2023 08 28 - RCPS School Board Meeting

001I'd like to call this um Monday August 28th meeting of the Rockingham County School Board to order the first item on our agenda is to approve the agenda members do I hear a motion to approve the agenda I move that we approve the agenda thank you Dr mcen do I have a second thank you Mr Cross is there any discussion hearing none we'll vote all those in favor of the agenda as presented please say I I oppose same sign motion carries unanimously we will um will you now join me rise and join me for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the FL of the United States of America the for stands one nation God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you you may be seated please join me in a moment

002of silence thank you the next section on our agenda is public comments uh and before we start public comments comments I'm going to find my rules there they are I want to read over a couple of the rules just to remind everybody welcome to the new school year um and it's a good time to review review our rules for the room um the speaker sign up sheet I have a sign up sheet um and we'll take you guys um didn't sign up going down the rooll so uh I have arranged the order and I'll call you up uh somewhat in the order that you're on here um each speaker has three minutes to speak total at the end of your three minutes the the mic will go quiet and there a tone will sound and

003we're also going to do a tone at 30 seconds to go correct so at 30 seconds left um you'll hear a tone um everyone needs to have their their um comments reflect the character counts pillars um so uh try just to say things that you wouldn't mind saying in front of of children please um you can only speak once about any one item unless you have new material to add the comments should be directed to the board as a whole emotional outbursts uh any form of cheering or shouting from the audience are not acceptable the public comment period will be limited to 30 minutes per meeting but I think we are not going to have any trouble with that tonight um I can end anyone's comments who violate these rules uh and uh this won't

004be a back and forth don't expect us to answer questions uh we will we will hear your comments and then if appropriate the superintendent will reach out to you at a later date okay now that we've taken care of that housekeeping our first Speaker tonight is Ashley Saunders hello my name is Ashley Saunders my pronouns are they she I am am non-binary I'm a children's minister in Harrisonburg I have a child in Rockingham County Public Schools and I'm the mother of a trans son who graduated from Broadway High School in 2021 there is a vital piece missing from the model policies that Governor Yin has put out and it is the voices of trans and non-binary students and adults in the state of Virginia creating policy that targets and puts marginalized groups in danger without

005inviting them into the discussion is the definition of authoritarianism I know that Rockingham County public schools are better than that before any policy is passed the School Board needs to do its due diligence and meet with the families of trans and non-binary students school counselors the Shan andoa lgbtq Center as well as the friendly City safe space you cannot understand the scope of the damage this policy will cause until you speak to those who are directly affected just the thought of these policies are causing undue mental stress harm to students teachers admins counselors and parents already for all students to be safe in Rockingham County Public Schools it requires a collective understanding of the importance of public education a trust of Educators who are tasked with teaching children not only academically but also socially and

006emotionally we have to trust the autonomy of students and we have to believe that trans and non binary lives are valid and worth protecting public education is not a mountain to be conquered but a system to give all students an equal opportunity for success thank you thank you our next speaker will be Ivan Christo good evening I'm Ivan Christo I'm an educator in the Harrisonburg city schools I'm an ally of the trans Community I support our trans students right to use their preferred pronouns and a right to Affair inequal treatment as respected human beings I believe in their privacy and anonymity as they become confident in who they are and I believe uh that is part of creating a comfortable and safe learning environment which is priority number one in education it is not our

007job to govern their bodies thank you very much thank you Mr Christo our next speaker is John Johnson good evening my name is John Johnson and I Rise to speak in support of the neighbor former neighbor uh the department of education's model policies I would uh point out just two things first of all our attorney general has issued opinions stating that they are these policies are in compliance with all the necessary Federal rules and and laws and also I point out that uh governor yunan campaigned on a major platform focused on education and parental involvement keeping parents at the center of their children's education and having input and into the policies that their impacts the flavor and tone of their children's education and I should note that Governor yonan carried Rockingham County by 75% running

008on that platform so I I think it would be a fair assumption to say that 75% of Rockingham uh probably supports this these new policies from the Department of Education issued at the governor's Direction I think they're Fair they keep parents at the center of their children's education they do respect the Dignity of all individuals regardless of their situation or status and but they do keep parents involved at the center of their children's education thank you Mr Johnson our next speaker will be Stacy Benner good evening rcps school board members and superintendent chifflet my name is Stacy Benner I here to speak to you about revisiting and revising your policy JF CF times have changed since the last just say no drug school policies of the 1980s as we all know now those extreme and

009fanatical ideologies completely backfired any child who grew up then now knows we were sold lies to try to scare us straight of course drugs should never be in school this isn't absolute Nob brainer I would like to State loud and clear no one thinks that drugs should be in school ever however extreme and fanatical ideologies like the one in the Facebook rant from November remember 2022 which came from one of our very own Schoolboard members should never come from a person who oversees our schools this is 2023 not 1980 and we are dealing with children not criminals kids make mistakes all the time this is a huge part of growing and learning our Public Schools should be there to support our kids with constructive and effective punishments policy JF CF has neither of those attributes

010obviously children in the 80s are extremely different than children now even children from 2019 are different than our children in 2023 they have the information of the world at their fingertips we cannot sell them the Hardline and extreme lies of the just say no drugs policy any person who thinks that way is disconnected from the reality that is our children of now those people will surely be left behind more by more Innovative and open-minded thinkers who can produce positive outcomes working with our children and not against them our kids mental health is their Foundation now more than ever the rcps school board should be more focused on adding more counselors more training for our teachers to help our students with mental health issues using the local police force to teach mandatory classes on drugs and

011alcohol not using them to conduct biased raids on the parking lots of our local high schools and developing constructive and comprehensive plans to deal with drugs and drug usage in our schools punishments that include ostracizing our students from their peers and unfairly punishing the overachievers by taking them away from extracurriculars clubs Etc is an Antiquated way of thinking this needs to be changed now just because public schools have been suspending and expelling children as punishment since before the'80s doesn't mean we should still be doing it that way we don't teach our children the way we did in the 80s why are we still punishing them in the same manner we need Innovative thinkers on our school board not members who mindlessly nod in agreement to all any and all ideas that come out of their

012narcissistic previous superintendent mouth it's time for a change in Rockingham County Public Schools and I'm praying that it in November and elections in the future that the people of Rockingham County see what I do and vote them out thank you Miss Benner our next speaker will be Michael stimple hello Mike uh board uh Dr shifflet um Mike stle I'm from rodway area um I just want to start off by saying trans people exist and they are loved by God I am sick and tired of conservatives attacking Vernal populations the model policy proposed by the Yun Administration is yet another attempt by conservatives to play up the culture wars keep people angry about issues that don't exist and use children as pwns in their political games it's disgusting but it follows a pattern of behavior of

013conservatives in the trumpian era they will stop at nothing to maintain political power they even misuse the name of God herself when they pray out allowed and invoke the name of Jesus while spreading their hate and bigotry this model policy is nothing more than a political game for the yunan administration it is poorly written specifically targets a marginalized group of people and does not follow evidence-based practices as mandated by Virginia law 22.1 23.3 it was so bad in fact that the Attorney General was asked to weigh in with his non-binding legal opinion on how he thinks the policy didn't break any laws this is an absolute bare minimum for any policy or standard we should be creating policies that allow our children to flourish not simply pass the legal test and when thinking about legality

014this policy will most likely result in a lawsuit as it specifically targets trans kids I ask the board to reject this model policy because it is cruel in its intent it is poorly written and it will subject rcps as to potential legal Peril in the form of a lawsuit thank you thank you Mr stle and our final speaker for the night is Paula lamb hello my name is Paula lamb and I am a parent of four students three have graduated and one is currently in high school and I am here um to speak in favor of Governor yonan's policy and the reason I am speaking in favor of his policy is because it states that schools shall respect all students all students include trans students color any uh student of any race um that includes

