001We love this. Ryan, >> uh, we're returning from close session. >> Madame Chair, I certify that to the best of our knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion to go into executive session were heard, discussed, or considered in executive session. >> Second. >> A motion was made by Mrs. Morris and second by Mr. Christian to return from close session. Roll call vote. I >> I >> We are back in session. >> Um 3.02 certificate of action taken in close session. >> Madam Chair, I move that we certify the action taken in close session as agenda or excuse me as amended. >> Say personnel agenda. >> Personnel agenda as amended. Second. >> The motion was made by Mr. Snotty and
002second by Mrs. Morris to approve the personnel agenda as amended. Uh, any questions on the motion? All those in favor, please raise your hand. That's unanimous. The motion carries. That leads us to 3.03, opening of the regular meeting. Please stand. Bow your head. Dear Lord, thank you for allowing us the opportunity to take part in making decisions for our students and our schools. Help us to use the wisdom that you've given us to make good choices. Help us to do what you would have us to do in Jesus name. Amen. >> Amen. I pledge algiance 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. >> Okay, >> that leads us to 3.04, adoption
003of the agenda. Madam chair, I move to approve. >> Madam chair, recommend we change move uh our student liaison report up to 4.03 if that's amendable to the >> the board. Second. >> I'll amend my motion. >> Okay. A motion was made by Mr. Christian and second by Mr. Snotty to adopt the agenda as amended. Uh any questions? All those in favor, please raise your hand. That's unanimous. Motion carries. That leads us to 4.01 01 senior of the month. Good evening. It is my pleasure to recognize our March senior of the month, Benjamin Snotty. Ben, would you please come forward? Ben is the son of Joe and Suzanne Snotty. He is a dual enrollment student and currently has a 4.34 GPA. Ben is a captain on the soccer team. He is a leader in the
004Rise Up Club, a member of Beta, the National Honors Society, and 4. He is also a member of the youth group at Malberry Grove Baptist Church. In his free time, he enjoys playing games with his friends. His favorite memory of Buckingham County High School is hanging out at Tasty Freeze after school with a bunch of his friends. He plans to attend Virginia Tech to pursue physical therapy. Congratulations again. need to make a motion. >> That leads us to 4.02. >> Madam Chair, I recommend the approval and presentation of a resol resolution for Irene Stoman. Ellis. >> Second. >> A motion was made by Mr. Snotty and second by Mr. Christian to um present a resolution to Irene Stman Ellis. All those in favor, please raise your hand. That's unanimous. Motion carries. Will the family of
005Mrs. Alis come forward, please? This this resolution is expressing the consensus of the Buckingham County School Board regarding the services of Irene Stoneman Ellis. Whereas Mrs. Zirene Ellis was appointed to the Buckingham County School Board in 1976, the second woman ever after her grandmother-in-law, Rebecca Ellis, who served in the 1920s. Whereas she served the community as Buckingham's Hokei Club representative, a Virginia Cattleman's Association cowbell, a founding member of historic Buckingham Incorporated, and friends of the Buckingham Library. whereas she was recognized by by the Virginia chapter of 4 Allstars with the Hall of Fame award. Whereas she was recognized by the Buckingham Chamber of Commerce with its 2024 lifetime achievement award. Whereas she dedicated her life to raising her family farming and volunteering at Mazeville Presbyterian Church and in the community. Whereas she was named Young
006Farmers of the Year in 1958 alongside her husband. Whereas she was a loving wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, cousin, and friend to many all over the world. Whereas she was loved by her faithful cat, Figaro, who was by her side every step of the way, especially in her final weeks and hours, and by her amazing care team members whom the family is eternally grateful for their loving care. Therefore, be it resolved that the members of the Buckingham County School Board with the express wish to express the deepest appreciation for all she has done for the community of Buckingham County and to extend their condolences to her family and friends. And this resolution is to be adopted and presented to the family by the Buckingham County School Board on Wednesday, March 11th, 2026. Thank you. And
007these are her daughters and her son-in-law, Irene and Margaretine. forget 43. student report. >> Okay, that leads us to 4.03, the student liaison report. >> Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Lily Jones and I'm the student liaison for the 2025 through 2026 school year. Here are some updates on what is going on at DCHS FBA. On Monday, FBA club members competed in business related competitions at Longwood. At this competition, almost every single member who participated placed third through first. All members who place either first or second are headed to state in rest in Virginia. SCAC SCA heads to Orange County this weekend for our annual convention. Two of our members are running for state office. Harmony Homeman is running for region rep and I, Lily Jones, and running for state president. The service
008committee for SCA has been hard at work these past few weeks and will continue to be for at least the rest of the month. Just last week, SCA sold popcorn and waters at the staffers student basketball game to help a fellow night in need. We are also playing a movie night fundraiser on March 28th at BCHS in the auditorium. Details for this event are as follows. Event lasts from 400 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. We will be showing a kids movie first and a teen movie second, which is ages 12 and up. In order to participate in the event, you must donate two cans of food per t per ticket or a clothing item per ticket. We will not be accepting any cash at this event. By donating those items, you receive your movie ticket and
009complimentary snacks and flavored lemonade. If you'd like to more know any more details about the event, follow us on Instagram at Buckingham SCA. FFA FFA is prepping for competitions and strawberry orders are being picked up this afternoon. Raider and JROTC. Congratulations to the JROTC Raider team for competing in the Lee County Best the best Raider qualifier in North Carolina. The female team led by Mida Portio placed first in rope bridge 5 kmter run litter carry and team physical fitness challenge. Overall, the female team placed first in the overall female division. The male team led by Christian Mendes placed third in Robridge and placed third overall in the male division. The co-ed team led by Allison Martin plays ninth overall in the co-ed division. The Raider team will be at Fort Bragg, North Carolina next Friday
010and Saturday for the best of the best Raider Championship. Sports. Indoor track just finished up last week at the VHSL championship. Baseball, softball, track, and other spring sports are in full swing. Their varsity baseball and softball scrimmages in Fort Defiance this evening. tennis match in Randolph Henry on March 17th and one in Atheatics on March 19th, a soccer game in Maway on March 19th. And there are several more sporting events happening in March, so please check the Buckingham websites for the rest of the schedule. FCCLA FCCLA sold cookies and other sweet treats to all school members via catalog over the past few weeks and made a ton of sales. Thank you all for your time and I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your evening. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you.
