2023 10 23 - RCPS School Board Meeting

001good evening I'd like to call this U Rockingham County public Schoolboard meeting to order uh first item on the agenda is to approve the agenda members to have a motion thank you Mr Cross have a second second thank you Dr mcquilkin any discussion hearing none all those in favor please say I I oppose same sign motion carries unanimously next item on the agenda is um the Pledge of Allegiance can you please stand and join me the pledge allegiance I pledge allegiance to the of the United States of America and to the Republic it stands one nation God indivisible you may be seated and please join me in a moment of silence thank you the next item on our agenda is recognitions and we have uh Mr Bo Dickinson to discuss the JMU economic education Awards

002competition chairl Dr shifflet and members of the board it is indeed my honor to be joined by a former rcps teacher Miss Lauren shifflet to recognize a number of rcps teachers who placed in the economic Awards competition that is coordinated by the JMU Center for economic Ed and their companion organization known as yes which is known as your economic success as you know Miss shifflet now serves as the associate director of yes and serves our teachers in a different capacity but still we count her as part of the County uh and coordinating this with all of our Educators uh the number of Award winners here this evening is quite a testament to our local Center and to miss shifflet's leadership as well as the talent and the passion of these rcps Educators I'm honored to

003have a number of them with us this evening and we ask that you please step forward as I call your name and to be recognized we ask that you come up and there's quite a few of them here this evening so uh three or four to the the right and three or four to my left as I call your name and M will award you with a certificate please given the number of folks this evening we'll just hold our Applause till the end thank you very much first on the list is Miss Priscilla May Maiden who is an itrt and she plays first in the Elementary grades K through two division second we have Tristan Brady from John Wayland Elementary School who plays second in the Elementary grades K through2 division third we have Lauren

004Markle who is an itrt for Rockingham County who placed first in the Elementary grades three through five division following her we have Katherine kraw who is also an itrt and a second place winner in the Elementary grades 3 through five division from lynville Edom Elementary we have Miss Kelly Kips who placed third in the Elementary grades 3 through five from Jay Frank Hillyard Elementary or excuse me J Frank Hillard Middle School we have Miss Norah Fletcher who placed first in the Middle School Division followed by Kim Dove who is a teacher a Civics teacher at Wilbur ESP Pence Middle School who plays second in the Middle School Division Mr Ryan pal from Spotswood High School placed first in the High School Division and then we have a a collaborative team from Mass nut and Technical

005Center uh which was uh featuring Miss Bethany everage Brandon plogger and Rebecca ulich from MTC they placed second in the High School Division and then finally the grand prize and the overall competition was one of our own as well from Pleasant Valley Elementary School Miss Brittney coverstone Zone please join me in giving these Award winners a round of applause Miss shiplet is now going to tell us a little bit more about the JMU Center along with some more exciting news regarding the next phase of this competition enrichment thank you I want to thank you for having me this afternoon each year our funders at your economic SU offer our local awards for outstanding economic lessons for K to 12 in partnership with the Harrisonburg rotary and Harrisonburg Rockingham Chamber of Commerce we then send all

006of our local entries to the state Virginia Council for economic education where they are judged by representatives from the Richmond fed and also by the Virginia Council and we are excited to announce that our Rockingham County Teachers swept the state Awards this year so let's give that a round thought we will celebrate these individuals in Richmond on December 8th they will be invited to the FED for a lunch in there so we have in third place Britney coverstone from Pleasant Valley Elementary School Brittney created a game um about Molly in economic decision-making and in this economic activity students travel back to ancient Molly to participate and authentic economic decision-making the review resources through game board cards and they explore opport cost and Taxation as the king deducts a portion of their earnings and I had

007um the pleasure of realizing how special that game actually was by a particular student in second place Ryan pow from Spotswood High School he created the economics of Legos Legos are super popular these days and students learned about the economic journey of Legos from wooden toys to a global toy giant they explored investment possibilities and created their own Lego sets based on what what they had learned and in our first place Lauren Markle from an rcps itrt she created stick with it the Innovative design project empowered students to become entrepreneurs through the creation and sale of their own vinyl stickers while developing skills in digital design market research production Marketing sales and customer service and we are so excited to be able to recognize them this afternoon wait wait don't go anywhere we want to

008shake hands so picture pict some shes I'm take the picture I kind of feel we're divided you know is this is kind of upward shot here now I'm I am not really a really good photographer but I assigned myself this job so all right we got it thank you thank you congratulations thank you guys we're just kind of a mess up here aren't we thank you than thank you guys so much for uh thanks to our teachers for all of their work and thanks to everybody for allowing us some time to to spend with the teachers that was awesome we're going to now move on to our public comments and we have um 12 public commenters for tonight um and our first one is going to be Ashley Saunders and while Ashley makes her way

009up to the podium I'm going to remind everyone about um our rules we we need to follow our rules tonight which include but are not limited to uh everybody will have three minutes a maximum of 3 minutes to speak you'll get a warning chime at 30 seconds um your your comments should reflect our character counts pillars and you should address the board as a whole uh and also the signs thank you guys for moving towards the back please try not to to uh hinder anyone's view with the signs okay thank you I'll turn it over to Ashley my name is Ashley Saunders and I live in Broadway I have sent two children K through 12 through the school system and I have one left my 20-year-old son is trans and you all have heard this

010story multiple times but I'm here tonight to talk about something we should be focused on the children of the United States the children of Rockingham County public schools are about to be in a true crisis and we are so busy scared that someone's name will not match their genitals that they will fall through the cracks reading scores are down math scores are down and IEPs are up teacher attention and teacher recruitment of quality teachers should be the number one focus of this board Banning books is a Fool's errand if these students cannot read them Travis having a vagina and Susie having a penis will not matter if every student graduating does not have an education that puts them at a comp a Competitive Edge in all things including trades where you have to have High

011math and reading scores our teachers are being robbed of opportunities to truly teach what they have master's degrees to teach in and our students are being given a subpar experience because we are allowing ourselves to be distracted by something that does not matter I have sat through hours of public comments at these board meetings and I have never seen so many adults fight for the right to give their children less than what they were given and I am Gob smacked every time public education is the Parents Choice when you say I'm sending my child to a public school you say I trust the administration the teachers and everyone involved to give my child an education if you don't want certain things taught there are private schools and you can homeschool but leave Public School alone

012I can no longer scream into this void my energy and voice are needed in many other places but I'm going to continue to vote and organize until we have a board that respects student rights first and teachers rights second over parents who do not even send their children to public school if you are a student and you are watching and you are trans or lgbtq we love you we are fighting for you because Valley values are trans rights thank you and thanks to the crowd I did forget to mention no emotional outbursts but you guys remembered that so thank you for that our next speaker is um Margaret heern Hein I'm sorry Mar it's Margo isn't it I I because I've had you up here before and I've already forgotten thank you um good evening

013my name is Margo heern I am speaking in favor of Governor Yan's model policies I am also a board member at Women's Liberation Front a or wolf 501c3 feminist organization that restores protects and advances women's rights using legal argument policy advocacy and public education on on October 5th I represented wolf at the Rono College women's swim team press conference and spoke out along with three other women's groups in support of the girls who were being pressured to accept a maale on their team this event partnered widespread National media attention because those Brave Young Women spoke out the administration at rot College reversed the policy and allowed um that allowed a male to swim on the women's team I here today to tell you that D gender ideology continues to disrupt the fundamental laws that protect

014women and girls in virtually every aspect of their lives perhaps this School Board needs to be reminded that the two egregious sexual assaults that occurred over two years ago in Lowden County were the direct results of the state's failure to protect girls from gender ideology govern Governor yunan yonan's model policies are designed to restore parental rights in decisionmaking about their child's identity while protecting the safety and dignity of all students especially girls the Attorney General said in August that schools must follow these policies and reiterated that these policies are fully compliant with the law law and school boards across the Commonwealth should and the Commonwealth should support and Implement them yet as of September 20th this school board voted to delay Provisions related to withholding information from parents compelled speech the use of bathrooms and

015changing facilities according to sex and Single Sex Athletics a week later Rockingham girl civil rights were violated at the Turner Ashby high high cheer meet when several boys entered the girls locker room these girls did not give their consent to have males in their private spaces and they were compelled to change in the shower stalls and bathrooms inside of their female only locker room the upshot is that the school board did not uh did not do their Duty in protecting girls in this District despite clear direction from the state to do so this points to a dereliction of Duty to girls in their charge as a mother Community member and wolf board member I implore you to adapt all the provisions of Governor yonan's model policies I am asking you to stand up for the

016rights of girls and young women I am asking you to do the right thing thank you thank you our next speaker is Vicky cook I want to thank you all for allowing me to speak so I'd like to start by addressing model policies which I took off and have read over and over again the purpose for this is to ensure that all students have a right to attend school in an environment free of discrimination harassment and bullying there are model policies cited that can be used by you as you develop and Implement policies in compliance with this act my understanding of this indicates that there are eight model policies and that this board has primarily implemented five of them there are three that this board has not acted on now this is just my understanding

017I'm a grandmother and a mother of kids that have attended Rockingham County schools and my youngest grandson just got a 1530 on his sat so I'm very proud of him and what he's learned so my understanding of this indicates oh I'm sorry I believe that there are three that are very important my question is why why have you not voted and acted on these three that are so crucial is it because and I'd also like to know know is it because that there is a vote coming up on November 7th and that the board maybe doesn't want parents to know that they haven't acted on these three I never heard of it until I started looking into it and reading this policy um given the incident that took place at Turner Ashby high school on

