2026 03 23 - RCPS School Board Meeting

001[laughter] >> Good evening. Welcome to our regular meeting for Monday, March 23, 2026. Earlier, the board met in closed session to take care of a couple of items. We're now ready for the open session portion of our meeting. Welcome you all here tonight. I'd like to say a special thank you to our East Rock hosts. There they are. Um, thank you for opening your building to us and providing dinner for the board. Um, at this time, uh, we will, uh, take just a moment for a moment of silence if you'd like to join us. Thank you. The next item on our agenda is the Pledge of Allegiance. If you'd like to stand, we'll do that now. The next item on our agenda are the public comments. We have several this evening. Um, and before we

002begin, since it's been a while since we've had some public comments, I'm just going to highlight a couple of the, um, rules of procedure for this portion. Um, each speaker is recognized in the order listed on the sign-up sheet and will be limited to 3 minutes total. Um, and there is a little chime that'll, um, let you know when you have 30 seconds remaining. Uh, community, uh, members or speakers should only speak once about any one item unless you have new material to add. All comments should be directed to the school board as a whole, um, and we do appreciate, um, adhering to our character counts pillars when addressing, um, the school board. Um, and with that, I think that's a pretty good summary. Um, but I will invite Ivy Herrick to come forward and

003then if Molly Kate Adkins would be ready on standby, Um, you'll be next. Hello. Um, my name is Ivy Herrick and I'm a junior at Broadway High School. Um, I'm one of the few members of the drama club, musical one act, and the International Thespian Society and I was recently awarded the position of the Virginia Thespian Safety Officer. Um, and after going through the budget, the proposed budget for the 2026-2027 school year, I noticed that there was not a budget in place for a theater teacher at Broadway again this year. Um, as I'm sure you all know, the theater program at Broadway has been running running under several different advisers, coaches, and teachers for the past 5 years. Um, and this has done immense damage to our program as a whole as the disconnect between

004every theater opportunity has led to a disconnect between everyone involved. I have tried to bridge the gap personally, but as a student, it's nearly impossible to single-handedly connect the entire program. A theater teacher would unite our program and allow us to grow our community further. We need a theater teacher to return our program to the level of performance and school-wide fundraising that it was in my parents' generation. Um, my peers and I have been asking for a theater class for years, at least since I was a freshman. Um, the administration at Broadway, when asked by several different students, said that if enough students signed up for a theater class that they would find a teach- theater teacher to teach it. Unfortunately, I don't think we have nearly enough people signed up, but we have been

005rallying for at least 20 20 people and I know many middle schoolers have signed up already. Um, and they were either planning to register for a theater class once registration started or had already registered. Um, speaking of the middle school, at J. Frank Hillyard Middle School, their theater program is united by their musical tea- theater teacher who also directs their spring showcase and the school musical. It is only at Broadway High School where our theater program is in shambles. Every other school in the county has a theater teacher and theater class. Spotswood has Justine Mackey who teaches only theater classes and has created one of the strongest theater programs in the state. Turner Ashby has Cecil Deason who vertically united their theater program by teaching both at Wilbur Pence Middle and Turner Ashby High. East

006Rock has Grace Altman, a recent JMU grad who shows that there are plenty plenty of people available to teach theater in the valley, especially from JMU. Um, I say all of this to push you all to consider adding a theater teacher into the budget for Broadway High School. Um, and by doing so, further diversify and expand the education of Broadway theater students. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next up is Molly Kate Adkins and on deck is Christian Herrick. Hi there. Um, I'm Molly Kate Adkins. I'm a senior at Broadway High School and I'm also here advocating for a theater teacher at Broadway High School. Um, piggybacking off of what Ivy Herrick said, um, the disconnect in our school would never have been allowed to happen if any other type if it was any

007other type of extracurricular. Um, as you know, at Broadway, we have a very strong FFA and agricultural uh, community. Um, despite having multiple teachers, it is connected through every program they put on. At Broadway High School, our musical and our drama club, and I'm the vice president of drama club, um, and our one act, and our plays that we put on are very disconnected and it's always sponsored by different people and we would just really appreciate it if we could possibly have one person designated so we know who to go to if we have questions or if we want to learn something. Um, it just would be a lot easier for our students and I know I'm a senior, so next year it won't really matter to me, but I do really care for my

008theater friends at Broadway and I'd love to see them have more opportunities as I leave the school. Um, the teachers organize subject-wide fundraisers across the entire agriculture department to fund the FFA trips, which is great. Um, we find it incredibly hypocritical that the same respect and uh, con- connectivity is not granted to the theater program. So, if we have field trips or if we um, you know, just different things, it's it's hard to have the same connect the connecting, you know, it's hard who to go to. So, we just ask that um, we're taken seriously here at Broadway. We've got a great theater program, we've got great theater people, and we have many theater advocates. It's just um, a matter of taking the steps to advocate for a theater teacher. Um, so that's all I

009have to say. So, thank you so much. Thank you for your comments. Um, our final speaker is Christian Herrick. Good evening, school board members and uh, superintendent, community members as well. My name is Christian Herrick. I'm a I know many of you, but for those I don't know, I'm a local business owner, uh, a board member of the uh, Rockingham Educational Foundation. I'm also a Broadway High School alum and as my uh, wonderful daughter said, I'm also surprise, surprise, a theater alum from Broadway High School. My uh, unfortunately, my picture is still on the wall there with my beautiful wife for for theater. Um, it's an old picture, um, but it's uh, it's still on the wall. Uh, most importantly though, I am a father of four former uh, and three what's one former and

010three current uh, our RCPS students, all involved in theater. I uh, don't do theater anymore, although I'm a bit big advocate and I um, I am a big believer in the theater program. As an employer uh, I believe in the theater program because it prepares students to uh, become employable people. It teaches them to fail uh, in a way that they can um, then pick themselves up and continue on. It uh, teaches them to work with others very well. And like uh, the students before me have said, um, it's a shame that Broadway High School with a name like it has is the one high school in the county that does not have a theater teacher. Um, I find that a bit ironic and unfortunate. Um, as a as a business owner, besides all the

011other things that I am, I am always looking forward to supporting the theater program uh, financially and otherwise and I do that. Um, like they had said, it's a bit disjointed and difficult to do, uh, but I will continue to do that and hope that you will also uh, follow our lead in the Broadway area. Thank you for your time. Thank you also for your comments. The next item on our agenda tonight is the consent agenda. Board members, there are many things there for your approval. Uh, the minutes from March 9th, March 16th, March 18th, bills and mileage from February of 2026, the field there's several field trips listed there, the personnel listing, and we do just need one motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. I move to approve the consent agenda as

012presented. Thank you, Ms. Flora. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you, Ms. Bourgoin. Any questions 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 our action items. We have three of those. Uh, Mr. Justin Moyers is going to be presenting the first item, capital cap- capital projects budget amendment for the fiscal year 2026. Mr. Moyers. Or is that Dr. Shifflett? Capital projects? That's okay. We got lots of budget items on the agenda tonight, so I wanted to make sure I had the right one. So, the amendment before you is for the current year. This is to finish up the school camera project that you all approved earlier on in the school year. All this does is

013move money to the capital projects fund from the operating fund because that's where we actually spent the money out of for the cameras. So, it's just kind of a procedural thing that we need to have done cuz the um, county board of supervisors approves by fund, um, not by total budget. Board members, do we have a motion to ap- Oh, Dr. Shifflett. >> Chairwoman and board members, I recommend approval of the budget amendment that will transfer appropriate funds from the current year operating fund to the capital projects fund. Thank you, Dr. Shifflett. Board members, do we have a motion? I move to follow the superintendent's recommendation to approve a budget amendment that will transfer appropriate funds from the current year operating funds to the capital projects fund. Thank you, Ms. Cave. Do we have a

014second? Second. Thank you, Ms. Flora. Board members, do you have any questions? I have a question. Uh, just to be clear, so this money was kind of earmarked for the capital improvement, but it was placed in the other fund? >> Yes. We had money from the operating budget and from the capital projects fund to finish the camera project. The entire expenditure came out of the capital projects fund, so this is moving the operating money that we had designated to cover it. Yes. So, it's it's really just moving money that we have to authorize to move so that you can spend it properly. >> Correct. Yes. Thank you. Any further questions? Hearing none, all those in favor of approving the budget amendment, please say yes. Yes. All those opposed, say no. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you.

