2026 01 12 - RCPS School Board Meeting

001Good evening. Um, welcome to our first regular meeting of 2026. Um, today is Monday, January 12th, and we met earlier this evening in close session, and so I apologize for our tardiness beginning the open session. Um, before we go ahead and begin that part, we would like to go ahead and certify the closed portion of our meeting. And so with that, our clerk is going to do a we need a motion to certify a second and then we'll do our roll call vote for that. >> I move the board enter into a closed meeting under Virginia. Oh, sorry. I'm I'm on the wrong page. My apologies. Uh, offline there. I just had it clicked wrong. I apologize. Okay. I move to certify to the best of each member's knowledge that only public business matters lawfully

002exempted from open meeting requirements under sections 2.2-3711A1 of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act were discussed in closed meeting to which this certification applies. and only such business matters as were identified in the motion by which the closed meeting were convened were heard, discussed or considered by the school board. >> Thank you, Miss Flor. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Cave. Uh, any discussion? Okay, Miss Gilkerson, would you read the roll call? >> Miss Cave, >> yes. >> Miss Irons, >> yes. >> Miss Lure, >> yes. >> Chair Hurst, >> yes. >> Okay. Thank you all for bearing with us while we tidy that piece up. Um, we're now ready to begin the open meeting and we will begin with a moment of silence. Thank you. Um, at this time,

003if you'd like to join us, we'll stand for the pledge of allegiance. Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. I would like to welcome a new board member this evening. We have Miss Hillary Irons here representing district three. um and she is uh brand new to our board, but we are glad to have you aboard. We look forward to doing great things with you this evening. I don't know if you have anything you want to say before we continue, but um it is kind of a business as usual as we keep rolling on. Um but welcome aboard. We're glad to have you. Looking forward to doing great things with you. And also, thank you,

004Miss Laura. Um, we did have Miss Burggoyne here with us this evening, but she um, unfortunately has gotten ill. She said to, uh, say her kids attend public schools, which they do, and they brought home the cooties or the germs. And so, she is uh, wrestling a a bug right now and um, and had to head out early. So, thanks for bearing with us. And she makes her apologies. Um the first uh item that we need to take care of is a public hearing for our school operating budget. The purpose of the public hearing is to receive public comments related to the 2026 2027 school operating budget and we have that listed as a separate uh hearing. Um, and so at this time I don't have anyone signed up uh to speak on the school

005operating budget, but if there is anyone in the audience that has had a change of heart and would like to come up and speak specifically about the budget, uh, feel free to wave at me now. Okay, no takers on that. So, at this time, we've opened and closed the public comments relating to the 2627 school operating budget. The next item on our agenda are comments from the public. And again, no one has signed up for uh any comments. So, at this time, we'll close that as well. We're moving right along uh into our consent agenda. Uh for those of you that are unaware, our consent agenda it uh is comprised of several items that we anticipate will be a 50 uh vote for approval. And if at any time a schoolboard member would like to

006take something off of the consent agenda and put it onto our regular agenda for action or for information, all you have to do is say so. We don't even require discussion about it. If you want something off, we pull it off and we put it somewhere else. So that and and usually that means you would like to have discussion about that item or you think further further action needs to be taken before approving it. Um so up for approval tonight in the consent agenda are the minutes from December 10 and December 15th of 2025. We have several field trips that were in your uh that are listed for information um as well as the personnel listing. And so, uh, at this time, I'd ask for a motion to approve the consent agenda. >> I move

007we approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Thank you, Miss Lord. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Cave. Any questions, comments, or discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor of passing the consent agenda tonight, please say yes. >> Yes. All those opposed say no. Motion passes 40. Tonight we just have one item for action and that is our adoption of civil rights assurances policy ACA and I believe Dr. Shifflet is uh presenting some information on that. >> Uh yes, thank you chair hur and board members. This is an annual approval and you have the policy ACA, civil rights certificate in your meeting materials and I do recommend the adoption of the civil rights assurances certificate policy ACA as presented. >> Thank you, Dr. Shiplet. Board members, do I have a

008motion to follow his recommendation? >> So moved. >> Thank you, Miss Cave. Do we have a second? >> A second. >> Thank you, Miss Irons. Uh now that we have a motion and a proper second, is there any questions or are there any questions, comments, or discussion on this item? Hearing none. All those in favor, please say yes. >> Yes. >> All those opposed say no. Motion passes 4. We do have quite the list of information items tonight. Um >> yes. Okay. So, I was going to say we can kind of move those around if we need to, but the the first item that we have for information tonight is our 2627 school calendar. Donna Abernathy is going to present a draft calendar for us to review and consider. Thank you, Miss Abernathy. >> Thank

009you, Chair Hurst. Good evening, Chair Hurst, Dr. Shifflet, and members of the school board. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to be here this evening um to give you the proposed calendar draft for the 2627 school year. So as in previous years a committee was formed um consisting of teachers uh school administrators and parents from all three levels elementary, middle and high. And we also ensured that all four areas of the school division were represented uh in this process. So the committee has worked diligently to provide a calendar that balances instructional time, holidays, work days, and professional development and community needs. And uh we also looked at aligning with Harrisonburg city um for shared services and for ease of families as well. So some considerations, we looked at the day of the week. Um

010this current year we started on a Thursday and that was very well received by our staff and students and families. they really liked having that one day of odd and one day of even classes just to get those first two days under the belt before the weekend. Uh we also looked at the Rockham County Fair involvement and starting after the fair and this year we also moved the open house nights to the following week that was not on fair week which was also a very favorable uh response from our staff and students and families. And however, with moving those openhouse nights to the following week, uh, the same week that school started, we didn't foresee the issues with the number of address changes for pickup and drop off that were made with the transportation department.

011So, Mr. Sour and his staff did an amazing job with a very short turnaround because we had open houses on Monday and Tuesday night and school started on Thursday. So they would have multiple requests, multiple multiple requests coming in on Monday night and Tuesday night to make changes um mainly for child care type situations. But now that we're aware of this challenge that that presented, we are working um with our power school folks just to make sure that they have access to address changes and we'll be communicating that to families as well to make sure that they get that done before openhouse night um as much as that they can. the two weeks at winter break. Um it just made sense this current school year because um the Christmas holiday and New Year's were on

012Thursdays. Next year it's on Fridays. And all the surveys that we've done previously, the two weeks at winter break is always the number one item that families uh want to make sure that that we have as well returning for three and a half days following Memorial Day weekend and graduation. So the committee talked a lot about what does that look like coming back three and a half days after Memorial Day and you know wondering what does attendance look like and so forth and we really looked at can we get done before Memorial Day weekend and we decided not to go that route because that would again we'd have to lose winter break some time at winter break we'd have to lose some time at spring break. Spring break is the second number leading number of

013um of wishes from our community to have a week at spring break. Um so wherever we take off time we've got to add it someplace else. So um so we decided not to do that and um so in the last also I just wanted to add in the last few years we've been finishing school in that first week of June and if you go back five 6 7 8 nine years ago it was always the second week of June where we were graduating on June 10th 11th or 12th. So that's just the way that the calendar has gone these last few years and we anticipate that we'll be going back into the second week in the next couple of years. Anyway, um as well we looked at the end of course so and AP testing.