015all students and we need to respect all students parents also have the right to make decisions with respect to their children so parents need to be included in any conversation that is had about a child's identity it has been proven and it is stated that our trans population faces a higher suicide ideation than other populations and one of the proactive measures that helps our trans population is having family support including the family in the conversation is one of the proactive me proactive means to help our students that do identify as trans and I support this policy because it says the school Shall Serve the needs of all students so all students includes students who come from different backgrounds whether that be Christian Muslim whatever the case may be we as a school board need to

016make sure that we serve the needs of all students and schools shall partner with parents and as most of you know I am running for Schoolboard in District 5 one of my tenants of my campaign is a positive partnership with parents teachers and students as I've been talking with parents and teachers that has become one of the crucial points in conversations it is to provide an opportunity for there not to be a bad guy but for all of us to come together in unity and have conversations about our students um one of the concerns that I have heard about the policy is uh in relation to child abuse and that if we share with a family that their student is identifying differently than they were born that there will be issues with child abuse well

017we have policies in place to protect Against Child Abuse and our teachers are aware of those policies and they know who to call if they do see those abusive tactics happening um another issue is that it would be impossible to call a parent every time they change their name uh unfortunately my son takes after his husband after my husband and he has been late to class many times and I have received several tardy phone calls a child being tardy to class does not have the same correlation as a child that has identified as trans and needs their families support so we need to include our families in these conversations and we need to make sure that all of our students have a place to learn thank you and that concludes our public comment for the

018evening the next item on our agenda is highlights by board members and um so one of my highlights I'm going to go ahead and go now just with this one highlight is that we have um added a new face to our board and we as a board would like to welcome Mr Jack Dixon let's go ahead and give him a round of applause and welcome and I'm going to start with your highlights if you don't mind uh well thank you chair lore uh um it's been a fun three weeks of Whirlwind coming into this uh first off my highlights are you guys um the onboarding process with HR has been wonderful um and then the board members that here help have helped greatly coming onto the board uh We've made friendships in a short period

019of time that I really hope will continue past uh past this six-month period when I reenter private life um I want to highlight uh last week we were able to get out to some of the appreciation lunches that Dr shifflet graciously hosted for some of our Educators uh and we meet everyone in the division got to meet with some great people that sometimes uh you don't see them but they're there doing the the hard work in the division cafeteria staff um bus drivers things like that and it was was great to see those folks um and also I was very fortunate the first week of school to get out to pretty much I think hit every school in the Fifth District uh talking to teachers Educators administrators and just wishing them a good luck everybody

020hit the ground running everybody was excited the kids were happy and I think we're off to a good school year so those are my highlights thank you thank you Dr mcelin oh thank you chair Laur uh I'd like to begin with the fact that after our meeting our last school board meeting we had new teacher orientation it was wonderful welcoming all of our new teachers and new faculty it was great to see them and we were really glad to to be able to be there to meet them as secondly my highlight is the videos that Dr shifflet has put out on on the website and if you don't know how to get to them here's the direction go to our website go under a school board and then link down to click on superintendent and

021once you get to superintendent you could scroll down and there are five videos and if you haven't been able to see them I highly recommend that you take a look uh the first one is relationships followed by effective communication web tools school safety and attendance and they're really well worth your time to watch um the next one is I know Miss lur Mrs lur probably spent more time at the fair than I did I don't know I think she slept there did you yeah that's what I thought but but uh we were at the fair to see the FFA students and the fcla students with their booths and they that was really great and the the Rockingham Educational Foundation also was there squeezing lemonade and if you missed it it's the best lemonade you'll ever

022have and now it's it's a sense of beginning for the 2023 24 school year and I think we're off to a great start thank you Dr shiplet thank you you're that's it you're good thank you Dr M uh Mr Cross you goome back okay coming back um we had a great um time out at the fair thank you for all our students that showed livestock and was out there got a chance to could see a bunch of uh our kids and our students there it's great to be back to school to see the kids back and smiling and riding their school buses and coming into the school and able to get out to a couple of my schools and uh say hi to our administrators our faculty and STA and our staff thank you guys

023so much uh for doing that thank you Dr chiplet for all the videos you've been putting out that's been um really one of my biggest highlights because uh just the transparency uh that you're hitting the ground and running with you know you're talking about issues that parents are concerned about and I really as a board member really appreciate you um doing that so thank you so much for taking the time to do that I love the idea you went out to all the high schools and you had your different shirt on supporting uh every District so thank you for doing that um but thank you to all our um our staff and our personnel and I was also able to go out was able to go out to a couple of uh the lunchin that

024you held and um they very much appreciated uh just a recognition and so thank you for doing that thank you Mr folk do you want to go next or I can go if you want you go next right thank you um thank you for the uh shout out on the videos uh maybe set your expectations low when you go to watch them so I don't want you to think you're going to see a Hollywood production it's just me talking very similar to this it's it's real uh but but I do want to be transparent it's part of one of my um goals coming into this role is to be transparent with our our teachers our faculty our staff our community uh so great start to the school year um and I want to thank all

025of our faculty and staff for welcome welcoming over 11,000 students last week uh it's great to see students back in our schools uh it's the students in the faculty and staff that make our schools it's not it's not the buildings it's the people in our buildings um and um so far I've ridden one bus uh I've visited 13 schools watched two volleyball matches and one varsity football game so I've been uh trying to be present as much as I possibly can um I cannot be in more than one place at once so uh there's some things I'm just going to have to miss but uh it's been it's really I love to see our students competing and participating in the extracurricular things that they like to do outside of school they have to come to

026school right but they don't have to be in the band they don't have to to be in the FFA they don't have to be on the football team those are things they choose to do so I like to see them in those elements um and so it's been a great start to the school year they mentioned the appreciation lunches so um the school board has supported us and uh providing lunch to all of our employees over the work days as they returned to work uh it was over like 2,000 meals and uh we made sure that uh everyone had an invitation to eat lunch and we tried to to be there as much as we could to uh to thank them for the work that they do there's a lot of things that go on

027behind the scenes that people you think about school you think about maybe the principal think about the teacher but there's bus drivers bus mechanics maintenance workers Food Service workers custodians all of these people it takes to to make it happen and we value them very much U and I also want to um uh just kind of publicly answer a question from Mr Cross last time because I I thought he asked at a public comment and I wanted to just answer um he had someone was inquisitive to him about the um Department of Education parent registration for the online uh acceleration grants and we did uh share that information out on May 1st as soon as we received that public Com or that uh Memo from superintendent Coons and from my understanding those dollars went pretty

028quickly so um if more monies come out we'll make sure that we're advocating uh not just to our students but to the community because it was available to everyone so I wanted to I didn't have the answer last time but I found it for you sir what G so I uh went to Broadway on Friday night unfortunately we uh couldn't get the win in overtime and so now I I start talking about like um you know we were two and two on Friday and people said what are you talking about I said well uh East Rock and ta won but Spotswood and uh Broadway lost so so I have to just keep those things in my mind so I got this big record in my head uh I think t i watch ta and Fort

029played volleyball and uh uh Spotswood played wesboro so I try I'm trying to get to games where we're not competing against each other because then people start asking me questions like who am I cheering for right and I'm just like well I don't know so so I'm trying to find as many of those games as possible but I know at some point I'm going to have to go watch Broadway and ta I mean that's just what's going to happen so I'll be there in my uh blue Rockingham County shirt and who won the volleyball games did we win one or do we need to not let you go to games anymore you trying to say I'm bad luck uh spotwood won their both of their matches I think Turner Ashby did not Faire so well

