NCPS - Regular School Board Meeting - September 11, 2025

001[Music] We've made it. 12 grade school years completed. And if I'm going to be completely honest, it's hard to believe we've come so far. Today's ceremony represents the impact each graduate had at Nelson County. These experience alongside Nelson County's teachers is a once in a-lifetime experience. High school has been hard. We've been given thousands of entirely new obstacles. We have spectacularly triumphed over them. It is nothing if not hard work and persistence that has lit the fuse to the class of 2025 success. Believe in yourself that you are somebody. If you look up the nail definition of somebody, you will find a person of importance. Never place blame on anyone for your failure. When things get tough, stand tall. Continue to work towards greatness so one day everybody will say, "You know what? They were

002somebody." With our caps on our heads and our dreams in our hearts, we're finally ready to step out into the world and chase our future. And now, by virtue of the power and authority vested in me by the Commonwealth of Virginia, I do hereby declare you graduates of Nelson County High School. Please turn your tassels. Congratulations, class of 2025. Follow the horizon. Follow your heart. Chasing the unknown. Forever they take it. Forever they leave. Chasing the unknown. [Applause] Follow your heartbeat. Chasing me. Chasing the unknown. [Music] Oh, [Music] hey. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Hey everybody. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] regular September 11th um school board meeting, Nelson County School Board meeting to order. Um holy moly, I was at the bottom of the thing. Um Dr. Pester, will you lead us in the pledge

003of allegiance? 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. >> Thank you so much. Does anybody have any um comments or changes that you want to make to the agenda? No. Okay. Then I'll entertain a motion to approve the >> motion to approve the agenda as >> second. >> All in favor? >> I I >> Anybody opposed? Okay, good. Um, all right. Now we go with Dr. Hester. She's going to go over the one Nelson Awards. >> Okay, give me one second. Make sure no. Okay, there we go. Yes. Okay. Thank you very much. And Mike, I'm getting you. I'm getting here. Get my mic. Mic. Okay, good. It was funnier in my

004head. Okay. So, um now we are at that part of the evening where we do our recognitions. And the first recognitions that um I start out with for the one Nelson award. For those of you who are not familiar with the one Nelson award, it is something where um it is nomination driven. Uh we have a form that's accessible uh through Facebook, on our website, through a myriad of options. And really what it is is an opportunity to recognize those individuals that exhibit what I call the one Nelson mentality. What is that? It is that thought process that it takes all of us to help support our students, our staff, our schools, our families, and our community in being successful. So it takes place within our division, but it also takes place within our county.

005So the first category that I would like um to recognize is our student category. We recognize students. We recognize community members. We recognize our classified staff and our certified staff. So this the first individual that I would like to recognize is Mr. Landon Day. So if you will, will you please come up and stand with me? All right. In the end, I'm going to ask you to take a picture and we're going to smile at that nice lady over there. And more than likely, we're going to smile at your family as well. Or at least I'm going to. So Landon on Friday, August 15th, 2025, Mr. Day was a passenger on a school bus that was transporting him back to his residence at the conclusion of the school day. The passenger vehicle that was following

006the school bus as it traveled to Adile Road passed the bus in a very reckless manner. Landon was able to record his reckless driving behavior utilizing his cell phone and while he was seated on the school bus. The video that Landon captured was forwarded to the bus transportation department and then to the school resource division of Nelson County Sheriff's Office. School resource officer was able to identify the operator of the vehicle and charge them appropriately. This was all made possible by Landon's awareness of the situation and I also add your willingness and courage to be able to step forward and and say something. Landon is a huge supporter of not only the transportation department but bus safety in general. without his quick thinking and actions, we would not have been able to get the conviction

007in these situations. Uh, the Nelson County School Board and the Nelson County Sheriff's Office thanks him for your assistance. So, you were actually nominated by Sheriff Embry, but you were also nominated by Mr. Taylor Ashley, our our supervisor of transportation because they appreciated your efforts so much. So, I just want to say thank you so much for being willing to do that, being aware and not uh not unaware of your surroundings. So, we appreciate that. So, if you take one step to your left, we're going to smile at this nice lady right here. >> And do you all want to take a picture? All right. >> You know, mom does. >> All right. Congratulations, Mr. Em Sheriff Emry, would you like to have a picture with him? >> Sure. >> And congratulations again. We want

008to thank you very much. Uh things have already gone through court. we were able to get a conviction, but thank you for your awareness and uh diligence on this and we certainly appreciate everything. Thank you very much. >> All right. Right there. >> Right here. >> Yep. >> Perfect. Thank you so much. And I've got something for you. Hold on one second. >> Here you go. Congratulations, bud. Thank you so much. >> Here you go. Thank you very much. >> Congratulations. Thank you. [Applause] Next up, uh the group that we recognize is um our community group. And this month we want to recognize the Nelson Chamber of Commerce and Elaine Hooker with um Melanie, do you want to come up as well or are you the Okay, you're the photographer. So So Miss Hooker, will

009you please join me? You love it. All right. So, the Nelson County Chamber of Commerce is a member-based volunteer-led nonprofit community organization that provides resources and support for new and existing businesses. And they can also be seen working to fund raise and support our community by hosting uh document destruction day, family funic fundraiser, or being active in community parades, Nelson Night Out, and other events. Furthermore, the Nelson County Chamber of Commerce supports our NCPS students by sponsoring a scholarship for one of our deserving seniors. Elaine Hooker has been a long-erving member of the chamber and currently as the secretary and treasur. Her dedication and commitment to the chamber and our community is recognized and appreciated. Her presence on the chamber will be missed. We are thankful for her support of NCPS and reflection of our

010one Nelson attitude. So, what's going to happen at the end of September? I'm going to play more with my great >> grand. She's going to play more with her grant granted. How are you going to do that? Because you're retiring that position or you're letting your term expire at the end of that. So, we thank you very much for your dedication to the chamber, to Nelson County, and to all of us. We greatly appreciate it. So, thank you. >> So, we're going to smile at this nice lady right there and these several individuals right here. They're here for only you and you alone. They're just taking a lot of >> I'm just gonna hide behind you. No. Okay. Thank you so much. >> Here you go. We appreciate you. Thank you very much. Yes. Thank

011you. >> All right. Next up, we have Mr. Brandon Bailey. Will you join us, sir? [Applause] Congratulations. So Brandon is a custodian for the county offices. He's always friendly and engaging as he completes his daily tasks. He also makes sure to check in to see if there's anything additional he can do for everyone. His presence and demeanor are a positive impact around the county offices and it is a joy to interact with him daily. Brandon is always available to help the schoolboard office staff with any needs at the time of each schoolboard meeting and any other function or meeting for the school division that is held at the county offices. We appreciate his positivity and smiling face each day. So, we appreciate you very much. You're a bright spot for all of us and we

012we recognize and are thankful for everything that you do for us. So, thank you so much. Congratulations. Oh, she's moved over here. Come come towards me. So, we don't get the podium and yet we still got the podium. Okay. >> All right. >> Try avoid a lot of >> All right. Congratulations. Did you get it? >> Okay. Perfect. Let me get you your mug. [Applause] There you go, sir. Thank you so much. All right. >> All right. And last, but certainly not least, Misty Ferguson, join me, please. Congratulations. All right. Misty consistently goes above and beyond to help administrators, other teachers and staff, and especially myself as her mentee. So, I think that gives away the nomination. She volunteers to make schedules or documents, spreadsheet in spreadsheets for people, events, and other things that are

013not within her job description. And she does it all with a smile on her face. She also creates staffed I didn't write this. Someone else wrote this. I'm not kidding. I believe it. I feel like someone else. Oh, okay. Okay. All right. That's other duties as required. That's it's under there. She No, you don't have to read it. I'm reading it. And she does it all with a smile. Okay, there you go. She uh does it all with a smile on her face just like this. She also creates staff bonding experiences through afterchool activities. She has made the transition for me Michaela uh to Tyra River Elementary in NCPS so smooth and comfortable. and she goes out of her way to be kind to every person in our building and help them as much as

014she can. I have often thought to myself, how does she do it all? This girl needs a raise. [Music] From day from day, this is how it works. From day one, I could tell that Misty was really special and I lucked out with getting her as my mentor. So, we want to say congratulations to you and we're going to take a picture right here and then we're going to turn over there. Are we in? Does the podium? >> Okay. Okay. All right. So, here you go. We're going to act like we like each other. >> Okay. We're going to come over here. Ker. No, you were good. >> Okay. >> Oh my gosh. >> Okay. Well, we're gonna get a picture with her. >> Misty wrote it. No, she did not write it. Like, >>

015who said that? >> Nope. She did not pay me to write that, guys. We can't get this right. >> All right. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Let me grab your mug. >> All right. >> You still up there? >> I'm still up here. >> Clearly of new staff members. >> Okay. Mr. Did Mr. Gray make it? No. Oh, too bad. Okay. So, um, as you walked in this evening, you saw kind of off to the corner in the hallway, um, our one Nelson sign and a little kind of buffet, if you will, and a reception to be able to, uh, celebrate and recognize our new staff. Why didn't we do this last month? Because it was the second day of school and things were super busy. So, we wanted to be able to um take

016some time in September, invite some people that's still super busy, but I do want to say uh welcome to all of our new staff and all of their various positions. They've had um as of tomorrow a month with us, and so we're so excited to have them. And I want to just say thank you. And uh when I call your name, will you please stand just so people can recognize um you as a new staff member? Michaela Casher. Michaela. Michaela is um a school counselor at Tai River Elementary School. Next up, Aaron McCaffrey. There you are, Aaron. [Applause] Welcome to Nelson County. And uh Aaron is a math teacher at the high school. So, welcome, Ella. Uh yes, in the back, Ella. Ella Gleason is our new art teacher at the high school along with

017a future educator that will be here. Um, and Hannah Collins, Hannah Collins is our new principal. She's standing in the back is our new principal at the middle school. And last but not least, this is her uh well uh Michaela and Jennifer Stacks. This is their second uh schoolboard meeting they've gotten to attend. So Jennifer, where'd you go? You're right there. Jennifer Stacks. She is our adapted curriculum teacher over at the middle school. We want to say thank you so much for joining our team and family. Uh we're so happy that you're here. Welcome and we wish the best for you all. So, thank you so much. And those are our recognitions for our new staff. [Applause] >> All right. Comments from board members. Um Miss Jer Giles, you want to start? >> Yeah. I'd

018just like to say it was great um having the opportunity to meet some of you. I didn't make it all the way around the circle. My apologies for that, but just welcome to Nelson and we are so excited that you are making Nelson your home. So, thank you for being here. Um also just want to thank everyone. The school year is off to a great start and just looking forward to uh more good news to come. >> Thank you, Mr. Chief. >> Yes. Uh welcome to all of our new staff members. I don't think I got to meet I might have gotten to meet everybody that is here today. Uh but we really want to welcome you all uh to the team to the family. Um looking forward to great things. Um definitely it's been

019a great year uh start to the year. Um football team's doing fantastic. The kids are doing great in school. I had the opportunity to attend grandparents day at Ty River um the other day and that was really good. Um had a lot of fun with that and my grandson did too. Um, so that's that. And also, um, I don't like the word anniversary because it's not appropriate, but today is the 24th, um, commemoration, I guess, or remembrance of 911. Um, and, you know, I think it's important that we remember that um, what happened on that day. I think it's important that we teach our kids about what happened that day. Um and unfortunately yesterday um a man named Charlie Kirk was killed um because somebody didn't agree with what he said. And it's not lost

020on me that he was 31 when he died. I was 31 when 9/11 happened and I've got a 31-year-old daughter. Um this is senseless and we should all um and his life's no more or less important than anybody else's. it it's it's not right for anybody to be killed because they have something to say that somebody ag disagrees with. But but I hope we are going to teach our kids better than this. Um and and I I hope and pray for our country that uh this kind of senselessness will stop at some point because freedom of speech um that's part of the first amendment and that's the most important one and we've got to be able to have that even when people don't agree with it. Thank you very much, Mr. Perkins. >> I just

021want to thank everybody for coming out tonight, all the new employees. Um, great to see everybody. And, uh, ditto what been said before about the beginning of the school year, the sports and all that stuff. It's great to see things progressing forward. And um I also got to attend grandparents day with my granddaughter and it was um it w it went very smoothly. It was nice to see everybody and um see some people that I hadn't seen in a while and it was well put together and um the way it was organized it moved a whole lot felt a better flow this year than it had in the past. So, thanks for having us and um good luck the rest of the year to the new teachers and the students. Also, >> welcome to the

022new teachers. It was nice to meet the ones that were here. You guys bring such good energy and I can't wait to see all the great things that you're going to do over your lifetime here because once you're here, we don't let you leave. So, you're stuck now. >> Um it's always really nice to meet you to the one Nelson winners. Um Brandon already left. Landon, well done. We love to see when our kids do the right thing and sometimes the right thing's not always the easy thing to do and way to stand up. Congratulations. Well recognized. Um, nobody said that Miss Mrs. Hooker, how many years on the Chamber of Commerce? Because I'll call it out. >> 46 years. That's a commitment to our community. >> Yes. That's huge. I don't know. I'm a

023little bit older than that. Just a little bit. but I don't remember a time when you weren't involved in the chamber. So, thank you for your commitment to the schools and to the community. Um, so it was a great start to the school year. We had the opportunity to Caesar and I joined a football game and some volleyball games and some other good stuff. But the one thing that I see from our kids and I will I will stand and shout it from the rooftops. The kids are so good at sportsmanship. You know, you go to these events and we're competitive and we want to win, but I would watch even at the football game, I would watch the kids knock the fire out of somebody, knock them down, tackle them, reach down, hand them

024up, pat them on the back. The sportsmanship is incredible and that says a lot about our kids. So, off to a good school year, but even better off to kids being good human beings. Well, thank you very much. Um, and I just wanted to say also thank you to the new students, all of the teachers, new students, new uh teachers. I'm sorry, I'm confused now. Um, the energy, you know, that we felt in this school year, I think, has really been remarkable. So, I'm very excited about watching how it turns out. Um, I was able to go to the candidate forum that the chamber um held at the Nelson Center and uh that was pretty interesting. If you get an opportunity, if you weren't able to attend to listen to the recording, I don't even

025know where it's published, but it's is it on your website? >> It'll be on our Facebook and website. Okay. And we have a YouTube that has better sound. >> Yes, I heard about that. Yeah. So, yeah. No, I mean, you should listen because uh there's going to be quite a few seats that are up this November. And voting is a really important thing. And for high school students, too, if you're 17 by the or going to be 18 by the election, you're eligible to vote. Um, so make sure you get registered, make sure you vote. Your voice always matters. So it's important uh civic responsibility to to go out and vote. So that's um that's something I'm asking everybody to do and uh do it with your heart. Think about the schools when you're doing

026it. So all right, let's keep going. Um important dates. Mandy, is there anything you want to uh Sorry, Dr. Hester, is there anything you want to uh call out specifically on this important dates? I do I do want to uh draw really to two two specific things but kind of all of it. Uh family engagement opportunity is coming up this Monday evening. Um no legs no problem being hosted by uh Rohan Mur uh Murphy who was a college wrestler I believe at Penn State. He was a power wrestler and someone who very adept at overcoming obstacles one of which was being born without legs. uh and so he is going to to speak to our kids and also have an evening event. So we're pretty excited about that um engagement opportunity and that's Monday evening

