001e e e Bri good evening everyone I want to welcome you all to J Frank Hillyard for our um second business meeting of the month I apologize for getting started just a little bit late we just um came out of a Clos session and um before we officially get started um with our meeting we do need to certify this closed meeting board members do we have a motion to certify I move to certify to the best of each member's knowledge that only public business matters lawfully Exempted from open meeting requirements under Section 2.2 3711 A1 and a29 29 um of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act were discussed in the closed meeting to which the certification applies and only such public business matters were identified in the motion by which the closed meeting was convened
002were heard discussed or considered by the school board thank you Miss Laura do I have a second thank you Mr Cross um oh I'm not used to our clerk being on the right side I'm so sorry I was looking for her over here um board members is there any discussion I did the same thing looking for her and I remembered because I read the motion to go into closed and I remembered it is 28 but it was in fact 29 so that's what the confusion was there my apologies problem okay board members uh Miss gilon will you do the roll call Miss bergoin Miss cave yes Miss Hurst yes L yes uh Mr Cross thank you so yes welcome welcome to J Frank Hillard we've got um quite a few exciting uh recognitions and presentations
003um so we're going to go ahead and get started this evening we'll first begin with a moment of silence thank you at this time we will stand and recite the pledge of allegiance that was actually um really precious on this end of things to hear all of the kids reciting the The Little Voices so thank you for joining us this evening we're going to begin with recognitions and presentations and first up our our Inspire Awards um just a little bit of note about what an Inspire award is it was created for Rockingham County uh Public School stakeholders to recognize a teacher or staff member who has impacted their life inspired their learning or made a distinct impression on their child nominations are AC accepted from students parents student teachers classroom volunteers and community members the
004rcps Inspire award is made possible with financial support from the Rockingham Educational Foundation and DuPont Community Credit Unit Union and tonight we have Miss Amanda Richie presenting two so if you could come on down to the podium good evening thank you for letting me present it's quite an honor um so this is the nomination letter I put in for the Inspire award back here many classes improve academic achievement but some have benefits that extend far beyond academics these are lessons that impact character formation and personal development Miss Sager spitler and Miss peted offer such an opportunity with their General agricultural class designed for students with multiple challenges my son Romney Richie is honored to serve as a peer mentor in this class and has gained many learning experiences and rewards from assisting in aggregated activities
005projects and field trips with students the love and compassion that these two Educators have for their students is visible in every interaction not only with the sped students they are teaching but also with the peer mentors assisting with activities they actively engage peer mentors in lesson development design and work closely with all students to raise them to their fullest potential there are certainly challenges in achieving some of these expectations but they are flexible in their approach and students where they are adapting to their individual needs this class is a model of Hands-On agricultural education for students who might not otherwise have this opportunity reasons I would like to nominate these [Applause] next up we have a school highlight miss Karen Ritter principal of lynville Edom elementary school will be joined by Miss Dove and Miss
006Cortez and their third grade students to share a presentation on this month's schoolwide kindness project you all can come on to the front and also um it is really helpful if you keep the microphone close don't be afraid of it okay yeah gold board members thank you for giving us a few minutes of your time to highlight how lynville Edom Elementary School students and families are loving others during February kindness month my name is Heather Kirkland and I'm privileged to be the school counselor at Le and I'm excited to share with you how Le has loved people locally and globally during this month's kindness month um locally our students have made handmade Valentine for the residents at vmrc and in fact I received students a letter from a resident today just thanking us thanking the
007students for their AC of kindness and how just a little bit of kindness goes a long way especially to those lonely residents at vmrc next I would like to highlight how Lee has loved um a special school um in Burnsville North Carolina um Burnsville North Carolina is located in Western North Carolina and was affected by Hurricane colen back in late September and um I found the school and their needs on the American school counselor association's website and they posted on there their needs for other schools other people to come alongside them and just show them kindness and to help re rebuild their school morale um and so birdsville wasn't directly impacted meaning their school wasn't damaged um At All by the floods but their sister school mville elementary school was and it was completely um
008demolished and lots of mold mildew and they were not mville Elementary is not mville Elementary anymore Burnsville that was a school of 300 is now a school of over 500 because they absorbed all the students and staff they went from a staff of 40 to now a staff of 80 so they are kind of redefining their school culture and so we took it upon ourselves to um to show some Burnsville some Le's love and so what we have done is we have set up a bulletin board in our school hallway um that highlights the things that L that Burnsville needs um we are hoping to get 333 items to donate to Burnsville because that's how many miles it takes to get from lynville to Burnsville and so we have a little marker that takes us
009all the way down 81 into Tennessee and to cut through um to Burnsville so here that is what you're seeing there um on your screen so lastly if anyone would like to help or drop off items they can certainly um scan the QR code they can drop them off at Lee or they can um they can contact me if they have um any questions about that so I'd like to turn things over to um our amazing third grade teachers Miss Victoria Cortez and Miss Jen Dove and our amazing students to talk about how they have shown and spread kindness from their hearts to people um in our country and around the world the world so at the end of January we decided to try a project um we had seen online called Hearts around the
010world the idea is that within the month of February to try and collect a card from each of the 50 states and as many as we can get from around the world to be honest we did not expect this project to be as big as it has we started by creating and sending home a flyer to our families we also posted it on social media and shared it with other friends and once we started getting cards we took some time to create postcards and write back to other people and classrooms we took about how we've talked about how to address a card to send in the in the email we included fun messages and jokes on our cards sometimes questions people for example were able to from for naming hockey their hockey team throughout February
