School Board Meeting - January 20, 2026

001The date is January 20th, 2026 and the time is 6:02 p.m. And I would like to call the Frederick County School Board meeting to order. We have an agenda before us. Do I have a motion for approval? >> Madam Chair, I move that we approve the agenda as set before us. >> Second. The motion has been made and properly seconded. Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes. >> Oh, sorry that was a little All right, Mr. Vice Chair. >> I move that the county school board of Frederick County, Virginia enter a close session meeting for the following. to review and discuss appointments, provisional license, resignations, unpaid administrative leave, support staff, hires, substitutes, tutors, volunteers, and goals for the superintendent pursuant to Virginia Code section 2.2-3711A1 2-3711A1

002and to review and discuss individual student matters that would involve specific students and particular information contained in their scholastic records, including requests for release from compulsory attendance for religious reasons pursuant to Virginia Code section 2.2-3711 A2. And finally, for consultation with legal counsel regarding personnel matters and for discussion and consideration of employee dismissal pursuant to Virginia Code section 2.2-3711, A1 and A8. >> Second. >> The motion has been made and properly seconded. Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes. We are now in close session and we will reconvene around 7 p.m. >> I move that we return from close session. >> Second. We have a mo we have a motion to return from close session and it has been properly seconded. Any discussion? All those in

003favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Motion passes. >> I move to the best of each board member's knowledge. Only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act were discussed in the closed session. And only such public business matters as were identified in the motion by which the closed session was convened were heard, discussed, or considered by the school board. >> Second. >> We have a motion to certify the closed session and it has been properly seconded. Any discussion? >> Madame Clerk. >> Mrs. Sturdivan. >> I. >> Mrs. Klene. >> I. >> Mr. Moran. >> I. >> Mr. North. >> I. >> Mrs. Caruso. >> I. >> Mr. Bell. >> I. Mr. Proac. >> Hi. >> Madame Chair, I would like to make

004a motion to take a brief fivem minute recess. >> Second. >> We have a motion to take a fivem minute recess. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes. So, we'll return at >> We'll return at 710. >> I move that the board reconvene it meeting. >> Second. I have a motion to >> reconvene. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Any opposed? >> Motion passes. >> We're back in session. >> All right, Mr. Chair, we have four motions coming out of close session. I move that the board approve the personnel actions as recommended by the superintendent. I move the board approve the addistation. Excuse >> me. >> Second on the first motion. >> I'm sorry. And let's take a vote

005on each one individually. That would be great. Thank you. >> We can do that. >> All right. So, I second. >> We have a motion that has been properly seconded. I Yeah. Am I Am I correct? >> I'm sorry. Just for clarification, Mr. North, you made the motion and Mr. Bell, did you second? >> I did. >> Miss Klein seconded. >> You second it. Okay. >> Yes. >> So, yes, it's properly before the before the board. >> We have a motion. It's been properly seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Motion passes. >> All right. We'll get there. >> All right. Thank you, >> Mr. Chair. We have four motions coming out of close session. I move the board approve the personnel actions as recommended

006by the superintendent. >> So, you guys already approved that one. Go to the next one. >> I got cut off. >> I move the board approve the additation form um for a one-year local eligibility license for employee A and authorize the chair and superintendent to sign the addestation form. >> Second. We have a motion that has been made and properly seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes. >> I move the board approve the release of student A, B, C, D, and E from compulsory attendance. >> Second. >> We have a motion that's been made and properly seconded. Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes. And lastly, I move the board amend the agenda to include

007a fourth item to new business titled personnel matter. >> Second. >> We have a motion that's been made and properly seconded. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Nay. >> Motion passes. All right. Please join me in a moment of silence. Tonight's minute of silence will be held in honor of Sophia Gibb, one of our Jameswood High School students who has sadly passed away. Thank you. I now ask that everyone who is able stand for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Next is the consent agenda. Do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? I move to approve

008the consent agenda. >> It has been made and properly seconded. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed? >> Nay. >> Motion passes. >> Up next are student and staff recognitions. Dr. Hummer. Before we do that, uh, Madame Chair, we usually read proclamations. I want to give you guys the opportunity to read those. Thank you, Madame Chair. [snorts] Whereas school principles work cooperatively to direct, develop, and inspire all members of the school staff and student body, and to communicate effectively with parents to engage them in the learning process. And whereas principles serve as educational leaders managing the policies, regulations, and procedures necessary to ensure a safe and effective learning environment for all students in Virginia's public private schools. Whereas principles and teachers are entrusted

009with the opportunity and responsibility of guiding, directing, nurturing, mentoring, and imparting knowledge to our children while they are at school. And whereas principles work collaboratively with teachers, staff, students, parents, and the community at large to proactively prepare students to be self-reliant and productive citizens. And whereas Virginia school principles appreciation week is an opportunity to recognize the hard work of Virginia school principles and to recognize the importance of school leaders in ensuring that every child has access to a quality education. Now therefore, be it proclaimed that the Frederick County School Board hereby declares the week of January 12th through 16, 2026 as Virginia School Principal's Appreciation, dated this 20th day of January, 2026. Madame Chair, whereas school counselors work together with students, families, and school staff to help students reach their full potential. And whereas school

010counselors are committed to helping students explore their abilities, strengths, interests, and talents as these traits relate to career awareness and development. And whereas school counselors help parents focus on ways to further the educational, personal, and social growth of their children. And whereas school counselors seek to identify and utilize community resources that can enhance and complement comprehensive school counseling programs and help students become successful, engaged citizens. And whereas comprehensive developmental school counseling programs are considered an intricral part of the educational process that enables all students to achieve success in school. Now therefore be it proclaimed that the Frederick County School Board hereby declares the week of February 2nd through the 6, 2026 as National School Counseling Week dated this 20th day of January 2026. Madame Chair, whereas school resource officers, SRO's bridge gaps between youth and

011law enforcement and embrace a triad concept of school policing serving in informal counseling, education, and law enforcement roles to support students and communities they serve. Whereas school resource officers continuously lead by example and promote a positive image of law enforcement to school children and school communities. Whereas school resource officers create safe learning environments, provide valuable resources to school staff members, foster positive relationships with students, and develop strategies to resolve problems that affect youth with the goal of protecting all children so they can reach their fullest potential. Whereas school resource officers are valuable and essential members of the education community and deserve unwavering respect and support from the public in the pursuit of keeping schools and students safe. Now therefore be it proclaimed that the Frederick's County School Board hereby declares February 15th, 2026 as school

012resource officer appreciation day. a special day to show appreciation for school-based law enforcement officers and encourages all students and citizens to show their gratitude with displays of support and personal message dated this 20th day of February January, pardon me, 2026. >> Madame Chair, whereas the Frederick County School Board wishes to recognize and express its appreciation for the dedicated service of outgoing school board members. Whereas these three members have served their county county school board of Frederick County, Virginia while demonstrating unwavering commitment and dedication to the betterment of our school division. Whereas their tireless efforts have contributed to the growth and success of our educational institutions. Now therefore, be it resolved that the County School Board of Frederick County, Virginia express its deepest gratitude to the outgoing board members for their hard work, dedication, and service

013to the county and the school division. Be it further resolved that the Frederick County School Board wishes the outgoing school board members continued success in all their future endeavors. Be it further resolved that the Frederick County School Board and the superintendent of schools join the community in expressing their sincere gratitude to the outgoing board members, for their willingness to serve on the school board for their dedication to the betterment of our school division, and for the other special gifts each brought to the board with their service. Dated this 20th day of January, 2026. Up next are student and staff recognition. >> All right. Thank you so much, Madam Chair. Um, so for first up, good evening and welcome to our awards of excellence program. Before we proceed, I would like to ask that everyone stay

014here through the entire program out of respect for each individual who is being recognized. Once we've completed all the presentations, you will have an opportunity to leave and enjoy the rest of your evening. In addition, when you come forward for your certificate, please take a moment to pause with Madame Chair and myself for a photograph and then move to the right and remain at the front so we can take a photo of students, coaches, and other groups to be recognized. So, with that, I'll have Madam Chair come on down with myself. Thank you. Come on down. In December, Milbrook High School teachers Katie Bethky, Mandy Curry, and Devin Smith traveled to Nashville, Tennessee to receive a prestigious national honor, the outstanding middle secondary agricultural educ. education program for NAE region 6. This recognition shines a

015spotlight on an agricultural department that is truly exceptional. These educators have poured immense time, heart, and effort into bettering the po the program, creating a lasting impact on both their students and the local community. Because of these teachers who consistently go above and beyond in their work and service, CTE is reaching new heights. Congratulations. [applause] Could we have Principal Shelley Andrews please come forward? We are pleased to congratulate James Wood and Shirando high schools on achieving the distinguished category within the Commonwealth school performance and support framework. This honor reflects the highest levels of commitment, consistency, and belief in what students can achieve. Recognition of this caliber is a result of strong instructional leadership, empowered teachers, and a student- centered culture that prioritizes excellence. This distinguished distinguished status serves as a clear indication that both schools

016are exceeding the state's expectations for achievement, growth, and graduation readiness. Congratulations, [applause] >> [applause] >> All that would be 100% of our preschool classrooms successfully met Virginia's quality expectations for the early childhood programs for the 202425 school year. Through the Virginia Quality Birth to Five or VQB5 program, staff are focused on strengthening teaching skills and demonstrating quality in areas proven to matter to children's school success. Congratulations to these exceptional educators for the passion and heart they pour into our program. And we have se several school representatives with us today. Um, first off from Apple Pyidge Elementary School, teacher Katrina Eastep. [applause] >> [applause] >> teaching assistant Amber Ditawick. [applause] >> [applause] >> and principal Bethany Krauss. [applause] >> [applause] >> Next, representing Stonewall Elementary School, teaching assistant Faith Mcketchnney. [applause] >> [applause] >> and principal

017Mark Weisbro. >> [applause] [applause] >> Mhm. [applause] Next, representing Northwestern Regional Educational Programs. First up, teachers, Tina Knap. [applause] >> [applause] >> Heidi Burton. [applause] >> [applause] >> Summer Abid, [applause] Cynthia Bill [applause] and the assistant program administrator, Amy Strawn. [applause] >> [clears throat] [applause] >> Thank you. >> [applause] >> The Apple Award is given to someone who has achieved something which significantly contributes to their school and community, uses creative or innovative instructional techniques, or goes above and beyond for the student. Tonight, we'd like to recognize Angie White, supervisor of early childhood, and Abigail Irvin, coordinator of early childhood SIS. [applause] [applause] Thank you. >> Both Angie and Abigail consistently go above and beyond to ensure our youngest learners have an exemplary foundation. By prioritizing excellence and navigating the complexities of the program, they serve

018as champions for early childhood education as an essential pillar for the future success of our students and community. Congratulations [applause] All right, Dr. Hummer, do we have any administrative appointments? >> Yes, Madam Chair, we do. We have two for you this evening. So, first up is please join me in welcoming Mr. Delbert Whitaker as our new assistant director of facility services. Come on up, SIR. [cheering] [applause] MR. MR. Whitaker is an FCPS graduate. So, we started something new. I want to take a little sidebar here, Madam Chair, if I may, where we are recognizing what we like to call legacy staff. and legacy staff are students that graduated from Frederick County Public Schools and they now have returned. I know we have some legacy board members as well, right? So, this place is so amazing

