001Hey, I'd like to um welcome you all here tonight for our last board meeting of the 2025 school year. Today is Monday, December 15th. Um we met earlier this evening for uh close session. So we are now coming out of recess and we will go ahead and begin with a moment of silent silence if you'd like to join us. Thank you. We will now do the pledge of allegiance. There it is. >> Please join us. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. I I feel like I'm missing something tonight. I figured out it's the microphone. We don't have a microphone in front of us this evening. And that's
002that's nice. we're not going to have to remember. Um but board members do speak loudly when you are um speaking. Hopefully you all can you give a little weight if you need to type up. [clears throat] Um the first thing we have tonight are some school board member recognitions. Dr. Shiplets is going to be presenting. Sorry. Thank you, Chair Hurst and board members. Tonight, I would like to recognize Chair Sarah Hurst for her service as the chair of the school board this year. On behalf of our entire school division, I want to express my sincere appreciation to Chair Hurst for her steady um leadership and un unwavering commitment to our students, staff, and community. Her ability to guide thoughtful discussions, build consensus, and keep the focus on what's best for children has strengthened our work
003and our outcomes. We are grateful your for your service and leadership. And I know Mr. Cross is not with us, but I would still also like to take a moment to uh recognize Mr. Matt Cross for his service to Rockingham County Public Schools. As Matt concludes his service, I want to thank him for his unwavering commitment to the safety and wellbeing of our students and staff. His passion for school safety was evident in every discussion and decision and his advocacy has helped strengthen our schools and our community. Under his service on the school board, we added additional SRO's, hired a director of school safety, and installed security cameras on school premises. I thank Matt for his dedicated service and his strong advocacy for school safety. His commitment to protecting students and staff has helped add
004additional layers of safety to all of our schools. Thank you, Mr. Cross. [clears throat] >> We'll move into public comments at this time. Um, we have two people who have signed up. I think this is Lauren Pierce. Did I get your name right? Is that right? So, um, have you spoken before? Uh, back in October. So, you're familiar. Three minutes. Yes. 30 second morning. >> All right. You can begin whenever you're ready. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, I would like to ask the school board to respond to the district's performance on the Virginia School Performance and Support Framework, which was released recently. Um, as we know, standardized test scores don't tell the whole story. And as I understand it, this framework from the Virginia Department of Education also takes into account trends in the test
005scores, chronic absenteeism, career, and college readiness, and graduation rates. And again, as I understand it, the overall category rating also takes into account lowincome student performance as per the federal Every Student Succeeds Act. Um, I'm bringing this up because I can't help but notice that not a single elementary or middle school in the district received the top rating out of four, which 23% of schools statewide did. Um, only six of the elementary schools in Rockingham County are classified as on track. Three elementary schools, Cubrun, Outdant Valley, received the lowest rating of needs intensive support. Um, the rest of the elementary schools are classified as off track. Um, as a parent, this concerns me. I'd like to ask the board and leadership for their thoughts and more importantly your response to this. If you think the
006rating is inaccurate, could you explain on what grounds? If you think it reflects perhaps imperfectly shortcomings, how are they going to be addressed? Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> Our next speaker is Terry Smith. [clears throat] >> Good evening. I just came here to to appreciate my support for Matt Cross, what he's done for past four years and also for all of you what you've done. It's not an easy job. I know you put a lot of time and effort into it and I just want to know I appreciate you all you have done. I continue on the good work. Thank you. >> Thank you. That now concludes our public comments. We have one action item for this evening. This will be a quick agenda this evening actually. Um right into action
007items of personnel listing. Dr. Shifflet. >> Yes. Chair Hen. Board members, I recommend approval of the personnel listing dated December the 15, 2025. >> Thank you, Dr. Shifflet. Board members, do we have a motion to follow? I move the recommendation of the superintendent. Thank you, Mr. Hang. Do you have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Cave. Any questions or comments? Hearing none. All those in favor say yes. >> Yes. All those opposed say no. >> Motion passes 40. Now, moving on to information items. We have um an emergency load response program presentation by and I hope I get your name right and you correct me if I'm wrong, Mr. Mark Lazinski. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Did I get it? >> Good job. >> Thank you. >> I may have called the clerk. [laughter]