011we've received 2 29 cards so far we have gotten a card from 49 of the 50 states only missing Rhode Island as of we've also gotten cards from lots of other countries we've received cards from El Salvador Puerto Rico French FR France Iceland England Sweden Germany Albania the Netherlands Japan Australia some of our our cards in letters have come from other class some from family members and family friends and some from people we don't even know many contains stories has in in information about the state and some even have stickers stamps and magnets our favorite part about this project has been and we asked some different students um their favorite Parts I'm G to sneak around here so I can read it um seeing all the things we get from different people and States said
012Jonathan getting cards from different family members that we usually usually wouldn't get them from Adrianne said that we find new people and learn where they are from what they do and more Jun know it's exciting to see just how many cards we get Ben I've enjoyed hearing from friends and family around the world stie Jane getting to know people you didn't know before some even in your own family Ellie learning about the states hadasa we close with one final message for you all if you want more kindness in the world put it [Applause] there do you know where in El Salvador you received letter from honestly I'd have to look we've receiv oh was from the Yoda family but I don't know exactly where at without looking on schol thank you lynville Edom for sharing
013your project um if you didn't catch it they're still looking for they would love a letter from or a card from Rhode Island is that right teachers Rhode Island you if anybody knows someone from Rhode Island that might like to send that final 50th state they're in they're looking for it so thank you all for coming and presenting that tonight that was really awesome chair horse I never can't say your name right that's okay uh did everybody else get a joke in there oh I didn't I didn't read it because I got one and I've got to share Ellie are you Ellie Ellie thank you love it um why did the golfer bring a second pair of socks in Casey got a hole in one a yay thank you all for bringing the kindness here
014tonight Dr shifflet I believe you're next up thank you chair Hurst I would like to share a recognition that was issued by our governor of the Commonwealth regarding Schoolboard appreciation month C certificate of recognition by the virtue of the authority vested by the Constitution and the governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia there is hereby officially recognized School Board appreciation month whereas Schoolboard members are elected or appointed to represent the interest of students teachers parents and other stakeholders and whereas Schoolboard members play a vital role in ensuring that students across the Commonwealth have access to a high quality rigorous education in our best position to uphold educational excellence in Virginia schools and whereas school boards are the governing bodies responsible for the oversight success transparency Effectiveness and outcome of the school systems across the Commonwealth and
015whereas local Schoolboard members work for their community's parents business education professionals and other community members to execute a shared vision of success for students and whereas these decisions affect the present and future lives of children and chart a path to prepare all students to be productive workers in the Virginia economy informed and engaged citizens in our pluralistic democracy and responsible and Good Neighbors in our communities and whereas School Board appreciation month acknowledges the contributions dedication and service of Virginia's local Schoolboard members now therefore I Glenn yunan do hereby recognize February 2025 as Schoolboard appreciation month and our Commonwealth of Virginia and I call this observance to the attention of all of our citizens I would like to say from me thank you on my hin put together a little something for you gathered fresh yesterday
016is as fresh as I could get them I couldn't be out there in my suit Gathering eggs but uh small token to say thank you for all the work you do I know it's uh it's a hard work the labor of love because you're definitely not paid enough for the hours that you invest into this so thank you thank you Dr shifflet next on our agenda are public comments we have one public one person signed up for public comments this evening Miss ham if you would come down to the podium um and as you are aware we Pro you are aware we have a three minute timer on this you um are familiar so I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to you I just want to come tonight I know last um
017meeting um I came on behalf of thec chair the special education advisory committee and I just want to take the time to thank you guys for allowing us to present our annual report and to present our survey data and what I did forget to do um and so I also created a um a bag a gift items for to appreciate just to thank you guys for all your time and hard work and countless hours and also to give you special invitation to invite you to our the rest of our seak meetings for this year and also a special invitation to partner with you guys if you want to meet with the seak leadership to talk and have more conversations thank you thank you Miss ham thank you Miss ham um now we're moving into action
018items this evening we have um we need a motion to approve the minutes for our February 10th 2025 meeting I Mo if we approve the minutes of the February 10th 2025 meeting as presented thank you Miss Laura do I have a second thank you Miss bero any questions or discussion from board members all those in favor say yes yes all those opposed no motion passes 5 we're now going to take a very brief um one minute recess um if any of our students um that presented the evening to cut out this is a good time to do that but you're also welcome to stay um to watch the rest of the meeting if you have an interested in doing that we'll recess for about two minutes e e okay we're going to carry on with
019our action items next up is a Personnel listing Dr shifflet I believe you have that here Hurst and board members I recommend approval of the Personnel listing dated February 24th 2025 and the supplement listed dated February 24th 2025 thank you thank you Dr shifflet board members do I have a motion to approve I move to follow the superintendent's recommendation to approve the Personnel listing dated February 24th 2025 and the supplement listing dated February 24 2025 thank you Miss borne do I have a second second who wants it Miss cave gets the second this time thank you Miss cave thank you all of you being right on it um any discussion all those in favor say yes yes yes oppose say no motion passes 5 Z next on our list um our bills and mileage Dr
