001right-handed gav. >> Good evening and welcome to tonight's November 10th, 2025 school board meeting. At this time, we will begin with a moment of silence if you'd like to join us. Thank you. At this time, we'll stand and do the pledge of allegiance if you'd like to join us. We met earlier this evening in close session. Um and so now we're ready to move on with our agenda and the first thing we have um for this portion of the meeting is public comments and we do have one signed up for that. Nancy Basset, the the microphone is yours. Is it turned on? Okay. Dr. Shifflet, Chair Horse, and schoolboard members. Usually, I come up here and I speak on behalf of the education association. Tonight, I'm speaking as an individual because there are two things
002that are very dear to my heart. One is our resource and our sped students and one is our fine arts programs. As a musician, I know that going to a 4x4 block will be hard for those students. I really would like for you to reconsider moving the moving to a 4x4 block schedule. And I'm speaking from experience because my brother was a longtime band director in Augusta County. He had a wonderful band program and then Augusta County moved to the 4x4 block and he was lucky if he could get 10 to 15 students at a time. Not only can you not really teach a class that way, it almost destroyed their fine arts programs. As a musician, I know that to be proficient as a musician, especially in high school, you need to have a
003year-long program. Many skills are lost by doing it by semester. And it is really hard for some of these students to regain those skills because they've lost too much time. Unfortunately, not every parent in our county can afford to pay for private lessons so that those skills can be retained. And as for the academic classes with our sped and resource students, having a semester of math is going to be hard for them to start with with the amount of time to have it spread out through the year. they can gain the skills that they need. If they can't get the next class, the next semester, a lot of those skills are lost. And I feel like our sped and our resource students need the consistency. I really wish you could go back and reconsider this
004for all of our students. Not every person is a strong student and having that break between different classes is going to be really hard for them. Thank you for this consideration. Thank you for your comments. Board members, the next thing on our agenda is the consent agenda, and we just need one motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Thank you, Miss Cape. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Burggoyne. Any questions or comments? Hearing none. All those in favor of approval of the consent agenda, please say yes. Yes. All those opposed say no. Motion passes. 4. We're now moving right into action items. And Mr. Steve Reid, he is already on his way up here to um uh put
005before us a bid recommendation for telecommunication cabling for McGisville Elementary School. >> Chair Horse, Dr. Shifflet, members of the board, the bid for the telecommunication cabling for the renovation McGisvilles was uh specified and advertised. We had 12 firms that we sent bid package to. We had three that attended a pre-conference and two firms respond with seal bids as follows. Our recommendation is to award the contract to the low bidder AIA LLC in the amount of 85,81.51. They have worked for us in the past and actually they are working on Elton Elementary right now. Chair Hurst and board members, I recommend awarding the bid for telecommunication cabling at McGakisville Elementary School to the lowest bidder as presented by Steve Reed, director of maintenance. >> Thank you, Dr. Shifflet. Board members, do we have a motion to
006follow? >> I move to follow the superintendent's recommendation to award the bid for telecommunication cabling to at McGisville Elementary School to the lowest bidder as presented by Steve Reed. >> Thank you, Miss Lur. Do we have a second? Thank you, Miss Cave. Any questions or comments for Mr. Reid? >> Is it uh normal that the bids will be that far apart? I mean, >> yeah, >> it's not competitive at all. >> Um the two companies that bid seem to flip-flop bid to bid where one of them is much lower than the other and then the other one comes back and gets the other one at a much lower price. Actually, uh, the other company did Broadway High School edition and is doing Pleasant Valley and they were >> Okay. >> much lower and AIA has
007done Elton Elementary and Makisville and they're much lower on that one. So, >> Gotcha. Okay. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> All right. Hearing none. All those in favor of awarding the uh award the bid to the lowest bidder as presented by Mr. Reid, please say yes. >> Yes. >> All those opposed say no. >> Motion passes 40. That concludes our action items for this evening. >> We have three information items this evening. Um starting with the Virginia Preschool Initiative. Miss Michelle Jud is coming forward to present to us. Good evening, Chair Hurst, members of the board, and Dr. Shifflet. It's great to be here tonight to talk with you about the Virginia Preschool Initiative, VPI. VPI distributes state funds to provide quality preschool programs. It does require a local funding match. It aims
008to reduce school entry disparities and risk factors that lead to early academic failure. It provides highquality preschool for atrisisk children and prioritizes students meeting state eligibility criteria. In Rockingham, we have 20 VPI programs across our division. All 15 elementary schools have at least one program and four of our elementary schools have more than one program. Those are Cub Run, Johny Meyers, Mountain View, and Plains. Our programs serve four year olds. And on October 1st, our enrollment was 333 preschool children in in the pre-KVPI programs. All of our VPI programs have an appropriately licensed teacher and they also have an assistant. VPI does require if there are more than 10 children in a VPI classroom, there has to be an assistant, another adult in there. I mentioned that Oh, sorry. Catch up here. Okay. I mentioned
009that we do prioritize students who meet state eligibility criteria. So, I've got listed the criteria. Um there it's if a student is from a lowincome family or if the family is experiencing homelessness, if the students parents or guardians are school dropouts, or if the child has a disability and they're eligible for special education services, they only need to meet one of those criteria to be in BPI um and receive priority. So, when we first begin to screen students, it's typically March um in the spring and about March through the first part of July, we'll prioritize those students with state eligibility criteria. But we know that there are other children who will benefit from VPI beyond those listed there. So the state does give us some flexibility later in the summer to begin offering spots to
010students who meet local eligibility criteria. So for example, a student who has limited English proficiency would qualify through local criteria or the family the parents um have limited English proficiency. If the child shows some delays as indicated by the de developmental task assessment that's completed by the teacher during the screening process. If the child comes from a single parent family. The child does not live with their parents. The child is in foster care or the parent is absent from the home for some reason. If there's a history of parental substance abuse or there are speech concerns that and the child doesn't have an IEP yet. These are all um criteria that could qualify a student for VPI. And again, they only need one of those and they get some points for having those meeting those
011um criteria. The state has an initiative. It's called VQB5. That stands for Virginia Quality Birth to Five. And VQB5 measures and supports quality in early childhood programs. So children enter school kindergarten ready and ready to learn. BQB5 consists of observations in all of the early childhood classrooms. There's a tool that's used. It's called the class observation tool. It's class and all capital letters. It focuses on adult and child interactions. And the observers have to be trained before going into the classrooms and certified. class also looks at whether a quality state approved curriculum is used in Rockingham County. All 15 of our elementary schools have received the meets expectation rating from class observations. The observations occur in the fall and in the spring and they're completed by a local observer and then an external observer that
