School Board Meeting - 8/12/2025

001My name is Kathleen Brown, chair of the Virginia Beach School Board, and I hereby call this meeting to order at 6 p.m. Madam Clerk, would you please announce the roll? Thank you, Madam Chair. Present in the school board chamber are Chair Brown, Vice Chair Weems, Mr. Bowen-Steele, Mr. Cowan, Mr. Cummings, Ms. Dwyer, Ms. Felton, Dr. Green, and Ms. Rogers. And currently online is Mr. Culpepper. And Mr. Culpepper, for the record, can you state the reason and location for you zooming in? Just a little while I'm in Kentucky for personal reasons. Thank you. Thank you. Please join me in the moment of silence followed by the Pledge of Allegiance as you are able. We don't have any recognitions this evening for public awards recognitions, so that brings us to the adoption of the agenda. If there's

002no dissent from my colleagues, I would like to add 12F, health insurance discussion to the agenda. Seeing no objections. We will vote to approve the agenda as presented and modified. Moved by Ms. Dwyer, seconded by Vice Chair Weems. Any discussion? Seeing none, I call for the vote to approve the agenda as presented and modified. And Mr. Culpepper, how do you vote? Thank you, Madam Chair. We have ten ayes. The motion to pass for the adoption of the agenda as presented and modified. Okay, thank you. That brings us to our superintendent recognitions, Dr. Robertson. Do you have any recognitions for us? You know what? We might have a couple of recognitions today. Just a few. So I appreciate everybody coming tonight. This is a huge evening for 23 individuals who've worked really hard, and tonight's a

003chance to celebrate them with the work that they've done. So we'll start with Alicia Broadwater. We're proud that you've accepted our recommendation for Alicia Broadwater, formerly an instructional specialist at the Department of Teaching and Learning, to be the next assistant principal at Kempsville Meadows Elementary School. Congratulations. And I see you have some guests. Thank you. Congratulations. Next up, we have Megan Davis, formerly a teacher at Woodstock Elementary School. She'll be the new assistant principal at Betty F. Williams Elementary School. And Megan, you have some guests. Congratulations. Next up, we have Jonathan Duggan, formerly an admin assistant at Providence Elementary School, who's now the next assistant principal at Allenton Elementary School, and that was his principal cheerleader. So, Jonathan, I see you have some guests. Congratulations. Next up, Brittany Ferguson, formerly an ITS at Red Mill

004Elementary School, is now an assistant principal at Bird Neck Elementary School. And Brittany, I know you have some guests. Congratulations. Next, we have Erin Lucas, formerly an admin assistant at Woodstock Elementary School, who is now the next assistant principal at Parkway Elementary School. And you have some guests. Congratulations. Next, we have Melinda Pazella, formerly a specialist in the Professional Learning Office of Professional Growth and Innovation, and she'll be the next assistant principal at Windsor Wood Elementary School. And, Melanie, you have a crowd. Yes. Or Melinda. Yeah. Yes. Yeah, congratulations, Melinda. Next up, we've got Letitia Swift Newsome, formerly an assistant principal at Parkway Elementary School, and she is now the principal at Centerville Elementary School. And I see you have some guests as well. There you go. Congratulations. Next up, we have Parker Thurgood, formerly

005an admin assistant at Cook and Luxford. And there's little Parker. Next assistant principal at Princeton Elementary School. So Parker, he got there. Yes. Outstanding. Congratulations. Not to be outdone, we've got some middle school people. So we'll start with Brian Bevin, formerly an admin assistant at Frank W. Cox High School. He'll be the next assistant principal at Lansdowne Middle School. Let's see, Brian, you have a guest. Okay, very nice. Thank you. Next up, we have Jennifer Warren, formerly an admin assistant at Bayside Middle School, who will be the next dean of students at Bayside Middle School. And I know you have some guests. Congratulations. Finally, at middle school, we've got Dr. Janae Washington, formerly an admin assistant at Larkspur, who is now the assistant principal at Landstown Middle School. And Janae, you have some guests. All

006right, very good. Congratulations. Okay, on to high school, we've got Sammy Betham. formerly admin assistant at First Colonial High School, should be the next assistant principal at Lansdowne High School. And Sammy, you have some guests. Congratulations. Next up, we have Ebony Cherry, formerly an assistant principal at Independence Middle School, and should be the next assistant principal at Bayside High School. Yes. Yeah. There you go. Congratulations. So, Daryl, did you cancel football practice? Okay. Yeah, Darrell's a football coach at Kempsville High School. Next up, we've got Jeremy Cox, formerly an assistant principal at Salem Middle School, who's now the next assistant principal at Renaissance Academy. He could not make it, but we want to congratulate Jeremy. Next up, we have Sergio Gillen, formerly an admin assistant at Lansdowne High School, to be the next assistant principal

007at Kellum High School. And I know you've got a guest. Yes, very good. Next up, we have Meredith Brookman, formerly the Instructional Specialist in the Office of K-12 and Gifted Programs. He's now the Coordinator of Fine Arts in the Office of K-12 and Gifted Programs. And Meredith, you have a guest. Very good. Congratulations. Next up, Rebecca Carter, formerly an Instructional Specialist in the Department of Teaching and Learning, is now the Coordinator of Title I in the Department of Teaching and Learning. All right, we have another baby. Come on now. Congratulations. Yes, yes, very good. Next up, we have Bruce Clark, formerly Assistant Principal at Windsor Woods Elementary School and is now the coordinator of the Regional Recovery School at the Harbor Hope Center. And Bruce, you have some guests. Congratulations. Next up, we got Dr.

008Catherine Goldberg, formerly the principal at Point of View Elementary School and now the Director of Instructional Technology in the Department of Teaching and Learning. And I know you have some guests. Congratulations. Next up, we have Tiffany Mack, formerly Innovation and Curriculum Coordinator in the Carlucci American International School of Lisbon, Portugal, who is now the Coordinator of Language Arts in the Department of Teaching and Learning. And Tiffany, you probably have some guests joining us over TV because they're in Portugal. Okay, okay, all right. There you go. Congratulations. Next up, we have Thomas Shattuck, formerly a coordinator of security and safe schools, the next director of safe schools in the Office of Security and Emergency Management. Yes. And I know you have some guests. Congratulations. Next up, we have Caitlin Strom, formerly an assistant principal. Whoa, no,

009I think I got that one. Did I get that one already? Nope. Caitlin Strom, assistant principal, Betty F. Williams Elementary School, is now an employee relations specialist in the Department of Human Resources. And you also have a little guest. Yes. We're hiring. Yeah. Congratulations. And finally, we have Christy. Vera Belli, formerly a principal in the Southeastern Cooperative Educational Program, who's going to be the next coordinator of special education in the Office of Programs for Exceptional Children. Congratulations. And I know you have some guests. Congratulations. So that concludes all of our recognitions tonight. I certainly appreciate all the family members coming. It's quite a commitment. but you're in a phenomenal school division, and we're really proud of the work you've done to get here, and we're excited about the work you're going to do. So thank

010you, and have a great evening. Okay. We're going to get through it. Okay. We are now on to the approval of meeting minutes from the July 8th and 9th, 2025, school board retreat, abridged school board meeting. Is there any modifications to those minutes as presented? Okay, seeing none, I call for a motion to approve those minutes. Moved by Ms. Dwyer, seconded by Mr. Cummings. Any discussion? Seeing none, I call for the vote to approve the July 8th through 9th, 2025 minutes as presented. Mr. Culpepper, how do you vote on the approval of the minutes? Aye. Thank you. So, Madam Chair, we have 10 ayes. The motion to pass for the approval of the minutes from July 8th and 9th, 2025. Thank you the school board will now hear public comments on matters relevant to pre-k

011through 12 public education in Virginia Beach and the business of the school board and the school division from citizens and Delegations who signed up with the school board clerk prior to noon today? The purpose for the public comment section is for the school board to offer an orderly form to receive public comments during the school board meeting I call upon all speakers and all persons in chambers to be civil in discussion and decorum. Whatever views you wish to express, the school board wants to hear from you and to ensure that all viewpoints and perspectives are heard. The best way to do this is for all of us to strive for civility and respect. The school board also invites public to submit comments through email, which can be found on our website. Madam Clerk, would you

012please announce the first speaker? Thank you, Madam Chair. Our first speakers will be Cody Connor, Diane Muscovac, and then Holly Baraccini. Good evening. They just keep wanting to mess with that funding, don't they? I bet they're going to keep doing it because as long as you keep showing them your belly, they're going to try and keep you on your back. How can you be more afraid of diversity than you are of tyranny? Anyway, I've been teaching myself to play guitar the last couple months, and since there's nothing the bylaw says I can't, I decided to switch it up and write you guys a song. Hope you like it. We came with open arms, met by violence. And all our cries for help met with silence. You couldn't hear the truth from a child's lips. And

013you avert your gaze now while the blood drips. We all know something's wrong with the village. The cities face the country that we live in. What happens when you cast love as a villain? Watch your step now, blood is spilling. No, didn't have to be like this. Open hands into a fit. I'm asking for permission to exist. And we'll resist, we'll resist. Sing if I had a hammer, if I had a belt. Hammer out danger, bring out warning, raise some hell. Sing out, it's your land, it's my land. Sing out, it's everybody's land. No, didn't have to be like this. Not asking for permission to exist. And we will resist. Didn't have to be like this. Not asking for permission to exist. one for next time. Our next speaker is Diane Muscovac, then Holly Baraccini,

014then Kevin Baraccini. Hello everyone. I hope you have had a great summer and all is well with you and your families. Did you know that the chaplaincy originated as an act of love? The term chaplain comes from the story of a Roman military officer named Martin who accompanied a beggar in the rain. at the city gate of amiens france in three thirty seven a d as crowds hurried past the half-naked and close to death beggar martin took off his cloak and sliced it in two pieces giving one half to the man and using the other half to cover himself martin was so moved by this powerful act of love that he dedicated his life to serving the poor The story takes on more meaning understanding the humility involved in a human officer even touching an

015impoverished subject. Years later, his cloak became a treasured spiritual symbol. The cloak was kept in a building that came to be known as a chapel, and the person assigned to look after the sacred relic was deemed the chaplain. Our students are sacred. To this day, chaplains can be identified as the keepers of sacred things. Pre-K through 12th grade students are sacred in the sense of being precious. The confidence of our students is sacred. The curiosities of our students are sacred. The questions, the failures, the doubts, the hopes, all are sacred of our students. Chaplains provide an indispensable role. Chaplains are indispensable because they accompany students through their increasingly complex and ever-changing educational journey. Chaplains educate the whole person and ensure graduates will not only do good but also be well. What seems to be increasingly

016clear is that chaplains are essential for the heart and soul of education. Chaplains created by the National School Chaplain Association serve people of diverse religious, spiritual, moral, and ethical backgrounds. Ready with biblical perspective, chaplains build community by inviting students into the fullness of life. School chaplain duties include, but are not limited to, prayer, counsel, and spiritual care for the school staff, the students, and their families. In addition, they provide guidance and help build resilience amongst young people. Gender confusion, loss of purpose, and hopelessness have resulted in record-level dropout rates and an epidemic of suicide among young people. In an historical era of conflict, discord, and loneliness, the role of chaplain has never been more critical. Let's join together and change the hearts one at a time, starting at a young age like kindergarten. Every child

017matters. Thank you. Our next speaker is Holly Baranchini, then Kevin Baranchini, then Thea Ross. Hello, good evening. I have come to speak on the matter that was discussed today behind closed doors in regards to my daughter, Mackenzie Baraccini. I would like to go over your school board policy 5-7. It is the Virginia Beach City Public School Board to prohibit any and all discrimination and harassment of all students. That was not done for my daughter. My daughter was continuously harassed and discriminated against by Andrew Midgett, and not one school board member stepped in to stop it. Policy 5-65.1, search and seizure. It is a policy that is in place currently. When a student needs to be searched, any student of a certain sex needs to be searched as done so by an employee of the same

018sex. If not, with also the school's SRO and a witness. That was not done for my daughter. Mackenzie had her rights as a human stripped from her, where Mr. Midget sent the security guard away and took her into his private office alone, shut and locked the door. Policy is policy for a reason, and it's not being upheld. He was operating when and how he wanted to and his guidelines and his policy. Employee conduct 4-2. All employees are trained through HR. HR training teaches any employee 101 to never be behind a closed door with an opposite sex. because situations could arise that could be perceived as inappropriate behavior and or an inappropriate situation. What Mr. Midgett did to McKenzie that day was inappropriate and it violated several of my daughter's rights as well as school policies.

019We are fully aware of each policy that Mr. Midgett violated, starting with McKenzie's right to be in a safe environment, which is school board policy 5-36.1. Being put behind a locked and shut door with a male administrator that is trying to yank you out of your chair to be searched alone is not a safe environment. McKenzie had her whole life ripped from her because Mr. Midgett needed to cover up what he did. Covering things up in Plaza Middle School, from what I've been told by staff, happens often. McKenzie is now being treated as an outpatient at CHKD by a psychiatrist for trauma and PTSD. And that is time. Our next speaker is Kevin Barrichini, Thea Ross, and then Heather Seidt. Hello, my name is Kevin Barrichini. She basically went over the policies with you guys.

020and I'm not going to get into what Mr. Midget said happened, what my daughter said happened in that room. The problem that I have addressing with y'all is the fact they were in that room alone. Most of y'all on this board know that. The only email we received back from y'all was from Ms. Brown, and all she said was, I feel this is going to be in front of the board one day, so I'm not going to comment on it. So my issue is... Now that we let the process play out and we're at the end of it, we're going to reach out to every single one of you over the next week to set up a meeting to discuss this further. Because, again, I can't go into what happened in that room because Mr.