008>> Dr. Shiffwood, members of the board, want to ref want to talk to you about something that the uh maintenance department has been involved with since 2016. Um, our one of our building automation system contractors came to us with this program. They called it demand response back then. Okay. And right now we we got involved with it. Uh we started slow, but now um we just kind of want to inform you what it's about. It's emergency load response. What it does is it helps maintain the stability of the electrical grid that is managed by PJM, right? It helps prevent the loss of power in the service area. Okay? And the loss of power or the loss of the upsetting of the grid can come by hot weather, cold weather in the extremes. Okay? It can
009come by uh loss of power from equipment and it can go in day or night. So it it's not an easy thing to balance out, but that's what this program tries to do. It tries to help PJM balance the grid in emergency conditions. All right. There's another party involved with it and this is Boltus. They are the tailent service provider. Other words, they take the information from PJ andM and they give us a phone call and said, "We need your help." Okay. Not only do they do the administrative end of it, but they issue the payments to Rockingham County Schools for opportunity participation in. All right. Overview of PJM. PJM. It's a regional transmission organization and there are several of these transmission organizations across the United States. This one covers the colored area that you
010see. Covers 13 states, the District of Columbia. It serves 61 million people and manages 62,000 miles of transmission lines. Okay? And those are the electrical companies that it serves. Those are also part of the program. Okay? PJ is a major part player in it. They manage the grid. Okay. The second party involved is Voltus. Voltus is all new this year. Okay. Uh the state change the contract. It's a state contract for this service. The state issues the contract so we're all covered by it. All right. What this is entails services provider. Okay. So it administers the response. They do phone calling. They give us the notice of when the activity needs to take place. All right? So they provide provide the communication. They need to understand our operations and what we're capable of doing. So
011we'll go through load test once a year. So they know, hey, we can contribute this much in reducing the load to [clears throat] help stabilize the grid. Okay. So CPS the consu the contain service provider ultis has the infrastructure to implement this whole process. All right. So what they do, what we what happens is we get an automated phone call from Voltus that says we need to shut you need to shut the system down our HVAC equipment down within 30 minutes. They give us 30 minutes to do it. Okay. Then we wait for the automated phone call to end the process and that is a maximum of two hours and this is this is voluntary. We don't necessarily have to do it. It depends on our conditions. There are times where we have done it.
012Okay. And generally the response will be we'll get a phone call from one of the schools and says my air conditioner went off. What happened? But it's never been we're cold. We're hot. Everything works fine because it's only two hours. So, we do a real good job of that and we're very conscious of when we do it, okay? And the conditions with which we do it. All right. So, that's the emergency load response program. the synch synchronous reserve program. It's another program that they initiate, but it's kind of a a troubleshooting thing and it only lasts 15 minutes. They give us 10 minutes to shut it [clears throat] down and it lasts only for 15 minutes. Another emergency thing to help balance the grid out. All right. There's another program energy efficiency. We are not
013deeply involved with this because we we do these things when we renovate a project. In other words, when we renovate uh Wayland or we end renovating John C. Meers, we were able to get information from our engineers that let us submit the paperwork to get funds for energy efficiency. So they also provide that is a funding source for us. Okay. The schools that participate in these these programs we started out with Peak View Plains South River and Turner Ashby High School. The reason those schools were chosen is because the electrical loads. All right. All these schools are some of our top electrical loads. So we can contribute to that reduction. Okay. So it just makes sense that these um are part of program. This is all done through our building automation system. In other words,
014I get the call, I sit at the desk, and I program the schedules for those 13 buildings and the central energy plant. And we do it all from these two uh building automation system, medicine and facilities explorer. Benefits. Well, we started in the fall of 2016 with four schools. From the first four, we're up to 13 schools in the central energy plant. Over that time period, we've generated over $400,000 back to the school system. That is what we're doing to help balance the load and kind of make a little money for Rock County Public Schools. >> Great. Thank you for your presentation. Um board members, do you have any questions? >> How come it's just these 13 schools? >> It's just the 13 schools because of their electrical loads. Okay. They are they are some
