School Board Business Meeting: 5-17-23

001meeting of May 17 2023 to order Miss Tanner please call the roll yes but see here Buffalo here Samson here planting here Gabriel president Jordan here and Martin present okay can I get a motion to go into executive session move we go into executive session second thank you Dr Gabriel seconded yes you ready yes move that the members of the school board go into a closed session for the purposes which are set out in subsection a of section 2.2-3711 of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act as amended for discussion consideration or interviews or prospective candidates for employment assignment appointment promotion performance demotion salaries disciplining or resignation of specific public officers appointees or employees of the school board or the city of Norfolk pursuant to subsection 2.2-37-11a1 of the act the subjects of this portion of

002the session are the discussion of personnel on today's regular Personnel agenda discussion or consideration of disciplinary and any other matters concerning students in Norfolk public schools that will involve the disclosure of information contained in the Scholastic record pursuant to section 2.2-371182 of the act the subjects of this portion of the session or the discussion of students on today's regular student agenda support agenda consultation legal counsel and briefing by staff members or Consultants who pertaining to actual or probable litigation where discussion and Open Session would adversely affect the school board's negotiating or litigating posture and consultation with legal counsel regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by Council pursuant to sub sections 2.2-3711878 of the act the subjects of this portion of the session are those set above in subsections A and B

003of this motion and unsolicited proposal concerning Murray High School filed with the board pursuant to the public private educational facilities and an infrastructure Act of 2002 and board policy djfz and proposed revised Family Life education curriculum set for a vote on today's agenda Bassin aye Buffalo I campson aye Clinton aye Gabriel aye Jordan aye Martin aye okay thank you meeting to reconvene please call the roll the scene here Buffalo here campson here planting present Gabriel president of Jordan here Martin present okay up first we have the Pledge of Allegiance led by our student board reps student School Board representative and I am here good evening we request that all cell phones and pagers to be turned off or to vibrate during the course of this thank you remain standing standing pledge allegiance to the flag

004of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all babysitter can I get a motion to adopt the school board business meeting agenda Madam chair I would like to offer an amendment to the agenda okay I would like to add item 5.07 administrative action Booker T Washington steam High School second 5.0 7 5.07 yes ma'am okay our it's already been revised should be 5.05 . Miss Tanner does everyone you should have yeah the new one would be because we're moving uh we have those other tools do I have the old one in front of me maybe I'm the one with the wrong one okay yes got it yeah and did I get a second yes I seconded it okay go

005ahead Miss Tanner the same I Buffalo I am so I planted aye Gabriel aye Jordan aye Martin aye got in there okay all right wonderful um up next we have our student performance Miss Tanner channel 47 is going to Yes Channel 47 is going to play the video If You may do so now at this time [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right now [Music] good evening sure Dr Martin Vice chairman Moore Buffalo school board members Dr Birdsong Administration and guests my name is Zach Rigsby and I'm the senior coordinator of music and theater instruction for Norfolk Public Schools I'm pleased to once again announce that Norfolk public schools has been honored by the National Association of Music Merchants as a 2023 best communities for music education this award not only recognizes the outstanding work

006of our music teachers but also acknowledges the continued support of the Norfolk Community School Board and School Administration in supporting Equitable access to high quality music education in our schools in honor of this award tonight's presentation includes performances from our All City Middle School band and Orchestra at the opening of the presentation the All City band performed a movement from scenes from an ocean voyage by Bahrain bomb edges entitled Dolphins at Play to end our presentation tonight I hope you enjoy our All City orchestra's performance of Sahara Crossing by Richard Meyer thank you once again for your continued support of music education here in Norfolk Public Schools [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] [Applause] up next we have the school board clerks report Miss Tanner go ahead

007awesome we have a full packed house in here tonight so thank you for joining us here today um I want you to take a moment to look around the room we have student artwork hanging in the hallway and this boardroom and this from our students from South Side STEM Academy Ruffner Academy Willard Norview PB young and Saint Helena elementary schools each month we had a rotation of artwork to highlight our art students coordinated by Georgiana filio the senior coordinator of art education let's give our students a round of applause Madam chair board members and our viewers and people here on tonight it gives me great honor to recognize our two School Board student representatives for their service for the 2022-2023 school year but first I'd like to ask Dr bursong and Dr Martin to proceed

008to the podium and after they have had an opportunity to get to the podium I want all the full board members to come down to the front of the step and repeat oh okay all board members you can proceed to the backdrop and Dr Burson you at the first Mike and Dr Martin you stand at the second mic this might get a little tight there you go Dr burst song Naya and Jordan Naya stand forward come forward first night is our student School Board representative for Norfolk Public Schools she's a Mori High School senior let's give her a round of applause served not the bird song it's going to give you a plaque which reads with sincere appreciation for your service as the city as the city of Norfolk School Board student representatives for the

0092022-23 school year thank you for your service and before you go Dr Martin is going to give you a bronze medal that you can wear at graduation along with your other adornments congratulations foreign now Jordan wicker we want you to come forward Jordan wicker is our art our alternate School Board student representative she is a senior at Lake Taylor High School let's give her a round of applause and your your plaque also reads with sincere appreciation for your service as the city of Norfolk School Board student representative alternate for the 2022-23 school year congratulations thank you yes and Dr Martin's going to give you two also a uh medal for you to wear on graduation day let's give them another round of applause and so each one of the board members can shake their hands

010and then we're going to take a group picture okay let's hop in there awesome thank you ladies for your service let's give them one more round of applause [Applause] and while you return to your receipt the clerk's report notes the following observances for May Mental Health Awareness Month National physical fitness and sports month School nurses week was May 6th through the 12th national School nurses day was May 10th and we celebrated Teacher Appreciation Week May 8th through the 12th and Teacher Appreciation Day on May 9th and so we're just proud to be able to honor our staff members and our students during this time of month and that concludes my report Dr Martin thank you Miss Tanner up next we have our superintendents report by Dr bertson good evening chair Martin Vice chair Buffalo members

011of our community and staff every month we like to highlight all the wonderful things that our students have accomplished and all of the good teaching and learning going on in Norfolk public schools and we will do so tonight you will um see in our video presentation a celebration of Norview High School's 100th year anniversary and we celebrated that and we were so excited and also within the video we have the closing of Tidewater Park and the presentation of our to our community to the school staff and to the children it was a beautiful celebration we had many many community members who attended to include it to include our mirror also within the video it will conclude with a tribute to Nicole Gregory and as you know Nicole Gregory our principal of the CHKD mental health

012program she passed away a couple of weeks ago and tonight we again honor Miss Gregory she served the Norfolk public schools for 24 years she served as a school counselor at Lafayette Winona Middle School she was then promoted to assistant principal at Norview Heights at Blair Middle School the Norview Middle School and then a promotion to Norview High School and then she became the first appointed principal of the CHKD mental health program and so again this evening we honor her and we um we wish her family well two of her beautiful children are still in our schools one at Norview High School and one at Norview Middle School and they are our children and we are committed to taking care of them so without further Ado please roll the video Norview High School celebrated its

013100th anniversary with a special program that highlighted the school's past present and future graduates current students and staff and the community we're on hand to remember and recognize the significant role Norview High School has played in their lives tonight celebrates the 100th year of Norview High School and we all just came out here to celebrate and see all the alumni and family and friends come out and so just support what uh what this trip has been for an overview and it's just great to see everybody come out come out here and just have a great time and just reminisce about Norview it was just a wonderful experience to see our roll call and we had several roll calls and people just shared how not only did they go to Norview High School or graduate but

014their parents went or their sister or their other family members went so it was just a very great experience just to hear all the Traditions that we have here at Norview High School one of the things that I've always said that I was so proud of was to be the first Norview grad graduate to get elected in Norfolk City Council I sought for it and and I was so happy when I was when I got elected in 1992. I love Norview and I'm and I really I really enjoyed being here I great the middle school but I had the privilege of graduating from the high school in 1963. so I am one of the 17 who would never quit I was not treated as if I was wanted by anyone not school board not the

015principal not teachers not students and yet Northview helped to make me who I am today once upon it okay Tidewater Park Elementary has stood at the corner of Tidewater Drive and Brambleton Avenue for the last 59 years opening in January 1964 at a cost of 621 thousand dollars it was the city's first fully air-conditioned school with 16 classrooms and a 480 student capacity with a declining enrollment and the revitalization of the surrounding neighborhood Tidewater Park Elementary is set to close its doors for good at the end of the 2022-23 school year to celebrate its long history in the community a night of remembrance and performances was recently held our Tidewater Park School reunion a night event was a five-star fabulous event we brought out the mayor of the city of Norfolk the superintendent of schools

016and school officials who really and thoroughly enjoyed the celebration of Tidewater Park School being in its 59th year of Education I have had so many positive responses and reactions about about the children's performance people learning about the history of Tidewater Park School it was a fantastic event many students teachers and staff have combined to make Tidewater Park a staple in the community where children were educated and loved we have teachers here who are really concerned about our children and our community we have teachers here who believe that these children can learn they have a genuine love for our boys and girls and they work hard to ensure that these boys and girls are educated and are well-rounded individuals so that's what makes our boys and girls so successful when they're here with us is that

017we Embrace and encourage them to be all that they can be I really wanted them to Excel and that I expected them to Excel and they knew that I was passionate about their education and I showed that by what I did and my staff did every day them and when they succeeded it was so important to them as it was to us the way they genuinely love on the children and their authenticity of just being focused and ensuring that the children would learn and they went all out and Dr Phillips had no problems walking the community getting the parents engaged involved and things like that it's a lot of us kids when we came to school some of us came with empty bellies and it was a cafeteria staff that knew these days and then

018mind giving us extra Miracle exercise of pizza and uh so one of the reasons why I'm here today to remind the students to listen and I myself walked through these Halls come from Tidewater Park I come here to show there's hope it just don't stop here a Common Thread that is woven into its Legacy has always been its strong and caring leadership I'm here just to close out the Legacy with Dr Spradley she was an awesome leader she was very dedicated she cared about the children and just making sure that all of the resources were in place great Administration the leadership was phenomenal they're supportive they're caring they're loving and the teachers are exactly the same way and everybody believes that all children can learn no matter where they live claw students and staff at

019Lake Taylor School invited parents the community and NPS administrators and board members into the school for their first ever eye Expo after a brief introduction in the media center guests toured the building and visited classes from kindergarten through eighth grade to see how students are using technology every day our eye Expo was just a day where kids are showing the community what they've learned using their iPad so they've used several different programs Apple programs and other programs from coding sphero's robots to writing songs on GarageBand we also became an apple pathway school so this was a way to show the community what we're doing with apple and we've been invited to be an apple distinguished school it was fantastic the cool thing was seeing all the different age groups just kind of working with technology

