001I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, [clears throat] with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. >> All righty. So, um, and Mr. Gford, are we we're all set on Facebook Live and all else? Perfect. >> Um, all right. And a quick note that Mr. Pullin is with us digitally and so he's has his full rights as an elected board member. He's just doing so digitally just like many of us have done before. So if we hear something come out of face out of Zoom, we'll stop and try to get his voice heard. Um great. So uh next up is certification of close session. Um Miss Kryer, please and thank you. >> Dr. Kelly. >> Yes. >>
002Miss Johnson. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Bowen. >> I heard an I from Mr. Poland. So, um 50 we certify that only issues >> say I abain because I didn't attend all of it. >> Oh, thank you so much for that. >> Uh that's an abstension based on some technical issues since he wasn't there for the duration. So that's 401 uh as it relates to certification close session. Uh Dr. Gretz, is there any action items to come out of close session? >> Uh there are none. Dr. >> Perfect. Uh we are on to adoption of the agenda tonight. Uh is there anyone who would like to make a motion uh to adopt an agenda? >> I move we adopt the agenda as presented. >> Do I have a second? >> No. Second.
003>> Great. Uh any discussion? All those in favor of adopting the agenda as presented, please say I. >> I. >> Mr. Pull. >> I >> Perfect. 50. We now have an agenda for this evening. Thank you so much and know that uh it's just a bit of a delay, so I'm happy to wait each and every time. >> All right. Uh we are now on to the consent agenda that includes minutes from the previous school board meeting, review of monthly claims and approval of personnel recommendations. Was there anyone here just because my memory is poor that was absent from the previous meeting such that we should sever the um approval of minutes? >> No. Then may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda and bank? >> I move to approve the consent agenda
004as presented. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. >> All those in favor, please say I. >> I. >> 5O. The consent agenda is approved. We're now on to presentations. Um 7A, model policies on ensuring privacy, dignity, and respect for all students and parents in Virginia's public schools. Dr. Gretz, the floor is yours. >> Thank you, Dr. Kelly. board members and uh citizens who are with us tonight. At your request, I've put together some slides to just walk us through several items related to the newly released model policies. And so what I'd like to do is go to these slides and I may refer to the slides that I used back in September of 2001. Uh they're in the board agenda. Well, in that board agenda. >> Sorry, Dr. Gretz, could we pause for
005a moment? Um uh Mr. Poland, it sounded like you were trying to say something. >> I thought we might have forgot public comment, but I'm looking at the agenda again, and it says that the public comment is actually after this presentation. >> Gotcha. Okay. >> So, this is just to give information to you and to everybody who's here and put us all on the same page with some uh parts of this. Mr. Gford, does is there a clicker? [clears throat] If there if there is I'll stay here just so I can at least be somewhat facing everybody in the room not have my back. >> And do we have access to or do you need access to the slides that from 2021 or whenever that was? >> Uh we we have them and if if
006I want to refer to those or you would like me to Mr. Gford can pull those out again. their link for anybody in the September 8th, 2021 agenda and I'm happy to put them in this one too if we do use them. >> Uh if you reference them, let's just make sure that they get rearthed and put back on in the um public record and to the extent that you require them, we'll uh it looks like >> we already have it pulled up because Mr. Gford is just that fast. >> Thank you, sir. >> Man, it is substantial. All right. So, you want to start on the blue one? >> I think I'll start on the blue. Yes, the new one. Thank you. >> So, this is what I'd like to cover. Uh, board members.
007Go over the new bottle policy, at least aspects of it. Uh, the differences between the new one and the original one from 2021. There are a couple of practical considerations that I'd like to just bring out and highlight for you. If there's any discussion, we can have that. And then I I will give you a recommendation tonight, although I'm not recommending necessarily action, but that's up to the board if you want to move this to an action item. So this is a timeline of how this issue has developed. So the law was passed in spring of 2020. And that law, we'll walk through this in just a minute, has a requirement specifically for Virginia Department of Education and for local school boards. Uh roughly a year later, the first iteration of model policies released by
008Governor Northam's Department of Education [clears throat] uh hit the streets and we had our discussion and we had u made made this board made decisions related to those policies and again I can walk through those. We did not adopt those model policies. [clears throat] you did amend any of the policies that were impacted by the model policies by adding the code language from that what's in that yellow bar there to those policies which in essence said and again I'm moving forward a little bit but what that requires you to do the general assembly statute requires local school boards to adopt policies that are consistent with you can go above and beyond but you cannot go beneath the the minimum requirements consist consistent with the model policies that are provided by DOE. And the way this
009board chose to comply with that was to add that code language to any of those policies that were impacted. So policies related to student records for example and privacy discrimination and harassment and then we uh essentially looked at any practice any protocol that were in place at our schools regarding the treatment of transgender students in those areas that were specified in the statute and addressed it that way. So September of 2022, Governor Yncan's Virginia Department of Education proposed new policies and those were met with a lot of public comment. And so those policies were put on pause until July 19th when they were finalized. That's just a general time. So this is what the statute originally said. The department of ed has to develop model policies to guide school divisions on how they should treat
010transgender students in regards to these areas. Student records, identification of students, that's where names, pronouns, state names, student privacy issues, dress code, sex specific activities excluding athletics and bullying. Those are specified in the general assembly state and that requires school divisions to adopt policies that are this is the language from the statute consistent with but may be more comprehensive than the model policies that were developed under park. That hasn't changed since 2020. That's the that's the law. So, the new model policies released in July uh initially were proposed in September of 22, put on hold. It's quite a bit of public review and comment and consideration. Um and and they were finalized in the 19th. They do replace the former model policies and they're in effect July 19th. There's there's not a grace period. So,
011they're in effect now. Remember the statute requires you to adopt policies consistent with these. That's the law. The model policies now replace the first one. And so that's that's your your current measuring stick if you will to determine consistency as required by a general study. So let's look through some of the issues that are uh impacted. And this is just a comparison on the left with regards to the role of parents. This is one of the significant differences and this is this is one of the this is probably I will uh as I've said to each of you as I'm talking to you about this I think there there changes probably to what we did last time in terms of protocol I won't say there are no changes um [clears throat] because there are but
012the significant difference is that anything involving the treatment of transgender students is now triggered by a different definition. Okay. So, in 2021, there really was was little expectation that parents be involved. It really wasn't specified. There was some uh I'm trying to keep my commentary out of this, but I, you know, both of these model policies have some areas where they're not helpful. This was one I think really didn't give a lot of guidance. said, you know, you you need to preserve your privacy for students. You need to respect students uh well-being. At the same time, you need parents to be involved. We encourage you to just kind of do your best with that. That's kind of how that that was there. Uh the student had discretion in choosing to request uh use of specific
013pronouns, use of certain facilities. That was a significant difference. The new model policies specifically say that unless there's risk of suicide or harm, school cannot intention, this is the language from the Bal policy, can I intentionally conceal information related to child's gender uh identity in school if child requests counseling related to gender identity and I think we'll probably ask you consider and discuss whether it's tonight or another time. This is one of the issues that you may want to discuss is just being specific. If a child requests counseling related to gender identity, the parent must be involved, notified, and give consent in the counseling. The parent must request in writing given a significant difference. The parent request in writing that the school recognize the child's gender being different from the biological sex. And the exception
014is that we're talking about minor children. The child's 18 or legally still alive. With regards to student records, these are all kind of intertwined obviously because names are impacted here. In the original model policies, changes were permitted name, gender, and school records based on the student request. In the new model policies, changes can only happen when the request is accompanied by a a parent written request and b official government records such as a birth certificate or a passport or something else. Regarding the use of names and pronouns, the 2021 model policies again student request is sufficient. School staff are required to use program use policies. The student request is not sufficient. There has to be a request by the parent writing provider kids. Uh and schools, this is the language in the policy. School staff
015cannot be required to address students in a way that violates their constitutional rights. Uh, so that begs the question, does requiring school staff to recognize a pronoun or a name [clears throat] requested in writing by a parent on behalf of a minor student. Does that violate constitutional rights? And I can't answer that. That question is currently before the Virginia Supreme Court. that's coming out the case that followed very quickly behind the Gavin Grim case out in West Point with uh Peter Planning the teacher. So, and obviously a legal question like that I'm giving you information that's given to me by your council Brad King. So that's that's an area where schools are really schools are put in a position to try to decipher legal implications where of course have not done so uh facilities bathrooms
016and locker rooms and this is really where I think majority of the attention was placed in consideration back in 2021. those policies, students may choose to use the bathroom associated with gender identity. Um, and what came out of the Gavin Brim case, which is still the prevailing case, uh, was that provision of offering a single use facility was not sufficient. It was considered discriminatory and that has not changed, which is why I think you see the language you're about to see in the 2023 model policy. Students shall use bathrooms to correspond to his or her sex except to the extent that federal law otherwise requires. It should still provide single use facilities. Uh and this is new. Parents are now allowed to opt out their children from using bathrooms that transgender students will be using.
