School Board Work Session: 8-6-25

001Call to order the work session of the Norfolk School Board for Wednesday, August 6, 2005, 2025. I welcome each of you present this this afternoon. A quorum is present to transact the business of the school division. Miss Tanner, please call the role. >> Bassine here. >> Buffalo here. >> Present. >> Martin, >> present. >> Pollson, >> present. >> Thomas here. >> Talagro >> here. We will begin today's meeting with agenda item 2.01, chronic absenteeism and dropout rate. Dr. Paul. >> All right. Uh good afternoon, Madame Chair Daler, Vice Chair Thomas, members of the board. Uh this afternoon we're going to review uh what was formerly known as schoolboard one goal one but we you know uh have changed that and we're just giving uh updates on the chronic absenteeism and dropout rate report. Um so

002with that um just looking at the rates for let's bigger there we go for chronic absenteeism. Um we have uh nicely seen declines from school year 22 through school year 25. Uh in fact when you look at our our measurements on the strategic plan um our target for the strategic plan for SY25 was 18.3%. So we actually exceeded that um that target. Um and although we've seen the the improvements and we're meeting the targets for the strategic plan, we all know the lower this rate goes, the more instructional time our students get right because they're in school. So that that's something we're still continuing to focus on. When we look specifically at the dropout rates, we're we're not seeing the same good news here. In fact, we're seeing an uh increase. Uh we had 10.4%

003in SY22 to 14.8% SY25. I would like to point out though and it it wasn't necessarily on the sheet but if you recall SY22 we were coming out of the pandemic and there there was a lot more freedom on um uh on you know so testing and everything else and and our graduation rates were a little bit higher during that time frame. So we're seeing that um kind of the tale of the pandemic coming into fruition now because these students that that are graduating now were in middle school coming into high school which we know is a tough transition. Um, so really focusing um, you know, I'm trying not to focus on reading the report as much because I know everybody read the report, but just to to continue to focus on improving our chronic

004absentee rates and our dropout rates. Um, we're of course going to continue to build and grow upon our MTSS multi-tered systems of support at the division level all the way to the school level to to make sure our our school level plans are in place. Um and as the year begins, school level teams will be provided with appropriate training and professional development uh not only around on on how to um help prevent but how to better monitor with the data that we have at our fingertips now that we've talked about a few times um at the board level. Um, additionally, um, annual trends are going to be analyzed to offer support to students, um, when we're looking at those traditional dips in attendance rates where we're not seeing the attendance as strong so that we

005can we can get in front of those, um, and and try to do some strategies or some competitions or some way to engage students to have them come into school. Um, sometimes those are like the two days before Thanksgiving, we see a dip in the rates or sometimes right around the winter holidays, we see some dips in the rates. So really looking at those this year and trying to get in front of those as much as we can. Um and as as a as a reminder, it did take a little while, but we have we have hired our senior coordinator for on-time graduation um and um student engagement and and Dr. Moore is is on board to really help with our schools. In fact, she's already been visiting the graduation coaches. she's uh got it

006on her schedule to start visiting the schools that have the highest chronic absenteeism rate or the highest dropout rates early on to help them with their data and help do preventative plans uh straight straight straight on the line. Um and throughout the summer, our high school principles have been ardently working with their teams to track down any student who had dropped out to try to get them to reenroll. And as an added benefit coming into this year with 4x4, if a student just needs two or three classes to be able to graduate, they'll be able to do it in the fall. Um so that we can say, you know, we can have them complete uh a winter, you know, wintertime um graduation. So um that's the a bridge version of of where we are and

007I'll pause for any comments or questions you may have. Yes, sir. >> Oh, okay. All right. Excellent. Um, so, um, I know that we, um, just hired the senior coordinator for, um, on time graduation. What are they going to be measured on for the impact and what outcomes are you looking for >> for that specific position? Yes, sir. >> Uh, we are looking for increases in in in these data points right here, our dropout rate and our chronic absenteeism rate. Um and then you know our you know following that we'll start looking at improvements in our uh transition from 9th to 10th grade as well um because those are all data points that we track. >> Awesome. Thank you so much. Do you have the data on um disagregated um by subgroups? >> We have

008it by school that was posted but it's not posted by school by subgroup. Um and I don't in front of me have the data by subgroup uh in front of me right now. Got you. Is that something that you would be able to get to the board if if the collective if the board wanted it? >> Yeah, we could run a report on that if it's if you have this. >> Of course I have. Yeah. >> Yeah. I want to see Yeah, I got the see Booker T, but I want to understand what subgroups within Booker T, right? The ones >> the chronic absenteeism. >> So, are you I just want to clarify then on that comment. Do you are you going to be requesting or looking for it by school by subgroup as well?

009>> Okay. Yeah, we'll discuss with future agenda items. >> We'll discuss it then. No problem. >> Miss B. >> Oh, for right now. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Paul. And good to see the improvements around chronic absentee. I know um outside of our control that impact available for us to see struggling and would like to focus on one of the schools have probably the highest chronic absent So I imagine is that I understood is part of that. But how I guess how from a monitoring standpoint strengthening that because we know at that majority of them are elementary school. So we know that it's not necessarily the student maybe a family uh situation or you know some other >> Yeah. So one of the things that we we're doing going into this year is is

010each school will have offerings uh with partners through before and after school care too. um which I know is a big concern at some of our schools and a couple ELC's in particular. Um with the ELC's, you know, those schools, as we all know, were chosen because they were some of our highest need schools. Um and part of the process with that is is just engagement before after school as well. Um and trying to grow the amount of students that we have engaged um in the activities provided through the EELC's too in order to in in order to boost their attendance rates. >> Okay. It's going to be offered. Correct. >> It's going to be offered and so we've identified partners and that's already in place. >> Yeah, I believe Champions is doing the the

011the bulk of it for us. >> Okay. That's good to hear. Um >> I got my nods from the right. So I I answered that one correctly. Is it on on the bottom? What? That hurt. Watch this. There's two lights up here. >> Yeah. I don't know what's going on with that one. >> Um, thank you, Dr. Paul. Um, so my question Oh, on the before and after care. So, they So, Champions is going to be at both. Okay, that's good to hear. and then through your end ofear assessment around what some of the root cause analysis is around chronic absenteeism. I know that we've had these great attendance challenges happening um which I know are really exciting for the kids and and our staff, but what else are you finding that um that we

012are in control of that we can um put in place that we haven't already put in place or that we can strengthen to? Yeah, I I I think um you know really looking at the data still we we will have more parents who will hold students home for the sniffles than we did you know in 2019. Um which you know is hard for us to to have any control over. Um but it it's really about just getting them to school and engaging them. >> Um and I do think by making sure that we're offering before and after school everywhere that's help as well. um so that parents have the ability to you know if they have to be to work at seven and school doesn't start till 9:00 it's a difficulty for our parents so

013trying to bridge that gap is I think going to be one of the biggest >> okay and specifically um around transportation was that like did you find that being an issue because one of the things that I think has been reiterated or reinforced in some of these community listening sessions has been um around what if what happens when a ch a student misses the bus and then you know they're far from their you know they're not walking distance to their school so then they're you know parents have gone to work or unable to you know transport them to school how does >> um you know I think at one point and this might have been because we had er funds to do this but we had vans or you know going to pick up students

014maybe at the high school level to get them to school was that >> so we we looked at MKV funds uh Mckin Vento funds because we do spend a good deal of money on private transportation for students who live out of the city to get them into our city for for that but we haven't really done the vans that way per se. Okay. >> Um and right now unfortunately we're you know we're we're short drivers as we have been traditionally. So being able to offer something like a second run to try to do something is just it's out of the out of the picture right now. We would love to get there, you know, especially as we're looking holistically right now at our whole division through the consolidation planning about, you know, what benefits does

015that offer besides just seat space and and that could definitely be something we look at in the future to help with items such as this. >> Okay. And then so switching now into the dropout rates related but um um switching so um building on Mr. in just question around. So this year we have uh the coordinator for on time graduation >> but we had also a >> approaching a railroad crossing. Sorry. >> Are you sure? >> Um >> in a way kind of metaphorically metaphorically we are crossing this is a a crossroads first. >> Yeah. Yeah. Um but where um with the dropout rates we had I think in the previous budget not this past budget cycle but the one before that also had added a dropout prevention specialist. >> Was that individual was there

016someone hired for that? >> That was the one that was just hired. >> Okay. We never had anybody in the >> No, this this was the So, we have we have done a couple searches, a couple interview processes, and and it it took this long to find someone who was qualified for that position. >> I didn't know if that was part of any sort of restructuring based on >> that was Yeah, that was this position that we we've been it was in this year's budget. Yes. >> And it it took us this year to find someone qualified. >> Okay. Um All right. So, and I appreciate, you know, looking at how are we going to know whether that support was sufficient or we need more supports to to really tackle this as our dropout rates

017increase? And speaking of the dropout rates, how do we compare to the state? >> So, final, excuse me, final numbers haven't been posted yet. That's why we still have preliminary because technically we have until the end of September until this number becomes finalized. So, if a student right now might be reported as a dropout, but if they reenroll in the fall, they're not a dropout. Okay? >> Even if they're coming in as their fifth year, they don't count as a dropout at that point because they're they haven't dropped out. Um, so that's why we're preliminary on the data right now. So, we won't have that >> until we when we do the state of the schools in November time frame, that'll be up there as a piece of data. >> Thanks. I I wasn't sure

018if you maybe had preliminary state data or anything. >> I wish, but not yet. >> Yeah. Um, and you mentioned the multi-tered systems of support and making sure that we have that fully implemented with fidelity, which I know two two years ago through the equity audit that was done, that was one area, >> correct, >> that um I know and I know we've been working on it. Have we evaluated uh like how we're doing in terms of its implementation in our schools? >> So, not yet. So, you'll recall a few times I I I've spoken about like program evaluation. You know, really I want to be three years in at least. Okay. >> And this coming up year is our third year of really doing full MTSS. So the first year we focused on divisionwide.

