School Board Business Meeting: 6-18-25

001Good afternoon. I call to order the school board workshop. Miss Tanner, please call the role. Here. Buffalo. Here. In present. Martin, present. Olson, present. Caligerro, here. Our first agenda item 2.01 school board goal three interim measures number two followed by agenda item 2.02 school board goal 4 interim measures number one and two with interim superintendent James Paul. All right. Good afternoon everybody. Uh Madame Chair Dalerro, members of the board, um this afternoon I'll be presenting some data on uh goal three measure two which will be similar to what we saw last time um uh when we did measure one. Uh so uh with this one um the goal three is focused on our subgroup of of student of black students reading on or above the grade level as measured by the SL reading test. And

0023.2 is specifically uh students in that subgroup scoring at the urgent intervention level which is the lowest possible level to score. Um so the goal here is to see that number go down. So a downward trend is is an awesome trend with this data. So when we start looking at the graph, we can see that um we're we're on the downward trend like we'd like to see. Um the the data show that students in the black subgroup have continuously decreased the percentage of students in the urgent intervention category for STAR reading since actually the fall of 2023. But specifically this year, we we hit all our targets on this. Actually exceeded all of our targets in this area with the STAR assessment. Um what's going well? Um the measure exceeded the target by 8.7 points.

003There was a decrease of 16.3 points of students in the black subgroup in the urgent interventions category and star reading from spring 2024 to spring 2025. So in one year we saw a 16.3 point improvement in this area. Um there's been nearly a decrease of 20 points from the spring of 2022 to the spring of 2025. Uh what's not going well is you know still the data um we're at right around that 20% mark still at the urgent intervention and we want to be below that 10% below the double digits in the urgent intervention category. So we are working towards that though. Uh so the state of the previous action steps I'll be brief on this because it's very similar to what we talked about last week. Um it does discuss around the monitor reading

004plans and that we are following those up and and we did the winter reviews on those. Uh we did March divisionwide training um intervention walks. We partnered with the VDOE to do their new uh literacy walk tool. Um the the Virginia English language arts walkthrough protocol. Um so those were done. We conducted 92 observations across 13 schools using that tool and really got to dig into it and give some good feedback to the VDOE. So, some next steps as we're going into summer with our data and preparing for the fall is to disagregate further by subgroup and school to identify trends and target support where disparities persist and really work with our um reading specialists assigned to each school to make sure that they're on point with the targets as well. Um and then partner

005with school leaders to monitor an implementation the foundational comprehensive routines in high priority schools using the ELA walkthrough protocol as an equity lens to ensure access to grade level texts and ensure the use of standards aligned questioning uh to promote deep thinking and meaningful engagement with texts. So I'll pause there on this one before going to the next goal. This is this is K. This is 38 data. Yeah, the vowels is our younger data. Okay. Star goes 38. Yeah. It was just because you had mentioned K2 teacher. Yeah. So long because we we really track long term knowing that that you know our K2 are going to become three, four, five in the future. So we really try to track all the way across. Why is this out of alignment with our scores? Better on

006stars than we are at. Yeah. So, when I was talking last week a little bit, I you know, just knowing where our scores are coming in. Now, we don't have VAP and we don't have final scores yet. Um, our reading scores saw some improvement, but not like we've seen in STARS. So, as a reminder, all the reading standards changed and it's a new reading so test this year. So, everything's brand new, but STAR has been consistent. So, we our students are doing better. It's just the measure has changed at the state level. So, we're going to do some correlation reports on that. So you're absolutely on the money, Mr. Caligger, that our so data is not going to show the same growth we've seen all year in STAR, but clearly our students are performing better

007because the data in STAR has been consistent over the years. Thank you, Dr. P. Sure. Um, so related to if we could go back to the the table. Um, and so again like I know these If you could remind us, so the targets were set after you know the fall data came in. So the can you remind us um why for 2425 we have the winter target and the spring target remain unchanged? So, um, oh yeah, because we we exceeded the the target where we were expecting to go this spring, the if you recall when we set the targets originally, the year the annual target was 29%. So, we had already met that target. Okay. Um, when we started in, so we we stay on track for where we're going here. But since we met

008the target already, there was, you know, we we decided not to reset these targets up here. Okay. knowing that we were going to likely out continue to outperform but that we had already set annual targets just not midyear targets. Okay. Um okay so that makes that makes sense because I was trying to remember what the rationale was for absolutely for that uh remaining you know kind of um stat you know the same. So I appreciate that response and then piggybacking on um what Miss Dalerro's question. So, I was I was also um you know looking at and you mentioned about you know you're going to have to go back because of the the new tests um go back and check the you know assess the correlation between the STAR and the so um tests and

009so that kind of actually triggered me to kind of go back and see what the changes were to the tests. So I went back I was looking at you know looked up at Renaissance and looked at the star um you know their explanation of and they've changed the benchmarks. So the benchmarks have actually changed and their explanation um that was provided is that we would see fewer students on um due to the the differences in the percentile rank scores. would see a a lower uh percentage of students who are in fact urgent intervention category and um also we would and therefore see more students in the uh proficient category and that was something that to be expected. So we're so in essence we're we're a bit to to I think your point is how do

010we compare um I guess where we're comparing apples to apples with the same benchmarks so to really get a true a truer picture of the progress that's been made. And then to add to that is also looking at the same cohort of students and how they're moving from um those that were in urgent intervention and moving to because I think it's intervention and then onwatch and then proficient. Right. So you know if you could speak to I know that was a two-part question but if you could speak to that a little. Sure. So, you know, the the difficult task is is that consistency of assessment, right, in scores. Um, and with everything changing and I believe um I I know Renaissance Star also was approved by the state as an alternative assessment to the growth

011assessment. Okay. So, that might be a part of where they were reconfiguring their scores. I'm not positive about that, but I do know that they it was an approved alternative assessment as well. So, I think just just like when any new assessment comes in, it just really comes with correlating and looking and and honestly um you know looking to see you know is STAR still going to be a long-term assessment that we use. If it doesn't align, then this is the time where we start looking that at that type of data. Um and then you know we do um internally we we do some some work on you know cohorts and looking at that um as far as assessments go uh just not to the reporting level divisionwide. So, at the schools, we're looking that

012and that's reading specialists look at that. Um, and and we do work at that data internally to look at our cohorts as well. All right. Thank you. And then um because this is a a grades three through eight um did you see any grade levels where you didn't see that level of progress? Um were there any grade levels where there was no progress or uh worsening of uh Yeah, we didn't have any grade levels dropping. um when looking at so data just again this is just off the top of of my my head with the tables I think that have been shared with you guys the um um middle school saw more growth than what we've seen in the past and then actually third and fourth grade had a little bit of a dip from

013what we've seen in the past so I think just getting used to that assessment style is is a big u a big note of what we have to do for next questions. Let's move on to 4.1. That's 4.2. So 4.1 um goal four is uh focused on um uh the decrease of achievement gaps between different subgroups. Um and the goal is to get have no gaps greater than 10% by the end of the goal period. And specifically with 4.1 we're focusing on um uh reading. And this this is a this gets to be a deep goal. And there's a lot of graphs, a lot of charts. I know you guys read it and looked at it. Um because we're talking about both the proficiency level and the urgent intervention level in each one. One just

014concerning reading and one concerning math. Um so when we when we look um overall the data we we you know just before I get into the specific comments we see on the chart here that we scorewise we saw growth across the board. However, we saw two of our gaps increase as well with that. Um when we look at the reading proficiency and when we look at the reading urgent intervention um we saw improvement across the board except for our EL students and then our gaps grew in three of our areas too um when we when we look at that but score-wise for the most part we might not have hit all of our goals but we did see growth across the board with our subgroups. Um so the proficiency data um specifically it it's showing

015all students all subgroups saw improvements in proficiency rate on star um from the winter to spring test administration. However the two areas that saw an increase in their graphs gaps was between our um subgroups uh with with black and white and our SWD nonSWD and with urgent intervention all subgroups showed improvement from the winter to spring except for students in the EL subgroup. Um what's going well um gaps between SCES non SCES EL non-ELL Hispanic non-Hispanic have decreased from the winter to spring um and all subgroups showed improvement from the winter to spring and all gaps saw decreases from the spring of 2024 to the spring of 2025 except for SWD non-Swin and Hispanic non-Hispanic. So looking at the year stretch there and then within urgent intervention data the gaps between white black met the

016target for the spring 2025 students in the SWD nonSWD decreased the gap from winter to spring. However, the target wasn't met. Additionally, the gap from spring 24 to spring 25 decreased by 5.9 points. So we still are seeing decreases over the year. Um and then although the gap target was not met for students in the SCS non SCES subgroups, it was only six points away and it did decrease by 8.9 points from the previous year. So we saw some great um areas there. And I do I'm going to pause real quick in the comments just as a reminder um um for the the board members that weren't here when we set this goal. This goal is kind of a two-part goal. It's decreasing the gaps while making sure the scores are rising. Um so we're

017we are for the most part seeing seeing a lot of that that go on. Um and then although the um the uh the students in the EL subgroup saw a slight increase and did not make the target, they are 28.8 points below where they were for spring 2024. Um what's not going well um within the proficiency um all um although there was a growth from the winter to spring in all subgroups the only subgroups to meet the target were white and nonsw um within urgent intervention the percentage of students with disabilities in the urgent intervention category remains high at 44.6% despite a slight improvement compared to the fall rate of 49%. So we still have a tremendous amount in urgent intervention and then the gap between Hispanic non-Hispanic students has grown from 7.3 to 10.3

018um in this from the spring 24 to spring 25. The status of previous action steps one was about uh analyzing unit test data each grade level. Uh the English office participated in school data meetings in March to support instructional leadership teams as they finalize instructional road mapaps and 45day plans for the end of the year with the intention um in the four uh core areas to really guide instruction. that partnership with the V Virginia literacy grant. Schools participated in the second of three professional development workshops on April 30th and the school leaders explored the science of reading conducted root cause analysis and brainstormed ideas for of need for students and then they were provided professional development. Um and the third and final workshop was is scheduled for June 17th uh which was yesterday um when

019teams take will take their final action plans and incorporate them into their 2526 comprehensive school support plan. So already principles are working on their CSSPs um with the data coming in from this year and preparing for next year. That's our theme throughout the summer actually that will ride right into school uh the summer leadership institute as well is focusing on those CSSPs. Um June 24th and 26 C and I will be collaborating with the senior coordinator of school improvement and select building principles uh to support the implementation of CSSPs. Those would be our principles um who are at targeted schools um federally targeted schools to give them additional support during the summer to really plan it out. Um the department of learning support uh collaborated with the English office um and they're collaborating with learning

020support with in preK title one offices to identify opportunities to expand SIPs training for teachers um across more support groups um and expand the use of elevation strategies and L database and EL database on professional development platform providing asynchronous modules for best instructional practices for L's um and additionally we are planning a lot of professional development you know we're bringing we we've have the positions for 33 new L teachers and we're in the process of doing as much hiring as we can. I think we ended up um with just over 20 of our own that finished the the build the grow your own e um ESL teacher certification. So that's that strong as well. some of our next steps as we go into summer. Um the summer work includes the development of 2526 professional development

021plan with the emphasis on um all staff p uh division PD days to ensure teachers across the board including specialists and ELA teachers and sped teachers and GRTs um receive the PD for um high quality instructional materials and evidence-based interventions as well as specially designed instruction. And then uh within the catalog which has more choices for teachers, schedule multiple and various opportunities for teachers to access PD on HQIM, EBI and SDI. So I'll pause there before going to mathematics. [Applause] Um so and just to um kind of go back to what we talked about with um goal three. So it's something something that I think would be interesting to explore would be to to understand how much of the improvement was a result of the changes in the cut scores to um uh as compared

022to um you know true improvement and looking at that um especially as you look to correlate with the so um and the other piece is um my question is So the gaps for our uh black white gap and our students with disabilities to non- students with disabilities uh gap had increased what what in your root cause analysis what what are you attributing those increases to? So you know we're we're in the phase still for divisionwide root causes because we really we focus more on that with so data. Okay. Um, and then I I will say, Miss Bassine, it'll it's it's a a difficult task to to go back and look at this with a different cut score because we we don't get that data. So, we're not provided the data with the previous cut score,

023okay, information. So, you know, it may I don't know that we'll be able to go back that deep. I understand exactly the reasoning why. Um, but really looking forward at our our so and the standards report and and digging deep into that I think will give us more uh bang for our buck on on when we're really analyzing the data. Okay. And I'm I'm just asking this for my my own understanding. So if I heard you correctly, so you you're not really looking at the root cause analysis of um why the increase in the gaps with the star data, but looking at it more with so if if the star is found or is has been thought to believe, which is why we're monitoring it, that it does highly correlate with the so why not

024look at that with the star data to kind of predict predict what might be factors impacting the so score. So during the year we look at it with the star data because it's the active data that we use throughout the year. um during the summer when we when we really dig down we especially with the new assessment and reading we really want to focus on the so test just because you know when we're working with all the our reading specialists aren't 12 months so it's we have few amount of folks that can really dig into this and and the the importance of the the so test and those standards um until we have a correlation report to see if it's still highly correlated you know I'd rather you know in my professional opinion it's it's

025it's wise are to go with the so data because we know that's still going to be in place next year. If we have a wide correlation, let's say the correlation, you know, it's been around 80%, let's say it drops down to, you know, 60 65%. I don't know how reliable STAR will be in the future. So that's, you know, we're going to start with where we know it's reliable. Once we have the correlation, if we see it high again, then we will dig back into STAR. Does that make just trying to use the resources wisely, right? Right. And that that that makes sense and I appreciate that explanation. Um so so this summer that's something that you're going to do to determine and there are other assessments that you may bring forward to us as

026recommendations uh for us to to then monitor you know our interim progress toward that. Right. Yeah. So we we our students still take the um the growth assessment as well. Okay. Um, so we're going to look at that piece of data and you know for alignment um as well and and it it's a it's a possibility that we look at that and say if star is not correlated when we recalibrate our goals in the fall that we start looking at okay we might need to change from star to SGA. Um you know but we we're just not ready to take that leap right yet. Okay. SGA is a student growth assessment. Okay. All right. And do they take those three times just as they do with Well, it's it's it's twice in the so test.

