001everyone that's out here tonight and from the public that come out to uh to witness this uh night tonight and for those who will come to speak uh also to our uh employees uh that have come to the reception for the new school board members we appreci appreciate your turnout tonight and and uh for uh for them I also want to welcome real quick uh our new school board members we got some new uh board members here on the Das tonight and on my far right is Ashley Bergl for District Two and uh we welcome you here tonight and from District Five next to her is Holly cave Holly it's nice to have you here tonight as well and to my left is uh the new Vice chair and Sarah Hurst from District 4 so
002welcome I want to welcome you guys here on this uh board and we look I look forward to doing great things with you guys for the Rockham County School Board um the first thing we need to do tonight uh board members we need to approve the agenda do I have a motion to approve the agenda I move we approve the agenda as presented thank you Mrs lore do I have a second second thank you Mrs Hurst any questions or comments hearing none all those in favor say yes all those poos say no motion passes 5 next tonight uh is something new that's on um our um our agenda here in Rockingham County it once was on our agenda back in 2010 and um as the chairman of the board I have decided we will follow
003suit with our local elected officials such as the Rockham County Board of Supervisors and state delegates and representatives along with the United States Congress uh and open the governing body this governing body with an invocation I believe the majority of our community would agree with me we need God's help in uh the days we are living in and so uh tonight if you would join me in a in a moment of prayer if you don't that's okay as well but I I'm going to say a prayer as we open up tonight Heavenly Father we need your wisdom your discernment understanding and patience protect our children our teachers and administrators and staff while they are in our schools may your peace that goes beyond all understanding rest upon our schools amen will you rise with me
004today if you can and join me as we say the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation indivisible with li and justice for all thank you at this moment I want to uh open the public hearing for the 2024 2025 School operating budget so at this moment it is open uh for public comments seeing that there was no names uh filed upon uh the paper um at this time we will close those public comments tonight this is something that has to be done by Virginia code that the school board says that the school board has to do so every year it's something that we uh that we go through for the public to be able to um
005make comments for the operating budget for the coming year at this moment we're getting ready to go into public comment but I do want to read and the rules for public comment and to get started off for for this uh year 2024 I in our policy it says right now that each speaker will recognize in the order listed on the signup sheet and be limited to three minutes so you come to the up to the uh Podium you'll have three minutes tonight and if you go longer after the beep I'm I I'll let you know speakers should have their comments reflect the character counts pillars and all com in all comments being respectful of others and setting a good example for our students speakers should have their comments reflect the character counts pillars in all
006the comments as I said being respectful speakers should only speak once about any item unless they have new material to add all comments should be directed to the school board as a whole not to individual school board members um debate during this time is prohibited emotional Outburst uh I.E any form of cheering or shouting from the audience uh is not acceptable and the public comment period will last or will be limited to a 30 minute uh total uh to the meeting the chair May at any time uh end the speaker's comments that violate these rules once the public comment period has been closed no further public input will be in uh invited unless clarification is requested by a board member and last speakers who have addressed the school board within the last 30 days should
007inste should instead allow others to speak during the P the public comment period I first on the list tonight is Miss Nancy Basset welcome Nancy thank you um chairman cross school board members Dr shifflet as the president of the Rockham County Education Association I just wanted to take a moment to welcome Miss hor Miss cave and Miss for going to the school board and I'm looking forward to working with all of you this year and if if you have any questions or any concerns just let me know thank you for being here uh next on the list is Michael stimle thank you board uh Dr shifflet for her opportunity to speak with you today I would like to start off with uh this from uh scripture and the Christian Bible and when you pray do
008not be like the Hypocrites for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners and to be seen by others truly I tell you they have received their reward in full let's talk about the six pillars of the character counts program trustworthiness respect responsibility fairness caring and citizenship I'd like to focus on the two two of those pillars let's talk about trustworthiness and respect as it relates to current board makeup respect unfortunately we have a board member who has consistently shown a lack of character when publicly interacting with board members and the superintendent the board member has a history of talking at a turn interrupting others and continue to speak when they are asked to stop they have publicly called the previous and superintendent a liar including uh a meeting there
009was a meeting where they were interrupted the chair at least six times and three of those times they were asked after they had been asked to stop if this uh board member had been at any classroom setting they would have been sent to the pr principal's office immediately let's talk about trustworthiness another school board member um at a school board meeting last year then a candidate for school board made blatantly false statements when talking about a cheerleading competition event this person tried to demonize trans students by stating that a transgender student was in a girl's rocker room when other femal with other female students when in fact there was no transgender students present in the restroom if character counts in rcps then our public official offal should reflect these six P pillars of character I
010would like to remind the also remind the board the importance of First Amendment uh principles as it relates to the freedom of religion the text of uh the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom says the following and these I believe these are the words of Thomas Jefferson but don't quote me on that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers civil as well as ecclesiastical who being themselves but fallible and uninspired men have assumed dominion over faith of others setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible and as such endeavoring to posee them on others hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world and through all time so I I would like to remind each board member I have a con a copy of the
011Constitution and The Establishment Clause to remind you there's not uh establishment of religion is yeah is to be respected and yeah so I have a copy of Constitution and the Virginia Statute and I highlighted things so you could under you right thank you next on our list is sander parks greetings my name is Sandra parks and I'm a resident of Bridgewater Virginia I'm a retired librarian with 33 years of experience in developing Library collections for kids I'm also a national board certified teacher I speak for students freedom to read which is in danger as stated it is a um before it's a core belief that books should be Windows mirrors and sliding glass doors thank you Dr Rudy Sims Bishop every child should be able to see themselves a mirror in books accessible in their
012school library not all of our kids grow up with a mommy and a daddy and two cars in the garage families come in all kinds of shapes and sizes some of our kids are hungry some of them are homeless some are gay some are transgender some have experienced racism because of the color of their skin some have immigrated to our country having experienced Horrors we can't imagine that caused their family to leave their home some have been physically abused and some have been sexually abused reading is a way for kids to understand their world and it makes them feel less alone books as Windows help those kids whose experiences are different to develop empathy and understanding of the lives of others empathy is a good thing empath it builds stronger more resilient more compassionate kids
013and a sliding glass door helps them step forward into a better world now based on campaign rhetoric this board apparently plans to limit access to books for kids under the flimsy excuse of pornography using lists passed around by parents who actually haven't read the books that they accuse of being inappropriate pornography has been defined as anything that they don't like instead of recognizing that legally a book must be judged as a whole that anything considered sexually explicit must be considered within the context of the entire work and that literary quality and the purpose of the book are key considerations in any reconsideration a database developed by Mom for liberty or similar organizations that only lists sections out of context is not an appropriate or an acceptable selection tool reading is an essential skill research shows
014that kids read more when they have choice in their reading material in a wide selection of interesting books and I've worked with enough kids and enough of the books on the band books list to know that in fact kids aren't reading them for the excerpts they're reading them for the story for the characters and they recognize a plot device when they see one taking away students access to diverse books will decimate their interest in reading and if there's not free inquiry what's even the point for many kids school library is the only access to books that they have not everyone can get to a bookstore or a public library and I'd remind you that those who censor books thank you hi good evening my name is West kite and I a llong resident of Rockingham
015County as well as being P being educated in the Rockingham County Public Schools I uh graduated from the Virginia Military Institute with my undergraduate degree and Eastern minight University with my graduate degree I A A District 5 resident and father to four boys three of which attend our County Schools I reviewed the proposed agenda for today and I'm worried about some of the erious violations of our first amendment rights uh first of all starting off the Schoolboard meeting with a prayer I believe is a violation of The Establishment Clause I am a Christian but I also support private prayer in my home in my car my church and my time however I recognize this is public school no one should feel that their religion is less than um anything by public school opening with a
016Christian prayer I feel like the board is abusing power and violating rights given that senior students are required to attend at least one Schoolboard meeting this means that there are often students in attendance that will be forced to hear a prayer that they they may devalue their religious traditions and that if the board is exerting its power over students personal religious beliefs secondly the agenda simply States library books with no policy or explanation I certainly hope the board is not planning to override policy and procedure currently in place to remove books simply at the board's discretion never in the course of human history has the Banning of books been remembered on being on the correct side of history from the days of the Inquisition where the books written by Protestant reformers scientific thinkers such as
017Galileo were banned to the pressive regimes of Hitler Stalin and poot Banning books has been used to control population and force religious and political compliance please do not support the Banning of any book that our Librarians and professionals here in the county have already approved and deemed appropriate for our schools thirdly I noticed there are multiple changes proposed to the public comments to the public comments at the school board meeting such as restrictions on where and how people may address the board as well as banning all signs I feel this too as an infringement on our first amendment rights while I understand that decorum and kindness should Prevail in the meetings we must recognize that America is built on compromise and hearing opposing views limiting one's ability to speak freely is indeed a violation of
