component based on what their... accommodations are, even though they're accessing the vast majority of the curriculum in the general ed setting, there may be

082a portion of the day where they are in a resource setting where they're receiving assessment treatment or redirection. All of the resources were labeled out separately, but this was listed as part of the general ed. And they are, for the most part, accessing the general curriculum, but they may have an accommodation that also requires them to receive additional services in a separate space. Right. And that's why it's a half-classroom space and not a full-classroom space. Well, some of them, like for the Level 1, was one and a half. It's because they have three Level 1 teachers. With a caseload of 20 students. Okay. So they might be being pulled out for something like dyslexia? Yeah, and at different times during the day. Or they're doing something along that line. So that teaser would be made.

083What I will say is I visited Conway last week and visited the modular campus there. And I will say that I do not want other schools to have to go through starting the school year without and then having to have the teachers move into the classroom afterwards. And I think for families to go to open house and be like, well, you're going to be here, but then we're going to move you over there. It's much nicer to actually see a room that's prepared. I don't disagree, but I'm just saying that I see... some of these as not necessarily being the need that requires the tipping point for a campus, but some I do, Hartwood for sure, because we said this year was the year that we had to make a difference and a change there,

084and this is how we're going to address that. I don't have a problem with that, but some of these I definitely do, because I think that they don't need that. If you take away something, they don't need that. And we're paying for a campus that, you know, I guess I just don't feel comfortable with all of the choices. Right. So with Conway, I see 6.5 for year one, and then I see 7.5 for year two. So even if you were saying maybe Falmouth doesn't need it. Oh, no. I don't know what schools you're thinking, or Hampton Oaks. I think it was Hampton Oaks I thought that did not. And I think it was One and Creek. But like I said, I was going off the other sheets that were following this that had a lot

085more detail as to what the allotted classrooms for the special ed as well as, like I said, teacher workroom. And it's not noted on this chart the way that it's noted on those other sheets. Isn't this also based on projected enrollments? It is. Yeah, some of those. I don't understand the numbers for Park Ridge. How are we at 725, which is significantly less than a lot of the others? But you're not a 925? That's not a 925. Yeah, it was a 925. And it's not a class size reduction school, but it's still short. So you also had upwards of 30 kids. many classrooms at Park Ridge and recently redistricted and that dramatically corrected that space but we are anticipating a large portion of our growth going to that particular site So that's their capacity now

086and you expect them to be much, okay. I've asked this question before. Why is Park Ridge 725 when it was originally built, it was between 925 and 975. I don't remember exactly. So why is it 775 today? And this again goes to your program capacity. to a large degree in terms of how some of those spaces can and should be used. And this is all the more reason that you should establish some guidelines and some requirements because if you have cutaway spaces for specific rooms like OT, PT, Diag, and whatnot, those don't contribute to your capacity ability. If you are doing things for reading specialists or what have you, those things eat away at your capacity. Art, music, eat away at your capacity. And it drives your teaching station count dramatically down. And so, you

087know, we look at the buildings kind of artificially inflated when we look at their design capacity. We say, yes, we can fit X number of kids into this building. And yes, you can if you put them in every nook and cranny, every collaborative center space, and you've got 28 kids in every classroom. Yeah, well, we don't put 28 kids in every classroom. And we don't use art rooms as teaching stations. And so those things do erode your ability to... to fill up the space using everything from a general ed perspective. So this is an ongoing battle because, and this should inform what elementary school 18 and 19 look like. and how we look at that space and how important it will be to design a space that accommodates a certain amount in a general ed

088capacity versus these other ancillary things that we have come to provide like OTPT services, ESOL, et cetera. Because the ESOL space is largely going to be pullout. Level one special education is largely going to be pullout. The only things that are contributing to your capacity or you're going to be your kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms and any level two classrooms and i'll be at level two is going to be a diminished capacity but but they are going to contribute to your capacity the other stuff it all cuts away from your capacity because those are things that students travel to or they or they are not part of their their general ed setting they're not assigned there for the primary purpose of their school day so in falmouth you have And like I said, I'm going

089because I took notes off my sheets, but you have four special ed level two classes at Falmouth. Is that currently what they have? And is this projected what they need? This would be projected what they would need. Can I ask? I was really surprised that Falmouth is no longer Title I or class size reduction. Is that true? Yes. I don't remember how we got to eight because traditionally these are come to the school board to vote on Which is are going to be the title schools because we have control over that and sometimes we had a higher number Sometimes we had a lower number It was between four I've seen it go up, you know to seven but now this has eight so how did these eight get the designation of title Well, this is

090over half. I think half is qualified. When did we approve these eight schools as title schools? That's what I'd just like to know that, if we can go back to get that information. I'll have to find that out. Because I mean I remember years when we've only had four and then years when we've had higher. And it varies based on those percentages because if we're at 38 and 39 we might want to say well we don't want to cut it off at 39. Well can we get some more information about that 725 at Park Ridge because I'm concerned about that particularly since when we did the redistricting. It was my recollection that even though we were going to be at 100%, that we were still going to be able to accommodate these students there. And

091now we're being told that we're going to be 11 and a half classrooms short at Park Ridge. When we did the redistricting, we were supposed to be good for three to five years, even though we'd be a little crowded, but not like this 11 classrooms. I just, and since the numbers were so close, that one is striking, the differences there. Plus, I know when my daughter was there, it was 925. We were actually up closer to 1,100 students, which was not ideal, but that's what we had in there. But to go from, say, even 925 to 725, that's almost 20%. That's a huge. Drop I mean they had over a thousand kids there at one point last year. They were bigger than Ronnie Looks like Falmouth is a classroom difference for special education I can't

092believe that the sound is snowballing. It might be. That'd be okay. I'll double-check. We pulled it off the website to double-check. Is it too soon to talk more about Park Ridge on our call? I'm not comfortable with it. Well, the question is, are we going to need these trailers somewhere? If we're going to need the trailers somewhere, then perhaps we can consider approving the request for the trailers with the... Location to be determined after additional information is supplied by to the school But we are not approving specific Allocation and the additional information is to be provided to the school board sometime between now and when that work has to start on it for the school board to decide. Then we'll do it on January work session. And if we hadn't moved 200 kids, it would

093have been, what, four trailers already? And then six more? Yeah, you basically need another. I'm trying to think of how many we... But that's not what we were told when we were doing this. I agree with you, but I'm not there right now. I just know that... My residents are gonna come to me and be like well Why didn't you get trailers last year and I was like well this is on top of that well So you have you had places to move kids a year? I don't know right? So you're you are right? Right, it would have meant adding to the four we would have gotten last year, six more. Which is crazy. We are approving the request for the funding, but we are not approving the actual, we will take the proposed placement

094of the trailers under advisement, but that we are not making a final decision on where the trailers would go until we receive additional information. and have a chance to discuss it. Just so that I can. I'll send my questions in an email to you. Okay, yeah. Just so I can have clarity on what additional information is needed. Okay. Well, this assumes that the special ed is going to go through, right? I want to know their current special ed numbers for these schools so I can see current versus proposed. Can you pass me a pen? Use mine. Current special ed placements versus next year's proposed. Like what is their exact number now versus what you're proposing? Okay, and you actually have that on the piece of paper in terms of number of classrooms, but I can't

095remember the number of kids. Yeah, but I want to know specifically, like I did not know they had three this year. I saw on the placement form that they have four for next year. But that brings it up, which, you know, like I said, I'm just curious about. Okay. I guess I'd like to understand, and this is me, I'm still trying to put my head around it, and I do appreciate Dr. Hummer's information tonight, is it the number, and you're probably going to answer this right now, is it the number of kids in the school that is going to dictate special ed level one classrooms? Because, I mean, some of these you have listed as one and a half. two that's based on half yes yes is the answer so this is predicated on on

096case I'd like those current numbers as I know these are projected I would also like to go yeah I was going to say If anyone else has any questions that they want additional information, send them to Dr. Turner. He will share the questions and answers with all of us. And I'd say try to get that to him before the close of this next week. If you guys want to get your food, then I'll read it to you. All right, so we're finished with the work session. We will get our dinner. Well, I tell you, yeah, let's go get our dinner, bring it in here, and then we'll go into closed session. And let's try to end at 6. 20 so we have 10 minutes to um go use the facilities 2.2-3711a7 of the code of

097virginia to consult with legal counsel pertaining to probable and actual litigation where such consultation in open meeting would adversely affect the negotiating litigation posture of the board second second Motion by Ms. Randall, second by Dr. Chase. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? All right. We're now in closed session. and then we're designated on behalf of the school board. Wait, that's not the question. No, no, there's nothing coming out. Wait a minute, just certify. Oh, we do that out there. Thank you all. When we go out there, all right. So anybody that has to use documents. certification for the closed session yes but somebody has to read it there wasn't a certification it was just a miss Randall that pursuant to Section 2.2-3712 of the Code of Virginia, the closed meeting of the School Board of

098Stafford County on December 13th, 2022, be certified by adopting the following resolution. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the School Board of Stafford County hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge, one, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements were discussed in the closed meeting. to which this certification resolution applies. And two, only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered by the board. Do we have a second? Second. A motion by Ms. Randall, second by Dr. Warner. Ms. Hall, would you poll the board, please? Yes, ma'am. Dr. Chase? Agree. Ms. Skye? Ms. Halstead? Agree. Ms. Healy? Agree. Ms. Randall? Agree. Ms. Sigmund? Agree. And Dr. Warner? Agree. Madam Chair, motion passes. All right, now we're going to call

099the monthly business meeting to order. Would you please stand for the presentation of the National Colors and Pledge of Allegiance by the Colonial Forge High School Army JROTC? Under God, in the physical world. We'd like to thank Cadet Major Alejandro McCabe, Cadet Command Sergeant Major Alexander Marchant, Cadet Staff Sergeant Angela Goodman, Cadet Staff, I'm sorry, Cadet Sergeant Lillian Rhodes, Cadet Sergeant Maria Hodwanek, and Cadet Corporal Ethan Donaldson for being with us this morning, and also thank their instructor, Sergeant Major Lee Wortham. Madam clerk, would you please call the roll? Yes, ma'am Dr. Chase here and miss guy Here miss Halstead here miss Healy here miss Randall here the Sigmund here. Dr. Warner here, and I'm sure you have a quorum Thank you. Do we have a motion for approval the agenda miss Halstead? matcha would

