001Okay. Okay. What happened? Good evening. I'd like to call this um Brockingham County School Board meeting to order. Today is Thursday, May 29th, 2025, and we will begin with a motion to approve the agenda. I move we approve the agenda as presented. Thank you, Miss Lord. Do I have a second? Thank you, Miss Cave. Any questions or comments? Hearing none. All those in favor say yes. Yes. All those opposed say no. Motion passes. 4 5 Okay. I'm sorry. Okay. Okay. Um, next on our list is our moment of silence if you would like to join us. Thank you. At this time, we will um stand for the pledge of allegiance. Tonight we have some recognitions. Uh beginning with the inspire award award was created for RCPS stakeholders to recognize a teacher or staff member who
002has impacted their life, inspired their learning, or made a distinct impression on their child. Nominations are accepted from students, parents, student teachers, classroom volunteers, and community members. The RCPS Inspire Award is made possible with financial support from the Rockingham Education Foundation and DuPont Community Credit Union. And our we have two of those tonight, I believe. Our first up is um a student, Julia Iwanaki, who is presenting to Mr. Klene, who is a sixth grade teacher at Monavidio Middle School. If you would come forward, please. My name is Julia and I feel like Mr. K is a great teacher. He encourage he encourages us to do our best such as encouraging us to beat others in 99 math. We have a variety of options to do our work by working with partners, groups, and working by
003ourselves in class every day. And I like the different options. When we come into class and when we leave, Mr. Klein always gives us a high five or a fist bump. This shows that he cares about us. I really like being in Mr. Klein's class. Thank you. Next on our list is um I believe the student is not here, but we do have the principal who is going to be presenting to Mr. Stove, a science teacher at East Rock High School. If you could come forward, please. Good evening. Uh, yes, I am not Eva. Um, so I'm going to be speaking as I, but that obviously is not me, but it's it's well written. I wanted to take a moment and give you a round of applause for how well you teach your classes. Your
004direct instruction and assistance has helped me so much in your classes. I remember that we would ask you unanswerable questions, yet you still find a way to give us an answer. Your patience and understanding gave me the courage to ask for help when I struggle, which has improved my learning performance in such a good way. Because of you, I I look outside the box in daily activities. Because of your support, I am a stronger learner than I was before. I hope you continue being a teacher because you genuinely teach your students. What I've noticed was that their performance in your class is way better than in most classes. I have never left your class without learning something new. I'm filled with gratitude that I was able to be one of your students. Ava [Applause] Ayella,
005thank you all for nominating um teachers. That's one of our favorite things is to hear all the wonderful things about our our teachers and staff. Uh the next thing on our agenda tonight are public comments, of which there are none. And so we will move on to our consent agenda for the evening board. Oh, I'm sorry. I just jumped right past something. I apologize. We're going back to recognitions and we do have a teacher recognition tonight and Miss Karen Ritter is presenting that. If you could come forward, please. I was joking with her because this is actually the third award that she's gotten this year. So, um, good evening, Chair Horse, Dr. Shifflet, and schoolboard members. My name is Karen Ritter, and I am the proud principal of Lindolum Elementary School. I am pleased to
006recognize Mrs. Jen Dove, a third grade teacher at Lynville Edom Elementary for receiving the Amplify 2025 Science of Reading Star Award for being the writing whiz. This award applauds an educator who is integrating writing instruction with the science of reading and cultivating confident writers through innovative practices. Mrs. Dove has been a fellow this year for the Goyan Literacy Foundation where she has been meeting with other educators to share her classroom successes with reading and writing instruction. Most recently, Mrs. Dove was also named a Nessie teacher of the year 2025, recognizing her use of research aligned practices in the classroom. Mrs. Dove was introduced to the science of reading four years ago and after one year of applying science of reading principles, she saw a dramatic shift in both her teaching and student outcomes. Mrs. Dove
007says, "For the first time in 13 years, I truly understood how to teach literacy in a way that reached my students. It was empowering, transformative, and reignited my passion for teaching reading the way students learn best. We at Lynvelum are so proud of Mrs. of and privileged to have her at school. Please join me in congratulating her for this amazing [Applause] accomplishment. Next on our agenda is the consent agenda. Board members, do I hear a motion for approval? Move we approve the consent agenda as presented. Thank you, Miss Laura. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Cross. Board members, is there any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say yes. Yes. All those opposed say no. Motion passes. 5. On to action items. We have a couple of those this evening. Mr.
008Moyers, you're presenting both of those. So, if you could come forward. First is on athletic trainer services and then the next is a bid recommendation for partial re-roofing of the J middle school. Good evening, Chair Horse, members of the board, Dr. Shifflet. Uh, so we put out requests for proposals for athletic trainer services. Um, we received a proposal from one qualified offerer. We would like to recommend the approval of Centara Medical Center to provide those services for the coming year starting July 1st, 2025. Thank you, Mr. Moyers. Chair Hurst and board members, I recommend awarding the contract for athletic trainer services for East Rockingham High School and Spotswood High School to the most qualified offerer offerer as presented by Justin Moyer's chief financial officer. Thank you, Dr. Shiffett. Hearing that recommendation, board members, do I
009hear a motion? I move to follow the superintendent's recommendation. Thank you, Mr. Cross. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Burggoyne. Any discussion? I have a question, and forgive me if we've talked about this when it was information, but why it's just East Rockingham and Spotswood. What about Broadway and TA? We have employees that work in those two schools. You have employees. Okay. And so, we just contract the other two out. Okay. And this is not new. No, this is not new. This would be for years and years. We've been doing that. Okay. Thank you. Any further questions, board members? Okay. Hearing none. All those in favor of following the recommendation to award the contract for athletic training services. Uh please say yes. Yes. All those post say no. Motion passes. 50. On
010to your next item. Okay. So, we had released bids for the partial reoof at JF Frank Hillyard Middle School. We uh sent bid packages to three firms. We received three responses and we recommend awarding the bid to Baker Roofing in the amount of $134,516. Thank you, Mr. Moyers. Dr. Shifflet, Chair Hurst, and board members, I recommend awarding the bid for the partial re-roofing at JF Frank Hillyard Middle School to the lowest bidder as presented by Justin Moyers, chief financial officer. Thank you, Dr. Shifflet. Board members, do I hear a motion? I move to follow the superintendent's recommendation to award the bid for partial re-roofing at J. Frank Hillyard Middle School to the lowest bidder. Thank you, Miss Lur. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Burggoyne. Board members, any questions or comments? I
011do. Um, when will this be done? That I'm not positive of, but if we're bidding it now, it'll it'll be this summer. Okay. And so, this may seem a silly question. Does this come out of this year's budget or next year's? I would need to check with Steve on that. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? Hearing none. All those in favor say yes. Yes. Yes. Those opposed say no. Motion passes 5-0. That concludes our action items for this evening. Thanks. We have several information items tonight. The first of which is the federal program grant application for the 202526 school year. And that is being presented by Miss Michelle Jud. Good evening, Chair Horse, members of the school board, and Dr. Shifflett. On your agenda for information are the applications for five federal grant
012programs. Title One Part A, Title Two Part A, Title Three Part A, Title Four Part A, and Title One Part C. These are all federal grants within the Every Student Succeed Act of 2015 and are based on funding which is level to that of our current school year. Once initial applications are approved by the Virginia Department of Education and final allocations are released in the fall, I will be amending these applications with the updated amounts and we'll send them back to the Department of Ed for approval. The purpose of title one is to provide all children with the opportunity to receive a fair, equitable, and high quality education as schools work to close the achievement gaps. The 202526 Title One Part A grant has been based on the amount of approximately $2,76,000. This is our
