001[Music] dates February 18th the time is 1736 hours call this meeting of Frederick County Public Schools to order I'm looking for the script Mr chair I see we have an agenda before us I'd like to make a motion to approve the agenda second all right we have if you can please amend the agenda there should be a motion's page attached okay uh Miss Mr chair Mr I I move the board approve the agendas presented with the exception that new business item number seven be removed since the instruction committee did not meet on February 13 2025 and that the request to amend the 2024 2025 school calendar be added to the agenda as new business item number 10 second okay has been a motion to remove and replace it with another agenda item any discussion on
002that hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed Madame Vice chair what's the pleasure of the board thank you Mr chair I moveed to the County School Board of Frederick County Virginia enter a Clos session meeting for the following one to review and discuss appointments administrative appointments administrative leave resignations support staff hires substitutes tutors volunteers staff performance and the superintendent contract pursuant to Virginia code section 22- 3711 A.1 and for consultation with legal counsel regarding probable litigation regarding a Personnel matter pursuant to Virginia code section 22- 3711 paragraph .7 and for consultation with legal counsel regarding Personnel matters and contract negotiations pursuant to Virginia code section 22- 3711 paragraph A8 all right we have a motion to go in to close second and we have a second uh any discussion
003on that hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed we are now in Clos [Music] session Madame Vice chair what's pleasure of the board thank you Mr chair I move that we reconvene from close session second all right we have a motion to reconvene and has been properly seconded any discussion hearing none Madam clerk Miss Martin yes Mr punis hi Mr Bell yes Mr stent yes yes Dr ersin yes Mr Atkins yes okay we have certified and all right and Mr chair I a motion to certify the closed session all right 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
004matters as were identified in the motion by which the closed session was convened were heard discussed or considered by the board second all right have a motions been properly seconded any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I motion passes that needs to be a roll call the Roll Call the certification oh I'm I'm sorry I got ahead of myself Miss Martin I Mr funis hi Mr Bell yes Mr Stant yes Miss Klein yes Dr kin hi Mr Atkins hi okay all right that passes that excuse me that passes and Mr chair I we have one motion out to close session I move to approve the personel actions as recommended by the superintendent second have a motion to approve and has been properly seconded excuse me is there any discussion all those in
005favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion passes and finally Mr chair I motion that we recess until 7 p.m. second it's been a motion to recess and has been properly seconded any discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I any pose we are in recess till 1900 hours [Music] all right call this meeting of the frederck County School Board to order it is February 18th the time is hours and Mr chair I move that the board reconvene its meeting from Recess second been motion has been to reconvene and properly seconded any discussion here hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed that motion carries and Mr chair I move that the board approve the consent agenda as presented with the exception of the
006item number three the appointment of gifted advisory committee members uh sir the rest of the board members just received all the resumés today and haven't had a chance to really thoroughly review them so I would like to approve the consent as presented with the exception of Madam chair I do apologize but we haven't certified the Clos session yet and we did right before we did before we went for recess okay I do minute of silence and Pledge of Allegiance so if you want to go through the consent agenda and then we'll come back around to it okay well just to get this this on the record as that we're that we're moving it and then absolutely we'll come back to it so yeah um so Mr chair I move that we approve the consent agenda
007that the board approved the consent agenda as presented with the exception of item number three which is the appointment of gifted advisory committee members to enable the board more time to review those rums to make sure that we get good folks on that committee second second second all right it's been motioned and properly seconded any discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I any oppos that motion carries all right if you would join me for a moment of silence please thank you for that now if you'll stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all oh that hurt so we've done the consent
008agenda so that's we have National Social Work week we do have one Proclamation Mr okay yes and Mr B would you like to read that yes please thank you uh as today is National school or this uh yeah let me read the proclamation whereas School social workers are exceptionally skilled in providing services to students who face serious challenges to school Success including disability poverty discrimination abuse neglect mental illness homelessness bullying familial stressors and other barriers to learning and whereas school-based mental health programs are critical to early identification of and early intervention for mental health problems and in the provision of appropriate Services when needed and whereas School social workers being licensed Mental Health Professionals in schools provide necessary assessment interventions counseling Family Outreach and Community referrals whereas School social workers serve as a vital as
009vital members of a school's Education team playing a central role in creating Partnerships between the home school and Community to ensure student academic success now therefore be it proclaimed that the Fred Frederick County Public School sorry the Frederick County School Board hereby declares the week of March 2nd to 8th 2025 as National School Social Work Week dated this 18th day of February 2025 okay so next is the staff and student recognitions all right thank you Mr chair so first up on the list is our administrative appointments so first and foremost I would like to call up Mr Logan Shepard as he transitions into the new director of Planning Development and Construction give him a round of applause please prior to his role in transportation Mr Shepard was the assistant director of student services for one
010year and assistant principal at shando high school for seven years and additionally has six years of teaching experience he has a Bachelor of Science in kinesiology and a master of Art and teaching from James Madison University as well as a Masters in Education and educational leadership from George Mason University please join me again in welcoming Mr Logan Shepard uh Dr hmer members of the board thank you for this uh great opportunity to uh take on this new role within the division and continue to serve our schools uh and our communities in the best way that I can um also I I definitely want to take the opportunity to express my gratitude to everybody at transportation um I would just like to to publicly say that this is such a incredibly hardworking group of people um
011that I've had a great uh privilege to work with for the last couple of years uh and have really enjoyed that and uh again they do a lot for our division and uh I'm excited about this new opportunity and excited to get started thank [Applause] you all right next up is Dr Tabby Reeves who will be joining us as the new director of special instructional Services come on up Dr re [Applause] having been the program director at Northwestern Regional educational program nrep since 2022 Dr Reeves also served as the assistant director at nrep for four years and the compliance coordinator of special education Administration for Virginia Beach Public Schools for seven years additionally Dr Reeves has eight years of teaching experience with Virginia Beach Public Schools Dr Reeves holds a Bachelor of Science and Human
012Services counseling and a MERS in special education from Old Dominion University a Behavioral Analyst credential from George Mason University a postgraduate Master certificate educational leadership and administration and a doctor in educational Administration policy from George Washington University congratulations and all that school work there please join me in congratulating Dr Tabby Reeves Mr chair members of the board and Dr Hummer I'm just truly grateful for the opportunity to serve the stud students and families of Fedder County public schools in this role I am very grateful for my school family at nrap I'm going to miss them dearly but I'm really excited to get things going um with special instructional services and I look forward to getting it started thank you so much all right and thank you Mr chair I got the next two items as
013well so February is a very special month because we recognize two very good groups of people we recognize our school board for school board appreciation month as well as our Clerk of the board um and let's give them a big round of applause for our appreciation for all their hard work for our school board thank you thank you for all your support your hard work to do his best for students and our community and to show our appreciation we had some of our amazing students make this artwork specifically for you and honor of their appreciation if you want to show those to the audience there so we had students make these so we're very very proud of our kids there so thank you all so much and we appreciate and we hope this dis I
014hope you all display this very very proudly as well for our Clerk of the board Mrs Nina Dan santis you are outstanding and the glue that keeps us all together and we greatly appreciate all of your work we appreciate your organization your timeliness your thoughtfulness and smiling through it all right you're fantastic like you always share with me thank you and we just got a small token to show our appreciation we got you this amazing plant and then we got you a card as well so thank you for all that you do appreciate [Applause] that thank you Mr chair yes sir next is citizen comments the Frederick County School Board is pleased to receive public comment at each monthly meeting from members of the public which include residents of Frederick County Virginia including residents of
