001Testing one, two. Good morning. testing. One, two. Good evening. Good evening everyone. Uh welcome to our April 14th, 2025 business meeting. Thanks for bearing with us this evening. We were running a little bit late um with some close session items. Um, we are now ready to begin. Um, sorry, I'm finding my place here. I think we're ready to begin with amend. Yeah, I need to make an emot a mo a motion. It's been that kind of day. Um, I I would like to move to amend the agenda to uh go back into close session to discuss personnel matters at the end of the meeting. So, thank you, Miss Lure. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Cave. Any discussion? All those in favor of returning to close session or moving that to the
002end of our board meeting at the very end, please say yes. Yes. All those opposed say no. Motion passes 40 to modify the agenda. Thank you, Miss Lure. We'll now begin with a moment of silence. Thank you. At this time, we'll stand for the pledge of allegiance. At this time, we'll move into public comments. And we have one signed up for tonight. Would Nicholas Zimmerman please come forward? You'll have um three minutes and at about the 2 minute 30 mark, you'll receive a little notification that you're down to 30 seconds. Thank you. Good evening, Dr. Shiplet and members of the school board. My name is Nicholas Zimmerman and I'm currently a family and consumer sciences teacher at Elton Middle School. And I would also like to say that um it was a huge honor to
003host you all back this fall um as our FCCL chapter officers. I had dinner for you all. Um in addition, I also serve as the cheer co assistant cheer coach at East Rockingham High School. In my first year of teaching in Rockingham County public schools and my eighth year of teaching overall, I would like to say thank you all for providing opportunities for career and technical student organizations, including the organization of FCCLA or family career and community leaders of America. This organization is an integral part of family and consumer sciences education. I come to you all this evening to express my concern regarding theformational item changes pre presented for policy IICA or field trips. Field trips include including overnight ones provide hands-on leadership development training competitions and collaboration for students in grades 6 through 12
004involved in career and technical student organizations or CTSOs such as SECLA. The proposed policy change indicates that overnight field trips would be discouraged. I have a building administrator who values an integral CTSo program for all career and techn Thank you for your comments. And I actually we usually don't um follow up with comments, but I think in this in this case we will um because later you'll see I think everybody is kind of wondering why we left the field trip policy considerations on the information item. um or in that section. We're definitely not ready for action. Um we're going to in individual conversations with board members and having some conversation with Swiss CTE teachers who are busy giving us feedback right now. We've decided to go ahead and wait until this summer to pass that
005policy. And so we would be more than glad to meet with you and collect your feedback on that. And I know other CTE teachers are doing the same. Miss Lure has had a chance to sit down with them and collect some of their feedback as well, which has been great. Um, the one thing I do want to clarif that that is this board's language. That has been the language of this policy for forever more. And we um actually all of us before we even publish this have said we don't like that. I think that one I can't say with certainty we're going to discuss it. But I know for me we're we're interested in taking out discouraged because I think overnight trips and field trips are wonderful opportunities for students. So we're not discouraging those.
006We're going to look for better language. So thank you for your comments. Okay. Next up on our list is the consent agenda. Board members, do I hear a motion to approve? I move we pres we uh approve the consent agenda as presented. Thank you, Miss Laura. Is there a second? You probably should second. I'm sorry. I consent agenda. We have We have a motion. We have a motion for approval of the consent agenda. And now we have a second by Miss Cave. Thank you, Miss Cave. Um is there any discussion, board members? Um, I just because the consent agenda is new, do we need to make known to the public that we removed an item at the beginning or meeting? I just do not if they see that the personnel listing is on there. So,
007I think we just ordinar I don't think we should do that all the time, but yeah, thank you, Miss Cave. Um, ordinarily, I think we our intention is to always stick the personnel listing in there. Um but we still have some um discussion tonight on personnel matters and so that will that has been pulled from the consent agenda. If anybody's wondering about the consent agenda, this is only our second time using it, I think. Um this is something that is typically used for items that will just end up passing with a 50 vote and that saves us just a lot of time. We're going to, you know, if there's nothing typically we're passing all of the minutes. So rather than having three motions for three sets of minutes and the personnel listing which is going
008to be moved, correct Miss Gilkansson? And then the the field trips that are up for approval. Grant funding which we heard about last week on items that we expect a 5-0. We're just putting in the consent agenda. Your vote tonight um whether yes or no applies to all of the items in the list. And um if any board member at any point in time wants to pull something off the list and have it put for action separately so that there can be more discussion. A board member only needs to ask. There's no debate about it. We just pull it off and put it back under for um discussion. So we knew we had some more work to do on the personnel listing. Um and so um so that's been pulled off. That was requested earlier