019The last year we focused on schools developing their committees and then this year the committees are in place and then we'll grow and then we'll look at um any specific data or points that we can to evaluate that process and need for improvement. >> Okay. So this would this school year would be the third school year of implementation >> of full implementation. Correct. And there's nothing that happens in the interim to kind of see are we on track or >> so divisionwide. Yeah. Divisionwide we look at data such as this on a during the monthly meetings. The the divisionwide committee looks at this and then the schoolwide committees then it rolls over to them looking at their specific specific data as well. So they they look at the same pretty much the same data points

020I bring to the board and then they go all the way down to school level. >> Okay. Um, and you you mentioned earlier about the 4x4 schedule, and you know, I know when you when that was initially being proposed to the board that that was viewed as a potential benefit uh for students in terms of keeping them engaged. um what what how are we doing with our other programs such as open campus and other uh like NGED programs that are also there to kind of help support you know get our students. >> So you'll see when we go over the monitoring calendar that we actually have an alternative education presentation on it. So we'll really go into the depth of that on that. Okay. >> Okay. All right. Great. >> I don't want to give

021any spoilers this afternoon. >> Okay. All right. Well, I I appreciate that. So, that was it for me. Thank you, >> Madam Chair. >> Yes, sir. >> All right. Excellent. Dr. Poll, let's go back to the um chronic absenteeism. So, we got some big ones here. So, Booker T Washington 25.2%. Elective student population for Bookat is 899, which comes to about 227 students. Jay Cox, I'm looking at Yep. 30 30.8. has about 184 students and Lake Taylor at 24.7. Um so question for you I would like to know what are we doing with um family engagement specialists, attendance officers and social workers to mitigate these numbers. >> Uh so uh Booker T. Washington and Jay Cox both have family engagement specialists because that that's a requirement of title one schools. Got it. Um, and then

022Lake Taylor High School has their graduation coaches on site. And so we're working specifically with them um with training. We do divisionwide training plus specific school needs training um to uh to bring families in just to bring families to school period. Um is, you know, the research shows that, you know, if your families are more connected to school, they're going to send their kids to school. >> Absolutely. >> Um so just just trying to bridge that gap and to and to open more opportunities. Um and then that's also where Dr. more. Um, one of her areas that she'll be focusing on is is that family engagement piece. Um, and she'll be she has the same exact list and she's look going from the high number down to make sure those are that's her support levels

023as as she starts her um her her new tenure with Norfick public schools. >> Awesome. Thank you so much there. Um, next follow-up question I have for you. Um, so how um with the school administrators and the principles is this measure measured in their performance evaluations? It's a piece of the data point that's measured in the in the performance. I I I don't know specific, you know, like high school, I know they dropouts is is a piece of the data that's that's that's in there, but I don't I don't have that right in front of be able to note if that's been noted specifically in there, but you know, broadly they look at uh data when they're doing the principal evaluations. So, so your dropout rate, your absenteeism rate, your so rates, you know, then

024then you even go to um you know, your turnover rates for teachers and and other other pieces of data are included in that. >> Okay, so it's all factored into the performance evaluation. Okay, thank you so much for that question there. Um, next question is, how are we um actively pursuing um community organizations outside of Northfor public schools to re-engage families to get their kids to come to school? So uh with uh the department of communications uh with Miss Featherston is our community engagement coordinator. Um so so you know her working with organizations um trying to create more open lines of communication within the division so that we're more open um to uh concepts or ideas they may have to support us. Um and you know just really um whenever any leaders out and about

025and and they meet them trying to bring them in how we can but you know specifically you know really it's it's about if if they have if anybody's listening and they have you know needs or or desires to work with the school division to reach out to us and and and we're trying to be more open door about that. >> Excellent. Thank you so much there. Um will there be any comprehensive chronic absentee plans um given from the administration from you and your team and a plan of action forward to address these >> so that it's you know the schools that have higher rates are required to have it in their CSSPs. So they're required to have plans of action for attendance. >> Thank you so much there. >> I stayed up long last night

026with a lot of questions for you. So let's see what we got next. All right. um what are some of the internal barriers um that are let me go back make sure what are some of the internal barriers and policy constraints that are keeping our kids out that you would think of? >> So I I don't know that there are any policy barriers I think some of the internal constraints that we have are are still you know with staffing some okay >> um you know having a licensed teacher in every classroom that's able to engage the students is is the most vital thing that we can have. Do we have a report that compares licensed teachers to the schools that have the highest chronic absenteeism? >> Well, I mean, we we have we have the

027staffing reports that you guys get. Okay. >> And then this would be a counter where you could I mean, we don't have one that's specifically made that way, but you have the data to be able to put them together. >> Got it. Okay. Awesome. Thank you so much for that. >> All right. Let's see what else I got here for you, Dr. Paul. Ask a quick question. >> Of course you can. While I get my bearings straight. >> It's very simple. Dr. Paul, how many graduation coaches are in the high schools? Each high school, >> we have 10 graduation coaches across the division. >> Okay. >> And they're shared, right? >> They're shared. So, so you know, it might, you know, we might technically assign them two per high school, but then we they also

028jump to Madison open campus and where they have needs is where they are. And that's part of of Dr. Mor plan too is to look and see okay how they're being >> specifically you know because even though we might have a like like let's say Booker T and and and Mr. Engine mentioned, you know, they have about 900 students. So, some would say, well, they only need one coach thinks they have 900 students. Where you have, you know, school with almost 2,000 students, maybe they need three. But when we look at these rates, that's >> that changes everything because we talk about the equity of placement, not the equality of placement. >> That's what I was going. Okay. >> You may proceed, Miss Ann. >> Well, I I sure do appreciate that. Um, board member

029Buffalo. Um, last question I did have here for you. So, we've seen the surge in dropout rates. What are this? What are some of the contributing factors? And then what are the alternative solutions that we're giving to students that just say, "Hey, I'm throwing in the towel and I just don't want to come to school anymore." Are we making sure that we're either getting them into a GED program or diverting them to another program? >> Yeah. So, we we do have a a strong GED program. We try to get them to go to open campus. We try to even offer online offerings. Um but you know GED also it doesn't >> if they if they get a GED they still count on your dropout rate. >> Okay. Gotcha. >> So so you know so that

030you know these wouldn't include our GED students that are that we do provide for but yes we do have that and as you know open campus is also alternative hour schedule. So it doesn't start till like 10 in the morning. It goes later in the afternoon. um so that if they needed to work in the morning that we could accommodate that as well. >> All the questions I have at this time. >> I ask a follow. So So you're saying if a student went through the GED program, it doesn't count toward our dropout rate. >> Well, I need Miss McGarity for this and she's out of town right now, but the I know when we're looking at accountability purposes, it does not count. >> Does not count. >> Correct. >> Oh. Oh. Mm-m. >> It

031that changed that was a piece of the change when we moved from the former accreditation system. We used to get some points for it that no long you no longer get >> for GEDs. >> What's I mean just to help me understand because I I'm glad that came up because that's why I was asking about our GED programs. Um >> it now let me let me clarify though. It is still much better for a student >> to get their GED rather than just take a dropout. So we are still absolutely absolutely absolutely I don't want to say that since it doesn't count we don't do it. We are heavily involved with that. >> No absolutely I guess I I'm just trying to understand what the rationale is behind that decision. Do you are do you

032know off the top of your head? Okay. But but when we do so one of the things when we do the state of the schools in November I've asked Miss McGary to do an update on the accountability plan from the state so that she'll be able to have that and nail that for you. Okay. >> She's our local expert on all of that. >> Okay. >> Followup question, Madam Chair. So of course we track our students when they come in. The teachers have to do a check-in system. Correct. It's like a check-in system or something. >> Take attendance. >> Take correct. >> Okay. So, how are we making holding them accountable to make sure that they are because from what I'm hearing from some parents, students are not they're actually teachers are not um counting

033them there when they actually are there >> and then >> so so that's at the building level that you know there there are edit reports too because by block by block so let's say a student came in and they were in your class and you marked you had a marked present and then they went to uh Mrs. Moore's Miss Buffalo's class and she marked them absent, then there's going to be a pop and edit report there to say, okay, were they there? Were they not? Or did they sign out early so that we can we can >> Is that real time? So, if I go from from Buffalo to Bassine's class, I mark president and I and I don't show up at her class when when I'm supposed to. Is it real time where it

034may alert the administration saying Jason, hey, he showed up for Buffalo, but he didn't show up for Bazine. >> No, that's in our system. It's not real. It's end of the day. You run a report. Okay. >> Okay. >> The system doesn't support the real time on that. >> Okay. >> But at at the high school level though, don't we have a system in place now where >> calls? >> Yeah. You like so the parent even gets a call if if they're absent a period like a correct >> a block in the day. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> Yeah, I get those. Oh, you get all the more than I would like to >> for if I have to pull them out to take them to the doctor or something, then I get a call

035that they were absent, >> right? >> I mean, I'm joking, but yeah, it's usually I know about it. >> I know about it. Yeah, >> if they get out of study block. >> All right. Um, that's all the questions I have for you, Dr. Paul. Thank you so much, sir. >> Thank you, Dr. Paul. >> My pleasure. >> Uh, we will now move on to agenda item 2.02, 02 schoolboard monitoring calendar again with Dr. Paul. >> All right. Uh thank you again everybody. You already have it ready. >> So I I really there's I don't have a formal presentation on this. I want it to be more of a conversation with us. Um and this one on the screen I don't think anybody in this room will be able to read it. Um, but I

036do you have printouts or hopefully you have it on your device so you can see it. Um, I want to just walk through a couple of things. Um, and and just say I think this year based on the accountability changes and a couple other things I'm going to mention today. This will become more malleable. Um, as we go through the year there might still need to be some changes made. Uh but one of the thing we talked one of the things we talked in agenda planning was starting to try to do a quarterly forecast of of board meetings so that we can start to forecast out three months and you guys have an idea of what's coming up three months through for every board meeting which will kind of antiquate this a little bit in

037the long run. Um but one of the things I want to start with um and I wanted to bring it to the board first before I made any formal announcements for it. We've talked about it and the numbers are in. Um the correlation with the SGAA and the so test is about 80%. And my recommendation is that we drop the STAR test this year. Um and if any principles are listening right now, they've just stood up and cheered right at this point. Um but my recommendation is that we drop the STAR assessment. It takes an assessment off our children's plate. Um actually it takes three. the the fall, the winter, and the midyear or the final year um assessment for star SGA will give us the same data points. What that means as we go

038through the year, we have to we're going to recalibrate our interim measures for the board goals based off the SGA. So, I've already asked our um ARRA folks to go back and look at the past three years of SGAAS to try to so we can look and see, okay, what's reasonable, what should the goals look like to get us to where we want to go. So um I I'll I I'll pause there. Just any feedback on that STAR SGAA conversation. >> So one question. So um um I'm glad to hear that correlation piece has been done and examined. So have have you also looked at the so one of the issues with the star if I understood correctly was also the alignment >> right um with so there there's no need to like uh I

039guess realign when the test is administered that would impact its correlation with that matter. Yeah, because they it was really the items on the test weren't as I they weren't as correlated and they the Renaissance has said they're redoing it and we're still going to have STAR for schools who may still want to use it. >> Okay. >> So, it's still going to be a resource for those who want to use it, but divisionwide we're going to rely because they have to do the SGAA. So, we're going to rely on that data piece >> um and and likely look at phasing star out. Um, again, it's something it it it'll give us more instructional time because it's we don't stop for testing again. It will take a stress load off teachers and students. So, I

040think in in the end, it's a win-win. We just weren't sure when SGA came out what that would really look like over time and we've been pleased with the correlation of that data and we feel comfortable now. And honestly, two years ago, I was in discussions with ARRA about looking at this. Um, and and we had thought this year with reading, we' we'd probably start to eliminate STAR anyway, but some of the things with the vows aren't how we thought they would. Like in middle school, we thought vows would be for all students, but it's not. It's just for at risk students. So, we still want that reading data point, but we can get that through the SGA. >> Okay. Okay. Well, and so when you when you also are saying that schools that want

041to use the STAR, >> they still have the option to use, >> they still have the option, but they are not going to by any means feel >> no pressure >> any pressure to do it or anything. Um, so it would be like an assessment coming off the plate. >> Correct. Just like when we >> just like if you recall uh my second year here, we took away quarterly assessments and moved it to the unit assessments or the divisionwide assessments for that data. So we could took we took quarterly assessments off. Now we'll take STAR off. So we're really buying some of that time back. >> Okay, I'm all for that. That more time for teaching and learning and that's >> so and 80% is a good >> that's strong that's a pretty strong Okay.