021Midget said his story and McKenzie has her story. But what can be proven is you have a male administrator who said in a police report that you guys have seen that, yes, I brought her into my office and shut the door. If that was any other environment, HR would have fired that man immediately. Any other environment. You can't find one rational thinking adult who thinks a grown man behind a closed door with a 13-year-old girl isn't a violation of rights. It is despicable. And furthermore, not only did y'all not act on it, there's issues with the principal who supported him during it, refused to let a different principal work with him. Y'all moved her to a high school and you just moved him to another school because of all the rumors going on around it.

022Or it could be coincidental, but I doubt it. So we're going to reach out to y'all one more time through email. and hope we actually get a meeting with you guys because that's almost near impossible. But if not, I'm not letting this issue go away. It's already been almost a year. So if I have to go through the courts, subpoenas, to get you to question on the stand, we will discuss this matter. Because the fact that that man has not only been allowed to stay in the school system, he's been allowed to still operate the way he wants to with other parents, to my knowledge, saying they've made complaints about him. So the fact that y'all are worried about your authority not being challenged, we do our investigation, we looked into it. It's ridiculous. The

023fact that you care more about your appearance in the public eye than actually question why a man was alone with a 13-year-old girl behind closed doors is crazy. And this issue will not go away, so please respond to our email. And that is time. Thank you. Our next speaker is Thea Ross, Heather Seip, and then Donna Larkin. Hello and good evening esteemed school board members and David Culpepper, although I see he's not here again. Tonight I want to speak plainly. Dismantling equity and inclusion in diversity programming is causing real pain in our community. Acts like those taken by this board embolden the absolute worst actors and sets a terrible example for impressionable youth. Incidents of racism and violence are increasing as a direct result. Queer and trans students are being disrespected and attacked by students

024and adults without recourse. Families are leaving the district, and this is not an ideology. This is about human lives. I can't speak for every community, but I can speak from my experience running a trans empowerment nonprofit here in Virginia Beach, and I can speak to what I know in numbers. Based on national surveys and studies from Pew Research and major universities, we can conservatively say that Virginia Beach's 46,000 residents, of the 46,000 residents, between 4,000 and 4,500 people identify as trans, non-binary, intersex, or questioning. The real number is likely higher. Of that community, roughly 700 to 850 are youths under the age of 18. These are hundreds of lives whose safety, belonging, and education are in your hands. Yet while we marginalize these students, betraying state law and our shared values, burdening teachers with parental

025obligations, and outing queer and trans kids, we also underpay and overburden our educators. We are beaten by every major local city in terms of teacher pay, and that failure doesn't happen in a vacuum. It's happening at the same time the Department of Homeland Security is offering $50,000 signing bonuses to ICE officers, some with no training or college degrees, plus salaries that surpass what we pay our best teachers. That contrast telegraphs whose lives we value and our priorities as a community and a culture. It lays bare the truth of the current Republican project. It was never about fiscal responsibility. It was not about protecting kids. We aren't healing the sick with that money. We aren't teaching the youth. We are not feeding the hungry. We aren't building infrastructure. We are banning books, building camps, and sending

026masked officers into already scared communities. There's only one word for that. It's fascism. My grandfather landed at D-Day. He lived here and died here. I don't know if he would have accepted me for who I am, but I do know this. He would never have accepted fascists, and neither will I. To those on the school board who fight back for justice, for progress, and for protecting the vulnerable, we see you. We will show up for you, and we will resist and fight these battles until we are either broken or living to tell the stories of how we overcame. And to the trans and queer youth who may hear me tonight, you are loved. We are still fighting, and we will keep fighting. And to the youth who think this is all a joke or somehow

027justified, I am sorry. You have been failed by a culture that glorifies ignorance and greed. I hope you can find the strength to reject the propaganda of bigots and find common cause with your neighbors beyond demeaning or criminalizing what is different. The violent dreams of white supremacists and their allies will fail, and we will be here to see it. Thank you. Our next speaker is Heather Seip, Donna Larkin, and then Danielle Bradshaw. Good evening, Chairwoman Brown, Vice Chair Weems, members of the school board, and Dr. Robertson. My name is Heather Seip, and I am the president of the Virginia Beach Education Association. I am here this evening to speak to you about the significant increases to health insurance premiums that staff will have to absorb beginning January 1, 2026. Since arithmetic is essential, I'm going

028to give you some real-life math. If I were in the classroom this year, based on my current step, the 4.5% raise I should see this year is $2,284.57. However, with the increased point-of-service premium of $2,403 for insuring myself and my two children, I would actually be taking a pay cut. Let's look at a full-time bus assistant on step five. Their raise should be $957.08 for the year. If this employee needs to insure herself and two children, the increase on the lower monthly premium consumer-driven health plan is $720. This means they're only going to see a raise of $237 or barely the 1% step they're guaranteed. How about a full-time custodian, too, who just finished their first year with VBCPS and needs to insure his or her whole family on the current point-of-service plan? Their raise

029should be $1,317.16. However, their insurance premium is going to increase $4,219.40. Now, during open enrollment, they'll have to seriously consider switching to the CDHP plan, where the increase is only $1,780. That's still a $463.24 pay cut with a family deductible that more than doubles in addition to needing to meet the family deductible before benefits fully kick in. The impact to part-time staff is even more detrimental. Goal 3 of Compass of 2030 is value and invest in staff. and it states BBCPS's commitment to enhance and sustain a positive work culture and climate that values and invests in recruiting, supporting, and retaining a high-quality workforce, exemplifying the division's core values. BBCPS continues to be seventh in the seven cities for starting teacher salaries and abysmal in other employee category starting wages. How do you think this health

030insurance spike is going to help in recruiting new employees? Then there's the retention component. The ABCPS is sixth at year five, but when you factor in this increase, they are now dead last. Years 10 through 25, it's fifth until you factor in the increase. Then it's dead last. At 30 years, full retirement eligibility, sixth before the increase, dead last after it. Enough with the lip service. Your words of praise don't pay the bills. The pharmacist doesn't take I work at the best school division in Virginia. The emergency room doesn't take we're number one for SOL scores in the seven cities. If you want to continue touting a division that's world class, you need to figure out how to ensure your employees aren't dead last. Our next speaker is Donna Larkin, Danielle Bradshaw, and then Alan

031Wakefield. Good evening, school board members. My name is Donna Larkin. I am the treasurer of the Aragona Village Civic League. I want to talk to you about the former Bayside Six property on Jericho Road. The property has been a school for many decades. It is my understanding that it was originally donated to the school system by John Aragona when he was developing the surrounding neighborhood. VBCPS has decided they no longer need the property. I am asking you to please donate the land to the city for the purpose of becoming a community park. Aragona Village is one of the larger neighborhoods in Virginia Beach with nearly 3,000 homes. We also have a sister neighborhood, Pembroke Manor, with over 800 homes. That makes nearly 4,000 homes surrounding the Jericho Road property, and yet we do not have

032a permanent city park. We are very underserved in that capacity. Our residents want and deserve a park. Our children need somewhere safe to run and play. I have visions of us eventually having some play equipment for the children. I can imagine teens and adults perhaps playing games on a basketball court. It might be possible to keep some of the existing courts and fields. It already has ample parking. Maybe the buses could stay. Maybe some shade trees with benches that one could sit under and relax. Some open space where children could safely run and play and somewhere they can come and ride their bikes. A walking and jogging trail would be nice. You could fly a kite or a drone and race RC cars. Even if it is just green space for a while, that is

033more than we have now. The possibilities are endless, but only if you are generous enough to donate the land. I implore you, please help our community. Let John Aragona's donation of the land continue to be of service to the community he built. Vote to donate the Jericho Road property so that it can become a community park. Thank you. Our next speaker is Danielle Bradshaw, then Alan Wakefield, then Catherine Malley. Hello. I hope you're all having a good evening. So for those of you that have kids, if you sent your child to a friend's house, your child comes home from that said house and says, hey mom, I was exposed to porn. Would you then send them back to that person's house? Probably not. I wouldn't. Well, that's what happened. to my 11-year-old son who is

034in sixth grade at Kempsville Middle School. I sent him to school, and he came home and says, Mom, I was exposed to porn in physical education class today. It was the last week of school. The teachers were busy cleaning out lockers and gyms, so they told the kids, go ahead and play on the bleachers, get on your Chromebook. Another student was on their school-issued Chromebook and pulled up pornography. My son was exposed to it. He's 11. All he wanted to watch that weekend was Paddington and Peru. Now he's done watched porn. When I went to the school's administration, it was like... I could only, the principal didn't even reach out to me. The administrative assistant, who is now gone, I'm not sure why, told me that she showed me how it was accessed, and it

035was pretty simple. It's almost like a Google page, and it's like a black hole. So they can't, the school can't see, and it's a .org, so the school doesn't pick up on it. And then you can type in any website you want to go to. And the school has no idea. So she said it happens quite frequently when I asked, because I'm like, well, how often is this happening? My God. And that blocking these sites, once they block it, another one pops up. So she says it's literally like playing whack-a-mole with these websites. I'm astonished. I haven't talked to one person. One of my peers whose kids also go to VBC PS whatever that knows that this is even a possibility and I'm kind of livid about it. I think we need to have a

036serious discussion about these Chromebooks and Yeah, I don't know what else to say, but these Chromebooks, they need to be talked about, and people need to know. Parents need to be informed, at the very least, that this is even a possibility, because I had no idea, like I said, until it happened to me. Our next speaker is Alan Wakefield, then Catherine Malley, then Lorraine Samko. Good evening, members of the board, and Dr. Robertson, superintendent, the best. My name is Alan. I'm here tonight not just as a former teacher, but as someone who believes our public schools should reflect the best of who we are. Diverse, inclusive, and driven by purpose. Student to teacher, would you punish me for something I didn't do? Teacher, of course not. Student, that's good, because I didn't do my homework.

037Now this is funny on one hand. but implies no purpose in the use of homework. It should be called life work because everything we do changes our life. And I found that as I get older. That's definitely true. Over the past year, I watched this board take on new challenges and welcome new voices. I've seen both positive and negative choices. But in all of these, I felt something missing, a shared commitment to listening, to truly hearing the voices of those who live the shared school experience every day. And that includes all of us. And what I've heard is clear. We don't need more policies. We need more purpose. We need a school system that prepares students not just for tests, but for AI in real life. AI is now performing tasks like making decisions, thinking,

038reasoning. It must embrace equity and inclusion as essential, not optional. One that sees every child, supports every teacher, and welcomes every parent. I gave ChatGPI Deep ten words, and it came up with a speech on its own. It was a pretty amazing speech. I'm using part of that speech right here tonight. I had to paraphrase some stuff, and it probably isn't as good because I'm paraphrasing it. It made a beautiful speech, which I needed to paraphrase some again. I talked with it just like I'm talking to you now. I talked to my computer just like I'm talking. It answered back just like you would a normal person. I'm not here to criticize. I'm here to collaborate. to challenge us all to think bigger, act bolder, and lead with empathy. Let's be the board that listens,

039thinks, learns, and leads with heart. Let's build a school system that rises to new heights, that reflects the creativity, resilience, and diversity of our community. My experiment tonight did not do what I wanted it to do, so I was going to... Oh, well, I'll leave that for another time, okay? I won't mess that up. Thank you. Our next speaker is Catherine Malley, then Lorraine Semko, then Michael Havorsen. Good evening, school board members and Dr. Robertson. My name is Catherine Malley. I'm a retired teacher and current member of the VBEA board. Tonight, I'm reading an email received by Heather Seip, our VBEA president. from an anonymous retiree in reference to the major increase in employee health insurance rates. I share her concerns. How did this come to pass? It seemed like an 11th hour sort of

040deal. Why does this always seem to happen? Why was there no transparency or communication? No workshops with teacher inputs, feedback, data, all the rest. It feels very sudden and capricious. I am retired. However, I believe this is the feeling, one of a division that used to be the crown jewel of the seven cities and treated its teachers that way, but now has an executive team that seems to be tone deaf. I remember when Dr. Robertson sent out another tone deaf email in 2022 saying, Champions make sacrifices while others make excuses. It's wild because teachers will go back to school and he has lost a lot of credibility with them. The money stings, but it goes to the heart about how people are treated. This was all done in the shadows. Zero transparency. The increase was

041not just large. It far outpaced inflation for the last three years. Once again, poor planning on the city's part. Thank you. Our next speaker is Lorraine Samko, then Michael Havarsin, then Russell Johnston. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the Virginia Bay School Board. I thank you all for your time and your commitment to serving our city and our students. I'm Lorraine Samko. I'm a 36-year resident of Aragona Village and currently our Aragona Village Civic League president. I'm here to ask you to vote yes to the measure for gifting the Jericho Road property, being the parcel that housed the original Aragona Elementary School and the former Bayside Six campus, and the parcel that held the water treatment plant to the city of Virginia Beach. This being the same property that was donated to you by the

042city, by John Aragona, for use for the public good. With this gift, the city would be entrusted to nurture and maintain the property as a permanent park for the residents of Aragona Village and our neighbors. That this moment comes so close to exactly nine years ago, when the seed for this journey was planted. I simply see this as an alignment of the stars of a prior divine intervention. Our community has patiently watched, waited, and worked for this opportunity, and now is the time. Your vote tonight will have profound impacts on the health and strength of Aragona Village and our surrounding sister communities for decades to come. The right time is now, and the right vote is yes. Thank you. Our next speaker is Michael Halverson and then Russell Johnston. Good evening, everybody. My name is

043Mike Halverson. I'm the second vice president of the Aragona Civic League. I just want to follow up on some stuff that our board members talked about. It's the importance of voting yes to the park. Anybody that knows Aragona and has grown up there, I'm there for 40 years. Every piece of property, for the most part, has disappeared to retail or housing. One thing that we do not need is more housing on that road. If you go to Pembroke Elementary and watch this missile, you see the traffic patterns and everything in that area. It's as simple as a yes vote. I do appreciate the members that have responded back to our emails and really hope that you take to heart what our community is about. all the events that we have had recently for the support

044that they have shown. So we know it's the right thing to do. So we would really, really appreciate a yes vote. Thank you. Our next speaker is Russell Johnston. Hello. Thank you for having me up here to speak with you all. I live in Narragona Village also. My property abuts up to the property that's being discussed tonight, and I'm hoping that students will vote yes to donating the school to the city to make that a public park. So thank you for your consideration. Madam Chair, that was the last speaker for this evening. Okay, thank you. We are now on to information and the Policy Review Committee recommendations, and we welcome Cammie Linetti, School Board Attorney. Good evening, Madam Chair, Vice Chair, School Board members, and Dr. Robertson. I'm Cammie Linetti, School Board Attorney, and on

045behalf of the Policy Review Committee, I am going to be presenting you with one bylaw and 17 policies because Policy Review has been very busy this summer. Good thing is most of these are not long so we'll just work our way through them. The first one is Bylaw 136. The reason we're bringing this back to you is because there's a requirement with the Freedom of Information Act that the General Assembly amended a few years ago, and in the section having to do with remote participation, you are required every year to readopt this policy. So we have brought this back to you. While looking at it, we have made a few scrivener's changes and clarifications, but the main reason this policy has been brought back to you is to reconfirm your commitment to the remote participation.

