001schedule them all here. Is that what I heard? That's the truth. Amen. Get that fixed. Good evening and welcome to our June 1st, 2026 school board meeting of the Rockingham County School Board. Um, I'm calling this meeting to order and the first uh piece of business is to approve tonight's agenda. >> I move we approve the agenda as presented. >> Thank you, Miss Flor. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Cave. Any questions or comments? Hearing none. All those in favor of approving tonight's agenda, please say yes. Yes. All those opposed say no. Motion passes. 5-0. Our next item is a moment of silence. If you would like to join us, we'll do that now. Thank you. Next on our list is the Pledge of Allegiance. If you'd like to stand and join
002us with for that as well. We're going to move into some recognitions um this evening. Our our first set of recommendations is coming to us from Megan Trice, a conservation specialist and education coordinator of the Shannondoa Valley Soil and Water Conservation District. She has some recognitions tonight. Thank you for being here. Welcome. Thank you guys for having me. Um, so like they said, my name is Megan Trice. I work for the Shando Valley Soil and Water Conservation District. We serve Rockingham County, Paige County in the city of Harrisonenburgg. And annually we award teacher of the year um awards for teachers that have done outstanding conservation education in their um classroom and even beyond. Um so today I'm here to award our 6th through 12th grade teacher of the year award um recipient Patrick Cardner. He
003has taught for six years. He teaches here science here at TA. Um and from his nomination and from the information he gave us he rose to the top in our um group of nominees this year for having his students work with local elementary schools and go above and beyond outside his classroom teaching. So, I brought him this really cool plaque. Um, and he's already received a gift certificate to buy things for his classroom. Our next recognition tonight um is being presented by Mrs. Tammy Stone, our supervisor of science and challenge. And I believe we're going to hear about some excellence in the 2026 kid wind and solar competition. Thank you so much um school board members um and uh chairperson um I know you are familiar with with what they've done as you've helped us
004judge this competition before as several school board members have helped us judge this competition before for our district level. Um, tonight I'd like to recognize first of all before I recognize um the uh winning teams. I'd like to w recognize the coaches and I know at least two of the coaches are here. Um, but I'd like to recognize all four of them because they all take the extra time to to do that. So, first of all, I'd like to recognize um Tracy Rhodess who kind of got this started um and uh actually has helped train all the other coaches in the division um which is awesome. And then we have Amy Benz is also here. Amy, where are you? So, there's Amy. She's at Monavideo um and works with our Monovide team. We also have
005Kelly Scott from Turner Ashby. Wilbur Pence. I'm in Turner Ashby. Sorry. And uh we have Caitlyn Grant at uh Elkton uh Middle School. And then we also have our coach of the year who I believe is not here because she's attending fifth grade graduation um at uh McKakeisville. And that's uh Christina Wanaki. She's our uh elementary uh coach, but she's also the state coach of the year recognized by Virginia State Coach of the year. So, um, I'm going to have to bring back the Makisville group to recognize them because they were so excited to come and see you guys, but they also had fifth grade graduation tonight. And so, I said we would recognize them at another um night and but with all three of our Makisville teams won first, second, and third place in
006the state um at the elementary level. and then the first place team went on to um compete. So, I'm planning to bring them back in August and recognize those as well. So, I'm going to now recognize our middle school um teams. Um so, we had three teams who went to uh regionals um tonight. who I mean who went to um the regionals tonight which are first place in regionals, second place and third place in regionals. So our first place team in regionals um is our greenhouse gang team from JFrank Hill Killyard Middle School if you guys could come up and they are Bailey Morris, Lincoln Fletcher and Maya Puffenburgger. And so two of the three of them could be here. So if we could give them a hand. [applause] Perfect. >> [applause] >> Their project
007involved actually having um temperature probes. They designed uh a greenhouse that had a fan that turned on if the temperature went below a certain um spot. They had humidity sensors. They had uh to know when to water the plants and um so they actually uh did all of those things. So that was awesome. um our second place um regionals team actually went on to become our second place state team and that is our team from um Monovido Middle School and that is our future vet and so come on up So, we have um Annayia Johnson and Abigail um writer. So, they have um Do you guys want to tell them a little bit about your project, what it is? And do you want to tell them why yours is special going on or do you
008want me to? Me too. Okay, perfect. So, these lovely ladies chose to defer. They qualified for worlds as well and they've chosen to defer their project until next year and are already thinking about what they want to do to compete next year as well as take their world's competition on. Um, so when you because the competition for the solar challenge happens in late Aprilish, you only have less than a month to decide if you're going to do extensive traveling. And so they chose to wait a little bit to compete with theirs. But they're so excited that they're going to um already talking to Miss Benz about what project they could do next year to compete as well to at our at our local event, right? And then potentially take one, right? Awesome. So, congratulations to
009you guys. I don't know why. Thank you guys. Awesome. And then our third place at regionals and at states um goes to Operation Green also from Monovido Middle School and that is um Maya Avalos heakri probably butchered that. Um and Macy Nie if you guys could come forward. very much. >> Awesome. So, congratulations to them. Um, and I would love to invite you guys to come and observe them compete at our district competition next year. We would love um the help even if you don't want to judge because I I think I may have stressed out some a little bit with some of those um things. I did add more judges this year so that we were spread out. But we had uh 40ome teams this year who competed at our um district level. And
010so this is a place where students get to um coding. Um they get to learn about um solar renewable energy, but they also learn about circuitry and teamwork and um they're just awesome projects to see these amazing people do. So let's give the coaches and their um and the winning teams a round of applause. Another round of applause. Thank you, Mrs. Stone. And congratulations to all of um our winners and coaches. I I I'm not sure if I'm the coach that she is referring to, or not the coach, I'm sorry, the the the judge that she's referring to. Um, what I do remember about judging two years ago was the projects were amazing and the level of the amount of work that the students put into it. Um, and the ideas that they have are
011just incredible and um, I encourage board members to take Mrs. Stone up on that opportunity. It's pretty great. So, congratulations again. Our next um item on our agenda tonight um are public comments of which we have three um beginning with Patrick Hardner if you want to come forward followed by Julie Richie. Hello again. Good evening, Dr. Shifflet. Members of the school board, I want to preface this by saying that I am so grateful for this job. I love working in Rockingham County Public Schools. Everything that Megan Trice was talking about earlier, working with the students, elementary kiddos, I am so surprised that I get paid to do what I do. Um, I was asked to discuss the 4x4 by a couple other teachers in this county and at my school, and I'm going to do
012so with nothing but respect towards all of you. And I mean nothing but respect. But I do want to talk about it from a science and a special education and math perspective specifically. And for science courses, I do feel that the concerns are quite significant. Science is such a cumulative discipline requires students to understand um very difficult material, develop lab skills throughout long periods of time, analyze data, revisit concepts to get prepared for state standardized assessments and things like that. Um and I like the traditional schedule because it allows students to engage with this content throughout the entire school year. Whereas under the 4x4 schedule, you're compressing the same amount of info into 90 days. Uh, and we know when we get a week of snow, that could really be half a unit or an
013entire unit for those spring semester kiddos. Um, and then even more so, students often could go four to eight academic months alone. Not real months, just academic months where they could be in school, uh, where they don't have a science class or a math class, it feels like. So, if I have a freshman taking environmental science uh their fall semester and then they don't take biology until their 10th grade in the spring, that's almost 13 months without science. And I I definitely feel like we would see a lot of repercussions thinking about the biology so which is already such a gatekeeper for for graduation for so many of our kids. And I feel like these challenges are even more so amplified with students with learning disabilities. And there's a lot of research that examines this
014demographic, specifically under the 4x4 block. um thinking about the all the concerns that are related to their success, engagement, individualized support. How do you find a resource period for some of these kids? Do you do it, you know, every other semester? How do you get that to work? Um and a lot of these students, um they really require a lot of routine, repetition, frequent contact with teachers over the course of a year to really get them to know their teachers and to know what their learning styles are. And I feel like that's the same with all students personally. uh and it makes it so much more difficult to revisit some of those concepts prior to learning new material. And if our goal is to maximize learning for all students, not just the students who are
015at those higher levels who are collegebound, I feel like we should be prioritizing a schedule that provides that consistent exposure to all course subjects and electives. Um and uh specifically providing a lot of support to those those struggling learners and and maximizing those year-long relationships. Um, I've also spoken to a lot of core teachers who teach upper and low lower level classes and who have also taught the 4x4 and Augusta County, Shannidoa County, Harrisonburg City, etc. And everybody that I've spoken to agrees that the AB or even odd schedule seems to be the best for both groups of students based on their experiences. I can only speak for even odds. So, a lot of what I shared is for from other perspectives as well. Thank you guys so much. >> Thank you for your comments.