027So they take in the fall winter then test. Oh, yeah. That's what I that's what I meant. Okay. Thank you. Pleasure. All right. On to mathematics. So mathematics same same basic layout where we're trying to reduce that gap to below 10% while rising the scores. And again on this chart you can see that we did um all subgroups saw growth. We did see two gaps increase. The um gap with SWD nonsw and then SCEs nonsees for the um for the um uh proficient scores. And then on the next chart um we saw the same improvements across the board um except for the gaps with SCES NES and EL non-ELL. We saw a little bit of an a wider gap um on this one. However, those gaps are also already close to the 10% mark that

028we're looking for. So, um the data show improvements in proficiency um from winter 24 to spring 25 across all groups. Additionally, between spring 24 and spring 25, all student subgroups demonstrated growth in mathematics proficiency with the most significant gain seen among English learners 20.6%, black students 9.2%, 2% and students from um economically disadvantaged backgrounds are SCES students with uh 8.1%. Subgroups narrowed for black, white, EL non-ELL and SCES nonsees. And our our the data for urgent intervention from winter um 2425 to spring 2425. The STAR math urgent intervention data shows a positive trend with all student subgroups decreasing in the percentage of students needing urgent intervention. Notably, high need groups such as black students, students with disabilities, economic disadvantage, and eels all made gains uh through the rate of improvement, although the rate of improvement

029varied. Um, so what's going well? Again, students in all subgroups showed those improvements. Um, and the subgroups narrowed for the black, white, EL, non-ELL, SCEs, and nonsees. And with urgent intervention, um, the data shows that most student subgroups reduce the percentage of students scoring at the urgent intervention level. um with a positive indicator of academic progress. In particular, S SWDEL um Hispanic, black all showed decreases in urgent intervention rates from uh one spring to the annual measures there. What's not going well? Proficiency data. Although SWD students improve from 30.4 to 36.6, their performance remains below the 51% spring target. And the SWD and nonSWD achievement gap widen from 32.6 6 to 34.4. And despite gains, the following groups remain below their spring 25 proficiency target. Our students in the black subgroup SWD, SCES, and E.

030With urgent intervention data, the SWD, EL, and SCES students did not meet their spring targets despite improving and the gaps widened slightly between EL and non-ELL, which increased from 25.5 to 27.6 and the gap between SCES and nonse students, which remained elevated. Uh the gap between SCES and nonses remains persistent despite uh both groups improving status of previous action steps. Um the math office will continue to monitor the implementation of 23 standards. Um they implemented over 100 walkthroughs during this time period and observations to monitor and implement the implementation of the 23 standards and online instructional materials. The math office will continue to monitor the implementation of Zern um and adventum. Uh they offered 18 individual virtual virtual PD sessions to support teachers using Zern and Adventum um from January 2025 till the end of

031the school year and topics range from getting started to using the data for planning interventions. Each grade level increased Zern usage from 2324 to 2425. As Zern usage increased at Menum usage decreased and that make you know we're using more Zern and tier one instruction um and for some tier two and three supports as well. Um the math office will continue to monitor the implementation of datadriven small group instruction. They monitor it. Um um there were also over 40 support offerings to include modeling and co-eing small groupoup instruction to coach teachers how to use small groupoup instruction in evidence-based interventions and analyzing the unit test data. The math office collaborative with ARRA and used power school our our data monitoring tool to train building math math leaders on how to analyze unit assessment data. So,

032our data warehouse actually breaks down our unit assessments by standard for teachers um and shows them specifically where they are. And it also through the year it um it just grows with the standards. So, it doesn't do it test by test, it adds everything together. So, the more a standard is taught and tested, the more true data a teacher starts to see on their students. So, that was something put into place during this year that we're starting next year with which we're we're very excited about. Um some next steps, uh the math office will investigate the newly adopted um HQIM with the 23 math standards and the NPS curriculum. Um they'll also support schools with the use of EBIS to respond to data. And the Office of Learning Support will introduce divisionwide classroom observation tools

033with a specific focus on on specially designed instruction and co-eing to all school administrators in S SY 2526 and provide ongoing professional learning and feedback. questions. Thank you. Um, so one one question I actually meant to ask this is pertains to both the reading and the math. Um, so just as I refreshed myself, so the the way we're defining proficiency includes the onwatch group. Correct. So when we did the cor the initial correlation we were going into this we saw the correlation was was strong with the at or above and the onwatch which were the top two to students who passed the so test. So that's why we chose to use both those as proficient. Okay. and with what and I guess that that was part so as we have now been um using that

034definition for proficiency over the course of the last you know two years if you're I guess my question is do you see any value in uh separating that out or I guess will that be something that you continue to look at in the correlation when we do the correlation report every everything's fair game at that point you know when we're seeing when we're seeing the differences in what what we're seeing here. So last year, if you recall when we ended the year, our data was very close between the star and the so assessment the way we were tracking it, seeing the discrepancies we're seeing right now. Yeah. Based on preliminary data, everything's fair game on where we go with this. And and so in the fall, I would expect that we probably come with with

035different ways of measuring or showing growth uh sort of associated with these goals. Um if the board decides to keep them or go with new goal, you know, however we end up going. Okay. Um I appreciate that. And then for um you know for the the actuals compared um you know I can are there specific uh strategies allocation of resources or anything that you're finding in your assessment even looking by grade level where you see significant impacts. Um, can you can you speak to that a little bit? Especially with math where we we know we've had that subject area harder to staff, right? So, I know you've talked about that before. If you can um speak to that in in terms of what we're seeing here. So, you know, I think you know, similar similar

036to reading with the math though, where we see the most bang for our buck are with our live tutors. you know, when we partner with UI um with middle school in our math support blocks, we hire local tutors for that if we can find them. That's equally as much of a challenge as finding a math teacher. Um but that live um interaction is is most important. I do think we're and another another thing we're we're looking at and the state's also looking at is the correlation of um Zern and and the use and the the data points on Zern correlating with the so test because our teachers are really enjoying that platform as are our students. Um so the more we see a correlation there the more we're able to use that in and outside

037of class for different supports. So th really with math that's where we're seeing it and I think we're seeing a decrease on the use of edmentum um which again I think when when when we had the first opportunity to talk about when we brought on products and I think it was Miss Campson who said a computer doesn't teach the child you know and we had those discussions right and it's very true so we look at the product and how it's being implemented and you know if it's time to sunset something we'll look to sunset something so um you know Zern we've been very pleased with the results that we've been seeing and if it's correlating well then it's it's also about what can we take off plates so that we make sure that we're focusing

038where we need to focus. So all that in the summer planning is fair game. Okay. And Dr. Paul you you touched on my next question which was going to be around Zern and Edum and how well um you're seeing that those platforms um uh correlate with the progress or with you know how students are performing. So, and we are we are seeing that with some usage some usage correlation, but we really want to see it with the the final Zern data with the student growth on Zern, not just usage. I'd be interested in hearing more about that when and I know you know you've put that in there in terms of usage time and that impact as a as part of the strategy. Um, so and that's where we set our initial goals were really

039was really about usage time. you know, getting students on it, implementing it in the lesson plan if it's appropriate or making sure that they're getting their half hour of, you know, all-in time or when they're in their math support block that they're they're logged in and using it. Um, and they're not just going in and doing a because we can tell if they go in to do a lesson, it's like click click click click click click. We can tell by the data because of the time that they spend in the product. Yeah. Working in the product. Working in it. Okay. And we meet with them monthly. We meet with the Zern team monthly to to review our data. My pleasure. Questions. Thanks everyone. Thank you Dr. P. Pleasure. Can I get a motion to enter

040into closed executive session? I move that we go into executive close session. I second. Uh, Miss Bor Buffalo has put forward the motion and Miss Bassine has seconded the motion. Miss Tanner, will you please call the role? Okay. move that the members of the schoolboard of the city of Norfolk go into a closed meeting for the purposes which are set out in subsection A of section 2.2-3711 two-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 of specific public officers, appointees or employees of the school board pursuant to subsection 2.2-3711A1 of the act. The subjects covered by this exemption are the discussion of persons and personnel actions included for vote on today's personnel report and discussion

041of past, pending, and future personnel actions and investigations concerning specific current employees of the school board. Discussion or consideration of disciplinary and any other matters concerning students in Norfor public schools that would involve the disclosure of information contained in the scholastic record pursuant to subsection 2.2-3711A2 of the act. The subject covered by this exemption is the discussion of students on today's regular student support agenda in 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 2.2-3711A7 and 8 of the act. The subjects covered by this exemption are required advice of council regarding freedom of information act request and contractual matters and advice and briefing regarding the matters set above in subsections A and B

042of this motion. Bassine I Buffalo I Martin I Olson may I ask a question of the lawyers? It's unusual to do it at this point. What? It's unusual to do it at this point. If I vote no, what will will I have to leave the room? No, I don't think you'll have to leave the room. However, it raises the question, having voted against the motion to enter close session, how you can certify it afterwards. And you cannot vote not to certify the session without prior to that vote explaining in detail for the public and to go into the minutes why you are not certified the session. So the outcome would be either whatever concern you had that caused you to vote against the motion to begin with has been eradicated by what was actually talked

043about or you will have to say in detail the reasons that you cannot certify the meeting and the only real reason to not certify a closed meeting is that you think the board has violated the law in some fashion. take that in so that it could be captured for the minutes prior to voting not to serve. Thank you. I'll vote yes. Algerro I mean Thomas. Yes. Algerro. Yes. having to come in. Good evening. I would like to call to order the school board business meeting. Miss Tanner, please call the role. Bassine here. Buffalo here. Inge present. Martin present. Pson here. Thomas here. Talagro here. Agendum item 4.03. 4.03. We'll have the pledge of allegiance. Please stand. Uh ma'am, I think we have to certify the closed meeting. We haven't done that yet, have we? I

044thought we did. Was it done in there? Okay. I was in there. It was done in there. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all for all. Agenda item 4.04. Can I get a motion to adopt the school board business meeting agenda? I move that we adopt the school board meeting agenda. I second. Miss Moore Buffalo has brought forth a motion and Mr. In has seconded the motion. Is there any discussion? Miss Tanner, please call the role. I. Buffalo. I. In I. Martin. I. Wson. I. Thomas. Hi. Talaggera. I. Agendum item 4.05, superintendent's report. Dr. Paul. Thank you. Uh, good evening, Madam Chair. Colliero, Vice Chair Thomas, members of the board, administration,

045member of the community, and everybody watching. This month's superintendent report is packed with reasons to celebrate Norfick public schools. From st standout student athletes and scholars to dolphin watching to the Grand Canyon adventures, green STEM camp, adult ed grads, and more. We're proudly honored over 1500 class of 2025 graduates across five ceremonies and our seniors earned over 81 million in scholarships. Time to see it all in action. Media team video. [Music] Congratulations to all our winners of the Atlantic Orthopedic Specialists Student Athlete of the Month Award. I feel great cuz I really do deserve this because I went through a lot. I know a few athletes who have gotten this and they're all like very very impressive. So, I'm very proud to be chosen. Just want to thank my coaches and I mean my family.

