001Good afternoon. My name is Kathleen Brown, chair of the Virginia Beach School Board, and I call this meeting to order at 4 p.m. In accordance with the schedule of school board meetings approved by the school board at their January 13, 2026 organizational regular meeting and pursuant to Bylaw 146 in Code of Virginia 2.2-3707, the school board will hold a special meeting on Tuesday, February 17, 2026. The purpose of this special meeting is for presentations on Budget Workshop Number 5, Fiscal Year 26-27 School Board Proposed Operating Budget in Fiscal Year 26-27 through Fiscal Year 31-32, Capital Improvement Program Discussion by School Board and School Board Administration. Madam Clerk, at this time, would you please announce the role? Thank you, Madam Chair. Present in the School Board Chamber are Chair Brown. Vice Chair Weems, Mr. Bowen-Steele, Mr.
002Callan, Mr. Culpepper, Mr. Cummings, Ms. Felton, Dr. Green, Ms. Melnick, and Ms. Rogers. And attending via Zoom is Ms. Dwyer. And Ms. Dwyer, for the record, can you explain why you're attending via Zoom? Ms. Dwyer, can you unmute? I'm sorry. Yes, for medical reasons. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Please join me in a moment of silence, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance as you are able. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. We are now on to the adoption of the agenda. I call for a motion to approve the agenda as presented. Moved by Dr. Green, seconded by Mr. Cowan. Any discussion? Seeing none I call for the votes to approve
003the agenda as presented and mr. Wire How do you vote on the approval of the agenda? And our voting board is there we go So madam chair, we have 11 eyes the motion to pass for the adoption of the agenda as presented Thank you. We are now on to budget workshop number five and we welcome crystal pate chief financial officer And Madam Chair, before Ms. Pate begins, I just want to provide the board with a couple of thoughts about this evening and how it plays into what will happen down the road. So as board members know, we've been spending months, at least two months, dedicated to trying to develop the 26-27 operating budget and capital improvement plan. And where we are in the process right now is In 48 hours, we have to release the
004C on To the public on Thursday evening as part of the agenda packet. So it's going to be really important in this session today That if there's anything within the budget balancing document that we presented last week that the board feels needs to be adjusted Now is the time for make that for us to make those adjustments prior to the end of this meeting because again, it's going to require some time tomorrow to make adjustments to make any adjustments from that into the C on packet that again we want to have ready on Thursday. We do all of this with still a proposed state budget. working off of Governor Youngkin's proposed budget released in December, we do not have a final state budget. So it's likely there's going to be adjustments between what we present
005on February 24th as a superintendent's estimate of needs and what the board acts upon on March 24th. So we do have time after tonight and after the SEON is presented on February 24th to make adjustments. But it will be important that if the board feels collectively strongly about any adjustments that need to be made to what we've provided, that really needs to be clear to us tonight so we can act. Good afternoon, Chairwoman Brown, Vice Chairwoman Weems, school board members, Dr. Robertson. As mentioned, this afternoon marks our fifth budget workshop presentation. The agenda for this afternoon is outlined on this slide. We began with a summary of the departmental budgets and the associated reductions. Next, we will address questions from school board members and provide updates on any recent actions or guidance from the General
006Assembly. We will then look to the board for discussion of priorities, including items to be included in or added to the SEON. And finally, we will conclude with next steps. This slide summarizes each department's current fiscal year 2026 budget, the proposed fiscal year 2027 line item and staffing reductions, and the resulting fiscal year 2027 proposed budget. All of this information was previously shared during the departmental presentations. As shown, the total proposed reductions amount to $5.2 million approximately, and it's consistent with what was already been communicated. Please also recall that these reductions build upon cost savings from previous presentations already made over the past three years totaling approximately $16.7 million. The first school board question requested clarification regarding which budget requests were approved as part of the budget balancing process specifically related to CTE courses. The
007CTE courses reflected in the budget balancing document were previously presented to the school board for information on November 12, 2024 and for consent on November 26, 2024. For the remaining budget request descriptions included in the budget balancing document, the relevant supporting information has been provided in your school board materials. At this time, we have no updates regarding the next biennial budget. This slide outlines several key upcoming legislative dates. Today, February 17th, is the last day for bills to be acted upon in their chamber of origin other than budget bills. Bills must cross over to the opposite chamber by Wednesday, February 18th. Sunday, February 22nd, also known as Budget Sunday, is the deadline for the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to report their respective proposals. Thursday, February 26th is the deadline for each chamber to act
008on its respective budget proposals. Wednesday, March 4th is the deadline for each chamber to act on budget and revenue bills from the other chamber and appoint conferees as necessary. Monday, March 9th by midnight is the deadline for committee action on all legislation. Saturday, March 14th the General Assembly is scheduled to adjourn Sendai. I would like to draw your attention to the February 26th date. That is the deadline for each chamber to act on its respective budget proposal. As Dr. Robertson mentioned, please note that we will present the CEON and Capital Improvement Program two days earlier on February 24th, and we will not have a finalized state budget at the time those items are presented. I also want to highlight March 14th when the General Assembly is scheduled to adjourn, ideally with a finalized state budget.
009Following adjournment, we will make any necessary adjustments to the CEON and present updated information to the Board at the March 24th meeting when you schedule to adopt the Budget and Capital Improvement Plan. We have an updated revenue slide to share. The first revision reflects an update from the City regarding local revenue projections under the Revenue Sharing Formula. After receiving closeout information last month the city reviewed its projections and revised to revenue sources upward hotel and cigarette taxes Both of which are included in the revenue sharing formula as a result revenue under the formula increased by five hundred and ten thousand eight hundred thirty eight dollars for fiscal year 2627 This revision increases the total additional revenue proposed for FY2026-27 from $33.4 million to $33.9 million as shown on this slide. Updates to budget balancing include
010allocating $360,838 to the Health Fund and designating $150,000 for general district court staffing and related expenses. This funding will support three additional FTEs needed due to the significant increase in citations associated with the Stop ARM program. This next slide is intended to prompt discussion, as Dr. Robertson mentioned, regarding the Board's priorities for the upcoming budget. On the right side of the slide, you will see the budget balancing information. Much of this was reviewed at our last meeting. The only changes from what was previously presented reflect the additional local revenue from the revenue-sharing formula and the allocation of those funds I just spoke about. We have also identified a few areas for further consideration and discussion, including employee compensation, instructional focus, and pay go. This final slide outlines the next steps. We are scheduled, as Dr.