020even the kindergarteners just being able to manipulate their iPad to get there their assignments done it was really cool I think it's a great opportunity to come in and see what the children are doing day to day and see the Hands-On that they're doing with it's just remarkable how our little people to our big people are engaged in technology and using that for the educational process is wonderful I hope our guests realize how much how important technology is in education is definitely something we have to embrace and we have to keep moving forward with it we can't you know buy one set of iPads and think they're going to last for 20 years if we want to give our students a quality education we have to make sure that we give them all the resources

021that they need so they can be successful from here and moving forward the United Way of Southampton roads gave teachers at Sherwood Forest Elementary a special gift on their annual day of action a group of volunteers showed their appreciation to these Educators Vice versing up the Teachers Lounge and restocking their Supply Closet so today we are at Sherwood Forest and we are overhauling this teacher's lounge so we just want to make it a really great space for our teachers we've put together some Ikea furniture and gotten that all set up so we have some new tables and chairs we're trying to kind of fix up some of the little details and just make it a nice new space for them that they can really come and relax and enjoy well I mean as you know

022teacher appreciation week is coming up just a little way to say thank you for all that they do so it's just a little way a little token to say thank you for all the little things that they do and give them a little bit of respice a little bit of a break while they're on their planning or whatever they use this Lounge for it makes us feel scene it makes me feel seen a little bit that our work isn't going underappreciated and it's great yeah it's a great place to take a break in I think it's really pretty it definitely lightens up the area and creates a really fun safe space for teachers to go to I really enjoy it students and staff at Azalea Gardens Middle School can now learn sign language thanks to

023a new after school club every week they meet to learn new signs play games and find out more about Deaf culture which is important because there are deaf students at their school in fact two of those students often teach a club new signs and they are glad their fellow classmates are interested in signing I feel like they want to know about selling a Lynch I feel great because it's made me feel happy to teach them I am trying to learn sign language for my little sister it makes me kind of sad to know that I can communicate with others but if I can't communicate with my own sister then that kind of leaves her out I don't ever want to leave her out it's always good to learn a little bit about another culture and

024there's a lot of people around that are deaf and hard of hearing that just don't get the tension and people just don't understand so we like to make sure that they all of our kids feel included in the school building and they can participate in whatever they want Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters held a special ceremony to dedicate their children's Pavilion which will provide inpatient mental health services to young people with the possibility of housing 60 patients at a time in this brand new facility Norfolk Public Schools teachers and staff will be on hand to assist these children with furthering their education during their stay it makes a world of difference not just we have plenty of scientific evidence showing that having a hospital school is just incredibly meaningful for their overall clinical outcomes

025but subjectively anecdotally we've heard from so many kids who say if if I hadn't had some way to continue the school while I was while I was healing while I was recovering I would have had to take a year off we're hoping to provide them with the best education possible but at the same time instilling in them that they can become whatever they want to be regardless of what they're going through so to take their mind off of what they're struggling with education will be the key to help them move forward thank you okay up next we have our citizens comments on agenda items only miss Tanner would you please read the protocol for public comment yes for tonight's citizens comments on agenda items only we have 33 speakers today speakers have signed up for

026public comments before the start of today's business meeting if you would like to provide public comments for agenda items only you are required to State the agenda items you are addressing prior to providing your public comments at this meeting when your name is called please come forward to the speakers Podium state your name and whether you have a child in Norfolk Public Schools or if you are employed by the district and state your agenda items one person is to speak at a time if you are representing a group State the group's name you may ask your group members to stand in place to be recognized speaking time is limited to three minutes a timer is set with an alarm that will signify the end of your speaking time State your position and give facts and

027other relevant data avoid saying anything that identifies students or Personnel information about individual employees Personnel disciplinary and the confidential matters may be addressed to the school board directly via email at school board at npsk12.com comments should be addressed through the board and not addressed to an individual member school board members do not respond to public comments at this time that they are given any written statements or supporting materials should be given to the clerk Dr Martin our first speaker for today for agenda items only is Karen runes followed by Mel price my name is Karen renes I am represent I'm here to represent the get neighborhood League I have no children in Norfolk public schools and I'm here to address agenda item 5.03 the ppea as I stated um I'm Karen renes and on behalf

028of the Ghent neighborhood League I would like to begin by stating our strong support for the students and teachers at Mori high school and our commitment to providing them with the best educational facility possible we believe that by working together we can achieve that goal and prevent the demolition of historic Mori High School of the historic Mori High School building we support a vote in favor of the ppea as the means to achieve that important end I was present at the December board meeting when the then chairman announced that the school board was in receipt of an unsolicited bid or ppea for the future of Murray High School I was hopeful and trusted the process further I assured all who asked me that the school board would surely share the details about the ppea proposal

029and establish a public comment period where the stakeholders could have a voice in the process I was completely blindsided at the May 12 Ghent task force meeting when the now chairman announced that a vote on the ppea would be taken at tonight's meeting with no opportunity to review the proposal worse tonight's agenda suggests to someone who's not well-versed in the school board's parliamentary procedures that the board may have already made a decision about the future of Murray High School in a closed session and that in a few minutes you will vote to accept or reject the ppea with no more public comment than has come in tonight this process is in direct contradiction to the Norfolk school board's new strategic plan that highlights Community engagement and if you'll forgive me for quoting directly from your

030document objective one is to increase trust among NPS stakeholders through timely and transparent Communications regarding division level decisions may I respectfully suggest that we have some work to do in achieving this objective we reviewed the ppea that was released last night and forwarded it to our members an adjacent Civic leagues we are ready to engage with you to come to a better outcome than was previously accepted by the school board on B2 our general membership meeting is tonight and we postponed our scheduled agenda in order to live stream this meeting and the upcoming vote this is an issue of intense interest in our community the ppea is now in the public domain and the gnl would like to work with the Norfolk public schools and Norfolk school board and other stakeholders to restart the conversation

031and provide a state-of-the-art school building for our students faculty and a safe and inviting campus consistent with our neighborhood and above all an excellent education for our children thank you next we have mail price good evening good evening Mel price with WPA I do not have a child at Mari high school and I'm here for 5.03 good evening Dr Birdsong Mr Fraley and members of the Norfolk School Board I'm Mel price I'm an architect Urban designer and a lifelong resident of Norfolk my company WPA submitted the unsolicited ppea to you along with our partners at Heartland construction vmdo Architects and Monument as you're likely aware we released our proprietary and confidential renderings yesterday because we care about the schools the city and an open transparent and educated public process we've witnessed the community beginning to

032fracture over this issue over conversations that were not fully informed and we really empathize with people's frustration we believe as designers that it's so much easier to have a healthy conversation when everyone can see what's being discussed so much of the conversation about Mari has centered around who has the right to participate in the discussion I'm not a parent but I've spent 20 years of my career working with students faculty administrators designing environments for learning I want to make it very clear that the students are the priority and we fully support Norfolk Public Schools need for a new building when NPS issued the RFP that HBA Architects responded to you asked the question should we renovate Mari or build new HBA answered that question very well when we saw the results of the study we

033were not surprised but we were saddened to see a building that the community cherishes slated for demolition we wondered if perhaps there was another question that could be asked instead of a binary choice between renovate or tear down what if we asked what is the best way to use this entire 20-acre site in a way that supports Mari and the surrounding neighborhoods we decided that we would study give it a try test some possible Site Solutions pretty quickly it became clear that we could build new and save parts of the historic building so if the old building was sold renovated using historic tax credits turned into something that could generate tax revenue to support NPS the city and meet Community needs wouldn't that be a win-win for everyone so last November our team acted quickly

034and we wrote the unsolicited PPA to provide some new ideas our proposal does the following constructs a new modern School incorporating all of the spaces in the educational specifications including all of the athletic facilities uses a build first move second approach to make sure no one is in Mobile classrooms or trailers avoids fracturing the community over demolition provides much needed housing for the community including 10 affordable housing addresses larger Community issues such as climate change resilience sustainability neighborhood connectivity delivers the school on an accelerated schedule on the same budget um you have 15 more seconds no okay thank you so much thank you thank you next we have WIC knocks and if I pronounce that incorrectly I apologize you can correct me followed by Alan Whitley okay thank you so my name is WIC Knox

035I'm an architect with vmdo I'm part of the team that submitted the proposal in Maury and I do not have children in the school district I'm still trying to get over the idea of building a school for 631 thousand dollars the world changes a lot in 62 years when the Commonwealth of Virginia passed the public-private education facilities and infrastructure act 20 years ago it acknowledged that there were situations in which public entities couldn't leverage all the opportunities and incentives available the historic and endangered status of the original Mori High School brings with it tax incentives but only for tax paying entities the real estate parcel provides more than enough space for a new school building but there's not enough public dollars to build a new school and restore the historic building this is exactly the

036type of situation that the public-private Education Act or ppea was intended to address unfortunately the dilemma I just described is what has driven much of the public discourse on the project the feasibility study assumed tax incentives couldn't be used so it produced that binary binary choice between renovate versus build new our team believes that we can do both our proposal calls for a brand new four-story high school on the Northern portion of the site this building will accommodate approximately 1900 students and contain all of the program spaces that are called for in your reimagined Mori educational specs that were produced in 2018. through sustainable design approaches and high performance systems the new school will operate at one-third the cost of a typical NPS facility a slightly elevated ground floor and solar-powered backup batteries in lieu

037of generators will provide much needed resiliency for this area and on top of it all of these systems are eligible eligible for significant tax breaks to the inflation reduction Act once the new building is complete students and staff will move from Mori into the state of art school at that point we'll demolish the non-historic parts of Mori and complete a parking deck with a six quart tennis facility on top at the Final Phase his historic Mori building would be sold to our design build development partner under terms that it will be fully restored per the strict conditions of historic tax credits and transformed into housing with 10 percent of the units designated it's affordable not only does this approach remove several million dollars of Demolition and abatement costs from the school's project but it it

038also is anticipated to produce 26 million dollars of property tax revenue over 50 years according to policy accepting this conceptual proposal only means accepting it for consideration you would publish the non-proprietary parts of our proposal and give 90 days for anyone else to submit a competing proposal at that stage you could vote to reject all the proposals you could choose one of them or two of them to continue to a more detailed phase which is similar to traditional procurement following that process you could move forward with contract negations with one team or reject them all but we've presented to you we believe is a win-win solution and our only request is that you consider it along with any other proposal you've receive after this thank you Alan Whitley good evening good evening to the distinguished