027um uh free dinner uh if you um are there at 6 p.m. and then presentation that starts at 6:30. The next is Constitution Day. Much like 911, I know our elementary schools had some events and and activities today as well as the middle school. Um each school actually had certain educational activities dedicated to um kind of really learning, understanding, remembering this day. Um but we also do the same for Constitution Day, which is coming up on uh the 17th of September. So that's coming up next week. Um homecoming, very exciting time, is Friday, October 3rd. So we will be doing our division tailgate again and I think looking to perhaps expand it to our community as well. Um, and then last but not least, we do have a, you know, we're talking about being involved

028and educated citizens. We have a BSBA legislative advocacy conference that I will be attending um, in Chesterfield on the 19th just to make sure that we stay a breast of all the legislation and potential um, items coming um, as we enter into this new season. >> Thank you very much. >> Now, you just keep on going. Just keep on rolling. >> All right. comments for the superintendent. >> I am going to hit up on Why are you um okay? I'm going to switch this over. We're going to do that. Okay. So, first of all, comments. Um as I I alluded to introducing our new staff, tomorrow will be September 12th and we will been in school for a month. the school year has gotten off to a good start as as you all have mentioned

029and I appreciate all the hard work uh from everyone to prepare one for the start of the school year and coming in with an attitude of making it a great year. Our fall sports and activities are underway. A lot of things have been taking place. Um, I had the the privilege of watching two of our BRVGS um, seniors present to the board of supervisors earlier this week and they they presented their project uh, proposal and that was to establish a sister city or like a sister community with Nelson County and they wanted to be able to explain the purpose of their capstone project and also to get support of the board for this endeavor and they did a fantastic job presenting. So, I just that was a a real pleasure for me and I got

030to share that at a BRVGS board meeting yesterday that they were able to do that. Um, I'm excited to say that our afterchool program, we had individuals from MAC come out and update you last board meeting um to say that it was getting off the ground. Why isn't I doing that? What's happening? Um, that it is taking place. So, we do have our afterchool program at both our elementary schools. So, that is very exciting for me because that means we're being able to provide a service for our families of students that are in need at those at those two schools. Um, as I mentioned, we do have that community engagement event coming up and uh I too was able to attend the candidate forum um held at the Nelson Center and just really appreciated the

031opportunity to be able to listen to both the school board and the board of supervisor candidates. So, um, that was, uh, a very informative opportunity. So, those are my comments. So, we're going to roll right into the pathways to success. Um, I always enjoy being able to do this because it highlights a lot of the things in a divisionwide measure that we are doing um, to reach our goals. Is it not? What is it not doing? Ah, okay. Thank you. Um, so for administrative side, processing volunteer applications. This is the season where we start to get a lot of our applications. I appreciate all of our community members wanting to be a part of supporting our schools. I would say be a little patient. We do have a little bit of a transition in our

032HR department. Um, as we are on boarding a new employee um, and that a part of that goes through that office and it is a lot that goes on. Um, we are small but mighty and so we are learning how to do all this and so I would say be patient. We're processing it. We're doing the background checks to make sure that we bring in um, really great individuals to work with our children. um also processing our annual school report. So that's a really big aspect financially and overall to be able to report back um to the states. We're interviewing for administrative HR administrative assistant. We've just onboarded someone which that did in turn create an opening at a different location. So anybody knows someone interested in being a bookkeeper at the middle school, please

033let us know. also part of the lead and water testing notification at Rockfish and then working on a a workers compensation audit and okay can someone help me out there appreciate that. Um in terms of instruction assessment and accreditation um met with the United Way uh greater Charlottesville to understand and develop a plan. We h do have an individual from the United Way here with us and when we get to the part of the meeting where we talk about Head Start, that individual will join us. Also wrote and submitted VTSS. We talk about multi-tiered levels of support. We have that program in our schools and so we're working to make sure that we're submitting those grants and really um being strategic about how we uh identify what our goals and strategies are. um collaborated with

034Esau teams to assess and develop schedules. Collaborated with instructional um team and technology team to begin developing approval and vetting process of instructional software which is key for us. Um anybody in elementary schools at this time of year is very well aware of Val's testing. Um, every every testing year brings its own little challenges and we had our little hiccups um through the platform, but our teachers and uh staff did a fantastic job being able to stay committed to working through that. Um, also working with our title one teams, collaborative partners and walkthroughs with our sped department and um working with other businesses and agencies to potentially expand our CTE programming um and our workbased learning opportunities. Uh, a couple examples. I know we've talked about this. We did expand some of our partnerships. We

035do have some students attending K-H uh for some programs, but we're also looking to to see how we can uh partner with PVCC for engineering tech program. Um, also working to see how we can do wintergreen apprenticeships. So, we're really looking to be able to provide multiple pathways for all different um kind of populations of our students and what their interests and passions are. Um we also updated um certain recommendations and process for our ISET program. So our instructional team has been super busy working through it. I do appreciate Mr. Bleco if you can go back once. I was going to highlight your Reversa Robotics. This is a grant that we're working to bring in um an organization that will u I think was it eight staff members that they'll train? Eight staff members that

036they'll train to work with these programs and be working with our students every week. And as a result, we'll also be able to have access and continued access to uh 3D printers and so robotics and some other things. So again, we know you go from engineering and other um EMS and and fire uh opportunities to then robotics and that's at our middle school level. So we're working to kind of make sure we bring down those career um inventories and passion exploration at our earlier grades as well. Next slide, please. Our pupil personnel collaborative partner walkthroughs. This is one thing to be able to really understand what's taking place in our classroom in the environments that we have not only for our students but also for our um educators also special education teachers to learn how

037to implement. We have an updated Woodcock Johnson test that is uh given. So working to to really become aware and knowledgeable of that toward the new Ivy Creek building. We've been talking about Ivy Creek for a while. It's been newly located um in its new building formerly the uh American National University. Really cool. um off of 29. Um so it's a it's a great space. Our VCU RTTC is providing weekly support. So working with um all of our students to be able to provide the supports. One of which is also working with Intercept Health and LifeBridge Counseling. Um in some of our pieces of legislation, you'll hear a lot of our uh the general assembly talk about how can we expand some mental health resources for our students. One of which is teleaalth opportunities, also

038um sitebased supports. So, we're working to really do what we can to support our students and and our staff. Um, working with lead special education teachers and special education advisory meeting that was held this uh I believe this week. Um, our the first help desk of the school year is scheduled at Rockfish on September 25th. for you uh who are forgetting what that help desk is. It's an opportunity for our sped team to go into the schools and teachers can sign up and stop by and ask any questions whether you're a gened teacher or sped teacher to ask any questions that you might have about special education and the resources and what can be done to support our students. And then our first IOP which what does that stand for? Inclusive placement opportunities for our

039preschoolers. That meeting will at JMU will be held in person on the on the 26th. So, a lot of things going on with our sped and student services, human resources and communications. Um, we have obviously our our staff uh new staff onboarding and recognitions. Um, also processed uh an approval for $11,000 in tuition reimbursements for the 2425 title 2 grant. Um, coordinated and communicated assignments through E-RIP are are individuals who have retired but still are interested in giving back to our schools. um that takes some coordination to be able to do that and make sure that we put some highly qualified individuals in some vacancies and spots and supports that really can benefit their skills with what our needs are. Um drafted and shared cultural competency training. It's required by the state that we do

040this. So um shared the the video and the link to make sure that we are uh maintaining our level of training and preparedness um in all areas. Successfully rolled out teacher evaluation system. Continue processing new hire work. We still have a couple vacancies left that we're working to fill. Um, one of which you see right there, please. Oh, well, that's our um, invitation to recognizing our staff. But, as I mentioned earlier, our bookkeeper opening, we have a custodian opening. So, we we have a couple things that we're looking to fill for technology. Um, our fiber project meeting with Mosley designs to make sure that, you know, the architecture aspect is is joining appropriately with what our technology needs, not only for right now, but for our future. um instruction and the technology team met to

041discuss current platforms that teachers use. I referenced that with um instructional technology and platforms. That's so important when they're coming from our third parties to make sure that we're getting the right um resources and that we have it set up in a safe manner. We uh we received a state and local cyber security grant um and for uh for the application for vulnerability project and a focus to obtain thirdparty services to provide vulnerability scan. Um more and more we're seeing the um cyber security attacks not only of big organ organizations and businesses but of schools and school divisions and we have some pretty critical um data and information. So we are doing everything we can to make sure we are protecting ourselves and our students and staff. Um so we have cyber security training that

042is continuing throughout the year. Oh okay you go back. There we go. um maintenance work to prep the athletic complex for the season's first football game. Everything has a a a unique aspect to it. Um sometimes you start things up and everything's working and then you recognize there's a short and then it's the the process of finding that short and finding what's taking place. Um they've been busy keeping the grounds equipment up and running. It's grass mowing season. Although we haven't had a whole lot of rain recently, it still requires a lot of maintenance. Uh we had a sprinkler pipe repairs and replacement scheduled uh for earlier in September at Tai River. U members of the maintenance team attended a webinar late August with the VDH to learn about additional water testing. Um Rockfish is

043our one uh school that we do still have on a well and so being able to maintain those um testing um responsibilities. I met with the Nelson building inspector and uh the state fire marshall to inspect new fire dampers that were installed that you can see in that middle bottom picture. Um and intend attend renovation progress meetings twice a month. Uh the most recent meeting took place earlier today. Um and that takes place with our uh contractors, subcontractors, those individuals working on the high school renovation project. Um for our transportation is working hard covering all of our routes. Um, I just appreciate the thought process that goes into being able to cover not only all of our routes, but all the activities that we have scheduled. Um, like I said, we're in full swing for

044sports. That requires all our drivers taking our student athletes safely out to their different competition uh sites. Um, thanks goes out to Mr. Justin Derky, our auto mechanics teacher. You see some pictures in the uh far left part of that. And these students from last year and this year are taking on a huge tack of swapping out one of our old engines on bus 48 with a new one. So you talk about work-based learning opportunities and really um skills that are easily translated into an employable opportunity. This is it. Um the task not only allowed us to get the bus back and running selfishly for our transportation but also giving our students the opportunity to get um work experience that is easily relatable into the workforce. Every school year we're required to provide safety training

045uh for prek through first grade students on bus safety. So you see those middle pictures. Students are learning a lot about what to do and how to handle certain situations. Um, all we have a new field trip form as many of you will notice that we have uh two field trips that we're looking to approve this year. We have a new form to try to streamline and make it more of efficient process. And so I appreciate some feedback that we've already gotten. We've already sent a message out to those um filling out these applications like we need that detail. We need we need to know what's going on. But it's also a really great way to make sure that all the approval process takes place in the manner that it needs to. Um we've been

046able to deploy our weapons detectors. Those of you who have been able to join us at after school events, you've noticed that we have our weapons detectors taking place at indoor events like volleyball, but also our outdoor events like our football. And I appreciate we've had some schoolboard members really kind of come out and be able to observe how it's operating. So, I appreciate that. Um, I feel like it's going really well. We do want to thank our community for being supportive of it, but also patient. You know, anytime you roll something out like this, um, it takes a little bit to be able to just kind of say, "Okay, I think we can make this better." And I appreciate everybody who's been um whether it's Mr. Taylor, Mr. Walker, the assistant principles, um Miss

047Collins, um and all the teachers that have been working that they've been so great in being able to do this in a way that still maintains a welcoming environment and in in kind of making sure everybody feels good about it. So, I appreciate that. Also, crisis plans. Um uh we asked for the approval this evening of our um divisionwide crisis plan. And this is something not only that we're required, but in this day and age, we we've got to constantly be able to to make sure we have the most up-to-date um strategies to deal with any kind of crisis and that we review them quite frequently. And then last but not least, uh driver Donald Bell assisted in traveling to Charlottesville. And I think you see this picture in the upper right hand corner um

048to all blessings flow to pick up some wheelchairs and a rolling desk that were donated to some uh for some of our students and upgrading our current wheelchairs. So we appreciate that support from the community. Um starting uh back in early September on the 2nd uh we started serving afterchool snacks to the afterchool care when that was at Rockfish and Tai River. Um implemented a cold serving line at the middle in the high school in the first day of school and it seems to be going pretty well. Um three new part-time employees were hired. Um we also starting taste test Tuesdays and you see some of those I think those are green beans uh was it I think at Rockfish. um being able to serve taste tests for some of these products. Um when I

049do my one-on-one visits with students, they love it. They love the opportunity to be able to do the taste test and they, you know, especially the ones they really like, they want to see it come back and come back quickly and um and you see them as the fan favorite was the mac and cheese and that's the tray you see in the upper left um pictured at Tai River. Um, it's always good that, you know, um, coming up with these meals isn't always easy because we operate under USDA and under the school of nutrition plans and programs. And so there's really specific criteria that we follow, but as I've talked about the last meeting, we try really really hard to insert those opportunities for scratch and close to scratch cooking um, as best as we

050can and we try um, everything that we can to to to purchase and supply local. Um, so if you can hit that one more button, it should give us some numbers. All right. So, for August student breakfast numbers, we served about 7,977 breakfasts and oh, I missed a a number there. And I think about um about 12,000 I missed a one in there. About 12,000 uh lunches. So, we are in full effect of being able to support our students and making sure that our students are not hungry because when you're hungry, you can't learn very well. Community engagement. Can you hit one? There you go. Appreciate that. It's a little slow on the uptake there. um SNAP communications. We talk about making sure we can provide food for our families. Um so our um nutrition

051team nutrition is working to be able to um offer that SNAP opportunities for community. Um talked about the uh bottom left the uh community engagement opportunity that we have coming up on Monday. Rockfish had a glow night which it sound like it had a lot of fun and enthusiasm taking place and I really appreciate about how they celebrate those um community events um through their different platforms like social media. Um our first high school football game of the season, we had a great crowd. Um, and I think Miss Powell touched on it is just the palpable energy and positive spirit that was present at that game and not only our students but our staff and our community. Um, so I appreciate that as well and the collective effort to educate and promote the safety and

052security that's taking place at our events. Um, and our students contributing to that by making videos to try to um, put that out there and and be able to let everybody know what's taking place. Um, our second football game last Friday honored our first responders. So, it's always great to be able to recognize our first responders and be able to to to celebrate them at halftime. And then, uh, the middle school this morning, um, was able to pay tribute to, uh, 911. And then our, um, Tai River Elementary School students and families were able to collect and have a a family game night. So, we are working really hard to make sure we are providing those opportunities um for our families and our schools to come together and be able to create that relationship. And

053the last slide we have here is as Mr. Cheap brought up is um today is 911, the 24th year um uh post 911. We just want to uh remember those that lost their lives and the heroic responders and um the country that came together and mourned that experience together. So, um we don't forget that. we honor that. Um each of our schools had activities and events to educate and honor that. Um and it's important u we did activities joined with the county as well. So we just appreciate the thoughtfulness on that. And that is our pathways to success. If you have any questions, let me know. >> Thank you. >> It's always a lot. It's very busy. Now we have our comments from our student representative since would you please you know tell us who

054you are and how you why you're in this position to how you got here. >> Um my name is um I was here last year but I'm just here to spread the word the school. So I'm very appreciative. So thank you. Um, I just want to say start by saying thank y'all for the amount of support y'all show in the stands. I don't I personally look forward to home games because of the support the community shows. So, I just want to say thank y'all. Um, like we said, we're two and 0. Hopefully, uh, we can continue to win. Um but yeah um our Lady Gubs are currently in action tonight with their uh second uh Dongo district uh game against Chadam. So good luck to them and like the Dr. H said uh two of

055our uh BRVGS seniors are working to uh provide a sister city for um Nelson which I think is a a great thing for counseling project. But um like them and uh the rest of us are working hard to uh find ways to get the community more involved. Thank you. >> And when I want to thank uh Mr. Turner because I think he's very interested in in not only representing um to the school board but also representing the students and and I make more of a commitment to making sure that I can come out and and work with you and get that comfort level being able to work with our like student governments and being able to make sure that that student voice and also I want to be able to take you to some other

