001[Music] Uh good evening everyone. Good evening. To welcome you all to the Thursday, June 5th special meeting and public work session of the Portsman City School Board. I now call this meeting to order. Ask please stand now for a brief moment of silence. Thank you. And if y'all would say the pledge with me. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. May be seated. The mission statement of the Porson public school division is to engage all students in learning that will foster academic excellence and responsible citizenship. Then item 2.5 is attendance. Roll call. Madam clerk. Miss Atinson here. Mrs. Boone here. Dr. Cotton. Miss Futrell here. Miss McWain present. Mrs.
002Sessims here. Miss Shoemake here. Dr. Walker here. Dr. Patillo here. Everyone, what do you say? Eight members. Eight members present. Thank you so much. Item 2.6 is approval of the agenda for June 5th, 2025. I entertain a motion at this time. Approval. Second. Motion by Miss Boon, second by Miss Petra. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, roll call. Madam clerk. Miss Atinson. Yes, Miss Boon. Yes, Mrs. Fut. Miss Futrell. Yes, Miss McWain. Yes, Mrs. Cessims. Yes, Miss Shoemake. Yes, Dr. Walker. Yes, Dr. Patillo. Yes. Votes unanimous. Thank you so much. Uh, just looking at the agenda. I'm going to ask if I can have I need a motion to change the close session to after. No, you can call it in any order you want. Okay. Thank you. Uh we're going to move down past
003our close session to agenda item 4.1. We have staff here. Uh agenda item 4.1, the annual title one, title two and title three and title 4 grant application. Leave this on tails. Let's keep the staff while we close that. I brought my whole department today. Good evening. Good evening, Chairman Patillo, Vice Chair Atinson, board members, and all others assembled. I bring you greetings on behalf of the Office of Federal Programs and PreK. And I, as you can see, I have my team with me. So, this evening, we are here to present the ESA federal grant applications for the 2025 2027 school year. This evening we will be presenting five applications. Title one part A, title one part D, title two part A, title three part A and title four part A. While I am here
004presenting these applications, these these applications are um done with the collaborations of various departments um across the division to include um curriculum and instruction, HR, student support services. Um so we are going to share that each of these grants are used to supplement um not supplant a non-federal funds that would otherwise be available. Each grant cycle is for 27 months. The grant cycle runs from July 1st 2025 through September the 30th 2027. Here I have listed the allocations that we received um this year with the allocations projected for the 2527 um grant cycle. These allocations are subject to change. Um we only have um preliminary allocations so far and so uh based on the final allocations that will come out um probably the late um summer um a maybe August September these allocations may be
005subject to change. Um as stated before these allocations are done w with a collaboration from various departments across the division. So, so I'll start with um title one part A and it's for improving that academic um achievement of our disadvantaged students. Right now we get um $6.99 million and of course this is prelim preliminary. We use this title one funds for instructional supplies as well as technology resources, professional development, tutoring and stipens, family and community engagement support and resources, human resources which are our people um our instructional support personnel that's on the school level as well as division level and we provide transportation and resources for our McKenna Vento students as well as this year adding equitable services for our private schools. So, what's new? Um, in the past, um, Portsman public schools has been
006a part of 14 other school divisions that were a part of bypass, which means that private schools um, students um, were supported through a third-party vendor. This year, that has changed. And so now title one part A funds will be used now to support eligible private school students that were that reside within title one attendance areas which mean what that means is that the money follows the backpack those eligible students. Um right now there are six part participating schools. Three schools in Portsouth um one in Norfolk excuse me three schools um within our school division. three in Norfor and one in Virginia Beach. These schools, these students um reside in our title one attendance zone, but they attend a private school and the services will only be provided to the students and the teachers of
007that students and we have decided um within the division to use a third-party vendor which formally um service those students previously before we ca we became out of bypass. So our division focus for title one part A we support there are measurable objectives to support language arts and math. We support the VTSS um framework. We support family and community engagement and teacher quality. Title one part D uh that is about $188,000 and that goes to um Harbor Point Behavioral Healthcare. uh they're planning to use the resources um the funds for um a board certified behavior analyst, instructional resources, technology resources, online subscriptions, and professional development. Um as required by BDOE, they are we are required to ensure that the students that reside um at Harbor Point are offered the same resources as the students on
008the school level. Title two part A funds preparing, training, and recruiting highquality teachers and principles. Of course, you can see here the division allocation a little over $800,000. What we do with those funds, we fund division level program specialists. We uh support teacher quality with mentoring and coaching there. We offer relocation assistance and signing bonuses as well as we have to provide equitable services for our private schools. And then there is a mentoring coaching and we're um we pay for professional development and mentor liaison stipens for title three part A. Um we have Miss Hatfield with us this evening. She is the coordinator for the English language uh uh um this particular grant and we usually get about 21 a little over $21,000 for that. We are using um title three part a funds for
009imagining learning which is the language and literacy for our English language learners. For title four, this is our student support and academic enrichment program. The division allocation is five a little over $541,000. We use this um these funds to support the well-rounded education with the school counselor safe and healthy students. This is our family and community engagement uh specialist for the division is funded u out of this as well as um three um behavior interventionists. We have professional development for staff under the effective use of technology and then there's equitable services um set aside for private schools. Some key points that we need to share. All grant-f funded salaries and position are contingent upon the finalized pay scale and may be subject to change or elimination as determined in collaboration with our uh chief academic
010officers HR and finance. All applications are due to VDOE on or before July the 1st. And per VDOE, uh we had two federal program monitorings this um spring. Um per BDOE only title one now may be the only approvable application upon submission. All other applications title two part A, title three part A and title 4 may be on hold with no timeline for approval. Our final allocations are pending and all allocations are level funded using last year's amount. questions. Thank Thank you so much, M. Hails. Uh I did have uh a couple questions you may or may not be able to answer at this time, but as far as the two, three, and four uh grant applications, if they are um let's say withheld, uh what possible cost could that uh bring upon the school
011division based on those funding levels? Well, I will say that those applications are um not in the president's budget. Um and so what that means those positions um that are funded through those applications um are subject to elimination if the um division cannot cover those those um those positions. There's a clause in every one of our grant-f funded positions um contracts that states that these positions are subject to um elimination. That includes mine. Yeah. Right. And I guess uh my my question um I guess more so than Mr. Faulk, I know every year we've been having to pull positions from Title One to put them uh into the general fund. We've been making we doing that already, but uh have we been looking at what that possible impact would be if we had to pull?