017So again, there's a question here. Does the federal government otherwise require and in this case it does the federal court ruled that transgender students must be allowed to use bathrooms of their gender identity. So that law hasn't changed although cases continue to work their way through the courts to the prevailing case law indicates that it does which again I think is why you see that language in there. The only difference for us at the definition of transgender versus being self- selected to now being triggered by any questions. >> Sorry. How old was GG during the during the um litigation? Um >> a minor based on GG. You talking about Gavin Brown? >> Yeah. But when the it was filed, it was GG, which to me or I think it indicates that they were a minor
018at the time. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> I want to say 10 per. >> Gotcha. Thank you. >> Sex specific activities. This is different as well. So the original model policies said students are able to participate based on gender identity. There was language discouraging schools from uh differentiating well from separating students by sex as much as feasible. Um an example that we discussed just offline would be family life education for example is is administered different groups based on sex. >> What are other sex specific activities that are that are functionally sexed? Do we have any? >> I can't say there aren't any. I just can't tell you right now off the top of my head what they specifically are. Don't routinely do that, but I can't say that there might be times. >> Do we
019separate >> gender? Not our graduation. >> Okay. Yeah, I know that when I was coming up there would be white and red based on um >> so I I can't I don't know in the new model policies students must participate this is spelled out students must participate based on sex, assignment and birth. Uh so the old model policy it was discouraged but students could participate based on their gender identity. the new model policies they must participate in say society and closely related if you think about athletics this is another significant difference and one where I think school divisions are put in a position that uh very difficult the 2021 model policies discourage separating well I said that uh for nonVHSL related activities but deferred entirely took me to the the VHSL and basically excerpted anything
020in the model policies related to VHSL athletics to the VHSL and that language if you remember is also in the general assembly statute >> sorry what which language is in the statute >> the language that defers to the B HSL >> so this sex specific activities excluding athletics. The general assembly excluded athletics from their um provision within that law. And the original model policies did also the new model policies don't uh they don't actually mention HSL. They just simply say students will participate in any sex specific sports based on sex and not gender identity. There's a lot of consideration and uh discussion right now about how to reconcile the difference between the way the VHSL currently handles that >> and they they are not aligned with that. >> Sorry. So say again, how is VHSL
021going to change its policies based on >> VHSL has has a process for allowing transgender students to participate in sex specific sports based on their gender identity >> and they as an organization are not updating policies based on the new model policies? >> They've not indicated. >> Okay. U so that that puts schools in a a position of tension that they really don't necessarily have control over the BHSL. There are specific and I can get these, but there are specific eligibility criteria that the BHSL uses and I don't think that it's I think it's rare if it has happened. But >> Yeah. I don't think we need it. But >> so just to put everybody on the same page again, 221 model policies are not in effect anymore. 223 are in effect as of July
02219th. School boards are required to adopt policies that are consistent and be more comprehensive and you essentially can adopt the sample that was provided in the model policy by the VDOE. There is a sample policy in there. You could use that guidance to create completely separate demand specific policy. You could take current policies and revise them. What you did last time really just being specific and clear. He didn't change the policies themselves, the language of the policies, but rather added the code language to indicate that those policies are now compliant with that code. >> Got you. Say it again. So, we didn't we didn't vote to change our policies, but we changed practice and acknowledged Virginia could >> Yes, you did change. So, you changed the policies technically because each policy has legal references. You
023added a legal reference which required adoption and change in voting for didn't change the language of the policies. >> Got it. >> Yeah. Or you can leave the policies in place as they are. I don't know now would be when you want me to jump right to a recommendation or if you want me to review what we did last time maybe I'll do this. This is what I have recommended is that you didn't adopt the policy last time but rather focused on practices because that's really where this matters is what does a principle do in a situation. How are they the policies the policies don't spell those things out. So focus on the practices. I don't think that your policies need to be changed. I [clears throat] didn't before and I don't I do think
024that there are some changes in practice if you're going to align if we are going to align and I think the law requires that and that is one significant one is that no longer can it be a matter of self- selection students minor students with regards to change of records use of different pronouns use of facilities that all has to be initiated by a request that's clearly spelled out. >> Sorry, could I pause for a second here? Yeah. So, I'm on board that the Virginia meaning that I understand that the model policies indicate that a minor student cannot um they indicate that a minor student cannot do any of those things without a functionally a permission slip to have a trans identity in a in in school. Um >> well, not to split hairs, but
025technically they don't say that really. What they say is that the school cannot start using those. The student really can do whatever they want related to policies, but the school can't honor those requests unless they're made by a parent, >> right? So, as it relates to facilities, how do we not have a substantive disagreement between federal and and state law on this? Like if Gavin Grim was a minor at the time and that court upheld that it was discriminatory to to have that particular student need to use their own like a a single use stall if they say it was pervasive discrimination and that student was minor at the time. >> Yeah. >> How if that's the federal law, how can the state law functionally um go against that? How is this not conflictual? >>
026I I can't say that it isn't. there. I'm not an attorney. >> There are attorneys who are >> their disposition is that it is in >> conflict. >> The the prevailing case does not speak to parent involvement. Doesn't say it needs to be there. It doesn't say it doesn't need to be there. Gavin Grim was recognized by the courts as a transgender student. And and so there's there's an argument >> and was a minor at the time. was a minor. >> Was were they a minor at the time of the decision that the court acknowledged identity? >> Obviously, I'd have to go back and research that to make sure. >> I mean, there's nuance here. I'm just trying to understand it so I can grapple with that. >> Yeah. So, I didn't include all that
027in here. It's in the document that is attached in the agenda that you received from Brad King, from Sans Anderson, >> and there's a lot of legal support that both sides of that issue are citing as support for those stances. Um, >> sorry, I interrupted you on bullet one. Could you could you keep going for the others? >> Sure. So, that that would be a change. Another change would be that uh participation in sex specific activities would be uh based on birth sex as opposed to gender. And then uh another change would be this is where I feel like I should go back and capture the language. If a child seeks counseling related to gender identity, a parent is to be notified. I think that's maybe a difficult thing for everybody to get on the
028same page with what counseling related to gender identity is. Is that um is that counseling related to me struggling with what my identity is? Is it counseling related to that being the resolved issue, but now I have problems at home because of it or problems socially because of it? Or is it I'm being bullied because of it? And that's why I'm getting counseling. I think that's something that I would want to work very closely with our counselors on because I don't think it would be wise for us to say anything related to um issues that are associated maybe stemming from that would require this. At the same we do have a provision already that allows counselors discretion when there is risk of harm, risk of suicide if they believe that the child's >> [clears throat]
029>> well-being is in danger. That that provision's already there, needs to continue to compromise. >> Are there other are there other topics that are so taboo that a counselor needs to pick up the phone and notify a parent? >> Well, the other one that I think I used last time just because it's it's an age-old issue where counselors would find themselves attention would be a 15-year-old girl comes and says, "I'm pregnant. I don't want my parent to know. or going to get an abortion. You help find somebody. Those are the kinds of issues that having never been a counselor, I can't speak to. >> Yeah. Are they mandatory reporters for pregnancy? >> Not for pregnancy. >> So, I I think that's an issue to discuss with our counselors, but it is a change at the
030end of the day. There's there's no counseling at school specific to gender identity unless there's risk of suicide or harm that it would happen outside of parent. Now, the way we handled this last time because there there's there's specific guidance in the new policy related to this. There really wasn't a lot of guidance the old policy. uh we would never seek to intentionally hide something from a parent. And if there were a situation, I'm telling you how we resolved this in 2021 where it was very specific where it was not as specific that it would always be our goal to work towards uh involving the parent or helping the student work through [clears throat] situations where they would be more comfortable to involve their parents. Every situation is different and having having met with students
031who are impacted by this on a couple of occasions, um I know this is a this is a big issue and there are stories that they tell are very compelling about students who find themselves rejected at home or at at odds with their families because of some of these issues and the damage that that does to them and the difficulty of I don't think it's as cut and dry as just simply saying I know that last time we went through these in 2021 a neighboring division semi neighboring governing adopted a specific practice where they basically had counselors that if anybody came in and mentioned this issue counselor saying hey stop just want to make sure you know I'm going have to call your parent to tell me I think those things are problematic We do
032have to understand the parents need to be involved. You have to adopt policies that are consistent in the model policies which say they're involved and we have always wanted parents to be involved. There's this difficult undefined space maybe where if there's if a child says I'm in armed at home or there's a risk of harm at home or I got kicked out of my house last night. I don't have a place to sleep tonight. Any of those issues, whether it's related to gender identity or pregnancy or who the who they're dating or anything else, counselors are always navigating that space of understanding how to notify parents or how to reunite students with parents or how to help students be protected from situations that exist. That's not new. That's not new for our counselors and I
033don't think that changes here. Uh the other difference would be allowing parents are now allowed to opt out. So they can ask their child and be opted out of using a restaurant for a transgender student. >> And what is what does used by mean? Does it mean that someone has to actually um make use of their their right to use a given restroom and then we get to send a note home outing somebody or does it mean that >> there there's nothing specific in there clarifying your questions? really have to work through that. I don't think it's feasible to say that we would send out a notice and at the same time we only have so many facilities. I mean I as I thought through this I think that maybe ironically what would happen if
034parents opted their students out of using a facility. I I don't know whether that would be since the federal government makes a provision that if a parent sends a note saying requesting that their child use a different bathroom than their birth sex. >> Sorry, that's the state, not the federal, right? The federal doesn't have any permission slips. >> No, the federal courts said >> Oh, okay. >> Wait, but they didn't involve it wasn't parental consent wasn't embedded in that. >> No. So the federal the federal law says that a transgender student can use the facility associated with their gender identity. Mhm. >> And so if we take that law and apply it to what the new public model policies say, which if you remember what they say is use the bathroom corresponds to birth sex
035except to the extent that federal law requires. Well, federal law requires schools to allow transgender students to use the bathroom associated with their gender identity. The difference is that those students are now students whose parents have made that request. And so in Governor Ynan's policy, once the parent makes that request, the federal law kicks in, the child's able to use that bathroom. So theoretically, we come back to this issue. If we come back to the opting out, >> sorry. And I don't know how I there's a lot here and there's a lot of tension between federal and state laws and all of that and I'm asking probing questions because I don't know how I feel about every single piece of this because there's a lot of nuance and it's important to to discuss it. But
036I just don't understand how a state can wave a magic wand and carve out a piece of a federal law based on whether a student's 16 or 18. Like I still don't get it. So, does a 16-year-old have a federal guarantee that they are allowed to use a restroom with their in alignment with their gender identity? The Gavin Grim case says yes. The executive's magic wand says maybe, but not unless you have a permission slip for your identity. >> Father, you know, this is >> in the guidance document. We pull this up. No, I'm just trying to understand it. I just don't get it yet. >> This is on page begins at the bottom of page one >> where this whole issue is >> I'm not trying to make life difficult. I just want to
037make sure that we have the right component pieces because this this is remarkably nuanced and precarious and currently being litigated in 17 different dimensions, which seems a bit unjust to thrust upon local school boards who are attorneys. See, um, >> Mr. Gford, can you pull up the If you go to the agenda, there will be a link to a guidance document and that I believe you're in 2021. >> Well, my apologies. I'm not trying to derail. I'm just trying to make sure that I I'm trying to follow along with you and then get stuck. >> Sure, that's okay. Thank you, Josh. transgender guidance document. So, this came from Sans Anderson. Might have to blow it up a little bit, but right there, this is case law related to the definition, which is a a key
038difference in these two model policies. >> And so, you'll see the court of appeals for the fourth circuit, which is controlling federal circuit of Virginia. So, that's the federal appellet court, relied on the following broad definition of transgender. people who consistently, persistently, and insistently express a gender that on a binary we will think of as opposite to their assigned sex. That's the definition the federal court used. And so your question is, how does requiring a parent to indicate that expression conflict or align with that federal law? I guess that question. >> I mean, I think you expressed my question perfectly. >> Yeah. >> So, and >> I think that's where we all find ourselves. Uh, frankly, I'd like the courts to resolve it instead of having local communities, school boards try to do it. >>
