001[Music] [Applause] welcome each of you present this evening to transact the business of the school board Miss Tanner please call the role here here present here Thomas here here we will begin today's meeting with oh sorry I know I'm still freshly freshly new but yeah I'm here thank you I'm sorry jar I have a point of order before we start point of order is called for a rules violation or procedural violation what is youred violation what is your violation the violation is that we as a board have not completed our uh non-negotiable number two 2004 evaluation self- evaluation and the non-negotiable says we will not operate without a self- evaluation I'm recommending to keep the process going that we set aside uh the non-negotiable number two and uh and I will make that motion a
002minute so that we can complete get that done and then we can also move forward with today's agenda the motion I'm making is to set aside the board's non-negotiable number two for 40 days to allow the 2004 self-evaluation to be completed in accordance with the board policy AFA is there a second the motion dies there is not a second and then we are still in violation of our own policy noted we will begin today's meeting with agenda item 2.01 myy high school project update uh Dr White I just wait right Dr White I will turn it over to you good afternoon chair D cero Vice chair Thomas members of the board and our community and staff today we will receive an update on the new myy high school as you are aware Mr James yasik
003vice president of MBP has been contracted by Nora Public Schools to lead the process with this collaborative effort at this time I would like to invite Mr yazik to the podium to provide the update and I think he will be introducing some co-presenters as well thank you Dr White appreciate the introduction uh so Jim yuk with MVP and as Dr White mentioned um we're working as northw public schools as a project manager owner representative for the newor high school uh very excited uh to be here tonight to talk to you about uh the schematic design and the progress that we've made to date so um what we'll be presenting I just want to note that this is a a bit of a snapshot in time um we still do have quite a bit of design
004work to go um there's more stakeholder meetings that need to be held there's one more Community engagement meeting that's planned for this project so this is really just a a progress update of of where things currently stand um with the my high school design so um advance to the next slide please thank you so I wanted to um spend just a little bit of time um recapping uh some of the recent history of this project and what you're looking at here is the organizational structure contract structure uh for uh the projects that we have right now so the project is a a joint uh Venture with the city uh city of norfol and norfol Public School Board they have a joint contract with Heartland Hartland is the developer that is uh designing and building the
005facility so you see Harland in the middle of the chart there and then under chart under Hartland is a series of uh Design Consultants um contractors that are working with them as part of that team so Hartland uh is currently in an interim agreement with both the city and norfor public schools to deliver 35% plans so we're in the middle of that process right now we're actually nearing the end of that process we' we've completed our SCH schematic designs uh we have one more design phase that's that's left of that interim agreement and that's a design development phase after the conclusion design development that's when Hartland will give us a uh what's known as a guaranteed maximum price uh that will be their statement of uh the maximum amount that the the project will cost
006it will cost either under that amount or up to that amount um so we're waiting for that proposal at the end of the this um upcoming next Final Phase the design um development phase so if if all goes well um the city and schools agree with that GMP uh then we would enter the city schools would enter into a comprehensive agreement with Heartland to finish the design and then move into the um construction phase of the project so our our big goal and Milestone that we've been concentrating on for this project is uh the the fall school year 20128 to 2029 that's uh what we have all set our set our SES on for the opening of the new myy high school next slide please again a little bit of a recap here and and
007I know that the the history towards reconstructing Mory goes much further back than than 2022 into the teens when some some work was done um digal Community meetings were held and a educational specification was developed for the new Mor but this this picks it up in 2022 when Heartland through the um ppea Statute in Virginia this is a statute that allows um private developers and public entities to to join forces and deliver projects uh such as as new schools so Heartland um through this PPA process uh submitted a PPA proposal and then uh the school system followed its guidelines they invited competing proposals didn't actually get competing proposals held our first community meeting um back in June and then after that last July uh Nori Public Schools along with the city of norick uh voted
008to enter into this agreement with Heartland and that's basically where we've been since we we launched in the design process shortly thereafter I had a a large series of design meetings with um the administrative operational stakeholders with the school system also had a lot of great collaboration with the city of norick uh they had a number of key attendees uh work with us in those meetings uh worked through the programming process worked through a conceptual design process and takes us really to where we are today is at the end of uh schematic design process ready to move into our our final phase of the uh interim agreement which is design development next slide so upcoming Milestones I I mentioned the design development uh GMP following that would be comprehensive agreement and of course we have
009a third Community engagement meeting that we uh want to do uh we've gotten very good feedback from the meetings that were held in uh June of 2024 and then more recently January 2025 was the the last meeting that was held next slide and a couple points for uh decision- making um looking for approval to move from that schematic design to the design development stage and um this uh next one has to do with the historic designation for uh for Mory we know there's a non-historic section of Mory and um the plan that everyone has seen involves uh demolishing the non-historic part the the plan has always been for the historic part of Mory uh the the uh four story part of Mory to remain of course um but in order to get the delineation between
010non-historic and historic we need to go through a a process and this this piff um uh acronym for the preliminary information form is what starts that process so next slide so at this time I'm gonna uh invite uh Robert Hudson and Mel price uh to join me those Robert of course is with Heartland uh the developer and Mel is uh the lead architect that's been working with WPA on this project to to get into a little more details with the schematic design oh thank you so much thank you so much for having us here tonight I'm Mel price with WPA and representing our broader team which of course is Heartland construction norick Public Schools the city of nor our partners at vmdo and many many more um we wanted to start off tonight uh before
011we go through the full um site plan and uh exterior elevations really to talk about the piece of the program that's that we're still working on resolving as Jim just said there's three phases to design schematic design design development um and construction documents and we're just coming to the end of the first phase and so we understand we've received a lot of feedback from um community members parents and teachers about concern over the G school and how all of the pieces on the site are moving around um I think we have an updated um slideshow that that's on the um on the Schoolboard website but what we wanted to point out here is that there's some really important pieces to this what we've heard from uh parents and teachers is that there are some site
012amenities um The Learning Cottages or mobile classrooms that are on the north side of the Gent school there's a basketball court highly used by the middle schoolers and then there are two playgrounds one for the upper school and one for the lower school in addition there just needs to be room for the kids to run around and for kids um who are staying after school at daycare to have space to move around and so we understand that there are conflicts that are not fully figured out between the design of the new maray high school and the Gent school um and what we hope is that we will have the opportunity to continue to work with nor public schools with the parents with the faculty so that we can get this right we have some ideas
013we're not fully there yet without some additional conversation um my clicker may not be I might have to say next slide if that's okay so we're going to zoom out and look at the whole site and then come back to that if you have any questions so next slide um so I'd like to start just by orienting everyone um thank you so many of our Schoolboard members have come out to the community meetings but if you've not been able to make it I just want to start from the beginning so in the foreground um is the historic Mari high school and what you'll notice in this picture is the the big rectangle in the front is really the the most historic portion that lower portion in the back that heads North on the plan is
014the non-historic um portion of Mari high school so you see against School on the right and all the associated Playing Fields go to the next slide I'll try and move quickly and then we can just come back for any questions so now we're looking straight down in plan and I'm going to take my time here and just walk through each thing so if you can see the numbers labeled number one and and Robert I might ask you to help me Point somewhere just um just to help Orient number one is our uh historic myi high school and so you can see here in plan that the non-historic portion has been removed to give us some room on the site um number three is the new Mari high school and so we've proposed that that building
015runs East West along 20th Street and then returning down along L Allan just on Center with the new school just behind it and six is um the multi-purpose playing field and right now that's proposed um to also have a Turf to be a turf field there's parking just to the west of that and if you see a long skinny bar come out that's actually a covered bus canopy that's where students will arrive uh they'll they'll go in under that covered canopy into the front door of the school which which is situated in what the community might refer to as the back of the school number seven there are the tennis courts six tennis courts and we've heard from parents and Tennis coaches uh the most important thing there is that they're close to the restrooms
016and we can assure you that's where they're place just below that to the South is the softball field and then running kind of wrapping through that you can see dense um plantings um those are rain Gardens and bios swales and that allows us to handle our storm water on site and also create a beautiful amenity to give back to the community so if you happen to live in the neighborhood you can walk those Trails the students can learn about ecology and environmental stewardship and then as we cross over to the east side of luell you can see some dashed yellow lines and those are raised crosswalks that are very purposefully elevated at sidewalk level after school students from Mari who might be playing on those Playing Fields will have to cross lellan and we want
017to make sure those are designed to be as safe as possible those will have flashing lights there is actually a new city of noric standard for those uh the safest pedestrian crossings that we can get along LEL in number five is our baseball field 10 is a multi-purpose uh field soccer field 12 of course is the G school and then number nine is the nitorum or the swimming pool and that's meant to be a shared use uh let's go to the next slide we can go into some more detail on parking okay so a couple of aerial views now we want to we're flying up in the air this is a bird's eyee view looking from the south to the north so you can see 21st Street in the background and you can see the
018entire Mall Mari and gent School uh complex um as a whole next slide we'll flip and look back from the north so imagine hovering above 21st Street then looking back towards downtown and see see the new school in the foreground we've had so many questions about parking and so if you go to the next slide um what we'd like to show you here is we've tried to take the site and organize it just a little bit better than it is today in terms of parking so even though we're keeping the historic building we have a new school coming in we're able to add 40 additional parking spaces we're also able to keep um the drop off uh for the buses off of debris and Washington Park so we have a new Bus Loop which should
019help uh folks who live in the community with the backups that occur with the combination of parent uh pickup and drop off as well as the buses and then when the buses move off site during the day uh we have 40 visitor spots right near the main entrance to the school um so in total uh 360 parking spaces uh plus those extra 42 visitor spaces and we've got 40 additional parking spaces that should help with congestion one thing to point out very clearly here again the front door to the school it's right there so the address for the new school will be Washington Park 20th Street does not have an entrance to the school SCH although it's designed to have a a front entrance presence for the community next slide let's see oops that's okay
020um this slide really just speaks to site security we had a lot of questions from the community about you know this is a tight Urban campus playing fields are on a busy street uh we want to make sure that we have athletic fencing and netting to make sure that uh both athletes and students and vehicles driving down the street are are safe so we have um site security pled and how we how we provide fencing and walls um uh the the Brick plins and the the historic fences that are on the site uh we won't go too much further into this other than we've been coordinating closely with the fire marshall um uh City Planning uh and police and so we have emergency vehicle access that will take you all the way around the school
021and so uh what what is an outdoor classroom and walking paths also happens to double as a way for the fire fire engines to get through the site in case of an emergency okay so we're going to look at renderings of the newari high school um remember these are designs in progress uh you're seeing renderings done for the public meeting which I think was just about three and a half weeks ago um we're further along now and we've made changes at the request of the architecture review board so these will continue to change as we speak to more people and we and we hear your input okay first thing is the building program uh the school board and Nori Public Schools provided us with an educational spec and our duty was to meet the specifications
022that you approved and so we're here with the adjusted building program uh we had just series of meeting after meeting both with Nori Public Schools staff and city of nori staff until we were able to get get this to a place where everyone felt comfortable and the thing that makes us really proud is that we're able to we've designed a very efficient building that allows us to have additional square footage per student um so because everything Stacks every student gets just a little bit of extra space um so we've exceeded the educational specifications in that way and then we're going to look at the plans but a little bit tilted so in an axonometric view just so you get a general sense of how the plans flow this is the ground floor which is an
023important not just for the students and teachers but for the community and so to the to the right hand side of the page along lellan is the Athletics Wing we have a triple Court gym and all of the associated Athletics uh to the top of the page in purple is our Arts wing and so we have Performing Arts um in addition to parents and students um coming to that space we may have community members coming in to to see performance and then in the center uh just to the right of the front door is the cafeteria and that space could also double for public meetings and events like this there's breakout spaces as well up to the second floor plan next slide you can see that many of the spaces on the first floor are
024double height uh they're large rooms you want them to have tall ceilings and so you can see how many of those spaces are double height we have additional uh office suites and athletic Suites on the second floor as we move up next slide to the third floor the third and floor fourth floors are nearly identical and the classroom Wing along 20th Street breaks down into three different learning communities and so each of those can operate in a unit and we design schools that way so that um kids can have that that smaller sense of belonging that helps them um to have success in schools uh it also provides flexibility so classrooms are clustered together there's space to expand and move uh there's stem learning environments and so we have three learning communities with a stair
025that takes them up to the fourth floor and so they can move up and down those are double height spaces you see the next floor perfect um and all of that has clear story lighting to get natural sunlight that deep into those spaces which is really great for student learning okay design exterior elevations uh next slide um speaking with community members and the architecture review board it was really important to design a school that was inspired by the historic Mari um but didn't mimic it and so uh the architectural team took a look at this and the same way you diagram a sentence you can diagram out a building and we looked at the Rhythm and Symmetry and proportion of this building and looked to borrow cues from the past to bring into our current
026building excuse me next slide and next slide and okay so this is a view um from the uh South looking at the the front entrance uh where the kids are coming in under the bast canopy thank you so much thanks Miss Tanner I appreciate it thank you very much and looking out over the uh multi-use field what you notice here is that there's a track around the field and that's meant for PE classes all PE for Mari High School um has been designed to occur on this side of the site the athletic swing there to the right and then next slide just another view from the back of the field looking um just on Center and you can see the Symmetry and how that's been borrowed from the history historic building next a view now