018September 27th which according to the superintendent of schools and I'll quote you has understanded prompted questions concerns and thoughts about the environment in our schools so would you please just address these three and tell us maybe why you haven't addressed the policies why are they being put off since I believe it was March 2023 that this came out why do we have three items that have not been addressed and will you please address them before the November 7th vote thank you thank you uh we don't like to get into a back and forth um at at public comment but I think if you stick around a little bit you might hear something during uh some of our comments later next we have Shannon tyranny hi uh my name is Shannon Tierney I'm a community physician

019and mother to a monov videoo student um first off didn't plan to say this but as a point of fact um neither the Lowden County assault nor the incident at Turner Ashby had anything to do with transgender students secondly as a point of fact every major medical organization supports transgender Youth and adults but more importantly as a parent in the system as a D3 parent I want to know why school board members are associating with outof State disruptors um people out of the county groups which have stated that public education is the enemy and have done so in a way to promote uh upcoming elections our focus should be on improving our test scores and ing our buses aren't breaking down and making my kid late for first period and ensuring that the facilities at

020Spotswood work so that students aren't missing class thank you thank you our next speaker is Jamie McGovern hi and thank you to the school board and Dr Dr shiplet for giving me the time to speak I'm a teacher here in Rockingham County and I'm a transplant to this area for the four years I've been here I've talked about the beauty of this place not only the mountains that surround us but the people who make up these wonderful communities I'm here to speak about the policies regarding our transgender students I've been so blessed to have the opportunity to watch all of my students grow and learn as they come into their own here in the county and to work with the incredible number of parents who offer their unconditional love and support of these young people

021as as a teacher I believe it truly does take all of us to create the exceptional educational environment we have and need part of the reason that I became a teacher was to amplify student voices last year I was able to participate in the community dialogue and the safe and caring Schools project and over and over again I heard students beg for a seat at the table I don't believe these proposed policies give them that seat coming out is a deeply personal experience and it happens over time I know that it took me over 5 years to be able to know know and love myself and to share it with the people I love by enacting these policies you are denying some of our most vulnerable students of those basic human rights having worked with

022so many parents I know from the bottom of my heart that you love your children I also know that sometimes children aren't who we think they are I cannot imagine having to process that as a parent and I cannot imagine getting a phone call from someone I barely know telling me who my child is it's not an easy conversation for anyone to have with their loved ones but I believe that you're all so capable of providing safe and loving homes for your children where they'll feel comfortable to do this right now there's a perceived divide between parents and teachers despite the fact that we all truly want what's best for our students and I'm begging you both Schoolboard members and parents to give us all the opportunity to work together to continue to be this

023place passing these policies erods trust between School staff and parents and between students and their adults at home it puts students In Harm's Way and as a teacher one of the most fundamental parts of my job is keeping students safe I love your kids no I don't love them in the same way that you do as parents but they're part of my heart I truly believe that we have the opportunity right now to have hard conversations with each other and by forcing people's hands takes away from that listen to the voices of our children children give them that seat at the table and trust them to know best about themselves thank you thank you our next speaker is Patrick Fritz good evening Madam chair uh my name is Patrick I do I've got two two

024left in uh Broadway High School um almost done um before I start anything else I do want to say to um all of the teachers and students that are that are listening and watching at home um particular my band students good luck Saturday as we go to the state championships um the vmbc state championships at Liberty um I know Rockingham County is going to take it home the way we always do um so more uh to to the point tonight um I've been seeing a lot about people talking about test scores and and it's been mentioned a couple times tonight and I'm going to get up and I'm going to advocate for the same thing that I've been advocating for for years um if we really are concerned about raising our test scores um then

025what we really need to do is go out and recruit these teachers and get our elementary schools fully staffed with music education if you want to give our children lifelong learning the the skills for lifelong learning music education is by far the best vehicle to do that it teaches them language skills it teaches them math skills it teaches them how to work as an ensemble it teaches them how to to translate and comprehend things well beyond the music that is in front of them further it rounds them out as human beings music there there's a reason that music has been such an integral part of society since we came out of the trees it is it is how we express ourselves it is how we learn it is how we communicate it is how we

026communicate across cultures across languages and across time right we want to talk about going back to basics then let's do do that let's make sure that we're going out and we are putting fulltime music teachers in every one of our elementary schools but how can we do that when we can't when we're we're losing teachers every day I see it in my office every week teachers that are leaving Rockingham County or refuse to even apply because of the atmosphere that certain people have created here we can't recruit and retain these teachers we can't educate our children we can't get back to basics as we bear false witness as we lie about what goes on in our schools thank you our next speaker is Abby schwier schmer oh hi I am getting in cold I am

027a Rockingham County resident I am a mother I'm also a historian and one of my specialties is the history of education um I haven't been here for obvious reasons for very many of these sessions but I've watched all of them from home on video streaming and one of the things that astonishes me is the degree to which the people who talk about parents rights in this room seem to believe that what happens in this room happens in a vacuum that we are not part of American history that we are not a part of what is happening in America wide today that we are not part of the American legal system because we have laws in this country that say what parents' rights are and what children's rights are and they have a very very long

028history going all the way back to the Colonial period in the colonial America if you did not teach your children properly if you did not educate them the city Elders would come to your house and test your child and if they had not learned the things they needed to learn to be a productive citizen you would lose your child this notion that there is an absolute right of parents over the education of children has never existed in all of American history and let's go to recent American history and let's look at what our courts have said based on our laws there are extensive state and federal laws that address the questions of what rights children have in schools and number one right that children have is to not be endangered there are very strict laws

029restricting the rights of parents in schools in fact parents rights in schools as far as I know are only two you have the right to your child's academic record and you have the right to know if they get in a fight I think technically but not legally you also have the right to a teacher conference that's it and if you look at what's happened in America recently and you look at the court cases some of the lower courts have been variable but when it gets to the appell at court level every single decision whether it is transgender kids in bathrooms or transgender kids in sports or most recently whether transgender kids get outed to their parents the courts have decided for the rights of privacy of the children every single time because the first time

030if we pass a rule that says that kids get outed the very first time one of those kids get hurt we're liable for that because that is not a legal rule there are federal and state laws that say teachers and school officials cannot endanger children and if we endanger children and if children get hurt there are going to be law school lawsuits and they are going to cost millions of dollars and those dollars are going to come out of our tax taxes we are going to pay more taxes for this Rule and this rule will not stand the courts will overturn it because they have overturned every one of these initiatives so far we live in a country of laws and legal precedents and those precedents are clear and we need to pay attention to

031them and make sure that what we do as a community follows the law thank you for your time thank you our next speaker is H Holly help me with your last name and I have never done this before um so I'm assuming I can comment on anything is that correct okay you have to stick to our pillars of of character and I'm gonna be respectful I work for the the service of the public or whatever so I'm good with that um so we recently moved to rockan County um at in May because of um my parents help my dad is in stage four kidney disease my mom has um some severe arthritis going on so we moved from a very diverse School jurisdiction to Rockham County which is a lot less diverse my children are

032biracial um and then recently we get a redistrict ink we literally just moved my daughter is a junior this year and is going to be a senior so having her move again is just heartbreaking my son he will be going to high school um next year and it was so excited about playing football for Spotswood um I don't want to have to uproot my children again and I'm not so naive to know that the world revolves around me I know it doesn't it doesn't revolve around my children but my world revols around my children and I do not want to uproot them again so living at Meadow Brook I'd like to know what are my options to keep my kids at Spotswood so I would not have to move them again thank you thank you

033and we have your contact information and someone will be in contact with you our next speaker is Scott McAllen right howdy my name is Scott M and I'm in District 3 on Saturday the city Elders the Family Foundation and the district 6 GOP committee organized a parents matter rally and Forum at Lucy Sims however they only invited themselves some outof Town lawyers and others who share similar views and goals that threaten the quality of our school systems our freedom of religion and our Collective Liberty Democrat and conservative whichever you want and so when a group of parents who also matter many who are Christian when we arrived we were met by two event panelists who were also Christian who then proceeded to get into our personal space to harass us yell at us and call

034us all names but enough about those two schoolyard bullies I came here you know it's kind of like a joke with Lucy Sim school bully I came here tonight to talk about one of the parents matter events guest speakers Jonathan Alexandre who is a leader of the Liberty Foundation who the Southern Poverty Law Center recognizes as a hate group of the disturbing things Alexandre said about children religion in schools books and even music one thing I found quite dangerous was how how Alexandre spread harmful misinformation about the core principles of mental health therapy including how therapy is practiced and how counselors are licensed Alexandre used this to spread fear Alexandre attached that misinformation to school counselors and suggested creating lists of therapists and school counselors who push children towards that lifestyle I believe arming the

035public with such dangerous misinformation and creating databases could lead to school counselors event eventually being harmed and or kids or kids not having school counselors at all the questions I would like to ask tonight is if parents mattered why would the city Elders in the district 6 GOP host a hate group at Lucy Sims we all know Lucy Sims history why would they do this and the second question is our kids mattered if our kids mattered why would the city elders and the district 6 GOP host a hate group at Lucy Sims whose leader armed the audience with dangerous misinformation and ideas that could be de detriment to the safety of school counselors and ultimately our children's wellbeing because they all need counselors right now and lastly if parents and kids really really mattered to

036District 3 as well as a district 5 endorsement collector we we why do they continue to support the dangerous work of groups like The City elders and that's all I have thank you thank you our next speaker is Sarah Horst hi good evening I want to start out this evening by thanking Dr shifflet for his email to the community um in it he provided more transparency than we have ever seen in this division surrounding an incident so I appreciate that um that's refreshing and should be commended this is what the parents and community members have asked for I also want to add um because I've spoken a number of times about the transgender policies or the model policies referring to um the care of those students as well as other students um but I want

