001you man. Hey, I told you the other night was here that we left you and Eric Baylor in charge as a designated survivor. So that all the admin, everybody was out here for the charact Hey, sorry. Sure. I didn't realize you guys were still doing this. Oh gosh. This This is much easier. What is today's 28th, right? There you go. Yep. You're welcome. I'm so happy that you guys are doing I was just sitting here thinking that we didn't do it anymore and I thought about I thought about maybe fussing about it tonight. So, never mind. Can you imagine? Yeah. Yep. No, this is fine. This is great. I'm glad y'all are here. We'll try not to bore you. I think it's going to be quick meeting. Of course, every time I think that or
002say it, you know, so don't hold me to it. Go. Perfect. This is an easy grade coming here and just sitting listening. Oh my gosh. I'm glad I decided not to write you a personal note. Yep. Thank y'all. Thank you for coming. It's all government here at TA. Come on. All right. Oh, somebody got me a laptop. Thank God. Is this me? I hope it is. You okay? Um I have I have one like I do like if I have them in my mouth. Cannot talk. That's what I'm saying. I wouldn't know. So, good job. It's green. I don't know. Testing. Good evening. We're going to go ahead and get started. We uh this board uh met earlier this evening to work in close session. So, we're now ready for open session. I'd like to
003welcome you here tonight for our April 28th, 2025 school board meeting. And we will begin with a moment of silence. Thank you. Next, we'll rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. The first thing on our um agenda tonight is something called the Inspire Award. The Inspire Award was created for RCPS stakeholders to recognize a teacher or staff member who has impacted their life, inspired their learning, or made a distinct impression upon 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 we have three different Inspire awards tonight. So, um, we'll call you up one at a time. If Brianna Hernandez, who is presenting to Miss Joanie Lamb, could come forward,
004you'll be first. For the past four years, For the past four years, Miss Lamb has been my FCCLA adviser and family and consumer science teacher. She has this incredible ability to see potentials where others might not, gently nudging you out of your comfort zone and inspiring you to reach higher. I'll never forget the countless early mornings spent making pork barbecue sandwiches with Mr. Fitzgerald, the hours dedicated to preparing us for state and national conferences and the long nights at the Rockingham County Food Booth. All so we could have the ultimate leadership experience. Miss Lamb, your enthusiasm and love for what you do is truly contagious, a constant and joyful encouragement that makes you the kind of teacher I aspire to be. You embody the FCCLA model, facing the warm courage and high hope, and I
005know you'll continue to open new horizons for countless students. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your unwavering dedication and the immeasurable impact you've had on our community. [Applause] No, unless you would like to. Well, I'll just say thank you, Briana. And okay, see, I can't speak. Um, teaching obviously doesn't pay maybe the most in accolades and income, but definitely in those intangible rewards. And so I'm very honored [Applause] obviously. Next up, Luke Erso. A student is presenting to Mr. Tim Mumbau. I think Mr. Mumbau deserves this award because if you ask him to, he'll play a board game with you, a card game, puzzle, anything you ask him to really. If you're not into anything like that, you can strike up a conversation with him as he's extremely easy to talk to.