056schools to be able to get that global student voice as well. And I think he's a a wonderful ambassador of the student body um to not only the board but to us and to everyone. I appreciate that because that's not easy even just what you did. It's not easy presenting to a bunch of people just kind of looking back at you. And so I appreciate it and and and also say like the growth as you said you did this last year and the growth and the comfort level of being able to do that. So you know you definitely see how you're you're um you're growing and and kind of embracing that. So I appreciate that. Yeah. >> Thank you. so much. Um, any comments from All right. I like when we skip that section. Um,

057all right. Now, we're up to our consent agenda. I will say if anybody's in the audience and they want to split, you're welcome to stay. We'd love to have you here, but now is a good time to if you want to get gone and go home and have dinner or whatever, you feel free. Um so our consent agenda consists of the meeting minutes second reading June 12th meeting minutes second reading June 27th special called meeting and then our registars from August 2025. Does anybody have any questions or any comments? I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> I move we approve the consent agenda as presented. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? >> I. All right. No, nobody says no, so we're good. All right. Thank you very much. And now we're

058on for items for information. The first item is the meeting minutes. Our first reading from the August 14th meeting. Um please if you will look those over if you haven't already and give any comments to our uh our clerk. Um that would be great. Um now we want to is this >> okay? >> Are the information correct? >> Yeah. Yeah. We're on B introduction of our new uh >> SRO at >> so I just want to invite um Sheriff Embry and SRO Richardson up and you like to introduce him formally as >> well Dr. professor. Thank you very much. And uh thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. U I have with me uh our new school resource officer. This is Deputy Robert Richardson. Uh he just started this year. He is at Rockfish

059Elementary School doing a phenomenal job. Um Deputy Richardson has been with our agency for three years. Uh prior to that, he was with uh corrections uh in Lynchburg at Blue Ridge Regional Jail. He has done a phenomenal job for us. uh just went through SRO school. He has served public safety uh EMS. So he is a perfect fit. Loves Rockfish, loves working with school children. We wouldn't be couldn't be more blessed and proud to have not just him but Lieutenant Brandon and our other SRO's that are occupying all of our schools. So um I just want to say welcome aboard to you and thank you very much. Um I just wanted to echo for a couple of minutes congratulations to all the new employees here. I have not been before the board uh since this

060summer. I wanted to say that uh our cop camp was extremely successful. We had two weeks. We averaged, I believe, 15 campers per week for a total of 30 campers. Um great time, two great field trips. I want to say thank you for the utilization of the uh Ty River Elementary School for that venue and for the middle school. We had uh active shooter training this year that uh we incorporated uh not just our agency winter green but multiple agencies of first responders that would be coming god forbid if anything was to ever happen here but we are staying on that. Uh echoing another great uh first month of school. We are um as far as providing zero tolerance in our school zones both morning and afternoons. Uh we are on that. We will continue

061to assist buses getting out and anything that we can do from our standpoint. We love the uh the working relationship with Dr. Hester uh this body and anything that we can do our office is always available to you all. So anyway, keep up the great work and thank you all and thank you very much and welcome. >> Thank you. >> Awesome. Now we get a head start. Yeah, get a head start on that. >> Yeah, get a head start on it. >> I'm going to invite someone up with me real quick. Um, I think if you'll remember back, I believe starting about March or April, so last spring, we had a transition from MACA serving as our Head Start provider to CDI. Um, and CDI was always meant to be an interim uh providing agency

062was not meant to be long-term. And um as of a month ago was it? We see that um the United Way of Charlottesville, Greater Charlottesville um be able to be granted the opportunity to serve as a a providing um pass through agent for our Head Start program. And with me today is Mrs. Meredith Lacassio um vice president of um >> school readiness. And so she is an individual that we've worked really um closely with over the last month to try to work through how do we transition into um a new provider for our head start. Um do you want to add anything? I can kind of provide a little bit more detail about the plan, but I didn't know if you wanted to share anything. >> Sure. Thank you guys so much for having me.

063Um it's a pleasure to be here today. We are super excited to have this grant come to Charlottesville to stay. Um if you remember uh MACA relinquished the grant about a year ago and CDI took over as the interim. Um as Dr. Hester said um as part of that we have came together as a community to apply for the Head Start grant with partners from the school divisions. So United Way will not serve as an operator for any of the actual Head Start classrooms. The model that we have in place is that we will pass funding through to the school divisions to be able to then serve students inside the schools. We also have an early head start program that's going to be run in partnership with Ready Kids and um possibly a center, possibly

064a school division if they're interested in having a classroom that early head start is really three and under um and also includes pregnant moms. So, we've got some really great things planned and are are really looking to get this rolling. Uh the last piece I'd add before I'll pass it back to you is that it was a very short timeline. So we had 60 days to turn this around from CDI to United Way to our school division partners. So um just really appreciative of the support and hard work of Dr. Hester and her team in looking through how do we get this and not have a disruption of services for our students in those classrooms. >> Yeah. And I think that's the key part is is trying to minimize or eliminate the disruption of service.

065So CDI will carry the Head Start program up to September 30th and starting October 1st um that that kind of overall um approach is now transitioning to where the schools we will then kind of bring on our own employees to be able to serve as these teachers in these classrooms. We want to continue with the model that we have right now in that we have a head start class at each of our elementary schools. Rockfish in Tai River. We are at the max at 17 in each. Um so we don't want to disrupt that service to them and also we want to maintain our VPI classrooms. And I want to say thank you to Jodie Coffee and Heather Coughlin um Scott Bleo uh Rachel Reidinger um um Crystal Chot uh for being able to take

066the time and Miss Shannon Irvin to take the time to sit down and figure out how do we make this work because we know it's important that the sooner we can get to our students to provide those opportunities for education the the greater success that they have on through. So we know that. So we do want to continue that model. We'll have to re re-evaluate in the spring exactly how we want to um support it. We want to support it moving forward. It's a five-year grant. Um we know that we want to continue with it. Do we want it to continue the way that it looks right now? Um the least disruptive way is to absorb these individuals as our employees, but then also make sure that we continue with these classrooms. And so, um

067that's kind that's our current plan right now. And like we said, moving forward, it may look a little bit different, but we still want to continue with our Head Start programs and our partnership with United Way. When she talks about the pass through, it's that funding aspect of passing through. Um, so it becomes we become a little bit more intimately involved in the day-to-day operations of how it works by still abiding by the guidelines of Head Start. Um, so we we want to continue with this process. It's been um an interesting last year and a half um to speak. But we want to continue to provide these opportunities for our students and their families because there's a lot of wraparound services that come with Head Start and a lot of other things that take place

068due to the qualifying criteria of these students and these families. So, I appreciate your work and your effort and our whole team's work um to be able to continue with this. We just wanted to be able to update you on that because that deadline is coming very quickly in the communication with to our families is happening through CDI, but we'll also have to let them know what the current plan is as we move forward. So, I want you all to be aware of that in our community to know that we intend on honoring that and continuing with it. >> Totally appreciate all your hard work >> and good luck because I know it ain't over. I'm I'm just really impressed with how you guys, you know, keeping the focus on don't disrupt. You know, the

069kids, they don't know they don't know what's go, you know, that anything is changing. And you guys are working really, really hard to make sure that it is seamless like that. And and I appreciate that a lot because I know that this is probably our most vulnerable group of, you know, people in the community. So, it's really Thank you. And some of these individuals have been working with Head Start have been dedicated to this for a while. And we would love to be able to to continue that relationship and partnership with those um those individuals because they have done a lot and they have continued with this and so we want to be able to keep that in mind. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. >> Um so now we get to

070so updates and accomplishments. Is this you Dr. Hester. >> Um, this is not me. I have invited a few of my friends. Um, my first friend is going to be Colobby Lopez, who is I know I I'm mean like that. Um, Colby is presenting on behalf of Rockfish River Elementary School. Um, unfortunately, Miss Coffee was not able to make it. Um, she has a family commitment this evening. Um, but Miss Lopez, is this your first time presenting in front? Yes. They're a friendly group. They're going to be fine. >> Um, okay. So, this is now working all of a sudden. >> So, I'm going to put that in your hands. You get to do that. Exactly. >> It'll work till you hit it the first time. >> And so, what we wanted to be able

071to do is provide our schools an opportunity to highlight the great things that they're doing. And particularly, we're coming into that season where there's a lot of so data that is being released, presented. Um, and I wanted you guys to be able to hear firsthand how how are our schools and our students doing. Um, and so this is really the purpose of being able to have our our schools present out so you can you know I got to do the pathways to success and brag about the great things at the division level. This is the opportunity where you you know we talk about where's our money? It's going right here and this is we're seeing the trends and the outcomes that we want to be seeing and moving in the direction. So I wanted to

072be able to have these individuals um share out and highlight that. Thank you, Dr. Hester. Um, good evening everyone. Like Dr. Hester said, my name is Colobby Lopez. I'm the assistant principal at Rockfish River Elementary School and I also serve as the Esau coordinator for the school division. I'm excited to share some updates with you tonight. And first, um, we'll take a look at where we've been over this past year, the progress that we've made, and then where we're headed as we continue to grow as a school community. So, we'll start by looking at some recent data. So looking at this data, I'm really proud to share uh that we've seen growth in reading, math, and science. In particular, our science score um jumped from 72% to 80%, which is a huge success for our

073students and teachers. Um while we had some slight dips in history, we do um see this as a focus area for this school year. So something we're going to really um work on to to improve that this year. Uh, one concern that we're watching very closely is our chronic absenteeism rate. So, you'll see there that it rose from 7.5% to 10.2%. And we know, um, how this directly impacts student achievement. Last year, uh, we were also working with new math and ELA standards, um, which shaped both how we're teaching our students and, um, how we're assessing them, but it also drove our efforts in student engagement. So, you'll see the picture on the left. U,, we've introduced a new ELA curriculum that builds strong literacy skills for all students. And we're starting to see the

074gains um, just having implemented that new curriculum last year. We are really looking at some good uh numbers in the area of English language arts and how that new curriculum has um served our students um where they are now as we were doing the Val testing that Dr. Hester spoke about earlier. Um, and so this new curriculum, we're seeing the gains from our beginning readers that you see here in this picture, all the way up to those students who are ready for some enrichment and some continuing support um in evolving as readers. The next picture there features um our book buddies initiative uh where we paired students, older students. It was a fifth grade student with um a kindergarten student um paired them together for a learning opportunity or reading opportunity together. Um and so

075that was something that one of our um school improvement squads um headed up last year. So it was another great opportunity for that kind of cross in the learning between the different grade levels and supporting that love for reading. Um we like to highlight that our students are problem solvers. So in this picture um you see where our teachers bring science alive through experiments and engaging projects like what's pictured here which is uh chicks that are hatching in a first grade classroom. So the students got to witness that um that process and it was very exciting for them to come in every day and see the chicks how they've progressed in their hatching and it was a really uh great opportunity for them. And finally the last picture there um students exhibit creativity and communication

076skills um through history such as with the creation of the living wax museum where important Virginia and uh US historical figures are represented. So the students take time to research uh these important historical figures. Um they they work very hard in coming up with their costume that matches um that time period and and what they think that person would have worn then. Um and they prepare something to share with an audience and we invite parents to come in um and students throughout the school come through the hallways and stop and hear a little bit about each of those um historical figures. So these efforts are um of course about more than just raising test scores. They're about building confident, capable learners. And alongside these academic efforts, we've been intentional about connecting with our families and

077our community. So family and community engagement is such a vital part of what we do. Um last year we had our very successful Willy Wonka Jr. production which brought together so many students and families and staff and community members and really highlighted um the wonderful talents of our students. So those pictures there, the three pictures on the left um show some scenes from that wonderful production. Um the other pictures feature some other um either evening or weekend or actually some during the school day as well events where um we invite families in the community into the building. So, we have our annual Veterans Day event which is coming up in November. Um that is usually very well attended uh by the community. Um we have events such as literacy night where um families come in

078with their students and learn alongside them playing games. Um and featured at the bottom right hand corner is a student after our uh annual spring fun run or color run as it's become in the last few years. So um events like these help us to create strong partnerships. um and bring families into our schools in meaningful ways. We've seen that when families are engaged, students attend school more regularly, achieve at higher levels, and feel more connected to their school. Um and of course, that's our our goal. So, as we look ahead, um continuing to strengthen these partnerships will remain one of our top priorities. So lastly, um as we move into this new school year, just want to um focus on our our four main goals that we have. So first, we want to continue

079um building on our academic growth and keep that positive momentum going. Second, we need to bring our chronic absenteeism numbers down. Uh this will take a team effort, tracking attendance carefully, supporting families, and working with students to help them understand why being present matters. Uh we currently have um a focus group. We're working actually with our VTSS team specifically in that area of improving attendance. So we're focusing our efforts in that group toward that. Um next we'll keep deepening our family and community engagement through events, partnerships, and volunteer opportunities. I also want to make a quick plug. We are so fortunate. We have a very um supportive parent group, the PT Eagles. um and they really are supportive in some of those. Um we really have something monthly going on whether it's based up the

080from the PT Eagles and it's more of a fun thing that's happening or if it's something more academic related but um we really appreciate the support that they give to our school. Um and then finally we'll focus on the portrait of a Nelson County graduate and how we can continue to incorporate the five C's into our daily teaching and learning. All of these goals will work together to help us create the best possible learning environment for our students at Rockfish. >> Thank you so much. >> Yes, you're welcome. >> And I'm going to hijack that. Like if you if you notice, you've seen all the five C's >> in that slide right there. And it's important to integrate that. >> Good job. >> All right. Who's the lucky winner? Oh, Ty River, >> Miss Lopez,

081very nice job. Now I have to follow that. Good evening. Um, I am Heather Coughlin. I'm the principal at Tyber Elementary School. I'm going to share a little bit of information about our school year from last year. We're going to start with data, of course, but our first picture, Sharon Aldridge. I think she was here as kind of one of our spirit people um at the end of the school year. We had a contest of um dressing up for showing spirit um and she won that. We have our tiger there in the middle and then we have every year reading rodeo and so that's a big event at the end of school year. So that is one of our students at our photo opportunity um with her new lips and her bandana that she acquired

082that day. So >> I keep forgetting that >> on the right. >> The right. >> All right. So, um, we do different assessments other than SOS. So, we're going to talk a little bit about that. Um, one of the things that we will talk about in the next couple slides are our new vows assessments, but this is, um, our STAR assessment. We do this three times a year as well. Um, and one of the things I just want to highlight in reading and math. You'll see that as um, on the next slide. There is over a year's worth of growth in each of our grade levels. Um that growth is because of our teachers, our dedication of our teachers, our dedication to our students, our instructional staff. Kudos to you all. Um because they are

083the ones, you know, out there doing that work every day with our students, making sure they're there and meeting them where they are. So a year's worth of growth for every grade level is phenomenal. >> So these numbers represent like for first grade, the point4 is representing it's below they're coming in below grade level, >> correct? >> Um into the first grade. And so 2.2 means they're coming in in the fall. they were testing at a little over a second grade level. So that's what those numbers sometimes we look at these and if you don't deal with them on a daily basis it doesn't that's what these reflect and that growth on the side the meaning you know 1.4 gaining a grade level and a half almost >> worth the grade equivalent starting in fall

084and then at the spring for that grade. So first grade ended with a grade equivalent of 1.8 which was 1.4 years worth of growth. Um fifth grade 5.1 went up to 6.2. So our vowels assessment, it's a little different when you look at our scores because we we think about we want high scores. We do want high scores, but when you see high, that's not what we want here. So the So it's a little confusing. So the fall on the left side is where we started and spring on the right side is where we ended. So that green column is really where you want to see that growth. So in kindergarten, we went with 20% of our students um being on target to 82% of our students being on target. Um, first grade 25% to

