Virginia Board of Education Business Meeting 3/27/25

001morning. I would Oh, look. I love it. Okay, I'm going to try this again. I never get response, so I'm just like used to just rolling on through. So, good morning. Oh, I love it, man. I just got a jolt of energy that I would not otherwise have gotten from my coffee or my soda this morning. So, thanks, guys. I really appreciate that. Um, so I will note just for the record that I've approved the remote participation of Mr. Hansen and Miss Ashton under the board bylaws and 2.2-37083B3 2-37083B3 of the code of Virginia because their principal res residences are more than 60 miles from the meeting location. As is customary for the board, we will begin our meeting with a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance. Okay. I pledge allegiance to

002the 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. Okay. So, moving along this morning before we hear the highlight of our day. Um, and just before we do this, the board once we make a couple of motions, we're going to come down and sit in front of you so that we can actually see your smiling faces instead of looking at your backs. But, um, is there a motion to approve the agenda as presented? So, move. Second, Miss Kilgore. I Dr. Northern Hi, Miss McFersonson. Hi, Mr. Rotherham. I, Miss Holton, I. And chair votes I. Uh, staff has provided the members of the board with the draft minutes before the meeting. Is there a motion to approve the

003minutes as presented to the board? So, move. Is there a second? Second, Miss Kilgore. I Dr. Northern Hi, Miss McFersonen. Hi, Mr. Rotherham. Hi, Miss Holton. I and chair votes I. So, as we begin this morning, the board always appreciates being able to feature wonderful arts programs from across the Commonwealth, having students perform for us and for the rest of the Commonwealth as uh people watch on our YouTube. So, I will ask Mr. Rotherham if he would provide us with an introduction of today's guests. Thank you, Madam President. It is my distinct pleasure to introduce to you and the board and the audience the Patriot High School Singers from Noville, Virginia. The Patriot High School Singers under the direction of Elizabeth Selby. Elizabeth is in her 10th year as the coral director at Patriot High

004School in Noville, Virginia. And she's been teaching in Prince William since 2004. Before that, she led the coral program at Benton Middle School and previously taught elementary school music. And she also taught junior high choir in Minnesota. Under Mrs. Selby's direction. The Patriot High School choirs consistently earn superior ratings at various assessments, festivals, and performances, and many of her students are selected annually for county district, state, division, and national honor choirs. Also in attendance from Prince William County, we have Mr. David Van Gelder, the principal of Patriot High School, Dr. Anna Marie Bolino, she's supervisor of the arts, and Miss Michelle Milligan, she's coordinator of performing arts. Welcome to you all and thank you for joining us today. And so now the board will come down and sit in front of you, but after you

005all perform, we would love it if you would meet us out at the steps so that we could take a picture with you all. Thank you. Cafe. It's about a boy who is getting coffee to go sell coffee to go sell at the market and um he sells it but then on the way home so he's kind of freaking out a little bit probably not going to be so happy and our second piece is called singing Britney [Music] Good. Good. Good. We good. We are good. We are good. We are good. We are good. We are good. We are good. All I want Oh my god. [Music] More super My leg super mama [Music] Boy [Music] superity. Heat. Heat. Heat. Oh my god. I'm on superafe. [Music] on the Kyot. [Music] You might like somebody

006like I [Music] [Applause] [Music] singing bring me bring me love. Singing bring me future. Bring me home. Bring me sing baby. Bring me home. Bring me baby bring me brother bring me song bring me brother bring me strong singing bring me oh singing bring me home singing bring me bring me away singing Bring me round tree singing. Bring me bring me joy. Bring me sing. Bring me sister. Bring me brother, bring me strong. Singing, bring me. Singing, bring me home. Bring me joy. Oh, bring me joy. Oh, bring me joy. Oh, bring me joy. Bring me Oh, bring me singing. Bring me. Oh, bring me singing. Bring me Oh, bring me sing. Oh, bring me sing. Oh, bring me singing. Oh, bring me sing bring me fire. Oh, singing bring [Music] me. Oh, bring me

007joy. Oh, bring me joy. Heat. Heat. Heat. Oh bring me. Oh bring me joy. Oh singing bring me home. [Music] [Applause] Okay. Um, back to business. As stated in the board's bylaws, it's the pleasure of the board to accept public public comment on all matters related to public education in Virginia. Before we begin our public comment today, I would just like to share a few comments about the manner in which public comment should be conducted. I will ask that you model professionalism, dignity, respect for others as you share your comments today. When you begin, please provide your name, role, or affiliation in where you live in Virginia. All remarks will be directed to the chair and not to any other individual. You'll notice that there is a timer on the screen over here on the

008small computer. Um that timer will start counting down at 3 minutes. At 1 minute you will see the screen turn yellow. Then the screen will turn red when your time is up. At that point please close your remarks promptly. Speakers can provide any of their uh copies of their comments to Mr. Joe Crook who just raised his hand his hand for you. Joe is the department's regulatory and board coordinator. All written comments received during public comment will be collected and provided to the board as soon as possible. You may also email a copy of your remarks to the board at be.vergirginia.gov. And so with that, I would ask Scott Braybrand to please come forward followed by Douglas Brown. Good morning, President Cesy, Miss Gullixson, and members of the Virginia Board of Education. My name is

009Scott Braybrand. I'm executive director for VAS, and I live in Lynchburg, Virginia. VAS wants to extend a warm welcome to state superintendent Emily Anne Gullixson. Superintendent Gullixson met virtually with all of our Virginia superintendent earlier this week, and we look forward to continued communication and partnership with her in the months ahead. Today, we are pleased to see the work that is continuing to be developed around providing school divisions flexibility for seat time with students. And as you continue to develop this flexibility, we will continue to share best practices with our school divisions across the Commonwealth. We also appreciate today the final adoption of additional math materials as well as final adoption of the Virginia Literacy Act intervention instructional program guide and the supplemental instructional program guide for grades 6 through 8, which is our focus

010for next year. We also appreciate the specific timelines around support and training for those very important new social studies instructional guides. Finally, we're excited to see the adoption of another recovery school, this time in region 2, and we hope to see this opportunity continue to develop in all of our eight VDOE superintendent regions. We look forward to learning more about the high demand jobs that will be part of the 3E portion of the school performance and support framework in May. Please know we'll need a robust set of materials and supports to ensure these highquality work-based learning experiences can occur in all of Virginia's school divisions. Your consideration of a statewide tracking system and support uh positions to monitor those experiences is also appreciated. Finally, we want to continue to learn more. We know you're talking

011about it now, but we want to continue to learn more about the standard setting process for so cut scores. and we have invited the state superintendent to discuss this very important topic with us at our VAS conference next month. As always, VAS looks forward to continuing to work with you on all of these important issues. Have a great day. Thank you, Douglas Brown, followed by Kathy Halverson. Well, good morning, uh, President Cesy, Vice President Hansen, members of the Virginia Board of Education, and Superintendent Gullixson. I'm Douglas Brown and I serve as the co-chair of the Virginia School Boards Association Task Force on Students in Challenging Environments. VSBA would like to express our thanks to President Cesy for meeting with task force co-chair Dr. Jason Van Hokim, myself, and VSBA staff last month to discuss current

012topics in public education and opportunities for collaboration between the task force and the board of education. We would like to invite you, President Cesey, Vice President Hansen, or any other distinguished member to attend one or some of our task force meetings to grow communication and to strengthen our shared commitment to improving student outcomes for all of the Commonwealth's children. VSBA and the VSBA task force are here as a resource as you ponder these topics. VSBA would also like to welcome interim stu superintendent Miss Emily Anne Gullixson and thank her for attending our March board of directors meeting representing the office of the governor. Miss Gullixson has been a helpful partner in previous educational endeavors and we wish her much success in her new role serving Virginia's public school children. We would like to comment on

013a few topics currently being addressed by the board and the Virginia Department of Education. The SBA thanks the department staff for updating the public on the stat status of the history and social studies instructional guides. The transparency in yesterday's board work session on the timeline for release and the status for review of the guides is appreciated. These guides will assist school board members as they talk to constituents about these standards and will assist our educators in developing lessons as they teach the content to our students. We look forward to the release of the final guides. Secondly, VSBA appreciates the work of the board and the department as you assist school divisions that have been adversely affected by weather events this past fall and winter to provide waiverss and other resources as these divisions recover. Several

014of our school divisions have missed instructional time due to the weather and are working diligently to ensure our students are receiving the instruction they need to be successful. All support from the board and department that preserves local control while making sure our divisions are following state regulations is welcomed. The SBA look forward looks forward to continuing to work with the board and department to solve issues that impact our school divisions. This long-standing partnership has produced many successes in advancing learning for students. We wish you a successful March board meeting. Kathy Halverson followed by Madison Whitbeck. Is Kathy Halverson here? No. Madison Whitbeck, Minister Cheryl Sims, Wendy Little, Aaron Little, Jean Sakalowski. Okay. Dr. Jean Solowski, Woodbridge. Madame President, uh, standard WHII9 and the 2023 standards of learning for history and social science requires the student

015to quote, understand World War II by explaining its economic and political causes, unquote. My 12 March 2023 email to the board, which was one month before the board approved the 2023 standards, pointed out that this is misleading and false. The primary causes were the ideologies of Nazism and Stalinist communism. World War II began when Hitler and Stalin attacked Poland together in September 1939. The secret protocol in their non-aggression pact divided Poland between them and assign Eastern Europe to Stalin. In the first two years of the war, Poles were the primary target of a coordinated German and Soviet extermination process designed to annihilate them on both sides of the ribbon drop Montto line. Hitler used Nazism's ideology of Levenramm meaning living space to justify his attack on Poland. Leman's Ramrom required the tasking of taking of