037to add um that I've been approached by multiple high school students girls who have thanked me for advocating for them they still don't feel comfortable speaking out about these types of issues out of fear and that's troubling that's really concerning so I'm going to continue to advocate for them as well um I would encourage you to inote to to vote tonight to accept youngins policies in full um we can't rely on practices or guidelines to ensure that our girls are protected listen to your constituents they want a policy in place that prevents biological males from being in our girl spaces you can vote on this tonight actually this will ensure that we address the biological males in our girls locker rooms in general for things like PE to this community wants yonan's model policies passed

038in full um but even if you won't do this tonight I am promising um my constituents and my community that I will vote Yes on these Protections in January of 2024 thank you thank you and our final speaker of the night is Holly cave hi I'm Holly cave I also want to thank Dr shifflet tonight for your um email to the community informing us of what exactly happened at Turner ashv uh it certainly is a breath of fresh air and uh we know know that you are just doing the best that you can with the mess that you've inherited and so I I thank you for doing that uh I want to thank you for asking the why question because it's an earmark of a great leader and so I appreciate that I will say

039this though that we would have never had this mess at Turner Ashby not the mess in the community not the arguing not the questioning not the fear if we had had Governor Yan's model policies implemented in full because we would have had a policy to go to to say okay in this situation this is what we do under Governor Young's policies we would have sent our cheerleaders since there were already boys in the girls locker room we would have sent them to an alternative safe space for them to change it's not right that they had to go into shower stalls and bathrooms within the locker room to do that that was not fair for them and they're not at the age where they can advocate for themselves and so this is what happens when you

040have squished policies that don't govern our schools well or this is what happens when we have what we call practices well this is what we do and it changes and it and it and it alternates from school to school and nobody really knows what they're supposed to do it's no wonder that in this case there weren't um administrators teachers or coaches that had really any idea what they were supposed to be doing when this incident happened and I have to say that we never cared that it was a transgender or not in the bathroom it was the fact that there was a boy in the girl's bathroom or I'm sorry not bathroom but locker room that was the issue and so if we had these Mo model policies in place this would have never happened

041we've had 97 days to get this in place and you guys haven't been able to do it it's no wonder they're a mess at the school level because we're a mess at the school Bo level because we have something that's called creation and distribution or creation and implementation and because it's such a mess at this level we are a long way away from being able to straighten it out and get implemented in the schools what we are able to do to protect our children so since you guys haven't been able to do it in 97 days we'll do it in 77 days when we get a new school board but I think that it is an absolute shame that our kids should have to go even one more day completely unprotected as they are right

042now thank you thank you and that concludes our public comment for the evening thank you to all of our speakers oh I was on theist I saw what's your name Andre oh my goodness Andrea I wrote you down as Holly um Hol so don't contact Andrea contact Holly and Andrea please hi there um yes I'm Dr Andrea veltman I'm a professor at James Madison University and I'm a parent of a third grader at Cub Run I am a homeowner in the metal Brook subdivision and like one of the previous um speakers I would like to speak against the proposal um regarding the redistricting of schools in Rockingham County um I've spoken with some of my neighbors about this proposal and in mebrook we're pretty upset about it um It's upsetting to the children to be

043taken out of the schools that they know and love and put in another school I understand that shifflet is concerned with efficiencies and and numbers and so forth but I urge the board to consider that uh it is very upsetting to the students and and families involved and from the point of view of families and students um it's not the case at all that um one school is essentially interchangeable or just as good as another I realize the board would um would like to have the belief that all the schools are excellent and that might be true but um in fact some schools are rated more highly in academics than others and many many families like my own have researched um which school districts we would like to be in in the course of choosing

044our homes and some of us have chosen to uh to purchase a home in a school district because of the excellent reputation of the school for instance uh cuun Elementary School that my that my daughter attends is really an excellent school and we chose to live in the home that we do because of that school district and it's very upsetting for uh the redistricting idea to um put my daughter somewhere else when when we had we had in mind all along to be in the cuun school district um and that's I think the essence of what I have to say thank you thank you and I apologize for missing you earlier um um I'll allow it hey my name is Ellen Karen thank you so much for allowing this I'm sorry all of my children

045in the back in toe coming in at the buzzer um I live uh we live up close to New Market we're up at the top of Rockingham County um I came because I wanted to discuss the redistricting as well we moved in as in May um similar to one of the other speakers um and also similar to the last speaker we researched the area that we were going to purchase our home in um it was an eight-month process to research buy and close on our home and we moved from Washington State uh I was not intending to talk about any kind of social issues but coming to a meeting and bringing small children in toe I have a feeling I'm going to have to have some conversations that I was not anticipating having because of

046the social issues that are brought up um which is quite embarrassing to be completely honest um to come to a meeting and just Express the fact that we came to this specific specific district for a reason which was conservative values the ability to choose what our kids would be learning the right to be protected in schools coming from Washington State those those schools and that state government does not have that as a priority um crime and parents rights are at different ends of the spectrum and we experienced that firsthand in the school that we came from so we were very excited to be here um I'm not completely opposed to switching schools Al although um it would upset the friends that my kids have made in that short 5mon period that we've been here the

047community that we moved into it's a small school and again not naive enough to realize I'm the only one that's impacted but um but it's it feels a little bit like pawns without care for the actual child um without their sense of resilience what's going on in the home the social networks that they've built especially after covid um that's a big factor so I just wanted to express um if there is any choice that we have in being able to stay at the school that we have chosen over years that we've been researching this I I would like to know some kind of um solution for those people if there is another option thank you thank you okay now that concludes our public comments for the evening um um next item on the agenda are

048highlights by board members and I'm going to start with Mr Dixon well thank you to everybody coming out tonight their respectful dialogue and and public comment it's always good to get feedback and especially with three districting coming up it's it's good to hear community's input and it's definitely heard so uh my highlight tonight is I just want to thank the um High School government classes that have been putting on some wonderful debates uh that we've seen over the last couple weeks I think the students have really shown the their prowess their educational ability and what they've picked up in the classes so far so I've been thoroughly impressed with the students and I just wanted to highlight that tonight so thank the teachers that that are putting those classes on and providing that opportunity for

049kids thank you Dr mooken thank you my first highlight is the fine arts program continues to work last Thursday there was an all County Choir Middle School and High school and I understand although I wasn't able to be there Dr shiffer was there and I understand that it was a wonderful program and we continue to highlight all the Fine Arts in in Rockingham County on my second highlight is this past Wednesday I went to the unified basketball game which happened to be held at Harrisonburg but there is one last unified basketball game coming up and it's going to be this Wednesday day after tomorrow at Spotswood High School starting at 5 5:30 and we'd love everybody to come and watch the students who participate in the unified basketball games okay Mr Cross thank you thank

050you for everybody came out tonight spoke and shared your uh heart and your concerns as a board we uh we listen and uh take uh notice of what you have to say I'm my first highlight tonight goes out to Miss Elizabeth lamb who's the spot with High School Career and Technical uh educator she took her classroom out to the shanor river uh they were able to venture down the South Fork of the shandor river uh with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation uh Miss Lam's class learned how our community impacts uh our rivers and learned how it impacts the Chesapeake Bay um they checked the pH levels in the river and even had a chance to catch uh helgrim mites and if you're a Fisher here in Rockingham County you know what a helite is uh small

051mouth bath love those and I'm glad they had the opportunity to check those out so I want to say thank you to miss Lamb for getting our students out of the classroom and into nature on this local field trip uh my second highlight tonight goes out to Dell shifflet um I'm sorry that I missed you on the last uh board meeting but uh coach shifflet at Spotswood High School uh has become the winest coach in Spotswood High School's history uh the he coaches the Varsity Boys uh football team and I just want to say congratul UL ations to Mr shiplet uh his coaching staff uh and all that he does because if you know if you've ever worked in the high school then you understand just how important uh having a football coach in the

052the the school is because it really control it really helps out the uh environment inside the school so I just want to say thank you so much to Mr shifflet uh what you do on the field is is seen also in the classrooms uh and also on the school environment so thank you uh Dr Schiffer for that my last one goes out to uh coach Marcus uh Davis uh and all the volunteers that you have had to help redo the baseball field there uh there the last couple of weeks they ripped up all the grass on the infield uh they brought in they actually took out some dirt and they also brought in new plane filled dirt and put that down and they had also um grass new grass put down there on the infield

053so uh thank you to all his work uh that he puts into the system out there thank you to all the parents and all the volunteers uh that that do everything you do to uh allow our kids to have a great experience in High School athletics so that's all I have thank you um I would like to thank my fellow board members uh last Monday I we we were able to come together well y'all were able to come together I was under the weather so I joined by phone um but we had a great conversation about remaining d g and H parts of the model policy and I think we were able to make some Headway on uh creating a policy and that's really what it is we're just trying to take our time and

054find a more some of our some of our um our policies are more comprehensive than the model policies and some of them we need to we need to figure out what's the best fit for Rockingham County um and I think we we worked really hard on that on Monday last Monday so I want to thank you guys for for coming together and working on that um I also in the past week uh was attended my committee assignment of the MTC Foundation meeting and that I've worked with uh a smaller group and we have revamped the way that the foundation works so um now uh if you would like to be a member of the um MTC foundation and help support um students at MTC we are having a membership drive because we've changed it and

055you're not just invited and uh it you don't have to know a guy to come you uh you sign up you pay your membership due and dues and then there's a you can vote on the the board and then the board uh makes decisions as far as how we're going to um raise funds and that sort of thing and uh they are also working on taking over the concert series from MTC because that is a major fundraiser for MTC and since we've put it in a 501c which is basically a fancy way saying a CH a charitable uh group uh we can do even more exciting things with that and it opens it up for more businesses to be able to um make make contributions to MTC that can be used to to fund our