012will come in. Our prek programs use a state approved curriculum. It's called blueprint and our prek programs. Um, our prek classrooms do have some required state assessments. We use the Virginia kindergarten readiness program. It's VKRP. It has several components. It's got a literacy component and that's the vowels and you've heard of vowels because we use vowels to assess other grade levels as well. There's a mathematics component and then there are components that measure a student's social skills and self-regulation skills and these assessments are required by the state. Um, and we do them in the fall and the spring for prek. I've got some Virginia data to share with you just to show why preK is so important. 49% of Virginia's kindergarteners began the 2425 school year needing to build skills in literacy, math, self-regulation, andor
013social skills. Only two out of 20 students in lowincome households with no preschool experience enter school ready or enter kindergarten ready. Virginia children who enter kindergarten ready are more likely to read on level when they're in third grade. And I've also included some Rockingham County data. um think about the fall 2024 kindergarten VKRP data. I don't have uh the reports from the fall 2025, so I'm going back a year to share some data with you. And then the students who participated in VPI in the 2324 school year. So they participated in VPI in 2324 and then we're looking at their kindergarten data. 72% of those students met the kindergarten vows benchmark. 85% of those students met the math benchmark. 78% of those VPI students met the social skills benchmark and 85% of the students met
014the self-regulation benchmark. So, we're getting good results for our students who are attending VPI. uh VPI includes a really big parent engagement component and it's important also to get feedback from our parents. So every year there's a survey in the spring. So I compiled some data from the spring 2025 survey. We got a lot of positive comments from parents. They feel good about the program and the benefits of the program. So I'll just share some of the comments with you. Um, thankful for prek. Our son would have struggled in kindergarten without it. It helped prepare for kindergarten. Instilled in him a love of learning. Thankful my daughter had structure and preparation for transition into kindergarten. Teachers taught him so much and made him feel safe and cared for. Love the prek program. Our child grew
015socially and academically. I'm happy about my child's progress and hopeful for kindergarten success. Our daughter loved it and truly blossomed this year. And then beyond the data, there are so many other benefits of the prek program and who knows best but our prek teachers. So I surveyed them and they say that children learn to follow rules and routines to take turns, to share, cooperate, to respect others and express feelings appropriately. Children gain confidence and independence by managing belongings, cleaning up after themselves, and handling daily routines with minimum help. Minimal help. They develop self-help skills like using the bathroom, washing hands, and dressing independently. They learn to listen carefully to follow directions and speak in complete sentences when sharing ideas. They build vocabulary, enjoy stories, and begin to recognize letters and sounds. They learn to express
016wants and needs with words instead of actions. They learn letters, sounds, patterns, and counting, plus classroom manners and friendship skills. They increase social emotional skills, the ability to communicate, and school readiness skills, including academics. They benefit from play-based age appropriate learning with peers. They receive love, food, and exposure to the English language, and they develop curiosity, problem solving skills, and practical life skills. Um, it's a really good time for me to publicly thank all of our teachers that work with our youngest learners in our early childhood education programs. So, I have the pleasure of working with VPI, but I've also gotten to know our teachers and staff who teach in our early childhood special education programs, our ECSE teachers. So, I want to thank all the VPI staff and the ECSE staff. We have itinerate
017ECSE teachers who are supporting our students with disabilities who are in our VPI classrooms. So, they've been really helpful to our teachers and to our students. Um, Lauren Arbagast is here tonight. She's one of our VPI teachers. So, I thank Lauren for being here. And Michelle DeFreeze, I want to mention her. She is our family services worker. She's a great support to me. She does all of our local VPI class observations. Uh she is a leader in our professional development for our early childhood teachers and she's a great support to teachers when they're having some struggles and they need somebody to come in and provide a little bit of coaching and a little bit of support with students. So, um it's a wonderful program to work with. I really enjoy it and if you get
018into the prek classrooms, you will feel loved [laughter] for sure. Um, thank you school board for supporting our preschool programs. Do you have any questions? >> Board members, do you have any questions for Miss Jud before she goes? >> Um, you said that um, in classrooms where there's over 10, there's a teacher and an assistant. About how many students are in those classes? >> I hear that they get >> build up. We do fill our programs up. Um, Rockingham tries to cap those classes at 18. >> Okay. >> And the state will allow us to have up to 20 in there, but we try to go a little bit lower than that. >> Yeah. Sufficient. [laughter] Um, do you track any progress from these particular children after kindergarten? >> I don't have any data to
019track that. >> Okay. That's a really great question. >> Um, >> did you have questions, Miss Bord? >> I will just add both of my my twins just finished prek and it was amazing and Carrie Bardau, she is an amazing teacher and I joked with her at the end of last year that my boys were going to be very bored in kindergarten and like the second week of school they they told me they're like, "We're so bored." because they just had gained so much knowledge and it just I wish we could have prek available for every kid. I wish we could have four classes in every single elementary school because the program is great and um they just learn so much and my boys are just soaking everything in and I mean they're reading already
020and I just didn't know that that was possible in kindergarten this early. So, it's it's been I I know Sarah always says it's because you're a good mom, but I think it's also I have to give credit to their teachers because they have such a unique way of teaching and different skills that I just, you know, I'm not a teacher. So, um they're just really thriving this year. So, I owe a lot of that to prek. So, >> we have wonderful prek teachers. They're wonderful. >> She's right about that. But I [laughter] I share I share that because it I I wish that all parents understood truly how important it is to talk to your child and have conversations with your child from birth to age four when they enter preK. There's a lot of
021literacy and language development that happens in those years that um a a lot of our kids come to kindergarten ready to go and many don't. And a lot of it is just what we do at home as parents matters a great deal more than I think many people realize. Um my my question is with the um regarding funding. >> Um you said it requires a local funding match and then you gave criteria state eligibility criteria and local eligibility criteria. Are we getting state funding matches for the local eligibility, the kids that you know qualify based on our local or is it limited to those that are on that state eligibility list? >> No. Um that's a great question. So the way it works is that um initially the division needs to have 85% of the
022students that we enroll meet state criteria. That's based on the initial application that's completed in the spring. And then the division has the opportunity to submit a waiver application and request flexibility to enroll students who meet local criteria. So that's something that Rockingham does every year. So, for example, I submitted that application for the waiver in May, right after I submitted the regular application, um, and requested that Rockingham be allowed to have 30% of students meet local criteria and that was granted, but they don't grant that until mid July. So, I can't start filling those spots with local students until later. But once they grant that, that means that all of those students who are in DPI generate state funding for the division. And do we have a wait list? We do. We always keep