019that we have people that actually come back and work for us. So, Mr. Whitaker is one of those individuals. Um, he's joined the FCPS facility services department in 2009 and he has served as an interim assistant director of facility services since March of 2025 and previously served as the supervisor of facility services, coordinator of contracted services, maintenance specialist, and maintenance technician. Prior to FCPS, Mr. Whitaker held the positions of general contractor for two years, inbound doc associate for two years, and assistant plans manager for 17 years. Thank you so much sir for your dedication. Please join me again in welcoming Mr. Whitaker. [applause] Madame Chair, board members, Dr. Hummer, cabinet uh members, uh fellow county school staff, I thank you for this opportunity uh to serve in this new role. Um I'm excited to think

020about the challenges further ways that I can help uh the division and needs of the division uh students and staff out there. uh and also work with the other departments we have within the division and the great facility services staff that we have that I've worked with uh for 19 years. It is absolutely the best team I've ever worked with. Uh we are just uh a staff of 32 people and is absolutely phenomenal to be involved uh with that team and just excited to take on a new role and just keep on helping and helping the needs of what we got going on. Thank you very much, sir. [applause] Next, we have our new director of safety and security, Mr. Kaden Thood. Please come on down, sir. [applause] Mr. Thood is transitioning from his current

021role as dean of students at Dal J. Howard Center to the director of safety and security. Mr. Thood's prior experience includes six years as a Frederick County Sheriff's Officer, deputy, and instructor, one year as Manassa City Police Department Police Officer, and five years as operating partner for Jimmy John's. He holds a bachelor in business administration degree from Liberty University, and is completing a master's in administration and supervision from Liberty University. Please join me again in welcoming Mr. Thood Good in his new role. [applause] >> Thank you. Uh, Madam Chair, members of the board, Dr. Hummer and cabinet members, I want to express my gratitude for your trust in me taking on this important role. I recognize and am committed to carrying the weight that comes with returning students and staff to their families safely each

022day. I'd also like to express thanks to the Dalj Howard school community for their trust in me and supporting my growth. The team at Dalj is a truly special one that not only does what's right for students, but also promotes betterment for staff. I'm excited at the opportunity to serve every one of the division's students, staff, and visitors through the safety and security department. The safety and security team has accomplished great work thus far. I consider it a privilege to walk alongside them as we sharpen and grow a comprehensive program that inspires trust, confidence, and a fruitful learning environment. Thank you, [applause] >> Madam Chair. That's all we have. Thank you. At this point, I would like to pause for those who would like to leave and enjoy the rest of your evening. Please feel

023free to stay if you wish to do so. All right. Next up is citizen comments. The Frederick County School Board is pleased to receive public comments to each monthly meeting from members of the public which include residents of Frederick County, Virginia, including residents of Winchester City, Virginia, FCPS students, parents, and legal guardians of FCPS students, FCPS employees, and businesses located within Frederick County, Virginia. Individuals speaking to the board will be allotted three minutes. Those individuals representing groups, organizations will be allotted five minutes with one representative per group. Upon recognition by the chair, a speaker should approach the lectern to speak to the school board. Members of the audience and speakers are expected to be courteous and to others and model for students how to respectfully participate in public meeting by speaking and behaving in such

024a manner that adheres to the FCPS code of student conduct. Complaints regarding FCPS employees should first be submitted to the school principal or to the schoolboard office. Complaints regarding individual students should be submitted to the school principal or the appropriate school official. The school board is committed to showing respect and courtesy to all citizens. Comments that are not protected under the first amendment of the US Constitution will not be tolerated. This includes comments that are vulgar, obscene, threatening, and comments that are intended to incite violence or other breaches of the peace. Members of the audience are not permitted to interrupt the speaker or meeting by asking questions or making comments. Signs, posters, placards, banners, or like objects are permitted into the schoolboard's meeting, but only if the individual possessing such items remain in the back

025of the room so as to not restrict the view of those attending the meeting in person. Violation of the guidelines will result in the chair ruling the speaker out of order. Continued violation may result in the removal from the premises. The chair has discretion concerning public participation at the schoolboard meetings. Schoolboard meetings are tape recorded for the purpose of clarification and the development of the official minutes. I have Rachel Euing from the Stonewall District, Jennifer Hushman Roy. Good evening, members of the school board. safeguarding students and upholding ethical standards. Public schools exist to safe safeguard our children. This responsibility is non-negotiable. Every adult employed in a school system is held to a higher ethical standard because they work with minors. When that standard is compromised, silence is not acceptable. Recently, current and former Frederick County

026Public School employees, as well as individuals affiliated with Jameswood High School athletics, submitted written statements and/or provided testimony to the court in support of a convicted former administrator who engaged in sexually inappropriate conduct involving a student. These submissions and testimonies requested leniency and emphasized personal character, faith, and prior service while failing to center the harm of the child. This is unacceptable. There is no professional accomplishment, no personal virtue, and no amount of community service that offset sexual misconduct involving a student. When stu when school employees advocate for leniency in these cases, they send a dangerous message that adult reputations matter more than child safety. This is not a free speech issue. This is an ethics issue. Public school employees are entrusted with safeguarding children and upholding community trust. When they minimize or excuse sexually explicitation

027of a student, they demonstrate a profound failure of judgment that calls into question their fitness to serve in a child centered environment. The question before this board tonight is simple. Who is Frederick County Public Schools protecting? If Frederick County Public Schools and staff do not draw an unmistakable line that sexual misconduct against a student is indefensible, regardless of who commits it, then FCPS is failing the very children they are charged to protect. Accountability is not cruelty, it's leadership, and children deserve nothing less. Thank you. Thank you, [applause] Jeffrey Rutherford. Perhaps the greatest thing we can offer each other is a second chance. Lloyd D. Newell. Thank you to each member of the board for allowing me to the opportunity to speak with you this evening. My name is Jeffrey Rutherford. I've had the privilege of

028serving as director of bands at Jameswood High School for the past 29 years. Over nearly three decades, I've devoted my life to this school system and to its students. During my tenure, our band program has earned regional and international recognition for excellence, representing this community with pride and distinction. I share this only to emphasize that my career has been built on dedication, integrity, and a long record of professional success. In the summer of 2024, my family received news that changed everything. Our three-year-old son was diagnosed with cancer. Overnight, our stable life became a constant cycle of hospital visits, treatments, and overwhelming uncertainty. It was a period marked by fear and emotional exhaustion that is difficult to put into words. That struggle continued into 2025. We relied on our faith, our family, and the support of

029this community to keep moving forward. As this school year began, I was determined to continue serving my students and supporting the program that I care so deeply about. Then suddenly, my son became critically ill again, and we were told he might be relapsing. In that moment, my focus as a parent understandably took priority and I felt overwhelmed trying to hold everything together. During this time, I believed I was meeting my responsibilities, but now I recognize that I made a mistake. I take full responsibility for that. I've never tried to avoid accountability. What I'm asking for, however, is understanding of the extraordinary personal crisis that surrounded it. After 29 years of exemplary service, I now face termination for a single infraction that occurred while my family was in the midst of the most devastating experience of

030our lives. The consequences of this decision are not only professional, they are deeply personal. My career, my reputation, and my family stability are at risk because of one error made during circumstances beyond my control. I respectfully ask that you consider the full measure of my service, the students I've taught, the program that I've built, and the decades of commitment that I've given to Frederick County Public Schools. It would be profoundly unfair for a lifetime of dedication to be overshadowed by one mistake made in a moment of crisis. I believe in accountability, but I also believe in fairness, compassion, and second chances. I'm simply asking for the opportunity to continue doing the work that I have loved and faithfully performed for 29 years. Thank you for your time, your consideration, and for hearing me today. Doug

031Harrison. Is this going to tick or Okay, good. My name is Doug Harrison. I'm the band director at Hanley High School. I'm here to speak on uh behalf of Jeff and I can attest and have witnessed um much of what he just said. uh we both started teaching around the same time frame. Um and uh I've seen him in our we we work together at a district on a district level. Uh he has represented our district um on state events. we've been together. Um, and then I've been on the streets with him in this community and um, I have witnessed him um, and have high regard for how he has uh, what he's done for our organizations, what he's done for the students. Um, and so I can't say it much better than what he

032did uh, just now. Um, I would say we had all the awards that were given this evening which are beautiful and I know everyone is thankful for those and those happen and there's a lot of smiles and a lot of pictures. Um, but when I have felt most appreciated as a staff member is when I'm in the context of doing my job and people acknowledge that that there's a lot there that there's a lot that happens. Um, I've been doing this job for almost 30 years. It's hard. Um what we do and what we win awards for comes in the context of relationships with staff and students and parents. And we also do that as a father and a husband and a son. Um and life is difficult which we all know. Um and we

033do the best we can in these jobs. Um, and I think Jeff has done a fine job, a fine job. Um, I think he's one of the highly respected uh, directors in this area. Um, I hold him in high regard and I would ask that, um, I would hope that for me too that when you get to this point in your career that a um, the longevity, the time that you spent, the sacrifice that you have made um, that involves your family, that involves a lot of things. We all know that. Um it's bigger than one thing. Um so I'm here to speak for Jeff and and to ask that you um listen to every word he just said um because it really does matter. So thank you [applause] DJ Foster. I'm here to speak

034in support of Mr. Rutherford. He was my band director from 1999 to 2002. He became my son's band director from n 2019 to 2023. I have known this man for over two decades as both as a student and a parent. I can say without hesitation that his character and dedication to students are beyond reproach. As a student, I personally experienced Rutherford's care and advocacy. When I suffered a serious back injury, he ensured I could participate safely and never pressured me to perform. Instead of excluding me, he where I couldn't march, he found meaningful ways for me to remain part of the band. He made me feel valued, needed, supported at a time where I could have easily been pushed aside. He treated every student equally, and with respect regardless of their circumstances. Years later, I

035entrusted my son to Rutherford at a time when my child was withdrawn, anxious, and recovering from severe bullying. The year before band camp, my son had expressed thoughts of self harm. What I saw over the next four years was nothing short of life-changing. Under Mr. Rutherford's guidance, my son found confidence, belonging, and joy. He became outgoing, happy, and proud to be part of something. To this day, my son tells me he is grateful. He did he is that he I did not allow him to quit band before experiencing Mr. Rutherford's leadership. I want to share one moment that truly defines Mr. Rutherford's character. When a band booster leader made a negative comments about my son's social behavior, Mr. Rutherford immediately intervened and stopped it. He reminded that individual how far my son had came and

036made it clear that no one will belittle a student who was finally finding their voice. He protected my child before I even had to speak and he didn't know about the self harm. Beyond my support for Rutherford as an educator, I must ex also express deep concern regarding the former band booster organization. During my son's time in ban, I personally witnessed a complete lack of financial transparency, misuse of student earned funds, public disrespect towards Miss Rutherford in front of students and the behavior that undermined both student safety and discipline. These concerns were documented and communicated in writing. These people bullied Rutherford and not only them, the kids who could not financially afford banned. Despite all of this, Rutherford never wavered. He remained focused on the students, protecting them, advocating for them, and continue to give

037far more of himself than ever required by his job description. The allegations against Ruth Rutherford stand in stark contrast to the man I've known for over 20 years. I formally firmly believe these accusations retaliate and reflect of his character conduct. >> Thank you. >> Melanie Church. >> Good evening. I also come tonight to speak on behalf of Jeffrey Rutherford. I met Mr. Rutherford in 2006 when my oldest child entered the band at Jameswood High School. I watched all three of my children over a 10-year consecutive period come up through there and I was very very actively involved as a band parent during those 10 years. I attended every trip that the band went on, every competition they attended as well as served as president of the booster association. I will say this first of all,