015The next item on our action item list is a bid recommendation for the J. Frank Hillyard Middle School partial re-roofing. Mr. Reed, welcome to the podium. Thank you. Chair Hurst, Dr. Shiflett, members of the board, the bid for the partial re-roofing at J. Frank Hillyard Middle School was properly specified and advertised. We had uh we sent it to three suppliers, and three suppliers attended our mandatory pre-bid on Wednesday, February 25th. The three uh suppliers responded with sealed bids, and our recommendation is to award the contract in the amount of $168,000 $969 to Skyline Roofing uh from Rockingham, Virginia. Thank you, Mr. Reed. Dr. Shiflett? Chair Hurst and board members, I recommend awarding the bid for partial re-roofing at J. Frank Hillyard Middle School to the lowest bidder as presented by Steve Reed, Director of Maintenance.

016Thank you, Dr. Shiflett. Board members, do we have a motion to follow? I move we follow the superintendent's recommendation to award the bid for partial roofing at J. Frank Hillyard Middle School to the lowest the lowest bidder presented by Steve Reed, Director of Maintenance. Thank you, Ms. Flora. Do we have a second? >> Second. Thank you, Ms. Bergoyne. Any questions or comments? Can I ask a question? Could you just give us a little bit of information about the roof and the condition it's in why it's, you know, how old it is, what we're what part we're replacing? Boy, those are questions I was not expecting. >> [laughter] >> So, the the area of the roof that we are uh replacing is over the cafeteria, and then the existing roof that's the same height down the

017ag hall all the way down to the tech ed shop. So, that that is this roof section that we're we're replacing. The age I'm not exactly sure, but it's probably 35 years old. This is part of our ongoing uh replacement of roofs that we have a list of. So, there's another section that we have in our schedule to happen next year uh for Hillyard if budget allows. Um but, this is what we had in the in working with Carlisle, the roofing manufacturer, uh and one of the audits they did with us at the schools to to replace this year. And when will the work be completed? It will be completed before July 1. This is this year's money. Anything else, board members? Wait one more. So, are we going to do it when students are

018not there? Or are we going to try to hit it sooner? It will happen more than likely when school is in session, yes. >> Okay. Great. Cuz I and to to let everybody else know, I've kind of been asking uh Mr. Reed about this project because it is it is needed. And uh I mean, like when it rains, there's moisture inside the school, so. >> Yeah. It pours inside the school. Mhm. So, thank you so much for for getting this done for us. Anything else, board members? Okay, we have a motion to award the bid for partial re-roofing to the lowest bidder as presented by Steve Reed. All those in favor, please say yes. Yes. All those opposed, say no. Motion passes 5-0. Our final action item is brought to us by Dr. Shiflett. It

019is the 2026-2027 Rockingham County Public School Division Budget. Uh thank you, Chair Hurst. Board members, if you will recall at our March 9th meeting, I gave a proposed budget recommendation. Uh in in your packet, you can see uh there are several um pages for information. There's a a page that has the expenditures for 26-27, uh the revenue, um what we project will be our revenue for 26-27, uh the personnel requests, which is incorporated into the budget, um the capital projects fund, and the last page of the packet is the food service fund. So, I recommend approval of the fiscal year 2026-2027 RCPS School Division Budget, including fund 2201, School Operating Budget, in the amount of $201,058,735, fund 2103, School Capital Projects Budget, in the amount of $63,721,765, and fund 2202, School Food Service Budget, in

020the amount of $7,920,300. Thank you, Dr. Shiflett. Um board members, do we have a motion to follow his recommendation? So moved. Thank you, Ms. Cave. Do we have a second? Second. I I think we're all just taking a moment to look over it one last time, so we're just being a little slow to the mic. >> That's that's okay, I understand. Um We could get >> We have a proper motion and a second. Does anybody have any questions for Dr. Shiflett or any comments before we vote? And I'll start with my question while you all are while you all are reviewing. Dr. Shiflett, were there some items that What are some items um maybe that we had hoped or wished for, but we were unable to just make happen this time because there's there's a

021lot of requests and very worthy requests that come before the board, um but, we're just not always able to. Can you highlight some of those, please? Oh, absolutely, Chair Hurst. I'd be glad to. So, as you know, as you were well recall during this process, you know, we solicited feedback from our principals, uh Director of Maintenance, Mr. Steve Reed, that you just heard from, met with all of them in the fall trying to determine what their needs are at each individual schools. And so, we have a host of, you know, just some upgrades or, you know, maintenance repairs that we would like to have maybe taken on, but again, we have limited resources. Uh I'm I'm not going to get into all the even along with that personnel requests that we received, but you know,

022this this group had talked about at early on at our first budget work session doing, you know, earmarking a significant uh sum of money to put towards elementary playgrounds, something that we really haven't uh assisted with in the past. Uh and so, really with some budget constraints, not able to do that. Uh the the the baseball lights at Turner Ashby High School are on our list of things we weren't able to address this year. Replacing the bleachers at Hillyard Middle School, so I think they have some of the old wooden bleachers and wanting to replace those. Uh the lecture room folding partitions at Spotswood High School, right? The the divide those two rooms uh is needing repair. Um sanding the main gym floor at Turner Ashby High School and getting it kind of down to

023the original. So, they're they're just to name a few of the things that um you know, had we had more funds, we could have maybe taken on some of these projects, but we have to make decisions and try to focus on, you know, what we have to take care of in the immediate term right now this school year, what things can wait another year or two, and then we'll, you know, they're on the list, right? So, they're not, you know, going away, but they're not forgotten, but you know, it may be you know, the next budget cycle that we were able to address some of these or, you know, perhaps if we, you know, end up with some additional funding from some state revenue source or what have you, then we may be able to,

024you know, address some of these. Uh but, it's it's always that tough conversation that we have during the budget cycle, right? Folks, principals, and supervisors, and directors are asking for additional resources, uh repairs, maintenance, what have you. And we just have to make hard decisions and say no to some things, right? That maybe we we would like to to um purchase, but we just don't have the funds to do it at this time. Thank you. Board members, do you have other questions? I'd just like to thank uh Chair Hurst and uh Dr. Shiflett for working so hard on this budget, and explain to the group uh the reason we were kind of taking a moment. We have been working hard on this budget, harder than I think I've ever worked in the past with our

025our dialogue and and um just having a really really good understanding of exactly what we're doing. And we're actually a little bit ahead of the game in that in the past, we've had to meet during spring break to pass the budget. And um we don't have to do that now. But, because of that, there were a couple of things that we were we were all looking, oh, did this make it? Did that make it? Where did we land on everything? And I for one, I won't speak for the rest of the board, but I for one definitely wanted to look over and really take a hard look at the final budget before I said yes. Uh so, that's why it we we needed a beat that time. So, thank you so much for all of

026your hard work, and the rest of the board, too. We've had some really great conversation, conversation that I've not had with past boards, and I really appreciate the the the the open communication that we had. I think it was the the best budget season I've ever been through, so that's awesome. So, yay yay, team. Um and I guess thank you for everything, and please understand our our hesitancy just now. Other board members? I was going to echo something like that just because I want to make sure that especially as I'm learning this job and you all are out here watching this we are spending hours and hours and hours on these things. It might look like we're coming up here and just going checkbox, yes, but you know, we were given this binder full of

027information pairing down all the different requests. So we've been working on this for months and this is this vote is the final product of a lot of work. Just so you're all aware. Do we have a second on that motion? Ms. Lorded. Thank you. Um I do have a question Dr. Shifflett and just for clarity for our community the cost of operating such a large district um can you speak to like per student how much that cost and why our county is so unique? I think um that's important because I think we have a lot of different programs here in Rockingham County. Um because we're such a large division and a very diverse large division. If you wouldn't mind. So I think some of the costs or some of the reasons for the increased costs,

028right? We we know as a as a country we're dealing with some inflation over the last number of years and so the cost of doing business has increased. Um about 86% of our budget every year is spent on salaries and benefits. So that is a significant large part of our our operating budget. And what we have experienced in the last three or four years is a significant increase in our number of EL students that we serve and the number of special education students that we serve. And uh not every student um you know, it's not always same, right? And so it takes sometimes some additional resources to serve some of our student populations. We also have gifted students that we know we go to the governor's school and so there's different costs. I think um

029what something that's also unique with Rockingham County is we're very large geographically. So when we had conversations I think uh maybe at the last meeting when Mr. Sowers talked about transportation and the amount of miles that we put on our buses is somewhat unique. And um Mr. Morris and I had a pretty interesting conversation today about something that's unique to Rockingham County. A large portion and I don't know exactly percentage-wise. I need to investigate this, but a large portion of our county uh does not yield any revenue for us in terms of taxes. Do you know what that what what those places are? The national parks that we love so much in the US National Forest. Now we get a small little piece of revenue from the US National Forest I think in the neighborhood

