NCPS - Regular School Board Meeting - October 9, 2025

001[Music] [Applause] [Music] down. Hey Heat. [Music] [Applause] Hey, Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] So if I'd like to call the regular monthly school board meeting of our to order, please. And we're going to stand and do the pledge of allegiance. Now here we have a volunteer with No. Go ahead. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> So, good evening. We've had an opportunity to look at the agenda. If all looks well and we do not need to make any revisions, can I get a motion to approve the agenda as presented? I move we approve the agenda as presented. >> Second. All in favor? >> I. >> The agenda is approved. >> So,

002the first thing up tonight are are the recognitions and presentations, the one Nelson awards. So, I'm going to get Dr. Hester to come up and do her thing for us, please. >> Let me click on the right thing here. All right. So, we actually have quite a few things going on this evening. U for those of you who are new to us, and I see some new faces here in the crowd. R1 Nelson awards uh basically recognize those individuals who understand that it takes all of us to be a part of the success of our students and that means community members, students, classified staff, certified staff, it takes everybody. And so we really like to recognize and what's so meaningful about you can come on in. What's so meaningful about this is it's nominated from

003all different sources. And so I encourage um those of you who are sitting here and those of you who are watching on the streaming this evening, check out our Facebook page, our website pages. That's an excellent way to nominate students, community members, um our our certified and our classified staff. And those nominations can come from anybody. It doesn't have to come from just our employees. And I think that's what makes it so much fun is because we really get to see a diverse uh voice and perspective of what makes um someone um a great candidate for the one Nelson Award. So, we have four categories. I've talked about that. Students, community, classified, and certified. So, the first one I always like to do is our student um our student winner. So, I'm going to call

004Dakota Allen Vireer up if you don't mind. So, I'm going to come over on this side because this is the side mom is on. You come here. You keep coming. Oh, no. Okay. All right. Dakota. I'm going to read it so you can read along. You don't have to read out loud along, but I'm going to read it and mama's going to sit there and be proud and take a video and then we're going to take some pictures. Okay. All right. So Dakota Vyer is recognized for always going above and beyond to help his classmates and his friends. Dakota's teacher, Mrs. Brown, states that he shows remarkable kindness and support to others. He is always willing to lend a helping hand, put others first, and keep our earth clean. His willingness to help in class

005fosters a positive classroom environment where everyone feels cared for and valued, which is awesome considering we're in October and October is kindness month, right? That's awesome. So, we want to say congratulations to you, buddy. Thank you so much for all that you do to make it a better place um for the other students, your teachers, the community, and the family. So, thank you so much. I'm going to shake your hand. All right. We're going to take a quick picture with We'll go with mom real quick, and then we'll get you. Okay. Okay. We're good. We got this nice lady here. Why don't you scoot right over here? Okay. We're gonna have this nice lady take your picture. It's not in front of your face, is it? Okay. Hold on one second. And you also get

006this mug that has one Nelson on it. You can put your hot chocolate in it as we get into the cooler seasons. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. Okay, the the next two he was not able to make it. Okay, that's right. So, I'm going to call Mr. Rob Mansfield up. Will you come up and join me up here? [Applause] Yep. So, I want to say congratulations. Uh, Mr. Mansfield and Mr. Cash were nominated because if you go to pretty much any of our athletic events, you're going to see these two gentlemen, especially this gentleman, at a lot of different things, really going above and beyond to try to um serve our students in the best capacity. Um, and so I'm going to go ahead and read uh the uh nomination request. So,

007Mr. Rob Mansfield has volunteered as an FCA sponsor for years serving Rockfish River Elementary School, Nelson Middle School, and Nelson High School. He has been an integral part of the rebirth of the Green and Gold Athletic Booster Club. He volunteers his time by setting up for athletic events, working concessions, providing pregame meals to teams, helping hydrate the teams during games, and cleaning up after the event. The list goes on and on with the amount of time he spends serving our youth and coaches. So, we want to say congratulations and thank you so much for u everything that you do for for our students, our student athletes, our schools, our families, our community, and just everything in general. So, we want to say thank you. Your effort and commitment and service to us does not go

008unnoticed. So, we we thank you very much. >> Appreciate it. >> Yes. So, congratulations. I'm going to shake your hand. We're going to look at this nice lady right here. And she's here. Take a step a little bit closer. >> All right. Can Let me get you your mug. I'm so sorry I was not There you go. >> Thank you. And so, okay, this this may take a little bit of time because um October 2nd was National Custodian Day. And that is where um across the United States, we take some time to say thank you to all of our custodians who are are champions of our students and our schools. And that is a theme that we have throughout uh this year is really recognizing all of our individuals as being the champions of Nelson.

009And uh I just want to say thank you very much that oops not only were they recognized on October 2nd on the national uh recognizes but we wanted to say across the board that for our classified staff for October that you guys are our one Nelson award winners. And so we actually many of our our uh custodians are actually still working right now. So they're not able to make it. Some of them had some earlier shifts and were not able to make it. But we do have, I believe, two gentlemen, right? I'm not missing a Oh, yes. Oh my gosh. Yes. I was right in front of me. Um, three individuals who are able to make it. So, um, I'm going to, uh, um, call you individuals up here. Um, and, um, of course, obviously,

010uh, as all good things go to plan, um, in order of those individuals who are able to be here. So, um, if you give me one second, David Lane, if you will come up here. I know you're the you're the guinea pig. Um so I'm just gonna keep not like that. Um but um the people who stand up here have to um sing their alma mater and then in interpretive dance um while I'm looking for this. So by all means go. No, I'm kidding. I was not expecting you to take me up on that offer, so I immediately regret that comment. Um, yes. Now that I recognize someone who's going to welcome that, um, Christina. Yes. Okay. Give me one second. I'm going to get you. Um, >> me and Dave, we put on the

011show. >> Yeah, exactly. My word. My word. I picked the wrong guy to bring up here first, didn't I? >> No, I'm kidding. I picked the right guy. >> I put this right there. Okay. David Lane. All right. So, um what this says and it it does say um something similar on everybody's um certificate, but we wanted to just un have you understand the heartfelt gratitude that we have for the work that you guys do. And in honor of National Custodians Day on October 2nd, 2025, we proudly recognize our NCPS custodians, the quiet champions who work behind the scenes every single day to make sure our schools are clean, safe, and welcoming for all students, staff, and families. Custodians are more than just the keepers of our buildings. They are the caretakers of our learning

012environments, role models for our students, and valued members of our NCPS family. Your hard work each day makes a lasting difference in our schools. So, thank you for all that you do. So, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Yep. So, we're going to You can't escape this. >> We're going to slide on over here. Yep. Yep. All right. All right, here you go. And I will get you your mugs at a safe time. I knew 20 of them was not going to work out. >> Even I can recognize that that would be a little difficult. The next recipient is um Miss Christina Nyla or Nila? >> Nila. Okay. Christina and Nila. And Miss Christina is new to us and so we're so excited u for you to join our family. And just like with Mr.

013Lane, we just want to say thank you so much. I know you um were very I know going through the process very very excited um to be able to be a part of this and we're so grateful uh for you to join the Rockfish River um community and our family and um to be able to to be able to continue to support our students and serve as a role model and to be able to give back and have our students be able to see um the the different members of our community willing to give back and and help them out. So, we want to say thank you so much for all that you do. We want to congratulate you. We're gonna have Miss Lopez take your picture. >> All right. So, we're gonna get Miss

014Show. Can you slide to your right like do a little chaa over this way? Okay. All right. >> Okay. Super. Thank you so much and thank you for being here. >> All right. And next up is Mr. David Johnson. and if you will please join me. >> So, congratulations for those of you who do not know Mr. Johnson. Uh, and I don't know how that's possible. Um, but he is that smiling face that you see when you enter in Rockfish River Elementary School and always willing to go above and beyond to do whatever it takes. And, and for those of you who don't really know, it's super hard to find custodians nowadays. Um, and these are the individuals that, you know, the building doesn't get smaller just because you're down uh a custodian. The building

015stays the same size. The students are still coming in, and there's still all the work that needs to be done. And so, we just appreciate the willingness to go above and beyond and kind of shoulder that responsibility and do so with a smile on your face. um because our students see it, our staff sees it, um our community sees it, not only in how you carry yourself, but in the building in and of itself. And so, we just want to say thank you so much for everything that all of you do and thank you for you uh and your service back to our schools, and we appreciate it. So, thank you. Congratulations. >> All right, we're going to get a nice picture with Ms. Lopez. Okay. Got it. >> We're going to slide to the

016right right here. We're going to go in with uh >> Oh. Okay. Yep. And I lied. We actually um are able to give you those. Uh oh, you want that, too. Oh my gosh. What's happening? >> So, you're going to get your certificate and you're going to get your mug. >> Thank you, ma'am. >> That either the pencils go in or the hot chocolate goes in. Anything else I don't want to know about. Okay. All right. There you go. Thank you very much. And so for those uh custodians that weren't able to make it uh today or this afternoon, what will happen is I will make sure that I get out to the schools and thoroughly uh make sure that they can't escape and that they will be recognized in front of whoever is around

017um and pictures will be taken and we will continue to celebrate them. So we just want to say thank you so much and thank you for uh indulging me in being able to recognize our one Nelson Award uh winners. And as a reminder, anybody can nominate. We It's just because someone gets nominated in September, August, or October, they still have a chance to be a winner all throughout the school year. So don't don't worry about that part. Okay. Thank you. All right. And then I'm up again, aren't I? Okay. So, um, every year school board, um, and school board members have an opportunity, and I need to move that because that's not on the right one, and that's my job. >> Um, Hm. >> Oh, yes. I And that's my fault. Um I did miss

018one. Um our our certified uh employee and thank you for reminding me and I've now lost it. But um Mr. Zach Windgate is our certified employee. He is a school counselor at the high school. So I will make sure I come by and I find him. He did email and say that he was unable to make it this evening. And Zach Windgate is recognized for his amazing work with our students. He works hard to ensure that NCHS students are enrolled in classes that align with their future goals. He has been visible and active in collaborating with teachers, students, and administrators during the entire schedule change process. If those of you who don't know, at the high school level, state schedule changes take place in those first couple of weeks and really that first week. and