012Yes, we we looked at it from the standpoint of when we heard that some of these um um grants might go away and so we were looking to see what the impact would be and what we would have to do for that. In some cases we could absorb but I couldn't say we could absorb 100%. Um because some of these positions would be still required but we would have to look at each one and see if it was something that we could absorb. But I think we would have some room to absorb some but not all. Right. And and I think this is a prime example for those watching, even for city council that are watching. That's the reason why you try to budget yourself with a contingency each year when when doing this because
013of things like that that happens. And we know that all those positions that we do have funding and our title one, well, title two, three, and four grant applications are needed in the school division and we just can't do away with them. So, uh, uh, that may another cost we would have to absorb just for board members to be aware of that, uh, in the coming months depending on what the final budget that comes out of the Senate looks like and on the president's desk. So, um, and the other thing I had was, uh, but you answered it already, so any other questions from board members. Thank you, chair. Thank you, Miss Hails. um question on title one part A um for the services provided to students that's in title one areas um going to
014private schools. So not not to confuse it with like school choice vouchers or that anyone in a title one school can go to a private school and we pay for tuition. So what would be an example of the services that we would provide? Okay, that's very good question. So we've been in um collaboration with our thirdparty vendor which is Catapult who uh originally was giving providing services and most of those students want tutoring services and the instructional materials that support the tutoring services. Gotcha. And that's catapult learning, right? Okay. Gotcha. Okay. Thank you, Miss Hails. You're welcome. Any other questions? Uh do I just want to say thank you again, Miss Hails, for you and your department. Uh you've grown a little bit, but uh I'm sure you still need uh additional support where you
015can find it uh within the department, but you've done a great job uh with the grant applications, also with uh the preschool initiative that you all have been uh rolling out and uh strengthening our foundational learning for the school division. So, thank you so much. Thank you. [Applause] All right. I will now entertain a motion at this time to accept to approve the uh title 1, two, three, and four grant applications as presented. Move for approval. Second. Motion made by Miss Shoemake, second by Vice Chair Atinson. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, roll call vote. Madam clerk, Miss Atinson. Yes. But before we do, uh, did you want to introduce your staff before so so everyone can know who they are? All right. I have with me my prek coordinator, Dr. Pat Williams. Um, this
016year we have a behavior support coach new to prek, Mrs. Rita Hill Charity. My title one specialist, Miss Fredicia Hawkins. Our lovely family engagement, family and community engagement, does all of our division level events, Miss U. Martha Steels. Another program specialist for preK, Miss Natalie Brooks. New to prek, our prek counselor, Miss Khalila Ali. another one of our prek um program specialists, Miss Sharon Bulock. Um and Miss Diane Delo, prek um program specialist. And then holding up the rear, she keeps us all together. Hana Taylor, she runs, she keeps us all together. She's our executive. So, thank you all so much. Thank you guys. Thank you. No worries. Miss Atinson, yes. Mrs. Boon, yes. Dr. Cotton, yes. Miss Futrell, yes. Miss McWain, yes. Mrs. Cessums, yes. Miss Shoemake, yes. Dr. Walker, yes. Dr. Patillo, yes.
017The vote is unanimous. Thank you so much. Agenda item 4.2 is our K12 mathematics textbook adoption. Uh, Dr. Dere, sorry. Just making sure I understood something. Um, I would like to introduce my math team. come up. Um we this is my first time since I've been here that we're taking a textbook adoption proposal to you, but we've had some new standards um as you know that were tested for the first time this year in um math K through 12. And so our two coordinators have taken um a committee through the textbook adoption process and they're here to um recommend a few textbooks to you tonight. Good evening everyone. I'm so glad to see you all here. Um, we are here. I'm India Hatcher. I'm the secondary coordinator of mathematics and I'm here with my partner,
018Dr. Wanda Calhoun. I'm here. I'm elementary mathematics. So, we're going to look a little bit into our textbook adoption process that we did and we're going to introduce the textbook adoption proposal to you all. So this is our alignment to our um strategic plan, the past and the proposed new new strategic plan. And this is our alignment to the PPS graduate profile that we're all lifelong learners. And then this is the timeline. So as of February of this year, elementary only had one textbook that had been approved. But then when they met in March, they'd approve a whole slew of textbooks, none of which are fully aligned. So we had to just go through and pick what we thought would work best for our students. So this is kind of how the process went. Once
019they approved in March, we had committees. They started meeting in person and virtually and making recommendations. And then in May, they made their final recommendations. We got all of our books out to the libraries for public review. They got on to the web PCS PPS website and there's a like digital review they can do there and then also out for educator review and the process is very simple and it's very similar to what the state uses when they do our textbook adoption to approve those textbooks. It's comprised of teachers, coaches and program specialists. It was volunteer. We asked our teachers and our coaches and our specialists which programs would they like to be a part of. Um we followed the VOE HQMI process of textbook evaluations. We set it out for public review as Dr.