015Winchester City Virginia FCPS students parents and legal guardians of FCPS students FCPS employees and businesses located within Frederick County Virginia individuals speaking to the board will be allotted 3 minutes those individuals representing groups or organizations will be allotted five minutes with one representative per group upon recognition by the chair a speaker should approached the lecturn 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 aderes to the FCPS code of student conduct complaints regarding FCPS employees should first be 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
016school board is committed to showing respect and courtesy to all citizens comments that are not protected under First Amendment of the US Constitution will not be tolerated this includes comments that are vulgar obscene threatening and comments that are intended to incite violence or other breaches of the peace members of the audience are not permitted to interrupt the speaker or meeting by asking questions or making comments signs posters placards banners or like objects are permitted into the school board's meetings but only if the individual possessing such 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 the removal from the premises we have
017Prov finding copies of the updated policy as well as a QR code that will take you directly to the code of student Conduct Handbook they are located on the table where the signup sheet was located the chair has discretion concerning public participation at school board meetings the school board meetings are tape recorded for the purpose of clarification and the development of official minutes first on the list is Christy Scarboro hello board members my name is Christy scarber of the Stonewall District your procedure that parents are to Lodge complaints directly with the School principles is wrong this is the place parents need to come to complain none of you care about what is going on in the schools if you did you would not be diverting par parents from coming here to air their grievances how's
018about you focus on the safety of our children instead you spend energy stifling parents that speak at these meetings so a teacher was arrested after he sent his nudes to a minor student people are even saying this guy was already a convicted felon before he was hired Diana you told people not to believe what they read on social media so by all means be transparent with us is the convicted felon Brian Patrick Sullivan resident of Winchester the same Brian Patrick Sullivan resident of Winchester that FCPS employs after all miss kleene you did run on transparency according to Social Media comments the school principal Administration and even Dr Hummer knew of the vast complaints about that guy yet nobody did anything until now at every meeting you virtue signal to the people you pretend you care
019care about the kids but what you say is in stark contrast to what you do you do not care about the kids you employed a pervert felon who by the way had access to miners that undressed in the locker rooms anyways who's ready for me to read from another explicit book this book here was an nrep and milbrook now it's just in milbrook in shando it's called Beyond magenta transgender and non binary teens speak out get ready for this Andrew called Christopher a for no reason shut the up you're a too you're a you're a you're gay they called me a and a from six up I used to kiss other guys in my neighborhood make out with them and perform oral sex on them boys have dicks girls have what's a a vagina that's
020the kind of content that you guys use our tax dollars to pay for our students this is it if students want to read this their parents can order it off of Amazon why are you spending my tax dollars on this I think the budget has a lot of stuff that can be trimmed if that's the kind of content you're buying for these students so keep an eye on those books because next meeting I'm going to do it again and I'm probably going to talk about that pervert teacher you hired to thank you next on the list is Miss boyt okay Mr NRI moving right along Miss Lawson Christina Lawson my name is Christina Lawson and I live in the Gainesboro District freedom of speech has been brought up at a number of these meetings there's
021been a lot of drama about what speakers can and can't say I have no problem with folks speaking their minds they actually prove my point about the need for civility and kindness and treating others with dignity and respect the thing I don't understand is talking about freedom of speech but what you really mean is freedom of speech but only if you agree with my point of view or my political leanings freedom of ideas but only my ideas freedom to learn but only what I want you to learn that's not true Freedom removing books from libraries just because you don't like the author or agree with the contents rewriting or erasing the history and experiences of marginalizing people just because it doesn't fit your world view suppressing how people Express themselves through ART how they live
022dress and speak restricting how and when people access information and what they have access to these are all forms of censorship censorship of information by the government goes against the First Amendment and is unconstitutional censorship is the opposite of free speech you can't have it both ways someone told me recently that we should all be able to live our own values but still make room for others to live their values as well if our society is going to survive this should be everyone's goal um readings from a book I would like to read a poem by a transgender poet it's called thank you my allies is that is that from a call me by the name and pronouns I adore you give me a gentle warm hug hand up a healing ball ma'am point of
023order is that from a book that you have with you no no no okay then we're not going to allow that and the reason for that would be what I can't read a because I have no idea that you're actually reading it from a book if it's on a piece of paper okay I'm not I'm not claiming I'm not claiming this is in the library point point of order Mr chair it's a poem from by an author that you're reading to us I misunder misund I have no idea if it's in the school or not well what's the difference between that and when Miss scarber read a couple meetings ago from the book there hasn't been a a vulgar word come from that yet it's a book that's in our library that's not a book
024in our library I don't know if it's in the library or not this is a book that I read that had a nice poem in it I thought let her read it read it is there is there a reason that I can't read it there's there's nothing I've seen in here whatsoever I promise it just it's a it's a it's important to me to support the transgender community and to show that there are there are things that are out there in books and things that are out there that go ahead are fine and are not um should not be disputed thank you my allies when you call me by the name and pronouns I adore you give me a gentle warm hug a hand up a healing balm a bright smile in the dark a
025heart openening wink a bouquet of sunflowers a Yaro Blossom Circle of protection A Tender Rose of sweetness years on my life a burst of energy the ability to focus a nourishing sense of safety and belonging a happy memory a warm cup of lemon balm love when you call me by the name and pronouns I adore you give me Wellness welcome and home thank you I just thought that was a nice poem um it amazes me how a simple gesture can make such a big difference in someone's life finally to those in the transgender non-binary and broader lgbtq plus Community You are not alone and I will always stand with you have a good night thank you Tanya cyber Tanya cybert not here pton and is it katria Adams katri I'm sorry pton Adams Gainesboro district
026and kri Powers ofek District Frederick County School employee arrested after sending new photos to a student Frederick County School set to reopen Thursday after threats of violence on social media closed schools Wednesday freder County Schools removed Middle School principal EXT treasur and principal's wife pleads guilty to embezzling more than $71,000 from jameswood high school baseball booster club Fredick County Middle School teacher being investigated for possible misconduct student injured and stabbing at milb high school now these should all sound familiar to you because they're all news headings about our very own County hello my name is katria powers and I'm pton Adams we are former students of Frederick County and are currently in school at James Madison University to become secondary Educators we thought it'd be important to speak to you all because tonight we want
027to show you that FCPS is not a desirable employer for future Educators anymore coming from former students this is not the county that we grew up in and learn to love as kids for me graduation day was one of the happiest days of my life I had dreams of going to JMU and then returning as a government teacher at jameswood high school to work for principal Andrews I saw strong leadership and the connections within the school and I really want to be part of the community of fredi County Educators recently I've been doubting this dream when talking to our previous teachers who are current FCPS employees many of them provide a warning about becoming a teacher and to especially Frederick County along with our schooling we have shattered various teachers and have seen the perspective
028of Frederick County as a teacher and a student as we've noticed teachers are continuously feeling unheard underappreciated and out of the loop on many matters happening within their own system numerous teachers have expressed to us that there aren't safe Avenues to speak on discrepancies within their County that will be heard and responded to these meetings are meant to hear what your citizens staff and students should feel should be addressed in my own experience speaking at these meetings have become pointless because nothing comes of it I spoke to the board just last year as a student and nothing and nobody contacted me after the fact people in your county don't feel hurt and this is a prime example just in the past 3 years this county has faced various legal proceedings there has been a Schoolboard
029member charged federally for the January 6th Riot two principles suddenly retiring or being removed an administrator caught sending nudes to a student three Educators charged with misconduct with student a beloved teacher of the year returning her Awards these are leaders of growing Minds that are representing this school system just a couple months ago there was a student stabbed in a classroom students don't feel safe with the people who are trained to be their support systems feder County needs to start listening to their teachers and the strong leaders they already have these are Educators who know the system know the students and what issues should be addressed in their own schools Frederick county is one of the fastest growing counties in Virginia leaving most of the schools overpopulated and understaffed according to the FCPS job openings