009and so we'll pull that off. That'll be later this evening that that'll be posted. And is it does Harrisonenberg City Public Schools use consent agenda? I believe they do. Yeah. It's just a way to make our meetings more efficient. I'm just going to go ahead and add uh to just be clear for clarity. Uh you may see us from time to time pull that uh personnel listing off the consent agenda as we get into the meeting because like in this time we just didn't have time. We gotten into some other issues. We had a student matter. Uh we didn't have time to get to all through all the personnel and we want to give it the the attention it deserves. So hopefully our goal is to get it done before the meeting, but we also
010don't want to keep you guys waiting for 20 minutes while we finish talk deliberating. So that you we may see it from time to time on the personnel. So no worries. It's just the process. Thank you, Miss Cave and Miss Lure. Anything else on this? Okay, we have a motion and uh properly seconded to approve the consent agenda. All those in favor, please say yes. Yes. All those opposed, say no. Motion passes. 4. The personnel listing, Miss Hilkerson, is under action now. It's going to the end. Okay. Thank you. My my I apologize. There's a lot of moving parts. There's moving things over here and we're gonna get it squared away. Okay. Next up, um, we have some action items this evening. Mr. Justin Moyers is coming up to present on athletic training services. Good
011evening, Mr. Moyers. Good evening, Chair Horse, members of the board. Dr. Shifflip. Uh just wanted to come here this evening to get your all approval for us to issue a request for proposal for athletic training services. Um right now we contract athletic training services with Cintara and it is time for us to put that back out for proposal. Um so I'd be happy to answer any questions um that you have. This would be for a total of five years, but they would be five one-year contracts. So at any point in time if we wanted to switch something after a year, we could. Board members, since this is up for action, I would ask for a motion in a second first before we move to discussion with questions. Oh yeah, I'm really on a roll tonight.
012Chair Hen board members, I recommend approval of the request to use competitive negotiations via an RFP in lie of competitive sealed bidding for the athletic training services at East Rockingham and Spotswood high schools for the 2526 school year. Thank you for that recommendation, Dr. Shifflet. Board members, I think we're ready for I move to follow the superintendent's recommendation to approve the request for to use competitive negotiations via an RFP in lie of competitive sealed bidding for athletic training services at East Rockingham and Spotswood High Schools for the 2025 2026 school year. Second. Thank you, Miss Lure and Miss Cave for the motion and for the second. Board members, are there any questions or comments for Mr. Moyers? Seems we're squared away. Thank you, Mr. Moyers. All those in favor of the motion, please signify by
013saying yes. Yes. All those opposed say no. Motion passes 40. Thank you, Mr. Moyers. Thank you. Okay, next up on our list for action items, uh, bid recommendation for bus fleet tires. That's coming to us with Mr. Chris Sour. Good evening, Chair Hurst, members of the board, Dr. Shifflet. The bid for bus fleet tires for transportation was properly specified and advertised. Five firms were sent bid packages. Two firms responded with a sealed bid as follows. Big L Tire Pros and Rice Tire. My recommendation is to award the contract to BigL Tire Pros, the low bidder, in the amount of $73,83320. Thank you, Mr. Sour. Dr. Shifflet. Chair Hurst, I recommend that the school board follow Mr. Sour's recommendation. Thank you, Dr. Shifflet. Board members, do I hear a motion? I move to follow the superintendent's
014recommendation to award the bid for bus fleet tires to the low bidder as presented by Chris Sour, director of transportation. Thank you, Miss Cave. Do I hear a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Laura. Board members, are there any questions or comments for Mr. Sers? Okay, hearing none. All those in favor of following the superintendent's recommendations, please say yes. Yes. Yes. Those opposed say no. Motion passes 40. Thank you, Mr. Sour. Thank you. Okay, moving right along. We're into information items. Um, we have several of those. So, Mr. Bryant, you're first up with the special education annual plan and applications for federal funds. Good evening, Chair Hurst, members of the board, Dr. Shifflet. I have uh the pleasure of presenting our annual special education plan to you all for your consideration tonight as information item. Um
015I want to thank you for a couple of previous schoolboard meetings where you heard our needs and and your words spoke loud through the the budget approval that I've seen through chief uh finance and HR. So, thank you so much for that. Um a lot of folks to thank. My dream team is one of the number one things to thank and I've told you all about the dream team. So, I thank them. I thank Seak for going to bat as parents and constituents of our department. Uh, just want to hit some highlights of a packet you may have available in your folders. On the first page, um, local education agency, school divisions are required to submit an annual plan that outlines how they will utilize uh, state and federal funds appropriately uh, by guidelines to
016support all students with disabilities. Uh on page two, prior to the submission of this annual plan, uh the VDOE expects each school division to review the annual plan with the special education advisory committee, that's our parents and our constituents for approval or for their consideration. And we did that last Wednesday. Had a lot of good conversation uh with parents and uh they said green light, go to the board. So that's what we're doing tonight. Um, the school district assures that all policies, procedures, and our programs are in align with IDA, the law that governs special education. And that kind of summarizes page two. I'm going to skip back to page four if you're following. As another component of the annual special ed plan, uh, we are to, uh, review the previous plan to see if