019it is fast and furious to make sure that we get those schedules updated and correct and aligned with what the graduation requirements are, but also the interests and the goals of the students. Um, he is always positive, never hesitates to help in any way he can, and he never makes you feel like it's an inconvenience. He understands the importance in establishing programs and not just filling classes. He knows the students well. He's including their goals and their interests in their schedules and he is incredibly hardworking school counselor. So, we want to say thank you so much for to Mr. Zachwingate. Fortunately, he was not able to make it this evening due to a prior uh commitment, but we appreciate everything that he does. So, thank you. Sorry. Um kind of sped ahead on to the

020next one. So, sorry about that. Thank you. Um so every year the VSBA works to recognize individuals who um on school boards are looking to promote their professional development through um VSBA and the different uh programs and conferences um above and beyond not just the annual um conference. And so every year there is a recognition of of schoolboard members um who are recognized. And this year we have a recognition of Miss Margaret Cla for the VSBA School Board Academy over the last two years accumulating a certain amount of points to be able to qualify for that. We also have Miss Shannon Irvin. Miss Shannon Irvin is um the person who tries to remain as invisible as possible, but we keep bringing her back over to the the spotlight. Um she has served as our deputy

021clerk for many years um and is that behind the scenes magic worker um not only for the clerk but also budget and our finances. So, we appreciate that and has been recognized for a VSBA schoolboard academy award winner. Um, and um because I am always able to uh learn as much as I can and tag along with Miss Irvin or Miss uh Claire to many of these opportunities. Um I I was um awarded uh schoolboard academy, but I just thank uh the individuals that I get to attend with and and learn and grow with. So, thank you so much. Those are our VSBA schoolmies. >> Thank you. Yes. Congratulations. So, now we're on to the section comments from board members and Mrs. Turner Giles. >> So, congratulations to everyone that received a reward tonight. Um,

022certainly I wish Dakota was still here. Just an amazing little little soccer. >> I know. I know. But he's amazing. >> So, so proud of him. And um, Mr. Mansfield and I'm sorry Mr. Cash is not here, but you >> but you know how invaluable your presence is. I don't care where we are, you are there. Mr. Cash is there and more importantly, you take care of our athletes. Um, so thank you for everything that you do. Just so appreciate it. >> Um, and thank you to all of our administrators. The school year is off to a great start. Things are going well. I know we have a lot going on. So, just thank you again for all of what you do. >> Chief, >> uh, want to echo what Mr. Turner Giles said. Um,

023just um, congratulations to all the one Nelson Award winners. Mr. Mansfield, thank you for everything that you do. And Mr. Cash does. That is uh, truly yman's work. And um, and it's uh, you know, you don't do it for recognition. You do it because there's a need. And >> and uh, that's that's that's really cool. It's not it doesn't happen that often anymore. And I also love it when we recognize students for doing good things. >> Um that's my favorite part of of what we do uh here. And um this month is kindness month also, right? >> Kindness and anti-bullying. >> What's that? >> kindness and kindness and anti-bullying. And um so I'm really glad that we celebrate that. I've seen a lot of um posts uh from the schools uh from the school systems

024uh Facebook page for that. Uh, it's really good and I'm just really um appreciative of everything that all the teachers and all the administrators do um to bring to make us have a such a successful start to the school year. I just >> just want to echo all that was said, all the thanks that went out to everybody and um appreciate the ones that attend in attendance tonight and um all the student athletes and all the students that participated in the state fair and those things and um we um appreciate you all and um happy kindness month. >> Amen on that. So, thank you all for being here tonight. It's good to see everybody. Um, as you noticed, Mrs. Claire's not here, so you drew the short stick and you've got me leading the meeting.

025So, let's have a little grace. I'm a little rusty on it, but um, I do want to say congratulations to the one Nelson winners and the custodians. George Caesar and I both went through the same schools together when we were younger. And we have lots of good custodian stories and how meaningful they were at our school when we were little. There were some pretty incredible people that had big impacts on our life at that time. Um, same thing with you, Mr. Mansfield. I think you know when our daughter was in school, she she worked with you and I think the ability to be such a positive impact and a positive role model on so many kids. I don't think that you begin to have any idea the impact you have and we thank you. Um

026that's it. We look forward to a good meeting tonight. Yeah, congratulations to all of our state fair winners. We had a best in show it sounds like. So really good job there. um important dates we're going to check out for the coming few days. >> Yes, we have quite a few. >> Yep. And I will just make a note farm to school week which um is ending this week is for us a rural community with a lot of farms in our area. This is a really important week and um I think it's one that I'm glad to see that we recognize in the whole farm-totable farm to school experience because that is a basis of our economy here in our community. >> Yeah. And Miss Canel and her um cafeteria school nutrition teams have worked

027really really hard to um take a fresh look at how we continue to promote this and and make it interesting, exciting, and bring those experiences um and continue those experiences in our buildings. And so we appreciate their effort. Um and not only is it farm to school week today was the crunch heard around the Commonwealth. So I know Mr. Cargill really worked hard to get out to the two elementary schools to really kind of document those experiences. And it's a lot of fun, not only for our uh students to participate in, but also our staff. Um we have um October is a super busy month with just a lot of different things going on. Rockfish will host the the um zombie mash. That's a kind of a school dance and a a safe trunk or

028treat opportunity for students to be um in an area that's lit. it's safe and it's a fun um experience along with a I think if they have a 5K or a run that's connected to that. Um we also have asynchronous learning day um on Monday. A quick reminder uh tomorrow is the last day of the marking period for we've gone through the first marking period of the school year and it seems like it's a blur. So we have that coming up and um the 13th is an asynchronous day and then f the following week is a professional development day for our staff but it is our student success night. So this is an opportunity to bring our parents or guardians or families to come in and and really um learn from our our staff and

029our our teachers about you know where the success is lying for their students and and in many instances for our students to show that off to their families. And so we're excited about that. Um along the lines of kindness um month, unity day um is a a widely celebrated um we've seen two different dates, but we're celebrating it on the 22nd. So wearing orange to celebrate unity day and to stop bullying day. Um on the 23rd is our one Nelson trunk or treat. So this is always a pretty uh big deal every year and it takes place out in front of our middle and the high school. The middle school is having a dance that evening. So there is just a whole bunch of um excitement taking place well that evening but right after school

030because the wonderful part about um that dance is our students who um they're then able to get on the activity bus so they don't have to worry about the rides to get home or the rides to get there. It's kind of built in for them. So really appreciate that. We have Red Ribbon Week coming up which is um a campaign for drug-free America. Uh and that is the 23rd of October through the 31st of October. Um the 28th of October is first responders day. You know, a couple weeks ago at a football game, we recognized our first responders at halftime and that that always gets a a big um celebration on behalf of our our fans and our community and we just appreciate everything that they do. On October 29th, it's wear red. So, it's

031coupled with the red ribbon week. It's wear red to to show your solidarity against um drugs. uh on um October 30th. And I did this wrong. It should be um um November 1st. So that that is my fault. I typed that in wrong. So October 30th and November 1st is Something Rotten Junior. So that's where our middle school um musical takes place. And it's always a great amount of fun. Why is there a day in between? Because uh Halloween is taking place on Friday. So we know that that is a tough competitor. So, they're going to have um uh Something Rotten take place on that Thursday and that Saturday. Correct. Okay. So, I will make sure that I correct this also and uh promote it. I know I've just seen some of the um advertisements

032start going out. So, we're excited about that. Um Halloween on the 31st. Uh Loving is hosting something, another safe opportunity for um our kids, all community kids, whether they're Nelson County public school kids. It is for all of our community uh families and kids to be able to enjoy um another safe way to be able to do that. Um down in the heart of Lovingston. Um and Chamber of Commerce will be there. A lot of different u agencies will be there. Daylight saving time. Um this is where we get to fall back an hour. Uh that will take place on um Sunday, early Sunday morning. And then National School Psychology Week will be November 3rd through the 7th. And then, believe it or not, we will be right back at another schoolboard meeting um shortly

033thereafter. And um we have election day on the 4th, which is a student holiday. Um and then Veterans Day, which is always a big um each of our schools does something unique to them. Um where they celebrate, recognize Veterans Day. And then World Kindness Day is on the 13th. And I believe our schoolboard meeting is is on the 12th, I think. So, we're coming around uh to that. And then um as we like to also indicate that um several of our board members will be attending the VSBA uh annual conference. So that will be an exciting time uh for some of our members. >> Good. Thank you. Thank you. >> And I think you can just keep on rolling. >> I can keep on rolling >> because we're comments from the superintendent. >> Okay. You

034know, let me um this one is not showing it. So my apologies. So we're just going to do that. Um, okay. So, um, homecoming, as we kind of mentioned, um, briefly, uh, took place last week. It was really a great crowd at our football game. Um, and just appreciate the the, uh, the spirit and the feeling that takes place when we when we're able to bring our community together and and have such a great experience. Didn't hurt um, that our football team won 56 to 12. That certainly never hurts. But I think the great thing is you had our alumni um former marching goss who were there performing. We had our marching gubs who were able to play their set. Uh we had our cheerleaders. Uh we had our young um elementary color guard who

035performed. And so it was just really a full circle um opportunity for all those different types of of involvement in different groups. And so we also had um our uh I think this was the the fourth or third um homecoming tailgate. Um so where all of our employees and their families were invited to come out, get some hot dogs, cheeseburgers, snacks, and and then um have an opportunity to go to the game shortly thereafter. And so it's always fun to be able um are we freaking out over there? Are you just taking that off? Okay. Um it's always a good opportunity to be able to have a lot all of our um staff have a chance to be together. um and with their families and just enjoy each other. You know, we don't always have