020shifflet I believe you have that one as well chair Hurst and board members I recommend approval of the January 2025 bills as presented thank you Dr shifflet board members do I hear a motion I move to follow the superintendent's recommendation to approve the January 2025 bills as presented thank you Miss Laur do I have a second second thank you Miss cave any discussion hearing none all those in favor say yes yes those opposed say no motion passes 5 Z next on our list are some field trips Dr shifflet you have that as well de hon board members I have several field trips for your consideration East Rockingham High School theater April 10th through the 13th five students New York City FCCLA state conference April 1st to the 7th one student this is is a state
021officer to Virginia Beach FCCLA State conference April 3rd through the 6 seven students Virginia Beach Spotswood High School theater April 10th through the 13th 20 students New York City C Ashby High School drama and coral March thir 31st to April 3rd 25 students New York City model General Assembly April 6 to the 8th six students Richmond Virginia FFA State judging March 18th to the 19th three students wartz Virginia and Wilber Pence Middle School FCCLA State conference April 3rd through the 6 seven students Virginia Beach and I do recommend approval of these field trips thank you Dr shifflet board members do I hear a motion to approve I move to follow the superintendent's recommendation as presented thank you Miss cave do I hear a second thank you Miss lore any discussion uh just one thing I
022just noticed um there's a there's one state judging on here which I don't think is the weekend that I'm thinking of but um last week with all the snow the bit and Bridal competition got rescheduled I believe to the 15th and 16th of March and I'm not do we do those students need to re or do those students do those teachers need to resubmit those or do they just roll over do you know Dr shifflet we just let them roll over You' already approved the field trips for that previous weekend okay so they so we don't need to see them again okay because I was afraid we weren't going to have enough time to get it in so good thank you for answering that question that's all I have question anything else okay all those
023in favor say yes those opposed say no motion passes 5 Z next on our list is a bid recommendation for cabling at Elton Elementary School and Mr Steve re is already on his way down knows he's he's got this one fa horse Dr shifflet members of the board as you know we're doing a little renovation at El Elementary part of that one of the things that we pull outside our scope is the cabling bid so we've uh specified the telecommunication cabling Elon Elementary we had 10 firms that we sent bid packages to three firms attended the pre bid conference and we had four firms respond with a sealed bid as you can see our recommendation is to award the contract of the low bidder Avia LLC in the amount of $71,500 um board members do
024I hear a motion to approve thank you Mr Cross do I hear a second thank you miss burin any discussion or questions for Mr Reed is my math poor or did the uh successful bid underbid Everybody by halfes that make sense you're correct what's up with that we we have us we have used Avia in the past U computer cabling is another company that weed High School um I had conversations with both of those said they were hungry work F Broadway High School by $200 gosh darn it they didn't did they was this cost something that you expected within the total cost of the renovation like the these are just normal things that are coming through as a correct we take we take a number of things that we that we do is in the
025overall scope of the project but it's not under the G factors all savings you're completely confident AIA got this as as I said I've had conversation with them hungry we've used them before we've had had very good uh success with them I talked to great thank you anything else board members thank you Mr Reed uh board members hearing no other discussion all those in favor of awarding the bid to isia thank you I don't have that note in front of me all those in favor please say yes yes all those opposed say no motion passes 5 Z thank you Mr Reed we're moving right along Miss gray Miss Carrie gray is heading down to start us off on our information items this is CTE month appreciation month right it is so got the floor sh
026her school board Dr shifflet thank you for giving us an opportunity to recognize Career and Technical education a month and a few moments to celebrate you have a bag of pre posterous popcorn at your stations um for in appreciation of your continued support of Career and Technical education in Rackham County it's a locally owned company based in Bridgewater and the owner's daughter is a member of a ccla at Pence Middle School too um and while I'm giving a brief introduction if Joshua Sarah Hannah and Clara want to come make their way forward um we have almost 4,900 students in Career and Technical education courses in rockium County about a thousand of those students take more than one CTE course so if you're looking at actual seat enrollments in our courses that puts us a little
027bit closer to 6,000 um 260 of those students are part of our work-based learning program where they can earn an additional credit and also earn a credential towards graduation we are very very proud of our creative and hardworking teachers and students but don't take that for me I'm going to let them share I've given them a challenge of um in two minutes or under and I know that they're up for the challenge because that's what they do on a daily basis share about their individual organizations and what it means to them we have four out of our six Career and Technical student organizations represented I'll turn it over to Joshua you ready to go for first good evening Mrs hores Dr shifflet and the rest of the school board my name is Josh V rebe
028and I am the President of deca at spood high school along with the help of my mentor web uh I would first like to thank you for letting me come here give this opportunity importance of DEA so before I begin is there anyone here who was or is a part of DEA please just okay see a couple of hands I love that so Deca stands for for distributive education clubs of America and its mission statement is to prepare emerging leaders and entrepreneurs for careers in marketing Finance Hospitality Management in high schools and colle around the globe on the surface Deca may seem like just a marketing Club however if you dive in between that it is much more than that DEA is a great opportunity for students leadership and acquire problem solving skills while also
029hearing from Business Leaders and entrepreneurs our guest speakers teach us about our community and help us learn about their business experience sometimes students find internships or even jobs from these and these guest speakers also Inspire students to achieve their goals and find success even when it comes to out of the box thinking with DEA we have also given back to the community in several ways we have helped raise money for Relay For Life Ukraine gifts for the needy families volunteered with the Salvation now for my favorite part of deca the competitive students have 60 different competitive events take from ranging from Automotive accounting business law team decision making Community awareness stock market games some of these categories involve roleplay and quick thinking While others involve taking months of preparation an event there is truly a