017we followed what we said we were going to do. Uh in in the previous plan in 2324 we were largely focused on um a special education audit. The DOE came in and did lots of visits. Uh the process was completed uh every 3 years and during the phase one the special education department completed a an online document that required work samples, data, policies and procedures. During phase two, the DOE came on site, saw over 36 classrooms, did walkthroughs, interviewed principles, teachers, parents, and uh very thorough. Out of that comes a corrective action plan of needs, areas to improve. We had seven areas to improve. Uh nothing surprising, very doable. In fact, the quote from the DOE was that this uh RCPS has a very doable corrective action plan for special education. So the requests we
018made in the budget um were directly related to meeting those needs of the um of the corrective action plan and you all helped us with that. Uh page five, there is a maintenance of effort expectation every year in uh school divisions. We need to spend at least as much or more on special education as we have the previous year. I can tell you in just another page or two that you have done that and we appreciate that. Um, let's see. We need to make sure that we are meeting the needs of our early and youngest students. So, that's another part of page five, which we're doing. So, if you go back to page six, the in a nutshell, this is the summary. The federal government has given us $350,000 more dollars. The state has given
019us around 700,000 more. And locally, we're getting 300,000 more. So, thank you for $1.35 million more to meet the needs of students in our school division. Um, in the area of personnel, we have eight new teachers coming and that includes our coaches that you approved. That includes um our tenerate teachers to help with our early childhood programs. 20 new pair of professionals and that happens throughout the year, but we need those teacher assistants to help support our teachers and our students in the classroom. And lastly, we have 11% special education students in the school division. And typically you want to try and keep it around 10%. So I would say that Rockingham's on par with identifying students for special needs and uh looking for alternative ways to support at risk students. So I would like
020you to take this as information and consider approval of the annual special education plan for 2526. Thank you Mr. Bryant. Board members, do you have any questions for him? Just to be clear, you'll be at the next meeting asking for approval of this exact plan, right? Is that how it works? I will. Very good. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. Anything else? Thank you, Mr. Bryant. Next up is Miss Carrie Gray with our CTE Perkins local plan for the 2526 school year. Thank you, Chair Hurst and board and Dr. Shifflet. I have forformational purposes this evening the Perkins local plan for CTE federal funding. Um if you are following along with the document in front of you, if you look at page one, the performance assessment, this performance assessment um is based on state reporting and it
021guides us as we consider areas um that are most right for funding or most needed for funding um for the next year. So as you can see um our CPS did very well. There are two um areas in the annual performance report where we did not make the standard and those are ones that we're focusing our funding on for this year. Those um areas are non-traditional program concentration and what that means is students enrolling in a 2-year related sequence of CTE courses um reflect a gender that is stat statistically not as well represented. So, for example, females in a welding program completing that that program would be non-traditional enrollment. Um, and so the way that we plan to um target improvement in that area is teacher um professional development and also student awareness so that
022we're aware of any stereotypes or any areas where we can help students see themselves in those professions. We're not in the role of making anyone taking those classes, but it's important that students realize that those professions are open to everyone. The second standard that we're working on is academic achievement and science for special populations. and VDOE define special populations of special education economically disadvantaged students, students in foster care, homeless students and student students with active duty military parents. So to work on those science standards and that's based on the science so scores um across the division. CTE student, high school CTE students work with elementary students and STEM days and watershed education days. Um, and that reinforces the science standards and the application of those in CTE across the elementary and high school levels. So,
023just revisiting those and showing the the application for how they work in the world of CTE. Um, and if you I'm going to flip all the way to schedule 16 17, which is the budget, and just highlight the main areas, um, where we're focusing our budget. We're focusing on professional development, as I mentioned, um, replacements and update of equipment and computer labs with a focus on STEM opportunities for those special populations of students. Um there is a large chunk for equipment allocation to MTC um and contract expenses for the four high school career coaches and then expenses related to our new college and career planning tool Zello. Um and that is the budget plan for the Rockingham County Public Schools. In addition, at the back of your packet, you'll see that NTC has a separate
024plan that I'm also bringing to you forformational purposes tonight. As a regional technical center, they're also required to submit um their own plan. So, they also did very well on their performance assessment. They're also working on the academic standard um for science in special populations. They're also working on non-traditional program concentration. The additional standard that they're focused on is postprogram placement. And what that means is our students that have completed that two-year um sequence of related CTE courses, we call those completers. They're surveyed a year after graduation. um our teachers and and um at MTC counselors do those surveys and contact students after they've graduated and they said, "Are you working in the area of CTE and where you completed?" Um and so it's a little I think it can be a little misleading because
