001go ahead and call this meeting of the frederick county school board to order at 6 pm on june 21st 2022 mr monk has requested that the board allow him to participate in tonight's meeting electronically from atlanta georgia due to a personal matter specifically he's participating in a national student leadership conference is there a motion to allow mr monk to participate electronically so moved is there a second second any discussion all those in favor aye aye all opposed all right motion passes mr monk is uh will be joining us electronically um thank you for your attendance this evening if we could start with a moment of silence thank you right good evening um i'd like to thank everyone um who's joined us for this evening's meeting here in the boardroom i'm bradley comstock your vice chair
002and in mr monk's absence i'll run the meeting this evening um thank you for joining us here in the boardroom and through the live stream on the school divisions youtube channel due to on coin construction the restrooms at the admin building are unavailable for use this evening those who need to use the restroom may utilize the facilities outside the doors to my right we have an agenda in front of us are there any amendments or changes to the agenda this evening no sir mr chairman thank you i'll entertain a motion so moved i make a motion to uh accept the agenda as presented thank you motion heard second any discussion all those in favor aye aye aye any opposed all right we have an agenda before us first up on the agenda is the closed
003session mr vice chairman i move that the county school board of frederick county virginia enter a closed session meeting for the following to review and discuss individual personnel matters including appointments resignations and the evaluation of the superintendent pursuant to virginia code section 2.2 3711 8.1 and to review and discuss individual student matters that would involve specific students and particular information contained in their scholastic records including requests for release from compulsory attendance for religious reasons pursuant to virginia code section 2.2 3711 8.2 and i do so move heard the motion is there a second second all those in favor aye aye all right we are in closed session welcome back um good evening i'd like to thank everyone who's joined us for this evening's meeting here in the boardroom and throughout the live stream on the
004school division's youtube channel due to ongoing construction the restrooms at the admin building are unavailable for use this evening those who need to use the restroom may utilize the facilities outside the doors to my right if you would please join me um by standing for the pledge of allegiance mr vice chair uh mr mister you need to reconsider mr vice chair thank you yes sir mr uh lake mr vice chair i move that the board reconvene from closed session thank you we have a motion is there thank you all those in favor aye aye mr vice chair yes sir i move that to the best of each board members knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from open business requirements under virginia freedom of information act were discussed in the closed session and only such
005public business matters as were identified in the motion by which the closed session was convened were heard discussed or considered by the school board we've heard a motion is there a second second mr lake yes mrs white yes ms martin yes mr comstock yes mr hester yes mr adkins yes mr ma yes uh mr vice chair uh we have two motions uh coming out i move to approve the personnel actions as recommended by the superintendent second any discussion all those in favor aye aye motion carries doctors the second motion we're gonna go forward with this motion right here releasing them from compulsory with this motion mr mr light hold on public meetings uh mr vice chair yes sir i moved to approve the personnel actions with a religious exemptions from student a student b student
006c student d and student e and a do so move second any discussion all those in favor aye motion carries all right if you would join me in standing for the pledge of allegiance 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 thank you um mr edwards have we already approved the uh consent agenda no sir okay we have a consent agenda uh before us including minutes from prior meetings use of school property and student trips how would the board like to handle move to approve the consent agenda as presented mr vice chair motion presented second any discussion all those in favor aye aye any opposed all right the motion carries that brings
007us to the citizen and staff comment portion of our evening 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 recognition by the chairman the speaker should clearly state his or her name residing district and the subject of their comments all comments are be are to be addressed to the chair the board will receive comments but will not respond to questions or engage in dialogue this is an opportunity to be heard and the board will refer any
008issues 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 appropriate respect and courtesy to the board 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 we have a few constituents and citizens who have signed up to speak this evening charisse woodward okay um i'm charisse woodward and i'm speaking on behalf of fcea president shaniqua williams in her absence okay june represents a series of endings and a series of new beginnings fcea would like to thank you those of you who are retiring for many years of service they have that have
009provided students with the impact reaching far beyond our local community and extending past the commonwealth for those educators who have chosen to depart fcea wishes you well as you know the choices that were made were not done so in haste and we hope that if you continue employment and education elsewhere that you receive many opportunities and lifelong learning that is to come from that school board members tonight you will review a proposal for the finance committee related to the bonuses for frederick county public schools employees we strongly urge you to accept it's written as written regardless of the employee future status they served these students in an amazing way during the 2021-2022 school year it should go without saying that as our representatives all school board members should be consistent in working with improving relationships
010with the school board of supervisors working against the overall plan that leads to student success and community growth is counterproductive further divisive and otherwise detrimental to all stakeholders please think of the students faculty and staff when you are having conversations as your actions or lack thereof will have a ripple effect that could outlast your tenure to dr savine fcea would like to thank you for the level of professionalism that you have maintained throughout the years your knowledge passion and forward thinking is of the highest value and we appreciate your willingness to engage with the community members on a personal level as many across our county took a great deal of interest in the school board budget this year speaking strictly from an educator perspective this school year has felt extremely challenging the continuous staff shortfalls
011to the greater need to support students both academically and emotionally to the varying public opinions about covid to the overwhelming feeling that no matter how hard we work our school board seeks to make a difficult job even more impossible despite all we have survived and our students have thrived we appreciate every sacrifice experienced by all and hope that this summer affords moments of reflection and joy as we have all earned it we would like to encourage all f all members of fcea and employees of frederick county public schools to relax retirees thank you for your dedication throughout the decades we look forward to hearing of the newfound adventures and journeys taken additionally stay informed the world of education is constantly changing and it is always best to have your own personal knowledge base of what
012is going on around you school board members we hope you will use this summer to improve relationships and seek strengthen strengthening relationships in our community we look forward to helping welcoming students and staff back in two months thank you thank you next up we have sean tibbetts hello my name is in sean tibbetts i'm in mr atkins district i'm here to talk about the fcps local plan for the education of the gifted as a parent who's just been through this process i have five things i'd like to point out the beginning that should be changed one they should schedule parent meetings immediately following identification letters being sent home to inform parents which days and times their children will be pulled from class so they can be prepared with a proper breakfast and a conversation about
013focus three they should inform the parents of which assessment tools will be used so they can prepare for those tests just like in a c t s a t or s s o l uh four all documentation and communication should be provided electronically instead of in the mail we've already lost one of the really important pieces of papers can't find it um i don't think that's my time is that my time got a minute wow okay um so my daughter was scored in the 95th percentile for math not good enough for fcps gifted program checker reading scores 99th percentile top 1 percent in the country not good enough for the fcps gifted program because she didn't score high enough on the 15 point eligibility matrix the problem with the 15 point eligibility matrix is it
014doesn't exist in the local plan in fact the local plan says specifically quote the school division does not allow any single criterion to deny or guarantee eligibility for general intellectual gifted services and that's exactly what happened to my daughter and i'm sure has happened to hundreds of other children in our district other than that their standardized tests the plan says that they will use the king or observation inventory the denial letter said they used the kaufman brief intelligence test and the wesler individual achievement test both of which have preparation materials available for them just like an act sat or the sol please address the gifted program in our school system we need more gifted kids identified not excluded thank you thank you sir [Applause] karen dredsky good evening mr vice chair mr chairman on the
015screen board members dr sovine i'm karen dredske i'm in the gainesboro district and i come with two requests for you this evening mr leek has heard at least one of them the first one is that i would like to request that with all of our committees that the school board has that we add a citizen to those committees two reasons one it gives you an opportunity to have a parent and maybe in some cases it's two people maybe it's a citizen a parent or a grandparent who is concerned and maybe for example buildings and grounds maybe we look for the ground whoever the staff person is who manages the most difficult grounds or the largest or who's been here the longest and given the most service and has the most knowledge to be included in