038as a former booster parent, it disturbs me what I have heard um even within the community. We had a very strict set of bylaws within the within the booster organization that Mr. Rutherford had no say over anything with money or anything like that that went through the boosters. That should have all been a very very transparent thing with every meeting that they had every month with all the band parents. That should have been very very transparent. Any money that came in, the booster organization handled. The booster organization handled all deposits, anything like that. Any money that came out of that account was required to have two signatures on it. One was the booster president, the other was the booster secretary. At no time did Mr. Rutherford have anything to do with any of that. As

039a band parent, I can also say that it is because of Mr. Rutherford that I'm going to get emotional, but um my oldest child pursued a degree in music education and is currently employed here at Frederick County Public Schools and has been for several years. My younger son, when his guidance counselor told him in high school when he asked what he wanted to major in in college, he said music composition. and his guidance counselor actually called me and went and spoke with Jeff Rutherford and said, "I'm concerned because how is he going to create a life for himself doing that?" This young man is 31 years old. He is married, has a masters in music compositions from Butler University, and is an adjunct college professor. So, Mr. Rutherford pursues those dreams, but I've watched him

040pull this out in so many students over the years. I watched kids with behavior issues come into the band room and behavior issues would disappear. They knew that they answered to Mr. Rutherford. They knew that if they went into their math class and they acted up that that teacher was going to go and speak with Mr. Rutherford and they knew when they got banned or got to that next competition, Mr. Rutherford was right there going, "Hey, here you blew off your test. How'd that happen?" They were held to a standard because Mr. Rutherford really really pushed his students to firmly believe to a standard of what happens here. >> Thank you. Time. >> Thank you >> Caitlyn Rowlet. Hi. Um I am also speaking on behalf of Jeffrey Rutherford tonight. I am a graduate of

041Jameswood High School of the band program. Um, I graduated in 2016 and I can't speak just on the four years that I was there because he watched me grow from second grade up until I graduated high school because my mother was a single mother. My brother started high school when I was in second grade. I have watched how Mr. Rutherford has built that program, how he has run that program, and how the kids have acted in that program. He sets a standard and everyone knows that standard. But more importantly, Mr. Rutherford cares. He has cared for each and every single student that has come through that band room. I know people will say that, "Oh, he he did he didn't like me. He didn't like me. I was one of those kids who said, "Oh,

042Mr. Rutherford didn't like me." It's because I was on his bad side for one day. Um, but every kid is every kid makes a mistake and we can't let one person one mistake define their the rest of their life. That's the problem. And I'm afraid that this is what is going to happen because again, everyone makes mistakes. I make a mistake now and I'm 28 years old. But Mr. Brotherford, even if we made mistakes in school, he was there to help us correct them and how and taught us how to reel it back in and what we would do differently next time if something happened. How can we correct these mistakes? He would make sure that we learned from our mistakes and we grew from those mistakes. Without Mr. Rutherford, I would not be the

043person that I am. I love music because of Mr. Rutherford. And I wouldn't be doing anything regarding music if it wasn't for him because his passion for what he teaches is so clear when he's up on that podium. When he's up watching from the grandstands at competitions, he is so proud of us. He is proud of every single student that walks in and out of that room, whether the students think so or not. He is an immensely proud person. But he's an immensely intelligent person, a very kind-hearted person. I have said since I was little, where some people think that he is scary, I have always called him and will forever call him a big teddy bear because that's just what he is. He cares for everyone and everything. and he will always do whatever

044he can to shape students lives and inspire them to go further and become better people. Thank you so much, >> Derek Atkinson. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Um, it's interesting to hear the varying degrees of um situations that have been going on in in our schools lately. Uh and I agree that some offenses it's inappropriate to overlook. Uh I'm here to also speak about Mr. Rutherford and my son. Um he did not play any instruments. joined band at ninth grade and he had some natural talent, but I believe he wouldn't be where he is had he not been uh invited into the band. But honestly, I'm here to kind of approach this from a different standpoint because I am confident that probably 85 to 90% of us in this room have never had the experience

045of knowing what it's like to be a father of a child with a critical disease. And unfortunately, I have had that experience. And um it's unfathomable and to think that a person's going to be on their P's and Q's while going through that. You know, we hear I I'd like to say that um I thought I understood things until I experienced them. And my experience has proven to me that I didn't know half the things that I thought I knew. Sometimes you don't know what you don't know. And um when my son got diagnosed, it opened a door for me of seeing the world in a different view. And I'd just like to propose that if you've never had the experience humbly, you might not know what it's like. and it will overcome over overtake

046good ethical choices whether you intended to or not. And so when a person is characterized by doing the right thing for a long period of time and then special circumstances come up in their life and they mess up. If that's not grounds for um grace, then what is? That's all I have. Thanks. [applause] I have Jeffrey Rutherford. >> Okay. Um I apologize. Uh Chrissy Woodward. Oh, Shereice Woodward. [snorts] I'm sorry. I apologize. Great. Good evening, esteemed members of Frederick County Public Schools um school board and superintendent Dr. Hummer and fellow educators and guests. I am Sherice Woodward, the president of Frederick County Education Association. Welcome to our new board members, including our student representative. Your dedication to our schools is truly commendable and we look forward to working with you. As we move forward, I

047want to emphasize the importance of grace and mercy in our educational community. Teaching is rewarding but challenging and educators often go above and beyond. Mistakes happen and when they do, we should respond with understanding and a progressive approach to discipline. This includes verbal warning followed by documentation if need be and an improvement period with support. Only if these steps fail should a termination be considered. This approach helps retain our devoted educators who are pillars in our community. Losing experienced educators affects not only the classroom but the entire school community. Their wisdom and mentorship are invaluable. We must create a culture where educators feel valued and supported. In closing, let us work together with empathy, recognize educators dedication, and provide the support they need to thrive. Together, we can secure a higher, brighter uh future for

048our students and community. Thank you for your time, and I look forward to a productive partnership in advancing the missions of Frederick County Public Schools. [applause] >> Andy Thompson. [clears throat] Good evening, board members. My name is indeed Andy Thompson. I am a retired teacher from Harrisonenberg and now I work with the Virginia Education Association because I'm passionate about public schools. Very passionate. I work with over or about 500 members here in Frederick County. Uh that includes teachers, bus drivers, custodians, you name it. Even some administrators are members. That's a big percentage. I represent about over 1,400 members throughout the valley from Harrisonburg, Rockingham County all the way up here to Clark and Frederick in Winchester. So, I've seen a lot in education. I deal a lot with superintendent. I meet with Dr. Hummer and

049Shereice, the president who just spoke regularly. I meet with other superintendent and principles all the time. I'm immensely and intensely involved in the discipline processes when teachers don't make good decisions. And teachers often and other employees as humans don't always make the best decisions. We know that. And not every employee who is hired by a school system should remain. it would be a disservice to the public. And then there's all the in between, the discretion. And I think that's what they're talking about here. The folks I've heard, I don't need to say his name. They've been talking about him all night. He's admitted it's discretion that schools should use when dealing with the human beings they employed. It's not enough to roll out the red carpet and welcome them and then forget about them. It

050is up to you as board members, new board members and old board members, not age, wisdom, I would say, board me, more wisdom board members to set a vision for Frederick County, a vision that employees and all the community understands and they can hold on to that vision. But no vision will work for those who do not see. So in order for the board to create a vision, you must go out and look and talk and hear from the people that are hired here. You can talk to the people that hired them, but they'll talk to you all the time. Do your due diligence. Go talk to the community. Use your discretion. It is the biggest thing you have. Thank you for listening to me. Dana Brun. Good evening, folks. So, I'm Dana Brun from

051Back Creek and uh it's nice to see some new board members out here tonight. Dr. Hummer, I always get a chance to talk to him. He always gets right back to you. I came here tonight because I had something that really bothered me today. There was some legislation that's happening right now in uh Richmond, Virginia. And I don't know how many of you know about it, but um I've been digging around all day long, and I know I have about three minutes. This is what's going on. There's something called HB 355 and it happens to be a mental health screening process for kids that are sixth grade and up. Okay? So, that means that they're going to take a look at your kids and our kids and they're going to do a mental health screening

052on your kids. I don't know how many of you want that to happen, but not only do they do it to to your kids, they're going to do it to you. They're going to do it to the teachers. They're going to do it to the bus drivers. It's something that the parents can opt out of, but they don't really know about it because this is brand new. This is not a an independent or Republican or a Democrat thing. This is more of a a parent and uh a kid thing. The bus drivers are trained. They're also trained to tag LGBTQ uh distress. On page seven, and I spent time with this today, it refers to kids who act general atypical. Okay? and then some of the other kids are supposed to turn those kids in.

053Okay, that is unconscionable to me. All right, to me that's partially bullying. Um HB495 actually pays them to do it. Now, if anybody knows anything about the Rockefeller Foundation, those are actually the people that are paying it. It's the same line that ran eugenics clinics about back in 1933. And this isn't helping. It's It's not helping. This isn't helping our kids. This is Alice Bailey's dream. I don't know how many people in here know about Alice Bailey. She wrote 24 different books on the occult. Um, the Lucius Trust. Okay, it was originally called Lucifer Trust. We all know who he is now, don't we? And they changed it to Lucius Trust. All right, that's Lucifer's old name. It prays over These are the same people that pray over Claus Schwab, the new world order. They're

054right now up in Davos right now. Um, they're asking for one faith, one order, obedient kids. I've read the bills. I've read her books. I'm not guessing. And tomorrow, it could be your child that's the one that's sitting in a desk having this kind of stuff done to them. That to me is unconscionable. This is not 1984. I don't want to see 1984 happen to your kid, your kid, your kid, your kid, your kid. I don't want to see it happen. And I think it's really important. This just came out. Okay. This just came out today and I want you guys to really take a look at it and we're here to help you in any way that we can because seriously it is all about the kids. So thanks a lot and I hope

055you consider it >> Brian Nur Feel like a teacher now. >> Thank you very much, members. It's so great to see a bunch of new faces and a couple familiar ones, too. My name is Brian Nuri. I'm a resident of the Opekin District. Um, one of the things that is in the mission statement of FCPS is that FCPS wants to embrace a culture of diversity and inclusivity. We are a diverse community, but national politics are trying to make this virtue into a four-letter word. In the shadow of the events that have happened in Minnesota and elsewhere across this nation, I believe it's time to revisit the county's commitment to the security of the students uh in the county. Last since last year, we have seen what was considered not much of a problem in January

056of 2025 turn into national news every night concerning ICE raids on churches, schools, homes, you have it, people being shot. Um, we can't have politics disturbing our educational environment anymore. [snorts] The 2020 census in Frederick County counted 91,419 residents in the county. And of course, that was 6 years ago. Out of that, 3,718 were African-American and 9,990 were of Hispanic descent. There is significant anxiety in many communities in this county concerning the their security, whether their parents or the children of of this community. Additionally, in November, Frederick County Sheriff's Department signed a a 287g agreement allowing ICE to be able to commandeer local police forces to enforce federal law. Court cases aside, we are not going to have control over the people coming into our private spaces and even our public spaces to enforce federal

057law. If ICE requires Frederick County public uh sheriffs to do it, they're going to do it. Today, we saw statewide walkouts concerning the conduct of ICE nationwide and what's going to be coming into our state. And we were told a year ago that making any kind of statement on this would paint a target on our back. A year ago, we were told that this isn't Lowden County. This isn't our situation anymore. Well, times have changed and I urge the board to do what Harrisonburgg City Schools have done is make a statement to the parents and the students telling them that you are safe in our schools and you are safe in our communities. It's not much. It would just take a couple of minutes. It but it's time to tell parents and students whose side

