2024 03 25 - RCPS School Board Meeting

001call to order little Lou time all call to order tonight's uh Schoolboard meeting on Monday March 25th 2024 um welcome everyone here tonight thank you for coming out here on Spring Break um we're happy to be uh serving I left a ball game tonight and my father father looked at me and said thank you for serving so I remember my days uh in law enforcement and this is a service that we're we're doing and providing for our community uh and I just want to thank our Schoolboard members uh for all the work and time that you put in for this as well because uh this is more than just a 40 week uh 40 hours a week type of job we put in a lot of hours in this and we're grateful that uh God

002has chosen us at this moment in time to be able to do this so I'm tonight our first thing on our agenda is to approve the agenda do I hear a motion to do that I move to approve the March 25th 2024 agenda as presented thank you Miss cave do I have a second second thank you Miss Hurst uh any comments or discussions on this hearing none all those in favor say yes yes all oppose no motion passes 5 and next one on agenda tonight is a moment of silence and those who would like to join me uh we're going to take this moment to have a moment of silence tonight thank you uh next uh if you will stand with me as we recite the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag

003of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice all all right first thing on our agenda tonight is uh board highlights and I'm going to start again with uh Miss Ashley berglin on the end right am I on no let me see there we go um so one thing that I got to do the past couple weeks was and Jackie helped me out here was a regional FFA compan area competition which is my first kind of event that I did with FFA which I thought was really really cool um I I was super impressed by the kids and like very very very inspired by them um all their hard work and professionalism and just it was really cool to see um

004excuse me how all of that works and it was across the whole Fairground so I didn't get to see everything because I was in one place but it was really cool to see how the kids went from place to place and um it was just a really fun event I look forward to supporting the FFA more I think that's um definitely an awesome thing that our community can offer so um the other thing I wanted to highlight was the power outage um our school so my kids you know they go to lynville Edom and our school started flickering power uh I think it was the 21st um and then we were without power I'm sorry it was the 20th to the 21st but we were without power all night through till about 10: a.m. the

005next day um and so I just wanted to highlight that you know our I'll be honest we were late to school we struggled right we were brushing our teeth with head lamps and bottled water and things like that since we had no power um and we were late and so um I just saw the staff at my kids school and I'm sure it was all over Rockingham County were just so awesome and kind and patient with the kids and uh I started thinking when I got home like a lot of these teachers didn't have power and a lot of these teachers couldn't make a cup of coffee in the morning or couldn't take a shower and so I just wanted to to shout that out because they were super super kind and forgiving especially since

006we were late I'm sure other people were late too but um and really supportive so thank you guys uh I was just thinking that it's really hard um to narrow down our highlights um so when we missed some of the really important events it's definitely not on purpose it's just um we're so busy um in the two weeks in between meetings that I have to sort of you know keep everything in my head what done so um we don't leave things out on purpose but um um couple of things that I've been doing the last few weeks um I attended the Teacher of the Year Awards at The Sims building and that was really awesome and um my takea away from that was something that Miss rodri at um CB on Elementary said she said

007teaching is a work of heart and I think that every single teacher would concur with that and uh and I just thought it was a powerful statement I thought you know I really I want to remember that and share it um because I thought it was really good it really touched me and um got the opportunity to go Rockingham County um young Farmers banquet Miss Sarah Kaiser Elon Middle School invited us to go to that and that was really good to see um I got to see Jacob shifflet who I led in youth group many many many years ago and he has just grown into a fine young man um and just happy to be in Rockingham County um where I got to sort of see his growth and um love his family and so

008it was a good time there it was good to see um some of the eastrock students that were there serving and uh we just have such a wonderful group of people kids and um and parents and faculty alike and uh let's see the food truck festival at East Rock over the weekend I hope you guys got to go to that we were super busy that day but we made a point to run in there and grab food um support our school and and had to run unfortunately we get to stay and enjoy the music but um hope they did really well with that and uh I got to go to the mville elementary school cafeteria and work um last week or a week before I can't remember now but um that is just one of

009my favorite things to do is be in the cafeteria with those kids um they're just the cutest little things when they ask for you know ketchup or milk and uh I just really enjoy serving in that way it's just it's one of my favorite things to do but um I also just by happen stance was there when they had their fire drill and I had been at Elon middle school when they did their tornado drill so you know we ran on um really all three of us on on school safety and it's so important and so to get to be in the schools when they're having these drills and see how well organized they are it means a lot to me and um I was asking a lot of questions afterwards and I and I

010asked I'm like what time is it you know how long did it take us to get out of the building and um they just even had some different things they were doing with teaching teachers how to pull the fire alarm and things that day and it all went really quickly um and even Mr Baker was a part of it I think you know kind of subbing for someone that was out and so it was just it was really cool to get to listen when they would say I'm so and so I'm here with this class and they'll say all clear you know for each section and it's just even in a drill where you know it's not real but you listen to them say all clear it's like you get this feeling of relief and

011so safety is just something that's you know it's really important to me and so um good job Mr Baker um I just I enjoyed that and and thank you for taking care of um the kids there and just running a a well oiled machine I think that's it did you see Donnie thank you I did see him we love you Donnie thank you Miss cave Miss Hurst um I want to highlight uh the Pence musical um they uh last weekend or the weekend before I don't remember which but they put on uh Frozen Jr and it was incredible um the kids did a great job I know a lot of heart um time and energy went into getting that production ready and the kids just shined they did such a good job and um ta

012get ready because you've got a lot of really great vocalists and actors coming your way in the next couple of years it was amazing to see how much talent uh Pence Pence has sitting there um just in singing so they did a great job and then um I also want to just highlight um a trip I took to Rockingham Academy um I just went out and had a tour and I happened to be there on 34 so it was Pi Day and Miss Dean had gotten pi to serve all the students and faculty there and had a really great tour seeing um what sets Rockingham Academy apart from some of our other schools and how they do things just a little bit differently to meet the needs of different learner Styles um and just had

013a really great time and I'm so thankful that we have options like rocking himy academy uh in our division and I think that's a really great thing for for our kids because not all kids learn the same way and so we have to have um different ways to approach learning for our students and Rockingham Academy is a school setup just for that so just want to highlight a good job that's happening out at Rockingham Academy thank Miss La thank you um yes like Miss beroy I was at the area rally the FFA area rally that's basically um all the all the FFA chapters in the Blue Ridge area I always get it wrong because we used to be Northern but now we're Blue Ridge um but I I was there to talk about EG science

014fair and promote EG science fair and Miss bergoin was there to judge present or public speaking and full disclosure and I want to say a big thank you she did not know this but my niece Miley Finley was the winner of the extemporaneous yeah see you didn't even know but um so uh all of our winners uh including Creed uh prepared public speaking tractor driving uh all the winners from that will move on and compete at state in most of them in June um so yeah congratulations to all of our kiddos and good luck to them moving on I also was able to attend the um the seesac meeting which is special education advisory committee right Dr shifflet we were able to attend that um and they they there was a nice question and answer

015period with the superintendent I want to thank him for making time to do that that was a really great meeting for me um also I was able to go to Broadway High School and join the a Spanish class fusion class um and hear presentations about salsa that they made and we got to taste salsa and we got to judge the salsa and it was like a shark take kind of thing and it was so much fun and um officer Robinson and M O from the the Spanish Department joined us so that was that was a lot of fun it was nice to nice to spend some time with the kids uh and um I also kind of apologize for not being as polished as I normally am and kind of maybe a little tired as

016we go through the night I attended bus driver training today and I will I'm I will be working on getting my bus driver license so that I can hopefully drive like field trips and things but also it gives me a really good understanding of what we're asking our bus drivers to do and all the the way that our policies impact our bus drivers so that's really exciting for mate plus I get to learn how to drive a great big bus so everybody watch out and then finally uh I want to just take a moment to wish my father Jack Osborne a happy 85th birthday today I know he's at home watching and Dad will celebrate later I promise and I love you so that that's all I have for tonight but thank you happy Birthday

017Dad 85 congratulations thank you Miss lore and Dr shifflet the way I understand it if uh you don't like how Mrs lur drives stay off the sidewalks yes just kidding M lur you'll do a great job you're used to driving those big farm tractors and wagons so you you got it under control but uh being the bus do people aren't watching so I don't know how I'm going to be doing this with like 50 kids on the bus with me but we'll learn it'll all be fun it'll be an adventure yes there definitely will be people watching and the the key to being a great bus driver is you have to watch those people as you watch the road so uh it's one of the most it's one of those most one of the most

018challenging jobs that we have as a school bus driver so shout out to all our bus drivers I too want to just say um Frozen junor at Pence Middle School was awesome I really enjoyed that performance it was neat to see all the young kids the young girls dressing up as uh one of the characters uh Elsa yes thank you I'm not yet it's been a while since I've watched the actual Frozen so forgive me uh but the singing was phenomenal they did a great job and as well I had an opportunity to be at the Teacher of the Year celebration and once again I want to say thank you to our teachers of the year uh in my opinion they're all teachers of the year for coming in every day and giving their best

019effort they do many things behind the scenes that um even students do not see right lesson planning grading communicating with their colleagues with parents and um so I just want to give a big shout out to our our teachers as well so thank you thank you Dr chifflet and thank you board members for uh your involvement and everything that you're doing inside the schools and um I had an opportunity but quite a few things I did but the biggest thing that stuck out over the last two weeks was at our last board meeting at mon videoo Middle School had an opportunity to meet a couple of um spotwood kids and had an opportunity to actually go to Spotswood and meet with them and so uh we had a a great conversation uh we talked about