042There's nothing that is stronger than that. >> I think the highest we got with STAR was around 78%. >> 78. >> I think maybe one specific grade level was around 82 at one point, but when we're looking at 80% overall for grades three through eight, that's a strong correlation. >> Okay. And it's strong across all grade levels. Okay. >> Yeah. There's no outliers in that in those numbers. I mean, we're probably looking, I think, between um I don't have the exact numbers, between 75 85% across all grade levels. So, we're in a good spot with that. and and our statistician Greg Williams felt comfortable with it. If he >> he's got a masters in mathematics so if he feels comfortable I feel pretty good about it. So >> um but with that knowledge base then

043what I need you to know um this year with the SGAA since they're they're they rolled out a new one last year. This year they made a couple little minor changes to it but they don't we don't administer it until October. So that's why when you see this, you won't see any usually in, you know, early October, we're coming to you with data like that. You'll see that that the it'll be November before we start coming to you with some of the the reading and math data early on. Just so you know. >> Okay. I'm sorry. So as it pertains to this calendar, so we have goal two in October >> and that >> that's vows. >> That is vows only. >> Yes. So goal two, measure one is >> yeah that interim measure one

044>> and then you'll see goal two um the next goal two is is the beginning of December because in October they takes the test. So we'll be able to go through that data by November. So the very first board meeting in December you'll have >> the first third grade reading uh measure for us and that that also gives us the time to do the three-year trend data that we're looking at. Um, okay. >> And so the, you know, as far as the rest of the the calendar, we tried to make it pretty selfexplanatory with the left is what we did this year and the right is is what we're proposing. There's not a lot of movement. You'll see with time goal five, of course, one of the measures drops off uh measure three because it

045was 2025. So once we finish the annual measure for goal or for inter measure three on goal five, we'll just have two measures to report for the remainder of this year. Um and then um you know goal three uh and and and that's has to do with the gap data which we'll be using the SGA for now. So that's going to happen in December. That all gets a little crunched up this year. So December will be a little bit of a busy month with data because it comes in. Um, but then next year it'll put us back on plan, you know, where we have a fall assessment, winter assessment, and a spring assessment with the so test. >> Um, not so much a question, but perhaps since you're hoping for this to be um, you

046know, as a work session, one of the things um, especially as we have four new board members is and and we're going to talk goal two, three is all around reading. um is perhaps making sure you know the full board is aware of the Virginia Literacy Act and I know you provided a great overview and our and our um literacy team provided a great overview >> Yeah. Yeah. of the Virginia Literacy Act. And I think that that might be helpful and it's just a recommendation. Might be helpful for for everyone to get that again >> if we can do that when we do and I don't mean to push it off, but when we do the the future agenda items because then I'll be with my iPad and I can type it in. >> Okay.

047>> So then because that way I can make sure we put it where we want, you know, where it would fit as well. >> Yeah. >> Because I think it's a great idea and we're always happy to come. I mean, my literacy team loves to talk about what we're doing with literacy. So absolutely >> so overall again you know this this follows the same pattern we've been following this will give you the data for the board goals um throughout and then you'll see on the right hand column with others u one of the things we had talked about was making sure that we have the some of the routine presentations that we do on a on a regular basis anyway in there and then since we've kind of forecasted out some already um with uh

048board planning Um you'll see like in August we're going to be we're doing the chronic absenteeism and the dropout. Um and then in the August 27th we're planning to do the climate report. So that's on here. The 4x4 update in September. In uh October the discipline and alternative education update. Um and then November the equity report always comes out. We'll do state of the schools. And then since it's not a board goal, we'll make sure we keep focused on the absenteeism and and dropout rate um as we go through. And then January, uh we put board retreat on there because traditionally we've done some sort of retreat either January, February time frame. Um and then you can see like budget submission in March. You know, we try to do just the big ticket items in

049here. And as you see other things, if if you notice when you're looking at this other things that that we've done that that have been missed, you know, just just let me know and and we'll work on making sure they show up on this. Um, but you know, one of my goals, you know, is is to really be transparent on what we're doing and what we're able to provide the board. You know when you got >> that's really >> that's what >> Madame Chair. >> Yes ma'am. Um the other um I don't I'm not saying I would remove it but um the board quarterly self-evaluation that was originally you know we had wanted that put in there based on a model that we were using and I think if we can just at least start

050with and this is a future agenda item but whenever we get to the point of talking about governance training and what that looks like um because I know our requirement is to do one annually But we wanted to be more um aggressive about our own evaluation and um I think until we have that governance training piece >> you hear what I'm saying like >> I do. >> Yeah. >> That to prioritize that over >> and that's why I want this to be a discussion. >> Yeah. Okay. Any other questions? >> Yes, we're going to get a a clean version. Dr. Paul, >> yeah, >> we'll clean it up and like I said, I I I do, you know, hopefully in October we also start a quarterly forecast that that way you see more comprehensively of

051what we're doing. >> So, we'll clean it up and post it like we have in the past. Um, Madam Chair, >> uh, where you're talking about, uh, the self-evaluation. We will still be doing our annual one, correct? >> Oh, yeah. We're required to do that. Yeah. >> Okay. Um, when will that be scheduled? It's It's not on the monitoring calendar. >> It is on the monitoring calendar right now. It's that's that's the quarterly. I'm talking about the annual >> all quarterly on here. >> Yeah, because that was assuming that would cover the, you know, meet that annual. But yeah, we would obviously have to put the annual evaluation if we're removing the quarterly. >> I'll put annual on July just so we have it as a >> because that's when we've typically done it. >>

052Yeah. >> Thank you. All right, everybody ready for some fun? >> Yes. Fun. >> All right. Policy. It's been a minute. >> There's a lot to read through. >> There was a lot to read through. You are correct. And that this is not all of it yet. I do want to say that we we made it through as much as we could in an hour and a half and we have some more to go through when we do pol policy review again this this month. Um so good afternoon everybody. Again, you know, as you've seen, there are several policies being reviewed today. Um, I'm just going to bring up some of the significant policies and some of the the changes that were made um on those policies. Uh for those that are new to this

053process, um you know, we we developed this specific policy form where there's a cover page that tells you the specific policy, when we looked at it, when the anticipated v votes are, and then the cover page also gives you just what are the changes. and and generally if it's a cross reference or a or a legal change there's it's just that means on the very bottom there were things that we had to change because either the law code changed or there's a new policy that we needed to cross reference. Um and then sometimes you'll see that when we get into it some of the paint changes are changing you know him or him her and you know and and and making it gender neutral in the statements the way they do it. All of our

054policy change recommendations come from the Virginia School Boards Association. Um, and and those drive where we make our changes from on the policies. So, anything I that's in here that you see redlinined is direct language from the professionals at the VSBA. Um, we meet um when policies is is rolling at us, we meet monthly. Um, our schoolboard attorneys are with us in those meetings and uh the two PRC members, Miss Bassine and Dr. Martin. Um, and we review all of these beforehand and go over any questions that we may have. Um, but these are the ones I just want to read through um, just to to put eyes on them. And then at the end, I'm going to give you a listing of policies that we're recommending for a first and second reading. And what

055that means is that we're going to review it tonight, but then we're going to repost it in the September work session as well. Um, and that gives our community two months of time to make any kind of comments on them. So, we'll also post a survey on board docs. Miss Tanner does that for us. Um, so that if anybody has questions or concerns about policy, um, they can they can ring them through and we have those concerns then to be able to share before the board votes on them. Fair enough. >> All right. So, so policy DJF, this adds language to be in line with new regal uh, new legal requirements around felonies and crimes of moral turpitude. Um, it also updates in update uh includes updates on IT goods and services to be in

056line in line with state law contract terms. EB adds language around athletic emergency plans, cardiac emergency response plans and bleeding control plans. And this is again in line with uh legal needs. And all these updates have been reviewed and are being implemented by school wellness and athletics. Um, and that's the other thing I failed to mention. When we get the initial policy, sometimes it takes a while to get to this level. These policies came in in May and I know it's August and we're looking at them because once we get the policies, they go to each chief and then each chief meets with their directors and and we start to look at, okay, what would need to change procedurally because no matter what, if the law changed July 1, we're required to follow the law.

057Mr. Cloud will be very proud of me for saying that. So, we are required to follow the law. So, the policy may follow it sometimes, but know that if the law changed, we're following the the the law to make sure that we're in line with legal implications. Um, EBB adds language to be in line with the requirements on updating parents on student behavior, safe storage of firearms, and limiting student access to lethal means. Um, EBBA um really is just adds language to support changes to EB and a new policy EBBC. And that new policy EBBC is finally with us. It's on opioid antagonists focused on the administration, the maintenance, regulations, and training. Uh the regulations also posted for review on how it'll be implemented. And Dr. Moore, our our director of of school wellness, has

058done a great job of working with community members and and making connections so that um those uh those antagonists will be provided to us at no cost, at least for this year. >> Um so we're in a good spot with that. Um, EBCE adds language again to support EB. GBN adds the omission of pertinent information to the the policy. So, that one's talking specifically about um when someone's um um maybe being interviewed for something that happened that they omission also counts. If they're omitting stuff that they know is supposed to be there, that's not a good thing. So, that's in the policy now, too. GCB adds substitute teachers and removes a language that defines substitute teachers since there's a policy definition for them in GCE. Um GCDA adds a language to be in line with

059the new legal requirements found around felonies and crimes of moral turpitude that we saw um back in uh DJF. GCE has several changes. There's a title change. Um this policy defines substitute teachers and adds language around the the former allowance that was 180 days. So this is an important note. You know when just after COVID and it was really tough to staff and we had to rely more on substitute teachers, we were allowed to have them for 180 days. That's back to 90 days now. And that if it goes if it needs to go beyond 90 days, then we have to go to the state board for approval for that. So that is back and that's why there's a lot of changes to that policy. Um GCPD adds language protecting employees who administer opioid antagonists.