036a chance for a rockfish staff to kind of come together other than convocation with our Tai River or our middle school staff. So, it was really great. As I mentioned, we have our end of our marking period coming up uh tomorrow. So, um those missing assignments or just time to make sure that we have all of our our uh eyes dotted and our tees crossed. um our teachers will have an opportunity to uh finalize those grades and students have a holiday on the asynchronous day um on Monday. We do have the seven the Valley of the Seven Stars festival that's taking place. Uh we had a lot of um uh event uh attendees start to come in today. I just want to thank uh the sheriff's office, the event organizers, our SRO's, uh Mr. Taylor

037Ashley, all of our bus drivers. Um he did uh Mr. actually did a phenomenal job communicating out to our drivers about what to expect um different uh strategies to go about making sure we navigate this appropriately. And um yes, there is um increased traffic. There is increased flow of traffic which has its own um uh obstacles or and at times annoyances, but I I just appreciate all the work. Um I I uh communicated quite frequently with uh Sheriff Embry today. Um just making sure, you know, having those assurances that we are good to go, but we want to be mindful. We put communications out to our families um a week ago just to make sure that they understood that we're aware that this is taking place, but we have taken precautions and working with these

038organizers to understand that yes, there'll be increased traffic, but we still believe that we can operate uh without those disruptions with maybe a couple delays here or there. I think our buses came in at 8:10. Um, that's a pretty good um gap when it comes to the amount of population that will be here and it sounds like the afternoons um went pretty well. So, we feel good, but that's not to not to hesitate to say please plan accordingly. Leave earlier. There are some crossovers that are not available. And you know, in talking with some people, I had to go all the way down to the Heritage Center to make a U-turn. Yes, that that is one of those annoyances, but it's all to make sure that the the flow is as as as good as

039it can possibly be with that many people. So, we just appreciate the patience and we appreciate um the work of everybody trying to make sure that we do this in the right way and also still to be able to maintain the value and the priorities of education um and to really be able to continue with the the importance of that. Um we I will remain in communication with Sheriff Embry and Mr. Ashley with transportation and and other individuals just to make sure that we're paying attention to some things. I really appreciate SRO's being willing. We'll have two SRO's at Ty River tomorrow just to increase presence. Um Sheriff Emry will be over in the mornings over at Ty River just to make sure that you know increased presence is always good when we have increased

040um traffic flow. So I appreciate the willingness to come together and and work together on that. um the state fair. Uh you know, it's it's hard to believe it's here and it's we've had so many uh competitions and participants in that and and want to say congratulations to all of our students who participated in that. Um we were able to um host a home cross country meet uh and and just was really really thrilled with that and just the feedback that we've gotten. We wanted to say thank you to the hard work of Mr. Greg Bowens and and I think it was creation appreciation who who kind of rebuilt that. Um and then just talking to some of our student athletes and our coaches that the other teams were um really impressed with the course

041and just appreciated that. So for for me that's that's really gratifying to be able to know that we're hosting and able to to provide that environment for our student athletes. Um golf um has has been um underway and almost I think concluded. I think the last match we may have other than those who may maybe are participating in in postplay. volleyball, football, and cheer have have really gone. And again, u now we're heading into the middle school musical time and and all the activities that really start to to really remind you that we are in the thick of school. And so, just want to say thank you so much for everybody um putting their time in for that. And as that leads us into all the various district-wide or divisionwide um items that take place

042at this time, Miss Irvin um is, you know, has been kneedeep in the annual um report and this is where it finalizes all the expenditures particularly from the previous year. And so that takes a lot of effort and a lot of um focus to be able to do that and we appreciate that. And there's also the close out of the um fiscal year 2023 2024 awards uh that happened on September 30th. So a lot of effort in closing out those grants and those awards. In terms of instruction, uh like I said, we're right in the middle of it. We are um we've done vowels testing that hasn't been without its own challenges, but not necessarily on our end, but our teachers have really handled that well. um a great deal of effort in collaborating with

043Virginia Career Works uh through PVCC has some really good conversations where we're trying to expand our work-based learning um and and those types of skill base that are of interest to our students, our community and and really trying to um and I I appreciate Dr. Garzabinsk's role in and really working through um trying to expand our student body's um opportunities for work-based learning and workforce development that gives back not only to Nelson but this area. Um we um have been conducting our instructional team some um walkthroughs and collaborative walkthroughs at each of the schools to really be able to identify the the learning environments and learn what's taking place and and um we've spent a great deal of time and we will continue to do so today to talk about um our student performance and

044what goes into to um assisting our students and our instruction. And so we will continue to kind of report back on that. But a part of that is to see what's taking place in the classroom. And so I I also encourage our school board if you ever want to um join us and going on some learning walks. We would invite you to do that. Um we had a opportunity to have a a guest speaker, motivational speaker uh through the no legs no problem. Uh Roan Murphy was um a really uh engaging speaker who went out to each of our schools but also had a family engagement night. So that was a fun time. and um um being able to work in with our uh finalizing our um talented and gifted program which uh Mr. Bolo,

045we're asking that you guys um approve that in an action item, but he does have some information that if you so want to learn a little bit more, he's more than happy to share that with you. Um, but also just going through and just really evaluating and working with our teachers and getting back to understanding the experiences of our teachers, working and making sure everything is aligned to our goals and using our data to drive that. And then that last bottom right picture is our um building and trades students working hard to build a home that will go back to a Nelson family. So we think, you know, we just appreciate uh the efforts in being able to apply those um life skills and employable skills to build something and then give it back um

046to our community or uh pupil personnel. That becomes a little difficult to say sometimes. Um early childhood special education teachers uh through the preschool initiative and speech language pathologists, we all convened um through JMU and the TTAC IPOP. um a lot of different letters, a lot of different um initials and basically inclusive placement opportunities. How do we support our sped students and our young learners um in the best possible way? Um and using the building blocks program to do so. Class observations, class observations take place at the younger grades and it's really to understand the learning environments, what's taking place. um stu sysna applications um working through all the different reports that we have to submit to stay um aligned with the VDOE expectations uh planning phrases for the special Olympics feet meet and this

047is something that's near and dear to my heart I think all these opportunities we participated in the little feet meet so our our much younger special needs students and now really bringing it to a little bit of the older age group and I I thank Miss Royinger and and um Dr. Simmons and everybody who's working on this, we're going to host that. It'll be at our high school and it's a it's a Special Olympics meet um to be able to to uh apply the adaptive and and inclusivity that takes place with that and it's such a wonderful event. Um also beginning the child find opportunities, you'll see some advertisements uh going out for development and that'll take place um on October October 20th by appointment only. Um and we continue to do the special education

048help desk human resources. Um Miss Chad had a wonderful opportunity through Grand Canyon uh University to learn more about available programs to support our staff um and interested in becoming teachers. And so it's always great to have those collaborative um and supportive and it was all paid for through Grand Canyon. Uh and to be able to have that professional growth opportunities that we hope to translate back to our staff is always wonderful. um recognizing our new NCPS staff as we welcome the reception prior to the September meeting. You all had a chance to meet a lot of our our new staff in a smiling face that you see in the bottom left um corner is being able to um onboard Jen Pard as our new um HR assistant. Right now, she's doing double duty. Um

049she's going back and forth between the middle school bookkeeper job and HR assistant. So, we just want to thank her efforts and being able to take that on and be able to do a lot with that. Um we had a speaker at the the last meeting about Head Start and where we're kind of absorbing those responsibilities of Head Start um with United Way kind of being that the money um aspect of it and um it's challenging. It's um something that's new to all of us um and it's something that we'll continue to work through, but it it has been a challenge and we'll continue to work through that uh because we do want to be able to provide the best that we can for our um our atrisisk younger students. Um but we also want

050to be able to to build and to be able to maintain everything that we have. Uh we also submitted new teacher program data. So this is a big uh report um data submission time frame. Um in terms of technology um continue to work with lead innovators. Those are a group of our teachers who are always trying to kind of continue to push our instruction and our approaches um forward in developing an AI plan. Artificial intelligence, we've been talking about it for quite a while. There's initiatives behind it. We know that it's here. It's not going away, but how do we harness all the advantages that it affords us and be able to use it for our staff and how do we um bring and guide our students along with that um in the world that

051we know is everywhere and how do we equip our students to be successful and apply it um to you know whether it's college or our working life or just life in general. Um and so it's it's uh it's I appreciate the work um that our our staff is doing with that. um looking to expand our work with Google Workspace. Also working to develop um technology, hardware, software requirements for each of our positions. What are the requirements of each of our positions? Um cyber security training. I think even if you uh read in the newspaper today, schools are becoming bigger targets for cyber security attacks. And so I appreciate the work of just continuing to train. You know, each week we might get an email that like this does not look right. We've, you know, we

052send it to Mike and Marshall and Darren and they take a look at it and say, "Yep, thank you for recognizing this." and they're able to to address it immediately. So, we appreciate that. And um technology has been um kind of included in a lot of the the re the renovation process to be able to when we're renovating our building to bring it up to um where we needed to be technology-wise. So, we appreciate that. Um and NCPS received a state and local cyber security grant. And so that's also a way for us to continue to um uh improve our work in this maintenance uh beginning, believe it or not, smoke snow removal bids. Um when we have our big snows, we are um we are small enough we're not able to push the snow

053in all different areas. We need some assistance and so we we put uh the removal process out to bid and that will take place this month because you never know in this area when when we're going to need that. So I appreciate Mr. uh Campbell and his team working through that. Um also busy preparing the grounds for homecoming leading up to it. So a lot of time was spent doing that. Um met with Mosley and the IT team. So the collaborative effort to be able to work through the camera upgrades. Um constant overseeing of the renovation process and that has been probably the m the majority of a lot of the efforts on behalf of the maintenance but also preparing for upcoming yearly fire inspection which everybody loves that. Just ask every elementary teacher. um