056Student Activities so we're I'm I'm super excited about that um another thing I'm super excited about I work with the Broadway FFA and they well many of our I think all of our FFA chapters are traveling next week to Indianapolis to compete or to participate in the um National FFA uh convention I am personally working with the environmental and natural resources team uh they will be representing Virginia out there and we were able to take a tour of the landfill this week doesn't that sound exciting a landfill tour but it was it was so interesting uh and I learned and I wanted to to share with all of you all um that the recycling efforts in Rockingham County are pretty awesome everything I know sometimes there's rumors oh the plastic just gets thrown away oh

057the glass just gets thrown away actually everything that they collect uh under the re the the banner of recycling except your greasy your greasy pizza boxes don't turn in your greasy pizza boxes but um everything else that gets uh funneled towards recycling does get reduced reused in some way or recycled uh the glass is actually crushed up and used to cover the landfill to to keep like plastic bags from blowing off there in the night uh which saves Us dirt so all of the recycling efforts we're doing in Rockingham County do uh make a difference so I just wanted to share that with you guys because I learned that this week and now I will turn it over to Dr shifflet thank you chair lore uh so last week uh was school bus safety week

058and uh Governor Glenn yunan uh declared October the 18th as school SCH bus transportation Employee Appreciation Day in the Commonwealth Virginia and I just want to take a second to recognize all of our bus drivers the mechanics our routers our administrative assistants and our leadership team for all their hard work to get our students to school each and every day uh this past Friday I rode the bus with Bridget Baler so we were riding around Sandy Bottom beldor that part of uh Rockingham County she drives for Riverbend Elton mle and East Rock uh she does an excellent job I I'm just always you know student gets on the bus she says happy birthday right I mean they they make connections and build relationships with these students it's it's it's amazing uh but one of the

059reasons I'm riding the buses into more of the remote areas of the county is so that I have a greater appreciation for what normal road conditions are like uh so that way when we have to make a a decision about closing schools I can be a bit more informed uh for example Miss B ler has to make five turnarounds on her route so maybe the roads are clear but she's got to found a place to turn turn that bus around right and those spaces I was amazed at one particular spot she had to Turner veh the bus around between two parked cars and I was just like wow I I couldn't it's like unbelievable so i' I've already visited let's see the Northwestern part of the county now that was let's see here I got

060the uh the the Northeast I know the southeast I've driven a bus on those roads I got that one down so I've got to head out now to the southwestern portions and and ride out some of those roads but uh again I I just I'm so appreciative of what our bus drivers and our transportation department provides for our students also I do want to highlight some Fine Arts I did have an opportunity to hear the all count choir uh we had 97 middle school students and 108 high school students perform and it was an excellent uh performance brought all the middle schools together they sang a few songs brought all the high school kids together from all four schools and they sang I think the high school's the first three songs were in Hebrew and

061Latin so I have no idea what they were saying about but it was really good music I can say that much for sure and then on the 13th as a Saturday I had the opportunity to attend the shannond valley marching band invitation hosted by Harrisonburg High School had the opportunity there to see all four of our four of our high schools compete uh spotwood and ta both won their classes 1A and 4A respectively they were based on size of the number of students in the band not the school size Broadway plays third and 3A and eastrock play seventh and then last Wednesday I know Dr mooken mentioned this and I want to give another shout out my wife and I attended the unified basketball game at Harrisonburg High School and so if you're looking for

062some entertainment something that will um lighten your spirits and and do good for your soul I would recommend you attend that I also went last Friday we had a day game so East Rock was hosting Broadway High School and all of the students at East Rock uh came into the gym to watch that game cheer on the students for both sides right I mean they're cheering for everyone the pep bands playing the cheerleaders are there it was absolutely a terrific atmosphere and again it I was like man this is this is what's good about Rocky H County Public Schools and uh I left there feeling just renewed and so get out there if you can I did you say the next game is is it this Wednesday okay Dr B is that correct that that

063game did it get changed by chance I almost felt like I saw something somewhere that got moved to November the 1st but I just want to confirm you're not sure double check for me would you please I think I saw something about that but I'm not sure but anyway Broadway went in stole one from East Rock there on the road but it was a good game and again the kids are just absolutely unbelievable so thank you thank you that concludes our highlights uh our board member comments for the evening we're going to move on to action items the first items on the agenda are to approve the minutes uh board members would you like would you like to entertain both minutes at the same time may I have a motion please I move that we

064approve the minutes of both October 9th and October 16th as presented thank you Dr mookin I'll have a second thank you Mr Cross is there any discussion regarding the minutes hearing none we'll vote uh all those in favor of approving the minutes from October 9th and October 16th please say I I oppose same sign motion carries unanimously next item on the agenda is field trips Dr sh uh chair lore and board members I have a couple of field trips for your consideration Spotswood High School the JMU Trio Talent search program November the 7th 2023 20 students University of Maryland College Park Maryland and Wilbur ESP Pence Middle School TSA Leadership Academy November the 17th to the 19th 2023 8 students Hartfield Virginia and I do recommend approval of these field trips thank you Dr shiet

065members do have a motion I move the follow superintendent recommendation for these field trips thank you Mr Cross do have a second so thank you Mr Dixon any discussion hearing none we'll vote on approving the two field trips as presented by the superintendent all those in favor please say I I oppose same sign motion carries unanimously budget calendar is that you DR shifflet or is that Justin I lost my agenda I'm sorry Mr Justin Moyers Dr sh a break tonight on this so good evening chair Lord Dr shet members of the board present to you tonight uh the budget calendar for fiscal year 2425 it's hard to believe that it's already here so we'll just go over the timeline for the next 6 months so first of all as of October 9th we have distributed

066everything to the principles for them to start getting with maintenance and human resources for their requests uh The Next Step will be November 6th to the 10th we are going to get with each of you all individually to discuss your budget requests that's something different than we've done in the past we want to get you in earlier on um before numbers are set to talk about what your priorities are and set those uh December 1st a requests are due to maintenance December 15th we will advertise then DNR and the purpose for that is so that on January 8th we will have the public hearing for the budget where the public can give their comments on their um wants or needs for the upcoming fiscal year uh January 5th the budget requests are due to the

067finance office then January 15th through the 19th we will have budget work sessions with the new board members Dr sfet myself um individually with them for any new board members that we may have then on the board meeting of January 22nd we will look at all expenditure budget requests so what everyone in the entire division had asked for regardless of whether or not we may or may not have money for we will look at all those requests together then starting in February February 12th board meeting we will look at the governor's proposed budget then the 13th to the 23rd we will have what you are typically accustomed to the 2 by tws with Dr shipet myself and um each of you all to have work sessions and kind of go over um the budget at

068that point in time then on February 26th we'll have another board meeting where we'll just go over revenue and expenditure discussion on March 11th Dr shefford will present his recommended budget to the school board on March 13th he'll turn around to present that same budget to the Board of Supervisors and then if as long as all goes well on March 25th we will have a vote for you to approve the budget for fiscal year 2425 so do you all have any questions on that no I just want to say thank you Justin for uh bringing this to the board tonight and thank you for uh all you're doing you get some big shoes to feel but you're doing a great job so it's been good to see a couple meetings and uh uh interact with

069you so thank you uh for all that you're doing and if you could could you email this to me yeah sure thank you I have a sign on my desk that says what will Cheryl do so you'll have a good evening thank you very much chairl real quick on this topic will we be bringing in candidate elects depending on the outcome of the election to bring them up to speed on budget request because looking at the Timeline you know it's going to be January 8th for the public hearing on the budget so we G to have individual conversations with who wh however the outcome of the election goes just for just for transparency for the public that way if any if outcome the the elections seats change we can inform people of what we're going

070before they get here is that in that discussion I go ahead I was under the impression that that's what we were doing on the uh the 15th through the 19th and then and then we'd look at all the the expenditures I was confused where it was the individual work sessions with individual members on our specific requests um how do that translate to after the election yeah yes so we wanted to be mindful right we know you know Mr Dixon serving until the end of December but we also wanted to hear what you have to say right you're currently serving as a board member uh and then once new board members you know get into their role officially we'll have the same meetings with them it'll give us a chance to look and see okay what

071are we hearing from our school board members and and what seems to be a priority for them individually right we're doing this kind kind of Justin and I meeting with chair lure and Justin and I meeting with Mr Cross getting a sense of okay here's what priorities are coming from and then see how we can get those things aligned uh trying to move forward so once the new board members come on board we would do that we would offer them the same and then as he mentioned in that process once we get a little further down the road we'll have those traditionally we've met two board members would come in and meet with superintendent and um Chief Financial Officer and then kind of really kind of narrow in but this is for us this year

072kind of new getting the board members to come in almost step one in some ways as because we're kind of collecting information currently from uh principles and and what have you and that's going to be an ongoing process okay is that clear it up a little bit any other questions chair lore and board members I recommend approval of the budget calendar for the fiscal year 24 2025 is presented by Justin Moyers Chief Financial Officer thank you Dr shiplet members to have a do I have a motion uh I move that we approve the U proposed um calendar by Justin as presented thank you Dr moken I have a second thank you Mr Cross is there any further discussion hearing none we will uh vote on the uh approval of the budget calendar for fiscal year

07324 25 as presented all those in favor please say I I oppose same sign motion carries unanimous next item on the agenda um policy revisions Miss Becky tanell Mell makes oh miss tanell makes her way to the podium that unified game is not this Wednesday so I want to make sure I get that clear it's November the 1 I thought I I saw that somewhere and I just wanted to make sure I'm not giving out wrong information people show up somewhere tomorrow night and Wednesday night and they're fussing at me so it's November the 1st so that's the day was changed for I don't know what reason but there you have it very good chair lore Dr shifflet that's good I love the unified game they used to come to John C Myers and perform