016Um, Julie Richie is next, followed by Marlin Carr. Good evening, board. I am here to express my concerns over changing our schedule to the 4x4 as well. Um, want to strongly encourage you to keep the odd even block schedule. I believe the heart of this choice is a simple question. Which schedule provides students with the greatest opportunity for that longterm success? Not just can I pass the so at the end of a semester, but can I move forward with what I've learned. The odd even schedule offers students the benefit of maintaining that continuous learning throughout the entire year, August to June, allowing to build that knowledge gradually, retain the information more effectively, and make stronger connections between the concepts over time. The 4x4 schedule compresses a full year of learning into a single semester. As
017a chemistry teacher, I experienced this after COVID and students were extremely frustrated with the rapid pace at which the new materials was being introduced. They didn't feel like they had time to swallow. Um, and that that was frustrating to me. As educators, we know that learning is not simply about exposing them to content. It is about retention and application. Our odd even schedule provides students with opportunities to engage with the material over a long period of time, spacing between the content, lessons, and interweaving with other material, which is best practice. It leads to deeper understanding and better retention. In addition, um the 4x4, as Patrick mentioned, can make absences particularly challenging for students. they don't have time to get in to see you if they miss periods especially u more than one in a row
018and catching up with the old concepts that build to the new concepts um becomes very tricky especially for those students who struggle the aven schedule offers a balanced pace and it gives them time to come in during advisory or before or after school and get help when they know they need help um beyond academics the odd even schedule also promotes stronger relationships and that's one thing that we try to promote. We we you tell us relationships are important and developing that relationship over the entire year um makes those kids feel valued and know that that support is with them throughout the whole year. I recognize that no um schedule is perfect and every model comes with advantages and challenges. However, when we consider student content retention, instructional pacing, and relational building, I believe that the
019odd even schedule is more um applicable for us. As you consider this important decision, I encourage you to pri pri prioritize what research and classroom experience consistently tells us. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Miss Richie. Uh, next up, Marlin Carr. Good evening folks. Um, Dr. Shiff and board, pleased to meet you all. I brought some concerns there at the last meeting we had two weeks ago and I was wondering if that was addressed at all about the salaries of bus driving division if you all had time to look at that at all. I left a paper copy at that time. Also through the year, my salary went down 5% as a bus driver starting nine months ago. So just wondering if we're going to be increasing that this year or as we
020sign new contracts over the last week if we're going to see another 5% decrease in our salaries. And then uh on the I see you all have in the notes about the bonus how that was I believe as you address that this evening. Uh had some questions on that. And then one concern I have as we're winding the year up driving. I've drove 14 years for the county taking two days off during that amount of time. So try to drive consistently. And one thing the last year we faced is there's no bus wash. We have a lot of county washing for any other vehicles. Our kids safety means something. And this is personal to me because about eight years ago I was in in Broadway and people say look in your mirrors. I came to
021a stop for children for students looked in both mirrors. There's nothing there. Put the bus in reverse and there was crunch. Little Honda Civic pulled right in behind me. You can't see. Where I'm coming with that is if your back windows are dirty and probably 80% of our buses have that because we have a lot of dust on our roads. you can't see if you're not paying attention morning or evening. So, that taught me a valuable lesson to take the second chance to look in the back window. We've always used the city bus squash. Starting six months ago, we've been getting actually nine months ago, we've been working on this. We've been told the city would get their new bus squash up up to date. So, I've been talking with the city also. The [clears
022throat] city said that it's been done for a month. we haven't sent anybody over to train so that our drivers can use it. And they also said if we don't pay for it, we won't use it. So that this is something that needs to be ironed out in administration so that we as drivers will have that availability to use. And um just a quick concern also on the buses. Three years ago, it was noted that there would be inspection done on the cleanness of our bus. Our students are one of the highest priorities in the county. Uh, a lot of our buses are not kept up to date as far as cleaning. One thing I would recommend is that we would have um cleaning utilities available for us, just to keep our buses cleaner. It
023creates a better environment, I think. And um that um that's something I think that would be nice. Three years ago, we said there would be bus inspection done. It was announced at a safety meeting uh by Mr. Good. That hasn't happened. I think that would help to keep things up to date. and the bus war should be great. Great great if that's something we could address. >> Mr. Carr, I want to thank you for your comments. Um, usually with public comments, we don't do a back and forth with the board. Um, but I do want to make sure that somebody follows up with you um on some of your concerns and your questions. Would you make sure you reach out to Dr. painter or Chris Sour um and and try and try and get a
024meeting scheduled so we can follow up with you. Okay. Thank you. That concludes our public comments for tonight. Board members, the next item on our agenda um is the consent agenda. You'll note that typically we have personnel added to that. Um but because we were at a very lovely retirement celebration for our retirees, we did not meet in close session before the school board meeting and so we will be staying um just a little bit afterward to take care of personnel. So tonight's consent agenda has the minutes from May 11, May 20, May 26 and some field trips. And if someone wants to offer a motion, we're ready for it. >> I move we uh approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Thank you, Miss Lure. >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Burggoyne. Um any
025questions or comments? All those in favor of approving tonight's consent agenda, please say yes. >> Yes. All those opposed say no. >> Motion passes 5-0. That brings us into tonight's action items. The first of which is the new technical center in Rockingham County. Let me turn to my notes. >> Dr. Shifflet, I think we're coming over to you for presentation and information. >> Yes. Thank you, Chair Hurst. Last Tuesday, our school board had a joint work session with the board of super board of supervisors and we looked at the um current design of a new technical center for Rockingham County Public Schools and um the architect was there along with Steve Reid and Mr. Kevin Hutton, the director of M current MTC. And so I just was wanting to come before the board to get
026a public vote uh for moving forward with um the proposed building and design plan for the future technical center in Rockingham County. So that would be my recommendation for approval of the proposed building and design plan for the future technical center in Rockingham County. >> Thank you, Dr. Shifflet. Board members, do we have a motion? I move to follow the superintendent's recommendation to approve the proposed building and design plan for the future technical center in Rockingham County and to direct the superintendent to move forward with the next steps in the planning and development process while keeping the board informed of the project's progress. >> Thank you, Miss Laura. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Burggoyne. Um, any questions or comments, board members? I think it's worth making sure the public
027is aware that we have had several meetings about this already where we've discussed at length and so I wanted to make sure that everyone knows that this is not just we're voting yes and no without having thought and asked good questions and considered lots of different points of view and um so the record show thank you thank you Miss Irons anyone I I asked Dr. Shifflet if we've like wrapped everything up and even picked colors. I think we've narrowed the selection and we're still waiting for some samples of the metal work. What they sent us earlier this week wasn't correct. So, Mr. Reed's working to get that for us >> which kind of is the uh move forward with the planning and development steps while keeping the board informed of the project. Right. [laughter] >>
028Exactly. And I think Steve, we are about 65% 60% with the design work. Okay. Hoping to go out and bid September, August. Hoping to go to bid in August. So, we're moving pretty quickly now. >> Very good. Will we need to vote again before the August bid goes out? >> No. The next time you will bid will be Steve will send out the proposal with all the specs >> and then he'll bring in it be sealed bids. He'll bring the lowest bidder and then you'll vote for that to award the contract to a particular company. Okay. >> But that's with no changes to what the design is currently looking like. Correct. >> Correct. I think the design that we saw um last Tuesday is pretty pretty much how it's going to look in terms of,
029you know, the outside of how the classrooms are laid out. Um, you know, I think the architects have some more work to do and um, you know, some of the internal components and what you know, electrical and HVAC and those things, but the actual design itself is is getting, I think, pretty close to being finished. >> What What if all of the bids come back higher than what we want to spend? What happens? >> So, that's a great question. So, There's a couple of things. One, Mr. Reid has worked with the architect to um add some additional spaces that we wanted to add, you know, new programs in the future. We can subtract those and not build them now and wait to a future date. There's also this really large canopy that will cover the
030carpentry, electrical, and HVAC, I think, lab spaces. So there are some things that we could then remove um from the project if the price was more than we anticipated. I'm I'm I'm fairly confident that um this is going to be a very competitive project and and we'll meet our mark of budget threshold. >> Okay. Um understood. So I I think the point I was trying to get to when you were talking about we may need to track some things or what when you say we are you we're talking about the school board because I think personally if there were something I mean there's some things in the design that as a schoolboard member I think are completely necessary. So I wanted to make sure if when it comes back to the point where if it