030I know the Broadway game was that was a hard one oh okay yeah and I knew you were at that one so I'm hoping that uh that you're going to be our good luck charm moving forward yeah that's what I'm thinking yeah I'm sure I just wanted to say um thank you to the board uh and yay Summer's over because uh that was a rough summer for us we uh we met I think every Monday in August um we transitioned our new superintendent we got a new school board member we've been busy and now it's time for us to maybe relax and have a good September I'm so happy that the beginning of school went so well um I was actually able to I went to Broadway where they do a a um a line

031where everybody comes off the bus and we clap and we say welcome to school uh and one of the people that got off the bus was our own Dr shifflet that was pretty neat but I had gone around back for most of it because that's where the drivers come in and I got to wish um a lot of kids that I actually know I'm going to get all emotional a lot of kids that I know their last first day so and one and the reason I'm so emotional it was my last first day my baby started his first day of senior year this year so I wish all and then I also know that many mothers put their children in school for the first time this year let me tell you the last first day

032is so much harder than the First first day so enjoy many years of Rockingham County Public Schools I know my children I have and I'm just looking forward to another great school year and many many more years to come because Rockingham County is truly a special place to have your children enrolled and thank you all for spending your summer making sure that it is a great place for our kids to be enrolled the next item on our agenda is we're going to move into our action items and we have three like I said we had me me we had meetings every Monday in August so we have three sets of minutes to approve and I'm going to go ahead and ask for approval on all three of those as one unless anybody has an objection

033so do I have a motion to accept um all three sets of minutes from August 7th August 14th and August 21st so moved thank you Mr Cross you have a second thank you Mr Fulk is there any discussion hearing none we'll vote all those in favor of approving the minutes as presented please say I I oppose same sign minutes are passed and thank you Miss gilerson for all your work on those um the next item on our agenda is to revise the school board uh schedule Dr shiff yeah I recommend that we approve the revised 2023 Schoolboard meeting schedule as presented thank you thank you Dr shifflet uh do I have a motion from a board member okay I move that we approve the revised 2023 school board meeting schedule as presented thank you Dr

034mcin do I have a second thank you Mr Dixon congratulations um is there any discussion I believe the reason that we wanted to redo some of the calendar was because of the uh redistricting talks that we want to have do you want to expand on that correct we were trying to um wanted to bring a a timeline hopefully at the next meeting for the redistricting plan and then um have some informational items later in November December with actually what redistricting may look like uh so part of that is giving our transportation department an opportunity to to look at the various scenarios and what that may be and we wanted to make sure uh that we had um some of those meetings could could um house some of the public comment period and also um try

035to do some centrally located because the redistricting for the most part uh could potentially impact just about every District maybe except East Rockingham because it was impacted a couple years ago so that's that's the reason for these changes is there any further discussion hearing none all those in favor of CH of approving the uh Schoolboard calendar as presented please say I I oppose same sign motion carries unanimously next item on our agenda is the stronger connections Grant and uh Miss Jud good evening chair lore Schoolboard members and Dr shifflet this evening I'm presenting the stronger connections Grant application with which is in need of your approval this grant program addresses student health and safety falls under title four and is a subgrant resulting from the bipartisan safer communities act the division is requesting $350,000 to

036help fund an electronic key card access system for schools you may recall that funding for this project was approved through the budget process last spring if our Grant application is approved by the Virginia Department of Education it may free up some local funds for another purpose an electronic key card access system will provide easier access to the building for employees will help ensure that doors remain locked and will provide Administration with the ability to deactivate electronic key cards as needed when employees leave the division the Grant application is in your folder for your review um I'd like to thank Dr Amy payer for providing some support as I worked on my first Grant application and also Mr Chris sard Who provided some information for the Grant application at a time when he is extremely busy

037so I appreciate both those people um I'm happy to answer any questions that you have and I appreciate your time thank you board members do you know how soon we could be able to get this if we get the Grant I did um ask Mr Reed kind of his thoughts on the process he believes that the RFP process will occur later this fall and that hopefully the new system would be in place for the next school year any other questions so where we at with the key system right now and that might be more of a Dr shifflet question or I think it'll go through a formal RFP process this fall um with maybe getting finalizing of bid in uh start of the school year or start of the New Year in January and then

038hopefully have something in place for the next school year wonderful okay board members do have a motion do you want me to do it I'll do it uh I move to follow this oh wait first I need a recommendation helps if I read my notes chairl and board members I recommend approval of the application for the stronger connections Grant as presented thank you okay now the chair will move to follow the superintendent's recommendation to approve the application for the stronger connections GR Grant as presented by Michelle dread uh do I have a second second thank you Dr mcin uh is there any further discussion hearing none we'll vote all those in favor please say I I oppose same sign motion Carly thank very much and thank you all to all of your work on this

039policy the next item on our agenda is uh policy Provisions by Miss Becky to know hello chair lore Dr shifflet members of the board um at our last meeting I brought some policies for you for information and tonight I come to you for Action um you'll remember at our last meeting you had asked that two of our policies um be revised so those are the last two policies on your list uh JBE we went back in and put back the drug fee schools and for uh gdq uh we changed it back to the five years um so I think what we had said in listening back to the to the minutes from the meeting was that we could go ahead and bring those for Action tonight so the ones at the top would have been

040ones that you would have seen the last meeting and the bottom two are the ones that you asked to be revised thank you Dr ship chairl and board members I recommend approval of the proposed policy revisions as presented by Mrs tanil thank you board members yeah I moved to I moved on the to approve the superintendent's recommendation on these policies thank you Mr Cross do have a second thank you Mr ful any discussion hearing none we will vote on the um superintendent's recommendation to approve the proposed policy revisions as presented um all those in favor please say I I oppose same sign motion car thank you very much for all your work on that we'll now move into our information items and we have a presentation by Dr shifflet uh ready for school 22 23

04124 and no I am not I'm not ready for school now so I just want to provide a brief update to the board on uh some of the statistics regarding enrollment Staffing facility uh Food Service Transportation so um as of well these are as of Friday numbers total students 11,000 441 students uh who showed up now we sometimes will get some students who come to us after Labor Day so that number May tick up a little bit uh and just also this just for your information of all of those 11,441 students 45 of them are out of District in case you interested in that number I think the budget was built on 11,123 students I believe that the number there Justin and uh so we're a little under that right now because you got to

042take out the prek numbers but just wanted to provide Uh current enrollment numbers for you um hiring statistics uh Dr mcquilkin mentioned the um the uh new teacher orientation August 10th and then the 11th so we had 96 teachers new to rcps of those 48 were first year teachers and so when we look back on our retention rate from last year we had a retention rate of 92% um provided that we get through Personnel this evening without any hiccups uh we will have three licensed positions five pair professionals to fi four Food Service four and a half custodians and 27 in transportation so that's still been a big gap we're making it work we haven't had to call families and tell them to drive their kids to school yet uh so we're thankful for that

043some facility updates uh we remodeled the kitchen at uh mono Middle School for the family consumer science course uh that's being finished I was out there today to see that looks really good uh access ramps at hilard and Pence Middle School I believe the one at hilard has been completed working on the finishing up the one at Pence uh installed a new water irrigation at the football in soccer field at uh Spotswood High School connected that to the county water uh the bathrooms at the football stadium and also working on the on the addition and so there's a picture of the bathrooms at Broadway High School as you come into the football uh stadium and uh they are very very very attractive buildings and then you can see just some highlight some snapshots of the