058we are on. Thank you, [applause] >> Carrie Carmichael. Hi, I'm Carrie Carmichael from Shaunie. Um, first of all, I wanted to acknowledge the successes that the school board um influenced last year. I know that you often hear mostly the negative from people when we get up to speak, but I did want to acknowledge the good things that came from the board's words la the board's work last year. Um, I was here when students and parents came to talk about girls wrestling. Um, and uh then FCPS launched a girls wrestling program. Bright Futures spoke about their food pantries in some schools and members of the board stepped up to get those pantries built and stocked in more schools. I think these are great examples of where public input from community groups and residents along with schoolboard

059action helped make positive change happen in our schools. Um, I also wanted to say thank you to the board members who listened to those people who came here to speak, uh, thought about what we had to say and asked us questions. Thank you to those who emailed or caught us in the hall to talk and who wanted to hear more from us than we could fit into a threeminut comment. Thank you to all the schoolboard candidates, including the candidates who didn't make it onto the board, who wanted to serve and asked for our votes by showing up at candidate forums or calling or emailing or messaging us to ask us what we needed in a representative. Uh there's a lot of work for all of us to do to make our schools better for our

060kids. Um we have the so scores um looming over our heads. We also have some concerning results from the Virginia school survey of climate and working conditions report. Um, but I think that these are challenges that we can uh face together and meet. I'm looking forward in 2026 and beyond to the new school board leadership and having a board that supports school administrators, employees, teachers, parents, and students so that our kids can have the awesome education that they deserve. And I know we can give them. Thank you, Joel F. Good evening, Madam Chair and members of the board. At the school board meeting last month, outgoing member Mrs. Linda Martin made a request during her board member comments for parents to bring not just concerns and complaints, but also suggestions to this board, positive and

061productive efforts to provide helpful input and ideas. I appreciated that request and it's in the spirit of responding to it that I come here tonight. I need to start with a little story time. A number of years ago, one of my older kids was a student at Jameswood and had a particular class that she really enjoyed with a teacher who always kept things lively and engaging. But one day, he noticed some old scars on her arms from some previous struggles that she'd had with self harm and pulled her aside to express concern. She told him they were old and she was doing okay. Another day, he mentioned to her that she seemed rather thin and he wondered if she was getting enough to eat. She assured him that she was. Nonetheless, he brought up both

062concerns again at later dates, and each time she insisted she was fine. Let me be clear that none of these concerns came to my attention. No email home, no mention to a guidance counselor, nothing. Finally, one day, there was some class activity, the details for which I no longer remember, that involved some students winning bags of candy. My daughter was one of the winners winners, but when she was given the bag, when when she was given the bag, he came over and grabbed it away, saying that he would decide when she was allowed to have some. The next class he gave her a few pieces but still kept the bag. This all both annoyed her and made her uncomfortable. So she came home and told me about it and along the way mentioned his other

063previous comments. I knew it all sounded off but I was a bit naive about such things. So I sent him a long email addressing all of his all of his concerns and assuring him that she was doing well and asked him to return the bag of candy. If I had known then what I know now, not only about our current challenges with staff behavior, but also about things like grooming and situational power dynamics, at the very least, it would have been a different email, a very different email, and both the principal and the superintendent would have been contacted as well. From what I can tell, that individual is no longer teaching at James Wood. And while the behavior involving my child immediately stopped after my email, I shudder to think what other lives may have

064been impacted in some way since then, either in our community or elsewhere. At the last board meeting, we were given a bit of insight into the rigorous and thorough staff training currently in place. But it was of course acknowledged that such training doesn't dissuade someone already willing to break the rules and take advantage of their position. And I agree, it's like a lock on a screen door. It establishes clear boundaries and helps keep honest people honest, but not much more than that. So here's my suggestion. Well, idea, really just a vague thought if I'm honest, but one I think may be worth pursuing. Find a way to train the students. Empower them with the knowledge of what grooming can look like long before it gets to the point of inappropriate. What situation should raise flags,

065what to do when their gut tells them something is off, how to know when to wait and see versus when to escalate to someone in authority. It's not about reporting necessarily, more about awareness and self-p protection. This sort of knowledge can be beneficial to them outside of school as well and even later into adulthood. So, it really could be a valuable life skill. Thank you, [applause] >> Dr. Hummer. You are next with the soup report. >> All right. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. So, first I want to ask, Madam Chair, if I may, there was a little scheduling conflict, and we actually have two schools that are distinguished. We had uh Mrs. Andrews come up, but we also have Mrs. McCoy uh who is available now. So, can we do you mind taking a

066picture and we can read off her uh her report there if that's okay? Thank you, board. I appreciate your patience. Miss McCoy, if you can come on up, please. And give her a round of applause, everybody. [applause] >> Okay. And we are pleased to congratulate along with James Wood, Sharando High School on achieving the distinguished category within the Commonwealth School performance and support framework. This honor reflects the highest levels of commitment, consistency, and belief in what students can achieve. Recognition of this cal caliber is the result of strong instructional leadership, empowered teachers, and a student- centered culture that prioritizes excellence. This distinguished status serves as a clear indication that both schools are exceeding the state's expectations for achievement, growth, and graduation readiness. Congratulations also to Shirando [applause] High School. >> Shando. >> All right. Thank

067you, Madam Chair. Thank you, school board, uh, for your patience with that. And thank you, Miss McCoy, Mrs. Andrews, for all of your hard work. So, I also want to continue to thank all of our amazing staff for the the recipients that they got recognized for too from today. Um, we're so proud of all of our staff, all of our students for their commitment that they have for excellence and for their contri contribution for making this such an exceptional place. I also want to thank again our two new uh administrators uh as well as um the folks that have helped you through this journey and joining on in a very new new department and we're going to be moving in the right direction. So we're very excited for you all to get started and um

068and right here in Frederick County. So you moved right up the ranks and we're very very proud of you and thank you and we're we're very proud of all the work that you're going to be doing. So thank you for that. Next, I want to thank the school board. I I greatly appreciate you always taking the time to recognize and support uh proclamations as they arise. And we had three this month recognizing principal appreciation week, counselor appreciation week, school resource officer, as well as our outgoing and newly elected school board members. Our principles have an extremely important job in this school division, and they are our leaders with two of them right in here. Actually, we got Liz over there to my right there. Thank you for all the hard work that you do. We

069thank them for their tireless efforts and support of our students, staff, and community. And giving you just a week does not truly show how much we appreciate all that you do every single day. So, thank you so much for your leadership. I also want to thank our counselors for their hard work. They have so many defined and undefined responsibilities that always change based on the needs of our student staff and even sometimes our parents. And we greatly appreciate their dedication to every aspect of our community. We also want to thank our amazing school resource officers. Thank you all very much. We have one right here with us who is always in our schools helping us out. And we say this all the time. We are very, very appreciative of the relationship with our sheriff's office

070and we thank Sheriff Mil Holland for allowing us to have such amazing individuals in our schools for keeping us safe every single day. So, thank you all very, very much for all of your hard work. And last but not least, thank you. Thank you to our new school board members. Thank you for our board members that come off. I think you guys are seeing very quickly there's a lot of important work that goes into this every single day. and I am so honored and privileged to be working next to you. And I thank you all very much for your time and dedication. I also cannot stop thanking you, the school board, for allowing to have us two amazing school board reps. And and I knew coming on that these two individuals were the right choice

071for us. And I met with them last week to set the agenda for this week. And I am just happy to share to everybody they already had a list going. They already had seven items. and these items were spoton with the things that we need to work on in regards to student support, staff support and and the whole nine. And I'm just very very proud of you and impressed with with all of your hard work. And uh Gavin was not able to be here this evening. He's not feeling well. So Isabella was able to uh take it over here for us. So she has a few words she's going to be sharing with us here in a little bit. And and just wow. So so very impressed in seeing all the great work that that

072you're going to be doing. And and I do want to end I apologize on a sour note, but this this is this is really really important to me. Whenever we we lose a student, I want to thank the school board for honoring um um Sophia. Um some staff and I had a chance to go out and and see her. And if you've never knew Sophia, she was an amazing spirit. And even with everything that she had going on, she was smiling, she was joking. We were talking about getting her schoolwork done and and she was already giving the prognosis that she was not going to make it. and she was living every day to the fullest. So take whatever you want from this meeting today, but just take that with you to just we have

073to live life to the fullest and take every day like it's our last. And um I just want to keep the thoughts and prayers. The family services are this weekend if anyone's available to attend. Uh but please keep the family in your thoughts and prayers. And with that, Madam Chair, that is it. And I will now hand it over to our student rep. >> Thank you, Dr. Hummer. Good evening, everyone and members of the school board. My name is Isabella Collegeman and I am truly honored to be here tonight as one of the student representatives. I have an interest in the medical field and am currently enrolled in the CNA program offered by my school. Though through that experience, I have learned the importance of empathy, communication, and advocacy skills that extend far beyond healthcare.

074Along the way, I discovered that my passion for helping others also applies to representing and uplifting my peers. That realization played a major role in guiding me towards this position as student representative. What ultimately led me here is my deep care for the student body. I believe that students offer a perspective that is both valuable and necessary in conversations about education. Students live these policies every day. We feel their impact on our classrooms, our schedules, our mental health, and our futures. Because of that, I believe student voices deserve a seat at the table, not as an afterthought, but as an essential part of the decision-making process. One of the biggest questions surrounding this position is why? Why have student representatives and why does this role matter? The answer is simple. Connection. This role exists so

075that we can serve as a bridge between students and the schoolboard, creating a direct line of communication that ensures student concerns, ideas, and experiences are heard clearly and accurately. As student representative, it is my mission to strengthen that connection to and help build trust between students and board members through transparency and open dialogue. Gavin and I have the responsibility to present information we gather from students to the board, but our greatest responsibility is to our peers. Every student deserves the opportunity to be heard regardless of their school, grade level, or background. Our role is not to speak for students, but to speak with them, amplifying their voices rather than replacing them. Because of this, my goal is to be as involved as possible across Frederick County Schools. I went to see firsthand how students interact

076with their learning environments, their teachers, and each other. This includes not only high schools, but middle and elementary schools as well. Along with Gavin, I plan to volunteer throughout these schools, as well as attending the student advisory meetings alongside Dr. Hummer. Recently, with the guidance and support of Dr. Hummer, Gavin and I worked together to develop a list of goals for the 2025 2026 term. Our priorities include increasing emphasis on peer tutoring opportunities and creating student accessible surveys. These surveys would allow students to voice their concerns, ideas, and suggestions directly to student representatives, ensuring that feedback is both inclusive and easily accessible. While these goals were developed collaboratively, we recognize that our perspectives alone are not enough. We look forward to gathering student perspectives. We we oh, excuse me. We look forward to gathering student

077input throughout through through upcoming meetings such as principal advisory councils so that our efforts truly reflect the needs and priorities of the student body. This position represents an incredible opportunity for Frederick County Public Schools. I am deeply honored to be part of the foundation of this role and excited to work alongside Gavin, the board, and the superintendent to strengthen the student representation. I look forward to serving as a voice for my peers and helping ensure that students are not only heard but listened to. Thank you for your time and for this opportunity. [applause] >> All right. Next we have the special education advisory committee report. act to follow right there. Our future is in very good hands. Good evening, Madame Chair, members of the board, and Dr. Hummer. It is my privilege tonight to introduce

078Lori Barb, the chair of our special education advisory committee. Before Lori begins, I want to publicly recognize the immense amount of volunteer time and personal commitment that she and the SEAK representatives put into this committee. As parents, teachers, and students, and community members, they provide us with an invaluable perspective that ensures our programs and services for students with disabilities remain student centered and community informed. We truly appreciate the hours they spend advocating for our learners. And I'm pleased to turn the microphone over to Lori. >> Thank you, Dr. Reeves. Before I begin, I do need to ask if you received my report that I submitted about two weeks ago. Did you receive this? If not, I do have copies for you if you need them. Okay. Madame Chair, members of the board, and Dr. Hummer,