016Slavic lands for colonization by the German pardon me master race. Nazism's racial purity ideology declared that Slavs, Jews, and Roma were inferior races and if they intermixed with the German master race, they would contaminate it to the point of extinction. The German people therefore had the duty to exterminate and enslave the inferior races. Hitler's first two major actions were number one the genocide of the Polish intelligence intelligencia and number two the imprisonment of the Polish Jews and ghettos. His destruction of Polish Jews did not begin for another two years. Stalin used his form of communism to justify his attack on Poland and his first major action was the genocide of the Polish intelligencia whom he declared were enemies of the working class. Stalin did not target Polish Jews for eradication nor take specific action against

017them. It's important to understand that Poland disappeared from the map in 1795 after Russia, Prussia, now Germany, and Austria divided Poland among them. 123 years later, Poland was reestablished in 1918 at the end of World War I. Both Hitler and Stalin strongly opposed the rebirth of Poland. Economics and politics did not cause Hitler and Stalin to attack Poland. neither coveted Poland's economy, which was devastated by World War I, and neither engaged in Polish politics, as many parties competed to lead the newly formed Polish Republic. I respectfully request that you investigate why the advisory committee excluded Nazism's, Levenm, and purity ideologies as key causes of Hitler's attack on Poland. I further ask that you correct the standard by removing economic and political causes and require the student to explain the primary causes which were Hitler's lab

018and racial purity ideologies together with the ideology of Stalinist communism. Thank you. Um we do not have any other speakers listed on our um list for public comment today. Is there anyone here now that we've gone through the list that would like to speak? If so, you can go over to the side, please. We're getting ready to end public comment. We don't have any more speakers. I'm here. Okay. It was an interesting planes, trains, and automobiles, automobiles type of morning. My name is Wendy Little. I am otherwise known as Aaron's mom. I have something prepared, but I don't want to take the time to do it on my phone. I've sent you seven GBser letters. My child, Aaron Little, was supposed to be removed from a private day school that was way undereducating him from

0192021 to 22 and into the local home zone school for the 22 23 school year. He has not had education since because of the corruption and the lies and nobody knows what they're doing. I filed a state complaint. I won. Appealed, won again. VDOE did not enforce corrective actions. Still didn't enforce corrective actions. And he has no education. What What are we even doing here? He's supposed to be in a public school. What is everybody doing here if we're doing nothing? He's supposed to graduate in 2026. His little brother, he'd be still left without an eighth grade education. Why are you not enforcing your own corrective actions? Why is nobody holding Samantha Holland to the fire for not doing that? We have kids all over the place with no education. You all know that when

020I was here before I left my sign, Aaron Little deserves access to education in December. Has anybody done anything? No. What are we doing if we can't even get a special needs child out of a private day school that gave him way below grade level work as an eighth grader and then we can't simply get him in a public home zone school where there's his little brother has been going. What the hell is going on? Nobody wants to bother to look at what has happened and make you know they they're happy to maybe throw him in an advanced grade but he doesn't have an eighth grade education yet. I begged most recently, will you allow him to go to school the fourth quarter of this third school year and maybe he can just take electives

021so that he can't just fail something everything? No, they wouldn't even do that. What are you doing if you're doing nothing? You've been I provided laws that y'all were in in violation of. I provided a document that shows clear illegal collusion going on. Has anybody followed up with me? No. Has anybody in special education done what they're supposed to do with corrective actions? Has VOE done that? No. So, I've sent you all repeatedly repeatedly violations. And what Miss Coons would say to me when I'd say, "Can we talk about this so somebody can get something to go on and happen?" Oh, it's in litigation. No, I sent you off this morning, which I was going to read, but I don't want to spend the time to find it. Thank you very much. regulations that you

022cannot keep a child without education while anything. Thank you for your comments. We appreciate it. Thank you. Are there any other speakers that would like to address the board during public comment? Aaron was signed up. Is Aaron present? No. Okay. Thank you. Okay, we will now um move into our board. Uh uh wait a minute. You let Miss Halverson speak for her child. Okay, you have three minutes. I'll start with the first thing I can get into first. So Aaron's refused access to education for the 22 23 school year. And then the la the second year he had attendance intervention barriers for which you gave Chesterfield County Public Schools $22 million to help children like him. For months I sent what was going on with him. He'd get up, get ready for school, and just

023go into a blank stare. Couldn't get over that hurdle. Why do I have to be in the same grade as my little ma'am? Miss Halverson's uh actually spoke read a a document from her child. Thank you. Okay. So, in order to try to get him to be able to go to school, this is his writing. I'm happy to have somebody copy it for you. My printer's dead. Every time Aaron So, we incentivized him, incentivized him, and then we had to take things away from him. It's a shameful that we had to punish him when the school division has been denying him education. Every time Aaron doesn't go to school and is unable to do so, Aaron's Jamaha guitar will be confiscated for 72 hours. Also, if Aaron breaks this rule while his 72 hours are

024not up, 72 more will be added to this time. If dad is unable to return Aaron Jamaha guitar after this time is up, he will wait until dad can retrieve it. We took his one thing that he loves away from him to try to incentivize him to go to school. And the school division never gave him attendance intervention and attendance barrier support. There's no excuse that the child should have to be punished for that. And I have a um video of him begging for education from the Chesterfield County Public School Board in September of 2022. That you all should have uh you all should have that at least somewhere. But there's no reason a child should be begging for education for 3 years. I've had I'm done. Nobody's doing anything. What are y'all doing? He's

025miserable. He's been He's forced in isolation. He's forced into seclusion. No friends, no peers, no anything. Dispute dispute dispute resolution process is not only broken, it's freaking corrupt. It's useless. Somebody has to do something for him. He's supposed to graduate next year. He'll be 18 in November. And I'm glad they're getting rid of USF because they didn't protect him either. So, thank you. Is there any anybody else here that would like to speak? Okay, I will close the public comment period for today. Um, and I just have a few remarks. I think a couple of other board members have some remarks to make as well. But, um, this morning we would like to officially welcome our new state superintendent, not acting, full state superintendent, uh, Emily Anne Gullixson. Personally, I am extremely excited for this

026opportunity to work with, um, Miss Gullixson in a different capacity. As you all well know, she's been serving as chief deputy secretary of education and now has moved into this role. I don't think that many would disagree that she has been a true asset to the Commonwealth during her time here and I absolutely am just overjoyed at the opportunity for the board to work with her her more directly in this capacity um to continue the the work that we have before us and um just very excited to have her here with us. I know um Mr. Rotherham, you would like to say something as well? I'd be happy to. Uh, Madame President, Emilanne, welcome. Uh, today I've known Emily uh, and her work since before she was uh, here in Virginia. I was extremely excited

027when we were able to recruit her to Virginia and incredibly excited that she's stepping into this role as state superintendent, uh, where I think she is going to do a fantastic job and that's for a few reasons. Number one, she is just unflinchingly a kids first leader. And if you look at her record, her work um in the Southwest before she came here, she is just a tireless fighter for kids, both their rights and making sure that their rights are protected and also just for quality and making sure kids are getting what they what they deserve. Um she gets results and she's a great leader. She listens. um she she she's an inclusive leader, but she's also decisive and sort of doesn't let the politics that often bog this sector down bog her down. So,

028I just want to uh express how excited I am. Again, congratulate her and I think uh uh the department is in good hands and the board uh I think I could probably speak for everybody saying is extremely excited to work with you in this new role. Thank you for taking it on. Superintendent Gixson. Well, good morning. Thank you, President Casey and member Rotherham. Rookie move. Okay. Well, I am so grateful and honored that the governor has asked me to serve alongside all of you and in this new capacity. Uh my career, most of you know, began as a middle school, high school teacher. Um, and over time through my most recent work as chief deputy secretary, students have always been at the center and that remains, as you all saw in our special edition newsletter

029this week, the main focal point for leadership continuing. I know that transitions uh are are uh hard at times and so I do want to assure everyone in the audience today that my priority is to continue to build upon the incredible work that's already underway and foster an environment of shared success around collaboration and getting the field the resources and supports that they need. the Department of Education staff uh has impeccable talent uh expertise and passion for keeping students at the center and so it is my honor and privilege to get to work alongside of them and make sure uh that we are meeting the needs needs of the field. Uh I've been very grateful for the warm welcome uh from so many in the field. Uh especially a thank you to VSBA, VAS and

030the principal associations who have already welcomed me in to get to know your members so that we can work alongside one another and really uh move the needle for our students. And I think now more than ever with uh all that is happening around us. Um belief in what is possible for every student matters and being very focused on uh our outcomes and how we can achieve that together. And so I uh really am excited. you know, we've made Virginia a spotlight already uh for being a leader across the country and definitely my goal to make this the best place to learn, teach, and lead as well. Thank you. Um we are excited to move into our I'm sorry, Miss McFerson. I just want to welcome um Emily as well and say to the public

031that um I've been very fortunate that she welcomed me to the board after I was appointed. But I have been most impressed with her attention to detail and followup. And I just want to assure the members of the public that we really are in good hands in terms of getting back to you with issues that you have and the progression that I think that she'll bring to moving the projects of the board forward. So, welcome again. Okay. Um that being said, no one else would like to speak. Um I'm going to move to the consent agenda. First and final review to certify list of qualified persons for the office of division superintendent of schools. Is there a motion to wave first review and approve the list of items on the consent agenda? So moved. Second.

032Any discussion? Miss Kilgore I. Dr. Northern I. Miss McFersonson I. Mr. Rotherham. Hi. Miss Holton I. And chair votes I. Okay. Um, we are going to move to item L because we do have um some guests from Virginia Beach that are joining us and they need to get back through the tunnel appropriately and that might take you, you know, two hours to get back. It might take you four. You never can tell. So, um, we would love it if you all would come and, um, grace us with your presence. Thank you. Melissa, you're gonna So again, this is item L for the board. Come on up. Good morning, President Cesy, board members, Superintendent Gullixson. Um, I'm here to present for your consideration a board resolution in support of the region 2 uh recovery high school.

