2023 02 27 - RCPS School Board Meeting

001good evening I'd like to call this um February 26th meeting of the rocking County School Board to order um first item on our agenda is to approve the agenda do I have a motion approve the agenda thank you Mr ful do I have a second second thank you Dr mcquilkin is there any discussion hearing none we'll vote all those improve all those voting to approve the agenda please say I I I oppose same sign wonderful we have an agenda and welcome everyone to our meeting um if you can please stand if you are able and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance FL the United States of America to The Republic which stands one nation God indivisible liy and justice for all you may be seated and thank you next we'll move inal well before

002we move into our moment of silence I'd like to point out that Mr Cross is not able to be with us tonight because he is on a mission trip in Honduras so keep that in mind during our moment of silence um and will please join me in a moment of silence thank you okay the next item on our agenda is the comments from the public before we begin that uh I would like to say that um things have gotten a little perhaps straying too far from our rules for our public comment section so tonight before we begin public comments I will read the rules so that everyone's clear on what we expect from our public comments and then if you do not follow the rules you will be called out of order okay um these

003rules of procedure are intended to promote the the opportunity for orderly diverse comment during school board meetings recognizing that that the reality are that recognizing the reality that there are numerous other agenda items to be addressed during a reasonable time period also there exists a variety of other formal and informal means by which the school board seeks and receives public input during and between meetings one a speaker signup sheet will be located at the entrance of the meeting room speaker speakers must sign up prior to the meeting speakers arriving after the commencement of the meeting will be recognized at the discretion of the chairman two each speaker will be recognized in the order listed on the signup sheet and be limited to three minutes total whether speaking on behalf of a group or as an

004individual or whether more on more than one topic additional time may be granted at the discretion of the chairman but only if necessary three speakers should have their comments reflect the counts pillars in all comments being respectful of others and setting good examples for our students four speakers should only speak once about any one item unless they have new material to add repetitive comments are discouraged so that others will have the opportunity to present additional or different views during what is during what is a limited amount of time four all comments I'm sorry five all comments shall be directed to the school board as a whole not individual board members debate is prohibited six emotional outbursts I.E any form of cheering or shouting from the audience are not acceptable seven the public comment period will

005be limited to 30 minutes total per meeting eight the chairman may end any speaker's comment ments that violate these rules nine once the public comment period has been closed no further public input will be invited unless clarification is requested by a board member the response shall address only those specific questions raised by a member and 10 speakers who have addressed the school board within the last 30 days should instead allow others to speak during the public comment period so that there will be ample opportunity for new or different views on various subjects these rules are available for pickup and I encourage you if you want to make public comments please pick up and review the rules before beginning okay we're going to start our public comment period tonight with Kathy comr fellow school board members

006thank you so much for letting me come going have my three minutes um I'm going to talk about three facts okay uh the first fact is sex I've heard a lot of people say that sex can be changed there's no way sex can be changed when a male sperm cell and a female sperm cell unite usually in a woman's Urus that is when sex is determined you have the male XY chromosome and the female XX chromosome when they unite either X X or XY takes over every cell after that Union has that sex chromosome like Mr Breeden he has the XX chromosome is is lower you have the X I'm sorry he has the XY chromosome it's Lord you have the XX chromosome okay subsequently every cell in your bodies and mine and yours have

007that sex chromosome so how can you possibly change every cell in your body okay I just wanted to clear that up because the next thing I want to talk about is the word gender now gender I had no idea what gender is as you know my education is in nursing I received my degree from the Medical College of Virginia so I'm scientifically trained so I hadn't heard the word gender so I have anatomy books in my house I have my genetics book in my house which I I uh learned but I didn't have a Biology book so I called my daughter who was chosen by the United States Board of Education as one of 10 biology teachers to go to different regions of the country every summer and spend two weeks reviewing biology books so

008I thought she would know if the word gender appeared in any Biology book and it does not not in any of them so um the definition Webster's definition of gender is the behavioral cultural or emotional traits typically associated with one sex it does not mention the individual's sex it just mentions the traits associated with that sex now the scientific definition that concludes your time okay thank you very much and I did forget to mention we have a timer and um we have someone keeping uh keeping time for us and a tone of two tones will s sound at 30 seconds left okay next we have Michael stimle hello board and assistant superintendent glad to be here uh my name is Michael stample I'm from Broadway Virginia and as a resident of Rock inham County I'd

009like to talk about rcps and its positive impact on students parents and the community at the previous Schoolboard meeting this month I was I was brought to tears but not surprised when hearing a moving tribute to a teacher's aid who was more than just an aid to a young lady with intellectual disabilities who recently passed away you will find stories like this throughout rcps I work for Pleasant View Incorporated a local nonprofit that serves adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities I quickly became acquainted with the name Chris Dodson and the amazing work he has done and continues to do at the Spotswood High School with a special education class volunteer peer mentors are central part of his program it's a it's it's wonderful to see students helping other students succeed and he cares uh you

010can see it on the faces of the students he serves um we uh as a as working for Pleasant View we used to have like picnic times where we would uh the students who' be graduating would come to Pleasant View and they would um you know kind of see what an adult uh Day program would look like so that was where I got the connection with Chris Dodson so you'll find stories like this all very rcps and then last week um or excuse I said last week I mean last the last meet board meeting um with the students and the the community and the dialogue that they uh they were trying to establish that they could have a say in their their own education and to see them advocating for themselves I was very very

011impressed but again not surprised and that doesn't happen without good Educators uh good administrative staff and a school board that supports supports that uh system so I appreciate all of you and I appreciate the administration and I appreciate rcps thank you thank you next we have Sarah Horst good evening I'm Sarah Hurst I'm a former employee that's okay we I answered either um I'm a former employee at Rockingham County Public Schools and um I just have a question as you all are moving through the budgeting process um budget season it's time to make adjustments um why is it this year that there is at least one elementary school that I know of and there are probably others um that only have one and a half rating specialists in their building that's down from two now

012Rockingham County has always had a great long-standing commitment to always having two a minimum of two reading specialists in every building um in every Elementary School and some have more because they're larger um but this year there's at least one school that has one and a half and what's concerning about this um and what doesn't make sense to me is that we're post pandemic where we've had had three years of interrupted uh learning for children we know that the reading data is showing we've got lots of students who are not where they should be um and could be and then we also have at some elementary schools where accreditation has been difficult um for raing scores and so what I'm trying to figure out is why we went from Two and pulling away specialized support

013um post pandemic um it just it doesn't make sense to me and the thing too that many people probably don't realize is that the one and a half rating Specialists are also tied up in meetings for parts of their day so they're not even directly working with students every day that they're there some of them are doing facilitating training some of them are attending training so what we've done is we've reduced the amount of specialized support that our students in some elementary schools have access to which just doesn't make any sense with post post pandemic accreditation difficulties so what I'm asking you know is first of all how's this even Justified um where else is this happening how many other schools only have one and a half as opposed to two um do parents truly

014understand what this means to kids uh for kids I'm guessing not because the principles that are at these schools have a really good way of making this okay for their people in their Community um so I'm asking that you uh take a look at the budget and see if you can't figure out how to put that back because that's a really necessary support as a former rating specialist I can tell you that they really need that full-time assistant because some or that full-time teacher because that that part-time person can't even be there long enough to establish routine and and relationship before they go to another school so I'm just asking that you keep that in mind as you move forward with the budget thank you thank you next we have Deb Hadad did I say

015that one right hello so I'm here this morning this afternoon this evening whatever time it is um to advocate for my daughter she is a freshman at Broadway High School she is an excellent student a student leader straight A student but she also has like some difficulty with anxiety so in the past um she was allowed to come to school and do her telea health medicine appointment during the school day and this was really beneficial for her and something she really needed then one day she came in and she was told I'm sorry policy's changed you're not allowed to do it and so she had like an hourlong panic attack and couldn't go to school for the next three days and then since then we are doing her um her tella Health from home and

