001Good evening. Welcome to our January, Nope, not January, July 14th, 2025 um school board meeting. We met earlier um this evening in close session. And so we will now begin with a moment of silence if you'd like to join us. Thank you. Next on our list is the Pledge of Allegiance. If you'd like to stand with us, I'd like to welcome Miss Abernathy here with us this evening. She is our assistant superintendent and filling in for Dr. Shifflet this evening. And so, welcome. Thank you for being here tonight. Thanks for helping us out with our meeting. be. Next on our list are um public comments of which we had no one sign up for those. So, we will close that item and go on to the consent agenda. There are several items there. And so,
002board members, we're looking for one motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. I move we approve the the consent agenda as presented. Thank you, Miss Lord. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Burggoyne. Any questions or comments? Hearing none. All those in favor say yes. Yes. All those opposed say no. Motion passes 5. We have a series of action items this evening. Miss Jennifer Williams, I think you're coming up to do about three items. Um, milk produce and food and paper products. Good evening. Uh good evening uh Chair Hurst, members of the board, and Miss Abernathy. Uh a bid proposal for the provision of milk and related dairy products was properly spec specified and advertised for the upcoming 2526 school year. Two companies responded which were Miola and Pet Dairy. The estimated
003total annual cost of all milk products from both bids is on the um paper sheet provided to you. And so for the 2526 school year, it is my recommendation to award the milk bid to Pet Dairy with the estimated total annual cost of $266,857.50. Thank you, Mrs. Williams. Mrs. Abernathy. Chair Hurst and board members, I recommend awarding the bid for milk for RCPS food and nutrition services to the lowest bidder as presented by Jennifer Williams, director of food and nutrition services. Hearing that recommendation, board members, do we have a motion to follow? I move to follow the assistant superintendent's recommendation to award the bid for milk for RCPS food and nutrition services to the lowest bidder as presented by Jennifer Williams, director of food and nutrition services. Thank you, Miss Cave. Do we have a
004second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Cross. Board members, are there any questions or comments? Hearing none. All those in favor of awarding the bid for milk to the lowest bidder as presented by Miss Williams, please say yes. Yes. All those opposed say no. Motion passes 5. All right. Um and so the next um bid renewal I have to present. Um the bid for providing fresh produce to Rockingham County Public Schools Food Nutrition Services was awarded to Standard Produce Company for the 232 24 school year and renewed again for the 2425 school year. The agreement allows for the renewal renewal of the bid contract again for the upcoming 2526 school year. So based on price, product quality, customer service, and collaboration with local vendors, I recommend renewing the current fresh produce contract agreement with Standard Produce Company
005for the 2526 school year for the estimated total annual cost of $135,000. Thank you, Mrs. Williams. Miss Abernathy. Chair Hurst and board members. I recommend renewing the current bid for produce for RCPS food and nutrition services as presented by Jennifer Williams, director of food and nutrition services. Thank you, Mrs. Abernathy. Board members, do we hear a motion to follow? So moved. Thank you, Mr. Cross. A second. Second. Thank you, Miss Burggoyne. Any questions or comments? Hearing none. All those in favor of awarding the bid for the to the lowest bidder for RCPS food and nutrition services. This would be for the produce. Please signify by saying yes. Yes. All those opposed say no. Motion passes. 50. We've got one more. Okay. Yes. All right. Um so the third one um this is for um the
006renewal of our um food and paper products providers. So, uh, the bid for the full service provision of food and paper products for the Blueridge Food Buying Cooperative was awarded to Merchants Grocery Company in 2023 for the 2324 school year and renewed for the 2425 school year. The original agreement agreement allows for the renewal of the bid contract again for the upcoming 2526 school year. So based on pricing provided from merchants for next school year, I recommend renewing the current contract agreement with Merchants Grocery Company for the 20 for the 2526 school year for the estimated total annual cost of $2 million. Thank you, Mrs. Williams, Mrs. Abernathy. Chair Hurst, and board members, I recommend renewing the current bid for food and paper products for RCPS food and nutrition services as presented by Jennifer Williams,
007director of food and nutrition services. Thank you, Mrs. Abernathy. Board members, do we hear a motion to follow? I move we follow the superintendent's recommendation to rene to renew the current bid for food and paper products for RCPS food nutrition services as presented by Jennifer Williams, director of food and nutrition services. Thank you, Miss Laura. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Cross. Any questions or comments? Hearing none. All those in favor say yes. Yes. All those opposed say no. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you, Mrs. Williams. And I did want to add on um something while I was up here. Um so, you might have heard there is a um a ban on styrofoam to go containers that became effective July 1st. Um and that's for food vendors with 20 or more locations.
008So, that includes schools. Um so, as of July 1st, um food services has not purchased any styrofoam products. And then styrofoam products are not going to be available for our staff to purchase next school year. Um so we do however have some um odds and ends inventory of styrofoam containers. So we are trying to use those out for summer school. Um there might be a little bit left for the school year. Um so that is not to waste the funds we've already already spent on those products. So um you might see some of those here if you're out in the schools um for summer school or the start of school year. But um just wanted to to update you with that. So, thank you. Was that Are you talking about regular food trays that they
009would use at lunchtime, too, or just You said to-go containers. I thought you said Yeah. So, it's um Yeah, it could be to go containers. Um sometimes soup bowls um and the the styrofoam trays. Okay. So, all schools will be using just regular trays and Yes. And then we'll have some alternatives for styrofoam for special cases when food has to be taken out of the cafeteria. Okay. But not as a regular thing. Correct. like every day. Okay. Yeah. Thanks for keeping us updated. That only applies to cafeteria purchased products, right? So like if if I'm providing snack, I can take in my little styrofoam cups or as far as I know. Okay, that's Yeah, let's go. I've just focused on the the food service. Yeah, I haven't looked very closely at the law. So, we're
010just going to assume that it's okay to have it in other places in the school. Okay, very good. Thank you. I know there were schools last year though that used like to Miss Cave's point, they used styrofoam trays daily and so the plan is to not is to use regular trays daily. So that is the plan. So we always run into situations where we, you know, staff is out sick, um, you know, we a dishwasher is broken, things like that. Um but now the alternative will be if they can't use that hard tray, it will be a um a paper tray. Okay. Yeah. But that's not the plan. The plan is to use a regular because then because we're getting ready to approve was it reappointment of all the cafeteria monitors and so I just
011have cafeteria. Um, do we have enough cafeteria workers that for the I don't know how many schools it was that was doing the styrofoam trays, but like now it's like you said, if the dishwasher is broken, is there staff there that can manage washing the trays? I would say yes. It's always a moving target. You know, it just depends on on the day and the week. I guess just something for the principles to think about if they don't have cafeteria staffed to know that like, hey, this this is something that we were doing and now we're going to have to have hands to do it or some way or another. I mean, somebody's loading the dishwasher, right? Anyways, I mean, I'm all for the hard trace, but just a thought about staffing. Yeah, great. Any
012other questions or comments, board members? Okay, great. Thank you, Mrs. Williams. Thanks for keeping us informed. The next action item is a series of policy revisions brought to us by Dr. Amy Painter. to transport their child or grandchild and also revisions to GBMA procedure for adjusting grievances for support staff. Um, did you have any other questions? Looks like Oh, sorry. Uh on the school bus drivers one for the school bus drivers that are already doing that. Is there anything that we have to like do we need to touch base with all of those drivers to say hey if you're doing this there's a policy change you know are we getting all of them to sign um this new form the request for approval to transport I mean I think maybe at some point in time
013they had signed something but is there something just to verify that in paperwork that everyone that's doing it or do we just make everybody do it all bus drivers do it just in case there's a day when they're like, "Oh, hey, I need to take my grandkid today." Um, so we did not have anything that they signed before, okay, specifically to transporting a a child that wasn't theirs or their child. Um, and in August, we meet with all of the school bus drivers and I'm actually going to be a part of that training this year to make sure that all of our um state required um training is done. And so I was actually going to review this new policy addition with them. And then they were gonna we had about nine drivers this past
014year that this was um that actively drove their non-school age child or grandchild. So there was nine then. But we'll make sure that everyone's aware of it and have the signs um papers signed because it has to be done every year. Have everybody sign it. I mean all the drivers. Um only that are transporting. I don't have anybody. Well, I know, but what if something, you know, crazy happens someday and you're like, you know what I'm saying? I don't have a grand, but what if you adopt somebody tomorrow, right? And then you just don't think about it and a year from now like how many bus drivers? A lot. Hundreds. Um, so they actually have to put the name of the child and their date of birth on the form when they sign it. Okay.
