2026 03 09 - RCPS School Board Meeting

001testing. Testing. All right. Good evening. Welcome to our Monday, March 9th, 2026 regular meeting. Uh we met earlier this evening um in close session. So we are now ready to begin the open session of our meeting. Um and we'll begin that with a moment of silence. If you'd like to join us, thank you. At this time, we will stand for the pledge of allegiance. We're going to begin our evening with um some really exciting recognitions. So, if Mr. Bo Dickinson would come up, he's going to be presenting the first four awards. Um these are all social studies recognitions. Chair Hurst, members of the board, Dr. Shiplet tonight have the privilege of recognizing several Rockingham County uh schools students and educators. And these are folks who have earned state and national recognition for outstanding work in

002social studies and civic education. First, I'd like to recognize and although he unfortunately can't be here at the last moment, I do want to recognize him publicly and that is Mr. Steve Halman. He's a second grade teacher as many of you know at John C. Meers Elementary School. Steve earned second place in the state economic education awards from the Virginia Council of the Economic Education for his lesson quote unquote learning economics one scoop at a time. In this hands-on unit, students collect ingredients, produce trail mix, and run a small school sale while learning key economic concepts such as resources, producers and consumers, scarcity, and exchange. It's a joyful example of experiential learning that shows even our youngest students can begin to understand the fundamentals of how economies work. Next, in that same competition, I'd like

003to recognize Mrs. Kim Dove, who is here this evening, is able to be here this evening. She's an eighth grade civics and economics teacher at Wilbur S. Pence Middle School. Kim earned first place in the state economic education awards from again the V the VCE which is the Virginia Council on Economic Education for her lesson that is titled the ballot of buyers and sellers at an AI serenade. In this creative lesson, students participate in auctions and marketplace simulations to understand supply and demand and then use artificial intelligence tools to generate songs that explain how prices are determined in a market economy. We are fortunate to have strong teachers such as these with creative ideas, but also strong partners supporting this work in our schools. And one of those partners is the James Madison University Center

004for Economic Education works w excuse me which works closely with teachers across our region to strengthen economic and financial literacy. And we are very pleased to have Miss Lauren Shifflet who's the associate director and former Rockingham County Schools teacher of the JMU Center for Economic Education with us this evening. And at this time I'd like to invite her up to say a few words about both Mr. Halterman and Miss uh Kim Dove. >> My board. Thank you for having me this afternoon. I um one of the joys of after leaving the classroom and being able to take this uh position at JMU was to be able to work alongside educators and with the passion of economics. And I'll have to say about Mr. Haltman's um lesson, we judge at the state level. We locally judge

005with your economic success in the Rotary Club, but we also help judge at the state level. And um Mr. Haltman placed second at our local level in his elementary category, but when it came to state, he placed second. And so it was um nice to hear why. And part of that was there was no bells and whistles to it. It wasn't something you would see off of teachers pay teachers, which a lot of the awards that come in are very pretty. um it was just simple and it was economics. And so as Mr. um Dickinson said that when we get down to just the fundamentals of elementary and how we can build upon that um he clearly showed that with just a hands-on simulation in his classroom. He's also a big supporter of our gym

006fair which is our global entrepreneur market that we do in April. So we're really um glad that he was able to be recognized for that. Um, and [sighs and gasps] also Kim Dove, who I have um, had the pleasure of working alongside for the last four years after taking this position. She's probably one of the first people that contacted me after I took this job. She's an incredible educator, but not just an educator, but an incredible person um, who consistently goes above and beyond in her classroom to enhance her students economic education through creative and engaging approaches. And I know that sometimes artificial intelligence can get a bad rap, but when it's being used as a simple and effective tool to enhance a lesson by helping a teacher spark creativity, it works. It helped deepen

007the understanding, engage students in a meaningful ways. And her lesson, as stated before, the ballad of buyers and sellers and a AI serinade is a wonderful example how AI can support learning while still keeping students actively involved in the classroom. It also helps them in discussion, collaboration, and individual practice as they explore how supply and demand interact to determine prices in the marketplace. And I kind of just wanted to be in that class that day to be able to experience that. So, we at your economic success and the JMU Center for Economic Education are incredibly proud of Kimberly Dove and her outstanding accomplishments. Her achievement of placing first in the state is truly welld deserved and reflects the creativity, dedication, and passion she brings to her classroom and to economic education. >> I should have

008said wait wait wait for applause because Kim did not stop there. Um Kim was also selected as the Virginia social studies teacher of the year for the entire Commonwealth of Virginia. She received the Betsy S. Barton Award from the Virginia Council for the Social Studies, otherwise known as VCSS. In fact, both of those award ceremonies were scheduled for the same day in December. And Kim actually had to decide which state level first place award she was going to attend and accept. And I have to think that's when you know you're killing it. Uh when you the hardest decision you have to make is which statewide award you're going to show up and accept. So, uh, congratulations to you, Mrs. Dove. Uh, we'll have you come up and join us in just a moment. Um, it's

009important to pause for a moment and talk about who Betsy Barton was. That's the namesake of this award. Uh, Betsy served for many years at the Virginia Department of Ed and was one of the most respected social studies leaders in the Commonwealth. I had the privilege of knowing her and working with her and she was known for her deep love of democracy, civics's education, her commitment to teachers and her decades of dedicated service to students across Virginia. She was also a pure passion and a spitfire and she would have absolutely loved Mrs. Dove and they share the same joy, the same humor, and the same fierce belief in democracy and civic education. We're honored tonight to have Miss Sam Fetrell who is the outgoing president of the Virginia Council for the Social Studies who has

010traveled all the way from Richmond to be with us in person and to in recognition of the Betsy Barton Award and the accomplishments of Miss Kim Dove. At this time, I'd like to invite Sam up to say a few words as well. >> All right. Well, good evening everyone. And I'm so happy to be here with you all to recognize Kim for her second award. And I have to say that she did choose the civics award over our award to accept in December, but we won't hold that against you. Um, uh, when we went to Kim's school today to present her award, it was just so clear how beloved she is by her students and by the other faculty and the staff at uh, her school. And it was just an honor to see her,

011you know, in her natural environment, you know, and I think that she is exactly the type of teacher, like B said, that deserves a Betsy Barton teacher of the year award. Um, I want to just say a couple of more things. I know we uh we could wax on about Kim for hours tonight, but I did just want to mention that when we do talk about the purpose of social studies, especially right now where we are um in the United States, we often say that our job is to prepare students for civic life. And in Kim's classroom, that idea isn't just a goal, it's the foundation of everything that she does. She brings an incredible level of creativity and energy to her teaching. as her students know, um she teaches civic concepts through immersive simulations

012and hands-on projects just like the AI uh one mentioned just a few minutes ago. So, I am incredibly honored to be here to present her with our teacher of the year award. It was incredibly competitive this year. Um and so I am just so pleased to be here to meet her in person and to just see and honor her for the incredible work that she does. So, thank you so much. Thank you, Kim. I want to thank you both for for coming representing your institutions. These are very valuable partners. We wouldn't be able to do the things that we do in classrooms and build the curriculum and the experiences that we do without outside partners like those two orgs. Um, finally, I'd like to recognize a student. Uh, her name is Sierra Dickinson. She's an

013eighth grade student at Monavidio Middle School. And yes, we are related. Um, very proud that I have the great joy to be here both as a social studies leader and as a dad and parent. [snorts] Uh, Sierra's essay reflects on the meaning of freedom through a local story. This was an essay competition that she was selected for as the region five winner of Virginia 250 and it was uh the expressions of freedom competition sponsored by the office of the governor. uh she decided to write about a local story and she chose to write about the resilience amid resistance historical marker that was actually installed at the federal courthouse in Harrisonburg this past May and Sierra must have been hearing about that obviously in our household uh given that that was a project that involved two

014Rockingham County students uh Priyadua and Elizabeth Kidd but uh I think Sierra found that story inspiring learned about desegregation learned about the recognition of the Harrisonburgg Federal Court and Judge John Paul and of course that being the first court to implement the Brown decision in Virginia across the Commonwealth. Uh through this project, Sierra was able to meet several of the still living plaintiffs that connected to that story, who lived that history, who made that history. And that experience, I think, inspired her to draw a connection between 1776 and 2026. And that feels especially fitting as our nation prepares to celebrate 250 years since the Declaration of Independence. What does that mean today? Um, how have people lived that throughout history? And how have people brought us forward closer to its ideals? Her essay reminds us

015the story of American freedom is really the story of the evolution of democracy and that is an evolution that continues and one that we still strive for and one we defend. gives me special pride to recognize my daughter tonight, not only as a student in Rockingham County Public Schools. Um, but also as a student at Monavido Middle School and a child within my household. I'll close with her words. She wrote, "Freedom isn't just a word in a history textbook or something that we celebrate once a year on the July 4th holiday. It's something we all have to keep working toward as a country every single day. Thank you all for these recognitions today and please let's have all of our award winners come forward. We'd like to recognize you and honor you with a certificate

016of these accomplishments. So Kim Dove walk. >> Oh okay. >> Thank you. What a great idea. [laughter] >> Thank you. [laughter] >> Thank you. and do photo. [laughter] >> Thank you all very much. It's very proud to be the social studies leader of a division with teachers and students that accomplish things such as these. >> But you know, I have a question. Well, >> oh, sure. >> But wait, there's more. [laughter] But don't go anywhere. >> But don't go anywhere. But wait, there's more. Um, Miss Donna Abernathy is actually going to present a special award to our very own Bo Dickinson. >> Yes. So, thank you for staying up here, Mr. Dickinson. So, Chair Hurst, board members, Dr. Shifflet, I'm here to extend a hearty congratulations to Mr. Bo Dickinson on being named the National