011Robertson mentioned, to finalize the CEON within the next 48 hours. The CEON and CIP presentations are scheduled for February 24th. You will receive a health benefits update from Mercer on March 3rd, which will include updated information. And please also note the March budget workshops in advance of the SEON and Capital Improvement Plan approval, which is scheduled for March 24th. And that concludes the presentation. I'll be glad to answer any questions that you have. Dr. Green. Thank you, Chair Brown. And thank you, Ms. Pate. My question is a moving target so you may not be able to answer it all right now and I guess for me and and this may help also our staff and view in public because I'm truly visual with things the bottom line for I Understand that we right now may
012not know where we land with what percentages our staff will receive pay raises. Because if you could kind of recap for us in view in public what is going to be proposed in the SEON for teacher and staff pay raise with the understanding we know that's subject to change is the first question I have. So this would be what we proposed when we did the budget balancing the last time. So originally you're going to have for the teacher scenario A that was presented by Segal, which was a 2% entry and a 1.5% step. And then we added additional funding to that scenario to add $1,000 to the entry level so that we would have an overall increase of 5.23%. For the unified scale, Segal presented information that was a 2% entry level plus a 1%
013for steps 1 through 14 and a 1.5% step for 15 and above. We added additional funding to that scenario that added a 1% to the entry level, providing an overall average increase of 4.17%. Okay, so the 5.2 how much are we relying on the state for? For that we have the funding to take care of that. I mean it's gonna it would be part of That thirty three point nine million dollars. I mean the total so there's a part of the local. It's a part of the state It's a part of that all of those people those revenue sources All right, so is there a possibility as to Whatever we may receive from the state that our raise for our staff could increase I Yes, that would be a board discussion that day we get
014it when when we get a final number from the state It will be a board decision on what to do with that funds. Okay Alright and then the last part of my question miss pay thank you for those variances on slide six and You I know it may be a challenge for us to figure out the answer to this question How much of that pay raise that of that say right now? hypothetically that 5.2 percent Even though we have a variance to offset, I think you know where I'm going, the health cost, how much of their 5.2% pay raise do you estimate if you're able to go toward health benefits? Yes, so I can answer that one too. March 3rd, we're going to get the new update from Mercer, which will take us through the
015December, so we'll have an entire picture of what the costs were in 2025. which will give us a much better indication of what the costs are going to be next year. And I have a meeting with the city manager this week because there is, again, interest to try to stay as close as possible to what we do with our employees and what they do with their employees related to health insurance. So the short answer is March 3rd. All right. Thank you. Ms. Rogers? Thanks, and I know that Dr. Robertson said this is sort of a discussion, but I think it's really important that we highlight the fact that our staff, their raise came second as our decisions, our teachers had to wait for their raise last year, and with the health care costs continually increasing
016and our staff are at the bottom of Hampton Roads for pay, we have prioritize their pay if we want to keep our staff. I mean it's that's going to be what I am going to be really pushing for this year is that we increase our staff as much as we possibly can and put money in our In the health account so that it's not in a negative. Those are the two priorities. I think that we really need to focus on simply because our staff are at the bottom and we've been saying that they are a priority and we just need to put The dollars where we say that they need to be Mr. Culpepper, I guess I got several I think maybe I'd I suspect we're gonna go around around here a little bit so
017maybe I'll just hit one of them now and Let somebody else speak because the topic at the moment is is health care I see I'm looking at the presentation from from last week here as well and you've got on there an additional fourteen point two million dollars Essentially going to the health fund balance and I just want to make sure that's on top of the five point three We put in from reversion. Is that correct? It's five point eight from five point But it's not inclusive the 9.2 million is now almost 9.6 million because of the extra money that we just recently received from the city based on the revenue sharing formula so the 360 plus that 9.2 was about 9.6 million that would be towards The employer cost of health care premiums and then
018five million dollars Would go from this operating budget to rebuild the health fund balance the 5.8 million dollars That we put in for the reversion that money is in a special reserve account that we can access if if our Health fund balance got to zero. So it's a middle mentally at least we can think of that as one of the same, right? Yes is Put it underneath our health fund balance one. Yes. I'm gonna present that yeah that way March 3rd. Okay, we do the presentation. Okay My other question is so you were just talking about option a option a For pay increases what you just discussed right? Mm-hmm. And that is the that's the largest of the The ones that were offered by Siegel. There was three offered by see there were three but
019that's the biggest one, right? Okay, so make sure We we've talked to you a little bit about you know not Trying to match up our health costs with the city. I'm just kind of wondering too. Are we getting into a bidding war with the city for Employee pay as well. What kind of a do you know what kind of a raise the city's given? Yes, sir In my discussions with the city manager from a couple of weeks ago They were going to do a step increase which is 3% And there were, the student manager indicated there were a couple of groups, employee groups they wanted to take care of last year that they couldn't. And they want to take care of those groups this year. So those groups may get more than the step increase.
020When he and I speak on Thursday, we're going to talk about salary increases, potentially what they're thinking about. We're going to talk about health care increases or staying the same. And that conversation, again, is preliminary to what the council may decide to do in their deliberations. I understand you're right. Was the city talking about raising health care costs? Well, we're all looking at the increased health care costs overall. And in an initial meeting, the city indicated they were looking at a range between 8% and 12%. But, again, that was based upon... Data from that you guys saw a week ago from November So it'll be a much clearer picture when we have our benefits executive committee meeting tomorrow Where will we see the December data tomorrow? We'll see the December data tomorrow Which will give
021us a more more clarity on where we where we believe we're going to be for 2027 Okay, I got one more but I'll wait till the end race chair memes Yes, those were some of my questions, too, about the city and school board, but we'll wait to get that data. Ms. Pate, may I just have, at some point this week, if you could email us the last, I don't know, maybe eight years of salary increases that we've given or all staff employee increases that we've given our employees for the last eight years. Thank you. I'm going to turn this to some student-focused stuff here real quick. The decrease in the local match of early reading intervention. Why is that there, decreasing in that? Yeah, that's a grant. And so when that grant comes out on
022the Calc Tool, depending on the slots, and I'm going to look probably at Tiffany because she delves really deep into the grant world. Based on that, slots in our composite index, that's how the local match is determined. Because the grant came to an end? No, it's not to the end. It's just the number of slots, and there's a per pupil attached to it. Okay. Okay. It's just a calculation based on that information. And then obviously the local match for all of those that require a match are based on our composite. Okay. Okay. All right. And then also the restoring the early commitment incentive for student teachers. So we had that and then we stopped it and now we're just putting that back. And can you tell me what how much that is? I mean, I
023know the total, but what is the. What is her per per new student Oh? 2000 okay 2000 okay, okay? Okay, good and With technology I know we don't have much on this slide except for some cost of obviously Microsoft and Google But can I get a cost of how much? our Chromebooks cost at to provide one-to-one Technology Chromebook for it for every kindergartener first grader and second grader K through 2 and could I have the cost of how much compared to the cost of how much it would cost to have a classroom Set of those which I'm assuming would be zero for that But if I could have both of those I would appreciate it K through 2, please So miss we have the classroom set would probably if I remember the carts come in
024tens Is that what you mean? So instead of having each of those early grades with a device, there's a classroom set and a cart, which is normally 10. Okay. So that, is that correct? Yes. So there would be a, yes. Very good. Okay, great. Thank you. Appreciate it. Mr. Callen. Let me offer what may seem like a silly question to ask, but I'll ask it nonetheless. And the silly question is this. At a time when we're evaluating the budget and trying to manage our finances wisely and closely, does a quarter of a million dollars mean anything? And I don't mean that sarcastically or in any other manner. But is a quarter of a million dollars an interesting amount of money to be mindful of? It is. I would think so, too. And again, I don't
025mention that as a sarcastic question. But the point that I'm making is that we have a student loan funding for student meal debt for a quarter of a million dollars. And it struck me as this report was presented several months ago that this is not an issue that has to do with federal dollars that are available for lunch and breakfast programs that are available without impacting us. But as the report was delivered, I was left with this impression. People can pay, but they don't. We let it accumulate, and it reaches a quarter of a million dollars. And instead of seeking to establish what I guess would be an example of responsible behavior on the part of adults, asking them to bear the responsibility of the expenses that are being incurred for their family members, we
026say by our behavior and by our analysis, don't worry about it. And if we set that as a precedent, human nature being what it is, we'll say to a parent in the future, we've got a tab running here and it keeps getting bigger, but you know what? We don't have to be concerned about that because somebody else is going to cover that. So you know what, honey? We'll just take our dollars and dress it towards something else. And my concern, I think it's pretty obvious, is that it sets a bad precedent, not for people who are receiving federal dollars for these meals, but people who are just not carrying their personal responsibilities. I just say doing that sends the wrong message. And I would say if this is the time that we address columns and
027dollars for consideration, since we go back to the initial question, which was, does a quarter of a million dollars mean anything? Especially when we have salaries that we could pay or health fund expenses that we could pay. Nah, let's not do that. Let's cover somebody else's responsibility. I think that's not wise. Yes, Mr. Callen, this is exactly why this conversation is really important. So what I'll have Mr. Freeman's approach in the microphone, he's going to share with you what we are doing to try to get those individuals to pay their meal debts so that we don't have to even consider this. But this is the absolute right time to point something out that doesn't make sense. So, Mr. Freeman. Absolutely. And I'll acknowledge there's everything that you described. So what I'm going to attempt to
028do is give perspective of what has happened since we briefed the board related to this. And it's never as simple as you want it to be when you start looking into it. And I think I shared with the board during this presentation that this is one of the toughest problems. because of how many restrictions there are, well-intended restrictions of what can be done to ensure that that money is being collected for meals that are being served to families who have not demonstrated a need that they can't afford the meal. And an example of that is earlier in the fall when we had the first government shutdown, we sent out a communication to all of Virginia Beach parents and said, hey, we know that you might be affected by this shutdown. There are resources available like
029free and reduced lunch that have other benefits that go with them. So if you're not aware of this, here's the click on and go in and do it. We got a tremendous amount of response of families that were eligible for free and reduced lunch just from that communication. So there's a portion out there of, although we believe that we communicate and we have processes for how to share this with families, how do they walk away with something in their mind that I must go do this right now, rather than, hey, I got a flyer, that's great, and then they never took any action. The structure that we're putting around all of the things that we're learning about, how do we communicate, what's the challenge in different schools, what we've done is we've brought in a
030number of school principals, and they were specifically selected because of who they are and the communities that they service and some challenges that we see related to people even know that they're responsible for paying for a meal. And we're going through that process and we're seeing some good results in the couple of months that we've been doing it. We've got another meeting that's coming up at the end of February. And the goal is to take what we learn from those principles and then start to roll it out to the broader group of principles to be able to capture. This is not the environment to be able to share all of the details related to but there's some really good stuff in there and I'll give one of them because When you hear the people even
031know that they're responsible for a meal you might ask yourself. Well, how is that even possible? if you started out at a CEP school, which means as a parent, your child went to a school that you never had to pay for a meal just because it was designated as a CEP meal, you may have never grasped that when they moved to a middle school that was not a CEP middle school, that you needed to pay for those meals. So it can be confusing when you get communications about paying for a meal when you've never had to pay for them before That's one tiny sliver of all of the different considerations. So everything you said here you loud and clear and it certainly echoed dr. Robertson's weighing with it, but we are continuing to work on
032how do we Conduct everything around that process so that we effectively get those who are eligible for free and reduced lunch to be able to get them on the program. For those who are not, how do we work with them, communicate with them in a way where we are consistently getting our student meal that's paid? So with that, again, this could be a discussion that the board may want to say, you know what, you're going to keep that dollar amount or, yeah, you're going to take that dollar amount off. So we would look for some guidance from the board. Mr. Brown still Yes, I just wanted to say I do agree with Miss Rogers on her two points that she brought up That's definitely important. But I also wanted to know the cost of the
033Chromebooks from K through 2 and also What kind of effect is that going to have if we? Do away with them or how do we have a program that if we were thinking about it like to fade them out or and then also when they get into the third grade and they've never used one, how would that affect their situation? So dr. Goldberg, do you want to address that one? Good afternoon. Nice to see you guys to answer your question about the impact for third grade the concern for instruction would be Excuse me that the students would not have prior Time to learn and get adjusted to using the computers in the Chromebooks There's also assessments in second grade that require students to use the Chromebooks So but dr. Goldberg if you had a class
034set of compute computer or devices in a classroom in second grade of 10 The teacher would be able to do we did prior to going one-to-one and they would have to schedule student use of the tenant at a time so they were going to be prepared. Yeah, so if you have a set of 10, the idea would be that you could use those Chromebooks in a small group setting. So typically small groups would be five or six kids in a group, maybe seven, and those assessments would be given in a small group setting versus a whole group class setting. We do typically recommend that in those younger grades you're not giving assessments in a whole group setting at this time anyway. If I figure out anything else to add to it, I'll bring it back.