015Um, so they're going to have to have it uh provided to transportation before they transport. We haven't had this done before and we're division. Yeah. Yeah. I understand that it's new. I just um Is there something somewhere that they could sign saying, "Okay, well, I don't have a child at this time, but I'm aware of the policy." We we can do that. That that's what I'm thinking just so somewhere there's a fail safe that says yes we did talk to you about this in August whether you remember it or not is another question if you didn't sign a paper saying yes I understand the policy like they don't have to name the kid at the time because maybe you're like Miss Lure and you don't have anybody in your life but just to say that
016you're aware of the policy in case something did come up and you did it anyways. And uh last meeting I mentioned that we're creating like an employee handbook to share and that can be something that we have in there as well when they acknowledge that they've received uh the handbook and have access all the different policies. I can I can speak to um Chris Sour of how that would work best for his department. Okay. I agree. either there needs to be a section to opt out to say, you know, I understand that I'm opting out or to just acknowledge in the handbook that they do understand that this policy does exist and that if you don't list anyone Yeah. If you don't list anyone, then you know, like I mean, I'm thinking what if your
017neighbor was sick and was like, I'm going to the hospital. Can you watch my kids? And you're like, jump on. And then, you know, we've got extra kids on the bus. So that's what I'm saying. I I I think just for accountability, I think even having an opt out or saying, "Hey, I've read the handbook. I understand everything within it where that is included would cover that." Yeah. And I can get with Mr. Sour to see what procedure he wants as well with collecting these because they're supposed to filter through him. Okay. Can you also let me know when that training is? Yes, please. Thank you, Dr. painter. Okay, we have a series of information items this evening and I think Oh, I'm sorry. We probably should vote and it's August 5th. You would like
018those approved, wouldn't you? Thank you, board members, Chair Hurst, and board members. I recommend approving the proposed policy revisions as presented. Thank you, Mrs. Abernathy. Thank you for keeping me honest up here. Board members, do we have a motion to follow? Thank you, Mr. Cross. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Burggoyne. All those in favor, please say yes. Yes. All those opposed, say no. Motion passes. 5. Thank you, Dr. Painter. Now, we're ready for information items. I apologize. Mr. Caleb Bailey is making his way to the front. He's going to do a school safety year in review for us to start us off. Mr. Abernath, the chairst board members, uh it's almost been one year since uh you guys voted to bring on a safety director. And I wanted to thank you
019first and foremost uh that I'm I'm humbled to be the one that's actually leading the charge for safety in our division. And uh I'm challenged daily to be a better leader. I'm encouraged daily that we have great folks working with us to kind of spearhead this movement. and I'm humbled daily because I have the chance to be in this role. So, thank you first and foremost. We'll get get to it. Um, so our achievements over the first year, uh, when I first came in the division, we did a hazard risk assessment. I went to every single school, visited, and I shared those, uh, findings with you all in close session early on in the into my tenure here. uh some of the things that we brought up as bullet items have been addressed so far
020within this year and are currently being addressed. So uh kind of excited about those things. Um we purchased and install installed the Lifepot safety app which that was something that you all had voted on prior to my arrival but uh I helped facilitate. We com uh started a school committee for security cameras and we've been able to work through that up to the purchase point and installation will be forthcoming in the next couple weeks. We've instituted quarterly school safety meetings. So, one of the things prior to our arrival was that we had uh we had quarterly school meetings, but they were more regionalized and the information kind of went out. One of the things that I picked up on when I went to all these schools is that the principles were saying that they wanted
021a more direct line and that some of the stuff it's just like communication anywhere else, email threads, you know, when you don't have that direct input or you're not uh there physically, sometimes things get implied or or fall through the through the cracks. So, we instituted the quarterly safe school meetings. They've been very productive. Uh several of you have came to those uh meetings and I think you'll agree that the dialogue is very uh interactive. If it's engaging, we move through it. We don't waste time. Uh if we don't have anything to talk about at the end of the meeting, I give everyone a chance, every school that's represented a chance to have the floor. So, if there's something that they wanted to bring up that wasn't addressed uh in in my bullet items or
022they forgot to send to me to put in my bullet items, they have a chance to address. So, that's been a really good cause to help spearhead some some change in that area. Uh we've committed or created subcommittees for lockdown plans and reunification plans. Uh, I'll leave that uh where it's at, but we're looking at uh working through some of those plans and changing some stuff for our division to to better address our physical needs during those events. Um, one of the training opportunities we had training was a big topic for all of our principles. They said we wanted to train more on things that uh we feared the most. Uh, you know, the active shooter obviously is one of the the most feared things within a any school division. So, we wanted to try
023to target working on uh active shooter awareness things for the teachers. We worked with uh the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office to do a tabletop drill and we were able to receive a grant through the Virginia Department of Emergency Management for a full-scale drill for an active shooter. We started that process, which will be about a year out, uh with a tabletop of our own through the Virginia Department of Emergency Management. So to this point, we've done we've done two tabletops. One with the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, which also incorporated outside agencies, uh, town PD, state PD, the sheriff's office, uh, fire rescue, emergency managers, and we had had that graded through VDM. So we're going to be getting an afteraction report to have some action items to use, uh, to grow going forward. We
024have an upcoming active shooter full scale in the spring. So, we'll be starting to plan that as soon as the afteraction is finished up. So, we'll have everything we can grow on there and to build going forward. And we got to train with uh our Harrisonenberg and Rocky Cam ECC with the Lifespot Commander app, which is the police side of our Lifespot app. We're going to be doing some more training with them moving forward in regard to our newly uh purchased camera system. Um, one of the things that I've been doing as an emergency manager, uh, so our emergency manager for Rockingham County is Chief Jeremy Holloway. And emergency management is pretty much it's a new term to an extent. Um, it's the planning of emergencies prior to the building of foundation of relationships prior
025to an event. And one of the things as the emergency manager for our division is I wanted to make sure that we're consistent as a division. So each school um we were getting all the boxes checked. There was nothing that we weren't doing. The the key is that with my position, we were able to bring some things together and do it as one division. And that's been something in an emergency, coming from my background, something that we want to do is we want to standardize how we act. And there's things that in an emergency background, emergency settings, they have things that are standardized on fire engines. certain certain ways they're in uh compartments are built or things are made and that's so that things are quickly uh and readily available during an emergency. So we
026want to practice how we play and the way to do that best is consistency. Um I'll be relieving the burden of some principles which I got a good hurray at the the retreat when I announced that uh they would no longer have to be responsible for the fullness of our um emergency operations plan every year, our school crisis plan. I'll be taking that on as a division and we'll actually have the principles um modify appendices every year. So they'll have one short section of where everything's at easily located. I thought I would have lunch bought for me by now. Just joking. Um just playing around. But they're uh they're actually very very happy about having one location to go find those things. Um, so we're going to use our afteraction reports brought from VDMS to
