School Board Formal Meeting, June 23, 2026

001For you to sit down. Good evening. My name is Kathleen Brown, chair of the school board, and I call this meeting to order at 6:01 p.m.. Madam clerk, would you please announce the roll? Thank you, Madam Chair. Present in the school board. Chamber or chair? Brown. Vice chair. Weems. Mr.. Bone. Steele. Mr.. Cowan. Mr.. Cummings. Mr.. Culpepper. Mr.. Wire, miss. Felton, doctor green, miss Melnick, and miss Rogers. Thank you. Please join me in a moment of silence, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance as you are able. Pledge allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. This evening, the school board now has the pleasure of recognizing students and staff for their achievements. We thank

002all of you for coming here tonight, and we ask that you just remain a part of the celebration and tell everyone has been recognized. Thank you so much. Our first recognition is for the students who are named part of the Hampton Roads Workforce Top 20 under 20. Well, those students, please come forward. The Hampton Roads Workforce Top 20 under 20 awards are presented by the Hampton Roads Workforce Council and recognize exceptional young leaders across the seven, five, seven region who are making an impact well beyond what is typical for their age. The program highlights students and young professionals who stand out as emerging influencers, demonstrating initiative, leadership and a strong commitment to improving their workplaces and communities. Nominees are evaluated based on excellence in areas such as workforce leadership, entrepreneurship, and community service. Virginia Beach

003City Public Schools has five nominees from three high schools. First up, we got Audrey. Whitley is a student who has pursued and achieved her associate's degree in business administration from Tidewater Community College, alongside her diploma from the Entrepreneurship and Business Academy at high school. She logs countless hours of volunteer work with community organizations. She has worked part time positions within the community. Audrey led the high school volleyball team as a captain this past year. She will continue her education at James Madison University in the fall. Next we have Aiden. Dayton has been actively involved in high school since ninth grade. He has served as an officer in the Deck of Student Marketing Organization, representing the Entrepreneurship and Business Academy at the high school. He has served on the City Council Advisory Commission. He also attended

004the most master classes of any student while enrolled in the IBA at Chemical High School, and had an internship working with the Van Gogh Bistro. Aidan will attend James Madison University in the fall. Kyle Morton, a rising junior at the Tall Wood High School Go Lions, earned from the top 20 under 20 award from the Hampton Roads Workforce Council for his leadership skills and determination to reach his goals in photography, school, fashion and the arts. Kyler started his own photography business while also doing modeling work in the local area. He participated in a youth workforce panel at Old Dominion University and one Pitch competition for his business. Let's give him a lot of pause. Eric Pankey graduated with a stellar 4.26 GPA from the governor Stem Academy at Lansdowne High School. While most high school

005students are simply looking towards the future, this Lansdowne Eagle is already engineering it. Eric is a certified designer, executive board leader and a real world aerial space research Wow researcher with NASA. But Eric's true legacy is impact. Dedicating hundreds of hours to mentoring youth robotics teams and serving the community. Okay. He's going to the moon. Connor Smith of the governor Stem Academy at Lansdowne High School seamlessly bridges global digital leadership, with local civic action. Selected as one of the only 20 teens worldwide for the global Roblox Civility Council. Okay! Connor also serves on the Beaches and Waterways Advisory Commission, a regional speech champion, international decal qualifier and dedicated Special Olympics coach. This AP scholar with distinction perfectly embodies the rotary, the rotary ideal of service above self. Congratulations students, we are so proud of you.

006Our next recognition is for Virginia High School League Class six triple jump champion and outdoor track. Please welcome Kyle Matthews of Lansdowne High School. The Eagles in the house. As a town high school sophomore track and field standout. Kyle quickly established himself as one of the premium premier jumpers in the nation at the capturing the class six state championship in the triple jump with a remarkable I'm reading, still with a remarkable leap. Not ten feet but 50ft six inches. His championship formats not only secure the state title, but also placed him among the top ranked high school triple jumpers in the country as only a sophomore, only a sophomore. His accomplishments have already begun drawing attention on the national stage of coaches and recognizing his tremendous potential. His dedication to training and commitment to excellence

007have made him a standout representative of Land Town High School. Congratulations. We are so very proud of you. Give it up for Kyle. Give it up. Our next recognitions are for individual outdoor track champions from Kellam High School. Will those athletes and their coaches please come forward? Will now have a representative from Kellam High School. Introduce us to those students. Hi, I'm Amy Pratt. I'm the student activities coordinator at Kellam, and it's my honor to be here to help recognize our fantastic track athletes. We are first recognizing the VHSL class five Outdoor Track and Field four by 800 Relay Champions. This team is comprised of Evie Constantino, Kate Spain, Scarlett Johnson, and Miriam Gauteng. This relay team helped the girls track team placed third at the outdoors meet when third place in the indoor meet

008and when third place finish at the vessel's state cross country meet last fall. This group also helped Kellam track capture both region championships in indoor and outdoor track, as well as cross country this year. This team also broke the indoor state record for the four by eight as well. In addition to all the above, Miriam is also the 2026 Outdoor Track State champion in the one mile race. And lastly, we have Avery Hanlon, who is the 2026 outdoor state pole vault champion with a vault of 12ft, six inches. She broke her own record of 12ft, which made her the 2025 2026 indoor state track pole vault champion. Additionally, Avery is the 2026 state gymnastics bar champion and a key player on the softball team, which also made it to the state semifinals this spring. Avery

009plans to be back next year at this time, after she breaks the state pole vault record of 13.1. Unfortunately, our track coaches were out of town tonight, but we do want to recognize our Nancy Roche and Samantha Baron for all of their hard work with these athletes. Congratulations. Night. We are very proud of you. We will now recognize the class five boys soccer champions. Will the Callum Knights boys soccer champions please come forward? The boys soccer team is the 2026 class five state boys soccer champions. The Knights had a fantastic 21 to 1 season. They are also the region five, a boys soccer champions. This is the second state title for the Callum boys soccer team. Coach Craig Powers will now introduce us to the players and their coaches. Are safe. Abunda, Kevin Ariano, Jace

010Assertion, Rocco Benetti, Brandon Bruckner, Gael Choir, Gil, Devorah Castro, Bra, Wheeler House, Shawn Johnson, Britton Lewis, John Maggio, Colin Murphy, Cole Nyland, Caleb Perry, Brandon Prater, Ethan. Sims, Hayden. Solis, Cameron. Talbot, Jake. Tomac, Finn Turner, Tanner. Warner, Tanner. Wheatley, Aiden Whitman. Coaches. Along with me. Alex. Assertion. Varsity. Lady. Jordan. Phil. Hover. Male. Congratulations to the class five boys soccer champions. Congratulations, Knights. We are proud of you. Coaches. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Not to be outdone. Our next recognition is for the WSL class five girls soccer champions. Please welcome the Kellum Knights. The girls soccer team is the 2026 VH class five state girls soccer champion. The Knights had a stellar 23 and oh season and are also the region five a girl soccer champions. This is the third state championship for girls soccer.

011Coach Mario Hurdle will now introduce us to the team. Thank you. Our state championship team Mackenzie Adalah brilliant. Baylor. Brooklyn, Baylor, Molly Bowden, Allen Brew, Samantha Campbell, Mia Catania, Eva Combs, Sadie Dickerson, Lexi. George, Evelyn Ellen, Caroline Hanssler, Addison hook, Charlotte Johnson, Scarlett Johnson, Kennedy Lim, Sophia. Mitchell, Lola. Normal, Kaylee. Parker, Mason. Ritchie, Gabriella. Stewart, Reagan. Thompson, Isabella Turner, Ellie Valdez, Addison Weeks, and my fellow coaches are Team Cyber, Karen Owen, Cassie Bussard. That's it. Congratulation, Knights. We are proud of you as the WSL class five girls soccer champions. Okay, we are now onto the adoption of the agenda. Are there any modifications to the agenda as presented? Okay. Seeing none, the motion is made by Mr. Cummings, seconded by Miss Dwyer. Any discussion? Miss Rogers? I just wanted to state that I will not

012be voting in favor of the agenda due to action item 15. See? Thank you. Miss Melnick. And I had this conversation with Chair Brown before this point, but I just wanted to make it clear that it would have been nice to have gotten an email from the board member or from the chair of the board about this, and not just find out about it when the agenda is posted. I think it's just leaves board members in an awkward position when constituents call to ask why something has been brought forward again. So just I guess I would consider it professional courtesy that if someone's going to, you know, rescind a vote or want to go through that process, that it just be, you know, just heads up to all our colleagues. That's all. Thank you. Thank

013you. And I also just want to add that this agenda approval did follow the normal processes. And it was posted on Wednesday evening prior to our meeting. So this was out with plenty of notice for the public and the board. All right. With that, I call for the vote to adopt the agenda as presented. Hey, Mister Culpepper, how do you vote? So, Madam Chair, we have eight eyes and three nays. The motion to pass for the adoption of the agenda. My voting board showed up. Madam clerk, my voting board did not show up. But I was going to vote I. Okay, so we do have an I recorded vote for chair Brown. Thank you. We are now on to the superintendent's report and recognitions. Doctor Robertson, we look forward to your report and recognitions. Thank

014you. Good evening, Madam Chairwoman. Members of the board, here are a few items of interest for you and our families at our graduation ceremonies earlier this month, student speakers reflected on how our teachers and staff members prepare them to meet the future with confidence, perseverance, and purpose. Their stories also highlighted the strong sense of connection and support they experienced. Evidence of our commitment to preparing every student to be future ready and equipped for success beyond graduation. Listen to these impressive preliminary statistics about our more than 4500 students who graduated. Nearly 66% of students graduated with honors. More than 21% of students graduated with GPA of 4.0 or higher. That's one out of every five. More than 79% of our graduates will be attending a 2 or 4 year college in the fall. The amount of

015scholarship money accepted by this year's class increased by almost 3%, to $64,382,992, compared to last year. The class of 2026 was offered an astounding $127 million in scholarships, over 10% increase compared to last year. With so much promise ahead, I'm excited to continue advancing our work together and setting an even higher standard of excellence for the class of 2027. Last week, we had the opportunity to recognize and celebrate our newest retirees during a special event hosted by the Department of Human Resources. Joined by family, friends and colleagues, the dedicated employees were honored for their years of service and the meaningful difference they made throughout their careers with Virginia Beach City Public Schools. Our retirees helped create learning environments where students and staff could thrive, fostering a culture of excellence, belonging, and opportunity through their leadership,

016expertise, and care. They played an important role in preparing generations of students to be future ready as they began this new chapter. Vice Chair Carolyn Williams brought greetings and remarks on behalf of the board, thanking them for the lasting impact they have had on our school division and community. We wish them continued success and all that lies ahead. Thank you for leaving a legacy that will continue to inspire future generations. Our Custodian Appreciation Luncheon was held June 18th at Ocean Lakes High School. Several hundred custodians attended the event. They enjoyed lunch and fellowship. Each of them received a foldable seat with back straps, multiple pockets, and an attached cooler to enjoy their summer time when they're free because they're working hard during the summer. Director of custodial and Distributed distribution Services Sam Nix and other

017division leaders spoke to the group and applauded them for their hard work keeping schools safe and clean. And this summer they will be busy stripping and waxing floors and deep cleaning the buildings. Some will be working in our summer schools, and I'm glad we were able to show appreciation to custodians for being a valuable part of the heart and soul of our school communities. Finally, I'd like you and our families to be aware of two important dates coming up. This Thursday, June 25th, the Virginia Education Foundation hosts the Educators Open Tournament and Heritage Golf Club. Times are at 7:30 a.m. and 1 p.m.. The tournament supports grants that help our teachers give students innovative learning experiences, and you can visit for more information. They are looking for some volunteers and afternoon. By the way, on

018August 18th, the Back to School Care Fair returns to the Virginia Beach Convention Center from noon to 4 p.m., along with the usual free backpacks, haircuts, and health screenings, this year's event includes a fashion show and other student performances. Make sure to save the date Saturday, August 15th for this fun event and support of our families. Our students are catching a new wave of learning through a partnership with Park Surf, where they'll build confidence, healthy habits and water safety skills while experiencing thrill of surfing in the next wave Park. Let's watch this two minute video to learn more. The Next Wave program is our partnership with Atlantic Park Surf and Virginia Beach City Public Schools, as partnership was a natural fit with the health and physical education curriculum, not only from a safety aspect and

019also the social emotional growth and all the markers that we meet. As a school division, we started with our middle school curriculum. We felt like that was the most natural fit. So we reached out to Corporate Landing Middle School, Virginia Beach Middle School, Bayside Middle School, and Lynn Haven Achievable Dream Academy. These kids are from. All. Over Virginia Beach. Some of them live within a mile of the beach, but don't really learn to appreciate the ocean like a lot of us do. So we're focusing on swimming and surfing, just the fundamentals. We want to give them the basics of swimming so they're comfortable in the water, and then just run through a quick little lesson on how to paddle, how to stand up right away, and then the opportunity to come back for several weeks

020and continue to work on their their surfing skills and hopefully level up. I'm a surfer myself, so getting out on the pool today and watching the students do this for the first time, it was great to see. With the equipment that we have and the technology of Atlantic Park surf, it's incredible how quickly a kid can learn to surf and progress in surfing. In just a few sessions. I've been trying to raise money to do this alongside my camp at the ocean front for years. People have been great donating money here and there, but to get in here and have Adidas and Pharrell step up immediately to fund this entire program, just made it possible for us to do the stuff that we've been trying to do for years. Almost immediately. One of our priorities

021in Virginia Beach City Public Schools is to capitalize on community partnerships and the partnership with Next Wave and Atlantic Park Surf meets all of our markers. It was a great day out here. We watched students gain confidence and learn how to surf and swim. Amazing day. Yeah, yeah. Applause. Yes, we are grateful for community partnerships that create meaningful, memorable experience that help our students grow both in and outside the classroom and for middle schools. Participated in the next wave now. But as we continue to build on the program, success or goals is to be able to provide this opportunity to as many Virginia Beach City public school students as possible. Before I close my remarks, I do want to recognize someone tonight who's going to be really embarrassed, but it's okay. Jack Freeman is our

022chief operations officer. He's been our chief operations officer for eight years. And prior to coming to us, Jack served the United States Navy as a naval aviator and a Top Gun instructor. And I would like for Jack Freeman to stand so we could give him a pause for his years of service. Culpeper told me to do it. Thank you, Madam Chair. Closing my report. And I do have some recognition. Is there some happy people in the audience? Yes. Let's get to it. So we want to recognize some of our recent appointees, and we'll start with Heidi Coleman, formerly an administrative assistant at Providence Elementary School. And we're pleased to announce she is the assistant principal now at Providence Elementary School, effective July 1st. Congratulations. Thank you, Doctor Robertson. I see you have some guests. I

023have my husband, my daughter Alexis. Sons. Pacey, engage all three schools graduates. My daughter Rowan, who is a rising sophomore at Ocean Lakes Math and Science Academy, Mike Taylor, who is the current principal and soon to be retiree from Providence Elementary School, and Stephanie Marshall, the incoming Providence Elementary principal. Congratulations. Thank you. Next up we have Kayla Heath. Kayla, currently well, was recently an admin assistant and based on SeaTac Elementary School. And now we're pleased that you've approved our recommendation for be the next assistant principal at Lincoln Park Elementary School. Again, in fact, of July 1st. And you have some guests. Thank you, I do I have my son Amari, who will be a second grader at Salem. I have my daughter, Kyra, who graduated from First Colonial 2025. She started her second year at

024tech. I have my partner, Kevin. I have my dad, Jarvis. I have my wonderful work colleague in bestie, Tatiana Roth. I have my newest principal at Lincoln, Jennifer Freeman, and then my other work colleague, Katie Dooley. Congratulations. Next up we have Simone Stallings. She was the title one coordinator of curriculum and intervention in Chesapeake Public Schools. But a former teacher from Virginia Beach City Public Schools who is now rejoining us and will be the next assistant principal at Strawbridge Elementary School. And you have some guests? Yes. Oh, yeah. Good evening. This is Silas. My son, Kinsley Grace is my daughter. She'll be going to College Park Elementary this year. I have my mother here with me. And then my wonderful partner that has opened welcomed me with open arms. Jackie. Sergeant. My principal. Next up

025we have Amani moorman, currently an admin assistant at Beebe Middle. And we're pleased you accepted our recommendation for Imani to be the next assistant principal at Bayside Middle School. Good evening. I'm here with my mother. Who trekked all the way here in. The. Pouring rain from. Lynchburg, Virginia, with my nephew, my work bestie Will. We will work besties out on White Oaks Elementary School, my best friend of 20 years who came here from Richmond, LaTonya. And my best friend here in Virginia Beach, Reuben. Thank you. Congratulations. Next up we have Dorothy Varela, currently admin assistant, Ocean Lakes High School, and we're pleased to accept our recommendation for her to be the next assistant principal at Princess Anne Middle School. I brought my mom, Carrie. She is a Kellum graduate. She wants me to say that

026my my husband, T.J., my former principal doctor Amir from high school, and Andy, who will be my new principal. Congratulations. And then finally, we have Theresa Jordan, a principal accountant in the Office of Business Services who is now the next coordinator of accounting in the Office of Business Services. Congratulations. Thank you. I have with me my brother, Anthony Turner. I have my grandson, Aidan Perkins. He goes to. Oh, yeah. Oh, he's going to ask us me up middle. That's okay. I have my lovely sister and they Turner, my other sister, Serena malone. I have my little niece, Nevada Jenkins. My granddaughter, Azari Perkins. I have my other niece having Jenkins, my daughter, Ashton Perkins, and my son in law, Corey Bethel. Thank you. So, so to all of you, congratulations. We really appreciate you sharing

027these individuals with us. They will be very busy the next year as they acclimate to their new roles, but their work is important. I hope you experienced that when we talked about the superintendents report and all the good things going on, that occurs because of the staff we have. And and now we've got new leaders stepping up. So I'm excited about what the future can hold. You guys enjoy your evening. Thank you. It was right behind us. Okay. We are on to the approval of meeting minutes. And we have two sets tonight. The first one is going to be the June 2nd, 2026 Special Meeting Minutes. Are there any modification to those as presented? Seeing none, the motion is made by Mr. Cummings, seconded by Miss Rogers. Any discussion? Seeing none, I call for the