027at ground level looking at the canopy the playing field and then the covered Bus Loop entry and next slide just a little closer up view I'm so sorry um and what we've um started to take a look at here is ways to incorporate uh symbolism and things that are special to Mari um some of the um iconography um into the way that we handle um Sun shading on the south side of the building so we want to do that um to be bird friendly and we also want to do that um to build school pride next there's another view and you can see the walking Track there and we'll keep going next slide and one more uh this is the tennis uh complex and doors to the restrooms and locker rooms just on the other
028side next slide here's a view looking North up lellan and this is important because um for anyone who lives in the neighborhood this is going to start to change the character of the street and so when you think about Luellen two lanes either way with the burm in the middle the athletic complex and then the Arts Complex will really front that street next slide and its neighbor across the street is the nitorum and so those two buildings are designed to really speak to each other next uh view towards the corner of 20th that's a science lab stem classroom that you see projecting out next slide um we're looking back now from kind of the 21st Street area back and we can just keep going and keep on keep on going good um this is important
029if you um if you watch the city Council presentation you'll know that uh we were requested to make some changes to this facade and that's all in the works um really important this is an Arts Terrace this is not an entry to the school and so the request was that we bring some of the design of the student entrance what the community would call the back of the building to the front of the building so next time we come before you and these plans evolve you'll see a little bit different building articulation here next this is important especially to Nori Public Schools facilities staff uh because just between the post office and Mari High School is where all of the loading and unloading trash and recycling Transformers everything that the community doesn't want to see
030is actually tucked down an entrance between uh the fence of the post office and the school and then there's a carve out in the building we've got garage doors that can roll down and all of that is buttoned up and tidy so that um The Faculty the the parents the the students and the community no one has to see that we can button it up and give facilities everything that they need next slide and then we'll move across the street to the nitorum and this has been intentionally designed across the street on the corner to really present itself as a shared use community building and in discussion so far with norick public schools in the city the thought has been um that this could be a building for um the Mari High School swimmers as
031well as swimmers from all throughout norick public schools and then when not in use uh by Nori Public Schools it could be a place for city of noric recreation leagues to come and swim and so we've been careful to design for both of those uses and if you have questions about that we can get into more detail on that it seats uh between two and 250 um Spectators and there's space out back uh for all of the cookouts and things that happen that support those swim meets next and you just saw what it looks like um and the the natat tournament school have been designed really in partnership with each other next slide smaller one-story building really just tucked into uh the landscape at this corner and we'll skip ahead and just wanted to report
032out to you on our community engagement so you've likely seen our community engagement reports where we've recorded all of the um comments that the public has left us we had about 150 attendees at the first public first community meeting and about 445 at the second one so we've had a good turnout next slide um and we just want to remind um anyone watching that there are over 30 different Civic leagues and neighborhoods served by Mari and so north public schools and the city have reached out to every single Community individually to to inv people out to the public meeting and there's also been Transportation provided uh for folks who live a little further away and needed a ride next slide and our work in community engagement is really just the the most recent of the
033meetings because Nori Public Schools we recognize started this process many many years ago so we build on on your good work and we do have you know as as many future opportunities for Community engagement really as you as you need us to have what we have um upcoming on the agenda is the Gent task force and then the architecture review board hearing um that will that will shift as we wait for approval on the schematic design uh and then when North Public Schools is ready we'll we'll do our next CommunityWide meeting so thank you Robert all right thank you Mel so let's talk about uh schedule and next steps so uh next slide please okay so this bar chart uh We've presented this before in the community engagement meetings and we continue to update it
034uh but just for a point of reference the vertical dash line you see that's that uh point we're at right now so as Jim mentioned in the beginning we're transitioning from schematic design into design development As you move further across the page you'll see a star right there that says establish GMP that is the book end of the interim agreement um and moving forward from that below the horizontal uh shaded line is where we would transition into the comprehensive agreement and from then on out that chart takes you through the rest of the project so that's the first line represents completing the design uh and the permitting for the project and then you go on to the phasing which we have some slides here shortly which will'll discuss the phasing of the proposed phasing as
035it is now we do have a couple stars to note and if everything goes according to the current plan um the athletic fields complex that star represents that being complete in time for the school year uh beginning in 202 6 with the overall project being complete for the school year uh fall of 2028 so next slide please okay so the next couple slides and I'm not going to go into all of the detail on this because it's a lot of information um but this is what we mentioned the beginning and so the historic boundary is an important next step to this process and as we talked about the beginning of the presentation there are portions of existing Mari High School that are non-historic and need to be uh selectively demolished to accompany the new amenities
036for the new high school so um in short uh this slide is a good place to show that so basically is the eligibility of the Virginia Landmark register uh to determine its historic boundaries uh next slide please yep okay so there's a a lot of information on here but one thing that I wanted to note is that beginning this process and we can't begin this process without the permission of ownership and that's a very important piece of this but once this process begins a couple things that it does not do it does not restrict a property owner's control of the property and it does not obligate the property owner to take a particular action including listing on the nrhp so in summary it's a tool to obtain information which helps us create those options um
037next slide please again lots of information but uh it's part of your package and you can read through it but the Bold part is the important part and uh that determination is vital to allowing the construction site planning and permitting related to the new school to proceed with Clarity and accuracy and that basically outlines determining what exact boundary that is between what's considered historic and non-historic portions so again a very vital piece of completing the design of this project and uh that last bullet point there that's in bold the completion of this process increases the flexibility of how that historic building can be utilized um so again I encourage you to read through those slides it's a lot of information but it's a very important next step to the process uh next slide please okay
038so we are going to talk about phasing so this slide right here uh represents the existing conditions and as we noted earlier on Mel mentioned it we we want to be friends uh accommodate our friends over at the G school and make sure that we get these amenities relocated so that they do not miss the opportunity to use them during this project and so before any of the construction starts those accommodations uh would need to be made before we move on with the actual construction of the the facilities next slide thank you okay so phase one on this slide right here what you'll see is some heavy Dash red lines if had a laser pointer I'd show you but basically these heavy Dash red lines represent boundaries and so these are security fences silt fences
039it's the construction boundary and the idea with the way this is set up is the priority uh in addition to starting the new High School one of the first priorities is getting the new athletic amenities uh built and operational for use by Mor high school that way they can be used while the remainder of the high school is still under construction so you see here this is representing phase one and if you could go to the next slide please yep and so from here now those athletic amenities are complete items have been uh relocated for against School prior to starting that phase and now the constru construction boundaries have reduced to just the natatorium and then the new high school so this is the the bulk of the project where the new high school's being
040constructed next phase please or next slide so once the new high school's constructed and we're able to move into that new high school now you can see where the boundaries have adjusted once again and this is where we're highlighting the non-historic portions that need to be demolished and the field right there in the middle that's the boundary where we're able to complete complete that Demolition and complete the rest of that work and then last slide please last phase and so phase four this is kind of unknown at this point that's a part of that historic boundary process but essentially we're just showing that at this point in time all of the work associated with the new high school has been completed and whatever the future fate of historic Mari is is represented by this pH
041so I believe the last slide is questions so it's a lot of information to go through but uh we're here to answer any questions you may have thank you for sharing the more project update and I'd like to open the floor for any questions from board members chair recognizes Miss Mo Buffalo thank you madam chair sound like it okay you all hear me yes okay um could do you know or could you share with the or what is the square footage in front of gent where you're uh proposing to to move the um classrooms basketball court and playground Sage do not have the exact square footage of that of this do you know how approximately how many acres yeah yeah we we do not have that part okay we can get but we can absolutely
042get that and get it to you you might have I uh Virginia Department of Education recommends five acres for an elementary school uh we have met with parents who have estimated that to be less than two acres of open space so what what what do we do about that what are your suggestions I can I can try um so we uh we had a chance actually to take a tour both of the in inside and exterior of the facility yesterday with Nori Public School staff and with a vice principal and what we discussed yesterday um was relocating the basketball court to the south side of the school um moving both playgrounds um we're keeping the one existing uh lower School playground moving the upper school playground also to the south side of the school and
043then laying that out so that we could have our separation required by vooe uh what we've heard um is that just that's probably not enough room with the number of students um to provide that free room to rent around and that's a concern um what we've also heard is that um Nori Public Schools is looking to um decommission the learning cottages and move those uses inside the school and so a key question that needs to be answered while we're looking at space is do those need to be relocated are they you know will they be moved into the school we understand there's a there's a plan to do that over the summer I think we need a little bit of time just to just to finish talking that through and planning it out this the
044SE goe were you through with your okay um so along those same lines um so yesterday you had the opportunity to um tour gent is what I'm assuming gent um facilities and was that the first time that you were out at gent uh to for that person in onsite uh tour of the school we've walked the exterior many many times throughout this process but that was the first time um we've gone in the school and understood how the spaces lay out internally and there's a relationship between the inside and the outside spaces yeah of course of course which is I guess you know going moving forward whatever barrier there was or existed you know and that may have prohibited um access to the school or whatever that that is something that I'd like to see
045addressed and I I don't think that's not toward you but toward uh the administration if there was because that did um Community engagement is really important to this board and I know important to you all in this process and important to the buyin of not only the work around Mory but you know this is part of our big educational planning process and um Mory is not the only school that we're going to be um building renovating designing um and so I think it's how we work through this is critically important um and so along those lines um you talk about the three phases you know the schematic design phase design development phase and the construction phase right construction documents okay construction documents okay so what does it mean for us like you're looking for us
046to take a vote on the schematic business signs and so what does that essentially mean if there is if what I think I hear you saying is that there is still some flexibility to address the concerns that have been raised by the G community so what does that mean like are we do you if you can expand on that I I think generally what we're looking for um we know there's many changes so I we're not looking for the board to state that you're 100% in agreement with everything you've seen cuz we know there's further changes forthcoming and I think we all have a clear understanding that that um we need to look at gent further and and make sure there's consensus and and agreement so we can we can go forward into design development
047with with that mission and with that understanding okay um that that we need to take that action okay and for example because I need to hear because you know to be honest me as an individual board member um and I am not fully prepared to vote on the schematic design that is currently presented because I need to fully understand what it is that we're voting on and what that means moving forward so some of the concerns are you know the acreage that that kids can play and and if you're saying right now it's at 1.8 but we want it to be five you know does that next phase still allow us to get to that without even if we if the board votes in support of these designs does it still allow us the opportunity
048to um expand the acreage um where where kids can still have um you know suitable uh area to play and to do extracurricular activities and other things um it does so in the schematic design phase where we're looking at things like um you know there's there's so many parts to this right are are the classrooms in the right location is the building massing correct and so when we get to the end of schematic design we want to know that people generally feel like this school's the right size it's in the right place we have all the puzzle pieces there that need to be there they can still shift around um our contract takes us through a portion of design development so we would be saying yes continue designing until you until you get these things
049right um if you thought that the you know the building was in the wrong place or wrong shape then we would need to go back through some schematic design steps but if it looks like things are generally you know placed correctly then we need that next phase of design to work out all of these details um okay and and any agreements that need to be made between the two schools as well okay and like for instance like the fence on the back that's a big concern that it's right up against the building do you want a fence do you not want a fence eventually do you want an opening do you want Gates these are all questions that have to be asked and then the location of that is that exact so that is something
050that can still be negotiated okay all right and then um M so the other piece is the cost so I think that's the big elephant in the room that we're not um fully addressing and so address you know the longer this is taking taken from the time that we started talking about this to where we are today I know there is um I think like up to 65 million more that it currently stands at right so how how are those discussions going to take place um because that will inevitably this is these designs are beautiful and they're Pie in the Sky designs and without fun um are we going to be able to do you know follow these designs like how how are we going to navigate that yeah so that's a that's an excellent
051question so um there is as we approach the end of schematic design Heartland construction is providing an updated uh budget breakdown and then with the vote to move forward with design development we transition into get into that guaranteed maximum price and so in that phase is where we're working with our trade partners and with our design team to make sure that we're staying the design is not getting ahead of the budget or vice versa and so that's that's our job as a developer to make sure that we're following all the parameters that we're making sure the design does not exceed the budget that we've provided so that's that's part of this last design development phase to come to you all with a guaranteed maximum price okay that's in align with the design that you've seen
052okay yeah I have a couple of questions but um I'll let others ask Dr Martin okay um my concern so um I know that we asked a lot of you on fitting all these amenities on a very small campus um one of my concerns is the historic building and that remaining and the use of that considering that um everything's so tucked in and tight and to H and and so I was wondering if you had any convers ations about what the plans for that building is um again you know I've heard we've T there's been some talk about it being a apartment building and things like that and it I'm just really concerned about what that portion is going to be that clo you know who's going to how that's going to operate who's going