016so she you know the therapist only open at 9: and then so she has to stay home do her appointment and she loses like about 3 hours each week because she has to do it from home so you know it is a medical appointment I understand but I think that if rcps wants to um advocate for students mental and emotional health that it would be a good policy to allow the um telea Health um counseling appointments to be done during the school week that's the end thank you thank you and um Miss Hadad uh I don't have your uh contact information so if you can please provide that to the clerk before you leave so somebody can reach out with you to Youk thank you next we have um Patrick Fritz good evening board um

017Patrick I live in Broadway got two uh two students and at Broadway High School right now um one of the things I to would like to talk with de because um my son also has tella Health that he's done at school in the last week so um I I don't know I mean I called Jen Nick and and she made sure that happened so I but anyway um what I did want to say because y'all know me um we're we're wrapping up musical season and and again I just want to give um a huge congratulations to every one of of our our Fine Arts students and and students that may not even be in Fine Arts programs that they got up on stage they got into the pit they got in the light Booth they

018got in the sound booth um and just the and and recognize the amount of hours that go into um what what they've put on over the last two weeks and and again our kids are just absolutely amazing um but even with that as we're wrapping up um they do have assessment which is basically like the the music so um that they're going to be preparing for um and um we have a Rockingham County Indoor percussion it's a combined group from all the different County Schools uh that will be competing in Midlothian this weekend so um again I just wanted to make the board aware of of what our Fine Arts students are doing um throughout our schools because they're they're doing absolutely phenomenal work um more seriously though on or on a more serious note

019I I did want to briefly talk about um the weekday religious education program and how we are um vetting those people we we're taking our children and moving them off of school property into a trailer with somebody right um maybe you know who they are but as a parent I could never never get that answer from my kids um and that's deeply concerning when we have 50% of pastors that self- admittedly watch pornography 37% that self-report inappropriate sexual behavior with somebody in their church and 40% of married pastors having extramarital Affairs and when we look at clergy sexual abuse for a children I'm I'm really concerned about allowing our children to walk off of school property with some unknown to us person who um uh well there there's a significant amount of sexual deviancy within

020the church that has not been addressed um and I would like some sort of answer as to how we are vetting those people and how we are um securing our children thank you uh Kristen lamb will be our next speaker hello everyone um my name is Kristen lamb and I have two children one who is a second grader at mville and another one who is a two-year-old and obviously is not part of the system yet um I am here to discuss my frustration with the proposed school calendar for next year I definitely understand the importance of time in the classroom um as well as preparation time planning time and administrative duties are unfathomable I am not a teacher I do not know what they are however I can tell you that for my family um

021this year after school started between the first day of school the last day of school not counting holidays and regular breaks there are 11 occasional days off next year there are 12 occasional days off these days are a struggle for families who have small children you know these days off are not days off for the little kids because we have Financial Obligations we have to meet which means we have to work so the kids either come to work with us or they get shuttled into somewhere else at a financial cost that is an addition to what we had planned this calendar year was made with the assumption that ringim County was going to be able to provide additional resources we were signed up for it for the parks and wck obviously it was a surprise

022to everyone that was not something that anyone could have anticipated including myself um and we were able to scramble um and my second grader is able to take the bus to Boys and Girls Club which is a fantastic option the graciousness of their hearts to allow them so we are thankful but this calendar is done with the the knowledge that there is no additional support and child care is an issue in Rockingham County Child Care is a crisis there are not enough spots and there's just not enough availability and all I'm asking is for you to go back and look to see if you can make it make sense last week is a perfect example there was a government holiday government employees were off kids were in school but on Friday kids were out it

023didn't make sense I know you can't make a schedule that for fits my perfect needs I get it but just make it make more sense so that there's a more cohesive schedule so it is easier on families um thank you very much thank you and then I think Amber ham and Jason lancore I believe you guys are you're speaking on behalf of a group I understand good evening um Jason and I are here um to on behalf of seesac um and as cesac chair to talk about um budget recommendations the cesac meets regularly to talk about successes unmet needs and services that can be improved to meet the needs of special education students who attend Rockham County Public Schools we have open communication with parents community members and RPS staff through that communication we increase

024our understanding and the barriers of students with disabilities to access enough staff equipment and services so speaking on behalf of Staffing for some special education students they need extra support in the classroom this support usually comes from teachers andair Professionals in the classroom or staff that have the time to work with the students outside the classroom if there's not enough staff this leads to staff burnout and turnover of employees in the special ation field as teachers are expected to do more than they can physically do in a day and it can sometimes lead to an IEP not being followed which can lead to legal issues this also affects the general education teachers because they are not getting the support they need as they have the responsible to serve all students in their class in return

025either special education students fail to get further behind or the other students education is affected and they might not meet their benchmarks you see in the budget recommendations that the need for increased staff from the perspective of CAC this is a modest request from the special education department and we do not feel that this will meet the needs of the special education students attending Rackham County Public Schools if there's not enough staff to meet their needs it will not only affect the special education students but also the other classes students in the classroom equipment and specialized Services some special education students have lifelong disabilities that their ability to ever function within normal range of their developmental age it is not because of the lack of effort it is because of their disability however through the

026proper equipment and services provided through the school they have a chance to increase their skills and possibly compensate for the disability however the lack of funding for these services and equipment limit them to reaching their full potential for some of these students it is the basic that most of us take for granted the ability to hear to talk to walk to have the opportunity to play outside free of tripping hazards or the spaces that are wheelchair accessible these simple learning opportunities for the physical outlets and the social opportunities are limited because the schools do not have the equipment needed sometimes they have specialized help and need more time they need specialized help and need more time with speech pathologists reading Specialists physical therapists and other specialized Services attending some school so that they do not

027lose the skills that they have struggled to gain all year long stud a second okay reset the clock please and we'll start Mr um longer time okay these students deserve the same opportunity to reach their full potential however most of our schools are lacking these resources to provide these opportunities for their students below are the budget align items which I will give you in a copy that we would like you to consider incorporating into your budget if you have not already this is only the start of what is needed what we need to start somewhere conclusion the role of education has many facets but it should strive to allow students to reap theer potential whether it is to prepare them for the fur to further their studies to attend college or a student who dreams

028is to communicate their needs to their caregivers or to be able to physically care for themselves we all have struggles however some of our struggles only last a season of our lives however for students with disabilities they must learn to manage these Lifey time disabilities and rcps has a role that is imperative asking the schools and teachers to do that without having the proper funding and setting them up for failure in return you are diminishing the abilities of special education students reaching their potential cesac would ask that you really look at the budget to free up the funding resources to meet the needs of our special education students not only what what has already been asked by the current budget recommendations but to incorporate additional requests for funding are there L there are there line

029items that can be reduced or delayed so that current special education students can have the opportunity to experience what most of us take for granted and so some of those budget recommendations um I will give to you but just to highlight some of them therapeutic equipment and accessibility for special needs students to increase increase in quality Elementary and secondary summer schools for level one and level two students not just to focus on academics but also social skills more pay for parent professional assistance and Subs working with special needs students extra stiens to work with special needs students like personal hygiene stiens when a child needs to be cared for with bathroom um hygiene man training or something equivalent for staff all staff not just some all staff working with students which could potentially need it

030and then summer school opportunities are funding to continue Services during the summer these are just some of the things that cesac would like to highlight for you to consider as you're going through the budget this year thank you thank you okay that concludes our public comments I believe um it it was an interesting sheet tonight let's as far as uh people removed and then added and so I didn't miss anybody correct okay we'll now move along to um highlights by board members and we're going to start with Mr folk um my wife and and I took our granddaughter to see the uh matina of Cinderella at Broadway high school yesterday and our daughters were always involved in musicals and drama and and sporting events and all sorts of things and so we we had a