017Social Studies Supervisor of the Year by the National Social Studies Leaders Association. This prestigious award recognizes leaders who inspire educators, advocate for excellence in social studies, and demonstrate outstanding vision in the field. As a social studies supervisor for Rockingham County Public Schools, Mr. Dickinson has dedicated his career to advancing in inquiry based instruction and advocating for more inclusive standards at the state level and mentoring educators across Virginia. In RCPS, Mr. Dickinson has worked closely with teachers to embed inquiry across grade levels. One notable example is a fourth grade investigation of Barbara John's in the student strike that helped spark the board of Brown board versus Brown of education decision. The lesson developed by RCPS teachers and supported by Mr. Dickinson was featured on the cover of social studies and the young learner highlighted in an

018article he co-authored with Dr. Emma Facker of James Madison University and later showcased nationally on NPR's Mind Shift podcast. Mr. Dickinson has also helped lead a major shift in assessment practices by partnering with teachers and Dr. Dr. Kathy Swan, an associate professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Kentucky, to replace traditional so tests in several courses with inquirybased performance assessments that require students to analyze sources and construct historical arguments. This work was published in social education in the article teaching to a better test and has gained attention as a model for assessment reform. In addition, Mr. Dickinson has maintained a decadesl long partnership with the Motton Museum, helping develop the Farmville tour guides project in collaboration with Mrs. Joan John's Cobbs, the sister of Barbara John's. Through this project, students researched the history

019of the 1951 Moten Student Strike and serve as museum tour guides, helping younger students understand the origins of the Brown versus Board of Education case. The initiative later expanded into the student produced documentary Knocking Down Walls, which was featured on Good Morning America and contributed to the installation of a Virginia state historical marker recognizing the Harrisonenberg federal courthouse as the site of the first court decision to implement the Brown decision in Virginia. This event highlights the importance of learning how national events unfold in our own community. So, we are extremely proud of Mr. Dickinson's dedication to bringing history to life for our Rockingham County Public School students. I got to sit on the >> Miss Lur, did you have any questions for Mr. Dson? >> Okay. Okay. Congratulations to everyone here that is an award

020winner. It's pretty awesome. Okay. So, moving on with other board business tonight. Um, the next item on our agenda are the public comments and no one signed up for those. So, we'll move on to the next thing which is the consent agenda. Board members, there are a few items in the consent agenda for your approval. the minutes from February 18th, 2026. The minutes from February 23rd, 2026, field trips, a personnel listing, and with those things in mind, I would like a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Thank you, Miss Laur. >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Cave. Any questions or comments? Hearing none. All those in favor to approve the consent agenda, please say yes. >> Yes. All those opposed say no.

021>> Motion passes 5. We'll now move into um our action items. The first of which is a bid recommendation for a modular classroom for Lacy Springs brought to us by Mr. Steve Reid. Chair H. Dr. Shiffick. Members of the board, the bid for the mod classroom was properly specified and advertised. We had five suppliers were sent bid packages and received bids uh from two. Our recommendation is to award the contract in the amount of 179,772 to Mobile Management Corporation from Livermore, California. >> Thank you, Mr. Reid. Dr. Shifflet. >> Chair Hurst and board members, I recommend awarding the bid for a modular classroom at Lacy Spring Elementary School to the lowest bidder as presented by Steve Reid, director of maintenance. >> Thank you, Dr. Shifflet. Board members, do we have a motion? I move to

022follow the superintendent's recommendation. I'm just going to leave it at that because I can't talk tonight. >> Thank you, Miss Lure. >> Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Burko. Board members, do you have any questions for Mr. Reid? So, is this a new This is brand new bachular. Okay. Do we do we get more than one school out of them? Do we >> This This unit is large enough to get two classrooms. >> Okay. But like we have we have obviously we have modular units throughout the the division. Do we ever move them >> near like we used to have? No, >> that's true. >> Um yeah, we do move them. I mean there was one year that we moved 20ome. Uh that was a number of years ago. Uh

023right now we don't have any that we would say are are free to move that but are not you needed schools are at [clears throat] >> just curious about those little details about modular units that I wasn't familiar with so figured you guys would find it interesting too >> escape >> um were you going to say something or um I guess when you say not nearly as many as we used to one thing when we were talking with safe about safety with >> Caleb he u Mr. Bailey, he does not like modular units and I just here we are adding another one. Um, and nothing against you, but I just we we were sort of talking about it earlier and wondering if we're utilizing all the space at Lacy like we should or are there

024any rooms that we could use as opposed to getting another modular unit? I would love to see us have no modular units. I know that's probably probably a pipe dream, but you know across the division, but are we utilizing space? And I don't know if that's a question for you, Mr. I apologize, but >> I can say that not this within the last this year, but previous last end of last year, I walked the building with the principal there and we looked at every space and she was using everything that she had. Um, so yeah, there was there was really nothing available. >> Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Um, at this time, we'll take a um vote on the motion to follow superintendent's recommendation to award the bid for a modular classroom at Lacy Springs

025to the lowest bidder as presented by Steve Reid. All those in favor, please say yes. Yes. Yes. >> All those opposed, say no. >> Motion passes 5-0. Thank you. The next action item that we have um are two policy revisions. Going to turn this over to Dr. Shifflet. >> Oh yes. Thank you, Chair Hurst. Um at our meeting on February 23rd, I presented some revisions to policy JC, school attendance areas, and JEC-R, admission of non-resident students. And I would like to uh recommend approval of the proposed uh policy changes as presented. >> Thank you, Dr. Shifflet. Board members, do we have a motion to follow his recommendation? >> I move to follow the superintendent's recommendation to approve the proposed policy revisions as presented. >> Thank you, Miss Lord. Do we have a second? >> Second.

026Thank you, Miss Burggoyne. Board members, do you have any questions or comments? Hearing none, all those in favor say yes. Yes. All those opposed say no. Motion passes 5-0. That moves us into information items. Tonight we have two information items. Um, Mr. Chris Sers is going to present to us a RCPS transportation fleet update. Thank you, Chair Harris, Dr. Shifflet, members of the board. Thank you. Thanks for having me here to speak this evening to uh give some information about our current fleet. Um you'll see as we go through some of these slides here. [clears throat] The majority focus of this is certainly on the bus fleet, but there is a slight mention of our our car fleet as well, our white fleet, which is consist of sedans, trucks, uh service vans, and minivans. All

027right. So, the VDOE administrative code for purchasing says that the responsibility for purchasing school buses and school activity buses which meet state and federal requirements rest with division superintendent and local school boards. A schedule for the replacement of buses on a continuing basis shall be developed and implemented by each school division. So VDOE comes up with uh recommendations that they say that that school districts in Virginia should be following. Uh but there's no strict rule. They don't say you have to do this or you have to do that. They just say that whatever it is that you all come up with uh meaning school board, superintendent as a division, once it's in place, we should be following it, right? but there's no set guideline that says that you have to do anything um other than

028have some sort of a schedule. So, a recommendation that they're providing is based on what a lot of other school districts in Virginia are doing um and that is replacing buses once they reach to be somewhere in the 12 to 15 year old range andor around 200,000 miles. And the recommendation is to replace close to 10% of the fleet annually. Um, again, the guidelines are not strictly enforced, but they expect adherence to the schedule once it's created. So, our our shop foreman who's here with me tonight, Jake Good and I reached out to numerous uh other school divisions within mainly within our general area within Virginia um just to kind of get an idea of what it is that they were doing as far as their replacement schedule goes. And we heard back from nine

029different divisions. And they're summarized up here. I'll just start with the first one and kind of work down. But I didn't mention names of the divisions, but I obviously know exactly who each one is. But so school district A, uh, they have a plan in place. They're on year four or five right now with their school board to, um, replace roughly 12 buses a year, which ends up being about 8% of their entire fleet. Uh their director actually told me that's actually bumped up to about 13 buses a year now because they've started replacing an activity bus every year. Uh school district B has an agreement to replace four buses a year, which is about 6 and a half% of their fleet. C replaces 3 to five buses a year or 6 to 10%. And

030then school district is age based. So they're replacing on a schedule of once a bus reaches about 20 years old, they're they're replacing it. Then uh school district E is more of an approximation. So, uh, they do not have an exact plan, uh, policy written in place, but they replace about 10% of their fleet annually. Uh, and then F,G, and H are kind of similar to what we've been doing, which is basically we replace buses when we have money to replace buses, right? There's no set rule or how many we do. It's just when we have the money, we replace them. So, uh, and then school district I is, uh, on a a 15-year, I'm sorry, replaces buses on a 15 once they reach 15 years of age, and they're on a 5-year rotation schedule

031as part of their capital improvement plan is what they informed us. Um, so the key takeaways there obviously is that strategies vary significantly. Some are age based, some are a percentage, some obviously depend on when funding is available. Um, I can say that school district B, the one who's replacing four districts, they told me that they have an agreement with their board of supervisors who's actually they just purchased the buses for them. So, all the others seem to go through the somehow with the school board. >> Approximately what size are they? I mean, I could probably do math, but >> they're not huge, right? >> They're about 60 buses total. 60. Yeah. [snorts] How long does it take on average for a bus to get to 200,000 miles? >> You I'll get there in just

032a second, I think. Yeah. So, uh, so our bus fleet age. So, I have the next two slides. This one's about age. The next one's about mileage. So, uh, the age. So, currently we have 228 total buses. This is strictly buses. The next slide or two slides or so from now, you'll see me talk about the the cars and vans. But [snorts] strictly speaking about our buses, eight of those are activity buses. So at each high school, there's a a small activity bus and a large activity bus. The small bus is a 14 passenger. The large bus is a 77 passenger. Those are not used for transporting children to and from school. They're just used for transporting to and from activities. Um those are now 9 and 10 years old, right? So they're 2016 2017

033models. The average of our fleet, the age is about roughly 14 years old or right around uh 2012 model year gear. Of our uh bus of our 228 buses, we have over 110 that are at least 15 years old. That number is actually 114. So exactly half of our current fleet. Uh the buses are 15 years old. Of those, we have 60 buses or over 60. It's 62 that are at least 20 years old. We have 26 buses currently that are 25 years old at least. And uh we have six buses that are at least 30 years old. >> Just 15 years old, >> right? That's correct. Yeah. We keep on keeping on. Yeah. >> Yeah. Okay. >> How many of those six are spares? >> All of them. >> Okay, good. >> Yeah. Yeah.

