December 10 School Board Meeting - Part 2 - Buckingham County Public Schools

001We need to return from close session. >> Madam Chair, I certify that to the best of our knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements and only such bis public business matters as were identified in the motion to go into executive session were her discussed or considered in executive session. >> Second. >> Motion's been made by Mrs. Morris and second by Mr. Goodman to return from close session. Roll call vote. I >> I >> We are back in in [music] session. Um 3.02 certificate of action taken in close session. >> Madam Chair, I move that we uh accept the personnel agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Motion's been made by Mrs. Morris and second by Mr. to approve the personnel agenda as presented. Are there any questions? All those in favor, please

002raise your hand. That's unanimous. The motion carries. Now 3.03, opening of the regular meeting. It's the custom of the Buckingham County School Board to open each meeting with a pledge of allegiance to the United States flag and a moment of prayer. If anyone is offended by either of these, it's suggested that they wait until one minute after the beginning of the meeting to enter. Please note any person may photograph may photograph, film, record or otherwise reproduce any portion of the open meeting. >> Please stand. >> Let us pray. Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for all that you do for us, Father, for the many blessings you've given us, Father. The ones we know about and the ones we don't. Father, through through this time of the week, Father, and this

003weather, Father, we pray pray that those that have been severely impacted by it. Father, we pray for those in going through illnesses, diseases, uh problematic times. Father, we pray for your hand be upon them and their families. Father, we pray for this board as we make decisions tonight based on your will. Father, we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen. >> I aliance 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. That leads us to 3.04, adoption of the agenda. >> Madam chair, I recommend adoption of the agenda. >> Second. >> A motion's been made by Mr. Snotty and second by Mrs. Morris to adopt the agenda as presented. Are there any questions? All those in

004favor, please raise your hand. That's unanimous. The motion carries. Uh 4.01 senior of the month. >> Good evening. It is our pleasure this evening to recognize not one but two seniors of the month. Raasia Barber and Rihanna Barber. Please come forward. >> [applause] >> Raasia and Rihanna are the twin daughters of Wendy Barber of Dillwin. Raasia has a GPA of 3.34 and is currently taking dual enrollment classes. She is currently taking business management and already has two Microsoft C certifications in that class. She is an executive member of FBLA, a senior representative and region representative of the SCA. She's active in the yearbook club, the FCCLA, the ECMC scholars, Project Discovery, and Beta Club. Her hobbies include shopping, donating, music, computers, movies, and volunteering. Her favorite memory of Buckingham County High School is the first

005day she walked into the building and thought, "Yes, I made it to high school." [laughter] She plans to attend a four-year college and earn a bachelor's degree in hospitality and tourism while minoring in global studies and computer science. Raasia would like to extend a special thanks to Mrs. Gentry, her favorite teacher that has gone above and beyond for her students. Rihanna has a GPA of 3.7 and is currently taking dual enrollment classes. She is a member of FBLA, Project Discovery, Skills USA, ECMC Scholars, SCA, Beta Club, yearbook club, and is treasurer of the FCCLA. Her hobbies are shopping and doing kind gestures for others. Her favorite memory of Buckingham County High School is attending all of the events, watching the sports events, and volunteering at the concession stands. She plans to attend a four-year college

006and double major to get her bachelor's in business administration and masters in sports management so that she can work for a famous sports team. She plans to later get a teaching degree and eventually retire as a teacher. Rihanna would like to extend special thanks to Mrs. Duncan, her favorite teacher, for inspiring students to be their best. Please join me in congratulating both of our seniors. [applause] Any family, family members or loved ones want to come forward? [clears throat] >> [laughter] [applause] >> Congratulations, ladies. [laughter] >> That's right. Congratulations. >> Thank you for coming over. Congratulations. >> Thank you so much. Appreciate it. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. >> [clears throat] >> At this time, I'd like to do a certificate of recognition for Mrs. is Teresa Bryant. UH, [applause] this certificate of

007appreciation is being presented by the Virginia School Boards Association for serving as a delegate in the 2025 VSBA Delegate Assembly on behalf of Dr. Joanna Roland Spells, VSPA, VSBA past president, and Gina Patterson, VSBA executive director. Congratulations. [applause] They're taking pictures over there. Okay. Congratulations. We're proud of you. >> That leads us to 4.03 Showcase Buckingham Preschool. Sarah Walker, principal. Before Miss Walker begins, I just want to say over the next several months at each schoolboard meeting, we will spotlight one of our schools. We've done this in the past and this evening, you know, we are pleased to have Miss Walker to spotlight and showcase Buckingham County Preschool. >> All right, good evening. Um, thank you all so much for having me. We've been enjoying these snow days, but I know we will be so

008happy to get back in the building and see our little ones. So, again, as Dr. um Rezner said, I am here to showcase the preschool. We always have a lot going on and we're excited to tell you a little bit about some of the things that we've accomplished since school has started this year. So, today we're just going to quickly go over just a little bit about our program. We're going to talk about what our [clears throat] day-to-day life looks like at the preschool, our instruction and routines, and then follow up with just a little bit about how we connect with the community and have fun while we're doing it. All right. So, first of all, with our program. So, as you all know, we are a Virginia preschool initiative program. We are super excited

009this year to have Dr. Ring staff join us. He is our VPI coordinator. So, we've been collaborating with him. And VPI, as the slide says, provides a high quality requires provides and requires a high quality preschool education for children that have been identified at risk with a focus on advancing effective interactions and instruction. VPI programs ensure that all of Virginia's children enter school fully prepared for success. So, we're really proud of that. We seek that out and that is definitely a focus from us dayto-day. All right. So, what does highquality mean? High quality means a lot at Buckingham Preschool. So, for Virginia Preschool Initiative to be considered high quality, we have to have a vetted curriculum. You can see Fanny Frog up there. She's the mascot for our curriculum. It's called Frog Street. And we

010didn't just choose that out of the blue. That's off of a list of VPI approved curriculum. And our teachers do a really excellent job with that. Following along with that, we our teachers are assessed with the class assessment scoring system. Our scores are submitted twice a year to the VDOE and so our score is also located on the DOE website. So we get an accreditation status as well. So our last year score is posted. We scored a 636. We're very proud of that and that means that we meet expectations. So we're always looking towards the future and bettering ourselves and that's what our PD focuses on is class. All right, a little bit more about what makes us high quality. So K through 12 focuses on the standards of learning, the SOS. We have the

011ELS which stands for the Virginia Early Learning Development Standards birth to five. I listed them out on there. You can go on the DOE website because we have standards just like K through 12 and our lesson plans are aligned to those. Along with that, we're very proud of our efforts towards inclusion. All of our classrooms are inclusive by nature. We're meeting our students for the first time and so they join a classroom and then we help support them and figure out their needs. So all of our students we know are unique and they can learn. As I said, all of our classrooms are inclusive and we're very proud of our partnership with the iPad team and with ITC ITC and that's the infant toddler connection. All right. And the last slide about high quality, we're

012also required to do assessments. So we assess our students three times a year with standardized testing including vows BKRP and our common assessments and we use that to drive our instruction and we are required as well to have 15 hours of PD for um teachers and pair professionals. So that's something very special to us. So when we our goal is when you come into the classroom unless you know us we don't want you to be able to know who's the teacher and who's the pair professional because they have the same amount of training and so something that is something that I track and we submit to the state each year. Okay. So now that you know just a little bit about us if you stop by to see us we have some special things that