060So you know just you know in in all there's there's professional development around it but if something goes wrong in that administration of the opioid antagonist then this protects the the employee from that. IGA adds language around instruction on opioid overdose prevention and reversal. This again aligns with the new opioid policy. IGBJ is a new policy that aligns with legal requirements to place students in advanced math courses in grades five through eight who score in the upper quartortile scale of their mathematics so test. I'll let you know that we have the allowability to wait till next year on this, but we did not choose to wait till next year. So, we've been working feverly fervently over the summer to make sure that that we're in line with this. Um and and generally um I don't

061have the exact numbers, but we're not finding masses of students who weren't already in advanced math. We're talking about the students scoring in the top quartile of their math so test should be in advanced level maths. Um, and this grades five through eight. If middle school advanced math is in and everybody out there listening, middle school advanced math is the most important because if you stay on track with middle school advanced math, you can get through algebra and start in a higher level math when you get to high school. Um, so that's why this goes five through eight is to make sure they're on track for higher level math, which means they could be on track for, you know, dual enrollment calculus or AB or AP courses in math. So, this is now in law

062and we're we're we're behind it. IKG is being removed as it's no longer required. JFCD adds um stiletto knives and sling blows to the policy now. So, uh, just to make sure there must have been some issues with that across the state because it's now added. >> Um, JHC adds language around teleaalth and mental health services basically that it can't count it against a student's attendance or um, you know, if they're if it's happening during the school day that they have a private secure secure place for it. Um JHCD um adds language on diabetes medication as well as the opioid antagonists and JJAC removes the definition and information around concussion management team and concussion training. Um and now it focuses really on the return to learn and return to play protocols. We do have procedures

063in place. Mr. Smiller, our senior coordinator of athletics is very much on top of this um this and and and we're we're strong. This had a lot of changes, but it was is it was more just wanted to focus on the return to learn and return to play for policy. Jo, when I was rereading everything, I'm I'm recommending we pull this policy. When I looked at it, there were a couple highlighted areas that I wanted to um I wanted to ensure we have in there properly. So, I'm going to take JO off of the the voting list when it comes up for voting, and we'll rebring it back when I feel it's it's better. My apologies for that. JRCA adds definitions for schoolisssued devices and school technology providers as well as language on deleting information

064on devices that were issued to students prior to allowing another student to use the adi device. So other words, it just in the policy now says if a student when they return their Chromebook needs to be wiped clean before it's reassigned to another student and that's a part of policy. Uh Mr. Zamora is on top of that and we we do that already in the division. So it it again that must have happened somewhere across the state. So, it's now in in policy. Um, so all the the policies that were not mentioned that I didn't review out of the 3,000 that were posted, it they just it's those minimal language changes. Sometimes board wasn't capitalized, so they it's capitalized board. Um, or it's just legal or crop reference updates. Um, and then with regulations, we're

065just regulations are um somewhat owned by the superintendent administration and if we change a regulation, we just let the board know. So the GBAR, we're removing the Z because the policy no longer has a Z. We were able to bring that back to VSBA regulation. Um, and additionally, it's in line with the human resource audit. Um, if you remember, I think it was a year and a half ago maybe that we talked about um, limiting our drug testing to only those where it's required federally um, to drug test and not drug testing all employees upon employment because we were one of the few divisions who did that and that was a recommendation from that. Finally, policy BDD doesn't have any updates, but we're required by law to look at policies every five years. So, that

066one has no updates. Um, and then with, as I said earlier, with certain policies that have greater effect on our our our students or our teachers specifically, and that there's not procedural policies. Um, we do first and second readings. Um, and, uh, there are several, um, and I'll say them publicly so we have them, but I can email them to the board if you guys would like. Um but EB, EBB, EBBC, EBBA, GBN, GCDA, GCE, GCPD, IG AG, IGB, BJ, JFCD, JHC, JHCD, JJC, and JRCA. All pertain to students and teachers, and we want to make sure that we have a second reading on those policies. So, we'll see them posted again in September's work session, and they won't turn up on the consent till September's business meeting, but you don't have to listen to

067me about them again in September. You know, you've already heard the spiel on it. Um, and then there were a couple other that related to uh teachers uh GBLA, GBR, and G GZ GCG, but there were really no substantive changes um in those policies. So, um with that, I'll I'll conclude uh the update on policies. Miss that list. >> I sure will. >> Any questions, Miss B? >> Um, thank you, Dr. Pole. Um, will the the policies on for first and second reading, will they also go out to like to our employees to say, "Hey, you know, these policies are going to change uh are are changing. Please take a look. We want your feedback." >> Yeah. So, we so we do two things. one, when we do a first and second read policy, we

068send um we'll send an an all staff and then an all parent email just saying here's if if you're interested to look and give feedback. Here are the policies that are that are going for first and second reading and we'll link to the policies as well. And then once the board passes policies, we also send those changes out um to all all principles so that they know what's going on. >> Great. Thank you. >> Sure, >> Madam Chair. All right. this DI um financial accounting and reporting. Um so on that one I do see where um it said you um we would receive monthly statements of funds available for school purposes. Um I know in the last administration we had some issues with um the audit being delayed by I think it was about 6

069months. Is there anything in mechanisms in place so that the board is automatically notified of that so we won't go through that type of um issue again? Um I don't I to be honest I don't think there's a mechanism in place so the board's automatically notified of anything late. However um um I have met already probably three times with Mr. Starks our CFO and Mr. Starks has also met with the city already who's offered a tremendous amount of support where needed and we have a plan in place um to make sure that we are ahead of schedule on the audit. >> Awesome. Thank you sir. All right. Thanks. We now move on to agenda item 2.04, school crisis plans with Mr. Hughes and Dr. Catel. >> Oh, you want to drop? >> I was going

070to open it. I was just going to open it for you. Or you're welcome to. Here, I'll do it. Okay, now you can. >> Good afternoon, the college, >> chair, vice chair Thomas, and Dr. Pole. So, this afternoon, we're going to be discussing the uh school crisis and emergency management response plans. And, uh, as you may know, uh, annually, uh, under Virginia law, we are required to review the crisis plans for the, uh, schools. So currently the state of Virginia uh provides a template for each schools and the division. So the current template that we're using this year is a new template. This is the first year that we've used it and this template was issued um last year and this is the first year that we've uh used this template. So, this template uh

071fits with both federal requirements and of course the state's requirements for um um emergency plans and some of the new components for it is a little bit more robust than the plans that we've seen in the past. Um this plan uh includes both NIMS and the emergency um action plans um that will cover ICS and it is taken from an all h an all hazards uh viewpoint so that it will cover just about any hazard that we would come into contact with in the city of Norolk. A couple of new things that it will do is it will fit in with what is considered the standard response protocol and the standard reunification method. Uh this is these were adopted by the state of Virginia um for the for school systems by both department of criminal

072justice services and Virginia Department of Education for schools in response to crisis. Uh this is something that's new to the city of Norolk and this is something that we're starting to use in response to crisis in in the city of Norolk. So earlier this year, schools completed a survey of crime and working conditions and we're waiting for results in this um from this from Virginia Department of U criminal justice services and annually the schools um complete this. We get information from it and this helps us to make decisions on things that we need to implement as far as security measures throughout the schools. We review the crisis plans. We re review things that have happened um during the school year and make decisions on what we need to do. We look at potential hazards. We

073look at the Hampton Roads crisis uh plan for hazards throughout the city and what we can do to mitigate and those uh hazards and things that we can do to prepare for that. And we look at those things. We put it together with a plan and we try to look at things that we can do to lessen the likelihood of any um problems that we may face through it and what we can do going forward. The crisis plans that we have again they're looked at from a position of all hazards. And what the state did this year in this h in this plan is most crisis plans work either on a four or a five um facets of prevention of uh preparedness mitigation response and recovery. So what the state did is they took the

074first three portions of that, the preparedness, the um the prevention and the mitigation and they put it into a a before area, the during um they took the response and put that into a during portion and then the recovery into an after portion. And if you look at the plans, they're in that. And that kind of made it a little bit easier for folks that may not have had a big background as far as crisis response. And it's, you know, separated out in that so it's easy for, you know, teachers and anybody else that may not have a lot of experience in doing that so that they can kind of follow through what may need to be done um dealing with students and parents and everybody else. So it's really easy to follow. Schools will

075take care and they develop their plans. They're submitted to us. We review them and then after we review them and we look at the plans, we give it back to them and um they make necessary corrections and after they those corrections are done, this is the product that you get and you get an opportunity to look at it. And once you review them and you take a look at them and um you guys vote on them, then they're going to be certified to the state. There's also an a division level plan that's in there. And again, it's looked at from an all hazards um perspective and these are plans that are same thing. It is plans that are looked at from the standpoint of how we would respond to any hazard that would be likely

076to occur within the city of Norolk. And it is something that would look at weighing the risk against the likelihood of it happening. and things that are more likely to happen. We give more of a um idea of or more time of u more response to more more effort in looking into what a response for. The template itself contains instructions uh for various emergencies and again this template was provided for the state so that it complies with all state laws. Um there's a drill schedule that's included in there and information for necessary drills um individuals that are involved and all information for uh necessary folks within the community to contact in case of emergency. These plans uh once they're approved, they're shared with any emergency responder um in the community that would be involved in

077the emergency response to North Public Schools. So, at this time, um if there's any questions, um I'd like to answer them for you. >> Dr. M. >> One concern that I've always had and I have a background in emergency management um training. So one concern I've always had is that um when so for example if someone presents a weapon um in the past what we've done is we' put the school on lockdown and classrooms on lockdown but if someone has a weapon shouldn't we also be trying to get our students out of there? >> So there's really no oneizefits-all. So one of the things that is different about the way we do things now is number one we have gone to what we've considering the standard response protocol and this kind of simplifies things a

078little bit. So in the case of a person with a weapon, what we are doing is we're going on the lockdown just like you said. But one of the things about school building and the construction of a school building and looking at past incidents, there has never been a documented incident in a school of an individual and in an active shooter situation of someone breaching a solid corridor in a steel frame during a shooting incident. Most active shooter incidents only last uh a few minutes. About 70% of active shooter incidents are over in less than five minutes. 90% are over in less than 10 minutes. So what you want to do in any type of an incident that involves a weapon and shooting and anything like that, you want to buy time. So the idea

079behind an active shooter or an individual with a weapon is to buy time. So by going behind a locked door and a secure door and going on lockdown is to buy time and to buy time for an emergency response. uh our individuals, individuals in schools, teachers, um our security staff, um they're not armed and unless there is a school resource officer, an armed police officer that's in the building, there's no one in the building that can challenge that person that's armed. So, the best thing that you do and what's in your favor is time. So, by going behind a locked door and securing yourself and getting out of sight and which is what we're teaching in the standard response protocol, that's buying you time and you're calling for help and you're calling for assistance. And