028vote to approve the June 2nd special meeting minutes. And, Mr. Culpepper, how do you vote on the minutes you're standing? Okay, so, Madam Chair, we have ten eyes and one abstention. So the motion to pass for the approval of the June 2nd meet. Special meeting minutes. Thank you. We are now on to the June 8th, 2026 regular meeting minutes. Are there any modifications to the June 8th meeting? Minutes as presented. Seeing none moved by Doctor Green, seconded by Mr. Cummings. Any discussion? Seeing none, I call for the votes to approve the June 8th meeting. Minutes as presented. So, Madam Chair, we have 11 eyes. The motion to pass for the approval of the June 8th regular meeting minutes. Miss, what is the rule on voting on meeting minutes when you special meeting minutes when you

029are not present? If you could say that you want watched it or read somehow, watch the meeting, review the minutes and you believe they are accurate. You could vote on it, but you would have to make that designation. You don't have a specific rule as to whether you have to abstain or not, but generally, if you don't have any knowledge of what the means of correct, you probably should not vote on them. Okay, so Miss Melnick just mentioned that our June 2nd meeting was a closed meeting. And so with somebody be able to vote on those minutes, they were not present. If they were not present at all during them or they were. Some people were partial. During the meeting. If they were not present at all during the meeting, then there probably would be

030no way for them to verify the accuracy. If they were present part at the time and left, they might be able to. Okay. All right. So I think there may may have been a potential error. So can we vote on that one again. Yeah. Just make a motion be considered. Redo the vote. All right I guess I will make the motion to reconsider the. June 2nd special meeting minutes. Is there a second on my motion to reconsider? The motion to reopen? That vote was made by myself. And then there's a second by Miss Rogers. Okay. Is there any further discussion? Seeing none, I call for the vote on the June 2nd special meeting minutes. So how do you vote? So that was the first for me. Okay. Okay, so, Madam Chair, we have nine eyes

031and one abstention. So the motion did pass to reconsider the approval of the June 2nd special meeting minutes. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. We will now move on to public comments, and we will hear public comments on matters relevant to pre-K through 12, public education in Virginia Beach and the business of the school board in 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 persons and chambers to be civil and discussion and decorum. Whatever views you wish to express, the school board wants to hear from you and to ensure that all

032viewpoints and perspectives are heard. The best way to do this is for all of us to strive for civility and respect. Madam clerk, would you please introduce the first speak? Thank you, Madam Chair. Our first speaker is Laura Beth Lorber, Amy Riley, and then Amanda markham. Hold on just a second. If you could let them address that microphone. Thank you. Okay. Sorry. Sad and angry. Waking up the first day of summer to see that a common sense compromise was on the chopping block. Sad that the more I hear from some on the board, the more I understand how little some of them may know about the decisions that are they're making for our children, and about how education and what goes on in the classrooms in our district. Angry because our regular school board visitor

033blew off a K teacher trying to show the incredible work of our students to hang out in PE again, angry that a board member can twist the words of a principal to say that there is a school where they don't use Chromebooks and technology in their classroom at all, easily disproven by use data usage. My guess is that what was said was that they use technology sparingly and only for the purposeful activities that enhance lessons, but we already know that because the data about Chromebook use shows that they are only used 20 to 30 minutes a day in the K one class. But of course, those things didn't fit the agenda. Sad, because the students who this policy will hurt the most or are already at risk students. In the end, it boils down to

034an equity issue 20 years of running after school programs for students in hotels at my school, I see firsthand how not having access to the technology can put them at an even further disadvantage to students who have computers, iPads, and other technologies at home. We mentioned L, so of course, the responses to add them to the adaptive technology like students with IEPs and 500 for this is not the same thing as having the use in the classroom that allows for building comfort with their use, so that when they are asked to use the technology to take a test to show their growth, they don't have another thing to be anxious about and it's not the technology holding them back. Sad. We are so hastily making decisions that have real consequences for students, and not just

035for those of you trying to get reelected. No technology in the classroom will make it almost impossible to complete the state research and computer science objectives. These are state objectives and cannot be ignored. Of course, Doctor Robertson was asked if, given the task of redoing the curriculum, could they have it ready? How do we expect him to answer this to the people who the next week are going to do his performance review? But more importantly, we as educators have been conditioned to not say no, to not say that we can't because we're in it for the kids. And if you choose to ignore the teacher and some the teachers and some parents and get rid of technology, we will make it work because it's what we do. We always do what's best with what we

036are given. But just because we can doesn't mean that we should. It doesn't mean it will be what's best for our students. And we're telling you that it's not sad because we all know that. Screen time for our children. And let's be honest, all of us is a huge problem. But instead of using common sense and moderation, we are throwing it all out. Just like anything in life. It's about moderation. The diets that fail are the ones that are so restrictive they aren't sustainable. Our students school day is like a diet. They need a little bit of everything to be balanced and prepared for the future. The data has shown that technology is a very small portion of their day, and I would guess that's why we don't have parents lined up out the door

037like we have had for other issues that are actually important to them. It has been said that we have to listen to teachers, but also the parents. Well, I'm here to tell you I am both of those. And as a teacher and a parent, I'm asking that you not rescind the previous vote unless it is to send back the whole thing to the drawing board. That is time. Our next speaker is Amy Riley, then Amanda markham, then Cathy Hendrickson. Good evening once again. My name is Amy Riley, and I am the librarian at cook, former pre-K and K classroom teacher, 30 years total. I am also a parent of two high schoolers at FC and Cox. I came back again tonight to express my disappointment and frustration with the motion that my colleague just spoke

038about. My first thought was was that this is the same way some board members snuck in the amendment, the says librarians to evaluate our entire collection last year, despite it being voted down the first time, it seems like they wait until the end of the year and into the summer to pass items on their personal agenda. When school is ending and there are less eyes on the board meetings. And that mandate, despite what Doctor Robertson said, greatly impacted our library instruction time. And only one book was pulled from elementary collections, which was the Bible literally last year. I only taught half of the time I would normally teach. I just didn't understand why educational and proper use of a book is so upsetting to some of this board. All we're trying to do is set

039up our kids for success by using a gradual release model of kids becoming comfortable with the devices, learn how to access information, use it for feedback, and sometimes be creative and show what they have learned. That's it. Additionally, we are trying to teach state research and computer Sol objectives at start and lower grades and build up to more complex concepts as they go up. You can't just hand them a Chromebook in second grade for the first time, and expect them to understand and succeed using them without prior knowledge. Also, taking Chromebooks out limits our ability to provide equitable instruction for at risk units in English language learners. It gives you students access to resources, excuse me and keep them from slipping through the cracks without being singled out. Currently, this change is going to cost

040your schools, staff, and budget time and money no matter what anyone in upper admin tells you, you cannot build a plane while flying it and expect good results. There is not enough time to train staff, especially since teachers and specialists who need to be trained don't work in the summer and come up with replacement activities for students that are engaging and provide individualized feedback. This is another example of a policy being pushed through without thinking about all the downstream consequences, how it will affect the boots on the ground teachers and specialists who will have to drastically change how they teach next year. Technology. Technology doesn't replace the teacher, but it does scale our impact. As Melnyk stated last meeting, we are one of the premier school systems in the state, and if we keep going

041down this road of eliminating technology, we're going to be falling behind and preparing our students. All this policy is done is to create another issue that does not exist in the schools. The issue is one that exists outside of our schools and should be left to the parents to manage their children's recreational screen time. Thank you. Our next speaker is Amanda markham, Cathy Hendrickson, and then Michael Linker. Good evening. I am here tonight as a 20 year educator in Virginia Beach to voice my profound disappointment regarding the sudden reversal on policy. 618 what was understood to be a fair compromise at the June 8th meeting, passing clearly with A74 vote, is now being abruptly dismantled. To have a member who voted in favor of the substitute motion suddenly moved to resend at less than two

042weeks later, undermines the stability of this board's legislative process. Reopening a settled policy simply because a minority faction was dissatisfied sets a troubling precedent for governance. Furthermore, the justification that a member did not understand the vote after hours of public comment and extensive board debate, is deeply concerning. As elected officials, the community expects and relies on the board to fully comprehend the measures they vote on, using a lack of clarity as an excuse to undo a Democratic vote compromises the public's trust in your decision making. Additionally, the timing of this motion is highly concerning. Introducing the change immediately after the school year concludes, when educators are transitioning into their summer break gives the distinct impression of trying to bypass public scrutiny. Teachers are paying attention, and this approach damages the trust between this board and

043the staff you employ. We frequently here, board members state that they want to listen to teachers and support student success. However, actions speak louder than words, disregarding a compromise that prepares our K-1 students to be future ready contradicts those stated goals. Decision makers who have never served in a public school classroom must rely on the expertise who have. When the input of professional educators is ignored, our students pay the price. Political agendas have no place in policies governing classroom instruction. I urge this board to pause, step back from this hasty vote, and properly evaluate policy. 618 let us look at the evidence. First. Consult the experts. Utilize the first hand knowledge of our current K1 classroom teachers. Second, gather the data. Conduct targeted case studies within our division over the upcoming school year. Visit K1

044classrooms frequently to see how technology is being used properly. Third, make informed decisions based our technology policies on educational outcomes, not political pressure. Finally, this is a matter of equity. Our classrooms house a diverse population of learners. For some students, school is the only place where they have access to reliable technology and guided digital mentorship. By providing technology access in K1, we level the playing field from day one, ensuring every child in Virginia Beach has the same opportunity to become a confident, capable digital citizen. Please reflect on whether this emotion or this motion truly serves the best interest of our students and teachers, or merely serves a political objective. I urge the board to uphold the original vote. Respect the legislative process and maintain the compromise reached on June 8th. Thank you. Our next speaker

045is Cathy Hendrickson. Michael Edinger and then Melissa luxon. Good evening. Yes, my name is Cathy Hendrickson. I'm a teacher here in Virginia Beach at Montessori Children's House, where a small school serving preschool through grade five. I'm here to alert you to a policy being implemented by the CPS Gifted Testing Office. This policy has severely affected one of my graduating students, Coleman Edinger. In a moment, I believe you'll be hearing the full details from Coleman Stad. But the very short story is that Coleman applied for sixth grade admission to Old Donation School, and he was accepted. He's one of the most profoundly gifted students I've had the pleasure of teaching, and I was very happy for him when he received his acceptance. He needs to be at odds. Unfortunately, due to a minor clerical error with

046his enrollment forms, the gifted office informed Coleman's parents that their policy was to count the error as if his parents had declined the spot, and the gifted office unilaterally took away Coleman seat at odds and gave it to another child. His parents were not given any communication that there was a problem. We're not given any opportunity to fix the error, just informed that Coleman had lost his seat due to this policy. Coleman is a profoundly gift to child, an extremely high achiever and a wonderful student who would be a benefit to any classroom. I'm devastated to see him lose this opportunity, and I strongly urge the board to take action. Please overturn this decision so that he is enrolled in odds for the upcoming school year. Furthermore, in addition to being a Stem teacher at

047my school, I'm also a part time administrator. I write admission and enrollment policies, and I review the enrollment applications for compliance with our state regulations. About 40% of the enrollment forms that we receive require some follow up action due to incomplete or obviously incorrect information. This is normal and expected. Every person in this room has made a clerical error at some point, but the families with the most enrollment form errors are those who do not speak English at home. Families with insecure housing. Military families coping with a deployment, parents working multiple jobs, those with special needs in the family, etc. that means that the gifted testing office is almost certainly punishing students from these families by taking away the spots the students have earned at odds. A policy with a disparate impact on the most

048vulnerable families. It also punishes students whose parents made one simple human error, or those who had one email message go to their spam folder. As a parent of a CPS student myself, I still occasionally find school emails in a junk folder. This policy has unconscionable effects that are completely predictable. It directly contradicts the stated goals of the Local Plan for the gifted. If this policy continues, it will be a major problem for VPC and our community. I wanted to alert you now so that you can take action for Coleman and for all of the students. Thank you. Our next speaker is Michael Edinger. Melissa luxon and then Candy Mason. Hello. Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to speak. My name is Michael Linker and I'm here regarding my son, Coleman Ettlinger. As Miss

049Kathy said in his acceptance old donation school for the upcoming 2026 2027 school year as an incoming sixth grader. First, I want to express my sincere appreciation that Coleman was accepted. It means a great deal to our family. He's a highly gifted, disciplined and motivated student, and attending ODS has been a goal he has worked towards for years. He is ready for this opportunity and we very much want him to attend all donations school this coming school year. I'm here today because that opportunity was lost, not because we declined it, but because of a breakdown of communication and processes by Virginia Beach City Public Schools. We received the acceptance email on March 23rd with a deadline of March 27th. We took immediate action and submitted one of the two required forms his elective selections, which

050clearly demonstrates our intent to enroll Coleman. Unfortunately, we did not complete the consent form within that four day window. That was my mistake and I take full responsibility for that. However, I respectfully ask that you consider two important points. First, the timeline a four day window to complete enrollment steps for something that significantly very little margin for error. Families are balancing work, children, and unforeseen life events. A process of this importance would allow for reasonable human error. Second, communication after we submit it, one of the two required forms demonstrating clear intent to move forward. There was no additional outreach or indication that Coleman Seat was at risk. The only follow up we received came more than a month later, on April 29th, stating that they received a month later on April 29th, stating that they

051received our elective forms, but because we hadn't submitted the consent form, they decided that we had declined his spot. We did not decline this opportunity. Our actions showed that we intended to accept it. I am not asking for special treatment. I am asking for reasonable reconsideration based on demonstrated intent and a process that did not include safeguards against an honest mistake. I also respectfully ask that you honor your vision statement of ensuring every student is achieving at their maximum potential, and move forward with the enrollment process that began in March. Coleman has earned this opportunity and we want him enrolled at older school this coming year as a sixth grade student. I respectfully ask that you reconsider this enrollment for the 2026 2027 school year and explore any possible path to make that happen. Thank

052you for your time, your service, and your consideration. Since I have 50s, that was my speech that I put together. My son is extremely intelligent. He aced every single test that you guys wanted him to take. Every single test. I was in direct communication with the people in the gifted program. I was super excited every single chance I got. In the last three months, I have suffered so many different, just issues in general. And I'm not trying to be this kind of way, but I have 30s so I just want to explain something. These emails and the things like that, they get lost. I'm usually a lot more diligent than this, and I do not want my son's opportunity to be at odds, to be jeopardized by a simple mistake. It's just one kid. The

053kid's a beast. He's so great. He's so awesome. And he needs to be in odds. He doesn't need to be anywhere. Except he might as well just put this kid in college. He's amazing. I just I have no other way to to express my needs and concerns here. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Next speaker is Melissa Luxon. Candy Mason and then Chris Lewis. Good evening. I will start with acknowledging something that should not be controversial. Most parents want children spending less time staring at screens. Most teachers want students engaged in meaningful learning. Most board members probably want the same thing. Tonight's agenda item isn't really about screen time. It's about whether votes count the motion to policy. 618 passed. A compromise was reached with a member of the majority crossing ideological lines. That's how

054governing bodies work. But apparently, when the outcome isn't what certain members wanted, they want to rescind that vote because a board member said he didn't understand what he was voting for. That's an extraordinary claim because of a school board member cannot understand a substitute motion before casting a vote. Then we have a much larger problem than classroom technology. But I do find the timing of this conversation interesting. For years, this board majority has focused on culture war issues. We've watched endless debate over Dei books, student speech, and manufactured controversies that had very little to do with improving student achievement. Now, suddenly in an election year, we've been told that classroom technology is a crisis that demands immediate action. And just as suddenly a brand new parents group appears in May, they call themselves parents concerned

055about school Technology. The owner of the website is owned by a professional political consultant. You can find his $7,000 in-kind contribution for a below average website to this political action committee on on social media. This group announces plans to endorse candidates and blames Democrats for the problems it claims to be addressing, a group that presents itself as a grassroots parent movement while being tied to one of the region's best known conservative political operatives. Let me be clear. Parents have every right to organize. They have every right to advocate for the policies they support. But parents and voters also have a right to know the difference between a grassroots movement and a political campaign, because those are not the same thing. School board members are elected to provide oversight and direction. You are not curriculum specialist.

056You are not instructional technology specialist. You are not the people who will have to implement these changes in classrooms every day. When the superintendent, instructional staff, and educators tell you that a proposal will create additional burdens on already stretched teachers, require replacement materials, increased costs, and disrupt existing instructional practices. Suddenly, that expertise seems optional. The people who will carry out this work are the teachers and staff who are already being asked to do more with less, and yet those concerns appear to carry less weight than election year messaging. The question before you tonight is not whether parent should have input. Of course they should. The question is why the professional experience of educators is being dismissed when it conflicts with the political narrative. Good governance requires more than slogans, social media campaigns and political branding.