020Calhoun said. So, um, Dr. Nelasco was able to post it on our website and so anyone from the public was able to view the textbooks for 30 days. We posted them in the library so they could get a physical copy of the student editions. There were no teacher editions left at the libraries. Um, and then we also had an opportunity for public comment for for uh via Google forms if anyone wanted to give us a public comment. The teachers were given the same access except for this time we allowed them to use the teacher workbooks. um in the resources they taught with them to find out which one would be best aligned and most aligned for our student use. And we also gave them the opportunity to give us some public comment. As of today,
021we had two public we had one public comment, one teacher comment. Both were positive. We had no negative comments at this time. I just want to say before they go on that we do have one more week out on public comment. So, you're um we'll ask for um approval tonight pending that there's no comments that are going to drastically change the decision of the textbook committee. So, for elementary, we looked at three different textbook. We looked at Savis, we looked at Eureka, and we looked at Kdum. Kdum was the one on the original approved list. Kdum is a very non-traditional textbook, very much online resources. And when they printed and provided us print copies, it was these huge binders of like thick copies, completely not studentfriendly. So we then moved on and we had Eureka
022and we had um SAVIS. Our recommendation is SAVIS because they were the more thorough layout. You see we have the strengths and weaknesses there. The only weakness that we had is some of the topics were kind of across the grade levels. By having the digital version, we're able to crisscross those. they have inside of theirs. You can set a play a playlist and so like even if it happens to be they can dip down or up in the grade level if needed to provide students what they need. So all of the content is there it just may not be in the exact place that it needs to be. Um oh I went the wrong way. Sorry. For secondary we had three options as well. We had Savas Math Space and HMH. Um we looked at
023Savas as we taught with it. We did a pilot program with uh math space in our seventh grade middle school. We had some strengths that we talked about. They were aligned to the vo uh the VOE standards with the VOE state process. They went through sta standard by standard bullet by bullet and they gave us whether it was adequate, limited or had um no evidence. So we followed those same processes and took the recommendation of the VOE. We had a couple of weaknesses and there's weaknesses in everything but there were more weaknesses in the math space digital and so our recommendation was to go with SAOS as well. Our elective courses in mathematics in high school you have the AFA which is algebra functions and data analysis math analysis and trigonometry. Math space this time
024had the highest strength. So we looked at Pearson and Sgage were our two competitors that we had but this time math space out won it. They had adaptive tasks. They have the I AI um tutor along with it. It had built-in Spanish translation. And so for the math elective courses, this was our best choice. And so we have quotes and the quotes are available if you needed to look at them. All right. Thank you so much. Any questions? Uh do we have any questions from board members? Oh, there's another one. Oh, thank you. All right. I will entertain a motion to approve the math testbook adoption. Uh pending any further public comment. Move for approval. Second. Motion Miss Boon. Second by Miss Shoemake. Is there any discussion? Seeing now roll call with Madam Clerk. All
025right. Miss Atinson. Yes. Mrs. Boone. Yes. Dr. Cotton. Yes. Miss Futrell. Yes. Miss McWain. Yes. Mrs. Cessums. Yes. Miss Shoemake. Yes. Dr. Walker. Yes. Dr. Fatillo. Yes. The vote is unanimous. Thank you so much. Just want to say thank you again, ladies, for all that you do. Thank you for all that you all do for our kids. I see you out there, so I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you, Miss Happy. How much did they pay you to say that? All right. Agenda item 4.3 is the PPS strategic plan. It looks like Dr. Nelasco and Dr. Dice. All right. All right. Good evening, school board chair Patillo, Vice Chair Atinson, school board members, and Dr. Bracie. Dr. Nolasco and I are so very excited um to have the opportunity to present Portsouth
026Public Schools proposed new strategic plan, which we are calling Igniting Futures 2025 to 2030. When Dr. Nolasco and I began to develop this plan and the timeline for the work, we knew that we a couple of things. Oh, actually, you know what? I skipped a slide. Okay, let me go back. Hold up. As you know, our current strategic plan, which is expedition 2025, has been in place for the past 5 years, and it's um expected to sunset on June 30th of this year. This plan has guided the school division's priorities and initiatives through the articulation of the five goals that you see on the on the slide. With the conclusion of expedition 2025, we have had the opportunity to work with our school and Portsmith community to evaluate those priorities and make a plan for
027the future of PPS to include our students, our staff, and our facilities. Now, I could say that when Dr. When Alaskio and I began to develop a plan and a timeline for this work, we knew that we didn't want it to be um want the lift for anyone engaged in this work to carry on for a long extended period of time. And likewise, we understood that the human capital that we have collectively for help with developing this plan was limited. But most importantly, we understood the significance of getting the new strategic plan right as it is the guiding beacon, the guiding light for our work in PPS for the next 5 years. So what you see as a result of all those considerations is a timeline on this slide that spans nearly six months of
028work that engages a variety of stakeholders. We used a unique and innovative approach to the development of the strategic plan by utilizing generative AI tools, specifically chat GPT. I think chat GPT is a friend of all of ours at this point. We began the process by meeting with several stakeholder groups such as PPS parents and staff, administrators, community members, and students to ask them questions related to what we are getting right in PPS, what they'd like to see um where they'd like to see the division to head in the future, and what our priorities should be moving forward. As Lauren and I sifted through the feedback from each group, we uploaded the responses into chat GPT and asked it to pull out trends or themes across the responses. And you'll see we kind of put
029a snippet there um of of the outputs. We had a significant amount of text to go through to try to find those themes. This slide right here just illustrates some of the outputs from chat GPT. what's you know chat GPT is your friend and foe if you don't use it wisely. So we had to really look um be very discriminative when we looked at what it was popping out for us in terms of the information to make sure that it aligned with our thinking. So there were several revisions. We several times asked it to refine wording to clarify um things that did seemed unclear to eliminate redundancies and so you see the trends. These are just three of the documents that started to emerge through the work that we were doing with our dear friend
030Chat GPT. By the end of the process, we had four clearly articulated goals that represented all facets of our school division. Let's take a look at goal one. Goal one focuses on teaching and learning with a goal to increase academic growth and achievement. feedback that we heard across stakeholder groups was that we should call out our focus on growth as something we value equally to the value we place on academic achievement. To accomplish this, we um will work to ensure highquality instruction in every classroom, focusing on not just the academics, but also growing our students to be effective collaborators and critical thinkers. Goal two focuses on students with a specific focus on ensuring opportunities for pathways, innovation, and preparedness for the three E, which as you know is employment, enlistment, and enrollment in higher ed.