054transportation and safety and security 48 field trips in September. So we are getting back into um traveling to different areas and using those field trips uh to promote learning experiences but also competitions and all various um types of activities. Also transportation been busy coordinating trips to the state fair, marching band competitions, cheerleading all those activities. Mechanics have also you see that right-hand picture that mechanics have also been hard at work the last few weeks conducting first round of business or bus inspections. So every 45 days our buses are required to undergo a thorough inspection. Um and so that's always good to know. We've talked about our aging fleet. We're going to be getting new buses. Um and there's that process that happens in between. You know, the the better maintained our buses are, the longer

055we can use them. Um and so these individuals are integral piece to that. And um Taylor and Less were able to go out to all schools to identify and plan for labeling exterior doors. School nutrition planning for the farm to school week. that's taken a lot of work and so we appreciate but also uh Miss Canel and her crew provided dinner for the uh family engagement night with um uh Mr. Rohan Murphy. So we appreciate that. Um they are now so next October is a big um school nutrition month. So this week is farm to school week. Next week is the National School Lunch Week. So that'll take place all next week. So they're already planning and ordering and getting ready for that. Um continue to work with Virginia Food for Virginia kids cohort. That's

056a mouthful. And Chef an Foundation on menu development. again that focus on trying to um get back to as much scratch as we can and as much local as we can um to be able to provide that and one of the fun things they do is they do a taste test Tuesday um and it started back um earlier in the month and we use that time to try new recipes and so a lot of the kids when I meet with the kids they're like we love that we want to be able to see and a lot especially the stuff they really like to eat they want to see that back uh and so that's always a lot of fun um this month was w yeah yeah woodles um and that was at the middle and

057the high school chicken rice and broccoli casserole at the Ty at Ty River and roasted veggies at Rockfish. Um so I'll be very interested to hear about the feedback that they have on those um items and currently working on the supper snack applications for the year. Um meals served 14,181 for breakfast in September, 21,45 um lunches. We're just now getting going in some of the remediation aspects and so 10 of the suppers that we send home primarily at the high school. Um so we will anticipate that number going up now that we start into the remediation time period. Um communicate community engagement. There's been a lot of different things that we take a great deal of pride in involving our communities. You see it either through our social media or Facebook or bringing our families

058um together or just doing something as fun as having bubbles on Friday, you know, and as our parents are dropping their kids off and they see it's a fun time and a welcoming environment to go into and um it's kindness month. So, really making sure that we're promoting that all throughout the month, but really not um letting it stop right there and that we wanted to continue on beyond that. And then last but not least, the fun homecoming tailgate that we had. Um just really appreciate everybody for taking time um to come out to it, enjoy it. It was a fun time. We appreciate the individuals who took the time to cook. Uh and so we appreciate everything and and I had the pleasure of being able to to provide that information. So, thank you.

059if you have any questions. >> Going on. >> Yes. >> Thank you. So, no comments tonight. I think our student representatives were blessed to have them and they're super busy, so they were not able to attend tonight for some other activities that they're involved in. Do we have any comments from the public at this point? Anything out there? >> Nothing. Okay. Um, we do have some time. Is there anyone here that would like to speak? Okay. All right. So, we're now down to the consent agenda. Within that are the meeting minutes, second reading from the August 14th meeting as well as the registers from September 2025. Any questions? >> If no questions and can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> Have

060a second. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> Perfect. >> So, in items for information, the first thing are our meeting minutes. It's the first reading from our September 11th meeting. when you get a chance if you can go in check those out. If there anything anything that needs to change in regards to that, please let Dr. Hester know. Unless Mr. Campbell, if you can come give us an update and introduce your guest. >> So, I'll get everyone caught up on phase two >> and then I will turn the floor over to Miss Coburn and Mr. Hall to follow up with some questions with the regarding the water cool chiller. Again, I provided the map for quick reference. Um, we met with Mosley and the IT team on September 25th to uh discuss um

061the camera replacements that goes along with the network and um equipment upgrades. Uh, as Dr. Dr. Hester said, we're we're trying to include as much networking and for the cyber security and everything in in this renovation as possible. Um, the brick contractors are transitioning to washing the walls there along with repointing the the mortar. Uh, so if you happen to see the walls soaking wet like we did the other morning, it's there's a reason for that. You know, it hadn't been rained and we're like, why the walls wet? So, they're washing the walls. So, um they're still in uh the the contractors are still in the upper D section and lower D section, which is the alpha wing. Um they're right now we're scheduled to they're they're scheduled to turn that area back over to

062us November the 7th. And then they will be moving transitioning to the next set of classrooms to start renovating. And I just included a bunch of pictures because again those it's it's a lot of work going on above the ceiling that we won't see once the ceilings get put back. So, but it's I thought it was important to show of the amount of work that's going on in our school um that quite frankly you won't see once it's over with. Uh but much needed improvements. Um some of the stuff you can see is I included some pictures. Uh the they put some new handrails up some around the window wells that is on the the alpha wing there. They also um we had to put a new sidewalk in because that fresh air unit there.

063Uh it kind of that's where existing sidewalk went by the ticket booth. Uh that's where they we had to put the new fresh air unit and so they had to make a new sidewalk to come out of them set their set of doors. They come by the gym and then tie into our existing sidewalks. Um I thought they did a real neat job wrapping that up and they just recently put up the fence. They tied into the existing fence around the propane tanks and all of that is going to be behind fence area so no access to it. So So anyway, um any questions? Know it was very brief, but they're still in the same section they were last month. So a lot of work's going on. >> You're welcome. I'll I'll turn the floor

064over to Miss Colbert and Mr. Hall now. >> Hello. Hello. Back again. And this time I brought a technical assistant with me um about Bobby Hall and he has over 35 years of experience in HVAC and he has worked in these schools for 20 plus years. So two questions that were asked um last month the first question was was this was this chiller the water cooled chiller started? Um yes it was started at Carrier. Um Bobby can tell you more about how they do that. Um the second question was it measured? Yes, a representative from Carrier came out and measured. Um, we did not have to cut or take apart the chiller at all. We took apart the door and we did have to take apart some of the duct work, but not anything with

065the chiller itself. So um but we did have La Sutherland from Carrier here and he measured and he said it would be tight and clearly it was a little tighter than he had thought and so we obviously removed um the work around the door and but the chiller itself was not taken apart. So since we met last time um Carrier and Honeywell have been in a lot of discussions and Honeywell excuse me Honeywell received a letter from Carrier which we then gave to Mr. Campbell and Mosley to review. I'll let Bobby explain this letter about the chiller um in a more he can talk technical and down to earth. It's really great. He if he can explain it to me then I'm like you can explain it to anybody. So I brought him to do

066that. not not too glamorous, but they they're they're recommending to install a um it's not an engineering review, but it's a um you know, initial report to uh install a chill water storage tank um in conjunction. So, it's a component to the hydronic system is what they're recommending. So, we're we're taking that and recommending to have that uh an engineering review performed by your current um architect. >> They're saying that the the loop is short and that the um tonnage on the air handling units was reduced since the chiller was put in. So we felt like you entrusted Mosley as your architect engineer of record that they should anal make an analysis and make a recommendation of that and then come back to us and to carrier with what they feel is the best course

067of action. Then we will then discuss it obviously whatever they come back with with you and with um administration. You look confused. No >> just I'm the person that we need to break it down. >> I'm with you. So basically >> I'm saying >> It's an additional component that um helps the water. So there's much flow >> a load buffer. So it um so there's not a so carrier is recommending a certain amount of uh water volume in the system >> um that currently is not being met. >> Okay. So this this tank or additional component will will meet that minimum standard >> and that was found out after the initial install was done >> after after the initial in installation and uh since the installation there was um you know obviously a renovation project

068that that took place as well. So there's um this is a separate project than the renovation project. So the so the extra um capacity tank is that for peak loading or is it for all the time? >> It's for all the time it would be in it would be >> I mean are we putting it in because it won't handle the peak load or are we putting it in because it won't handle the load the the consistent load. what what carrier is suggesting that they um there is uh cycling there's short cycling going on and um the machine cannot um offload as as fast or as much as it needs to be to be able to um you know react because the the loop volume is short. So is this a piece that is attached

069to the current chiller or >> it is? >> It's attach Well, it's attached to the hydraulic system. So it's not not it's works in conjunction or tandem with the chiller but not connected so to speak >> with the piping. Yes. But not >> uh in the room not it's in the same room and and so and it's connected to the >> uh water piping if you will but not necessarily to this to the exact machine. Gotcha. So a regular chiller would not need this extra component >> as ass as assume assuming that the loop volume met that minimum standard then that's correct. >> Okay. >> So um I think um Mr. Coburn you said something about the um tonnage of the unit had been reduced. >> Yes. The rooftop body air handling unit when we

070put the chiller in it was a leg for replacement. what was already there. Then Mosley was hired and designed the building >> and they reduced the tonnage of the air handling unit one and took air handling too completely out >> the building the building design was altered >> was changed carrier is thus saying am I right is thus saying because of that change >> well in part they they didn't make they didn't make they didn't make um they didn't make it clear they just they just recognized that the fact that there's not enough loop volume um to meet their minimum standard to operate the chiller. And it's not a it's an industry standard. It's not a manufacturer standard, if you will. >> All right. I thought so. The chiller that was installed or the building

071had to be u the doors had to be taken out so the chiller could be installed. I thought that was part of the renovation project. We were hired to do that with the end of the grant money and that was you know before I think Mosley was 100% under contract with the district. So we were trying to use end of COVID esser funds phase one and then phase two. >> So we put in the chiller that was this like forl like replacement of chiller that was that was there. So, >> I know I know it's a different size, but it was the same tonnage, >> right? >> But obviously over the 20 years that chiller was designed, it changed the sustainability um things that have they changed the size of them in the shapes. They're

072not the exact same chiller, but it was the same load, 171 tons, >> same capacity. It may not look the exact same, but it was a like forlife replacement. And then Mosley came in and was hired by you all and designed the system that you currently have. So now they're recommending that we put in this tank. So we're letting Mosley who have the education and this is what they do make the decision if carrier is correct or incorrect >> to validate carrier's recommendation. And so the the loop was found to be short or it was derated >> or like did we think it was more capacity to start with and then when Mosley investigated they found out that it was less. Is that what we're saying? >> I don't think that I'm not sure if