023a waiting list. >> How how deep is the weight list? Because I see we're when I look at our kindergarten enrollment numbers about 800. You said we have, you know, three I think I saw 385 um preschool. So, we're looking at about just under half of our students um that come to us for pre-k. So, that means there's another collection. There's another group of students that are either getting no preschool or they're paying for private preschool, >> right? >> So, how deep is that weight list? >> I think we have now about at this time about uh 38 39 students on the wait list and that's divisionwide. There are some schools that don't always have a waiting list depending upon where they are in the county and then there are other schools that have long
024waiting lists. So there, you know, I kind of keep that data and there may be times where I'll talk with Mr. Moyers about the possibility of adding another program somewhere. You may see that come to you because there is some funding with the local match that comes, but we kind of watch that. >> Okay, that's that's where my questions were going. you you answered that question. >> And then when you meet the state criteria, you're almost guaranteed a spot. But if your homeschool fills up, then they [clears throat] can shuffle you to another school, which we originally didn't get in. And I was kind of relieved as a mom. I was like, "Oh, good. I'll just keep them home." And then about a week later, um, my boys both had a small speech delay. And
025so that's how they were eligible after everything was full. But we do shuffle kids around. They may not go to their home school every time. >> Exactly. Right. Especially when children meet state criteria. So, you know, we have like a school like Peak View, they always have additional children on a waiting list. If they meet state criteria and Cub Run has a spot since they have two programs, we'll offer the parent a spot at Cub Run. So, the state qualifying children should take priority regardless of where it is in the division. And then in the end once we've taken care of the state criteria children we can also put students who qualify locally in other schools if the parents are able to transport them. >> That's what I was going to ask. We won't provide
026transportation. >> We try to fill up as many spots as we can. >> Any other further questions? >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> Next on our information items, Dr. Emily Holloway is going to present on our high school course offerings for the 2627 school year. >> Thank you, Chair Hurst, Dr. Shifflet, members of the board. Uh thank you for having me this evening. I want to give you an overview. Each year we update our program of studies um to reflect the academic plan of course offerings for the upcoming school year. And typically at this time of the year, we present that as a draft and then come back um for final approval. This year, we have several additions um for our high school students that reflect choices of a pathway towards graduation. And tonight,
027I'm going to go through the changes and updates kind of briefly. Um and I have those highlighted on here. And I am more than welcome and willing to meet with any of you that would like to sit down and go through it in further detail. but is a lot of um changes and um proposals for that. So, uh our highlights um and what they include. Beginning with middle school, I will note that our middle school courses uh in the program of studies, it does list all of the required classes, the academics and the um PE. And then it lists out the elective options in grades six, seventh, and eighth. The middle school changes are really just updates um for consistency of keeping course names consistent. For example, art um instead of having like 2D and
0283D art combining uh the concepts there and having art 6, art 7, art 8. some of the names at the middle school level in art and in uh technology were repeated again in high school which meant that they were showing that they had taken the class twice when in fact in middle school there is no high school credit for that. So we just tried to clean that verbiage up. We add added choir six as an elective um that has actually been offered um but needed to be in the program of studies for our challenge courses in grades six, seventh and eth. We um added the verbiage for challenge students only. Um that is a change in the program of studies. And last but not least, under middle school developmental reading 8, we made the change
029of may be required uh to no longer listed as being required since we have the reading plans um and are doing remedial work through um middle school. with that. I will note before moving forward um into the high school classes especially the key thing about the program of studies is for a student to sign up for a class for it to be offered it should be in our program of studies. Um now there may be things in there that are not offered at every school and that is noted but to take a class it should be listed in the program of studies. [clears throat] Sorry. So, I'm going to start with our high school um parts with the UCGs, uniform certificate of general studies. And this is a mandate that we along with Blige Community
030College uh offer a pathway for our graduates to receive half of an associates degree when they graduate through dual enrollment. Um there are a lot of logistics to that. Um the key piece is it is required that we are offering an option for that. If we do not have the certified staff to teach that Blue Ridge will provide that in some fashion. Um now that does not mean they come into our school uh and teach the class but they will provide that instruction. Moving forward from here through the rest of the high school classes a lot of things reflect what we chose in this. So we met with Blige several times to choose our pathway for the UCGs which is seven blocks and some of them are required classes others are um they get a
031there is a plethora of offerings that students could choose from. We as a school division choose a pathway that we're going to have offered. Okay. And that would be for the dual enrollment. Students could of course go to the college and get a concurrent credit and bring it back and it fill one of their blocks. Again, that it it is a little tricky and uh specific, so I'd be more than happy to explain it um in detail. That is for um 11th and 12th grade. Moving forward, our lab school lab school was started at Blue at um Broadway and East Rock this year at TA in Spotswood. So next year we need to move forward in thinking about the 11th grade offerings for lab school. So we have met with JMU and we have planned
032out the rest of our lab school offerings. 11th and 12th grade will happen on JMU property uh taught by JMU instructors or Blue Ridge instructors for the dual enrollment that is happening. So, we included that and we also tried to align it with our UCGS offerings that students that choose the pathway of UCGs back at the high school would also be taking a few different classes based on instructor availability at the college at JMU. So, which leads me to uh what used to be in our program of studies as a chart that showed our college credit offerings. Uh we have made a change and put two charts in there. One dual enrollment and then one that is concurrent enrollment. Dual enrollment is when you are on Rockingham County property taking the class. Um, and so
033you are enrolled in maybe English 11 and you would receive English 111 and 112 at the college level. Concurrent enrollment is not is when you're not on Rockingham County school property. You go to a college JMU or Blue Ridge and you bring those credits back and they would then give you credit for um a high school class similar to dual enrollment. It's just not happening on school time. Uh so we have aligned again the concurrent and dual enrollment offerings with our UCGs and lab school so that students that are going to do other dual enrollment or even concurrent options uh would kind of match what those in either of those pathways are choosing. As we look at the additional high school courses, um, a lot of these are again due to needing to add in