031Of course, we know that we can't do this alone. So you will also see an important primary action step around strengthening partnerships with colleges, businesses, and community organizations so that students can apply the skills that they are learning in authentic context. And I will turn it over to Lauren to go over the next two goals. And thank you. Well, goal three is improve staff recruitment, retention, and professional development. This is really a direct continuation of goal three in exhibition 2025. work in the stool is centered on staff members and creating the best working environment possible for them. This includes a focus on a number of areas including competitive salaries and benefits, professional development opportunities, and on the job supports. Of course, there will be increased work to extend recruitment and ensure we're bringing the best
032talents here to ports public schools. Goal four is foster a safe and connected educational environment that supports students, staff, and families needs. And this is perhaps the most robust and comprehensive goal of all because it involves every staff member in every office and every department and every school in our division. It also includes our students and families and community members because after all, everyone plays a role in creating an environment and safe place for children to learn and thrive. In this goal, you'll see primary action items uh addressing the physical maintenance of buildings, the materials and resources that we provide students and services that we can help organize for families and much more. So again, these were the draft goals that we got. So that didn't mean that the process ended there. We wanted to
033ensure that our staff and our parents could weigh in on what was developed here, tell us what they supported and what they thought might need a little extra work. So through parent square messages as well as some u website reminders, we invited them to review the goals and give us their feedback, which they did. We had about a hundred people, as you can see, who took the time to do just that, which we really do appreciate that time. Um, we asked what they felt were the strongest parts of the plan, which parts were unclear, and which goals or primary action items did not reflect what they felt they shared with us throughout the survey process. And this feedback, I have to say, was mostly positive and very helpful. We were specifically pleased to see that
03482% of our respondents said they felt the plan, even in this draft form, would lead to successful outcomes to students, staff, and families. We made some alterations and we had made some additions to our primary action items taking in this feedback to account. And one of the key pieces of feedback that we received um was how some of the language was not clear, which as a communications person, you know, that would bother me. Uh too much education lingo, maybe not enough direct talk. So, we heard that and in launching this plan, we wanted to make sure that everyone from our youngest learners to our most veteran staff could understand what we'd want to accomplish in these next five years. So, we asked for some help in making that happen. And we have this to share
035with you. Say hello back here so you can refresh it. We're excited to unveil our new strategic plan, Igniting Futures 2025 through 2030. This plan will help guide the work of our schools and our division for the next 5 years. For something this important, I brought in some friends to help explain what this plan has in store. Goal one is to increase academic growth and achievement for all students. Um, what does that mean? That's a great question. It means that we're going to help all kids learn by teaching in the best way and giving extra help when needed. Plus, we want to make sure students just like you practice important skills like being creative, solving problems, and working with others. Then, we'll check to see how everyone's doing so that we can keep improving and
036help every child succeed. I like that. Goal two is to expand access to innovative, highquality learning experiences that prepare students for future success. I know all about this. I'm in dual enrollment through Tidewater Community College and lots of my friends are in career and technical education classes. This is only for big kids. Not at all. We want to make sure all kids learn what they need so they can have great jobs and bright futures. So, we're adding in fun real life hands-on learning starting in preschool and elementary school like science projects, computer skills, and even chances to visit or work with helpers from jobs and colleges. Then, we keep working to make sure all students have what they need for life after graduation. Yes. Goal three is to improve staff recruitment, retention, and professional development.
037That means helping my teacher learn grow, too. Right. Exactly. We want to take good care of our teachers and all the people who work in our schools like our bus drivers, our custodians and cafeteria workers. We want them to feel happy and healthy to learn new things to help them do their best work and to make sure that they have opportunities here to have a long and fulfilling career. Don't you think they deserve that? They sure do. Goal 4 is to foster a safe and connected educational environment that supports students, staff, and family needs. Even our families are in this plan. Absolutely. Every student to feel safe and cared for at school. So, we work with families in our community to make sure children have everything they need like good food, places to live, and
038people to talk to. We work our hardest to make school a kind, fun, and welcoming place for everyone. We mean it when we say everyone. This plan reflects months of input and feedback from our students, staff, families, and community. You can visit us online and see all of the action items we'll be tackling these next 5 years. We thank you for your time and consideration in helping develop Igniting Futures 2025 through 2030. Together, we shine bright and we cannot wait to ignite a new path forward. Man, that's all I got. Thank you to all of our talent in the room who participated. In front of you, uh you have the printed copy of our finalized strategic plan for your review and consideration. You can see there were some changes from our draft goals. As an
039example, the first primary action item that we shared under goal one used to say, "Focus on highquality tier one instruction." Well, to our survey respondents point, what does that mean to students and parents? So now it's been changed to say focus on consistent highquality learning experiences for all students in all classrooms. To get a little clearer to the point, um Dr. Dere I think mentioned this earlier, but we're also changing how we're monitoring and enacting this plan. We're going to do this through yearly ignition plans uh where specific primary action items will be selected for the upcoming school year and staff will strategize how to actualize that work with quarterly report outs. This will allow us to measure progress each year and see what's working and see what's not. It could lead us to move
040on to different primary action items in the following year. Or maybe we need to make and retool our approach and develop secondary action items based on what we've seen. And either way, this will allow us to report to you more comprehensively each year the work that we've accomplished in accordance with this plan. And at that point, we're happy to take any questions you might have. Pleasure. Thank you, Chair. Uh thank you, Dr. Dere and Dr. Nelasco. Um my first comment, our videos are always top tier. I I just got to give kudos on that. Um my question is on goal two and under goal two it has strengthen partnerships with colleges, businesses and community organizations. Um my question is surrounding community organizations when we're out in the community. I mean in these meetings the community
041organizations are always saying we can't get in the schools. It's hard. Um luckily Dr. Walker was at some of these meetings with me and I wasn't the only one getting attacked. So, she know how it feels to get attacked by 20 organizations. So, how are we streamlining how we communicating that out so the community organizations don't feel left out and they feel welcome in the schools? Sure. You want to go? Well, I know we have streamlined our process for outside partnerships with schools because one of the things that we want to make sure is that if we're taking um time in our school day that it's used to an instructional component. So that's really been launched through Dr. White's office and through school leadership so that we make sure that folks who are coming in
042to either do assemblies or work or or even any sort of partnership with the schools has been vetted and that there is an alignment with what we're doing from the standardsbased process. I will say um this is going to be part of our you'll see this in the year end report. We've actually expanded the number of partners and partnerships that we've had since that was in a goal under expedition 2025. Um, and I don't have the direct numbers with me, but that we wanted to see a 25% growth in the number of partners that we had and partnerships. We've seen over it's close to 70% growth in partners and then 125% in our number of partnerships, meaning the amount of schools that are partnering with those same partners. So, I do think we are getting
043that word out and looking to to continue growing that, but I think specifically we want to make sure that they're aligned with the programming that um is coming from out of Dr. DeFreeze's office. Right. Right. Right. So, um is that on our website? It could we direct a community organization. There is. Yep. There is a a community section of our website and I'll have to double check to see if the if where the application link is. I think there's an application through Dr. White's office, but we can make sure that's up there, but certainly how they can get involved in in going through the ask super email as well. Okay. And to follow up, if that community organization offers a program that is curriculum based, they could um have their program during school hours. Correct.