046I mean, they helped me put me on the right path to do this. In collaboration with Atlantic Orthopedic Specialists, 15 of our students were honored this past school year. Congratulations to all. Some of our spring high school teams made deep playoff runs. Let's take a look at some pictures by Byron. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] students from PB Young Elementary took a special trip to Virginia Beach for a day of adventure and discovery out on the Atlantic Ocean. They went dolphin watching, getting a firsthand look at these amazing creatures in their natural habitat. It was a day filled with excitement, learning, and unforgettable memories as students experienced the wonders of marine life up close. A big splash of fun and learning PB Young's dolphin watching trip was a success. As part of the equity and excellence

047learning centers, students from Ruffner Academy took an unforgettable enrichment trip to the Grand Canyon. From breathtaking views to hands-on learning, this experience brought classroom lessons to life, deepening their understanding of science, geography, and natural history, it was more than a trip. It was a journey of exploration, inspiration, and discovery. Congrats to our students who successfully finished Norfolk Public Schools Start on Success program. A ceremony was held at Nauticus. This program empowers high school students with disabilities to confidently transition from school to the workforce and life after graduation. Started success is a school to work program that we offer in North public schools and we are supported by DAR BCU and we are partnered with Nauticus. In this program the students participate in a 16week paid internship. The students first part of the year they are

048enrolled in an education for employment class. When they're enrolled in that class, they're working on all of the soft skills necessary to be successful in the workplace. And during that internship, they're able to come in and put those skills to the test. Congratulations to our students. In front of family and friends, 36 students participated in the adult education services recognition ceremony held at Grand Behind. School board member Tiffany Moore Buffalo offered words of encouragement before it became official that this group of students were now graduates. Best wishes to the class of 2025. 35 seniors from the medical and health specialties program at Mory High School completed their 4-year journey during a graduation ceremony on the campus of Eastern Virginia Medical School. These outstanding graduates received over $4 million in scholarship funds and completed over 7,000

049hours of community service during their time in the program. But those achievements may not be their most impressive accomplishment. I think the fact that 77% of the kids have over a 4.0, it just and that's it almost becomes normalized. And I think that's what's crazy to me is these students, they feel that if they don't have a 4.2 or 4.3, they're not working hard enough. They have that community of excellence and it it really drives them more than the teachers do. While they were all thrilled to walk across the stage, they will miss the special sense of community they shared with one another. I just I loved walking past all of my program teachers and I just appreciate them so much and it was just wonderful. I honestly love the community of it. I love

050coming back from lab every day in junior year and talking about what we learned and gushing about like how fun the heart is and how fun the brain is and just like being a nerd about anatomy. It feels amazing. I mean, all the hard work I put in for four years just it's just like this is the thing that let me know I did it and I was done with it and I'm good. Most of these people I've known since middle school, even some from elementary school, but I've gotten close with a lot of them throughout my four years here. I'm just going to miss that tightnit community they have. On May 27th and 28th, Norfolk Public Schools proudly graduated over 1,500 students. Together, the class of 2025 earned more than $83 million in scholarships,

051an incredible achievement that reflects their dedication and hard work. Congratulations to all our graduates. Your future is bright and we're proud of everything you've accomplished. To view complete graduations, head to our YouTube page, NPS K12 VA. On May 16th, Norfolk Public Schools hosted a special midday cruise aboard, The Spirit of Norfolk, to honor their retiring educators and staff. This celebration recognized their dedication and years of service to the district. As the ship sailed, retirees shared memories and looked forward to new adventures. The day was filled with fun, laughter, and dancing for a joyful send off to a remarkable group. Thank you to all our retirees for your incredible contributions to Norfolk Public Schools. Congratulations and enjoy your retirement. Three of our schools that performed exceptionally with the recent Reed with MIA competitions got a visit

052from track athletes from the Mid Eastern Athletic Conference. Sixth grade students at Rosemont along with third graders from Largemont and the Academy for Discovery at Lakewood had the opportunity to talk with these outstanding student athletes about what they're reading and learn what college life as an athlete is like. Well, I mainly told them about me to start with and like, you know, some of the other student athletes here. Uh we was talking about, you know, putting school and sports together and a lot of them was telling me about themselves that they gave me a lot of introductions about themselves. They told me about the book that they're reading right now, Animal Farm, which I also read in high school. So, we connected a lot. Today, we're all like gathering for this MAK event where the

053sports team of this college is coming here like they're talking to us like about college. They're telling us like what to expect and like we've all split up into individual groups. Um, and they're kind of just like answering our questions, helping us with like what to expect for our future. We actually had the opportunity to talk to some of the students about their favorite books and also learn some special things about them, especially like favorite facts or something that they like to do for fun. It was actually really fun. I haven't been in an elementary school in a long time, so I really enjoyed giving back and talking to students. Oh, that's so cool. For complete video stories and more divisionwide information about Norfol public schools, visit the MPS website and check out our YouTube

054channel, Facebook page, Instagram, NPS newsletter, and our podcast NPS Unplugged. Thank you. That concludes the report. Agenda item 4.06, citizens comments. Miss Tanner, how many speakers do we have for this evening? Madame Chair, for today's uh citizens comments, we have 21 speakers. Today's speaker signed up for public comments before the start of today's business meeting. If you would like to provide public comments, you are required to state the agenda item or items or topic you're discussing or addressing prior to providing your public comments at this meeting. When your name is called, please come forward to the speaker's podium. State your name and whether you have a child in Northfor public schools or if you are employed by the district and state that agenda item items. One person is to speak at a time. If you

055are representing a group, state the group's name. You may ask your group members to stand in place to be recognized. Speaking time is limited to three minutes. A timer is set with an alarm that will signify the end of your speaking time. State your position and give relevant facts or data. Avoid saying anything that identifies students or personnel information about individual employees. Personnel, disciplinary, and confidential matters may be addressed directly to the schoolboard via email at [email protected]. Comment should be addressed to the board and not addressed to an individual member. Schoolboard members do not respond to public comments at the time they are given. Any written statements or supporting material should be given to the clerk. Um, chairwoman, we our first speaker is Ivonne Wagner, followed by Kathy O'Hara. Oh, you scratched it. Oh, okay.

056Liz Albert and then No, I'm Come on, Miss Wagner. Well, I'll find you. Okay, go ahead. School board members, Dr. Paul, and those present. My name is Liz Albert, and I do not have children in NPS. I serve on the school board advisory committee tasked with helping develop the muchneeded school closure and consolidation plan. I wanted to express my concern about the negative repercussions firing a successful and efficient superintendent is likely to have on this time-sensitive plan. For why should the public trust the board that the board will ultimately approve a sound, responsible, and equitable plan that is best for the entire city when the majority acted so recklessly based on personal motives in the most important personnel decision a board can make. The four members who voted to terminate Dr. Birdong without cause need

057to be held accountable for their lack of integrity. Number one, the disastrous decision was made covertly, excluding the pro-s superintendent contingent. The actual vote was not added to the agenda until during the work session to hide the majority's actions and to prohibit any public comment on this matter prior to their vote. The word did did get out about the plans of the four school school board members, but they blatantly disregarded the overwhelming support expressed by principles, teachers, city council members, and citizens, thus demonstrating a contempt for public input. Number two, the decision was executed in an atmosphere board member Adele Martin described as quote, "a culture of bullying," unquote. It is a sad irony we hold children responsible for bullying when adults at the highest level of governance in the school system regularly stooped to

058intimidation in their deliberations with their colleagues. Number three, it was retaliatory. At the last meeting, Colonel Pollson said this move was the result of a personal vendetta and anger over a May 22 memo from the superintendent in which she outlined instances of the board's dysfunction. Since unprofessional backdoor machinations and personal agendas are the modus operendi for the four member majority, it is only natural stakeholders fear these same behaviors will be applied to closures and consolidations. To the four board members responsible for the loss of a great superintendent, I would like to say to continue in the manner you have been operating will not only damage NPS right sizing initiative. More importantly, it will harm the 27,000 children you are supposed to be serving. Shame on you. U Kathy O'Hara, school board members, Dr. Paul and

059attendees, my name is Kathy O'Hara. I'm here because citizens were robbed of the chance to weigh in on plans to terminate Dr. Sharon Birdong's contract when the school board majority deliberately scheduled a vote for a meeting that didn't allow for public comment. I subsequently shared my concern on Mr. Ing's Facebook page. He responded this way. I encourage you to attend next week's meeting where there will be time for community input. Thank you, Mr. Inch, for inviting me to speak at a time which is figuratively like shutting the barn door after the raceh horses left the building. Those familiar with NPS politics know former board member Rodney Jordan and board members Tanya Bassine and Tiffany Buffalo have a long history of taking aim at the superintendent. Kind of like hunters on a safari hoping to take

060down their quarry. When Mrs. Decaligerro and Mr. Ing joined the board, I was initially hopeful. I particularly looked to Mr. Ing to be a peacemaker. My optimism was short-lived. The ready, fire, aim approach of these two newbies has proved so disappointing. Mr. describes himself as a fresh lens for MPS. Well, I beg to differ. He didn't bring a fresh lens to the table. He brought a trigger finger. In dog years, these two have been on the board for about 15 minutes. Despite their short tenure, they ignore the superintendent's impressive track record from successfully leading this school division through a pandemic to raising student achievement. As I hear, preliminary so results show gains in all four core areas. Claims of a commitment to transparency rang false when the four uh person majority blindsided Dr. bird song

061in a May 21st meeting with a surprise vote to disapprove key personnel recommendations. There has only been one logical action in all this, the interim choice. I worked with Dr. Paul in Virginia Beach and he is a solid educator. But the board majority ignored stakeholders who opposed termination. In a letter to the board, principles noted Dr. Birdong had provided stability and leadership unmatched by any other previous superintendent. The teacher associations also voiced their unwavering support. The board majority discounted the will of the people and chose the power of four votes. The only thing that makes me think the leopards might try to change some spots is they know they can't treat Dr. Pole as miserably as they treated Dr. Birdong because the spotlight is on them. And hopefully a future election will change the makeup

062of this board because in this moment it is a character caricature of dysfunction at a time when children need to be uplifted. And how sad is that? Michael Dyer. [Applause] Good evening board members. My name is Michael Patrick Dyer. I do not have children going to school at Norfolk Public Schools. I am employed by Graanby High School and by the United States Navy. I'm here to discuss the pay and equity issue which has been ongoing with NGOTC teachers for the past year. As I'm sure you're aware, last year's school budget provided step raises for all full-time employees. Every full-time employee was to receive a one, two, or threestep pay raise. This year, the school board approved the budget to provide a one-step pay raise and a cost of living adjustment for 4.9 4.5% increase. Sadly,

063none of the Navy JOTC teachers and NPS have received any of these raises. Although pay increases are always appreciated, I'm here tonight out of principle and fairness. I'm here to end the discriminatory pay practices towards NJRTC teachers. This Friday will mark the one-year anniversary that I met with Dr. Agnu Scott to try to resolve this issue. But all I've received over the past year are excuses. One of the excuses I was given is that raises forotc teachers weren't in the budget. However, a survey of all NJTC teachers showed that the average annual pay provided by MPS to NJRTC teachers is $43,851, $16,237 less than a brand new teacher in MPS. This discrim discrepancy in pay becomes even more pronounced when you consider that most teachers are 10-month employees and all NGOTC teachers are 12 months

064employees. We worked many extra hours before and after school, throughout the summer, and on all the weekends, managing all aspects of the JRTC program in addition to all the teacher responsibilities we have. This means that a brand new teacher in MPS will be paid $6,000 per month of employment and an the average NGOTC teacher will make less than $3,800 a month for per employment. As you might be aware, half of our salaries is paid by the Navy to MPS. This payment is not made so that NPS can hire teachers at a discount rate. It is made it is paid because the Navy we have responsibilities to the Navy. Unfortunately, MPS looks at our total salary and says that we were more than fairly compensated. In order to give the school board a better understanding of

065our Navy responsibilities, I have provided a brief summary of some of the many responsibilities we have to our other employee, the United States Navy. Because I feel pay and equity issues which are discriminated discriminate against NGOTC teachers. I'm asking for your assistance. I thank the board chair and I thank the board members and I look forward to working with you to try to overcome this discriminator discriminatory practice as soon as possible. Amanda Albert [Music] Hey there. Um, I'm Amanda Brockman and um, me and my husband are longtime residents of uh, Norfolk. We absolutely love it here and um, as we're kind of planning out our lives and and looking to have kids, we would love to send them to Norfick public schools. Um, and so even though I didn't go to Norfick public schools and

066my husband didn't either, um, he went to Chesapeake public schools. Um, I've been tuning into school board and paying attention to to what goes on. Um, historically, you know, Norfick public schools have been a little bit maybe underprioritized or underfunded, but as you can see from the video, it seems like things are looking magnificent and we have a lot to be proud of. And a lot of that is thanks to Superintendent Dr. Birdong. So, I was uh a little disappointed to see um that she was terminated. It seemed very out of nowhere, although from I don't know keeping track with what goes on here, I wasn't all that surprised. Um, as some other people have mentioned, there there's a culture of a little bit of bullying. Um, uh, I've seen bullying among people who are

067supposed to be colleagues. Um, blindsiding the superintendent in in meetings with surprise motions, stifling public opinion. It's just disappointing because, you know, when the dem uh the election shifted from the uh city council appointing school board members to them being democratically elected, you know, you kind of think, dang, they're they're in my corner now because I'm electing them and your job is to represent us and and to represent what's best for kids. And it seemed pretty straightforward. Um so I'm just kind of confused as to why she was terminated. Um, I'm not sure if maybe you got input from your constituents. Um, or if you did terminate her. Um, we'd like to know a reason why. You know, we elected you, right? So, um, you represent us and I think we're entitled to an explanation