011>> That leads us to 5.01 public comment. Anyone who wishes to address the school board must state their name and address and limit their comments to three minutes. Anybody send Joyce Gooden. >> See if I get Greetings. My name is Joyce Gooden. I live at 1779 Shelton Store Road, Slate River District. For the record, my family has a long history of being involved in Buckingham's education system. Well, before my parents were teachers in this county, my great-grandmother taught school in Buckingham. My presence at these meetings and my community involvement is almost genetic. Thank you, Patrick, for expecting me to be here and putting a chair out for me. Today, I have to express two topics of concern. First, the recent survey regarding unifying elementary and primary divisions. I had trouble accessing the survey from the
012school website. I was given a the link by a parent. The survey itself seemed very skewed. When I answered what that I did not favor school unification, that should have been the end of the survey for me. But no, the questions went on about what values were important to me in the school unification. To me, if people answered their hypothetical values on unifications, those survey answers could later be described that this is what the respondents want and the future presentations geared toward the hypothetical and not toward those that answered no. Bottom line is please design your surveys better and make them more easily accessible on your website. And I do have a copy of my reactions to the unification slide presentation if anyone cares to see that. My second concern is the length of your
013meetings. Usually I can make my 700 p.m. Wednesday evening Bible study. Meetings prolonged with business is fine. Meetings prolonged because you're doing committee work in a meeting is not good and disrespecting my time. I know you get packets be of information beforehand. My planning commission packet drops Wednesday before our meetings. I have five days to prepare. At your last message, there was a lot of what I call a testosterone discussion. Men discussion explaining insert your favorite word here. What should have been their homework or at the very least a short statement. Then a school board member is quoting Virginia code. If you can quote the code, you can do your homework because you're answering your own question and a full discussion at would be at the admin council's meets next day. The superintendent the superintendent
014said, "We the admin council are meeting tomorrow." The superintendent said it five times. What happened to active listening? Or were you just ignoring the female voice or or simply disrespecting the superintendent's authority? Then a man jumps in to explain what the superintendent said. I understood her English. I didn't need a man's explanation. I wanted to go to Bible study at in a reasonable time. What about the school employees that remained? My time, their time. Just be more considerate of us in your meetings. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Do we have anyone else? >> No, that's it. >> Public comment is closed. That leads us to 6.01, approval of the consent agenda. >> Madam Chair, I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Motion was made by Mrs. Morris and second
015by Mr. Snotty to approve the consent agenda as presented. Are there any questions on the motion? I >> I have one on the u on the invoices. Um, I see that we're still we're still buying um uniforms for some of our staff or we're paying for uniforms and I guess cleaning and whatnot. Is there a real need for uniforms any longer? I mean, we all have badges and >> um Mr. Hustlup, can you would you please approach Mr. Hustlip and speak to uh uniforms? >> Yes, sir. Um, we had looked into the uniforms after it was requested last time. The transportation and maintenance both have a history of having uniforms and if I'm not mistaken, a contract was signed recently that kind of binds us into that. Um, if we so choose at the end
016of that, we've got a good plan in place. I've been working with uh Mrs. Jacobson and my crew in order to phase that out. Um I'm not sure exactly what the transportation department will do with that. Okay. >> But I think it once we get to the end of this uh billing piece, we will be investigating um a different a different avenue from there forward. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Any other questions? All of those in favor, please raise your hand. That's unanimous. Motion carries. 7.02. Since we didn't do the student leaison, we did that earlier. Uh presentation of the school showcase elementary school, Mrs. Morris. Over the last several months, at each schoolboard meeting, we have spotlighted one of our schools. This month, we are excited to spotlight Buckingham County Elementary School, and
017we are proud to welcome Kristen Morris, principal of Buckingham County Elementary School, to the podium. Good evening everyone. I am Kristen Morris and I'm the principal at Buckingham Elementary School and this is Chastity Stigger, our wonderful assistant principal. And behind me joining us are some of our amazing staff members who help make our school so successful and we really appreciate them being here this year. Our theme at Bees is united in building our future. So when you visit Bees, you aren't just looking at a school building. You are looking at a construction site, not the kind with keep out signs and orange cones, but a site where we are actively building our future. Any great architect will tell you that a building is only as strong as its foundation. Here at our school, that foundation
018is built on five core pillars. being kind, being respectful, being responsible, being safe, and being willing to learn. We don't just post these on the walls. We use them as a blueprint for every interaction from coming in the mornings, striving for a success, day-to-day operations, building relationships to handling consequences while replacing unwanted behaviors with the lessons of what we could have done differently, and making things right. But why do we build this foundation? We build it so that our students have a steady, secure platform upon which to reach their highest academic success. Our students are the master builders of their own lives. We see this construction in progress during our nighting assemblies where we celebrate those who have demonstrated the structural integrity of our values. We see leadership and action through our safety patrol, our
019site foremen who always keep our hallways, flags, bathrooms, and operations moving smoothly. We see academic excellence through rising stars beta NEHS where students are already designing ways to serve our community. And then there is the annual spelling bee, a moment where our students stand tall, proving that even when a single word is tough to construct, they have the grit to see it through. We even teach our students the economy of construction through night bucks. Through our NightBucks program, students are encouraged to make positive choices and take pride in who they are becoming. And because a clean job site is a productive one, we have our most coveted trophies. The golden tray for the cafeteria and the legendary golden plunger for the bathrooms. These aren't just awards. They are lessons in taking ownership of our environment
020so that we can focus on what matters most, learning. The through attendance sentence like our woot woot wagon, attendance games, and our year-end foam party celebration, we build excitement, responsibility, and connection. Our responsibility is not only to teach students how to read, write, and solve problems, but how to be kind, respectful, responsible, safe, and willing to learn. Because education is not only academic, it is the foundation for citizenship. But we know that building a future takes more than just the standard workday. Our Beyond the Bell after school program is our extended crew. It's a space where the blueprints of the day are reinforced. Whether it's extra help with math concepts or a hands-on project, Beyond the Bell ensures that learning never stops. And no project succeeds without an expert crew. Our staff doesn't just show
021up to work. They are the architects of academic growth. Behind the scenes, our teachers engage in one-to-one data meetings and common planning. This isn't just paperwork. It is precision engineering. We look at every student's data point to ensure we are building the right supports around them. Through professional growth opportunities and MTSS leadership, our staff models the very thing we ask of our students, a constant willingness to learn. By fostered share by fostering shared leadership through our committees, we ensure that our instructional blueprints are constantly evolving to be more effective. When we work together as a staff, we create a scaffolding of support that ensures no student falls through the cracks and every student reaches their personal best. And we are not doing it alone. Our students are supported by an entire village. From the moment