025VDOE chooses one concentration area and many of our students complete in multiple CTE areas. So, if they choose the area that they're not working in, then yes, they might be working in that area, but that's not the one that they were surveyed on. So, um I think we're I think we're actually probably doing better in that area than the the survey show. Um the allocation of funds to NTC is based on funds from um RCPS and Harrisonenberg City public schools. And the way that is calculated, I'm on their schedule 16 now. Sorry, I didn't tell you where I was. The way that is calculated is we look at our total population of CTE students in the division and then the percentage of those overall CTE students that are attending MTC. And so then that percentage
026of our overall allocated federal funds goes to MTC. Their focus for that is teacher professional development and updating um and purchasing equipment for their programs. So, this is forformational purposes. I'm happy to ask answer I'm not asking you questions. I'm happy to answer questions, though. Um, I will say that this plan is due to VDOE on um April 30th. So, if you're between now and the next meeting, if you have any questions or comments or suggestions, I'd love to discuss those in between um now and then so that we have a plan that's ready for a vote at that meeting. Board members, do you have any questions? I just have one. Um, the non-traditional uh one non nontraditional program concentration I guess uh girls in egg is not non-traditional anymore. Depends on which focus like
027which if you're talking about animal science sequence I think that is non-traditional. Um if you're talking about horiculture it's not. So, it really depends on the sequence within the program, not just the overall because I know there's a lot more girls in FFA. I mean, back in my day, for sure. Yeah. But it just depends on which So, it's not only just, oh, they're in act or they're in FCCLACT. Um, it depends on exactly what class they're taking, right? Brackham County used to do very well and I think we are still doing very well in that but about I think three years ago they changed it to students had to have that two sequential courses they had to be a completer so it's not just I took horiculture one but they didn't have room in
028my schedule for horiculture too I'm having trouble talking tonight um they have to be a completer as well and that that kind of um dipped our percentage a little bit on that so we still have lots of students taking a wide variety of courses. Um, they just might not be getting that completer sequence. Interesting. Thank you. Any other questions, board members? Okay. Thank you, Miss Gray. The next thing on our list is the field trip policy considerations, which I've already spoken about. Board members, is there anything else you'd like to add before we move to the next item? I'd like to add that I did work with uh Miss Gray and some of the CTE teachers. I met with them and we came up with an alternative uh policy that you'll find in your packets
029tonight. So, something that we worked on that we'd like for consideration as well. Thank you, Miss Laura. And thank you to everybody who helped me with that. Yeah, I wanted to thank you, Miss Laura, for going to that meeting. and I had sick kids and it was uh a big mess right there before spring break at my house. So, I do appreciate you going to that. And yeah, I I do want to say I I don't know how long this policy has been like this, but I I also don't like the verbiage of it. This is discouraged because I loved those field trips and cheerleading competitions that I did when I was in a senior in high school. I mean, those were overnight. We went to state, so we were there for three and four
030days. So, um, those things I really enjoyed as a kid and, um, I think definitely we can look into this more and I think everybody up here has talked to several parents and and teachers and things like that. So, we've put a lot of time into this and we'll continue to talk about it. And just on that note, I want to say um it it it just so worked out that I was the one that could make the meeting, which also made sense because I'm kind of the field trip person and you're going to hear about some field trips in a minute um that I just was on. Um, but also it's important to note that all that only two of us can be somewhere at one time and discuss official business because if it's
031three of us somewhere discussing something, it's a quorum and that becomes an unlawful meeting. So, um, I I really appreciate uh the the CTE teachers for sitting down with me and I just wanted to let thank my fellow board members for let letting me kind of take a lead on that. So, thank you. So, is this You said we'll find it in our packets. Is this okay? Okay. Thank you. Share it with you, too. Yeah. I wish I had known ahead of time. I would have No. No. And I didn't mean that like I I just, you know, cuz I I didn't want you to think that I wasn't prepared. I've got to figure out how to share it online so that it's not a meeting, too. But maybe I'll personally share it just with
032you. Yeah. So that you can or I mean any of us anytime. But no, that's fine. So you have electronic copy cuz I like the electronic copies to to mark up. Yeah. Yeah. Um the only thing that I have to say about this is um I understand the reason for the delay on this policy. Um and I'm I'm I don't want to say I'm okay with delaying it. That's not the words that I want to use. Um but I understand it. Um, but I just want to express, and this is not a reprimand to the board because I'm I'm talking to myself, right? Preaching to the choir here, but it's it's really more of an admonishment that we need to move quicker. Like, we're slow. This board is slow. And I would just like for
033us to see a problem and fix it. And I I think you and I maybe were talking, Miss Hurst, about, you know, some things definitely require a welllaid out plan. Some things we need to move quicker on and I just, you know, we've got a certain amount of time and so I just want to I don't know what it requires. If it requires us calling each other more often or whatever, we always have so much going on. Like so, but anyways, I that's just my thought on the whole matter. Um and just to say to the public that it was it was you know never anything about implementing a policy that we didn't think about really hard. Um we should have done this last year like this should have we should have already done this.