030of 20,000 or 30,000 dollars. It's not significant. But on the eastern side we have the Blue Ridge Mountains and that's the Shenandoah National Park. And then on the western side we have um Shenandoah Mountains with the um the George Washington National Forest, right? And that that is a huge benefit to our community, right? To have those beautiful resources that surround us. But we generate no tax dollars from that, right? So if those if that was, let's say a subdivision and I'm not suggesting that. Do you understand what I'm saying here, right? But if those things were whatever else, right? If they were industries or or homes, but they're not, right? But it's it's one of the reasons we love living here in the Shenandoah Valley because of the the mountains and and the the national

031parks and the national forest, but we don't earn just like, you know, we are all residents of Rockingham County and we get that tax bill that says, "Hey, you live here, you have a home here and you have to pay taxes." Well, Uncle Sam doesn't do that for us with the national parks, right? He doesn't say, "Well, how much is the value of the land?" And again, we do get a small um percentage of dollars, but it's insignificant to what we're doing. So I think there's some uniqueness about, you know, being in the valley and and what we're doing and and how we're doing business. Uh we also have some small uh very small rural community schools which are much beloved by families. But there's um there's always economies of scale, right? The bigger the

032schools, the more, you know, the more the more economic you can be and the more savings. So when you try to have small, you know, community schools which which I'm a huge fan of having those, but it also kind of increases your price per pupil. Uh if you give me a moment I could get out my calculator and do a tabulation for you on price per pupil here, but I'm not exactly sure how accurate that would be, but uh there there is comparisons you can do with, you know, in other places and other school divisions, but I think these are some things that make us somewhat unique in the what we're trying to accomplish. Did that answer your question? Anything further, board members? We have a motion to follow the superintendent's recommendation to approve the

03326-27 school division budget including fund 2201 school operating budget in the manner manner or in the amount of 201,058,735 fund 2103 school capital projects budget in the amount of 63,721,765 dollars and fund 2202 school food for I'm sorry, school food service budget in the amount of 7,920,300 dollars. All those in favor of approving that motion, please say yes. Yes. >> Yes. All those opposed say no. Motion passes 5-0. 5-0. Dr. Shifflett, I did forget to ask you, are you presenting this to the Board of Supervisors soon? I just want the public to understand that now we go to the next place. Yes. And and and submit our um our budget. I am presenting our approved budget to the Rockingham County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday this Wednesday um around 6:00. I think the meeting starts

034at 6:00 and so I'll be on their agenda. I'm not exactly sure exactly what time, but I'll be attending that meeting and presenting our budget to the Board of Supervisors. Thank you. Board members, that concludes action items and moves us into information items which we have several. Um the first is with Ms. Carrie Gray supervisor of career and technical education who is presenting the 26-27 Perkins local plan. Thank you, Chair Hurst, school board and Dr. Shifflett. You have in your meeting documents the proposed 2026-27 federal career and technical education local plan. Um this is our application for federal funding. Um for clarity's sake I'll just hit some high points tonight and then if you have questions between now and when I bring it back to you at the next meeting to ask for approval, I'm

035happy to answer those. The first five pages of the application are the assurances that we agree to in accepting the federal money. Um and then following that is our annual performance report and this um goes through all the Virginia agreed upon targets and we've met all of them except for academic proficiency in English language arts for general and special populations. And then a few meetings ago when I did the CTE update we talked about non-traditional enrollment. Um and those are students that enroll in coursework where the predominantly employed gender is opposite of their gender. And so we talked about just how educating students on other opportunities is the way um to combat that, but we again did not meet that non-traditional enrollment target. And so we'll continue with that education and letting students know what

036careers are available to them. The application is based on actually the 25-26 allotment and then we get our actual 26-27 allotment in July. Um at that point I do an amendment to the Perkins local plan and usually what I change just so you know is the equipment line item on the budget because that's the largest piece of what I'm requesting and it's just easy to shift it in one direction or another. Um so this year's allotment is 210,000 dollars, 210,590 dollars and 87 cents. So that's what the application is based on. Our priorities are um teacher PD and we'll be focusing to do our part in meeting that English language arts target um on some technical reading and writing in the content in CTE. And so some of our teacher professional development will be focused

037on that. Um also career exploration and aligning student courses of studies to their career interest and their talents um based on a platform that we're using called Zello. We um give the percentage of enrollment of our total CTE population. We give that percentage of our Perkins plan to MTC for equipment. And so that's just over 35,000 dollars, about 17% of our total enrollment this year. Um and then the largest chunk of the budget, over $97,000, is for CTE equipment upgrades. That's anything from computer lab replacements, we replace one business computer lab at every high school each year, to band saws, to laser engravers, 3D printers, it runs the whole gamut that our that our programs run. And then about $4,500 for work-based learning experiences. Most of that's for transportation career exploration events or um industry

038tours, job shadowing, those types of things. And then following the RCPS plan is the MTC plan, and they're also focusing on professional development, equipment, um and career exploration are their biggest expenditures. Their annual performance report looks very similar to ours because the bulk of the students at MTC are RCPS students, so that's reflected in their APR. Um in addition, they didn't meet the target for science and um industry credential attainment, so their professional development will be focused on those areas as well. So that is a very brief overview. Happy to answer any questions or get a little deeper in in in into any line items. Board members, I'll open it for questions. Did I see that the um actual performance um criteria are based on end-of-course SOL tests? That's correct. For the academic proficiency. A

039lot of lot of different people contributing to that instruction. Yes, and we we need to do our part as well. Anything else, board members? Okay. Thank you. Thank you. The next information item we have is coming to us from Ms. Becky Ford, who is our supervisor of fine arts and is going to present an overview of the fine arts programming in Rockingham County public schools. Thank you, Ms. Ford. Good evening, Dr. Shiplett, Chair Hurst, and members of the school board. Thank you for having us tonight and for the opportunity to speak to the fine arts in Rockingham County. Um tonight, in honor of March being fine arts in our schools month, uh I'm here to give you a just a brief snapshot of what's going on with our current programs, student participation, and the impact

040that all of these programs have across our division. At the elementary level, fine arts teachers serve every single student in the building. On average, teachers serve about 100 students a day. And in a week, they see between 429 and 625 different students every week. Um some of those students are all in one building and some of that is a teacher who serves multiple buildings, um but every single week those teachers see approximately 500 students, which is just amazing. They don't only just provide instruction, they're also doing programs, evening events, um managing large inventories, exhibitions, and some of them are itinerant, which means that they not only do that for one building, but for two. They're doing bus duty and morning duty at multiple schools, knowing the administration and the parents at multiple schools, and traveling

041back and forth and having things in different buildings. It's a very difficult job and they do a lot of hard work to do that. I also want to express my appreciation at this time that um in the proposed budget, it was a consideration to add additional people. Um that would go a long way towards managing student loads and managing the quality of quality of instruction. Our elementary schools are so important because they serve as the foundation to everything that goes on in the secondary schools. Consistent instruction and strong pedagogy are essential to building the skills and the knowledge, the confidence, and interest that allows students to go on further. When the elementary step foundation is strong, we see higher levels of participation and better success in our secondary programs. At the secondary level, we have

042over 3,300 student enrollments in fine arts courses across our middle schools and high schools, which is just incredible. That includes everything, so visual art, music, and theater, uh spanning instrumental and vocal general music, and that indicates a strong student interest, but also a wide breadth of programming, and we're going to get into that in a minute. Enrollment is strongest in the areas where programs are consistently available. So as we see, visual arts are strongest consistency with 1,654 students enrolled. Music has 1,170 students, um which is split fairly evenly across instrumental, vocal, and general music um subjects, and theater has 479 students, um which does uh speak to some of our inequities in just the programs that are available, and I think as we continue to strengthen that, we will see dividends there. As we said,

043secondary students have uh access to a wide range of classes. Um so it begins in middle school with some exploratory classes, and it continues level high school offerings. Um some of them are ensemble-based and some of them are individually and have very specialized areas. So the courses shown here are not everything, but I tried to give you some basics of what's available in each area. Um programs are intentionally structured as a sequence of leveled courses, and I think this is one of the biggest strengths that we have in Rockingham County, um where we have schools that have the staffing and the programs available to have a beginning, an intermediate, and an advanced course, we're able to meet students at their proximal zone of development. And when we are able to do that, they're able to

044learn better and continue to grow better, rather than when we have just one mix of students where uh teachers are trying to differentiate to everybody. Something new for this year is that, thanks to the board, we were able to move our performing arts teachers at the secondary level to extended contracts. And what that meant was instead of a single stipend for each year, uh teachers were able to be paid for the extra hours that they are putting in. This provides a more consistent model for the secondary performing arts programs. We just really wanted to make sure that we said thank you for that. Make sure the teachers are compensated for the time that they're putting in. This time is directly spent with students, and so you can see at the middle school and high school