018free speech finally and perhaps most importantly I have serious concerns about the proposed adoption of Governor Yan's model policy that denies many students their rights requiring a teacher to potentially use a student's name that they do not accept is the izing it also destroys that student's trust and it might be the only person that that student actually trusts in the entire world finally I have serious concerns about potentially the county facing multi-million dollars worth of lawsuits that could be cly to our school system and taking precious funds away from the students that need it and deserve it thank you for your time is Holly and I apologize I cannot say your last name I'm really sorry Holly is danovic use danavic um I've spoken at the last few School Schoolboard meetings um referencing the redistricting
019proposal which is also on the list tonight for an update um I'm really against it um it will uproot many of our students who attend Mont videoo middle school and Spotswood High I'd like to take this time to recap on my family's personal situation we moved to Rockham County area at the end of May of last year to be closer to my parents my dad was in stage four kidney disease my husband and I were concerned about the demographics and put a lot of research into finding our new home here in Rockham County meow Brook seemed to fit our needs um we were only four minutes away from my parents um and it's a fairly diverse area at meow Brook and it was in the Spotswood School District out of the four schools in the
020Rockham County area Spotswood is the most diverse and this area definitely is not a very diverse area compared to where we came from um this was very important to us because our kids are biracial the move wasn't easy but the kids are doing well my son is an eighth grader at Mont videoo and my daughter is currently a junior at Spotswood High Senior next year they have built relationships and have finally found some normaly it wasn't until months later after the kids started school that we were informed of the plan to redistrict redistricting means uprooting the kids once again according to a financial plan for the future for Rackham County dated in 2020 Broadway High School was projected to exceed capacity within the next 5 years and here it is at 2024 with this information
021I'm not sure that redistricting is the right answer it seems as if redistricting is only a temporary fix to a long-term problem families will continue to move to the Spotswood District area people will continue to grow their families if we don't build a new school for the Spotswood jurisdiction we will be building a school for somewhere else in the Rockham County area Spotswood is ranked at a number one in the Rockham County public schools high school so in the rising proposal will have our students attending a school that isn't ranked as high well I chose Spotswood for a reason out of the Ford high schools that were in the rockan County area on November 19th last year um my kids lost their granddad and I lost my dad my daughter NAA and son Jaden have
022been through enough with an with the initial move changing schools losing a loved one but now you're proposing a plan to redistrict this will only uproot them once more but to a school less diverse less appealing ranked lower in education and a school that we did not choose to send our kids to I ask that you reconsider any thought of redistricting and look at alternative solutions to this ongoing dilemma one that is not only positive for our children but to the citizens that you serve thank you is that you come on up hey hello again again my name is Scott mclen from District 3 and I would like to congratulate the new school board for their achievements this election I was truly impressed by all the endorsements provided by powerful people who wish to divert
023our tax dollars into the hands of private for-profit Educators the new board also joined an alternative board member Alliance who supports diverting our tax money away from our kids Public Schools as well the rocking and parents haven't heard much about that possibility yet have we because we parents have been repeatedly fear mongered by more board members with propaganda about Marxism wokeism and LGBT LGBT students with the promise that a new school board can fix things with Christian Christian principles I for one I'm looking forward to seeing these Christian principles in action when the new school board does exactly what Jesus would do which is Ban books Target minority groups and impose extreme consequences for kids who make kid mistakes that would be all that would be the Jesus we all right one who would do
024all those things an intolerant and merciless Jesus well he is when a believer's faith sits on the very French of Christian denominations and that's the problem I have when people want to put God back in schools because it's not God we'll ever get in Rockingham County we get The Fringe and we get the indoctrinated who think they can control the by the weather by where they stick their campaign signs and the French who support fully support groups like The City Elders who disguise their hate for Freedom as prophecy and the French who think their form of Christianity should be our country's government which is both un Christlike and unamerican as an American I believe religious freedom can only exist when there is a clear line between church and state and I and now that our
025school board has moved on from the moment of silence which respects religious freedom to establishing a preference for their own version of Christianity I'd like to end with a uh quite appropriately named verse from the Bible it's Matthew 65 reads When you pray do not be like the Hypocrites for they love to pray standing in synagogues Schoolboard meetings and on the street corner to be seen by others and truly I tell you they have received the reward in full thank you very much congratulations and we see you more meance hello my name is Leah Hill and I have three children that attend Lacy Spring Elementary School um and we're part of the 27 children who are proposed to be redistricted to Linville Edom um I wanted to speak tonight on behalf of my kiddos who
026love their school very much next year my oldest will be in fifth grade and my twins will be entering third I understand that this affects lots of families over the district looking at the numbers on the paper does not allow you to see the magnitude this change we'll have on our children my goal tonight is to put some feelings behind the numbers when my twins were born in 2016 we moved to Lacy I did not understand at the time what a significant move this would be for our family my oldest child started speech therapy at 2 and a half years old at Lacy I remember my husband and I holding our infant twins as our toddler whose backpack was bigger than he was went off to Lacy to start his journey I cannot put into
027words how grateful I am to the staff at Ley they provided a loving safe environment where my child was able to find his voice and Thrive I genuinely do not think the same outcome would have happened had we not moved to Lacy and met Miss Jesse she will always hold a special place in my heart for um she was for what she was able to do for my son he has excelled at Lacy he is a straight A student and he has been referred to as a leader by his teachers my twins also have a wonderful experience at Lacy um every morning they board Miss Sarah's bus she has a genuine relationship with my children and has provided our family with Christmas ornaments every year with her bus number on it um when the kiddos
028made their calendar for 2024 they have a big sign for August it says back to school with Miss Sarah's bus and 107 on it they make rounds every morning they go see lots of other teachers because they formed relationships throughout the entire school not just in their current class our tree topper this year year was replaced by giant snowflake that Miss made um Miss Dana made she's the custodian at our school and my children are also very fond of her I think it is unfair to move children out of an environment where they have developed meaningful relationships over several years I think it is unfair to cause uneasiness and uncertainty when something as important as their school family I would ask that the board think about these important relationships when voting on The redistricting this
029will not solve the problem long term as more housing um approvement have been made to the schools that are already overcrowded on 33 so I would ask that you would look for a long-term solution um to support the growing areas of our district and not uproot children across the entire District delaying the inevitable thank you uh thank you board members for the opportunity to speak with you um similar to the previous prev speaker my wife and I live in the meow Brook neighborhood and I'm here to Advocate against the proposed redistricting into the Broadway School District um in planning our future lives my wife and I took careful look at the schools in the areas around Harrisonburg and we we picked the Met neighborhood because it was in the Cub Run Monte videoo and Spotswood
030schools these schools it was an intentional choice these schools are near where we live work shop operate and so the idea of moving children 15 miles north that's that's farther away from everything we experience in our daily lives presents an excessive burden um any pickup from school a school visit a sporting event would require us to go out of our way Beyond where we normally are um our neighborhood was a choice and I think as we've heard from people today it was also a choice for them um you know given this Sudden Change and the disruptive impact on our lives um I hope you will reconsider these actions um I think simply busing students to a far away location will not resolve the underlying issues that we face in the county every week we read
031about a new development for for town houses apartments or something new um clearly this area is attractive to families and the challenge of allocating School resources will only continue um on the in the November 27th report you know there was a comment that was made that said some may consider a districting a necessary evil but then there was sort of a flippant remark of oh well we can't move schools well I recognize that schools cannot be moved but schools can be built so I would hope that you all as our elected leaders could could look and make the difficult and the tough decisions that I think this Community needs to maintain sustainable long-term development and not simply take the easy way out so and thank you for your time good even evening board I'd like
032to address the um apparent apparent Sudden Change in religious ideology being imposed in our school board uh and our schools um I feel like this is a violation of our first amendment rights for you to endorse a specific religion and um require all of us and andaine that you have the um knowledge or the audacity to tell us how we should believe um I think the moment of silence was a much more appropriate way for everybody to allow everybody to if they chose uh invoke whatever religious beliefs that they feel was uh appropriate to themselves and I would implore that the board reconsider the actions and return to a a moment of silence so that it's includ inclusive of all people in Rockingham County and and that's all I have thank you highlights from board
033members and I'll start tonight with uh board member lore thank you share cross um since the last board meeting I've had some opportunity to spend time with uh the MTC students so the farm production students and um we even one class so there's four classes that regularly come up to my farm because the the Sheep now live at my farm because we we needed a temporary fix of place for the Sheep to live so they're living with us and um uh recently one of the classes the class that seems to have a little less on Farm experience was able to come to the farm and we actually delivered a lamb just so I mean it just so happened we didn't do anything to make the lamb come but the lamb came as the kids were
034getting there so we stopped and we pulled it and it it uh got up and started nursing and one of the kids uh who doesn't have a lot of farm experience was like that was amazing so it was so neat to see that that love of um education and that that new experience for those students uh the other students also were like yeah that was great so it was it was a really great experience so um I'm having some really great um times with students these days uh I would I also apologize for missing that the meeting on Friday uh but we were I was home taking care sheep and I would like to welcome all of our new board members I'm looking forward to working with all of you all to do great things