08528.81%. 36.21% to 50% and then 28.85 to 35.85. A new assessment, new tools, internet issues, um, all those things and still were able to be able to document tons tons of growth for our students. And I think Heather stated it like this is goes beyond SOS. Like we place a lot of emphasis on SOS because that's a part built into the state accountability and accreditation, but there are other testing measures that demonstrate learning that go beyond that. And that's why it's important to look at other factors and matrixes. >> Sure. And so is one day >> can you and it's all just for too, right? So it's not the whole school. Correct. Um remind me what Val stands for. >> If that's a hard question, you can say I'll tell you later. So what is

086it? What is it? Is it literacy? >> It's literacy. Literacy. That's really it. It used to be PALS, right? Awareness. So um >> my kids did PALS. >> Yes. Yep. So this is the new updated version. Um and it is our second year of implementation. This year the implementation covers fourth and fifth grade um as well as middle school students up to eighth grade. Yes. So we'll have different data at the end of the year to show their progress with that. >> Um so and SOS are one day, >> right? um sometimes two depending on if they get an expedited retake. So, it's good to see these different viewpoints to be able to show that our kids are reading. Um and then in our next one, >> what's the significant change in kindergarten? I think

087that was like 20 to 80. Was that a test? Yes. >> It was we had 20% of our students that were considered in the low band. And the low band is where you want to be. >> You don't want to be in the high band. So, then we went to 82%. Part of that is new assessment. It the state's learning. Yeah, learning how the skills that we need to be assessing. It's a different assessment than PALS. I feel like PALS was a little more um what's the words depending on the the person that's administering it. Um so I think this is a little bit more of an accurate picture. Um you see our students come in and they may be here and our testing is here but our students haven't really had a lot of

088exposure academically. Um so for just lack of child care and you know daycare situations and then they come in and they get that great strong education and implementation and you see the growth. >> Yeah. This this is learning school. >> Yeah. >> Learning how to be a thinker and learning new skills and reading and exposure to literacy at at that level. And I think you that's I think an incredibly encouraging data point. >> Well, what's encouraging is when you start to look at the first, second, and third. >> Absolutely. That's where you see the the ability of our teachers really getting in with our students, making sure that they're learning what they need to be learning. >> That's the difference. >> You've got new standards, new assessments, new curriculum. I do think our curriculum, we

089have seen growth with our curriculum. I think we will continue to see more in the next few years. Um, so again, I've said it multiple times, kudos to our teachers and our staff because there was a lot of change and they did it with a phenomenal attitude and we can see that here. So, um, our next um score is for math. So, the same type of situation. We have our fall grade equivalent, our spring grade equivalent, and then the end of the year, the amount of growth. Fifth grade 2.3. Um uh so our kids are reading and our kids are mathing right. Um so so they're doing well. Um then we see some scores where we need to work on and these are our so end of year um scores. This was taken from our

090quality report card. I wanted to show kind of where we are in regards to the state um for science and English. We have some plans to address both. I think too when we have new standards and new curriculum and things of that sort, sometimes you see a dip before we come back up. So this is Ivybound year math and Virginia studies. This is another reason why I wanted to see show where how we were comparing to the state because we are above our state scores in math and we are above our state scores in Virginia studies. Um and it was a huge growth in our Virginia study scores from the previous year to this this last year. So, um, really exciting to see that we we talk about family engagement. We talk about I think

091I stood here this time last year and talked about our desire to get parents at student success meetings or what used to be family conferences. Um, and we talk about how people come to all the fun things, right? So, we really worked on getting our families to our family conferences. At the end of March of last year, we had recorded over 170 families um participating in conferences. That could be face tof face, that could be virtual. We have to tap into any, you know, modalities that we have. Um we had things that really drew our parents in is we had student led conferences. Um we touched on that my first year here. Yes. Uh last year we did added a few more, but getting our students to be able to advocate and present how they're

092doing. Um, and mama wants to come see little Johnny talk about himself, right? And so it's it's been a good draw and it's helped facilitate some deeper conversations that sometimes aren't the easiest conversations um to be able to have their students kind of advocate. And then we also pair with other things. So we paired with science day results and displays for parents to be able to come in and see some of their work. So u we saw some some bang for our buck. Um up in the upper leftand corner that is from one of our studentled conferences. One of the other things that we did last year was we started student led IEPs, IEP meetings. And so we had um some of our fourth and fifth graders be able to present how they were doing,

093kind of things that they knew that they were working on, things that they wanted to work on themselves and kind of setting their goals and being able to share that in that aspect. Um and that bottom picture is just some of our posters from science day. Uh chronic absenteeism. When I first came here, 2223, our rate was at 25.4%. 4% we dropped down to 12.1%. And I want to drum roll. We are down to 10.1%. So um a drastic drop from the first year that is really has to do with getting our families in the buildings. Um getting them there knowing they're welcome, getting doing different activities like grandparents days and things like that. That really has welcomed our community and our family me family members back. We will continue to work on that. It's

094always good to see that go to a single digit. So, focus areas for this current year. Um, I I I took my picture and just put it up because it was probably the silliest one with the chocolate all over the face. Our focus this year, student engagement is huge. Um, we know research shows when our students are engaged, they're making progress. When they're engaged, they're coming to school. So, we're focusing on whole schoolwide events um as well as classroom specific events. So, we started the school year with um one reading, one let me make sure I give the word, get you the right words. One school, one sweet reading of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. So, we are reading it all semester. We started off with a kickoff where each student got their own book

095that they will take at the end of the um reading and be able to take home and read with their family. Uh golden tickets will be stuck in books throughout the year and they get to come down and get a prize. But really wanting to just kind of get into the mode of these are some of our characters. So, we dressed up as characters that day and decorated the cafeteria as if we were going into the factory. So, that's one of our friends walking through kind of what the Golden Gates were going to look like. Um, a friend in the center is at science day. He has some VR goggles. He was really impressed with that. Um, so again with the focus of getting our students engaged and active in their learning. When they're taking

096ownership in their learning, we see progress. Um, so that is again a focus for this upcoming year. Another focus is continued family engagement. That's one of our pictures from um grandparents day earlier this week. Uh really focused on instilling the love of reading. I I shared with everyone there. My grandfather was who I read with every day after school. Big six foot five burly man. Um and he would sit down with me every day and read after he got off work at the land company. And so just really instilling those memories and those relationships with their families, but the love of reading. And uh so we made everything reading based. They made bookmarks. They got free books. They went to the book um the book fair. They were able to visit our courtyard where we

097have our bookw walk um that was uh installed last year. So really just getting books into our kids' hands and getting them interested in reading. Um for our other night, our game night was we've we were really trying to get things to get our families to do things together. So we pulled out checkers. We had a big gigantic sorry board um that they could play sorry. We had um connect four, a big connect four thing. We had an obstacle course. We had bingo. We had different things where our families were doing things together um and really got some very good f positive feedback about that. Uh academically, you're welcome. >> Uh our big focus this year is co-eing. We have seen and goes back to some of our scores in those reading scores. We did

098a lot of co-eing with kindergarten, first and second grade last year and really saw some positive results. So, being able to structure some of our teams to include more maybe outside of the box co-eing ideas. So, we're having um one of our title one teachers, our reading specialists work with our fifth grade team to work on science because we saw that those science scores need to come up a little bit. Um our title one and our general education teachers working together. So instead of going to class and pulling out all of our students, pushing in and supporting them in the classroom saves us time with transitions, but also collaborates. Um, you know, creates a collaborative relationship between the general education teacher and the title one teacher. And then of course our special education teachers and

099our general education teachers. And when you got strong teams, they come dressed alike um by accident. So >> um yesterday >> I couldn't pass it up. >> You literally walked into it. Yeah, we're all dressed alike. Um, these are just some pictures. At the end of last school year, we do our field day which ends up with lots of pie eating and we do a so celebration kind of kickoff and Miss Burch was riding the scooter. I was being wrapped up like a mummy. Um, and then throughout the year we will do things with our woot wagon and take snacks around to our teachers just to um give a little caffeine boost and energy to to get through some of our days. So, um, that's all I got. Do y'all have any other questions? >>

100Thank you. >> Yep. >> Hello. Hannah Collins, um, proud new principal of Nelson Middle School, not to be confused with Heather Coughlin. Um, I know they're similar and if I'm looking at you, Ryan, and where's Crystal? The amount of times I've been called Heather is crazy, but Hannah, very nice to meet you all again. Um, I neglected to bring my glasses andor a paper print out. So, if you see me looking at my phone, that's why. All right, so I'm, you know, going to dive right into the data here. And this is also captured, um, from the VDOE school quality profile. So, if you take a look, the far left column is our uh middle school results for reading and everyone loves to see an upward trend. Um, so you see, you know, a few

101years ago at 66% um up to 74 and then this past year 77%. So, we just keep continuing to grow um and we're going to do it again next year. And so, that's where we're moving with reading. Um, and I know I didn't put this on the slide, but we've been talking a lot at the elementary schools about that vow testing happening there. Um, and this is the first year where vowels testing is actually required in middle school as well. So, at 6th, 7th, and eighth, we've been chugging away at that. Um, Miss Campbell and our fantastic ELA team have been testing kids, and as they've shared, the platform has been a little challenging. they weren't really expecting the overload of the amount of people on it, especially adding middle school to the mix. Um,

102but they've really been plugging away. Um, and our goal is by the time that we have parent teacher conferences in October that all the students that require those um, specific reading plans that those are ready and they can be given to parents and we can really form a partnership to work through those student reading plans together. math again following that upward trend 81% is something to really be proud of especially when two years ago was it 67%. Um I joked with uh Mr. Bolo and Dr. Hester I was like I I just take full credit for all of this you know um but it really is you know Mr. Bleo's work and really everyone at the school are found fantastic teachers but these are the results that you want to see and of course um

103continuous improvement. history as well. Um it was at 75 there for a couple of years and then went up to 79%. So just continued growth in these subject areas and we're just really proud of the work that's happening there. And I'm actually going to pause for a second because I was sitting there listening to the other principles speak and I was like before I get into this data I need to just kind of speak my truth. And part of that what I wanted to share is that I've worked in several different districts and a lot of different schools and I'm really not blowing smoke when I say that I have been blown away by how welcoming and kind um all of the students, all of the staff, all of the families, everyone has been here.

104Um, even just like I stand in the lunch line when the kids are going through and the way our students are. Yes, ma'am. No, sir. May I have please have more of that? Or when I went to the varsity football game this past Friday and middle school students are there with their friends and instead of running around with their friends, they're coming up and standing at the fence with me and just talking about like, "So, where did you come from and are you liking it and telling me what they love about the school?" So, it's just been incredible. I don't know if you guys know this. I'm sure Mr. Blico has shared it before, but um on Fridays we have an incentive time where students that have um completed all their work, they've been at

105school, they're, you know, in good standing, actually get recess um which is a big deal at middle school because they don't really get it. So they get 30 minutes to go outside and it's my favorite part of the week. The kids always ask me to play whiffle ball with them or basketball with them or do the wobble. We bring out a speaker and play some good music. So, it's really just been incredible um how welcoming everyone has been. So, I meant to start with that. Um attendance, similar to the other schools, we have seen a gigantic um decrease in our chronically absent students. So, just two years ago, it was at 26.2% of students that were chronically absent and now it is down to 12.9. Originally, we thought that was 13.3, but when I brought

106up the school quality profile, it was even lower than we thought. So, that's what we like to see. Um, getting our kids in schools. And we've really been um very focused on this. Uh, Mr. McAulich, the assistant principal, every single day he's looking at that list. And it's always from our perspective when reaching out to families on how can we help you, what do you need, how can we support? Um, sometimes it's just as simple as the kidneys and alarm clock. we can do that, we can provide that. So, really just partnering with families to see the why behind why they're not there and really trying to solve those problems. Just some student recognition highlights. This honor roll and perfect attendance data is from the last um school year. So, you can see there just

107the number of students who had all A's or A's and B's. Um pretty similar amount in each grade level. And you know, our enrollment is pretty small. So for some of these grade levels, that's almost half of the kids having honor roll. So that's really great. And then there were 17 students with perfect attendance, which we love. Um the piece about athletics is not for last year, but for this year and I just wanted to highlight that because we are just seeing way more happening with our athletics program than in the past. So this year there were um talking to our volleyball coach, she was sharing that she had never seen this many students turn out. I think it says 38 there. students came and they said normally it's like 10 or 15 and they're

108trying to scrape together team. It's hard to make cuts but in a way it was good that this was the first year that cuts had to be made and last night our girls won their first home game so yay go Mustangs. Um it was a great victory to watch. Um our cross country team also had um the largest team that they've ever had and we have um 10 eighth graders that are part of the JV football team. So, the athletics are just really growing at the middle school as well. Student and community engagement events. Um, we are really trying to promote our school and all the wonderful things happening there. And this isn't up there, but we're really trying to grow our social media presence on Facebook and just be transparent with families about all

109the wonderful things happening in classrooms. It's easy to post pictures of the the fun stuff like the dance we have coming up and and things like that, but really opening the lens to what's happening in the classroom and so we've been trying to take um you know pictures of the learning happening in the rooms and I've been including them every week in my parent newsletter and trying to get them on Facebook so people can just see you know we're not hiding what's happening in our classrooms here. It's tons of wonderful stuff um so people can see that. These are just some upcoming events. We have um the FFA Bluegrass benefit. Um that's for the middle school and high school FFA programs. It's one of their biggest fundraisers. If you remember the last meeting when you

110were approving like all these out of state overnight FFA trips, that's how they afford to go there. Um so come on out to that event on October 11th. Um they have a silent raffle and a and a lot of great music. Um we have a dance on Wednesday which will be our first welcome back dance of the year and the kids really love that. I know we've talked about Monday night's um community engagement event with Rowan Murphy a few times, but that's happening as well. I also glad I saw Mr. Kersner popping. So, I've got something rotten on there, too. Um that is our middle school musical this year and he and his team have been working hard to get our students prepared. They come into lunch every day with their like scripts or I

111guess it's what you would call it and like they're just sitting there practicing their whole lunch. But that will be October 30th and November 1st um will be our evening performances. Obviously skipped over Halloween because you know kids like to do their trick-or-treating thing. But those are some of our upcoming events and these are our goals for the upcoming year. um really that far right column. Um we want to keep progressing there. And the students with disabilities com column goal does look um you know lower than most people would think. Like so you're aiming for less than 50% of these students to pass. But we're really looking at previous years and trying to make realistic goals that our team um can tackle this year. and we have already met once as a school improvement team

112and we have another meeting upcoming where we're going to really lay out those strategies for how we plan to tackle those. Um and within these also looking at some of the other subgroups as well. And then last but not least um just more information about our goals. As I shared we are vowels testing this year and so really looking at those student reading plans um continuing to focus on vocabulary in all subject areas and all contents. Again, embedding the five C's um into all of our lesson planning. It's it's required when teachers submit lesson plans to really say how they're going to be integrating those pieces. Um looking at specially designed instruction, um Rachel has been working closely with our team, sorry, Miss Ringer, um with our team to really think about what that could

113look like. Um Mr. Bleco worked very hard over the summer, he and uh Mr. Mcllawich and Miss Campbell to create a schedule that enables students to get the needs they need for remediation and support, but also be able to take the electives that they want to participate in, which I think is incredible because in other districts sometimes if a student needs reading or math remediation, it just takes the place of electives and they don't get it. So, they were able to create a fantastic schedule which enables all students to get that remediation and support but also still have their, you know, fun electives. Um and then increasing um recognition of student success. Um we're doing student of the month. Um September is going to be our first first month and so the focus for that