035Ms. Rogers? Thank you. I'm sorry. Mr. Cummings hasn't gone so mr. Cummings then miss Rogers. Sorry That's all good. Um, I just had some follow-up questions about health fund and so can you dr. Roberts? Can you just reiterate? Just for my own personal being where where's the health fans fun stand at right now? Can anybody pull the presentation we did last week from Mercer based on November data which gave us The health fund balance. It was a projected health fund balance, right? So somebody's looking. Well, I guess it stretches to a bigger discussion of, you know, when I think about the health fund and I think about all the red numbers we saw, what is, you know, and we have this chunk of money, $33-some million. Just think about what our roadmap is to restoring
036that to where it needs to be. And so I guess that's kind of what my question is. It's like, what does that roadmap look like to us getting to a place where the health fund needs to be stable, balanced, everything that we, you know, in a nice, healthy spot? Yeah, so the gold standard is two months of reserve. And our thought is, based upon the budget we're developing right now, Availability of the 5.8 million dollars in reserve that we can get more than halfway to Where we want to be in terms of the two-month reserve and then as part of next year's budget cycle get all the way there that's that's the the The plan right now. I don't think we're going to be in a position to Get all the way there this year
037without taking a look at the other part of compensation, which is salaries. Mm-hmm So the goal if I hear you correctly then Then when we're sitting here next year We'll be talking about how we'll be at that nice glorious spot of our health funding where it needs to be. That's correct That's the goal. Okay And then I guess my next question would be around reversion funds for this year, and I don't think there will be an answer right now, but I'd love additional information how we're trending towards whatever that bucket of potential reversion might be in unused funds, and then thinking through how we plan to maybe utilize those funds as well. So we do look at that monthly and try to trend that out and annualize that based on actual data up to the
038point that we know it. So we do look at that. We're getting ready to have a meeting on that again so that we kind of know where we are. And then if we have any changes in the current budget, at one point there's still some clarification around the bonus and how that's going to work because of some enrollment drop that could drop. what our state revenue is. And I think when Mr. Hopkins presented the interims, he kind of explained that we are seeing a projected decrease once this current piece of the biennium budget is finalized with the General Assembly. But we do look at that and take those adjustments into account as we know them and look at those projections as we head into the end of the fiscal year because we have to know
039where we stand and if anything is coming through that is going to surprise us or that we need to take a look at and that kind of thing. Yeah, we Even I was just to say I think just yeah if we could just see if the board just received an update I'd appreciate it because I'm thinking about that big old list of buses we need and and Everything else on there and just seeing like, you know as we're trying to play whack-a-mole with all the demands You know, what are the different sources of funding that are gonna become available? So so one one one monthly Look the board receives when Dan Hopkins comes and gives you the expenditures versus the revenues and what you always want to see is that the revenues far exceed the
040expenditures and It also I believe he shows three years of trend data So it gives you an idea of where we are this year compared to the same time over the previous two years. So that's a really good predictor of the position we're in, the financial position. I believe Ms. Pate has the health insurance number, and then Mr. Freeman can talk to you about buses. Yes, so this is from the Mercer presentation and this is on a fiscal year basis so the projection for fiscal year 2026 based on Mercer's Estimates was the fund balance is projected at eighteen point seven million dollars And then for fiscal year 27 is projected at seventeen million dollars, but that was as of the November data that we received So related to the buses, we appreciate the concern of
041the how do we balance priorities? Related to what we have so from the brief that we gave from school division services one of the things we mentioned in there is looking for opportunities for When we might be able to use money that's available To purchase buses and so you mentioned reversion funds But before it ever gets to that point what was mentioned in the brief is the potential for using end-of-year money Now, again, that needs to meet a lot of wickets from the budget side of the house to make sure that appropriate buffers are in place so that you don't go too far with it. But there is an option of if money is available and it meets all the right wickets for the budget team to be able to do an end-of-year purchase before
042it ever even gets to reversion funds. Is that also the plan for, I remember, the deferred maintenance as well? Is that? So what we shared in the deferred maintenance is there's an ongoing discussion and so in Past history there used to be mid-year funds that would go to maintenance to be able to execute projects We've continued to try and work on that process capture opportunities when they are there. It's challenging from a maintenance standpoint Later it gets in the year to be able to execute the projects So the budget team's been working with us what on what possibilities might exist and the same thing is occurring this year again once the enough information is made available of what's possible and what's not possible, then we can move forward. Okay, cool. And my final question, comment,
043in regards, probably just pairing along with some of my colleagues as well about K through second grade Chromebook time. You know, I'm also interested in that. I'm also interested to know the average hours as well for those students. Then I also think about profit, right? What are the results of our students utilizing these programs? You know, what is the academic achievement of utilizing some of the software that they use on that basis? And is there a way just to compare pre-employment? I mean, it's been years and COVID and everything, so I don't think we could actually have a good measure, but is there a way to know, like, pre and post Chromebook and academic experience and is that even a fair comparison is a question I probably have but those are just the things that
044I think about you know what is the net learning of the student utilization in that early age and if it's removed or whatnot where it how would that impact the student experience as well Yes, what I would say to that, Mr. Cummings, I don't think we can give a fair comparison between pre-COVID and now because the assessments have changed, standards have changed. What we can show is how our students have performed on the state assessments at those grade levels. whether it's through reading proficiency, the vowels screeners in those grades. But I think it would be more difficult to quantify the impact of Chromebooks or iPads versus not, since virtually every school division in Virginia is using those devices at some level in their classrooms. I don't know if we could get you a fair comparison.