035for kids so thank you and welcome thank you Miss lore um Mrs Hurst um well thanks for um turning out tonight I just want to welcome you all to our very first uh school board meeting for three of us up here uh board highlights I think uh right now is we're just getting just getting started uh looking forward to getting out into the schools this week and next week um visit some of the schools get to know uh some of the redistricting plan look at some of these schools that are on that plan um and I'm just really genuinely excited to get started and get working for our students and our teachers thank you I Mrs cave thank you um I was sitting there earlier today at home thinking about all the things um the
036last two months have actually been really really busy and um I'm just excited uh for the future to get into the schools and all of the principles have been really welcoming and I said this earlier to them that I appreciate it um but I got to be at the um meak Elementary um back in November when we celebrated um veterans and uh that was just such a touching thing like I just I'm very soft-hearted when it comes to that kind of stuff and um things that I'm passionate about so um when I went through the line um I almost cried I think I did and and you know some of them I knew um personally and um it was just such a great thing and I get a little bit overwhelmed uh with all the
037stuff at all the schools that I just filling up my planner and um I get really excited about things like spelling bees um you know and things like that so uh I'm just I'm EXC excited um to work for you this really truly is a servant position um it's humbling and I'm just grateful to be here I appreciate um all of your support I appreciate people that come and you know are bold enough to speak public comment I'm excited to you know hear that there's so many um different thoughts on your minds and I look forward to connecting with all the parents and all the things um that you want to see us do to make the schools the best place that we can and connecting with the teachers Even in our community so um
038my highlight is just that I'm I'm happy to be here and I'm happy to serve thank you Mrs K Mrs burlin all right um so my board highlight um through all of this was being sworn in at lynville Edom elementary school it's a very important school it's where my kids go and that was just a really cool experience it started as uh hey maybe we'll just get the the small pool of lynville leaders involved and then it turned into whole school assembly so that was really awesome to be able to share that with the faculty and staff um and the students and um everybody that I've grown to care so much for at lynville um I'm just excited that there's a big turnout here um I like to see parents getting involved as a parent
039myself I I really encourage it so thank you all for being here thank you Mrs burlo Dr shifflet uh so thank you um chairman cross uh so today I had the opportunity to support jmu's lab school application before the lab school standing committee at uh VOE their office in James Monroe Building uh this meeting was supposed to be held in December but got postponed uh Mrs lore was able to join virtually and so this lab school if it gets approved will be part of Governor Yan's Virginia College partnership laboratory school program and it will provide our students some wonderful opportunities for excellent education career career exploration and career Pathways it goes before the full standing committee uh January the 25th and if it gets proposed we would hopefully be able to partner with them and
040start that work this school year at East Rockingham high school and Broadway High School and um so we'll yeah we're really excited about that so it's been something we've talked about maybe a couple years ago so it's been a long time coming I what would that look like starting in a mid year like this we would start in August okay okay all right so we would if it again comes to fruition and I'm kind of not holding my breath since it's been a while but um it it would start um at East Rock and Broadway with somewhere around 50 students hopefully we had the interest so we' have to spend some time uh this spring recruiting getting kids interested and then the following year we would expand that to um uh Spotswood and Turner Ashby
041and then what I'm really excited about the Junior and Senior year for those students really some really cool opportunities for them to take courses at bluebridge Community College James Madison University so um if it once it gets passed we'll have another presentation and and share all the details with you folks and what we're planning but um yeah I'm just I was a little bit shocked today when when they moved it Forward because it just hasn't moved for a while right right yeah well thanks for bringing that to the board tonight I appreciate that look forward to working and going through that process my highlight for uh tonight's just to be sitting up here with these awesome people on to my left and right and I look forward uh to working with every single one of
042you and this coming year and doing great things for our students for our parents our teachers and I think the the biggest thing that we heard throughout the last two years is transparency and partnering with parents in the school Division and so um we want to do that one of the first things we did on the first thing off was to uh bring relief to our teachers who needed uh their plc days protected as a work day for them and we've got so many so much feedback uh from our teachers saying thank you so much I mean teachers I I've never heard from the first two years sitting on the board has spoken to me and said uh thank you so much we feel like for the first time uh we've been heard uh in
043the division and so that meant a lot uh and we'll kind of talk about that uh tonight but that was a huge uh highlight for me uh starting the year out and that was in response of of this board and so our first sign for as a board was to show our teachers that we appreciate them and I you know look out because our our next thing on the list for you is student conduct and we're going to be making sure we hit that hard then in over the next couple of uh months and um no more disrespect uh for our teachers I've as I've sat and through some student conduct meetings and see the things that that uh students and how they talk to our teachers um if you cuss our teachers you're coming
044before this board on the first time um and we are going to make sure that we send a message that I'm we're not going to we're not going to uh take the disrespect that our teachers get so I look forward uh to working with this board going forward uh on student conduct uh and also just helping our teachers uh the best we can in our students students so U that's my highlight for tonight and thank you all for sharing uh yours as well um next on the list is to go into action items tonight so board members if you'll get uh ready for that uh first on our list tonight is the minutes and and do I hear a motion to approve the minutes of the December 11th 2023 meeting and the January 5th 2024
045meeting as presented I move to approve the minutes of the December 11 2023 meeting and the January 5th 2024 meeting as presented thank you Miss Hurst do I have a second a second thank you Mrs bergoin any questions or comments hearing none all those in favor say yes yes all those who oppose say no motion passes 5 you may notice this uh this year as I go and I say yes and no we kind of came to a conclusion as a board that we would say yes and no instead of I and a and all the old English terms so uh if you're looking at me like he's not saying that right we came to a conclusion we're going to say uh the the uh new revised version and we're going to say yes and
046no so I'm and the next action item that we have is the bills and mileage and I believe the superintendent has a recommendation for this chairman Carson board members I recommend approval of the December 2023 bills as presented board members hearing the superintendent's recommendation do I have a motion to follow superintendent's recommendation I move to follow the superintendent's recommendation to approve the December 2023 bills as presented thank you Mrs bur do I have a second second thank you Mrs cave any questions or concerns hear none all those in favor say yes yes all those oppos no motion passes 5 uh the next action item on our list is field trips and I believe you also have a recommendation for that too uh yes yes sir chairman crwon Bo board members I have several field trips
047for your consideration Broadway High School FFA a education January 24th 25th uh 2024 four students Richmond Virginia honor band Festival January 19th through the 21st 20248 students Virginia Tech blackburg Virginia FFA leadership series February the 2nd through the 3D 2024 24 students Highland Retreat Burton Virginia then from Turner Ashby High School ecology April 26 to the 28th 202 4 12 students Smith Island Virginia uh FFA livestock judging February 23rd to the 24th 2024 8 students blackburg Virginia and then from Wilbur s Pence Middle School FFA a education January 24th through the 25th 2024 nine students Richmond Virginia and I do recommend approval of these field trips board members hearing the superintendent's recommendation do I have a motion to follow I move we approve the field trips as presented thank you Miss Miss L do I
048have a second second thank you Mrs Hurst uh any questions or comments hearing none all those in favor say yes yes yeah all those oppose no motion passes 5 uh next action item tonight is the adoption of the Civil Rights assurances and a superintendent you also have recommen recommendation for this as well oh yes sir chairman Carlson board members this is an annual approval and you have the policy ACA civil rights certificate in your meeting's material and I do recommend the adoption of the Civil Rights assurances certificate policy ACA as presented I'm do I have a recommendation I move to follow the superintendent's recommendation to adopt the Civil Rights insurances certificate policy ACA as presented thank you Mr HSE I meant motion I apologize thank you for that motion do I have a second a
049second thank you Mrs Bergin any questions or comments hearing none all those in favor say yes yes yes all those opposed no motion passes 5 and next action item on our list tonight is a 2023 2024 I'm school calendar revision board members do I have a motion to approve the Revis School calendar I move to approve the revised 2023 2024 school calendar as presented thank you Mrs cave do I have a second second thank you Mrs Hurst all those in or any comments or question on this I think the the only change here to note is the change from PLC to work for teachers is that correct yes and I'm as I said as I said a while ago we've heard a lot of good things Dr shiet I don't know what you've heard on
050your end but we've we've heard a lot of good responses from our teachers and so U we hope that this is something that helped them out so I'm all those in favor for revising the 2023 2024 School Board calendar say yes yes all those who oppose say no motion passes 5 um the next action item that we have on the list tonight is the action item of library books which I believe that many will be uh interested in tonight um currently our Schoolboard policy under uh IAC provides specific processes and procedures for reviewing curricular and instructional instru structural material but no similar policy exists for library books or classroom library books um School Board is SC we're going to be scheduling um work sessions that will be open to the public and include invitations to
051the faculty and staff to inform school board on how division can most effectively review library and classroom library books uh some of the concerns uh and complaints shared regarding library and classroom library books include titles that reference sexual content violence profanity and Etc uh boards intends uh intends to remove these books temporarily and that's the important uh word to use tonight we uh plan to remove some books tonight temporarily while policy and review process is established uh once our policy and review process is in place all titles that have been temporarily removed will be formally viewed consistent with our policy um so right now we really have a very small policy when it comes to library books and Library um um books and classrooms uh so uh this is what this is going to do