022they step onto the bus in the morning to the moment they are dropped off in the afternoon, they are surrounded by adults who care. Our bus drivers and parents are often the first and last school connection of the day, setting the tone for safety, responsibility, and kindness. Our cafeteria staff nourish not only bodies, but relationships, offering consistency, warmth, and care. Our janitorial staff model pride, responsibility, and respect for our shared environment while offering encouragement and kindness that students remember. Our office staff, paraprofessionals, therapeutic services, specialists, interventionists, teachers, and administrators all work together to ensure that every child feels seen, valued, and supported. But our village does not stop at our school doors. Our parents and families are essential partners in everything we do. Through family engagement nights, we invite families into our learning community, strengthening
023relationships, building trust, and celebrating growth together. These nights remind students that school and home are united in their success. Through our parent roundt updates, we ensure families are informed, heard, and empowered. We share strategies, resources, and practical ways parents can support their child's learning at home. We believe when families feel confident, students grow stronger. We also proudly partner with community programs that enrich our students lives, providing opportunities, experiences, and supports that extend learning beyond the classroom. These partnerships help our students see that their community believes in them. from collaboration and generous donations to fundraising efforts that bring the community together to having community partnerships like 4 come in and support enriching educational opportunities. We work together as a team to build our future. At Bees, education is a team effort and our students feel it.
024We are working together to make sure our students are on site and ready to grow every single day. Building our fug future isn't a project with a completion date. It is a living, breathing commitment to growth. Every time a student masters a new reading level, they are adding a floor to their future. Every time a staff member collaborates on a lesson plan, they are strengthening the wire. And every time a community partner steps up, they are adding to a new wing that we to what we can achieve together. We aren't just teaching kids, we are building a community. We are building character. Most importantly, we are building success. Let's take a look behind the scenes as we build our future in this video clip. Hey, how can I help you? Good morning. >> Good morning.
025Good job. a.m. In closing, under our theme of building our future, we are reminded that every day at Bees is an opportunity to invest in what is ahead of us. We are not just raising students. We are building our future together. Every child who walks through our doors represents hope, promise, and possibility for the years to come. We believe in our students even before they see their full potential. We believe that they will continue to grow not only academically, but socially, emotionally, and personally through their hard work, their determination, and the support and dedication of our staff, families, and community. Together, we are building more than academic achievement. We are building confidence. We are building character. We are building relationships and we are building a culture where every student feels that they belong, where they
026feel safe to learn, where they feel seen for who they are, and where they feel empowered to become who they are meant to be. Our staff works tirelessly every day to guide, teach, encourage, and believe in our students. And our students respond by showing up, putting in effort, and pushing themselves to grow even when learning becomes challenging. When students feel supported and inspired and when they put forth their own effort and determination into their learning, we see something powerful begin to happen. They begin to believe in themselves. They participate more fully. They keep going when the work becomes difficult. They take academic risk. They push beyond obstacles. They begin to truly see that they are cap capable of achieving great things. This is where we build our future. Academic success does not happen in isolation.
027It is built within communities like ours where children feel confident, connected, supported, and inspired to reach higher each day. Our focus on strong character, positive relationships, meaningful engagement, and highquality instruction is not separate from academic success. It is how we build it. Through these efforts, we are helping support stronger attendance, positive behavior, deeper engagement, growing confidence, and perseverance, all of which help lay the foundation for future success. Tonight, we also want to express our heartfelt gratitude to our school board. Thank you for your vision, your leadership, and your continued investment in our students and staff as we work to build our future together. Your support helps ensure that every child in our community has the opportunity to learn, grow, and succeed. Thank you to our dedicated staff for the work you do every single day
028to help build brighter futures for our students. Thank you to our families for your trust, your partnership, and your support at home. Thank you to our community partners for standing beside us. We appreciate everyone for believing in Buckingham Elementary as we continue to build our future together, stronger, and brighter for every child who walks through our doors. Thank you. Do you guys have any questions? >> Does anyone have any questions? >> No. >> Thank you for the presentation. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh before we go to 7.03, I wanted to welcome Mr. Carter Allen uh on the board of supervisors here. Did you want to say anything, Carter? >> Happy to be here. See you guys next week. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. 7.03 instructional update. John Ringstaff, director
029of instruction. Full group counseling, which serves Formable and surrounding areas, will be sending a counselor two days per week at the complex until the end of the school year under their school-based counseling program. The itemized plan for our first year of implementation for the Gear Up grant was accepted and we will begin implement implementing with our seventh graders. Gear Up works to increase post-secary expectations and readiness of students while also raising their knowledge of post-secary options. As part of the comprehensive literacy, state development grant, the CLSD grant, primary and elementary instructional leaders have completed walkthroughs with representatives from the new teacher project. These visits were hosted by our principles at our schools and involved walkthroughs assessing instruction of knowledge and skills using a walkthrough tool approved by the Virginia Department of Education. These observations established
030a baseline that informs h how to structure support from TNTP to our teachers to improve instruction. I completed walkthroughs of science instruction at the middle school with Dr. Garrett and Dr. Harris and career and technical education classes at the high school with Mr. Wilkerson and Dr. Rezner. at BCHS have met with teachers from English, math, and science departments to share local and state updates. The comprehensive plan received input via survey from the community. We have posted it again as a draft form for your second review and we would like to seek approval in April. I've asked three principles to join me to share updates as they prepare for so testing. And so I would invite Miss Morris, Dr. Garrett, and Mr. Tally up. They're going to close the instructional update and I'll be available for
031questions. But I want to say as a firstear director of instruction, I'm trying to balance my time 50% in the buildings with staff and 50% doing the tasks of answering questions and planning ahead. And so as we I know your focus our focus is on successful so scores at the end of this school year and and that is a primary focus but I cannot rest on my laurels. I want you to know that I'm also thinking about summer school and also professional development u as we go into the next school year. So, you know, I'm I'm very interested in my updates in the coming months. If you have things to share of things that you sense that we need to focus on, I'm I'm very open. All right, Miss Morris, would you go first, please?