114month is kindness. Um so teachers will choose a student that has consistently demonstrated kindness the whole month and we will do a big celebration for them. We also do staff member of the month. Um Grace Blanks was our first staff member of the month. So congratulations to her. Um, and then like I said, increasing kind of our social media presence. But the year is off to a great start. Um, and I just couldn't be happier and more proud. And again, just giving another shout out to Mr. Bleco because a lot of this is his doing. So, thank you very much. Nope. Ryan, just leave it there. Yep. Just leave it there. >> All right. So, Mr. Walker had a family emergency that he needed to attend to and we have a couple of events taking

115place. So, um Ryan, uh Dr. Yarzabinsky has um been so willingly enthusiastic to agree to um provide the information on behalf of the high school. >> Mr. Chief, I refuse to believe your daughter's 31. >> Hard to believe. >> And 19 years ago, fifth grade at Ty River. Seems like that's right. >> So, you and Mr. Perkins have both reminded me how old I am this week. Thanks a lot. All right. Um, hope to do Mr. Walker justice with his presentation. So, without further ado, um, comprehensive school improvement goals set by each department at the high school. These are reflective on both the department's past histories of success and the, uh, cohort data that was relevant to the students taking the assessments, and I will show you how we met those goals. Uh, raw data

116comparison. There's a lot of information up here, but I think it's very prudent because we went all the way back to year 2018 2019 precoid assessment results and then longitudinally since our return. Uh long story short with the data that's up there, results in all content areas showed a market improvement since the return from uh co instruction in 2020 school year. And I would also say English, math and science have reached or almost reached in science um precoid results uh which were pretty darn high back in 2018 2019. So we definitely have our feet underneath us at the high school and we are making that improvement annually. Apples to apples comparison 2024 versus see pretty solid improvement in English and science. And with regards to the first slide, our comprehensive school improvement goals, we did

117meet three out of the four content areas and exceeding uh the goals set by each department. Graduation data, I believe 122 students walked across the stage in May. Um out of those students, 41 advanced diplomas, 71 standard diplomas, uh five applied studies, uh five GED completers. I will say the GED completers, all five were not relegated to last year's graduating cohort. Might have been a junior in there, might have been a returning uh student as well. So, it wasn't five within that cohort. Three students earned their UCGS uh completion. 21 members of the cohort were in the National Honors Society, three Blige Virtual Governor School Cohort members, and 81 career and technical education completers, which is 66% of the entire cohort. Now, that doesn't mean they just took a CTE class. That means they took

118a sequential completion and passed a credential exam, which is a really high number. All said and done, and I'll argue against that number. I believe we're at 92.8%. That's what I community communicated to you last month. So, which is the highest we've had in the past four years, I believe. Continuing high expectations and growth at the high school. Our instructional focus will be classroom management and instructional strategies and supports for our teachers. We have administered uh PD surveys so we can tailor uh supports to give the teachers what they need. We give the students what they need. We want to give our teachers what they need. Uh we've also implemented our teachermies over the summer. Nelson teachers know what they're doing, so we might as well uh leverage and tap our colleagues on the shoulder

119to to help support our additional teachers. uh student engagement, bell-to-bell instruction, uh and high levels of engagement, making sure we're incorporating the 5C's in all content areas. Uh we will continue to support new teachers and staff with mentorship programs, focus on literacy across all content areas, uh and definitely identifying essential vocabulary and assessment alignment for all content areas. And this is extremely important, especially with regards to math and reading. With the new standards being rolled out, we want to make sure our assessments are aligned. That way, our data points when we start implementing our tiered levels of supports, we have accurate data. Student focuses, student supports, and mentor groups, uh, social emotional lessons, uh, delivered bimonthly by our counselors, uh, and because they are so important, we listed it twice. We will continue with student

120supports and mentor groups. Uh we will continue to use grit to support students not meeting the marks academically to make sure that they will be prepared by the end of the semester exams. Um we also include some so remediation during grit time and attendance with a seat time recovery program implemented earlier this year and I will celebrate an almost halfing our chronic absenteeism rate at the high school over the past three years. 22 23 school year we were at 27.7% 23 24 school year we were at 20.8 and the last year we reduced it down to 14.8%. So solid improvement at the high school level and I guess one data point just to tie all four schools together about a week week and a half ago DOE relate released our pass rate results statewide. So

121now we can have relative comparisons both how we did from last year and how we did relative to everybody else in the state. Overall, this is all so tested areas, all students, all passes, all fails. Uh Nelson County ranks 34th out of 131 school systems in Virginia. That would mark a 14th place improvement from 2024. So we are definitely trending right. And I really enjoy sharing that data that with the principles because it lets us really dive down into each content area and talking with Dr. Hester. We can definitely maximize our strengths but identify areas that we're going to deliver some strategic interventions to. And I see no reason why that wouldn't be able to be in the top 20s for next school year. >> Absolutely. >> Thanks for your time. >> Thank you. Thank

122you. So, I have one question about the high school. How and I actually would like to ask our student rep, too. How's the phone policy rolling out? Is everybody good with that? Is everybody >> Yeah, I feel like it's been going good. Like I haven't I feel like from what I've seen like students that are following it and as well as teachers like it's only if it does if they do use their phone it's only for like emergencies or anything else like that but most other calls and contacting from anywhere else is used for the school phones. So >> yeah and it's it's just nobody's really having any issues with it or whatever. Just rolling with it that way. Yeah. >> Good. Good to hear. >> Heard a lot of positive positives. The students are

123engaging even during cafeteria lunch more conversations more engagement. >> Very very good. >> Overwhelmingly positive. >> Awesome. >> I think Mr. Bolleo did a walk through with uh Jennifer Campbell and one of the comments that she made is like it's a lot louder in the lunchroom, but it's in a good way because kids are talking to each other. So, um, it's kind of it's interesting when you can notice the little signs that and tail it back to what it is attributed to and that's kids interacting with each other. >> Yeah. Great. Fabulous. Now, we have an update on capital improvement plan projects. >> All right. Um, Mr. Campbell is here. >> We also have a guest that we will introduce when it is that time. >> All right. I guess we'll switch gears a little

124bit here, but we're still attributing to student environments, so improving it. >> Um, so >> well play, sir. >> Spin it a little bit there. >> So, uh, we, uh, I'll start off. We had a meeting August the 28th with um, Mike and his crew with Mosley to discuss, um, IT network um, issues and where we can improve on those. Um they met uh we they're meeting again Monday to discuss equipment placement and upgrading the equipment there too. So uh should be much more to come after their meeting. Um so I roll into uh some of the other stuff that the contractors are doing. I put the map on the front for quick assessment for you. The contractors have labeled all the areas so they can follow it, but we call them different names. So,

125uh I will try my best to correlate for everyone um the locations the contractors they're still working to uh on the brick reporting that is starting to wind down. Um they're they're more focusing on cleaning what's left and there's a few brick linels that they have to replace. They're manufacturing those now. The plumbers are in what they call e-lex area, what we call the gym area, locker rooms. uh they have uh replaced a bunch of piping in that area and just to continue on with the uh the piping and everything that you know we wouldn't see above the ceilings. Uh the and then there in section lower D and D3. Lower D would be the alpha wing and D3 would be the furthest end of the math hallway, the west wing. Uh that's where they're

126focusing a lot of their attention on now. that area is expected to wind up um finish up rather uh 1st of November. So, and then they will be looking to move to another set of rooms. Kevin is working uh with them to identify rooms that they can move to next so we can keep this process going through this entire year school year and uh substantial completion still meet that. We're on time now to meet that in next July. We've got a little little time left to wrap all of this up. Uh they're installing new duck work in the lower D alpha area and the west wing. Um MB plans to uh start removing the ceiling tile on the second floor corridor hallways. Um they call it D5, C4, C6. It's just the history hall in

127the English Hall. They're going to start there because a lot of the equipment that's going on the first hall has to be tied in pipewise with the HVAC equipment with the second floor. So they they're going to start removing the ceilings in the first part of November in that area. And then uh the next slides will show you they're they uh they're installing a new fresh air unit. They've already installed two on the roof. This one will go on the ground um where the ticket booth is around back where you enter the athletic complex. The uh where the three propane tanks are. This will be setting in that fenced in area. that fist in area will increase. It took away one of our sidewalks which we they had to replace for egress purposes. So that

128picture will show you it where the new sidewalk is actually it's poured now. They poured it last uh last week. So that will actually go straight out of those double doors straight over to the back side of the gym instead of coming out through the side where it normally where it used to be. And then then there's a picture of the what the unit will look like. Uh that's the pad poured and that's the sidewalk and that's the unit that will be sitting in that area right there and that's to provide fresh air to that whole wing and they're that's the duck work that they're installing to tie the fresh air intake to that. Uh then I have other items for information. I wanted to talk a little bit about the sprinkler system at Tai

129River. Uh we've had some issues in the past uh and they're getting more and more frequent. the the piping there. This is on the dry system and it's basically it doesn't hold water the entire time. It's not charged with water water. It's charged with air because it goes in the attic. Um but there's a baffle designed to if one of the sprinkler heads was to release it will release the water through the system. Uh that's where we're seeing a lot of our issues coming from with holes. You see the hole in the pipe there. Um, and that's, you know, you we're losing air out of there and the compressor is trying to run to keep up to maintain that air. We're seeing that a lot more just because the age of the building. So, we've

130had we've had multiple sections replaced through the years. Just want to make you all aware of that. And then I'm going to do something different tonight. I'm not going to discuss the water cool chiller. I've invited Miss Joyce Coburn from Honeywell to come up and to talk and give you some updates on that water cool chiller that we uh we've been fighting. They have too since uh it's was installed. So I if you have any questions from me regarding the renovation >> uh removing the ceiling tiles, are you guys noticing any big impacts on lighting in the hallways? >> Um since you lose reflective >> Yeah, I mean it's it's it's a little darker than normal. Um, but I don't think it's anything hazardous at this point. Uh, we do have the fortune to have

131the windows in the hallways there too to kind of provide a little light upstairs especially. >> Yeah. So, what what we have asked the contractors to focus on is to uh make sure that the smoke detectors are located as far up as they can because it has to be in the highest location possible. Uh we've asked them to concentrate on that to make sure that even with the ceilings out that they have those mounted as high as they could possibly get them and also to try to help with placement of keeping their camera system operational because we have zero eyes. So we we we've talked to them about that too about keeping their cameras kind of leveled out so we can keep those maintain that system in operation. And the other question I had is

132you you guys have been replacing as needed with the dry side of the sprinkler system. Do do you think we're going to be are we looking to having to do a whole replacement soon? >> Uh I I would put that on the capital improvement plan. Um I wouldn't necessarily put that in a year or even three, but that definitely probably should be in a focus in the next three to five years to do it. I do know that they had um they tested the system, they charged the system with water after they replaced the two sections of pipe and it was they recorded no more leaks at this time. Um but when they go back through their full system check, yearly check with the system, we do run that chance of having leaks through the

133system. >> Life is an old building, >> right? >> Yeah. >> Happened to me one time at the Nelson Center, too. all of a sudden we're flooded >> and it becomes an emergency at that point, you know, school and trying to figure out how to balance that and trying to get everything done. So, >> and then if you have to like keep like a like a watch on the building so it doesn't burn down, you know, while you don't have the system up or something like that watch too. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But you don't know until you know it, right? >> Yeah. >> Well, thank you for what you do. Absolutely. And at this time, I'll ask George to come up and talk about the children. >> Great. Thanks so much for um having

134me here tonight. Um my goal is to provide safe, comfortable, efficient learning environments and not have to see you, you know. Um we want to be in the background and everyone is safe and comfortable and efficient and then we meet with u Mr. Campbell um face to face monthly but talk weekly. But this darn water cooled chiller has caused us all a lot of problems and it has risen to the point that I'm here tonight. I will do my best to answer questions and tell you a little bit about the history of what's going on and our plans moving forward. So, this all started at VSBA conference in 23 when I received a message that we had been selected to provide some of the major equipment at the high school renovation and we were able

135to turn that around. Um, we used Mosley's recommendation for this chiller because they were designing the facility. So, we felt like they're designing the facility, indoor air quality has changed, the requirements have changed over the last 20 plus years since the chiller was replaced. And it was in the best interest to follow the architect and engineers recommendation. So, we we did that. We ordered that chiller in January of 24. And it took over a year to make it, which is, you know, yes, you think about COVID, you think about exports, you think about tariffs, you think about transportation of things, but it was a long time and it didn't really arrive until April. So, in April, it was um started and from the very beginning, we had programming issues. We've had carrier out over 20

136times to work on this chiller at at our expense. Um, we've had oil migration issues. They keep telling us different amounts of runtime it has to run before the migration will stop. Um, I continued to have our team your team but hopefully during that time there was there was no comfort issues. Okay. We tried to make sure there was no comfort issues for the students. So then came the summertime and that's when the air handling unit that provides that that space it's cooled by had to be taken down because that was on the list to be replaced. So that was replaced. So that was four weeks where we couldn't do anything with that chiller because it requires the demand of the air from that air handling unit. It can't run unless it's being called on

137by that air handling unit. So there's four weeks in the summer where we could do nothing. So, there's about 12 days before school starts and the air handling unit is back up and we're able to get that chiller running. Well, um if one thing is going to happen, another thing's going to happen and the contractor cut off the water and we didn't know it. There was no water to the chiller. So, we were finding trying to figure out what was wrong with the chiller. Come to find out the water had been cut off to the cooling tower. Um got that fixed. Then we um again had these oil problems. So we were back and forth and back and forth trying to get these oil problems fixed having carrier out here. The chiller ran for about

13828 to 40 about 30 hours it ran. We thought we're clear it's running everything's good and it stopped. So we brought in the temporary chiller and there was a m you know unfortunately Southern Air was there and able to hook it up very quickly. There was a miscommunication between our project manager and our team. Our team could have done it in a day. Somehow our project manager thought it was going to take two weeks. I I I don't know where that communication fell apart, but there was definitely a transparency error and we own that and we appreciate Southern Air coming in and hooking it up in just a few short hours. We could have done that. It was a miscommunication. We are currently paying for that chiller. I don't think the students have been affected.