052it's going to help us give some um uh wording what our and what our standards will look like going forward uh many school divisions throughout not only Virginia but throughout the country has gone through this so this is nothing new uh what's going on um to as we're going to hear a little bit tonight I believe just some of this uh content that's inside the books um isn't classical reading as some would suggest um it's very egregious in a lot of things that you will read and so egregious that uh unfortunately we can't even put this on the screen tonight in a public meeting for the public to read but they are allowed in our public School libraries and I will say this there is a difference between Public School libraries and public libraries and
053so we do have to have a standard when it comes to our kids and so uh tonight do I uh do I hear a motion uh according to the library books uh chairman cross I would like to make that motion but I before I do that I would just like to say that you know um for so long we've been asked for transparency and so um prior to looking at you know making such a motion I just um I wanted to say that when this hit national news um I thought surely not Rockingham County and I had people say those books are not in our libraries and those books were in our libraries and so just as a matter of transparency um I just wanted to read some of the the book titles so that
054we can be very specific on this motion and that so people know uh exactly which books that we're talking about so we're just not swiping stuff off the shelves um and disrespecting you know any of our um employees Librarians um undermining their work or you know negating the way that they feel about um their importance in their job so um here we go all American boys all boys aren't blue beloved Beyond magenta drama gender queer how beautiful the ordinary identical Leo on the offbeat Looking for Alaska me and Earl and the dying girl more happy than not my friend dmer out of Darkness perfect perks of being a wildf flower rage rainbow party sold stars in their eyes the art of racing in the rain The Bluest Eye the duff The Invisible Boy The Kite
055Runner the school for good and evil 13 Reasons Why this book is gay Valiant ladies allegedly a novel breathless burned Elanor and park fade Felix Ever After forever glass Go Ask Alice Living Dead Girl 19 minutes slaughterhouse 5 the infinite moment of us the nowhere girls yoke tilt tricks under the moon a Catwoman tail red white and royal blue smoke a court of mist and fury later gator the Sun and her flowers longboy a novel Heart Stopper Nick all volumes Nick and Charlie all volumes tweak and the absolutely true Diary of a Part-Time Indian now those are just the book titles um I have lists for all board members and the superintendent here showing the um authors to those books as well um so having said all that and reading those specific books I mov
056that the school board tempor arily remove these books um included in parent complaints lists that I previously referenced during this discussion from school and classroom libraries immediately as such books were were reported to include some concerning material that includes sexual content violence and profanity until such time that the school board adopts a policy that provides a review and decision-making process for these books and others and then direct those same titles to to be referred to that process for review thank you Mrs cave do I have a second I'll second thank you Mrs Hurst I questions and comments and I'll I'll start I'll start first again with Mrs cave right back to you okay um I think when we get past um our major difference and the major difference is it seems that some people want
057all the books some people don't want all the books I think there are some things that we really agree on and that we could find common ground with um I do agree uh that reading is an essential skill I mean I can tell you all of my teachers in elementary school their names and I remember what they look like um because they provided the foundation of learning that reading the writing the math I honestly don't remember a whole lot of my teachers from middle school but I'll never forget the ones that taught me how to read right so it is very important um and I still remember Reading Rainbow you know and back then um books really were the road maps that we could take through our imagination to get anywhere to be anybody we
058wanted to be to do anything that we wanted to do and um that road map has in 2024 quickly turned into a detour into places that no parent would wish that their children would find themselves in I have spent hours at nighttime going through and reading some of these books and I am I don't even know the word for it torn up I wake up in the morning heavy-hearted it's heavy content and and you know we're not we're not talking about just profanity I I can handle I can handle profanity like I don't get offended when people cuss when they're talking to me or like I'm not I'm not that religious that I jump on them in that way but when we are trying to model good behavior for our kids and we're wondering why
059do they think that it's okay to cuss a teacher because we've said that it's okay for them to read all these books you know that have all of this in it I've never in my life read such things um and really honestly the profanity is just it's the skim of it um the sexual content that's in these books I mean I wake up in the morning thinking about what I read the night before and it's not even real but it is what is on my mind and my heart and as a woman in her 40s I I know how it affects me I can't imagine I can't imagine how it affects a middle schooler or a high schooler now when we want to talk a lot about mental health and taking care of our kids
060I think we need to start with what we're putting in their heads so um let me make sure I [Music] didn't skip anything here I just um I really hope I thank you for the second um this is the part of it that I really wanted to have was the discussion just so that you would know our hearts on the matter it's not this is not a partisan issue it's not a religious issue uh this is not um actually I'll take I'll take from someone word someone's words that um would be the farthest thing from a Christian um Ted Bundy when he did his final interview before execution I believe he did it with James Dobson one thing that he talked about the night before they executed him was what fueled his rage and he
061told that what fueled his rage was pornography and he said he said I'm not claiming to be an expert in any of these things he said but what I have found amongst all the men in this prison that have committed violent violent crimes he said our one common denominator this is not forba but he said our one common denominator what we can all link the beginning of our rage to was pornography men that had met I'm sorry committed all sorts of different crimes that's where they tagged it back to and all of their honesty and all of his honesty right he was not a far right wing christian nationalist I mean we're talking about someone on the Polar off opposite end of of everything probably everybody in this room but he agreed on that one
062thing that's what fued my rage and I cannot in good conscience as this goes to a vote tonight I cannot knowingly be okay with leaving such content in our schools for our kids I cannot do it that's all I have to say thank you Mrs thank you Mrs cave I'm again I'll remind you of of how to U make sure that we act and behave in here um any other um comments tonight Mrs H um yes I want to um Echo a lot of what Holly has said um early on in my campaign back in March um I had I had so a parent come to me with multiple titles um that they were concerned about and I'm of a race voracious reader I always have been I will pick up and read books I
063love books I'm a reading specialist I love getting books in the hands of kids I love getting kids excited about reading um that's that's my heart is for reading it um when I was teaching my own children how to read I was uh my oldest he wasn't so sure he loved reading he it was kind of difficult for him to learn to read he didn't like it and my heart was crushed because I wanted him and I want him and all of my children to love reading with the same passion that I do um and thankfully uh he turned a corner around second grade and he is also a voracious reader um I I will add um um that I think we do have to be careful um because my I understand that things that
064I find egregious um and absolutely disgusting people have different thresholds for acceptability and I understand um as a former public school teacher that there are a lot of um parents who are more permissive than I am in regards to movies that their children watch books that they would allow their children to read um I understand that parenting is complicated in the 21st century um I also believe that when my children have friends over to their house over to our house um and I'm responsible for them those children are in my care um I'm not going to be allowing you know an 8-year-old my 8-year-old and another 8-year-old to watch something that is kind of edgy or on the edge without talking to the parent first so I think when we talk um I know there's
065a distinction between movies and books but there really isn't um especially when we talk about content so with that background what I want to share is that when I was given a list of about 20 books back in March and I checked every single one of out one of them out of the library because out of the public library um because I'm interested uh you know a lot of people are concerned about just cherry-picking pieces um out of books and B Banning books based on one little passage or that little tiny piece which is kind of you know makes everybody raise their eyebrow they go yeah but in the context of the book it's fine um so I know people um have kind of some people have that perspective and so I read the whole
066book I read all of the books um I read those books and my heart broke my heart broke um for multiple reasons some of them were on very heavy content that I recognize our children walk um some of our children do experience horrific things in their homes um my heart broke in that emotional piece that I thought oh my gosh like I having worked with students I know our students some of our students and come from very challenging situations um so my heart broke in that way but my heart also broke because I thought this isn't necessary with millions and millions and millions of books published every year we cannot possibly have every single title in our public libraries much less our school libraries our school libraries cater to a very small population minor children
067we have a duty to protect the small children that are in our care all the way up to the big 17y olds who don't think that they're children anymore um we have a duty to protect them and part of that is what comes in you know um I've heard solutions that are along the lines of well why don't you just exempt your child from the books I can't even my my issue is that I don't even think some of these should ever be on the Shelf in a in a elementary middle or High School library School library they they can be in a public library that's fine um the other you know concept I've heard or thought to solve this issue because this is a big issue and we're going to need to have lots
068of dialogue about how our community wants to handle this but one solution given was the librarian will email you the parent when the books when your child checks out books and then you can just know what they're reading um that's actually a pretty decent start but the problem is is that I've raised a voracious reader and he will read a book front to cover before he ever gets it home and it's not that I don't trust him I believe that he would open up a book and look at it and go oh my gosh this is whoo this is wo and put it back but the damage is already done at that point he's already seen things that I I don't believe that he should be seeing at age 14 um and I don't want
069that for my kids and I don't want that for your kids either um I think we have a a duty to protect these young minds so I I'm seconding this motion I'm going to vote Yes on this motion because it is a temporary removal of these books um I would like we're like Mr Cross said we are going to be forming a committee we're going to have some open work sessions it is really important to get community input on this um and from you all I look for this to we don't want this to drag out for months and months and months I look for this to be a pretty fairly quick prog process I think um because you know we we're not going to we don't want to be holding books hostage for forever