031was something like that where we had to take stuff off that it's the school board that says okay this is what we want to to take out of the bid but this we really really need. I just wanted to make sure that that is going to be left up to the school board to do or if it, you know, if it's something that that Steve looks at and says, "Well, this that and the other, but that we'll be made aware of it." Like there's nowhere in the process that it's going to be like something is taken out and we just we don't even know. And then after the thing is built, we're like, "Well, wait a minute. What happened to this?" Do do you understand what I'm saying? >> No, absolutely. And we're happy to
032share those um you know, designs with you as we get through the prog progress. I think he said the end of the month will be 65%. So, we're be happy to show share them with you to see where we are and they'll have a cost estimate then of where the where they anticipate that we'll be. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. >> I just want to piggyback off of that. We just want to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars and spend it well and and reasonably. And then also, this is the first time we've ever done a process like this with this board of I don't know, Mrs. before. Have you ever >> We've not any I'm sorry. We've not built any buildings, >> right? So, we've done renovations, but nothing just from scratch. And
033so, I just I want to make sure that it I feel good about what how I'm voting to spend taxpayer dollars and things like that. And I really appreciate Mr. Reid because he is a wealth of knowledge and always available for our questions. So, I do appreciate you. >> Yes. And while I've not been on the board while we've built buildings, I think Mr. Reid's been involved in several and he's you we've used the architects on several that we've got and we the architects kind of know what our budget is and they're working to that end. Correct. So I I have Thank you for all of your work and I have every confidence that we've got this guys. We got this. I think we're all very excited um about this project and and looking forward
034to um its completion. So, thank you for keeping us up to date. We do have a motion to follow the superintendent's recommendation to approve the proposed building and design plan for the future technical center in Rockingham County. Um and we are directing the superintendent to move forward with the next steps in planning and development while still keeping us informed. All those in favor, please say yes. >> Yes. All those opposed, say no. >> Motion passes 5-0. Thank you, board members, and thank you, Dr. Shifflet, and thank you, Steve Reid. Our next action item is an employee bonus payment. Mr. Moyers. >> Good evening, Chair Hurst, Dr. Shifflet, members of the board. So, the first thing that I'm here to speak with you about this evening is um to get your approval for a one-time bonus
035that we would issue in August of 2026 for returning employees. And this is made possible by the state of Virginia's budget that was passed to amend the current year budget we're in. So, the state gave us the option of taking their $1,75,449 and matching it with $827,663 to give a onetime bonus. The bonus amounts at this point, based on how many employees we think we'll have um at that date, will be about $900 for full-time and $450 for part-time contracted employees um returning employees. So, I'd be happy to answer any questions and um just ask for your approval. Dr. Shifflet, >> Chair Hen, board members, I recommend approval approving a one-time bonus payment to returning contracted employees as of August 1st, 2026. >> Thank you, Dr. Shifflet. Board members, do we have a motion? >>
036Yes. I move to follow the superintendent's recommendation to approve a one-time bonus payment to returning contracted employees as of August 1st, 2026. >> Thank you, Miss Irons. Do we have a second? Thank you, Miss Lure. Any questions or comments, board members? >> Mr. lawyers. Um, where do bus drivers fall in this bonus payout? >> As full-time employees. >> Full-time employees. Yay. So, bus drivers are getting a a full bonus. That's wonderful. Thank you very much. >> Anything else? Okay. All those in favor of approving a one-time bonus payment to returning contracted employees as of August 1st, 2026, please say yes. >> Yes. >> All those opposed say no. >> Motion passes. 50. >> I probably need to clarify my comments. Um, bus drivers typically work work a short day, so I wasn't sure that they
037wouldn't be part-time or full-time. I'm happy that every employee is getting a bonus, but I was a little afraid that the bus drivers who we consider full-time employees were only getting a part-time bonus. So, wanted to put that out there to be clear. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Lure. All right, Mr. Moyers, you're still here with us for digital ticketing for athletic events. So, as I presented a couple meetings ago, I would like to ask for your approval this evening for us to go fully digital uh at athletic events starting next school year where we will accept credit cards at the gate as well as online purchasing, but we would no longer accept cash. This will help us reduce our staffing at all of our events. It will help um our financial security, making
038sure that um we collect the money that's coming in. Um it'll really open up a lot of things for us. Um, so I'd like to ask your approval for that this evening. >> Thank you, Mr. Moyers. Dr. Shifflet, >> Chair Hurst, and board members, I recommend approving the implementation of digital cashless ticketing for the high school athletic events beginning with the 2627 school year. >> Thank you, Dr. Shifflet. Board members, do we have a motion? I move to follow the superintendent's recommendation to approve the implementation of digital cashless ticketing for high school athletic events beginning with the 2026 2027 school year. Thank you, Miss Lure. Do we have a second? Thank you, Miss Irons. Questions or comments, discussion? Board members, >> I think it's worth clarifying that this is for the tickets into the gate
039and not concessions, correct? Other things. concessions are run by PTO's or athletic boosters. We do not control those. They can continue to accept cash as they do now. That's up to them. >> Mr. Moy Moyers, can you remind me if you do it online, was there an extra dollar charge? And what about if you use credit cards at the gate? >> Correct. So whether you use credit cards at the gate or do online, it is an extra dollar, which is >> for both for both. Yes, it's the same. And we have been accepting cards and online ticketing the last couple years. So those prices for those things aren't changing. We just will no longer have the cash. >> So if but if a person would have come and paid cash, they weren't paying that dollar.
040Right. >> Correct. >> Um I am going to I think that you guys probably know, but I'm going to be voting no to this tonight. Um just because I still um I get it what age that we're in. I just don't like taking from the community the ability to pay cash. Um, so and so nothing personal and I get it and everything is moving in that direction. Um, it's just not something that I'm comfortable with moving our our sports towards at this time. >> Anyone else on discussion? >> I'm going to go ahead and put my plug out there like like I'm getting the habit of doing. Uh, if you don't want to pay with a credit card, you can drive a bus. They let you in for free. So [laughter] >> Oh, that's good.
041Right. >> Yeah. I just drive right in the gate. They wave me on in. It's awesome. So, you can you can use credit card or a bus. We take bus payments. So, just saying. And I will say with this, and we've been offering this for years, but I would really strongly encourage our parents and our fans specifically to do the season passes because it is significantly cheaper than buying tickets at each individual game. Um, so then hopefully this mostly would affect away fans, but I do know that a lot of people do like to purchase day of, but we can buy season passes that greatly reduce what it costs. >> Maybe this is something I just need directly emailed to me or I'm just going to put it out there. Can we have this um
042whatever the links are for the four high schools that just shared somewhere? I feel like whenever I go to a game, I'm always just frantically googling how do I buy a ticket to Broadway football game, especially because my kids do, you know, um, parks and wreck events there, and when we have to go to games, I'm just I'm on their their website or I'm on the RCPS homepage and I find it somehow. Um, but but it's not easy. So, if we could put it on the like, hey, these are the four high schools. Here's how you get a ticket to the games. here's the QR or the link or whatever or just email it to me directly. I would appreciate it because I do frantically look for it because I have little kids and I'm
043just trying to get people with their pom poms and all their other junk to the game and then I get there and there's 50 people in line and I'm like, "All right, I gotta find out how to buy a ticket." So, um it's great once I do buy the ticket, we just walk right in. But, um somebody send me the links or the QRs or whatever. >> No problem. >> Would appreciate that. Can I ask another question? Are you aware of other ways that so to Holly's point about just that extra dollar and um being a burden on some people in the community? Are there other ways to get into the game for free? For example, like volunteering a certain amount or driving a bus. [laughter] >> That would be a question up to each
044individual school, right? Any of our employees, if you're an RCPS employee, you get into any RCPS event with showing your badge, right? to the bus any other position as f as far as if you're volunteering at a school. I don't know how they handle that. That would be a school decision. Okay. Um we have a motion to follow the superintendent's recommendation to approve the implementation of digital cashless ticketing starting this fall. All those in favor say yes. Yes. All those opposed say no. >> No. Motion passes 41. >> That concludes Thank you, Mr. Moyers. That concludes our action items. Uh, now brings us intoformational items on our agenda. We have several of those. So, buckle up. I'm just kidding. >> I will talk quickly. Thank you, Chair Hurst and board members. I wanted to share
045some information uh with the board about um a new initiative for us, the RCPS leadership academy. Um great schools start with great leaders. And this is an idea I wish I could say I created it or come up with it myself, but as I was meeting with principles last summer and kind of reflecting on the school year, some of them were sharing some personal stories as to their own career path and how they had been involved at a leadership academy and another school division north of us. And so, um, we started talking a little bit about that and what we could maybe do to help, um, create our own academy. And um as we're having these conversations uh our executive leadership team um we read the book developing the leaders around you by John C.
