001The date is October 21st, 2025. The time is 1801 hours and I would like to call the Frederick County School Board meeting to order. I believe we have a motion right off the bat. >> Mr. Chairman. Uh, Miss Martin is requested to participate in the meeting remotely for a personal matter specifically due to a health issue in Frederick County. I move to allow Miss Martin to participate in this meeting remotely. >> Second. Motion has been made and properly seconded. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed? Welcome, Ms. Martin. Okay, we have an agenda before us. Do I have a motion for approval? >> Mr. Chair, I move that we approve the agenda as set before us. >> Second. Motion has been made
002and has been properly seconded. Is there any discussion? >> Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? We have an agenda. Madame vice pre vice chair. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. I move the county school board of Frederick County, Virginia, enter a closed meeting, closed session meeting for the following. To review and discuss appointments, administrative appointments, administrative leave, declined offers, leave of absence, resignations, support staff, hires, substitutes, tutors, volunteers, and goals of the superintendent pursuant to Virginia Code section 2.2-3711, paragraph A.1. and 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, paragraph A.2. >> Second. >> We have a motion to
003go into close session. Has been properly seconded. Is there any discussion? >> All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed? We are now in close session and we will return at 1900 hours. >> Madame vice chair, what's the pleasure of the board? >> Mr. Chair, I move that the board reconvene from close session. >> Second. >> Have a motion to reconvene. Has been properly seconded. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. Any opposed. Have reconvene. >> Mr. Chair, I move that 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
004in the motion by which the closed session was convened were heard, discussed, or considered by the school board. >> Second. All right, we have a motion to certify and it has been properly seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> Roll call, please. >> Oh, I'm sorry. I messed that up again. Madame clerk, call the roll. >> Miss Martin. >> Yes. >> I, >> Miss Caruso, I. >> Mr. Bell, >> I. >> Mr. Sturdivan, >> I. >> Mrs. Klein, I >> Dr. Erskin, >> I. >> Mr. Atkins, >> I >> Okay. Do we do the motions? >> It passes. All right. And Mr. Chair, I move that the board recess its meeting starting now and we'll reconvene at 7 p.m. >> Second. >> All right. Motion has been made
005to recess until 1900 hours and been properly seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Any opposed? We will resume at 1900 hours. All right. It is 1901 hours. >> And Mr. Chair, I move that we reconvene our meeting. >> Second. >> Has been motioned and properly seconded. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Any opposed? >> We are reconvened. >> Mr. Shar, we have two motions out of close session. I move the board approve the personnel actions as recommended by the superintendent. >> Second. >> Motion's been properly made, properly seconded. Is there any discussion? >> Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. >> Second motion. I move the board approve
006the release of student A from compulsory attendance. >> Second. >> Motion has been made, properly seconded. Any discussion? Hearing? None. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed. >> That is it. >> Yes, ma'am. Um, please join me in a minute of silence. We would like to hold tonight's minute of silence in honor of Mr. Steve Jackson, a teacher at the Dao J. Howard Center who recently passed away. Thank you for that. And we are now going to continue with the pledge of allegiance. Tonight we have Casey Leser and she's going to lead us in the pledge. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. >> It's
007a good word, indivisible. >> Next is the consent agenda. Do agenda. Do I have a motion to approve? >> Mr. Chair, I move that we approve the agenda as set before us. >> Second. >> We have a motion and has been properly seconded. Is there any discussion hearing? None. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any oppose. >> We have an agenda. >> And Mr. Chair, we do have several proclamations this evening as well. >> Okay. >> All right. Our first one of three this evening is the proclamation for the American Education Week, November 17th through the 21st. Whereas public schools are the backbone of our democracy, providing young people with the tools they need to maintain our nation's precious values of freedom, civility, and equality. And whereas by equipping students
008with both practical skills and broader intellectual abilities, schools give them hope for and access to a productive future. And whereas education employees, be they teachers, aids, counselors, administrators, substitute teachers, bus drivers, secretaries, librarians, custodians, maintenance technicians, school nutrition service employees, or other support staff work tirelessly to serve our children and our communities with care and professionalism. And whereas schools are community lynch pins, bringing together adults and children, educators and volunteers, business leaders, and elected officials in a common enterprise. Now therefore, be it proclaimed that the Frederick County School Board hereby declares the week of November 17th through 20 uh 1st, 2025 as American Educator Week, sorry, American Education Week, dated this 21st day of October, 2025. >> Mr. Chair, Mr. Whereas education support professionals throughout Frederick County public schools are key members of the team
009working to create an innovative community where caring relationships and authentic learning inspire all students. And whereas education support professionals supports student learning by keeping schools safe, clean, comfortable, and running in good order. Working with teachers to help all students achieve to the best of their ability. Delivering students safely to school and back home each day. Preparing and serving healthy meals so students can focus and learn better. assisting visitors, students, families and staff daily and ensuring the smooth operation of the district in personnel, budgeting, staffing, finance and other finan other essential support areas. And whereas education support professionals work tirelessly to serve our children and community with care and professionalism. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed that the Frederick County School Board hereby declares November 20th, 2025 National Education Support Professionals Day and encourages everyone to recognize
010the importance of education support professionals in our public schools dated this 21st day of October, 2025. And I have a proclamation for substitute appreciation day for November 21st, 2025. Whereas substitute teachers are an essential part to the education of our children, though they rarely receive the recognition or respect from the community they deserve. And whereas it is inevitable that regular teachers will on occasion be absent, leaving their students learning environment and educational agenda disrupted. And whereas maintaining the usual level of discipline and tranquility in the classroom is crucial to every student. And whereas every substitute teacher ma must be flexible in order to adapt to different teaching styles and planning as well as command the respect of the young people he or she may be teaching on any given day. And whereas on November 21st,
0112025, the substitute teachers of Frederick County Public Schools will be recognized for their valuable and meaningful contributions that substitute teachers offer to the world of education on a daily basis. Now, therefore, it be resolved that the Frederick County Public School Board does hereby extend greetings and best wishes to all observing Substitute Teacher Appreciation Day, November 21st, 2025, dated this 21st day of October, 2025. All right. Thank you. That's the end of our proclamations. Up next is our student and staff recognitions. >> All right, Mr. Chair. Thank you very, very much. We first have some student and staff recognitions and then we will dive into an amazing treat that we have here. We have some students from Bass Hoover that are very, very excited to um have a very um phenomenal performance for us. So, we're
012looking forward to that. So, with that being said, good evening and welcome to our awards of excellence program. Before we proceed, I would like to ask that everyone stay here through the entire program out of respect for each individual who is being recognized. Once we have 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 the chair and myself for a photograph. Then, if there is a team, please remain at the front and we will take a picture of the team as well. So, with that, Mr. Sturdivant and I will head on down. On October 2nd, Caitlyn Hyatt, a student at Admiral Richard E. Bird Middle School, was named the winner
013of the brand FCCLA at home competition at the state fair of Virginia in Dswell, Virginia. This achievement is a testament to the dedication and skill fostered by the school's family, Career, and Community Leaders of America FCCLA chapter. Congratulations to Caitlyn The FCPS honorary award is given to an individual who demonstrates leadership, excellence, excellent character, behavior, and a positive attitude, or makes contributions that have measurable impact to the school community. Tonight, we'd like to recognize Jameswood High School student, Casey Leser. Casey. Casey was nominated for the FCPS honorary award by the school board chair, Mr. Scott Sturdivan. Mr. Sturdivan shared the following about Casey. I first met her at the end of August. Since that time, she has shown the true character of what it means to be a James Wood colonel, as well as the
014embodiment of what a good student and citizen citizen should be. She has a bright and winning personality and treats all she meets with respect and kindness. She has become an ambassador for her school by showing up at school functions and being a positive voice for her school. Lastly, she shows compassion for her fellow students. She has gone out of her way to include special needs students in school functions and activities when others might not be as welcoming. Her eagerness to include others is infectious and helps promote goodwill among all the students. By her actions, she has demonstrated the best qualities of students in the Frederick County public schools. Congratulations. The Apple Award is given to a teacher who achieves something which significantly contributes to their school and community, uses creative or innovative instructional techniques, or
015goes above and beyond for the student. This month's Apple Award is presented to Dr. Justin Hose from Jameswood Middle School and Here is the very impressive submission for his nomination. Last night at my daughter's basketball game, which also happened to be 8th grade night and teacher appreciation night, I was reminded of how powerful a teacher's influence can be. Ree now attends Frederick County Middle, but she was a student at Jameswood Middle during her sixth grade year. A particularly challenging time for her. Looking back, I realized that teachers like Dr. Hoe's and especially him were the reason she got through that year. When the players were told to chose to choose a teacher who made a meaningful impact on their lives, I assumed she would select someone from her current school. But without hesitation, Ree chose
016Dr. Hoe's. She and her coach reached out to invite him, understanding that it was a big ask, attending an evening game at another school after a long day of teaching with family and personal time to consider. A as the moment approached to honor the teachers, Ree anxiously scanned the bleachers, hoping he would be there. The gym was loud with fans and the JV game in full swing. Suddenly, I heard a joyful shriek. "Dr. Ho, you're here." Her excitement lit up the entire gym, arms waving, a huge smile across her face, pure joy that her teacher had shown up for her. As a parent, there are few things more meaningful than seeing someone show genuine care for your child when they don't have to. It speaks volumes about the kind of teacher and person Dr. Hose
017is. Congratulations, All right. Tonight we have the great pleasure to enjoy our student showcase presented to us by the Bass Hoover Elementary School Stinger Ensemble under the direction of Heather Sherman. >> So we're going to head on down there to watch that. >> What? Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Heather Sherman and I'm the music teacher at Bass Hoover. Thank you for the opportunity to perform here for you tonight. The group you see before you is our Stinger Ensemble. We are a volunteer group that meets two mornings before school each week to learn elementary skills for instrumental performance. The group has had 55% growth over the last four years. So, with our growing size, we needed to take a minute to say thank you to all of the parents, especially that made this
018year's performance possible by buying these cool light up rhythm sticks that you're about to see behind us. We could not make this possible without you because we didn't have enough instruments for our group. Our school's main performance opportunities are at our school assemblies known as swarm palooa. Tonight, you'll hear our schoolwide swarm chant and drum piece. Before we play, I'd like to give you a little context on what swarms are. As an extension of our PBIS program, each student is part of a swarm at Bass Hoover. During school, students can earn pollen points from teachers for showing our threebs: being respectful, being responsible, and being a friend. We then have a special event at the end of each quarter called Swarm Palooa featuring a schoolwide assembly where positive behaviors are recognized in addition to community
019building performances like you're about to hear. We hope you enjoy our school's swarm chant and drum piece. Welcome to Bass Super Elementary School. We have six swarms. It's so very, very cool. Yellow for the yellow jackets, orange for bumblebees. Purple are the honey bees are green. Wasps are red, horn is blue. And don't forget our golden rules. Be respectful, responsible, and a friend. Six swarms, one high till the end. And we have one more piece for you tonight as a little surprise. A big focus of our group is creativity through music composing and arranging. The students become owners of the music through creative decision-making, writing lyrics, writing melodies or rhythms. And we feature more about this in our spring performance, but last week decided to put those skills to use and write for you just
020for tonight an FCPS chant. We hope you enjoy and this will be our last piece. Frederick County. Our school district is the best. Frederick County. Our school district is the best. Frederick County is the best. Frederick County is the best county of CPS. Our school district is the best county of CPS. Our school district is the best. And that's the end of our performance. Thank you again for allowing us to come play for you. The kids were super excited and it was a lot of fun. Thank you. I think that worked. Good job, guys. It's going to be stuck on my head. I >> just take a few minutes for those who'd like to leave at this time. There's a reason why I like All right. Next up is citizen comments. Frederick County School. I
021I deeply am sorry. We have admin appointments really quick. It was after >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> No, it's okay. >> Can I announce those really quick? >> Oh, well, certainly. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. All right. We have two admin appointments this evening. First, I would like to proudly introduce our new assistant principal of Apple Pie Ridge, Mrs. Monica Binger. Please come on up, please. Mrs. Mrs. Bineer has served for 20 years at Apple Pie Ridge Elementary School as a third grade teacher and most recently as a literacy coach. In addition, Mrs. Bineer taught for three years prior to joining Frederick County Public Schools. She holds a bachelor's of arts from Ryder University, a master of education in reading, and administrative certificate in educational leadership from James Madison University. Please join me in congratulating
022her on her new role. Congrats, So, Dr. Hammer, members of the school board, >> I'm sorry. Can you turn the microphone around? They've had that before. That's okay. >> Thank you for this opportunity to serve um our APR community in another capacity. Uh APR has been my home for 20 years, and so I'm super excited to continue to support our students, staff, and families. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Congratulations. >> Okay. Next, I would like to introduce the new assistant principal at Milbrook High School, Mrs. Adrien Patrick, who is a little busy right now. She is the current varsity volleyball coach at Jameswood High School. Let's give her a round of applause. Miss Patrick transitions from her current role as a social studies teacher and assistant coordinator of student activities at Jameswood High School.
