001We're live as >> 3.01 returning 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 b 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's been made by Mrs. Morris and second by Mr. Gregory to return from close session. Roll call vote. >> I I >> I. >> We are in open session. 3.02 certificate of action taken in close session. Madame Chair, I make a motion to approve the personnel agenda >> as amended. >> Second. >> A motion's been made by Mrs. Morris and second by Mr. Gregory to approve the personnel agenda as amended. Are there any questions on
002the motion? All those in favor, please raise your hand. That's unanimous. The motion carries. 3.03. opening of the regular meeting. Please stand and we will have a prayer and the pledge of allegiance. >> Lord, we just thank you right now, Father, for this wonderful county, Lord, that you've given us to uh raise our children and Lord. I pray, Lord, that your spirit will lead and guide and direct us more to do what is right and correct under your eyes, Lord, and to um serve diligently, Father God. I pray your blessing upon the all the leadership in the schools, all the teachers, all the staff. Lord, I pray blessings upon them. Father, I pray that you will bless them with peace and also wisdom. And I give this meeting to you, Lord. In Jesus name I
003pray. Amen. >> 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. >> It leads us to 3.04, adoption of the agenda. >> Madam Chair, I move that we adopt the agenda as amended. >> Second. Um give give me what is being amended. >> Uh we are adding >> 7.0 >> seven yeah uh cost of admission to athletic events. >> All right. Someone second that. >> Second. >> Okay. Motion's been made by Mrs. Morris and second by Mr. Jamerson to adopt the agenda as amended adding 7.10 cost of admission to athletic events. All any questions on the motion? All those in favor, please raise your hand. That's unanimous. Motion carries. It leads us
004to 4.01 senior of the month. Good evening. It is my pleasure to recognize our senior of the month for October 20125, Braden Goulsby. Braden is the son of Emily Goulsby. Braden has been attending Buckingham County Public Schools since his freshman year. He currently holds a GPA of 3.8 and has been taking dual enrollment classes since his junior year. Braden has been involved in baseball, indoor and outdoor track, golf, soccer, church band, junior ROC Raiders, FBLA, and Skills USA. He has also helped clean up the highway with the Junior ROC program. And in his free time, when he has no sports or work, he attends his church's youth group program. His hobbies are fishing, golfing, working, working out, and carpentry. His favorite memory from Buckingham County High School is the pickle ball tournament for the RiseUp
005Club. After graduation, Braden plans to attend the trade school at Newport News for welding. Congratulations, BRADEN. Could Braden's family please come forward? You're welcome. [Applause] Thank you. Congratulations. >> Don't take off here. >> Shake all their hands. >> Yeah, that way. >> You good, >> buddy? Send something to your grandma. Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you, man. >> That leads us to 5.01 public comment. Anyone who wishes to address the school board must state their name and address address and limit their comments to three minutes. Speakers must refrain from referring to employees by name. The school board will not entertain comments regarding any pending student discipline or employee grievance matters. The appropriate forms for such matters is the applicable administrative hearing provided by state law or were appropriate a court proceeding. This
006is a time for comments only. Board members do not respond to the comments made. Questions should be submitted to the school board in writing and will be given to the appropriate person to answer as soon as possible. >> Kate Lambert. >> Thank you. [Music] >> Thank you. Good evening, Chairperson Bryant, Vice Chairperson Cincinnati, members of the school board, and Superintendent Rezner. My name is Kate Lambert. I'm the CEO of Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Virginia. As you may be aware, our organization operates the James River Boys and Girls Club in Scotsville. We're located in the Scottsville Community Center. We're proud to be celebrating our 11th year of providing students from Buckingham, Albamarl, and Fuana Counties with a safe and productive place to be when they're not at home and not at school. Our club
007provides youth development programs every day after school and all day during the summer to young people between the ages of five and 18. Our programs focus on academic success, health and well-being, character and leadership, and life and workforce readiness. Our goal is to be your partner in preparing students for what's next. I'm proud to share that this past summer, we served more than 30 students from Buckingham County Public Schools. We know that access and affordability mean everything to area families. We know that many parents and caregivers work multiple jobs to support their families and make ends meet. I'm pleased to say that the cost that cost is never a barrier to participation in our club programs. We are committed to maintaining a membership fee of only $35 for the entire year. Our greatest challenge is
008getting children to the club for our afterchool program and I fully acknowledge the transportation challenges faced by our public school partners including Buckingham County Public Schools. We're right there with you. Currently, our James River Club unit director, Cardell Emory, who's sitting over here, picks up 14 primary, elementary, and middle school students from Buckingham schools and brings them to our afterchool program in Scottsville. We're limited to 14 students because of the size of our bus. We know of at least 17 additional primary and elementary students who don't have transportation to the club. Some have had to cancel or pause their club memberships. When children go home on the bus rather than coming to the Boys and Girls Club, we don't know what access they have to healthy food or any food for that matter. We don't
009know what supervision they have or the activities they're engaging in. They may be on social media or playing video games. We just don't know. What we do know that it is that it's better for them to come to the club after school than it is for them to go home on the school bus. It's better for them to come to the club where they can be with their friends, receive a healthy snack, participate in enrichment activities like academic tutoring, reading, STEM, and arts activities. They can participate in drone soccer and flight simulation. And they can stay active, play sports, and learn life skills like financial literacy. Most importantly, club members know the club is a place where adults care about them. They want them to feel safe and included and want them to learn and
010succeed. I'm joined tonight by my our staff and volunteers from the club. >> I'm sorry, your three minutes is up. >> No one else signed up. >> That um public comment is closed. Now that leads us to 6.01, approval of the consent agenda. Madame Chair, I move that we approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Second. >> A motion's been made by Mr. Goodman and second by Mr. Snotty to approve the consent agenda. Are there any questions on the motion? >> I have a question. Uh, one of the uh things listed was student engagement materials. What are they? >> You'd had to be more specific of what the vendor was. >> What was the vendor that you're referring to? >> Yeah. Yes. >> Who was the vendor? I did not write that one. >> Okay.
011>> I had to look. >> I mean, are they just used for >> I don't need to know what they were. I just want to know what they're used for. >> Uh I have down Amazon business. I have to do $787.85. Is that what you're referring to? >> Yeah. >> All right. I'll have to do some research and find out. >> I just want to know how how we're using. >> It's paid for by our school improvement grant. So, it's improvement. >> All right. Thank you. Any other questions? All those in favor, please raise your hand. That's unanimous. The motion carries. That leads us to 7.01, the student liaison report. >> Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Um I first want to begin with um Buckingham County High School's clubs. So, um, the RiseUp Club is
012hosting a field day fundraiser for a fellow student on Friday the 10th. This is for a student who is undergoing treatment for health issues. Um, all the money made from this fundraiser will go to the family to pay for food, gas, and medical bills. Um, HOSA Club hosted a bake sale at the 2025 homecoming game. FCCLA hosted a toiletry drive for shelters around the community. They also sold chocolate bars and pom poms at the homecoming game. FFA and various clubs competed at the Virginia State Fair this past week. Many students placed in overall categories. SCA is hosting a regional workshop on October 18th. They're also holding the VSCA state advisory committee on November 8th. SCA would also like to thank everyone for their help in making homecoming a huge success. They are now working on
013setting up the trunk or treat. For sports, varsity football won their game yesterday, Tuesday. I mean, varsity volleyball won their game yesterday, Tuesday, October 8th. They beat Cumberland, winning three of the four sets played. Varsity football won the 2025 homecoming game, beating the Randolph Henry Statesman 43 to8. JV football is currently tied. JV volleyball is currently tied for number one in the district. Um, some extras. The Knights Armor Food Pantry is officially open for Buckingham County residents. Um, Mrs. Snotty and various students went to the Jordan Point Marina and visited the Brock Environmental Center to test water quality and biodiversity. And this year's homecoming queen and King were Braden Jamerson and Tamaya Hullman. That's all. Thank you. >> What time was the uh the stuff on the 10th? I'm sorry. >> The 10th? >> Yeah,
014>> the time. >> Yeah. For the rise up for the one student. >> It's all day. >> All day. That's the um fundraiser for the student. >> Yes, it's for a student with health issues. >> Okay. Thank you, >> ma'am. >> Thank you. Leads us to 7.02 presentation in recognition of BSBA Academy Awards. Uh it's my pleasure to provide uh these award of excellence from the Virginia School Boards Association for members of our school board uh for their participation in the VSBA schoolboard academy for 2023 2024. >> Congratulations Mr. Brian. [Music] >> Congratulations Mr. Congratulations, Mr. Congratulations, Morris. >> Thank you. >> Congratulations, Mr. >> Thank you, ma'am. >> Congratulations, Mr. >> Thank you, ma'am. >> Congratulations, Mr. Congratulations, Mr. Please join me in giving them a round of applause for their participation in professional
015learning with the Virginia School Board Association. >> Along that same thing, um we are now a master board again. Um we completed training for that on September the 24th. So, uh, we are one of five in the state and it's 132 32 school boards. So, uh, I think we should clap for each other. All right. 7.03 instructional update by John Ring staff, director of instruction. [Music] Good evening board. >> I prepared a monthly instructional update and I'm going to begin the update with a little bit more detail on the cut score changes that's weighing on the hearts and minds of many of our staff. you know, when I'm out in the buildings interacting with teachers and and principles and assistant principles, you know, this often comes up questions about this matter. So, I thought it