016those committees to kind of round them out a little bit i would really like to see that if possible and the second thing comes from having gone to the rise programs um presentations which my child is a part of and afterwards i i saw mr monk and i saw mr lake um asking the kids some questions and it was very interesting to observe their body language and and and what they said and didn't say and later on heard my son make the comment that students didn't necessarily say what they thought because their teachers were around and they didn't want to have to worry about their grades being affected and that's not the first time i've heard that from students and i was reminded of something when i was in school and it was not here
017in frederick county growing up that i would love to see us implement for our high school students when i was in high school the last day of our classes 15 minutes before class was over the teacher picked up a manila envelope and asked for a volunteer from the students she then proceeded he or she then proceeded to hand out paper survey forms and left the room the students were able to provide anonymous feedback on their class and on their teachers the volunteer then took the and collected all of those put them in the manila envelope sealed it and took it to the office for the principal and i think that would be a really great way to make sure that all of our principals and our administration has an opportunity to really hear how our
018students feel about our teachers it would also give the teachers feedback we've got some really excellent teachers and i think it would be really useful for them to hear the really good feedback and teaching just like every other profession every other job i'm sure we have some people who could use some improvement and it would make sure that our administration is aware of those areas when that comes up where a student might be afraid to say something because they're afraid of their grade or repercussions etc so those are the two requests that i have for you this evening to give consideration to but i would like to see that done for our high school students thank you thank you christy scarborough hello members of the board my name is christy scarborough of the stonewall district
019i'm here today to talk about your grievance process i've complained about two of your frederick county public school employees and both times i have been denied knowing the outcome of those complaints as well as an opportunity to appeal the decisions made on those complaints vernon bach has handled my complaints and when asked for updates i get told that i don't get to know anything past my initial complaint now i've read your policies and i've read the virginia code sections that your policies reference which by the way allow me an opportunity to appeal so why is this administration denying me that ability do you mean to tell me that this administration takes complaints and then denies due process by refusing to let the person know the outcome of the complaint and an opportunity to appeal do
020you really expect the members of this community to trust this administration the same administration that discriminated against many of its students to then investigate themselves and in secrecy how kafka-esque of frederick county public schools you know this sounds an awful lot like you take complaints and after pretending to investigate you just immediately toss those complaints into a paper shredder so that you can shield your buddies from taking accountability for their slip ups i'm here to tell this board that i want to know the status of my two complaints i want my opportunity to appeal them and i want you all to follow your own policies regarding due process and to those grievances that are made that's it thank you thank you and christy chap hello my name is christy jett i'm a resident of gainesboro
021and i'm speaking regarding the recent i guess challenge working its way through the process regarding a fourth grade reading textbook i want my children to be challenged by what they learn in the classroom i think my children benefit from exposure to and education about other cultures whether we like it or not our country's history is rooted in sometimes very damaging interactions with other cultures slavery displacement of other peoples but we've also produced some good things religious liberties and emphasis on personal freedom an education about that history that offends no one is not much of an education but i also try to imagine myself on the other side of the equation and i think there's people in this room that probably don't want me picking the curriculum for their child any more than i want them
022picking the curriculum for mine so as a parent of a rising fourth grader and this is information for anyone else any other parents that are concerned i reached out to my school's principal and i asked i said what recourse do i have if the school board votes to keep the material as is which was recommended by the lower committees she clarified for me that the textbook module in question is part of a reading series this means that it is intended to um the focus is on the child's reading skills not the content therefore the teacher can simply offer an alternate module for that student the teacher can even choose to skip that module entirely for the entire class that is up to the teacher's discretion so at the end of the day we all may
023have slightly different views about what should be taught in our schools but that is why the schools have a process the schools had several committees made up of parents and staff and those committees all voted to keep the material as is so listen to the parents on the two lower committees prior to this meeting that voted to keep the material as is we should all remember that is neither required reading nor required teaching thank you [Applause] that's everyone who has signed up are there any other citizens yes ma'am good evening board uh priscilla bolito thank you for giving me the last moment i didn't sign up thank you for giving me a moment just to clarify my son asked for an alternative reading assignment and the teacher gave him an ultimatum and told him to
024do it or receive a zero you can confirm that with mr strong thank you okay any other citizens yes sir thank you for your service the recent actions by the majority of the board of supervisors uh is driven by either ignorance on how school systems are funded or as an attempt to systematically discredit frederick county public schools to say as did one supervisor i can accept if mistakes are were made is condescending indeed there are not mistakes made allocations of state and federal funds and costs change as do line item expenses school board is an autonomous body as codified in virginia constitution such action by the board of supervisors prevents the school board from discharging its constitutional responsibilities school board is not a department it is not a committee of the board of supervisors any
025demands which put the school board in a subservient role to the board of supervisors should be dismissed and politely ignored the school board board particularly its leadership must stand up and push back and advocate for frederick county public schools and re-establish its autonomy to have the school board receive a spoon fed like revenue to operate and cannot stand frederick county public schools is not a mom-and-pop operation running on daily cash flow it is the largest employee of frederick county school board leadership must assert itself as an equal partner with the board of supervisors in representing the interests of our county thank you i think that brings us to the end of our citizen staff comments we've already approved the minutes so that takes us to the report section of the evening yes sir thank you
026mr vice chair [Music] it's my pleasure to present this month's superintendent's report would like to first congratulate the nearly 1 100 seniors who received their diplomas during commencement exercises at james wood millbrook and sherando high schools earlier this month each ceremony celebrated the outstanding achievements of the class of 2022 and included traditions held dear to each school thank you to everyone involved in the planning of these events the ceremonies were live streamed by our extremely talented media team and the videos of each ceremony will be made available on the school divisions youtube channel in the very near future i also want to share that the members of the class of 2022 and our three high schools received nearly 5.5 million dollars in scholarships combined this year certainly worth applause yes that total includes 70 scholarships
027totaling just over 83 500 that were presented by our frederick county educational foundation certainly appreciate the support of our educational foundation also like to congratulate millbrook high school rising senior nick hayden and sherando high school 2000 2022 graduate ella carlson for winning state titles at the class 4a state track and field championships earlier this month nick won the 800 meter race while ella won the state championship in the discus also we'd like to congratulate our james wood high school baseball team on the outstanding season which ended with a loss to hanover high school and the state 4a championship throughout their playoff run the members of the team showed outstanding grit and determination and represented our community exceedingly well i'd like to share that there's a great deal of activity taking place at the former robert
028e ehler middle school this week as the facility plays host to the catholic diocese of arlington work group over the course of this week hundreds of students and adult leaders will be staying at the school and going out into the community each day to complete home repairs and other projects frederick county public schools last hosted the the work group in 2020 when it was based at frederick county middle school mr vice chair members of the board that concludes my report thank you dr savine that brings us to the assistant superintendent for administration thank you and good evening mr chairman dr savannah members of the school board my membership report for this evening is uh for enrollment from may 31st uh 2022. uh since my last report to you on april 30th enrollment we have increased
029by one student to 13987 and we have additions in withdrawal with additions and withdrawal we added four students at the elementary level decreased by four students at the middle level and increased by one student at the high school level and this represents the net increase in enrollment by one student the most notable change in enrollment since my last report was observed at the high school level by adding six students in 12th grade and decreasing by five students in tenth grade there were no no worthy changes in enrollment at any of our schools and we still have just a reminder we still have several of our schools that are over enrolled we have james wood high school at 112 enrollment capacity millbrook high school at 113 percent sherando is our highest at 119 percent of its