080so by by doing so and getting time and and creating that time barrier, that is the absolute best thing that you can do for survival and mass survival because again a solid core locked door, which is what most of our buildings will um afford, a classroom full of of students, is the absolute best thing that we can do and the best chance that we can give everybody in that building a chance for survival. Is >> that a new standard? >> The standard response protocol is not new. It was um began sometime around 2012. Um it was uh started after an incident in Las Vegas. Um there was uh an um an individual in Las Vegas um that um went into a school and uh his intention in going to a school was to abduct a

081young lady um and sadly what he ended up doing was abducting um well he ended up taking hostage and killing uh two students and as a result um the parents of that student started a a foundation uh called I love you guys and they researched and they came up with um just certain certain um response protocol and this response protocol right now is used in about 55,000 um school districts throughout the country. Uh it was adopted in several states. The state of Virginia adopted it um sometime around 2021 or 2022. Uh it's in use in the state of Maryland. um the Raptor visitor management system. It integrates with them. They um are uh a sponsor of it and uh it is um what it does is it simplifies uh what we do. Uh prior to

082this, you know, a lot of school systems would use various language. uh they would use language like we're going into an instructional lockdown or a soft lockdown or we're going to use various different uh things. um you know, maybe we're going to shut down this building or we're going to do this. And what the standard response protocol does is it makes it very simple, very simple language. And what I learned from my past as far as um emergency management, police response is that simple language is the best uh incident command. Um you know, a lot of police departments used to use 10 codes and a lot of various different codes and everything. Well, what we learned was simple language is the best. You know, you know, if if it's a fire, if you're asking for

083a piece of equipment, very simple is the best. So, with the emer uh with the uh standard response protocol, there are only five things that we do. We there is a hold, which means everybody is clearing out of the hallway. Instructional uh activities still continue. It's not the same emergency as a lockdown. It is just something is going on that the administration does not need students in the hall. It could be a medical emergency. It could be, you know, an animal got into the building, a raccoon or whatever. Something is in there that we don't want students in the hallway. Um, then the next one is a secure. That means there's something outside of the school that we don't want students outside. It could be something going on in the community. It could be a

084crime outside of the building, but it's secure. The building is secure. We're not letting anyone in. We're not letting anyone out, but instructional activity still occurs. Next is a lockdown. And a lockdown is exactly what it sounds like, what we've always been doing. But a lockdown is exactly that. >> It's the building is locked down. And that's locked down. Lights out. You're out of sight. The doors are locked. And you know that is some something is in the building that is a danger that it could be a person with a weapon. Something is really going on. So we're having the students out of sight and they're locked down and there's a very specific procedure for uh recovering from that and we teach the students that upfront. And then there is shelter. Um that could be

085something you know weather related tornado or flood and an evacuation and that could be a fire or you know something else is going on and we had to evacuate the building. Those are five things very simple they learn that they don't have to learn anything else. Um, so if we go back to talking about lockdowns. So, um, if a school's on lockdown, what kind of access does the emergency responder have to the person the incident commander in that situation, which would be probably the principle, right? >> So, if it's a lockdown right now, what will happen is the building goes on lockdown. You know, of course, proper authorities are coming. Right now we're in the process of we are installing uh electronic access points. There are knockboxes that are uh will give fire and um

086first responders access into buildings. Um >> and I can say this I I spent 24 years in North Police Department. >> Um there's not a building in the city, you know, we could not get into. Okay. because the um we had an emergency response task force type thing temporarily to look at the safety of our schools >> and one of the the um it seemed that there was a breakdown at that time maybe it's been improved which would be wonderful that in communication in that the patrolling officers that usually patrol around the state you know the same areas and around our schools they knew how to get in and then you know with changeover on both sides it it that communication got lost and So, it's good to hear. I mean, if it's something that

087every person who needs to know will know how to do that and access it, that would be wonderful. >> We we have we have quite a few uh quite a few things in the works to do that. Right now, uh if you ride by a school, you'll notice that every built every door is numbered. So, if there is an emergency in the building, um we're able to say go to this door, go to, you know, go to a particular door. So we might say um you know there's something going on and you can get access to door number four. Um some of the things that um that we have currently we have um the Raptor visitor management system which is actually more than just visitor management. It is an emergency management system. It is management

088system. Um >> or that's you have to already be in the building to access that. >> Well it's it's a little bit more than that. There is Raptor alert which we do have and the alert um you know it's it's on phones and it we can actually pinpoint within the building where certain emergencies are going on and we do have digital mapping of the school. So we're able to say you know if um the if there's something that's going on let's just say it's in a certain portion of the building if it's in the media center right now. emergency all emergency responders within the city of Norolk have access to digital maps of all of our schools. So if they say um there's something that's occurring right now and it's in the media center, they

089have the ability to look right while they're in their patrol cars or in in a firet truck on their um computer terminals and say exactly where within the building uh the media center is and that's displayed on something similar to a Google map. So regardless of which direction they're responding from, they're able to look at um you know uh something similar to a digital I mean to a Google map and say okay I see exactly where the media center is. That's where we need to focus our attention. >> Thank you. >> Just a follow-up question to that. Um, so if um, let's law enforcement first responders are responding to an incident, do are the camera systems tied into the Norfolk Realtime Crime Center? >> At the moment, they're not. Um, >> plan two. >> We

090we have been in discussion with them. Um, there um, there are some computer programs that um, work on that and we have had discussions with them um, concerning doing that. There are a few things that we may have to work out before it is complete, but we have been in discussion with doing that. >> Awesome. And then also um and when you're doing the drills, are you coordinating also then at the same time with law enforcement first responders to gauge their response time for them to get to the building? >> Not necessarily response times for them to get to the building, but we do coordinate with them. Not specifically for response times, but we do coordinate with them. >> Okay. So not none none throughout the year. So like a fire drill, we don't do

091a like a non-emergency to the closest fire station to see how long it would take for them to get there during certain conditions of the day to assess. >> Not nec not response times. >> Okay. All right. Um >> questions, Mr. >> Other questions? >> Oh, yeah. Got one more. Um I do see here with the missing and abduction. So quick um just on that one um does the schools also um I'm a school administration with the missing and abduction children. Do you have access to the SO registry so that you can see that just in case if one of our children have been abducted by someone it's on the sexual offenders list? >> Yes. >> Okay. All right. All I got just want to make sure our babies are taken care of like Alfreda

092say >> question. >> Yes. Um so thank you for the presentation and update. Um so my question is around so about the drills are we have there been any changes to the number of drills that our students are going to be uh administered for during the school year or um >> so yes there there have been some changes on the drills. So, let me and I guess let me let me clarify a little bit. So, and and I'm going to rely on a little bit on my personal knowledge when I I kind of go back to your your your question about the drills. Response time, calls for service is something I'm going to say. We live in an urban environment. Being in an urban city, um, outside of something that is just catastrophic, there are

093very few times that you're not going to get to a call for service within just a few minutes. Um, and when I say catastrophic, I mean something, you know, on the level of, you know, a 911 type event. Um, outside of that, most calls for service you're going to get there if it's a a true emergency. Um, and I'm not talking a a burglar alarm or whatever because calls are prioritized and a call for service a once it's received and it's prioritized and we know that and the uh EOC knows that it is an emergency calls a dispatch. We have never had an issue with emergency response and it not being there in a timely fashion whether that's police, fire, rescue or anything like that. >> What's defined as a timely fashion? I'm going to

094tell you minutes. >> And the reason I said, Madam Chair, if and the reason I say this because police officers, our law enforcement, they have shift changes and a lot of times when um incidents happen in our city, they're happening doing shift changes and so a lot of calls to services go unanswered and also our police department are at low staff numbers. I I understand that and and you know and and like I said from and and I'm just speaking from experience >> when calls for service come in again they're prioritized >> of course >> and you know and I will tell you from experience once you know a call is prioritized if it is a if it's a burglar alarm and it's just an alarm and there is nothing else to indic indicate that

095is anything other than alarm and there is nothing to indicate that it's a life in danger or anything like that. it is just an alarm which could be mechanical thing at that point you know there may not be an immediate response now and this is just from my experience and I'm I mean my experience here with the school system we have called we have said we need assistance we have gotten nothing but exist assistance immediately I I have spoken to folks and when I say we call and say we need assistance, we have gotten it within minutes. It has been very timely and we have gotten calls there immediately. We've never had any issue with waiting more than just, you know, minutes. I mean, there were a couple of times we've called for folks and

096you could almost literally hear sirens almost as soon as we hung up the phone. Uh, and I say that to say, you know, because of being in an urban environment, it is, you know, it's a timely response. I I couldn't ask for a better response than what we get. Uh, so we've never had a drill where we've said, you know, we're going to clock you and see how fast it takes to get a fire truck here or a police car here. If we say, you know, we've got, you know, an active shooter in the building, Um, the current drill schedule, uh, and I'm kind of going from memory, but the current drill schedule is this. The first 10 days of school, there has to be one fire drill. Within the first, well, after the first

09710 days, but within the first 20 days, there has to be a second fire drill. Then after that, every month there has to be another an additional fire drill through the end of school. There has to be within the first 20 days of school two lockdown drills. the there is an exception for um preK and K that is not mandatory for them during that first the first 20 days of school after the first 60 days of school there has to be two additional lockdown drills those are those the uh preK and K will be included in those >> okay >> um there is a tornado drill, at least one during the year. And there is a cardiac response drill that is new and that is uh included during there's one during the year. Um there

098are two bus uh emergency drills. Um one within the first I believe it's first 30 days if I'm not mistaken and then one within the first 30 days of the second half of the year. And um then any other drills that are um recommended, you know, up to the uh discretion of the uh administration. Um they're not required, but there's some are recommended such as an earthquake drill, shelter, a hold, those type of drills. Okay. As our babies return back to school less than a week, this is a little off on your um emergency response plan. Um how secure are our schools? All schools in North All schools. I have something to say. Working adequate security from equipment to staff, metal detectors and cameras. Are they all in working condition? Are all doors able to

099be locked at all times? >> Well, you know, without going around and checking and pulling on every door right now, you know, I I couldn't tell you that every single door could be locked. I can't I I can't answer that. >> You have workers in this school. You have security. You have custodian. We have been out for over the summer. the baby's about to go back in school less than two weeks, I think that's something that could have been answered with a yes. But if it's going to take a little time before school start on the 18th, I think we need to get it done and make sure that our babies are ready to go back. Not only our babies, but also staff, anybody that's working in the school. >> I I agree with you.