034And so I just I want us to really I don't know just think harder and quicker about the problems that we have because we have a ton of things that we want to do in Rockingham and we only have two years and eight months to do it in. So just it's an admonishment not you not a reprimand. So anyways thank you. That's all I have to say about it. I appreciate that. And one thing I will say it is that there are some things and I think that's what happened with this one. Um it's much like the cell phone policy where they're hard to implement midy year and so we might start talking about them now but we really need to wait on implementation not midyear because there are some well-laid plans that we were
035not aware of. Um I will be the first to admit like on this policy I'm a an elementary teacher. we can have a field trip planned, permission signed in ready to go in less than a month's time. But our I was just unaware of how many months. I don't know, I didn't really think about it, but I was quickly brought up to speed. There are many months of planning and fundraising and organizing involved in something like this. And so, um, I do think there are certain policies that maybe there's policies that our board members already know about that they would like to take a look at. um get those to me sooner rather than later because some of them might need to be we might need to address a lot of them in the summer
036just to prep for the year ahead. Um which is you know what happened with the cell phone policy. We talked about it for a good bit bit in the spring last year. We implemented it in the summer um or had it ready for August. And I think this is one of those things like good intentions but maybe too fast. and um we'll we'll work on that process. And um so board members, if you do have policies, don't wait to get them to me for things you want to address, but understand that sometimes we might need to wait until June or July when school's out to kind of work through some of those things and get them implemented. So point taken, Miss Cave, do you have anything, Miss Burgo? I just know how hard you all
037work to fund raise and I by no means meant to or wanted to disrespect that. I had a an FCCLA teacher reach out to me the other day and said they're looking at about $11,000 in fundraisers. And I yes, I did. And so I said, "Jackie, help me. We've got to we've got to figure this out." And um so we've been working on it to help support because you could have one kid go one year and then the next year you have 12. And so it it's always changing. So, um I by no means was this meant to disrespect you all or um throw you all for a loop. I I know several parents who have kids in the FCCLA program who were like, "What are you guys doing?" Um and so yeah, and and
038we were just talking, we just we want to have these conversations. I spent many late nights talking to parents and um then, you know, calling other board members going, "Did you guys know about this?" And so um it takes a lot of homework. This is a lot of homework to be able to make a good informed decision. So anyways, okay. Uh, next on our information items, finance department staff report. Mr. Moyers, are you coming back up? So, I won't speak on this every time, but this will be a new staff report that comes from me just to give you all a heads up on all the procurement that we have going on um with the schools. So, that way when you do come to approve them, that you've been given notice that they've been put
039out there. So, this will just be the format that we'll use and we'll just keep a running list of ongoing procurements that are currently outstanding until you pass them. Any questions? I like it. Anybody have any questions for Mr. Moyers? Maybe. Didn't we just pass the We did. Okay. We did, but I think in the future this will be an advanced warning. Correct. Yeah, this is the first one. So, the only one on there is the one that you did pass tonight, but So, there's nothing else hanging out there right now. There's one that's going to get issued tomorrow and that but that wasn't in time to put it on tonight's. So yeah, you'll see that next time but it won't come to you the next time for approval to be after that. Yeah. So
040sorry giving you a heads up. Okay. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Moyers. Okay. Next up, let me check the computer system. Yep. Okay. Uh next on our list is something um I've added called committee reports. Um there's really only two active committees right now for the school board. One is the special education advisory committee which Miss Lur serves on and one um for the governor school, the Masson Regional Governor School that Miss Cave serves on. They both gave recent um reports. But if you have anything that you would want to anything we're unaware of that you want to add to, this would be your time. We'll have this um unless you reach out to me in advance, you're like, "No, put this on another night." Um, I'll just put this on our agenda um
041for the first business meeting of every month and if we don't need it, we don't need it. We move on. So, if you have anything um the only thing that I'll say that for governor's school, they do their senior recognition on um May 15th this year, which I attended last year. So, I'm excited about that. But I feel like that's like the official kickoff for all of the graduations. So, I'm excited about that. But I can't believe it this close. But that's all I have for Governor. Okay. Thank you, Miss Cave. And I think my official committee is the regional um sped committee, not all things sped, so I won't and I think uh Mr. Bar's done a great job uh with the report. So, and we haven't had a regional committee recently, so I'm