033During the special session one of the 2024 general assembly, the assembly appropriated funds to support the establishment of a year-round high school that's open to any student in the region who is in the early stages of recovery from substance use, disorder, or dependency. So, students enrolled in a recovery high school are provided academic, emotional, and support needed to progress toward earning a high school diploma, and if possible, reintegrating into a traditional high school setting if they desire. Funding was provided to Virginia Beach public schools to support the establishment of a recovery high school in Superintendent Region 2. School boards from Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, NOFK, Portsouth, and SUFFK have approved a program proposal for the establishment of Harbor Hope Center, and its anticipated start date is August of 2025. Harbor Hope has secured a central location

034at Chesapeake's Educational Services Center, and the participating divisions have been developing the program's purpose, mission, goals, and the objectives aligned with each division's um strategic plan. Uh they've collaborated with the Virginia Opioid Abatement Authority, the existing region one recovery high school in Chesterfield, uh Chesapeake Behavioral Health, and other state agencies to establish academic and clinical approaches to serving the unique needs of those students that will be attending Harbor Hope. Students may voluntarily enroll in the school, but remain um dual enrolled in their home high school. Uh the representatives of Virginia Beach are here and so I don't want to um take any more of the time, but it is the superintendent's recommendation that the board approved resolution supporting this innovative program for the unique to serve the unique needs of students in recovery. Welcome Virginia

035Beach. Thank you. Uh good morning, Miss Cesy, members of the board. My name is Don Robertson, superintendent of schools in Virginia Beach, and I'm joined today by our school board attorney, Cammy Lanetti, and also Dr. Jeene Saltner who's our project coordinator and Dr. Saltner's just going to take a couple of minutes to give you a high level overview of where we are. Thank you. Thank you Dr. Robertson and thank you for your kindness in recognizing our travel. Uh it' be a pleasure to get back uh before 6 pm this evening. Want to uh you just got the 30,000 foot view from our introduction. uh you've received a one pager that uh contain and I don't want to reiterate much of that but instead just give you the even higher level view from the mountaintop. I

036want to begin by first emphasizing for you that this is truly a collaborative regional effort. Uh when we received funding in July, we immediately called together all of the regional two superintendent, giving them the opportunity to participate in this venture. Five schools on the south side of Virginia opted to participate. Chesapeake, NOFK, Portsouth, Suffach, and Virginia Beach. I believe you can figure out very quickly its proximity uh for schools in our region on the Eastern Shore or Appamatics not uh probably as good an option for them but the opportunity exists for all students in region two to participate. There are five funding schools and actively participating schools. A student outside of uh those five schools may with their school board pay tuition to attend at our port per student cost. We formed a regional steering

037committee. So there's a great sense of ownership from the five schools. We went immediately to work and created uh a school from the ground up. We used the resources of the Association for Recovery Schools, visited Chesterfield Recovery on uh Chesterfield's recovery school on multiple occasions and uh we have in sense ready to go and that's why we're here before you. We're using a braided funding model unlike Chesterfield or as I understand Lden who was also working toward we uh are not only using local funds but we're using the general assembly planning funds. We uh are most interested in tapping the opioid abatement authority funds. There are three types of fundings we can seek from them. We are seeking two. We uh have a grant that exists that would bring in approximately $2.459 million dollars over

038five years to support or to sustain this school as we build it. Uh we'll be using direct settlement funds that which the city received and each of the cities received in a total of 800,000 and a $ 1.5 million grant which was submitted just yesterday and in which we will hear in May. I'm very confident that the VA who has been very supportive in assisting us with this process will indeed approve this grant. In addition to the VA funding, general assembly funding, we also have a shared funding formula that each of the divisions will uh share based on their percentage of enrollment for any additional costs that are incurred. Little bit about the operations. You've heard it already. uh location Ches Peak central proximity uh Ches Peak Public Schools is offering that school an inind

039contribution which totals almost $120,000 as their contribution towards this two components if I can lay out the uh framework of the program an academic and a therapeutic in order to have that therapeutic as educators uh while we have counseling services with us we don't have the expertise and therefore we have tapped into a partnership with Chesapeake Integrated Behavioral Health. All said and done, we are ready to go. Uh we as a regional steering committee are looking to uh put a bow on it on staffing, on our agreements, and on getting students enrolled. We look for your support. Thank you kindly. I'm here to take any questions you may have. Are there any questions by board members? Miss Holton, thank you for your hard work on this uh important endeavor. I'm curious, how many students do

040you anticipate serving? Maybe you told us that and I missed it. I did not tell you that. Uh we and nor was it in the one pager. We are looking in year one to serve approximately 30 students. In five years, we hope to increase that to 50 and increase staff accordingly. Our VA grant uh takes into account that increased number of students and the need for additional funding. Thank you. Other questions, Mr. Rotherham? Not a question. Do you want comments now or after the motion? I just want to congratulate you. I I the regional approach to bringing people together like this, the innovation is fantastic. I'm pleased to support this resolution. This exactly the kind of energy and creativity that we need to see. So, uh no question. and just wanted to commend you all

041and I appreciate you coming over today and I'm excited about this and I hope we see I hope we see more things with similar energy and creativity. Thank you. Thank you kindly. It has been very energizing for all of us on the regional steering committee. Dr. Northern. Yeah, I I actually um just have a question. So I heard in your presentation that uh they'll go back to their traditional high school if they desire and that they'll be in the early stages of recovery. So is the plan that the kids would return to their high school under a certain set of conditions or would they remain there or h how does that work in terms of The answer is both. Okay. Students who need the support of a recovery school may remain through graduation. Students who

042have come out of a recovery facility perhaps in a residential facility for 60 days might need just need a traditional period for a semester or till the end of the year. In addition, this fluid enrollment model allows us we cannot work our recovery school and the research evidence-based research shows us that if you don't want to be in recovery, you will not be successful. So, we anticipate with this fluid enrollment accepting some students who uh may return to use and have repeated return to use and will need to make decisions about entering and exiting them. Uh it will be a a wraparound services that will fully involve both our our program coordinator, our therapeutic staff in Chesapeake Integrated Behavioral Health and the family. As a followup, um I just have a followup. I'm asking because

043I actually one of my very good friends uh works at a school similar to this one um with some issues. Um, and I think part of the thing that she sees is when the kids come back from recovery, they get in a classroom with a bunch of other kids who are struggling with the same thing and sometimes they fall back into it because the kids sitting next to them hasn't successfully recovered and it's almost like you're surrounded by a bunch of kids who are sort of struggling. So, I guess talk to me a little bit because I'm I'm get torn sometimes about whether it's best to put these kids in a room with all the kids with the same struggles and whether they might fall susceptible to getting into that same issue again or whether

044it's best to sort of put them with kids who don't have those issues. And I'm sure you've thought about that, but if you could just speak to that issue a little bit and it sounds like you have read the research from the recovery schools. A little bit. Yes. Yes, indeed. There are uh there will be we have a success plan for every student and we need to look at every student as an individual. So we will design with the family and with the student an individualized success plan. Some students will be able to make that transition back. We know that others will not. So it's really going to be done on an individualized basis. If a student exits and returns to use, we'll look at that student to return. Uh we're We any student who

045is in recovery, we are going to serve. Other questions or comments? Superintendent Gixson, I just want to say thank you so much for your leadership. Uh you've really developed a true collaborative, not just with your school divisions, but also community assets and resources. And I think we uh you are going to be a proof point we would love to feature u moving forward of designing personalized learning setting. And I think we cannot underscore uh the rise in addiction and substance abuse with our young people. And so thank you for your leadership in ensuring that students have a safe and sober area to learn and thrive. Uh and you are really saving lives. So again to the board I fully support this resolution. Thank you. Um is there a motion to wave first review and adopt

046the resolution as presented in this item? So moved. Second. Any discussion? Okay. Miss Kilgore I. Dr. Northern I. Miss McFersonson. Mr. Rotherham. Hi. Miss Holton I. and chair votes I. Thank you all. We appreciate you so much. Please have a safe and successful rapid trip home. We'll do. We look forward to updating you. Thank you kindly. Okay. Um All right. With that, we will go back to item C and I think Dr. Wallace. Good morning, Madam President. This one. Good morning, Madam President. Um board members and Superintendent Gullixson. Um we're excited to uh be here today to present to you the final um program guides for in uh intervention instructional programs and supplemental instructional programs for grades six through eight. I would like to uh give a shout out to Ann Eaton. She is here

047with me today from the Virginia Literacy Partnerships. She has led this work uh in the in the Commonwealth over the past couple of years with the curriculum review process and so she's here today just um to show support of the item as well and if you have any questions for her she's happy to answer them. Um, but we really appreciate the partnerships that we have with with Virginia Literacy Partnerships and Ann and her team of many, many, many educators from across the Commonwealth have been um working to get best-in-class resources for our students to access in particular for our middle school students. This will be the first time that we have had sixth grade through 8th grade intervention and supplemental programs. Um, it is the recommendation of the superintendent to accept these uh instructional programs

048to comply with the Virginia Literacy Act. Okay. Is there a motion to approve the attached list of recommended six through eight intervention instructional programs and supplemental instructional programs to comply with the VA? So move. Is there a second? Okay. Um, is there any discussion here? Miss Holton, just a brief question. Uh, uh, Dr. Wallace, it just helped me understand u these supplemental and uh intervention and supplemental programs are approved to meet the requirements of the Virginia Literacy Act. Nothing in these guides would exclude uh middle school teachers from u introducing their students to novels that uh a range of novels that uh are of interest that they think their students will be of interest to. Am I right? That is correct. So the literacy act is uh providing highquality materials and mandating certain high-quality materials