139Learning environment's okay. Was it a temporary chiller? >> The learning environment. >> Yeah. I was say I think Yeah. I think since the temporary chiller has been >> right >> in place. Yes. >> Right. And we are in you know obviously we are not pleased with Carrier. We're in communications with Carrier at a corporate higher than me, way higher up level about this chiller. Um, we cannot work on the chiller while it's still it's still warm. We have to make sure the temporary chiller is running so the students are not affected. That is the goal because we don't want the students affected. That's the most important thing. So, we can't really work on the problem until we can um have that time when the students don't need to be cooled. So, it's not that Honeywell

140is not out here, that we don't want to be out here. We certainly do want to be out here. We want to get this chiller running properly for you. And we will continue to provide cooling for your students as long as necessary. And we will continue to to work with you. And it is our responsibility to make sure this is run properly. This was um procured. It's not a bid spec job like your high school's being done. You know, you have layers and there's change orders and things of that nature. When you hired Honeywell to do this, there are no change orders in this in this chiller. The responsibility lies with us and with Carrier. And if they've provided us a piece of equipment that is not going to work, we'll make it right. And

141that's why I'm here tonight to answer any questions. And I've talked to Dr. Hester. I talked to Mr. Campbell at least weekly. We meet monthly, but we were going to be transparent and we're going to tell you what's going on and we'll tell everyone. And I know the Facebook groups and and we hate that this is taking away anything from the great scores and the great achievements that you're doing. That is what's important. and we're supposed to be in the background just providing comfortable learning environments. So, I will come up here every month if you need me to to give you an update on whatever you need because Honeywell has been your partner for almost 30 years and we don't want anything to affect that. So, again, please accept the apologies for things that are

142happening. Um, this what this chiller is really causing us an issue with Carrier and we feel like, you know, we're not going to make Carrier support it. We're going to make it happen. We buy it too much from carrier for them not to support it. So are there any questions that I can specifically answer or get answers for you from engineers because I am not one. >> What's the time frame for resolution? So George is probably these they will probably get way more technical than I all I care about is when is it fixed? >> You know I am not a carrier or I'm not a chiller mechanic. I did talk to my chiller mechanics and my project managers tonight. um you know as as soon as absolutely possible. We are meeting at the highest

143levels with carrier to get this >> need something cooled down then do we need a certain set of time frame before you >> there needs to be time because we don't you you have the temporary chiller hooked up to the air handling unit right so it's providing that cooling we need time when it's not necessary to work on that chiller and it's going to be a little bit longer but we will supply that chilling >> so like a week two >> oh no it's going to be months I have a feeling because Again, we have to provide cooling. We don't know when it's going to get, you know, Virginia is a weird state. And yes, we'd love to take that chiller away from here and have to stop paying for it. But if it's going

144to be hot, we know in September, October, November, when's it going to cool down? When I know that Mr. Campbell always had to make a decision, when are we going to do the big turnover? you know, and hopefully that's going to go away once you have your four pipe system, but that will probably be when we can really start to dig into this because we don't want to take anything away from what you're doing >> when we're using heat and iron. >> Correct. >> Thank you. >> So, is is any of this related to the difficulties with getting the chiller into the building originally? >> Um, not necessarily. I mean, yes, that was um unusual that that happened that we had to, you know, move move concrete. Um but that was the chiller that was

145specified by your company. So, we wanted to use it. >> But yeah, but somebody involved in the process should have been measuring that out. But but I just want to know if that was if you know >> No, nothing. >> That should have been that should have been fieldverified regardless of who specked it or what. That should have been field verified, >> right? My concern is is whether, you know, taking a unit apart, putting it back together and all that if it's has had an effect on this. >> I don't think either Carrier or Honeywell would say that is the case. >> Okay. Um, and has there been discussions about replacing the unit entirely? >> Um, that would be at a level higher than myself. I have not heard that specifically. I do not think

146that it's a lemon per se. Um, as everyone say, I think that there has just been some issues that have been continuing and they're going to try to continue to work on those. We thought it was the glasses on the oil pump heater was miswired um in the factory. >> Um, I do think that even though we gave them well over a year, I do think they rushed the manufacturing of it. I know it's hard to believe that something would take because normally would not take that long to make a chiller. >> Well, there's lead times on on stuff are are crazy now. >> Insane. >> So, the fact that we ordered it in like January and it didn't even get here until the following year and that was only because we were pushing them

147at a corporate level to get the darn thing because we needed it in the time period to do the work to fit your schedule. >> Okay. >> So, yes. Did that should we have better field verified the size of it and how it would fit in your room? Absolutely. >> So was was pre-sight testing. Was there any of that done with this chiller before y'all brought it to the site to to our school? Did they test it? >> Did carrier test it? >> Yes. >> I can certainly check on that. I mean, when we purchased the piece of equipment, >> I mean, because um >> they do have this piece. They do. This is a chiller. It's not a new chiller. It's not like this is the brand first model off the rack. I asked

148that question. I'm like, did we get like >> the first model, you know, the car that just rolled off the assembly line that has problems? You want to buy like the fifth version of that car? I asked those questions and they're like, "No, there's this chiller is all there's multiple of these chillers in schools around the state." >> Right. But I'm just saying, >> was it pre before it was sent to us? >> I do not know that. >> Okay. But >> I can ask that. >> I mean, it's just like you said, if you're buying a new car, you're going to go out there and start it and you're going to see if it runs before you >> Right. And then we, you know, we we turn it on, it doesn't work, >> right?

149>> And then we find out it's programming area errors and then they have to come back and reprogram it. ass very frustrating. >> I mean, the reality is we have risk when we start it up the next time, whenever that is in a couple months, that there could still be another issue that >> we're not going to make sure that doesn't affect your students. We're going to make sure that there's >> it may not affect the students, but our people still have to deal with it on a day-to-day basis. We need it we need it done and and this is not I appreciate it needs to be checked off and finished check and move on. And like I said, we've moved to um not quite litigation with Carrier over this situation, but it is is

150very serious. >> And and to pay you back on what you were saying, what we don't want to have and I where I work, we we have in the business that I'm in, we've asked for extended warranties and different things because >> we can't have our maintenance staff. >> That will cost us money down the road if we're having to continually work on it and repair it because it's breaking. >> Absolutely. Um, another question I have is how much of these problems are related to integration issues between your equipment and the carriers equipment. >> I mean there's we work with carrier equipment all the time. >> Okay. >> That I mean we have we work carrier train DY we work with all the major manufacturers. We don't have any problems with carrier equipment. We've installed

151carrier chillers all over the state. Um, we did go with the one that is recommended by Mosley. Um, but yes, we are the ultimate, but we went with them because we didn't know how they were changing, you know, the fourpipe system, the different air quality. That's that's why you hired them to design your building. So, we went with their recommendation. I'm not saying that wouldn't have been our recommendation, but we went with theirs. We wanted to order it as soon as possible because it did take a year to get here. But no, if there's if there needs to be an extended warranty, then that would be fine. I will certainly work with them on that because you're right, we're not going to just dump this on you and be like, "Oh, it's it's not our

152problem anymore when we've had all of these issues." And I've worked with Honeywell for over 20 years now. So, I'm not I'm not new to this team. And, you know, my word is my bond. I mean, I would not be able to be in this job for this long if I came to talk to you all. you know, we'd be at VSBA and you would tell everybody that we're terrible and then I would have no job. So, I'm, you know, >> I'm sorry that you've had, you know, and Dr. Hester has had some disagreements with our project manager and I am very upset over those. I've had meetings over those. Those will not continue. I will be involved. Um, we want this to be as smooth a process as possible. Well, so obviously the next

153hurdle that has to be crossed and correct me if I'm wrong, less um but we need we're going to be doing change over at some point. Probably sometime in October. >> Yeah, probably towards the end of October. >> Towards the end of >> Yeah. With the track record the past couple years, we'll be changing probably. >> End of October. Okay. >> Do we anticipate any problems with that? >> No. >> Um >> not that I'm aware of. >> So it's going to be unrelated, right? should and like I said, you know, we meet monthly, face to face, and we talk probably weekly, if not multiple times. So, we're in communication constantly. We just don't want the communication to really rise above us. I think both of us agree that if our people people are happy,

154that's what we want. We want safe, comfortable, and efficient learning environments. >> Yeah. We just, you know, as a board, we can't, you know, sit here and sign off on something knowing that we've had this many problems up front. And then because our financial >> people that give us the money to do these projects, >> they're going to have questions for us. Why didn't you do this? Why didn't you do that? Why didn't you hold them accountable? So, we need those questions answered going forward before we sign off on, you know, this chiller and we've had motherboard problems. We've had all these issues and we know about them. We have to answer these questions when we go and ask for money. And hopefully we don't it doesn't concern going back and fixing this thing four

155or five years down the road, >> right? you know, because I know how this is going to be received that y'all had a chance to >> Oh, >> to do this. >> You did this big great renovation. What are you telling me there's a problem? >> So, you know, we want we want it addressed. We want everything. We want that chilling to be working like it was supposed to be working 100%. So, we don't have to answer those questions. >> Absolutely. And it will be the new high school renovation for the next 20 years. >> Well, >> I mean, I mean, every school district you go to, >> every school we have is brand new. >> And you're like, uh, that's 20 years old, but it's the new school. >> So, you know, I only

156work with schools in the state. So, that's all I do. So, you know, I agree. We certainly don't want anybody to be unsatisfied or look back and go, why did we do that? We are in, like I said, you know, here in Honeywell are not great right now. So when we buy a lot from them and we're going to make it right. >> Could you? >> Yes. I just want to say thank you for being here. >> Oh, of course. being here is a huge step in taking that accountability and just hearing what you're doing thus far, the transparency of the story and also knowing that there are other things that are bubbling up above you um in regards to resolution for this. So, thank you for being here. Um thank you for answering the

157questions. Um and certainly I appreciate knowing that you all are taking the ownership of this. >> Yes. Yes. >> Could you while you're here, could you are you in a position to be able to speak to what the plan is once the changeover happens? What what's the plan? >> I I do not have that and I would feel remiss if I I mean I can certainly get that for you. You know, what are the steps once we can start working on it? >> Um but I know that there was this where's the honey well? Why aren't they working on this? Well, you can't work on it when it's >> so the change over affects the older part of the hospital. supplies chilled water to the location. Um to your point though is that's full pipe

158system in the location >> now. >> Yes. The the pipe being added is going to be to the old portion of the house. >> So we have the capability to work on it now >> because yeah you could depending on the load of the building. Yes, you could work on it uh with there's a load on the building if you get up to 80 to make the thing run. Um, yes, that is a full power system. >> Okay. Well, we definitely would like it fixed as soon as it can be fixed. >> And so do we. >> And I I think it and we've talked about this like and this is one the comfort level of our students and our staff. Um, but I don't want as as much as I love my job and

159love being here, I if I'm here in this job in 25 years, that will be amazing. Um, I would be very very fortunate and honored to have that, but I don't want to have the same conversation in 25 years for me or for any other person who has to sit in my chair or your five chairs. Correct. Those situations we need to figure out right now and we need to get it fixed. So it it the only thing we're dealing with in 25 years is the the typical aging process that takes place and the maintenance that's required. Not the same problems that we've had before. We don't want to kick we're kind of in a situation now because we've kicked the can because we had to. We need to fix it. That's the whole point

160of getting this done and to do all that we can in this project is so we get it back to where we're doing prevent, you know, we're we're maintaining it ahead of time to extend the life as opposed to trying to fix it afterwards. So I think that's also important. >> Well, I for one would love to see you come back next year uh next month rather next month with with a plan for how this >> certainly get that from them what the plan is. >> We would like to hear that. Um I think because and this is um and we have a member of the board of supervisors here, but we obviously we like everybody else in Virginia, we get all of our member all of our money from the board of supervisors. Uh

161we're a county that you know we pinch pennies. >> I live in >> so well from a bougie county. You guys are bougie compared to us. Okay. >> We're excited cuz we have jails. Okay. I mean I'm from a poor county so I get it. >> We appreciate and I appreciate the time and I if you would like to come back, I'll have the plan of what we're going to do. >> Thank you so much. >> Enjoyed hearing about all the wonderful things. Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Okay, we're going to talk about courthouse space needs. Do you want to do a a overview of this, Dr. pastor or >> yeah I we are not in a position necessarily let me just bring the memo up so everybody's so um I have um

162forwarded you all the memo that I received from um Mrs. McGary, our county administrator, um as well as some other um items to be in considered. And the reason why is in that memo, we have been um formally, thank you, Joyce, formally asked to uh begin the process of and not really begin, but formally um consider options for relocation of our central office. Um and in that memo, it talks about there are some other considerations. there are are um over the last few months we've been asked to kind of submit um what would be space needs, requirements, requests, and things of that nature. So um I appreciate the efforts that we've made with um through our high school renovation project and working with our architect to see, you know, what are our what what are

163the spaces we take up now? Um what are the spaces that we really need in order to operate? And so I appreciate the efforts of really trying to um go through and identify those spaces. And you do have that document that breaks it down by the square footage. And suffice it to say the um recommended total space would be around 6,000 square ft. So this really brings us to um we know that we've been formally asked to begin the process to consider if if we were the department that was relocated. I know the county administrator's office um department has been identified as one of departments that could possibly relocate and the school board office is is a second department that's been considered and so both sides have been tasked of what are some options what

164are some opportunities that if this were to take place where what would be considered so um I bring that to our attention that the process um when this was brought to my attention in December mber um that um a request on behalf of the Commonwealth Attorney um to look for a better um location to suit the size and needs and the operations of that department. It really began this conversation or resurfaced a conversation from the past to begin looking at other locations. And so um we began those conversations and in in trying to think through what would that be? Um I had reached out to our architect to start considering some things. So, we kind of had a little bit of a head start on that just so we had operational knowledge to be able

165to talk about what are the the two things that come to mind. well, what's the budget and what's the timeline and sometimes what's the timeline and what's the budget and they go hand in hand and then what are the needs and so we really started to have this conversation and I think you know as as you can see in in that memo really looking at what are our current um school space opportunities what are some other local opportunities and so that is really what we begin the process of doing is looking at you know um one of the the locations that was identified side as a possibility is Rockfish River Elementary School. Um I that is a next step for us to to take our architect out to look at that area. Um but in

166in he already knows that area due to the um experience and research that was done during the facility um use study. So, we were really kind of proactive in a lot of different ways that that facility use that was very comprehensive has gone to educating us and informing some decisions we've made for our CIP for this high school renovation, identifying some things that we need to keep an eye on. Um, but also what are our spaces and how do we use them? Um, we talk about um our enrollments. Um, you know, Rockfish River Elementary has actually seen a bit of an in uptick in the last couple years now being at about 300. Um, if you were to combine both our elementary schools, it would be over 600. Um, both of our schools, neither one

167of those schools can handle 600 elementary school students. So, that that idea is not really a feasible idea. Um, and so if we took a look at Rockfish, because we do have some classrooms um, and areas not utilized, um, the requirements of being able to have that public office in that school would require a an undertaking of reutilizing some of those spaces and providing a renovation process in order to keep the safety and security of our children and our staff preserved. Um, and it would be a disruption to a lot of the other operations of it. Um, would I say it's impossible? Impossible. you know, very little very few things are impossible, but um more challenging and difficult and and um is definitely an aspect of that um never mind the fact that it is

168the furthest away from 80% of our students, our staff, our operations and in areas that a lot of times we have to spend a lot of um focus on. So we do know that. Um, another area um on campus would be what what we you know the architects are calling D1, D2, D3 is the alpha area that that first floor of the high school. And so he has taken a look at those spaces. I think again it would be a complete reconfiguration. Not really sure the square footage is applicable um to the needs that we have. Um but again taking a look at those spaces. Um uh we also had a walk through at um the maintenance storage building just on the offset of where our CTE wing is and again looking at the square

169footage it would be a complete gut job and even at that still the square footage poses a concern. Um never mind the fact that we would then have to find a new space for the items that would be displaced in its current usage. So that's a different um that's a it's it's solving or providing somewhat of a solution and creating a whole other problem that you have to solve. Um so those are are on sites that with current um structures there would be you know a possibility it is possible that you could we could build something or we could have something built on sites. um that's a different um funding or that's a different kind of financial consideration, but it would be um built to our our needs and our forecasted needs and specific to

170what we would need with all the um safety, security, technology, custodial aspects built into it. Um so those are our current um campus um NCPS qualified positions there. Um, we also have a consideration of the Nelson Center. That was a um, a location that was identified as a possibility. Um, and again, um, pros and cons. It was a former school. There is some kind of sentimental aspect to that, but there is a requirement of some, um, great deal of renovation that would take place. It would be, it could be a short-term immediate solution, but it would still require some adjustments and there are current tenants there. um and the spacing of it would require some adjustments and understanding the true uh availability of these other external items. Um so uh high school um so the

