2024 03 11 - RCPS School Board Meeting

001I'd like to call the order uh this Monday March 11th 2024 regular school board meeting uh we want to welcome everyone here tonight uh thank you for coming out we have some awards to be able to give out to some outstanding uh students tonight and uh it's good to see so many familiar faces in this incredible school here at mon videoo Middle School I'm at this time U we do I hear a motion to approve the agenda I move to approve the February oh no that's not the that's all right thank you Miss thank you Mr B thank you Miss Hurst any uh comments hearing none all those in favor say yes yes motion passes 5 uh at this time uh we will have a moment of silence if you'd like to join us thank

002you so much uh at this time if you can will you rise with me to say the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible with liberty and justice for all first thing on our agenda tonight is to um recognize uh our Britney lamb Kelly cogsdale character counts and I wanted to uh go over this because it's important because I don't think a lot of people really understand uh why we do this but we the Virginia code in uh 22 .1- 2018.01 is character education required in public schools and it gives the authority to school boards uh to make sure it's ran in our schools and so I just want to go over the these um attributes uh

003in character counts it says the basic character traits taught by uh or taught may include one trustworthiness including honesty Integrity reliability and loyalty to respect including the pre precepts of the golden rule tolerance and courtesy three responsibility including hard work economic self-reliance accountability diligence perseverance and self-control fourth fairness including Justice consequences of bad behavior principles of non-discrimination and freedom from Prejudice five caring including kindness empathy compassion consideration generosity and charity and six citizenship including patriotism the Pledge of Allegiance respect for the American flag concern for the common good respect for authority and the law and Community minded and so as we go through this tonight you see uh are recipiant of this award tonight know that they are a mirror of these six pillars that we um that we're pushing in our public schools to

004make sure that that we're teaching them good character so tonight I would like to uh welcome Miss Baker uh first up and she has monid Middle School there you are sorry good evening on behalf of the staff here at monov video Middle School I'd like to welcome everybody special welcome to Chairman cross members of our school board it's great to see some former students here I'm taking it for government class um and I would like to just say thank you to a couple of people before we get rolling I'd like to say thank you to our custodians for getting our space ready this evening um I'd also like to say thank you to our student leadership team hopefully you were greeted in the lobby When you entered today by some of our students so that

005is a a new club that we are working on this year um and I would also like to say thank you to my two assistant principles Mr G and Mr sailor because I couldn't do this job without them and they are going to tell us about a couple of our great students thank you Miss Baker um if I could have Miss Lily Meyers come join me up here Miss Lily is our uh one of our 2023 2024 Britney lamb Kelly cogs Dale uh character Council Award winners and once she gets up here I want to read a few words from her teachers says Lily is known for her unwavering kindness and compassion towards her peers always ready with a smile and a helping hand her classmates admire her for her integrity and honesty as she

006never hesitates to stand up for what is right even when faced with challenges Lily's positive attitude is infectious brightening the days of those around her she challenges herself in her academic classes taking three High School Credit courses while also balancing extracurricular activities such as cross country and track Lily is a natural leader at MMS and others often look for her to set the example she embodies the true Spirit of empathy and generosity making her a role model for her classmates and a shining example of excellent character at monov videoo Middle School congratulations to Miss Lily [Applause] Meyers don't go no nowhere yet is your mom and uh Dad here tonight are they would would they stand up so we can recognize them will you give them a hand tonight Lily I heard a lot of

007great things that your teacher had to say about you tonight and one of the things that I I recognize is when you doing the right thing even when it's tough and so thank you for being such an example uh to the other students that are here Mom Dad thank you for raising such a wonderful uh student to share with us here at mono middle school and here in Rockingham County Public Schools and we have a little lapel pen that we'd like to give you that you can wear a a certificate for Mom and Dad the frame on the wall when you get home tonight that they can remember this and a gift certificate to clein's Dairy Bar okay will you give her one more hand nice to meet you uh our second uh word winner

008this evening is Joseph Owens if Joseph could come down all right here's what Joseph's teachers had to say about him uh Joseph Owens is a remarkable student whose presence brightens any classroom known for his exceptional intelligence he effortlessly grasps complex Concepts and demonstrates a genuine passion for learning yet what truly sets Joseph apart is his unwavering friendliness and kindness towards others he goes out of his way to support his classmates offering assistance with a warm smile and patient guidance driven by self motivation Joseph not only excels academically but also inspires those around him to strive for their best passing Joseph in the hallway you can always be expected to be greeted by him with a smile and hello good morning how are you doing in him one finds a rare blend of intellect empathy and

009a generous Spirit making him a cherished member of our manav videoo Middle School Community show the the same thing with you I I love to hear that you when you're walking down the hallways you're encouraging others around you because we' all never know what people are going through a bad day or what's happening and for you to just give that smile or that little fist bump or whatever it means a lot so thank you for being a wonderful student do you have your mom and dad here with you tonight will they stand so we can recognize them thank you Joseph I also have a a pen for you clein's Dairy Bar certificate there and a certificate for Mom and Dad to be able to frame and pull on the wall remember this okay thank you

010so much thank [Applause] you all right next I would like like to ask Mrs Jenny white to come join me at the podium please uh we are blessed here at mon videoo to have a very strong parent support system but Miss White has definitely risen to the top recently she is a huge supporter of our Fine Arts programs here at monv videoo the energy time and passion that she has contributed cannot be measured miss morasco our band director shares that Mrs White is the parent she can always count on to help with whatever is needed when calls for supplies or requests for shopon are issued Jenny is the one who immediately delivers and always follows through this is also Mrs White's second year volunteering to costume mon video's School Musical which is no small task

011I will say um and she is tasked with costuming approximately 30 kids um to help them become their characters so she develops lots of creativity and talent that she shares with us um both of our most recent directors Mr diely and Miss Payne spoke of Miss White's initiative generosity and vision we cannot thank her enough for the countless hours she puts in to help our kids Embrace their characters and shine on stage thank you Mrs White Mrs White thank you so much for all that you do we couldn't do what we do in our Public Schools without our parent support and volunteers so thank you so much for for what you do we also have a gift certificate for clients from you that is I believe that's is that's a gift certificate from clein where's

012she at yeah sorry that's the next one and then the certificate here to remind you so thank you so much for all that you do thank [Applause] you and I will do a a Shameless plug for our School Musical if you would like to see her creativity in action uh we are putting on Little Mermaid Jr and that will be held the first weekend in April Friday Saturday and Sunday so we hope you can come back and see the hard work of our casting crew because they've been doing a phenomenal job getting ready great miss Morts will you follow all right good evening uh School Board chair chairman Coss members of the board and Dr shiplet we are excited to announce the character counsil awards to two cubine students and also to recognize the Cub

013Run volunteer of the year so first we will recognize the character counts award students so Evelyn would you join me up here please okay so here is what Evelyn's teachers had to say about her there is no doubt that Evelyn orti Lopez deserves to be honored with the Britney lamb Kelly cogsdale character counts award she models responsibility kindness and hard work every day Evelyn is a positive light in our school community and makes everyone around her feel welcomed and valued she forms positive relationships with her classmates and is truly a friend to all in the classroom she shows tremendous leadership skills that she is always more than willing to help others without being asked and she has a positive attitude and has earned the respect of staff and students in our school we are proud

014and honored to have Evelyn represent cuun in receiving this award tonight night congratulations Evelyn Evelyn would you stand out here so everybody can see your pretty face it's a pleasure to meet you is your family with you here tonight would they stand would you stand up so we can recognize you thank you we have a little lapel pen for you here a gift certificate to get some ice cream and then a certificate for Mom and Dad to be able to hang on the wall to remember to remember this okay thank you so much for being a positive light inside of our schools good job next we have Andrew would you join me Andrew right here so Andrew elari has shown himself to be a very respectful and caring young man in the classroom he is

015a model student who always puts his best foot forward in his academic work whenever he has completed his classwork he always asks what he can do to help his teacher or to help his classmates because if he especially if he can tell they need some help Andrew is a role model to his peers that they can look up to him academically and socially and he is trustworthy responsible and always sets a good example for others he genuinely cares about others and strives to have a positive impact in all things Andrew is a is very much deserving of this character counts award for his character and integrity inside and outside of school congratulations Andrew Andrew man would you do me a favor would you stand up here so everybody can see you how you dress tonight

016come on let's give him another hand tonight look at this guy you look good I'm going to come up there with you Andrew did is your brother did he win the spelling be yes he is one smart dude right incredible man I'm so glad we got another one are are you good speller too are you good as him are you going to you go further than what he's going with you reckon you're modest too we're gonna add that to that hey we have a lapel pen that we want to be able to give you and a gift certificate the clein's Dairy Bar and the certificate to give to your is your family here tonight yes will you stand so we can recognize you as well thank you so much hey thank you for being such

017a light and I look forward to seeing you here in the next well until you graduate all right all right buddy I look forward to seeing that spelling be too and now here's Miss King cobran assistant principal to recognize our volunteer of the Year good evening everyone Miss Megan Morris would you please join me here at the podium right there perfect m Megan Morris prefers to help out behind the scenes and does not like us bringing attention to all she does but she is so deserving of this honor tonight as volunteer of the year for Cub Run Elementary School she simply comes in unassumingly so to just run something to a classroom and the next thing you know she is there for many more hours she has put in countless hours of volunteer time throughout

018the year Miss Morris is an active member of our school PTA and she played a pivotal role in organizing our playground Edition we completed the this past summer her time and efforts truly do benefit the students and staff in our school we are truly thankful for all Mrs Morse does she simply simply goes above and beyond to support our students our staff our school on behalf of Cub Run we truly thank you congratulations Mrs Morris Mrs Morris thank you again for all that you do for our schools again we couldn't do what we were able to do for our children in the public schools without our parents parent support and so thank you for this is just a small token of the time and commitment that I know that you've put in here in our

019schools but here is a GI certificate to clients and a certificate to remind you just how great app parent that you are okay you thank you so [Applause] much next on our agenda tonight is our inspires award and um this is an opportunity for our community to get involved uh with um letting us know maybe of a teacher or that has inspired you a principal administrator someone in the school system that has really uh went beyond what you thought of or whatever but this is an opportunity for you to be able to highlight them so uh if you're a parent here tonight you're like man I've got I've got a teacher and maybe you're here and you're like I remember my teacher in high school and she's she's still teaching or whatever it may be