016would be to the board's benefit to provide some information. So, the new cut scores which are included in this slide slideshow have been approved. Now, the only thing that we are awaiting guidance on and and vote on is on October 24th, there will be a vote to determine if the implementation of these new cut scores will include a phase in period. And previously, I've told you that I've heard that the superintendence association wanted eight years. That will not that is likely not to happen. The phasein approaches that I've seen evidence of are recommendations for a four-year or a five-year phase in. And I've also heard from regional because the Virginia Department of Education has held superintendent regional meetings. I've heard from those other regional meetings that there has been a request to do a one-year
017phase in and then pull the band-aid approach. We will know whether or not these are phased in on October 20 24th. So, so what is changing? What is what is new? Well, first off, on the next slide, you can see these are the new newly adopted passing and advanced scores on your so test. This only impacts English from grade three through and of course reading and it impacts math from grade three through geometry. You can see that the cut scores have increased. And just for the board's just for a little background for the board, I have included on the next slide our performance in Buckingham County for 24 25 what this would mean if we retroactively applied the new cut scores to our scores from the this past spring. So that you can see a
018real impact of of what's going to change here. I want to draw your attention to the approaching category. Again, that we understand that to be a pass score, but it's not official yet. That will be determined uh October 24th. So, the approaching is only going to be there for the phasein period, whether it be one, four, or five years. And the approaching is meant as an indicator to parents, students, and staff that students do not meet the new passing score, pass proficient, but they but they wanted to indicate how close they are, how they're approaching growth. So in our regional meetings and in meetings with staff, you know, on a one-toone basis or small group basis over the past month, I often get asked or we discuss the the how are we going to react
019to this? What are the mitigation strategies? What do we do different? And the two things that come out and this sounds like tough medicine, but the two things that often I hear about are we've got to raise our rigor in the classroom. And that's not just in Buckingham, that's across the state. We've got to raise our rigor and we've got to make sure that our instruction is aligned to the VDOE performance level descriptors. In other words, a student performing at this level should be able to and and really use that language and craft our instruction to meet that expectation. The state also includes in their slideshows of information that increasing expectations can lead to initial drops in student performance. there's often a rebound and this was observed in Tennessee, Massachusetts and Illinois and and so
020the VDOE did illustrate that. My last slide is more specific to the comingings and goings this this past month. We the superintendent and I have been in in several buildings. We've observed instruction like for instance we observed fourth and fifth grade classrooms at Buckingham Elementary School. I want to praise uh Miss Morris in her observation tool that she allowed me to use. It's it's one of the best I've seen as far as capturing what's going on uh inside that classroom and it's targeted at a lot of areas, but I see that as a very strong tool for observing teachers and and providing feedback. At the high school, we observed all the science teachers and I noticed that there was a lot of inquiry going on, a lot of model representations, just good question asking and
021there was good note takingaking, like good graphic organizers and and I felt like in every space I was in, the students were engaged. They knew the expectation and they respected the teacher. So that was reassuring. We although it was too recent to include in my update, we have observed the preschool and we're impressed with the instruction there. It's very very different as someone not used to preschool instruction. It's very different. Look fors and um and so we were we were very impressed with with what we saw. A lot of questioning, a lot of feedback loops that if you didn't know what to look for and and Miss Walker was very good about pointing out what we should be looking for, it was I was very impressed. Uh, middle school observations will take place on October
02220th. And and before I close out, I just want to say um, Miss Bryant does an excellent job in managing the data. I've been present for both English or reading and um, math data meetings. And you I think you would be impressed with how she guides her teachers to be accountable for every single student. like these screening scores at the beginning of the year, they'll look at it again in the mid year and they'll look at it a final time in in in the spring. And so, you know, they are writing them down themselves. They're talking about the results. They're talking about kids. And so, each of these teachers am and pm are very accountable for each child. So, it's it's very reassuring to me what I'm observing in these spaces. I wanted to invite
023um Mr. Tally approached Dr. Dr. Rezner and myself with an idea and we it's about graduation and and so we asked him to prepare a a slideshow for you and to share how this originated with students and and just some of the details that he's investigated about um how we're going to honor our graduates in the spring. All right. So, Mr. Tally, >> Dr. Ringstack, before we move on to that, sir, >> um I just have manager information. How are we preparing our teachers and how are they feeling in reference to the so scores being upped? Are we do we have are we giving them everything that they need to be successful to teach our students? >> Well, to answer your earlier question, how are they feeling about it? They're worried. There's a lot of
024anxiety and so and I don't want to just blow past their anxiety because it's real. I'm a former chemistry and biology teacher. And so if I was teaching a subject where that cut score was changed so drastically, you know, I think these teachers are starting to think, what is it I need? Is it planning? Is it delivery of instruction? And you start to get into um to answer your last question, are we giving them everything they need? I would hope so. I've not said no to requests. As a matter of fact, uh there was a request even with the budget tightening to to purchase a a service that really targeted literacy and science. And and you know, as as a science person, one of the barriers, especially in elementary education to teaching science is there's
025a lot of vocabulary. And sometimes you've got teachers that are are themselves not real comfortable with the vocabulary. And you know, Miss Morris and her team identified a particular resource that really brings in literacy which is a focus of these increased cut scores and but also brings in that science piece. So when they're learning, you know, the vocabulary and the words and reading passages, it's really doing two things at one time. So we've got to So that's why I thought that service was important for them. And so we've got to start to think efficiently about how do we tackle two things at once. You know, how do we get two birds with one stone? So if there's a teacher that wants something, you know, I've not told anybody no yet. If they want something out,
026I I would impress upon you that I've had an open door. I try to be responsive to email. I try to go talk to people one-on-one. I want them to know that I'm approachable and and I want them to feel comfortable in sharing with me what they need. >> Okay. I've had lunch the the math department's invited me for lunch and have lunch twice with them. You know, that's I think that's a good model. I'm I'm very much about breaking bread with people and and and getting to, you know, I want them to get to know me and and know that I'm approachable. So, if they have to ask for something, I want them to feel comfortable doing that. I I mean, my job is to support them. >> Okay. Thank you, sir. >> One
027more question. >> Well, why don't we do this? When you leave, are you coming back up to close up shop or once you leave step off, it's everybody else and then you're done? >> I'll I'll stay for questions. Yeah. >> Okay, do that. >> All right. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, so just as an example, when it says raise rigor in classrooms to match what is expected on the test. So, uh, as an example, I'm a parent, uh, and, uh, I find out that my child has fall in the fail basic. uh what would be an example of what you would do and what I could do as a parent to to be able to accomplish that goal to raise the rigor? Well, the the teacher so it would be the it's really it sounds
028so boring, but it's really getting at the heart of what you're teaching. And so when I use that language, the VDOE performance level descriptors, you're really trying to get into if you're teaching a topic and the standard asks for the depth of applying or synthesizing material and you're only teaching that material to a recall level, then we're not preparing the student to perform well on that standard on the test. So, it's really inside of a classroom. It's really an analysis of what I'm doing to teach a topic. Am I teaching it to a level that's that's required by the standard and am I assessing that? It's it's almost like a a loop of of of teaching. Now the struggle with that and your experienced teachers will bring this up to you is the strugg like
029those teachers can plan that material and they can share resources with p with parents and families at home to to build on that. But one of the frustrations that we've got to work through that I'm seeing is is students arriving in a class really not prepared with the background material for them to receive that increased rigor of instruction. So, so the the way you defeat that is you you start to vertically align and you have conversations with uh individuals before you know if I'm receiving a student from eighth grade science as a ninth grade environmental science or biology teacher. often use science examples, so bear with me, that I want to make sure that they're covering in eighth grade science certain topics so that when they get to my class in environmental science, I'm not
030retteaching things they should have learned before. Okay? And so it is a it is a team effort. It's we're in this together and and and sometimes, you know, what happens well always what happens in the primary school affects the elementary school. what happens in the elementary school affects the middle school and and ultimately it's a buildup multi-year buildup so that they're performing um enough to the point for graduation and the verified credits that they're going to need. So I think we attack it by vertically aligning having vertical alignment conversations. We we attack it with an increased attention to how we're developing our lesson plans and providing instruction and and we have to bring the parents on board with this because the transparency of what's what's expected for homework, what should they be learning, you know,
031what should we be drilling at home. It's it's not just what happens in that classroom. It's a it's this is a multimodal tough problem and it's going to take it's it's not going to be there's not going to be a silver bullet. It's not going to be a snap of the fingers. We have to buy in on a multi-year effort to increase these scores. >> I have something to >> go ahead. Sorry. >> I got I got a couple comments and questions obviously. >> Yes, sir. >> Um they should be quick implementation. Is it safe to assume we're looking at 26 It's the implementation of the cut scores is immediate. It's how long are they going to have that approaching category. I'm I'm starting to believe it's going to be one year. Now, the the