100like to move that we In our consent agenda, we have a regulation amended policy 1108 I'd like to table that pull that out of our consent agenda There is a am I right? Do you want to move that to action? I want to pull it out. Do you want to move that to action this evening? No. We have to make a correction on that one. We can make the correction in the discussion this evening. Yeah. We can pull it out for action. So we'll take that off the consent agenda. Yep. And move that to action. 11.08 policy and move it to action. Thank you. Do we have a second? Second. All right. We have a motion for approval of the agenda as amended. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Aye. Oh, I'm sorry. Do

101your clicker. Can we have some technical assistance here? Does it have a battery? All right, yes. Okay, we're going to the alternative, which is all in favor say aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries unanimously, whether you clicked or not. That brings us to the consent agenda. Motion to approve the consent agenda. Second. Motion by Dr. Chase, second by Dr. Warner, and of course that is minus 3.05, which will be on for action. All in favor, please say it. Or do you want to try clicking again? We'll try to click. All right. Oh, can we, do you mind if we do the all in favor, please say aye? Aye. Aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion carries unanimously. Dr. Taylor, do you have any announcements for us? Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, I do. He's not with us

102this evening, and we'll recognize him at a future meeting, but I'm delighted to announce the promotion of Bob Freeman, who was our principal at Ferry Farm Elementary School, who will now be our assistant director for building and operations. We're thrilled with that. He was our longest tenured principal in Stafford County. And that does leave a vacancy at Ferry Farm. And we are delighted to make that appointment this evening. Miss Alyssa Fraser will become the new principal at Ferry Farm Elementary School starting in the second semester. Since 2018, Miss Fraser has served as the assistant principal at Hartwood Elementary School, helping the school to achieve outstanding academic performance amidst leadership transitions and pandemic shutdowns. Prior to becoming a building administrator, Ms. Fraser spent nearly 20 years as an expert in the field of literacy. As a

103successful teacher of both first grade and elementary English as a second language and being a reading consultant as well as our division-wide leader for ESOL instruction. Ms. Fraser earned her bachelor's degree of science from Salisbury University in Maryland, her master's in reading from National University in California, and her administrative and supervision endorsement from George Mason and is presently enrolled in a doctoral program. Virginia Commonwealth University. We are so excited for your leadership. Thank you for joining us, Ms. Fraser. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board, and Dr. Taylor. I am honored and thrilled to be able to serve as the Dex principal of Ferry Farm. Thank you so much for your trust. Thank you. I'm going to miss seeing you at Hartwood. I'm going to come visit you, though. I miss Hartwood, too. Thank

104you madam chair. I have I have one additional announcement I'm very excited to announce that Miss Victoria Basile will become the new assistant principal at North Stafford High School. For the last two years, Miss Basile has worked in our central office as the coordinator for world language instruction, helping to not only develop a curriculum and provide instructional coaching and resources to our building programs, but also to serve as a bridge between communities. such as our Spanish technology nights and our Spanish fluent speakers program. She is just a rock star in our school system, and we are so excited for her leadership in this new transition. Prior to her current role, Ms. Basile was a middle school and high school Spanish teacher, first in North Carolina before joining the team at Shirley Heim Middle School, and

105then, of course, transitioning to central office in a leadership role. This is a great step in her leadership journey. Ms. Basile earned her Bachelor of Arts in Spanish Education and Masters in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and her certification in Educational Leadership from Longwood University here in Virginia. Thank you so much, Ms. Basile. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair, School Board. Dr. Taylor, thank you for this opportunity to work at the world's greatest high school. I am so excited to get started building relationships with students and families and the staff there. I know it's going to be fabulous. I do want to thank my wonderful husband for coming tonight and supporting my hopes and dreams. The rest of my family couldn't be here. They're all out of

106state, but they're home watching. And without my mom, my aunts, my sisters, the circle of incredible women that have lifted me up i would not be who i am today and where i am today so thank you for all of them and lastly gracias for the opportunity to work in the north school i'm very excited thank you and i'd be remiss if i didn't point out that the north stafford high school administration is also here to support their new colleague thank you madam chair Bienvenidos. Next, we have a presentation by Band Together to Fight Hunger. Good evening, Chair Healy, Vice Chair Randall, members of the board, and Dr. Taylor. My name is Debbie Pickerel, and as you know, I was the coordinator of this year's Band Together to Fight Hunger. On behalf of our five

107high school band parent associations, I am very proud to share with you the final contributions of our 12th annual event. I am joined this evening by our outstanding marching band leaders, Christopher Rogers, Brass Captain, Brook Point High School, Nicole Simpson, and Ivana DeLeon Casas, drum majors at Colonial Forge High School. Sydney Shore, drum major at Mountain View High School. Clara Jacob and Lydia Zambon, drum majors at Stafford High School. Also joining us this evening is Mr. Dan Mayer and Ms. Stephanie Sherrill from the Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank. The 12th annual Band Together to Fight Hunger provided an exciting opportunity for our community to celebrate both our Stafford County High School marching bands and our commitment to the food insecure citizens right here in our surrounding communities. And due to the pandemic, many of our neighbors

108still have not recovered. These months have been defined by hardship and hunger. Rising food costs add to their burden, making it more difficult to afford the basics. Our Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank is the storehouse for the food and other products collected. These items are then distributed to our local food pantries and other programs in our communities. This is why our event is so important to our community. This year's band together to fight hunger was once again a major success thanks to our incredible community and business partners the program featured band performances from each high school and Each high school and the grand finale consisted of nearly 400 Stafford County students was a highlight of the evening It was pretty awesome to get to conduct over 400 band students together and with dr. Taylor Because of

109our amazing community and business partners, we've received donations totaling over $13,000. That equates to over 26,000 meals for our community through the Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank. We are grateful for the support of our returning sponsors, Core Solutions, St. Peter's Lutheran Church Youth Group, KBI Music, Ebenezer United Methodist Church, Simventions, Dr. Elizabeth Atreid, Stafford Media, Carter Machinery, High Note Tips, Trips and Chick-fil-A on 17. We would also like to thank and welcome our new sponsors, Aldi, Halpin Consulting, Fredericksburg Nationals, and Manhattan Pizza. Thank you to our Stafford community who attended in large numbers. With their help, we collected $3,629 during the event. This equates to an additional 7,258 meals for our community. During the course of the evening, with the help of our Band Booster families, we loaded 2,712 pounds of food onto the food truck.

110This donation of non-perishable foods provided an additional 2,226 meals for the Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank. The 12th annual Band Together to Fight Hunger raised over $13,000 in total. Coupled with the food donations, we are thrilled to share that our amazing community provided a total of 29,248 meals to the Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank. We are proud to present the final check for the Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank to Mr. Mayor and Ms. Cheryl. Band Together started with the vision of one high school band director and has grown into an event we are extremely proud of. Thanks to the support of our local community, our event has raised over 350,000 meals for the Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank over the past 12 years. We are sure you will agree our band programs are making a huge impact in our

111community. Thank you for continuing to support and fund music programs in our schools, and we look forward to seeing you at our next Band Together to Fight Hunger. If you could turn around so that the people out there could see what you have for them. You can make the presentation. Oh, come on up. Thank you very much, and as always, it was an amazing performance of the high school bands throughout Stafford County at that event. We have a very special presentation this evening. I don't recall us ever having done this before, so thank you, Dr. Taylor. This is the Colonial Forge High School Chamber Choir Performance. Okay, you know what? I'd like to go sit out there so I can see, and anybody's welcome to join me. Thank you. It seems odd to talk that

112way, so I'll talk this way. I do really appreciate that you allowed us to come and to sing for you tonight. I've been in Stafford a very long time, and we never have done this before, so it is really very awesome. We're going to open with Hinei Matov, which is a Hebrew folk tune, meaning welcome, brothers and sisters. It is so great for us to all live as one. Our next piece is called Gloria. We get one more and our last one is Este Noche, which is a Spanish Christmas carol. In our first presentation, I think it would be, Madam Chair, if you wouldn't mind sticking around. Good evening, school board members and Dr. Taylor. This evening, we will recognize staff and community members that epitomize our values of students, integrity, respect, community, opportunity, and

113excellence. Tonight, we acknowledge the achievements of Barbara Perry, Sue Evans, Connie Englehart, Sean Thurston, and Maureen Fahler. Ms. Perry, we are so delighted to have you tonight. Stafford Schools proudly acknowledges the accomplishments of our educators and is always pleased when other institutions recognize the wealth of talent in our division. Tonight, we congratulate Mrs. Barbara Perry on earning the 2022 Virginia Music Educators Association Outstanding Music Educator Award. This award is given to a Virginia music educator who is also a VMEA member in good standing and has made an impact in their school's program that is evidenced by student achievement, program recognition, accolades, and program growth. The recipient must also have taught for a minimum of 10 continuous years in Virginia. Mrs. Perry has served Stafford School for more than 25 years. and has spent two decades

114as Colonial Forge's choral director. In this time, Mrs. Perry has impacted the lives of countless students, both within and beyond the classroom. Mrs. Perry, you are a gift to our school community, and we are honored to have such an exceptional choral director guiding and supporting our students. Thank you. Merry Christmas, guys. Merry Christmas. Stafford School celebrates the foundation of excellence created by Dixon Smith field hockey team dating back to the school's opening in the fall of 2006. Since then, the team has earned numerous recognition, including their most recent and unprecedented achievement of outscoring their opponents 60 to 1. Many students who pass through Dixon Smith Field Hockey Program go on to win district and region titles, even advancing to state competitions as part of Stafford High School's field hockey team. They also go on to

115play for their respective colleges once they graduate from the division. Tonight, we honor four key contributors to Dixon Smith Middle School's longstanding legacy of athleticism and sportsmanship. When I call your name, please step forward to receive your awards. Audience, please hold your applause until the end. First, we recognize Dixon Smith's original head field hockey coach, Miss Sue Evans, who served for nearly a decade, leading the team to nine county championships within that time frame. Next, we recognize former assistant coach, Connie Englehart, who served alongside Coach Evans and helped guide the team to its early success. We also recognize the current head coach, Sean Thurston, and current assistant coach, Maureen Fahler. Prior to becoming head coach, Coach Thurston also served as an assistant to Coach Evans. To date, this leadership duo has led the team to