030competitive event for every student each year DEA holds several conferences that allow students to display their skills in front of the judge against others from the same category the first first conference is the regional the roleplay categories after that it's the state's level those who made a written paper top ones from after that the top seven or eight State competitors from each category will then have the opportunity to to compete the highest level decka has to off International Career Development conference or ICDC ICDC is one of the most prestigious competitive uh High School conferences in the world it's highly respected in college admissions Becca is very important to me I've been a part of it for three years now and it's allowed me to become a more proficient and confident public speaker and it has
031also taught me other skills such as communication and team last year I competed at ICDC got this time and while I was there I had the chance to network with students goals and interests as me however there's one thing I'd like to discuss is funding expenses for States cost around $20000 per person to the international competition 2000 this year ICDC is held in Orlando Florida so I can imagine it's going to still be pretty high this is often cumbersome and demanding for many families despite the many fundraising efforts such as Partnerships with restaurants and even direct donations I have personally like talked to students from bwood East Rock and chener as who have been interested in competing with Deca who were unable to because of um money should not be the reason an exemplary student
032is unable to compete in a reputable event anything that the school board can do to help be greatly appreciate I'm grateful for this opportunity to speak and I thank you so so much for this important career Focus thank you thank you don't just a brief reminder keep microphone close thank you good evening I apologize I do not know everybody's name here at the school board but I do know Dr Larry shifflet he's been at my school quite a few times um so I'll start off imagine being part of a leadership organization that empowers you to make a real impact not just in your schools but in your community and your future career that's exactly what FCCLA or family career and Community leaders of America is all about hello my name is Hannah Frasier and I'm
033a 10th grader at East Rockingham High School this year I'm fortunate enough to serve as the Virginia FCCLA vice president of programs this is my fifth year in FCA and I cannot tell you how much of an impact it has had on my life FCCLA is the only student L organization that focuses on personal growth leadership development and career preparation through family consumer Sciences education rather you're interested in fashion culinary arts education interior design or even entrepreneurship FCCLA gives you the skills and experiences you need to succeed through competitive oh sorry through competitions which is also known as competitive events service projects networking opportunities FCCLA helps students build confidence learn team work and develop leadership skills that set them apart in the college and the workforce members tackle real world issues from advocating for mental
034health awareness to addressing food insecurities all while creating lifelong experiences and friendships joining FCCLA isn't just about adding something to your resume it's about shaping your future making a difference and becoming the best version of yourself if you're ready to dream big lead with purpose and make an impact FCCLA is the place for you FCCLA has granted me many opportunities FCCLA oh sorry guys it has granted me the opportunity to network from people across the United States I've traveled all over Virginia and from the little to Old Town of Oakton to Seattle Washington I met with businesses Community leaders ERS to advocate for family consumer Sciences education I love FCCLA and family consumer Sciences so much that I've even decided that I want to go into college to pursue a degree in FCS so that
035I can follow in the footsteps of great FCS teachers and become one myself thank you for taking the time to listen to how important Career and Technical educations is to all students and the impact FCCLA has made on my life I would also just like to know how many of you board members have been a part of FCCLA or it could have been known as family future Homemakers of America sorry guys not many well I'm very proud for you thank you and it was FHA when I was in it long time ago good evening my name is Sarah cron and I'm a senior in the Turner Ashby FFA chapter over the past 5 years FFA has taught me responsibility resilience and the value of hard work through this organization I have developed a passion for
036Servant leadership and Community involvement by competing in career and leadership development events I have expanded my knowledge of Agriculture and prepared myself for my future career Endeavors specifically the livestock evaluation CDE has provided Ed me with a full scholarship to Junior College after which I plan to pursue a bachelor's degree in animal science with a minor in biology I hope to preserve the future of Agriculture by one day working in the livestock pharmaceutical industry without FFA I would not be the person that I am today thanks again for investing in future generations of agriculturist good evening everyone my name is Clara vudo and I'm currently Turner Ashby High School's TSA chapter and Valley region secretary today I'd like to talk about what the technology Student Association is and the many impacts it has on students
037lives TSA is a student-led organization that provides provide students with opportunities to exercise stem-based Knowledge and Skills in a variety of competitive events we plan and prepare competition submissions before competing at Regional State and national conferences along with this TSA provides us with exciting travel opportunities this past summer our chapter made a trip to Orlando Florida where we competed in National competitions and explored the city's many attractions this past fall we went to Camp Pianka tank in Hartfield Virginia to participate in Virginia tsa's annual leadership Academy where we took part in a multitude of workshops designed to expand students leadership abilities PSA chapters also participate in community service activities throughout the year as I said earlier TSA is a student-led organization so students have ample opportunity to pursue leadership roles at the chapter Regional State
038and National levels I cannot stress enough how important and beneficial TSA is for its members TSA effectively sets students up for leading successful lives and careers outside of high school and to positively impact the world within the field of stem members gain a plethora of skills abilities and knowledge through participation in TSA we gain time time management teamwork and problem solving skills through competition preparation we develop communication skills and confidence in ourselves and our abilities during competition interviews and presentations when campaigning for leadership positions members gain public speaking experience and I think my fellow chapter members members will join me in saying that at any TSA conference we learn to handle stressful challenging and often chaotic situations as for myself I can confidently say that TSA has done all of these things for me and