027to update all of our stuff with our manuals and have best practices. So being an advocate, one one of the things I went when I went to every um school and talked to the principles, I asked them how I could be an advocate for them in regard to safety. And my role, I see it as a a way to champion their causes toward for in front of you all. So my position is kind of a we're like the middle management. The meat's in the middle of the sandwich. So to have the up and down conversations, they need an advocate. They can't always be at a board meeting. They can't be influing influencing the executive teams, etc. So uh one of the things we were able to do, talk to Principal Baker, um at Monavideo, we
028were able to upgrade the public address system. That's a huge that was one of the things that was on my hazard uh risk assessment and one of the ways that we can communicate with people during crisis and that was a really big win for the division. Uh SEAK needs I've been going to SEAK meetings and trying to champion ways that we can help work with our sped population during emergencies and also we're working on the active shooter training being an advocate for the principles saying what they need. And lastly, before I take the Q&A, I want to thank you for the opportunity to lead our division toward new heights in safety. Um, we're collectively working toward a culture oriented in safety, and I'm humbled to have the opportunity to work with our division daily. I
029really appreciate it. Any questions or comments, concerns? Thank you, Mr. Bailey. We do appreciate all that you've done for the division. you're one of those hires this new board took on and um was very supportive of and we appreciate all you're doing to keep our division safe. Um board members, do you have any questions or comments for Mr. Bailey at this time? Mr. Bailey, the Lifespot app, are you finding that um we have a majority with employees that are now downloaded that app and are ready to use that app? Stabilized. Uh majority, yes, because it's about 1,035, but we have 2,000 spots purchased. So, still not really where we would hope to see it, but we're above above half. So, that's that's an encouragement. I think as we go, it'll it'll add on as we
030hire new teachers. I think that'll pick up a little bit in the fall. So, you at the uh new teacher orientation, will you be there talking about the Lifespot app and how to download that? Yeah, I talked with uh Miss Kite about adding that into the sub uh stuff as well. Okay. So, when when we bring people, we'll introduce that to them. Okay. Will you be training on that with staff yearly? Is that a part of I know you said you've got some trainings coming up. Um I would love to be at the 2026 training just because that stuff is intrigues me. um obviously but um will that be a part of like a a portion of the training to see how this you know what happens when it's activated and yeah absolutely so uh
031they have what you consider can training or box training so Lifespot puts out the video that comes out and I think there's a really good total package six minutee video so it's short and sweet obviously this app has one one job so there's not a lot to do but anytime anybody wants any hands-on training I've actually went to several schools after we had an activation last year. After that, I did some follow-up remedial training with uh actually some of the lunch staff. They were they were wondering how to use it and what to do and all that good stuff. And uh we did some follow-up training with them. But we have uh vector trainings available as well. So, when we come back in the in the fall and all of our teachers come back, we'll
032have those vector trainings. So, that video will be a part of that hopefully as it was last year. And then obviously any remedial training or brushups I'm more than happy to go attend and help with. Yeah, that that was my thought and question was just for those who have already signed up and have it. It's been a year now that they've had it and not used it most of them. And so maybe some retraining on that would be a refresher would be great for them. Yeah. One of the encouraging things that we talked about go with the active shooter training is that I think that'll actually bring forth some people out of the woodwork to want to use it because when we do a training um from the police perspective that you're going to be
033locked down in a room for probably several hours if there's true event because the sheriff's office will have to sweep the school, check for secondary and tertiary uh effects. So it'll be a long time and in that time that commander app is is able to communicate with the people inside of the school via text like essentially via text message in the app. Uh that is a profoundly different than how how we operate in a normal setting. So this app gives them the access to be able to really talk to law enforcement or a representative through ECC um to to let them know what's happening. So it gives that that teacher some some ease to say, "Hey, the subject has been detained and we're now in, you know, searching for secondary. The threat's been thwarted. So
034you can still stay on lockdown, but you can take have that little bit of if there is such a thing as peace in that situation, you have some peace of mind of what's happening, some knowledge. uh just a little bit of knowhow in that situation is is a lot because a little bit of information is huge in those settings. Could you talk a little bit about the false activation that we did have and what we learned through that? Yes, absolutely. Um there is no such thing as a false activation because the way this activates is actually physically has to be activated to go off. So you can't pocket dial it. Um the one thing that happened um we had an employee that that opened the app. it can be opened from your pocket and had
035a moment of oh no and actually went through to try to clear it. So, we've had some remedial training and taught people how to how to clear it off of their browser without having to actually activate it. One thing we did find out when this happened, it worked. Like we had we had sheriff's office in route within seconds. We had 14 officers mark up within the first two to three minutes. it it was found that it was uh negligent within I think two two two minutes 30 seconds or something like that. So we knew that that was a school that was outside of our uh local PDs. So we had a rural response and so there was not that you know immediate town police presence that you know was present right there in the town.
036This was a a county response and we had that kind of turnout. So we knew it worked. Um we did learn some things with that. We had to train with some ECC. We had some communication breakdowns there that we fixed and since then they've been valuable partners with us and working with us to train. I've went and trained them uh six different times, trained their entire staff on how to use the commander app. Uh we've worked with their management as well. So um it was a it was a growing pain and we hope that there's never another false activation, but the likelihood when you combine people with technology, you know, it it it may happen again. But our hope is that we train people on it. They're not scared to use it if they need
037to use it and they understand how to use it. So, wow. Thank you. Yes, sir. Anyone else? Um I just you mentioned a minute ago about you know these students teachers could be in lockdown for hours and so and you mentioned um special education needs. So I guess my thought goes towards um children with medical needs. Yes ma'am. Like if they're diabetic and they're in a room and their insulin's with a nurse. actually our our school crisis plans have in effect to uh meet those special needs as well. So we have special special plans in place for those folks and I'm going to be working with Mr. Bryant to specialize some crisis plans for them in these events. Okay. Um the med the medicinal side of things uh fortunately for them is usually they have
038aids that are right there. They're a lot more onetoone than a standardized classroom. Whereas, you know, when we're in a normal u gen pop classroom setting, you may have one to 24 there, they have, you know, one to two to one to one. So, there's a lot more hands-on to where that could be helpful. That makes sense. Okay. I think I think you understand what I'm saying. Yeah, I hear what you're saying, but I just And specifically thinking about diabetics, I mean, many of them are in gened, right? but their insulin's with the nurse or th this comes back to the communication piece with this Lifespot app. Um if you're able to communicate that as a teacher to the commander app that the that could be triaged through the commander side if that makes sense.