020uh that you hav able the ability to highlight them and they we have opportunity to see the great things that we're doing in our school so tonight I for our first um one is GNA be Miss di daring wow all right Miss Diana daring will be presenting to Garland Dean custodian at Elton Elementary School well there's a lot of you guys here all right Mr has become a staff favorite amongst my daughter and her friends he is always very kind to them and enjoys joking around with them at lunch my daughter frequently comes home to tell me funny stories about what Mr Dean said to them during the day and she and her friends enjoy challenging him to eat spicy foods at lunchtime hence the basket he's just a very kind person and AR ray

021of sunshine at oon elementary and we are very thankful for him Mr Dean would you come forward and so we can see your beautiful face as [Applause] [Laughter] well before y'all leave we want to make sure we get a picture okay want to get up front will you give them one more hand thank you thank you Miss Dean and girls thank you so much for for that and thank you Mr Dean for being such a a positive light to our children in our schools and next on our list tonight is parent Lindsay Smoot and she will be presenting to Katie Flannery kindergarten teacher at riverb elementary school all right I'm going to try to get through this without uh getting emotional um Miss Katie flaner is hands down one of the best Educators I have

022ever ever come across I have a son who entered kindergarten this year and knowing I am sending him to Katie every day makes things so much easier on my heart Miss Flanery inspires me to be a better better educator myself seeing her spend countless hours creating Hands-On learning or making each one of her students a passport so they can fly to another country in their kindergarten chairs confirms to me that my child is getting everything he needs each day Miss Flanery has helped my son grow so much not only in his academics but also in his confidence in himself and for that I could never thank her enough Miss Flanery is the true definition of inspiration Kaitlyn can we get one more picture will you stand there miss Flannery will you renew my passport if

023I bring it in okay it's getting close thank you will you give her one more hand tonight thank you Miss lner that's pretty cool this is a fun part of our meeeting here you know there's a lot of stuff that gets heavy at times but this is a fun time to see the good things that's happened inside of our schools and the students and um this is this is why we do as a as board members to see the good things that's happening like this so thank you guys so much uh last tonight is Simon Dustin uh and the students of Miss cordell's class presenting to Emma Cordell fifth grade teacher at Cub Ron elementary hi everyone I'm Simone Dustin H so we have some students coming to join us but I'll get started because

024I actually have a lot to say Miss Cordell is an amazing teacher when we first met her at the very beginning of fourth grade uh she she was so organized and professional she clearly communicated expectations to not only students but also to parents throughout the year she worked so hard to get to know not only students but also their families when one student did not have a ride to an early field trip she coordinated car pooling for that student and she didn't just ask about students extracurricular activities she showed up and cheered at them um she has empathy towards anxiety-provoking situations and so with the most with the utmost understanding is able to guide them through their lessons tests and social situations while accepting students where where they are at at the moment she really

025strives to bring out their very best on a field trip I show how she helps students and they help her there's such a sense of teamwork in that classroom that it feels like family if one kid's freaking out they just all seem to Rally together to help for a teacher to be able to connect so deeply with not only individual students but also so masterfully manage the group dynamic as just a second year teacher is truly amazing we're lucky that she looped with this student so this year in fifth grade grade she met them where they were at at the end of summer and with energetic enthusiastic creative inspiring energy has made the day fun and my daughter wants to go to school Miss Cordell is one of those teachers that students will remember forever

026because she not only cares about their academic performance but also their mental health and emotional well-being we are lucky or Miss Cordell is one of those teachers that they'll always remember as IA so um we really could not have asked for a better role model as these fifth graders prepare to move forward and transition into middle school so thank you Miss crle and here's your certificate and some [Applause] flowers all right guys if y'all can surround Miss Cordell there so we can get a good picture don't be afraid of her we know you're not H will you give her one more hand tonight was beautiful thank you guys and thank you our parents uh that presented here tonight we really appreciate that our Inspire awards are made possible by the financial support of reefy and

027um DuPont Community Credit Union so we wanted to to say thank you to those two tonight for sponsoring uh these events I we're going to take just a two-minute recess for those who need to leave tonight and then we'll get into highlights but thank you so much uh for those who were able to come really EXC I always wondered how that work e thank you sh all right we'll call it back to order here and go ahead Miss burglin I'm sorry no you're fine you are a rock star so we'll wait for you and so this will uh send us into a board highlights and tonight I'm going to start with Miss burgling down on my right hand side you ask you shall receive no one can steal my my highlights I hopefully I won't

028make this too long because I have a lot um so in the past couple weeks I was able to go to two of our musicals uh I just went I took all of my kids and my husband to the Rock of Ages at jrank and that was awesome the music music was amazing um it was really cool because there were people sitting around me and I you know we started talking and they said do you have kids in the show and I said no and none of them had kids in the show or knew anybody in the show so it was really cool to see the community come out and support it and the music was awesome um it was really hard not to sing with the kids because I knew a lot of the

029songs um but it was really cool seeing like their costumes and their 80s hair so it was really cool uh they did an awesome job and they had probably the biggest cast I had seen so far and all of the kids worked so well together filling the whole Auditorium so they just they just you know did an amazing job um I went to Spotswood and I saw Anastasia and I took my daughter with me and they had little crowns that you could buy when you went in and she did not take her crown off for like three days so everywhere she went she wore the crown and it was hilarious and we just let her and So eventually the crown came off thankfully but um the the the kids in that uh musical were so

030talented my very favorite part was this train scene I don't know if anybody saw it um but they had so many kids working this train um and it was on Q and it it went with like the scenery it was just really cool to see how they worked together um and that was awesome so when we when we got to Anastasia we were sitting down and um there were some students from another play another musical who were sitting behind us and I just wanted to highlight like all of the kids who are in all of the musicals they are so supportive and they come out to every other school's Musical and they clap the loudest and they cheer the loudest and I was just really impressed because as I have been going to all these

031musicals I'm seeing kids from the other musicals and they're literally at every single musical um so you know you guys are just like awesome role models and you know the kids here are talking about going to high school you're really really good role models for them coming to their musical supporting everybody else so I was just really impressed by that um great examples to your peers and just being supportive of everybody in the community um especially in the you know musical Community within um our schools the last thing I have was I had mentioned it um at our last meeting was a fundraiser at lynville Edom Elementary School which is where my daughter goes um and is a second grader there and it was for a student um Jonathan Hassler and um who who's battling

032cancer right now and um I was so shocked and impressed by the community support of this fundraiser like the whole community of Rockingham County um so you know kudos to everybody who showed up who donated who supported it was really really really an awesome thing to see how many people showed up we did um gathered donations Thursday and Friday and the just cars were coming in and out uh dropping things off they did make I'm not going to share the amount because I'm I don't want to spoil it for them but I was was blown away by how much they were able to raise for this family so um and I want to shout out the second graders because on Friday I got there really early and we helped you know set everything out put

033everything on the tables for Saturday morning and both second grade classes were just ready to help organizing things putting things on the tables and just hustling to support their friend um the teachers and the staff volunteered so many hours um I saw I was getting email 9:00 at night at 5: in the morning hey here's what we're doing you know when you get here uh so they were TIR tirelessly working and I was just really really impressed by uh the staff at lville and how much they volunteered to help out this family so those are my highlights I was really happy to be able to be a part of that and to be there every day to help them volunteer and um it was really cool I mean a lot of board members came to

034the event and um they had a b sale and the community everyone who donated to the bake sale that stuff flew out the door within like an hour hour so um I was very impressed as well by that so thank you to everyone who came and donated and everyone watching who who supported it it was it was really really awesome so keep an eye on social media I I assume they'll post the amount that they were able to raise on there um but you'll be shocked I was I was really impressed so that's all that's all that's not just all I mean you just stole most of our Thunder here tonight so I appreciate that uh if you were in Anastasia or at spotwood high school you helped out in any way would you and

035you're here tonight where you stand up so we can recognize you and any parents do we have any parents that helped out for that show as well incredible incredible show so thank you guys for all you did it was um I I I didn't get a chance to go to Tas um but all the ones I've seen so far are hands down the best that I've seen so great job great job uh Miss cave you're next I thought you were doing yours again I don't know why does that always happen to me um we actually got there we planned to be at that um the yard sale bake sale at 8:00 and I think we got there like maybe at 10: after it was a little bit late so we actually got a lot of

036we got some of the baked goods before it was out I'm glad we got there now but I will tell you when I showed up when we showed up just a few minutes after I think it started eight it was like 8 to 12 I mean there were already droves of people leaving and so it was just well supported I almost thought about wearing my blue team Jonathan shirt tonight but I didn't know if a t-shirt was appropriate but anyways and uh and I don't know if this is appropriate either but I just want to thank Miss daring who put in Mr Dean's name the custodian um for the Inspire award because I think our custodians they just they all I mean I don't want to brag on District 5 but we've always just have

037fun I mean they're the the ones that I know right so I mean we've always had phenomenal custodians ever since I was in school and um and I think some of them I don't know might even still be there unless they're part-time or or maybe just retired but um they're just they're just good people um Good Humor just kind and gentle love the students you know and um they make an impression on them so and and they're often overlooked so I just I think she's gone but I just wanted to thank Miss daring for doing that and um we've all had a really busy two weeks and uh so I had to make a list tonight um I was able um as I sered on the committee for um the Governor's School I was able

038to go to their board meeting a couple weeks ago and that was really interesting um a lot of of learning for me and U just learning how many students out of our um division get to go to that and I got to sit with two of the seniors and they told me all about it and their plans for life and um they're just exceptional people people exceptional students and um I'm proud to say that I'm a part of the you know the system that's educating them so um that was that was a really good day it was a rainy day um but it was a good day good experience um I went to ELA middle school PTO Bingo and that was bit there were so many people there the whole gym was completely filled people

039were sitting on the bleachers I mean it it just we love Community here and uh it was just really great it was ranw and uh we had a super time and we just I don't know my son and I well my oldest son and I went and we must have sat in the Lucky Corner like I don't ever go I really go to sort of people watch and just meet people and all that stuff that's that for me is fun like I like people so but um I won my son won another kid at the table that we were sitting with won and it was just this whole like favored corner I don't know it was so it was so crazy but um but it was just a really good time and and um I

040love you know that we're able to come together and raise money for the schools like that so um that was really great uh the regional spelling be I got to go to and um at Skyline middle school and I'm just I'm a nerd in that way when it comes to English and and math really too but I love spelling bees and um for me like those types of things are really fun and um just to see um Mr elari L Anthony when he was so excited and you just can't put in words I think I might have said something on Facebook about it but you just can't put into words that kind of excitement when it comes out of he out of a little young man like that I was just so just so happy