046Are there any questions? Questions about bylaw 136. Hearing no questions, I will... Mention to you that because this was last adopted the end of August for it to be in effect by September in case we have a school board member that needs to participate for remote participation we are going to ask you tonight to move this to action because it's a bylaw and it needs more than a majority vote it does need to go to action so we have asked to place that on the agenda which you've adopted tonight and that is the only reason just so you will have a remote policy in place in September in case what's needed. We'll move on to Policy 257. Again, as I mentioned, we have a plan. The Policy Review Committee works through all the policies and

047regulations on a five-year rotating basis. So we're finishing up on Section 2, which is administration. So the first one up is Policy 257, which is staff members as consultants. We've had this up before. There was a clarification asked, I believe, by Mrs. Rogers. So we'll currently read, with administrative approval, Staff members may use earned leave types such as annual and personal reasons leave to do private consulting, and there would be no other further changes to the policy. That's just a change to the first sentence. Are there any questions about the proposed amendments to Policy 257? Hearing no questions, I will move on to our next policy, which is 312. This is in the business and non-instructional section. This is a capital improvement budget. Again, it was due up for the five-year review, and we decided

048to clarify a few matters just to make it easier to read. So we'll now read, the school board, in cooperation with the superintendent, shall adopt a capital improvement CIP program, which will project school division capital needs for a six-year period. Individual capital projects will be assigned priorities. The capital improvement program shall be reviewed annually. Copies shall be submitted to the school board for review. And then we've added the long-range school facility master plan will serve as an ongoing research for the school division's anticipated capital improvement needs. And we're correcting the length. We felt that that would clarify for folks where they would find out your priorities. Are there any questions on Policy 312 amendments? I have one, and that's just because the long-range school facility master plan is referenced. I know that we update that

049every so often. When are we due to update that again? There's currently funding in the capital program from the initial funding level, and we briefed you last year that we would plan to have the second portion of that in this year's. capital program to be presented so that's going to be I think a topic of conversation as we go into the September 9th update from the recent CIP work from that group that's going to be done to get guidance for how to move forward and that will be a part of the the debrief as was shared at the retreat in July Did that answer your question? So we update our long-range facility master plan. It's every 10 years, correct? That's our historical process, correct. Okay. All right. So how far along in the 10 years

050are we? We're approaching the 10 years, which is why we have it in the capital program. That's what I was asking. So we're due up soon. Thank you. We have no further questions on 312. I will move on to 314. 314 is, again, in the business non-instructional operation, has to do with school board funds. There are no changes to the actual policy. We've just updated the legal references. And again, we will look at this because of the five-year check. Are there any questions on 314? Hearing no questions on 314, I will move on to 316. This is local funds, Virginia Beach Education Association. There are only scrivener's changes to this that you'll see on there. Again, this was simply our five-year check on this, so there are no recommendations other than the scrivener's changes. Are

051there any questions to 316? Hearing no questions to 316. That's Virginia Beach Education Foundation, correct? I'm sorry, yes. Okay, thank you. Move on to Policy 317, which is state funds. There are no amendments to the actual body of this. There were some updates on the legal references that we clarified, but other than that, there are no other recommendations to amendments to 317. Again, this was on our five-year check. Are there any questions on 317 state funds? All right, no questions on 317. I'll move on to 318. This is federal funds. There are no recommended amendments to this. This is simply our five-year check. Any questions on Policy 318, federal funds? No questions? I'll move on to 457. This is in our personnel section. This actually came to us because of changes in the General Assembly

052law, so this will end up having to be changed in another year or two when you take a look at it. So what we are doing is in the notes section, it is pointed out that during the 25, 26, and 26, 27 school years, the school board may employ a temporary teacher to fill a vacancy for a period not to exceed 180 days. The law has already been adopted. It will go into effect in 2027, formalizing the period of time that you can work, but this is an extension for us. So we've updated this policy. We recognize that we'll have to come back to you in two years to clarify that. Are there any questions on 457? Ms. Rogers? So this is basically saying we can have someone in the classroom temporarily for a full

053year. Yes? Yes. And how often does this happen? Do we know? Ms. Ensman, are you here? You need to cut the microphone. Yeah, sorry. I don't have the number of how many long-term subs we have, but it's typically when an employee goes out for something like maternity leave. So they could possibly stay out for the full year? Potentially, yes. Okay. And we wouldn't then be able to. My only concern is is the quality if we have someone who's on a substitute basis that they're are they required for 180 day substitution to have some sort of Degree yeah, they they have to meet certain requirements and what this actually allows is for those situations where somebody intends to only be out for a month or two, we have a sub in there. This now allows us

054to leave that same person in that same classroom for the entire length. Right, instead of switching people out, which I understand that. But like I said, my concern is having students, for example, in a seventh grade math class who have a year-long sub that has no experience and no degree in math, and that basically you've got the other staff. having to support this uncertified educator. So, like, that's my big concern with this, and I know that it's difficult. I'm just, like, that's my hang-up. All right. Vice Chair Weems? Yes. Like was explained to us at the committee meeting, the alternative is to have three of those in one year. And that's a lot more time management and resources, and it's not good for the students to have that much inconsistency. So, again, to have one

055teacher in that room versus three or four is a lot more manageable and is better for the learning environment. Ms. Rogers? Right, and I mentioned that I understood that. I just was wondering if you could get me the information on how many of those year-long subs that we normally have that don't have their degree or working towards that. When I first started with the Virginia Beach City Public Schools, I was switching my licensure over from New York to Virginia. So while I didn't have a Virginia license, I was... a licensed teacher in another state. And so again, I did have the education background and the ability to teach the students without the license because of that. But my only concern is not having educators for a year in a position where... They're just not going

056to be educators at all. That's my only concern so if you can get those numbers I think we can we can get that and we do try and fill that spot right before This is just an option for right and I get that because I know there are some very difficult Positions and if it's someone's on maternity leave we want to get rid of someone and I understand that I'm just curious Are there any further questions on 457? I know for the question of 457, we're going to move on to 491. Ms. Ensman is also here for this. This is also a clarification. This is in personnel. It has to do with observation of students, practicum students, student teachers, and interns. What we've done is gone ahead and we organized this a little bit so

057you'll see now the subsections into it. So different changes seem to be happening in the application and placement section and a couple other changes in there. And I think Ms. Ensman would be able to answer any specific questions. It's more reorganization and numbering, outlining for this particular policy. Are there any specific questions on 491? Hearing no questions on 491, I'm going to move on to 518. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Sorry, I have a question on 491. The MOA agreement for student teachers, practicum students, or intern, does that... include the students who are in the teachers for tomorrow that are in high school? That was my only question. No, these are for students who are student teaching, so they're in university. Yeah, I just, because of the way it was written, I wasn't sure if

058it included those students, and I didn't know if we were doing MOEs with them, and I didn't want to. Any further questions on 491? Any questions on 491? We're going to move into Section 5, which is students. The first one up is Policy 518, which is attendance records. There is only a grammatical change into the legal reference. Otherwise, this was simply a five-year check or a scrivener's change. Any questions on Policy 518? Hearing no questions on 518, we'll move on to 543. This has to do with threats on there. There are changes mostly in the legal references. A couple minor scrivener changes other than that. The change is simply to update the legal reference in 1860, but there are no other recommended changes to policy 543. Are there any questions on 543? Hearing no questions

059on 543, I'll then move on to 544. which is our sexual harassment, sexual violence, inappropriate sexual conduct, prohibited policy. The only change under this policy has to do with the review, and again, because of our five-year check, we've checked this, but we have no other recommended amendments to policy 544. Any questions on 544? Hearing no questions on 544, we'll move on to 562. 562 is interesting. We've come to you a couple times the last couple years. There were a number of amendments in the General Assembly this year having to do particularly with health-related matters and student-athletes on this. Since we already had a policy that had to do with sudden cardiac arrest that came in last year, and there were two policies having to do with cardiac emergency responses and extreme heat, we thought it

060was logical if we put them into one policy if you were looking for them. So we took policy 562, and you'll see the addition of... You have sudden cardiac arrest, which we've had, and then we had setting B, which is cardiac emergency response plans that we had to do. So that whole section is new. It has to do with the cardiac emergency response plans and our athletic emergency action plan. It's in addition to the cardiac plans. And then C is the extreme heat and safety protection. There are pretty extensive guidelines that the Office of Student Leadership has been working with to implement. On there, so we've added them to this particular section. So if you were looking for it, you would find it in this policy. The guidelines are not here, but they're pretty extensive

061also on the rules and regulations. This is another policy that we're going to ask you to go ahead and move on to the consent agenda tonight because we already have our athletes out on the field. We are already implementing this. We wanted to adopt the policy because obviously we have athletes that are working on their fall sports right now out there, and particularly with the extreme heat, we wanted to make sure we had that in place. So this one you will see moved on to the... consent and the reason we're adding this is so that they'll be formally adopted. Ms. Fodges, did you have a question? Yeah, quick question. This is very specific to athletes, but there are other students who are out on the field as well. I'm thinking about our band students, and

062I'm thinking about some of our dancers and things like that when they're in the basketball game. So I'm just, cheerleaders, does that include them in this? I'm just asking because I don't know. I'm assuming the way they're implementing it is you shouldn't, if you look at the heat one, there's actually a chart over certain temperatures. how much time they can be on the field, when they can be on the field, and when they can't be on the field, how much water, how many breaks they have. I believe we're implementing that for everyone. Okay, I just was asking. Ms. Rogers, if you don't mind, Ms. Linetti, just to clarify for you, the cardiac emergency response plan is for all students. That training is ongoing with staff. this week through the lead meetings and they're going to

063identify team members around aid devices and so on so it is not just an athletic component and part of our training is more on the cardiac emergency response plans because we have had pretty good processes in place on both areas but yes all students Just making sure. Thanks. There's an extensive amount of work that Office of the Student Leadership has had to do with implementing these new procedures in place, and they've got that up. Again, the reason we're asking you to move this on is that you will have formally adopted the policy, but they are implementing these procedures already. Are there any further questions on 562? Hearing no questions on 562, we're going to move on to 566. This is student directory information. This has to do with the release of personal identifiable information. The

064changes to this are Scrivener changes, and it's updated on the legal references. But other than that, there are no substantive changes to this policy. Are there any questions on policy 566? Any questions on Policy 566? I will move on to 576. 576 is our Homeless Children and Youth, also sometimes known as McKinney-Vento Act, procedures that we have in here. We are not recommending any changes. This is simply because of our five-year review. We're bringing this back up to you, but there are no recommended changes. Any questions on Policy 576? Any questions on 576? We're going to move on to policy 610. This is guest speakers. This policy has been completely rewritten. A significant amount of the procedures we have in place are now in a regulation that did not exist before because they were fairly

065extensive. We thought they were more appropriate in the regulation. So this completely replaces the policy before. On that, it will read, the school board recognizes that guest speakers may enhance educational programming and supports the invitation of guest speakers to address students during the school day or at school-sponsored events when the purpose of the guest speaker's presentation directly supports the strategic plan and or the school division or school's priorities. Additionally, guest speakers may be invited to address commemorative events, awards, or other ceremonies that honor students, staff, or officials for their academic or other achievements. Consideration of the need to balance academic learning time and school division resources should be made prior or to extending invitations to guest speakers. Again, the more extensive procedures are set forth in regulation, which would be Regulation 610.1. Are there any

066questions about Policy 610? I just have a comment. I am on the fence about this, and I just wanted to share my rationale for being on the fence, and that is I didn't really see a policy problem. I saw a lack of regulation as the problem. And while I recognize that a regulation will exist during my time on this board and when I was on the policy committee, generally I attempted to support policies that would create further understanding, not further generalization. Was kind of gonna let it go but then I read the cover sheet and it says 610 recommends generalizing language and policy and creating more regulation and details and process for inviting guests to speak at schools and school sponsored events And so I have a little bit of trouble and it's not because

067I think that the regulation is going to be a bad one And I know that we can most certainly vote on a regulation if it's not contained within policy But rather just my concerns about generalizing something instead of being more specific and opening the door up more there and how that may be taken with future boards and superintendents. So I just wanted to share that I'm going to be asking this to be on action. Thank you. Are there any questions about policy 610? I know for the questions of Policy 610, we're going to move on to Policy 639, which is instruction in mathematics. As you are aware, we had some significant changes this year in the General Assembly. So you will see a new Section A, which is Advanced or Accelerated Mathematics. This is the

068automatic enrollment process. We talked fairly essentially about this at the PRC. The General Assembly's requiring is that when students fall into certain categories or grades in testing, that they will automatically be enrolled in advanced math. And then second is B, that we'll talk about multiple additional pathways to enrollment. So if you don't necessarily meet the requirements for that, you also have other ways to be put in advanced mathematics. That would then put us into C, which is notification of advanced or accelerated mathematics in grades five through eight. This is to inform students and families of the options and the importance of mathematical. accelerated mathematical work for them so they're aware of why we're doing this. And that all came out of amendments to the Code of Virginia 22.12 and 7.9 that came in this year.