046Maxwell. So we used some of the information from his book uh some of his ideas and suggestions to to work towards this. And um so the the goal for this academy is to develop leadership skills for aspiring assistant principles and principles. Um and we want to strengthen our pipeline of leaders. John Maxwell simply says leadership equals influence. And that's what we're trying to do is look for influence. And as a potential leader, he says you are either an asset or a liability to the organization. He gives this analogy. He said, 'You know, anytime there's a fire, everyone has two buckets. Bucket of gasoline or bucket of water. And whatever you pour on that is either going to extinguish the fire or make it worse. And so we want to think about how do we help
047build that pipeline and equip our folks to use the water and not the gasoline. Um and he says in the book that the difference between a good organization and a great one is leadership and I and I firmly believe in that. Uh he says most people produce only when they feel like it but leaders produce even when they don't feel like it. So leadership is important. So we are looking at two different pathways that are basically heading in the same direction working towards building principles and having sort of a a tiered approach for how we work with both of these different groups. So for aspiring assistant principles um kind of you know we're in the middle of baseball season. So, think about the farm system, right? You have the major league, the MLB where, you
048know, we watch on, you know, Fox Sports, and then you have the farm system, right? You have AAA, double A, single A, right? Down to the rookie league, but they're all sort of in sync with what that organization's expectations are and how they play the game. So, in tier one, we're looking for current RCPS teachers who have completed their entire admin program. So, that's one of the qualifications. You got to be finished. uh they must apply. So, we've sent out the applications and they must interview for this opportunity. Uh and then we're going to begin using them and a lot of our division work, committee work, and so forth and and giving them other opportunities. Um Maxwell says you identify the top 20% of your team, those people who get the job done, take responsibility,
049and exhibit leadership quality. So, that's who we're trying to identify. Um and we'll be equipping them throughout the school year. He uses the word equipping, not so much training. Um, and he's pref he said he prefers that word. I mean, I think either one is is fine, but just trying to give opportunities for them to learn and develop their skills. And then once they become an AP, once they get to the top of that, then we have a different sort of training for them, right? Because now they've moved into sort of the second second level. Um, again, looking for equipping our opportunities for our assistant principal. So we had our first session actually uh February the 16th for all of our APS talking again trying to equip them help them understand how to use the
050water not the gasoline uh how to extinguish the fires uh and inspiring principles will receive additional learning opportunities during the summer and I'll highlight a couple of those here in a minute and eventually when they get to the be the role of principal we all already have some things in place we have partnerships with JMU with uh firstear principles and working with them So sort of sort of this is an ongoing process right as we begin to build this academy. So um again I shared February the 16th that was a full day uh with our uh current assistant principles all of them actually and then uh the applications have gone out to our aspiring assistant principles uh and we'll be conducting interviews and I just you know just be clear with you and the application
051process right we're not just because you have an admin degree doesn't mean you get in right we're going with our 20% um and then we're also again creating learning opportunities for this summer for both uh for both groups. For example, uh Chris Bryant, his team are doing some leadershipmies for special education. And so we're inviting these folks both aspiring assistant principles and principles to attend. Uh we are taking a group of uh aspiring principles next Friday to um the leadership legacy. It's part of um the keynote speaker there is Mark Cole. He is the CEO from Maxwell Leadership. So, we're going to have an opportunity to uh hear from some of those folks. Um, and so continue to build and develop this. We'll probably leverage some things like the aspiring principles program maybe through Virginia
052Tech. UVA has the scope program, but just sort of putting a menu of items together uh to make sure we're building the pipeline. So, when we have an opening for a principal, we have folks that we can plug in if it's an assistant principal. Uh because what we've noticed over the years and really what brought about this conversation with the principles is they were sharing with me that they had some really strong teachers who are aspiring to be assistant principles. They had interviewed and they didn't maybe make the cut on that particular round and they're like but I don't want to lose them. So we've got to find a way to keep them engaged with leadership and wanting to keep them in Rockingham County to be leaders for us. So um so there you go.
053Um, so on tier two for the aspiring assistant principles, it says specific equipping opportunities will be provided throughout the school year. What does that look like for a teacher who already has a classroom and will be like how does that affect their educational? >> So we're using the teacher work days and so usually we try to dedicate a half a day to administrative staff meetings. So maybe either the morning or afternoon. So we would use some of the you know if it's the opposite right if it's morning admin meeting we would use the afternoon to work with these teachers really tried to not pull them out of the classroom as as much as possible and also giving them opportunities you know as I said you know calendar committee that Donna works on if we have
054a textbook committee or I just you know I'm going to talk about the grading work that we we just finished having those folks involved in in those opportunities as Oh, >> anything else board members? >> Okay, sounds good. Dr. Shiplet, thank you. >> I think you're still up. >> I just want >> No, it's okay. Would you like to I can stall for time while you pull it all up. Uh, the next item is a revised draft policy. E for grading promotion and reporting of student progress. Dr. Shifflet's got a >> Yes. So >> draft proposal for us. >> Yes. So in your folder you will find um a revised uh policy and it's it's a lot of changes from what is currently there. It's a lot longer. It's more detailed. Uh more information. So
055we really to be honest we didn't redline it like we do with some of our policies because it's almost brand new. But I want to walk through walk through the process a little bit so you have a sense of how we got here. So in in January I invited all schools to send a representative to join our grading committee. And we had at least one teacher rep from each school and several schools had two teachers. They said hey can we send more? Uh we had school level leaders, principles, assistant principles, we had division letter level leaders. So in total we had around 50 folks engaged in this work. uh we met four times once a month uh beginning February 26th and first couple of sessions were more you know what are we currently doing what
056are our current practices uh so a lot of discussions around do we want to uh embrace this idea of standardsbased grading or or just kind of put that to the wayside and then as we move through there uh through that process we decided we really didn't want to use the standardsbased grading but maybe borrow some ideas from that. So, um had a couple you know two more meetings and then uh May 11th we had a subcommittee of the larger group to meet and they drafted I would say this policy but they they put something together on paper. Then on May 21st we went back to the entire committee. They had that um document to review. We spent about an hour and a half going through that and um looking through it. Huge shout out to,
057you know, Donna Abernathy and Sharon March for helping make sense of some of this because you had lots of different ideas, but to try to make it succinct. Um, and so we've gotten lots of feedback. I had requested teachers along all along the way to uh, you know, be sharing with their faculties and their staff at their schools and getting feedback from their colleagues. And so um so this is just a draft and what I would like to do is make this part of our summer work uh when we you know get together here in June to talk about you know things that you would that you like things you'd like to see changed. Um you know we did stress during this entire process that we wanted to have a consistent grading policy across the
058division. So I think it addresses some things. Maybe there's some areas where you feel like maybe there's maybe not enough consistency or maybe there's areas where you want to see, you know, uh giving folks more autonomy. Uh but here it is for you tonight to to look at and hopefully at our first work session, this will be an agenda item for us to talk through. Any questions for me? >> Yes. as we look to implement this. And I'd like to add I I got to sit in on one of these meetings uh and and see the work in action and and even contribute some to it. Uh I was really impressed with the discussion the teachers were having. And um I'm excited. One of the things I keep saying as as a member of the
059school board, I really care about making sure our division is creating alignment, but that I think want to want to make sure that we're preserving autonomy and that we're not we are creating a sense of cohesion, but not a sense of control. And so, uh, I think this this is a great draft and I'm excited to work through it and I think it will provide lots of freedom for teachers to have that individual. But one of the questions I do have is is there going to be like once we create this and vote on it, will there be a training and a way to to train our teachers to implement it properly? Because I do think that was one of the pitfalls of this year-long grading policy we've had the last two years. >> Yes.
060If um again, if we can get this on a work session in June and and get this finalized, we'll have opportunities to put in some training sessions. um Amanda Ricker who's going to be working with P school in her new role. She's was part of some of these conversations in terms of what can we do with Power School and what does this look like? So I feel uh fairly confident that we'll be able to um implement this this fall. Um there'll be some grumblings you I made the comment I think to you and maybe chair Hurst at some point and even to the group. You know my my goal is to make everyone unhappy with the grading policy. uh because it's it's really difficult to take something that people are sort of passionate about and
061feel strongly. I'll just use a simple example like I've worked with teachers in in in years past that you know they have a policy that they do not accept late work, right? Well, I think this policy says we will, right? So that means we're all on the same page. So if you're if that's if that was your framework now we've just changed that so you're probably not very happy, right? So I think there's some give and take here as we work through it. But it does bring some consistency. uh with that consistency there is a little bit of loss of autonomy, right? You just can't do what you want. But I think there's also a sense that no matter where you live in Rockingham County, your experience should be somewhat similar from school to school.