116earn four more county championships in the last six years, continuing the legacy of greatness. While we openly acknowledge the hard work and dedication of the players and their success, we know that great leadership transforms good teams into great ones. Here tonight, representing the legacy of these incredible coaches, are the current members of the Dixon Smith field hockey team. Ladies, when your name is called, please join these esteemed coaches at the dais. Ashley Agumon, Abigail Beasley, Piper Bourne, Emery Brewer, Mia Cordy, Riley Dean, Caitlin DeLiva, Holly Donnelly, Savannah Duffy, Morgan Flynn, Kinsley Frye, Julie Gatto, Emily Hall, Julia Heflin, Bailey Hudson, Emma Jones, Megan Kobetz, Celine Moreno-Lapierre, Madison Pulliam, Hadley Roberts, Haley Russett, Sophia Shemansky, Milan Stafford, Haley Taylor, and Layla Wardle. Thank you, Coach Thurston, Fahler, Evans, and Englehart for creating a rich legacy that

117makes this division proud. And to our team, thank you, ladies, for the drive, sportsmanship, and athleticism that you model for your team and peers each day. Congratulations. So that brings us to citizen comments. Three minutes are allotted to each speaker or group. Speakers are encouraged to provide a copy of the comments to the board clerk. Speakers shall identify themselves by name and organizational affiliation if the spokesperson represents an organization. Speakers shall also announce the purpose or topic of their comments. Citizen comment which is profane, abusive, or which threatens imminent physical harm shall be ruled out of order by the chairperson. Although the board provides the opportunity for citizen comment, individuals desiring to register complaints against division employees or division programs, services, or activities may also utilize the procedures outlined in Stafford County Public School Policy

1181113 public complaints. And I note that we had a few speakers that are planning to address the school board. Proposed policy 41 13 and I just want to make sure that that you're aware that that policy is not on the agenda this evening the school board discussed it at our retreat last month and we've sent the Superintendent an assignment to review Guidelines and come back to us later in the spring You're still welcome to come speak, but I just wanted to let you know it's not on the agenda as it was proposed last month. The clerk will call the speakers, and she's going to call three at a time, so if you could just line up and follow one after another, that will help us progress with our meeting efficiently. Thank you. Madam Chair, the

119first three speakers are Matthew Strickland, Richard Alvey, and Lisa Lineweaver. Is Mr. Strickland here? No? Well, then we'll pass to Mr. Alvey. All right. Ms. Lineweaver, you're on. Madam Clerk, why don't you call the next three while Ms. Lineweaver is coming down. Next names are Lori Szymanski, Mary Rupert, and Patricia Smith. Thank you. If you have anything for us, you can give it to the clerk. Thank you. I'm going to take this. How do I know when it starts? When you speak. The little lights on. Good evening, Stafford County Board members and Superintendent Dr. Taylor. My name is Lisa Lineweaver. I hold a Master's in Science and I'm a mother of three. I just passed out an article regarding a girl who at 15 years old had a double mastectomy due to the transgender ideology

120pushing culture, which she now regrets for the rest of her life. This is what happens when we allow ideologies that have nothing to do with education to penetrate our schools and impressionable children. Fourth graders in Virginia between 2017 and 2022 saw the largest declines in reading and math in the nation. One year ago, concerned parents and citizens voted in a conservative leading school board in Stafford County, and concerned parents and citizens expect action. Therefore, I urge you to support policy SB4113, which would regulate... regulate decor, and prevent propaganda in the school hallways and classrooms, thereby creating a neutral learning environment and would bring the focus back to education, not indoctrination. Teacher Pam Rickard was an outstanding teacher who taught for 15 years before she was suspended for refusing to affirm a transgender student. It wasn't

121for anything she said or did. Rather, Pam was punished for something she couldn't do, participate in a student's social transition to identify as the opposite sex. As a Christian, Pam strives to treat every person with dignity, love, and care. She believes all people are created either male or female in the image of God. She sees any lie as a direct violation of her biblically formed faith, so she always seeks to tell the truth. Along with these deeply held beliefs that Pam shares with millions of people in the U.S. and around the world, world, she also wants to protect children from making potentially irreversible and life-changing decisions that they may later regret. Pam reached out to Alliance Defending Freedom, which assisted her in suing the district for violating her First Amendment rights and religious freedom without

122force against her conscience. A federal court soon ruled in her favor. Shortly after this, the school board repealed their policy. Stafford County's gender support plans policy is a violation of teachers' freedom of speech and religious freedom. I urge you to repeal this policy just like Virginia Beach did. The radical left always says if parents and teachers don't like it, they can go to a private school. Not everyone can afford private school, and we shouldn't have to. One issue that no one has addressed is Munchausen syndrome. Munchausen syndrome is a fictitious disorder in which those affected feign or induce disease. illness, injury, abuse, or psychological trauma to draw attention, sympathy, or reassurance to themselves. It is possible that a parent could be projecting this onto a child. I realize that addressing parental concerns is the new

123mantra for getting reelected, but when parents are pushing transgender ideology onto kindergarteners, which has been reported in Stafford County, we as a society need to start asking questions. Thank you. Ms. Rupert or Ms. Smith? Good evening, everyone. My name is Mary Rupert, and since this isn't going to be addressed until the spring, but I don't know if I'll be able to make the spring meeting, so I'm going to still address it, okay? My family and I support the policy 4113. We are a private military family, and we retired in this area specifically because Stafford in 2009 was very highly rated for schools, and we wanted our children to get a good public education. Over the years, the signs and flags that have been displayed in the schools have increased, and most of them are very

124questionable in their sole purpose of surrounding children with propaganda and go against all my family stands for and they have been fighting for for this great country of ours. They have nothing to do with educating these young malleable minds beyond indoctrinating them with society's most popular and controversial items, many of which are unsubstantiated and are rooted in feelings instead of facts. Teachers and educators were always people that we looked up to and taught our children to do the same. A great teacher is one that you have no idea what their personal or political beliefs are. They are supposed to teach children how to think for themselves and build their own opinions based on evidence and research, not simply impress their own opinions into the children's minds. BLM, whose two founders are self-proclaimed Marxists pushing Marxist

125ideologies, LGBTQ, and all the rest of the special interest groups, have pushed their ideology into schools and classrooms. None of that should be in the classrooms or on the walls of the schools, inside or out. If parents wish to teach that to their children at home, that is the right as parents. But in a school with children of various backgrounds, our children need to be taught the essentials, proper English. They and them isn't proper for a singular person. Math, science, physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, geology, and minimal social sciences, history, geography, and civics class, and not revised history written by inherently biased persons. I personally would love to see God back in the public schools, but at this point, that doesn't look like it will happen in the near future. So if crosses and crucifixes aren't

126in the schools, and the only banners or flags that should be in the schools are the American flag and the state flag. Schools should serve to be a neutral ground so that we may be united in educating our children. Incorporating personal ideologies into mass education systems only undermines the foundation we are trying to give our children and future generations. Train up a child in the way he should go, and even when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22, 6. Thank you, and Merry Christmas. Do you want to call the next three people before? Ms. Smith starts. Hi, my name is Patricia Smith and I attend a church in the George Washington district That's very supportive of LGBTQ rights I applaud your teachers last month who had the courage to hang pride

127flags in their classrooms, an indication to the students that I see you and that I value you. It shouldn't take courage to support the LGBTQ community, but in the midst of the culture wars, it does. The parental rights campaign of Governor Youngkin means the rights of a minority of parents can dictate their views to the rest of us and most tragically can erase certain communities most in need of our support. The parental rights campaign means that a parent can erase the right of a child to their identity. 3113 is a strategic way for the Youngkin administration to censor text, images, speech, and even thought related to human sexuality. In the 2022 model policy, independent study provisions will put all of the library holdings up for parental scrutiny in a search for sexually explicit content. I

128was an art teacher. The visual arts and humanities will always connect with some aspect of human experience. The nude body is ubiquitous in art history. Interpreting images helps us to see where we are in our collective and individual histories. Students are looking for meaning in life. The arts and humanities help to shed light on the innumerable experiences that humankind has faced and will face. Teachers help students navigate that vast terrain of possibility. When Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel, many were appalled by the nudity. His view was... If you look at this painting and all you see are naked bodies and all you see is pornography, the problem is you, not the painting. The same can be said today as religious right pushes to ban books with sexually explicit passages. Ban the book if there are

129a few graphic passages or the image of a nude without any context. Education beckons us to be open to others' experiences and truths. A library with empty shelves serves no one. Thank you. Madam Chair, the next speakers are Milton Bratton and Nan Rawlinson and Mary Green. Hello, everybody. My name is Milton Bratton. I'm out of the Whitewater District. Good to see everybody. It's good to see everybody have a good smile on your face. I wasn't going to say anything about the topic that's been discussed in the last few, but I wanted to kind of give you an understanding of the possibilities of what does it mean when the founding fathers said that we wanted state and religious beliefs to be separate. How did that come in as an opinion to say that, well... You can

130believe anything that you want. You can practice anything that you want. But when it comes to the state governing, that's got to be separate. And it was there because we wanted to prevent a few people that had their religious beliefs impound on the other few people that may not have that same belief. More importantly... What happened to that one little thing said, all men are created equal? Is that just thrown out the window because I'm a little bit different? It's really amazing when we decide that we're trying to educate a group of young people and we want to have one point of view and that's it. Because I was a retired military vet. I traveled the world and believe me, There is a multiple ways of views and livings and everything else and the earlier

131that you be able to understand that the world is different, the better and well-rounded the person is. Now there's one little thing that I also had to remember is that little thing called Title IX where it states that you cannot discriminate based on sex, color, race, creed, or sexual orientation. And I'm not quite sure how you can get away from that portion as well, because it's there. And so I'm not saying that with your decision, it's not going to be difficult. But if you're going to make a decision... Make it on the letter of the law, not based on a viewpoint of your religious belief. And I'm a Christian, and I might not believe in everything that is going on, but it's not for me to decide that my choice is better than yours when