045level, depending on the discipline area, we have different hours that they tend to be putting in. And that's for evening performances, weekends, Saturdays that they're at district honor ensembles, um weeks that they go to state-level trips, um all the inventories, uh each high school has, if I had to guess, 1,500 to 2,000 different pieces of music in the choral library and in the band library. And so they're keeping up with all that music, and each individual piece has hundreds of parts in it. So it is a huge logistical thing to keep up with. Um and so we see the different hours um that we have been allotted there. It is 75 hours equals a half a month. So that's how we have our 10 and 1/2, 11, and 11 1/2 months. Um and as you

046can see, the band directors at the high school level are typically putting in more than 500 hours extra, and that is because um in addition to all of their curricular duties, they also have marching band, which is co-curricular, which just takes up an entire season. Our students and our teachers are excelling at such a high level. I just wanted to give a couple shout-outs to the students and everything that they are doing and our teachers. Um on the left-hand side of the screen, you can see students that have made all-state honors. Um this is middle school and high school people who have earned the right to go to all-state band and choir. That will be in April in Richmond, um and we are just so excited for the students. That is due to their individual

047hard work and the training that their teacher has provided them, and so we're just so proud. Uh we had, a month or two ago, the Shakespeare compete competitions, uh which started at a school level, and then the two winners from each school level went on to the regional competition, which was at Blackfriars uh Playhouse. So it was so cool to get to see go and see them performing Shakespeare on a Shakespearean stage. Um and one of our students, Peyton Kite, placed second in the region, um so he is the runner-up to go to New York if something happens um to the first-place winner. We're just so proud of them. And then in terms of theatrical productions, there was too much to list, um but we had nine secondary musicals. Two of our schools performed at

048the Virginia Thespians Festival state festival. Um that was Spotswood and Turner Ashby's high schools one-act. We had students from multiple schools going and teachers from all of our schools going to these uh conferences, and so it's just amazing what they're doing. We had two of our schools, Broadway High School and Turner Ashby High School, just this last week, um become blue ribbon schools. And what that means is that they performed and were awarded a superior rating at both concert assessment for choir and for band. And so both programs have to be a achieving on a superior level, which is the highest honor that you can get, and that's based on our SOLs. So they go and they perform a concert on the stage in front of a bunch of judges who look at the Virginia

049state SOLs and judge the kids and the director on how well they're performing. So that just says so much. So we're so proud of those schools. Now these are just a couple. I couldn't even fit everything on the slide. There's so many more, and so I know each school has something amazing going on. We just want to shout out to what they're doing. Going to the state level, there's two major updates that I wanted to provide you with from the state. The first one has been approved by the Virginia General Assembly, but is currently pending final approval by the governor. Um if implemented, it's going to recognize sustained achievement in the fine arts coursework and performance by putting a fine arts seal on a student's diploma, uh equivalent to what we already have with some

050other uh disciplines. This provides a formal way for students to be recognized for their work in the arts and reinforces the value of fine arts as part of a well-rounded education. Secondly, there was a statewide study using VDOE data. Uh it examined the relationship of fine arts participation and enrollment in courses and chronic absenteeism. And what they found was that students who enrolled in one fine arts course were less absent than other students. And if they were what they called a career fine arts student, which meant that they enrolled in one course each year through the four years of high school, they were between 32 to 50% less likely to be chronic absenteeism students. Um and so that is correlational, not causal data. Let's be clear. Um but I think it shows just such a

051strong uh percentage of our students that when they're engaged, when they're involved, when they have a place that uh makes them feel at home and they identify as part of that school community, it makes such a big difference. Um and it reinforces what we see locally that the fine arts programs are not just opportunities for creativity and performance, but they're just an indicator of overall student success. And so we are so grateful to have a board that reinforces this. I want to say we're seeing all of you all at musicals, seeing you all at performances and concert assessments. Um I know you all believe this, but I just want to say why fine arts matters and it's individual to every student. Fine arts mattered to me in my life. It matters to every student who's

052involved in it in their life in a different way. But overall, we see that kids are engaged. They find a place of belonging in the fine arts. And it's so important to have. Uh it builds important skills in creativity, communication, collaboration, all of our C's that we like to talk about in school, they're all found in the fine arts. It provides students opportunities to perform, present, and be recognized. It strengthens school culture. Having a fight song, having the national anthem played at uh school events, and it connects our families and our communities uh with people who used to go to the school, people who are still in the community, and it provides a strong foundation there. Fine arts programs in Rockingham serve a large number of students. It provides such meaningful opportunities, and continued support

053of these opportunities remaining accessible and sustainable for our students and teachers goes a very long way. We'd like to thank you for your time and just it to celebrate fine arts month, we do have a small token of gratitude for you all with our fine arts cups of favorites. Uh those are going to be going out to every fine arts teacher in the district. We asked them for some of their favorites at the beginning of the year, and we tried to uh collect the things that they mentioned on their favorites, whether it was a color or a certain soda or a candy. Um and big huge shout-out to Becca McClure Hooper for helping me with that. It was a huge list, but we tried to get at least one favorite of everybody. And so we

054hope that you find a favorite in our fine arts cups. But thank you so much for your time tonight and for your attention all year long. Thank you, Mrs. Ford. Um board members, do you have any questions for her? I do. In regards to Broadway High School, I feel like this is like perfect follow-up to what they were here advocating for. Um and looking at these numbers here, um how how do we help? How do we fix this? Mr. Gillette, does the clicker go back? Thank you. Um it can be very difficult to get enrollment up. It becomes a little bit of a chicken and an egg situation. Um I think if we have a teacher in place, more students will sign up, but we can't get a teacher in place until students sign up,

055right? Um I think the biggest thing to look at is as we start enrollment, students at the high school level can only sign up for theater one. That's the only class that they can sign up for. But as you see at the high school level beneath that dotted line, we've got theater one, two, three, and four, and technical theater one and two. So if we can build that first class of students, then they're going to graduate from theater one into theater two, and then theater three. It's going to continue to build. Enrollment will continue to grow. Um if we could do something similar to what the TA district has where there's a theater teacher across the middle school and the high school, I believe that will build retention. Um and it is difficult. It is

056difficult to say, "Hey, we only have a couple students. Let's hire a teacher." And especially when budgets are tight, we understand this. Um but I I do want to reiterate that having sustainable equity across the division is so important. Um the students are working hard. The teachers are working so hard. You know, they had teachers who took them to the Virginia Thespians Festival this year. Um it's not part of their job description. They didn't get paid for it. Um but the teachers are going out of their way to try and provide students with these opportunities. I think the kids are showing that they want the opportunities. Um I think the more we can continue to support that. Um but it is one of those things where we can't get the enrollment really until we have

057a teacher in place. Can I ask a question about that? Um just thinking back to when I was the choir director at Spotswood, like I actually wrote the curriculum for this musical theater course. And one of the things I remember them telling me at the time was you can't offer a class at one school and not have it at the others because of the equity situation. So A, has that changed? And B, if it hasn't, how how are we existing while offering these at other schools and not like how are we not bound by Is it just theater that's not offered at Broadway? Um in terms of fine arts courses? >> Right. And how long has it not been offered? Has it been 10 years, 20 years, forever? I want to say between five to

058seven years, but that's off the top of my head and I wouldn't want to check that data. So numbers just declined and then they said It had to do with personnel and licensure. Okay. Is it Is it not offered at Broadway or is it not staffed at Broadway? You you can sign up for it. >> is not staffed at Broadway. And if enough kids sign up for it, then we can find a teacher. So, right? We can attempt to find a teacher. So, again, cart and horse, right? I know for a fact that kids will sign up for certain classes because they want Mr. M, but if they don't know who the teacher is, they're way less likely to sign up for the class. So we're kind of we're kind of in that spot. But

059That's definitely a challenge. I do know that we're offering junior ROTC this year at Broadway High School for the first time. As of today, we do not have an instructor, but we offered it. Now that we have enough students, then we'll hire the instructor, right? So and now we'll see if the program can grow based on who that instructor is and how well he or she can build that program, right? So I So I get the chicken and egg scenario where we are, but kids may sign up for it. It's in the program of studies, but um we do that not just fine arts, but with all of our elective courses, we determine, you know, or even some of our advanced placement courses, can we offer this particular course if only six students have, you