014We certainly anticipate all the end of course so testing will be done before we get back from Memorial Day with those three and a half days left. And the AP testing are always the first two full weeks in May. we don't have control over that schedule but the and of course SO testing the division will set that schedule uh for May as well and also again the alignment with Harrisonenburg city we have a lot of families that um that may live here um in this division um or and but actually work the families the parents work in Harrisonburg city but the students are in school here so um and also with our MTC uh shared responsibilities at this moment in Um all right so an overview for this current year we have 176 and a

015half instructional days 20 and a half teacher work days professional learning days that includes three teacher fle flex days that they need to work sometime between August 3rd and the 7th or August 13th and 14th. So again, this school year we did something a little bit differently where we're in school, our teachers come back for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday that Thursday and Friday were flex days and that was very much the the committee from last year. You know, that was uh very much think outside the box of how we can work uh this calendar and look at doing things a little bit differently. And again, that was a very positive um feedback that we received from folks. really enjoying to have those two flex days on that Thursday and Friday kind of after getting all the

016information from the division level uh professional development from the school level professional development and then that gave them some time to kind of digest it all um on that Thursday and Friday if they chose to work on those days. So in total it's 197 designated days of the 200 day contract. That leaves three unencumbered days which are for evening activities and planning and grading. Also uh this current school year we have 173.5 instructional days. So that's three less than what we're proposing next year. And um last year, if you recall, we missed 12 days of school. Um and we had 176.5 for last year's calendar, which is what we're proposing for next year. And we started to get a little nervous about are we going to meet our minimum number of instructional hours and not

017only just want to meet that, right? We want to exceed that. Um so we did make up a couple days last year in February that were parent conferences and uh division level PD days. Um, but we got a little nervous with that last year and we've already missed, I believe, three days this year in December and had a two-hour delay already and we don't typically miss time in December very often. So, um, we really felt the need to let's kick it back up to at least 176.5 days um, for next year just to make us feel better about the instructional hours as well. >> Yes. >> So, how many instructional days do we have this year? This year we're at 173.5. >> 176.5. Yes. >> Yes. And then next year we're proposing 176.5 >> and

018we're hoping for >> Yes. Yeah. >> days last year. We we had two I think >> and then right after Christmas >> in January. >> So we're ahead. >> We're ahead. I like the way you look at that. >> No, that's okay. Great question. So an overview, we have uh the teacher flex day opportunities. Open houses are on August 17th and 18th. That's Monday and Tuesday. the week school starts because the first day of school is on Thursday the 20th. We have our our regular uh Thanksgiving break for three days. Uh winter break would be two weeks. Spring break is a week, which is the exact same spring break that we have this year now, just corresponding dates. And the last day of June will be June 4th with a 1 p.m. early dismissal. And

019there are teacher work days at the end of each term and professional learning days are throughout. So, we feel very positive about the proposed calendar as we've devised it and we certainly feel like it meets the needs of our students and staff and provides work days and professional learning opportunities um for our staff and then also takes into consideration the nuances of our county fair and what our community needs are. So, does anybody have any questions for me at this moment? >> I would love to ask a question. Um, I'm curious just about the intention of having the teacher work day uh the day after Martin Luther King Day and whether there would be interest in teachers having that day at the end of Christmas break instead. Just thinking about say elementary school teachers that

020need to update their calendars from December to January or or considering the two week I completely agree with the two week keeping the two weeks for um Christmas break but I would be curious to know if there was community interest in having school on the 21st 22nd and having a short and then having those two days off January 4th and 5th. I think it's fine either way. I'm just curious to see if there'd be a an interest in that. Okay. because you know there's always the Christmas parties and the 21st 22nd and historically when we have Christmas on a weekend >> we have gone to school 21st and 22nd >> I'm not necessarily advocating that just asking a question about shifting those by two days >> so we had talked about going to school on

021the 21st and 22nd and then possibly having the fourth as a day that would be a teacher workday coming back in from the break. Um but then we decided to go with the two weeks at winter break because it's just in the past that's where folks really want that time. Um not saying that we can't go back to the committee and and have that conversation and see if that's something that we want to consider. >> I'm suggesting it might keep two weeks but have off January 4th 5th like the city did that this year for example and they had the Monday off. >> So two weeks plus two days. >> Oh that would be two weeks like Tuesday to Tuesday. >> Tuesday. She recommended to go >> well not necessarily recommending just inquiring. >> Okay.

022>> Thinking about going Monday Tuesday 21st 27 would be all the fourth and fifth of January. >> So you're still off for two weeks of school but you have two different days, right? >> And it's always a tradeoff. >> Yes, of course. Well, and what is does that affect the schedule with Harrisonburg City? >> Um >> because I know you try to align with them. What are they doing? We are. Let me I'm trying to remember what their I for some reason I don't think they're in school on the four. I know they weren't this year. Um those are the MTC kids calendar sitting here. >> I'm not worried about being tightly to them. I was just curious. >> February 14th. So Jan Harrison City on January 4th has a teacher work day. >> Okay.

023on that day. Then they're back in school on the 5th. >> What about the 21st and 22nd? >> 21st and 22nd they are out or a full two weeks. >> Yeah. >> And wait till they're in school on the >> So the 21st through the 1st they have the full 10 days. That's vacation for everybody. And then January 4th is a teacher work day they come back to which is what we did this year as a flex day. So folks could come back and work if they wanted to or not. >> I want to say thank you so much. I love this calendar. Uh for years I advocated for a Thursday start date. Love that. And we even have Super Bowl Monday and Tuesday off on this calendar. >> I think we lucked into that.

024>> Huh? Did they lock into that has a lot of info >> the NFL heard us last year >> and change their date. >> That is awesome. I'm glad. Um I I I would like to get some more information about how you can influence the NFL. >> Me too. >> For sure. >> But yeah, it's no easy task. And I mean like this has definitely been something we always discuss and it's always and I always asked for things and never could get them. And and this is this it's hard. It's really hard, but this is a really really good calendar. >> And last year and this year. So that's >> I'm sorry, what? >> Last year we were happy with it and this year too. So thank you. >> It's a lot of fun and

025we have a great committee and we have a lot of wonderful conversations and whatifs and let's try this, let's try that. What do you think? Um it's a lot of fun to do. >> Oh, always trying to improve it and make it better. Make it make it the best draft we can. Um, I really like this draft. It's very similar to last year. Some of the things that we asked for as a board and I feel like a lot of those things are in place and look good. So, I don't have any other further questions. Board members, do you? >> Okay. Thank you, Miss Abernathy. >> Thank you. >> The next information item for us tonight is crisis prevention training program for RCPS. Dr. Emily Holloway and Mr. Chris Bryant are coming up to present

026some information about safety care. Thank you all for coming tonight. >> Thank you. We're both a little shorter. >> Speak for yourself. >> Chair Hurst, Dr. Shifflet, members of the board. Uh thank you for letting us come this evening. Uh we are here this evening to talk about a shift in how we support our students and staff through crisis prevention, what we currently know as Mant. Uh and we have been looking at a new uh program of safety care. So just bear with us. >> It just took me training. >> That's okay. That's right. So for many of us, including some of you, uh Mand is what we know and what we have been trained on uh in regards to um understanding behavior, the deescalation, and then how to support students through that process. uh

027safety care builds on that strong foundation of what we know through Mant. Um they are very much parallel, but tonight we want to share with you what we see as standouts in the benefits of moving to safety care over remaining with Mant. Um and so I'm going to kind of share briefly um sorry what those um main key points are and then we're going to talk about those a little more uh with specifics. But first of all, safety care is an evidence-based crisis management training that will equip our staff um very similar to Mant uh again, but this is very much evidence-based crisis management and we'll bring our BCBAS on board with that um which is a difference from Mant. uh we'll provide direct training on behavior principles that will benefit all students and over

028time decrease those behaviors. And then we also want to share with you some of the cost effective options that make safety care a real standout. Chris and I have been looking at some needs across both departments this year and in evaluating Mand and Safety Care. Safety Care has some offerings that not only align with what we have in Mant but offer some additional things and when you look at the money amount um and the bottom line price of that it is more cost-effective with safety care as well. >> Miss Lure, you were the first person I thought of when we when we decided after meeting with the executive team to bring this to you. So, um there is nothing wrong with either one. So, please understand what you did was valid and researchbased. Um but

029after um meeting with executive team and and their willingness to have us bring this to you for information and we meet on on Friday with the region five U school school systems, you're going to find that most use safety care and Mant is kind of phased out of a lot of those school divisions that we'll meet with on Friday. So it's it's current and those reasons are why it's current. It's actually um my behavior analyst came to me and said, "Chris, we've got to make the move." Three years ago, they wanted to make the move. These are the folks who know the most about behavior in our schools. Um they know how to manage, mitigate, and help train folks on managing behavior. So, I trust them, those five people that are behavior analysts. So, those