044um construction it's it's happening so you can see the works underway uh Food Service updates so 12 of our schools and you may be aware of this but I thought I would remind uh you once again are receiving free breakfast and lunch for all the students in the school through the community eligibility provision and so we have one middle school and 11 elementary schools who are receiving that um that privilege so that's really uh nice and also this year something new we're participating in the Department of Defense fresh fruit and vegetable program and I'm not exactly sure to be very honest with you how they are connected but that is a legitimate program and we're being involved with that so hopefully students will see more fresh fruit and vegetables on their lunch trays uh transportation

045again we know we have some still some vacancies 160 general education buses out there on the roads uh 14 special ed buses with 15 assistants we have 27 cars and vans out in about nine double routes at seven of our schools and so that's where we do you know we pick up a group of kids and they live in a in a pretty close proximity to the school so we can get those kids off the bus and return and pick up another group of kids and then currently we have 12 buses and vans that are traveling to spaces outside of Rockingham we got folks going to Charter House Governor School uh elk kill uh Keys Academy mic and brcc so putting a lot of miles on on our on our Fleet and we have a

046great as I mentioned earlier group of mechanics who who take care of those vehicles and so that's just a quick update on where we are as school is open for the for the new year so any questions I have no question but I would like to thank you for the report it's good for us to know uh all those all that data about our system full disclosure so I I saw another superintendent who did this report and I said hey I really like that I think my school board would like that I said do you mind sharing and and I've changed it to kind of fit us but you know I've always said as a teacher right you you beg borrow steel you find good ideas and and you bring them to your school or

047your classroom or whatever so I can't take credit for the original invention but that there was my work that those are our numbers so and I'm maybe TV3 is listening uh but I I'm glad that you pointed out that we weren't asking parents to drive their children to school but my head snapped around uh dramatically during the news the other morning when rcps asked children asked parents and it was a big report on how parents had to take their own kids and kids were like three hours late to school and all this stuff it was ronoke City Public Schools and if they could refrain from saying rcps when it's not Rockingham County public schools that would be super helpful but yes there are there are districts within our within the state of Virginia that are

048struggling with getting kids to school so thank you to everyone in the real rcps for um steing up and taking care of such great care of our children so thank you and thank you for that report the next item on our agenda is um the ticketing system for no wait you're supposed to still be down there right Schoolboard meeting schedule I can handle it from right here okay I skipped it then because okay so I'm going to turn it over to you for the Schoolboard meeting schedule so uh in your packet you have the uh calendar of proposed uh meetings for the 24 calendar year and a couple of things just to highlight um May 6 and May 20 that's the first and third Mondays of the month to avoid having a meeting on Memorial

049Day or moving the meeting to a Tuesday and then uh East Rockingham will be hosting the retirement reception uh before the school board meeting on May 20th so we try to rotate that around and that kind of kind of messes with the schedule just a little bit and what we're trying to accomplish uh instances where we had to switch locations and and have schools host the first meeting of the month March 11 monov videoo is not hosting the second meeting of the month because of spring break uh October 14th switched the locations in October due to um Columbus Day and the county admin being uh Building closed on that day and then November 11th switch locations due to Veterans Day um so um this would be the proposed um meeting schedule so you have any

050questions and I guess we'll bring it next time for Action yes yes we'll bring it next time for action and then um just as note I think we'll pass it but we need to revisit it um in December when we get when we know who's going to be on the board and what those schedules look like good point um okay now next on the agenda is the ticketing system for events uh Dr alifer chair lore members of the board Dr shifflet um I've brought with me this evening a few friends uh you may know some of these folks uh this is Eric Phillips these are the activities directors at um in rcps uh Eric Phillips from East Rockingham Matt Ray from um Spotswood High School he's new to the division or back to the division

051and Donnie Coleman from Turner rashby um High School Ryan rder from Broadway High School wasn't able to be with us this evening um I'm going to just do a short introduction uh and then I'm going to let them uh do the the presentation for this evening as you recall back in uh July I had provided an informational item to you all regarding uh a digital ticketing system in uh for High School athletics and other events that were taking place so I was sharing with you some of the details of that and there were a number of questions that came out of that from you all some of them that I could answer and some of them that I couldn't so um I went back to the experts on this uh who have been kind of

052working through it eding it uh and are really living it every day and I asked them to come uh this evening and to uh share again some more about the presentation and also be available um if there's questions that you all have related to this um project or potential project so Don are you to started okay good evening board members and Dr shifflet my name is Donnie Coleman as he said the activities director at Turner hasby High School before I get started I do want to mention Dr shifflet that you showed up at our volleyball game and we were swept 03 and turned around and played the exact same team and won again on Saturday so no no pressure there to say that publicly right yeah I'm not saying anything we're all about transparency people

053we're all about transparency uh you're probably wondering what 3 ads are doing here this afternoon dressed up in uh suits and ties here obviously uh we're presenting something uh there's a company out here called Gan um in the Virginia High School league and it's across the state uh that's implemented this company and it's a great resource for us we've kind of let them work all of the bugs out that we possibly can we already are implementing them somewhat with our past system which I'll explain but basically what we're asking for is to implement this as a digital system and Spectators can purchase tickets in advance on a website or an app um so it's it's really efficient for everyone involved all also they provided us with credit card machines and uh iPad tablets and we're

054going to work off of what's called a box office app now we assume I've already done my homework as best I can I talk to the I Department we do not have to connect to our Wi-Fi they assume all of the responsibility for using the credit card machines so it's just like going to the gas station or going to a movie theater if you would like the option of using your credit card uh the next thing um that I like to talk about there is we are not going to turn anyone away with a cash option I promise you we uh we love to see people come through the gates and and pay to watch the game so we're not going to turn anyone away we'll have an emergency cash box available but I myself

055like to attend events concerts sporting events throughout the state throughout the East Coast you go through Ticket Master Ticket Master the fees are extremely high um the one negative that I will say about this is it does throw another $1 approximately $1 onto the consumer by using this this fee okay per event so um basically also like I said with the cash box is going to be available to us we've also in order to kind of slow this process down a little bit our yearly passes we've already implemented those on Goan and we are all at record sales right now okay so a student can attend pay 60 bucks and attend every single home event at their school for that year an adult could pay 90 bucks so there's other options there if you don't

056want to get hit with that single event every single time and we've all worked with the Virginia High School league our governing body um when you hit the state level you have to use you have to use this system okay and I know we've all had experience with it but Mr Phillips has assisted in running the state track meet and I'm just going to let him briefly talk about that and come back and explain what we're doing good evening School Board uh first off uh want to thank you for your service to the county uh appreciate what you do for us uh the past several years years I have been um in charge of running indoor track as well as state track and um Co hit and and and we went to the the Gan

057app on the phones and um no cash at all and uh it was a train rack just to be quite honest with you because of the just the phones uh people couldn't get in um so then we added the credit card machines um and when we added the credit card machines um everybody seemed to love it um we did not adverti cash at all or um either indoor track or state track the last two years um you know we we would take like a $100 of our own cash to the game and just put it under the box um we had less than 10 people show up and need to get into the game at games over a two-day State track meet um for the state track meet here at James Madison the outdoor track

058meet over a two-day period over 5,000 Spectators we had less than 20 people come in that that had to use the cash system so people were able to use the credit card machines people liked it um it got them through the lines a lot faster and it got them into the into the events a lot quicker so lot of positive feedback um the other thing uh I would say from the Virginia High School league is that every state event when they went to online and digital ticketing they had they had they made more profit so there was more profit there and all of our money goes 100% of it goes back to the kids so um we got an opportunity to to make a little more profit for our kids I think that would be