013largest grant. This application reflects approximately 5,518 students who are enrolled in our 15 title one elementary schools. 24,412 of those students are classified as low income. The February 4th, 2025 free and reduced report that came from our food service department was used to determine title one status this year. Funds in the Title One app are primarily allocated to the salaries and benefits of reading support staff. And for 2526, this will be 18 teachers and eight teacher assistants. Um the reading staff that are funded by Title One are above and beyond the staff that we fund locally. And our local program is known as our TLC program. We're also using Title One funds to fund strong starts staff. You may be aware we've got two programs. Um each program has a teacher and two assistants. We
014will use funds to fund one behavior specialist. A small amount goes for conference education and training compensated service for homeless transportation drivers. I don't know if you're aware, but when we have students who qualify for McKenna Vento homeless services, we try to provide them transportation to their school of origin so that they don't have to keep changing schools when they're in a temporary housing situation. So, we can use Title One funds to pay our drivers. We use Title One funds for materials and supplies for math and reading remediation and parent and family engagement activities. It's anticipated that all 15 elementary schools will benefit from title one funds and services. We are required to provide equitable services to private school students. Eastern Menanite Elementary School and Redeemer Classical School will participate in the Title One program
015next year and they'll use their allocation to provide uh remedial services for the students who reside in Rockingham County and also have identified academic needs. I wanted to bring to your attention that we don't have um all of our science data yet because students just recently took SO. So, that's still coming in, but once that's in, I would like to add a science objective to our grant application and some data to go along with that. Um, if we want to use any funds towards science, and some of our schools like to have parent and family engagement nights that center around science, then we have to have that built into the grant application. with title two. Um, title two is used to support programs that increase federal achievement. We're using title two funds to provide evidence-based
016professional development and coaching activities that improve the knowledge of teachers, principles, and paraprofessionals. The 2526 title 2 part A application is based on funding of approximately $343,000. The funds will be used for salaries and benefits of four literacy coaches and again will provide equitable services. Redeemer Classical School and Blue Ridge Christian School have elected to participate in title 2 for the 2526 school year and they'll use the funds for staff professional development. The purpose of title 3 part A is to provide support for the education of English learners who have limited English proficiency. This application is based on approximately $145,000. To date, approximately 1,700 K12 students qualify for EL services. This is 14.8% of our division's enrollment, and 383 EL students continue to be monitored. We're using these funds for five full-time ELEL instructional assistants
017who provide support above and beyond the core instruction provided by EL teachers. like science, we don't have all of our WEDA data in. It's trickling in now. So, we do need to build um a little of that information into our Title Three app before we send it off to the DOE. So, that will be something else I'll I'll take care of. Title 4 Part A. Um grant programs are designed to support the comprehensive needs of students. This application is written based on funding of approximately $156,900. We transfer Title 4 funds into Title One as we're permitted to do and we use those funds to cover the full-time elementary behavior specialists. A small percentage of the title four funds will be used for the same Eastern Menanite elementary school and redeemer classical private school students who
018are eligible for title one. In addition to um what I just mentioned there's an action item for your approval. It's the title one part C education of migratory children certification. The purpose of the migrant ed program is to design and support highquality and comprehensive educational programs that provide migrant children with the same opportunity to meet the challenging state academic content and student achievement standards expected of all children. The migrant ed program works to ensure that all migrant students graduate with a high school diploma or a GED, which will prepare them for responsible citizenship, further learning, and productive employment. JMU serves as the lead division agent and administrator of the Shannidoa Valley Migrant Education Program, which is funded by the Virginia Department of Education, and they write the grant application, which includes eight participating divisions, including
019Rockingham. They're working on their 2526 application which is due to the department of ed on July 1st. So I did provide the letter to Dr. Shifflet and theou that he typically signs just so you have a little bit of information about that. Um and finally I would like to thank the numerous central office leaders and literacy coaches who provided information and data pertaining to the programs they oversee. Their help in creating objectives and responding to program specific questions is very appreciated. In addition, school administrators and staff participated in needs assessment meetings and stakeholder engagement surveys. Parents and community members also participated in the stakeholder engagement survey. In fact, 70% of the survey respondents were parents and community members. So, I really appreciate that because we spend a lot of time talking with staff. So to
020get that much uh participation from parents was really helpful. So I appreciate everybody who participated in this process and I'm happy to answer any questions that you have. Thank you Miss Jud. That was a lot of information. Um board members, do you have any questions for her? Could you help just explain to me the um so when the private schools uh we see Blige Redeemer Classical and I saw another one there maybe But are we so are they receiving the funds that we're receiving or are they receiving the teachers that we're paying for to go help? So that's a great question. So a private school can never actually directly receive federal funds. They all have to go through us the school division but we provide think about it that we're providing the services to the
021children. Um so those children that reside in Rockingham County still get to benefit from those funds. So, for example, with Title One, Rockingham County Schools hired a tutor who's providing the services to the children at those private schools, but the funding for that is coming through this grant, not through local funds, but you may recall seeing that on a personnel sheet. Um, so we and I work with that tutor, you know, I get information and follow up on student assessment results, um, and check in with them to make sure they're meeting the title one requirements that the private schools have to meet. So, how would a private school apply for that? They That's a great question, too. So, we are required to um send out information to them about a meeting that we hold every
022year, and we do that in March. So, I'll send a letter to the private schools that are in Rockingham County and and also in neighboring areas, too, because with Title One is about where the child lives, not necessarily where the private school is located. The other federal programs are about where the private school is located. But I'll send out a letter and it will invite them to anformational meeting. We call it meaningful consultation. And in that meeting, we talk about all the different federal programs. We have to tell them that they're eligible for those funds and then give them an opportunity to let us know whether they want to participate or not. That's great. Yes. So, that's how that works. Thank you for that. Sure. I didn't know that. Do you send that out to
023all private schools? We typically send them to like Rockingham, Harrisonenberg area. Do you know how many you send out? I'm sorry. Um, I'm gonna guess. I mean, you don't have to like Is it three or is it 17? Yeah, I think it's about 12 or 13 and only two respond. Was it EMU and Redeemer? Is that what you said? So, we have um three that have participated with us. So, um Eastern Menanite has for a number of years. Then Redeemer came on. Blue Ridge Christian School is a newer one. They participated last year and are this year. Um, we have another program that's not actually under me, but uh, Mr. Bryant works with Cornerstone Christian to provide services to special education students. So, he also joins in on that meeting. And so, that's another school
024that takes advantage of this and and comes to the meaningful consultation meeting. I'm sorry. And this was the title four. Is that what you were Is that what we're talking about here? Um, this is for all of the f the meeting is for all of the federal programs. All of them. It is. Yes. We talk about each one in the meeting. That That's neat. I'm glad that the children county can benefit from these federal funds that come in, no matter if they're public or private. Maybe next year I can do a better job in making sure they know about it. My fault. Great. I had one more question. Have another one. Yeah. Go ahead. Go ahead. I'll ask after it. It's truly speculation on your part. So feel free to just say I don't know.