132the law states that everybody is created equal. Thank you. Good evening, members of the board. Superintendent Taylor. My name is Nan Rawlison. I also am with the church in George Washington. I will speak on 3113 tonight. I do understand that you all, local schools, must adopt this state-mandated policy. But this policy seems to portend a troublesome trend. 3113 seems to be a policy in search of a problem. With the exception of human reproduction anatomy, known more commonly as sex education, I couldn't find any sexually explicit content in Stafford's curriculum. Parents do have the right to opt their children out of learning about reproduction from a trained educator. I am more concerned with violence in the schools. Students bullying other students, or in some cases, school staff. Bullying is often a sign of learned intolerance and

133wishing to have power over someone else. I am concerned about a student who has not learned an appropriate way to deal with anger management. that, if needed, a student has a trusted and confidential source to turn to. Like it or not, our young people are going out into a big, diverse world. The only way we're going to craft a civil society is to learn open-mindedness, tolerance, kindness, and a willingness to talk to each other respectfully. Thank you. Is Mary Green here? Oh. Oh, okay. All right. Thank you. All right. Well, that closes citizen comments and brings us to action items. Do we have a... Well, let me read it first action item 8.01 adoption of proposed amended policy 2107 assignment of students to an alternative education program and proposed new policy 3113 parental notification concerning

134instructional materials with sexually explicit contact do we have a motion motion to approve second motion by Miss Halstead second by Miss Randall any discussion Dr. Chase. Yeah, I just wanted to say that I appreciated Dr. Taylor bringing us the draft regulation for this policy and appreciate the effort made to not put too undue a burden on our teachers. Thank you. Okay, thank you. And just for the record, the proposed new policy 3113 will go into effect January 1st, correct? If it is approved this evening. All right, no further discussion. All in favor? Cast your ballots. Or if you're opposed, Ms. Holston, is yours working now? It's working. All right. Oh, Ms. Guy. Okay. Well, okay. Motion passes 6-0. 8.02, adoption of proposed K-12 program of studies for the 2023-2024 school year. Do we have a

135motion? We have to have a motion to have discussion. Motion to approve. Second. All right, so that was a motion by Ms. Halstead, second by Dr. Warner. All right, discussion. We're on 8.02. It passed 6-0. Yes, Ms. Randall. I am happy to see the program of study starting to differ in the middle schools. I still feel like it's not quite there, but I know we have to start somewhere. And I just wanted to appreciate also the effort of putting our program of studies K-12 versus breaking it out too. I think that's nice to see the continuity of education that we want to pursue in this county. Thank you, Ms. Randall. Any other discussion? Dr. Chase? Yeah, I had asked to meet to discuss the middle school changes because I wasn't clear exactly what they are,

136and I haven't been able to schedule that meeting until Friday. So I'm not going to vote on this because I haven't gotten that information yet. But thank you. Sure. And I actually had a question for clarification, and some of this might just be a newbie because I feel like we voted on this when I first got here with the middle school program, and now we're voting on it again. We do this every year. So we do this every year. We do this every year. So that means that there are changes that may be coming. So even if there's something in here that I'm, there isn't really anything in here. I agree with Ms. Randall that this is a good starting point for me. Like in reviewing it, this is largely what we looked at at

137the retreat, right? So it's, there's not a lot there that I have questions on right now, but I'm not sure I'm. There's still some things that I'd like to see change as we move forward and I want to make sure those changes are reflected So I just wanted to make sure this was annual and not okay. Cool. Thank you. Okay any other discussion? Dr. Warner, I'm I Agree with dr. Chase. I am NOT sitting down with the middle school team and Mr. Bully until Friday. I was wondering if you could just postpone this vote till January or if that poses a real problem. I mean, I appreciate all the effort that's gone into this. I love being able to look at the K-12 program of studying, be able to look at everything. And I think

138it's really well done. And I just have a couple questions about the middle school program. Well, I'd be concerned if with this were put off till January that even... If it were, there wouldn't be time to make any changes because between now and January, there's effectively only a few school days. And also, this is something that the reason we tried to vote on it in December is for our families and our counselors and our students' benefits so they can be planning ahead on these programs. Dr. Taylor, are there any significant changes in the middle school program of studies? None that we haven't previously discussed Your program of studies is is not your schedule. It's not the bell schedule. It is the courses that we offer And the scope and sequence in which those courses are

139offered This is not fundamentally different Than than what we've had in even previous years. We did make some changes to middle school electives and to math sequencing Yeah, and I would note that when we were in our work session, I did ask if there were any questions or issues people had with the agenda, if we could know about them so we could have tried to fit them in in our work session in advance. And I did not recall hearing the program of studies mentioned. But certainly, you know, if you want to abstain, that's... That's your choice. But I would respectfully ask the board to move forward on this. Unless, Dr. Taylor, would this create an issue if it were put off? I think you've articulated the concern that putting it off to the next board

140meeting is six business days before we would have to make decisions about posting the agenda. to make changes in the timeline that we would need to be putting this into play with families and parents would be a difficult challenge. So even though we aim for December, perhaps next year we can aim for even earlier. I mean, it doesn't mean we're going to get it, and then I would ask the board members also to... try to put the concerns or questions forward. And I know you tried in Fridays the earliest. This is just a very challenging time. Or we can always have work sessions or put them on. I like that there is a curriculum study and I realize that there were changes that needed to be made to the middle school. I also understand this

141isn't a schedule. So I really don't have a problem specifically with the curriculum. The course of study, I think, for the program of studies as proposed. Well, thank you. I know that the families are very appreciative that earlier we can have this, the better, so they can start sitting down with their children and, you know, looking at the... potential programs keep in mind that just because something's in there doesn't mean it's going to be offered because it's going to be dependent on availability of staff and and also um your requirements with with respect to the the schools so what we are approving is is is the program but not necessarily all the offerings that are going to be there for next year all right so any further discussion i'm going to call for the vote

142please cast your votes Oh, I'm sorry. No, wait a minute. Now, we can hold on. I'm sorry I didn't see you. Oh, go ahead and make your comment before we... Put them up there. I'm okay with everything that I've seen the only thing is I just really and I know that we cut by 50% just about the offerings for middle school programs Which needed to happen, but I really just truly hope that some of the electives like for instance in music You know educators who were being told to teach whether it's ukulele or guitar or whatever like they actually know how to actually play the instrument that they're teaching and I know that that's not happening with every single one and I'm just asking hey can we stop that just find somebody else or pick

143another instrument that that person knows how to play and have them actually teach what they want to teach that's it all right that is noted now let's just start over any other comments if not cast your votes Motion passes 6-0 with one abstention. And the abstention is Dr. Chase. I'm just announcing that because they were asked this before if there's any changes that we say it for people that may not have the video. So thank you. That brings us to 8.03, adoption of staffing standards to align with five-year strategic plan. Do we have a motion? Motion to approve the staffing standards. Second. Motion by Dr. Warner, second by Ms. Randall. Discussion. This is a biggie. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Board, for the opportunity to bring this forward. This is really a footprint

144for our budget discussion that is upcoming both for fiscal 24 and fiscal 24 through 28 as part of our five-year plan. This is a pretty exciting overhaul. We have parsed out a lot. that can be done over the next several fiscal years. We've prioritized them by fiscal years and also tried to align them to some of the proposed capacity standards as well, knowing that we are moving forward with some elementary projects that are later and to try and coincide some of our staffing standards, capacity standards, and the construction of elementary schools and high school six. to kind of all dovetail at appropriate timelines. This is of course subject to funding availability and changes to the board that they make as part of their budget process. So this is by no stretch a done decision or

145a final decision because you have a budget process that is upcoming. And there is a noticeable gap in fiscal 28 where there is no assignment. And that is for the express purpose of staffing standard changes that we might make in the future and also changes that we were unable to prioritize in budget years 24 through 27. This is a first step, so to speak, and we're really excited to bring this forward as this will give us a great opportunity to staff our schools a little bit better. Thank you, dr. Taylor miss hot I just want to Clarify for probably I guess the record at this point in the game but like in looking at the totality of this because it does seem so immense and expectation management It being what they are because this is

146our perfect world right here, right? That's kind of what we're looking at. No, our perfect world would be the implementation of all of these staffing changes But if we could have the perfect world tomorrow this is what this would look like But we still have a hiring process and the thing that goes on so just expectation management It's really hard for me not to look at this and not feel a little down that we're not there already or that there is such a burden on it so just for the public that's reading the document, for taking a look at it. I mean, these are the things we'll be fighting for. And to really bring to this county to make us the excellence in education that we have the ability to have if we can get

147the money, the personnel and whatever. So that's just my comment on, because this was a lot for me to also process. It still is when I look at it. It's also really small. Yeah. Mrs. Halstead brings up a really good point that even if we implemented all of these standards, there would still be room for improvement beyond that. We believe that this is really the starting place for how we might staff our schools as a base and the minimum expectation. We're far off from that, but even if we implemented all of these changes in just fiscal 24, we would still have room for improvement in school counselors, a number of other positions, psychologists and other support staff that we've already prioritized as needing some additional adjustment, but this is where we would start. I also

148just want to finish on that by saying that I think it's important for parents to recognize and to help us advocate as well for just these things. Buildings are one thing. Filling those buildings is the other side of that coin. So we can't just stop at one. This isn't just a one-sided fight. That's all I wanted to say. Thank you. Ms. Guy, any comments? Oh, about this? No, I think this is great. Ms. Randall? For me, I see... opportunity to direct ourselves a little differently in the county and how we approach, how we fill our schools staff-wise. I know I like the option that it is proposed. I like that this spreadsheet that you've given us here is gonna be super helpful during budget season for us. It does follow our strategic plan, as will

149the budget follow our five-year strategic plan. So we're trying to be sort of noteworthy here. of consistency um but i do like the fact that you know this is a nice proposal and it is something that we can definitely work towards if not everything thank you dr chase i would just say i'm glad that we are trying to set some consistent standards across the county thanks Thank you. Dr. Warner. I agree that I like consistent standards. I think there's a baseline. This works really well. I think there's always going to have to be individual flexibility depending on individual school needs and school populations. But I think this gives us, especially looking at budgetary items and going forward, I really like having a baseline. Ms. Sigmund. I agree. I really like having a direction and a