074for us and our kids played against them and it was we did it on during bully prevention month it was a great great activity um I was not at the last board meeting because I was at a conference for Title 9 which was a Wonder ful experience for me so Dr oifer brought um a policy for your information and so I'm coming tonight for you to take action on it it was a very small change just a number of years for credit for people at MTC so I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have thank you board members do we have any questions okay uh Dr shifflet sorry about that wrong page chair low and members of the board I recommend approval of the policy proposed policy revisions as presented by Mrs stel

075thank you I was on the wrong page too so at first I thought i' had done something wrong so thank you um Mo members to have a motion uh I make a motion to follow the superintendent's recommendation to approve the proposed policy revisions as presented on October 9th 2023 thank you Mr Dixon do I have a second second thank you Dr moken any further discussion hearing none we will um vote to accept the uh policy as presented all those in favor please say I I oppose same sign motion carries unanimously next item on the agenda oh thank you so much um next item on the agenda is the uh policy revisions related to the model policy Dr shifflet yes thank you so if you will recall at the September the 25th meeting uh the board

076had directed me to reference the model policies within our current practi or in our within our current policies those policies that are consistent with are more comprehensive than the model policies so at our last meeting October the 9th I brought for you as information those those policies that we had identified that are consistent with or more comprehensive than the model policies and so I recommend approval those proposed policy revisions related to the 2023 model policies thank you Dr shifflet members I have a motion I move that we follow the superintendent's recommendation to approve policy re revisions related to the 2023 model policies as presented on October the 9th thank you Dr MC wilin uh the chair will go ahead and second that so we can move along um any discussion hearing none um all those

077in favor of accepting the uh let me get this right the approval of the proposed policies related to the 2023 uh model policies please say I I opposed same sign abena I okay um okay it sounds like we have a 31 vote is that correct okay uh great motion carries uh that concludes our action items for the evening we're going to move on to um information items and we're going to begin with uh Dr Kevin katner strategic planning for rcps you all have a copy of the PowerPoint that we're going to be using Kayla they have a copy of the PowerPoint yeah first it's uh it's good to be back with you um I know you have this uh the public is in this and I want you to know that I last worked with

078you as a board in the spring when we were involved in the supporting you and trying to go through the superintendent selection process not often do I get a chance to come back and actually see who you selected and observed and uh I would like to say I think you made a great decision and I also appreciated what I did observe and how you engaged your public tonight in having them giving opportunity to testify to the things that they thought were important to them um Dr Harris and I will be working on the Strategic plan and it's a different hat um I'm a director for bwp and I've been involved in superintendent searches and something that happens when you have Su uh superintendent searches and you have a new superintendent is as a superintendent wants

079to re-engage the community and make a transition that having an opportunity to look at the stakeholders present now to revisit some of the past work that you've done and build upon it so it's a good practice when you're talking about working with a strategic plan particularly the one that we work with with the Cambridge model that starts about talking about building Community consensus and Trust the Cambridge model is a model in which the board and the superintendent trust members of your community in essence a representative group that I'll describe later to provide for you a draft strategic plan that will be driven upward through your community as opposed to down from a board and a superintendent It's a Wonderful opportunity that involves engagement and as I described this process um I actually about 10 years

080ago became president of Cambridge strategic services Cambridge has been around since the 80s and there had been over a thousand plans all over the country and some different places in the world but the work that I'm involved with with perhaps a new philosophy is that I like to also stick around for the implementation and not to have anything that was going to cause the plan to sit on a shelf so what I want to do this evening and it's important that we archive this and this presentation will eventually be on your website as would be the information that we're going to be doing throughout this year so I'd like to go through this and talk about an overview for strategic planning so the question why do strategic planning we're talking about Community engagement we're talking

081about a transparent process we're trying to build public confidence we're trying to create a vision or build Upon A Vision on an already good school system to talk about determining which programs and initiatives are working well but also have the courage to say if some of them aren't working we shouldn't continue them we also should be talking about how we might create priorities which we want to have in the budget and also to consider whether we should have some strategic abandonment now how that might be identified will be the people that were going to go through the process so why do you do why now for strategic planning a lot of the plans that I was working with when covid started all of a sudden had to be totally Revisited so you're on the tail

082end of that you've already had that transition but still there have been some things we've learned with technology and what works well and also some things that don't work so well with our kids and the engagement and all that process and the people that are living through that can help us to see if we've made some good decisions or we need to revisit any because at the time of Co we just had to move forward and we did not have as much of participation in that we also are talking about change in leadership we're talking about societal changes which are occurring all over the country we're talking about difference of opinion and as last year when we worked in Orange County the process re-engaged people that hadn't been engaged before and we thought that was

083very positive to make sure that we had representative groups from the community not necessarily everybody that agreed on everything we're talking about developing a shared Vision in doing that we also have to understand we do school differently we found that kids can learn at home we also have to be mindful that we need to pay attention to technology and maybe provide some parameters of some dos and don'ts in regard to that we're talking about whatever we have learned how have we changed as a system in some cases we know we're still learning to find out that there's certain kids that didn't do so well so we're still doing some catchup every place is H it's happening across Virginia and so sometimes we need to see how well we've been able to get back to whatever

084our new Norm is and it is a new Norm it kind of goes back to this whole issue of of what you believe there's a body of research that was conducted by Dr Edmonds back in the early 80s when people wondered can schools make a difference to certain kids that maybe come from homes of poverty or diversity and the question was can schools make a difference this study involved four inet schools in Detroit that were 95% diverse and 95% poor and those schools had the test scores equal to schools in Gross Point a district that 95% of the students went on to college so the question is we know what we need to know and then it comes in when we do this process and looking at our schools well why haven't we made this

085difference yet so far so when we're talking about beliefs we're talking how do we Implement actions and plans for the well-being of each child not necessarily just with academics but also the social and emotional support that children need we're talking about how we can help all children make something of themselves so we're not talking College Bound or not College Bound because you know in this community you have strong programs in both areas your FFA program a lot of the programs that we know there's a balance so it's not an either or it's a boat we're talking about how you engage parents in the community we all know that some of the parents we wish would be engaged aren't so how do we do Outreach when we work in some systems just in Manasses and a

086few other places when they have a divers Esau populations how do you get into those communities and we need to talk about that we're talking about workplace Readiness skills we're not talking about just College skills and we're talking about how do you find the wealth in each child you know each year when you have graduation and you have that 10% of the students that get those gold tasses how do we recognize the other 90% on their wealth whether it be through athletic programs whether it be through the Arts whether it be the awards that you just talked about that you won which you're going to win again probably when you go to the FFA conference how do we bring all the people in there to talk about that wealth so in doing this it has

087to do a lot about beliefs there's not each board member here you got on this job because you care about kids but you don't care just about some kids you care about all kids so what happens when we're going to go through this process that's what we're asking everybody to do you know John Dewey way back in the early 1900s made a statement what the best and brightest parent might want for their child so should we want for all of our children so the lens that we're going to be working with in this belief which I believe you share is what's going to be I guess our magnetic north when we're developing this plan one of the things in this plan and the way we work at it is we want to engage the home

088the school and the community so this isn't a central office plan so when we have the parents that will have children in the school on the committee when we put this process and going through how we might engage Partnerships and we're talking about taking advantage of the strength that you have in the Professionals in your community it's a blend of all three and it has to be driven by that I just talked to you about the why the why is about children now the question what's the what there's three phases in developing a strategic iic plan the orange area has to deal with Readiness I'm here this evening to share this information with you as a board but also the public to begin to talk about how we're going to set the table to do

089the blue stage which will be the development of the Strategic plan that's going to be throughout this school year this is a year of development next year is implement ation so we don't rush into this in a deliberate process and then over in the darker Blue Area that's the implementation and when we talk about this the strategic planning team that's going to work on the plan this year that are going to present a product to you in may they will be coming back a year later where staff will be saying this is what we've done and and all that will not be a surprise because you as a board are going to see that in your process in doing that again we're at a point in Readiness talking about the why we're talking about one

090of the things that is part of that will be a community Summit now we are mindful in the calendar that because we want to have the participation and because we might even have new partners whether they're on the board or other members of the community that we want to wait till after the election we want to then have the opportunity to advertise and have people that might be in different places to be able to be part of all this the other thing you need to know this plan is going to take over several months so it's going to transition from November to December to January to February to March to April so there won't be any gaps in a sense for people that want to be engaged and be involved so in the stage right

091now that we're talking about we're getting into the Readiness let me describe that a little bit more we're going to have to develop a steering committee of 25 to 28 people now that steering committee I'm going to tell you a little bit more about it and we're going to have a community Summit maybe before Thanksgiving maybe after depending what staff says and we're going to be asking all the people that get involved to become ambassadors for the system we're going to be engaging new stakeholders now who's going to be on the strategic planning team you're going to need to have two board members you choose so the the board whoever is going to be on the board we want to try to make sure that it's after the election and we have the board make

092that choice we also are going to have at least four students and then we're going to have Business Leaders and Civic leaders central office Elementary staff secondary staff and what we're going to be looking for we're looking for twofers and threers meaning we want people that have additional access so if you have a pastor they also has four kids in the school system we want to know that if we have a member of the chamber in Commerce that's involved in things so we're looking for we hope a lot of these people having the investment with children or grandchildren and we're looking for an engage group it'll be the superintendent's decision on who that group will be but a wise superintendent is going to make sure they're going to share this with board members and they're

