School Board Work Session: 2-7-24

001session for Wednesday February 7th thank you all for being here and Miss Tanner could you call the rooll for me please here pres here Stone here here thank you all right we have the agenda is before us and we're going to I just want to say we have two things on the agenda uh regarding Student Success and the Budget Finance um Dr bong and Dr po will lead us in a uh discussion about progress monitoring GOI revisiting go five interim goals um then we'll go in a conversation about progress monitoring and of time permits we will talk about some um School Board operating um procedures I have um shared with the board we're going to um allow an hour for item agenda item two and agenda item three we are here scheduled till 6:30 so

002give us some time to um discuss so but I'm not going to take up too much more time I'm going to hand it over to Dr burong good afternoon everyone um as you all are aware the Administration has presented to you goal number five along with the interim measures so whatever the board's desire is and moving forward we're prepared to discuss uh goal five and the interim measures once again Dr po Dr BD song and um as Dr bird song said um as presented in December and then discussed I think at the last board meeting 05 in the in measures school board members you heard Dr pole do you have any questions around um we did confirm goal five was what we um well two weeks ago we decided that we were um good with

003Goal five and so the interm goals that we have here that are aligned with gold five so I'm going to open the floor up for any questions if if you if you would could you just walk us through um just walk us through it again so we have a understanding of it Mr Jordan so um goal five was agre agreed upon to be the percentage of NPS graduates graduates receiving Advanced Studies diplomas will meet or exceed the state average by the end of the Sy 2627 or the class of 2027 um currently The NPS average is 35.3 for advanced studies diplomas and the state average is 51.5 um so the goal setting for the um five-year um or for the the sorry the Trend data for the five years was listed on the slide just

004as an additional data piece um from 1819 where um NPS was at 36.6 and you can see that you know a little bit of a climb and a little bit of a decline and and we're we're following just about the state's line um average it's just we below their average um so then the targets were set um keeping the state average you know the same through the the period because we just can't guesstimate where that will be but setting our targets to move up towards the state average um and then the um to track this looking at specific cohort data so the 2027 cohort would be our current um ninth grade class um yep I don't want to do that math one more time in my head but it's our current ninth grade class um

005so you'd see um for quarter 1 data um there were 44.8% of the students that were currently on on track our Target would be for 50% um and doing further calculation right now I believe we have just over 90% of our ninth grade class or cohort 2027 who were enrolled in courses if as long as they're passing all of them that would be on track for an advanced studies diploma um as we discussed when this was presented one of the the largest barriers is language for our students when they get into their sophomore year not taking a World Language um and then we looked at cohort 2026 which is our current 10th grade class um and and in quarter 1 27.7% um were on track um according to our data and we want to get

006that to 40% by the end of the year which is possible because when looking at it if if every student was successful right now I believe we were and I don't have the data point right in front of me around 50% of our students would could be on track for advanced studies that are in the correct courses for that and then our last one was cohort 2025 and the reason that was our last is because this year's cohort 2024 they're already there there's nothing much more we can do to get them in another class um and you'll see that there currently there's 25.3% with a final Target of 34% um which again is doable with the success rate of passing all the classes um and then under each table um we listed what courses would

007they have to be enrolled in in passing and order to um uh achieve thank you for that review Dr Paul is there any questions doc Miss B thank you Dr Paul for um allowing an opportunity for us to review this again and um I'll have a shared understanding of of the goal and the interim um the interim measures um I have one question regarding um the interim measures so I understand and I can appreciate you know looking at the cohorts each of the cohorts to make sure that um you know whether they're on track or not on track but when I look at um like when I was looking at last year's Advanced diploma data and looking at looking at it by school and by demographics um you know you see some distinct um differences

008across schools as you know and um so I was wondering if looking at the cohorts overall uh correlate best with us reaching that goal or whether or not we reach that goal or if we should uh be looking at specific schools or specific demographics um to you know particularly our African-American students and how they're accessing the advanced diploma uh track you know so I can assure you miss Bine that we break that data down internally by school and by demographics um and and focus on that when students are enrolling or anything uh my understanding with with the school board goals is that the goal is the overarching division um so you know when we're reporting out we're reporting out the overarching division um I I believe it was Mr Jordan who said really focusing on

009the data that's data um which which relates right to the goal so if you know if if the board's decision is to want to dig deeper and have more data we're happy to report more data but I don't want to inundate you with data that that's not needed so but we I assure you that we are looking by school and by demographic to know you know specifically where where do we need to see growth the most um in order to achieve the board's goal over the fiveyear period um yeah well I was I was and I appreciate that um I was hoping we could have maybe some board discussion around whether um if if there any response to what I just shared or I was raising my hand for the same reason okay right yeah

010we can open up if you have any questions well if I may yes you may so you know I guess my thought is and going back to dr's Po's point is not so much about more data but if it's the the right data for us to be able to monitor progress so I had a similar question because as we look at the you know in the footnote it's identified that you know all the different courses that have to be calculated in order to track the the progress but my question similar to miss Bassin would be whether or not you know I don't know if it's geometry you know if if there there some course or courses that we know are the showing up as the biggest barriers of gateways whichever way you want to look

011at it should we then really be looking at as part of the interims um having one that gives us Focus as to how children are enrolling in a particular class and also more importantly how they are performing and so if we knew that I me you're all experts on this but let's say if we knew that geometry for example was um one of the courses that was um limiting our students achieving Advanced diplomas then a interim could focus on uh you know the percentage of students that are successfully passing geometry and um you know in a smart way and then that's something we could then hone in in on that would let us know would be one indicator of whether or not they're likely to achieve an advanced diploma versus rolling rolling it all up

012and that was kind of what what my thought was and that that was actually what I was trying to get at like so you mentioned language you know language being a big barrier you know so if that is a big barrier and we know that based on the data that you've um reviewed and if there are limitations for instance like when you look at school by school data you know Lake Taylor and Booker T Washington have lower Advanced percentage of students who are earning Advanced diplomas and if the world language is a barrier then you know from an equity standpoint how do we ensure that that barrier is removed and you know so and I I I want to be cautious the the barriers not necessarily with course offering here the barrier is with course

013selection so one of the the things that we're working on now as we're entering course selection for the next year is the high levels of encouragement for students to take that World Language as a sophomore um because that's our first gateway really is the is the world language course if they don't take that by a sophomore year getting three years is near impossible unless they can do a summer course in it um which would have to be through virtual Virginia or somewhere else um and and and that's just more difficult to do so so that sophomore year is the barrier and then Mr Jordan to your comment you know when we get to the the senior year sometimes that fourth science or the the fourth Math course where the students are just like you know

014um I I'm I'm I'm I'm career oriented and I know where I want to go and what I want to do in the advanced studies I don't I don't need it um or students at that point who you know some of our our our student athletes who know they're going to go and play and they don't need that course to get into college for the advanced studies they may just say I'd rather not put it on my plate senior year so so those are the conversations we need to have um and that you know the difference with the advanced studies diploma sometimes it's not a it's not a gatekeeper to college um or university level it's it's you know just a a higher level of study at their High School level and another conversation that

015we need to have is with our parents um our parents definitely have to be engaged in these convers ations because um changing the mindsets of teenagers often um when they are just ready to go to college and they feel like they've already been accepted and um there's really no motivation to take that higher level science class then sometimes it just takes good old Mama to say you will enroll in this class and you will be successful so I think this is another opportunity for our parents to be really engaged in the whole process and to know about you know where their children are and where they want them to be their own goals for their children and how their children can get there Dr Gabriel thank you um so two comments I appreciate how you

016mentioned that while we will strive for the academic diploma academic diploma does not necessarily mean that if you don't graduate with one you will not be successful UC F because we know that through all of the Career and Technical education that has been really pushed and well supported in the division those students are going to be destined for Success after MPS with multiple certifications one of them may not be an advanced diploma but they will be certified and will be ready for the world of work um and so when I look at the goal um for um it's on the computer when I look at the goal I see the goal as resting with the board and the measures as resting with the superintendent and then when when you great um Illustrated the dip that

017we had um and you compared it to the state dip I think that's when it's appropriate for your team to go back and say why did we have that dip is it geometry is it the foreign language and then you come back to us and say okay because I may not be the one to know that geometry is it and I may not be the one as a board member to know that the language is it but you all should be on that like right away you should be able to pinpoint that area through the data and I would I would expect that when you come back and present to us that you would say this is where we pinpointed the dip and these are the interventions that we're making we're making these courses more

018readily available we're having tutoring we're going to talk with our parents about the foreign language etc etc but for me I want us to focus on the overarching goal and I want to leave you all with the interim measures Mr Clanton thank you u m Buffalo um and and I totally agree with a lot of things that have been said here we're not going to what I'm about to say is not definitely not a direction of changing anything here but as the board continues with this conversation I like us really um I've often talked about you know the career being ready for college is one thing and I think this is what the advanced studies kind of sets it up for though it can be for other things but the Career and Technical component I'm

019being ready for career um life military service um even the entrepreneurship piece is another big thing out there now um I was literally at a conference and they were talking about there's two new jobs that are out there youall heard me talk about it but there's a AI consultant yeah AI engineer totally you know we would have thought about it a couple years ago but I think that at a board level when we kind of look at tracking all those things down there sends the right message from the board that it isn't just about going to college though I believe that you know there's lifelong learning and there's many roads to that but we want truly to send a message that we want our students to be successful tracking those who are on top and

020you heard me say this before I don't want one student to be what I consider gen pop that's some kid who's just going through the motions through high school and has no clear Direction where they're going if we are strategic and leaving it up to you but the board setting up a a a goal said that we want every child that the student when they get to high school to have a clear Direction and a pathway where they're going to go I think that it sends everything else that we do our funding where we put resources teachers structure all those things are strategic on that and focused on that we'll see a lot of great results coming out at kids graduating on time attendance issues disciplinary issues because kids want to be here you know

021my my my nephew graduated last year engaged my nephew graduated last year and often times I would gauge what was going on in school sometimes from what they would say to me and he was just like you know Uncle C you know some of these kids don't want to be here he knew he wanted to be there because if not Uncle C was gonna show up but at the end of the day it's how do we really engage and reach a a demographic of students for them to see it's it's not the old day it's not when any of us were in school it's a show me right now and and kids need to see that where they're going to go and I think if we at a board level kind of take this to

022another level on this goal I know that we were trying to get there I think this is a great start but I think there's some other components to this goal that needs to be placed there I and that's the only thing I'm seeing it's not going to happen today but I'd like to definitely see us to continue that conversation moving forward I just wanted to so I think that the conversation that we're having is the challenge conversation that we always have so the the you know we have um you know five goals um four of them are student outcome focused and one is kind of a uh you know the accreditation is kind of on the end of results it's not really student outcome focus in that um when we say student outcomes and we'll

023talk about this some more in a minute we we mean you know what students know and are able to do so we've identified um five priorities or five goals for the board to monitor so these goals are really supposed to be uh consideration of as we've uh considered what we've heard from the community that we represent and as we've examined the the data that's been presented to us you know what's high needs and high leverage and so if you recall we the administration is presented us all kinds of data that was pointing out our F our where our students are in terms of of of literacy and so we have a goal that really a couple of goals that deal with literacy and then we also looked at goals and data as relates to maap

024performance and subgroup gaps so we had a goal that we came up with on at least looking at early early to Middle School 3 through eight gaps there and again with a focus on literacy and math and then when we were having this conversation around this fifth goal we started out around you know college in career Readiness and we got stuck I think because it looked like we were the way the formula was driving it was more geared around what students were enrolling in not what students were knowing so additionally as we received the equity report and some of the other things that we looked at the my understanding is that the conversation grew around the advanced studies diploma was not so much to say whether college is good and career is bad because ultimately