030six things are um you can take to the bank. they're going to happen. If we take safety, care, prevention, uh verbal, non-threatening, non-physical, if we have to get into physical, then a safe way to engage in physical uh interaction. Uh >> no, that's fine. Um the last two I think are very important techniques to promote everyday safety habits, not waiting for something to happen, but preventative and making sure we're ready as a teacher in the classroom to handle those situations. um and in training practice to ensure the fidelity of our philosophy with safety care. So there's some benefits I think that Mant may be not providing. Um but Mant is still relevant and we're going to have people who have Mant next school year until it expires. All right. Next. So it's not simply a

031sit and get and and what safety care breaches is errorless learning. So I do, we do, you do. We're going to do it. I'm going to do it until you really feel comfortable with it and then we're going to do it and we're going to practice and practice and practice and then you're going to do it on your own and and staff is going to learn how to make sure to do these verbal and physical skills um with fidelity. So then uh Roman numeral two the training uh uses various teaching procedures. So those are phrases that you're going to find in the uh the study of behavior, applied behavior analysis. That is the phrase that all families and professionals want to hear is ABA. So those A through F play right into what is applied

032behavior analysis uh principles and and that's where we want to be as a school system. Uh working through the ABA philosophy. Um, and then that last one is it it plays right into our positive behavior programming, our multi-tered systems of support and the VDOE's guidance for behavior management. So again, evolving from Mand into safety care, I think is a natural progression. Other divisions around us are doing it. So then that last this this last piece I'd like to just make sure you know the BCBAS will be the trainers. These folks have over 2,000 hours out of school uh in in observing behavior, understanding how to research behavior. These are the people that should be training our staffs on how to um you know put implement behavioral strategies uh along with Dr. Holloway's staff. Uh building

033staff becomes resourceful in in working with their colleagues. Um teachers are trained. We're going to save money. The trauma-informed piece is critical with the everchanging landscape of kids. We need to make sure we're sensitive to all those needs of the different children in our school system. Um it does have a large piece about autism and supporting students with autism or behavioral uh needs and if we have challenges they will come to the legal proceedings and help us navigate those waters. So that's big >> and as we shared the cost-effective piece um which really highlights how it is cost-effective with more offerings for us specifically Mant we all know of the Mant training where the trainers when being trained they go through the training then every two day every two years they go to a twoday

034training in safety care it is a one-day training but it is every year um it's still more cost effective for one day every year than two every two years for that. Um and so in talking with the staff, the yearly reertification for them as trainers is another thing that they uh found to be beneficial because it kind of brought back up and brought it to their forefront for the training aspect, not carrying it out over two years. Um the other piece of that is the training cost for our staff is cheaper with safety care. Um and the materials can be downloaded and reproduced. Mance's costs have continued to increase over time. Um, and so every person who gets Mant for example, uh, Miss Lure who just recently went through Mant, your Mant training certification is

035good for one year and next year you would have to go through that again. So, some of our staff may be double qualified. If we uh are going to train teachers and administrators and offer this over the summer before school starts, they would need to reertify their M training anyway. And the best time to do that would be for us to train all of our staff before the school year starts. If something is important enough to do it and to have it to work with our students, we should have that before school begins. So, we would want to try to train um our administrators offering two or three days over the summer and then our staff in special ed and interiored systems of support uh before school starts. So some people would have safety care

036certification as well as man that has not run out that that is okay. Many in the field have both as well. Uh but the key thing that really stood out to both myself and Chris was that safety care offers some additional things that Mant does not. We are utilizing the pad and shield right now uh part of Mant Safety Care offers that. In addition, safety care offers uh training for vehicles like our transportation drivers, our assistants for special education, our regular drivers, uh those that are transporting our strong starts and building bridges students and that has been a need this year where we've had some issues with behavior with transportation. Um, in addition, the piece that safety care offers for families is a huge plus on top of what we're going to get with the

037BCS in the building that we can again share that with families. So, the common language at home and what's happening is also what's being used in the building. So, at this time, we would open up if you have any questions for us. Board members, do you have any questions? Sounds exciting. >> I have some questions or some thoughts perhaps. Um who is getting trained to uh so I've been ma trained before um in my role at the school I was at was very important for that. The um I will say what I liked about the Mant training is the um it you know a lot of people think about the Mant training as the like the the hold the the deescalation holds. It's not about that. It's about everything that happens before that and as

038a classroom teacher that was really actually great information to have. However, um are we training classroom teachers in this or are we training other school personnel? So who is getting this training? >> So currently and we can train more but currently it is set up that the adapted special ed teachers assistants and the BSAs in those in our tier three programs and tiered systems are trained. They would still be trained in this. Um but something that we talked to the executive team about was having all administrators uh go through this training, elementary, middle, and high. And then the offering for additional teachers. And the luxury, the nice piece about this program with our BCBAS conducting the training is that they can do that on our professional development days and offer that to teachers when special

039education is needing to offer other trainings. And we're running into uh dilemmas on trying to have additional dates for teachers when students are in in class. >> Yeah. The the reason I was asking is because um to to put this training on classroom teachers, uh what concerns me is that their primary responsibility is teaching, >> not uh necessarily deescalating every crisis that's in their classroom. We need we need other people like that you have described to have that training to specialize in that because our classroom teachers can't do it all. We can we just can't keep asking them to be guidance counselors, trauma care specialists, uh behavior specialists. Like we can't ask them to do it all. Their primary focus needs to be teaching. And while I appreciate how it helped me understand kids and

040helped me with classroom management, I just don't want to keep piling those kinds of things. I just wanted to make sure we the expectation wasn't that we were going divisionwide with this and that teachers would be required to do this and implement it. I just wanted to make sure. >> Yeah, that's why. And and I think to answer your question, Miss Hurst, the feedback we've gotten from teachers is that they want more tools in their tool belt to try and manage things before they escalate outside of their classroom. >> Absolutely. >> And by going to safety care, the verbiage, the strategies, the techniques they use are going to be familiar to the BCBAS when they get involved. Mant disconnect between their classroom support and then when it goes to a behavior analyst to for support.

041So this is actually going to be nice because the the same language is happening between what we train teachers on and when our experts get involved with an FBA or BIP. >> So it should be more efficient. >> But to answer your question, we would not be requiring classroom teachers to take it. But it would be easier and suitable for them because we have had some that wanted not being required. Right. >> I I am the first to say it's probably one I mean I haven't had that training. I've had the man training. It it was helpful, but um it also is not my primary responsibility as the general education classroom teacher to deescalate students who are truly in a crisis, right? We need somebody else to come and do that because my responsibility is

042the other 19 kids and their education. Somebody else needs to to work in lock step with the classroom teacher on on getting that kid what they need. That's just my perspective. clearly heard and by moving to this the supervisors in special ed will be more available to manage principal needs, teacher needs because they won't be the ones training on professional development days. They'll be able to be in the building. So I think more people, more professionals will be available to help teachers. >> That's good. >> By going to this model. >> That's good. Everybody gets what they need. >> Y >> it's good. So that that brings me to a follow-up question. Thank you. uh the first two chapter chapters of Mant were super helpful and giving you lots of information that like I feel

043like everybody should know. Is there a possibility of any of these programs having like a light version so that you don't have to learn all of mant you don't have to I have already forgotten the new name of >> safety first is if is there a safety first light that we can do with like more people and because so for those of you that haven't had the training the first two chapters basically identify like emotions and kind of help you okay when somebody does this you should do this, not that. And um honestly, I've seen it in my own life where people have come in and like somebody's like escalating and somebody else just comes in and escalates them even more and it's not helpful. Where if people had these tools, life would be easier.