039Yeah, we got model policies in July and they're on our agenda in August and uh Gavin Grim's case probably wasn't resolved until they were in college. >> So, if you Yeah, that's okay. More to say about that. that document has a lot of these um there's just so much in here about these issues. So those are the differences. The the next um so continuing recommendations I'm suggesting that we adopt those changes the established process for facilities use. We went through this in September of 21 and we put together a process and I'd like this is where I'd like to go back to the first presentation and remind everybody what we are actually doing through that. Um, thank you. That's perfect. Is it Oh, I see. I can't do that. Can you blow that up a
040little? >> Yeah. >> So, this is the language related to in the initial 2021 document related to access to let's say just bathrooms, locker rooms. This is the language and this is what we walked through. School staff should not confront students about their gender identity upon entry into the restaurant. And we discussed what confront means doesn't mean that school staff are not allowed to address problems if they see problems. It means that there's not going to be a post or confrontation. School divisions should accept a student's assertion of their gender identity without requiring any particular substantiated evidence. This should involve meaning the expression of gender identity should involve more than a casual declaration of gender identity. It does not necessarily require any substantiating evidence. And the reason I pulled these out for you was that
041as we went through this and I know this this is a this document is moved but there is some conflict here uh for me and as our team worked through this without requiring particular substantiating evidence and then saying it doesn't necessarily which means it might but it doesn't necessarily require substantiating evidence and then you disregard the first paragraph there. A student is considered transgender if school the student consistently asserts. So there's there's a qualifier there that the assertion is consistent. And then this this is the the one that we really spent a lot of time on. Establishing gender identity present differently from student to student including but not limited to uniform assertion of such an identity. Indication that the identity is sincerely held as part of the student's core identity or that the student is
042not asserting such an identity for an improper purpose. Schools should work with a student to address any concern. So there's not to be a confrontation at the bathroom door necessarily unless there is a belief that there might be an improper purpose or it isn't being sincerely held. But there is an expectation in the 2021 that schools work with students. There's a difference between a confrontation and working with a student. There there was an expectation that there would be interaction with the student about this issue if there are concerns and that the asserted gender identity would be for improper purposes such as permitting the student to respond with information that supports the request. So I I'm not trying to pick out problems with this. I'm just simply saying no, it doesn't require any particular evidence, meaning
043they haven't spelled it out. It doesn't necessarily require substantiating evidence, but at the bottom, you need to allow the student to respond with information evidence that supports the request if there is a concern. So, we took all of this, if you remember, and we put together a process. We said it only applies to students and that it would be a safe confidential process where either the principal or the counselor would be consulted by the student or parent and that the process would allow the school staff to work with the student to address any concerns. if there are concerns about improper purposes to assess sincerity and consistency because those words were used in the language of the document. Discern if the declaration was casual and gives the students the student an opportunity to respond with information
044supporting the quest if that is part of that interaction. That process is what we did. Um, so fast forwarding now to Josh, I'm sorry. We go back to the blue document. Now that that proc all the language for that process, we put together our own process. The language for that came out of the 2021 model policy. None of that is in the 2023 model policy. In one sense, the 2023 policy is more restrictive in that it requires a parent to make a request. >> It is less so because once the parent has made a request, the new policy refers to the federal government which says if the parents made the request, well, whether that's aligned with the federal, but once the student is defined as transgender, they're allowed to use the bathroom associated with their
045gender. I am suggesting that we continue to keep our process in place. It would be more comprehensive than the 2023 model policy, but it's a it's a good sound process that pro protects the interests of all the stakeholders involved. It protects the privacy and the dignity of the of the student. It protects the interests of those who would be afraid that staff are just going to stand by and allow anybody to go in any bathroom because they can't confront. No, we we would address any concerns. We would work with students. We work with families. We allow the students to respond and their concerns. At the end of the day, I recommend that that policy stay in place. It's not a policy excuse me that practice stay don't think you need to amend your policy. I
046think that our practice is consistent. The difference will be these things here. It's all triggered now by a parent making a request. And that's a that's a big difference than self- selection and all of these things records pronouns and facilities. I I will address just the whole use of pronouns issue. In the first model policies, uh staff were required to use it. Period. In the new model policies, it just says you can't ask staff to do something that's going to violate their constitutional rights. what what we said last time, what I said last time, what I'd like to continue to say is if there is rather than we try to adjudicate something that the courts haven't resolved yet, we simply work with people on an individual basis. If there's a teacher that is bound by
047their conscience to not use a pronoun that has been requested by a parent, let's not have a showdown in the classroom. Please come talk to me. Let's have a discussion. Let's see if we can find a way uh to resolve that in a way that both parties can be respected and dignified without right out of the gate first response being >> Sorry. Sorry. Can I I'd [clears throat] like to just poke for half a second. Can you give me an example of what a compromise is between using pronouns and not using pronouns? I a compromise could I can't give you a hypothetical because I've not been in that situation. I can I can just say I think that it could be that a teacher would say [clears throat] a teacher might say I don't want
048to use that pronoun but I'm not going to use the other one either. I'll I'll call the person by their name. I don't know. >> Yeah. We haven't had any situations where >> No, I'm on board with you. I was just trying to under I was trying to figure out what the >> I was trying to, you know, we got she, her, he, he, him, they, them, and if if there's disagreement between, >> yeah, >> a student with a permission slip and a and a staff member, then I'm just trying to figure what the I'm just trying to figure out what the middle ground is. I find it hard sometimes >> in those situations. There may help. >> I I I think it's always best to try to communicate through those. >> Yeah. >> And
049doesn't mean that it's going to be successful. But at the end of the day, as uh the guidance document tells you and your attorney is told, those that believe that would be a violation of constitutional rights believe that there is a lot of law behind that stance and they will bring it to bear. And those that believe that the law requires them to use the pronoun choice have also lost that bring those to bear. >> Yeah. on that particular issue. It seems like there's a lot of cases that have temporary injunctions that have aged five years but not been resolved by the courts yet, >> which is insane. >> There there's a case in Lowden that you might remember where a teacher made public comment in a board meeting about not useful pronouns and was
050fired >> and the courts u made the school division allow the teacher to come back to work. the issue and a lot of people were looking at it and saying that the courts say that you don't have to use private and that's not what that case was about at all. The courts simply said to the school board you can't fire somebody for coming to a public meeting and talking you asked people to talk about that's all they said whether or not that's a free speech issue >> but they're considering it now. So I think if we were to get to the point where a parent made a request to write on behalf of a minor child to use different pronouns sex and a teacher said I can't do that. That violates my right. You can't
051resolve that. Courts haven't resolved whether or not that is constitutionally protected or not. And everybody has an opinion about whether it is. >> Yeah. Yeah, there's some real good case law here which is nuanced and points in different directions. My my encouragement respect that request but that we would I would like to have the opportunity to talk through with any staff member that was conflicted about it. uh before it got down to that. So, uh I did include this simply because the attorney gated. There are some potential challenges. There's some potential there's discussion about how title N is impacted by some of the provisions in the new model policies whether or not it would be discrimination to do some of those things. Again, nothing's been assigned. The potential just like there was last time for
052litigation and my my recommendation is based on folks complying continuing to comply with the law. I don't think new policies. Um, I do think our practices will need to change according to what I presented here in order to comply with all policies. And I'm confident that we can do that a way that preserves the dignity and respect and preserves safety and allows our counselors to continue to consider student safety. Um, but I don't want to be poly about that. I do think there are some situations again having met with students and talking with students and families where the counselor may not be aware of some mental or physical harm that could the child could be at risk and the child may not be aware and by this protocol may not seek help from a counsel
053because of this. I don't think our counselors need to be in a position where we tie their hands and say anytime somebody uses the word gender in your presence, you need to pick up the phone and call parent. I don't think that's the intention of it. But the but the intention and the explicit instructions of it are that we're not going to purposely conceal this information. So I think I do think we can do that but I do think there could be situations where involvement as well. >> So this isn't on our agenda to be taken up or voted on or anything like that tonight. Uh board members, is there anybody who would like to I mean first thank you Dr. Gretz for the nuanced um analysis here. There's just there's a ton that went
054into what you gathered. There's a ton that went into the case law. There's in my humble opinion lots of nuance as it relates to um what the existing law of the land is. There's federal supremacy considerations. Uh there's um the role of a counselor versus the role of a family consideration. There's lots here. Um, so I guess I'll just open the floor if any board member is inclined to um, articulate anything as it relates to this policy. And if not, we'll move on. >> I'd like to discuss it later after public comments. Yeah, we can you uh anyone is free to add new business um functionally or we can uh vote to amend the agenda after I swear I turned this off. I apologize folks. Uh or we can then my phone never listens to
055me anyway. Um uh so we can either um so anybody can uh make a motion to amend the agenda at any point anyway and if we have a motion and a second then we'll talk about amending the agenda. So to whatever extent wherever in our proceedings tonight somebody wants to have further discussion that's totally an option. Uh Mr. Renhouse or Mr. Key or Mr. pull in if you're online. Does anyone else want to um ask a question, make a statement, any of the above on this for the moment? >> Just like many other things that we have been presented before in board meetings, this presentation tonight, and typically we don't vote on it. Um >> Oh, it's not on the agenda to be voted on, >> right? I know we're just being presented tonight, >>
056but uh it's a whole lot to take in. Um, Mr. Key if you're in. >> Yeah. Okay. Um, is Mr. Pand with us? >> I'm here. >> Okay. Uh, would you like to add anything before we move on to the next section? >> I would just add that uh Mr. regrets did a good job of explaining a a you know really complicated situation uh that we've you know we've been dealing with for the past couple years. I think we've navigated it really well. In fact um Mr. Gretz and I talked about this today. Other school districts board members have actually called me and maybe some others to ask how we navigated it because they didn't do such a good job and they wanted to use us as an example moving forward. Um so I think
057Fluan has done remarkably well with the um two different administrations that are on two very different you know polar opposite sides of this issue and um I would suggest that we continue to follow Mr. Gretz's recommendation and I think he articulated it very well and that that's that's what I intend to support. Thank you so much. And I I'll certainly second and say that we're in strong agreement that um the overview here and analysis is is particularly [clears throat] strong in what we expect of a division leader and then some. >> All right. >> I'll just go ahead if that's all right and make a final comment if it's not. >> No, it's okay. >> Um I also agree that we should follow your recommendation, Dr. Gretz. Um, I'm impressed that the new policy recognizes
058the risk of suicide uh in its statement that um unless there is risk of suicide or harm, school cannot intentionally conceal from parents information related to a child's gender identity. Um, I assume that students considering suicide don't often announce their intention, making, in my opinion, determining risk impossible. Uh so while I'm impressed that the policies acknowledge there is a risk of suicide, I am alarmed that they've determined it to be an acceptable risk for students who do not wish to inform their parents. >> Yeah, I think it makes an like regardless of policy, adoption, etc. I just think it it puts our counselors in a remarkable position to um make these determinations and to um have a have a hot button issue that that's relatively untouchable for not particular circumstances. All righty. Uh so we're
059going to move on to public comments. Um per usual we have a a 2hour maximum here. So, this is a point in our um evening where we'll invite the public, meaning anybody um who is a resident of Lana County, who is an employee in our school system, who has business before the board, etc. to come forward and be heard um for up to three minutes each. We just ask that you provide your name and address, you don't address any particular board members directly, and um that you treat one another with respect. So, is there anyone who would like to come forward and be heard? please. >> Uh, and Mr. Oh, you already have it up. Thank you. I didn't even look up before I said it. So, >> my name is Jana Joel. I live
060at Whiteport in Lake. Um, my first time here. Sorry. I keep hearing about the main concern being the rights of the parents. knowing what is happening with their children. >> My question is what about the rights of these children? Sometimes school is the one safe place where they have to be away from their parents and the only safe place that they have to express themselves among their peers. Not every child has a safe and happy home. Sorry for the old data, but I was on a time crunch. A 2012 study by the Williams Institute at UCLA Law found that there were about 1 6 million young people homeless during the time of this study and that 46% of homeless LGBTQ plus youth ran away because of family rejection of their sexual orientation or gender identity.