025I just have to wonder why only two or three respond out of 12. Do you think it's that they don't have the need in those schools or they don't understand? We do have a number of schools I think in our attendance area that may not just want to participate in something with federal funds. Um we have some Menanite schools within our attendance area. Um so it is just speculation. They receive the letter and sometimes they'll call me and just say no, we're not interested in attending. Other times they'll return the form. Sometimes we don't hear back from them. Yeah, that's all for me. Thank you. And maybe some of our e guests can maybe explain this more when they when they come up tonight, but I would just like to know a little bit more
026about the migrant education program. Maybe y'all that um Dr. Carl Clark works very closely with the migrant ed program, much more closely than I do. They kind of they reach out to me periodically for information related to our students. Um, and then they work with those students to provide some supports that we talked about here, but she may be able to add a little bit more. Any other questions? Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Jud. Next up on our list, Dr. Carell Clark is coming with a team, I think, maybe, um, to, uh, give a presentation on our EL initiatives for this past school year and give us an update on on a lot of things that have been going on. Yes, we are. Um, good evening, Dr. Shifflet, Sher Horus, members
027of the school board. On behalf of the English language learner team, I want to extend our sincere thanks to you for your continued support of our EO students and families. Specifically, we are deeply grateful for your approval of two new initiatives this school year, the implementation of the newcomer program and the addition of three full-time eleas. This efforts have already made a meaningful impact in supporting our most vulnerable students and in strengthening communication and engagement with RCPS families. Our your leadership has made that possible. Tonight, I am honored to introduce the individuals who are making this initiatives come to life every day. First, I'd like to introduce to you our three liaison. We have Becca Basquez. Okay. Emma Stroman and Sylvia Sanchez. They will briefly share the work they've done this year to build connections
028with families, assist in registration process, and support schools. F following them, you'll hear from the newcomer teachers, Richard Brickman and Ellie Morales. Uh Rick is from Kavon and Elliot is from Mountain View. They will give you a brief look into the day-to-day experience of our newcomer students and the powerful growth we've seen thanks to your investment. Thank you again for your vision and commitment to equity and education. Anna, welcome Becca, Sylvia, and Emma to begin. Good evening members of the board and good evening to Dr. Shifflet. What do liaissance do? Uh in an introduction of what the liaison do, we are vital to school communities. We connect English learners and families and school staff to ensure academic and social success. What we mean by that is achieving meaningful participation, progress, and belonging both in the
029classroom and at the broader school community. And I have the testimony of a parent that indicated how grateful she was for the help and guidance that the new uh leaison provide to the students and parents that have language barriers. My name is Lucia Selena Sosa and I need a lots of help with the school registration for my son. This help is something we didn't have before but we do now. I have really enjoyed getting to meet Sylvia, the leaison here, because she's very friendly. She helped me clarify all my doubts and questions. I always had a difficult time dealing with the school matters ever since my first son came to Cuprun about 10 years ago and there was no help like we have now. I am very grateful for this help and I appreciate things.
030Besides the parent uh testimony, I also have Stephanie Morris. She's the registra here at Broadway High School. Hi. Um, before I had Emma here, I was lost. I don't know Spanish. Wish I did. Uh, our registration process was very timely. Propio is great for attendance, discipline, short things, but going back and forth between me, person on the phone, the family, I didn't get a lot of answers. Uh, it was next to impossible to understand some of their transcripts or some of the classes they took. So, Emma's just swooped right in and helped me tremendously. She helps our counselors. She helps our families with our kind closet here. um and our our food market that we have. She shows them what we offer. She helps do home visits. Our counselors love you. I love her. And
031I thank you so much for Emma and all the I'm sure we all feel the same way. She's made the students with her. She tests the duh. Sorry. She does WEDA testing and before our EL teachers would have to take the time to test our kids. Sometimes it would be a week or two until they could start school. Now they can start in days instead of weeks. So it's it's just great having her. So during registration, does them come up and sit in the office with you guys that week? And I guess it's all year long, but I mean especially when the kids come back, you be in the office with them doing that. Yes, we have a room here for her. And so she'll just take the whole family because sometimes they'll say they
032have one to enroll in then they bring several more even though they're not from our school but she register registers them all at the same time and it's great. Thank you Morris. what we do with the e teachers uh we as liaison uh we attend e events during and after school and that is to build the trust and relationships. what Miss Morris was saying about the WIDA screening. When we have uh newcomers, we need to find out the level of English proficiency that they can demonstrate during the test to help the EL teachers with placement and that way we can deliver a more effective instruction to these children and that it go that goes from K through 12. The same thing goes uh different levels that a teacher needs to find out and the sooner
033they do the sooner the student comes on board. We also deal with the e teachers explaining cultural norms, values and practices of e families. So teachers can better interpret that student behavior, communication styles and family expectations which helps a lot with trust and relationships between families and the e students and the teachers. what we do with the schools and what we know as central office. We do report low engagement trends across multiple school sites. We also um try to meet the requirements for home language surveys and prefer language communications. We also collaborate with the EL department to prov to provide cultural training and awareness, interpretation, ethics and family engagement best practices. That's how we like to support the schools um with discipline attendance outreach and cultural sensitivity. We work with Miss um Dale and admins
034in home visits and follow-ups and resource officers. Um besides we do the newcomers program uh explaining families how the program works and notify the student is being accepted and we help the families and the administrators get that process through and get the child in the newcomer program either with uh Cupron or uh Mountain View. We also have registration of returning eel students in all attendance areas. Recently we um had the announcement for these people that have a language barrier family that needs help uh with returning registrations. Some of the data I have here for returning students for the 25th school year. Um, Miss Becca had approximately between 80 and 90 requests. Sylvia had between 90 and 100. I have between 70 and 80. And we needed the support of Dr. Alysia Coral Clark which exceeded
035the number of between 160 and 170 students requests and that happened in the last 10 days. We are the ears on the ground basically for our schools, our teachers and our administrators. We bring real time family concerns on school level challenges back to inform about it. What we do with the EO students, we welcome orient new students. We explain rules, schedules, check-ins, mentoring. We connect the students to clubs and activities. We like to offer the sports options to see their interest, what they like. We also do communication for better attendance in meetings. The liaison work directly with the e students by checking in regularly addressing social emotional needs and helping with classroom transitions or behavior expectations. We also uh help the e families clarify school policies, curriculum, grading systems. We help families access health care,
036food, housing, and adult education. We also host family workshops and events. We foster the trust and open communication by helping families feel welcome to this new country for them. Some of the resources, guides that we offer the parents. I have a copy here. uh we set it up for them in their cell phones when they are low-income families and new we encourage DL families to attend school events, parent nights and IP meetings by explaining the importance of their participation in such. We also expanded our communication venues with other liaison for example Harrison City public schools, Augusta County Public Schools, Shannondelle County, Page County. We collaborate with bilingual leaison, social workers, counselors and community coordinators. We share strategies, resources, information about family needs and we build a united front to outreach and engagement across departments. We
037coordinate efforts to support newcomers or students in crisis and we also offer cross training and peer support to straighten the team impact. We are in constant communication with liaison. 90% of the time is Harrisonburg city schools. By doing so we accelerate the process of bringing a student into the classroom. There's no uh language barriers from the time they leave their old school to the time they come to the new school. It's a faster process. As far as registration for this current year, on my end, I have 175 responses through Google forms to welcome new students to Rockingham County Public Schools. Miss Vasquez here has had 150 requests for such uh new registrations and Miss Sylvia because she came on board in February midFebruary if I believe she had has 70 responses. These are for new
038registrations only. We have had to had the support of Dr. Coral Clark as well. It's a little overwhelming but the program works. It is wonderful. We do feel that we are helping in a very positive way newcomers to join the classroom for families to feel there's a connection that they can trust the school system with their children that we going to offer excellent instruction and that all of them are welcome. We are connectors. We're advocates. We interpret the culture needs and policies, not just language. We make sure schools and districts fulfilled their commitment to equitable education. We are here to collaborate across rows to build a stronger school system for all. I appreciate your time. I am very grateful for the opportunity that the Rockingham County Public Schools count so far with three excellent liaison,