059good for us um I'll be around for any questions but that's all I had thank you and uh to close this up you know why why are we asking this that's probably a great question uh and if you'll see there number one is security uh we've moved into the digital age as you can see here with a couple other items uh tonight uh I'm not going to lie we're carrying around large sums of cash sometimes and I know we can protect ourselves but it it will hopefully eliminate that or reduce that dramatically okay uh the Integrity anytime you have cash on hand something can go wrong you can lose it we all we all want to say the word embezzlement but it's there okay uh the convenience um I know for a fact that I've

060checked with all the financial secretaries in the county they would absolutely love it they have to count out thousands of dollars of cash the next morning we all have to verify it make sure it matches the ticket with this system basically Gan can you have two options can make us a check to the school and we can deposit it or I haven't explored this option just yet they could actually set up a direct deposit and the money go right right to our financial secretaries so uh like I said all activities directors are on board uh and all of the financial secretaries are on board and basically what we're asking for is to be able to implement this and we do understand the the elephant in the room of the $1 service fee but I think

061if you look at Ticket Master and StubHub and those options uh we're a lot more efficient so again if you have any questions please let us know the the thing that bothered me when I it was presented to us last time was that it was said that we that the company that we were going to be working with does not want to advertise that we will be accepting cash at the gate so is that a stipulation and signing the agreement with them that we will not advertise that we accept cash no we will not sign that agreement to do that because actually I talked I've talked to them numerous times over the last couple days and with the sales of our passes they really would like to work with us we we've set record sales

062already with our passes and it's good for us too because we know the money up front and we can budget a lot better we don't have to worry about rain games and who's going to show up and that type of thing but um we will still be able we want we would like to phase it out we would eventually like but I know my dad he can work a cell phone uh but he still wants to pay cash we're not going to turn anybody away yeah and that's and that's my biggest thing too is is not at least for a while not working going completely cashless at the games because there are people we and I I said this last time at the board meeting when it was presented to us last time but we

063traveled over to alamore County last year me and my wife when we got there it was she she got on the phone did it through the app but then when the my father-in-law got there and mother-in-law um they were they were lost they didn't wanted they were like you do it for me so I I'm sure we'll have some hurdles um but I think we've cleared a lot of them already we have QR codes set up I know they were joking with Mr Phillips he had a QR code billboard that they sent us and he's walking around the school with kids taking pictures of the QR code so but there there'll be some bugs we got to work out but I think for the most part we've checked with all the stakeholders involved okay I

064would just say that if we weren't if we would not adverti the fact that we takeing cash then we would take cash from that population that need sell nobody would ever email the school board and say I had my $8 and they wouldn't let me in I can promise you that right um but you know a lot of people are going and the other fact that we the other part we are getting people showed up at games now who have no cash and so they would love to whip their credit card out yeah it's a great it's a great option I think my only concern with it was with it is going completely cashless where if someone shows up with you know eight bucks or signing a contract saying we will not advertise that we

065accept cash because I'm I I definitely want to be able to do that so you're saying that we don't have to sign a contract with them saying that we no sir we we just we would not advertise it but if they bring cash to the gate we'd have an option for them to get in so okay any other questions uh just curious off of uh you know previous year attendance for all total sporting events how much is this third party vendor going to make off of these sales at as as a total cumulative number they were making approximately a dollar off of each ticket but What's the total number so like if you add up all the ticket sales and say how much are they going to make off of it um they're they're going

066to do well I will say that but I mean um the overall aspect you like an average football game on a Friday night can be anywhere from 5 to $10,000 depending on the game in the gate so um it's a service uh that you know creat security and integrity and convenience for Rockingham County no I understand that I I just get nervous with third party vendors profiting off of our kids sports activities and all of that stuff so curious on that I'm sorry the vhsl has already partnered with them so it's it's you know something that they're using and that's our governing body there are a few others out there that I think you dealt with was the ticket spet um and gofan is by far the leader in the industry there was a school

067division out there as well who they had a Friday night game and their internet everything completely a tower or something got hit they completely went down and the company said how many people did you have at the game and they wrote him a chat and everybody got in free so you know they do they they they work with you try to make it right so could you tell just repeat for us again what the past options are for students I was curious about uh what you had shared on that slide sorry down yeah um we have a we have a couple different options we still have the traditional punch pass all right $40 and you get 10 admissions but it you probably shouldn't buy that now because for 60 you can get into the whole

068whole school year we do offer a family plan of $275 for like a family of four uh to get in and we right now are at record sales like I said before um the adult is $90 the student is $60 okay so if a student let's just say a Turner Ashby buys the digital pass they can come to all Turner ashb home events for the year exception of play play offs exceptional playoffs yes sir okay yep so it's pretty good deal and we've you know we I kind of enjoyed it so far I know I'm new at this but we have the money up front and we don't have to worry about the attendance so it's just one of those things where everybody in our region has kind of but us has kind of gone

069to that to that model um so just being consistent with people traveling out of the area I think would be you know very very worthwhile um and you know Harrisonburg does the same thing and so our district is is all go faint so I think just having that across the board consistency would be great for our stakeholders as well and just to be clear too you're saying going to advertise that we have a cash window that people can come to though so there won't be we won't be advertising that but if someone shows up with cash you will accept it absolutely I can tell you right now we're not turning anybody away can we still have a window though that says a cash option here I mean cuz I'm like I'm like you as well

070if I can pay with the card I'll pay with the card but if if if I got cash at at at the state track make basically came up and you know if you if you couldn't get on with your phone and you didn't have a credit card then cash i' I'd like to see at least the and talk the board but I mean I'd like to see us have a window as cash if you want to pay cash and I think the only event that would have multiple windows is probably football right now in the fall because of the volume but we would just have one window for the other events but they would know they could use cash at that window so yes sir do you have an implementation timeline um it right now

071would probably be tough I'll be honest with you as much as I would like to jump in both feet in the water uh maybe winter sports uh could be something that's looked at efficiently so we don't we've already had a home game and charged this amount so now we don't want to raise it I'm the first one to say that um but you know it's probably good we took a step back I talked to gofan you know I talked to Our IT department some today just to make sure we got all of our bases covered I would say winter sports would be a would be really beneficial to us if we could but we've already sold passes yes ma'am the passes are separ the passes are separate we're not selling any individual game tickets uh

072that's all at the that's all at the gate so far so so if I have a if I have a pass yes ma'am you're going to benefit greatly how do I use that okay so I walk in I show you my phone yep and they hit redeem and and then we know how many people come through the gates okay and that's another thing too it's $7 to get into a football game you give me 10 I got to tear a ticket give you $3 cash you show me your phone I hit redeem the line goes so it's pretty efficient but we're kind of rolling out fall sports with the phone and the tap but we still have cash so it's kind of almost a baby step towards it yes that's what we're doing we're doing

073everything but the credit card right now yes ma'am any other questions if you have any if you think of any please feel free to reach out thank you guys yes thank you guys next on the agenda we have uh Miss Becky tanell with some more policy revisions hello again everyone uh we only have one policy to come for information tonight it's policy gcbd -2 it's about personal leave and it's just some clarifying language you'll see that there's just a strike through the way that the policy read um could be interpreted that we only allow employees to take three consecutive days of leave and we don't allow that we allow uh employees to roll over leave um to be able to accumulate four or five days and so we just wanted to clarify that language because