025we know we have a larger strategic goal outside of these board goals that intends for every student to be College and Career ready and we know that the accreditation system and all the systems that we have in the Strategic plan are touching on that so it's not that this Advanced Studies diploma goal um as we've agreed to it really is saying anything other than trying to make sure that our students on the on the uh what they know and are able to do that they are learning and mastering content that um puts them into in a position to successfully earn an advanced study diploma so it's still really trying to center around what students know and are able to do um we also have some non-negotiables that we can that we'll talk about at some

026point but everything um isn't going to end up in a goal and just because it doesn't end up in a goal doesn't mean it's not important and so my other comment is to to Dr Gabriel's comment the interims while they are defined by the administration we really want interim that are that are able to show the board that there's some that progress on the interims will lead to um achievement of the goal and that that the goal is something that's influenceable by the superintendent so for example to what extent the superintendent can influence what parents do I don't know but what we know what the superintendent Administration can do kind of what Dr pole was talking about is um on one side making sure that students are um prepared for the advanced classes are enrolling

027in the advanced classes then obviously with teaching and learning this happening successfully completing the classes and so I think the the piece what we need to get a good feel for with the interim from a board's perspective is if you look at the interims um if you if we were to if the targets are being met and we are monitoring those targets will they eventually get us to the goal and so you know I'm still of the mind that I think what's there is fine but I think what's missing is hearing from the you know having Administration perhaps come back to us and say maybe that there is whether it's uh World Language or whether it is geometry or something that we're measuring in terms of the student knowledge component um as we as we

028monitor we don't set it but at least gives us an indication as to whether or not there's a high leverage or high need um course that our students need to be successfully completing so that as you know we talk about that one to five page report there's a whole piece in there around where the superintendent can talk to us about strategies and I I think that's where we're having this conversation around if we see that a is not leading to B then in the report they'll let us know these are the strategies that we are doing and that's where that real conversation comes in but it all starts with us having to goal in the interims being able to set up that that conversation okay Miss Stone you um what I think I hear everyone

029saying is that the data that we have here is good it's a good starting point it gives us something um and more is not necessarily needed on a regular basis that the the measures that we have here are achieving with the goal at least what goal five is doing here um and then the extra piece would just be we're recognizing within other pieces of the data that this is what's causing the drop and just giving us that action piece from the background just for our own understanding as the board on what the moves are um especially as we consider budgetary concerns and things that we have to con or policies that we need to change to help support those interim pieces um that's what I think I hear everyone saying is that the the data

030that we have here for go 5 is good um there are extra pieces that are definitely helpful and as you identify them you can that this Administration can bring that back and say these are things we noted are were the major issues these are the action pieces that we're taking just so that we know but the piece that we really need is the data that we have before us and so my suggest would just be that that the data itself stays the same we're just getting that extra piece I I'm trying to remember which of the many PowerPoints I've now seen it was but there there was like the the piece at the end that said here are the things we noted and that we're working on that were affecting this data just so you

031know what the background is we didn't need like all of the information but enough to tell us that the the needle's moving in the right direction or what what the action pieces are on the on the administration side um the second comment and or suggestion that I have is I know I mentioned at our last meeting that my the difficulty that I have in conceptualizing our goals and what we're doing with them is just that thematic piece and what I'm hearing from our conversations is that we essentially have three themes Happening Here that we're caring about accreditation and performance that's goal one and goal four literacy which is goal two and goal three and then um college and maybe career Readiness which is goal five and maybe when we get into the board's discussion about

032our next steps maybe we add a goal six so that we have two goals under each of those themes so we have three main themes and maybe if we think about them in that way that will help us focus our conversations a little bit more because it sounds like we're all on the same page that accreditation performance literacy and College and Career Wess is is really what our focuses are going to be and what our messaging should be and so if we put those in those themed areas and maybe structure these goals what they say that those are the things that are focusing on these goals are supporting those things it might make it a little bit easier for us to have these conversations I would you know the the recommendation is usually that we

033have three to five and so um and that's how we you know we start off with this long list and we pair it down we pair it down we pair it down I do agree um like I said of the of the five that we have we um and the and they're not ordered in terms of priority that just ordered um so the the accrediation goal that we have is is not really a student outcome goal right it's really about what adults do um so we if we decide to um do anything additional um how we monitor that that first one may be very different than any any additional ones if we decide to put an an additional an additional goal sure and I'm not suggesting that we add one right now that would be

034silly to do at this point in the school year I'm just saying that the if we think about it because I I'm hearing the same things come up over and over and it might help us focus our conversations and help us um think about those goals in what our our overarching idea is so we care about literacy we care about performance we care about um colge and Career College and or career and we'll get to the career piece as we as we work through this but it might help us to think about it and to structure this in that way and um in that way it just focuses conversations like we said we would like to be able to do uh and I lost complete track of that sentence I apologize just help us focus

035in those conversations so we're being very clear about what those are and um and and wrap ourselves around how that works and then be able to think about it that way and I'm not suggesting that we change them it's working with those goals and also leaves room to talk further when we think about next year and how we want to continue part of Miss Buffalo if I since we're just we're just having a conversation now part of what we've what we've heard and continue to hear is um so as we were looking at data and having conversations around the the goals often what we would hear from uh the community that we represent that it seemed like we were skewering our Focus to students who had um certain challenges but we aren't we weren't giving

036enough Focus to students who may be in the middle that need to be pushed or people who or students who were already at a certain point and need to be pushed further and I think this Advanced study goal also was sitting around trying to be responsive to what the community was saying it you know the goals in and what they valued and so with the advanced studies it allows for um Everybody kind of fall in the box if you will and making sure that we are doing the things that are necessary to make sure that wherever our students are that all of them are progressing towards uh what the advanced studies requires the other thing I would throw out for the board and also for Dr bong and Dr pole as I was looking at

037this again with the focus on um closing the gap between the MPS average and the state so we know that right now um at least from last year data the state was at that 51.5 and Dr Paul I think you mentioned earlier that we are we kind of keep that consistent while at the same time um by the time we get to the end of the cycle if the state average um went up then we would really be examining our end of the cycle performance against the state's beginning of the cycle performance what what's the downside of of looking at the almost like we did with maybe it was the uh the achievement Gap that if the 51.5 was the floor but if the state average went up that annually we would still be looking

038at our end of the year result against their end of the year result and then whatever adjustments or strategies that the administration wanted to bring back to that would eventually close the gap so in school year 2627 whatever the state average is and our performance is is zero as long as the um as long as the you know the state average isn't falling you know our should continue to go up and if theirs goes up the Gap should still continue to narrow is there some value for us not having the static 51.5 but actually putting actual in and and that would then inform what additional work or strategies we would need to do to continue the gaps to to close so um if you recall uh my viewpoint for from a about a year and

039a half ago we presented the Strategic plan and it was a massive amount of data I know and some big charts I realize that I love my charts but your charts are good but if you recall I'm a proponent of the Gap in that plus or minus percentage around the Gap so I'm a proponent of looking at our current Gap and saying we just want to tighten that Gap so if the state goes up 5% maybe we go up five a half per. you know so we start just closing that Gap and if the state goes down you know like you said we still want to go up because we want to close that Gap but I'm more of a proponent of looking at the Gap and the nature of the Gap instead of trying

040to because we can't guesstimate where the state's going to be which is why we left at 51.5 level we just can't guesstimate where they're going to be but we can certainly set our goal to grow which closes the Gap but like you were saying Mr Jordan at this point if the state goes up up you know 10% and we're not going up that much then our goals then we're not really closing the Gap at that point I'm more a fan of a plus or minus around the Gap rather than setting specific data points like we did on this goal and the plus or minus what you're describing as a plus or minus be a a interim can you write the if if plus is if plus or minus matters and it still impacts the closing

041of the Gap what's to prevent you all from coming back and using your plus or minus concept as something that we would monitor but monitored as an interim goal towards the overarching goal so we could do it on an annual basis because we couldn't do it quarterly because we don't know the state's average quarterly because that's not reported until I think October is when we find out the official state average um but we're the way we're recording this on an inter basis based on success in enrollment in courses so at the beginning of the year it's really did we get the students enrolled in the courses um that that they need to be in in order to even get in advanced studies then throughout the year is what's our success rate on the students passing

042the courses they need um in order to earn that credit by the end of the year and to stay on track so the plus minus annually we could do Mr Jordan when we report out in the fall on it um but to get to the final goal of of being at the state average and that's where that plus minus would come in um in in my viewpoint but during the year it's really about we we're going to have to goal set like we did and and and push to make those goals that are reasonable as well um you know to to make to make the progress we want to make as a division for our students and our community Mr Jordan does that mean I didn't do a good job with my lesson on plus

043or minus 10 when we were Gap no it just means that it's I can't speak for I can only speak for myself I just think it's I think you did a very good job on the lesson it's hard to translate into into this piece much and um but you can't fit it fit that in an interim box yeah um but is there is there I guess Dr berson Dr pole is there is there some agreement around perhaps bringing back an interim that targets um you know some some course or some Gateway course on the not on the enrollment side but performance I I I think with the conversation it's given me a better mindset of our interim reports okay so I don't think it comes in with a goal setting but it's with the in

044report so you know a couple years ago when I with the presentations I started with those under of the slides like Miss Stone said where you know what is the data telling us and you know what are the implications and what are our next steps same kind of a thing with the report format that we've we've created now that that we've started and I know we're still perfecting but I think specifically with this one one of the things that we did start looking at when we looked at this data is okay what is the enrollment then that's how I knew the numbers off my head as far as our enrollment part you know I knew like 91% of our freshmen our ninth graders are enrolled in the right classes but we also know traditionally which

045is a strategic plan goal our failure rate in the ninth grade is the highest of all grade levels so what courses specifically are causing that that go into the advanced studies diploma and how can you report on that to the board and tell you what we're doing specifically for that I that's the feeling I'm getting for this conversation that I think will help close that kind of the Gap we have within the inter room and what you're really looking for as a board so we'll make sure when we do the reporting on this that we give the depth of knowledge of for our ninth graders you know it's it's the passing of Algebra 1 and it's the you know um passing of English nine right now maybe um for our 10th graders it's you know

04640% didn't even enroll in a language and other the 60% that did enroll language maybe only 30% are passing and I'm just making these numbers up to the community and everybody else who's watching but we can report to that kind of a depth to give us a feeling then then we can also share with next steps of what we're doing currently with course enrollment currently with tutoring um and currently with professional development staff to make sure that we're we're honing in on those areas because that's how we make success to the goal right and that's what we're doing anyway with the data but we can report it that way in our in our quarterly like that too fair enough good conversation thank you thank you Dr Paul my pleasure for next we're going to um

047kind of touch on stay here and kind of touch on I want to have some discussion around the monitoring calendar yeah you yeah so um almost um uh piggybacking off where we just left off so we left off with uh go five and um and we received some interims so one of the things that that I think I heard Dr pole reference was when's the best time of the year to have information that for example would allow us to affect ly monitor go five so in the in the monitoring calendar um what we're attempting to do is um twice a month be able to get a uh progress monitoring report on our goals twice a month we should be we should we should be doing a a monitoring reports at hopefully at every meeting right

048and no more than uh two so what you have is a draft start um that I put together to try to align what um what we had set out in a potential monitoring calendar that I built off of the monitoring calendar that Dr pole did all I did was in the in the first column you we've we've arrived at five goals so I listed out the goals then I took where Dr po had indicated where the data may be available and assigned that to a month trying to get some type of cadence with it and so we know we have student outcome goals that will be monitoring and non-negotiables that will be monitoring and then the the measures come or that come straight from the interim goals so so each month the board would know

