001good evening my name is brandon monk and i serve as the chair of the frederick county school board and shortly after 6 pm on tuesday august the 16th and i'll call this meeting to order please join me in a moment of silence thank you all right next item on our agenda or next item before us is the approval of an agenda i never received communication about a potential amendment to that agenda do we have any amendments to the agenda before us mr chairman um mr chairman i'd like to put under new business maybe item e uh let's call the item for uh valley region um vsba chair please thank you we've heard the motion is there a second second all right motion to amend the agenda uh to add item e valley region share any
002discussion saying none all in favor of the amendment signify by saying aye aye aye all right we have that amended agenda we have a motion to approve the agenda as amended so moved all right is there a second second which is main property seconded to approve the agenda as amended any discussion all in favor signify by saying aye aye all right all opposed we have an agenda all right mr chairman i moved that the county school board of frederick county virginia enter a closed session meeting for the following to consider and discuss the proposals and information from offers concerning superintendent search services as well as to discuss the negotiation and possible award of a contract for such services and related considerations where discussion in open session would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy
003of the school board pursuant to virginia code section 2.2 37 11 a 29 and to review and discuss individual personnel matters including appointments resignations substitutes and volunteers pursuant to virginia code section 2.2 37 11 a1 and to review and discuss individual student matters that would involve specific students and particular information concerned in their scholastic records including requests for release from compulsory attendance for religious reasons pursuant to virginia code section 2.2 37-11 a2 and i do some move now you've heard the motion is there a second second mission's remain properly seconded to move into closed sessions for the reason that mr comps not mentioned any discussion all in favor saying if i've been saying aye aye opposed we're in closed session [Music] sorry mr chairman i moved that the board reconvened from closed session second all
004right mission in maine properly cited that the board reconvened from closed session any discussion seeing now we'll proceed to vote all in favor of doing so soon if i was saying aye aye aye opposed and we not motion by which the available session was convened were heard discussed or considered by the school board all right second i believe this calls for a roll call [Music] mr lake yes mrs white yes mr adkins yes mr comstock yes mr hester yes ms martin yes mr monk yes mr chairman we have three motions coming out of closed session i moved to authorize the chair to proceed with negotiations about a possible contract with the offers reviewed in closed session and in the order recommended by the chair and further authorize the chair subject to any additional information about
005the offer and satisfactory negotiations to finalize and execute on behalf of the board a contract in consultation with legal counsel all right is there a second second all right we've heard the motion any discussion seeing none will proceed to vote all in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed uh mr edwards do we need um a roll call just the fact that that might be financially obligated i mean it's noted that it's uh unanimous unless i miss something so perfect all right mr chairman i move to approve the personnel actions as recommended by the interim superintendent we have a motion is there a second exactly all right we've heard the motion any discussion seeing none all in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries mr chairman i move to approve the release of
006students a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q q-r-s-t-u-v and w from compulsory attendance for religious reasons we have a second second thank you uh former kindergarten teacher there you voted well any discussion so you know we'll proceed to vote all in favor of uh students a through w signify by say guy opposed ocean carries that's all all right thank you please join me and salute our flag 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 with liberty and justice for all all right we have a consent agenda before us any questions about the consent agenda the motion to approve motion so made all right do we need have a
007second second in any discussion all those in favor of approval of the consent agenda as presented signify by saying aye aye opposed all right passes moves us to the next portion of our meeting which is citizen commons the frederick county school board is pleased to receive public comments at each monthly meeting in order to allow the board sufficient time for its other business the total time allowed for public comment will generally be limited to 20 minutes individuals speaking to the board will be allotted three minutes those individuals representing groups or organizations will be allotted five minutes with one representative per group upon recognition by the chair the speaker should clearly state his or her name residing district in the subject matter of their comments all comments are to be addressed to the chair the board
008will receive the comments but will not respond to questions or engage in a dialogue this is an opportunity to be heard and the board will refer any issues or concerns to staff or appropriate committees the school board is committed to showing appropriate respect and courtesy to all citizens and speakers are expected to show that appropriate respected courtesy to the board in return members of the audience are not permitted to interrupt the speaker or meeting by asking questions or making comments school board meetings are tape recorded for the purpose of clarification and development of the official minutes wonderful our first speaker this evening is christy scarborough you can say your name district and limit your comments to three minutes or less thank you hello board members my name is christy scarborough and i'm in the stonewall
009district um i uh when i got here i know this is the second time that the bathrooms have been opened and i don't know who was in charge of opening the bathrooms uh thank you miss camry um i saw her earlier and i asked her to open the doors because they were locked your gate was um whatever the gate is for to keep pester safe whatever it is it was open so maybe the next um school board meeting somebody make sure that the doors here are unlocked and the bathrooms are accessible um uh lamanna you know i had the courtesy of getting a phone call from dr martin who was here before you who wanted to meet with me was curious if you had any intentions of reaching out to parents yourself um i get
010the funny feeling that you won't be reaching out to me and that's okay but i do want to bring up that i want to thank adkins monk and martin for not voting for you um i want to remind this community that there was an article on the winchester star in 2018 and it talked about a task force that was created in 2017. you were in that task force and it says in here in the winchester star article that the task force will begin a deep equity program now i know there's been a lot of talk about critical race theory and deep equity or whatever kind of play on words you want to call it didn't exist here but that was an article published by the winchester star and i don't believe you suing for defamation