041to be there and be a part of it um and I joke with Matt a lot of times I tell him we we we share a lot of District three and District Five so um I'm going to take I'm going to take a little bit of credit no I'm just kidding but um but I love all of Rockham County but that was just it was great to to see um I'm excited to see him go on to National I think he's going to I mean I think he's going to be something else so uh also got to attend the dyslexia simulation in Broadway and that's L by Kim stump that's who I was invited by and I don't know all the people who run that but um and I think the way that I understood

042it is all of our par professionals have now been through that simulation and um and that's good to know um for me it was it was um an increasing knowledge type thing because I don't think I totally understood exactly what dyslexia is and how it affects but as I sat there and I learned I thought about people that well kids and I specifically could go back to fifth grade and even tell you who those kids were that they were probably struggling with dyslexia and we just didn't recognize it back then as well as what we do now and I remember in the simulation um the way that I felt when we were when we were doing the thing like we had to write a a paragraph about what we did today really easy got three

043minutes wrote it down um and then we had another three minutes to write what we did yesterday but you couldn't use like about 10 words and they were like pretty commonly used site words and you couldn't use certain letters you had to substitute for another letter and you couldn't like write the word and then Mark out the letter you weren't supposed to use like you had to stop and do it as you were writing and in three minutes I barely got two lines written and I was so like frust frustrated and they were teaching us that that's how those kids feel with that you know lack of language ability and I I could think about kids in fifth grade that probably had that issue and I remember like the way I felt in the classroom

044like not knowing what they were struggling with and going through so it was just it was so great for me um I just I met mump afterwards and I just went to her in tears and I'm like oh my goodness because if anything like it just it created empathy in me that I just I didn't know you know and so I just want to thank her for doing that and um and I know that we have many programs in rcps that the deal with learning disabilities and things but um that one was really great for me uh I was able to spend half a day at Elton Middle School this past week and I just happened to be there on the day that they did the uh Statewide tornado drill um and so that was

045really interesting and uh you know for the most part like I think the kids did really well and um and I think hallay for that but uh they even had you know staff that was out that day and I was asking well what if this happened and you had staff out that day like would you still be sitting here organizing while the tornado's on the way or whatever um and so they were explaining some things to me and and it's been thank you so much uh Miss Holloway and other and other principles that have just let us come into your schools and learn and um just allow us to work together and just make our schools the best they can be but um and I also spent uh probably an A little over an hour

046with Miss K in the library and I got to see the breakout sessions which are which are so cool and I'm nerd also in that way like I like Mysteries and it was like a a mystery of putting all these things together and learning English and you know nouns and verbs and adjectives and had a really hard time not like telling them the answers and I but I but um it was so it was so interesting but I was laughing with another girl that was that was in the library that we went to Elon middle school together and she was like you know there she didn't say they're so loud but she she was like you know the noise in here is so different than when we were in school because she's like I just

047remember I got in trouble for looking at somebody too loud you know and it's and we just laughed you know um but it was it was great uh all the different things they do in the library now um to educate our kids like it is so much more um than just checking out books and so that was that was really interesting um very fun and if they ever did like a staff breakout session I would I would I would go I would go but um and that I think is all that I had I think but anyway so thank you very much um for listening to me thank you Miss cave it's you know in two weeks and doing this is always tons of stuff especially now with all the musicals that we have going

048on as well just a lot of things that we have get a chance to get out and see in the schools so thank you so much for being involved uh to the point that you are and if you're from the east side of the county it is liberry okay so that's how we say it liberry and um Miss Hurst go ahead thank you uh one thing I want to highlight um is the work that the textbook adoption committee for elementary language arts did over the last month um these teachers and administrators they take time to meet outside of their school school um hours outside of their regular work hours they do this above and beyond and I just want to say thank you because I know that it takes a lot of time um to

049review all of the different curriculums that you know we're considering and to um spend a lot of time devoting a lot of time and energy into that process so that we can um make a really good adoption uh curriculum adoption selection um so thank you um their uh curric ulum recommendation is available for parents and students to review at central office this week and next um from 8: to 4: from let me make sure I get these dates right March 11th through the 22nd 8 to4 but then there are two uh evenings on the 12th and the 21st That central office will remain open until 7 o'clock uh for those of you that can't make it during um between 8 and four and then um my second highlight is about a rocking Academy fundraiser that

050uh was hosted by Sunset Drive Church in Harrison or in Broadway and they um held had a a breakfast fundraiser had a Goodwill offering fundraiser for our school it was packed we um showed up uh probably around 8 o' it was packed it was hard to find a place to sit there were so many people that came out to support um the students at Rockingham Academy and probably about 15 minutes before um close or before the end we were notified that they sold out they ran out of food which is a great um a sorry for those of you that didn't make it in time but it was a great problem to have because it meant that the community just was overwhelmingly supporting um this school and I want to say thank you to Sunset

051Drive Church in Broadway for opening your door doors and and hosting that for our schools those are the kinds of things that um it once again just goes right back to what Rockingham county is all about and it's about Community that's all I have Tom Tom think this pastor tomble yeah thank you to the to the pastor and to the Sunset Drive allowing us to do that Miss lur thank you um I was able to judge actually the kidwind solar project at J Frank Hillyard uh over the past two weeks and that was pretty amazing we only can allow I think three or four teams to go on and we had like 10 teams participating and these kids took um like little Motors and little Legos and all sorts of um uh little tiny lights

052and built projects and one team built like a um an amusement park and then ran the numbers and see discovered how much electricity it would take to run King's Dominion with solar um and it it was a really cool project and I I really appreciate them letting me uh participate and help with that um and then also the musical I I went to both the uh the two musicals in the last two weeks and one fun fact the J Frank hilard musical they auditioned students and they were able to take 80 students so they actually had to cut 20 students but also I mean like guys the stage was full it was phenomenal and definitely hats off to to Jay Frank for coordinating that and and all all of that um and then also I

053want to find out something about Anastasia I I would like the superintendent to find out for me about the big screen that they used and how we can get that at other schools because that thing was phenomenal if anybody oh oh I have somebody in the back that knows find me later and we'll it's talk because that thing was awesome I very much enjoyed that at Anastasia please don't give out our secret on there um and then i' I've started making the rounds uh and I'm helping with uh Broadway Jay Frank and Pence do some a science FFA a science fair projects and in that I got to see a bunch of kids that are preparing for the Parliamentary procedure contest and uh yeah parley um as a spectator sport is really awesome to see

054these kids to uh CH chairman chairman and uh I move and all the all the neat things that they do it's really super cool and I would totally be like hey Schoolboard let's go to the contest the contest is in um Hol Holston Holston which is down near Abington and our blessed little teams I think there's at least four teams and bless them because they're car pooling to Holston on a bus five and a half hours one way so they're going to go down on Friday compete and then turn around and come home on a school bus so if we can all say a little prayer that they that that they can support each other all the way home after competing against each other and that they have safe travels and that they can just

055manage because yeah good luck to them and those are my highlights thank you U thank you chair crw I just want to say um thank you to the Schoolboard members um for being uh visible um I try to go to these places as well and I can't get away from you I'm just kidding well when when I show up at the spelling be there's Mrs cave right so she and I sit together and we watch and then I go to the breakfast and there's Mrs Hurst and Mr Cross and then I go to the yard sale there's Mrs beroy so I see you folks out a lot of places doing things and being visible so that's awesome thank you for doing that building those relationships with the community and I just want to say um

056you know I don't want to come out and say which musical was my favorite because then that could that could cause hard feelings and I'm the superintendent for all of Rockingham County Public Schools but man uh the lead at Anastasia was pretty powerful that young man and young woman uh who did a really nice job and the big screen probably did help so we'll have to do some investigation about this the big screen and I did notice uh and I did notice Mrs lore Katie and I talked about this how many students were involved with Jay Frank hillard's Musical that was awesome that many students involved that's that was impressive and that soundtrack I mean that that soundtrack was pretty pretty powerful from the 80s so thank you I I have two and I'll be

057real quick but I'm two of my highlights was number one was Anastasia and the my favorite scene was when you guys uh did the train scene and how the screen was able to turn with the when you turn the Train the car it was really cool so great job for doing that and u i i not only saw it once but I saw it twice I brought my daughter back on Sunday saw it again on Sunday and you guys just did an incredible job so thank you guys for everything that you uh all the time and hard work you put into it was just amazing um just phenomenal so as District three representative chair and representative here at school board amazing job great great job for all that you did up there so will you

058give them one more hand tonight because we've talked a lot about them but thank you and my second one was at the Hassler fundraiser was I'm I'm just blown away by the support you know when you when you see other people I'm trying to cry and get emotional think about this but I'm but when you see other people going through things that are as tough as that family is going through makes what you're going through seem just very very uh small and I was just impressed by the community that showed up and um the principal and that um told the students said just bring what you can in whatever you whatever you can and so um when I walked in there and to a yard sale and I saw my wife said you going to

059get something and and when I found out that they were asked to to just they were encouraged to give um the best they could to give something that they had and I saw on the table these this little kids and sneakers that uh soccer sneakers I think they didn't look like baseball sneakers because I'm a baseball guy but when I saw little just worn out pair of black uh soccer sneakers sitting there um with a hole in the inside and just worn out I thought to myself um that kid gave all that he had he gave the best that he had and uh I took the sneakers back to my office I set them in my office as a reminder that other people's all may look different than yours and but when we give our

060best when we give our all it's a community coming together that was able to be able to fund and give that much to this family it wasn't probably just one donor that came in and gave a large sum but it was all of us coming together and that was just a powerful message that was sent to me on on Saturday so those are my two highlights all moving on to action items tonight on our list uh of action we have the minutes for the February 26 2024 meeting and do I have a here a motion tonight uh for that I move to approve the minutes of the February 26 2024 meeting as presented thank you Miss burgl do I have a second second thank you Miss l any uh questions or comments on that hearing

061none all those in favor say yes yes all oppose no motion passes 5 I'm next on the agenda tonight is field trips and Dr I'm sorry bills and mileage I apologize bills of mileage and Dr shifflet you have that chair Coss members I recommend approval of the February 2024 bills as presented uh board members hearing the superintendent's recommendation do I hear a motion thank you Miss Hurst do I have a second second thank you Mr lure any questions or comments concerning the bills of mileage hearing none all those in favor say yes yes yes all post no motion passes 5 next on our list tonight is field trips and Dr shiff I believe you have that for the board uh yes sir chair cross and board members I have several field trips for your consideration