039uh board members and Madam chair I am a representative of the Booker T Washington High School of Academy and visual Performing Arts alumni I am coming in regards to the name change of the Booker T Washington High School auditorium to the SL Roundtree theater at Booker T Washington High School there is a rich history in Booker T Washington Auditorium that has lasted through several school years there's a rich history that the book of T Washington Auditorium has provided across the school the school board as we just saw from the video people have performed there we are looking to change the name in honor of Mr SL Roundtree who has worked for Norfolk public schools for over 45 years 30 years which was at Booker T Washington High School um I previously contacted the School Board

040office and was advised by Miss Margie Stallings that it wouldn't be an issue as well as I've spoken to other members of the board um and so that is my point we want to change the booker to Washington Auditorium name to Mr ESO to that sell Roundtree theater at Booker T Washington High School thank you okay um Elise therier and please correct me when you get to the mic followed by uh Richard Levin my name is Elise Stewart and my grandfather graduated from Murray High School both of my parents graduated from Murray High School and my youngest son graduated from Murray High School and there are about 90 years between those because people in my family have children late um so my family has a long history with Mari I also am a resident of

041Ghent and I can't really say it better than it's already been said but I do feel that renovating Mari for residential life and giving the students a new state-of-the-art school is the best way to handle this so I really hope that you vote in support of giving this proposal a really close look and I would also suggest I think when you're nominated for a board or elected or you elected for city council when that happens sometimes you are stunned by public vitriol the people just get mad at you for the strangest reasons and sometimes you feel like you can't do or say anything right I would suggest that one of the most important things you can do is be transparent and try not to do things behind closed doors where people feel whether it's true

042or not that secrecy is happening because it does it annoys people it annoys your constituents so thank you so much for your time and I hope that Maury is saved next we have Richard Levine followed by John Sitka if I pronounce your last name incorrectly please let me know good evening and I'm honored to be able to address you all this evening y'all should be proud of what's been accomplished in Norfolk Public Schools I'm here sharing my heart because I am passionate about this issue of saving Maury High School and older buildings I can't think of one building that's been torn down in this city that we probably would not want to have it back today for what's been built Molly high school has a very rich tradition heart and soul of get it really

043truly is it's not just a school it's it's it's our heart my parents went there my sisters went there family went there uh it's a magnificent structure it's been actually written up as one of the most important distinguished buildings school buildings in the south in the whole South tear that building down as a sin it really truly is it would be heartbreaking please think about that there's another way to do this and save our school we really can save it you know I think one of the most important things we can teach our children is Preservation everything old is not bad you look at universities all over the country people fight to get into Harvard and to all the schools that are older Howard University in Washington know Georgetown and Washington or whatever it may

044be it's not the buildings the buildings actually what sent a wonderful message to our children that it's important it's so important please don't turn our backs on that school it's 113 years old it deserves to be saved honest to God it does and there's probably more than one way to skin a cat I mean I don't know if there's such a thing as private donations whether you all can accept that for school or whatever raise money for the school there's other ways that's money available I mean my phone is hung off the hook people who graduated Maury he said don't let that school get torn down we'll send money thank you if it's a matter of a dollar I mean the dollars come and they go they really do but those buildings once they're down

045they're gone forever and we're depriving our children of this Rich inheritance heritage please God do the right thing here and save that school thank you followed by Colin Kelly good evening School Board good evening good to see you all again Dr Birdsong Dr Martin first of all I'd like to commend each of you uh performance of Virginia code to do a review of the Family Life Education which is required every seven years however I noticed this curriculum actually comes entirely from Planned Parenthood in a league of Massachusetts you're saying to me we couldn't find one of our many prestigious universities here in Virginia to come up with an appropriate curriculum that we had to go out of state I have a letter here a copy of a letter that went to the superintendent bird song

046from the Department of Education dated May 15 2023 from the superintendent of public instructions Lisa Coons and I'm going to be calling out certain excerpts from this document I'm sure you all seen all of y'all seen this document concerning it one of the things is the curriculum was considered not appropriate as set forth by Virginia code 22.1-207.1 again we're teaching children as young as 12 how to role play scenarios and classes with their peers which is not age appropriate and the other thing is they didn't really cover much on absence it was all on protection well by not covering absence keep in mind there are consequences and psychological repercussions by just absence could eliminate I do want to also cover quickly when you are presenting this material it has to be where the parents have

047to have approval not just giving a little paper consent that they just see but are they aware of the curriculum and I don't mean well they can go online and look at it you may need to send it to them because by not doing it the school board and the teachers may be subject to Virginia code 18.2 374 374.4 display a child pornography or grooming video material child unlawfully don't put yourself in that position between parents and a state attorney general there may be some difficulties so make sure you've cover all your bases secondly how bad is our old curriculum I have something here from the Virginia Department of Health statistics for the past 15 years pregnancies have dropped 43 to 17 percent or excuse me 17 people that's over 50 percent so you got

048a grant from evma could we not do a better job with it also keep in mind I know from being here at the school board and speaking before a lot of people who speak and I'm kind of disheartened sometimes what we say gets disregarded because it's public comment and as they say y'all already made y'all's decision thank you very much thank you Colin Kelly followed by Jennifer Gruber good evening my name is Colin Kelly I'm a resident I have no children in the school district right now and I'm here to address Family Life curriculum I'm going to start off going down a little bit of a different path I'm a relatively new Resident to the city of Richmond and many times from where I came from or wherever even around here visiting people Virginia Beach

049Chesapeake they say why did you move to Norfolk they have horrible schools aren't you concerned about it and of course I refute them I say no it's a great place wildlives great neighbors great great neighborhood restaurants bars the life here is great but they kept persisting so I went out to the Virginia website called schoolquality.virginia.com to get some statistics on some of the basic metrics involving education the results were very very discouraging it's obvious to me that MPS has been is and will likely continue to not meet the standards established 10 years ago by the every student succeeds Act the statistics are very very poor I've sent you all an email with this about back on April 18th I don't know if you've had a chance to look at it but the statistics are horrible

050the dropout rate in Norfolk is three times that three times that of Chesapeake and Virginia Beach now not to say that there aren't good people inside this District many people working hard trying to address these issues and improve upon them but the failures have been there and they've been there for 10 15 maybe even longer how far backs the database goes I'm a person that believes that you know you can criticize but also come to the table with some solutions and that letter email that I sent you all I get I provided four Simple Solutions the first one I'll just reiterate first get back to the basic educational issues like chronic absenteeism Dropout rates subject competency accreditation of schools and making the schools a safe place to learn they're all lacking when you look at

051the metrics very very poor compared to neighbors again stepping back to my opening comment why I live in Norfolk when you could just move two miles to Virginia Beach or Chesapeake a family moving into this area I don't want that to happen I don't want that to happen in the future uh sort of progressing to the point of to get real family life curriculum I think NPS should defer all discussions on any items decisions regarding changing the curriculum to address walk ideology and agendas like the get real Family Life Education you're taking a teacher's valuable time to train them and then take an hour out of class whether it's once a day or once a week for them to do this fam get real program versus the math The Sciences the reading the literature that

052you are so desperately failing for lack of a better word um the detailed analysis I mean I could go through it and there's handouts been passed around here sadly Norfolk has the competency rate of his graduates is 61 percent Virginia Beach 81 Chesapeake 78. Matt 47 Virginia Beach 77 you're like half half of your neighboring school districts so I'm sorry I'd like to continue with that but uh my time's up and thank you for allowing me to speak out in case Jennifer Gruber followed by Sylvia Bryant good Norfolk school board members thank you for allowing me to speak in healthy relationships we listen to each other we don't talk past each other we listen to understand not wait impatiently for the other person to finish so we can share our point of view I believe

053the Norfolk School Board had the intention to engage with parents and community members but the execution did not align with the intention for instance during the development of the curriculum community and religious leaders were not contacted for input once the curriculum was completed they also did not receive links to the material nor were they notified of the parental forms parents were also not engaged in the process the first round of in-person Parental forms were announced via email on Friday March 17th and held on Wednesday March 22nd Thursday March 23rd and Monday March 27th there were very little lead time they were also held at 5 PM 5 PM is a very difficult time for a working adult to attend an hour-long meeting let alone a parent with children the link on the MPS website with

054relevant information such as PDFs for the course curriculum was also very hard to find none of the email emails nor rogo calls were translated into other languages such as Spanish which in effect excluded parents who do not speak English as their primary language I am personally grateful to the board for allowing a second round of in-person Parental forms for the family life education curriculum but sadly again the intention of community engagement did not match the execution the specific form dates were announced via email on Monday April 17th and the first one was held on Tuesday April 18th then Thursday April 20th and then Wednesday April 26th giving parents who wanted to attend an adequate notice again all the meetings were held for it from 5 to 6 PM for an hour I know parents who

055really wanted to attend and they just could not rearrange their schedules with so little notice school board members we as parents we want to feel that we are partners with you and they are serving as our elected officials to work with us in the education of our children one of the five-year strategic playing strategies of the board reads we will Empower and facilitate meaningful family and Community Partnerships it lists Community Family parent engagement as a big idea regarding the execution of the updated Family Life curriculum are you in line with your strategic plan many parents and community members feel you're not please align your intentions with your strategic plan and perform meaningful effective engagement with parents and the community please table the vote and do true engage management I close with suggestions direct the superintendent

056to hold in-person meetings at 7 pm in a school in every Ward hold an additional meeting in the school in the morning for those who can't get out at night provide at least 10 business dues notice so parents can rearrange their schedules and attend attend some of those meetings yourselves and engage with the community direct the superintendent to contact religious and Community leaders directly and provide them with links to the Middle School and High School curriculum invite them to attend the forums send out emails and robocalls in Spanish and other languages that the Norfolk families need email links to the middle school and high school and other languages thank you so much Sylvia Bryant followed by Stacy crosshaw hi ladies and gentlemen of the school board and school administrators my name is Sylvia Bryant and

057I am a parent of the Norfolk Public School student I believe that it is vital for the school board to work together with parents and Educators to find a balanced approach to comprehensive sex education this approach should respect the rights of parents maintain a focus on academic objectives and ensure that the emotional well-being and age-appropriateness of students are taken into consideration I stand before you today to express my concerns regarding the inclusion of certain topics such as masturbation homosexuality lesbianism and condom demonstration as part of the family life curriculum in our classrooms while I understand the importance of comprehensive sex education and promoting inclusivity I believe it is essential to consider the appropriateness of discussing these subjects within the classroom setting first and foremost it is crucial to acknowledge the diverse culture religious and moral