034All six of those buses are spares. There's a couple at the shop right now. Uh but we still have some housed at a couple schools right now as spares. I mean, they're not being used obviously for, you know, we're not driving to Blackburg on a FFA trip or anything with those, right? They're uh if we have a bus mechanical issue, a breakdown, something wrong, right? Then we may run out >> of the windshield. We had that this year. >> Yeah. >> Mhm. Then we may run out to, you know, Broadway High School and a driver might pick up one of those buses to take kids to around town in Broadway, right? >> Would you say the same is true for the 25 years old or do you have are some of those >> some of

035those are still running? >> Some of those are still doing daily routes. Okay. >> Yeah. [clears throat] >> Yeah. >> Okay. I'm sorry because these are just very >> I want to say shocking numbers. Um I'm um >> opening. >> Well, this is what I asked for. This is what I asked for. So the spares, >> how often do you use a spare? >> Is this like once a week? Somebody has to grab one once a month. >> I get to drive them a lot. >> Yeah, Mr. Yeah, Mr. drives them all the time. So, um and I think you've probably driven anywhere from some of the older ones to some of the new ones. Yeah. >> When you when you retire from the board, we'll gift you a bus. One of these really dinosaur

036buses. Now, how many how often are they used? >> Yeah. Um, I'd say on average, I mean, mo all of our daily route buses, again, they're not the 30-y old buses, but a couple of those would be 25 years old. So, those are run every day. Um, >> we have a few uh substitute drivers that often will travel around depending on where they're driving and they may go pick up a bus. So some of them may, you know, I'd say once a week maybe would go pick up us, you know, whatever 194 at Broadway High School, which is a 1995 model, I believe, you know. So, and again, drive a route around the Broadway area, but or same thing out of Spotswood. Uh Dr. Shiko when he was here and he was coaching the uh

037girls soccer team at at Spotswood. It was it was funny because he would always comment he commented to Jake numerous times about how he never wanted us to get rid of bus the 180 186 [clears throat] um which I believe is a 95 model bus because whatever he would drive that's what he would use. And even though it was an older bus it ran it started. It was great. He loved it. So you know so the the older buses still serve a purpose right? They're just uh they've got some age on them for sure and some mileage. All right. Uh, speaking of mileage, so our average mileage right now, the average on all the buses would come down to about 136,000 miles. We have more than half the buses, so 118 currently are over a

038100,000 miles. And about half of that number are over 150. Uh, 49 buses currently are over 200,000 miles. Close to half of those uh are over 250,000. And then large mileage, right? Uh three buses. We currently have over 350,000 miles. And one of those is uh about 7 or 8,000 away from topping 400,000. And that bus um was up until Christmas, up until winter break, that bus was a daily route bus. The driver who uh Miss Laura, you would probably remember Lois Baker got that bus. She drove in the Broadway area for 30 some years. She got it new many years ago. and uh ran it every day and it's a great bus, great running, high quality. She retired two years ago and we used it, continued to use it on a route. Uh and

039then the driver who was driving it just she resigned and uh due to you know driver issues we kind of ended up consolidating that route. So that bus is no longer in operation daily, but it was driven today as a spare bus. So it does still get driven. You know, we actually house it. I think we actually might have it right out right now for a spare somewhere. Um, we keep but we keep it at the shop when it's not in use. So, [snorts] uh, and then just to throw out our our our white fleet numbers, right? This is the only slide I have dedicated to this, just our our cars, vans, um, sedans, and trucks. We have two 104 total vehicles that we operate at the bus garage. Uh, over or 71 of those

040have over 100,000 miles. 22 of those have over 200,000 and the fleet averages about model year 2013 on about 138,000 miles. All right. So the next slide has to do with what we actually do every day and annually. So, every year the third week of October, uh the every school division in Virginia does a wrership report or a pupil transportation report where basically we have all of our drivers track the number of students that are riding the bus and they track each student that's on the bus for five consecutive days and they also track the mileage on for one day. And we then of course put everything into a spreadsheet. it gets filtered out and we just we figure out rough averages as a school division for what it is that we're actually doing on

041a daily basis which then equates into an annual basis. So you can see that the student number of students that we transport daily is a little over 70. This this is from 2024 2025. Sorry I didn't say that even though it's up there. Um the we do it every October. So last October is when we we we submitted the um or I'm sorry, last October, yeah, is when we submitted the report for the 2024 2025 school year. So we won't actually have this year's officials numbers until later in the fall. So um but you can see then so was about 7,100 students we transport daily. Our live miles, which is miles with students on board, right? when you're actually have you pick up your first student and you drop off your your last student. Uh

042that comes out to be uh on an annual basis about 954,000 miles. Break that down daily. It's based off of 180 days. That's what the formula equates to. So it's not going to be exact because of you know missing snow days and things like that. But uh it comes out to be about 5,300 daily live miles. Uh dead miles without students about 619,000 breaks down daily to about 3,400. And the buses in operation were about 160 for the regular education buses. So the next slide is our exclusive transportation which is our sped uh buses. Again this is not uh factoring in any of our vans and and cars that we run for special transportation daily which ends up being about 35 vehicles total that we do every day. Uh but this is strictly for buses

043for this time period was 15. Uh daily usage comes up to about 160 students. We're transporting live miles a little over 170,000 breaks down daily to about 950. Dead miles a little under 156,000 and daily dead miles is 865. So if we add everything together and we come up with with totals here and we throw in some numbers for uh extra trips, right? Field trips, athletics, summer school, things like that, we we come up with the numbers up there. So live miles about 1.1 million daily 6250 other miles again field trips uh athletic trips things like that we're looking at over 260,000 dead miles almost 775 daily dead miles 4300 for a grand total of about 2,162,000. Um, and the last slide, this is we were quoted, uh, Jake and I got in touch with

044with Kingmore Supply, which sells the buses that we operate. Uh, they're located in Mount Crawford, so their local company here in Rockingham County. They're based here. They were founded here. Uh, they have branches now in Northern Virginia and in the Hampton Roads area, but their home base is still under Mount Crawford where um, on Route 11 South wherevers used to be, if you remember the restaurant. Um, and we were quoted, we contacted somebody there that the the the quote for a regular bus of a 77 passenger, which is the max capacity that we can legally carry in Virginia, uh, is quoted at about $141,000 this year. And a special transportation bus with the wheelchair lift and with air conditioning and for the driver as well as the front and the rear of the bus comes

045out to about $144,000. Uh the the 77 passenger only includes driver AC. It's about $10,000 more for AC throughout the bus. That's our numbers. >> Board members, I'm sure there are questions. Who would like to go first? >> Question. >> When it comes to buses, I imagine like cars, you know, 40 years ago, they didn't have much technology in them and now they're just covered in it. Are buses like that or buses typically like what what has changed? Is it changing progressively and increasing the cost? >> They have changed over the years certainly. Um there there's still there's a lot more electronic equipment into a bus now, right? It's a lot of sensors, a lot of diagnosing buses, and Jake can attest to this a lot better than I can. But when you're diagnosing an

046issue, it's hooking up a computer to it and running the platform that way, right? Figuring out what the problem is. >> Um >> it's easy if you have a leak somewhere and you can see that you have a hose that's busted, right? That's simple to fix. But when you have to dig in deeper then it comes a lot of technology if it goes involved into doing it. Uh so that's where all of our guys on the road have laptops and we're diagnosed in that way. So yeah uh there is a lot more technology if it goes into the buses for sure. >> So does that at all contribute to how we can have buses that are 30 years old and still operational just because like they're really top-notch quality? >> Yeah, I'd say so. I

047mean that's a lot of it. Yeah. I mean a lot of it is the the quality of the buses that we still operate even though they are obviously quite a bit old. you know, they still run, right? And our mechanics do a heck of a job actually keeping them running. That's that's, you know, I cannot attest enough to what they do, right? I mean, that's really >> what it is. I mean, it's it's a it's a hard job. We we do those guys are out. We do inspections of our buses every 30 days. You know, the state requires every 45 days, but we do it a little bit more than that. Um, so we're making sure that everything is operable, they're running properly. Um, with that being said, obviously there are things that, you know,

048pop up and things happen, right? So, we're I think Jake and I were talking earlier, we're we're at right now 10 or 11 buses or so that have some age on them that are soon most likely going to start looking to need new engines, right? New motors in those buses. And we uh just got quoted about $32,000 to replace a engine. And the question is, do we want to put $32,000 into a bus that's got 200,000 mi and is 22 years old? Right. That's that's a question. But but yes, what we have we keep running because we have great mechanics who keep them going. >> That was my other question about school district D on that the fourth slide or so. Is it cost effective to continue to fix buses, you know, like as you

049just said because especially given that particular district replaces every 20 years? >> Yeah. Yeah. I I I mean I think the answer is basically it depends, right? It depends on what the issue is and what it's going to cost, right? I mean, if we're talking about just building or buying parts to to reconfigure a motor, I mean, we're we're we were pricing some stuff earlier and we're still looking at 20 to $25,000 by the time it's all said and done to get what we need. That's if we can find the parts that we need to buy to get it. That's a catch also with a lot of these older buses. It's just like you can imagine with your vehicles, right, your cars, it's hard to find >> equipment, right? It's hard to find stuff that

050we can actually use that's that's got some age to it. Can you um tell the the rest of the group how you do the maintenance on the buses? And because I feel like in Rockingham, we do a better job than a lot of these other school districts as far as like oil changes at this time and the the inspections and all that. Can you can you speak to that a little bit because you guys do a great job and I want you I want you to toot your own horn a little bit. >> Yeah. I'm going to let uh Jake toot his horn a little bit. He he >> Yeah. >> And I need a good glasses coming off. Sorry. [laughter] I'll be taking that real one. >> Uh, how y'all doing? Uh, I'm Jake

051uh from over the shop. So, I'm a little nervous. First time being up here talk to y'all, but uh we got a we got a real good maintenance program. Uh, years ago, uh, our maintenance program, you know, it's got involved with your fleet and with everything else. And the last 10 years or so, we've really brought our maintenance program up. At one time there was nothing for us to have two buses broke down in every area every morning and every evening. Now if we have one bus broke down a day, that's that's something big. Uh that's the last big snowstorm we had. Every one of our buses started except for one that was in park or a drive. We get to the bus. >> Think back to how cold it was for those couple weeks.