060know, enrolled or registered? And sometimes we offer some of those higher level courses every other year just so we can try to get the numbers, but it's it comes down to, yeah, what's what's feasible? What can we offer? So is there are there a theater programs like designated to the middle schools? One of our two of our middle schools have theater being taught by theater licensed people. Two of our middle schools have theater being taught, well, musical theater being taught by a vocal instructor. Um so musical theater can be taught by somebody with a vocal licensure. Uh theater cannot. One one thought, one question that I have is at the elementary school, we have um great art classes. We have great art teachers. Um and everybody in elementary school, all their years of elementary school,

061take art once a week. They also have incredible music teachers who are teaching music once a week. So all students are getting that fine arts um curriculum in in elementary school. And then when we get to the middle school, it kind of just wanes maybe in some areas. So I just wondered in your opinion, what can be done at the elementary level to recruit better maybe for fine arts? Do we need to look at theater as um as an option at the elementary level as a, you know, a brief special? Maybe we introduce it as a special? Um I don't know. What are your suggestions because sometimes I think it's just getting kids involved in the opportunities that do exist, and then they see, "Hey, I really like I really like theater. I'd like to

062sign up for that." Um but I also know at the middle school, you you kind of get into one track or the other, right? So when you enter in sixth grade, you either have to pick band or the four the four different classes that you take one each nine weeks for the year, right? And so a lot of students, you know, if you're picking band, you don't have the opportunity to try out ag or art. Um but if you're not if you're in the the four four course combo as your elective, you're not in band, right? So, there's a talk me through some options, some suggestions of things we can do maybe or we can look look at doing in the future. Um the scheduling is prohibitive in middle school um and that has all

063kinds of complicating features that are uh very effective of that. Um I would hesitate to talk about specifics. I would love to look into that more and get back to you. Um but I I would hesitate to speak off the cuff about that. Okay. I'm happy to speak off the cuff about that. Um I would say I don't know that we need to make theater a special in elementary school. I don't know that that's even developmentally appropriate um but I think one of the great things we could do I mean the fifth grade musicals are a great way to plug kids in in theater experiences that might launch them into the um the future or even incorporating them into some content like class-based projects I think could be sufficient. Um but I another I I

064was going to speak about this cuz eventually I would love to see no itinerant music positions for example in the elementary schools and then um that would give the bandwidth for every elementary school to be able to do the fifth grade musical, right? So, right now if we've got teachers divided between small schools they are unable to do that because they're divided. Um and that would be a great because these programs require continuity. If you're not familiar with arts programs when you lose them like sixth grade they decide to take ag or whatever they're done. They're likely not coming back and that's really hard cuz there's so many choices. Um so, it's really important to have continuity across like if you don't if you don't have the program in middle school it's less likely to

065succeed at the high school. If you have you know a weaker teacher or program in one place than the other then that can affect feeder situations. Um you know there sometimes these classes are one-off on schedules and so if the kids can't get into that class because it's against say you want to take Latin and it's only offered at the same time as theater two well then you've got to choose and the language wins because you have to take the language. So, there's a lot of complicated scheduling things but I do think if we could get a long-term I know budgets I mean if you build it they will come but if they aren't there you can't fund it so um we're going to maybe have to be creative with some of that but arts

066are not an extra. Like there are so many people that think like and then across the nation we've seen that over the years and decades people cut things um but if we're thinking about attention and we're thinking about behavior and student achievement then we need to recognize that arts are like one of the very most powerful tools we have at our disposal next to physical activity which is my other obsession. Um like when I taught music I teach science the physics of sound the physiology of the body. You teach history the context of a composition the composer the background the time period in the world that they had occurred in reading skills tracking decoding sequencing speaking and communication skills. You teach math with counting timing fractions pattern recognition and English poetry theater's great for this.

067Um language arts interpretation diction pronunciation foreign languages social emotional things like self-control and listening teamwork critical thinking you guys named I mean thank you for speaking earlier just preparing students to become employable. Great. I mean that's we're learning these things in these programs and so they are fundamental to the success of our students they are not extra. Um so, I hope you all are coming I will be doing what I can to convince everyone up here that I'm right and that we can funnel money into these things. Um but it's going to it's always a slow process and uh but if you're you've got some fundraising happy to talk to you afterwards see what we can do to be creative cuz I'd like to be a yes person as much as possible. But anyway um

068I have lots of ideas so I'll table them for not a Monday night. >> [laughter] >> Board members any other questions? I will just share I've always been an advocate for these programs um and supported them but I am a terrible singer and have no uh skill when it comes to instruments but my daughter is in love with singing and she's going to be a rock star one day in her head and um so I sign her up for all the things and do the music classes and you know she has a vocal coach and all those things that I know nothing about so I care very deeply about this. I just don't and I'm sidebarring with Sarah I'm going what is that what is that I don't I don't understand if we don't have

069a theater program how we have a musical. I don't want to sound stupid. Um so, I I guess I just need to know more um and certainly don't want Broadway to feel slighted by the other schools that it's not um offered there. So, anything that we can do to help please give us more information and help us help you. So, thank you guys. Um I just want to add that first of all when I was agreeing with you when you said you couldn't sing I too I'm in the same boat. I can't sing love it. I go to all the musicals. I wish my kids had done musicals but uh I think they got their musical talent from me. Um but I just wanted to clear that up that I wasn't saying that you couldn't

070sing. Um I also want to ask and Dr. Shiflett you don't have to answer this tonight but I know that just because it's not in the budget doesn't mean we're not going to get a teacher because we move teachers around. Say say the numbers come in and we don't have as many kindergarteners coming in but we have a great big second grade we'll move a kindergarten from to second grade. Uh and I'm wondering if there's going to be some wiggle room at Broadway High School and you can look at the numbers and get back with us once cuz we also don't have all the all the numbers in yet. And if kids sign up for I don't know say theater instead of ag. I mean we'll have to have the theater teacher more than the

071ag teacher, right? But as long as we have a lot of kids where we've got we've got to put the teachers where the kids are, right? We don't want to force the kids into things they don't want to take. And that does occasionally happen but it all comes down to numbers. What does that look like if there's only one section? So, say they get 20 kids to sign up for theater one and there's one section you know we like do you have to have enough for 0.5? Do we have to have can we hire a full-time teacher that does you know a lot of duties and study hall? Right. So, I think looking at a 0.5 would be an option if you had enough students for that but sometimes finding a part-time teacher is always

072a challenge and then if let's say you hire a part-time teacher who really wants full-time so then probably next year he or she may not be there, right? So, you lose your consistency. Uh but also when you so let's say 20 students did sign up but and I and I don't know what the numbers are I don't have them memorized but let's say 20 students did sign up we're going to offer this but does it fit in their schedule? Because they also want to take dual enrollment English and it happens to be at the same time that we have this music this theater teacher, right? So, high school schedules are very complicated and and and what we offer and there are limits and and kids have to make you know choices. Sort of part of

073life, right? I mean when you go to college you can't take every course at the university or you'd be you'd be there forever so you have to pick and choose what are you going to major in what's your minor what courses you know I love this course but you know with this professor but it's offered on a day when I can't be there so I can't take that course so what's another course? So, we kind of do the same thing on a microcosm at the at the high school level but you know the principals and assistant principals and counselors are are taking in all the information of what kids have said they wanted to take and then they also have you know two or three different alternatives that they try to work through and then

074they spend their summer time building that schedule. Uh so, we can I mean I Ms. Laura I'm happy to look at the numbers of how many kids you know said they wanted this as their first option and to see what that looks like. Uh finding a teacher to teach one section I'm not sure what you know what that looks like, right? Right. And typically cuz I I believe we've had this conversation. Typically our theater teachers aren't certified to teach a lot of other things, right? It's it's not like there could be a unicorn out there and if you're out there please apply. Um but there could be a unicorn that's that's certified for English and theater or band and theater but that's a unicorn, right? Yes. We do have a few teachers who teach both

075English and theater that is the most likely combination to find. Um but we have found lately is that JMU's graduates are are single theater and so they are looking for a full-time theater position. So, as Dr. Shiflett said it's very hard to get somebody to commit to a part-time or just one period. Are there any The other thing I think about is as as a former choir program director when you are suffering from lack of numbers you have to get creative. You can't just be like well I have no students you you do early birds you do clubs you get you do musicals you do other things to try to generate the interest and so there there comes a point where you know you've got to do the leg work to get to build something

076that we can then fund officially. Um so, it's a complicated we'd love to carry on the conversation for sure. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you Ms. Ford. Thanks Ms. Tate. Our next information item is um some information from the literacy team who's going to provide an update on middle school literacy um and give us an update on the data. Welcome Ms. Tate. Thank you Chairhorse Dr. Shiflett members of the board. Um at your request we're here to share with you some data and in particular how the Virginia Literacy Act has impacted for the first time our middle schools this year. It's a 4-8 section of the law, but in particular the biggest lift has been in middle school. So for tonight we're going to show you that VLA implications, the 6-8 VALS information and who did