023She is a graduate of Frederick County Public School and a devouted her entire career to the school division since joining Jameswood High since 2016. She holds an associates degree in arts and a science degree from Laurel Ridge, Bachelor of Arts degree from Shepard University, and a master's in educational leadership from JMU. Please join me again in congratulating her on her new role. Thank you. >> That's all of our admin appointments, Mr. Chair. Thank you. >> All right. >> Next is citizen comments. Frederick County School Board is pleased to receive public comments at each monthly meeting from members of the public which include residents of Frederick County, Virginia, includes residents of Winchester City, Virginia, FC FCPS students, parents, and legal guardians of FCPS students, FCPS employees, and businesses located within Frederick County, Virginia. Individuals speaking to
024the 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 to others and model for students how to respectfully participate in public meetings by speaking and behaving in such a manner that adheres to the FCPS code of student conduct. Complaints regarding FCPS employees should be first submitted to the school principal or to the school board 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
025will 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 meter or meeting by asking questions or making comments. Signs, posters, placards, banners, and like objects are permitted into the school board's meeting, but only if the individual possessing such items remain in the back of the room so as not to restrict the view of those attending the meeting in person. Violations of the guidelines will result in the chair ruling the speaker out of order. Continued violation may result in removal from the premises. The chair has a discretion concerning public participation at Schoolboard meetings are tape recorded for the purpose of clarification and development of the official minutes. >>
026Mr. FA is first on the list. Greetings. My name is Joel Fa and I'm a resident of the Gainesboro District. First of all, I wanted to publicly and openly thank Mr. Sturdivan, chair of this board, for his work in bringing to fruition the partnership with the National Chair of Missing and Exploited Children. I think we can all recognize the growing need for kids to learn essential online safety skills as they grow up in an always online world. And I for one appreciate the effort in establishing some trusted resources in the school system. To that end, more on safety in a minute. Secondly, I'm afraid I need need to return to the issue of library books. While I understand a decision was recently made to shift from an opt- out system to an opt-in one, I
027have to tell you this is not the end of the conversation. That's neither a promise nor a threat to be clear, simply an observation. I've spoken here before about the problem with being beholden to the loudest voices in the room. It's my belief that you've only emboldened them to get louder. I am also deeply concerned and I assure you I am far from alone in this with the way that decision was made. A vague consensus that not every member of the board was even fully aware of and wasn't even clear to the board members who thought they knew what they were agreeing to. I'm sorry, but no, it's a difficult decision. We all get that and you will absolutely make some people mad no matter what you choose. But you're elected to make those decisions
028and you're expected to make them carefully by public vote on the record and then have the integrity to own it. That's the gig. Another point of concern that I'm not sure how thoroughly you've considered is the question of safety. To be clear, I'm not referring to this rhetorical notion of keeping young adults safe from ideas. Literature is not meant to keep them safe from ideas, but perhaps more on that another time. No, I'm referring instead to actual physical safety. I cannot be the first one to point out to you that creating an opt-in list for material covering topics like sexuality and gender establishes a physical record of parents and students wanting access to that information. Have you given any thought to the danger the existence of such a list might pose to those young adults,
029especially when members of this board have openly called such parents perverts? In a time of rampid bullying, I can assure you this is no idle concern. And if harm comes to any of our kids as a result of this opt-in policy and any lack of concern for access to that information, we will hold you accountable. And I can assure you that is a promise. Thank you, Keith Shook. Good evening. My name is Keith Shook. I live in the Redbut district. I'm here tonight to raise awareness that our school district is not giving support to forming a high school girls wrestling program despite it being a sanctioned varsity sport in Virginia. Girls wrestling is currently the fastest growing sport in the country at the high school and collegiate levels. The first state to sanction was Hawaii
030in 1999. Fast forward 23 years to 2022, VHSL announced that girls wrestling was going to be an emerging sport for the next three years. During this three-year period, participation grew immensely, and it was anticipated the school districts would begin to plan for the sport to be fully sanctioned and added to their offering of high school sports. On May 7th, 2025, VHSL announced that it was sanctioning girls wrestling, becoming the 46th state in the nation to do so. Last week, last week, we were given the heartbreaking news that a school district has decided not to recognize girls wrestling this season. We revised the school district had denied a proposal that was supported or excuse me submitted in July to create a girls wrestling program in the county. This proposal was for one dedicated girls wrestling coach
031to oversee a team that would comprise of girls from all three high schools. This would not have been the first time a sport was organized in this manner by our district. In 1993 through 1997, our school district and the city of Winchester combined to organize a swim team under one coach. This past week, I reached out to school district's coordinator of health and physical education and VHSL rep. I inquired about the process to get a newly sanctioned sport added to our school system and who we could speak to in order to promote this addition of the sport. The responses we were given, which my questions were ignored, was that the girls in wrestling or excuse me, the girl wrestlers could join their current school systems uh wrestling program and that girls wrestling was not going
032to be offered this season and they could participate, as I said, in the boys program. In society that is striving for female equality and rights and currently has ongoing nationwide discussion whether boys should be allowed to participate in girls teams at the high school and collegiate levels. It seems absolutely backwards that our school district is telling our girls that the only option they have is to join the boys wrestling team. We were also told the decision to add new school new sports is based on staffing facilities and students interest. There's no need for new facilities or equipment. Every school has a gym and wrestling mats. I can tell you there's an interest in the female students as it is growing in the wrestling uh world. In my daughter's freshman year, she was the only wrestler
033in the county. Last year, we had three. This season, I know of 13 girls across the three high schools that have an interest due to the girls wrestling finally being sanctioned. There was an expectation that they would have their own team, their own practices, and go to their own tournaments. The proposal offered a solution for staffing. Wrestling season has not started yet. That yet there is still time to get a team organized. I'm asking you please revisit the proposal for the girls wrestling program and find a way to approve the girls program this season so it our female wrestlers can have a successful inaugural season. Our state has already put us behind the rest of the nation in this sport. Please don't let our county do the same thing. Many colleges are creating and or
034growing their female wrestling programs and offering scholarships. Let's give our female wrestlers the best opportunity to achieve their dreams. Thank you for the support in this matter and the opportunity to present this information this evening. >> Thank you. Amaya Shook. >> I did say that correctly. >> Yeah, >> Dr. Hummer. Well, Amaya's making her way up here. I would like to know every detail about that proposal and all the barriers that we keep running into uh because I this hits home for me. So, >> hello. My name is Amaya Shook, a current junior female wrestler at Milbrook High School. This is my fifth year wrestling and I'm here to support here to address grow growing girls wrestling as a school sport. Growing girls wrestling in our in our school is essential for promoting equality, empowering
035young female athletes and expanding opportunities in sports. By investing into a girls wrestling program, it could help break the gender barrier, encourage physical fitness, and build self-confidence. As student athletes, we represent our schools. Girls are falling in love with wrestling. It's the nation's fastest growing high school sport, but our county is not supporting the growth. In Virginia, girls wrestling is sanctioned varsity sport as of May 2025. Across the country, there are 46 states with sanctioned girls wrestling programs. I've been very fortunate at Milbrook to have coaches and male teammates to be very supportive of me building a girls wrestling program. But all F County girls deserve the same opportunities I have been given. When as a freshman, I was only female in high school wrestling in the county. I realized I could make a change
036to find other girls who may also enjoy the sport. This year we have encouraged girls countywide to wrestle. Wrestling is a is first offered in the middle school which is where the interest begins. The last two years I have been blessed to compete at the state championships representing Milbrook. This takes coaches dedicating their time. It takes a community to support one another. Having a girls team gives the benefit of girls working with other girls to gain confidence without judgment. by male counterparts. As you know, wrestling is a sport with close contact and is not ideal when you work out when your workout partner is the opposite sex. Girls need a safe place to feel comfortable in order to learn a new sport. If the girls had a dedicated coach, it would help promote girls drive
037to go to practices knowing there are coaches there to support them. At Milbrook, we have a coach who is TEL certified. This means there are women's wrestling coach certified coach who can specifically work with women on specialized training techniques for girls. Please consider supporting girls wrestling this season. I appreciate your this opportunity to speak. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Nur. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the board. My name is Brian Nur, resident of the Aecen district. Do any of you remember the book Don't Sweat the Small Stuff? because it's all small stuff. There's a 1997 book about how to prioritize issues about by managing larger problems and letting the smaller ones handle themselves. Well, the last instructional committee meeting, there was a lot of talk about the small stuff. During that meeting,
038it was brought up that the school librarians had made accommodations for the new opt-in policy, which included segregation of the sexually explicit materials. Chairman Sturdivan and Miss Martin both expressed grave concerns about the oversight of these books, stating that need they needed to be under the literal thumb of the librarians, even proposing putting them on a cart or under lock and key. The irony of this discussion happening during banned book week wasn't lost on many members of the community. But is this board in the business of micromanaging the librarians? Doing so can be highly problematic. The US Supreme Court in Board versus PICO 1982 expressly forbids school boards from removing books that they themselves find um objectionable uh due to their political or ideological content. To quote Justice William Brennan, "Local school boards may not
039remove books from the school library shelves simply because they dislike the ideas contained in those books. They have broad discretion in the management of the such affairs, but such discretion must be exercised in a manner that comports with the transcendent imperatives of the first amendment. Furthermore, Case v Unified School District 1995 specifically addressed the removal of a book called Annie on My Mind, a book about two teenage girls in a relationship. The disapproval of the themes of by the board was found to be in violation of the First Amendment. Compelling librarians to further restrict access can be construed as a book ban, as stated by the National Coalition Against Censorship, the National Council of Teachers of English, the American Book Sellers for Free Expression, and the American Library Association, now no longer led by a
040socialist. The county is already in compliance with VA Code 22.1-16.8, ensuring parental notification and identification of the materials. But don't forget that bill's enactment subsection 4 decrees that quote the provisions of this act shall not be construed as requiring or providing for the censoring of books in public elementary and secondary schools. This board does not have the power to by statute to unilaterally remove books. I appreciate the efforts for compromise from Mr. Bell, Dr. Erskin, and Dr. Hummer, but the issue was pretty plain. Students have a fund fundamental right to read whatever they wish. Encouraging students to read it all is a monumental task as casual reading rates among teens has plummeted in the last 20 years. We don't need special cards or plexiglass shelves. A special checkout special shelf and checkout restrictions are enough.