062Not exact, right? Because we have humans teaching, not not robots. So there's going to be variety and passions, you know, personalities. But, you know, if I have a algebra teacher and they give me 50 assignments for the grading term and you have an algebra teacher and you get five, that doesn't seem like we're getting sort of the same experience in some way. Trying to bring some continuity to it. Maybe, excuse [clears throat] me. I just want to thank you for um your work in leading the committee through this. I want to thank all of the committee members for working through this. I know as a former teacher um that I would have been a little bit rattled to hear that the school division was going to standardize grading. Um but I want to share that
063it came from a heart of a 4.0 at TA should mean the same thing that it means at Broadway. Um and that there does need to be a little bit of standardization. But I also understand that uh the way we grade all all teachers are very thoughtful in that and that there does need to continue to be some degree of autonomy in that for the teachers uh especially you know I can speak to elementary but I I have really no idea what what we need for math or for science at the high school level what is reasonable right so as a second grade teacher if you were to present to me that 75% of a second grader's uh uh grades should be assessments. I would probably most elementary teachers would think that that is an
064outrageously high number, but that it is appropriate right from the high school end that maybe that's more reasonable there. And so I do appreciate that there is a lot of discussion, really good discussion, um, a lot of thought put into this. And I I appreciate that we've gotten to a place where there's going to be some consistency. I think this helps new teachers probably more than anything. when you come in your first year as a teacher and are trying to set up your gradebook, it can, you know, even at the elementary level, I've got multiple subjects. I can do four or five different things for each each subject. And I think this might help just provide a little bit of clarity and consistency across the division. So, I appreciate everybody's hard work on this. Looking
065forward to digging a little bit deeper into this um in in some of our future work sessions. So, thank you. to that point, Sherhurst, another thing I'd like to share is that it's alignment, you know, from high school to high school to high school. It's also alignment from uh elementary upward into secondary. And so like a lot of the language that's used on here is going to be uh very streamlined and I think that'll be helpful for parents too as they understand what their child is going to be experiencing K through 12 as they go through Rockingham County. >> Yeah. And and I I see some really good things in here. Um, one is that, you know, grades should accurately reflect grade level performance. I I feel like we've kind of gotten away from that.
066Um, I remember when that change happened and we were grading kids on what they could do at their level and not what the grade level expectation is. And I think that that kind of pattern, while I understand the heart behind it, um, and helping kids see, you know, young children that, um, who are working really hard but are not where they need to be yet, a C can be or a D can be kind of defeating to them. And yet giving them an A sends the wrong message to parents uh, if they're not where they need to be. And so, um, I think we just need to provide some consistency. and and you know, I'm pleased to see there's several things in here that I think will be really helpful with that. So, looking forward
067to discussing it further. And while we were discussing, my gaze kind of went out and I saw our speakers from tonight. And I'm just a little too far away to tell if they have a deer in a headlight look, but I want to assure and I want to talk um timeline a little bit. We're looking to implement this this year, this coming school year. Correct. But we are not looking to do a 4x4 this fall. Right. We're not going to throw too much at them at once. Correct. >> Correct. The two I think changes I would say would be coming this fall would be the grading policy and whatever uh wherever we land with our technology policy. I also want to a few meetings ago we discussed um we had some data for our middle
068school um what what grade level they were reading on and right 50% of our middle schoolers were reading at a elementary level and I look at this and I think so we've got you know four middle schools and I'm sure some of these parents were like these they got great grades and then then they go to middle school and they're not reading at a middle school level. And so for me, I just as a parent, right, I've never been a a teacher, but as a parent, I trust when I mean, I show you my daughter's grades. They're great. They're they're straight A's, and I hope they're straight A's because she's doing the work at her level that is expected in fourth grade right now, not what she can do. And then I don't want to
069be surprised in sixth grade when they tell me she's not reading, you know, on a elementary she's reading on an elementary level and not on a middle school level. That can be a big shock. So, um, and I trust her teachers, you know, so so much. So, I trust that they're doing good work, but I can imagine that that would be frustrating. So, I appreciate this being mainstreamed with all the schools and um, especially we do have people who move and relocate within Rockingham County. So, um, yes, you know, my kids are at Lynville. It's a tiny school, so there's a lot of different things that happen at Lynville. And it's just a warm, cozy little family. And there's some bigger schools where some of the rules and things are different, but it should be
070the same academic experience, I feel like. So, okay, that concludes discussion on the draft policy. Again, we'll be having further discussion with that later this summer. Um, that now brings us to our next information item, the 2728 school calendar. Miss Donna Abernathy is going to come and present on that. And then also Rockingham Learns for Life. Good evening, Chair Hurst, board members, Dr. Shifflet, thank you for having me tonight to discuss the 2728 school school year calendar draft as well as our Rockingham Learns for Life professional development um opportunity coming up in August. So the 2728 school year calendar, we're a little early than earlier than in normal years um and proposing this um but when we uh proposed the 26 27 calendar last uh I guess January um it was talked about I think
071Miss Irons uh you'd said can we do the 2728 calendar? So I'm grateful to our committee. Um we met a few more times this spring to look at a 2728 school year calendar and to get that on the books as well. So um again we have collaborative development with teachers, administrators, central office staff and parents and we certainly have try to have a balanced uh planning approach how we look at balancing instructional time, holidays, professional development and then of course our community needs as well. So, some key calendar considerations that we have is the day of the week, uh the Rockam County Fair involvement, professional development days, our open house nights, um how our transportation changes impact our um the new calendar, um winter break, um and surveying our our staff and our parents, two
072weeks at winter break is always the number one thing that everyone requests. And the second thing that they request is a one week at spring break that's unencumbered and doesn't become like makeup days from this time. The length of the school year with instructional days, PD and work days, Memorial Day observance um and then so testing with the new um SB200 law that came through like we are going to be required this coming school year to test with our SOS in the last 10 days of the school year. So that will be a requirement. We'll have to look and to see how that will be impacted um this coming school year and in 2728. So with the draft uh we have 196 designated days. So teachers are on a 200 day contract. Uh this calendar
073draft is 196 days. You may wonder about where are those extra four days and those are for when teachers do night events, when there's literacy nights or programs at the school. um or they're grading and doing lesson planning at home. That's why they have those four encumbered days. It's 175 and a half instructional days, 20 and a half work days or professional development days. Rockam County Fair is August 16th through the 20th in 2027 and that typically falls on the week where we start school. Um so this proposal is for us to start school a week later on the 26th of August. Uh this past year we started we we had our professional development days um the 167 well for the 2728 will be 1617 18 and then we've had two days at Thursday and
074Friday become flex days during the um during the fair and that was a very wellreceived um calendar how we ran this this past year and then the 24th and 25th and in 2027 will be work days as well. The first day of school is the 26th. You can see Thanksgiving break, winter break, spring break. The last day of school will be June 8th, uh, with teacher work days on the 9th and the 10th, and I believe the 10th is on a Saturday. So, we would have Friday, Saturday workday, so we wouldn't have to turn around, come back on a Monday after the weekend. And then our parent teacher conferences along with county aligned um, professional development days are typical days in November 1st and 2nd. And then February little bit different is 14th and 21st.