013go on with our instruction routines that's unique to us. All right. Starting with home visits. So this is something that we're very proud of. Our preschool teachers each year before school starts go out and conduct a home visit at students homes. This is something that's very special to us. It helps us really engage and connect with the families. We go to them instead of them having to go to us and it helps us figure out just a little bit more about them and how we can support them. The kids love it. They run. They get excited. They show us their book bags and all the things. But it also helps give us a better understanding and where we can meet them when they come in. All right. And so when they come, attendance is very

014important. So our attendance policy, um, excuse me, it mirrors kindergartens. As you can see, there's some students there. One of the things that they love is each morning, what we do is we draw names. And if you are there in the morning and you are ready to go, you get to help with the morning announcements. So if you come, our students are on the pod um on the PA system. They love to hear their voices. And that orange little night shout out bucket is something that our staff really enjoys where they put in great things that students are doing. Our students, as you know, come in very young. So you might get a shout out from potty training all the way up to reading just depending on where you are. And so we do a

015lot of things. Not necessarily always getting something for what you're doing, but getting that personal something, that recognition that makes them very proud. And so and we do track attendance. All right. Our instruction as you know like I said we are handson that's very important those meaningful interactions that's something that that class assessment scoring system scores us on so not worksheets not doing all those things having handson being very playbased but playbased doesn't just mean play without purpose it's play with purpose so when you come into our classrooms you're going to see our students collaborating together you're going to see our staff collaborating with them so very hands-on and doing very age appropriate instruction. All right, we are happy to partner with the high school. Courtney Duncan brings over teacher cadetses that help in the

016classroom three times a week and they are so helpful. The students love them. They get in as well as you can see. They don't just sit back in the corner and they observe. they as well are hands-on helping in the classroom, helping with students, be it in small group or doing bulletin boards or helping with those announcements or doing any of the things. So, we're very happy with our partnership with the high school and they are definitely an asset to our building. We have resources as well. So, it's a little bit fuzzy, but that's Miss Pearl from the library in Dillwin. She does an amazing job. She comes out and provides library for our students once a week. And we also partner with Ruth Wallace to have 4 resource as well. So we do have

017those community partners that come into the building to help us. All right. So I've got on here meals. So we've got meal time is very important. We really promote eating school meals because we know that having that free access to breakfast and lunch is incredibly important. It sets them up for success and it's also a really big part of the pride of our building. You can see Miss T up there. She listens to our students. They tell them tell her what they like and what they don't like. She takes it all in. I think that's where she was making them a special treat that day. We do colors. I think she was making a color jello- for them. Um, and then you've got Mr. Lee. Mr. Lee's on the custodial team, but he's always in

018the cafeteria sitting with the students, eating with them because, as we know, that's what teaches children about eating. If they see you trying carrots, they're more likely to try carrots and things like that. So healthy eating is very important to us and we really support our cafeteria team. All right. And that's just a fun bit about recess. Physical movement and getting outside is very important. Nothing replaces recess. We do free play opportunities because they need that opportunity just to rip and run and have a good time outside as well as having structured physical education. So when they get back in they're they're I know we're going to hope that snow melts because that is something that they look forward to every day is getting outside. And so come over and join us anytime because our

019playground is very important to us. It gets used a lot. All right. And these are just some pictures of just some of the things that we've done so far this year. We have more things planned coming up. So spirit days. Wednesday is always a spirit day at Buckingham Preschool. We always have a learning spirit day. So, I think these are actually from homecoming and we always like to join in with what the other schools are doing because it's really important for us to support them, especially the high school because when we have the teachers cadetses coming over and they're dressed up and we get to dress up like them, I think it really helps our students look ahead to what's the future. Like, okay, here I am now in my four-year-old body, but that could

020be me, you know, looking ahead to the future. But if you ever come to the preschool and you see us doing something on a Wednesday, we have a learning spirit day, something that coordinates um and something to have fun. Grandparents day is something that we really enjoy. Some of you all in the past have come and enjoyed that. We had another great turnout this year. This is when grandparents get to come in throughout the week and we know that families are so important and grandparents as well as parents and any family member are an incredible support system and we just love welcoming them into the building and building those connections and they again get to see our cafeteria that we're very proud of. Veterans Day. So, we were very excited to go back to having

021an in-person Veterans Day program this year. We did the parade last year and then our staff got together this year and they were like, "You know what? you know, let's go back to doing it in person. And we had an amazing turnout. We had family members of students come and we had just community members that heard about us join in as well. And it really helped our students, I think, like they're learning about the importance of serving and respect and all those things. But when they got to see them up on the stage, you could tell they made that connection. And the veterans that attended really enjoyed um getting to connect with our preschoolers as well. All right, we've had some other family events. Over on the lefthand side, we had a food family fun

022event that was very popular this fall where they came out for a hot dog dinner. They got to learn a little bit about our program and get to go outside and enjoy our playground. We do singing performances as well. We have one that's rescheduled for tomorrow evening. We can't fit all of our parents into the building at one time, so our teachers kind of split it up. That's a fall performance from Miss Allen's class. Miss Moore and Miss Schaefer will be singing. Their classes will be singing tomorrow. And then on the right hand side, that event has also been rescheduled because of the snow. We'll be having our winter family fun night coming up on Monday. So, we're looking forward to that as well. All right, community helpers. We always invite anybody from the community

023in that's interested in helping us. This is Bo Bur. He came from the Dylan Fire Department. He brought the engine and he does an amazing age appropriate um presentation basically and it's really good because it hits like right around Halloween and he connects with it you know that way they're not scared like he connects it with this is my costume that I wear for work and he it's really I've heard so many different presentations throughout the year but he does an amazing job and we thank him for coming out to teach us about fire safety. All right. And we just like to celebrate also because coming to school is such an important thing and it's the fun things that students will remember throughout the years. So on the left hand side we is Mr. Lee.

024Again, we love to celebrate our staff for different reasons because we want our students to recognize that okay, I'm in school, but there's also very important people that keep this school running. In the middle, we like to have family members and parents come out to just celebrate, to read books, to join us for birthdays. All right. At the top, that's us participating in the homecoming parade. We really enjoy that. And at the bottom, that's Spooky. So, Miss Julie Milbrath, our secretary, does something every year where they she reads the book Spookly and they go out and they plant magic pumpkin seeds and then spooky grows during the night. So, just fun things that get them excited about coming to school. It helps with that attendance and those are the things that they remember and they

025carry forward. All right, and there we are. This is one of our final slides. This is our whole school there. We tried as much as possible to get everybody in with our school colors. We bought some school t-shirts before our last field trip that we went on that help us with safety. And so when you see us all there together, it really puts it into focus that and like I tell them, this is the group, God willing, that you are going to carry forward each year and then you're going to be graduating with 13 odd years down the road. So it's very special for us to take a group picture each year. >> All right. And this is one where we tried. It took us a couple tries, but this is Miss Schaefer and Miss

026Moore's class. >> Happy holiday. [screaming] Happy holidays. [laughter] They they were practicing for their performance and they definitely wanted to take part in this um presentation as well. So again, that's just a little bit about us, our showcase for this evening. Do you all have any questions about our program or anything that we have coming up? >> No, thank you. That was awesome. I have one question and I it's probably a broader base, but is it any way we can bring the graduation back where it's all at one time at the high school? That would be so wonderful because I really enjoyed that instead of having to go to each little one. It's >> I think that's something we can definitely talk about. Um what we did in the past it there was like a

027a method to the madness. So we always did it I think it was like on the Wednesday. So, we did it before the high school um graduation and so it was a way for it and maintenance and everybody to do a dry run. Um so, I know a lot of everything that was put up was put up in advance of the high school graduation and I know with the high school graduation possibly being somewhere else. We would just have to think about, you know, what that would look like, but to your point with the caps and the gowns, that was definitely a different experience. Yes, I get that. Yes. >> Yeah. Um, also the number that you got for the the first slide, second slide, the 636. What is the highest you could possibly get?