068and I'd like to keep an open mind for your motivations, but it's really hard to do that when I have no information. Um, and so it's hard to see, you know, what appears to be without an explanation just political dysfunction. Um, and so, you know, a lot of my friends who are having kids, they're planning on moving to Virginia Beach, Ches Peak. That's not in the cards for us. We love it here. We're staying here and we'd love to send our kids to Northfor public schools. Um, there's a lot to be proud of. But Dr. Birdong did a phenomenal job. You know, she was so competent and her six-year tenure did so much for the schools. So, I I really do think that you owe us an explanation. I'm keeping an open mind to your

069reasoning. Um, but but without that, I I'm looking forward to elections when we can unseat those who don't represent us. Thank you for your time and happy Junth. Barrett Hicks here. Barrett Hicks. Okay. Charlotte Smith Warley. Dr. Paul, members of the community school board, my name is Charlotte Smith Worley. I want to focus on the actions of the four members who formed the majority in this decision to terminate the superintendent. I urge you to take a moment of introspection both individually and as a collective voting block and consider the following points that define your approach. The four of you operate in a click, consistently disregarding the input and perspectives of the other three members. This exclusionary behavior must change. Respect for collaboration and inclusivity is paramount in effective governance. You seem to be unable to

070take the high road. A glaring example is your failure to post a farewell message from Dr. bird song on NPS social media and the website. Her message was one of gratitude devoid of negativity or personal attacks. There was no justification for withholding it. Professionalism demands that you rise above personal grievances and acknowledge exemplary service. Additionally, the city of Norfolk Council plans to honor Dr. bird song contributions with a resolution in their June 24th meeting. If anything, the acknowledgement from the city council might serve as a critique of your decision from a higher level. At the very least, it should prompt serious reflection on the need for repairing your reputation. Begin by setting aside retalatory inclinations and showing a degree of respect. It's a necessary first step. Third, you dis your disregard for the law is

071evident. In your rush to terminate Dr. Bzong, you neglected to first share any severance agreement publicly, therefore violating Virginia State Code 15.2-1510.1. This is illegal and questions your leadership. In conclusion, the broader community has found your action deeply objectionable. Moving forward will be impossible unless you learn to respect the governance team as a whole. Transparency, accountability, collaboration are not optional. They are essential to restoring credibility. I look forward to working with Dr. Pole as he attempts to write the ship. Even as I share this advice with you four, I remain skeptical that the change is possible under your current approach. Nevertheless, the choice to prove me wrong lies with you. Debbie forehand. [Applause] Good evening, school board members, Dr. Paul, and Norfick citizens. My name is Debbie Forehand and I'm a longtime advocate for more

072investment in Norfick public schools. I stand here tonight saddened because the school board majority has damaged the reputation of this governance team to such an extent that our city government seems poised to advocate for returning to an appointed board. About 18 months ago, when I was serving as the president of my civic league, Mayor Alexander was our guest speaker. After his presentation, a small group of us expressed our concerns about the fractured state of the school board. The mayor agreed with our assessment and asked us if we would support an appointed school board. At the time, I wasn't ready to embrace that possibility. After all, a long string of appointed boards had underfunded the school board's CIP budget, and that's why so many Norfick public school buildings are in deplorable shape. Fast forward to today,

073and I'm actually thinking an appointed board could be far better than what we have now. The board's unwarranted removal of a fine superintendent has been devastating to this community. Dr. Birdong is an superior uh superior edi educator who led this school division through a pandemic and supervised the literal fight against learning loss and successfully. I might add, it is no accident that immediately following the shameful vote, Vice Mayor Thomas posted this question on his Facebook page under a link of the pilot story of Birdong, Dr. Birdong's firing. I am hearing from more and more people that we should go back to an appointed school board in Norfol. What are your thoughts? By the way, this post was also shared by Councilman Smeaggel. The commentary has been lively. There are people who are disgusted with this

074current school board, but who feel the answer should be working to unseat the venal majority through the election process. There are others who feel a return to an appointed board could be a return to sanity. Like this lady posted, she agreed 100%. As a 27-year veteran of NPS, I remember how our appointed board acted. They were professionals who could disagree and debate their size of an issue without eye rolling, snickering, and making rude faces. This board we have now is an embarrassment. The teachers make jokes about them like they are circus entertainment. I do not want to I do want to thank Miss Thomas, Dr. Martin, and Colonel Pollson for their votes against Dr. Birdong's termination. I appreciate the fact you shine the light on the backroom politics involved in this decision. I am sorry

075you three are getting splashed by the mud of a vindictive decision carried out in such a hateful fashion. In closing, I haven't made up my mind. It's either lobby for an appointed board or support candidates who will run against the four people who don't deserve the title public servant. We do need to do something and fast. Ian, Ivonne Wagner. [Music] Good afternoons, superintendent, schoolboard members, uh, community leaders, comm community members of the community. Uh, my name is Ivonne Wagner, 1100 Marramac Avenue, north of Virginia, Broad Creek. I am a pride proud graduate of Northfor public schools and I am a former school member of an appointed school board and I am here to tell you there was discord and we didn't always agree on everything and we have problems just like there are problems now

076but we all need to understand that and I hope that we are all here because we care about children and that's what the main focus should be not about getting somebody else because they did not agree agree with what you thought was right. I am here to applaud the four school me school board members who decided to do what is best for children as opposed to uh how they how somebody feels about them. My mother always told me there's always his story, her story, and the truth when it came to a relationship. Well, I'm in here to give you some cause and some truth. Dr. Bird Song and I have gone have been together for a while. I knew her before I was on the board when I worked in North public schools. I have

077been a school teacher. I have worked at H.B.CU. I've been a vice president of H.B.CU. That's why I can applaud these individuals who actually did take the plunge and do what was necessary. The community has complained. I have probably talked to several members of the board and shared with them the concern of me many members of the community as to what was going on in Northolk public schools. It was so bad I got so many calls because I was a board member and people cons continued to call me principles who were bullied. So I don't want to hear about bullying because the the school system was led by fear and I know this. I've been in the schools. I've been the long-term sub. It was so bad that Cynthia Watson, who was a principal at

078Booker T Washington High School when it was booming. We got together and we said, "Let's go and talk with Dr. Bird Sound and share with her the concerns of the community, several members of the community. We sat uh I uh Dr. Mrs. Watson went and talked with her. She sat there for about 45 minutes to an hour, shared the concern, then she said to us, "I disagree. I disagree. I disagree the entire time." And it was almost like it was very condescending. I also talk with elected officials. They call me. We sat down and talked. Jackie Glass said, "Give her my name." I know that Bonita Anthony uh talked with son, she would not meet with them. Dr. Bird's son would not meet with the elected officials. And I know this for a fact. And

079um I can't believe it's over, but I'm not leaving. Uh I'm going to finish. Uh uh uh our mayor set up a meeting with the elected officials with Dr. Bird Song. She would not show up for that. Uh there were problems with whro sure when we do not have uh uh we when we have a superintendent who cannot partner with the members of the community and cannot partner and I'm getting ready to leave my time is up but cannot partner with elected official people who give us money the school board. Ma'am, thank you for your time. Thank you. It is time. It was time. Thank you so much. God bless Amen. Keenan Baskerville and the data will read the data. Good evening everybody. I'm Kenan Baskerville. I work as an organizer for New Virginia Majority

080on our education campaign. I'm here to ask you all how we can help advance your EELC programs to increase community and stakeholder engagement. As you know, I've been talking with parents, teachers, and community members since last April. All the while, I've been conducting a needs assessment of Jay Cox's school community. This assessment examines issues within the community that would have the greatest impact on their lives if addressed. I currently have 265 responses. Uh responses taken in a multiplechoice format from the following choices. before and after school care, mental uh mental health services, medical and dental support, tutoring and educational resources, food security, and housing support with some additional room uh for a write in just in case, you know, if that didn't speak to a person's direct needs. Of those 265 responses, 199 or 75%

081of those responses, uh, people said they would have they would have a greater impact on their lives if their school had a before school care program. Something that I've been bringing up to this board for a while now. Moreover, the second highest is tutoring and educational resources with 163 people saying that would have the greatest impact on them or about 62%. I want to know what's the best way we can use and share this data with the board to help North Public Schools administration rectify and alleviate these hardships for families and help them get involved in a more democratic process to steer their schools funds and resources for a better future. Jay Cox is an EELC which is a perfect testing ground for community engagement and resilience in a community in need of development. I'm

082willing to build with the board to to reach the broader goal of higher quality early childhood education, schools that have the necessary uh instructional support and administration staff and programs that provide additional funding to support low-income students. If you would like to talk talk with me at any other time, my email is K B A S K E R V I L L E at new that's negirginia spelled all the way out majority.org. Thank you, Carl P. Members of the board, chair de Caligerro, Dr. P. Good evening. U my name is Carl P and I live here in Norolk. I don't have children in NPS, but I began my own educational journey here. Now, I didn't come here to scold anyone tonight. Instead, I want to share with you about a conversation I had with

083a former North Public School Board member who sat where you did about a decade ago. They asked me, "Who do you think the superintendent works for?" I answered, "For the children, for parents, for the community." "Wrong," they replied. "A superintendent works for a school board. The board can hire and fire them. Then they asked, "Who do you think a school board works for?" I answered more slowly this time. For the community, that's close. Um, they told me, "A school board works for its constituency, the people who can vote them in or out of office. Understanding the relationships between these three is how you begin to understand uh how a school district works, how it really operates. Yesterday, I visited uh 11 different polling places across all five uh wards in Norolk. I spoke with voters

084there as they walked uh in to cast their ballots. Some of them weren't so clear about who they were going to vote for, but they knew why they were voting and they knew what was at stake. If you want to know how insightful the people of Norolk are, spend some time in a polling place parking lot on election day. Your constituency is your greatest source of power and it's your greatest source of wisdom. They've entrusted you to be the stewards of our public schools. I urge you make good on the use of that trust. I'm not just talking about chatting up uh chatting up their votes. I'm talking about drawing on their experience, their insights, and their love for the children of the city. You've had some tough decisions to make so far this year.

085With August 1 fast approaching, harder ones are coming. Your constituents may not always agree with your decisions and you won't always agree with each other. That's why it's so important to ground your choices. So important for your choices to be grounded in the wise counsel of the people who put you here. They are trusting you with these seats. Make sure you trust in them just as much. Thank you. Mary Anna White. [Applause] Mary Anna White. Good evening, dear Honorable Dr. Paul and honorable members of the school board. I'm Ariana White, a teacher here in Norfolk and a member of the EAN. First of all, thank you for what you do in your pursuit of quality education for all our kids. I have two main concerns as we go forward in our community, both specifically in

086the schools, but also in Norfolk as a whole. The first is literacy and the second is equity. I've heard two schoolboard members talking about the need to reset and that just really got me thinking. What are the basics? When we look at our students potential and accomplishments, we need to start with reading skills. I would like to see the whole community come out and support the development of these kids. The parents, school staff, libraries, churches, excuse me, community leaders, businesses, and civic organizations. Oh, I'm okay. We like to look at the schools and blame the schools for everything that's going on, but we're all part of this community together and we need everybody helping. I'm going to go off script hopefully not take too long. Poverty is traumatic and we have to address that. So

087we need to set up tutoring and mentoring programs especially in the schools with lower schools with scores and um so that we can teach the kids to apply their reading skills and think critically. So I'd like to talk to you more about that later. Equally important is equity in the community as a whole and in our funding of the schools. Children and their families need to feel that they are valued in every part of our community. Can we c reconsider how much we will spend on Mari while simultaneously planning to shut down so many of our elementary schools. That does not feel like equity. We've already shut down four schools in Ward 4. We also closed Coronada. Please hold multiple meetings um so that our whole community can participate in the discussion. As we con

088contemplate hitting reset, I want us to decide as a community. We need to think about affordable housing. I see I have 18 seconds. Please do not continue to tear down buildings in our poorer neighborhoods. We need housing that people can afford. Our community needs to trust not only you but the city council and I'll be talking to them too because I've been here 30 years and I love the city. So, best of luck and thank you all. Please slow down the pace of shutting down schools. Let's get the new superintendent who has knowledge of how that should work for the good of the whole community. Thank you so much, Pastor Veronica Thomas. Good afternoon. Giving honor to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to the board and the acting superintendent. I give glory to the

089Lord who has blessed us to be here today. I believe that God does nothing a passively. Everything is intentional. About three weeks ago, we decided we were coming to the school board on the 18th, the community classroom initiative and we found out that our beloved superintendent was ousted last week. We were coming to let the board know and the community know what she has done for our children. She started the faithba initiative put Dr. White in place to carry it out. Yes, we had tutoring from faithb people but not in like we are in now. We are in the school system. We are in eight particular schools. We worked with Jay Cox, Young Ruffner, Booerty, Monroe, Lynenwood. I think I got them all. If I don't, let me know. Academy. Academy. Yes. Yes. We do

090this because we love them. Let me tell you something that you need to know about. We started a program at Rotha Ruff uh Rostster, excuse me, Presbyterian School where we brought in from all of the five high schools children who were called impaired and we taught them how to cook. When they leave, we didn't want them to be on the couch. We wanted them to be productive. That's what we did. and Superintendent Burstone came in to see what we were doing. We have community meals and message where we go in and work with every athletic department and right now we are in um Booerty and Lake Taylor. But this is what we do and this is what she helped us to do. We are saying, do you know all surgeons that never lost the case?