077VALS in 6-8, Lexia PowerUp are required intervention, and also the data from Lexia. So I'm going to turn it over to Carrie first. Thank you. So starting off talking about the Virginia Literacy Act. So a month ago when we were here we talked about its implications 4K-5. It is new the impact that the Literacy Act has for our middle schools this year. Um the Virginia Literacy Act says every student in grade 6 through grade 8 receives additional evidence-based supplemental instruction and intervention as outlined in a student reading plan if they do not meet literacy benchmarks. What that means for our middle school reading plans when we think about who is required to have a student reading plan, um the VLP and VLA and all of all of those acronyms um require that any student who

078failed the previous reading SOL and that actually starts in fourth grade and extends all the way up through eighth grade. Um any student who did not take the SOL, so thinking about our parent refusals, um they also are required to have a student reading plan along with any student who's new to RCPS without a passing score on a comparable state reading assessment. So we've had a few students this year to have other reading assessments that they were given whether at a private school or out of state as long as we have that data and can take a look at it and it was a passing score then they wouldn't necessarily need a student reading plan. But if there's no data that could be examined then we uh they had a student reading plan written for

079them. Uh a student reading plan entails that they are given the VALS assessment in fall and winter. It is not an option to be given in the spring since their pass rate on the SOL test is what determines as having an SRP the following year. That's why there's no VALS assessment in the spring. Uh students must receive reading intervention in addition to their language arts instruction, and it has to come from a state approved list. Progress must be monitored and documented to ensure students are moving toward a goal. Uh teachers who are providing the intervention along with reading specialists in all of our middle schools um take screenshots of student progress and put them into SRPs approximately once a month for students for parents to see our student growth since the last screenshot. Who facilitates

080the creation and implementation of student reading plans? Our middle school reading specialists do. We have one in each of our four middle schools, and teachers support those reading specialists with documentation, parent communication, and anything else that goes along with it. All right, so to go along with what um Carrie was saying about the VALS information, uh the state of Virginia VLP said anybody who fails the SOL has to take the VALS assessment. Um so we decided in Rockingham County in the fall that we were actually going to screen um all of our students in certain areas of the VALS just to have that literacy information um for all of our students. So we assessed all students in morphology, sentence comprehension, and spelling. Um students who failed the SOL were also given um the oral reading

081fluency and if needed the word reading um subtest and the nonsense word reading subtest. Um the reason we're sharing Lexia data tonight and not VALS data is because in the winter um VALS decided that the only available test for anybody were going to be uh spelling and oral reading fluency and if needed just regular word reading. So our students who failed um the SOLs did take those as part of the requirements for the VLA, but we could not give other um assessments to students like we had planned starting in the fall. Um along those same lines uh in the spring there's not a VALS at all, so no students will be getting any VALS assessments um in the spring in grades um actually 4 through 8. So when we share data it's going to be

082coming from Lexia which Carrie is going to talk about now. So Lexia PowerUp was the VDOE required intervention that we selected um last year. The reason we selected it was that when we took a look at all of the options that were on the state approved list, every single option involved having students online in a program, um which we know is not favorable, but it was the the limits in which we had to work. Um of the six that were provided as options, three of them did not include all literacy components, was which was a big factor in determining which intervention we selected. Um Lexia PowerUp hit all of those literacy components, and it was also supported with all in funds, which we applied for last year and received 200 licenses from. Unfortunately, those funds

083are not available moving forward, but that did influence our reason to go with it with its comprehensive nature and the fact that the state provided uh 200 licenses for us to use for our middle schoolers. Um now Lexia PowerUp uses a blending learning model, which was another reason why we selected to use it. So 1/3 of the components of this program was that it's it is student-driven online um as all of the components that were all of the options that were provided on the approved list had. But Lexia PowerUp also includes targeted teacher-led Lexia lessons. So when we see a student is flagging in an area that needs um more intensified intervention, teachers have access to a lesson that will pop up that the teacher can actually deliver in person with that student. And it

084can be one-on-one, it can be a small group, or if they notice their entire um classroom of intervention students would really benefit from receiving that Lexia intervention, the teacher can deliver it to all of those students as well. Uh in addition to those teacher-led Lexia lessons, Lexia PowerUp also provides offline Lexia skill builders. So let's say a student finishes a certain phonics component for example, but when you dive into their data we see that they were weak um in spelling of this certain syllable type. A teacher can go into Lexia and if it doesn't automatically flag with a skill builder for students to get extra offline practice, a teacher can go online and find it. So if a student just needs a few more repetitions that the uh online program doesn't provide, there are additional

085paper practice options for teachers to give to students. And some of the files are very large, but it's just based on how much practice students actually need in order to be more uh competent with that skill. Lexia is composed of three specific strands. There's the word study strand, which focuses on word patterns, spelling, and syllable types to improve decoding and spelling skills. The second strand is grammar, which targets understanding of sentence structure, parts of speech, and usage to improve reading and writing. And the third strand is comprehension, which builds skills in understanding text, identifying story structure, and developing vocabulary. We looked at VALS data and determined that the majority of our students were weak in decoding of real and pseudo words and encoding. This is based off of fall VALS data. And so that led

086the majority of our um of our middle school students to receive a student reading plan goal in word study. A small handful of students um also have a compre- or have a comprehension goal instead of a word study goal, but their VALS data from the fall and their Lexia fall placement test or when they first got into the program really drove which of those three strands uh was deemed the most important for students to get the most intervention in. I would like to also add that each strand has three levels, a foundational level which focuses on K-2 skills, an intermediate level which focuses on 3-5 skills, and an advanced level which are our 6 through 8 skills. A question that uh we've been asked this year is is there research that supports the effectiveness of

087Lexia PowerUp as an intervention? We want what we're using with our students to have benefit. And in a uh correlation research that Lexia PowerUp literacy did using Virginia SOL reading um data in a large suburban school district in Virginia just last year, um it was found that 91% of students who reached the advanced zone in any one strand also passed the reading SOL. Uh they this data found that 98% of students who reached advanced zones in all three strands also passed the SOL. So, this has been something that we have communicated with uh staff and teachers in our middle school to show that if we can get them to the advanced zone in at least one and go in and look at specific data um with the units that they complete, we can make sure

088that they're getting the support to master um I'll speak to word study master the phonics skills uh that they need to to get to that advanced zone and truly be advanced. I I have a question for you. >> Sure. Cuz I took a peek. It looks like you're just sharing Lexia data. That's correct. Um but on that slide that you were just on, how do these numbers align with what we've seen on the growth assessment? Um we have not done any comparison at middle school. I mean, these are great promises, but what's the reality? Right. And until after a year in it, I don't know that we can say for sure. Um as you know, we are likely to move away from the growth assessments next year and be using something different. Um it's very

089difficult to get usable data. Um and as you understand as well, because there are only two reporting categories on the reading, sometimes a student will be successful in a skill with one passage and unsuccessful on the next because they lack the background knowledge, the vocabulary. Um and and so I hope and again, I live in hope that that word study focus will help grow the vocabulary and multisyllabic word attack that some of our students lack when they get to that SOL test. Um so, we've probably had this implemented about 6 months now. Is that correct? Since um late September or mid-September in some of the schools. >> to February, end of March. Yes. Um how many students have we seen reach advanced? We're going to show you that. That's coming. >> Okay. Can I ask

090a question, too, real quick? Sure. >> Um just looking at it says Lexia PowerUp Literacy Correlation Research for Virginia SOL Reading the study. It's It appears that it's done by the company itself. That's internal research. It is. It's not like peer-reviewed. No. And and again, you have to remember, we have to use an intervention approved by the Virginia Department of Education. So, it's not like we can go out there and go rogue if we're going to follow the law. Um and and I will say that the majority of the divisions in the state are using Lexia PowerUp as their intervention at middle school. Um and you know, I think as Carrie said at the beginning, nothing compares to a teacher one-on-one or in a small group with a student. And that is the advantage of

091Lexia because it provides paper lessons, which we know because the literacy team has been meeting monthly with the reading specialist. Um we have done data dives with all of the teachers who are providing intervention to look at what students are doing and to make sure that those lessons are delivered as immediately as possible because I think that makes a difference as well. Thank you, Kim. I have one final thing I would like to share with you all before I pass it back to Tabitha. Um we had two division goals with Lexia this year. Goal one was that students would have a minimum of 45 to 50 minutes per week of usage and that would be in the strand, not total in a given week, and earn a minimum of 17 units per week. I do