031good idea of of how things go and what goes into it but I was just it was such a neat reminder to go see it again because you hear so often said that sports are what help children learn how to be team members and productive and be part of an effort High School Musical is the whole Community the whole society you it's the the actors the musicians the people doing the sets it's it involves everybody and it's such an important thing and thank you Mr Fritz for your remarks about the Fine Arts in our schools we have really in Rockingham County tried to promote the Performing Arts and the visual arts and I think we've got a good program in Rockingham and I just I just wanted to highlight that thank you thank you Mr

032Faulk uh Mr Breeden thank you madam chair um as some of you know who attend the meetings regularly I have been highlighting some of the people that over my nearly 24 years of service as I wind this down have had a and and influence on me and have been helpful to me and uh I'd like to continue that tonight with some board members that I've served with and for those who know us well I'll save Mr Faulk for later because that'll take up too much time uh but I wanted to just give a shout out to Dr Carol Grove to Lena Osborne to John Packard to Bob May uh who have who have been not only colleagues but good friends I remember taking a walk with Dr Grove um at the vsba conference uh just

033shortly after I was elected and and really getting a perspective from her on on what it takes to be a board member and and her professional attitude towards that I I I have not forgotten but I also wanted to mention um someone that I've gotten to know have known for years in a professional capacity but gotten to know better as a board member and that's Dr Dr mcquilkin um Dr mcquilkin shows me weekly what Grace and dignity should look like and has become an invaluable friend to me and I I appreciate that and while I'm on that um I was not able to attend the last meeting but I was made aware that some comments were made to Dr mcquilkin about Dr mcquilkin uh that were at best nasty and at worst threatening there were

034those who took it both ways and what's even harder for me to imagine is I'm told there was some Applause when that speaker finished and it's okay to disagree but all of us in our lifetime at one time or another I suspect have had to step back and evaluate where we're going who we are what how we want to be known I believe now is such a time for our community and that goes for irregardless of which political persuasion you have I think that we need to we need to decide how do we how do we want to be seen in Rockingham County and for God's sakes what do we want our kids to hear us say when we're here now I will say that there was what I consider to be a disingenuous uh

035apology sent to all of the board uh but nothing personal to Dr mcquilkin and where I come from that's just unacceptable and I'm going to date myself a little bit because I was listening to Jim cochy anybody remember Jim kochy time in a bottle right uh a poem that he wrote I think is is very appropriate for what I'm trying to say and it it's titled which way are you going and it says which way are you going Which side will you be on will you stand and watch while all the seeds of hate are swn will you stand with those who say let his will be done with one hand on the Bible and one hand on the gun which way are you looking is it hard to see do you say what what's

036wrong for him is not wrong for me you walk the streets righteousness but you refuse to understand you say you love the baby then you crucify the man every day things are changing words once honored turn to lies people wondering can you blame them it's too far to run and too late to hide now you turn your back on all the things that you used to preach now it's let him live in free fre if he lives like me well your light has changed confusion rains what have you become all your Olive branches turn to Spears when your flowers turn to guns all your Olive branches turn to Spears when your flowers turn to guns may we all do better thank you Mr Breen Dr mcquin thank you Miss lur and thank you Dan thank

037you Mr Braden for the kind comments for the sentiments thank you I would like to begin by highlighting everyone who has participated in the survey for the superintendent search here before us this evening a little later in the agenda you will be hearing from Dr Kevin Kastner and Dr Wayne Harris about the results of the search and so I'm saying or actually we haven't finished the results of the search we're just finding a a leadership profile to move forward but it was because you all participated so I would like to thank everyone who participated in the survey who sent emails who spoke to the consultants and those who participated in the comments and the forums at at the high schools thank you very much it takes all of us to work together my second one

038I'll just picky back on on uh Mr Faulk and say uh the musicals were wonderful the art shows that were available during the musicals were great and we just thank everyone uh and we I Echo Mr folk we have a wonderful fine arts program and we want to continue and and move forward with it thank you Dr mooken Dr olifer would you like to go next um so I'm here in place of Dr Shel this evening he had another engagement he couldn't be here um so we've also talk already talked about the the musicals um the thing that I am very thankful for obviously for the all the uh students and the staff who were working with those musicals um I was thankful that the weather was good for them right so unlike uh many

039sports teams right you have a season that may last two or three months at a time for our musicals they last four days typically right so if you have sickness or if you have bad weather WEA that can really um be a problem for those musicals so uh the unseasonably warm weather was well timed so I'm was happy for them that that that was able to to take place um the other thing I would just uh congratulate um both our some of our sports teams that are going to be moving on to uh State at Regional and state competitions but also um our individual athletes um who are doing that so sometimes again teams will get a lot of recognition but we have um some individual uh the individuals who will be participating in um

040various competitions as well over the next several weeks so we want to wish all of them good luck thank you thank you Dr Oliver I'd just like to Echo a little bit of what my colleagues have said um it it's been a fun week it's been busy been a lot going on uh for me it was um National FFA week and board members you have an invitation it and it does the weather has been great it feels feels like April and April will be here before you know it but we have an invitation to the Rockingham FFA Heritage local dinner to support um Rockingham County Rockingham County Public School students in um FFA events moving forward um so take a look at that but um FFA week brought trips to jump parks and breakfasts and

041I'd like to thank um eastrock for inviting us and uh had some wonderful bacon and sausage at eastrock uh last week um and then of course we had musicals uh and if you didn't get to a musical I highly highly highly recommend hitting a Middle School Musical and then part of what I super love about musical is you can see them at middle school and then you come back next year and you see them maybe again at m at middle school and then you come back next the next year and then you see them at high school and you can watch them grow and that's H that happens with sports and lots of things in our school system it's so awesome to watch these kids grow and and improve their skills and just become amazing

042young adults and actually there were two young ladies in two different musicals that I've known since they were little and they were leads this year so it was so exciting to see that and that I firmly believe that whether it's sports or musical or FFA or um Debate Club whatever it takes to get the kid excited in coming to school I am a huge supporter of that uh kids need they need something to to be afraid that they're going to lose they need something to be passionate about and any any of our events that that do that I am super proud of and super happy to support and I just want to thank every everyone who helps support the kids in that in those Endeavors as well and but what I really like about musical

043at the end of the day they're all winners so U Sports are fun and FFA well it does some stuff you you FFA is not a spectator sport if you will but um musical you get to see the kids grow and they're all winners at the end so uh I I have to start uh working on my upper body strength because all the Clapping I do during musical season where's my arm out so please if you get a chance uh get out there and see some kids participating in school events it will make your day um and I think that pretty much concludes my raw raw session on Rockingham County Public Schools thank you to everyone who helps support our kids we'll now move along to um the minutes uh board members you have received

044the minutes do I have a motion to accept the minutes A Move that we accept the minutes as presented thank you Mr folk do I have a second second thank you Dr mcquilkin are there any additions or Corrections or discussions about the minutes hearing none we'll vote all those in favor of approving the minutes as presented say I I I all oppose same sign motion carries minutes are approved um next item on the agenda are field trips Dr aldeer so we have six field trips um up for your approval um one is the first one is from mon Avidia Middle School the FCCLA group will be going to Virginia Beach um on April 13th through 16th that's eight students uh we also have from Broadway High School uh the DECA students will be going to

045Orlando Florida there's 20 of them uh going from April 21st to the 26th mass and Technical Center the diesel technology class has two students uh going to Exton Pennsylvania on April 28th and 29th from Wilbur Pence uh we have 12 students going to the Virginia Beach Convention Center on April 13th through 16th for FCCLA from ta turn rashby High School the agriculture department has 24 students that will be going to Smith Island uh in Maryland on April 21st to the 23rd and from East Rockingham High School uh we have 30 students from a science class going to point Isabel Island and Tangier Island on March 21st through the 23rd I recommend all of those field trips for your approval thank you Dr aler those sound like some really great educational trips do I hear do