041And please stop comparing the students to inmates at the local jail. So why are we sweating the small stuff when we have bigger fish to fry? Thank you. Harry Carmichael. Hi, I'm Carrie Carmichael from Shaunie District. Um, tonight I would like to comment about schoolboard positions and political parties. Uh, first, schoolboard positions are not filed by a party nomination process, unlike candidates for almost all elected positions. While some may disagree, I think most people would agree that the intent is for the schoolboard positions to be nonpartisan. Schoolboard members actions and votes should not be dictated by what their political party advocates, but their responsibility to provide a safe and effective learning environment for our kids. When a potential or sitting schoolboard member seeks the endorsement of a political party to be listed on their sample
042ballot at the polls, that to me is partisan. It's also partisan when a schoolboard member like Dr. Erskin makes a public comment like this one that he made at the recent Frederick County Republican Committee meeting. I don't know if anybody's watched a schoolboard meeting in the past year, year and a half, but they are something. They're lively and it's a good thing. But let me tell you, 95% of that audience is liberal Democrats. Where are the conservative Republicans that need to come to these meetings to support the majority board? Right? And yes, I realize that these comments were made at a Republican meeting. But again, it's not supposed to be a partisan position. It's not supposed to be a board that is categorized as majority Republican or majority Democrat. You would think that do Dr.
043Erskin would be happy that they're involved parents who give up their free time to come to schoolboard meetings and care about what is going on in the schools. But I guess because apparently 95% of us don't agree with them politically, it's not a good thing. Dr. Erskin recently wrote a letter to the newspaper where he called on the public to draw a line to restore civil decency and not let Frederick County devolve into another tragedy of extremism. Well, good behavior begins at home. Stopping divisive comments like complaining about the liberals would be a great start to bringing decency back. Those of us who show up for board meetings aren't extremist liberals who want to turn our schools into a tragedy. We are concerned parents who would like our school board members to represent us and
044our children. We would like you to listen to us, the people who are giving up our time to come to meetings and trying to be active in our school system. We want you to work with us to figure out how to make Frederick County Schools safe and amazing for all kids, no matter who their parents vote for. Rebecca Reagger. My name is Rebecca Raer and I live in the Gainesboro District of Frederick County. I'm not sure where to even start with board tonight. I've watched since November as our elected board members have listened to constituents without really listening, opting to instead further their political agendas and then saying it's from the conservative base of Frederick County. Is that base in the room with us now? The county may be primarily conservative, but moderates, independents, liberal
045leaning, and apolitical parents and students live here as well. You've elected, you've been elected to represent your districts, but most of you have simply chosen to represent yourselves. So, here we are back again where you have listened to your constituents and then just did what you wanted. I thought I could spend the night talking about how the impact of your latest book banning moves far as outweighs whatever good intent you may believe that you had. But after watching this board for the past year, I don't believe the majority of you have any good intent for our students or would even know what that looked like at this point. Then I thought I could work through some statistics on the books you've moved since it's not your intent to unfairly penalize LGBTQIA plus or people of
046color whether it be the authors themselves or their communities. I'm still working on that and it deserves more time than I had before tonight's meeting. So I'll be sending that to you when I'm done. I will say in going through the data on the books I was able to chart this afternoon, you've unfairly disadvantaged female students through your rehoming of books that deal with sexual assault and abuse that became apparent within less than 10 minutes of analysis. They're unfortunate topics, but they're necessary. We're talking about young adults that will be entering the real world shortly, either to go to college or trade school, the military, or into the workforce should they not be prepared for the dangers that exist. and not even for the real world within the walls of the own schools here in
047Frederick County. Now, do you think if you remove the books about these subjects that sexual assault will just magically disappear? I also want to take a second to say that it's laughable that you've removed the History Channel presentation on the French Revolution and a PBS documentary on the last of the Russian Zars. Um, in the wise words of the wordsmith Cardi B, what was the reason? Some of you like to talk about parents rights, but I want to point out the hypocrisy. You haven't given us more rights. You've taken them away. Uh, I know you're going to offer, "If you want these kids to read these books, you do it on your own time. But why do families like this not exist that can't afford to do that outside of your affluent view of the
048county?" In the simplest terms, when you look at the number of books on the list and the number of parents, this change wasn't needed. I guess at the end of my night, my point is what is the point of the board? You don't represent the people that are here. You don't represent your constituents. You represent yourselves. Uh I wrote an open forum piece that was printed in the Winchester Star on October 8th. And if you want something fun to read, I would suggest checking that out. Thank you, Chelsea Dyus. Hello, I am Chelsea Dykus and I'm in the Back Creek Back Creek District. I'm here to speak today about the book banning policy this board has pushed through. And to be clear, this opt-in alternative is still a book banning policy with some plausible deniability.
049We talk at length about where young adults are falling behind. Today I think about how our education system failed in the past when you yourselves were in schools. For what education system is successful when it produces so many who blindly turn away from the facts of history and research instead choosing to shelter the young adults of today in a veil of ignorance that is so comfortable to hide behind. Americans tout freedoms as fundamental. Yet your first line of defense with anything you would disagree with seems to be to restrict the freedoms and agency of those who have the least power and who need the most support. Dr. Erskin himself said some months ago, "Students don't have a right to intellectual freedom. Coming from an educator, this is absolutely appalling. This board seems more scared of
050uncomfortable topics that could help young adults understand their own struggles than of increasing suicide rates, deteriorating well-being, and growing anxieties around unstable job prospects, environmental catastrophe, and surging authoritarianism. this despite the fact that young adults are already exposed to sexually explicit advertising and content every day. That the average age to first see porn, actual porn, is 12 years old. Surprisingly, that's not often in the library. Despite my own conservative, isolated, homeschooled background, I was that age when I first stumbled upon it, and I didn't even have a smartphone. A library is a place to safely explore new ideas and perspectives, make sense of the world and your place in it. Restricting knowledge doesn't eliminate problems or protect anyone. Young adults aren't in trouble because they're allowed access to too many books. They're struggling because because
051they aren't given enough reassurance to feel secure, enough trust to explore their own capabilities, enough love and acceptance for who they are as young people. They're vulnerable because the authorities in their lives spend more energy restricting curiosity than encouraging self-expression. While this school board is neither responsible nor able to fix all underlying societal issues, I'm disgusted by your part to further entrench ignorance as policy. Thank you. >> All right. Next up is the superintendent report with Dr. Hummer. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair. First, I would like to just take this moment for thanking the school board for the moment of silence for the passing of Mr. Steve Jackson. Um, he touched the lives of many, many students. He is going to be deeply, deeply missed. And for staff and for students >> that
052are still recovering from this tragic tragic event, um, please reach out. Um, we we have counselors. uh we have avenues to go down to help that support and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I also want to thank the the entire team um for all their support through this process. I want to thank Mrs. Fout and her team um to to get through this. And um and again, thank you to the board for for recognizing Mr. Jackson. He's going to be deeply deeply missed. And please keep the family in your thoughts and prayers. Um, on a on a more positive note, I want to thank again the Bass Hoover students and staff for their amazing performance and thanks to the board for allowing us to do that. We're going to do that every quarter. So,
053we're going to bring in some amazing students to see the great things that they're doing. We'll have a a fantastic winter performance that we're looking forward to in December, and we will continue to honor the great things that our students are doing every single day. I also want to thank our students and staff recipients for their courageous work every day. And thank you, Mr. Stud Sturdivant, for recognizing our amazing student at Jameswood High School who is no longer here. But that that's what this is about. We we have fantastic students in this school division that make this uh future very very bright and and we are looking forward to the great things they're going to be able to to accomplish and welcome our new administrators. Um I know we have one of them who is
054currently coaching our amazing volleyball team at James Wood. So we're hopeful to to see that through, but I know that Mrs. Patrick is going to do some amazing things as well as Mrs. Vinegar at Apple Pie Ridge. I also want to give a big thank you to our state legislators, Delegate Dolores Oats, Delegate Bill Wy, and Senator Timmy French for the legislative summit this week. Their time and yours is invaluable and we deeply appreciate the conversations with hopes of making some significant changes at the state level, specifically in the areas of funding, staffing, safety, and security and creating more opportunities and pathways for all of our students. I felt the conversations were very, very productive and we will continue to keep a close eye on those changes that we'll hopefully see at the general assembly
055level. And again, thank you to each of you for your time because that was very, very valuable for all of us. Thanks as always to you all for recognizing American Education Week, Education Support Professionals, as well as substitute teacher recognition. First and foremost, our education system is the backbone of our community. We influence futures, the economy, and this amazing community. And we greatly appreciate the partnership with all of these key stakeholders to ensure we are creating opportunities and pathways for students. We also have amazing support professionals who help out every single day to supplement and lead our classrooms in a very, very unique way to ensure our students get exactly what they need. Our support professionals also take the lead as the teacher in some of our classrooms whenever the teacher has to step away.