057Our students deserve better than becoming props. And that. Is time strategy. Thank you. Our next speaker is Candy Mason and then Chris Lewis. Hello. I am the parent of Olivia mason. She's a student at Bayside High School. He is an 11th grader. She took an astronomy class with Mr. Quiroz, and I have a concern about her grades. She has an IEP that allows for extended time and to break work up into manageable parts. She was pacing the A, and then the work got more where the worksheets were 8 to 10 pages long, having data entry points from 68 to 324 data entry points. Mr. Kairos did not grade. It was 28 assignments. Mr. Karros did not grade any of the assignments for correctness. There was nothing graded for right or wrong. He only penalized them

058for being submitted late. Every assignment so right or wrong. Instead, Mr. Carris deliberately penalized the IEP. Extended time accommodations on 28 assignments. This late, Olivia was in constant catch up backup log. Mr. Carroll's did not comply with the IEP accommodations. He did not break work up into manageable parts. So the 28 assignments with the grades of zero four Simons zero. Even though she submitted the assignments, nine assignments with the F five assignments with AD3 assignments with AC2 assignments with A, B two assignments, no grades even though she submitted them. And three assignments that were the online activity, which grades of 7100 and another 100. Mr. Carroll's would not enter those grades into the great Book. Mr. Carroll's action resulted in the astronomy grade of a 63 F Mr. Walton, Mr. Gatlin and Mrs. Brown endorsed

059and upheld Mr. Kouros actions. Mr. Wharton would not meet with me. He just upheld the grade, even though I had concerns with the grade needed to be overturned and corrected, along with the IEP accommodations, they did not comply with them. On top of it, suppose having a teacher that gives you a test, and in that test 27 questions. Each of the 27 questions had 44 options. Answer choices. Yes, 44 answer choices for each of the 27 questions. And then the final exam, there was 100 questions. And if the class is about 90 minutes long. She's a read aloud and it's an open book test. How is that really reasonable for someone to spend a couple of seconds per question? I've been trying to get this grade overturned and corrected since January the 28th, when I

060tried to meet with Mr. Carroll's and he refused to meet with me, the principal and, well, the principal wouldn't meet with me. Mr. Gatlin, is this the principal? Pretty much said to teach. Can do not great or grade. Anything that he wants is his classroom where it's the accountability. Both needs to be held accountable. That is time. Thank you. Our next speaker is Chris Lewis. Good evening, Madam Chair. Madam Vice chair, distinguished members of the board and Doctor Robertson. My name is Chris Lewis. It's a pleasure to be here this evening to talk with you. And I would like to take an opportunity to recognize what you've heard here today, which is folks who have come out to say they're not quite sure why it is. We're coming back to revisit Chromebooks again. And what

061I would really like to focus on for a second is, as a board, your role in leadership of this organization. And the reason why I say this is because it's the role of a board to use informed governance in order to make the best decisions that you can make, that are going to benefit both the students are most important customer, but also the staff, the support staff, the teachers, the faculty, etc.. And what you've heard here over the last several weeks is very clear evidence that while, yes, there are concerns that we all have over screen time, I think there are real differences between the data and the actual informed opinions that you have been provided with by experts, and I feel like it's your role to listen to those experts, because as I heard

062somebody here say, you all are not necessarily the instructional experts with a PhD in educational design. Cetera. So it seems like it's on you all to listen to what's being told to you. And I feel like we're not really doing that. And while we're on that subject, I would like to take a moment to say that I, I definitely remember a few weeks ago when Chair Brown specifically asked you, Doctor Robertson, do you support this policy as it was originally written? And I guess all I can say is I was sort of disappointed that your answer was not really to the question, but it was actually to the concept of whether you would support the policy. And I would assume, of course, you would support the policy, but I really would like to hear whether

063you believe it's the right policy to go forward, not just whether you would support it, because I think that is the role of the superintendent, and that's the role of your staff that you hire here to provide the expertise and the informed consent so that the board can make effective decisions. Now, I believe several board members actually even said at the last meeting they didn't think that that particular policy was ready for prime time. I hope that you'll consider that same time. That is time. Thank you very much. Madam Chair. We're going to move on to our online speaker. Miss Kim Mayo. Please unmute. Good evening. I support. Eliminating Chromebooks entirely at the elementary level and screen time limits for older grades. Norfolk Academy doesn't use Chromebooks. Last I heard, my then seven year old

064was stuck on a Chromebook all day in the Gifted Cluster program at Hermitage. Thank you to all driving these positive changes. Gifted education is also on tonight's agenda. I want to restate five key facts. But first, tonight we are seeing yet another ODS admissions controversy. Number one, ODS takes 12 million of the 24 million gifted budget. Excluding transportation, ODS only serves roughly 12% of VB school's gifted population. Number two, ODS has a longer school day equaling 2 to 3 weeks of additional instructional time. At the elementary level, three ODS students receive high school credit world language offerings to their sixth graders not available to gifted students in neighborhood schools. For Vido. Virginia Department of Education identified 23 of 55 VB elementary schools as falling short. The topic was discussed at Virginia Beach Council of Civic

065Organizations and covered by 13 news. Having one gifted school contributes to weaken neighborhood schools in many cases. Number five Newport News School Division is doing a transportation study. Transporting magnet school students is costly. ODS has a much larger population than high school academies. I will FOIA and push this data this big transportation cost out. Please refer to my school board speeches on 12, nine, 25 and five 1226 for more details. There's a good reason most school districts in the US don't have public gifted standalone schools grades two through eight. We're seeing positive reform with Chromebooks and look forward to the same with gifted Ed. We need all school board candidates to fight for kids and families in neighborhood schools. Thank you. Madam Chair. That was our last speaker for this evening. Madam Chair. I do

066think we need a clarification on the vote for the meeting minutes. You voted to reconsider the June 2nd meeting minutes in that pass, but you didn't vote on actual votes. It looks like you combine the reconsider with the motion to reconsider. Sorry. You took the motion to reconsider, but you treated that also as a vote for the June 2nd meeting. It appears that your second vote may have been for the June 8th meeting minutes. So that you made a motion to whether you. Want to reconsider, just reopen the vote. Know that you were the motion was to reconsider. So rather need to add to action, or we need to go back and actually vote on the June 2nd meeting minutes. So just for clarification, what she's saying is, is that we voted on the ability

067to reopen it, but we did not reopen it. We didn't vote on the reopened vote. You had a majority vote to reconsider the motion, but you need to vote on it. So I don't know if that changes how people were voting on it. I think it looks like people were combining the the counters. We'll put that on D. Approve minutes. If that's okay with the board. Is that is that allowed to do it that way. Okay. The words object to I think you just should shoot it down to action. Okay. Thank you. All right. We are in interim financial statements. May 2026. Welcome. Daniel Hopkins, director, Office of Business Services. Good evening. Chair. Brown. Vice chair, Weems. School board members. Doctor. Robertson. As of May, the overall revenue trend remains acceptable. At this point in

068the fiscal year. State revenues. Are still acceptable at this point in the fiscal year, and with. The state. Budget set. We. Will monitor and ensure we receive. All. The funds from the state. Federal revenues are showing a favorable trend at this point in the fiscal year. We have. Received impact aid payments of approximately $15.2 million. Local revenue is acceptable at this point in the fiscal year, we have received 11 months of the transfers from the city. Other sources of revenue are acceptable at this point in the fiscal year. Actually, other sources of revenue are favorable at this point in the fiscal year, they are up about $75,000 from the same time last year. This is mainly due to the decrease in revenue due to the dual settlement and propane bus rebates we received last year,

069and not this year. And also the it was offset by the stop arm enforcement, which is up $940,000 this year. The next graph shows that the sales tax receipts are an acceptable level. Year to date through May, we have received approximately $4.5 million higher than the same time last year. In the last graph shows that the expenditures and coverage trends remains acceptable at this point in the fiscal year. And I'd also like to add and have we just received this. So I thought I'll let you know. We did receive just receive our Certificate of Achievement and Excellence in Financial Reporting for Virginia Beaches Act for or Annual Comprehensive Financial Report. And. And that is all I have for this evening. If you have any questions, I'll be glad to take them. All right. Thank you,

070Mr. Hopkins, and congratulations on that. Do we have any questions? Yes, Miss Melnick. So not a question. But. I'm not disappointed. Shocked? I'm shocked, but I'm not disappointed to see an additional $940,000 in revenue. From the. Stop. Arm cameras. Do people know we have one on our busses? Because, I mean, if I mean, it's dangerous for people to run these stop arms, it's so dangerous. I mean, we'll take the money, but they're on all of our busses, so I don't know who's listening, but we have cameras on all of our busses. But thank you for the next year. $940,000 in revenue to Virginia Beach City Public Schools. I wish we could say we get it from another way, but wow. And what do you remember what the last figure was? I thought the trend was

071going down. Last year. It was going down. We just switched companies last year, and then it started getting up and running this year, where we're using more busses than we did in the past. Okay. All right. Watch yourselves everyone. Miss Felton. Thank you for that report. I do appreciate it. Thank you so much. So when a person received a citation for running a stop on, how long is that information kept into the system, if they were to refute that? When you say kept in the system. Picture the cameras, how long the information, who did they contact in order to refute that? I knew I know they have a whole terabyte of storage and they save a lot. I don't know exactly how long the cameras last, but they issue the citation within 30 days. They

072have 60 days to pay the company. Then after that, the company sends it to the city to collect, and they could take from your state income tax or whatever your the state does, then does the collection process. And my question, I guess I'm asking you if someone want to feel the need to dispute that ticket. Oh yeah, they can go. How long is that information kept in the system from the day that they shoot it, and from the day that they send them the citation. All right. Yes. We'll have high. You wouldn't expect this. I go to circuit court. Okay. I go to circuit court now with our. Virginia Beach police officers to enforce. This. For those appeals. So Mr. Hopkins. Is correct. You can go online with our enforcement officers. We also have kami

073here to talk about it, but that information is readily available and is involved in the ticket citation. They get twice, twice other details. Thank you. And just to piggyback on, I was very shocked at the increase. But but folks out there, it's not just in the neighborhood, it's on Northampton Boulevard. Even if you're on the fourth or fifth lane or on Independence or Virginia Beach Boulevard, you see the yellow bars. Please stop. I just got a call last week because someone who didn't see the bus and was four lanes over, but on video it was very clear. So just a clarification prior to this last year, not all of your busses have you now all have it. So you have quadruple the amount of coverage that's contributing to some of the basic. 250 right. $250

074for the ticket. Yes, I o. Apparently plus court caucus. Okay, okay. Right. Okay. Well thank. You, thank you. We are now on to the Gifted Community Advisory Committee 2526 report. Welcome, doctor. Crystal Wilkerson, director, office of K-12 and Gifted Programs. Good evening. School board chair. Brown, vice chair, Weems school board members. And doctor Robertson. I'm Crystal Wilkerson, director of K-12 and gifted programs, and we're here this evening to present the Gifted Community Advisory Committees annual recommendations. Joining me tonight is the current chair of the GCC is Brittany Horn, along with members of the Gifted Leadership Team. Community advisory committees support school divisions by providing. I'm supposed to be clicking. Sorry. By providing feedback and offering community perspectives. The Gifted Advisory Committee, per Virginia Code, has these key roles which are to review the Local Plan,

075including any revisions, and to provide the administration and school board with an annual report containing feedback related to the implementation of the five year plan for the previous year. VBC engages with the GCC in a variety of meaningful ways beyond its required responsibilities. We value the committee's partnership and community perspective as we collaborate to develop, refine, and strengthen practices that support the success of our gifted learners. Displayed here, you can see just a few of the outcomes from the BBC and GCC partnership throughout this school year. In response to the GCC 2425 recommendations during the 2526 school year, the Office of Gifted Programs partnered with key departments and stakeholders to support the Local Plan evaluation and their advisory work. The partnership between the Office of Gifted Programs and Planning, Innovation and Accountability allowed data to

076be requested, collected and shared with the GCC in alignment with the purpose of the GCC to review the effectiveness of the Local Plan for the education of the gifted. Additionally, in part of the ongoing effort to raise awareness in the community about the gifted programs offered by the Division, representatives from the Office of Gifted Programs participated in the Back to School Care Fair, Advanced Academic Information Night, and Gifted Information Nights held at odds and Virginia Beach Middle School for the gifted, academic, Visual arts, and dance programs. K-12 site visits continued to showcase the amazing work being done in our resource cluster model, where academic opportunities and updates were shared with committee members. At this time, the GCC chair, Mrs. Horne, will present the GCC recommendations for this year. Based on. Discussions held. During this. Year's

077GCC observations and conversations. During the visits and presentations with the GCC. By the Office. Of Gifted Education, GR and parents and community members, I'm presenting the following recommendations on behalf of the GCC. Recommendation one. This recommendation was introduced last year, and the GCC strongly advocated for its continuation based on the significant benefits and successful outcomes achieved through this partnership. In alignment with all six components of the Local Plan, the members would like to continue strengthening our partnerships with the district offices to identify meaningful outcome measures to evaluate the extent to which the Local Plan is implemented with integrity and fidelity. Recommendation two in the area of delivery of services, the GCC recommends continuing to communicate essential responsibilities to administrators aligned with the goals of the Local Plan. While there are occasions when all staff members

078work collaboratively to address school wide needs beyond their assigned responsibilities, this recommendation is intended to ensure that are able to effectively fulfill the essential duties and responsibilities of their role. Recommendation three through the Curriculum and Instruction component, the GCC also recommends continued advocacy for bridging gifted education best practices through collaboration among various stakeholder groups. The Office. Of Gifted Programs has indicated that it will continue to support the GCC recommendation, which aligns with the division's Strategic Action Agenda, by providing structured opportunities for gifted staff to collaborate across schools through learning walks, professional learning and the sharing of effective practices to enhance services for gifted learners. And recommendation for GCap recommends that gifted staffing allocations and funding decisions reflect the varying needs of schools across the division, in alignment with the Local Plan and Doe's expectations for

079equitable access. We should provide the schools with lower referral and identification rates with targeted support, coaching and outreach. Consideration should also be given to schools with unique programing needs, including Renaissance Academy and Spanish and dual language immersion programs. Additional staffing support should be targeted at schools with large populations of identified gifted students to ensure effective service delivery. This is already in place at ten elementary schools with exceptionally large, gifted and enrolled populations, and we want to ensure this effort continues. And finally, continued funding for gifted endorsement and professional learning opportunities is needed to strengthen staff capacity and support high quality gifted services across the division. The Office of Gifted. Programs acknowledges these recommendations. Provided by the. GCC. And we're. So. Thankful for. The time and commitment that. They. Give. To providing our division their voluntary

080support. We would also like to thank. Mrs. Weems. For her support throughout the school year. With our GCSE meetings displayed, here. Are the. Dates for the upcoming school year GCC meetings, which the committee approved at our May 4th, 2026 meeting. All meetings will be held at Plaza Annex in the Professional Development Center from 6 to 8 p.m.. This concludes the recommendations from the Gifted Community Advisory Committee. We look forward to engaging with the school Board and providing additional updates and information regarding gifted programing and services at the School Board Retreat on July 15th. We collectively welcome any questions that you might have at this time. Thank you, Miss Melnick. On recommendation number three, what type of structured collaboration already exists in the division? But we did hear. About learning. Walks where GR were able to

081go to odds and odds. Teachers visited. The neighborhood schools. To. Talk. About teaching strategies and. So forth. And we also have. This year we opened it up so that we allowed our resource cluster teachers to also participate in those so that they could have a benefit from those learning walks as well. Okay. How how often are those? Are those happening often enough. Because we hear about that disconnect. It's often the community often interprets. ODS as a completely different program like completely different curriculum. And so. Yes, those happen throughout the school year and both our fall and spring timelines. And we also have some ODS staff comes and participates with us for professional learning opportunities and vice versa. Okay. And one of my goals when we talked about all of this was to make sure that

082we have at least one student from every school so that it is a true community school. So I really appreciate that, that we have that and that that is a continued recommendation. You know, I do worry about schools with lower rates of referrals. There is a disconnect with parents who might really understand how to do all of this, and parents who just really have no idea. And I remember very well Mr. Tim Sullivan, who was the principal at Betty Williams when I first was elected to school board. I remember him taking me aside and saying, I have students in my school who deserve to go to that building right there. And he pointed to odds and he said, but not all of my parents know how. Not that they don't know how to fill out

083the application, but it just might not be as pretty for somebody who's on their third child at odds. And so that that equity piece for me is, is very, very important. And so I take. Recommendation number four very seriously, prioritizing staffing allocations and funding support to schools that have lower rates of referrals and identification for intellectually gifted, gifted dance and gifted visual art students, because those students do exist and I do not want them to be overlooked or forgotten in any way, shape or form. So, and if the Renaissance Academy, it's very important to me also that this came up earlier today during workshop, that Renaissance Academy is never, ever looked at as the end of the road school. For our students. It is not. It's a placeholder. And so I want to make sure

084that students who are identified, gifted in those schools are actually getting everything that they need and deserve, mostly deserve. And so thank you, especially for number four. I appreciate that very much. Miss Rogers. Thank you so much. Thank you for the presentation. I also have a question on number four. But part C schools with exceptionally large populations of identified gifted students receiving more allocations. What is the criteria for that? Because in my community, we have many parents who have applied to odds and there is simply not enough room for all of the identified students in my community at odds. And it's not that one deserves to be serviced more than another because state requires us to service everyone. So I am concerned and just wondering what is the criteria for some of these schools to

085get an extra allocation for a 1.5, you know, and a half or two versus those that only have one. So for those allocations, those are focused solely at our elementary level, and we have a limited number of 0.2 allocations that we're able to help disseminate amongst some of our heavily populated schools that are servicing a lot of gifted students. We look very, very carefully at not only the number of gifted students that they are servicing, but now they are teaching gifted lessons through K to two. So we look at the number of classrooms that they would have, because that gifted teacher would have to go in and teach lessons to all K-2 classrooms. We look at, you know, how many switch classrooms and we take into account a lot of different data points. And once

086we kind of comb through all of that, we are able to take those top schools where the GRT is servicing the most and allocate those ten allocations to those schools that we currently have. So we have. Allocations is only based on the data of the top. If there is a school that is number 11, that would still benefit from that. We don't have the resources. Is that what you're telling me? We only have currently ten additional point two allocations. So even if school 11 is like one child less than school ten, they I mean seriously I mean I absolutely decir is because again and then my other question because you mentioned this, why doesn't the middle school get the services? I, I'm a parent of a gifted child who is in a cluster and at

087middle school. It was impossible for him to see his gifted teacher with all the other responsibilities that she had, the classes he was taking. He didn't even know her name after three years. And it's not her fault because there are so many identified students at my son's middle school forum at school. I this is where I'm struggling with we, the students who are in middle school odds smaller class sizes, more 1 to 1 attention with the teachers. These middle schools with a lot of Aidid students need the resources to and they're not getting them. And so this is where I why are we not I know we only have ten, but again is there. What can we do to fix that. So again, we continue to monitor every year we ensure that we have we're

088at least able to service those ten classrooms. So we do have staff members for example, like our testing team. When they are not testing, they push out into buildings and help support schools that need additional help. But I am limited to to the resources that that we have. As far as those ten additional allocations. Your question as far as like middle school students, you're right. As students go into middle and high school, they're servicing more and more, but yet they're servicing them in a different way. Yeah. So we're really building those foundational skills for gifted learners at the elementary level. And they're teaching a lot of direct lessons and instruction. We really are trying to build opportunities for extension for students who might be performing 1 or 2 grade levels above, just to make sure