045Yeah, I kind of thought about that as I was speaking. Unfortunately, I wish I thought about it earlier before I spoke. I was like, oh yeah, I don't think that would work. But yeah, I appreciate that. That's all my questions. Ms. Rogers. Thanks so much. I wanted to kind of circle back to what mr. Callen was talking about and first I want to thank you mr. Freeman for really sharing how you know are the the balance on our lunch funds isn't as simple as people not paying and I am concerned about the fact that as you know, we are in service to the community as educators. And I want to make sure that we're not stigmatizing people to feel like they can't come forward because they can't pay and they don't want to be made
046to feel like they're just not paying. And I don't know if it's possible. Obviously, there's rules around this. But really, to reach out. At some point when we find out everything that you're finding out to community partners because honestly this is about kids eating and I firmly believe that as a community when children cannot eat it We need to step up and feed them when they're in our care That is something I will never budge on ever because I have taught children who come to school with no food and I have fed them and I think that as a community that is our responsibility and yes there are instances as you have said where people don't realize that they need to pay because they are going from a school that you know they don't have
047to pay and then they do but there are going to be families you know that are caught in all of these government shutdowns where they're not getting a paycheck and they simply cannot afford to pay it and they don't know what resources we have available or you know unemployment, you know, our economy isn't booming for all families. And so I think that we really if we're talking about this need to be sensitive to our our community who's listening and especially to our families who can't afford to pay and don't want to be made to feel like This is something that they're being neglectful about when they're sending their child to school without food and they know that they're going without food They are hoping that their children get fed and we need to be sensitive
048to that. And so if there's a way that we can have Pickup somehow through community partnerships, you know We have the Education Association doing beach bags for our students who may go home without food and maybe look at those avenues but some way that we can Find a way to bridge the gap so that we're not asking our teachers to take that hit on as well So that's what I wanted to say about that. Shoot. I was gonna start taking notes and So we first make this absolutely clear There are no students who are turned away to have a meal. That's our values. Right. It's a state mandate. There are no students who are turned away. Number one. Number two. Our families get a lot of communication. Again, we work on how to improve that.
049Right, right. How you can make things look in a way where it grabs their attention so that they can sign up and be a part of free and reduced lunch. and all of the other benefits that go with that. So if you're on free lunch, you're not charged for a meal. If you're on reduced, under the current guidance, they don't get charged for a meal. It's only the families that haven't demonstrated that need, those families are required to pay. And that's how the student meal debt develops, is because we don't turn kids away. And if it's not paid, then that will go up. Right. But circumstances do change for our families, obviously. So we have families who did not qualify, who then do qualify, but then they don't know where to turn to get this.
050the information. And obviously when a parent loses a job, they're not sending their child to school and say, hey, tell your teacher I lost my job and I need help. That's not happening. So that's where we kind of need to find the communication. And when families who have had those things happen and leave the system because their children are done and we have to chase that down, that's where maybe we can bridge the gap with community partnerships where we're not, you know. Able we don't have those children either their families have moved away or whatever We don't have those children in our communities anymore, but the debt remains does that make sense? Couple of things yes, so the communication absolutely That's what we intended to communicate of when we brought those principles and others in
051to try and find all of the gaps and how we communicate Going back to the example that we shared when mr. Callan brought it up. We sent out a a Division wide communication everybody during the last shutdown and we got good response from that good response means we got a number of people that submitted and A high percentage of those that submitted were eligible. There were some that were not There is a structure behind what you can demonstrate the need is, and there is a cutoff that goes with it. So to your point about the community partner, we've been talking about this for a long time, and we think we have a good solution. And there is a, because it's always been there to be able to engage with community partners or for them to
052be able to pay. What hasn't been there was intent meeting reality of it actually getting there. We think we're on track where we have something that's simple that is an external Resource that this is what they do where you can go click on that link And it's just easy. That's part of what we have We got to do a little bit more work and when we have something settled on we'll roll it out But to your point of how can we engage community partners where they give we've been doing that for years now We it's always been a challenge of taking that intent and turning it into the reality We think we have a step that's going to give us the best opportunity to get success related to those Intense and that's excellent because again
053we are here to serve our community and I just want to make sure our families Understand that when we're talking about this we're not trying to make anyone feel Stigmatized because they can't pay but we do want to do our best to try and help each family do as much as they can to Have their children fed if they can't pay for it. Thank you. Mm-hmm miss moment Okay, so mr. Freeman I don't mean to keep this going, but at the last presentation, my takeaway was the other part of Mr. Callan's comment, which is I thought we were told there are plenty of families who can afford to pay for lunch who just aren't. And so my question is, maybe just piggybacking on Mr. Callan, is what steps do we take to make sure the
054families who can pay are paying their debt because there is a portion of that $250,000 that belong to people who can pay their debt. I think you addressed it then. There's a difficulty. I think is it turned or I'll let you go ahead. No, it's what's interesting is that this mirrors. Every discussion that we're having about this is how do we account for the families that have a need and connect them with resources and work with them Even if they haven't met the definition of the need how do we work with them to be able to responsibly be able to move forward? the human nature piece of If there's not a hard driver It's easy to let it It can be easy to let us We're trying to figure out what level it is Of
055those as we go through the process and that's why we've engaged with some excellent principles on the docile side of the house Okay to be able to get that level of our School teams know their kids and they know their families. Yeah. And there's other benefits that come out of it as well. I'll share this with you. As we've gone through this work, what does come up is... There it is a design there's an indicator of need that is associated with some of these debts that you're not aware of and There are resources that were able to bring to bear When those things become available and there was a good news story that came out of our process that we learned that hey There was a family that needed a little bit of help and
056it wasn't until this conversation Happened that we learned that and we're able to connect those resources so Some of both. We don't know what level. That's what we're working through and making sure that we do all the right things related to supporting and providing opportunities to be able to get on free and reduced lunch, to be able to get opportunities for those who want to contribute to be able to help, while still also for the families who can, that just haven't, to be able to communicate in a way where they understand what their responsibility is. Okay, that's fair. I just want to make sure all the bases were covered. That's what we're trying to do I know you are and we're good. We're good in the support in the support world. I just Wanted to
057make sure I understood the entire situation so what and one of the things that comes to my mind is When we talked to you at that brief many a couple of months ago It's an incredibly challenging problem, and we presented it as an incredibly challenging problem. We didn't have as many solutions as we would have liked at that point in time. So what I'm realizing now is the work that we've been doing, it hasn't been appropriate to come back and talk to you because we're in the midst of it, but we're making really good progress on this. Still early. It's not going to happen as quickly as we like. This is not something that will be completely fixed by the end of this year. However, I am confident that we will be on track to
058be able to have systems and processes in place to account for all of these things and to be able to move forward where we're not growing any more debt and that we're chipping away at overtime and that we're targeting in the right way where there is excess. How do you make sure that those go to the right families based on whatever conditions in the time that they need it? Thank you for that. And while I have the floor, Madam Chair, just one other thing. I just wanted to thank each department for your presentations leading up to this budget process because it's been incredibly helpful just in just the daily thoughts that we have just in this budget process. And also putting it in writing for the community to see where each department made cuts. That's
059huge and just shows that we're committed to spending taxpayer dollars wisely. And they can see how and where we can make cuts and where we can't make cuts. And I really appreciate it. For me personally, it made things so much easier. And kudos to each department for that. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Madam Chair, I wanted to let you know that Ms. Dwyer does have her hand raised. Did she put it in before Ms. Felton did? She had it up before. Okay. Ms. Dwyer? Yes. Thank you, Mr. Friedman. Clarification here. I thought the school had access to lists for students that had free and reduced lunch who were eligible for that. We are aware as an organization who is eligible for free and reduced lunch. I'm not sure if that answers it. So then