044If it is curriculum based, if it's aligned to what is taking place within that particular week or day of the lesson plan. Okay. Otherwise, if anybody wants to come in, we provide it after school for them. if they want to reach a certain group of students, sending out the permission forms and then we will have the kids can stay over. Right. Right. Gotcha. And I'm and I'm sorry I'm picking on you, Dr. Walker, cuz I know your particular program was curriculum based. So, I just wanted to make sure if it if it is like a curriculum based program and it's aligned like you said, Dr. Bracie, we there's a possible partnership other than that after school. Yeah. And I'll add one more thing to that too because when you get an influx of so many
045organizations that want to come in and show the alignment, you you can't you can't invite them all in because that that'll be that'll consume the whole the whole day or the whole week or the whole year. So we try to look at who they are, how they can align. If we're looking at something on a continual basis or something like that, you you may have to look at maybe one to two partners that you work with throughout the year because they'll be more than likely when those companies um come in, those organizations come in, they usually establish yearong um commitments. So if if we're working with one or two, it may be hard for others to come in because that's only going to take out more um construction over there. Right. Right. Right. Right. So,
046is that noted in kind of like the application process that Miss Atinson was referring to? Because I think that's a lot of times where people get confused like they want to be a part of it, but then they say they never hear back or it's hard for them to get into a school, but then the goal alignment says that we want to strengthen our partnerships. And I hear the numbers going up, but we hear a lot of people that say it's so hard and then when they get here, it's like the lack of communication and those pieces that they don't know how far to go. So, if it is the application process, well, they be accepted or denied. I kind of think those are the questions that people are asking and it it comes in
047so many different ways. Sometimes they they go directly to the schools or they they email the principles and from there that's when I guess that's how that's determined. It's not I don't believe it's on the application to that will say that only x amount will be accepted really the principle. Now I would expect everyone to at least be acknowledged you know whether or not we can or we can't accept it and have a conversation with the principal but as far as applying anyone can can reach out but they have to be they have to look at it carefully to determine if they if they can work with them. So connect kind of be streamlined so everybody's kind of following because like sometimes they do contact principles and principal says it's okay sometime they do contact
048um you know um community officials so it's like different messages that they can Dr. Why you speak to that as well? Cuz I I don't think principles are supposed to be saying yes. I don't think right. What what we're working on and we actually pulled away from going to the principles because what was happening we were finding that there are many organizations in our schools and we had no idea that we were there. So we did pull this back and everything actually will go through Dr. flowers in her department and we will make sure that this information is uploaded. It is posted so everyone has is is talking to the same music. We just want to make sure because we had some groups out there and it was not aligned. And one of the things
049that Dr. Bracy shared in regards to the academic alignment. What makes it really difficult to have a group come in is we already have our structured curriculum that we must follow. And some of our principles what they tried to do was ensure that okay we're going to bring them in and then we'll have them come in and during our PE time during our music time and that's one thing that we don't want to do you know so when we have like small group instruction times and and if a teacher is working in small groups like the 20 minutes here 20 minutes there 20 minutes here what they do is sometimes they could be integrated within that but like other than that it gets to be real difficult for like a group to come in and
050say, "Okay, we got an aligned program that's going to work, you know, that's going to work best for for Portzman." So, that's the the tough thing, but we're growing with it. And what we're trying to and I think you'll see us evolving over the summer and even more during the fall and then in the spring just to keep getting better because this is a process that we're trying to undertake like now, but we're going to streamline it. So if they have questions, you can say, "Hey, uh, reach out to Dr. Flowers and she'll get you through because our goal is we want as many helpful partners as we can get because we know that's going to be beneficial to to the growth growth of Portmith." And and just to uh piggyback on Dr. White, so
051it's no longer like a principal discretion um with community organizations. We're trying to get them to go directly to flowers pretty much like Dr. is not necessarily the principal needs to let us know, okay, what it is because we we want to make sure we have our hands wrapped around it. So, if the principal's all for it, you know, that's when we have the conversation. So, we're not saying, uh, no, principal's got to give all that power away. That's not what we're saying. What we're saying is when they do present something, you know, please let us know so we can make sure it's not overlapping with something else that we may potentially have cuz every school is probably going to do something different and we want to make sure they keep, you know, their individuality.