056Um, and we greatly greatly appreciate that. In addition, we are also very thankful for our substitutes for helping filling in every single day and that is across the board. That is our bus drivers, that's our cafeteria workers, that's our instructional aids, our teachers to make sure that the operations continue to move forward so that we can continue to keep the learning going in the classroom. So, we greatly appreciate all of you for your service. Lastly, we have two really, really big events coming up this week. The first is our first ever state of the schools address here at Milbrook High School on Thursday starting at 5:30. Hopefully, you all can make it. This is an event where we've invited all of our elected officials, partners, and administrative staff to engage in a conversation about where
057we are as a school division and where we are going. We have some amazing performances by our students. So, we're going to showcase some of those performances and this is an event that is going to be hosted by our educational foundation which raises a lot of money for scholarships and opportunities for our teachers in the classroom which we are very appreciative of that partnership. We also have our yearly budget retreat this Friday where we will dive into our budget priorities for the development of the FY27 budget as well as we look at the growth patterns and our CIP process as we continue to respond to the growth that we are seeing in this amazing community. So we're looking forward to seeing everybody this Friday at 8:00. So with that, Mr. Chair, that is all I
058have. Thank you, sir. >> Thank you, sir. Up next is our our CIP advisory committee report. >> All right. Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the board. Dr. Hummer, am I am I going to be moving this long? All right. Good. Okay. Um All right. So, I have a very brief capital improvements plan committee uh update for you all. So, we are going to jump right into that. Uh as you guys know uh CIP committee was formed in January along with a number of other committees uh throughout the county. Um the committee began with five members. Uh there were a couple meetings. The last one had occurred in April of 2025. The reason for that is following that meeting the membership of that committee d committee dropped to one member. Can't have a committee with
059only one member. So when I moved into my new position uh in July, we had two members at that time and then thanks to you guys doing some recruiting, Mr. Santis doing some recruiting, we now have five people on that committee. So uh we did hold our first kind of reset meeting uh on October 6, so a couple weeks ago. Um and again, we looked at that as a hard reset. Uh of the five members, only one of them had been a member previously. So there was a lot of catching up for everybody that was on that. And again uh being new newish in my position. It was my first uh meeting as the uh staff liaison. So um so uh we had a very positive meeting. Uh I will say the members are very
060engaged. They're very excited about the prospect uh of providing input on the CIP process. Um so uh let's see. We discussed the purpose of the committee. We kind of talked about what the committee is, what the committee isn't, what our responsibilities are and what they are not. Uh we laid out our goals. We scheduled our next uh next couple of meetings. Uh we reviewed and approved our bylaws. Uh we elected members and you'll see uh our membership there as well as uh what uh who our chair, vice chair and secretary are. Um so uh if you just want to take a look there we have Mr. William Deutsch. He is serving as our committee chair. Mr. Christian Christian Marchelleski who is the only uh returning member of the committee. he's serving as the vice chair.
061Miss Regina O'Brien is our secretary and Mr. Trevor Grim and uh Mr. Jeremiah Varnu are our other uh members of the committee. So our upcoming meeting topics, we did schedule a November and a December meeting. Uh we are going to uh work very hard to have meeting topics set ahead of schedule so that we can have very focused and intentional meetings so that we can have hopefully positive results from each of those. So, first in November, we are going to be focusing on enrollment projections, county growth, uh demographics. Um we're going to be looking at the county heat maps. You guys have seen those. Um you'll get an update on those uh this week as well. Uh but just looking at the areas where we are growing, areas where we are in more need of
062potentially uh looking at different projects to to support our students. Uh we're going to be looking at demographic shifts. Uh so, not just looking at houses that are being built, but the types of houses that are being built. Are we looking at single family homes? Are we looking at town homes? Are we looking at age restricted units? Because all of that can affect student population density. So, uh we will be looking through that in November. That's going to kind of give us a baseline set of data to be able to to go on from there to look at our CIP uh in December. Uh right now, the plan is to look at the current CIP list uh and really just start the discussion of how we want to prioritize that. Um are there things we
063want to add? Are there things we want to to take away? Um are there things that we as a committee feel like should be prioritized over something else? So, um we understand that we we are not a decision-making body. You guys are the decision-making body. Uh but we hope to use these meetings uh as a means to provide you with positive feedback about the CIP process. So, uh looking ahead, a couple things that uh that we need to do. Uh we as a committee ratified our bylaws, but we have since realized that um the board I don't believe has approved the bylaws. They are the same bylaws that had been uh presented uh for our other committees. So I will work with Dr. Hummer and Mr. Santis to ensure that it's on a uh on
064a future meeting schedule so they can be approved by you all. Um uh currently we are looking ahead to have monthly meetings. Uh we have scheduled out again November and December. We don't want to get too far ahead. a lot of folks on the committee uh have a lot of outside commitments. So, we want to make sure uh that we're not scheduling too far out so that we don't have to constantly go back to schedules and and reschedule. So, we will be uh looking at scheduling them monthly, probably a couple at a time. So, um and then we did discuss uh a an overall kind of overarching goal for our committee again with the understanding that we are not a decision-making body. Uh but we want to be able to provide you all with a
065comprehensive set of recommendations uh as it relates to the CIP. Um hopefully they can be taken into account. You know, each year that that CIP changes. We talked about how it's a living breathing document that based on uh yearly conditions that can change. Uh but we want to use the data that's available uh to be able to provide you all with a with feedback and recommendations on how to move forward. Any questions? >> All right. >> Thank you so much. >> Yep. Thank you. Up next is our annual report presentation. >> Three minutes. All right. Thank you, Mr. Chair, school board. So great to see you all. I'm required by code to present to you all an annual report presentation. There is also going to be an annual ann annual report virtual document on the
066website after this presentation and there's also hard copies which are in front of you uh as well as we will provide the schools with copies as well if people will prefer to have hard copies. So with that being said I want to first focus on our biggest asset and that is our people. From our staff to our students to our partners, we are the future of this amazing community and our staff do some pretty amazing things. I have engaged with some fantastic individuals throughout this entire school division for the great things that they are doing every single day. But I want to share with you something that I think a lot of us would have a hard time doing. And I was in an elementary school the other day at Armal Elementary and there was
067a kindergarten teacher leading 19 students to lunch. Have you ever tried to lead 19 little individuals who get distracted with a lot of things on the walls and on the floors? And of course, you know me, I have to engage with everybody, but these students stayed in a single file line and they got to the cafeteria with no issues. That might sound small. That might sound superficial, but that is the first step for our students to be able to follow directions and to go to one spot to the other without hurting themselves or somebody else. And that is a huge task. And our staff do that every day. Every single day. We have amazing students that are accomplishing some very, very heavy things, which I'm going to dive into here in a second. But that
068is what we are about. We are about our people. We are about our students. and we are about the future of Frederick County. So with that being said, we have a lot of things that we accomplished this last year. I always like sharing the number of miles that we traveled last year. Over 2.3 million miles. That is significant. And our bus drivers do it every day with a smile on their face. Sure, we have a couple accidents or hiccups here or there, but nobody was drastically hurt, thank goodness. and they do that every single day to get our students to and from school in a safely and timely manner. We also serve close to 1.5 million lunches and breakfasts. So, I had lunch with the soup today, which I do monthly, and I had a
069meatball sub at Aaylor Aaylor Middle School, which was a fantastic meatball sub, I might add. And it was a fantastic time to celebrate not only our students and engaging with them, but the great work that our cafeteria workers do as well. The other aspect that I really want to highlight here is that we have a 94% graduation rate. We are graduating 94% of our students. Now, as you know me very well, I'm concerned about that 6%. How are we going to get them across the stage as well? Um, so we are working on that, but we are above the state average and I want to get that number as close to 100% as we can. The other thing that I want to draw attention to on here is that we have had over 6,000 credit
070hours for both CTE and dual enrollment. What does that mean? That means that we are providing students with opportunities and pathways to be future ready so that they are able to gain those credentials to either go to college or a community college or just jump right into the workforce, own their own business or go into the military. So that is something that we are looking to expand upon. That is something that we have added into our strategic plan as we continue to create new opportunities and pathways for all of our students. I always like to highlight where all of our staff are located because as we share with you, our budget is 83% staff. But where are those staff? And as you can see up here, the majority of our staff, 84% of them are
071in the building running the day-to-day operations from the principles to the front office staff to the cafeteria workers to the teachers, the instructional aids. And then the other 10% is going to be our transportation. There are staff here in central office that run the basic operations from our finance to human resources to making sure this meeting is running well. So there is a need for those staff as well. But as you can see, 94% of our staff are supporting and front-facing to our students, which I would argue that there's a lot of staff here as well that support our students both directly and indirectly, but a majority of them are in the building supporting our kids every single day. We also have a a lot of highlights in this annual report, but the three that
072I'm going to focus on with you today are it is hard to believe that this time last year, we just received approval for the fourth high school. We have made a lot of progress. Thanks to Mr. Thompson and Mr. Shepard and his team for all the work as we move forward with that. But that was a monumental point for Frederick County. And as you as you just heard me say, Frederick County, it's bigger than our school division because that is a huge huge leap for us as we continue to respond to the growth and respond to providing the opportunities and a conducive learning environment for all of our students. And as we know and as we've discussed, this is just the tip of the iceberg. as we continue to respond to the growth that we're
073seeing in this community as well as the growth that we see in the near future. So, this was a huge pivotal point for us and I cannot thank each and every one of you for being part of that process as well as our board of supervisors. I also want to focus on our capital improvement projects. We have done a lot of work in this area from facilities to our capital asset planning to really diving into the areas that we need to improve to all the nuts and bolts behind the walls. We have to make sure we have good HVAC systems. We have to make sure that we have good fire alarms and that our schools are safe. That takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of energy and it does cost money. So,
074we are very thankful to you and we are very thankful to our board of supervisors as we continue to chip away at those projects to make sure that we have safe and operating equipment and schools for our students and for our community. I am also beyond excited about our new strategic plan. There are so many components of this plan that we are seeing in action at to this day. We are working on creating professional learning communities in our schools. So, we're taking a look at data. We are taking a look at creating new opportunities and pathways for our students. And as I mentioned earlier, our job is to make our students future ready. So, in order to do that, we have to create future ready environments for all of our kids. and we are looking
075at expanding on those programs, expanding on those opportunities. But in order to do that, we have to invest in that. And that is something that we will continue to show what that return on investment will look like for all of our students as we continue to add on those programs. The other promise with this strategic plan, as we've talked about and as we discussed earlier this evening, is that we need to report out on the progress that we are making or not making. We have a lot of work to do and as we show you this Friday in regards to our performance as well as November for the first quarter, we are making progress, but we still have significant work to do to get to where we need to get to in regards to making
076up ground in regards to math, English, science, and social studies performance for all of our kids, which we have everything outlined in this strategic plan as we continue to be intentional and as we continue to provide the resources and supports that our amazing teachers need every single day. So, what's next? We have the very first step of our FY27 budget proposal this Friday. We are going to be diving into where we currently are performance-wise, where we currently are operationally, where we current currently are in regards to pathways and opportunities to include sports with that presentation that we heard earlier today during public comment. All of those things are going to be considered as we continue to add on new opportunities and pathways for all of our students. And we want to make sure that we
077focus on the intentionality of the things we add on because that's where that return on investment really shows the direction we are going in because all of these things are going to cost money and we have to show what that return on investment is for all of our students so that we are providing for that future ready um aspect of our students growth. So with that being said as I mentioned you have the hard copy in front of you for the public listening at home. You can click on that link or go to our website and we are looking forward to uh the great success for this upcoming school year and I am available for any questions. Thank you all for your attention and time. >> Okay. Yep. >> Thank you guys. Question. >> Yes.