089that they have that, that additional support at the elementary level versus in a high school or even a middle school, things start to level out a little bit as far as their ability to take different courses that meet their needs. With those academic challenges and the middle school schedule this past year, and we're continuing to work to enhance and refine that. But with the new middle school schedule, we're able to use some of that scheduling to service more students during those times. Right. And I guess my concern is, is that I hear what you're saying about middle school students and it having to look a different way because of their schedule. However, if you look at the students who are in sixth and seventh grade at odds, their services are not being interrupted by their

090schedule. They're actually getting then in essence, more services because they're in the building versus our students who are not. And that's where the equity piece is really a concern for me. And my son is going on to high school, but I know his middle school experience that he just had and what it was for him as a gifted student. And so I would like to see that piece be us, really focus on more equity for those students. Thank you. Thank you. Mr.. Thank you. I was actually going to ask a similar question to Miss Rogers, which you partially answered. So I'm a I guess, ask it back to you in a way of this is what I heard. Right. So I think what I kind of heard was we have ODS, which is our premier

091gifted program, and then we have an under-resourced, gifted program everywhere else. That's what it sounds like. You said under-resourced. Under-resourced. Those are your words. Minute ago. I lack the resources. I think it was lack of resource. Yet because we are we are limited with the number of teachers with gifted endorsements. Right. Okay. I'm not trying to put words your mouth, but I'm trying to clarify it because I think that's what I heard. So I guess my question a little bit is, do you guys look at the gifted program as a whole and look at other ways to approach it that might balance that? We're always looking at the gifted program and looking for ways to refine it. I don't know if you recall, two summers ago when we did our retreat roundtables and you all

092had an opportunity to start digging through some of our work, we were showing you some of those newly developed gifted extension lessons in ways in which we're trying to continue to enhance our our cluster program. Our our gifted program in our schools is is really exceptional. Our teachers do an excellent job. I think any teacher can always continue to enhance their work, whether you're at old donation school or you're in the gifted cluster resource model. But our program is is doing a great job and our parents feedback that they are giving to us in totality and in large part is a positive one. So, you know, we're always looking to to make things better and refine. But we have we have a strong program in place. Okay. I don't doubt it. But do you've heard,

093for example, we have a community member who has rung the bell loudly and consistently for a long time about the fact that ODS takes up most of the resources in the gift program to serve a relatively small number of students compared to the program across the city. I feel like nobody wants to say, you know, let's split that program up and do something else. I'm not saying that now, but I really am asking the question whether, you know, when it's when you're in private, you can really discuss these things, or are you willing to look at the program and that kind of detail and go, hey, if we if we did something different on I do remember this discussion we had previously and there were several models thrown out, none of which I've heard reemerge

094in any way, shape or form where we're still going down the cluster and the odds model. What if there were three smaller odds around the city, so that you get a better chance for different parts of the city to participate? Maybe they're bigger than odds on the whole, I don't know. And I'm not asking you to answer right now, but what I really am asking you is we had this discussion while back that you just referenced, and I don't feel like I've heard anything that approaches an imaginative way to solve the problem. You just heard a mother a moment ago saying, no, I'm not happy with what I think. My child is getting out of the gifted program, at least in middle school. So I think there are some shortcomings. I have no doubt what

095you said a moment ago is 100% true that our teachers do a wonderful job, but I think you did also say we're short teachers. I mean, this is just more GR. Does that solve your problem? I'm not sure that we have a problem per se. If you recall, back when we started discussing and had that roundtable discussion, that's when we were building the five year plan. During that time, we explored the opportunity to maybe expand some of our program models and to consider what that might look like. And we talked about cost factors. That was a significant impact. And so speaking back to Doctor Plucker, who was one of our speakers that had come before you all and shared, it's really difficult to stretch and have, you know, this old donation school and some of

096those satellite programs of which you're referencing in your in what you're sharing. So we did explore those opportunities, and we haven't revisited it because at that time we shared this significant impact in cost and the other impacts that would have to be considered. And at this time, I mean, that would be a board decision for you all to make regarding the continuation of older nation versus any other options that would be considered that would be that significant of a change. Okay. I appreciate that this is far down the rabbit hole today. Well, I was just going to say Doctor Wilkerson. That's the perfect response. This discussion was had a couple of years ago with previous board. We developed a five year plan that we are working right now. And in that five year plan, it

097does not include any conversation or any focus. We've been given no direction to look at the current model. Should the board change their mind. We certainly would be open to a change in direction, but at this point in time, we're not we're not spending any time looking at something that two years ago was not endorsed. And so we'll need direction if we're going to we're going to take any other look. That's very appreciate that. Doctor Green. Thank you. And Doctor Wilkerson thank you. And I know the work that goes into that five year plan and honor it it. But I think also a lot of people are aware some of my thoughts with regards to that. In terms of Doctor Robertson, I don't know. And I hear you with the direction from the board, but

098maybe some consideration should be given later on for maybe some type of subcommittee or something to look at, possibly some alternative options. I have seen the center based model that that's done in Fairfax County, as well as some other school divisions that I think will cap that captures more students. Liken it to maybe like how we do some of our academy programs where students from, you know, all over the city have an opportunity to attend. And so maybe down the road, once. We are able as a board to revisit something like that, we can give that some consideration. Thank you. I have a question about the GCC recommendations. So number four, are these in any particular order of importance or are they just sort of listed listed okay. Because it seems to me that it

099would. Be. It could be a little bit useful to kind of have them prioritize so that I mean, I know that we're trying to prioritize all of it, but for example, it would seem to me that D 4d gifted endorsement funding and professional learning opportunities might be. A little bit higher up so that we can accomplish some of those other priorities a little more easily. So has there. Was there any conversation about the levels of each one and how they influence the other ones or. Not really? No. Okay. Just be honest. Okay, I appreciate that. That's fair. But it seems to me that that one would kind of drive the other ones of that correct interpretation. Sure. Okay. Yes. I certainly appreciate your view on that. And can we can share that with the GCSE.

100Will we meet again and give them that feedback. Okay I understand. All right. Thank you. I don't see any other discussion, but I do appreciate all of the work that you guys do. I know it's not always easy and they're hard conversations. And sometimes those conversations are not perfect. And so I, I appreciate it and I appreciate your time volunteering. For that. Thank you. Thank you. We are now on to the Special Education Advisory Committee report. And we welcome Doctor Ronnie Myers, DOB Executive Director, Office of Programs for Exceptional Children. Good evening. School board chair, Brown vice chair, Weems school board members and doctor Robertson. I'm Ronnie Myers, executive director of programs for exceptional children. And I'm here this evening with Megan Ashburn, special Education Advisory Committee chair, to share information and recommendations included in

101our annual report. So every school division is required to have a local, as detailed in the regulations governing Special Education Programs for children with Disabilities in Virginia. The major purpose of is to provide an opportunity for parents of children with disabilities, individuals with disabilities, and representatives from agencies who support students with disabilities to have a voice and how. The division provides services to students with disabilities. Specific functions of Seek include soliciting and receiving public comments to advise the division of needs related to the education of students with disabilities, and to participate in the development of priorities to meet these needs. Reviewing policies, regulations and procedures related to the provision of special education and related services and participating in the review of the divisions. Local education. Special education. Annual plan. This year had a continued focus

102on the solicitation of public comments to develop priorities. In addition, the Committee concentrated its efforts on work related to the Physical Restraint and Seclusion school Board policy to ensure dedicated seclusion rooms are not authorized. In Virginia Beach City Public Schools Chairwoman Brown staff from the Office of Programs for Exceptional Children, OPEC, as well as staff from the Southeastern Cooperative educational Programs see answered questions from committee members during multiple meetings. Ciac is thankful for the collaboration with staff in the school board on this work. This impactful decision directly addressed the critical concerns raised by numerous parents and community members, emphasizing the shared commitment to student well-being. Mrs. Ashburn will now provide recommendations for the 2627. School year. Hi everyone, and I just want to thank all of you for the collaboration this year and for chair,

103Chairwoman Brown for being our liaison this year. Our first recommendation is to continue work on the fiscal restraint and seclusion policy and the regulation to review the actions and data of school divisions in Virginia who fully prohibited the use of seclusion and ensure there is continued training for teachers and administrators on the use of preventative interventions and strategies to reduce and or prevent the need for the use of physical restraint or seclusion. Our second recommendation is to increase professional learning opportunities for all Virginia Beach educators on meeting the academic and social emotional needs of students with disabilities, cultivating a division wide culture of inclusion and shared responsibility for educating students with disabilities is essential to expanding student opportunities and ensuring success. Our third recommendation is to continue to support the work of OPEC and title

104one programs to increase the number of students with disabilities accessing the pre-K program, as aligned to indicate our six preschool environments and the Special Education Performance Report. And that we have we have. Let's see. For an indicator of six a percent of students with IEPs aged 3 to 5 who are enrolled in a preschool program, attending a regular early early childhood program, and received the majority of special education and related services in the regular Early Childhood program. The division performance for the 2425 school year was 15.46%, which is below the benchmark of more than 25.4%, but it is an increase from the division's performance of 9.74% from the previous year. And this is this is a recommendation that is rolled over from last year. These are the dates for our meetings for the 2627 year.

105We meet at the Plaza Annex on Carriage Hill Road at 930 in the morning on on these Mondays. And our meetings are open to the public and we do accept public comments. So OPEC acknowledges the recommendations provided by. And we appreciate their dedication and collaboration and supporting the education of students with disabilities. And this concludes the presentation and we welcome any questions you may have at this time. Okay. Miss Rogers. Thanks so much. For your presentation. I. I guess I had a question on well, I don't know if it's really a question. Just a thought. Have you considered any supports for our staff in a general setting who are have students with disabilities in their classroom and a general setting? I feel like this is where our staff has the most difficulty because we have

106students with disabilities in the general setting, but staff that don't have the training and they struggle with how to best help these students with the best intentions, but without the background. So I don't know if it's training. Supporting whatever it is is something that I think really is where our staff are struggling and looking for help. Yes. And one of the ways that we have worked on that over the last couple of years is working directly with our coaches. So working with our reading and math coaches and making sure that they understand special education services and those strategies and supports that will help students be successful in the general education setting, since they're there in the building to support both special education teachers and general education teachers. So it's really helped to enhance that shared

107collaboration, shared responsibility. Yeah. And supporting them through that. Collaborative effort. Yeah. And I know that like obviously IEPs are written by the special education teacher but implemented in the general education classroom. But sometimes that's where the translation gets lost in the implementation. Like, how do we implement this best in a general setting with other students who maybe do or do not? And I know that a lot of the feedback I've gotten is, is with that piece of implementation. And so I just wanted to give you that information is is I'm getting feedback that we have these students that have these IEPs, and I don't know how to help them or how to implement these things in there. And I don't know where to turn to because the special education teacher is servicing other students while

108I'm, you know, have these students in my classroom, I don't know how to do it. So that's kind of the piece that I wanted to, I guess, share with. You and what. Yeah, I appreciate that because in the second recommendation, it says increased professional learning opportunities for all Virginia Beach City public educators. I signaled this to the board in an email a couple of weeks ago, and I'm going to signal it now going into the next school year, every single staff day will include at least two hours and at most three hours of professional learning every single staff day. Next year, there will not be a single staff day that has no professional learning responsibilities. We have some significant challenges with the performance of our students with disabilities and our students in math, and we

109are going to strategically and purposefully spread out professional learning and provide that to our teachers. And it will be a change from what we've done in the last few years, which is there were certain staff days where there were no responsibilities to teachers in terms of professional development. This year, all staff days will require at least two and no more than three hours of professional development. And I just want to then say as a response to that, that we really need to consider then our calendar, because the teachers do. Having a staff day that's unencumbered allows teachers to do the work that they need to get done, so they are not working at home. That's not where they should be doing report cards. That is not where they should be doing their staff trainings. That

110needs to be done. That isn't like, you know, stuff online. They need time to do their work. And if we're not going to respect them enough to give them the time and say, every staff day has to be encumbered, I don't know how we're going to expect to keep our staff. So I'm just saying that as an aside, because it was brought up, I realize it's not what they do. This, but. I digress. I did want to share one other thing related to providing that professional learning opportunity is we have built in some information related to co-teaching in all of our essential sessions this summer for all teachers. Again, that was something that came up in our cyclical review. Based on the interviews that Vido staff held with variety of staff members. So that is

111where we're also beginning our work and allowing us to embed it in those general education session is getting a bigger audience. Yes, co-teaching is a great model. It's something that I've actually done in New York as co-teaching, where you have the general education teacher and the special education teacher in the room together co-teaching and servicing all the students, whether they are special education or not. And I have seen a lot of success, but that's why I do appreciate that. Thank you. Doctor Green. Thank you, Miss Ashburn. Thank you for serving as the chair. I know that can sometimes be a little contentious. I would also like to say I am happy to see, and we've had conversation that we're going to still continue to work on refining our policies or strategies around restraint in seclusion,

112because we still have a little bit more, I think, to do with that. So so thank. You, thank you. The other piece, Doctor Myers, is all, as always, thank you for your leadership and for our viewing public. So could you tell us, based on your December child, find, how many students fall under the category of Idea. 9209? I knew you would know that number. Thank you. You're welcome. Miss Melnick. And that's up from last year. Yeah, it's about 150. Yeah, we were just under 9000. So can we just go back to our recommendation three? Because I heard some statistics that Miss Ashburn added towards the end, I basically heard it's not exactly as you said it, but I wrote that we're up six percentage points, but we're still ten percentage points under. The benchmark benchmark.

113We sets that. Okay. So how do. We how do we fill in that gap. What do we have to do as a division. So staff in OPEC have been working very closely with staff in title one programs and just educating teachers about the different service models, including the opportunity for students with disabilities to be a part of pre-K four. Obviously, they still have to follow the same process as our general education students, but getting them that opportunity to be in that class and receive their services within that classroom. And so we have itinerant staff now designated at OPEC that are serving students. And some of those pre-K four classes. Sometimes it could be an ex teacher that works Am that goes in there and serves two. But it's really a collaborative effort to make sure

114that we're intentionally working on increasing those opportunities. And increasing that capacity. We're good with that. We can add classrooms. So I mean, right now, again. I know. You know, it depends on the overall numbers of pre-K for okay. So when you think about special education staff, if we have more students with disabilities in pre-K four, it would decrease the number that we would need for XQ self-contained. And then we would have more itinerant because we'd have more students with disabilities and pre-K. Four okay. But early intervention is also key. So okay. And it really helps students as they transition into kindergarten to have that pre-K for. Okay. Yes. Well they. Had an error in their data. So I can't say they met it for 24. 25 okay. Yeah okay. Thank you. Vice chair. Yes. Thank

115you ladies for all the work that you do in this very, very important and complex area of our educational system. I love recommendation to and I just want to thank that just share my thoughts that I think that should be even more expanded. Not just training for educators, but training for everyone in a building who comes in contact with a child, the special needs. And that pretty much includes everybody. Whether you're the cafeteria, you know, bus drivers, just everybody. That's so important for for everybody to know this training. So I'm very excited about number two. And I just hope that we're expanding that to reach all of our employees. Thank you. You're welcome. May also I think that recommendation number two. Is a pretty important one. When I'm out in the community and I speak

116to stakeholders and sometimes teachers, they are also saying that they would like to have some training. And so I know that we have some availability, but maybe they have to pick other stuff over it. So I'm happy to hear that we're going to be working on that. That's really very important to me. And I also want to share for the board that when we were in the meeting that KSF did share that the buildings, since they do not have seclusion rooms, they are not doing seclusion. I don't think that we have the data on that yet, do we? So I do have some data. Seesaw did upload data as on June 10th. So it's through June 10th. I don't know if there be a little bit of change with that last week of school. So

117I can share that. There were 89 incidents of seclusion across the 2526 school year. So when you look at it by month, once it got to February, which February 27th is when we, the school board met and Doctor Robertson said, like the the rooms are no longer available. So March there were zero incidents of seclusion. April there was 1st May. There was in June through June 10th. There was no. So I'm assuming the one obviously wasn't in a designated room, but it still was probably in a room where they were preventing that student from leaving. So they reported it. Okay. Well thank you. I'm glad that you have that data available, because I think it's useful to know how the policy is shaking out. So thank you for everything you do and the city, and

118I'm happy that we now have a full, full slate of people volunteering. So that's good. There was a lot of applicants and so we appreciate all the work you do. Thank you thank you. Okay. We are now on to the Virginia School Board Association renewal dues. We vote on this annually. And so this will also be up for action tonight. Then I'm just going to read the background summary. The Virginia School Boards Association is a private voluntary organization of Virginia public school boards. The VA provides training, publications, resources, access to some legal assistance, access to some services such as policies, superintendent searches, legislative services, conventions and networking, and access to other school board associations nationwide. The School Board has been a member of the Vsba for over 20 years. The annual dues for the Bay

119are determined by a formula set by the VA, and member school boards can add additional services at certain costs. For the fiscal year 2627, the annual dues for the School Board of the City of Virginia Beach are $13,779.73 to include 13,279 73 for dues and 500 for legal assistance. I'll repeat those numbers. It is $13,279.73. That's the dues. And then $500 for legal assistance, totaling 13,779 and $0.73. Member school boards pay separately for attending conferences, training or other services, so this is up for a vote. Many school board members here go to the conferences and the convention, and our clerk goes to the clerk training. And I believe our school board attorney does some attorney or superintendent does some stuff with the VA as well? I imagine. So, Doctor Green. I'm going to open the.