06143% were forced out by parents and 32% faced physical, emotional, and sexual abuse at home. The CDC's youth risk behavior survey from 2021 shows that one in four teens identify as part of the LGBTQ plus community. According to numerous reports, there are estimated over 4,000 transgender teens in the state of Virginia school systems. Currently, there are 623 high schools in Virginia and 386 of those are public. There are 227 middle schools. So there's a very high likelihood that Leven County has among its students a significant portion that identify as something other than cisgender or heterosexual with even more enrolling in the coming years. If this trend continues, please show these students that you care just as much for their future as you do for every other student in this system. They are worth it. Thank
062you. >> Thank you so much. Is there anyone else who would like to come forth and be heard? >> Hello, my name is Jennifer. I live at 14883 West Road, Virginia. Um, up until about June of 2022, I was an employee here with Louisiana County. I worked at that high school, uh, teaching English. Um, and so I was at Alamar High School last year as a literacy specialist and I'm now the division secondary literacy specialist in Charlottesville City Schools. And so I just wanted to sort of and yes I recognize there those areas and those schools have far more funding than we do uh local funding. Um and so I I do recognize that and I recognize that I've been out of the school system as a teacher for a year. Uh but I just
063I feel like there are some places where Fluana needs to focus in terms of instruction and supporting learning. Um one model that I've seen in both Alamar and Charlottesville is uh having instructional coaches in schools. Um, and for me, I either think we need to think about bringing in instructional coaches or helping our admin um, understand how to be able to be instructional leaders in their buildings and deal with discipline issues. I've seen and I've actually heard an administrator say, "I wish I could be in classrooms more. I want to be an instructional leader." Um, and so I think that's really an area of focus. Also, we need a reading specialist at the high school. And I know that's been a point of contention recently. Um, our kids have deficits in reading that you traditionally
064only see at the elementary level and the pandemic has blown that wide open exponentially. Um, I don't want to say that that need is being ignored. Maybe it just hasn't been recognized. I hope that's a better characterization of what's going on. But the need is present and those students need help and teachers need help as well. Secondary teachers are not trained how to teach students to read. There's probably going to be more of that incorporated with the Virginia Literacy Act and there may eventually be mandates with the Virginia Literacy Act that there are high school reading specialists. So, it might be prudent to get ahead of that and really look at other areas that have secondary reading specialists, how they are employed, how they help build capacity uh with teachers to help with tier one
065and tier 2 instruction and to support students. And it's not just students with IEPs that struggle with reading. That is a common misconception. Um, our students need that and I think it's worth investing or at least um investigating. Thank you so much. Is there anyone else who would like to come forth and be heard? Hello, I am Sydney Gerard. I live at 18 drive. I have a lot of very disjointed notes, so this is not going to be in order and I'm going to jump around. Um uh first of all, this is targeting target targeting kids who are already more at risk of being harassed and attacked. If a kid is not comfortable at home coming up for their parents, there's a reason for that. A lot of the times, if they have a teacher
066or a counselor that they actually trust at school, you are taking that away from them. I have seen [clears throat] a a trans student harassed in the bathroom by using the bathroom that they were assigned for the sex that they were assigned at birth. I've seen this in the schools. We are told as parents, especially as the kids start getting to high school, allow them to advocate for themselves. In fact, I met with a teacher just Monday saying, "I want you to advocate for yourself to my child." But now you're saying, "No, you need a note from your mom." This does not make sense. It does not work already. These kids do not want to go to their counselors because they're afraid of being outed. They're afraid they're going to be told on this is
067going to make everything so much worse. And I will leave things at that such a bad thing. This is not about parental involvement because if that was the case, I would see more people at these PTSO meetings. The last meeting we had there was me and the assistant principal announced it. This is about being uncomfortable with someone that's other than him. >> Thank you. Is there anyone else who' like to come forth and be heard? Proxy and Joseph. Um, I am from the district and right now I completely understand what these two women have just said. The only problem with it and with all of it is that this tends to be an acrosstheboard answer. I don't think we could always do things across the board. We can't say, "Oh, don't tell parents." So that
068leaves how many children with parents that care. So we have to look at that. We can't just say, "Oh, but also on the other end of that, we have to look at the children that are experiencing this." So the question is how do we come how do we solve that? I think that's what we're looking for isn't that that's kind of it. That's all I really wanted to say. We can't we can't do things across the board for every person. We can't for for a person that is transgender. We can't expect everything to be across the board for a child that is heterosexual. So, it can't work that way either. So, how do we how do we find something in between? Y'all are looking at me like I should give you an answer. I wish
069I had the answer, but I think between parents and the teachers and the school counselors, I think we can try to figure it out. It might be a PTA meeting where everybody sits down and says, "How are we going to take care of this?" And does it actually have to all go to the state where the state makes this decision for us? does the questions I have. I wish I could give you an answer and if I can come up with something that will work for every person, I'll bring it to you. But I I don't think it can just be laid down that one particular person is going to decide for everybody. But that shouldn't be the case for anybody, right? Anyway, that's all I got to say, guys. Thanks. >> Thank you. Is
070there anyone else who would like to come forth and be heard? >> My name is Excuse me. My name is Danny Reid. I live in the Fort Union District. Um, first of all, happy first day back to school everybody. Light the tension a little bit. Um, I'm candidate running for Fork Union or in the Fort Union district for Fana County Public Schools and family and teachers are at the core of why I am running. Um, just a quick touch on the family side of things. I'm not sure what the school board's role was in the new vaping policies and the dress code policies, but thank you. I'd also recommend you guys throw the bullying policy in there very quickly as well. Um, and not only in in, you know, intact, have these policies intact, but
071also hold those accountable to enforce them because a policy that is intact is no good and is completely waste of time if it's not enforced within the schools. Um, but switching gears over to teachers. Um, so it's been brought to my attention recently that teachers throughout the county are not allowed to uh, as trivial as this sounds, print using color ink, nor make copies using color ink. I've spoken with teachers in every school throughout the county. Um, I was amazed at the fact that all of them responded with, "I have to use my own printer and my own ink and it is funded by themselves." And it led me back to this kind of funny little meme that's been floating around. government funded classroom and it's pretty bare. It's bleak. It's boring looking. And then
072on the bottom of that it says teacher funded classroom and it's vivid. It's bright. It's colorful. It's what Lana County Public Schools classrooms look like. I'm asking you guys, the raises are nice. I'm married to a teacher. We thank you for that. Quite frankly, I don't know if that's enough because that money's going now to increase taxes and other things like that. I'm asking you guys to invest in our teachers. Once elected to this school board, I will help you invest in these teachers. What I'm really asking is I know budget season never ends even though it kind of ended a little bit ago. Go find 10 to $20,000 and buy these teachers some ink and start investing in them because the only way we start attracting the best teachers to this county. And don't
073get me wrong, we've got a lot of great teachers in this county, but we always need more. The only way we attract the best teachers to this county is to make these teachers feel very invested in outside of a paycheck. The only way we keep them in this county is by making them feel very valued in ways outside of a paycheck. And we ought to have the approach, and I'm not saying you guys don't, this is not a criticism on you guys. I bet you guys probably didn't even know what I was bringing up until tonight. We need to hire teachers who want to be flucoser. And the only way that happens is by doing things like this. I know we have fat that can be trimmed in this budget and it's not just in
074surplus at the end of the year to go be spent on something big. Go find it. Go invest in our teachers. Let's make these teachers feel very wanted because I can tell you married to a teacher. That ink is not cheap. And if you act multiply that by every teacher in the county has a lot of money spent by teachers out of their own paycheck. So don't give them a raise. Give them a raise, but then also let them keep that money. I thank you for your time. You have a good evening. >> Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to come forth and be heard? Hearing none, I will uh end our first round of public comments. The second round of public comments, I believe, at the end of our agenda here.
075Yep. Uh 13A. So, if you stick around, uh everybody who spoke already will have an opportunity to speak again. Total clean slate come 13A. All right. So, we're on to reports. Uh Dr. Gretz, the floor is yours. Okay, thank you Dr. Kelly. So, as always, you can see the items in my report. I'm not going to go into those in detail unless you had specific things you'd like me to highlight. I will say that we did have a wonderful first day of school today. We were out in all the schools today and there's just a lot of positive energy and everybody is really, I think, set up for a wonderful year. There's a lot of information in here. The SOQ report is essentially the the report that confirms, if you will, or affirms that we
076are compliant with all the standards of property. Again, if there's anything in there that you want to know more specifically about, I'm happy to touch on it, but it's provided to you. It's it's uh >> how about accreditation? Are we I I think I heard you say >> this whole accreditation process. But as we [clears throat] go through and as we look at where we are with uh what they have released, we we will be fully credited >> and that'll be for the how many consecutive years? >> I think it's 11 >> substantial. >> Yeah. One of the few divisions that >> Yeah. I was gonna say the last time that we went through this and it might have been a it might have even been when when Chuck was here, Chuck Winkler, our previous
077superintendent, I think there were only nine divisions that had the same successive accreditation that we did or something like that. So, I have to imagine that the pool is getting smaller over time. So, that's a substantial thing not to be overlooked. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Um, we do have CIP work that's happening. You you probably noticed the units in front of Caris Elementary and that building is much more comfortable than it has been in the past. It's not happening as quickly as we had hoped, but the project is underway. There's some great events that you can take advantage of under the parent student outreach section. Um I was very privileged to attend the safety forum. It's an annual event. It's actually one of the best I think in the community in Capitol Hill and several
078of our staff members where once again we were exposed to some different safety initiatives and trainings on behalf of the state but also was recognized there for the partnership were last year. I think you know I'll just mention that so there was a new regulation that will impact us potentially which addresses private day tuition and the amount that can be charged the rates that can be charged and and delta for us in what we would have to to pick up because community services community services will no longer pick up those events. I I think I'd rather wait and see how that shakes out before we do a report on that. But I do just want you to be aware of that. >> Yeah. Just watch. [laughter] >> Sorry. Can you can you rearticulate what that
079sorts of services are that we would need to pick up that would it be >> private private day treatment? >> Oh, private day treatment. >> The tuition. So there has been a cap that's been placed on what would be supported by the community service board which means if the legislation just addresses that cap but it doesn't also address the rates then the difference would fall to the locality and we do have have several >> and it's private it's private day placement so this would not include um anything that is funded or run by PREP? >> No. >> Gotcha. Um, do we have an estimate of how many kids we currently have in private day placement in our division? >> I don't have that off the top of my head. >> Oh. Oh, sorry, Miss Valentine's
080here. >> Sorry, I didn't I didn't see you in the back in the moment. So, >> so it varies. Right now, I would give a 15. Um, I would say 15. >> Yeah, >> but that's not counting the kids that are coming out and going in. It's a constant fluctuating number. >> Gotcha. No, I mean that's helpful for us to have like just an idea of a ballpark. >> We can actually give you the December one counts each year and what would happen? >> Gotcha. And do we know um how many of our seats at Ivy Creek were currently using? >> All four. Do we have demand for above and beyond the four currently? >> That's a that's not an easy answer question unfortunately. potentially it's a matter of whether you go to either drink
081or whether you another placement. >> Yeah. >> So I would say yes. >> Yeah. Okay. No, that's helpful. I just I know that there's a theoretical marketplace for additional seats at Ivy Creek that could exist that would provide an alternative to private day placement in the event that it's an appropriate fit. So, and I can follow up directly as the um representative and also just to um chat with you about that, but I just want to get a kind of sense of private versus public um outside of the district placement. >> Thank you for that. >> You bet. Yeah. Uh so, the other thing that's linked here is a a staff climate survey that's been done in for I think this is the 14th consecutive survey. So, um, we can go through those slides with
082you or you can take that information and digest it over the course of the month and we can go through it next month. I'll really leave that up to you. >> Um, >> you're So, this is a substantial number of slides. >> Yes, it's a lot of data and it's data that you see every year. >> So, I want to make sure that it it gets light and spoken about. The question is, do we do it do we do it tonight and it's in its full capacity? Do we do it at our next board meeting after we've had time to prepare >> or prepared to present it? It's a matter of whether you want to look at it before we talk about it. >> If you had to choose between going through um the comprehensive
083plan versus going through the staff survey tonight versus next month, which of the two would you prefer? Yeah. >> Okay. Uh >> simply because it's kind of sensitive. >> We have a lot of meaty stuff tonight. So I'm just trying to like juggle. Um would it be acceptable to the board if we planned on having a full presentation on the staff survey next month so that we can include it in our discussions and thinking as it relates to budget and priorities. >> Okay. So, uh, let's all make sure that we've gone through that and then I'd like to make sure that the community gets to hear what our our staff is saying as well so that we can, um, work together to to solve some of the issues. But, >> so that's available there. Um,