020uh our theater and how we can uh support our arts department and things that are going on so uh they were great Advocates and Dr shifflet for and the Arts and especially for theater so uh we'll we're we're looking to see what we can do and and um it's real important to us but I really enjoyed the dialogue and I really enjoyed just getting up there getting around the kids and and talking with them because and a lot of times in the public meetings there's a lot of drama that happens and uh to actually get up there and talk with the drama kids that don't have all that drama was really good and so um yeah I really just put things in perspective of what we're doing and and uh I really appreciate uh the

021the ones that reached out to me and and asked to meet with me that meant a lot to me and that was a big highlight of mine over the past two weeks so thank you all right at this time we're going to head into our action items and first on our agenda tonight is to um is to to approve the minutes for March 11th 2024 and let's go ahead and do the minutes for March 18th 2024 I move to approve the minutes of the March 11 and Mar March 18th 2024 meetings as presented thank you Miss Hurst do I have a second a second thank you miss berin any comments hearing none all those in favor say yes yes all the oppos no uh motion passes 5 uh next on our list tonight is field

022trips and I believe Dr chiet has that chair Carlson board members I have several field trips for your consideration Spotswood High School TSA State leadership conference May 2nd through the 5th seven students Hampton Virginia FFA State Convention June 24th through 27th 15 students Virginia Tech blackburg Virginia Deca International Conference April 26 through May 1st three students Anaheim California model General Assembly April 11th through the 13th six students Richmond Virginia Elton Middle School uh FCCLA State leadership conference April 11th through the 14th 10 students Virginia Beach East Rockingham High School Deca International Conference April 26 through May 1st two students Anaheim California and Broadway High School model model General Assembly April 11th through the 13th for students Richmond Virginia and I do recommend approval of these field trips board members hearing superintendent's recommendation do I hear

023a motion to approve that recommendation I move to follow the superintendent's recommendation to approve the field trips as presented thank you Mrs Hurst do I have a second a second thank you Mrs bur any questions or comments concerning the field trips hearing none all those in favor say yes yes all oppose no motion passes 5 I'm next on our agenda tonight is policy revisions I believe Dr CH had this as well yes at the last uh Schoolboard meeting I presented two policies BG and gbd regarding board staff Communications and I recommend that the school board approve the proposed policy revisions for uh for tonight board members here in superintendent recommendations do I hear a motion to approve that I move to approve that recommendation thank you Miss cave do I have a second thank you

024Miss Hur any questions comments about the policy revisions hearing none all those in favor say yes yes all oppose no motion passes 5 next one on list tonight is the 2024 2025 School operating budget um chairman cross and board members at a special meeting uh on March 18th I presented our operating school operating budget for the 2425 school year and I asked the school board to approve the 2024 2025 School operating budget that's funds 103 2011 and 202 totaling 176 M 376,000 914 as presented at the March 18th 2024 meeting thank you Dr shifflet school board members hearing the superintendent's recommendation do I hear a motion to approve that recommendation I move to approve the 2024 2025 School operating budget totaling 176 m376 $ 6,914 as presented by Superintendent shifflet at the March 18th 2024

025meeting thank you board member cave do I have a second second thank you Miss Hurst any question comments on this from board members I know this has been a long process and I feel like um first time in three years being on the board and going over this process that we've um I have noticed not only because I'm the chair this year but I've noticed I'm a lot of things we didn't do beforehand and so I want to appre I want to say thank you to Dr shifflet for uh your consideration your thoughtfulness you know we begin talking about this uh at the end of last year Miss lore and uh before a little bit before the end of last year and and Dr CHF was talked about how he was going to one of

026the first things he was going to do is talk to the new Schoolboard members when they came on about the budget and what they would like to see in the budget and I'm it was my recol recollection that we said we want to do what's best for uh our teachers we want to do what's best for Rockingham County Public Schools so we didn't really have personal agendas going into the budget we wanted to make sure that um our schools are well funded and our teachers have what they what they need and our class sizes was one big thing that Miss Hurst brought up a lot during uh budget time so I want to appreciate I want to say thank you to Vice chair Hurst and I don't think that we quite understand and sometimes because

027of so much of the negative uh publicity that the board has received especially from the media that we don't really see the gym that we have sitting at the vice chair position this year and Miss Hurst experience as a 15-year veteran teacher especially in rockim County Public Schools and her educational background and reading really has provided a lot of insight and help for the board uh that wasn't there in the past so I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart thank you for uh the strong advocacy that you had for teachers uh for class eyes for things that I'm that you brought up that wasn't brought brought up in the past so thank you so much for uh taking time away from your family I know that has been uh a

028big deal for all of us I'm missing a ball game tonight of with my child and I know the rest of the board members they miss things with their children and husbands uh as well so thank you guys so much for how much time you put into it and I will uh yield the floor to anyone else who would like to add anything right now hearing none Miss I just want to also um say thank you to Dr shifflet and to Justin Moyers who uh put in a lot of hours on this and walked new board members through um our first budget season and um I'm really pleased with some of the things that we were able to collaborate on and um some of the things that are going to come out of this budget

029season and it was really uh I think probably a really tough one and I don't think we even realize how difficult it was because we we started with um what looked like 8 million less than what we were anticipating just to come back and break even with what we had been spending and so I feel like um there's a lot of collaboration and teamwork approach to um making this budget um what it is today and I'm I'm pleased with that so special thank you to Dr shifflet and to um our finance officer Justin Moyers um who who helped guide us through that process I would like to say that after we got back from um meeting with the Board of Supervisors um and um folks from the county here U we had a a task

030to go back and cut $3 million um out of our budget and that was hard to do it was difficult to look at things that we've been funding things that's been going on and then to look at what are we going to start cutting $3 million is a lot of money uh when we're looking at it and one thing that Miss Hurst brought up that day and I hope you don't mind if I share this but very first thing she said when we got back and I I love this that she said it was I'm the very the very first thing that was brought up to us when we first started the budget was uh that we wasn't changing the budget of last year's budget and the last year school boards that set the budget

031and when she came back she said I'm that that was last year's budget that was an old superintendent's budget and that was the old school board's budget we have a new superintendent and we have a new board and so we there are things that we want funded and so we made sure they were funded and we had to start from scratch kind of looking at what we wasn't $3 million was a lot so thank you um for for your um for your help on this it's really it was it it meant a lot so thank you Dr chiplet and I'm hearing any more comments U from board members um all those in favor and passing uh this year's uh School operating budget say yes yes does that was that a 5 or no well you

032hav't called for no yet sorry I'm sorry all those oppose no okay motion passes 41 next on the list is oh I'm sorry I'm yeah there we are next on the list tonight is a language arts textbook adoption by Miss Kate chair cross members of the board Dr shifflet on behalf of the K5 language arts textbook adoption committee I am here to recommend amplify CK for the board's approval um as indicated by the Virginia literacy Act chairman Carlson board members I do recommend that the school board approve the amplify CK program as the K5 literacy curriculum as selected by the elementary textbook adoption committee and presented by Mrs Kim Tate supervisor of language arts thank you Dr shiplet and board members hearing the superintendent's recommendation do I hear a motion for the recommendation I move

033we follow the superintendent's recommendation to adopt the Amplified CK program as the K5 literacy curriculum as selected by the elementary textbook adoption committee thank you Mrs Lord do I have a second second thank you Miss Hurst any questions comments I have one okay or maybe two see good TR can you share uh with the board what um what it was you liked about this curriculum over all of the others what made this one stand out because you had a lot of different committee members um I'll share what the committee liked about it um I was not necessarily a part of the decision um they developed a set of priorities prior to selecting the textbook those included to have a clear phonics scope and sequence contain Rich highquality texts that support comprehension knowledge building vocabulary genre

034balance and morphology to contain assessment components which are diagnostic formative summative and aligned to the Virginia standards provide userfriendly resources for both students and teachers to offer tiered instruction materials for small group English Learners and special education and to provide high quality technology including side slide decks as possible their assessment of CK included the following it contains an intervention toolkit it contains Google slides that can be adapted and uh revised for comprehension and phonics it has an English language arts companion program it supports knowledge matters with which is the recommendation of the Virginia Department of Education it includes parent letters for each unit to help families know how they can help their children at home it includes vocabulary instruction High engagement strong unit overviews novel studies with novel guides decodables that spiral skills and digital

035readers in addition to physical text it also has a vocabulary app which the committee felt um was both appropriate and appreciated um that sounds like a lot and it sounds amazing like they've got there's a lot of I took a look at some of the things that were over at central office so I've had a chance to review some of what was there um what are are there any programs or things that we're using now that once we purchase this set of curriculum that we will no longer need to continue funding or does that make sense like I don't know for example like flocabulary I know some teachers use flocabulary or we do not support that at the central office necessarily now it could be supported through for English Learners or through special education and

036I am not directly involved in their budget so I don't want to speak to that um but in terms of what we have now most of what we've created has been developed by our teachers with help from the coaches um as far as a curriculum is concerned um the intervention the approved interventions will not be available from the Virginia Department of Education until June their final approval list that's when we expect it um we have every reason to believe that most of the things that we've already purchased including spire um also including um youly resources and um we think that most of those things are going to oh and um oh it's gone out of my brain but um most of those things are going to be part of the approved interventions but the law