032>> Thank you, Dr. Ringstaff. Um, and he does an amazing job being in the buildings um and supporting us as we're trying to grow academically stronger. Um we have a lot of components that work together to try to build student success. Um and we just presented some of them but to be more specific to how we are preparing for SOS um it's really a lot. Um we analyze the data. It it starts with data. Um it's data from in the classroom. It's our CIP um our consortium data that we get from Dr. Hurt. And as soon as we get that, we start looking at the growth that our students are making. Um whether it's in individual growth, uh classroom growth, grade level growth, and as how we're doing as a school. Um but another thing
033that is interesting in the data that he shares with us is how we compare to other divisions within the consortium. So, not only are we trying to grow our own students, but with that, we want to see how we're growing um as Buckingham, too, in comparison to what other divisions are doing as well. So, a lot of the data that we get um is it drives instruction. Um it drives our common planning meetings. They're held every Tuesday and Wednesday. Our specialists and our interventionists, they are making sure that all of our curriculum is aligned. Um teachers work on lesson plans. Um we have week at a glance and we've really been working hard on making sure that we have those highquality instructional materials available um put in a presentable manner um but also working on
034those test taking strategies as well. Um we have partnered with TNTP and they have already done their first walkthroughs uh collected some data and they're able to give us some very direct feedback. Um it's was wonderful to see the strengths that we have but also our areas of growth so that we can start from there and move forward. Um we also have um some other things that are put in place and that's our small group instruction. It is um it's held within the classroom every single day for our reading class and our math class. Um and it is data driven as well. and our instruction uh interventionist and our specialists help teachers navigate that data to determine what um where students are placed in small groups. Um we've seen a lot of success since we've
035added our um instructional interventionist as well. Um we've seen a lot of growth in our science in history. So that that low area that we talked about at the beginning of the year, we've seen significant growth um in let's see, science, we increase uh 21.4%. And then history was our lowest, but we've increased 17.1%. So we're heading in the right direction. Um and we really have um a a good hold and on what we need to do to move forward and how we're prepping the students for the upcoming SOS. Do you guys have any questions for the elementary school? >> Keep going. >> Keep keep doing it. >> Keep it up. >> All right. So, we uh use informal and formal assessments throughout the whole year. That information helps guide us as far as how
036we spiral our warm-ups so that students are reoccurrenly hearing information throughout the whole year. So if there's a difficult concept that we can move up earlier in the school year. Um students receive more practice from this. And so with this additional practice time, they also receive additional uh types of explanation as the teacher continues to break down the content so they have a better understanding with those strands. Another uh tactic that is used throughout the whole year, our eighth period enrichment is focused on reading and math enrichment skills. So, is continuing to build those foundational skills that not only carry over into reading and math, but also into history and science. Um, each week as we're preparing for our upcoming benchmarks, we kind of go through a more intensive review trying to prepare for that
037benchmark. Um, so we can have a better idea where we are and what we need to do as far as the weeks to come to prepare for the so test. Right now, we're looking at we're on pace so that the week we come back from spring break, we're going to be hitting it hard as far as intensive practice for so testing. Our so testing starts the I believe it's the first Monday in May. I believe it's May the 4th is the first Monday. So, we're looking at about a good solid three weeks of review and practice to really try to uh instill in our students a a foundation for whatever uh test that they're taking. Um, middle school has more so tests than anybody. We have 10. Uh, so our kids are, you know, they
038are being pushed hard. The rigor is high and we're trying to get them to that standard. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. During the spring semester, Buckingham High School will utilize three strategies to increase so scores. In previous years, we have utilized what we consider a boot camp where students participate in a series of intensive remediation sessions. This year, we added the use of pivot tables and also we revised our nighttime schedule to assist in improving test scores. So, the boot camp remediation schedule allows a repeated review of sessions. um instruction for a longer period of time is consistent with a weekly frequency over a few weeks over a three weeks period aiming to increase the likelihood of student success. These sessions are delivered in full class periods alternating days and they
039plan to take place within the first the three weeks leading up to the so testing dates. During a boot camp remediation, each testing subject has two scheduled sessions per week which allows students with more than one opportunity to review content in the subject area. This also allows students to practice test taking skills. For example, I see Miss back there with biology remediation. It might occurs um during first and third blocks each week um while the US VA US history occurs during the second and fourth blocks. this so the students can attend without missing the same class period each um each week. Um also after the first semester teachers were given pivot tables uh which they show the students performance by questions. Um as a result our all our fall so scores. These tables allow teachers
040to see which area exact area students are struggling. These tables became the focus area is our nighttime remediation which serves at a glance for the student performance. And when we get the scores from the spring semester test and the pivot table information also will be revisited for the spring semester um to use for remediation for expedited retakes. In addition to the student performance by question, the pivot tables also include questions at a rigor level. It tells us whether it's low, medium, high. Um so therefore the teacher know exactly um what areas to increase or differentiate or include instructional supports to better prepare the students. Finally, our revised nighttime. That's a that's a word that we've been using all year. And um with the revised nighttime schedule, uh this semester, two years ago, we talk about
041remediation. We remediated students once a month for 60 minutes. This year during the fall semester, nighttime was implemented where remediation was offered uh for 45 minutes twice a month. This gave students a total of 90 minutes or an hour and a half a month. So, beginning February the 1st, um we we institute a new nighttime. We revised the schedule to take place in the middle of the day. So, it take place in between second and third block and only on Tuesday and Thursdays. This revision allows the BCHS students um they're offer remediation in two 30 minute blocks per week, which for a total of four hours per month. So, we we're increasing the time we meet with them for small clusters. we get their attention a little more and we focus more on the actual
042material the students need to learn. Um, two of three two of of the three strategies has been beneficial in the past. Um, although nighttime is new, I'm very confident this one will still work for us. Thank you. One just one final closing remark. inclement weather impacts instruction specifically because it's hard to build up the momentum of consistency and and so when I'm talking with principles about how they're preparing when I'm talking to individual teachers they have restored my confidence I know inclement weather is nothing new to Buckingham they have restored my confidence that they're prepared to make adjustments to to do well and inclement weather on the other hand doesn't always affect your consistent. It's not only your consistency of lesson instruction, but it's also your testing schedule. You know, we've had to adjust our