006He's also just generally an awesome person to be around. He's extremely kind and cares about what you're talking to him about, whether it be books, cars, gardening, or life in general. He's willing to talk about anything with anyone, and I think that's an amazing quality to have. If he doesn't know much about what you're talking to him about, then he'll ask you questions and try to learn more about it as you talk. [Applause] And our last one tonight is Maggie Ola presenting to Mr. Andrew Everly. I joined honors physics on the last day of the ad drop period and I was less than thrilled as I would have told you I was not a physics person. However, over this year I would say I've been converted and I now look forward to physics class which
007is truly an accomplishment. Instead of teaching from a textbook, Mr. Everly is truly passionate about physics. He makes sure to derive each formula he gives us and makes connections between physics and the real world. He also takes the time to connect the topics he teaches to other classes I'm currently taking, including calculus and chemistry. No matter how many questions I ask or how obvious the answer may seem, Mr. Everly finds the time to answer each one and is invested in my curiosity. In his class, he has held me accountable for my own learning and success, which is something I've come to appreciate. On top of this, I was given I was given accommodations last school year, and since joining Mr. Everly's class. He's encouraged me to utilize them, taken extra time to explain topics to
008me that I've struggled with and helped me develop study strategies that work for me. Mr. Everly truly has made a positive impact on my and many of his students lives. So, thank you. [Applause] Thank you to the students who presented those tonight. Those are some of the board members. we love those and we um think it highlights one of the best things about our county and that's that our teachers are really great at building relationships. So, thank you for sharing um the Inspire Award and nominating those special people in your life. Um next up on our agenda are public comments and we have zero um public comments for this evening. So, we'll move on to the next um thing on our list, which is our consent agenda. So, board members, there's a number of items
009listed there for you. Is there um a motion to approve the consent agenda for tonight? I move we approve the consent agenda as presented. Thank you, Miss Lord. Do we have a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Cross. Any discussion, board members? Okay. All those in favor say yes. Yes. All those opposed say no. Motion passes 5-0. And that brings us to two more action items. The first up, which is our CTE, local Perkins plan, um that Miss Carrie Gray is coming back to us, I guess, to answer some questions um if we have any. Sure. So, last meeting I brought forth the Perkins local plan for next school year. I'm happy to answer any questions, and that's coming before you as an action item this evening. Chair Hurst and board members, I recommend approval of
010the CTE Perkins local plan for the 2025 2026 as presented by Carrie Gray, supervisor of career and technical education on April 14th, 2025. Thank you, Dr. Shifflet. Board members, do I hear a motion? So moved. Thank you, Miss Cave. How about a second? Second. We'll send that to Mr. Cross. Thank you. Uh, any discussion or questions for Miss Gray? Okay. Hearing none. All those in favor say yes. Yes. All those opposed say no. Motion passes 5-0. Thank you, Miss Gray. The next act action item up tonight is our RCPS special education annual plan presented by Mr. Chris Bryant. Good evening, Chair Hurst, members of the board, Dr. Shifflin. Uh I do have an action item tonight. It is our annual special education plan for 2526. I want to thank you for the personnel and programmatic
011approvals we've already received. Uh we've been able to interview the past two weeks to fill some of the positions and it's going to increase the schoolbased support for our students, our teachers, and our principles. Tonight's approval would ensure the funding there is there to continue our special education roadmap we've talked about for the future. So, I am requesting approval for the 2526 special education plan as proposed at the April 14, 2025 school board, and I'll answer any questions you may have. Thank you, Mr. Bryant. We'll go to Dr. Shifflet first. Chair Hurst and board members, I recommend approval of the special education annual plan part B flowthrough application for the 2025 2026 as presented by Chris Bryant, director of pupil pupil personnel services on April 14th, 2025. Thank you, Dr. Shifflet. Board members, do I
012hear a motion to approve? I move to follow the superintendent's recommendation to approve the special education annual plan B flowthrough application for 2025 2026 as presented by Chris Brandt. Thank you, Miss Lauren. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Burggoyne. Board members, are there any questions, comments, or discussion for Mr. Bryant? Mr. Bryant, thank you. Just want to say thank you to your team that came out at the county board meeting and everything you guys shared for the budget. I apologize that not everything you guys had asked for in this year's budget was able to get through, but we're working on it. No, we've made steps towards what we're looking for and we appreciate your support. Uh, the dream team is what I call them. They are the dream team. Thank you all.