049in certain circumstances but not to the exclusion of helping students learn to love reading more broadly novels and other materials that teachers may think they're going to be interested in. That is correct. We still have the standards of learning that our teachers are using to address um English concepts in all grade levels. But um so that's where you know in their core literacy programs or core instructional programs in the middle school they're going to be exposed to those novel sets. Yes. And the standards of learning don't uh limit the novel selection. They give uh expectations but teachers and students still have some free choice in what they want to read. Am I right? That is correct. Excellent. Thank you. Okay. Dr. Northern. I just want to say I was super excited to see great books

050uh on the list. I know it made it didn't make didn't meet every single criteria, but to Miss Holton's point, uh it used to be that kids would read entire books and the great book selection. I hope that's still the case. Um, and I was also excited to see Newella on there, which is a great resource because it sort of changes the reading level for kids where they are, but also pushes them to continue reading um, you know, to higher levels. So, just personally, um, super excited to see I'm I'm I'm not as familiar with some of these other choices, but I um I was excited to see those two u make the list. So, thank you for uh your good review of all these different resources. Thank you. Further discussion? Okay. Miss Kilgore. I

051Dr. Northern I. Miss McFersonson. Hi. Mr. Rotherham. Recuse. Miss Holton. Hi. And chair boats eye. I don't know that um I don't think that Mr. Hansen is online yet, nor is Miss Ashton online yet. So, thank you. Okay, Dr. Wallace, you have item D as well. Final review of proposed additional proposed state approved textbooks and instructional materials for K12 math. Yes. So, thank you again. Um, excited to bring another list of textbooks and instructional materials for K12 math for our teachers and divisions to uh select from. you know, you approved an init a list last month. Um, and actually, I will just back up a little bit. This process has been another lengthy process for us. We started the math textbook review process last year. I've been here just over a year, and we've been

052doing the math textbook review for about that length of time. Um, and during that time, we refined some of our processes and trained our educators um to be able to expand their uh their knowledge of reviewing high-quality instructional materials and um thinking about the the pedigogy that goes along with those complete sets of materials. And so um with that process, it has been lengthy, but the the time length has also given publishers the ability to go back to their materials and make sure that they're aligned. And so for example, sometimes we get materials that are aligned in third grade in another place in that textbook, but for our standards, they're aligned to the fourth grade or the second grade standard. So our process expanded to allow um our textbook companies to say, "Hey, we're this

053is where we meet the alignment from a different grade level. They do have to change their textbooks prior to publishing them for Virginia." Um but that did expand our list a little bit and gives more options to our school divisions for their local adoption processes. So, just wanted to kind of highlight that as as the process has been over the last year. Um, and so we're excited to bring a little bit more extensive list to our school divisions. Um, so the superintendent recommends that you uh approve the list today. Is there a motion to approve the attached list of proposed recommended textbooks and instructional materials? Is there a second? Second. Any discussion here? Dr. Northern, I just say that um to me, I like to see whether some of our um curricula have passed the

054ed reports um sort of, you know, it's it's for folks who don't know, they uh evaluate curriculum and rate it uh various quality indicators and sometimes they get it wrong, they don't always get it right, but it's nice to have a second um check on that. And I was pleased that um the um Michelle was able to provide that information and and um most of these uh criteria I mean a curricula do meet um their highest tier for evaluation. So um thank you for doing that external quality check um and making sure that we are indeed um you know providing the best curricula that we can in mathematics. Absolutely. Thank you Miss Holton. Uh and I'll just chime in to say thank you for you all's long hard work on this. I do appreciate the

055fact that we pushed you to go back and expand the list and it's uh I know the field who's been teaching to the new standards already for a year is um eager essentially for these overdue materials but appreciate the work you all have done to help put together good quality materials that can catch up with what's going on in the field next year. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. Other comments. Okay, hearing none. Miss Kilgore. I Dr. Northern I Miss McFersonson. Hi, Mr. Rotherham. Because of professional conflicts like the previous item, I recuse. Miss Holton, I and chair votes I. Thank you very much. Thank you. Okay, moving to item E. Dr. Hollands. Good morning, Superintendent Gullixson, President Cesy, and members of the board. I'm Dr. Samantha Marsh Holland, the associate superintendent of special populations and

056board operations. It's my pleasure today to bring you for final review uh review of the mastery level standard setting process. Um, this was something that was brought previously before the board at their last meeting for first review. We also have had extensive presentations on background for this from our national series and spent a great deal of time yesterday during the work session hearing from one of our TAC members on the intricacies of this process. So one just a thank you to the board for spending the time to really dig into this topic and gather the information necessary to make the decision today. For today the superintendent of public instruction is recommending that the board of education approves the process to move forward and continue our discussion. We will be discussing this topic in the future

057as well at our future meetings once this process has undergone its um its role. So I'll stop there and happy to answer any questions. I'd also like to recognize staff in the audience, the assistant superintendent for assessment, Dr. Dora Villa Rial, and the director of the office of student assessment, Jason Ellis, for their hard work as well as that of their staff. Thank you. Um is there a motion? Well, first of all, I'd like to remind the board we're only voting on the process today. So, please keep comments or or um questions strictly related to that motion. So, we would like to I'd like to entertain a motion to approve the proposed mastery level standard setting process. Madame President, can I raise question can we ask some questions before we have a motion? We go

058to the what the substance of the motion is. Okay, please proceed. Uh thank you. Um U Dr. Hollands um I and and actually I don't know whether these questions are going to be you for for you or Superintendent Gullixson. So I'm hopeful somebody can help me know understand uh have there we were presented with a schedule for the timeline for this work last month um uh by the deputy superintendent then in charge of the work um uh and I'm just wondering if there have been any changes to that timeline uh and I and and in particular I'll I'll just compound the question to say have we taken into consideration any concerns about teacher availability andor DOE staff availability given that the timeline we've been shown kind of piles right on top of U so uh

059testing in the divisions superintendent Gixon President Cesy I don't know if it's working yeah President Cesy member Holton um we have definitely been uh convening and discussing options to move forward forward. In order to do that though, it we're pending on the process getting approved. And so, uh, we need sign off on the process in order to then move forward on getting those applications we talked about out yesterday and looking at if we need to move back to convening of the committees in June. Um, when there might be more availability. So, no changes yet to the timeline, but you're going to consider them after. Yes, we've been evaluating pros and cons. And then my second question, do you yet know, and again, this may, thank you. This may yet be. Do we know who's going

060to lead this work? We were told last month that the deputy superintendent of learning and teaching and learning was going to lead this work, and she's no longer with us. So, do we yet know who's going to lead this work going forward? Superintendent Gixson, President Casey, member Holton. Yes, our uh department team is well staffed. We've added some consultants to assist who have specialized in standard setting uh to wrap around the team as well who have helped other states through the process. I'm happy to get you that information. I I I'm more concerned about who we're who we have that has Virginia based knowledge and experience and I it just and I know you'll be tending to this and welcome the fact that you're here and um only a few days into the job. So

061I understand you may not yet be able to address it, but this is a lot of work just in sheer logistics with Virginia uh uh you know 200 plus folks you're going to be recruiting across Virginia. So, I would just say that we are certainly um sympathetic to that end. Um I mean, you know, as well as anybody that I've been very um actively involved in making sure that we do have input from a Virginia based person in many, many of our things that we've accomplished throughout the board's time. Um and so that's certainly u a direction that that we will be continuing to provide to the staff. And I don't mean to I mean I think we do have some expertise within the department. We just got to figure out how to get the

062right folks into the into the work. And then my last uh question again I don't know whether who who is best to answer this but what we're asking what we're being asked to approve today. So what the what the document says is all we're being asked to approve is the ID matching process. But the discussion yesterday also suggested that we're being asked to approve a significant change to past standard setting process by adding this work on reasonable ranges, adding direction around reasonable ranges and adding um um PDLs all circling around. I think we were described as more or less NAPE proficient. So I is there a are we what what are we being asked? What is the motion today? That is not part of the motion. The motion is simply setting up the process to

063be able to move forward. It has nothing to do with sta setting the ranges. Well then I don't understand how the you know are we what are these what what are these groups what are these panels going to do? Are they going to be operating based on reasonable ranges or not? What what is our direction? Don't these panels need our guidance as to that key element of the process? Dr. Hollands. Yes. Um, that's a great question. I will specify by saying that the information that's contained in this item only sits to to the process itself. Now, obviously, as you all heard yesterday, there are components of that process that discuss where other states sit, where the national assessment sits. That is all part of the oversight of the department that will assign that work to

064the standard setting committee. The technical assistance committee, the TAC meeting will also happen between now and the next meeting. So when the board receives its update, it will have the benefit of those processes being worked out. Well, let me ask it. Maybe maybe this can help clarify. Are we is the process that we're being asked to approve today the process that was described to us yesterday with the PDLs as written by staff and the reasonable range piece that was added in in the presentation we saw yesterday. Is that the process we're being asked to approve? Yes. The process that was presented on yesterday is reflective of the board item that the board reviewed on first review at their previous meeting and for final review today. Well, I would submit that the process that was described

065to us yesterday was a lot more detailed than what we're being asked to vote on, but I will assume in my vote that what we heard yesterday fleshes out the details of what we're being asked to vote on today. Any other questions before we entertain a motion? Okay. So, is there a motion to approve the proposed mastery standard setting process? Yes. Is there anyone? So moved. Second. Okay. Any other discussion here before we move on? Do you have a question or a comment? A comment. Yes. Yeah. So, uh I would before we vote, I would like to argue to my colleagues that I think we need to be to be transparent and honest with parents, which this board has set as a goal. We need to be clear on what we're doing here that we