078Yes. Yes, sir. >> Um Dr. Hummer, you I'm bringing this up now since you brought it up in your presentation. You talked about u providing opportunities and strategic plan. Yes. And I think we're we've got a wonderful strategic plan in front of us. Um, Miss Knight, thank you for all your work on that. >> Um, but you brought up the the comment uh that the family made, the Shook family. Uh, with reference to girls wrestling. I think that is a great opportunity and I I would like to see us start to pursue that and hopefully I I don't know logistics wise if we can uh get that done this year. However, um it did sound like they uh had a coach that was TEAL certified at Milbrook that that could head that up. We already
079have the equipment as far as uh mats and the space to do that. Um I I just I mean we can talk about it later and or we can discuss it now, I guess. Um why why we couldn't get that ball across the goal. >> Yeah, I'm I'm more than happy to, Mr. chair to to mention that now that we can talk about it later. So, it all came down to timing. As you know, our budget process finishes out in April. This was approved in in late May. I also want to be very very clear that we support all women's sports. Um, we added on the flag football this year for our girls because we want to be able to provide those opportunities. Right now, that's a club sport. It's going to be added on
080as a VHSL sanctioned sport hopefully in the near future. I also want to be clear too that there is a lot of sports that are sanctioned by VHSL that we don't pick up because of money and space and and coaching and other aspects. Um so and and right now the girls are able to participate in wrestling and we fully support providing a a cuz right now it is saction but an actual girl sport girls team dedicated team we can absolutely do that. It's just outside of that budget process. So if that's something that you would like for us to look into now we're more than happy to do that. Um, and that's something because it was on our list to talk about for for FY27. That's and you'll see that on Friday because right now
081we're talking about adding soccer at the middle school level because we have to purchase the goals and the uniforms. And then we also have the girls wrestling on the list as well. Um, because there is going to be other costs that go into that that we're not budgeted for. So, we have transportation. We're going to have to have space for for rental spaces for for traveling and and such. So, there's going to be some things that we're going to have to get ahead of in regards to budgeting. Um, and as we've we've mentioned, and we'll talk more about Friday, we are actually in a shortfall right now because our our numbers are not where they should have been at the beginning of the year. So, we're actually taking a look at some things to get
082ahead of that in case the state does not hold us harmless for that. So there are some then some things that we are pinching in order to get ahead of that which happens because all of our budgets are based on projection of numbers and those projections were not as high and this is a statewide issue right now because we are seeing a decline in population across Virginia. >> So but anyway it's more than happy to look into it. We can get you those numbers and then we can have a further conversation about it. More than happy to do that. >> I'm sorry. Do do we know how many young ladies we're talking about that are participating now? Do we have that information or is that >> I think you said 13 or 14 >> 13
083and that's through all three high schools. >> The Well, no. So, so the other thing that we we have to look into, again, I can't say this enough, we support girls wrestling, but it's not an issue. Okay. So, the other thing we have to look into is when you add on new sports, you have to see if the other districts have picked up that sport, especially when something is so new. Because what I don't want to do for these young ladies is say we pick up this sport and the next closest school division that picked it up is Virginia Beach and then they're traveling down there to Virginia Beach. We don't know what the numbers are at Jameswood and Milbrook or at Strando. We'll have to look into that. But that that is the we
084we have a process for adding everything on from new instruction to new programs to new sports. So if these are things that we want to do, we want to do it right, which we were getting ready to do. But if we want to jump that process and start looking into that now, then it it is going to be something that we are going to have to see if other teams and other schools have this sport right now. That's what because we talked about lacrosse. There's not a lot of lacrosse teams on this side of the mountain. They're going to have to do a lot of traveling. We talked about field hockey. We talked about all these other sports that we would like to add on, but there's just some logistics that we're going to have
085to get through. So, we can look into all those things. We can get numbers from each of the schools. We can see what other divisions added this on. It is it is when they added this on in May, I think it was late May when they approved it, most school divisions already had their budgets approved. >> Understood. >> Right. So, so if this was earlier in the year, absolutely, we would have taken that into consideration. It's just we're VHSL and the timing. >> Do do you think it's possible to get the numbers that we need by the next instructional meeting? >> Yeah, we can get all that >> so we can look at it then. >> I think it's it's the the the other issue is we're talking about timing. I think they're getting ready
086to start tryyouts and work through all those aspects. So, it is going to be something that we're going to have to move very quickly to see if that's something that we can do. Um, but but again, right now, we we weren't planning on on moving forward with that sport. So, we'll have to look into those numbers and I'll talk with the team to see if that's something that we can get by I think it's the middle of November is when that next meeting is, but I think the season might have already started. So, we might have to get those numbers to you sooner, which >> I have a question. Yes. >> Um, so we're talking about budget, but what about fundraising for this type of thing? I mean, if there's an interest, I'm would the
087families be able to fund raise for this? >> So, um, when it comes to fundraising operating dollars, it gets complicated, >> um, because this is something that we're going to have to work into our operating budget. Um, so if they go ahead and raise the money now, we still have to work it into our operating budget next year. Um the other piece is and and please chime in. Um when it comes to donations and fundraising for for school division costs, it is something that we have to confer with the county because we were allotted money based on an appropriation of money. And if we go over that appropriation and then there will be questions about well did we even need the money that we asked for because now we're fundraising for that and I don't
088know if you want to chime in on that. >> You did a great job answering. I just want to offer that fundraising is great, but it's not always a sustainable source of funds. So, if we added a program like this, we would need to sustain the cost of the program. >> Um, just to follow up, um, so currently the girls can participate in wrestling. >> Yes, sir. >> So, the cost of the singlets are already there. The, uh, like I said, the all the mats and everything else is already there. Um, we already are paying for the coach. Um, the only thing that would be different would be transportation and obviously logistics. I I would hate to cut the um the ladies out of this this opportunity. If we could get those numbers um could
089we call a another board meeting um before that? because I I don't want to cut them off because of our our failure to come together as a board. Um so if if it's something where we can get the numbers of of um school divisions that are participating in this and have a good look at that. Um if there's any additional operating dollars that we'll need, um I don't think it would be that much. Um I think financially we'd be set on this. Um, I just think it's a a timing and a logistics issue. Um, so if if we can get a consensus, I guess, to have a emergency meeting just to discuss this after you guys provide us with that information, I I believe looking at down the board, we would all be in consensus
090on this. >> I think so, Mr. Atkins, yes, I agree with you. I do think just kind of going through the schedule and the run and show of events that we have for school board here coming in the next two weeks or so. We have our retreat on Friday. It's my understanding this is going to come before us on Friday. As far as the preliminary numbers you all already have set now, the exact numbers we don't have, which I understand. I hear you loud and clear. >> Kind of where my head is on this. I would like to see what you guys have to present. Um I'm with you as far as the logistics, the singlets, the coach, the mats, the location, even the transportation. I don't see it as an issues because they're going
091to be going to the same places using the same. >> Can I chime in? I'm sorry, m Mrs. Klein. So, I want to be clear that this is going to be a whole separate sport. >> So, we they would have to hire a new coach. It's not the same coach. >> So, that that is what the request is because it's it's a whole separate sport. Like so for example, the boys soccer coaches doesn't coach the girls soccer team unless they are this they they get two different stipens which is impossible because it's during the same season. So it's a whole separate sport. >> Boys cross country and girls cross cross country coaches are the same. Correct. >> It's two different ones. >> Really? When did that change? That wasn't that >> Yeah. It's always it's
092always been that way. Yeah. Same thing with >> Not back in my day. Yeah. >> Interesting. >> Yeah. So So there's always a boy's coach and a girl's coach. That that would be the request cuz that's essentially what the issue was. back to the travel because the coach wasn't going to be able to go to two places at one time because again, all of the schools that have boys wrestling are not always going to have girls wrestling. So, they're not going to go to the same place. So, there is going to be a transportation cost. Again, fully support girls wrestling. This is just outside of our process of adding on a new sport. So, we're just going to have to collect that information. And I don't necessarily think we have to set up a board
093meeting unless you guys want to. information. Right now, it looks like there's a more uniforms are typically 20 to $40,000. So, that's something else we're going to have to get ahead of. Again, there's a lot. It's not just about adding the sport on. There's a process that we follow to make sure that we are providing you with information that it gets added on to the the operating budget and that we're working through all these logistics. So to add it on, sure, but there's going to be logistics that we have to work out to make sure we do it right. >> So not to bleagger the point this evening in the interest of time, just I really would love to see these numbers. I think we all would. Um seeing a lot of nods down the
094day. Um I'd like to see these numbers. I'd like to hear more about it on Friday and then not so much an emergency meeting, but I think there is some actions that we could take and these all sound like is these these sound like opportunities that we need to solve, but I think that these are things that we that are solvable. So >> um >> great. Yeah, >> Mr. Chairman. >> Follow >> if I may. >> Uh just to follow up, I have a couple of questions. Um >> the first is uh would it be possible for Friday's uh retreat uh to have access to that process that you keep mentioning so that we can see exactly what that process is so we can better understand exactly uh what what it entails to bring us
095new sport into fruition. >> Sure. >> Thank you. Yep. Um secondly, if we decide to move forward with it this year and we don't have the operating funds, would that necessarily mean we have to go to the board of supervisors for an ask? It depends on at this point of the school year, I would say no. However, we just went through a long conversation about items that we're looking at again shrinking and and cutting some some staff and some some budgets, some some department budgets. So we h we we can find the money. Um but the other aspect to this is regardless if we get move it forward this year, it still has to get worked into next year's budget as well. Right. So um so yeah, I mean we we could find it but