120Thank you. And I hope when the vote comes up that it will be unanimous, because this is the only organization that offers professional development to school boards, as well as supporting staff and and others, such as our school board attorney, our Clark. This is the only way that they can get their professional development every year, and there are many wonderful opportunities as well if you elect to do so. No pun intended for school board members as well to participate in professional development. Miss Rogers, thank you. The very first training that I took through the spa was actually on how to evaluate a superintendent. When you come into this job, this is not a job that you come into understanding what to do. This second, you get on the dais, it is definitely. A. Trial by

121drowning. And if you don't know how to swim, you're not going to be able to do the swimming. So the definitely supports especially new school board members with a ton of training on the job. That is the expectation of the community that they do well. And so I also hope that this is a unanimous vote on top of all of the training that they do provide to us. Obviously, our attorney and our clerk, they are required to do ongoing training. We need to ensure that their ongoing training is supported. Thank you. Okay. Seeing no further discussion, this will be up for action. We are now on to the state budget update and we welcome Crystal Pate Chief Financial Officer. Good evening, Chairwoman Brown, Vice chairwoman Williams, school board members, and Doctor Robertson. Tonight, I will

122provide an update on the recently negotiated state budget and highlight several provisions that will impact our division. While we are still awaiting final action by the governor. We received the state distribution sheets last night, reflecting the funding amounts approved by both the House and Senate yesterday. These distribution sheets allow us to develop a preliminary estimate of the state's budget impact on Virginia Beach City Public Schools, which I will share with you later in the presentation. We are still awaiting the final Virginia Department of Education and calculation tool. So just provide you a little bit of a context or background before I get to the rest of the slides. House and Senate budget conferees reached a budget agreement on Friday evening and released a conference report where they resolved a key issue that had delayed adoption

123of the state budget for several weeks. The primary point of contention centered on data centers and whether they should continue to be exempt from paying sales and use tax. The compromise establishes an energy consumption fee for the biennium only, with annual revenue collections capped at $600 million per year. Both legislative bodies met yesterday and formally adopted the conference report, which has been sent to the to Governor Spanberger for approval. Amendment or line item veto based on the governor's public comments yesterday, we do remain optimistic about a favorable result. The approved conference report includes several significant investments in public education. Most notably, the budget exceeds both the governor's proposed compensation funding and our prior state funding assumptions by providing funding for 4% salary increases in each of the biennium for each year of the biennium. For

124state recognized SOC instructional and support positions. Special education receives one of the largest targeted investments in recent years. While school construction continues to be a major priority through both direct grant funding and new local revenue authority. The budget also provides additional flexible operating dollars and enhanced at risk funding to help divisions address inflationary pressures and increasing student support needs. Final impacts to school divisions will depend on the release of the updated Virginia Department of Education's budget calculation tool, which is the official and definitive source for final funding allocations. The approved conference report provides nearly $2 billion in additional public education funding over the biennium. This includes approximately $438 million for revenge marking and technical updates, along with approximately 1.56 billion for K through 12 and early childhood policy initiatives. In total, the budget provides approximately

125$720 million more in general fund support than the governor's proposed budget. As previously mentioned, the state is funding the 4% salary increases in both fiscal year 2027 and fiscal year 2028 for state recognized SOC instructional and support positions, and as with prior state funded compensation initiatives, divisions that provide salary increases below 4% may receive prorated funding. One of the most significant investments in the approved conference report is Special Education Funding. The budget provides $158.4 million over the biennium to strengthen special education services statewide by increasing the special education add on rates and expanding eligibility under the students with Intensive Needs Application program with a goal of reducing Children's Services Act private day placements. The approved conference report also includes $519 million in school construction grants over the biennium. That is $159 million more than the

126current biennium. In addition, the General Assembly approved legislation authorizing all localities to hold a referendum on an additional 1% local option sales tax dedicated exclusively to school construction and renovation projects if pursued by the city and approved by voters. This new revenue source could provide substantial long term support for future capital needs. The referendum could appear on the ballot as early as the November 2026 election. Based on estimates, the additional 1% sales tax could generate 80 to $90 million annually for Virginia Beach City Public Schools. These revenues could provide a significant funding source for future facility needs, including new capital construction, new school, I'm sorry, including new school construction, major renovations, and other capital improvement projects. It's important to note that the legislation restricts the use of these funds. Revenue generated from the sales tax

127may only be used for new school construction and renovation projects, as well as associated financing costs. The funds cannot be used to retire or pay down previously issued bonds or existing debt obligations. So, just as a reminder, under our six year Capital Improvement program, Virginia Beach City Public Schools has planned to increase annual debt service funding by $6 million per year beginning in fiscal year 20 2728. This phase and approach is intended to build the additional debt capacity within the operating budget, allowing the division to support future capital investments. Under the current plan, annual debt service capacity would increase from approximately $50 million today to approximately $80 million by fiscal year 2031 32, providing the ability to support future debt issuances needed for school construction and renovation projects if approved by voters. Revenues generated through

128this legislation could offset much of this additional debt service needed, and allow the division to accelerate the pace of future school construction. The approved conference report also includes additional investments focused on student support and operational flexibility. At risk funding is increased through a higher at risk add on maximum rate, providing nearly $29 million statewide over the biennium. School breakfast reimbursement rates will also increase from $0.28 to $0.50 per meal, representing an additional statewide investment of $17.8 million. Additionally, the budget operates budget includes $60 million in infrastructure and operations per pupil funding for fiscal year 2027 and additional dedication K through 12. Sales tax revenues resulting from updated revenue forecast and anticipated cannabis tax collections. The approved conference report continues the Commonwealth's focus on early childhood education. The budget provides $137 million to expand child care

129subsidy program slots and includes $25 million for a new private public private child Care Assistant initiative designed to support working families and employers. In addition, the budget provides $1.3 million to support a consultant led redesign of Virginia's K through 12 funding formula. With additional state funding anticipated for Virginia Beach City Public Schools. The administration has identified several priority investments for consideration. These include increasing PayGo funding, replacing expiring all end grant funding initiatives such as high impact tutoring and the Virginia Literacy Act, addressing several human resources priorities, including employee professional development, increased compensation for part time employees, educational allowances for employees earning advanced degrees, additional duty supplements, funding positions that are currently supported through grants such as title six, be positions that will be needed funded through the operating budget. These recommendations are intended to strengthen

130employee recruitment and retention efforts, support instructional programs, and reduce reliance on temporary funding sources. So, based on our preliminary review of the distribution sheets received last night, we estimate state operating revenue could increase for the operating budget over what was approved in the sea on by approximately $13 million. Again, the Virginia Department of Education's budget calculation tool will remain the final source used to determine actual funding amounts. Once the budget is approved and signed by the governor, we will present detailed recommendations regarding any additional funding opportunities to the School Board. For information at the July 14th the Bridge School Board meeting. Board action on these recommendations is anticipated on August 11th and following. School board action and amended budget resolution will be presented to City Council during August or September for consideration. So that concludes

131the budget update presentation. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have. We're going to have. A few. So Miss Melnick. So not be dramatic, although I have won a few Oscars. This. Is. Like, this brings tears to my eyes. Actually, this is like some serious movement in the world of education. And so I just wanted to repeat a couple of going back to the salary increase, the 4% salary increase. I know we're above that, but there was no match for this for anybody in the Commonwealth. There is a match for the state, for the state portion of the city. That's what we were talking. So there is a. Match. For the sock instructional and support positions. But I loved. That. School divisions that that school divisions may receive prorated funding if local salary

132increases are less than 4%. That's that's good to see. I so it sounds like some serious movement here just in the K-12 funding review that they're willing to spend the money to really review. That's been something we've been talking about for years and years, the way we fund public education in the Commonwealth, that that this could really this is going to get some forward momentum and then the opportunity for human resources to be able to have some movement on some some some key, some key priorities for the division, including professional development, part development, part time employee pay rates, educational allowances and advanced degrees, additional duty supplements. Things that we've been talking about for years and things that have always seemed unattainable because there are so much involved in funding education. And it's just it's a

133lot. And so I'm just so happy to see this. I'm just so happy to see this. I don't know what I, what what more I can say other than also, the, the grant funding for All. In. And the other one was the tutoring. Virginia. Yeah. Yes, yes. The tutoring. Excellent, excellent, excellent. And so by June. By 30th June. Yeah. Well, yeah. Well, the governor has the budget now. There was some. I didn't read the whole thing, but today I did see something where she's looking at different line items. So. Okay, so she could do a veto line item. She could just make some changes and send it back. And then that would result in the General Assembly reconvening again to vote on any changes she makes. And so but they still it's promising they'll meet

134the June 30th deadline. Okay. But this was great. This is great. Thank you. Doctor Green. Thank you, Miss Pate. I am very excited. And Doctor Robertson, for some of the direct supports that I see, will come to our students with special ed and then of course miss the numerous discussions we had in a prior life with student support services and at risk students. And Doctor Robertson, you may be able to answer this question you or may not. I know in the past, especially like in our school social workers in psychology, we had a few grant funded positions and I know a few of those we lost earlier this year. So if everything goes according to plan, will we be able to restore based on slide seven, it looks like we may be able to restore

135some of those positions back that were grant funded. That's possible. Yes. Okay. Okay. And then I would imagine about now you all are having the what ifs conversations as to how some of those other services funds can be used to support students as well. Any any you're not going to tell us anything right. Now. Are you? I'm just curious. You don't want to show your hand just yet. So really, these are the these are the four areas that we've good. When when we weren't under pressure, we had the conversation about what are the four areas of priorities based upon conversations with, with the board as well as the needs that we had? The fact that we know pay go is a challenge for us. We knew increasing pay go was was a responsible thing to

136do. We know we we lost all of our all in grant funding. So if we want to continue doing anything in those two areas, we need funds. Yes. And as you, Miss Melnick, notice, it's been a dream to be able to address the HR funding priorities because they were always the bottom of the list. We never got to the bottom of the list. So there's an opportunity here. And then there are some key positions, like you mentioned, that are worthy of a conversation as to whether or not they can move from where they were covered in grants previously to move to the operating budget. Thank you. Miss Rogers. Thank you. I only have I, I, I hope this. Goes through. I don't want to count my chickens before the hatch. However, I just want to

137make a comment about the HR funding priorities with Doctor Trotman. I am this is just a comment. I have no idea what happens, but for the part time pay employee pay rates, I'm assuming that we really need this. I just would caution, I guess, that their pay increases don't make it so that it's better to be part time than full time. Does that make sense that our part time employees part time pay rate isn't surpassing our full time employees full time pay rate so that our full time employees say, well, then why am I here full time? Does that make sense? I don't. And again, I am not coming from anywhere other than that would be just my worry. So that obviously I am absolutely for increasing our employees pay raises. We just want to

138make sure that our full time employees aren't feeling that it's better than what they've got. That's all. But thank you for all of your work for the rest of this. All right, Mr. Cummings. Yeah. Thank you. So I just want to make sure I heard the number correctly. You said a total of 13 and 13 million being added to our budget. Would it be possible just for, from a board perspective, to be provided with a table or something like that on the breakdown of that? Or we can do that. Right now we're working on distribution sheets, so that's a little more difficult to do. So that's why I preface that statement where we were doing a preliminary estimate, because when those I don't want to get in a lot of detail, when they start those

139distribution sheets, they go way back in time. And so it encompasses everything we've already put in C on, plus additional stuff when the tool comes out and we can actually compare the two, we will have detailed line items from the tool. That will probably give you some more information that you're looking for. Okay. Yeah, that's what I was requesting. Just hoped I mean, I shouldn't say this. I don't want to jinx anything. I'm really hoping to have a calc tool by Friday. Okay. But it. And then. Doctor Arvidson, are you looking for any direction from the board specifically or just from the things that we've heard presented to us? So when we come back to you. According to the timeline in July, at that point, the board's going to give direction. We're going to come

140with recommendations. But their recommendations. Yeah, I was just reading through the Special Education Advisory Committee report. And recommendation number three is a lot of you folks know I'm a huge preschool fan. And so that still stood out to me as I mean, I don't know what the funding would be for it or what we would need to do, but I was just reading through that recommendation. I'm not saying it's a positive direction that we need to go in. Well, I imagine that money is probably going to be line item to only use for special education services, which means, yeah, if it's 13 million, let's say 13 million is the number we get. But 1.5 is for special education. We don't get 13, we get 11.5 because 1.5 as. Yeah. So then we need to figure

141out okay what's the best way to spend. Cool. Thank you. Okay. So I. Just I want to ask some clarifying questions. So the 4% increase is for SOC positions. Instructional and support is what the state defines as what they define as instructional and support SOC positions. Which. And we just voted on a bonus. We have a significant number of employees over that. We do that number. So I just think that the community needs to know that. And I don't know what the answer is right now, but I just want to kind of signal my thought process right now is that many people in the community are hearing that the state budget has a 4% increase in. It. And I appreciate all of these priorities, but I am concerned that there's a budget that's going to

142have a 4% increase, and none of these impacts the the. Pay scales. And so I don't know if there's any feasibility to have movement on there with the number that we might have. But again, I don't know what the answer is. I just know that. The way that it looks and the way that it may feel, may not feel very good to our staff. And I'm sure that there are going to be other divisions that use this money for increases. And I think that we are really working to try to be competitive. I'm not sure what number we're in now. I know we were in seventh, but I believe that we were going to be bumped up to fourth for starting teacher pay and second for five, ten and 15 year experience teachers. And so

143I'm happy about that work that we've done. But I also don't want to lose progress in that area. And so I just again, I'm not really sure what the answer is, but I do think that that conversation is one that we as a board are going to need to make sure that we're having. Although I do agree that all of these other items are priorities as well. And I also wish that we had this presentation before the so that they could have heard about the proposed funding for special education. So I will make sure to pass that along at our next committee meeting. Thank you. We are now on to the revenue sharing formula. Okay. Okay. Good evening again, Chairwoman Brown, Vice chairwoman Wade, school board members, and Doctor Robertson. So tonight I will provide

144an update on the proposed revisions to the revenue sharing formula with the city. The purpose of this presentation is to review proposed revisions to the revenue sharing formula agreement between the city and the school division, and discuss the potential impact. These revisions have been the result of collaborative discussion between the city and school staff, as well as legal and board leadership review. To provide some context, the city proposed revisions to the Revenue Sharing Formula language dated May 7th. Following that proposal, city and school staff met on May 28th to review the suggested changes and discuss their implications. After those discussions, school board chair and attorney Leonetti worked together to further review and refine the language. The key takeaway is that the proposed revisions are relatively limited in scope. They primarily focus on aligning health insurance

145premiums, practices between the city and schools, strengthening notification requirements, and extending the current agreement by an additional year. The first major revision again dresses the health insurance premium alignment. Under the proposed language, the city and school division would continue to strive to keep health insurance offerings and premium structure aligned whenever possible. The proposal also establishes a process for situations in which the school board wishes to set premium rates lower than those offered by the city. In those cases, the school board would be required to adopt a resolution outlining the desire to decrease premiums. The reason for requesting lower rates, the proposed premium rates and effective dates, the recommended employer contribution changes, and the funding sources that would support those changes, and a projection of the health insurance fund balance demonstrating long term sustainability. The intent

146of this provision is to promote transparency, ensure fiscal responsibility, and provide confidence that any premium adjustment can be sustained over time. The second major revision is straightforward. The proposal extends the expiration date of the current revenue sharing agreement to June 30th, 2028. This extension provides an additional year of stability under the existing framework, and allows both the City and School Division to continue operating under a familiar and established agreement while planning for future discussions. Overall, this extension supports continuity and predictability in the partnership between the city and schools. And so that concludes this presentation. And again, I'll be happy to answer any questions you have. Before I open the floor, I just want to comment a little bit. It is typically been school board leadership that interacts with city council leadership, and then school staff

147with city staff for the revenue sharing formula. Historically, this request came to us from City Council. To add this to our for us to vote on. So it's under section seven here. And it doesn't say that we we can't. It says that this is our intention. And then it says if you are going to have lower premiums, we need to make sure that we have this information. Initially when this came into my inbox and I looked at it, the suggestion was to add this and keep our revenue sharing formula ending in June 2027. And I spoke with City Council leadership and I said, you know, we're changing a pretty big piece here, but we're not really getting anything in return. So we would like that extra. I would like to bring to the board that

148extra year of stability. So we did negotiate that part. And there was also so far as language adjustments. It said that we would have health insurance in unison and we have differing pay periods. So that was why that annual premium part was in there. So anyway, with that, Mr.. Rogers, thank you. I guess that. My question is why? Simply because the health insurance decisions were made prior to this board. And so I, I feel. Like that those. I'm not exactly sure why now this would be requested. It seems like it's little little silly to do it now after the fact, after all of the decisions that were made had been made. The board that's currently up here, we just dealt with the fallout of the decisions. We didn't make, any of the decisions about the

149misalignment of the premiums. So I'm not exactly sure why it's being requested now. I guess that would be my only my only question and also just comment that it was Mercer who came before us to discuss that our health insurance premiums are affected by the higher risk factors of the city employees, and so we pay a higher amount for our staff when we're there. The same the the risk factor of the jobs of some of our city employees create that higher amount of risk and therefore higher premiums. So again, this feels I don't know, I don't. Love it. I'll just say that. I don't love it. I believe the reason why they've asked for this information obviously, is what has occurred in the past. And they want to make sure that going forward that they

150receive information and they want these items provided to them, and understandably so. I get. That, I. Get that. It just seems the timing is is strange because. It's over. I think it's just because the time to renew the formula and it's just. And then even in the ordinance when they approve the key on in there has the language about being imperative with the city on employee parity is a little subjective, but it's along the same lines as that. And then again with the statement on the city employees, I will tell you that in years past it goes both ways. So it can sometimes because we've had that looked at recently. So sometimes it does, but sometimes it doesn't. Well, I will just say I've had conversations with some city council members, and when I discussed

151the idea of looking into alternatives to ensure that our health insurance is affordable. One response I did get was, that sounds like a you problem and not enough problem, which was kind of a little concerning since we are in the same boat, especially with this language, we are in the same boat. So that would be. My only other ask is that we ensure that the city is aligned with us to find out, figure out how we can make our health insurance more affordable for all city employees. And I will say during our Benefits Executive Committee, we're having really robust discussions with city and school staff regarding alternatives and things that we're looking at and discussing, discussing. So that is happening jointly. I appreciate that. Thank you. Miss Melnick. I just wanted to say I think

152this is fair. I think their request is fair. I just wanted to publicly thank the chair, Chair Brown, for getting this extension to June 2028. That was great. And we. We just need to make sure that we're that we're keeping in contact with our counterparts on city council because and I've said this a hundred times, there's a disconnect not I mean, it's a fair disconnect. They do what they do and we do what we do, and we move in these circles that sometimes just never really the understanding piece doesn't overlap. So the onus is on, on, on us as board members and our counterparts on city council to stay in contact and just have brief conversations with just like, did you know, it costs us this much to do this and at least attempt to