062Broadway High School the FCCLA State leadership conference April 11th through the 14th three students Virginia Beach band and choir March 23rd through 25th 40 students Virginia Beach East Rockingham High School FCCLA State leadership conference April 11th through the 14th one student Virginia Beach TSA State leadership conference May 2nd through 5th five students Hampton Virginia Spotswood High School All State Choir event April 18 through 20 five students Richmond uh Virginia Turner asby High School All State choir event April 18th through the 20 three students Richmond Virginia and Wilbur ESP Pence Middle School TSA State leadership conference May 2nd through the 5th 15 students Hampton Virginia and I do recommend approval of these field trips wow it's quite a bit but board members hearing uh his recommendation do I hear a motion to move on that I

063move to follow the superintendent's recommendation to approve the field trips as presented thank you Miss cave do I have a second second thank you Miss h any questions comments I just want to comment you said that's a lot it's so good to have field trips though because I remember when we had none and it's nice to see the numbers coming back up so yay okay yay yeah that was not a negative comment at all thank you for uh all the chaperon that we have to take them as well uh on these field trips so uh we're excited with the FCCLA and uh TSA going on that is it tssa sorrys TSA what's the report is that TSA so yeah now I know they're different I know very well they're different when I travel so but

064no thank you uh hearing any other questions or comments thank you Miss lore all those in favor say yes yes all oppose no motion passes 5 uh next on our list tonight is the real estate textbooks and Mrs Carrie gray is here to present thank you good evening chair cross Schoolboard Dr shifflet the real estate textbook selection committee was approved by the board in February to select a new textbook for the real estate course principles of real estate practice in Virginia first edition was selected by the committee to best meet State competencies for the course it's if approved this textbook will be um purchased for as a class setb in all four high schools chair Carlson board members I recommend the selection of the principles of real estate practice in for textbook from performance programs

065company as presented by Carrie gray supervisor of CTE thank you Dr shifflet board members here in the superintendent's recommendation do I hear a motion so moved thank you Miss HST do I have a second second thank you miss berlo any questions or comments I just want to say thank you thank you for U having this and presenting this for our students to be able to do this is pretty cool for them to be able to have the opportunity to get their real estate license so again I think I said it the last meeting we talked about this but if we do find out that we have students that um have took it and they need a ride to go there please let us know I mean last thing what I want to do is have

066a student that wants to take the test and we understood they have to be 18 to take the test as well but if they need to go and they don't have a ride I would hate for them not to be able to take the test because they didn't have a ride so thank you Miss Curry um so I went to question comments uh any more questions or comments hearing none all those in favor say yes yes oppose no motion passes 5 and I think Miss gray you have something else to present to us I think so um a proposal for an rcps agriculture land lab was presented at the February 26th school board meeting um as information for your review and consideration it is now being presented for Action to ask for a statement of

067support chair Carlson board members I recommend the approval of support for determining the feasibility of a property acquisition that would provide an agricultural land lab as presented by Carrie gray supervisor of CTE thank you Dr shifflet hearing the superintendent's recommendation do I hear a motion I move to follow the superintendent's recommendation to approve support for determining the feasibility of property acquisition that would provide an a lab as presented by Carrie gray thank you Miss Lord did I hear Miss cave will you second it thank you Miss cave any questions or comments I know we were pretty excited as a board to be able to be uh going forward with this and this is a highlight that we've all been talking about and excited about so I know the community is as well to have this

068in Rockingham County so um any other questions comments none hear none all those in favor say yes yes all oppose no motion passes 5 thank you Miss gr appreciate it that moves us past our uh action items tonight and that moves us into our information item and first on the list tonight presenting is going to be uh reefy board chair Miss Amanda KN good evening chair cross superintendent shifflet board members and community members my name is Amanda not I'm the current chairperson for the Rockingham Educational Foundation also known as rafy for those of you who are not familiar with raffy we are a 501c3 organization that supports the students teachers and staff in Rockingham County Public Schools now I'm going to start with a story because I suspect my story at least in regards to

069Rafi mirrors a lot of what many of you have are the story of many of you started when my husband and I moved to the beautiful Rockingham County in August of 2003 our two oldest children started H sorry you can't see pictures that way um so my our two oldest um children started at mville Elementary just up the road shortly after we moved here and I was involved with PTO PTA PTSA all throughout my kids' School careers uh in various capacities member president treasur I've done just about everything you can do but during that time I had not heard a rafie during that most of that time even though the foundation has been around for 30 years now so perhaps like many of you I had no idea that rafie even exist existed in May

070of 2013 my oldest child received Ry scholarship he was a senior that year and we attended the the reception and it's a really poor picture there but the um the refy scholarship awards banquet we attended that reception and he was awarded his scholarship and he actually got to meet Mr Glick um whose scholarship he received so that was really cool uh but despite attending that reception I still didn't really really have an understanding of what refie was or what ref's purpose was and I didn't even remember the name of the organization at the time that he received the scholarship I just knew he got one and we were really really thankful for it in the spring of 2018 a friend approached me about uh being on the refy board and I was of course didn't

071know anything about what refy was so she told me more about it Well Spring of 2018 that was my my daughter was getting ready to graduate there from East Rock but my friend Ro recommended to me that due to my years of involvement in the school board do our doing PTA and so forth that maybe I just graduate to the next thing that would be the raie um board and she explained to me what the mission of raie was and how the foundation supports all of Rockingham County Public Schools I discovered at that point or rediscovered at that point that raie was the organization that gave my son his scholarship I also learned that refy gives there's new another new picture up there we do Innovative learning grants and actions and this particular one happens

072to be Riverbend Elementary what's mud got to do with the 5c's it was submitted by Kim Rasin and uh are there any teachers and attendants or or principls who've received scholarships or not scholarships but grants yes okay that's right Miss horse has got we received grants from from refy thank you for so uh refy scholar or grants is one of the things that refy does and uh let's see I've lost my place in my notes here oh teacher supply Depot refy also does the teacher supply Depot that one I bet you a lot of people have made use of yeah so the teacher supply Depot and I've got a picture I hear that too somewhere okay there we go uh it's basically materials that teach teachers can use for free they just go in and

073they can pick out whatever stuff that they need for their classrooms and so that's um how refy one of the other ways that refy supports um teachers so after learning about all this information about refy I was intrigued by the thought of continuing to help be involved in Rockham County Public Schools so I joined the board in the um summer of August of 2018 so that picture is several years old and my hair was quite a bit shorter at that point um but I was involved at the uh development committee on the as part of the executive committee and then this past summer I assumed the role of of chairperson um after Susie shomo and many of you probably are familiar with Susie she's been involved in the county schools in Blue Ridge K college

074and JMU for a number of years and I look very look much look forward to serving Rockham County community in that role as chairperson I am proud to say and some of you in the back may not be able to see all those numbers but for the 2022 2023 year school year we provided 84 scholarships which was about $83,000 to the seniors we do out 47 Innovative learning grants that was almost $50,000 and we served over 800 teachers and staff through the teacher supply Depot on average refe collects about $250,000 retail value worth of supplies that our teachers and our staff can use we also raised over $5,000 at our 2023 annual fundraising benefit and um we use those funds to recognize the hard work of the teachers and the staff we allowed each school

075to kind of we gave them different amounts and then allowed this the schools came up with various activities to um recognize their teachers so our current school art refy board that's just from last fall um right now we we have our executive director is Victoria Landis and she's supported by Pam Miller who's the administrative assistant and Lois King who works in the teacher supply Depot additionally superintendent chifflet and Miss HST are current um who's the rcps liaison to raie um are deao board members the current refug board of directors is comprised of about 20 people their parents grandparents current members of or current no they're not going to school currently but they might have kids in school currently but they might have been former um attendees here at our schools or they may just be

076uh interested people from the community who are just passionate about education almost half of the Schoolboard uh I keep saying School Board the refe board um our community our um have a role on the executive team which is which is really exciting to be able to have that many people involved and um the executive committee kind of gr guides the direction of the um different things that Brey will vote on and takes recommendations to the full board we have a governance Committee in charge of of policies and financial activities development committee PL tasked with planning fundraising events and an educational resources committee which oversees the teacher supply Depot the grants and the um awarding of the student scholarships and I don't think we have any board members here today but if we have any please

077stand no okay all right and while I have the floor I also want to recognize Dr Charlotte mooken who was um served as the rcps school representative for refy since that position was created way back in January 2018 and uh she was just instrumental and helping refy just have representation on the school board and so forth so that's we really appreciate her many years of service not just to refy but also at rcps okay oh well it doesn't look very good so our recent upcoming events we have a um our Rae annual event was was held at the early beginning of February and we raised almost 452,000 at that event to support ref's core programs which is really exciting this later this week we have a teacher of the year celebration which is invite only

078and school board members you all are more than welcome to attend that event please talk to me afterwards I'll tell you where it's add if you haven't already um gotten that information April 17th great Community give which is through done through the Community Foundation of Harrisonburg and Rockingham the refy is one of the organizations that is available there so if you feel like giving money through the um Community Foundation we will happily take it April 27th we have a refi Golf Classic coming up we have golf tournament every year and May 16th is our Rafi scholarship reception which again is invite only but school board members you all are welcome to attend so that is my story and but hopefully the end of my story is the beginning of you all's story with ruffy and

079familiarity with ruffy and what we do to help the students and the staff uh at our CPS schools I do want to point out that we couldn't do what we do without the support of the school board so thank you very much for your support and if you'd like to see more about refy or support us through a donation or as a sponsor for any of our fundraising events you can check out the Ry website it's ryg gives back.org and I just want to thank you for your time this evening thank you so much can we give reia Hannah Clap the night reefy refy thank you so much for all you do for our schools and U Miss Hurst came back with a report at y'all's first meeting and told us all about it so

080uh thank you guys for what you do for our schools absolutely yes you also run the lemonade standout fair right all right so make sure you get your lemonade this August all right next on our list uh tonight is national board certified teacher NBC uh T presentation by Mr EMT shahan and Mr Owen long anchor and um I see Mr long a and shahan since I got the mic and it's open I do want to say thank you to Mr sheahan um as a father as a dad that had a child graduate last year from spotwood high school um I didn't hear too many times when he'd come home and tell me about his teachers unless he got in trouble um but I did hear a lot from you in his class and he come

081home with a lot of uh just excited things to talk about that you all discussed in the class so thank you for being a great teacher uh for my for my son personally so thank you so much go ahead Mr long yeah thank you um chair cross members of the school board and superintendent shifflet thank you for taking the time to meet with us today and allowing us to talk to you about the merits of the national board certification process I want to begin in the summer of 20121 when the United States Department of Education released a report detailing the educational impact that covid-19 had on students in elementary secondary and even higher education because their findings unequivocally stated that academic growth had not only stalled but in many core subjects like math and reading