037indicates that we follow the curriculum with Fidelity we're going to do our best to do that we'd like to be able to get a a hold of it quickly because we need to develop an implementation plan to make it as easy as possible you know as a teacher to be able to implement it um in a way that is both appropriate reasonable and doable so we want to be able to work with the company pretty quickly to provide um multiple opportunities for trainings if possible that would be part of our contract um so that teachers would have some choices as when that could happen maybe even as soon as the end of the school year if they chose to take that opportunity over the summer and then naturally when we come back in the fall

038um the committee had some recommendations for implementation as well and so we will certainly take that into consideration and many of them volunteered to be part of the development of the implementation okay um are you like right now thinking implementation would be full starting August back to school or are we going to like kind of bring this in in phases the law says Allin Allin however um we need to show people Grace yeah and um so that's why it's important for teachers to be a part of the implementation plan um so uh but I one of the things I think that the committee really emphasized was that what they saw in CK amp ify is not that different from what we've been doing over the last three years so they felt too that it would

039be an easier implementation because teachers would be pretty comfortable with the focus I think pace is going to be where we will struggle and again we will support each other and give each other Grace yeah are there other programs now such as like writing Revolution I know this the counties has been looking at that and forget the name of the other one um that was kind of comprehension focused are those kind of going to go get tucked away now as we F focus on I mean the writing Revolution is not necessarily a program it's a way of approaching writing K12 um depending on what a child needs so um again I think that's part of a philosophy but we need to anything we do outside of the curriculum would need to integrate with the curriculum

040and if it doesn't then I need I think we need to talk about that with our teachers with our curriculum leaders to determine what makes sense so final question I apologize um so with letters implementation it's a pretty rigorous for those of you that don't know letters imple implementation and that training is pretty rigorous for teachers are we still um and with this program is a lot of training most of our teachers have been through letters training but you're still going to have new teachers who never have been through so how are we going to are we continuing with letters training in addition to are we getting ready to wamp some first year teachers do you see where I'm going with this um it right now the letters course of study is a substitute our

041teachers don't have to take the um required vooe canvas course that our reading Specialists are taking this year because they've been through the letters course of study um at this time we are thinking we will continue that that was the recommendation of um curriculum leaders and Leadership and um we just last week had a meeting um a a literacy meeting with our University partners and local school systems I think our University partners are um working with us to prepare our incoming teachers and so it will be a year-by-year decision I think as to where we go with the course of study because again letters is not a program it's a professional development course of study that helps everyone be on the same page as to literacy from the beginning in phonics phonological awareness femic awareness

042all the way through to Reading Writing and comprehension it's complex and um so all speaking the same language I think helps us move a little more easily and when we collaborate we understand from the special education teacher the El teacher our reading specialist and our classroom teacher we're we're all speaking the same language about students um and their assessments and their interventions if needed so at this point um we would plan to continue that um at least for the near future okay so you're going to continue with letters the course of study which is teacher professional development we're going to continue this coming year with that yes that is the plan at this time okay all right any other questions all right hearing none all those in favor say yes yes all oppose say no

043motion passes 5 thank you all right that gets us into our informational items and our first on our agenda I'm really excited to hear about tonight is our JMU lab school for Innovation and career exploration chairman cross Dr shifflet members of the school board thank you for giving uh me and Dr Zoo gelder a few moments of your time to review our lab school um program that we have coming into to two of our high schools this coming school year um I'm very excited about this program a few years ago um Dr shifflet looped me in with all of this um so I've been a part of this program and watched it evolved it's been in many different um it's evolved into what we have today um for the last few years so I'm really

044excited from being a part of this program as the principal of Broadway to now in this position to continue working with the lab school so this time I'm going turn it over to Dr zelder thank you Miss abery uh Miss Mr chairman members of the board Dr shifflet thank you for uh having us back before you to talk about the lab school and where we are with it um very exciting updates for you um and some Buzz has already been created in the community regarding this um so just a brief overview uh you may remember that in 2022 the general assembly put Appropriations behind this supported by Governor yunan um and so the lab school legislation allowed for funding to support Innovation across the Commonwealth and universities were uh given the opportunity to apply for

045funding in partnership with school districts and so we came to Rockingham County and Rockingham County embrac this concept with open arms so our lab school partnership which was approved in January by the State Board of Education and thank you uh uh Mrs lore for being at that meeting when we uh got approved by the standing committee of the Board of Ed our concept that was approved is a partnership and it truly is a partnership between JMU Rockingham County Public Schools and Blue Ridge Community College and what we did was we came together as a group and said how can we bring together the talents of all three of these very important organizations to benefit the community so during this um this is a high school and it will start in ninth grade at Broadway High

046School and East Rockingham high school so just last week and the week before sorry I'm not used to being too tall for a microphone so all right there we go is that better can okay um yeah I I need to enjoy this new uh new hyp that I've obtained um so we have been already in the Broadway community and also at East Rockingham high school we started with an eighth grade presentation at the feeder schools so hilard Middle School first Mont videoo and then of course Elton Middle School um and then the following Thursday nights of those weeks we presented this to the parents so you're actually hearing the parent presentation uh that parents in the community have already benefited from from hearing this has also been translated in Spanish um which is on your

047board docs and in addition to that we've translated this presentation in Russian Ukrainian Arabic Kurdish and I believe that's it for now um but our lab school concept this partnership school is an opportunity for high school students to explore careers and so the way they will explore careers is by bringing in all of these wonderful people from the community into the classroom and it starts with the way the classroom will look so rather than you going to English from this time to that time and then World Geography from that time to that time and then health and PE from that time to that time we actually will have teachers from all of those subject areas together at eastrock and at Broadway I've met the teachers they're phenomenal they're very enthusiastic very excited about this in

048addition to that JMU professors and Blu Ridge professors along with industry experts will be putting together a team where they solve problems in the community so it might be clean water and so if clean water is the issue that they want to solve the health and PE teacher will be working with the environmental science teacher as well as the World Geography teacher and the English teacher to bring all of those standards of learning together to solve this community problem now because this involves industry then an environmental engineer might also be there to say this is actually what we do to solve clean water in our industry Blue Ridge Community College professors will also be there to help the teachers understand more of the content and to help the students see examples of people from higher

049ed in their classes same with JMU professors and that's just one example during this lab school um so I mentioned it starts in n9th grade at Broadway and East Rock and then it expands to 10th grade at those two schools while we bring on Turner Ashby and Spotswood High School and those principles are already on board and have been involved in this process um when they do 9th and 10th grade in this kind of fused Mega fused setting which I think you mentioned about the fused courses at Broadway which is why Mrs abery has been such an asset to this work um because of her leadership at Broadway um you'll see that Mega Fusion happening at those two schools in n9th and 10th grade along with industry along with the universities and Community College when

050they get to 11th grade they'll have some options they could say this was fun I'm going back to my Traditional High School setting or they could say you know I want to keep learning more about what I've learned from industry and in the careers and exploring these so they have an option they could go to Blue Ridge Community College they could enroll in dual enrollment at Blu Ridge Community College so the tuition is covered by the lab school funds um which are supported by the state so this is at no cost to the school Division and at no cost to the students or they could say I want to explore more deeply the careers that are happening at JMU and so they could take courses at JMU in the same manner and that also would

051be free of charge included with the lab school funds if they wanted to go to massaut and Tech just like planned they could do that as well or they could choose to go to Governor school so this is a halfday model um one of the reasons why we chose English World Geography environmental science and health and PE is because nth graders have to take those subjects anyway so why not during half of the day these students give uh get an opportunity to explore all these subjects with this team approach with industry experts to really learned using Hands-On projects and problem solving so lots of Hands-On learning in this experience um the classroom setting won't look the same uh we have funds to bring in cool furniture and technology and all those great things that come

052with the Innovative pieces of the funding that governor yunan gave to us because there are more adults here um there's an opportunity for smaller class sizes so just the teachers to students uh the ratio is about 1 to 15 no more than 15 but in addition to that the JMU professors the Blue Ridge professors the industry experts par professionals and also uh students from the universities who are studying whether it's teacher education or social work or public administration whatever it is they will also be able to be in the classrooms learning from this and the students learning from them in addition to that um as you can imagine when the governor released that we got the lab school approved Industries have been banging on the door they want to be a part of this and

053so the students at these schools will have an opportunity to engage in apprenticeships and internships especially when they get to 11th and 12th grade these are just some of the professions that they could participate in but this is not limited to what you've seen on the slides so I'm going to turn this over to miss abery so she can explain what the schedule will look like for kids so Dr zelder already talked a little bit about the schedule but here's just an example schedule for n9th and 10th grade and again for ninth graders coming in next year to Broadway in East Rockingham the nth grade Lab School uh classes are English English n environmental science R geography and health and PE again all four of those classes are required of all students whether they're on

054a standard diploma or an advanced diploma you might wonder why math isn't on that list and that's because our students coming in math um in n9th grade are in so many varying spots in their math um progress we want to make sure that th this opportunity is available for all of our students every single nth grader um if even if they're e or receive special education services whoever does sign up and come into this program will make sure that they have the required services and the needed um services in that classroom with them so that's why math is not a part of this program but these are the four uh classes and again um Miss lur already talked about the fusion class there are Fusion classes at all of our high schools that they run