011so that's not okay with me um that deep equity stuff's gotta go i know that when you campaigned against miss martin you said that never happened uh so are you saying the winchester star lied i mean i am glad that you're only interim because i don't think that you are fit for this position and i really wish that martin was back um but that's all i got to say thank you our next speaker is alan shaffer alan shaffer of shawnee district i just want to take an opportunity with new school year i really hope that like we can move forward from what happened last year i want to see transparency in the budget i want to see a line item budget um you know i work in construction i do projects that are regularly over
01280 million dollars i have never been able to do a project without seeing what every two by four what every bag of concrete costs how you can run a school district for 217 million dollars without having a line item budget is unfathomable to me to not know exactly where the money's going you know and especially when i do government contracts you know we have to certify payroll if we cheat on that certified payroll if we cheat on that budget we will never have another contract here with the government ever again you know i expect no less from the government who is here representing the people to be as forthcoming as we have to be with the government thank you our next speaker is jesse jenkins mr atkins three days ago you posted on your school
013board facebook page a program for autistic children that takes place no closer than four hours from here when community members started asking you if you posted to the right page being that you had just before posted asking the boys if they want to go to a casino night on the same page you decided to come back with comments that ended with i guess looking out for autistic community is not important to some sad the people you were making that comment to included a parent of an autistic child and some community members who spent five months straight helping advocate for our children i commented to you more than once expecting some sort of reply even if it was your usual online aggression but got nothing so i'm here tonight to be sure i am heard you
014sit on the frederick county school board if you want to show the autistic community you care i suggest you take the time to schedule that n-rep tour that you and ms martin never bothered with what have you done to help our local autistic or any other special needs children that attend the school system that you sit on the board for you do not live our lives day in and day out surfing programs are fun if the family is able to pull off such an adventure that is not local but these are not the therapy resources our kids need to thrive that someone in your seat can help advocate for they need proper special education services occupational therapy physical therapy speech therapy all resources that are given in frederick county schools but need advocacy for more
015funding this is a photo of a spot that my son left on my face during a meltdown this was a meltdown to his lack of being able to communicate which is something that his speech therapy does help with this was just last week and while you can't see it now believe me i still feel it so before you claim you are looking out for artistic autistic community i would highly suggest you start listening to us and hearing what we need you sit in those seats for all 14 000 children if you're not prepared to put in the work it takes to be sure that you are meeting the needs of all of those children you need to step down i think your next speaker is karen dredsky [Applause] good evening mr chairman board members dr
016lamanna i'm karen dredsky i live in the gainesboro district and this evening what i wanted to bring up is an issue there was hoping that dr orendorf was going to be here so that he could hear and help facilitate a solution to and so that i could welcome him back because i'm so excited that he's going to be here this year um and welcome to you dr lamanna as well um for the students who go to um james wood high school that live on the western end of the county that ride the bus we have a bit of a problem it started last year it was going on and this year it seems like the first two days of school it's worse than it was last year and i don't believe that it's strictly because
017of construction students who ride the bus to james wood high school from the western part of the county have to change buses at frederick county middle school while their buses typically arrive at the middle school prior to 7 30 in the morning and then they have to get on a transfer bus they are not allowed to disembark and get on the transfer bus when they arrive at the school i understand that there is some reason that they're not allowed to disembark until after 7 30 even though parents are dropping students off at frederick county middle school prior to 7 30 and their kids are allowed to go outside and stand and wait to go inside the school last year this was a problem it was a crap shoot whether my son was going to arrive
018at school at first bell or after first belt it was a common occurrence it was not once in a while because a traffic or an accident or something it was happening all the time for those students that are in that position it also means they're not entitled to lunch or i'm sorry to breakfast they have to wait until lunch to eat um for any of them who got on the bus early it's even worse this year because i understand that the bus routes are starting as early as 6 15 in the morning so if you are a student and you happen to be going to high school and you were the first person on that bus route you got on at 6 15 and yesterday you didn't arrive to james wood until 8 10. today
019it was 805. so students are getting on the bus earlier they're arriving later they're not having time to have la have breakfast and for some of them they don't have lunch until last lunch so they're going for at least six hours without food and we expect our students to do their best job when they're well nourished so i find this to be a real problem it was last year as well before the construction started i would like for our transportation department or whoever needs to do this to do some brainstorming and try to come up with a solution to help our students be able to get to school at a reasonable time where they're still entitled to being able to get lunch where the dining room isn't closed and they're not late for their classes
020they think that would be really really important for our students and it's not just my kid it's it's all the kids that are on the western end of the county that are going through this so thank you thank you next speaker is christy jett hello i'm christy jett from gainsborough um i don't have any prepared comments or anything like that i really just wanted to express a deep and heartfelt thank you to any teachers and staff from gainesboro elementary that might be listening right now i have three children fourth and two second graders and they are all smiles going into school they're all smiles coming home and it is just a gift i can't explain to be able to send my kids somewhere every day where i know that they are cared for and supported
021in the same way that i would do at home and i just needed the teachers and staff at gainesboro elementary to hear that thank you thank you next speaker is shaniqua williams good evening interim superintendent dr lamanna chairman monk and members of the school board my name is shanique williams i'm a resident of the shawnee district and i serve as the members of this county as the president of the frederick county education association tonight i'm here to welcome everyone again as you've heard some people say before to the 2022-23 school year and from what i hear from our membership it's been an exciting few days just two but still exciting i'm looking forward to this being a very productive and promising school year and i look forward to working with the educators in this county