150goal because if we don't have anything to reach for, then we don't know how to get there. And I think that this helps for everybody to see what we intend to have in our buildings and for our kids and for our staff. and then we can all be kind of moving in the same direction rather than pulling in different directions and we'll be more efficient in the work that we need to do to get us here. So I'm really looking forward to this. Thank you. And I want to thank Dr. Taylor for bringing us a plan that is not pie in the sky. It is, I would say, optimistic because it's going to require significant funding. But I do think that our community... expects a standard of excellence in our schools. And I think this

151will put us back on that track to excellence. I do wanna make sure though that particularly the staff are aware that these standards are what we are aspiring to. They're not guarantees. And as my colleagues have noted, there will be some exceptions. This is the plan. It will be reviewed every year by the school board and it's a great step forward. No other comments? We'll go ahead and cast our votes. Tally the votes. Motion carries unanimously, seven to oh. All right, that brings us to 8.04, approval of elementary school capacity standards. Right? We're on 8.0. Motion to approve. Am I moving too fast? Second. All right. That was a motion by Ms. Sigmund and second by Dr. Chase. Discussion? This is another big one, and this has an aspirational component and a budgetary component as

152well. We're running out of space. I don't think that that's a mystery in this community. but we also have needs and programmatic desires that we would like to solidify. We have designs on opening two, not one, elementary school in the near future. So we have designed some programmatic standards to align with how we might carve up buildings and how we might assign space within those buildings. We think that we can make a pretty sizable commitment to some things that we're already doing pretty well, but then just holding to them and have greater consistency amongst our schools. But yet there are some really optimistic and really important things that we would like to accomplish once we do open two new elementary schools out in fiscal 27. where we are looking at how we serve our ESOL

153students and some of our students with disabilities as well as some of the elective and resource offerings that we offer our elementary school kids we think that we could do that a little bit better but we don't think we can do that right away so we would propose this as the target and what we're pointing at when we say that we would like to establish capacity standards the other benefit too is that we know that there is a bit of a debate when we design a school and we release those designs to the school of how many students we are designing that school for and that number changes every year in terms of what we call program capacity We think we can take a little bit of the variance out of that by establishing our

154own standards where we would just have a singular number, a school capacity number, that would not fluctuate as wildly as a program capacity number might, and that would be a more truthful and deliberate accounting of the actual capacity of the number of students that could be served. that building and consistently have that number reported and so we offer this as as that solution this should help with county governments understanding of our capacity constraints and also set a roadmap for us, which as you can see on one of the attachments is not very optimistic in terms of our deficit of classrooms. We are projecting a pretty severe deficit of classrooms over the next several years. And so this will help us with that accounting as well. Comments? Seeing none, we'll cast your votes. Tally the votes.

155Motion passes unanimously. That brings us to 8.05, adoption of a resolution to request appropriation of school capital reserve funds for the installation of modular classrooms. This is something that we had discussed in the work session, and there was some discussion about possibly modifying this resolution. So if we have a motion, would the motion maker care to... make that adjustment, that would be helpful. Motion to approve the appropriations with future consideration of the actual location of the modular units placement in alignment with school needs. Second. Okay, so we have a motion to approve the appropriation and Dr. Warner, that would be for the number of modular classrooms as proposed? The number as requested. For the number of modular classrooms proposed and the dollar amount of the appropriations, but not to include the location of those until

156a soon to be future date after the school board has gotten some more information. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm passing out a revised resolution that the clerk will also upload onto board docs where we replaced the second to last and third to last whereas statements with one that says whereas staff have identified up to 26 modular classrooms are needed for the 2023-2024 year without the designation of location. And I'll point out that it says up to as well, so that should we find efficiencies, we have that wiggle room as well. Okay. And so it has a dollar amount and the number, but not. but not the actual assignment of space. And that dollar amount and the number of modular classrooms is the same as was in the proposed item. So, Dr. Warner, is this acceptable?

157We believe that that would be the ceiling. Ms. Randall, you made the second. Is this acceptable for this resolution to be working on? Yes, ma'am. It just deletes the location of these modular classrooms. Yes, leaving the location off. Okay, and we'll... Take that up in January. Ms. Holst? Does that make this ready to sign then? Yes. The motion is now to approve this resolution. Okay. Any discussion? Any formal discussion? Dr. Chase? Yeah. I just wanted to say I visited Conway, and I think it's really important to get these purchased. in time for them to be set up and ready to start the school year effectively. And just out of curiosity, do we anticipate modular classrooms will get cheaper if we don't need all of these for next year? Because I'm pretty sure we'll need more

158the following year. Yeah, they, as you can see on one of the attachments, we will definitely have a need in the future as well. We don't anticipate them to become cheaper. This does leverage some reserve funds in your capital reserve, so there is a little bit of a happy marriage right there with revenues to offset the expense. But in the future, this is definitely going to become an operational item that the board has to consider as we look ahead. So this topic will be discussed not just in January, but will also carry over into February in your budget discussions as well. And I just want to say, I'm not a fan of modular classrooms. I'm doing this because... We need the space, and we're behind in getting it. And when we build 18 and 19

159elementary schools, we'll have some that we can reallocate. Ms. Sigmund? I just wanted to clarify, 26 1⁄2 classrooms is about half of one of our elementary schools? Is that about? That is correct. you have a your standard size is about 50 classrooms in an elementary school or 50 teaching stations so and that would be generous by staff Stafford standards your most recent elementary school was a little bit more than 50 teaching stations but your normal ones are about 45 46 47 so yes this is We're effectively getting a half of an elementary school's worth of classrooms in modular classrooms. And then if we end up adding those classrooms next year, we're looking at more like three-quarters of an elementary school. That is correct. In modular classrooms. And I couldn't help but notice that prior to

160removing the schools, three out of the four schools in the Garrisonville District were slated to receive trailers. I mean, this is why it's important to have our staffing standards and our, what was the other, the capacity. The capacity in particular has been something I've been kind of a little bit naggy about because if we don't have standards and we don't have set numbers and set formulas for calculating what our needs are, those needs change based on what we have available. And we don't. you know, set our needs based on what's available. Our needs are our needs. And now we're paying over $3 million to maybe stem a little bit of the flood just for one year. And then we'll have to do more after that. And hopefully we will have two schools to grow into,

161but... i mean if we're going to fill an elementary school next year in not this coming year but the year after in trailers before we even have approval to build two more this is going to be recurring so we need to get on top of this we need to really stick to our plan and we've been working great with the people across the street they seem to really hear and understand what our needs are and this math you know and actually showing them the environment we want our students to be in and our teachers to be in And I feel really strongly at holding to those numbers. So I do not want to take away our breathing room in these schools. So I'm really excited that we are ordering these now in December, but I'm

162really sad that we have to do it. Thank you. Dr. Warner. I just want to say that we've been struggling with capacity issues and been... elementary school 18 has been at the top of our priority list along with high school number six since I came on the board and the capacity train has been running us over for the last three years. It's gonna take three years to build an elementary school. So this year we put in half of an elementary school in modular units and next year we're probably going to have to add another half of an elementary school in modular units. It's not cost effective and it's not the safest environment for our students. So I'm grateful that the Board of Supervisors is finally hearing our pleas but this problem isn't one that we

163can address or fix quickly and the modular units unfortunately are going to have to be an investment that we make that really doesn't give us very much return for the money. Thank you. Anything else? Ms. Randall. I would also like to commend this board because in our seven-on-sevens and in our own discussions, there's a lot of give and take that has to happen. There are things that certain board members want for their district, and those have been tabled because they're looking at the greater picture and the greatest need. And that's seven of us working together, agreeing to that, and then working seven of us together with our counterparts across the street and making sure that. We're on the same page so that we can be very understood by the Board of Supervisors. So I just

164want to give a big shout out to this board for the work with Dr. Taylor's help and with his staff's, oh my gosh, hours and hours of work that they put into giving us information that we asked for so that we can make. a better learning teaching situation for all of our students, but let's get our high school and our elementary schools done. Thank you. Ms. Guy. I just want to reiterate what they're saying. This isn't ideal. I'm glad we're getting them because we need them, but I truly wish we did not need them. My child just started college in August, and when she was at Moncure and I was a parent, I just remember watching the students trip over their backpacks because there was no space to place anything. So we've been full for

165a long time, not three years. I mean, some schools, right? I guess now the whole county is on fire, right? So we can say now, like, maybe we can get a billboard, like, Stafford schools are full for people who drive by. I mean, it's a great place to live, but I'm just saying. Yeah, no vacancy. But this is an ideal. I hate learning cottages. I like the name better than trailers, but I hate them because they're not safe. You have to worry because these are elementary kids, so you have to worry about when they have to use the restroom. They don't come with running water and plumbing, right? It's like old school, little house on the prairie. You've got to go back inside to use the bathroom. Well, yeah, that's true. I'm sorry. I didn't

166mean to say it like that. I'm just saying, you know, it's not all self-contained. So you have to have someone, you know, making sure the doors are closed. I mean, there's safety. We're opening up. When you put these learning cottages, is what I'm going to call them, you're opening up the campus. And so I hate that we have to do these for our little ones. And I guess what I'm trying to say is I hope that the parents who are like, great, I'm glad, you know, don't just sit on that. This comes at a cost. We definitely need, we are working great with the Board of Supervisors, but you also have to remind your friends who don't have kids or who don't want their taxes raised the reasons why. We're talking about safety. We're not

167just talking about ABCs now. Now we're talking about getting our kids to school, keeping them safe, and getting them home safe. So that's it. Ms. Halstead. So I just, I mean, I want to point out the same thing. I thought our meeting the other day, last week, went really, really well, and it was good to kind of finally hear them say that they recognize and that they want to plan for a movement forward. With us, but it's interesting to me that the staffing standards that we looked at were like five point four million dollars to bring everything together And and think about this in terms of raised taxes and where your money is going and how we're utilizing it So we need this five point four million dollars for these staffing standards and to make