032DOE provided two options, four and five years. And what they heard, not from our region, but what they heard from other regions, and I only know this because I'm close with a DOE person who was in each of the meetings with the regions. Um, a lot of the other regions were requesting one year and we pulled the band-aid. >> Okay. >> Now, to that point, the rebounding that was referred to with the other states. >> Uhhuh. >> Was the immediate rebounding sustained or was it just because they were used to it following? >> I don't I don't have that answer for you. >> Just curious because we're talking about implementation and rebounding means a lot of things to a lot of people, I think. And if you rebound from a a low percentage to, you
033know, from one year to the next, what did the the following year look? Did it carry forward? Did it stay the same? Did it go back up a lot? Or, you know, when you're when you're addressing how we're teaching things, that's >> although I did not see data to give you a specific response, the narrative they portray is after a couple of years, there was a re rebound that was sustained. uh on the rigor piece was that >> until the next cut scores, >> right? Yeah. Till the next improvement, right? Um on the the rigors of the classroom environment. I think that's a it's a lofty statement. Um we have been in discussion numerous times about uh discipline in the classroom being a holdback to teaching. Um so we are attempting to address that across
034the board. I think I think once we can get that to a certain degree or level, it'll probably help tremendously the teachers and their their impact on the student success in the classroom for this >> absolutely >> the new cutting scores. But we're we're working toward it. We're not there yet, but we're working toward it. Uh and it's not it's not at the back of our minds. It's at the forefront every meeting it seems like we're talking about it. So >> yes, sir. >> Just comment. >> But thank you. >> Anyone h else have any questions? Thank you, >> Mr. Tally. >> And good evening, y'all. Um, so Buckingham High School, we're off to a great start so far this year um both in the classroom and um disciplinary wise. Um but at this point,
035we want to talk about our graduation. I know it's several months out, but it's something that we would like to present to you guys, try to get approval for um so we can go ahead and start our fundraising a little more and and things to get to that um to be able to do this. Um so we go to the next slide, you see our vision, our purpose. Um it's a big dream for our seniors to have a memorable inclusive graduation experience. One of our goals to celebrate the seniors in a way that reflects their hard work and school pride, but also we want community inclusion, which means that we'll be able to have more space for families, friends, and the entire BCPS staff. This to give you a little bit about the history. Um,
036I'm a transplant here. So, since I've been in Buckingham, um, I've been asking questions. I've been part of the graduation process. Um I can tell you that what I observed prior to 2020 the p the global pandemic uh graduation ceremonies was held indoors. Um since I've been here in 2022 um the co 19 came after co 19 uh most of the ceremonies been outside um which due to um more space and health concerns also since um being held on the football field. the weather issues. The past two years, graduation has been held inside. Um with two years ago being almost last minute and last year we started um decided to move it a little earlier in the week. Um that kind of caused a little uproar because families want to see that their loved ones
037um graduate. The next page you'll see some pictures I took from the outdoor graduation ceremony. This is from the left side. This is I mean right side. This is left side of the field. If you go to the next slide, you'll see our indoor ceremony. Um, you see this what the guests will sit at. The next image will show our staging area with the graduates and um the administrators and last year was fortunate to have the the board chair with the superintendent on the stage also. So, next slide will give you a little bit of details about the graduation. Um, the graduation setup and breakdown were done by staff and the maintenance department. Um, I personally can tell you that the field, painting the fields, setting up the chairs, a lot of times it came
038from admin, uh, with with the help of JRTC and some of our PE classes. About 1,000 chairs are rented for this procedure. Um, indoors about 500 chairs we'll rent from Chesterfield Rental. We rent the chairs, I mean the stage, and also the high school is used for staging of the graduates whether it's indoor or outdoors. and the IT department runs the live stream for the graduation ceremony. A couple of concerns. One concern I had in some of my staff, my team um staff, yes, my team um one concern they had when outside um the temperatures have been upwards of the mid 80s up to the mid 90s sometimes. Uh we have numerous heat related um issues. U some guests would bring umbrellas would block the the view of the um the rest of the staff
039that might be in the in the grand stand. Also there ticket count that we'll have. So outdoors um usually it's around 12 tickets. Indoors is anywhere from six to eight tickets depending on the class size. Um sometimes usually it's four in the gym as for like last year and two for the auditorium. Next slide we go over a typical cost for graduation based on our last year. um just to run the air condition to a comfortable state cost about 400 to 500 $450 to $500. Uh we have sheriff departments. Um if we had I know for a fact outdoors we had four sheriff deputies. Indoor I want to say we had the same number. Um that's about $150 with this year be $150 per day. That's about $600. If we're outdoors porter parties cost about
040$500. If you look down the breakdown I showed the cost over the last four years. It show we play upwards of $3,200 just to have the ceremony because of the stage and the um the rental of the chairs. Um, and the maintenance, um, that could be additional cost because on Sundays when the rental equipment comes back, we have to have maintenance there to to greet them. That could be overtime pay. I'm not sure how JB does it, but I'm pretty sure it's a cost. So, quick cost analysis. Um, about 40 almost $4,800, $47.91 um, and 4841 the cost to host it at Buckham High School. The next slide show our vision. having graduation at Liberty University. We chose Liberty University because Liberty University was cheaper than Longwood. Longwood started off at $15,000. Um later on
041you see the cost from Liberty University is why we chose that. Um you look at the center the arena is is much larger. So the graduation details um for 20 this year 25 26 um Liberty University they looked at the graduation as a community outreach. So there's no charge for the facility. They do not charge at all. They only charges for the the staffing. Um the Vine Center holds up. I have mixed numbers. When I look online I saw anywhere from 8,000 to 95 9,500. So I went along the middle. I saw one that said 9,200. So that's what I went with. Um that's much more than what we have out on the football field. Um and they can easily accommodate our graduates and their guests easily. So the next slide you'll see some pictures.
042This is Amherst High School. It's a picture for their graduation this past year. Um the next slide show another picture from a different view. Next we have one more slide and that's from the side. um you see the the teachers are involved with the ceremony and um on the stage also which is be a great vision for us also. So the next slide we talk about our proposal. So the graduation package um at the Ivon Center includes the the stage setup floor chairs live stream capability concessions um custom background for school colors indoor climate control venue. Additional features include if we had a band or a choir ABA have room to participate. Um we can practice the day before the ceremony. We have full technical support for sale technicians, camera operators, lighting and event management
043staff. We have a staffing plan which includes traffic officers, custodial staff, event manager on site. We have camera and sound technicians and maintenance support. I threw in there a trans transportation plan in case we have feel a need to transport our some of our students or if we want to um I know me and this patient would talk about a possibility maybe some senior citizens or maybe some people in the community we that's something that's kind of added on to it but we we we visualize maybe five buses we may only need three. Um the estimated time we we calculated was four hours one hour up in between whether the ceremony takes give and take maybe two hours for the ceremony another hour back for four hours and the driver's rate right now is $16
044an hour. Um that's what we we estimated based on what Mr. Palmer told us. Um the next one we talk about our projected coast cost for to have the ceremony at Liberty University. Um with the given amount of buses that I spoke about uh you have five buses for example uh four hours $16 an hour. The fuel cost is probably about $40 um I was estimated. So coming up to about $520 for buses. Um the graduation package is 4,400. and we add on the live stream, it's another $350 for the total cost. Um, with transportation, it's $5,270. Without is $4,500 $4,750, which is less than what we cost to have it here. Um, one thing we we put in mind is possible um for this year, starting this year, moving forward, is start offering class
045dues for uh required class dues for our classes. This year we was to do $10 a a student. We have about 160 students in our class right now. That'd be about $1,600 that can go towards it just out the gate. Uh we also have fundraisers we've been thinking about. We already did a donut drive. Think about doing another one of those. Maybe some concessions with the um sea football football game possibly where we can do a senior night, get the families come in and support the concessions there. Also have a popcorn. Um, back where I live at, we have Uncle Dave's um, kettle corn. Um, they do fundraisers also. We get 50% of the profits. Uh, there's some things we're thinking about. So, in August, Miss Paige and the and the senior um, class officers,
046they came up with some surveys and they surveyed um, they sent it out to 160 students. We had about 82 families um, respond. Based on the survey, um, 65 voted yes. F um of 6% of those said that they would like to have the ceremony there at any time of the day. Um 15% said they like to have it only in the evening and 4% said they like it but they need transportation. Uh 17 votes which is 21% said no. Um so the overall support is that people would like to have graduation there. Uh one benefit of the of the Vine Center is that the indoor comfort um you have a weatherproof ceremony. you have a larger audience capacity, uh, professional grade lighting, sound and and live stream. Of course, you have the opportunity for
047student student performances, and then you have the, uh, convenient for families and community involvement. It's cost effective. So, basically, when you have it here, um, like I mentioned, outdoors and indoors here at Buckingham, you have tickets there. You give a maybe a,000 here, 1,500 here versus 8,000 9,000 there. It's almost like unl unlimited seating for our our guests to come see their families. Um I want to commend the the senior class. They put a lot of research into this. They shared it with me. I'm just a messenger. But I fully support and I hope you guys support us also. >> Thank you so much. >> They put this together. >> I put the presentation together. They gave me but they did the numbers. >> They did all the numbers. >> That's good stuff. >> Yep.