034those dual enrollment classes because of the UCGs. Uh, for example, public speaking, dual enrollment that we are having at lab school. um we wanted to put that in our program of studies for students that then again if they would go to a college and get that they could bring that back and get a high school credit just like those in lab school. So all of these courses are um detailed out specifically in the actual program of studies that you have a copy of. These are again are just the highlights. Additionally, with high school, we have some additions in our electives. Fine arts, we have the audition choirs, non- auditioned, and musical theater elective. CTE electives added food science and dietetics, travel and tourism, marketing, and computer programming. We did make a change to our existing
035business and industry mentorship elective that now requires an application and must complete um a sequence of CTE course related to that placement. We have really tried in looking at our electives, specifically CTE, and for lack of better words, maybe a landing when they go into ninth grade or if they took an eighth grade uh high school elective or high school elective credit in 8th grade as the landing point so that we are making sure that students are um becoming completers and moving further for the three E for graduation requirements on account accountability and accreditation. So, um, some of these were to just align that and really move our students through, um, even getting to higher level in CTE. Lastly, under high school um, electives, Latin is removed because this is the last year Latin will
036be offered in school. uh work-based learning uh some changes came from the state and so our work-based learning moving forward will meet the new definition um it has to be aligned with the CTE course uh completer. So if you're going to do work-based learning in clinical experiences, entrepreneurship, internship, registered apprenticeship, school-based enterprise, or the select immersion supervised egg experiences, it has to align with the CTE completer course that you're doing. You can't just go and get a job outside of uh your pathway in high school. MTC. We um noted on here the course changes. These I listed on the slide. They are already at MTC. They just needed some additions changes uh based on meeting the DOE regulations. So they are not new classes. The Virginia Department of Ed uh had some updates specifically our
037program of studies notes in our diploma selection. if a student is seeking an advanced diploma uh completing algebra 2 before taking data science. We also added the um PE and health 9 that needed a SC code that was previously missing and the code of Virginia requirement for econ and personal finance. Again, uh the program of studies I believe is 57 pages. Obviously, once the draft is approved with those additions, the title page with the page numbers, all of that will be updated. Um, you know, once all of that is complete and I am working with Katie Lepira to try to come up with an online application for this. So, clicking on certain content that will move people to that. Um, I don't know that we'll get that. It would be the same information though, so
038it would not be any additional information. It would just be easier to peruse for parents. So again, I am more than willing to meet with you to talk through the UCGS lab school or any other questions. >> Board members, do you have questions? >> I'm just curious, uh, where will the food science class be taught? Is that a >> That's at the high school. No, but um is it part of the like what used to be called home home >> and consumer science? Yes. >> Okay. Because a actually has a food science component as well. So I was just and that's that's actually what my degree is in. So I was just curious. So thank you. >> I think that class if I'm not mistaken is the one that's in farm to plate in um
039>> so it's it's dual enrolled. That would make sense. Okay. Very good. Thank you. >> Other questions. Um why are we removing Latin? >> Um that decision was made prior that we would continue out based on I believe it's staffing availability lensure for teachers. >> Okay. >> Lack of student interest was the main reason. Um we basically had just enough students at Spotswood High School to sort of kind of limp along here towards the end. But we I don't think at Broadway or Turner Ashby we haven't offered any sections and maybe East Rock maybe a couple of years ago. So just it's sort of interest and so you can't >> we have you know limited resources we have to make some decisions and so it's not something that students are interested in taking. I just
040want to say thank you to Dr. Holloway for all the hours you put in preparing the UCGs and the lab school has added added a wrinkle to this. So, thank you for working, you know, with various folks with Donna and Carrie and Blue Ridge and JMU to get all this stuff aligned. So, it's a little it's a little bit confusing. I do uh encourage you to reach out to her if you have more questions about specific natures of, you know, of this. I ask her to come tonight and sort of give us the 30,000, you know, view overlook of this and then we can drill down a little deeper if necessary. Any other questions? >> Okay. Thank you, Dr. Holloway. >> All right. Dr. Shifflet is coming up to present some information on our capital
041improvement plan. Chair Hurst and board members. Uh if you will recall at our September the 22nd meeting, I presented some information about our capital improvement plan. And I wanted to circle back uh to um the draft of this plan this evening. And I want to make a couple of comments before we before I get into the u part of the discussion. So, this is a a draft and it really almost continues in some ways to be a draft until we as a board vote to um renovate, remodel, add an addition or what have you. And, you know, Steve does all his work getting us the design and we put it out to bid. But, we we work in uh collaboration with the county board of supervisors to also be able to blend what our needs
042are for capital improvements along with their needs and what what they're facing, what their obligations are. we make we kind of make that work together. And to show you sort of the uh the flexibility of this, in the fall of 2023, when I presented the plan, uh there wasn't any addition listed in the 5-year plan for an for an addition at Pleasant Valley Elementary School, right? It wasn't on the plan, but as we got into the spring of the year and looking at enrollment, we we realized we needed to do something. So, in 24, we added it to the plan. So, um I say all that this this is not etched in stone, but it kind of guides us in what we're thinking about and what we're doing. Um the board doesn't necessarily approve the
043plan as it is. we go to the um I will present this uh Monday, November 17th to the county's CIP committee and and again they will incorporate our our desires and our needs with their bigger picture of all the county's needs whether that's fire and rescue or the sheriff's office or our community services board. Uh so what I presented on the 22nd was um a renovation addition uh to Makisville Elementary School and u building a new technical center for MTC and we are in the process of I think most of the design work is finished for Makisville and what will is what will be occurring there along with the addition uh that'll be out to bid is it it is out to bid currently. and we'll be Steve will be coming forward at some point
044in the next couple of months to to uh award that contract to someone and we are in the process of working with our architect to design a new technical center. So that's that's happening. Uh we had the addition to Elton Middle School, a renovation in addition to Spotswood High School, uh hoping the project would start in the fall of 28 and be finished by August uh uh 2030 and the addition to Monavidia Middle School. And if you go back in time and look at 2023, actually Spotswood was ahead of Elton Middle School on our CIP, but we had had some conversations about um redistricting and whether or not we wanted to try to leverage some of the space that we have at East Rockingham High School and Elton Middle School. And we knew if we
045wanted to leverage that space at East Rockingham High School, uh Elton Middle School needed to be bigger. It could not accommodate any more students, right? if we're trying to to fill East Rockingham High School. So, I uh asked Justin today to pull some numbers for me just to kind of add a wrinkle to this if if you will. Current capacity to help out the middle school 610, current enrollments 557. If we take the current eighth graders who are there and you know hopefully they are successful and get promoted to the high school and hopefully all of the fifth graders at South River and McGisville and Riverbin and Elton Elementary School are successful and they get promoted to sixth grade, our enrollment would be 523. And then if we fast forward and go another year, the