028Do you know? >> So, the highest would be 800. Okay. To get a perfect score and that would be I think the exceeds expectations bracket runs from 700 to 800. Okay. So, we're at a solid 636. And so, we're we're getting there. And we would be very proud to break that threshold and get over into the exceeds expectations. >> Thank you. Anybody else have anything? >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you all. [applause] >> That leads us to 5.01 public comment. And anyone who wishes to address the school board must state their name and address and limit their comments to three minutes. Speakers must refrain from referring to employees by name. The school board would not entertain comments regarding any pending student discipline or employee grievance matters. The appropriate form for such matters is

029the applicable administrative hearing provided by state law or were appropriate at court proceeding. This is a time for comments only. Board members do not respond to the comments made and questions should be submitted to the school board in writing and will be given to the appropriate person in answer as soon as possible. Do we have anybody signed up? >> No one signed up. >> Okay. Well, public comment is closed. Then [clears throat] that leads us to 6.01, approval of the consent agenda. >> Madam Chair, I move to approve the consent agenda items. >> Second. >> A motion's been made by Mr. Snotty and second by Mr. Christian to approve the consent agenda. Are there any questions? All those in favor, please raise your hand. That's unanimous. The motion carries. This is to report of the

030superintendent 7.01, the student liaison report. >> Good evening. My name is Lily Jones and I'm one of the student liaison for the 2025 through 2026 school year. And here's the report. The dance sponsored by the senior class for December 12th has been postponed until January. We are not sure of the date yet. Cookies with Santa will be this Saturday, December 13th, from 10:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. Santa and Mrs. Clauss will be there and lots of activities for the children will be available. There will also be vendors there. The basketball game for December 9th against Randolph Henry has been moved to February 2nd. The Prince Edward game from December 5th is now January 8th. The indoor track meet is now Thursday at Fork Union. There are no makeup games for Monday and tonight's game. FFA

031will be distributing fruit Thursday from 400 pm to 6:00 p.m. The heroes breakfast is December 16th at 8:30 a.m. at the middle school. SCA will be shopping for the adopted family Monday, December 15th. FBLA is taking a trip this Friday to Richmond to assist the AS foundation in wrapping Christmas presents for children with cancer. High school students are gearing up for finals and some are finishing up with their SP um their so testing. And as many of you know, myself and my fellow student liaison Michael Clark Reed last month, we attended the VSBA conference in Williamsburg. The conference was a very enriching experience and we would like to thank everyone for sponsoring our trip. So, thank you guys so much. Um, the ring ceremony for the BCHS junior class will be held this upcoming Tuesday

032at 6 p.m. Thank you all for your time and I hope everyone has a merry Christmas and a happy new year. >> Thank you. >> That [clears throat] leads us to 7.02 summer 2027 EF tours. Chelsea Panky. [clears throat] >> Uh, good evening. Uh, Miss Panky could not be with us this evening. um she wanted to reach out to you in regards to the summer 2027 EF tours planned trip. The group is planning to visit Ireland, Scotland, and England and is hoping to send out an email soon to gauge student interest. She would also like to schedule an interest meeting in early January. Uh she is seeking support from the school board to send out emails and invitations for the interest meeting um this evening. But as a reminder, as you know, this is not

033a school division sponsored trip and so this is not an action item for your approval but simply information. Okay. Uh that leads us to 7.03 instructional update by Dr. John Ring staff. >> Good evening. Good evening board. >> Good evening. I'd like to start with some really fantastic news and that is the framework for accreditation was released this past week and Buckingham Cal County Primary, Buckingham County Elementary, Buckingham County Middle, Buckingham County High School are all fully accredited and Buckingham County High School is considered distinguished based on their framework score. So, I would like to take a moment to have all of the administrators from these schools stand up. [applause] [applause] CONGRATULATIONS. >> [applause] >> After reviewing all of Region 8's scores, Buckingham County is the only school division in region 8 that has every

034single school building fully accredited. And so I think that is just a huge SUCCESSFUL [applause] >> [applause] >> I know I've only been on the job since what July, but it's been a it's been a real joy to work with those administrators and I know they're intent on keeping those scores high and improving. And I put in my instructional update, you know, we proudly acknowledge our achievement as a fully accredited school division and we reaffirm our commitment to steady continuous growth in our in our instructional practice. Our intention is for Buckingham County Public Schools to become a beacon of excellence. Now, continuing on with the more traditional instructional update, I did want to say that I've con I've conducted formal observations and of teachers in kindergarten, first and second grade. formal observations are usually 45

035minutes to an hour long. I was left impressed with the richness of the curriculum and the resources available as well as the quality of instruction delivered. I think one of my biggest takeaways is how much energy our teachers at that K12 level have and how their motors have to go the entire time. And so I'm very as a secondary person primarily, I'm very impressed with what I saw in K12. We also conducted extensive interview observations in Buckingham County Middle School, particularly the math department and we were left impressed with the use of instructional technology in those zones. Now the next slide should be our benchmark scores and this attests to while we cannot be complacent and we have to con constantly look for ways to improve. I know the majority of those benchmark scores are

036green, but there's two areas that are red. and I pressed principles to to share with me and they're here if you would like to ask them specifically to share takeaways, positives, negatives and what I saw consistently across the buildings is and this speaks to my predecessor and the work done by administration and staff previous to me but I'm hearing from principles across all buildings that alignment is very strong and it's moving in a in a good direction as far as alignment with curriculum. the you know when I pressed Mr. Tally and Miss Morris on on the two red scores. You know, they were very quick to say here are the issues that we need to correct. We've talked to the teachers. The teachers are aware. The writing score is off. I think because of a

037small sample size. Those our teachers were focused on preparing for um the so remediation rather than that benchmark. So they sacrificed the benchmark to put all the effort in improving the riding so that there was success for the so. So you know I know that's a trade-off but it's a trade-off that in in the high school setting would lead to a a student more likely to graduate. And then in history there at the elementary school, Miss Morris reminded me that our resources for history we ordered through Five Ponds Press. That is a company that once you order it, they don't really they don't make the books until they've got the order. So, we were late getting resources for history. And I'm not it's not concerning to me because I've firsthand witnessed their professional learning communities

038that they have at the elementary school. I trust Miss Morris and her team to be on top of that data and and so I expect to see the next benchmarks improve. The the last thing I wanted to point out before I take questions is I do have a grant that's due December 19th that I'm I'm going to be fighting for our middle school math teachers. The Virginia Middle School Teacher Corps, MT MSTC, help school divisions fill critical shortage areas in middle school mathematics by providing targeted funding to help school divisions recruit and retain qualified middle school math teachers. In short, Buckingham County is eligible to participate in this program for three years. And I'm going to work with Miss with Dr. Garrett to identify teachers that could receive a $5,000 per year incentive payment. And

039that will be available from assuming funding is from the Virginia General Assembly. That grant application's due the 19th and I'm currently working on that. You have any questions? Anyone have any questions? >> I I do have one. Um Madam Chair, if that's okay. Sure. Um just I'm looking back up the next one where we had the greens, the light greens and the pinks. >> Yes, sir. >> And I was just trying to make sure I understand the reference when it says percentage um for Q1 2425. Obviously that's that's gone, but then we're looking at 2526. What what are those percentages reflecting that are on that chart? >> Uh pass rates. So, I was asked okay >> I was asked to compare >> um last year's scores. So, I reached out to our rep with CIP

040because I didn't have those on file. >> These are not all the tests that we've taken for the benchmark, but these are the ones that we took in 24. So, I've I matched them up with their 2526 counterpart. >> So, do we know I mean obviously a 21% decrease is is a pretty big decrease. Do we do we know what factored into that? Yes, that was the one where uh so there's a couple reasons and I'm I'm not sure if I want to share that in in public, but the makeup of the class was demonstrabably different than what it was last year. >> Okay. >> And and again, the teacher made an executive decision to to focus the remediation on preparing the students to be successful on the so rather than success on the benchmark.