060there are students that aren't, and you're aware of that as well? That is correct. I just wanted to make that clarification. By all means, definitely. I like what you were saying. That needs to be addressed because, you know, parents aren't perfect. And, you know, you have young children, two parents working in the home. you get my you know, it becomes you get mundane with things that come up and obviously Their focus isn't on that or maybe perhaps it was in the past, but definitely I appreciate you wanting to troubleshoot that and Because it needs to be addressed and also I have another concern Because my number one is that all students should be reading. And even with Chromebooks, we have students that aren't. And so what would we be saving if we eliminated Chromebooks for
061kindergarten? And then what would we be saving if we eliminated both kindergarten and first grade? So, Ms. Dwyer, that's part of the information we're going to collect for the board to share. because we don't have that right in front of us right now, and we're looking at K-2. Okay. All right, thank you, because I think even with Chromebooks, we still have students that fall through the cracks and can't read. So my number one is reading capability and by a certain age. So, okay, thank you. I would appreciate all that information. Thank you, Dr. Robertson. Ms. Felton? Thank you, Chair Brown. First, I'd like to say, Mr. Freeman, thank you for your approach in making parents aware of the applications that they need to fill out for the lunches and making it possible, because you're right,
062a lot of them don't know. And it's so unfortunate that when students move from school to school, that their paperwork is not transferable, that it goes with them. That would be something that would help as well, so they wouldn't lose that, and then they forget. So hopefully that will be a practice that we keep it transferable that they will have that paperwork going forward. Also about the Chromebooks, now that you want to elaborate on that, the transferable paperwork, you're good? Also on the Chromebooks, I know we were talking about how much a student's using, but I remember one of my concerns getting back was that parents who, student had either broken a Chromebook, lost the Chromebook, or did not receive the Chromebook back to the school, they were getting garnished, right? They were garnishing those
063parents. So is that still one of our problems? Because some of the parents were saying that, you know, if it's required for my child to have it and I'm barely making it, they're going to garnish it. And I tried to find out who were the garnisher-ee. and how was that happening to our parents and our students. Sure. Good afternoon, Ms. Felton. Good afternoon, Ms. Hedin. So when there are any fees or assessments that are assessed due to Chromebook repairs, those are decided by the principal at each building, whether or not it is appropriate that those be assigned to the family or not. If they are so assigned to the family, it goes on to our... ledger, if you will, with the city. And those assessments are provided to the city, who then follows up with
064their processes on reclaiming any funds. And you know, I'm not going to dig into this deep, but if they can go out and share parents for a Chromebook, and I'm not going anywhere. And I'm hearing this conversation about those that can't pay and cannot pay for student lunches. Being garnished is a very devastating thing. We don't know every parent need every household. But if my parents are crying out, they're garnishing my paycheck because of Chromebook. Okay, and I'll just leave that there. My father used to say, you don't have to eat a whole cow to know you're eating beef. So I'll leave that there and go to the bus drivers. I am excited that we are putting the bus. Buses back on the list as far as we need the buses. I just had a
065conversation with some students the other day saying that they're having to wait because they don't have a bus driver. So as we are collecting and looking forward to getting buses, are we including bus drivers, and are we making incentives to get bus drivers to come back for the school buses? Because I'm hearing that our students are having, some are having to wait for a third run before they can get home on buses. Yeah, so we can get you whatever details you need on the numbers, but what I can tell you is our vacancy rate is incredibly low. And when you compare with the divisions, Virginia Beach City Public Schools is well positioned when it comes to our fill rate for bus drivers That being said on any given day Any employee can be out for
066illness FMLA other items so there are days that we can go as high as 50 to 70 bus drivers that are out for the day so we fund our bus driver positions based on the number of runs so you can imagine when we have those bad days of 50 to 70 drivers that are not out there the bus drivers that were able to work that day are doubling up or doubling back to be able to get to those students So in order to be able to account for that, not ever having doubling up or doubling back, you would need to have a substantial number more bus drivers. I'm not advocating for that. I'm just saying that's the reality of the way that it is. We're appropriately funded for the number of drivers that we have
067the HR team has done an incredible job Working with transportation to ensure that our vacancy rate is as low as you're gonna find in a transportation department But there are some that doesn't mean that it's perfect and there will still be doubling up and doubling back some days more than others Okay. Thank you Yeah, and miss fault if I could just add a couple of comments related to the buses, but also The Chromebooks I think it's very important that I'm gonna take you back take you back to when I was in school But first about the buses so we have plenty of buses that that can operate and do every run every day and we'll have a fleet of a small fleet of buses that are sitting in the parking lots in case a bus
068is out that we because of the strength of our transportation fleet team We're never going to be in a situation where we don't have a bus in good condition that can go pick up kids. The second thing is, to Mr. Freeman's point about vacancies, in a perfect world, you would overstaff every position by 10% just to make sure that any given day you'd have a qualified person in front. You can't do that because the cost is prohibitive. So we determine how many bus drivers we need, and we are... As close as we have ever been to fully, I think we were seven today. I mean, there were times we were 50 drivers short. And so we're doing really well there. So from that situation with the buses, we're in a good position. And we have
069a strong plan to address any minor adjustments that might need to be made. So let's go back to Chromebooks for a moment because I think it's important for everyone to understand a Chromebook is a resource. So when I was in school, it was textbooks. When I was a principal, it was textbooks. Kids would sign out textbooks from all of their classes. They would put them in their book bags and lug them around. At the end of the year, we would do textbook checks and collects, and we would assess those students for damage to their textbooks. And then that information would go to their parents and say, you, your kid damaged three books, and you owe us $75. And if those parents didn't pay, that money then got reported to the division who then reported it
070to the city who then made an attempt to collect it. That's the same process that happens now. It's just no longer a textbook. It is a Chromebook. And so it is the exact same process that we've always used. It's just a Chromebook. A Chromebook is a valuable resource when it's used effectively. And we have heard loudly and clearly from this board for the last four years that you guys are really focused on appropriate screen time. And so Dr. Goldberg and her team and prior to that Dr. Shoebridge, and as I encourage you to go on school visits and look in those classrooms and see what those kids are doing, because for a student learning to read, who can wear a microphone, or I'm sorry, wear a set of headphones and hear the correct pronunciation of
071words that are being read on a screen is an individual. tutor to that kid that they can only get if they're in front of the teacher who might be with another group of five or six kids. So do I think we can provide a quality education K-2 with a Chromebook cart in every classroom versus a device in everybody's hand? I do. But I want to make sure that we all understand where we are in 2026 in terms of the use of technology. No one is looking to hire someone who can't navigate a device unless you're going to be a hands-on worker. You've got to be able to navigate a device and have those skills. And, you know, I was on a plane a couple days ago. No one had a book. reading, but a bunch
072of people had their iPads reading. So it's just things have changed and adjusted, and we are going to make sure we meet your expectations and the use of technology in the classroom. Am I still online, Ms. Brown? Okay. And I just want to say, to piggyback on to Father, to kudos to Dr. Robson, he's absolutely right. I was in corporate middle school just this past week, and I met a gentleman named Devin. And Devin spoke with me on a device that he used his eyes. And he had a whole conversation with me. So you're right. Technology is in a place. It's good use. And I don't want us to get caught up in what it is for and not for because we do need it in circumstances. Devin talked with me, had a whole conversation,
073nothing but with his eyes. Thank you. Okay. So since everybody's had the chance to speak, I'm going to go ahead and throw some comments in before we circle back through here. I want to kind of focus the budget for me and my perspective on the budget into three areas. One is staffing compensation. Two is academics, academic outcomes, because that's really what we're here for at the end of the day, but all of these things are related. And then safety and well-being of students and what that looks like. And so I'm going to kind of go through those sections. So the first for compensation, I am actually pretty happy about... Where we're at and what's being proposed with the thousand dollars but what I would like to see and I think the community would like to
074see and we've done this historically to those proposed Numbers, I think they should be when this on the budget page so that people can see this is what you know 0 1 2 3 4 5 for our teachers proposed to look like I think if the public can have that available easily and accessible before we put on the page with the Cian but I would like to see what those steps look like so that Our community can really do a compare and contrast, and the board can also do a compare and contrast about what we're offering in comparison to other divisions. And I do think that we do offer a lot as a school division. We offer a lot of resources to our staff, and so I don't want to overlook what we are offering
075and why Virginia Beach is such a great place to work, because it is really a great place to work. On that thread of compensation, we do have that health fund balance, and I am glad to see that we are putting in $5,360,000, I guess about $5.4 million, into the health fund in this particular budget year, but I'm a little bit unclear if employee contributions, employer contributions, Are adding if they're not taking away from the fund balance, does that make sense? I'm a little unclear in all of these presentations as to if we're increasing the fund balance or if we're just making, you know, deposits into it here and there and not really fixing. The problem I think and that's a good point But I think you have to look at the two things when we