069So we've gone ahead and incorporated them into Policy 639. Are there any questions about Policy 639? Mrs. Rogers? There's still going to be the parent choice as to whether or not a student will be in an accelerated class, especially in middle schools, right? Yes. Okay. I just want to make sure that that is still a choice for parents, that they don't have to put their child in an accelerated if they feel that their maturity level isn't going to allow them to complete the work. Okay. Parents are informed of their right to opt out of the acceleration or the advanced course, and so when they're notified if there is an actual switch in the child's schedule, they are informed of how to opt out. Perfect. Thank you. Are there any questions on Policy 639? For the

070question on Policy 639, we'll look at another policy that had to do with changes in the General Assembly. This is Policy 641, Digital Literacy and Internet Safety Policy. We actually had a digital literacy policy, but as changes in the General Assembly have come having to do with the importance of Internet safety and discussions that need to be happening and worked into the new instructional program, we decided to amend Policy 641, which will now be Digital Literacy Internet Safety Policy. and it's going to combine both the concepts in there. There are far more extensive regulations and procedures that had to go into place, very extensive, that the DTOL can talk to you about. So we've gone ahead and recommended that we have the current policy, which will read, safe and responsible use of Internet resources is

071an important component of preparing students to be productive citizens. Therefore, the school board adopts this policy to prevent safe and responsible use of the internet within the school division, supporting students, educators, and families. Aligned with the Virginia Department of Education VDOE guidance, this policy emphasizes digital citizenship, ensuring that individuals navigate the digital world with respect, integrity, and empathy. It also addresses digital citizenship, media literacy, computer science, artificial intelligence, AI, and Internet safety through actionable guidelines encouraging a balanced approach to technology use. Critical components of supporting school safety involve the infusion of digital access use and design practices as well as engagement and conversations about digital citizenship and Internet safety. In addition, resources and assistance programs must be available for any student or parent who may have encountered online solicitation by sexual predators or other illegal

072online communications activities. The school board authorizes the superintendent or designated to develop regulations and procedures that are consistent with the Virginia Department of Education regulations and other ethical law regarding internet safety. So you can see that covers a lot, and I can tell you the regulations and the guidance put in are pretty extensive, and details work extensively on that. And so this was designed almost exactly after the model of internet policy. see the same regulations were adopted off the model policy from VDOE. Are there any questions about policies? Mr. Cummings? Yeah, thanks for sharing. I just have a quick question just reading through the sentence. In addition, resources and assistant programs must be available for any student or parent who may encounter an online solicitation, et cetera. Can I get a memory refresh? What are

073those resources, assistant programs, how are those communicated to our students and parents? We are developing that process coming through. That was something that was actually written directly into the legislation, and you notice it also involves parents. So I don't know. Do you want to deal with that, Ms. Glitch? Yes, we're partnering with the Office of Security and Emergency Management as well as Student Support Services to make sure administrators and counselors have training on which resources to provide and which path if there's a suspicion of some type of illegal online activity so that parents and students are supported effectively. Are those resources, with school starting soon, is that going to be developed? and implemented by the start of school, or what's kind of the timeline on that? Well, it would depend. We already have resources in

074place. So we have counselors, mental health resources. It would really depend on if the suspected online activity was true, and then we have a strong partnership with our SROs who would most likely take the lead in something like that if something illegal was taking place. Okay. Thanks for sharing. And that brings us to the end of the Policy Review Committee's recommendations for this month. So just one other question. It says the school board authorized the superintendent or designated to develop regulations and procedures consistent with the VDOE regulations regarding Internet safety. And we have a lot in here. We have AI. We have lots of digital citizenship, media literacy. Internet. What are those regulations? When are we going to have the chance to see them and the procedures? And I think that's probably a question for

075Dr. Robertson, maybe? Regulation was brought to PRC, so that has been out to look at. We didn't put it in here. We don't adopt that, but we can give you the regulation. Okay. Is that the same one that we saw during the retreat? Okay. So. The AI thing. I know we got a memo and we had the stoplights. Was there any changes to the stoplight thing? And if so, could you share those specific changes? I actually don't have a copy of it with me, but I remember specifically Mrs. Leams and your feedback, and we went back and reflected on that and made it more explicit. Off the top of my head, we added things like the teacher would be, if they decided an assignment would be an AI use of a level one, it would

076be step by step. So lockstep with the teacher. Now put in this. What did you see? What do you think about that? So it would be very holding hands almost with your students, whereas a level two assignment would be more explicit directions. These are the expectations for usage in the class. Work on this on your own, and then we'll talk about it and examine that together. But it all is going to be during class. If you recall, one of the guardrails we put in place. for 25-26 for high school students is that we would turn off our school division access to Gemini after school hours. So we're going to make sure this is all very closely monitored and for educational purposes only under the supervision of a teacher. Okay. Yeah, I just, I mean, I

077still have concerns and my concern is that... Not that we're using AI, but maybe we're trying to do too much with it too fast. You see this with even cell phones. We used to say bring your own device. Now we're saying don't bring your device or don't use it. I just don't want to overdo it, and I'm very cautious about that. All right. Anyone else? I don't see any, so thank you. All right, that brings us to program evaluation schedule for 25-26, and we welcome Dr. Heidi Janicki, Director of Research and Evaluation, Office of Planning, Innovation, and Accountability. Good evening, Chairwoman Brown, Vice Chair Weems, members of the school board, and Dr. Robertson. This evening, I will share the proposed schedule of program evaluations that will be conducted during 2025-2026. The schedule is developed based

078on School Board Policy 6-26. Before presenting the evaluation schedule for the upcoming year, I'll provide an overview of the evaluation reports that will be provided in upcoming months based on last year's schedule. The evaluation readiness reports for the pre-kindergarten program and the scratch cooking initiative will be presented this evening following this presentation. These are planning reports in preparation for beginning the evaluations. They provide information about the goals and objectives that will be assessed during the upcoming evaluation period as well as the evaluation plan and timeline. These evaluation plans will be subject to school board approval. Other reports that will be provided to the school board this fall and winter based on the 2024-2025 program evaluation schedule are shown on the slide. The year two evaluation of behavioral and mental health supports for students is focused

079on program effectiveness and outcomes of several initiatives, including the Behavior Intervention Support Team, or BIST, Professional Learning and Strategies, the base program at the elementary school level, and communities and schools. The final year three evaluation of the Renaissance Academy Alternative Education Program is focused on program effectiveness and student outcomes. Finally, the comprehensive evaluation of Inachievable Dream Academy is focused on the accomplishment of the program's goals and program effectiveness, while also reviewing implementation data for all school levels. Recommendations made as part of each of these three program evaluations will be subject to school board approval. As stipulated by school board policy, the proposed 2025-26 program evaluation schedule that will be shown on the next slide was developed based on evaluation requirements for programs. Based on the policy, new programs or initiatives that operate with local resources

080are evaluated for a minimum of two years and then during the year of full implementation if a program takes more than two years to implement. In addition, programs that have been previously evaluated may remain on the schedule as a result of an evaluation plan for the program that was previously approved by the school board. This year's program evaluation committee with representatives from the Office of Research and Evaluation, the Department of Teaching and Learning, and the Department of School Leadership identified programs to be recommended for inclusion on the schedule based on criteria in the policy. Each year the proposed program evaluation schedule is presented to the superintendent senior staff to obtain feedback regarding the recommendations The proposed evaluation schedule for the upcoming 2025-26 school year will require school board approval This slide presents the proposed program

081evaluation schedule for the upcoming 2025-26 school year with results shared in fall or winter 2026 The evaluation of the Recovery School will begin during the new program's first year of implementation. An evaluation update for the Gifted Resource Cluster program is included on the schedule based on a school board approved recommendation from January 2024 and will provide updated information and data related to the recommendations from the 2022-2023 comprehensive evaluation. Additionally, based on the evaluation plans that will be shared in the next two presentations this evening, the evaluation of scratch cooking will focus on implementation components as well as outcomes, and the year one evaluation of pre-kindergarten will focus on implementation processes and will include baseline data for student outcomes. This concludes the presentation of the program evaluation schedule for the upcoming school year. I'm available for

082any questions at this time. All right. Seeing none, thank you. Thank you very much. We are now going to move on to our pre-kindergarten program evaluation readiness report. We welcome Dr. Allison Bach, Program Evaluation Specialist, Office of Planning, Innovation, and Accountability. Thank you. Good evening, Chairwoman Brown, Vice Chair Weems, members of the school board, and Dr. Robertson. Today, I will present the Pre-Kindergarten Program Evaluation Readiness Report, including background information, goals and objectives, selected baseline data, and the recommended evaluation plan. As a brief background, the Pre-Kindergarten Program in VBCPS began in 16-17. Prior to that time, Pre-Kindergarten Programming offered in VBCPS schools was provided by the YMCA. The VBCPS Pre-K program is supported by a grant offered through the Virginia Preschool Initiative, which is overseen by BDOE, as well as federal Title I funds. VPI was

083originally created in Virginia in 1994 to serve at-risk four-year-old children who were not being served by the federal Head Start program. The VBCPS pre-kindergarten program is designed to be an intervention program for students who meet the established criteria, which includes being four years old and living in Virginia Beach. Additional examples of eligibility criteria include, but are not limited to, having low family income based on federal poverty guidelines, having a parent who did not complete high school, lacking fixed, regular, or adequate housing, or having an IEP. An example of a local factor is having a parent who is active military. To apply for the program, families must complete an online application that determines eligibility. Due to a limited number of seats, all reported factors are used to determine priority for placement into the program versus placement

084onto the wait list. During the 24-25 school year, there were 53 pre-K classrooms across 30 elementary school sites with a capacity of 954 seats. Due to fluctuations in enrollment, there was a total of 987 students who participated in the program at any point during the school year. The pre-kindergarten program will be expanding in 25-26 to additional elementary school sites with 1,008 seats. Based on school board policy the purpose of the evaluation readiness process is to prepare existing programs or initiatives for evaluation after they are selected for the annual program evaluation schedule This process leads to a recommendation regarding the evaluation plan the school board approved last year's program evaluation schedule in which the pre-kindergarten program was Recommended for an evaluation readiness report to refine measurable goals and objectives Program evaluation staff have reviewed literature and

085documentation related to pre-K and collaborated with the program manager and the Evaluation Readiness Committee to refine goals and objectives focused on the implementation of the program as well as outcomes. Finally, a proposed evaluation plan was developed for upcoming school years. One implementation goal was established with assistance from the Evaluation Readiness Committee. This implementation goal is that the pre-kindergarten program will provide a classroom environment that is developmentally appropriate and student-centered, with engaging, hands-on curriculum, and positive interactions. Objectives for this goal are directly aligned with the three domains assessed on the classroom assessment scoring system or class. which is a widely used research-based measure mandated by the state that assesses the quality of classroom interactions. These objectives include establishing and promoting a positive climate, classrooms featuring sensitive guidance and consistent schedules, centers, and structure, effective curriculum implementation,

086and providing meaningful academic experiences through their curriculum. Two outcome goals were established with assistance from the Evaluation Readiness Committee. The first outcome goal is focused on students' growth and performance in the pre-kindergarten program. Objectives for this goal include showing growth and scoring in the growing or strong bands for literacy and language, numeracy, and self-regulation and social skills during their pre-kindergarten year. A second goal is that the pre-kindergarten program will prepare students for a successful transition to kindergarten based on their academic, self-regulation, and social skills. Objectives for this goal include perceptions of pre-kindergarten parents about their students' readiness for kindergarten and former pre-kindergarten students meeting benchmarks for literacy and language, numeracy, and self-regulation in social skills during the fall of kindergarten. To obtain baseline survey data regarding the pre-K program, pre-K teachers and teacher assistants were

087asked several survey items as part of the BBCPS annual spring survey administered in April. 34 staff responded, which was an approximate 33% response rate to the survey items. When asked about the quality of the classroom environment, all pre-K teachers and teacher assistants who responded to the survey items agreed the pre-K program provided a classroom environment that has a positive climate, supportive relationships, consistent schedules and routines, time and transition management, effective curriculum, and specific and constructive feedback. The figure on the slide shows the percentages who indicated strong agreement and agreement, and the percentage who strongly agreed was also especially high. In addition, all pre-K teachers and teacher assistants who responded to the survey items agreed the pre-K program prepares students for a successful transition to kindergarten. After completing the evaluation readiness process, a two-year evaluation is

088recommended. Year one of the evaluation plan during 25-26 will focus on the implementation of pre-K, while year two of the evaluation plan will focus on the student outcomes, as well as examining any changes due to the expansion of the program to additional schools. Following each year of evaluation and the results, along with recommendations, will be presented to the school board. The evaluation will address alignment with the strategic framework, operational components, student characteristics, progress toward meeting goals and objectives, former pre-kindergarten students' performance through their kindergarten year, stakeholder perceptions, and cost. This concludes the presentation regarding the evaluation readiness process and plan for evaluating the pre-kindergarten program. Ms. Silverman, the Director of Title I, and I are available for any questions you may have. Thank you. Ms. Rogers, thank you so much for the presentation. As you