153to make sure that we all are understanding what we're doing it. It is a lot of money. And these these relationships need to be positive and they need to be ongoing. And so I don't have I personally do not have a problem with this. I'm fine. I'm fine with this and I think everything will be fine. Thank you. Thanks for everything. And I do want to reiterate how big of a deal it is to have an extension this long. Ever since I've gotten on the board, we've been punting it next year to next year to next year. And one of the things that stood out when we did the superintendent interview process, and I can't talk about the. Specific candidates for interview, but when we did that interview process, there was several people that had

154needs based budgeting, and there was huge rifts between city council and the school board because they were always arguing over who's priority was more important. We get a significant amount more from our city council to apply to resources for our students and staff, and I want to continue to have that revenue sharing formula and that consistency as long as I can. And so that was why I wanted to make sure that if we were going to vote on this, that we had that extension. So thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Oh. All right. We are now. On to. The consent agenda. We have the superintendent's designee and absence of the superintendent, the superintendent's signature authority payroll deductions, school board committee assignment modifications for term ending June 30th, 2027. And religious exemptions. Are there any objections

155to the school board voting on the consent agenda as presented? Oh, I can't ask. A question. That's just what you guys presented recently. So the committee assignments are what we presented recently and the modifications specifically that we discussed in the meeting to the discipline committee, that it would be as determined. And then the Harbor Hope center was added. That was it. Okay. All right. The motion was made by Miss Dwyer, the seconded by Mr. Bowen Steele. I call for the vote to approve the consent agenda as presented. So, Madam Chair, we have 11 eyes. The motion did pass for the approval of the consent agenda as presented. Okay. Thank you. We are now on to the personnel report and administrative appointments. Do I have a motion to approve move by Miss Dwyer? Do I have

156a second? Second by Mr. Bowen Steele. Any discussion? Seeing none, I call for the votes to approve the personnel report and administrative appointments. So, Madam Chair, we have 11 eyes. The motion to pass for the approval of the personnel report and administrative appointments. Thank you. I call for a motion to approve the VSP. Madam chair. Yes. We do have administrative. Appointments this evening. Yes, it's that time of the year. Yes. That's okay. So we are pleased tonight you've approved our recommendation for peer design. Currently an assistant a point of view elementary school to be the next assistant principal at Hermitage Elementary School. Yes. Congratulations. We're also pleased that you accept our recommendation of Barbara Griffin, curling admin assistant at Newtown Elementary School, to be the next assistant principal at SeaTac Elementary School and Achievable Dream

157Academy. Next, we have Adrian Bracey, currently admin assistant of First Colonial High School. We're pleased to have accepted our recommendation for her to be the next assistant principal at Renaissance Academy. Next we have Kim Nurse Administrative, currently an administrative assistant and also a former teacher of the year for the city to be the next assistant principal at tall and high school. And then finally Lauren Cave doctor Lauren Cave, who retired for city public schools a couple of years ago but couldn't stay away, that she has come back to be a human resource specialist in Department of Human Resources. And that concludes the recommendations. All right. Thank you. All right. Now we are on to the Virginia School Board Association renewal dues. And I call for motion to approve those dues. Motion made by Doctor Green,

158seconded by Miss Rogers. Any further discussion on that matter? Seeing none, I call for the vote to approve the Vsba renewal dues. So, Madam Chair, we have 11 eyes. The motion to pass for the renewal dues. Okay. All right. Please bear with me on this next one. So, Miss Leonetti, am I calling for just the motion to rescind first? No. You voted on the motion to rescind that passed. So now you're just putting the. No. I'm talking about 618. Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm on to d I yet. Yes. You're taking up the motion to rescind the June 8th, 2026 vote on substitute motion to policy. 618. That's the first. But the motion also includes understanding that if you do rescind, you will then go on to vote. If the affirmatively passes the motion

159to rescind, then you go on to the next portion back to the amendment of the policy. 618 that was on the floor. Okay. Thank you. All right. So I'm going to call for the motion to rescind. June 8th, 2026 vote on substitute motion two, policy 618. And if that's rescinded, we will then call for a vote on policy 618, as amended. And there is in your packet here. And all of this is laid out. The yellow highlighting here for the first one was Mr. Cummings substitute motion that was previously approved. And then the second one was the incorporated amendment that was voted on at last, our. Last meeting. Well, we voted to approve the amendment, but we never voted on it, as amended. All right. Motion made by Mr. Culpepper, seconded by Miss Dwyer, miss

160Miller. I have a question. I just don't I. Think. I'm just struggling to. Understand how how this happened. And what language was misunderstood. And as the one teacher brought up the term not ready for prime time. How that was understood by the full board. And then there was a motion made by Mrs. Rogers to send this back to PRC. To make this palpable to our community. This is quite a show, and it's very confusing, not only to me and some of my colleagues, but to the community. And I think. I'm trying to understand how we sent teachers off at the end of the school year with direction that we worked on a compromise, a compromise that got us down to ten Chromebooks in a first grade classroom, which means not every child is going to

161be touching a Chromebook every day. It's definitely the 20 minutes a day. And we heard from teachers. Really explaining what they do with a Chromebook in first grade. We also asked, we also heard from teachers asking us to to really differentiate between recreational screen time usage and the 20 minutes a day they're getting in a first grade classroom. But I think, honestly, two things what has changed, what language has changed that has made this ready for prime time? And. How do we do this to our teachers? When right before school ended, we gave them direction with a 7 to 4 vote, and now we're going to take that back. And so I think perhaps an explanation for somebody on a how has the language changed that has made this ready for prime time. And what

162was not understood, that is now understood with the same exact language. I think that's where I'm really struggling. And there was there was validity in the comments made by a few of these teachers tonight, which is it appears to be a little bit more than I didn't understand, but more than someone's helped them understand. I just need to understand because I don't and I don't. All of this is very confusing. We're bringing up an amendment or a second or what was it? We're bringing forward somebody. Substitute motion. It's a show. It's not going to. Is on the substitute. I'm sorry. Motion to rescind deals with. Sending a substitute motion on a 7 to 4 vote on a compromise that got us down to almost nothing in a first grade classroom. But I just need some

163clarification so I can try to understand what I don't understand. Right now. And if somebody could help me, I would greatly appreciate. It. Miss Rogers. I would have the same question as to why there was a lack of understanding. I believe that Mr. Culpepper was the one who brought the motion, but there is nothing in the background summary that would clarify the lack of understanding. But I also want to state that in a year and a half I've been on this board. I've always been of the understanding that when a decision has been made, the board moves forward together. And there have been many, many, many times the decisions that were made were not the decisions that I would have made many, many times that I had to pack my things up and go home

164and accept the fact that we made a decision and it wasn't the one I wanted to make, but that's the one we made and we go forward. We don't rescind. We don't make changes because it wasn't the expected outcome, but we move forward. I received an email today that says this high, Mrs. Rogers, I just wanted to take a quick moment to thank you for your voice, expertise and support regarding policy. 618 it is incredibly disheartening that certain board members are bringing this back up tonight, and I can only imagine how exhausting it is for you to navigate. Please note that the educator community stands firmly behind you and appreciates your tireless efforts. I strongly agree with you that this policy is by no means ready to be rolled out. Rushing it through will undoubtedly

165have a detrimental impact on students in the future. Furthermore, I can speak for many of my colleagues that passing this policy now versus August will not give teachers a head start to prepare. Teachers work tirelessly all year long and completely deserve their summer to rest, recharge and prepare for the next school year on their own terms. Thank you for being the voice of reason on the board, and for fighting for both students and staff. We are incredibly grateful for your advocacy. This is why I will not support this. This is why we are ignoring the voice of our educators time and time and time again. And I won't do it. I will support the educators who deserve to have their break, and not have the rug yanked out from underneath them one more time because

166of an undetermined lack of understanding. Thank you. Mr. Culpepper. All right. I'll provide a little background here. Okay. All right, so I got to kind of recap a little bit more. Make sense of it. I think the first thing I'll say is that I'll take the hit. I should have asked for this to be reduced to writing when we were dealing with this last time. So this was all clear. I'll explain where this kind of went awry. So starting off the last two pages of the summary that I provided you, the section in red was the the amendment to policy 618 before the before or after the. After the agenda was published and a version of this was published. Vice Chair Williams basically got input that adaptive learning needs period wasn't sufficient. So we opened

167this discussion by saying let's let's change it to for English language learners, which had been run through staff to clarify that that's effective language, and that's where the whole discussion devolved into. Well, it's not ready for prime time, but I'll point out that that exact same language is what we adopted. So I'm not sure that that argument holds water that's not ready for prime time, or that the board, on the whole, thinks that that language indicates it's not ready for prime time because we adopted it in the new policy. Excuse me, in the the substitute policy. But so the, the substitute policy was emailed to us during the break between admin matters and the formal meeting. And it was just one paragraph. It was D1. And it just changed one sentence. We're all familiar with

168whether it's whether restricting pre-K, K and first or allowing ten devices in the first classroom. And then we got into a session again. Here we go about the four English language learners part. And we added we basically added four English language learners. So we amended the substitute without ever voting on it. So simply from a administrative perspective, we didn't we didn't go through this. Right? I think that's where people's confusion came from about what is it we actually adopted. So when I look at the website, when it finally gets posted and now I see the language that's actually in there, again, it's not what was emailed to us in the break for this policy. So that's largely where that confusion comes from. So now I've got I've got both of them in front of you

169so that you can see the, the language and you can see that both policies, both versions of the policy, I'll say it that way. Both versions of the policy have the exact same language, with the exception of how we deal with first grade classrooms. Well, just one more thing before I give up the floor here, which is the idea of compromise. This discussion started when back in October. So back in October, this discussion started. And when we were looking to make what I would think is a much more significant impact on device usage for our youngest learners. And I explained before when I talked about this, about why I think that's important. So I won't get into that again. What came out of policy was was a significant compromise from that opening position. So in

170my view that what we what we should have adopted in the previous meeting was in fact the compromise. And what we got instead was, I think, insignificant in terms of making a change that will have an impact. Thank you doctor. So we go back and forth. Here we are. You may as well say it is June 30th because next week it is our teachers and other staff in addition to our teachers, principals, support staff, central office, teaching and learning. Everyone right now is in forward motion preparing for the upcoming school year based on the good faith bipartisan policy that we all supported. For me, it's a matter of honor and and to make this backpedal as well as writing policy. I mean, are we now writing? And this is a rhetorical question from the dies.

171I mean, if you really look at how everything is being rushed through, I feel for the teachers. They've been bamboozled. Clearly, principals right now who were working on things. I've done master schedules. I've done what equipment I may need to do in school. Most of you sitting up here have not. You have not a clear understanding. I think sometimes you do, but you don't. And it's, I think, sad that, you know, if we don't like a vote, some of us can go back and change it where others cannot. And we make we're making a lot of the rules as we go along. And the intent initially at the last meeting, two meetings prior in May, I distinctly remember, because I reviewed the video, one of my colleagues saying that they, the teachers, need to know

172what is they're going to have to do. Over the summer. We made a good compromise. Now we're here again. People are on vacations and thinking they're set for the school year. I just think it's a shame. And guess what? Some of these people are going to remember this on November 3rd. So I'm not going to comment to the specifics of the motion, but I am going to comment about some of the claims that this is different and that we don't move forward with votes and changing votes. There was a vote to change the agenda that did not even go through the request process. Actually, there's been two requests at the agenda adoption. One, one that I voted in favor of related to the changing of hours based schedule. Another one, we had an entire special

173meeting to amend a vote from somebody that was not even on the prevailing side. Mr. Culpepper asked for this, and he was on the prevailing side. And people on the prevailing side, I feel, have a right to to change their mind or change their opinion and bring it back. So he made a motion to rescind because it was not in the same, same exact meeting. And so that's why this is here. So Mr. Cummings. I was going to take a minute to think about my thoughts. Yeah. Can I go back to number three? Okay. So. I'm I'm okay with Mr. Culpeper explanation. However, it does not address the ten Chromebooks in the first grade classroom. Perhaps there was some confusion about Ell or special ed usage, but we all agreed on a compromise of ten

174Chromebooks in a first grade classroom. I don't want to discount what I'm sorry, I'm only getting first names. What Amanda said and the first speaker, Miss Lawler, about the needs of the students who are in most need. Those are the ones that are going to suffer the most. There are many. You know, we had a school, a school board member that mentioned, well, they're going to get this at home and not everybody has that access at home. And the teachers in our lowest grades are very deliberate with their usage. Perhaps we're going to find we have some problems somewhere else with some of our older students, but it's very deliberate. At at a young age, I heard a few other comments. I am worried about the computer science standards and. Doctor Robertson. We have quite

175a few of them. I took a screenshot of them earlier. Students critically create. This is just one a variety of digital resources using appropriate technologies, including assistive technologies to construct knowledge, produce creative digital works, and to make meaningful, meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others. To three four. There's at least four different strands there for our youngest learners. Those needs are going to. Be. Are going to have to be met somehow. Somebody talked about a gradual release model making kids comfortable with use. And she mentioned that some children are still struggling even at like the fifth grade level. And they're very concerned about the comfortable of using computers for the testing that begins in second. Grade, in second grade, second. Right. And we talked about that as a board about perhaps data that we might

176not understand next year after our first graders aren't getting any. Okay. So let. Me back up. So this is. This is a national conversation. This Virginia Beach is not the only school division having this conversation. I know Doctor Robertson was recently in Washington, D.C., and talked to former colleagues of ours. Doctor. Caswell, Doctor Spence and others who say their boards are having these conversations. And so I made it a point to reach out to Loudoun County. Who is is really there, really having these conversations. But what they're not doing. Is letting that pigeon. I've talked about this, letting that pendulum swing too far. One way they're down to a class set. So one for everybody but a pretty strict thumb on the time that our youngest learners can spend on a Chromebook. I see the

177great loss, the 20 minutes a day. I see that as a great loss for 20 minutes a day, because this is not recreational use and that is really our problem. Our problem is recreational use. It came up in at dinner tonight. But from board members talking about their own children and the amount of time that they're spending on devices. I, I just hate for children to lose in an educational setting when the real problem is recreational use. We're not going to solve that problem. We're just not. It's going to exist in every grade. But I go back to my original question and I'll stop here. What did the L and. Special education clarification have to do with the ten devices in the first grade classroom that we decided on? What did that have to do

178with that? And that's what these teachers were talking about and fighting for today. It didn't have anything to do with the clarification of L or special. Ed. But it gave teachers the opportunity to keep the important data collecting. Opportunities that are very important to them. It allowed them to keep that. So again, I'm just going to repeat it and I hope somebody can answer it. What did the clarification of L and special. Ed. Have to do with the ten devices in the first. Grade classroom? Mr. Rogers, thank you. So the substitute motion passed seven four. So even with Mr. Culpeper lack of understanding, I clearly, distinctly remember that Mr. Cowan was the one who brought up not ready for prime time, and in the same breath said he would support Matt's motion. Mr. Cummings. Sorry.

179And so I don't know. How. Mr. Cowan and Mr. Culpepper would have such a change of heart all of a sudden that this rescinding would come before the board, because it wouldn't be here if the chair wasn't aware that the votes were already ready to go. And so I guess my question is, why are we doing this like this now? And I think back to what Speaker Melissa stated about the group, who is group that is watching all of our board meetings and discussing all of the things in a partizan and political matter instead of an educational matter, what is best for students? What is best for staff? That's our job. At the end of the day, it is not about anybody's campaign, about anybody's politics. We are here for staff and students. That's our

180focus, because if our staff can't do their jobs, our students can't learn. So we have to not only listen to parents, but listen to our staff who are as telling us that some of this can't or should not be removed to keep the success that we have already seen in our students. We cannot control the fact that the veto requires our students to do their testing on a computer. We are required to teach them to pass our exams. How do we expect our students to then have the proficiency necessary to pass an exam? If we're not listening to the educators saying it will be an impact, we can't have it both ways. You can't have your high test scores and take away the resources to get there. It does not match. But somehow a 7

181to 4 vote suddenly. 6 to 5. And we're being told not not for Partizan political sake, but for lack of understanding. And it's really hard for me to wrap my head around a lack of understanding when it just happens to be the two people who made it bipartisan are suddenly not able to thank you. Mr. Cummings. Yeah. Thank you so much. First and foremost, you know, I was really excited to see my substitute motion, which originally was going to be an amendment passed, went home, told my kid about it is, you know, a great work of bipartisanship. And I was very happy of that of that work. And then I told her about this, this now getting changed. And it's funny, fun conversation. Great day to talk about politics with the family. But, you know,

182I'm just going to be real. I'm going to shoot straight. This is going to say my thoughts and just go for it and see what happens. It was that was the most awkward school board meeting we've had, y'all. We're writing policy in a football huddle over here trying to remember what's going on. We only had that English learner adoption because I visit classrooms and saw this remarkable experience of this student learning the curriculum for native language, and I didn't even think about it until I'm just sitting here, I'm like, well, what about that kid? You know, like, how are they going to learn? And then I'm sitting here thinking, are there other opportunities or are there other things that were unthought of that we might have to address later down the road? And I think

183that's important when we think about policy and why I think the impact study should have been done, because at the end of the day, I can be convinced, you know, that this could be a good policy. You know, if I saw the impact, if I knew what was replacing the the, the Chromebooks, the curriculum, things like that. For me, I prefer having lots of information in front of me, but absent of that, you know, it's a difficult decision, you know? Next, you know, I had a substitute motion, which was really originally a motion to a min, which was not read for verbatim. So that was interesting as well. And I think that I just let it slide because I didn't really think that it passed. And I was like, well, we'll just see what happens.