093also going to be asking board members if they have certain people that they might think would be good partners for this they're also this isn't like you don't have someone new the district you have a Administration and the superintendent is already familiar with this community so you aren't going to have that type of newness and they're going to take advantage of the leaders and the people we can have on this so what's going to then happen you'll then begin to get into design so when that group is decided upon they will meet three days usually three days in a row seven or eight hours seven or eight hours to do the work and in that process they will develop a draft plan that will be put on your website for everybody to see and then

094we'll get into action planning and in the action planning it pro possibly could involve another hundred people or so and so the action plans are taking the draft plan and then getting into a road map of how you would implement it and then that goes back to the original strategic planning team and they report to them and that will probably be an April and they will do their work let's me go into a few details here uh you're going to have the steering committee you're going to do the work and I want to tell you something everything we do that's going to be part of the Strategic plan will be 100% agreement we do not vote if we have 28 people and 26 people agree to that mission statement and two people don't we're going

095to do it until all 28 agree so there will be nobody that can say when this is sent to you as a board I didn't agree to that now I am going to tell you it's harder this way because you do have differences of opinion you do have people that have some words that they aren't as comfortable with as other words and I'm going to tell you we're going to find a middle ground in doing that there's going to be a greater strength and that's why we try to do this in a way where you have board members that are participating you have community members and you have staff and will say we will stick to that so we'll develop that draft plan we'll probably be at a point we hope we'd have it done

096before uh winter break if not depending on the timing we'll decide on that and then they'll be there and then the action teams will do their work so in the plan you're going to have a belief statements you're going to have a mission statement you're going to have objectives which will start out each child will so become student centered you're going to develop strategies how you're going to develop supporting each child and then in the yellow area we're going to be talking about action teams the action team participation is open to anybody in your community because of necessity in order to do the plan you've got to stick to around 25 28 people or it'll take a lot longer than 3 days so these are the components that you can you will see and you

097also need to know when we're working with a strategic planning team and we have these people in there we're going to be talking about strengths and weaknesses both internally and we're also going to talk about issues externally so you're not doing a plan in isolation to what you already might be building upon or doing in the system So the plan then is using the expertise of these people that we believe are always trying to do the right thing for your District we're looking and Counting upon and I've been able to observe this time in and time out the Good Will of the people and people of good will will make good decisions it sometimes takes a little longer but that's the whole purpose because the bottom line is the moral issue that this has to

098be with the best of all children and that common ground is what's going to get us to try to reach that agreement so when you go through this we have a crosssection we do the action planning over 100 days we then come back and we present that to the strategic planning team and then they will end up bringing it forward and taking draft on it send it to the superintendent and it comes back to the board now here what you need to understand as a board these people that are helping and developing this plan they aren't the ones that will be implementing it it's the board and the superintendent that makes those decisions what you will have is the comfort that a crosssection of your community has developed this and it comes up from that

099group as opposed to down that group and there's a great strength in that the also the thing is that you need to understand when you approve the plan and it gets into implementation and you prioritize it it will be a new culture in a new way that you'll look at your budget because your budget needs to reflect the priorities of the plan and if anyone wants to change the plan the board has a right to do that if it's a majority but the people that adopt the plan it can only happen that way because it in essence becomes your policy and how you do business so being mindful of all that I can only tell you that um other places we work it it will work and we'll have that type of investment and then

100we get into the implementation and when we're getting into the implementation I told you one of my commitments is to figure out how we're going to take evidence and that we're going to be able to show the progress we're making on the plan share it with board members and if for some reason we need to do other things to support some of the things you're working on then we're going to need to do it whether it's additional professional development whether it's areas where we have certain kids that still needs extra support and we'll have to figure out where those resources might be needed the same time this isn't just about working with one group of students that might be having more challenges it's also extending the top and giving more opportuni ities for all of

101our kids so as you have kids on both ends they're going to have needed support to go where they want to hit their dreams so it's not about just one group it's back to all groups of students this is the thing that you can have a comfort with if we use this opportunity to engage your entire Community we can do a lot better job with hitting this engagement and you and board members can help with that members of your community can help with that because what we're talking about the people that work with this they become the ambassadors the other thing you need to understand in doing this as we're going to work on this timeline which I've already decided we've adjusted it uh in some cases I've in other systems we actually are are

102doing the work maybe a month or two earlier in this case because you have potential transition we thought it was best in talking with your superintendent to delay that and I agree with that that's the whole issue of making sure we can get everybody involved this is a plan that was done in Fort Smith in Texas or no excuse me Arkansas 182 people were part of this plan hours these people were involved look at the days look at the meeting the picture of that group is reflective of that community in that system a new superintendent came in and the last three Bonds were defeated by them working with the stakeholders in the community the bond passed at 67% for many many millions of dollars because some of the people were able to get into some

103of the schools and see where they needed Improvement some did not have air conditioning some had leaking roofs and they were able to re-engage a community to create in essence a quality school with an equity to it for all kids at least had a favorable school that they could be proud of and you know something when this becomes important it becomes important in redistricting when we were doing a strategic plan in Richmond when they were getting involved in redistricting 25% of their schools did not have air conditioning if you were in a parent and you were in an air conditioned school and you're going to move to a school that did not have air conditioning they would even be more concerned than some of your parents that were speaking here tonight although I'm going to

104tell you redistricting is a tough job and you just have to work your best in figuring out your resources and providing that but the issue is how you're trying to create opportunities for all children so this type of commitment I would assume is going to be somewhat similar this District's about the same size as yours and I I think you're going to find that when you have this type of commitment you're asking these people to be involved again you're re- engaging in new people perhaps because some of the people no longer have children in the schools you're now going to be dealing with a lot of people that are going to be with you for a while and so doing only thing I can tell you when we talk about stakeholder driven Community process we

105will walk that walk and we'll walk it with you and what's going to happen is um we're going to wait and figure out when we can set a date for when we're going to have the community Summit that's going to involve anyone that wants to attend will probably do it uh remotely and we're going to be creating a website we're going to be asking certain questions from your community what's working what's not working what could we do to be better and we're going to collect a lot of that information and then we're going to use that to guide us in the development of the plan I will tell you you all um I don't know Jack if you've had a chance to meet uh Dr Harris but Dr Harris we are joined at the hip

106on this Wayne and I will be doing this together and uh again Wayne also he knows your community as as I know your community and uh when we do the the community Summit you'll see that he's going to be a big part of that process proc I'd like to stop now and I'd like to try to answer any questions you might have board members do you have any questions that I think that pretty much that was pretty good so I you know I've worked with you all over a number of years and I will tell you I'm really looking forward to when we can come back and work with you again and I think you have a great school system I than you as every school system we still working to move forward and I'm

107hoping we can help work with you to help that happen thank you thank you and thank you for your help in finding Dr [Laughter] shifflet um next on our agenda is Dr Amy pner instructional coaching model presentation uh good evening chair lore school board members Dr shiplet I'm excited to share with you a little bit about the future of instructional coaching in Rockingham County Schools this slide shares the areas of the program I'll speak briefly about from what is instructional coaching why do we need to initiate it what is the payoff how current instructional models have been a benefit and what is the plan to get this started rcps desires to create a strong instructional coaching Department to provide training and support to early career teachers or ects as they make the transition into the

108profession these early career teachers are not exclusive to certain areas or grades instructional coaching will be available to any ECT in any grade level or specialty area early career teachers come into the profession with a variety of backgrounds skill sets and pre-service educational training for the 2324 school year we hired 101 teachers with 48 new to teaching and currently Rockingham has 35 teachers with three-year provisional licenses regardless of their past experiences there's a steep learning curve for new teachers entering the profession providing early career teachers with a supportive knowledgeable and engaged instructional coach will increase ECT success in the classroom and positively impact employee retention each instructional coach will be assigned to several ects the coach will follow a coaching Playbook to help induct new teachers into the role areas of support include instructional planning

109instruction classroom management behavior management and assessment the coach will visit each early career teacher on a rotating schedule providing support and feedback coaches in this role will have no role in teacher evaluation that would be performed by a building administrator so the benefits of the model so an instructional coaching model offers many benefits to Educators students and the school Community as a whole here are some key benefits of implementing the coaching model support for novice teachers new teachers in particular benefit from instructional coaching it helps them navigate the challenges of their early career and develop effective teaching strategies more quickly professional growth and development instructional coaching provides teachers of personalized ongoing ongoing support to improve their teaching practices coaches help Educators set goals reflect on their teaching and Implement research based strategies leading to continuous

110professional growth unlike one-time Workshop are training sessions coaching offers ongoing sustained professional development this ensures that teachers continue to grow and adapt to changing educational needs datadriven decision making coaches support teachers in analyzing student data and using it to transform instruction this leads to more data driven decision-making and can result in improved student outcomes improve teaching practices teachers who participate in coaching often refine and enhancer instructional techniques they receive feedback guidance and resources to implement best practices resulting in more effective teaching enhance student learning effective coaching directly impacts student learning outcomes when teachers improve their instructional methods and classroom management skills students benefit for more engaging and effective learning environment coaches assist teachers in tailoring their instruction to meet the diverse needs of students this results in more personalized learning experiences which can boost student

111engagement and achievement increase teacher confidence through coaching teachers gain confidence in their abilities this confidence can positively affect their teaching the relationships of students and their overall job satisfaction positive School culture coaching Fosters a culture of collaboration reflection and continuous Improvement within schools when teachers and administrators work together to support professional growth it creates a positive and supportive School environment alignment with educational goals coaching can be tailored to align with specific educational goals and priorities ensuring that IT addresses the unique needs and challenges of a schooler District retention and job satisfaction teachers who receive coaching often report higher job satisfaction and are more likely to remain in the profession coaching can be a valuable tool for retaining experience Educators and attracting new talent to the field since summary an instructional coaching model offers a wide

