School Board Work Session: 4-2-25

001I would like to call to order the school board work work session miss Tanner please call the RO bassine here Buffalo here in present Paulson hi Thomas here calero here our school board work session will again with school board goal three interim measures number one and number two Dr pole got good all right thank you I'm on the right one here this time here we go all right good afternoon Madame chair de calero Vice chair Thomas members of the board Dr Birdsong and this afternoon I'll be sharing data uh related to goal three both measures one and two um just as a reminder goal three um is focused on the percentage of students in the black subgroup reading honor above grade level as measured by the reading test that will increase from 43% during the

0022021 school year to at least 75% during the 2627 school year so uh Ina measure one is focused on the percentage of students in the black subgroup scoring proficient which is the at or above or on watch in the spring star reading assessment that will increase from 43.3% in the spring of 2324 to 58% in the spring of 2425 which would keep us on track with meeting the 75% goal and I I'll stop here because it is a it's a pretty graph that we have going on right now so what's going or what does the data show the percentage of students in the black subgroup are demonstrating reading proficiency on the star winner assessment for 2425 at 1.9 points above the target for the winner already the current data point is 16.8 points above the

003initial data point measured for this goal so since we started measuring it and focusing on it we've grown 16.8 points couple things that are going well that I wanted to point out that we wanted to point out the percentage of students in the black subgroup demonstrating Proficiency in Reading has steadily increased from Winter 2324 to Winter 2425 from 41.6% to 57% or an increase of 15.4% in that time frame as well students in the black subgroup continue to show an upward Trend demonstrating being on track to meet the spring Target of 58% what's not going well the percentage of students in the black subgroup demonstrating Proficiency in the winter 2425 is below the all student Group by 6.4 points so just a a quick review this some of this is similar to the to the

004third grade reading some of the the same so same topics are here because this is a reading goal as well um just a a response to what we've done in the past um with developing and monitoring student reading plans um there have been 2,891 student reading plans that were developed and implemented and monitored uh leading to a 10% reduction of students in the high-risk band of vals which also reads to their reading scores improving reading Specialists are providing families with targeted resources um with the master and intervention schedules uh through frequent walkthroughs and feedback the English office continues to support schools in monitoring and adjusting their intervention schedules at the school level with continued professional development the English office has provided professional development on uh five separate cohorts of intervention providers on evidence-based literacy intervention

005specifically aligned to the sips intervention curriculum and each cohort received 5 hours of inperson training followed by individualized job embedded coaching sessions to make sure that we're implementing that with Fidelity the English office uh with monitoring evidence-based interventions they've logged over 143 coaching sessions to date um with teachers trained on the sips program and with the monthly professional development sessions for teachers on high quality instructional materials um the English office continues to provide monthly replicable professional development to building reading Specialists on high qim and additional HQ IM trading from Benchmark Advance which is our um Elementary School curriculum that was in line with the Virginia literacy act requirements um that was provided October 16th December 6th January 17th and March 5th again to make sure that's being implemented with Fidelity across the division so to

006continue uh to see the growth uh the we'll continue to update and monitor the reading plans with progress uh data and targeted interventions for high-risk students provide March uh division-wide training has been to provide on strategies to address literacy deficits um conduct conduct uh intervention walks to provide feedback and coaching to ensure in intervention strategies are Implement with Fidelity and Effectiveness and utilize the Virginia English language arts walkthrough protocol to assess and refine literacy instruction in partnership with the v's comprehensive literacy Network and I I do want to point out again that Nori Public Schools volunteered to work with a VOE on that to implement a new instrument um that's that's highly in tune with the science of reading um so I'll pause there before going to measure 3 to for any questions or comments

007you may have any questions for the board well I'll just say um nice to see the trend going up and I down back up here for you yeah oh well up up on this one but um the Urgent going down right yeah okay so I just yeah nice to see green and and just on that Miss more Buffalo you know the where we are with the data point now kind of puts us right back in line you can see our red target line that was created with the data and these are the annual data points to 58 to 67 to 75 and and our we're we're starting to get that projection of where we where we need to be good thank you thank you Miss Vine yeah first and before I go does anyone else

008want to go because I have a few questions so I just posting it to anyone else who wants to jump in first go okay so first Paul thank you very much for the presentation um I just have a couple questions can you just for for all of us to understand so this is all students who are in the Black subgroup from grades 3 through eight 3 through eight right for the correct so did you um and it's you know I second what M Mo Buffalo said you know it's great to see the trend um moving in the right direction um are there can you speak to um some of the the key um strategies that led to such a growth in what we're seeing and also can you also speak to did you notice any

009groups within or grade levels within that maybe were struggling more than others or really advancing more than others or there did you notice any other Trends within that so um the some of the hot spots that we're where we're seeing the growth um I think it can be attributed to our our higher level focus on data we've we have a strong data warehouse we've done a lot of work with data and and working with teachers individually on how do you dig down to the data and especially with the student reading plans in place now um and if you'll recall you know even though the requirement this year was student reading plans for students through grade three we expanded that to also include grade six and some elementary schools have done grade four and five as

010well because that's coming um so we wanted to prepare for that and just creating a more immense focus on the data and the specific student needs is where we're really seeing that growth um come from uh you know our reading Specialists are now every month more engulfed in the data um and not only the star data but the unit assessment data um the Lexia data and um the sips data for our younger students um and just having those resources in place I think has um really helped us create a strong focus on literacy gaps that we had seen in the past um as far as stronger growth or or maybe lesser growth um we we as presented before we saw some really strong growth with our third grade results um in our reading this year

011um which we had anticipated a couple years ago right we said with our pathway that it was a long path but we'll see steps and so we're seeing that um we still have some some struggles at at 6 78 still our middle our Middle grades um but I we're seeing improvements there and I think as we've started to do the reading plans with grade six students we're we're going to start to see more improvements there so um really looking forward to our future as we're seeing that growth now because I I I do think we're at that that cusp where we're going to continue to see this growth with what we have in place okay and I'm glad mention that cuz that's exactly what I was I guess curious about was more you know we've

012seen the third grade and how uh you know what the progress looks like there but really for the sixth grade and which we know is a transition year and then eighth grade as they get ready to transition into high school you know what is you know what are we seeing there are we seeing the same kind of you know progress and um if not what can we do and we are seeing progress so I do want to be clear we are seeing progress but not at the same rate as the division average so 3 four five are pushing that div division average for us a little bit but we are seeing progress across grade levels okay that's good it's great that's good okay um and so that that answers that question and I really appreciate

013um in your next steps to that um you know I always ask like what strategies are working well and what's not and I like that you know you talk specifically about the reading plans and how their development and implementation and monitoring led to a 10% reduction and like you know that that's you know uh specifically having an impact on that now do you did you see any areas where um like and I know you say that in the next steps about making sure that these practices are being done with Fidelity and all that is that yeah so I I think we've I think we've honed in on the specifics that we really want to enhance across the division with what we have in place with the curriculum um with the skills that we're focused on

014with the professional development around the science of reading um that now it's a matter of that Fidelity issue so the schools that have really um it really really like focused in their their hardcore and their their deep down into it we're we're seeing we're seeing solid growth and and now making sure across the whole division with you know schools that might have some long-term subs or some newer teachers uh making sure they have the same the same am focus in the the ability to do it because you know our teachers that went to school and have the degree um in teaching reading of course they're going to be stronger at at putting this in so now that is is how do we spread it out more with our resources that we have did you were

015there specific barriers to um implementing these strategies with Fidelity that you know stood out to you or no I I think just just the barrier that we see often is is time um so you know and one of the things again that we were able to do as a division was um with our um reading teachers there's a required vooe training they have to take and we were able to use our all-in funds to pay a supplement to those teachers so that we can value their time where other divisions weren't able to do that so that helped us get over some of the barriers just pre-thinking you know what would be more supportive and I have one final question so within the the black SC subgroup um are students that also have IEPs how are

016they progressing um so they're again they're progressing but not as not as fast as others okay all [Music] right you said something thank you my pleasure anyone else thank you all right so this one will be a little quicker because some of some of the the next steps and everything are are very similar um but again I want to chance to celebrate the results here as as Miss more Buffalo pointed out these convergent graphs right this one's going going down which is what we want to see in the graph so uh measure 3.2 focuses on the the percentage of students that are um in the Urgent Intervention which is the lowest range you can be which means we really need to focus on students in this in this area um and when we started um

017the the spring last year it was 36.6% we wanted to get down to 29% this year um and as the graph show we've we've hit that Mark we've exceeded that Mark already in fact so we're in a we're doing very well to hit the final Mark of this goal earlier than what we anticipated which is really our our hopes here so as the data show the percentage of students of the black subgroup has declined from the fall to winter Star by another 2.1 points and the target continues to be met for the spring goal our current data so we didn't see a bounceback or anything else we still saw continued declines in the amount of students in Urgent intervention within the black subgroup what's going well um urgent intervention students in the in the black

018subgroup uh is almost 7.8 points below the target for the winner Administration so we we we're we're we're in where we want to be here the percentage of students in the black subgroup classified as urgent intervention has also steadily declined from the fall of 2324 to the winter of 2425 and is now 20.9 points lower than the fall 2023 data point um which is which is really a great place to be and then finally our students in the black subg group are 19 points lower for being an urgent intervention than the initial data point for this this goal what's not going well similar to the um to the ADD and above or the the On Target um the students the Urgent intervention is higher than the all students by three points so we've closed this

019Gap and we'll talk more about gaps when we talk about goal four um but we're still not level to where where we want to be with that um and then I'm not going to go through the status because it's the these are these are the same the same because they all focus on on the reading um and same with the next steps it's all focused on our our reading and literacy intervention so um just really about the data there so I'll pause here if there are any further questions or comments jange um Dr um Pole thank you so much for the um for the information it's good to see some progress um um for African-American students in north public schools um my question lies in so with the resources that you're allocating to parents um

020for interventions what's the engagement rate so that that's a hard one to tell as far as the engagement rate goes uh we don't I don't have collected data like on how many parents come to literacy nights but those are items that are discussed when we do the data meetings at the school level um most of the inter conventions that get home with parents are in paper format as well um so it there's there's no I don't have a tracking method for that in place to know their specific engagement more than what the principes have at each school for their literacy nights okay so there's there's no way to measure the effectiveness of what you're giving the parents to help them intervene in their child's reading there I don't think there's a way to to meas

021to separate separate out that specific measure to know if that's the one thing that's effective or not um with with what we're sending home because again even if they're using it we wouldn't be there to monitor the effectiveness of how they're using it of course but you don't gather like surveys no data like you say you don't count the people to come to literacy night the principles do so the principles I centrally we don't have it because the principles organize their literacy nights to happen across the division so those are discussed like at the school level data meetings that we house um but I don't have that that kind of a dat point with me because I haven't collected it okay do they send that to the central office it has we haven't requested for

022it I'd like to and and Mr an to add to your question just as a a best practice for example especially with younger readers if we have parents just reading to their children that that makes a significant difference in in children reading to their parents and and so there are other things that you know of course are put in place that we wouldn't be able to um like Monitor and be able to report back how effective that strategy is but we do know like for example that's a best practice and that's something that we have encouraged our parents to do thank you if I could add as well actually a memo is going out tomorrow about our summer literacy so so elementary students in prek through five will be taking home books for the summer