030there are currently 89 vacancies in the county with majority being Educators student student support staff have you ever why there have you ever wondered why there's so many openings thank you for your time Heather Lockridge good evening Dr Hummer and members of the school board my name is Heather Lockridge and I am from the gainsboro district I received an email today and in regards to how the administration of frederck County Public Schools jameswood High school has handled past concerns and complaints about Brian Sullivan you members of the board too received this email I'm absolutely disgusted the board may not have known however Dr Hummer you quite possibly knew inappropriate relationships with Frederick County students were occurring and if you didn't then the ball Falls with the administration at jameswood high school somebody could have prevented
031this 17-year-old student from receiving these sexually explicit images had they acted on the complaints and past concerns about Brian Sullivan having these inappropriate relationships with the freder county students some names that have been mentioned to me are previous gainsboro School Board member Mike Lake frederck County Administration Dr Abby Dr Hummer Katie freakley and Human Resources jameswood High School administration Sam gross which is the former principal Shelley Andrews the current principal and Liz bout Shelley Andrews received notification requesting to be called with still no response as of today according to the person I spoke with Dr Hummer I don't know whether you are relaying this information to your school board or maybe just the chairman Mr civant at which I would understand why he's not opening his mouth he doesn't want any more scrutiny for the
032conflicts of interest in hiring his own daughter unbeknown to the rest of your board you've lost the trust of the parents who send their kids to your care 7 hours a day 5 days a week I pray that this occurs is an isolated event not that only this one student however I'm not confident that this is the case I have also brought some personal concerns to you Dr Hummer in regards to your hiring procedures in addition to my views with the sexually explicit books Dr Hummer I got up and spoke in August at your Schoolboard meeting and showed you a 2024 year book from apple pie Ridge where a second grade teacher a former fifth grade teacher refers to himself as Maya you still have yet to get back to to me in regards to
033the man that you hired in our meeting you said as far as you know you hired a man do you know who your personnel is does a man often go by a woman's name I bring this up in addition to that second grade teacher what else are you guys sweeping under the rug the parent that reached out to me say she's trying she's been trying to communicate this for years and for the inappropriate dealings between Brian Sullivan and students years that has been what has been going on for years and you guys are covering what else do you know and aren't willing to stand up and protect our kids what is it going to take for you guys to look out for our kids I am a parent I am I am also representing people
034that want our kids taken care of you have time you have the care of our kids and I expect better in a leader thank you Jack Tinsley Jack Tinsley Jim Schwarz is it Dr Jack middle mdob middle anything Jack m a o looks like LL or LL nope midle Joe Pratt hello my name is Joe Pratt I'm from the Gainesboro District um I would like to start my talk off with a quote by Maya Angela um I hope that is okay um quote we all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry and we must understand that all threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color while I don't stand before you as a teacher I speak as a community member who believes that education and the protection of
035our youth is a collective responsibility each of us whether in the classroom or not plays a vital role in educating and safeguarding the Next Generation our schools should be sanctuaries of learning where every student feels secure and protected this includes safeguarding their constitutional protections under the first amendments guaranteed of freedom of speech and expression the fourth amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and the fifth amendment's right against self-incrimination the Supreme Court has consistently upheld that these constitutional protections don't stop at the schoolhouse gate in fact pler V do establishes that all children have the right to public education regardless of immigration status this ruling underscores Our obligation to create an environment where every student can focus on learning without fear teachers serve as Frontline Defenders of these fundamental rights these must be empowered with clear protocols
036that prioritize student safety this includes understanding that they are not required to share student information without proper legal Authority and that they have the duty to protect students constitutional rights I urge this board to review and strengthen existing policies to ensure they explicitly outline the protections afforded to all students and the protocols staff must follow to uphold these protections our policies must reflect our values as a community and our obligations to one another I would like to conclude this with another quote by a writer James Baldwin the children are always ours every single one of them all over the globe and I'm begin to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality thank you for your [Applause] time Cleo is it strobus and you are let talk which district um
037you're not on my papers why which district what was your name again I'm sorry r e a r a g e r r a g e r it's like Hager with an R okay all right my name is Rebecca rager I live in the Gainesboro District of Fredick County I'm coming to you to ask the school board to make a clear statement about ice in our schools I've read both FCPS policy 427p relations with law enforcement officials and FCPS regulation 427R which do not seem to cover student encounters with federal agents during school times and activities several school districts around Virginia have made clear and impactful statements saying that they will protect the children in their care for Unnecessary stress that comes from these types of raids and will follow strict guidelines in interacting with
038federal agents I'm here to ask why FCPS has not done the same when you regularly contact parents for Less as an example Richmond City Schools recently amended their policy to directly address immigration in their schools I don't have time to read the entire thing but I'm going to just paraphrase it the school board finds that access to a school site by immigration law enforcement agents including DHS and ice and other agents working with or for federal immigration agencies substantially disrupts the learning environment and any such requests and access should immediately be referred to the superintendent or their designate they go on to say that if agents lack a signed judicial warrant or subpoena site administrator should do the following document the agent's name contact information provide agents with a copy of the S superintendent's information
039ask them to leave the premises immediately notify the superintendent's office and the superintendent's office will immediately notify legal counsel if a valid judicial warrant is present of course they notify the principal immediately the principal shall escort the agents to a private area the principal shall request ID from the officers the principal shall contact the superintendent's office which will then contact legal counsel the principal shall request the signed judicial warrant or and request a copy or request to photocopy for documentation the principal shall request the agent's wait in the designated private area until the representative from the superintendent's office and legal counsel arrive the principal shall uh also request the agents names contact information their supervisor's information if School Personnel have not also done this they would contact the Guardians and no information including the students
040schedule or behavior should be provided without legal council president so I'm just here to ask you guys to please be braver for our students I know it's a Hot Topic right now but please take a clear stance to amend the current policy covering the interactions with the federal agents so that schools have a clear plan and also so that our parents we know that we trust you with our students every day we'd like to know that we can actually trust you when they're with you thank you next is Tim from redbud Mr chairman members of the board first I'm going to start with um you put this Podium under the students uh conduct I am not a student I will not comply to that I'm an adult you will not take my rights away from
041me we can go over that separately if you'd like that that's that's the first thing second thing whatever this teacher did you promote it by having these books in school if the they were able to sit there and read on how you can rape a girl and fudge pack another boy that's what's going to happen all right uh thirdly I don't know if you're aware of this Dr homie you should be made aware of this person there is a student third grade that's walking around in their classroom touchy Philly little girls and little boys wherever he wants okay I know the principal knows about it they're just not letting you know about it just so you be aware of that so when this conduct is going on in a school with the teachers and the
042administrations are not doing anything about it what do you think's going to happen so that's pretty much all I have and I just find it pretty ironic that the person that got caught with this whatever the last one was was caught in Pennsylvania the fudge packing cup at all the world yeah James Moulder James James Moulder Back Creek District just uh before I start reading from this our newly elected president that went into office back in January said Dei is dead the woke agenda is is dead he signed an executive order of two genders male female but we have a transgender second grade teacher in this County that still has not been dealt with now to my next topic Mr stent my favorite person to talk to you said all the books were lost or