043benchmarking all the way out to March 30th in some cases. You know, I have to report to CIP when our window closes. And so, uh March 30th is our closing date to to make sure we get everybody in. So when I visit back in April, I hope to have some data that you can crunch for for our most recent benchmarks for all groups, not just, you know, the handful that have finished already. >> Thank you. >> That leads us to 7.04 energy efficiency update by Mr. JB Hesswood, director of facilities and food service. >> Thank you so much for allowing me to talk to you and also to be your facilities director. I really appreciate the job and Buckingham's been very good to me. So, I appreciate it. Um, on a normal week, the data
044needed for our our energy uh use comes in either the day of or day before. Um unfortunately the data was a little late this month and this has not been a normal week last two weeks for us in facilities. Um we have been dealing with a significant water leak at the schoolboard office um during the trenching operations that took place yesterday to install the new water line. Our vendor unfortunately encountered an unmarked section of schoolowned dark optic uh dark line called fiber optic. Uh that line was not marked uh in the dig area and was unintentionally unintentionally severed. Um Planet Networks, thank to Patrick's and Patrick and all of his connections with those guys. They came over, they responded very quickly. Uh and the school board office, the bus shop, and the block building were
045up and restored very very quickly by by 10:00 last night. Uh no students or instructional activities were affected by this. It was just those three buildings. schoolboard office, block building, and a bus shop. Uh, one positive outcome to that is we were able to permanently mark the backyard as we call it, um, with the fiber optics, all of our utilities, waterline, brand new in there. So, that is one positive that came out of that. Um, as a result, if it's up to um, with your permission, I'd like to present two months worth of data next month for your energy usage. Any questions for me on that? >> Good with that. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> 7.05 transport transportation update. Zayn Harshman, director of transportation. >> Good evening, school board members. Um, uh, this is
046my first presentation, so I can't wait to hear it. Um, so thank you again for letting me allow me to do this. I'm going to give you a brief overview of the transportation department. First, I got to give a thanks to the transportation department, bus drivers, substitute bus drivers, car drivers, mechanics, um, secretary Miss Huleston. There's a lot of moving parts that get our students to and from their respective schools safely. Um, and there's a there's a lot of people involved in making that happen. you know, whether they're in a bus, whether they're at the bus garage fixing vehicles, there's a lot of hands that make sure that all of that happens and they do it very, very well. Um, so I will go ahead and start with the presentation. So, just a brief overview
047of the transportation department. We do currently have 33 bus routes. So, every morning, every afternoon, 33 buses transport students back and forth to and from schools. Uh we have one special education bus that travels throughout the county to pick up um special education students and bring them to the high school, middle school. Um and over at the Carter G. Woodson complex, we do have seven incount special education vans or cars. Um you know, Buckingham is a very large county. So in order for them to have limited time in the vehicles, you know, spread throughout the county, we have to have uh multiple vehicles. Some have one up to three or four students in these cars and vans, you know, again to lessen the time that they're in those vehicles. We also have 10 um day
048placement vehicles, vans or cars that go out of the county, whether it's Duva, Grafton, Keys, um some of these other outofcount uh day placement schools. There are seven or 10 that do that. Um so that's a lot of maintenance on vehicles um throughout the throughout the school year. daily transportation. We do currently transport roughly 1,562 of our students every day. Um, obviously, you know, there's some private transportation and, you know, a fluctuation in that, but that's the uh number that at the beginning of the year we were transporting back and forth each week. um as noted by the the um senior uh presenter um FBLA uh field trips all these different activities uses either our buses or vans to transport students to Virginia Beach um Orange County, Virginia Tech a lot of times. Um so
049again, you know, our transportation department is making these different things happen each and every week for again for field trips, sporting events and and other types of events. Our buses do average around 47 students per bus. Um so a little bit less on some of them and a little bit more on some of them. So that's a general um overview of the transportation department in a nutshell. Now we'll go kind of week to week since the last board meeting. Um we do have lots of coverage. Student or not students but bus drivers and car drivers are out just as teachers and administrators are out. So on the week of uh February 9th through the 13th, 48 routes were either covered by substitute bus drivers, substitute car and van drivers. Sometimes we do have to double
050up routes. So buses like 54, 58, uh 56 should be on here, bus 50 should be on here. They take extra students in order to make transportation happen. Um so you know, they work together. We get the kids on the correct buses. administration from each building helps make sure that students are getting to the correct buses if we have to double up. Um, this week we were able to cover four sporting events and one field trip out of the county. Um, by the end of the week, Matt, our repairman, had an empty garage on Friday. I feel that that's a success. If there's no buses sitting in the garage, that's a pretty good week. Um, we did have to have one bus tote off of site. We just did not have we don't have the
051capabilities to repair it here at the bus garage. So, we do use um Goodman or Sunny Marryman or Kingmore sometimes if we have to tow them out to get, you know, some of these bigger repairs that we just can't handle here on site. Um regular car and van, you know, we do oil changes, brakes, tires, wipers. Um one van did lose a transmission. Mr. Palmer was able to fix it and get it back into the fleet that week. So, we he he's doing a lot of help offsite with keeping these vans and buses running as well. Next, uh, the week of February 17th, I did was able to get five drivers signed up for a professional development. I also signed up, train the trainer. So, this starts Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of next week. So,
052it's a three-day session. At the end of next week, we should have six of us that have the ability to train new bus drivers. So when they sign up or or going through their lure to get their CDL, we will have people on site to be able to train them, which is going to be, you know, a significantly better turnaround time to to get them in a bus to get them, you know, hired on fleet and maintenance repairs. Uh we did have just kind of a regular week. There was one car that lost his transmission. He did was able to make it back. You know, we have it sitting in the garage uh parking lot. we were able to get him a vehicle to use while we repair that one. Um, 19 routes were covered,
053five sporting events, one field trip, and that week we were able to start our spring session of H Heartland Horse Horeroes sessions on Mondays and Fridays for students from Carter G. Woodson Complex, the middle, and the high school. So, that's always an exciting time for them to be able to go over there and participate in um those activities. the week of March or I'm sorry, February 23rd, two sporting events were covered, one field trip was covered, um regular maintenance, the again the oil changes, the tires, the regular things on the cars and the buses, and then 40 routes were covered um or double uped by our transportation department, substitute, bus drivers, um other people of that nature. And then last week, March 2nd, um we did three sporting events uh covered by buses or vans.