184But it's just an awkward week in school board and I think it's a little embarrassing. Y'all. Like right in policy on the fly. We've got football huddles going on. It's just interesting. We sit and say, as I said in my in the last meeting, we talk about how much we value our educators and, and whatnot, and. I just can't get it out of my head that we've had so many folks come and say this, this is not a good thing. And how much they utilize these tools in their in their, their classrooms for the positive. And that really sticks out to me. I mean, we're talking about this. I've seen it every class I go into where the kids are using these these tools for, for education. I really think the bigger issue that we

185need to look at is the middle school high school issue. And I wish we would have prioritized that because that's where we saw the highest utilization of hours on, on, on screen time. To me, you know, I could be convinced either way if this being a good policy, I just wish that we had more data in front of us and a higher understanding of what actually is going to replace some of these interventions, some of these interventions that, you know, Lexia would do. You know, there's always going to be differences of opinion on the board. And, you know, if a person has the ability to rescind their vote, you know, it is what it is. That's what guides us is policy. And that's fine with me. People do those things and I sit there and

186think about, you know, the final piece is like, where are all these parents who are upset about Chromebooks, ain't getting no emails, ain't see them at meetings. You know, they're not coming. I mean, we got some emails, I won't lie, but where are all these folks at who we heard from? Predominantly 90%, 95% of the folks have said that there are benefits. And so I don't I just don't understand where this frustration is coming from. I know the national data about it. And I've seen some of, you know, other districts are doing I've seen. Just some of the other ideas around the place, but for me, it's just not it's just a sloppy. And I don't like sloppy. I don't like the fact that we're writing policy in football huddles. I mean, it's very it's

187rustic and it's a little I don't know, it's just awkward. So I just wanted to voice my my thoughts. Folks can do what they want to do. If they could vote in accordance to their own mind and what they want and what they think. I think that's how democracy works. But I think we got as a board do a bit better next time. Mr. Kellen. I've been on record for several meetings expressing the interest and the desire to limit Chromebooks from K to second grade. The discussions took place. There was a desire to compromise in order to move forward. So from my own positioning, I went from second grade to first grade. I think it's been expressed by numerous people here tonight. The meeting that took place a few weeks ago, and the discussion that

188centered around this subject grew more and more muddy and murky and confusing and befuddling. There were points that were made that had merit to them. And I think the significant issue that this revolves around, from my point of view, and we're all entitled to our opinion. So my point of view is that what was lacking that would have removed a lot of the confusion that I personally was experiencing was the absence of a written document from which I could examine and compare and contrast. For me, in the interim since that meeting, I've been able to obtain a copy of the revised amendment. Yes, Matt made a great point. Mr. Cummings made a great point relative to the English language learners that caused us to say, that's a great point that needs to be considered and

189taken into consideration. But to me, the issue boils down to the ability and the need for me to have something in my hands, to read the mark to scratch, to put question marks by or circles around in order to make sure that I'm processing the information and not the round robin circle of conversations that were taking place that night. So I will be voting for this as a result of now obtaining a copy of this in writing and having the ability to look through it, it still doesn't go to where I would want it to go to, which is the second grade. But it's the art of working together and the compromising. And you may feel that that's no compromise at all, or its lack substance or merit. You're entitled to your opinion. I'm entitled

190to mine. And that's where I'm making my presentation or my position known. Doctor Robertson. How will. Our first. Grade teachers meet the state objectives? Well. How are kindergarten teachers going to do it? Also. You talking the computer standard objectives, correct. So what the what the current version of 6 to 18 does is it eliminates Chromebooks and pre-K and K and then puts a group of ten in first grade. Is that staying? No. That's in the current version okay. That we approved for our pre-K K to meet those research standards that are in and I don't have the copy of the standards in front of me. But from discussion of my team, there will be some library trips where those students are going to have to go to the library, like. How long are those library

191trips? 30 minutes. I don't know, I think that's probably appropriate amount of time that you would take a pre-K or cake class into a library for 30 minutes, first grade. Of course, if they have ten devices in, then they can meet those standards. But then the classroom setting, if their ten devices are not there, then your first graders to reach those standards that require manipulation of a device, they're going to need to also make library trips. So. Okay. I. Just want to make another comment. At the last board meeting, Mrs. Dwyer made a comment about policies coming out of Policy Review Committee unanimously. I want the public to know that the policies belong to the board and conversations that happen in Policy Review Committee. Can come out unanimously, because you're not voting on that policy

192in that committee. You're voting on, okay, we've got it to a point where we're ready to hand it to the board. We're allowed to have these conversations about policies. The policy review committee doesn't get to do them. But Mr. Cummings is right. There were lots of little huddles. And over the last week there have been a lot of huddles going on that I was not aware of. There were also meetings in the hallway with the the attorney meetings in the attorney's office, where everyone is scrambling to write policy that actually belongs to the board. I respectfully request, moving forward that the chair or vice chair or any other member of the board doesn't get to go have a meeting with the attorney in the hallway about anything that's not public with this board. I'm not

193happy that I found out on Thursday that this was happening, but there was conversation and everybody else got to learn about things through conversations that I was not privy. To. And neither were my colleagues. I didn't know about these these conversations that were happening to clarify things. So it's great to the people who got to have them. But a lot of us get left out of conversations and we find out things in. An odd ways. That's not how that's not how I did things, and that's not. How. I was that I grew up on this board. Actually learning. We just didn't do things that way. I think this is a shame for our teachers. I wasn't really happy about having to send it back to policy review, and clearly we're not going to have the

194votes for that. That's a shame. This was this was poor management of a policy, very poor. And, and and I do worry about our students who need this the most. There will be losers in this. There will be. And that's a real shame because we think we think life's so easy and so simple for everybody. And it's. Not, it's not. And there will be children who suffer because of this. It's just the truth. It's not dramatic, it's the truth. And we forget about those little guys. I also want to say that every policy review committee meeting there are. Policies that keep getting brought up under other businesses and other business at the. Bottom. Where special little policies come forward that are really the brainchild of somebody else. And we're focusing less on the policies that

195are up for review. And then these little special policies get added to add confusion to people. That's not great either, and many of us are catching on to that kind of thing to so. Pay special attention, perhaps, to tomorrow's 330 Policy Review Committee meeting. Miss Dwyer, the. Miss Roger. I would just like. To make a call to get to the vote. This is a deliberate attempt to keep us in the weeds, to to bring up all kinds of attack and comments that don't need to be here. It's dishonorable and it's disrespectful to all of us. And I would like to just go right to the vote. Thank you. Miss Roger. Miss. Miss Dwyer, is that a motion to call the question? I'll make the motion. Yes, ma'am. Is there a second? A second? Okay, so

196that will require eight votes. That's a two thirds vote. And there is no discussion on that question. So, miss. I was going to do that long time ago. But. Madam Clerk, please let me know when you're you're ready for me to call that vote. Now, Miss Leonetti, while she's preparing that, does that just apply to the first question or the both questions? All right. The motion is to to rescind that. And then knowing the rescinding that you will go on to the next motion. So if if this you have enough votes to rescind, it puts you back to the amended motion which is in your package. I'm asking about calling the question and the debate. Does that impact the second portion? Are you saying does that prevent you from having debate when you're back to

197the amendment? Is that what you're asking? That's what I'm asking. No. Okay. Thank you. So we are voting on whether we are going to discontinue discussion and go straight to the vote on the recension that was approved. Last meeting of the substitute. Does everybody understand what we're voting on? Okay. So I'm going to call for the vote. The the the vote is to stop the discussion and go on to the votes for this. So, Madam Chair, we have nine eyes into nays. So the motion did pass for the call of the question. Okay. So now we are on to. The. Motion to. I want to make sure that I'm reading it. Exactly. And while I read this I will say this has been very confusing. When there are policy amendments, I'm going to ask that

198these be reduced to writing each and every time, or we will recess to make sure that it is in writing so that this does not occur again. Okay. We will now vote on the recension of the June 8th, 2026 vote on substitute Motion to policy 618. If you approve that recension, we will vote on the amended policy 618. So, Madam Chair, we have six eyes and five nays. So the motion did pass to rescind. Okay. Now we need a motion on the amended policy. 618, miss. Correct. And you did have a copy of that in your agenda. Package. Motions made by Mr. Culpepper. Is there a second? Seconded by Miss Dwyer, miss Rogers. Thank you, Doctor Robertson. I kind of wanted to ask questions of you based on what I have heard up here. As

199far as the first graders in the library, how many classrooms? Roughly per elementary school. If you have all your pre cares, all your kindergartners, all your first graders having to have the library time, how many classrooms? Four. Because each school has one library, right? So how many classrooms would that then entail? Have students having to go to the library. In all three grades. Right. You know how many? Yeah. Somewhere between our smallest schools, three grade levels, three classrooms per grade level to our larger schools. You could have five. So. So 9 to 15. 9 to 15 classrooms in the library for their project. And then on top of it, you also have all of the rest of the classrooms having to go to the library for regular library time. Correct? That's correct. Okay. So during

200our fourth quarter, do our elementary schools use the library for Sol testing? Yeah. So Doctor Hamlin shared that yes. For for small group testing. Yes. The library could be used. So then when students are taking an Sol exam. In the library would be closed. So then our pre-K, kindergarten, first grade students would then not be able to utilize that library for their computer technology requirements. That's correct. So then what would we do? There wouldn't be an option okay. Unless we set them to the cafeteria. Which of course, if we sent them to the cafeteria while we. Have. Stephen's eating when no one was in there. Well, that would when. Okay, I'm going to ask you, May. I was going to say. You may not know. I know when the first lunches occur. And I'll tell

201you if you don't know. Ten, ten. That's for pre-K. 1010. That's when our first lunches occur of the day. And then go pretty much almost to the very to the end of our cafeteria. Workers contracted time is our last lunched period. Once that lunch is over and it's cleaned up, our cafeteria workers come in early, so they have to contract early, leave early. They are there before our teachers because they have to prepare breakfast and lunch. So I'm just making that statement known. So it would be incredibly limited amount of time and possibly after breakfast before our 1010 lunch to get 9 to 12 classrooms for their library time. Do you think that's possible? It'd be very difficult. Thank you. Doctor Robertson, I just want to clarify something. We were talking about Sol testing time

202at the end of the year. We're talking about a week. Three. Three weeks, about the middle of night. So right now on our current schedule, it's about three and a half weeks. There is language at the state level right now to limit the periods for Sol testing. But I do not believe that impacts elementary. So it's it's three and a half. It's at least three and a half maybe four weeks. Thank you. What about quarter. All right. Doctor green.. Thank you, Doctor Robertson I'm now looking at it putting on my administrator hat staffing. So right now our media library specialists our already very busy. So some of this money that we're getting from the state will we need to maybe think about hiring an additional media specialist for the library. Because in addition to what

203they already do, we're now adding another big task. Somewhere someone is going to get shortchanged. And I realize the agenda for some is to block knowledge, and not all kids get what they want to get. I'm going to call it, like I said, because it's very disheartening that we are sitting here and I hope the viewing public understands this. We, some of my colleagues, are dismantling public education and not allowing all students to have equal access. It started out with the policy on die and then it's the next. Now we're talking about Chromebooks. It's one thing after another. People wake up. Doctor Robertson I'm sorry, but to my question, I digress. Because what Miss Rogers triggered in me will we have to get additional staffing in. The library? We have not had that discussion as

204as a potential solution. It's going to be a a puzzle a teacher would put together. Or if a if the teacher takes their entire class down to a different setting to access the devices, then the teacher, of course, will be there. If the teacher says, well, you know what, I only want to send half my class. Well, that can only happen if you have someone on the other end to be with those students. So there would be a level of planning that would would be necessary. For, for it to occur. Thank you. And because right now they're able to differentiate instruction in class with some students using a variety of techniques. And now if everyone has to pack up and go to the library it's mind boggling. Thank you. Mr. Cummings. You know, every time

205someone asks questions, it just makes my brain wonder how this gets executed from an operational lens. So it sounds like we'll be increasing library visits for pre-K K well, maybe pre-K, but pre-K in first grade, do we envision that competing with their normal library time or is this going to be additional time? Yeah. So I'm going to turn this over to Mr. Delaney and Doctor Hamlin. Well, I. Think you ask a good. Question about operationalizing, and that's typically what we have to do with any policy that comes through is there's some nuance to that operational end of it. Yeah. Obviously achieving standards usually rises to the highest level of instructional decision making that occurs in a building. So a principal, a teacher and others within that are going to have to decide what the schedule

206looks like in the learning spaces that can access a computer. One of the reasons the policy review committee, we talked about removing the language or adding the language in the classroom, was to provide opportunities where it could exist in other spaces. Now, some schools do not have the amount of additional spaces beyond the library. Others may have a space that they could set up in an area to provide that support. So it's very difficult when you're asking Doctor Robertson some of these specific operational questions to come with one uniform answer. Because the buildings are different, the spaces are different, the organizational structures can be a little bit different. And our conversations with the PRC, yes, it's going to be a challenge. However, we also looked at it with Doctor Goldberg, other members of the team,

207and said, we can make we'll have to make those adjustments and we'll make those adjustments. So it's very challenging in this environment to answer very specific questions of how many times are kids going to go? How much time are they going to spend down there? That's not when we can confidently answer with an exact number. What we will be doing over this time, regardless of the decision as we are already done, is we are making plans to move this work forward, including getting teacher feedback with the committee this summer and a feedback loop throughout the year. I hope that shares with you we acknowledge the challenge that's going to exist. We're not saying this is going to be exactly what teachers are accustomed to in others, but when we look at adding these to essential

208sessions of the work they have to do in PL, when we talk about working with these committees, working with our principles to ensure they have what they need, all of that gets into the operational components. And if the school struggles with how do I operationalize this? It's our role in Department of School leadership to help them solve that challenge, whether it's staffing support or the resources that can go along with it. So I want to reinforce it's very difficult in this environment for us to say how you operationalize something that could look very different in other areas, and it makes me uncomfortable because people then say, well, you said you would do this, and that's not fair to our building leaders to not have that opportunity to take the time and analyze that. So understand

209all of these things. We feel it's going to be a challenge. We've got to help our teachers. We've got to support them and provide the professional learning. We've got to give the resource to ensure our kids are learning. And we're very intense in that process right now with a variety of stakeholders being involved. So I apologize for the intensity of my answer, but it's just a challenge when you want us to give those levels of answers that we don't have that direct knowledge of how this is going to turn. And the last thing I will say, and I'll get off my soapbox, Doctor Robertson has talked about, we're not certain the impact of this yet one way or the other. And that's going to be our challenge internally to come back and, and, you know,

210get back to the board on. Here's what we're finding throughout that process. See, I love your response because you speak to the tension of implementation. Right. And to me, as someone who's made strategic decisions with impact, you know, weighing and understanding the costs I thought would be part of the required impact study, that's not required. And I feel like you spoke to that tension so well, is that this is going to look different in every single building that we have. And I think that's a complex issue is that, you know, on one hand, we're trying to execute a policy, but we don't really know what it looks like with boots on the ground. And that's what I feel is frustrating to me as a school board member sometimes, is that we sit up on this

211dais and take an ideological stance on something and it's like, well, shoot, what about competing library times? Because the last thing I want to do as a library lover is to have. Oh, you can't go into life. You know, your kids are using your library time for your research projects, not going and sit and reading like Dogman or whatever graphic novels are out there and that. And to me, that's just one of those things where sometimes getting into weeds is, you know, unfortunately it's difficult to do on, on, on the dais, it's very difficult to get on the ice. And rather than just having the small group discussion. I appreciate the word tension. Yeah. In our experience is tension. Yeah. New middle school schedule, new high school schedule, calendar discussions, all of that provides a

212level of tension that in our experience, we then go we're going to operationalize that in a minute. I guarantee you you're not going to get people coming down the aisle with confetti saying you did an amazing job. On how we manage the Chromebook scenario. Yeah, but that is our experience every year. What's a state guidelines, budgetary constraints? Those are all tensions that we have to navigate and explore that I can promise you are not going to go away in any, any year that starts. And so that's where we operationalize is how do we manage that tension and ensure our teachers do amazing stuff for our kids on a day to day basis, feel supported and the resources they provide them based on the decisions that are made? Yeah, for sure. I think your response is

213great. And it hits on my criticism that it's just, you know, we swim in a sea that's unknown sometimes, and that's such a risky thing when you think about thousands of students and the impact across hundreds of staff. And my final comment is, I do want to remind folks that, you know, in regards to why we're talking about stuff. I was elected to discuss and discuss policy and its impact on our schools. And there is never harm, I think, sitting on this dais, regardless of your opinion, to share your opinion on an issue. And I feel like the idea that board members should not have the right to talk is not what we were elected to do. My citizens in my district told me, sent me here by 26% margin to represent their their issues,

214their concerns. And I will have that dialog while I'm up here. Yes. Miss Rogers. Thank you. I would. Like to move to make a substitute motion to refer policy 618 to the Policy Review Committee for further review. Okay. There is a motion on the floor to send 618 back to Policy Review Committee by Miss Rogers. Is there a second? Yes. Seconded by Doctor Green. So we are only going to be discussing that motion to send it back to policy committee at this time, miss. That's correct. In this particular circumstance. Yes. Correct. Okay. All right. While we're waiting on that, is there any discussion on the motion to send the policy back to Policy Review Committee? Miss Rogers, I'll. Just go ahead and explain. When we were at this point before we agreed that this wasn't

215ready, I am just agreeing with that statement. It's not ready. Even with this discussion, it needs more time to suss out what needs to be set out, and I am more than happy to bring it back when it's ready. Doctor green. And the reason why I second the motion is because I don't think we're being fair to staff, to our building administrators, because everyone right now is in mode moving forward. Based on what we voted on at our last meeting. So that is why I second the motion, because I don't think we're being fair and transparent with people with all this going back and forth, so maybe we should take it back. Yes, we should, and maybe retool it. And to me, almost maybe part of the discussion and this is not a motion that

216may need to be added is even delaying implementing. Because all this going back and forth, we are not being fair to the people that we are charged to be their stewards. Vice Chair Williams. I'm not sure going back and forth yet. More will solve or change anything. And I'm a little confused that two weeks ago, when one person made an addition of four words, it was all confusing and we can't do it. It's not prime time. But then when the same four words were then added by somebody else, it was not confusing anymore. So it's it's just interesting. But I don't think Senator back to policy. And then going over this again is is going to be helpful to anybody. Okay. We're going to vote on the motion on the floor to send policy 618

217back to the Policy Review Committee. So Madam Chair, we have five eyes and six knee. So that motion did not pass. I was like okay. Miss Melnick. So, Mr. Delaney, I appreciate your comments. You you are our instructional leaders and there are many of us who really look to you for your leadership. This row right here, we look for your guidance. We need your guidance. Only one person, really, Doctor green, who I knew has her superintendents. Yes. I know it is his job. I only look to her as somebody who has qualified to speak this language. The rest of us are not. And the rest of us, it's. It's just our opinions. And that's the sad part, is we're letting our opinions get in the way. What I haven't gotten from my instructional leaders is

218clarity in any of this. There's no clarity. I mean, I look out and I, I just see wide eyed people who are like, going to make this work because you have to. That's the sad part. You're going to make it work. You're going to operationalize this because we've told you you have to. You don't have a choice. Make it work, but you're not going to make it work. You're going to get on the horn and you're going to tell our teachers that they're going to make it work. And that's where I'm struggling. You're going to give them the direction and they're going to figure it out because that's what they do. That's what they do. But none of my instructional leaders have given me an answer that has that helps me. The answers I'm getting

219are we don't know what this is going to do. We don't know how this is going to affect us. That's why I voted on pre-K and kindergarten as a starting point, to give us the opportunity to figure out where this is going to go. And then I hear from colleagues that this isn't they wanted it so much more, but we don't know how this is going to affect our kids. And I will say, a couple of weeks ago, Doctor Robertson, you did mention your concern about testing and second grade. You don't know if how you're going to interpret that data. Is that data, because our students didn't get the proper instruction with a Chromebook before they're taking these tests? Or is it because. They're not they haven't learned what they you know what I mean?