022as they strive to do and continue to do the excellent professional jobs that they do for their craft i want to thank the members of fca for allowing me to be a leader for them and i appreciate each and every one of my members and look forward to working with them and their schools to bring light to the value of sca membership thank you to the community members who are here tonight as well as they consistently show up and make their voices heard i wanted to give information to the board about what the mission of fca and our parent organization is in case you don't know to unite our members and local communities across the commonwealth and fulfilling the promise of a high quality public education that successfully prepares each and every student to realize
023his or her full potential we believe that this can be accomplished by advocating for students education professionals and support professionals this statement is what fca strives to do each and every day before i leave you today i wanted to just introduce you to the fca board of directors behind me is vice president jennifer floyd she's a health and fitness health and physical education teacher at northwestern regional educational programs fca treasurer cherise woodward she's a business teacher at sherando high school secretary kathleen bockert she's a library instructional assistant at ayler middle school and not with us but you guys have seen her before is brandi wilder she is one of the regional representatives for the shenandoah valley vea leadership team it is our long-standing commitment to my members um to be pres one of the four
024of us will be one of the five of us will be present at each and every meeting just so we can retain what's being said and be able to have productive conversations going forward so thank you for your time and we look forward to working with you thank you our next speaker is jody yeggy hi my name is jody yaeggy from the redbud district my middle school daughters i have two of them yeah wish me luck um came came home the last couple of days and had a really great start to the school year they're really excited about their classes okay i say that lightly because they are still in middle school but they are excited i think to be back so the the biggest topic of the day as you might expect is what
025they're going to wear the next day now you might think that this is pretty normal for middle school kids middle school girls especially to be concerned about what they're going to wear but the topic at my house and amongst their friends we do a lot of carpooling for sports isn't what's the cool new trend to wear or what are you wearing so i should wear it it's what might i get called out on the next day because of dress code and i say that because the um what the dress code right now i don't meet dress code according to admiral bird middle school um i'm wearing uh i'm wearing athletic shorts and a t-shirt and my shorts don't come down below my fingertips i don't have any shorts in my closet that do and i
026think i don't dress in an inappropriate fashion necessarily and my kids who go to school with athletic shorts on a t-shirt should not be worried about having a dress code violation now i'm not saying that a teacher is going to call them out but they spent the first two days of school having conversations in their classrooms around dress code and they are the rule followers like a lot of middle school children are and they want to do right and they don't have other than wearing pants none of their shorts in their closet are going to meet dress code so i would urge this board to take a look at our dress code and update it to today's standards we do have to have rules to follow but we also have to be cognizant of societal
027norms and if this mom can wear shorts i would think that our students could wear shorts that are appropriate and um but the the dress code probably needs to be looked at so dress codes are meant to create safe positive learning environments but a lot of times they're having the opposite effect and i'm seeing it this year i'd urge the committee to or to ask for a review committee to re to update the dress code our students should be focused on learning and our teachers should be able to teach they shouldn't be in the uncomfortable position of having to police how long or get out their rulers for how long shorts are in the classroom clearly if there's inappropriate violations they should be addressed they should be addressed in private not in front of other
028students which is happening so i would urge the the school board to look at a committee and gather lots of students from a lot of different areas parents and teachers to look at the um to look at that policy and get it updated to meet today's norms i hope we can address this and all students and staff to have a great 2022-2023 school year thank you thank you our next speaker is brian nuri good evening everyone my name is brian nuri from the apecan district uh just wanted to come up here and uh congratulate the board and its wisdom for hiring internally and promoting dr lamanna to interim superintendent of schools i would just love to one day hopefully be able to amend that board to not have the interim on it because i think
029that dr lamanna as well as most of you guys understand that knowing how the system works from within which he has been on every level is very important to leading this county into the future so just want to congratulate you guys for making the right decision and miss dr lamanna for taking it up thank you very much thank you anyone else who would like to speak if you could come forward just state your name magisterial district and limit your comments to three minutes or less please you're fine i didn't sign up i'm okay unexpected priscilla for del boleto um stonewall district i just wanted to come forward tonight to say i hope you all had a wonderful summer and made wonderful memories with your kiddos we did we did a bunch of different stuff um
030we considered not coming back to fcps this year um admittedly we had a little bit of a bumpy road last year and then my austin started crying because he loves redbud so much and i do too we love fcps i'm passionate about my two boys but i'm passionate about your children mr hester your children miss white your children mr comstock your grandchildren mr lake dr lamanna welcome aboard passionate about your grandchildren i'm a mom first and foremost everything else comes second everything we are very happy to be back at fcps this year two days in and austin is ecstatic both days he loves his teacher i can't i can't sing mr strong's praises enough he is an exemplary principal i'm looking forward to continuing to be that mom and working collaboratively with everybody in the
031community that shares a passion for children at the end of the day i'm mama nothing more nothing less and i look very forward to working with most of you on this board this upcoming school year it's austin's last year in elementary school we got to make it the best i have to do that for um for him but we have to we've got 14 000 nearly 14 000 other students in the district too let's make it the best for them um but please remember when you see this space i'm mom that's it nothing more nothing less okay welcome aboard dr lamanna thank you anyone else just come forward state your name magisterial district and limit your comments to three minutes or less please sir hello i'm lucas cook i'm in the shawnee district and i
032just honestly wanted to say thank you guys for all your hard work this past couple of years i know we've had a very rough patch and i would just hope to move forward and be united in our decisions and make for a better county and a better school system and uh thank you guys and you guys have a great evening thank you i think we had one more just come forward name magisterial district in three minutes or less please ariana terran redbud district um i just i don't have a speech repaired i just wanted to piggyback off what she said about the dress code i agree 100 it's not just happening in middle schools it's happening in high schools as well i seriously think the dress code needs to be reevaluated two feet to fit