046I have a motion I move to accept Dr alderfer's recommendation thank you Mr Breeden do I have a second second thank you Mr Fulk is there any discussion regarding field trips hearing none we'll vote to uh approve the field trips as presented all those in favor please say I I all those opposed same sign motion carries the field trips are approved next item on the agenda is a bid recommendation and uh Mr Steve Reed chair L Dr aifer members of the board um the bid for installation of an ada8 compliant access ramp at the front entry at jrank Hillary Middle School was properly specified and advertised uh five firms were sent bid packages and we had two respond with sealed bids as follows our recommendation is to W the contract the low better harrisberg Construction

047in the amount of $174,200 I recommend that we award the contract for the new Ada uh uh compliant access ramp at the front entrance to J Frank Hillard Middle School to the low bidder as presented by Steve Reed director of Maintenance thank you thank you Dr oler um do I hear a board member motion I move that we follow the assistant superintendent's recommendation regarding the bid the ramp at Hill at Hillard Mill school thank you Dr mcquilkin do we have a second second thank you Mr Faulk is there any discussion is there currently a ramp there not at the not at the main not the front door right that's what I was thinking okay correct thank you any further discussion hearing none we'll vote on the recommendation to um award the bid for the new

048ADA Compliant access ramp at J Frank Hillard all those in favor please say I I all those opposed same sign motion carries thank you that concludes our action items portion of the agenda we'll now move on to our information item uh and we'll begin with the superintendent search uh Community engagement update Dr Uh Kevin casner and Dr Wayne Harris good evening board members we're happy to be back before you I want to congratulate you that as we've undergone the community engagement process and the fact that you were well aware that that's how we do our work in doing a superintendent search you allowed us to be guests in your community and to hear from Members throughout your community and we are reporting on what we heard the trust that you have for letting us to

049come in to share information to you this evening that will be public record on the completion of our report you as board members for the very first time are looking at this no one's seen this before we have done our very best to put the information we heard we're not putting in anything in our judgment we're trying to be um as accurate as we can to reflect your community to make sure we have a datadriven leadership profile and we're going to go through this process uh and before I I get into it I I really would like to thank Caitlyn yinson uh she has been so invaluable this is probably been the uh best organized search that we've gone through and all the uh opportunities that we've had to be very efficient uh her effort

050even in copying all these documents in front of you uh it's just just very much appreciated and she's always done it with a smile and it's taken some time uh and she's got a lot of other things going on in her day too so Caitlyn thank you very much um I like f the oops so the first slide here what we're talking about the objectives of the search you can see that the whole search process and what we're trying to do is to try to get information that's going to help us uh figure out more about your community and hear about strengths and weaknesses and frankly in our situation we've done this before for you so in 217 we certainly had an understanding of your community and the community is different the world's changed uh

051lot of other things going on and I I think that while there are so many similarities that continue to be part of your community there's also certain uniquenesses that are going to come out when we present this report and Truth is as regard to participation we have far more participation this time we've had in the past we we've uh you know when we did the survey last time we had 753 people this time we're at 1900 we met with about 220 people this time we met with over 300 so the interest was there um the responses again the process works so we know as we go through that when you look at the types we did the community engagement we engage the same groups of people that we've had in the past um we talk

052about 265 people that we met with in over 42 meeting sessions in forums and the fact that I've received more emails than I've seen a long time over 45 emails and those those weren't short emails they were people that looked at the survey and we've offered the opportunity for them to respond to it to go deeper than they can on just checking something off so I'd like to just tell the board members what you have in front of you what you have in front of you is a report and the report itself um we would recommend you make public record uh this report has some important things and I say this for the people listening and for the audience we attempted to very Faithfully try to record the information that we heard during the types

053when we met with the groups um it's reflected in the last portion of the report it's probably about 10 or 12 pages uh we uh do not take shorthand so we can't tell you that it's perfect um and whenever we heard something more than once we tried to make sure we recorded it sometimes we had some information that was more outlying information and it didn't reach that same threshold so in this report uh while you're going to see that we have organized what's in the appendices into different categories that it represented as we've done in the past and you'll see how we've tried to pull out things and when we pull things out and we put them into the categories there because we heard things multiple times and so even uh as we appreciated the

054information from all of the emails we found that the emails to be very consistent with what we heard in the public so you have this information in addition you have surveys not only for the uh 1900 people but we chose also to disaggregate what our students said and we had over 455 students which we've actually think that this might be an interesting assignment for staff to come talk to the kids and see what some of the things they said and there's a couple places where what the students have written is a little different than what the adults have said you might want to look into that and I'm going to highlight that because it it's a teachable moment and maybe more that we can learn uh how to better serve our students when we do

055that you also have a copy in front of you of the actual PowerPoint um and this is what I intend to go into right now now this PowerPoint is in a different format that you've seen before uh the person that work works on it came up with the fact that we can actually show this information instead of just highlighting top areas we can show the whole context of each question and when we're starting out when you're looking at the PowerPoint and you can look at it here and again some people if they have trouble reading that again it's going to end up being on your website uh everybody lived in Rockingham I mean we're talking about over 90% you can see that in regard to staff only 33% of the report is staff I find

056that significant because the majority of the report 2third are all for people that have children in the schools or they're members of your community uh if anyone would suggest this is all of a sudden staff weighted no it's not it's weighted by the members of your community the same so when we did the meetings with all our different groups that too had a balance of being internal and external and then each group obviously had certain areas that they might want to go into but we did get pretty much of a balance in that so when you look at this and you can see the participation this is what you wanted you wanted to have the Outreach the forums could be attended by anybody and people did take advantage of that now when we actually get

057into the report itself and you start looking at getting into what are the three highest areas you also can see there are other areas on here that people had some thoughts about but when you talk about dealing with uh 1900 people and so if all of a sudden anything that reaches a threshold of almost a thousand people saying this is important then you're you're getting some Trend data uh one of the things I found out uh when we did this report we ran it first when there were 500 people that put the data in for this report when we now go up to about 2,000 the percentages didn't change but one or two per. so the trend data when you end up getting at least 500 stays re relatively the same so if we went

058under 5,000 we're still going to have the same balance here and and I I just I'm I'm not a mathematician but I am telling you it gives us confidence here so when you look at this and you notice here we're still excellent teachers and staff now I did take the time to look at your previous report so I do see a consistency in in a lot of the top areas here um supportive Community um educational options and programs when you see this information up here and you see the balance of it you'll see how this is going to match the Quant the qualitative data when we hear what people's comments were so they'll they'll talk about these same different categories so you stand out and you look at this and and you can see that

059um there's a pattern and the pattern on this is relatively the same I would tell you though it was interesting that some of our students had a little different reaction I was a little disappointed and I don't know the answer to this that while we had 52% of the people that took the survey thought about excellent teachers the students had that down at 38% I haven't seen that before I don't know what that means but that's a type of conversation I think you'd want to have when you talk to some of your students um don't know the answer on that because everybody has their freedom of choice to put what they put in uh you're going to also notice that students were a little bit higher on technology if the general public had 20% the

060students had 26% but I like this other item and I think it is indicative of your programming that if the General Public put programming down as a strength of 21% the students put 33% so the students recognize that they do have different choices now again if you look and compare you can go in this in Greater detail uh and I think there's just something to be said here we go to this next slide when you're getting into talking about uh concerns uh I found it interesting that last time time when we talked about concerns we were talking about funding we didn't hear concerns about funding what we did here and we're going to elaborate on it is a lot of support that we've had from your supervisors that are supporting public education here and people