079thank you very much for having me here this evening to represent our SEAK committee. I look forward to partnering with you as we work to improve the education of students with differing abilities. Just a little bit of background. SEAK arose from federal law. It's IDA IDEIDA that says to the states that states need to have special education advisory committees. And these committees give parents the opportunity to have a voice in the education of their students. Virginia goes one step further and says that localities also need to have seat committees. And so that is who we are. We are 24 members strong. um and looking for new members all of the time. Uh we represent the majority of our membership is parents with uh students with disabilities. Um as well as local agencies such as uh

080Access Independence. We also have a teacher representative and a student representative. This year we've met twice so far for this term and from those two meetings we've identified four areas that are areas of concern that we would like to collect more data on. Those areas include transition for our students from one grade level to the next as well as metriculation um when they are moving from one level to the next. Uh we are concerned as a group of parents that perhaps students are u falling behind during those transitional periods that um the skills that they've gained are maybe being dropped as they move up to the next level. We also uh have some concerns about teacher support and professional development. This is really a two-pronged idea. Um at this point uh what we our m

081our biggest concerns at this point in that area is that um we're concerned about students IEPs being implemented as they are written. Do our teachers have the professional development that they need to implement those IEPs? But we're also concerned from the teacher perspective as well and the the uh number and the amount of mandates that have come down to them um and them being able to fulfill all of those mandates while educating our students with differing abilities. A third area is in the area of discipline. There were concerns expressed by our committee members that special uh needs students receive different um discipline than their non-disabled peers. and the way that our students are being dealt with um by administrators. There were some parental concerns in that area as well. And finally, in the area of

082programming, there were concerns expressed about the lack of appropriate programming for students with profound autism as well as for students with mental health issues. Our role as a committee is to look at these um these different needs and determine are they individual needs that need to be handled at the school level or are they more systemic and is it something that we need to bring to your attention along with our recommendations. We are looking forward to partnering with you to solve problems and to continue to grow in this area. So our next steps we met as a subcommittee um and we formulated different questions. We have some questions more questions we need to gain more information before we can make recommendations. So we are interested in surveying parents and we're interested in surveying teachers and

083we're currently working with the office of student support of student >> special instruction >> her her department. We're working with them to um figure out how to um conduct these surveys and collect the data that we need to make informed decisions to you. So those decisions will come in the form of our final our annual report which will be later this year. I do have on my uh report to you now my progress report the dates of our remaining SEAK uh meetings for this year. We invite you all to attend if you are so interested. Do you have any questions? Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> And back to you, Dr. Hammer, for your budget presentation. >> All right. Thank you. >> Did I do that? >> All right. Make

084sure this works here. Great. Well, good evening, school board. Uh, good evening the amazing community of Frederick County. Guests in the audience, guests that are listening. Um, there's a lot of great things that that I get to experience as as the superintendent with getting out to schools, seeing graduation, seeing our amazing kids, seeing our amazing staff, working with our amazing parents. But I would say this is probably top 10 in in presenting our budget and allocating the right resources and getting the right tools that our staff and students deserve. So this is part of the process where I present to you what's called a needsbased budget. I'm going to go through this from start to finish and then there will be opportunities to ask questions as we navigate the budget process through multiple work sessions

085through committee meetings as well as conversations with downtown and the board of supervisors. But please, if you have any general questions for me this evening, as you know, you can ask those as you will. Uh but there will be many opportunities as we break down this budget and work through this together. So, as I mentioned, this is for information only. there's no action to take on this budget today. So, let's start with our why. Our why, as we've heard throughout the course of this evening, is our people. Our people, our kids, our community, they are our future. And we have to take care of our kids because each of us in this room will be replaced with our students. And we need to acknowledge that. And we need to provide our students with exactly what

086they need by putting the right staff in front of them, by giving them the right tools, the right resources, the right training, and the right support in order to do their jobs every single day. Now, an aspect of what we always encourage with our students is something called growth mindset. And I'm going to factor that in to this budget process for this year. And essentially what growth mindset is, if you haven't heard it before, it's I don't know that yet or I can't do that yet. And growth mindset needs to be incorporated into what we're trying to provide all of our students and all of our staff because there is many aspects to this budget where we have to stop thinking about them a year at a time. We have to take a look at

087three, five, and 10 years down the road and how we can continue to build and provide supports for our staff because the issues which I'm going to show you here in a second is not something that happened overnight. It is a compound of a series of issues and a series of budget constraints that we have been operating under that we need to continue to grow. But fixing that is not going to happen overnight. So that growth mindset is we are not there yet and we need to continue to grow. Why is that important? That is going to work through building relationships, working through higher resilience and perseverance. If we don't get some of the items we ask for this year, we will continue to work on those and getting them next year. We've made a

088lot of progress over the last couple years thanks to the board of supervisors and the state, current and previous school board members. We are making progress, but what you will see this evening, there are areas that we need to continue to accelerate because that gap continues to get bigger in regards to meeting the needs of our staff and our students. And if we don't get ahead of them now, it will continue to get worse. But keep that in mind as we navigate this budget process is as we continue not only to grow in the budget process, but we are growing as well. and where we currently stand with our budget process, the status quo is unsustainable. We cannot continue in the direction that we are going in in how we are funding our school system.

089We will continue to fall behind. we will continue to fall short in regards to performance of our students, keeping good staff here and and providing them with the the um the dollars that they deserve in order to make ends meet for their family in order to provide our students with exactly what they need. So, what do I mean by the status quo is unsustainable? So, let's break this down a little bit. The first area is the LCI, which is the local composite index. And we've talked about this many times. And for the public that that is not familiar with the LCI, I'll go over it very quickly. And essentially the LCI is determined at the state level. And it's determined by taking a look at income, taking a look at property values, and it determines

090essentially how rich a community is. So if you take a look at this chart, since 2016, we continue to get richer, which means that there is money here for us to utilize for our school system. And this number varies by school division which we've provided you on the V from the VDOA website. There was a question last week. Thank you for that question to show how we compare against neighboring divisions. There are some divisions that's 80% meaning they get 80% of the revenue comes from the locality. So for us it's 42% the other 68% comes from the state. But keep that in mind when you take a look at this chart here. Look at the funding that we have not received from the county since 2020. It continues to go in a negative direction. Now,

091we did talk about this last week in regards to the county is required to go by the bare minimum, but right now they are about 78% above that minimum. And when we took a look and compared us to other neighboring divisions, other divisions our size, that sweet spot is about 110 120%. And as you can see, we are significantly below that. Now, put put things into perspective. Lowden County is 210%. Probably won't be able to catch them, but there are some areas that we can continue to improve because the LCI suggests that the county can afford it. So as that LCI number goes up, state dollars goes down. So if state dollars are going down and local dollars are going down, it is creating a serious issue. So let's take a look and break down

092that serious issue. The amazing Miss Anderson and her team pulled up some data to provide a bigger picture. So over the last 10 years, the blue bar is the number that we requested. The orange bar is what we were actually provided from the county. So that needsbased budget which I'm about to dive into is not the official number that we initially get from our staff. That number is always larger and I'm about to dive into that. So I reason I share that with you is because that number that is there is not the overall needs of the school division. It is a lower number that is presented. So, not only are we providing a lower number, we're also getting even lower number when the county actually provides us the the money every year. Now, granted,

093we have made a lot of progress over the last three years. I'm going to be very clear on that and we've done a lot of work in regards to collaboration. We've got amazing um support from our community constituents and our parents and our staff and we greatly appreciate that. But there is much more work to do. So keep in mind here that our overall number that we've asked for on average over the last 10 years is about $67 million. Keep that in mind when you see the number that we're requesting this year and why this is such an issue. So to even dive even deeper, I had again our finance department poll another 10 years about what was the pay increases for our teachers. And take a look at this chart. Five of those years

094they received 0% increase. Zero. Now again, we've made a lot of progress over the last four years. We're very proud of that progress to get our teachers and staff exactly what they need. Great progress, but anything below 4% is also an issue because there are steps on our pay scale and we're trying to increase those pay scale steps. So, anytime we're below 4%, we're not giving the teachers a step. We're just giving them a one-dimensional pay increase where neighboring divisions typically give their staff a step and increase that step. So, here, not only did we have five years of 0%, we also had five years of less than four. So, that's 10 years that we have to overcome. So, we have a lot of work to do here. The next area, which we know is

095a sensitive topic, but as we've shared with you many times, about 2 and a half% of our total body staff of 3,000 staff is central office employees. And as we continue to grow and as we continue to meet the needs of our staff, we've heard a lot of requests to go to pay twice a month. We've heard a lot of requests to make sure that we beef up our HR practices in regards to retaining and recruiting as well as bringing people on board. And when we pulled not only divisions that were smaller than us, but also divisions that were similar to our size, as you can see here, we are significantly understaffed. And that is a problem because if we want to continue to again take care of our staff who are taking care of

096our students, we have to make sure that we are looking at the bigger picture across the board and how we are staffing ourselves as a school division. If you came to my state of the schools address, which we're going to do every single year, I referenced Back to the Future. And I absolutely love this place. This is an amazing community. There's a lot of tradition. There's a lot of heritage. And that is what makes Frederick County who we are. And what I shared during that conversation is I know there is a lot of individuals that want to hold on to those traditions and heritages. We want to do that as well. But how are we going to hold on to that while we embrace a future that we can all share, which is our kids?

097How are we going to provide more opportunities and pathways for our students? And we hear it time and time again. We talk about adding on girls wrestling, adding on turf fields, adding on more pathways for kids. We're all for all of those things. We want to add on every single opportunity for our kids, but it all costs money. So, we need to work in those conversations through this budget process to show the things that we are not able to add on for our kids to provide our kids the opportunities and pathways that they need. And I'm sure all of us have many, many stories and examples of where we fell short here. And we always hear this time and time again. Well, you made it work with the money that you have. Well, in order

098to show that we're not able to ends meet means that we have to let things fall through the cracks. What are those things for us? It's kids. We are educators that are not about to let kids fall through the cracks. So, sure, we are we are making it work with the money that we have, but we're making it work at a cost. If you take a look at the national average of burnout rate for educators, it is going up. There is a huge correlation between how we are treating our public educators and our teachers what they deserve. They are the ones leading our future. We need to do a better job taking care of them. And we cannot keep saying time and time again that they get off in the summers and they do all

099these things and not working hard and all. That is not true. They work extremely hard to do everything that our kids deserve and need and we have to do a better job supporting them. And it starts right here. How are we supporting them? and how are we going to fund them in order to show that we truly truly appreciate all the hard work that they're doing because this is what it's about. It's about our kids. So, let's talk a little bit about the budget process. We have broken this down uh last week for you and we've talked about it many, many times, but let me just give a quick overview for the public. So, this budget process is very, very involved. We don't just turn the lights off, throw darts at the wall, turn them

100back on and say this is what we're looking at this year. We take a look at our enrollment numbers. We take a look at data. We take a look at survey data. We compare us to other divisions. We take a look at where salaries are across the state, where salaries are across uh the valley. We look at many different aspects. We look at our staffing standards and we come up with a number and that number is shared with us based on all the feedback that we received from principles to central office staff to you to parents, constituents. And we put together an initial budget request. But that budget request needs to make sure that it aligns with your priorities that it aligns with the revenues that we think we are going to be getting from

101the county as well as the money that we are going to be getting from the state. So we want to make sure that it aligns and as I shared with you earlier, it is about that growth mindset. We are going to continue to grow and we are not going to be able to tackle this iceberg in one budget cycle. So two years ago, if you recall, we worked on three different areas that we wanted to continue to grow. The first is fixing our compressed pay scales because of what I showed you earlier with we the minimal amount of pay increases over the years as well as the compounding of money we didn't receive. Those pay scales became compounded and we have to fix those. The second area was looking at our staffing standards, which is

102a way for us to get ahead of where we are staffed as a school division, providing the needs of the students in each of those schools so that we are making sure that when we come forward with a with initial requests for staff that we are actually being transparent with those staff that are needed. And then the other area was truly diving in and taking a look at other incentives that we can add on so that we can compete with Louden. And one of those was taking care of our veteran teachers because what we have heard and what we have seen is that we have teachers that leave us 25 26th year and they go to Lowden to get that three-year highest average in Lowden at that VRS. And we have fixed that. We've gotten

103closer to that. So, we're keeping our veteran teachers here as we should. Here are your budget priorities as we've spoke about looking at our our pay our pay scales as well as compensation packages for staff. looking at our instructional materials for our students as well as taking care of our operational funds. We have a lot of great things happening here in Frederick County. There's a lot of things happening operationally with serving of meals, with driving over 2 million miles, with instruction providing students with numerous dual enrollment opportunities, with providing them credits. We have students graduating with associates degrees. We have a lot of partnerships to provide a lot. So, we do a lot. We are in Virginia standards a large SC school division and we are going to continue to grow based on our numbers.