039So if we're if we're at a situation where we're still in lockdown, maybe it's we're one hour in, the subject's been detained, we're in a search and you have 24 students, but we have a kid that's going hypoglycemic. you can tell the commander app, hey, I have I have a student that's needs u insulin or I have a diabetic student that needs um his meds. Then that those communications we could process that room. Maybe we can make priority to to have action at that if that makes sense. Okay. And I believe the teachers can change their status to say we have a medical emergency or a medical need in this classroom. An injury is how it's marked on there. But if you could communicate that out and also our uh admin is still our admin
040team is still going to be very much you know our school crisis management teams they're going to be up and operating. So one of the things we did with our school crisis plan is we rearranged the structure of our leadership crisis management team and our school crisis management teams. So the school crisis management team will be the team of teachers and leaders within the school that are there to help and operate. That's on the school level. The leadership crisis management team, the executive committee, they're going to be Dr. Shifflet will likely be, you know, in command and restructuring those other um branches to better serve the principal and the school in need. So, I think it'll actually have us be more functional to address those items as they come up compared to actually currently where
041we have been. Okay. Yeah, thank you for that. I I believe that had come up maybe just in a random discussion we were having one day, but I think it was probably over a year ago. So, likely before you came along. So, and there's in those instances there's going to be no perfect answer, right? And something's always going to go wrong or different than you planned. However, with what we have now, we can adapt and overcome much more readily. Yeah. where we were, it it wouldn't be that we would not have had a plan, but we might not have one as as tailored to help our needs. That makes sense. Yes. Thank you. I think that's more I I'm just picturing this in my head because I've been at some of these. I've actually been
042to an active shooter training at Thomas Harrison Middle School, which was uh there were no students. It was in the summer, but with local um resources, and law enforcement will clear the building quickly once there's no threat. And so then they're going to say, "Hey, this this building is clear. This room is clear. You guys are good to go." That is then they're going to dump the classroom on RCPS and that's going to be our problem, the school's problem to say this classroom has someone in need. We need to be first priority. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. So they'll clear it quickly, then that immediately falls on our responsibility. I've also worked with Ashley Hal to work with the nurses to have go kits for our reunification and maybe standardizing some portable kits within our nurses to
043to be able to facilitate a move if we have a school in need. You know, if those kits are portable, we can move those where we need them. So, you know, it doesn't have to be that that's just locked down for one place. If it's needed somewhere else, you know, we can make we can make provisions for that. So, trying to be a little bit more mobile and agile as well. I would just like to say I had very high expectations for this position and you have exceeded them and I know I told you I was like I'm going to be very hard on you Caleb because this is something near and dear to my heart um being in public safety and my husband working at the sheriff's office will probably be the one one
044of the first people on scene and that scares me. Um but you have exceeded my expectations so I appreciate you and everything. I mean you go above and beyond. I see it all the time. So, I have no worries or um question that you're not the most capable person for this position. So, I do we we got a great team around us. I'm just the one that is able to champion the wants and needs. Uh one thing I wanted to clarify really quick about this uh shooter event, the active shooter training. There will be no students involved in that. Right. So, I wanted to make sure the public knew that, you know, while we were talking, this will be for our faculty and staff and for our law enforcement resources to train collectively with our
045fire rescue and all of our facilities, emergency managers, and we will have uh people in place that actually will grade our response according to our written plans. So, all these upgrades will actually be tested and we'll be able to say, "Yeah, that worked great." Or, "No, this is how we planned it, but we're going to back up and punt and fix it." and then you fix it on paper in training so that when we have the real life event that it's not a a mess. One last thing for you, Kev. The keyless entry, how how's that worked out? I mean, the keyless entry was purchased uh prior to my arrival, right? I've uh since taken over some of the responsibilities of the keying. However, u to my knowledge, anytime we've done safe school interviews, everyone
046has been very happy about it. Um, there probably are some doors that have come up at certain schools just because of the way people come in or whatever that may, you know, they may say, well, it would be beneficial to have a door that's that's key that maybe wasn't to start with. Um, but everyone has, I think, has really enjoyed using that. Are they finding that they're not having as many unlocked doors at the school through your safe school audits that you're having? Yes. Uh, yes and no. Um the yes that the the access I think helps uh because they don't have to pull a key out so they don't have to prop you know they're they can just reach down with their badge and go so that they don't have to feel like they
047need to prop on those doors. Um, the exterior doors are, I think, going to be a focus no matter what in a school system, right? And when you have a a student population that wants access and things like that, that has to be a focal point for our division, period. But I do think it has limited that. Um, but I think that needs to be one of our goals this year is is to maintain heightened awareness regardless of who it is as stewards. says if we walk into a school, it needs to be each of our responsibilities to just pull it shut or just double check when we leave. It takes two seconds. We can all do that, but I think that needs to be one of the focal points moving forward for the next
048year. Speaking of those keyless entries, I've heard um a couple of different shops uh a shops that don't have the keyless entry on the shop door. Can you look at that and see evaluate that? because I think I think maybe some are getting propped open. Okay. So, yeah, if you can look at that and see if we can get those folks some keyless entry into those doors, right, that would help them out. And obviously, it'll come back to to dollars and cents. I don't mind looking at that at all, though. I think the more the more that we have, the more we have access, you know, the better with the keyless because it yes, it cost to install. However, the the lack of propping the the the indicator that you know it's locked. We have
049we have a trackability with that that you don't have with a key. So we know who swiped it, who came in, who who left it. So I think there's a that that's all good stuff, but I'll be happy to look into it. You're welcome. Then also, um, you've mentioned the training, the active shooter drill, right, in the spring. Is that going to be public? Uh, like are we going to tell the public, hey, we're doing this and don't be worried if you see all this activity? Oh, yes. Yes, it'll be. I'll actually reach out to our media resources most likely then, too, uh, to cover the event so that we're We want to be, you know, forthcoming. We we want to have a good training and be positive in what we do. We don't want
050to necessarily train everyone else as to what we do, but we want we want all those shared resources to be able to actually work together, come together and learn, but at the same time have it be a positive. I want um my encouragement is that we I hope that teachers who are nervous about coming or or have angst about it, I hope that they're encouraged to come. And I've talked to some of the counseling staff doing our safe school um audits that sit in those audits about people who they think may not come because they're they're nervous or they don't want to have the triggers or trauma fears. However, I'm hopeful that we can help build a bridge over that because the biggest thing that we need to do is my job is to give
051a teacher the tools to remain calm and aware and alert during an event because their leadership has to be crucial in those points because that those children are looking to them for safety and they have to make crucial key decisions. And coming from a response background, I know how it is to have to make a decision under pressure. is not an easy thing to do, but we will never know how to do it unless we're put in those situations to an extent. I would much rather do it in a controlled environment. Even if they weren't in in the process, if they were there to get the feedback in the parking lot, we can grow. That's a step. So, if they're willing to make a step, I'm willing to work with them. I hope we have
052actively uh active participation. I'm encouraged that we will because uh the division, I think, has really bought into the positive changes that we're making. Thank you all so much. Okay, I do have one more thing. I I agree and I think too when I I think for my kids, my kids know, you know, 90% of the deputies in Rockingham County, they are like, "Hey, somebody said the other day, they saw my kid at uh school at the end of the year and he said, "Hey, dude." And I was like, "You have to respect these people." And you know, not at school. And so, um, having familiarity with these people and knowing, hey, that's Ashley's husband. We've trained, I know this guy or, you know, our deputy back here, we've seen her a million times. Oh,
053she's familiar to me. So, I would hope that people would come be familiar with these people because this is a team and trust these people, know these people, and things like that. So, and you don't want to learn it on game day. That's the biggest thing that uh from the emergency management perspective is that you make these relationships prior to you know I've shaken hands with emergency managers from Wesboro, Harrisonburg and all these other places and have uh met with uh school emergency leaders across the state. And that's that's the key thing is that I'm taking some things from their playbook but they're taking some things from ours as far as what we're doing. And those relationships become the key component to how we mitigate emergencies. Thank you so much. Okay. Thank you very much.