023that are that are brought us from the division and from from sponsors that helped with that as well um so each child will be able to take five books home home um this summer as well to add to their personal libraries good thank you for that the questions at this time Miss VY um thanks um so what do we know about the reduction in the percentage of those requiring Ur urgent intervention from the spring of 2324 to the fall of 2324 like do we specifically like I guess what what strategies over the summer or what was different uh that move students from the Urgent out so I again I think it was you know some of this Accord is with our our third grade scores and the and the early literacy interventions that have been

024in place now for three years solidly for our students um we um you know our summer programs have been well attended in the past the the um really just I I think the interventions that have in place have been consistent now you know so it's no longer teachers learning them when we start the school year they're on top of it and and we're we're ready to start because you know this is our fourth year of having Lexia it's our you know fourth year of doing the the early literacy in the SI curriculum it's our our fourth year of having interventions in place and there's a comfort level now that we're just seeing so the the teacher practice is stronger and stronger each year and were are the participation rates the same from last year to

025this year are you seeing um any big differences there yeah we we still run to you know low to mid 90s with our schools and if if we notice that a school is not at a high participation rate we contact that school and make sure that they're they're having their students test okay and then um similar to what I um had said you know I appreciate um with the with the action steps and the strategies that you've included you know and I think maybe this kind of piggybacks on um what Mr in was just kind of referring to because um you know I I think it' be great for us to know um how you are evaluating the strategies that you are putting in place and what's having the greatest impact toward the progress that

026we're seeing and that's you know that's something I ask about every time we do the monitoring session and I like that that for this particular one with the reading plans that you're able to see like exactly what that impact is and I think be great to see you know which one of these strategies has the greatest right impact that's really moving forward so that if we needed to invest our resources and um uh you know or adjust our practices so that we can better you know accelerate the progress that we're seeing yeah and our our main our main literacy tool um for intervention is Lexia um um and and our teachers use that data and our principal use that data and our reading Specialists and our reading our our um English language arts team use

027that data and they do comparable data on it too to see is is there growth where's there growth where's there not growth um so it we we do we do monitor that data on the regular yeah and is that something that you could come back to the board in a very high level way say that we are seeing as a result of Lexia that we have seen this amount of growth like you know overall like I'm just asking for yeah no I appreciate it and I I understand what you're asking for I I think I think we enter danger territory though because we have four or five different solid intervention tactics that we use and to to say it's this one well I'm not understand that but I mean I I think it's it's really

028a match of we've got a good recipe going on right now and and with all these ingredients we have together we're seeing the the the growth in achievement and the decrease in Urgent intervention that we've been planning for so I I you know we do monitor usage we do monitor you know you know alignment um even still with the star data like we started the year off showing that the alignment with you know the the you know students who were in the top two tiers in the passing of the so test we keep monitoring that to make sure that our tools are making sure we're marching towards the right target right and I think like so as you just said you know you have four or five key things that are is part of your

029recipe for instance and here we see you know a longer list of four things you know so it might be good for us to know like okay these are the real main four strategies that are really leading to this great progress that's being seen and and that might help us understand a little better you know which you know because there's so there's more than four or five here here which is good I understand that all these little things but of those these are the real you know top strategies that are leading to to that kind of you know growth that well and and realize that the like when we talk about these when you really look down into it some of them are around the same strategy it's around the professional development and the monitoring

030of usage of a strategy okay so even though the the list is longer like like on the on the next steps there's two on hqm one's about monitoring it On's about professional development so it really is just honing in on those you know our curriculum the use of Lexia the use of our early literacy tutors the use of our sips curriculum um and and and the interventions that we have in [Applause] place all right thank you oh excuse M oh I'm sorry Mr that's okay no problem uh Dr pole so we're seeing some we're seeing some positives um but we're also seeing that the achievement Gap is still wide between African-American students and compared to other subgroups in northword public schools what are the long-term goals what are the long-term strategies to address it because

031it's been years that it's went on with the achievement Gap we're making progress but what are some of the long-term strategies that you are going to be doing so I I appreciate the the the question Mr engine I'm I'm I'm wondering if you would mind if we table that to next board meeting because our goal four that we'll be going over the next couple board meetings is specifically on the Gap groups okay so I'll be addressing that in those meetings okay yeah look forward to that thank you else thank you Mr pro thank you my pleasure thank you agenda item 2.02 discussion of the CT annual plan proposal for school year 2526 Mrs Goan good afternoon Madam chair Vice chair Dr Birdsong and school board members thank you for the opportunity to give a brief

032overview of the CTE annual plan for school year 2526 in looking at what you have you have provided with a full copy of the plan and please feel free to ask questions as we move along the presentation in it of itself is just to give you an overview but by all means I am ready to answer any any questions you may have the Perkins 5 plan mainly takes a look at how do we support students as they grow academically they grow in their technical knowledge as well as their employability skills we want to make sure that we give them a full piece of the pie when it's work-based learning technical skills and as well as academic one would not sacrifice the other they all work in tandem to ensure that we're preparing all students college

033career and Civic ready whatever postc AR Endeavor they choose to pursue some go on to military some go on to college others go on to the world of work there's a mixture most of our students we have go on to college then right behind that is a large percentage that go into the world of work and we have a good percentage that go into military we know this because we are required to survey and follow up with every student who have graduated as a completer the year before so for example in school year 25 26 we will be surveying everyone who graduated this coming uh June so well no this coming May I'm using saying June so this coming May looking at what we have there are 17 clusters in the state of Virginia in

034terms of career clusters nationally There are 16 these are the ones that we offer within the School Division when you look at certain clusters for example business marketing Finance those are three different clusters but for the sake of presentation as well as um honing in on our resources we put them in a cluster together so business marketing Finance they are individual clusters stem and renewable energy are individual clusters as well as education and Human Services we provide Pathways and courses within everything that you see on the screen that is done at the middle and high school level CTE in terms of Perkins covers grades 5 through 12 only mainly middle and high school we have a couple of the K8 38 that have CTE courses but mainly Perkins when you think of that that's grades

0355 through 12 some of the things that make up all the program that we have without reading it to you gives you an idea of some of the things that come into play a rigorous and relevant Technical and core instruction to go hand inand work-based learning industry credentials sequence Pathways which are very important an we don't do randomizing in terms of see a class Pick a Class do whatever you want to do with the class we make sure it's align with the students interest as well as high demand High skill High wage Pathways that's where you're making sure that your students are prepared for the next level students have an opportunity for ctsos which are career student organizations you have our Partnerships and our advisory when it comes to the Perkins plan you have an

036outline of um which slots need to be allotted to certain businesses as well as community colleges for the advisory and that's for all School divisions also we have a lot of post-secondary transition support we're preparing for our students for high school and Beyond when you look at what work-based learning opportunities we have they're presented to you on the screen and not all schools have the same thing reason being when you're at a middle school Elementary level you're more of a job shadowing mentoring As you move up to the Technical Center or your high schools you may have internships ex internships may be paid or unpaid as well as school-based Enterprises and entrepreneurships where students are running their own businesses your clinical experiences are normally reserved for your health and medical Sciences like your nursing teachers

037will go out and they may at bonacore or be at centa in order to um complete their hours needed to go on for their license we are also um approved for registered apprenticeship those are normally our stem our trades and Industrial but we are expanding into education and other areas when looking at what extracurricular or co-curricular activities we have for CTE students these are the programs that we have and what I like to say is our students always do very well when they go out and compete so they are allowed to participate in competitions but they're also participating in leadership activities and that's the key they don't work all year to just compete we send them for professional development we have several different students preparing to go on to National competitions right now our HOSA

038which is our Health Sciences they'll be traveling soon to Tennessee to compete nationally and we normally do pretty well if I might say so myself one that you see in the uh bottom left hand is FCCLA and Educators right in educator Rising will be new to us next year as we are expanding and including the teachers for tomorrow program so that will be brand new to us but all the other ones are prepare are are present for our students Perkins supports Us in terms of paying for students to register and to travel because it gets pretty expensive when you're sending one group to California one to Florida one to Georgia and so there's a limited amount of Perkins funds that's permissible to be used for that we really don't like to have our students charged

039to go and compete when they've worked so hard to get where they are on this particular screen you'll get a snapshot of credentials that are offered to our students we like to align our credentials with the Pathways in which we offer we have done a strategic shift this year where we're moving from student uh credentials to the highest level of credentials that's available for a pathway so you can have for example a student assessment and student students can earn a credential or you can offer the actual industry credential we are strategically shifting to all industry credentials which mean our high school students will be taking the exact same credential as the adult so if you're going into nursing of course you'll get a license but if you're going into welding we're going with American well

040we have students now taking the FAA certification that was added next year last year excuse me and with that shift there are some growth so we are retraining teachers for that higher level credential and also preparing student redoing our instructional resources to ensure that we're better aligned to where we need to go so that gives you a snapshot of what we offer but there's so many more in the state of Virginia there are over 300 but we want to make sure that we have the highest level possible that makes our students much more marketable regardless of what post-secondary Endeavor they choose to pursue when you take a look at how we're performing under Perkins everyone has um core indicators of performance and you have to meet those to continue to receive federal funding what normally

041happens is the state of Virginia will negotiate the benchmarks and give us the targets that we must hit each year presented here you have a com combination of a variety of things you look at your four-year graduation after the core indicator you have what the the state says we must have and then you have what NPS performance is for the prior school year next year we'll get this year's we normally meet or exceed all of them one area that we're still growing in is uh academic proficiency and science because that's related to S so's but we have been growing and gaining this is for all students who are considered CTE completers those are individuals who participated in CTE they've meet met the graduation requirements and as well as they've gotten credentials so if you look

042at uh where it says non-traditional program concentration that tells you how many students are we really preparing for a non-traditional career that is less than 25% of a particular gender that may happen to be in there I won't read them all to you but the uh plan gives you all the information you need to refer back and I can answer any questions but we're pretty proud of the progress we're making but we do understand we have a long way to go because each year things change and we want to make sure our students are prepared for what's emerging and not what has already been next we have to take a look at the credentials earned by school year and the percentage of completers and as you can see from 22 23 24 we've had a

043drop and I want to explain how that has taken place um when you have testing your testing window impacts the things but also your testing pool and so if you have a decline in enrollment then your testing pool is a lot smaller than what it would have been in previous years also if you look at 2024 students those are the graduates from the years of uh covid and the pandemic returning and so our numbers didn't return the same also when you look at when students are testing a large number of students are in lower grade levels and so they will not be a able to test into next year so for example if you had 7,000 CTE students this year and if the bulk of them are at Middle School in n9th grade your testing

044pool wouldn't be higher because most of them would test Junior and Senior year so as they move up you will see more the other thing that you saw last year a larger number was Rec uh recouping so to speak those who were unable to test 2020 2021 and 2022 for being out out and so as we shift and move and have more students we'll have a larger testing pool when you look at the percentage pass rate we normally hover around an average of 70% depending on which group of students have tested meaning I'm looking at licenses versus students doing assessments also the shift and the uh ones that were offered you normally do a little bit better if you're offering student level assessments when you move to licenses and higher level then it's a year