084and that's really everything. I I'm going to update you in a separate item here related to our ongoing strategic planning work. >> Unless you have specific questions, I can hold Yeah. And the where do you want to fit the strategic plan in? >> Oh, it is the next item anyway. So, >> yeah, >> I guess now is great. >> Okay, >> Mr. G. Okay, could you go to the slide that begins with >> That's hold over from a from convocation. >> Oh, I'm sorry. pull back. That was good. Yeah, we're good. Okay. Uh so board members, really quickly, we'll continue to talk about this. We we began talking about many of these things obviously when I first met you, but our intention is to have a really robust discussion with our greater school community about
085some of these things. We started work I'm just giving you a reminder. We started working with Tom Eerson, Dr. Tom Eerson of Airwill. It's a nonprofit associated with a lot companies on leadership development, strategic planning, core values, and we worked with him through the course of about 18 months and the result is this draft. In no way are we suggesting that this leadership team's draft is the one we need to end up with or rather this is a starting point for us to have some really critical discussions. I presented this to everybody during the convocation the high level presentation and then I had followup conversations in two of the schools said to go to the other two and then we'll continue that and I can just tell you the the conversations and the reflection that's
086being generated is really encouraging. I get emails late at night and early in the morning. People are really thinking about some really team questions that I think will have great impact on our work together, our work, not just as staff members, but our work with families and the way our our whole flu community. So, I'd like to just take you through some of these things. If you if this generates discussion tonight, I'd love to hear it. So the way we approach and many people define vision mission a different way. The way we approach this is to kind of begin asking the question and I'll ask everybody in the room or staff members after you've invested a certain length of time in this work whether it's 10 years or 40 years or community members or your
087own investment as a parent or a community member. But what is it that we want to look back and have done? what kind of legacy do we want to what impact we want to have and through a series of like I said many many conversations we ended up with equipping students for life and making sure that they're all prepared to have a positive impact on definition leadership is just that it's not in position but rather [clears throat] putting yourself in a position to have a positive impact on that is where we want to end up what is it that we need to be doing every day in order to look back in 10 years to had that. That's where we derived our mission. And that was to make sure that every day we're maximizing the
088potential of our students, of our staff, of our families, our community members. If we're maximizing people's potential as learners, as readers, as athletes, as leaders, as community minded citizens, as collaborators, critical thinkers, we will have prepared them for life for whatever's beyond K12 and our core values, which is a very important step for us, are intended not necessarily uh to be representative of everybody's personal core values. We all have these hardwired into who we are based on our uh our coming into the world and experiencing the world and are being raised and impacted by other adults and other individuals and uh we get beliefs and then some of them get veilance and they become values. but rather for us to carve out uh some values that we as an organization, we don't have control over
089what people outside of our organization do necessarily, but we'd like to invite everybody to commit to these as being characteristic of who we are as a school division. the example that I've given and I I'll be brief about this but one of my stops along the way and by now 33 years I went to a division where I had been through several rounds of interviews community panel staff panel executive interviews and never in that process did they say I just want to give you a heads up this division only uses backs only use back computers if you're not good with probably shouldn't. Nobody said that. But within working probably within the hour just because that decision had been made and all the processes and the way things got done the software the way [clears throat]
090the communication happened it was very obvious to me that we never touched it academically. Man this is this is non-negotiable here. I this is something I've got to be okay with or this is just not the right thing. And it has caused me over the years that I'll just position to you. Aren't there so many more things that we do as educators and partner with families to do that that should be true of that are so much more important than what computer do that it should be so hardwired the way we do business, what we believe about kids, what we believe about grading, what we believe about discipline that somebody could come and work in organization and without ever being told just get the very palpable sense that wow I'm not drinking live. This is
091not the place for me. That's kind of where this started. And these are the values we ended up with. I'm going to walk you through how we define them or how we're proposing trust, relationships, work ethic, and optimism with trust. Our working definition is the ability to believe in others. And then we try to come up with some actionable what does this actually look like in action? Be honest, be respectful, be reliable, show integrity. uh be transparent. We've had some discussion about whether the first and last are the same. I can tell you in schools, teachers said no, they're not. >> So that's trust. And I know relationships, ensuring open and effective interactions in all of our schools and community. What does that look like? respect. >> And there's been a lot of talk in
092in the schools as I've come out to discuss this about the difference between empathy and sympathy. Making sure that's clear. Valuing others, being honest. Stop me if you want to go deeper. Have any comments. Work ethic. Consistently performing at the high level. Exceeding expectations. Being intrinsically motivated. Taking initiative. holding yourself to a high standard. We've uh one of the things I do want to say in no way does by bringing this as a drag suggest that these things aren't inhabited. It's rather just us going through the process of codifying values. This will be, if you will, our moral compass as we make decisions together, as we interact with each other, and as we hold each other accountable for these things, and as we recognize and celebrate when we do them to be able to define
093them. It's not meaning that uh we need to define these and inflict them on people because people aren't intrinsically motivated. optimism, expecting positive outcomes, being a solution for evidence, seeing the good in people, uh believing in our efficacy, meaning believing that what we do actually matters and makes a difference. And then persevering, not giving up has had a lot of discussion around the difference between I think the teachers I've talked to want to make sure that we really tease out the difference between just hanging on and enduring versus being resilient and tenacious in pursuing something tenaciously. So just offering that we've had conversation. So those are the core values that we're presenting to everybody for consideration that again don't necessarily line up with exactly what my values might be personally or my most prioritized values.
094But to be clear, what we in an ideal world would say with this document and with this um with this language is if you can't get on board with these things being important, maybe this isn't the right place for you. So I I would invite you to just frame your consideration of these values in terms of that. Is that true for you? And is that what you would want to say to those that are considering mobile organization? Uh three strategic goal areas. I'm not going to go through these and there's we've got so we we followed the ghost method. There's several of them out there, but goals objectives objective. We'd have strategies and breach strategy. We'd have a bunch of tactics. That's kind of how we laid this out. not going through all that visual
095stuff. >> Right. So, this is like a pyramid. We're functionally going top down, but there is three levels beneath. >> Right. >> That's right. So, I'm just showing you the the goals. Engaged learning, inspiring inclusive culture, and transformative relationships. For each one of these, this is what we're presenting now to be our big objectives. So, what does that goal area actually say? will maximize each student's learning potential through engaging experiences and innovative instructional practices. Preparing our students to be successful, productive community consists. Now, these are the big uh object objectives. So remember under each one of these are these strategies and then tactics under those ensuring engagement is the central focus as we move forward in our decision- making and our pedigogy. Ensuring all students achieve expected growth every year. This is where we address
096the need to close achievement gaps and make sure that uh students are meeting annual growth goals in literacy and numeracy. Ensuring every student's prepared for life after graduation looking at our opportunities through CTE programming, dual enrollment, opening up multiple pathways for kids to pursue uh a wide variety of opportunities. Inspiring an inclusive culture, we will create an environment where all members of the school community are welcomed, informed, empowered, and valued by supporting the physical, mental safety, and wellness of students and staff. Establishing a work environment characterized by high expectations and support for strategic creativity and risk. Cultivating a diverse, aligned, exemplary workforce. Development is part of this and opportunities for reflection collaboration, engaging the community in the life of the school division and deepening that connection where uh the community becomes a part of. And
097then finally, transformative relationships. will pursue impactful positive relationships among our staff, community members, and with all students that are characterized by trust, empathy, honesty, and respect, and high expectations. Uh by building genuine connections through honoring one's personal story, values, and perspectives, communicating effectively through honest, respectful, empathetic conversations. valuing and recognizing others for positive contributions cultivating a sense of belonging with people community and belief that what we do matters. Um what I'd like to do moving forward and uh I had to put that picture in here because everybody will love it in the conversation. It really doesn't have anything to do with in the board meeting. It's probably not. >> Is that Mr. Lucas? Is that what's going on there? >> That's Mr. Lucas set a goal for the students at Gary's book last year to
098read a certain number of pages in a given time and then he would be turned into a human subject. >> He looks sufficiently disfigured that it took me a minute to figure out that it was Scott. That's awesome. >> So, continuing to explain the details of this plan in larger group settings and then scheduling block parties in the we call them block parties. there smaller groups of teachers that meet during the planning time with me and other members of the leadership to get feedback on this. have already started that uh doing the same thing with our community and uh parent groups giving feedback engaging everybody in this process and ultimately and I'd love for the school board obviously we've had conversations about this but for the school board to be involved in any of those
099state meetings along the way and perhaps at some point maybe there'd be a a specific retreat that we could dedicate to just the board interacting with this with us but ultimately We'd like you to approve a plan. That becomes a a dynamic document. And what I really want to avoid is the process that happens all too often in school divisions. I'm not suggesting it has here, but it just does sometimes where these these plans, we have to have a strategic plan. And so to comply, we put one together and it's there's pictures in it and it looks good, but it goes on a shelf and nobody ever refers to it for six years. And I'd really like to have something that we continue to come back and report with metrics. I forgot to tell you
100for each one of those areas, objectives, we'd like to have a dashboard, a leading and a lagging indicator, meaning one predictive and one outcome measuring indicator that shows us how well we're doing those things. Um and to be able to make that a part maybe of even the monthly superintendence report that the report will be aligned right now there buckets of u there's instruction community parent outreach finance maybe we can make those those items tied specifically to the strategic objective. So, I've said a lot. I'd love to have your feedback now or anytime if you have it, but I just want to make sure that you continue. >> So, I'll I'll start. Um, I got to see this before conication. Charles did as well. Um, and so I've had some time to like tinker and
101think about it. So one is I think that it is a fabulously bold and um and in some way intimidating enterprise to move forward and try to build a strategic plan that defines our missions and values given the like diverse community and diverse employees that we have. I think that this is a a good good first cut at it. One of the things that I haven't seen yet is like how many you talked about ghost, right? So, we have goals, objective, strategies, and tactics. And we've got three goals. And within the three goals, we either have three or four objectives. I haven't seen yet the strategies and the tactics. I assume that they're developed. We just haven't we're not there yet in terms of socialization. >> Yeah. I I haven't it's just so much information
102to pack into at times, so I haven't brought you here, but yeah, got the draft. >> Okay. So uh one would be to when when you're sufficiently comfortable to uh one share the larger draft after after you've had sufficient time to do kind of early reads and readouts, right? We we're getting the like teaser. This is like we're getting the high level version and eight slides, but if you've got let's for a moment say three goals within that three objectives even though we know it's four for a couple of them. And let's assume for a minute we had nine three strategies and three tactics within each strategy. That's that's 81 items, right? That all kind of like feed up together in in a lot of ways. And so um so it's a substantial amount to
103sort of socialize and to bring people on board with. And so I'm a little curious about um a couple things. one is uh whenever you're ready and this is the uh yes and uh I I probably underarticulated um how important this is and how valuable it is and how thankful I am that we're working on it. The and is whenever you're prepared to share kind of full text as a as a as a working draft that's great to could we ensure that the board members here are um provided like calendar links or invites to the conversations as they go >> and then the like push which is like premature is like as we think about socialization some of the ways that like in my own research and in the own in other settings where we
104have strategic plans we sort of pick weeks or months to focus on particular things to be deliberate about and to like be conscious of. With 81, we can't even do one a week, right? Because it's more than and I'm not saying you have 81 items. I'm saying that theoretically because I haven't seen the bottom of the tree. I don't know how many tactics feed into each strategy, etc. But we should find the right level of analysis, right? I don't know if it's the G, the O, the S, or the T as our like focal point of um socialization. and to make sure that if we're and maybe it's strategies and the like subtext is like here's some ways you can do it with this with tactics, right? Um to find ways to sort of bring
105those in and then make it a routinized thing that you know on this week or this month we're going to focus on this particular element which makes it a little more bite-size or or or tangible for people to engage with. So I know that you've done a substantial amount of work. There is a large amount of work product and I'm just sort of thinking about how do we not only socialize it but make it useful so that we have little nudges for for each and everyone in the division to to adopt these things. >> Yeah, absolutely. I I can give you just you know just give you an [clears throat] example. So this one our goal area is uh culture first objective is support the physical mental safety and the wellness of students and staff.