061have been complimentary of that so I would think whatever and again times are different but the fact is that uh you have that type of support thought that was pretty pretty significant um but here's something that we need to learn from I haven't had this come out before but one of the types of areas that are most important issues have to deal with student mental health there's a story here the general population in regard to a concern had 51% for student Mental Health so folks I'm not just talking to you about superintendent search I'm talking to you about our former superintendent's hat but the students had 69% for students mental health now we know coming out of covid there's a fragileness that we have but not just with students we also have it with some

062of our staff paying attention to this issue in your budget or other things is something that might glean from this report the other area that we haven't seen as much was the issue on uh student climate and culture we had a pretty significant number before but that's higher than it was before uh the third category was Personnel um we think the Personnel issue might had to do with the fact that there's been a tough time finding drivers substitute teachers and and some of the areas that we're just not having a staffing and we're going to going to go into that a little bit more so the one thing this is different than the last time we were here and I think there's some information that you might use to follow up on in regard to

063that the rest of the information we're getting into that that does have a lot of similarities is getting back into now my problem here is when I look up I cannot read it myself but you can see where communication skills are out there when you look at the uh communication skills that you have in this report they are most significant and uh 70% people are looking for excellent communication now this is one that the students they're at 72% so there's great agreement there now interpersonal skills show up at 31% but for the students it was only 177% I don't know what that means exactly but or organizational skills the general report had 18 but students had 31% so they know that being organized thoughtful part of strategic planning Community engagement as being important both were

06442% so the idea of someone being engaged in your community so you're going to look at that Trend data too when you compare that so we go to the next slide and now we're talking about some of the responses um and I would say this comparison between this survey and your last survey is not completely Apples to Apples the staff chose to put in a few different categories and one of the categories that I do like um while you had commitment to community and it was very high last time in this place we put in the category commitment to students that shows up at over two 67% the students have it at 69% so the whole issue what this is all about and what your new leader needs to continue is this commitment to students

065a good judgment was very similar um approachable was very similar 38% 41% a lot of that's pretty consistent that you're looking for this slide is is pretty busy and let me translate it for you in this slide what we're looking for is what people are looking that could be um something that is preferred or something they think is very very important when you combine it the things we're looking for are the highest categories and we look at the highest categories in doing this um not surprisingly we're looking looking for strategic planning expertise in strategic planning the other category that's the highest is instruction you're looking for someone that an classroom teacher was right up there around 90% And then you had strategic planning and so it was also interesting that there was a question there

066that talked about someone with experience in a Multicultural Community the students put that higher than the general population by 5 or 6% so your community as it becomes more diverse it's being recognized and you're seeing that that that is happening not only here but a lot of other places so as you're having your growth you know that your growth is is not uh occurring necessarily with exactly the same group that we might have had in your student population in 2017 you're more aware of that Trend data than I would be so when you look at that um I thought that category if you look at it closely you'll be able to look at it when you look at the information um at this point what I'd like to do in getting into the qu uh

067qualitative information is Dr Harris would like to go into how we generated the comments that we had based upon the appendices of the information we received from all the different meetings that we had when Madam chair members of the board Dr aler it's good to be back before you and there's good news uh as you are aware we spent two days uh on the 7th uh and the 9th of February provid providing an opportunity for anyone who wanted to come and share with us responses to three questions the information that Dr cashner just shared with you through the survey that could be completed online included essentially the same three questions that we posed to everyone we met with in those two days uh we each had 11 different meetings each day beginning at 9:00 wrapping

068up with a forum we met the Forum at each of the four high schools we had a group of students come at each of those four farms uh I will tell you I'm impressed we're always impressed because the students share honestly with us and they share from their own relevant experience at the moment what I will be sharing sharing with you is qualitative data that we collected from what people shared with us we read back to each person Andor group what they said to us because we wanted to capture what they said to us that then becomes a part of the report that helps us then draft the leadership profile we asked three basic questions the first question what are the strengths of Rockingham County Public Schools the second question what are the challenges you

069currently face and what are the challenges your next superintendent will face and third the essence of what we really want to know what are the qualities characteristics experience Knowledge and Skills the next superintendent will need to possess and be able to demonstrate in order to be successful and we walk through those questions we asked for clarification where we needed and then we read back to each group what they said to us and that's captured in the report as I go through their responses for strengths and also for their concerns and issues I refer you in the report to Pages five six 7 8 and nine for the specific comments that we then captured highlight in these three slides so you have the complete information that we recorded in each session listed on those pages and

070then in the appendices you have all of the comments that we recorded in each of the 42 meetings over those those two days in terms of strengths excellent quality teachers principles and staff you saw that in the qual in the quantitative data supportive Community you saw that in the other report support from supervisors well funded these are the kinds of things we heard repeatedly not just once twice three times but throughout the two days of listening to what people had to say it's a great Community sense of community here we feel it's it's a community where we we support what's going on higher education support references to the higher education uh to the colleges and universities that are here and strong Partnerships throughout the community great diverse group of students educational options and programs again

071you heard the students highlighted that but that was also highlighted in the quantitative data strong technology CTE egg and arts program you heard that tonight you've heard it from the board level you heard it from the audience conservative Community with strong Christian values Forward Thinking and Innovative instructional practices and excellent SRO support it it pleases us that we recognize the importance of tooting our own horn we we're not bragging we're simply saying this is who we are this is what makes us smile because what we know is if you fail to toot your own horn it doesn't get tooted and so we were pleased to hear these things about what a great place it is and what's happening for students when it comes to concerns that was the second question that we ask so we

072listed the more prominent things that we heard repeatedly over and over again that would be challenges concerns or issues crowding because of growth that there's there's growth in certain parts of the C County and that it's causing overcrowding we heard students speak to that addressing the increasing student diversity and meeting the needs of students specifically meeting the needs of this increasing uh El population that you have but also we heard that we're really not meeting the needs of special education students and other students who are having difficulty in the regular school environment we're not talking about discipline problems in this case we're just saying that all students don't fit and so we are not meeting the needs of many of our students student mental health issues you've heard that repeatedly but it's more than mental

073health it's social emotional issues as well attracting and retaining staff for a number of reasons um competitive sours is one of them and improving the diversity of our staff we heard that from students as well there are three comments here that we've captured because we heard multiple concerns and issues expressed about contentiousness on the school board that's causing a backlash among and between board members personal and political agendas of board members that interferes with being able to focus on what's best for students concerns expressed about the potential turnover and change of the board and what will the board makeup look like and what impact will that have on prospective candidates who look to say the board that hires me may not be the board that I end up working for but we we heard that

074repeatedly and then last there's a public perception that the board's public demeanor doesn't reflect a true focus on what's best for students when it came to the third question what are the qualities characteristics experiences knowledge that the next superintendent will need to possess and demonstrate we use that information not only from what we heard but from from the uh survey to draft for you a leadership profile and we found that when we looked at all of those prominent responses that we heard what do you want us to look for it fit into four different categories and those categories are a Visionary instructional leader an effective Communicator a collaborative manager and personal qualities and so the overview gives you the broad definition of what it is this community wants us to look for in candidates from

075which you will choose your next superintendent I remind you in the public Kevin and I don't make any decisions we make recommendations so our recommendation to you is this draft leadership profile and the essence of the profile say is the Rockingham County Board seeks an outstanding instructional leader who has successfully demonstrated a record of Excellence you're seeking an outstanding Visionary and instructional leader who can Cally meaning work with others lead a forward looking school system with a history of success will have a positive record of improved student academic achievement and experience working in a similar type Community we heard understand who we are support who we are and finally we'll be student focused visible throughout the schools and the community and who can demonstrate a combination of the following qualities and folks I'm not going