074it was causing some confusion with Administration Traders okay thank you any questions thank you very much sure the next item on our agenda is uh Dr shifflet with his presentation on the vdoe model policies so um first of all I want to U thank everyone in attendance uh I realize this is an area that is very personal for individuals uh people on both sides are very passionate about this topic uh but I trust throughout this process we are Guided by the pillars of respect responsibility and citizenship character counts so we want to make sure that we're displaying that and I think we have thus far so I'm going to sort of give an overview of the Virginia Department of Education model policies on ensuring privacy dignity and respect for all students and parents in Virginia's

075public schools so some helpful reminders um the first point is that I am not an attorney and this is not uh legal advice okay uh I have been um studying uh the model policies I've been to numerous briefings I've read information that's been shared with me from various um stakeholders and folks of of interest in this uh and so it's my desire to come here tonight and build awareness for our school board right and so that you can understand um as I have an understanding of these model policies um the middle two bullets up there uh relate to some themes right because this is very complex and evolving and I will highlight some of those com complexities and some of the evolving issues as I go through the presentation uh and there's some times conflicting

076um and competing guidance so uh a few weeks ago I received and I shared with you um a memo from the state superintendent Coons about the policy and then last week I received something from the Virginia school boards Association so sometimes we have competing guidance from folks as well so I'm just trying to uh make sure that um that we let keep that in our minds as we we kind of go through this and also just remind ourselves that in rcps uh our priorities is supporting all students uh that hasn't changed and keeping all students safe and partnering with parents and families we we want to make sure that parents and families are part of the process so um some quick definitions just out of the policy sex physical attributes of males and females at

077Birth gender masculine or femin feminine traits gender identity an individual sense of their own gender cisgender a person whose gender identity Co coincides with his or her birth at sex and transgender a person whose gender identity differs from his or her birth sex so model policies released were released on July 19th of this summer and these policies replace the model policies issued by the previous administration now I may just point out just a note Rockingham County Public Schools never adopted the 21 policies right um I think the board stance was our current policies were consistent with the 21 policies quick timeline so um the general assembly created uh this statute that said um the Virginia Department of Education was to develop transgender model policies and April 21 Governor Northam his vdoe administration issued their policies

078and then uh September setember 22 Governor yunin bdoe issued their model policies uh which then they paused so they could have public comment over 70,000 public comments received and then here in July they've been uh released so looking at the statute very quickly uh it basically says vdoe is to create policies for how School divisions should treat transgender students in regards to these areas Student Records identification of students names and pronouns student privacy dress codes sex specific activities but not Athletics bullying harassment and discrimination the statute also requires school divisions to adopt policies that are consistent with but may be more comprehensive than the model policies developed by the Department of Education so there is sort of the legalities of what we are charged to do okay so just uh you know I read an

079article on the Washington Post um the 21 policies 14 divisions fully adopted eight divisions partially nine divisions rejected 88 divisions adopted the vsba approach which was talking about their current policies on non-discrimination and anti-bullying being consistent with the model policy and 12 divisions approach was quite unclear so again initially proposed in 22 September 22 put on hold while VOE considered public comments as I said earlier I think there was over 70,000 comments they were finalized on July 19th they replaced the former 21 model policies and they are in effect immediately right so I want to do a little comparison for you 21 compared to 23 like what are some differences and I'll try to highlight some some ways in which maybe our practices are aligned or maybe not align with what's happening model policy 21

080some expectations that parents would be involved in child's requests related to gender identity at school uh students had discretion in choosing to request pronouns bathrooms bathroom usage Etc and the 23 policy unless there's risk of suicide or harm schools cannot intentionally conceal information related to child's identity at school uh if a child requests counseling related to gender identity parents must be involved and parents must request in writing that schools recognize gender different from biological sex so those are just how the when it comes to parents roles how they differ a bit okay exception If the child is 18 or legally emancipated right that doesn't count so student stent records uh 21 policies permits changes to names and gender in school uh Records based on students request and 23 policy permits changes to school records only

081when accompanied by parent written request and an official government record such as birth certificate or passport okay use of names and pronouns uh 21 student request is sufficient uh School staff required to use the student's preferred name and pronoun student request is not sufficient under 23 po policy uh parents must make the writing written request for that to be the case and School staff cannot be required to address students in a way that violates their constitutional rights so if you remember my first slide I talked about these are complex and evolving issues well here's one of those evolving issues currently and U there's a question before the Virginia Supreme Court does requiring staff to use a student's preferred name pronoun violate their constitutional rights in that case uh we're still waiting for them to render

082a decision but that just bring we talk about this idea of this evolving the complexities of it here's an example of it right uh when the Virginia supreme court issues a ruling that may impact um what we're doing okay uh bathroom rooms and locker rooms 21 model policy students may choose to use the bathroom associated with their gender identity provision of a single use bathroom is not sufficient in the 21 policy um in 23 Poli policy um students shall use bathrooms that correspond to his or her sex except to the extent that federal law otherwise requires we'll come back to that single use facility should be provided and parents allow owed to opt out child from using bathrooms with transgender students all right now talk about some of the complexities of this uh in the

0832020 uh Grim versus Gloucester County School Board a Fed a federal pellet Court District 4 ruled that transgender students must be allowed to use bathrooms that's correspond with their gender identity all right so in the policy it says students have to use biological but unless federal law mandates differently and now we've got the US uh District Four Court very a little bit complex right it's not quite as black and white maybe as we thought uh sex specific activities students able to participate based on gender identity students must participate based on assigned um sex at Birth Athletics so the in the statute it actually didn't mention Athletics it actually deferred it to the vhsl um so they discouraged separating students by sex for non vhsl related activities um and 21 defers entirely to the Virginia High

084School for athletics this is required in the statute this policy requires that students participate in any sex specific Sports based on sex not gender identity and again this issue of things evolving currently in the fourth circuit there is a case that's being uh deliberated uh with West Virginia they have a a law statute that says students must Place boards based on their biological sex uh bpj versus West Virginia state board of education so we're waiting for that verdict as well so again this is somewhat evolving in what's happening and what does the policy look like uh so in summary in this comparison 21 model policies are no longer in effect uh 23 model policies are in effect of July 19th School Board is required to adopt policies that are consistent with but may be more

085comprehensive than the model policies developed by the Department of Education okay so there's kind of where we are now I just want to walk through very quickly you have it in your packet uh the actual model sample policy that was provided and I'm not going to read all the different bullet points but I'm going highlight a few things okay and maybe talk about where you know maybe there's some variance or what we may have to consider uh but complying with all applicable federal and state nism non-discrimination laws including Title Nine uh of the education Amendments of 1972 right and while we're here um we've been informed that the US Department of Education plans to release some guidelines and regulations regarding Title 9 later this fa uh so that add some more complexity to this issue

086right just so there's basically eight parts to the model policy the sample policy right the first one has to deal with maintenance of a safe and supportive learning environment free from discrimination and harassment for all students right and again I'm not going to read all the bullet points but I think Rockingham County currently has a non-discrimination policy um prevention of in response to bullying harassment again um bullet number five schools shall inform parents of any bullying incident that involved their children within 24 hours we're currently doing that right so it's already part of this policy um so there's some similarities okay maintenance of Student Records School Division is required to maintain an official record for student that includes the student's legal name and sex maybe be required to use on uh use or report Student

087Legal name or sex in some situations School Division shall change the legal name or sex in the student or former student's official record only if a parent or eligible student submits a legal document right so that's a little different than our current practice right our current practice is families can sign off and say we want to change student name but we don't ask for a legal document right so I'm just trying to call out something that that is a little different than our current practice and that's it's not even a policy we have it's a practice uh identification of students uh every effort to be made to ensure that trans student wishing to change his or her means of address is treated with respect compassion and dignity in the classroom and school environment uh it