043stolen in your uh news article the Winchester Star did for you this past summer I guess it takes uh a parent to come up and read from the books and then they'll disappear and you'll look into them however I was made aware at a Board of Supervisors meeting that you can go on to the county website and uh pull them up yourself several books in every school that you campaign on getting rid of campaign promises aren't too good Mr student secondly the illegal hiring of your daughter just wanted to let you know that our recall is of of you is coming to an end here shortly we'll be turning the paperwork over to the courts and uh the courts will decide appropriate action for you which could include you reimbursing the taxpayers of this County
044for your daughter's salary for hire for voting to hire her and breaking the nepotism policy lastly the board controls the school administration if I'm not uh mistaken the school administration is all unelected people that are failing our kids yes 12 out of the 16 years we had people that pushed for Dei and the woke agenda they have groomed our kids long enough with the the books uh trying to change our kids identity in uh Elementary School letting them decide what gender they want to be when there's only two genders the time for this school board to take care of this Administration and get to work and make sure this Administration and the people that work for Dr Hummer is looking out for the kids or keeping the kids safe to me it doesn't seem like
045the kids are too safe in Frederick County Public Schools you got teachers dressing up as women pretending to be teachers you got teachers groping kids sending nude pictures to kids wake up and do your job please yeah that concludes public comments next up is a superintendent report by Dr Hummer all right thank you Mr chair I do have a couple items here uh first I wanted to take a moment to recognize our students and their hard work with their academics Fine Arts and Athletics it's hard to believe that we are at the second semester I know that has been halted by this crazy weather that we've had and hopefully that has passed us um but our students are working hard at overcoming this missing so much school and I have full faith that they will
046continue to excel with the support that our amazing staff are be are able to provide them we're also in full swing of the winter sports season and our teams are all competing at a high level as well as our Fine Arts programs we we just had an all district ban event a couple weeks ago and our students all performed very very well I'm so proud of our students and looking forward to celebrating their accomplishments with all uh of all that we're working towards in regards to the end of the year with graduation I also want to thank the school board for recognizing our amazing School social workers for their hard work and dedication to our students and Community the work that that they do requires a unique set of skills to navigate some very very
047rough situations and their work does not go unnoticed and we greatly greatly appreciate all that they do it is also National FFA week and FFA is a very very big deal here in Frederick County if you don't already know I want to thank all of our student staff and Community stakeholders for all their support for our program every day and we are um going to be celebrating with them next month we're going to have a little event before the next board meeting in March so we're hopeful to see them there lastly I do want to take this moment to share with you all an update to the development of our new strategic plan which we're all very excited about first I want to thank this amazing Community for their feedback we received over 5,000 responses
048from our survey which was a great return it goes to show that we already knew what we already knew is that we have great support and investment from our community and our school system and our future we have Community stakeholders and a staff meeting to discuss the data and are now building out the goals and next steps in this process we are pleased with the progress that we've made and we will continue to keep you posted as we move forward with this completion thanks to Shante and her team and others as we work towards making a plan that is comprehensive of all of our voices the best interest of our students and with that Mr chair that's all I have okay um next up is unfinished business now tonight we have on the agenda to
049adopt the fiscal year 26 budget Mr Mr CH Mr chair um I move that we delay definitely this line item until next Tuesday which would be Tuesday February 25th the reason reason for this is that there's some things that need to be researched we have some board member questions paining to some budget amendments based on uh what we gleaned from the Board of Supervisors work session last week so we're waiting for those things to be identified and and get the um information from that so uh we don't want to bager this issue any longer than we have to but it does deserve to have some attention so uh again the motion on the table Mr chair is to move that we delay definitely to adopt the fiscal year 2026 budget till February 25th and I
050believe 6 p.m. second okay 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 that motion carries next is new business committee reports looks like it's me again finance committee finance committee work session uh the Frederick County School Board finance committee report for January 23rd 2025 it's been a busy budget work session meeting um here lately getting ready for the big the big budget requests so here we go a budget work session of the finance committee of the Frederick County School Board was held on January 23rd 2025 the meeting was called to order at 4:32 p.m. and a copy of the minutes has been provided to each board member during the meeting Mrs Anderson shared the timeline for the superintendent's
051proposal to the final adoption by the school board Miss cybert reviewed the finance and budget committee meeting norms and where to find the location of the budget information on the board docks in the Frederick County Public Schools website she also shared the definition of salary initiative terms the methods to increase salary on the pay scale the definition of the step movement and the five-year salary strategies Mrs Anderson discussed the proposed salary initiative the fiscal year 2025 2026 salary comparison for bachelor's degrees the federal County public school starting salary ranked and the difference of FCPS teacher salary compared to Lowden County she also reviewed the salary initiatives for teachers and classified positions next Mrs Anderson shared the salary initiatives for other professionals administrators supervisors and coordinators as well as other salary initiatives such as pay upgrades
052Mrs Anderson also discussed the state budget and the 3% compensation supplements as well as supplementary budget information to include draft teacher pay scale scenarios and all other pay scale scenarios the meeting adjourned at 5:27 p.m. additional details regarding the information covered at the committee B at the committee budget work session are included in the minutes provided to board members are there any questions from the board members about information shared at the finance committee budget work session held on January 23rd 2025 all right seeing no questions Mr chair I move the board approve the minutes from the finance committee budget work session held on January 23rd 2025 motion has been made to approve and properly seconded any discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I motion carries next is student conduct
053and support committee all right Mr chairman a meeting of the student conduct support Committee of the Frederick County School Board was held on February the 4th 2025 the meeting was called to order at 5:39 p.m. and a copy of the minutes has been provided to each board member during the meeting Mrs Jordan reviewed the timeline regarding the cell phone regulation as well as the current cell phone regulation next she shared the disciplinary events involving unauthorized communication devices and discuss Governor yonan's executive order 33 versus the Virginia Department of education's guidance and the differences in the current FCPS regulation and the recommendations from vdoe she also reviewed survey responses from teachers and shared next steps the meeting adjourned at 6:22 p.m. additional details regarding the information covered at the committee meeting are included in the minutes
054provided to board members are there any questions from fellow board members about information shared of the student conduct and support committee held on February the 4th seeing none Mr chairman I move that the board approve the minutes from the student conduct and support committee meeting held on February the 4th 2025 second motion has been made seconded any discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I any oppos he carries and we have a second student conduct support committee report yes and for your listening pleasure a meeting of the student conduct and support Committee of the Frederick County School Board was held on February the 5th 2025 the meeting was called to order at 4:07 p.m. and a copy of the minutes has been provided each board member during the meeting the committee
055went into a closed session to review and discuss individual student matters that involve specific students and particular information contained in their Scholastic records including disciplinary matters pursued to Virginia code 2.2 a.2 after reconvening and certifying the closed session the committee voted unanimously to uphold the hearing officer's recommendation to expel student a from C Frederick County Public Schools with referral to the IEP team for Educational Services on a 3 to zero vote the matter does not require further action by the full board the meeting adjourned at 5:19 p.m. additional details regarding the information covered of the committee meeting are included in the minutes provided to board members do any fellow board members have questions about the student conduct and support committee meeting held February the 5th seeing none Mr chair I move the board approve the
056minutes from the student conduct and support committee meeting held on February the 5th 2025 motion has been made and and properly seconded is there any discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I anyos next is the finance committee budget work session that's me again Frederick County School Board held a finance committee meeting on February 6 2025 budget work session of the finance committee of the Federate County School Board was held on February 6 2025 the meeting was called to order at 4:33 p.m. and a copy of the minutes has been provided to each board member during the meeting Mrs Anderson reviewed board member questions and requests from the previous committee work session she also discussed Schoolboard priorities staff in standards and additional positions Mrs Reeves shared that the special education programming