030enrollment capacity armel elementary school at 112 percent bass hoover at 105 percent jordan springs elementary school at 104 and finally middletown elementary school at 109 percent mr chairman this concludes my update on enrollment i'm happy to answer any questions does the board have any questions for mr buck thank you mr buck thank you dr angelo the assistant superintendent for instruction yes sir mr vice chairman members of the board um dr savine i am pleased to be able to give you an update for those of you who are on the board prior to november you may recall that we applied for and received a grant from virginia department of education about a year ago it was a innovation planning grant we also received separately the designation as being a division of innovation and i'm going to
031give you an update on those two things do i need to i think dr savan's presentation probably still up yours up all right i'm gonna attempt to function with two laptops here um notes on one presentation on the other so just to give you a kind of an overview of um of what this means for us the innovation planning grant is really focused on the work of greenwill greenwood mill elementary school and admiral byrd middle school focused in on problem-based learning and you may recall about a year little over a year ago byrd middle school did a presentation on their approach to problem-based learning and you may remember students giving an explanation and the difference between problem-based learning and project-based learning we're really focused on the problem-based learning project being um often too heavily focused
032on the activity and not enough on on the learning and and problem-solving experiences um these two things are aligned to inspire 2025 certainly at each school at bird and at greenwood mill and we chose these two schools for this grant for two reasons one they're both working on the same thing the problem-based learning and the other of course is that greenwood mill feeds entirely into bird middle school now with the uh the shift in um attendance zones thank you once taylor opened up couldn't come up with a word um the other is the in the division of innovation designation which does not come the grant by the way is a two-year grant um we received right around 42 000 for this year as a planning grant and we have applied for and won't hear back
033until august for the second part of that grant which is another 42 000 for implementation for those two schools the division of innovation designation is is simply that it's a designation it does not come with a grant award and that's really focused in on jordan springs frederick county middle james wood high school and then scaling up division wide and so i'm really the focus of that again is around the work that we're doing with inspire 2025. so we're going to talk about the innovation planning grant first this is broad strokes what the goals are of that grant really for teachers and leaders to learn about and begin to apply that problem-based learning and connecting it to the portivity portrait of a graduate and one of the things that we're doing with problem with the problem-based
034learning if you've heard of design thinking design thinking is a concept where you look at the end user and you solve a problem based on the needs of the end user rather than what you think the problem the solution of the problem should be and then having students engage in meaningful and authentic learning experiences and certainly increasing ultimately increasing motivation for students and promoting self-regulation in students so we've been busy but in a in a different way than we anticipated being busy um we had mapped out plans to um to take some visits this past year uh there's a an organization called ido i don't know if any of you are familiar with ideo it's run by it was started up by a gentleman named david kelly who leads the design school d-school at stanford
035and david kelly just to give you an idea of who he is and what he's done designed the ball for the mouse he was the one who came up with the idea of a seamless ball for the mouse and his whole idea of design thinking is really to take a look at what is the need of the end user as i just described and he actually brings he they design something they bring people in they let them try it out and then they make adjustments based on that feedback so that's kind of the approach we're taking we were not able to go to ido obviously because travel was pretty well restricted um and just challenging and not just travel but honestly taking people out of the buildings for an extended period of time in order
036to be a way to to visit ido and get a sense of what that looks like in the real world and then bring that back to a school classroom as you know the substitute teacher challenge this past year really created a lot of vacancies without being filled so we opted not to do that instead we partnered with goshen post elementary school in loudoun county which is what's called a wall-to-wall pbl school problem-based learning school so we visited that school we also visited harmony middle school in personville and uh both of those schools of course one is an elementary one is the middle we did that by design because each of our schools that were you know we're focusing on his middle and high school and we we took two separate days two separate groups so
037we all visited both schools but on different days and i was really proud of our teachers and our and our administrators going through because rather than going in and taking a look and saying okay we see this now let's bring that back to our schools they looked at it with a critical eye and they looked at it and said you know what this is great for what they're doing and what they're doing is really important work and it's it's really solid for kids but we need to apply these concepts to our school community and the needs of our school community and and our kids um and we feel like we can do it just a little bit differently and it's not certainly not a knock on what they're doing because they're doing some incredible work
038and the kids are definitely engaged but we need to look at our strategic plan and our you know inspire 2025 and our competencies so i was really proud that it wasn't just we're going to go look at these ideas and just bring them back and implement them which would be the opposite of design thinking right so design thinking is really about looking at this is our school community these are our kids and so this is what we're going to do differently and and really start planning and mapping that out the other cool thing is not only have our teachers been busy with this type of work but our kids have too our our teachers have already started implementing some of these concepts and we'll go deeper in next year and broader and expand so these
039are just some social media posts from the two schools and this is just a sampling of what they've experienced um one of them is fourth grade students in greenwind mill i'm just gonna sort of go from left to my left to right fourth grade students in greenwood mill working with first grade students to share with them how we can mitigate the effects of pollution within our own community so it's authentic it's here it's close by and it's fourth grade students sharing what they learned with the the first grade students which was really cool for those older students and also really cool for the younger kids too uh the next uh image over some of you may have gone to the field day at greenwood mill elementary school that occurred a couple of weeks ago that
040was 100 planned and designed by third grade students and talking about yeah that deserves a woo um talking about talking about design thinking they surveyed the students in the school and their their question was how do we give students at greenwood mill elementary school an experience they will remember forever and so they could come up with some ideas but that may not be what matters to the students in the school and so they talked to other students um every grade level they said what would you like to see what would you like to see how can we make this really engaging and fun and interesting for you and then they designed it and they coordinated the whole thing the only thing they didn't do that the teachers did was really organize the parent volunteers um
041but they researched the activities that they had heard about they completed a fundraiser to raise money to get some things that they would rent because they did rent some things um they actually built a uh like a miniature golf like they created their own miniature golf course um behind the school they took videos of themselves going through each one of they wrote out the directions and how to go about doing it they took video of themselves going through each station and they pushed those videos out during their morning show so that everybody could see it was like a teaser for what was to come but it also was instructive to the younger kids so this is what you're going to be doing totally designed and implemented by third grade students and let me tell you
042i was there i'm not sure if anybody um else was there i know dr savine attended and to talk to the kids they were so pumped about that experience and the teachers were too the teachers had a lot of fun the the next image is i believe it was second grade students who created a crazy crayon i think is what it was called they designed it they created it they made it and then they were selling it and they decided as a group to take the money that they had raised and donate it to a local community um charity that they they hadn't i don't know that they've identified or had identified what that was by the time i put this together so i'm not sure what it was to be honest with you um
043and then at bird middle school they created a community garden they partnered with the garden club locally and they researched what would be the right thing to grow how to make sure that that doesn't get my big challenge eaten by rabbits and and they actually built a raised bed they designed it they built it you can see them doing that in the in the one image and then they planted and then the last thing the last image there is a salad with the vegetables from the community garden so it was actually used so all all experiences that students had that were they were learning the content they were also learning how to problem solve they were learning how to work together they were learning how to recognize sometimes when your idea isn't the one that
044is chosen is the idea and how to manage that so some sort of coping skills and just really really good experiences for the students and some good community partnerships as well so next steps for the innovation grant we have through research and i can't say we it was actually the instructional technology coach at bird middle school um identified a couple of different options for how to move forward with some professional learning around pbl and and actually found a gentleman who does pbl by design so really truly combines problem-based learning with design thinking um and we're going to um the the site licenses are very inexpensive we're using grant funding no local money at all to pay for these site licenses and the teachers will have access to those voluntarily if they do it over the