070and ever if a community you know I think we're wanting to take this out of our hands and into the hands of community members um on a community to kind of on a to kind of look through what it is that is there and determine acceptability from there so those are some of the background some of my thoughts on the um books that we're removing tonight temporarily thank you Mrs Hurst uh any other comments or questions by school board members none um I would just say that from for myself tonight and this is not political it's not uh religious it's not any of those things um but we have a duty as Mrs Hurst said tonight and to protect our young children and even as uh having a um 19yearold right now and I like
071to call him a young man some sometimes he's he's still a kid but uh we have a duty as parents to make sure that we're putting the right material in front of them and I would just Echo what Mrs kave also said tonight is um a lot of these things uh that I read from these books uh they're hard to get out of your head once they get in there and as an adult as I read them I'm man I wouldn't want my daughter sitting here on the second row tonight and I would not want my eight-year-old daughter to read um to read those things so um there are books in our high school um that bother me I mean I to the point where I I'd asked my wife uh to read one and
072she said my gosh I cannot believe I mean it's just it was straight pornographic and uh very detailed in things and so this is not a popular decision to make it's not a popular decision not a popular place to sit but we do sit as a safeguard for our children in our community and our community elected us uh to to do what was right in our schools and for our children and for our parents and so my vote tonight is also going to be us and I want just want to say as well thank you Mrs cave uh for all the work that you've personally put into this um and because I know that you've put a lot of time when um when these when these Schoolboard members got elected they didn't this is not
073a social club School Board sitting up here we are a working school board and we are busy and even this week as we go and visit schools for redistricting that's time away from our jobs it's time away from our families it's time that that we're not getting back but we're doing this out of a servant hood for our children and for our community so I'm thank you Mrs Kay for the time you put into this and I'm I my vote tonight is going to also be yes on this I'm we do have reason to vote on this tonight and we are going to do a roll call uh vote on this and so I'm going to ask our Schoolboard clerk um if you um to do the roll call thank you Mrs bergoin yes Mrs
074cave yes Mr Cross yes Miss Hurst yes Miss lore no thank you motion passes 41 all right let me see if I can get back here the next on our list tonight is I'm is the vdoe 2023 model policy I'm I'm sorry I lost my place so let me get um back to there there we are um next one list is the action is Governor yun's model policies to ensure the Privacy dignity and respect for all students and parents in Virginia uh Public Schools um board members this has been a topic of discussion for a uh very very long time uh many of you ran your campaigns on promising the public uh that you would adopt the governor's model policies because his policies partner with parents instead of keeping secrets uh from parents uh so
075tonight I don't think there's a lot of time that we need to spend uh talking on this we can but we have all spent a lot of time uh in public talking where we have stood on this and um we promised the community that we would adopt this on day one when we met so uh so do I hear a motion tonight to adopt and for governor yin's model policies I move to adopt the 2023 vdoe model policies to ensure privacy dignity and respect for all students and parents in Virginia's public schools thank you Mrs Hurst do I have a second I'll second it um this will also be a roll call vote so uh our Schoolboard Clerk order go ahead uh you didn't call for discussion I'm sorry any any comments discussion go ahead
076I have a question sorry sorry about that Mr FL I have a question so will this replace our current manual or so are we just going to have the model policies are we going to have the model policies and our current manual a lot of these policies overlap how are we going to handle that yeah I one of the things we discussed at our uh working Schoolboard session and I'm sorry one thing we discussed at the close session on Friday's meeting with our uh School attorney was how those these details work so we're going to be working on any policies that we have that might overlap an Yan's policy we're going to be working to make sure that it's very clear to uh the School Division and where we stand on the school division on
077our policy so yes we are going to be working with that working closely with our legal council and that's something that we talked about at length uh at Friday's meeting can you repeat the motion please the motion is to adopt I'm sorry we're the motion is to adopt the 2023 vdoe model policies to ensure the Privacy dignity and respect for all students and parents in Virginia's public schools so the motion is to adopt them not to work on them we're going to adopt in full and if there are any policies current policies that we have in place that contradict this policy we're going to make sure that that doesn't contradict make sense not completely but that's okay okay it's okay it's it's okay uh so I will again we have I second it and I
078will ask the Schoolboard clerk to uh also make this a roll call vote as well Mrs bergoin yes Mrs cave yes chair cross yes m Hurst yes Miss lore no thank you motion passes 4 to one next we're going to go into our information items and I believe we have Dr aler here tonight that's going to talk about this chair cross members of the board Dr shiet uh first of all just like to welcome our new board members on M cave HST look forward to working with you all in this new capacity um so this evening I'm going to be sharing some information about uh student conduct in Rockingham County um I think that it goes without saying that student safety is one of the most important things that we do in any public school
079um you may be familiar with maso's hierarchy of need where we had this uh pyramid and at the bottom of that pyramid we have physiological needs and the next layer is safety and for kids to be able to be uh to learn effectively in their schools uh in their classrooms they have to feel a sense of safety and I know that's been a priority uh Dr schifflet had mentioned that um in his 100 day plan I know one of the first things he mentioned whenever he was named as the superintendent um the safety was one of his top priorities and I know from um listening to many of you the candidates who had um been running last fall that safety was such an important platform of your um campaigns as well and Mr Cross former
080SRO has has been on the board for the last two years and has made that an emphasis so um I think that we're all in agreement that safety is important um again this was a slide from uh Dr Sheet's 100 day plan in which he mentioned safety as well um I think if you were to talk with any teacher or administrator they would tell you that since kids have come back from the pandemic it has been different um if you spent time in schools particularly before the pandemic and after it has looked different right um and that's something that we understand we recognize uh and we need to address and we need to pay attention to that and think about how we can best meet the needs of the kids who are in our schools
081today uh this was an article or some research that was done from the uh uh National Center for educational statistics uh this is a a federal uh agency that does uh work in this area and had mentioned that more than 80% of US public school report the pandemic has negatively impacted student behavior and socio emotional um development uh so it's something that we want to be sure that we are addressing and we're looking at and understanding that kids are coming to us now with different needs than they had um even a few short years ago um the state of Virginia is recognizing this um the just on Friday this was interesting I have the date uh was we got this email from Lisa Coons uh indicating that uh they are opening a new office of
082Behavioral Health and Wellness in with the vdoe because they see the need for this type of uh support and resources for public schools um you can see here highlighted some of the areas that this uh group is going to be working on um student discipline uh causes of uh of iic absenteeism the effect of children with social media related to cell phones and those types of things and also with opioid and other substances as you'll see some of my reports today that those are issues that we're dealing with here as well in Rockingham County um this is a fairly classic uh pyramid that you'll see sometimes uh in different presentations about student Behavior about how we break down sort of the where students are in their behavior within a school right so if you can't
083see it maybe from where you are it's a little bit fuzzy in some ways but the very tip of that the top three the top tip with the red is about 5% give or take of students have really U significant needs behaviorally so how do we address those needs you have about 15% that have some needs and then 85% or so are students and this is just generally understood um over uh the course of of schools across the country we did a little bit of Arch ourselves and found that for Rockingham County looking at the years from 2021 and two and then two and 22 and 23 our numbers came out to be very similar to that so um 2.5% of our students had five or more referrals in those years about 15% had one
084referral a minimum of one referral uh and then 85% of our students didn't have any referrals right so it was interesting as i' never never done this type of breakdown before to find this that it really did fall very closely in line with what we would see nationally as well so I'm going to be sharing some data here with you um in the way that I've we've done this data so I put this together with the help of Cheryl Eep and Liza Kaufman uh we work together as a team to to gather this data um something that we did we we looked at as I mentioned earlier about the um having a distinction between preco and postco and that during the two years of uh 1920 and 2021 the data from those years is skewed
085right so we ended school in the middle of March so we didn't have a full year of data and then 21 2021 we were virtual for half the year the numbers just don't add up so what we've done is taken a look at the years uh 178 excuse me 18 17 18 1819 those two years and then looked at 21 22 22 23 okay so and I'll show you some of the data now there's some challenges that came along with us doing that in 2021 the vdoe changed how they coded discipline data so now we were tasked with looking at data that was used under a different system and comparing it to this data so we worked to make some comparisons between this data and it came out pretty cleanly and I think you'll see
086the numbers compare but I just want you to give you an understanding of how that of how that worked as we were going through this it was n necessarily comparing Apples to Apples right but we did some work to make to make that work um one of the other things that you'll notice and I mentioned this about the 93 different codes that's the the current system there's 93 different codes that teachers and and or excuse me administrators and clerks can code discipline referrals that can become a bit confusing and it can get a little bit inconsistent so there sometimes you'll see some of the date and I just want to say that ahead of time that the date is not perfect perfect right so I went through and checked a couple of these and there'll
087be places where something I would have coded it probably in a different area but you'll see as the data comes out typically a school May code it in a certain way and they do that consistently over time so the numbers came out pretty consistent I think as you'll see we go through this so what I'm going to do is show you and again you'll see this is an example of the type of chart you're going to be seeing over the next eight or 10 slides okay so what you'll see just to give you some IDE of what we're looking at I'll spend a little more time on this one initially is across the bottom you'll see 1718 1819 2122 22 23 okay and then you'll see the chart this graph and we have the numbers