048They did all the numbers. Miss Paige did the pictures. But yeah, it's a they brought a good idea to me. So I fig it was worth bringing to you guys. A question I have is you normally have a a photographer, you know, right after they get their diploma. Would you still be able to do that or would they be >> Yeah. So, we we we're with Herf Jones. Herf Jones does that for us. >> Okay. >> That's the um same thing as last year. They they'll come with us. That's part of our package with them if they they provide those for us. >> Just wanted to make sure since it was a different venue. Didn't know if they would, you know, make us go through them or something. >> No, they they'll be there. Do
049we know why the nose? Why not the nose? I don't >> just out of curiosity have any idea what I'm saying? >> I asked about the nose. Um I I I mean we are in a small community. I I messaged people and I asked um one said because it was a week night, but I mean if you look at graduations in other counties surrounding us, most of them are on a week night. Um and another was just tradition, right? That it's always been here. They want to keep it here. Um, >> that's what I was looking for. See if I was >> It was but it was very I mean there was, you know, just a very few that were those kind of things. >> And if you get part of this pack, this pricing
050we have is it has to be on week nights. The two nights we're considering is um it's May the 19th or May the 20th. There's two dates they gave us, which is a Tuesday and a Wednesday night, I believe. >> Are you asking us to vote on it at this point or >> No, no, no. But we but we have to when we go back and present yes or no. If you say yes, we need to give them a date. >> When is our deadline that we have to let Liberty University know by? >> Um, they would just like to know, I guess, as soon as possible so that we can kind of lock in our date and we can meet with them in person. They want to meet with us to to get this
051rolling so that they so that we're prepared. >> I have one small recommendation if it goes through is that we get the data on the back end if we can. Obviously, we only got a percentage of the the senior class now, but >> yes, >> you know, was it good, bad, whatever for future? >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> And I know um Appamatics and Amherst, Alta Vista, and Lynchburg schools all, you know, hold theirs there. And I've heard great things from, you know, my friends in surrounding counties. They like it because, you know, I what stinks over here is if we have it inside in the rain and somebody says, "Oh, can I bring my newborn?" No, I'm sorry. You can't because fire marshall says we have to have, you know, a certain amount of
052people. I needed one ticket per body. So then, you know, >> you're picking and choosing which family members get to come. Exactly. Yeah. If you wouldn't have to. >> If you look at the Well, you guys should have access to I can give it to you if need to later. You look at that picture we had up there of of um what's Amherst Amherst. >> Amherst to my understand is a little bigger than us, but you saw there were no plenty of seats left. Plenty of seats left. And another vision is I' I've been on the elementary teaching end where I've taught elementary school and then you see, you know, oh that was my first class that graduated and I have teachers that come to us every year that are like, oh, can I get
053a ticket? Do you have an extra ticket? And you know, that was my first class. I'd like to see them graduate. And this way we would like to open it up to the entire staff and we could have the entire staff sitting behind these students, you know, so they can be part of it. They were part of raising them. So, right. So, it wouldn't just be the high school teachers that, you know, so it be the entire division. It'd be nice. >> Oh, I get it. I I totally get it. >> Yeah. >> Mr. Goodman, you have a question? >> Yeah. I would just say I like the piece with the transportation in terms of providing um you know, transportation to the event because to me I think um you know to the point to
054those 4% of people that said the tradition I mean you know in my opinion you know that's what makes us who we are. we have, you know, that traditional thing every year, you know, the graduation is going to be here. It's in our community. Uh, but I can understand the need for us to grow and to go to a different level, but I would say that I I just think that we need to make sure that we provide an opportunity and I don't know how we would do that. And you you mentioned older people or people that may not be able to get there or may not have the means to get there. I would just say make sure that we provide um whatever resource it is that we need for those people that may
055not be able to get there and may potentially uh have family members um h that may not be able to get there or kind of how we go through that process to think that out because uh I think some of it in terms of just being local it's just people can get there you know to the graduation it was uh the utility of it But if we're moving it, then we also should take into consideration those that may not be able to get there. >> Yes, sir. >> Like a pep bus like we do for ball games sometimes. >> Yeah. And we have local CDL bus CDL rights. If we need to, we can reach out to them for some of our handicap. >> So So it would Yes. So it would um when I
056spoke to Mr. Palmer, um this this estimate was based on our school buses driver. So >> they the bus will probably leave right at 5:00 maybe for maybe a six later >> seven six or seven. >> Yes. So it' be after their route but we lose our drivers first. Um >> I think both of those days >> they both disposal. >> So yes, >> it's a Tuesday and a Wednesday the 19th and the 20th. >> So speaking with them if they are early disposal because I believe you um then we can probably >> who might need bus transport who might need transportation a little bit better on kind of a case by case basis. Your students will probably be your best source of input for that. Yep. >> Yep. >> Well, Madam Chair, um since
057the days are all they have been given days already and they need to know as soon as possible, is this something that we can take a vote on today since they have provided accurate information? >> If we have a motion, >> I'll make a motion that we take a vote on approving the graduation at the Vine Center. >> Second. >> A motion's been made by Mr. Gregory and second by Mr. to um have our senior graduation at the Vine Center, but I don't know that we have picked a date. Um >> we got something to work with. You got something to work with? >> You got something with >> Is this informative? Is it Are they going to get us more information with regards to some things or we just voting on just >> We're
058just We're just voting on that. Banana. Then I guess that we'll come back with the date for sure. >> The 20th is a full day, the 19th is a half day. >> 19th 19th is a full day, 20th. 20 and a half day. >> We would love updates on the the the fund drive and stuff, too. >> Yes. >> That'd be crazy. Yeah. >> Well, let's let's have a vote on this then. All those in favor, please raise your hand. >> That's unanimous. The motion carries. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> Okay. 7.04 04 recommend approval of the VSBA bullying prevention month proclamation. So the VSBA board of directors has designated October 20125 as VSBA bullying prevention month to raise awareness about the serious and lasting impacts of bullying in schools. Childhood
059bullying is a widespread issue that can lead to increased absenteeism, mental and physical health challenges, low academic performance, and even school violence. According to the Centers for Disease Control from 2024, students who are bullied are at greater risk for depression, anxiety, sleep problems, decreased academic success, and dropping out of school. Schoolboard members, superintendent, educators, parents, and community members play an important role in creating safe and supporting learning environments. It has been proven that when adults and children stand together, bullying ends. I would now like to read the VSBA bullying prevention month proclamation and ask all schoolboard members and myself to please sign. Okay. Read it. Yes. >> Okay. Whereas school bullying has become an increasingly significant problem in the United States and Virginia. And whereas nearly 20% of the youth in the United States are
060estimated to be involved in bullying each year either as a bully or as a victim. And whereas an estimated 10% of elementary schools, 15% of high schools, and 28% of middle schools reported the occurrence of bullying at school at least once a week. And whereas bullying can take many forms, including verbal, physical, and electronic, and can happen in many places, both on and off school grounds. Whereas it is important for Buckingham parents, students, teachers, and school administrators to be aware of bullying and to encourage discussion of the problem as a school community. And whereas the Buckingham County School Board has adopted policies to encourage positive behaviors and to eliminate bullying behaviors. Therefore, the Buckingham County School Board recognizes the month of October 2025 as VSBA bullying prevention month with the intention that the issue of
061bullying and its prevention be discussed in school and classrooms during that time. >> Okay. So, we need to make we we need to um make a motion on this, please. >> Madam Chair, I make a motion to approve the proclamation of bullying prevention month. >> Second. >> Motion's been made by Mr. Goodman and second by Mr. Snotty to approve the VSBA bullying prevention month proclamation as presented. All those in favor, please raise your hand. That's unanimous. Motion carries. That leads us to 7 05 um policy updates JECB options one and two admission of non-public students for part-time enrollment. [Music] >> Good evening. So I'm just sharing with you all we have our current policy for JCB admission of non-public students for part-time enrollment and currently we have already approved option two of that policy which
062limits part-time enrollment exclusively to homeschool students participating in JRTC. What we are asking is to um change the approval to option one and option one authorizes part-time enrollment for students in non-public or homeschool settings um allowing participation in academic courses or extracurricular activities and clubs. Um it does still require compliance with all school rules and prerequisites. Transport, excuse me, transportation is the parents responsibility. Um credit would be awarded but class ranking and GPA are not computed for part-time students. that wouldn't conflict with our full-time students. Um, and JROTC remains open to homeschool students per that policy. Um, so what this does is it expands that access to our private school students and homeschool students. Um, it supports community engagement and that positive relationship with the community that we're looking for. Uh, we have reached out
063to the community and, you know, to see if there was interest and we have gotten feedback, lots of shares and talking about it. We've had several families call and want to get more information about what courses are available. And um currently this is looking at just some high school um CTE classes or elective classes where we have space available. Not taking anything from our full-time students, but where we may have space currently. And so we do have interest and so we wanted to open this up to um you guys to approve the option one for this policy. I I do have one question and I know it's not stipulated here, but I just want to make sure that this is not for athletic >> participation because VHSL still requires five >> courses, right, that you
064would have to have passed. So, this would not >> they would not qualify under that. >> That's why statement they got the one statement in there. >> Yeah. I just want to make sure that everybody knows that. Yes. Okay. >> Yeah, Madam Chair, if I may. Uh yeah, that was going to be my question because um there there has been a controversy around the country with uh kids that are homeschooled um and their parents or the kids wanting to play sports, >> but because they're homeschooled, you know, the parents say, "Hey, I pay taxes here, you know, why can't my kid play on the sports team?" I just didn't want us to enter into any kind of controversy like that. I mean, I'm >> right. We would still adhere to the VHSL rule for that.