013Thank you. Any other discussion? Okay. Uh, all those in favor of um approving the special education annual plan, please say yes. Yes. Yes. All those opposed say no. Motion passes 5. We're now moving into information items. Um I believe well you guys are ready to go. Thank you very much. We have Miss Amanda Record and Miss Liza Kaufman here tonight to present to us some kindergarten readiness results. Good evening. Um thank you Chair Hurst, Dr. Shifflet, members of the board for the opportunity to speak this evening. Um, we are going to present a little bit of information that was collected this fall on our students who are incoming kindergarteners. So, Amanda, so the state of Virginia requires that we assess all incoming kindergarteners on their Virginia readiness. It is made up of these five components
014that you can see on your screen. The first one is math. And when we assess on math, it is a one-on-one assessment that teachers are doing to every student. And it tests students incoming understanding of those four areas you can see. And we do it twice a year. We do it in the fall and then we do it again in the spring. and teachers are actually actually currently working on this right now for the spring. We have our literacy one which is the vows component and I know Kim Tate has been here to talk to you guys about that before and they do that three times a year. And then there's a social reg self-regulation and social skills component and a well-being component. So now we'll just go into a little bit of the data
015that we received. And remember this is before any instruction. This happens about four to six weeks into the start of the school year. So, the state of Virginia has overall readiness meeting expectations for every area. Rockingham kindergarteners this year were 50% met all benchmarks, which you'll see is the same as the state. For literacy, our incoming kindergarten met 66% met the benchmark, which again is slightly higher than the state. For math, we met 81% of students met the math benchmark and that is higher than the state, which is 70 something. I can't see that number from here. Did I go back? Yeah. For self-regulation, we were lower than the state average, but not by much. The state average is 84% reported and ours is 82%. It's important to note that for while there are um
016more objective assessments for literacy and for math, the self-regulation and social awareness and well-being are teacher reported impressions. So, um six to eight weeks into the school year, you may know your class very well and you may still be getting to know people. Um so we are just below the state average in um teacher reported self-regulation skills of our incoming um kindergarteners and also just under the state average in our teacher reported social skills of our incoming kindergarteners. So the state average is 83 and Rockingham came in at 79% this year. And then the last question, the last uh score is the overall well-being score. So you can see this is not comparative. There isn't uh state data to compare um for this question, but you can see how um by category, how concerned overall
017were our kindergarten teachers on the well-being of their incoming class in the fall. Do you have any questions? Board members, do you have any questions? When you say concerned about their well-being, what what are we talking about there? Their ability to learn or their all of those things together or their well-being physically, their safety. What are we talking about? So, it's a question. It's just one question to rate like how concerned are you about this child's overall well-being. So, um more of a holistic picture um for that particular measure. If you'd like to see the exact question, we could get that for you. Those seem like pretty subjective questions which can vary in degree, teacher to teacher, division to division, school to school. Yeah. Yes. That would be hard. That would be hard to assess.
018Um board members, do you have other questions? I guess I do because I have twins that are entering kindergarten. So, I just want to make sure obviously I know about the vowels and I've seen they they're in pre-K so they've done the testing and everything. So, we're doing How many tests are we doing? This This feels like a lot. Yeah, there's the vows testing and then the math testing and then the other part, the behavior part is just a checklist that teachers do. They don't actually give an assessment to students. They just do observational checklists. Have we thought about comparing this data to or or breaking it down to kids that had prek in RCPS, kids that had prek not in RCPS, kids that didn't have prek. I see you smiling. So you talk now.
019Uh so we do have that data. the state provides us with a breakdown of um different types of prek experience and how it relates and I can share that with you guys also. I don't have it with me right now but is it as interesting as it sounds like it would be were there were there correlations to be made or pretty inconclusive? So, we I reached out to the state because my question was where did they get the data from uh where students are in in prek um because as far as I know, we don't collect that as a district when students are registering. So, I have not heard back on that and that's part of the reason I didn't include it because I don't know where that data is coming from. How reli how
020do they know who went where? So there's some questions. Well, in preschool can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people in preschool programming. So yes, that can vary. I think that the overall this helps build a holistic picture of how ready is a child for um the academics that come along with kindergarten, right? because we know that um the self-awareness is important because that's like self-control and inhibition and wait your turn and how well can you attend to those things and then the social awareness all of those pieces do matter with what happens in a classroom as well as there are numerousy and literacy skills coming in but there are still as with any measure right there are um some things some patterns we might find and some questions it