046current fourth graders coming up the ranks 513. Now, that doesn't include any growth or any students moving into the area, but it gives you a sense of where we are. And I share those numbers with you to say, um, we could potentially, if the board desires, uh, talk to our, um, county folks about moving Spotswood back in front of Elton Middle School in in the process. Uh so moving that renovation up uh to the fall of 27 and to be completed by August of 29 to get that uh started a little sooner. I know Steve uh has a committee of folks, administrators and teachers uh who I think met once perhaps twice to talk about uh the desires for Spotswood in terms of uh what they're wanting to do with the the actual renovation of
047the of the building. And we also have our architect uh doing some leg work to to get us a better idea of what um a better estimate on what that project will will cost us. And we just can't forget that somewhere uh out there there's going to be a new elementary school. And I don't know, maybe it can come after the addition at Mon at Monavido, maybe it comes after Spotswood. Um but at some point we have to have conversations around that as well. So um I just wanted to kind of bring another perspective from last time to say you know at the last uh presentation there there seemed to be some interest in trying to move Spotswood up on the CIP and I and I think we could accommodate that if we're not moving
048students um to East Rockingham and Elton Middle. think that can be accomplished in just moving Elton Middle down. I will say, and I've said this many times, uh we do need to give Elton Middle School some attention. Uh our other three middle schools have two uh shop lab areas uh for uh technology class and agg uh Elton Middle School only has one and so that is u somewhat in my opinion a bit of a disparity. And so when we do the the remodeling or excuse me, not the remodeling, it's been remodeled. Sorry about that. Uh when we do the addition, we would we would try to address that um and make sure we have two labs. Questions, comments, thoughts, concerns, whatifs, what abouts? Both plans whether Elton First or Spotswood or we kind of flip
049those. um assume that we will be redistricting elementary east unless we decide as a board we've need to move the new elementary school further up and make adjustments. >> So that would be part of the conversation. Um you know as I presented on the on the at the September meeting I think we had a couple of options. We could redistrict. We could move the elementary school up. We, you know, we we still have some room at Peak View and Cob run and so we can again this is sort of a fluid type of approach. You know, when do we need it? Uh I don't want to be late to the game, right? Uh but trying to determine where we are. Peak View's numbers as of today have been holding steady. Uh Cub Run has increased.
050Um I don't know 20 kids. Nothing really significant, but it's um and we have room there, right? It's just a matter of what what approach we want to take. >> So the projected enrollment for Elton Middle is without any redistricting. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> And in the presentation on the 22nd, we did not um have any students um going to Elton Middle and East Rockingham. It was only >> just to the elementary shift. So we had talked about that uh as well right in not in open sessions but just conversations with board members one-on-one uh realizing that I don't know the capacity at East Rockingham's like 1250 and we have I don't know 800 students there 850 I don't know off the top of my head but we have we have room but we
051also know that since the meeting on September the 22nd I'm not sure when that information came out, but Merc is going to be adding, I think, $3 billion of expansion to their factory and in the Elton community. So, don't know how that will impact housing and development in that part of the county. So, maybe it's a good thing that we have lots of room on the east side because maybe there's going to be more potential growth. We do know there's some growth coming to Masanutton, uh, but that's still a few years out, so we we have some time on that end. How long do you anticipate the Elton Middle School renovation to take? >> Yeah. >> So, am I reading this right? There's a little tiny gap from 29 to 31 like six month on
052this this plan. We've just basically got six months that we're not shovels in the ground building something right the way this plan's laid out. Am I reading it right? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Well, I guess that's good. How >> Thank you. Thank you for all your planning on this. Yeah. And I think that's something we have to keep in mind. So if we want to like say for example, if you if you feel like, hey, as a board, we would like to move with move Spotswood up in this on this CIP, then we need to be having these conversations with Steve so they can begin to design work in earnest, right? and not just wrapped around conversations of give us a better guesstimate, but we need to start thinking about getting getting the work
053started. >> Is that 18 months the same for a new elementary school plus 6 months? So, two years when when this board says, "Hey, we're ready to for a new excuse me, a new elementary school." We're saying that's two-year process. Okay. >> Other questions? I guess to expand on my question just a little bit more. Can these projects overlap more? Is this as tight as we can get things? >> Right. And that's it depends on the county and also what other projects they may have going on, right, that they need to take care of outside of the school projects, right? I understand from my conversations with Casey that they have some some areas of concern that they need to address. So I think it's you know I will present this November the 17th and you
054know then their committees will you know that committee will have a conversation and try to get a plan moving forward uh and make sure the monies are allocated to start these projects. uh when they when when when we need to go. >> I think my just what runs through my head is poor spotswood and you know I hate that it's so far out but I understand why. Um, and I don't know if I'm just completely naive that we couldn't do something, not move them up, but do something in the meantime to fix some small things and renovate a little bit, unless I'm being completely ignorant to to what is needed there. And if we're if we're going to go in and replace, you know, sinks, but then in two years we're going to rip out
055the entire bathroom, is that pointless? Right. I would love to build an addition on my house, but I'll take my husband upgrading a few things in the meantime. Um, but I also, you know, this isn't my money. This is taxpayer dollars, so I don't want to waste their money putting in a temporary fix, but I also know Spotswood needs some love. So, I'm looking to you guys, >> right? You don't want to go in, >> right? And I think too there's also a little bit more buying power, if you will, when we're putting these projects out the bid to say come and let's do a facelift at Spotswood, just like we're doing at ele at Elton Elementary as opposed to trying to peace meal, >> right? Um and and hopefully we could do the addition
056at the same time. And and again I you know would welcome to take any of you folks or you can go on your own to to take a look at Elton Elementary School to see what work has already taken place and the transformation in the very old building that you know but it's a complete overhaul. Looks great. And I think we're having similar thoughts except I'm I'm sitting here like, "Oh, poor Mont Video." Because I mean, we had we had a discussion earlier about how Mont Video has no space. And I mean, yeah, we're just getting we're getting tight in lots of places. >> So, if there's any way we could maybe be a little bit more aggressive and not count cost the county. >> Yeah. Right. And remember here, 2026, there's this other little
057line that says building a new MTC. Don't don't overlook that line. >> Yeah. Yeah. I did. >> I didn't see that till just now. I mean that's I mean >> that's big and that's you know >> that's another one of those things that's been needed for quite some time >> right so it's um so when you start adding these up right I mean I don't know I don't have my calculator but we've got millions of dollars on this little piece of paper of expenditures and yeah it' be nice if we could do them all sooner rather than later but there has to be some spacing of what we're going to try to accomplish um from >> well not just for the money but also for the contractors I mean they don't have people to build