045before the students really get into the swing of okay I need to know a little bit more than when I needed my entry level so most of our students now will be testing more of junior senior year there are no testing there's no testing done in n9th and 10th grade because those are reserved for assessments our licenses will move junior senior year also taken into consideration some of our tests will require them to be 18 so for example in 2024 if in Pharmacy I was 17 I have to wait until this year to test so they wouldn't be included so when you shift to a higher level come some nuances that we have to work through but I'm very proud of the direction we're taking because we're choosing to Rise um to the occasion of

046ensuring when students walk away they walk away ready not that an assessment or a student entry would not prep prep them but to go into nursing to go into engineering we really want the higher level so our students can be globally competitive when you see this uh chart on the right you're looking at how many of our high school seniors who are completers leave with a CTE credential or industry credential we're normally right about 95% because they those individuals from last year they had multiple years to gain them so some may have started out early some may have taken more than one so we want to make sure that we're exposing students to credentialing but we're making sure that it's within the pathway um where students can get the higher level versus a lower level

047also we've gone back and we're redoing our Pathways to ensure not only is there dual enrollment in every pathway but the credentials are in every pathway and students are better prepared versus waiting to senior year to just pop up and take it now we're starting to build it in n9th grade year there's a certain level of of information you receive 10th grade year certain level of information then you're going out and you're getting handson work-based learning so I've had a chance to see it I've had a chance to hear it and now I have a chance to do it and then I take my certification which is helping them to be better prepared to know the scenarios and everything that's on a credential when you look ahead at where we're going I'd like to talk

048a little bit about where we are as I wrap up we had a great opportunity to expand some Pathways this year we fully opened up our Aviation and Aerospace program that is going very well we have been recipients of several grants from different programs this week we're notified that we received grants that will help us build out K12 computer science across all platforms so not only are we looking at program to bring on board we're looking at the resources to support and sustain that and so to help us with sustainability we're making sure that our advisory and our partners are well vered in the beginning versus saying oh we have a program can you help us it's we have a need and interest for our students would you partner with us to help build it

049out and so in doing that we're now able to bring on board a grow your own teacher and Par professional program where our early childhood education students and teachers for tomorrow will be able to work towards an associates degree as well as high school as well as credentialing if those students so choose to continue on they can move into a four-year program with hopes of them coming back to norol public schools to be teachers we're also working with the state and some other entities to bring on board a teacher apprenticeship program for students who would like like to go the non-traditional route to teaching so we want to make sure we have options and opportunities to expose our students to various professions other things we're looking for college career and Civic Readiness expose in partnership

050with all of our business partners our students need to be exposed to a variety of things so they have choices but they're well informed about the choices the next thing are Innovative Flex spaces we are upgrading our stem labs and in other labs because technology is changing rapidly we cannot keep Pace but we want to make sure our students are exposed to as much as possible and then we utilize our partners to keep Pace because they have the businesses they have the Bucks and they have the areas where students can go for work-based Learning and they can learn on the technology of today and tomorrow dual enrollment initiative as I explained earlier we will make sure dual enrollment is in every pathway our goal in collaboration with core content is for our students to be

051able to earn a career certificate or in Associates upon graduating from high school we're doing a rebranding campaign people don't know what they don't know so you need to make sure they understand it a lot of times we're having to change the mindset of votch vocational education to explain we're doing higher level stem we're doing higher level Career and Technical education that's leading our students forward the credentials Academy as I explained we're taking a strategic shift there will be bumps and bruises but we're putting in new resources and new training for teachers when you go higher level for credentials your teachers need to be ready and so we need to make sure they are well vered and prepared so they can help our teachers our students master we're going after national accreditation for our CTE

052programs higher level standards for all so when our students transition they transition being well prepared for whatever lies ahead and finally but of course not least we're making sure that we're aligned with V's new accountability system of the three e and I want to make sure we understand we are building a very strong and robust Korean technical education program that's meeting the needs of tomorrow so although there's a new accountability system we do not believe in chasing mandates and chasing that because you'll be chasing it all the time because they're changing we're doing what's needed for children so that they can be successful at whatever they pursue in life and that's the best thing and if you do that you'll always be ready for whatever accountability system that may come our way lastly we have

053the budget of how things are paid for when we look at the budget for Perkins we're looking at this year's budget as the allocations have not been um put out by the federal government or the state as of yet and so looking at where we plan on spending money the bulk of our funds will go to Capital um equipment and technology that cost a lot of money it costs a lot of money to run CTE but it's well worth it we look at personal services I always joke and tell everyone it's not Personnel it's personal we very rarely add um salaries to CTE plans unless it's work-based learning and when you see the plan it has one work-based learning person in there it's extended support and stiens for teachers because CTE requires them to work

054a lot outside of their contracts and during the summer and so some of the stiens are included you have contracted Services that's listed there and I've already discussed Capal um over outlay and equipment and that concludes all that I wanted to share I know it was pretty quick but I wanted to give you a overview so you have a narrative to that plan that you saw because sometimes it's just page after page and they all run together so I'm free to answer any questions that you may have Miss Mar Buffalo hello hi um you mentioned that there are some areas that uh students can test but they have to be 18 years of age yes for example pharmacy tech right so if I'm a graduating senior but I'm a September birthday MH right so are

055those students able to come back and test and if so do their Pass rates are they included in the final if that makes sense well what how we do it now if you're 17 and you're in pharmacy tech you graduate in June you can and your birthday is September you come back in September you're now a postgraduate so those numbers will not go in there included but we do provide them the opportunity and we pay for them to come back and take the T and we provide um Summer Academy you'll see posted in our summer school program um offerings the Summer Academy or the credentials Academy that's for students who may have already graduated and they can come back and they can get remediation of whatever Refreshers and then they can test and we have

056a several students who will take the opportunity to do so although they've moved on to another phase in life I was just um glad to hear that because I didn't want that to be a barrier for someone I'm not going into that because I won't be of age to you know test we normally really work with them and stay connected and the parents truly appreciate it thank you m rice did you have any questions here do you just press the okay I had to your performance standards I understand you said your academic Proficiency in science is lower than what you want it to be is there any steps your yes the sure the academic standards are SOS so whatever the division is using for SOS for example um Mrs Henderson Bruce Brady and his team

057are phenomenal in making sure that our students are continuing to grow and so when you see on that performance standards reading math and science those are the S sols they just pull from the so data so it's not a separate test that CTE students will take so whatever movements and improvements that the division's making it will be reflected there okay thank you other questions Miss B thank you Miss Goan for that great presentation um I have a couple of questions and if we could go to slide eight so my question is going to be around slides eight and nine primarily um so once um so the comparison between the Virginia Perkins Benchmark and the T the targets and then where we are so we are excelling it seems like in some areas far greater than

058um what the Virginia Berg benchmarks are and can you can you speak a little bit as to how those targets are established and um how what you attribute um the great progress that we're seeing in our division in that are in those areas sure the core indicator of performance that comes from the federal government so that's part of the Perkins plan so every year at the beginning of the year when the new plan comes out they give you an example of exactly what the in indicators will be for the next year and Virginia will set what the targets will be so they will send to us what it is for next year and then we know what we need to work towards but again as I said before we work to build a rigorous and

059relevant program so that regardless of what the target is we're not having to shift to chase a number we're building out what we need to do for children and sometimes I'll be honest with you sometimes we hit it dead on and sometimes we're off and we have to go back to the drawing board and that's when we have to bring our building um Representatives together our teachers we get student input and that's when ctec becomes very very important because there are times we may miss the mark that there's been a shift in engineering we're not Engineers but we go to the engineers and we say Hey listen here's our curriculum this is the blueprint for the test we're missing somewhere and they are able to zero in and say to us this is what's wrong

060welding I don't know small from tick or anything else but I know where to go where someone will tell us and so that's when this becomes very important that you allow your business Community to see it and so in in September when we start our first CAC meeting I just lay it all out on the table and I go hey we did very well here but we're really not doing what children need and then they will tell us ahead of time we hired a group of students kinetta they came in strong or this is what you've missed or this is what has been missed or something new is coming down the pipeline you're putting too much resource in this area when you really need to be here and it is very good at doing that

061for us because they'll tell us the changes that are coming that's great to hear and um so specific to you and you mentioned earlier about being ready for any accountability system that comes and we know that there are changes happening happening on that front it's specific to our district to this school board you know we have our Schoolboard goals can you speak to how um the work that you're doing here is aligned to the the Schoolboard goals that we've established well our strategic plan and and working with Dr pole is aligned with the Strategic plan of the division so when we look at student Excellence we talk about how would these fit into that when we talk about recruitment when we talk about Workforce Development that's all of us so we want to make sure

062that we don't have 15 plans that we're following we when we plan for the year the Strategic plan is there and we're looking at exactly how can we go in and support so if we talk about in uh student Excellence then one of the goals would be ensuring that by June 20206 our students are all exposed to some form of dual enrollment within X Y and Z pathway increasing that number also when we talk about Workforce Development we're talking about students and teachers and that's where the teacher for tomorrow program came in so when we look at strategically planning and being ready we look at from a student perspective as well as a teacher perspective because if you're not growing teachers and having them ready then you won't grow students there's no way one will

063succeed without the other okay so I hope I answered your question yeah so well sort of but I appreciate I mean you helped um kind of set the set the stage for my next question so you talked about you know increasing like for instance dual enrollment and for these offerings that we have um are we are we seeing increased participation in the programs and through the expansion of like for instance dual enrollment or work based learning opportunities are we seeing more students participating in that yes so when you look at here work-based learning we're at about 77% of of students participating in work-based loaning dual enrollment about three or four years ago we had a handful of students at one school now we have over 100 CTE students over 300 plus other students taking dual

064enrollment so we are growing at a rate that's faster than what we were doing several years ago um and what we're trying to do is ensuring that we're working with tot waterer Community College to crosswalk our programs so that when we bring on a class it is transferable but it's also leading to an associate it makes no sense to bring on a course for a student and it leads nowhere so we want to make sure it's aligned with vdoe uh CTE competencies they will get TCC Credit but then if they go on to ODU NSU any that it's able to transition over but the key is to make sure that you have the resources in place so that students can earn it what's the sense of offering dual enrollment if students are able to access

065they have no support they cannot pay for it they cannot get the textbooks so when you put a plan in place there's a lot of peripherals that you have to address first before a student can be successful otherwise it's not worth the paper it's printed on and we don't believe in fluff if it's not good for kids I'm not going to waste your time asking you for it great that's great um anyone anyone else before I I I did have few questions sure so after they graduate what data do you track with the students with our students we are required to contact the students once they graduate so for example within the next two or three weeks we are responsible to contacting the high school the high school graduates from June of 2024 we have