091Do you know any lawyers that never lost the case? Nobody's 100% but Jesus. So I don't understand what the issue is. We all got issues. We all need to be encouraged, lift up, prayed for. That's what we here for, to support. I'm not here to criticize anybody, but I want you to know that I'm supporting Superintendent Bird Song. Why? Because she support the children of Norolk. It wasn't always convenient for her. It ain't always feel good, but she stood firmly against the schemes of the devil. And I'm telling you, that's who started this foolishness. We love our children. And we going to stand by them in the name Lord Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Amen. We got some statistics coming up next and some testimonies. Eddie White, please. What's up, girl? I love you. Good evening. My

092name's Eddie White. I don't have a child in Norfolk and I'm not going to preach. I am part of the community classroom collaborative and I want to share some data with you to exemplify the impact that we've had in the schools. But it's critical that you keep in mind that numbers have names. I will share those. I won't share those names, but any number that re represents real people, real lives of students and parents. So, we're active on multiple campuses from high school to elementary school in Northfor public schools. But before I share some objective data, understand that we don't get to these numbers unless the faith-based initiative was started and subsequently the EELC was created. And what they did was they created an environment where principles, athletic directors, coaches, family engagement specialists fully believed

093that they could get into relationship with faith-based organizations. And I'll tell you, be mindful that there are a lot of school systems that don't have that same level of empowerment. Amen. So for youth programming uh where we do character development, we do values-based leadership, we also do college and career mentorship. We found that the students who participated in 10 or more of our activities throughout the year um based on data from the school system from beginning to the end of the year had a 55% decrease in absenteeism. And they also had an 8.5% increase in GPA. That's not from tutoring. That is from character. that is from values from high character adults who are not told to hide their faith. They they proudfully take it into the space where they do the mill and message

094and they do the values-based leader discussion. At elementary and middle schools, we focus on parent programming to empower families, to build trust, and to grow hope. We do this through parent education and trauma healing, ultimately seeking to recreate the village. We have been active at PB Young since 2023 and the reason we started was from a request from the principal to faith-based partners and she asked for help with parent behavior. So I was involved in this and from our surveys I've been collecting we've seen over the last year uh increased in parent confidence and improved listening skills. And in a recent meeting with the family engagement specialist, I was sharing that about 73% of the parents felt more comfortable with the staff. But then she went on to share this. She said that before we

095started, they had nine parents banned, 25 on the 2B band warning list. A year after parent connection, they had about 10 parents banned and about five uh five banned, 10 on the warning list. This past year they had one parent ban, four on the warning list. So you can see that there is a palpable change happening between the staff and the parents. And we thank you for your time. Ron Atkinson. Hello family. Hello. Ron, good evening to the board stakeholders. My name is Ronald Atinson. I live in Chesapeake. I have no children in Northfor. Um, they gave me the task of the team to put the faces and the stories behind the stats. I want to start with the parent. There was a parent that had a contentious relationship with the principal through parent connection.

096That was resolved. Not only was it resolved, but the parent went on to be named twice to the principal's honoral two successful semesters. Let me give you a list of students for their stories. I want to read those so that I can be time efficient. Ruffner Ruffner students who participated in values-based leadership small group this year. They asked us to come back next year because they are learning the importance of controlling their emotions, making better decisions and avoiding escalation of conflicts. One girl said, "I stopped myself from putting my hands on a girl today when she offended me because of what we talked about. I just sat and looked at her instead of reacting." I had a one of the coaches from Booker T said to me, Ron, before milling a message, milling a message

097is we come in and we feed the athletes or whatever group that we're serving and then we have a a message and values. He said, Ron, before you guys came in, I had two to three students making the honor role. He said, since you've come in, I've had 14 to 15. That's about a 300 to 4% increase. That's just on getting a child erected from the inside out. In my closing moments, I want to give this illustration. There was a park, a national park. And in this national park, they had some difficulty. And the difficulty was is that the the streams were drying up. So that means the vegetation wasn't being watered. The animals weren't being taken care of. And they couldn't quite figure it out. So what is the problem? Well, this was the

098problem. They attempted to take a space that was designed to give air to nations, but they wanted to make it convenient for the people. So what did they do? They took the predators out, the wolves. And when they took the wolves out, they took out the ecosystem. After decades of trying to trying to figure out what the problem was, you know what they did? They didn't put a wolf back. They put a wolf pack back in. Because if you put a wolf back in, he's going to become the predator. Well, one of the things that I appreciate about the faith-based partnership is that a pack has been put back in. And when you put values in, people learn to live, learn, and lead from the inside out. They're not driven by tokens. They're not driven

099by carrots, but they're driven by character. If you teach a genius math and and science, but he has no character, he'll implode himself and everyone else around them. I thank you for your time, James Parker. Good evening, Norfolk School Board. My name is James Parker and I have the honor of serving as the president of the Education Association of Norfolk. I stand before you this evening not just as representative of our dedicated educators but as a voice for thousands of students whose futures are shaped every day by the work done in our classrooms. Our educators work tirelessly often going above and beyond their duties to provide a high quality instruction support students emotional well-being and create safe nurturing learning environments for every child in Norfolk. They do not. They do this despite mounting challenges, staffing

100shortages, rising class sizes, outdated resources, and everinccreasing expectations. Tonight, I want to address a a matter that weighs heavily on many of us, the educators and the broader community deserve clarity and transparency regarding the termination of Dr. Sharon Birdong. The decision appeared rushed and lack explanation and has has left many serious concerns. We're demanding clear and specific reasons behind her removal. Silence only breeds mistrust. As Dr. Paul steps into the role of interim superintendent, we urge him and the school board to lead with collaboration, transparency, and a firm commitment to centering the voices of those on the front line, educators, students, and families. We are facing serious challenges. Declining enrollment, ongoing staff shortages, and a deeply controversial conversation around potential school closures. These are not just operational decisions. They are community decisions as they must

101not be made without the meaningful involvement of those most affected. The Education Association of Norfol remains steadfast in our commitment to fighting for fully funded schools and truly community centered public education system. We look forward to working with the interim superintendent Paul to build a stronger, more equitable future for every student. But let me be clear, we we will not hesitate to hold leadership accountable for decisions that harm our schools, our educators or or our community. Our voices matter and we will not be silenced. Thank you, Katherine Tower. Good evening. chairman of the school board, superintendent, school board members, schoolboard senior leaders, community, and friends. I've heard a lot this evening, and I've been saying for 10 years now, we've been coming to the schoolboard meetings because of conditions at Booker T. Washington High School

102for 10 years. In this in this setting, I see a great divide. Not only is maybe the school board divided, but it was divided before, too. It just happens that it has split, but it was divided before the last 10 years. It was divided. And as long as you were getting what you wanted, you really didn't care what was happening to the rest of the children and families in this city. This city is divided. If we're honest, the country is divided if and we all know that. So, it is time to stop contributing to the problem and look for the solutions. I'm faith faith faithbased as well at the garden of hope. Gethsemane community fellowship works tirelessly with the city of Norolk and Norfolk public schools. Matter of fact, I'm proud to say that we

103have the only in-person GED AB class in the city of Norolk in the morning at Gethsemane. The doors are open. We don't ask you to pay a penny. They give resources. They give you name it. If they need it, they're writing the checks at Gethsemane. All we have to do is ask. And not only that, we're saying we have the capacity to do more because there's a poverty issue in this city and we have a very limited adult education budget. Please help us to do more because we need it in our cities in our city. The children need it. I'm a proud retiree of North Public Schools, proud graduate of Pocin, Washington, and I did not live on the west side. I lived in a house that never had hot water. I graduated in 1969,

104but today I have a daughter who is pursuing her doctorate in nursing and a son who's a colonel in the US Army. because of Booert, because there were caring people. Not that we had a whole lot, but there were enough people who cared. And I don't see enough caring in our city. I thank you, Miss for I've watched you. I know your heart is for the children. Always has been, even when you've had to stand alone. Miss Buffalo, I know it wasn't easy. Miss Martin, I know you for the children. I I don't know Miss Thomas yet. I don't know the rest of you yet, but please work together. Godspeed. We need an effective leader. We need community-minded leadership, servant leadership, visionary leadership, the right leader. Thank you for your time for each assignment. We

105are all in this together. Godspeed in the next school year and we must move forward. Archie Bacon. Good evening. I am Archie Diane Winfield Bacon, a proud 1968 graduate of Booert. Washington High School. Booerty Washington High School. John T. West High School, one of Virginia's first accredited public high schools for African-Americans, was renamed in 1917 for Booker T. Washington, educator, author, and orator. The school moved to a newly constructed building in 1924 and for decades was Norolk's only public high school for black students. Its programs were central to the community. In 1939 1940, faculty members Ailen Black and Melvin Austin pursued legal action that led to a federal court decision requiring salary equalization uh for black and white teachers. In September 1963, students marched to protest poor facilities. North implemented a desegregation plan in 1970

106and the school moved into a new building here in 1974. I have just shared with you the words written on the Booerty Washington Schools historical highway marker located on the corner of Virginia Beach Boulevard and Park Avenue in our city of Northol Virginia. This marker stands proudly along with other notable historical highway markers throughout the city of Norolk. such as MacArthur Memorial, birthplace of naval, naval aviation, and the addicts theater. I am before you today to express the extreme importance of keeping Booker T. Washington High School open with quality educational curriculums and programs for students in the city of Norolk. Let the legacy live on. Thank you. Lisha Harold says Lysa Harold. Okay. Dr. Gardinel Green. Is that correct? They can join you. name is Dr. Gardinella Green. I do not have a ch a

107child in Norfolk public schools. I represent Norolk alumni chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated. and our purpose here today as a part of our annual visit to the school board as part of our chapter's um social action agenda. Good evening, distinguished school board members and distinguished guests. I rise today proudly representing the Norfolk Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sority Incorporated as chapter president. I'm joined by my lovely Sorro who are here today dressed in red. Would you please stand? All right. As many of you as many of you know, Delta Sigma Theta is a public service sorority founded on the principles of sisterhood, scholarship, service, and social action. And here in the city of Norfolk, we have embodied those values with intention, consistency, and impact. Our chapter is composed of women who serve

108Norfolk as fierce and passionate educators, community leaders, and advocates, many of whom are proud parents, auntes, and caretakers of Norfolk Public School students. We are deeply embedded in the fabric of this city, and we are committed to making it stronger. In the spirit of our ongoing commitment to service, we are proud to share that in just this year alone, the Norfolk Alumni Chapter has contributed over $40,000 in economic impact to local community to the local community without any foundational funding. This figure does not include the countless hours of inind service and non-cash donations generous generously provided by our members. Our support to Northfor public schools over the past year has included participation in ReadAcross America Day. Um stocking stocking the little free libraries, donating cleaning supplies and school supplies, providing headphones, um donating school uniforms,

109and we are especially proud to have awarded $25,000 in scholarships this year to outstanding students in Northfor public schools. Notably, all of our 2025 scholarship recipients have chosen to attend historically black colleges and universities. In addition to the financial awards, we've also provided laptops and book stipens, ensuring our scholars are equipped for success both inside and outside the classroom. On behalf of our chapter members, we are so grateful that you've allowed us here tonight as part of our social action agenda. We deeply appreciate and respect your service to our school district and we stand ready and committed to continue critical projects and programmings that make a difference in the lives of the students and staff of North Public Schools. And my the two students which are scholarship recipients would like to say a few words.

110I'm sorry we are out of time. They say their names. Yeah, please say your names. High School and I will be attending North. [Applause] I graduated from Norview High School [Applause] Thank you. I want to make sure I pronounce your name correctly. Sonia Morton O'ir. Okay. Thank you. [Music] I apologize cuz I might have chosen the wrong day to come. You're fine? Cuz I don't want to talk about Uh, Dr. Bird, I want to talk about Ruffner. I was hired by Dr. Dillard. For some of you who've been here for a long time, you might remember Dr. Dillard. She welcomed me here to Norolk from my hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia. I was afraid, but she welcomed me and I felt home here and have ever since. I decided to take a job at Ruffner under

111uh Cynthia Watson. She taught me everything about the field of teaching, how to dress, how not to dress. Oh yeah. She stood at the door every morning and watched from your shoes to your head to make sure that you were intact. And trust and believe me, if you were not, you went home. She said, "I got your class until you come back." But I'm here today because since 99 until 2025, things have changed drastically at Ruffner. I met two board members on the NFT cruise and I the first thing I introduced myself as Sanjay Mortyn I then asked them are you aware of what's going on at Ruffner and they looked some of what but I don't think any of you know that our children there at Ruffner are being jeopardized every single today. Why?