082students were beginning to fall further and further behind pre-pandemic expectations certainly these realities have been found here in Rockingham County as well as teachers continue to report declining test rates low reading levels and at times a growing student achievement Gap compared to Prior years and therefore our intent in our presentation tonight is to provide to you an unparalleled solution um to these challenges that rcps and other division face other divisions face and in doing so uh we believe Rockingham County will ensure that we continue to provide the highest quality of Education within our classrooms so to begin I think it might actually help to understand the context of our situation by first actually going back to 1983 when President Reagan's Administration faced a similar crisis as fears about America's deteriorating education system put us at

083risk of losing our status as a world leader in the midst of the Cold War in response the Carnegie form on education convened a task force of policy makers Educators teachers associations and Business Leaders to create what you see in front of you called the national Board of Professional Teaching Standards their mission which continues today is to maintain high and rigorous standards for what accomplished teachers um should know and be able to do with the understanding that better teachers lead to increased student learning and as a result when teachers go through the board's process they experience some of the best professional development that not only our state um but our country has to provide and So currently there are 133,134 teachers who hold national board certification across the United States this represents just over 4%

084of the teachers in the country and as a state Virginia ranks 20th in the country with about 4.5% of our teachers being national board certified these teachers are not only committed to the higher standards for student learning but they are also required throughout their career to maintain their certification with constant and continued professional development for Rockingham County Public Schools currently only seven out of our 828 full-time teachers hold such certification which represents less than 1% of our County there are many factors that can explain this and why numbers might be so low in some cases teachers have expressed that they're not willing to pay the upfront cost that certification requires but other teachers as we've discussed with them have expressed that they are not financially motivated by the current stien that has remained the same

085since 2002 the realities though are also that is a rigorous process that a teacher must adhere to in order to pass and maintain certification and these standards are good things because they ensure that certification does not become diluted and that a teacher's methods are upto-date effective and proven with data and assessment the good news however though is that certification is available to all content areas it's available to all grade levels but within each discipline the applicants must exhibit the same four pillars of infective uh instruction which you see up here on your screen to explain it briefly computer one uh component one is a computer-based assessment that requires teachers to demonstrate an understanding of content knowledge as well as pedagogical practices within your specific teaching area components two and three are evidence-based portfolios um where

086teachers are required to gather and analyze information about individual student strengths and then design and Implement instruction to meet those needs this includes video recordings of these interactions and written components that demonstrate student growth component four the final one requires a teacher to demonstrate evidence of their abilities as an effective and reflective practitioner as well as how they collaborate with professionals and parents to best need the need needs of their students um component four is primarily focused on the community aspect um of course which is something I've heard so much from you all tonight and when submitted each portfolio must each individually meet a minimum score and an overall cumulative score to pass for certification um these high requirements do result in only a 41% success rate for teachers that submit their first time and

087a 71% rate uh pass rate for second time submissions um which would be over several years of course and therefore for teachers that um decide to pursue this process most would sign up in the summertime as they prepare for their school year they will then spend the fall designing and implementing their portfolio work as this will take time and careful revisions and by the spring of that same school year they submit their portfolios and often sign up to take their content related assessment at a testing center the following December scores are released and if a teacher has not met the minimum standards they will have the spring to remake one or more of their portfolios depending on how their scores came in but finally and I think maybe the most important component is that even

088when teachers have passed a crucial element of the board's process is the maintenance of certification and this is where I truly think board separates itself is that continual professional development that teachers must maintain um to have an active licensure um and in the end for me and what the national board believes is that every child deserves an accomplished teacher um and the nbct process is designed to develop train and equip Educators with those skills so that they can go into our classrooms and positively impact that student learning um and so to better explain how rcps can support this initiative I'll hand that over to my colleague emid shahan thank you uh thank you Owen for that information and uh introduction and thank you chairman cross uh Vice chairman Hurst superintendent uh shiplet and members of

089the board for allowing us to come here and identify some targeted solutions that we hope can offer to the school board as Mr Longacre earlier noted um we in Rocky County schools are lagging far behind in both the state and National averages and uh we are attributing that national board certification excuse me national board certification averag and we're attributing that to the diminishing Financial incentives for that program um in 2020 if I could push this forward uh oh thanks here we go in 2020 here we go uh the average salary for Rockham County school teacher was 30,300 $20 uh it was that same year in 2020 that the Rockingham County school board approved that $1,500 stapen for teachers who earn national board certification along with a state stien of $2,500 this combined $4,000 represented of

09013.9% increase above and beyond first year teacher salaries that Financial incentive um and that opportunity certainly caught my attention and uh helped me begin my 20-year Journey as a national board certified teacher um today's starting salary as the middle dial shows is about $5 51,27386 stien that Rockham County offers is now shrunk to a mere 7.8% starting salary um incentive almost half of what it used to be members of the board Mr long aner and I are requesting on behalf of current and potentially new nationally board certified teachers that you increase funding to this stien by $2,763 that amount would restore the original 13.9% stien offered back in 2002 uh to increase increase the increase to restore funds is modest while at the same time is extremely attractive to teachers for less than a $20,000

091increase in the fiscal year 2024 2025 budget the same $4,260 should again prove to be an unparal recruitment tool since the national board professional teachers provides as Mr longer said up to five years to complete the certification um I don't see any significant budget increases for at least another two to three years to the board and to the overall budget at the same time we will be selectively attracting retaining and promoting Excellence while at the same time addressing that Decline and stent achievment that Mr long Acer had put forward um current national boards guidelines require teachers to maintain their certification through professional development and reflective practices unlike the original certification statistics that were quite low 99% of renewal candidates who complete their portfolio folio process maintain their certification status uh this astoundingly High renewal rate

092is not an indicator of ease but of the complete transformation the national board process has on the instructors themselves having gone through this recertification in 2013 again in 2023 I can personally attest to the sustainability of the reflective process that the national boards offers in order to maintain certification teachers must ref excuse me teachers must select two professional growth experiences they've gone through and address how each of those professional growths have actually met the unique needs of their learning community in addition candidates need to demonstrate how each has expanded their content knowledge or improved upon their pedological practices which in turn increases student achievement in the classroom because of the strict parameters set forth in these rigid guidelines mountains of evidence are collected tens of hours are spent processing and score more more of hours

093are spent synthesizing prioritizing revising simply put by restricting candidates to a four-page narrative and two evidence pieces per PGE professional growth is not something candidates attend professional growth is something candidates embody lastly by requiring candidates to submit a 10-minute video accompanied by a five-page explanation of the event to which they tape nbct maintenance demands the professional growth chosen by the county translates directly to student learning in the classroom members of the board you cannot reveal what is not there over the course of the 100 plus hours I spent on my last Ser certification I clearly demonstrated that I took stock in my professional development implemented best practices and purposely gauged my growth against the growth of my students each nationally certified teacher places student achievement at the Forefront of their practices it is for this

094reason that we respectfully request an increase the national board certifiction stien I thank the board for your consideration and your time this evening board members before before you leave board members do you have any questions comments for long I just had one question how many or do we have any teachers who are going through this process for the first time right now I'm aware of one in our building who's on year three of that attempt right at the moment and um any others you know um only in conversation persons who have sorry persons who are considering signing up um but we weren't able to verify any more beyond that one members uh I have a question about the professional development that's required uh is that on your own time or is that how how does

095that work out for you that's a great question um Rockham County does a fabulous job of providing professional growth opportunities to each instructor and each um uh I guess calling whether that be English math social studies Library science special education um what the boards are asking is that while we're attending we are identifying how that professional growth can be exercised in the classroom and then we have to figure out how we're going to implement that professional growth and Link that professional growth directly to student growth in the classroom so we're not going out and seeking other professional growth opportunities we're taking the professional growth opportunities that are being already offered us here implementing in the classroom in the most effective way which is demonstrating student learning um can you share what the cost is to

096participate yep yeah currently um you have four portfolios each costs um $475 up front um as well as a $75 registration fee um so if a candidate passes everything within the first year it comes under just under $2,000 however um from our statistics most candidates take two or three years and have to remake um on average two of those portfolios and each time they reregister or each time they have to remake a portfolio they would have to pay that same cost again um so that would be an additional 475 for a portfolio or 75 for the registration for the annual year can you share a little bit about what's in the portfolio is that personalized to each teacher or is that something that is kind of a broad national board standard these are the outcomes

097we're looking for can you share a little bit about that yes we can um uh to answer your question most specifically there are standards put into place by the national boards for each curriculum so high school social studies are different goals than Middle School social studies than would be for elementary school social studies and that goes for each I'm going to call it academic Preparatory facet whether that be Librarians or guidance counselors so the board puts into place the standards which they must meet the four common goals are that we're linking students to their community that we're exercising our professional growth that we're using reading and writing in the classroom to show student growth and that we are reaching out and broadening the community as a whole so four Central themes that go along with

098those standards and then each individual Preparatory or um I guess facet of education has their own individual goals all of which have to be met and uh that is really where the comes in the goals are quite substantial and you're given quite a limited sheet of paper to meet each and every one of those goals so few words and a lot to process at the same time and and you shared it's academic it's student achievement driven is that correct absolutely we must um gather data at different um points throughout the year and prove through student achievement that our in our teaching is making an impact on that student learning um and if I could add I just with the cost of the portfolios I only wanted to add that if a teacher signs up in

099the summertime um even if they would pass on the very first cycle and pay that roughly $2,000 they would not actually receive reimbursement for about two and a half years by the time they achieve certification and then by the time that check is actually delivered to them the following December um so it's it's a significant sum to be put out of pocket with the timeline you wouldn't get anything back um for almost two and a half years and if I might add to that the recertification process I mentioned 2013 2023 the national boards have now moved to a 5-year recertification cycle and that cost is $495 plus $75 in registration every five years for the candidates to how much is that 495 plus 75 to recertify what's the state portion the state of Virginia offers

100a one-time $5,000 stien uh the first year $2,500 every year thereafter that you maintain your certification status has that been the same since 2002 yes ma'am it has that has not changed at all at the state level that has not okay yeah that was something they debated heavily last year that bill passed through the Senate um almost without objection it died in the house or in the general assembly it was brought back up this year and uh its fate is worth still pending how many years have y'all have you have you had it been certified I certified in December of 2020 I'm actually up for recertification next fall so I'll be working on that maintenance um and how many years Mr longer you've been teaching for a while now so how many years I'm in