089may or may not be aware, I'm a former pre-kindergarten teacher with the division. And I'm just wondering on the self-regulation and social skills, are those only measurable through class or do they do that on the VALS and whatever it's called now, testing? Because I know it changes all the time. Yes, so we will be... For that specific goal and objective, it's going to be through the Child Behavior Rating Scale, which is assessed through VKRP. Oh, VKRP does it now? Yes. And again, they've changed everything. All right, amazing. I looked through your class scores, which, by the way, I am also a class observer, and the division is doing an exceptional job on those scores, so congratulations. Dr. Green? Thank you. And Dr. Brock and I have done many research projects together as an employee. Quick

090question, Dr. Brock. Is there going to be a parent component? I see a reference to the... family engagement piece, have you identified any data points yet? And it's okay if you haven't. I was just curious because given the parent background, I see an opportunity to get a lot of rich data that will maybe help us with working with our students. in Title I programs as well. Yeah, we'll definitely have a parent survey where we will gather their perceptions about the program. So throughout the report, we'll include their survey data. And that outcome goal about readiness for kindergarten, that's specifically focusing on the parent perceptions. Great. Thank you. Mr. Callan? Thank you for the report. My question has to do with the information found on slide number six. And I was just curious and was wondering

091whether you were as well. The response rate is only 33%. Yes. That strikes me as surprisingly small and wondered what your impression was. Past year, we were gathering baseline data, so we included the pre-kindergarten survey items as a supplemental survey to our annual survey. So any teacher who indicated they were a pre-K to first grade teacher got a page that said, if you're a pre-K teacher, please go here and continue on to pre-kindergarten questions focused on this. Next year, we will not be... taking that approach we will be directly emailing pre-kindergarten teachers and teacher assistants with an email that's exclusively focused on pre-kindergarten program so that is and that was at the end of the survey as well so it sounds like it was a format response that might have been done differently had you

092to do it over again. Yes, yes. I believe so. And we did not we did that to ensure that there was they were anonymous because some schools only have one pre-K teacher one pre-K teacher assistant so we did not want them to be identifiable for their responses so that's why we had it be a supplemental survey last year. Mr. Cummings? Thank you so much. First and foremost, I just want to express my enthusiasm for pre-K, and I know the role it plays in our communities in providing safe learning environments and safe places for these kids to obtain educational excellence. And I know for our staff and for our teachers and for our educators, I love everything about pre-K and look forward to continuing to support pre-K in our great city. And so my only question,

093my only piece of feedback, I love the evaluation recommendation and plan. I would love to add in one small bullet point where we can maybe look at folks who go through pre-K two to three years down the road and just see how they're doing. Maybe I missed that within the bullet points, but I think it's a great plan. I'm more enthusiastic and excited to see the results of everything because I know it's such great work. Thank you. We did consider extending it beyond the kindergarten year, but we decided that extending it beyond that was getting into too many factors, and the focus of the pre-kindergarten program is on the transition into kindergarten, and that's the reason we did not include that in our plan. I have one additional thing. In that conversation, we had a

094good conversation about it, so that's a great point. Also, research shows there becomes a lot of additional variables that come into play the further you get away from your pre-kindergarten year, which then make it more challenging to really diagnose whether it was the pre-k exposure or it was other acting variables. So that was why initially in this plan, that was why we went for going into kindergarten. We can certainly always... consider other options moving forward, but for the initial impact of pre-kindergarten and preparing students and the other parts of the implementation of our program, that was the initial thinking, just for some additional thoughts. Yeah, I think that's fair. Yeah, I'd love to read anything that you're reading about it, and you know I'm a huge advocate for pre-K, because I know how important it

095is for our community, so appreciate all the work you all do, so thank you so much. Ms. Rogers? I forgot to ask something. My apologies. So when we heard from special education services, they indicated that it was their intention on adding more students from ECSC into our pre-K classrooms. So my question then is, is how are we supporting our pre-kindergarten teachers who don't have the special education background? I know that there were many... Islanders, as we shall say, when I was teaching and making sure that our pre-K classrooms have that ECSE partnership. hopefully in the building is really important to me because I know it's super difficult, not impossible, but it is more difficult when your ECSC partner is not in your building. And so that's something that I'm interested in hearing more about. Wonderful

096question. Yes, we are working collaboratively, and I think that the answer lies in starting with the top down. And so first starting with central office, the OPEC office and the pre-K office have been working collaboratively, continue to work collaboratively. to not only address the needs from the past, but to try to come up with creative new ideas, to be able to provide supports for our staff, such as, as you know, I'm telling you and I'm also telling everyone, because you attended our trainings, we provide full-day trainings to our teachers and our TAs, and we... identify the agenda based on the needs of our students and our staff. We have dedicated periods of professional learning that are providing support to our general education teachers and to our TAs to help build their capacity and we partner

097with OPEC to provide that professional learning. In addition to that, some additional new things, as we know for general educators and special educators K through 12, that co-teaching model and the ability to build collaboration is essential. So this year, something that's new and additional is that we're providing additional layers of support to build that co-teaching. relationship between the general educator, the special educator, and the TA, who's also present. We have different professional learning planned in partnership with the Office of Special Education. So those are some additional things that we're doing, as well as in partnership with our BISs, so that we're all in alignment. And then finally, we're also providing PL, as well as informational updates to our administrators and buildings to help build their capacity of what pre-K and ECSE collaboration looks like from

098both of our offices. offices so that then they can provide those in-school supports and leadership for our staff. And I think it's that co-teaching model that's really going to be super important for our educators who are not necessarily versed in special education but have a number of students that are requiring those services. So I really, really appreciate all the work you guys are doing and making sure that our general education teachers and pre-K are supported. Thank you. Okay, I don't see any other questions. I do agree with Mr. Cummings. I would like to see kind of like follow the student type of data, but I understand also the challenges that you mentioned. So maybe if we can consider a year out instead of two, maybe that could be a compromise to kind of. And we

099do have an evaluation question in our plan to monitor former pre-kindergarten students, so we can definitely include it. Okay. Yeah, I think that data would be very useful. So thank you for everything you do. Pre-K is very important for our students, so thank you so much. And we will now move on to the Scratch Cooking Initiative Evaluation Readiness Report. And we welcome Dr. Noelle Williams, Program Evaluation Specialist, Office of Planning, Innovation, and Accountability. Good evening, Chairwoman Brown, Vice Chair Weems, members of the school board, and Dr. Robertson. Today I will present the Scratch Cooking Initiative Evaluation Readiness Report, including background information, goals and objectives, selected baseline data, and the recommended evaluation plan. To provide some context for the Scratch Cooking Initiative, it's helpful to understand the role of school meals in public schools. Federal funding

100for the National School Lunch Program began in 1946, and the School Breakfast Program received funding in 1975. Approximately 30 million children across the U.S. participate in these programs each day, either through free meals, reduced meals, or purchasing them. School meal programs are administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which provide funding, but the programs are operated by school divisions. School divisions are responsible for planning and procuring meals, ensuring programs meet USDA standards, training and supervising staff to prepare and serve meals, and operating and maintaining equipment. The scratch cookie model for K-12 schools began in 2009. Scratch cooking is defined as preparing food using minimally processed ingredients. The scratch cooking model gained popularity with the new standards enacted in the Healthy Hunger Foods Kids Act of 2010, which required more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, a

101reduction in sodium levels, and saturated and trans fats. The Scratch Cooking Initiative was piloted in VBCPS at ODS in 16-17. The goal was for cafeterias to shift from ready-made food to cooking using whole, fresh ingredients. As of 24-25, all comprehensive schools participate in the Scratch Cooking Initiative. The implementation of the scratch cooking initiative has evolved, and the current plan has a three-pronged approach focused on increasing the number of scratch and speed scratch menu items, implementing active school gardens, and kitchen modernization. Speed scratch is defined as a combination of ready-made products and minimally processed ingredients. The Office of Food Services operates as a special revenue fund within the Department of School Division Services. With the exception of general kitchen maintenance and collaboration with facility services for kitchen renovations, the Scratch Cooking Initiative is funded through earned

102revenues. As noted in the earlier presentation, based on school board policy, the purpose of the evaluation readiness process is to prepare existing programs or initiatives for evaluation after they are selected for the annual program evaluation schedule. The school board approves last year's program evaluation schedule which the scratch cooking initiative was recommended for an evaluation readiness report to refine measurable goals and objectives program evaluation staff reviewed literature and documentation related to the scratch cooking initiative and collaborated with the director of food services and the evaluation readiness committee to refine division-wide goals and objectives focused on the implementation of the scratch cooking initiatives as well as outcomes Finally, a proposed evaluation plan was developed for the next year. Three implementation goals were established with assistance from the Scratch Cooking Evaluation Readiness Committee. The first implementation goal and

103objective is to modernize or upgrade kitchen equipment to support the scratch cooking initiative based on the timeline. The second implementation goal is for the initiative to be fully staffed with trained professionals. The specific objectives related to this goal include having one baker cook at each school and for staff to participate in effective professional development. The third implementation goal is for the school division to increase the scratch and speed scratch menu items along with recipe development and access to locally sourced food items. The specific objectives include increasing scratch and speed scratch menu items, new scratch recipes, and locally sourced food items. Two outcome goals were established with assistance from the Scratch Cooking Initiative Evaluation Readiness Committee. The first goal is for students to participate in school meals and learn healthy eating habits as part of the

104initiative. Objectives for this goal include measuring student participation and meal services and perceptions of learning healthy eating habits. The second goal is for students to participate in curriculum connections such as related extracurricular activities and school gardens. Objectives that will be assessed for this goal include student participation in extracurricular clubs or programs related to the Scratch Cooking Initiative and the percentage of schools with active school gardens. Baseline implementation data are included as they relate to awareness of the initiative, kitchen modernization, meals served, staffing, and menu development. Based on the menu survey given to students, parents, and staff with an active school cafe account, 34% of students, 31% of parents, and 70% of staff reported they were aware of the Scratch Cooking Initiative and the VB Scratch Program. According to the data provided by the Office of

105Food Services, 60% of schools had upgraded kitchen equipment to support scratch cooking. From a staffing perspective, 82% of elementary, 94% of middle schools, and 69% of high schools had a baker cook. In 2024-2025, over 8.8 million meals were served from July to June. The graph on the screen displays the percentage of meals in the spring menu that were scratched, speed scratched, or ready-made from the 2022-2023 school year to the 2024-2025 school year. Overall, the spring menu has included more scratched, speed scratched items compared to ready-made items, and the trend shows that the percentage of scratched, speed scratched items has increased, while the percentage of ready-made items has decreased. The scope of the Scratch Cooking Initiative program evaluation will be a one-year comprehensive evaluation focused on program implementation, outcomes, and effectiveness. Specifically, the scratch cooking evaluation

106will address alignment with the strategic framework, operational components, student engagement opportunities, progress toward meeting goals and objectives, stakeholders' perceptions, and revenue and expenses. This concludes the presentation regarding the evaluation readiness process and plan for the scratch cooking initiative. Chef Rachel Amato, Director of Office of Food Services, and I are available for any questions you may have. Mr.. Callen, thank you for this very interesting report my question has to do with the information found on slide six and I don't want to be perceived as looking for the flaw or the fly in the ointment, but my question involves Human behavior and we might lead a horse to water, but that doesn't mean he's gonna drink and so my point is In slide six, you indicate that over 8.8 million meals were served. There's a difference between

107being served and consuming what you're served. And my question is, do you have any sense of how much are the students actually consuming of these wonderfully good, healthy ingredients? Or are they inclined to just still do the traditional American way of saying, I'll have a slice of pizza, please, and an incrustable on the side? We do track what we are serving through most of our surveys, finding what is... their most favorite or least favorite items. We also do a really good job of offer versus serve, which is a part of our National School Lunch Program, where we use items that are, you have multiple components, and students are allowed to take up to three components, up to five components, in order to reduce waste. So items are equal. Thank you. You're welcome. Ms. Rogers? Thank

108you so much for the presentation. I guess my question is what sort of, besides our high schoolers that are in culinary, what other sort of student participation opportunities are there, especially for our elementary and middle schoolers? Yeah, absolutely. So we actually... have encouraged a lot of participation with our elementary schools with chopped cooking competitions as well as student clubs. Usually third through fifth grade are the majority of the students, but we have opened it up to second graders as well. I know Brookwood has a very active club and they actually have a wonderful garden implementation there as well. So there are opportunities for all the students to participate. We have a pretty fun collaboration about curriculum as well. Mr. Cummings? Well, Ms. Rogers took my question because I was interested in knowing what the student

109engagement opportunities are, but I still just wanted to say, you know, when you run for school board, you just don't think about it. You're going to hear about scratch cooking initiatives, programs, and evaluation, but I think this is awesome. I love hearing about experiential learning, you know, applied learning, and some of the different things that our students are doing. So it's an open invitation. I'd love to come to one of the challenges. And I feel like there was a missed opportunity. We could have been eating some scratch food up here just to further evaluate and get a school, you know, a qualitative evaluation. But this was so much fun to learn about. And it's great to hear how, you know, some of the practical skills are being developed. And, you know, I do think it

110creates a sense of community and well-being for our kids. So thank you so much for this work and this initiative. Mr. Bownesdale? Yes, thank you for the presentation. I was just wondering if that participation was open to school board members. I'm sorry, sir. Maybe. I'd have to defer to Jack on that. Okay, thank you. Thank you so much for everything you all do. We've had a lot of presentations tonight about a lot of very important things that go on in the day-to-day of our division, so thank you so much. We are now on to video services, and we welcome David Dinn, Chief Information Officer. Thank you very much, and good evening. It is always tough to follow the food services team. They do a fantastic job, and everyone loves to talk about food. All right,