042good. Thank you, committee members. All right. Next up, superintendent comments. Thank you, Chair Hurst. I would like to uh give some recognition to uh our our teachers at MTC and and um a number of students who the last few days of spring break they travel to Ron Oak to participate in the 2025 Virginia Skills USA and we had a number of students who uh earned places. The uh first place winners have now earned the privilege to compete at the national competition this summer. So, um, job skill demo open, first place was Blake Huffman. 3D animation, first place Gavin Aducatus and Troy Kramer. Uh, action skills first place Bradley Shifflet. Aesthetics first place, Caitlyn Crawford. And we also will have a state officer for Skills USA next year, Colton Felenstein. So, I really want to again
043thank those teachers and students for, I guess, cutting their spring break a little short and participating. Uh, as well we had a number of our uh FCCLA uh both our middle schools and high schools travel to Virginia Beach. I think it was the Thursday of spring break and they were there till Sunday competing. Uh, and I think Mrs. M. Lamb had some students there as well as Mr. Zimmerman. So, they they could probably tell you the the better details. But, uh, if if the information that's been shared with me is correct. And um we had 10 students from Tarashby High School who qualified for the national competition this summer. Uh we had a couple of first place winners. Maggie Culler colors and then Emma Light was elected as a vice president for Virginia. And then
044East Rockingham High School had 10 students qualify for national conference. Uh Ariana Stroop, Alyssa Hensley, and uh Jaylen Money Maker were all first place winners. And Broadway High School had three students qualify for nationals. And uh we had uh the team of Jaylen Wingfield, uh Josie Hess and Haven Hess won uh first place. And Spotswood had nine students qualify for nationals. Uh some first place winners, Gigi Diaz uh and Hayden Dillard and Emily Ray and Chen Yang. And Monavidio had two students qualify as well as Pence with three. And then Elton Middle School uh had a pretty big showing at the middle school level. 10 students uh for qualifying for the nationals. A number of first place recipients, Isabella Zimbro and Delaney Holloway, uh Wyatt Hensley and Cole Montgomery and Haley Bowers and Jacob Meyers.
045So I want to say congratulations to those stu students and teachers. And I think their national conference will be in Orlando, Florida during the month sometime during the month of July, maybe around the holiday, I believe. So, uh, again, you know, they took time out of their spring break to, uh, take students to Virginia Beach and compete or students for the MTC folks to Ron Oak and compete. And so, I just want to say congratulations to them and thank you. That's really awesome. Thanks for sharing that, Dr. Shifflet. Okay, board members. Um, other business, we're about to wrap up school board highlights, questions, and comments. We'll start with Miss Cave this evening. Um, I will just say that I had a very upset little boy tonight because I was missing his baseball game. So, to
046satisfy him, I told him I would wear my baseball clothes to the board meeting. And so, normally I leave for board meetings as Holly Cave school board member, but today I left my house as mom. So, and that's sort of what I look like when I showed up here. So anyways, um he was happy that I would be supporting his his team while he's playing tonight. Um I've been out. I had uh jaw surgery um which was a little harder than what I thought it was going to be. And then right immediately after that, I got the flu. And so um my perfect attendance on the board is all mucked up. Um but I I managed to meet um to make the MTC meeting three days after the surgery and then two days after that
047I came down with the flu. So, which is why I missed the next meeting. Um, and I hate that because it's very important for me to be here um to do the job that I said I was going to do. But, um, that has sort of eaten up the last, I don't know, three, four weeks for me. I did manage to make it to McGisville Elementary um for their STEM day and that was really awesome and got to speak with some of the representatives there and just um even talk about um well the the civil air patrol reps that were there and we were talking about how when they come into the schools and they can really get kids interested in things like flying airplanes for the military and you know doing all of those
048things um when they're young and you know getting them interested in things that you know if we didn't do those STEM days or didn't have those types of activities in the school they may never even think about doing. So, um and there was a ton of stuff in the gym um different different things there. Um anyways, I enjoyed that. Um thank you, Mr. Baker, for having that for the kids. And um I think that's all that I have. Thank you, Miss Cave, Miss Laura. Yes, it's been a long time since our last school board meeting and lots of lots of stuff going on. I'm going to highlight two things and hopefully some of my board members will pick up some more of the things. Um, but one, uh, the Friday or I guess the Thursday,
049the last day before we left for spring break, I went to Spotswood High School and picked up their EL a class and um, an egg production class and brought them up to what's the MTC farm these days. And uh we we took some time to to talk about animals and animal production. And it was really awesome getting because this was the class that apparently at Spotswood they they're they're folks that are new to our shores and have very uh limited English speaking ability. They they rotate them through different um CTE and different things in our high schools just to get them to exposed to some things. And um some of these kids you could tell I mean like there was one little boy that well he wasn't little he was a big old guy but