054I think the I think it's very obvious how this board feels about safety. Um whenever we have a presentation, we always have good conversation and good questions. Next on information items, um Miss Carrie Gray is bringing us some information on the Health and Medical Sciences Curriculum Adoption Committee. That's a lot. Good evening, board chair, Miss Abernathy. um in your materials for this evening's meeting is for your information on names that will of individuals that will make up this curriculum review committee for our new health and medical science courses. Um it's a quick turnaround, but my goal is for them to have a recommendation be thorough, but also have a recommendation for your next board meeting for me to bring to you um to ask for approval so that we can get these materials ordered and
055in classrooms for the first day of school. So, if you have any questions about those individuals or representation, I'm happy to answer those. And this is for the program that we just approved um in the in the winter and we've got two courses and um so we we need materials now. We do. Yeah. Board members, any questions? Um there's five members to the committee. One of them is a student. So, what is the students role in reviewing this curriculum? And I should add before I answer that question, um, we have a second teacher that I believe is waiting on board approval and once that individual's approved, they will also be added to this committee. Um, but the students role is to look for usability, readability, make sure it's it's studentfriendly, that they feel like they
056would be able to learn from those materials, that there supplementary materials are helping them learn what's in the textbooks. Um, so just getting that perspective that they're going to be able to learn from this and use it and it's a useful tool for them. Is this student going into this particular field or class or they're interested? So I can't guarantee you when parents and students came volunteered to be part of this committee. I can't because scheduling's happening right now on master schedules and students are being placed in courses. So I did give the caveat that I can't guarantee that your student or you are going to be in this course. you know, I hope so. Um, but I'd love for your help on this committee to help review materials. So, the student is interested in
057a career. They don't specifically know what um career within health and medical sciences they're interested in. They just know that they're interested in that field. So, I think that that that perspective is really valuable also. Okay. And what grade was this for? Um, it's open in 9th through 12th grade. That's okay. So, the introductory class is open for 9th through 12th graders. Um, and then the medical terminology class, which I think might it probably won't run at all four schools because the intro class is a prerequisite, but we for the first year allowed them to take if they're an upper classman both at the same time. So, that probably won't be in all four high schools yet. But, that's designed for 10th through 12th graders. Okay. And can I ask what grade the student is
058in? That student will be entering 11th grade. Thank you. I did also informally one of the parents on the committee said that um their child was also going to look at the material. So they're not formally part of the committee, but that student's going into ninth grade. So we will have um some perspectives from ninth grade, you know, underassman and upper classman there. Any other questions? Thank you, Miss Gray. Thank you. Next up on our list tonight, we have several policy revisions. It's that time of year. Um, legislative season is done. Policies are being reviewed. Um, changes here and there. I'm sure this is not the the only meeting we will see you at. No, it's not. Your horse member of the board. Um, so I have some of the policies we've been working on
059this summer. a lot of them are ones that we're really wanting to get um on the books. So when school starts, we have these in um in effect. So it's a little um different trying to read down through them since some of them are changes from VSBA to RCPS, some of them are RCPS to RCPS, some of them are VSBA to SBMA, and there's a new policy that came out that so that it's a brand new policy from SBMA. So, there's lots of different formats there, but um I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have. I think most of the people who um have had a part of these policies are here tonight um and can help answer any questions you might have. Thank you. Board members, go ahead with any questions. You
060work with um it's a little bit different. Um they they I think just have a different take on policy than VSBA. Um um I think their role is to provide policies for you all when you request them. So we're trying to find our way there because um typically we don't ask for policies. We've just in the past been given policies. Um, so we're having to reach out sometimes and say, um, you know, we believe there should be a policy for this thing that that came through the through the legislature. Do you have a policy? Um, so there's some bumps, but um, the person that I think I get emails from you. Um, I've been able to communicate with, I think her name is Jill, um, and she's been really helpful when we've, um, when we've
061needed policies. So, it's just an adjustment. Yeah. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Yes. You're welcome. Those will all be up for action then uh at our next in at our next meeting in two weeks. Yes. All right. Thank you. Dr. Amy Painter is coming up to present on a pilot project to address custodian shortages. Welcome back, Chair Lure, members of the board. Uh Miss Abernathy. Uh tonight I am bringing to you for uhformational purposes about a contracted services pilot. Uh so Rockingham County does several contracted services now such as uh allied instructional services, presence learning, speech and language center. Uh so it's not new for us to contract out things that we can't find. However, we have never had to contract out um custodial work. Um so why do we need this partnership with a local
062business called Atwork? Uh something that we would like to pilot uh is because of um some historical u trends that we have with our vacancies with our custodial staff. So you'll see here from the past three years uh for example in 2425 school year we hired 44 custodian positions throughout the year. Uh that's basically a 38% turnover of our 118 full and part-time uh custodians that we have in RCPS and 15 vacancies remained in RCPS. Uh so we have some trouble retaining our custodial staff in RCPS. Um so what's the cost savings and the why behind this? Um if we pilot this with at work, at work covers all payroll, payroll taxes, workman's comp, general insurance, health, friends benefits, everything associated with the employment because it would be their employee. Um, at work employees are
063paid weekly compared to our monthly payroll. Uh, which is appealing to a lot of employees that depend on weekly pay. Uh, at work has resources that we don't to reach across other industries and demographics to find candidates for these positions. Uh, they may not be familiar with our school hiring processes and our job boards. Uh, RCPS anticipates approximately a 25% savings when considering the total cost of employing staff directly. And if RCPS is not happy with an at work employee that is sent to staff a position, we can immediately request that they be removed from our schools. Um, so what steps have we uh taken to date? Um, so this conversation began probably last summer when I was at a um, chapter SHERM meeting uh, with uh, the owner of our local at work business
064um, just talking about, you know, vacancies and and ways that we could possibly partner. And then it came to fruition when we started to get emails from principles about uh, they were having lots of turnover. You'll you'll see tonight on the personnel listing, we had two more custodial uh resignations. Um and and just getting these buildings prepared in the summer and the time it takes uh for people to get through our processes to be board approved and working. Um, so we had a factf finding session this past winter uh between Justin Moyers of the finance department, myself and at work. And back there is Frank McMillan, the owner of our local at work business. Um, at work presented a staffing agreement with bill rates and terms and conditions to finance and with all of our
065contracted services that takes place between finance um, and the contractor. Um, and then I met with at work to determine what our current staffing needs were and our requirements for hiring. Uh, since they are dealing with um our students and our schools, we want to keep the same standards that we do with all of our hiring that we do now. Um, and part of our pilot to see, you know, if there's any kinks with this or how it would work, uh, we want to target our schools with the most vacancies that need the most help right now. Um, and we're going to stay with the secondary schools until we make sure that this would be a working agreement. Some steps to come. Um, at work we'll source, interview and start any hiring process with candidates
066that they find and then they will send us their work experience. Um, so that we can determine what work experience is granted for each candidate. Uh, because if they end up becoming our employee, uh, we wouldn't have to talk about where they would be on the pay scale. uh they would complete any background screening uh such as DSS and state police checks through RCPS just as we do with all of our employees. Instead of the typical uh procedure that at work does, they will do what we require for our employees. Uh they will agree to adhere to RCPS schoolboard policies. So we will have uh the set policies that our own employees agree to. It will also be presented to the at work candidates to agree to um such as uh the boundaries policies uh
067electronic communication um just just to name a few. And then after the background check is returned, the at work employee will begin work under the directions of RCPS admin and custodial staff. And then following a 90-day probationary period, the candidate may choose to become an RCPS employee or remain an at work employee. So that's the the best uh summary I can just give in a few minutes. Um so I'll open up to any questions that you all may have. Thank you. Dr. Painter, board members, do you have any questions for her? Miss Painter, I'm familiar with this in partnership with schools. Uh I know many divisions throughout the state do this. Sorry. Are you working with uh what other school divisions are you working with throughout the state as of now? Chair. Well, currently at