104We also have a lot of student recognitions as we do every month and this is beyond. We have our new student schoolboard reps as I spoke about earlier of giving students voice. I like what you said about talking with them not at them. I thought that was great. We also have students that are being recognized at a national level. I do have one hot off the press. I was down at Sharando meeting with their FFA students and they got recognized top 10 in the nation for one of their business proposals in the nation. That's huge. They went and presented to Indianapolis. We have a lot of great things happening in spite of some of our budgetary constraints and we want to continue to capitalize on those things and make sure that we are continuously focused

105on the great things that we have going on. But also to provide other side of the coin, we have work to do. There are things that we need to focus on and there are things that we need to be better at and we recognize those things. And the first area that we know we have to be better is attendance, behavior, and performance. Now, there are areas that we are doing well and there's areas that we need to improve. We are very proud of our chronic absenteeism rate as that continues to improve. We're looking at performance and how our students are performing in our classrooms as well as behavior. We also want to think differently of how we're providing supports for our teachers and for our staff. Looking at recognitions, looking at PLC's, looking at effective

106school framework. We resetted two weeks ago for our staff to show where we currently are and where we are going. And we're receiving feedback as we continue to navigate our new strategic plan, which we're very excited about because that is what is going to lay the foundation of a lasting impact. That is a five-year plan that we have promised to show quarterly reviews over the next five years as we should been doing and we're looking at areas that we've done well and we've looking at areas that we need to improve because we have to focus on these four areas, math, English, looking at what our students are doing after high school with enrollment, enlistment, and employment. Also teaching our students those durable life skills so they can take it with them in the next stage

107of their careers. So with our strategic plan and the roll out and with the performance of where we are and the areas that we need to improve, we also have our accountability system. Now I want to dive a little bit deeper into this accountability system because as I've mentioned to you, there is some potential changes happening at the state level in regards to how schools are being designated because there are certain aspects of this accountability scale that does not paint the true picture of where we are at Frederick County Public Schools. We are very proud of our stu of our schools that are at the top of this list of ontrack and distinguish. We have schools that are off track and every single school that's in needs of intensive support was actually under offtrack with

108some of them under a half a point away from being on track. But because of how the state established their accountability system, if you do not meet it in a federal indicator, which in this case was for students with disabilities, they went down one level. [snorts] Now, our students with disabilities, as we heard earlier from our SEAK, is very important and we know the areas we need to improve and we are going to partner with SEAK in regards to looking into those areas. So, we're not trying to discount that. We have areas of improvement, but to be shifted a whole level down when you're less than a half a point away to going on track does not make any sense and it's not fair to our staff. So what the JARK has suggested for the

109state to consider is to give them a designation, keep them off track with the designation because that will paint a bigger picture. If we have schools that truly score needs of intensive support, absolutely they need to be designated in that area. But we do not have any schools that are in that area. But I also do not want to sugarcoat this. We have work to do and we know those areas that we need to improve. As I mentioned, with growth mindset and long-term planning, we want to make sure that we continue to focus on these areas to get our staff exactly what they need, focus on professional development, focus on retention and recruitment, and really take a look at what that's going to look like long term for our staff because we are a system

110of people. We are not a system of things and we have to keep that at the forefront of every budget proposal. So, now I'm going to break down each of these areas. We're going to focus on the operating fund. We're going to focus on the debt service fund and we're going to focus on the capital projects fund. Now, as I mentioned earlier, I want to start with a number and then at the end I will show you the number that we are requesting. So, as I mentioned, we get all this information in. I have conversations with the county. I have conversations with you and the number that I will be presenting is a lot less than the original number that came forward which was about $25 million. So, that was the initial request. Madam Chair,

111do we need to take a recess? Yeah, Madam Chair, I'd like to make a motion for fiveminute recess. Please >> second. >> I have a motion. It's been properly seconded. >> All those in support signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes. >> Thank you. I move that the board reconvene its meeting. Second. Second. >> I have a motion. It's been properly seconded. >> All those in favor? Any discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Motion passes. I almost had it. [laughter] >> All right. Thanks, Madam Chair. So, where I left off was what was that original number that had come forward and it was in a range of about $25 million. So, we received all of our requests from all of our staff.

112And again, all of those items that were on that original request were items that we needed, but it's going to be items that we are going to try to build in over the course of the next year or so. So, we're going to break down the operating fund, the debt service fund, and our capital projects fund. So the first item of promise was we started this three years ago and was that was that for excuse me that was for us to do a better job of diving into our baseline budget looking at our line items to see where there is potential cost savings. So it's not money we're necessarily giving back. It's money that we're building into our budget. So it's less money that we are requesting for downtown. So let me give you some

113examples of this. We started a new data systems last year was about $150,000 to start, but it's $75,000 to continue. So, we were able to for this year start with the $75,000 and for the remaining 50 we put back into this pot of money here. So, this is cost savings that we look at every year in order for us to get ahead of this. This is not bad budgeting. We're not going to have $2 million every year. Some years we'll have 300,000. Some years we might have over a million. But this is just a way for us to get ahead of reallocating dollars that are currently in our line items. So, it's just a way for us to show our our our dedication to making sure we're being good stewards of our dollar. Now, where

114we started with pay increases is every year the Social Security office comes out with what's called a COLA, the cost of living adjustment. That number is 2.8%. Meaning with that cost of living adjustment, that is where an average individual would continue to be able to make ends meet with inflation. So that is where we started. The state is starting at 2%. So of that 2.8 that we originally started with or the 5.8 wherever we land, we're only getting 2% from the state. Now, as we've seen with the new governor coming on board as well as it's still going to the general assembly, we've always received more money than what the governor originally proposed. So as that number goes up at the state level, it's less money than the county will give us and we will

115continue to talk through as we navigate with that. So the reason that okay we started at 2% because we got it from the state we got the 2.8 from the state. You're like where is the 5.8% coming from for teacher and classified and 5.6 for administrators and supervisors. Well for our teachers we are taking a look at those areas that I mentioned to you earlier. We have to fix the compression on our pay scales. And what I mean by that is our pay scales are not step zero 1 2 3 4 5 6 all the way to 30 because we were not able to get ahead of that over that 17-year projection as I showed you earlier. We have clusters on our pay scale. So we have staff that say work from 5 years to

11610 years they're on the same pay scale 11 to 15 so on. And we shared that with you. We'll break that down more in future meetings. That is a problem and that is what is causing a lack of pay increase for our staff because they're on the same pay scale for certain years. So that is an area that we are trying to improve upon. Once we fix that, then we will be able to get to the standard pay increases that we want to be able to get to so we can start addressing other areas across our budget. But because our pay scales are compressed, we have to fix that. And we promised that would take about four to five years. We're on year three of that. The other was, as I mentioned, of paying our

117veteran teachers. We would like to get to 15 years or more. Right now, we're at 24. So, going to another year of 23. That is another $5,000 added to their salary. So, that will go towards their VRS, their retirement system. So, with all those numbers in there, that is an average of 5.8%. Same as for our classified staff. Now, we talk about this year after year. Our classified staff are the backbone of our school division and and they do a lot of work behind the scenes from driving our buses to taking care of our cafeterias to taking care of our buildings, custodians across the board, instructional aids as well as our admin assistants. Those are staff that make our school division run and we have to do a better job of compensating them and that

118is an area that we've continued to work on improving. Now, not only are we competing with other divisions, but we're competing with local businesses. Sheets, Chick-fil-A, Bies, which I haven't been to yet. Apparently, they're paying our more than what we could pay our classified staff. That is a problem. So, we need to be able to show that we are trying to provide them with the money that they deserve. So, that is an area that we want to continue to improve. We also have our professional staff. Again, that's the 5.6%. We're looking at uncclustering those pay scales as well. That's going to be our diagnosticians, our nurses, our school psychologists. Again, staff that are very, very important. And we want to make sure we take care of them as well as our administrators. And that is

119an area that we also need to continue to make sure we stay ahead of because if you look and compare us to other divisions, we are comparable. But if we continue to provide less, significantly less, we will continue to have that issue of losing administrators, good administrators to other school divisions. This is the area that brings a lot of concern and I've had conversations with each of you. we talked about it last week is that we are trying to avoid of passing any premiums to our employee and because of the increase across the state and because we've had a lot of staff that required a lot of medical needs because we're about taking care of our staff and we have continued to take to reduce that reserve fund because we are self-insured that this is

120an area that we knew was going to finally catch up to us and this is the year it's catching up. So, just looking at our cost of our health insurance right there is about $8 million. And that is technically our cost to continue, which I'll break down here shortly. $8 million just for health insurance, $10 million just for our pay increases, not including everything else that we're trying to add on. So, that is a cost to continue that we need to get ahead of. As I mentioned, we have our staffing standards. This was an area of significant improvement that we've worked on over the last 3 years as we look at how we are staffed as a school division. This is not about reducing staff. There was a lot of rumors going around when we

121first rolled this out. This is a way for us to rift staff. Not at all. If we had staff that were built into these staffing standards, we move those positions around to other schools before we went to the board of supervisors to ask for more positions. Again, being good stewards of our dollar. So, this is an area that we want to continue to improve. So here was the initial request. So we met with all of our administrators. We did a deep dive into our staffing standards and these were all of the positions that we would have liked to add on. But unfortunately, taking a look at what we think we're going to be getting from the county, what we're getting from the state, as well as the emphasis on pay increases and health insurance, which

122is a big deal, we had to reduce down to this. Now, I want to be clear, these positions are needed. So, it's not that these positions are going away. We will just be adding these in future years. So, this is where we believe we need for this upcoming school year. And again, we can break down each of these positions in future meetings, but these are the areas that we want to continue to focus on. As you can see, I will dive into this and of course answer any questions, but compliance is that state SOQ. So, those are areas that we cannot cut because we will be below what the state funds us at. So we could lose funding and it could be a potential issue. But the other areas are positions that we need through