041Okay. And and those are decisions that we want to empower teachers to make, especially if it's in the best long-term interest of the school student. >> So the benchmarks don't reflect what's on the SOS. >> Sounds like the state needs to have their curriculum aligned. >> There's enough differences. I agree with you. There's enough differences in the skills that you really want to give targeted practice for passing works rather than the benchmark, which could be much larger. Okay. >> So, I'm this probably a rhetorical question, but what good is the benchmark if it doesn't help us with the SOS? >> It does. It does. I mean, there are those skills overlap. >> Okay. >> But, um, just like for instance, I I constantly come back to science examples because that's my background. Just like uh

042scientific investigation practices would be in every science standard, you really want to focus on the scientific investigation standards that's that's relevant to biology. And so these tests, while yes, writing skills are measured in that CIP, the the benchmark is not is a measure of what you're expected to learn over the course of a class. So there could be skills on there that aren't necessarily taught yet. Okay. These teachers have made the decision to really focus on the passing the work keys which is a specific type of writing and and you know that's the best I can explain it. >> Okay. But there are matches in skills obviously. >> Okay. >> It's funny it's only in high school. >> Yeah. >> You notice that? >> I did. It was only in I'm not sure I I

043I appreciate the explanation. I'm not sure that I still comprehend it. Um I mean, you would think if we're teaching, we're teaching, right? And that if you're teaching those skill sets inside of the benchmarks so that they can excel in that class, that's going to reflect on the so. So if you're teaching to the SOS, you figure you get there by the benchmarks, right? >> Let me put let me give you a different example. Okay? If the work keys is testing your ability to write a business letter, you're not going to spend you're wasting time is a strong statement, but why spend time working on constructing a narrative as far as persuasion when you can really focus on preparing them to write a business letter, which might have a different set of skills than a

044narrative persuasive essay. >> Okay. Anyone else have any questions? >> Next, too. I think >> you can go ahead with the comprehensive plan. >> All right. We do plan to bring you the final draft of the comprehensive plan next month. I have listed we recently completed the meetings. This is the third round of meetings with parents and and staff and we've narrowed down our seven areas for our goals. The first one, and I'm not going to read all these to you, but I do want to hit the high points. The first goal is going to be focused on strengthening academic achievement and instructional coherence. And I've shared with you based on all the feedback and and all the listening sessions why the the rationale for uh an academic achievement goal is present. Second, attracting and

045developing and retaining high qual highly qualified staff. Again, the rationale is shared with you. Three, fostering a safe, supportive, and inclusive learning environment. Four, strengthen family and community engagement. Five, promote operational excellence and physical stewardship. Six and seven, enhance early childhood and elementary foundations. Seven, cultivate a divisionwide culture of continuous improvement. And the way that these are going to be set up for your review in January is essentially action steps, key performance indicators, who is responsible and whether it's a director or a principal, and then what is the timeline for for these steps to be implemented. The last step for me before I turn it over for I do want to send out something for parents to give feedback on, but the last step is I've not had time to sit down with the directors

046and principles to look at these specific uh comprehensive strategy goals. And so we plan to do that on Monday. And then shortly thereafter, there will be a final draft which I want to share with the community for final feedback. And then the January goal is to submit the final product for your input. But that's where we stand in this process. There's been a lot of a lot of feedback, a lot of parent involvement and a lot of staff involvement. This is a big undertaking and we're making headway. Um, but it's a big animal. >> It's a big package. [laughter] Being pardon? >> Big package. Yes. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Does anyone have any questions? >> Yes, because I think this is your last one to present, right? >> Yes, sir. >> Yeah. So, uh if

047I may, um the changes to the schedule this year, right? Uh throughout the the year, we talked about uh starting when we started at nighttime and all that good stuff at the high school. We talked about data collection. Uh could you get together uh something for us in January to show us where we're at compared to last year? um >> the efficacy of nighttime. >> You got it for the nighttime weather. And and again, it's the first semester, everybody's getting used to the schedule. I don't expect to see a a huge amount of change, if any, maybe even gone back a little bit, but I want to take that information, compare it to the next semester's data as well to see whether we're going in the right direction from the first time to see whether

048or not we want to adjust fire. I I know we talked, right, program changes, right? >> Yes. >> Uh but but if it's working, great. If it's not working then all right do we need to try it another semester another year you know what I'm saying >> yes sir >> database decision making basically >> okay >> if that's possible >> we'll do >> please and thank you >> if that's all thank you appreciate >> thank you all >> thank you >> um 7.05 energy efficiency update by Mr. JB Hess. >> Thank you, board, for allowing me to talk tonight >> [clears throat] >> um on the energy conservation measures that we put in place on October 14th. Spoiler alert, we have all smiley faces on our report cards except for one, and I take responsibility

049for that. And when I get there, I will I will fully explain all of them as we go. Um our department um remains committed to fiscal responsibility and environmental stewardship. Um like to thank the board for um allowing me to be a facilities director for you guys and it's an honor to work for Buckingham. I'd also like to thank Dr. Rezner for allowing us to try this measure and so far it's been very successful. Um this really comes down to thanking the teachers and the staff and also the administration for making the program work. programs as a program, but you got folks building level that are making it work. And I really appreciate that and I think I wanted to just mention those guys um because they do a great job. Um moving on to

050the report card, [clears throat] going to prek, uh you should have that on your screens. I'm not going to go into all the details of the kilowatt hours. I'm just going to kind of give you the highlight version. last year December 24th versus this year December 25 we have used at the prek 10% less kilowatts with which results in a $269 savings and overall at the prek since we started this initiative you have saved $687 and change at the prek good job a lot of hard work there uh moving on to the primary school again all the hard math is on the chart if you'd like to look at that in May. I'm just going to kind of give you the highlights. Last year to this year, December, um they are down 9.31%. Good job.

051That levels out to $89. And as a total for the two months that we've been doing the initiative, it is down $1,068 at the primary school. Making good progress. Going on to elementary school. Again, you can look at their math in the the spreadsheet. Um, [clears throat] from last year to this year, the elementary school is down 22% in their kilowatt usage, which results in a $690 savings for this month, and brings them to a total of $1,453 savings since we started in October. Good job to the elementary school. All right, moving on to the middle school. We all know that that is a uh an energy. It loves the energy except in that room there where I know it's rather cold. Um helps in our energy savings. Uh from December last year to this

052year, the middle school is down 20% of their kilowatt usage. >> Very good job. And this is a pretty big number. uh $2,871 savings this year to last year and brings it to a total of $4,93 savings since we started the initiative for the middle school. Good job. Uh high school from last year to this year, they're down 21% in their kilowatt usage, which um savings is $1,931 and some change. And as a total since we started, $3,981 for the high school. Okay, the cottage a little smaller footprint. Just just remind everyone, bigger the footprint, the bigger impact you can make financially. This one's a smaller footprint. Uh they're doing a good job. They're down six% roughly, and that is a $11 savings. Uh so total they've they've saved $13. Uh my grandma always said