049ahead of time really all the way from February of 2024 through uh June of 2027 what we would be monitored be a the calendar should last as long as the the goals last and then each month we would know well ahead of time what what to expect and so I just attempted because the administration also needs to look at it see if it makes sense to lay out what we what our schedule might be from today through uh through August what I was guessing at was uh like we were just had the conversation around uh go five and an advanced diploma at the time we didn't know what the the interim goals may be so it just shows up uh if we have typically two meetings in a month then the top box is the

050work session the second box is the business meeting probably at a workshop in in some um then when we have like if you look at March the conversation was we may have a board retreat so if there's three meetings then it's potential that we could do three monit reports in a mon so ultimately um by way happy uh Schoolboard appreciation month and so what we're trying to do is say that um you know excellence in the classroom begins with excellence in the boardroom so we are um monitoring the progress of our of our students so that's where this commitment comes in where you look at our board Norms where we said our goal was to try to spend at least 50% of our time focus on how our students are doing and less time on

051adults and all the other stuff that we talk about that have little to do with student outcomes so in any event the intent so let's say if we went to March so the um Advanced diploma we just had a conversation if the administration came back in March with any adjustments then that's something that that's why that's there in in March I don't think we're ready to do any monitoring of it but at least I was trying to note the fact that it was possible coming out of this meeting that there may be some adjustments and we didn't want to lose track of that we already know we're on a sequence around a third grade reading a goal two and goal three so that listed on the non-negotiables part of what we are uh we adopted

052the non-negotiables but we haven't really gotten the the interims yet around the non-negotiables so we need to close that Loop and uh and then if you go into April both of those around uh go four because the go four has a big block around reading and a big block around math and before we were kind of monitoring it it at least from my perspective it was hard trying to separate the reading and the math so this still does the reading and math it just breaks them out where one we're focused on the reading and one we're focused on the on the math and so this is just a starter and then we get into um June we knew we were talking about you know receiving preliminary results so again rather than the the for format

053where we were getting all this strategic plan data it was to get the Strategic plan data and that's not the negative I we get the Strategic plan data but it should flow into the goals and then if we do mid year Retreat a a summer Retreat and a midyear Retreat or if other times let's say on a quarterly basis that the administration want to bring us a larger uh review of how we're progressing with the Strategic plan that can still be done but it doesn't become uh a competitive environment we stay focused on what we've prioritized and from time to time we can still see those other things that that we know that the division is working on um that's important so the the task here is to determine whether or not the sequencing makes

054sense that we're going to commit Comm ourselves to that because if you look at right now we spend about at least on paper let's say we spend so the business meeting we start at 4 and let's say we might end at 9 so that's five hours at a work session right now Mr Jordan that that's not my goal oh no I'm just I'm just talking about the way things are right now right the the point is if every month I'll doing numbers I can handle in my head if if every month we we met for eight hours total then four of our hours should be spent on the board focusing on student outcomes right now if you were to look at our meetings we're not structur that way if it takes about 45 minutes to

055do a progress monitoring report then if we have a work session and then then we have to be able to shape our agenda so if we were to do two report it's 90 minutes so we prioritize this the monitoring for the 90 minutes if there's an another whatever hour left whatever other things need to be done we can do that but right now at the business meeting where we have longer meetings know we'll start it for we'll do close session uh outside of the um none of none of the none of the close session deals with uh um student outcomes now we do do a student uh Services report but it's not really about what students know and can do spend a lot of time on Personnel we spend a lot of time on other

056things we then come into the business meeting um we sent we get the reports we do a monthly financial report nothing in the business meeting is student outcome Focus so we would need to adjust our practices and behavior so that as a board um we would spend especially if we kind of keep that business meeting format that we spend less time um dealing with adult stuff and more time dealing with student outcomes and that's what this monitoring calendar is trying to get us at every single meeting that we are at least spending uh time on our board goals and how we're progressing on those goals and hearing from the administration how we're doing and how the strategies are working because if we get that Cadence and behavior down then imagine this time next year during

057the budget time we would have we would know all along the way this is what we're doing this is how we're doing we'll be hearing about strategies the administration may be telling us about needs and so all of this resources performance evaluation all that stuff is taking place every single month because we're now focused on student outcomes as we said we want it to be I just wanted to let you know what's in front of you but we really need to um get some sense from the board is there a commitment to this and then allow the the administration to come back and really map this out with their better understanding of when data is available and all the internal machinations that they have to do in order to um provide us the reports based

058upon that sequencing all right with that said do I have any questions got about 10 minutes for this section Miss Bing um I don't I don't have any questions but I do want to express my support for um establishing this monitoring calendar and having it I think it's it's great um it gives us an Outlook as to what we're going to be covering when and um really keeps us focused in on topics so um I I just wanted to express my support for it anyone Dr Gabriel thank you um so Mr Jordan you when you did the monitoring calendar you based it off of this perfect okay I I I like a good road map I like being able for us and the administration to know ahead of time what the expectations are if it's

059possible to plan months and months and months and months in advance and it simplifies um any type of uh uh last minute requests then and if this keeps us focused and structured then the additional layers I think it it it just kind of outlines things just a little bit differently but I can definitely um I'm fine with this as long as Dr Birdsong and her team are able to put in what those items are which you had mentioned yeah it's just taking what um like on that summary sheet so every every goal has interims it should be no more than three but every goal has interims um um the non-negotiables will have some interims and it's literally just mapping goal one interim two goal to make sure that we've covered throughout the year and then

060in the as we're doing this new especially around the non-negotiables we may do more than what we would typically do because at some point the non-negotiables might be twice a year once a year often times we just go on the consent agenda we receive the report review it it goes on consent agenda on but since we're you know getting started with it then you know may want to take our time make sure we have a good understanding excuse me of um of how we're progressing and getting that Cadence down thank you have about seven minutes and I I want to stay on stay within our time but briefly um the non-negotiables Nora Public School um board goals a non-negotiable summary Miss Tanner if you can pull that up quickly how much time we're going to

061have to discuss around this just the same thing yes the same thing what we what we don't have is um yeah I was just trying to ultimately the Administration has the skills to put it all on one page um but this was just an attempt for the board to see each of the goals um um what we were what the measures were and what the interim goals are we need to still come back and get the recommendations or have further discussion around the non-negotiable inter room inter rooms Dr B yeah just before we move on to this I want to go back to the monitoring calendar just to make sure we're we're all on the same page so the mon the monitoring calendar that was uh developed by the Administration um so we we just

062need to have a clear understanding of of why we we're being asked to Pivot at this point in the in the school year was there something that um that the board uh preferred in in terms of I I don't I don't know it just it just seemed to kind of come come out of the blue this was something that we've worked on for a while it was um shared with with the board and certainly we are definitely flexible and we'll do whatever the Board needs us to do so you can do your work um just we want to have a better understanding so that we're all on the p on the same page and working together towards the same goals it just seems like every time we feel like we're making a little progress then

063we're being asked to do something differently or or or something else and again we're we're in agreement with doing that we just need to have a better understand ing of the monitoring calendar that we previously presented was there something that the board didn't agree with with the calendar um just we want a better understanding of that Miss Buffalo yeah well this calendar uh again has all the goals and things inserted in in it but it it's it's more broader as we um Incorporated the non-negotiables which were not in the the previous monitoring calendar um the measures are there the evaluation piece is there and then some other things that have been Incorporated in this chart so it's just it's a more um comprehensive chart if you will of the board's work and how we're going

064to monitor our work as a school board uh around our goals and student outcome goals so it's just pretty much expanded on what was previously um done Mr Jordan yeah just so ultimately the the monitoring is is is the board's work and um I think we were just trying to work through I don't have can you Dr Bon can you share for example and we were asked to put one together that's why we were asked to put one together which is why we did that took the time to put one together so so the only thing that's that's different and it's like on on the one that that you all provided it show it's something very similar so for February it had goal one and then it showed the measure chronic absenteeism and then dropout

065rate on on this calendar um it would still show goal one is uh accreditation if you look in the second box it also still contains what you had as chronic absentee is and dropout rate but then it's also specific to to what the particular interim goal is that we're going to be giving attention to for that particular progress monitoring report so everything that you have in here is still in there it's just that now that we have the the interims rather than you like I was saying earlier we may not have time to do all the interims in one report so it just breaks out um throughout the calendar with which interim goal we would focus on at any given point in time so I still tried to follow everything that you had but for

066the board's purpose and for the larger understanding moving forward we would know within the measure what is it that we're particularly going to be focused on and that's that's what that is buff I know we probably at time um but I just wanted to say I like this um I like the transparency of it um the comprehensiveness of it um and as a board member that we can track all the things that are responsible undo to us um at a any given point in time so I I and I appreciate what the administration did I think that's a great basis I think we just added some additional things that hold us accountable as a board and stay focused and Mr Clanton you know um this road map is is good because if this board changes

067and can potentially change this year three three new board members there's a road map here of the work that we've been doing and they can just continue to pick up and and move on right so um yeah so time now is can I ask just a real quick clarifying question I just want to make sure I understand so is the expectation right now that next week we're presenting on accreditation data I just want to be clear on this because it the way this breaks it out it looks like interim goals 1.1 and 1.2 we need to be prepared to report out next week that was the I can't don't know is well originally it was for February originally it was GNA be for tonight and it was it was pushed back but I I don't

068I don't want to upload a report if it's not going to be there I I just I just need some clarity I guess on that all worked on the agenda think if the board's consent ens is to adopt this calendar we have the administration look at it and make sure it meshes with what this is and you stick with this until we get the feedback back from the administration okay I don't want you got the issue is I'm I'm comfortable I think Dr PO is on point so the bottom line is they were prepare to present to us today um whatever whatever for reason we're not doing that today so um is there time allotted on the agenda for next week for them to present yes or no and if not when would they be

069able to present and is that you know there's conversation about a retreat but my my feedback would be if there's if there's a way for them to share it next week that we give them an opportunity to share it that that we do it so we can start off on U stay on sequence stay on sequence and I don't want to prol that but it just made me think of this when we say share so are we saying these items that are listed here are items that are put on the agenda for administration to publicly share with the board and not just a report yes they agenda no what I'm saying is that some things may come to us as a report in the email we're getting updated we're saying that these items that are

070listed here are the ones that are placed on an agenda for presentation and and board is that what we're saying yeah I did I did there was that's what I hear there was the opportunity to like in some calendars folks will put on here if it goes on the consent or the discussion agenda I didn't do that because I think that's for a a larger discussion but as we move forward there may be reports that once we get this down they just show up on the consent agenda and we read it and review it and then there are others that are going to be discussed but as of right now it's at least on the goal side all of those are intended to be discussed receive a report and have a conversation about it I

071don't know that that answers his question no he I'm waiting for I'm I'm yielding to you you all because you all set the agenda I don't know um it is not on the agenda for next Wednesday but um I guess I'll ask the question to Dr bird song If that information was um ready to go and on the monitoring calendar to be presented would it be um ready to go next Wednesday as a reporter do you want a presentation or M chair I have a compromise since since since accreditation really isn't about student outcomes anyway why don't we just receive the written report rep okay that's fine that's fine and then we can get on schedule later if that if that works that's fine all right we'll receive that in a written report sounds great