066to assess and Report federally where sort of like where are you now and you have to survey them to find out whether they felt that the CTE programming assist them with getting to the next level did you go to college if you didn't go to college are you working did you start your own business are you in the military whether or not they happen to go to college or go into the world of work that of the program of study they had in high school so every student that completed our CTE program we are responsible for contacting them so what we do is get all of their information the state sends us the database we split them up amongst their teachers normally the teacher they had the year before is the teacher who contacts them

067because they're familiar with them and you pull out all stops you contact them on Instagram and send your number and tell them you need to call them you have to think about we're talking about college students now they're off doing whatever they really need to do to be successful we call them sometime they come in you sort of have an app together you send them the survey they resp respond to it because we have to report that data and when we report it it comes back to us and report and it'll tell us 55% of your students went on to college 46% went to work X number went into the military so that's why I'm able to say about 6% goes into will go into the military because that's our Trend over the last couple

068of years so we contact them and we find out where they are and if they're not we can invite them back as postgraduate so we have several students who are at the technical center who come back to take up a new trade or they can go into our adult program Wonder thank you you're welcome Missi um yeah and um so you talked a little bit about you know the business partner our business partners industry leaders that um that you're working with have we increased the number of business Partnerships that we have to offer not only um provide expertise but also provide the work-based learning opportun yes um you will get that information I believe Dr PO is at April we are doing a we are really looking at um reconstituting a lot of our business

069advisories so not only do we have CAC which is the CTE advisory we are required to have an advisory for each one of our Pathways that we happen to be nationally accredited so I'll take nursing and we're going through Pharmacy accreditation and we will be going through Automotive so you have to have an advis specific to that area so you have CAC then you have your National advisory then you have your Co core course advisories so we are expanding because we're going nationally accredited so therefore we are expanding but we can always use more Partners you never have enough experts at the table thank you mam chair are there any partnership agreements in place place for like let's say I do welding and after I've completed pass the test and to just keep going in

070the workforce because we know many people going to be retiring from the shipyard do we have agreements with Partners here in Hampton Roads to keep that continuity and continuous Workforce so as soon as they graduate they have a guaranteed spot of employment at the shipyard for them to make aable wages what we have is we do a program called hire our grads okay and the students who have gone through our CTE program they go through mock interviews first so they can be ready to go into so they just finished mock interviews then we bring together businesses um who will come in and interview our students to be hired so I'll take Canta for example they love our nursing students so they will come in and they will interview our nursing our medical and some other

071students for hiring norfor Public School says the same thing our early childhood education students once they complete the program and they take the Paro and they pass some of our students can um have been offered um jobs as power professionals Virginia Ship Repair Association holds an industry day students who have gone through trades and Industrial they come in and they bring various shipyards and Affiliates to interview and hire our students Newport News does a lot and so while we do not have guaranteed agreements what they do is they support the training of our students so they know the students are well trained they come back and interview them and many of our students are being hired and if they're not hired right off it could be because of age sometimes they'll pay for them to

072go to school until they turn 18 others will place them in an apprenticeship program and that's the DAT that we'll get in April uh no what you get in April is our CTE advisory the new members who would like to be part of it okay you approve that because uh the school board appoints the uh advisory committee members okay so where would I get the data for how many students have graduated from the program and have successfully been employed one year yeah we we can proide that and so what you would want is the most recent data so you would look at June's data and June will tell you what the students have been doing since they've graduated and then we have not we just finished the mock interviews so no one has done their

073hiring as of yet but we can give you examples of students who have gone on and been hired at several different places by which business members awesome thank you so much Mr and just a final question you mentioned mention the higher grads um which I know you've done for the last couple years um you know a great event where they come in and are are there plans to do that uh this year and is there a date that we could um IR grat has taken on a new form for this year because it's normally held in May and the businesses were ready to do it in May but we're getting out in May so what they have done is they're doing industry days where they are coming for example Virginia Ship Repair will hold an

074industry day where they will bring all of their members represent representation of their membership to come to interview students individually then there's a separate dat at centa will come and they will interview so we will not have the large event because they want they want to do it in May and students will already be out of school it's Junior seniors and the seniors will already be gone so they're going to work in a smaller group but students will still have the same opportunity great thanks Mr just wanted to say thank you so much for um your participation in the lake Taylor CTE and you being able to clearly articulate to the community what were the plans um so I just want the person to say thank you for that to do to the group thank

075you thank you any other question thank you you're welcome agenda item 2.03 special education annual plan proposal school year for the school year 2526 uh Dr Glenda W Walter good evening good evening good evening can you all hear me yes all are you well good evening and thank you once again for the opportunity uh good evening chairwoman calero Vice chair Miss Thomas school board members and Dr B song as I begin this evening uh presenting the division's federal fiscal year 25 fiscal year 26 special education annual plan Part B flow through application which is a Federal Grant application again it is a privilege for me to lead special ed programs and services in norford public schools and as I get started I once again have to thank my finance colleagues that always collaborate with our

076office in setting up the uh budget projections and the application so that said as we get started just a few things about the application as similar to the Perkins Grant Schoolboard members did receive a copy of the actual application and tonight's presentation is an overview U of of that process we do have several new school board members so I ask for Grace if I'm repeating information for those of you that have been here if it's something that you don't need please feel free to hurry me right on along right uh so this this application is required by the individuals with disabilities Education Act of 2004 as well as the Virginia regulations governing special education programs for children with disabilities a part of the application process also requires that each locality collaborates with private schools and

077parents of homeschool children and when we say private schools we're talking about private schools in our locality where parents uh opt to parentally place their children in a private school setting instead of a public school setting uh we're also required to review the application with the local special educ a advisory committee or cak and then of course ensure that the application is presented to you all as a school board and approved and so on this slide you see all the dates for which those are occurring or we hope that they will be occurring additionally as a part of this application process it's required that once approved by the school board that Dr berong as the superintendent of school certifies and provides assurances regarding Nori public schools use of these federal funds and those assurances are

078all resp to idea and the Virginia regulations governing um special education programs for children with disabilities namely that we miss must ensure that we provide a free and appropriate public education for every child with a disability in the city that we maintain their individualized education programs we educate students to the greatest extent possible uh in in an inclusive environment or in their least restrictive environment certainly that the division develops policies and procedures designed to prevent over identification or underidentification or disproportionate representation of students with disabilities among a variety of different categories uh discipline or disability category being just a few examples and certainly that we provide Equitable access to our students and our staff and other program beneficiaries for the division use of these federal federal funds as we begin just for context each year

079the division submits a December one child count report that child count report is required by federal law to be submitted to the Virginia Department of Education and every locality in the state must submit that information as of our December 1 child count norfor Public Schools is educating 4658 students with disabilities in our division there are 13 disability categories and as of our December one child count norfor Public Schools is providing Educational Services to children with disabilities in 12 of those 13 categories The Only Exception being death blindness which as you can imagine is a very very distinct disability category that requires that the child have uh both a hearing and PA or be deaf and also be blind and so that that's usually a very very low incidence population additionally in terms of the application

080itself as you heard as I began I referred to it as a flow through application and that is simply because this is federal funding that flows through the federal government to the state and then onto the localities so the federal government does not um award these monies directly to any locality they award them to the state and the state distributes them based on their formulas with our December 1 child count being one part of of that determination funding is contingent upon final award amounts uh and so anything that I propose here is based on directions from the state which is each year that they direct us to complete an application based on level funding so with the assumption that we hope to get level level funding but it may be that the final award is

081slightly more or slightly less that is all dependent upon the state the application is one big Federal application but there are multiple components or sections of the application so as you hear me go through the presentation you will hear me reference those as we begin the section 611 portion of the application is the grant funds that we are permitted to use for our school AG students with disabilities so our children that we serve in grades kindergarten through uh 12th grade that section also has a coordinated comprehensive early intervening services cceis or a comprehensive early intervening Services CIS set aside currently norick Public Schools is a CIS set aside in other words we are voluntarily setting aside those funds uh to address issues that we've had in the past with disproportionate uh suspension of African-American students

082with disabilities the state has not currently identified Nori Public Schools as a mandated set aside uh division but we have maintained those intervention services since we were moved off that list because full disclosure the state removed School divisions from that list if the dis area of disproportionality was disciplined following the covid-19 pandemic and as you can imagine many schools were closed and so students were not in school and then of course that would um result in a reduction of of disciplinary disciplinary actions the other required set aside and this is required for all School divisions is the proportionate set aside and what that is is the portion of the grant funds that the federal government requires that we place uh as a set aside to support children that live in the city of norfol but

083may not necessarily be enrolled in norfol public schools so again those are those children children that are homeschooled by their parents or parentally placed in private schools Our obligation to those students includes at a minimum child fine obligations meaning that if a parent suspects that their child has a disability regardless of whether they're they're enrolled in Nori Public Schools or not if they are resident of the city of norfol the norfol public schools is obligated to conduct those child find evaluations and determine if the child would or would not be eligible for services if they are eligible Services we make what we call a fape offer an offer for a free appropriate public education and if the parents um elect to take us up on that offer then they would enroll their child in in

084our schools and we would provide those Services if they determine that they do not want to do so then what the proportionate set aside requires is that each locality sets those monies aside and each locality gets to determine what services if any we will offer to our private school and homeschool children norfol is like many other school divisions generally speaking we provide speech language services to eligible students under that they are not served with an individualized education program they are served under what we call an individual service plan in addition to those we would also offer some consult services around other related Services If the child warrants it all right moving forward the other larger section of the grant is what we refer to as the section 619 portion and that is the portion of

085federal funds that we are permitted to use to support our early childhood special education programs in norol public schools and while I say it is a significant portion of the grant when you look at the uh dollar amount you can see that it is significantly less than what the division will receive for those school age Services we're also required to report out on maintenance of effort uh which is pretty much each division has to guarantee that we're spending uh as much or more so we need to match or exceed local and state um funding in in order to meet the needs of students with disabilities each year and then of course uh if there is a jail location within the city then we need to assure that we provide services to students in our local

086jail education program so that said the first major portion of the grant as you can see here on the slide and this is simply a screenshot of the actual application is our section 611 portion uh in column C is that main 611 portion of the federal award uh or that we hope will we will be awarded minus the CIS set aside and minus the required proportionate set aside in column c as you can see what we're paying for or proposing to pay for in this application which is a continuation of the previous year's application are Personnel Services so salaries and benefits for staff that are paid for under this grant which does include special education teachers Pairs and so forth and I'll I'll um share that information with you shortly in column D is our

087CIS set aside so again the portion of the federal funds that right now norick is voluntarily setting aside in order to continue to provide early intervening services for children in Norfolk that may be at risk for disproportionate suspensions and then finally in column e as you can see is the proportionate set aside that's that required portion for our uh parentally placed private school or homeschooled children and those services are in the contract Service G line in terms of providing those children with speech services if they're eligible we do not have a norol hired speech language therapists for that position we do use Contract Services uh and we do have a standing contract Service speech provider that has been working with Norfolk for years but she is she is hired through a a another contract service