058values within our community introducing explicit discussions about sexual behaviors May conflict with the beliefs and values of many families it is important to respect the rights of parents to determine the appropriate time and place for that conversation with their children furthermore the classroom environment should prioritize academic learning and personal development in areas such as mathematics science literature and critical thinking by introducing explicit sexual topics we risk Shifting the focus away from core educational objectives and potentially creating in a comfortable or distracting learning environment for the student Additionally the introduction of these sensitive Topics in the classroom May inadvertently expose students to explicit content at an age when they may not be emotionally prepared to handle it it is crucial to consider the potential consequences of exposing young minds to explicit discussions that could lead to

059confusion anxiety or permit premature exposure to adult things rather than discussing explicit sexual topics in the classroom we should focus on creating an atmosphere that promotes respect empathy and understanding among students encouraging acceptance and tolerance and open-mindedness toward diverse individuals and communities can be achieved without delving into this explicit details about sexual behaviors in conclusion I urge the school board to carefully reconsider the inclusion of this sexually explicit topics as part of the family life curriculum in our classrooms in Norfolk let us prioritize an inclusive respectful and academically focused environment that promotes understanding and personal growth while respecting the diverse beliefs and values of our community thank you thank you Stacy crosshaw followed by Marianne McKay Stacy here Marianne McKay good evening my name is Marianne McKay and I am co-chair of the education committee

060for the Hampton Roads Black Caucus I feel like I need to explain because obviously I'm not African-American I was approached and encouraged to join the organization because I shared the values the four pillars that the organization stood for or it stands for and I have been involved in education for 30 years as a career academic and financial aid counselor at the Educational Opportunity Center which is funded by the U.S Department of Education and Target population is low income and first generation um I have just now moved into the position but I've gotten to know some people at um young Terrace and as I get to know them their concerns in terms of education is dealing with safety academics and I'm one of those that believes that there is a disparity on disparity in terms of

061economics between blacks and whites and I just think that one of the best ways of working toward that is through education but it has to be quality education it has to be excellence in education and so that's one of my concerns is that time is spent in other areas with life family Planet as opposed to the math the English the the basic fundamental skills also they're telling me one of their concerns is safety and the bullying and my question is if you're in tune with your constituents and I understand that the grant is being paid for by EVMS but has it incurred to anybody to to to let them know that some of the needs really are mental health issues also in terms of safety and approaching and and addressing those needs and I guess

062I would just ask you to to look at that and make that a priority because that's what I'm hearing is their greatest concerns thank you thank you all right next we have Rashida Bess good evening and thank you I was just looking for water but we're going to get through this so I am here thank you to speak oh thank you let's go cut into my time oh wait I'm coming to speak about the Family Life program and I'm coming to you as a parent four children have been through Norfolk Public Schools I experience this program for two years the first time last year and then this summer and it was a beautiful experience it was an experience that exposed my son who at the time was 13. and my daughter when she first took

063the class was 11. 10. and 11. and they were exposed to some very challenging information some very well thought out well organized curriculum I'll say that first because it was very well thought out very well orchestrated and the thing that I want you to leave with is that despite my fears my concerns my discomfort and even knowing that they were young and vulnerable and impressionable the end result was two young people who were empowered not were are because now they're both in Middle School one's on his way to high school next year they are honorable students they are brave they are open they are thriving not just in school but also in the fact that they know what relationships look like they know what healthy relationships look like they are comfortable talking about themselves they

064have a sense of power about who they are because they know that from the very physical parts to the emotional parts to the parts that they may not have felt comfortable discussing with me and their father but they know it and so the tradition of excellence in any education system in any society any Community it's people who are empowered people who are resilient people who are whole and full and that begins with them knowing themselves so if there is the curriculum that the school district can employ that will do that for our children I'm here for it I am a testament to say that it has empowered them to deal with bullying to deal with relationships to deal with inappropriate sexual advances and conversations it has let them know about their bodies and most of

065all it has let them be the people who are in control of themselves so thank you [Music] Domo Giovanni yourself okay thank you I know it's tight thank you for your patience everyone how you doing good evening my name is Giovanni Domo I am a parent here in Norfolk I've been here for about 20 years and uh I'm here to speak about the family life curriculum it is a concern to me uh unfortunately I don't agree with the young lady that came here before me um I have a eight-year-old uh 14 year old and a 17 year old and this topic is something sensitive to me as not only a man but a father and I have two daughters in the son um these are topics that are very sensitive and if it's not done

066right correctly it might work for some parents it might work for might not work for other parents it doesn't work for me because all children are not the same and although this curriculum might be good for some kids their other kids are aggressive the other kids who are uh probably been molested probably been raped you know this might not be something that they're comfortable with um us as parents it's our job to protect our children uh not giving a chance or an Insight or an opportunity to say no or say hey this is not something for you guys to do it's something for me to do you know it hurts me as a parent and as a citizen here you know you guys get voted in to do a job and to protect our children

067not to go behind our backs or not give us any sense of making a decision a big decision especially when it comes to sex topic for us to be included in it so I just pray that you guys are listening I don't know if you guys are going to vote anyway regardless of what anyone says here but what you do does impact us as parents and my children because then I got to go away for What happens if the curriculum's teaching things that I'm not ready to teach my you know soon to be 10 year old because my youngest is eight you know me and my son speak about certain things I don't want to speak about other things I want to focus on Sports you know getting his honors you know I don't want

068him thinking about sex right now you know we'll get to that when we get to that right now you're a child be a child have fun enjoy it you know sex ain't going anywhere but I want the opportunity to do that so I thank you for your time thank you Michelle basket good evening board members I'm Michelle baskat I'm a grandmother I don't have any children any of my grandchildren in the Norfolk school system but I have a great love for children and I first want to say I know you all of you up there are well intentioned I know that you wouldn't be in the position you're in if you didn't truly love children and you were interested in their welfare but I totally agree with the gentleman that was up here I believe

069that this curriculum is not age appropriate I believe that parents are the foremost educators of their children and like he said they know the right time the wind the how and the how much we say we have these people that are going to be educated to teach the program but what are their credentials have the parents been able to see if they are they really able to teach these subjects and for a parent to sit at home and not know say say the parents given the objectives they do not know how that teacher that's teaching the course is going to present it is she going to put her own influence in it you know they are not there to witness that so I think parents are very much concerned and when the superintendent uh in

070Richmond wrote her letter of the concerns of the parents I think that's very important to take into consideration uh her letter that the gentleman before that spoke about and he again she agrees it's not age-appropriate the parents were truly concerned and once you start talking about sex outside of Science and biology you go into values so it's not a value free topic and I think that's something that the parents should come up with so I just pray that you table this and try to come up with a I know there's a need for a program I don't think this is the program I think it undermines the religious faith of many parents I looked at the vocabulary words they're outrageous and you're going to take away the Innocence this life is tough you're going to

071take away the innocence of our children and especially modesty to put girls and boys together and you're talking about their sexual organs and their functions I think this is something that the parents should be able to do or if you're truly concerned about the children come up with a program that you can teach the parents the parents that aren't able they don't know how to go about it come up with a curriculum to teach parents haven't one night a week two nights a week once a month where you teach parents and give them the help they need to discuss this or other members of the family to discuss sexual issues these are such sensitive issues such controversial and to pick a institution like Planned Parenthood that performs abortions and gives out birth control I think

072it's a conflict of interest I mean it's in their favor for women to come in pregnant and for men not to know how to use rubbers correctly or from where women not to use their birth control correctly and then to come in for abortions it's such a conflict of interest I think you could come up with a better program but I thank you for allowing me to talk thank you Vic Nichols pick nickels I do not have a student in MPS I wanted to address 4.05 it really looks like there's pretty much any what goes in here is anything that is abstaining from what can get you pregnant because there's a whole lot of stuff about oral anal same-sex and stuff and it's also into saying that you can have sex if you're not ready

073yet one of the reasons why this is a problem is 25 percent of women were scared during sex by a recent study in Indiana University School of Public of Health that's because they were choked during that time 13 percent of 14 to 17 year olds sexually active girls are also choked because of porn they also showed valvular vocular fissures that are a sign of sexual assault because the education that is given to them is porn aware it doesn't feed into healthy mentality there was a comment that we had by an African-American mom over in Chesapeake she said I want to stay here I don't want to go to Norfolk I don't want to go back there you know why it was because of the schools don't want my kids to learn something a dropout rate

074here is five times higher than Chesapeake your graduation rate in 2022 from the Virginia Department of Education these are all stats from there it's only 0.4 more than Portsmouth your graduation rate Virginia Beach is 10 percent higher Shaolin Lee one of the professors at ODU compared Mari to Mao Tang Chang in in Hawaii compared two different schools your best to one of their little tiny schools he said the desire to learn and the motivation to succeed is gone you need to start concentrating on something so controversial teaches so many other things as other people have told you and it's definitely not teaching women to be valued black student Pass rates in Chesapeake blew away the state right averages for that cohort and in six schools black students outperform their white school mates in math head

075to head and two elementary schools black students outperform their white classmates in fourth grade reading get on the academics get off the sex thank you thank you SATA Taylor followed by Alice Alan Grimes good evening thank you for allowing me to speak um I am here to talk about 4.05 I'm here to talk about one that y'all didn't give time for the parents because it's a 400 a 400 page curriculum that's just only from sixth grade to eighth grade high school is 188 pages long and that's from 9th to 12. that that many Paces are not enough for all the parents to actually read through the curriculum understand the quick Chrome and see what actually their student their not student but their child is being taught I am a parent of three that is in

076Norfolk public school I have a six-year-old I have a 11 year old and I have a 13 year old my third tone and my 11 year old I do discuss about sexuality to them but that is my choice because I am their parents I feel that charge of school boards y'all leave y'all are the leaders of Norfolk before it comes down to the individual schools to make sure that our kids are getting educated and are having self-esteem about what they're doing with the curriculum of anal sex um masturbation trying to find a identity in who they are that is the parents decision to do that and I understand that y'all need money but the thing is is that y'all have not communicated to the community about the decline of money that y'all need and having

077different programs in school one program that we all need in the school is having a program for self-esteem a lot of these kids don't have self-esteem about stuff they don't have respect for other students you know those things this curriculum is not going to teach them that this system is just going to teach them to be sexuality and then the thing is it's confusing the child because a lot of our middle schools are in our elementary schools like stem and like they tell you that we just seen so not only are our middle school kids are learning about sex now our kids that are like three and um four three and four years old that's going to these schools that are next or learning about sex too because kids don't be quiet they talk and