065>> I got you. Yeah, that the question was answered. I just wanted to kind of elaborate a little bit on as to why >> I'm done. >> Okay. What's the pleasure of the board? >> Madam Chair, I move we uh approve the adoption of one JCB option one, excuse me, admission of non-public students for part-time enrollment. >> A second. >> A motion's been made by Mr. Snotty and second by Mr. Gregory to approve the option one of policy JECB admission of non-public students for part-time enrollment as presented. Any other questions? All those in favor, please raise your hand. That's unanimous. The motion carries. >> Thank you. That leads us to 7 06. Recommend approval of the 2526 budget amendment. Yes, this evening we are requesting the approval of a 2025 20226 budget update. The purpose
066of this update is to receive a reappropriation of $27. No, I'm sorry. $217,261 from the county of state bonus funds that was given to school divisions in June, which was then in our year which was then in our year-end balance at the end of the 2024 2025 school year. We are also requesting an additional $136,369 in funds from the county that are that are from the balance of the last two completed school division audits from 2022 2023 and from 2023 2024 school years. These transfers will increase the regular operating fund with a one-time revenue of $336,944. And we'll increase the cafeteria fund with a onetime revenue of $16,686 for a total budget adjustment of $353,630. Once approved, we will present this request to the board of supervisors during their October 14th, 2025 school uh excuse
067me, meeting with a planned distribution to employees in December as originally proposed. >> Was the pleasure of the board. Any questions? >> I move we approve the 2025 2026 budget amendment as presented. Second. A >> motion's been made by Mr. Snotty and second by Mr. Gregory to approve the 2526 budget amendment as presented. Any questions? All those in favor, please raise your hand. That's unanimous. The motion carries. >> 7.07 2027 budget development calendar. Okay. So, we are sharing with you this evening the 2026 2027 budget development calendar. As we receive additional information, we will continue to revise and update our calendar with you each month. Our budget development will start this month with principles and central office administrators providing input on areas of need for the upcoming 2026 27 budget. We have made a few
068changes to our budget development process given our current areas of need. Employee intent forms for the 2026 2027 school year will be sent out in December prior to the start of winter break. We would like to hold our first schoolboard budget work session on Wednesday, December 3rd to gain input on budget development. We have included the remaining activities planned between December and July 1st for your review and consideration. One focus area of our budget development that we are going to enhance this year is our communication with the county administrator and the board of supervisors. We will be working collaboratively with them and we will keep them closely apprised of our budget development process. So, this we need to approve this then, right? >> I'm just curious. Are we are we inviting who I mean other
069than us coming to the school board? I mean, are we inviting anybody from the board of supervisors to sit in or not? >> So, um >> I know in the past we've had a few. >> Yeah. So, u Mr. Mr. Carter had uh expressed an interest in meeting with us a couple of times pre prior to our budget work session with them in March. >> Okay. So, we would like to we would like to definitely do that with them. >> Yeah, we can bring that up when we go to the meeting next week, too. >> Yes. And we'll be at the meeting on October 14th. We can mention it then. Absolutely. >> We just want to be more proactive and have stronger communication and collaboration with the board of supervisors going into this budget cycle.
070>> Wow. This is great because I know I think previously it was like knee-jerk reaction come January time frame for most of us. >> No. And that's why we're seeking, you know, we've not done a budget work session in December before. That's really early, but given given given where we are with things, I feel it's essential that we have um time to work through some things. Um um Mrs. Oliver and I uh may be working over winter break a little bit on the budget. And so that would give us a little bit of information to go on um as we start preparing. >> I move we approve the 2026 2027 budget development calendar. >> Second. >> A motion's been made by Mr. Snotty and second by Mrs. Morris to approve the 2026 2027 budget development
071calendar as presented. Any questions? All those in favor, please raise your hand. That's unanimous. The motion carries. [Music] >> Item seven. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. Superintendent listening day 7 whatever it was 08. >> Okay. So, first I would like to thank all of the staff members who took time out of their very busy schedules to meet with me either onetoone in pairs or in small groups. Uh decisions that are well informed are based on using data from multiple sources including stakeholder input. The listening days data is a key component in helping create my 100 days report and offer recommendations for the future. A total of six listening days were held in August and September in which 75 staff members met with me. Four of those 75 staff members met with me on two separate
072occasions. They shared with me areas of overall strengths, areas of concern, and overall suggestions for improvement. I have included every comment that was shared with me from every staff member in my report. The most prevalent comments include the following. My principal administrator is phenomenal, excellent, a team player, organized, caring, and communicates well. I love the people I work with on my team or within my department. The listening days were good. Several people thanked me for holding them and giving them an opportunity to share. Love I love working for my current director. It will be difficult to replace them. Buckingham County Public Schools must hire the right person for the job. Consequences for student behavior are not firm and consistent. Student behaviors are challenging. Teacher salaries are a concern. There needs to be more communication, especially
073face-to-face communication between staff and school administrators. More emphasis should be placed on vertical alignment and vertical planning. We need to re-examine our current health insurance in favor of the state health insurance plan, which is Anthem, the local choice, or perhaps something else. We need to hire more bus drivers and substitute bus drivers. We need to offer bus drivers the opportunity for a second contract to work as pair of professionals or other employees on a five-hour contract. So, those specific comments were the most prevalent throughout the report, but as I stated, every comment, you know, I had to redact a little bit um to protect anonymity, but um every comment is listed there. So, I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have regarding our listening days data. I absolutely enjoyed this experience. Um, I
074learned quite a bit. It was an it was a great opportunity to get to meet people as well. Um, we will be holding two more listening days this school year. One will be in January with a strict focus on um the budget and another one um in late April or early May with a focus on kind of wrapping up the school year. What are some things that you'd like us to think about as we plan for the upcoming school year? >> Sure. >> Um, so and maybe you can tell me what this mean. Vertical alignment. Can you explain that to me? >> Uh, Mr. uh Dr. Ringstaff, if you don't mind. >> It it is a way in which you analyze your curriculum and actually what's going on in the classroom K through 12. So
075that when students transitioned from one year to the next, they're the the instruction that took place prior to that student landing in your classroom is complimementaryary. And so it makes the building of knowledge much better if if we have conversations or look at curriculum and say, you know, when when we talk about, for instance, scientific investigation or measurement, what are you doing? And you back to my old example, how are you having them measure in eighth grade and so that when they come to my classroom in ninth grade, they know how to use a ruler, they know how to use a digital scale and and so it makes the instruction more efficient. Uh this really came out of um I remember being a part of a lot of vertical alignment meetings as early as like
0762011 2012 and the state got away from really pressing upon teachers to take the time to do to have those kinds of conversations. But it's it's an effort to make sure that we're very efficient with our instruction and that students are moving and transitioning on prepared to be successful in the next year. And um can I ask go ahead >> and so and I don't know if you can answer this question. I don't know who would be able to answer it. >> Uh for the consequences of student behavior are not firm and consistent. I guess it could you would from your perspective why do you think someone would feel that way or would how would we address something like that? I'll give you a specific example and and this sort of pulls in vertical alignment
077in a non-instructional way, but if you have a student who is a fifth grader strike another student and um they're going to get a consequence that's really driven by elementary and primary types of of prescript, you know, prescriptive behavior. But if that happens in a secondary level, you know, we have automatic consequences for x number of days suspended because you assaulted somebody. And so that can oftentimes lead to a whiplash effect for a parent and a child uh who is used to a consequence in fifth grade of X and they're now in sixth grade getting a consequence of Y that's much more severe. And so um that consistency you I can only speak because my experience is secondary and I was really in tune with the way Mr. Garrett or Dr. Garrett and Mr. Thally
078uh are consistent in the way they give consequences. So what what I had and what they have is you have a disciplinary matrix and and that guides you. So when you get a certain behavior, you go to your matrix and you say this is what we've done consistently with this behavior for a first offense. And so once teachers start to see that consistency, they start to to feel supported when they write a referral. And and so it's it's that it's just a special skill in administrators because you don't want to talk about the consequences for a student because it's really a private matter for a student. But you know, sometimes as our experience shows, we see them out of class for x number of days or things like that. It's just the totality of trying