068work, we have a 100 locations across the US, but we're all individually owned and franchised. So I own the Harrisonenberg area and so I don't work with any other locations across the state because my office is here uh right here in Harrisonenberg. So I primarily work with Rockingham, Augusta, a little bit in Shannido and Page counties. So currently right now not but we do this across the country and have been very very successful. Yeah, I I've I've went to some training where I've seen this and where it's worked out. Now there you said there is a contingency on the 90-day uh if they want to stay remain an RCPS employee or they want to stay at work. So how would that work out? Um well the the employee has the opportunity then after 90 days
069to become your one of your employees. Uh, a lot of times though with your monthly pay and and and all of that, uh, based on the fact that that, you know, the pay scale that they're in, they're typically, you know, they're 15 to $20 an hour on average. Uh, getting paid monthly is is kind of really painful. Yeah. So, it be would be beneficial if the pay scale was the same for them to stay on our payroll because they get paid weekly. Uh and the cost savings to you guys is they're not part of the VRS or they don't have to pay you're not uh having their health insurance and benefits. So it is a significant cost savings for you guys for them to maintain and stay one of my employees. But after 90 days
070if if that those situations change, they're welcome to come on board with you guys at no additional cost. If at 90 days, if they're happy with what they're doing, but they don't want to go become an RCPS student, can they still continue to work in that position and stay an um employee of yours? Absolutely. Okay. As long as uh the school is happy. Uh and that's one of the great things by working with our company. Uh because we're not a state uh agency. If this the principal or if anyone of if Amy calls and says this employee is not working out, they're removed immediately. That's not there's not a a period or a process that has to go through. Uh so that is another benefit that you guys have. It's a little bit safer. They'll
071Amy, they'll still go through all our background checks and all that. Uh that was one of the things that I talked about uh with Frank is that we would still like for them to do our background checks and not the service that they use. So they will still have their department of social services and state police background check. Okay. Yeah. And we believe that's one of the best options because when they become a 90day after 90 days if they choose to come on board with you guys we don't want any other you know they've already been vetted. They already have the badge. They're already basically they just change shirts and payroll payroll periods at that point. So it'll be a seamless operation. Is there do you offer your employees like a pay scale like a
072raise after so so many months to a year to how what's kind of the we will match the exact pay scale and per process that's available for rocket schools so that if wherever they happen to be when they come on board it'll just be transition straight from there. Okay. So I know you guys have a an annual scale that goes from 0 to 37 years uh of experience. We would follow that and then if there is any you know 1% or 2% or whatever raise that may happen based on u state or federal fundings then we would match that also. Okay. And this will allow us to get some vacancies filled pretty fast too because now once we get a resignation we do the posting. We let it post for a week or two. they
073do interviews. We have to wait for the next board meeting. It's just it is a long process for schools to go without having a body in their building. Um and so if they did have someone at work that wanted to transition to be RCPS employee, they could simply remain that at work employee until we had a board meeting and they were approved and there would be no no gaps. The at work employee reports their boss at the school and still be the principal. Is that correct? That is correct. Okay. And they will have shirts that identify them as at work. We we've designed a co-branding logo that uh that's pretty cool. So it'll be at work and county school as long as this is okay. I just designed that today. I'll show Larry. Yeah. So
074for disciplinary like not things that are egregious and you know require termination or your like you said they don't come back that goes through you or the principal or so that is something that we can discuss. Um, I would like for our principles to be able to call Frank or they could we'll have that's something when we get our first hire since we're the employer of record. We are technically their boss, right? But this the principal is really the boss. And so we want them to be to to work with us and to to mimic and to mirror any disciplinary actions. uh they will give us the message and then we will give the message to the employee but we would also like that message to be given with if they if the principal is
075customarily involved in that meeting we would want them involved in that meeting also we we don't want to do anything that's going to make our employees feel different or less than any employee from Rockingham County so we want everything to be seamless so that way when they start with you guys all the procedures and policies will remain the same they just literally like I say change the shirt in the p in the date that they get paid and Justin and I conferred with Steve Reed as well since maintenance is heavily involved with our Okay, that's one of the things that I remember them talking about when I went to the training when they talked about something very similar to what you're doing providing for other divisions uh with this that it was important that the
076the the company that was coming on they felt like their employees felt like they were part of the community still with the school. So, and we're a very community-minded company. I mean, I graduated from Rocket County schools. My grandson graduated from Rocket County School. My boys went unfortunately with the city schools, but uh you know, we're very well tied to the community. Yeah, sounds good. Thank you. Mass Technical Center also. How how quickly do you anticipate being able to fill I think I counted maybe 15 plus vacancies right now. Um I shared several a spreadsheet with them that we're keeping that because school information admin contact numbers just the secondary physicians now that we didn't have someone vetted for. I just shared this with them Friday. Okay. Yeah. So typically we would say within seven
077days but we really haven't until we had this meeting we haven't really started actively recruiting uh because we didn't want that sure get out. So I would say within seven days we would start to have traction okay on those. Um, I guess I have two things, Miss Burggoyne. I When you brought that up about discipline, um, I guess my concern would be what if there's an employee that there's constantly little issues with, right, that normally if they work for us, like they might not be getting a memo in their file, but maybe it's a note, you know, but instead of us keeping our own disciplinary record here, we're constantly telling you. So maybe they've got seven little issues, but it just eventually becomes too much and we're like, "We just can't do this anymore." So
078the employees gone, but say a year later, that same person comes back and applies with Rockingham County. Perhaps you have a new principal there. Perhaps you have a new board, new superintendent. I mean, who knows? Like people are gone and you don't know and we're Do you know what I'm saying? Like we have no record that this person was ever here. Like it's a it's a little concerning. Yeah. So, so we will maintain a record at the HR office because he's going to call me for the work experience. So, we'll have a spreadsheet that we start because they're going to come to us to do all the background checks. Okay. And I'm going to know if we told someone that it wasn't working out. Okay. We actually have a shared list in HR um that
079nine different people have access to. So, we would make its own tab for our work. Okay. Um, and my mental calculator earlier was just um going off and I talked to you a little bit, Miss Painter, about it um because in the presentation it said that we were going to get it was like a 25% um savings um when considering the total cost of employing staff directly and I felt like 25% savings is really high. Um and in just thinking about uh that it's the savings most likely with retirement for the most part. Um what what do what's your benefit? This board has not seen anything about what we are paying at work. So what do you I mean how does this how are you benefiting from this? Uh well, of course, we are a
080for-profit company, so we do we there's a we do make money when we do that, right? Each individual pay rate has a a a different bill rate based assigned to that. So, our rates are calculated on if an employee works per hour, they're paid x amount per hour and we bill the county schools an x amount per hour. And so, we have a a a spreadsheet with 37 different calculations on that that uh would would do that. Okay. And so, Miss Painter, can you get Mr. Moyers to make that available to this board so that we know what those amounts are? Thank you. Okay. Thank you all for your time. Appreciate it. All right. Next up is the updated 202526 school calendar by Mrs. Donna Abernathy. Thank you, Chair Hurst and board members. As you
081may recall, the June 23rd schoolboard meeting, Chair Hurst requested a revision to the previously approved 202526 school calendar to include two personalized work days for teachers to focus on completing report cards. And the school board unanimously supported this recommendation and as a result, Dr. Shifflet made those corrections in the school calendar and they have been added in those two dates. Um, and the calendar is listed in your agenda there. And those two dates are Friday, October the 24th and Friday, May 20th, 2026. And again, those are for teachers completing report cards. And that's identified in the bottom of the key of the calendar. Thank you, Mrs. Abernathy. Um, board members, do you have any questions or comments on this for Mrs. Abernathy? She said May March 20th, 2026, correct? Not May. Oh, I said May.