072thank you very much for the clarification thank you all right we're going to move on to the time now is 5502 so we're going to move on down uh school board members will will discuss further board operating procedures but we're going to move down to 3:1 because the time now is 5:02 and Dr Bon would present her proposed 2425 School operating budget so good afternoon chair Buffalo Vice chair Dr Gabriel members of the board members of our community we are um very excited this afternoon to present um my proposed operating budget for fiscal year 2025 um Miss FY will start the presentation I will join her um after she opens the presentation for the bulk of the presentation Miss FY will then close the presentation and we ask you kindly if you could please allow

073us an opportunity to get through the full presentation before their questions I would appreciate that yes and Dr bers song I have shared with the board that they have a Max of two questions this evening we're going to let you get through through the presentation in its entirety and then we'll open the floor up for any questions all right Miss B um good afternoon chair Buffalo Vice chair Gabriel superintendent bird song and members of the school board um we are pleased to um provide the superintendent's proposed operating budget for um fiscal year 25 which will begin on July 1st of 2024 uh while Dr bird song and I um will be doing the speaking today um this work could not have been done without others who um are in the room and um and and

074those who couldn't be here today um Dwight um Duren is um our director of budget and grants and um and he um has you know a lot of the day-to-day um um task of pulling this together but it takes you know just about everyone every staff member who's in this room to pull this together and I would like to thank you all for um for what you've um done to um help us get this together looking at um okay I guess I have the clicker either way okay okay um topics for discussion so today we'll um talk about um the Strategic plan the budget process um a bit of a fiscal year 24 budget recap um student enrollment Trends the superintendent's priorities for fiscal year 2020 um 2025 the superintendent's proposed operating budget for fiscal

075year 2025 and next steps than um the next two slides um present um the budget process so um in October we began uh we with um providing detailed instructions to departments um to prepare their budget request and um and the Departments prepared their budget request um in November um we um reviewed these with the um the Chiefs and the department heads and in December you we based based on those reviews um we began compiling the data this budget is based the state funding for this budget is based on the governor's introduced um 2024 to 2026 ban B anual budget that he released um as well as um the city's um funding estimate that they've provided for this year and we U received both of those and um late November early um December we also in

076December held a public hearing um in which we heard from the public and um in January and February um we've been working on the preliminary estimates of revenues and expenditures um were um presented to the superintendent and um PRI prioritize the needs and made recommendations we by Within February we expect to to receive the House and Senate budgets on um the um the yes the next slide um for February um 7th today uh we are presenting the superintendent's proposed budget um to you the school board uh we have a we plan a public hearing on March 6th um and um our suggest Ed date for the board to approve U the um the budget is March 20th so that we can meet the deadline to have um our um Rec our budget presented to the

077city so that um they can review it and um and in May um the um expectation is that city council will appropriate funding for the board's um requested budget if their appropriation is different than uh what we've approved then we'll have to come back and and work out those differences and um hopefully the expectation is that by the end of May uh we could have a school board adopted budget so that uh we could begin working on um the contracts that are required by the end of June okay um the ne the this Slide the fiscal year budget by fund um the general fund just so and looking at the um pray year our current year and um and what we are proposing in the general fund for fiscal year 23 the general fund operating

078fund had actual expenditures of million um in fiscal 24 our current operating budget um the general fund budget is 398.36 million we've also had um some additional Revenue become available um from the state which um which increases um the amount available to 44.2 million and the proposed amount for fiscal 25 is 4471 million so I um and we'll go into where those revenues um are proposed to come from for school nutrition fund uh our uh that fund seems to go up about a million dollars every year over the past couple of years so um for fiscal 23 the actual expenditures were around 21 million our current budget has those at 24 million and um for the fiscal 25 proposed budget the um funding that the um state has in its um funding um calculation is

07925 million and that's what we're using um the um grants fund for fiscal 23 our actual expenditures were 102.8 million um that dropped um for the current fiscal year the budget um is 42.6 million of course that large drop is related to um not having any additional um cares or arpa funding and so we're getting back to the our normal size of our grants programs and in fiscal 25 we have proposed um 42.8 million based on the information we've received from the state our capital projects Fund in fiscal 23 three uh we actually spent 9.9 million um current year is budgeted at 26.9 million um we re um during the year we have received some additional availability of funds that is the um the state grants um for um Mory and um for Booker T

080um and um so that shows a a total increase well for fiscal 25 we're proposing 156.000 million um most of that increase is that we are expecting Mory um to begin and we'll we'll need you that the funding for fiscal 25 and um that brings um our total proposed operating budget U for all funds at million um in this next slide we're we're looking at our um proposed operating revenue and starting from bottom left the state funding is our largest funding um the u based on the information that the state has provided to us uh we are budgeting um project we are proposing to budget that amount at 237 .9 million right at 238 million um the city's funding is projected to be 162.5 million um Federal funding at 5.5 million um our other local

081funding at 2.9 Million and then we're we are proposing in this budget to use our full reversion um majority of that U being used in the general fund and then u a portion of it to be used in the capital projects fund and so the 30.6 million that you see here is the um portion of the um of the 2023 reversion that we're um proposing to using the general fund for one-time expenditures um and in addition to that um a couple of years ago there was some fund balance for prevention intervention and Remediation and we are also proposing to utilize those funds um for the new um for this year um the next slide is on the school enrollment projections um as we've seen before this shows a steady decline in school enrollment um these

082amounts do not include our preschool counts um and just just as um additional information our preschool counts um for this year are 7 um 1,712 as our total preschool enrollments um looking um and um and it's also think good to point out that this trend um ties very closely with the city of norfolk's population Trend um I I just I went out there again today just to you look at the census data and it is the um they relate um very well um you said that's where the de decline um is coming from um looking at our fiscal 23 numbers on the um right hand side of that slide um our um most recent actual projections for the um Fallen um there's the fall membership and the um March ADM the um FIS which for

083fiscal 23 um that was 25.7 $2,730 we project um the um the file membership um at for 24 at um 2,648 th000 and um we're projecting for fiscal 25 this um this proposed budget um fall ADM of 24,840 and um and with that um Dr Birdsong I decided to stand up this year I can project a little taller so thank you Miss FY for your over overview and I'd like to remind our stakeholders that our budget development process was in purposeful alignment with our strategic plan continuing the drive equity and Excellence for all chairman Buffalo Vice chairman Dr Gabriel members of the school board NPS Administration and staff and members of our community before I begin my overview of budget recommendations for fiscal year 24 25 I would like to provide some context for my

084proposed recommendations all of you with the exception of Mrs Stone are veterans of the ins and outs of the budget development process consequently you are well aware that each year we Face two recurring imperatives number one expenditures must be in alignment with available resources and number two we must strike a balance between our most substantial expenditures which include staff compensation and benefits and other pressing budgetary needs we tackle these imperatives in an environment of myriad challenges here in norit public schools those challenges include but are not limited to the following a significant shortage of classroom teachers aging infrastructure a tremendous percentage of our students whose families live in poverty a persistent battle with learning loss pressing social emotional needs amongst our students and declining student enrollment such present circumstances have to be taken into account

085if we are to develop a budget that is Solutions oriented and future focused as you would expect a starting point was to identify the school division's priorities and then budget accordingly thus this fiscal year 24 25 operating budget proposal is shaped on the foundation of these priorities which are in alignment with the school boards established goals number one employee compensation number two employee Recruitment and Retention number three right sizing the school division number four Safety and Security which includes needed Building Maintenance and repairs and number five instructional and social emotional learning resources for our students and our schools I will address each of these priority areas outlining supporting recommendations and the rationale behind those recommendations I've stated this before but it Bears repeating the single most transformative strategy for division wide School Improvement is putting

086a highly qualified Effective Teacher in every classroom we all know this this is the most impactful step we can take to improve public education services for our students and unfortunately as you well know our recent years over recent years the supply pipeline of qualified teachers has diminished considerably on the national level Statewide and certainly locally in October 2023 USA Today published the Grim news that an an ordinate number of school divisions Nation wide had struggled to hire the number of teachers needed for the 2023 2024 school year the headline of this article teacher shortages continue to plague the US 86% of public schools struggle to hire Educators this headline reflects our dismal State of Affairs 86% that is a staggering staggering data point Nationwide we find ourselves in a crisis situation in September 2023 the

087state's jlar or joint legislative audit and review commission made public a report on Virginia's K12 teacher pipeline this report cited more than a few disturbing Trends amongst these Trends were the following the deficit between the number of teachers leaving the profession and the number of newly licensed teachers amounted to 5,482 teachers Statewide on the first day of school during school year 2223 the number of unfilled teacher positions Statewide was 4,34 this marked the highest vacancy rate in nine reported Years yet another disturbing Trend in this report is that a smaller proportion of Virginia's teacher Workforce was licensed during school year 2223 as compared to one decade ago Jay lar also implemented a survey of licensed teachers who left classrooms in the Commonwealth of Virginia to ascertain the major reasons behind the exits of these teachers

088while 46% of licensed teachers who were surveyed reported that they left the profession for the understandable reasons of child care and family needs or relocation another disturbing Factor was cited 46% reported the main reason that they left the profession was due to to being what they described as unhappy with being a teacher and certainly that is extremely concerning to us the good news is that a substantial percentage of the teachers who participated in the review indicated that if certain factors were in place then they would consider a return to the classroom for example 43% cited better pay as a reason for reconsideration 32% stated that if there there were better systems in place to support or manage student behaviors then they would be more amenable to a return and 30% pointed to more in-classroom support

089for them as classroom teachers as a factor in considering a return to the classroom as this presentation proceeds you will find that many of my budget recom recommendations address these three compelling desires of our teachers please know that it's clear to me that I have to work a little harder to convince you that this is a nationwide and Statewide problem and not just norit Public Schools challenge however I do believe that I will have to I don't have to convince you that competition in Hampton Roads in in the employment Marketplace here it's quite brutal and I know that you're you all are keenly aware of that therefore our environment demands that we shape highly competitive compensation packages and that is exactly what I am recommending within this budget proposal this is how my budget proposal

090recommends moving forward I recommend raising the starting teacher salary from $53,000 to $57,500 in so doing not only creates an increase for brand new teachers it also moves the salary scale for teachers at all levels resulting in a significant pay increase for all of our teachers provide a one-step increase for 10mon 11mon and 12month teachers in addition to a significant cost of living adjustment the corresponding increase will be $5,000 for a 10-month teacher 5,500 for an 11-month teacher and $6,000 for a 12month teacher the average salary increase for teachers will stand at 8.04% it stands to reason that having an adequate number of substitute teachers is important considering our current teacher vacancy rate thus this proposal recommends increasing the pay for substitute teachers specifically I am recommending that we increase daily substitute teacher pay from

091$17.50 per hour to $23 per hour hour non-degreed long-term substitute teacher pay from $21 per hour to $26 per hour and degreed long-term teacher substitute pay from $27 per hour to $33.50 per hour this strategy will be an investment of an additional $4.4 million during the next school year understandably I have focused on the urgency of a teacher shortage however candidly there are other areas of critical shortage as well particularly amongst our classified staff therefore I am recommending the following compensation adjustments for our classified staff whose critical expertise we depend upon to support teaching and learning in our classrooms I recommend that we provide classified employees with a one-step increase as well as a significant ific cost of living adjustment additionally I am recommending that we raise the starting hourly rate for classified staff from

092$13.35 per hour to $155 per hour the average wage increase for classified staff will stand at 8.34% regarding the leadership of schools and central office departments R my recommendation is as follows provide a one-step salary increase or one-step increase as well as a significant cost of living adjustment for 11mon and 12month administrators salary increases for 11mon and 12month administrators will be $5,500 and $6,000 respectively the average salary increase for school level and central office administrators stands at 5.94% another salary recommendation I would like to make is to increase the contract length of Elementary School assistant principles from 11mon contracts to 12month contracts our elementary schools need administrative support year round and the former model of Contracting Elementary School principles only 11 months of the year is just simply outdated extensive planning for programming takes place