096again we we are already looking at cutting. So it would just be one thing that we would have to add on. That's why I would >> I'm encouraging us to to consider continuously following our process. >> I understand. Um, and I guess the biggest concern overall is is there are there other schools in the area that have or are going to plan on having girls wrestling. So, as you said, we don't travel to Virginia Beach for the >> As of right now, no other school division has mentioned that to to me. Um, we just had a conversation with the VHSL liaison. Um, I know it was a sport added on, but as I mentioned, there's a lot of sports that are added on we don't currently have here. Um, so again, we can make some
097phone calls and and check with VHSL to see which school divisions moved forward with that this year because again, right, because again, the girls can still participate. If all 14 girls wanted to participate in the boys team, they can do that. This is a whole separate team to only wrestle other females, which I get. Again, we support that, but it it is a new process and something we're going to have to get ahead of. >> Is that also something that we could find out by Friday what other school districts have this or is that too much of a test? So I I want to be clear too and we'll we'll provide you with the most information we can provide because that's three days away. Our presentation on Friday was not going to be an indepth
098review of this information. It was these are the things that we're currently looking at because this is just our board retreat. So we will discuss the process. We'll discuss what information we are able to collect during that time. We'll at least have the information locally, but and we'll see if we get confirmation from other school divisions if they've added this on as well as how far they might travel because we also have to calculate what tournaments they're going to be because as of as of right now, the boys wrestling schedule is already established. >> Sure. >> Right. So, we have to deter determine which school divisions have added on tournaments so that we can get the girls to where they need to go. This is happening very quickly which is again we wanted to follow
099the process for next year. So, we can look into all those things. So, and finally, I promise finally, is this something that could start out this year as a club for those that are interested in doing this to at least be have access to um and to a coach? It's my understanding that the current men coach is a uh certified coach. Is that something that we could look into to see if it's a club? >> I I'm for the students. >> I don't know how that would work. I mean any any you can create any club as you know we've had conversations I'm just wondering if because that's how flag football started yes logistically I think we're running into the same issue like because right because that would the coach who's already coaching be able
100to take that on who would they be wrestling would they just be wrestling each other like what would that look like I think is is my question >> thank you very informative >> thank you yes sir >> despite your choice of football teams Any other questions? So, we will get that information to you and looking forward to further conversations. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> All right. There is no unfinished business. So, we're going to move right on to new business with the committee reports. First one is the personnel committee meeting. >> All right. That's me. Yippee. >> Thank you, Mr. Chairman. A meeting of the personnel committee of the Frederick County School Board was held on October 6, 2025. The meeting was called to order at 4:35 p.m. and a copy of the minutes
101has been provided to each board member. During the meeting, Miss Campbell gave a staffing update which included professional vacancies FY26, teacher vacancies by content FY26, teacher vacancies by content FY25 versus FY26, support staff vacancies FY26, support staff vacancies FY25 versus FY26, professional vacancies filled as of September 24, 2025, and the years of experience of new teachers. Ms. Rinker discussed the average length of service for FY24 and FY25 and the comparison of FY24 and FY25 and gave a recruitment and retention update which included celebrations of recruitment efforts and recruiting plans as well as a contract award for temporary staffing services. Ms. Edwards Johnson reviewed the benefits enrollment review and Miss Campbell gave a human capital management system update. The meeting adjourned at 4:54 p.m. Additional details regarding the information covered at the committee meeting are included
102in the minutes provided to the board members. Are there any questions from board members about information shared at the personnel committee meeting held on October 6. All right. So, it would then seem that I make a motion for the uh board to approve the minutes of the personnel committee. >> Not according to my notes. >> Motion sheet. >> I'm looking. Oh, there we are. Number one, I move. Sorry about that. It didn't say it in the notes. I move the board approve the contract award for temporary staffing services to General Healthc Care Resources LLC for an amount not to exceed $600,000. >> Second. >> Motion has been made and properly seconded. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. >> Second motion.
103I move the board approve the minutes from the personnel committee meeting held on October 6th, 2025. >> Second. >> Motion has been made and properly seconded. Is there any discussion? >> Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Next is the instruction committee meeting report. A meeting of the instruction committee of the Frederick County School Board was held on October 6th, 2025. The meeting was called to order at 5:31 p.m. and a copy of the minutes has been provided to each board member. During the meeting, Dr. Hummer reviewed the agenda. Mrs. Hall discussed the sexually explicit books and Mrs. Swagger reviewed the program of studies. The meeting adjourned at 7:36 p.m. Additional details regarding the information covered at the committee meetings are included in the minutes
104provided to board members. Are there any questions from board members about information shared at the instruction committee meeting held on October 6th? All right, we turn the page. Turn the page. There are two motions coming out of the instruction committee meeting. Number one, I move the board approve the request to add the courses of floral design 2, introduction to power, structure, and electrical systems, keyboarding, AP seminar, and art history to the program of studies for the 2026-27 school year. >> Second. >> Motion has been made and properly seconded. Is there any discussion? hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. >> And the final motion coming out of that committee meeting is to or is that I move the board approve the minutes from the instruction committee
105meeting held on October 6, 2025. >> Second. >> Motion has been made and properly seconded. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Next is the buildings and grounds committee meeting. >> Mr. Chairman, a meeting of the building and grounds committee of Frederick County Public Schools was held on October 13th, 2025. The meeting was called to order at 4:30 p.m. and a copy of the minutes been provided to each board member. During the meeting, uh, Mr. Mr. Whitaker discussed the CAP projects update. Uh Mr. Shepard gave an update on the planning and design of the fourth high school and reviewed the Middletown and Jordan Springs elementary expansion. Uh the Middletown Fire and Rescue Kitchen lease agreement as well as the CIP projects.
106Mr. Holland gave a transportation update that included the evaluation of light due light duty fleet and uh Mr. Mr. Thompson reviewed the contract award for the Sharando High School plumbing refurbishment. The meeting adjourned at 50:08 p.m. Additional details regarding the committee's meeting are uh included in the minutes provided to board members. Do board members have any questions about what was covered at the building and grounds committee meeting held on October 13th? Seeing none, there's some motions. Um, I move that the board approve the contract award to Blau Brothers, Inc. for plumbing refurbishment at Shando High School in the amount of $357,100. >> Second. >> Motion has been made and properly seconded. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. And finally,
107I move that the board approve the minutes from the building and grounds committee meeting held on October 13, 2025. >> Second. >> Motion has been made, properly seconded. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? That motion carries. Last is the finance committee meeting. >> That's me, Mr. Chair. A meeting of the finance committee of the Frederick County School Board was held on October 13, 2025. The meeting was called to order at 5:31 p.m. and a copy of the minutes has been provided to each board member. During the meeting, Mrs. Anderson reviewed the construction bond, the Frederick County Public Schools debt service projections to include the debt service fund and debt service fund projections and the debt guidelines and capacity ratios. Mrs. Anderson also
108shared the new school operating costs, the VPSA educational technology resolution, and the remaining obligated funds. The meeting adjourned at 5:58 p.m. Additional details regarding the information covered at the finance committee meeting are included in the minutes provided to board members. Are there any questions from board members about information shared at the finance committee meeting held on October 13, 2025? All right, seeing none, we have two motions. Uh the first I move the board approve the resolution declaring its intention to reimburse itself from the proceeds of one or more grants made by the Commonwealth of Virginia for certain expenditures made and or to be made in conjunction with certain capital improvement. >> Second. >> Motion has been made and has been properly seconded. Is there any discussion? >> Mr. Chair, I do have some discussion just
109to clarify for the the public. So the reason that we are asking to reimburse ourselves has to do with the timing of this grant. So, this grant came out towards the end of the fiscal year. We don't want to spend all the money all in one fell swoop just to make sure it's spent before the next fiscal year begins. So, we are asking to reimburse ourselves from those funds for the following year. How'd I do, Mrs. Anderson? All right, I get a thumbs up. Fantastic. That's all I have, Mr. Chair. >> Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. >> And lastly, Mr. Chair, I move the board approve the minutes from the finance committee meeting held on October 13th, 2025. >>
110Second. >> Motion has been made and properly seconded. Is there any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Last on our agenda is board member comments. Are there any board members that would like to make any comments? >> Mr. Chair, I would like to make some comments. Go ahead, Madam Vice Chair. >> So, I have just a brief list. The first we we talked about at Nauseium regarding the girls wrestling, as I'm sure everyone can attest to now. We're going to look into this and get this discussed. So, uh, thank you Dr. Hummer and your team. We're putting something else on your plate. So, thank you for accommodating us in that request. Um, also too, just want to address some of the comments that
111were said, and you're right, nonpart these are supposed to be nonpartisan positions. However, when it comes to endorsements for elected office, a ham sandwich can endorse you. So, pretty much any group, any one can endorse you. Um, several I know when I ran, I was invited by several groups. I received endorsements from several groups and there were other groups that did not invite me to come and speak and therefore they didn't endorse me. So, um, just because you're nonpartisan doesn't mean that a group cannot endorse you. So, just want to clarify that. Um, also too, I I just want to just I am so happy to see the same people come back to these meetings. I know you all don't think we hear you. We do. And thank you. It's the same five of you.