168those things happen But we still have to spend and I get that they're probably different pots of money But the fact of the matter is there's still money that's going out of our school system budget that we shouldn't have to have at this point in the game and i think that we need to really strategically look forward and and i am a big fan i grew up on it penny wise pound foolish um of how to kind of stop that in the future i think we're we've made a great start have we always had these kinds of detailed charts and cross mappings and stuff The question is whether we've had accurate charts. Yeah, so this to me, the level... We've had the charts, but they have not been as accurate. Right, but to me... We

169have not had Mr. White. I feel like the picture that this paints, I mean, the only other way to make it more sort of... obvious is to do maybe a movie on it or something or a production to show which we should probably still do to show the kids I mean these kids are really kind of in there I personally feel like you know our kids are probably less aware of the learning cottage modular Cons then probably the adults are we're probably more cognizant. There's probably some of the kids are legal school I don't have to go to the main school building. Yeah, exactly so so I don't want that to you know, not that not that we let the you know, then make the decisions But it is something that I'm sure if you

170ask the kids to be like, it's alright. I don't mind I'm in school but it is an important to me when I look at the money I want my money and and to the point of people paying that don't have kids in the system. Maybe you don't have them here. Maybe you have grandparents, grandkids somewhere. And I think you'd want that board fighting for your grandkids' school as hard as this board is fighting for the kids here. That's all. Thank you. Well, I just want to point out that even with this resolution, which I think... unfortunately is a necessity we're still going to be significantly short in classroom space if you look at the slide from the last item that we had on the projected classroom surplus deficit for FY 24 which is coming up

171soon, the deficit was 57 classrooms. We have eight classrooms in modulars already in place, leaving us 49. So we're proposing getting 26. You subtract the 26 from the 49, and that shows you where the needs are still not being met. So this is a start. and if we can move forward with the elementary school 18 and 19, we'll at least have relief in sight, and we will continue to push our request to be able to start those schools in the summer of this coming year. I would suggest to the board that we ask... Dr. Taylor to offer a briefing to the Board of Supervisors with respect to what we just approved on the staffing standards and the elementary school capacities when we send this request over for the appropriation of funding. Because a lot of

172times they watch our meetings and they may have some questions, but there's not that opportunity for a dialogue. you know if we if we at least make that offering and that's something that you could do through the staff or if they wanted you know to have a board on board we could we could do that as well but i i think it's important that they know this is not a wish list this is not going to be the answer to um you know our prayers it's magical season, but this is a start and this is what we need to get back on that road. And as people mentioned, Stafford was known for its schools, the excellence of schools. We had, like everybody else, COVID. But there's other factors as well, and we are coming out

173of that era and into a new one. So this will give us a better chance to move forward instead of staying in the... you know, this same place. So I'm certainly gonna be supporting this and I would ask our supervisors to support this and take action on it as soon as possible so we can get these in place and not put ourselves in the position as Falmouth, not Falmouth, Conway found itself in starting these classrooms a few months after school started. and accommodating the students in other localities for those months, which is not fair to the students, their faculty, or the families. So we all haven't spoken. We'll call for the question. Cast your votes. All right. There, it's working. Callie the votes. Motion passes unanimously. All right, 8.06, approval of the reallocation of 3R

174funding for fiscal year 2023. That's FY23 projects. Do we have a motion? Motion to approve. Second. Motion by Ms. Sigmund. Was that Ms. Guy that got that second? Yeah, I was trying to beat Alyssa. Well, you did. This is like, what is it, Jeopardy? Thank God we don't have to use these things for buzzing in. Ms. Sigmund and Ms. Guy, a motion to approve. So let's have discussion. Do you have anything for us, Dr. Taylor? Yes, Madam Chair. This is yet again another opportunity for the school board to balance its plates on very few sticks. We are in a position every year with our three-hour list of having to rebalance and refocus based on available funds, not based on need. Our needs far exceed what our available funds allow, but we have certain fires that

175are larger than others, and this prioritization of projects reflects the the fires that are closest to the house i'll ask that mr fulmer be present for any technical questions but these are the the most urgent matters we could easily double this list annually in terms of our three our needs but this is what we have right now for what we can afford okay any any questions dr chase So, Mr. Fulmer, I'm just from the FAB-C making sure I recall this. Is some of this money bond funding? Yes, ma'am. Yeah. And so am I correct that this is bond funding? There originally had been a plan to use, I can't remember, was it $4.5 million, $3.5 million? $3.7. $3.7 million for Drew Middle School to get the mechanical systems replaced. And it turns out that that

176would cost $20 million, not $3.5 million. So we're putting a very, very small bandaid on Drew Middle School and all these other projects in the county are getting the money that was going to be spent at Drew Middle School. So I just want to urge my colleagues to remember that Drew Middle School should not be forgotten. Thank you. Ms. Sigmund. I may be misremembering, but I thought we had talked about potentially asking or inquiring about the elevator refurbishment as part of day school expenses. It's predominant use is for the day school and not for our... middle school students. Do we look into that? Are we still looking into that? Where does that stand? So it is an ongoing discussion. Right now, as we seek the playground expenses being covered by the Board of Supervisors, which

177will actually be, I think, considered at their next meeting. I thought they told me it was approved. At least I heard that it had been approved unanimously. I went back and watched the meeting and they discussed it and they discussed the MOU MOA at the time but they haven't actually approved the the day school playground they asked for it to come back as my understanding well some of them think it's approved we have not received any funding for yet I can assure you of that all right well dr. Taylor perhaps you could write to this County administrator and ask him the status and you can tell him this it was the school board some of the school boards members Understanding that that had been approved and the board has not been approved What do we

178need to do to make it move forward? The Board of Supervisors is also meeting this evening We we have asked them to consider this it doesn't change the fact that you you still should prioritize this as a project should there not be Funding to go along with it. You're talking about the elevator. I'm talking about the playground But even with the the playground the supervisors are meeting tonight And and I believe that they they are discussing this amongst other issues Yeah, I don't text her in the meetings, but if anybody does, that would be a good question to put forward. So the elevator is something we can still pursue from the county, but right now, without trying to cause delays on that, we're seeking the reuse of the 3R funding. Still a county funding source.

179It was just originally already allocated for the schools, so we're keeping it allocated to the schools and using it for the Drew Middle School elevator. And can I also have a reminder on how the, I understand that we have to replace slash repair the tracks at our three middle schools because they are. severe need are they usable for this season because I see that they will not be replaced by until the summer yes ma'am so we're doing some temporary repair and fill work so that it will make them usable for this season but it will not last past that it is a very much just a patch job okay any other comments Questions? I just have a quick, how much have these prices or estimates for these repairs increased since we were first brought this

180list? Easy question. A lot. They can continue to climb. Yeah, and that's what I'm saying is that not doing these repairs means that next year it would be more, and we'd even be further behind because we have other projects still waiting. Yeah, and Dr. Taylor's point that he made earlier, this doesn't even touch. the surface of our list and that list that price continues to grow and we very briefly just kind of breezed over dr chase's comment about this being a bond funded as part of the revenue source here there are predictable ongoing expenses for maintenance and repair which means that those should be part of an operating formula and have dedicated revenues that attach to them It is a disservice to the taxpayers to have debt financed repairs for maintenance. And that is something

181that we will need to change moving forward and to be better stewards of our county resources. Ms. Randall? Chris, I see on here Rising Star Paving Project. Is that like a whole new parking lot? What is that? So that's actually, that's not a project that we're doing. We're actually taking funding from that that was going to get done. I discussed that at the retreat. Okay. That we have money that was originally allocated to the paving project at Rising Star, but with Rising Star being on as a rebuild or relocation, don't really want to spend a million dollars on paving that we're going to tear up. in a couple years, so with that, we're looking at reallocating that so we can get some of these projects done sooner. Okay, thank you. Thanks for clarifying that, that's

182a good point. And no other discussion? Cast your votes. Tally the votes motion carries unanimously. All right that brings us to item 8.07 that we took from the consent agenda first reading a proposed amended policy 1108 meetings of the school board this item will return to the board on the January 10th meeting for final adoption so what we're discussing tonight is the proposed Changes in the policy and miss Hall said is there a particular change you wanted to discuss I do So in looking at this and we were looking at this I think this falls under that category of when you've read something so much It just reads the way you want it to read because we were sitting at the governance meeting going no. No, that's what we said and Then when you called

183me earlier, I was like, okay, that's not we said so under special meetings. There's Well, I guess in my on my copy and up here I think it would be in red but it says any request for a special meetings help shall be present Presented at a regular meeting so that needs to come out of the document because we had decided on that at the retreat And like I mentioned earlier when we were chatting about it during governance, I think we just we read it the way we wanted it like the way we thought it was supposed to read. But we had discussed so many options. I know. It was one of the discussion items. It was one. It was one. But anyway, that needs to come out. So we'd like the opportunity to just

184fix that. Just leave it the way it was. The what? Go back to the original one. So no revision to that particular section for special meetings. Correct. Yep. Okay. All right. So everything else would remain the same for proposed revisions. And that will come back to us for approval. and we will have that reversion back to the original on the special meeting requirement criteria. And just for the public to note that we're proposing to start our meeting, our work session at five and go back to our school board meeting starting at. And if that is adopted at the next meeting, then that will take effect for the February meeting. So the January 10th meeting will be on the current schedule, which is 4.30 for the work session and 6.30 for the regular meeting. Okay, no

185action required on that. Superintendents, reports and comments. Okay, so we are on air time, people. All right. Thank you, Madam Chair, and happy holidays to the board and to the Stafford community. This month marks the end of my first year of service in Stafford County. I'd also like to take this opportunity to congratulate Mrs. Halstead, Mrs. Guy, and Mrs. Sigmund on also completing their first year of service on the board as well. Definitely a big round of applause. That's quite all right. Well, what about the rest of us survivors? I was ready to go after my first year. I'm not a troublemaker. Well, the the the superintendency and the school board can sometimes feel like dog years, but I will say that in many ways We we've had a great experience and learned a lot