053to be there being that close to our students yeah so uh good question thank you for asking and so at this point in time the the future of that facility is still unknown um but what we have done is knowing that it will be something else whatever that is on our site plans we've made sure to make separate parking lots some fencing some clear lines of separation between whatever that future use is going to be that way it it keeps the high school and students separate from that so we we've taken that into consideration on the design especially on the site layout and those boundaries okay Mr P oh thank you uh when when you started this project were you in uh advised that the trailers would stay or move the the that are outside
054of the Gent school because that's part of your decision making was where the location of those uh trailers are correct right that so in some of our early uh programming meetings there was options for both both options were taken and and considered so we had plans to work you know either way thank you MH Mr yes I did I did have a question okay so what to make sure I'm understanding you're coming to the board today with a design um as as my colleague um acknowledge it is a high in the sky it could change um and we need to make a decision so we can move down the road um cuz we kicked this can down the road um we went from 185 to now we could be up to maybe 200 million we
055don't even know if the city can incur that debt or more or 240 so um so you'll be giving us a guaranteed maximum price telling us what's the maximum you'll be and then if when we talk with our partners at the city if that City cannot incur that amount of debt and then we as the school board say that that's not something that we want to do as well in collaboration with the city then you will be able to come back with different designs that will address and have different different price tax is that correct that that's correct part of part of this process is making sure that we also provide some alternative path to if the budget is not sustainable correct at where it's at um that would be on us to uh come
056back to you with some options to get to where you need to be okay once that once that amount is known got it okay all right awesome thank you Miss B I'm sorry I'll get you yes so so so back to the portable questions that was also one of my another question that I had so our ultimate goal is to not have Portables at any of our school sites and so I guess to that question like is that also going to be taken into account in future design um so when we when we tore the site yesterday we looked at the the uh learning Cottages portable classrooms that were put in place in the 1990s um it's difficult to move them uh from that era they're not in great shape but they're serving a really
057important purpose for kids and parents and so what we understand that Norv Public Schools is doing is looking at ways to incorporate those into the school um build acoustically separated walls to make sure all of those things can be accommodated and that um no child will go without any of those amenities and the thought thought is that that would happen over the summer we looked at specifically where the walls could tie into the structural columns um to to bring those walls all the way up for that reason okay so has that decision been made to do that um that's not not our call to make but we we we understand that's the current thought and so it sounds like we need to fully uh talk through the you know all of the all of the
058really important issues around G School amenities and so we would look to norford public schools to provide us Direction okay because that the model used within that school of shared space and all that is is different than what we have in some of our other classrooms and then to yeah the open classroom model and to piggy back on something um Dr Martin raised um so the commitment around the historic Mor building so you're saying the future of that facility hasn't is still in question what is if it you know I know there are concerns in the community about it sitting empty or that and that it's just going to disintegrate you know like um and that is obviously valuable space that could be used for um Community Comm a community center could be used for
059a variety of things including field space that is taking up gent space right now um what I guess what is the time frame for getting an understanding around that is there one is there you know something from the city like any sort of commitment question yeah that's an excellent question so I think the first important thing is to get through that that piff process which we highlighted because until uh we have uh ownership approval to move through that process we really we've made some assumptions of what we think the historic boundary so to speak the historic footprint probably is a better way to put it is um so we actually don't we made some assumptions but we need to go through that process that's the next key step before some decisions can be made about
060what are the options for that historic portion hopefully that answers your question yes that does thank you and if you want we I can show you exactly where that boundary is if you'd like to see that if we if we go back a couple slides okay um it's the first Pi slide7 477 one more so we have historic preservationists on our team one more up this uh the image in the bottom right all the different colors are the different errors in time when additions were added onto the original school so you can see it's just been infilled over time and our historic preservation team has told us they believe that department of historic resources and National Park Service will tell us that uh the original rectangle plus plus that blue piece which is the historic
061auxiliary gym will be determined to to need to stay but we're relying on our consultants and what we need is to be able to send that letter to the Department of historic resources to have them confirm that because all of our work you can see how tightly these puzzle pieces fit we know need that official determination ultimately to protect you know anyone spending time or investing in this project um um Dr Martin she okay Mr oh thank you thank you madam chair um so just I want to um make sure I understood and confirm you've only been able to go into the G school one time is that correct we have yes okay but you've T the outside of the facility multiple times correct course okay and so and the gint residents families they've expressed
062their concerns to you about where the learning the learning um the mobile Labs um and where the basketball and playgrounds are going yes and you've presented a new fig a new rendering of that but you do not know what the square footage that you're taking from the kids in the original spot and then putting it in front of the school you can't give a what that square footage is um what we've done is we've taken the survey of the exact outline of the um playground for the upper school okay and the lower school so we've placed them on the site plan um so what we what we we've studied is taking the space that's there and then putting the pieces around so what what we had heard is we don't want to lose any amenities
063so our first thought we wanted to try to put a plan out there and then get feedback and so what we know is we can fit all of those amenities on the site what we haven't done yet is a calculation for the remaining area for kids to just run and play and and we're getting different we're getting new feedback every day so we'd like to go back and um do that calculation for you and have some of those conversations and come back as we move through the next phase of design because this is part of the design process it's iterative um so we know we can accommodate everything but you know parents or students may want things in different places and they may need just a little bit more room so we need some time
064to figure that out move it around okay and Madam chair um so so you're removing the spaces from where our children already currently playing and enjoying we're moving it to the front of the school we have not measured to ensure it's the same amount of adequate space but y'all have not measured we measured every amend so the basketball the new basketball card sorry let me finish oh I'm so sorry okay um so you're removing the three Cottages you're taking the basketball court in the playground and you're removing those spaces that our children currently play at moving it to the front of the school um and but the where how much area that our children are playing that's like for to me like it's being reduced some is is is it going to be reduced yes
065yeah um I want to answer your first question if we move all those things into that green space yes that green space would be reduced and so we would need to this is why I think we need to have further conversations the one thing that I should have said earlier as well as everything east of lellan um is considered for against school so Mari is only using west side of lellan during the day and during the hours that g school is operational what's been discussed is is consider that whole side of the site for the G school so it'll be the front lawn plus the fields to the north side um so things are shifting around okay but there's all of those fields available for the G School got it all right well let's um
066do go ahead Mr oh um just followup question on the natatorium um excellent design um so and making sure that this has been built so that this is for all citizens to be able to go in and work so our students will be safe doing the operations of school to be able to work it but then also if parks and wrecks or any of our recck swims they can come in and still be able to utilize that facility as well is that correct that is the discussion that is is our understanding so far in discussions between uh Nori public schools and city of nori Parks and Recreation and just one clarification it wouldn't be open to the general public it'd be open for the recck leagues so yes shared use got it okay all right
067I just want to just make it abundantly clear that the taxpayers are paying for it so I want to make sure the taxpayers have access to the buildings they're paying for yes okay all right thank you Dr way uh Madame chair I would like to ask Mr Fry uh to come up to the podium I know Mr fre has been very instrumental in our multiple site visits at gent uh looking at the possibility of uh various space relocation and Mr Frey at this time if you can share some insight good evening um just for clarification the inside project is again is under our control uh that is not part of our agreement with the this group of folks so we'll be responsible for making any upgrades to gent in relation to classroom space and we
068will follow VD requirements which is a minimum 600 sare fet we've already done all that research so I've met with the principal and the assistant principal three times over the course of probably the last five weeks and they've asked for a number of accommodations to be made and we're looking at doing that we're currently pricing it but I'd like to draw everybody's attention back to the fields because I want to clarify point I I hear we're really concerned sorry I hear we're really concerned about Mutual space so M can you or would you all take the slides back to G please all right um again good evening so this space right here would generally be dedicated to Mari because it's a baseball field and we generally don't want people on it it needs to be
069well manured well taken care of but all this space here and I I wouldn't swear to it but I'm pretty sure that's three acres um we can build a fence that goes right to the school so during the day this is Total Access secluded for the students of gent combined with all this up front they would have more space than they need for physical education play activities they'll have two playgrounds up here that are separated with more play space in between they're going to have a basketball court in the front closer to Shirley than the building so it minimizes the noise uh for you know instructional inter interference from all the noise um and we've had these conversations just recently so they haven't had a chance to do this um and that's what we think
070suits everybody so there'll be again ample space and I wouldn't get too caught up and worried about where fence lines are because none of that is locked in place until we all sit down and discuss how we're going to separate that properly so the again students have everything they need thank you all right thank you Mr PR any other questions Mr Madam chair oh I'm sorry Mr PA yes um when you you made the comment that uh an agency and I didn't catch it set about Department of Education uh Department of ucation the doe said that the schools should have five acres of AC is that for new construction or existing that's good question because I I don't some in some places uh we we may not have the space to do it but looks
071like there's a way to make that happen here uh to get more space but if we're doing new construction overall we may be bound to that is what I was trying to get so we because the of the new construction it will make a requirement but the requirements usually are for not existing is what I'm trying to get to thank you those are suggestions they're not mandates just so you suggestions that's suggestions they're not mandates for acity that's what I next time we come back we'll have a diagram of all of the acreage of everything and you can see how everything moves around we have it all measured I just don't know the number of that of that off the top of my head and I don't want to say the incorrect number but we'll
072have a diagram for you time Madam chair yeah and just one last comment um and I know you have made a concerted effort to engage the community and I know norford public schools has also put out countless Roc calls and you know to to alert um folks of of the engagement opportunities but to be specific you know about like I appreciate the Civic leagues being involved and being a target audience but not only um you know Mory pulls from different are the feeder schools that go into Mory to specifically Target those School communities too um in the uh uh engagement process and I I don't know what that currently is but to include the school communities that feed into Mory and specifically again um because we do have a pathway from gent to Mory so
073I think that's critically important and perhaps was an unintentional you know oversight but whatever we can do to like I said this is going to be part of a bigger um planning re uh process for the district and so how we handle this is really important can we we'll make a note of that for sure for the third meeting that we have upcoming okay great thank you Mr um thank you ch um chairwoman um so I'm reviewing over the interim agreement that um both um the City School Board and Heartland entered into August 15 2024 just going down to the part on um swam the plan um it says that the service shall also include delivery of minority owned women owned and small business participation um participation plans um have you done those yet have
074like have you started working with like black brand um like that's one of Hampton Road's Regional Black Chamber of Commerce have you been reaching out with them and talking with any small my own businesses say a good percentage of our team yeah and what yes a good percentage of our current team is swamp certified but in terms of trade Partners um we we're not at right now we're in the internal budgeting phase got where we haven't gotten to the point where we're soliciting contracts for pricing and and locking into those subcontract relationships that will come once we get into the comprehensive agreement phase where we have to start actually getting some people on board contractually got it okay and no commitments on like a percentage of how much you would subcontract out to a swarm
075nothing like that as a your Construction Company well we uh we do reach out to swamp certified businesses and I'm not familiar right now with what the requirements are for the city of norick um but whatever they are we will meet and exceed those okay EXC thank you so much thank you you thank you Mr yon we will now move on to agenda item 2.2 my high school approval of schematic design and a vote is required at this time can I have a motion to approve the my high school schematic design I I move got to get my glass okay I move that we approve the Mory High School approval of satic design yes is there a second a second all right Miss Tiffany Moore Buffalo brought forth a motion and was seconded by uh
076Vice chair Alfreda Thomas is there any further discussion yes Madam chair oh uh Miss B I'm sorry um I would like the um motion to include with the understanding that there is still flexibility in the design just so that we're all it's on record that we are understanding that there is flexibility in the design so that so would you like to amend the motion I would like to amend the motion to include that second M I was just going to include it in my May motion so we won't have to do retract yes yes okay so I'll I'll I move that we approved the myy high school approval of schematic design with flexibility that the design with the understanding with the understanding understanding that it includes it allows for flexibility with it allowing flexibility moving
077forward mward moving forward right did you get that Karen can you read that back because I'm not sure Mr P you had a com yes uh hate to say this but we we should extend the the motion to include the Gent neighborhood Representatives that they are they've made a very distinct case this last two weeks or longer with the the emails to us and we need to reassure them that they are included in this process so would you like to admit the motion yes un with this motion I'm I'm going expand on it with the G Community included in uh discussions of the uh built myy high school a representative we I don't think we can we can do the out speak not in the way this would happen is we we still have to
078reach out to them but we can't take 500 individuals at one time to to be involved in this process I I think they need to select someone to uh be their representative and and be involved oh so if I understand you correctly you're asking for a selection process of a representative from the G School Community the to be part of that's too convoluted for this I think we've set direction for the administration to specifically include the Gent uh School community so I as long as excuse me it's two separate yeah as long as the the the community is involved and I think that's an important piece absolutely and I just wanted to make sure that that's that is in there when we we move forward right Dr absolutely and the administration is very aware of