039more all of this prepares us to lead successful careers and become leaders in the technical world and I hope that TSA will continue to enhance the lives and abilities of students in the future thank you all for your time I continue to be blown away by our students skill Poise um and their maturity and so I want to thank all four of them and their teachers again for being here tonight and thank you for celebrating CT with us thank you all for being here and I will Echo what M gray just said you all did a great job and um he really Rose to that two-minute challenge so good job Miss gray I have a question for you you know I'm you're not you know I'm not gonna let you you said there were six
040organizations and we heard from four what are the other two FBLA and skills USA thank you just want to put me on the spot I actually leaned over to Larry I'm like wait what are the other two because I couldn't come up with them and he had them but I wanted every I want the whole room to hear that the we also have skills USA and FBLA so we do yes and uh also I mean just CTA is awesome so thank you for all the work you do next up is some budget planning information for the 2025 26 here and Mr Justin Moyers has got that information for us horse members of the board Dr shifflet thank you for having me this evening really got to see when I get put on the agenda here
041I always follow very good presentations you would think be working outside right beside Caitlyn I get a better agenda spot but um just a couple things that discussed this evening with the budget um the state legislator has legislative branch has finished their meetings in the last week and they have passed their version of the state budget so I want to go over three specific line items that are different than the governor's budget that will know that will now go to his desk for approval we do not know if these will pass there's a very good chance they will or at least a version of them will but the three things that are going to change if the legislator piece of the budget passes is the first thing is actually for this current year budget that
042we're in fiscal year 25 they have proposed a one-time bonus of $1,000 per soq position and per sq position is a very specific piece for you to understand that they're going to give a $1,000 for every position that the state recognizes position that they fund so for example for us that would mean they would give us a $1,000 bonus for one assistant principal at the elementary level or only eight uh assistant principles at the secondary level which we have a lot more in both of those positions would not fund bonuses for all teachers definitely also not for all support staff um we are able to take the money that they do give us and split it up amongst all of the staff whoever we see fit so that will be an option for you all
043to consider passes or if we wanted to give $1,000 per employee have to have a local match to match the differ the other two items that are different than the governor's budget there's going to be additional special education support um we do not know the amount of money that will come to us but it will probably be fairly significant and then the last bigger item that they have had on the agenda for quite many years is they eliminate the support cap the support cap basically is a funding formula that the state uses to determine how many of your support positions that they're going to fund with the state budget and back in 2008 2010 when we had the recession they limited how many positions they would fund of our support positions they are finally agreeing
044to take that cap off which means they would give us more money towards our support positions um this would be a pretty significant change in our budget we do not have total numbers yet um in the next coming weeks we will have a better idea of what that means for us but it could be at least a million or $2 million dolls diff more to our budget for next year if these these things fruition so those are the three line lines I wanted to mention to you this evening uh over the next couple weeks we will continue to meet with you all as you want to discuss the budget we have a Lea on committee meeting scheduled to meet with the County Board of Supervisors in two weeks uh where we will kind of iron
045out what their contribution to us will be and then in March Dr Schiff will share his recommended budget to you all then for approval at the last meeting March so it's winding down and we're getting close thank you Mr Moyers I just want to make sure I understand um this bonus they like to fund bonuses but not fully fund them but it's not really that way what it is is they with our with soqs these are positions that they say hey we think these are important enough to pay for and so therefore this is the the bonus money but Rockingham County is a little extra right and so we we like to have extra positions because we think they're necessary um and so what that means is the state is funding the position funding a
046bonus for the positions they believe are necessary would that be accurate and then and then it's up to us to decide what we'll be doing otherwise correct so when they give us money and this is for raises or for bonuses usually the state funds about half at most of what we need to give that raise or that bonus to all of our employees that we employ um that's just the way that kind of the math works out so if we want to ever match what they give we have to come up with locally from the taxpayers the difference to be able to match the things that they put out that they're given us for and I do want to highlight like a thank you to our Board of Supervisors because the the state might say
047hey one librarian per however many hundreds of students but we think every school should have a librarian and so that's what that's what we asked for for in our budget and same with counselers and I mean there are just countless positions that the state says hey this is the minimum but Rockingham County says we can do better and our Board of Supervisors is very supportive in that and so I do want to say we appreciate that relationship Y no I can get that to you then when they send us the calculations of the budget they put all that in there A lot of times we don't look at it because I know what it's going to fund is for us in total um but it's significantly less than the amount that we have which is
048why it does fund about 50% but as far as the total number of positions I'll have to get back to on that I hear you correctly in that the the budget that has gone to the governor's desk eliminates the cap it does that's nice and so we're expecting that to go forward we're expecting him to I don't know we don't know what we expect there we're not sure what and then the other thing to make sure I point out again the bonus is for this current year year so if that gets passed that would be something that we would have to give to employees by June 1st it's not for next year's money it's for money that they we've already been allocated they would give us additional do that um is there going to be
049a time I know when person I met with you we had lots and lots of questions um down through the line items will we be getting back together with you to look at those changes you know what what we what you usted what was I don't want to say kicked out but you know you know what I'm saying are we going to get back together and whenever you all want to meet is we are available y be happy to meet with you we've had um most of our departments go back and they've looked at their budgets and give us some more details and stuff so we can answer some of your questions and we'd be happy to sit down with you and go over that stuff board members anything else for Mr Moyers thank you