082Oh, I think but I apologize. That's okay. I just wanted to make sure for someone that's listening and Yeah. Friday, October 24th, 2025 and Friday, March 20th, 2026. I apologize. I can't remember um specifically. Maybe I only asked for two. I thought I said two to three. And so, um, so we'll talk about that now. Um, just because I'm curious if we should add if if it's if two is what this board wants to do, that's fine. But I would also advocate um for January 20th because it looks like we're picking the ones at the ends of the nine weeks when teachers are working on report cards. So that October 24th end of first nine weeks, January 20, end of second nine weeks. March 20th, that's funny. The 20th and the 20th. Um March 20th,
083end of third nine weeks. And then we had talked about there's so much going on at the end of the school year. Um needing to be on site for work days, maybe um not offering that then. But um I I would advocate that we add add January 20th in as a potential date. So if we didn't do it, what would it look like for that day? Does that make sense? It's a teacher's work day. So that's a good question. It's a teacher work day. So there aren't supposed to be any meetings scheduled for those. Those are supposed to be unencumbered school days or work days for teachers um where they can work in their classrooms or work on report cards or lesson plans, things like that. So if we didn't if we didn't change anything,
084there could be meetings on the 20th of January. There should not not not for teachers for not teachers. So for teacher work days at the end of each term, there should not be any meetings for teachers. Now, there are meetings scheduled for staff that are not teachers, like our BSAs or our paras, uh maybe our counselors, because they're not teachers. So, there are meetings that are scheduled on those days, but they're not for teachers. So, what would the personalized do? What are we doing with this personalized days? teachers would have the opportunity to work from home on report cards as opposed to reporting to their classroom. Thanks for your second. Uh currently with the revision on the calendar, it is October the 24th, which is the end of the first term, and March 20th, which
085is the end of the third term. So, I'm asking to add a third one in for January 20th. So, we have one at the end of the first, second, and third nine weeks per grading periods. They're colorcoded in the red if that helps to You're saying January 20th to see them. Yes. If you look on the calendar, the October 24th and the March um 20th, they are in parentheses. Now, the parenthesis denotes that personalized workday for teachers. Um, I joked with Dr. Shifflet that we were running out of colors to color coordinate or to color code this thing and so parentheses were chosen which is just fine. Works out good. Um, so I'm um asking or advocating for the 20th to get those parentheses January 20th as well. Chair Hurst, as a former teacher, was
086is this something that would have greatly benefited you? Yes. So I think we should I'm okay with it. I'll third that. I I agree with that. I know um just last year how beneficial it was for teachers to do things from home to have all their stuff laid out. I heard a lot of good feedback. Um so I I would have loved that. And it it also helps out. You know, we have a lot of um moms that teach in our in our division. And so, um, if I when I have to report for a teacher workday, I still and school is out, I still have to find child care options for my own children. Um, and so it's just a benefit that, you know, you could be at home with your kids. It's just
087would make it much more convenient. But yes, I would have loved this as a teacher. Chair Hurst, may I just ask for clarification for those who are watching? So, this is an option for them to choose to be at home working on report cards or they could go into the building if they so chose to as well. Yes, absolutely. Um, I I think for some teachers and I might have been this way a little bit myself, I would find it hard to to focus at at home and I am much more productive if I just go into my classroom and I can work. And so, this is the personalized piece means you make it work for you, what works for you on those days. We can have some flexibility. So you can work from your
088classroom, you can work from home. Yeah. Thank you for that. The scientist in me likes to collect data and I would propose that we try to and then maybe think about the third one and like like that's our control and the other two are tests. However, I have a feeling in January, no matter what we decide, they might be staying home on January 20th anyway, cuz that's the way this gig rolls. Whatever. Like, if we say, "Ah, that day is not going to be a work from home day." It will be because God will make it so. So, I'm Yeah. So, everybody just go ahead and mark on your calendars it's going to snow on January 20th, but I'm okay with whatever you guys want to do. to make this happen. I mean, what do
089we need to do here? Do we need to have a motion? Can we I I think it's for information. So, we can just if we have consensus that the majority of us want to uh add January 20th with the parenthesis, um then it can come back for action on the 28th next. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. I would like to go ahead and bring up at this time if are we are we good? Can I bring up another calendar issue? Sure. It recently occurred to me that we don't put summer school on this calendar and uh hey, guess what? We just gave a day off and I think it was the first day of summer school. Whoopsies. Because it wasn't on our calendar. It wasn't on our radar. I don't Did we start summer school
090on the 7th? There was at least supposed to be meetings on the Was it teacher work day? Okay. Whoopsies. Yeah. Yeah. So, the students started on Tuesday. Um, so just I'll come back to summer school in my comments because I I have some thoughts about okay summer school and I don't I don't I don't necessarily disagree with you that we should probably just go ahead and put that on there because parents when they're planning vacations can look at this and go, "Oh, if I think my child might be invited to summer school, maybe these are some dates that I stay off of planning vacation wise." Because um we only run summer school currently for 3 weeks. Um, and I can't tell you how many times I've taught summer school and we have kids missing frequent
091it's frequent that kids miss a week of the three or sometimes two weeks of the three. Um, and so that that could be one extra extra step. Well, as a schoolboard member, it's always like when is school when is summer school again? I I've never been able to keep up with it and it didn't occur to me to just put it on the calendar. So, and so it's a good idea. Whoops. Hey, eight years in, I figured some things out. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Any other questions on that? Cool. Thank you, board members. All right. The other two items in information are the finance department staff report and the finance review for Jan or for June 2025. Both of which you'll find in your packets. Um, and that brings us to superintendent comments. So, Mrs.
092Abernathy, you fill it in. Okay. Thank you, Chair Hurst. I do have just a few things I'd like to share with everyone this evening. Um, as uh we were just talking about summer school, but um our students typically are not in the building over the summer or our teachers. So, uh but we do have many 12-month employees um in the buildings and at our county office building. So, many thanks to our 12-month employees and especially our custodians. We've had a lot of conversations about our custodian crew tonight as well as they are busy cleaning our buildings to prepare for the return of our students and our teachers. So, we appreciate their uh their time and their efforts to make our buildings look and span. I always love those freshly waxed floors um when we start
093the the school year. They look amazing. Uh next up, uh speaking of summer school, elementary and middle schools, uh summer school did begin last week. That was on Tuesday. Monday was a teacher work day on the 7th. And speaking of the 7th, I know folks really appreciated that extra day off there at July 4th. So, thank you for approving that. Um, we've had a good number of participants in summer school. Um, our elementary numbers are at 452 and our middle school numbers are at 170. And u I know that Sharon Marts, our new executive director for elementary uh education, has been out visiting our elementary schools and uh on all accords there. Everything has has is going very well with our beginning of our summer school uh last week. High school summer school began a
094week after school was out in June and we have 541 students taking online classes through egeneuity with many of them taking um econ and personal finance or dual enrollment uh econ and personal finance. And speaking of summer school, I'd like to invite you to summer school graduation, RCPS summer school graduation for all four of our high schools. That is Wednesday, July the 30th at 6:30 at Broadway High School. So again, that's Wednesday, July 30th at 6:30 at Broadway High School. I'm not sure how many seniors we are expected to have graduate, but there's usually about 40 to 50ish about. Also, this summer we've had many uh activities going on uh with competitions. So, uh MTC students participated in the National Skills USA competition in Atlanta. There were 18,000 competitors. 420 medals were given out. MTC
095took six competitors and four of the six won. And MTC has a Virginia state officer for the 2526 school year as well. So, some congratulations out to Caitlyn Crawford. She got a bronze for aesthetics with Madison Marshall as her amazing model. Gavin Adutis, sorry if I butchered that name. Gavin and Troy Kramer won the silver medal for 3D visualization and animation. And congratulations to the state officer Colton Felstein. and we wish him well as he takes on his new role there. Also, we had the national FCCLA competition in Orlando, Florida. Last week, we had 24 students representing Rockingham County high schools and and middle schools. And just a few of the highlights from FCCLA from East Rockingham, Ariana Stroop placed third receiving a gold medal and Hannah Frasier was fifth and and receiving a gold