076say we're going to do a contribution to the fund balance Then that's just where it's going to go. So it's just going to add that dollar amount to that fund balance Based on Mercer's projections and the cost that they were looking at and the trend, employer and employee contributions are set so that what we hope is that we are using that revenue source from those two sources to fund the medical claims and all the other expenses that we have. So we have been looking at that really closely. What happens is if those claims or those trends go higher than what's projected, and then it will take away from the fund balance. And so what we've been doing is doing very deep dives into what those rates are, what that revenue generates, what that enrollment is
077for open enrollment, and trying to look and see what is that going to generate for revenue. Because I think... where we want to be right now is to say we want to get our health fund back to a two-month reserve as recommended, and then we want to be able to cover the cost of our claims through employer and employee contributions without touching the health fund. Okay. And so without maybe getting further into the weed, do those projections based on the employer and employee contributions match up to where we are not projected to take anything from the health fund balance We are doing that right now when you see those projections, and I think when Mercer did their presentation, they showed you that they stopped depending on the fund balance. Okay. And so a lot of
078this gets hinged on total cost of the plan, too. So as costs continue to rise, we have to adjust that employer-employee contribution in order to stay on that plane. Okay. So that conversation then will be more detailed on March 3rd is what I'm hearing here. Okay, and I think that's great information. Thank you. I also want to talk about the meal debt. I understand that it's a difficult topic to handle, but if I'm recalling correctly, the meal debt was closer to a million dollars, correct? No? My is is my recollection Incorrect on that. I believe it is. Okay. I don't have that exact number on the top my head But that's not the magnitude. Okay, is it more than two hundred and fifty thousand dollars? Not substantially more From percentage wise but that's in the
079right ballpark So I'm just really curious here the meal debt if the meal debt exists it just sits there and It's still meal debt right now And so I'm just I'm contemplating priorities here when we have the health fund balance that we needs to really chip away at and I understand that there's families that may have the need. That's not it. I'm not even disputing that. But my question really is related to how are we selecting which debts we are and are not going to cover? So That's a great question and I'll stay at the high level which I think which dr Robertson was trying to share earlier is These are all for considerations for the school board to prioritize so It's it's your decision when it comes down to it how to prioritize where
080that is another element to the conversation because it's not just a discussion for operating budget dollars that we would use to be able to go to that but it's also a if we have community partners that want to how do you appropriately carve that out Rather than trying to go through the details that we've talked about so far or early in the process, because we do have an idea of how you could begin to target that, a lot of that is going to come from our principals and their understanding of what the situation is of the families that are in their schools. But there are some other elements as well. I don't know that we want to go into that, but we can definitely provide you, once we have a more packaged outcome from what
081we've learned and what the next steps are, we can give you a nice, concise brief for, hey, here's what we learned, here's what we intend to do moving forward. I think there's a lot of opportunity. So the question is, how do I prioritize this? We're on the early stages in making good progress to be able to arrest the growth and begin to reduce it. Like I said, it's... It's not going to be an end of this year kind of thing. But once we do a little bit of work with this group of about four schools and then start rolling it out to others, then we're really going to have a grasp for, all right, what's working, what's not working, and how substantial is the need, acknowledging that, hey, community partners can assist with it as
082well before having to then spend operational dollars to... to cover those. And if I could add, Ms. Brown, our goal is not to pay the meal debt for families who can pay. But we've gotten into a position over the last several years where that number has continued to grow, and really, Mr. Freeman used the term arrest. We're trying to, through, if we don't make the progress we're hoping to make, This is a number where we felt like we would get it down to a number where we might be able to get this to zero because there are some Dollar amounts in here that are from families who are no longer with Virginia Beach City Public Schools So we're never going to capture that money back and so this was this was really a struggle for
083us to put in because quite frankly, it's It's something we're going to have to cover. And do we bring it out to the open so we can have this really good conversation? So people listening going, you know, I got to make sure I'm not supposed to be paying for lunch and do that for us. So that because we can't, this is not sustainable to Mr. Callen's point. We should not be paying taxpayer funds for meal debt for families who can pay. We should not be doing that. But this was really kind of a stopgap. And to, I think it was Ms. Rogers' point, some families don't even know. It used to be, when I was a principal, that if you had a debt and you took, you got in a lunch line and you went
084through and picked your food and you got to the lady at the end and she puts your pen in and you have a debt, they took your food away and they said you can get a bologna sandwich. And that was just devastating to families. So what they did was, and the state said, you can't do that. You cannot do that at all. So Ms. Dwyer asked about, you know, do we know who the kids are? The cafeteria manager does, but nobody else does. So that kid can't go up to the line, and there's no longer... Any data that comes out, like my kids, hey, Dr. Robertson, you do know you've got to put money back in your kid's account, right? That stopped happening. So now we are reinitiating conversations with families to say, hey, didn't
085know if you were aware, but you should be paying for lunch unless there's any circumstances. So we need to redirect behavior that we created by previous practices. I also point out in 2020 when they initiated the general assembly, they put the law in which says you cannot deny a child lunch. So even if, you know, my kid, I hand him lunch and he walks in, throws it in the trash and gets that lunch, you still have to give them the lunch unless the parent... writes a note saying, please do not give Cammie's child lunch in this point. It also limited the ability of debt collection. It's not impossible. They made it harder to collect the debt. So even though you might have $250,000 due and you send it to the city treasurer's office, it may
086not be worth it to them, but they can't go after it because they can't use third-party non-governmental services. Part of this is created by the General Assembly's limitation on how we can collect that debt. So we may have it, but we never collect it again. We may be stuck because the amount's too small or we cannot go after them. Thank you. If I just clarify, and this was part of the brief that Ms. Amato gave before, so when students leave the division, it goes to debt collection. So we just generally say it goes to the city. We don't see much of that money back. I think what was reported in the brief was we got $900 back last year, which you guys know the substantial sums of money that we're talking about of increasing student
087meal debt. But I do want to make sure that I say this very loud and clear. We have seen effectiveness in parents paying for meal debt as part of this pilot program we're working with the four principals. So we're looking to understand what moves the needle. what's helpful from that communication process with his... Take this in the most positive way a little as effort and overhead on our schools as possible to be able to effectively get That process going and we're learning a lot and we have seen reduction in a short period of time But we're going to need to continue to do some other work to make To get there. So what I'm what I am trying to communicate I might want to make sure we communicate this very clearly is we are seeing
088parents or debt go down from previously where it was with just the initial parts of our updated processes that were using thank you and I don't need a response to this, but of course I'm not suggesting that we would turn any kids away for a meal at all by any stretch of the imagination. So I just want to make sure that that's clear. But I would be curious if there was a way, and this may be more complicated in practice than reality, but I'd be curious if there was a way for us to determine the total meal debt of families that are now on free and reduced cost lunches that maybe previously were not. And maybe that might give us a little bit better of a number to kind of come around and as a
089group and be cohesive about. So, and then finally, you know, a lot of my colleagues have mentioned the one-to-one technology and the Chromebooks. And I really don't know how much we spend as a division on Chromebooks specifically. I do know that a lot of people in the community have mentioned to me that they do not like their youngest learners on the devices in the classrooms. And I don't think that... Not having them in Pre-k through first or even second grade is going to stop a student from learning how to use a device well enough for assessments in third grade by the time those assessments come around Or make it so that they are not able to be future ready in the high school years. I think that Students can learn how to use those devices
090for that pretty quickly. And so I don't know to me that that really is as effective as whether or not these devices are improving student academic outcomes, student reading on grade level. And to me, student reading on grade level is very, very important by third grade. And so I think maybe maybe we can try and see if that improves student outcomes and you know see if maybe we can be the division that isn't relying as heavily in those years on it. And I know that the data on that is, Dr. Robertson, correct me if I'm wrong, it's very difficult to see how long the computer was open and they were reading versus the active movement around. But I would imagine that our students that probably need the hands-on learning and not being on the devices