050thank you okay Dr shifflet that brings us to policy revisions yes board members uh we have been working with our Schoolboard attorney Mr Daniel Rose on um making some edits to our current policy BCF advisory committees to the school board so I'm sharing with you uh tonight as information some changes that uh he's recommended on some state code there are some language uh in the policy some cases that said uh we would or we shall do something and the state code didn't require us to do that so we replace some of that language with the school board May that's pretty sort of the sort of the gist of some of those changes and I'll come back to you at the next meeting U at at our next open meeting for uh for this is for
051Action so if you have any questions between now and and then please reach out to me that's thank you Dr shiff next on our list is a financial review of January 2025 and that information is in your folder for review that brings us to superintendent comments Dr shifflet back to you thank you chair HST um again I want to say as I mentioned previously a big thank you to our school board members for your service uh for our students uh at our last meeting U Mr Cross had asked me to explore the availability of the Mini Bus for a couple of up coming field trips and I um I did that I've actually um gotten access to all four High Schools calendars that track the use of the mini buus and on the field trip
052on March 18th and 19th Broadway High School will be using the mini bus for that field trip and then um there was a question about the monov videoo field trip on April 3rd through 6 uh Spotswood has already reserved the mini bus for their students and they'll be taking that uh mini bus for their students uh to I think Virginia Beach for the same trip but mon video is going to be car bus pooling I guess would be the word with Broadway High School so I've been looking at that it does seem like a mini bus um the mini buses are used um significantly at Broadway High School the most uh the other three high schools have uh seem like they're making things work with their minius but we do not have one available at
053the uh middle school so I just wanted to bring that information to you um also I'll bring you up to date I I think if my calculations serve me correctly we are now down to two banked snow days if you will so we'll uh looks like knock on wood this week's looking pretty good for us but three more weeks after this I guess until spring and um so far I've had an opportunity to see three of our musicals um well Shrek at Broadway High School Hades town at Turner ASP and Peter Pan I at East Rock and enjoyed all of them immensely and finally in closing I would like to say at our um meeting this past week there was a presentation from Mrs Abernathy and some of her team on artificial intelligence and uh
054had some really good conversations about that and some steps that we need to take as a division uh but out of that uh conversation also just wanting to take a really um good just a a really thorough look and examination of how we're currently using instructional technology in our schools and so um I plan to in the coming weeks form a committee elementary middle and high collectively to look at our use of technology and uh what its role is and and when we should be using it when we should you know rely on it and maybe when it's not always the best tool so I just wanted to keep you um up to date with that moving forward so thank you thank you Dr shifflet um board members we'll go into other business now um
055and if you have any follow-up questions for Dr shifflet on any of that you can use your time for that um Mr Cross will begin with you great thank you um Dr Sheffer thanks for checking into that for manyi buses uh would you also get with Chris SS and find out what the cost is of bus back to us 95,000 95 sorry thank you that was quick mine are on sale what year is it yes the Mini Bus 97 so to 99 15 pass passenger a 68 passenger school bus is 120,000 just to give you some comparisons well I guess the benefit to the mini we need to discuss the Ben benefit to the minius though um because I would imagine someone like myself who is not used to driving such large school buses might
056feel more comfortable volunteering and driving an activity bus that would be you might find more people willing to drive I don't know if that holds true maybe we should have follow-up conversations you actually don't need your CDL to drive the Mini Bus you but you do for the larger bus oh I should absolutely it's actually easier to drive the big bus I'm going to be honest somebody told me that after I drove the Mini Bus a couple of times and I I didn't believe him and then I got my CDL I'm like it is easier because you've got more Mayors and you can see better and people look out for you a whole lot I'm also thank you Dr shiffa for putting together this committee on the Technologies conversation that we as a board have
057talked about many times trying to limit the amount of technology that our kids are on think the board stepped out before the governor's executive order last year with our cell phone and it's been something that we have had conversations about personally with Elementary School and possibly where's that cut off and limiting that in the classroom as much as possible um the I do have one thing that I would like Che to and bring back to the board Dr shifflet again is and I think it was right when I the year that I came on the board but the board then took away quite a few um employee bathrooms in schools more at the high school level and they I know at Spotswood and ta and a few other the high schools they took away their
058bathrooms and gave that more to the the students could use and there's been quite a few uh teacher complaints uh not having a close enough bathroom for them to use where students uh aren't in that bathroom so could you get us a list of how many bathrooms were actually taken away from the teachers and uh given at that time to the uh students to be able to use I'd like to um also miss burglin would you reach out to Lees there and let them know that my cousin who's all my wife is watching the board meeting tonight and she contacted him during our conversation and his wife is going to get in touch with their school so let them know that and if they want to they got they left but I'm going to El
059Salvador in April if they'd like for me to bring that school something I would be more than willing to do to do that and so that would be pretty cool if I could take them something down that they've made or done for um last tonight the only comment I have is um I just want to give a shout out to all of our coaches and volunteers during spring sports that started today with tryouts and I tell all the kids and students good luck on trying out for all your teams and doing everything you're doing give it your best and that's that's all that you can do and just again thank you for our coaches give so much of your time not just in season but out of season and then also thank you so much