015of our highest they are the highest loads electrical loads. Okay. The only other two that we're we've been trying to get is Elton Middle School, but we have a little difficulty with the Elton Utility Company down there. So we have we have tried to chase them and get get them on board because they're they have gauges that they put in the building to measure that electrical load on a very tiny manner. >> So like Hill Yeah. Hillyard and on the list so they don't have a very big load, >> right? Or am I seeing column? >> Oh, because I'm looking for Jan Hillyard, not just Hillyard. Okay. So it's just but it has more to do with the size of the school then. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Mark, how often are you doing the
016two hour shutdowns in a given [clears throat] year? >> I basically we've done the test. They test the load. Okay. And they say when we call the shutdown, this is the load that you you can contribute. Okay. I think we've had one or two that have been actual events. One of them was last year they called but it was we were on Christmas vacation or for winter break and couldn't respond to it like just to give you this is something that's happened like every week. We're not turn off each [clears throat] pack for hours at a time. It's just >> we get paid about it. We get this based on the testing. As long as we prove we can test, we get our payments for this for being participating. >> And and if they call
017it, then we'll get paid more. We get paid part of proven by the test if there's any additional calls and we get paid more. >> Get paid additional. Okay. >> And are there certain times that they're not allowed to call? Like because you're not always at your desk, right? Or does somebody else cover it during the night? >> It it doesn't normally happen during the evening hours. It happens. >> It's not gonna happen tonight. >> Okay. [laughter] >> Yeah. Everybody else asleep. >> Yeah. We can't using much load, so we can't >> got it on bare bones already at night. So, >> Yes. So, it's mainly for us it's mainly a um a heating or a cooling issue. It's a summertime thing. >> So, >> but we did get warm during the winter time extreme,
018but like I said, we couldn't respond to it as well. >> And so, what caused that? >> It it was just low temperatures, hard a winter storm came through. Mhm. >> If I recall, we we had a maybe was was maybe not this past August or the August before we had one during, you know, during the peak hours right at the end of the school day and it didn't really impacted too much, right? But I think cut it off around 1 or something. So, >> the building kind of just coast. >> Yeah, the building kind of coasted to the end of the school day. So, it wasn't >> I don't think it's major disruption to the school day for those couple of hours, right? And it's not happening very often. We're generating revenue for participate.
019>> Any other questions? >> Will we be able to put the neo techchnical center on this program? Do we think >> depends on loads? >> The the the thing the key thing that that allows us to do is our automation systems. It allows us then to go in basically at two different points, put it in and it then automatically does the shutdown and stuff for us. >> And will we be able to take advantage of some of the uh the e projects? >> Yes. As we >> the new technical center. >> Yeah. as we like [clears throat] that we'll get information although we're not we're not changing the children but the difference in efficiencies of the equipment and we'll get back >> app item on our list is item number eight superintendent comments so Dr.
020Yeah, very good. So, uh just uh three uh updates or highlights for you. First, uh the winner of our employee perfect attendance for November was Robin Dean. Uh she works in the cafeteria at Matzwood High School. So, I substituted for her today and assisted the ladies in the cafeteria with preparing and serving the meals. Uh cafeteria manager Kelly does a great job leading her team. Uh I work closely with Brit Britney. So like she and I were partners. Uh but also Rose, Brandy, and Carrie helped me out. It was a busy day, but a wonderful day. I really enjoyed it. And now I have a better appreciation uh what go you know what what all the components that goes into preparing meals for our students. So that was good. Uh we'll do it again uh
021for the month of December. So, um, in January, I'll be out doing some other role for some other employee in Rockingham County Public Schools. So, it's been really good so far. I've been a custodian, I've been a bus driver, and now food service worker. So, we'll see what's uh what comes up next. Um, also want to let the board know that we um I say we, I should probably say Dr. Amy Painter uh has completed the overnight Chevron field trip training module. And uh so uh we have shared this with our principles and then they will work with their teachers who are going on overnight trips to ensure that the chaperones uh complete the u the training and then have their background check completed. And I do appreciate Mrs. Lure. She shared some ideas [clears