079to be transparent while respecting somebody's privacy, but having a guiding document that you fall back on to say, you know, this is what we do in these situations and and just like I can't talk about your child's consequences, we have a a process and this is how we react. And so that's what we're trying to to make sure is in place and is built. And I know Dr. Dr. Rezer's had plenty of conversations about things we're trying to implement and to to reassure the staff and faculty. Um, but that's I guess that's what's at the heart of it. >> So, in tonight's personnel agenda, there are, you know, two actions on that personnel agenda related to student discipline and support for um teachers and and for students um primarily at the complex in both primary
080and elementary. Um we are um seeking to um transfer an employee into an ISS pair professional to support uh short-term behavior goals there and also hire well transfer a classroom teacher that where we have a where we have an overage um into a step K5 teacher to provide some uh opportunities for behavioral management and restorative practices and counseling for students um anywhere from 3 to 10 days. So, we're implementing both initiatives um fairly soon. When I say soon, I mean very soon. And so, we'll be working with our principles at both both Mrs. Bryan and Mrs. Morris and their staffs to uh implement both of these new initiatives. Um obviously, in a perfect world, we would have liked to have had these in place at the at the start of the school year. Um but
081uh this is where we are now and we're we're not waiting until um next year to make a make a big change when we see a need immediately for some additional supports for for both schools and we're going to implement that. I think it's an interesting word to use as consequences because if you step back and look at the system in its entirety holistically, right? You know, when we talk discipline for our children, we're automaticly looking at the classroom, just the classroom. But when you're talking about a ISS or even a at home suspension or Lord forbid expulsion, you know, not only is the child impacted at that point, um, but at the ISS level in school suspension, now you've lost time teaching that child in classroom. If they're at home, you've lost both teacher
082time and student time, getting valuable class time because now the teacher's got to spend time getting the classwork to them right at home and then working through those challenges, if you will. And when the child comes back from whatever, then they're playing catch-up. So sometimes the teacher standing back, you know, helping them extra time in the classroom to get them back up to speed. So there's consequences not just in the classroom right then and there, right? But there's there's challenges and consequences no matter what we do to affect change in the classroom. So I think it's important when we're talking to everybody, whether it's parents or teachers or whatever, that we keep that in mind. It's not just about now. Think about next week, think about next month, think about next year when you got
083the student again or or whatever the case may be. But there's more challenges and consequences than just the immediate in the classroom. So it's interesting that word you use. Sorry. >> And that's okay. And one of the things that you mentioned um and I don't I can't see it here was the communication between the administrators and the I think it was the staff, the teachers kind of what is your strategy to um kind of increase uh one's ability to be able to communicate vice versa with each other. So I think you know the uh the staff uh the administrators have not seen this report yet and so this is I shared it publicly for the first time with you this evening and so we'll be having an admin council meeting uh tomorrow and we're going
084to talk about some of these areas that were prevalent and we're going to come together and and create strategies and opportunities for um for us to meet some of these needs. You know, I try to model face tof face communication with people. I like to try to meet with people face to face whenever possible. I try to be present in the schools whenever possible. Uh I'm I'm quite visible in in the schools, especially at the complex um since I've started. And so I I I enjoy helping and I enjoy being part of the solution and and being hands-on in my approach. And I hope that I model that for all of our administrators. Um but we'll be working on this and having having conversations about how to meet some of these um challenges and opportunities
085that were that the staff expressed to me. >> So now if as an example or hypothetically if I was a staff member and say I didn't feel comfortable uh with going to my direct supervisor or perhaps I didn't even feel comfortable maybe coming to you. what what would be your suggestion that I should do in that if that were to happen? >> So, if we had someone that had concerns but didn't want to come see me and didn't want to um see their administrator either, we could certainly implement a um some type of suggestion box or something that's anonymous, something that's completely anonymous. I'm open to doing that. Um I want people, staff, teachers, all of our employees to feel like they can be heard. It's important that they feel comfortable. It will take time.
086And that's why I did not want listening days to be a oneandone. Okay? This was an opportunity for me to get a a a real pulse of where we are. What are some of our challenges? What does the staff view think and feel and and because they're they're the ones that are living it every day in the schools. We're going to have two more of these. And some of the needs may change and we're going to be sharing the data again just like this just like this evening when we have the data from January and when we have the data from the spring and April and May we're going to share that again and some of these may change. Um and so we're going to have multiple opportunities for people to share and as as
087they get a little bit more comfortable get to know me a little bit better perhaps still even more people. I would love to see I thought 75 was great for the first time. time. I thought that was outstanding and would love to see well over a hundred or 150 staff want to come and speak with me next time um about the budget and about how we can plan for next year. So, we're going to provide multiple opportunities um and differentiate how we allow people to feel comfortable. You know, I've had uh a couple of people have reached out to me on email as people people have called. I've stopped by to see them. Um and so it's been it's been good. Um, but we want to, as you said, make it make it um a
088situation where people feel comfortable and can and can come and talk with with with me or a director or or their administrator. It just has to we have to open and channel those those opportunities for communication and we we will continue to do listening days. I think it's I think it's very important. >> Mr. Goodman, that's an excellent point. I was thinking about the military side of the house, right? They had anonymous boxes. We used to call it any mouse in the Marine Corps. Any mouse instead of anonymous, you know, we didn't spell it. We didn't have crayons for it. But anyway, >> so yeah, >> but but having those boxes, hard boxes for them to drop in there. Um there was always a stigma with the military with doing online stuff because they thought
089they were tracking you back to your personal email account, personal computer, and stuff like that. There was always a stigma with getting valid comments from your populace, if you will. So I think that's >> Yeah. and and we may do that the boxes as well as um Google forms you if I can work with um technology to ensure with absolute certainty that nothing can be traced back and it's completely 100% anonymous it won't matter >> we'll we'll implement something like that because I I I respect that some people >> want to be heard but I don't want to you necessarily know it was me that said it and and I and I have to respect that. >> Yep. >> Okay. >> Yeah. They had the same same stuff in the military where no no it's
090not tracking anything and I was in meetings where they had those results come back to them like here's your comments here's your ranking here's your everything and nothing was tied to it but getting your lower people to our marines our lower PFCs and lance corpals to put stuff in there it was like pulling teeth nope I'm not doing anything because it's going to come back to me >> just a challenge >> yeah I think that's a lot of the problem is president you know to think it's going to be retaliation >> behind it >> and we want to put people at ease about that that they have a voice and it's going to be heard but you got to work with us >> and we don't tolerate retaliation if we hear about it I mean
091we've heard from numerous people who felt that they've been retaliated in their careers and whatnot and so one of the things this board has come across is we don't if we hear about it we don't tolerate it we could come to you and ask about it but at the end of the day that's the same thing as bullying in my same exact thing. >> Any other comments? >> All right, that >> leads us to 7.09, the 100 day report. Okay. Uh it is my pleasure to share with you this evening a report of my first 100 days as superintendent. As I stated previously a few moments ago, I believe that decisions that are wellinformed are based on using data from multiple sources, including stakeholder input. The objectives of gathering data for decision-making were to become
092informed of the total Buckingham County Public Schools operations to include finance, human resources, instruction, student services, maintenance, transportation, technology, and food service. To ensure that our school division processes are effective, costefficient, and student centered, and to identify school division strengths and opportunities from multiple perspectives. This report documents information gathered from an online survey, from staff listening days, from stakeholder input, and from my own observations as superintendent. Information from various meetings and activities were used to identify strengths, opportunities for growth and recommendations for the future. I previously shared information regarding the online survey. As a reminder, there were 63 respondents to the online survey and the number one priorities for Buckingham County Public Schools that respondents stated were to address school safety, school staff compensation, student discipline with consistent consequences, and increase parental involvement and accountability.