058four schools at once and we do want to keep that more local. So, it's a lot. So, thank you Steve and Dr. Shifflet. Thank you guys for working so hard on this. There no easy solutions. Yeah, I guess I Yeah, I skipped over the new MTC on there, but and I was looking I was thinking we don't have anything going on in 2027, but um so just to comment on the Elton Middle School spots, what comes first, what comes second. Um I guess I would say right now in 2025, like I don't have any reservations, but I surely did in 2023 when it was 605 and we were over capacity. So what has is this just a natural eb and flow like what I mean because that's way down. >> It is and that was
059what I would say >> sort of a bubble right of the population that came through for you know about two years and now it's beginning to move out >> and again this we have to keep a pulse on the growth across the division because I think Monavidio Elk and Spotswood they're all you know getting near capacity and we can't do them all at once. So, how do we pay, you know, space this out? And I'm just what makes the most sense to you folks. I looked at these numbers today about Elton. I said, 'Well, perhaps then we can switch them on the plan for now and and move forward and um see where that takes us. And and again, I put this all in the context of I will share this with the county, right,
060and the board of supervisors and they will try to figure out where those dollars how, you know, where they where they come in at the end of the at the end of the day. Do you guys have thoughts or do you want to think about in my heart I'm like but at the same time we're like we're almost 100 down from where we were in 23. If you'd said this to me in 2023 it have been like no way. It it seems like we have a little bit more time to maybe wait on Elkton. And I think a a lot of the growth and development in and around Turner Ashby and Spotswood um when we talk about redistricting which we can do the redistric plan needs to make good sense. And right now, I don't
061know that I have, you know, when I we talk about in order to make this plan work, there's going to have to be redistricting. But when we look at the redistricting proposal, I'm not sure we have the right plan yet because, you know, we're talking about moving kids from Keiesel Town, they'll drive past Peak View, which they already do. They go to Cub Run, and then we're just going to keep them going down east to McKakeisville. That doesn't make sense to me. Um, and that's not I mean, okay, so they'll go to Spotswood. It just kind of create I almost feel like the the current redistricting proposal, which I know is just kind of a rough plan, um, and probably needs tweaked. I don't know that that's the plan that I'm comfortable with. Um, and
062it's not because I shy away from redistricting or doing a hard thing. We'll do it if we need to, but it it needs to make sense and it needs to be what's in the best interest of, excuse me, of the whole division. Um because even with the addition at Pleasant Valley, I still think there's we're gonna come up against there and need to do something as well, you know. So that's that one's over in the TA district and I think Pence and TA can handle the growth, but I don't know that Pleasant Valley can even with the addition. What will that look like in three years or five years? And um so I think a lot of those lines around Peak View and Cub Run, those are already kind of wonky and they have been
063[laughter] they have been kind of wonky since Cub Run was built. Um and we can fix all of that if we go the new build. Um but I also know that's this just feels kind of like a moving target. We just can't know for sure when all of these things are going to come on board and all the developments and you don't know for sure. We have better numbers coming from planning and development at the board of supervisors level. Um they've got better numbers coming to us with what these new developments are um bringing to the school division. Um but even that's just really good guesswork. Um and that can change. So I think it's something I mean it it looks right to maybe move Elton like put Spotswood a little sooner um than Elton.
064That looks that looks and sounds good, especially seeing the enrollment projections for Elton Middle School. I just um I think we need to keep talking about the new elementary school because as Mr. Reid has pointed out, if we said today it's still two and a half years away from completion. So, how to how to balance redistrict? What does that gain us? And what you know, if we're wrong, then we got to send them all back. It's just I don't know. I just want to be really thoughtful. I don't want to make any quick decisions on it. Um, but I do want to say I'm grateful to the board of supervisors because they've been very good to work with um, as far as this capital improvement um, plan because uh, they just want to know what
065what amount of money and of course they can't afford to do everything all at once, but they have been really good about working with us and finding funding for these projects. And I know not every school division in the Commonwealth is that fortunate to have the capital improvement plan money that we need. And so I do want to say thank you to the board of supervisors for um working with us and being flexible with our needs is kind of changes. >> I I want to echo that sentiment. the partnership and the collaboration with the board of supervisors. This this process with the CIP every fall revisiting to see where we are, what our needs are, and the board of supervisors are wanting to help us, but as you indicated, they can't we can't financially do
066it all in a one or two-year period. And um so just again, thank you to the board of supervisors for their support. I agree with you, Chair Hurst. I I think Pleasant Valley with a new addition may just fill up that space on its own and we're not going to have a lot of extra space there. That's that's my sense. I may be wrong. We'll have to, you know, see how that plays out. And the other thing I'm going to have to say here, just so I guess I'll go on record for this. If we build a new elementary school, we're still going to have to redistrict students to that elementary school. >> Right? So there'll be some students we'll say to them, you no longer go to Cubon or you no longer go to
067Peak View, you're going here, right? or maybe you don't maybe we take kids out of Pleasant Valley. We'll have to see. But students will still have to move schools. So, we're not getting away from that. It just may make more sense to you and and maybe there's an opportunity we could finally clean up those lines and help them make sense because they we did a bus tour. Was it last spring? And it was sort of a little bit wonky trying to figure out, you know, which road went to Cub Run and which road went to Peak View and little little bizarre. So, I understand that. I I just quickly mentioned this. I I don't remember what meeting here recently. I do we definitely need the addition at McKakeisville. >> So if we keep >> I
068know that probably makes Steve go ah I'm like >> cringing. Uh so I think with some development that is coming to Masanutton we're we would reap the benefits of having that additional space uh at McGisville if we don't move students east. Right. Part of that redistricting redistricting plan was to move basically Massa Nutton in that mountain to Riverbend. Um so if and I guess you could still possibly do that. I mean that's a conversation. Uh I'm not sure, you know, I haven't surveyed the community if they would want to do that, but um that is a possibility, but I think with uh some of the already approved development coming to Massa Nutton, I think there would be some value in having some additional space at McGakeville. Okay. uh and if not in the the next
069five years probably 10. I mean Rockingham County is going to continue to grow and it is nice uh to have room and chair hurse and I had this conversation like we talk about whe there's room at East Rock and you know you know Riverbend Elton Elementary School that's a good thing right so we we have room to grow and uh if there's developments that that you know come along because of some of the expansions at Merc then that's even better we're ready for it and we're not scrambling to talk about do we need to build an elementary school. Uh, one more question really quick. I didn't see in our paperwork today. Capacity at Spotswood, is that about 1,200 as well or is that? >> No, it it's about 800 850 something. >> Is it? No,