111so we are going to talk very briefly about our video services that we have made transitions from from the city this evening, but the main focus of this presentation is to prepare you for the upcoming vote tonight on whether or not you would like to stream committee meetings. Before that, I'd like to take a couple of minutes to provide you an update with where we are with the video services transition. So you may remember a couple weeks ago, actually it was several weeks ago because we haven't met in a little bit, I briefed you on our transition plan where BBCPS would be assuming all video services responsibilities from the city. We've now completed Phase 1 and most actions in Phase 2. As previously mentioned, assuming all responsibilities also came with some new capabilities. BBCPS now

112manages what is broadcast to the public education channel on Cox and Verizon Channels 47. We've also made progress to have some smarter agenda-connected recordings. And Ms. Toniado is going to help me out here. We're going to do a quick little live demo. So you may recognize this is the view that you get when you go to YouTube to view any one of our school board meeting recordings, right? Now what you'll notice, something new here, is down here at the bottom of the YouTube window there's a new little arrow and when you click on that arrow, as Ms. Toniado is going to demonstrate for us, over here on the right hand side you will see chapters that show up. Now these chapters in the headings will correlate to all of the agenda items in our published

113agenda. So when you are to click on any of those, so Ms. Toniado is going to go ahead and click on the budget process and of course we get a YouTube ad. Right after that ad, we're going to go ahead and jump right to the budget process part of that video. So from now on, we went ahead and did that already for the retreat recordings that we have, but from now on, every single school board meeting will have this feature where people can jump directly to that item in the recording. Thank you very much, Ms. Toniano. You did a fabulous job there. So we've already made some significant process on AI-generated meeting summaries that I think you all are going to be very interested in. Everyone's going to find those to be very useful. We

114will have that available for you very soon. And finally, I briefed you on some of our new streaming capabilities. So we can stream on a variety of platforms. We recommend starting with YouTube. We can change or add to that as the board would like in the future. Aside from staff time, there are no costs associated with streaming. We've received feedback that the board would be interested. Ms. Toniato, if you can help me out, go to the next slide, please. That the board would be interested in streaming the Policy Review Committee, the Building Utilization Committee, the Audit and Legislative Committees. Staff are prepared to proceed with the next committee meeting. As a reminder, we can only broadcast committee meetings hosted here in the board chambers and in the Einstein Lab. And with that, I am ready

115to answer any questions that you might have with regards to anything that I've provided here or to prepare yourselves for the vote this evening. Ms. Rogers. Thank you a million times for that ability for people to go back and look for exactly what they need. I cannot thank you enough, and I know that the public will be very happy to be able to go back and look at something we have said or decided on and not have to look through hours and hours of video, especially sometimes when you're here very, very late. So excellent job. I cannot thank you enough, and I just appreciate so much what you're doing. I'm really pleased. Excellent. Appreciate it. Mr. Callen. Although I'm known for my technological skills and should probably know the answer to this question and not

116even need to frame it, but nonetheless, on page two, you make reference to the fact that we at BBCPS will receive 50% of revenues. Help me understand, where's the money come from? So there are fees that are provided to us, revenues that are provided to us from the cable companies for the information for the channels and the viewing of those channels. Now, I am going to lean on Ms. Lanetti here to talk a little bit more about that because traditionally or prior to this agreement, The city received 100% of those revenues, and so that has never been part of a revenue stream for the school division. As we move into Phase 3, which again begins next year, that will change, and now we will receive 50% of those revenues as a result of this new

117agreement. Ms. Lunetti, do you have any ideas on the amounts that we might be getting? Don't get excited. They're not a lot. They're not. Under the cable agreement, which is for Virginia Beach, the city of Virginia Beach has been renegotiating the COTS cable franchise that they have. There's something called a PEG fee, which you have a cable bill. You will see it, P-E-G, Public Educational Government Services. This is what gives you your channels. It also has a tax rate that goes on the cable fee. I want to say $100,000. It's not as much as you think it is. What they're finding is there are fewer and fewer people are using cable, but there's still a portion of the population, and I hate to say this, but there tend to be our older citizens are using

118this. They're anticipating this will, as people fail to use the cable. use streaming and not use cable, these fees are going to go down. So one of the things they're looking at is negotiating, and this was something that their city negotiates. We don't participate in this, but the city handles this. They're working to see if they get a flat amount they will get as part of the cable franchise as opposed to a tax on those cable users. So for the right to be able to have cables installed in the city of Virginia Beach, they're trying to negotiate a fee as opposed to, again, putting it on your cable bill. I want to say it's like $100,000. I'm not sure how much it is right now. What the city and the city actually came to us

119and said, we'd like to split up. We'll give you half of the amount that we're getting out of it. But do recognize that that is going to be going down with time. Okay, so there's really no known entity of an organization, as an example, that would be paying the fees that we would receive, 50% of the revenue thereof, or do you have an example? There's not an organization that's whoever pays for Cox Cable. There's a tax on there that goes on your bill, and they remit that back to the city at the end of the year. That may be changing to a flat rate if the city negotiates the franchise differently. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Chair Weems. Yes, I want to thank you for that nice little option of finding what you want to find

120quickly because 10-hour meetings, and even for us and staff, a lot of times we want to go back and say, what exactly was that conversation? And we give up because it's too hard. So I appreciate that, and I just think this is an excellent idea to bring forth transparency, and I must thank our chair, Kathleen Brown. Probably the new members don't realize this, but Ms. Brown advocated for this very strongly a couple of years ago in governance committee and didn't get much traction or support, so I'm glad that she persevered, and hopefully this board will agree unanimously that transparency and letting our public view all of our meetings is a great thing. So thank you, Chair Brown, and thank you, colleagues, for supporting this, hopefully. So what will be the process later for opening up

121other? So I'm assuming we're doing YouTube. Yes. Like you mentioned in that we can explore other options later, and I think it's probably a good idea to do a little bit at a time. But what would it be like to, you know, what would the process be to add Facebook in later, for example? The board would simply just like to. Request that and we'll go ahead and say your end. Yeah, we'll go much work. Will that be on your end? Yeah, it shouldn't be significant. Okay All right. Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much I appreciate your time on this and I'm sure that the community is going to be very happy to have that table of contents because I can't tell you how many Times people say well what time in the meeting? What's the

122time stamp and? you know so i have to go look it up for them and so this is really great because it'll make it easier for us to direct it to them and then to also be able to locate it so thank you All right, and with that, we are now on to the health insurance discussion. Dr. Robertson, who should we have head that up? And I just wanted us to have the opportunity to have a conversation about this. So Crystal Pate and Linda Mackins are going to take the lead to talk about the process, how we got here, and where we can go from here. Okay. So good evening, Chairwoman Brown, Vice Chair Reams, school board members, Dr. Robertson. So as you know, on August 8th, a letter was sent to employees and retirees

123explaining that due to a significant rise in the cost of our health care plan, we have made the difficult decision to increase employee and retiree health plan premiums back to the same rates in place in 2022. These rates also align with what the City of Virginia Beach employees currently pay for the same plans and have been paying the last two years. This decision is necessary to protect the long-term sustainability of the health plan and ensure a positive health fund balance. We recognize and understand the concern and frustration this causes our employees, and we did not... get to this decision lightly. It affects participants at all levels of our organization. We signaled that rapid increases in our health care claims and pharmaceutical costs, often in double digits, would likely necessitate an employee rate increase. During the

124fiscal year 2024 reversion process back in November, we had asked to use about $10 million out of reversion to put into our health fund, and that was denied by city council. So we had to, in turn, pull that out of our operating budget. We also mentioned probably some reference of that during the five-year forecast around that same period that we were having challenges in that area based on the utilization and the health care claims trend. And then also during the budget development process that you all just participated in, We also mentioned that that was still being a challenge. We had increased contributions into the health care fund from the operating budget, but we likely, and things did not level off, we would have to make that decision to increase employee premiums. As a self-insured employer,

125both the division and employees must share in the cost of paying all health claims to keep the funds solvent. And so, like I mentioned, over the past two years, the division has contributed approximately $19 million in employer funding, approximately $11 million in fiscal year 2025, $8 million in fiscal year 2026, to help offset rising costs in the hope that trends would stabilize. Unfortunately, that has not occurred. So as you know, our budget is built from a finite pool of funding with several competing priorities. Compensation and benefits are two of the most substantial. While pay increases improve an employee's VRS benefit, our benefit package does not. In fiscal year 2025, we budgeted $32 million for compensation increases, and in fiscal year 2026, we budgeted $29 million for compensation increases. Looking ahead, we do anticipate flat revenues

126at the federal, state, and local levels, requiring us to have a careful balancing of competitive salaries and sustainable benefits. So in reviewing options with our third-party consultant, Mercer, we were advised to assume a 9% increase for the remainder of the 2025 plan year, and that's a factor that increases both total cost and health fund drawdown projections. In addition, we are also recommended to assume a 9% increase in 2026 to maintain realistic projections. When Mercer modeled various scenarios at both lower and higher premium levels than what you see in this letter, the most viable approach for maintaining solvency was to revert to the 2022 premium rates and align with the City of Virginia Beach. So going back to the 2022 rates results in estimated financial projections for the health fund balance to be at a deficit

127of $200,000 at the end of calendar year 2026 and a surplus of $9.7 million at the end of fiscal year 2026. It is recommended that we have a reserve balance in the health fund of two months of gross cost, which is projected to be $21.5 million. So while these decisions are never easy, we remain committed to exploring cost-saving strategies and preventive health programs to help reduce expenses. Since 2019, employee premiums have remained unchanged, even as employer contributions steadily increased each year. In 2023, when claim trends were historically low and we did look at a 10-year average, We passed those savings directly to employees, something we were proud to do for two years. We also saw when those rates, those premium rates were dropped, we saw migration, a high level of migration from the high deductible

128plan to the POS plan, so that also increases costs for the division as well. So this evening I am joined by Linda Mackins. She's Director of Consolidated Benefits. She presented with Mercer several months ago, and she's going to provide some additional detail on Mercer's analysis, and then we will help address any questions that you may have. Good evening. As you know, we're... Claims costs are driven by the cost of services and pharmacy and by the utilization of our members. Some of the high cost drivers are pharmacy, which represents greater than 30% of the total claims cost, and that continues to increase due to innovations with biologics and gene therapy. Another high-cost driver is high-cost claimants. This could be driven from cardiac, blood disorders, oncology, autoimmune disease, musculoskeletal. and even things like premature infants. And in

1292024, 18.8% of our total claims was in these high-cost claimants, which is a small number of people. Of course, there's other services, but that just kind of represents the rising increase of things that are almost uncontrollable. As Crystal mentioned, we utilize an expert actuarial services from Mercer. They analyze our claims data. They look at enrollment, trend projections, expected increases, and they project our trend into the future to establish the rates. Mercer survey data that just released in July indicated that 40% of large, which is 5,000 and up employers, and jumbo, which is 20,000 and up employers, will see double-digit increases in 2026. We have experienced double-digit increases in the last three out of four years. That's not because rates actually went down or remained stable, but as Crystal mentioned, it's because the division... absorbed those

130costs and we also drew down our health fund. We did have a healthy health fund balance at one time because during years prior to those double digit increases we had trend that was lower than what was projected and so we developed a healthy health fund balance but expected as Crystal mentioned even with these rates in place that we're developing or providing that will deplete our health fund balance as she mentioned by the end of calendar year 2026 as she mentioned also The rates actually, you know, we're referring back to 2022 because that's the year before they went down and we decreased rates. But they've been in place, I think Crystal mentioned this too, since 2019. Rates have not increased since 2019. We do offer, as was referenced in one of the speakers, a low-cost, high-deductible

131health plan, a consumer-driven health plan. It provides the same covered services, but at different cost share. I myself have been in the high deductible health plan for years. It's a good plan. It's something that people should consider if that's an option for them. For those that feel that this increase may be unsustainable for them if they're in the point of service plan, about 30% of our members are in the consumer-driven health plan. The consumer-driven health plan also, even though it does have a higher deductible, it does offer a health savings account to those that are eligible for it. You can't have other health coverage like TRICARE, for example, to be eligible for a health savings account, but it does provide a $750 contribution by the employer if you're in single coverage and $1,250 for all

132the dependent tiers. So it does help having that health savings account with the deductible. information on that plan because we hope that people start taking a look at their benefit options before open enrollment they can find that information on our website at benefits at the beach comm and they can also contact our office for assistance and so with that Mercer, we continue to, they are projecting now, they are projecting claims cost through the end of 2026 with first quarter data of 2025. So it is a long projection. They provide updated... information on a quarterly basis based upon our claims and expected trends. So we will continue to work with them, as Crystal has mentioned, to continue to provide an affordable, quality health plan for our members. We're happy to answer any questions. If I could

133add just a couple points, because I certainly understand the sticker shot that the information provided to our staff, but I'd like to highlight a couple of things. Over the last two years, the board has put $61 million into compensation. $61 million. $42 million into salary increases and $19 million into keeping our health care costs low for two years. We know through the budget process we do not have an unlimited supply of funds. The board has some really difficult decisions to make. Ms. Pate mentioned that a compensation increase of 4% goes to VRS. An increase of your health insurance costs, although it's out of pocket, if you reduce the health care cost and you used potential money that you could pay people for compensation that goes towards VRS, then their retirement... money doesn't go up. Their

134retirement money stays flat because with X amount of dollars split up between two competing demands, it almost makes more sense to provide funding that's going to serve another benefit down the road through retirement. The other thing that was mentioned is Linda mentioned the July reports from Mercer. We have signaled to the board through conversations, and I recognize that our staff are not paying attention to all those conversations. They have other things to do. But we have signaled there are concerns about the health care costs, things that are outside of our influence. And we were waiting as long as we possibly could before making this decision. One of the speakers tonight talked about transparency. There was no transparency. I would counter that with the decisions that had to be made did not require months of public

135comment. When you only have X amount of dollars to spend, you have to make the best decision that you think is possible. We decided to release that information right now, well in advance of the October time frame where staff are going to have to decide what they want to do about health insurance. We wanted to get it out as soon as possible. Hence, we got it out now, which gives us a couple of months and staff a couple of months to figure out what's the best decision for their family. It's a really difficult spot. I'll tell you, it's a one-year decision. Mercer is speculating potential costs. This board, as part of the next budget process, will have the same dilemma you've had and every board has had and every board will continue to have. How

136do you address compensation needs of staff? That's the point where we want to hear from staff. That's the point we want to collaborate with staff. We want to be transparent with staff. In building the next budget, do you prefer to have lower health care costs and lower compensation salary increases for the available dollars that we have to provide, again, that compensation package to staff? So, again, we recognize the challenge Ms. Pate started out with. This decision impacts everyone who works in Virginia Beach City Public Schools and has health insurance through Virginia Beach City Public Schools, probably up to and including some board members who are taking advantage of the health plan through Virginia Beach City Public Schools. So we're available to answer any questions that you have. But, again, this is previewing another discussion that...