055and as a a quick snapshot of that that means that two classes are integrated together they are being taught together their standards are integrated together the two teachers plan together um and they cross over so it could be um like she was mentioning the Spanish 3 in act leadership class there's a construction and geometry fusion class there's English 10 and debate um there's government and current affairs and there's lots of these Fusion classes that are going on out there and actually one that is Rockingham started this year is already environmental science and English um environmental science and health and pe9 and I understand that is going very very very well and um so we're very excited about how they've already fused that together so now they will be working with the other two uh teachers

056in English and World Geography to see how all four of those will integrate and be an interdisciplinary approach with all four subjects integrated with each other so this is what a sample schedule will look like um so we are on a block schedule then even a day so half of the day coming in in ninth grade half of the day is going to be a lab school that's where they're going to be with all four classes four teachers and then anyone else who's coming in that particular day uh whether it's a JMU or a Blue Ridge Professor could be a practicum student student teacher it could be someone in our community a community partner coming in as well so um or it could be a par professional and working our special ed teacher working in

057the classroom uh so again it's great to have this um this is kind of a look at the um Workforce redesign where we have a number of adults in wrapping arms around kids and saying here all these adults have eyes on you and are here to help you and support you um so this is what the sample schedule would look like so again they would be in lab school for half of the day and then the second half of the day they would be able to take their other classes it' be more of a traditional schedule they could have a math class or they could be if they're double blocked math they would have math during that same uh day or same time period each day they can still have their electives or special ed

058Resource as well it's important that planning uh for our teachers so in the morning during that lab school it's going to be like a flexible planning for uh the teachers in the lab school but that's really we think to plan for their other classes they have other classes to teach in the afternoon and then in the afternoon our lab school teachers will have um planning time together um because they need to have that time uh to get ready for their next uh projects or whatever it may be sample schedule for 11th and 12th grade Dr Zug already talked about the different opportunities of students going to JMU and blue rid on their campus taking courses if they want to go to MTC or apply for Governor's School again um all those opportunities are still there

059or if they choose to go back into the traditional uh setting they can do that as well and then you can see what the rest of the day may look like if they're staying in the lab school it's more of a traditional schedule for the second half of the day so that's a lot of information at once what kind of questions do you have for Dr zuk now I like to I would like to point out thank you Mrs Abernathy uh even though it says 40 slots on there we actually have 50 slots at each school um and so you know it's kind of like um prizes are limited come uh first come first serve for the prize so um we're very excited that at East Rockingham we are already over uh the capacity with

060the interest that we've received um and we are almost there at Broadway this first year we're expecting a 100 stud students that's 50 at each School those 50 at each school will become 10th graders so we'll be able to have uh 50 at each of Turner ashb and Spotswood thereafter and we do hope to build capacity to up to 600 kids over the course of the contract say you went to what is was that just to get for the following year or was that to Bus kids from mono down the to Broadway to Broadway to Broadway yes so Dan Sanders yeah Dan Sanders he he presented there and he said that there were a lot of kids interested about 20s something kids there yeah um the the time that they'd spend at Blue Ridge shmu

061tuition free they'd still get credit for that so if they went on to pursue a degree they'd already have those credits correct that is correct that's an awfully nice perk as a parent who's got two heading to college thank thank you for that how long does the state plan on funding this for so we've gotten Clarity from the state they're funding it for four years um this will carry all of the kids from 9th grade through 12th grade thereafter um we've built into our plan uh sustainability plan um you may or may not know that the JMU College of Education is the highest earner of Grant dollars than any other college at JMU and so being I always have to get that plug in there um and so uh you know being that we can

062leverage those resources as one example our advancement team is already behind this we've already talked um with Dr schifflet about ways that we can continue sustaining this so we feel very comfortable with the sustainability plan what's the estimated cost per year for this program so the estimated cost per year is actually a per pupil model so in the first year it's about 8,400 per pupil um it goes down to 5600 per year in year two and stays at 5600 per year that's year two correct if um if somebody wanted to start this in 10th or 11th grade would they be able to or do you have to start in n9th grade and if you don't then there's no other opportunities that's a great question and parents have asked that same question um we prefer that

063they start in 9th but it doesn't inhibit them from starting in 10th of course you know given the slots that we have um the precedent set for ninth graders you know they would occupy those slots if they wanted to continue and then I'm sorry oh no go ahead that's I was just curious about transportation in 11th and 12th to all of these different locations is that student provided Transportation No actually that's a very good question um and we've been able to work that out with Dr shifflet as well and the transportation team so you may or may not know that uh massaut and Tech is like the uh Rockingham Transportation Hub and so from massaut and Tech we will be able to have transportation provided by Blu Ridge Community College from there to go to

064Blue Ridge um from massaut and Tech Transportation will be provided to JMU for the JMU portion and then of course Masa nuton Tech is already there and whatever Governor School model was there would continue um would you describe this as what you would call Project based learning okay and so any ninth grader is eligible you have a certain number of slots but what if I am a ninth grader or an upcoming ninth grader and I'm reading on like a fifth grade level what is being being done for those students in nth grade that's going to help them learn to read yeah that's a great question so the criteria for getting into the lab school are are you a resident of the Commonwealth of Virginia that's it so we have to accept anybody in the lab

065school who is a resident of the Commonwealth of Virginia of course um we look at their physical address um you know if they're zone for East Rock they would go to East Rock Rock because of this partnership model um we've already built in that if they qualify for sped Services the sped Services would follow them into the lab school as well as English Learners um the benefit of the English the geography the science and the health and PE teacher working together alongside with the experts and teacher Ed at JMU and Blue Ridge those kinds of supports will be provided for the teachers to also understand how to support those who might not be reading on grade level um and also the additional professional development that they otherwise wouldn't get as being in the school it

066just seems like it just seems like a reach to me if we can't catch them from sixth to 8th grade and get them reading on level that we're going to send them into high school to do Project based learning I this is is a big concern to me um I and I'll just be honest and I don't know what anybody else's opinion on this board is but I'm not a fan of Project based learning and um it's really you know I think when they get older and they're in 11th grade and they're they're you know you can see that distinguishing of of who the kids are going to be that are going to do well at MTC who the kids are they're going to do really well um going to college um in ninth grade

067it's just it's such a for me to say that it's okay to just throw them all in this one big bundle together when they're not reading on level and and there's many of those that we have um and I remember when Governor yunan started talking about this and and I wasn't a fan of it then to be honest with you it was one of the things that I disagreed with him on with the lab school so um I don't it this is it's a little bit concerning to me to be perfectly honest I could say um you know just one one other thing to that um and you know having been an educator for 26 years um we always do a balance in in classrooms and so while Project based learning is the essence of

068rather than reading about science we're actually going to do it um but we're also going to read about it and we're also going to write about it and so that's what good teachers do um so you know today students are entering High School not knowing how to read and so we're helping to support them along the way and that would just continue in the lab school what I may add if I could just because I've been a little bit of part of work on this for the last couple years u in this model it I want to understand it's not going to be the kids walk in and they have a they have a project day after day after day this model's unique in a situation where maybe uh during this block of time the

069English teacher takes a certain group of kids who needs help right and works with them maybe a par parpro does maybe it's a reading Professor from JMU or someone from blidge Community College but it's about building this this flexible space where we can move students around and give them what they need so in my opinion right not you know not to you know just to give a different thought here would be this would be a better place to put students who are struggling because now if we just again we have kids who go to the high school maybe who are struggling to read their freshman year putting them in a traditional classroom probably isn't going to help them right here's a situation where we have some flexible time where kids can be maybe we take

070everyone to the auditorium and say you know what I got to give you some direct instruction for 30 minutes on this thing whatever it is maybe it's environmental science right and after after that I'm going to have a group over here working on a particular project and a group over here working on a par particular project and we've got a group over here that needs some help maybe with with reading and writing or whatever so the idea is about building flexibility to meet the needs of students right whether they're you know again could be an El learner could be a special Edge student just gened student who's struggling so I think in some ways that this actually um gives students a better chance who would be struggling uh than maybe just a traditional classroom uh

071and again not everything not not not it's not going to be Project based learning from 8 to 11:30 every day there's going to be uh variations of what we do there's going to be direct instruction uh there's going to be practice there's going to be times when you know we've said this when the health and PE teacher says we got to talk about something that's health related and you know it doesn't really connect with water quality so here we are talking about that particular topic hitting those standards but gives us I think again just a lot of flexibility and when you think about the support that we'll get from again blue Bridge Community College as well as JMU I think uh we'll have more hands on deck to support some of these students I think

072it's just a a different approach that would nicely some ways be beneficial to us do they we could hold all our Applause to the end I I would appreciate it we're just talking up here so do do they get what about grades yeah so they um feel free to speak um they would be able to get the same grades they otherwise would get so uh it'll show up on their transcript English n this is the grade they get you want speak more to that that's accurate it would look just like if they were in a traditional classroom what their grade would be on a transcript English N grade environmental science grade yeah and and I want to add too when we talk about students who would choose to to do blue rid or JMU their