088listed there so those are the number of referrals related to distinct referrals related to that type that particular violation okay so anyway just to get a sense of that and you'll see at the top most of these only have one bit of data on it I did combine uh in some slides too when they seem to be related to each other so this one was related to attendance right so it seemed to make sense that we would do that together so here this for excessive tardies and skipping now again that is excessive tardies not just tardies we would love it if that's the only the number of tardies we had right of you know this past year 480 whatever that's when a student has had multiple tardies and it then turned into a referral for
089them okay just as an understanding of that here's the cell phone violations um you can see there was a dip in 2122 I'm not sure that we have a uh reason for that or rationale why that number was significantly less than the others the others there are fairly are fairly close tobacco and nicotine products um again you'll see there that we had a the spike in 201819 um and that they've been fairly consistent uh since that since that time the last two years classroom disruptions was that was that nicotine was that also the THC mixed in with that no uh that's not THC I'm gonna I have a slide for that specifically and I I thought he said vaping too so so it it is vaping but tobacco Vape right so so we'll have uh
090it's a good question if I don't I'm going to clarify that for for others as well so students will see a trend we've seen a trend particularly since Co the last two or three years the technology for Vaping has just exploded right it's become much more affordable it's much more it's much smaller much easier for kids to conceal Etc so we've really seen prior in the say the LA four years ago three or four years ago the vast majority of the tobacco violations we would have gotten in schools were for um chew tobacco dip tobacco or cigarettes we almost see none of that now it's almost always vaping and what you're going to see in in a a few slides is the technology within about the last year and a half has moved to where
091students can now put THC into a vape so now that number has gone up significantly as well which is a tremendous problem that we have right and we'll talk about I have a a slide that talks about that I think you're familiar with some of the changes we made to try to address that as well classroom disruptions again you can see here um fairly consistent across the the board from each of those year each of the the years that are given here um again classroom disruptions one of the challenges with this type of data too when you look at it with a broad brush a classroom disruption could be kind of what classic we would have maybe experienced too much talking right a class one teacher may consider a kid walking out a class to
092be a classroom disruption could that be disrespect potentially could it be could be them yelling at another kid or whatever could be them yelling at the teacher could that be disrespect could it be classroom disruption so there is some Nuance in this as well right as we as we work through those and it could go the other way when we get to disrespect that could be it could be interpreted in different ways depending on the person putting it in here it is disrespect and defiant disrespect and Defiance so you can say see these numbers and they have trended particularly last year we saw a number that went up um to what 1135 students last year in 20 2223 again as I again did not look at all 1,000 of those by any means but spot
093checking those they do very significantly right so some of them are very serious and some of them would be ones that we would say what that was disruptive maybe not disrespectful but still a large number the highest number of any of the ones that we have physical altercations um here I've put in here basically major and minor so the yellow line uh at or the orange line at the top would be uh more minor ones which could result could be pushing could be slapping could be hitting on top on the head could be a variety of things and then you have the more serious what we' really consider a fight right so a real fight where a student likely needed to go to the nurse or be checked out may or may not have received
094some sort of injury but there was something to that the administrator chose to say that's serious enough that needs to be handled uh and considered a major altercation Dr move on there um did you go back just by chance and look at any of the data before 1718 and kind of see what if those numbers were closer to that the 30 40 range to where we're seeing ourselves more up to the 60 and 70 range I we did not go back any further than this that is something that we can do um we have the capability of going back and looking at that um at the data prior to this so just sure we can check that obscene language and gestures again you can see here again um numbers are fairly consistent uh ended up
095at 320 of those at the end of last year and then this is the one that I was uh we were referring to about policy violations so policy all of these are policy but these are kind of the serious policy violations right so you see the uh number there and what I had commented about earlier about really about 18 months ago when we saw this major spike as it relates to drugs in particularly the THC Vapes of those 161 the VA I didn't go back and count them all but the vast majority of them I just know that from my experience the vast majority of them are related to vaping right my Theory on on this which I I believe is accurate it's just based on observation and talking with people but essentially The Vaping
096is so concealable kids can conceal it they if you've ever seen someone do it they can they can take a drag off of The Vape and they can blow it in the bathroom or whatever and it doesn't necessarily while it smells a little bit it's not like what we would have maybe experienced when someone was smoking either a cigarette or smoking marijuana in the bathroom everyone in the school knew that was going on right and now it's very concealable and kids have the sense that it's easy to get away with so they have it and then they use it oftentimes this is um we we have in all of our schools one of the ways we find out about these things is is we have a reporting app that students have that's it's called a
097stop it app where students are able to anonymously make reports to other uh to the administration and so kids know that other kids have it they see them in the bathroom or they see them have it and they they text or they email the stop it app and they say so and so has this vape and they may or may not know whether it's THC or not but they just say they have it administrator goes meets with the kid searches their person and they they find those the other thing that we have been able to do um because the Vapes do have metal in them we have the capability of using a metal detector wand and we can find these on kids wherever they have them so um it's is a way in which we've
098we've just found a lot of these I have a question sure um my I think there's a general idea maybe you can clarify this that a lot of The Vaping is happening in the bathrooms um but what you're saying is is that some of these things could be concealed so easily might not even be taking place in the bathroom just as we walk down the hallway as we walk in the hallway okay it's everywhere yeah we did explore we did a pilot um having there are Vape detectors that you can uh and we we tried a vape detector in some of our bathrooms we found it to not be terribly effective so just as an example so we there was a discussion that we were going to actually outfit an entire school with them we
099tried to do just we did a couple of bathrooms in a particular school and we didn't find it to be very effective lots of false positives we weren't we weren't able to really identify kids and based on that all out of this remember here Dr aler when we talk about weapons can you give us a variety of weapons because I'm sure that was going to catch people's attention it certainly caught mine right um when people see that and they go even though that is the lowest number of anything that I'm sharing with you here anytime you see a weapon that freaks people out understandably okay what I will say is that I've done this job for 13 years I've not one time been no that's not true it was one time that there was an
100incident that happened in a school in which there was some sort of altercation that involved a weapon okay so these are not weapons that are being brought out and being used against another person what happens in almost 90% I'm making up that number but I'm just I'm that's don't quote that in the paper but the the majority of these said don't put that in the paper yeah in the majority of these cases what happens is that as I mentioned before there's a stop it app a student reports another student has a vape we get that kid to come in with their book bag or their person and we find a knife on that kid some sort of it could be a hunting knife it could be a a Leatherman type of knife it could be
101typically it needs to have it in order for it to CL be considered a weapon it has to have a a blade of at least three and a half inches right so it's a it's a large knife I'm not I'm not saying we're not talking about like the little boy scout you know Swift swift oring knif exactly right it's it is a knife but it was there in many cases Somebody went hunting or these are some of the stories we get I acknowledge that right but the fact of the matter is I don't want that to be alarming in that we don't have that's not 17 guns that were in the building that was not that was not 17 knife fights that took place it could have been sometimes a kid occasionally we'll see brass
102knuckles or something like along or or numchucks or what something along those lines okay just to give you some context of that I'm not downplaying it right don't hear me say this isn't important excuse it I just want you to have a context for that so this is a document that um incidents that resulted in out of school suspension okay so over the this time again you can see our numbers dropped significantly from 21 to 22 again I don't have a reason other than a hunch about that what that was about as we have kids coming back out of of the pandemic I think we were probably more lenient on what we did with consequences right kids had just been at home for such a long period of time and our the number of suspensions
103was reduced during that during that year in comparison to the others you can see they're fairly consistent otherwise and then the last graph that I have here is related to uh discipline hearings so whenever we have a serious uh incident that takes place um whether it be drugs and alcohol whether it be um weapons whether it be major disrespect whether it be um just numerous uh disciplinary referrals as a kid just over time just continues to accumulate and doesn't quite seem to get it then they can be referred to a hearing officer U so we have two hearing officers in the division uh and they students been will be suspended for 10 days from school and then they come and see the hearing officer the hearing officer meets with um the student and their parent
104and then the administrator from the school and they listen to the case they listen to what what happens the ad sort of like a small little court right um where they come in they kind of the prosecutor the defendant they talk through it out uh talk it through and then the administrator or the the hearing officer then makes a decision about what to do sometimes that can be a referral to um Rockingham Academy alternative school or tonight School sometimes the kid does go back to their home school or maybe alternative in their home school it really depends on that um you'll see I'm sure from 2022 to 23 let me I'll comment about that in a second at the bottom you see um hearings by by the school board so typically whenever a a case
105comes before the school board that's for expulsion the only the board has the the power to expel students for 365 days um so when a student has maybe been before multiple been before the hearing officer already uh and is back in trouble again with a serious offense that comes here to the to the school board uh it could also sometimes be that if a kid does something so egregious they can jump right to the school board without going to a hearing officer first so again there's only a handful of those that would be um would be there um oh one comment I was going to make about the um if you were doing the math and you looked and you heard me say about um that drugs and alcohol go before the hearing officer or