039two wonderful newcomer programs, a cup run, a Mountain View, and we would like to help many more. Thank you. Any questions? You said, did you say that you guys have registered 160 170 in the last 10 days? These are returning students. Uh we have had the request of people that need assistance with the returning registrations. Um Miss Sylvia here has the biggest number. Well, Dr. Coral Clark does as a support for all of us because it's overwhelming. Um because Miss Sylvia has 10 schools. She has the East Rock and the Spotswood, right? I am blessed with the Broadway area and the TA is for Miss Bas. So, besides the um all the new people registering for the school year, we have the returning students as well. Awesome. We're I'm grateful I can't speak for the
040whole board. I know they are as well more likely, but I'm grateful to have you guys as liaison at the schools. It's something that we had talked about over the last couple of years and be able to have you guys over this past year and see the work that you're doing and hear the help that you are to the schools is much appreciated. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for all you do. Appreciate it. Thank you. I'm I'm sorry I had to step out for just a second. So, maybe you covered this. Um, but you said that 30 like 30% of the people that call and need help are English speakaking only. Just from your end, what what are the hurdles that they're having trouble with? And are they are there things
041that we need to do on our end? Thank you. And thank you for helping everybody. I really do appreciate all the work you do. I was just going to say I think there's a part two Okay. Well, good evening, Dr. Shiff Lint and school board members. Um, we are the current teachers of the elementary newcomer programs, our first year, and we're just here to share with you some of our successes. I'm sorry. I'm Rick Brrigman. I am the Cubrun elementary newcomer teacher. Hello, I'm Darelli Morales, the newcomer teacher at Mountain View Elementary. We're excited to share with you all about Rockingham County's first newcomer newcomer program specifically to support students in grades three through five. This program is tailored to meet the need of newcomer students, which we define as those who have in the
042United States for less than 12 months of active enrollment in US schools. To be eligible for this program, students must also score within the 1.0 0 to 1.9 range on the WEDA screener indicating that they are at the very beginning states of English language development. We understand that every student's journey is unique. So while the WEDA score and time in the country benchmarks guide our placement, we also consider individual circumstances to ensure that we're doing what's best for each child. So between Cub Run and Mountain View, we served 37 third, fourth, and fifth grade newcomer English learners from 13 countries speaking eight languages. Of those 37 newcomer students in our programs this year, 23 exited and several who were late arrivals this spring will return to newcomer support either in the elementary school or at
043the middle school. The goal of our newcomer program is to empower newcomer elementary English learners to become proficient communicators in English, laying a strong foundation for their academic and social successes in their new language environment. With that said, I want to clarify that our focus is English language development. Um, while we do teach content area vocabulary, knowledge, and skills in our program, that's not our primary focus. Our main focus is English language development, teaching essential English vocabulary, and phrases to help them be successful in both their school and communities. Within the first week of a student joining the program, we administer the IPI oral English assessment to establish a baseline for their English proficiency. This same assessment is then administered midyear and again at the end of the year to track progress over time. When
044a student improves by two levels and the newcomer teacher determines that the student is ready to return to the general education classroom full-time, the exit process is flexible. And if a student is showing rapid progress in acquiring English, we may reassess them earlier than the scheduled benchmarks to ensure they can move forward without unnecessary delay. Our goal is to build a strong foundation in English so they can continue growing academically and socially once they return to the classroom. I'm going to go into a little bit of information about um our testing at Cabrin over the course of the year. But before I do, just so that you have a sense of the assessments we're using and what this this data means, um I want to explain the two primary assessments we use. Um one that
045we use is a Ballard and Thai IP1, which is an oral English proficiency test for elementary English learners. This primarily well this is an excellent tool for assessing vocabulary and grammar development. We also use the WEDA screener and access. Uh this is of course the Virginia state English proficiency assessment and there are four uh parts listening reading speaking and writing and this is in a content area context. The scoring levels for the IP1 is level A to level F. A being of course the non-English speaker and F being nearly a fluent um or having fluent like quality in their speech. And for the WEDA scores in Virginia, 1.0 is a non-English speaker and 4.4 is the score designating a student moving from serve status to monitored status. at Cubrun the on the IP1 test which
046we give three times in the year at the beginning of the year December January and then again in May all students scored at level A at the start of the year as would be expected with one scoring at level B at the midyear or at the end of year administrations all advanced two to three levels with the exception of the student who scored high on the initial testing, but he did score very well on his uh science so test. So, he's doing okay. Um, with our WEDA screener and access store uh scores, all students entered between level 1.0 and 1.5. The access test is administered in February each year. Uh, 14 out of 15 showed growth. One scored the same. Four students scored in the level two range and one scored in the level three
047range, which is pretty impressive for a newcomer. At Mountain View, we had the privilege of serving 21 newcomer students this year, and we're proud to share that 12 of those students successfully exited the program after showing strong progress in both language and readiness. Our classroom was incredibly diverse, representing a rich blend of languages, including Spanish, Ukrainian, Kurdish, Dari, Russian, Arabic, and Hindi. The countries these students come from are displayed on the slide, and they reflect the global backgrounds that makes our community so unique. The diversity brings both challenges and deep rewards, and it reinforces just how essential it is to have a program tailored to support students at the very beginning of their English language journey. To give you a glimpse of our school year, I've included a few photos from throughout the school year.
048These moments capture our students learning, growing, and connecting not but with each other and their new school community. When our students entered the program, every one of them tested at level A on the IPI oral English assessment. Truly beginning English learners. By the end of the year, the growth was incredible. 58% of students improved by three levels. 29% improved by two levels. These gains not only reflect their hard work, but the focused individualized support they received in the newcomer program. We also tracked their WEDA access scores. Students took the test in February and we received the results midmay. At the start of the year, all students were in the 1.0 to 1.9 range. 76% of students improved by at least 0.5. Three students are in the 2.3 to 2.7 range. Two students have reached the
0493.5 to 3.6 range. Altogether, 95% have made progress. The graph on the slide compares their starting scores to where they are now. Visually showing this improvement progress. While they not may not be on grade level yet, they a targeted support. These students are going are gaining confidence, building language, and moving forward. Now, I'd like to share a few short videos from students who have exited the newcomer program. These clips give you a chance to hear directly from them in their own words about their experiences, their growth, and how far they've come. Their voices are a powerful reminder of why this program matters. Please play the video. Hello, my name is Alexa and I'm from Honduras. And my and my favorite news covers class was playing bingo and flash cards. Hi, I'm Abraham. I'm from Honduras.
050I like to learn. Hi, I'm SL. I'm from Korean. And my favorite part at newcomer class is learn English. Hi, my name is from Guatemala and the newcomer class helped me learn my English. My name is Arena. I enjoyed because it was fun. We played bingo and had small groups. I learned English, math, and reading. The newcomer program helped me write English and give confidence. Hello, my name is Dana and what I learned in Mont was to how to speak English and how to be kind with others. My name is Arena. I enjoyed because we play bingo and made new friends. I learned math, English, reading. The newcomer program helped me speak English and give me confidence. My name is Car. My favorite in classroom is a safari park because this some animals. So many
051things I want to say about those kids, but I I know our time is tight, so I'm going to skip it. Um, we do have some teacher videos as well. Uh, EL teachers at both Cub and Mountain View were gracious enough to record their thoughts. And, um, from Cub Run, we're going to be hearing from EL teachers, uh, Pam Grath, Twe Bonito, uh, Benuto, uh, Tamson Benner, and Amy Williams. Hi, my name is Christina Lead. I am an EL teacher at Mountain View Elementary School. As a teacher, specifically a classroom teacher, it can feel overwhelming to meet the unique needs of a newcomer. While these students are totally capable, bright, and adaptable, they require a lot of one-on-one support. Some students arrive with little to no academic background at all. For an upper grade classroom
052teacher, for example, trying to teach something like the ocean floor to a class of already diverse level group of students, it can add a great deal of trepidation to simultaneously teach letter sounds and phonics. Forget about words like continental drift. They haven't even yet learned to ask where's the bathroom. Flip that. And as a newcomer student, you be placed in the same environment where you hear long strings of incomprehensible speech, gleaning to one or two random words here and there that you overheard last night in McDonald's, like the word order. But wait, your teacher's talking about sequence, and you have no idea. You just look around to see what everyone else is doing. You probably spend your day trying to save face and copy what others are saying. Meanwhile, your teachers don't realize that you