088provider and so that's what those costs are similarly in C's all of those costs are paying for salaries and benefits ac across this section of the grant you see an other services the other services are what we refer to as indirect costs and uh what is allowed is that each locality is able to charge indirect costs to each of their federal grants to maintain those grants so things like payroll reimbursement so on and so forth um the state establishes the indirect cost rate each year at the start of the state fiscal year year the current indirect cost rate for norfor is 4.6% so what that means is that at at present nor can charge 4.6% of each Grant to maintain uh to maintain those grants and so those are the costs that you see there

089and then in totality as you can see uh o excuse me I got ahead of myself in totality as you can see the proposed uh budget request which is based on level funding in other words what we were awarded in the previous school year is 7,785 7 $63 my eyes are not as good as they used to be so please excuse me uh that said what this section is actually paying for then because I gave you the numbers under Section 611 the salaries and benefits that this is affording the the division to provide services for are for one parent Resource Center uh educator one budget specialist three teacher specialist for special education four administrative secretaries 38 teacher positions and 75 pair professionals under the CIS set aside those salaries and benefits cover the cost of

090one CIS social worker and 12 student interventionists and then as I mentioned the proportion it set aside is all Contract Services to pay for the speech language Therapy Services for the children that are eligible all right moving forward this next slide is just simply A visual representation of what I just shared with you and not unlike uh the division's operating budget as you can see the bulk of the grant funds are slated to pay for salaries and benefits so that we can deliver services to children with disabilities in nor public schools then on to the section 619 portion which is the portion that allows us to support preschool age children with disabilities in the division once again column C is the main 619 section and again it is um outlined to support Personnel salaries and

091benefits and also the other services which are again the indirect costs at the 4.6% rate in the 619 budget uh based on level funding we were able to to include some uh funds to support materials and supplies once we pay for salaries and benefits and then also account for the indirect cost so we have about $1,777 192 um earmark to support Early Childhood special education services those materials and supplies our office mainly uses to support um services and resources and materials at eastn preschool at fairon and also Willoughby which are the two locations that support the majority of our early childhood special education programs we do have uh inclusion Early Childhood special education classrooms uh spread out among other school sites in the division we work very closely with Dr cedo's office and early learning

092in Title One to support those classrooms and a portion of those materials and funds materials and Supply funds are assigned to my department and then we support those isolated classrooms as they make requests as well all right and then again the proportionate set aside the Grant application now requires that we we calculate what the proportion it set aside would be under each section although it is all going towards the same purpose and in one pot uh in previous year's application it all used to go under the 611 section and uh video has changed that process so as you can see uh once we calculate based on the number of children that we have that may need these Services the proportionate set aside amount for 619 is extremely small it's $976 78 that gets combined with

093the 103,000 that you see under the six section 611 section and as I said we continue to exercise our child find responsibilities for all of those children and deliver them Services according to their individual service plans and then for this particular portion of the application it's again once again a much smaller amount so the number of positions that it will pay for is significantly less this portion of the grant pays for two Early Childhood special education teachers and one Early Childhood special education par professional and then of course as I said the contractor services for the proportionate set aside that said in both the section 619 and 611 portions of the grant that there are no sub substantive changes over last year's uh application at this point and again just a visual of the the

094spending plan for this particular application once again salaries and benefits take up the majority uh of of the funds and then that is pretty much concludes my uh presentation but as I wrap up this evening I just wanted to also share with you a few highlights from the efforts and work of the department this year you know on the slide you see a listing of multiple uh topics that we've tried to address in terms of providing learning opportunities for administrators and staff everything from supporting teachers around uh increasing their knowledge and being able to deliver specially designed instruction um progress monitoring and data collection for IEP goals for students functional Behavior assessments behavior intervention plans manifestation determination reviews we do a lot of work around post secondary transition training uh We've even you know delved

095into things like trauma informed care and building healthy relationships uh between teachers and and students but of course in terms of school cultures just trying to keep everyone in a good place so that we can continue to do the work positively uh special permission credit accommodations there are additional topics here on this slide and just want to highlight that uh as of last week when I was posting this to board docs of course uh our office had delivered 235 learning opportuni so 235 professional development sessions for a total of 524 almost 525 hours uh of training and we've had a bit over 3,000 attendees keeping in mind that this is a lot of work I'm very proud of the work that our office does and I appreciate the support of both Dr pole and and

096Dr berong these are not necessarily unique um numbers meaning that it's not 235 unique sessions some of them may be multiple opportunities for folks to engage in a session some of them may be uh monthly recurring um sessions that we do with particular groups around different topics and so on and so forth so but very proud of that work and then additionally uh likewise we also try to partner with as many Community Partners and agencies as possible some of which you see here on this slide we work very closely with the Virginia Department of Aging and rehabilitative services we certainly tap into our local uh training and technical assistance centers um the state provides those across the state for each of the schools School divisions regions norol is in Region 2 and so we collaborate

097with William and Mary Tac as well as Old Dominion Tac we certainly partner very closely with vooe uh py which is which is the state's parent education Resource Center for special education uh and in through those Partnerships we try to offer a lot of um learning opportunities for families as well we certainly believe that if families are informed and are educated then they're better able to advocate for their children and that's what we want them to do is to be well informed so that we can collaborate um and work together you know efficiently and positively and so that said the next steps then for this particular application would be we will be seeking approval a school board approval at your next meeting on April 23rd and and requesting a recommendation that you approve and then

098once it is approved when that does occur then it must be submitted to the Virginia Department of Education by their timeline of May 9th that said that concludes my presentation and I am prepared to take any uh questions or any discussion that you at this time Miss Mora yes uh you said as of December 1st we had 44658 yes ma'am students receiving special ed services and so do you know what that number is um as of today I know it hased because the funding is based off the December one count am I correct yes they they'll they'll use the December one count there has to be a cut off date obviously because it FL U Ates every single day um but the the state does use the December one child count number as as as

099the number for any formula that they take that into consideration for I do not have the number as of today uh I can say that you know um as of last week when I looked at it it was still in the 4,600 okay other questions oh sorry ahead I was going to ask do you anticipate any um decrease in funding at the federal level it is hard to it is yes it's very hard to say over the since I've been in this role over the last several years we've not really had a decrease in funding this year's award meaning the one that we received for 2425 um was slightly less in one of the areas not a significant amount where we would be talking about cutting positions or having to figure out where to put

100positions but it does impact you know how much we have left over to support um or supplement materials and supplies and resources but it it's hard to say the the state's instructions annually is always to develop the application as if we're going to get level level funding okay thank you thank you Miss yeah and Mrs more Buffalo I appreciate that question I think that's hot on everyone's mind as to how um you know the potential impacts on federal funding cuts are going to impact school divisions especially you know uh this plan and how we service our students with disabilities I was going to ask a similar question around what our contingency plan is going to be around that um but you answered um sure you the state has not given us any indication at this

101point of whether or not there there will be changes to funding um they do meet the Virginia Department of Education the Special Education offices they do meet they have a monthly special ed director's meeting so we had one maybe a week or so ago last week at some point and there was no indication that there would be any significant changes at this point okay thank you um I have a couple additional questions um so if we um so and there they kind of straddle the the actual plan and um The Narrative and the I the presentation here um So the plan itself I mean I think we talked about this a little bit last year in terms of aligning it to our school board goals and I asked this question because often times um when

102we are looking at our Schoolboard goals and what's working well not working well or which groups are impacted um the most or struggling the most in this case um our students with disabilities are you know tend to fall in that in that group um and so I guess I'm wondering how we integrate uh that information into the planner house how is that how are our goals and the status of our goals being integrated into the plan um in terms of determining what our needs are for the upcoming school year trying to make sure I understand the question if if I did understand it correctly how are we incorporating the student outcome needs as a part of the application is that what is that a yeah based on the results that we're seeing with the the

103goals that we've set the school work goals that we've set how is that um uh influencing the developed the plan that we have in front of us because I believe you said that there haven't been any substantive changes from last year to this year and and I guess my question is if we aren't seeing the the progress perhaps that we hope to see how does that plan not change I guess is is so I think that's a probably a multi-layered response beginning with this particular application is the is required in order for the division to receive federal funds to support special education services like all federal grants the intention is to to supplement you know services and efforts of the division not to supplant or replace what we're already required to do uh the division's

104current application is as you can see mostly reserved for Staffing um so unless we begin to have a conversation around how else the division intends to pay for those staff there's not a lot of wiggle room in terms of this particular plan that said this you know close to $8 million is still just a very very small portion of what the division spends uh when you consider local and state funds it's a very very small portion of what the division spends um ensuring that we can educate students with disabilities in the division you know I would say in terms of overall plans and how uh we have these discussions as it relates to student outcomes at the end of the day children don't learn without Educators you know I mean and so we want to

105make sure that folks are in place the other thing that I will say about that is that as it relates to special education in particular um regulations do not have Staffing outlines that are practical I guess is what I would say you know they they're regulatory we can follow them but they're not designed with best practice in mind uh and so you know special education Staffing requirements that established by the state are not set up so that say you can say that a special ed teacher will only focus on these content areas or these particular grades you know I mean and so a case manager can be assigned students and cover multiple grades multiple content areas which is why generally special ed teachers are are generalist are generalist so right now what the division is

106trying to do is like everything else make sure that we maintain right siiz stat in to meet the needs of our students with disabilities while the division is experiencing I think an overall decline in student enrollment that is not the case with students with disabilities so we certainly take that into account too when we consider how we use all of our funds not just the federal uh the Federal grant funds beyond that though uh it takes a lot to educate students with disabilities it's EXT it's significantly more costly than it is um for our our general population as I'm sure my finance colleagues will attest to because I'm always asking uh for money to support those support those needs to the extent that we can also make sure that resources and materials and Equipment are

107in place we try to maintain those and ideally we try to use the Federal grant funds to supplement that as much as possible uh however what I will say is as the cost of Staff continues to increase when we think about the compression work that the division has done over the last few years as well as the normal step increases and of course very generous uh operating budget proposals to to compensate staff we are going to have to take a look at you know how we maximize all of our resources including the Federal grant all right thank you um so along the lines of Staffing so you talk about you know um educating our students with disabilities um requires can require a different skill set or additional duties and that's one thing especially with a

108paas for special education um it's one thing I I know I hear a lot that the duties are different and um but the pay is the same as our other Paras and so that's I I don't know how you factor that in into well I don't set the pay right obviously for the division one thing I can say that norol does that not every division does in there are certain responsibilities that may fall to a special education prayer professional uh specifically like toileting uh independent living assistance hygiene support our pair professionals that do support those do get a stip in uh which we refer to as a difficult Duty stip in to support that so that is something that norol provides okay thank you and finally uh my uh my question is so on the

109question around have we found any identified barriers so you talk about Staffing and we know that we have special education instructors uh I mean that's a that's a harder to staff area um can you first talk about like what analysis you did to conclude that there are no identify barriers and so this is a question that you had last year we discussed a little bit then as well and again I wanted to point out that this particular question each application may lay it out differently but the gppa statement questions are a part of all federal grants you know uh VOE for whatever reason with this particular application and and I'm certain if I recall now was because they were audited at some point and they were told to sort of fles out those questions questions