092want to elaborate that units are the smallest, fastest-paced building blocks of instruction, which are roughly 5 minutes each, and while levels are major while levels are major comprehensive stages composed of multiple activities and many units that represent a broader skill set. So, we can actually track how many um units students gain per day and per week. We can look at it in the last 4 months and we can look at it over the course of a school year. So, we have many different chunks of time that we can look at student gains. And as we've worked with our Lexia representative, the 17 units per week came from her in terms of um students who really take off and make lots of growth in the program. That's where that number came from. Our second goal was

093regarding teachers. Um we want teachers to log into MyLexia at least one to two times a week to monitor the following things: usage versus units. So, who's spending a lot of time in the program versus who's actually making gains in the program. Um to take a look at who needs instruction. So, who needs a Lexia lesson delivered, whether the program flags automatically and says that they need something, or if a student is hung up in a particular um lesson in a unit, then I see them struggling and I can intervene and provide um an immediate lesson that Lexia might not flag for. And we want teachers to also prac- give opportunities to practice and apply what they have learned. So, as Kim has mentioned, we've met with we meet on average with the reading specialists

094at middle schools approximately once a month and we've done training with teachers to help them understand how to access all of the data data that is in the platform. That way they can stay on top of it in a more immediate way um to provide the immediate feedback and intervention that student need that students need to go along with the online program. Okay, so I'm going to share the uh Lexia data that we have and just as a reminder, it's not for every middle school student. It's just the students who failed the SOL because that's who takes the Lexia um intervention. So, the first strand or the first screen here is all the Lexia data for the county as a whole. So, this is all of our 6th, 7th, and 8th graders who failed um

095the SOL the previous year. These are the three strands that Carrie spoke to. So, the top strand is word study. Um you can see at the beginning of the year for the placement, um 62% of these students were at the foundational level, 38% were at intermediate, and we had 0% um at the advanced level. Um this screenshot was taken on March 16th. That's the um the last time we pulled up the data to check to check it. And you can see we now have um only 18% at the foundational level, intermediate has moved to 58%, and we actually have 24% um in the advanced level. So, that's the progress that we've seen since the beginning of the year. Um you'll notice that in grammar and comprehension, there's also been growth, just not as much, and

096that's because as Carrie stated earlier, um the student reading plans are mostly written uh based on that vowel data that showed that our students have a weakness in um decoding or encoding. So, word study um is where they need to be working. The next screen, um again, this is just focusing on the word study strand. Um these are our four middle schools. Um you can see the top school had 60% foundational at the beginning of the year, 39% um intermediate and 1% advanced. Um that school now sits at 12% foundational, 49% intermediate, and 39% um at the advanced level. The second school um on the list was 63% foundational, 37% intermediate. They're now at 13, 53, and 34%. Um at the advanced level. On to the third school, um again, high foundational number at 55%,

09745 was intermediate. Um they're currently at 16% foundational, 67% um intermediate, and 17% advanced. Uh the last school had 72% um foundational at the beginning of the year, 28% intermediate. Um the current um students there are 35% foundational, 57% intermediate, and 8% advanced. Um and I'd like to point out that this kind of just shows that whole gamut of like a level. Um when we meet with the teachers, we see how close students are to move from moving to foundational to intermediate to advanced. Um and a lot of these, like the intermediates are a level or two away from being in that advanced level, too. Um it can be broken down a lot more detailed, but this was the easiest way to present it um tonight. And then the last slide that I have, um

098this is just two classrooms that we wanted to point out because um the teacher and these students are making amazing um growth. The top is an 8th grade class. Um they were 53% foundational at the beginning of the year in word study and 47% intermediate. Um you'll notice there's no light blue uh currently in their class. No one is in the foundational level. Uh 26% of kids are intermediate and 74% of her class has moved into the advanced level in word study. Um similar, the 6th grade class underneath, you can see started at 64% foundational, 36% intermediate. They now have 9% foundational, 64% intermediate, and 27% of their students um are in advanced. And I should say in the advanced level, it's 6th through 8th. So, those students are right um kind of where they

099need to be in 6th grade. Can I I ask for just to clarify, the foundational that's K through 2, intermediate grade grades 3 through 5 and advanced is 6 through 8. So, that is what that's the level they are on in that skill. Yes, so the foundational levels are K through two um like skill levels and then three through five and then six through eight. Can you go back to slides that one that slide right there. So, looking at at this based on Lexia's claims, I just want to make sure I understand. Based on Lexia's claims, if you're in that dark blue category, you have a 91% chance of passing your spring reading SOL test. Yes. So, that means about 75% are still at risk. I would say maybe not only because remember this is

100at mid-March. And some of those students as we were meeting with teachers in the last three or four weeks were just a couple of levels out of advanced. In other words, the let's just if we look at just the word study there at the top. Sorry, my old eyes. Is that like 50? Thank you. Oh, good. Um 49% and some of it doesn't In other words, just because half of those students could be a couple of levels away from advanced. >> more close. We just have Exactly. And But, I just wanted to make sure I understood what what Lexia is promising. Right. Um and I will say too, one of the things as we um did the data work with teachers um Lexia does provide and we taught the teachers how to use the usage

101minutes that a student is in the platform. And it will divide it into minutes where they are actually engaged in the work and then other. And so, as we've had these meetings with our reading specialist and administrators are in those meetings as well. Um we literally pull up individual students and have each month to talk about what our concerns are about those students who are not making progress um and what that might be. Sometimes it's attendance. Sometimes there are discipline issues that have interfered. Sometimes there are motivation issues, but I can tell you in being in the buildings with those administrators and reading specialist as we looked at those students and this last time we were looking at them, we literally flipped, looked at the students who were almost there. And students who weren't they

102could talk to us individually about every child in a middle school. Um and that is a credit to them in knowing their students and and what the teachers are doing with them um in an intervention block as well as sometimes being pulled by reading specialist, special educators um EL teachers and then there are um in a couple of our buildings other people who are pulling intervention groups and working with these students. I I noticed um one of the goals is that students will have a minimum of 45 to 50 minutes per week. That could probably be two 20-minute two tw- When are they doing this? Is this during their advisory or their >> different Every middle school does it slightly differently. Um but they have an advisory. Some of them call it R block. Um

103and >> So, it's occurring during that It's occurring during that time. Um >> Is 45 minutes a week enough? Uh I would say for students who are our most vulnerable no. However these students also typically and we recognize and teachers recognize and so we try to play collaboratively. They may have assignments or need support in math. They may need support in science or social studies. And so, typically if they're just working in that R or R block or advisory block they may be working three days a week in Lexia and two days a week getting other intervention or remediation support in other content areas. Um middle school schedules are again complex as well. Uh And but the middle school administrators are working together to to try to better align that. Um What did our Did

104we give a benchmark at mid-year? And do we have that data by school? by grade by school like a benchmark released test or anything at that middle school to kind of get a peek at what we're doing? >> just the growth assessment. >> Yes. That is we got That was clear as mud. I know. I know. >> It's not a good I would data set. I would concur. Okay. Um but I would hope moving into next year that it could look different that we could have that substitute test for the growth assessment and that's a conversation that's being had with leadership. Um that would have more usable and comparable data. Can we go back to the slide with the three blue squares? It's like slide five or six. It just ours is blank and I

105just wanted to copy my notes. Keep Keep going. Like three blue squares. So, keep going. The other three. It says middle school vowels. Yeah, this one. Ours are blue blocks. That's good. Right there. Thank you. No. I just want to make I just had a question. So, just so I have this right again not to make myself sound stupid here. Um we have about 2,200 RCPS middle school kids across the entire county. And this is showing I'm just looking at the Sorry, the the status in word study. What we're what this data is showing when they were placed almost half of our students failed an SOL. Is that right? And Right, these were kids that all failed SOLs. Okay. Or were opted out. And then also when they were placed tested at a level of

106K through five. Is that right? Ask the last part again. I'm sorry. Um the I'm sorry to make you skip around. This is the very first Lexia data. I was just looking um Oh, where they placed? Yeah, the the original placement for word study. So, out of 1,057 kids were placed here um or scored failed their SOLs or opted out. So, they took this placement test and 1,057 of them scored at a level of K through five. And I just wanted to verify that. >> K through two foundational. >> Right. Well, combined. Combined. Yeah. >> Combined. K through two and and third through fifth and these are all middle schoolers and it's almost half of our middle schoolers across the whole county. Correct. So, just to clarify, half of our middle schoolers are in a

107Lexia this year. I'm going to ask this what question as we just passed the budget, do we need more reading specialist in the middle school? We can always use more reading specialist. I think when you're talking about the volume, I don't even think one would one one more at each school would >> Well, and again, you have to remember too at two of our larger middle schools, I requested an additional English teacher. Because you have two teachers covering the entire grade level. Um that's a big load especially if you have students who are struggling. So, eighth grade teachers in two of our buildings have the entire eighth grade. Um Now, I would say that those [clears throat] students have made better than average progress. We know morphology is an issue for some of our students.