052>> And I had a I had a division call me and say, "Hey, how did y'all do that?" I said, "Well, with our maintenance program." Well, tell me about your maintenance program. So, I'm telling him about our maintenance program. He's like, "Well, we can't afford to do that." I'm like, "Okay, well, how many buses did you have not start this morning?" He said, "37." I said, "Okay, every one of ours started except for one that wasn't in neutral. So, you can either pay now or pay later. It costs a lot of money to do the maintenance on them, but in the end run, it's it's for the good of the kids to make sure, and I know y'all probably don't want to hear this. I'm not concerned about them being late. I'm concerned about them

053being safe. if I'd rather them be an hour late and safe than on time and not safe. And that's one thing I we preach to the guys is safety. And it cost us a lot of money to keep safety and stuff, but it's it's what we got to do to keep the buses going. And we we've got a heck of a maintenance problem. We've got other divisions that call us and want want a copy of our maintenance plan because they know we we got a good we got a good program going. It's like me and him was talking earlier, some of our buses now, the ones we were talking about the engines, if the parts are available, it's $14,000 just for the parts. And I know our labor is immaterial cuz we're already there getting

054paid for, but you're talking $14,000 just for parts for a 20-y old bus. And the and the engine, we can't put the engine in anymore because it voids the warranty if we put the engine in. So, we have to have International Deal or somebody put the engine in for us because we can't Well, I mean, we can do it, but it voids the warranty on it. You don't want to void the warranty on a $25,000 engine. >> You want to help with 30-day inspections? >> Yeah. Uh the state department requires every 45 days you physically like you take your car to a shop somewhere and get it state inspected. We have to do that to a bus every 45 days, but we do it every 30 just because we like that extra that extra little

055safety buffer in there. And then it gives it takes us about three weeks to check them all. And then it takes us and we do the cars, too. The state law says you don't even have to do cars, but we want to do cars just for I want to make sure the kids are safe. Gives me a little peace of mind knowing the kids are safe. And uh we do them every 30 and then it takes us three weeks to do them all and it takes us three weeks to fix all the problems and then we start over again. We just started again today with the the fourth one for this year. Um and that's >> any questions. Do we do we have higher costs for our maintenance because some of these are so old?

056>> To to be honest with you, the the maintenance cost on the old ones are not as high as the maintenance cost on the new ones because of the emissions and stuff. Like we just had one two weeks ago, the they call the DPF, the diesel particulate filter. It went bad. It was $14,000 just to replace and that bus didn't have a 65,000 mi on it. and $14,000 was our cost. I don't know what it would cost somebody off the street to walk in there and buy the parts cuz we buy so many parts off of them. They give us a a good discount. But the the newer buses when when you have something happen with the the after treatment they call it with the death fluid and stuff, it you can forget it. It

057cost you a fortune >> and you got to have it. You can't run it without it. It's illegal to delete it. >> It shouldn't pass inspection. >> Right. Right. So, the dinosaur buses are cheaper, but >> if you can get the parts, right? That's what you need. See, like the la the last two dinosaurs that we had that went down, they don't make the parts for them anymore. So, I I got a shop at my house and I took the parts home and machined them to make them fit off. We took three different buses and made one. And we if we have if we have a bus that's in an accident, right, we have a breakdown or we have we have an accident that the bus ends up getting total, right? I mean, a lot

058of times if it's cost cost effective and and functional for us to do it, we'll buy the bus bus back or get the bus back from our insurance company, right? We we pay a minimal usually salvage fee and we get that back. Well, a lot of times, you know, there may be say frame damage, let's say, for a bus, right? Well, well, the state's going to say or law enforcement is going to say or the insurance is going to say you you can't run that bus anymore. It's total. But if it's happened in the rear of the bus, everything under the hood's still functional and works fine. So, we have a a graveyard, a junkyard, whatever, kind of at our shop that we have, you know, some buses that are still left behind and we'll

059strip them and make use of what we have just to make use of what we have without having to buy extra equipment sometimes, extra parts. >> Did Did the one that got hit in Louisa County join the boneyard? >> That joined the boneyard >> and it was a relatively new bus, so it was good that we could at least sell. >> Yeah. That was less than 10 years old. Yeah, it was probably six or seven years old. >> It had 60 58,000 miles on it. >> Yeah. But it'll come in good forms. >> Nice. >> Nobody got hurt. That's the main thing. >> It's It's actually a little bit too Jake and I were talking earlier. It's a little bit too new of a bus to um the engine won't work in the older buses

060because it's just newer engine, right? So, what we actually need to start looking at maybe replacing soon, that's not one we can use. So, >> well, I want to say big thank yous to our transportation department. And I I tell you, I would put he was saying it earlier, I would put our I'd put our maintenance for I'd put our guys up against anybody. Our guys, I'm not saying it because I used to be one of the guys in the shop, but our guys are topnotch. It's it's the best group of mechanics you're ever going to want to be around. And we have people trying to steal them all the time. >> I I I think that that shows when you look at the age of some of our vehicles and um the mileage on

061them. Um I think my question is um you know, I've only been on the board two years. This is my third third round of budgets. Um my question I think is what are your recommendations? I know I know what we didn't do the last two years. Usually when when things get a little tight and we have to make cuts. Sure. >> Um we end and I I think this is universal. Boards will end up deferring maintenance on something to to get by. Um, obviously we can't keep doing that. And I know I know in our budget discussions we've how many do we have? >> Eight. We've put eight in for this year. Um, that's a good start, but what are what are your recommendations? Because like you said, we kind of have an ad hoc

062we we replace a few buses when we have a little extra money. Is is that the best way to go? >> Not at all. No. So [laughter] by no means is that the best way to do it. >> What is your recommendation? So my my re >> well before you go to your recommendation um while you've been here I've been here longer than you have and I can't remember more than four in a year. >> Did we do what's the most we've done while you've been here? >> I believe we bought six last year. >> Oh well then I guess I wasn't paying attention. >> Yeah. >> Oh okay. >> Yeah. But that's like 1% >> on average three or four is about what we've been doing. Yeah. So, um that's what we've done >>

063and we should be doing about 22 to keep up with 10%. >> So, that's Yeah. So, if we were replacing about 10% of our fleet, yes, it would be about 22 buses. Um realistically, I'd probably recommend if somehow we could end up getting to around 15 buses a year. That really would be ideal. If you just think about the math on it, right, 225 buses, we do 15 buses, replace them, run them for 15 years, and then it's time to start over again, right? Is that right? 15, 15, 225, I think. So, um, that would be a good number to get to, I think. I mean, 20 would be obviously fantastic. 10 would be great, you know. I mean, if we can get somewhere up closer to there, we're in we're in pretty good shape.

064But, yeah, I mean, again, a lot of the other school districts that we talked to, I mean, they're nobody was less than 6% of the fleet and most of them were six to eight somewhere in that area is what they were doing. Uh, now I will say, I mean, we're substantially larger than every district we heard back from, too. you know, we have two again 228 220 daily buses, right? Or 220 buses that are actually on the road could be on the road minus the activity buses. Uh whereas a lot of the schools, I think the largest one that I talked to other than us was about 150 buses. So, you know, it's a big quite a difference, right? And the the price the prices go up. They're crazy. Four years ago, you could buy

065one for $86,000. >> Four years ago, $86,000. the the three the five we bought the five we bought in July was 126,000. >> Wow. >> And now they're 1441. >> The year before that they were about 112 113. >> That's how quickly >> that's a basic bus with just some heat, no AC. >> It's that's a basic bus with heat throughout the bus and then it has driver AC. So just think of like in your car like in dash AC with the air blowing on you on a vent. >> It cost It cost >> AC with those windows. It costs more now to get it without the driver AC. It cost $500 more to get it without the driver AC because it's all standardized and they have to take it off the assembly line and

066block everything off. So, you got to pay more to get it without >> the driver AC. >> We have um [clears throat] of our total fleet, we have about 25 sped buses and we just retrofitted two sped buses what a couple months ago that have AC in them. There's a lot of Chris Bryant could probably attest to this better than I can. There's a lot of IEPs now with students that are requiring to have AC in their in their transportation right in their vehicle home. So, [clears throat] if they're in a bus, we're having to add more to that. Uh, and it cost us $14,000 per bus to retrofit it. And that's because it's, you know, there's they had to move switches and change other things around and put it in. But, um, so it