093Additional stakeholder input included a total of 58 meetings held from July 1st through September 26. Stakeholder meetings included meeting with individual schoolboard members, the county administrator, members of the board of supervisors, the SCA, the Buckingham Education Association, the Buckingham NAACP, schoolboard office employees, and others. On page five of my 100 days report, I provide a summary of our school division strengths and opportunities for growth. I would also like to share several recommendations I have for the future of Buckingham County Public Schools. provide regionally competitive salaries and benefits for staff. Address concerns around student behavior, bullying, and consistent consequences for student conduct. I also believe that school safety as a whole, as well as mental health supports for students could fall within this realm. Address concerns around communication and ensure transparency with all stakeholders. provide unique
094opportunities through course offerings to encourage part-time enrollment of homeschool or private school students in order to help address a declining ADM. Complete a comprehensive salary study, asset mapping of all non-SOQ positions, and an updated strategic plan. School safety and mental health supports will be included in our updated strategic plan. and finally enhance existing CTE and elective course offerings at both the high school and the middle school. I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have regarding my 100 days report. >> Madam Chair, I got a question for the superintendent. >> Go ahead, Mr. Richie. >> Um Dr. reasoner. Uh we we have a we just did a proclamation about bullying and you mentioned bullying in your 100 days. Um which is a a big probably the number one issue in schools all over the
095country and maybe I don't know I guess maybe I'm just wondering how big of an issue do we have with it? I know we we need to have a zero tolerance and I understand that. Um but >> yes, >> because when I talk to folks um out in the community and they stop me and they're talking to me, you know, they mention it and um and and I do tell them that we're working on it and we're addressing it and we're are taking you're taking corrective action to not only prevent but to uh administratively deal with any bullying. >> Right. So I think you know there's a bullying there there's a specific definition for what bullying is and bullying is not is not always student conduct issues. Okay. Bullying is that repeated offense in an
096trying to gain power or or something over another student. And so sometimes students are have challenging behaviors that might be isolated to themselves or it might be um to towards a student or toward a teacher. That's not necessarily bullying if if if you get what I'm saying. No, >> I get what you're saying. >> Yeah. So I think we need to continue, you know, we our bullying anti-bullying efforts need to extend beyond the month of October. Okay. And so we've done that with um you know with our policies and with what we're doing uh working with our administrators and working with the working with the teachers and and so that that's it's a difficult it's a difficult question to answer but I will say that um a lot of people may misunderstand what bullying truly
097is. Okay. And not to discredit it, but to to misunderstand that there there are certainly conduct issues with some of our students and that we are working to help address that through added supports in our schools um through uh increased professional learning for our staff. And I would love to be able to put in next year's budget, you know, one of my budget priorities is going to be a behavioral specialist um in all of our schools. If we can't afford it in all of our schools, then we're going to try to do what we can with our schools. But I think we do need a full-time behavioral specialist in our schools next year. >> Have you ever heard of a video uh video documentary called Bully? I think that's what the complete title was was
098bully. >> Um >> and um when I worked um at Bulmont years ago um and the reason why I asked that is because the superintendent of the facility had required every unit to sit down with their kids and watch that video. And it's basically a documentary of a bullying victim. um and what that in individual's life was like being bullied every day. Um we certainly don't have uh the issues in the school system that we have had in the juvenile correctional center. And I don't mean to put the two on the uh same plane, but um it it was a really good video for the kids to watch. And I don't know, maybe some preventive measure, maybe if you got a hold of it and reviewed it and you thought it was appropriate um for
099the kids for the kids to watch. >> I'll I'll take a look at it and share it with our leadership team and we'll make decisions related to >> if we want to move forward with something like that. >> Okay, that's all I have. If if I could >> go ahead. >> You talked a little bit about um some of the mental health uh kind of things and I know Mr. Gregory has talked about this and Mr. Snotty and some of the other board members. Um talk a little bit about and you've mentioned it some with the behavior specialist. Um number one, the importance of those mental health uh kind of assets. uh and uh also kind of what what give us a description of of what that means. >> So, with regards to mental health
100supports, like I said, I I recognize that that we um need more support in this area. And so, like I said, I I want us to be able to hire a full-time behavioral specialist in all of our schools. We have contracted services right now that are very helpful but I don't think meet our needs fully that we we need um we need professional learning for our staff and and we do and so we've reached out to TTAC for assistance with some of that VCU TTAC um so there's multiple things that we need to do to help address um address behavioral and mental health challenges for our students. But I think we need, you know, the staffing. We need additional staff to support our students. We need to also work with our parents and help them
101um help guide them to where resources are might be available to help them as well. And so we talked we talked about a lot of this u today in fact in our VTSS division level team meeting um that we held this morning. That was one of our topics that we discussed um as well. So, it's like I I see it as a multi-layer, multi-tiered approach. There's not one solution or one uh strategy, if you will, that we can implement to help address this issue. I think we need to tackle it from multiple avenues. >> And >> yeah, we're not going to solve it. >> And then on the next question, um with the results, it was 10% of parents, 13% of community supporters. How in your opinion, how do we get more parents? I don't
102want to use the term involved because I mean, you know, parents, they're involved. How is is there some way that we could >> So, I think um one of one of the things that I would really like us to do um you know, there are negative connotations around social media, but social media can also be a very powerful and positive tool for school divisions like ourselves. And one of the things I'd like to do is to offer, you know, to provide a a social media manager part-time siphon type position to really enhance our social media presence to get our to get the word out of what programs we have all to offer our our parents and what resources are available and have um you know community nights where we have dinner and we invite parents
103in to do some some uh professional learning on centered around a lot of these different topics. And I think we we can leverage some of that and fund it through our title one grant. We talked about that today as well. And so we just need to continually spread our positive message about what resources are available, what what are the positive things that are happening in our schools and how we can help support parents and continually reach out and it is an on it will be an ongoing initiative. We can't just do it once and but we have to continually um reach out to our parents in multiple ways. Social media is is one of the ones is one of the ways that we would do that. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Thank
104you for your presentation. Um that leads us to 7.10 cost of admission to athletic events. Um we've been approached by different people about the cost of admission for students and wanting them to be wanting it to be free. Um and also um just you know like a maybe a reduced price or things like that. So um this is the time for us to all talk about that and and maybe not make a decision but just air that out to see how we feel about it as well. the the comments that I received were, you know, these are the students schools and they should not have to pay to be able to come attend the sporting events and also how um costly it was for uh families with multiple children uh of which I was one
105and how much it cost to bring them in. Um it, you know, it's a tight money year. You know, I'm not sure how we would offset it, but uh maybe if the parents didn't have to pay for all their kids to come in, you know, both parents would come and we get more uh participation from the community, if they didn't have to pay for their children. But I I'm want to give a voice to what has been brought to us. >> Yeah. And I'll piggyback off of Miss Morris situation as well. Um I've had individuals call call me and state that you know the the prices are too high for a family of four family of five. So it is I mean it's pretty steep. I I have four kids of my own. So all
106of them don't come to the game for that reason. However, um we we have to make sure we do an informed decision on this. And by informed, I mean we have to call around to other school divisions to see how they handle it because there's there's more to this than just saying that all of our kids can go to come for free because how are we going to recognize who are our kids compared to the other kids? Are we going to pay for IDs for every child? Are we going to pay for more staff members at these games? It it's a lot to take in. So I I would like to table this discussion until we get more informed decisions. And I would like to have the athletic director here >> to speak on his
107to speak on that behalf. >> Are you suggesting that we might want to do an athletic a ticket study because we we could certainly do that where we could um as we're looking at the other the the other eight school divisions that we are comparing ourselves with salary-wise. We could certainly do that with athletic ticket prices and athletic ticket um scenarios if you will. Some of what some of what you describe. >> Yeah. Because like Appamatics, I think they'll have like you put a a can of food in a container and the kids get in free for that. >> Okay. >> You know, maybe that's just one game. I don't know. So, we will prepare um and we will do an athletic >> um ticket survey, but it will extend it will extend beyond simply
108the price of the tickets, but unique scenarios that other school divisions may be implementing to kind of maybe help off help increase participation but also offset costs. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay, we will do that. >> Cool. Mr. Goodman, you had something? I just wanted to say, you know, in my opinion, um I see both sides of it. You know, I have four children, uh and when it gets to the playoffs, I I just I can't afford to go to the games then. Uh but, um also I can also understand because sometimes you go to some of the games and you just see kids just running around everywhere. And I I just think that whatever it is that we're going to do, it needs to be a balanced approach in terms of, you know, understanding
109that, yeah, you know, there are some, you know, revenue challenges with parents and with with kids, but it shouldn't be a circumstance where people just drop their kids off and their kids are just running around having a free-for-all and that's doing all that. Uh because especially some sometimes, you know, you witness some things with some kids and you're like, where where's your parent at? you know, and so, um, I just I agree with Mr. Gregor. We should use, uh, some prudence and everything with it. Madam Chair, if I may, I agree with um my colleague down on the end there that um when you go to the to especially the football games and it's not an indictment against anybody, but you do see a lot of kids running around and playing and visiting. And I