078even if a parent does opt out their kid is still exposed to a sex talk with another student and then that student would either demonize it because y'all have already made it clear that it's all right to discuss this stuff and a child not knowing that there are certain people that certain students that don't want to listen to it don't want to hear it but as you make an ad abroad it does not help the mentally physically and spiritually does not help the child at all and we are trying to help our children to Better In academics mentally better physically better and um have self-esteem about themselves and there are programs like thank you thank you [Applause] Alice Alan Grimes good evening good evening I'm Alice Allen Grimes I'm here to speak on item 5.03

079the ppea unsolicited bid I'm the parent of two Norfolk public school graduates and Sir for eight years is the Mari PTA liaison to the school board for any of y'all in 2011 preservation Virginia included norfolk's public schools on its list of the 10 most endangered historic sites in Virginia since then we have lost historic Larchmont and Ocean View Elementary Schools last week preservation Virginia included several historic high schools on the 2023 endangered list including Mari if this keeps up I guess Norfolk schools won't make the list anymore because there won't be any historic schools left I don't envy you the task of deciding the fate of marrie I don't understand why it is left to a school board people elected to oversee school policy and curricula to make decisions whether or not to demolish some

080of our most important historic buildings about 10 years ago the school board voted unanimously against an unsolicited ppea bid for five schools the mayor didn't like the board's decision so the city council took over and issued its own RFP leaving out the school board so why are you deciding about this unsolicited bid this time do you have the authority to do so are you going to be challenged I hope somebody is looking into this issue because of what happened before how can you approve a contractor to convert a historic School building to Apartments when you won't own the building once you abandon it as a school the city will own it then right citizens cannot count on this plan going the way it seems right now even if you approve it putting all that aside

081I think it is wrong to jump on this proposal because you think it might be a way out of a dilemma this plan is not a win-win because the students will lose just as the building can be renovated for apartments it can even more easily be renovated as part of the school that's what it's designed for the students deserve to stride up those impressive steps as they enter school they deserve the big halls in the remarkable Auditorium they'll have a big new addition with new gym Library cafeteria Labs Etc don't send the students to that cold brick block depicted in the unsolicited bid that plan is a lose-lose except for the proponents who will make a lot of money our tax money while our kids go to school in that dreary crammed Warehouse don't Rob

082our community and our future students the opportunity to experience the iconic Mari High School I urge you to vote against the unsolicited proposal and instead approve your architect's plan that renovates the 1911 historic building and retains it as part of the school remove their everything that's been added to it and build a new addition they didn't just give you a binary Choice your Architects gave you a compromise concept B the process is conducted has made no genuine effort to engage the public and this latest round regarding the PPA has only caused confusion and uncertainty thank you thank you Pamela Brown hello uh I'm Pamela Brown I live in Hyde Park in Norfolk um it's good to see the board this evening and everybody here honestly I didn't ever I have never attended a school board

083meeting before this is my first time ever welcome um and I didn't really think I'd be talking about the issue we're talking about and it's the Family Life curriculum that's been proposed um I've been here for 30 years and honestly the mermaid City it really grows on you okay and uh I don't have any children in Norfolk Public Schools the Lord's not blessing you with children so uh I just have a care for the city I've come to love it here um I uh I got concerned about this curriculum because a friend of mine has a child and still in high school in Norfolk public school and she says Pam have you seen this ask this well no I most of us that don't have kids we just were kind of kind of set aside

084from what's going on with the schools and things like that because we don't have kids we're not as close to it but um I I just really think we're focused on the wrong things um on next door today and a couple times a week okay there's there's pictures of flights going on in school and here's one today of a teacher getting assaulted okay and then the the figures that I saw on offenses against staff and students uh not reported for Norfolk but they are reported for Virginia and Virginia Beach and Jessica I just think that we're way focused on the wrong things let's just get back to the basics let's talk about reading and math and I know that Norfolk has done better before I remember 2001 under Dr Simpson we were getting awards for

085urban schools weren't we what's happened I would ask that you table this maybe it's maybe what we have is not uh adequate for our our current needs but I don't think this is the right curriculum I think we table this and come up with something that is right for the times that we're living in I just asked you to table this and just kind of focus on what I think are the important things the reading the math and let's let's get the violence under control in our schools I really appreciate the time you guys have allowed me to speak here on the city that we love you I'm turning off singer good evening my name is Hunter noffsinger and I'm a resident of Norfolk and an organizer with the Sierra Club Virginia chapter I'm commenting

086tonight on the ppea unsolicited proposal for Mori High School while reviewing all of the proposals for the future of Mori High School it was unclear if the board is also taking steps to make Norfolk Public Schools buildings more sustainable schools are one of the largest energy consumers in the United States with school building energy consumption costing U.S school districts more than 8 billion dollars per year also contributing greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 18 coal-fired power plants incorporating electrification and Energy Efficiency measures into the renovation or reconstruction of Mori High School to create a Net Zero Energy school would not only reduce the school's environmental impact but also have a significant financial benefit over time Net Zero Energy schools generate their own electricity through renewable sources such as solar panels and thus reduce the need for

087Grid electricity this can result in substantial cost savings for the school district over the lifetime of the building freeing up funds for other other areas such as salaries for teachers and staff in addition to cost savings Net Zero schools create healthier learning environments for students and teachers improved indoor air quality thermal comfort and lighting can lead to higher student achievement and lower absenteeism rates these buildings also provide opportunities for Hands-On learning about sustainability and Energy Efficiency which can benefit students for years to come Norfolk public schools has the potential to be a leader for school districts across Hampton Roads for Net Zero buildings and have the first Net Zero building in the city of Norfolk for a public school um adopting these measures in the Moray High School renovation or reconstruction project would set an

088example for other schools in the region to follow thank you thank you Henry Conde excuse me that's my reading glasses so I'll do my best here my name is uh my name is Henry Conde I don't have any kids in Norfolk Public Schools this is concerning 5.03 um by waiting our introduction arrived in Norfolk it has a Navy Captain to take Command 23 years ago and with subsequent orders to Naples Italy but while we're here something happened and we decided to make Norfolk our home during my career I went to OCS in Newport Rhode Island built in 1883. a subsequent tour I had in Fort McNair at the naval war College built in 1898 as a commander I went to be the academic director at the Navy School in Athens Georgia and subsequently the executive

089officer 56-acre campus built in 1860. as on a personal note my education started on the dirt floor one room School in Puerto Rico and I was blessed to be able to walk the halls of Duke University in Carnegie Mellon 1838 and 1900 respectively what do they have in common they were they're older than Mori High School and they are today serving the national interests despite their age I've been involved with uh With Maury since 2012 in 2014 I received a call from one of our council person and asked me to be part of again of the task force and the first thing we did was a walkthrough of Maury High School after we did the entire walkthrough was evident of kind of neglect deferred meanings Etc I went right away haven't been by the way

090I've done preservation myself personally I contacted the state historic preservation officer and I said hey we cannot possibly be the only municipality in Virginia with this issue he confirmed you're not so he said can you give me some examples and they sent me a number of examples of which I selected Handley High School in Winchester Virginia it was almost identical issues that we're facing With Maury High School um I contacted the the had a point of contact the handy High School they told us how they did it they we arranged to have a oh that was quick thank you maybe next time rakita Robinson followed by Colin oh Colin Kelly already spoke followed by Kristen Truman yeah good evening my name is rikita Robinson I'm a first grade teacher at Richard bowling Elementary School and

091I'm here with my colleagues today from Richard bowling as a teacher at the school I've come before you today to recognize Maya's mental health awareness month and to express my concern with the lack of equity in position and opportunities among staff members the latter has resulted in teachers being expected to work outside of their contract time being and being passed over for coveted positions and even leading to teacher burning this year sorry this isn't an agenda topic you'll need to wait till non-agenda items but Personnel issues are not in this issue personnel this is Personnel issues it doesn't sound it's been a decision this is um yeah this isn't that Personnel in general it's um it's not a specific topic on I've always spoken about what's going on at Art it'll need to just be

092on on non-agenda items which will be later in the meeting so you can still speak on it it's just later in the meeting okay yeah Christine Truman hi good evening my name is Christine Truman um and I'm speaking for myself as well as for DACA Dr Anka hacker who is here and Susan palato who is here all of us are parents of Norfolk public school students I'm a psychiatrist who practices in Norfolk I've been practicing here for 18 years Dr Haka is a hacker is a family medicine physician practicing in the area for 20 years between us we have for Norfolk school students all high school students my specialty is reproductive Psychiatry so I work almost exclusively with people who are pregnant or postpartum I work very closely with the OB GYN providers in the

093community community as does Dr hacker every day we support patients as they make informed decisions both about their mental health but also about their reproductive health um we deal every day with citizens of Norfolk who are making these decisions based on their education level and their health care intelligence and information we support this curriculum many of our patients have suffered from trauma sexual abuse sexual assault we support the curriculum because of the inclusion of topics that range from body autonomy to abstinence to many other important topics we support it because it is comprehensive it is medically accurate it is trauma informed um and it's inclusive and it's mapped to evidence-based standards that include the CDC recommendations the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines and also the national health education standards we appreciate that the curriculum fully

094acknowledges that parents are the primary sexuality Educators for their children and it provides tools and resources for parents parents are able to opt out of the curriculum but we hope that they don't Instead This is an opportunity to participate in discussions with your children in fact the evidence from other places where it's been piloted has been that the outcomes are better when children especially boys have the family discussion to go along with the curriculum research estimates that 40 percent of adolescents have sexual intercourse before talking to their parents about safe sex birth control or sexually transmitted infections and we know that 15 percent of um U.S pregnancies are unplanned so we support the comprehensive self-education that is proposed thank you thank you Lucio canti um hello everybody um I just want to say I hope

095they um I don't agree with what this psychiatrist just said I'm a nurse um I do have four Sons I don't have any children in the school I live in East Beach my son bought me a house there he's a doctor in Manhattan I have another son that's um that went to West Point and he served in Iraq and Afghanistan I have another son who is a teacher in Manhattan and I have another son who is um is going to law school and he works full-time at a law firm in Manhattan he's doing both and he has three children under four so I just want to say I would table this sex program because it is really um horrible it's from Planned Parenthood Planned Parenthood is the greatest industry for abortion in the whole United

096States they do um that's their business and when you talk about preventive medicine for from Planned Parenthood for breast cancer they don't even have a mammogram in any Planned Parenthood Center so they don't do that they might refer anybody can refer someone to go get a mammogram and that's what they do so I wanted to say that the um pregnant teen pregnancy dropped from 40 a rate of 43 to 17.2 the past 15 years um here and um so I think you um at in Norfolk should stay the course and what they need is a focus on academics and tutoring for those 50 who drop out for teen pregnancy the other 15 percent who go and have abortions is very sad and I've published on breast cancer and Military medicine and um due to the