067costs more to do it after the fact than it does to do it when you're building the bus. And how many of our current regular buses uh the regular um how many of those have air conditioning currently? >> So the driver AC is just on the ones that we've purchased in the last what two years. So I think it's nine of them totally. >> It's nine of them. And do you think because I mean I got an opinion but do you think that would help with driver retention and and recruitment? >> I mean it certainly wouldn't hurt. >> I definitely know I'd like driving it better in general. >> I think it's it's nice. I mean, just think about, you know, driving a school bus without AC and on, you know, the second week of

068May, right? Or first week, >> the only kind I ever get. Yeah. It's it's hot in there. You roll all the windows down all you want, but it still gets hot in that bus, right? And while the driver AC obviously doesn't it it doesn't solve every problem. It is helpful, you know, when you do have cold air at least blowing on you as you're have the sun beating right in on the windshield in front of you. >> I will just share a personal story. [laughter] My uncle um is a bus mechanic and I have not called him because he'll probably yell at me. Um you guys need to buy them more buses. Um but he is a bus mechanic in in Indiana. And um when they have really old buses, they do a school bus

069derby like at the fairgrounds or whatever. And I got to go to one years ago and it was a blast because everybody got to decorate these buses and all the money went to a good cause. So, I just want to throw it out there in case we want to have a school bus derby with these dinosaurs eventually. >> We'll drive. Dr. Shiff can drive. Miss Lur can drive >> for a good cause. We have a TA bus. The spots would I'm just saying. Okay. >> Do it at the fairgrounds. I would certainly pay and come out and raise money for the schools. I just it it was a lot of fun. I just remember that when I was in high school going to that. Um >> does the transportation budget count as the good cause?

070>> Absolutely. Yes. It is four more buses, but I it was a blast. So, um, >> we we have made use I mean some buses that we just need to take out of service they they eventually become junk buses for various reasons. And, uh, we've donated buses to MTC before, but they use for a couple programs there for kind of turning them over. Yeah, I think they have one out there now they're working on. Uh, we've donated one to fire and rescue in Rockingham County. So, they could use and they may just take it and push it down a hill and then show what you need to do to, you know, evacuate from it, right? But that's it's gets no other use other than that. So, yeah. And then we sell at at an auction

071that we do every fall. You know, we we usually have a few buses that we end up I think we only had one or two this year, but normally we'll have a few buses we end up selling for >> money. What do you what do they usually bring at these auctions? How much, >> Steve? A couple thousand dollars, if that. >> Yeah. >> When we get done with them, you don't want it. I mean, you might want to make a garage out of it or something or like a >> Well, I'm just wondering if if if Miss if Miss Burggoyne wants to do a We can probably school bus derby. I'm just wondering what the tradeoff is. So about $1,000 we would give up in exchange for the derby. >> For a derby, right? >>

072Right. >> Other than being in an accident, the the only thing that we really junk them for is body rot. And we just run into one today. It's going to be like $8,000 to fix it. It's a 95 model. >> You're not going to spend that on 64 passenger bus. But that's why we the biggest reason we get rid of them is body rod. It's not for mechanical stuff. >> Yeah. >> Now, another big question. Do we have enough drivers to drive all these buses? >> No, ma'am. >> And how do we how do we fix that? >> Right. Yeah. That's the million-dollar question. I uh we we are always looking for drivers, right? We're we're always recruiting folks. We're always offering classes. We have classes every month now. Uh usually every other month it's

073in the evening. the off months is that during the day still so we can usually accommodate most folks schedule. Um we do have a handful of teachers that drive for us so on a daily route so they have contracted positions do that. I know we we talked a couple years ago where now the to go towards retirement right for the VRS now if a teacher is driving a bus as well then that additional money that they're making as a bus driver is majorly beneficial to them now to make more money and especially down the road for when it comes to retirement. So that's a big a big factor. But yeah, I mean it's uh it's an ongoing battle trying to get folks to to drive every day, right? I mean, we have uh we just

074had a class that just finished up last week. We had two people in there. It's great to have two people, but we could use 12 people, right? I was >> saying you need 10 more. >> Yeah, we need 10 more. So, >> how much does it cost to train somebody and who's paying for it? Like those two people? >> Yeah. So, we we pay our trainers currently uh $30 an hour. So we put in roughly between 45 and 50 hours of training into a a new trainee, a new applicant. >> Do we ever have any issues where they get trained by us and then go elsewhere? >> Yes, ma'am. >> We have talked about that with the policy. [laughter] >> Yeah, we we have discussed that before. uh it doesn't happen like it it it

075once did but you know between us uh Harrisonburg city you know Augusta County right some local divisions not a lot of people were job hopping between school divisions like that at least getting trained here and going to drive in Harrisonburg because it's pretty much the same program no matter how you slice it right um but there may be somebody who's just wanting to get a bus to go drive a dump truck right or to get a license to go drive a dump truck for example and now the federal government says that everybody is required to go forth with a certain amount of training hours to become come compliant to be able to drive a CDL vehicle, right? A commercial vehicle. Um, well, if you go to a local community college, for example, to pay to

076become a driver, that's going to cost you a few thousand dollars, right? We don't charge people to come train with us. We just expect them to drive for us once they get completed training. And sometimes that's easier said than done. We're gonna go down this rabbit hole, but is there like a top one, two, or three complaints about the job of being a bus driver that you hear on repeat? >> Yes, ma'am. Um, >> what are those? >> I mean, pay of course is always a a concern, right? But that's a concern no matter where you look, where you go, that's a concern. Uh, I mean, we've over the since I've been here in the last five and a half years, we have jumped our numbers up quite a bit as far as our daily

077our daily pay, but the drivers get uh as a contracted position. When I first started, it was around $17 an hour, I believe, in 2021. And now we're up to close to $21 an hour. So, a little under. It's about 2073, I think, exactly. Um, again, we're talking about three and a half hours a day, 17 hours a week. So, you know, when you when you move that out over the course of a year, it's not a not a ton of money, but it is beneficial because they're considered full-time employees and get full-time employee benefits, right? Um, so that's always obviously a concern is of course pay more. Uh, but the number one concern that I I hear and and other transportation directors I speak with throughout Virginia really hears is um student behavior, right?

078Working through discipline issues. Uh, and I was actually working with Miss Abernathy and Miss Marts recently. We we've we've created a a bus discipline matrix to kind of come up with a more unformed way to work through some of these issues with behavior that we're having. But that's often what what the number one concern is, right? when you're um driving a bus and I tell everybody this when they come through. I probably told Miss Lure, Dr. Painter, I probably told everybody here that has come through our training program to get a bus license is the actual physical act of driving a school bus isn't overly difficult once you figure out the size of the bus, the dimensions of it, the angles, the turns, right? Things like that. You can do it. Most everybody can do

079that without much of a problem. Um the problem for a lot of drivers is uh when you put 60 70 plus kids behind them when their main focus has to be the safety of what's going on with the kids on the bus by watching the road and all the distractions there right uh so the behavior of what's going on behind them is often can be challenging so that would be number for sure number one pay and and behavior issues >> I know maybe you haven't just the discipline matrix has only been probably in use the last month or two right last month or so. >> Have you heard any response from your drivers about it's been helpful or >> I have not. I know Miss Abernathy had sent information correspondents out to all of our

080principles and asked to share this with the drivers. I've talked to a lot of them about it just individually. Uh we're actually going to have next week we're going to be hosting bus driver banquetss at a couple of our high schools. Um and that's a large part of what I'm going to be discussing there with all the drivers because we should have most everybody in attendance. So, okay. It's going to be about that. Yeah. >> Thank you. as a mother who drives a minivan with three children, that's plenty in my car. So, that's um kudos to our drivers who have 50 60 kiddos >> and they get them safe safely to and from school. And thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. >> All for all the hard work you do. Our transportation department is really incredible.

081And um what I'm seeing here is we are really squeezing every dollar we can out of every mile, every everything out of these buses. Um and it might just be time that we we need to start >> um investing a little bit more in this. So we don't we don't have a >> some of these buses it look like, you know, they're going to have a 110 or at least 15 years old. That's going to be a lot of exiting all at once if we're not careful. So, we need to be making a plan to get ahead. >> I just last I wanted to say I want to commend you for going above and beyond the recommendations to inspect because we were just discussing how we we are excited about employees that go above and

082beyond. And so, hey, thank you for doing that and prioritizing safety and um for putting this together for us. It's very I could keep talking about it, but I think I'll >> I want to clarify something I said earlier, too. I didn't want it to sound like y'all didn't care about safety. I know you do. But I know I know on my end of it, I don't hear about the from the parents when the kids are late. [clears throat] >> Y'all hear about the kids being late. So, you know, I know y'all concerned about safety, too. But my number one concern is safety. I don't you know, if they're late, that's fine. >> You You keep that at the front. That's a good That's a good thing. That's right. >> But I didn't want to

083sound like y'all didn't care about me. >> Oh, no. No, not at all. We didn't take it that way. >> Like I said, first time I've been up here doing this. It's probably a whole lot of stuff I said didn't make sense. I would like to take a moment to publicly thank you and Chris and Steve Welsh because I can't tell you guys the number of times I'll get on a bus and I'll I'll look around and I'll start familiarizing myself and I can't like figure out how to open the door and I have to text them and be like, "Hey, bus number 118. How do I open the door?" [laughter] And they get right back with me. >> Sometimes I got to sit there and find 118. Okay, it's set up like this because

084every one of them is one of them. You can always tell me exactly what I need to know. And thank you all for for answering my questions every time. >> Summer bus related questions. Just sorry. This is a topic that comes up in my house all the time and I've Googled it to no end and but I'd love to have the answer for my son. Why don't they have seat belts on buses? H >> you want to take >> if if you have a seat belt on a bus. I mean if if you have seat belts on a bus uh other than just one for a problem student or something, it has a sensor in it and it if it if it senses weight on that seat, it might not even be a student on