033today's standards at millbrook high school the first day of school as soon as students were walking in the door they were getting sent to the office dress coded they weren't even allowed to enjoy their first day and my daughter in particular got yelled at for wearing ripped jeans and as you know ripped jeans are the style nowadays and was told she was not allowed to wear them which according to dress code is not accurate they just the rips can't be above the thigh the mid thigh but most rib jeans are in the thigh region or above that and in no way in no way did she dress inappropriately um like the other lady had mentioned pretty much anything in my daughter's closet currently will not meet dress code and it's not inappropriate clothing i don't
034let my child dress inappropriately but it's just the way it is nowadays so i feel like you know some of the rules and stipulations need to be looked at again and not so harsh on certain things um you know so that's just my two cents thank you thank you all right that concludes our citizen comment we have have approved um minutes of prior meetings that takes us to reports uh the report of the interim superintendent of schools dr lamanna thank you chairman this is my job here right bye yes there it is thanks um yeah thanks i just want to share with you a few things i want to share with you that the 20 22 23 school year began for students as we know on monday opening day went quite well i want to
035thank all of the staff members who worked collaboratively over the summer to prepare for the start of the new school year their dedication and hard work is what resulted in us having a smooth opening as we begin the year i also want to thank frederick county sheriff's office for of the outstanding relationship the school division enjoys with them and the school resource officers that provide to and to keep our schools safe and secure and let's recognize our officers here tonight [Applause] with school back in session i also want to remind motorists to slow down and pay close attention to their surroundings this is especially important during those times when students are being transported to and from school state law requires motorists to stop for a school bus when its lights are flashing unless there is
036a physical barrier or unpaved area between the lane in which the bus is traveling and the lane in which the vehicle is traveling each day our bus drivers unfortunately witness drivers who fail to stop for buses whose lights are flashing this is very dangerous as we know and we ask everyone to slow down pay attention and stop for buses loading and unloading students want to congratulate james woods school students fletcher powell and olivia judd who recently finished in 10th place in this in the sports and entertainment management competition at the future business leaders of america national leadership conference in chicago the competition required the students to work collaboratively to complete an exam and then give an impromptu presentation after being given a scenario in the area of sports and entertainment management more than twelve 000
037students from 48 states and territories attended the conference i want to indeed i want to announce that the applications are being accepted through 4 pm on september 9th for the fcps 101 community engagement program fcps 101 is designed to provide parents and others with an opportunity to learn more about our school division and its operations additional information and a link to the online application form is available on the school divisions website i also want to thank first bank and virginia property group who have served as the sponsors of fcps 101 program each year since its inception also i could take a moment of personal privilege if i made to thank the board for this opportunity to serve as the interim superintendent i visited several schools uh yesterday what's today tuesday yeah yesterday and and today
038and we welcome over as you know 13 000 students in our population it is for them we must remember that we're doing the work as an entrance superintendent i want you to know that i pledge to be positive to be student focused and and to do no harm i ask each of you to do the same and most importantly look to yourselves you can only control your behavior and by doing that you will impact others be honest be sincere do not embarrass or promote hostility or public incivility or anger rather be the example of civility cooperation collaboration and mutual respect we owe it to our community as the school year begins let's launch as a board a newly refreshed positive culture and again thank you for allowing me to be here i think any questions
039for dr lamanna wonderful that moves us to our next item assistant superintendent dr angelo thank you mr chairman members of the board um dr lamanna i just want to say quickly i spent all day yesterday in schools i think i was in nine buildings yesterday um this morning i had a a block of a four-hour meeting um online i would much rather have been pretty much anywhere else but that four-hour meeting but then i got out in the afternoon and hit two more so i've been to half of our schools and i have not seen the joy and the excitement and the enthusiasm that i've seen in the last two days in quite a long time and so um amazing opening day yesterday heard from many principals that it was uh the best opening day
040that they've had in their time as principal um and uh one principal noted to me a high school principal noted to me the positivity among students staff and parents was very very visible on day one yesterday so excellent opening day speaking of opening days want to give the opening day attendance report um i believe the winchester star reported on this this morning just to let you know our opening day attendance was 13283 which was a little bit less than the 13 468 from last year but do keep in mind that our first day of school last year was a week later the deeper into august and then to labor day the closer you get the greater the attendance tends to be and just as an example we we grew by 317 students today so today's
041today's attendance was 317 students higher than it was yesterday at 13 6. at our september 6 board meeting we'll have a report on the august 31st attendance and we would anticipate that it will be higher than the 13 600 students that were there today so that concludes the um attendance report for opening day unless there are questions any questions for dr angelo just hope we don't go by grow by 300 students every day yeah we would hope not to grow by 300 students every day thank all you and then we don't have final results of s of our sol testing from the spring nor do we have accreditation results yet but we do anticipate uh that those will be released shortly at least not the accreditation results but sol performance so i just wanted to
042give you a general overview of where we believe we will be based on our analysis and and share with you based on a question that came up i think in an instruction committee meeting in june um asking for a report on the esser funds and what we did with the esser funds with students last school year and then over the summer and i'll give you a preview over as to what i believe will be planned in schools this year so the timeline we have for release of information right now we anticipate that pass rates will be released and finalized later this week and i say that's anticipated because that has already been bumped back um at least one time and maybe twice because the state you know they want to make sure they get that