101my 11th year um so originally you could not do this until your fifth year um so I waited essentially till that fifth year and then decided to pursue it I believe current um is three years a teacher could begin that process if they choose and how how do you feel what's helped you as a teacher in this my goodness uh it's TR transformed uh the way I approach education within the classroom um in terms of understanding not only what my students need but then how I can design instruction to go out and meet that and I think a big component of the national board's process is the leadership that it eventually leads to um because once you start reaching looking for opportunities to help your kids um you start looking outside the confines of your

102tradition classroom whether that's your supervisors your colleagues um Community organizations whatever that might be and it really begins to expand your understanding of what it is we can do to help students learn Mr shahan yeah I'd Echo pretty much the same sentiments um my experience has been 20 years in running um I've mentored three teachers in the county all of which I'm proud to say they were excellent candidates have passed their certification um Owen being one of them you don't mind um and thanks for po that we talk about we talk about leadership positions uh in the county this has really fostered a lot of cooperation between the two of us obviously being in the same building and in the same Prep High School social studies but we've actively engaged with one another we've linked

103Our Youth and government clubs social studies honor societies engaged James Madison University engaged Eastern menite University engaged the University of Virginia that we're reaching out and expanding these classrooms and we don't do so because hey it'd be great experience we do so because we ask the question what would it be like for a student to have the opportunities to experience these growth opportunities on their own um those are the types of growths that have taken place um other board teachers the counties had have gone on to work in the central office and to be principles in our schools so the leadership is quite profound um and you're going to find that across the board those nbct teachers are the ones that are leading in your building behind the scenes and are putting forward that academic

104excellence well I'm impressed with both of you I talked about Mr Shan came up Mr longer but thank you so much I have one more question go um you mentioned that it's $2,000 for the initial and then about $570 to re is that is that reimbursed or is that completely out of your pocket no ma'am that is not reimbursed that's completely out of our pocket the candidate's pocket and if you don't pass the certification that's money spent and money lost thank you guys for coming tonight and presenting us to the board and giving us a little bit more information okay thank you next on the list tonight uh is going to you want to start out Miss Hurst on on this on Library material draft or would you like nope I'll start um good evening

105tonight I am sharing with you a draft of the supplementary materials policy uh we wanted to write a policy that provides a meaningful process to raise issues and concerns with supplementary materials um this policy has never been about banning books um but we acknowledge that this process um didn't explicitly exist um for supplementary materials consider like when we talk about Library resources we didn't have something for this at the division level so we desired to form a process for supplementary materials that explicitly addressed Rockingham County libraries in this policy we have addressed the philosophy and goals for our school libraries criteria for Acquisitions and deselection as well as two different processes for challeng alling Library materials one as it relates to sexually explicit content and one as it relates to other topics we acknowledge that

106parents have an essential role in the education of their children and have the fundamental right to guide what their children read see and View and we also acknowledge that our Public Schools serve a diverse population of students who all have different needs interests and backgrounds throughout this policy um drafting process we've tried to gather input from a variety of sources um our Librarians have even shared their own schools policies which we did take into consideration tonight's draft is not intended to be a final draft it is a draft um so tomorrow our division is going to share a Google form to gather feedback it will be sent out through uh School Messenger to parents faculty and staff and Rockingham County community members MERS can also participate um in giving feedback by going to the link

107which will be provided on the County website uh these comments will be collecting all of those comments and that feedback uh through Monday March 18th and at that time we will review the feedback make adjustments as necessary or as needed and then we should have a final draft for action on March 25th at our next school board meeting I just want to um add um appreciate the work m h Miss cave has done putting this together uh and also the Google form that's coming out tomorrow that's for as as she indicated for Rockingham County residents or employees so we're not going to entertain feedback from people in Rockingham County North Carolina right just Rockingham County Virginia um and so people from outside if it gets shared I mean I get emails probably you know pretty

108fre frequently from people across the country about banning books so this is not a forum for you know people what the people in New Jersey think about our library policy this is for Rockingham County for our community and uh that's the people will entertain and it's not Anonymous either right we're going to ask people to put their name and you know how they are connected to Rockingham County Public Schools so just so you're aware thank you Dr shiff uh for that tonight yeah I've same way different emails we got from pin America and it says from New York City and I remember replying back i' I'd Serve the People of Rockingham County not New York city so um for those who are able to to do the survey or those who can and will do

109the survey please put your information on there so we can know that you're uh our constituents here in Rockingham County because we want what's best for Rockingham County um next on information I list tonight is going to be policy revisions and Dr Shi I believe you have this uh yes chair Carlson board members I have two policies uh for revision policy G bdbg and then policy BG gbd One deals with um sort of the same uh topic board staff Communications one is is listed under Section B Schoolboard uh governance and operations and one is under personnel and we're trying to get some consistent language because it there seems to be some contradictory language language as it is with policy KK that talks about Schoolboard members visiting schools as part of their role and and um

110so we just wanted to make sure we had the same language between those three policies so no need to alter KK at this time but we need to fix these two so this is for information look look over if you have questions we'll we can discuss it and then uh bring it back next board meeting for Action thank you Dr shff this has been a a um we have a really good working relationship with uh Dr shifflet and able to communicate with him and to our principles and you know one of the things we don't want to do is limit ourselves as board members to be able to go into the schools when we have opportunities because we work full-time jobs we're moms or dads and we have different things going on throughout the the

111day and year so there's sometimes when I get an opportunity to drop my son off here at Mon videoo and I'm like oh I got an extra you know 20 minutes or a half hour I'm going to stop by one of my other schools real quick and just see how they're doing so uh we don't want to limit our ability um or hinder our ability to be able to come in in our school and see all the great things that were that's going on so uh to the teachers and principes here tonight sorry that we're not able to get out as much as uh as we want to believe me we're doing quite a bit if you listen to the the highlights and to be able to look at this current board and see how

112much uh just how much of their personal time that they're taking to serve in this role it is a lot of time so I just want to say thank you uh to all the board members for the amount of time that you take uh that and that are investing uh into this role as a Schoolboard member I know it pays a lot of money and that you just you do it for the money right so thank you guys so much for doing what you do it it means a lot um next on our list tonight is attendance report yeah that's information that you'll find in your folder and if you'll notice we are sharing that a little differently than we have in years past where we used to give you a percentage uh of uh

113students who are attended daily now we're focusing on the students the percentage of students that would be considered chronically absent and reminder chronically absent if a student misses 10% um or more of school day so at this point you can see where we are there's a comparison on that chart from last year at this time so you can see that a lot of our schools have made significant progress uh in trying to make sure that we we don't get Dean from the state on um students who are chronically absent and just just so you know as well the state doesn't um distinguish between absent with a doctor's note absent I was sick absent I was this if you're absent you're absent that's how they doesn't matter if you're absent if you're not in school you're

114not in school so that that counts so sometimes sometimes folks fuss fuss at us a little bit when we're trying to make sure kiddos are coming to school and getting them there but um it's it's part of our accreditation and accountability we we can't have more than 15% of our students who are chronically absent so share that with you you can see again the work that's going on and what's happening there with that information Miss cave you also pointed out when you visited Elton Middle School this past week something they got going on right to help out with attendance what yeah I thought it was interesting so I think the way the high the way I understood it was the high schools um if you have I'm trying to think what they're called uh I

115think they were not restorative but oh recovery days uh at the high school level if you come to a recovery day which would involve staying after school coming in the evening uh 3 hours would equal one of your um absences back and so that's the way the high schools um used to um sort of curve those numbers and restore that learning that was lost during that absence uh so they do that at the high schools but um I don't want to call it a pilot project at Elon middle but uh they're doing it there and at the middle school level um the students can't really do three hours in the evening it's a bit much so they um split their time an hour and a half over two different recovery days and once they do

116those recovery days um they get that absence back and um they shared with me um how it in specific had helped some students raise their grades they had seen a significant increase so it's not all just about creating numbers that look good um but restoring recovering that learning loss that they lose when they're not in school because if you're not there you can't learn and so um I thought that was really interesting and and and I liked I got to sit with them and sort of learn it's a lot of it's a lot of administrative work and plugging those numbers into Excel and knowing what you're doing and keeping up with the students and I mean they were they were on it and so um yeah that was good thank you I I remember you

117like it thanks I remember you saying something about that and last on our information item tonight is our financial review and packet yeah you'll find the financial review in your packet um provided by our Mr Moyers Chief Financial Officer so that's in there for your review uh thank you Mr Moyers as well we've been going through the budget process over the last few months and thank you for the time you've been putting into it and the meetings we've spent I'm doing the two by tws and all also coming back with me and Sarah as well and also meeting with the Board of Supervisors there's been a lot of a lot of talk uh with the budget this year and we're roughly almost close to $7 million that we we wasn't getting from the state this

118year compared uh until last year year because of if I get this correct is because of our our personal property taxes went up the county raised that which put us in a different bracket which caused us to get less back from the state to funding public school is that close real estate taxes sorry and so we were $7 million right off the bat U behind where we was last year so and that's been interesting seeing how how we're going to deal with that and our border supervisors has done a good job working with us and we have a good relationship with them and to be able to meet with them and just partner with one another and say okay what do we how can we bridge this Gap right because $7 million is a lot

119of money and um so there's been a lot of talk this year just to be transparent with the budget and this has really been this my third budget year going through and this has uh really been a very insightful and very helpful and then also to have you Mr Moyers as well and to also have Dr shifflet sitting here and just we started talking about this before even the new board members came on of what was important for us to see in the budget and one of the things I think we were all in I'm favor for was we really didn't have our own personal agendas we just wanted to do what was best for the schools and for our teachers um class sizes mean a lot to us uh how how many students are

120in the classroom so that's meaning a whole lot to us we have some issues going on well we we're redistricting at cabon so um there are things there that um we have six did you have six teachers per grade level there and um so that's going to be look different for next year right so um you also have an assistant principal that's leaving and going over to Lacy as well and so that's different and so we we want to do what's best for our teachers through this whole and for our students but we we're really looking at been looking at what's best for our class sizes and for our teachers when it comes to the budget so we've this has been a board really I can say that's been advocating very strong when it comes

121to teachers and so and thank you to the board members U for all the work that you've put into this because it's not just been com to one meeting and looking at things it's been several meetings that we've attended so anyone have anything to add there all right that will uh conclude our information items and we're getting ready to go to our public comments but we're going to take a three minute break allow anyone that needs to go you can go at this time but we will resume in three minutes than you can go man e get I e yeah they was it was I don't know where that was three minutes in El Salvador anywhere I go in El Salvador we're never on time um anyway I I got a chance to meet Anastasia's