073junior senior Year we're talking about concurrent enrollment so students would uh get the credit from Blue Ridge or JMU for their college transcript but at the same time it could count towards a high school credit that they would need for high school graduation we have students who already do that they they on their own enroll at bluebridge Community College and take courses concurrently the the difference here is uh someone else will be paying the tab for these students so that's one of the benefits um so what is what is the estimated cost at the end the four years I mean I know per pup was $8,400 their first year and you said 56 other but what what are we thinking yeah the total cost of the contract that the vdoe will be sending us the

074funds for okay is we get a million dollar in startup funds for year zero okay we're in year zero right now all right um and then years 1 through four it totals uh 7.9 million so we'll be receiving $8.9 million in total what do you I mean what what are we thinking that it's going to C cost the county after the four years I guess that's where I'm at now I mean I can't I can't although you you talked about the grants JMU now that'd be only JMU taking that Grant will Blue Ridge also be applying for that Grant as well um and what do you what do you think the estimated cost is going to be on the county to run this program well the cost is really that you know that per pupil

075figure um one of the ways that the budget has been built is that everything that comes into the lab school is poured back into the school division so for example the teachers who are a part of this they will get a supplement um and it comes from the funds from Governor yunan um the teachers will otherwise be employed in the school division um so at the conclusion of the contract they'll keep their employment in Rockingham as noral they may or may not get the same supplement that they have gotten for participating or they may not get any supplement you know depending on what the budget looks like at that point um as far as the tuition costs for Blue Ridge and JMU uh we have a very creative way of looking at tuition structure for

076this kind of programming um if you're familiar with our School of Professional and continuing education we have built Partnerships for dual enrollment specifically where the tuition is significantly reduced I know that Blue Ridge has um uh certain cost that's reduced for those participating in dual enrollment um and you know the expectation is that we would all come together kind of figure out um what we could do how many students we could continue supporting and how the program could be sustained okay I think that's going to be my biggest guess question just going forward is how it's able to be sustained and then how much it's going to cost the county um going forward yeah from a School Division perspective what we're offering for our freshman and sophomores it would be a matter of those supplements

077if we want to continue those or discontinue those right uh and they're they're receiving those dollars for summer work that they're going to be doing uh curriculum planning and and those types of things so maybe after four years that is not needed or it's not as great or whatever so that that cost would be minimal it would be I think putting our brains together uh with JMU and bluebridge Community College in year five to figure out the tuition piece right that would be the piece right thank you any other board members I've had I've seen this from the beginning and uh I at the beginning I had a hard time wrapping my brain around what we were really doing so I want to tell you a story and you tell me if that's where we

078think we're headed I was in a classroom I was asked to speak on egg science fair to a fusion class and um some kids expressed interest in doing egg science fair so I worked with them in a small group while the teachers taught the general classroom on the other side of the room and I I was giving the students okay this is what I need you to do and I need you to write three paragraphs on um I need you to do some research on what you're thinking about doing and then write find three sources and write a paragraph on each Source the kids are like okay paragraphs okay and then one of the girls said oh wait we just did this in English class and she pulled out her stuff from English class and

079put it down and said this is how you write a paragraph I'm like that is perfect so they're using their English skills they're using their science skills and they're using outside people to have more people there to help supervise the kids and to help guide the kids and provide one-on-one to the kids is that what we're doing here that's a great way of describing what we're hoping to see super cool to see person so but that that's kind of what we're trying to accomplish here that's that's awesome so thank you all for that sounds great any other questions comments I just um I scann the QR code and it looks like this is very like encouraged that parents are very involved with the student so I mean I totally get what you're saying Holly where

080you're like I want to make sure they're getting everything but it sounds like this is the parents are asked to walk through this with the student to make sure this is the right thing for their kid um I was able I didn't finish high school here but I was able to do a program not similar to this because this is way more extensive but where I was able to go off campus I had to provide my own transportation which is why I asked so it was limited to people whose mom would let them borrow their car and stuff like that um but it was a really cool opportunity um and I think this is a really cool opportunity but again I had to ask my parents can I do this can I borrow the car

081on Monday Wednesday Friday like to drive to this location um so I do like this and I assume you know to do this it's with parents and kids consenting together and saying yeah we want to be a part of this not just the kids like this sounds like fun I'm doing it whatever right and Mrs Cave's Point earlier was you know really good point because at some point at well at any point if we discover that the lab school is not really the best fit for you know um at this time for this particular student then we wrap support around that figure out what is best um but of course you know what good teachers do is they try and help the student figure it out with what they have where they are any other

082questions comments Dr abery Dr Brian sorry last name zoo gelder zoo zoo gelder gelder all right all right nice to meet you nice to meet you appreciate all you've done and Dr shiff appreciate your time as well and heading down to Richmond and doing this as well I remember that and I would look to hear or see you again I guess one more time so thank you thank you now you can applaud if you want to all right next on our list tonight uh for information is supplementary uh materials policy and I believe Miss Hurst has that update yes I just want to share um an update tonight on where we are at on our book policies um we had anticipated being ready for action tonight but we're just not there um we're still looking

083through the feedback that was provided um by our community parents teachers uh Librarians community members so we're still sifting through that stuff taking a look at the feedback provided um a lot of very thoughtful responses and we appreciate the time that everyone took to provide those responses um we um this those kinds of things help us kind of see how things are being interpreted we know when we're looking at the policy and when we kind of crafted the policy where our hearts and Minds were and then to see some of the feedback that was coming back out of the community um that it just made us go whoa that maybe wasn't the interpretation that we were looking for and so we're circling back around to kind of clean up some things um I would expect

084that um Miss cave and I are probably going to meet with our new Council new um attorneys to um get their take on this policy um make some adjustments as needed and then I'm hoping we'll have um we'll have the policy ready for action on April 8th so that's our next board meeting any questions comments on that board members all right do actually I would like to thank thank Miss cave and Miss horse for doing that I really appreciate you putting it off a little bit pumping the brakes yeah we had an overwhelming response of about 350 respondents on the survey so it was a lot to get through I tried getting through it and I didn't get through it so thank you thank you for doing that to be more thoughtful so yeah uh

085I I would just say yeah it was 347 comments um and the reason um and we are I don't know that I would say that we're pumping the brakes um I think we were in a hurry with this because the community wanted it because if there were books on the list that they want it back in the classrooms um we want those you know after going through a Review Committee if they needed to go back in the classrooms they could quickly and then if if not then not um but we really were doing it as a service to the community to get an established policy um and we look at other other counties that were taking one to two years um I don't want to spend that kind of time because I do believe we

086have other pressing matters in Rockingham County um such as you know student conduct and and things like that and um and of course putting you know literacy and education at the very top of that list and just getting past um some of these bumps on the road on the way but that was the only reason that we initially were trying to get things done quickly um but never for any other reason other than that so we definitely are calming through every single um comment and even even just the little ones that that you know people said well you I think you said should here but maybe you should have said shall you know and I'm like you know what I agree with that and then you know there are words like that could because every

087word matters right one word can change the whole meaning in a policy and so we want to be we want to have a good policy we want to have it written well and so um those are just kind of the things that we were looking at even the little bitty things comments that were submitted and we were definitely paying attention to and that's another reason why we're you know trying to take our time on it and and do it right and take everyone's opinion into consideration thank you Mr cave and thank you m HST for all the time you've put into this I'm I'm thank you guys um I see Mr Reed sitting over there today um saw the trees at Spotswood saw you out there today looking good everything's looking good um we're going

088to take a f minute recess and come back and go into our public comments yes yeah's you I and St back yeah well I'll hello you from that no I get it I get you know [Laughter] I s all right we're GNA begin on public comments and we'll get started there again address um I don't have the pull it up real quick just kind of want to go over the rules for public comment just briefly uh tonight um let me pull it up comments here we go I pulled it out yeah I'm mostly just be kind let's just start there um so the first one on our list tonight is Haley Hodes hello chairman cross Dr shifflet uh school board members I apologize for my nerves it's been a while since I've spoken publicly publicly

089my name is Haley Hodes I grew up going to Harrisonburg city public schools and all my family living in Rockingham I drank from the hose and wandered around Mass expanses of acreage and read any old books lying around with zero parental oversight just like many of y'all now my husband and I have three kids in Rockingham County Public Schools tonight I'd like to talk about government overreach let me breathe we are all very different but we all love the valley that we call home and there is another single yet important thing we can usually all agree on most Americans will tell you that they do not want big government involved in their way of life their decisions and their children's upbringing we can all happily nod and agree with that yes Republicans Democrats Muslims Christians

090atheists we all want to keep the government from disrupting or sticking their agenda-driven fingers into our daily lives this is where the actions of the school board are concerning I'll be honest I'm a young parent my kids are still in elementary school and I didn't pay a lick of attention to the school board until I saw some guy burning a mask on Facebook hi um so now I pay attention and now we all say please big government stay out of our lives and then a governing body bans books but only books that they choose and then our governing body creates a LIF list of trans kids for what reason and then our governing body changes their legal representation that we as taxpayers foot the bill for and then our governing body refuses to answer any

091questions they just laugh at us for a board that is promoting transparency all I'm seeing is a board putting their dominating fingers into a whole bunch of issues that most of us would rather keep the government out of does any parent in the world want books and knowledge yanked from their children's hands I'm sorry that you want to raise children with zero knowledge of other walks of life but the rest of us want our children to learn and experience what the world has to offer and as a young mind reading opens that door does any parent want their child on a government list that is absolutely insane to me that any parent whatsoever would be okay with their child being added to a list that a governmental body is keeping for God knows what reason