093during the summer as well as student scheduling and professional development Elementary principles need the support of their assistant principles during the summer month that they have traditionally not worked NPS is the only School Division within the region that continues to implement the 11-month contract model an astounding piece of good news is that the School Division anticipates that there will not be an increase in health insurance premiums for employees in the coming school year this defies a trend of annual increases in healthc care premiums I am pleased that norit public schools can protect the profound impact of solid wage and salary increases by ensuring that health insurance premiums do not reduce actual take-home pay for our employees as you are aware Beyond annual salary and benefit recommendations this budget proposal concludes a three-year salary and wage

094compression mitigation plan our strategic plan continuing the drive is focused upon equity and Excellence for all this includes students as well as our employees our comp our compression mitigation efforts have been all about restoring Equity to our wage and salary scales board members who have served in the role for the past several years should know and understand the hurdles the hurdles the extreme hurdles the School Division has faced in this regard one of the challenges has been that our work force is quite large so even small increases have a tremendous Financial impact Additionally the many years of having no step movement prior to this Administration unnaturally and unfairly compressed employees wages and salaries resulting in little differences in salaries between newer employees and more veteran ones and yet another challenge was developing a resolution plan

095that was sustainable over the long call for the school division the MPS Administration and the school board we worked extremely hard to implement a plan that would help clear those hurdles and I think we're almost there so this slide represents us or reminds us of the progress that we've made during year one and year two of the implementation of the compression mitigation plan and it also outlines recommendations for the third and final year of the plan please look closely at the recommendation for fiscal year 2425 with this recommendation eligible employees hired before February 1 2012 will receive a one-step increase plus two additional steps to account for the lack of Step increases in fiscal year 13 and 17 eligible employees hired between February February 1 2012 and January 20 31st 2015 are recommended to receive

096a one-step increase plus an additional one step to account for the lack of a step increase during school year 17 and to underscore the equity of this plan I ask that you pay particular attention to the second column of the chart entitled total action which outlines the extent of the step adjustments for each of these categories of employees over the plan's three years of implementation ranging from an adjustment of a total of eight additional steps over a three-year period to four additional steps the total cost of addressing salary and and wage compression within the fiscal year 2425 budget proposal is 5 .5 million upon full implementation of this three three-year plan next school year of course if supported by the board will be an investment of $113 million to demonstrate that we value and desire

097to retain our employees who have remained with Nori Public Schools through some very difficult and challenging times and for a significant number of years so thank you together The NPS Administration and the school board have done a great deal to restore Integrity To The NPS salary scals even as I say that I realize that there will be individuals who feel that the School Division needs to do even more to sh up salaries and wages within our School Division colleagues I must remind you that our actions to ensure that we have the most competitive salaries and wages within our region and the state it will be more aligned with those associated with a marathon and not a Sprint while I understand that many will Advocate otherwise I ask that you consider the issue from my perspective

098the Chief Executive Officer of this school division it is my duty it is my duty to make recommendations to the board that are fiscally responsible and ensure that all wage and salary increases are sustainable over the long term at this moment in time employee salaries and benefits comprise 84% of this recommendation think about that we only have 16% of available funding to support all other expenses associated with teaching and learning as such we must provide reasonable funding that directly benefits our children as we all know our funding partner the city of nori has adopted a policy that forbids one-time funding being used to underwrite salary increases as we approach our plan to address significant reversion please be reminded that the size of that pool of funding is a direct result of the significant number of

099vacancies that we have within our School Division our goal as we move ahead is to reverse that negative Trend in so doing the pool of available funding will shrink considerably in the future therefore sustainability must be a vital consideration as we evaluate our short short-term and long-term needs as a School Division and with that said let me move on to another recommendation that addresses compensation for school staff by recommending that we provide stiens for the inevitable additional workload Beyond classroom instruction in that V vein I recommend continuing stiens that were previously underwritten by Esther funding the administration believes that these siphons are important enough that operating funds should now be used to provide for them these stiens are meant for staff who take on duties that directly impact the social emotional well-being of our children

100which include uh PBIS building level leaders School Wellness Champions and Club sponsors the projected cost of these three stiens is 23 $2,993 other operating funds um are also proposed to be set aside to support stiens for staff who take on the responsibilities associated with grounds Patrol and class coverage the first stien acknowledges the extra duties involved with ensuring the Safety and Security of our schools grounds and of course a second stien will address Shoring up our ability to cover classrooms in the midst of a teacher shortage and when teach teachers of record are not present in their classrooms the projected cost of these two stiens is $2 million 586 so a significant investment from here I will move on to the second priority of my budget proposal employee Recruitment and Retention this slide which outlines

101proposed bonuses is one most of you have seen in previous budget presentations I am including it here um because I I need to make an important Point here for three years the School Division has used Esser funding um to support these bonuses for teachers and staff now that Sr funding will be expiring we must decide if we want to assume these expenditures in the operating budget and I am recommending that assumption the total proposed expenditure for these employee Recruitment and Retention bonuses is 5 $588,500 another area of critical importance is to demonstrate to employees who have remained with norford public schools that they are valued and appreciated for their contrib contributions to provide a high quality education to our children I am proposing that the School Division provide a $3,000 retention bonus to eligible staff

102during the 2024 2025 school year 1,500 will be paid in December of 2024 while the remaining 1,500 will be paid in May of 2025 the administration would work to Define who is eligible for the retention bonus if approved however the idea is to provide a bonus primarily to full-time contracted employees and other employees to whom the division has provided bonus bonuses to in the past and ensuring that they return for the next school year providing a retention bonus of this magnitude would be a $18.5 million investment in our employees this slide outlines some expenditures that are planned for the Department of Human Resources that the administration believes will Aid in our Recruitment and Retention efforts for example I'm quite confident that we would all agree that we must be more aggressive in the areas of

103promoting and marketing norit Public Schools as well as significantly improving improving our own boarding process for new employees and the projected cost for these expenditures is $214,000 in addition providing a mechanism for tuition reimbursement not only improves an employees bottom line but also Al contributes to employees growth and satisfaction therefore this proposal recommends that we maintain funding to support this initiative at $290,000 the school board has expressed the expectation that the administration employ a laser-like focus on schools that have high teacher turnover since that Trend contributes to students academic struggles during this school year the administration launch launched the ignite program at Lindenwood Elementary School which as you know has had its share of schoolwide academic struggles for quite some time lynen Wood's teacher vacancy rate has been higher than most of our elementary schools

104this school year the Staffing situation at Lindenwood has been much improved we believe the ignite program which has provided retention bonuses or recruitment bonuses for teachers has contributed to that Improvement on the first day of school for students this school year 78% of teacher positions were filled however during school year 2223 only 47% of teacher positions were filled on the first day of school for for students and so for the coming fiscal year we are proposing that the ignite program recruitment bonus be continued at Lindenwood Elementary and hopes that it will positively impact outcomes for students at that School Additionally the administration believes that the increased ability of the teachers or the School's teacher core has contributed to improved student performance at Lindenwood as you may recall in a view of in a review of

105our latest so performance data the school improved its annual pass rate rates in all tested areas for all students for that all students group and as a component of the ignite program class classroom teachers of record to include special education teachers were provided a bonus to remain at the school for fiscal year 24 or this year fiscal year or school year 2324 the allocation for the recommended continuation of the ignite program at Lindenwood which includes tuition reimbursement for two classes and a $500 Supply allowance is $245,000 and now let's move on to the third priority all right I might need to take a sip for that one all right when our educational and Facilities planning Consultants presented a study to the school board last school year in March of 23 it included a data point

106that we have understandably latched on to as you may recall the study outlined norford public school's declining enrollment which is aligned with the city's declining population and under utilization of specific elementary middle and high school facilities data support that since 2013 the division has operated between three to 177 Surplus schools a recent presentation by our consultant in August of 2023 continued to drive home the point that the cost of underutilization is significant again it's quite significant it is estimated that over the past 10 years operating these Surplus schools has cost the division approximately $81 million we must begin the process of closing and consolidating schools in the face of declining student enrollment which again is evidenced to be align with the declining population of the city we cannot justify our current inventory of school facilities

107we must acknowledge that recapturing millions of dollars being spent on an underutilized inventory would be a profound Catalyst for largescale improvement of norit public schools operations it would allow us to WR siize our Workforce which would help to alleviate a plaguing teacher shortage it would free up funding to improve salaries and benefits further in addition the closure of schools that are under capacity with signific iFly lower the cost of our Capital Improvement plan we all know this painful fact maintaining our aging infrastructure in a timely and wholesale manner has proven to be an insurmountable funding Challenge and even as I State this I realize the task before us it is extremely enormous I do realize that one that will be fra with intense emotions on the part of our stakeholders students and their families and

108School staff members typically love their schools and they draw a sense of identity and Community from them when we begin the process of closure and consolidation we will inevitably face disagreement and disappointment as stakeholders ask us such questions such as why our school why our school why not the school next door across the street why would you want to sacrifice the intimate family likee atmosphere of a smaller School in favor of a larger more impersonal one and have you thought about the cost of the emotional upheaval to the children so now let me tackle the recommendations designed to begin to begin this extremely complex process they include returning two facilities to the city of norick those facilities are the coronata school which has been vacant for years and the present Hampton Boulevard location for the

109Madison Madison alternative education center while the expenses associated with removing these two facilities out of our inventory are it's not enormous I think it's a move in the right direction the administration further recommends that the vacant eastn preschool facility be retrofitted to accommodate two secondary programs the division secondary alternative education program currently housed at Madison and the open campus program they approximate they approximate total cost of retrofitting the eastn facility for a secondary alternative education program is $500,000 our long-standing professional relationship with our current educational and Facilities planning consultant has translated into his knowledge of nori Public Schools challenges thus we are recommending that $130,000 be set aside for continued educational and facility planning efforts that include the development of a rightsizing plan for norit public schools which includes critical components of a robust Community

110engagement plan we have to engage our community um with this moving forward some of the associated expenses anti anticipated for this plan are listed on this slide these efforts would constitute phase one additional phases are outlined here please note that phase two will also rely upon another round of robust Community engagement phase one will be designed to help the community understand how we are proceeding and provide stakeholders an opportunity to have voice in the shaping of recommendations phase two of the community engagement will involve informing and hearing from school communities that will be affected by proposed closures consolidations and resulting re zoning recommendations the administration cannot predict we can't predict at this moment exactly how many closures or consolidations will occur within the impending phases we may very well find there are some options that

111can be implemented within phase two without significant disruption to the school division however however lost my place we believe the most substantive change will be revealed during phase two during phase three and as you are aware our educational and Facilities planning Consultants have embarked upon a portfolio study that will help determine factors that are correlated with positive outcomes for norit public schools and those findings should help to drive the decisions on which schools will be recommended for closure and which schools will be recommended to be consolidation sites some data related to the portfolio study were recently Pres presented or shared during last month's work session I'm sure you all recall as I previously mentioned a moment ago during this presentation closing and consolidating schools will significantly lower our Capital Improvement costs but even more importantly

112with a smaller inventory of facilities and more funding the administration will be able to improve our ability to provide repairs for and renovate schools more expeditiously I believe we can all agree that attending schools and modernized Facilities would not only improve the educational experiences of our children but would also create safer and more secure learning environments for them and on that note let me move on to our next priority area which is very much in alignment with rightsizing the school Division and that is priority number four Safety and Security which includes the critical imperative of continued Building Maintenance and repairs previous budget proposals have included significant augmentation of security measures from weapons detection systems in every school to additional Safety and Security Personnel in fact since the 2020 2021 school year norit public schools has