066are changing we are moving towards changing the grading scale in a manner that will make it harder to pass the SOS and not just a little harder a lot harder. So if we realign to more or less NAPE proficient levels as we were told yesterday is the goal and embedded in this process we will be doubling the number of students who fail our SOS across all grades at least in the short term from about you know right now about a third of our students fail the SOS this change in the grading scale will lead to about twothirds of our students failing our SOS And there may be good reason to do this. Um it's essentially would be a powerful communications tool if you think parents are mistakenly deliluding themselves about the quality of their students

067academic performance and the state of public education in in Virginia. So um there may be reasons to do it, but I want to be clear on what it is and what it isn't. I would argue that our grading scale is low. It is one of the easiest in the country. No doubt about that. And it has been that way for two decades or more. And I would agree that our kids performance has declined from being one of the top. And that performance is different from the grading scale. Our performance has declined from being one of the top in the nation to being now about average. And that is something that calls for urgent action. But it's hard to see how the grading scale itself is the problem since it essentially hasn't changed from when our

068kids were still among the best in the nation. So it may well merit some adjustment. But if we're going to adjust it, we should be honest with parents on three key fronts. The first that changing the grading scale alone is not going to make our kids smarter. To make that happen, we have to invest in highquality teachers and curriculum, extended school hours, tutoring, other tools that have been proven to actually help students learn more. And that's why I well I'll just as an aside to that I'll say I hope that everybody uh on the board and who is hearing us will help encourage the governor um to work with the legislature to invest as robustly as possible uh in our public education rather than taking money away from it as some of the proposed amendments

069that are floated earlier this week would do. Uh but the the second front where we need to be honest with parents is that changing the grading scale as dramatically as being as is being proposed here and we heard yesterday the process is embedded in the process is aligning our grading scale to more or less NAT proficient. There was some suggestion from board members that maybe we're going to ratchet this up slowly but that's not embedded that's not been shared with us in any in any fashion. Changing the grading scale that dramatically carries some risk of hurting morale of teachers, students, and parents. Now, and that's, you know, not everything, but if we don't communicate transparently, consistently, and effectively about what we're doing, it could be misplay. The impact could be contrary to what we're looking

070for. And and and then finally, I would just say that changing the grading scale so dramatically necessitates a look from this board at the repercussions through the rest of our system. And I am reluctant to vote on a change so dramatic, a process that sets up a change so dramatic without our having more information on those repercussions. And I raised a couple yesterday. The most perhaps the most important is uh graduation. That potentially thousands of high school students each year who would have passed their high school SOS under the old scale could be denied high school diplomas because their so scores don't pass musters under the new scale. And I I am completely supportive of setting high goals for all of our students. And that's why I supported setting uh supporting the the new math

071standards for instance that we've adopted. But these new math standards, they're tough. You know, I invite folks to look at what we were sh what was shared with us yesterday under the the PDLs for math. And for example, to pass 8th grade math, much less end of course high school math and graduate, one would need to be able I mean, there's tons of stuff on here. I won't go into it that I certainly could not do now, maybe I could want to do it, but uh the fact that I don't know how to do it now is not keeping me from being successful in life. And if a student can meet the basic level, understand the basics of the Pythagorean theorem in 8th grade, but not be able to do all these complex gymnastics around

072it. Do we really want to hold them back from a high school diploma? set high goals for everybody, but students who have demonstrated basic knowledge but not necessarily mastered all the complex skills at a certain grade level, do we really want to hold them back from graduating? And it may well be we want to change the grading scale and then adjust our graduation requirements. For instance, uh another repercussion is for our accountability system. If we make the change that we're talking about now, I my own calculations would be that we will double number the number of schools that are labeled either off track or needs intensive support. Go from about a third. It's the number is a bit of a black box now, but about a third to about twothirds um would be labeled off

073track or needs intensive support. I don't know that I'm right about that and I've asked frankly I've been asking for many many months for the department to give us information on that and we don't have it yet and I and I and Superintendent Bullixson I graciously has told me she's going to work to get us that information but I am reluctant to go forward on this process that embeds these big changes uh without without that information. Um u I you know if you're looking for a strategy to sour people on public schools gen generally defining twothirds of them as as not successful um you know maybe is what you want to do. But if what you want is an accountability system that's going to help identify the schools that most need support and redirection and

074intervention. Is it really helpful to draw the lines that such that so many of our schools carry those punitive labels? If not, again, we can go forward on changing the grading scale if that's the will of the board. But we should be thinking about those repercussions and making adjustments. And since we don't yet have the information about those repercussions, I'm reluctant. I urge us to to consider not going forward. A and there are potentially other repercussions. There are funding formulas that allocate monies based on pass rates etc etc. Again one of the things I've asked for is let's have an analysis of where are all the places in our education system and our funding formulas etc where pass rates are determinative and doubling the the cutting the pass rates in half may have an impact.

075So uh for all of those reasons I urge us to um uh not um adopt this process today without further clarification. Mr. Rotherham. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Miss Holton. Uh, okay. A few things. First, I I think just to cut to the quick, we're voting on a process here. And I I think it's it's actually irresponsible from the DAS to start talking about kids being denied diplomas and half of kids failing and all of this. Like, this is a process. We're not there yet in terms of what this is going to look like. That'll be part of the process. And this this sort of getting everybody fired up and and and spun up before we have this information. It just creates energy. It creates angst. It's politics. And I think we I think

076we can I let's stay let's stay focused on the substance. Once we have the data, we need to have conversations about many of the things that you raised, Miss Holton. Um how we're going to support struggling schools, what this is going to look like, how this interacts with the accountability system. But we're all we're voting on today is a process. But to listen to this, you would think we were setting cut scores and we were making a set of decisions. Let's let's go with the process. I thought we got a really good briefing yesterday. There's different ways that that states set standards and there's different trade-offs and psychrometricians love to argue about them. This is the one we're landing on. It's it's a robust process. It's going to get us um it's going to get

077us where we need to go. So, I think it's just way too soon for this this sort of uh that this sort of um uh rhetoric. It reminds me, unfortunately, of the history standards where we had, you know, we're not going to teach about World War II or we're not going to, you know, um uh teach about Nazism and it got people a lot of angst, caused a lot of distress. It was just completely not what was actually going on. And I I would hope uh that that the public uh the media and so forth would would learn from that. Let's let's follow this let's follow this process. That's the second thing we should be communicating honestly and I think it behooves this board to make sure as we make these decisions. I completely agree

078with Miss Holton that we communicate very clearly what's being done, how it's being done, why it's being done, and what the potential impact like. we have not been as transparent and for a long time much of this information has been sort of husbanded uh uh among elites rather than than shared out in a in a broadly uh accessible way. And so I think like it it behooves us and I I would be disappointed uh and wouldn't support if we did if we did anything less. As we talked about yesterday, there there's certain things here that that are appropriately privileged in terms of like vendor IP and stuff like that, but to the maximum extent possible, while respecting that, we should be we should be um uh we should be as transparent uh as we can

079be. Now, just on the larger issues, I disagree that Virginia has always had low stand. We we were an early uh adopter in the standards movement. Virginia was a leader. We led on issues like graduation rates. Um that we've become a straggler and the NAPE data and other data shows that but that has not always uh that is we've certainly not always uh been a straggler and we have not always had the lowest cut scores and I don't think we need to like go through it again. It's public record in the board minutes like cut scores were lowered. We made decisions. Now people can disagree about the policy judgments of those decisions as they'll disagree about the policy judgments that that we're going to make. But we have made decisions that have led us to

080to where we are. It behooves us, I believe, uh, as a board to be honest about where we are and then figure out where we need to get to. And so that's the last thing I want to speak to. Just two two things. First of all, as we discussed yesterday, look, Moses did not get handed a tablet that says what fourth graders should know be able to do in reading or eighth graders should know one be able to do in math. Um this is professional judgment and we we have to make a professional judgment based on what are the skills that we think and the knowledge that kids are going to need to be successful and we are sometimes going to get that wrong. I think any of us who are parents can think of

081things we told our kids that this is really important and now you're like okay actually that probably wasn't all that important. So we should bring we should bring some humility to it. But we do know certain things around literacy and numeracy and so forth that um that are important and there's such a gap between our standards now and how other states set those standards including states that we compete with our neighbors um in particular Tennessee but also North Carolina and Maryland. We should pay attention um uh we should pay attention to that. And I would suggest as we think about morale right now we have students at proficient in NAPE a level in the teens uh and we have uh enormous percentages of kids who are below basic and and those issues are obviously more

082acute among low-income those low-income students in the teens, excuse me. Um those issues are more acute among low-income students, more acute among black students, special education students, Hispanic students. Uh what is damaging for your morale is if you come out of a Virginia public school and you are at that below basic level on the nape because you are functionally unp we are functionally have left you unprepared for any kind of further opportunity that is a morale problem in terms of people their agency the way they're able to live their lives uh and so I think we you know this is exactly the right path to take I think we need to explain why we're taking it and and the reasons for it and I completely agree we need to think about the support that's necessary,

083making sure uh that that the consequences that flow from this are are logical and we're being supported. But I just do not understand the argument for delaying. And I I do sort of believe there will always be there are people who there will always be a reason. If we if we didn't have a fight about the budget, it would be well maybe there's going to be a recession in a few months, so we should wait and see if there's a recession. And then it would be well maybe we should wait and see we're having a we're having a change in this or that. Like at some point it just behooves us. we have to as responsibly as we can uh and and as I said with with with humility but also with decisiveness move forward

084um because I believe our public I I I have I have deep confidence in our educators. We just heard from teachers yesterday talking about they worry about uh low expectations and they want to see expectations raised and I believe our educators and our schools can do it. I am I am like if if if put me firmly in the can do camp, not the can't do camp in terms of how we think about our public schools in the state. I believe I believe they can do it if we approach this in a transparent way and we provide the support. I have uh uh I have no doubt that our educators are more than capable of meeting the challenge and we're going to see better outcomes for kids which is why we're here. President, Miss McFersonson.