091are probably using the devices more heavily. I, too, would echo some of my colleagues' thoughts on wanting to know what the cost of that is so that we can consider that. Mr. Culpepper. Thank you. I think all I'll say about Chromebooks is I'll echo what the chair just said. Pretty much my thoughts exactly. And then I think two other things I'll hit here. One's really a question. So there are two lines in here from McKinney-Vento. I remember last time you discussed the fact that... And outsourcing, that has become exceedingly expensive. So I see the first line here is half a million dollars to hire five drivers and vehicles and buy vehicles to do that. There's still another line that's an increase of half a million dollars for outsourcing. So there's no payback yet, I guess
092is what I gather. Yeah, so I think what I mentioned last time is that we, that... That mandate is costing and we're having to cover that every year even then when we budget for it It exceeds that budget and we're having to cover that cost So even though we are trying to do an initiative in-house We are trying we are still seeing that what the budget is is probably not sufficient to cover that until we completely Transition into that initiative to see because it's a work in progress kind of thing. That's an increase in half a million dollars What is that budget line? Do you know? Oh, it's a contracted service. So how much is it? Oh, I'd have to go back and look and see. I don't know. I will tell you, in prior
093years, we've transferred money incrementally in there. This time, when we did the transfer that came before the board, we increased it quite a bit. Good afternoon. So we went through the request for proposals process last school year and we have three contracted services that we have through Z Trip, LPR, and True Heart. And we have over 480 students who are experiencing homelessness who require transportation. And each of those companies, you can imagine their costs have gone up over the years. We use the three different corporations for different reasons. Any student who's being transported within the city of Virginia Beach, we use True Heart. And the True Heart cost is $106 per student round trip each day. The LPR we use because we're able to share the cost with local school divisions who use the same
094service. That's at $70. So we use LPR for students who are traveling from outside of Virginia Beach to inside our school division. And then for ZTRIP, which has the lowest capacity in terms of number of drivers, we tend to focus solely on inside the city of Virginia Beach, and they're at $92 per trip. Okay. Have you kind of projected out? When this will pay back and perhaps maybe equate it to your cost per student? Yes. The biggest piece would be that we're merely transitioning the $500,000 that we were going to be spending on transportation anyway over to another option on transportation. So it's really a matter of shifting funds. So your expectation here this year, in other words, was you were going to have to raise that contract budget line a million dollars? Because of
095where we just currently are right now. Right. So next year we're looking to see that offset. To give an idea, the focus on this offset will be on True Heart. No offense to True Heart, but at $106 per student each day, if we're able to find even 30 students, that right now is costing us $538,000 every year, $563,000. we're looking just for those 30. We're able to transport them at far less than $563,000. But to get us started, that's where you're seeing the $500,000 come in. So in two years, that then would give us the biggest offset and then a continued offset because we would not have to spend the $106 per round trip each day. All right. Awesome. Thank you. My other question, I know the CIP is a totally different subject, but where
096does PAYGO come from in the CIP? Does it come from our budget? It does come from the operating budget. I don't see that line in here anyway. So what is the pay go? I assume that means because it's the same as it was last year, right? It comes off the top of the revenue sharing formula that we do. So like I think when I presented that revenue, we talked about that excludes the debt service and the pay go. Okay. That's not on this slide, but okay. We can resend the slide. It was on the other one when we went through that. We were trying to like just show dollar amounts at this point. I bring that up because, you know, The chair pointed out that she sees this in terms of various buckets, and I'm
097kind of seeing it, frankly, in terms of various crises. The health fund balance is a crisis. Maintenance is a crisis. CIP, I'll call it maybe not a crisis, but it's certainly a huge budget item. And then, of course, debt and debt service. Again, perhaps not a crisis, but it's a huge budget line, and maybe over the next 10 years it is a crisis because of the construction we're planning and the debt we're planning on taking on. I guess that's why I bring that up. Are we putting enough into PAYGO? We're putting almost $50 million towards pay and compensation, which is a combination of health fund balance, closing the, I'll call it the deficit, and the employer contributions to the health fund, and then, of course, in pay increases. That's 5% of our budget, basically just
098in pay and compensation. Frankly, I guess I'm worried about whether or not we're putting enough into maintenance, which Mr. Freeman has pointed out here quite clearly is a crisis, and then not excessively increasing the debt over the next 10 to 20 years. I guess that's kind of to the superintendent a little bit, thoughts on balancing those requirements. I think you've accurately described the challenge from a decision-making standpoint because they're all... high priority areas and if as you make adjustments to based on board priorities something's going to be less than it in a in a perfect world it could be so that's part of the budget deliberations Right. So the debt service is roughly $50 million, is that right? We budget for $50 million right now. It's been coming in less because some of that debt
099is being paid off, but then they're getting ready to do a bond sale. I don't know if it's on the street yet, but the city was getting ready to do a bond sale. Then the projections, it'll start going up, and certainly as we start construction, it does get. So we're paying 5% of our budget just to stay afloat, so to speak. Anyway, that's why I'm very concerned about increasing our debt. For example, last year in the CIP, we were taking on debt to do AC services. Services is the wrong word. Basic maintenance projects, we were using debt to fund. There's not really an answer to that. I'm just pointing that out. No, but the reason I'm coming up is for perspective again because what you're sharing a concept about increasing pay go, as we talked
100about in our recent briefs, is Davenport recommend that that's a good goal as well. So, again, we're talking priorities. How do you balance the priorities? So we briefed you last year in the current capital program. Had a debt service projected increase of about 30 million dollars over a five-year period Which is six million dollars additional per year? We're going to share with you the see on what those updated numbers are and it's still pretty close so that's a competing interest in order to be able to and that that's that's a That's a must-have before Prince and high school can be executed You have to get to a certain level of debt service. So with the must-have of Prince Anne High School to be able to get there, that is already cash that's going to be
101flowing in on the order of, and again, what we presented you last year, and we'll update it, was $6 million a year for five years to get to $30 million of additional debt service. It's extremely challenging to balance all the other priorities that are needed and also add PAYGO funding with that in front, but that's what the board has to consider from a priority standpoint. Okay. Thanks, Jack. Mr. Bowens, you'll go ahead. Yes, thank you. So back to school lunches. I'll have a little different perspective on it. I spend a lot of time... In the cafeterias and see a lot of things. And I know we don't live in a perfect world and it's probably complicated. However, one of the things I do notice is the amount of food that gets thrown in the garbage
102can. And it's not so much because they don't like it. They just can't eat it all. So I would just bring up something maybe in the future we could take a look at instead of giving them three chicken fingers, ask them, hey, how many chicken fingers you want? Because the majority of the chicken was at the school today. Two of almost everybody's chicken fingers went in the garbage can. A lot of them don't drink the milk. I say, you going to drink the milk? Nope, I don't like it. And they throw it away. So I didn't know, you know, maybe down the road we could take a look at something to where if they don't want the milk, they're not going to drink it. Why charge them for it? And it's just costing us money
103because that $250,000 is not going down. And that's what I thought on that. However, the other side of it, I actually had the pleasure of meeting Devin at a corporate landing school back during the baseball playoffs. And that device is really cool. And it's probably going to come to a shock, but we mostly talked about sports. And it was really neat to be able to talk to somebody who couldn't talk. And they had an opinion on sports and different things. That's it. Mr. Bones, I wanted to point out too that USDA defines how much you have to provide every single meal. We don't control that, and it's actually audited very, very carefully. If you sit in the audit committee, you'll see these reports sometimes. We don't get to control the portion that comes out. And
104I just also want to clarify, the students that use devices that are special education or have it in their IEP or 504, that's not what I am referencing. I'm referencing the other devices. So just to make sure that I'm providing that clarity there, too. Ms. Rogers? I'm sorry, Mr. Friedman. Sorry. I just had some quick questions. So we have a million on this spreadsheet and $535,000 in change or whatever for increase in general maintenance. I'm sorry, and $500,000 for increase in funding for utilities. Can you just explain more what that means? Because it's pretty general. Yeah, so general mate the additional million dollars is to help us be able to do more work from a maintenance standpoint in our schools again You When you have an aging group of buildings, the most important thing you
105can do is to make sure that you're maintaining them over time. And that's what that main knowledge is for. Related to the utilities, the utilities budget, although it falls under us, is really we don't touch that. That's managed by the budget team, and utilities have gone up over time. Again, we're monitoring to see what happens for the announcement for rates for July. Okay. And we're expecting those to go up. Okay. So that $500,000 then is kind of like a buffer? I'm guessing, or that we're anticipating an increase. We are anticipating an increase. We need to cover that, yes. Okay, that was that. Dr. Robertson, $1.2 million for Lexia, and it says from all-in grant. What does that mean? So the all-in Virginia grant expires June 30th, and Lexia was covered as part of that grant.