079the concerns um and I had Mr Fry to come up and also uh Miss price in her presentation has some next steps about the community engagement piece for gent and I can uh guarantee that will happen um we will have um Community engagement meeting with the G Administration um what stakeholders will represent but they will have input in the decisions that we make around around so Madam chair may I have Miss Tanner to restate the motion so everyone is clear what we're voting on ter please restate the motion yes approve the high school schematic design with the understanding allows flexibility Mo for and includes the community in the discussion for but we can remove the remove the G the we can remove the G Community because that's understood that's understood we made a commitment around
080that separate commment yes so we're gonna listen to everyone yes Miss Tanner please call the roll vote Buffalo I'm sorry theine I bu I I Martin I no Thomas I hi motion is approved next we have agenda item 2.03 School Board goal two interim measures number one and two Dr Paul please come forward to the podium good afternoon Madam chair D Colo Vice chair Miss Thomas members of the board and Dr White I here uh this afternoon to present on school board two measures one and measures two yeah uh just 2.1 that's where I want to start it is let me I don't know how your eyes are but I'm going to make that a little bit bigger so as we recall Bo board goal two is around the percentage of students reading honor above
081grade level by the end of third grade as measured by the reading so test that we want to increase from 45% from Sy 2021 um to at least 75% by syy 2627 and specifically um with what we're looking at with 2.1 is around the the new data on vs previously we were measuring Pals um so with the new data we don't have a measure set yet since it's a brand new assessment but I do want to share our winter data which which uh is is very promising so as the data show um for for here for students in first grade there was an increase in the percentage of students showing low-level risk of not being on track um of reading to TW of 12.9 points so we saw Improvement of 12.9 points additionally there was
082a decline in the percentage of students identified as at risk of not being on track of 3.4 points so we're moving students in the right direction and then for our students in second grade there's an increase um of the low-level risk of not being on track to TW of 20.1% so some great gains from the fall of the winter there um and additionally there was a decline in the percentage of students at the high risk category of 7.2 points um so that that was some some outstanding data again if you recall the fall data when I was printed I was kind of giddy I'm I'm near the same point with the day that we're seeing in the winter here um the what's going well we're seeing with the student reading plans if you recall the
083Virginia literacy act requires student reading plans for any student below a certain threshold on the vows assessment so our student reading plans that have been created they're creating more focused interventions for all of our students moving them out of the high-risk band um and both gr grade levels saw double- digit gains of students moving into the low-level risk band from the fall to the winter vals assessment um a couple things that we still need to focus on um for students from first grade uh 36.5% of them continue to be identified as high-risk and not being on grade level and students in second grade that numbers 28.8% so just a a quick review here that we tried to do with the previous action steps um one thing was around professional development on the use of vals
084especially since it's a newer assessment um proud to say the English office is providing monthly replicable professional development to the building reading Specialists on the use of vows data um all administrators were provided training in October um an additional vals um professional training was provided in January to all teachers and administrators as well um and the PD to our early literacy tutors um which is now in its fourth year of implementation um and this corresponds to the students who are identified as high- risk the the score level in vs determines who our tutors really work with at the uh early grade levels um and PD was offered November 4th and again in January 29th specifically on reading the scores um and they did data coaching sessions they were facilitated with every early literacy tutor and
085reading specialist um during uh the progress monitoring win uh Windows of November and February um the using the vows data for small group tutoring all students in the high-risk band have specific measurable literacy goals based on instructional indicators from the vows assessment data so as we've gone through those literary literacy plans are live and the reading Specialists that the buildings are looking at those on a on a regular basis um develop a monitor those plans as we just I was just talking about um there are um currently 2,891 student read plans that were developed um leading to a 10% reduction in students in the high-risk band with vs from the fall to the winter so a good strong Focus there um we're also working to monitor the master schedules and intervention schedules to make sure
086they match up well and the English office continues to support the schools with monitoring and adjusting those schedules and making sure that the tutors are doing the pull out or the push in um as required and then PD around our um tier 2 and tier three interventions which is around the sips and the elixia core 5 uh um the office English office is offering professional development um they've done five separate cohorts of intervention um providers on evidence-based literacy interventions as well um and then the last couple bullets here monthly PD on high quality instructional materials um they're providing monthly replicable PD to our building reading specialist on hqm um and there's also been training from Benchmark Advance which is the new text that we put into place this year that was on the the video
087list that that supported the Virginia literacy act and then providing families with literacy strategies resources and materials um each each family of students with a reading plan they get specific strategies and resources that are sent home um to help students meet their literacy goals and some next steps o sorry that scrolled a little quick um update and monitor the reading P plans continue to do that following the winter data and develop new reading plans for recently identifying students so if we did have students any students that dropped down into the range they will be required to have a reading plan as well so those are all in process right now um use the vows data to identify literacy Trends and inform targeted PD sessions for the future as we go through um just like we
088do with our standards you know what are the the standards that our students struggle with more so as we get this data we're learning from this data as we go through the year um we're also conducting intervention walks to provide feedback and coaching to ensure intervention strategies are implemented with Fidelity and Effectiveness um we also were one of the divisions across the state that partnered with the vdoe on implementing the Virginia English language arts walkthrough protocol that's something that they're developing at the VOE and we wanted to be on the front line of that um so our team stepped right up and and we are using the protocol the v's developed to give them feedback on how to improve that um and then to continue providing families with literacy strategies resources and materials for home
089support um so I'll pause there after the vows data um to answer any questions or comments you may have does anyone have a question M cine yes thank you Dr PO for the presentation um let me just scroll back up here um so would you would you say so the individual targets from going from fall to winter did did you internally have specific targets for the winter data like what you expected to see where their target set no we we really couldn't with a new assessment so if you remember when we used to talk about Pal's data um the Pal's data the the Pal's assessment got more difficult each phase so was until we really had a couple years of data to really set what our targets would be this being brand new our Target
090was to improve and and we did we saw some great Improvement you know when you see double digit gains from the fall to the the winter assessment we were very pleased with the direction we're going and as we have this data through the year and then hopefully after we've gone through a whole year cycle when the VOE releas releases some Statewide data then we'll really be able to start gauging and seeing did we grow as much as other divisions from Paula winner or didn't we and if we didn't why didn't we and having those discussions so that next year we can start to try to pinpoint a little bit more okay so that that was going to be so you expect to have that data I'm hopeful hopeful to have it so that we next
091year we would sorry we would have um some winter targets spring targets that we could better assess like how we're doing in comparison correct okay that's um good to know um my next question is around the strategies so what's working well what isn't working well and how we know and so that's you know um something I routinely ask and if you could expand on on on that in terms of what Focus interventions uh that you felt had the gave the biggest boost for moving students out of the high-risk band sure so there there are a few things that I'd like to to mention today um one I think most importantly is our early literacy tutoring program that um that the board has continued to support after the Esser funding um stopped supporting um that um
092but we have I think 82 early literacy tutors and there's nothing better than having a small group for one-on-one instruction for our struggling readers um I think to support that also using the sips curriculum so in NPS when we started that program um we did a lot of research on what the best curriculum would be for tier 2 tier three intervention in sips is where we landed and then if you recall when the state did their vaa work they also landed With Sips about two and a half years after we did so we were deep into using sips um curriculum at that point and we truly believe the consistency that we see using that has been helpful and a stack on top of that the use of Lexia Core 5 in both the tier one
093as well as tier 2 tier three environments um again when we started with um looking at online software for reading that the Lexis where we landed as norvi public schools about three years later the state landed on Lexi as well so I feel really proud of the decisions that that the team in curriculum instruction working with teachers made um knowing that it was the their evidence-based research based and and those I think are really strong proponents for our early literacy program and those are you know in the I know tonight we get comments from the community on the budget those are also continue to be in the budget to to support the work that we're doing in those areas okay and they continue to be in the budget at the capacity that we need absolutely
094yeah okay they are um all right let me see anyone else have a question you could continue Mr if you have anything else um yeah so and can you talk a little bit about especially you know as where a new board getting um adjusted to the progress monitoring um how you know that um you know the early literacy tutors how you all monitor how these interventions are in fact um making progress for our students well I think the the proof is really in the numbers that we're seeing here right now because the the students our early the students our early literacy tutors work with are the ones who are scoring in the high-risk range in vals um and and we're seeing those students move up as well as other students move move up uh to
095to other levels so just by seeing that data and change you know we see that and and a part of that work is also the monthly professional development we do with them and also part of the the literacy walks that we're doing we don't look at the teaching in the classroom we also monitor what what are our tutors doing and making sure they're working with the small groups or they're pushing into the classroom um and we really give specific Direction on how that's supposed to work okay thank you my pleasure Mr awesome thank you madam chair uh just a few things I was um looking over first off thank you so much for the presentation um thank you for the work that you're doing for our on behalf of noral public schools so looking through
096the presentations and then also comparing um looking at our neighbors um in Hampton Roads um North's the lowest in third grade reading um in proficiency compared to a lot of our other South Southside he are you are you referring to as far as scores yes I am yes yes we are that's like 18 out of 30 schools on not are not reading at grade level at by third grade correct which is why we have the board call got it no no I understand I understand why we got the board go I'm just trying to see why we still have this this has been going on for years our kids have not been able to read on grade level and I just want to understand what this Administration is doing to help figure that out and
097are they bringing in all the correct people the experts Community Partners cuz 18 out of 30 schools not being able to read on grade level and we're literally fifth we're the last one out of all the schools um we're setting our kids up for failure if we're not and hear me out on this um we're we're setting them up for failure if we're not giving them everything in the toolbox to throw at it to sure that we lift them up to give them the tools to read um like I told Dr White I said I was going to I was going to have a very um direct conversation um I am very disappointed in north public schools um to to where we are now um our children are the economic engine of norol that's our
098next generation and people families businesses are not going to want to invest in norol if our education system is failing so I I I applaud you I see the the increases that we are doing but I just say that we do need to do more compared looking at schools Chester feere AC Academy um we can go Southside stem jcx a lot of these schools are the ones that have the lowest um reading scores and I'm and what else are we doing so what we do is we also um differentiate our support levels as well so it's we don't do equal supports we do Equitable supports so each year we look at the data and we we that's how we determine how many early Li teers we they have or what what different supports they have
099at each School based on individual School data and Mr Ang I would like to comment on um for this is my fifth year with the division um prior to the pandemic um the rating scores were on a decline um and then the pandemic hit and I think everyone around the state clearly had some but since the pandemic we have been on a steady increase we have since the pandemic we have put in place the early literacy tutors since the pandemic we have put in Lexia Core 5 since the pandemic we've done sips since the pandemic we've done specific um science of reading instruction and professional development with our teachers prior to where the VOE mandated that so we have put a lot of effort into it um and I I do um I I do
100fully support Mr Brady and his team and the work they've done and the work that our teachers do on a continuous basis do we have work to do absolutely we do however I I do believe we have the right points in place and our data is starting to show and to see the growth and this year's data specifically where we're looking at the early literacy data right here um where our students this is our our third graders now this is the first grade where they have they did not suffer because of the pandemic and we're seeing their scores start to rise very quickly now so I do believe you're starting to see this push and this change in the trend with our early literacy okay all right thank you so much for that just just
101looking at the the data that we yeah looking at the data statistics I look at the data day in and day out I know one of our other goals is high school dropout um as well and so if they can't read on grade level by third grade it shows that they're more likely to be a high school drop down which is why when when when I arrived and started having you know instructional meetings with with my team my focus was on early literacy before anything else because it's a longterm and and the board board members who've been here that long remember my disc of this is a long road we're on but if we don't start with the base we're never going to show Improvement later on all right are there anything you're doing with
102the families because of course I mean we can educate them from 7 to 3 9 to 5 but what Mom and Dad is doing afterwards what are some of the strategies y so so there you know we support pretty much every single one of our elementary schools with literacy nights okay um multiple literacy nights we also support them with um with materials and um and uh access to theice online supports that we have to go home with uh students and to have you know parents see them as well we do nights where we um do professional development for parents uh you'll see also Family University coming up uh pretty soon where we'll offer some stuff there as well and then as stated earlier specifically with our students who have reading plans we make sure specific
103items that are that are related to their deficiencies are sent home as well to help parents support their children um and then we also um all of our Title One schools with Dr in the back will'll attest to this all of our TI one schools we send home uh home libraries for students so they get books to have at the house because research also shows just having books in the house and having accessibility improves literacy okay and we haven't enough Community Partners coming in to help with northw public schools to help assist an offset sure and in fact uh we're we're we're in the midst of an all cities reads program right now and and that was fully funded outside of the school division for all the books um so we form relationship wher can
104with that um past couple um Winters we've done uh partnership I think with Salvation Army and a couple others and we've done book drive-throughs for parents at Christmas time through the holidays so they can come and get books to give us gifts as well as much as we can absolutely and if anybody's listening we love our literacy so anything you want to do absolutely awesome thank you um that concludes my questions I just want to be very straightforward just just making sure we have a spirit of accountability um I commend your work and um all of what MPS teachers are doing to support our students and I fully back them I want to just make that abundantly clear but I just want to see our scores increase a lot higher than where they are as