044So, is there a way to is there a way to do that? I think safety care has that piece and if you were to go through the training I think you'll be up in November 26 um if I'm not mistaken but I think you would find that the same messaging and training happens it's just safety car's version >> uh you're talking about the relational piece and that is so important the communication relationship building um the the conflict resolution piece that's there in safety care it's just different verbiage >> yeah but can we do >> but they do not offer an abbreviated verbage abbreviated because but for them to back it and for the legal aspects you wouldn't want to do an abbreviated and then it not go through the full but it is the relational

045piece and the deescalation piece is in safety care the same and Chris and I have talked about the inperson versus the blending um in tier systems we do all in person and I know they've done some of the blended but having that in person for that relational and and looking to that as a possibility. Um but there is no abbreviated where you >> and is there any program anywhere that or like speaker or something that could bring that to a wider audience within our division might be something worth looking at at some point. >> Okay. >> Well taken. We will do a little digging on that. Uh but I can assure you if we move to this the supervisors in special ed will be in buildings and be able to help principles and teachers more

046than be in trainings for man which is what what we need them to be doing. >> Anything else board members? Okay. Thank you both. Thanks for your time. >> The next item for information uh is coming to us from Sheldon Rice. He is our coordinator of health and physical education and he is going to give us a presentation or an update on our program. Thank you. >> Hello Chair Horst, members of the board, Dr. Shifflet. Thank you for the opportunity to present this evening about health and physical education in Rockham County Public Schools. The current landscape nationwide points to an alarming picture about young people's health and wellness. Only about one in every four or five children or about 20 to 28% ages 6 to 17 meet the recommended 60 minutes of daily Physical activity

047levels tend to decrease as children get older. Inactivity can lead to higher rates of childhood obesity which is over 21%. And increases the risk of lifelong chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease. We are also seeing increased levels of stress and anxiety in students. A large part of what we do in physical education is to get students moving and physically active. Being active has several benefits to one's overall health and learning outcomes. Regular physical activity can boost memory and attention, which are crucial for learning. Studies have also shown a correlation between physical fitness and higher test scores, especially in uh math and reading. Active students often have higher grades than their less active peers. Though physical activity is important, there is so much more to what we do in physical education. Teamwork and cooperation is

048paramount to what happens in our classrooms. By teaching students to communicate, collaborate, and achieve a goal. Exercise is a natural anxiety reducer by lowering cortisol levels and red uh releasing endorphins. And finally, mastering new physical skills builds self-efficacy and resilience by teaching students that effort leads to improvement. This is not just true in physical education but in each academic discipline as well. I would like to highlight just a few ways our physical education teachers promote lifelong physical activity opportunities for our students in Rockham County public schools. We have partnered with first te of the Shannido Valley headquartered at Heritage Oaks Golf Course in Harrisonenburgg to provide students with a golfing experience through their first te program. They offer to bring equipment to schools and help lead golfing lessons as needed. They have provided teachers with

049professional development sessions to get more acquainted with the sport of golf and how to teach the skills of the sport. Uh they have also offered the opportunity for field trips to Heritage Oaks where students can hit from the driving range and practice on their putting greens allowing them to see what an actual golf course looks like. Sadly, I was able to participate with my students in that experience. It did not help my golf game, but it doesn't keep me from continuing to try. Um, another popular lifelong physical activity we provide um is bicycle safety. Our school division has over 800 bicycles at our elementary, middle, and high schools. We have offered teacher training in teaching bicycle safety as well as bicycle maintenance and repair. Through this program, many students in Rockim County have learned how

050to ride bikes safely and be aware of some of the rules of the road. Along with physical activity, teachers cover a lot of topics to give students the skills to make healthy decisions about their physical, mental, and social health. Such topics include mental health and dealing with stress, food and nutrition, safety and first aid, hazing and bullying, family life education, situational awareness, internet safety, substance use and abuse, addiction and gambling. along the lines of substance use and abuse. Bofin life skills training is an evidence-based substance use and abuse prevention program that we began implementing in grades four, six, and nine this school year. We have got our teachers trained to facilitate this program and several schools have already begun teaching or have completed the program. This spring, we will talk about how things went and

051how we can improve our implementation of this program as it expands to elementary level three and fifth grade and middle school level two and seventh grade. Um and in the beginning of November, um East Rockam High School PE teacher, uh Danielle Matheni and myself attended the annual Virginia Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance Convention in Virginia Beach. We enjoyed networking with fellow health and PE educators and came back with several ideas to share with our colleagues. We have a lot of um we have a lot of great physical education teachers in our division that are passionate about what they do and care about their students health and well-being. It is truly a pre pleasure to work with this group of teachers. Uh, but this evening I want to highlight one teacher in particular.

052Danielle Matheni from East Rockm High School was named the Virginia Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance High School Teacher of the Year. This prestigious statewide award recognizes outstanding educators who demonstrate excellence in physical education, promote lifelong wellness, and inspire students to achieve their personal best. Honores are selected based on their innovative instructional methods, leadership in professional organizations, and positive impact on students and school communities. Danielle is in her sixth year of teaching at East Rockingham High School, where she fosters a positive, inclusive, and active learning environment that motivates students to lead healthy lives. Her commitment to engaging lessons, creative fitness programming, and teamwork-based instruction exemplifies the best of health and physical education. We are proud of Danielle and the impact she has on the lives of her students and the East Rockingham community.

053Any questions from you all? >> I don't have a question, but I first want to say congratulations to this teacher. That's wonderful and it's a really blessing, a big blessing for Rockingham County that we have her and um thank you for the research that you've done into this. You may or may not know I have a professional career in health and fitness and um education as well. And this is something I'm really passionate about. I'm looking forward to working with you in the future um and getting maybe a locally um a local Rockyham County program for health and fitness that we can um use to you know get takes about 10 to 20 years for current research to get into clinical practice. And so, um, there's some ways I think that we can develop something

054locally where we can get some of that current knowledge into the hands of our students and, um, and to get them to move more. And I'm thank you for bringing up also that physical activity promotes better test scores because there's lots of research that supports that. And so, um, I'm really excited to talk about this. And thank you for the presentation. >> Thank you. Uh, I I it is just now occurring to me when you I you got up and you showed the slide that had Virginia ah pard d and I was trying to figure out what all the letters were and we got to dance and we don't have do we teach dance at all in county public schools anywhere? >> Oh, I I think there's some of it. Yes. >> Okay. Mhm. >>

055But I just never had realized that one that I hadn't noticed that we didn't see it that I hadn't seen it. So, uh, that was very interesting. So, and maybe something that we need to get more into. >> If you would be interested in leading that, Miss Lure weekend. >> Oh, you should see me dance. It's amazing. It's just as good as my singing. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. Board members, anything else? Thank you, sir. Thank you for your time. >> It's just a >> Oh, no. >> All right. The next item for information is a policy revision to IG. And I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Shifflet. >> Yes. Thank you, Chair Hurst and board members. uh and having some conversations with individual board members, um there seemed to be um a

056desire to to sort of go back to uh having families opt in their children to family life education. Currently, it's uh it's an it's an opt out. So, we sort of share with families what we'll be uh teaching uh what the instruction and curriculum will look like for family life. And families then can say I don't want to do part of that or or none of that. And so moving back to say parents must provide written consent for their child to participate in all or part of family life education instruction. So bring this tonight to you for information and um you know obviously if you have questions you can reach out to me during the coming weeks or have conversations with with each other but that's sort of what u that policy change would entail.

057Board members, do you have any questions or um thoughts for discussion at this time? >> And then what would that look like from a a parental standpoint? Basically, and the reason I'm asking, I remember getting this paper that had like these boxes on it and these uh numbers and I would lose it sometimes or uh at first I felt like I needed to write something on it, so I would write something on it. It was never very clear what I was supposed to do with this paper. Will it be clear that I need to opt into this as the parent of a child? >> Yes, it should be very clear. And and what will be the the the significance and the change is let's just go back to your example. If you lost that paper

058and you never submitted it, the school then's going to work on the assumption that you were okay for their child to participate in that curriculum, all parts. But now before we can teach that curriculum to the child, we have to have the consent form in our hand so that we know that you as a parent have given your permission. That's sort of the big difference. >> And I guess what happened if I lost it? Are we going to follow up on that? Because like >> So I'm going to give some elementary classroom perspective here. um because at the beginning of every year we would send home um the family life curriculum and it would be listed what is taught right and then at the end there's permission like it says option A I give consent

059for all of my child to participate in all of these lessons option B no none none at all or option C and these might be in a different order but option C would be yes to these no to these specific strands so that's been going on at the elementary for as long as I've taught in the division. You send those home and then right before and because I taught in fourth and fifth grade, this was especially relevant. Uh right before we got into those units in the spring, I would pull back all of the permission slips that I had received. And if I was missing any, I would send an extra like I would contact that parent and send it home at that time to just say just checking in. We like we need to