045summer we'll pay them a certain amount of money for doing that based on how many they how many they watch and then we're looking at engaging with this individual through the school year to maybe come out and do some some direct professional learning and then walk into classrooms and give feedback on application of that so we're excited about that the other thing is we're looking at um engaging in lesson study where we will provide release time again through grant funds um we'll provide release time and teachers will be able to plan together and and what we're what we're really looking at and what teachers have told us that they would like to be able to do is across levels so bird teachers collaborating with greenwood mill teachers sitting through and giving feedback on the planning
046process and then going in and actually observing watching what's happening in the classroom based on what that planning is and providing feedback and having some reflective conversations afterwards the teachers in the leadership team they're very excited and then we're looking for organizations that apply design thinking locally uh we know we can't travel too far um still with the substitute teacher question mark we don't want to be away that that long out of the building um but so we're looking for opportunities locally that we can actually see design thinking in action so that's next steps for the innovation grant the division of innovation i won't read these goals to you but you can see they're very similar that's by design because this is completely focused on the work around inspire 2025 so certainly we don't want
047to do something that's off the beaten path from our strategic plan so these are some of the things this is not planning this is actually implementing so the the two primary pilots for this year frederick county middle the next program and james wood high school the rise program and so many of you and it was referenced this evening i actually appreciate that feedback that's something that um you know we can we can talk with the teachers about and try to see how we can get um feedback from students in a different way but the rise showcase presentation they had a couple of those this school year and the most recent one was in may that was a culminating project and just amazing what the kids have really researched and taken a deep dive into and
048they did it independently on their own um really exploring what their passions were you know based on their interest but they pulled the content from the entire year aspects of the content from the entire year in um below the the bottom picture is one of the earlier rise showcase presentations and then on the far right my far right is the next project which is the frederick county middle school school project that's a blend of seventh and eighth grade students and those are examples of their learning showcase evening that occurred just a couple of weeks ago as well but this is the beauty of this we talked about scaling up in the division so there are also two images there of professional learning one with administrators and one with teachers because we're really focusing in and
049you may remember we put out an invitation it was voluntary for teachers and just invited people to be part of this and we had no idea how many we were going to get and we got 177 teachers who came four times throughout the year for a half day professional learning session and um got very very good feedback on that which was actually anonymous and so we feel like the feedback we got and when i say very good feedback i don't mean it was all a hundred percent positive i mean we got really good feedback that will help us with next steps very actionable feedback and it's not what we're talking about is not just happening at james with middles james wood high school in frederick county middle and there is an image in there of
050apple pie ridge elementary school which is also engaging students in this way not part of the focus but it is certainly doing doing the good work and so that's like a market to market the students invented something they created it and then they sold it market to market using um like paper money not real money but paper money so it's happening in other places not just at those two schools so our next steps this is part of the feedback that we received we have we have really recognized that our teachers want to inspire them inspire the learning of other teachers and we've had informal conversations with teachers about so next year when we try to engage another group of students or another group of teachers rather in this work would you be interested in being
051part of that in any way and we have had a number of teachers who have said i would love to do that i would love to plan people giving us feedback about i have ideas about how this could have gone differently and been more meaningful for our teachers and and i want to be a part of that some people are interested in planning that work but not necessarily really working directly and implementing implementing that professional learning others would like to do both some have indicated what they'd like to do is go into classrooms and do what we were talking about at greenwood mill and maybe provide some coaching and support to teachers as they try to do this work so they want to be involved and if our teachers want to be involved supporting other
052teachers we are definitely going to take them up on that so we're excited about that so that's the next steps for division of innovation and i don't know if you can see the quote in that green dot that is a second grade student from apple pie ridge elementary school and it says i learned and i'm going to hope that i can read this from here i learned that i could actually learn about a topic by making my own learning choices without my teacher telling me that is a second grade kid that's what we're after that's motivation right so very excited about forward movement and where we're going and i just want to say i shared this presentation with the four principals who are the focus of of the grant and the designation and i said
053you know i want you to share this with the teachers that were involved in this because you guys should be i mean really have reason for pride um in a really really tough very challenging year a year where they were covering classes on their planning they were they were planning outside of the day lots of difficult situations that arose this year and they didn't blink as as glenn always says they didn't blink they kept moving and uh and it's just it really says something about the commitment to our students when even in the face of all those challenges and stress our teachers and our and our school leaders uh kept going forward for because it was the right thing for our kids so just want to give a shout out not just to those four
054principals certainly but um to all of them because in in some way all of them are engaged in this work mr vice chair that concludes my report and i'm happy to answer and respond to any questions thank you dr angelo any questions or comments from the board uh mr vice chair sorry about my voice everybody being the cpap machine didn't get long so um anyway when i was uh uh running uh and all the project-based learning and design learning was coming out it really uh motivated me because that's just one of the big things that um i really appreciate is we're taking this and putting it into real life scenarios um golly um these kids are going to end up having to work with other people in the communities they're going to have to like
055everybody else out here try to figure out how to solve problems in one way or another i think it is a way to keep those kids engaged rather than just sitting behind a desk so i want to applaud you and the rest of the staff for actually getting this involved or implemented i appreciate thank you thank you [Applause] yes ma'am yes i think that the this creative learning basically is what it is is fantastic and i truly appreciate the ones that built their own beds to raise vegetables in i think that's something that needs to come back to the community so that our own community can provide for itself and learning learning this process with children is tremendously important thank you mr martin appreciate that any other board members dr angelo thank you thank you
056for your you and your team's work on this and more importantly thank you for supporting and allowing our teachers um i know that our teachers and i think anyone up here would would agree our teachers have a lot on their plate and uh sometimes they feel like it's everything they can do to just get through the day and get everything that they're supposed to done um and that they have to done so um empowering our teachers and giving them the opportunities and the freedom to do these things i appreciate that thank you so much all right seeing no unfinished business we'll move into new business um items a b and c if the board has their packet with them these are all bylaw changes and um mr edwards any any comments on those i know
057that this is a first reading um so we wouldn't take action on these until next month however just administrative changes as i was looking through i didn't see anything substantial yeah that would be my only comment the rationale or the reason for these proposed changes is included in the memo i think in all cases it's as a result of a change in code due to action by the general assembly thank you mr edwards i think if any board members were to if you would please um at some point before the next meeting review those um and be in a position to take action on them if you do have any questions or comments about them please reach out to mr edwards in the chair prior to the next meeting with that policy items d uh
058let's see agenda items d through hrl policy items and the board if you have your packet with you there we would be in a position to discuss and take action on those if the board is so ready so i'm starting with policy 217p administration non-discrimination if you have that one up any any questions or comments regarding that one or what's the pleasure of the board on that one so just for clarification this first time we've seen this this was not out of committee right correct these are ones that did not exactly fit into one of the committees necessarily yeah all right mr vice chair i move that we suspend rule for a second reading on policy 217p administration non-description non-discrimination and uh and pass as presented thank you mr lake since it's not a bylaw
059we don't have to by law we don't have to do a second reading so we don't have to suspend um we can just proceed with adopting it mr edwards that's correct yes sir it's only the 100 series that was only a second i'm sorry that's only for bylaws bylaws require bylaws require a first and second reading at the board's discretion it may adopt all other policies aside from bylaws the first time it comes to the board so there's no need to suspend the rules there's no rule that requires a first and second reading for anything other than a by-law so your motion could be simply to adopt if that's the desire of the board okay good uh all right mr vice chair uh i move that we accept policy 217 p administration non-discrimination we have