110a little bit more specifically that said the question is really asking about identified barriers in our mission policies and procedures and so that's how I'm able to answer that qu we have all the policies procedures Mission strategic plan things in place that's not to say that there are not other challenges uh but those challenges don't prevent us from ensuring that anyone that should benefit from these funds students fames staff that they're not able to benefit from it because of inequitable policies procedures or practices that said conversely implementation is a different is a different beast and so that's when we do start to think about things like Staffing uh challenges with Staffing not just um challenges with getting positioned staff but also who were able to staff you know it's not a secret that norol like

111many other divisions not only in Nork we are having to uh utilize all of our resources including uh you know working with provisionally licensed teachers working this year with associate teachers in terms of how we're addressing that with these funds or overall I think that goes back to kind of how I ended this presentation we know that we are you know having to meet the needs of the current labor market and the current labor market may not have had as much opportunity for pre-service teaching backgrounds our office provides a great deal of ongoing training opportunities to try to meet those needs we collaborate with cni around those efforts we collaborate with school leadership development around those um efforts we try to differentiate and tailor professional development opportunities for all groups so like you just mentioned

112pair professionals we have had PD and clusters and things like that this year specifically for pair professionals we did that as well last year they were very very receptive to it because that group of colleagues are very eager to learn and meet the needs of meet the needs of our students we've broken up training around uh jobl like uh roles things like our self-contained special education teachers uh those that are going to support inclusion um secondary you know those kinds of things so we are aware that there may be challenges to implementation but in terms of a response to this particular application that's that's how that response came about additionally as you aware norfor was part of the state's um core special education assessment or CSEA audit last school year a big portion of that

113audit also required that we comb through in detail the division's policies procedures written practices those kinds of things so once again while there were some findings from that and some corrective actions the the concerns were not whether or not norfol had the right structures and policies and and things in place implementation is is where we see the challenges and and that's why you see the efforts of of my office and in collaboration of other offices thank you um how are you monitoring on to make sure the needs are being met with our students with disabilities sure in certain schools sure it's also a multi-layered question it's um um I I will say this and then the the impression is always that our office the special ed office monitors that alone so I think the first

114response to that is that that's not the case it's certainly a collaborative uh effort primarily with school leadership development with our uh Chief schools officer and of course of our executive director of schools because they are the ones that have immediate supervisory authority over principles you know and whether or not things are happening in schools uh we collaborate in terms of providing training uh and guidance to school administrators both at you know regular principal meetings each month as well as at assistant principal meeting our office I do have team members on our team that are assigned as you know compliance overview so we do a lot of um sort of proactive review and some of those we've instituted as a result of what we've learned with the ca audit as well things like randomly pulling

115student records and monitoring whether certain things have occurred whether progress is being reported uh and then we follow up with schools in and individually with individual case managers to troubleshoot and Implement corrective actions where we need to um we meet regularly as a academic Affairs and uh School leadership office to talk about the data and and outcomes we monitor you know complaints and things that we receive to kind of see where there's Trends uh in needs um so there it's like I said it's a multi-layered question the short answer being that that that we do have uh a focus in our office around compliance and monitor monitoring those things and we continue to increase sort of our proactive measures for how are we looking at that as opposed to um responding to it when we

116receive a complaint so things like regular spot checks and audits Student Records uh review of Student Records um when when there's a recommendation for long-term suspension to see what types of supports have been provided and those kinds of things all right well thank you all right thank you all you all have a great evening thank you agenda item 2.04 textbooks recommended for adoption Mr Bruce Brady good afternoon Madam chair Mr calero uh Vice chair Miss Thomas members of the board Dr Bon uh I'm Bruce Brady the executive director of curriculum and instruction and I am joined this afternoon by some amazing members of uh cni over to my left uh on the right we have uh Miss Ronda white who is the senior coordinator of elementary mathematics over on the left we have Dr Tisha

117Jones who is the secondary uh senior coordinator senior coordinator of secondary mathematics and in the middle we have Miss Jennifer Lopez who's a senior ior coordinator of History social science and their offices have have done the groundwork all of the work really uh for the textbook adoption uh which is why we're here today to present textbooks recommended for adoption for K12 uh mathematics and for select history social science courses the mathematic textbooks that we'll be recommending today for grade six 6 to 12 i' have been approved by the Virginia Department of Education for use in Virginia schools if a local school board chooses to adopt a textbook not on the vdo's approved list a local review process must take place that replicates what the state does uh at at the state level please note as

118well that the vooe does not approve recommended textbooks for any of the elective courses or for advanced placement uh and IB courses right our teacher committees consisted of uh math Specialists classroom teachers including special education teachers ESL teachers gifted resource teachers along with advanced placement teachers for those courses uh committee members reviewed the sample materials and they also had the opportunity to attend uh publisher uh representation uh meetings where the Publishers presented their materials and the teachers were able to explore the instructional features and the supports available uh with the various textbooks the public has also had the opportunity uh to provide input on all of the textbooks uh that were being considered and to encourage uh public input the school division um put textbook information on the website they also use the social media

119platforms Robo calls text messages emails um um and that was probably it you know you get those calls around 5 or 5:15 uh from the folks in Dr White's office uh alerting you to you know what's going on and so those messages uh let the public know that the textbooks were available they were on display at the Slover Library as well as at the Jordan newbie preto Tucker uh and Lafayette branches right we are recommending the mathematics textbooks listed on this slide for grades 6 through 12 at the onset of our adoption process the only K5 m math textbook that was on the state list uh it was available only in digital format right and so our selected textbook from Sage went through the vetting process here locally as required and will be available in

120both print and digital formats uh for our students this slide shows the textbooks recommended for adoption for the math elective courses and this slide uh identifies the textbooks recommended for the AP and IB math courses the selected mathmatics textbooks fully align with the 2023 vooe math standards they use evidence-based practice is to enhance student engagement and they offer stepbystep instructional strategies differentiated resources interactive tools comprehensive assessments and the textbooks support the needs of all Learners and guide instructional decisionmaking the next two slides present the recommended history social science textbooks for grade four and various elective courses the VOE plans to implement new standards in history social science in 2526 along with a new textbook adoption cycle aligned to those standards and so our uh recommendations for the history textbooks are really they're going to be

121in two parts all right we're recommending right now uh the grades and the elective courses that are not a part of those state standards next year the state should conduct a textbook uh review process for those grade levels and courses that do have state standards and so we would be coming back in a subsequent year uh to adopt textbooks to align to those courses and grade levels with with standards and on this slide you see the uh recommendations for the AP and IB courses the selected history social science textbooks present multiples P perspectives and include primary resources they offer scaffolding strategies to support all Learners including students with disabilities English Learners and gifted students the textbooks provide robust online resources and AP aligned materials for exam preparation and Technology integration we currently have PR preliminary

122cost estimates as we continue to work with Publishers to finalize pricing funding will come from the division's existing textbook allocation and all of the recommended textbooks that you saw listed on the slides have been provided to miss Tanner and they're available in the yep so you've already seen them they're over here in the little conference room for your review uh prior to your uh vote uh at your business meeting so this concludes our presentation and we're now happy to answer any questions you may have regarding the recommended textbooks um I have a question to start out um since 2019 I have had a high school student in Nori public schools in that time I've never seen a math textbook come home nor have I seen my children utilize online resources um they typically get worksheets

123sent home and and in AP courses they use AP classroom so how are we utilizing these textbooks in high school because I haven't seen them being utilized and myself I am a community college math professor so I actually sat down and read the textbooks I went into the room and spent an hour reading textbooks um and there's good information in them but I just I see a disconnect between what goes on in the classroom and the money that we're spending on test textbooks so can you elaborate on that so I can say say that the textbooks are another resource that is available for use in the classroom right uh we all know you know what makes the difference in the classroom is is the teacher in front of the classroom right and we provide uh

124various resources for those teachers uh and so we make sure that the textbooks that we're recommending um provide those resources to the teacher um that the tools that it provides um the strategies that it that it provides or enhances uh are available you know to make sure that the teacher is just another resource to increase the effectiveness of of that teacher are we paying for online resources for like for students to use online textbooks online assessments do we pay for that or do we simply pay for the text the hard copy textbooks I know Miss White was here at the last adoption um and I believe did we bundle uh at the time yeah so we had both digital available as well as um the hard copy of of the textbook now what happened and

125I'm not sure exactly when the contract expired couple years ago yes so our contract from the last textbook adoption expired a couple years ago and I believe at that time we lost access to those digital materials right the reason that those contracts expired a couple years ago and we haven't been able to step in and and f that need immediately was because of some issues that you might be familiar with that were going on at the Virginia Department of Education around mathematics so several years ago right the proposal was for math courses that kind of lost their name and their identification there was no longer going to be you know algebra and geometry but they were mixed contents starting in middle school and moving up into high school um a lot of controversy over that

126proposal by the vdoe uh and then a new Administration came in uh um in the state and they wiped out all of those plans uh and started over again uh I believe that has taken two years now right in in devising those new standards uh and so we have been without um some of those contracted resources that we did have from the last textbook adoption so so that that's great um the one thing I want to point out here is that um I think we're spending too much on textbooks personally uh I point of order yes sir okay you're making a personal reference you're right I made a personal statement I am concerned that we are spending too much on textbooks um have you ever in your textbook adoptions look at open educational resources or

127open source textbooks we have and we've we utilize a lot of open resources to supplement what what we're doing all right and and to supplement our curriculum and the instructional materials that are available as well to uh to teachers uh but I believe we still feel there's a need for a textbook uh especially I would think with um our staffing a lot of associate teachers um you know we don't have a fully veteran staff that has been in the classroom and so um I think a lot of our Uh current math staff uh benefits from having a textbook and and having those resources available um now part of what comes with with the textbooks is the professional development and so over the summer and into next school year the math offices and and history office

128will be uh having professional development um on on so that teachers can effectively use these resources and and materials that come with with the textbook go ahead I understand what you're saying but they're really not using textbooks how do you monitor that the textbooks are being used by the teachers so our staff is in classrooms they're in schools constantly they're going in they're observing what's what's taking place instructionally um if there is a need uh for uh you know if they see a a teacher that's not using a resource that that should be used then they meet with with that teacher they provide professional development uh to that teacher in math we have math specialists uh in in our uh elementary schools and so they conduct PD on on uh uh use of resources so

129um they're using a lot of worksheets I I can tell you that they're really not using text books like they used to use them and for you to be asking for money for textbooks I mean we have to know they're going to be used M um yeah so I mean just for for board discussion I think um you know it's it's easy uh I think we all have different experiences and you know wear different hats as parents as teachers as you know and sometimes we see a a particular uh perspective like a snapshot of our own experiences that may not be uh the what is happening across a division so you know I our individual experiences may not be what's happening you know across a division so I just want to say that that you

130know I would caution us from from bringing that into this I think the the questions are fair like how often are we using the textbooks how impactful are they U because I know that question has come up among the board you know uh like does every student have a textbook are they do they have access to it at home do they have access to it um in the school building I think those are those are all fair questions but um you know so I I just want to say that that you know as as we work together you know our individual perspectives and Vantage points can can sometimes be different so um and how we're using the textbooks I think is a is a broader question maybe that we need to yeah ask uh Miss