085Yes. I um believe that this is a massive undertaking. I think we have a direction of accountability and obviously where there's more accountability and more data, the more we can decide where we need to place the resources and it's going to take everybody's hands on especially a lot more family involvement um a lot more resources for us to make sure that we're not leaving kids behind. But I don't live in a world where I don't believe that this isn't going to have a major impact. But I think we brace ourselves for that. We look at the vision of the governor and the general assembly that says we need to raise the standards in Virginia. But let us focus on where we really need to place the resources so that we don't graduate students that are

086not prepared for the the global environment. And we live in a high tech society. China isn't waiting on its educational system in terms of preparation. A lot more people than we have. I just think we do have to step up to the plate. But I do recognize, Miss Holton, that there is going to be an impact and we need to bring everything we've got to bear to try to make sure that students are not uh ill equipped and that we fail them by failing to do what we need to do to uh put in place a system. um that will work going forward. Dr. Northern, just three quick points. I think one um is I keep going back to how much we've lost in the last couple years. You know, even though we're quote average,

087um in the last two years, we've lost just major strides in Virginia in particular. two years. You know, when we look at when we look at that NAPE information, especially in eighth grade, uh where the the losses were especially debilitating. Um I do think I mean, you guys know I I always like to kind of reference the larger research base and you know, we know that accountability writ large um this is studies done by Tom D and others on accountability. um when you set high goals with the supports, okay? Like and we don't want to forget that because that's a that's we all know that's important. Um we we see the lower end especially and we made big strides before the pandemic honestly and you don't hear a lot about that but there were some

088strides especially when the lower among the lower performing uh group of kids when we were in that sort of accountability era and and accountability has gotten such a bad w because in many ways it's just holding high expectations and providing supports to the kids who need it. Um, and I feel like those um that that we do like if if if we look at at at prior research and what other states have done, what we're doing has a very big possibility of helping the kids especially at the lower end. I mean, our our system's great, right? Because we're also going to uh provide incentives for the kids at the higher end, too, to keep to keep progressing along that distribution. Um I do think that and we've said this before but the honesty the whole

089thing about the honesty gap and you know that sort of term gets thrown around but at the end of the day it just means that yes we we parents think their kids are doing fine because they see you know they passed their so um and in many cases they see a grade that's in a classroom that's fine because we also know we have grade inflation occurring pretty uh pretty bad not only in Virginia but nationwide. So, we've got to deal with the great inflation in both the classroom level and the great inflation on our SOS. So, we're battling this like in multiple directions. And so, I really do think that parents aren't given the opportunity to act um on behalf of their kids when they don't have good information. Um, and then I guess my

090last point is just that we all these conversations we we've we we keep talking about how it's so damaging to expect less of kids. Um and gosh, I think about my own um time when I was teaching in high school in in Norview High School. And in many ways, um those um that that school had done so poorly for so long and we got a a principal in there who just said, "You know what? We're going to teach to high standards. I want you to have your so on the board every day. I want, you know, she would just hold us accountable to actually teaching to the SOS because back then our SOS were pretty good, right? We were we used to be a for a leader in the nation uh with our SOS and

091I just remember thinking wow she's holding us accountable to teaching these things. She's she's making sure we're doing it and we ended up Norview and Norfick won the uh Broad Prize years ago um for actually helping to close the achievement gap because we were being held to high standards and we were taking no excuses. So, I'm prattling on. But I I do think that um to embrace that um philosophy uh and that energy around high expectations is good for the Commonwealth. Can you go for me one more? Okay. Madam President. Um very briefly since since those who have chosen to speak have spoken already, I will circle back around briefly. Miss Holton, briefly. Go ahead, Miss Holton. Calling on you. Uh uh I I won't repeat anything I've said before. I just responding to Mr.

092U uh Rotherham uh and Dr. Northern. I did not say that I I I agree with you that Virginia has always had strong standards and they've gotten even stronger. I'm not speaking to the standards at all. Our grading scale has always been relatively easy. And whether that's right or wrong is a fair question. But I don't I submit that the grading scale hasn't held us back from success uh because we were successful when our grading scale was relatively easy. Um the second point as to what's I'll just direct the folks to the discussion yesterday as to what's embedded in the process and submit that yes while today is a process vote what is embedded in that process is an orientation around NAPE proficient which right or wrong is a big dramatic change from where we've

093been. And then final point is we are doing yeah we are doing some things right. The VA is going to help our students do better learn more. Uh the general assembly put in uh significant new money to help us improve math instruction. Uh things that actually help teachers teach better students learn better. I'm all for Miss McFersonson. Yeah. I just wanted to say that out of this process will come a lot of new innovation um by principles and superintendents and I wanted to actually um give a shout out to the city of North and city council just decided to do something great which is to ask them to bring back a plan to consolidate some of the schools and uh obviously it was driven a little bit by the economic situation but I think those

094types of things are going to we will find around the state that they're going to some creative movement going forward um in terms of approaches and adapting in your system. Okay. If if there's nothing for president Mr. Rotherham. Um uh I so yeah I want one area of uh I'm sorry. Go ahead. Oh um one area like two two just two quick points. We have our standards. We have have we always had an easier grading scale. We can argue about that and so forth. But again we have made some decisions and I think it behooves us to lean into where we are in this moment and figure out what do kids need and what should the bar be. And then so second I just want to respond to miss um the NAPE no one should

095think this is some sort of effort to hide the ball. We are using NAPE standards because they tell us something. There's a reason it's considered a gold standard uh for the nation. The nation's report card a lot of us refer to it as sort of an educational barometer. But where our standards actually land in their impact is what we don't know. And it is it is not a responsible thing to say we're going to just key off of NAPE uh proficient and just simply do that. We heard yesterday from the gentleman who's helping lead this work who was here that obviously if we were going to do that we wouldn't even be going through any of this process. Dr. Hollands wouldn't be here. We would we would just do that. We are using it as

096a reference point. And if the accusation is we are going to dramatically raise standards and expectations in this state and and then report more honestly to parents about how their kids are doing against those well guilty. Um and and and let's have that let's have that conversation. Okay. Um, Mr. Hansen, I know you wanted to make a comment. Thank you, Madam Chair, and my apologies for not being there in person today, but um I just uh uh I I do want to just suggest that um we have had the most dramatic decline in the country in our um achievement tests and our scores. And so, you know, when there's a comment made about big dramatic change, you know, I would suggest that we needed it regardless, but we need it more than ever to really

097help us get back to where we were. And I also had the opportunity back in the 1990s when Governor George Allen uh started this whole process and was on two of the commissions that put these into place. And you know, I've watched this as a parent and as a citizen uh and now as a grandparent and uh we have had a decline um in our uh you know and we need to get back to where we've got high expectations and I was just so struck by the teachers that we heard from yesterday that uh I think unanimously suggest that this is what we need and it also the the experts that we've not the expert panels that we put together. Uh my full faith and confidence in our teachers um uh to step up um

098and uh they've done it before. I, you know, went through this with decades of raising my children where this was um they would come home singing songs about um of of different issues and history and things that were important and it was part of the culture, part of the responsibility and part of um what they were um expected to learn. And so I I just want to uh just make sure that we just really really do need to move forward with this. And um we have already um you know I think to Miss Northern's comments, Dr. Northern's comments of we don't have another year to waste and we don't have another month to waste and we need to to move forward. Thank you. Um, okay. There is a motion that's been made and seconded. We

099have had discussion. Uh, Miss Kilgore. I. Dr. Northern I. Mr. Hansen. I. Miss McFersonson. Hi. Mr. Rotherham. Hi. Miss Holton. Without greater clarity. No. And chair votes I. That motion passes. Thank you, Dr. Hollands. Mr. Chapman, actually, Mr. Chapman, can you give us five minutes? We're going to take a quick break. Of course. Thank you. We will come back to order here and Mr. Chapman is going to take us into item F, please. Thank you, President Cesy, Vice President Hansen, members of the board, and Superintendent Gullixson. Um, this item is is for final review. Uh it's a an action to align um the regulations governing the operation of private schools for students with disabilities um with public school requirements for restraint and seclusion in accordance with a budget item. Um this item has been before

100the board a few times. So I I have no further comments since it's on final review. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the proposed stage of the regulatory action as presented? So moved. Second. Any discussion? Miss Kilgore? I. Dr. Northern, I. Is Mr. Hansen back online? Yes. I Okay. Miss McFersonson. Hi. Mr. Rotherham. Hi. Miss Holton. I. And chair votes I. Okay. Item G. Mr. Chapman. That's you again. Thank you, President Cesy. Um, the department has received applications for literary loans from three school divisions. Sussex County, Hampton City, and Giles County. Um they applied for loans during uh one of the three applications periods and have now submitted all the required documentations needed for their requested loans for release um by the board. Uh a loan requested by Sussex County um for adding

101a full roof replacement and a buildingwide renovation and modernization project at Sussex Central High School. Sussex is requesting valor fund loan for the project in the amount of $7.5 million payable over 20 years and is eligible for a 3% annual loan interest rate. Um the project is uh included and shown in attachment one. Um we have a loan requested by Hampton City for building an addition at Bethl High School for a STEM andmies of Hampton. Hampton City is requesting a litary fund loan for the project in the amount of $20 million over 20 years and is eligible for a 2% annual loan interest rate. That um application is shown in attachment two and a loan requested by Giles County for an upgrade to an HVAC system and replacement of the roof on Eastern Elementary and