052You know, Douglas Mark Park may want to focus on the big homies, right? You know, and then Cher may want to focus on something else. So we're not going to say okay this one group is going to be for the division at not at all. So principles still have a say in what they're saying but what we're asking is we have a shared say so we at least know what's going on because one of the things that you'll see we have a document now that talks about all of our partners and that that's what Dr. Nolasco was talking about just all the partners that we have. So, they do have a they still have that say. And I want to say the final say, um, but it's a shared final say. Gotcha. And one last
053um I guess comment or question. If I'm a new community organization that wants to partner with the schools, where do I go? Right. At this point, it's going to be I can tell you right now it's Dr. Flowers. Okay. But it will be I guess easily accessible through the website. But that's going to have to you know um you know the master over there she can make all that. That's what I was wondering. Can we just be like hey go here go to the website. Yes. But for right now I wanted to share with you all Dr. Flowers is like the go-to. Gotcha. Thank you Dr. Way. And I just want to say they they dance around a lot, but they prefer them to do it after school. Gotcha. Because they want to focus on
054instruction during the day because we're all looking at growth. We're all looking at achievement. And you as teachers and as instructional leaders and they'll tell you they rather have them after school so they can focus on the curriculum that's approved for the day. And I've had that makes sense. I've had them reaching out to me and they stopped reaching out to me cuz my answer is the same. You know, cuz when we look at scores that during the retreat, we're not going to say, "Oh, this organization had them for 2 hours a week taking away instructional time that had them for an hour taking away math and instruction." No, we're going to blame Dr. Bracy and instructional teams and y'all not doing y'all jobs. Right. Exactly. You know, so uh I think it needs to
055be detailed and highlighted that the preference for community partners. we want them to come, but we prefer after school so we can focus on instruction during the instructional time on the day and we have hours we have to meet that are instructional hours that required by the state. So I think that needs to be probably highlighted on whatever you all put out when it concerns community parts. We want them all you know to to to help our students be a part of our school family but we want to make sure we keep instruction time based on that is our primary I think operation on the school day is what I like I like the after school put highlighting after school. Um I do have a question about the uh the plan. Um it looks great.
056I love the video. Um will there be like a list of uh resources that's needed to make sure that we can fulfill these uh these goals. So that's something that the board can look at during future budget cycles to say, hey, no, uh these are resources need to make this happen cuz it looks great, but we want to make sure we fulfill these goals and what's needed from us uh to make that happen uh for you all. I think it'll be great for all of us to see during during some at some period. Yeah. And that could be detailed on the ignite plans for each of the goals because there will be specific action steps for each of the goals um in those ignite plans and then what we need to accomplish those goals whether
057that be human resources or materials or um programs or whatever. Do we have any other question for board members in reference to the strategic plan? I have a question. Um thank you chair. So, um I just wanted to know when it comes to goal three, if you could just provide maybe an example of two, um when it comes to the mental health and wellness programs for the staff aside from EAP, like what does that look like? Your retreat, right? Example, retreat stuff. Oh, the stuff I did at my staff meeting. That's right. Yeah. So, I mean, so of course we will focus on um and and I know Dr. White and his group is is is are doing things with staff and students and families bringing in supports from CHKBMS um to help with both
058mental health and physical health. Um, but even just small things like I mean this is sounds silly but we did a staff wellness day um and my staff because we knew that there were there were tens there was a lot of tension coming up on those SOS and we wanted everybody to have clear minds and hearts and so we did breakouts around wellness and you know um Miss Lewis did some journaling activities with the with the groups and we had some yoga activities and we had just things that focus um allow the staff to know that we also care about their well-being as well. Um, so those are things that we'll put out there as part of um, you know, what the schools are doing as well. We'll capture some of that. But then we
059also have some obviously some initiatives that are divisionwide like I just mentioned or the um, care solace and things like that, right? And here to help obviously continue to expand that. But that was so wellreceived that that's actually going to be part of the upcoming leadership institute for all administrators as well as the back to school pep rally. There will be a corporation that um, human resources is working on. So really being mindful about our our the comprehensive wellness of our staff members. Nice. Doesn't sound silly at all. It sounds Yeah, it was we thought it was lovely. Yeah, it sounds like it vice thank you chair. And a piggyback uh off of board members trail um question about wellness. Um have we considered also any partnerships? I know we have um several wellness centers
060um in Portsouth um that our staff um we can partner possibly get discounts um or also have we considered a wellness day fully not fully but we're going to have the wellness fair. One of the things that my associate has been doing is working with partners outside, inviting them to the wellness fair so that they can have a booth set up to where employees can actually go to the different stations to pull information for their personal use. Okay. Awesome. Awesome. And so that will be available for you our back to school pep rally um was coming up this year and so that'll be available as staff arrive and we have a little bit of time while we're waiting for all schools as well as do the dismissal time and we have a little time when
061we're trying to get student staff back. So, while we have that captive audience, this can be a great time to be able to access those resources. Thank you. Yeah. And that that reminded me of something we spoke about the wilderness day. Uh when when it comes to the professional development, I I mentioned it last uh last year before we started this uh calendar planning uh about the professional development days or or the lack thereof that we have. Uh not sure how we do this going forward, but how do we increase those? You hear staff saying a lot, oh well they they're putting all these new initiatives on us, but we only have three, four half days, you know, of professional development. And for me, I know the wellness day is important. I know it is.