131White and Dr Jones to come up and you can share how you see see the textbooks being used when when you're and while they're coming up I'd like to add something um for some of us who are a little more senior um I think in in thinking about our own um traditional experiences growing up you know when we were in high school it was turn your books to page two do all the questions we'll put them on the board we'll answer them next day turn to page number three um that's not how teaching is supposed to happen today um we we teach standards we have to our teaching has to be aligned with the Virginia Department of education's SOS the standards of learning for mathematics for example so it is the responsibility of classroom teachers

132to review those standards and of course our wonderful central office staff they put together um information provided to the teachers through professional development to provide them resources that they can use for each standard so you won't have children coming home every day like opening up a textbook and doing the odd questions that we used to do or the even questions um it's just not the expectation anymore because textbooks are not going to be 100% aligned with the standards so it's up to the building principal and the teachers most importantly our central office staff to determine what's appropriate for for each standard we've also had many discussion amongst various boards like there are some some boards who wanted you know every kid to have a textbook you know purchase that bring that home also wanted a

133class set so that the kids could keep the textbook at home so we are certainly um open to listening to you know what it is you all want us to do as a School Division um but I do think it is important that we do have these textbooks because they are a valuable resource and so we just have to determine maybe you know they don't need to take the English book home and keep a class set in school or all the math books need to to go home but I do think the professionals need to decide that because they they know what the curriculum looks like and what resources are aligned to the curriculum so we'll let the real experts talk about mathematics thank you one more thing and also this is already budgeted so

134we had you know we had the opportunity to have this discussion before this is already budgeted and you know the expectation was that we would purchase these books oh and I I don't disagree with that expectation I'm just concerned that we purchase these books and they're not being and the resources aren't being utilized and that that is where my concern comes from as a parent and as someone who teaches who has taught High School teaches College um that is my concern that we are not utilizing all the resources that even come with the textbooks um was how do you see on textbook pson right and I that's yeah I think the broader the broader question of what M Miss decaler was also just getting to yeah so I'd like to first of all be put

135on one moment chair uh Mr pson did you have a I think what we're asking is how can we see a determine a return on our investment and is it going to be worth it we we're going to SP if we spend this money how do we determine that this technology is what we want thank so I don't think there's a quick answer to that um I think if we're going to address the the goal for our student outcomes to improve I would not say that one textbook is going to be that that catapult would you agree yes we are definitely moving towards the math process goals that Virginia Department of educ Education has sought for us to actually have as a part of our instruction one of the resources that we're asking for is

136an line textbook if you look at research especially the research that recently has been shared with our state if you looking for a fully aligned accessible coherent curriculum one of the things that you have to have in place is a highly qualified hqm that includes a textbook and in our case especially we want to have that in place for our younger um teachers or more novice teachers so that they have those research based actual things that you're speaking about we want them to have the correct mathematics in front of them when they're planning and absolutely when they're instructing and when they're assessing and that's what a textbook can do for us so for the past several years our offices have had to we've had to create our own resources we have new standards and we

137have not had an approved textbook in place so if you're saying you haven't seen textbooks come home although that is hurtful in some ways and other ways I'm saying then they were using more aligned resources those things that we've created we've worked with teacher groups to create our math Specialists and we've even partnered with districts to create those resources so those things were more aligned at this point we're prepared to move forward and asking for that support from you to have in place those more aligned resources for our teachers to have you want to add anything no I think you did a fantastic job Miss Vine did you have a question yeah so along those lines um can you could you share a little more expand on how um the textbooks are going to support

138our students with disabilities and our eel learn like so specifically you know those subgroups yes so when we were actually vetting the books that's a part of how we vetted we looked for those additional supports for if it's students um with disabilities do they reference um Divergent thinking do they look for ways to support with graphic organizers um if it was an ESL if we're looking for things such as we looked at Best Practices for ESL students do they offer additional vocabulary supports for teachers and things like we are very looking looking for very strategic supports for that because we want teachers to have that when they're planning again which is we come into the planning sessions and at this point if we have the books in place in addition to any open resources that

139we've already prepared that are aligned to the 2023 standards which we are now using we'll also have that as a resource to add to looking for different strategies for our El's looking for different strategies for our students with disabilities and looking for different strategies for our students who deserve that opportunity for enrichment thank you thank you that's all anyone else thank you very much and we'll move on to agenda item 2.05 Virginia Department of Education microG grant for student wellness Mr Paul Dr Paul excuse me quite all right I've been called ver good afternoon uh Madam chair dcal area Vice chair Thomas members of the board and Dr bird song I'm here to share a brief presentation on a micr grant project awarded to uh that that we hope to be awarded MPS on removing

140barriers related academic achievement um this grant uh has been written and it's was was just formally completed yesterday so you'll have the full Grant before you vote on it it's your business meeting uploaded um and it was written to address social media and internet overuse and abuse at our EC's um the grant is being awarded by the Virginia Department of Education through the office of Esa programs and parental engagement so that's the title one which is why we also just recently found out that it had to be presented and voted on by the board um even though it is a smaller dollar amount um the purpose of the is to provide information training and strategies to students staff and parents related to the internet and social media overuse and addiction the total amount of the

141grant is $1,635 and it is required to be presented the board and voted on by the board this is a collaborative Grant between the department of student wellness EC schools and the office of early learning Title One the desired outcomes are listed on this slide and are the goal of the grant funds in an effort to create a greater focus on academics by curtailing the the um social media usage interventions provided include a mindfulness program a speaker to address mental health concerns associated with the internet and social media addictions a webinar to address the addiction and the creation of a professional development library for each of the schools with materials related to the mental health concerns caused by the addiction these interventions will be provided at all four of our equity and Excellence Learning Centers

142with the use of the awarded Grant funds I said brief I meant brief thank you for allowing me to share this information uh Dr Mo senior director of student wellness and I are here to answer questions that you may have are there questions oh Dr Martin so um thank you for this presentation and um and applying for this grant I my my question is um we while we're um selecting specific schools to implement this is there an opportunity to expand that in the future AB great question so our hopes are by doing like a a mini pilot with the grant is that if it's if if we see the the positive intentions that we want that we can replicate the programs elsewhere okay Miss yeah and so along those lines um I think that's a

143great great question and um I had a similar one what what metrics are we going to be uh or what tools and metrics are we going to be using to see how um what impact this this particular Grant is having I think the primary will be the cell phone infractions at schools oh okay the cell phone infractions okay and I know and I asked that because I was thinking about well and I haven't looked at the Panorama you know because I know that's also um I know we're still issuing that at the beginning of the year for all of our students right across the across the whole division is there any um are there questions specific specific to I mean do you know I mean I I I can't I don't think they're as specific

144to like social media and cell phone Addiction in there okay so I was just I was just but yeah I was curious yeah I was curious to know though yeah how we're going to be um determining what impact this grant has I think it's a great opportunity great I think our kids need this digital safety uh lesson and um social media use and um you know I'd like to know how we're going to make that decision in the future if we want to expand it absolutely and we hope to learn from this grant one of the metrics they're also looking at is come to the microphone Dr Moore please step to the podium the people at home want to hear you yes it's going to be very important wondering where he was I can see

145him Dr denn Mo he is our senior director of student wellness hello everybody hello um one of the other metrics that they were really focusing on when when we were looking to get this grant was parent engagement so it's it's going to be three-fold it's going to be addressed to students it's going to be addressed to staff and it's going to be addressed to Parenting parents so we're going to have some after school during school activities to bring in um some information on internet addiction and also the mindfulness program and and they've already been using the mindfulness program they came in early in the year and they spoke about it and we sort of use it as a pilot it's working well and um so now we're going to roll it out into a couple

146more schools and like like you guys were saying we want to Pilot this thing and things that work well we want to move them into other places as well and um I mean right now uh internet addiction social media addiction is a is a huge issue that um is impacting a lot of students and families um is is the webinar is that meant for parents or teachers that one is more meant that one is more meant for uh staff members okay we have a um an organization that we work with um pessi and they have webinars that they've put out on another and so at the beginning of the year because this is a conversation even before the grant we had the training through them on internet and it's it's it's not really parent friendly

147so we're going to work with probably kville Behavioral Health who's who's already indicated that they have something we could work with them on uh to prevent to par to present to parents then we'll have um the the program for staff and we'll be working with uh students as well and the mindfulness program is is more geared towards the students but staff and parents can use it too that's part of the contract okay so at this time you don't have any um I know it's funny to talk about using social media to tell people to get off social media but you're not utilizing social media to um get in touch with the parents I'm so just saying at this point like you're not utilizing like social media tools um like like videos or anything to get

148help get the word out to the parents well our thing is there's appropriate uses of social media in the internet and then there's the Mind numbing 24 hours a day Shing at your screen issues and that's that's the thing that we're addressing we're talking to parents and saying there are appropriate uses but uh you need to limit it you need to know what they're looking at you need to have some control over it um I mean they they use it for all kinds of educational things and it's and it's wonderful but the The Bullying the airdropping stuff the texting I mean don't I mean with the this came to our attention because of the executive order that limits um social media use and and phones at school and um some kids were expressing oh my

149gosh you know and so what we wanted to do was provide them with some resources and right I just was wondering how you are engaging the parents in this process because they really par in my opinion parents set the tone at home and unless you you get the parents on board it's hard to get the student students on board yeah well that's why we tied into the the four schools that are that are with in that program so that we can tap into what they're already doing they're doing a lot of parent engagement activities so we're going to have one of the things in the grant was um developing a professional development library that will be in the school that the staff can look at parents can look at Flyers things that can go home

150with the parents um but they're already having regular meetings bringing parents in and so I mean this is something we could share with them and follow up on okay thank you m Dr Martin um what I like about this is um looking back on this past year when we were PR preparing for the school year the um how the governor laid down like okay it's like light switch one day you can have it next day you can't and we've had some discussion um I I don't know how publicly but it's come up about instead of taking it away teach the students how to use technology properly and that's what I really love about this program and that I hope it does make an impact on our you know our students and our our families and

151um really helps them be more responsible going anywhere yeah anyone else do uh Mr not Dr yet I I've getting my doctors and misters and everybody all screwed up today um so with this grant um are any any other school districts applying for this gr as well as this just specifically J for nor it's a it's all across Virginia there's people are taking different got you areas that they're addressing but this was just a a hot topic for me and so and and others that I've spoken with across the division I thought it would be a good use of money okay um followup question to that is there has there or is there a similar Grant to show like from other school districts and some of the outcomes they've been able to produce well we're

152all starting right now at the same time so and I don't so no other Grant like not not this specific Grant but no other grants to address the social media and misusage and and are you talking is there has there been previous studies on this topic or you talking grants going on right this so you're applying for this grant correct so and other school districts across the Comm virgia are applying correct are there are there any other school divisions not even just in com Virginia but in any other school divisions in the United States that have done some similar project to this Grant and shown the outcomes that we're looking to have to decrease the cell phone infractions um not necessarily cell phone infractions but um some research and developmental psychology okay um has uh