057at Northwestern Regional Education Program inre and Mrs Anderson reviewed the federick County Public Schools share for inre Mrs Knight discussed the instruction Department data management system the curriculum development and professional learning next Mrs Anderson reviewed the needs of the transportation department the Safety and Security Department the technology department and the school nutrition fund Miss freakley discussed human capital management and Mrs Anderson and Mrs cybert discussed the results of the employee survey the meeting adjourned at 6:07 p.m. additional details regarding the information covered at the committee budget work sessions are included in the minutes provided to board members are there any questions from board members about the information shared at the finance committee budget work session held on February 6th 2025 all right seeing no questions I move the board approve the minutes from the finance
058committee budget work session held on February 6 20 25 second motion has been made and properly seconded any discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I any oppos that carries where we at here Personnel committee is next thank you Mr chair a meeting of the Personnel Committee of the Frederick County School Board was held on February 6 2025 the meeting was called to order at 6:15 p.m. in a copy of the minutes has been provided to each board member during the meeting Miss frankley Mrs frankley thanked Mr funes for being the Personnel committee chair in 2024 and welcome Mr Bell as the current chair of the Personnel committee Mrs Campbell gave a staffing update which included professional vacancies teacher vacancies by content support vacancies professional vacancies filled as of 123 2025
059and the years of experience of new teachers Mrs Rinker shared the celebrations of recruitment efforts and discussed the fy2 new teacher hires based on the prior employee sorry prior employer by years of experience and the FY 24 resignations by Elementary and secondary levels she also reviewed contracted services and the retention of employees and gave a recruitment and retention update including recruiting plans Mrs Edwards Johnson discussed the employees assistance program EAP as part of the FCPS employee benefit highlight next Mrs frankley reviewed hr's best practices learning series and the results of the survey of intent as well as the employee code of conduct and an employee code of conduct timeline she also discussed the human Capital Management HCM system overview lastly Mrs frankley reminded people of the upcoming teacher career fair on March 1st 2020 25
060at Robert eer Middle School the meeting adjourned at 6:58 p.m. additional details regarding the information covered at the committee meeting are included in the minutes provided to board members are there any questions from board members about information shared at the Personnel committee meeting held on February 6th all right hearing none I move that the board support I move that the board approve the minutes from the Personnel committee meeting held on on February 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 oppose next is building and grounds Mr chairman a meeting of the building and grounds Committee of Frederick County Public Schools was held on February 10th 2025 the meeting was called to order at 4:34 p.m. and a
061copy of the minutes has been provided to each board member during the meeting Mr Davis discussed the capap Highlight list the facilities Department organization the state of facility services and the proposed facility strategic reorganization regarding the custodial Branch uh Mr Kenny gave an update on the capital Improvement plan the CIP projects Mr Lee and representatives from First Energy discuss the proposed easement Amendment at milbrook high school and Mr Lee also reviewed the proposed easement EAS M changes at melbrook high school together with representatives from Rapid hanic Electric Cooperative Rec um Mr Goodwin shared information on the top of uh on the top of Virginia hockey Alliance uh floor tile replacement request and uh Miss Chapman reviewed the request for proposal the RFP process for the individual or the invitation for bid ifp process the meeting
062adjourned at 5:18 p.m. uh additional details regarding the committee meeting uh are included in the minutes provided to board members do board members have any questions for what was covered during the building and grounds committee meeting held on February 10th seeing none I've got three action items coming out of this committee meeting one I move that the board approve the proposed easement Amendment at melbrook high school second okay motion has been made and properly seconded any discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying I I I any opposed um number two I move the board approve the proposed easement change at mbrook high school with the stipulation that Rec will pay Mr Atkins point of order just to bring up it looks like the the first one that's a little confusing in the
063first interg request it's actually a two-part um it's a two-part move uh two-part motion excuse me so we did the the first one but then there's a second um I didn't get part two yeah there's a main motion and a sub motion yep all right uh second motion to to there uh RC request um all I'm sorry First Energy I move the board approve first Energy's request to amend the easement to permit the construction of a three pole structure in the current easement I further move that the board authorize the chair to execute the easement in uh substantiality uh the the same uh form as presented second motion has been made and properly seconded any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion carries all right and then uh moving
064to the second item I move that the board approve the proposed easement change at milbrook high school with the stipulation that RAC pays FCPS $56,000 for the additional land request in the easement plus pay the legal fees associated with this uh project not to exceed $3,000 a further move the board authorized the chair to execute the quick claim deed of easement and RightWay easement agreement in substantiality uh the same as presented second all right motion has been made and properly seconded any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed motion carries final motion I move that the board approve the minutes of the building and grounds meeting held on February 10th second second motion has been made and properly seconded any discussion hearing none all those in favor signify by saying
065I I any oppos motion carries next on the agenda is the superintendent I'm sorry no keep going okay next on the agenda is the superintendent's contract um actually let's go back up because remember we made an amendment or is that the last item that was the last item we removed that one from the agenda yep thank you Mr Shar whereas a superintendent has completed at least two years of his initial term in accordance with Virginia code section 22. 1-60 and whereas the school board desires to renew the superintendent's contract for an additional term of approximately three years and four months and whereas the school board represents that each member has received sufficient notice of the superintendent contract renegotiations in accordance with Virginia code section 22160 prior to voting on the contract now therefore I move
066to terminate the superintendent's existing contract at midnight tonight February 18th 2024 deeming his office to have also expired and further move to reappoint him immediately thereafter to a new three-year and four-month term to commence February 19th 2025 and to end June 30th 2028 with the understanding and conditions reflected in the new superintendent employment agreement I further move to authorize and direct the chair to execute the said superint employment agreement with a final form subject to the approval of legal council to memorialize the understanding negotiated between the school board and superintendent second all right a motion has been made and properly seconded is there any discussion Mr chair I would like to request a roll call vote okay any other discussion I do have some discussion Mr chair so uh for those of you who may
067not have realized we swapped over to a new school Schoolboard Association so we are now under the Schoolboard member Alliance or school or member Association I was just at one of their conferences in Richmond back in November and I had two members of that organization come up to me from counties that will remain unnamed that said hey we want him back so um he is a uh very hot commodity if you will so Dr Hummer we're very pleased that you chose to stick with us so thank you thank you any other discussion uh Mr chair I want to say you know when it comes to superintendent contracts you made it kind of easy on us you you uh you you definitely didn't ask for a lot compared to superintendents throughout the Commonwealth I didn't ask
068for a car um you know so made it easy on the taxpayers um so we appreciate that um and we appreciate uh your leadership and guidance uh through um even some of these hard times so I thank you for all you've been doing and keep up the good work the hot tub was a bit much but we'll talk any other discussion Mr chairman Jesus so um just in the short time that I've been on the board um one of the things I think the public appreciates is knowing um what they're getting for their dollar I wish that I could find a way to communicate with the public out there how much we get and what a bargain we are getting it for with respect to this superintendent um the only thing that we couldn't get
069him to do was take days off um and I wish I was kidding I'm not um I have yet to find a day of the week or an hour where a phone phone call or a text or an email doesn't get answered um there is no better Champion right now for our kids and our staff and our community than Dr Hummer and I just wanted to say thank you um for being willing to stick with us for a while thank you hearing no further discussion Madam clerk call the roll Miss Martin oh I'm sorry I would put forth that we eliminate this problem with the books I feel that we need to take any sexually explicit books out of our libraries okay we will discuss that directly but do you have a comment on the
070superintendent's contract no I don't all right hearing no further discussion Madame clerk caller rooll Miss Martin hi Mr funes hi Mr Bell hi Mr Stant I Mrs Klein I Dr kin I Mr Atkins I that motion carries next on the agenda is the A and E contract award Mr chair I move oh if I may sure if I may thank you um what I would like to do is I want to have call up Mr Goodwin to provide you all with some information uh with Where We Are with this current process so we can also inform the public as well and then I would like to call the motion if that's okay thank you madam Vice chair good evening Mr chair members of the board it's great to see you Dr Hummer uh thank you