096medal as well. from Spotswood High School. Sadie Hal was second place and received a gold medal and Ella Holloway and Camden Schmidt were in sixth place and received a gold medal. Also, Emily Ray and Hayden Dillard uh won gold for food innovations. Elton Middle School, Delane Delaney Holloway and Isabelle Zimbro won second place and won a gold medal. And Haley Bowers won a gold top 10 for professional presentation. And from Turner Ashby, we had Rachel uh Huffman placed third in the nation and received a gold. And for professional presentation, Maggie Cullers received a gold and also placed third in the nation. We also have a Virginia FCCLA state officer, Emma Light. She'll be vice president of the competitive events. So, she's excited for that new role as well. We also had TSA national competitions and
097I believe that that was in Nashville a couple of weeks ago. Uh Broadway High School had 14 students attend T uh the TSA national event. Spotswood's team placed third in manufacturing prototypes. So congratulations to Spotswood's team for finishing third as well. And I believe that's all I have for tonight. Thank you, Mrs. Abernathy. A lot of great things happening in the summer. Um, we're moving into board school board highlights, questions, and comments. And Miss Cave will start on this end this evening. I don't have anything tonight. Nothing tonight. Okay. Thank you, Miss Laura. I'd just like to take this opportunity to welcome Sharon Marts to the executive team. We're excited to have you and looking for great things. Um, also I would also like to shout out to our custodians cleaning the buildings. Uh, I
098actually have a really good friend who's substituting as a as a custodian and she keeps telling me, "Oh, like my my feet are peeling because they they literally take off their shoes and wash the whole floor." I mean, like I went in one day and there was like water standing on the floor and they're scrubbing. And I mean like it is a super involved process to clean to clean these buildings and I appreciate all the hard work that they're doing uh this summer. And finally, I would like to thank Deputy Barnett um for being here tonight. And the reason I'm kind of like Barnett is because this is my dear friend who just got married and she's re she's this is her first day back from her honeymoon. So congratulations to you and thank you
099for being here tonight. Thank you, Miss Lure. Miss PGOne, nothing. Mr. Cross, nothing. Boy, howdy. All right. Well, um I've got some things. Um I just want to highlight a couple of um things that we have going on. Um, one of which is, um, last week the four middle school band directors hosted a summer band camp for middle school students at Monavideo. So, all of the area middle schools, you could send put your kid on a bus. I did. And they would go to Monavideo and they had um lots of great band opportunities there. Um, as a mom, I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart um for this opportunity for my kiddo. If you have middle school children, um I'm finding that that is an incredibly difficult age to summer
100with because um what they would prefer to do is just be on video games and TV all day. They're too young for a job and too old for most camps. And so I want to just shout out that I think that's a great opportunity. Um and I know there are other uh camps being provided throughout the county. another one that's been hosted um at Pence in the past and um has already done one week and they're having another week coming up. It's called the Helping Hands Camp. So, we have two teachers at Pence that are hosting. It's for middle school kids and it's um all about community service and doing things for the community. And again, from the bottom of my heart, as a mother who is absolutely um grateful for those things I um
101that are being provided for my own child, it's a great thing for our students in our community. all of these types of opportunities. So, thank you to those teachers um who are still working in the summer. Um summer school has begun as Miss Lure pointed out. Um and I want to thank all the summer school teachers and staff who work to make this a success because we've um I've taught summer school. I know um when they start asking who wants to teach summer school, it is um usually about April. Is that about right? It's usually about April. And um as a classroom teacher, it is hard to commit to something like that when you're in the throws of so test prep and the end of the school year and you are just worn out and
102exhausted. And so I know sometimes we have a hard time um getting uh teachers to commit to summer school. So thank you to those who um have committed and who are teaching. And I totally understand those who um don't and just need a break. can just need their summer off with their kids or without kids. Um, so that being said, the one thing I do want to add about summer school is that it is an opportunity for us to look into ways. Um, I think we haven't we've been doing summer school the same way in Rockingham County for forever, three weeks. Um, I think when I first started teaching it was maybe four hours. Now it's five hours. You get breakfast and lunch. you're there so long, you've got to have a recess in there.
103Um, and really what we're trying to do is target um reading and math skills and students who need additional support or who are lower than where we'd like to see them. Um, and you know, honestly, we give a a pre-EST at the beginning of summer school and we give a post- test at the end of summer school and kids are if you show up and you're doing the work, you're going to see growth. What concerns me is that we um I would like to see some data on the sustained growth. So if you start at point A and you attend three weeks of summer school and we get you to point B, I want to know are you still here at B when school starts up again in 3 weeks? Because what we have is
104school's out in June. We take about three, four weeks off for the summer and then we come back in July for three weeks of summer school and then you take another three weeks off in August. And um my question is how sustainable is that growth over the three weeks that we have spent um investing in these kids? Um if it's if it's working then I say we keep doing summer school the same way that we've been doing. I mean, if if it's working, if it's not broke, don't fix it, right? But if we're not seeing sustained growth from the end of July, when summer school is over to the beginning of the school year, 3 weeks later, I think it's time to have conversations about how we could do this differently and what that might
105look like. Now, I have I have a lot of ideas. I I have sometimes been referred to as an idea fairy. I will keep throwing ideas at something until one sticks. Um, but I would like to to have some data on um how sustainable our um summer school results are and then um start to have some conversations about how we could do it differently. Um and think really outside the box because we don't have to keep doing summer school the way we've always done summer school just because that's the way summer school is done. Um, I think there's a lot of different ways we could um we could we could invest in our kids and also invest in academic improvement. And so um I would like to put those dates on the calendar, Miss Laura.
106I think that would be good. But I'd also like to um probably wait and see maybe a little bit and see if we still want to do, you know, once August is started up and the kids are back in school. I'd like to see what that data shows and if we want to do summer school in the same way, if we want to expand summer school, if we want to maybe do summer school for two hours a day for six weeks of summer instead of just 3 weeks, five hours. I think there's a lot of options. So, I just want to look at I just want to make sure that when we're investing in summer school, which I think it's about a half a million. I think we don't we don't have um we don't
107have Justin here, but I I think it's between four 400 and $500,000 that we spend. Give me a nod over there if that sounds right to you all. Anybody over there feel maybe it's iffy. Don't quote me on that. when when Justin we'll get Justin to quote us on that specifically um when he comes back, but I think there's some things that we could be doing um differently and that's what I would like to to consider as a board. Um and then finally, I'd like to provide an MTC update. Um which there really isn't one. It's been 3 weeks uh since we sent the letter, which I read aloud at our June 23rd meeting. Um Harrisonenberg has acknowledged receipt and asked for time to respond in our letter. Um we included um what we think
108is very reasonable counterp proposal to theou where we've made several concessions but we have um asked for a couple of things are um for Rockingham. Um I do want to share that Rockingham County Schools and the board of supervisors are applying for more grants to help with the funding of a potential new MTC building. Um, so really where we're at is we just want to know if Harrisonenberg City Public Schools wants to continue in partnership um with Rockingham County at MTC. Um, some of the funding could be tied to a timeline and there are construction timelines um that we would also need to keep in mind if we go that route with new construction. um which is why it's imperative we come together as an MTC board um to determine the next steps as soon
109as possible um as far as whether we renovate or we do a new build. But there really isn't uh we probably don't want to do that unless we know that theou our understanding is settled. So we're halfway through July still waiting on a response. Um, and I just share that I I think we're all wanting to move forward and get this taken care of. And so we are just kind of in a holding awaiting, a season of waiting right now. So anyway, and just to be clear, we're in a season of waiting because we are waiting on Harrisonenberg City's response. There's nothing they're not waiting on us. We're we're waiting on them. Correct. Um they take a recess in July the whole month off which um when I joked about that with Dr. Shifflet um
110his eyes did a thing and and he said what about personnel? How would we um how would we uh you know like Dr. Painter mentioned earlier, sometimes it's quite a process to um hire, interview, go through all the process, and then wait for a board meeting to get those personnel approved. And there I still think there's even in the summer when we're not visiting schools and we're not it's not as busy in the summer for us, I don't know how we would take a whole month off. Um maybe we should get with Harrisonburg and find out what the tips and tricks are as to how they're pulling that off. Um, but they are on recess this month. Um, but I would certainly hope that they are checking emails and still having conversations even if they're
111not meeting in an official capacity. So, anything else tonight, board members? Okay. Um, that wraps up our meeting for this evening. Thank you all for coming out tonight. This meeting is adjourned.