021might raise so it seems to be both right now in my impression Do we have this data for other school years? Yes, this seems like something maybe more recent. And the reason why I'm asking is because um I know that it's 2025 and COVID was 5 years ago, but it really wasn't five years ago really. And we'll see some effects of this for a good many years, I think. And so I do wonder, you know, the kids that are in kindergarten this year, they maybe would have had daycare, preschool experiences that were different than what we would have expected before COVID. And to what degree is that having an impact on us still that we're just not aware? And I don't want to blame everything on that because certainly there are a lot of other
022factors. But um as a parent I can tell you my daughter's um daycare preschool experience um during 2021 22 those years was very different than the one my sons had when they were in preschool and daycare. Um and so you know as a parent I watched some of the things like speech delays um and some of those things and it just is what it is. But I um just wondered if we had more data from previous years or this is just a recent collection point. Uh we do have data from previous years, but we did not start VKRP testing until the year we shut down for CO. That was our first year. Don't have precoid. Yeah. Okay. And you said we haven't done the end of year results or we have. We're currently in the
023testing window. So, we'll have some results later to just see how how our instruction and our interventions have targeted some of these areas and these kiddos to to help them along. Yep. Okay. Board members, any other questions? Okay. Thank you all. And Miss Record, I think you're here again for information on the secondary math textbook committee. As you guys might know that this year we had a set our standards for mathematics our 2023 math standards and the department of education has approved finally a list of textbooks that match or align somewhat well with our new standards. So I am putting together a committee to look at this for secondary education. Um so grades six through algebra 2 specifically is what we are looking at. You can see I have teachers our secondary schools and a
024few parents. Thank you. Um board members just a reminder this is not an official school board committee. This um is a superintendent committee that he is putting together. This is not going to be up for action. Um, this is for yourformational purposes only. Does anybody have any questions? Okay. Thank you, Miss Record. Thank you. Okay, it looks like we have two more things in the information items. One is the finance department staff report and the financial review for March of 2025. And both of those items are in your packet. And I believe, you know, we could bring Mr. Moyers up here if anybody had any questions. Um, or you can be in touch with him afterwards if you do. We're moving right along tonight, folks. Um, I think the last thing or the last couple
025of things we have are superintendent comments and then board member comments. So, we'll go to Dr. Shifflet. So, I want to give a big congratulations to Mr. IMT Shahan and the Spotswood debate team for capturing their second uh VHSL state debate championship on Saturday. Um, this is a back-toback championships for the SHS debate team. So, I'm very proud of their accomplishments and wanted to give them a shout out this evening. Anyone from the debate team in our audience? All right, congratulations. [Applause] Stand stand up if you are on that debate team. Stand up or raise that hand higher. There we go. [Applause] Okay, on to board member comments. We'll start with Mr. Cross this evening. All right, I'm Since you stole Mr. shake hand from me. I appreciate that. That's fine. Congratulations to Spotswood's debate
026team there. We also have another local legend and I say that because in 1994 when was the only other time that um Spotswood High School won a state championship would Camden language would you stand up tonight? the DNR. Is anybody else on the on the basketball team here tonight as well? All right. Um, Camden, the the DNR article and Anya with the nose bleed and stuff shoved up your nostrils was amazing. You look like a Rocky out there battling on the court and uh we just appreciate uh all you've done over the years at Spotswood. The team uh you guys will always be remembered. you know, that's I remember being a kid and seeing Carrie Keys and Jason Jones and Chris Bryson over there. He knows a couple of these these guys as well. But,
027uh, the community never forgets them and the community will never forget you for winning a state championship up there. So, congratulations on that. And I also had a chance to stop by Peak View Elementary School um this I think on Friday it was. And I got a chance to stop in the eel class and visit with Rachel Lucas. And she did she is an amazing uh e teacher. And um she was sitting there singing to the kids, making them hop like frogs uh doing all kinds of different things. But it we had learners from uh just got here newcomers to been here for a couple of years in her class and they varied. And she was just an amazing teacher that I got to sit down and talk with for a while. And so, Miss
028Lucas, you did an amazing job and we're very fortunate to have uh employees like her working for us in the county. And that's that's all I have. Um, well, I mentioned at the last meeting that I was doing uh book readings at different elementary schools. So, I totaled it I read to 478 kindergarten and first graders. Um, which it was a blast and I really I had fun in all those classrooms and I didn't realize how many kids I knew at John Wayland, but um I have so many friends there. I felt like a celebrity. Um, I'm probably going to steal this from someone, but we did our character counts awards and hosted it here at TA and that was really just an awesome event with parents, family members. Um, Mrs. Hurst had the idea