100I agree with you. >> How is our staffing on security? Are are we staff fully or >> right now I have uh three we we are we have two positions that are open uh but right now uh I believe HR has made uh offers to folks to staff them and they're in the process of staffing them. So we should be fully staffed. >> Okay. Second question. Do we still have SRO's at the middle school level? Right now we have one SRO that works at a middle school and we have been in conversations and I spoke to the police department today and we are Dr. Paul doesn't even know it yet but uh the police department has asked me to get on his calendar so we can discuss SRO's know at one point they were there

101was one at each middle school. >> Yes. Yeah. >> And what school would that be? Uh it's at Ruffner. >> Madam Chair. >> Yes, Mr. >> Um um can you describe what the security officers training? What training do they get? >> So right now security officers upon hire they get 16 hours that's u mandated by the state. >> Okay. >> They get 16 hours of handle with care. that is um somewhat of defensive tactics and and tactics of of um I guess you can call it um dealing with uh physical breaking up fights and defensive tactics and then they get eight hours of things that are um kind of germaine to NOFK public schools uh dealing with Raptor and uh screening wanding um and screening entry our entry points and dealing with our policies and

102all and so it's uh one solid week prior to uh going into the schools. >> Okay. >> Followup question. So you're the one you are the one that is responsible for the overall districtwide. Can can you give me an explanation to why you have not done an audit of all the metal detectors before we get into school? Oh, they've been audited. All the metal detectors are working. >> I I said doors. I didn't say I didn't say metal detectors there. They're not metal detectors there. >> Okay. So So all equipment. So you can right now >> metal detectors are working. >> All metal detectors are working in North. >> Metal detectors are working. >> All our tools. I saying all can you say all >> all metal detectors are working? Yes. >> Are they metal

103detectors or >> All right. Cool. >> Yeah. They all Yeah. >> Yeah. Is that what we call the weapons? Weapons detection system. Yes. >> A language. >> Yes. Weapons detection. Open gate weapon detection system. They are functional. Yes. >> Got it. All right. Now, outside of drills that you're doing with internal in the school, what are you doing external to assess each school to make sure they are up to date on their safety? Are you do you employ other employees to go and act as a person to walk around the school to see if security officers are looking on these cameras to see individuals walking around prowling? What assessments are you doing >> to mitigate before there actually is an incident? >> So we go myself I have uh six zone supervisors. We go around

104and we check the schools regularly. Okay? >> You know I go around my assistant director we go and we supervise. We have gone around. I go around, I check the metal uh open gate weapons detection system. I have checked doors, which is why I'm telling you, I can't go and tell you that every single door because I'm not going to say that every single door is working because I have not pulled every single door. I have pulled doors and I have found that there have been issues with doors and I know that I have not pulled every single door. But I can tell you that I have checked every single weapons detection system. So, I can tell you that every single weapon is detected. >> They do not all work at at a given time.

105They do not. I worked for North Public School for 10 years and I'm telling you what I know. >> Okay. >> Well, I can't tell you they may not have all worked in the past. Okay. >> I have gone and I have physically checked all of them. I have checked the settings on all of them. >> I have adjusted the settings on all of them. >> There's room just to do better. That's all I'm saying. I will accept that. >> Yeah. Yeah. And >> I think I saw your hand raised. >> Well, quick question. Did I hear you say that um Norfolk was going to the scan key system? Did I hear something? >> We are being um the electronic um uh key fobs are being installed. >> Okay. >> Followup question to you, Mr.

106Hughes. And I look, I don't want you to think we're putting you putting you on the grill here, but we just want to make sure the safety and security of our students and staff are are paramount. Um, so you just heard the fire trucks outside, right? Yes. Okay. So, they went and it's 5:22. So, right now, this is about rush hour traffic. So, their response time is going to be a lot different than it would be if it was 12:00 at noon during lunch. >> Absolutely. >> Okay. So, tell I need to understand why are we not coordinating with law enforcement to get response times? Well, response times are going to always be different. I don't care what time you do it, response time is going to be different because it depends on whatever else

107is going on in the city. So, even though you can say at 5:22 today, your response time may be 1 minute, I can tell you at 5:22 tomorrow, your response time is going to be totally different. Response times will never be the same. >> Of course, they won't be the same, but >> because it will it will never be the same. Even you know even if I tell you that you know we check and we say hey look this is what your response time is how long is it going to take there are so many factors that will go into response time and so checking a response time and seeing how long you you work with a response time um that you know I have to rely on the police department and the fire department

108to do their job and when they tell me that they're going to respond, I have to rely on that. Like I said, when we do the drill, if they tell me that they're coming, I have to rely on them that they're going to be there. Like I said, we don't do the drill and say, "This is how long your response time is." I have to rely on them that they will show up and that their response time will be adequate and that it will be, you know, an acceptable response time. Now, like I said, what I found is that I've never had an issue with their response time. That there's never been any issue. And I meet with assistant chief of operations, the assistant chief over investigations monthly. And if I ever thought or if

109there was ever an issue, that would be the first thing I'd bring up with the assistant chief with Chief Howard, the assistant chief over the police of of operations. And I would assure you that we would have a conversation and that he would that he would fix it. Um, like I said, we've never had that issue before on response times. And just like I said, in my experience, um, because of our area and being in an in an urban area, response times is not necessarily an issue. I think if we were in an area in a rural area where, you know, our nearest police officer may be 15 miles away, that would make a difference. >> Absolutely. But in an area like this, there's going to be police officers that we could draw from anywhere.

110And just like um you know if we were to right now and and you know if bear with me and I'll give you an example if everybody remembers the incident that occurred a couple of years ago in Newport News >> uh with a young man um in the school. >> I was working in Newport News. I was getting ready to go into a meeting and it was the command staff when that call went out. The entire command staff jumped up and went there. Two of my guys were the first two people to get there and we went the entire length of the city to get there simply because of the type of call. And so I say that to and I offer that to say response times on certain calls, it does not matter. the

111folks that need to be there will get there and you know it's a difference between that call and you know and whether it's alarm or someone who says you know I was involved in an accident you know or I was you know you know it was a fender bender and I call the police and I you know I dialed and I said yeah I've seen these police cars come by and I've been waiting for 25 or 30 minutes. Those are two different calls. And I know that people say, "I've been waiting for a long time for a policeman. A policeman didn't show up." Those are lower priority calls. But if you make a call to police department and say that there's a shooting in a school, you know, I can't stress enough a policeman is

112going to be there quickly. >> No doubt. I'm not I'm not I'm not dis disputing that they would would not come. I'm just disputing on how long would it take for them to come because we've had school shootings. Not here in Norol. Knock on wood. But we've had school shootings across America where response time was lacking with the police department which caused a lot more children unfortunately to be killed. >> And and and I understand I just need to get a I just need to get a a clear explanation. We're measuring assessment different ways to ensure that we're protecting our students and staff, but we're not measuring in in coordination with our law enforcement and first responders to see how long it takes them to get to a call at a given time. five o'clock

113um for police to get here is different from 12. It's different for a fire department to get here if a road is closed. I'm just I'm just trying to understand why there is no measurement in place. >> And and I and I understand that and even and and my thing is this. Even if we did measure that, first of all, there's no true measure for that because even if we did measure it, you know, I have no way of saying that's the same measurement that I would have if I did call in an emergency because where where's a police officer coming from, >> right? So, I would like to get an average response time of what it would take. So, I I know if I called 911, it would be an average response time before

114a police officer to come to my residence. I would want to know what is the response time for an officer to come. For example, when they had um incidents at Graanby High School um and when they called for extra police, it took a little time for them to get there. So that that was a length response time. So I want to understand why are we not measuring and working in conjunction with the police department and first responders to get a response time to know what's the average so that we can improve. North does not have enough police officers. So, if there's not enough police officers and it's doing shift change and there is something going on in one of our schools and you call 911, you're not going to get someone like you would if

115they're right around the corner um during regular shift. I >> I I I understand I understand what you're saying and and please don't don't think I'm arguing >> just take that feedback. I I understand I understand exactly what you're saying and I don't have an issue with looking at that and getting that information and you know and I will I can get that for you but I don't want you to get a false sense of security if I say okay we'll look at that and I can say you know this is the average amount of time um I will get that information for you >> okay >> I will get you know what an average call. What an average call is. >> Yeah. The police chief can report to the city council and say the

116average response time for police and and I will I can tell I can give you I think you can get an average response time for a call for service and you can get an average response time for a call for service from the fire department. And those things are really easy to get. But I think um the average response time for an emergency call and a non-emergency call are vastly different. >> And I think that's that's really what I'm trying to say. >> Okay. >> But that would be something that you would take back and feedback that that I've been giving you and maybe some other >> Oh, absolutely. But if you do it on a drill, it's it's a non-emergency call and that's vastly different. That's that's what I'm trying to say. It's a

117vastly different >> I I I got what you're saying. >> I got you. All right. Thank you. >> All right. >> I just have one more question. How often do you go into the schools? >> Daily. Okay. >> I'm in a different school daily. I've I've been at different schools every day. And at this time, >> thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hughes. Um, now we're moving on to agenda item 3.01, school closure and consolidation discussion. Wanted to give the board some time if you had any questions um for Mr. Freley. Personally, I have a couple of questions about the closure closure and consolidation plan. Um, and if there's if anybody has any ideas, are we leaning towards adopting the entire plan or do people think we need edits? You know, we have this meeting and

118our September work session to have a discussion about this before we vote on September 17th. So, I wanted to give us some time to actually have a discussion. >> Madam Chair, can I a couple comments? Um, I think it's important to share. Um, we we've reached out to Mr. Sturs to get a time frame on just feedback from the the last set of meetings we had. We should have those if not late this week, early next week, you know, put together. And then the we've created the presentation. you all have seen we've created a survey that we can use during the the board um uh community sessions, you know, happening August 9th and then any others that you you choose to have afterwards. Um I think if we can plan to have those scheduled and

119done um during that last week of August, then we can be able to correlate all that data. So, our discussion on September 3rd would really about be about what edits do we see that we might need on that list based off community feedback, based off your thoughts after having the conversations. Um, so I I don't I I think it's more of, you know, what what is everything you would want as a board to make sure you have to be able to make, you know, those kind of adjustments and decisions on third. Um and then we can still carry conversation to the September business meeting um be before a a vote. Um but you know those are the things that we have in place right now to make sure that you have so that that we

120can make any changes that that that you've heard that that and and then at that point I think um you know we we talk about um what could be done what couldn't be done and and what moves could be made um on the list um based off feedback that we we have on the third >> um for me I actually have some questions about the the list. Um, for example, there's one place where when we close Graanby, we're going to take the Southernbound students to Taylor, but Taylor is at 82% capacity right now. So, unless something changes in five years, um, there won't be room for those students to move. The other question I have is um Ocean Air or Willoughby. Is Willoughby currently an elementary school or or early childhood? >> Only early childhood?