043right obviously so we anticipate later this week that those will be released statewide but it's possible that it will be delayed um and we'll we won't know that until we get information from from vdoe and then we also anticipate that accreditation will be released in late september we don't have a final final date yet but we know that it's late september usually it's around the between the 25th and the 30th of each year but i do want to give you an overview overview preliminarily of what we anticipate we are anticipating um pass rates to be down from pre-pandemic rates um with some exceptions and i will say when when we're looking at what what we believe are gonna they're they're pretty close to what the final scores will be i anticipate based on what we've
044um uh worked out our focus on early literacy you may remember in january um catherine neal who unfortunately is no longer with us but she was our supervisor of professional learning as well as ashley rudolph who's the literacy coach at indian hollow did a presentation for this board on our approach to early literacy letters training specifically is one of the things they were talking about we've had some schools that really i mean all of our schools are focusing on that and training all of our administrators at the elementary level have been trained on that and our many of our teachers have been and they continue to get that training we're limited to the number that we're allowed to send each year so we're maxing that out each year there are two schools in particular i'm
045going to highlight that have had a very solid focus on early literacy one of them is indian hollow and the other one is evendale elementary school and again i don't mean to suggest that none of our other schools have that focus but these two have have made a really concerted effort to focus in on early literacy we are anticipating that their reading scores will be far above pre-pandemic raids at indian hollow and at evendale so we're looking at that anecdotally thinking okay so this focus on early literacy the science of reading you've probably seen the report from video we don't disagree with that report we know that we need to focus a strong focus on reading instruction that is based on science and we have we have definitely moved in that direction our teachers are
046are implementing this and they're loving it and we're seeing results so we think based on the preliminary scores we're going to see that that change and we anticipate that that change will continue over time in all of our elementary schools science scores at the elementary level appear to be down division wide i suspect this is going to be not specific to frederick county public schools and honestly the reason for that is pretty simple we focus pretty heavily on reading and math instruction coming out of the pandemic and so we just need to get back to focusing in on i mean this is a this is a normal year we're looking at this is a normal year out of um from where we were and and really moving back toward where what we've done in the
047past and even strengthening that based on what we learned through this process so i'm not too concerned about science scores being down but we're definitely um we're definitely paying gonna be paying attention to that and our our principals are aware of that and they they know it needs to be an area of focus as well so i'm going to talk about supports for student learning and i can't remember even who asked the question but somebody asked the question about what what did we do with the esther funding for learning loss during the 21-22 school year so the timing was impacted a little bit by the award of the funding so we didn't get that award until well after the school year began and we had to compile the the numbers and divvy it up by
048schools and then send it out to schools they recruited teachers and so forth so there was a bit of a process supports for the most part didn't start until second semester last year and there was a lot of there was a mix they had full autonomy as to how they approached that and it was based on what the needs of their school community were some of them did during school some of them did before and after school the before and after school challenge is transportation as you might imagine bus driver shortages and so forth um challenge during the school year is who's going to deliver that and some of our schools got um very creative and uh they brought um maybe retired teachers on board or parents who have degrees that just aren't you know
049aren't teaching um we brought them in i believe as subs if i remember it correctly we said that they were considered substitute employees and brought them in created vacancies and paid them using the user funding all of that was using us for funding to provide support to our students during the school day so there was a little bit of a blend of before and after school as well as during the day the types of support that was offered was really based on what the needs of the kids were so you know that we focus in on tiered systems of support and we really look at what what do all students need to be successful and then there are some students that need additional supports and then other students that need even more supports we really
050base all of those decisions on data so there were some individual and small group testing excuse me tutoring and support either after school or during the school day and some of them used virtual support so we contracted with a company called varsity tutors so you may remember this when students were out on quarantine we gave them the option of connecting with an online tutor through varsity tutors we again paid for that using us for funding last year and some schools use that as their tutoring for students and saw some some really good success actually with that some of that happened during the school day some of it happened students could access it at home and that's a live person working directly with the student in real time so those are the types of supports that
051were provided and it just was dependent on the school and the needs of the students and and the availability of staff we had summer academy again for elementary and middle school this year there was a lot of it was short-term i mean it's really three weeks in the month of july problem-based learning experiences so this isn't the summer school that you might imagine um or anticipate of you know what certainly i experienced whenever i was i didn't personally experience summer school but i know that summer school was not a very pleasant experience and when i was in school we've definitely shifted that to try to make it more engaging students learn concepts while applying portrait of a graduate competencies not losing focus on inspire 2025. and we didn't just provide support for english math reading
052and social studies we we certainly provided support in some cases for art music we integrated art music career and technical education physical movement and so forth so it was just beyond the four core trying to enable kids during the summer to have fun while they're learning and in many cases they don't even know necessarily that this is a an experience that they're actually learning sol content through those the process of having fun so looking ahead the good news is the user funding goes for three years we we know what we have we met with principals in june we provided them their allocation for the upcoming school year so they had the full summer to work with their teams if they chose to do that on planning for supports through the school year and to be
053able to start sooner and we know that many many if not all of our principals have done that and planned for what that'll look like for this upcoming school year i know that um we had principals together and they were listening and hearing from each other as to what other schools did so they could get some ideas and they'll base what they're they'll do this upcoming year based on the success data from last year's work and i know that all of them are making some level of of adjustments so again individual tutoring sessions seem to be pretty successful through varsity tutors that's again an option if folks choose that we really want them to have engaging and authentic learning experiences we all know drill and kill is not the way to to really support student