122grandmother so that was worth that three minute or four minute break so great job it was I said I'm I didn't recognize her but I heard the voice when she started talking and I'm telling you she her and her sister her sister played Anastasia and um they had an incredible role so I'm I'm guessing mom and dad you guys probably took a lot of pictures this year of them being together that really really good your younger daughter who's a ninth grader she's got an incredible voice as well both of your daughters can sing no they can't sing they sang they can sing really really good so amazing yeah they get it after you your mom they get it after you your mom they're not going to admit they're not g to say anyway okay uh

123thank you guys so much and um just again as we enter into our public uh comments um you'll have three minutes to speak and when you have 30 seconds left you'll hear a beep the end of that um of your time you'll hear three long beeps that just lets you know hey your time is up we do ask you to uh to follow our character uh counts pillars and U we understand that a lot of these topics that we talk about we talk about books or we talk about um just different issues especially social issues that are going on in today's um world that we're dealing with and we're living through as society that a lot of people are very and heated on so many different topics but just do your best to to reflect

124that character counts and those pillars that we all possess and that we we've seen tonight and our and our kids and the rewards that they received as well so I if by chance that you just there's an emotional outbreak and you can't get control of yourself I will ask you to um your time will be up and um but I hope I don't have to do that tonight we do want to hear uh this will last for 30 minutes at the end of that 30 minutes we will end public comments um we've done that because we uh have plenty of opportunity throughout the week to talk to our constituents to people that needed to talk with us by phone by email um plenty of ways you can reach out to us throughout the the full

125month but we also have a lot of student mans that we take care of even after our meetings and there have been been plenty of nights that we've been at the schools until midnight and our administrators um they lock up up afterwards and so we want to they've been here all day and we really appreciate all that you guys have done and so we want to do our best to to have our meeting having the meeting is very important to us this is a Schoolboard meeting where you get to where you get to come and see the governance of your local school board and what's going on inside your school board uh and then we're going to allow 30 minutes of comments um if you go other places they do different things but this is

126the way that we're operating so first on our list tonight is is I it says Sandy Parks but usually I see Sandra so I don't know which I'll just go by Sandy tonight because that's what it says good evening yes my nickname is Sandy um although in formal writing I'll use Sandra um I'm a retired librarian I have 30 years of experience in working with young adults and uh middle schoolers and I'll also point out that I have been a national board certified teacher since 2007 and it is a rigorous process um I am disappointed that you have reduced any public comment on the library policy to a Google form um I've skimmed the policy which you only made available an hour before this meeting now in this selection policy you have a lot of

127lofty words um some you know providing a balanced collection reflecting various points of view um providing materials on a wide range of ability levels chosen to reflect the various student populations supporting a variety of learning and teaching styles supporting Leisure reading among students lofty words that are counteracted by the section that you then add that eliminates any sexually explicit content regardless of cont context or literary value you indicate that any such book should be deselected a fancy word for band I've send legally is judged by the purpose of the work the quality of the book and whether or not the work as a whole is patently offensive that is the Miller test as a Supreme Court case you look at words out of context and will be discarding many books which have the Capa capability

128to change lives and you make yourselves in this policy the sole decision makers actually looks a lot like you just copied and pasted hanah's restrictive policy and you didn't use the input from Rockingham Librarians now I've shared This research I know with Sarah I don't know if you shared it with everybody else from gay Ivy who was a uh U many Educators here know because she was reading um professor at JMU she's now down in Greensboro but she and a um colleague have finished a research study and they examine what happens to teens when they're allowed choice to read freely including many of the books that you've chosen to ban their results show that teens are able to put profanity and sexually explicit content and violence in perspective and they often see these cautionary Tales

129um these books as cautionary tales that reinforce the same messages that they hear from their parents um and so I encourage you if you have not read that study you need to um kids don't have to read they've mastered the art of not reading we know as Educators if they do they do better in school take away anything that's relevant to their lives and you've told them that reading is not important you care about test scores and you'll watch him go down now one of you all celebrated The veto from Governor junan about um SB 235 you did read closely that said he vetoed it because it's redundant the law says that um the provisions of provisions of this act shall not be construed as requiring or providing for the censoring of books in public

130elementary and secondary schools and that is exactly what you're doing I used to stop at the very end but thank you Miss parks for coming and speaking tonight uh next on our list tonight is Lois Paul thank you board for uh coming out and for serving the community um you've uh exhibited tireless efforts in sticking to the conservative principles that uh that you promis the voters in Rockingham County and when I see the students receiving awards for academic and Scholastic achievements or character awards for good citizenship it drives home the point that the majority of the county is indeed conservative and is appreciative of the board's decisions the teachers and the parents are to be commended for going the extra mile and working with the students to help them with reach their objectives whether it's

131whether a college degree ree or a chosen trade the students of today are the citizens of tomorrow and will shape the community I do see a contrast between these students and others who instead of focusing on the positive achievements and contributing to the community at large aimed to cause riffs disrupt the school day by protesting at the urging of unnamed adults and insisting that their personal agendas be kept on the front burner those who aim to tear apart their fac of our society to please themselves and to focus on their own ideologies don't serve to unite the community on the contrary these disruptions occur during scheduled classes they detract from the quality of educational time paid for both by the parents and the taxpayers of Rockingham County alike having having an opinion is one thing

132forcing others to accept your own personal opinion as solid fact is disingenuous thank thankfully there are no awards for victim of the year or best agitator of the quarter thank you again school board for keeping the academic and the character producing goals first and foremost in our in our good schools in Rockingham County God bless [Applause] you thank you Miss Paul for coming tonight next on our list is Rex Fritz good evening Miss Jackie it's it's nice to see that there's at least one adult here tonight um I just want to say I'm really tired of always having to be the bigger man especially when it comes to grown adults um I mainly want to talk talk about queer students and what it means to be one since nobody on the board seems to know

133for starters nobody uses queer to mean strange or weird so you can take your fake sincerity and shove it we are not confused we are not misguided and we certainly were not indoctrinated like some people like to claim we are Mr Fritz who stop his time excuse me Mr Fritz no no no we're not gonna act like that we just we just went through whole character counts I am following character counts thank you very much Matthew okay I'm going to ask you to be respectful and to to all the board members and display the character counts that you saw here tonight because that's what we want we want to treat you with respect and we've asked do to do the same way okay I'm treating you with the same respect you can treat other trans

134students so well you but you know rule start his time back you can start his time back so where was I oh right um s right so we are not indoctrinated like some people like to claim we are like for for example I've known I liked boy since I was 10 years old um I had no experience to I had no exposure to gay people before then because I have straight parents and every single TV show video game movie or whatever I watched had straight people in them and all like every single boy in my class also talked about girls all the time yet I still turned out gay so try explaining that one um let see here where am I oh right um I've also been called every single name under the sun along

135with being beaten up countless times over over my identity and I can assure you that my experiences are not unique you can try to claim that it doesn't happen and that we're just exaggerating but to be blunt you're not just wrong you're ignorant what would you what would any of you know what it's like being queer in our CPS schools I'm also fairly convinced that the board is completely unaware of what happens in our schools considering that their entire election campaigns are based off of a fairy tale parody of what actually happens um more specifically there's been talked about the parent undermining of Christian values that's supposedly happening in schools um what exactly is being undermined uh students are allowed to be Christian and we religious imagery as they please believe me I I've seen

136so many crosses on necklaces it's not even funny um like majority of our students and teachers are all Christian um I mean there's a there's a Bible in our libraries for crying out loud what is being undermined if it's such a big issue that you have to discourage parents from sending their kids to the public schools that you're in charge of then you surely probably have some sort of evidence to back up your claims right um here's my take your values aren't being undermined quite the opposite actually but I hope they will be I hope everything you believe in gets undermined and tripled on and silenced I want to see your worlds crumble around you while all you can do is watch and I'm going to enjoy every second of it because then you'll finally

137understand what it's like being a queer student in Rockingham County Public Schools [Applause] next on our list tonight is Jerry Hurst thank you it's a pleasure and an honored to be here this evening to speak to you and the community here I want to thank thank you for doing your job for giving your best for going to the school plays all of the events you do I know you guys are giving because you're not getting paid to do this so thank you very very much I am a graduate of Turner Turner Ashby high school so I'm a product of the local school system I'm also a taxpayer of Rockingham County and I love this community it is a blessed community Community I got my 50th High School reunion in the mail today so I'm an

138old coder but I'd like to say when Gutenberg invented the printing press 1440 or sometime you you dear teachers can help me out there but anyway since then according to AI that I looked up this afternoon there's been 130 million books printed not individual titles more than that but different titles 130 million there are certainly books that aren't appropriate in our school system and we need a system to weigh the value I've hired hundreds of people from this community to work for me most of them went through this school system and I was blessed to have really good um hard work working employees I want to encourage you keep doing your job elections mean something as pres President Obama said you are hearing the squeaky wheel and it's getting a little annoying because I'm paying

139for a newspaper that seems to be gaslighting this subject I don't hear fair and balanced or both sides within our printing press I'm sorry about that I wish there was something we could do I'm considering doing away with my subscription I have many friends on both sides of a lot of issues and we can debate and have a good time and still be friends I wish we could be that here as a community this evening you know we say one nation under God in our pledge allegiance and the second commandment is love your neighbor as yourself no one should get beat up for their sexual orientation that's just wrong but there are appropriate and inappropriate books thank you thank you Mr Hurst I next on our list tonight is Zach Nicholson uh good evening board

140members Dr shifflet I thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight I want to address a couple of things regarding the book policy first off there's nothing extreme about objecting to obscene content I've heard a lot of comments out about how the LGBT community has been mischaracterized I think everyone here is all against that but we I've also seen and heard is disparaging remarks about the people against subsiding content from Nazi fascist Hitler Christian nationalist to book burer it's all been said again there is nothing extreme about not wanting explicit content being promulgated to minors I'm going to ask that the rhetoric needs to stop we're all here for our kids that should be our common Bond so don't mischaracterize or disparage the people against this seen content what's extremely disappointing is we've also seen

141this from division employees division employees disparaging those who pay their salaries that's inexcusable if you ask me this is not an lgbtq issue it's an issue of decency decency in our schools and our libraries so let's focus on that as a parent I watch the workshop and I watch Librarians and I'm not throwing shade here but I watch Librarians struggle with where we draw this line at hopefully with this policy and future the meetings that y'all had after that it got better but what a lot of people don't realize is that in the last decade or so a lot of authors have began to write novels that um in last decades or so that schools would have deemed inappropriate and now these books are flooding the market in fact young adult novels unit sales are