105we all do absolutely yes so that's it thank you and Mr in I just want to um compliment you on asking about what we are doing for the parents in addition I know uh Community Communications and Community engagement are collaborating with Title One and want quarter we do have professional development workshops during the school day for those parents that may not be able to make it at night during the school day based on the data at that particular school on literacy and numeracy and and science as well thank you so much Dr certainly welcome all right so this will be a little similar so I'm going to I'm going to go through some of the phases because it's still focused on early literacy um but our second uh measure is around star data so this
106is around specific with third grade data now um uh so the the the measure for for for this year is that the percentage of students scoring proficient which is at or above and on watch in third grade star will move from 57.6% to 67% and the percentage of students scoring at Urgent intervention will decrease from 26.6% down to 16% in the spring um so what does our data show us again I'm I'm very pleased to report this this data as we move from fall to winter um students in grade three exceeded their target for winter performance in both the proficiency level and the Urgent intervention level and as seen on the line graphs which I'll go up to because they they do look so pretty um as seen on the line graphs the student performance
107and both proficiency and org levels show significant improvement from the initial tracking point of this data so if you if you see here we started tracking for this specific we've tracked it much longer but started putting it on this sheet for this specific um goal for the spring of 2223 we were at 57.9% and right now in the winter we're scoring 69.8% so we're we're seeing good growth already we're above our goal and as far as urgent intervention we were at 27.5% of urgent Intervention when we first started with this goal and now we're down to 12.9% um so we're seeing some some great move thank you Dr Martin I saw that little clap um I appreciate that so what's going well uh um the percentage of third grade students uh proficiency increased by 7.7%
108um from fall to winter in 20425 um and winter proficiency was 5.8% above the target so we've already exceeded the target we've set for the year um so that doesn't mean we're done pushing because we're still pushing but we've already exceeded where we we thought we would be in order to make the goal of 75% by the 2728 school year so we're on on a good footing for that right now uh the percentage of third grade students in Urgent intervention decreased by 4.4% and were 3.9% below the target already um and 18 out of 30 schools with third grade met the required Target for proficiency um and were below the target for Urgent intervention so we're seeing that growth there um as well our our black white asian and two or more race uh Gap
109groups exceeded both the proficiency and Ur urgent intervention targets um it for well as well in the third grade screening um what's not going well well um so still some some work to do like always our El Gap group um had 37.3% of the students in proficient which is below the mark of our our all students group and 34.2% Urgent intervention as well as our students with disabilities at 35.8 proficiency and 37.7 Urgent intervention so we know those two specific subgroups we really need to work with and Target more um the St status of the pre previous action steps this still follows early literacy so I'm not going to review every single one again they're they're all all very similar um and our next steps as well are are pretty similar as far as updating
110the reading plans um and developing the new reading plans because our third graders also that are at high risk take the vows so we use the vows for that data as well um and then provide in March we're providing division-wide training on strategies to address these literacy deficits um and the intervention walks are going on using the uh VOE protocol I talked about as well and that will conclude my measure to 2.2 presentation are there any questions I'll just add one Dr PA I've asked us U many times our participation rate uh is so we're we so we actually one of the things we do with our star rockar the Rockstar award is is around star participation um and we maintain um especially the third grade we're we 92 to 95% we we meet High
111participation rate on this test good good question Miss Mor Miss B yeah thank you Dr Paul um again my my questions will be similar to what I asked um previously regarding the strategies so strategies that you are uh finding are working well I mean that's a good review of the data but what what are we doing that has worked well what and then what were we doing that didn't work well that we might have abandoned or changed Direction on so I think very it's going to be a very similar answer too since all focused on early literacy it's it's that Focus I I think what's really The Next Step Above why we're seeing more growth now from fall to winter than we saw in previous years is that the literacy plans and the the specific
112reading plans for each student um because it's focused in on their individual data um also our our teachers and our principes now have access to um such granular level data at their fingertips um that really um is is making a difference in the classroom level of instruction as far as even um using using um active data to help with small group instruction or when they're doing pullouts you know working with the early literacy tutors to know specifically what standards the students might be deficient in um so those those are really the strengths and I think what's what's been taken away more is just that um that whole group understanding of well we're going to we're going to you know when we're doing a tutor we're all going to learn this one standard together because that's
113what most the class might not have known having the data the way we have it now they can really get down to the individual students needs and we're starting to see that reflect in our results okay um my NE thank you for that my next question is so 18 out of the 30 schools with uh third grade met the required Target for proficiency is that Target for this for the winter are you talking about Target that was a target for winter for the winter okay and then where were we before do you know what was it in the fall or even in the spring of last year no winter last year I don't have those proficiencies I'm sorry for that okay I'm just curious if that was an increase um so but you know if
114if you get a chance to um so that is so they they met the required Target for winter proficient the winter proficiency Target and then you know you talk about uh I mean you describe here the groups that we did see Improvement around but again the El groups and our special education are two areas um where we know we need to accelerate learning um are you finding that the interventions that are being used for um English monolingual uh you know um students are effective for those that were in engl is a second language so I think um part of that is why you see in the budget a request for 33 more El teachers to be able to help with our high high need students okay so can you tell me a little more about
115so the additional teachers you know I get the um you know having the human resource there but the actual delivery of the intervention itself is that how will that um be different are these bilingual teachers are we looking for no so they're not necessarily bilingual but they they are they will be certified as an English learner teacher okay um in fact we have um around 30 teachers right now that are going through our grow your own program and then we have five more that are just doing it individually um on their own so that we'll have applicants for these positions when when they become open um pending the the passing of the budget um but really what it comes down to then is really just having more um interactive time with our El students that
116they just don't have right now so that's the biggest part of that intervention and why it's so important okay so the interactive time will increase with the correct number of yeah so the new the new um the new way we'll we'll staff those is based off of their access for lcore um and we'll tier those levels um and if so the ones who show the highest level of need will have more time with an E teacher same way we tear around with the tutors that we use okay all right and then um what about our special education population yes so we continue to do some really close collaboration between cni and our uh learning support department um and we um are continuing to work on um the instructional side of support um with our students
117um you know we've talked about that before about that divide with compliance and instruction and the importance to have both of them um so this year's been a I would consider a very successful year on how we have collaborated with those two departments to where the PD for the teachers are also comingled um so it's not like we're pulling out our co-teachers to do specific training while we're pulling our instructional core teachers to do a different training we're we're doing a lot of that work together to also emphasize how are they co-planning and how are they using the data and how are they co- teing and how are we supporting our students with disabilities even better okay other questions thank you mad chair my pleasure sorry just one more so it would be interesting to
118also say we were talking about how many kids are meeting proficiency but um you know I'd love to also be able to see how many are exceeding that to um at the third grade level I don't know I don't expect you to have that sorry my mask run away yes um so I so the really that then we would just have to do a separate piece of data on the students who are who are at the top tier because you know our proficiency are the top two tiers right so we'd have to do something on the top tier um which I guess if it was the will of the board to have the more data we can do some of that work yeah I know that's I know that's not in our process monitoring and
119I will let you know internally with our data warehouse that's a click away for all the principes you know and all the teachers and all of our tutors um have that access point again thank you thank you very much have a great night every thank you thank you want me to introduce the budget first yes yes please I'll learn a lot at this time um I would like to invite Mrs Spivey to the podium uh Miss Spivey will present a highlight highlights of the superintendent's physical year 2025 2026 proposed operating budget Miss biy much longer walk in here well no then we have the educ oh yeah change the power point around I see good good evening chair to Calera Vice chair Thomas members of the school board and Dr White I'm pleased to present
120a quick overview of the superintendent's proposed operating budget for fiscal year 2026 and the annual budget process that will begin that um for the budget that begins on July 1 of 2025 Miss FY yes I'm sorry to interrupt you um is this portion of the um agenda for the benefit of the public hearing this presentation or is that specific so should we potentially move yeah wait until 6:00 to start if it's for the benefit of those who come for the public hearing we should probably adhere to the time that we said let's call for a I'm sorry to interrupt 15 minute recess to do anything to Mo thank you that that was my question oh a formal request for a recess M Moore Buffalo sure I'll move for a recess of 15 minutes uh is
121there a second second all right Miss Buffalo will you take the roll call vote please miss Tanner Miss Buffalo clerk but I'm not thinking about missan she's not getting paid for this that will be out okay I got you hi I have my time you got I'm sorry hi all right let's take 15 [Music] 31 public hearing on the superintendent's fiscal year 2005 to 2006 proposed operating budget first Miss spy Chief Financial financial officer will come forward to share a brief presentation and or discussion please come forward slide thank you um good evening chair de calero Vice chair Thomas school board members and Dr White um I'm pleased to present a quick overview of the superintendent's proposed operating budget for fiscal year 2026 um and the budget process for the year that will begin July
1221st of 2025 next slide thanks the superintendent's proposed budget has five priorities they are employee compensation employee retention and recruitment right side ing the school system safety security and Building Maintenance and instructional resources for students and schools next slide um looking at the first goal um which is you employee compensation for um for teachers the proposed starting pay for a new teacher it will increase from 57,500 to $60,800 increase for our current employees um this proposal includes a step increase and a cola that averages 4.5% increase and um employees at the top of the paay scale um will receive a 2.2% one-time bonus next slide um for classified employees starting hourly pay is proposed to increase from $155 to $15.72 cents The Proposal provides a one-step increase and a cola for current classified employees which
123also averages 4.5% increase employees of the top of the pay scale would re receive a 2.2% one-time bonus um administrators um will um are the same um The Proposal provides a one-step increase and a cola for current um administ administrators um and um provides for the um those at the top of their pay scale a 2.2% onetime bonus next Slide the total proposed budget is 7729 million with the general fund proposed at 450. two million the student nutrition um fund proposed at 26.9 million the grants and special projects fund at 42.3 million and the Capital Improvement fund at 253 million than the general fund budget um again I'm being proposed at 450. two million um the majority of that budget is for instructional support 71% um technology at 20 at 4 . 7% operation and
124maintenance at 12.1% facilities at 7.8% and people Transportation at 19.8% I me 4.4% $19.8 million um the capital Improvement budget um is proposed at $253 million the largest project project is the mor High School rebuild project and U and then as you can see there are also several um Renovations and upgrades to current facilities the um the next steps in our process of tonight of course we're having the public hearing um on March 19th this school board business meeting um the school board is propos to vote on the superintendent's proposed operating budget um by April 1st on before April 1st um the school's proposed budget um has to be submitted to the city council city council will um then um work on will then adopt their budget based on their budget the school board um
125will may need to um look at any proposed differences and um and make and well and then adopt a final budget and um and that would be in May of 202 of this year and um and with that chair de Calera um that concludes my prepared comments for the introduction section of the public hearing on the superintendent's proposed fiscal year 26 budget thank you Miss viy I would like to open the floor for any questions or discussions by the board questions or discussions Mr P on the my high school renovation here we have proposed cost of 231 uh what is the city's what what if they said they were going to allocate for for that project spy can you answer that Miss B he's coming back sorry you're not letting you get out that quickly
126you going to get your steps in um the um the city's working on their proposed budget at the same time okay so I I thought they' made a proposal before or an indication of uh well um they they do an annual budget yes that I mean it's been in the plan but um but as far as the ACT you the actual fiscal 26 that will come up that's it okay thank you that's that's all I have thank you thank you anyone else just waiting because Tel get us in at the last minute do you have any questions Tanya um not at the moment all right thank you Miss fing I was tonight for agenda item 3.0 we will have a public hearing on the superintendent's fiscal year 2025 to 2026 proposed operating budget if you
127would like to share your comments with the board you must have signed up with the clerk prior to the meeting Miss Tanner please call the first speaker um Madame chair D calero we have 17 speakers this evening the signed up prior to the public hearing our first speaker is Sonia Lasser followed by Michael Sonia Lasser okay Michael Dyer good evening members of the board thank you very much for allowing me to speak I'm speaking on behalf of all the NGC teachers in Norfolk high schools uh there are 12 of us in total last year as you know uh we were we did not receive any pay raise what I want to know know is this year with a 4.5% increase in Pay will that include the njrc teachers thank you very much next we have
128Melissa coffin yours is it's okay I've got strong legs now that we've gotten the entertainment portion of the evening out of the way uh good evening members of the board thank you for allowing me to speak today and for your service to the community and our children my name is Melissa coffen I'm a proud member of the PTA and mother of two children in norfol public schools I also have an 18-year-old son who graduated from First Colonial High School in Virginia Beach and is now attending William and Mary I stand before you today to advocate for my children's right to a safe and healthy physical School environment I would like to enter into the record a pivotal study titled how crumbling school facilities perpetuate inequality This research highlights that the condition of school facilities plays
129a significant role in student achievement and consistently shows that the conditions in which students learn and teachers teach directly impact overall student achievement the evidence is clear schools that are well-maintained see student achievement levels varying between 5 to 17% off points compared to those that are not furthermore maintenance issues not only affect student performance but also contribute to teacher turnover job satisfaction School climate and attendance rates ocean a Elementary currently experiences an absentee rate of nearly 25% my son Walker who was in first grade attended Ocean Air last year for kindergarten upon my initial visit in the summer of 2023 I was struck by the state of the school the Landscaping was overgrown all the overall appearance was uninviting while I initially believed that as long as the teachers were good the physical environment didn't