073I'm not I'm not aware of um Mosley's investigation. >> Okay. I'm just >> I'm just trying to understand what's happening. >> Yeah. to a sequence of events would be they Mosley made an initial um select machinist selection and um and manufacturer and so we ran on that narrative installed the machine normal procedure is to perform a um manufacturer's factory startup on site that was unsuccessful after many attempts they so some things were done and tried and tried to uh you adjust and and um account for it um was unsuccessful. So they said uh so they you know stepped back and said hey what's really going on here? So the loop volume was measured came up short and said hey uh you know know you guys need to have you know this minimum standard or this

074minimum loop volume as an industry standard. Um that wasn't met. There was some alterations um to that loop as well through that renovation process. Um, we weren't aware. I mean, I don't think anybody was aware at the time because this this project was done prior to the renovation. So, as we were approaching or getting close to being completion, I think the renovation was still underway. whatever stage it was in, however. But, but, um, to summarize, uh, loop, they they concluded that the loop volume was short and, um, they're suggesting a a storage tank to make up for that difference. So, let me look at these. So, if we have a replacement unit that's the same size as size as the old unit and the flow was correct for the old unit, why isn't the flow

075correct for the new unit if it's more efficient? So, so the again the um loop volume was altered during the renovation process. >> Okay. So, let's stop there. So, you're saying we increased the usage on our end for more use on this chiller. >> Decreased decreased it. So >> So now we need more water for less. >> So >> that's that that's uh Yes, that's correct. >> Okay. >> So the so the um so two things the that chiller serves a piece of air distribution equipment that delivers air throughout that space that it serves >> which is the vote area. So um that capacity of that air handler was decreased. Okay. So now now that chiller is not at the same needs of that chiller capacity is no longer the same. >> Okay. >> The

076air handle was changed and then in addition to one was also removed. >> Right. >> So one >> and and it and who where did those decisions come from? Shortening the loop, removing the air handler and decreasing the size. That was the I think that was in the renovation process in the engineering process of that renovation. Post our project. >> Post your project. >> Correct. Our project was 2023 was when we purchased the shower. >> It was delivered in 202. >> Well, >> yeah. year to make it >> and and I'm I'm sorry that I'm asking so many pointed questions, but we've been in partnership with you all for a long time at great expense. And one of the reasons that we have stayed with you all is so we have continuity with all of

077these things and now we're being told that that continuity fell to the wayside or something. Um so I'm just trying to figure out why, you know, first of all, let me let me who's going to be bearing the cost of this extra tank? That's that's the first thing. >> So we we did not um make the initial um selection of the chiller and uh Honeywell was not contracted to do that and then we were not um contracted to um install a storage tank that carrier is now suggesting. Um, and then we were not privy or or know I don't think anybody knew that what the what the future design at the time the future design of the renovation project was going to be because that those changes were made after our project took place or

078purchased. >> I think responsibilities being punted and I don't mean this in the wrong but being punted to mostly is what it sounds like. If they did not, >> what we can do is make sure that Jim and Tyler >> will be a part of the conversation. >> And that's why we wanted them to have the letter and them to say, >> "Yes, you need a tank or no, you don't need a tank." And they're mechanical engineers. >> Sure. >> And that's what they do. So, we put a life forlike chiller in. >> And then the specifications for the building changed >> and now Carrier saying there's not enough load. So, you got to put this other tank so that you can equal what the load would have been if we had it in the

079other spot. So, >> and to take it simplified even more, what I think you're saying is you did your responsibility. You replaced it. Mosley came in, designed something that didn't match what was existing there potentially. >> Correct. Yes, ma'am. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. >> So, there's a communication failure between you all and Mosley is what I'm hearing. >> We received a letter from Mosley before they were on record. They were not hired by Nelson. They did a a recap. They told us which unit they suggested we purchase, which we didn't disagree with. It did say in there, there's a line that says it is ultimately Honeywell's decision to select this. We are not under contract with Nelson, but they did recommend this 171, which was a like forlike replacement, which is a normal replacement.

080We've done many replacements for you. You take off the old unit, you put on the new unit. We did the exact same thing with the air quilt chillers outside. Okay? I took one off, put one in. Water cooled, take one off, put one in. >> Yeah, cuz the footprint of the building hadn't changed. That's that's why we're all looking puzzled. >> Just to add, just to add to that, there's um so uh there is some uh cooling mechanical cooling load that was removed from that chiller and placed on other types of equipment. >> Okay. >> Brand new that that was not previously installed. >> So, they added DX cooling to make sure that's clear. They had a DX cooling in the low tech. >> So, so there's some dos equipment that was that's um now

081DX that that used to be used to be uh being taken care of that from the chiller prior to that >> uh new design, but now it's on other types of equipment that's brand new. >> And I know we're not going to fix this tonight. I'm just we're just trying to understand. >> We're trying to like be as honest and transparent as possible. How many um so removing that air handler from the roof, the one uh unit that was removed, did did we experience a loss of tonnage by doing that? >> It was done >> or was it transferred to another unit? >> It was transferred to another unit. It was offload it's um shed or done a different way, right? Done different way. Yeah. So in in in that case, in that particular case,

082it was done by >> um uh not through the loop. That's why the loop volume was reduced. So water water volume essentially was reduced. So um so it was it was being done a different way through different equipment. >> Okay. >> So so where do we stand now? Mosley has a letter and they're decision. >> They will say carrier no your chiller should be sufficient >> and should be able to >> uh cool this area >> or they will say no we need to add this tank. Okay. Um then we will move forward with the recommendation and with talking with Dr. Hester and um Mr. Campbell. >> Okay. So >> the last one of the parts of the other conversation we had last month the shutdown and startup so you could test how it run.

083Where where are we with that part of it? we have to be on hold until we you know I've last month to be honest with you it's been major discussions between Honeywell and Carrier and then Carrier has said they're going to write this letter and we finally got the letter this week. >> Okay. But you you were saying that there has to be you know a cool day you know so or >> Right. Well now that we have the letter now that it's getting to be out of season we can certainly now make those decisions and work forward. We have a temporary chiller hooked up. Well, with a fourpipe system in there, we should be able to >> right >> take advantage of holidays or weekends to be able to test this thing when it's

084time, right? >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. >> And we're making sure that if they decide to move forward, if we decide to move forward with the tank, what's the lead time? How long will it take? >> We do not want to be in March figuring this out. We want to >> Yeah, that's what that's what I'm getting. That's what I'm getting at. If we're coming back into warm weather, >> we do not want to be where we were in August. Absolutely. >> Yeah. then we can't properly test it or whatever, >> right? >> So, we want the decision from Mosley and then we will move forward as rapidly as possible with what they say. >> We met with Mosley yesterday on site. >> Okay. >> So, they was able to look at what we're dealing

085with. >> Good. >> Okay. Okay. >> Hopefully have give us >> guidance on where we need to move forward, how we need to move forward. >> Okay. >> Good to hear. And that was um Jim Henderson. Um oh my gosh, >> Tyler Wy and Scott. >> Scott Okonnell. Yeah, Scott Okonnell. So the three of them, Scott has been on site with the renovations quite frequently or most of the time. And then Jim and and Tyler have been a part of the planning process. So we we're in communication with them and we'll bring them >> in and they're they're the experts on the design. So, we're waiting awaiting their decision. >> Very good. >> Thank you all for coming. >> Thank you. >> Sorry it's so confusing. >> Appreciate the update. >> Thank you all very

086much. >> Okay, now we're on to an update on school improvement plans. Good evening, Mr. >> Good evening, members of the board. Thank you for allowing me some time this evening. So, I get the uh privilege of sharing our school improvement goals. First off, I'd like to thank our school teams and our school principles and leaders for analyzing data to develop their smart goals. So, I'll start with the high school and uh they have goals that fall in each domain as each school does that's required by the VDOE. So, domain one is academic supports. So the English department will implement the SOS and relevant teaching strategies to reach at least 87% overall end of course pass rate. Students using the work keys which is an alternative assessment will achieve 95% or higher pass rate for

087the writing assessments. The second goal for domain one for the high school overall end of course math so scores will reach at least a 92% pass rate as indicated by the Virginia so assessments and their third goal for the academic supports domain is that NCHS will have a combined science score that will reach at least 79% on the end end of course pass rates for their second domain which is staffing supports They will continue to work to recruit, hire, and retain 100% highly qualified teachers and support staff. For their third domain, which is organizational support learning supports, they're going to create and implement a master schedule, which they've done, where all students will be provided an individualized schedule that incorporates optimal and differentiated learning time for each and every one of their students. And of

088course, that will be led and supported by highly qualified teachers and staff. Finally, their fourth domain, which is a school climate goal, they're going to work to decrease chronic absenteeism rate by 5%, which would put it at 9.7% or less by the end of the school year. And they're going to offer some seat recovery time to make sure that that goal stays on target. for the middle school academic supports domain one. They're going to work to have an overall combined English score that will increase by 3% and which would put them at an 80% pass rate overall on the uh state learning assessments. and students with disability pass rates will demonstrate growth on so assessments by increasing pass rate on the reading and math so by 10% or by meeting state accreditation pass rates in

089both math and English. Their third goal for academic supports at the middle school is an overall combined science score that will increase by 5% or to 72% from the previous year on the science so for staffing supports. The middle school will also work to recruit and retain 100% highly qualified teachers and support staff throughout the school year. For their third domain, which is organizational learning supports, the middle school is going to create and implement a master schedule where 100% of their students will also be placed in an individualized schedule that incorporates optimal and differentiated learning time through each and every school day. And that will also be led by highly qualified teachers and staff. And their climate and support goal there for domain four would be to decrease the overall chronic absenteeism from 12.9% which