075So we did a Monday and a Monday instead of 14th 15th or 20th 21st. Um and so that's so we can have the Monday of ML um I'm sorry the Monday after Super Bowl. Yes. Yes. That's what that is for and President's Day. So that's what those two are for. So just for a quick review, first semester has 88 days. Second semester has 87 and a half days. Again, it's 175.5 instructional days, 20 and a half work days in PD. And you can see our flex days that teachers have. They they're required to work three flex days. Um the openhouse days um are not on the fair week. That would be Monday and Tuesday of the week that we start school. Uh division PD days and then our um our breaks as well. So, that's
076all I have with the 2728 proposed draft. Do you have any questions? I was just curious. Um, somebody brought this up to me over the weekend. I'm not necessarily advocating for it, but just asking the question on behalf of the person who asked me. Is there ever a discussion about lining our spring break to JMU since they're one of the largest employers of our area? >> Um, that's a great question. So, um I had when I believe we sent some information out to some parents and um a parent had asked me about, hey, can we look at aligning spring break with JMU and I invited that parent to come join our um our group and our committee um just to see what goes into developing a calendar. There's a lot of things to try to
077align it to and JMU spring break is really early and that would be really early for us to have our January days off or February days off and then all of a sudden we've got another week of spring break because then if we don't if we don't have it at the end of March 1st to April, it is a long April and May until we get um to the end of the school year. So, it was certainly a discussion that we had at our last calendar committee meeting as well and with the representative who who works at JMU >> and I just want to say thank you for taking up um this cause on my request. So, very much appreciate it and I think the whole community will appreciate being able to plan ahead. >>
078Yes. >> And I appreciate the committee coming back together this spring to do this. So, we'll be ready to go in the fall again for the next year. I would presume given fair warning now. Thank you, Mrs. Abernathy. Does anybody else have anything to ask about that one before we move on to Rocky Ham Learns for Life? I'm gonna ask a quick question. Um, so this year we actually have already had graduation and we have two more days of school left as of now. What are we looking at for next year and following years? Have we made any decisions on that >> and on this calendar? When are we when we going to graduate? >> On graduation, that's your question. We have not made a decision. Um we we sort of kind of tried it
079this year as a pilot to see how it worked. We'll get the four high school principles together and Mrs. Abernathy and talk through the logistics of that and what we liked or didn't like and um how it how it played out. Again, one of the reasons we we graduated early is JMU had said to us we could only have three graduations on a Saturday and with Harrisonburg having, you know, two high schools now, Harrisonenberg and Rocktown, someone was going to have to have a Sunday graduation and we really I don't think we're interested in that. So, was trying to work around the restraints. So, uh but we we've been talking about ideas and things we may be able to to do differently. So, that's a good question. As someone who's already planning for her high
080school senior's graduation next year, I'd like to point out that Memorial Day is the weekend before school gets out next year. So, it's unlikely maybe that graduation would be that weekend. And so, we're just I'm going to advocate for the schedule that I'd like. As someone with a senior for next year, I will be looking at those dates in April of next year. [laughter] That's That's when it will >> I promise. >> As someone who had a kid that graduated from tech this year, um I was like the week before, oh, there's graduation. So, um you know, just come live the Jackie life. It's so freeing when >> I promise you graduation will be scheduled before April of next year. I do promise you that. >> It won't bother me, >> okay? [laughter] but it
081might bo bother others. Okay, we're ready for Rockingham Learns for Life. Okay, well, thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk about Rockingham Learns for Life for a few moments. Um, this is our our big largecale professional development day that we have for all of our teachers and counselors and administrators. Um we have this um at East Rockingham and Riverbend uh elementary school uh because they're right next to each other because we need both schools to make this run efficiently. We need all the classrooms and the room and the space and so forth to make this run. So we certainly appreciate um East Rocky with Mr. Swagert and Riverbend's principal, Miss Harper, and their custodians for getting their buildings ready to go for us and their teachers for lending their rooms to us. Uh
082it's nothing like having someone come into your to your room all day when you're just trying to get things ready to go and and get your room set up and and ready to go for um orientations as well. So we appreciate their their partnership. So Rockyham Learns for Life, the reason that we we've done this, we want to obviously focus on instruction and outcomes. um we this gives our teachers the opportunity for choice, relevance and application um to the listening tours that we provided. So about a little over every year um our instructional staff we went out to the schools and we conducted listening sessions um with teachers to find out what what is it that you want from your professional development days um and your inservices. And the main things that we heard were
083I want choice. I want to be able to decide what I want to do and something that is applicable that they can implement the very next day. Um so as teachers, these are our teachers that are doing this. We might have a a few outside of RCPS um folks coming in to present, but typically probably 98% of the presenters are our own RCPS teachers. Like there's a ton of knowledge and a ton of expertise for our folks to share with everyone else within our own school division. And so that's why we really want to highlight our people and all the great things that we do here. Um, and it's a great collaboration time for the entire district to get together um, and collaborate with one another as well. Last year was the first year that
084we did this and u, we had a little over,400 attendees. Again, that's why we need both schools and we had a little over 150 sessions that teachers could sign up for to attend. And here's just some feedback from from last year as well um about how it was valuable. They appreciated the opportunity to learn from others across the division. It was a was so nice. The building was so easy to navigate. I love the concept. All the information was helpful and I enjoy being able to choose the sessions um and then be able to have the the takeaways. So the teachers who do put in proposals um it is a vetting process that they put in something to propose about what it is that they want to do and we encourage them to work with
085a partner if they would like to do that as well. It goes through a vetting process through the instructional staff and then we have to approve it and they are required to have within their proposal what is that takeaway like what are teachers going to have when they leave that session. So they are required to have a takeaway because research shows if you go to a conference or or a PD session and you don't use that information that you received within 14 days, you're not going to. So it's really important for them to be able to have something that they can take and implement the next day or the following week as well. So again, what is Rockyham Learns for Life? It's for all RCPS instructional staff, again, teachers, administrators, and counselors. There will be
086five one-hour sessions this year. So again, it's an intensive one-day PD opportunity. So the five one-hour sessions is four instructional sessions and then one session for lunch, which will be an hour as well. Some highlights and improvements for this year. Um after running this for the first time last year, we do have a keynote speaker, Dr. John Almarro. I believe uh Miss Irons and Miss Hurst when you went to the um learning on the brain uh conference in New York. Dr. Almarro spoke and I think you had the opportunity to see him and he is right here in our backyard. He is an Augusta County graduate, lives in Wesboro and he teaches at James Madison and he is he's just an amazing speaker, an amazing educator and he's so bright and he and people just
087love him. you walk away from those sessions just feeling re-energized. So, we're really excited to have him come and join us. Um along with Dr. Shifflet will be part of that keynote too. Dr. Shivallet just said, "Please let me go before John speaks." Right. Um so, Dr. Shifflet will be sharing um some of our division goals and visions right before John um takes the floor for about 45 or 50 minutes with with our folks. We also will have a wellness fair that will be held during the lunch block. So, our lunches are basically a grab-and-go box lunch for teachers. So, they'll be able to go to the wellness fair. There'll be community resources, self-care, some staff support items. Again, the sessions and presenters, we have 130 sessions with 150 presenters. And we did start we
088we did purchase a what's called a Zoho scheduling platform. So, as we've sent this out a couple of weeks ago, and actually today was the deadline for teachers to sign up, um, they can actually go in and just schedule themselves, like a master scheduler. So, Amanda Rickard and Becky Ford have been have become the master schedule gurus of this platform. So, I appreciate all their work and all of our instructional staff, the work that everyone's put into vetting the proposals and doing the schedule because it is quite a it's quite a tall task. And why does it matter? Again, it's about instructional effectiveness. We need to share all of our knowledge that we already know and what we have here in our school division with others. Um staff retention, our staff members, we had we
089had really great reviews last year and how much they love the opportunity to be together and collaborate and see each other and learn from each other. um division collaboration and again the immediate classroom application is one of the most important things um for our teachers to be able to turn around and immediately use that information. So we believe that investing in our educators is also investing in our students. So that's our big why learns for life. So, those of you who may have been around before um was before I came to Rockingham County, we had the your day at school. Um this is very similar to that um that process or that program that we used to run. I don't know, I think maybe about 15 years ago or so. Um but we're very excited
090to have Rocky Learns for Life 2.0 on August 11th. Anyone have any questions? board members, >> can we get um Zoho invites so that we can schedule ourselves to go to different things? Would that be possible? >> I will see what I can do for that. >> Yes. Would love for you all to join us for the day. [clears throat] >> Um I just want to say uh I just I really appreciate that you are taking feedback from our division and creating something that's really meaningful to them and powerful for both the educators and the students. And I remember being a teacher and sitting in some professional development where I was like, "This is great. Doesn't apply to me at all and I got stuff to do in my classroom." So, um, I've been there
091and while it was a while ago, I think it's really important to take to and to hear our teachers. Thank you for doing that. That's the great thing. They they get to sign up for what it is that they want to go learn about that will be applicable applicable to them. >> Okay. Thank you, Miss Matthew, appreciate you. >> Thank you. >> Our next information item um comes to us by Mrs. Michelle Jud, our director of federal programs. I believe we have several uh federal grants or federal program grant applications you're going to be going over. Yes. Um good evening, Chair Hurst, members of the school board, Dr. Shifflet. So yes, as Chair Hurst said, on your agenda for information are the applications for five federal program grants which are part of the Every Student