076to read all of these to you I'm going to put them up here and therefore four scriptors for what is meant by Visionary instructional leader let me highlight have a clear and understandable Vision will Implement initiatives that promote the success and well-being of each and every student committed to work with the staff and the community in an open way who will meet the needs of a broad spectrum of students including providing Behavior behavioral and academic support to struggling students as well as to advocate for advanced classes to challenge students and support expanded Career and Technical we heard not just career career not just college career Readiness ready to go to work and finally a strong instructional background and experience guiding technology initiatives and Pro programs which provide multiple opportunities for all students that's the one

077piece of this for pronged leadership profile effective Communicator bottom line that they're going to listen be active listener they're going to be transparent they're going to build trust and support they're going to be visible and approachable who will be committed to work with all segments me meaning everything from the school board to the Board of Supervisors parents students and the community someone who is a collaborator who will bring all segments of a diverse Community together and finally confidence another way to say that is courage to be a decision maker who will listen to different points of view before making a final decision third category leader with strategic planning we saw that in the other in the survey data someone who can make the best use of all available resources to address the growth of an

078increasing diverse Community an effective manager who will utilize operational expertise to assure the systems fysal and human resources are signed in the best way collaborator someone who will be a collaborative leader who can move the district forward and navigate change by building and sustaining positive relationships again with Board of Supervisors the school board Etc and finally a leader who can create and Implement a plan which includes the necessary fiscal and Human Resources designed to increase staff diversity at all levels and establish programs and Facilities that benefit all students do you notice this continuing theme of what's best for students we saw that in all the data it's about what's best for students and also what's supportive of staff and finally personal qualities inclusive with unquestionable Integrity who is known for building a culture of respect

079act and in this day and age that's critical transparent affirming leader who is politically astute with the courage to address issues necessary there's that phrase again for the benefit of students energetic genuine compassionate who will Advocate and support teachers and staff collaborate with the board staff parents Community to benefit students student folks Fus leader who is ethical dedicated thick skinned we heard that from the kids and who is visible in the extended Community these are the four categories again the specific comments that led to these statements in each category are on those pages in the total report so you can see how we came up with this this is the draft profile that we would ask you to approve in order that we can post it with the vacancy announcement I remind you that the

080application process is open until the 30th of March so we really have 31 more days starting tomorrow for applicants to apply this is simply what the the calendar looks like if you will uh we're giving you this report tonight that completes the specifications Pro Part once you approve the leadership profile um application process continues through the end of March during that time as applicants are coming in we will be screening those applicants making decisions on which group of applicants are meeting and matching the profile that are good match and fit Kevin and I will be then contacting some of those folks screening vetting trying to make decisions who's going to rise to the top with a goal of coming back to you sometimes in by the middle of April where we would present the four

081to six top candidates from the total pool who match the profile fit match and fit we would present those candidates to you in Clos session obviously you'll get to see the entire list and we would be recommending we will be presenting not promoting the candidates we'll present to you based on our assessment of who is a good fit and match you will make a decision who you interview you will make a decision from what we present to you and the list who you bring in to interview who becomes the top two candidates you then decide from those top two who is your uh selection work out the contract and the goal is that you would have made those decisions before we get too far to the end of May with the person reporting by July

0821 I'd like to make an additional comment candidates are going to be watching your board meeting to get here they already have as you take this report and you look at it and you talk about moving forward as a board in which you're looking to find someone to be your next leader it can't happen on a split vote and the type of relationship that you'll have is a two-way street between your candidate and your school board and as you're talking among yourselves how you best want to move forward there are times when a school board can listen to report like this and make comments as they're going into this process that are going to say this is what we want to try to do and one of the things that I've seen more often than

083not in fact almost every time a superintendent search process does bring a school board together and I'm hoping that you can take advantage of that here too I know there might be a new board but the to the bottom line there's one thing that's consistent I don't care what board it is it's got to get back to the kids and they're too precious not to get into the type of thing that will lead to that type of best decisions your school system has a good reputation you've earned it and I suspect you're going to continue to earn it so I don't want to aize anything I do want to State the reality as you're going through some of the transitions which are happening now not just here you can look across Virginia across the country

084but I I'm an optimist here I think everything's going to Trump when you get into doing what you need to do for the best interest of students so I hope that you can take advantage of how you might feel as a board and in the public way to decide as you're going to go through this process how you're trying to come together and and we have had issues in the past where boards haven't always worked as well as they might like but then they get to the point of saying listen this is what we're trying to do because it's in the best interest of kids that we try to attract the strongest possible candidate pool and uh I I'm saying that in a very optimistic way and I I still go back to John Dewey

085way back maybe 1890 with the best and brightest parent might want for their child so must we want for all all of our children all of our children you come back to that and I think you're on Pretty Good Grounds so I want to thank you for the opportunity of allowing us to present this report I would encourage you and I know you've already told me you intend to make this public record on your website and I suspect there some people think that if we didn't get something right then they need to say that uh but we did our very best and uh the next time we'll be before you is when we will be presenting candidates which I suspect will probably be towards the beginning of the second week uh in April uh not

086knowing where your spring break is so we'll see how that will work out do board members have any questions for uh Dr Harris and myself yes thank you very much for your report and I think our spring break are there students in the room I think our spring break's like into two weeks so we're good yeah right because we all need it right so April we are we're ready to work thank you we'll see you in April we thank you very much very much just as a matter of clarification Madam chair do we need to approve the uh the profile tonight it it doesn't need to be approved tonight but as as soon as possible in order that we can post it I had a phone call today from a perspective candidate and the first

087question was when will I see the profile I don't see it with the announcement and I explained we were sending tonight and probably within the next several days it would be available so okay we want do we want to vote on the board or do we want to just have conversations with the the uh chairman of the committee the search committee and make any changes I I my thought would be and in practice with previous searches would be that the the community would hear that we had approved um the the profile as it was presented and I would be prepared I realize we're in information items but uh if it would please the chair I would move that we accept the draft uh profile that's been presented tonight okay I have a motion that's been

088made to accept the uh draft profile do I have a second oh second thank you Dr mcelin is there any further discussion hearing none we'll vote all those in favor of accepting the profile as presented tonight please say I I I all opposed same thank you thank you so thank you gentlemen good night okay oh um moving on uh we'll move on to the uh Rockne County uh Public Schools Community dialogue update uh Dr Katherine Barn is to present good evening and so good to see you all again when we were last um here it was in October and we had um and maybe just sort of back up a minute we had been over the course of a year have been exploring some questions around how best to create a safe and caring environment

089for all Rocky County public school students in ways that are consistent with the law while also considering the diverse values and perspectives of Rockingham community so during this time we have um had a number of stages as you know and when we were last here was in October 22 when we had had the culmination of our core dialogue group process and we were here to present you with the outcomes of that discussion and had me many members of the core dialogue group um present and participating and tonight I'm really pleased to say that we have many people who are here tonight who have been a part of the stage that we've done since then which is a series of large group thematic dialogues and that is what we are going to be presenting on tonight

090updating you and also um sharing a report of the outcome of those discussions with you which is in your board packet and will be um posted uh now on the Rocky County um Public Schools Community dialogue initiative website um we are also going to be launching the public Community dialogue which will be happening on March 23rd 2023 and we'll be doing both of those this evening but first wanting to just really give so much acknowledgement and appreciation to all of the people who've been participating in this um I it was quite amazing there are a number of us who were back here and listening in to the outcomes of the superintendent search um uh engagement process and feeling like yes yes yes the things that we have been discovering through this community dialogue are also

091echoed there and so I hope that some of the things that we will be talking about tonight will really kind of round out and give some of that kind of qualitative depth of ideas that Community is coming up with um these also are complimentary to the sco board presentation last time time of the Rockingham County high schoolers the 11th graders and their wonderful insights and their ideas have also been putting into this process and they will also be present at the community Dialogue on March 23rd so we're really in this place of it all coming together now so the report that you have um really seeking to summarize and weaving together the ideas that that um have been a part of the process and you can see some photos that share with you sort of