090it was this past year to 12% or lower for this school year. Moving on to Rockfish for domain one academic supports. They're going to work to improve their ELA so pass rate to 74% which is a 3% increase from last year's rate of 71%. They're also going to work to improve their math so pass rate to a 79% which is also a 3% increase from last year which would put them at 76% overall. For domain 2 staffing supports, Rockfish staff will receive at least two professional developments on the use of Prometheian boards during this school year. For domain three, organization and learning supports, they are going to incorporate a win block in all of their classrooms, providing students with at least 45 minutes to work on interventions and enrichment opportunities. and win stands for what

091I need. And domain four, which is school, climate, and supports, they're going to work to decrease chronic absenteeism to 8% or lower, which is a 2% decrease from the 10.2 rate that they were at this past school year. And moving on to Tai River for academic supports domain one, they're going to work to increase pass rate on the reading standards of learning assessment by 5% which would put them at a 74% overall. And they are also going to work on their math standards of learning assessments and increase that by 5% as well, which would put them at 81% overall. For staffing supports, 90% of teachers will to participate in a minimum of six professional development opportunities that will be identified by staff requests and or by the leadership team at Tai River. For organizational and

092learning supports, their goal is to increase the pass rate on fifth grade science standards of learning test by 5% which would put them at a 71% overall in that area. And finally, domain four for Tai River, which is school climate and supports. They're going to work to increase their community relationships by collaborating and having a minimum of five events and/or activities with community partners this school year. So again, those are the goals. Do you have any questions? Again, I thank our leadership teams at the schools and our awesome staff. So in order to get to these goals, just so everybody knows, our school ta school staffs are placed in teams. Uh and within those teams, they look at previous year's data as well as years past. And then they all work together to build goals

093and then they kind of focus on and monitor those goals throughout each and every school year with the leadership team at each building along with district leadership and then within their squad teams within their buildings. So >> succeed. >> Yeah. And you'll see a theme, you know, as as you should be piecing things together starting in August and September and then with um Mr. Fleo's presentation and Dr. Jar Zavinsky, the theme of presenting all the data to show where we are now. Um, and how it connects to our division level goals and how our division level goals are connected to the schoolboard goals and all driven by our data and then that how that um aligns all of what we do to each other. And so there there's it's been very very deliberate, very very

094targeted um to show that alignment and to show how it's working, where we are, and where we want to go. >> And again, and certainly we're moving >> as Dr. Yarzabinsky had mentioned last time, overall so scores are 34th out of 131 school divisions. So, we are certainly continuing to make gains each each and every year and we're looking to keep moving that uh forward going into this school year. And as I conclude, as Dr. Hester mentioned, I appreciate uh you looking at the five-year gifted education plan. And if you have any questions regarding that, I'll be happy to come back up if you need me to do so. So, thank you all. >> Appreciate it. Great. Thank you, >> Dr. Dr. Rz Zabinski. >> As uh Dr. Rz Zabinski approaches, um there are two

095items in your packet. Um one is a very exciting um report uh with a lot of rich data and the other is a um a presentation that you will also see. Oh, nope. Just kidding. It's right here. >> Thank you. Thank you. All right. update on preliminary results for our new accountability system. Um, so I guess this is what we are scored or even judged on. Um, but I will say it does not measure or tell our whole story. Measure all our outcomes or tell our whole story. Doesn't measure the culture and climate that is uh at each school. It doesn't measure the energy, the effort and passion of our educators and our administrators. Does not measure all of the successes and exceptionalities of our students. And it does not measure the collective effort of

096the Nelson community. and I would be remiss if I did not identify those as all contributing factors to our success. That being said, a quick review. I don't think we've covered this new model for quite a while. So, just to refresh your memory, um we have slightly different models for each level, elementary, middle, and high. Um similar components of each though. The elementary model is comprised of three uh realms. mastery consisting of success in so and VAP in reading, math and science in addition to English language progress. Also correlated to so success are growth measures and these are going to be relegated just to growth in reading and math. Together those comprise of 65 and 25% of accreditation respectively. And last 10% would be readiness and that's just a measure of uh chronic absenteeism. Middle

097school slightly different. Mastery and growth are the same. Readiness. We add an additional component this year and that is advanced coursework. This is just a measure of the students who are eligible for um advanced math as measured by an EOC or algebra 1 or geometry taken at the middle school level. Um I failed to remove that final bullet, the eighth grade um performance task. Um it was to be implemented this year. It may be field tested. We're waiting for more direction from the DOE on that. Um I'll note one thing. I astraized EL progress under mastery. Um that is contingent on meeting a certain threshold with the number of students in that measure and that stu that number is 15. If we meet it, it is included. If not, that 10% that would be allotted

098to English language progress goes to growth. So in in the case of the middle school as we'll see it'll be an additional 5% for reading and 5% for math math growth. High school is a lot different. We maintain the mastery component 50% of accreditation again reading math science so and VAP scores and again the English language proficiency. But then it gets a little different. Uh graduation will be 15% of accountability and that is measured by the federal four-year graduation rate. This only includes standard and advanced diplomas. It does not include ISEP completers or GED completers. It does not include applied studies diplomas earned. Just four-year graduates. Readiness will bring back another graduation measure. That would be the six-year graduation rate. So students who do not get a standard diploma, finish with an applied studies diploma,

099do have the opportunity to finish out their high school degree in the next two years. So they want to give credit for those students who we do get through to eventually get the applied studies and or a standard or advanced diploma. Additionally in readiness we have chronic absenteeism which is only a small component of high school accreditation and lastly the threee framework which is a major component at 25%. I'll unpack that a little bit. The three E are enrollment and this is an indexed measure of advanced coursework. So, our dual enrollment and AP courses, both course outcomes and assessments connected to those classes are included. Employment, this is our CTE measure. This is going to measure the number of sequential completers and credentials earned. And there's going to be differentiation between high demand and uh

100low demand credentials. So, we are reviewing and analyzing what credential exams we are giving to the students to make sure we can maximize this. Work-based learning is also included in there as augmented by the 1.25 point outcome. And last is enlistment. And this is not measuring how many kids go into the armed services. It is just uh attempts and scores earned on the ASFAB. And the ASFAB test, it is armed service vocational aptitude battery, but it is excellent in helping identify appropriate career pathways. And there's a lot of data that can be derived from that. So some of the differences on the old versus the new um obviously the number needed in a subgroup which is extremely impactful for our L population. Um also impactful for our L population is when they are included in

101our overall outcomes. In the past we used to have uh 11 semesters before they were included. Now we only have three. uh also some nuanced rules with when transfers are included, the number of students overall that are uh included in the calculation. In the past, we have uh exemptions for medical, student absences, and parent refusals. Now, we have to meet a certain threshold that is aligned with the federal mandate of 95%. That's our participation rate. And also, recovery is not included. And one thing I didn't put on there because I put on the next slide, results are indexed. And indexing is a little bit different especially when it comes to mastery. So in the past a pass was a pass and a failure to be proficient was didn't count. Now we are indexed. So you

102get extra points for a pass advance at a 1.25. A pass is just a point. A fail basic is threequarters of a point and a fail below basic is a quarter of a point. And there are four performance categories that are applicable to reading and math grades three through eight. All other tested areas have only three proficiency levels. And that would be um pass advanced, pass proficient and fail. So 1.25, one and three/4er points. It is important to note that that index does not include a zero. Statistically, that has significant magnitude. And I'll articulate that a little bit when I show you a different index growth. In the past, we used to simply compare student score from the year prior. Now we have a very technical uh way to calculate student growth and I'm not

103going to differentiate or disagregate everything that's on there but basically there is a growth expectation for every student. VVAS is the system that the department of education leveraged this year to determine growth. And what it does is determines uh students relative scores or scores determines a student's passing score relative to their calculated expected score. So if a student is expected to score a 400, they would receive extra points for scoring above that or fewer points for scoring below that. I will note that this index does have a zero. And I remember the first thing I said to Dr. Hester when this rolled out, we're going to have to worry more about growth than mastery simply because statistically anytime you put zeros in the mix. It's hard to calculate and overcome grades the main differences between

104growth. Again, in the past it was grades three through eight and only students who failed. Now it is all students in grades four through eight and it is all students regardless of a pass or failure the year prior. Um growth and mastery are completely separate now. In the past there used to be the combined rate. Um and now it is again a separate category for both growth and mastery. Um and we didn't find out about these and what our results are until just this week. So it doesn't behoove us for planning and preparation going into the next school year. Lastly, after we calculate all of our outcomes, we get an overall school designation. Distinguish would be 90 points or higher on track 80 to 89 points. And I won't go to the bottom two because

105they're not going to be applicable to us at this point in time. So our preliminary results again these results were made available to us just earlier uh this week we have I'm sorry late middle of last week we have fielded some questions to DOE about some slight discrepancies with some of the numbers and some calculations. Um I augmented those to the best of my ability and a most conservative approach. So I do not foresee these results dropping or reducing. They could increase slightly. Um but again the the discrepancies we found were not very significant. Rockfish River. All right. Overall mastery calculation they scored 52.34 out of 55 possible points. And you can see there that they did not meet the threshold for L students. So that additional 10 points will drop down into growth where

106they scored 27.23 out of 35 possible points. And lastly, almost nine points, 8.98 points out of 10 for their chronic absenteeism in the readiness indicator, leaving them with an overall on track designation at 88.55%. Real close to getting to the 90% threshold on that. So, excellent job. Oops. Ty River. Ty River earned score of 54.7 out of 65 for mastery. And you will note that the L indicator does count. They just exceeded that by several students. So it impacted them significantly in the mastery component growth. So we have less growth points there um simply because Rockfish did because of the elk scores not counting into that column. um 17 out of 25 points and a high chronic absenteeism rate of not rate outcome of 8.99 out of 10. So leaving them with an 80.69 in