085that seat. It might be their book bag laying on the seat. >> The bus won't move >> without that seat belt being latched. And if you have a bus full of seat belts, it's at the time when we priced it 3 years ago was an extra $50,000 per bus for seat belts. >> And then you have to have a aid on every bus to make sure every child stays in >> and they stay seated. >> If if they unlatch it when you're going down the road, the bus will keep going. But as soon as you come to a full stop, if that seat belt's not lashed, it won't let it go back in gear again. >> And school buses are are a proven means to be one of the safest forms of transportation, right? I

086mean those things really are unfortunately we have been in accidents right over the years and most everybody comes out of there without too many too many issues right because they are just built like tanks they really are and uh if a student is seated as they properly should be right >> seat down or facing forward right butt on the seat it's a very safe means um >> when we use it properly >> we've had a few wrecks since I've been here 20 20 some odd years and we've had a few accidents I'd say 95% % of them has not been our fault, but the only one we have lost was the one with the train. >> Everything else we won. >> Buses are tough. They're they're tough. Very tough. >> Well, thank you. >> Yes,

087ma'am. >> And I also want to add that people are just super respectful of buses most of the time. There's the There's the idiot. You have to You have to be careful. There's the idiot that'll cut you off, but I I'm going to call you in like tomorrow and be like, "I need a bus to go to DC and I want a yellow bus." Jake knows. I always say I want a yellow bus when I go to DC because people I have literally stopped in the middle of the road and people have waved me over because those big yellow things 90% of people know to be careful around them. So they are super safe >> and Miss Lur can easily attest to the you know the the state of our buses with the the fleet

088quality right some of the spares that we have at schools versus some of the newer buses some of the newer spares. Um, so like if she's going to DC or to Blackburg, we're probably we're not probably we're not going to give her a 1994 model bus and say take this one, right? We're just not going to do that. So >> we could have you might now. [laughter] >> Thank you all. Do appreciate your time and coming presenting. >> Okay, Dr. Shifflets. Dr. Shifflet is um going to be presenting to us the superintendent's budget recommendations for 2026 2027. Um I while he's coming to the front I will say that we've had um two board work sessions over the last month um to work on this and so um now I think we've we've got a

089plan. >> Yes. So thank you Chair Hurst and board members. And I was one of my notes was this shouldn't be new to you, right? So, we had a work session, I believe it was on February the 18th and again on March 4th, uh we tried a different approach. Instead of doing our 2 by two meetings, we decided to have full board work sessions and I think uh that was beneficial for all of us. So, I'm going to try to um kind of walk through this more so for the public maybe than for the board. Right? So, as always, we want to think about what are our priorities when we're setting the budget, making sure that our um budget is reflected in what it is we hope to accomplish. And when we look at our

090comprehensive plan, uh the uh things that we have addressed that we want to focus primarily on are school safety, academic excellence, employee recruitment and retention, student behavioral health, and as always, as we work through this budget, we want to be collaborative uh with our Rockingham County uh staff and their leadership. And I think we have continued that u Justin the Moyers and I have met several times with uh Casey and Trish and we've also had an ad hoc committee uh meeting as well. Uh expected revenue so miscellaneous revenue uh really no change is expected. A lot of those dollars come from from I think Medicaid uh state revenue there is going to be a bit of an increase of 11,873,73. So, um, that is based on the governor's budget. So, at this point, as you

091are well aware, there's no budget budget agreement yet between the House and the Senate. So, they're working that that out. Um, so in this budget, we used uh again the b the governor's budget, Governor Yncan's budget, and we included the 2% raise, which was in his budget. Uh, and there was also some additional funding for atrisisk students. If the state budget uh changes once this is passed, we'll have to make some necessary adjustments. Uh expected revenue federal, we um are in expecting an increase of $225,000. This will be in title one. Uh that'll be over um I think it's over $6 million in federal revenue. Uh our local share revenue will be a decrease of $1.5 million. So asking our board of supervisors for $1.5 million less this year than last year since we um

092received a more of a surplus from the from the state revenue. So the total budget uh 2011 million58,735. So it's an increase of over $10 million about five and a half uh five and a half%. As we worked worked through the budget sessions, you know, we we continue to talk about our EL enrollment numbers. I just want to share them just to capture this for you. In the last 5 years, 147% increase in EL numbers. So, last year we um hired I think 13 EL teachers. Um and so we continue to monitor that. Special education enrollment uh 27 uh% increase in the past five years. And so that is something we monitor as well. U so sometimes it's not just about the number of students but it's what are their needs and what do we

093have to provide to make sure they're getting a free and appropriate public education. So I want to highlight some of the expenditures. School safety uh one of the initiatives uh is $369,000. This is for a uh Vicata guest registry system. Uh and uh this would be put in all the school offices uh with maybe future down the road put them in the vestibules but it would also allow our schools just it would be another added layer of safety. If you recall last year our big expense was the vicata camera systems which have been a huge benefit to our uh administrators and our teachers. When we talk about employee recruitment and retention a 2% raise uh for all employees and that's going to cost us about 2.2 $2 million um clerical salary scale upgrade. We every

094year we try to go through and look at our salaries and compare them to other school divisions to make sure we're not off uh in what is sort of the norm in our community and we've noticed that our salary scale for our clerical workers was a little low. So we've added an additional 5% raise for those folks which would be an estimated cost of $300,000. uh plus looked about adding a stipen for clerical staff who are bilingual who are working in our front offices who can help serve our families and students uh who are coming in and having trouble u with with English. Uh school psychologist salary scale update. Uh I think um Mr. Chris Bryant shared some of those desires in his sped uh three-year plan trying to get those salaries more competitive and

095then uh adding a supplement to our LPN u nurses who do have RN um lensure and so any of our LPNs who are hired as LPN but if they have an RN we would give them uh $3,000 per uh per nurse. some other division initiatives within, you know, thinking about not just employee recruitment and retention, but uh expanding our math teacher pilot. As you are aware, we have a pilot at Pleasant Valley Elementary School this year with three math teachers. So, those uh classroom teachers are having an additional planning time and also they are not responsible for teaching math. We have three uh expert math teachers teaching math. So, we want to expand that, try it at another school or two and just make sure that um the juice is worth the squeeze when it

096comes to investing in this in this in this project. Uh we are starting a junior ROC program at Broadway High School. So, we'll need to hire a teacher and then also, you know, provide uniforms and and you know, fatigue, dress uniforms, what have you. Uh we still have uh two SRO's in the budget from last year. We've got some grant funding for that which has been really really nice. Need to replace the HVAC at Turnby High School, $1.6 million. Uh fine arts capital project fund 105,000 uh and eight buses. So Steve, uh Chris, we're we're trying to get you there. uh eight buses uh for for this budget um cycle. And then food service operating transfer uh $923,000. And so typically uh food service has really operated and just kind of been self- sustaining. But

097uh the last year they had to dip into some of their reserves. Their their reserves are basically diminished and so we're going to have to support them. And so um that's also a big you know a big piece of our additional state revenue. Some other division initiatives um Justin has advocated for us to have a technology capital projects fund. So over the last number of years, we have been leasing devices and you know that that some sometimes works in in the short term when you just don't have enough cash on hand, but what happens is you're paying interest, right? And so we were losing three and $400,000 over the course of a lease. And so those are real dollars that we can invest towards other projects. So Justin, it says, "If we can begin to

098build this capital projects fund with this $650,000, then moving forward when we need more Chromebooks or iPads or what have you, what have you, the the cash is there so we don't have to borrow basically borrow the money through a lease. So it's going to actually save us in the long run. It's it's a good use. Transportation capital projects funds also trying to put some money back to for additional buses, vans, whatever uh Mr. sour and his teams would need uh Spotswood High School needs a concession stand and a press box for half a million dollars. Uh school uh record retention u uh going digital. Uh they've asked a lot of our schools their their file rooms are just uh at capacity. So we're going to try to digitize all of those. and then also

099providing some dollars for uh EMS services at our middle school athletic events. Some personnel. So I mentioned earlier the increase in special education. So we have one sped teacher in the in the budget. This is you know above and beyond what we currently have. Two early childhood special education assistants, two VPI assistants. uh one elementary music teacher, one ele elementary art teacher, uh 6 elementary challenge teacher, one title one teacher, a.5 attendance clerk. Uh we have four secondary enrollment positions, a TLC teacher, seven elementary teacher enrollments, um and one elementary assistant, another mechanic for the bus garage. So, we've added that in there to help out. I know that those guys are working hard and then expanding our uh egg teachers at the high school to 12-month contracts. So, uh just again to to kind

100of capture this, we are asking for our board of supervisors a decrease in local funds of 1.5 million. So, our total request to them will be $82,872,281. want to highlight capital projects very quickly. Um we have um if we make these dollars transfer, we'll have a transportation projects $400,000, technology projects $650,000, fine arts 105,000. So, uh, supervisor of fine arts, Becky Ford, you know, realizes she has a significant need at a particular school or groups of schools, she'll have some money she can tap into for big for big items. And then, uh, Pleasant Valley Elementary School, um, 1.5 million. Makisville over 10 million, 10 a.5. And then Mass Technical Center, 52 million. And then Elton Elementary School is sort of winding down, so it's at the end of that list. And then the next page

101is our um food service cafeteria fund. And you can see there's a transfer in there of $923,14 that would make them balance. Uh that's the sort of the plan moving forward. um still awaiting maybe some if there will be any new legislation that will impact um breakfastes or what schools are required to pay for meals and so forth. So next steps is I will come back to the board at our meeting on Monday March 23rd for uh seeking your approval. uh if you have anything you want to talk about, discuss between now and then, let's make sure we do that and and make sure everything is the way we want it. And then on Wednesday, March 25th, I will be in this room presenting to the county board of supervisors uh our request. And just