060know whether your child is getting instruction for all, none, or some, right? So, at the elementary school, that's how um it's been going. I think a lot of parents are under the assumption that that's how it's going at the middle and the high school and I don't think that that's the case. Um so, at the middle and high school, um and you know, this is something I've figured out with my own children. It was uh you know the schools are doing a great job sending emails. We get emails, hey these units are coming up. Email if you have any questions or if you want to see the curriculum. So the schools principles PE teachers are doing a great job communicating there. Um but what I found out also was that um a permission slip came

061home. It wasn't a permission slipped. It was a send this back to school with your student if you want your child to opt out. like if you do not want your child to take any of these, you need to send this back. So, that puts a lot of uh responsibility, which is not unfair to expect that a 12-year-old can get a paper home to mom and dad. But um there are also a lot of reasons why things never make it from the backpack to parents. I mean, all of us are parents and we understand how that happens. And I just don't want any child uh receiving education along those lines. um just because a parent happened to not see it. So I would think that you know we kind of follow the same procedure that

062we use at the middle school. My or at the elementary school. My question would be that can feel like a lot of paperwork um for I don't know who's responsible for you know is it the PE teacher that's going to disseminate all that paperwork or is that going to go by middle school home room? Right. Middle school home room teachers everybody has a home room. they're just responsible for the 20 in that class. That lightens the load. It can be uh it could seem like a heavy lift um for a middle or high school teacher who has 80 kids that they've got to track down and keep track of. So, I'm just wondering if there's a way to do this in powers school where parents can sign these forms. Maybe we get them as part

063of registration or maybe there's too much already at registration and we need, you know, we need to give it a couple of months and then send a a digital, you know, we do a lot of forms online um for registration. Just wondering if this could be one of those that we do digitally and then all that remains is to follow up with the handful that don't don't reply. So that would my my question would be like I don't want this to be overly burdensome. Um, I want it to be done right and well, and I think the intent is right, but how can we not swamp our teachers and it could even be, you know, digitally you could do this at the elementary level, too, therefore taking another thing off of our teachers plates that

064they have to keep track of. >> Sarah, I was going to suggest that maybe we consider looking at that adding it to registration. Yes, I know it's a lot, but like there's a lot of parents that like rather get it done at the beginning of the year all at once than to chunk it out later. Um, I would just want to think about sort of some unforeseen consequences. Well, I like the opt-in option, especially because I I do have a kid that lost this the form in a backpack. You know, he just, you know, it was stuck in the bottom of the backpack. Um, and I think that provides a layer of protection for everybody just especially when we're dealing with some topics that maybe challenge certain family's values. Um but could we consider unforeseen

065circumstances? Would we think that maybe there would be lots of people opting out then? And then what are all those kids doing during the time where some kids are getting instruction and when some kids are not? What what we need to consider sort of you know the logistics of that if that should happen. >> I can't say whether that would increase optouts. Um, if it does, it does. But the backup plan for optouts has always been an alternative assignment in the library or in another classroom. >> So, I would assume that, you know, we would have to look and see, >> right, >> if and we can explore the options of looking at putting it, you know, if we want to think, you know, maybe at beginning of your registration or if that's too much.

066We're also exploring um the possibility of looking at parent square to do uh some field trip permission forms and some of those forms. So maybe that could be a part of that as well. But I think um again, you know, what you're talking about is you know with with the opt out maybe you don't know for certainty that the parents saw it and they're okay, right? With the opt in then you know with a certainty that they wanted it, right? So it's it's a little bit little little cleaner what you might say, right? Um my question is um in elementary school is time taken out of physical education for is that when they get the family life education is out of physical education because we were just here hearing about how important physical education is.

067So what how much time how many weeks is it in elementary school? I think it's just a few >> we may rely on Sheldon's expertise in the upper grades. I would say it's a it's a class period or two two class periods in the in the upper in the upper grades. some of the standards at the lower grades are sort of almost in some ways incorporated into just >> Well, that's my that's my concern today is K through three because is it fourth grade that we're required by the state to start doing family life and is it necessary in K through three or is it something that could simply be absorbed into guidance or regular class time or is it >> Yeah, we we standards K K12 or K10 I guess >> but I'm asking

068K through three is it something that could be absorbed into something other physical education >> I think a lot of so I've taught first and second grade uh I'm getting the nod back there I think Miss Martz knows where I'm going this um a lot of those are absorbed into the classroom because they're you know it might be like life cycles of you know uh >> gosh somebody help me over on side, but >> the opting or types of families, right? Like >> what are they opting into then in K through three >> that life cycles perhaps? >> Okay. I think some of the more heavyhitting stuff would be using appropriate terminology for body parts. Um, I don't know off the top of my head, but a lot of that's just absorbed in the classroom

069as a as a I've taught first and second. I didn't have strategic lessons specifically to like it wasn't family life education 1.2 that I was teaching. it was embedded into >> is it um because there definitely is terminology even in the first grade curriculum that is it's a little no it's I don't know that all parents would want their kids so are the parents I know we say hey you can look at the curriculum but quite honestly most parents I I don't know that they do and I don't know if they know the terminology that teachers are allowed in first grade to it's not and I understand they don't have to but they can. So, we open those children up to those types of terms that you know I don't know of parents in first

070grade um some of them my daughter's 10 and my son is nine and I have introduced neither of them to some of the terms that I won't go into tonight but I think we've talked about it so I'm just wondering how necessary it is in K through Not until 4th. Correct. >> I think you'd need to appeal to legislators because right now it's a required >> in fourth though. I think isn't that >> K through 12? >> I don't I don't think it some of the stuff that they're allowed to say is required. And Dr. Shiplet, I think we've talked about this before and we specifically talked about fourth grade. That's what I'm asking. The standards I'm looking through now are for it's a K12 curriculum from the Department of Education. Uh I'm not sure

071if the code is Sheldon. Do you know if the code specifically states um K 12? Okay. So some of these I feel like for example K5 standard the student will identify members of his or her family. I mean that's something probably um a lot of kindergarten teachers do at the beginning of the school year when they ask you know the students draw a picture of your family right and talk about this is mom or dad or you I live with grandma or grandpa what have you. So um so sometimes it's hard for some of these younger I think for so the standards for younger students it's hard to kind of just put them in different categories and say just do this and like with the counselor because that was I mean that was something you

072know that I think a classroom teacher could do. I think your concern maybe is when it gets into more of um language about body parts or whatever. >> Yeah. Those words are a long way a long walk from learning who your family members are in fifth grade when we're talking about really private body parts in first grade. That that's all I'm saying. I just want to >> I want to be very careful about things that we're teaching that parents should be teaching. >> Dr. Shiplet, maybe it would help if board members had ready access to the the SOS. Like could you um >> maybe get us access to what is sent home to parents, you know, per grade level. >> Sure. >> Uh K through 10 >> and and let board members see what is

073currently being sent home. I guess six through 10 is probably very similar with the generic like some of that's just communicated in emails, but like at least uh then uh board members could see what the so are even though I do think they're on the uh VDOE, but at least this way board members could see how it's being um communicated and articulated to parents and maybe that maybe that would answer some of your questions or maybe it would bring up more concerns. I don't know. But >> is the concern that the paper that we get sent home with the checkbox is more vague than the the curriculum is specific? Is that >> No, I mean, I'm happy about adding the line about the optin. I'm just wondering if it's necessary in K through three. >>

074So, your question is, do we have to teach >> the family life standards or part of the standards? Right? cuz we probably still want to teach about the family unit, I'm guessing, but maybe not the body parts and 1.7 I think that is in first grade. >> Correct. >> Right. Okay. Yeah, I will get you that information. >> Thank you. >> And then we can continue to have the discussion. I think so. I think I'm hearing right as of this evening, everyone feels pretty comfortable with the change that we're suggesting, but then what does it look like moving forward? Is there more changes coming? >> Okay. Yes, >> that's correct. >> Okay. >> All right. The just a couple of more couple more information items. Thanks for hanging in there with us. Uh schoolboard committee