171Nelson Center and um also um current ownership I believe on behalf of the county would be the um vacated uh DSS um current location um DSS building is being built in a different location and so their current location would be vacated. Would that be a possibility? Um in in that conversation, those uh trailers are about 25 years old. That temporary position was supposed to be temporary of 25 years and now they have a new location. The building process for that new building would be about 12 to 18 months. So I will say that from the beginning of this conversation, it sounded like there was a want to have a quick turnaround of of relocation. that it it does appear that that conversation has um adjusted to um you know really kind of understanding that we

172know that with the DSS building that's tw that could be 12 to 18 months and so there's not an immediate timeline. I think it at one meeting it was suggested this summer that is now no longer an expectation to my knowledge um through my conversations with the county administrator. Um, so we do have some things. Again, it's not um set in stone, and I do have a board of supervisors. I'm not putting you on the spot. Um, that I don't think it's set in stone as to which department, but it is been um tasked on both sides to look into um these possibilities and what would it take. Um, sometimes it's a little difficult to identify when you don't know what the budget is, you don't know what the timeline is. Um, that's difficult to

173do, but at least we're working. Um, you know, I've had several conversations with Miss McGary and we're working really hard to try to understand there there is a um a presented problem and we're trying to work together to find solutions. And so, um, that is what we're trying to do together and we're trying to bring groups together to be able to do that. um that it's just not as simple as you'd think. And there's a lot everybody has their um their needs and it is it is my job to make sure that our offices are supported and equipped with everything that they need. It's your job to be able to to do that as well um for the overarching um school um community and division and making sure that we make good decisions not only

174in the short term but in the long term. Um, and it's it's tough to move multiple times within a short amount of time. It's very disruptive, but we want to make sure that we're making the best decisions that we're not doing this every few years either. Um, so I think that that's also um a big consideration that we make prudent decisions even in light of knowing that things may need to change. Um, it may be us, it may not be, but really taking an honest opportunity to look at what is out there, what are the needs, and what what needs to happen. So, I wanted to take this time to be able to present that to you. I know you have some information. It's a lot. Um, but we know that this is a task

175that's been placed in front of us and we want to be able to begin um looking at it and earnestly considering like what are our needs and what do we need to do um and how do we best serve um our division? any questions at this time that I might be able to answer or that I will make sure I write down and have um further conversations with the county administrator and others if if need be about really truly understanding um what the process is, what the needs are and what the expectations are. >> We want to be fiscally conscientious with the money, right? So any decision we make wherever we go, we want to be thoughtful about that. And that means that number one, we probably need to have a budget, but we need

176to understand what do we need right now? What do we need 2 years, 3 years, 5 years, 10 years? You know, we're talking about new buildings being 30-year-old Tai River. So, whatever we invest in is going to be there for the length of probably all of their tenurs and probably our kids' tenures. So I I just I would want us to not be reactive, be thoughtful for the long term, but having a budget and what the commitment from the county on this is would be really helpful in understanding what we can and can't do. >> I personally would like to have a conversation with the county, you know what I mean? Like I think that we have I think we've asked this in the past like let's have a joint meeting on space needs. So

177that's what I would like to see happen, you know, in the next whatever while we're talking about it. >> Well, I mean, couple months, >> we all I mean, with the exception of you, we all grew up here and I was telling you today the social services was in a far hub. >> Oh yeah. you know, and then >> I remember that. >> And then it's, you know, seems like temporary is 25 years, you know, Nelson. So, you know, they move them over here to the temporary spot. Here we are 25 going 26 years later. We going to build something permanent. You know, I just don't want to get the schools caught up in the temporary that will never change for 20ome years. agree. >> You know, so I would like, you know, a joint

178meeting with each of our people across the table at the meeting, you know, would be great, you know, and not, you know, somebody coming in at the 11th hour changing the whole thing. Let's get it out in there. Get it out in the open. Get it on public record. Who said this? Who said that? So we can talk about this. >> Yeah. >> Because it's a it's it's a major deal. >> Absolutely. >> You know, cuz we're disrupting people's workspace. >> It's safety involved. It's um a place where families are going to have to visit. You know, it's it's going to be a community effort decision on their part to make sure that we do this right. cuz I don't want to be sitting here or somebody sitting in my spot saying what were they

179thinking, you know, 10 years ago when they decided this. >> Well, it is important. I mean, when this addition was built, it was built for county administrative offices and built for the school board. That's why this addition was built to start with and it's the only place we've ever been that I know of. >> Right. I mean, >> so we do need >> Yeah. I mean, you know, I like I said, I grew up here. My dad was the custodian in this building. this was always the school board office and you know it it's you know and then when they built this addition on the building you know this was the boardroom and whatever but that you know with the newly renovated space it's like you know we done run out of space already >>

180so I just don't want that to again affect the school division if we can put something on our property something that we can build or add to something we already have and then and build it so it's our space we can you know come and go and have families and employees are safe coming and going to that space is important to me cuz um I don't want somebody going Caesar what were you thinking 10 years ago when you decided this was a good idea you It it might have been at the time, but you have to think down the road. That's where I am. >> Yeah. Yeah. And I do think it is important that a conversation is had. Um I think there's been lots of individual conversations about this, but nothing totally collective. And

181now that two parties have been asked to assess, review, what are your needs? Not just now, but in the future. Um, I think now is the time to bring that information together and have a collective conversation. The school system is a 247 operation. I don't care if students are not in the building. You all are working every single day to make this happen. We cannot have disruption. There is never a good time within the 365 days to move your office. It's not a good time. Um, we also not only need to think about the space that you need, we need to think about who's all coming and going. There are security issues. We are hiring people. We are bringing them in. This is supposed to be the welcoming place that we are hopefully inviting individuals

182in. They are going to love where we are, the location, and they're going to want to stay. So it's more than just do you have the right number of offices is is this a welcome location and is this truly what we want the face of Nelson to be. So there are so many things that need to be considered and that's where the conversation comes in. Um I appreciate you bringing this to the forefront because there is a lot of chatter about it. Um and I think it's important for people to know we didn't ask for this. we're being asked to do something and then there's going to be a review or look to see which area or is the best who should move and what does that look like? Um I'm concerned about the budgetary

183issue, where does the money come from and and how is that allocated and what does that look like? I mean there are so many things that need to be discussed and that's where this um committee comes in that has been reviewing things. The CIP I can't remember the name of it. Um these are the types of things that we've asked for a long time. Sit down. Let's start conversations so that we have a roadmap of where we're going. Um but again I appreciate you bringing this out to the forefront. appreciate the work that you have done because again this is extra work that you're having to do in the midst of a school year. So I know it's a heavy lift. Um but I am most concerned that whatever happens it is the true face

184of Nelson that we are just not putting people in a brick and mortar for the time being. This is a operation. This is a corporation. We are running a school system. We need to have a place that works for you and your team. >> Well said. >> I said that. Well said. >> I think it's um I think we need to have a joint meeting as soon as we can it can be arranged. So um you're still the chair, right? Okay. So just just checking. Um, I think and and I mean and my hope would be is that all five of us can attend and all five of your board can attend. Um, I'm sorry. >> I'm sorry. Sorry. But but that would be my hope is that both boards and staffs can attend and

185we can discuss this since this has been brought up. Uh, Mr. Turner Giles is right. We we didn't ask for this. I'm not disputing the need for space by any means. I don't think any of us are really. Um, but it's the sense of urgency about the moving. And I'm I appreciate that the time frame has been pushed back and expanded because when it first got broached, it wasn't through. It wasn't officially and and there were things that it made it sound like we were going to have to kind of pack a bag and go is what it made made everybody feel like. And that's that's not how we want to do things. I don't think that's how anybody should be doing things um in this case. Um, I do appreciate you working with Miss

186McGary as closely as you do. I think that is a huge help. Uh, but since this has come up, as I've done some thinking, I think long term, the best thing for us as a school system is to be on that same campus with the high school and the middle school. And honestly, I think the best long-term planning solution is for us to be able to plan for building a building, a purpose-built building for the school board. Um, and and if there's other things that go in that that are school related, then that's great. But I think that that would give us a home. I I don't know how immediate the needs are for other offices within the county. Um, but I agree with Mr. Perkins. You know, um, I remember the Quanet Hut, too.

187We, but we all know the history of it. It was a World War II. It was a dance hall and then it was a need for social services and that was supposed to be temporary and that lasted 25 years or whatever and then they're in another temporary 25 years and we we you know we none of us want to be under our stewardship want to have that happen so that somebody else gets to inherit that down the road. Um so I think we need to have a meeting and do and do some long-term planning. Um I'm certain we can look at these spaces. Were you planning on having Mosley look at the space at 400 Front Street or not? >> Um, I think I can have um >> I just didn't know if that was

188in the plan. I >> I think my my thought on the space is it it the um the old Cvec building. I think there is some investigation as to the availability and that someone owns the front part but not the back part and maybe an offer was made. So I think I I know my last conversation with Miss McGary is they are looking and researching into like is it is it one even available or a potential thing to consider. There's no sense in planning everything out if it's not up. Um so I think that is a next step. I mean I I was more or less I have a list of things to look at but like what do we have on site already? You know our campuses what's available. Um I know Nelson Center

189was identified as a possibility. Um and then yeah un unused school property Nelson Center and then considering the current DSS office although that is listed at 4,400 um square feet and we are saying we have a recommended 6,000. So, I think it's just really I think the other uh Blue Moon Books Antiques, although we don't really know the viability of that in terms of availability. Old CVC 400 Front Street and then maybe the former Johnson Senior Center was also another location. Um 6,400 total, but the first floor in the B I mean there's some things. It's a it's been gutted. There's there's some other things going on with that that would still require. So we I I will say I think we may be because we started thinking about this as soon as like hey

190this could be a possibility um being able to work with individuals to say help me see this help me understand is this actually a possibility and I might just not see it. Um and I do appreciate that assistance. I know um Mr. Campbell went around with me um to some of the locations on on campus um and and so I think we had people like we'll take a look at this and we will really look at it. I think you know in working with Miss McGary, you know, I have I have expressed our concerns that I know we've been once we were alerted that this could be a possibility a couple months ago. We've started having those conversations. We started um and I have shared that. I think we all know like no one wants

191to be the person to say you got to get out now. Um but sometimes it's not always a bad thing and sometimes it can be. I think it's just like we've stated being very thoughtful and very methodical about what exactly are the needs not only of ourselves but of of the departments and what's the smartest fiscally and and operationally. what's the smartest move to make not just right now but for the future and I think that that is a part of our conversations um and Miss McGary is like I I think there's not a lack of understanding of it's a complicated issue and there's a lot at it um there's been acknowledge of that um the concern about the financial aspect I have expressed that like I'm concerned one about the financial aspect of this

192but also like where is that money going to come from um because if we start looking at that from an operational budget like that's dedic dedicated to our kids. That's dedicated 80% of our budget is for our staff. That is for a really important purpose. And I I pride myself I pride us on our budget is dedicated to our needs that we want in in in a budget of success really. Um and that is what we identify as necessary for our success and um uh a relocation isn't hasn't been factored into that and and that can't that can't impact our kids and so I feel like that's something that we've articulated. Um it is it is heard from Miss McGary. Um, but there has been a task placed at hand that this is this we

193have been asked to look at this and I want to do that and give it its due diligence to be able to honor honestly take a look at that um and be able to look people in the eye and say I've looked at this that isn't going to work or I've looked at this this appears that this could be a possibility but these are the things that would need to take place. So, I feel like that's just the um the adult thing to do and and be able to to operate this way. Um and and we've we've sat and started this process and maybe that's that's what's necessary in order to take the next step in being able to meet together. Um I just had a meeting with Miss McGary. We try to meet we

194meet monthly um and after their school board or after their meeting and before our schoolboard meeting. So I can I understand anything that's been shared, we can take it and address it here. Um I speak to her quite frequently and so we we work really well together. We're able to even even when we're sharing concerns, we're able to articulate that and discuss it in in a in a way that we we work towards providing solutions. >> Yeah. >> I mean that's just like the committee we were at that >> Yes. >> That's right. I think it would be interesting to to sit down with everybody and kind of understand how we fit into the county's kind of overall audit and assessment of their needs from a building infrastructure and and um square footage from all

195of their buildings. I think they've got people placed all throughout the county in different buildings. And so, you know, if it's a priority, like social services is a priority right now. If we know we need assets, we need money budget outside of our operational budget, then where does it fit in their priorities to offer that money to us based on what their needs are in their assessment >> and it goes back to us wanting to be part of the long-term plan. Sure. Sure. 10 to 15. >> That's right. And that's that's the discussion because I do think it's super important. I mean, when we, you know, one of the things they talk about is the growth in the county. What does our enrollment look like? Well, every decision we have to make for the future

196of our schools and and your locations has to be tied to not just today, but 5, 10, 15 year projections. Well, I appreciate you bringing that up because one of the concerns on behalf of the architect for Rockfish is if your population goes up there, you're going to have to redo this anyway because you're not going to like, well, we're going to send some kids off to a different school because that's where central office. I I think that was pointed out is, you know, any kind of growth on behalf of the enrollment and and you know, whether you listen to the candidate forum or you listen I I would love to have more students too. our enrollment. You I think all of us would really like to encourage that. So once you do that at

197Rockfish, then you've really pigeon holed yourself. Um so I think >> that money's been spent right that's been wasted. >> Yeah. It's a cost that then you'd have to adjust around. So >> and we've been here for in this location for 60 years. Rough numbers. >> We we'd like for the next move to be that permanent. So So I appreciate what you're doing. >> Yes. And and like I said, this is I wouldn't say this is the first conversation that but this is really kind of truly the beginning of a more formalized process to be able to to have to hold these discussions and considerations to be able to work together um you know on behalf of the schools and and working then um with um you know the county administrator and the board of

198supervisors to be able to work towards a solution on this. Jan made a really good point talking about the face of the schools and I appreciate all that she said that what I would add to that as well is that wherever we are um we have made safety and security a major part of what we do within our schools and our school systems and I don't care where we go but I want that to be at the forefront to protect to protect all of our our employees. >> Yeah, because we're relying on the courthouse security now which is fantastic. >> Right. >> Um but it's it's built in. It's a built-in benefit for us right now >> that we won't have if we move. >> I just said >> that's actually been a part of

199the conversation that I've had with Jim that like we need in in in just anywhere really. I think there just needs to be those incre you and I have had those conversations about trying to you know I'd like to add zero eyes where I work. Um I I think we're just in a place that providing that safety and security is important. Um and that has been a part of our conversation. Um, you know that what I like about Mosley is they do focus a lot on schools. They do other projects, but they really focus on schools because they really understand the environment and the need of the safety and security and aspects of that and how schools and in our business operates. So, I I do appreciate that and in and all those other school-based

200architects do it, you know, whether it's Mosley or anybody else, they really understand that need because we have kids in here, too. We have kids in our offices. We have families in our offices. So, it's not it's not just adults that work outside the schools. This is a multi-functioning um you know allpurpose area. Uh and so we want to be able to make sure that it's safe and secure for everyone. >> Thank you. >> Stay up there and uh look. I know >> because we just don't >> SBA policy updates which are this is the first reading so we have time and it's also fairly brief as policy updates go >> it is the fun thing about these updates is we're updating what you uh approved in August on the most recent update of those

201um so there's three items uh the purchasing procedures which is DJF and really it's a code update it's literally entering in the code of Virginia aspects into the policy. Um, no other language is is included. So, um, I h I have gone ahead and and updated that and we'll make that live and active upon approval. Um, so that that's a pretty simple update. The second update was to JFC, which is the student conduct. um as a response to uh legislation that went into place July 1, more specific about cyber bullying. So adding to what bullying is and then providing a specific definition of cyber bullying that is what is encompassed into the edits in adjustments into the student conduct JFC. Um it's in direct response to the legislation and really quite frankly it's expanding it.