053don't actually know what you're saying. You're just mimicking as a coping strategy. You go home exhausted because you spent your entire day trying to make sense of many hours worth of input, piecing together a few words here and there, but mostly socially related. Those academic pieces probably didn't stick and tomorrow you'll do it all over again. It can feel really defeating. Then comes the newcomer program, which is a win for both teachers and students. It's not perfect because nothing in education is. There's still often too many students, too few resources, and an endless variety of challenges and needs. But it's a starting place. It's a place where students can come and focus on langage without the a burden of heavy academic uh vocabulary. They'll learn useful language for both their social and academic worlds. And
054their teacher will not only recognize and acknowledge these challenges, but he or she will apply strategies geared specifically to a newcomer's needs. They'll repeat information and spiral as often as necessary. They'll slow their speech. They'll annunciate. They'll break things down, break down spelling, bring attention to cognates and first language connections. They'll translate deeper concepts if and when necessary. The students will rely on them. They'll feel open to taking risks because everyone around them is in similar shoes. It's also a small classroom environment where students can thrive and build a community and confidence to go back to their classrooms when they're ready. When they do go back, they will still have a long road ahead. They won't magically exit the language program or be ready to take their SATs, but they will be able to access
055material at a foundational level, confidently communicate their basic needs, and most importantly, they'll feel a real part of their classroom. Hi, my name is Courtney French and I am an EL teacher at Mountain View Elementary School and I want to talk to you about the newcomer program which is one of the most vibrant and inspiring programs that we have here at Mountain View. This program is designed for students who are both new to English as well as new to the school system in the US. So from day one, it becomes a place where they are not just learning English but growing confidence, building community, and beginning to shine in their own unique and special ways. One of the first things we notice is how quickly students begin developing their listening and their speaking skills. What
056starts with quiet observation soon becomes brave attempts at conversation and before long they are eagerly sharing ideas, asking questions and participating in class. The growth that they have in speaking and listening is truly remarkable. The newcomer program is also a space that feels safe and welcoming. Alongside learning English, students are introduced to how school works here in the US. Everything how to navigate a lunchroom, how to raise a hand, how we work together as teams. This blend of academic and survival English helps prepare them for both classroom success and everyday confidence. But one of the most beautiful parts of the program is the special friendships that form. Students come from many different countries and cultures, yet they quickly bond through their shared experiences, their laughter, the mutual support. You can see their joy every single
057day. Whether they're proudly reading a new sentence or helping a classmate with a new word or encouraging a brand new newcomer student to their program, they're celebrating their progress with smiles. At Mountain View, we believe that every student has a voice and the newcomer program helps them to find that. The students are not only learning a new language, but they're discovering their potential. And I have been so honored to be a part of that phenomenal journey. As an elementary ELEL teacher, it's been very rewarding watching the hard work of our newcomer students. Graduates of that program are confident English speakers, and they're excelling in content areas like math, science, and reading. Their success is testament to the power of a well-designed, supportive program. I am really excited about having the newcomer program here. One of
058the things that in the past would often happen as we had newcomers, they would come, they would go in their class, I'd often see them kind of hiding and because it's a new experience and they're really overwhelmed, over stimulated and often scared. But when I see Mr. Brmond's class together, they're laughing. They look happy and they're learning the English that they need to communicate with each other because they're not all from the same country, but they're learning the skills to learn what school is here in the United States, to communicate with each other, and to prepare themselves for going back into the bigger classroom. When newcomer students first came to the US, they usually feel anxious because of the language barrier and the culture barrier and very different school expectations. The newcomer program where the
059teachers working with small group of students help build a strong sense of community among the learners and and because of that they have more confidence when they come out into regular classroom. They are more likely to willing to participate in the class discussions and tend to do much better academically. Newcomer students who arrive here in Rockingham County are coming from diverse backgrounds. Some of them have a strong academic background after attending school in their home country and others are attending school for the very first time when they arrive here in Rockingham County. Our newcomer program is well equipped to meet the needs of the diverse learners in a smaller classroom setting. All right. So I know that a lot of our presentation focused on testing data. Hello uh testing data, but I hope um seeing
060the photos of the kids at school and um hearing the short videos from the students and then hearing the teachers comments gives you what I feel is more important than the test data. And that's what's actually happening with these kids coming into a school with a new language, new culture. um and then seeing them become successful in a in my experience a very short amount of time as opposed to a student being placed in a grade level classroom. So, thank you to Dr. Shifflet uh and the executive team at the central office for their support, the schoolboard members for their support, and um our school administrator teams um led by Drew Miller and Sharon March for their support and for helping these kids become successful. Thank you guys for all you do. Thank you for
061and for sharing the successes of this very important program. Board members, are there any further questions or comments for the team? Miss Clark, are you Pardon me? Are you gonna I wasn't planning on, but I definitely be happy to. Well, I have a I do have a question. And I'm are are is our EL program going to a new curriculum this coming year? Are we stepping away from what we've been doing and going to a new curriculum? Um I think that might be a question better answered by Dr. uh Chiplet. I mean we've discussed what is the best for the students so far and I think we're going to continue to discuss that into the summer. Okay. Yeah. I I guess the reason why I asked that because as I visit classrooms I have talked
062with a few of the teachers and their biggest concern is that the kids are able to learn how to speak English. You know that the basics of learning English as they go forward and they the ones that I've spoken to really like the old one instead of the new curriculum that is so I just wanted to ask and so I didn't know if that was something that you guys when I'll talk to Dr. about that. Yeah. So, one of my comments to our instructional staff uh in our last meeting was alignment's important to me. So, if I'm in a third grade classroom and I'm learning about um you know, the biomes when students are getting services for special education or EL services, there should be support for that curriculum that they're going to be tested
063on, right? because we understand that uh we don't want to put all of our emphasis on standard of learning assessments but we are critiqued by how well we do on our standards of learning assessment. So alignment is really really critical. So I think the conversation has been um you know when do we use the connect curriculum and when are we supporting our uh standards of learning Virginia curriculum that's going to be tested in our classrooms. And then I think another part that we have to discuss is reading is a part of that e eel process. And so when are kids getting the decoding skills that they need, which is an important part of reading. Uh so we got to make sure and it's a lot of moving parts, right? It's um and I think it's
064going to take a little bit of uh every tool in the toolbox to get our kids uh sufficient in and speaking, listening, reading, English. And so uh and I think that's put been some of the conversations that some of the folks have been having is when is connect the best curriculum? When is Learning Studio Studio the best, you know, curriculum? when is uh when is when is an appropriate time to do some support for uh basic phonics skills with our students who who need to learn those as well. So, it's an ongoing conversation about how we move forward. Is this going to be something that's going to be decided this summer and they're going to come back next year and we're going to be like all in on connects or you thinking you're going to
065have conversations with the EL department and teachers and find the best way going forward? I mean, yeah, that that's been part of the conversations. I think maybe earlier this week there was conversations already talking about it last week about how does this how do these things align and when when do we use what when again sort of use that toolbox analogy when is this the best tool for the job? Right. Right. Can I just provide some uh feedback? Yeah. Um from the perspective of the newcomer um elementary teachers um we are using the Vista Higher Learning uh get ready sore books and um in there you have um you have phonics, you have literacy, you have math, you have social studies, you have science, all that's presented in each unit and so um for us
066at this point it's working pretty well. We're happy with that. Just some feedback from Thank you. What is the um estimated amount of time that you anticipate kids they join the newcomer program? Do we have an average we expect them to be um where they need to be within three months, six months, a full year? What are you finding to be? We're finding that each kid I mean each child is different from the other. But so it all depends on that. But you guys are seeing a tremendous growth starting within three months of when they get there. And a lot of the majority of them exited the program or were ready to exit the program by December, January. We were already starting to uh to look into giving them the test to exit them out.
067So it's very rare or at least so far we have not had anybody that has been there the entire year that I can think of. And that's how it's designed to be like fluid. come in, learn learn the skills that you need to have to be successful and then right out. We the last thing we want to do is to hold them back. So if they're ready to leave our program, we want them to go back and be with their peers in their own school. That's the gold. Do you have a wait list yet? We always have a wait list. We need more. We always have a wait list. And we're lucky enough that next year we will have a newcomer program at John Meyers also. So that will really be very helpful. Very good.