102Middle School. They're requesting a literary fund loan for the project in the amount of eight 8,722,654 over 30 years and is eligible for a 2% annual interest rate. And that is included in um attachment three. The superintendent's recommendation is the board wave first review and approve for the release of these literary phone loans uh loans requested by the three applicant school divisions based on the loan amounts, terms, and eligible annual interest rates as uh presented in the item. Thank you. Is there a motion to wave first review and approve the release of the three literary fund loans requested by the three applicant school divisions based on the loan amounts, terms, and eligible interest rates requested in their loan applications as indicated in the item presented? So move. Second. Any discussion? Dr. Northern. So I'll ask

103a silly question. Um, does a literary fund loan have to be in the service of the literary topic field? Yeah, I see some of these are for science swing and just it's just called a literary fund. It doesn't have to be around literary fund is established by statute. Um and actually money comes in from all over the state. For example, uh the department of professional occupational regulations when they issue fines to contractors or real estate agents, all that money ends up uh going into the literary fund loan um or into the literary fund and it's just administered for specifically for school construction. Oh, odd name. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Rotherham. I I have just a process question is because we're doing this on first and final when I mean it looked fine to me but

104I am neither a lawyer nor a real estate developer. Um what's the process has does is it just at the at the agency level does the attorney general's office sign off like that we are warranting that all the documentation is correct? Could you just tell us what's the process that has has reached that conclusion? Yeah, I believe this this goes through uh department staff. Um I do not believe that the office of the attorney general specifically um you know reviews each of these applications but the board has set application criteria um that have been reviewed by the office of the attorney general years and years ago. I believe those the current version of the um uh guidelines that govern the literary fund have been in place since about 2022 after some budget amendments. So the

105department follows that process make sure the documentation is complete. um they are reviewed thoroughly in house, you know, by a few different levels of staff before being brought to the board. Great. Thank you. Sure, madam. Miss Holton, and and am I right, Mr. Chapman? I I appreciate Mr. Rotherham raising it because I'm always alert when we're doing first and final, but this they have already been approved. We have already approved them for these loans pursuant to our criteria, but now they're just following through with the actual the approval of the actual applications. Yes, the the board has set the approval criteria and the the um department has uh determined that they meet that criteria, but yes, the the process that the board has set out then requires them to come back to the board specifically

106for approval. That's correct. Okay. So, um do we get a did we get a motion yet? I think so. Okay, good. Uh Miss Kilgore, I Dr. Northern. Hi, Mr. Hansen. Hi, Miss McFersonson. Hi, Mr. Rotherham. Hi, Miss Holton. I and chair votes. I Okay, Mr. Chapman. Yes. Thank you very much, President Creasy. Um, what we have here is a tweak to an item that was approved at the October 2024 meeting. Um at that point what the uh department had asked and what the board had approved um was a a slight uh tweak to the regulations governing uh pupil transportation in order to remove what's called a document incorporated by reference. Um as this went through the executive branch review process, the department planning and budget um helpfully uh had a couple of tweaks that they

107thought would better accord with the administrative process act. And so the the changes that are being presented to you strike about five or six more words and then include with this a recommendation to add the preventive maintenance manual as a guidance document on town hall just so that it's uh easily accessible to the public. Since it involved a we didn't think that this was a substantial change, but since it did um include a little bit of a process change that the board did not see in October, we thought the safest thing we want to bring that back to the board for approval. Um we said we we don't think that this change is the substance of what was approved. It's really just a little process tweak to make sure that the documents are accessible to

108the public and um you know meet the requirements of the uh the regulatory process. Thank you. So, is there a motion to wave first review and approve the proposed regulatory changes in addition of and the addition of a man the manual as a guidance document as well as to delegate to VDOA VDOE staff authority to make changes as necessary to effectuate this action or to comply with the requirements of the administrative process act and Virginia register act. So move second. Is there any discussion? Okay. Miss Kilgore I. Dr. Northern I. Mr. Hansen. Hi. Miss McFersonson. Hi. Mr. Rotherham. Hi. Miss Holton I. And chair votes I. Okay. Mr. Chapman item I. Thank you President Cesy. Uh what we have in this regulatory action is really just a set of formal changes that we're bringing to

109the board when the standards of accreditation um were approved uh and and became effective in September of last year. There are a few collateral references in other regulatory chapters that now need to be updated. Um essentially all we're doing is changing the reference from 8VAC 20-131 to the corresponding chapter in 8VAC 20-132. Um this is uh going to be presented as an exempt action as it goes through the regulatory process because these are changes that only um consist in uh adjustments to form or style. Okay. Is there a motion to wave first review and approve these regulatory changes? Second. Any discussion here? Miss Kilgore. Hi. Dr. Nor. Hi. Mr. Hansen. Hi, Miss McFersonson. Hi, Mr. Rotherham. Hi, Miss Holton. I and chair votes I. Thank you. Thank you. All right, Mr. Gillstrap. Good morning, President

110Kissie, uh, Superintendent Golixson, members of the board. I bring to you today a first and final review of the advisory board of teacher education ABTEL recommendations to approve new educational endorsement programs. This is always an exciting time as if we are adding programs that means there's health within our education system at the university level as well as within the schools. Uh the regulations governing the review uh require that the Virginia Board of Education approve requests for Virginia institutions of higher education to add endorsement programs and these requests must be approved by um March 31st, which we are just underneath that date. Um, the Virginia Department of Education staff has verified the program endorsement competencies through the review of course descriptions and syllabi to determine alignment with the regulatory criteria, including supervised classroom instruction. And on

111your second page of your document, you have the list of uh endorsements that are to be approved. I do want to highlight just a few things on that list. Um, for George Mason, they will be going from 50, if if everything is approved, they will go from 55 uh programs to a total of 68, which will put them among one of our largest universities for education. Norfolk would go, Norfolk State would go from uh 34 to 35 and University of Virginia would go from 26 to 28. Uh, a couple specifics about each of the endorsement. I'm not going to talk about all of them, but I just wanted to point out that the early early childhood, the primary education one up there on the top of George Mason, that would be the 16th program of

112that type across our state as opposed to the 72nd for elementary ed. So, you see that some of our endorsements are very broadly expressed across the Commonwealth. Some of them are in their infancy. Um, and most specifically, if we go down to the bottom of that list, school psychology, we would be adding one at George Mason and one at the University of Virginia, which would be our sixth and seventh program. So, a very small opportunity across the across the Commonwealth for school psychology. Um, I do believe those are the ones I wanted to highlight. Oh, computer science on the George Mason would be the 12th program. So, that would be another positive step for us. Um the superintendent recommends that the board of education accept for final review the advisory board of teacher education and

113lurers recommendation to approve the new education endorsements and programs present brie. Mr. Gilstra I have a question for you. Yes. So, I'm just wondering, have we um have we reviewed these programs, particularly the early early ed and elementary um for VA compliance in the science of reading? Absolutely. That is part of the requirements. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions on this for anyone before we accept a motion? Miss Holton? No questions but a comment. Sure. Uh, I will recuse myself as to the motion since the vast majority of it has to do with George Mason, even though I don't have anything to do with this part of George Mason's ed school, but I will recuse myself, but take the opportunity to make a comment. I have been the board's uh representative to Abtel uh for

114a number of years now. U and since I'm with me rolling off in June, I'm hoping the board is uh thinking about appointing um a new liaison. I think the Abtel group u they meet probably six times a year. Is that right, Rob? It's five required. Sometimes we meet six, but it's and um um they they work very earnestly and hard to help give us good advice on matters like this uh and really appreciate having a a liaison present. They also have liaison from the legislature who um u have been um present more um of late and so it's a it's a good opportunity for com conversations with ed preparation program leaders but also K12 leaders across the commonwealth and I've enjoyed serving um and encourage my colleagues to find time in your very busy

115schedules for somebody to be able to participate. Typically Monday mornings 9 to 11 is the basic commitment. Yes. Thank you. We have already begun that that um thought process and discussion. So thank you. Um Madam President, I also just Mr. Hansen, in light of my recent appointment to the board of visitors at George Mason University, I um not sure if I should be recusing myself, but I think until I can get some clarity with this new appointment, I will do so in abundance of of caution at this time. Okay, sounds good. I'd like to recognize in my re, Madame President, in my region, Miss McFerson, yes, for their uh new graduate program in uh counseling. I think it's very much needed. So, I'd like to thank them for stepping up to the plate in that

116regard. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Northern. Um, Mr. Gilchrap, I I'm just curious um this first one, early primary education, preK3. Did it used to be K3 or they honestly didn't have a um a a primary education endorsement before? This this is the correct one. We actually have nine different special education uh endorsement areas. One of them is the one you described, but they did not have that. So, the first one? Yes. Oh, okay. You're saying that's a special education. I'm sorry. I don't wasn't I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I I misread that is not that is just early childhood. Yes. Okay. So, did did it used to be K3 or or was it did they not have a program at all? I'm just They did not have that program at all. They did not go to

117all the way up to from actually they didn't go down that far. Oh, okay. Thank you. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Is there a motion to wave first review and approve the new education endorsement programs as recommended by the advisory board on teacher education and lensure in this item? Second. Any discussion here? Miss Kilgore. I Dr. Northern. I uh Mr. Hansen recuse. Uh, Miss McFersonson. Hi. Mr. Rotherham. Hi. Um, and Miss Holton recuse. And chair votes I. Okay. Thank you. All right. Uh, item K, first review of regulatory actions following periodic reviews of regulations. Thank you very much, President Cesy, members of the board, Superintendent Golson. Um, I'd like to start off by offering a brief apology. There was an earlier version of this item that was a posted to the website that erroneously um