106can go before the hearing officer they can right but one of the changes that was made um last year as the board I think knows um was that a decision was made to adjust the policy for drugs and alcohol um that uh and this is the second one on this excuse me the second one here last November changed the uh consequence from 10 days at out of school suspension to a combination of out of school suspension and base and that may initially say well that's less punishment um because a kid's out of school for Less days it may appear that way I would tell you that there are very few if any kids that would prefer to be in base for five days than at home for five days right so I don't I understand
107that while it may on first blush look like that's less punishment I I don't know that it is even on its own Merit um one of the reasons why we decided to do that was because of our um absences the attendance issues that we had right we have such chronic absenteeism and if you have a kid that is suspended for 10 days out of school they are already more than halfway toward their becoming chronically absent right so by having them in the building for those five days their counter is present and they don't have as many days off from that um we also uh took out the requirement of the hearing officer and one of the reasons why we did that is we found on firsttime offenses that the hearing officer was hearing the case
108and in about again about 90% of those cases they were doing this exact same thing that the policy then decided was a kid was going to have some sort of Po School standing uh they may have some other restrictions but they were typically going right back to the school so we said instead of encumbering the the time of the hearing officer going through that process let's make that more consistent another piece that was inconsistent was depending on when you got into trouble so if you got went to the hearing officer in November typically the punishment was one of the punishments was you're on PO School standing until the end of the year well guess what it was if you went in April end of the year to the end of the year well who got
109more punishment just by when a kid decided they were going to get in trouble or got in trouble right so that didn't make much sense so we we tried to make that more uh systematic to say that it's 90 days it was school day is um it has had an impact I think on a lot of kids right and I think the board's heard some of that some of the um Fallout from some of that um there was also a change in October of 21 related to nicotine where that had been a three five and 10 day out of school suspension three days for the first offense uh five days for the second offense and 10 days for the third offense those moved from being out of school suspension days to in school suspension or
110base um and again part of that thinking was for attendance in some ways but also keeping kids for for a non for a victimless crime so to speak right so they come in and they they have a vape with them right that wasn't a disrespect that wasn't a violent that wasn't a physical altercation the idea was to have them in the building there's some remediation and some help we can as far as education related to vaping and the other thing is is that when they're in a basso they're not vaping right if a kid's home for three or five days many of them that's what they would be doing there right so that was part of the rationale for that for that as well um I think that concludes my presentation I'm happy to answer
111any questions that you may have sure um this the charts that you provided which um I would love to get copies of they should be a part they should be your some in here okay um I was I was looking at that information and I'm curious um is that data based on or those set points based on anytime so you have teachers that will write an office referral is that for every office referral that they write or only the ones where disciplinary action was taken um that would have been based on if it was entered into Power School even if that was a warning it would have it would have been recorded here so those are those are warnings could have been any of those things so so there was we did run it in
112two different ways so we did run another report when I did the part about OSS that was a different report so we could also run a report to say how many days of Base were were given how many days of how many warnings were given we can run it through either what it was labeled as or as what the consequence was so Goa um it should have been even if you had a classroom disruption that was reported to the office it came down there and the it was just a a warning or whatever it would have been reflected in here so that's in there so if a child is given a Stern warning and then zip back to class that's in there as long as there was a a written referral that that was documented
113and then processed through the office yes it would have been okay thank you sure I'd like to see a um the data on I I think we've been close to a year now since we put that new um policy in place for drugs can we see what the numbers if the numbers have changed or dropped or you know second time offenders you know get a little bit of that information going forward because I want want to see if it's being effective um in the schools I I can I can tell you this information and I can go back about second offenders um and I don't have that information I do know that when we ran this information right just um it wasn't actually for this report it was for another thing I was doing um
114at right before Christmas break we had 55 so that would put us a slightly under well we had 161 last year so 55 once we get to the halfway point we're we're a bit under where we would have been last year at this point but also just so you all understand um how we when we did this we also made a decision that um the first time the policy dictates that you have the five in school or most of the time it's five and five so the policy reads that it needs to be some combination of in school and out of school for 10 days generally speaking it is five out of school and then followed by five in school in base there are times that that gets skewed the administrator has the authority to
115do as much as 10 days of out of school if they want to right that's the policy is written that way um but generally speaking it's five in and five out um the second time if a student gets caught a second time not in the same year if they get caught a second time it is an automatic referral to the hearing officer okay so that the hearing off if they were to be caught a third time and this board the previous board had seen a few of these they get caught three times with it then it comes to the school board so that's that is clearly laid out in how we handle it's not in policy but it is in practice so if a student gets three offenses of this they now again that has
116hasn't caught up to people quite yet because we just started this right but to tell you the we had one student who got three offenses within two and a half months right and they they came to the board so um it's only been in effect for now for a little bit over a year and to be clear to everybody this is um three offenses in your in your school your career yeah School career right okay so I will say this just as a to for transparency we are we really kind of started that once the nove once they made this policy change so we had a couple of kids that came to who had had an incident when they were in eth grade and then they had another incident within the last year and they
117were maybe a junior we treated them with the five and five as a first-time offender we didn't we basically said once we started this new approach we're the clock is ticking on those on those times um could you also add on that list can we get a some data on average on how how many kids are in base in middle school and high school yep and I can get more updated information related to the um drugs and alcohol okay that you had ask for board members any other questions yes Dr aler yeah um yes ma'am the disrespect and uh Defiance I think it was um is it was uh 1,00 135 students in a school year I mean offenses in a school year correct do we have data on how many students that was individual
118students I do not have is it possible to pull it um that's a great question and I can check about that um I I don't I'm not aware of exactly how that would be done that's 1, 135 coming straight to us that's going to be a lot of people yeah but if it's 35 what I would say and again this is anecdotally from my experience as a school principal and as a division administrator that um as I mentioned in a or I showed you in that slide of the pyramid that often times that's going to be a fewer number than a larger number right I mean so I mean even uh well 10% is still over 100 students so so I'll give you the number that this I can give you an actual number right
119so the number of students that had five referrals or more was at almost exactly 280 both years it was very consistent between both years it was like 283 one year and 279 the other year something like that right so the number of kids that had just to give you some sense of of the the number of kids who were yes that had five or more yeah yeah had five or more that was 280 essentially average over those two years different students not not in C I mean okay and there were SE about 70 couple students that had 10 referrals or more in a year over those two years pretty impressed you remember some of that yeah that's awesome Dr and Dr shiet just to share with you quickly just um my heart um especially with
120regards to drug um offenses just because it's so prevalent in our community my district especially um I really would like to explore some options that are um proactive measures and not reactive and so that sort of leads to my question because uh when you were talking about the um school where you had worked with the Vape detectors and you said there were lots of false positives and I wonder if it's the same same thing with the spotted app once they get are kids using that I mean that's a reactive measure I'm sorry I'm sorry stop it stop stop it yeah the stop it app um are kids using that yes do you um do you find to get false positives there they get to the office and not not very often it does happen occasionally
121uh where we'll have a a student who um makes a report and then now and it's anonymous as well so they can make an anonymous report which can make it hard to someh track that down but we have found times where kids have made a report and we've we've been able to deem that as a false positive those happen quite rare was quite quite rare that happens um if I may speak to the I don't I didn't spend time on this with the the particular slide let me go no I'll just comment about it so the um we have implemented um ASAP training for students after they had their first offense so substance abuse training um education that in order for them to come off of their 90 days of poor School standing they must
122um attend and complete that course and we offer the course we do it at Rockingham Academy we bust the kids there uh we pay for it it's part of our budget um so we have put that into place as a preventative out intake or is that something that we're actually but we're doing it we it comes I mean it comes out of my budget we we pay ASAP we do a class every month and we pay it uh we pay the instructor we give the space again we provide the transportation everything to be sure that a kid has the opportunity to do that we do also if they're not able or if they would rather not they do have to miss school on four different occasions they have to miss afternoons in that that week
123or that month um we do allow them to go into the community program and we'll pay for that as well that's like an all day Saturday program they just send us the bill and we pay it so we we're trying to do what we can to provide the education as well as thank you peace followup question and maybe this is more for Dr shifflet I'm curious about our um health and PE what we're doing in health and PE as far as um drug and alcohol information for kids um a lot has changed and those seem to be the textbooks that um or resources that get the least amount or you know they get really old before they get replaced um so I'm just curious if we have up where where are we on curriculum for