075appointments. Uh at this time, I just want to bring up that we have two committees. uh the Shannidoa Valley Special Education Regional Program um of which we always have one member from our board represent us um on that board and then the Masset and Governor's School Board has one member from our board that represents our division. Um, those are the only two active committees that we have at this time. And, um, at this point, Miss Lure has been on the Sheno Valley Special Education Regional Program for two years. Is that right? And Miss Cave has been on Masset and Governor's School Board. Um, I think we just need to figure out, uh, would you would you ladies like to have the same appointments? Would you uh does somebody else, you know, have a uh you

076know, a desire to go and and take that on? Um you don't have to decide tonight, but I would like to know by the next meeting so we can work out um who's doing what and we can approve it, make a motion and approve and appoint people to those committees at the next meeting. So um if you want off of the committee that you've been on, please let me know. If you um are excited to continue to serve in that role, please let me know. Um and if you're interested in any of the above, let let me know. Right now, those are the only two committees that we that we have and uh they are really important committees. We must have somebody serve in those positions. So, just let me know and email. The next

077information item is our school board annual self evaluation. I happened upon a policy back in December. I think I mentioned to you all in December that said we will annually evaluate ourselves. So I asked our clerk, hey, where's the evaluation for this? And to our knowledge, this is we've never done a school board annual self-evaluation, even though we have a policy that says we will. And so we talked about, you know, I think it's good practice uh for us to have a self evaluation. So, I'm not interested really in and I didn't get the sense from any board members at the time that we wanted to get rid of that policy and just say we're we're not doing that. Um, but at the time I offered to put together um an annual self-evaluation. You have

078that information in your folder. Um, and hopefully you all have had a chance to review it. Um, and this would be a good opportunity to give me your feedback uh on this and in in my head and of course like we all need to be in agreement on this. my in my head this would be something we would do in December um not in January because obviously Miss Irons is coming in and if we did this evaluation right now she wouldn't have anything to really evaluate on how the schoolboard is functioning um in as it relates to instructional programs um ensuring licensed personnel uh reviewing accreditation reports right so it would seem to to me that because we sometimes have outgoing and incoming board members that this would be something we need to look at

079in November and December. And I'm not saying that because I think we should wait. Um I'm just saying we need to consider the timing of this and it's not it wouldn't I think it would be a good idea if we went ahead and did this now for the previous year. Um but first we need to have a good tool. So what what's your feedback on the tool right out the gate? Right out the gate. Can you make it a Google form instead of a PDF? I don't like I don't like paper and pencil. I want to be able to click. >> I I agree. >> And then nobody has to compile it because it does it for you. >> I agree. >> But good. Yeah. And I'm beginning my ninth year on the board and

080this is the first I even knew we had a Well, you and I discussed it re uh sometime recently. But before you said, "Hey, did you know there's a policy?" I did not. But just so that everybody knows, the policy book is what this this thick. It's about this thick. So I haven't read it all. >> There's a lot in there. >> It's it's it's I'm sure it's easy for Yeah. >> Thank you for bringing this to us. >> Yes. I did call Miss Laura and say, "Have you all ever done this? >> What did this look like? Do you have a form?" So >> So this would be strictly from us about us. Like each one of us would fill it out and then we would compile our results. We don't have an external

081anyone >> contributing >> just us just the five of us. Um the in section five under governance practices and continuous improvement it says the board evaluates its performance number 15. The board evaluates its performance annually and sets improvement goals. Um I don't I don't know what that would look like. Sets improvement goals. I mean, maybe when we look at it, if we give ourselves, you know, you know what, we really need to improve on uh highquality professional development for staff. We're not sure we're there yet. So, what would our goal be? Would that go into would we have separate goals, a separate document of like, hey, we really want to stay focused on this or would this go into the comprehensive plan, right? That we need to be more strategic about that. So, um, what

082what that looks like for setting improvement goals. I don't think there's any point in doing this form if we're not going to take the steps to, uh, make an improvement, right? So, um, I advise that we keep that, but what that looks like and how we, you know, if we've rated ourselves in general poorly on something, how we can work to improve. And I think that might just, maybe it's a work session where we're discussing. I think it almost feels like it should be something that we do in conjunction with our superintendent review because that's when I'm already looking at all the numbers and I'm already in that vein and that's usually 1 of July or so. So >> to be clear, you're discussing that as a matter of timing, not a matter involving the

083superintendent. >> That is correct. Well, and so what we do for you and everybody else who's never been in the room, >> Mr. Shifflet, would you like to evaluate the school board? >> That's a great point. We should We should have Dr. Shifflet evaluate us right before we evaluate him. Great plan, Dr. Shifflet. >> We are awesome. Well, I I'm a fan of implementing the policy we already have in place. I think it's really important that we hold ourselves to the same standards that we hold our employees and they are repeatedly evaluated and um it's it's good for our growth as well. So I think it's a good thing. Are there any items on here that you would like worded differently? Um these uh I took these from code of Virginia are our roles and

084responsibilities, right? So we are responsible for uh accreditation, accountability and compliance. So, what are we doing to make sure we're checking those boxes, right? Uh we we are responsible for ensuring we have licensed and qualified personnel. Um that we support high quality professional development. So, if you're wondering where where this stuff came from, code of Virginia, um yeah, are there any any items you think we should add? And maybe this will be an evol an evolving document. >> Yeah, I think this is an evolving work in progress kind of thing. And I think we should start I I'm better at evaluating it as I'm doing it and going through it and maybe have the goal have this done by early June and see how it goes. What do we think of that >> board members?

085And that'll give Miss Iron six months to get her feet under her >> and it kicks it down the it kicks it down the uh road so we don't have to do it right now. >> Um I don't know. I think we would maybe need to put this up for action as in like hey this is the document that we're going to use that goes with this policy. Is this ready for action next meeting 20 whatever? Yes. >> The policy or >> I think this would be attached to the policy as like this is our approved document. >> Maybe not. Maybe we'll get legal counsel on that. >> I'm almost inclined to not take a vote on it and let it be a working document. I mean, we don't we don't have a working document

086for the superintendent. >> Sure. Yeah. I mean, that's a good point. >> Yeah. Okay. >> We don't vote on that. We just use it and then when we don't like something, we just change it and fix it. agree. >> Okay, that concludes all of the information items that we have this evening. Um, we're now moving into item number nine, which is the superintendent comments and updates. >> All right. Thank you, Chair Hurst. First, I would like to officially welcome Miss Irons to the school board. Uh, we held a reception for her this afternoon at Peak View and um invited folks to u welcome her. some of our administrators were there as well as fellow schoolboard members. So, welcome to the team. Um, we've been having ongoing discussions about our use of of technology in our

087in our classrooms. And so, I have provided each uh schoolboard member with a copy of the book uh the digital delusion and for each of you to read and for us to discuss. Uh I will also be providing a copy of this book to all of our uh administrators uh next week and asking them to read it. Uh we'll start reading that I guess mid January and try to finish it by the end of the year when we have our administr administrative retreat. We can be having some conversations around this and how this may guide some of our conversation. So just wanted to uh share this with you and and make you aware. I've I've started reading it. I haven't gotten through the entire thing. Unfortunately, they don't have the audible version of this for

088me, which is not yet. Um, which is a bummer. Uh, I I do read, but I love to listen to books. I, you know, when I'm out doing farm chores and cutting wood, I can just, you know, put in my earbuds and listen. And so, I listen to lots of books. I just don't always have time to to sit and read. >> Oh, gosh. I didn't know if you were Yeah, that would be great. Mrs. Irons, if you could do that, if you would record it as you read it out loud, I'd really appreciate it would help me with that. So, uh, and just, uh, yeah, so anyway, and so as we begin to read this, you know, can be some conversations that we have over lunch or coffee or what have you just to

089talk about this. Wanted to bring you up to date. Um last week um I visited uh with Broadway uh Dan Sanders at Broadway High School to look at his facility along with Colonel Bryant from uh JMU's senior ROC and we were looking at that property and what spaces we can use. Miss Irons joined us. So hopefully we'll be getting that application submitted uh either this week or next week and we're moving forward. Uh still trying to plan, you know, budget pending that we can uh start a program this fall at um Broadway High School, our first um uh junior ROC with a long range goal of um taking it to all four of our high schools. I think Colonel Bryant shared that he attended a U school in Florida that had I think 17 high