068Board members, any more questions? So, I'm hearing that um it's kind of a they come in, they learn English, they leave. It's an open door policy. It's an open door and they could come in at any time. Correct. What happens next week? Do they just go home for the summer and then see you next fall or Unfortunately, yes. So, And then do do you see a lot of backslide for the summer or what happens to the We don't know yet because this is the first year. So we'll be able to see that next year. Thank you. Thank you for all your work. Yeah, board members, we have two more information items. One is the financial review for April of 2025 and the finance department staff report dated for today, May 29th. Um, those are in
069your folders for your review, which brings us to item number seven, committee reports. And I'll just look over here and see if there's anything new to report from our committees. Okay, Miss Laura gonna try reading this from my phone. Um, the Shendo Valley Regional Program approved the um approved RCPS for a fifth behavior analyst of BCBA to support behavior intervention needs. Our division is committed to having the most BCBAS to support schools and interviews have already begun. Um the S SVRP funding is uh is funding training for three new RCPS employees to become Mant trainers on June 24th through June 26th. This will allow us to train more staff in deaceleration techniques which when addressing behavior and issues in schools. So that's really exciting. Um VSSRP is in the early stages of exploring hiring related
070service providers such as vision, hearing and adapted physical education. So these are um PE teachers that are vision, hearing and adapted teachers. Um these professionals are hard for the school divisions to fire to find and hire. Um so we're we're fortunate to have uh VSSRP helping us with that. Um the SRP continues to partner with SANS Anderson Law Group and specializing in special ed law. They provide monthly webinars for sped uh spe special education guidance and consultation when needed. And um our VSRP uh set the meeting date for the 202526 school year. So that we did all of that in our meeting a couple weeks ago. Fantastic. Uh board members, any questions for Miss Lure? No. And just to be clear to the public, we don't have all the school board members again aren't assigned
071to a committee this year. There's only two that is assigned to the committee and that's Miss Lord of Special needs and Miss Cave is at the governor school. Correct. That is correct. All right. Thank you. Moving right along to schoolboard or no superintendent comments. Thank you, Chair Hurst. Um, three comments I'd like to address. First, I want to talk about some budget items. Beginning in early April, Justin and I began having two by two meetings with our schoolboard members to discuss the bonus and some additional state revenue. Uh, we were getting some additional state revenue because our ADM, our average daily membership, had increased. And at the May 7th special session, uh we discussed these topics with, you know, among the entire school board and the school board decided that they wanted to earmark some
072of the additional state revenue that we received for our increased ADM towards new security cameras. Uh we also discussed how to pay the state bonus. We received funding from the state for SOQ instructional and support positions only. The total amount received was a little over $1.2 million. The state recognizes approximately 11 um 1100 positions uh as meeting that classification, but we have around 2,200 contracted employees. Uh if we paid the $1,000, what you what you kind of hear advertised uh for all full-time employees and 500 for part-time, we would need about an additional 1.2 million of local money. And after some discussions, the school board decided we would take the money that we were allocated from the state and divide it among all employees. So for contracted employees, they will receive $525 and part-time contracted
073employees will will receive $250. The bonus will be paid on August 20th to all current 12 and 11month staff and to returning 10-month staff. Since we are not able to allocate additional local resources, this allows us to recognize all employees to the greatest extent of possible utilizing the state money available. So, I just wanted to highlight the the conversations and then later in June, Justin will be be bringing forth some um budget amendments to uh move some money uh forward. I also would like to highlight that um we're kind of finished finished with our standards of learning assessments for the year, maybe doing some makeups and expedited retakes or what have you. And I had challenged students uh at the beginning of the um testing window to do their very best, take their time and
074strive for perfection. And we celebrated yesterday at the wood grill the students who earned a perfect score. And we had 71 students who were part of the 600 club celebration. And I had a good time enjoying lunch with them. And I want to give a shout out to uh Lillian Stanbach, a fourth grader at Lacy Spring Elementary School. She earned a perfect score on all three of her so assessments which is quite an accomp accomplishment. And finally, I want to sort of say a thank you to school board and our board of supervisors for supporting a reading cohort program uh through the University of Virginia. And on May 17th, we had 16 teachers and one principal graduate with their masters in reading from the University of Virginia. So, um, I'm I'm thankful that those folks
075were able to complete the program and I appreciate the financial support from the school board and the board of supervisors. So, Thank you, Dr. Shifflet. And other business tonight, we will go on to schoolboard highlights, questions, and comments. Miss Cave, you want to start us off tonight? Did I start you? I don't I don't remember. Mr. Cross, you want to start us off tonight? I can only go from left to right. Mr. Cross, that's me. Um, there's a mouse over here. So, if you see me get up and run, I'm going to run. So, it may it may end the meeting a lot sooner. I was getting ready to go to the bathroom and I saw it and I walked away. So, let maintenance know. I will run if I see a mouse. Um, you
076will, too. Whoop! I will run and scream like a girl. Um, think we need a cat. I have Yeah, I do have two things. Uh, number one, Dr. Shifflet, if you will, Governor Yanka came out with an executive order, executive order 48, I think it was, is it was addressing anti-semitic rhetoric that's going on within the state public education. And I'd like to know exactly in that order what we're going to do as a division how that's going to be rolled out for our children and with our students and just to know kind of what that looks like on a local level. So if you could at the next schoolboard meeting get that together and and talk with us about that. Yeah. Yes. If I may, a part of that executive order was a directive
077to the Virginia Department of Education to create and publish resources for school divisions. So, I haven't seen those resources yet, but if I have those made available to me, I'll share those at the next meeting or when I when I get them, and then we can discuss how we implement them at the local level. So, yeah, thanks for bringing that up. Yeah, absolutely. And [Music] um the second thing I had tonight was to talk with the board. The school board had talked about about a year a little over a year ago that we were looking into making sure that our kids were going on certain um historical field trips that we were going there it was. Did you see it over there on the wall? Ah mouse. No, no, not on the wall. Along the
078wall. This meeting is adjourned. Is Is there a reason our safety guys on the other side of the auditorium? Oh my gosh. I don't know if I can if I continue. I'm such a baby. I'm sorry when it comes to mice. No, it's all right. Oh gosh. It's all right. know I'm a baby when it comes to these things. So, um I have some trauma dating back to my my younger years with with mice. So, we had talked about the board had talked about going on certain field trips. Now, don't be making any noises because you're going to mess me up. Um but we had talked about going on certain field trips. One of the field trips I would really like to make mandatory for our kids in Rockingham County to go to would be
079the um the Holocaust Museum, whether that be by the 11th grade, 10th or 11th grade. But I would like to make it mandatory that they go there. And I' I really don't like just the idea of the autonomy of a teacher, whether they can go or not go. I'd like for the board to set a standard saying that this is going to be something that we take serious and we want our children to go to that because there is a lot of anti-semitic rhetoric that's out there that's even saying I mean that the Holocaust didn't even happen. And so the further we go on through history, the more these delusions we're going to face against the Jewish people. And I want our kids to know the truth and be able to visit the Holocaust Museum.