107the ontrack category as well. Excellent job at Ty River. Nelson Middle School 44.52 points out of 50 for mastery. did not include EEL scores redistributed to growth um where they earned a 21.52 out of 30 points and readiness 8.71 out of 10 for chronic absenteeism and almost maxed out the category 98.07% or 9.8% out of 10 points leaving them at 84.55 sodly in the middle of being on track. Excellent job at the middle school. Nelson County High School L's did count in the mastery component, uh, 44.7 out of 50. Graduation for the four-year rate, 13.08 out of 15 points. And in the readiness indicators, uh, 4.26 out of five for chronic absenteeism. So, not as great a magnitude for absenteeism at the high school. Um, the six-year graduation rate, 4.58 out of five. and then

108exceeding the index category for the 3E readiness uh 25.35 points out of 25 leaving them with a 91.98 in a distinguished category designation. So now we take all this information we combine that with the information shared last month with the pass rates and we start going through our data at a very granular level. principles and their teams include that into their school and performance plans. And our goals are just to continue to maximize our strengths and identify strategies to mitigate our weaknesses. We know we need to look at L. We know we need to look at growth measures. I will note Vas is not going to be used as the metric to calculate growth this year. The state did not renew their contract with them. I do not know what the next growth measure will

109be. Um, several options will be discussed at the state board meeting this month. So maybe I'll be able to finalize that information to you next month. >> How much of this is part of um there was a lot in the media about reconfiguring scores and whatnot from the department of ed. >> This is standalone from last year's cut scores. So, I do have modeling data if I were to implement the proposed cut scores. Um, that being said, we know what the cut scores are going to be. We're waiting on direction for implementation. There is conversation of a stepped. So, it's not we're going to move from a 470 a 400 to a 478 in EOC reading. We'll have multiple years to get there. And there's also conversations of a new category which is um merging

110proficiency. So, and I would be more than happy to share what our results would be based off of our 2425 results with the new cut scores. I mean, go back and tell them they're they're doing an incredible job. No matter what that measure is, moving forward, I don't want to discount the work that the kids, the staff, everybody's doing to get these kids where they need to be. And I think that's you said it well when you started off your presentation. Focus on that. Well, >> thank you. And that was the the message we've been communicating. We know the cut scores are going to change, but our job and our process doesn't change. Keep doing what we're doing and keep doing it well. >> Awesome. >> Results. >> Thank you. Thank you very much staff,

111>> teachers and principles and students alike. >> That's exactly right. >> Okay. In next up, NCPS pathways to success goals and objectives update. >> You want to go? >> No, go ahead. >> She said no. >> This would let me go on. >> I'm just I'm not even gonna let you do that. I'm just gonna take it over. I'm gonna take this with me because all my toys. >> All right. >> Which file do we need to look at? The updated or the other one? >> Um, we're going to look at the um Hold on. Let me go back and see what you're seeing. Um we're going to go and look at um the Nelson County P uh Pathways to Success Review. So not the updated. >> Oh, okay. >> Not the updated. So I

112will what I will do is I don't need that. So this the file that looks like this, right? I am not going to read through all of this. >> You're welcome. Um this is um available. So what this is is this is a snapshot and it isn't every single strategy or task that we do. This is a snapshot of all the different things that we do to achieve one the goal but each of the um objectives beneath it. And so a couple years ago 2023 we uh went through the comprehensive plan process and approved a comprehensive plan. And we call that our Nelson County Public Schools Pathways to Success 2023 2029. And so everything that we do, we try to align it. As I mentioned before, we're we're trying to vertically align our goals and

113our objectives um all the way through um our uh division plan, our school plans, um our squad plans, our lesson plan, like all of their um is in alignment. And so what you see here is is every other year in the odd year, so 2025, we're here. Prior to November 1st, we are to provide an update on our progress of our goals. So we've spent three months doing that. This is the the the small snapshot of all the various tasks. We've been giving you the data to show where we are and how is that with our comp plan. And so the reason why um we've taken a lot of time is it's important to understand where we are and what we're doing because we know one it's always good to know where you are. It's

114hard to know where you're going if you don't know where you're starting. But I think it's also we know there's a lot of changes coming and it's to continue to provide that evidence and support of we are doing what we are supposed to be doing and this is the pathway that we're taking to get there. Uh and so um when we take a look at all the different goals and objectives, we are in progress for all of those. It's a five-year plan. We're in progress to to achieve these goals. And we've given you all the data and this is how we've gotten there. And so that's really what I wanted to be able to provide to you. And it's under each of these objectives. Um you see it's 14 pages. and each of these objectives

115and what snapshots not every single thing that's taken place but snapshots to get there. Okay. So, you know, you have that this is available. This will be available um just like in 2023 we reviewed our objectives. This is available in our comp plan and and I'm going to ask you to switch to that in just a second just so we can see the connecting um aspects to it and some adjustments that I want to recommend making. Um, but I just want to show you this is available for anybody to see because it's it's attached to our comp plan, but this just kind of helps us. This is our road map in our path for our pathways. Does that make sense? So, you're able. So, this is our our progress on what we've been doing. I

116will say if you take a look at the screen, you'll see that purple text and what that purple text represents is we need to adjust uh under goal one objective 1.8. We need to uh adjust that. We talked about this is a living plan and it's really important. You know, sometimes in particularly in the past, some of our strategic plans and comp plans kind of turn into something that you do and then it goes on a shelf somewhere and we try to make this a living document. We try to make this um something that where division level and then we work with our our our administrators and we work with our teachers to to make those connections. Well, uh, a couple years ago there was something called the college career and civics readiness index that

117is now transitioned into the 3E. Okay, heard Dr. Garza talk about that. Well, we need to make that representation in our comp plan. Uh and so what I am recommending is that we change it to uh from providing more pathways to achieve and maintain a level one status in the college career and civics readiness index um to provide opportunities and maintain current options to support students to pursue a variety of possibilities in employment enlistment and or enrollment to prepare for postsecary uh pathway to success. Okay. Um, so our strategies and tasks are now aligned to this simply because that is a part of the accreditation model. We have to update this, but I'm just trying to to draw your attention to that. Um, if you have any questions on these strategies and tasks, I am

118more than happy to answer any questions that you might have. Um, but I want to kind of draw you back to the comp plan um, if you don't have any questions. So again, our progress, we are making progress on all of this. um we're kind of right in the middle of it and as we've talked about shared our data we're trending in the directions that we need to go but as Mr. Chief said there's always room for improvement there's always room for us to be more successful in certain areas but you know as we start to see it gets harder and harder the more improved you get it gets harder and harder to to to um increase that. So um what I'm going to do is I'm going to make that transition to the updated

119NCS pathways just to remind us of kind of like what are we doing and what is our what is our guide what is our map to get there. Um and so um the reason why I'm presenting this is we're going to make this um available on our website for people to comment on because as as we go through this is a living document but one of the additions that I've made um to our comp plan is on page nine. So if you um are able to bring up that uh presentation on page nine I added trending challenges because a part of um what we do we have to acknowledge we have to you know we can do all the the successes and all the great things that are going on but we do have some

120challenges and so as you see here also a part of what we want to be responsible for reporting is well we do have decreasing enrollment that is a challenge um drastically increasing uh local composite we experienced that two years ago I think we can anticipate that that is going to happen again. Um I think we'll be getting those numbers in November. I think we we need to anticipate that the LCI will increase and that what that means is that will require a greater responsibility on our local government to support the budget as opposed to having um greater contributions from the state. Um and that is not through the fault of our our county. that is a predetermined formula that has been used for a very long time that we are advocating to be really um

121studied and addressed and that has been addressed in the Jark study but we really continue to say you know for um rural resort areas that is a difficult formula uh for us because it it takes into account um it it kind of seems at times to overvalue certain areas of the county and under uh represent others. Um we have a stagnant or declining economic development. Um we have limited housing market and particularly when we talk about affordable housing or housing that is more likely to attract younger families with children. Um we can also talk that it's sometimes more uh it's sometimes harder to attract um employees who are able to afford those houses as you try to attract them in. It's a beautiful area. There's um there's some things to do, but trying to make

122it attractive and affordable to uh young families and employees that work in that are um more likely to work in school divisions in um various positions. Uh we also see an increased median age and population in Nelson County. See, like we've talked about, decreasing enrollment in institutions of higher education as they specialize in positions that impact schools. We're seeing fewer enrollments in teacher preparation programs, administrator preparation programs, school counseling, all these, you know, behavior management, all these different um positions that require specific endorsements, specific um education, people aren't enrolling the programs. So, that is a challenge. Um we're all competing for these individuals is because as uh I think Dr. um nope uh Mr. Bleco mentioned the 100% um highquality positions. So those are still the expectations that they're fully endorsed in all the areas

123that they teach, but yet it's harder and harder to find those individuals and we get graded on that. Um and then and then also industry staffing shortages. Take your pick. There's shortages in any area within the schools. Um so those are thing I felt like it was important to have that expressed. We'll put this um on our website and make available for some feedback for 30 days. Um, and and I think that just it it makes it important for our our community to see that we want to continue to have this be an applicable um part of what we do. The other area that I want to draw your attention to that I did make that change is on um page 13 is um kind of taking out the uh reference to the CCR CCCR

124index and replacing it with um the new 3E uh compatible. I told you that you can find every just about every piece of information you'd want in our uh comprehensive plan. If you scroll to the very back, this page on page 22, they're links. They're links to our school quality profile. They're links to these monthly pathways that we present here. Um the individual school improvement plans. Um if you go here, and I will change that coming soon because we're approving them. Um the these are our um our um improvement plans. So people, you know, we're trying to be as transparent as we can be in what we're doing so people understand that they can um access this. Okay. Did I get away from my little There we go. Um so again we have our annual

125budget presentations because that incorporates all the decision-m you know sometime we we are as transparent as we can possibly be in in in what we do and our budgets and so we put our budget presentations not only available on our website but in this so everybody understands this is why we do what we do. There are reasons there are connections there are things that we have to accomplish and we need that part of it. So our uh budget presentations are in there and then the facility study. We want to be able to say this is a whole big picture. This is um um a broad picture of what we do. So the facility study is in there. So I just wanted to draw everybody's attention um to what um the last three months have been