112The fighting, the walking in the halls, disrespecting teachers. I've been pushed down. I've been kicked. I've been knocked down the steps. You name it, it has happened to me. Then all of a sudden, I decide to speak up for myself. I don't feel safe in this building anymore. That's what I told. Spoke up proudly. Well, what happened after that? Retaliate retaliatory actions were placed against me once, twice, three times. Put on administrative leave with pay from October until March 6 when I was given the choice to either resign, retire, or to be terminated. Now, you're not talking about an ordinary teacher. You're talking about a darn good teacher. When creativity was allowed, you wasn't permitted to read by script. You taught and that's what I have done. And I have shown my kids love. Sometime

113in a harsh way, but in a meaningful, caring way. I'm here. I know my time is up, but all I want to say before I go, please, school board members, investigate. Investigate because roughly school can be great again like it once was when I first started. Thank you. And our last speaker is Sharon Houston Whitney. I'm Sharon Houston and I volunteer at Ruffner eight hours a day. Don't have any kids, but I am a grandparent in school. Over the past 20 years, I have watched North Public School repeat the same cycle. And while we can all offer reason and justification for our actions, today I urge each of us to pause and say, "I can do better." Because the truth is our children need all of us to do better. We need a school board

114that is not waiting on a miracle but is equipped with the capacity, relationships and skill set to leverage resources from the city, businesses, community organization and to meet the school needs. We need a superintendent who will accept nothing less than excellence. One who will boldly advocate for every school, every need, every child. We need a visionary leader who will walk the halls, observe with their own eyes and understand the reality on the ground. We need principles who are strategically placed. Principles who are on the right, who are the right fit for the student, their community, and their school culture. And they must be held accountable for the success of their schools. No excuses, no blame game. We need teachers who are not just present but committed. We need professionals who honor the call of education.

115Teachers who uphold standards in how they teach, speak, carry themselves. Every staff in the school building should operate professionally, not children. Dress professionally, speak like uh leaders, lead by examples. And when standards are not met, we need accountability systems that work because too many schools are falling short on professionalism. We need community to show up, volunteers in every part of the school, cafeteria, classroom, hallways, the front office, the guidance suites, everywhere. And we need parents to be parents to sta set standards in their homes. Send your children to school. Hold them accountable for their behavior. Attend the school events. Build early respectful relationship with the teachers. Partner with the school for success of your child. Let's not spend the next six months fighting over one decision. Let's channel all of this energy into action. Let's

116join the west side with the east side, the north side with the south side. Let's come together for a for learn and learn from our past. But most importantly, let us move forward in purpose. See y'all in the hallway. We corrected the number and it was 19 speakers. And this concludes our speakers for this evening. Agenda item 4.07, 07 approval of the consent agenda. Can I get a motion to adopt the consent agenda? I move that we adopt the consent agenda. Already got it. I get a second. I'll second it. Dr. Martin has put forward the motion and uh Mr. Ing has seconded it. Miss Tanner, please call the role. The i. Buffalo. I hinge. I Martin. I Pollson. I Thomas. I Dalero. I Okay. Agenda item 6.01, Clifton Larson audit review. Mr. Jenkins and

117Miss Amos. I'd like to introduce um Sheri Amos. Uh she was the lead auditor for us for this year. Good evening. I'm Sher Amos. I'm a principal with Clifton Larson Allen. Uh we are the audit firm that audited the fiscal year 2024 financial statements for the school system. um here to provide some required communications to the board as dictated by auditing standards. Um the financial statements for fiscal year 2024 are prepared by management. Um they are the responsibility of management for preparation and selecting the accounting policies included within those statements. Uh my responsibility as the auditor is to provide the three-page audit opinion that starts on page one of the financial statements. And I'm pleased to indicate that we issued an unmodified audit opinion this year. Uh which is a good or a clean audit

118opinion. It's the highest level of assurance that I can provide the board that the financial statements are not materially misstated. The um the financials are quite lengthy. Um I don't know if anybody's had a chance to review them, but I always recommend that at the very least um that the board look at the management and discussion analysis section. Starts on page five of the financial statements. provides a really good overview of the fiscal year 2024 financial information, provides some commentary for the changes in the numbers from year to year, and is a good overall synopsis um for you to look over. There are certain accounting estimates in the financial statements um related to liabilities for other post-employment benefits and incurred but not reported claims for insurance purposes. These are actuarial evaluations in which the school

119system engages an actuary to perform those valuations. We look at those valuations from the actuaries including the underlying data submitted to the actuary to make sure it is reasonable and accurate and look at the assumptions and inputs that go into those valuations to ensure they are either in accordance with accounting standards or that they're reasonable considering the industry that you're in. Um and we had no issues with those estimates, but they are estimates and subject to change in the future. Um these estimates are normal um for a school system such as yourself, including a local government. Um they're consistent with prior years, so we didn't there's nothing crazy related to that. Just something I'm required to report. Um we did have um a delay in the completion of our audit this year. Um typically the

120audit is completed in the fall time frame and issued no later than December 15th. Um this year the audit was issued March 11th, 2025. Um audit delays due to the significant turnover in the finance department. Uh while the school system does not have a statutory uh deadline to complete their financial statements due to the significance of the school system to the city of Norfolk, their financial information is included in the city of Norfolk's financial statements and the delay in issuing the school system financials resulted in the city missing their regulatory deadline of December 15th last year. Um so just wanted to make sure you were aware of that. We did not have any uncorrected misstatements. We did have one material corrective statement that was detected as a result of our audit procedures. Um there was

121a grant that was received from the Commonwealth of Virginia. Um the funds were received ahead of time and revenue was recorded. However, there was no um eligible expenditures in fiscal year 24 against that revenue. So it should have been unearned revenue. Um and so that adjustment was made in the financial statements as part of the audit. Um and we also did have a restatement to fiscal year 2024 financial statements as well. Um and I'm going to um pivot over um that's part of a greater finding. We had three findings um as far as the audits concerned um which were material weaknesses and internal control. The first finding is um related to capital assets and that was um part of that was related to the restatement we had. Um the school system typically receives their funding

122for capital projects from the city of Norfolk. Um when that occurs and those projects are closed out, whether it be a new school or renovations, um those assets go on the city's financial statements. Um however, in fiscal year 23, um there was funding that the school system used for HBAC improvements from the ESRE grant funding from the federal government. Um, and therefore those assets once they were completed, those projects completed should have been put in service and put on the school systems financial statements. However, they were not. So, we had to restate the financial statements for roughly about 12.4 million for fiscal year 23. Um, in addition, in fiscal year 24, um there was um capital projects that were related to um funding receiving from the city of Norfolk that the school systems did not

123properly report to the city. So the city can include those in their financial statements. Um so we had to make some adjustments at the end of the year or at the end of the audit period to make sure that the city was properly picking up those capital assets um that were funded by the school systems or by the city, excuse me. Um so we just recommend that the school system make sure that they're properly tracking the capital projects each year, know the funding sources of those projects, and make sure they're properly accounting for them whether they are closed out onto the city's books or the school systems books. Our second finding was a material weakness related to financial reporting. Um this was related to the delay in the um the audit and the issuance of

124the financial statements. Um we also had um inconsistent and accurate financial statements with frequent discrepancies and errors um which indicated that there was um a lack of proper review of the financial statements before they came to us as the auditor. Um we are not as an auditing firm a control internal control for the school system. The school system should have um those on staff that can properly review the financial statements and detect the errors if there are any and make sure that they're um prepared in accordance with standards before they get to us as the auditing firm. So um in addition, we had I I mentioned the $13 million adjustment for the grants as well as detected as part of the audit. So um this finding is related to financial reporting and we just recommend

125that there's policies and procedures in place to make sure there's accurate and timely completion of the financial statements. And the last um comment we had was a material weakness related to account reconciliations. Um due to the significant turnover in the um in the accounting department um journal um bank reconciliations and general editor accounts were not reconciled on a timely basis. Um, just to give you a flavor, the June 24 bank reconciliations were not provided to us until January of 25, which is over six months after the month end. And they included unreconciled differences as well. Um, in addition um the school system is required to uh submit the um annual school report to the Commonwealth Auditor of Public Accounts um by September 30th. That report was not submitted till November 1st. And then once that

126report was submitted, there was um numerous adjustments to the general ledger um as they were closing out everything for the audit. So at the end of the day, that school report submitted in November did not reconcile back to the um final financial information of the school system. And then lastly, there was a new procedure in place um for the um Commonwealth Auditor of Public Accounts related to making sure the school system reviewed and confirmed bank account balances reported to the Commonwealth treasur. and that was not performed either for fiscal year 24. So we recommend that um the school system make sure that they are timely reconciling bank accounts and general ledger accounts and um reviewing any um unreconciled differences and and researching investigating and correcting them timely. Um if those are not done timely, they

127add up and they snowball and it ends up being harder to research and investigate at the end of the day. um and make sure that they are um tracking any changes to the Commonwealth's laws and regulations and making sure that all reports are submitted on time and reconciled to the financial statements. And with that, I will open up to any questions you might have. Madam J. Any questions? I apologize. I talk fast. Miss, thank you. Thank you so much for your presentation and review of the the audit report. Um and I hope you'll bear with me. Um I do serve on the audit committee and we've met via Zoom um along with Mrs. Moore Buffalo. Um so welcome tonight. Um I do also want to acknowledge that um our committee unfortunately was not able to

128get together to review these findings before tonight. Um, so some of my questions are related to the audit itself like and the and the process and what then can be done about the findings uh that that are in this report. And so I'm going to start um at the beginning. So in the beginning I believe you mentioned that this was an unmodified clean audit. So with the with the number of findings and the significance of the findings in here, how does a school division get a clean audit? Like can you better explain what that actually means? Sure. So um one thing to keep in mind is that we do have a materiality in our audit. So I think I highlighted that the financial statements were not materially misstated. So that's one thing to keep in

129mind when it comes to an unmodified audit opinion. Um we did note and make corrections. As I said, we did have the correcting entry related to the grants. So there were some audit adjustments that were made to make sure that the information in the financial statements was ac materially accurate. So that's how we were able to get to the clean opinion. Um the the um findings that we reported um are more related to policies and procedures and and and the keeping of the records um and and could potentially lead to misstatements if not corrected. Um that's why we're bringing them to the attention in future audits so to speak. Does that answer your question? Yes. Yes. So I I guess that totally answers my question because I was going to ask this next part would

130be then um the significance of the impacts that uh may occur as a result of the findings um that you've listed here. And you know the the third part of that is what do you recommend? I mean you've put your recommendations in the audit report but how do we ensure accountability around that those recommendations are uh put in place? So would they be for instance part of the audit next year to ensure that these policies are in place? Is that something that you would recommend we you know follow up on that we include and so it is up to management to um determine um how they want to implement corrective action plan. I always say um and maybe not with these findings but there's always a cost benefit to a corrective action plan. Sometimes the

131cost of putting in controls or policies procedures might outweigh the end result of of correcting the findings. I don't know that I think that's the case with these findings specifically, but those are all management decisions to make um with the oversight of the board. Um we would obviously look at them next year to see if what if there's any corrective action taken and then adjust our audit plan accordingly um depending on what that corrective action was for next year. Okay. Right. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yeah, thank you so much for a thorough review. Um, I look at audits every day in my professional capacity. So, um, just bear with me on my few questions I have for you. So um just going through um you had stated um the delay was due to the turnover

132in the finance department and so we missed the deadline and that caused the city of North to miss the deadline as well. Correct. Are there any penalizations or anything? So the school system does not have a compliance deadline specifically. So there were no penalties for you all. It was just the domino effect of the city actually having a statutory deadline of December 15th which is in Commonwealth Virginia law and they missed it waiting for the school systems financial statements to be completed and incorporated into theirs. Got it. So the city has a so the state has a law that's on the books that the city has to turn in their audit and then we contribute the audit to the city correct and we delayed in that audit which in turn in a way violated the

133law. It caused the city to Okay. Just want to make sure I'm understanding and picking up what you're putting down. Um, all right. On my next question that I did have. So, you said lack of proper review and policies and procedures. Is this something that you usually see in school systems? um in your normal daily practice as an auditor. Uh at times I mean I will say it is is pretty common right now for there to be a lot of turnover in county departments and um not only K through 12 school systems but government in general right now. Um we kind of joke that actually my team's actually the more consistent team and a lot of respect for my clients versus um the staffing at at the client level. Um so we are seeing more

134findings I think um increase uh over the past couple years due to a lot of the turnover and loss of institutional knowledge in many respects. So um not saying it's the case here but a lot of places there's a lot of retirements and things of that nature and you're losing a lot of institutional knowledge. So um when that happens it's not necessarily uncommon to have similar findings. Got it. Okay. And then also not uncommon to have delays in the audit either as well. Sorry. Gotcha. No, you're perfectly fine. Um definitely understand a delay. um there. So, make sure I got my dates correct here. So, I got June 2025, the accountant reconciliation ledger. So, uh so the bank reconciliation so as of for the bank reconciliation for June 30, was provided to us in January

135of 2025. Oh, so January June of 2024 and then provided to you almost six months later. Six months later. Is that a normal practice? No. Um, usually best practice is 30 days within month end. Okay. All right. Thank you so much for that. Okay. And many of these things that um in the material weaknesses that you have that you've stated in your findings are these things that are mostly contributed to management and oversight. Excuse me. I think it was to to the significant turnover that had occurred. Okay. That's what we saw. Awesome. That's all all the questions I have at this time. Thank you so much. Other questions? Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. Agenda item 6.02, the monthly financial report. Mr. Jenkins. Yes. Uh good evening, Madam Chair. Thomas, Dr. Uh this