130matter I soon realized that the conditions were affecting Walker's Health he suffers from severe allergies and respiratory issues which have only been exacerbated by the environment at Ocean a in memory of my oldest child Reese who bravely battled terminal brain cancer and lost her battle in 2013 at the age of eight I have become an advocate for my children and their peers every day I send my children into a building that is literally crumbling around them the cocking around the windows is deteriorating paint is chipping there's holes in the ceiling tiles that are visible I worry about the potential exposure to asbestos especially after recent roof repairs and that the building was built in 1955 the teachers at Ocean a are dedicated and talented many with Advanced degrees and years of experience however they have
131expressed to me their frustrations even sharing images of the inadequate conditions on the first day of school of this year I Ober observed grass that was up knee high broken playground equipment marked with caution tape and litter scattered across the grounds in stark contrast when I visited Larchmont Elementary I noticed the pristine conditions and it prompted me to realize the inequality in our school system as a mother I feel compelled to advocate for not just my children but all the children in norford public schools I began a petition to address the urgent need which each of you guys will have a copy for the improvements at Ocean Air collecting signatures during school events speaking with parents and raising awareness about the need for a clean and safe learning environment I urge the board to prioritize
132the health and safety of our students and invest in the maintenance of Ocean Air I hope we can work together and stop perpetuating inequality thank you we need Lauren zinski Lauren zuren all right good evening my name is Lauren zorinsky I'm Nori resident and a parent of two children at against school one in the elementary program and one in the middle school I want to start by thanking the members of the school board especially those who took the time to exchange emails and meet with me and other concerned parents in person I really appreciate the board and their willingness to engage in respectful and um respectful discussion and for your leadership I am so lucky to be resourced enough to be an educated parent who reviewed all of the gint and I'm sorry all of
133the Mory project material on the websites that were available I attended the community meetings I spoke to an architect on the prog project team I reached out to school board members and I am a certified design build professional and with all of that I've been working really hard to be heard appreciate that I feel heard today but it's taken a lot of effort and with all of that effort and my resources what other chances do gent parents have who are busy who may have other things going on and how are they able to stay well informed and know what's happening at their school if it took this much effort for me to feel heard today I ask you to look at that process and make adjustments so that there's opportunities for those who are less
134resource to be able to understand what's going on um as you realize today gent School hasn't been included in the conversation on how the field design is going to impact the school overall again parents are really excited about the my project we want to see it proceed and we want to see it proceed with good design I appreciate Mel Price's presentation today and her statement that even design team needs to talk to us more to be able to finalize the design I also want to note that what they can impact in what they said today is the site design specifically the fields on the side of the street that gent is and what we're currently showing will squeeze what is available into just the space into the front crowding the building and using up the
135remaining open space the schematica design that was approved today um will actually require that we make changes with in the existing footprint of the school building so you heard the mobile classrooms are going away and so what we're asking is that we continue to participate um in that process we're asking gent leadership and the central Administration within norfol public schools to continue to give us the opportunity to work together to come up with a design because now we are forced to take that space into the building and we'll likely have to give up other amenities to make this work members of the school board um we continue to request that you learn more and understand and continue to support the benefits of gent school as a K through 8 Community it provides high quality educational
136experience as it stands now for students across the whole city we appreciate the program and we appreciate your support of the program and your consideration on how that k38 function continues to support Norfolk Public Schools as you look towards the future planning and programming and right size of the Public District thank you so much for your time today Robert Lee good afternoon my name is Robert Benjamin leer thir I'm a 1962 graduate of boogatti Washington High School I'm here to start the process of considering that just like Mory you went through extensive renovation program for Mori and somehow in 2022 you came to conclusion you need a new school a new M high school and from your experience you know that Booker T Washington we are having quite a bit of problems with our facility
137so I think it's time for the board to start thinking in the future 200 and 27 2028 to consider that perhaps now is the time to start thinking about a brand new Booker T Washington to maintain the legacy of Booker Washington and earlier the lady spoke about a maintenance of school when she talked about mold and germs and all that and I think I don't think you would disagree with me but as school plantss get older they do suffer from that and booger te is not an exception so I'm here to find out how can we start the process of building a brand new boogery Washington High School up to the standard just as you are doing for Mori I know it takes a quite a bit of time you started in 2022 and the
138projection is 2028 to finish the the process so I'm saying it's now is a time to start thinking about Booker Washington and starting our process for a new Booker Washington High School thank you for your time Brittney [Applause] Raffin good evening board members thank you so much for your time my name is Britney raffen and I'm a parent for a first grader and a third grader and I just wanted to say thank you for hearing us um we really appreciate that each one of you saw our letters and we we heard earlier how much our words um meant to the board and how you've you've um reached out and made sure that the design team speaks to us as we move on with the future the project really blindsided as parents we were Pro Murray
139until we realized that 40% reduction to our play area was um what was on the docket so again we appreciate uh you looking at it and making sure that there's open collaboration um with the future of the the design and um we heard from Harland construction that they assured us that they're going to relocate our amenities so um one potential suggestion is to phase the jrack just in case gent needs a little bit more time that was one area that just took out that 50,000 square feet um that if you phased the jrack maybe another year that would help gent with um the the speed in which this construction is happening um really the speed uh caused this panic and if it was something that we knew for a couple years I don't think we
140would have had the same um two weeks of emails sent to you all but anyway I appreciate your time thank you so much Zaki is Little John [Music] hell good even hello good evening to the C huh to the C say that yes can you C was that yeah come here oh what you say again hello good evening to the schoolb counsel hello good evening to the school boy counseling your name say your name my name is Jamal Little John you speak what want me to say that I'm going to speak on the bathrooms J in jobs Elementary School I would like them to be more sanitary and fix the locks on the doors so I can use the bathroom in peace thank you thank you hello good evening school boy this is my name
141is Mr Little John take up all of your time um I'd like to say thank you for um providing the EC program for J cot school um is helping my sons and my daughters um achieve better grades and get more tutoring and get be more happy and going to school enjoy going to school and I would like to thank you for the early tutoring classes that y'all provide in the mornings at 8:00 a.m. for the kids to get extra help if they getting having problems in the subjects at school thank you next we have Monae Johnson good evening School Board my name is Monae Johnson um you may know me as an organizer for New Virginia majority but I am also a former student that went to when I was young Brockton day nursery and
142then the YMCA Leaders Club graduate I also spent all of my Summers and evenings at a Boys and Girls Club I am also the child of a mother who had three jobs and a father who was incarcerated and without before and after care I wouldn't be here there would have been no one to watch me or take care of me while my mother was gone and my father was gone and so hearing about the tutoring at jcx is amazing but not all of the students qualify for that and there really does need to be a budget line item especially for a school that starts so late it it can be perceived often times as though it's feels like people don't think that the parents their work and they do and it is very difficult from
143what these parents are telling us to get kids to school for start at 9:00 a.m. when they're supposed to be to work at 7 7:30 there are kids standing outside of the building at 8:30 in the morning when there are schools that start earlier that have before school programs and after school programs and if we really want to fully cover and assess the real need of the community this is one that parents have told us over and over and over again and I understand that there are a lot of things that need to be done in the city but determining that Jake Cox is an eelc means that there's a specific need in this community and so we're asking for a line item to bring in a before and after school care provider that isn't
144just a couple of days of weeks even though we en enjoy the clubs um a couple of mornings a week depending on your grade level depending on your age uh there are a lot of children that are left out so if we could bring in a provider I just can't even put into words how important that would be um there have been a lot of investments in a lot of places but J Cox is going to need a program and I don't think that we have to set aside 2 million $3 million but it might take at least 250,000 for an after CARE program and then you have before care before that and while it does sound like a lot of money to someone like myself and like those parents who are trying to not
145get their hours cut and get their kids to school um it isn't that large of a portion of the budget to have $600,000 for these kids it really isn't and it changes the way that they view the world and the friends that they make and how invested in they feel and I'm saying that as someone who needed them more than anybody and I have a master's degree now and I don't think that anything has impacted me or my education like before and after care so I really hope that y'all consider it thank you K BAS Keenan Baskerville good evening school board and superintendent bong even though you're not here my name is Keenan Baskerville and I'm an organizer with new Virginia majority I've been working in jcx community since last April basically ever since it
146became an EC and so since April 2024 I've spoken to nearly 230 parents that's most of this stack right here I've spoken to community members and staff of JC conducting A needs assessment of what would have the most valuable impact on this on the learning community's lives and my finding suggest that of the 227 responses 167 people say that a comprehensive before and after school School Care Program would be most beneficial to their immediate needs involving the school for this reason I'm asking that the school board provide a consider providing a budget to initiate a before and after school care program at jcx that is comprehensive and and accessible to all students Jaycox Elementary School is in North Folk's fourth stagger meaning that the school opens at 9:00 a.m. and not a moment sooner I've
147spoken with parents struggling with with getting their students to school on time or having to struggle to get to work on time parents have desre decreased their work hours going from full-time to part-time I've talked with s I'm talking single parent fa single parent families to ensure their parents sa their student safety there's no telling what type of financial strain that may put on a person every family doesn't have that type of flexibility so what do you think think they should do I have an answer because I'm out in the mornings and I talk with the parents on their doorsteps some parents have to allow their students to walk themselves to school in the morning and pray their their students come back home safely other parents have to drop their kids off early and let
148other parents keep a watchful eye but if you have a child in kindergarten or say prek what do you do J Cox does open their school in the mornings for the third grade and above just for tutoring in and I'm aware that J Cox has an after school program through the EC but I want to remind you all that it's not accessible to all the students because one is primarily for students in first grade and higher jcco starts at prek and secondly the requirements for the program are good attendance good behavior and good grades signifiers of students with with difficulties in school that could use an ad school program to help aid with their growth and development I've talked with Dr Walton in October about this issue before and he's told me that they've struggled
149with this due to staff and budgetary issues and for that reason I am asking you to create a budget for jot to have a before and after school care program thank you Richard new Jr good evening noruk school board members and thank you for your time tonight um my name is Richard Nome Jr I live in Larrymore lawence and I'm a proud father of three boys uh one in eighth one in fourth and the other in first grade uh my oldest son who was in Middle School and I'm sorry uh tonight I ask that you consider additional support from musical education in nor schools music education is critical to the development of well-rounded students studies show that schools with strong music programs experience High higher education rates and better attendance music also strengthens math and
150reading skills plus music education provides positive reinforcement for healthy social and emotional and emotional Youth Development please ensure that there is enough funding and staff support so that every student has access to Quality music music instruction extensive and diverse music curriculum well-maintained musical instruments ample music music performance opportunities and access to extracurricular activities such as concerts and after school music clubs please ensure that these opportunities are available at every level elementary middle and high school high school music is for all I I appreciate all that you do for every student and I ask that you make music education an even higher priority in the budget and Beyond thank you for your time appreciate it Carl [Applause] P Carl P good evening school board members uh my name is Carl p and I'm on organizer New
151Virginia majority I'm also former latchkey kid and a person who attended jcx Elementary School when he was a child along with my sister and just like my mother and my aunts and uncles before us so when I talk about jcx is not professionally it's a personal interest I used to walk there I was a walker to jcx now right now I'm sure as you know jcx is one of about a dozen schools that begins their school day on that fourth tier of their stagger 9:00 now I don't know to many working parents that start their school day after 9:00 after 9:00 a.m. so often times they're going to work and their kids are left to their own devices until they do as they're told and go to school which means there are many jcco students
152who are outside as early as 8:30 waiting for those doors to open now don't get me wrong there are opportunities for jcco students at times to enter that school earlier say like for preparation for so testing for third graders but that's not open to everybody at the school there is an opportunity here to create a before and after school program at jcco that is yearround that is available to all students that could be a game changer for their outcomes those doors come open you don't just have kids sitting around you could have kids doing homework uh preparing for the school day getting primed to learn more over that school day and even after school to do the same all while kind of relieving some of the stress that working parents have trying to figure out
153what to do with their kids in between the time when they definitely have to go to work earn a living before they can come and pick them up and eat now J Cox did have some more expanded before school care a few years ago but if we're talking about this eelc school this equity and Excellence Learning Center School active parent engagement understanding what families and students need is what the game is all about so we've spoken over 200 parents and care givers and they've identified this as a primary need before and after school care that is enriching to their kids if it's about feedback and seeing that response that kind of co-design the school they want to build it's about creating the things that they want to build so what does that build on your
154end well you kind of need some money in the budget one to bring in Partners to make this kind of thing happen two to take a look at the measures of what it takes to do it and how well it's working and three to maybe look at expanding it eventually but takes some cash to get it started so if we're talking about adding money to the budget for a universally used before and after school care program that is all throughout the school year please you need to put it on the dotted line and add it as a line item budget and line item in this budget thank you for your time at least m b at least MC math excuse me good evening uh my name is Elis McMath I'm a former educator I worked
155at a severely underfunded school and it's part of the reason why I'm so passionate about this community school model part of the reason why I decided to work for New Virginia majority uh part of the reason why we've been organizing at the Grassroots level for two years for a community school model um where do I start so I'm I'm very disillusioned from the get-go because we we were organizing for Community School model um we did the work we wanted to partner with Nori public schools because as my cooworker Keenan has says he's doing the work for you guys he's doing the community engagement I applaud parents at Mory and again they have the resources and the time to come out to these meetings and be civically engaged the families that we're working with are not