123our staffing standards. So those are areas that we need to focus on. The other sorry I went too fast here. The other area that I want to draw your attention to is see the FTE request and then the FTE out reallocation. So again we're not rifting positions, we are moving positions around and we do our best to move FTEEs, not actual people. So those are positions that we believe that we could reallocate looking at the staffing standards, not doing away with people and moving them into other positions. So next up is two instructional initiatives we wanted to focus on. And the first one is a way for us to think creatively in order to recoup some of our lost dollars for students that are in private day or homeschool. Now we've taken this from other

124neighboring divisions that have gone this route and it's been very successful. We were on the phone with some neighboring divisions in regards to how they made this work and we're going to start small and we're going to grow bigger. Right now we have,00 students who are homeschooled and to put it into a quantitative form that's $7,500 a student that we are losing. We get about $7,500 for ADM. So if we can recoup that in some form or fashion, this is a way we would like to do that. So essentially we are going to be providing our families who are homeschooled or private school with the program and we have had parents ask us for that and if they are enrolled in our schools and they're accessing the virtual program we will get ADM for those

125students. Now it costs about $3,000. These are all rough numbers please. It costs about $3,000 per student to access this program. So we're looking at about $4,000 additional per student. So eventually this will pay for itself but talking to neighboring divisions we have to front the money to pay for the program and as we get the money coming in for ADM the number will take care of itself. So again trying to think creatively and trying to think outside the box to obtain more state dollars. The other area unfortunately is our all-in dollars is going away at the end of this year. That was additional money that the governor had provided us in order for look into three areas impact chronic absenteeism, the Virginia literacy act and improvement of student scores due to the pandemic. Those

126monies are going away and one of the aspects or program we added on was our credit recovery program at high school. So we have always had a high school program but it was not as robust as it's been in the last two years. So, we actually transitioned it to Milbrook last year. If you recall, because the program got so large for credit recovery, we would like to keep that program moving forward to help with students gain those credits to graduate and to help us with master scheduling for the next year. So, for example, if you had 10 freshmen who wasn't able to pass English, if they don't take that credit recovery class, your next year, if you have a whole class of incoming freshmen, that's a large class. You're now behind in your class numbers

127because you have 10 freshmen added to that large freshman class. And those are issues that our our high school principles are experiencing. So, if we're able to meet those students needs and get those credits over the summer, it will help with master scheduling as well. We are very close to that 13th number of those replacement buses. We were originally at two, but like I've shared with you earlier to really focus on health insurance and pay increases. We reduced it from 2 to one. It was long conversations that Mr. Thompson and I had and and what really was able to focus on shifting that 2:1 is he was able to work his magic on getting additional buses which we'll be presenting to you guys at buildings and grounds next meeting through a lease program. We're not

128leasing the buses. We're buying buses that were leased out out in Oklahoma. So, we were able to get some additional buses. It's actually up for you guys to approve this evening and then we'll dive more into it at the next meeting. So, we were able to get more buses. So that was this was a little bit easier to swallow in regards to going from two to one with us eventually going to 13 buses next year. Again, not a no now. It will be we're going to be looking at adding one more bus for next year if we get approval for this one. I know we've had a lot of conversations about C. Um right now we currently have nine schools that qualify. 25% is that number. Uh we also have our other schools as a

129county we do qualify in some individual schools do not, but as a county we do. But since Milbrook and Bass Hoover are at that 40% mark, there will be no impact to the budget. So that is why we have these two schools up here. If we were able to add the other nine schools, that'll be about $900,000. And I know we have talked about that. So that'll be something that we can continue to talk about before you adopt the budget before it goes downtown if that's something you'd like for us to add on. But adding these two schools here will not have an impact on the budget for this year. So, as I [clears throat] mentioned, we started at a $25 million ask from the county. We're getting about $2 million from the state, which

130will potentially go up, which will reduce the request from the county, from us. And that's typically what we've done in the past, and I will recommend that we do that. But right now, we're asking for an $18.2 million ask. And if you compare that to what we have asked in the past, that is a significant ask. And we want to make sure that we are very clear that we are not trying to go above our needs. That we're not trying to go above and not provide exactly what we need with this budget cycle. And one of the areas that I want to remind everybody what I've showed earlier in the presentation that if we don't get anywhere close to that, not only will it impact now, but it will add to the issues in the

131future because 85% of our budget is our people. So if we do not take care of our people, that is what's going to be impacted. And according to our staffing standards, where we are now, we are in good shape. But if we start to lose staff, that is where we will continue to see issues. And if we want to see the needle move for our kids and invest in that, that is what we need to focus on. I want to again thank Mrs. Anderson for her great work with this, but we were having a really long conversation of return on investment. And we were talking about the human element to return on investment because we invest in our students, we invest in their pathway and we invest in their future. But for the business folks,

132because this is a business, we have to focus on what that return on investment is monetarily. And for every dollar that we invest in our school system, that is a $5 return on our economy. $5. So if you do the quick math there, that is a significant impact. Meaning, and this is for any community, if you take care of your schools, the schools will take care of your community. They will through many different areas. So, we need to continue to focus on that and continue to get support as we've gotten in over the last couple years. And that is a way for us to truly show what that return on investment means besides that human element, which is also very, very important. So, here are the and and we've talked about this over the last

133couple years and I know Miss Anderson and I have had a lot of conversations with the county. This isn't a or or included in this is an and. So, this we cannot replace these items with what we need for operating. So, the first is our debt service. So, we have projects that we're currently paying off from Indian Hollow and James Wood, the expansions, but we're also going to start to see the three current projects hit in 2930, but we need to plan ahead for that debt service. So, that's 1.1 million. So, 18.2 and 1.1 million. Here is also our capital projects. This is another area thankful to to the board of supervisors, we get about 3 to 5 million every every year to chisel at these projects. But as you can see, we're at 11.7

134and that's just right now. So that we have other future projects that we need to get ahead of, but today we're at 11.7 and again this is and so we have the 18.2 from the county, we have the 1.1 and we have the 11.7. Now, with debt service, we get zero dollars from the state to help with that. And for these capital projects, we get very minimal money for this. A lot of this comes from the locality. So, there is no staffing standard or SOQ where we get those dollars. They're trying to fix that. There's some legislation trying to come down to fix that, but this all comes from the locality. So, here are some upcoming meetings. And before I open up for questions, before I conclude, so we have the initial budget presentation for

135you this evening today. We have the public hearing which we're required to do to hear from the community on February 3rd required by code to do that. We then have a February 11th work session downtown where it will be a joint work session where we'll go over this budget presentation again, answer any questions, and then we are recommending that we have our budget work session here on the 17th and then moving that schoolboard meeting which is up for your conversation and approval to move our schoolboard meeting to the 24th to give you time to approve that. I will also be holding my town halls with one of these being a live stream. We usually have about 10 to 15 individuals that participate. live stream is as we get more participation there. We're very appreciative of

136that. So, if you have any questions and want to come out or just send me an email or give me a call and thank you for your time. Any initial questions, >> madame chair, if I may. >> Um, have we I know these are all proposed bills, but like Mr. Brun was talking about HB 355, HB38, HB495. None of that's going to be funded by the state. We're going to have to incur those costs. Um some of the other things, the right to work that may be coming down the pike in uh the Jan 6 instruction stuff. Have we figured in how much additional dollars that may cost us that that we're going to have to ask from the county because they're not going to cover it? >> That's a great question, Mr. Sturdivan. And

137um as we navigate when these bills come through the general assembly, we keep a close eye on them. So we have conversations with our local organizations. We have conversations through our state organizations to see which one of these bills will typically come forward. Typically for bills that have any money or funding associated with it don't kick in until the following budget cycle just based on where we fall. Now, if there is something significant that's going to be built in, then typically sometimes they will add in some additional dollars like through the SOQ money we received in August. So, if there's a significant impact on our budget, we have to get ahead of that. But, there is no way that a school division can get ahead of maybe bills. So, that is why it will typically

138kick in that following year. If we get wind that we think something is definitely going to come forward and it's going to have a significant price tag, then that's where we usually step in, talk to our local delegates, our senator. we reach out to say, "Hey, look, can you please have a start date of the following year because they know that our budget process ends in May." So, they know there's no way to get ahead of that with those bills typically getting approved at the end of May. So, we'll work through those pieces as we navigate them. You all get full access to those bills for the ones we think that are going to be approved and if we have to pivot or take a look at those, that's something that we can definitely look

139at. Mr. Andrew, do you want to add anything to that? Yeah, great question, Mr. Chair. Yes. So, we do take we do track that and it is something that we'll bring to your attention if we know it's going to be an issue. If I can if I can give you a prime example of that, the 3E was a big example. So, with the 3E and the new accountability system to provide additional pathways and opportunities for kids, that's an unfunded mandate. They want to they're asking us to provide all these additional courses and classes and staff. Those are great things, but we need money to do that. So, they know that's going to take us some time to build that in. So, great question. Thank you, Mr. Sturdivan. Okay, thank you guys. Appreciate it. >> Thank

140you, Dr. Hummer. >> All [clears throat] right. Well, we do have some unfinished business from our last meeting. We would like to appoint the following members to the advisory committees. I have Mr. Bell is the Mountain Vista Governor's School representative. Mr. North is the Frederick County Educational Foundation representative and Mr. Moran as the alternate. Myself is the Frederick County Comprehensive Plan and Program Committee Facilities Group representative and Mr. Proac as the alternate. Mr. Prok is the Frederick County Development Impact Model Committee representative. And Mrs. Klein is the alternate. Mr. Proek is to the athletic advisory committee. Mrs. Klein to the CTE advisory committee. Mr. Prok to the CIP advisory committee. Mr. North to the citizens budget advisory committee. Mr. Bell to the gifted advisory committee. Mr. Certivan to the school health advisory committee. Mr. Moran

141to the special education advisory committee. and myself to the technology advisory committee and to the transportation advisory committee. Do I have a motion to approve these appointments? >> Madam Chair, I move that the board appoint the members of the school board to serve as representatives of the school board for the 2026 calendar year as presented. >> Second. [clears throat] >> All right. The motion has been made and properly seconded. Any discussion? >> All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes. Up next is new business. First up is the school contract. >> Yes. >> School bus contracts. >> Yes. Yes, ma'am. So, Madam Chair, we typically bring this through committee. Um, but since the typically January is a very tough time because we have the organizational meeting and

142scheduling and all that. So, this is an item that was timely. As I mentioned to you earlier, these are the buses that we want to purchase from the unobligated dollars. The uh item is actually listed in board docks and Mr. Thompson, Miss Anderson, and myself are available to answer any questions. But since this is over the 200,000, you all have to approve this. And we're available for any questions. >> Madam Chair, I move that the board approve the contract award to American Bus Sales LLC in the amount of $625,310 for the purchase of six buses. >> Second. >> The motion has been made and properly seconded. Any discussion? >> Uh, Madame Chair. Um, Ben, I I just want to congratulate you on finding this option. And this is the buses that we leased from Oklahoma,

143right? Or were buying the former leased buses from Oklahoma. Is that correct? >> Yeah. And I and I just want to share a thanks to the transportation department. They're the ones that did the heavy lifting on this and uh found essentially a company that takes in buses that were off lease. So these buses are roughly, I believe, 2, three years old and uh usually 20 to 30,000 miles on them. So really getting the benefit Oh, that's fantastic. Great job. Honestly, um I mean to get them each for that amount like 69 whatever the amount is. Six buses is it? >> Yeah. I mean, we're talking roughly $100,000 a a piece. So, where we would have four new, we're getting >> six. Yeah. Yeah. >> Oh, absolutely. This is great. So, anyway, I just wanted to

144say thank you and thank you. >> Absolutely. Thank you. >> All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes. Sorry. We have one more. Um, do I have a motion for the building code modification request? Madam Chair, I move the board approve the Virginia Uniform statewide building code modification request and authorize the chair to sign all necessary paperwork associated with this request. >> Second. >> The motion has been made and properly seconded. Any discussion? >> Madam Chair, just for the the public, this is on board docs as well, but I just want to talk about this building code modification request. It actually has to do with the fourth high school. So, it was determined that for the size of the stadium, I believe there were 55 bathrooms that were needed,

145um 55 or 58, somewhere in the 50s. 58. Okay. Um but we were able to that was not within VLK's scope of work and it was also not within our budget. So, um our amazing um department under Mr. Thompson was able to find a loophole for that. Uh but we have to request a building code uh building code modification to do so. And that requires our approval to build bring it down to 44. I think it is 44 bathrooms. >> Correct. >> Okay. Excellent. So 58 to 44 code change request. That's what we're voting on today. So >> thank you, Madam Chair. >> Thank you. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes. >> Do I have a motion for the school board meeting date change? Madam

146Chair, I move to I move the board approve moving the February 17th, 2026 monthly meeting to February 24th, 2026. >> Second. >> The motion has been made and properly seconded. Is there any discussion? >> Madam Chair, just one discussion point. Unfortunately, my flying schedule's already set for February. I'm trying to drop that day to have that off, but right now I will not have it off. Not a big deal. I feel I'm very spun up on the budget thanks to Miss Anderson's efforts of answering my foolish questions. So, she's been very patient with me, but I will not be present for that if my schedule stands. But as long as we have a quorum, I'm fine with it. >> All right. Thank you. Um, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. I.