113expended more than $8 million in improving its Personnel coverage and security infrastructure our plan FY 2425 allocation Builds on those ACC accomplishments most significant is the planned 1.9 million purchase of additional security cameras to move NPS toward the goal of ensuring all schools have state-ofthe-art video coverage of their campuses this budget proposal will also provide other needed security equipment such as security handheld wands to detect weapons and other undesired objects as well as for vehicles that can be utilized by by our five floating security supervisors as they conduct their security checks throughout the School Division Building Maintenance and repairs are indeed critical components of priority 4 however I will not go into great detail on our Capital Improvement plan here as Chief academic off not Chief academic officer I'm going give you a break. the

114poll Chief Spivey will be sharing some details uh with you about um our CI plan in the concluding part of this presentation however this slide represents a big picture look at the proposed 56.7 million Capital imp Improvement plan which notably includes 137 million for the rebuilding of my high school and 19.7 million to address items such as window door and roof Replacements electrical upgrades the replacement of school buses through three football field conversions to Turf which I'll address in a bit deferred maintenance and other projects and now I will move on to our fifth priority area instructional and social emotional learning resources for students in schools an excerpt from an abstract of the Child Development Journal entitled the state of evidence for social and emotional learning a contemporary metaanalysis of universal school-based seal interventions notes

115that students who participate in Universal school-based seal interventions experience significantly improved skills attitudes behaviors School climate and safety peer relationships School functioning and academic achievement moreover research overwhelmingly supports that there is is an existing need for well planned instruction and social emotional learning programs and strategies the excert on this SL is just one example of the body of research available to us today that supports this assertion as we are all aware the effects of the pandemic remain with us I know we get tired of talking about it but it's still here over the past few years many of our schools have experienced significant student Behavior challenges as such we need to continue to provide supports to schools as they work with Children and Families to address undesirable behaviors the expansion of mental health and Behavioral

116Management Services to schools is a must therefore I am requesting that the School Division maintains the $3,500 stien for staff who earned registered Behavior technician certifications moreover within this proposal I am requesting the Strategic addition of the following new positions to support building administrators and classroom teach teachers with addressing the mental health and behavioral needs of our students and that would be four additional Mental Health social workers and three additional behavioral specialists or behavior Specialists this planned expenditure totals a social worker position and mental health and tiered support contractual Services into the operating budget for continued support for our children with disabilities additionally this budget proposal supports increasing our complement of occupational therapist positions by one additional position and increasing contracted instructional services in the area of special education to support Ida mandated Services again

117for our children with disabilities norford Public Schools must become more systematic with purchasing and replacing musical instruments for our students therefore the administration is recommending a five-year instrument replacement cycle with fiscal year 2425 marking year number one this should strengthen our music program for our students considerably also the additional proposed fun funding for the governor School takes into account increased tuition rates as well as an increased number of slots for norford public schools children or students from 60 slots this year to 66 slots during school year 25 regarding the matter of tuition for virtual Virginia the School Division previously relied upon Esser funding to address increased costs associated with our students enrollment I am now recommending that we transition all Associated expenses to the operating budget for school year 25 so that our students can

118continue to have access to this program other planned expenditures include increasing funding for contracted transport transportation services to support the needs of our students whose families are experiencing homelessness and our students with disabilities the division has experienced an increase in both participation and cost for these critical service in last year's budget proposal I recommended and the school board approved additional resources for our English Learners to include funding for translation services curriculum materials as well as a new position to address the needs um of and support the closing of achievement gaps for our growing population of L students this year I am recommending that norford public schools invest in additional services for our English Learners and their families through the opening of a Welcome Center where our families can SEC can secure a variety of supports

119and services to include but not limit limited to initial testing for students pre-registration for school enrollment and family learning sessions regarding topics such as School attendance and how to support students academic success this Center is planned to be located at the Rosemont facility which is in close proximity to many of our L families I'm also recommending that we expand our provision of translation and other contracted services such as universal document translation as to better meet the needs of students and provide more effective efficient and productive communication between students homes and our schools and finally I'm recommending continued cultural competency training for our our staff which will not only benefit our ill those students but students from all racial and ethnic backgrounds planned expenditures for the resources noted on this slide in the previous two slides

120for students in schools total 6,789 $340 perhaps the most significant expenditure that will prove to be a tremendous investment in our children is to support individualized and small group tutoring to improve improve their literacy in the areas of reading and Mathematics simply stated simply stated reading is a fundamental skill that is required for our students to be successful in the classroom and in life and when our children become more fluent readers and their level of reading comprehension increases then we can expect them to want to put down their cell phones and pick up a good book in the words of Tony Morrison books are a form of political action books are knowled know books change your mind and that's what we want to do for our children we want to inspire their love for reading

121which will impact them which will have an impact for them in all areas of their lives in a very very positive productive way Nori public schools has augmented curricular Resources with targeted purchases of educational software I will not go into the details of these of these programs for the sake of time but this slide and the one following details those planned expenditures as you will note the bulk of these expenses were originally funded by Esser and the administration is recommending that they transition to the operating budget for fiscal year 25 the proposed e- rate purchase on this slide is necessary to ensure that we meet a federal match other proposed technology expenditure recommendations include making a Necessary Technology infrastructure purchase replacement of student Chromebooks let me say that again replacement of student Chromebooks and a

122continuing plan to digitize and archive Student Records these plan technology expenditure recommendations is at $1.6 million my final recommendation in this priority area is the purchase of field Turf for Booker T Washington Lake Taylor and Norview High Schools as you are aware not one NPS high school has filed Turf unlike other high schools across the region and our state when you have the opportunity to conduct a review of high school sports facilities within our region you will find that norford public schools is woefully lacking in this area and I do believe that our children deserve so much better while this is indeed a significant cost there will be Savings in the long long term as it relates to maintenance personnel and water cost having state-of-the-art football fields will not only benefit our students at these

123three high schools it will be a resource that can and will be utilized by other schools within our School Division and certainly within the region the total investment in our student athletes would be approximately $5.1 million members of the school board I now want to share with you information regarding the possibility of tackling one new Initiative for school year 2025 this recommendation addresses a request many members of our community made through through or during public hearings and public comment periods during school board meetings these stakeholders made it very clear that they felt that there is a pressing need for community schools within our School Division Community Schools involve providing a system of supports for schools in underserved and underresourced communities wraparound Services typically provided within Community Schools take into account such areas as Mental Health

124social emotional learning medical and health related services and extensive family and Community engagement just to name a few the administration is recommending that four of our schools serve as pilot locations for implementing the Community Schools model we have named these pilot locations nothing but equity and Excellence Learning Centers or what we refer to them as EC's these schools are PB Young Elementary School J Cox Elementary School the Ruffner 38 school and bookert Washington High School these schools were selected to participate in the community schools pilot program due to a variety of reasons to include the significant academic challenges these schools have faced spaning o spanning over numerous years and the poverty level of some of the families serve within the schools in implementing a community schools pilot program it is our desire to level the

125playing field for our children who are served Within These schools please know that our leadership team gave stakeholders input much thought and discussion and began studying successful Community Schools models Across the Nation one Pioneer in this area is child psychiatrist James comr many of our stakeholders will perhaps remember how Dr Herman Clark former principal Richard bowan Elementary School and NPS division cab leader how he modeled his school operations on the comr methods methods and achieved I mean just wonderful wonderful results thus we Revisited Mr Comer's work and the work of other school divisions as well from this research and our own Prof professional experiences we developed a model We Believe will work for norford public schools I will outline some of the particulars of the equity and Excellence Learning Centers or EC's so you can

126understand the planned allocation because this is such an important and far-reaching recommendation there's Temptation I know to delve into the operational details in depth however since we don't have the necessary time to accomplish that today I I suggest that we come back and have the administration provide uh a presentation to the school board in the future in the meantime I will provide a more Global overview of what we have planned first we plan to shape the centers based upon four pillars of effective Community Schools these include a commitment to offer Extended Learning opportunities a commitment to meaningful family and Community engagement the Deep implementation of multi-tier systems of support and an operational Phil philosophy of distributed or collaborative leadership and practices if approved by the board the work involved in the coming months would include

127developing a wraparound Services team led by the newly appointed director of diversity equity and inclusion Affairs who is smiling in the back a big smile conducting needs assessments among families at our schools at each of these schools researching and recruiting supportive Community Partners from mental health agencies to those Partners who could provide enrichment opportunities for our students the expectation would be that each school would develop an action plan for year one suffice it to say not all plans would look alike as they would be built upon the basis of each school's needs assessment the administration envisions the second and third years of the project would involve expanding enrich M offerings and an even higher level of community engagement as you can surmise we must develop PL plans of action that are sustainable and thus intelligently

128phased for year One cost would Encompass a $2,500 stiping for classroom teachers of record and special education teachers as they would be expected to take on additional responsibilities for each school and will be laying the groundwork for the EC's to fully engage in the community schools model the administration also believes that these sens will support the recruitment of teachers from each of these schools as they have been deemed schools that are what we say challenged by retention other planned expenditures for EC's includes funding to support varied enrichment activities before doing an after school aligned with each school's eelc implementation plan a one and one new 12-month teacher specialist position who will work closely with our director of Dei building principles and school staffs to develop eelc implementation plans and assist with executing the work involved

129in in operating a successful Community Schools model school board members and I'm sure you are glad I am now concluding this proportion this portion of the presentation but I want it to be thorough but before doing so um I would like to offer a personal aside as a former recipient of a scholarship award in her name I have always admired and have great respect for Dr Mary mlau bethon known as the female Booker T Washington on Whose shoulders I stand today as an African-American female educator because of Dr Bon's Legacy I feel obligated to continue to fight the good fight despite the daily challenges that I encounter as an African-American female leader in public education Dr bethon she paved the way for me and I take seriously the opportunity to make a difference in the

130lives of children and give them hope for the future Dr bethon was born to enslave parents and became one of the most prominent black Educators and civil and women's rights leaders of the 20th century I find her words and philosophy so inspiring and wholeheartedly Embrace her eloquent words as expressed in this inspirational quote we have a power a powerful potential I'd like to start over because it's important to me we have a powerful potential in our youth and we must have the courage we must have the courage to change old ideas and practices so we can make so that we may direct their power toward good ends toward good ends Dr M McLoud bethon she speaks across the decades to us the potential that lives in the hearts and minds of our students is immeasurable

131we must tap into it and help Channel it yes there are tried and true strategies we can employ to help our children succeed but we must also have the courage and the stamina to go beyond Innovation cannot just be a nice byword for norford public schools it can't just be a byword we must strike the right balance between polishing what we know works and seeking new ways to uplift our children our children this budget proposal has been shaped with those ends in mind so I thank you for your kind attention and at this time I'm going to turn it back over to Chief finance officer Spivy so that she can provide to you some information about the governor's banial budget and then we look forward to receiving each of your two questions at the end

132of the presentation thank you fny thank you Dr bong as we've talked about before um in looking at the general fund uh we are proposing a $ 4471 million budget um that is an increase of um $4 48.1 million or a 12% increase over the current year the um we've as we've already mentioned here's more of the numbers um the majority of our budget byend by expense type are our salaries and benefits which make up 84% with the remaining um 16% in the other areas I'm looking at the next slide we show um our breakdown by functional area the um instructional Services is um 72% of our budget um in addition to having instructional services uh we uh going around um the um the chart in the right direction um Administration attendance and Health Services