156and so we are literally doing the leg work for you guys guys and collecting the data and yet you still do not want to collaborate with us we've been branded a political organization we're political because we encourage families to come out here and participate in this Civic process that somehow deems us a political organization so our work is being discredited at the city level um on top of that I I find it appalling that children as young as six or seven years old are having to sit outside unattend Ed not being allowed in the school building at jcx elementary I invite all of you all to look at the sex offender registry around that school building and tell me if you would feel comfortable letting your child sit outside unattended routinely every day I I
157surely wouldn't I also was lucky enough to participate in after CARE program and I think it was foundational to my academic development as a child um I'm disappointed in the ways the EC program has co-opted what we organized so hard for to get that program in the budget and for y'all to provide that funding to Pilot the program um the whole point of the ELC program is you have children who are being set up as early as six or seven years old being put in IEP programs not getting the individual attention they need in the classro the whole point was to give those kids more resources and so it's great that other kids at jcx have have these opportunities to participate in these programs but if you're excluding the kids who need it the most
158then it's not working um we've already identified a potential partner the boys and girls club would like to participate in this program we're asking for $600,000 in the budget to fund it again we've done a lot of the work for you all we're just asking for your support um if you believe in the future of these children if you want to see noric become a more thriving City education is one of the resources that we have public education to combat poverty make the city safer please consider it thank [Applause] you Tiara Lasser Tiara Lasser good evening n school board members my name is Tiara Lasser and I am a longtime resident student and mother of a child currently attending n public schools and so um I would like to know will Nord Public School Board
159allocate $600,000 to jot school for before after care accessible to all students so coming from America's impoverished communities within this city public housing which is also known as lwi inome based housing Project based housing a lot of the students that attend jot elementary school as well as the feeder schools Ruffner and Booker T Washington High School are coming from underp perished underserved communities where it is a lot of chaos where it is a lot of violence where it is a lot of crime so when they go to school unfortunately school is their safe place school is their safe haven school is where they're eating they are currently living in a food desert and I'm sorry that our kids are not always privy to have all of the programs and resources that they have at G
160Elementary or at Mory High School the reality of it is our schools are lacking and our kids are hurting we need this before and after care and as a working mother a single mother with not one but two degrees working on the third coming from public housing pulling myself up from the bootstraps it is not easy and we need appropriate education for our kids and I'm sorry that we don't live in the best of area codes and we don't have houses and we don't have the resources for private tutoring or whatever it is we are depending on this board to help us with our kids why are they outside unattended with rapist and perverts like let's be real how much money does this board see why is there such a discrepancy in between these schools
161and these kids these are little kids and and I see it all the time all of the funding for Mory none of the funding for Booker T all of the funding for gent none of the funding for J CS this has got to stop and it's been going on for decades I have been watching it I have been attending schools that are falling apart that are filled with Mo L abestos and our teachers going above and beyond to make sure that we still get the education like everybody else with half of the resources with less of the money and we need to stop it and I think it's time for the change now I think it's time to do the right thing now I think it's time to allocate the funds now because our kids
162are dying now when they don't have the education they don't grow up to be successful they become statistics and they die and we go on like it's business as usual and that is a shame so if you have any Humanity within your heart today please open up this before and after care for job they've had it before we need it now and we should have been had it thank you for your time Javon Bennett Javon Bennett Sean Somerville good afternoon board um first of all I would like to know if I could give y'all a copy of this another one of our nurses couldn't make it tonight but she did right of so a little bit of History Jo me my name is Sean Somerville I am a wellness assistant at Little Creek Elementary um
163I've been in the nursing field for since 1999 and I was a CNA and then I went centa sent me back to school to be a advanced and then a wound care nurse and restorative so right now I'm a well Wellness assistant and I'm just here to for y'all to take into consideration of paying us a little bit more or giving us full-time hours or at least making us contract I mean because speaking for myself all Wellness assistants don't have their own clinic but depending on your um interview you were giving your own clinic so I'm one of those that have her own Clinic Lil Creek have two schools and I have the smaller building my nurses in the other building so all the way says assistant I man a building alone and and daily
164things I do is um fall people babies that fall our kiddos that fall um meds daily meds they have to be given um babies that need bottles they have to take that time to feed um documentation screening for vision and hearing I don't insist in that I do it I was taught to do it I may in that clinic from when I get there on time into the evening and we have we're granted 29 hours a week but I can't walk out on a kid that need me to just fail because I'm at my hours so I stay and do what I need to do and then I leave so I'm just asking the board to give us fulltime I mean we're doing full-time things there we're we're not just assisting we're doing the work
165and I have a good principal Miss cogin I have a good um charge Nur is Katie and I have a lot of people that wrote letters but we we're essential we're vital we're vital I know we started when Co started but that's over and we're still there and we need benefits like they giving everybody else cuz we're there so I just ask y'all to consider us take it into consideration to give us something that they're giving people that don't even work 29 hours a week so I'm showing some of and I stand in the proxy for other Wellness assistance and part-time nurses thank you [Applause] all and this next individual is Britney okay thank you want pronounce your last name for us uh zabinsky thank you I don't know if you guys can hear me
166because I'm kind of short um good evening my name is Bernie sininsky I myself am a wellness assistant at Norview Middle School uh just last year I worked for both Norview Middle School and Camp Allen Elementary School assisting the nurses with any of their needs um covering any absences or um basically just running the clinic on my own because we had a nurse whose you know mother had passed away and I was there covering for her the whole week that she was gone um you can call us your proxy nurses basically I have 15 years of experience in the medical um field working in Urgent Cares um chiropratic offices and I also assisted in minor Veterinary um procedures and surgeries I obtained my certification in medical billing and coding at TCC where I also plan
167to get my nursing license as well I I always know um I always knew I wanted to work in them in this field I just didn't know where I belonged I had the pleasure of knowing one of your nurses shaine um shaine Booker who informed me of this position available I'm a mother of three girls and um the hours of this position worked out great for their schedule and my schedule but we don't take into consideration that signing up for a part-time job when we don't work we don't get paid so snow days holidays no paycheck and you know otherwise I'm grateful very much so for this position the bills are not um any Miss paycheck that I have I have to try to make up somehow so I'm just asking that you you know
168not demanding her full time I'm just what she said taking into consideration um full-time position or the bonuses or anything would help um this job is one of the most rewarding jobs I've ever had the pleasure of working for the position checked all the boxes as a happy employee working for NPS has made me realize what I want to do and career Riz instead of dabbling in different medical areas I want to um I want to work here for norf public schools that's all thank [Applause] you Elena Daria good evening my name is Elena da I live in G Park uh I am a commissioner with the bicycle pedestrian active Transportation Commission I'm also the wife of a nor Public Schools educator and a norfol public schools graduate I would like to First congratulate uh
169Miss Alfreda Thomas and Mr Jason in on being appointed to Council in the area that I live I appreciate you all part of the uh multimodal plan is Vision zero which clearly highlights the commit its commitments to pedestrian and bicycle safety as an avid pedest pedestrian I walk my dog every morning and at least 10 10 I walk at least 10 miles a week for personal fitness I am a witness to some of the reasons we average six P six pedestrians or bicycle fatalities a year we will never retain adult we will never retrain adults to cross the street safely we can however educate our children who are the future adults of norol two programs that can assist in this education are the Portsmouth Safety Town a nonprofit that partners with Portsmouth public schools to
170educate kindergarten through second graders on the safety of walking bicycling guns and stranger danger the latter two programs were chosen because they have effectively reduced bike and pet accidents by 4% in the city of Norfolk field trips to that would be would be very well for our children the second is safe routes to school funding was lost and the application was not completed due to inability to to secure matching funds as we were told at our 2023 August bad meeting to predi to prevent this from happening again we hope that NPS school board will support this essential program which is a national program and is mentioned in the city's Vision Vision zero strategy when considering your 2526 school year budget thank [Applause] you madam chair just concludes our speakers for this evening and the total
171was 15 thank you this concludes our public hearing to receive comments on the proposed budget and now we will have a vote on agenda item 4.0 resolution creating the educational facilities planning steering committee as a special advisory committee to the board pursuant to policy BCE School Board committees board members had the opportunity to review the resolution can I get a motion to accept the resolution Madam Madam chair are we we're done with the public he are we going to close the mistake I I just said the wrong thing 5.0 the I think we're out of I think we uh are out of order here we were supposed to discuss the resolution before going into close executive session you're voting on the resolution 3 are we at 3.02 yes mot that's the motion to go in
172a close session open I thought we were discussing the resolution resolution first then go supposed to do ja I'm sorry it is it's 4.01 it's it's not if you look up here it's at 4.01 on our cop you're supposed to vote on that first and then you go on your oh resolution1 would have to be passed in order to go into so has to be this oh this is different that must be the old I think after the motion uh and it's second Mr hch has some question yeah we're following correct this one here that must mad following this just a revised version before we uh move on off the public hearing um it may be that uhu there a couple speakers that may have been signed up that didn't well just that one that
173I called did not it was a one of us a student did you just get here um I did yes it's up to you madam chair oh he was here I called your name I called your name yes your name is Javon no I don't I didn't have you signed up you're not on here so so was there the paper I have email last week I don't have you sir and and if that was the case I I didn't have you here I don't even Madam chair yes but it's up to you madam chair oh Madam chair if I don't know if it need to make a motion or not but I definitely would love to hear from my MPS student on what they need to say thank you I see no issue with hearing
174from the student his name SCH okay are you going to put the timer back up and I I'll wait till yall get time okay yeah hold on just one moment transition okay all right uh I appreciate that um thank you uh Mr in for that um once again my name is shaine Sproul I'm a proud junor at bogerty Washington High School um so I hope that you all had the a chance to go over the complaint letters that I gave last week um and as I was saying last meeting it has been now 287 days uh since Mr Ziggler has been removed and in that time you've all proposed multi-million dollar budgets you've launched new initiatives and made major decisions that will shape our District's future and yet our choir our entire program has been
175left to crumble and that is unacceptable my intention and my anger isn't just for our choir director it's about the ongoing neglect of the Arts at Booker T Washington High School we are the visual in Performing Arts Academy the only one in Norfolk the Visual and Performing Arts Academy lacks funding we lack resources and recognition mainly meanwhile Sports continue to be prioritized celebrated and fully supported and while I have nothing against Athletic it hurts to see student artists constantly overlooked time after time when our choirs students made it into District 2 All State Choir and even the district 2 uh State Choir we received no acknowledgement from MPS even from students at grany high school myy high school or even norvie high school but when it come when a when a sports team wins a
176game it makes headline five minutes after the game why is our success not treated as more important and if anyone else here believes that what I'm saying is false or you just don't believe me at all I invite you to visit Booker T Washington High School which you all have not done in a very long time watch the struggle the students have endured our choire students see what 287 days of neglect has has has done to us no one has checked on us no one has seen the damage firsthand all we need is a meeting with one of you to discuss what when and how we will restore our choir and its success if this District truly upholds equity and Excellence no matter what then prove it interest in the Arts invest in the Arts
177recognize our achievements restore the Integrity of our programs and ensure that what happened to our choir will never happen again thank you [Applause] well this concludes our public comments yes on the proposed budget all right you back on the resolution and we're back on the resolution agenda item 4.0 I'm sorry that you did not receive updated agendas but the online agenda is updated um for members have had the opportunity to review the resolution um can I get a motion to approve the resolution I'd make a motion to approve it do I hear a second a second Mr in has brought forth the motion and Miss Tiffany Buffalo Moore Buffalo has seconded the motion Madam chair is there any discussion prior to the vote Yes uh for clarity what what are we discussing I'm I talked
178to Mr Cloud before the break but we are I I have my res uh that what I printed did not have a a subject matter on it so I just so everybody else is uh clear on what we're talking about um it is the resolution is in the agenda for this [Music] evening I on board docs when I go to 4.02 there is no attachment there 4.01 01 that's why it didn't okay thank you I got it I got it thank you Dr Martin um as I stated in an email previously today I sent to the school board members um I believe that this is um by we need to let the administration manage the um the uh facilities committee and by us interfering and going below board um it's uh showing that we don't
179trust our Administration to do the work that we have hired them to do and um it will only prolong the process so I will be voting no thank you Dr Martin Mr an did you have com yes I um I do um have um some questions give me one moment while I get everything P up so just for clarification um what we are voting on is for the 2025 steering committee recommendations um this one we are voting on whether or not we would like to make that a board committee or leave it as a a Nori public school committee got it okay awesome wonderful all right all right and so give me one second my board docks is running a little slow all right all right so what's the difference between Council maybe um what's
180the difference between The Advisory Board and administrative board because I want to understand point three it says the superintendent is still directed to do all things necessary to assist the committee so the superintendent will still be doing her job in assisting the committee on the citizens providing or advising the school board on recommendations for closure and consolidation is it is that correct the committee that superintendent formed was to advise her the board got it award uh and I I wasn't involved with this I don't know where it all came from but my understanding is the board wishes to review and potentially appoint the members of the committee the board does not appoint the members of a superintend advisor of course she's an employee of the board she is so the the real you know coming
181out of last the last session we had and with the objection to go into close session the the essential point is just to allow the board which under the Freedom of Information Act can go into close session to discuss qualifications persons it is appointing to its committee uh to allow the board to do that the board canot not going to close session to discuss the qualifications of persons that an employee of the board is going to appoint to a committee that that employed form okay got it all right and so the people that were currently on the steering committee were there's no one on the committee as I understand it no one has been appointed yet okay so the recommendations proposed membership list I'm so sorry it was a proposed membership list proposed membership list