092over a name the last thing I would like to add is that I filled out an official media request form for the Holy Bible to be immediately pulled from all shelves because of the sexual obscenity and violence myself and two other parents have done this this was in January I am still waiting for even just a response from any school board member but instead I see them laughing about banning the Bible on Facebook you're attempting to shut down everyone who doesn't agree with you with your disgusting governmental overreach and finally our state's motto six temper tyrannus thank you yield the rest of my time thank you next on the list is Michael stimle evening board Dr Dr shifflet um i' just like to recognize two excellent Educators in Rockingham County I haven't heard public recognition

093Donna rodick a librarian at Cub Run and also Jessica K I believe um from the Elton Middle School library I think it's perfectly appropriate to recognize those Librarians in the context of we're talking about banning books like we have excellent Librarians in our County who are knowledgeable and who have presented presented information to you all on how to um present policy and you have ignored uh what they have said um these are award-winning Librarians all right let's talk about character counts because that's important right character counts trustworthiness respect responsibility fairness caring and citizenship those are the pillars of character counts and the rcps adheres to um I've seen these characteristics reflected in the students of rcps and their support people as I've been privileged to have seen multiple school board meetings at local schools where

094these students teachers custodians assistants volunteers and others have been recognized I wish I could say the same about some on this board some on this board have been proven to be untrustworthy when it comes to facts about the implmentation of book bands and reasons behind changing legal counsel as as a taxpaying citizen in Rockingham County I want to know why why did the did the board Implement a ban of 50 books without any formal complaints made to standing board members public statements made by board me board members have indicated that no such records exist Foya requests have indicated no such records exist again no formal complaints by parents about any of of these books that are on this list no formal complaints there are no records that exist why is and why is the board

095using Virginia law 22-6 to justify its policy regarding supplementing material when the law itself also Governor yunan have indicated that the provisions of this act shall not be construed as requiring or provide providing for the censorship of books and public and elementary schools and second uh Public elementary and secondary schools I have copies here to hand out to you to remind you for uh Virginia law 22-16 um for your reference I've also have copies of the First Amendment of the Constitution um as it is clear to me this board has trouble understanding basic protected uh Free Speech this board has chastised the media for reporting facts and and has it has misrepresented the truth this board has an Integrity problem and I pray that this board will start telling the truth and stop hiding behind

096lies and deception Mr Simple you can hand you can give the CL those right there should do with those afterwards thank you next on our list is Nancy Basset I forgot to mention one we get the 30 seconds you may hear a little ding so that gives you just a heads up I don't think I'll need that but okay thankk you so School Board Dr shifflet I'm Nancy Basset president of the Rockingham County Education Association and I wish to speak on the library policies and I have three points for this first it's ill conceived these policies claim to P to place parental input in a Paramount position however all existing policies and practice have always respected the parent wishes and values notice was given permission is and alternatives are provided in practice these proposed policies

097in their Inception have shut parents out of the process and let the views of a let the views of a few limit the Liberties of all it's also IL defined I don't have the time allowed here to quote all of the semantic issues in these policies but anyone attempting to sort through them can see that there are numerous contradictions vague terms and unclear wording this level of murkiness leads to inevitable problems with implementation and the third point is it's unrealistic to implement the way you have them there are more questions and answers in these policies from how the Committees are selected to what happens to the materials in the meantime to whether the committee is even expected to read all of the materials they are reviewing how is an individual teacher or a librarian expected

098to sort through this when there are such glaring issues at the building and the county level it is irresponsible to vote this policy into practice with no Clarity or plan for implementation and I want to leave you with an analogy Virginia sets its laws for teen drivers from when they can start practicing what hours in the day they can drive and how many passengers they can have in the car while one family may decide on an approach apprpriate additional limitation for their team maybe such as to put their cell phone in the trunk before Transit based on that individuals personality or maturity level and that family's values it is not permissible or appropriate for that family to have their neighbor team do the same these policies open the same issue one family cannot tell another

099what their kids can or cannot read or can or cannot see this is a public school system thank you Michelle Ru BR good evening members of the school board I'm Michelle row and I have over 25 plus years of caring and volunteering for the students of Rockingham County Public School I object to all three proposed School Board policies regarding challenged supplementary materials but I particularly object to the section of policy 2ab BB describing the procedure for challenging books that quote do not otherwise contain sexually explicit material unquote what does that refer to is anything up for grabs is it books containing references to murder rape emotional abuse or mistreatment of children that would effectively Wipe Out the entire works of Shakespeare and Dickens instead it seems expressly designed to allow parents and community members to

100challenge any books with lgbtq racial or gender themed themes because they are politically opposed to them not because they are actually dangerous to students the policy's challenge review procedure is also cloaked in secrecy for example it says that three parents guardians or community members will serve on both the school level and District level review panels I would like to know who will select these individuals and how how will the board ensure that these challenged books get a fair hearing will the community members be public the procedure also says that the district level committee will provide a recommendation to the superintendent or design will each recommendation be made public further it says that the superintendent or design design will make a recommendation and if the person who complains disagrees they may challenge that recommendation and seek

101the school board's review why according to the policy at this time each material has gone through a school level review a district level review in their superintendent's decision why can a complaintant then bump it up to the school board if they don't get the result they want and will the school board's recommendation be made public finally what role will the students play in the process so that they can learn from it can a student challenge a book and a student over age 18 serve on the Review Committee I do not feel these policies are necessary because we already have policies in place at the school level in excellent Librarians who have expertise in this area but if we are to have a new policy I would like these questions to be answered so that it

102does not appear to be a ploy to remove books with lgbtq themes or characters thank you Jacob thank you all members of the board one second I would like to mention some things that I've been experiencing myself people have been labeling me and implying me to be immoral simply because of the people I associate with and the types of people who identify themselves as like lgbtq and stuff and I feel that's an unfair assumption to make because not only am I an eagle scout but I'm also involved in extracurricular activities and I hope that I am moral however I cannot myself be the judge of that and I feel that it is good to have different opinions and to know people from all different walks of life which is something I try to do so

103much I love having discussions with people who have different opinions than me and have different views than me I enjoy that and I think that's something that everyone should do everyone should go and talk to someone who doesn't feel the same way as them because it expands your horizons and lets you have so much like a very rich life it lets you have a life that's full of different opinions and different views that you can determine for yourself and it just helps you become a better person overall and that's where I'm going to end it thank you thank you Jacob uh next on our list is will malando close as Maldonado Dr shiffler board my name is Will Maldonado and I thank you for hearing me I come to you on behalf of the silent

104majority there's hundreds and thousands of reing Rockingham uh residents that are behind this band I come to you as a father and a grandfather my daughter is about to have a family I thank you for making this School safer because of this band I come to you as a veteran I I I was during the Vietnam war and there was tough decisions had to be made I thank you for making tough decisions you're in a war you're in a war between good and evil and I thank you for looking at the the tough decisions and making those tough decisions I'm also come to you as a resident of Rockingham for over 20 years in a business owned paying taxes to the Schoolboard system so they can function I thank you for being a Steward for

105keeping improper material from the kids we are a moral Society we have to make different decisions I thank you for making the hard decisions it's once said that sticks and SS may break your bones with words and never harm me it's a reality that in the school system words are being tossed around words of bitterness and resentment and hatred there's all kind of violence within the school even sexual connotations that are disturbing the kids there needs to be and I want to encourage you to find funds to be able to develop curriculum that will teach students how to be honest uh sincere moral and uh be kind to one another be able to forgive one another that will change the society and in in the atmosphere of the school system it's also been said that

106a picture is worth a thousand words my question is to the kids as they look at those pictures in there what thousand words are going through them what are they trying to fulfill as they look at those pictures some people oh they're not going to look at anything well I beg to differ what happens to you each day as you walk commer watch commercials on television with this beautiful steak that you can almost smell it and you're ready to have it or the lobster just soaked in butter or the barbecue ribs with the ribs just finger looking good what do those do to you as adults it causes you want to have them and what do you think it does to the children as they look at that in the Pu Pu stage they're desires

107to fulfill that it's Pro proven record that uh n over 90% of the felons who committed sexual crimes have addictions to pornography and issues with pornography and I thank you for saving our children from being addicted pornography My question is what if we save five or 10 maybe 20 men be involved in pornography and and commit a sexual crime what if we only save that many and I thank you for what you're doing and a word final word from the mor the um solid majority they would say to you be strong be courageous the solid majority is behind you and I would say to you thank you for making kid the Rockingham County kids great again and I want to welcome you as a as a Vietnam veteran and say thank you last on our

108agenda tonight or on public comments is Nathan muselman thanks all right I'm G to piggy back on the young man over here I'm not from around here I first came here for my undergraduate degree then lived in the Middle East for about a decade before moving back here in 2011 I moved back here because I love Rockingham County and one of the things I was especially looking forward to was rooted Community when I use the word Community I think of relations personal relations that uh include qualities like respect trust neighborliness Mutual support um the main point I want to raise tonight is that for a community to retain such relations to be a community and more than name only it takes work sometimes hard uncomfortable work modern society provides a lot of easy opportunities for