136evening I'll review the financial report for the month of May. This report covers 11 months uh the fiscal year which started July 1st almost a year ago. Um as with previous uh reports, this one reflects uh activity from July to the last day of May. Uh and and also records that were recorded as of June 9th. So if something came in uh on the 10th, it's and it's for May, it's not actually in the report because it wasn't available. The general fund collections during the 11 months available and available balances from the previous year totaled $423 million and that's 89% of the $475 million budget, our general fund budget. During the same period we expended or encumbered $430 million which is 90 a.5% of the budget. Uh as comparison for a comparison for the previous

137two years spending was uh ranged between 90% and 91.5% of the budget. So very similar. You will find there were two budget transfers recorded during the month of May that exceeded $50,000. The first was to transfer $220,000 from the replacement of food service equipment to the food account. This was necessary to address the rising cost of dairy products. Second budget entry transferred $281,500 from the budget for instructional funds uh for compensation to the student transportation account for fuel. The entry was required because the fuel costs have outpaced their budget plans. Savings in the instructional wage accounts are resulted resulted from uh vacancies of staff. Chairwoman Dealerro, that concludes my comments for the month of May. I'll be happy to answer questions. Are there questions? Missine? Yes. Uh thank you, Mr. Jenkins. Um if we could

138go to the Well, first if we could go to the page to um is it is it typical? Well, I know we haven't quite seen this, but I want to be sure that this is marked correctly. The revenues minus expenditures we have expended more than we have brought in. Correct. Is that at this point in time? It's not unusual. It's pretty typical. Um the biggest issue uh is that we're we record um sales tax revenue two months in in a rears. Uh so sales tax revenue for the last two months um won't come in um until uh August for instance that'll be booked against the previous year. So we're um for sales taxes and many other revenues we're we're really on the cash basis. We're recording as they as the funds come in. I will

139also say that from from a cash standpoint um we've actually paid out far less than we've expended or encumbered um we haven't paid the incumbrances because we haven't received the products but also teacher pay is spread over 10 months or excuse me 12 months whereas the teachers work over 10 so from a cash stand point we are fine. Okay. Um and then related to the budget transfers. So last year at this time the the June this period the same period we had about 10 million in budget transfers in the month of June and given you know our I think our budgeting strategy has been similar. Is there um I I mean we don't have quite as much budget transfers this year. Can you describe what that might be attributed to the budget transfers last year?

140Yes. I I I'm sorry. I'm not prepared to do that. Okay. Okay. If you could follow up. I was just curious if since that amount and what we see here at 500 500,000 is um expected there were as you get closer to the end of the year uh accounts normally it's it's not unusual for the um for the budget transfers to increase because you're at the end of the year. So there's more accounts that are running into the red. Right. Okay. I was just just comparing this period last year to to this year. So, if you could look into that, that would I really can't say how much we would have uh in the month of June. Okay. There was a question you had if I could um last month that I failed to get

141back with you on. You had a question about classroom instruction. Yes. And uh contract services, right? There's an account that's 1.6 million over spent, right? That u that is related to university instructors. I believe that we have more encumbered than we needed to uh and that the account will be closer to in balance uh at the end of the year. Okay. All right. Thank you for following up on that. Other questions? Got it. Mr. H. Yes. Thank you so much. Um thank you so much, Mr. Jenkins. Um quick question. Bless you. Um just I'm looking through um the expenditures. It's like when the when the state does bonuses for teachers, is that included in this? We um No, it is not. We did receive a payment from the state department of ed for I believe

142it was 2.6 million. Actually, it's in their budget. Okay. Um that we're going to review in a few minutes. Uh we received that I believe um they told us we were going to get it on June 2nd. So I guess that's when they sent it. Uh I do know we have received it. Um and Dr. uh well the superintendent has recommendations for um for that in next year's budget. Okay. So the two that 2.6 million that's been received from the state is that solely for teacher bonuses? Uh the state funded well not exactly. The state funded uh bonuses for all standards of quality positions which does include some support staff. However, we have far more staff members than the state sent a $1,000 bonus for. Thank you, sir. Sure. Thank you. Other questions? Thank you,

143Mr. Jenkins. If I could, uh, Madam Chair, I, uh, I'd like to introduce Anthony Starks, our new chief, uh, finance officer. I believe he is. Hey, hello there, Mr. He'll be taking over next next month. Thank you, Mr. Jenkins, for your service. Thank you. Can I get a motion to adopt the monthly financial report subject to audit? I move that we accept the monthly financial report subject to audit. Is there a second? Second. Miss Tiffany Moore Buffalo has brought forth the motion and Dr. Mark Martin has seconded the motion. Is there any further discussion? Miss Tanner, please call the role. Cine. Buffalo. I. Inch. I. Martin. I. Bolson. I. Thomas. Hi. Talagro. I motion is approved. Now moving on to agenda item 6.03 schoolboard operating budget for school year 2526. Mr. Jenkins. Yes. Um refer

144to you to the PowerPoint. Um we have a number of uh revisions in the budget. Um the first are related to revenue. Uh there has uh well let me just kind of give a little little background. Uh Dr. Birdong had presented a budget I believe in early February to you. Uh you reviewed that you adopted uh a recommendation. I believe you uh you adopted the budget as as recommended by Dr. Birdong uh in March. It at that point it goes over to the city. The city reviews uh all of the city government including funding for schools uh and makes funds available based on their resources and in their case based on a a revenue sharing uh policy that uh that was adopted by city council. So we have additional funds uh more funds available now

145than we realized when uh when the budget was presented to you in February. So city revenue has increased by 3.05 05 million. That's directly related to um a I guess a new estimate of this amount of city revenue that would be available. Um the city's re revenue policy uh makes 29 a.5% of local revenues local tax revenues available to the school district. So there is more city revenue available. Um the general assembly also passed a budget which was different from the one that uh was recommended by uh Governor Yncan. The budget that was presented to you in February was based on the governor's recommendation. Uh so there were increases of $10.3 million in state revenue. And then there's one that kind of slid. Uh the reversion funds were are estimated at $10 million when the

146budget was presented to you in February. The actual numbers are came in about three and a half million less. So we have a net increase in available revenue of 9,830,000. Next screen. It's a little busy, but uh the these are the recommendations in a nutshell um of what to do with the $9.83 83 million. Uh firstly, uh we've we can see that successful hiring initiatives have reduced the amount attrition of attrition and vacancies in our sta in our staff and we make estimates of how much attrition we can expect in the budget. So, we're bringing that down a bit um by $3.75 million. Uh the two the uh bonus that you just mentioned, Mr. ing um 2.69 million we did receive um in that we're we're recommending that those funds be used next year towards

147a um a bonus for all employees. Fortunately, it's not going to that this um the governor had recommended $1,000 for all standards of quality, all positions funded under standards of quality. uh our estimates are that we would have approximately 600 maybe a little more uh per position available to distribute and that is before taxes. So after tax amount would be less than that but the uh recommendation to you is to provide um to use that $2.69 $69 million of state money that we did not include in our budget and and did not expect um but to use those funds towards u providing a bonus to all employees who return from fiscal 25 this current year. So people who renew their contracts. The third item is to increase funding for the summer school program. Um, I

148think this was probably a um a we we should have budgeted more for summer school than we did. Um, largely because much of the summer school costs for the last several years have been covered but with federal ESSER funds. Um, and we needed to beef it up. So, um, we we are recommending adding $1.11 million uh to the summer school budget. Um there is an increase in the in the debt service that the city is holding back. Uh and and that's part of the revenue sharing uh policy. They're making more money available to us through the revenue sharing, but they're going to withhold a little bit of it. In this case, 600 almost $600,000 uh for um debt services. And this is related to a two cent reservation on the property tax rates. Um so

149they they made a uh they their estimate of property tax collections is a little higher. So they're withholding um a little more for the 2% 2 cent um uh portion that goes to um to debt service. Uh we're recommending we had recommended uh a um I think it was a 2.9% bonus to employees who were at the top of their pay scale of the pay scale. 2.5 2.5. Okay. There was a bonus of Thank you. 2.5%. Uh so we are recommending a 4 and a half% um pay raise instead of the bonus. So uh the the employees at the top of the pay scale would receive pay raises similar to the rest of the staff and the bonus would would come off or the previously uh recommended bonus. um $450,000 to hire 10 additional special

150education teachers based on the the the demands um in in the schools. 450. These are teacher assistants, not teachers. Did I say I beg your pardon? Yes. Uh teacher assistants. Uh increase the number of classes for the three-year-old preschool program. Uh 444 $440,000. Uh an increase for that. And uh then last, there's a couple of issues. Uh building insurance and property uh excuse me, business applications. Uh we need to true those up a bit. So that totals $9,830,000 uh which is the same as um as the increase in revenue. So our uh current budget 167 million7750,000. Um the city of Norfol adopted a budget which provides 170.8 million. Um I I I misstated. These are the revenues from the city of Norfol. So the revenue coming from the city of Norphick goes from 167 and

1513/4 million to 170.8 million an increase of 3.05 million. So that's the source of the city revenue. State revenue we saw an increase of uh 7.26 26 million in SOQ funding, standards of quality. Uh four almost four and a half million is related to increases in basic aid. This is primarily uh related to in um funding a greater number of support positions. Uh that was a amendment. Uh special education funding 1.42 42 million uh increase of 1.33 million in at risk funds and then the compensation supplement uh or the the bonus that was distributed um excuse me no that's not that the bonus was 2.69. The next item there there was an adjustment in the amount that would be available for pay raises of $270,000. Um then the next item was 2.69 69 million for

152the standards quality bonus that uh we've spoken about. Uh a small increase in the funding for the preschool initiative. So total increases in state revenue 10.3 million. Turn the thing off. Thank you. Hit the wrong button. I'm sorry. Finally, uh revised we have a revised reversion funding. Uh we had originally estimated 10. It's actually six and a half. So we reduced available resources by 3 and a.5 million. So this is what the revenue budget looks like before and after. Uh you can see that Commonwealth of Virginia provides the largest single amount of funding 263 million uh increase of 10.3 million uh for the budget amendments bringing the total to 20 almost 274 million. City of Norphick is the next largest uh provider uh and that's going up as I said 3.05 million. Most of the

153others are staying the same with the exception of the reversion which is going down. So our total budget our total revenue that we're expecting next year will go from 450 million as originally proposed to 460 million. On the expending side, uh again, the total budget will go from 450.15 million to just under just over 460 million. Uh most of the rever revision is in the instruction category. That's where most of our budget is. Uh so and I believe that was about um 90 over 90% of the revision uh was um was for the instructional accounts smaller adjustments in transportation maintenance facilities and technology. Um now uh kind of shift gears. So that was all the operating budget. Now again we can talk about the capital budget. Uh this is the capital budget that uh was

154presented to you earlier. Um the building program for Mari 291 million. All of these amounts are in thousands. Um this is what um had recommended. Uh there was also money uh recommended for replacing uh heating and v ventilation systems. Uh some money for windows and doors in in future years. Uh electrical upgrades in the current and future years. And then you can see the other items. Um, so that's what was requested. Total $329 million over five years. City council uh provided uh has has released their capital improvement b their capital improvement budget of which we are a part. Um so they're spreading the funding for Mori over three years and they're also reducing the total available to 220 million. uh that is under design at the moment. So we don't have exactly what the impact

155is but uh I think your architects are sharpening their pencils but um um that's yet to be determined. Uh there's a reduction um of uh well excuse me the other improvement plans are being reduced by from 21 million to just under four million um based on uh and that's based on money that the city's making available um from revenue sharing in other other areas. The revenue sharing is actually the excess funds that the city received during fiscal 24 last year. Uh that is made available to us under the revenue sharing plan um or excuse me policy of the council and and later in your agenda there are two items. one of which deals with um requesting this funds from this um city capital uh improvement pay plan after all the adjustments. Uh you can see

156uh that's 202 uh 220 excuse me 22.95 million. Um so it's a it's down from 329 in total over the five years. Um the biggest item you see the rebuilding plan uh from Mari 170 million uh does not include money that the city has already funded in previous years. Um so that that project total is $220 million over uh including previous funding. We're recommending upgrades in uh and renovation of restrooms at Booker T. Washington and fiscal 26 of 3.76 million. uh some interior wall work in a couple of schools of 183,000 and um replacement of some school buses of a million dollars in fiscal 26. So total budget capital budget for fiscal 26 of 16,451,000. Uh in future years um those those plans will be revisited based on uh fund funding available from the city.