112range of benefits that impact teachers students and overall educational Community by providing ongoing support personalized development and a focus on best practices coaching contributes to The Continuous Improvement of teaching and learning so you're probably thinking aren't we doing coaching now yes we've been doing literacy coaching for the past few years literacy coaching has been exclusive to the science of reading and in particular the elementary teachers so let's take a minute to listen to feedback from a new teacher a veteran teacher and a principal on the benefits of libery coaching the letters coaches in Rockingham have been so helpful with establishing classroom routines and they are such a great resource for for not only Any teacher in Rockingham but especially firste teachers they have been so helpful with providing me with all of the resources and

113materials I would need for my classroom and helping me establish those routines for phonics and giving me the knowledge for phonics hi my name is Chris grim and I am excited about what we're doing in Reading with the letters program and one of the things that I feel like has been really successful for us is having coaches that are available to come in watch our lessons give us feedback provide us with resources and I really feel like it's made a huge difference in my um reading instruction and the success that I see in my classroom the division's reading coaches do a great job of supporting our new teachers who are just beginning the science of reading and applying that to their classrooms they meet with them regularly and give them support so that their um

114students can be successful they also do a really great job of our teachers who've already been through letters training um and the science of reading and are still um finding their way and um doing the best they can to meet the needs of our students with reading um they're really invaluable and we very much appreciate having them in our buildings to support our teachers um which ultimately supports our students um and I want to thank one of our coaches Tabitha Carter for videoing that when she was already in the schools working and I have a longer clip if you'd like me to share it with you it's like eight minutes so I pick the smaller version for tonight uh so as you heard literacy coaching's been avaluable to uh our elementary teachers instructional coaches for

115early career teach teachers will be exponential in helping them not only grasp the role of a new teacher but subor them through learning best practice for teaching as well so what's the plan uh so in Winter of 2023 so right around the corner we plan to hire a coordinator of instructional coaching first this position would both lead the instructional coaching team and also participate as an instructional coach following there will be the hiring of nine instructional coaches of which will include four current itrts transitioning to instructional coaches and hire five more coaches then this spring training will be provided to all of those new instructional coaches Mia pumo from Ed direction will facilitate this training and she's the the coach that's been helping our literacy coaches now uh this will consist of uh six full

116day training sessions and the team will also go to the power of coaching conference in Williamsburg so I know you're all wondering where is this funding coming from uh the money was already factored into the budget with itrt positions that were never filled so those funds will be reallocated to the coaching positions we're experiencing a teacher shortage so the reallocation of these funds will better support the early career teachers that we hire and I'm sure you have questions for me anyone I got a few questions um what grade levels are the coaches hoping to support for example all elementary or sped or any any early career teacher okay all right uh is it a 10-month contract or is it going to be full well our current litery coaches are 11mon because a lot of the

117work that they do are those pre-service days um we haven't totally decided on that yet uh but our current coaches are 11mth okay so there there is a lot of planning that they have to do uh before school starts okay and uh since we're hiring in the winter can current teachers uh be eligible to apply this yes because it's actually for the 24 25 okay uh school year it's just there there'll be a few at least six days here in the spring um that we would have to provide subs for for them to get the training and if I get this right we have four positions that are going to be full already so it leave us five correct um four itrts will transition to these instructional uh coach roles and so it would leave

118that okay thank you actually I think this is a very good way to support the new people that are coming in I believe we have some provisional lenser teachers um and it really is important that U they receive the support of in order to benefit our students ultimately and that's our bottom line yeah we currently have 35 teachers with a provisional license which means they've had no educ classes um before entering the profession it seems it meets a need uh are the RTS currently 10mon or 11mth employees 10 okay and we we have mentors we have a mentor program uh but because they are full day classroom teachers they're they can't actually go in and offer the level support that the early career teachers would need and we'll continue with the mentors as well yes

119that's required by the state oh they have a mentor program but they also kind of provide something different in just support and not coaching as much correct yes they're not so much coaching uh a lot of what actually a lot of what they do um is more the social aspects of getting used to the procedures of the school they'll help some with the classroom management and and the lesson planning but they they can't be in the classroom supporting them like these coaches could do so we will probably revise our new teacher Mentor program um but we need to get this in place first any other questions I think it's a great idea and I'm excited for it so thank you so much for bringing that to us next on the agenda uh is Miss Coffman

120bullying prevention awareness because it is bullying prevention month is it not it is thank you good evening chairl members of the board Dr shifflet thank you for having me this evening I am Liza Kaufman director of support services for the division and I appreciate the opportunity to talk about what we've been doing in the division to bring awareness around our bully prevention efforts um first and foremost we take our charge both in the code of Virginia and through Schoolboard policy very seriously um you can see it's highlighted there I'm not going to read to you but we are explicitly required in the code of Virginia as you know as a board to have um policy that um to for um anti-bullying and um you do have that of course in jfi which um acknowledges that

121bullying is unproductive and unacceptable in schools and what we really seek to do is to create a um welcoming learning environment for all students so what do we focus on with our up bully prevention efforts we focus on training to help students and staff identify and prevent bullying how to report bullying and how to take developmentally appropriate steps to intervene and then we also spend time sharing our message with parents and other community members so thank you for the opportunity to do that here tonight when we talk with students about identifying in bullying we um you'll see again the definition from the code of Virginia it's very specific and it is developmentally appropriate for adults but not necessarily for some of the younger students that we work with so we usually use the shorthand version

122with students that when something um when there is a conflict it may or may not be bullying that doesn't mean it isn't serious that doesn't mean that people's feelings don't get hurt or we might not um need the support of a school counselor or an administrator to work through through that but it may not meet the definition of bullying because we talk about bullying as having three elements power a a real or perceived power IM balance between the people involved there needs to be a pattern that it is a repeated something over time and there needs to be purpose behind it the code of Virginia says it needs to be intended to harm intimidate or humiliate the victim but we talk with students about power pattern and purpose in Behavior to be considered bullying we

123also work with students on how to intervene and report a lot of what we've the messaging that we've been using this year with students is the see something say something um of course that's really important in law enforcement and our threat assessment work and how do we build good relationships and trusting relationships between um the adults at school and the students and so we talk with students about you see something you say something either in the moment to go from a bystander to an upstander or to a trusted adult and so we work with students our school counselors and our um administrators work with students to help them have phrases to use like please stop that's not okay things that are not um you know that are designed to stop the behavior but not necessarily

124to escalate the conflict our school counselors in large part have been leading a lot of the efforts in the local school building um supported by Committees of teachers and administrators um these are just a few of the things that have been going on um a lot of it was last week but it also continues throughout the month so um at one school the Stu the school counselor worked with students in her guidance lesson and they traced their shoes on orange paper and they wrote out steps that they were going to take to commit to a showing School Unity um our classroom um read alouds are happening a lot in school guid lessons um and with some extra doses about kindness and respect this month um blog posts and articles in school newsletters about bully prevention

125and morning announcements um bully prevention is something that's on our mind all the time but we do take an extra time in October to um make sure that it is on everyone's radar in order to share our message with the community more widely there have been um anti-bullying messages in the local newspapers on the local radio stations and in the ETC publication that will be out I think next week um we have created a pamphlet to um support our partnership with parents a copy of that pamphlet is in your folder this evening um for distribution a lot of our um specifically Elementary School students have been using that pamphlet um to uh share as a part of their um lessons in classrooms and uh then to go home with parents and although bullying was never

126um eliminated by wearing a specific color T-shirt or having a big demonstration one day those kinds of special events do raise awareness and they do get the community talking and when somebody might be struggling with something it does open a dialogue so we have had a few um specific Community days last week here are a few highlights Wednesday was Unity day last week and you can see that uh Lacy Spring Elementary took the chance to um make their message heard to the community at Spotswood High School our sources of strength peer leaders led a we belong spirit week and you can see that Wednesday was wear orange for Unity day and there was uh some popup kindness displays at monov videoo Middle School our students uh took time to write on their Post-it what um

127some kind words that they would want to hear at school and um you can see the the um message in the bottom corner the iHeart FFA right that one comes out loud and clear um the smaller red Post-it above it said um that they would want to hear that someone isn't weak because they cry they're strong and I think that's so meaningful to see what's on the minds of our kids and how do we create that culture where people feel free to share those um positive messages at school hello my name is Lyla Spitzer and I'm a student of John C Meers Rockingham County public schools are United against bulling and recognizing October as bullying prevention month we invite our community to stand up against bullying and create a safe environment for all students every

128day we use our voices to promote trustworthiness respect responsibility fairness caring and citizenship in October we recognize the important role we all play in keeping our school safe places to learn and grow join our efforts so together we can put an end no one says it better than our students and um we are grateful for our partners at the Harrisonburg radio group who are running that commercial and a few others also recorded by our students uh throughout the month um to help bring Community awareness do you have any questions board members well thank you for the opportunity okay so I am the parent of a senior in high school oddly I did not get this um from my in my out of my child's backpack uh but did we distribute it to middle school or

129is there a way Middle School parents can have access to this because that's really where this information about um stopbullying.gov that would be super helpful to especially Middle School parents so sure if anybody is interested in getting receiving a copy of the brochure I would be glad to have them reach out to me and I'll make sure that they get one um and I can make sure that I distribute it to our Middle School school counselors well that would be awesome thank you sure I know that October is Bully prevention month but it should be every month needs to be bully prevention month so I know that you're going to continue those all through out yes ma'am we uh intend to do that and um in February for another special occasion week um be on