106The first strategy there is cultivate a student centered culture. Ensure all students feel that the adults in the school that care about and support them. There are six tactics under that strategy. No, no, no. It's I mean it's a lot of tactics, but that's >> great. >> Five strategies. >> Each one has many tactics and that's just for that personal objective. There are quite a bit here. Yeah, I think this is really good timing with the with the broader conversations that we've been having because I think that adopting a strategic policy that that talks about inclusiveness and culture and then either adopting or not adopting policies or procedures that that may not be as inclusive as as we want to hold ourselves to be provide some real cognitive dissonance. And so I think if we're
107going to adopt something like this, it's only meaningful if we hold ourselves to the standards. If we're going to do this and it looks good on paper and that's great, but then when we as a board sit down at this table, we're not looking at that headline and holding ourselves accountable to it, then like to what end do you want board adoption in the first place? doesn't mean that it's not useful for the rest of the staff, but you know, as we as we uh look ourselves in the mirror, I would hope that if we're going to sit here and adopt and and and say that we endorse um these goals, these objectives, these strategies, and these tactics that then that should influence the way that we ultimately perceive, discuss, and adopt policy. Yes, I
108I think that's well said. My purpose for the timeline and my answer to your question earlier about why I want to make sure we get this done tonight is just not done. >> Yeah. Started >> continue is I'd love for us to have a final plan adopted in time to influence the budget process because that's another place where it really should show up is the decisions that you make regarding. >> Yeah. If this is our roadmap then all things should be should go through and in alignment with >> so any other feedback certainly many more opportunities >> I love the mission and vision something very short and simple I mean >> yeah I like the core values I think is important for the board to participate in everybody build the same vision mission >> [clears
109throat] >> Well, I'm excited for this. Even if my like monotone and and focus on socialization don't don't suggest it. This is what an excited James looks like. And so to that end, uh, thank you so much. I I know it's hard to believe, but I, you know, furious and delighted James look much the same and and sound much the same. I appreciate that. This it's been it's been a lot of work, but it's been a lot of fun getting to this point and I look forward to the rest of really great development on our leadership team. Um I guess a point of order here is you know if ultimately you want to do a um a retreat or what have you or a special meeting whether it's public or closed amongst board members then
110we should farm for dates and decide what what month you want to place it in and then see if we can't gain consensus about having five people at the table. >> You all know how I feel about that. >> What's your ideal timeline? I honestly as soon as you all feel like you can get together, I will make a priority. >> Yeah, I I think the sequencing is important. So like I don't think sitting down to to do this until we've seen kind of the subtext makes any sense to me. I don't feel like sufficiently informed to like render any kind of judgment. So >> be a great place for you to go through us to talk about it. Uh I mean realistically I think we could do it that would be But anytime before
111December would give you an opportunity to be just amongst yourselves before you. >> All right, let's take an AI to figure out calendars and go from there. [clears throat] >> Uh board members, anything you want to offer further before we move on to the mascul? Yeah, you laugh, but you know there we went from from two budgets to three budgets overnight. And so, um, hooray for the fact that the budget cycle never end. And with all due respect to our board of supervisors who graciously and generously backed our our budget cycle. It's not a um a critique on them or the process. It's just the fact that it runs 12 months a year. All righty. Uh, the floor is yours. >> So, we start off with this year 23. We've almost finished closing things out.
112We still have a few encumbrances in another batch of checks today. It's anticipated in the next month that the conference fund will have gone down either with um moving some items that we did not receive and also paying out some things that that have since been processed. I think at this point we've gotten all the utility bills and um and fuel bills. And so we're those are currently operating fisc year 24. Um, real quick, I want to just remind you that that operations number is is where it is because there's $2 million of carryover there between the school construction grant and the HBAC grant where those projects weren't completed. And so that money will then um be carried over to next year and M Doll and I already talked about that and we'll work with
113the auditors on how to go about reporting that in our lines um for the coming year. We're still working on um federal grant reimbursements. We had quite a few of those to go in um in the last week. Um sometimes it's challenging because they're not always um processed at the Department of Education as quickly as we're submitting them. So, there's a lot of um back and forth with those, but over the next couple of weeks, those should resolve themselves. And we should have one more month of sales tax that's not included here. That will probably run around $500,000. Do you have any questions about 2030? >> Do the current numbers are they updated for any of the um purchases that we noted approval for as it relates to vehicles as it relates [clears throat] to
114moving money to um the insurance pool etc. >> Yeah. So, all of this is accounted for and then your crystal ball doesn't go live until another 30 or 60 days from now in terms of estimating what the um leftover funds would be that we'd be returning to the county. >> At this point, I'm thinking it's going to be around a million. >> Um but I'm still looking at a couple things that um on the revenue side that we're still up in the air, but I'll definitely have a better picture of that in September. >> Great. And um I imagine that carryover requests are usually done in I think it's November. Is it October? November. >> Yes. >> And so members and administration having items or ideas about if we were to ask the county for
115some of those funds to be um returned to the school for use, what those rank order priorities might be. Yes, we would definitely want to talk about that and firm that up and not for sure. >> Got you. So, um maybe preliminary ideas or conversations in September and then um an effort to if we're going to make a motion as a um pretty please and thank you. Uh that would happen in October. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Well, I'm sure you'll be glad to put one of these behind you. [laughter] I had this when they brought me the checks today. I said, "Is this the last of 23?" And she said, "Not please. I'm tired of 23." Um, but we're we're almost there. So, 24 um pro at we we're still um we're in the
116process of working on payroll for um this month. Um payday is the the 20th. I think it's actually the 18th because that falls on the weekend. But um we're in the process of processing that payroll which will include all of our employees. The only payroll we process today is our um true July payroll which encompasses our 12 month employees only. Um I want to point out because you know kind of I had to do a little bit of a double take in terms of the expenditures out of technology already. It's really because all of our licenses for things come due in July. So immediately we're processing all of the licenses. So anything related to power school or any of the other products that we use both all come due at the same time. Um we've
117also paid our um insurance um for school or workers comp insurance. All of those things have been processed as well because we have we basically in when we're in the previous fiscal year we're keeping a folder of July one things that have to be done and so those are done almost immediately. So you do see a lot of those expenditures come through. Um and we've started re receiving state revenue but federal revenue will be um delayed. We don't actually receive all of our federal funds until October. Um there will be some supplemental appropriations. Um some of the revenue related to federal funds that's different than what was budgeted. So we'll be doing some of those um supplemental appropriations. I also have one that went to the county today for the school security officer grant because
118we have to fund those positions through our budget and that was not budgeted for. Um so we have um the grant funds will pay for the salaries but not the fringe benefits. So we send that to the county for a request. So it's about $28,000 on the local side to fund the school security officers. >> Right. And do you need action from us to readt that given it's a new number. >> We I bring that back to you when um and when I have the supplemental and and show you in the categorical where that is. >> Um but you've given the superintendent the authority to approve categorical changes so it becomes more of a information. >> Perfect. Just want to make sure if you needed action on it that was on the agenda. I also,
119which isn't captured here, but I also did a supplemental preparation for cafeteria um because the funding there was not sufficient to cover their budget and they're they're getting additional federal revenue from the um from the pre- reduced lunch program and so there were some changes with that budget and so I've done a supplemental appropriation for that as well, but that is an enterprise fund and not one that requires local funding support. >> Right? So that's a break even in budget line. So that's not >> Okay. >> Um trying to think if there's anything else about we did and I should have brought it with me but I did not tonight but we do have a pretty favorable um rate for um gas and diesel at this point and propane. So we have locks on all
120of those. So I'm hoping that that stays intact. >> I bet that improves your sleep by an hour a night. >> Yes, absolutely. and we shouldn't see a rise in utility because of the solar. So those two pieces um do help in that way. Um I still don't have a state budget. Um >> don't look at me. I don't have it. >> That would be nice. Um with 50% of our revenue being from the state, it would be nice to know what that dollar figure will be. Um, related to that, we have some other grants that we sometimes get or we always get from the state for industry credentials for CT equipment. There's four or five different grant pots that we get that are state. And the other day I was like, I haven't gotten
121anything telling me how much those are going to be. And then I was like, you think that mean you don't have a state budget, so they're not send. So I'm, you know, when someone asks me about things related to this budget, it's very challenging. I just don't have yet. Um, but any day now, that's my hope. Um, but we I I think Dr. Gretzen asked way the other day. Neither of us have heard anything with any indication as to when something might be resolved. I mean, not to be hyperbolic here, but is there a deadline at which not having a state budget and therefore not getting sufficient revenue means that we're drawing on a dwindling bank account? >> Well, they're still sending us money. I mean, they they've already sent us 1.6 1.7 million. So,
122I >> mean, you remember one of the considerations in one of the proposals. So one of the things they're talking through is how much if at all support increasing funding for the SOQs because [clears throat] that I mean that's so significant there's as frustrating as it is to not have something that potentially might some of that money that really should be >> No, I'm not making light of it. I'm not making light of it because there's real there's real upside here, right? Like >> the upside is that should the legislature and the governor get together and decide to remove the support cap, it would mean real, you know, potential millions of dollars to Fluana. That's fabulous and great. We want that, but also the public deserves predictability as to the how much the state is
123ultimately going to fund the public school system. So, uh, maybe it's just may maybe it's too much for me to ask an individual or us as a community, but like this is another yes and where we we should have a a baseline budget and know that revenue is coming and that it's predictable and guaranteed while they sort out what they want to do with record windfalls from um, yeah, from from taxes. So, and it's just a little frustrating to be literally writing writing checks and not knowing to what end the state is going to back us financially. >> Well, we've our budget is based on the worst case scenario. >> Yeah. >> So, we're we're in a conservative position in that regard. Um, but it would be much easier for me to do this if
124I knew what we were going to get. And and also related to that is when they do actually pass something, there's potential that they add pieces in that we are required to do that we don't even know about yet. Like the literacy act, we don't have we don't know what that's going to finally look like when it's done. >> Do we have a is there any light at the end of the tunnel? Have we been called back? I I haven't been following state. Have we been called back into session? Do we know the when the other shoe will drop? They've been told that they call back >> only the governor can call them back. >> Um >> I'll use my backbone. See if that goes back. >> This is since I've been in this role.