097development architecture of the breasts having a teen pregnancy actually protects against breast cancer having an abortion for your first pregnancy if you're under 22 years old increases your breast cancer risk by 800 percent before age 40. this is due to the blow to a woman's body the liberal breast cancer prevention people they never tell you about this risk or why in the 1964 abortion we had one in 20 women with breast cancer and now we have one in seven also having a teen abortion is a risk for more aggressive forms of breast cancer in your early 30s and 40s aside from that risk and that's published data in military medicine that I published aside from the risk of breast cancer the woman has to has the risk of knowing the rest of her life that

098she's killed her own baby and it's not a blob of cells God is full of mercy and forgiveness but Mother Nature does not forgive and um that's what you know Teen um I mean later on getting breast cancer so abortion is never the good answer unplanned pregnancies um they've got Birthright they've got um we've got Hope For Life we've got adoption we have a lot of other ways and it's the wrong answer for both the baby and the mother and having this sex program from Planned Parenthood of Massachusetts is just wrong and this is a 10-week baby in the womb so thank you so they're not a Blog Marie tourey [Applause] good evening and thank you for letting us all speak I'm here to talk about the family education program and um it is way

099too explicit um parents are the first educators of their children and this is such a sensitive thing they will the children will let you know when they're ready to know what they're ready to know and I've I've had two children both of them attended Norfolk schools my son graduated from Granby um and my daughter always commented we moved to Portsmouth for a short period of time but she always commented on how great the arts program was in Norfolk and when she was in elementary school so I just wanted to I appreciated your little videos there but um children learn by doing okay so this stuff is it's not just an academic exercise for them and that I don't think that's always taken into account so I just briefly wanted to say I am against this

100curriculum especially um something put out by Planned Parenthood so thank you for your time thank you Suzanne Williams okay anybody in the hallway Tiffany Watson hello good evening school board members um my name is Tiffany Watson um I have four children in the Norfolk Public School System I have two at Granby High School and two Ocean View Elementary School sex education and get real life should not in any way include the LGT LGBT agenda there is an agenda that's being pushed that we cannot ignore um my kids are 17 15 9 and 10. I took sex education and family life with approval of my mother which included me taking home a baby and the kind of we're not talking about that stuff we're talking about being very explicit into things that they should not know

101about at the age they are my kids my kids are nine and ten years old so that means that they're supposed to be going into this program in about two to three years they are in no way mentally prepared to learn about the things that are in this agenda no way at all prepare for that and as a Christian mother I believe that I should be the one to talk to my children about these things when they have questions about them because of course they're going to have questions about them just like we did when we were kids they're going to have those questions but my mother told me about these things so so that way I could know in her timing what she wanted me to know when you have these programs in school

102you're taking away the parents rights to be able to talk to their kids about it in the time that they want to talk to them about it and when there's something in the school like they said kids talk so if one kid knows all the the kids are going to know I can't tell you how many times I've gotten calls from Granby High School about gun threats about about whatever about a bomb threat me being outside of my kids school for hours scared because I didn't know what was going on or if my child was harmed this is what we need to be focusing on Ocean View Elementary does not have a security guard in their school this is the type of things we need to be focusing on our kids safety and their education

103my child basically is not he's not getting bullied but he's he's has kids in his class telling him asking them answers for his tests every single day while he's in school these are kids that are not learning what they need to be learning we need to focus on that and not sex education or whatever the lgbtq plus Community is trying to push on our kids it's in this it's in our cartoons it's in the movies and now we're trying to put it in the schools we got to stop somewhere and this is where it needs to stop you guys have the power to make this decision and we're trusting in you to be able to do this for our children we put them in your school schools we put them under your trust in your

104care so we're expecting you to make this decision and do the right thing [Applause] Haley holzhauser oh here she comes my name is Kaylee holzhauser I am a local christian Street Preacher in Norfolk Virginia I do not have kids and honestly all this garbage being introduced in the schools makes me question if I even want to have kids you know back when I was in Middle School we actually had an explicit sex ed course and you know what it did to me it caused me to be a pervert when I was a kid I was making sex jokes I was doing things for boys the only reason why I didn't exactly lose my virginity before 18 is because my mom is still the fear of God in Me that if she if if I came

105on pregnant or if she caught me doing uh you know sexual things as a kid I'd be six feet under if we're being honest you know I have a question for you guys are you out of your mind do you not realize the suicide rate of the transgender crowd or the rate of disease in LGBT as a whole it is estimated from a study from the UCLA that 1.4 percent or an estimated 300 000 youth ages 13 to 17 in the United States as a whole identifies as trans or another gender identity and point five percent or 1.3 million adults identify as trans or another gender identity according to the Trevor Project a website the LGBT uses 39 to the LGBT LGBT as a whole has attempted suicide and more than half of the gendered

106population has the transgender population has attempted suicide according to the CDC 83 percent of syphilis cases a trans sexually transmitted disease where gay and bisexual men and LGBT Foundation website says that LGBT as a whole is at risk for an STD I give these statistics because I want everyone in this room to think long and hard including parents do you really want to subject your child to such a lifestyle they are committing suicide because of society Society already accepts them including whole corporations they have whole Pride parades they're getting diseases they commit suicide because of the mental illness it's called gender dysphoria and they're getting diseases because they have a sex culture and sleep around from person to person I personally know this because I used to be part of the LGBT community and so

107was my husband you know I identified as non-binary and I was bisexual but I got born again through the Lord Jesus Christ and that's what we need in these schools is Jesus in prayer you aren't teaching children anything you're confusing children and making their lives harder bone a DNA structure proved that there are only two genders and shame on you on trying to twist science and God's creation to your own agenda I want a better future for my generation I'm gen Z by the way and I want a better future for future generations and teaching this garbage will only make it worse and science says boys have white chromosome and girls have two X chromosomes you cannot change facts and Sciences anyone thinks they are a different gender need to be treated for gender dysphoria

108and not catered two [Music] Philip holzhauser can you say that louder okay thank you my name is Philip holzhauser um this is my wife well we're local Street Preachers here um I currently do not have kids in Norfolk same reason I'm kind of uh questioning um with how Wicked This world's getting um I will say one thing that is uh it was a kind of uh pricked my interest um I'm here to speak about the 4.05 the family life um I agree with my wife I agree with a lot of other people that uh it's degenerate garbage that doesn't need to be taught to our children I believe that there is a agenda that parent Planned Parenthood is pushing see they're going to teach your kids about sex and when your kids screw up because

109they got taught young about sex your kids are going to get pregnant and then where are they going to go they're going to go make money for Planned Parenthood that's what their agenda is it's not keeping healthy it's not staying safe it's money for Planned Parenthood and if you're if you're a parent in here and you're not raising your kid right and you're saying oh yeah it's fine to go sleep around and be degenerate whatever well I have a verse for you I have a verse in the Bible which is we need to raise our kids in the Bible if you have kids you need to be raising them in the Bible um trying to find it time though oh yeah I got a minute in 22 seconds there it is six Proverbs 22 verse

1106 train a child up in the way he should go and when he is hold he will not depart from it I have a question from for you are you training your children in this Bible here or are you training him in the words of the LGBT and the other degenerates out there that it's good to have free sex and free love and have abortions because that's degeneracy and you're going to be facing God's judgment on Judgment Day for what you taught your kids and how you raised your kids and whether you taught your kids to honor God so that's what you need to do is teach your kids to honor God because this is degeneracy pushed by a baby murder Mill that murders millions of babies you have what 65 million babies murdered since

111Roe v Wade Roe v Wade was passed by a lie Norman the corvy wasn't even raped she recanted years later and said she wasn't even raped yet y'all think you know oh it's great to have an abortion I can do whatever I want I can be a free woman that's degeneracy and this country needs to get back to God I think it's very telling you were all fine saying and pledge allegiance but you didn't say a dang prayer school board meeting should be started with a prayer because the only reason any of y'all woke up is because this morning is because God allowed you to you need to thank him for it thank you and the last speaker that is signed up for a genetic comments uh citizen Congressman Jin items only is Sam and

112I didn't catch your last name is it palato or Plato Sam on River okay good evening good evening uh I am Sam palato and I am here speaking as the result of what we have been talking about tonight and that is the Family Life Education plan uh I've been through this uh uh so-called explicit plan and um I'll just talk about some of the things that I've been taught in some of the values I have uh I have never thought to uh harm or unconsensually uh assault someone during sexual intercourse uh I understand thankfully uh the complexity of each individual's gender and sexual identity and I do not hate anyone for their views on that uh and I do not hate anyone because of their gender identity or sexual identity I also understand uh when

113uh someone is consenting to sex or when someone is not consenting to sex and I feel this program is very important for that information so that we can stop things such as rape and sexual harassment which has been seen throughout this country I see it on the news almost every day uh sexual harassment cases or rape cases and I think these programs are helping to stop putting in to these horrendous crimes we talk about how the innocence of these children are being ruined by these programs but times are moving fast children are seeing things online I know as I was recently a child myself a six-year-old shot a teacher in their school and we are worried about them hearing about the word sex or about hearing about the LGBT community by inhibiting them from hearing

114these things or about inherent inhibiting any of these adolescents from hearing about the LGBT community we're in reinforcing this taboo and stigma that leads to further oppression of the LGBT community who are just like you and I and the further enforcement of this sexual harassment and rape we have seen throughout our American industry uh thank you for your time thank you Dr Martin that concludes our speakers in the revised numbers figures for 28. okay thank you the consent agenda as amended Madam chair I move that we approve the consent agenda do I have a second I'm sorry which one who's Dr Gabriel second is go ahead please call the question Miss Tanner the scene aye Buffalo aye campson aye Clinton aye Gabriel hi Jordan aye Martin aye consent agenda has passed thank you everyone for

115voting okay up next we have um our monthly financial report Mr Jenkins proceed when you're ready good evening chairman Martin or chairwoman Martin Vice chair Moore uh Buffalo Dr Birdsong members of the school board uh this evening I will review financial report for the month of April the April report covers 10 months for the fiscal year that started July 1st as with previous reports it reflects activity taking place between July uh first and April 30th as recorded by May 4th uh general fund collections during the first 10 months total of 301.8 million dollars this is 78.7 percent of your 383 million dollar budget uh that is general fund budget during the previous two years uh collections range between 76 and 77 percent so this year is uh just a little ahead of the last two