090schools and all of them had junior ROC. So, uh we're trying to see if we can uh get get it started, get it planted and see if we can watch it grow. And then the last comment or highlight I'd like to make is the the winner of our perfect um employee and perfect attendance for the month of December uh was Sydney Kaufman who is a kindergarten teacher at John Whan Elementary School. So I'll be teaching kindergarten here in a few weeks. U I I begged Caitlyn if she would keep spinning the wheel to find someone other than a K. No, I'm just kidding. We we found a kindergarten teacher and I said, "Hey, she's the winner and I'm going to try my hand at kindergarten." So, um I >> love it. >> I'm going to

091love it. That's what Miss Ter says and I believe that to be true. I'm going to enjoy it. So, looking forward to it. So, thank you. Yeah. >> Thank you, Dr. Shifflet. Um the next item before we wrap things up, um our school board highlights questions and comments. Uh I'm going to begin tonight uh by apologizing to the board for our meeting on Wednesday. So Wednesday the board met for organization meeting and then we met in close session with our attorney for legal counsel and for FOYA training. And one of the challenges in um working, it's not a challenge, it's just a part of reality that we have um young moms on this board who have children that need them after school. And I let that meeting we we thought we would be wrapping up

092at 2:30 and we didn't. And then I thought we can squeeze in just a little bit more. and it really pushed a couple of our board members to the point where they ended up needing to leave the meeting that ran late. Um, and so I want to apologize first of all for trying to pack in so much because it wasn't my intention to push it to the limit where board members were having to like, hey, I can't stay any longer. I have to go. Um, and then we wrapped up the meeting late. So, I do want to apologize that the meeting ran longer um than we had anticipated and take responsibility for that. that puts you all in a position where you had to choose uh between your your family and you know your role

093as a school board and I don't want to put you in that position. Um so my question for the board would be what do you you know at that time I was making that decision based on we had the attorney present and we were you know trying to roll through several things trying to also balance not bringing board members back for an additional meeting because we already meet a lot and we're all very busy with you know full schedules of things and um so I was trying to balance like maybe we can squeeze this in and get this done really quick And um I don't I don't think that that's going to work, but I just want to know how you would like me to handle um those kinds of meetings. When we have close

094session meetings on Monday nights, that's kind of an an open-ended kind of thing. And we've gone real late on Monday nights. But it is uh I need to be more aware of what you need from me when we're scheduling meetings. And maybe I've just tried to pl pack too much in and we just have to have more. I don't know. Do you want more meetings? would what would you like? Uh please accept my apologies for pushing you to the to the end and then um but I just want to know how I can serve moving forward better. >> I I have a couple ideas on that. I think it is when we have a meeting with an ending time that's already established. Obviously Monday nights we aren't going to have that. Um, but the ones

095that we do, maybe at the point of the time of meeting at 2:30, for example, the other day, we could stop and all agree as to whether we can or cannot continue or whether we're going to table something. I think just bringing awareness to it would help. Um, I think it'd be great for the attendance record to reflect if we have a meeting that has a start and end time. So, um, the public is aware and it's transparent that, hey, the meeting was supposed to end, so actually, you know, they stayed 25 minutes late and then had to leave. not they left early. Um especially in the case of Ashley, she bent over backwards to be there on Tuesday or Wednesday. Her daughter broke her foot at school and she she really went out of

096her way to be there and I wouldn't want the record to show something other than the fact that she bent over backward to make it work. >> It'll show that she was missing but it won't show why and she that was uh really a challenge for her. Yeah. >> Anything else board members? I'll defer to the other board members because I am blessed with flexibility and you guys are blessed with babies right now. Enjoy that. And my kids don't need the mama that they used to. And I'm going to get all teary if I keep talking. So, um I'll do whatever whatever I can to make it easier on you guys cuz I understand that your first job is mama. So, whatever I can do. Um my schedule is extremely flexible as well. So, I'm

097with Jackie on that. I'm letting Miss Irons, Miss Burggoyne, and well, and even you, Chair, decide. >> Sometimes I get in a bind, but I usually uh have backup plans or kids that call me and say, "Aren't you picking me up?" No, the bus. >> Well, and I'm generally flexible, too, if my mom happened to be out of town. >> You know, we but we did set an ending date and then didn't hold to it. So, my apologies for that. But I just think that's good practice anyway just to have a at least a stopping point to say can we do this and and I'll agree on it. >> Um the only other thing I want to say um Miss Burggoyne asked me to pass on um a comment she was going to make tonight

098uh and that was regarding um recess equipment or playground equipment. Let me clarify playground equipment at the elementary level. So we've discussed this as a board. We even went as far as to get a report and have our elementary principles put together you know like a presentation which we can share with Humires um on you know condition of the playground equipment how much things uh cost to replace items and and when I say equipment I don't mean the playground balls I mean the slide structures the gaga pits the climbing apparatus whatever all of those things um we've we've t I I know this is something we've talked about as a board. Um, knowing that these things are really expensive. I don't think the public is aware that one single piece of that, you know, one

099small thing can cost as much as $20,000. And that is usually left to the schools and the PTO's to fund raise for that. And some schools have a lot of PTO fundraising power and others maybe don't have as much. And um what we're wanting to make sure I think if I understand Ashley's heart and it's very similar to what I've heard expressed among the board, recess is important. Kids being outside and playing is really important. Um and we we as a board tend to budget for, you know, large ticket items that exceed, you know, when we think about we pay we pay for a lot of things for our um middle and high school athletics teams, right? uh that if we asked the baseball team to fund raise to replace $400,000 lights, it would be

100impossible, right? So, those are items that we take on or if we have to replace sod or if we have to, you know, there's a number of things I think we do field maintenance, which can be over 20,000 per school per year. Um, we do a lot of big ticket items at the middle and high schools. And, um, I think Ashley was wanting me to relay it. it might be time to take a look at how we're we maybe need to revisit that discussion again as we move into budgets, how uh we can support our elementary schools. I don't know if that looks like us doing an evaluation, putting them on a rotation of I don't even know. I'm going to throw out a wild number. Um no, I'm going to throw out a low

101number. That way, no one holds me to the wild number. Um but maybe it could, you know, we have 15 elementary schools. Maybe we put them on, you know, five schools a year and you get $10,000. That's my low ball number. Um, that's a lowball number. I understand, but I don't want to throw out, you know, 75,000 and have somebody say, you know, they want to provide that. I don't know what's feasible in the budget, but I think we need to start looking at that, especially as we move into the budget. And um, Ashley wanted me to to bring that up. I think she championed that last I think it was last year in 2025 at the beginning of the year. We did discuss it. I just can't remember if it was 24 or 25.

102>> To that vein, as a PTA president formerly that has raised lots of money for things like that, it is definitely very expensive and but also imperative to our students to get outside and run and play and and do all the things that enhance learning and wellness. Um I I have lots of creative ideas to speak to this, I think, so we can do it not right here. Um, but I' I'd love to be part of that conversation cuz I think that um I would encourage principles to have a long-term vision or even whether to do this at the county level to have a long-term vision for what their playgrounds would ideally look like and to dream big because if they say get $10,000 and a PTA can raise a few and and typically fundraising

103is more uh effective if there's a a target um and a reason that's very specific. And so we could probably come together and say, "Hey, we can get this piece of over here and do this over here next time." And and so but to have a plan in place is really important for that to be effective. >> Mr. Moyers and I have had some preliminary conversations about this as we started talking about budget and and one idea that he, you know, ran by me and I'm not exactly sure what the dollar amount would be. It really depends on our budget, but is if we could allocate, you know, 30 or $40,000 to each elementary school and allow them to put in their activity fund and then give them three years to make their purchases so

104they have some time to work towards that. Uh, and then maybe with some, you know, PTO funds or, you know, community funds, they can, you know, do some some greater things. Um, but making, you know, making it more capital investment, right? not just kickballs and jump ropes, but more um you know pieces that they could add to it. Like I see here, you can get Larry the Lion playground tunnel for $1,100 and that may so so that be something they want to invest in. So anyway, but we're having those conversations. So as we are going through the budget process, we'll try to maybe keep that in mind that this something that sounds like the board would like to see us try to work out if we can. So, that's all of the comments for me