102understand that state budget may not be finalized until our budget process is over. So if we get more revenue, we'll have to, you know, determine whether or not, you know, we want to revisit the the the the salary from 2% to 3% if we get more money. Uh how do we earmark? There are some things that we wanted to do that we couldn't do. So we need to do we revisit that. Uh do we, you know, earmark some money for MTC, FF&E, uh as we think about that project? So I think there's definitely there's needs, right? More buses. We can put that we can put that at the end of every list, right? additional buses. Uh that's important. Uh I want to say thank you to Justin Moyers for his hard work on keeping up

103with all the Cal tools and everything. Um it's not always the numbers don't always come out very, you know, it's not just one number. It's just a list of all the different categories and what has to be spent where and how we have to make the match and what requires a match and what doesn't require a match. and Justin does a great job working through that and keeping us on track of on track with those things and Zena Gillis who's supervises finance as well as Brenda Justin's uh administrative assistant and Caitlyn working through this. And I want to thank each of you because I I felt we met I think in December. I think we started having one-on-one Justin and I met with each of you individually to say hey what do you you know

104what's priority for you as a individual board member and you know we're taking notes and and then you know in lie of the 2 by twos having the work sessions I thought were really great and I mean they were some long days but I thought was very productive and everyone had an opportunity to share their concerns and uh learn from each other and and hear what other folks have to say. So, thank you for all your work and um we'll see what happens, what comes out of uh Richmond, right? >> Thank you, Dr. Shifflet >> question because and and I think I know I just want to clarify for the world. Um you mentioned during the capital fund part of it, if you want to go back to that slide that fine arts and technology

105capital project funds, that's not going to be in the CIP fund per se. One more slide back. Is it going to be in the CIP fund and >> but it'll be earmarked for those particular projects. >> Okay. Maybe I'm confused on how the capital the CIP fund works >> for large projects. >> Yeah. No, I understand that. Um I'm trying to think how to say do do we control that money or is that controlled by our parents? Okay. >> Okay. [laughter] >> Is that you know what I'm saying? >> Okay. But also it will have a line. >> Those are um just to clarify, those are one-time um initiatives, starter funds if you will. >> Yes. >> But they are part of our CIP, but it's our CIP, not not the countywide CIP. >> Okay.

106Right. Okay. That's that was the clarification I needed. Thank you. >> Good question. >> Anything else for Dr. Shifflet? Okay. Thank you very much for all your work on this budget. I know it's a um a long process. I know for board members it feels like it drags on for a couple of months, but it's one of the most important things that we do as a board member is um set the budget and um take care of the division and do good things for kids. And so um student outcomes are at the heart of of our budget decisions. And so I want to thank Dr. Shifflet and all the board members also um for all their hard work over the last couple of months because um it does take time but it's it's worthwhile. So

107thank you all. Um that wraps up our information items. We'll now go into committee reports. Um Miss Cave, did you have anything from your gov school committee? Yeah. Um, so we met on February 25th and we had not met since October. Um, and that's pretty standard, but I don't I don't know what happened in October. I think we had put committee reports maybe on the agenda and I hadn't had the meeting yet. So, we had decided to wait and then there was just a lot going on in November and December. And so, um, this is the first committee report since then. Um, I wanted had a hard time think going back and thinking about what we did in October, but just a couple highlights um from that meeting. Um, let's see. We we talked about

108um is she a doctor? I want to call her. Oh, well, Miss Frame had have brought up that the constitution and bylaws uh for the regional governor school had not been updated since it opened in 2005. Not that there was any like concerns there or anything. It's not something I'm concerned about. Um but just as a matter of being good stewards of the of the school um just to have an attorney look at those and update us. And so we started talking about that in October. Um the update in February was just that I think they were still working on it. Um so anyways when we get that if there's anything significant I will report that. um they and back in October we got an update on um dual enrollment um expansion there at um

109the governor's school and due to a lack of interest um they weren't doing that or expanding that and then um one of the teachers there Katherine is it is that how you say her last name Dr. Shlet. Yeah. Um she gave an update um on the um Governor School Foundation um which began as a research project to students. Um the students completed the paperwork to create a 501c3 um recruited board members and were planning um fundraising events and the creation of this foundation was something that uh the VDOE had recommended um in some evaluations and I don't think that we got an update on that in February Dr. Shifflet but anyways that was really interesting um in October. So as they update on that I will update you. Um, and then we approve the instructional

110calendar for 26 27. Uh, they're still working on the 2728 calendar. I imagine that to be very challenging to try to schedule things out that far. So, um, there was an approval requested um, for um, some funds from the fund balance and that was to fund eight digital stereo microscopes. eight digital microscopes for slide viewing and one petrographic microscope. Um, which I will not detail what that is here. Um, but anyways, and so that was voted on and approved. And, um, we discussed some of the budget. We also discussed a student development course. They're not going to offer that there anymore. That's for one credit. Um, they were saying that it didn't really benefit students that weren't taking dual enrollment classes. um and that those that need it, which were I guess students maybe going

111to Laurel Ridge and Blue Ridge that they can take that online. Um so just minor updates and then the big fun update, uh no change in tuition and they're going to honor our seniors on May 13th at 9:00. So that's the update. >> Thank you, Miss Cave. Appreciate that. That's a lot of really good information and thanks for representing our board um in that committee. Miss Lura, did you have anything from regional sped? >> Yes, we actually had a zoom meeting to um finalize the bud budget for the regional sped. And I want to thank uh Mr. Brandt and Mr. Moyers for attending on Zoom and being available texting. That was a fun meeting, wasn't it, boys? [laughter] Um but essentially the whole purpose of the meeting was to uh make sure that we uh

112were all on the same page with what services can be offered through um the regional program and there were a couple of divisions that need some programs that we don't take uh advantage of. We don't we do it within our own system. So, uh, it was a fun meeting to hear about all that and we finally made it through it and we passed the budget. So, uh, but so we now have a budget passed for the regional program. And thank you, thank you for helping me with that. And thank you also to Miss Laura for representing our school board on um, that committee as well. Um board members, I think um that brings us to superintendent comments and then other business which will be schoolboard highlights, questions and comments. So Dr. Shifflet, we'll start with

113you. >> Right. Thank you, Chair [clears throat] Hurst. First, I want to congratulate Jackie Croy Croy. She is the winner of the employee perfect attendance recognition for the month of February. So Miss Corey is an instructional assistant at Pleasant Valley Elementary School, I think in kindergarten and first grade. So I'm I'm I'm going back to the little ones again. So, I'm not sure uh what someone's trying to tell me, but anyway, um we'll I'll look forward to that. I think I'm going to be subbing for her in um the Friday before spring break. I think it's what we've agreed to. Uh but looking forward to it. I actually do enjoy my time being in the schools with with students. That's how I began my journey and I I appreciate the opportunity to do that. Also

114wanted to let the board know. I've been trying to keep you informed, but our um culture surveys will be sent on Monday, March 16th. I've uh informed our employees to be looking for that and try to explain what we're trying to accomplish with that. But just wanted to keep you sort of uh in the loop as we're working through that. And finally, I just want to just um give a shout out. I I know earlier tonight Lauren Shifflet was here from JMU Center for Economic Education, but I think what a great resource that has been to us over the years. When I was a classroom teacher, I took advantage of the resources they provided to me as a teacher. I taught civics and economics. I never won any state awards by the way but uh

115I tried. Um but it was just great hands-on concrete ways to teach economics because that's a that's a very abstract concept, right? You talk about supply and demand and and uh you know inflation and and all those things, right? So you you they have great teaching strategies that they share with our teachers that they take back to our students. That's been a wonderful partnership. And I I was looking on the internet, but I could not find the day of the gym fair. She said it's in April. So I I hope that um once we get the date I can share that with you and you can attend the gym fair. It's usually held at the festival center and a number of our schools participate in that where kids are uh have created or building a

116product and then they sell they sell to each other and it's pretty I think Mrs. Laura you've been before. >> I got to go last year. So much fun. >> It's a fun time. So we'll try to get the date for you on that because you you would enjoy it. So thank you. >> Thank you Dr. Shifflets. Moving into schoolboard highlights, questions and comments. We'll start with Miss Cave. >> Um Oh, okay. I'm ready. Uh so, no, it's totally fine. I just >> the other end. I just go. >> No, it's good. I just zoned out. Um no, I was able to attend the Elton Middle School um cheer showcase a few weeks back and um I forgot to post online about it and so I feel bad. took cuz a lot of stuff I

117try to push out to social media um and I try to sort of stick to business here. But um that was really great. Um it's just it's home to me there and so um it was just I love seeing the cheerleaders and they all got awards and their parents were there and um it was just a good time. Um I read at McGill Elementary School for the Read Across America and I did not realize that day when I went in that I was going to be reading to several different grades. I thought it was just an invite from one teacher, but it was totally fine. I just hadn't prepared content for three different grades, but it it worked out. Um it worked out. And um it was one of the thing I know we're still

118going through the musical season and I was able to attend Spotswoods um musical and I was thinking it was something else. But anyway, so we're very busy and I cannot believe that we're um just a few months from graduation. And it makes me a little bit nervous cuz it's a little bit earlier this year. So I keep on saying it's in May, you know, it's not June and you know, it just feels it feels a little bit different. But um anyways, I think that was it. Yep. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Cave, Miss Irons. I've just been having blast getting to do lots of fun stuff and um that's what I care to highlight right now. We do I just want to say we do have these long meetings where we talk about a lot