116on page three of the highlights we provide a graph of Revenue and spending for the current fiscal year by the end of April we had spent or encumbered uh 286 and a half million dollars which is three quarters of our budget Revenue again was 301.8 Million during the previous two years spending at the same point in time range between 75 and 78 percent of the budget those this year's spending is similar to the previous two years on page four uh another paragraphs one of Revenue the one at the top and then is spending is at the is the lower draft uh this presents the monthly revenue and spending for uh each of the months in the current and previous two years their monthly budget rooms in the group is in the green background collections are

117a little ahead of the previous year more detailed information begins on page five on page 16 of the report we provided three budget transfers that exceeded fifty thousand dollars the first was to transfer 130 000 from several facility accounts to address repairs the second transferred vacancy Savings in the uh to Contract Services account so that we could work on the 23 fiscal audit that is starting at the end of this year and the last one transferred tuition savings uh in the department of learning support to cover contracted Services related to increased level of contracted work because of the large vacancy rate chairman Martin this concludes my comments I'll be happy to answer any questions thank you Mr Jenkins any questions go ahead um let's get to it all right thank you thank you Mr Jenkins

118I have a couple of questions related to the budget transfers around let me just sorry let me get to the page 16. yep 16. so for the journal number 1056 is the second transfer um could you uh share a little more about um well number one what the the bonus the one-time payment was that funds that were left over or not used okay it's actually it's actually the bone part of the bonus it wasn't paid out because there were so many vacancies so much money that we we had set aside for bonuses but positions were vacant okay all right so those were for vacant positions and then the bonuses we paid out were as you approved right right right so that's why I was wondering um the the amount that was remaining after the the

119one-time bonuses were distributed right okay and then and then the the so the financial audit the 2023 Financial audit wasn't already included or the what's included in 23 budget was the audit for fiscal 22 which we started during fiscal 23. this year's audit we're starting earlier largely in hopes to finishing early frankly or frankly so we are actually starting the work the audit team is is starting they've already started okay so and we need to issue a purchase order to them to to okay to get that going for the 23. so for this year there will be two audit fees I understand okay that makes sense and that um and I know I've shared this before but I think um you know when a I think a great way to I guess alleviate some of

120the questions on this end is maybe in the notes okay yeah you know just a little more clarification on why um that might be the case because that's a we'll work on that under understandable explanation um and if you could also shed a little more light on um Journal number 1588 on the special education transfers sure um more information we did not have as much tuition uh the tuition is typically paid to csep I think that's practically all of it is for csep we had fewer students referred however we have a lot of vacancies in our classrooms and in the um like OT and PT service some of the other services so we had to hire contractors to fill the work that employees typically provide so we took the savings through some of the Savings

121in the tuition account and applied it to the contracts and services that we're having to pay that were not funded because we had funded uh staff persons who were vacant can you give a little more description about uh who the contracted Services were with are they for a specific like two like Tutors or no these are special education services okay so um I I would probably I I'm not sure exactly which ones but they were all contracted services and there was a range of services some of them for were for classroom teachers but others for uh for ancillary support okay all right thank you thank you go ahead Mr Jordan it just a couple on page five can you uh give a little more insight as to why we're seeing higher spending you have a

122note that spinning is approximately 9.9 million higher than the same period last year to give us a sense of what's driving that uh well our budget is higher we gave pay raises health insurance costs increased I mean it's the the spending is higher but it's it's relatively uh and it's in line with previous years and the the percentage that we have spent this year is is pretty much in line with prior years in fact I think it may have been just slightly lower but I appreciate that increased costs that we had budgeted thank you but it might be the case but I appreciate you clarifying that and uh currently where we have uh Revenue in excessive expenditures uh 15.2 million uh what's is that uh likely carry four funds what are we looking at in

123terms of what our revenue and excessive expenditures may be as we're in this last last quarter um I I suspect that I expect that we will have a surplus that we that are spending is higher than their um excuse me or revenue is coming in or higher in their expenses to a large extent it's related to the vacancy rate and it's related to the vacancy savings and the reversion that we've experienced entire during the entire period of the pandemic at the last report that I looked at and I apologize it's been a couple of months ago but 13 percent of all budgeted positions in the general fund were vacant so that's that's a large reason for the difference between the revenue and the expenses state revenue is coming in as it was projected the city

124funding of the school board is as was projected on the thing that's not is we have fewer fewer teachers and fewer support staff so those vacancies are driving a lot of this thank you Jenkins I'm sorry can you speak into the microphone oh certainly I'm sorry yeah any other questions no I just had a comment just for the board as we um look at um our you know eventually being able to act on our final budget and maybe as we have conversations over the summer I just want to reiterate this this concern that I've raised before that you know because we have these vacancies then we are ending up with these surpluses that if we were filling the vacancies would be going to provide for the resources that we say we need in order to

125address our student needs and so when we then at the end of the year and I think maybe this is part of the conversation we need to have with Council as part of the funding formula being able to uh consider how we can utilize those resources to reinvest in our salary structure and in our classroom needs so that we don't find ourselves continuing to have these double-digit excesses that are intended to support students and then we end up with our hands tied in terms of one-time expenditures that then result in US using them for needs other than students and so this is uh maybe the third or fourth year and it's gotten exacerbated by the by the pandemic and so I just wanted to raise that again that when we're having these discussions and I'm

126raising this concern this is part of what I'm following in terms of vacancies and then when we look at our vacancy rates in some of our schools that are having some of the greatest academic challenges you know to me it is as though we are um under resourcing the needs that we have in our students that are then impacting student outcomes and then we have the discussions I think we need to have discussions about how we then take these uh excessive revenues and invest them back into the classroom and into the personnel and into student outcomes so thank you thank you Mr Jenkins I move that we approve the proposed financial report thank you I'll make it a second second thank you Mr Clanton Ms Tanner please call the question the scene I Buffalo I

127campson hi Clanton aye Gabriel aye Jordan aye Martin I okay up next we have um can I get a motion to um I have it written out actually I have something specific on this we're in 5.0 oh wait where are we I hadn't marked off the wrong one okay up next we have the um NPS Financial audit presentation uh yes uh and Mr Jenkins yes uh chairman Martin uh chairwoman excuse me uh members of the board and Dr Birdsong each year the Norfolk Public Schools undertakes an independent audit of the financial statements to ensure reports or are accurately reflect our financial position the audit was substantially completed in December and we received uh preliminary reports in January I especially appreciate our accounting director Liesel davary Liesel stand up uh along with accounting manager Sandra Gaskin

128the Gaskins for their roles in completing the financial reports while the Auditors review our reports and supporting documents it is Liesel and Sandra who actually prepared many of the reports in the provided documentation to them thank you both for your dedication and perseverance can I agree uh Greg bossick our certified public accountant with the firm Clifton Larson and Allen has joined us Mr Busick led the audit team his um his team was very helpful and we appreciate the Cooperative spirit that they bring to the engagement Mr Boston will now talk to you about the audit and the conclusions correct thank you good evening good evening everyone good evening all right well thank you for your opportunity to present to you this evening I want to start off just by thanking everyone at NPS for their

129help we work with a number of different folks throughout the organization we work with everyone in accounting and finance we work with grants folks we talk with the audit committee who's a represent a representative of the board and we go through a process the process starts like they mentioned process has started now for next year so we're getting an early start on it this year contracts a little bit earlier too so everything's kind of falling in line so with the hope uh finished a little faster at the end of the year so again thanks to everyone for their help we couldn't do it without their help so we look at the financial statements if everyone's had a chance to read them there's 130 pages plus of information there when you look at there's a number

130of different sections so it's important that you read the opinion to the financial statements that's included in the front of the document and what you may notice this year is if you compare last year it looks a little different there's been a standard change for the audit report and some of the certain other things included in the financial statements but essentially it says the same thing this year as I said in the past is that you've received an unmodified opinion that's also known as a clean opinion that's the highest form of assurance that we can give highest form of insurance that you can get the choice it wants to feather and the cap of the organization so um keep that in mind so we take a look at the report you'll see that the various

131reports that there were no findings this year included in the financial report the student activity report or in the single audit before in the single lot is your Federal grant expenditure so Goodyear compliance wise so no financial report there um uh let's see what else to do so there are some important Communications I need to share with you that's things that we've we've discussed with the audit committee that I would share with you guys too there's a few things we look at the financial statements there are estimates within the financial statement so when you look at the numbers read the notes there's a lot of information behind there um so you'll see as you look at the report you'll see there's a transmittal letter there's management discussion analysis then there's financial statements then there's notes

132you can't read them right now real quick but I'm talking I guarantee it but then behind that there's required supplementary information and then there's statistical table so there's a lot of information there in our opinion talks about the different level of assurance that we provide there so just keep that in mind as you look at the numbers read the notes they tell the story behind the numbers foreign a couple of the big items there that we use that the city or that NPS is outside experts for is opeb and pension so they have actuaries that do those calculations for them so um they're big numbers in the financial statements and then there's incurred but not recorded is also part of your self-insurance that's included there but overall I can tell you that management was very

133Cooperative um no difficulties in performing audit procedures they didn't push back on any work that we wanted to do we had no adjustments that we proposed as part of the audit so manager's work was in good condition no disagreements as I mentioned there was a change in accounting principle for this year there was a new lease standard that happened didn't have a huge impact on NPS but it did require some additional work there's a new standard coming for next year that's related to software that's affecting the whole government industry so we've already started talking with management about that that's called sabita you might hear that kind of thing but it actually stands for software based Information Technology Arrangements so I went through um I mentioned no findings and I mentioned the other information within the

134report so that's everything I wanted to share with you today I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have thank you any questions go ahead Mr Jordan just one on on page 24 uh there's a reference to uh general fund budgetary highlights for 2022 fiscal year include in the first statement says general fund Revenue was 5.1 million dollars less than budgeted the amount budgeted from the city of Norfolk reflects a decrease of 4.1 million and then it explains the the difference can you just speak to that or maybe Mr Jenkins could speak to that again yeah just want to make sure I'm following following that again um I would love to say I could um but I would happily send you an email okay all right send it to everybody if you would I

135would be happy all right thank you thank you MPS Financial audit I'm not sure if that's the appropriate uh motion to make for this particular report I think receipt okay so it was um moved by Dr Gabriel and seconded by Mr Clinton please call the question let's see hi Buffalo aye camson hi planton hi Gabriel hi Jordan hi Martin hi thank you um can I get a motion to accept the ppea oh is he still alive yeah I'm sorry I thought it was just I'm really excited to keep moving forward excuse me okay um has has been discussed this evening there is a public-private partnership proposal that we have received uh and this is a recommendation from the uh the working group uh in the recommendation that was made to the Dr bird song and