112So, thank you for definitely representing the group that you represent. Um, again too, being nonpartisan doesn't mean that you resign your value set at this deis. So, you come into this deis with a value set. Your votes reflect that value set. If your value set happens to align with a certain political party, so be it. And if it doesn't, then so be it. But I did not abandon my value set when I took this day. I did not abandon my value set when I ran for office. So that being said, there will be an atlarge seat open in fiscal year 2027 to be uh to run. Any of you from any magisterial district can run. And I just want to give a little precursor of what um if you do decide to run this this
113is the kind of books that uh will be allowed to be in our library and the kind of text in these books that will be allowed if someone else runs and decides and the board is of consensus to allow these books to come into the libraries. This is what will be uh coming in. So this is a book here. It's called Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl. This is currently going through our review process which is very detailed and online uh to be potentially removed from the book from the library. It is currently still on the sexually explicit book list. We did have our librarians do an exhaustive review of the book list this summer. There were books on that list that shouldn't have been there and there were some that that should have been.
114And we have some amazing librarians that spent a lot of time going through the VDOE's guidelines to make sure all of those books were indeed supposed to be on there and many were removed and put back in the normal circulation. So, just to give you a precursor of one of the books that's still on there that is sexually explicit that's going through the review process that you all so adamantly want still in the library. It's from Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews. Chapter 9, page 59. Hey, Earl. Supike. Ike. It's a good sign. It's slang for dude. And when Earl uses it, it means that he's in a good mood, which is rare. Hey Earl, I can't watch Alphavville today. Why the hell not? I'm sorry, man. I have to hang out
115with this girl from uh this girl from synagogue. What? She's Are you going to eat her >> Earl can be sort of profane sometimes. He's actually mellowed out a lot since his middle school days, believe it or not. Back in middle school, he would have asked this in a much more violent and horrible way. Yeah, Earl, I'm going to eat her Huh? Yeah. Do you even know how to eat Um, not really. Papa Gaines never sat you down, son. One day you're gonna have to eat the Yes, you're right, Mr. Nuri. It's inappropriate. It's highly inappropriate content, and it is sitting in our libraries as we speak. So, this book is currently under the review process. In this board member's opinion, it should be it should be removed. It'll go through the instructional committee as
116per process, and if it passes, then this board member will be voting to have it removed. These are currently in our libraries. That's all I have. Mr. Chair, >> are there any other board members that would like to speak? >> Well, Mr. Chair, >> Mr. Atkins, >> um I want to go ahead and uh talk about the proclamations. You know, uh the first one, American Education Week, it if you read through that proclamation, uh go back and review it. It it takes a team. Um, you know, whether it be teachers, bus drivers, secretaries, librarians, uh, you know, janitors, us up here on the board, our our amazing staff, um, parents out there. It it takes a team, you know, whether left, right, center, I don't care. It takes a team to to educate these kids.
117So, uh, hats off to those folks out there, uh, making it happen. Um then we went to um our uh support staff, support professionals. These people are are the grease that keeps the gears running. Um you know, they're not out in front of the students every day, but they are in the schools. I know my stepson um you know, is is really enamored with our uh our jander over at uh Evenendale, and you know, he he always greets me with a smiling face. So, I'm I'm really thankful for um folks in a school like that. And then our substitute teachers, can't get enough of them. These are the people who give our teachers a break. Um you know, they're the people who come into the game uh late in the fourth quarter and and really
118make it happen and continue the education for our staff or for our uh students. Um it gives our our staff a break from having to go from classroom to classroom um or pulling an an administrator from the office. Um so thank you for being part of our community and um the these children's education. Uh next um I we talked about wrestling. Um, like Miss Klein said, I think that we will be better educated on this process come Friday and uh hopefully we'll be able to come to a decision. Um, I I can't promise anything like it'll be something that that the uh the Shook family would like to see. Um, but we'll do our best to try to get it done. Um, addressing the other comments mostly revolving around books, uh, Mr. FA, you uh
119talked about holding us accountable and um being and actually making a vote on uh our decisions instead of the consensus that we did. I don't disagree with you. I think we should um I really because then it becomes policy and it's set in stone. Right now it's just an operating procedure which is flimsy. Um, but yes, I I really do think we should go ahead and uh and chisel it out in concrete um and make that a policy. Next, uh Mr. Nuri talked about Supreme Court and all kinds of uh laws and sections and everything else. Please take it up the Supreme Court. Um good luck to you. Um, next, Miss Carmichael talked about uh the board positions, how it's not supposed to be nonpartisan. I I can't talk better than what Miss Klein did
120about that, so I'll leave it with with her uh her words there. Uh, book banning. Uh, everybody keeps talking about book banning. Books weren't banned. There were a few taken out, such as um the one that's in review right now. I think that one should probably be taken out. There's no educational value to that. Um, so the process is opt in. Three years ago, I brought this up. I said we should opt in instead of have the opt out. Um, it brings parents accountable to it. This is a team. You know, we're supposed to be educating children together, right? this holds or this brings the the student that wants to check out these books a a notification to their parents saying, "Hey, your child is interested in this." And it forces a conversation between the
121parents and the student. Why would you want to hide that? Yes, I still think you guys are perverts and I do think that anytime you want these books in the in these libraries, there's something probably a little bit wrong with you. Um, >> that's awesome. Um, next we talked about uh, Miss Dikus. Uh, she said uh, because kids see pornographic materials at home, we should allow that in our schools. That was the overall arching message. Um, nope. I don't think so. >> You had your opportunity to speak. He didn't get interrupted. Do not interrupt the speakers up here. >> I don't, >> Mr. Chairman. Point of order. The audience is out of order. Would you please remind them of the question? >> I just did, sir. I don't think that schools should be harboring these
122kind of books or these kind of values. Um, if you want to allow that in your house, hey, God bless you. You you can do what you want behind your behind your doors and your walls, but we're not going to allow those values here in our schools. Um, with that, um, I think my comments are finished. Mr. here. >> Mr. Chairman, thank you. First, I'd like to thank Bass Hoover for their performance this evening. I thought it was a lot of fun to watch them up here. They did such a great job. They had such a good time, and some of them uh said that they were terrified and frightened, but they didn't certainly look like it at all. So, kudos to them for even coming up here. That was wonderful. I'd like to congratulate
123our two new appointments as well. Um I look forward to great things coming from them. Um, I did want to update uh the board and the community on something that was discussed in a previous instruction committee meeting, I believe. Um, and that's the efforts by Bright Futures to put food pantries into all of the schools. I am uh working with Middletown Elementary right now on creating a new pantry for them. Um, Ms. Dominico and I are in discussions. I'm hopefully going to get to see the space on Friday so that I can provide for them either by building or purchasing a um a pantry for them. Uh my next school that I'll look at is Aaylor uh middle school. So, and then of course Shando High School. Um I am the OPEC district. That's not
124to say the other schools don't need them, but I'll start at home first and then work my way out. Um, I'd also like to thank uh Miles for his offer to help out in building uh said pantries and to uh Miss Dantis for offering her husband's wood. So, thank you for that. I don't know if he's willing to donate it, but too bad for him. All right. Um >> I'd also like to thank Dr. Hummer for his annual report. Uh 94% graduation rate is a wonderful thing. Um, I can testify to the uh uh quality of education that our schools provide. My my son is currently a freshman at Virginia Tech in the engineering program and he's currently uh skirting on by with all A's. So, I'm very proud of that. My daughter is a
125freshman or sorry, a sophomore at uh Sharando High School and she's currently with all A's. And this is a testament not just to them as students but also to their teachers who have prepared them for further education. So I want to thank all of the teachers at Shando and all of the teachers at all of our schools uh for the good and hard work that they do. I'd also like to thank all of our speakers uh Joel FA uh Keith and Amaya Shook, Brian Nuri, Kerry Carmichael, Rebecca Raer, Ragger or Ragger Ragger. Thank you. and Chelsea Dykus uh for the uh words that you brought before us today. Uh this is probably where I uh differ from my colleagues with regards to the books. Personally, whether or not I allow my daughter, my son to
126read books of this nature, as the one that uh Miss Klein read is is is my business. Um, but my my viewpoint and position on this is that I don't want to make that decision for other parents. So while I may not care for the content of the book or be shocked by the content of the book, I don't feel that it is my place to dictate that or or uh policy make a policy that would prevent a parent from wanting to educate their child in such ways. Nor would I ever judge that parent in such ways. So, while we differ on this, uh, we respectfully work side by side and we work well together despite what some of you may read in the papers about our fighting, um, we don't. Um, at any point,
127at any rate, I just want to say that, um, while I understand the angst of those who uh, dislike some of the things that our books in the library may have, um, I don't think that it's our place to, uh, prevent parents from opting into that. Um, if that's what they wish to do, I'm not their parent, nor should we all try to be their parent. Um, and with that I should say that's about it for me. Thank you very much and I absolutely enjoy working with each and every one of you. >> I just want to take a moment to thank Miss Amaya Shook for speaking um for what she believes in and and wants to see in the schools and I know that takes a lot of courage especially um as a as
128a young girl. um but all of the speakers um for just participating in the community and I also want to thank all of the administrators and educators that have allowed me to meet with them, pick their brains and um give feedback on on what what's going on in our schools and it's been um immensely helpful helpful for me to get up to speed in this role. So I just wanted to thank everyone. >> Mr. Chairman, uh buckle up. So, I made a list because I wanted to make sure not to leave anything out. First, I want to start with the most important stuff first. Um, Mr. Mrs. Shook, thank you um for this amazing young woman um Amaya that you let come out this evening to speak with you. One of the things over the
129past week that I that I really enjoyed was having um the chance to sit down and and listen and um think about some of the points that they brought up with respect to access to wrestling for girls and and that is its own independent sport. I can tell you I've seen this uh I've seen the power and positivity of this sport in my own family. I can't think of anything better um than to be able to offer uh this opportunity uh to young women here in Frederick County. I also really want to point something out that it's cute how at the beginning of this we had a a father and a daughter do exactly what you're supposed to do in the civil um civil engagement. They came, they advocated for something they believed in and