062And that's almost a whole day. But are we going to take the same amount of I guess time to configure more professional development days in for staff? Um we have a lot of new staff that's worked less than 5 years in in the profession. Um but we're doing like a we're switching our model back to them that know they'll be teaching you know their individualized core subject areas. uh h how are we planning professional development days uh within our calendar in the future to make sure they have enough uh to do that? I mean, I'm not sure if that means we have to look at how early we come back as far as for development of staff or uh those things, but y'all can help me with that. So glad you asked that question. So,
063I'll be perfectly honest. It's a struggle for for us in in curriculum and instruction knowing that we have so many changes especially in our state uh what the state expects and then um you know we offer I think this summer we're offering up uh at at least 50 sessions um that are across you know all the grade levels that are available focusing on varying topics but those are not very well attended and I can't blame the teachers for not wanting to take some of their summer time to be to do that you know I mean some teachers are all going home and and most just need that break. Same thing with after school sessions. We continue to to offer those after school and um some are well attended but most are you know of course
064teachers uh hesitate to commit beyond the school day because they know they have other things to do um once they get home. So including work. Um so yes in embedding professional development days. I have to be honest, a half day of professional development really boils down to about two hours. Um, once the kids get out, the teachers get settled, get to where they need to be for the professional development, you know. So, when you take all of that into consideration, it's 2 hours. And if we have two hours, you know, and if you're an elementary teacher that's a K through three teacher, you're talking about two hours. and I've got to now we've got to now choose what are the most important subject areas to provide the professional development on because we just don't have
065enough time. So, we would love built-in professional learning days, full ones or more half ones or whatever we can we could do, but I I know Dr. Bracie has said, you know, several times um especially when um he's he's you know, collected feedback from stakeholders about the calendar. We can add whatever you want, but then it's just a matter of what do you take away? because if our commitment is to ending earlier, something's got to give within the course unless we um are open to extending the school year beyond Well, I'm glad you say that and I'm glad the board members heard you say it because a lot of times we make uh hasty decisions uh based upon what we hear from people we know within the school division, teachers and that sort of thing.
066Uh I I just want to make sure that from here on out that we really take in consideration that when they're putting out new math standards or new science standards that we say, "Okay, here go teach this," you know, with a half day of professional development and we're wondering why the the what we're getting back is not as strong as we would like it. You know, I mean that that's just like to me to me that's a simple concept. You know, if you're getting something new, you need time to learn it and then you can teach it effectively. So I think we need to be focused as a board on really uh targeting on what's important within that calendar and those days not just days off so they can have days off but also so
067they can be developed professionally so our students get a higher impact and greater impact. So just so we can keep that in mind with our future calendar planning and I want to make sure that we heard it directly from them uh before we do that. So, all right. Was there anything else in reference to the strategic plan? All right. I will entertain a motion at this time to adopt the new 25 20 to 30 strategic plan. Move for approval. Subject to comment period. Subject to the open comment period. Oh, are we on that? Is this Is this one still subject? I'm sorry. I thought I thought I was thinking that was the textbook that keep me on track. All right. And there was a motion made of Miss Boon, a second by Miss Petra, I
068believe. All right. Is there any discussion? I'm sorry. Seeing none, roll call, madam clerk. Miss Atinson, yes. Mrs. Boon, yes. Dr. Cotton. Yes. Miss Futrell, yes. Miss McWain, yes. Mrs. Cessims, yes. Miss Shoemake, yes. Dr. Walker, yes. Dr. Patillo, yes. The vote is unanimous. Thank you so much. I'll now move back up to agenda item uh 3.1. Yes. Well, let's let's do agenda item 5.1 through 5.3 first, which are consent agenda items. I intend a motion at this time. A second. Motion made by Miss Shoemate, second by Miss Petril. Is any discussion? Um, chair. Um, yes, ma'am. The only reason I would say hold off is because the transaction report is included in this and we haven't been in close session. We're going to talk about that in it's some updates to the transaction report.
069Oh, okay. All right. Let's go to Jan 3.1 in close session. As a move to close them to remove recall their um motion and second did we get a second already? Yeah. You want to rescend it? I resend motion. All right. Motion has been rescended. Uh vice chair. I move that the board enter into a closed meeting under the provisions of section 2.2-3711 of the code of Virginia for the following purpose. Consideration of personnel matters including the assignment, performance, and resignation of specific school employees as permitted under subsection A.1. We have a motion. Do we have a second? Thanks. Second, Miss Schum. Any discussion? Roll call. Madam clerk. Uh, Miss Atinson. Yes. Miss McBoom. Yes. Dr. Cotton. Yes. Miss Futrell, yes. Miss Mcwain, yes. Mrs. Cessums, yes. Miss Shoemake, yes. Dr. Walker, yes. Dr. Batillo.
070Yes. The vote is unanimous. transaction report. No, I think it's meeting were heard. Consider going to proceed and close meeting. Yeah. Motion. We have a second. Second. Thank you so much. Motion made by the vice chair. Second, Miss Boon. Any discussion? Roll call. Madam clerk. Miss Atkinson. Yes. Miss Boon. Yes. Dr. Cotton. Yes. Miss Futrell. Yes. Miss Mcwain, yes. Mrs. Cessums, yes. Miss Shoemake, yes. Dr. Walker, yes. Dr. Patillo, yes. The votes unanimous. Thank you so much. Uh, we do have consent agenda items uh at this time. I'll ask the vice chair to make a motion. Okay. All right. I move that, excuse me. We pull from item 5.1 um hearing 042125 from the transaction report and move it to agenda item 5.4. We do have a motion. We have a second. Second. Second by
071Mr. Petrael to move that to agenda item 5.4. Any discussion? Miss Ch. Seeing none, roll call. Madam cleric, Miss Swain. Yes. M pet. Yes. Miss Walker. Yes. Miss Sess. Yes. Yes. Dr. Cotton. Miss Boon. Yes. Shoe. Yes. I'm a yes as well. So unanimous. All right. I now entertain a motion for consent items 5.1 through 5.3. Okay. Got it. Got it. Second. Motion made of Miss Boon. Second by Miss Futra. Is there any discussion? That was just a motion. Seeing none. Roll call vote. Madam clerk. Miss Atinson, yes. Miss Boon, yes. Dr. Cotton, yes. Mrs. Futrell, yes. Miss Futrell, Miss Mcwain, yes. Mrs. Cessums, yes. Miss Shoemake, yes. Dr. Walker, yes. Dr. Batillo, yes. That was the vote with the That was correct. Thank you so much. Okay. Agenda item 5.4 and a motion at
072this time. The vice chair. Um agenda item 5.4 U regarding hearing number 042125. Uh moving to reject the hearing officer's recommendation and reinstate. Do we have a motion? Do we have a second? Second. Second by Miss Futrell. Any discussion? Roll call vote. Madam clerk. Miss Atinson. Yes. Mrs. Boon. Yes. Dr. Cotton. Yes. Miss Futrell, yes. Miss Mcwain, yes. Mrs. Cessums, yes. Miss Shoemake, yes. Dr. Walker, yes. Dr. Patillo, no. All right. Eight yeses, one no. All right. Thank you so much. Agenda item 6.1, roll call, vote, consideration of the final board operating budget for fiscal year 2526. I entertain a motion at this time. Move for approval. Second. Motion made Miss Shoemake, second by Miss Futrell. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, roll call vote. Madam, I'm sorry, chair. I do have a discussion. Okay.