182what where do we get people from through an application process I would like Dr White to address it thank you Dr White uh yes Mr Hing um we work with uh David sturs with the woler group okay um and what we did was to uh contract with his Consultants to handle this process and we started um in September planning for marketing um an Outreach to ask community members teachers staff all noric stakeholders to apply to be on the board so we actually um sent out Robo calls we posted it on the website we sent it out through social media and we had 99 um uh individuals to apply okay for um to be on the board so what we did we took the applications um uh set them up by Wards and we sent all
183of that information to wper consulting firm and they developed the rubric they developed the application and they made the recommendations for the steering committee and on the committee uh they recommended 30 individuals and every Ward is represented is represented um from those who applied we have uh staff members that were um recommended community members parents pastors as okay it's a very diverse group what okay thank you so much for that well um I don't know if they're a doctor lawyer teacher Pastor I haven't seen any of the applications I'm a board member I don't know if they've been um presented to any of my other board colleagues but I haven't seen any of them so why we haven't seen the applications either they were all sent to wilart groups but um I was asked to
184get to do some data analysis on the feedback looking at um you know the percentage per Ward were they parents Guardians community members faith-based Partners um teachers administrators and that was the reason I was able to give you that information got it okay understandable so this is is this is a consultant firm that we that that we're paying the school we're paying and they're providing recommendations on people that should be on on the steering committee they used a rubric I understand they used a rubric but they are providing the recommendations on these people they yes okay got it yes yes we wanted to be transparent we just wanted to offer it to anyone who wanted to apply but to go with a professional consulting firm to actually select the individuals okay well I'm so sorry
185um give me one second um fine I understand you use the word transparency um I and I say that is I see the list um in full transparency I know some people but I don't know all the people and as a Schoolboard member we should know some of those people on there and the superintendent should have shared this with us or the consultant firm should have shared with us the applications of every single member give me one second Dr White okay um they should have shared that with us in full transparency so that we would be here where we are today so I will be voting yes that this is something that the school board handles to ensure that it's full transparency ensure that if we are to appoint people um from the community it
186is a fair and equal and Equitable representation of citizens because these are the people who will advise and provide information on the recommendations of the schools and consolidations of their schools in their neighborhoods and our cities and our communities and I want to ensure that the people are the ones that are making the decisions and providing assistance I understand the superintendent here in point three that the superintendent is directed to do all things necessary to assist this Committee in its work on behalf of the school board Mr Jack does that mean that as a school board we would we can instruct the superintendent to do something since she's our employee you could the point of that was and that's fairly typical language in something like this or an ordinance is just to be because you
187the board can't manage this somebody's going to have to notify the public of their meetings things like that so the administration would direct the cler and they might need secretarial help at time if they're going to do a written report they might need assistance to that so the idea was just in terms of their whatever their administrative work is necessary they'll have they can rely on the superintendent in your Administration to assist them got it and that's kind of boilerplate language okay so the superintendent will still act in the administrative capacity correct on this will help the committee to advise you know and their work advis you ask me got it but this school board that was elected and appointed by the citizens will have oversight of the advisory committee is that correct it's it's
188an advisory committee to the board to the board you appoint the members and they report to you uh ultimately okay all right thank you so much um go ahead Dr right I don't know if you can recall but at the last meeting we had David sturz uh prepared to present this information because if I look at my timeline The Next Step was to bring this information to the board okay and um he wasn't able to present but we were going to bring this information to the board we weren't you know keeping it from you we just had everything in order and then it was time to present it to the board for your feedback and input go ahead Contin hand up are you done Mr no I'm not done yet um I just have one
189more thing um okay um so you said y'all were going to bring this to us correct yeah it was on the agenda uh Mr freedy could you come up please because I know we had David STS on standby and and what um and then I I believe there was a motion made okay we couldn't go through with the presentation yes Dr White referring the fact that uh as I understand it the superintendent administration had made arrangements so that if you had to close session he was going to participate from wherever he is I think he's in Ohio via Zoom but since uh because of the legal issues that were raised you didn't have the close session uh he was on standby but just didn't do it got it okay understand uh good evening so two
190years ago when David sturs presented um the information for um our our our seat capacity versus our actual enrollment he presented to this board his plan on how we would go about um evolving uh recommendations to move forward he told this board that he would he was going to have professionals come and and deliver data he told this board he was going to give them the best committee that we've ever had there's it's it's on board do I mean it was recorded okay and so this was all part of that process okay and so it has been transparent PR to you you know joining our board and everyone knew about it okay yes sir okay yeah but I did want to remind you that it was on the agenda last meeting so it would have
191been on the agenda for us to look over all the applicants and understand the whole discussion looking at giving everything to you yes okay all right okay all right so yeah okay I'm good with my questions I will let my colleague Miss Vine and Miss Vine and then Mr Paulson um I'll I'll defer to Mr Paulson if you could come back to me thank you uh it's difficult for me to understand why the board when it's facing things like the budget um the Mory project policy review and other serious matters that we want to take on another task we want to take and oversee this board and it will we will eventually have to sit in the session and decide who's going to be on there uh when it's already been determined it's already on
192Pace it's already moving now we're going to stop it and we're going to take it and then when are we going to get to it when are we going to make it move forward that's my one of my concerns but we need we should leave it in place as it is and uh move forward and let the superintendent handle it we get we get updates we can schedule them and say we will get an update whenever but for us to do as we we looking like we're going to go and hopefully we won't um we will leave it where it is and I'm am not in support of this res this uh resolution that's coming up and I yield the floor Tanya yeah um so this committee is an educational and Facilities planning steering committee
193it is not going to be just focused on facilities correct Mr fairy right what we've been doing around educational planning and the committee was formulated to advance the review of of portfolio reduction and and and the way we align schools correct but with with our Schoolboard goals at the center of it and educational planning specs being at the center building off of those goals right so that's where um and wport did say at our meeting you know that they are not uh in the community um and so I guess the question concerned that I have is the individual how they and and I did in full transparency to the board and I know most of you um are new I had asked this question in November of what the what the selection process was going
194to be what the rubric was going to be and to which I it was shared that it was going to be as our Schoolboard advisory committees are selected and I did share that um following our meeting or during our meeting last meeting I did share that with you all uh board colleagues um at the last meeting so my expectation was that we would get recommendations from the administration like we do with our advisory committees but where we get all of the applicants we provided all of the applications we have a spreadsheet that indicates um who the individuals are what affiliation they have with Nori Public Schools are they a parent are they an employee are they a Community member or industry professional um and and we go about it that way so that was my
195expectation um around this based on what the administ the information the administration had shared with me at that time so I'm confused about what and where and when it it has I guess became an issue where where walper is determining this and even though I I heard him say that um at the meeting I did raise that question at that time but like where we are moving forward I think as representatives of the community which the board is we represent the vision and values of the community who better than um us to review um the citizens that are going to be impacted by the decisions we make so that's that's kind of where where my position lies if I could add that Mr C hired a local company here to vet those applications and make
196recommendations because he too felt he being a you know he lives in Ohio that's right the he felt he felt that he he needed somebody a little closer to home that was vested in the community so he hired them to assist him in identifying those individuals and they did use a rubric okay that's fair okay Mr PA again I I have to reiterate that we we are not in a position with what we're facing to take this on we we seem to be in a hurry and the biggest concern I have is that if we become selecting everybody the we politicalized the process and that is not a good way for us to do business and we are really behind in our business and we need to become better at it I yield the floor
197I'd like to make a comment I had her hand up I know but what I guess I'll put my hand up after a don't Dr Martin yeah so many times um in the six and a half years that I've been on this board we've um really griped a lot about I'm not going to say complained but we you know about how we don't have people stepping up to join our committies it's always the same people the same pool of people and so I agree with having our consultant who you know obviously took the extra smile to reach out to a local um company to help in making sure that we had a good cross-section of people across the um across the city and that we're not still pulling on the same people uh so I
198I I'm really happy to hear that that that happened I like the local touch and I am not in support of us meddling and who is on this committee it's way too important if I could one more comment I called the gentleman that held my seat before I was promoted to this position Mr John hazet he said the original committee was not appointed by the board that he he organized the original committee okay I'm just saying we have we have that comment about all the Committees that we try to put together it's always the same people yes I'd like to make a comment as I see this committee as one of the most consequential for the school system as we are looking to them to make suggestions on consolidations and closures and F and further
199educational planning we are the representatives of this city on the school board and I think we have I think that we need to make sure that this committee is selected correctly and I think that the oversight that we might provide is inv valuable we were elected to these positions these are this is an incredibly consequential committee and I am going to vote in favor of this resolution are there any other comments sir Dr Mr Paulson I think he uh I'll yield to um my colleague I believe he was up version chairwoman um thank you so much for your um words um we have seen historically in the past um with norol public schools and the trust between the community and norol public schools we now have a new board um we have a few people
200Adele thank you so much for still being around um but we we have a new board and ananya yeah ananya um but this is an opportunity for us to get it right for us to rebuild that trust with our community and let this be a Community Focus community-led process because eventually School our schools enroll is declining we will have to make the decision us the school board will have to make the final decision on closing schools but it should be up to the citizens the those that we appoint it is not politicized because we are all nonpartisan so they are putting in an application and so I believe that the citizens should have that say in advising us the school board on who who and what schools should be closed at the end of the
201day that's where I stand on the issue I know I know our colleagues May differ but I just want the citizens to know because I'm the new guy but I want to make it very clear it's all about accountability transparency and openness with me Dr Martin um these the people that are being selected by our consultant are citizens yes so and we are very transparent so I I I'm you know I'm not sure that I'm following your reasoning on how these are this would be these citizens are different than any other citizens I think that it's great that we're we're actually including a more diverse group of citizens than what what as I previously said than what we normally have um in our committees again we have a lot of wonderful people who step up
202over and over and again over again but we do need more diverse selection and if we're picking them there is an innate bias in that process so that's why I am definitely in favor of the process that the administration um took understandable one us follow up and then I'll be good to go hopefully this I can make it make sense for you on where I'm coming from okay um once again I have not seen the full list of the I've seen the people I have not seen an application I I don't know these people I I understand you have it but it won't give to us at the beginning of the process so in transparency I'm still going to be voting yes that this needs to be something that the community does that's it that's
203what I stand on let's move forward are way they're doing it I think out for you miss Thomas yes Thomas um at this time I'm feeling the same way Mr Paulson and Dr Martin is feeling um we don't have the time to take on anything else we really have not done much as a new board and I just feel like this is just going to be something that's going to put us further behind I have faith in the superintendent and her directors that they would do what they need to do we have to give them a chance I feel like we have more important work that we need to focus on that's just my opinion of course thank you thank you uh M more Buffalo we have not heard from you would you like to
204make any remarks before we go to a vote um not too many remarks I'll be supporting the resolution I'm sorry did you recognize it yes oh I'm sorry I didn't hear it thank you um what we're having over here if you will is the difference of who's going to be overseeing the board and we will see it from one position now we think that the super attendant who uh uh started it it's her initiative it was in the school system if you will and we take it away she should still be she started it let her finish it but we took it away by Tak it was a day-to-day operation at that time and that now it becomes questionable whether we are interfering in my mind that we're interfering with the day-to-day operation by taking
205this uh control of this also um we will whether the superintendent's in charge or we're in charge the superintendent's in there but we are in a different role it should it should be left where it started I yield for let's call the vote um Miss Tanner please call the rooll yes SC I Buffalo i h i Martin nay pson nay Thomas nay D calago hi motion is approved the school board will now go into a closed executive session miss Tanner please read the motion move that the members of the school board of the city of norfol go into a closed meeting for the purposes which are set out in subsection a of section 2.2-inch board pursuant to subsection 2.2 D 3711 A1 of the ACT the subjects of this portion of the session are the
206discussion of candidates for possible appointment to the school board's educational facilities planning steering committee B consultation with legal councel regarding specific legal matters requiring a provision of legal advice by Council pursuant to subsection 2.2 D 3711 A8 of the act the subject of this portion of the closed session is for legal advice in connection the matter set above in subsection a of this motion Bine I can I just add maybe I missed it was there a motion in a second yeah it was in and buffalo I just want to be sure on on the motion going yeah we we just talked for a long period of time yeah they just had discussion um Buffalo I inch I Martin I pson hi Thomas I to C jro hi and I will escort you to a motion
207please to come out of closed executive session I move that we come out of executive closed session I second so uh Miss Tiffany Mo Buffalo has brought forth the motion and Miss Bine has seconded the motion Miss Tanner please call the role Miss record Dr Martin had to leave the Clos session and that's why she can't participate in certify that the meeting was proper she left at 8:04 p.m. okay 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 norfol has convened a closed meeting on this date pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and whereas section 2.2 3712
208of the code of Virginia requires the certification by the school board of the city of norfor that such closed meeting was 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 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 certification resolution applies and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the executive meeting were heard discussed or considered by the school board of the city of norfol bassine I Buffalo I en I pson I Thomas I the cero hi thank you for all coming this evening and the meeting is now adjourned awesome thank you thank
209you have a great night everyone you too