054learning they may learn it in a moment but it's not long lasting and then again school day versus after school if we can get some folks that are willing and interested in doing that during the school day and and schools can arrange their schedules we're very supportive of that transportation after school or before school is sometimes a challenge but if we can make that happen and schools work that out with transportation we're certainly supportive of that as well final final piece of information for you just a reminder that in grades three through eight for reading and math for this upcoming school year we will have growth assessments in fall winter and spring so students will actually be having on three what is effectively state-led sol tests um through this school year in grades three through
055eight in english and math reading and math specifically the idea behind that is not accountability it's diagnostics so that we can get information about students last year and this is mandated by the states so we don't have an option to do this or not do this just to be clear last year we had one in the fall and one in the spring this year the third one in the winter is added and we can look at the data we haven't had them long enough to know i mean we had them only one year last year to know the impact of this in terms of how it how instruction can really be adjusted and we'll be paying close attention to that we have our own benchmark assessments and i can tell you the conversation we had
056last year when we knew this was coming this upcoming year for three three of these diagnostic tests through the year is we want to and and this wasn't an internal conversation that was central office only we involve school staff in this as well do we keep the diagnostics that we have internally and also engage in what's state mandated and those are conversations that will be ongoing we'll keep them for this year because we don't know whether the data we're going to get from these diagnostics that are issued by the state will be as useful um to to move instruction um as what we have so we'll take a look at that and we'll make decisions we don't want our kids spending their lives testing frankly so we're very cognizant of that so that concludes my
057report i'm happy to answer questions that you might have questions for dr angelo all right thank you thank you next item there's no unfinished business moves us to new business item 12a authorized signatures on state reports dr lamanna this is me i think so yep this is the poseidon i think what you have in your packet is so i think if i recall correctly this is a update on signatures for state reports to include uh dr angelo yep yes that's what it is doctor or dr orndorff as assistant superintendent operations yeah is it that's the next item wonderful so this is for the board's reference authorized signatures on state reports as you all are aware we've included dr orndorf he's come back on an interim basis for us so this would allow him in that
058capacity to um sign state reports for us let's see authorization of signature correct i'm sorry for the delay no no problem questions about that perfect so we'll need a motion to uh authorize dr orndorf to sign state reports so moved second second all right we have emotions and there is a second any questions saying no no proceed to vote all in favor of doing so signify by saying aye aye aye opposed all right motion carries the next one i think we were getting to uh was the appointment of the deputy physical agent right now mrs camry is the physical agent and um the motion proposed by staff would be to have dr angelo as the deputy physical agent to be able to sign checks and the absence of mrs camry which i think from my
059understanding is pretty infrequent i think you're you're working quite a bit so um and mr chairman moved to uh point dr angelo as the deputy fiscal agent is there a second second all right any discussions saying no we'll proceed to vote all in favor of doing so signified by saying aye aye opposed great um before us we had a schedule of school board meetings for the 2023 calendar year hopefully folks had an opportunity to view that i will share kind of my long-standing request is that we get into october i typically attend the national fa convention and expo which typically coincides with that fall retreat so i might request as we move into 2023 to adjust but other than that it looked good to me if other folks had any other questions or recommendations for
060the 2023 calendar move to approve second motion has been made properly seconded in discussion seeing none all in favor of approving the schedule of school board meetings for the 2023 uh calendar so if i was saying aye opposed all right that moves us to actually jump down to item e if that's okay yeah i'll take that mr chairman uh this is something we added to the agenda tonight uh at the beginning of our meeting um let's see where i start this there's 132 school divisions in virginia and they're broken down into nine regions uh the list here uh central tidewater valley blue ridge and so on uh frederick county belongs into the valley region we're in that region with 16 other school divisions uh literally if you got on route 81 at the west virginia
061line and drove 100 miles to stanton as you would go down the interstate and touch right and left with different counties and jurisdictions like harrisonburg city that's that's the valley region and all those school divisions the valley region is organized with a chair and a deputy chair we have meetings have a legislative position that we present in richmond and charlottesville we have things that we do at the annual conference in williamsburg i say we here i've been involved in the valley region for my 11 years on the board i started going to all the meetings down at the williamsburg conference every year and it was just of interest you know what's their problems what are problems you have the same things we do yeah how do you how you know what's a new idea how
062did you approach something and things like that just hearing different different uh points of view so anyway about two years ago i was approached by the executive director of vsva and asked about uh you know maybe taking a little bit different role with valley and so two years ago i was appointed as the vice chair of the valley region wasn't really a big deal i didn't come back and you know make some big announcement about it it was just something i did and attended you know all the functions and all the meetings a function would be um do you recall let's see the first week of may yeah first week of may there was an announcement about the art contest and all the students that have had art entries well that was the valley art
063contest and i helped organize that and um so and we do different other different things too that have to do with business and we we go around to all the different school divisions and have guest speakers and things like that anyway so that was two years ago and so the nominating committee which works with vsba has contacted me recently and asked me if i would be like to be considered for the chair and so what that involves is for the board for the board's interest is that it's y'all remember when we did our elections and we had to go around and get signatures and you know it was you know what remember what you told people you said this this doesn't this just means i'm getting on the ballot you know it doesn't mean you're
064going to vote doesn't mean you're a vote for me and any of that stuff that's exactly what this is and so i have my nice form here my vsba form and with the board's approval tonight i can turn in this form to vspa and then my name will be considered to be uh chair of the valley region and that announcement will be made in williamsburg in november so don't know how it will go but with the board's approval i can turn in this piece of paper we'll see how it goes uh you got it so so that's what i'm asking tonight thank you mr lake it sounds like mr lake wants to invest some time and so do we have a motion to uh moved all right second questions remain properly seconded in discussion mr