060a motion in a second any discussion on that policy all those in favor any opposed and motion carries mr vice chair i move that we accept policy to 21p administration school crisis emergency management and medical emergency response plan we have a motion second and a second any discussion all those in favor any opposed and the motion carries uh mr vice chair i move that we accept policy 224 p administration threat assessment teams you have a motion do we have a second motion and a second any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed the motion carries uh mr vice chair i move that we accept policy 603 p appendix community relations request for public records we have a motion second and a second any discussion all those in favor aye any
061opposed motion carries and finally mr vice chair i move that we accept policy 727p operations and finance school service providers use of student personal information we have a motion one second and a second any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye all opposed and the motion carries mr hester are you ready you guys are going to get sick of me for the next about 10 minutes but yes i am ready to go um the finance committee met at the frederick county public schools administration building on may 10th the meeting was called to order at 4 30 p.m and a copy of the minutes has been provided to each board member during the meeting mrs camry reviewed a recommendation to reward re award a contract for hvac improvements at nrip at cincinnati road
062school and stated coronavirus funds will be used for the project dr savine updated the committee on work being done to identify and bring forward a recommendation for a meaningful bonus for all employees prior to the end of fiscal year 2022. he also highlighted the possibility of having funds available to support a paid differential for special education teachers speech therapists special education instructional assistants behavior specialists and behavior instructional assistants depending upon the availability of state funds mrs camry reviewed the appropriation approved by the frederick county board of supervisors on may 4th and the priority of projects which are to be completed through the capital projects fund depending on the amount of state funds made available no local funds were appropriated for the capital projects fund in fy23 the meeting adjourned at 5 21 pm additional details
063regarding 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 finance committee meeting held on may 10th one question um sorry i gotta whisper in this thing again um did we ever find out if there's any state funds or what that's going to look like at this point just to be certain i'm clear are you talking about state funds for capital projects we're working through those details now okay thank you and we'll follow up appreciate it thank you mr vice chair there were two action items that came out of this meeting recommend awarding a contract valued at 2 298 000 to paramount mechanical corporation as a result of ifb22006 in rep hvac improvements we have a motion
064before us second motion and a second any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye the motion the motion care the motion carries okay um instruction committee uh your minutes oh yes i'm sorry i'm getting ahead of myself of my novel up i've got up here recommend approval of the minutes from the finance committee meeting held on may 10 2022. so moved we have a motion and a second any discussion all those in favor say aye aye motion carries okay the instruction committee met at the frederick county public schools administration building on may 19th the meeting was called to order at 405 and a copy of the minutes has been provided to each board member during the meeting dr angelo reviewed regulation 304-c instruction steps for ra reconsideration of educational materials and the
065process used to address a request to reconsider h m h intro reading grade 4 book 1. dr angelo reported a school-level committee comprised of four parents and three staff members reviewed the book and heard from the parent who made the request the committee voted 6-1 to retain the book after the parent who requested the book is be reconsidered appealed the school level committee's decision a division level committee that included seven parents and six staff members held three meetings to review the book the parent presented her concerns to the committee and two local profession professors with experience and literate literacy acquisition also met with the committee dr angelo reported the division level committee voted 7-6 to retain hmh intro reading grade 4 book 1 as a resource dr angelo also shared the publisher of the textbook
066was not made was not aware of any request to reconsider the text in any other school divisions in addition he noted 33 other school divisions in virginia use hmh intro reading grade 4 book 1 and none have received any request to reconsider the text dr angelo also stated these committee members who recommended modifications be made to the text supported not using two specific stories that are included in the book dr angelo also informed the committee that teachers are not required to use the text in these in in its entirety additional details regarding the committee meeting are included in the minutes provided to board members do board members have any questions about what was covered at the instruction committee meeting held on may 19th i had no questions but i do have a comment um so
067during um our committee meeting we discussed this and it does look pretty clear that you know at the school level where it was 6-1 and then we get parents involved and now become seven six so there is a growing number of parents who think this uh book is inappropriate and they they're with the um uh two folks that we brought in from the local college um the literacy experts they're not the the literacy value of this book was not in question the content was this is a fourth grade book and were actively in my opinion teaching how to be racist i i work primarily with hispanic folks um i took this to work and asked them their opinion on it and that's exactly what they said they said we're teaching kids in fourth grade how
068to be racist i said look you know i'm all about taking a book and let's teach the kids let's teach them about whatever but this is a fourth grade literacy book this isn't a social studies book this isn't some kind of social experiment book this is a literacy book that's what we should be teaching these kids if you want to teach them any of your values at home hey great but that's not what the school's made for so i voted to modify this and take out those two stories thank you mr chairman by me um i read the book in its entirety from cover to cover to include the appendix this text is incredibly valuable there was even in the appendix phonetic assistance and how to pronounce things phonetically in addition i purchased the we
069are latinos book supplemental to the module and also very helpful mr atkins i also did utilize the assistance of people that i work with from latin america and i do host a latin american in my home and i took the liberty to interview her specifically in addition to my colleagues i took the liberty to reach out to an associate professor at shenandoah university who is the associate professor of hispanic studies they let me know that this is a lived experience of people in our nation it's important to tell these stories furthermore there was an additional literacy expert that weighed in on this and was very very well aware of this text it's very helpful finally i took the liberty of reaching out to the virginia chapter of federation of the blind and while they were
070a little taken aback by a story about a blind individual written by a blind individual they again stated that these are lived experiences by people with disabilities and people that identify as latin americans chinese americans and it's very important that we tell these stories thank you i think um is did the committee recommend action on that specific item i i think are there any other questions from the board regarding specifically what happened in the meeting and then i think we'll get into a deeper conversation on this one before the board votes okay um uh there were two action items that came out of the committee report first recommend retaining hmh intro reading grade for book one so we have a motion to retain that material from the committee is there a second any further discussion
071regarding that i know we've heard a little bit of that already any further discussion regarding that material and the vote to retain that material mr vice chair yes sir uh i'll be brief um i know mr atkins and miss white have shared their perspective on this and um was able to review what happened in the instruction committee and um believe that with modification we could do some work to limit some of the division that this book may um so and so i would support the modification piece but couldn't support keeping in its entirety thank you mr chair any other comments from board members yes sir um we did discuss this at the committee level and i just want to reiterate that we do have a process for this and it went through the full process
072started at the school level the parent appealed which is their right and it came to the administration level um and it went through the process um we have processes for for a reason and so um i just wanted to reiterate it that there was nothing you know outside the norm and it went through the process and at the end of the day um both committees recommended keeping the vote thank you mr vice chair yes sir um well it hasn't went through the process because we're not through the process we are the final component to the process so no we are the elected officials who represent our communities i've got people uh that man this voice thing's terrible um but i've got people reaching out to me saying this is bad this is bad news and
073this is where everybody's coming up with uh crt light equity all this other stuff um and it's sewing division in the community i've i'm all about hey the experts say it's a great book for literacy awesome let's keep it with modifications thank you mr atkins um dr angelo may i ask you a question an instructional question if a student or parent even were to request that their student be exempted from having to use a certain material what would is there a procedure in place for that and what what should that look like yeah they they should request that through the school through the teacher first and then to the principal um we have that routinely at certain levels um i'll give you an example edgar allan poe which is typically there's a story used in