054The high school had their big trip to the Capitol with uh their government students. 43 students, I believe, went up to the Capitol last week. Uh had a great time. One of our substitute bus drivers uh he's a Virginia State Police John Pearl drove that route. So, we we had some extra safety on that bus if if things got things got out of hand, but it was a completely safe and um well taken care of. Uh we did have one van, another a second van repaired by Mr. Palmer and returned to the fleet. Last week, we were able to put out one order for our bus from Kingmore and we also sent out a letter of intent for the second purchase of the bus. Um, we were also able to take two of our out
055of service buses to J&J Recycling in Farmville um and get get a get some money back for those. So that's a regular thing with the buses that are either broken down or or just not able to to be in the fleet anymore. They were able to be taken over. Um we were last week every quarter we have to randomly drug test or alcohol test five drivers. That's every quarter. So we completed that last week. And then again 45 um bus drivers or routes were covered last week um by our transportation department. And last but not least, we do have some continuous uh initiatives that we're always looking at. Obviously, driver recruitment. Um, you know, we're hopefully planning on something during spring break to to get people in, maybe get on a bus, you know, maybe
056feel less intimidated by driving a bus. I think there's an intimidation factor just because they're so big and, you know, the importance of driving students. So, um, a recruitment fair of that nature hopefully sometime over spring break when everybody's off campus, there's nobody around, we can use a parking lot to to kind of, um, get some people in and and get them on a bus. Um, I've driven 25 of our 34 routes. Hopefully by the end of March, midappril, I've been able to driven all of them. I do study the routes, try to figure out what roads all of them go down. So, but I do try to get out there and drive each of them, whether it's in a bus. Um, after lunch, I'll go out in in a car and just just drive
057them just to get used to the roads, the turnarounds, different things of that nature. Um, one of the big summer things coming up, all of most of our fleet gets their yearly inspections. Whether it's a bus, whether it's a car, whether it's a van, all of them have to get their annual inspection. And last but not least, we do have buses getting the air conditioning upgrades. I was able to go pick up our first bus yesterday, finished. I brought that back. The bus that we just purchased is in their facility getting the air conditioning put on it right now. And then there's a second bus up there waiting. So once that one that we just purchased is done, one of our next ones will be up there. Um we will have two more after that.
058Uh hopefully by midappril all of them are completed and every all of those the brand new bus and all four of the air conditioned buses have been completed and done and back on site here in Buckingham. Um I believe that's it. If there are any questions I have one. So when we purchased the bus it doesn't have air conditioning on it. We have to still take it to those people, right? Well, well, it it's it was at the site. So, the bus is at Kingmore and once we ordered it, it went into their facility, put the air condition apparently, it doesn't come off the factory line with air conditioning. >> I hope it >> I would assume so, but it was sitting there on site. Once we purchased it, they immediately put it in after
059our bus. It's like I saw it yesterday with my own eyes getting the air conditioning put on it, the brand new that we just purchased last week. But that is the cost that we've already paid for the buses. There's nothing extra added. >> No, ma'am. The purchase the purchase order is for everything included with the air conditioning that we're putting on it right now. >> Okay. >> Yes, ma'am. >> You have a question? >> I I just had one more on the air condition. Is it just air conditioning that that unit um facilitates or does it also help with heating? >> There's the all of our fleet has heat already installed on it. >> Is it But isn't it is that from is it ceiling heat or is it just from the front of the
060bus? It's all the whole the whole bus has heat. So there is front heat like driver uh defrost and then there's a heat in the that you could turn on every bus towards the back so the students are comfortable and the air conditioning is also the same way. There seems to be a front unit >> um >> you know driver and then there's a back unit that's put on that air conditions the rest of the bus. So, both heating. There is heating on all of the buses. And now we should have five right now. After the floor get fixed, we'll have air conditioning. If we get this next bus, we will have six that have just have it this year. I believe there's a couple more that we purchased previously that have already had air
061conditioning put on them. Three, two to four, I believe. >> Cool. >> I have one more question. What of the new buses? What is the capacity of one of those buses? >> The one that we just ordered is 77. >> Wow. I didn't realize there was that many. >> Yeah, they they're getting bigger. They're getting longer, but the capacity that we just bought last week is a 77 person bus. >> So, what's the lowest one we have now still in the routes? >> Um, I'm going to say 20 would be would be close to the lowest, give or take, but I would say 20 would be probably one of our lowest numbered student on a bus. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Um, sorry. of the 33 routes, how many buses
062of those routes have air conditioning? I know at one point we were sitting at like 16 or so buses that had them and that was a big push. I think it was last year of getting the buses updated and since you said we've gone through about six or so. So with our parents, our children, and the community at large wanting to know how many buses we've got with routes that are actively uh have AC in them, do you know that number off the top of your head or >> I don't I that's an easy number for me to find out. Sure. Sure. Sure. >> It's just something I haven't in you researched, but it's something I could easily get an answer to. Yes, sir. >> Yeah. Well, the only reason I ask is because like
063I said, you know, that's been the push as of last year is making sure that our bus routes have AC's and then our replacement buses that are in the pipeline to replace them on routes or whatever when they break down or for PMCS or whatever, that those buses of course are taken care of next. But >> yeah, and I do know every bus that has air conditioning is on a route. Yep. >> You know, and our spare buses are the ones that aren't, >> you know, they're a little bit older but don't have the air conditioning. But yeah, as many as we have are on routes right now and when we get them one, the two new ones will have it. We'll put those out immediately, especially as it warms up. >> Um, based off
064of uh your comments and your slideshow, you've gone through basically almost all of the routes in county. Have you started with the off or out of county routes yet for the the special trips we got to make all the way from Charlottesville across or >> I haven't been on any of those. I know where all the schools are located, whether it's in Richmond or Charlottesville. I think we have one in um um Gland, but I haven't I have not been out to any of those special education off school sites yet. No, sir. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Um the double runs, I know that some people are doing that a lot. Um have we have you gotten many people to want to be a bus driver? I mean, I know you said you were