119of things and uh so sometimes we come up here and we just vote yes. It's because we've already talked about it at length and in depth and understand it fully and are ready to go. Um but uh I was super excited to see all the awards here tonight. I think it's amazing to highlight all the really cool stuff, the positive stuff, the projects, the awards that our our staff and students are earning because when we positively reinforce these things and we get more, we generate that kind of energy in the division. and I'm really excited to be part of that. Um, I got to see the musical at Pence this weekend. It was like so hard not to sing along because it felt like everyone's opportunity to sing their favorite Disney theme song. It was

120fantastic. Um, really well done. Um, additionally with awards, I got some really great news today from one of my neighbors who's a Spotswood student who um, he called out of 14,000 applicants, 60 recipients uh, earned the Jefferson Scholar uh, scholarship to J UVA. It's full ride and he is one of them. So it's he's like our third or fourth one in just several years. So we're doing really great things in Rocky County and um there's some certainly some hard things but we're working on those too. Um I would say I am I want to speak to the on the budget in case there's this comes up but the VCA signin experience um will sort of change a little bit what how we sign in. It's going to make our school safer and it's something I've

121already experienced at um a private school in the area where I sometimes substitute teach and you just scan your license and it it shows up if there's anything that we need to be aware of whether it's something custodial or something more major. But um I am excited about that and I I'm really glad to see we kept it in the budget. So uh anyway I I could talk all night but I will not do that. So thank you. >> Thank you Miss Irons. Miss Burboin, >> I feel like during musical season, we always have so many things to talk about because you could go through every single one of them, but we really have a lot of talented kids in our community. And um I've I've been to Spotswood, I went to Pence, and I

122immediately texted Sarah and said, "Ta is going to have such a hard time because there's probably 50 kids up and coming that are so talented and they're they're going to have such a hard time." a good a good thing, but also a hard time because they're just so much talent at that school. Um, and I was very impressed because, you know, they're sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. And so, um, TA better better be ready. Um, Sarah and I have been visiting a couple schools together. We went to Pence. Um, we judged a dog show and that was >> Thank you. >> Yes. Thank you. Uh, it was a blast. It was really hard though because you you get to see so they're cardboard cutouts of dogs and then they paint them to look realistic and

123they do a whole research project behind them and then they show the dogs and so um I love dogs. That's my, you know, we at one point had five dogs. So, I was like, "Yay, this is going to be great." And it broke my heart because it is so hard to see a group of kids who has put so much into their project. Um, and then to have to pick one as the winner. So, I don't ever want to go back, but I would like to go watch it. I don't want to judge again. Um, and the same we we got invited to judge um an FFA competition at TA and that was really fun. those kids because I don't come from a farming background at all. Um, and most of them didn't either, but

124they're so educated and they spend so much time. Um, and they're just incredibly impressive. I don't know that I was that wellspoken in high school or um or as as passionate about one thing as these kids are. So, super impressive just across the board in our schools. Um, let me think. I do want to say to Chris and Jake, thank you again. Um, and absolutely, kids, um, you know, they're always number one when we make decisions and sometimes I think we get so wrapped up and Dr. Shifflet is always quick to remind us kids are number one. That's what we're doing here. And so, um, I don't care if they're late as long as they're safe. I'll just agree with you on that one. Um [laughter] um and then also thank you to everyone involved

125with the budget because we have spent more time I think I feel this year than ever going over the budget >> and I'm glad that I'm not on another budget like you two are. So thank you for taking on that because one is one is enough for me. So anyway, thank you Miss Lure. >> Thank you. Um, so I had I had a nice little list written out, but then you started on the the buses and of course buses are close to my heart. And uh, as as you were talking about late versus safe, it always reminds me of there's this clip. Anybody remember the show Wings? Uh there's this there's scene where the lady's like, "Okay, ma'am, I know the the plane is going to be late. So, would you rather be late or

126would you rather be the late Mrs. Smith?" So, safety first, right? [laughter] Uh and that always makes me chuckle. Yes, we all definitely we want them to be safe and late, not the late. So, um, so I would also like to thank Chris Brandt for inviting me to the autism training earlier. I guess it was last week actually. Um, and that was actually my first visit to Rockingham Park. We we helped me out here. We had people from all over the region come in and receive training about different autism programs. Um, and it we held it at Rockingham Park because we have access to that wonderful facility and that was it was really great. I'm really thankful to the county for making those things available to us. So, definitely shout out to to um our

127sped team and Rockingham County Parks and Wreck for working together on that. Uh, I can't believe you guys didn't like the dog show and and and like like you you were it was hard to judge the dog show but not the speaking contest cuz the dog show that was fun. That was just this is your winner. Yay, go home. Um, the >> there was no rubric for the dog show. >> Okay. >> And I love a good rubric. >> The speaking contest goes on to uh compete again. Um and to that point I got to judge the parley uh conduct of meeting state contest this year. Um and we had in the I I judged conduct of meeting which is like junior varsity where parley is the varsity contest. Um, and so it's n it's

128eighth and or it's middle school and ninth graders at the at the um conduct contest and everybody brings their own judge and I think I was TA's judge but I was also helping out with Pence and honestly I ranked Pence maybe a little lower than I should have and maybe even T uh because I didn't want to be biased and these are these are eighth graders and they were they were they did such a great job. I I was nervous about that and it turns out everybody else ranked him number one and they won the whole contest. So, um Pence will be representing Virginia at the national FFA contest coming up in um uh October. So, yay Pence. Uh and we also need to be super proud of TA because they did an excellent job

129as well. Uh and that that was a whole lot of fun just watching everybody do parley really super fast. Um, and finally, of course, musicals. Uh, I I am so enjoying the musicals. If you guys haven't made it to a musical yet, you have a chance this weekend to go to Turner Ashby's Little Mermaid. Super excited for that. I did ask this year, they asked us what our preferences were. So, I told Miss Ford, I like to sit in the front. I like to be able to see what's going on. And she sat me at Pence. I mean, at Yeah. At Pence, they sent me sat me front and center. And I was smiling and I was having a great time until they got to that one song about how we all want our children

130to go on and be successful. And my kids have just left. I'm a recent empty neester and I was ugly crying and all the kids are up there trying to sing. So I'm like maybe maybe don't put me in the front row again. But it's so much fun. So I recommend you guys get to a musical if you haven't yet. And I believe that is all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you. Sorry, I remembered. >> Oh, [laughter] >> I'm sorry. It was the spelling bee and I can't >> Oh, that's right. >> Yeah, the regional spelling bee was at Skyline over the weekend. Was it this past weekend? The days go by so fast. Um Yeah, Saturday. And uh anyways, I'm sort of a geek when it comes to that stuff. So, but I

131I have go to all the spelling bees, okay? I'm just that's that's it's my interest, okay? And I don't know that I've been to one that was so back and forth, like so grueling. I'm like, these two kids, there's no word that they do not know how to spell. And I just so um I felt like RCPS was really represented well. And and I think the two that it came down to, I haven't seen anything since Saturday, but was it Peter Muenberg maybe was the second place in the winner? Was maybe Thomas Harrison? Did anybody follow up on that? Anyways, I've been to so many spelling bees I'm beginning to recognize these kids and the kid that won like I've I've seen multiple times before. So, he's just he's just a little guy and he's

132just really big brain and so um they both did really well. But I just really love those things and you know, thank you Kim Tate for the work that you do um with that as well. So, anyways, uh that was the other thing I just I didn't want to leave those everybody's got their own thing and I just didn't want to leave those kids out. I love that you geek out over the the and you're like watching them grow because that's the same thing I do with musical. I'm like like she said I'm like I can't wait to see what role you're going to play next year. >> Yeah. They got to like the 30 something round and I was like counting them cuz I wanted to know and all of a sudden it was

133like I lost count. And I think they were at like 33 34 I don't know. But I've just never seen anything like it. And I was like wow. But I told my husband I was like I'm invested in this now. I cannot leave. Like we had a ton of other things that day, but I was like, it was three hours. >> Oh, wow. >> Yes, it was three hours, but >> it was awesome. Well, they did. >> It was something. So, >> um I'll wrap up uh tonight's comments um just by sharing. I board members are um very busy doing lots of things, watching kids in um in competitions. I mean, this this weekend I went to the TSA Valley Regional Spring Fair qualifier, and I just stayed for the open ceremonies because most of

134it's not open to the public um to watch the competitions. But um what I noticed, I watched the um the the officers run their meeting. And when they introduced the officers, I mean, this is a regional program, so many many school divisions. And seven of the nine board members are Rockingham County um students. And I think and there were several running um for office so I got to listen to the candidate speeches and things like that. Um but I was just in all of our business this weekend. Um went to saw that in the morning. Then went to the under the sea tea at TA that the cast and um cast put on. Um they had a meet and greet tea party. Um lots of little princesses came um to have tea with Ariel and

135all the characters. Um and and then you know wrapped up with Dare to Dream at Pence and all of these things are incredible opportunities for kids and yet it takes it takes educators and people behind the scenes to make those things happen. It takes the dedication of a teacher who says um I'm going to encourage everyone in my chapter to try out for officer at TSA. Right? Like it takes a takes a a coach. it takes a teacher to invest in in our kids. And I think that's part of what makes Rockingham County great. You know, we had the under the seat tea party that took several person, you know, that took several staff members to pull off. Lots of parent involvement. It was a great experience. Same thing with Dare to Dream. It's an

136all hands-on deck kind of event. And these are great opportunities for kids that we get to go and watch and see with spelling bees and FFA competitions and dog shows and um all the wonderful things that are going on. But I just want to say thank you to our teachers and staff for going the extra mile um to coaching these kids, investing in these kids, taking them to opportunities. These are the things that make learning meaningful, memorable, and um keep kids in school. So, with that, I thank you all um for coming out tonight. Hope you all are enjoying the lovely um springish weather. Hope it stays, but it's Virginia. Who knows? Um anyway, thank you all for coming out tonight. Drive safely. This meeting is adjourned. We're good.