157Items that we did not or that we had to drop from our uh plans for the capital included upgrades at Chesterfield Elementary for the electrical system. Uh re renovating a pool at Camp Young. Uh some heating and cooling replacements at uh Easton Lake Taylor Chesterfield and Madison Alternative Center and WH Taylor. So some HVAC projects get put off. So uh across all funds our total budget is presented on this page. Uh so you see our general fund budget um $460 million. Our food service budget is not changed 26.9 million. Grants and special programs do not change. That's 42,837. And the capital projects uh for the for the first year uh goes from two 253 million to 16,451. So the total uh 546.247 million. Our recommendation is that you adopt the budget uh with the with

158amendments as presented here. Questions? I have a statement. Um um how would our budget be effective with the extra money we going to have to pay out um by adjusting the interm um his pay for the superintendent not being here. Um and we have to continue to pay her for the next year. Then also when we do find a superintendent, we will have to pay them. So where does that money come from? We will um there there are a few very few and small amounts of contingencies that we would have available. Um we likely will have to rely on vacancy savings. Uh and it is possible that we will have to forego some some plans in the operating budget, but I don't I'm really not prepared to to to say specifically how we will u

159do that. But we will have to come to terms um with that during the over the next 12 months. Yes, Mr. Edge. Um thank you Mr. Jenkins for the um well um presentation. So um just to piggyback off of um off of my um vice chair. So, um I know the previous superintendent had proposed I think maybe 150 million or 150,000 to 250,000 for legal services contracted legal services. I don't I don't have that before me. Uh I'm sure that we have u we have it was funds for for legal services. It was 250,000. 50,000. Okay. All right. So then that money could potentially, if it was available, it could potentially take care of um any additional pay that we may have to pay out. Um we do we do have legal outside council, so

160I expect that we will use some of that. Um but uh yes, the city city attorney's office certainly picks up um u most most of our uh legal work, but um we we typically have some in addition to the city city um attorney's office. Okay. And my next question, so um I know in the previous um proposed budget prior to today, it was a 4.5% increase for all employees with the exception of those who had the highest pay grade. Correct. That is that is correct. So now what we're doing is we're making sure that every Norfol public school um employee is getting a 4.5% raise. I believe um I'm not sure that that is a correct statement. I think the I think the razors are the raises are averaging 4 and a.5%. Well, okay. Got

161it. Depends on where where exactly on you. I think it will depend on where you are in the scale. Uh we we try to get people around the four and a half, but I don't I won't say that everybody's getting exactly that. Okay. All right. Missy. Okay. Mr. Inch, were you finished? Yeah. Yes. Okay. Um, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Jenkins. Um, so building on what u Mr. In's question around that. Um, so for those of for so for me anyway when we saw the budget presentation before it was the understanding that um and I know uh the former superintendent clarified that at a May meeting uh but it was the understanding that it was four 4.5% salary increase and what I thought was it also a 2.2% bonus. And so now with this revision,

162it is a 4.5% um salary increase for all employees at the top of the scale, but but you're saying it's really an average of 4.5%. Is that am I hearing you correctly? The calculations for folks that were at the top of the scale was 4 and a.5%. But I believe that the um that that the um the budget across all employee groups averages 4 and a.5%. All right. So that's that's a little bit different in our understanding of what was being proposed. Yeah. Um so and I think that's been for me anyway um my part of my hesitation um is the lack of clarity on what it is what it is that we are proposing. Um so if if I may could I ask um Miss Skinner to u come forward. This is Crystal Skinner.

163She's our budget director. Um, and she's the one who put the budget together and done a very great job and she'll know exactly what the answer is. I believe I'm right, but would you speak? You are correct. Good evening. Um, so it is an average of 4 and a.5% but um with the caveat that it is at least 4 and a half%. So will not be below 4 and a.5%. It's just the way that our salary scales are structured. Um they're not all um there's not an equal uh difference between them all. So we had to average it out but it will be at least four and a half% across the salary tables. So it could be more it could be um slightly more slightly more but not below 4 and a half%. Okay. And

164can you tell me so one of the questions I had asked uh that I hadn't received a response on is um so how many s um how many employees were at the top of the scale that this impacted? I know you put the budget amount, but how many employee employees does that um I believe it was roughly 30 employees. Yeah, I'm not 100% sure. It's approximately 30 employees. Approximately 30. Okay. Right. And did you seem to be doesn't seem right with the amount of money that aside from that and and I don't want to you know if you could double if you could check that and see how many uh employees are there because one of the other thoughts I had is I think the intent was to do something um or incentivize those that

165are at the top of the scale um for you know the number of years that they've been working in the system and um I was interested in knowing what it would cost to do the 4.5% as well as the 2.2% bonus, which I know you're not recommending the bonus, but what would have the total cost been had we included that? And I don't know if you have that number. I don't have it with me, but I can get it for you. Okay. Okay. All right. Thank you. Is there any way you can get an answer to my question about where the funds will be coming from? Cuz I know what we could have used with that money. We could have started the Jay Cox program before and after money like that. That's just money that's

166thrown away. So, I would like to know where that money is going to come from budget and and put forth a recommendation. Questions? included in the budget for the before and after school. No, it's not. No, it's not. It's not. No, it's not. Oh, well, the superintendent didn't put that in the budget. Oh, wow. It is. It is not currently in the budget. Oh, wow. Um, the other question. So, I c may I continue with my questions? Okay. Uh, the 2 uh will the bonus coming from the state? So, when will those bonuses be disseminated? Do you have an idea of when that Thank you, Miss Kenner. Uh, our recommendation is that it be done in December on a off pay cycle. We we're paid every two weeks. So, uh, typically we do the bonuses

167in a on a week where people aren't getting paid. Okay. And can you I I don't think I heard you correctly. How much of the how much is the bonus in total? And I know I did hear you say the estimate is around $600. $600. Okay, that is before taxes. Okay. And that's based on the the total number that of bonuses we distributed this past last month. Okay. Other questions, Miss? Um, yes. Other questions? Yeah. Sorry, I was looking at my my list of questions. Um, for now I I do want to express I am going to have, you know, aside from the the questions that uh were not answered or accommodated in the my original set of questions uh when the budget was first proposed. Um, while I really appreciate the effort to to

168put the 4.5% uh for employees at the top of the scale, there's still a lot that lack clarity for me. So, I'm not going to be voting in support of the budget. So, I just wanted to make that clear. Do we need to take a vote tonight? Yes. Yes, we do. Yeah. Oh, she didn't have it on. Don't have it on the agenda. Yes, it needs to be voted on because it's got to go back to the council just like your first budget 03. Yes. Oh, and ma madam chair, if I may ask an additional question. So, I know contracts also went out. So what will the process be for um adjusting the contracts to reflect what is being uh our um our human resources department will be doing that. Um so I it's something

169that'll that'll go out some in the summer. Okay. By certainly by the time the the teachers or the staff come back to work. Okay. And it's not just teachers I might also add. Right. Okay. Is that the This is your recommendation. Pardon? This is your recommendation. The recommendation is that you adopt the fiscal 26. And I would I'd like to add um we're our budget is actually higher now than the city has um has appropriated. So the council will have to as uh Mr. Cloud had said will have to consider the um the amendment as well. So, and it's it's f the the amendment is based on available funds. So, I don't I don't see that as an issue, but it will go to council before it becomes effective. So, madame chair, I move to

170adopt fiscal year 2026 budget with amendments presented as presented. Okay. Miss Tanner, will you please call the role? The scene. Nay. Buffalo. I inch I Martin I Paulson I Thomas Hi Dalero Hi. Moving on to agenda item 6.04 reappropriation of reversion funds. Yes. Uh madam chair you have before you uh two resolutions. uh one is uh reversion funds. These are the funds that uh were not spent in the fiscal 2024 budget. That's last year, not this year. Um so these funds uh are available um for for you to reuse for non-recurring expenses. Uh as I I've mentioned the uh city council's revenue sharing policy a couple of times. Uh and then that policy uh indicates that school funds that are not spent during the during the school year revert back to the city under uh

171state law, but that those funds would be made available to the school district for one-time purposes upon your uh passing a a resolution. Um, I will say that the these funds are actually included in our capital budget already, but because the policy says um you need to pass a resolution, we recommend that you adopt the resolution. One is for the reversion funds and then your set your next agenda item deals with excess city revenue that is made available to you under that same um revenue sharing policy or yes policy. Thank you. We need to take a vote on this as well. Yes, you have to vote on both of these. They will go to the city. Even though, as Mr. Jenkins indicated, I believe the city went ahead and included those in their budget when

172they passed it, but you still need to tie up the loose ends asking for the money back. Madam Chair, yes, ma'am. I'll put a motion on the floor. I move to approve the resolutions for appropriation of reser reversion funds and revenue sharing from fiscal year 2024. A second. A second. Thank you, Mr. Colonel Pollson. Uh, Miss Mor Buffalo has put forth the motion which has been seconded by Colonel Pawson. Do we now need to read the resolution? Do we have to read it? No. Uh, I don't think you have to read it, but there has to be a roll call vote approving both. Motion, right? Yeah, it's been second. Seconded. It's been seconded. Miss Tanner, will you please call the role? Okay. Madam Chair, I think for full transparency, I think since we are doing

173this reset, how about let's read it so that the citizens will know what it is. All right, it's two separate resolutions though, right? So, this is the first resolution. Okay. Whereas the state statute monies left unexpended by school divisions at the end of a fiscal year revert to their localities. And whereas the unassigned fund balance for Norfor public schools on June 30th, 2024 was 6,462,467. And whereas this balance it it was million. Whereas this balance is the result of budgetary savings accomplished during fiscal year 2023 24. And whereas a provision in the city of Norfolk's revenue allocation policy permits funds that would otherwise revert to the city to be appropriated for use by the schoolboard of the city of Norfolk. And whereas the superintendent's proposed operating budget outlines reasonable and realistic uses of the reversion

174funds. And whereas it is imperative to augment the school division's efforts to recruit and retain highly qualified, effective teachers and staff, and to provide for instructional and social emotional learning resources for students and schools, as well as robust school safety and security programs. And whereas the superintendent recommended the use of fiscal year 2024 budgetary savings for school technology, musical instruments, security vehicles, the digitization of student records, the replacement of student football helmets, and towards targeted employee stipens and bonuses. And now therefore, it be resolved that the schoolboard of the city of Norfol approves on this date of June 18, 2025, the submission of a formal request to Norfolk City Council for the reappropriation of the 6462467 for the purpose of augmenting the operating budget for fiscal year 2025 26. Tanner, please call the role. Uh,

175the motion was to approve both. So, you need to read. We need the second one. of Miss Tan. Not a problem. We have them We had them as two different agenda items. So, I'll second. They're on the same They're listed as two different. So, we need to call the role on the first one. You want to call the role on the first one? Yes. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Um Bassine, I'm sorry. I Buffalo. I Martin. I Olson I Thomas Talagiro I now 6.05 request for appropriation of school share of excess city revenue 3.95 million. Oh we need that. I'll read it. Um we need a motion. Right. We need a motion first. So, um I move that we adopt the resolution of the schoolboard city of NOFK's um appropriation of 300 or 3 million 95

1763 million.95 million in excess city revenue allocated to the school board of the city of NOFK. Whereas the city council we need a second. I'm sorry I'm getting ahead of myself. Do I have a second on the motion on the floor? Second. Thank you. Uh Dr. Dr. Martin has put forth the mo motion and uh Colonel Pson has seconded it. Uh Dr. Martin, would you please read the resolution? Yes. The resolution of the school board of the city of Norfk, a resolution approving a request to city council for the appropriation of $3.95 million in excess city revenue allocated to the school board of the city of NOFK. Whereas the city council considers it essential to provide predictable objectable means of allocating local revenues while providing sufficient funding to meet the strategic goals of both the

177city of NOFK and Norfolk public schools. And whereas city council on May 22nd, 2018 adopted the local revenue allocation policy and directed proper city officials to take all necessary actions to implement the policy. And whereas the local revenue allocation policy includes a provision that allocates 22.55% 29.55% of specified local city revenues to the NOFK public schools. And whereas the local revenue allocation policy includes a trueup provision stating that ex excess revenue will be allocated in the same manner as similar revenues where approp appropriate aortioned in the recently ended fiscal year. And whereas officials of the city of NOFK have determined, excuse me, that NOFK public schools share of excess local city revenue for the year that ended June 30th of 2024 was $3,951,457. And whereas the city of NOFK's revenue allocation policy includes a provision

178in which the school board of the city of NOFK may request such true-up funds permits for onetime expenditures. And whereas the superintendent of NOFK public schools recommended the use of such true-up funds for major school maintenance. And now therefore, be it resolved that this school board of the city of NOFK approves on this date of June 18th, 2025 the submission of a formal request to Norfick City Council for the appropriation of 3,951 and4 I'm sorry 3,951,000457 Am I saying this wrong? 3,951,457 for the purpose of augmenting the CIP capital improvement budget for the fiscal year of 202526. Uh, Miss Tanner, will you please call the role? Vine, I. Buffalo, I. Martin, I Thomas. Dalerro. I thank you. You agenda item 6.06, interim superintendent contract. A vote is required. Do I have a motion to approve

179the interim superintendent contract? I move to approve the interim superintendent contract for Dr. James M. Pole. Do I have a second? Second. Uh, the motion was put forward by Miss Moore Buffalo and seconded by Colonel Pollson. Uh, Miss Tanner, will you please call the role? Bassine. I. Buffalo. I. Inge. I. Martin. I. Molson. I. Thomas. Hi. Tealerro. I. Moving on. The school board business meeting is now adjourned.