126spent trying to do and that paint that picture of um where we are and and how uh we are trending in the right direction. Um I think last week I sent a message out to all of our staff. I sent a message out to all of our families. I sent a message out to media um highlighting what we are doing and where we are. Um not just that we're 34th in the state, but in the individual areas and we recognize that we still have room to grow. Um but more specifically, we're we're trying to communicate to our families these cut scores are coming. We continue to promote high expectations, but we also promote high support. And um you know we want rigor but we want the reasonable steps to take towards that. And the one

127common thing that we've been saying is at the end of the day our teachers are going to continue to keep doing what they do well. When our students are in front of our teachers and our staff they grow. They are more successful. Um at some point in time like we can't it's hard to ask our staff to do more than what they're already doing to try to contribute to this. um they are working hard um and we try to get them to understand is that we recognize that we are advocating, we are fighting on their behalf to have um some reasonable um approaches to some of these adjustments. And so that continues to take place. Um we are proud of everything that our employees and our students and our families do. Uh we want to

128celebrate everything that they do. Um and that their endeavors are not um you know they're recognized and and it's not all about the the A honor role. Sometimes it's are you on a roll? Um so we're recognizing everybody. You know, we're going to ask you to um approve a gifted plan, you know, every five years, but we have these plans for all of our students. Um and because each one of our students, just like each one of our employees is incredibly important. So I just wanted to bring that to your attention, you know, report out. I'm kind of the tail end of all of the data presentations and the progress towards our goals. Um, so I just wanted to be able to provide that to you and let you know that that is where we

129are and answer any questions that you may have. >> I don't have any questions, but I think the vertical alignment is so so important and yeah, there's always going to be room for improvement and it is going to be harder to improve as you go on. But the numbers look really good. >> Um, and they're all trending in the right direction. But the vertical alignment, I love that because it it makes it so that when you have changes that come upon you, after you've started the school year, then you can make adjustments in your comprehensive plan and and that can go down the line, you know. So, and everybody's kind of pulling the wagon in the same direction. So, yeah, really good, really good stuff. >> I love the transparency. >> Yes. >> I I

130love I love the transparency. One of the things that we hear in education sometimes is we're not hearing the truth. They're not telling us we don't see the scores. Where are they? How are our schools performing? And I think this aligns everything in one place that you can see the story, the truth of what's happening in Nelson County Public Schools. And I I just really appreciate that. And I think if the public wants to find it, wants to see it, wants to hear it, it's there for them to to access it. >> Yeah. And to go handinhand with that, when budget season comes, if there are questions as to where things are being spent, there's a direct alignment showing exactly what we're doing, why we're doing it, and how we're doing it. >> So, I

131appreciate you making that known. >> Sure. And and I think it it it doesn't matter what our enrollment is, we still have to perform >> and do the same exact things that everybody else has to do. you know, we still our our our our county is still 470 square miles. It doesn't change that. We still have our building. We still have all of these things that we're expected to do. Um, and I think that that's important. You know, we we um we we work to try to maximize our resources and our people and our outcomes. >> Um, >> you know, whether you know, we've been put in hardto-reach situations or really difficult situations to meet our budget goals. We the results are still that we do. The teachers, the principles, your staff still show up

132every day and do what's required of them. >> Mhm. >> Even with the having to to jump through hoops sometimes or just have to let some things go. But their professionalism shows up each and every day and we appreciate that. >> You know, we keep fighting the fight. >> You know, the information is there and we always says it's there. >> It's just, you know, you look at it, ask the questions, but the results are still the same every year. We're still trending up. You know, being 34th in the state, that's awesome. you know, we still have room to grow, but we are everybody's doing their jobs no matter what hurdles we have to go, you know, tried to overcome as a board with the budget. So, I really appreciate everything that everyone is doing.

133>> And, you know, if the public can't see it, I'm sorry, but we appreciate it. >> Anything else for Dr. Huster? Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Hey Shannon, it's your turn. >> Talk a little bit about the activity fund audit. >> So each year we have to have the funds that are raised and spent at the building level audited by a certified public accountant. And um I'll just read from the opinion on page one um from the CPA firm of Davidson Doyle and Hilton who came in in July and worked with all of our bookkeepers to analyze their financial records. Um, we have audited the accompanying statements of cash receipts, dispersements, and balances of the county of Nelson, Virginia school activity funds for the year ended June 30th and

134related notes to the financial statement. In our opinion, the financial statement referred to um above presents fairly in all material respects the stated statement of cash receipts, dispersements, and balances of the county of Nelson as of the year ended June 30th, 2025 in accordance with the basis of accounting as described in note one. Um our basis of accounting at the building level is a cash basis. Basically, um the money that's in your bank account is the money you have. So when you write a check, it comes off the balance and um they don't look at um incumbrances and they don't look at acrals. Um at the end of the year, we get that information up to our office and we do include them in our final annual report on an acrruel basis. Um our responsibilities

135is to um for the preparation and fair presentation of the financial statement in accordance with the cash basis of accounting. We're responsible for the design, implementation, and maintenance of internal control relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement whether due to fraud or error. Um, I'm happy to say from page three that their uh results of their test disclosed no instances of non-compliance or other matters that are required to be reported under the government auditing standards. that they found no uh material misstatements across the division and I am proud to say that we have a good booking keeping staff and um we've had them for a number of years so I'm worried when they decide to leave us. >> Um but so far so good. >> Would

136like to talk a little bit about the balances. The high school started July 1st of 2020 for $186,000 through all of its athletic funds, club funds. um administration funds for like pictures or vending and those kinds of things. Um they had cash receipts of 551,000 cash dispersements of 481,000. So they're in a much better position at year end at 255751. Again, that's cash basis. So that doesn't look at what they might owe for outstanding bills that they need to pay. The middle school um started at 72,138 and they went to they received 138,251. They dispersed 121,000. So their ending balance was 88,000. So they're uh better off than they were at the beginning of the year as well with 88,000 um in their accounts. Uh Rockfish River um started at 28,88764. They took in 58,000

137they spent 71,000 thereabout and ended with 16,35119. Um Ty River started with 16,69623. They had cash receipts of 96,59139. Um spent 56,74193 and ended with 56,54569. do want to explain that one just a little bit because um they were the recipient of funds to upgrade our um inclusive playground and so those funds were in their account waiting for the playground to be installed. >> So um at the beginning of last fiscal year we had 303,81426 and we ended the year at $417,8040. There were some findings I did want to bring to your attention. Um, and it's probably my favorite page because it is the most actionable ones that give us um the auditor's insight for when he's pulling all of the purchase orders, their invoices, and the payments. So, systemwide, they found no recommendations for

138our internal controls and um the way that we manage the funds at the building level. At Tai River Elementary School, they had no recommendations that thought that everything was running like clockwork there. At Rofish River Elementary School, they did not know a particular check that had been written um for three months that had not cleared the bank. I think we're now a credit card society and so paper checks sometimes sit on a dresser or in a drawer and um we just need to work to have them cleared up in a timely manner. Had the same um kind of incident at the middle school. We had several checks that were older that did not clear by June 30th. Um we're going to be working with those folks to make sure they cash the check or to

139see whether we have to reissue it. There was an incident where the bookkeeper um made a purchase, was reimbursing herself, had the principal sign, and she signed. There three signitories at the building levels. It would be the principal, the assistant principal, and the bookkeeper. Our checks require two signatures on every check. Um, I think there was an incident that one person was out and so being the other signatory, she signed her own check, which is not what we would prefer happen. So, we're going to make sure that everyone understands that you just need to wait till the other two people are there if it's coming to you. Then there was only one finding at the high school and it involved um a deposit being made to the um school bookkeeper that only had one signature

140that verified the amounts to be deposited and they would like to have two. Sometimes that's difficult when you have like a volleyball game. You have one person doing concessions and not multiple people, but they do want two people. They want a check and a cross check before it gets to the bookkeeper. Um, and so we'll make sure that they're aware that that is the preferred uh method. But overall, I think it was a very good audit and kudos to our bookkeepers for keeping us >> Yes. >> in alignment. >> Thank you. Great. >> Thank you. >> Well, that is the end of items for information. So, we're looking at items for action at this point. Um, are there any questions about the wit and wisdom curriculum to be declared surplus? If not, if I can

141have a motion to um to declare that a surplus. >> I move we u declare the witten wisdom curriculum to be a surplus. >> Have a second. >> I'll second. >> All those in favor? >> I. That's been approved. So, we're on to the second reading of policy updates from September. There were really only three policies and they were essentially just >> verbage. >> Yeah. verbage and no changes to the content really of the policy. So, if there are no questions on those particular policies, if I can have a motion to approve um the policy updates for September. >> I'll recommend approval of the policy updates for September. >> Have a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Okay, that's been approved. The next thing we have on the agenda for

142approval, as Dr. Bleo alluded to, it's the NCPS gifted plan. Mhm. >> If you had an opportunity to look at that and you've got questions, we can bring Mr. Bleco up to discuss it. If not, may I have a motion to approve the gifted plan? >> Everybody. Okay. >> Okay. >> I make the motion that we um approve the gifted plan. >> May I have a second? >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Okay. I did I did put something up on the screen just so everybody knows like when we talk about the gifted plan it spans K through 12. >> So there are um supports and um for the the talented and gifted all throughout the experience and so I think that was really important slide to be able to see.

143>> Thank you for >> which you're approving. >> Yeah. >> Thanks for what we already approved. >> Okay. So, at this point, may I have a motion for us to go into close session? >> All right. I make a motion that we go into close session. >> As pursuant to the code, what is it? 22-37 A1 of the Virginia code of Virginia that discusses just legal matters >> uh personnel >> personel personel >> matters and then um >> and also >> legal matters pursuant to 223711A [Music] 7 of the Virginia code of Virginia. >> They have a second for that motion. >> Second. All those in favor? I >> Okay, we are now in close session. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music]