092some of the quality of what the process looked like um and you can imagine there were some 80 plus people who've participated with many many different views and perspectives and life's experiences but as you can see even from and this is this is indicative the fa is there you can see people are really engaging with each other and some of the things that people really highlighted in their feedbacks later on is how much they appreciated this opportunity both to recognize what we have in common while also respecting the differences that creating a space and positive place to consider each other's perspectives um that we have people from all different backgrounds political ideologies and experiences coming together to share their thoughts in a respectful Manner and really about improving the well-being of our children once again

093what is there for the students and so this report is really trying to kind of come up with some of the ideas summarizing them must say that all the participants who were there do not necessarily agree with all the points of view that are expressed um we are really trying to express a range of views and ideas but also they came up with a lot of really practical ideas um and we're calling them ideas to spark action which we hope that you and the board that other staff and leaders throughout the system can also look to as we move forward in addressing them so one of the things that started um we started the the the November 15th large dialogue group session with was questions around what is the core purpose of public education because

094this is one of the things that we realized in the core dialogue group process that there were Divergent views on this one of the things that became interesting is that although people had different emphasis there was a lot of um agreement around an emerging understanding that we can summarize as the purpose of public schools is growing well-educated skillful purposeful people who are able to work with others and act as full citizens in the lives of their communities and in the changing Global World so in this sense it's both both a traditional understanding of schools providing robust academic education as well as Career and Technical and to nurturing the development of students purpose social skills and ability to be curious and kind citizens that was one of the phrases that was used so both attention to

095the curriculum and to schools that encourage critical thinking creativity and connection furthermore there was really widespread agreement that students learn best if they feel they are safe and that they are in a caring environment where their needs are taken seriously because they're talking about the whole being of the student so then came a question about what were some of the strengths and challenges that Rockham County public schools are facing and fulfilling this purpose and once again I think you'll hear some of the echoes with the superintendent search findings people were really strong in expressing The View that Rockingham County itself is a tremendous asset it's a beautiful and safe space where community and service are core values stemming from a long tradition of looking after our neighbors in times of need the priority of care

096and service extends to looking out for all children and translates into community support for schools they specifically saw that the greatest strengths of the school system as the quality experience dedication and kindness of teachers staff and administrators many of whom have served a long time and have deep roots in the county once again what we heard before however people were very concerned that these strengths are being eroded by political divisions and polarization that are spreading fear eroding trust and respect in the ability to seek Common Ground they were concerned that this is specifically harming School Personnel who may feel increasingly scared attacked disrespect and stifled the trust Gap and Community suspicion has felt to be constraining what teachers and other school Personnel feel that they can do especially to help students who are struggling with

097non-academic issues participants worried that the pressure is increasingly unsustainable and risks undermining what participants considered to be the greatest resource the quality of teachers so were there three main areas of suggestions to address this and once again the report goes into details in general increasing the transparency and Community Education about school policies processes and programs addressing the contentious Dynamics at Schoolboard meetings including considering alternative formats for public comment that enable discussion and dialogue and some said using communication agreements like the kind that we've been using in our dialogue processes also increasing and this was a consistent theme increasing opportunities for families to get back into schools and strengthen relationships and this can be through fun activities through volunteering and also school-based dialogues for addressing challenging issues that specific School communities may be facing another aspect

098that was addressed um is a recognition about the diversifying population um and really seeing that first off this is a tremendous asset and strength for Rockingham County Public Schools learn learning in a more diverse Community helps everyone to be better prepared and able to thrive in a diverse world and yet there is also recognition that can present challenges for those who are newer to the county those who come from demographically and culturally different backgrounds and especially those from historically marginalized groups can face barriers to inclusion in the community and to schools and so Rockingham County Public Schools needs to be better able to ensure its respond in to these diverse needs through its teaching Personnel curriculum and support services especially in our meeting in January there is a lot of focus on the role of

099riam County public schools in the personal lives of its students and there was a focus really that came very strongly to the for about how to address the basic human needs of children so they can Thrive both as Learners and in their lives in widespread agreement that students should have access to the safety nets that they need schools can be a vital part of an overall system of safety nets to ensure that every child is protected and cared for and yet also recognition it's not the only source and this is where the phrase no individual can solve the problems that we Face however the community as a whole as everything it needs to address these challenges so participants felt that there should be some focus on collaborating for how to get these safety nets in

100place and that these nets need to be pragmatic attuned to the specific needs of specific child and their families rather than ideologically driven there is recognition that in some cases families are under severe stress which makes it hard for them to support their children's needs however unmet needs in the family system whether they're economic mental health behavioral will affect the mental and behavioral well-being of students so the challenge is both to provide a sanctuary for students during school time and to connect families with the resources and supports that may best support them as the core di group had previously discovered Public Schools can be the heart of the public so participants develop many ideas about how schools can become a place where par families as a whole can learn about the supports available to them

101there is a sense of a need to continually uh okay I'm going to move into the next part because there's also within this a focus on supporting the behavioral and mental health needs of students which once again we saw in the last one is a really Rising challenge and there was recognition that this is an escalating Challenge and participants widely affirm the value of rcps both playing a role in meeting these needs and applauded rcps tiered system of support that's aimed at meeting them at every level and advocated for um both more resources available for this and also more awareness of the system so as to better connect students and families with those supports most participants believe that student that families have primary responsibility R cps's role is to support and align to meet students

102needs in a way that can support strong healthy relationships between students and caregivers recognizing that families are the most critical relationship in their child's life at the same time support strategies must adapt to situations at home given that each family is unique in all they recommended a collaborative approach developing responses should be involve many key people in Services the approach however needs to begin with the Assumption of Good Intentions and that everybody has the well-being of the child as a priority each per person should be treated with dignity and respect as a part of this process of developing collaborative strategies and in the wake of covid there is recognition that teachers have found themselves responding to these increasingly complex and challenging needs and these behavioral and mental health needs have been especially taxing there is

103widespread agreement therefore in the need for more specialists in schools to help meet these needs and to as one put it free teachers with other professionals this could help with retention and reduce turnover particularly since teachers stress is causing long-term teachers to leave the profession or retire furthermore teachers do not necessarily have the capacity or skill set to manage some of these issues and need to be able to hand off to specialists in the schools who have the training and capacity one of the focus points was around navigating the boundary between students and their families and a particular challenge is how how should School Personnel respond when students behaviors and Views and might not be well understood or accepted by their parents or Guardians and the students request privacy this can apply in many different

104kinds of situations ranging from a student's career aspirations or friendship group to an unwanted pregnancy or changed gender identity School Personnel can find themselves in a really difficult position and their course of action is not always clear and straightforward so we had recognize that school's response to students gender identity has been controversial in these school board meetings but dialogue participants sought to identify general principles that can apply across the many different type of situations that schools May Personnel may find themselves in order to guide the role of schools even as they as participants in this process continued to hold different views first they advocated that rockim County Public Schools needs to address situations on a Case by case basis um it's the needs of the individual child not ideology that come to the Forefront they

105pointed to a very important yet fine line between supporting students who want um um or who are living their who want to have their autonomy in affirming their decisions while support is part of an overall Duty care and concern for students health and well-being affirming can sometimes imply um endorsement of the behavior as students get older and mature their privacy and autonomy can be increasingly recognized in age appropriate ways the way you respond to a sixth grader is going to be different than to a senior in high school in general there was advocacy of a yes and approach that families must be engaged and protection measures must be in place for students if their safety is at risk there is agreement that safety of students is the Paramount value yet how best to ensure safety