065going to try to do some kind of little recruitment thing, but >> are we getting people or is it just a slow roll? Uh right now it's a slow roll. I'm trying to contact retired bus drivers that might be willing to come back and serve as a substitute capacity. Um especially with some of these sports that are coming up. You know, spring is a is a big time for sports. So making sure that we have enough bus drivers. So I am contacting u like I said retired bus drivers. I've had a conversation with a former bus driver last week to come back maybe next year. Um so there's conversations taking place with retired. There's a couple of people that have called in regards to being interested. I've c I've contacted them back. Um hopefully, you
066know, fingers crossed they contact us or put in an application or or start the training process here very soon. >> Okay. Thank you. I appreciate it. >> You're welcome. Thank you. >> Next. >> It leads us to 7.06. uh recommending the school board accept the transfer of three vehicles from the Buckingham Board of Supervisors. Mr. Harshman. >> Yes. Uh as you see the letter uh attached um this was approved at Monday night's uh board of supervisors meeting. This is a regular thing um to accept a letter of intent to address the board of supervisors and during their March 9th meeting to transfer below surplus vehicles at the school board. the 2017 1819 Ford Explorers. These are obviously retired police cruisers that they have. Um once we transition them, transfer them over, you know, we strip
067them of obviously all their labeling, all their lights. Um and we do what we need to make them function for our fleet and we can obviously really use as many vehicles uh as we can. They they do get used to go out to do some of these >> um offsite out of county uh um transportation needs for special education students and and different needs for some of these ones that break down to have extras. So I would like to recommend that we transfer these three vehicles into our possession. >> Madam Chair, I move to um accept the three vehicles as presented. >> Second. >> A motion was made by Mr. Christian and second by Mr. Snotty to accept the transfer of three vehicles from the board of supervisors. Are there any questions? All those in
068favor, please raise your hand. That's unanimous. Motion carries. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> And thank the board of supervisors. >> Yes. >> That leads us to 7.07 graduation fundraising updates by Mr. Damon Tally. >> Good evening again. Um, so our graduation fundraiser, um, the last time we spoke, I meant I mentioned that we were we did pretty well. Um, so just get an update. We still have a couple we want to do just to give us a little cushion to make sure for any incidentals and any extra costs might come up with some of the things that we want to do with the scenes such as banners, some of the stuff we've been doing in the past couple years, we want to try to at least do that for at least this
069year. Um, so fundraiser update. What we have is our winter dance that was can was postponed a couple of times. Um, a wise woman told me last week that my dance would not be a success because of how it was set up. Um, needless to say, we only had we didn't have a large turnout, so we end up canceling the dance. Um, we did have a successful fatheraughter dance. Right now, my wife is probably calculating what we can donate back to the senior class, but it was a great turnout. um some future fundraising. Um my contribution letter to the Fraternal Order of Police, I haven't heard back from them yet. Um so I'm probably going to say that might not happen. However, I did reach out to the South Chains River Community Foundation. Um and
070hopefully um things will work out there for help out with some things with Miss Good. And thank you again for the recommendation. Um, also elementary sock hop. Um, that's the idea I had. Um, I spoke with my senior advisor. She's she's coaching right now. Um, I'll have to speak to Miss Morris to see if we can get that off the ground because it probably require a lot of people involvement. But I do have some things that we have done in the past. U, our donut sales has been successful this year. We can do another round of that, especially since it's getting hot outside. Um, also they have what he call giving at the pump where um, Miss Paige is going to reach out to the market have one or two designated pumps and every time
071somebody use those pumps a certain percentage comes back to us. And also I came up with a great idea today on the spot where I thought about a a food truck Friday where we open up um I don't want to compete with SCA with like a softball game but we open up the bus loop get a couple of local food trucks. I play some music and bring the community in have a great time or we enjoy some some local food truck and we get a percentage from that. So that's one thing that's in the work we trying to work on. >> Sounds good. >> And that's what we have. Thank you. All right, you can stop with the doughnut sales. I have bought enough already. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> Thank you. >> All
072right. 7.08 the monthly enrollment report. >> Yes. So, our February um ADM was 1,668. ADM at the primary school was 351. ADM at the elementary school was 353. ADM at the middle school was 386 and ADM at the high school was 579. Our enrollment at the preschool was 92 students. Our January ADM of 1669 um is two students lower than our December ADM of 1671. However, you know, we are still higher than our September ADM which was 1637. So, we did, you know, while we're trickling down just a smidge here, we did have a significant increase since September 30th. >> Okay, thank you. >> Someone has a question. >> Okay, that leads us to 7.09, the policy updates, the February BSBA policy updates, the first reading. >> Okay. Um, the most recent uh, revisions to
073the sample policies in the VSBA policy manual have been posted on the VSBA policy portal. Each policy in this review cycle has been modified in some way, although many of them have either a slight change in format or changes that are administrative in nature. I will review with you the policies that include a substantive change. The re the revisions are provided in both final and track changes which are referred to as a redline format. The redline format shows each change made to the policies. Generally, substantial revisions are a result of changes in law and regulations. However, some policies are revised for editorial reasons to correct technical errors or to improve clarity. All of the revisions have been reviewed for legal compliance. >> Uh I do want to say something though. Um I did send some
074things in for corrections. >> Yes. >> They're not on here right now. >> The the those particular policies aren't in in this. >> Look at the bottom. >> Oh, they're at the bottom now. Okay. Sorry. So, we want to delete and put them back to go to the bottom. >> Okay. Gotcha. All right. So, an exception for the February 2026 update is VSBA sample policy GCBE family and medical leave. There is no redline format for this sample policy. In the explanation of revisions document, a brief explanation is provided for each revised policy. Each policy should be reviewed and the school board should determine whether to adopt the revision or make its own changes. As with all VSBA sample policies, each board should should decide whether to use the sample policies as written, modify the sample