070it's it's a thousand. Yeah, it's a thousand. That's right. And we're hoping to take it to,200. >> So, >> which is about what East Rock is. >> Yes. So, the idea is that all four of our high schools would have uh about the same capacity between 1,200 and 1250. Yes. So, it's about a thousand now. >> Okay. So, I know renovation is certainly needed at Spotswood. We definitely do need the addition >> or it just makes sense to do it at the same time, but do we really we need it? >> Yes, >> absolutely. And Steve and I are having a debate about where it goes. >> Okay. [laughter] >> Build up. Build up. All right. Any other questions, comments? >> Thank you. [clears throat] Excuse me. Thank you, Dr. Shifflip. Board members, the finance
071department staff report dated November 10th is in your folder for your review. And that brings us um to the close to the end. Um we'll give Dr. Shifflet a just a beat, but um we have superintendent comments now. Yes, thank you. It's me again. So, first of all, I want to say congratulations to the Spotswood High School girls cross country team uh led by head coach Tara Msini and assistant coach uh John Deninger. Uh they defended their state title on Saturday in Salem and they are now back-to back state champions in girls cross country. So, really proud of that accomp accomplishment. It's it I would say it's hard enough to win a state championship, much less win back-to back state championships. So happy about that. Uh I enjoyed my opportunity to go to the national
072FFA convention recently. We had a number of students who were competing. Uh we had uh a number of students who were on the stage. So you think about you know the 60,000 plus students who are you know attending that convention and all the students involved in the FFA and uh we had a number of students who had who had were in in the top 10 in their particular um categories of competition and Miss Lure I think was on the stage with six of those teams that she either uh coached or mentored them and so she got to be on the national stage there with that and it was uh really good to be a part of that. Also want to say on f this past Friday had a chance to be at Turner Ashby High
073School and Mrs. Angie uh Angie Oscanowski um had a uh veterans day celebration and uh it was absolutely phenomenal. The small commons was totally full of veterans. FFA students fed them uh breakfast that morning. They had a wonderful uh ceremony in the auditorium with music and uh the senior class participated. All the other students watched it live stream in their classrooms and then at the end they had a a walk where the veterans walked the hallways. Students lined both sides of the hallways and cheered for the veterans to give them honor uh and thankfulness for their service. And so that was just um maybe the highlight of my month. And then finally, um I um would like to after the Thanksgiving break, uh create a committee of teachers, administrators, and families to examine our current
074grading policy. And uh sort of I have sort of three goals with that. One, I want to build some consistency across the division. And and I know that grading is really near and dear to people's hearts. Uh but we'd like to have a little consistency with that. also want to make sure we're continuing to have uh high expectations for student learning and also provide um having the grades just be more than a letter but giving students information on as to how they're how they're progressing and and mastering the content. So I'll um keep the board apprised of that as we move forward and and get that group together and um work towards making some recommendations. >> Dr. Shifflet with um that committee. Are you looking at just middle high or are you looking at all?
075>> I think we could perhaps look at all but more of the conversations I've had with folks is about um what they're seeing at the secondary level, but I think it would just behoove us to have a you know look look at the entire prek12 grading promotion policy and see where we are and see what you know revisions need to be made, what's warranted. I fully support that, by the way. So, thank you. I think there's an a number of inconsistencies. Um, but I'll I'll speak from elementary experience since that's where I taught. I think we um need to take a look at our expectations for what qualifies as an A in English or in reading. And the reason why I say that is um when I as a when a parent looks at a
076report card and you see an A or a B, you presume that your child can read and is doing well on grade level expectations. Um but we kind of moved away from that years ago. Um, and we started giving students in elementary school a grade based on where they were and their ability to, you know, so if you have a third grade student reading on a first grade level, they could still get an A in third grade in reading despite the fact that they're two grade levels behind because we were grading what they could do on their level. And if they were getting an A um on a first grade level, that's reported on the third grade report card. And I think that sends a very conflicting message to parents, especially then when we measure
077it against um so scores, right? Because a student who's reading on a first grade level taking their so test in third grade is probably going to struggle immensely. And um we have conversations all the time. I have had as a teacher and then just as a community member, parents are like, "But they had an A. they had an A all of fourth grade and and then they failed their reading so and I don't understand. So I feel like you need we need to I think there's a very solid understanding of what grades mean to community members and how they are interpreted. And the messaging we were given when I was teaching was that we just needed to articulate in the comments your child's A is based on what they can do at their level, which
078is below grade level expectations. But I think that's too many words. I I think we need to I I I think some people understand what that means, but I also think we just need to be able to have real and honest conversations with parents. And that's what the report card is, real and honest conversations with parents. If your child is behind, we need parents to know that so that they can take action, right? So I, you know, if my own child is getting an A or B in English, I'm assuming things are going well and then when we're not passing T, you know, I'm assuming things are going well, no reading tutoring necessary, you know, I'm just we're just floating along. But if he's getting a D or an F, I might take some more
079urgent steps as a parent um or be a little bit more engaged. So, I just want to make sure that our grading policies um at the elementary level are real. Like they're real also. I think we need that's that might be across the board, but I just want to flag that as a concern when you're talking about grading expectations. Okay, that moves us into other business. [laughter] Um, which is school board highlights, questions, and comments. Miss Burggo, do you want to begin this evening? I will. I don't have any highlights or comments. I have missed my whole family. Uh, I do this every year. I make a comment that nobody's been sick all year and then my entire family. I know I we all get taken out. Um, so I haven't been able to come
080to anything the past about week and a half. Um, but I'm I'm we're all on the mend now, but I always do this. So I've missed out on all the Veterans Day events and um I hate that, but I've kept my cooties away. Miss Lure. >> Yes. As Dr. Shifflet said, I was uh able to go to the uh national FFA convention and I uh we had a group effort. It took a village to get um some of these kids to national convention. Uh and more than just uh the egg science fair kids. We had we actually had a an egg teacher have a horrible accident and um was unable to go. So, we stepped up and kind of wrapped love around those kids. And I do want to say uh we have just the
081best community and and the thoughts and prayers that went up for that a teacher and the love that we wrapped those kids around in it warms my heart and I just love our community. Um and that community also helped us get um eight students, six teams uh as national t top 10 finalists to the a science fair. And I would like to read those names for you guys tonight. We had two tenth place students, Maline Gilkansen and Rianna Mongold. We had an eighth place student, Olivia Hartman. Sixth place, Parker Young and two fourth place teams, Molly Hilton and Henley Higgs were one team that placed fourth and Noah Barb and Leah Syler also placed fourth in their different um a science fair competitions. And I am just so super proud of those kids and all