074middle school and often when i was a middle school principal we had you know probably one parent per year who said i don't want my child reading that and we just provide an alternate material and we would do the same and i i'm sorry that mrs boleto had that experience i'm sorry mrs boleto mrs bolito mrs boleto i'm sorry and and we will make sure that we would communicate that out to principals so they're fully aware of that um again but uh yes they would have the opportunity to opt out to a different to a different resource for those specific stories yeah thank you i think that we have a motion before us um i'll offer my two cents before we vote um mrs bolito i appreciate um your passion for taking care of and
075protecting your children mrs bolito thank you um what i'm reminded of is you probably don't hear my story a situation in sixth grade when i was a student where we were learning about greek mythology and i was so firm in my beliefs of christianity that i didn't want to learn about greek mythology and tried to get out of the assignment and my mom actually wrote a letter and anyways turned into a whole big deal i know this is slightly different but i i guess what i'm getting at is you know i think learning and looking at other perspectives is not a harmful thing if it's presented in the right way and if a parent makes that decision which in that case my mom did makes that decision to out you know have their child excused
076from a particular thing that they're not comfortable with if the system has failed you in that regard then i think that's a different conversation that we escalate properly after administration to to mr bach and dr angelo so i think moving forward i don't think it's in the best interest of our division to start limiting materials and removing materials i don't think that's our place especially this is a material that is on the state approved list um you know and so i think there could be benefit for some people to have exposure to that so that's my two cents but i think we're ready to vote um so all those in favor just yes sir let's do a roll call vote and just as a reminder this vote is to retain that material um in its
077fullness within our division yes ma'am so we'll do a roll call vote and mr lake yes mrs white yes ms martin no mr comstock yes mr hester yes mr adkins no mr monk no the motion carries okay uh second action item recommend approval of the minutes from the instruction committee meeting held on may 19 2022. we've heard a motion was there and a second all those in favor aye aye aye all right that's one of the instruction committee mr hester okay the instruction committee met at the frederick county public schools administration building on may 26th the meeting was called to order at 4 10 p.m and a copy of the minutes has been provided to each board member during the meeting supervisor of school counseling and the english learners program sylvia restivo reviewed the title
078iii part a application the grant is estimated to be one hundred thousand six hundred and six dollars and fourteen cents director of elementary instructional services jerry swagger reviewed the plan for title 1 part a that grant is estimated to be 1754 dollars and 12 cents director of student support services theresa rittenhouse reviewed the title 1 part d plan that grant is estimated to be 71 916 and 92 cents in addition supervisor of social studies and health and wellness dj cavalier reviewed a recommendation to adopt glencoe teen health as a textbook for sixth seventh and eighth grade health and the glencoe health as the textbook for health one the books were provided for community members and parents to review from march 28 2022 through april 14 2022 and received no negative comments the total cost of
079the textbook adoption is 671.76 which is under budget finally science supervisor of science and visual arts kelly atkin reviewed the textbook recommendations for high school science courses the recommendations and recommendations included virginia miller in levine biology for biology 1 and honors biology 1. campbell biology 12th edition for ap biology essentials of human anatomy and physiology 13th edition for biology 2. theory and applications human anatomy and physiology 11th edition for anatomy and physiology 1 and 2. piercing chemistry for chemistry 1 and honors chemistry 1 chemistry ap edition 10th edition for ap chemistry inspire earth science for earth and space science one and honors earth and science and space science essentials physics for physics one theory in applications and applications in physics 11th ap edition for ap physics 1 and 2. dr atkins stated that books were
080provided for community members and parents to review from march 2 2022 through march thirtieth twenty twenty two the total cost of this textbook adoption is five hundred thirty three thousand two dollars and twelve cents which is under budget additional items regarding the committee meeting are included in the minutes provided to board members do board members have any questions about what was covered at the instruction committee meeting held on may 26th that's a big one any motions coming from that committee meeting give me one second there were a couple actions i had a couple action items that came out of this recommend approval of the title three part a application we have a motion before us second and a second any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye all opposed and the motion
081carries recommend approval of the title 1 part a application second we have a motion and a second any discussion all those in favor signify by saying aye aye any opposed motion carries recommend approval of the title 1 part d application second we have a motion and a second any discussion all those in favor say aye aye aye the motion carries recommend the board adopt glencoe teen health for sixth seventh and eighth grade health and glencoe health for health one second we have a motion and a second any discussion all those in favor aye aye the motion carries recommend the board adopt virginia miller in levine biology for biology 1 in honors biology 1 campbell biology 12th edition for ap biology essentials of human anatomy and physiology 13th edition for biology 2 theory and applications human
082anatomy and physiology 11th edition for anatomy and physiology 1 and 2 piercing chemistry for chemistry 1 and honors chemistry 1 chemistry ap edition 10th edition for ap chemistry inspire earth science for earth and space science 1 and honors earth and space science essentials essential physics for physics 1 theory and applications in physics 11th ap edition for ap physics 1 and 2. it's a mouthful we've heard the motion and a second all those in favor aye aye okay recommend approval for of the minutes from the instruction committee held on may 26 2022. second we have a motion and a second all those in favor aye aye all right can i get a drink of water real fast thanks you've been busy have been okay the instruction committee met at the frederick county public schools administration building
083on june 14th the meeting was called to order at 4 30 and a copy of the minutes has been provided to each board member during the meeting director of elementary instructional services jerry swagger reviewed the title ii part a plan as well as a plan to transfer the grant amount from title iv part a into title ii part a dr angelo and mr bach then reviewed proposed updates to a number of policies and noted that the proposed changes were recommended to either better align the policy with the virginia school boards association boilerplate policy or due to changes in the code of virginia with regard to policy 306 p the committee asked staff to make some revisions to what was presented at the committee meeting in a copy of those adjustments are in your packet additional
084details regarding the committee meeting are included in the minutes provided to board members do board members have any questions about what was covered at the instruction committee meeting held on june 14th i think we're good okay we have several um action items that came out of this committee meeting recommend approval of the title two part a application second motion in a second any discussion all those in favor aye aye motion carries recommend approval of the title four part a application thank you motion in a second all those in favor hi any of you haven't even started yet i recommend adoption of policy 303p instructions school calendar and school day second we have a motion and a second any discussion on this one all right all those in favor aye aye all right recommend adoption of
085revised policy 306p instruction organizational plan second we have a motion and a second any discussion all those in favor aye aye recommended adoption of policy three three three two p instruction college and career readiness second we have a motion and a second any discussion all those in favor recommend adoption of policy 410p students student absences excu excuses uh dismissals second motion in a second any discussion all those in favor i recommend adoption of policy 427p students relations with law enforcement and officials second we have a motion and a second any discussion all those in favor aye aye recommend adoption of policy through 432 p students minute of silence second motion in a second any discussion all those in favor aye aye aye recommended adoption of policy 437p students administration of medications to students second we
086have a motion and a second any discussion all those in favor aye aye aye finally but not least recommend approval of the minutes from the instruction committee meeting held on june 14 2022. we have a motion in a second any discussion all those in favor aye aye aye thank you mr hester i'm sorry to interrupt here yeah a little quickly uh part of that policy was for the board to make a recommendation on the number of excuse days for 4-h what we had proposed to board members in the committee was one day and providing principles to flexibility and latitude should there be more days that they would have the flexibility to um go beyond that and we did discuss that in um at the committee level so i think do we need to mr box
087point i think we we left the number of days blank correct that the board's intent and adopting that is to include one day and that's what we included was okay my apologies just wanted to make sure no should we redo that motion i think we're fine okay okay thank you thank you mr hester next up we have a joint committee and personnel committee report uh finance last but not least here we go the joint finance and personnel committee met at the frederick county public schools administration building on june 14th the meeting was called to order at 5 15 and a copy of the minutes has been provided to each board member during the meeting mrs reinholm presented a staffing update and review current vacancies as well as the vacancies that have been filled mr bach
088provide reviewed proposed increases to facility use fees he stated there has been no increases in the fees for at least eight years and the proposed increases would be in would be more in line with the facility use fees charged by the frederick county parks and recreation department if approved the new fees will go into effect on july 1st mrs camry reviewed the fy 23 school operating fund by get by category and the variances which led to the frederick county school frederick county board of supervisors not approving the operations maintenance facilities and technology categories mrs camry noted that if action to approve the categories is not taken by the board of supervisors prior to july 1st the purchase orders funded through those categories will be canceled and the employees paid from those categories will essentially be