121>> Early childhood. Okay. Because it's it's a little bit on the sheet where everyone's seen the renov the consolidating reval plan. It says close will be ES for elementary school when it should really say ECC. So I was confused. uh because we're going to move that program over to Ocean Air and I wanted to make sure that that was truly an ECC and and not an elementary school. >> How many classes does that school house at this moment? >> Uh will it be um >> Will it be classes? Okay. >> Seven. How many was that, Dr. B? Seven. So about 21 classrooms there. >> Approximately 170 students. >> So I wanted to give the board time today if you had questions along those lines to ask them and get clarification. So Miss Bassine, did you

122have a question or a comment? >> Um, I don't have a question. And I appreciate that coming up because that's been um on my mind about how we're going to work through the feedback that we're getting and any alternative scenarios because I know that especially that question was question two, you know, of like what other changes would you like to see? And I I really um you know walking around and listening to table conversations like I kind of have a there were definitely some highle themes you know that came up but then you know what I feel like for me that there are still you know questions around attendance zones. Um I actually you know I'm in I'm trying been trying to purge a lot of things from my house and came up you know

123through old schoolboard uh files of like when we made decisions around St. Helina, we had did feeder pattern analysis, you know. So, it just reinforced the the the needs that I have around this plan in terms of having the feeder pattern uh analysis, having attendance zones. I mean, because all of those decisions were made with that in mind. And I think as we talk about big picture, I think that's real critically important. And um I know we've had conversations at these meetings about that, about my concern around that, but I I really feel strongly about that. Um and tying that into, you know, some of the questions that have come up around transportation have have questions that have come up around um you know, academic programming, which should be at the forefront of of everything.

124um and you know doing this right and not just adopting a list saying we're yes I know we need to move I know we need to make some decisions but making uh this is a critically important decision that changes neighborhoods in our city completely and so I want to do this right and I want to do this with as much information as we can so that we're making the right decision for our students. Um, and so those are still pieces of information that I need. I know I have have ideas. I've shared them. Um, I've shared some of them, but without having that information, I don't know that we can fully uh uh tackle some of the alternative options perhaps or moving things that are in uh for instance, moving schools that are perhaps later

125in the consolidation plan, moving them up and kind of doing some um movement around the plan. Not saying that the schools are necessarily not the right schools, but maybe that the timing of when we're doing that is not, >> you know, needs to be adjusted. >> We anticipated that feedback from the board. David and I have already had conversations about that. If I could talk a little bit about >> what we don't want to do, >> okay, >> is move a group of kids and three years say a kid's a first grader and three year late three years later the expectation is the boundary will change and they'll go to another school. Now obviously we we'd allow them to stay. We wouldn't force a move but we don't want that to happen. So Mr. Certz

126and I are currently in conversation about big picture, small picture. So, what does the big picture look like in relation to redistricting? And we're going to have to segue through that with small pictures. But again, we don't want to contradict any boundaries with last minute changes or anything like that. He has a very um solid group of folks that do this uh for their company. They specialize in this. We've already engaged them in this task. They're currently reviewing the data. Um, and I anticipate this will not be a a significant concern for this the first stages of this plan. >> So, could I ask a follow-up question? So, in your so following these meetings that you've had that we've had so far, what I guess from an expectation standpoint, what can we expect that we're

127going to get back from the consultants? because, you know, obviously they they're collecting the data. They're seeing it first and they're going to be able to preempt some of the questions that we're going to have. Um, like you said, so what information are we going to get back and when are we going to get that back? And I think that will feed into the question of when do we come back and kind of >> look at it, digest it, and if there are alternative suggestions that Mr. experts might provide you know when when will we get that feedback? >> So in relation to the accumulated data from the feedback from our last community meetings his team is working on that. I've asked them to put it into a like a slide presentation that I can

128give to Dr. Paul to share with you all or if you all choose we could certainly fly David back in for a more formal presentation if the board you know would like that to occur. Um, if you could give me like any other details of specifics you're you're asking me. >> I guess I guess we're wondering about the time frame. >> You're working on it now. Mrs. Ducalero, um, I'm being told that by the end of this week, u early next week, we should be able to have all that accumulated feedback from the last two community meetings. His team is actively working on it. I spoke to them today. >> Okay. But is his team working on some of the alternative u scenarios that have been proposed as a result of that feedback and what

129that might look like. >> Let me let me jump in here. So once we have that feedback, that's what we'll work on as well administratively and then work with Mr. Sts on it. So that when we're preparing for the September 3rd conversation, it's not just coming in here cold and saying, "Okay, what do we want to do?" It's going to have scenarios to say here's the voices we've heard and here's here's the concerns that we have and here here are alternative plans that we could look at so that we can have a discussion based off that instead of trying to redesign and restructure everything on September 3rd. >> Okay. And that's exactly what I'm asking about like so on September 3rd we can expect to have some alternative scenarios to consider >> right >> um

130based on that feedback >> and the request I have of the board is you know if so let's say we do the August 9th that we're going to do the two community meetings on August 9th already scheduled if there are more meetings scheduled whether they're civic meetings or any other feedback um that you send that to me so I have it so that we can include include it. Um, and and in order to be able to to to really create the scenarios, we would need that feedback, you know, the third week of August. Um, so that we can really do that work and incorporate it into the scenarios. So, it's it's coming up quick. >> Yeah. All right. Um, any other questions, Mr. So, um, so I know this is this not your list. This

131is what the what the consultant came up in conjunction with the information surveys and the committee. So, Gint School wasn't originally on it originally. So, and now that it is on there and then we get a $1 million price tag for a $4,000 stadium. Where did that come from? >> So, our initial focus as we informed the board was on elementary schools. >> Uhhuh. So, the committee chose to close Monroe because it's got only 200 Thomas House students. Well, you know, as the chief of schools and I know the buildings, Monroe is only 30 years old, >> right? >> Why would I give a 30-y old building back to the city or why would I suggest to the board to give back a 30-y old school to the city when it's a viable building that

132should be used? So when we were looking at best case scenarios, we have Dan School which is 12 years older has a very high FCI. There's other challenges that are occurring there. It made sense for us to bring that into the conversation because of those reasons. And because we weren't looking at K8s or middle schools or high schools, it came into the conversation after it was recommended to close Monroe. Just it made sense to to give that newer building back. So the the recommendation for the gent closing >> correct. >> Okay. >> And it was sorry it was get moving. >> I got you. Okay. Get moving. Let me make sure I correct that. >> Building is closing. >> Right. Got it. Okay. So who So where did the um stadium come from? Who have

133you been talking to and um for that to come up because that was presented to us out of nowhere. >> So we meet regularly with a planning committee. >> Okay. Who's on that planning committee? Um, I couldn't tell you all the city people, but numerous architects, engineers, our folks is, uh, Dr. White, myself, uh, Steve Sutmler, uh, David Gaskins, uh, Jesse Zamora, a bunch of us. And when we were talking about potential, um, it came up that if the board voted to close G, what would be a other options as far as developing the entirety of that property? And the concept came up in one of those meetings where we were just spitballing and the architect said, well, if the board chose to relocate the all city program that this could be a conceptual option.

134Uh do you recall what what meeting that was that y'all had that discussion? >> That was probably early to mid to early June. >> Do you have minutes from that discussion? >> Um we don't we don't do you know the the um architect I believe might keep the minutes. >> Now in this conceptation that you made for this state, had you had you talked to any of the civic leagues before you even thought of conceptualizing a a stadium there? So, we were invited to Gance PTA meeting on the 8th of May >> and um we heard their concerns about how to manage the property for sharing part of it with uh Mari's athletic program as well as what they would need >> and and we heard all their concerns. >> Was it presented at that

135time about a stadium? >> No, no, no, no. wasn't even thought of because again um you know we we hadn't even thought about relocating the program until the final closure list was was created by the committee um to close Monroe which is only 1.4 four something miles up the road. >> I defer and I'm going come back. Um J. >> Yeah. So, and not to pick on only I know the Gent Monroe scenario has received obviously a lot of attention. So, but I I want to use that as an example when I say you know feeder pattern and uh attendance zones. So right now, you know, for instance, James Monroe has the number of students it has because there are students in that in that area that also go to Graanby Elementary. They go to

136Taylor, there's a small piece to go to Taylor. There's small, you know, so so if all of those students were to go to James Monroe, the population would obviously be larger. So it's just having an understanding of what the domino what the impacts are when that happens. Like right now on paper we haven't like when we did the St. Helina you know move um res red uh districtricting we had all that information to say okay this is what the impact will be from that standpoint. Does that make sense? It it does and I'm I'm glad you brought that up, Mine, because I think the when we're looking at this with one school versus 10 schools, we're looking more holistically at the division, right? And that comment has come to me at one of the community

137meetings was around, well, if we had the original zones for Monroe where we had the students back, then Monroe would have 400 students in it. And you are absolutely correct, we would, but then we'd create empty seats elsewhere. The bottom line is it's not the empty seats at one school. It's the empty seats at 50 schools that we have to be concerned about because we if we can play a shuffling game and we can change attendance zones so that we get all of our schools to 70% capacity but then we still are in the situation where we are and and budgetarily five years down the line if we haven't done anything we're going to be suffering programmatically. we're going to be suffering. You know, we won't be able to pay our teachers a great wage.