130the lookout for kindness week activities in February thank you thank you very much and I believe that concludes our um information items for the evening we will now move on to other business uh Schoolboard questions and comments start again with Mr Dixon all right uh good evening everybody again so chair lure fellow board members Dr shifflet I tonight I wanted to start a conversation and and I want to preface it with this is no commentary on chair lore's performance as chair or any previous chair's uh ability in that role uh one thing I wanted to talk about is having watched a lot of Schoolboard meetings and being involved in the process now for a few months uh with my background in policy I I I missed that this board did not have a formal par

131parliamentary process that we follow uh we have a rough policy that we follow Robert's Rules but there's actually never been a adopted parliamentary process that we follow as a board I think that that uh could be addressed and I think it would help clear up some communication and confusion that we've had at previous meetings I think it lays clear guidelines for board members to know when to speak how to speak and it puts guards rails on the process so that we actually have a formal process that we're following and I'm not saying it has to be Roberts I think this could be a you know feasibility study we talked to our legal counsel we talked to other divisions that have done this and we look at the best way what to implement if we want

132to go that way but I wanted to start that conversation and just bring it to everybody so thank you thank you uh Dr McAn thank you chair La we've heard a lot of wonderful things this evening we're grateful for the people who have come forth uh with with their comments and concerns during a open comment period uh would like we're glad to hear about the new program and we're very glad to hear that we will get some support from doctors cner and Harris uh for the strategic planning because this sets the tone for the next five years and it's good to have that we know that it's not going to be top down it will be Community up y thank you Dr mooken Mr Cross yes there's many people tonight that came and talked about

133redistricting and so um the next two meetings we're going to be talking about the redistricting and looking as a board of what we're going to do I'm uh on many different topics there it's never a fun topic to address in redistricting because parents U for the most part love their schools and so and as many of you said tonight that you bought your homes uh specifically uh for certain uh school districts and so we're going to do our best one thing I did U make a comment uh a couple meetings ago was about that uh we're having to address this because of the um the building that we're seeing uh in the county so getting involved in all aspects of government uh especially at the board of supervisor level and looking at uh how many

134houses that we're building in this Urban Development in District 3 uh is one issue that is of a concern and we've been looking at that as a Schoolboard level as well what our numbers are going to be projected as they continue to build a a larger apartment complexes and town homes and subdivisions um and so please also get involved there at that board of supervisor level because that impacts us all as a community and so um but for the next two ones we're going to be talking about the redistricting uh our emails are on our uh on our uh School Division website so you can contact us that way as as well um with any questions and so I just wanted to uh address that point tonight um one thing I did want to ask

135uh Dr shiet because I had asked a while back about this is uh concerning the school safety is I was on a um conference call uh probably six or seven months ago with the school division um that uh is able to have access to school cameras during an emergency um when uh something happens at the school so 911 dispatch would have have the abil ability to look into the school cameras and see what specifically is going on where it's at what's happening at that school I would also be able to help uh First Responders be able to know where to go when they show up at the school and we already have that camera access uh in Rockham County Public Schools and so I asked Dr shiet if he would look into that I think

136he uh contacted that superintendent uh of that Division and has some other conversations but I just like to know where we're at on that and uh what what what kind of progress we've had on that yes I did uh contact it was Peter nton uh the superintendent and talked about um their process and uh I've spoken with Craig Gillette and he is uh investigating what we will have to do in terms of Technology uh maybe in some places upgrade some of our cameras but we're definitely exploring that I also had conversations as well this summer with Sheri Sheriff Hutchinson to get his perspective to see if he would you know if he thought that would be an acceptable move and uh he was he was very um willing to to move in that direction so

137I think sort of we're doing some investigative leg work to figure out what that's going to take to make it happen but yeah we're looking into it thank you yep that's all thank you um on the redistricting I just want to say uh a couple of us have done this before and it's it's never easy it's it's um it's something that we do spend a lot of time and thought uh on um and last time we were extremely generous when we redistricted with um some grandfathering and I would be willing to discuss grandfathering some students um and maybe working out your high school students uh we can we can look at some some options there and I would as a board like to to discuss that moving forward what what you guys are feeling about

138that um there's also we can and I'd like Dr shifflet to just quickly speak to uh hard ship variances that you can allow or do you not want to do that uh like um if if a if a student has like if the child care is an issue we can we sometimes can make allowances for that as well and I I'm sorry yeah no it's fine so um current policy states that students attend the school in their attendance area and those boundaries are determined by the school board uh with a recommend recomendation from the superintendent uh there are some exceptions at elementary level we offer Child Care exceptions so if someone lives we'll just use some school examples if you live in the south river attendance area that's where you live but maybe you work

139uh in Elton then you could you you had child care there you could write a letter um and usually we ask to know the address of the child care provider and we will make an exception for elementary schools we usually do not make exceptions Beyond elementary schools for child care um we have one or two times made an exception for a sixth grader with a very clear understanding that we're not doing it in seventh grade um and we really get really just be honest with you get real picky about high school because there becomes Athletics becomes important and where kids want to play and what team they want to be on and we just have to be very careful with how we address that so we draw a pretty pretty hard line there may be

140some exceptions if there's like you know maybe an evaluation from a psychologist or someone but it's pretty significant um and in terms of redistricting you know just while we're here I I can tell you that none of these board members are happy about redistricting uh they grumbled at me when I mentioned it and fussed and fumed and said why do we have to do it and I think I said this during my presentation it's a necessary evil we can't move the schools right we can only Shuffle some of our students and we don't look at them you know just as you know they're just you know livestock or whatever just move them around but we have empty seats in some of our schools and other schools are crowd overcrowded so before we ask our taxpayers

141for higher taxes to build another school as good stewards we need to be mindful of what we're asking and and try to use up all the space that we possibly can before we say we need another elementary school right so it's again no one looks forward to doing this work it's maybe one of the difficult decisions the Schoolboard makes uh it weighs heavy on their heart for all the reasons you talk about um they love your teachers you love your schools you love the principles whatever but at the end of the day we're trying to to try we try to take into account the entire School Division and how can we be good Steward of what we have and it's not easy no one will they'll be when they make their decision whatever it is

142they will not be they'll just they'll have to deal with it right and it doesn't make them feel good I can tell you that doesn't make me feel good but it's part of the job and someone has to do it so thank you and I also just want to add two more things first uh as Dr shifflet said we can't pick up schools and move M around we have to be good stewards and just for reference for everyone every million dollars that we spend is an extra Penny on your taxes per 100 that doesn't sound like a lot but think about your tax bill and think about how all those pennies have added up through the years so we we have to be mindful of that nobody likes to pay higher taxes just to pay

143higher taxes um and as a mother I you my children went to I I live closer and vote at one Elementary School kind of drive past another Elementary School in order to get to the elementary school that my children actually attended it was still only a seven-minute drive I loved loved loved my children's elementary school and then my one of my children I won't out which one one of my children uh when he was older and in high school he said Mom I wish I'd had gone to this other elementary school because that's where all my friends were and I didn't know they were there when I was at the school I was at but when I got to middle school then I met these wonderful people that I have so much in common with

144so children are resilient it can be tough but it's also an opportunity to make new friends and I think that's also good for children so um we're going to try to do our very best but children are resilient so if you say this is a great chance to make new friend in fact I remember a time that I pulled in this I I had a van full of teenagers and we had been moved from our our camping cluster and we had to go to a new camping cluster and all the kids in the van you could hear it when we pulled in everybody was like look at all this people and one kid said look at all those new friends we get to meet and everybody changed and it was wonderful and we had a

145fantastic time so be mindful too as we move forward kids are resilient and they they copy what we say um speaking of kids do we have some students here tonight you can just say raise your hand and say yes we're students great we have a couple um thank you guys for joining us tonight uh I think we are just about done I will let dror shifflet speak but I did want to welcome you all and recognize you all for coming tonight so thank you oh um thank you I just wanted to speak about the redistricting and um Cher La is correct um I I don't know if I shared this story last time but um this is not the first time Rockingham County public schools has had to redistrict students it's you know it happens

146every so often and again we watch the populations we see where the growth is but I remember when I was the principal at South River Elementary School uh we had some students redistricted to Peak viw now that Peak View's overcrowded we probably wish they were back at South River but anyway I just I digress with that story but I this this parent came in to see me I I know once or twice a week how upset she was was about her kids going from South River to Peak viw but once her kids went to Peak viw the fall she came back and said my kid's doing a great job at PE It's a Wonderful school and I knew that right I knew PE wasn't quite as good at South I'm just kidding I wasn't the

147principal that but she's like oh my kids thriving at peew but the fear of change can be daunting to students and families and it can be unnerving but um we have good schools all 15 elementary schools all four middle schools all four high schools and uh they'll be cared for uh regardless of where they are we're very intentional about saying that and they all have air conditioning so uh I mean mention I know Dr Kastner mentioned that earlier but we are thoughtful about that making sure our programs are very similar so that there it is a a similar experience although the cultures at each School are different and unique and I we totally understand that again that's why it makes this this uh task very hard so thank you thank you members we have reason

148to go into close session uh do I have a motion I move that the board enter a Clos session to discuss and consider the following pursuant to the provision of Virginia code section 2.2 3711 A1 Personnel specific public officers appointees or employees for the purpose of considering such individuals assignment appointment promotion performance to motion salaries disciplining or resignation and A2 one or more particular students specifically relating to requests regarding compulsory School attendence based on religious beliefs that would involve disclosure of information contained in a Scholastic record concerning a student thank you Mr Dixon do we have a second second thank you Dr mcquilkin is there any discussion hearing none all those in favor of entering closed session please say I I oppose same sign motion carries thank you guys so much for hanging in there

149till the end with us please have a safe drive home and um have a wonderful week meeting a Jour no we're in close session