125This is the longest I've gone for sure. I've done I've done this sometimes with the federal monies, but that's different because it's such a smaller percentage of the budget. But, um, this is definitely the longest I've gone state dollars. Um, >> sorry, I'm sure I took a detour, but an important one in some ways. Any other questions regarding >> Oh, sorry. I I do. So, like we're getting $1.7 million from the state. Do you have any sense how that number was ultimately derived? >> I'm assuming that they're pulling it from the governor's budget. Just looking at what I had as a revenue projection and what's coming in. >> Got you. So, they took the governor and prorated it. >> Yeah. see the sales tax governor school money and the project return money those different pieces
126we there's um when you look at a revenue report we probably have like I don't know 30 to 40 lines that they fund the state and those those funds are coming in but where the gaps are like those mini grants and things like that and sometimes it's just hard to tell um they'll they might fund something up front and then less as the year goes on and they with other things they don't fun them until later in the year. So it's always a little bit of a game where I'm looking at that. Um the other thing I was going to talk about was enrollment. Um so we we have been advertising for a kindergarten teacher because our kindergarten enrollment is at 240 I think somewhere around there. 239 240. >> This is by far the
127biggest kindergarten class we've had >> in a while. We've had classes that large. We do have other classes that are that size. >> Um, so we have 12 teachers currently and we're looking to see if we can secure a 13th teacher. We do feel comfortable that those class sizes would still be around 19 to 20. And we do have support in there through instructional assistance, but our preference would be that we lower those a little bit, but it's just going to depend on whether we can get another teacher. >> Yeah. And the physical space, we can move things around enough to fit the physical space. It's not ideal, but we do have a plan for the physical space to make it happen if we need to. >> If we had another class of 240 kindergarteners
128next year, >> how many trailers do we need at the elementary school? I don't mean to be so blunt, but we have physical buildings. We have grade levels that are carved out into it. I >> still have some space that we could reallocate the way it's being used currently. um that so I don't think we immediately jump to trailers, but it's certainly a concern that we would that we need to start thinking in that direction. Um and one of the things that that we know is is our cohorts tend to stay relatively constant over time other than than co years or >> so students come in and out but generally the class size that you start with is the class size that you end with. >> Generally we retain that number of students. We have
129different places where we might bump up like fifth grade, eighth grade, those kind of places we do see some bumps. Um, so it's just, you know, certainly something that I do think the county that we need to work with the county with sooner rather than later is is space and pro projected growth based on development. I said this is 240ish 235 I think I heard earlier today before Colonial Circle and before whatever developments that I'm not aware of going >> yes >> that being said if we had over 260 graduates then 240 kindergarten then we ought to have excess room for them if they're moving forward moving on through the schools That makes sense to me mathematically. I mean, but you telling the story, huh? [clears throat] >> Well, we have we have 12 classrooms
130at first grade and second grade right now. >> We're looking at 13 and kindergarten. So, the concern is if that next class is the same size and they're all at central, how would you accommodate that? I mean, >> and that's something that we definitely need need to be thinking about with the high school and the middle school space is less of an issue because of the way they're structured and the planning periods and you can be shared space. Um, at elementary it's just more of a challenge because those schedules. And where were the so if we had 260 in our senior class where where were they for kindergarten physical building? Would you venture to guess? She wasn't here 12 years ago, were you? >> Well, I I think I I think the collective knowledge in
131this room can probably deduce which which buildings they're >> believe that those kids probably they would have probably been in Cunningham and Columbia. I'm Johnson because we were both at Cunningham together, right? Um >> right. So I I think my point is >> those kids that were at Cunningham and Columbia because I I left there and there was probably about five or six years after that. >> Right. I I think my point is with all due respect, the configurations of the buildings weren't the same and it's not my story to tell. The population is is growing [clears throat] and we need to figure out how we can put students in what building. So, I don't have an agenda here. I'm hearing bigger class sizes and I've heard based on my history here that uh we
132had a good number of trailers in our community in past years. And regardless of whether or not I'm on this board in the future, this is a not a uh not a fire alarm as it relates to um buildings because fundamentally we're just too late to accommodate our existing growth, but like if we don't start thinking about it, the the we will have plenty of trailers in this in this county. And so it's just an articulation that 240 is a huge number for a kindergarten class. And if the next one is 240 >> and part of what needs to happen is we need to be looking at birth rates, but then also I I just be honest with you, I'm not totally up on every development that's planned in the county either. And so that's
133part of where the two things have to come together and and we have to take a look at that and it's going to depend on the the size of the homes. Are they starter homes versus larger homes that might have teenagers in them? That makes a difference. So, >> yeah. How many units in Colonial? Like 400 or something? >> I do not know that. >> Yeah, it's a big one. >> Um, but certainly something that that needs to be looked at and planned. Um, was there anything else you can take over 24? >> No. Oh, my last question was if the county sorry if the state continues to give us the 1.7 million or something on a monthly basis as revenue, do the coffers run dry at all or are we set to handle all
134of our um so the state's giving us based on the governor's budget etc some clip of money on a monthly basis until they figure out what the budget actually is. And my question is, is there a projected date at which we will have cash flow issues or are we good to go based on their monthly contribution? >> Our revenue projections based on the worst case scenario. >> And so we're good to go until they figure this out. So >> provided our enrollment holds up the projection, which was 3,330, I think. And um do we we may not even have an official headcount from today yet in our >> we have a count but that first day counts is is hard to look at >> like it's it's noisy and then settles by March when we
135>> right I'll feel better about we we call it a 10day count usually day 10 that we feel good about that's probably where we're going to land. >> Do you know what can what was the count today Miss Gillum? Do you know? >> Uh, yeah. >> I got one, but it it has mistakes in it. >> That's next month. >> The one with the mistakes. >> Yeah, >> you did. >> I mean, 6,000. That is a mistake. That's a That's a big mistake. >> We got two different numbers from the high school. >> Yeah, that's fine. This isn't going to mean >> I have an estimate. >> I would even say it's an estimate, but 3186. >> That's low, >> but that's wrong. >> It's half day. So only half of our prek and half
136of our K come on the first day. >> Yeah. >> So tomorrow we'll have double that in K and prek >> should they all show. >> So theoretically at least another 120. >> Yes. and and until Friday, we really won't have all the students because of that. So, Friday will be the first meeting will be our first. >> So, by the time we get here back to the table next month, um we'll have a pretty good idea of where we're at in terms of ADM. But what I'm hearing in terms of what [clears throat] even the loose count we got today and the fact that we have half the kindergarten out doesn't make me doesn't make me anxious or nervous at all as it relates to hitting our ADM. >> No, I think Yeah. >>
137[clears throat] >> if if not we'll be within a few students. >> The other thing that sometimes happen is because we start before Labor Day. If a family moves in new, they may or may not >> be aware of that. So sometimes we pick up people after Labor Day, but sometimes we often lose students after Labor Day because they can't come here for two weeks and then [laughter] go to their new home. Um, so we we see that occasionally, but so like after Labor Day when we have that count, then that's when I feel confident that that's where we are. But I think you are correct and that at least need you at least need to be looking at the numbers and and projecting forward. Thank you for that. And I know that people are
138hard at work on this. I, you know, I've had conversations with you both about growth and building space. And, you know, I I've seen how packed some of these buildings can be and I just want to make sure that we're looking forward in terms of how we we can juggle grade levels andor buildings to accommodate everybody. >> Okay. This the first month we have three in here. So this is fiscal year 25. The board of supervisors is looking at their budget calendar. So I have their tenative dates in this one. And then I've also have a couple of tenative work sessions in here um that we would like for you to to consider adding um dates [clears throat] together. >> Um hopefully by the time we meet in October, we have a state budget for
139this year. [clears throat] That would be nice. >> So, um I'm gonna point this out now, but this is for a future board. >> The next board should theoretically consider whether or not they want to be available for the board of supervisors meetings. We're currently booked on Wednesdays and during budget season. It happens almost every Wednesday that there is a meeting either here or at the supervisors and far too frequently both. That's why um we had to rejugle our schedule this year. And so to the extent that we don't want to rejugle it on the fly and to the extent that board members are interested in attending and advocating for the budget that they ultimately will pass and ask for, we can't be double booked. And so, you know, obviously I'm I'm hopeful and optimistic
140on the we part. And so to that end, whomever sits here in January should be adopting a schedule that accommodates those considerations. >> Sure. >> Um I will say we we we will need to start in October so that we know what kinds of things we're pulling together. Um, and then what I typically do is if we have new members of the board, make myself available to answer questions and go over budget pieces with them so that when they do come on board in January that they kind of have those um that background knowledge. Um, because you guys know that once we hit January, things move very quickly. Um and we should have information from the governor's office in December about what um at least he's recommending us some indication in terms of salaries and
141that piece of it >> or you could have a budget calendar like this year where it's all in the wind. So, and I'll note that like one of the things about this last budget cycle, including the like remarkable generosity that we got from the county is the fact that we had community involvement and that um frequently at least three board members or three board members were at those meetings to advocate for the um for our budget. And I'm no wizard, witch, or what have you, but I'm pretty confident had our community not turned out to support it and had our board members not come to advocate, we would not be in the position where we are. Like, as much as the county has competing priorities, if our board members were not there, we're not going
142to get the funding that we asked for just because there are so many competing priorities. And so, um, just, uh, we'd be remiss not to have our butts in those seats and not to be there and make ourselves available to the board of supervisors. So, optimistic on all the >> So, when we come back in September, you guys can settle on a seminar date in October, that would be great. >> Thank you, M. Thank you so much. Hopefully we'll knock one of those off your list pretty soon. [laughter] >> All right, so we're on the 10A unfinished business. Uh do any board members have unfinished business for this evening? >> No concern. Um it is hopefully really early um to ask this question, but nonetheless, as we get further into school and inevitably have behavioral
143andor other symptoms shown in the buildings, I would still like to find a way to communicate and to like have a good sense or pulse on what it is that we're seeing in the building. I'm optimistic that um between all of our between a summer off, the heat breaking, the uh having additional resources, having as many counselors as we do, as well as our new mental health coordinator, that our students will feel safe and calm and delighted to be in our buildings. But in the event that we um have behavioral issues, I would love this board to be able to have some kind of mechanism to understand so that we can figure out during budget cycle what it is we need to help alleviate that. And so I'll just reiterate that to the extent that
144we can have some kind of broadstrokes incident andor behavioral report because we only see the cases that get to 10 plus days like that's not a secret. we we see significant cases, but we don't see es and flows as it relates to insubordination or cell phone or dress code things. And so if there are issues that are bubbling to the top, having a way for us to better understand and and have have a feeler for that would be super useful. >> So that would be up to each principal, right? Uh so so the ask is to the superintendent who's ultimately their bosses. And so to the extent that Dr. Gretz was inclined to gather something then he could easily um ask them to do so. [clears throat] Maybe it's not easy but he certainly it's
145in his purview. >> Yeah. >> Wouldn't be easy. I I think what we would probably do is really hone in on exactly what kind of data you wanted to see and how you wanted to see it and then we would find a way hopefully pull it out of our school. I don't think it would be an individual school thing but again it depends on what you want to see and how you want to codify what kind of language. >> Yeah. I mean, I'm I'm feeling remarkably different and so like the the answer here is just like if it's if so a a good one is is physical or verbal altercation. Another one might be bullying. These are like categories that I imagine exist in power school. So whatever level of coding is sufficiently broad to
146be meaningful but detailed enough to be like um actionable that's kind of like the level of analysis such that like I don't know if we're seeing a bunch of a bunch of fights for instance and I don't want this in our schools. I don't think it's going to happen. But if let's assume that we had a bunch of fights all of a sudden like and they're not 10 plus day suspensions, we probably want to know that there were a bunch of fights and then a policy prescription that would come from that would be like okay do we need do we need more people in the hallways? Like do we want to self-fund another SSO next year? Like there are obvious like here's a symptom here are some possible ways that we can deal with it.