108Um vocabulary is huge. Um and as the rigor increases on the test, to me that becomes a greater concern. Um I think the bigger deal at middle school is morphology over phonics cuz if you can't you can break those words apart, you got to learn how to do that and And I will say that typically the kids move pretty quickly if they're at foundational if they're working in the program. It's filling those gaps about syllable types and helping them learn to be able to chunk words um that they may not have been taught explicitly or if they are they just needed more exposures of that. Well, and I do want to just throw out a little flag that our you know our our sixth graders this year were in first grade when COVID when we

109shut down the world for COVID. And so um this might not be a long-lasting problem. This might just I'm hopeful that this is something that we can this is filling those gaps that that happened just because of shutdowns and then you know their second grade year was kind of wacky because of how we had you know online for part of the year and then in school 2 days a week. So I think they've overcome quite a bit but that's what's looking at us in sixth grade right now. Um so I understand why why we probably have some phonics gaps. Absolutely. And like I said some of those students just needed more exposures. Um and they're getting that now. Does this or do you all have the ability to break this data down by sixth, seventh,

110and eighth? Yes. >> Because I I guess I would like to request to see my concern looking at this I'm going do we have eighth graders who are testing on like a second grade level getting ready to go into high school? Do we have are these sixth graders who are on a fifth grade level? Okay, not as much of a heartburn for me. But if we've got eighth graders who are getting placed because they're on a first or second grade level in some of these categories that's alarming to me. So I would like to see these broken down by sixth, seventh, and eighth just to see you know the pool of eighth graders there. Chair Horst, would you like me to share that with you or with Dr. Shifflett to share I mean we can

111do that. >> If you get the data to Dr. Shifflett he'll he'll share it with board members. But yes, I'd like to see that data. >> Yeah, I mean not a problem. Anything else? Board members? Okay, thank you all for your time. Did we Did we finish with the meeting or with the questions? Okay, board members. Our final two information items are a finance department staff report for March 23, 2026 and a financial review for the month of February 2026. You'll find those in your folder for your review. That concludes our informational items. We'll now move into superintendent comments. Thank you. I'm logged out of my computer but I think I can remember what I was going to say. So first I want to um give a big shout out to our fine arts uh

112programs and our um I can remember and and our and our theater folks. I musical season just wrapped up this past weekend. I had the opportunity to uh catch the the two winter musicals I guess or fall. I'm not sure what time of year that would have I mean it was in December so I guess it was not actually winter yet but it probably felt like it. And then the seven this spring or late winter whatever. And absolutely they were all terrific. I love uh that our high schools incorporate some art shows with that which is really uh nice to see what our students can do. So I'm always amazed at the talent of our students and and the work of our teachers our our musical directors, choir directors, you know uh band directors all

113those folks who work together to make that happen. So uh just really excited um that I was able to see all of them this year. I didn't work out for me last year but I I was able to hit them all this year. And then the other thing I want to just kind of share with the board and this is a good maybe segue. I misstated know what I was going to be sharing in terms of highlights but this year we introduced uh some benchmarks uh just one this this year uh in trying to to be pay more attention to our student achievement data. And um next year we're looking to um partner with the um comprehensive instructional program CIP. Uh 73 school divisions are already partnering with them and that will allow us to

114leverage their benchmarks uh and use their resources and that will then give us some really good data to use as we're moving through the school year. Plus one of the things I'm really excited about the um their benchmark assessments are uh allowed to be used in lieu of the growth assessments. So we will not have to do the state growth assessments. We'll do these benchmarks and then get some very very rich data that we can use to drive some instruction. So I'll be sharing more information in the coming months but I wanted to kind of give you guys a heads up that you know we've been talking among our instructional team and with our leadership about it you know if this is something that we could leverage to help us move forward. Um I would

115say somewhere around 2013, 14 we kind of moved away from division led benchmark assessments and we can also track some of our achievement scores since that time. So this is kind of maybe bring us back in line to um be a little bit more focused and a more more intentionality into our work and and leveraging the CIP I think it's going to be very beneficial to us uh as a for our teachers and for our for our students. So just wanted to kind of bring you up to speed with that. Thank you, Dr. Shifflett. Um that'll move us into board member highlights, questions, and comments. We'll start with Ms. Irons this evening. It was awesome this week to go see SpongeBob the Musical at um Elkton. The kids did such a wonderful job. It was

116charming. Um really delightful. So I was I was glad I got to take my son and one of his friends and we had a great time. Pulled the soundtrack on on the way home too. So um yes >> [laughter] >> um uh passing the budget was quite a project and um I'm excited about some of the things on there including I talked to Dr. um Mr. Bailey today about the Recada background check system that we're they're going to have. So in the future when we sign into a school it'll be a little bit different. We'll be using um your license and I've gotten to personally experience this at other schools. I it works really well and it just can flag things immediately for the people in the office. It is um just something to note

117a different system. There apparently there was one piloted several years ago that had some kinks in it and this is not the same one. Um so I think that that will just strengthen the safety and of our schools and um it's in line with some of the other things I'd like to do. Um so I'm going to pass it on from there but Thank you, Ms. Irons. Ms. Laura? Thank you. Um I too very much well, I enjoyed the musicals and I'm sad to see them done but there's there's another one coming up. There's a um elementary school musical at um Myers on Thursday evening. So one more chance, guys. And I forgot to mention Finding Nemo was also wonderful at Peak View. Sorry, don't want to forget. Finding Nemo Super cute. But it's it's

118always fun to see to see our theater in action. Um and please send me more information about like one act and all all the things that are coming up. Uh I also had the um opportunity to take some kids to the sci- the regional science fair and um some of our our CPS kids did absolutely great. Um especially Parker Young won the Stockholm state competition um and this is the highest water award at the fair and he has qualified for um the state science fair. We also had James Gurst, Eleanor Kaufman, Isabel Steinbeck, and Matteo Moussa will all be participating in the state science fair. Did I get the name right? Okay. >> [laughter] >> And congratulations to those stu- students. Oh, and one more. Uh Molly Hilton and Henley Heggs placed first place um

119for the Armed Forces Communication and Electronics Association International Award. So huge shout out to all of those students. Thank you, Ms. Laura. Ms. Cave? Ms. Burgoyne? I was just trying to look at my calendar because I feel like I've lived our CPS the past 2 weeks but I can't remember everything. Um the musicals were amazing. I do want to shout out this gentleman in the back here was in Anything Goes and he was amazing amazing. And you all are very familiar with Were you all in the musical as well? What were your parts? Cuz I I totally recognize you guys. Okay. Yes. Awesome. Yes. Okay, I knew I recognized you guys. And are you all musical or JMU? No? High school? Yes? Awesome. Okay, well welcome. Thank you guys for coming. Um but yeah, you

120guys were amazing. It was all the musicals were just so much fun and I didn't realize this when I got on the board because Mrs. Laura is always she would just remember kids and she's always like I remember when you were a baby and now I feel like I'm starting to see you kids and there was a point where we um Mrs. Laura and I were at a show together and we said please don't be a senior because we want to see you the next two, three, four years. And thankfully the the girl we were talking to was only a sophomore. So now I'm starting to realize, you know, we are also watching you guys grow and do amazing things. So that's been really cool. >> And it's so easy to geek out and be

121such a fan of you guys. So [laughter] we we are huge fans of the theater department and it's just so much fun. Yep. So thank you guys. Board members, I'll conclude by echoing Miss Flores' comments from earlier, thanking you all for your hard work over the last couple of months, especially on the budget. We've had a very busy first quarter of the of the year. We've had a lot going on. Board members are very much engaged in going out and visiting schools in addition to uh um things and special meetings that we have as well. And I would echo what Miss Flores said earlier. I feel like this was a very productive uh board budget session. We had a lot of great conversation as a board and we were able to um come together really

122well on our budget this year. And so I want to thank you all for all your time and energy. And then I also want to conclude by wishing everybody a fantastic spring break. We made it. Dr. Shiflett is not making us make up any of the snow days so far. We we made it to spring break. You get the full spring break. I hope that everyone has a wonderful, relaxing, well-rested spring break. Um you just got to make it to Friday. And with that, we don't have anything further this evening. Thank you all for coming out. Drive safely. This meeting is adjourned.