118indicated this would be for final review. That is not the case. This is being presented for first review. Um, it will come back in in May for for final approval. Um, this are regulatory actions resulting from a periodic review that the board closed in at its February meeting. Um, all of these I believe are very very minor changes. Um to to recap them briefly, um the management of the student scholastic records, which is 8VAC 20-150. Um the determination following the periodic review was that really this doesn't need to stand as an independent chapter, but can be streamlined under 8VAC 20-720. um the regulations governing driver education. Uh we would like to make a brief amendment to reflect updated DMV policy whereas there's currently a reference to a 90day um temporary uh license that that has

119been 180 days for some some time at the DMV. And so we're just going to align that to the current practice. Um in 8VAC 20-390 which is the rules governing division superintendent of schools. Um there is one section, section 10, which sets requirements for division superintendent that's in conflict with chapter 23 of the board's regulations which were um passed much later. And so we think removing those requirements uh and and removing the conflict since they're not currently used by by the board of the department and issuing division superintendent licenses is the right thing to do. Um, and then again in 8VS20-410, we have an independent chapter that that appears what it's doing is is setting a definition for allowable credit for teaching experience. Um, that statement on its own as an independent chapter really doesn't

120uh seem to do anything, but it makes a lot of sense and it's used to interpret chapter 23 of the board's regulations governing um school personnel. So, we would like to move that into a definition in the lensure regulations for school personnel. Mr. Chapman, we will take this item for first review and see you in May. Madam, unless you have a question, Miss Holton. Uh, thank you. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chapman. Uh, am I right that the the one I just wanted to draw attention to is the rules governing division superintendent is not entirely technical that the there were actually, if I recall correctly, there are two provisions potentially in conflict. one with a much broader definition of who is eligible to serve as a school superintendent and one that had much narrower specific uh

121uh prior experience requirements and and there has been some controversy in the past about the difference between those two and maybe even there was some legal action related to it but the you are recommending that we go with the broader definition and exclude the potentially conflicting language anguage delete the potentially conflicting language with a narrower definition. That that's correct. We take that the later board um statement on the requirements for um school personnel or for division superintendents in chapter 23 um is what should govern and that and if you your memory is long I I remember exact instance that you're uh you're you're referring to um at that point we were using the the board was using the chapter 23 uh requirements. There was an action around the time that I believe it's chapter 20.

122So an even an earlier iteration from chapter 23 to remove this specific section. Um but that fizzled out for some reason about 2015 2016. So we we think this is the right time to do the cleanup since we've done the periodic review. We were able to identify that it appeared that the board tried to remove it in the past and um so yes to to remove the conflict. But you you are correct that is slightly more than a technical change. Um but we don't think is uh we don't think is affecting what the board's and the department's current policy is. Well, it's well, I don't know about that, but it's easy to remember. Thank you. It's easy to remember because we did hear from the public loudly um and at some length about this matter,

123those of us who were on the board in that time period. And I I I think probably the choice the pol that there is a policy choice embedded in what you're recommending to us here. I think it's probably the right choice, but I look forward to hear if we get any public input. And that's why I appreciate you holding it over for final approval. Thank you. Any other comments? Thank you, Mr. Chapman. We will accept it this item for first review. Okay. So, that brings us to the end of our agenda today. Um what? Oh, where where are that? Yeah, that's a written report. So, I did I would like to make a comment about the written report um on the critical shortage teaching endorsement areas. If you have not spent some time in that

124document, I I don't know u Mr. Gilstrap, I know this is off the cuff, but I don't know if you'd like to say anything about that document. I know um it's always of um you know, great significance. Uh, and I do appreciate, please come on up. I do appreciate um the additional data that was provided upon um my initial review of this document for the purpose of providing it to the the board. I did ask um that uh staff go back and do some, you know, bigger number crunching on this. So I would certainly encourage you all if you have not um taken the time to dig into this um do that because it is really um illustrative and eye opening um and it lends us to understanding some bigger picture items um as we're

125moving into um some more work of the board that will come later this spring uh into the summer and the early fall. So Mr. Dr. Gilstrap, I just wanted to give you an opportunity to to make some comments should you wish to do so. Sure. Thank you so much. Um, the comments I would make would be primarily around there are really three different ways to look at critical shortages. And when we look at it, when we as it is in the report, the same report that we've done for over 20 years, I went back and looked at the 1999 version of the same report and it starts off with as in many years in the past, special ed and elementary ed are our critical shortage areas, which has been consistent for 26 years. Um, but

126what I my point would be is it didn't matter how many vacancies we had, we still have a top 10 critical shortage area. If we had 10 critical if we had 10 vacancies, we would probably still have a critical shortage area. So when we see this year to year, the fact that we continue to add and change the order does not actually impact whether or not we have a greater area of shortage or lesser. This year would be a great example. We have less shortages this year than we did last year. We still have a similar report. Um, I also want to point out that we struggle at times with the federal government's uh definition and interpretation of what critical shortage is. They only require us to give them the 5%. Well, that could be

127that could be two areas and sometimes when you return that into the federal government, we turn in our whole 10 list and they do not necessarily like that. So, we have to justify it every year. uh if you go back two years ago, we only turned in seven which causes a problem for us at the state because we have a requirement for a 10. So just to point out that there are three that would be two other ones. And then the third area is we don't even consider uh in these reports the fact that in a regional area you may have a great shortage in something that's not even on the top 10 list. and that is still a critical shortage and still is eligible for the student loan repayments and for other uh BRS

128uh adjustments. So this is the most basic view that we see. This is just based on pure numbers. And as you would notice, our biggest areas have the highest number because they have the more teacher the most teachers to choose from. Elementary teachers is our largest group. Of course, they're going to be in our top almost every year just because they have more numbers. Thank you so much. Does anybody have a question, comments around this? I Miss Holton, thank you. I I appreciate the report and I appreciate your u uh helping us under pay attention to it and and explore it both uh Madame President and Mr. Gilstrep. Can I ask a question about the percentage column? So, for instance, I see here I mean one of the one of the one of our biggest

129challenges in public education in Virginia is how we serve our special ed students. And I'm convinced that many of the challenges we see in the due process matters etc go back to the fact that our our challenges with our teacher workforce in this area. So I see you've listed 792 unfilled positions and then that's plus 800 teachers who are uh licensed but not endorsed in special ed. Is that right? That is absolutely correct. So that's for a total of almost 1,600. And then the percent column says 1.59% but that the denominator for that percent column is the total number of teachers. That's the total number of vacancies that that that are open. So that yes, you're correct. That is the total number of all the teachers, not vacancies, the total number of teachers. Our critical

130shortage is based on vacancies, but that 1.59% is out of all teachers that we have. So, I know your critical shortage area um list is prescribed by various federal and state regulations, but in terms of understanding the impact, I think a more useful column perhaps we could add in future reports would be the percent of that category of teachers. And I think if you looked at the vacancies of special ed teachers relative to the total number of special ed teachers, you would see it vacancies plus endorsed um non-endorsed teachers would be 15 20% or more um from other data I've seen. So it is the 1.59% may look make this look like a small problem. It is a big problem. Yes. Yes, ma'am. And and I would agree with you on that because there are

131some areas that have a very small number of total teachers across the Commonwealth and there may not be any teachers that can fill those positions especially in our our world languages areas there. And if you were to look at my previous uh report that that I just presented uh that would also talk about how many programs are we adding and you did not probably see any Latin, French, German, any of those. So if you had a a course in a school and you didn't have any teachers, it would be 100%. So you're right, out of the total number of teachers in that particular category, what is the percentage that is vacant is also a valuable number. So in other words, if there's no position to be recorded as a as a vacancy, it doesn't exist.

132Correct. Right. But but Miss Holton, but if so if it might be possible to add a column of or maybe to add clarity on what that percent column is and then add a next an additional column percent of the applicable teacher category and and for instance the elementary school it might go down you know the the percent re well it won't go down total since this is total vac total teacher positions but it might help us while we have a lot of vacancies in elementary ed. It we may not have that high a percentage uh com compared to the total number of teachers in elementary ed. I don't know what that would be but it would it would be instructive. We we could definitely provide that information. I would caution just a little bit about

133the confusion that might cause for people that are trying to decide if they are in the top 10 and they see a number that is smaller than another number. But we can provide that information without a doubt. Uh, Dr. Northern, I may be missing a fundamental understanding of how we're defining critical shortage, but to me, another piece of the puzzle is trying to look at the pupil pupil teacher ratio of kids served because um, in many cases we just don't know how many kids, right? Like to me it's like if you see a shortage but the pupil teacher ratio is you know 12 kids to one teacher then you know that makes a difference in terms of a shortage area um in my mind. So I don't know if we have the ability to uh

134report on a ratio like that. Uh we know that we've got declining enrollment across the state so it might be a helpful ratio as well to see what areas we actually do need to prioritize. I would say that that number would probably vary from school to school. So it would really be hard to provide that information. I would also say that if you were in a school and you had that vacancy, you would adjust your teacher to pupil ratio within that school to account for the vacancy. So it would it would it would shift constantly. Any other questions or comments here? Thank you, Mr. Gilstra. I I didn't mean to put you on the spot, but I knew this would be a a hot report to have a conversation about, so thank you. My pleasure.

135Thank you. Thank you. Um, so we get to discussion of current issues before we adjourn. Um, and so I guess what I would like to do is, um, see if anybody has anything to say. Superintendent Gixson. Thank you, President Cesy. I just want to address two items that will be on the May board agenda. Uh folks know that the workbased learning agenda item and sea time flexibility were pulled from this month's agenda. We have gotten some feedback especially since I came into my role from both board members and members of the field. And so we are looking at both of those items to make sure they are uh as the best products as possible. and those will both be um publicly posted and on the board agenda for May. Any other comments before we adjourn

136for the day? I'll just join in welcoming um Superintendent Gullixson. Look forward to working with you. Thank you. If there is nothing further, I'll entertain a motion to adjurnn. So moved. All right, we are adjourned.