060to the volunteer coaches that uh you're not doing it for the money you're doing it for the love the kids and the love of our community and that makes a big difference uh within our community so thank you so much uh to our coaches and volunteer coaches for doing do what you do that's it thank you Mr Cross Mr you're next I cannot imagine uh as much as we talk about redistricting and building schools not building schools having a school be completely demolished and all of those supplies and all of the Just desks and chairs and just everything gone and having a school of 300 consume 200 more more um students and I don't even know what that looks like so I don't want to think about that here in Rockingham County but um I
061think that's really cool um for Burnsville Elementary that they were able to do that and so I love um this mission of theirs and the support that they have because while they did consume another school that school didn't bring anything with them so um I'm definitely going to scan their QR code and see where they're at there so um I love that I did want to say um the Inspire Awards of course I know the teachers who were nominated tonight I didn't realize until you all were here um but could not have been to two uh better people um Miss Peta I don't know if you remember but you drove a bus to still Meadows um for a for a volunteer um remember you brought a whole bunch of kids there to to volunteer and
062she was I thought she was just driving the bus she's like I'm the teacher I'm the bus driver I do it all and so just from talking to her for a couple hours I realized how committed she was to these kids and the the school and it was just awesome um and Mrs Sager spitler I've known her family for over 10 years and if you have not been in her classroom you need to go it is awesome and so much fun and she is so dedicated and loves her kids so much so um and has a wonderful family that I also care very much about hey Bridget so anyway um could not have been to two to better people tonight so those are all my highlights thank you Miss lur want to be next because
063I'm like I'm holding back tears right here c yeah I I love those ladies too uh and I think I heard you say so was it gobler gives day that you yeah so it was the gobler whatever happened to that we need to bring that back but that's another discussion oh well gobler give day used to be a day and and I think it's really a lot to um organize was an issue but like all the students would go to different places and give back and um yeah and ta still does that is that what you're saying yeah that's awesome yeah Broadway Challen challenge given right but I'm sorry that is not what you wanted was more work to do especially as an a teacher right and a sped teacher but thank you guys for
064your service I really I love you both so thank you for that was really awesome but that's not what I was supposed to talk about I was going to talk about musicals uh because I was able to get to um the three Musical Shrek at Broadway High School Peter Pan at where was I eastrock and um Hades toown at TA and honestly if you have not made it to a musical yet you need to get you got one more chance to get to one a high school level musical um and I really I wasn't sure I knew Shrek and I knew Peter Pan uh I wasn't sure what Hades town was but man it was fantastic it was a really uh more upbeat story than I anticipated and um it was just really enjoyable and
065the amount of talent that we have in Rockingham County Public Schools blows me away every single year and every single year I sit there thinking that kid's only a sophomore I can't wait till next year and see what they do um so you've got one more chance to go see Spotswood this weekend and they're doing into the woods and then um Hillyard Pence and Mont videoo have musicals the week the weekend of March 14th through the 16th and Elton has theirs March if I can read it 21st through the 23rd so uh if you have some time in those weekends I strongly recommend that you get out and just see some of the amazing things that our kids can do because it's really awesome and um I do have a question and I probably should
066have led with this I'm sorry because I wanted to end on the high note but um we talked about uh cameras and upgrading security within our schools and I think the other week um and I did not get the chance to ask I would like to have some more information on bus cameras and I believe that we talked about that at one point but um what we can do to prev to follow up with people who um run the the stop sign uh and and put our students at risk so I'd like to just have more conversation on that when we have a chance and that's all I have thank you thank you Miss Laura Miss cave um I too was able to go to the three and um I'm excited to say that because
067last year um we didn't only able to get to a couple and I can't remember exactly which ones but um it's always exciting to get to all of them but it is very hard as a board member to get to all the schools do all the things all the time and I just and sometimes I just possible but um very excited about seeing the ones that we've gotten to see so far and uh we left so Broadway came first um Shrek and um my kids are huge fans of all the Shrek movies and so I knew that they were going to love it but I really did I left there and I think I put a post on Facebook that was that said you know I have no words like it was just delightfully hilarious
068and um while I love the donkey and everybody in the you know it's one of those things where you don't want to name anybody but I just I absolutely just loved the donkey and so funny but um you know Eddie Murphy just you know put such character into that into that little animal and then to see it come alive at one of our schools like she just did so so good it just reminded you of that it's you know some of the characters in these movies like you can deviate and be different than what you've seen in the movies and then sometimes like you almost expect them to sound like Eddie M Murphy you know what I'm saying but anyways um it was just so good but my my daughter's favorite was the dragon and
069so she was able to go over yes because she she loved that dragon and I wish that the dragon had had a bigger part but she just had to go right over to her and meet her was like I love her hair color I love her Sparkles and her pink and did you see her and just you know but so she was totally opposite me but that was okay but we just we really really enjoyed it um and some of those same adjectives that I use for Broadway um and I just I don't post on social media all the time um but I would extend all of those compliments to the students of of the other plays as well I mean just extreme talent in Rockham County I'm just um thankful for the directors and
070just all the people that put in all the work including the stage crew those poor it's a thankless job those stage crew students so thank you all too for all the work you do that we really don't get to see p so everybody extremely talented um I wanted to follow up on a little bit of the AI conversation that we had because even though that was um that was open meeting right yeah that we had um with AI but there really it wasn't open I mean it was open but the public really wasn't there um and I didn't see the wh HSV article if they reported on that or not um but nobody really you know got to hear or see all of all of what we were told and what we discussed um and