202Bullying isn't just a you they're not taking cyber bullying as a as a part of bullying. It is its own separate thing. Um we in our day and age there's more and more opportunities whether it's with cell phones and that's also a great thing about really um uh restricting the use of cell phones is because dropping the opportunities for some cyber bullying. Um so they have the specific definition and inclusion of it. That's really what's encompassed in that. And then the third one, request for public records. There was further um opportunities for your FOYA officer. Uh we were required to identify a FOYA officer. Our FOYA officer is Shannon Urban. Um and they are required to get certain uh training. And so not only that, it has to take place, but there's some online training

203and it's really further talking about those opportunities. So, those are what those three um new policies, if you will, the updates. Uh they're not new, but the updates to them. Um so, really not a massive change. And just ironic that we just approved the updates from from before. >> All right. Now, we are into Thank you very much. We're into the items for action. So, let's just roll, guys. Ready? Obviously, anybody have questions or anything on any of these items, just bring it up and uh All right. So, uh there's a religious exemption for compulsory attendance according to section 22- whatever blah blah blah. We can read it in the motion. Um so, I will no questions. Nobody has any comments or whatever. I'll entertain a motion. I move we approve the religious exemption for

204compulsory attendance according to section 22.1-254 B1 of the code of Virginia for student one. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> uh we have a request to declare used curriculum as surplus property. >> I'll make a motion to approve declaring used curriculum as surplus. >> Second. >> All in favor? I >> I >> um there's an request to declare used cafeteria tables as surplus property. >> I make a motion to approve declaring used cafeteria tables as surplus property. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I um request to amend approved instructional calendar. Do we want to discuss this? I do want to discuss this because um about a month ago we were informed that there was going to be the and I might screw it up so I apologize the seven stars festival.

205Um it it kind of hearkens back to lockin um and similar property uh organizers uh things of that nature and and I guess apparently over 22,000 tickets have been sold, things have been sold out. Um so they're really anticipating an increased population and so I think sometimes you say lock in and some people have like they kind of shutter a little bit because of um some concern the some issues that they had with maybe um handling the increased traffic on the roads. Um we we I have had an opportunity to have a meeting with um Sheriff Embry and some of the organizers just to kind of express my concerns and you know I think sometimes in the past you're like well in the past you guys just canceled school and so I had to go

206back and be like yeah so it's not like that anymore. Um you know our state and in our where we are um the knee-jerk reaction just to cancel school is not necessarily the most appropriate thing or this most supportive thing that should take place. Um, I I asked uh Taylor Ashley, supervisor of transportation, and we've had these conversations at our cabinet meetings as well because I know Mr. Campbell has had some experiences, a lot of people have about do we need to change our calendar. Um, luckily there's no home football game that Friday night. The dates that we're talking about is October 9th, which is a Thursday, Friday the 10th, 11th, and 12th with um people starting to to come in on that Thursday the 9th. a lot more people coming in on that Friday

207the 10th and then it kind of um concluding on that Sunday and then releasing some people because it's it's really um dedicated to some space uh on that property. Um but in working with the sheriff's office and also the um county um Dylan Bishop um getting some of those plans and traffic patterns and plans for that I I I feel like you know lessons learned from the past and the way things have been done um and talking with some people I I think they feel like with the appropriate communications ahead of time to our community about hey there's going to be increased traffic this weekend. It is a holiday weekend, if you will, depending on what business may um provide a day off for uh Columbus Day, Indigenous Day. Um we were scheduled to have

208an asynchronous day um that Monday, the 13th, which meant we would have staff coming in, but our students wouldn't be there. So, we have the flexibility to move the Monday to the Friday. But I will say that upon looking at the plans, I think, you know, we feel like it's entirely possible with appropriate upfront communication that we wouldn't need to change the calendar, that we can maintain our calendar as such. Um, we would just need to make sure that we communicate out. It isn't as much of a big hindrance to our buses. >> It's actually I the question I had is what does that do for our car riders? What does it do for our staff? What does it just do for the overall it's more of an inconvenience than it is anything but I

209feel like you know I think the p the the big shift into the entertainment takes place on Friday and more so towards that evening. Um I what I ask now is maybe um we are still continuing to have these conversations. You know I I may need to ask to have the flexibility that if we should need to change that date that I can. I don't I don't want to have to change our calendar. I want to maintain that consistency, but if we need to, and obviously I fully recognize the sooner the better so people can make those adjustments and plans. I just feel like right now we feel like there's a chance we can do this appropriately. We would just need to communicate to all of our families. There's increased presence. There'll be traffic pattern

210changes. um you know, take the long way on 56 to 29. You're not going to have that cut through on Oakidge, that type of thing. Um I think the communication piece will be key. I just feel like, you know, a couple other things we want to look into is like what is the actual impact of having that group um we do have Tai River um not right on that corner, but you know, somewhat close by. I want to see what that impact is. um it's just difficult to to completely rearrange a calendar um because of a music festival and I know we've done it in the past. I completely understand that. I would just say co changed a lot of that in terms of our flexibility of just cancelling things and we have some remote

211learning days we could use if we needed to. We do have that asynchronous day, but we we would then fully anticipate a drop in attendance if we changed our day to Monday to to be in school. We'll that would be another disruption to the learning environment. So, I guess what I say is to have the ability to change change our instructional calendar if we need to. Um, but I would say through some recent conversations, I think I I think our transportation department would feel comfortable moving forward with a regular schedule. >> Just so I'm clear about this. So, what what you're asking for in the items for action is the flexibility to be able to change >> to change the instructional calendar if needed. >> Yes. >> All right. >> And I say that with

212the caveat like I recognize the sooner I can do that, the better. I get that. I understand that. But I just >> I just want to know what to do. >> I just wanted to make sure we weren't actually changing. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. No. And I'm not unless as a board you're like absolutely not. We need to change this and change it now or absolutely not. Do not change anything. Um that is the input. But you know, in order to change that calendar, I need I need your your vote or at least your authority to be flexible with that. >> Well, safety's got to be first, >> right? And and what we the unknown here is this is a different group putting on a festival. >> It it's it's actually there's there's a

213lot of organiz Yeah. There's some same organizers that have been involved in that. >> Okay. >> It's a different group of people though because it's EDM not Grateful Dead. And it's like the the years from uh Lockan I mean the there were 40,000 people there so and more. So >> I I it does sound like it'll be a less of an impact traffic wise. >> Yeah. And I know Taylor's had some conversations with the people in charge of like the tra like some things and and has like that contact where the guy's like you tell me when your when your your kids are in or out and you let us know then that allows them to adjust some things. So >> okay. >> Um again I have not seen this and so I understand that

214I haven't seen it play out. Um I understand that it can be disruptive but so is changing a calendar. the first year it was >> and I think that's what it was like a third year and that's what I hear that's that's what everybody's telling me and I'm like but then you know in the quieter voice they're like but they did figure it out later on and I'm like well which one is it three it was really good >> and and I feel like one of those guys that was involved in year three is still a part of it. >> Yeah. >> So >> and I know Mr. Campbell is kind of probably twitching behind me um because he remembers the first year. Um but I will say like we've we've tried to integrate ourselves

215into these conversations and be a part of it. Um Sheriff Embry is fully aware of what my concerns are. Um I I think we know that. Um and I want to make a good decision and a smart decision. I just but I also don't want to make a knee-jerk decision >> and but I want it, you know, we're getting close to it, >> right? So, um I don't >> The only thing I'd say is communication is key. >> The sooner we can let parents know, teachers know what the plan is, the better. >> Um but I appreciate you being thoughtful about the final decision. >> So, I think tonight if we just make a motion to give you the flexibility to amend the calendar as needed, will that work for you? >> It works for

216me. I I do I you know one is educating you guys about like hey this is this is what we're faced with I I did have a conversation with Miss McGary in that hey if this is something we want to if this is something the county decides or or whoever is making this decision wants to continue doing can you please give me the heads up so when we create our instructional calendar we we are thoughtful about that >> yes >> and can do some things. Um, luckily we don't have a home football game that night, >> right? >> That would have been a whole different um consideration, you know. Luckily, >> if we have to do something, we have that Monday that we can play with. You know, to burn two remote learning days. We

217we did it last year because of flooding, but yet we ended up needing a lot of that time because of the winter weather. You know, depending on what you read right now, our our winter could be warm and wet, warm and dry, cold and wet, or cold and dry. >> That's not helpful. >> Well, hopefully, you know, that's not very if this thing takes off to be a repetitive event, >> hopefully going forward >> now, we have a relationship, then they'll be able to >> communicate dates and things like that before the calendar's built. >> Sure. And I I I want to support community events. I hope this type of um event could it serves as a a great revenue generator for account or or serves as something. Um I want to be able to

218support that. But you know my first task is to preserve the instructional um integrity of our our uh >> our school system. So >> yeah. >> Okay. >> Got it. >> Well, she's got to go. I will make a motion to approve the authority of the superintendent to adjust the instructional calendar if needed >> to address the impact of the seven starts festival in October 2025. >> Second. >> Yes. >> All in favor? >> I your name right. >> All right. Good job, guys. >> All right. You want to go over the calendar, too, or >> no, no, >> no. It was just to show that our Monday >> Sorry, I was on to the next one which was the budget calendar. Do you want to talk about the budget calendar or >> No, I

219think it's it is it is the every year suggested dates. >> Anybody have any questions on >> I don't see anything that stands out on there. >> Okay, perfect. >> I move that we >> The only thing I would say is if with the suggestive wanting joint meetings is to begin to have those conversations to try to get that you know we have this current board, >> right? >> Um and then >> some of those >> Huh. Some of those may change. >> It could be some of those could change. But I would just say we built in some opportunities in the back end in the second and in February in in January for some budget work sessions. But if we're in a bianium >> for joint meetings, do you build any for that? >>

220Well, with those work sessions, it it it placeholds an opportunity for that. Yeah. And so, but really, you know, part of one of the conversations I had with Miss McGary is like the the sooner we can start talking about the budget, the sooner we can understand why you're asking for what you're asking. And I I think we're all in favor of being able to do that. You know, we had a joint meeting um my first year here in October. Um we we we have a pretty detailed presentation when we initiate our presentation in January or February. Um, and I think sometimes it's considered maybe a dog and pony show. It's not because we know that we do this more frequently than anybody else does. So, it makes sense to us. It may not make sense

221to anybody else. So, we really go out of our way to explain our budget and why we're doing and justifying what we're asking for. But, I think because it we do it more frequently, others don't always understand it as much. And so if we need to do that sooner, we are happy to do that and sit down and explain why why we, you know, why we ask for what we ask for. I would just say it's hard to do when we don't know what the LCI is. It's hard to do when you don't know what the governor's bud there's a reason why those conversations start in January or late December because that's when the governor's budget comes out. This year is unique. We have a governor's budget that will come out in mid uh December

222and then whomever takes over the governorship in January may or may not change that budget. So then we may be dealing with the same and then just adding in the general assembly, the house and senate or we may be doing a whole bunch of new budgets. Well, I mean, I think if we could get something on like a joint meeting and maybe it's half on the space and half on just like preliminary budget stuff like what we're looking at in a long-term planning kind of way. And then you know depending if we could have it on October, November, we could either have candidates who are interested in prot participating or you know after election day the actual can you know people who are elected in >> participating at least listening in because the dog and

223pony show is going to help them as well you know and it we can actually kind of scaffold new people coming in you know on that process because it's not easy there's a you know a huge learning curve. Yeah. Like both of us when we got on the board at our respective times, we were in part of that process and we were given a budget packet. >> Yeah. >> To be able to review while it was going on. >> Yeah. Because you got to pick it up in January. You got to >> Yeah. Very >> And it And it's not a dog and pony show. It's like it's our business. This is Yeah. No. No. I said >> it is. And it's necessary to be that detailed because >> people need to understand why, >>

224right? and and really like who we serve, >> right? >> We don't serve we're not producing widgets. >> We're we're producing, >> you know, future citizens who are going to contribute back and they're children. And so I think really making sure that we can explain to someone why we ask for what we ask and and and it is necessary and and we're very thoughtful about it. So >> yeah. No, I agree. Totally agree. So let's try to get that on the board. >> All right. >> Okay. I'll make a motion to approve the proposed FY2026207 budget calendar. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I I >> um All right. We got the crisis plans. Anybody have This is also something that we do. >> Yeah. I move we unless there's no any discussion. I

225move that we approve the um NCPS crisis plan as presented. >> I'll second. >> All in favor? I >> I >> uh now I do we have any questions about the FFA? >> I think you just need to if if you choose to donate, you need to set an amount. >> Okay. >> Um historically it has been about I think historically it's been $1,000. We gave to FFA last year. We gave that to FCCLA. So I think that is what we um no one >> that that is historically what you've done. I'm not saying >> so I make a motion we do the $1,000 and keep it as abnormal. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> All right, that one's done, too. Now we need to uh approve the varsity boys and girls

226basketball to Straber tournament, which is an overnight field trip. I move we approve the varsity boys and girls basketball um to go to Strawsburg for an overnight um for a basketball tournament for an overnight field trip. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. And now we need to approve the middle school 8th grade field trip to Washington. >> It is the to the air and space museum. So we have a new field trip system. So we are learning as we go. It is a very efficient system, but we are we are learning as we go. Um, it is a middle school opportunity to go up. Um, I I will say this. >> Um, it is important that we continue to monitor the safety and security of all of our field trips in and the

227locations to which they go. agree. >> Um we are aware that navigating to DC >> um can be tricky in any time um let alone any kind of time of um you know adjustments to security and safety. We I I say that to say that like we we look at that anyway, but we're also where um but this is a wonderful opportunity for our students to be able to engage in hands-on experiential learning by going and and experiencing the Air and Space Museum and the Museum of Natural History. Um so, but we do monitor that just >> Yeah, it's a little nerve-wracking. >> I move that we approve the eighth grade field trip to Washington DC. >> Second. >> All in favor? I >> I >> um now I believe we do not need to

228go into close session unless somebody wants to do some specific reviews of the personnel um uh action report. Um so if everybody's good with the personal action report, we could skip a closed session tonight. >> All right. So you need a motion for the PAC. >> Yes, sir. >> I move we approve approve the personnel action report as presented. I'll second. >> All in favor? >> I I >> Um, thank you very much. Um, are there any other matters that we would like to discuss tonight? >> All right. Hearing none. >> Covered everything. >> We covered everything. Bless some. All right. Then I will entertain a motion to adjourn. >> Move we adjourn the meeting. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. Awesome. [Music] We've made it. 12 grade school years completed. If I'm

229going to be completely honest, it's hard to believe we've come so far. Today's ceremony represents the impact each graduate had at Nelson County. These experience alongside Nelson County's teachers is a once in a-lifetime experience. High school has been hard. We've been given thousands of entirely new obstacles. We have spectacularly triumphed over them. It is nothing if not hard work and persistence that has lit the fuse to the class of 2025 success. Believe in yourself that you are somebody. If you look up the nail definition of somebody, you will find a person of importance. Never place blame on anyone for your failure. When things get tough, stand tall. Continue to work towards greatness so one day everybody will say, "You know what? They were somebody." With our caps on our heads and our dreams in our

230hearts, we're finally ready to step out into the world and chase our future. And now, by virtue of the power and authority vested in me by the Commonwealth of Virginia, I do hereby declare you graduates of Nelson County High School. Please turn your tassels. Congratulations, class of 2025. Follow your horizon. Follow your heart. Chasing the unknown. Forever it may take us. Forever it may. Chasing the unknown. Follow the horizon. Follow your heart. Chasing the unknown. Chasing the [Music] Oh, [Music] hey. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]