082the kids that participated in a science fair this year. They all worked really hard and guess what? They learned science. So that makes me super happy too. But yeah, just thanks to our community and thanks to everyone who supports our kids. >> Miss Cave, um I wanted to continue with what you were saying. I hated I was going to jump in. Um, but let me just say I did get to slide into the um the district championship I think it was for the one act plays on Saturday at Harrisonenberg High School and um got to catch East Rock and Spotswood and I'm just every time I go to those things I'm just like amazed with the things that these kids can remember and not just remember and recite a line. It always it reminds me
083of that um Minion movie, The Despicable Me, where the littlest girl was like, "I love my mother. My mother is great." You know, like none of Do y'all remember that? She had no personality. She's just reading her lines. And that's like that's never the case with any of our students. Like whether they have seven words in the whole act or they have like the main part. I mean, they just all do it with top-notch excellence. And um I don't you know it takes really good teachers to um to pull that out of kids and and I think a lot of them perhaps are shy to begin with. Some of them that I have known it have just come out of their shells with things like the the one acts and the dramas and theater and
084play choir band all of those things. So um thank you to our teachers and um that was a really great experience. Um and I just wanted to go back to what you were saying um Chair Hurst about the reading thing uh the grading. I'm I'm excited to hear that you're looking into that, Dr. Shifflet. And I I certainly echo every sentiment um that Miss Hurst shared. That was something that we talked about really extensively right before we came on board. I want to say it was the Pence meeting that some grading stuff was brought up and then we started I don't know that they were talking about elementary, but we started talking about elementary and and how parents view that and they're like, "Oh, my kid is doing great." And it really turns out that
085they're not. And so, uh that is yes, let's please push that forward. I am I'm excited to hear that we're we're doing that because I just we just want the best and I always I always pick at third grade. I'm like kids should be reading by third grade, you know, and I that that would be my dream that everybody by third grade is on third grade level. So, um anyways, if that's if this will be part in getting them there to that mark, that would be awesome. So, thank you and I think you can. So, that's all. >> Dr. Shifflet, where are we in conversations about the 4x4? Do we we haven't had a presentation or really any board discussion about it? So, just wondering if that's in committee right now or what's happening. >>
086It is in committee. U Mrs. Abernathy has had one meeting I think so far and um she did a great job organizing that meeting brought in many different stakeholders from different content areas and began having conversations and and they're generating some they generated some ideas from further discussions. They're going to have some folks come in and share with them, but she has not provided any information. And I think maybe um maybe there's some misinformation that the board has decided to move to a 4x4. We haven't the board hasn't made any decision about any direction of scheduling. Uh so I think it's just, you know, more work on her end to collect and gather more information and to bring that at some point. Maybe maybe it's second semester before she has all that together. I want
087to give them some time to do some work, but um yeah, so no decisions been made yet. It's just more of information gathering. >> Okay. So there's Okay, understood. Thank you. >> Does anybody have >> any questions about that? I mean, I'm just trying to think back to when I was in high school because I'm almost positive we had a 4x4, but I think there was it wasn't that long ago, but I feel like there was an option where um like Mrs. Basset had said with the fine arts where that block could be an every other day all year long if I remember correctly. >> Like a hybrid. >> Yeah. where it was we had, you know, the 4x4, but then there were electives that you could flip-flop all year long and so you could
088still accommodate band, choir, things like that. But then, if I remember correctly, you know, I had stuff that I did first semester and then it switched second semester. I was I am not musically inclined in any way, shape or form, but um I certainly remember like our band was all year. So, >> right. And I think that's part of the discussion as well, right? Um so when we say 4x4, I don't know that we're talking about a purely 4x4 model only, but having those conversations and is it, you know, a blended model? Do we continue doing what we're doing? I don't think they're talking about the traditional 8th area day, but I don't know. Maybe someone would bring that up. I don't know. No. Oh, Donna says no. >> Maybe we should throw that in
089then and talk about that. >> Shaking her head. No. So, I guess that's not going to happen. So, so no. Yeah. No decision as of yet. And and and I will say this, I think, you know, >> when I looked at her presentation, I wasn't a part of it, but as she was trying to present the information, she again, she did a great job in putting that work together. Is there's pros and cons, right? There's there's advantages and and disadvantages either way. and and so that that's the nature of it. So we're trying to determine what what what would best meet the learning needs of our students. That's what we're and again one of the down downsides of an odd even is when you're out for a couple of days, students come back, they've been
090out for four or five days, your class lesson is a review of what you taught last time because they forgot, right? So trying to build some consistency. I think that's one of the advantages, but as you heard this evening from the speaker, that's, you know, the disadvantage is when you only have classes once a semester. So, uh, maybe the eight period day is the way to go. I'm not sure. [laughter] >> What prompted this? Did somebody or is this just looking at options? Because I appreciate that. I I would prefer to have every option on the table fact find on everything and then >> so I think part of this came out of some discussions during co we we went to a 4x4 when we were doing the um at the high school level when
091when we were doing the asynchronous and synchronous learning we felt like would be best for students just to have four classes to focus on and not have the whole the whole eight. Um, I know at uh East Rockingham they tried uh with the four core classes to to do that uh with their freshman this year to uh not overwhelm them as they come in as freshmen. You just have four classes to focus on. Let's let's get these taken care of and then next semester you get four more. But if you're not successful, we can restart you in those four so you can get some credits. Right. One of the things we want to make sure it happens is that our freshmen earn credits that first year. that's really important. Uh and sometimes that doesn't happen
092and then they have an uphill climb to graduate. Um so I think it's just part of the conversations. Um surrounding school divisions do it. Augusta County does it. I I think Harrisonburg has a blended model. Shannido maybe 4x4. Um I do think perhaps Green County is a seven period day. I think across the mountains. I'm just saying it's there's just different ways to go about um approaching it. And no matter what direction you go, there's tradeoffs, right? So, we'll we'll uh Donna will have some information at some point and I'm I don't know when that will be, but she'll bring it to the board for information and you can ask questions, get more information, and try to make a decision. It's um like with any decision, I'm almost certain some folks would be happy and
093some folks would not be happy, right? So, Board members, is there anything else before we adjourn? Okay. I'd like to thank everybody for coming out tonight. Um, drive safely and this meeting is adjourned.