071then immediately from the school community and really more particularly the teacher the feedback that I got this week um was that well it hasn't been quite a week yet has it over the weekend um was that teachers were very nervous about moving in the direction of AI and um one of the things I think that they heard from it was that we are we are full on implementing this come 2025 26 school year and so Dr schifflet I you've already done what I was going to ask you to do which was you know sort of you know give an update to the public because many many teachers watched this board meeting so um thank you for the information that you gave to us um I I don't believe and I don't want to speak for
072other board members um but just based on conversations we've had about the use of Technology within our division um I don't know that it's the heart of the board to go full headon into AI you know without Extreme Caution and we've had many conversations about where we want to go as a division on the elementary level how far we want it to go um even at the high school level and we discuss many different things and um and and great concerns that we had during the meeting so I just I didn't want anyone um in our schools to think think that we were just you know that we listened to this presentation and we were just all you know all in on it and that we did not ask questions it's just you know there
073just wasn't really people there that saw it but we definitely you know had good conversation on it we definitely still will um you know one of my great concerns with AI and I expressed this last week um is is losing the relationship piece with the students losing that piece of um you know I know who Johnny is and I I think I actually used that name when we were talking I know who Johnny is and I know in January that he submitted a paper to me that is not the writing that Johnny was back in September and so I know he used something AI related that you know now I'm getting work that's not really him and I think as a whole that's that's sort of the um hesitation with a lot of um I
074guess teachers with AI and so those are things that we're extremely aware of and and I like I said like I would be nervous in getting you know to know those because say in January you know you know that Johnny hasn't been writing like that all year and all of a sudden you see a change in his writing or his work in general um but if you started AI with him in September you never met him in the first place right because he's been using AI all along and you never really even knew maybe you never even knew that he struggled like maybe maybe we can't even that he's not reading really well like gosh he's writing really well we don't know if he can even read like those are all the the those pieces
075that I just want to be very careful about and the only reason that I I bring this up again and is not to hear myself talk but I just want the public to know that we did have big conversation um on it and it wasn't just something that we're going to just be like yeah and jump in and we're still going to continue to have conversation about um so anyways I just wanted to follow up on that and um please contact us and it's something that we definitely want to talk about thank you Miss cave um there are a lot of highlights and a lot of a lot of things that um I would Echo that have been said here tonight um the one thing I I just want to ask a follow-up question Dr
076shifflet about your committees on technology you thinking you'll start with maybe Committees of teachers teachers and parents um build small build out larger conversation groups so I would my anticipation is to have a large a very large group of teachers and parents and then we will break into smaller groups High School Middle School elementary school maybe Elementary School May divide into two we'll so that's my initial thoughts maybe even Community involved in that conversation how soon are you think I plan to be sending out information the coming week to start getting people who want to be involved and be a part of this and having some conversations about when is you know I was a I was a part of the technology initiative when we first rolled out the devices and in in the early
077years there was not a onetoone Initiative for K and one as part of the plan that was I think added when we got into the co years um but the conversation always has been and I think it still continues to need needs to be technology should be should be used when it's the best tool for learning sometimes it's not the best tool for Learning and that's the the conversation we have to have in trying to Define that very clearly and sometimes that's hard at a division level to do that maybe it's at the classroom level but giving people some parameters um I I would not anticipate you know I think at our meeting the other day Mr Dany shared that some of the best lessons lessons that he's observed at spots with high school the
078classrooms that he goes into on the Chromebooks are just put away under the desk or or what have you so I think it's just a bigger conversation uh with also understanding that technology is going to be a part of our students lives and so how do we prepare them even you know the conversation about AI when is it appropriate and and at what point um introduce some of these tools I think some of them teachers could have some advantage advantages for themselves and their current work uh but we have a I think from the committee suggestion slow and steady right we've got to just go at this very thoughtful but as we think about AI just in general getting started with a a large conversation because I think it impacts a lot of people certainly
079does and I think there are a lot of strong feelings on on that topic and I know um for me as a teacher what I what I don't want teachers to have heard heard tonight if you're listening um is that we're taking all your technology away um and that you now have to recreate and do all kinds of things and this is going to create a hardship like I I feel like if I heard some of this conversation I would maybe feel a little alarmed that that was where this was heading and I want to reassure our teachers that that's not where this is headed I think we just want to have thoughtful dialogue we want to be um intentional about our use of Technology we see technology as being a great tool um and
080so I think it's just time to start having some conversation about that and and starting to hear from from community members parent member you know we hear a lot of concerns from across the board but there's also a lot of things um that I look at with my own children that are just really amazing with what technology has enabled them to do work to extend their learning so we don't want to lose those opportunities either but it's all all part of a great conversation and and the only you know we just need to get started having those conversations so board members if there's nothing further for tonight um we will conclude our meeting okay thank you all for coming out this evening appreciate the um time you took to come and um sit in on
081our meeting and um yeah it's going to be a busy another busy month I've learned February and March are really busy just simply because of all the budget meetings that we end up having trying to iron out what we're doing with the budg budget so um looking forward for that to be wrapped up here shortly Mr Cross did you say something I don't think we're going back into close session at this time yeah I think we're we're all squared away okay thank you all for coming tonight this meeting's adjourned e