092Succeeds Act of 2015. And these are Title One Part A, Title Two Part A, Title Three Part A, Title Four Part A, and Title One Part C. The original applications are based on funding which is level to that of the current school year, the 2526 school year. Once the applications are approved by the Virginia Department of Ed and final allocations are released in the fall, the applications will be amended with the updated amounts and sent back to the VDOE for approval. The purpose of title one is to provide all children an opportunity to receive a fair, equitable, and highquality education as schools work to achieve to close the educational achievement gaps. Our title one part A grant is based on the funding amount of 2,370,124. This application does reflect approximately 5,522 students who are enrolled
093in our 15 title one schools and all of our elementary schools are title one schools. And of those students, 2,82 are classified as lowincome. And this data comes from the February 2nd, 2026 free and reduced report from the food and nutrition services department for our school division. Funds in the title one application are primarily allocated to the salaries and benefits of reading support staff, which includes 15 and a half reading specialists and eight assistant positions. Also, all of our strong starts staff are funded by title one. Um, and this would be three teachers and six assistants. We've got three strong starts programs. One behavior specialist is funded by title one. There's a small amount in the al um application that's budgeted for conference education and training. There's compensated services for homeless transportation drivers. You may
094be aware that we transport our homeless students to their school of origin so they don't have to keep changing schools, but that has a cost, you know, as we're traveling across the county or even outside the county to um pick up a child that might live in Augusta but has attended Rockingham for a long time. Um, in addition, we've got a little bit budgeted for materials and supplies for math and reading remediation. And we have money set aside for parent family engagement activities, which is a requirement of title one. And although um we classify schools as title one schools based on free and reduced lunch, all children in a title one school can benefit from the funding. So you don't have to be low income to benefit. We have two private schools that participate in
095title one. We provide equitable services to private schools. The two participating are Eastern Menanite Elementary School and Redeemer Classical School. and they will um they have advocated to provide remedial services for their students who reside in Rockingham attendance areas but have identified academic needs. As you look at these applications, I made a note in certain places. At the time I submitted um to Caitlyn for you, we didn't have all of the data back yet. So, for example, there's some elementary science so data and some math data that still needs to come in. So, I made a note of that, but please know that prior to submitting it to the Virginia Department of Ed by the July 1 deadline, that will be fixed to include all of the information with title two. Um, federal title 2
096funds are used to increase academic achievement. And in RCPS, our title 2 funds will be used specifically by providing evidence-based professional development in the form of datadriven coaching activities that improve the instruction of teachers. And this grant is written um to reflect $388,861. These funds will be used for the salaries and benefits of four instructional coaches at the secondary level. And with title two, we have two private schools participating in title two, Redeemer Classical School and Blue Ridge Christian School. And they'll use the funds for staff professional development. Title three part A, the purpose is to provide support for our e um English learners who have limited English proficiency. And this funding amount is 174,487. To date, approximately 1,674 kindergarten through 12th grade students, um, which is 14.8% of our enrollment qualify for EL. And
097then we have another 499 that are monitored. We'll use these funds for five full-time EL instructional assistance. And again, um, like some of the so data, WEDA data just came in, so that'll be incorporated into the application before I send it to the DOE. And then, uh, title four, we use, we actually transfer our title four funds to title one. It gives us a little bit more flexibility and in how we use those funds. That amount is 147,719. We use it to fund two full-time elementary behavior specialists. Um, because we transfer those funds, that application is much shorter. I didn't have to answer all of the questions, which is why you may notice that that one isn't as lengthy as some of the others with the responses. And then the private schools that participated in
098Title One also get that Title 4 funding. They're set aside since we transfer those funds. And then the final grant is title one part C and this is actually a grant that is written by migrant ed. Um and their program is to design and support highquality and comprehensive educational programs that provide migratory children with the same opportunity to meet the challenging state academic content and student achievement standards that are expected of all children. Um it's JMU that serves as the lead agent and prepares that grant for us. They have eight participating school divisions including Rockingham and they're currently working on their application and also have the deadline of July 1st. So there was some additional information provided to you so you you had that to consider. But um I really would like to thank all
099the central office people that help with this process because I have to talk to a lot of people to get the information. So content supervisors provide data. They help come up with objectives. I spent a significant amount of time talking with Sharon Mars and Donna Abernathy about our new instructional coaches and and their roles for next year. Um communicate with Justin Moyers quite a bit on this process too. So just thank you to everybody that participates in this process. We also have needs assessment meetings with uh school personnel too to get their input and you probably saw we send a stakeholder engagement survey to the whole community and that information is considered. I'm happy to answer any questions that you have. Thank you, Miss Ched. Board members, do you have any questions? Well, there you
100have it. >> All right. Thank you so much. >> Hey, thank you >> board members. The final information item is in your folder. It's a finance department staff staff report. So, that's there for your review. That concludes our information items, which brings us into committee reports. Does anyone have a committee report that they need to share? Nope. Very good. Uh just for the public to know what committee reports. We have two committees that we have two board members that serve on. One is on the um Mass Regional Governor School and the other one is on the regional sped advisory board. Um and occasionally we give opportunity for committee reports if they've had meetings and need to update our board on progress. So easy enough. >> I guess I could share that there was one scheduled
101um the sped committee was scheduled and uh we had we met previously and took care of all the business so we canceled it. So thankful to have an extra day extra morning in May. >> Well, very good. And I do want to say thank you to Miss Laura and Miss Ke for serving on those boards. >> Um I was trying to think of the dates. I'm sorry. May was really crazy. We did have a meeting after the senior recognitions at um governor's school in the middle of May, whatever that date was. Maybe May 20th. >> May 13th, the week before the 20th. Um and so we did at that meeting approve the new constitution constitution and bylaws for mention governor school. Um that went really smoothly and I'm glad to have that done. So anyways,
102but that was about it. It was pretty short. So >> very good. Thank you for that update. Okay, that brings us to superintendent comments. Dr. Shifflet. >> Yes. Thank you, Chair Hurst. I have a few comments. First, I want to um say huge thank you to Riffy. I had an opportunity to attend their Riffy scholarship awards ceremony on Sunday, May 17th. 90 scholarships were awarded to 64 different students across RCPS. Uh more than $150,000 in scholarship funding. So that was awesome to uh see those students recognized and be able to um celebrate and to have some dollars to help them with um the next venture in their life. Also just want to give you an update on our technology policy after our last meeting when I shared that with uh with you as information. Uh
103Katie La and Caitlyn Gilkersonson helped me uh create let me rephrase that. Katie and Caitlyn created a Google form. I didn't help me do anything. They did it. um they created a Google form that we sent out to our employees to get their feedback. And so we're we're still having that form open to collecting feedback to the end of this week. So again, another agenda item that we'll have in our work session in June will be to look at that data. We'll summarize it and then, you know, have it for you to review as we try to finalize that policy. We did um have a really great celebration today. We had our 600 club celebration at the Wood Grill in Harrisonburg. This is for students who earn a perfect score on their so test. Um
104just I mean I think we're trending in the right direction. Last year we had 71 students who earned a perfect score. This year we had 121 students earn a perfect score. Um we had 248 more students this year pass advanced than last year and we had uh 430 more students pass their so test. So again, I think we're trending in the right direction and I think some of the work that we're going to be doing with CIP will make that even better. Um, last thing, Greg, are you going to be able to help me here? Well, just let me let me let me uh cue this here, Greg. Let me cue this. So la so last Yeah, you'll need to turn around for this. Watch carefully. So last week I substituted for Miss Paula Branner
105as part of the employee perfect attendance award. And a couple of nights before the that event, hold on there, Gregory. I I gotta cue this here for you. Um, a couple of nights before that event, Mrs. Ambraia emailed me and said they were having their um faculty uh student kickball game and asked if I wanted to play. And I said, "Well, look, I'm going to be there substituting in the office. If you want to assign me duties such as umpire or all-time roller, I'm happy to help out any way I can." And so I found myself as part of my duties was I was the all-time roller. That means rolling for both team. No, roller, not pitcher. I was rolling the ball and I was a roller for both teams and I uh was also
106the umpire. And you know, I've always kind of lived by that. I think there was a verse that says something to the effect that you know, whatever you find to do, you do it with all your might. And so I live by that. So, but I'm thinking that maybe I'm at an age where I shouldn't. So, we'll take a look at the video. Thank you for the A for effort. But I did not pass. I was unsuccessful. But I tried. I tried. >> I did not. [laughter] I had all that effort. I did not get the but I am willing to work hard to try to do what I need to do. So I pro provided some comic relief for the students and faculty. Not exactly sure they knew what to do. And once they
107knew I wasn't hurt, they were like, "Oh, okay." Laughed. Had some good laughs. But I will tell you, we caught that on our security cameras, right? So, I walked in after the event was over and I asked Ally, I said, "Hey, can you go find the see if the camera picked up my little spill?" And she said, "Sure." I said, "Well, I want you to find it, save it, and send it to me." So, there it is. So, if you hear So, yeah. Right. So, that's a top, you know, 10 ESPN highlight moments maybe or blunders. I guess it's a blunder moment, isn't it? So anyway, there you go. Little comic relief for you on a long night. So >> I appreciate your good naturaturedness. Um, me find my agenda here. Board members, we're now
108in other business for school board highlights, questions, and comments. We'll begin with Miss Cave this evening. I knew it was coming this way and I'm still trying to reel myself back in [laughter] there. Okay. And act like I have some sense over here. Uh, see where can I start? I guess I wanted to say um just a an official congratulations to our 2026 graduates from all four high schools. Massanutton Technical Center. I believe Dr. Hutton or Kevin Hutton Mr. Hutton said that there were 416 graduates this year, MTC. So, big congratulations to those people. I got to go to the MTC signing day, which I believe was the 20th, which was the date I was thinking about a minute ago. And um that was that was really good. There were a lot of students there