053dollar saved is a dollar earned. And so we're going to give him a smiley face. Good job. CTE building from last year to this year, uh they have decreased 13% in this month, which is a um a savings of $586 and some change. Total since we started, $1,210 for CTE. Good job. The bus shop, again, smaller footprint. Last year to this year, a 26% savings. in kilowatt usage for that building saves around $160 on this last month's bill and a total of $311 since we've started for the bus shop. Schoolboard office, same thing, smaller footprint. Um, a savings of 3%. They're doing a good job. Saved us $22 last month and $115 since we started. Good job, school board office. All right. And then the one that [clears throat] we have a straight face on,

054it's the only one. Um it's against alternative ed building. It's a smaller footprint. They went up 4% and they went up $11 on their bill. Um that's because I had to choose to warm up a spot that was extremely cold with a um what do they call it? Milkbox heater. And we all know that those are not very uh efficient. I do have a different plan. So it's uh it cost us $11 last month, but they're only down $3 from last year. So overall, small footprint, we have a better plan for next month. So we're good on that. So total, if you look at the back page, our projection, if we stick to a 7% across the board, which is a reasonable expectation, um it's a little higher because it it can go from three

055to 10. I pick seven because Buckingham always can can u find a way. Uh so I picked 7% as the savings. And if we do that, we we're looking at around $38,000 savings. Right now, just with two months, we're looking at $13,741 savings across the county. Um, our next steps are to continue to monitor the data, encourage the staff because as the battle wears on, it's going to, you know, it's a little easier to plug up something or to forget what what our plan is. So, we'll send out an email before uh before we go on break, just to remind them to unplug everything uh to and they're doing a good job. So, I'll send them an email. Um and just as a reminder, January, February, March are notoriously tough months for the HVAC budget,

056so we're praying and hoping. Um and all this information is on the website and it's active if anybody wants to look at it as of today. >> Any questions for me? >> Wonderful report. Um does anyone have any questions? Thank you. Thank you so much. That leads us to 7.06 day placement review by Jennifer Graasier. >> Good evening everybody. Uh so I was asked to compile some information for you all because I know this has been a topic of discussion on several occasions in regards to Buckingham County Schools uh special education outside placements. Outside placements include residential as well as day placements. Uh next slide. So some historical information. When I arrived here on May 1st, there were 34 students in outside placements. So immediately I looked at discipline reports, their current IEPs um and

057based on that information student uh that the students were not being successful in their home school. infractions uh that were occurring included explosive emotional disorder, severe and profound disabilities, destruction of school property, and harming staff and students. summary of the discussions. I spoke with school administrators and lead special ed teachers um and they indicated that the students present level of performance which is academic performance as well as their functional needs were a factor in the decisions and in doing further review some of our students have been in outside placements for 10 years. So this next slide is just a breakdown of our outside placements. One, the number by school uh placement where they are placed and transitions. So currently the primary has two students, elementary five, middle school five, high school 15, which is a

058total of 27. Well, there is a difference between 34 and 27. And just I did not include this, but I'll let you know several students graduated, some moved. Um, and there's one student that is homeschooled now. And we did bring two students back. Um, since I've been here, one student transitioned back midfall and two students were in the transition period, but due to extenduating circumstances, it's currently on hold. So my next steps that I would like to present is to let you know first I currently speak and or I personally meet with the administration of each placement every month to discuss student progress. When students go into outside placements they are put on plans um for that transition back. You know sometimes they take two steps forward and three steps back. um some it's you

059know due to those extenduating circumstances um they kind of start back at the beginning. My goal and it's a it's a it's a big goal is to transition at least five students back by the end of the year. Uh after winter break I'll begin transition planning with those outside placement administrators. And I put in here needs and resources to get the majority of our students back in Buckingham County. Uh based on their disabilities and based on their needs, we need to really focus on autism specialists, behavioral specialists, and provide autism classrooms and behavioral classrooms. Currently, uh, Albamar County has an autism or a based classroom and they have a behavior-based classroom or Bbas is what they refer it to. >> Any questions? >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Go for it. um with with what is

060going to be requ with with what you just presented being required if we do transition and and take care of all of our students in house. Do you have any kind of idea of what the cost of that would be? >> Well, you're looking at one staffing. >> Okay. >> Um you know, we have a wealth of highly qualified individuals currently in our county. Um, and I have kind of started speaking with some of them that they have their ABA certification. Okay. >> Um, you know, I don't know how many of our of our personnel are licensed in autism, received their degree in autism, but that is that is huge in regards to addressing our autistic population. Um, there is a school in UNC that they do a a um conference and they train teachers

061on autism. Um it's five days. Um I have to look into when that's being offered, but that is something that if there are teachers interested that we might could send them to to get some certifications in regards to that. And then space being able, you know, I'm working on resource classrooms right now. That's kind of that continuum of service between self-contained and in inclusion gened. And uh it would just be a matter of offering that space in each building. >> So do you know about how many employees we're talking about? Um, you would definitely well for autism specialists you and behavior specialists, I would say we would need one for elementary and one for our secondary that they would kind of be in each school working with staff. And then the classrooms based on the

062numbers for our outside placement, I would probably say we would need two behavior classrooms. Well, actually, there would need to be one at at the complex as well as an autism classroom and then one of both in each middle and high school. >> And so, they would have to be fully staffed as well. Correct. So, we're >> Yes. >> one. >> I don't know if I I I lost count, but are we talking about eight eight employees? >> Six teachers and then probably based on number one to two. >> Okay. and that you know I mean we're talk there are some students I will say that there are in residential placement because of their severe needs um and at this time in talking with the administrative staff at those placements uh transitioning them back would

063be pretty detrimental for them. >> Gotcha. But there there are I would say 90 to 95% of these students if we had the resources and the classrooms and the trainings in place and the specialists in place we could get these kids back. >> Gotcha. I have just one more question and I'll yield to Mr. Snotty. Um the uh do we have a breakdown on what each of these students what the what the bottom line cost is to the division including transportation including um >> I can get you that >> employees all be more than happy to do that. I think I think the numbers would would give us a better idea to make an informed decision on you know how does it flesh itself out if we do um try to bring the these students

064>> do you want it collectively or do you want it like student one cost student two cost student three >> I think it would be better broken down person I think broken down personally school by school because you got the list of schools that you provided for the 27 plus children they have different >> resource allocations for that so you're going to have the financial piece for the school that they're going to right >> per per student per school. >> Yes. >> And then you've got the transportation that's going to be a separate number al together for each one of those schools plus your hourly requirement for the for the car driver because they're not using buses, right? So they got car drivers going to every school. The timeline, our paycheck covers that, right? All

065of that stuff. So yeah, >> I'd be more than happy to get that for you for our next board meeting. >> And maybe if there's even reimbursements that we get from like Medicare or something like that. Yeah, that's kind of so the whole thing the whole question we've been asking over this for like the last what two years I've been on the board is, you know, we have a huge population that are leaving the school. We have a huge population that uh have sped requirements, if you will, behavioral challenges, whatever you want to call it. Um, but we're we're we're using resources we don't have a lot of times for just transportation, not counting the financial stuff we've got as far as our budget goes. And so when you're trying to rein in some of

066that, you know, there's what can we do? Federal state requirements have have us by the by the hands here. So we can't really, you know, do a whole lot. So we don't know what we don't know, >> right? >> But you do. >> So So we're going to ask >> I don't know it. I will definitely. >> Right. So we're going to ask you to to to give us the information. We we don't have a clue, right? I can go research federal and state guidelines all day long, but you have it the experience to do it. Um, and for us it's finance. What's the best for I mean when you're talking about children, young people being at an institution for 10 years and you're getting evaluations. Are the evaluations from here or are they from