110get that kids are going to be kids. I'm not trying to take that away from them, but um at what point, you know, if if we have an admission process and there's we're letting kids in there, there also could be a liability issue if we're just letting all the kids in for free and they don't have to pay. You know, how many kids more kids are we going to have out there and are we going to run into a serious incident or a liability issue? um that we got to seriously think about. >> Yeah, >> it's one of the it's one of the reasons we probably didn't have the bonfire this year if I'm not mistaken. Yeah. >> Was you know we had bonfire for for our high school students and mostly I think the
111seniors for the for the most part, right? But we can't really do that. Can't justify that because everybody pushes their you know child out the door with some siblings to go out there and have fun at the bonfire and then you know that that 17-year-old senior is responsible for maintain maintaining the other children. So it's it's become a an issue there. Uh another point of I guess confusion is we're not tracking any child coming into the games. Like there's no special ticket you give out. We're not tracking you know children numbers coming in the door um for for capturing data lost or monetary funds lost on the athletic fund. So the impact to that bottom line on that athletic fund while maybe minimal may not be. And so when you're talking about buying uniforms and
112helmets and uh you got volleyball, soccer, all the sport, baseball, softball, all the sports being covered down by that that line item on that budget for the athletic fund and it's all coming from ticket sales. It's not coming it's not all coming from us. It's coming from ticket sales. So when you start cutting to that bottom line, what is what does that look like? And I think that's, you know, that's a that's an issue that goes into not just studying everybody else's because they might have a different way of doing their budget than we do. Um but but when you're talking about ticket sales at the counter like you know when strett's there I don't think I don't think we're watching you know when tick marks from students seemingly 18 and under coming in the
113door at least not when I was there coming through the door you know through the gate excuse me uh so it's one of those things when you talking about a a ticket study what we talking about we taking an average over two or three games or which games are we talking about football games all the games basketball games >> so it's one of those things where you're probably not going to have the data you want to make a solid decision because the numbers won't refct every sport. So, when you start looking at that, I mean, and how how it impacts the athletic fund for for uniform purposes, shirts, jerseys, you know, everything else that goes with the sports, um, it's one of those things where I don't know that you're going to be able to
114do the data dump that you want. I think it's going to be one of those things where we're probably going to have to come to the table and say, "Hey, look, why don't we just do this and cut the price down to this and all the kids where it was or what, you know, whatever and then see what happens." I don't think you're going to have the data you need or we need to make a proper proper decision. I just don't think you're gonna have it. Not across the board for all sports. >> Yeah. >> It's gonna be very difficult to capture that. >> Well, in some other school systems, uh, no child can come in unless they're adult. I don't know what age group that would be, you know? I mean, who knows? >>
115I would love for our children, our students, our students, I would love for our students to come to games for free. I would love it. But at the end of the day, that's not what you're going to see. It's not, you're not going to see that. that you'll see our students and then everybody else. >> Well, and then I think we also this is the time maybe to possibly look at some kind of booster or alumni club that could help offset that type of thing. So, that may be something that they could look at as well. >> Yeah, >> t-shirts. >> Absolutely. Sell some Buccaneer merch, man. >> T-shirts t-shirt. So, um, I got a question though along those lines and I'm a little bit ignorant to it, but um, so it's when we do
116ticket sales, it's just basically one price for whoever comes in to the gate, right? Is it is that how it is? >> Yes. >> One particular price, >> I believe. So, Mr. Tally, is that >> Or do students get a um like the high school I went to, um, there was a set price, which wasn't a lot of money back then. No, Mr. Tally, if you would please come to the head of the congregation. Um, >> what >> congregation? >> Amen. >> But um, there was there was like a set price, but students of the high school when they showed their ID, then they got a reduced price. For example, if a back then if a a ticket was $2.50 50 cents to attend a sporting event. Then a student got in when they flashed
117your ID for a buck and a quarter, but anybody else had to pay the 250. >> But what since I've been here since um 2022, when I first got here, the ticket price was only $5. And if you were playing a sport in season, you got in for free. I'll be honest with you, I was shocked because when I come from the Richmond area, $8 is a normal price. um across the board other than faculty and staff. >> Um >> yeah, it's eight like it's like eight dollars um for the ticket price. So right now we still below what you go into the Richmond area. I'm not sure about the area around here, but like I said, we went from $5, which I thought was almost unheard of. Now we at $7 and um I
118think we're still kind of below but at the same time we used to have it since I've been here that if you were in season the students did get in um along with playing a sport in in the middle of their season. So baseball players could not get free for football games but cheerleaders could or golf players things like that. >> I was told by Mr. Goen, Coach Goen, that it was a decision by the James River district that they they would all have the same ticket price, >> but I've not done the research behind that, but I I assume that statement to be true. So, that's what that's what I I was told. >> Oh, okay. So, if if I'm understanding correctly, then um the ticket price of what we charge is agreed upon
119by the whole James River district. And that's pretty much what everybody else and >> that's what M that's what coach Goen said. But when we look and and compare ourselves to other school divisions through salary, not everyone that we would um compare ourselves is a member of the James River district. That's why I suggested that we look at it from the lens of how we're doing our salary study which will be shared next month. Those other those eight other school divisions. If I'm not mistaken, did we vote on this a while back to to match the I thought >> we never we don't usually set the price for the the athletic events that I'm aware of. It's just um the school lunches. >> So basically for a size five family, you're looking at an increase
120of basically $10. >> Yes. >> Right. $2 a ticket went up, right? >> Yes. Yes. >> Yeah. I don't know. And then like I said, the athletes that are in season that were in season now they pay. So that's another increase right there. Also, >> well, I think what we should do is have a committee. I guess Mr. Goen can um get maybe some people from the outside world. I mean, you know, maybe some people wanted to start a booster club. I don't know. But I would think we'd want to try to find out the different prices and and what other people are doing and and what we can do to help if if it's at all possible. >> How do you all think? >> Same thing. And also I was someone mentioned to me
121once and I don't know if anyone else was this was mentioned to them about like people bringing animals like dogs and cats and raccoons to the >> to the to the events. So, I don't know if we need to, you know, of course I'm being facitious, but I don't know if we need to look at that as well because I know some people were upset by that that, you know, so >> I would think that an animal would be banned from the school athletic event unless they were a a service dog, a registered >> trained >> service dog. Service dog. That that's the only exception I would think, but I will look into that as well. Okay. Is there any other points of interest on this? >> No, ma'am. >> All right, let's move on
122to 8.01. Thank you, Mr. Tally. Uh, schoolboard member committee updates. >> I know that I believe we're having >> two weeks. Facilities is two weeks. >> Facilities is in two weeks. And then the facil um I thought the um >> um what is it? health and safety. I think that's that's on the 29th. That was last week, the week before. Never mind. Okay. And we had a meeting with the board of supervisors and Mr. Heslip today. Um, a few of us did a walk through at the high school. Um, it was interesting. All the money we need. Um uh we went through the cafeteria, the auditorium, the boiler room, and different hallways, few restrooms, and um looked at some of the doors, how that works as far as an intruder, and it was pretty informative.
123I wish more people could have came, but um I appreciate Mr. Hes showing us all the different issues that he's facing. And um that's all I've got to say. I I thought that it was interesting to see things that were uh still operational prior to uh World War II. I mean, you know, it was constructed in 1939. And I said, "Man, this was here before World War II, right at the start of World War II. That's amazing." So, I had no idea. We were looking at everything and um Mr. Hesup did such a wonderful job. He gave us this analogy of a of a heart and uh showed us the the heart the the center of everything and I just said man this is amazing. >> Yeah. And our focus you know for the visit
124was to look at you know possibilities for the future in terms of a renovation. We fully support um renovating our existing structure um as a cost-saving measure, but also just to bring it up to um >> the 21st century, I guess. >> But but uh and and Mr. Hessup did a amazing job keeping keeping um that as the focal point and and opportunities of of enhancement things that definitely need to be addressed from a safety perspective as well as functionality perspective. Nicely done. Okay. Um that's all the meeting. Now we need to go into close session under the same sections as we were in before. Someone wants to do that please. >> Madam chair, before we do that, may I address the committee? I want to take the moment to express my heartfelt gratitude uh
125for the privilege of serving on this incredible community and the school board. It has truly been an honor to stand alongside so many dedicated parents, educators, and community members who share the same vision to see our students thrive and to grow our school stronger. As we approach November, I fully intend to continue this work and to remain committed to being a strong voice for our community. I believe deeply in the potential of our schools and the power we have together to shape brighter future for our children. No matter what the future holds, serving in this role has been one of my greatest honors. Thank you for your trust, your support, and your unwavering dedication to our students and staff. Together, we can continue to move forward. >> Thank you, Mr. Gregory. Bravo. Um, Madame Chair,
126I recommend we uh go back into close session as allowed under items A1 and 29 of section 2.2-3711 of the code of Virginia for appointments and resignations of specific employees and discussion of public contracts. >> Second. A motion's been made by Mrs. Morris and second by Mr. Snotty to to return to close session as allowed under items A1 and 29 of section 2.2-3711 of the code of Virginia. All those in favor, please raise your hand