029to pull it out of our board meeting to really make it a special event for families and to really focus on those kids with those character council awards. And um I saw on Facebook one little girl eighth grade year and then again got it her senior year which I thought was really really cool. So it was nice to see that she stayed on that path and um was recognized by two different schools. Um but yeah I I really love the event. I'm looking forward to it in the future. So thank you Miss Loris. Thank you. Uh first I want to thank Turner Ashby for being our host tonight. This has been lovely. I always love coming back to my alma mater. Um, and I want to give you guys a plug. I believe you're having
030um a uh theater uh presentation this weekend, Echoes in the Halls. Uh, and this is a very special presentation as it was written by a former teacher who tragically passed away. So, I encourage everyone to come out to see it this weekend. Um, and please come out to see it because I think I'm going to miss it because I have to be out of town for a funeral. But um thank you guys for hosting us and and uh break a leg with that this weekend. I think we also have some students here tonight. Do we not raise your hand if you're a student? I'm not going to make you do anything. I'm just gonna say hi. Wave back. It's so great to see you guys. I think a lot of you guys are from Spotswood,
031right? Uh do we have anybody that's a student that's not from Spotswood tonight? Wow. But yay Spotswood for being here tonight. It always brings me great um pleasure to see our students. Um, and I might I I might make it through this. Um, because this this is the first year I don't have students in schools and I went to a farm to school day last week and just about didn't make it through because it was the first time I didn't have my children there. But you know what? Life goes on and you guys do amazing things. And the kids this year I I mean I've been involved in farm to school days with Broadway High School for 15 years and this year they added a hayride and I was like why didn't we do that
032before? That's so awesome. So it's great to see things continuing and being great um and seeing the amazing things that the the next kids can do. I think we're always building on what we've learned. Um, and I've gone on to do bigger and better things. I've I'm helping with a science fair and I get to come here to TA to help with that and I get to go to Mont Video and so I've gotten to go to schools that are not necessarily in my district and spend some times outside of my box and it's been great. But um, just wanted to share those highlights and thank the students for being here tonight. Thank you, Miss Laura, Miss Cave. I was really excited tonight um to see the students here too because it's something that I've
033been missing. So I would just I don't know what the occasion was that that we got you all here but I I would still encourage you know the teachers in the schools to get your to get Yeah. a teacher, some teacher, some some great teacher um to get your students here because it is auh it's a great lesson on um local government and how we operate. So, u I'm just really excited and honored really to have you guys here. So, thank you. Um I finally had some time over the last couple weeks to get into some classrooms, some of which I've been trying to get for about a year and our schedules are so ridiculous. So I got in on a really well planned lesson about supply and demand and um I really I enjoy
034that type of thing. So um anyway, so that was a good time. I got to help on some of the cafeterias and I was able to attend the Makville Elementary talent show which was just excellent a few weeks ago. So um we really do have talent in Rockingham. So, it's uh it's been busy and we're getting ready to wrap up the year here in the next month and a half or so and um I know people you students are excited about graduation and we are too. But anyways, um I think that's all I have for tonight. So, thank you. Thank you guys for being here. Thank you, Miss Cave. um tonight um just by sharing I realize we're entering into the busy season of school board as we were um shared with last year that
035May is a busy busy month. Um we've got a lot of end of the year trips, a lot of um activities, exciting things. There's so testing. There's all kinds of things going on. Um I do want to share, you know, we're in and out of schools a lot. We're volunteering. One of my ve very favorite things to do is to go into schools to read to help you out with um a fairs or whatever it is that you're doing. So, um I encourage teachers if you um Ashley has been or Miss McGorin has been volunteering me. Um but I she does it with love and I will definitely accept. So, if you need um help with something in your classroom, if you need a guest reader, uh definitely reach out to me. This is to
036the teachers and principles. Um I had a lovely um request today from my child's teacher. They're going to King's Dominion on Friday and I hadn't signed up to Chaperon, but then I got this lovely um request that, you know, Rockingham County offers top-of-the-line transportation on the Rockingham County school bus and more entertainment than I could imagine as well as perfect weather for Friday. Would I be interested in chaproing? and how could I refuse such an offer? And so, um, I'll be chaperoning a a field trip to King's Dominion with the music department at Pence on Friday. But I do, um, I was just tickled by by the, um, description of this illustrious field trip. But I, I do love field trips. If you ever need a a chaperone, uh, you can you can call, you
037can email. Um, anyway, thank you all for coming out tonight. Um, I don't think we have anything else other than this board does need to return um to a close session. So, board members, if you have that motion up in front of you, um, I would like to hear it. I move the board enter into close meeting under Virginia Code section 2.2-3 2-3 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. Thank you, Miss Lure. Do I have a second? I don't know who that was. That was a tie. So, Miss Burggoyne, thank you. Um, any discussion? All those in favor say yes. Yes. All those opposed say no. Motion passes
0385-0. Thank you all for coming out tonight. Um drive safely. We're now in close session.