147Any opposed? All right. Motion passes. I don't have that one in front of me. >> [snorts] >> I don't have that one in front of me. >> Where we go here? >> Yeah. Mhm. >> Madame Chair, if I may, having carefully considered and deliberated over the entirety of the record related to a specific personnel matter involving teacher dismissal in accordance with Virginia Code section 22.1-313. I move to uphold the superintendent's personnel recommendation for teacher dismissal. I further move to authorize and direct the board chair to communicate the board's decision in writing to the employee in accordance with Virginia code section 22.1-313. >> Do I have a second? >> I second. >> The motion has been made and properly seconded. Or should we do a roll call? Any discussion? >> Any discussion? >> We have >>

148Mrs. Sturdivvent. >> I >> Mrs. Klein I >> Mr. Moran >> I >> Mr. North >> I >> Mrs. Caruso >> I Mr. Bell >> I >> Mr. Proek >> I >> motion passes. >> All right. Do we have any board member comments? >> Uh, madam chair, I'll be very very brief, I promise. Um, thank you very much. So, first I want to say congratulations to Ms. McCoy. Um, I say this and I mean congratulations to all of the folks that won awards this evening and were recognized, but especially Miss McCoy because she is the principal of Sherando High School, which is where both of my children have gone or are currently going. And I want to say that she is a bright spot in that school community. um every game that I have ever

149attended, football, basketball, track, what have you, she's there every morning, whether it's five degrees or 100 degrees, she's outside um waving people on in in the mornings for the bus. When I call with questions as an insane parent, she calls me back. And I'd like to think it's not because I'm on the board. Um, so I just want to say thank you very much, Miss McCoy, for all the hard work that you've done on behalf of me personally and on behalf of all the students. So, thank you very, very much. Um, number two, I want to say thank you to Jackson Kidwell. He is a student at uh uh Jameswood High School. Uh, he invited me to attend his civics club group. Um, and I was able to go and talk to the members of

150that group. And these are students who are interested in being more involved in their uh local government and being involved in the uh goings on in our community. Um they had lots of really good questions. They had a couple of tough questions. Um one question they raised I'm going to bring to the attention during the instruction uh committee premeating that I have. Um, and so it was a very valuable experience for me and I hope that uh students in other schools will um hopefully copy or mimic that that type of club. So, thank you. Um, the third thing I want to talk about is uh Friday I had the pleasure of attending uh the Milbrook Sharando basketball game. Um, it it was a nailbiter, the boys was. Um but they had a special presentation during

151halftime where the two schools work together on a project or program called love loud and it's basically about people who have suffered uh either cancer themselves or family members who have had cancer and uh they presented carnations to those who are currently uh dealing with cancer. Um but it was an especially special experience for me. I do have a family member that's going through cancer right now and the prognosis is is is not good. Um, but it it just made me feel a part of a community that understands what that type of thing um does to a family. So, I appreciate that and I just wanted to share that. And I even wore my Love Loud t-shirt underneath. I'm not going to take my shirt off because I'm sure I'll be on Facebook. Um, so

152I already talked to Mr. FA. Um, what he brought up and during citizen comments about having uh, student training I think is a very valuable uh, idea and tool and I understand that that's something to that effect is in the works and I'd love to be read in on what you have so far and also um, to keep in keep track of that because I think it's a great idea. I think it's an absolutely fantastic idea because I think the students would be uh more likely to um come forward if they understood what their choices were and what the resources are for them for things that could happen. Um which is completely unfortunate. Um and I I just too want to acknowledge what Mr. Nuri said. This is certainly a a concern uh for some

153and it's something that um I'm trying to get my head around and it's something that I've been struggling with as a teacher and as a board member um with regards to our immigrant uh community. It's it's the idea of federal law versus morality versus ethics versus what's right, what's not right. And you we all have our differing opinions on what that is. Um, and it's certainly not an easy answer. So, I'm I'm currently struggling with that, but that's something that I have been working on and thinking about and would like to further have discussions with Dr. Hummer and his staff and team about that. Um, and I think I said I wasn't going to be long. Oh, Isabelle, exceptional job. Well done coming in and pinch hitting for Gavin when uh you didn't think you

154would have to get up here and sit and speak, but you did an exceptional job and you are very welcome on this board and I thank you very much for stepping up and uh being a part of our board. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. Um and that's all. Thank you, Madam Chair. >> Oh, yeah. I had something to say. Um Mr. Brun got up earlier and uh started to speak and there were smattering of u giggles and things back there in the back. I I encourage you all to pay attention to what's going on in Richmond and I'm not saying pro or con here. I'm just telling you the facts when he talks about HB30 355 we're talking about mental health mandatory mental health screenings for all our children unless you

155opt your children out. I I I I I I I don't get it. But uh again, unfunded mandate. So if they pass these things, you the taxpayer are going to get stuck paying that bill. Um the other ones that he talked about, HB38 requires every school board to adopt policy mandating at least one mental health awareness training for all full-time teachers and other designated staff. Again, another unfunded mandate. Uh 495 expands mental health training requirements to include school bus drivers. I don't know about you, but I don't need a school bus driver giving my child mental health counseling. I I I I'm telling you, you all need to know what's going on in Richmond. And people can giggle, whatever, but I'm telling you, you need to know what's going on. You you need to get

156involved with your uh uh representatives. Tell them what you think. Uh um and that's just a smattering of some of the things that that they're they're trying to do down there in Richmond. And you can have your opinion on it one way or the other, but I'm telling you, you really need to be involved because if they pass things like this, you're the ones that are going to bear the burden of it. Well, we all are cuz we're all taxpayers. And uh I I think that's just a little bit crazy. Um with that said, I I I met that young lady down there at the Veterans Breakfast over at Milbrook High School. very impressed with her and uh you all are doing a great job and I I'm glad you're here. And uh with that,

157I'll shut up. [clears throat] Uh Madam Chair, um thank congratulations to all the award winners this evening. Uh both the students, the building leadership, our early childhood programs. Uh job well done. I definitely want to acknowledge Angie and Abigail for the Apple, excuse [clears throat] me, the Apple award winners this evening. And again, congratulations to Mr. Whitaker and Mr. Thuggood stepping into um your leadership roles and I wish you guys nothing nothing but the best. Um I I really appreciate the SEAK report and and I know Mr. Moran's going to do a great job supporting that group and you know, if there's [clears throat] any help needed there, I would love to pitch in myself. Um, we recognize principles, counselors, and and SRO's. Um, they make the machine work. Um, so again, thank you to

158all those individuals for for their commitment to our our kids and and our and our community. And lastly, I just want to echo uh Mr. H uh Dr. Hummer's um news earlier today and just want to give my my prayers to the to the family of the of the child who passed. um did not get to meet uh meet her obviously uh before coming on to this to this team, but um you know, grief is grief and um I hope they find peace in in the coming days. And lastly, in 12 years, you can put a yard sign in my yard for whatever office you run for. Done deal. And that's all I have for tonight. >> [laughter] >> too. >> Um, Madame Chair, um, to echo uh Patrick's or Mr. North sentiments, u to,

159uh, Sophia's family and friends and the wider community, our our thoughts are of course with you during this exceedingly difficult time. Um, to the educators and teachers and administrators who received awards tonight, job well done. I uh applaud you as I know um multiple other members have and can't wait to see um what the future holds for our county and our schools. Um thanks to efforts um and inspiration that y'all provide. Um the I I would I would be remiss if I didn't at least mention it. Um I've mentioned it a couple times. My wife is an LPC. She works directly with those [snorts] in crisis and provides mental health support and counseling to a wide range of ages and individuals and demographics. Um we say it at home between each other and to our

160kids. You cannot put a price on health, mental or physical. And whether it's a bus driver, whether it's a teacher, whether it's additional training, whether it's screenings, whatever you want to call it, a conversation can make a world of difference to someone who is hurting or someone who doesn't feel like they can go to someone that they feel safe with, be it a teacher, parent, guardian. If that's something that passes the uh uh assembly enrichment, then our our role up here is to uphold the law. So, um I just want to state it publicly. I am committed to helping our students, staff with any mental health concerns that they may be going through. And I hope that um there's a little bit more understanding of the power of a conversation with the right person at

161the right time. Um that is last comment I have. Uh the safety of our students and teachers, administrators and all staff is of course paramount. So thank you to our resource officers. Thank you to those individuals who see something and say something to borrow a phrase from any number of different metropolitan, you know, transport authorities, but I think we can absolutely apply it here. Um, so thank you. That's all I have. >> All right. First, I want to commend Isabelle for her student rep report. I'm already so proud of you. I can't wait to see the great work you and Gavin will do. I'm really looking forward to those reports uh that come out of those student surveys. I want the real stuff. Um I know students are watching. I went to Dick Sporting Goods

162um a few weeks ago and I had a student um say that I watch schoolboard meetings and I keep up with the decisions that are being made and that um is so optimistic for me that um students care about what we're doing here. So to me that raises the stakes of what we're all here to do. Um to Frederick County and the constituents in the board office right now, thank you for allowing me to fumble through my first session as chair. Um to our teachers, um okay, so this is why I'm here though to to our teachers and school building level administrative administration staff. You are doing hard work under challenging conditions and our responsibility as a board is to ensure the systems around you are strong enough to support that work. Acknowledging and accepting

163where we are right now is how we create urgency, alignment, and improvement. I'm committed to doing that work and that accountability resides here and it resides with all of us up here. And to Mr. spouse. I similarly would like to see a communication sent out to parents to reiterate the clear boundaries of communication between staff and students as some parents might not be aware of the policies that our staff are trained upon. Um I think this should be crystal clear. So I would really like to see it move in that direction as well. Um thank you to um all of the board me all of the public comments and I'll end there. Great. We have one announcement for tonight. Um, our next school board meeting will be on February 24th. Do I have a motion

164for adjournment? >> Madam Chair, I would like to make a motion to adjourn this meeting. >> Second. >> Motion has been made and properly seconded. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion passes.