067the schools that they're at? >> They are being evaluated. The residential placements are are provided. >> So they're doing the evaluations for 10 years. And they're getting paid [clears throat] to tell you that they >> that they need to keep your child there. [laughter] >> You understand? this particular student that I'm speaking of um is significantly severe in >> Sure. That's one of 27. >> Yeah. One of 26. >> So what about the other 26? >> Yeah. [laughter] >> Right. So if we only >> now we do evaluate >> uh it is our requirement inhouse for these students. Well, that that that's kind of the question when when I f saw your first second slide, whatever one it was, and it shows 27 and we've got like seven or eight institutions we're going to uh

068and we've got uh we're getting evaluations from from uh admin and and and instructors or behavioral whatever. >> You know, they're giving the evaluations, not us, right? Because we do it in house before we send them there and then they do the evaluation while they're there. Well, they're going to tell you we need to keep them here, but because of these significant issues, but meanwhile, we're paying, >> right, for them to tell us they want to keep our child, >> right? >> So, it's kind of a conflict to me personally for them to say that because of course they want to keep them. They want to keep their jobs, right? Got it. But how many of those children that went out for fighting >> 10 years ago are still out there, >> right? >> And

069they, you know, everybody changes in 10 years. I'm not the same person I was 10 years ago, much less in school, right? Um, so it's one of those things where of course they're going to tell us we're giving them, you know, if we pay 10,400 and change for a child per year here and they're charging 30,000. Well, yeah. Uh, I want them to stay, too. >> Yeah. >> You know, if I was there, right? >> So, for these children that have been there for 10 years, at at what point is the school system no longer responsible financially for these students? Do they age out at 18 or >> they are eligible to be in school till their 22nd birthday under IDA? >> Yep. >> Um and you know some they when they finish you know

070through what they consider 12th grade um and they are ineligible per se for daily living functional skills. There are several on the list that have departed because of their disabilities that they just go home after that point. Um but you know as as students of Buckingham County, they are eligible to be in school until their 22nd birthday. >> Yeah. >> And we don't know what we're paying any one of the institutions per year per child. um >> not not transfer just the child going there any of like I only know of one that's fine I'll take it >> but I think you're you're held by the state as to where they can go to as well right >> I mean >> depending on the the issue >> whatever their issue is I mean you they

071go to Elkill or they may go to another place >> right we try you know what historically Buckingham County has done is try to find placements that service students with such disabilities that is close to home that we're not driving to Rowan Oak or you know other side of Stanton you know most of ours are Charlottesville Gland um really those two two areas there's quite a few places and then Richmond there are two schools in Richmond Grafton and Faison that our students are transported to Yeah, go ahead. >> So, I saw on there you had some strategies, a behavioral classroom, autism classroom. Um, what So, so now for right now, what are some of the strategies that we are utilizing to kind of I don't know if we could prevent some of the placements or

072kind of what what is the strategy now to to kind of >> um you know prevent if we did have to send one to a placement? what what are some of the strategies that we're utilizing? Now, >> one of the things that was not actively in place, I I will say Buckingham County schools uh administration and teachers, they put into place what they considered a behavior intervention plan. When they start to see patterns, then they come up with those strategies, you know, you know, simple as a five minute walk or, you know, cool down space, you know, just different different things. But under IDA, there is a formal process called a functional behavioral assessment and a behavior intervention plan. And after doing the research and things, I've been working um with some of these what

073I call frequent flyers that are having uh discipline referrals and things like that that we look at those patterns of behavior, start collecting that information, and we do an FBA and a what they call a BIP behavior intervention plan where we um gather the data of the interventions we have talked about put in place um and just see uh what needs to be finalized as a document that the school staff would follow. So if there is I just throw this out there if the student is becoming escalated. Then you know there's lines of defense, let's give him a five him or her a five minute walk allowing them to go to a cool down space. You know, if it's carpet time at the elementary or primary and they want to just sit in their at

074their desk, let them sit at their desk. They're still actively engaged in their learning. Sometimes just that transition from one space to another could just really offset their behavior. Um, so we're definitely working on that. And FBA and BIPS or the functional behavior assessment and intervention plan is applies to everyone. it's not just special education students. So, we can actually use that for all students. Um, so that's the first line that we're really looking at. Um, and just revisiting and meeting and talking about students that, you know, are having significant issues at school. You know, if we can do that through what's the child study process and things like that, but if we see that something's not working, we've tried, then we need to come back and see what's our next line that we need

075to really focus on. Are there triggers? Is it a certain class? You know, if they have high sensory needs, should they go to music, you know, or should they be in gym if it's too loud? Well, we could use noise cancelling headphones. There's different things that we could do um to help with such behaviors before we get to that point where we are referring students to our CSA and FAP team down at the county office building to ask for outside placement funding. >> Okay. Now, you said a little bit about if something was to escalate. So just in general, if I'm just a regular staff person and there's a child, I guess um I would know if they had some type of behavior issue, something happens, they get triggered, it begins to escalate. Would I,

076as just a regular worker or what have you, would I be trained necessarily to be able to deal with uh how to deescalate them or how how how does that work? So, um if a student there's there's different things if a student has a um identified disability or they which could include an IEP or an individualized education plan or a 504 plan. Um, it is the requirement of the schools, the case managers or administrator, whoever's in charge of such plans to meet with each individual staff member that works with that said child and review the documents with them. And then there is a sign off sheet where that staff member would sign off saying yes I have personally met with this indiv this staff member this administrator or case manager and they have uh reviewed

077this information with me and I acknowledge that I do understand it. Um so that's one of the things that we do. Uh if you are available on Friday after after lunch we are doing our I am training I'm doing the training 14 staff members with handle with care. We're doing both the verbal and the physical. So we will have two staff members in each building that are trained to handle and help with students with that deescalation process. Um, and you know, when we start to see patterns of behavior, it could be some, it could be chemistry, it could be simple as uh the classroom in which they're in. You know, we have to be realistic about things and really think about we're seeing this behavior in this class. We're not seeing it here. Maybe we

078should take a look at the dynamics there and then come together and say, is this the right classroom for them? Um, you know, it's it's not a rocket science. It's something that we have to kind of address as it comes day by day. You know, there are some students, you know, we don't know the circumstances at home. There are some students that have been up all night, you know, and and you know, sometimes we have to put a little bit of nurturing and and common sense in there if they're if they're wanting to sleep. It's just having that discussion. Sometimes we just have to give them that time. It's unfortunate but we just have to look at it that way. >> How long is the training for the handle with care >> for the ver?