073Um, I just want to uh notate that uh my no vote is uh not against the uh teacher salaries or against any retention uh paid towards teachers. My no vote is um regarding program cuts that I feel like our students um it's necessary. It's what set formouth um apart from other divisions. Um when people talk about Starbase um in other school divisions because I'm in other school divisions a lot. Starbase is what set Portouth aside. So, um I'm definitely fully in support of Starbase dual language emerging. I mean, it's kids in Northern Virginia that's taking that. So, that dual language emerging program would have set us apart again from another school division just like our first college program um as well. So, my no vote is because I'm not for um cutting um those two
074particular programs and um just wanted to put that out there to the public. Thank you. Thank you. I also have a my no vote is also on to the cutting of programs um specifically um DLI. Right. Any other uh my yes vote is because I'm focused on what's instruction uh basically instructional base. This was a hard decision that we had to make. However, we'll see what the future is. Thank you. Thank you. Miss Wayne. Um same as um Dr. C and my yes vote is only based on the fact that um this is something that we had to do. Um we just had to find the the resources to make sure that we take care of our staff and I think that was one of the utmost important things um for us to decide along
075with our children. I did not want to get rid of dual language immersion. However, I'm sure that's something that we can definitely revisit. Thank you. It's another discussion done. No, no. Thank you. Roll call. Mford. Who's under this? Right. All right. Um, Miss Atinson, absolutely. No. Mrs. Boone, yes. Dr. Cotton, yes. Miss Futrell, yes. Miss Mcwain, yes. Miss Cessums, yes. Miss Shoemake, yes. Dr. Walker, no. Dr. Patillo, yes. That's eight yeses and two nos. Seven. Seven. Seven yes. Seven yeses. Excuse me. Two nos. All right. Thank you. Agenda item. Thank you, chair. Um, when will how will the parents and staff be notified of the program cancellations and how will I guess how will we communicate that out to the parents that that program is going to be cancelled and how we're going to communicate
076that out to the staff with the students that are currently in the program. um communication will go out um will go out to them. I mean we can also um now that the budget will now that the budget is passed documentation that we can sort of just push out um throughout the whole division because those that may have been interested in it will need to know that the program um is no longer um in place. So, we will make sure that everybody um is aware of it. Thank you. Thank you. Uh we need to go back to agenda item 4.4. We uh we missed that uh consideration of the FY 2425 revised uh general fund budget. I need a motion at this time. Move for approval. Second. Motion Miss Shoemake. Any discussion? Excuse me. 109.
077Roll call. Madam clerk. Miss Atinson. Yes. Mrs. Buu. Yes, Dr. Cotton. Yes, Miss Futrell. Yes, Miss McWain. Yes, Mrs. Cessum. Yes, Miss Shoemake. Yes, Dr. Walker. Yes, Dr. Patillo. Yes. The vote is unanimous. Thank you so much. Uh, agenda item 6.2 of board comments. Are there any? I I I do want you. We say 4.5. Okay. Okay. Uh we have board member comments but I'll also accept any uh subcommittee reports at this time as well if you have any in the board comments. Um due to timing the uh minority contractors um the MWB advisory committee um report is in your executive comments. So I'm not going to go over the presentation because we've been here too long. So it is under the executive content. All right. Any other board member comments? I do want to
078mention we did receive a request from the AI Norm Alumni Association um in reference to um they are requesting to name the football field uh after Mr. Horus Savage uh former uh educator and coach, longtime coach and horseman. Um I believe there's going to have to be a discussion item uh in the near future, but please uh I want you all to ponder on that. um they've been working with the principal and the principal seems to be in line with it, but of course that would be a board decision in order to do that. Um to do um public I think that we have to take naming there's a naming policy and sorry I don't have it memorized. I think it's public discussed too because it would have to be a special uh it would
079have to be a special exception I believe because all right so that's why I said it would need to be a discussion item anyway in order to make that happen but I wanted to bring it to your attention because they sent the email directly to me they didn't copy everybody on it so next I didn't want to bring it up and then we can discuss it uh in the next meeting so they wanted to change from Joe Lance no they want they want the the stadium is now coach Langston, they want to name the field, okay, after Mr. Horus Savage, which I had no problem with his years and dedication and everything he's given the city of Horseman. Uh he's definitely living legend, but that's something we have to discuss and there have to be
080a policy change temporarily in order to do that being that he's a living a living individual. So, I want you all to ponder on that uh to our next meeting. All right. Are there any other comments? Quick one. I just want to say congratulations to 2025. I just wanted to say that um I think this is a a wonderful situation. I think nationwide this is the largest number of graduates that um that has been noted and so um one in particular I want to congratulate is my son now um he will be graduating from church high school in so I'm super excited. Um, also my my as you want to say like adopted son, um, Kite Young, he's graduating as well. So, I I just want to say congratulations to Norcam. Um, congratulations to Manor.
081Congratulations to Churchland graduates. You all did a wonderful job. I can't wait to see you on Saturday. And most of all, congratulations to the parents for getting them this far. So, thank you so much. Thank you so much. If all hearts and minds are clear, this mean is now. Thank you. [Music]