022throat] for some areas that we should address in the training module. She's been on a number of overnight field trips. And again, I want to thank Dr. Amy Painter for creating the actual training slide deck. and there's a quiz that accompanies the training. So, you have to take the training, then pass the quiz, and then you kind of move on to the next level, which is getting your background check. Uh, and then the last thing I actually have a request for the board, uh, per board policy, uh, 12-month employees are off on December the 24th, Christmas Eve, and [clears throat] December the 25th, Christmas Day. Uh, and since this is a Wednesday and Thursday this year, the way the calendar plays, I'm requesting that the school board allow 12-month employees an additional holiday of Friday,
023December the 26th this year. >> So moved. [laughter] >> All those in favor say is there discussion? [clears throat] >> I advocated for the next ride up as well. the lyrics of who we're getting to a whole kind of day. >> Me, too. So, >> my only I'm not opposed to it. I'm a 12 month employee, right people? I'm I mean, >> but um that is a flex teacher work day. >> Oh, yeah. >> So, I felt like that may not be the best message, >> right? >> So, that that's why I just I thought a wonderful gesture would be to give an additional day on Friday, December the 26. That's all I was asking for. >> Do our 12 month employees, they don't get that flex day, do they? No, they would have to
024they we don't know that that applies to >> 12 months tend to have more vacation days available to them, right? We we basically told the others you you have to take vacation on the 28th, >> right? >> Like our teachers have to take vacation that day. >> So Okay. >> Yeah. >> So by giving them this day, if an employee says, "Hey, I'd like to be off this full two weeks." They would have to take five vacation days. And so that's that's pretty nice. >> Okay. >> It's very generous. If the board would be willing to do that, >> all those in favor of allowing 12-month employees an additional holiday holiday of Friday, December 26th this year, please say yes. >> Yes. All those opposed say no. >> Motion passes. Order zero. [clears throat] Anything
025else? Dr. Shifflet. >> Dr. Painter, will you adjust for time? [laughter] >> So, it's a vacation day for everybody but Dr. Painter. Sorry. >> Um the next thing we have or the final thing we have this evening um our school board highlights questions and comments and we'll begin with this evening. Um well I have some comments that I was going to make um for my good friend and fellow schoolboard member Matt Cross, but I think I'm going to save those and just um push them out on my Facebook page on my schoolboard page so that I know that it will never disappear. Um, and then other than that, um, into some of the musicals. Was that Spotswood, Frozen, Amazing? Um, where else have we talked about Elf? >> Elf. Yeah, >> Elf at Monido. >>
026Um, >> those are all the musical. >> I was at Elf Elementary School and I missed you, Sharon, but I saw you from afar. Um, and that was really good. And, um, Miss N is doing some really good work there with their music in elementary school and, um, just a really good time. my favorite time of year. So, um well, because you know the holidays, actually, I prefer the hot weather in the summertime, but um Christmas is good, [laughter] but uh I think that's everything. I feel like it's very, very busy time of year, but all good. >> Thank you, Miss Al. So, wanted to say that I enjoyed the musicals. They were amazing. Uh except for when I inhald a snowflake, but I mean, I had great seats. So, yay. I got to >>
027It was so cool. [laughter] >> But, um, uh, between coming to this side of or to the east side of the county for, uh, musicals and the band concert, which was also really, really good. Uh, I've also spent a lot of time with fruit and FFA and bacon and we butchered and I actually smell of bacon right now, so sorry. [laughter] But we're we're have we're we're doing all the all the fun stuff with FFA. If you need some fruit, let me know because we we still have a source. So, um but yes, just merry Christmas to everybody. Uh looking forward to the new year, >> Miss Burggoyne. >> Oh, um yes, I well I forgot we had this meeting, so I posted on my social media page, but um Friday, Broadway High School came
028to my kids school at Lynville. Um and the choir sang and it was awesome. They're so talented. Um, the kids loved it. They sang a lot of songs the kids knew. So, they were singing and having a really good time. And then after they left, one of the teachers said, "We need to do this every year. It just puts you in like a good spirit." And it was it was just it was beautiful. Um, Friday night I took my daughter to Frozen and that was awesome. Everything was really cool and I was talking to some parents, you know, there were some special effects that all the credit goes to the people working behind the curtain, you know. So there were some things that my daughter was like amazed when her dress changed to her ice
029dress and you know it that was all set design and and the people who do costumes and things like that. So it really for me you could see how every everybody kind of worked together and all came together for everybody to have a great time and it was amazing. Um, and then my daughter and I every year we do breeds across America and the Woodbine Cemetery and lay breeds down. Um, and there were like a handful of Girl Scouts and just a couple Boy Scouts. And I thought this is going to be a huge task for these little kids, right? They're all elementary, maybe some middle school. And then Easter Rock, Track and Field showed up and I have not seen anybody like big kids as my daughter calls them. No big kids have have