079I am doing the training in eight hours. >> Eight hours. >> Yeah. And then what we will do is we will start training at each building level. We will train all staff on the verbal component and then there will be select staff members at each building in which we will um do the physical. So it would be you know two to three hours of the verbal in each building and then that afternoon we would do the physical. >> Are we tracking all that information like you're handle with care training? >> Yes. >> Who who's keeping it? >> Me. >> Who else? Schoolboard office. Yeah, it'll be in a it will actually be in a drive >> of who participated. They'll all get certificates and I'll have a copy of those. >> Sounds like a good

080thing for HR to have. >> Yeah. So, it'll be a share share drive there. >> Got it. Thank you. >> You're welcome. Thank you. You're welcome. >> It leads us to 7.07, the high school graduation fundraising update by Mr. Tally. Good afternoon everyone. So I'm here to go over the updates to our fundraising for our graduation we plan on having at the Vine Center. Um unfortunately a lot of things haven't changed with it. I give you kind of a rundown what we did last time I mentioned our $500 donation. One came from Miss Bryant. The other one is from Herf Jones. We did [clears throat] have a great um donut sales. We did a wonderful job with that last time. Um, we raised over $1,700. We did get our numbers back for the kettle corn

081sales. It wasn't as as great as I thought it would be. Um, this is from my area. Um, however, we did raise $244. Also, we got our our numbers back from the donation from the concessions um for senior night where we received $460. A lot of our activities was scheduled to take place within the last two weeks. Um, unfortunately the weather kind of affected that. But to give you a rundown of things we have planned, um, next week we will actually begin more donut sales. Uh, will be our winter version of it, which we looking for a lot of, um, profit from that. Um, my contribution letter to the Fraternal Order of Eagles. I'm still waiting on response. Hopefully, it's good um, based on my request. Um, one of [clears throat] our fundraising nights, which

082is Penos, was uh, rescheduled. It will be taking place on Thursday, January the 15th. Uh we also reached out to um Feeding the Soul, which our barber twins kind of work there and they they've been our connection right there. So, we're looking forward to working with them on a fundraising night um at Feeding the Soul. Our winter dance, um as Miss Jones mentioned earlier, um is postponed until second semester. Looking at a time in January. Uh once again, the DJ is supposed to be pretty good, so hopefully he'll bring a crowd in. [laughter] Um father daughter dance. So every year, this will be our fourth annual father dance is a big hit here in Buckingham. Um my family and I plan on donating some money back towards that the cause for the graduation. Um that

083date is scheduled for February the 7th from 6:00 to 8 here inside the middle school cafeteria. Um, and also I should be I contact I'll be reaching out to the administration as far as distributing flyers once we get back from break. But also I'm planning on meeting with uh my administration over at the elementary school to start working on possibly planning some sock hops for the elementary students and that's where we at right now. >> What are you short again? >> What's that now? >> How much are you short for this fundraiser? Um, so actually be honest with you, with the doughnut sales, we probably we probably already at the difference between what we normally would would pay to upgrade to the facility. A lot of this with these donations are actually going to take

084care of some of the stuff that we doing on a regular basis such as the flags. Um, we still had to replace we still have to uh provide funding for the academic jackets we have, things like that. So we're just constantly seeing how much we can offset that b that budget a lot more. Okay. Any other questions? >> Thank you, Mr. Tally. >> Thank you so much. >> That leads us to 7.08. Recommend the approval of the VSBA amendment to policy LBD, home instruction. So, uh, last month we shared the, um, draft policy, uh, revision amendment for your consideration and, um, we're asking that you approve this this month. >> I apologize. I met with you guys what, two weeks ago, week and a half ago. >> Yes. >> Over this one. Uh, I after

085that went back and studied. >> So, I've got a couple of modifications if you don't mind. Um the first part where it's uh talking about the the four areas it can we change it to or because it looks like you got to have all that stuff. I know you don't >> on the actual VSBA policy to change it or >> the ours >> it'll be ours. >> Yeah ours see see where it goes right there in lie of school attendance if the parent holds is provides provides >> um on theirs it's one of those we don't have anything designated one of those it just looks like it's got to have you got to have all that. So, it's it's a simple fix. You understand what I'm saying? >> Right. It's a simple fix. Um, >>

086are we So, broad-based question here is who's our belly button for the home school? Do we have somebody that answers questions? Do you get a lot of phone calls on a regular basis or anything? No. Is there a binder? Do we have a binder or anything with the homeschool stuff in it over there? Okay, good. So, if you're not there, somebody can grab the binder and it has all the questions. Uh reason why I asked is because the grievance piece on the original is not in this which is fine if we've got a backup document there at the at the office to back that up. Um the other part was on the proof of immunization part. Uh the affidavit in this doesn't go to the superintendent based off what I read on the uh the

087the uh code of Virginia. Uh it goes to the school board chair uh for them to do the affidavit and it it is returned back to the parent once it's signed off. they have a copy of it. So, read that. Make sure I'm accurate. But I pretty sure that's what I read in the code. Um, and once you make that change, I think that's it because it talks about I assume we've got the steps and processes in there, right? This that right now because you got the acknowledgement letter that comes out of there after the affidavit, etc., etc. Okay. Um, so quick question. Do we have folders for our homeschoolers? And I I only ask because I know we're not not supposed to keep anything as homeschooling, but we're supposed to get feedback from their

088courses that they do at the end of the year >> and when they give us the proof >> proof. No, no, that's fine. I mean, because I know in the past when I asked this question to our previous >> we get their proof of progress from so say the ones who submitted their paperwork for this year, they have to verify that they submitted proof of progress last year or they're not eligible to continue with homeschooling um until they turn that in >> or without probate because they go into a probationary period. Exactly. Got it. >> And so we put that with the paperwork from last year in that binder. So if you go back and look, you can say this is their notice of intent to homeschool and here's our proof of progress for that

089year. >> Okay. >> And then the next year do the same >> tracking. Got it. I I couldn't get a solid answer last time I asked. So thank you. >> You're welcome. >> So we'll just >> once this is done as >> as amended once it's amended it be >> we'll just have to wait till the next >> meeting. with amendments and >> whichever. Yeah. I recommend we approve it with amendments for the VSBA amendment to the policy LBD home instruction. >> Second. >> A motion's been made by Mr. Snotty and second by Mr. Goodman to approve as amended the VSBA uh policy LBD home instruction. >> And I apologize. Like I said, I I went through it again. Sorry. >> Well, I had noticed the part about all of those things and I'm like,

090I don't think that's right. But [laughter] I'm glad or >> uh any other questions on the motion? All those in favor, please raise your hand. >> That's unanimous. The motion carries. Thank you. 7.09 recommend approval of Wendy Oliver as appointee for the Virginia Department of Education. Authorization of signature in absence of division superintendent. >> Madam Chair, >> second. >> Motion's been made by Mr. Christian and second by Mr. to approve Wendy as the appointee. Any questions on the motion? All those in favor, please raise your hand. >> That's unanimous. The motion. >> We didn't ask Wendy. [laughter] I >> think she's accepted it already. >> She's been following. Yeah. >> All right. 7.10 202526 school calendar revision by Melissa Haynes. >> Good evening. Uh based on feedback from the last schoolboard meeting, um I think

091last week you guys discussed some of the the possible makeup days as well as the changing of the date for the graduation. So we did an update to our current school year calendar changing the date to May 20th for graduation and we included a note that it's going to be at the Liberty University Vine Center. Um and then on the back of the calendar we added in possible snow makeup days. And so essentially we listed any half days um holidays that we have used in the past as snow makeup days and then adding on an additional day at the end of the school year if needed. We added a note that we could possibly lengthen the school day if we had to. Um and also a note that every effort will be made to protect

092the spring break holiday, but that is included as possible makeup days if we absolutely have to. Um, I did submit uh these questions to our calendar committee, our current school year calendar committee, the ones who had been identified to me as well as our administration and got some feedback about parts of this. Um, I will say that everyone was on board of wanting to maintain or protect the January 5th um day as a teacher work day. Um, especially at the high school level knowing you're coming back to a whole new set of classes, they would like to protect that time. And so we discussed maybe making the 17th a full school day, December 17th. And that way um we would gain some instructional time within the semester that we lost the time as well um

093to gain that back. And um you know, everyone felt like that was a reasonable compromise to earn some instructional time back, but still provide the teachers with that structure and that time for planning for the next semester. Um some of the other feedback we got um again that we've used President's Day as uh you know that holiday before the half days February 25th and March 13th. Um the one in March is the end of the quarter. The one in February is the parent teacher conferences. So we would need to address a change in that parent teacher conference if we decide to use that as a full day. So just making sure we're aware of that. Uh we have Good Friday off as well as the week after for spring break. Um, so they recommended, you