147And each of them whether it's policy or practice has budget implications. So I guess my argument is like can like help us help you guys too in terms of like making these things part of our priorities. So, >> all right. Uh, new business. Then on to action items. Uh, so we have approval of the 2024 CIP update. I don't have a calendar for the C for all of the I don't personally think I have a document that has all the dates of uh future CIP committee meetings or planning commission meetings where they'll be addressing these particular issues. to the extent that we can have a guide much like our budget schedule so that if board members are inclined to come out and advocate. There's a lot of stuff on here that are critically important including
148um the bathrooms that we went through this morning together. Um Dr. Stribbling was kind enough to pull me through a couple of them and to to show me those. So, if we wanted to advocate as board members to make sure that these things get higher up on the priority list um for the CIP, then um having a a road map or calendar could be useful. Um I guess for tonight we just need an action item in order to approve the plan as presented if anybody is so inclined. Well, this is uh, you know, a good start. It's pretty much like it used to be. At Christmas time, we get a book in the mail. Um, but they don't even send cataloges anymore. This a wish list, you know, not necessarily that everything will be funded,
149but that's where we have to start at, but I I'll make a motion we approve the capital improvement plan that's presented. >> Excellent. >> Do we have a second? I'll second. Uh any discussion? Uh actually I I know Don or Dr. Shling's not here. Do we generally provide a rank order andor does Dr. Stling provide a rank order priority? And do you need any of that from us? >> I honestly will have to defer to him. It's a it's a committee based process. Mr. House might be able to answer involvement there. I don't even, you know, know the schedule of our committee meetings um because Don usually just sends it to me. But, uh, typically, you know, it'd be ones that are >> that are necessary like the bathroom remodel, you know, was more necessary
150than maybe the track resurfacing and stuff like that. Uh, that's all I would I would know on that. the school generator thing. Well, that's to be determined, >> which doesn't really affect you unless we lose power >> like we have here before >> for what it's worth. But what I'm accustomed to, and that's not not saying that because that's what we had to have. I'm just my experience with this is >> that there would be a community-based process once it leaves the school board. and all the different agencies that submit one of these would go through a process and that they would bring forward those. Typically there would be representatives of the schools either from the facilities committee or the CIP committee superintendent that would come to that and make a case if you will
151or answer questions about those and then that will present to the county a prioritized list. I don't know yet, and I'm not suggesting there isn't one. I just don't know yet what kind of what that looks like in Florida. I don't know what that process is of the county deciding based on what the school board approves or the sheriff or whatever, what process they use to call down the list of of funded projects. >> Yeah. >> Don't know what >> I've been less involved in the past mostly because Mr. in house is our CIP committee chair uh or committee representative and so uh >> I've never asked >> for sure and I'm sure Dr. J here he'd have an answer and that's totally fine too uh but I'm uh excited to add yet another thing
152to my calendar so that I can advocate accordingly. Uh any other discussion? All those in favor of approving the capital improvement plan um 25 to 29 uh please say I >> I [clears throat] is uh Mr. Pollins still >> not in the moment. Okay. 40 uh one absent we have um a CIP uh update for 2024. We're now on to approval of policy BDD. That's bravo delta delta hyphen Romeo Lima which is the electronic participation in board meetings from remote locations. You know this is on here. This may very well have been the one that we were potentially disincined to to take up in the first place and so if there's not a motion I suppose it would it would just die as it currently exists. >> Can I offer you just a couple of
153comments? I think there was a there was a regulation attached to this that was specific to participation in committee meetings >> and that I believe is what we're not interested in. This is the policy. The only changes here if you go to the very end Mr. Gford would be the addition of that optional uh policy which you see that at the very bottom. Yeah. That's the one >> and that's not included. The other is just uh >> updating a policy name >> and it's really just updating the the the title. You already have that policy. You already have BDBA. >> All right. I I think I can swing this one. >> School board. I don't think there's supposed to be changes here. >> Okay. How about I make a motion that we adopt policy BDDRL
154with the removal complete removal of reference to policy Bravo Delta Delta Lima BDBL as it is optional and this board has not adopted it. >> Is there a second? >> Does that work? >> It does. Yeah, >> that that works based on my perception of where the board was with that last time. >> So, I've offered a motion from the chair. Do we have a second? >> Definitely, I'll second. >> Okay. Further discussion as it relates to adopting this policy with the strike through on committee. Uh for those at home and or following along, the issue is that it would restrict board members from and others from hopping on remotely to do committee work. Committee work ultimately frequently happens in evenings, sometimes on weekends as necessary, I suppose, and by people who otherwise may not
155be able to participate if it were in physical space. Hence our sort of like objection to the optional policy as it provides unnecessary barriers to collaboration. Um, I hope that does justice. Uh, any discussion on the motion as it exists? All right. All those in favor of the adoption as amended, please say I. >> I. >> That's 4 with one absent. Uh the policy B DDL hyphen RL is adopted. All right, we are on to our second round of public comments. So, this is the point in the evening where I invite members of our community to come forth and be heard. We ask that you step to the podium, provide your name and address. Uh do not direct comments to any particular board member, treat one another with respect, and limit your time to three
156minutes. Is there anyone who'd like to come forth and be heard? Good evening. I'm Gary Davis. I live at 147 Justin Drive, um, Palm, Virginia, and I'm in the Fort Union District. Um, I'd like to commend Dr. Gretz on his great presentation on uh the the model policies earlier tonight and what I got from it. It's like you're your best interest is for the students safety mentally and physically and I I want to thank you for that and I'm sorry for directing it to him but I just deserve he I felt like he deserve be commended on that. Um the school board members brought up earlier about the carryover items um that you could be discussing with board of supervisors later this year and talk about the priority list and you brought it in another
157conversation. Just want to remind like Central's bathroom renovation is is a huge one that I think should be prioritized and then um uh Mr. Writtenhouse brought up the the generators as well. Um I know several staff members have talked to me about the generators at um the other schools for the freezers and coolers and it's a food waste and food safety um issue. Um, one last thing is there there was a recent supply drive um that had ended and if there's any parents that need any school supplies, please reach out to me. Um, we'll get you some school supplies for your for your students. Um, it's also continuing in the in Charlottville locations at Picasso Swig and the Applebees and Pantops. So, if you want to continue to donate supplies, um that's running till this
158Sunday and those those supplies will get to our students and um several parents have reached out and continue to reach out and we'll help you get our fluos supply. Thank you. >> Would anyone else like to come forth and be heard? >> Hi, Jennifer Elliot. still look at the same address from earlier as far as I know. [laughter] Um [clears throat] I just wanted to say that um I appreciate that um there is some precience with board members and thinking about the growth of our population of students um parents and other community members. I think it is also important to anticipate an increase in diversity and prepare and support our teachers um as they um welcome those students and it is is wonderful to hear that county has been fully accredited for so long. Um
159but I do encourage everyone especially since I have two children in the division um to never rest on your laurels and to always look for areas of improvement and support. I um am very happy to see the strategic plan. I really hope there is a strong link link between the division components of that and the admin components. I think that um there's just been a lot of inconsistency uh core communication or planning um at the admin level and that's not to malign anyone. It's just to say that maybe those folks could use some more support in those areas and just to recognize and I hope everyone recognizes that students have to be the absolute focus and I am definitely a teacher advocate. Um, and generally whatever we can do to support our teachers translates into
160supporting our students. Um and just to to make sure that they are at the focus and um also things like supplies for the teachers. It is true or at least it was [laughter] when I was here about the color ink, but teachers do get um money to get supplies for classrooms. Um and honestly, this is the only division I've ever worked in that did that. Um and I was very strategic about what I bought. And boy, whoever got in my classroom after I left, they pretty much had a whole staple store in there. Um, and so I think it's important for the community to know that the teachers aren't completely left hanging with no money. Is it ever enough? No, it will never be enough. Um, but as long as we keep the students the
161the main priority and focus and as long as that's the why for the teacher, it should be if you can tell them how it translates into supporting their students, they are 100% will do it. >> Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to come forth and be heard? Hearing none, I'm going to go and close the second round of public comments. We are now on to schoolboard member comments. Are there any school board members who would like to address the public? Uh, I'll say that I spent uh this morning until we might have left the high school at 1:30 or two, I don't remember, but from 7:30 until about 2 in all five buildings today. I was really inspired by the energy and excitement both from the from the students and then how
162just honestly welcoming and warm the classrooms felt. Uh it is uh it's [clears throat] tricky being in on on first days because you don't want to you don't want to get in the way. You don't want to distract. You don't want to keep teachers and and students from having the the authentic experience that they deserve, but you also want them to know um that the administration and the board cares about what they're doing, believes in their mission, and are there to support them. And so threading that needle is both delicate and necessary. Um, I'll note that uh it was remarkable to see um what Dr. Mat and team have going over at Abrams. It's a place I'm I'm fascinated by and want to spend a lot more time in. It's my understanding that we have
163record numbers in that building as well, whereas we would traditionally start with something like eight students in Abrams. I believe that we're somewhere in the 25 range, which is substantial growth. um and a lot of which comes from sped. And so that's, you know, as I think about um putting students first, you know, I think a lot about um uh the diversity of students that we have and the services that they ultimately need and deserve and the ways that we can support them. So, I suspect that you will hear considerably more from me as both prep evolves and as I think more about ways that we can better support um the the students and the like rather bifurcated role that that Abrams place uh the other schools uh obviously were were remarkably lovely and I'm
164excited to get back in them. But I will be honest with you that I like to uh make sure that I attend all the early events with new teacher orientation and convocation and first days and open houses on years that I don't am not double booked but that I like to take a bit of a respit uh in between that and about week two or three so that uh everybody has time to take a breath settle in and uh get back to business before um sport coats come knocking on doors. So to that end, probably not as much of an update in in September, but um fabulously excited to have our students back and for all of those millions of moments where where teachers get to intentionally or not uh in that very moment uh
165change students lives. And so it was really remarkably inspiring and so I'm thankful for um how welcoming each building, every building was and all the teachers I spoke to today. Uh, [clears throat] Andre, did you want to pitch uh or talk about what's going on on Friday? >> Yeah, Friday, I guess the last, well, not the last drive at Walmart Friday and Saturday to fill the bus. If anybody has some spare time, look forward to some volunteers out there. And also, I just like to thank the community for all the supply drives I see off. Hopefully no student or teacher will be without supplies to share oral events. >> Oh, I did fail to mention the uh Rotary organization. I've shared this elsewhere on other platforms, but the the Rotary Club of which I'm an
166uh semi-active member. I'll be honest that I I don't have as much time as I used to. I too many hats, so it's why I'm so bald. But uh on last Thursday, the Rotary Club and their foundation um uh got together and um helped purchase shoes for students who qualify for free and reduced lunch happens at Walmart. Every year a lot of families come in and get fitted and we purchase those shoes. Um and uh the all all the elementary schools are involved and counselors are there and those who don't ultimately attend the shoes are purchased anyway and shipped back as as it relates to sizing and color preferences and all that. And so it makes me proud to be a flu bannon. It makes me proud to be a Rotarian. It makes me proud
167to call call Cliff and others friends. And it's something that I'm passionate about and that I believe um that I believe in. I'm excited for the next um drive which is actually um Operation Warm where a lot of people don't know this, but we also purchase uh coats for students uh before winter so that ultimately none of our students show up to schools underdressed. I love these programs and I'm inspired by them, but I also frequently take a beat and think about what happens as students grow, shoes run out or wear out and um you know by by spring students are are less well equipped with footwear. And so it's something I'll be thinking a little bit about about how do we find how do we find some a little more wraparound above and beyond
168just those two programs whether it comes from Rotary or other organizations. Um I am continually shocked by just how much need there is in our county and I'm thankful to those who try to fill it between drives for school supplies or chew and coat programs etc. I uh yeah it makes me it makes me proud to live here and proud to participate in these sorts of things. So uh overwhelmed this evening apparently. Uh anything else? If not there areformational items in your packet and I will entertain a motion to adjourn. >> I'll make a motion we adjourn. >> Second. >> All in favor please say I. >> I. >> We are done. Thank you so