220What they need, I don't know. Can you help me here? Yeah. So this is going to be a long answer okay. Because you're exactly right. We don't know. When I was in Washington, D.C., last week with with 18 of the largest and most successful school divisions in the country, 16 are dealing with the same conversation we're having right now. The, the the most common solution to this. And the issue is screen time. It's not Chromebooks, it's not iPads. It's screen time. The national epidemic is based on Jonathan Heights work, the anxious generation, which is now morphed into this screen. Time is bad. And as I said two weeks ago, we agree. We all agree that screen time is a real challenge. And so it seems that the natural approach has been, well then let's give

221it to schools. Let's have schools reduce screen time without any real understanding. Because unless you're in the setting, you don't really know. Like, I could not fly a plane, I can ride in a plane, I can't fly a plane, I can't drive a sports car. I'd ride the sports car. I can't hit a 95 mile an hour fastball because I wouldn't be here if I could. I mean, the reality is, no one really knows, right? In that conversation with the 16 of the 18 school division superintendents, including some of the most successful and experienced ones in the country, the initial moves by their boards have been through policy eliminating devices and pre-K and K. There were a handful had gone all the way to second grade. Everybody was in year one. No one, no one

222has any data that they've collected beyond some that it eliminate them this past year and some that were eliminating them next year. So there's no data for anyone to definitively say it. You made the right decision. Why did we wait so long or you made the wrong decision? We all agree to share all of the things that we're doing. So Mr. Delaney alluded to two weeks ago, before the June 8th meeting, we had set up a plan of how we were going to address potential actions, because for three months, this conversation has been kicked around with the PRC. And we we had decided that the most important voices in the room were going to be the teachers impacted. So there are two groups right now that are that are formed. There's a pre-K to K

223group, which now will be expanded to one where we will be having those individuals work with our instructional specialists to identify, based upon the survey results, where they their biggest areas concern were research differentiation, enrichment and student engagement. How are they going to substitute assignments for the 31 now everybody said 20 minutes but first grade and their survey 46% of the the teachers said that they use their Chromebooks 31 to 45 minutes a day. So that's basically two rotations. So how are they going to put in meaningful work into those 31 to 45 minutes? That's what that group is going to be working with. We're going to have a second group of teachers that are going to be our feedback group. We'll go to them quarterly and say, okay, how are things going? Where where

224do we get it right, where do we get it wrong? And we will make course corrections the entire year. Mr. Delaney used the term operationalize. I'll take us back to the conversations that we had when we said we were going to eliminate cell phones at the secondary level, there were a lot of a lot of people who were like, oh my gosh, schools are going to be in trouble because the kids won't comply. We're like, well, they will comply. They'll they'll adjust to the fact that there's no cell phones. It's going to be a process. Some places we got it. We did it really well. Some places it took a long time. And that that movement comes because we are monitoring, we are coaching, we are supporting. If we make a mistake, we take a

225step back and we, we, we learn how to pivot through Covid. If anything helped. The school division is an ability that you have to adapt. There's no jobs right now that you can say, okay, I'm going to consistently work this way and it's going to be great because circumstances change, new things are introduced. We have to be able to adapt. I can't look at anyone in the eye and say, this is the right decision. This is the wrong decision. It's changed. And anytime you introduce change, I don't care what it is, there's risk. I thought that the discussion we had a couple of weeks ago. Going to ten in a, in a, in a room when I went back and looked at the, the 209 first grade teachers who responded to the survey, it didn't

226reduce drastically what they thought was going to be an impact. 39% of the teachers first grade teacher said that the elimination of devices was going to be a substantial impact. If you put ten in a classroom, 33% said it's a substantial impact. So whether it's you keep 1 to 1 or you reduce it to ten or you take they feel like the devices, the survey that we got from 209 teachers, which is probably 90% of our first grade teachers, indicated that, hey, look, if if we don't have any device in the classroom, 33% of them said it's going to be a substantial impact, 41% said some impact. So, yeah, the teachers have said to us they're concerned and we're going to honor their concern, which is why we are including them into the solutions that

227we are going to develop. And much like we did with the LA, our commitment to our first grade teachers and our pre-K teachers is we will stay ahead of where you are all the way through next year. We are not going to be able to tell our first grade teachers and in-service week. We've worked it out for the whole year. No way. What we can say is we've worked it out through September, maybe in October. Here are the assignment substitutions you can use for the areas we used to use devices. And then we'll collect information, you know, how is it going? We know that trend data doesn't exist until you have three years. So we won't know. And the risk is let's say in three years we find out we made a big mistake. You

228can't come back on that or in three years it was a game changer is a risk. But because no one is ahead of us that's that's used devices. There is no apples to apples comparison. And it is very gray. And so you are correct in your your assertion, your all of you are correct in your concerns. We're going to do the very best we can know. Our teachers are going to do the very best they can because they're the ones that have to do this. You will to you understand that. But the but. The. The, the teachers are going to carry the brunt on this. And it would be less of a worry for me if we didn't have state standards that we had. To meet. So that that's an issue. It's not like, you

229know, we're. Just going back and forth about whether or not we we have state standards. Those still have to be met. So kids are going to have screen time. Because they have. To the state changes that. It's just going to be far more difficult. So I mean, again, this is going to be one of those times where it's going to show on it. We're going to talk about this for two hours, and it's going to show on the board 6 to 5. And that's a shame. We should have started with pre-K and K see how it goes for this year and then and then come back next year to to add first grade if, if it was going well because you can't. Yeah. After at least this year of data. Because like you said, if

230it's if it's bad we can't go back. Okay. So I didn't really get the chance to fully comment last meeting because what I supported did not get voted on. But I support reducing the screen time for students. I am very concerned about middle and high school as well. I am happy to hear that there are 16 other school divisions that are having this exact same conversation. Some of them have done pre-K K, some of them, and I appreciate that, have done first grade. And when we talk about the data points and the concerns about data points, and I recognize the change is very uncomfortable, but the data is showing that screen time, recreational or not, is negatively impacting students. It is negatively impacting them. There is plenty of data, a peer reviewed data to show

231that I have reviewed much of it, and I'm sure that other board members can find data that is going to align with their thoughts on it. But I have taken in the data I've taken, in conversations I've taken in the teacher survey, I took in the parent survey, you know, and I looked at all of those and my perspective differs. And additionally, I took into account data from various Pals vowels across a long span of time, including back to as far as I could go in our minutes or our meeting agendas. And I don't see any evidence that test scores went up as a result of 1 to 1 technology in these grade levels. And so based on that, and my interactions with people in the community about their concerns about our youngest learners having

232technology, yes, I would like pre-K through second grade. But I am willing to accept this compromise of pre-K through first grade. So with that, I call for the vote to approve the or to vote on the amended policy 618 that's in the back of your packet. So, Madam Chair, we have six eyes and five nays. The motion did pass on the amended policy 618. Thank you. Okay. So now we are on to the meeting minutes from June 2nd. Special meeting. So I did look in the book of Robert's Rules here. And it does say that the first vote is to allow it to be reconsidered. And then it's voted on as if it was never voted on before. So that I call for well, is there any further discussion? No, I call for the vote

233for the June. We're voting on the June 2nd meeting minutes. We have a motion and a second motions made by Mr. Cummings, seconded by Mr. Cowan. Motion to approve those. Madam chair, we have nine eyes into abstentions. So the motion to pass for the approval of the June 2nd special meeting minutes. Thank you. All right. We are now on to committee organization and. Board reports. Mr. Steele. Everybody knows that we had graduation last week for all of our high schools. But I want to reach out and talk about Green Run Collegiate briefly. They graduated 82 seniors. 53 of them will be attending a four year college or university. 14 will continue education at a two year college, five had committed to the military service, two will attend trade schools and eight will enter the workforce,

234according to doctor Robinson had his pre graduation speech. This graduating class made history as the first class of Virginia Beach City Public Schools to achieve 100% pass rate on the English 11 sol, setting a standard that was matched again by this year. Students. In addition, the class of 2026 earned more than $20 million in scholarships. And we are incredibly proud. Proud of these students and their accomplishments and look forward to seeing the positive impact that they will make in their communities, careers, and future endeavors. Thank you. Thank you, Doctor Green. Thank you. And mine is a reminder to our parents and other community members during the regular school year. Our schools are instrumental in ensuring that our students, many of our students, don't go hungry because they get two meals a day at our schools,

235breakfast and lunch. So I just want to remind our parents and thank you, Miss Lobbies. I have seen the announcements about what meals we are serving breakfast and lunch, but there's a schedule with certain sites because all schools aren't serving them, but everyone has access to it on a first come, first served basis. So please go to our school division's website so that you can see the meal schedule. You can get two meals, breakfast and lunch throughout the summer, but the locations are rotating and are not always the same, but food is available. Doctor Robertson, is there anything else with regards to that that we need to make sure the public knows? I'm going to look to Mr. Freeman real quick. I believe, Doctor Greene, you are the fact will, thank you for sharing that.

236And I believe you've captured everything. Got the thumb. Okay. Thank you, thank. You, thank you for sharing that. I had it pulled up as well. So I'm glad that we have that information. And it's on the left for anybody that's looking on our website. Miss Rogers. I also shared that on my social media, and that was something I was going to mention to, is I made sure that all of the people in the community have easy access. So I also shared on my social media about ensuring your students are being fed over the summer. But I also piggybacking off of what Mr. Bowen talked about with graduation. I wanted to do a quick shout out I went. I attended ten out of the 14 graduations and admittedly I missed four, but I wanted to do

237a special shout out and I talked to this principal. There was one school in particular that stood out to me during graduations, where I watched so many students, hugged the administrators, thank the administrators and tell the administrators. Just just thank you. I appreciate you hugging them, shaking all their hands. And it was so great to see that really warm family atmosphere. And there were several administrators on the stage, and not one of them was turned away from being greeted by the students. The students just wanted to thank all of them and I thought it was awesome. So great job to Allwood. I love the community that you're building. Mr. Callen. Along the same lines of graduation, compliments and accolades, once again, I had an opportunity to attend the Juvenile Detention centers graduation ceremony and what

238I heard might not have been correct historical perspective, but what I was told was, this is the largest class of graduates that I think they've ever had, which were 15 students. It was very impressive to watch them walk through the gymnasium, take their seats, do so with a great deal of pride in the accomplishments that have taken place on their academic journey, knowing full well they've got struggles and issues that surround their current circumstances. But you could just feel the sense of accomplishment that had been achieved by these students, and it was very moving and inspirational. I just wanted to share that. Miss Felton. Thank you, Chair Brown. And I'd just like to say to the administration here how impressed that I am with our graduation. I had the opportunity to go to the Adult

239Learning Center graduation as well, and to our A and I believe that they were my choking moments. We were reaching my colleagues. Mr. Collins was there with me as well. And at the ALC, a young man graduated and he was walking out of his graduation to be a certified fire department as well. But the story of R.A was the misled on want to call her name, but she she said, my my trip here came through by tall with high school. She said I couldn't quite connect, she said. But what happened to me was I ended up here at R.A., she said. I found my niche, I found my family and found my love. And I just want to thank the Virginia Beach, Virginia City Public Schools for supporting me. And she said, remember this face?

240She said, remember this face? She said, because when I come back, all all the struggles that I went through, you were there for me. She said, remember this because I will be back with all my honors, all my badges, all of my, my this year. You that what you poured into me was great and I took I came away with that. Come away with saying that Virginia Beach city public schools almost from the cradle to the grave. We still there. Those adults that come back and the babies are pre-K as we're doing it, we're working at and they're letting us know through all the struggle. And I want to sing with some brown for being there. He was at both of those graduates, was being placed at the nursing practical nursing department as well. And

241the information that we got from the nursing department, we had retired nurses coming back saying that that we have one of the the most amazing nursing practical nursing program that they've ever seen. They said, I know because I get the students and they come to me and they're so well prepared for what we do. Is it a struggle? Sometimes we set up here and be a school board member and doing things. Yes, it is, but those are my highlight moments where I can go to all the graduation, hear the hard work of what we have done. Thank you, Doctor Robinson. Thank you all to me. I can't start calling the name, but thank you all the principals, all the directors that has really put in all of those coaches that went out like the young

242lady said, Aliya said. They came back and they found me and pulled me back in and would not let me go. That was amazing. Thank you. Vice chair. Yes, the graduation coaches are just doing a great job. And then not to forget our little our fifth grade graduations, I was able to attend many of those and our eighth grade graduations, so that was fun. But anyway, the PRC meeting is tomorrow at 330 and here and I welcome everybody. I welcome all my colleagues to come. You get the agenda in advance, and I welcome any phone calls about what's on the agenda. Thank you so. Much. Miss Melnick. And our graduations. I think most of us can probably attest to. It's one of my favorite parts of being a school board member. And I also had

243the opportunity to attend some of our fifth grade promotions. And it's just so great to see all the families so happy and students happy, and all of their accomplishments. So, so happy to have seen all of those and cheer. Everybody's speaking so highly. Yes. Can I offer? Well, first of all, we talk about graduations, and I've been involved in going to graduation for a long time. We've never had the level of board support that we had this year in terms of attendance, and we've never had the level of city council support that we've had this year. And these were the very best graduations I have ever attended. And I will tell you, that guy right there, Walter Brower, has been working with principals the last three years. He has let them know the standard. And

244when we talk about what's going on at Renaissance Academy, it's his influence at Renaissance Academy as well, not just this year with Anthony Smith. It's he was laying the groundwork last year. And Anthony Smith under Walters leadership is flourished. And I'm really looking forward what they can do. But I wanted to give you a shout out. Well, a great job. Yes, yes. Vice Chair Williams is going to read us into close. Now I move that the school board recess into closed session in accordance with the exceptions to open meetings law set forth in Code of Virginia 2.2.377 parts A paragraphs 178 is a minute to deliberate on the following matters one. Discussion, consideration, or interviews of prospective candidates for employment assignment, appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salaries, disciplining or resignation of specific public officers, appointees or

245employees of any public body, and evaluation of performance of departments or schools of public institutions of higher education. With such evaluation will necessarily involve discussion of the performance of specific individuals. Hold on, hold on, hold on. We have to have a quorum, guys. Any teacher shall be permitted to be present during a closed meeting in which there is a discussion or consideration of a disciplinary matters that involve. Me. Do we still have a. Quorum. If they're not at the dais? Yes. Okay. Go ahead. And some student and the student involvement in the matter is present, provided that the teacher makes a written request to be present to the presiding officer of the appropriate board. Nothing in this subdivision, however, shall be construed to authorize a closed meeting by a local governing body or an elected

246school board to discuss compensation matters that affect the membership and such body or board collectively. Seven consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members are pertaining to actual or probable litigation. With such consultation or briefing and open meetings would affect the negotiating and litigating posture of this public body. For the purposes of this subdivision, probable litigation means litigation that has been specifically threatened or on which the public body or its legal counsel has a reasonable basis to believe will be convinced by or against a known party. Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to permit the closure of a media, merely because an attorney representing the public body is in attendance, or is consulted on any matter. A consultation with legal counsel and employee to retain by a public body regarding specific legal matters

247around the provision of legal advice by such counsel. Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to permit the closure of a meeting, merely because an attorney representing the body is in attendance, or is consulted on him at, or namely, to discuss, a the School Board Attorneys evaluation, b update on internal auditors evaluation, c status and pending litigation or administrative cases. D consultation with legal counsel regarding probable litigation and pending litigation matters. Okay. Motion made by Vice Chair Weems. Is there a second second made by Miss Dwyer? Any discussion? CNN. I call for the vote to go into closed session. David Almond. I swear I want to go with. Mr. Culpepper. How do you vote? Okay, so, Madam Chair, we have seven eyes. The motion to pass to go into closed session. Thank you. The school

248board of the City of Virginia Beach has convened a meeting on the date pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. And Whereas section 2.237 12 of the Code of Virginia requires a certification by the school board, that such close meeting was conducted into conformity with Virginia law. Now, therefore, be resolved, that the School Board of the City of Virginia Beach hereby certifies that to the best of each members knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussing the closed meeting to which the certification applies, and only such public business matters as were found in the motion by which the closing words can be, were heard, discussed or considered. Okay. Is there a motion to certify closed session?

249Motion made by Miss Wire, seconded by Mr. Cummings. Any discussion? Seeing none, I called for the vote to certified closed session. And I. So, Madam Chair, we have 11 I's a motion to pass for a certification of closed session. Okay. Vice Chair Williams, do you have a motion? I move that the school board approved the school board attorneys 2026 evaluation as agreed upon by the school board. In closed session, the chair is authorized to communicate the results of the evaluation to the school board. Attorney. Okay. There was a motion by you. Correct? I moved. Oh, okay. It was moved by Vice Chair Weems, seconded by Miss Melnick. He he pushed it enough to make. Miss Melnick was the second. Thank you. All right. Any discussion? Seeing none, I call for the votes to approve the

250motion read by Vice Chair Weems. So here we have 11 eyes. The motion did pass. Thank you. It is 10:40 p.m., and we are adjourned. Lot a lot. The color. Figure out a ton.