137the board can have as we develop the next budget process. And so at that point, we can answer questions. Mr. Callan? Crystal, might I ask for a copy of your notes? Yes, sir. You got into greater detail than what I was reviewing in preparation for this meeting, and I really would benefit from seeing what you've put together in order to deepen my understanding of the issues that surround this. Same thing for you, Linda, if that's possible. Secondarily, in reference to my request about the fees that were available from the revenue streams that are available, as an example, looking for any and every opportunity to seek out revenue sources that can be used to address the unending list of needs that exist, I guess my question is... Do you know at this point in time from

138all the rhetoric that surrounds the news coming, whether it's from Washington or Richmond or from the lottery system, do you know of any resources that are being indicated might be available that might come our way that could be used to address this issue? Because I think everybody on this board wants to do all that we can to be of help as much as possible, realizing at the same time that there are finite dollars. So do you have any insight at this point in time from the things that you're hearing as to whether or not there are additional resources that may be available for utilization? I would say at this point it's really too early for us. I mean, like I mentioned, it's projected right now that at all three levels, revenue is going to remain

139flat. I think everyone's aware at the federal level. the back and forth that's going on with different revenue sources and how that, and obviously for us, whether that impacts our grant funding at a federal level down the road is still uncertain. I mean, it gets frozen, then it's released, and then we released it, but we don't know if we're going to have it for 27. So we don't know that. We're going to probably see at the state level is because it's a long general assembly session and is a governor election Governor Youngkin will propose a budget in December as he as that office always does but then as the new governor comes in depending on what the outcome of that election is that could change the trajectory of His budget whether in and we have

140no idea what that would be At the local level, they are having the same challenges across the board that the school division is and as well as other entities are where revenue is finite and their costs are increasing and they have competing priorities as well. So that answer doesn't really help you because I think we're just way too early in the process to say that there's any idea of which way these three... funding sources are going to happen. You mentioned the lottery. What the governor released for lottery funds announcement the other day related to fiscal year 2025, which has the year we just finished and are closing and they're auditing. So that money is already was built into fiscal year 2025 budget and it's broken out. Of that $40 million, there's $2.8 to $3 million

141that's related to grants. There's half a million dollars that goes to food services, school nutrition. And then there's some other. It's definitely broken down between different categories within the lottery fund category, and there are local matches related to that. So there's, like, foster care. And then there's, I mean, I'd have to go back and look, but there's just different things, and we have responsibilities related to that. There's an infrastructure per pupil amount that has a little bit of flexibility for us that we received a few years ago. But that money that he's mentioned that was released the other day was for the prior fiscal year. Okay. Thank you. Ms. Rogers? Thanks so much. This has been a tough topic, but I have some comments. I know that, Dr. Robertson, you talked about the amount of

142money we've put into health care and to salaries, but honestly, for our staff, even if we put a billion dollars into their funding and into their salaries and health care costs, and if it leaves them in an upside-down position where they can't afford to live, It's not going to really matter to them. And that's my highest concern. I know you said that, you know, we had some difficult decisions to make. And I don't disagree, but I feel like the decisions that we make are the decisions that are presented to us. And perhaps there is more. We need to look closer at. a more efficient way to run this division to find the dollars we need to do the work we need to do. I think that there's a lot of things that we're doing right

143now that are just not sustainable. As much as I love the way the division is currently run, if we can't afford to do things, we're just going to have to make decisions to not do them. And I hate that, but at the same time, we cannot run our schools without our staff. We literally can't do it. It doesn't matter how many wonderful programs we have. If we don't have staff to run them, we don't have schools. And that's what I'm thinking, is that we need to start having other choices of difficult decisions to make. And while I don't love the idea of making them, financially that's what we have to do. And I am here to do the hard work. So that's just comments on that. I do have questions. Have we done any research

144or comparison with regard to the health care? The health care that's being offered in other divisions. This is a huge, huge part of retention for us. And I know that, you know, we are the biggest division. I totally understand that. But I also think that between us and the city, there's about 20,000 employees that we are covering. But that's a lot of revenue that we're bringing to a company, 20,000 people paying into a system. So it kind of doesn't make sense to me that we're generating a ton of revenue for a health care system by bringing all these employees, and yet we're not able to have our cost as low as some of our other school divisions and city partnerships or whatever they have. Yes, we just completed a request for proposal for our health

145plan and re-awarded to Sentara. So you have to keep in mind that they're not receiving all of the premiums. We are self-insured, so all of the employer contribution and all of the employees' premiums go into the health fund, and we are responsible for paying the weekly claims. So our cost... are Virginia Beach costs. And most of the neighboring divisions, there was a time when we were one of the few that were self-insured because you had to have about 5,000 people. Now, just about all of them are. So all of their costs are related specifically to their population. So this is really a matter of us having more people that are high claims cost, especially, I mean... 18.8% of higher claims in the sick category, as I put it, doesn't seem like a lot, but you

146did say that our prescription costs are much higher. Yeah, in the high-cost claimants, we're talking people that hit one, two million dollar claims. We start tracking them when they're about $200,000, but we have a stop-loss policy that's $600,000. So any individual that has over $600,000 in claims in the plan year is paid by a stop-loss carrier. So we do also have to pay premiums to a stop-loss carrier. So in talking about comparison to other divisions, everyone has different plans. You know, so it's hard, you know, it's hard to do an apples to apples comparison when you're looking at plans. Right. Knowing that we're all self-insured makes more sense now to me because I did not understand. Here's my next question. So I guess my question is going to be along the lines of, well, maybe

147it's not really a question. The money that we had, as it was told to me that we had to spend it. Or like we were required to spend that money when we were covering those costs because we had such an overage, or was that not a requirement? It was not a requirement. So that was just a choice? It was a choice, but we thought we were on track to spend it down to a level that, as Crystal had mentioned, you're expected to keep around two months of total cost in your health fund to handle. you know, excess costs, right? But we were in a trend of a single-digit trend, right? 7%. And we had a 15%, an 11%, over 10% increases three out of the four years. So because of that, we just became deplete.

148The health fund became deplete because we were trying to maintain this. Was this information presented in the middle of this depletion? that we could have perhaps corrected or adjusted course. Like, it seems to me that we made this decision when we thought things were great, but as we see that they're going sideways, was that, I don't know, I wasn't on the board, so I'm asking, like, was that presented that this could possibly happen? Well, part of the issue is, like I mentioned earlier, when they are projecting, they're projecting a year and three quarters in advance of when this plan is going to... You know, they're projecting in May using first quarter data of 2025 to decide what rates are going to be all the way through December 31st of 2026. So there's a, you know,

149you have volatility in your plan. You're going to have years when you're higher than expected. You're going to have years when it's lower than expected. We had multiple years lower than expected. We went through a time with the pandemic where. that was lower than expected because people weren't receiving services. And then we had a year that was very high in double digits. It was the 13 or 15% year. But that was also expected because the return from the pandemic where people were receiving services that they didn't get during the pandemic. Unfortunately, so when they're projecting that far in advance and thinking that that was an anomaly year and then it happened again, that's where it's just difficult. Well, and I'm just going to add that, like I mentioned, when that decision was made, we had

15010 years' worth of data that showed that we were below book of business for trends. Right. We had a very healthy fund balance. Right. So then we had retention and recruitment issues much more than what I think we're seeing right now. And so... Because we had that analysis done and we felt comfortable with the analysis and the amount of data we were looking at, it was never thought that it would turn on a dime as it did. And it happens. Honestly, I think if we experience that trend again, I think we would probably look at things a little differently. It's just difficult when we're trying to do compensation and we're trying to get things and we're sitting on $40 million. Right. And I totally understand that. And that's the dilemma that we kind of had.

151And, again, we thought that we looked at sufficient data and used the... the professional services of a consultant, but things happen. I think, and I don't want to speak for Dr. Robertson, but I think if we get into this position again, we would look at things a little bit differently. Yeah. And is this actuary that we're using, like that's just who we use? We do a request for proposal for health consulting services as well. Yeah, okay. Just asking. All right. I also just wanted to add. too about the high deductible plan. They're very difficult for low income earners. That's my other issue. High deductible plan for someone, my family, that's fine. We have cash available when we need to. Meet the deductible, but when you have a low-income earner who's not able to then afford

152the deductible Then they're just not seeing the doctor by the time that they go They go from a low a problem to a much higher cost one So this is where like I'm concerned for those of our staff that are our low-income earners yet Can't afford anything, but a high deductible plan mister Cummings Yeah, thank you so much for sharing and I think first and foremost, you know I do want to acknowledge the folks who have emailed the board about their personal scenarios and their situations You know talking about how this impacts you and I want you to know that you know I hear your stories and I hear your concerns from single parents who are now going to be seeing increase of, you know, what they thought were getting a raise to now having,

153you know, net negative income from last year to this year. You know, that's difficult, I think, as a board member to hear because we want to do right by our folks. And I know that, you know, everyone up here sitting wants to do right and the people presenting want to do right. And, you know, we do all deeply care about our staff. And so, you know, for me as a board member. I think we need to really challenge ourselves as a board to figure out how do we solve this problem for our folks who work here. I know it's difficult for our people and our staff to see ourselves in number seven. I love the 757. I know we have a great division. I know that we have great people working here, but how do

154we continue to try and do better? So, Dr. Robertson, I hear what you were saying about wanting teacher feedback and listening sessions. I feel like we should have an actionable plan about that. to gather feedback, to learn more from our folks and boots on the ground. And then my question to you all is, so you mentioned $11 million one year and $8 million the other year. And just, I'm trying to understand it, is that just the unexpected cost we had to give? Do we... If we wanted to return our premiums, are we looking for $10 million each year to offset the costs? I'm just trying to understand, what would we need budget-wise in 2026 to go back to where we were before? I'm sorry. I think we would have to look at that. So when

155we have the projections right now at the 2022 rates, there's still quite a drawdown until that fund balance is gone. And when that fund balance is gone and... And going back, employee contributions are only going to go up once a year. So when we make employer contributions, we have a couple of times during the year in which we can make those decisions. And as Linda said, we watch this monthly. We look at an analysis of this health fund, and quarterly Mercer provides us information. So we're watching that if we have to do a mid-year contribution. But with that projection right now, it could, yes, we could be in the upwards of $11 to $15 million on the employer side if we continue down this road. And that would be without really... increasing our fund balance.

156This would be trying to pay the claims that we've been incurring to date. Yeah, Mr. Cummings, if you recall, we mentioned a little while ago that we did seek to use $10 million in the reversion funds. In fact, that was submitted and then rejected by the city because we recognized that if we... put $10 million in the health fund, it would have significantly reduced the increases we were going to have to do. We were going to have to do increases no matter what, but we were looking at much smaller increases. When we lost that $10 million and then we waited until the July report, we had fingers crossed for like three months that it wasn't going to continue on that trend, but it did. And when it did, we were forced into the situation that

157we're in. And you mentioned, Mr. Cummings, that we're going to have to create some type of mechanism to engage with staff on, if in your compensation package, what do you prefer? Because, again, you guys are not going to have unlimited funding. You're just not going to have it. So what do you prefer, a higher? increase to your salary that goes to VRS, or keeping your health insurance costs lower. And then the board can use that information to help guide your decisions. The other thing we can do is we can bring you quarterly reports from Mercer to show you where we are to help you in those decisions because the data is going to drive what you guys have to do. So we can absolutely do that as well. Yeah, I think I would love to

158see, maybe if that's for information or something next week or next meeting, just kind of like a plan around collecting that, you know, a distribution of survey to our staff, to feedback collection, loops, maybe listening sessions. You know, I'd love to hear a strong boots on the ground approach, and I appreciate you. you know, taking charge of that and mentioning that in the beginning. So I'd love to see some action around that. And I personally, I always enjoy quarterly reports as well. And so I'd love to have those also. Okay. So I think we can do maybe a workshop or something in our next meeting, perhaps on what that type of input would look like. And then. That's what I'm hearing. And then I think maybe if we could get some of that information as

159we're going through about those Mercer quarterly reports so that, you know, the board isn't surprised along with the community. I do want to share very briefly before we move on that. I understand it's challenging. I was a little bit shocked by the amount. of increase. You know, the board actually saw it. actually around the same time as it went out to our employees. And this isn't anything that we knew about specifically until we also received that notification. Although I would say that there's been several presentations, health care fund balance, you know, over the years that, you know. The writing appears to have been on the wall, but I don't know that if we realize it was like right hitting us in the head until it did. So I just wanted to share that for the

160community. The other thing I wanted to share is just very quickly personal experience. You know, when I was not on the school board and I do take advantage of the school board insurance. And I know several of my colleagues here do as well. And so we're going to be doing the same premium dance here. But I remember one year my husband's insurance went up $140-something a check. And then I was on his health plan for our family for the higher, the premium of the two plans, you might call it. And, you know, we paid it. I was a little worried about it. And then the next year went up another $200 and something dollars a check. And that was when I said, okay, that's it. I'm doing this, what we call now our CDHP here.