109people who disagree uh to publicly Express their consternation with each other but precious few to sit down and talk with each other constant speculation about each other's motivations and moral character destroy trust and respect living snug in our respective Echo Chambers and social clicks undercuts neighborliness and mutual support our social structure doesn't do much to promote listening to or understanding one another this is why I've been impressed by the reports of the community dialogue initiative that can be found on the RCP rcpc rcps website under the Community tab uh what I find there is insightful hopeful and practical and I encourage folks to take a look if you haven't done that already these facilitated conversations on difficult topings topics during 2022 and 23 generated a lot of good ideas and supported healthy community relations I

110encourage the school board and School administration to see those conversations as just the beginning of an Institutional commitment to hold our community together across issues that would otherwise hold us apart we can build on the successes of this initiative Rectify mistakes made and model the community we want to be I'm not intending to be naive here Community dialogue isn't going to solve all our problems nor should it should it be seen as a a way to find agreement about everything um and to be honest some people are just committed to their enemies uh they just will not let them go I've live lived in parts of the world where those are the folks that dominate everyone else there's a lot of you know disagreements and sometimes uh uh strong disagreements in our community but things

111can get much worse if we don't want them to we're going to have to choose to work at it if you do choose to continue the work of the community dialogue initiative in some form I'll be one parent ready to support you in any case I want to put myself out there to those who might disagree with me on issues uh I've said a few things for example about the removal of the the books from the school libraries I see that issue uh as really a standin for Sharp differences in social uh values and ideas I find social values and ideas endlessly interesting and I'm always looking to improve my own if if anyone wants to talk uh let me know thank you thank you I in the past I've heard people kind of grown

112when we get to public comments but I do appreciate hearing from the public uh for those who um like what we're doing and those who don't like what we're doing it's good to get good feedback uh from our public so thank you tonight for coming and speaking uh during public comments uh tonight uh our next and our last order uh in public uh this public meeting is uh Schoolboard comments and I will start with Miss lore tonight thank you um first of all do we have any students in the house yeah a couple of you guys friends good to see you here tonight thank you for coming I hope you learned something and um also there's been a lot of news about our new legal council and we haven't talked about it tonight so can

113Mr Cross can you please explain introduce our new legal counsil and then also explain how we came to have new legal counsil I'll do that during my public comment so I've got a lot to say on that so thank you um Miss Hurst Miss cave um I have a couple questions about um field trips because um my area is all Buzz about the upcoming field trip to the forb center and uh a lot of that happened um in December 2022 when most of the board wasn't here and so uh I went back doing a little bit of research and one of the last things that we heard from uh Dr Shel on taking our third graders to the forb center um was in um a WHSV I guess interview that he did what he said

114was if we do find that elements of a field trip are inappropriate how do we prevent that from happening in the future and so on so that's simply the process when there concerns we take a look at them to figure out all the details and then respond as needed and then he talked about in a meeting here where they put out an anonymous survey on how the teachers the third grade teachers felt that went on the forb center field trip in uh 2022 uh there were 22 that went he said 21 responded to the survey and 19 of 21 teachers felt that the trip was a positive experience 19 of 21 meaning that two didn't and I've already had two teachers um upset about going on the Forbes field trip like they do not want

115to go and so um and I think that's that's just something new that when you have Schoolboard members that are so connected to the community and we know um most if not all of them that they do come to us with concerns not as a matter of breaking that um you know chain where they go through the appropriate you know um what do you call it um what chain of command thank you um they go Theo you know on the appropriate ladder to get an answer on you know something they're concerned about um and I always track them to the right place when they need to but I am concerned I I'm concerned about going to the forb center because of all of the um the talk that went on the the last time and

116I guess what Dr Shel said there um he said that's simply the process when there are concerns we take a look at them to figure out the details and then respond as needed so I guess my question is how are we responding to the Forbes Center um situation that happened in December 2022 obviously we're going there um I see um I saw sorry uh one of the field trips that said no chaperon and again it was another very vague field trip permission form um no chaperon doesn't really talk about what the dance is and um and I don't know I think a big concern in our community was the land acknowledgement statement that was read um but I also in going back and listening to listening to the grandmother's complaint when she came it was

117some of it was the performance and was it appropriate for third graders and I even if I remember correctly eventually I think Dr Shel came back and said maybe it wasn't appropriate for third graders I mean I had teachers tell me that their boys not their girls but their boys were like covering their eyes because it bothered them and so I guess I want to know what the performance is about I want to make sure that we're sending our third graders because we have a lot of choices where we can send kids on field trips so I have a lot of questions but I guess my first is um normally do elementary school teachers they get to pick where they go on field trips and why is this one mandatory I'm being told that this

118was a mandatory field trip for them to go on that they didn't get to pick it and what was our response to the December 2022 complaint from um the grandmother that was here and I know that was a lot and we can you know the best you can remember what your thoughts Dr shifflet on the on the Forbes field trip yeah that was a few years back what I can say is uh there is an upcoming field trip uh April the 5th I think for some of our third graders to visit the forb center uh it is a field trip performed by the dance I guess the JMU dance U students uh and I think I shared that with maybe Mr Cross I think someone had asked for that um in terms of the forp

119center um they uh no longer read their uh land acknowledgement statement so that was something we had talked with him about back in the fall and Mrs Ford had worked on that and in terms of um this field trip um the information I had just a contemporary dance ensemble um and it talks about the particular standards that are covered and hopefully that information was shared it was shared with all of our you know principes and and teachers and hopefully that was shared with families as well so they could determine if they felt like that would be uncomfortable for them to to attend uh I think it's my understanding that maybe you will be attending that as well to see I will what it looks like yeah so yeah so in response to the whenever the

1202022 or whenever that that um field trip occurred we have worked with the forb center with the not reading the land acknowledgement statement to our students we felt like that was inappropriate and then trying to clearly communicate what should be expected at the field trip our some of our third grade students did this field trip in December and I didn't hear any any complaint or anything from anyone teachers principals anyone about that trip so okay thank you uh what about the other question um do the elementary school teachers get to choose their field trips uh they do yes Mo I think this may be a trip that we wanted our students to have an opportunity we partner with any given child and they try to do something for each grade level uh and this may

121be what they decided would be the most appropriate uh teachers typically uh select their field trips somewhere just about I would say two or three three per almost per grade level per year and it depends on the grade level sometimes kindergarteners may take you know when I was principal South River we'd go to the pumpkin patch we'd go to the police station we'd go to the fire station some really short field trips and teachers are you know navigating that and then uh and get in the upper grades they usually kind of limit not as many field trips but always curriculum related um usually third fourth and fifth will try to take sort of a longer trip maybe a full day trip somewhere uh maybe to the safari park or Natural Bridge or something just something

122of that of that nature I can remember just thinking back to my time as principal South River some of the trips we took and then occasionally they would look to do um trips like to Jamestown right or to DC or Richmond uh and and again teachers have a lot of autonomy matter of fact a number of years ago uh we had made an attempt to sort of um make our field trips more uniform and so we spent time talking about uh every F third grader should have a you know an opportunity to go to this place every fourth grader should go here and that didn't go over so well because different schools and different teachers had particular field trips they like so in general yeah they have quite a bit of autonomy and then principles

123um approve those field trips and try to be mindful of again not missing too much class time but enriching the The Learning Experience in the room so if for example fourth grade we've been talking about uh Virginia history taking the students to see Jamestown is really like a culminating experience for that for that particular grade level uh but that may not be a good trip for first graders right so also thinking about age appropriateness how how long can the students attend what what's most appropriate for them okay that and you answered that the next question um the school board does not approve Elementary field trips but I see that we we approved middle and high school what is it because the principal approves or what what's overnight overnight that's the field trips that you are

124approving are overnight field trip so there are a plethora of I mean I would say field trips you know a students going out going to you know do something or maybe the students in the FCCLA going to visit maybe going to the grocery store and pick up groceries we get parent permission for those field trips but we're not approving them because they're not overnight we the school board approves overnight field trips Dr shifflet I believe the policy is overnight and out of state so if they're just going out of state we approve that as well correct and we do I think in the policy say that Washington DC is not out of state although it would be but in the policy we say it's not do they still go to DC uh yes I think

125I maybe saw where a a group recently went I can't remember was it mon video maybe about getting ready to go and I saw some pictures I think someone post that were a group of I don't know seventh graders or eighth graders went to to DC that's awesome um well I just I guess I would just like to say thank you to JMU for you know agreeing with us um on the land acknowledgement statement um I really do desire to have um a partnership with them because we are so closely knit I mean we're we're we're tied in with JMU we're tied in with emu to some degree we're tied in with Blue Ridge and and I and I want us to have a working relationship um partnership but not at the expense of our

126students and not at the expense of the values in our community so um that's sort of why I um brought this up tonight and um and I think that it would behoove all of these colleges and um just different institutions that we work with to um always keep our um County values in mind um when when you know we have our students coming to your places and um so anyways I appreciate you JM for taking care of that for us and uh look forward to this performance in April all right is that it all right Miss [Music] burgling so I know that Holly did bring up um Mrs rck when she um did her highlights but I was informed that Mrs rodik uh Miss Dana who's our um Lucy Sims educator of the year is

127a district 2 Resident so I'm going to claim her in District Two even though she's on the east at Cub Run um and I just wanted to congratulate her again um but I will claim her in in my district so um congratulations and thank you I hope she's watching um and then I also just wanted to say happy spring break and I hope everybody's having a safe happy good fun Spring Break um we have no plans so I hope everybody else is doing something fun bus driver training but listen and I I I have to say I looped Jackie into Mrs lore into bus driver training and then my husband couldn't take off so I am going to be at the next bus driver training and she's kind of prepping me ahead of time on