071for the opportunity to talk with you tonight staff has put a great deal of effort into this opportunity we have for you we appreciate the trust that Dr hmer and the board has placed in us to conduct this business on November 13th the request for proposal to secure an A&E firm for the fourth High School was posted as required via e Virginia and the FCPS website the team then planned and held a pre-proposal conference with interested firms which was very exciting on December the 4th a site visit uh after that meeting took place was offered or firms could come and look at that at their uh opportunity as as they set up an appointment the next steps in the process included interested firms being offered the opportunity to ask questions about the request uh for
072the proposal with the December 11th deadline for questions and all proposals were due back to us for the project by December the 18th right before the holiday so in total we had eight a& firm submit proposals for the project the committee reviewed and scored each of the submitted proposals as required as a part of the process from December 19th all the way to January the 7th based on the outcome of that process five firms were asked to come here for oral presentations and an interview and the committee spent January 15th and January 16th listening to those oral presentations and conducting interviews with each of the firms a number of committee members then completed negotiations with the top ranked offer or firm from January 21st and concluded those negotiations just this past week so Dr Hummer
073I now turn this item back over to you for you to describe next STS in the process and to ask any questions you have of me so Madame Vice chair I just wanted to make sure that we were able to get that information out in regards to where we got to this point and if there's any questions that we can ask this this time but there is a motion before you any other questions okay thank you Mr Goodwin thank you um so as we move on I move the board award the contract for architectural engineering Serv and Engineering Services for the construction of the new high school to vlk Architects LLC and to authorize the division superintendent to execute and deliver a final form of agreement with BLK substantially using the AI b1014 form and
074vk's Proposal with such additions deletions adjustments and other changes as division Council May recommend and the division superintendent May approve such approval to be evidenced conclusively by the division superintendent signature thereon and provided further that the base fees and expenses payable under such contract shall not exceed 8, $252,000 second okay get a roll call that's a big number well we've had a motion and it has prop been properly second did is there any discussion a roll call vote please yeah so I do have some discussion just some comments so we all of us up here on the day has had the opportunity to review all the submissions uh that made it to the final cut if you will um of the of the ones that of the firms that applied so I sat down and
075had the opportunity to go through those documents I also had the opportunity to read through all of Mr Goodwin's team's comments on each one and I feel very very confident uh that VK was a solid solid choice so thank you to your team Mr Goodwin um for that uh one thing that really stood out to me with vk's proposal is they were very specific to our community they heard our concerns about cost they heard our concerns about the growth they heard our concerns about the timeline and they took all of those things into consideration and I can't wait to see what they produce for us so thank you Mr chair any further discussion hearing none Madame uh clerk call the rooll please Miss Martin hi Mr funes hi Mr Bell hi Mr Stant hi Mrs
076Klein hi Dr erskin I Mr Atkins I that passes all right Mr chair if it's okay I have Mr Goodwin and actually VK is here in the room want to come up and introduce them to you all so we can have them come up with Mr Goodwin and you can ask a few questions if you'd like or more thank you Mr chair if they draw bad we know to throw the pitchforks at while they come to the podium to address you I want to thank you again for the opportunity we have to do this with such an amazing Community that's looked forward to it for quite some time uh our committee was very excited about how much that this uh firm wants to include the board and include the community in the process which I
077know is one of the driving things that you really wanted to have happen of course that was from Dr Hummer as well make sure everyone is included in in this process so from VK tonight with us we have Mr Dirk Jeffrey and also Matt wajer back I want to make sure I does get you okay Matt I'm I'm sure he'll correct me when he comes up but these folks are here tonight to just they asked if they could come and say thank you and also a few words about next steps in the process so I want to thank them for being here welcome them to the podium thank you good evening good evening Mr stent Dr Hummer members of the board M Knight it's nice to see you again miss Anderson you as well Mr
078good thank you for your comments as well my name is Durk Jeffrey principal at VK this is Matt wagas back it's very close uh we are so excited to be chosen to do this project with you we're also on behalf of our entire firm all of our team of Consultants very talented folks very grateful for the opportunity to design this fourth high school for you we understand this project has taken many years and much work to get to this point we understand that the expectations are appropriately high and we welcome that and we look forward to beginning the process of meetings and conversations with your constituents to understand what matters most to Frederick County our focus is to ensure that the school that is built is the one that you feel is best for you
079already we've begun working with Miss Knight and miss Mr Kenny Mr Lee and others to develop a work plan for the next 60 days that includes meetings with teachers administrators students parents board members and others in the community to solicit their ideas and their input whether permitting we scheduled cruise to begin next Monday to begin boundary and topographic surveys of the site and to delineate the extent of any protected Wetlands that may be on the property our work is intended to move quickly over the next 12 12 months so that this time next year we'll be within just a few weeks of advertising the project for bids in March of 2026 and be under construction in the summer of 2026 we appreciate your confidence in our firm we work very hard to earn and to
080keep your trust in the months and the years ahead thank you very much thank you thank you thank you thank you and Mr chair if I may just one more quick thing uh just so that the public knows the Board of Supervisors is currently in the process of hiring their own architectural firm to also design the fourth high school so um we have yet to hear any words from them about that but um as soon as we do we'll we'll I'm sure that they will uh soon as we know I'm sure you all will know but if you have any questions about that I encourage you to reach out to your Board of Supervisors members so there's been some talk of that I want to make sure that that is clear um there again this
081is a $8.2 million project so thank you V okay for taking the responsibility of that and being great fiduciaries of our funds thank you in advance all right next up is board member comments I usually go last but I'm going first today why are you shaking your head yeah can can we go to the instructional item now sorry item number 10 remember item number yeah I don't have an item number 10 well because you made a motion to because we didn't have the instructional committee me meeting mine stops at 9: right but we made a motion to add an okay yeah it was the item that I was talking about earlier so if we can discuss that really quick one more motion Dr hmer do you have a present well yes yes so with that
082I'm going to call up Mrs Knight um and this is in response to all of these snow days and all of these Miss days of school we have a plan in place to recommend what we can do to overcome the instruction that was missed as well as to make up some of these days so Mrs Knight will go ahead and present that to us thank you all thank you so much Dr Hummer and of course good evening board chair Madam board chair members of the board thank you always for the opportunity to present in front of you and of course anything that we can do to help improve instructional outcomes for our students so very quickly uh we have worked collectively as a team to include the voices of our principles and whomever else they
083reached out to to try to determine how we could make up for some of the Lost Time presenting in front of you here is the ele plan the secondary plan mirrors it really closely uh what we have proposed for your approval is a calendar adjustment um in three w three different ways we want to adjust the March 7th date and the March 10th date which were at least currently are um instructional planning days for teachers as well as an unincumbered planning day we'd like to turn those into student instructional days and then March 14th we'd like to extend the quarter the quarter currently ends on March 6th we want to extend the quarter to March 14th which would then reg gain us an additional seven seven days so when you count the two collectively that
084would be nine days we would gain back for instruction uh with your permission in addition to the extended days we like to adjust our pacing with a focus on priority standards or power standards basically it's essential learning limit the number of field trips we are not excluding field trips but prioritizing field trips that only enrich the content and then continuing use of any remediation and tutoring programs to support our student Learners and the secondary plan looks exactly the same so our recommendations are as follows again we'd like to recommend the modification of the current division calendar to reflect March 7th and March 10th to be changed to instructional days and we recommend that the calendar be further modified to shift marking period three from the end of March March 6th to March 14th uh Mr
085chair I have a couple of questions if I may absolutely uh the first is the uh two days the one the one unencumbered day I I understand but the the one teacher work day that would be can you go back to the dates please absolutely um I believe it's March 7th um what is what are the teachers going to miss by not having that planning session are they going to miss the opportunity to receive continuing education credits or um what is it that they would have done well there are a variety of things that were hosted or planned to be hosted on those days all of which we are comfortable moving so there's nothing that can is irrevocable okay MH and then secondly with the extending the third quarter does that then shorten the fourth