089laid off dr savine presented the committee with a recommendation to provide staff bonuses prior to the end of fy 22. dr savine stated that implementing a spending freeze as well as a higher than normal vacancy savings will allow for a substantial bonus for all employees he also noted the criteria for for bonuses uh bonus amounts of two thousand and one thousand the total cost of the bonus initiative is approximately 4.6 million the committee also received information from mrs anderson regarding the virginia public schools authority educational technology resolution as well as a recommendation to award a contract valued at four hundred ninety seven thousand five hundred eighty six dollars to don largent roofing incorporated for the roof replacement at the frederick county public schools administration building additional details regarding the information covered at the committee meeting
090are included in the minutes provided to board members are there any questions from board members about information shared at the finance committee meeting held on june 14th we do have several action items that came out of this meeting first one is to recommend approval of the proposed facility use fees we have a motion thank you and a second any discussion right all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye any opposed the second one recommend approval of the staff bonuses as presented we have a motion and two seconds any discussion regarding this one we'll do a roll call with this one but any discussion prior to i would just like to thank um dr savine and staff um for the work on this one and thank our staff especially for this this is a
091small token um you know i wish that we could do more we are very appreciative for all of our staff at every level we're lucky to have you you are you know you're you're you're the only way we can do what we do and support the community in the way that we do and the children of this community so um yes sir uh we just echoed those comments i think in education there's something that uh everyone on this board at least from my individual conversations agreed with and that's the educations of people business and and really um thankful for the opportunity dr cevin to be able to find some funds to be able to support our uh staff in in this way thank you so we have a motion and a second we'll do a
092roll call vote mr edwards mr lake yes this is white yes ms martin yes mr comstock yes mr hester yes mr adkins yes mr monk yes mr atkins i don't think we heard you sorry okay third action item was to recommend adoption of the resolution of the county school board of frederick county virginia declaring its intention to reimburse itself for the pro from the proceeds of one or more grants made by the commonwealth of virginia for certain expenditures made and or to be made in connection with certain capital improvements have a motion second and a second any discussion all those in favor aye aye all opposed motion carries the next action item recommend awarding a contract valued at 586 to don largent roofing incorporated for the roof replacement at the frederick county public schools administration
093building second we have a motion and a second any discussion regarding this one uh roll call and we'll do a roll call vote here mr edwards mr lake yes mrs white yes ms martin yes mr comstock yes mr hester yes mr adkins yes mr monk yes final action item recommend approval of the minutes from the joint finance and personnel committee meeting held on june 14 2022. second we have a motion and a second all those in favor aye aye aye mr hester you can breathe now i'm done all right next up on the agenda selection of delegate and alternate delegate for the vsba 22 2022 delegate assembly if i may i'll just describe this and then see if there's any takers i've done this for about the last eight years i guess the delegate assembly
094is one member from every school board in the state 132 different boards we meet in williamsburg uh the third week of november just before thanksgiving and on thursday afternoon two o'clock 132 delegates uh one from each come together in one big boardroom and we are provided a notebook about a month or a month and a half beforehand of all requested changes editions deletions edits wordsmithing and anything that any of the 132 school divisions have done for policy throughout the year and i expect to see this year probably some policy about school resource officers uh probably gonna see some policy about um curriculum uh it's been a hot topic probably gonna see some clarification about you know the other hot topics like uh critical race theory and all that um and so that's what's happening this
095is this is the opportunity each year that a school division has to make a change to some existing policy that you know we have about 90 in our policy book um and and that comes from the state level and and what you do what we're doing is is uh throwing it out to the state and then the rest of the delegates and so what we do we get together and we go through these policies one by one in the delegate assembly and all 132 members vote and it is a majority rule whether or not say a change is made or or a policy taken out or something added or whatever it is it is an opportunity to meet well the whole weekend williamsburg is an opportunity to meet other school divisions but to serve you
096know in a room voting with uh you know franklin county as our neighbor i've seen him every year for eight years and um uh meet all the other people and and you know it's it's a good deal um there is no reason i've done it for eight years i volunteered the first year and then it seemed to fall down the line so i will say i'll make the same speech i make every year if someone else would like to do that it is a good opportunity it's educational it's uh social down there and uh it's more uh you're more than welcome to step up and do it if there's no one interested i will be more than happy to do it again so there you go mr vice chair thank you mr lake i think
097mr lake has served us well in that role and he always comes back and and informs us and keeps us up to date of those uh proposed legal changes and ever want to step on mr lakes too i don't think so is there anyone with a uh strong desire to to take that joy from mr lake mrs white has expressed an interest [Laughter] it seems that uh mr lake would be eager to pass the torch and now i'll be your alternate okay so do we need to take action on this mr edwards do we need to uh yes sir you need to elect the delegate as well as the uh alternative so do we have a motion uh to i will make a motion to uh for ellen white to be our delegate and miles
098atkins to be our alternate second i don't think he got there fast enough so we have a motion in a second any discussion thank you for for you all stepping up um to that so rookies are there so uh all those in favor any opposed great thank you guys for your service we appreciate it um and we look forward to hearing the report i hope it's just as detailed as mr lakes mrs white that brings us to the board member comment section of our evening any comments from board members let me do can i first no comments from board members um if i may then you know i been doing a lot of reflecting i'm appreciative for the citizen comments always appreciative for those i took some notes i saw some of our staff taking
099notes on some of those things as well and so i know sometimes it's hard in that position to not feel like you're heard because there's not a direct time to hear a response but please know that you were heard and that that we'll be working on those things one of the things that someone said that kind of resonated with me is that you know this is all about relationships we as a board our words and the work that we do have an impact students staff and the community they all look to us we have a responsibility to be setting a good example and to be working together to unite for the betterment of this community in how we uh in the education that we provide for for the students of this community we operate as
100a board with the guidance from our superintendent and i like to think of this as a team that he's up here with us you know we we work together closely with him and we're appreciative for him sometimes we might disagree happen this evening take the book vote for example you know but ultimately what we do is operate as a board so we take action as a board we might not all agree but we need to as a board be able to stand behind that and stand behind each other and not present as divided to our community um our community is hurting right now not just our board but in a lot of ways our community's hurting and i think that we as a school board should be doing a better job of showing this community
101where we stand and showing this community that we um you know that that we're here for the for the right reasons and and to do what we can in the best interest of the children of this community so um with that being said i i wanted to um i know there have been some tough times there's been a lot of back and forth dr lamanna mentioned some things about downtown there's been a lot of stuff going on with downtown and you know i think um there have been a lot of efforts maybe some in vain to to try to better that relationship and try to make that a little bit more cohesive but i think that we as a board can do our part in terms of uh standing together in support of and making
102the decisions that we're authorized to do in support of this community i did want to take a quick moment to to just say you know a major part of that and a major part of why we even halfway look good is the gentleman down here dr savine um he has served us tremendously [Applause] and selflessly for 11 years he he works harder than anyone i know i don't know where he comes up with the time to do everything that he does but he has served this community in amazing ways and this school division has come a long way in in the past 11 years and he's got some major milestones which i'm i'm not going to read off his accomplishments i think who he is and what he does and where we are speak to
103that um but i would say that that i just want to take this opportunity to thank you dr savine for your service to this community and the school board and and i i'm appreciative that we have you here um and i know that maybe you're not hearing that same message from the entire community but um i hope that you're hearing it from from a majority of this board so and i don't know if any other board members would like to say anything yeah mr vice chair i'll go go ahead yes sir yeah sure thanks i appreciate you sharing that and want to echo those comments i know you and i have had many conversations around those lines and other board members and and similar conversations with dr savine as well and i just want to