128what to expect so um I'm excited for that so just and I do appreciate you getting the ball rolling on that because I had been asking for years can I please do bus driver training and when you were like Yay let's do it we got that ball rolling so thank you and I did I did Expect When J you you know they were like well what's the transportation situation like cuz now here we go I'm going to see you all the time running around that's right that's right anyways I hope everybody has a good spring break all right Dr chiet uh no thanks I'm good for now sure all right um this may be a little lengthy but I have prepared this tonight and I do want to uh talk about uh our legal council

129and and get into just a little bit of things of some rumors and things that's been going on and address those tonight so um first of all I hate to talk about this in in public and I hate to take away from our main purpose uh which is our students um but since the Daily News Record has made this a controversial Topic in our community I feel like I need to address it um their educational reporter with the Daily News Record is publicly being championed by the left to constantly report negatively about this board excuse me it's my time to speak it's my time to speak it's my time to speak the next time you interrupt me let's stop it's my time to speak I gave you your time to speak it's my time to

130speak thank you where was I see where I was at I tonight I feel like I need to address and what's been said uh the left like I said I'm the left is Champion I'm this reporter constantly about this board uh if you don't believe me all you have to do is go and search on social media and those who are actively fighting against this board um this reporter also had pinned to the top of her Twitter page for months the hit piece she wrote on on board member Hurst and board member cave before the 23 elections um and the hit piece was on their supposed involvement with a Christian action group called City Elders which group has been down to the state level invited by delegate Chris Rion and who they opened up in

131prayer for the state so this is not some secret society group but she had pinned to her her Twitter page for the longest time this page that was I'm negatively trying to have a negative impact upon the election but it didn't work and it's still not working I would say two-thirds of its readers See Clearly what's going on I'm the first story uh that this news reporter wrote on about the our newly elected School Board I called them highly politicized when I confronted this reporter about her biases towards this board she said they were highly politicized because they were endorsed by the Republican party I asked this reporter why she's never reported the city school board members as highly politicized because the City Board recently endorsed their members as their Democrat candidates in response I

132did not get any response from that comment of why she has not spoken out on the city board on why they are considered highly politicized when they've also been endorsed by the Democrat Party only thing I can come away with that is that there's two standards in reporting when it comes to Democrats and Republicans so let me say the elected officials sitting here tonight at this Das we work for the people and the school board's attorney works for us the board felt like bachan and Rose did not have the board's best interest and over the past couple of months circumstances have risen that have caused the board to question our board attorney relationship trust is an important factor with legal counsel and representation the board had doubts about that trust so we decided it was

133our in our best interest to hire someone we trusted Daniel Rose with l and siy is an excellent attorney he's a trusted community community member and is a veteran of the United States Air Force Lon cyth has also been a trusted legal firm in Rockingham County for over 150 years we've had conversations with Mr Rose and trust him and the firm he works for to represent the Rockingham County School Board in all of our matters transparency so let's talk a little bit about trans transparency tonight the way we went about terminating our relationship was not illegal or a violation of board policy the board was in agreement to terminate Bach and Rose in hire Linton and cyp I had conversations with board members and within hours of sending out the email to Bach and Rose

134I shared that information with Jackie lure at in a Clos session meeting this process was also not un an UNC uncommon practice board practice which I have experienced firsthand over the last two years for example at the 20123 Pence middle school board meeting chairman lore Vice chair mcquilkin and board member folk had sought legal council and had Bach and Rose draft a motion to accept certain parts of Governor yonan's transgender model policy while rejecting prevision Provisions b d and g which had to do with hiding name changes from parents common rights of privacy in bathroom and locker rooms and protecting female sports from male athletes I was not told of this motion and was completely caught off guard by the motion as Mr folk read it miss mcquilkin seconded it and Miss lore voted for

135it all three of them had kept me in the dark and had not told me of their sought out legal motion which they had our school attorney draft this was not an uncommon practice amongst this board in which I've experienced over the past two years for two years I have tried my hardest to reconcile my working relationship with board member lore I've asked her for a meeting I've asked her for several meetings I've asked her that her husband could attend and my wife could attend and we could have dinner together and try to work over our differences over supper and I've never once had that reply I say let's let's sit down and work for our students instead Miss lur has spoken negatively about me in front of students at FFA events she's misled the

136public about me refusing to attend meetings over b d and g in yin's model policy and she yelled at me to shut up after a three-hour team building meeting at J so yeah it's it's funny but when you waste three hours of your day going through a three through a team building uh process and you're told to shut up it wasn't too kind and I've never told Miss lore or yelled at her and told her to shut up so I'm I'm not done please I've gotten more time left so I wanted to go over a few because I've been called a liar on this and tonight I'm going to I'm going to set the record straight from my email accounts which Foya um since we've taken on over on the board Foya has been non-stop

137to the point where we're probably going to have to hire a part-time worker for the community just to go over the Foya request for the school board itself and so these notes are you're welcome to them and we you're free to see all my highlights on these as well so I wrote Miss lore on August 28th of 2023 and I requested that she would immediate immediate meeting with legal and all school board members concerning Young's transgender model policies that was on August 28th of 2023 because we had not even brought up the model policies at our Schoolboard meeting and they was ignoring them her response to me was upon review of the model policies it is clear to me that we cannot simply adopt the model policies as presented on the doe website because in

138many cases they overlap lap with existing policies which will create confusion these policies also require additional training for our employees which may not be in place at this time instead Miss lore wanted to focus on governance training and she wanted to finalize our pillars of character for Effective board communication document before we move forward with incorporating the model policies into the rcps policies she stated can you please send me some dates that you are available to meet with a mediator likely Wayne as well as Lindsay after I receive your dates I will work to find a time I responded back to miss lore let me get this clear you're putting effective board communication document ahead of Governor Yan's model policy I have made it clear to you that I do not believe it's best at

139this time to waste tax uh payer money by bringing Dr Harris and especially after we said sat through a 5-hour training back in July and you yelled at me telling me to shut up after the meeting you have made zero attempts to reach out to me I did not desire to sit through more meetings I do not desire to sit through more meetings at the expense of taxpayer dollars on August 30th Miss lur replied back to me in order to ensure the success of creating meaningful policy for Rockingham County Public Schools I believe we need to have a work session to discuss the pillars of character for Effective board communication before we can work on integrating the model policies into our policy manual can you please provide with for me dates you are available for

140a work session to include a legal update regarding the model policies thanks I replied on August 30th I'm not attending your work session I will attend the legal session please let me know what time you will begin again I was she was I was told in a public meeting at Broadway that I said I would not attend the meeting for b d and g that is simply not true again I went through there asking again on October 9th board member lore policy DG and H are very important to me I will adjust my schedule to make sure we meet on these three topics please let me know when the board is ready to meet so there was never never a time that I said that I could not attend a meeting on Governor Yan's model

141policies DG NH and these will be for those who want to take a we'll give that to the school board Clerk and she can um make that available for fo you for those who want to read that um furthermore I saw on Facebook this past week that former board members stated we needed an RFP process for our school attorney that's utterly absurd to think that we would put our Schoolboard attorney out for bid Virginia code 2.2 4344 exempts the school board for any RFP process Schoolboard policy BCG also gives the board the authority to retain an attorney for legal counsel and services this process does not have to be voted on but rather have a majority consensus amongst the board as far as the Harrisonburg city public schools are concerned in MTC this board will

142do what's in the best interest of rcps we will also we are also talking about whether we will be attending the emergency board meeting that they wanted us to attend on April 1st I let them know yesterday after um they asked for the meeting on Friday at 4:50 by Sunday the DNR has already had a an article printed with quoting them and and ready to shoot out on Monday's paper and so did the Harrisonburg Citizen and so this tells me that the Harrisonburg City School Board had no uh real reasons to want to uh be professional and to work with this board other than making this a political show for them in the paper so we will do what's best for rcps going forward when it goes to Mt MTC there in our opinion and

143in our attorney's opinion there is no conflict of interest there and we will do what's in best for rcps going forward and we will also let them know in writing what our decision will be so again the school board's attorney is exactly that it is the school board's attorney those sitting on this dis that is our attorney to BU able to call and I will add I will add this at the very end when I came on this board I did not have access to that attorney my questions that I wanted to ask that attorney always had to be ran through the chair of the board and when I took office this year as a chair of the board the very first thing and these board members can concur on this the very first thing

144I told them is I said I want you to have access to our school attorney when you want to talk to them and so they are to have access they can have access to them and call our attorney up at any given time they just they just let me know that they've contacted the attorney and what they've talked about that's all so again we will do what's in best the best entry interests of rcps and our attorney going forward and we felt like uh Daniel Rose is going to represent us very well with L and sight um with that being said we do have reasons to go into close session um so do I hear a motion to go and close session tonight I'm move that the board enter a closed meeting to discuss and

145consider the following pursuant to the provisions of Virginia code section 2.2 3711 A1 Personnel sub specific public officers appointees or employees for the purpose of considering such individuals assignment appointment promotion performance salary or resignation thank you Miss Hurst hearing that do I have a second second thank you Miss cave any uh questions or comments on that hearing none all those in favor say yes yes all those opposed no motion passes 5 thank you for coming out tonight this meeting is adjourned