136she is recommending to you so we recommend the acceptance of The Proposal from Heartland construction for further review and that at Norfolk Public Schools solicit competing proposals in accordance with school board policy and and the public private education facilities and infrastructure Act of 2002. this will require posting notice of the compete that so that competing offers offers can be made and received within a period of uh not less than 90 days the school board's acceptance of heartland's proposal is not a binding agreement with Heartland to construct a new school superintendent's working group must review all competing proposals and then advise the superintendent of The Proposal that best meets the board's needs for their consideration the school board must then authorize the superintendent and working group to negotiate an interim contract agreement with an offerer of

137the preferred proposal this may or may not be Heartland no construction will commence until both the school board and the city council approve any contract that may emerge thank you Dr Martin Madam chair Madam chair I'd like to move that we accept the recommendation of the administration second thank you Dr Gabriel I'm gonna vote in support I just ask if I can get Mr Jenkins to clarify one thing the internal working group can you just describe what that is so that everyone understands what what you mean when you reference the working group I'll be I'll be glad to uh it's it's um it's composed primarily of Staff persons uh the actual members I included myself Mr Fraley Rick Fraley Dr kimsey was on the committee there was a person from their facilities group Mrs Berg

138the principal who's on the committee and I'm sure I'm going to forget a couple but there were also two members from the city city manager staff Mr Roberts and on this white cell thank you job thank you that's it okay go ahead for scene aye Buffalo I campson I planted aye Gabriel aye Jordan aye Martin aye cast okay up next we have the Personnel report Dr Martin I move that we approve the Personnel report as presented second Gabriel and it was second seconded by Mr Jordan Miss Tanner please go ahead let's see I Buffalo I campson aye Clinton abstain Gabriel aye Jordan aye Martin aye okay and now we have item 5.05 um can I get a motion to approve the Family Life Education plan proposal Dr Martin yes okay I moved to adopt the

139get real comprehensive sex education that works curriculum which is a medically appropriate developmentally appropriate culturally sensitive and inclusive curriculum second thank you Dr Gabriel seconded Miss Tanner please call the question let's see I Buffalo I campson aye Clinton aye Gabriel aye Jordan nay and Martin aye thank you everyone it passed up next we have a discussion of our superintendent's evaluation timeline draft so everyone should have received that Madam chair I'm not sure if there's any additional discussion but I'm prepared to to move for adoption and that we go with the timeline okay a move that we adopt the timeline presented thank you do I have a second a second go ahead Miss Buffalo second dude okay any discussion yeah I just want to if I can just want to make sure I can follow the

140date so the no meeting on the 12th and then on the 21st uh closed session um is the meeting on the which which meeting is it when we have the uh final conversation with the with the superintendent 28th the 28th but um we what I'm proposing here is that it's um with board leadership so it's um would be um Miss Buffalo and I meeting with Dr Birdsong just that's the proposed proposal and let me just add one thing about this timeline I tried to make sure that we didn't have any special meetings yeah I I would just on that last point I think it's always been helpful to have the full board present even if the um chair and the vice chair are leading the discussion and so I'm fine with the time gone but

141I like for us to have further consideration in terms of the full board being present as part of the discussion does anyone want to come I I agree with that I don't have a Madam chair I don't have an issue with it I mean I I think if the leadership is having presenting and if board members who are available want to be present um that they had the right to do so but that word clearly identified that those who are speaking and delivering the evaluation is the the leadership the chair and the vice chair so I don't have a problem with that can you repeat the last part that the chair and the vice chair are delivering that the evaluation but if other board members want to be present um who are available I don't

142have a problem with that okay I agree I support that as well so I'd like to if I'll accept it as a friendly amendment that we add that in there that make it uh board members can be present which isn't uh it will but they won't so the 28th will be a special call me I think she said okay okay anyone else all right thank you are probably voting vote already been made since Tanner can you please call the question okay the scene aye Buffalo I campson aye Clinton hi Gabriel aye Jordan aye Martin aye okay thank you everyone that passed up next we have a item Booker T Washington a feasibility study um uh thank you madam chair I'd like to present the following motion which I'd submitted to my colleagues I'm prior to

143and working with Mr Jordan This is an administrative action motion related to Booker T Washington steam High School I move that the school board of the city of Norfolk hereby designate book T Washington as a steam science technology engineering arts and Mathematics High School and further directs the administration to develop comprehensive curriculum and programs within the framework further the framework concludes but is not limited to educational specifications and programming offering enhanced performance Visual and multimedia Arts AV Audio Visual and Communications technology cyber security entrepreneurship and Hospitality commencing in phases beginning in 2024. second thank you Mr Jordan immense okay Miss Tanner please call the question let's see I Buffalo I campson I Clanton aye Gabriel aye Jordan aye Martin aye okay it passed thank you very much up next we have citizens comments on non-agenda

144items Miss Tanner do we have anyone signed up how many people if they're still here we have Melissa Corrigan thank you how many more they're here so I think it's just two okay good evening respond hi my name is Melissa Corrigan my children are students at Norview High School I suggest you simply type in Norview in Tick Tock to see the sheer amount of fight videos and other disturbing images and videos one of which is a video of a teacher screencasting pornography onto the school Smart Board they're in class with a classroom full of students and he is still employed at that school marijuana smoke wafts through the hallways and the restaurant restrooms are filled with both marijuana and vape smoke that will set the scene for you for what a day in my children's

145life is like inside Norview High School one of my children recently received a video in a group text of Norview students with a clear threat to Norview High School by name he immediately reported it to me I immediately reported it to the school district tip line Vector tips and the Norfolk Police tip line P3 tips neither tip went anywhere I received no notification it was even received so the following day a Sunday I posted the warning on Nextdoor to alert other parents there was this threat going around naming Norview High School by name and saying quote I have a surprise planned for Wednesday at 12 pm I advise you not to come to school other parents were understandably alarmed and somehow a screenshot of a screenshot of my next door post made it to Norview

146administrators who then contacted me not through the official School District tip line but through the next door gossip Vine essentially it was only then that Norfolk Police were alerted the next day students returned to school and the metal detectors the school already owns were simply sitting beside the entrance doors and students were not even asked to go through through the metal detectors hours after a video threatening violence to the school was circulated many students turned around and went home because they didn't feel safe entering the building with zero visible signs of additional security presence this is but the latest of many incidents of violence at the school my other son is transgender and has been repeatedly harassed and assaulted even students trying to pull down his pants to see what he has and students looking

147over the bathroom stall when he's using the restroom no student has ever been disciplined for their assault and sexual harassment of my son ever to my knowledge in fact when he was punched by another student he was removed from the classroom and his assaults are allowed to stay as a result my son's grades in that course plummeted he had a big plus at the time of the assault because the teacher whose class he was removed from taught the subject algebra in a way he understood while the teacher to whose class he was moved did not instruct in the same way and my son is lost he is now facing failing that course because he was moved out of the classroom where he was thriving and he was assaulted additionally when he reported students touching his

148body trying to pull down his pants and looking into his stall in the bathroom all of which could easily be categorized as sexual harassment and assault a Norview administrator told him he needed to understand that kids are curious the whole trans thing is still pretty new if a 14 year old boy were to be curious about female anatomy would he be excused for pulling up a female student's shirt absolutely not I assume I assume he would be disciplined but my son was told to excuse these students harassing and assaulting him for they were curious foreign [Music] and the next speaker is Edgar Richard good evening I'm a ninth grade student at Norview High School and I believe that we have a serious issue at that school um the Administration has frequently refused to take sexual

149assault seriously at that school including a protest happening last year and it's still being at the same level if not worse um I've had multiple incidents happen to me personally of people touching me looking over stall doors everything she just said and excuse me and when I went to Administration I was met with victim blaming being told that it is my fault for being openly transgender and proudly transgender or that is somehow okay for them because they are curious um that this in my opinion shows a very clear disregard for the safety of students as a whole not just specifically all students but specifically minorities who are already in danger in schools due to vote bullying and discrimination and even more specifically lgbtq students and I am not the only student who has gone through

150things like this there is a large community of us who have gone through sexual assault at not just Norview but all NPS schools and the administration does not take it seriously in my opinion I think there is a in my opinion disgusting amount of victim blaming in NPS that needs to be addressed thank you thank you next Maureen Anderson he's checking to see if she's in a hallway hold on okay and then rickita Robinson and I hope when I'm finished it should be agenda item 504 I should have said that before that I'm Personnel report good evening my name is rickita Robinson first grade teacher at Richard bowling elementary school as as a teacher at the school I've come before you today to talk about mental health awareness and express my concern about the lack

151of equity in position opportunities among staff at my school the latter has resulted in teachers being expected to work outside of their contract time being passed over for coveted positions and even leading to teacher burnout this year and last year I shared my desire to teach pre-K in my school to Administration rbes has a special part in my heart as my mom attended Richard bowling elementary school so imagine my mental state as a 31-year veteran teacher who was told by her principal that teaching Pre-K is too hard of a job for her and that she would never be considered for that position the same principle called around to other elementary schools asking principals if they had an opening for this for for the teacher um one more illustration imagine the same principle offering five teachers

152one from each grade level leadership training in Orlando this summer and when the 31-year veteran teacher is the first one to respond to this opportunity she's once again told that she doesn't qualify for that position either but instead her grade level will just not be represented at the conference sound like we have an equity problem where exactly does a teacher who's been told that she's an Effective Teacher that she works well with her students and parents and she uplifts and serves her colleagues where does she get her validation we need to recognize that burnout is real don't just offer me some counseling sessions offer PD on Stress Management and focus on self-care I understand attending curriculum Focus PD but what if the teachers already attended that same PD administrators could set clear expectations reasonable workloads

153allow for flexibility and scheduling and teaching methods creating a positive and supportive working environment can go a long way in preventing burnout this year we celebrated staff appreciation not teacher appreciation at our school throughout the school year we celebrated bus drivers custodians administrative assistants and even the administrators with special recognition but on the week to celebrate teachers and nurses it was staff appreciation rbhds teachers fear retaliation from Administration if they come forward to share these experiencing experiences resulting in many leaving their employment at the school and in the district this has led to a loss of experienced and dedicated Educators impacting the quality of Education provided to our students I request an investigation to be conducted to identify the root causes of these issues and to find resolution solutions that ensure equity in position and

154opportunities for all staff members our students deserve the best role models and education possible and this can only be achieved when all our teachers are supported and valued through Equity thank you and I hope that was 504. as our speakers our knowledge and items thank you everyone for coming out and with that this meeting's adjourned please be safe driving home