138It it's and that's why I I fully understand what you're asking for that that whole picture, but at the same time, we could we could spend the money with our consultants and the time doing a whole picture on this list and then one little change to the list means doing every single thing again. So holistically, I'm trying to think of it, we're trying to think of it as what do we need to do holistically and what are the best options for us based off our current inventory of buildings and which ones do we know we really, you know, they they're going to look good day one. our buildings are look good because our teams do great work, but they're they're older buildings and they don't provide the same level of of need, you know, to

139they don't meet our needs of all of our kids. Um and if we look more holistically and we we come to that then our our next step on once the board agrees and says okay we agree these are probably the 10 buildings that we should take off our inventory whatever it may be however we do it then the next step is to say okay we have to have public hearings now on zoning and everything else so before we take a next step to actually do the final vote like for St. Helina, that's that step is saying, okay, before a as a board before you vote and say, okay, yeah, we said we agreed on this list, but if if the first two schools are school e I'm not even going to say name, school X

140and school Z, >> right? If they're school X and school Z, we have to provide you all of that information before you can make that decision because we have to hold a public hearing on school X and school Z as well. So that's really just the next phase. We just need the board to say we agree these are the 10 buildings that as a board based off the data, based off the condition, based off where we think we can move our students to where it would be a better situation for them and that we know that we're consolidating seats as a board, we're behind it. But before we'll vote on the actual two schools X and Z, we want to see the entire changes this is going to cause and then the local changes that

141it's going to cause. So it's it September 3rd is going to be too early for that. We need to get to this list so we can do the deep work on it. And then I think the goal by then would be by December's meeting that we have all of that mapped out and that we have the public hearings, you know, and this is just a loose timeline, but that's where I see the bigger work coming. >> Okay. And I so appreciate you saying that and breaking down what the process is going to be in that way because I know you feel the pressure like you know of uh this is the list, this is the hard list, this is what's going to happen when right and so um breaking down the process per our policies

142and and regulations. Um that's helpful. So I appreciate >> we're all internal optimists. Where are the kids? please move back into Norfol. We don't want to close schools. We've been feeling that for a long time, but it's just not happening. >> Yeah. Okay. >> So, with some of the with the schools that that are here preliminary for closure, what's the do you have a cost figure >> as far as the projected savings? Yeah. for um not putting money into the FCIS of those 10 schools. >> Yeah. So, let's just say for example with Tarlton Elementary School, how how much does it cost to run that school? And then when you close that school and take those kids and send them to Little Creek um elementary school, how much are we saving? >> It's approximately a

143million per elementary, two million for a middle, and about three million for a high school. That was in Mr. S's last presentation. >> Sorry. >> Yes, ma'am. Um yeah, >> and I if I can add Mr. Ins for that, you know, so those are our our costs we're going to realize just staffing wise and electricitywise and all all that, but like with Tarlton, it's sinking. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, so I mean literally it's it's going to be like $17 million to prop it up properly and then in another decade another se you know so those costs are other you know just the building upkeep costs that that are bigger savings than >> the total of the 10 schools exceeds 200 million for um the FCI improving the SCIs by repairing all the priority one two

144three and four projects that are needed to bring them up to warm safe cooling dry it's over 200 million of our $900 million uh that we need. Yes, sir. >> Thank you. Yes, sir. >> Other questions? Colonel >> comment uh on the the uh school closure. I I sent an email about clarification from the council. What when does their five-year period start? Because when I look at what we have here, some of the closures are beyond five years from the date of the resolution, five years from the 1st of August, five years from the first project starting. What does their fiveyear mean? I I think we know we need to know where the end is when we're doing this planning. And I don't think we do because 20 or Yeah. 2033 is it's way out

145there. So, I I'm hoping my point being is that if if we're putting them too far into the future and council when they meet on the 26th or whatever it is at the end of the month, I hope they'll be satisfied with what we've given them, but I don't want them to say, "Well, you guys, but you made it too many years." >> We we haven't got any information from the city of Norfolk that stated we had to close these 10 schools in five years. U it was in the resolution. >> The resolution you didn't say five years. You know how they communicate to us recently. They're certainly willing to barter timelines. >> I just want to make sure we're marking at the right ter and this particular timeline you feel is doable for NPS.

146>> Yes, ma'am. >> So, >> and that's why we stretch it out to about eight years. We didn't want to rush it. We wanted to be able to do it correctly. But in and the timeline includes, you know, a couple buildings, you know, that that were already, you know, technically approved in CIP funding for long term to build some elementary schools. So, it includes building Jay Cox. It includes, you know, like building a new suburban park. It would include, you know, adding to Lake Taylor for consolidating the NTC. So, items like that that would take time for the consolidation to fully take place. >> One. >> Yeah. Go ahead. >> One final with me. Maybe I'm putting the cart before the horse here. Um but I know um of course if we if a school

147is closed, of course we don't own it. Goes back to the city. Have we started looking at maybe just I'm going to throw one out here. Let's just say if we were to vote and Norview Elementary was to close, it goes back to the city. Have we looked at a plan to say, "Hey, we know that child care is a big issue in Norolk." Have we looked at maybe other cities that have closed schools and made 24-hour um child care centers out of those schools that they have closed >> specifically childcare centers? I don't have that information. >> Different things. Yeah. But that's a good >> I don't think there's anything wrong with the board making recommendations too when we're closing a building or returning a building back to say, >> you know, we've seen

148this as a need and good use. Even you know even I you know the possibility of us holding a building internally for professional development use or something something different where we know would be useful for the division you know instead of having to go to hotels or or renting places to do that kind of work. So thinking of that as a part of this process too long >> parent centers or something. Yeah. Yeah. >> Because I know with Lynenwood that's we have environmental science and that's a big thing there. Um and the students love it, faculty love it and the community loves it. So, and seeing where we might be able to partner with community partners to see if in the city allowing that to be there for an environmental thing. >> Yeah. Um so,

149moving on from this, just so we have a process or understanding of what the communication um is is going to be going forward or how it's working. Um because I know you know um it was communicated to council about where we are in the process. The update, have we received a response back is one question and then the next is then how are there any expectations as to how we will continue to communicate with them about what we're doing or um >> there has been no response from council. >> Okay. The only response I saw was editori article in the paper with the mayor responded. >> Right. Okay. >> It was favorable. >> Right. Okay. Just wanted to know how we're all right. Let's move on to agenda item 3.02. Future agenda. >> Thank you,

150Mr. Fryley. You >> Thank you. So, Mr. Pine, would you like to bring up the thing from earlier that you would like to add as a future agenda item? The thing from >> Virginia Literacy Act. I put it down. I got you. >> I'm like, I brought up a lot of things. Um, I think Dr. Paul, did you >> I have it on my iPad. I'm good. I got it down. >> Oh, you got it down. Okay. All right. So, I think we're good with that. Um, but since you >> I have a list of potential training dates. uh board training dates. >> That was the only >> VSBA. Uh I will send them I will email them tonight and ask you to get back to me as soon as possible. Well, um, Madame Chair,

151if we if we could do that just for full transparency and, um, openness, is it possible while we're all here um, in the same room to kind of have some dialogue around what those dates are and perhaps commit >> and I I will say that Dr. Paul and I have discussed uh, board training and we feel that it would be best be done in Charlottesville at the VSBA headquarters. Um, so I can I can I asked for September and October dates and I have probably two dozen dates >> that are available that I that I can share if you guys would like to know them now like to look at them now. >> Um, >> perfect opportunity. We're all here. >> I've got them right in front of me. So, um, I'm just going to

152open my calendar so I have some idea of what I'm doing. Um, so first one is no is no good because it's September 3rd. So they've given us the 8th, 9th or 10th, uh, the 15th, 22nd, 23rd, >> uh, 25th and 30th. >> Days will be gone. just week on a day. >> Okay. >> Um I'll let if any if I need to go over anything again from September. >> 8th, 9th and 10th. 9th and 10th >> doable for me those days I am not available the 5if for the 15th 22nd or 23rd those that for those days >> so the 25th and 30th >> okay I'm all for preferring to do it sooner than later yeah Is anybody Can anybody tell me what their availability is on the 8th, 9th, or 10th of September?

153>> I'm free. >> Anybody else? >> I I sent you an email with the 8th, 9th, and 10th. I'm not here. >> Okay. So, those are out. How about the 25th and 30th? >> I'm open. Trying to get my phone back on. >> 30th is my 25th wedding running anniversary. So you all know. >> Well, my anniversary is tomorrow and we're going to be at Norview. So >> Oh, >> sacrifice. >> Happy anniversary. >> All right. Is anybody else able to tell me if they're available on the 25th or 30th? >> I am. >> Rick. 30th is a Tuesday. >> Oh, >> I could do the 30th. >> 27th. >> Can you do the 25th? >> I could. >> How about the 30th? >> On the 30th, I show that there's a VSBA evaluation workship

154shop that day. >> Are you signed up for it? Is that what you're saying? >> Um I don't remember. It's it's it's a virtual one. >> Yeah, but they um um Miss Patterson or uh Samantha >> I mean we can I can I can change it if it's virtual. I can change the date. >> So can we do the 30th? >> I'm good >> in Charlottesville on the 30th work for everybody. the September 30th >> in Charlottesville. >> Hold on. >> All carpool together. Wouldn't that be fun? >> Get a van. >> Mr. Friend said he'd get a yellow bus for us. Bus >> a long bus ride. So would we go up the the after we'd have to be there the whole day and spend the night on >> So we would be able

155we I think it's five hours. So if you went the night before then you could go home after the training on the 30th. >> We could all go the night before. I mean whoever could come to the night before and we'd have dinner together and then you know check into the hotel do that sort of thing. >> I can commit to that. to the 30th. >> All right. So, I will email them back >> the September 30th. >> Can you email her tonight? >> I'm doing it right now. >> Oh, okay. Cuz those dates go quick to me last night. So, Okay. >> Well, that was great. I'm glad we got that done. Any other future agenda items? So far, I had the Virginia Literacy Act. >> Didn't do it earlier in September. >> I

156don't know if my daughter is going to go. What did she do? >> October the 4th. >> We do the 25th. >> Would that be better? >> Might be. >> Everybody do the 25th. >> I can do the 25th. >> Fine with it. >> Okay. >> Yeah, >> I'm open. I'm >> I'm looking just uh the 25th will work. >> You don't have September. She comes earlier, >> right? Exactly. >> He said, >> "Okay, let me let me respond again." >> This Thursday, we're doing 25th, not the 30th. Is that correct? All right. Okay. And any other future agenda items? >> We are going to get the school climate and culture report in October. August >> August 27th. >> So that is that is already scheduled. >> A suggestion on the agendas. Last last time

157we met there was like three changes to the agendas and they're scattered on the desk. And if a revision number could be put on there, it would be helpful. The one that came when I came today, I printed mine two days ago. It's changed. I didn't realize it until we got there. It causes confusion is my point. And I think somehow >> footnote on a good idea. >> Yeah. Just put a revision number on it. >> Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, if we But if we >> put a footnote revised on date >> at the bottom of it. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Because when you get the notice from board docs, it just says there's been a change and it doesn't tell you exactly what was changed in the the article. I think it's

158for everybody else, but for for new people on the board also, if you don't know where to look, >> the change occurred. >> Thank you. >> Okay. All right. Moving on to agenda item 3.03. Motion to enter into a closed executive session. I move that we go into executive close session. >> Second. >> Uh, Miss Moore Buffalo brought forth the motion and Dr. Martin has second in the motion. Uh, Miss Tanner, please read the motion. >> Moved that the members of the school board of the city of Norfolk onto a closed meeting for the purposes which are set out in a subsection A of section 2.2-3711 2-3711 of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act as amended for discussion, consideration or interviews of prospective candidates for employment, assignment, appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salaries, disciplining, or resignation

159of specific public officers, appointees, or employees of the school board pursuant to subsection 2.2- 3711A1 of the act. The subject of this portion of the closed meeting is the discussion of possible discipline, demotion or termination of specific personnel, consultation with legal counsel and briefing by staff members pertaining to actual or probable litigation or regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by council pursuant to subsections 2.2-3711A 7 and 8 of the act. The subject of this portion of the closed meeting is the matter set out above in subsection A of this motion. Bassine >> I >> Buffalo >> inch >> I >> Martin >> I >> Wilson >> I >> Thomas >> I >> to Caligerro All right.