133is um an area that we are budgeting at um 6% of our budget um of 26.9 million right at $27 million um School transportation is another $20 million or 4% of the budget operations and maintenance M which um includes um areas like Building Maintenance ground services and Security Services um is um 12% of the proposed budget at 52.1 million facilities uh which are our facility improvements um are um that that we contain in the operating fund is 8.3 million which is 2% of the budget and technology is 18.5 million or 4% of the operating of the general operating budget um just to note that um technology includes technology in the classrooms so it's it's not just the purchase of um of other Technologies um the this slide is the balancing of the general fund so

134um I've compared the fiscal 24 for available funding which is our current year with um the proposed budget as you can see there was um not much of an increase in our state funding um this year um in the general fund U that increase is um $5,400 um the cities um using their the um Revenue sharing formula they have um their estimate of um the increase in funding from the city is 6.6 million uh we're looking at um an increase of 25,000 in federal funding to bring that to 5.5 million and uh we expect that our local uh funding will be lower and the primary reason for that is um uh for the past few years we have been um receiving indirect cost Revenue uh because we were managing our own Esser funds and um

135and um you other covid related funds as those funds are um have um been spent down we will have less of that indirect cost so um again that was um Revenue to us you for our staff handling U those things and um so there is a there was a onetime expenditure last year was which was a transfer from the um textbook fund so that's not recurring we um as I've already mentioned we are uh proposing to use the full amount of the fiscal 23 reversion um for this budget um 30, 572,000 um we're proposing to use in the general fund and um in addition to those funds we had unspent fund balance U that were was State revenues for student prevention intervention and Remediation um services and um and we have also budgeted those in

136this budget um to bring us um to the total um a um a new area we have we um we haven't um talked about in detail um was when we finished our fiscal year 23 um and those um amount those financial statements were audited it um we determined that we had um $32.97 million of funds um that went into reversion um this is an analysis of the um the summarized areas of where those funds um were derived and you know which funds we did not spend in last year's budget the vast majority of those funds um which relate to salaries and benefits um are related to the positions that NPS was unable to fill um looking um looking at this um these amounts this amount of reversion um we went into detail um at the

137line item detail seeing where those reversion areas were and which of those we believed that um we you are not targeted you to to spend um in upcoming years um as things shift you we we will have to shift the funding but um for now in the U Environ in the hiring environment that we're operating in uh which uh means you substitutes um you know qualified substitutes in in our uh in some of our schools uh the um the cost shifts um and um there are um so certain area certain C areas and is primarily in in those types of areas where we believe we have more permanent savings that we can use towards this budget and just to um summarize that um the um the new the new initiatives and increased on uh ongoing

138costs for this budget total 55.8 million um using all of our other Revenue uh we the revenue is 42.8 million so we use the savings that we believe we we can get in in these areas that were part of reversion last year we I'm using uh we what we believe um about 13 million to fund these new initiatives so that our the money we receive today can go to today's students and uh and that is you know one of the premises that this budget is built on um the the next slide uh We've you've seen this slide before and we've just we've updated it for this year we Show an example of a classroom teacher and a custodian um based on the proposed salary um increases um what their salary would look like um on

139Step 1 10 20 and 30 so um so using um I'm going skip down to step 10 as as the example specific example um their current contract would be um $5 58,60 today um with their step U that would take them to $59,750 to which is a 1.9% increase um but rather than doing you just a step you we're um proposing to have a flat amount for 10-month teachers of $5,000 so um the additional amount um shows the total amount shows in that final column of this is what their contract budget I mean their contract pay would be for a step 10 classroom teacher um who has a 10-month contract um the same thing um similar was similar situation with the custodian 2 um for this is a classified position um for classified positions the

140um proposed increase is $2 an hour for um all classified employees so um again using step 10 as an example um this custodian currently makes $3 31,798 um with the the where the step change for um that person would take them to $ 32,37 7,000 or a 1.8% increase but um with what we're proposing which is a $2 an hour increase and um it takes that salary um for the fiscal 25 contract period to $3 35,8 24 which is an increase of 12.7% okay um we've talked about um the compression that is that is in there and that is on top of um every um the other things we've talked about health care has not increased um we um on the next slide there's sample um teachers and um sample um other employees to show

141what their progress over the past years um has been um 22 to 20 fiscal 25 and um and shows that their the amount they receive is not um reduced by the any increases in health care um so that um that's shown on these two slides the next two slides and then I want to get into the capital Improvement budget um these um first areas are uh are things you've seen before it's the 10 um $10,000 that1 million of income that we've had coming from the city thousand for um bus Replacements three a million for bus Replacements three million for um deferred maintenance and then we've um we've had the Swift parcel um funds um for um a few years that $6 million will not recur next year this is the the final year of that

142we've left the debt issue um these these will B these are bonds that uh we expect the city uh will issue for um Mory to fund Mory we've left that amount at 137 million now that will be combined you know with the 30 million um grant that we received from the state as well as um a $3 million amount that we had um already dedicated to that project so this is just showing the one year um where in the capital project we're using about $2.4 million of reversion and the full amount of the city's trup funds of 7.3 million um a list of the projects um are um on this next slide and Dr bird song mentioned the the newer projects there um other than there are two security um related projects that we're U

143proposing to add one is um for vestibules for some of the schools where there is direct access into the student population to give a vestibule to um you have a barrier there and the other is electronic access for doors uh when the schools are unoccupied and then the um final slide is the active capital projects so the CIP is is an ongoing thing these projects take more than a year to accomplish and the ones on this list are U projects that budgeted in previous years and they are at some point um in um their um being um accomplished right now so they are considered active projects um our next steps as um as I mentioned earlier um we suggest that the school board um adopt a propo um a budget um by March 22nd so

144that we can get that to the city council by the statutory deadline of April 1st and um and again if um if the city um was to adopt something different than uh what you as a school board approve we would have the uh month of May to um to U iron those differences out with with that um M Madam chair turn back to you well well done well done my heads off to you because I know this budget putting a budget together proposed budget is uh work and um thank you thank you so um I did um share with the board that I would give the each board member um an opportunity of two questions to around the the um proposed budget um so we're going to go around cuz the time is getting away

145from us and we will have additional time Beyond us sitting here of course to um ask questions around the proposed budget but we're going to get started Mr Clanton we're going to start with you and come around please skip me and we're going to go with Dr Gabriel and move around um Miss Stone if you have any questions U Mr Cloud let us know if she needs to read her statement uh Miss Stone could make a statement now or just when she's ready to ask her questions and speak get out of the way now if that's okay go ahead um before we enter into discussion on the fiscal year 25 I have to disclose that I am the spouse of a Schoolboard employee whose salary would stand to be increased as a result of this

146proposed budget so I have to acknowledge that that personal interest does exist um though it is an interest that I share with thousands of other NPS employees and their immediate families um so my partic ipation in this discussion uh does not merely serve to benefit my family alone um because of that um I'm able to participate in this discussion and any future vote that we take on it fairly objectively and in the public interest um and I have filed a written declaration to this effect with our clerk which states this in information um more in full and can be requested by the public if needed okay thank you Miss Stone and so we're going to reroute I said this way we're going to start with Mr Clanton then we're going to go to Dr Martin

147so Mr Clanton you to start off thank you um first and foremost Dr bird song I'm very pleased with what I'm seeing here um there are a couple things that I I do um I know I got two questions and the rest I'll follow with an email um but I just felt for clarity um this this budget definitely meets the needs around our teachers I see we're finally upholding on that um and the equity centers we've heard a lot about that um but I do want Clarity I was just seeing here if this was just a Roundup because I don't want this coming back um on slide fiscal 2025 recommended pay raises um Step One classroom teacher it has with the contract budget at 58,000 is 99.4% but on the document in your book you

148have it at 57500 so I was that just a round up because I it is 57500 I I don't well the slide has 5800 so I don't want what slide I'm sorry can we go back number that5 that might be a Ty I hope slide 58 maybe thank you go back to that y 58 yeah that green one in that corner for year one I just want to make sure because I don't want wrong stuff going out and we have anything coming back so we're saying a starting teacher salary is 57500 with everything yes that not round absolutely so I just wanted so that that correction will need to be made it is 50, 57,500 be transparent have the right information out there I appreciate that please Mr Mr Duran good good good evening come

149to the microphone please this is Dwight Duran he's the budget guy our director of budget I just want to make sure I got the right thing that's all okay and I can't even see up there Mr Clinton so this example is a teacher that's currently in the system on step one so that would be their next year going up so that's what their next year salary is going to be so it's a $500 increase is that it's a $5,000 increase for this particular teacher so that teacher currently is on step one making $53,000 you're going to get that $5,000 increase which is a step plus a significant cost of living increase which brings them up to $58,000 got it so a new teacher would just be Step Zero well step one step one coming in

150starting right step one coming in for 25 so we got I just want to make sure that that's clear yes great thank you for about it that would be step teacher two going next year this is a currently step so my other item in here um and I know it's a multitude but I just want to um let me go to my high school um particularly in budget and looking in the budget book at 150 um and uh as I'm coming off that just want to make sure here that national teacher average um if I'm not mistaken is 5783 as of January 6 of 2024 that's the national teacher average on salary for a teacher starting 57,8 3 and we're coming in at 57500 I just wanted to point that out where we are making

151a significant investment I'm in that one the my high school piece that I was looking in here was the amount of money um we have 137,000 the CIP funds but when I was looking at million but what I was looking at was a $30 million that was currently being spent this fiscal year this year this year it wouldn't be in this budget yeah I know it's not going to be in that one but that's being spent right now um but I'm still showing an anticipated completion of this project of 20129 when an average high school is 12 to 24 months so I'm I'm a little concerned why it's taken almost five years for high school to get done in in the budget so I'm going to come back to that because the numbers just aren't

152amount of money we're putting in investment and timing is not adding up for me um and also which will be another thing with CIP coming back we still have two other three other elementary schools um and when does that start um because there's a narrative that's out there that um city council has already voted on something with the funding is there I don't know if that's just to say we're going to move forward with that but this Capital Improvement piece component here is a little concerning for me and so I will follow up with an email on it I won't take any time on that but I only got two but that's what I want to kind of highlight for me okay appreciate that all right Dr Martin um I just want to say you

153know once again Dr bird song I believe that you've hit all of the marks um you're always paying attention and someone's taking notes because um if this hits all the priorities it aligns with our strategic plan that we've adopted um it continues existing commit commitments such as to staff and improving um and right sizing and and I love the introduction and new branding of the um ex um the uh equity and Excell Cent that's wonderful it's something that I think our staff and our students can really get excited about and behind um it's very positive uh also um improving the athletic fields that all of our schools would be is wonderful or step in that direction um one the thing I would ask um if possible is that we because we're so limited on space

154is for example with the football fields that we can see if we can also use them for lacrosse Fields because I know that's you know really growing in this area and um and I mean unless we have extra money and we can de Cross Field somehow too but I'm just trying to think in that way so that we're not limited as as those changes you know hopefully will um be available for our students um yeah and um just a a a word change um we we I see rebuild of Mor high schools in here a lot and I've been I've heard from the community that that's confusing for some people and that they because when they hear rebuild they think rebuild the same building and so it should maybe be new build instead of rebuild

155I get it that's fair but anyways thank you so much for all the work that you all put into welcome I appreciate that Miss Stone you will appreciate this um I am new to the budget process and I am still digesting the information in front of me so I don't have any specific questions so I will yield most of my time except to say that I do appreciate the amount of effort and thought put into our teachers because when we're thinking about student outcomes the most direct person on student outcomes is the teacher in the classroom um and the more investment we put in them is a direct correlation to how students perform which we know I don't need to say that to you you know it I just appreciate the very intentional work done