153talks about the problems that are associated with internet and social media addiction um uh I mean it's it's a pretty it's pretty well-developed research Mr an I would suggest um or we could probably provide him a copy of the ancient generation that we'll give you that that has a lot of research that might be wonderful helpful okay yeah I think we all need to get a copy of that yeah do we all want a copy do does everyone want a copy everybody on the board like you get a copy you get a copy there you go we have cop you have my permission all right maybe that's all right thank you very much thank you everybody gentlemen um at this point um I would like to address Mr Paulson's point of order a point of

154order is for rules or procedural violation my opinion was neither so your point of order is not recognized um um again I I challenge your ruling you could challenge it go ahead I'm sorry uh challenges the the improper I appeal your uh ruling as provided in section 24 Robert's Rules of Order it is a a motion that must be heard it cannot be amended nor can it be laid on the table it takes your explanation to the board of why you made this ruling and that they will then vote to affirm or defeat your ruling and it requires a second I'm I'm not certain I'm following yeah I know I I I what was the point of order yeah point of order was that I gave my opinion but what what is a point of

155order for rules rules or procedural violation of which giving an opinion I have rolled is neither uh okay the point of order is about the fact that there is it is point of order says there is a violation it's not a stipulation of a uh any category it is a violation and that's what the POR of VO was about is there a is there Mr pson has made a motion oh let me read it to you is there a second the the point of order was I don't know what the rules violation was which is interesting considering that Dr Martin did Express that that she liked the microgr and other people this evening have also expressed uh their excitement or their concerns I don't know point we going to discuss this well no one has

156seconded the motion h no one has yet to second the motion I second let me hear you I second it under section 24 it's your turn to explain not not the the board what the chair has explaining their their reason for my reason is that a point of order is called for a rules or procedural violation uh giving an opinion is not is neither are are we in discussion now what are the um consequences to this none just a second now we read is it just for recording it on the minutes I'm sorry the consequences is this just to be record is this to be recorded on the minutes or is there another consequence to this I think we're complicating this because it's it's not about whether I I forgot the categories there is no

157categories it's saying there is a violation and the violation was a reference and and again you're you're you the one that supposed to be explaining this not not it's not open to I I have explained it to my satisfaction thank you yeah are we done with this yeah discussion yes she's the chair are we are we are done okay um Miss Tanner there has been I'm not entirely sure what the motion on the floor is but to uh sustain Mr Paulson's point of order um Mr Paulson brought the motion and Miss Thomas seconded the motion uh would you please call the role okay buffal nay H nay Martin so I did hear you voice your opinion I'm just not sure that it's it's not a rules or procedural violation okay so I'm going to say

158did I I was we we regularly com sorry discussion it's not discussion anymore I'm just gonna stop with my my um was that nay pson hi Thomas I'm say nay she explained it I'm say cero n motion to S pass all right moving on uh agenda item 3.0 future agenda items uh this is a new agenda item where I would like to give board members the opportunity to briefly present a a potential future agenda topic um in in and the should be two minutes or less and then we will we will see if there's a consensus among the board members to add this to a future agenda item so I'd like to open up the floor to anyone I oh theine and then Mr Paulson um so these are these are not new agenda items

159these are just um they they they could potentially be new agenda items or something you would like to see on the agenda so I I have um four things that I think need to come back to the agenda they are our norms and protocols that we reviewed with um at governance training um I think we need to bring them back review the edits that um that were made and adopt them because right now I think a lot of some of the things that have been going on again you know we need to just bring them forward and um uh adopt them so that we can move forward um the second one is that we are in April and need to um com uh develop a uh collaboratively develop a superintendent evaluation timeline so that we

160can also um have that in order and then um uh and most you know most of my are around planning U like for the retreat dates and uh moving forward so that's that's really all I had I just wanted to bring those especially those two things um around our Norm nors and protocols and timelines to the Forefront okay is there a consensus that we should bring our not norms and protocols back to a meeting and uh review edits and and get them adopted we can just you can just simply say yes or no yes yes yes yes okay that and developing a super inent timeline is there agreement that we should revisit yes yes sir could you explain that again I I just heard something about to collaborate develop a superintendent evaluation timeline to work

161as a board to get that timelines we're supposed to evaluate the superintendent by the end of June yeah we're required by law to do that no I I'm not disagreeing I just didn't hear the the last I just want to make sure oh okay the timeline's there so Mr in oh yes okay and then the retreat dates I think they are they are Janu ju July 8 9th or the Monday and it's Tuesday and Wednesday July Wednesday so so that's confirmed uh we are waiting for Dr bird song to confirm her availab found out yesterday so just give me just the yeah so we have to give herar Grace um Mr Paulson you had you um yes I uh as I understand it our protocols right now is uh we can submit for a upcoming

162meeting a subject or subjects and that is going to be changed we talked about changing it but right now the ones I submitted to you are not on the agenda and they should be by our current protocol or Norm or wherever it is that we talked about changing it we also talked about adding this as a point on the agenda which is right so there is a current policy excuse me that says we can send it and it should be on there and I sent some and they were not here do not believe it says that anyone can submit anyone can choose what the agenda items are the agenda is set by the chair Vice chair and the superintendent so they do have discretion over what gets to put gets put on the agenda but

163please uh bring up your items you would like to see added to Future agenda the first one is the uh declining uh board culture and the second is the U problems with the that are present with the uh subcommittee since we've taken it over you're refer to the can you expand on oh I'm sorry M Madam chair yes ma'am could you expand on um the items that you're adding give a brief rationale uh um since on or about the 17th of this month there's been incidents that have involved some of the board members um doing things that are beyond their scope and their responsibilities their role and responsibilities and we've not discussed them they need to be discussed because we are just not heading in the right direction there are problems with the committee uh

164one is the plan that came from the chair has two events that they're going to have a meeting for a couple hours each four hours two 4our sessions where the superintendent aware of this plan you'd have to ask the chair because she's the one that sent the email to all of us shared what uh the superintend oh the perspective okay but that was just a perspective right that's that's what um the consultant had shared right I was just re-sharing information yes yeah you were re-sharing it that's what that's was clarifying so that was shared with the board yes I did share that with the board yeah I saw yeah and I'm sorry I thought I was thinking of but that didn't that that was just you messaging might I thought I but but it was

165directly what you express to me without any okay um that's one they and then the list that was provided for the 32 individuals has one person that is missing that we disc that will be discussed in close session I'm just right I understand I'm not going with their name I'm just going with the problems that were but that's already on the agenda yeah that's on the agenda not a future agenda item um I'd still like to uh schedule a meeting with the city council like we are we are we need to nail down our availability and to get a date you sent an email today no no I sent an email with dates but I have not heard back from everyone she sent it last I get that email she sent it last week okay

166I'll have to go back and look again it was like last Wednesday I will resend the email directly after this meeting okay with a three D get it but I have expressed I have sent the email to the board at least one time I will resend it tonight you have yeah thank you you're you're expecting a you gave three dates and if we don't send something you're you're going to wait for that or do we have to I was I was asking which of the three dates was worked for people okay I reply did you get my reply I got yours yeah and I I responded as well I didn't get I didn't see the email so if you can resend it I will resend it yeah but I believe part of the problem for

167Miss Thomas is that some some uh of the emails I've noticed and I I sent it to you is her email is incorrect they're using her private email instead of her NPS and I and I I did Rectify that situation okay well there's one that just came out another email two days ago that still had her PR got email on her oh from me no from another board member okay yes somehow in the Microsoft system both she her name is attributed to two different email addresses and you have to be careful which one name it just kind of right all right so uh Mr Paulson would like to discuss declining board culture although I do need to point out that it was his it's his opinion that people have overstepped it is not the necessarily

168the opinion of the board um and uh just want to clarify that point Dr Martin so I think what this ties into and I it's on my list is that we need more board training yes so I think that that is a top priority for us so that we can stop this right right I AG agree with that yes I agree as well I agree with that as well second all right so we have some agreement about more board training um we will be discussing problems with the steering committee membership this evening um and what about declining board culture sure should we just put this under training that's what I suggest under training and Co yeah coaching yeah I disagree that is not the point to get more training is the point is to get

169the discussion and the recognition from the board that we need to change again the training that we have gotten so far in fact there was one training this week past week on Wednesday there was two three board member correction two current board members and one passport member that were present on this webinar and it pointed out a different approach than what we're getting from VBA I'm sorry vsba gave this it was uh some examples of how we should evaluate ourselves that's what we need training on is and under I'm not training but understanding that we're not evaluating ourselves correctly well that that and to be clear that the training that we received on the 12th was an initial training when we have regular governance training there's a lot more that goes into that and so

170a lot of that was a vsba webinar that we attended and so that was um you know something that will come up in ongoing training just to clarify that all right so there is agreement that we need to focus on training um is there I don't I is there agreement that we need to be discussing declining board culture at this point not until we have a mediator an independent person guiding Us in that conversation I agree agree so that does not make a future agenda item at this point but the training is does yeah okay all right I have a uh on can we um start on the draft for a meeting calendar for next year yes meeting calendar thank you okay anybody else I had several but I think the list is long enough

171at this point so I'll just do all right the board will now go into a close executive session I move that we go into executive Clos session a second all right uh Miss Mo Buffalo brought forth a motion to go into close executive session and was seconded by Dr Martin I was looking at you so which one uh Dr Martin you not have to read the certificate that's when we come out of close executive resolution I think you have to read it going in so you know what subjects Miss Tanner please call the role I'm get rid to read to has to read I'm read the motion oh I sorry read the motion that the members of the school board of the city of nor go into a closed meeting for the purposes which are

172was set out in subsection a of section 2.2 D 3711 of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act as amended four 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 3711 A1 of the act the subjects of this portion of the session are the discussion of the performance of a specific employee further discussion of candidates either previously appointed to or for possible future appointment to the school board's educational facilities planning steering committee and discussion of personnel including the today's Personnel agenda consultation with legal council regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by Council pursuant to subsection 2.2 37118 no 2.2 3711 A8 of the act the subject of this

173portion of the Clos session is for legal advice in connection with the matter said above in subsection a of this motion Bim I Buffalo i h i Martin I Paulson I Thomas I deero hi e I said it too it we'll go with Miss mine the second okay I'll read the certification a resolution certifying executive meeting of the school board of the city of Norfolk in accordance with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act whereas the school board of the city of norol has convened a closed meeting on this date pursuant to affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and whereas section 2.23 712 of the code of Virginia requires a certification by the Schoolboard of the city of norol the such closed meeting

174was conducted in Conformity with Virginia law now therefore it be resolved that the school board of the city of norol hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully Exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the executive meeting to which this ification resolution applies and only such P public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the executive meeting were heard discussed or considered by the Schoolboard of the city of norfol bassine I Buffalo I in I Martin I hson I Thomas to caliro I the board now needs to vote on the approval of the Personnel docket a motion I move that we approve the personnel report as presented I'll second uh Miss Mo Buffalo uh made the motion to approve the Personnel Personnel

175docket and it was seconded by Mr in um Miss is there any discussion M Miss Tanner will you please take the vote Yes bassine I Buffalo I in I Martin I pson hi Thomas I to calero I this meeting is adjourned have a great night every