080So I'd like to have talks and discussions amongst the board of setting some mandatory field trips that we would go on um and even starting next year. So um school board I'd like to have further conversations with with you guys on that. And I would just like to say thank you again to the uh all the EL teachers that came out our liaison uh group through the podium but thank you guys for all that you do. Our eel program is very close to my heart and I really thank you guys for what you do. I haven't liked the rhetoric when it comes to Matt Cross and some of the things I've had to face over the last five years. If you think I'm a racist, then spend a day with me. I I'd love to
081take you places I go and places I visit and the things I do from my heart. So, thank you Dr. Cl Carl Clark for all that you do. the relationship. I've been able to know you for several years and you have a passion in doing this work and it shows in the work that you're doing. So, thank you so much and thank you for being there for our kids. I I don't mean to interrupt, but I just I have a question just along those lines. I mean, this is schoolboard question. So, Dr. Shifflet, just offhand, if we were to if we wanted those um field trips to the Holocaust, I mean, when would be the appropriate time in high school? I feel like as a senior, it's too much busyness, too much going on like
082where would it align with the curric the curriculum best? 8th, 9th, 10th? Is 11th too late? Do they get too busy with MTC? Do I mean opinion on that before we 11th is when we teach US history? Okay. So, as far as aligning with the curriculum, that may be the most opportune time. That would be a great um because they would study that in the second semester of the school, right, of their school year when they start talking about World War II, the Holocaust, and and and those things. Okay. Thank you. I'm just going to chime in on that note that um if we go that route as a board, there is a cost consideration when we start directing and and I really I think you all are already aware of that. Yeah, absolutely. I
083would I would I would definitely go before the board of supervisors and advocate for this a lotment of money to be able to and I think they would they would agree as well that they would want our students in Rockham County to know this history as well. So, I would be willing to at least entertain those thoughts and go to the board of supervisors and tell them that yeah, it's going to be an extra expense, but we think it's something that's very important for the children in RCPS. I have considered the cost. Miss Lur, do you have any questions or comments, highlights? Uh, your your comments tonight are very timely, Mr. across because today I actually drove a school bus into uh downtown DC. Um and it it was it was an adventure and honestly
084I wanted to come tonight and say everybody should learn how to drive a school bus because it was an adventure. Uh and we did just fine and it was it was a lot of fun. But we do I know that um a lot of our high schools do have a hard time finding somebody willing to drive uh into DC and our route drivers have a hard time doing it because we we did overlap with the routes going home. Um so I would I think we need to push and get more bus drivers too. That would help us uh attain that goal. Now they do have a a trucker GPS. Do you know about that? Um, cost a little bit extra money, but you could I I used Thomas GPS. I took my youngest child with
085me and said, "You're going to nav me through this through this these." Really? Yes. Did you use a map? He he used iPhone. Okay. All right. And we did great. It it was it it was an adventure. Um, and it Congratulations. You got there and back. But yeah, without any trouble. It was amazing. But um, it is it is really hard to find bus drivers to do that. So, be a bus driver. Get It's a front row seat to an adventure. so we can all get our bus driver license and we'll just load up all the kids and take them. No, right after we go get that mouse over there, right? But um yeah, I just that I guess we'll just call that my highlight for the week and I'll move on to to uh
086Miss Cave so we can get away from the mouse. And were you done? Oh, Mr. Cross. Oh my gosh. Felt something on my leg. It's a cord. perhaps I don't want to speak for Mr. Cross, but he's probably hoping we wrap this up soon. We're about about done. I won't talk. No, we're not. I I would just add one more thing to that. I think when we when we implement those types of things locally, then we don't need things like Governor Yncan's executive orders. You know what I'm saying? like when we when we start, you know, putting those things in our requirements and our curriculums and just in our everyday interactions with each other and with our students, like then we've got Rockingham County that that knows better. So, we don't need the governor, no
087matter who's in the governor's mansion, to tell us like this is the right thing to do. So, that's just final comment on that. Um, oh gosh, now I'm ready. You sure you're done, Jackie? Okay, I can talk more about Uh, no. I just I I've got notes all over the place, so I'm trying to figure out I'm trying to remember where I was going to start at. Um, and this is silly. I have three things on my list tonight, but uh it it's not silly. And I think I mentioned it maybe last September and now we're in May, but I literally put a note in my phone to remind me in May to tell you that I had a lot of parents that were were they were upset because the supply list came out really
088what they felt to be late last year. And I'm just saying I remember a day when it felt like I saw the supply list come out and I'm like good God, we're in June, you know, like and the supply list was out. So, I just want to tell you that I'm just I'm being don't don't look at me like that. I'm just I'm just Don't shoot the messenger. That was the message. Um that they wanted the supply list as soon as possible. But, um they want it before school's out or I mean, I hope not. You know, I don't know. I don't know when they want it. They just wanted it sooner than last year. I don't know who's in charge of that, but you know. Okay. Um, and it may have been fine and
089normal, but um, anyways, uh, graduation season is upon us. Um, not upon us, like we are fully into it. And, um, oh, I know where I wanted to go before I talked about that. Retirement. We had our retirement celebration for a ton of employees um, this evening here at Broadway High School. And um one of the things that this board does is some of us go somewhere and some some of us go to other places and we've sort of had to divide and conquer. And so um I don't know who all was here for the Broadway celebration. I actually attended Mrs. Sheffer's retirement celebration which was right in district 5 and she's um retiring from Makisville Elementary School and she is just loved in the school and just loved in the community and I'm just
090very thankful for her and all of our retirees and I just wanted to um send out a congratulations and you know those we just I just sort of had to drop in and come out just to you know be able to get here on time tonight and sometimes those whirlwind visits and dropins at places feel um they don't feel authentic, I guess I would say. Um but I just uh I want everyone to know that I am genuinely interested in everything that goes on our on in our schools from field trips to assemblies to retirement grad, you know, retirement celebrations and graduations and all of those things. So um I just congratulate all of our retirees and um thank you for all your hard work here. Um, I started talking about graduation. Um, I always
091look forward I think one of my favorite things about graduation is the speeches that come and um I get excited when I listen to them. I love to hear a good graduation speech and um they don't really bother me if they're short or long. Like as long as they motivate me like I I'm there for it. And so I want it to be things that motivate um students and um and take for example our very own Dr. Shifflet speech to our governor's school um just a couple weeks back was just awesome. And I sat there just taking notes through the thing because I'm like I'm going to apply and you know and he talked about time and how how we invest it. Do we spend it? Do we waste it? He didn't say that but
092do we waste it and or do we invest it? And you know, investing always causes a return. And he just had all these wonderful things. And I left there feeling really good. And so that's sort of what I want for every student at our graduations. Like I want them feeling like they're they're leaving with something that they didn't come with. And a graduation speech should um uplift, exhort, admonish, prepare um and and motivate all those things. And so graduation speech um I I don't no student should ever feel minimized by any graduation speech. And so I just wanted to take a quick second to um you know I don't know if I just need to say to Dr. Shifflet just to make sure that all of our high school principles have covered bases with all
093the graduation speakers as to um what's appropriate in a graduation speech. Um there there was an anti-semitic remark made. It's interesting that you're talking about the Holocaust tonight, Mr. Cross. Um but there was an anti-Semitic remark ma made last year and it really bothered me and honestly publicly we did not talk about it. And had it been any other people group besides Jews, we would have heard all about it and we would have talked about it in public. And I'm not talking about the school board. I'm just I'm talking about everybody. But nothing was really said. And um I feel like as a public servant, a publicly elected official, that I'm given a voice for those that don't have a voice or for those that don't use it or for those that can't use it.