106So that's a really valuable tool for us. We're going to need to incur the cost. Is there not another grant available? Not at this point. There is discussion in Richmond around how to handle at-risk funding. It's still... being clarified as what accounts for at-risk funding, but at this point in time, what I am hearing out of Richmond is you're going to have to fund that yourself. Okay, so that would be like another unfunded mandate, yes or no? Is that going to... Well, I don't know if I would call it an unfunded mandate because it's a resource that we're choosing to use. It was just fortunate that for two years, the state covered it. Okay, and then the interactive whiteboards for a million Tell me more is this is this to replace things or I'm sorry
107getting everybody on the mic today. Sorry That is quite alright. So we have Approximately around 5,000 interactive whiteboards in use around the division We recognize those to be a crucial element of instruction in a classroom We use a 10-year replacement cycle for those boards, and if you just straight run those numbers along with the cost of a board, you come out to approximately about $1.5 million a year that you'll need in order to replace the appropriate number of boards in a 10-year life cycle. Weren't able to come up with that those amount of funds. So we this is a step towards that and Hopefully in the future. We'll be able to Gather the appropriate amount of funds to be on that Ten-year replacement cycle. Okay, so work is this the first year? We're not able
108to cover that or no, it's not So, do you know how many years we've been not able to do it? It's it's been about three to four years now. Okay. I just just so that I know that it's so we've three to four years behind on our cycles, okay Okay Okay, and I think my other my only last comment of dr. Robertson about making sure our youngest learners Learn technology I would agree with chair Brown that I'm not so sure that it's They can't do it and I as a former pre-k teacher used to tell my parents Whose students were having trouble potty training that they never asked when you're going to college world What hold was your child when they potty trained? It doesn't matter when you get to that age and I think
109that it kind of translates into Whether or not you learn to use a Chromebook in kindergarten or second grade that it's it won't matter It'll be a wash at the end. They'll they'll be able to do it. So I just want to make that comment. Dr. Green. Thank you and my comments that's what they are comments Editorial from having the perspective of being on this side of budget development on as an employee and now looking at it through the lens of board member and I think it was mrs. Williams who said in the beginning her comment and it kind of stuck out with me reminding us that, you know, a lot of what we're doing is regarding being focused on students. And with that being said, there are a lot of things that are hard
110to quantify because they're going to always be changing, such as hunger. And we've had a lot of discussion about, you know, the lunch bill. And, I mean, just look at our community, the food bank. churches, people having food drives. So it's hard to quantify it because there's so many variables. Mr. Jameson spoke of the homeless population. Right now, and I know McKinsey-Vento well. I lived it for 17 years in Virginia Beach Public Schools. Today we have, let's say, hypothetically 450 students. I know what happens in June when that homeless rate ups to almost 800 to 1,000 students. We have no control over what that cab bill is going to be because we don't know where we're going to be transporting students from, how far. So there are many unknown variables. Even when we deal with
111our CIP, and I know at some point we're going to have to make some decisions very quickly, Mr. Freeman, because those are buildings for our students. And the longer we wait, costs will increase. And so that's another expense that... You know, we may not have budgeted for appropriately by the time you know you get to groundbreaking so I just want us, you know to be mindful We are doing a phenomenal job, you know colleagues working together with you on the budget But there are so many Unknown variables that we will not have control over that will constantly keep changing that today It costs, you know 10 million Tomorrow it may be 15 million. Thank you. And I just I want to thank all of my colleagues. There's been a lot of really great rigorous conversation
112and it is very difficult in budget season. There's always competing needs and we have a budget to live within just like all the households. in Virginia Beach have to live within their budgets too. So, you know, sometimes we have to pick and choose priorities and sometimes that is the challenge. And I think though that we're doing a lot of really great work having these conversations. We are now on to discussion school board budget workshop for fiscal year 26-27 proposed operating budget and capital improvement program for fiscal year 26-27 through fiscal year 20. 31 to 32 and I'm I feel like we've probably had a lot of this conversation already and it may be a little Duplicative at this point, so I'm going to turn it over to dr. Robertson For some guidance on what we
113did from us. So you are correct Chairwoman Brown that we've we've had a lot of discussion that would go into this particular agenda item just a couple of takeaways First you guys have provided us some really good feedback. So Some takeaways for us. We are going to provide the board information as to the cost savings if we eliminated Chromebooks in K1 and if we eliminated Chromebooks in K2 and replaced Chromebooks with a cart in second grade. and replace Chromebooks in a cart in K1 as well so that this board has an opportunity to give us direction on whether or not you want Chromebooks in kindergarten and first grade or not. Or do you want Chromebooks introduced in second grade through a class set of carts? There will be a savings if that is a decision
114that you make because we won't have to replace those devices. We would probably just reallocate those devices into other grades. So you'll have that information. Unfortunately, you won't have it before the SEON. So we'll have plenty of time to have conversations about where the board wants to land on those devices in K2 prior to the March 24th final SEON. As we move forward in the next couple of meetings, we'll have a better idea of what... the state is planning to do about their own budget to include this bonus that they've been talking about still and what that looks like. A lot of our discussions are on the, at this point, still unknowns about what's the final health care premium cost going to be to the division employees, employers. March 3rd will provide a closer look.
115add information and we can discuss at that point whether it's the right time to determine what the premiums are or do we want to wait. We've traditionally waited to make that decision to get some data from the first quarter of 2026. That'll be a board decision as well. And so this has been helpful. From what I've heard tonight, Although we had much discussion about the $250,000 and whether or not it should stay in the budget balancing document, I haven't heard enough to say we're going to remove that at this point. But again, that could be a discussion that comes after the Cianis presented February 24th and over the next couple of meetings. What I've heard tonight is there's sufficient support for... The budget balancing document that we provided to the board to go ahead and
116proceed with developing the C on that you'll see February 24th recognizing again You'll will have another three weeks of deliberations to make any adjustments to that document before it becomes to the one that you'll vote on March 24th Okay. Thank you for that That final and then for the devices if you could also make sure that that cost includes any you know licensing usages So we're not just talking about the Chromebooks, but we're talking about any programs that we may be purchasing additional programs of so that we have a clear picture. I think that would be great. And Mr. Cummings. Just hearing you share about that led me to the question, if there's a reduction, what's replacing? And so is there any incurred cost with what replaces the reduction of Chromebooks? So the Chromebooks are
117a resource, and what Teaching and Learning under Dr. Goldberg and Dr. Kelly will be working on is what would the replacement resources be? Clearly, if the devices are not present, some of the online resources, there's no reason to have, right? So we would look at... I don't want to speak for them, but maybe consumables or something like that. Dr. Kelly, do you want to speak to that? I think that's a really good question, though. Good afternoon. I just wanted to make sure that everyone's aware that we do have the consumables now. So in kindergarten, first and second grade, all of our students have the My Books for literacy. They have the Go Books for math. And the times that they are on their devices right now are for some of the programs, as Dr. Robertson
118had shared, like the reading programs and the math programs that we do have access to kindergarten through fifth grade. But the focus is always on the... actual print texts in the lower grades. So we do that and we're happy to pull this information for you guys as we move forward and we can bring that to the next meeting. But the information is always, the focus is always on the print resources in the lower grades. All right. So it sounds like if I hear you correctly, then we'll have the price for the next meeting of what would be replacing. Thank you. Miss Rogers. Dr. Kelly. Sorry. Don't run away. Would it be then like. conceivable that we may we need manipulatives in order to or would we just we already supply that so it wouldn't need
119to increase we have manipulatives now that we use to support the development of our students especially in math and reading all the pushes and everything right we have in place so I wouldn't need to like get extra if we were removing our Chromebooks is my question We have a process just like we do with replacement for everything, so I wouldn't say we need additional for it. I would say that our students do use the virtual manipulatives online when they are, and you are aware of that, so that might be why you're asking this question. Just like we have hands-on manipulatives, all of the devices have virtual manipulatives that students engage with because by the time they do get to second and third grade, they are taking those assessments where they're utilizing the virtual. Components of
120that just like we have our computer science standards that the students are engaging with in kindergarten first and second grade So, okay. So then I guess that would then lead me to dr. Robertson We would not be I are you are the two choices to eliminate completely or do carts or is it just going to be Carts, we would give you choices as to whether or not and I think that thank your considerations are from what I'm hearing is You've got a k1 consideration and you have a k2 and then you bring in second grade So as a k1 you make a decision and then second grade you make a different decision. Yes Yes, we would have all that information to make that decision But but would it be one of the choices? I guess
121I'm asking is eliminating altogether from k1 or Yes, that would be one of the choice. Okay, that's that's what I wanted to ask. Okay. Thank you so much for all of your Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Yes, we do have from the Virginia Department of Ed, we have K-12 computer science standards. So beginning in the kindergarten grade level, there are specific computer science standards. I just want to make sure that you guys are aware that when we're considering zero digital devices in the classroom versus a class set, because they do have expectations to have exposure to those computer science standards beginning in kindergarten. And they all build on each other just like every other standards do that impact course selection by the time they get to middle school and the high school level. Right. Okay. And
122that's why I was saying, would a choice be zero? And that's why I asked. So I guess then we're probably going to be looking more at carts. Yeah, based upon that information, I don't see how we would be able to go zero. Eliminate completely. Right. Okay. Thank you. Mr. Cummings. Yeah, sorry just for the back and forth, but I guess I'd also want to know what the workload looks like for the teacher for, you know, if we do a reduction. Does that increase labor? How much can we, can we, paper costs, all those different things. Kind of get some perspective around that as well, what the human cost is by switching up. Probably best we could do is maybe have a conversation with a couple of teachers, K teachers, first grade teachers. We would also
123just consider the textbooks that we have digital access to because we don't, for specific things, use the digital versions. They have access of them through the device. So we could definitely ask a few teachers and get that information to you. Okay. All right. So it looks like we'll have that information. Okay. All right. Very good. And speaking of the 24th, our next meeting is the 24th, and it is going to start at 4 p.m. With that, it is 5.52 p.m., and we are adjourned.