105and for Miss Burggoyne. We'll go to Miss Cave. Um, I don't have a whole lot. I was able to attend the uh spelling bee out at um Pence Middle School and uh I love spelling bees. I'm a big like English and my and math are my two favorite things um when it comes to education. Although I do wish I'd paid more attention in social studies, but that's neither here nor there. But um some of those words, man, just gave me heartburn. Uh but wow. And those kids, it just get up there and just rattle them off and it just made me really proud of Rockingham. Um so that was fun. And then I got to attend um my first honors band um performance on Saturday at East Rock and that was amazing. So, um I've

106went to a lot of the middle school bands and so just seeing that difference and how they grow and in into high school and then those who um who make the honors band is just really really amazing. So, um that was a good time and I think that's all I had on my mind for for tonight. Miss Lure. >> Uh, I just want to jump off of Miss Cave's comments real quick and that, uh, yeah, the spelling bee, some of those words were hard and I was getting live updates and somebody said, "Okay, the child just went out on pistachio." I'm like, "Boy, I can barely pronounce it." And then I'm like, "Okay." And we tried spelling it and then we had to have Alexa spell it and no adult in the room could spell

107pistachio. I can barely even say it. So, like, hats off to the kids that did the spelling be. Um it it was rough. Uh also I'd like to welcome Miss Irons. I'm so looking forward to working with you in the coming years. Um and I'm really excited about the things that this board is going to be able to do. And I wanted to make sure that I I didn't um sound like I was trying to put off the evaluation or discussing the evaluation. And thank I want to thank uh Chair Hurst for working so hard on on getting a document. So thank you for that. Um, I I think we're going to be able to do great things and I'm very excited. I'm I'm thankful to be here and um I'm thankful to be on

108this board and working serving with the folks that I am because it is it is a service to our community. Um, and I think we're all up for the the uh challenge. So, thank you. Um, I was able to attend a field trip with to JMU with the new one of the new health careers class last week. It was really awesome. We got to learn how to do ultrasounds and we stitched up a banana uh that had a laceration on it. We listened to heart sounds. It was it was neat to see that class in action and I'm excited for the the the future of that because that's a new program at RCPS and I think it's really going to help us find some great um kids in the health career uh field and I

109uh am suffering from neck pain and getting older and I definitely going to need folks in the health career uh field. So, I'm excited to have that that that uh what's the word I'm looking for? Venue that I'm looking forward for that for our students. And I think I see some students here tonight. Do I see some students here tonight? Um uh can you just would somebody mind shouting out where you're from? Oh, so you're not even Rockingham County Public School students. Well, welcome. I hoped you learned something tonight and I hope you enjoyed. We certainly enjoyed having you here. So, thank you. And that's all I have. Thank you, Miss Lure. Miss Irons. Um, Miss Lure, I was very jealous when I saw that you were on that field trip. And so, I just

110want to put it out there to all the people who might be watching this who work for Rocket County, if you are taking your kids on a field trip and you need an extra chaperone, please do call and invite me. >> They needed an extra. >> Yes, especially one like that. I would have loved to be on that one. Um, so I just want to take my time to say I am really excited to be here and um, just to give a little update on what I've been doing for the last few weeks as I um, took on the role. So I've been spending time visiting schools, attending events like the spelling bee, which I agree was wonderful, meeting with staff so that I can better understand what our strengths and our challenges are, where

111our greatest opportunities lie, and like how I can help the best I can. Um, as I tour, my goal is to sort of enhance morale, to highlight successes, and to build relationships and deepen the understanding that I already have about our school system and just to gain insight into all the many moving parts that make our system tick. Um, I did get to go see the ROTC thing, uh, JRTC, should I say, with Dr. Shiffla. I'm really excited about that, especially this year. I think it's really timely that we're bringing that program on in the 250th year of America's independence. Um, so especially meaningful and I would like to see us um have a really a set of um efforts this year that support the 250th anniversary of America's independence. Um, I think some it

112could be very small things such as like making sure all of our students know the 50 states and their capitals, which unfortunately I think many don't. Um, and hey, that might look like just at the countywide effort to learn the nifty50 United States song. doesn't have to be anything super crazy, you know, or the president's song. Um, there's some other things I hope to spearhead as we go forward and very timely again with our calendar presentation tonight because one of the things I would really like to see which would facilitate um long-term attendance for our families is maybe that we consider approving a two-year calendar at a time and like having maybe like a third-year draft. So, we're on a rotation of approving two years at a time. That way, people planning big vacations or

113I know for example, World Strides next year was like, "We think it's going to be this day, but if only if we get out of school on this day." And so that could be helpful long term for families. Um and then as we prioritize safety in a variety of ways, I would um like to highlight that during the campaign process, several families brought up to me that um they are concerned that we don't have background checks on file. And again, as leading from top down, we require background checks for everybody that's in our schools working with students. And so I would like to see us adopt that practice. I'm I'm sure we'll all pass with flying colors, but it would set a precedent for the future um that we are invested as well in the

114safety of our students. Um and the thing I'm really most I'm excited about lots of things, so I'll leave it the two more things. Um MTC, I'm super excited to get to be part of that. Many of you may know if you paid attention at all, I I graduated from a vote school in Maryland. Um it was a fine arts and tech school. And so I'm I'm working hard to try to plant the seed to make sure we get a fine arts component put into MTC. Yes, that would include dance. Yes, it would. So, uh, another timely connection for tonight. Um, and then lastly, I'm really interested, Sarah and I have been talking a lot about making sure our reading skills are up to snuff and um, bringing back things like cursive that will help

115with student handwriting. I really firmly believe that every student in Iraq County should be able to read the Constitution in its original form, which is cursive. So, um, anyway, all of that to say, I've got lots of things I'd like to think about and do, and all of which is going to be done with the power of the board and with, um, the guidance of the the professionals in our county. But at the heart of it all is just that it's what's best for kids. That's why we're all here. Um, that's not always the easiest path for adults, unfortunately, but it is the responsibility we share. and I'm really looking forward to serving the county and getting to know each of you and to um working hard over the next four years. >> Thank you,

116Miss Irons. Um I'll wrap up by also uh you know, I began the meeting by welcoming Miss Irons, but I also should have rewelcomed Miss Lure because um she's back. Um so I I Miss Miss Laura is back and um we're glad to have you on board as well. Um, one of the things that I appreciate about about Miss Lure is uh she is the most senior member of our board and I don't mean that in age. I mean that in expertise and uh length of term on the school board. So she is starting our her third term and we do appreciate the insight um and the experience that she brings to our board and also looking forward to working with Miss Irons. Um, I think we have a very uh wide range of abilities

117and interests uh on our board. Things that we all um are passionate about and I'm looking forward to working with with probably the first somebody tell me the history the first all female school board in the history of Brockingham County Public Schools. We're going to look that up >> because that's kind of cool >> if that's true. >> I know. >> Oh, I know. several years ago might not be >> we were the only one that had a a female majority. >> I know Daily News Record did an article on we were the only board in the area that had a female majority, but all >> but we really have it down. I'll have to we can we can look it up. >> I'll have to do some research. Okay. Thank you all for coming

118out this evening. Appreciate your time. Happy New Year. Drive safely. >> But wait, there's more. See, this is like senior um member over here reminding me we still have we still have work to do. We're going back into closed session. Um and so with that, I move that the board enter into a closed meeting under Virginia code section 2.2-3711A1 for the purpose of discussing and considering personnel matters including assignment, appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salary, disciplining, or resignation of specific employees. The subject matter is the superintendent's contract. >> I was second password. >> Thank you, Miss Flor. Miss Irons, did you get the second? Did I get that right? >> Yes, I did. >> Okay. All right. All those in >> Yes. Miss Irons. Sorry, I was trying to speak and read what the fingerpoint question

119mark was. Uh, all those in favor of entering into a closed meeting, please say yes. Yes. All those opposed, say no. >> Motion passes 40. We're now in close session. Thank you all for coming out tonight. Drive safely.