094And so my request just to Dr. Shifflet and to all four of our high school principles is that you have taken pause and time to speak with these speakers so that they know um that we don't support that type of thing in Rockingham County. Um that we want our graduation speeches to be all of the things that I talked about a few a few minutes ago. Um and I appreciate that. Uh and then one other thing and I and I don't want to put you on the spot, Mr. cross and and we didn't really talk about this ahead of time, but I've had a lot of people in my community come and talk to me about um the Elton Middle School um edition and one of the things that was brought up to me is
095that the new addition is going to come out over the current ball field and um in our community it's a big deal and so Dr. Dr. Ship, I had asked you a few weeks ago some questions about it and and you know, is it going to come out over the ball field and you had told me yes and I think maybe the last word between us was I was asking about I hadn't been down to the bottom of the hill in quite some time. I didn't know how much land we have down there. Is there any talks about and maybe before you answer that I wanted to ask Mr. Cross something, but is there any talks about relocating that field? Um it's greatly used. In fact, my son's on it tonight practicing. Um, and so,
096and I'm not asking for him, like he's only eight, so it's not like a great big deal, but it is in the community. Um, but a few weeks ago, I had talked to Mr. Cross about it, and you had given me some really interesting history on that field. Do do you mind to share because I will not share it as beautifully as you did with me? Do you do you have a minute to I I don't know how beautiful it'll be, but I'll share it eloquently and detailed. I will say that the lower field drains is one of the best draining fields, baseball fields in the county still. It was used back in the when it was a high school and it's kind of used now, although it's not. It need it would need to
097have some uh to be fixed up, but the community down there uses the middle school almost all year round. You go down there um throughout the all summer long and throughout the fall, spring, and winter almost time, you'll see someone on those baseball fields, especially where we're looking to expand going outward. I'm so many moons ago I was the uh president of Elton Little League and no one give a shout out or pat on the back but I was president of Elton Little League. Learned a lot of things, met a lot of great people. Uh one of the things that we did uh we did a fundraiser that year and we we raised enough funds to fix up that field there. I went to Dr. Pence at the time I was a school resource officer
098there and went to Dr. Pence on behalf of the Elton L League and I got permission to be able to put the backs stop uh up there and we the Elton L League really wanted to do something special not only for our kids but also for Dr. Pence at the time many of you or know that work for RCPS that uh Dr. Pence uh lost a daughter to um to cancer and um she worked for the Baltimore Orioles. And so in making the backs stop there, the board down at Elton Little League, one of the things that we did to make it special is well, we I called the um Baltimore Orioles organization and I asked them specifically what was the kind of brick that was used for the Baltimore Orioles back stop. and they
099gave me the company that made the actual bricks for their backs stop at Orioles at Candle Yards and the Elkton Lullig called the company and got the bricks from that exact um people that make the bricks there. And so their back stop there, if you go to Elkton um middle school, the back stop on their sidefield there is really beautiful, but that is the actual bricks. If you go to Camden Yards, that's going to be the same exact bricks. And one special thing that the Elkton Community League did was gave Dr. Pence a brick out of the pallet um as a souvenir for her and and for her daughter. Thank you. I appreciate that. Dr. Mr. Shifflet, did you find out anything more since we So, so currently the addition would go into that part
100of the field. I don't know exactly how far it would go into the field. I'm sure it would probably make it unusable. Uh, but I did have a conversation uh this morning with Mayor Joshua Gooden from the town of Alton and he was sharing with me that um because I brought this up, you know, about at some point we hope to do an addition and then what's going to be the impact on the field and he was saying on the other side and I haven't seen this there's an old baseball field that could potentially be used. I don't know what kind of shape that's in. And then he also said that the town owns property all around there that maybe there'd be an opportunity to expand. I guess my question would be, you know, is
101that something that the school board is going to want to purchase a baseball field for a community little league, right? I mean, for the the school's not currently, I don't think using that field as a baseball diamond. So, I think that would just be the question for our school board. Is that something they want to invest dollars in? Right. I I would um I would suggest that we possibly look at what it would cost to and I don't think it would cost a lot of money at all to get the lower field that the school used that they still use for practice, but it wouldn't only benefit the community there for Elton Little League, but it would benefit the our high school kids and that for a JV team. So right now they us most
102of the time they'll split uh fields or the town field is usually having to have certain times when they can and cannot practice on the town field as well. So if they go down to the 6090 ball field down at the town field they they have to split between little league and also other organizations. But I don't think it would cost much money at all to get field dirt and put it down there. It's like again it it drains. is still one of the best draining fields, baseball fields around. And you're talking about down at the bottom of the hill. Yeah, it wouldn't cost it wouldn't be much of an investment from the school division to uh fix that field up, be a playing field. It wouldn't cost much at all. That's all I have.
103Lots of good discussion tonight. Um, I uh want to share that Miss Burggoyne and I have finished all of our school visits for the year. We made it. Um, we I don't know if I shared this earlier. We thought we would be done in a semester and it took us all year. And um, but we uh enjoyed it so much. I think we're going to continue to do these school visits. Um, we we learned a lot. um had some really great conversations, good hard conversations sometimes, but we um learned a lot about our schools and how we can advocate for our students and for our teachers and for our communities. And so um to all of the teachers and staff that met with Miss Bergwin and I, um thank you for doing that. And I
104realized that sometimes it can be, you know, maybe uncomfortable to sit and talk with a school board member, but I um hope that we we showed you that it was it's okay to do that and it's okay to to share with us what you need. Um so we're planning to continue that next year. Um the other well two other things I will just say this is the time of year for lots of end of the year celebrations. I love that we have CTE celebrations, FFA banquetss, band, music, choir, um, sports recognitions, and I I just want to say I love that we have so many different opportunities for our students to find find their thing, um, find something that they're good at and, um, and be recognized for that. And then the last thing I
105want to highlight is the Turner Ashby Chamber Choir. They um had quite an honor and I was uh thrilled and privileged to um get an invite to go along um with them. They traveled they were invited by the Virginia Department of Education to um sing uh as as their part of their opening um for a board meeting down in Richmond. And so they um prepared two beautiful pieces and went down and sang before the board of education. Um they I could read to you all of the amazing things that I did not know about this choir, but they um have been selected for a number of um things like the summer residential governor school um for visual and for visual and performing arts and humanities. Um they win awards wherever they go and I mean
106if you listened to them it really it was angelic. It was beautiful. Um but I want to highlight um too, you know, Mr. Dively, the um coral director, was also selected as the music director for the allstate musical production. And then um I think this is really cool because if you think about, you know, we're approaching our nation's 250th um anniversary of America's independence. And um that'll be next year in the summer. and the TA Chamber choir has been invited to perform at um an event in Boston next May as part of that celebration. And I think that's um we have a lot of schools and a lot of choirs doing a um and bands and fine arts programs doing a lot of amazing things. And this is just a highlight of what one of
107the really cool honors. Um Boston, Boston, they'll be dumping tea. Field trip. Dumping tea. Well, I don't know. I'll go. Maybe we'll see some reenactments of of the Boston Tea Party, which was not a party. Well, some tea into the Hoba, something along those lines. They'll be singing. Um so anyway, uh thrilled that we have so many great opportunities for students and um excited for all of the things that the Turner Ashby Chamber Choir has accomplished um in the last several years. So, um, with that, we do have reason to, um, on I just want to add to I did have a parent reach out to me. I wanted to remind you that at Plains Elementary School, there were some teachers there that that you and and Miss Burgling missed. And so, I don't know
108if if you've gotten back with them or not, but I just wanted to remind you about that. Um, I became aware of that. We've only heard from one teacher who said, "Hey, your signup sheet was was filled up and she reached out to us in email and um I went back out and met with her." And so um I don't know who to go out and meet with if they don't email me. So I would just I would just s suggest, you know, if and we have said that and I'm glad you're saying that. I'll maybe send a message to that principal and just let them know we'll be willing to come back out again. Um, but we we were not aware that there were more until the one reached out and that was the
109only one we heard from. So, back out to Plains I went and had a great visit, excuse me, with that teacher. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but I don't know that I got to all of the ones that maybe you're referring to. So, if you know who those are. I don't know if there was no I don't know if there was many. I just know that they they had reached out and I said I would very very receptive to coming to your classroom and meeting with you oneon- one. Um you just send me an email so we can schedule it. So okay, if there's nothing further, we do have reason to enter into a closed meeting tonight. Usually we do try to get that done beforehand, but we were celebrating retirees and so now we need to
110move into closed meeting. Um do I have a motion to do so? I move the board enter into a closed meeting under Virginia code section 2.2-3711A1 for the purpose of discussing and considering personnel matters including assignment, appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salary, disciplining, or resignation of specific employees. The subject matter is board action pertaining to specific employees. I also move that the board enter into a closed meeting under Virginia code section 2.2-3711A19 2-3711A19 for the purpose of discussion of information subject to exclusion in subdivision 2 or 4 of 2.2-3705.2 Two, where discussion in open meeting would jeopardize the safety of the security of any facility, building, structure, information technology system or software program and discussion of reports or plans related to the security of any governmental facility, building or structure or the safety of persons such
111as facility, building or structure. The subject matter is safety enhancements at RCPS RCPS schools including school cameras. Thank you, Miss Lure. Do I have a second? Thank you, Mr. Cross. Any discussion? All those in favor say yes. Yes. All those opposed say no. Motion passes 40. We are now in close session. Thank you all for coming out tonight. Appreciate your time. Have a good evening. How are you? Okay.