161And I just put the difference away. So it was scary, but that's what I did. And I do appreciate that. At least it was sent out before open enrollment instead of people logging in during open enrollment and finding out. So anyway, we will look to do a workshop on how we're going to get and solicit more input here. So thank you. All right. We don't have any more public comments, so we're going to move on to our consent agenda. On the consent agenda, we have Policy 5-62, Textbook Adoption AP Latin, Pembroke Elementary School HVAC Replacement, Cox High School Cell Tower Agreement. Are there any objections to voting on the consent agenda as presented? Seeing none, I call for a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. Moved by Ms. Dwyer, seconded by Mr. Callan,

162and I call for the vote to approve the consent agenda. Mr. Culpepper, how do you vote on the consent agenda? I vote aye. Thank you, Madam Chair. We have 10 ayes. The motion to pass for the consent agenda. Thank you. We will now vote on the August 12, 2025 personnel administrative appointments. I'll accept a motion to approve as presented, moved by Mr. Cummings, seconded by Ms. Dwyer. Any discussion? Seeing none, I call for the vote to approve the August 12, 2025 personnel report. Mr. Culpepper, how do you vote on the personnel report? I vote aye. Thank you. And Ms. Rogers, how do you vote? Thank you, Madam Chair. We have 10 ayes for the approval of the August 12th personnel report and administrative appointments. Thank you. Dr. Robertson, do you have any administrative appointments? Yes,

163several at that time of year. So first up, we have Denise Fico, who currently is an admin assistant at White Oaks. We're pleased you accepted our recommendation to be the next assistant principal at Diamond Springs Elementary School. Next, we have Skylar Harrison, currently a school counselor at Strawbridge Elementary School. We're pleased you've accepted our recommendation for her to be the next assistant principal at Red Mill Elementary School. Next up, we have Katherine Johnson, the principal of Centercast School District from Illinois, to be the next assistant principal at Strawbridge Elementary School. Next up, we have Kaitlyn Buchholz. formerly an admin assistant at Kempsville Middle School, and she will now be the new assistant principal at Independence Middle School. Next up, we have Diane Rockhill, currently an admin assistant at Green Run High School, to be the

164next assistant principal at Kempsville Middle School. Next up, we have Tori Beck, currently an assistant principal at Kempsville Middle School, to be the next assistant principal at Lansdowne High School. Next, we have Derek Braxton, currently a teacher at Greenbrier Middle School in Chesapeake, but a Kellum grad, to be the next assistant principal of Salem High School. And then finally, Sarah Routzes, currently a teacher at Kempsville High School, to be the next coordinator of business and information technology in the Office of Technical and Career Education. Thank you. Okay, I will now accept a motion to approve the resolution on Jericho Road. Okay, moved by Vice Chair Weems. seconded by Ms. Dwyer. Vice Chair Williams, would you please read the resolution? Yeah, before I read it, I would just like to make a couple comments. I want

165to thank everybody who emailed us the last few weeks from Aragona Village, the residents, and also those who spoke here tonight. I would also like to thank our city council. Folks that represent Districts 9 and 4, Josh Shulman and Dr. Amelia Ross-Hammond for their support. I would like to thank Don Holverson and Lorraine Samko as our Civic League presidents and all the passion that they've had for this project and their perseverance. Lastly, but certainly not least, I would like to thank my colleague, Dr. Alveda Green, for her insight and her... just her passion for this project as well. It's been a great pleasure working with Dr. Green. This has been going on for nine years now, so I'm humbled and I'm very proud to be a part of this, and hopefully it will be unanimous,

166and it will be the first step to make this vision and dream come to fruition. so I enthusiastically move to approve the following resolution. Negotiation for disposition of certain Jericho Road properties. Whereas the school board owns three properties on Jericho Road, and whereas on June 23, 2023, the school board appointed an ad hoc committee to study open space uses for school board property on Jericho Road and charged the ad hoc committee to study and bring back recommendations regarding open space uses for any unneeded school property that is located on Jericho Road. And whereas the ad hoc committee included school board members, city council members, knowledgeable school division and city staff members, and representatives of the Aragona and Pembroke Manor Civic Leagues, whose neighborhoods have long advocated for repurposing of any unneeded school property on Jericho

167Road to address the need for services and facilities in these neighborhoods. And whereas on March 19, 2025, the Ad Hoc Committee submitted its report and recommendations of the Ad Hoc Committee to study open space uses for school board property on Jericho Road. And whereas on July 8, 2025, the school board considered the recommendations of the Ad Hoc Committee, the consensus of the school board is to accept the Ad Hoc Committee's recommendation that the school board transfer an approximately 13.71 acre portion of the school board's property, which is a portion of the former site of the Bayside Sixth Camp. to the City of Virginia Beach for park and passive recreation purposes on terms and conditions which are acceptable to both the school board and the city, including identification of funding for necessary demolition of existing improvements,

168resubdivision work necessary to create a separate parcel, parks and recreation uses for the property which are compatible with the surrounding neighborhoods and the existing school which will remain and other terms and conditions. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the school board authorizes the superintendent or designees and legal counsel for the school board to work with city representatives to negotiate mutually agreeable terms and conditions for the transfer to the city of the portion of the Jericho Roads property which is no longer needed. needed for school purposes. Two, that the proposed terms and conditions for the transfer of such property to the city be presented to the school board at a later date for school board consideration, any necessary public hearing and decision. 3. That a copy of this resolution and the March 19, 2025 report and

169recommendations of the Ad Hoc Committee to study open space uses for school board property on Jericho Road be transmitted to the City Council, the City Clerk, and the City Manager. Adopted by the School Board of the City of Virginia Beach, Virginia this 12th day of August 2025. Ms. Rogers. Thanks so much. I wanted to thank the community members that are here as well as those that are online. We heard you loud and clear and it was really important to me that we made sure that this will be a park for your community for as long as possible for whether This board is here, future boards, future city councils. So I am very pleased to be able to support this measure because we are going to be able to negotiate that for you, and I am

170just thrilled that we can do that for the community. Mr. Cummings. Yeah, thank you. I'll be quick and to the point. I just wanted to put on public record the importance of we are, I intend to vote yes for this land to be utilized for a park. And that is the intention of what we want the land to use for. So in future years to come, if this conversation happens to emerge again, I am voting personally to ensure that this land is utilized for the community for the benefit of... you know, your families, for the future grandkids, kids to ride their bikes, have fun, meet their neighbors, and to have a joyful place just to exist. You know, the land belongs to the people and it belongs to you. And I think it doesn't belong

171to profit. So I'm voting to affirm the use of the park. And I hope that if this video is ever used in the future, that is the intent of my yes. for this support is that we're doing this so that you all have a place for your kids. Dr. Green. Thank you. And like Mrs. Weems, this is my community. Thank you, neighbors, for coming out. I don't live far from the property. I'm one of the neighboring communities to Aragona. And I certainly hope all my colleagues will support this. This is very much needed in our community. Correct, Ms. Weems? I'm very excited. And Samco and Ms. Haverson, Mr. and Mrs. Haverson, Mr. Johnson, I really appreciate you all taking the time coming out, as well as all of the neighbors who have been emailing us,

172as well expressing how much this park will mean to our community. So thank you. Ms. Felton? Thank you, Chair Brown. I just want to let the community know that I'm all about parks, especially for communities as well. Being a former member of the Park and Recreation Commission, this particular park and space had come up several times. And being that we were lack of budget and all, we couldn't go forward with it. But I want to let you know that I'm a yes for this. I have family. Nieces and nephews in this area, this park is much needed. I'm looking forward to something coming up really great, and I hope that we stand by it. I'm like Mr. Cummings, my colleague. I hope this goes on record. I want nothing else there but the park, and

173if anybody decides to zone anything else, if I'm in my grave, I hope I rise up and snatch them. You cannot do that. But I've fought, and I've several. Several city council members reached out to me as well. And I don't know whether it's because I love community so much, but I talk with them extensively. And my concern and my vote is a yes for this project. Mr. Callen. Well, since everybody else has chimed in, I figured it's my turn to do the same thing. And my reason for speaking is personal. I won't be able to go home tonight because my wife was a graduate of Aragona Elementary, and if I don't turn this into a park for her, she's going to be really upset with me. So I'm not voting for you. I'm voting

174for me. Well, I'm really happy that we've gotten to this point and this vote, and I want to thank the ad hoc committee, Dr. Green, Carolyn Weems, our vice chair, and all of the Aragona Civic League members that served on that, as well as staff. And I would be remiss if I didn't thank John Aragona for his very generous gift to this division of this land. We have used it very well. It is my hope that it will continue to be used well. I'm also going to go on the record that I am supporting the transfer of this for open space or a park. And again, that way it's also in the record. I also would like to mention the grandchildren of John Aragona that live here in the area. We have the Censilios, the

175Costellos, and the Brathowers. A couple of those I was delighted to speak to, so I'm happy that we are voting on this. And with that, I call for the votes to approve the resolution read by Carolyn Weems. Regarding Jericho Road. Mr. Culpepper, how do you vote on the resolution? I vote aye. Thank you. Madam Chair, we have ten ayes. The motion did pass. Thank you. All right. We are now on to Bylaw 136. I call for a motion to approve Bylaw 136 as presented. Moved by Ms. Dwyer. Seconded by Mr. Cummings. Any discussion? Seeing none, I call for the vote to approve By-law 136. Mr. Culpepper, how do you vote on By-law 136? Did you say aye? Yes, I voted. Thank you. Madam Chair, we have 10 ayes. The motion to pass for By-law 1-36.

176Thank you. We are now on to video services. I call for a motion to approve the streaming of committee meetings, policy review, building utilization, internal audit, and legislative. Moved by Vice Chair Weems, seconded by Mr. Bowen-Steele. Any discussion? Seeing none, I call for the vote to approve video services as presented. And Mr. Culpepper, how do you vote on the video services? I vote yes. Thank you. And Madam Chair, we have 10 ayes. The motion did pass. Thank you. We are now on to committee, organization, or board reports. Do any board members have anything to report? I'm seeing none. Dr. Robert, oh, I do see some. Dr. Green, there is a delay. Thank you. Tis the season for back to school time. And the events have started. On last Thursday, Dr. Robertson opened up Jump Start,

177which is an annual event for our school division for our homeless students. And in conjunction with AID Now, one of our community partners, along with the Office of Social Work Services. 556 of our homeless students have a jump start to the school year. Ms. Rogers? I guess mine's a little bit more of a request, Dr. Robertson. I know that you had given us the information on the books from last year's book policy, and I've had several requests from people to get that information. Would we be able to have that presented at some point next meeting? I don't know if it's going to be any different than what we gave you in the memo. Okay. Well, again, I just wanted to be presented to the public since it's been publicly done, and I have a lot

178of people who are asking if we're going to get that presentation. So if not, I can just bring the numbers then. It's up to you. We can discuss it in agenda planning. Sure. So, Dr. Robertson, if there's not going to be a presentation that's any different than the memo, I don't know that that would be an agenda item. So what do you mean by bring the numbers? Just present the information in the memo for the public to hear. That's fine. Let's just do it that way. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Bowen-Steele. Well, school is getting ready to start, and it's probably the first time in my life that I was ever looking forward to opening day. But I plan on being out at Windsor Woods opening day, greeting the children as they come, and doing a

179lot of volunteer work this year at different schools. Thank you, and I also just wanted to mention this Saturday August 16th from 12 to 4 p.m. At the convention center. We have the back-to-school care fair We have partnered with 100 community partners and We will be doing free backpacks for the first 4,000 students. There will be other giveaways Haircuts vision strainings school entry physicals Not sports physicals out by the school entrance physicals So if that's something that would benefit you or anyone in the community if you could please put that on your calendar or tell your friends Mr.. Callan Yes, I would just like to compliment. Mr.. Bowen steel You serve as a role model and an example of what good leadership looks like. And as a result of hearing your story, which I didn't

180know was unfolding last year, that you had set a goal to get to every single school. Well, that's called an elbow in my ribs, which is a good thing to happen because that nudges me to do things that I might not otherwise have thought about doing. So I appreciate your example, and it's... helpful for the benefit of this whole team. So thank you. We do not have any more closed session topics. Oh, Ms. Felton? I'm sorry, I thought I hit the right thing. I just want to mention that on August the 14th, we'll be having our summer school, summer graduation. I'm excited. I look forward to it, just attending. I also like to highlight the event leadership conference that Dr. Robinson had, and it was wonderful. bringing all the teachers, all the leaders there, meeting

181and greeting. And with all the topics, they were very explanatory. And I gave all of them a name as they presented. And I called Dr. Robinson the founder and the builder. Dr. Banicki was the strategist. Mr. Delaney was the translator. Dr. Colucci was a clarifier of implementing all things. And Dr. Harris, he was a care collaborator, care continuance of middle schools. It was very invigorating. You should have been there to see how the leaders interact with all that was going on, especially with the opening session. I would encourage my colleagues to attend next time. It was really good. It gave you more than a... A bird's eye view of how this administration prepare our teachers and principals, administrators for the coming year. It was really wonderful. And I want to tell them thank you for

182inviting me and thank you for letting me sit in the audience to participate. All right. Thank you. It is 8.59 p.m. and this meeting is adjourned.