094know, Good Friday of course could be taken before we look at the week of spring break if [clears throat] that's possible. And they did share about making the 20th and the 21st of May full days and adding in the 22nd if we needed it. So again, these are just possible makeup days based on our calendar to try to get back any instructional time we can. We know that, you know, the state requirement is 180 instructional days or 990 instructional hours. And that's the minimum. So of course, we don't want to do just the minimum. We want to make sure that we're providing a quality educational experience for our students and giving them every chance to succeed. And so we we don't want to just try to meet that minimum. We want to make sure we're

095offering enough time back for the days that we're missing. Do you have any questions about what's on there or for the makeup days? Again, these are just possible days that we wanted to include on the calendar >> only because you brought it up. Uh since the January 5th that you said the committee recommended leaving for the teachers, which I think we all agree that's a positive. Do we need to amend this? Because you're asking for this to be approved, but you're talking about that January 5th, which is on the back page as a possible, >> right? Because we initially had on there just as a possible day. >> Sure. Sure. >> So, we don't have to use that as a makeup day. We can just say we're not. We just put all of these as

096possible days. >> On the second page, uh May I think May 22nd is that that is a Friday. Yes. We could extend the school year by one day if we absolutely had to. Can we also add that? May 22nd's on here. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Just make sure doesn't make up day yet. >> So, I mean, I can take January 5th off, but >> we can just decide not to use it. >> I mean, as long as because you're going to have questions because everybody's going to be watching this schoolboard meeting. So, >> um I I would take it off. I would. Yeah. Okay. >> That way you alleviate any, you know, issues. >> Any confusion there? >> And we've approved that version, right? >> All right. Any other questions? So go going back

097to December 17th, you're still showing it as a half a day [clears throat] on here. >> It's showing that on the the front of the calendar as that was our original calendar that was approved, but as a possible makeup day, it's listed to make that a full day. So we would gain a half a day there, >> right? >> So what are we voting for then? I mean, what are we saying that we're going to vote for it to be a whole day or half a day? >> Right. We're voting that that can be a makeup day and then that would give um I guess Dr. the reason or the opportunity to use that. >> So I mean it's only a week away. >> That's why I'm asking. >> Yeah. So so December 16th and

098December 17th those half day early releases would go away and we would have students in we would be in sess we would be we would have school in session full day on December 16th and a full day on December 17th. Um we would capture between those two days we capture one of the four days we've missed thus far for snow. Um it does help certainly and then it also kind of outlines what potential um makeup days moving forward could be could be taken. We kind of outlines it for the community. >> So what's the rationale of the half a day that I assume the rationale was to let the teachers finalize grades get that stuff together. So we're going to be losing >> those six hours. >> Well there yes we've we've tra Yes, they're

099going to lose some of their and their time at the end of the before prior to winter break, but we are um giving the we are still keeping the January 5th um day intact for their workday as the start of the second semester because the high school is on a 4x4 and it's an entirely different set of of classes, new new new classes for teachers and students. Um it does make sense to keep January 5th as a workday. um for for that reason. If we were not on a 4x4 and they had already known their students, they were just continuing on with the same same courses, same same group of students and it was just second semester, then it then certainly it's a different it's it's a little bit different there. But um >> this

100does give us >> what's the impact then what's the impact to the teacher if we if we take those half a days away because they're they were there obviously for a reason. I just I don't want to just say, "Hey, take them away." And then we're forcing our teachers now when they should be on break. They're actually grading papers or whatever. >> Well, they do have a they do have a day that to work a work day on January 5th and grades aren't due on January 5th. I don't know exactly. Does it say on here when grades are due orth >> the 7th? They do have um they do have some time >> on the 5th to finalize any grading that they >> um >> don't get done on the December 16th or December 17th.

101But you know, we've missed four full days of school plus a two-hour early release, plus there's weather in the forecast for Friday, plus there's weather in the forecast for Monday. I mean, >> this is just the beginning of winter, and we have to balance. It's a balancing act between ensuring the integrity of our school calendar and and work days and all of those things along with instructions for instruction for students and um >> so so I guess the question I think if I'm not correct if I'm not mistaken the 16th 17th that's on there the committee talked about that they're tracking the 16th 17th next week right they're tracking that and they recommended those days as well yes and we're ask we're saying we want to use those half days for for makeup time. >>

102Yes. Yes. >> so we've we've consulted with >> No, no, that's fine. What we're trying to do is clarify what what it looks like on the calendar with what we're trying to say, >> right? >> So, we're going to say it's going to be a normal work day, but we've got it colored as half days. >> Yes. >> So, once we amend this, then we'll go ahead and approve it, I guess. That way, it's reflected on the calendar. We're approving a calendar that's been reflective of the January 5th and also December 16th and 17th as full days. Well, not January 5th, but that January 5th. And I think it's I think it's good that we've kind of outlined for the community what are the potential future snow makeup days that we could be looking at.

103And we will have this piece added to our next our next calendar that we are starting to develop for 2627 >> that everything will be outlined u very nicely so that everyone will know where where we are. Well, that that that that was my question for those two days is what's the value of those days? If if if we can get rid of them, I mean, for future calendar planning, is that something where we want to build in these half days at the very end of the >> Yes. So, at the end of at the end of a quarter, we like to try to give teachers some some planning time to finalize their grades and and and do those things at the end of the at the end of each quarter. We did it in

104October. Uh we had a half day early release in in early October for first quarter and this would have been the the um >> equivalent of that in December. Now they had two of them um two of them but >> one was for PD and then one was for teacher teaching. So, what was the the primary and elementary school teachers thoughts in that? Because I know they kind of wanted a half day probably, >> but when I reached out to the committee, you know, there's a representative from each school and they all felt like that was a great compromise to to kind of give up the half day on the 17th in order to gain the full day on the 5th, you know, to try to balance that out. They they really would rather have

105that time on the 5th to finish grades, prepare for the next semester, um versus having the half day on they they're they're gaining more time to prepare. >> Well, they're using into the saddle. >> Yes. >> All right. And the middle school, I assume, the same way, huh? >> Yes. >> I'm just, you know, I know when you looking forward to getting a half a day off, you really want it. [laughter] >> But they really wanted the fifth more. So trying to to balance, you know, what we need to do with what we can do. >> Compromise. Compromise. Right. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> So who wants to make a motion? >> Madam Chair, I recommend approval of the 2025 202 26 school calendar as amended. >> Second. >> Removing January

1065th. Right. Got it. >> Um, a motion has been made by Mr. Snotty and second by Mr. Shoemaker to amend the uh 2526 calendar as spoken as amended. Um, any other questions? All those in favor, please raise your hand. I guess [laughter] that's unanimous. Motion carries. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> We will have our staff send out an email, live feed, Facebook notification, all the things immediately to inform parents that December 17th, the very last day before winter break, will be a full day for students. We'll we'll do that immediately. Okay. 8.01 schoolboard member committee updates. But I do want to say one thing. Um last the last meeting we had back last week, we had said something about the salaries for Paris and car drivers that it would be a [clears throat] 50

107cent raise. And some people thought that was a 50cent cut, but it's a raise starting January 1st. So just wanted to make sure people understood that. Yeah. that we're not cutting anybody. All right. Is there any updates for any committees? Hearing none, I want to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a happy new year and uh be safe. Thank you. That's the end of our meeting. >> Thank you.