086quarter well the fourth quarter I mean sure it'll shorten the fourth quarter but it has a healthy number of days I think it's about 47 days I see 48 maybe Julie you want to 47 days would be in fourth quarter and I think this makes third quarter approximately 38 days or so I see thank you yes of course uh Mr chair Miss I just want to say thank you for to you and your team for putting this together I know it's it's been hectic with the snow days and everything and um I know you guys are adjust on the fly so thank you for putting this together on on such a short timeline I know a lot of hard work went into it so thank you thank you and I want to thank our teachers
087and our principles because they were amable to this immediately they were eager to make adjustments in fact I believe it was the principles is that right Julie who made the request uh to extend the school year I mean to extend the quarter that was the idea of the principal so I want to give all credit to them do we need to make a motion for that or yes so there is a motion to approve these because this is an adjustment to the calendar so you are required to make an motion for both of these items please separately or together together I have it right here on the motion sheet there is one motion that will accomplish everything um Miss Knight just discussed with the board any any questions for Miss Knight before I before we
088press no okay thank you yeah thank you Miss knight uh Mr chair I move the board amend the 20124 2025 school calendar as follows March 7th 2025 and March 10th 2025 will be changed from professional development days to instructional days for students and the third quarter will extend to will will be extended to end on March 14th 2025 and the fourth quarter will now begin on March 17th 2025 oops second motion has been made and properly seconded is there any discussion yeah sorry I jumped in before but I feel that we've been delving on its issue and that we should do something about it and eliminate we're still we're still on the calendar we're still on the calendar we're on the calendar we'll get Bo comments in a minute yeah go ahe hearing no other
089discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I I any oppose that motion carries is that it that's it all right last is board member comments and I usually go last but I'm going to go first today I did run on removing sexually explicit books from the schools and I did attempt to do that I did not say I removed all the sexually explicit books from the school that is not what I said that is a misrepresentation of what I said I said I got two off the list because they were stolen that is what I said if you will read the articles from June 4 and June 18 in the Winchester SAR you will see that in my attempt to remove certain books from the school I did change my mind on one
090and I can't something knocked out by my NOA noas which I found out it wasn't what I thought it was the last book was the book crank and it was the instruction committee uh Mr uh Bell and Mr Atkins who stopped that book from being removed I did not get a whole lot of support in my attempts to remove the books last year but I did not say I removed all the sexually explicit books and I'll thank you if you're going to quote me quote me accurately and don't lie next on the books I still feel that the books should be taken out of there I've never changed my opinion on that and uh the vice chair and I are working on a policy right now as we speak and we will deal with those
091things when they come down the pike I've been called corrupt I've been called criminal you can laugh all you want to brother and you're the one been calling me that I've been a law enforcement officer of 36 years I ain't corrupt and I ain't a criminal do your worst do what you got to do but I'm telling you now stop calling me a criminal cuz I'm not a criminal yeah whatever I you had your opportunity and now it's mine I ain't a criminal you want to recall me recall me at this point but I did attempt to get the books out of there and I was thwarted on those attempts by people on this dis so don't say I didn't try and do my campaign I I I did I did try other than that
092I'm done next bring I would still like to make a motion to a motion um a motion to U elimate these books as sexly explicit books in our libraries Mr fenus that it's coming in March so that there we have in order to make a motion it has to be an on an on the agenda so we don't have that as an agenda item this month it will be on the agenda next month it will be on the agenda next month kayln can he make a motion I'm sorry you're not Kaitlin the agenda has already been approved by the board that was not on the agenda in order to move forward with a motion there would have to be a a motion to amend the agenda to put that action item on the agenda for
093it then to move forward to a motion okay thank you um do you want to amend the agenda and then to and then make your motion I I would like to get this going yes so then you need to motion that you would like to amend the agenda okay I put forth that amend the agenda to to what do eliminate the uh sexually explicit books in our libraries okay second okay motion has been made and has been properly seconded is there any discussion is there Mr chairman I apologize I just want to make sure I'm understanding um Mr funes correctly is there a specific book that you want us to take action on cuz I want to make sure that I'm that I know exactly what we are saying yes or no to and I
094we're not going by specific books we're going by content so Mr F just to clarify all the books listed on the sexually explicit book list yes okay and Mr shair if I may just clarify so there's no confusion the current motion before the board is to amend the agenda to discuss this item right got it okay so we're just amending the agenda to disc we're just amending the agenda right now we'll have chance discuss it then we can okay okay so is there discussion on amending the agenda hearing none then I'm going to ask Madame clerk to call the role Miss Martin yes Mr funis all Mr Bell no stent no Mrs Klein no Dr erskin No Mr Atkins I four to three that motion does not carry all right back to all right back
095to member comments all right uh Mr chair um I want to go ahead and congratulate uh Mr Shepard um on making his lateral move um it's awesome like I said to you earlier I I hate losing you out of Transportation um but your leadership every you've been has always been impeccable so I know you you'll do good wherever you go and I'm so sorry Dr Reeves I I wrote it down but my handwriting is bad um so Dr Reeves thank you um you know for for Manning your new home as well um you know Human Services aspect of any organization is amazing so thank you um Dr Hummer congratulations on the new contract um you know so I I heard a couple things tonight and you know the big thing in the room right is
096um you know what happened over at James Wood um we're all appalled by it I promise you that um there's limited things that we can say about it um because we are the employer and Virginia laws say that we can't say a whole lot about it um it it is what it is we got to let the Sheriff's Department do what they got to do um to get through this um and it kills me that I can't say more it really really does um for those of you out there that know me you know that I'm really chomping at the bit to Just Let it Loose um you know then heard a couple different things out there uh when we had some speakers um some of the folks love the books that that are in
097the schools I I think they got it screw loose to be honest with you um it doesn't have anything to do with curriculum get it out um then we heard people wanting us to amend our policy um to not allow ice in the schools I I don't think that they're coming in the schools anything like that but even if they did um this board member is not going to stand in their way I still to the government once and you guys freaked out last time so chill um so um you know if they come that's cool I got my time um so yeah so if they show up hey that's a federal mandate that's a federal law we're not going to go and stand in their way um or I'm not at least I don't
098know how the rest of the board feels um the rest of it um I Frank I understand your motion earlier and I appreciate the motion it's honestly not the right time I know that there's um the chair and vice chair have been working on a pretty bang up policy uh that's going to um eliminate these books um out of the library because they don't have any room in our curriculum um so I I kind of want to see how that that comes to light we got to have a method to the madness before we do it so um I'm trusting in them to to get that done and we'll be voting on that here shortly next month's meeting um I'm sure there'll be some people up in arms about it that's awesome bring it bring
099the heat um but yeah we're it's time to get all this this crap out of our schools it's it's time to get back to teaching kids the way that the parents out there want them to be T if you want to teach your kids whatever you want to teach your kids God bless you go to the library WR a book go buy it off Amazon there's a million different ways to do it but that's not going to happen in the schools all right don't like it start your own School Mr chairman Mr chair um Mr Atkins thank you for that segue so Mr funus I am 100% on board with you and have been ever since I took this seat a year just over a year ago the one thing that I've learned as a
100brand new policy maker is there's two types of policy there's knee-jerk policy that you just make and it sticks for maybe a month before there's holes shot in it and then that policy disappears and then there's the slow and steady policy that's smart that's nuanced that's researched that's backed that's what Scott and I have been working on for over a year the book issue is nothing new nothing new at all despite those that come up to the day come up to the elect turn and claim that it is it's been something that's been on our hearts and Minds for a long time I'll caution you that you kind of have to be aware of the quiet people because we're the ones in the background working diligently to get things done so uh Frank you gave