075policies, develop their own policies, or decline to adopt a policy on the subject. Pages two through five of the VSBA policy update provides a brief summary of each policy update. Many of the policies, as I stated earlier, are being updated for clarity, formatting, or updates to legal and cross references. The following policies contain more substantial revisions. Policy GB, staff weapons in school. This policy has been updated to bring into legal compliance and a legal reference has been added. Policy GCB, family and medical leave. There is no red line for this sample policy. Although the Family and Medical Leave Act has not undergone substantial changes, the VSBA significantly revised sample policy GCB. The February 2026 reversion reflects a deliberate effort to distinguish between board policy and administrative regulations. Consequently, the sample policy has been simplified to
076governing principles and statutory requirements and detailed procedural and regulatory provisions have been removed and recommended for inclusion in division administrative regulations with other information the administrative personnel deem necessary. We would include the procedures regarding the family and medical leave act in our Buckingham County employee handbook. Policy GCG, professional staff probationary term and continuing contract. This policy has been revised for clarity and has administrative changes policy GD support staff. This policy was revised to merge policies GD, GDG, and GDN into one policy. The policy language has been changed for both clarity and to be consistent with the code of Virginia and VDOE regulations policy IGBH alternative school programs. This policy was revised to include additional language from the code of Virginia policy IICA field trips. This policy was revised for clarity to reflect VDOE regulatory language
077and has added legal and cross references. Policy IICC community resource persons school volunteers. This policy was revised with added language for clarity and has added legal and cross references. Policy JFCD, weapons on school property. This policy was substantially revised to bring it into legal compliance and has added legal references. Policy GFC gang related activity or association. This policy was substantially revised to bring it into legal compliance and has added legal and cross references. Policy JGA, corporal punishment. This policy has been revised for clarity and has added cross references. Policy KGB, public conduct on school property. This policy has been revised to closely mirror statutory language. Policy KK, school visitors. This policy has been revised for clarity and has added legal and cross references. Please see the footnote for additional language that the school board may
078choose to add. Policy KN, sex offender and crimes against minors registry information. This policy has been revised for clarity and has added cross references. And finally, policy KP, parental rights and responsibilities. This policy has been substantially revised and has added legal and cross references. Do you have any specific questions? And remember, this is a first read. We are not adopting anything for approval this evening. I think I had some questions but um the probationary period for on GD >> G >> first of all it says support staff in the second paragraph and it says and I said are all positions covered because it doesn't consider it doesn't say bus drivers and car drivers I don't know if that should be added or not >> okay so such as car drivers and >> yeah because you
079know it had some other names for different positions so I just asking if that should be added. And then uh it had something about a two to three years probationary period and and it also said something about a new position, a new probationary period. So I I don't know if you would want to do that for every position, you know, unless it was within the same type of position. I don't think you would need a probationary period, but I don't know. That may be something that we just need to >> some school divisions u have six months, some have a year, you know, up to two years. You we could decide if you wanted to say something like probationary period of one year or a probationary period of six months, we we could certainly include
080that in the uh blank space there. >> Okay. I guess it depends on the position. I mean, >> yeah, I think that's what they're alluding to is depending on the position. Yeah. >> The way it has they move to another position. So, it wouldn't be like a teacher to teacher be like another position. to a administrative type job. Yeah. >> Um let's see under KK on the fourth paragraph it says after the I that's in parentheses any A and I couldn't understand what they were trying to say there. Um, if you look at KK >> any uh direction to vacate the property, >> I I couldn't understand what that meant. I mean, it makes sense to me. I'm sorry. >> I think uh in violation of any direction to vacate the property by an authorized
081individual or to any posted notice which contains such information and is visibly or reasonably visible. Okay. So, what I'm hearing you say is that we need to maybe look at that sentence that's in that paragraph. >> Yeah. word it so it's a little more understandable I think >> revised sentence okay >> for clarity >> yes let's see what else have I >> sorry I read them already >> u and on KP um the second paragraph the first sentence it says we'll respect the rights and and I thought of all parents um I don't know It just said parents. I think it Well, respect the rights. Did it say that? >> Of all parents. All parents and legal guardians. >> It says respect the rights. >> Okay. Maybe we already changed it. >> The rights. Okay.
082>> And I think we'll check on that. >> That's right. >> And I think that's probably all right. Yeah, I did ask the question about what an electronic room partition is. And I don't know if you all know what it is or not. It's one of these things that is a it's it's like that we don't want a kid in there at the time because somebody could get hurt and you don't you know you can't keep up with them that good. So glad I asked because they did send me a picture of it to let me know. I think that's all I have. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, that leads us to 8.01 schoolboard member committee updates. Has anyone had any? >> No, the only thing we have is we got the facilities meeting I
083know on the 13th of next month. >> Okay. Um, Mrs. uh Dr. Rezner and I went to the governor's school um what was that called? Um >> um it was a lunchon and it was part of their um >> evaluation for six years. accredit accrediting evaluation. Yes. >> And uh it was very informative. Um and I learned a few things because I don't know enough about Governor school to be a force to be reckoned with. But they do have a symposium that they're going to have that our kids are going to present um their research and it'll be Wednesday, March 25th. So if anybody wants to go, we need to contact them to let them know. Um, also don't forget our regional meeting on March the 19th. Oh, no, 17th. >> 17th. >> Our board
084of supervisors meeting um for the budget on March the 18th. And I think that's all that we have, right? Does anybody else have anything to say? I did want to say that Mr. Goodman uh wasn't able to attend. He was he has something else he was doing. Maybe working. I'm not sure. And I do want to go over this Buckingham preschool that Mrs. Walker wanted me to u say. She said, "Registration is now open and schedule your appointment today with the preschool. Um acceptance is based upon Virginia preschool initiative guidelines and all applicants must reside in Buckingham County and be four years old by September the 30th of 2026. And it's a great way to get your child ready for kindergarten. Uh, and the number to call is 96 434-969-4490. And that's all. All right.
085Anything else to come before the board? If not this.