104thank him for his uh commitment to florida county schools and our students and staff and our community and the the work that he has engaged in to make fcps what it is today and excited about that work and the transformation that's occurred i think any tenure of a superintendent speaks volumes just in the time that's there so i appreciate dr savine and his commitment to students throughout the commonwealth and especially in frederick county straston um dr savine uh you know i i can't personally thank you enough for what you've done for frederick county um you know your tenure over 11 years has just been tremendous um you know i've shared with you openly here and also in private but i moved to county schools for the school system and that's because of you um you've
105had my 110 support from the beginning uh you know just like mr comstock said we could sit here for probably a day and talk about all of your accomplishments that you have done to better this school system this school system is not what it is without what the hard work and everything that you've done on a day in day out basis a lot of citizens don't realize how hard you work you know we know how hard you work um i wish you'd put down the phone when we were playing golf um but that's you that's you you're you're in the moment all the time and dealing with things um and i just appreciate you um my kids appreciate you the teachers appreciate you this community appreciates you so there are no words that i could
106ever say to tell you how much um you mean to to us and um thank you thank you mr um mr vice chair if i may um dr lamanna and i um there's the list of uh accomplishments and accolades is long um a lot of you have heard about them dr lamanna and i got to witness them over the last uh for me ten years ten and a half years and dr lamanna was on the staff that selected dr svein so just to watch you know the progress the accreditation issue the on-time graduation scores the math scores the state standing uh building five buildings and um you know the list goes on on uh inspire 2025 uh bright futures um the the um the contributions to the community my favorite subject dual enrollment uh my
107goodness the opportunity that our young people are experiencing through dual enrollment so we just went through three graduations and we had 14 i think an 11 i think of high school graduates that got their associate's degree before they got their high school diploma their parents for about three thousand dollars saved two years of college tuition through dual enrollment at the community college and what dr savine has done he's brought the certification of dual enrollment instruction to our teachers what happened before when i first came on the board there were many many students the really fast trackers and the really bright students wanted to take dual enrollment but they didn't want to travel to the community college where they could take the classes because we didn't have the certified teachers here they didn't want to take
108that hour and a half to take an hour class because of transportation so what's happened is we have certified teachers now in our schools about was a month and a half ago when i brought the snapshot and i showed everybody from the community college uh so that is uh that's huge it's just huge and so again a long list of accomplishments and i'm very proud to say that i've been here to witness it mr vice chairman um i'm not gonna make everybody listen to me whisper into the mic for very long i haven't gotta uh really get to know dr david savine very well but in the time that i've been here some of the stuff that i've seen him do when we go out to richmond people move out of the way for this
109guy they they know what he brings he um he's still sharp and steel he's trained a lot of teachers superintendents up and coming um and you you definitely see a lot of respect for the guy whenever we're out in public so i appreciate that and i applaud you on your leadership skills thank you thank you all right mr lake okay we're gonna do something a little different here we usually do not have two closed sessions in a meeting but mr vice chair i move that the county school board of frederick county virginia enter a closed session meeting for the following to review and discuss individual personnel matters which include the evaluation of the superintendent pursuant to virginia code section 2.2 3711 8.1 and i do so move we have a motion is there a second
110second we have a motion and a second all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye we will um go to closed session and we'll be back shortly welcome back mr uh vice chair i have a motion to reconvene from the closed session we have a motion is there a second second motion and second all those in favor hi hi hi we're back in session uh motions coming out of closed session mr vice chair i move that to the best of each board members knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements under the virginia freedom of information act were discussed in the closed session and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion by which the closed session was convened were heard discussed or considered by the school
111board we have a motion is there a second mr lake yes this is white yes miss martin yes mr comstock yes mr hester yes mr adkins yes mr bunk a yes motion mr vice chair i moved to accept superintendent's retirement effective june 30th 2022 while waiving the 90-day notification required in the superintendent's employment agreement thank the superintendent for exemplary service and commitment to the division students staff and the entire frederick county public schools community for more than a decade and i do so move we have a motion second and we have a second is there any discussion do we vote now or can i give you a point of privilege dr savine or go ahead and vote and i'll i'll be glad to speak um roll call vote mr lake yes mrs white yes this
112is miss martin yes mr comstock yes mr hester yes mr adkins yes mr monk yes point of privilege dr savine yes sir mr vice chair first of all i want to say thank you to this board you have united as one i am proud to be superintendent this board and certainly appreciate the kind words of of support genuine support that was extended earlier in today's meeting and certainly to all of our citizens that have remained i appreciate your support of this great school division as you just heard the board action approving my release i'm now announcing my retirement effective at the end of this month i'm very proud of the many things that have been accomplished during my tenure i've been fortunate to be surrounded by an outstanding group of educational leaders in each of
113our schools and within our central office thanks to their support the support of the school board members with whom i've worked in our many community partners frederick county public schools has made great progress since 2011. i'm confident that will continue well beyond my retirement you're in good hands i'm honored to have served as superintendent of frederick county public schools over the past 11 years during that time i've been privileged to work with the school board to consistently achieve its top priorities certainly our focus on enhancing our elementary literacy program early childhood initiatives in particular full day kindergarten and preschool the implementation of our tiered systems of support to successfully reduce achievement gaps and development and and to develop and implement our strategic plan inspire 2025 which you heard earlier today the benefits of that this
114this plan focuses on strategic partnerships to provide deeper more authentic learning experiences for every student these are all shining moments that will benefit our community moving forward upon my arrival in 2011 we had nearly half of our elementary schools in focus status representing the bottom 10 percent of elementary schools in virginia and one middle school that was in the bottom five percent of virginia middle schools and had not been accredited for over a decade we now have 100 percent of our schools fully accredited and that one that wants low-performing middle school now receives visits from educators from across the nation and is recognized for its engaging student-focused learning environment i want to thank each of you for your collaborative approach and strengthen our public schools to create a thriving and vibrant community as i prepare
115to leave my current role i want to thank all of our teachers administrators support staff who have diligently served our students during my tenure i also want to thank our com our many community partners and the thousands of students and families we have served over the years for the encouragement passion and energy they provided to me as i worked each day to do what was best for our students my apologies you know i care about this community and it will continue to thrive i remain passionate about supporting students and making a positive impact on communities through public education as as i leave my current role i do so with great sense of pride in frederick county public schools and this board and the knowledge that my work is not done i thank you [Applause] thank
116you dr savine um are there any board member comments i know we had board member comments earlier but following that news are there any board member comments before we adjourn short mr comstock um i just want to again uh thank you dr sivan i know i shared this earlier but for your continued dedication to the students and families and staff of frederick county public schools over the last decade plus and you know as you and i have discussed and we've many times that length of of tenure of a superintendent is impressive in and of itself and so um thank you for your continued commitment to our staff and to this board and connectedness and for the inspiration of inspire 2025 as we uh continue to to move forward and wish you the best in future
117endeavors thank you mr monk dr savine um i already spoke earlier but i just want to say thank you for your service to this community we're better we're a better place now because of you um and in the words of angie white we wish you well mr comstock um like mr comstock i i said my piece earlier but i just want to say thank you thank you your work is not done either and frederick county public schools has a very bright future and i know we have a board that is committed to advocating for our students you have team members that certainly you heard the the report from dr angelo we are focused on innovation there's a reason why some of the highest performing most innovative school divisions are coming to frederick to see how
118we're truly engaging students in authentic learning experiences so that doesn't happen in a random manner it's been very intentional and we've been fortunate to have a board that that really empowers and supports our our teachers in order to create that special culture so so thank you any other comments or emotions mr lake uh mr vice chair i move that we adjourn is there a second second all those in favor we stand adjourned