065chairman mr comstock i want to thank mr lake's willingness to always be involved in uh vsb and in these extra things and and bring them back to us you do a good job of representing us you represent us well and i appreciate your willingness to serve in that way um so that's it okay thank you i i will add one more thing the valley actions come back to us through vsba things like the delegate assembly if the valley region was to take action on some policy we would only see it through the delegate assembly if we were to vote on something legislative it would be through vsba that we would be notified so just to let you know you know while i've been deputy chair i haven't come back here with a valley report it's
066because the process feeds it to us through vsba so that's how that works so you know just a trust thing there that it's all on the up and up but thank you thank you for that would concur with mr comstock's comments and if there's no further discussion we'll move to a vote all in favor of uh allowing mr lake to proceed uh his candidacy of valley chair signify by saying aye aye opposed all right that motion passes brings us back up to 12d which is board member comments are there any uh miss chair mr lake i'll continue talking [Laughter] so there's been a lot going on uh not with you know necessarily board stuff um the education foundation had a fundraiser on august 5th with a golf event out at winchester country club and mr
067hester and i were involved in that uh in that event uh last friday timber ridge school had their fundraiser golf event and i participated in that our don't forget that it's the fall sports season has five sports girls and boys cross country football we have the girls volleyball and golf and so the sports season is going to ramp up in fact there is two scrimmages this week i know one is thursday at uh for the district skyline james wood high school has a football scrimmage friday night um and then i think the season starts i think the 27 or 20th whatever the last friday is in august anyway so a lot of activity a lot of starting uh james wood high school is going to have an interesting parking thing going on but i'm going
068to tell you they've got it figured out we went out we went up for a tour and i think it will go go well up there but a lot of good stuff starting i was at two schools yesterday morning gainesville elementary in frederick county middle school and um what was said about the excitement the exciting faces was uh it was right on i mean these kids were they just could not wait it was awesome and you know the the dr the drop-off with the parents and the parents coming out and taking the picture the first you know the kid's first day of you know kindergarten in elementary school you can't beat that stuff you can't beat that stuff i don't know what you know it doesn't i'm not going to say it doesn't matter what
069goes on in this board room but i want to tell you what goes on on those sidewalks on the opening day of school every year that's what matters right there so anyway good school year ahead i can't wait thank you mr lake and maybe we should have a meeting or two on the sidewalks mr hester yes mr monk um uh i've got a couple things to say i'm excited for a new school year um first day of school for me is a little bit different i wish i could be out at schools greeting kids but i have three kids of my own and this year three girls at three different schools so it sort of made it difficult with the timing but um you know talking from a personal experience i have two daughters that
070are very excited about being back at school and i've got one daughter that's still dragging a little bit but they are coming back all smiles and everything um very excited about being back at school and i'm looking forward to it's hard to say i have a high schooler now but i do um at james wood and so i even though i am you know supportive of all students you might see me a little bit more with james woods stuff um but anyways um mr lake i do appreciate everything that you um do in and outside um you did forget to mention one thing about the frederick county education golf tournament we're not talking about that and that's about who won and that's myself and my team so you know you miss that one little tidbit
071so if you ever want to come over and look at the trophy the little trophy they gave us you know you're more than welcome to um there um were a couple constituents tonight that did talk about the dress code i'm not saying that um you know we need to put anything together i do think that is something we could review um my daughters have been dress coded and they walk out the door i see them every morning and times change things change our school system is always evolving and i think that um it has been a hot topic across the board and i i can tell you one thing that it does change especially my middle daughter whenever she's been talked to about something which i've approved because it's gone out the door it changes
072the dynamics of her day and so it's just something to look at um you know and and for further discussion i i do i do agree with those constituents that spoke tonight um i would advocate for the fcps 101 program um i'm the one board member up here that's been through that program and i can't i wouldn't be here in this seat if it wasn't for the fcps one 101 program so anybody who would like to um gain more knowledge about the school system and and some of the things that go on behind the scenes that you know some most people don't know about you know it's very educational and um highly worthwhile i do want to thank dr orndog for stepping into the interim superintendent position um you know i i i can't think
073of a better person to to be in that seat so thank you dr orndoff um dr angelo i do want to thank you for stepping up it's been a little crazy summer and and um you had some added roles there for a while and i do want to personally thank you for for everything and dr lamanna i i can't say enough about you i've got the utmost respect for you um and very happy that you are leading this school system while we are going through the search and um just you know the amount of phone calls and and uh emails that i've gotten and support and just of you and what you're doing for us so far is is greatly appreciated so um do want to thank you for that and i do want to
074say uh you know to all the um teachers and staff out there you guys are doing an awesome job so far you know you've spent all summer getting ready for schools hopefully you were able to kick your feet up and have a great summer yourself but let's make this uh 20 22 23 school year the best one yet thank you thank you mr miss white yeah i wanted to um echo mr hester's comments about the dress code i think this is a problem that or a policy we can review and solve um i think historically girls have been um have borne the brunt of these dress codes and the unfairness with it and they take with them anxiety about their bodies and we all know that their bodies come in different shapes and sizes and
075from a medical standpoint there are people that have conditions that make their torsos long their arms long and being able to comply with this dress code would almost be impossible so i wanted to thank people for bringing that up and ms strzke for the bus situation i think you bring up excellent points and i wanted to thank you for pointing that out um i am so proud of our educators our administrators and our staff my daughter came home two days in a row just beaming and she hopped on the bus and to be able to say that you made the right choice in sending your kids to the county schools or it's it's just amazing and we're hearing that from people in the crowd here we're really hearing that from board members and it's a