156to acknowledge um the people that are here and doing the hard work and um stay and yeah I appreciate the part of it there's been a lot of thought put into it thank you thank you Stone Miss Bine going back and forth NOP no okay um I do I Echo uh what has been said already um I appreciate you Dr Birdsong and the budget team for for the hard work that you've put into preparing this budget um one of my overarching questions is really around um and I see you know you've talked a lot about alignment with the Strategic plan but alignment with our board goals um and so that's something that I would like to hear a little more about about what evidence there is that you know the the things in this budget

157the items in this budget um and the strategies in the budget will directly correlate with improving achieving our goals or with not improving but achieving our goals um and so I don't know if you could talk a little bit about that um Dr Bird song happy to um at the end of the day with our strategic plan all all of the board's goals established goals align with our strategic plan and I and I did mention that during my presentation that we did uh certainly look at the um the goals of the board as we work to develop this budget for example I know the board is very much interested in the literacy uh improved Literacy for our children in the area in the areas of reading in mathematics we're making a significant $8.5 million investment

158in that so that's directly align with with the board's goals um certainly um we took very we did not take lightly at all I mean when we were planning out all of this of course we looked at the Strategic plan but there's not a goal within that the board has established that's not aligned with the Strategic plan so as we're looking at the iic plan and the individual goals of the school board that's how our budget came about and at the end of the day as it relates to norford Public Schools being able to provide high quality educational experiences to all children if we don't have teachers we're not going to be able to accomplish anything so our Focus had to be on our Personnel recognizing them for the hard work that they do each

159and every day to serve our children for those who are have remained with us for a long time and the ones that we are trying to attract here because we have a significant teacher shortage so at the end of the of the day for me the focus on teachers and building principles and staff that's how we're going to be able to to achieve all of these goals without people we won't be there we won't get there so there's no way that these goals aren't aligned with what you've established for us to look at or our existing strategic plan that you're welcome and my my next comment was more of a comment suggestion so I know we've talked about the reversion funds and the all-in Virginia funds which I know like the the other Grant funds

160that are that are in here um but specifically around the unexpended funds so really I'm talk about the reversion and um the P funds so one I have a question about I want to back up and have a question about the P funds so those were fy21 unexpended is am I understanding that correctly so we were permitted and miss spiv you can correct me if I'm wrong we were permitted to um carry those funds over because during the pandemic as you recall Across the Nation across the state there were a lot of unexpended funding because children weren't physically in schools so there was a lot of unspent funding during that time and because of that we have been allowed to utilize it and so we need to now for for next school year to close

161our budget gaps okay so this was not funding that was available last year for instance or it it was just released to us to use I'm not sure when it was released but I know we need to use it next year okay okay and um so so part of my I guess for my thought process you know I I guess I'd like to decouple the reversion funds and the pr funds out of the operating budget to really see like even from a sustainability standpoint how we are mapping out the resources going forward um so that's just one thought I had because it it just kind of confused me a little bit um and maybe I just need to digest it more deeply but um it I would just like to see that separated out a

162little better I can speak to that globally okay um so in in order and again in looking at compensation and um demonstrating to our our staff that we value and appreciate them es um all of our staff um one of the areas a priority for us was Recruitment and Retention um we've done a lot with recruitment I believe over the last several years I believe that we could have done better with retention which is why I ADV um I am advocating for that $3,000 retention bonus and um as you know as it relates to um the city's Revenue sharing formula with the school division we're not permitted at this time as the policy exists to utilize those funds for um recurring costs so the seven I think it was 17.5 million close close enough that

163I am proposing that we utilize for that retention um bonus through the use of reversion funds so the vast majority of reversion I am proposing to use for that and un um and other uh other supplies equipment things of that nature that um are one-time expenditures and not related to wages and salaries and we were very intentional and purposeful about um what we would like to utilize reversion funds for and and other expenses that we know will carry on into the next school year okay and of course I have I have other comments questions but I'll send that on via email and I'll send out something and how that process will look like going forward because I don't want her to get all these questions and no understood yep okay so Dr Gabriel thank you

164um Dr Birdsong and team excellent job on the budget very excited to read all of the Investments as others have said before in staff in structure in um the extracurriculars um all of it is going to tremendously benefit our staff and our students and as a uh parent in NPS I'm very grateful for that uh I have have um several questions also I've sent a couple of them already through email but just to highlight on two of them our specialty programs do draw a lot of attention um for families um for students and um I've had the benefit of touring several of them how did you take into the account funding um for our specialty programs um investing in them uh building them uh supporting them through staff and res ources if you could just

165share with us a little bit of of how how you did that so I I need to remind the board that we had 16% of the budget for ev Everything of of of importance um to the school division so while there were discussions about specialty programs um certainly our specialty programs are are of great importance to us there was one item I do believe that was request ested that did not make it to this table and that was the addition of I believe an administrator over the programs and one of the reasons why as we considered all other priorities um that a decision was made not to request an additional position just to uh supervise us specialty programs is because as you can recall four years ago I requested from the school division a chief

166schools officer position this is a position that we've never had in the school division before this position provides an additional layer of support for our specialty programs typically those programs are um assigned to the executive director of secondary schools it it's always been that way even when I was the executive director of secondary schools so with um Dr kimsey who happens to be in the position now it is my expect expectation that she continue to provide supervision and support of of that program or those programs so we have increased uh support of specialty programs can we do more I'm I'm sure there are a lot of things that we can do but again at the end of the day we have to decide as a whole school division what are the most pressing needs and

167how do we fund those for next school year so if there are other needs I'm I'm just not a aware of them and of course we want to grow them um and although it's not present in in this budget for example there was the piece that um we have discussed over the past uh couple of years about transportation for example um related to the uh program at Blair midle Middle School well that's already with within the budget that we we didn't feel like there was anything additional that we needed to put forth in this presentation but I I just felt like it was an expect expressed by the board and so and that's the direction that we plan to go for next school year if if that makes any sense does thank you you're welcome

168I do I do um so I I appreciate how you said that you know being Innovative is not just a word it's it's an action and and we can't just use it as a as a onetime item um in your original presentation there was some mention as a was kind of discussed in our educational planning about you know rightsizing the division um there was some pieces in there about revisiting Career and Technical education and a comprehensive High School is there anything that you wanted to share with us or is that still something that is in the making or well I'm not sure how to answer that well I'll answer that uh Dr Gabriel the board will come together and have a conversation about CTE High School okay okay that's why that that slide was not

169in there okay we'll come together as a board and discuss that okay thank you is that it that is it thank you Mr Jordan yes um I want to Echo what's been said about the hard work and effort that's been um but into putting this budget together um so I've um I'm deeper into the belief that uh student outcomes don't change until adult behaviors change and that the change starts with me so I'm not interested at this point in time of doing as I may have done in the past and pick aart individual what I am interested in and what I really would like the board to have a conversation around as we develop our following questions is so we we we spent the earlier part of the day and really we spent a year

170two years talking about these uh board goals and non-negotiables and we know we're very early into the non-negotiables but the the board goals the smart outcome goals have been talked about for quite some times so when I'm really interested in and not now but at the the next meeting and as we move towards um whatever it is that the board's budget proposed budget to council will be is having a deeper understanding and to be more deeply convinced uh of the alignment of the budget to the board's goals and the beginning of the process of honoring the board's non-negotiables so as Miss mine was asking earlier and what what often occurs in these discussion I think is occurring again is we'll talk about the Strategic plan and how the board goes definitely align with the Strategic

171plans but we have elevated some things and so if if we know that um these are not exact numbers but if 70% of our least according to the data of our students are on free and reduced lunch and if our data is showing us that 50% of our students who are economically uh disadvantage whatever the appropriate sces or qualify are not reading on third grade level based upon our goals what I what I want to hear is this budget that we submit and as we have this conversation going forward I want to hear it scream out I I I appreciate the investment that's being made in instruction and the investment that's being made uh Staffing but I really want to get a real deep understanding of alignment of how this budget advances our board goals

172and honors our non-negotiables um it and that it's a line and I think the more I'm convinced of that and I think from a board's perspective I think when we are convinced of that we say we say yay [Music] um so I'm not convinced of that that yet but it's not of any fault of what's been presented we just haven't had a chance as a board to have that conversation um as as a as a maybe somewhat of of an example of that so in the non-negotiable we talk about um uh superintendent will not allow underperforming schools to have low low teacher fill rates for prolonged periods or make extensive use of substitutes low performing or provisionally licensed staff without implementing a high impact strategy so if what Dr bird song is including the budget

173is an high impact strategy that addresses that I just want to better understand how how that aligns and right now I don't have enough information to to do that the only other I guess comments not really a question at this point when we're dealing with the um all the compensation pieces um teacher salaries or staff salaries the steps the reversion funds what I think I'm understanding in the in the budget and we've done this for a while is um we're we are following a traditional budget process where we look at how many positions we have we calculate how much that costs we um go about trying to fill those positions if we don't fill those positions we end up with The Gap we end up with reversions we end up with unfilled positions in around

174around the district and so it feels like to me that we are kind of calculating that again and I'm interested in hearing more about whether or not there was any conversation around zero based budgeting where we really look at um not not just the positions that we have but if we projected that we need 3,000 teachers but we've only had 1,500 what does it look like based upon the the actuals and how does that impact um everything else so you know like if we're talking about step increases and if we do the step increases against the FTE that we have it looks one way if we have an opportunity to look at it versus um the Staffing that we have and where they are it may look a different way so I just like to

175get a little better sense of the alignment of the resources towards the um towards how they impact the the outcomes address that a littleit you don't want to hear I'd rather wait because I like the because because really I want the what I hope the board will avoid is just sending a list of 70 questions I like the what I'm really appealing to my board colleagues at this point around how do we come to some agreement or consensus around alignment with the priorities that we've set in the beginning of the non-negotiables um and and not get into the position of trying to pick here and pick there because we could all do that I think by doing that we substitute our judgment for the superintendent and we make accountability lessoned and so in my behavior

176change I don't I would like not to go down that path and i' like to see if I can get other board members to join me in that okay thank you Mr Jordan oh thank you so much for standing there waiting for someti we appreciate you but thank you we're going to wrap up um I will reach out um to the board how we will and Sh um communicate with Dr bur on how we will move forward in this process budget process because our goal is to have our questions um answered have some um dialogue discussion and get a b um budget approved and get get it across the street right so that's the goal so um look forward to one of my many emails to you before you adjourn just for Clarity on that

177so as of right now um I know that there's we were asked to set aside a March 1st date is it is it your thinking that the first the next opportunity for the board to really have our conversation around next steps related to the budget is that that date it's not next week and we don't have any other date in between at this point correct well next week and I was going to share that as well we're going to start at 3:00 with um vas coming in and presentation on the HR study and then um I guess I'll we'll go into Clos session like we do but I it might be an opportunity because I don't think we have anything um pressing in close session and that's some feedback I can get from all of

178you and if we can um have a quick Workshop after that presentation that I mean that's a um something we can so we talked about doing a I guess we're going to get a written report yes that report will be on the piece but I guess I'm asking so that if we do do something next week we can prepare for it if we aren't going to do it next week and it's really going to be centerpiece on March 1 then at least we we know that what we should you know what we'll do with that I would prefer March 1 so we can really again have really sit down down and have a full discussion and next week let's just um continue our agenda as as planned okay thank you Miss Pine M chair so

179one other comment so we kind of under Student Success there we we covered a lot of ground but we still have items that we did not cover um is there a way that we can incorporate that somehow into um either next week or you know that we we get that sooner than later yeah yeah yeah yeah all right well if there's not no other business this meeting is turn thank you everyone