101us a foreshadowing of things to come come join us in these seats in March and you'll see what that policy looks like and as Mr Atkin said I think a lot of people will be very pleased and I think some people are going to be upset and that's okay but we've listened to our constituency we've listened to this County and we're going to press forward so more to follow regarding the issue at hand at jameswood High School there's a lot that I want to say right now a lot however we are the employer and the sheriff's office is the investigatory entity it is in their hands and as the employer if we want this kind of behavior to stop we have to remain silent while they go through their investigation I highly recommend that you
102stay tuned in to the Sheriff's Office Facebook pages and their social media channels they are doing an excellent job of keeping the entire Community updated with accurate information I will tell you that what you have seen what came out Friday morning that was leaked by a member of this board we don't know who doesn't really matter it's out in the bloodstream now everything you saw was wrong and when you put something in writing that's wrong that threatens someone's reputation it's slander so I would not want to be that individual that posted what was posted I'm glad I'm not that individual careful what you see and what you believe in the media I'll make my call to action like I do a lot of times from this day is thank you all for being here first
103of all thank you to the speakers who had the Moxy to give up and speak to us we want to hear from you and to Mrs Scarboro as vile as some of the things that come out of her mouth are she's not wrong to come up here and voice her opinion and her disdain we may not agree with how she does it that's not the point but she answered my call to action as a parent and came up and expressed concerns and that's what I would ask of each and every one of you sitting out there students teachers parents constituents please continue to do so there's only seven of us here we're not omnipotent we're not Clairvoyant we cannot be every and we do not know everything we're depending on you so thank you in
104advance for keeping us informed and helping us hold the district accountable Mr chairman so I want to add a couple of new things before I am in anything that was said first um I'm also not going to be a party to and at least from my perspective I want nothing to do with obstructing justice um there is a very clear federal law in place there is also very clear guidance that went out to our school administrators last week with respect to how to handle any potential visits that they may get from any law enforcement agency even though none have happened in America yet Des despite what you think you saw on Tik Tok um the law is the law so read a book um the next thing would be uh I will be right there
105with you Mr Frank when it comes to getting rid of these specific books this filth has no place in our school School libraries um what families choose to share with their kids at home or outside of the school is one thing um obviously this is a nuanced discussion right are we going to start getting rid of of of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer and all these things no um but it's not it right and I want you to know that I absolutely will be voting with you when that time comes I've also learned much like um Mrs Klein said that there is a process that we have to go through if we want it to uh and as passionate as we get about getting rid of some of this stuff um there is a right
106way to do it um we are not the only School Division in America within 20 miles of here dealing with this we are dealing with it uh and I will be there to support you when we do when it comes to the budget we're asking um not yet but next week we're going to be asking the Board of Supervisors for a lot of money and here's what I'd like for you to think about as a citizen especially if you're a conservative when it comes to fiscal um policies and fiscal issues um we have a statutory obligation to educate kids and to do it right um our job is to put forth the best most responsible budget we can make our case the best we can and then Lobby the board like any other citizen right
107um and we'll continue to do that and I want to thank the Board of Supervisors um for inviting us last week and for a really great discussion and I hope there's more good conversations to come um I like talking with anybody who wants to talk with me um which leads me to the next thing about emails phone calls we're getting a lot of them at Le I can only speak for me but I want you to know that when I get an email I respond 99.9% of the time the 0.1% that I don't it's either because we're not legally allowed to answer the question you have or because um it's a mass email that's gone out to 100 people right um I do respond to people every time um much like my peers have said
108there's a great deal that I would like to say about the the event of the hour but I trust law enforcement and I trust this process that it's in place in the best interest of kids um and the adults in play uh and when the time is right we'll be able to talk about it um yeah that's where I'll stop thank you Mr chair Mr I have a couple of things to say uh first and foremost thank you very much for coming out tonight congratulations to everyone who uh came up here and spoke as well as our new staff members um and I'm looking forward to next month uh hopefully we have some students here that we can praise and lad um as it relates to the books I'm going to reserve my comments until
109after I see this policy that's been worked on for over a year um and then make my comments um second with regards to uh immigration um I believe Mr or Dr Hummer we have a document and I'm not sure if it's allowed to be read in public I won't read the whole thing but it's entitled immigration procedures for responding to law enforcement requests for access to students Andor student information records is that public yeah I mean you could you could discuss it yeah so essentially um this is the this is what we have in place um access to a student a law enforcement officer may not remove a student from school property without having authority to do so from one of the following parental consent judicial order for example arrest warrant search and seizure warrant
110Etc administrative warrant this does not have the same level of authority as a Judicial warrant staff should not allow Law Enforcement Officers to go past the front office until division Administration has been notified and consulted as provided below however this directive does not apply when law enforcement is called to address an imminent safety situation this will also help ensure staff adheres to FCPS policy classes 427p relations with law enforcement officials which states that a student should be served by law enforcement in the principal's office this will help ensure the student is serve safely without risk to other students and without the interruption to the school's normal operations so to alleviate some concerns we're not going to allow ice agents to come into our schools and just start taking students away they're going to have to
111have duly uh written warrants and uh Andor parental consent so I just want to make that clear that's out there that's public so um we're not just going to allow somebody to come in and take our kids okay um so that's that uh regarding the situation at James at high school I only have a couple of things to say about this first I I'm I'm not appall I'm angry that it happened I'm angry that it happened and as a teacher of 30 years I think anyone who has been a teacher for any amount of time should be angry because the people who suffer from this aren't just those uh directly affected but those that are indirectly affected you've got family members you've got other students you've got other teachers you've got administ Traders so I
112the reason I mention this is that I ask that you carefully consider the words that you use when you speak in public or on social media think about the source from which you got it and is it a reliable source do they have firsthand knowledge or is it something that someone's saying to be a part of the conversation because they don't have anything better to do or is it because they want to stir a pot up to make things look worse than what they are so I just caution you uh to carefully look at what you read and consider the source and also to consider the other people that are involved in this that uh never really get the attention uh of of the uh I I know what I want to say I'm having
113a hard time saying it basically the people who suffer from it that are uh not named or talked about as much as the Direct effects um so other than that my my statement's going to be exactly what um everyone else has said you know this is an ongoing investigation we don't want to disrupt this and for the and quite frankly most importantly if this Bears out to the way I think it's going to Bear out we don't want someone like this to be able to teach ever again anywhere in this country in this world we don't want them anywhere so saying things that are not true can jeopardize that um I think that's it oh I Thursday um this Thursday right across the street over there at jameswood middle school I'm having a Schoolhouse chat
114I would love to see you all come uh whether whether you're from the opin district or not if you have any questions I'll do my very best to answer them if you have only have questions about what happened in James Wood there's only so much that I can speak to um but I'm happy to listen to any concern or comment or or worry that you have um so with that I thank you very much Mr chairman and the rest of the members of the board that's it I think everybody said it all okay M Mr chair one last thing um and I know we talked about this uh earlier um but the the heroes in this bad story are the kids who uh or the people who spoke up about what happened over at jameswood
115and made it public you know they weren't scared they they came forward and said what they had to say so would stop um if there's anybody out there that knows anything about this case or any other cases that are going out there please come forward to uh Administration come forward to law enforcement uh let us know so we can get it to stop thank you come forward to your parents come forward to your grandparents someone that you can talk to come forward because it shouldn't happen to you at all yeah I will say something to to the students primarily please do not be afraid to speak up it'll be the best thing that you've ever done you won't regret it when you get older you'll be so glad you spoke up and told the truth
116to help your community and to help yourself and the support that you will have will outweigh any embarrassment that you could possibly have hearing no further discussion our next school board meeting is March 18th 2025 I need a motion Mr chair I move that we adjourn the meeting second has been moved to adjourn and been properly seconded any discussion all those in favor signify by saying I I any opposed