076testament to the dedication and devotion of especially our educators in a time of uncertainty and i think that i would like to keep up that energy and continue to set the tone on this board for that kind of thing then just thank you so much for your hard work dr angelo and i appreciate you stepping up to serve our community dr lamanna thank you mr adkins uh mr monk i'd like to uh go ahead and say thank you to our educators out there who have uh you know really kicked off uh the school year and uh made it a positive experience being that we're two days in uh dr lamanna thank you for stepping up to the plate and uh you know being the captain of the ship it's you're trying to work yourself out
077of a job and i appreciate that you're uh going through and and finding helping us to find um that superintendent for the students and staff out here um want to go ahead and say the man with the biggest shoulders here in the room though is definitely dr angelo having to step up and wear many many hats uh throughout the process and it's you know i can't you know sing your praises enough for that um uh you know to our students thank you for coming back and having positive attitudes um it's been i know the first day of school is tough for a lot of kids out there there's a lot of anxiety coming back and you know kids going into high school junior high and and you know talking about the dress codes and stuff
078like that you know i do think we can uh look at that and and see where we can make improvements um you know we this is in the 1950s so we understand that but you know we do want to keep it respectable in schools as well you know um so yeah i do think that is something we can look at and uh you know improve upon you know i think everything in this process can be continuous improvement i look toward a uh a uh you know great school year um as mr hester said and uh dr lamoni also said scps 101 i went to a couple of them last year it was awesome dow j was probably my favorite one just because i'm mechanical and i like seeing how stuff is built and it's neat
079and if you're a computer guy or a gal you can go in there and check out um you know the uh the computer science lab and that's awesome you can go in there automotive painting you got this uh like virtual reality thing where you're painting a car i think that's so cool um so yeah it just like mr asher said it there's a lot of stuff to learn and a lot of stuff for parents to go out there and check out so i would advocate for everybody out here to go ahead and sign up i'm gonna try to make as many of them as i can as well um but yep thank you folks for coming out tonight and making your voices heard we appreciate that and um yeah here's a good 2022-2023 school year
080other board member comments ms martin like to say special thanks to patti and dr angelo for all the work you're doing right now because we know that you're under a lot of stress and workload and we appreciate it you're welcome thank you mr comstock might as well just uh make it a full party here mr chairman um i'll try to keep it brief i just want to say thank you um i'm gonna start with two weeks ago trying to remember where we were with my daughter and someone that i ran into a professional associate you know was talking to my daughter and told her to enjoy her last two weeks of summer and she said oh no i can't wait for school she was ready for school and that excitement has continued the past two
081days and it just it brings me so much joy to hear the parents and to hear the reports from teachers and administrators of how good um and how positive the start to the school year has been but where i'm getting to with the thank you is that doesn't happen without us having the most amazing people and we do we have amazing people at all levels um and everyone every single person in this division is a part of that and impacts that whether they're you know the bus driver who greets the student or the custodian who's helping clean up or the teacher everyone at all levels impacts our students and and this entire community and so just thank you to all of our people and thanks to the community members for always being here and always
082being so involved and being so passionate about taking care of the children of this community because that is important that's what we're all here for that's what we're here for um but that's what this whole community right now our focus needs to be on taking care of our kids and i think we're doing a good job of that and i look forward to seeing that continue so thanks thank you mr comstock i'll be brief as well i want to thank you dr angelo and the rest of the team uh we've had a busy summer i'd say and so appreciate the work that you've taken on um with the best of attitudes and and so sincerely uh personally appreciate that and our board um is thankful for that as well i want to update the community
083on the superintendent search uh although we're focused on the startup school we've also been focused simultaneously on that process and so are moving forward as we uh seek a firm to help us in that search process and we'll continue to keep the community updated but i don't want folks to think that we have forgotten about that and are continuously engaged and i think this board has spent quite a bit of time in that process over the past couple weeks so an update there i will address the dress code a little bit i i think that you know can can echo some comments from folks in the community and understand our board members but also want to share that um i know i and i think some other members of the board have chatted about the
084culture of our school system and accountability for students and being sure that students are responsible for their actions and so we have taken that in terms of working with administrators to make sure that policies followed and so don't shoot the messenger of the administrator i think this is something that we can look at but we've had a lot of teachers that when they are talking about why maybe they've left the profession or maybe why they've left further county public schools discipline has been one of those challenges and so i think dress code is definitely an area that we can can look at but i know our administrators at the school level have been working diligently in that discipline area to ensure that teachers feel as if they can focus on teaching and so want to
085commend the administrators on that disciplined focus and and maybe we can redirect a little bit of this dress code experience but um just want to thank them for their work and commitment this year on that discipline aspect because i think that will help our teachers to really focus on what they do best and and i think will help with some of that retention as well so um just wanted to throw that out there recognize and appreciate and understand completely those concerns but also think that um you know we can address the dress code policy but the discipline issue is something that i'm looking forward to our administrators making sure that they're looking after the best interests of students and teachers alike there i also want to to thank our school board folks who showed up
086and for the past couple weeks to a variety of meetings that maybe were unplanned throughout this experience so thank you for your commitment to our students and to our community as well i think each of us over the past year has been engaged for students and we may have difference of opinion of how we ultimately work with students and address them but ultimately it comes down to we both are working towards the interest of those students and so thank you thanks to our team and staff and excited to begin a new school year mr vice chair i move that we adjourn is there a second motion's been made properly secondly a journal in favor of doing so signify saying aye aye we are adjourned