130nobody's angry. And um not only not only did we hear them, but for the people who who think that we're not listening to the public, I'm not sure there was a better case study than tonight, we haven't even adjourned the meeting yet and we've already said yes to something that a citizen stood up here and told us that they wanted. We agreed with them. Um so despite like Mr. Bell said, "What you may read um in silly letters to the editor and public comments, we don't fight. Um if if you've ever been around for the couple minutes before the meeting starts, um we do enjoy being around each other. It's hard because of open meeting laws. We have to be really careful about being social and being around each other, but I I don't dislike
131a single person on this board. Um I look forward to these meetings. I look forward even to the times we disagree because when we do disagree, it's policy based. Um I at least in my what four 15 months on the board, I can't think of a time where we've ever attacked each other as people. And I I appreciate the the six of you for that very much. And I hope Miss Martin can still hear me too. Um about the the opt-in. So, one of the things that bothers me is that the same people who were who were mandatory maskers and jabbers now want to now want us to go back to to taking decisions away in some cases, but not in others. The the lack of consistency there bugs me. By giving this an optin,
132what we've effectively done is ask parents to take an active role in making those decisions. Don't forget, we're bound by code. We are bound by code in the Commonwealth of Virginia and by um regulatory compliance. We could be fined. We could be civily penalized um if we don't follow code and if we don't follow regulation. That's what's going on on the other side of the mountain. They're thumbming their nose at state law and they're getting what they're getting. Um this board, and I can only speak for me, um we decided not to take that route. That doesn't mean that we some of us don't have maybe nitpick disagreements with some of the policies and some of the intricacies inside. Um but that that part that Mrs. Klein read was not the worst part. If you
133want to know more, buy that garbage and read it at home. Um it it gets worse. Now, one of the things that I think that needs to be said a little bit more often is that the seven of us can't engage when folks come up um to the to the lectern there and give their public comment. We're not allowed by our own rules to engage with you. So, like we can't stop and ask you questions. We can't give you comments back while you're talking. We can't interrupt you. We're we're just not allowed. We have to be bound by our own rules. And I I like that in the sense that you get that whole dedicated time and it's really important that we're respectful. You can see like I'm writing notes all over the place. Many
134of us are because we want to address those comments. Many of them we don't even address in the meeting. We end up writing to you after. Um many of you in here can tell you like we we correspond often. One of the things that gets me though is that we need to model that behavior. And in the same way um that that we don't do that with the public, I would really like to see um Mrs. Klene or Mr. Atkins be able to get through a a a response and a comment without being heckled. I I just I expect better and I'm sorry that that didn't happen tonight. Um we done are we done? And again, we didn't interrupt you. Don't interrupt them. >> You are out of order. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Um I
135hope that everybody does continue to come to these meetings, especially for those of you um who are upset about the partisanship piece. There were um throughout this election, and we don't talk about this much. I think it's important for the public to know it. Um, everybody on every side of the political spectrum has been showing up for good reason to to public forums and to um answering public questions and seeking the endorsement of the groups that align with their value set. Um, including in my race, everybody on every side of the aisle, public engagement is positive. Um, and if some groups want to endorse some people, that's great. And if they don't want to endorse other people, that's great, too. Um, but in the end, those endorsements are just one piece, I think, that goes
136into the decisions that people make on election day. Um, the fact that we don't run with a partisan listing on the ballot doesn't mean um that partisan politics aren't part of of board races. School board school board business is very different in 2025 than it was when when these code sections were written 75 years ago. Um, and I wish it wasn't that way. Um the problem is that when you get into the things that we are covering um these things about books and about funding and about these nasty accusations of all the isms that you guys accuse us of it is political. So there's that. And finally, if you haven't noticed Mr. Bell's amazing tie he's wearing this evening, ask him about it. He would like to tell you more about a bet that he
137lost. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. All right, last but not least is me. First and foremost, uh, thank you to the vice chair because I was going to do the very same thing. Um, I'm the one that objected to this book to begin with simply because I was watching Gutfeld one night and a lady got up in another schoolboard district somewhere in the country and read this section. And at the time when I was interviewed by the Winchester Star the other day, I had not read the book because I was not able to get my hands on the copy, but I did get my hands on this copy. And not only page 59 that she read, uh, page 60 and 61, it's all the same. And you want me to gavvel her for something that you want
138our students to read. I find that amazing. Well, >> I raise your hands. Whatever. I know. No, I never gave anybody for reading a book. That's a fallacy. So, some of you are diametrically opposed to everything that I've ever stood for and this book thing. We haven't banned a book. We've taken a couple out. Yes, indeed. Because of the sexually explicit nature and they didn't need to be here. And I don't think this one needs to be here either. But six to one, half dozen the other. Those of you that said this board doesn't listen to people. Yeah, we do. I listen to everybody and I get it from both sides. I'm going to tell you right now, I have been the whipping boy for the last uh 23 months for this county. I've been
139getting it from the cabal of people on this side and and from those who are enlightened on this side. I I've gotten my fair share. I went from being a a MAGA crazy to a cristofascist to an LGBTQ advocate to a Nazi in 12 months. I am really good. I swear I am. I don't know how I did that. Some of you ask ask Miss Stonemire back there. She's given me what for on numerous occasions. We still love each other though, right? I get it from all sides. So yeah, I do listen. I may not agree with your opinion and I know most of you in that section don't agree with anything that I say. Even you, Mr. Nuri, we've had some contentious things, but we can actually talk to each other. You have been
140quite reasonable at times. Mr. Bell, I don't necessarily agree with everything that he says, but you know what? God love him. I like this guy. Um, and this thing about us not supposeding to be supposed to be partisan. I've never lied about who I am. I am a Christian conservative. I may not always act like the perfect Christian as has been pointed out by others in this world. I get things wrong just like everybody else. I don't say the right things. I don't do the right things all the time. That's neither here nor there. But you all come up here and tell us we've got to be middle down the road. No partiality. no part no partisanship. Yet everyone that comes up here and speaks has their own agenda and their own partisan principles and
141beliefs and telling us how we should agree with you. That's being partisan. I have listened to everybody who's talked to me, if you give me send me a snarky email or you call me up on the telephone and cuss me, I'm not going to respond and I will hang up on you. That's the way it is. But I have I have responded to people who have who have been uh diametrically opposed to things I've said. I've gotten compliments from people and you can ask a superintendent. I've gotten compliments from people who called me everything but a uh a public restroom in the past and they say, "Oh, thank you for doing that. Thank you for I was I was amazed that you did this. I I do a lot of stuff that you all never
142know about." um that young lady uh Casey Leser this evening. That is why I enjoy being up here is cuz I get to meet students like her who are a shining example. And it's not just her. Yes, I I made I made an example of her cuz she's been really decent. But we have hundreds upon hundreds of kids just like her in our school systems. And when I read the crap on social media, I'm done with FCPS. Oh, they're doing this. they're doing that and the one ding-dong that got out there and said we were turned our school system into a pedo fest who didn't even live in this county. I you know I I I see all this garbage on on Facebook and Facebook is the root of all evil, but 99.9% of it
143is a lie and I can't say anything. I know what the truth is. None of you all know what the truth is, but we know what the truth is. But we keep our mouth shut because that's what it's supposed to do. And I don't care if the Winchester Star wants to hammer me and say this. I don't care if the Gazette wants to hammer me and say this. I don't care if you people want to hammer me and say this. It ain't worth the $492 a month I get. I guarantee you it's not cuz I'm up here making bank. I'm just telling you, I love this job because I get to see things that you all will never see. And it's students like Casey Leser that make this job worth it. Going to these volleyball
144games. By the way, James Wood is in a struggle to win, but >> they're they're winning now. >> Oh, they are winning. Good. The things that I get to see working prek, I didn't really enjoy it, but I worked it. Going into the schools, I'm telling you, uh uh these are the things that make it all worthwhile. Working with all these people in the schools, I'm going to tell you right now, Miss F is a fantastic human being. I have thought the world of that. That woman has gone out of her way and done things when she didn't have to. And that's what I see all the time in this school system. Things that people don't see. And yet they're constantly being bashed by the public, bashed on social media talking about how they don't
145care. They're not We don't give a crap about safety. I'm going to tell you, everything we do is about school safety. I'm always on the phone with the superintendent three, four times a day about school safety issues. And and and I don't care if you like me. I really don't give a crap at this point that I'm not going to please anybody. that stupid song by uh whatever the name of the band is. I hate everything about you. I listen to it because I know that's what everybody's going to come in here. I hate everything about you. I don't really care. I'm going to do my job and and you think it's fun. I I suggest you roll the dice and get in the game and get elected because I guarantee you when you get
146up here in this seat, your principles and and your outlook on how things should be do going is going to change. Because when I came in here, I was on my white horse going yee-ha. And it took about 5.2 nanoconds to realize that ye-haw was out the door. This board has been fantastic working together. I may not agree with everything they say and I know dog on good and well they don't agree with everything that I say but I have a respect for each and every person on this board because when it comes down to the end of the day we all have one thing in in common and that's to make this the best school system that it can be in spite of what anybody else out there says I think we have a
147pretty good uh uh schoolboard system and I may not agree with Mr. Atkins on a lot of things, but I'm going to tell you right now, if I want somebody I want somebody on my school board that has it, Excuse me for being a little uh overly familiar here. I want somebody like him who's got a brass set of coonies that can take every hit that that was it. Bring a wrecking ball. >> Yeah, >> bring a bigger one. >> That's what I I may not agree with everything, but I'm telling you, this is a darn good board. And I'm getting tired of people criticizing the members of this board, saying they fight all the time. they they don't get along. That has never been the case. Never since we've been here. Now, it might
148have been the case with the last board, but it ain't this one. And I don't mean to be ugly, but I'm telling you, we listen to everybody. And and I kind of get upset when people say we just blow us off. I've never blown anybody off unless you were snarky or you cussed me. That's about it. So, I'm done. Okay. End of rant. Sorry. >> Mr. Chairman, I move that we adjourn. >> Next school board meeting is November 18th, 2025. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? >> Sorry, Mr. Chairman. I move that we adjourn our meeting. >> Second. >> Motion has been made and properly seconded. Is there any discussion? >> No, I can take this tie off. >> It's the meeting's not over yet. Meeting is not over yet. Hearing none. All those
149in favor signify by saying I. I. Any opposed? >> Opposed.