124Vaping especially since that's like you know I don't know that we've got a whole ton of hard drug things that we're dealing with so much as we are vaping um just wanted to make sure that's one of those preventative I I can't speak on that um we do have a a supervisor of health and PE that I I'll certainly reach out to him and find out what is the curriculum that we have I know we have some Partnerships with some outside agencies that do come in to talk about I know in the that used to be about smoking I'm sure that vaping is a part of that uh now as they've updated their curriculum um but I'll check on that as well yeah and I know that's part of the curriculum uh the one pill
125can kill that's part of the you know the high school students that we're using uh but maybe it would be advantageous maybe to have Sheldon rice come in at one of our upcoming meetings and just kind of give an update on what we're doing with that curriculum in particular if you'd like yeah I think that would be helpful thank you sure any other questions good all right I board we're going to take a a two-minute break real quick and allow people that need go to the bathroom or need to leave at this time we have four more uh informational items left on the agenda tonight so if you need to leave you can uh we're going to give about two minutes so at 8:49 we will continue May all right it's 8:50 right now if
126we have any students that would need to get their paper signed if you want to get their paper signed we have any students that need the paper sign okay go go ahead it's getting late it's okay it's getting late I don't want to see you on the I don't want to see you on the road that no that's good that's what change their behavior sorry we will begin back up and we are uh thank you thank you for um we have two board members that are out we're gonna we're going to go ahead and start and uh and Dr shifflet if you will begin on redistricting and uh give us an update there alrighty um so at um the May 22nd Schoolboard meeting uh this I guess the previous year now uh at Spotswood High
127School um superintendent Dr Aero at the time gave a preliminary report on redistricting and and basically shared uh you know what his recommendation would be based on current capacities and enrollments and so um at the October 9th Schoolboard meeting at Broadway High School uh I presented an update of that um presentation based on uh again current enrollment for students as of October so a little bit I'm sorry Dr she can someone shut that door for us so we can we can hear thank you sorry okay um so I provided um sort of a a an overview of what what it would look like based on current enrollment and then uh we had public comments October 23 at this building and then November the 13th at spotwood high school and then again here on November the
12827th and at that meeting I recommended approval of the propo uh proposed redistricting plan that was presented on October the 9th uh to be to be implemented uh for the 24 25 school year with the option for Rising 5th 8th and 12th graders to remain at their current schools uh if their families provided Transportation uh at that time the school board decided to postpone the vote so I just kind of bring everyone up to speed on where we are with that and um I think it's sort of going to be up to this board to make some decisions uh thank you Dr sh shifflet that is um one of the things that we're going to be doing as I said earlier that this is a working school board and U me and the vice chair
129have um plans to to hit quite a few schools even this week and um and they also get to the East side and look at our schools and see what kind of room that they have have right now see if they're how how they're using the space that's there and to be able to have a make a educated decision on on this redistricting so we are um going to be working over the next two weeks we hope to have a vote on that at the next Schoolboard meeting that is our hopes as a school board I know that we want to get uh that information to our administrators uh so they can kind of plan for the following year I know they're waiting patiently for this to happen uh so um just know for the
130parents that are here tonight that spoke with redistricting um that we we are looking to vote on that at the next meeting as long as we can get together we're going to actually hold a a work session as well after we visit the schools we're going to gather together uh as a school board and uh talk about the information that we've received that way when we come in here on the 22nd I believe it is uh we can I make a decision that night so uh next on the agenda tonight is policy policy revisions I think Dr shiffley you have this so for so for information uh there is U policy revisions to policy BD DH in regards to public participation at Schoolboard meetings uh We've made some changes I think uh you read over
131um some of our current policies this evening uh chairman um craws I think maybe the most significant change uh in this policy would be um that we would not permit signs I think that's the most significant change uh and maybe there's some others I'm just kind of scrolling through this three three minutes and that's that's always been part of our policy three minutes um per speaker and yeah I think there's a part in here of residents as well that change yes that's right thank you sir yep so that would mean um being a resident of Rockingham County having kids uh in this in rcps or you graduated from rcps or you own a business in Rockham County that way throughout the throughout the last few years I mean we've had professors from UVA coming over
132here and commenting on public comments we've had um other groups from other places outside of Rockingham County coming and speaking so we want to hear from our constituents but uh we want to make sure we're hearing from the right people and also the policy for public meeting says that we have a 30 minute uh timetable and that's because we have people that are bringing informational items we have uh things on the board that we need to get done this is a working board again and so we we need to do our best to kind of keep that we also we answer our phones throughout the week we answer emails and so if there are things that you need uh questions on please contact uh us all our information is on the divisional website and um
133you can get a hold of us that way so we will be bringing this as an action item at the next school board on January uh 22nd uh moving along any well any questions or comments on that before I move no hearing none moving along to attendance report so you have in your folders the attendance report and this looks a little differently than the attendance report you've received in years's past right we were we would bring you um a report each month and would say this number of students that was the average attendance 93% 94% % what have you uh but we are measured we're held accountable for students who are chronically absent meaning they missed 10% of the school year so for us students missing 17 days or more so uh Marcy Williams uh
134has tried to put together a report that gives you a sense of where we are year to date so if you look at that third column percent of chronically absent students year-to date 23 24 you can see where each of our schools ranks with students who are chronically absent now that changes the longer we get into the school year and and and so it's a little bit of a moving Target so that gives you a better sense and we want to be below 15% that's our threshold right so uh hopefully this will make sense to you as you look through this if you have questions please let me know or uh Mrs Williams but we felt like this would give you better information when we're talking about attendance policies and attendance issues to see how
135many students are actually chronically absent so for example in Broadway High School year to date 11% of students were chronically absent Spotswood had 17% of students chronically absent okay missing 10% or more of the school year we have a chronically it is that do we U for kids that are late the school schools track their tardies as as well uh but we right now don't aren't part of the accountability measures as far as tardiness um but yeah we're fighting that on both sort of both fronts there tardies and coming to school but I think we are making progress right I mean it's not exactly where we want to be but it's better than where it was and you've done a few um a few initiatives as well on this right you had lunch with quite
136a few of them well yeah I I tried to promote it a little bit myself I have a couple of more ideas I may try out here this spring but but our schools are really working hard at this I mean they're the ones who are uh making sure you know they know who those students are on that list and they're calling them contacting their families uh encourag them to be there um and uh yeah so it's it's an ongoing process and and we're working at it so I I'm I forgot to mention earlier that I'm that a lot of the credit for the Stop It app came from Dr shiplet one of his 100 days um initiatives that he did and so I do appreciate that the students having the capability I think you told
137me it was at Broadway and then we yeah it was at Bradway High School Mrs Donna Abernathy had implemented it there and had had success and so uh when I came on at superintend and I just move forward to put it in the other three high schools it's a it's a great way for kids to report and and occasionally they may report something that's that's bogus but we have been able to address some issues with it so it's a great it's a great Tool uh any board comments and okay seeing none and we'll go on to our last financial review Dr sh yeah that that is in your packet for your review Financial um review for December 2023 okay all right I and I will start or with u Mrs lore on Schoolboard qu questions
138and comments tonight I just have the one question that I usually have do we have any uh students with us I think some of them stepped out but yay one student thank you welcome for thank welcome for coming welcome and thank you for coming is what I'm trying to say it's getting late it's past my bedtime so we'll hopefully wrap this up so you can get home and get to bed but thank you for being here and that's all I have thank you thank you Mrs lore Mrs Hurst nothing here I'm Mrs cave I think I'm good thank you Mrs burgl I know it's been a long meeting we've accomplished a lot tonight I can never tell if this thing's on um one thing I wanted to comment on was the redistricting and I just
139as a parent want to talk to the parents who came and spoke today that I you know I completely empathize with you and understand how important it is because I know we've got I personally was there miss Jesse and a Miss Dana I have those at my daughter's school people who fill those roles as well so I don't take that lightly um and that's that's really important to me to make sure those kids and those families and parents are taking care of when it comes to that so thank you guys for speaking thank you Mrs burgoin and uh I will skip tonight as well and I will end with Dr shifflet all right thank you chairman crws I just want to um talk a little bit about out you guys have um passed U yankan
140model policy and so that's your role as a board to um implement or to pass policies and my role as a superintendent is try to implement it right and so uh thank you to Dr Doug alifer he has already uh started working on how we're going to communicate this with our principles and start to move in this process but it will take some time we can't flip the switch and tomorrow it's all but in the next couple of weeks we're hoping to communicate uh with our our principls our teachers and and identifying students with you know name changes and those types of things so we already have plans in place and I wanted you to know that but it will take just a little bit of time so yep with that being said we do
141have reason to go into Clos session tonight so school board members at this time I'm do I have a motion to enter into close session uh so we have a specific motion that we have to read and it it binds us to only discuss ing these items during Clos session and I will read that motion now um I move that the board enter a closed meeting to discuss and consider the following pursuant to provisions of Virginia code section 2.2-fold specifically related to a discipline to discipline that would involve disclosure of information contained in a schoolastic record concerning a student and A3 acqu the acquisition of specific real property for school purposes where the discussion of such real property in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the school board
142thank you Mrs lore do I hear a second second I have any questions or comments hearing none all those in favor say yes yes yes all those oppose no motion passes 5 we are now in close session thank you for coming tonight