186and grown close as a governance team It's been an honor to serve you as your superintendent I'm so proud of all that we've gotten accomplished so far and I'm looking forward to our very bright future together I would like to thank not just the board, but our students and parents, and especially our teachers who worked so hard to get us back on our feet. We're in a very different place as a school system than we were 365 days ago. We've made tremendous progress in our relationships, not just on this dais and within the school system, but also with our counterparts in county government. And that has led to tremendous progress on a number of fronts. We have very serious problems and very serious challenges in a very resource constrained environment. I think it's extraordinary what

187the board has done. to try and abate some of the growth challenges. I think that you all can sleep well at night with the understanding that you have done everything that you possibly could have done to give the kids in this county the best learning environment that you could with the resources that were available to you. And there were some tough choices this evening even and some opportunities for the board to make some tough calls. and even hold your nose while you were doing it, but they were the right decisions to help us preserve a good learning environment for our kids with the goals of really setting a marker for us to have a great learning environment and for Stafford County Public Schools to be back on top. This board adopted a very ambitious strategic

188plan where we will focus on setting high expectations for academic performance. where we will have meaningful post-secondary outcomes for our kids. We will have a great learning environment and we will support staff. And this board has stood behind those words at every single turn. And I just want to tell you how absolutely grateful I am in retrospect and in reflection of this past year. And this is a special time of year and it's a special time of reflection. And I just wanted to share those comments with you. I also want to give some special thanks to Conway and Rocky Run Elementary Schools. Their kindergartners and first graders had made some winter-inspired art that is hanging in our lobby of the school board chambers. I encourage folks to come in. This is a public building. We

189welcome folks to come in and check out our fantastic art. I had the privilege over the last couple of weeks to visit. Dixon Smith, Rodney Thompson, Mountain View, Stafford High, and Colonial Forge to celebrate their district, regional, state, and county championships in fall sports. I'm really looking forward to doing that again for the winter. We have so much to be proud of in our kids when they're performing at a high level. This upcoming week also brings the end of the first semester. And I think that our teachers and our kids and maybe even our parents are a little ready for a little bit of a break. And we hope that this is a time of relaxation and rejuvenation. But before they do, we have a bunch of holiday concerts and performances that we hope that

190our public takes advantage of at our elementary, middle, and high schools. And they can find those at staffordschools.net. We have a ton of performances and we had the privilege of hearing one tonight. We can totally see why Miss Perry is the state's best music educator. Those students perform so exceptionally well, in part because they have an awesome teacher. This Friday, we are doing our annual carols and cookies where the Mountain View Chorus will be doing some caroling and our Brook Point Culinary Arts students have prepared some cookies where we'll be touring some of our senior care facilities and age-restricted communities in Stafford County and spreading some holiday cheer with them. Saturday marks Stafford's annual Christmas parade. And I'm delighted to share that we've got a couple of things going on exciting that are north of

191us, where Stafford High School's chamber singers have been invited to perform at the Kennedy Center. And we are excited for them. Congratulations to these students and their director, Mr. Everler, for this really prestigious honor. uh if you're looking to join them uh we'll put these on our on our school division calendar as well but they they have performances on saturday the 17th at 1 and 4 p.m and sunday the 18th at 7 p.m and tickets are available online we also have a student art represented on the national mall students from falmouth elementary school have decorated ornaments that are on the Virginia tree as part of the national Christmas tree display. And we're just excited that our students are showcased in such amazing ways. Stafford Schools has received large donations of binders, composition notebooks, loose leaf

192papers, folders, spiral bound notebooks, and miscellaneous supplies. So if there are teachers out there, please contact our communications office if you need. supplies for students in the upcoming semester. And our new custodial vendor, Associated Building Maintenance Incorporated, is hosting some on-site interviews that I want to make the public aware of for full-time custodial employment opportunities with wages starting at $15 an hour. At the Rappahannock Regional Library from 9 to 1 p.m. on December 13th, 15th, and 20th, we welcome... folks who are interested in working for Team Stafford and the Associated Building Maintenance Company to please join us at Rappahannock Library again on December 13th, 15th, and 20th from nine to one, and again at Falmouth Elementary School on Saturday, December 10th from 10 a.m. to noon. Very excited about this. Yes, that's today, but we

193also have them on the 15th and 20th, so we're really excited about that. Too late for today. Yeah, too late for today. So this is a joyous time of year for sure, and I'm so grateful for the time with my family and the time to reflect on this past year. I'm particularly mindful that there are many in our community who need assistance and additional support, especially during this time of year. For our families that may experience food insecurity over the winter break, please contact either the Fredericksburg Regional Food Bank, who were highlighted today during our Band Together to Fight Hunger presentation earlier, or Stafford Serve. These organizations are here for assistance. We will be providing information on our school division website. And you can even contact us at Stafford Schools, and we'll make sure that

194you get connected with these two organizations. We will make sure that this information is available in our schools as well and on our social media. We hope that everybody has a restful, happy, and safe holiday. Thank you so much. Any volunteers go first? Dr. Warner. I don't have a lot to say because I've been in hiding for the last couple weeks, but I do want to thank Ms. Perry and the Colonial Forge Chorus. That was really a delightful little concert. I enjoyed that tremendously. I think everybody's ready for winter break. I'm pretty sure our teachers and families and students are. And I just want to wish everybody a very Merry Christmas and whatever way you celebrate the holiday. And I look forward to the new year. Thank you. Thank you. Next. I must have said

195timer. No, I'm just kidding. Okay. Missy, start that timer. No, you are not timing me. I'm telling you. You're going to make it take longer now. See how you do that? All right. So just a couple things for me. First and foremost, I had this grand expectation in, I don't know, mid-October that by now I would have gotten to three or four or five different schools. That did not happen due to a variety of reasons. I just got a new puppy. That's one of my excuses. But anyway, so come the first of the year, because it is the New Year's resolution time, I have resolved to visit schools. No locations. But anyway, I do want to touch on a few things, and some of it is... looking at our high school choir kids tonight and

196seeing just that or in hearing them and in seeing the teacher, I mean, if you watch these kids being guided just by this single hand movement and the way that forms into what we saw tonight, I feel like if we could make that the analogy for life, that would be amazing. Watch your life. Don't follow a particular thing, but watch it. It's literally amazing. These teachers are seriously go, I can't even. what they do. Anyway, so I want to comment on the dedication of the Stafford County teacher and what it takes to really inspire a child the way they have. And I think sometimes we overlook bands and choirs and all those other, you know, what I call like the intra-school stuff, right? So... I want those guys to go on some kind of choir

197reality show or something. Like, I think they could win top prize. But, you know, Colonial Forge is my thing. All right. I think Ms. Osborne is going to put it on the social media. Oh, it has to be. It absolutely has to be. It's phenomenal. And I know our other schools have that level of talent as well. And so it's really just an amazing thing. So I want to talk about Christmas for a second because, for me, Christmas is the season of just, you know. lights and brightness and everything's lit up and you don't necessarily get to see that and that's when it's dark outside, there's still lights on and so things seem pretty hopeful and magical to me and I try and pass that on. Now that is the happy note, which just leads

198me into a few things as we head into the new year. Dr. Taylor makes a really good point. We have come so far since I've been sitting on this board. I never, never imagined sitting here the first day that any of what was accomplished this year should have been accomplished. So my sincere gratitude to you ladies for all of the hard work, the head-butting, this is a hard job. This is compromising sometimes when that compromise just feels untenable. So I want to say thank you for that. And Maya has the best earrings ever. And to Dr. Taylor for being such a great mediator of the what's important, what's not important, what to waste your breath and effort and energy on and what to kind of let it sit back and take a look at it.

199That's true leadership. And for always being there at the touch of a text message or whatever to be like, no, don't go there. Don't do that. All right, come on, let's do that. That's huge. Because there's a lot of things that you do in the heat of the moment, right? All right, so I would ask my parents two things coming up on the new year. For your resolutions, please make me one. Do not get your information off of Facebook. Stop it. Unless it's his or Sandra's Stafford County school board post. Everything else is false. Please speak to the person who originated the idea, the concept, the policy, and do not let anyone else lead you astray unless you follow up with an email. Do not put yourself under undue stress. It's not... necessary. There is

200one big topic governance is going to be addressing in the coming year and I'm gonna ask parents for patience while we work through it and that's our cell phone policy and where we stand with cell phones. To Dr. Chase's credit, I really applaud you bringing up such an important topic. This isn't just about access to social media for our kids and an extension of their identity. For parents who are listening to this or watching this, these cell phones are a huge issue for our kids. And it's not just about their inability to communicate. They can't make eye contact. Some of them don't look up. It's just beyond what we're looking at. The school board has a certain responsibility to protect our kids while they're in the schools with us. That's one piece of it, but

201we need your help on the other end. Dr. Taylor was kind enough to point out that we do have a lot of things in place for our cell phones that try to help protect our kids, but we also, we're only as good as you guys as well. So in the new year, two resolutions, no social media, and... Just be patient with us while we work through the cell phone things. And if Dr. Taylor sends you a link with a digital citizenship, right? That's what it's called. Digital citizenship or to watch something about cell phones, please don't ignore it. Watch it. I wish you all the best of Christmases, all the safest and happiest of new years. And I just want you to know that from Christmas Eve on, there'll be an open bottle of wine

202in my house. Hear that Dr. Porter? And I know where she lives. Did you want to go next? Okay. A new briefness record. Merry Christmas, Maya. Yes, it's the Christmas miracle. Thank you, Miss Halstead. Thank you, baby Jesus. Okay. So I just want to say happy holidays to everybody, no matter what you celebrate. I absolutely love this job. I love the work sessions. I love working with you women. Y'all are all sassy, and we're completely different. Probably wouldn't speak to any of you. Well, not any of you. A lot of you. Let me just say it that way. I'm so tired. I'm sorry. I feel like I'm getting sick. Okay. Sorry. But anyway, like there was a lot different personalities. I don't think we would all mesh like if we were at the club or

203like hanging out or whatever. But it works here. And I'm so thankful. What I'm trying to say is not coming out. So I'm just going to move on to the other point I wanted to make. An official apology from the school board rep of Aquia. I mistakenly told... many families that the last day of school was Friday. My bad. So I just want to say that Miss Guy telling you wrong is not a valid excuse for your child missing school on Monday and Tuesday. Please send your child in or write something else on your note. I already told Dr. Taylor that I messed this up, and I'm very thankful to the educator who told me that my kid had to go to school Monday and Tuesday. To be fair, there was a different calendar and