050um he was from Syria I believe and he just loved the dog. You could tell that he misses having animals in his life and he needed some animal time and it was just so fun to watch him. But we kept try we took him for a little hay ride and he kept trying to get the dog up on the wagon with us and she was like, "Well, you got treats. I'll come in with you." Um, and they just they it was really an awesome experience to see the kids just be able to to relax and be kids for a minute. Um, and it made me realize how very fortunate and blessed we are to be living where we do. And I'm so happy that I and honored that I had the the ability to share
051that. I'm going to share that with all you all. And then um over the weekend, this past weekend, I was able to travel with um the Turner Ashby FFA chapter to go to um Smith Island. And I don't know um a lot of our our groups do uh Chesapeake Bay Foundation trips. And um uh it it I've been on several, but I'd never been on one quite like this because TA has a tradition, a 27-year tradition where they go and interact with the people that live on Smith Island and they barbecue chicken and we have a big lunch where we have potatoes and chicken, our barbe rockingham barbecued chicken and um Smith Island cakes. So, I only ate Smith Island cakes and it was it was a great it was wonderful. It was great to
052see the kids interact. It was it was a really awesome experience. And then I have to give a huge shout out to my my transportation department back there because we got we so to Smith Island you take a 45minute boat ride to the island and then you take a 45minute boat ride back. Get off the boat, everybody's like, "Okay, go get the bus." I'm like, "Okay, let's go." I turned on the engine and nothing. I'm like, "Oo, we are six hours from home and this thing is not running." Um, I called Chris Sour. He got me in touch. Oh, I called it. The also the awesome thing about traveling with FFA kids. I said, "The bus won't start." The uh the teacher, the FFA teacher also has her bus driver's license. She came over and
053four boys came over, popped the hood, climbed under the bus. They're all looking and the the boat captain comes over and check checks the the battery because I'm like, "Oh, I left something on." Um, and I called Chris Sour and he had uh he called Jake and um Steve and Steve Welsh called us back and I handed the phone to one of the kids and they figured out what the problem was in about 30 seconds and got us on the road. So, I was so happy and so thankful to you guys for helping me out and always being um I actually there were like three people in your department that I was able to contact and and get really everybody was very concerned and and I also saw a post online about a a bus
054driver who had a similar experience in Rockingham County and I just can't say enough good things about our transportation department and how well they help out the bus drivers and or the the maintenance department and how well you guys keep the buses going. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for everything you all do. And I and I just heard Ashley say she has a lot of things to say, so I'll let her talk now. Okay, you're next, Miss Burggo. So um I was able to do the Broadway High School local government tours here um with Miss Mrs. Lure and we had a really good time. Um, we got to team up with all other agencies in Rockingham County that are involved in local government, most people in this building. And I thought we had
055a really, we just had a fun day. Um, on our lunch break, I think Mrs. Laura and I both independently had the MTC job fair at the fairgrounds on our calendars and she's like, "You want to just go?" And so we went down there and hung out for like an hour. Um, and they fed us, which was amazing. Um, and that was really cool. It was it was packed. I was surprised by how many people were there and how many local um businesses and things were there. So, that was really cool. Um I've been really busy lately. I have been doing the um Rockingham County Farm Bureau donates books to all of our elementary schools every year. So, was that one of yours, Larry? Your highlights. So, I have been running around like a crazy
056person all over to our schools. I've done um Lynville, Edom, Plains, and John Seammy so far. So, kindergarten and first grade. And they they donate books about farming and things like that. And so, um I got to one class at Johny and they were like, "We've read this book." But their teacher had all of the books from previous years that had been donated. So, I was like, "All right, which one haven't you guys read?" So, I took the books to all the classrooms and, you know, we got to we got to pick. So, it was cool to see every year they do they donate books and they're all, you know, um, about farming. And it was interesting asking these kindergarten and first grade students, you know, how many of you guys live on a farm
057or have experience with farms? And, you know, only a couple would raise their hands. And I was like, how many of you guys are on the bus after school and drive past the farm? And everybody's like, yep, yep, yep. Um, so that was really fun. Um, my kids school at Lynville, they did the American Heart Association challenge and I think a lot of students are doing that right now. I' I've been hit up by lots of people uh for donations and that was really fun because at the end of it they got to pie some teachers in the face and uh they duct taped Karen Ritter, Mrs. Ritter from Lynville Edom to the wall and I took a video because it was hilarious. At the end of it they were just all chanting pi Mrs.