142up 48% since 2018 one thing that helps drive this increase in schools is the schools using reviews like kirkus and school library and journal um that recommend books with strong sexual themes profanity to kids as young as 11 years old often times with r reviews as a parent I'm concerned that we are still using those organizations that have repeatedly recommended these books to students every one of these organizations have shifted from what they were decades ago the school librarian Association is a branch of the American Library Association their goal is to act within the library Bill of Rights if you look at that there are seven items they all look innocuous but they have another document called the interpretation document to explain what those seven actually mean the School libran Association strongly feels that there

143should be no atten attention given to age appropriateness what does that sound familiar they also believe that there should be no filter on internet well unless you want funding this is the organization you guys want leading Librarians really you are failing them you're failing parents you're making my job harder and you're failing students by doing this and I applaud you guys for at least taking a stab at this policy I appreciate it I've been very passionate about this issue Dr shiet we've met on this um I really was hoping that Librarians could have and and and this board could have draw a little bit better closer together on that but um in closing uh John 12:35 says then Jesus told them you're going to have the light a little while longer walk while you have

144the light before Darkness overtakes you whoever walks in the dark does not know where they're going [Music] [Applause] amen thank you Mr Nicholson next on our list tonight is Jake Gwyn good evening chair cross members of the board and Dr shifflet I thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight I'm resident of District 5 I have two soon to be three children in the school system in light of the recent criticism directed at this board I wanted to point out that this job is often is often thankless having spent the majority of my adult life in public service in one form or another I know firsthand just how thankless it can be regardless of the topic at hand all too often those in service to the public only receive feedback on their decisions when someone

145feels adversely affected by those decisions rarely do you hear at least publicly about the good that you are doing after all it's the hot button topics that make good news stories and often brings about the strong public criticism I speak of else it's out of sight and it's out of mind know this nothing you do will appease the masses as a whole there will always be some that are not pleased by the decisions you make and frankly that's one of the best attributes about our country the right to agree the right to disagree and the right to do so publicly as so many have done in front of this very board be that as it may when you make decision that some dislike take the feedback elicited by those decisions seriously and give it the

146attention it deserves but do not allow it to overshadow the overall positive impact and good that you are doing for the community that you serve the job you have been elected to do isn't easy and I wouldn't want to do it all that said tonight won't be as thankless because even when it is impossible to be perfect I offer my thanks for the job that you do every day next on our list tonight is Jeff bolander thank you chairman cross uh Dr shifflet members of the school board for this opportunity to speak I just want to not take a whole lot of my time or your time just Echo the comments uh appreciation for what you've done uh specifically on the school board the school books in the library policy opportunity for us to review

147that provide our comment and it's just a good feeling to be part of this community and be a part of this process uh again I thank you for it and look forward to uh working with you in the future thank you Mr [Applause] M thank you Mr bander uh Jacob k sorry buddy I would like to start off by saying thank you for everyone who came to see Anastasia and support our school everyone here who came and supported the schools you are amazing and thank you all for that and I'd like to say I love getting to talk to everyone on this school board and it's just amazing to get to talk to you and get to know you as people so as much as my speech sort of relates to topics I previously discussed

148I will speak anyway during the 1930s Germany was at a low point a depression caused by their loss and World War I and the debt they had to pay back to the winners many of this caused a sort of Uprising in a sort of liberal point of view in places like Berlin where there was a lot of sex positivity and homosexuality frankly where people were knowing themselves and becoming themselves despite the hardships that they faced in this area and sex studies were happening and advancements in sexual science were happening where people were beginning to know more about their own bodies and like how they worked and how they operated and this was an amazing time because technology was advancing in such a way that we could find out the way the body worked and ways

149to help people feel more comfortable and for example the first transgender operation was performed in Berlin in 1930 I'm not sure the exact date but it was around 1930 but the German Socialist Party found this not to be up to their German standards and they decided to start their um thing happening by Banning books and burning them which that then led to the thing that all ha that happened with World War II and so I guess that's sort of a cautionary tale to say think at at least a little bit about what type of content you're Banning because I am for the Restriction of some content but I think it can go too far and I'd say that it is something to tread lightly with and be careful also I'd like to mention mom's for

150Liberty it was has been called extremist before and it has connections with the proud boys the 3centers qanon and other white supremacist and Christian nationalist groups I mention that because it was I believe the list was taken from them and so I'd say that's something you want to be careful when associating with thank [Applause] you Jacob thank you so much man um next on the list is Ernest C ER Ernest see but what's that oh the what was the sorry Mr Calhoun I know who you are what was it was Ernest C the the actor that was Ernest T bass probably there okay Ernest T bass all right sorry who knows goad um thank you for letting me speak tonight board I appreciate it um echoing some of the previous uh people I I could

151have came up with a two-hour list obviously time is short for all of us most important thing that I wanted to convey tonight again is a thank you um this board has made it to where I have a little faith in the board again and I appreciate that they're actively working towards what I would hope to see out of a school board I believe any two people who agree 100% of the time are either two idiots or two Liars but I think of the main things we we agree I appreciate you working towards the library cause I think some people may believe you have more power than you do as we only impact what is happening in our schools for our children if people want to so read something different or watch something different by

152all means you can do that in your own family I think that we need to on the side of caution and make our schools a safe place for education and focus on that education uh the different opinions they can happen somewhere else that's just my opinion on it and again I can't say thank you enough for the board that is currently here I appreciate all of you all working I knew it took a long time to uh have the have the schools and the situation they're in today I appreciate those who have survived and I appreciate those who have woke up and I'm so glad that you're here and uh I believe that you all will head the community in the right direction again with our support if there's any way we can help you

153any way I can help you I'm happy to thank you very [Applause] much thank you uh Mr Ernest coun uh next on the list is Sandy mwaller uh good evening uh chairman cross Schoolboard members and Dr shifflet I want to thank the board for the excellent job you are doing the amount of time and effort you put into this job is much appreciated by the majority of the Rockingham County residents your respect for parents rights is very refreshing I know your hearts and your focus are on all the students no matter their color their religion or their gender two school board meetings ago a parent spoke of how she helped her child deal with a difficult subject by checking out a book that they could read and discuss together I applaud her that is the

154way God designed life to work the parents know their children best and God entrusted the parents with the responsibility to raise their children the school should be a helper for the parents by teaching the academic it should be a cooperation between the school and the parents with the parents rights coming first school libraries for that matter of fact public libraries are under no obligation to provide students and residents with every book they desire the parents as well as students can check out books from the public library or purchase books that are not available in the school library as our duly elected school board members you are charged with making the hard decisions and I thank you and applaud you for the excellent decisions that you are making God [Applause] bless thank you Miss Ms wer

155next on our list is Nina Jessup thank you uh next on the list is Terry Smith Smith hey we made it to you I know you was worried about that sure I was I'm gonna make it short and simple and sweet I just want to thank you all for what you're doing for Rockingham County and your school board we finally got a school board that's representing most of Rockingham County and just keep up the good work I know you put all lot of hard work into it thank you all for it and also family because your family has giving up a whole lot for y all for doing what you're doing and thank you so much and God bless you all keep up a good fight in faith thank you all right thank you Mr

156Smith and that will end tonight uh public comments and uh will lead us into our next uh our closing is Schoolboard questions or comments and I will start this time on my leftand side and I'll start with Miss lore uh I think a lot of them have cleared out but do we have any students with us left tonight hey look at all you all thank you so much for being here um I hope you've learned something tonight I hope you've uh you are having oh I hope you're having a great uh two weeks and then spring break is right around the corner so we're super excited about that right um but just thank you guys for coming tonight and I think that's all the questions I have thank you Mrs lore uh Miss Hurst nothing

157from you tonight are you sure all right Miss cave I feel like a recurring theme here tonight has been the word giving and I was just sitting here thinking about um the child or the person that gave that um holy shoe at the um at the fundraiser over the weekend and you know um they gave what they had and it's really easy to give out of our abundance but what's really hard is when you give out of need and I believe that person gave out of need and I would say the same thing of all the employees of Rockingham County Public Schools of our principles our teachers our parapros our Librarians our custodians our volunteers um our students even um to some extent is that um you give out of need because we need to

158see these students succeed we need to provide for the Contin continuation of an educated country and so um that's really what I wanted to say tonight just because I wanted to thank you all um just thank the teachers and all of our employees I so very much appreciate uh what you give of yourself and I know um all the extra hours that you do it's not really just um an 8 to 8 to three job or 8 to four and that you take your work home with you um your heart goes home with these kids and so I just wanted to take my time tonight to thank you all for that and thank you for um what you give thank you Mrs cave um Mrs burglin you're gonna pass you sure all right Dr shifflet

159you gonna pass tonight too um I just want to say um thank you to Jacob he's already here you are right there um man I really appreciate you coming here tonight and saying what you said and you're someone that we can sit down with or I'd love to sit down with and just talk you know and be able to explain one another and see one another's viewpoints on different issues and uh so I appreciate you tonight as a student explain showing tonight um just our character counts and just the person that you are so again another Kudos shout out to you because not only was you in Anastasia but you tonight and thank you for that I really do appreciate that um yeah I think I'm I think I'm good to go tonight I appre

160appreciate everyone showing up and um thank you for all the I'll just Echo uh what a lot of we heard tonight from the public was thank you for all the work that all of you are putting in appreciate Dr shifflet I'm it's been fun working uh with you and um it's just it's a great relationship that we have so um thank you all for giving for all that you do and I know that Miss lur you spend a lot of time with the FFA folk and with with everyone I mean it's not just the FFA but you giving up your land and helping out our kids at MTC and all that you've done there I really appreciate that as well so um it's just we do this out of the kindness of our heart and

161we we love what we do we I think we love our I don't think I know we love our community so uh if we didn't love this place where we were raised and um where we're raising our own children then we wouldn't be doing this I can tell you that so but thank you so much for coming out tonight and uh we do have reason to go into closed session uh so board members do I hear a motion to go into closed session tonight I move that the board enter a closed meeting to discuss and consider the following pursuant to the provisions of Virginia code section 2.2 3711 A1 Personnel specific public officers appointees or employees for the purpose of considering such individuals assignment appointment promotion performance demotion salaries disciplining or resignation and A2 one

162or more particular students specifically related to discipline that would involve disclosure of information contained in a Scholastic record contain concerning a student thank you Miss Hurst to uh hear a second second thank you Miss lore you've been my second tonight thank you so much all any questions or comments uh hearing none uh all those in favor say yes yes all oppos no I motion passes 5 we are now in close session thank you for coming out tonight be careful going home