088is about respecting all students uh we want to make sure that we're doing that um and school Personnel should refer to each student using only the name that appears in the student's official record if the student prefers using any nickname commonly associated with the name that appears in the student's official record right that would be permissible um Matthew may be called Matt right or Michaels Mike but when there's a change of pronouns then there's there's some difference there right um School Personnel should refer to each student using only the pronouns appropriate to the sex appearing in the student's official record that is male pronouns for a student whose sex is male and female pronouns for a student who is female um notwithstanding the the provisions of two and three School Division Personnel shall refer to

089a student by name other than one in the student's official record or by pronouns other than those appropriate to the sex appearing in the student's official record only if an eligible student or student parents has instructed the School Division in writing that such name are the pronouns be used okay so we probably now students could probably just ask for different pronouns or maybe just in class be called differently so that would have to be something we may have to investigate right um some more on the identification part students again parents have to put things in writing uh as to what they're allowed to say um no policy guide guidance training or other written materials issued by the school division May encourage or instruct teachers to conceal material material information from a student from the student's

090parents and including information related to gender provided however the School Division will comply with all laws that prohibit disclosure of information to parents including but not limit to the code of Virginia prohibiting parental contact where student is at imminent risk of suicide related to parental abuse or neglect okay so there's a clause in here that currently we don't have in our current policy that says if a teacher counselor administrators really has some concerns about a student safety or well-being then we can treat that differently uh protection of student privacy um shell dis Clos sensitive student information I again I get through all of that I think we already take care of our students privacy and confidentiality um sex uh based dress codes students May dress in a manner consistent with maintaining a respectful distraction-free environment

091which supports a focus on learning for all students and students are not required to address in a gender neutral manner right so I don't you know we need to go back and look at our dress code policy based on this right we have a policy I think it's pretty General neutral but it may be something we have to examine participation uh sex specific school activities uh in events and use of school facilities so this is one that gets can be somewhat interesting um for any school program of interactivity that are separated by sex the appropriate participation of students shall be determined by sex rather than gender or gend gender identity um or state or federal law requires schools to permit transgender students to share otherwise sex segregated facilities such as bathrooms and locker rooms remember

092that Gibbons case I was telling you about earlier so this kind of comes up there with students of the opposite sex parents should be given the right to opt their child out of using such facilities okay so there's again something that's different maybe we don't have in a policy uh eligible students should also be given the right to opt out of such facilities and given access to Alternative facilities we do have uh single use facilities in our schools right that could be used by the single use just one person goes in close the door no one else is in there uh overnight travel accommodation locker rooms other intimate space used for school related activities and events should be based on sex um student should use bathrooms that correspond to his or her sect except to

093the extent that federal law otherwise requires and that goes back to the Grim and glosser case right and single-use bathroom should be made available which we're trying we've made an effort to do athletics um again athletic programs should be separated by sex or those that are separated by sex should be used by uh biological sex not by gender and again I recall you back to the West Virginia um case that's pending now in the fourth circuit so what are our next steps as a school board um your job is to develop policies my job is to enforce them so to speak but so one we could take no action right maintain current policies enforcement by law whatever's whatever the fourth circuit comes down with what the Virginia Supreme Court decides we could expressly adopt the

094model policies just as they are and just say hey we like them let's just go with this uh we could just as well reject the model policy on the vote say we're not we're not doing this uh we could do portions of the model policy okay or we could expand on it I think we have some options of of what we want to do and so again my reason of coming here tonight and wanting to come here tonight was about transparency right you've been hearing about if you listen to the news right you hear about this some school divisions they adopted the model policy some school divisions reject rejected it the Attorney General's weighing in the governor makes comments right it's out there so I just want to be very transparent with our community with

095our our our teachers our students to say here's the model policy right and how does the board want to proceed what what what are your thoughts about next steps and where we have to go and what what do you want to see happen next have we talked about uh the board getting together with a legal counsel regarding the model policy we have not but I would be open to that I mean as a suggestion that that was again I started off the presentation saying I'm not an attorney I'm just trying to share with you how I've made sense of this over the last few weeks uh read again read the policy three or four times and there there are some complexities to it right uh and there's some things that are evolving and taking shape

096but that that could be something that's that the board would want to do um to meet with our school board attorney and and maybe do sort of a a crosswalk what's there right when we go back to portion a part one when they talk about non-discrimination I mean I haven't just performed that cross walk but I feel pretty confident that we have a pretty good policy in regards to non-discrimination uh but as I mentioned going through the presentation looking at the model policies there's probably some places where we may have to revisit our practice or re you know change some policies yeah I have actually spoken to legal counsel and they're still digesting it and preparing something for us so we will um if it pleases the board we can set up something for us

097to meet with them at some point yeah any further questions thank you for thank you for bringing this tonight I mean this is something that the board can't ignore that is there right and uh neither do we as a community want to ignore it this is something as one of the gentlemen spoke out tonight but over 75% of majority here in Rockham County voted for Glenn yunan which um was about parental rights uh there's no other way that you can get around uh him winning an election here in Virginia other than it being on parental rights and so this his policy here is unbelievable great and I would like to see the board to adopt this policy seeing that our constituents majority of our constituents voted for the governor uh for him to step in

098and to uh be Champion parental rights when it comes to their their kids in schools and so there are things we're doing right now that's that is like we talk about the identification of students where we're not working with parents uh right now uh so i' I don't know how maybe you can explain this how does how does our current non discrimination policy fit northam's uh uh model policy in 2021 and it also fits Yan's policy in 2023 when they are two total different policies uh that were presented do you have an idea of that yeah well I think both policies address the idea that we cannot um discriminate against students right regardless of race religion um sexual orientation gender identity both policies address that so I'm I'm saying when you look at that PO

099model policy there's eight sections right or they're they're actually A B C all the way through H that that number a letter A the first one would be more lying with our non-discriminatory policy right but now as you get down into other parts of that policy then there may there is definitely not alignment right and so I think that's the piece where I would so we were looking at this policy I would say yeah I feel pretty good about how we are handling non-discrimination right so we're not saying students can't present as transgender or we're discriminating against students who are transgender I think uh in either case right they they have that right uh to do that I I think one of the distinctions is uh the communication with parents and how that takes place

100so now um a student could probably come into class and say now Mr Mr folk um I'd like you to refer to me as Lucy and he may be accommodating to that right that would be more along govern Governor northam's policy or with Governor Jan's policy may have to say well are your parents okay with that right I mean that's sort of a little bit of a distinction right um so yeah I think there's I mean I think there's some similarities right when it comes to discrimination and anti-bullying but I think when you get into some of the other sections about um when parents get involved and how they get involved there where you see the differences and it's where maybe you know as Dr mcquilkin said it may be advisable for us to sit

101down with legal counil and to see what are what are our what practices do we need to to alter if we want to make sure we're consistent with right because that's what we have to be um we don't necessarily I mean the statute doesn't say you have to adopt this policy but you have to adopt something that's consistent with right right so maybe looking at what would be the consistencies that we would have to to get to right and the and listen I'm all about the autonomy of school boards uh and you're exactly right there we have to adopt policies that are um that are at least up to these standards that the vooe releases to us um and I want to make sure that public understands that as well because you know two years