030really shown up um that weren't boys or girls yet. So it was really cool to see all these East Rock kids come in. I started seeing their their shirts. So I went I was like where are you guys from? East track and fields. I thought that was really cool. Um, we always talk about patriotism and and doing things around um those holidays and you know, Veterans Day and things like that, but I thought this was a cool because it a cool event because you you can be patriotic all year long and um honor those people um so if anybody wants to come pick the reefs up, we also do that and that's a lot of fun um and and a big a big undertaking. So if you want to let me know. Thank you. >>
031Um I will round out this evening's comments um sort of addressing um our public speaker a little bit because um what I wanted to say was you know the data has been released and it's time to start digging in to the data and um start looking at what those numbers tell us and um I think there's a lot to look at. Um, so I've already asked Dr. Shifflet to um prepare um have Cheryl EP come and present to the board all the data. It's a lot of schools to review. Um, and so I I think the other thing that we need to do as a board is we last year we um put in our five-year comprehensive plan. I think it's time to take a look at that again. I think it's a good thing
032to keep that in front of us. take a look at what what we said our plan was. Are we on track with that plan? And the data um also plays into that. And that's um it's all going to be very timely um because it's budget season, so it's time to start looking at how we need to um which schools need uh different resources, which schools need more resources. It's just it'll all be very timely. I um look for more information for the public uh forthcoming in um probably January and February. We'll be having lots of discussions about that. It's done. usually late this year. the data releases are usually in I mean most schools you know individual data within 24 hours or within a couple of days but um by by school and getting all
033that information usually that's August September um this year with the new standards and the new things that the state was doing it's just taken a good bit more time when um I was at the SBAMA uh conference in uh the middle of November, the Secretary of Education for the Department of Ed was there and she um explained that it was coming. It was coming soon and they knew it was late and she apologized for that, but they wanted to make sure they had all of the data correct um especially with new standards and new targets um coming out. So, it's going to take us a little bit of time to disagregate the data and dig into it, but we're not going to hide from it. um if there are some areas that need some attention,
034we're definitely going to take a look at that. That's um something that um I'm definitely looking forward to digging into. Um the other thing I want to bring up to the board is um we have a policy ASA, it's called schoolboard self evaluation. Um it's a policy in our manual that says every year we will evaluate ourselves as a board, not individually. Right? So, we're not giving, you know, evaluations of each other, but giving an evaluation of how this board is functioning and operating. And it says we'll do that annually, and we have not done that. >> I was just looking at Miss C. [clears throat] I'm like, I did not know we had that. >> I I asked Miss um Gilerson if we if there was a form, you know, it came ac I
035was looking into things and I realized that we didn't do that my first year on the board. And so I was asking our clerk if she had a form or something that the board had previously used to which she said nothing existed. It didn't seem like this was something. So we have a policy but um we you know my I don't think it's a bad idea for us to provide um feedback, you know, how we're operating as a board. And so um I would I think we should probably talk about that more. I'm just putting it out there for you all to to know. Maybe I'll um if you all are okay with it, I'll be glad to look into some models that other school divisions use um for evaluating and maybe put together some
036options for us to look at at our um January 12 meeting. Is that a I mean, what would you all like to do with that policy? >> Well, I was just looking. It's a 2019 VSBA policy. So, I think that we should look at it, update it. I mean, decide if we even still want it or if we want to Yeah, look into it. See if you can >> Yeah. We need to tweak or something. >> I think we should make it an RCPS policy. That would be >> I think it would include a form >> to include a form that we're actually going to use and implement. And when you get a chance, take a look at policy AFA because that's that's what I'm referring to. Okay. Well, I don't have anything further for
037this evening. I want to thank you all for coming out tonight and joining us. It is a very chilly evening. Um, drive safe and thank you all for joining us and merry Christmas. It's almost time. This meeting is >> Charlotte, you've been spectacular. have to be. >> I think you're meant to view some street or some border