058Ritter and they were very passionate about it and she was like absolutely not. So I thought we need this for evidence because every single one of those kids was ready to pie her while she was duct taped to the wall. But she was a good sport about and all the teachers were super super good sports about it and really prepared. Um, and this week, every single day, I have been going to since Friday last week, and then the rest of the week, um, they're doing a a penny challenge, a penny war at um, Lynville Edom. And I did not think that counting pennies was going to be this hard, but you have to separate it by each classroom. There's positive points and negative points. And so I created this crazy spreadsheet. But it took us
059an hour and a half today to count like $150. You know, you got the negative points, the positive points, and then all the money has to be separated. It was a mess. Uh so about an hour and a half later, I thought I thought this was going to take like 20 minutes. We'll be in and out of here. Um but that's been really cool. And so if anybody from Lynville is watching, Mrs. Fidley is winning. And so I think she'll be sabotaged tomorrow. I think the kids have a game plan, but that's been really cool. Um, and I'm having a lot of fun doing that even though it's timeconuming. So, anyway, that's all. Thank you, Miss Burggoyne. Um, I've I've spent the last couple of months working on a number of projects. Um, one of
060which was maybe the most timeconuming of them all. It was the budget season. And so, once we got to spring break, um, I told Dr. Shifflet um let's just go ahead and get started on next year's budget so we're we're not you know working on it um so frantically for three months and um he respectfully asked for a month off at least of budget talks and um so and I thought that was wisdom because I could use a break from um from the numbers. So anyway, um I I thought to myself, um January, February, and March have always seemed always the two years that I've been on the board so far, just beginning of my year, too. Um those seem pretty busy, but then I was reminded that May is coming and May and June
061will be really busy, too. But they're really fun events coming up. Um, Miss Burggoyne and I have been visiting schools this year um and trying to um visit every single school in Rockingham County. I think we're going to make it. We're getting close to the end, but that has been really powerful. Um, we're learning a lot. I want to thank all of the teachers that have I think, you know, as a as a former teacher, I I don't recall any board members ever doing that. And um I would think it would maybe be a little bit intimidating to come and sit face to face and tell a board member um hey I don't like what you're thinking over here or hey good job. It might just be intimidating but I want to thank teachers for
062coming and having honest and candid conversations with us. We've really learned a lot um if I've enjoyed every single visit at our all of our schools. Um so we're wrapping those things up and I will add that um I attended the Rockingham FFA Heritage Dinner. um at Freedom Farms. And if you've never been, that's an incredible space. I've been to a number of events there, but I've never been to an event that had the place packed out like people pack it out for FFA, which says a lot. Um I haven't heard the the final number of how much was raised there, but I know it was a lot. Have you heard the number, Miss Laura? It was over $30,000 without the ticket sales. The auction and the silent auction and live auction and donations was
063over $30,000. And I think that's about the number they needed to finish their goal, which was to raise $100,000 to put into um a fund that will now generate enough interest to um sponsor kids who have financial need to go on um FFA trips. So that was really cool to um I I felt like just listening to the auction um and just being in the presence of everybody who was so engaged um and supportive of FFA. I thought that was a really cool event. Um really great event and I I it sounds like they made their goal. And may I add since you brought that up, we need to give a special shout out to Mr. Eric Fitzgerald for all of his work on that event. And then the next morning he got up and
064went to Smith Island too. Uh, I mean, so yeah, dedicated person. Uh, and it just goes to show I mean, he doesn't even live in Rockingham County. He lives in Augusta County, but Rockingham has a lot of special people and and the kids are just amazing here. So, just wanted to shout that out. Yeah. Thanks, Miss Laura. Okay, that's all I have for tonight. Um, it's we, as we mentioned earlier, we do have reason to um return to close session. So at this time if there is someone who is willing to read that motion I move the board enter into a closed meeting under code Virginia code section 2.2-3711A1 for the purpose of discussing and considering personal matter personnel matters including assignment appointment promotion performance demotion salary disciplining or resignation of specific employees. The subject
065matter is board action pertaining to specific employees. And that's all I need to read on that. Thank you, Miss Laura. Board members, do I hear a second? No. Oh. Oh. Oh. Because we didn't finish student matters. My apology. Let me finish reading then. Um, I also move that the board enter into a closed meeting under Virginia Code section 2.2-3711A2 2-3711A2 for the purpose of discussing student matters including discipline and requests regarding compulsory stu school attendance based on religious beliefs that would involve the disclosure of information contained in student records. The subject matter is board action pertaining to student discipline and compulsory school attendance. Thank you, Miss Gilkansen. Thank you, Miss Laura, and thank you to Miss Gilkansen for always keeping us on track. Board members, I have a motion to enter into close session. Do
066I have a second? Excuse me. Thank you, Miss Burggoyne. All right. 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.