102from now another Ralph Northam gets in there um and says you have to obey by this and I like the autonomy of school boards and say well as long as we're follow following uh the v's the standard then we're okay we don't have to take gender signs down off our bathrooms or whatever uh the craziness that is coming out of Richmond we can say it's not good here in Rockham County um but I would like to address the board and say I this this could be a quick process and talking with legal counsel and then having this back on the agenda uh to vote on at the next school board meeting uh we've been hearing on some of the things that you talked about tonight we heard last fall uh that we were waiting for

103a couple cases to go through that were at the Virginia Supreme Court and other things like that so to be clear also to the public as well like you said tonight we can adopt this policy if we want to it's not against the law for us to adopt this policy uh and if the law was to change then we could adopt to the policy so we've kind of taken the approach in Rockham County where we're we're waiting on court cases to finally go through till we finally make a decision but the people elect us to make decisions and then to adjust accordingly so I'd like to have this on the next School Board um at our next Schoolboard meeting on the action item to be able to vote on his um to be able to

104vote on the policy yes or no for your presentation as well sorry man I'm G to weigh in and there's a giant elephant in the room because the last time I was in this room I spoke that I did not want to actually speak on WID sweeping policy changes specifically the model policies um Matt I don't disagree that this could be a quick process I think it's it's imprudent to rush this um I also spoke about fiduciary responsibility to the taxpayer and general coffers and insurance and all of that I see and spending this weekend reading various court cases reading the AG's opinion reading the model policies I think that we're opening ourselves up to liability from two sides um and there are School divisions that have already said that they want to push this

105issue um having said I don't want to weigh in on it I would like to talk to our legal counsel one to figure out if I'm if we are legally required under the statute that was passed in 2020 to get into compliance uh there are no effective by dates within the policy that says when it has to be done by and you spoke to autonomy of the Board District 5 has an election coming up and I don't feel like it's right as an interim board member to weigh in on this this topic as an interim member so if I have the opportunity to abstain I will if legal council comes back and says that we have to vote and there is a compliance issue then there's a moral and ethical decision that I will take

106there to follow state code but I am more of the opinion let's talk to Legal first let's take our time to make sure that we're not being irresponsible with the legality of this because there are a lot of competing Federal statutes State statutes um and this is not a comment on the social side of this I understand that people are very uh passionate about that they're very uh passionate on either side and I'm sticking to my impartiality pledge this is purely about the financial and legal aspect of this I want to make sure that we're setting the next board up for Success into their four years and we're making sure that we're uh protecting the taxpayer money on this so I think it's better to be a little bit slower because we already know that

107Prince Liam County Fairfax County Arlington County County Richmond have already said that they're blatantly not going to accept this and so if there will be lawsuits brought either at the state and federal level those divisions can pay the litigation costs those those divisions can handle the taxpayer costs let them figure it out in the federal appet court in the state appet court system let us you know that's or what our attorneys say honestly is what it's going to come down to in my opinion and that's my feelings on it so and two things Mr Dixon number one you can't abstain from from voting on this it's not something that you have to seek legal council about but you can't abstain from voting from it when when it does come to a vote uh what I

108will say though is is that we this is not something that's just like been presented to us when yunan just now it came through in July I mean this this was something that took place back last uh October when it was presented it went through uh 70,000 comments over 9,000 uh iners uh people that came to the board in Richmond and spoke on about it so this hasn't been something as the board that we just is new to us uh sitting up here we've been hearing legal counsel over the past um uh year on this matter and so it's not something that's just caught us by surprise uh so again I would definitely want to hear our legal council or we've been hearing from our legal council but if we could schedule on a briefing

109with uh our legal council uh before the next school board meeting and and put this up for a vote uh at the next board meeting then I would appreciate that would be my recommendation how would that even look um I mean because our policies have letters and they like Becky brings them to us with changes if we we can't just vote on accepting the model policies as presented can we absolutely can well how does that fit into our policy book though I mean they have to be incorporated into our book we adopt what we will be voting on is adopting this model policy for Rockham County Public Schools but then we'd have conflicting policies well the old policy would be xed out and the new policy would come in not if we don't go through

110and make the changes I'm just saying that we probably need a little bit more time to to understand and compare um and re have our policy team kind of go through and say okay this is where we need to change this language just like we do with all of our other policies um correct so I think what maybe you're describing is if we get with legal counsel maybe reworking or rewriting the policy or creating our own policy based on this sample is that what I hear you saying well isn't that what we need to do to follow our our our policy on policies you know to to follow our our our procedure CH chairman lore what I what I the way I understand this is our old policy non-discrimination policy would we would wouldn't be

111going off of the off of this model policy that junan has put out right so we would be adopting his model policy and not going by our our old policy that we went under when it when it comes to the care uh the privacy and dignity and respect for all students and parents in Virginia Public Schools under the Virginia code section oh somewhere in here but under that code section that requires Virginia Public Schools to go by so that's what we would be adopting from the from them well actually um Mr Cross we don't know if legal is ready to to give us this update and and I'm not moving anything or voting on anything until we meet with them and hear what they have to say absolutely that and it's and did you meet

112with legal counsil about this yeah I've spoken to legal counsil on three occasions I believe about this policy yeah so I I don't think it's I don't think there anything that would they' be bewildered not to talk to the board about well I spoke to them on Friday and they were still waiting through it and still still trying to to to get did you get an idea how long it's going to take them to wait through it I did not could you ask that's what I'm asking at least want a timeline I don't want this this wouldn't have been before we are planning on talking this week I talked to her last week and she said uh I'm going to still ra Wade through it and we'll touch B again next week so this week

113I should be able to talk to her okay and to be clear this wouldn't be on the agenda tonight for rockim County Public Schools if I wouldn't have asked for this to be put on the agenda so that's why I'm asking that we would talk to legal council and not drag our feet on this so if you can get back to us as soon as possible on when that meeting can occur we we had a lot of meetings during summertime we'll make time to have a meeting for this too okay any further questions anything else thank you for for bringing this forth and uh we appreciate your transparency okay we're now going to go to school School Board questions and comments uh Mr Cross Mr Faulk Mr Dixon Dr moken pass I do have one

114question school's back in yay who's well I have two questions then who's excited for school to be back in everybody yes yay wow you guys seem so enthusiastic about school being back in and then do we have any students in the meeting tonight I think okay oh one okay well we are looking forward to seeing our government students returning to our meetings and I'm looking forward to uh acknowledging them uh if anybody's listening and thinking about coming to a meeting I know that the Su the uh Board of Supervisors uh makes the kids stand up and speak at this at their meetings we just say hi so come on into our meetings uh I know it's a requirement for government class and uh we're looking forward to seeing you all um Dr schifflet do you

115have any final comments no I just want to thank everyone for coming out this evening I do appreciate the Civil discourse um let's just keep it that way thank you members we have reason to inter close session do I have a motion to inter close session anyone I move that the board enter Clos meeting to discuss and consider the following pursuant to the provisions of Virginia code section 2.2 3711 A1 Personnel specific Public public officers appointees or employees for the purpose of considering such individuals assignment appointment promotion performance salary or resignation and A2 one or more particular students specifically related to requests regarding compulsory School attendance based on religious beef beliefs or the inability to benefit from education at the school that would involve disclosure of information contained in a Scholastic record concerning a student

116thank you Mr folk do I have a second thank you Dr mcin any discussion hearing none uh except for as soon as we go into Clos session um we'll be in closed session so I would like to say now thank you all for coming and um thank you for the respectful discourse tonight please have safe travels home and um but wait I got I got I got to go into close session first but so don't leave yet but um thank you all for coming tonight um all in favor of going into close session as presented please say I I oppose same sign motion carries unanimously we are in closed session thank you all for coming