109that got signed on by the companies they've been working for and um to continue their youth apprenticeship program. So, that was really great. There were three different trades represented there, electricity, um, HVAC, and fire and rescue. So, there were two or three students there that were going right into being, um, paid firefighters for our area. So, thought that was really great. I wanted to to highlight them. Always want to highlight academic excellence in all of our schools. And I was able to attend Elton Middle School's Elks to Eagle ceremony today in the middle of the day. was packed. There were cars all the way down Blue and Gold Drive. It was so great. It's a huge thing in our community. Everybody wants to be an Eagle. And so, um, it was just really great to
110see all the parents pack out the gymnasium today. And Dr. Johnson had a ton of really good remarks. He highlighted the disciplinary incidents have gone down. uh four students in the eighth grade uh graduating class alone scored a perfect 600 on their SOS and so just lots of good news there and happy to attend that today. I think he ended his remarks by saying he was the um what most proud principal I think I quoted that wrong in Rockingham County. And so uh and they won won Harrisonenberg radio groups uh Shannondoa Valley's best middle school. So I'm just very proud of that and congrats Dr. Johnson and the administrative team and students and staff and hey and parents really there in that school and in that community. So uh good job. I wanted to I
111had McGisville Elementary um set to highlight tonight, but I guess we did all of that earlier. So, congrats on that win there. I mean, it's something to be proud of and it goes into what I wanted to talk about tonight about academic excellence and recognizing that and something that I hope to um for us as a board to work on over the summer is bringing back our recognition of the validictorian saludiatoran at our high school graduations. Um, I think that that is honorable and that we should definitely do that. And I hadn't planned on speaking on it tonight, but I had a phone call over the weekend and I and you can tell me if I'm wrong, Dr. Shifflet, but um the phone call was that we don't in the elementary schools recognize the AB
112honor role anymore as an end of the year award. So, I just wanted to visit that or at least in this particular school it wasn't. Um, so that's something that I want to look at um, revisiting and reviving if we need to. Um, because we are an educational um, institution and so I want to make sure that above all things that we highlight um, what we're here to do, which is to educate our children. So um, just those couple things that I would like to work on as a board um, this summer as we get very busy while everybody else takes their vacations. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Cave. Miss Burggoyne, >> I don't have much other than um one and a half days left. My kids keep telling me it's
113two days and I'm like just one and a half. So, one and a half. Um it's just been a whirlwind of end of year things for me. But I have been in this building for the last three days straight um for my daughter's dance recital that was hosted here this weekend. So, if I show up tomorrow, it's because I'm literally just on autopilot to TA. Um, and I did want to say thank you to TA for allowing them to host the their dance recital. And um, and I wanted to shout out your head custodian, Patty Brown. She's fantastic. And I came to her um, with some fun graffiti that I think a student left on Friday that was really inappropriate. And I just came to her as a mom and I said, "Hey, I just
114there's some kids in there and I think they're going to read that and it's terrible." And she immediately got on to it. And then the next day we, you know, we ran out of paper towels. Of course, there's hundreds of parents and things coming in and out of here. And I think she finally at the end realized that I was on the school board, but she just was being helpful to a citizen who asked for help. And she's amazing. So, I wanted to shout her out because she was super helpful um just here for whatever needed. So, and thank you guys for hosting everything tonight, the retirement dinner and everything um with the board meeting. So, I know that's a lot because I feel like it's a lot and I'm just here participating in all
115the things. I'm not actually hosting it. So, I just wanted to say thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Burggoyne, Miss Lure. Thank you. Um I I guess I'll start with uh thank you to TA for all you guys are doing. You guys apparently are just the massive hosts right now because you had the dance thing over the weekend. You've got us now. And then I believe, don't you have a shoot active shooter drill on Friday, so you can come back next Friday. [laughter] >> So, I told you. >> Yeah. >> So, so if anybody sees anything going on in the community, just know that they're hosting again. So, thank you guys. I will not be here because I will be driving a bus again. Um, and that's part of why I am giving everyone the
116plea to drive a bus because last week I went to um I went to uh where did I go? DC to the museum there and then turned immediately around. We got back to Lacy Spring a couple minutes late, but it was okay because I was one of the bus drivers and I took a route home and then um while I was finishing that up, I got a phone call from Broadway High School saying track got got rained out and we need somebody. Now, fortunately, I did not answer the phone call at first. Um but they needed somebody at 7 a.m. to take the track team to Fischersville and then get them back at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I called them back. They had found somebody at 7 am so I didn't have to get
117up that early. Um but then I wound up taking I wound up going to get the track team who had I not been available would have had to wait until 4:30 till somebody could have circled around to get them. And after I made that uh agreement that I would go get the track team, I got another phone call that the um baseball team got rained out and we needed somebody to drive the route that I had driven that afternoon to uh so that that bus driver would then be free to take the baseball team. Um, and I wasn't available, but so they they kept looking for somebody. And then Thursday afternoon or Thursday right at noon, I got a call that said, "Oh, track team's going to be done early. Head on over." So, I
118headed on over. And actually, my son's fiance is a teacher at Lacy. and she watched me on 360 go pick up the kids and come back and saw that I was going to be back to Lacy in time to take the route again. So they called off the substitute that would have had to have come back and done a double run and the kids would have been 45 minutes late getting home. Um so we got that done too. So I got two routes and a trip to DC and a trip to Fischersville and then Friday I drove to Richmond. So, look at all the fun I get to have. And you could be doing it, too. And someone else could get paid to do this. I can't even get paid to do it. And it's
119so much fun. But look at the money people could make. So, absolutely learn to drive a bus. We've got classes this summer. It's so You get into sporting events free. Um, so I my final plug of the school year to drive a bus. It's so much fun. I get to go to Blackburg next week. Yay. So, Thank you. That's all I have. >> Thank you, Miss Lure, Miss Irons. I think Jackie deserves a round of applause for doing all that for free. Um, >> it's fun. >> Uh, well, obviously had lots of graduations this week and that's a huge highlight. Um, there were some really wonderful things that happened at each one. um including I I took notes on some of the speakers but we had our own Miss Kim Tate speak and she said
120something that I thought was really thoughtful and a quote in her speech was by expressing gratitude you contribute to the world's hope and so I've been thinking about that all weekend but I also would say by by serving your community you contribute to the world's hope so Jackie thank you and for all of you for um uh additionally I actually graduated this with my master's degree recently and Um, for those that that will lead me into something important, not just tooting my own horn here, [laughter] but uh, part of my graduate work this fall was uh, this January was a class in promoting physical activity in the community. I got my masters in exercise science and nutrition. And uh, back in November when I got elected, supervisor Joel Hensley reached out to me uh, because
121we share a passion for fitness and health and wellness. And so we just sort of were toying around ideas and then of course my class uh provided me with some assignments just happened to work out really well. So I have here um I want to inform everybody we we sort of created like a pilot program that a few schools participated in at the elementary level and we did a 30-day challenge for students to increase their physical activity so they could pick 20 minutes a day, 40 minutes a day or 60 minutes a day. And the goal not being perfection but to start building habits towards lifelong healthy uh movement patterns. Uh and so what we ended up doing this week and today I was delivering to the schools. Every kid who participated got an award.
122Um and then also uh the county offered the county government offered to pay for a 30 minute free jump park ticket this summer. So we worked with the jump park to set that up. Um, we had about 150 students participate and we're getting a lot of good teacher feedback and I I hope it's something we'll work on this summer that maybe we can create like a Rockingham County uh fitness award but not based on fitness so much as habits and healthy uh patterns of movement. So, um something I'm very passionate about. So, I'm looking forward to our work session this summer. As as they say, if you love what you do, you don't work a day in your life. And I am finding that to be very true and my experience in the school board
123so far. Everyone up here has been delightful to work with and I'm uh always happy to be with you. So, uh speaking of celebrations, we just got to say goodbye or or celebrate to our retirement uh group of employees who are who are saying goodbye moving on to something new in their life. I just want to say thank you. It was really wonderful to celebrate them and uh to honor the students here today. I grie we'd like to discuss excellence in Rockingham County and we have it's just abounding. So, that's I'm so proud of getting to be a part of it. And that's all I get to say. >> Thank you, Miss Irons. Uh I'll conclude tonight just by reiterating what other board members have said. Just echoing uh a special thank you to Turner
124Ashby High School administration for opening your building to us and hosting um us for a longer evening than what is typical. But also a special congratulations to all of our retirees. We're so grateful to them for their years and years of service to our division. Um, and what what a big moment to be able to to retire. And um, as uh, Dr. Arlifer shared with him um, how did he word it? It's not really a closed chapter. It's picking some, you know, picking a new project. And he, uh, something something else, other goals to look forward to and to engage in. And I thought that was the examples he gave were really really awesome and really relevant. Um, also congratulations to our 2026 graduates. Uh, it's amazing to watch all of those graduations. Uh, congratulations
125to all of them and best wishes to their future and all of their endeavors. And, uh, finally, I would like to just say to, uh, teachers, you have, you know, one and a half days left with students. I can feel that energy. um in my own children when they're coming home, they're excited about the end of school year, but I also know that teachers are really looking forward to that summer break. And I hope that everyone um has a really relaxing um and restful summer break. With that, uh I think we'll I think board members, we do have reason to go into a closed session tonight, so we do need a motion to do so. Does someone have that hand? I move the board enter into a closed meeting under Virginia code section 2.2- 3711A1
126for the purpose of discussing and considering personnel matters including assignment, appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salary, disciplining, resignation or resignation of specific employees. The subject matter is board action pertaining to specific employees. >> Thank you, Miss Lord. Do we have a second? Thank you, Miss Irons. All those in favor of entering into a closed meeting, please say yes. Yes. All those opposed. Motion passes. 5-0. Um, thank you all for coming out tonight. Drive safely. We are.