204we had switched it and I was working on the original calendar. Yeah, I was dreaming. Yeah, so that's that. And like I said, I messed somebody up and I apologize. I do want to say... We're all human and everybody makes mistakes and my job is hard, your job's hard, their job's hard, everybody's job's hard. And everybody's stressed out. It is what it is. But I had an experience this past month and I was at a school. I do not wear my name tag because I don't like people to know who I am. I like to be stealthy. And I got treated really crappy. And that's okay though, it's okay. Because sometimes people are just having a bad day. And so I made a mistake, I was in the wrong line or going to the wrong

205door. I'm trying not to be too specific because I don't want to call anybody up, but whatever. I'm just being a regular citizen and I didn't know where to go. I could have used their grace at the time. And then I extended grace back to them by not calling them out, right? And being like, bam, you don't talk to me that way. But I could have, and I did it. And I say that because sometimes as parents, you need to extend that grace to the educator or the bus driver or the crossing guard or whomever. And as the principal, you definitely need to extend that grace to the educator who might be complaining to you or the parent who might be complaining to you. or whatever. So I just want to remind people none of

206us are perfect. We're all going to screw up or make a mistake and we're going to need someone else's grace in the moment. So just remember to extend that to whomever is in front of you. It costs nothing to not be a jerk. That's it. Those kids were adorable and amazing. So I'm so thankful that you even said that we can go watch it with the audience. That was fun. And that's never happened before. I don't remember them ever coming, so thank you, Dr. Taylor, for setting that up to us. It just made this evening very, very special. Okay, who's next for volunteers? Any? Dr. Chase. Yeah, just reiterate what everybody else has sort of said. It was lovely to hear singing. It definitely put me more in the holiday spirit as I was grading

207papers today, so it was nice to remember that the end is in sight. and I'm very much looking forward to a break, and I hope everybody else gets a wonderful break, and I'm going to be short, so okay. Ms. Sigmund, it looks like you're ready to roll. A couple of things. One, the budget committee has had on its kind of wait list for the entire semester to reevaluate our bell schedule and to see if there was any room after the first few months of schools to be able to compress that. And we've come to the conclusion that until we get some more buses, we can't even shave a few minutes without causing some pretty significant risks of... turmoil so we are going to hold strong to the schedule we have until we can be more

208certain of a favorable outcome in changing our bell schedule in more cheerful news I have been reflecting on the past 12 months and Some days I can't believe that a year has gone by and other days I can't believe it's only been a year and because we've done a lot of stuff and I feel like I've gotten to know six other women a lot more quickly and deeply than I've known people a lot longer time. So I appreciate everyone having the patience. I have a lot of questions. I ask a lot of questions. And I've gotten to do some amazing things, meet some amazing people. I absolutely do want to thank. the teachers and admin at my kids' school for giving me every opportunity to embarrass them at every possible chance when I visit. I

209love visiting all the schools, so if I haven't been to yours yet, I will get there. I did get to go to the Middle School Model UN Conference Day at Dixon Smith, which was incredible. The guest speakers they have and the topics they tackle, and then you think that they're like 11, and... When I was 11, I don't know that I knew where all those countries were, but here they are, learning them, not only where they are, but who they are, and how they talk about space policy and sustainability and environmental protection at 11. So, you know, I just love opportunities like that. Ms. Perry and the chorus. One of these young men up here, he wrote his own holiday song and performed it at the holiday concert. We have so much talent, the ROTC

210kids, and then the kids from Brook Point who made us our dinner tonight. I mean, we talk about the amount of talent we've just seen tonight. Mountain View. Mountain View, sorry. Why did I think it was Brook Point? Because Brook Point also has culinary. They did the other one. I'm sorry, Mountain View. It was amazing. I tried foods I never would have because these kids made it for me and it was my favorite thing I tried tonight. And lastly, I just, like I feel like as we come into budget system, we need to stop, and this is even something I'm having to stop, thinking about the money we're spending on the schools and start talking about what we're investing in our schools. Because that money is... What is going to bring us our returns for

211our community for our home values for you know? The businesses that we want to come and be part of our community first thing they're going to look at is what our schools are like and the community we have built around our schools Because nobody wants to try to hire employees in a place where the garbage Nobody's going to want to live here, so we need to invest we looked at a lot of big numbers today and voted on a lot of big numbers tonight and that's you know just the start of the growth And in growth, I mean development of the programs and the spaces and the environment we want to have for our community. So I really, like in 2023, that's what I'm just most looking forward to is, you know, moving forward on

212these decisions and seeing these changes coming. We started clearing the land for high school six. The sign went up. That's really exciting. But I can't wait to break ground. Ms. Randall told us we have to get our hard hats ready. I'll have to put mine on my Christmas list. I think they'll give you one to use for the groundbreaking. I want a pretty one. Don't you have a pink one, Ms. Randall? Ms. Guy has a pink one too? That would be my gosh, so just thank you to everyone that I've gotten to know I've met I've worked with the people of Garrisonville district I've loved meeting and helping and you know the good the bad and the ugly you see when you're on the school board and You know, it is so rewarding to work

213with all of it and I look forward to that in the coming year Thank You miss Randall So I would like to thank Stephanie Fingerholtz for giving us a little community, I'm sorry, Shannon, for giving us the gift basket of little goodies in the back. That was really fun. I'd like to thank Mountain View Culinary Arts. We've been treated to Brook Point and now we've been treated to Mountain View, so Stafford's our next one, I suppose. I would also like to... Thank my board for all the work and dr. Taylor and his staff for putting together what was it like three and a half inch binder of information for us to work through in 12 hours and we did it and I'm just really it really really was a worthwhile time it's our second one

214this year and it's just really worked out nicely I also want to thank dr. Taylor for recognizing the different fall sports and then of course going into the winter sports and then hopefully spring sports. I think that that's really, those kids are coming out through every weather condition, sick, not sick, a ton of work, not a ton of work, whatever. They're showing up their dedication and supporting their coaches. I went to the Fairy Farm pancake breakfast this weekend. Oh, my gosh, take me back when my littles were little there. Holy cow. It was just such a cute community event to attend. I also went to D.C. yesterday. My daughter graduated Friday. So we took her to dinner in D.C. and decided to go buy the National Christmas Tree. And we saw the Virginia tree. We

215saw the Falmouth ornaments. I did put it on my Facebook page if you want to see them. What I liked about them this year is normally they, we go often, but they usually put them in plastic bulbs and buy. as time goes on when the weather is bad like condensation so you can't ever see like what the kids art is inside they've left them out of any kind of protection and so they're just out on the tree to see and it was just really really touching to be a school board member even but to see um one from our own county's artwork up there it was really really touching i encourage you all to take a trip up and walk around it's such a nice area And let's see, where am I? Okay, I wanna

216say happy holidays to all of the staff. Thank you guys so much for staying up with us and working with us and really putting a lot of time and effort into the presentations and questions that we ask. Your job is as demanding, I think, as ours, because we're kind of demanding women. I would like to thank Dr. Taylor for your one year of saying yes. And remember that you said yes. knowing that we're gonna be seven women, but you've done it and I really, really thank you for putting together great retreats and opportunities and learning sessions. It's been helpful for me as a board member and you're only my second superintendent, but still it's nice to learn from you as well. I also wanna thank my board and wish you guys a happy holiday. We

217have rocked, we have knocked, we have rolled through this year, and I want to thank you for your support, especially right now when I need it the most. Thank you, Ms. Randall. Well, I'm just going to echo all the thanks of everyone for everyone that does things for us and that helps make our school system as great as it is. I'm going to focus my comments on this board. This is really hard because... Y'all know I'm not easy to get along with, but it has been an honor and a privilege to work with you. I mean, we are, as we've mentioned, we are very, very different, but I think we should be proud of what we've done. Gosh, we've come so far. I mean, a year ago, we had three newbies going through a day

218of orientation, and all I could think of was, oh, just wait. You have no clue what you signed up for. So I think who mentioned the good, the bad, and the ugly? Ms. Sigmund. I'd say the good outweighs the bad and the ugly. But the year started out really, really ugly. It was a little scary to sit up here and hard. But we made it through. And we've come so far, and I give you a lot of credit, Dr. Taylor, for giving us the resources that we needed to move forward, because we can only be as good as our staff is. We can have all the policymaking and all the direction. you know, everything in the world. But if our staff is not competent, if our staff is not inspired and have a very strong

219leader, then we're not going to be able to succeed. And we're not here for personal reasons. If we really wanted to, we'd probably be home with our families and our dogs and our cats and kids. whatever, but we're here for the students of Stafford County. And that's what I'm really the most proud of every one of you for, because you've put your personal desires aside, in many cases, for the good of the school system, and that means a lot. And I think we should be very, very proud that we are able to work together so well as a board, notwithstanding our differences. Because I think, as Ms. Guy said, we're not the ones that we would probably choose to hang around. But we do, and it's great. So thank you. Thank you for everything. And

220Dr. Taylor, please, with your staff. They are. They're amazing. They make you look good. I mean, you know, you can only be as good as what's supporting you. So we're here for the kids and the families in Stafford County, and we need to keep that in mind. And, of course, not to leave out all our administrators and teachers and support staff. the bus drivers, the cafeteria workers, the monitors, the traffic crossing people. Everybody plays a part. So thanks to everyone. I wish everyone a wonderful holiday season. I'm so glad we have our two weeks off starting next week, next Wednesday, right? We'll get that word out, whatever. Have a happy holiday season, and thank you for meeting my goal of getting out. Early. Oh, Ms. Hall. We'll see you in February. Clark's Appreciation Week is

221coming up in February. Everybody remember that? But, of course, we couldn't do it without you keeping track of us, trying to make sure we're answering those little invitations and where we're supposed to be. And I don't know how often I come, like, what time is that meeting? But thank you, and I wish you and your family a happy holiday as well. Thank you. All right, now we get to go home, and we are before 9 o'clock. Thank you. Oh, and wait a minute. Even though this says the next meeting is the business meeting, don't be surprised if you get an invitation to a work session because there's always more work to be done.