106can sometimes be more challenging most agreed that schools should immediately reach out to parents or to the safest adult in a child's life when a student appears to be at Major risk such as for suicide self harm or intimate partner abuse If the child is not in Urgent danger then immediate communication with parents and Guardians may not be as necessary rcps should aim to help students themselves have the hard conversation with their families with the phrase if safety is present support bravery and in general feeling that rcps can help support students capacity to talk with their parents and Guardians about difficult things generally in that even if needed it can support students and families in those conversations even including facilitating those discussions however more counselors and support staff would be needed to meet that need

107so in conclusion I think all of these points and many more can be found in the report on the rcps community dialogue initiative page along with these specific ideas for how to address it but I think you can see from the report that we were able to have 80 plus people from a wide range of backgrounds and orientations come together in really thoughtful dialogue able to explore extremely challenging and often contentious issues they have done so with with Civility and care I hope you will take from this a sign of Hope for what you already know that this community loves its children and wants the best for them and is willing to work together to meet their needs because it indeed takes a community to raise children so now we're wanting to talk about the

108the culminative phase of this process um at least for now and um where we're going to be inviting really anyone in the public with a strong connection with ram County Public Schools to take part exploring this general question of how best to create a safe and caring environment for all our CPS students and um I'd like to hand over now to KD laera coordinator of community outreach and recruitment he'll talk about the logistics for that well thank you um we're really excited this is going to be the um final um official gathering for our group um which will be open to the public um we just asked that um the participants have a connection to Rockingham County Public Schools and so if you go to our website r cps.com um if you if this is

109um an interest of anybody who's listening um and want to be part of the next process we we' love to have you be part of our conversations thank you thank you all for members do you have any questions I I actually have one Katie will there just be the one uh Community event our final community where will it be located I I think um sorry and maybe can just add into that I think there was always the vision that this could be a model that could be used for others if the if the if if Rockham County Public Schools want it to continue that this model I think one of the things through the large group dialogue process I think we that was our proof of concept it can work and as I think I

110said last time to you if it works for 80 it should work for 150 could work for 350 so this is so this model could be used again in the future so we only have one planned corre and and moving forward we might do additional ones correct gotcha thank you Katie where where will it be held this will be at emu um at the Martin chapel and it as it's listed it's from 5:30 to 8:45 p.m. more questions stick around thank you guys and thank you um if the the community dialogue group Representatives that are here tonight can you guys please stand so we can give you a round of applause for all of your work Renee thank you very much uh definitely I think we had two reports tonight that indicated um that things

111have gotten a little contentious and we want to reel them back in and we want to get back to Civility and we want to get back to respect um and I think we're on the right track so thank you all for all of your work I'm going to now turn it over to Dr aldeer for our um continuous School improvement process members of the board um I believe it's been a while since we've uh shared with uh board members about the process that we use when we're um working through a school Improvement and whether that's uh a school that has been identified as needing Improvement by by the Department of Education um or just generally all of our schools the process that we go through annually to be sure that we're um doing the best

112that we possibly can for students so I want to share um a brief presentation with you about uh that process that that we have in place um um as you can imagine and and likely know there is a Virginia code that um requires that all schools um in every School Division have a continuous School Improvement plan um that is based on a comprehensive needs assessment so each year every school is expected to take a look at what they're doing well what they're uh could improve on and then create a plan that they're going to try to work at enhancing their strengths and also um addressing areas that they may um had difficulty with um this is a model that you'll see um that the uh Department of Education specifically the office of school quality has

113provided to school divisions as a uhel model for how we would work through this um you see there the fundamental questions of what are we trying to accomplish and what changes can result in Improvement and how will we know the change um is an improvement and so um each year there's a comprehensive needs assessment that is done by school divisions or by schools essentially they're going to be taking a look at um various information which I'll share in a in a few minutes um to see kind of what are the strengths and the weaknesses of the school division and then they take that information they will then create a school Improvement plan that will then be reviewed at a later time and then um at the end of the year we take a look at

114data to see if we've accomplished the goals that we had set for each other for ourselves um so in the comprehensive uh needs assessment um there's essentially um four areas that are being reviewed um there is uh in your executive content there are the all of the school Improvement plans that you can take take a look at um if you would um would like to do that to see the specifics of what schools are looking at uh and you'll see in each of those there is U the first several Pages uh do um constitute the U comprehensive needs assessment which basically breaks down the demographics um student outcomes or typically assessment uh and reading uh data uh School processes which are the instructional program um other assessments uh grading those types of things and then

115perception data so uh feedback from students from uh teachers from um community members parents we take all that into account as they're reviewing the comprehensive uh needs assessment um then the the uh comprehensive uh excuse me the continuous School Improvement plan is created by a team of people in the school typically administrators and teachers uh and there'll be two different strands uh in each of the continuous School Improvement plans uh one is um for teaching and learning so this would be an academic uh goal at least one academic goal uh that they'll be focusing on uh and then there's and also a strand on uh School Improvement or excuse me School uh environment and improving the school environment so I have a few examples of some of the goals that you may see in these

116plans uh from cun Elementary School it says all students will show at least one year's growth in their reading ability as measured by letters past Pals and aadience other reading assessments will be used as need needed so that would be from um their uh continuous School Improvement plan John C Meers U wrote by the end of the 2022 23 school year students in grades 3 through five will show Improvement in the number sense through basic fact fluency as measured by inal and formal assessments and an example from Spotswood High School throughout the 22 and 23 uh school year Spotswood High School uh will utilize the Blazer success program in additional shs programs to assist tier two and tier three students with a focus on academic growth in School attendance for school improvements some example goals

117from Riverbend uh during the 2223 school year Riverbend will Implement conscious discipline uh through a monthly School L professional development opportunities developed and led by conscious the conscious discipline committee monid Middle School uh wrote building capacity in our new interdisciplinary teams in uh grade six and seven and from Turner Ashby High School um analysis of student data will show a decrease in the number of overall student tardies to school and the number of students accumulating 20 or more tardies to school so again those are just some examples and again you have access to all of the um continuous School Improvement plans so this is coming back to this um particular um diagram so how is this then uh the study and the act those pieces of this so throughout the year there is um the

118school leadership teams will review this data um I meet with each of the principles multiple times throughout the year and we review where the what the data looks like whether they're um making strides toward meeting their goals um and then at the end of the year we have again through whether it be tests or other data that they're collecting uh that information is provided uh in their continuous School Improvement plan uh and that is reviewed by me and other central office um staff and then we will be giving feedback to um teachers or to principes um at the end of the year related to uh whether they met or their goals that they had set for themselves so that's for all School Division all schools in our division uh we also have a school improvement

119process so there are times whenever we have schools that based on the standards of learning have not met certain criteria and are in need of improvement um and those are broken down by um School quality indicators um so every school there's a a degree in which they're need to meet for academic achievement uh in English math and science so this is the overall scores that uh the entire student body has um received on those um three assessments and then there's also a breakdown by in English and math by certain um groups which I'll be sharing with you uh in in just a minute and then there's also The Chronic absenteeism for students who are missing uh 10% or more days so there's a percentage of those students that is um being being calculated um as

120I mentioned about the achievement gaps um in English and in math um these groups are the uh groups that are identified individually and we see how students are scoring in those individual uh groups so um if there's students are struggling in some of those groups then we uh pay potential uh particular attention to those um students in those groups um to be sure that they're meeting um the levels of achievement that we would expect um we have eight schools that um were designated as in need of improvement uh you can see there from the list that science was an issue uh this was not unique to Rockingham County um the science uh assessments particularly at elementary school had changed recently um so catching up and getting adjusted to those has been a challenge for us

121as well as other um elementary schools in the state so um we weren't surprised by that but it is something that we are um working at very diligently to try to um address so you can see there um the list in alphabetical order again seven schools uh that were had issues related to science and then J Frank Hillyard Middle School um had was in need of improvement in English um those schools um needed to perform an academic review um so this is a team of teachers and administrators uh that are utilizing some tools provided to them by the Virginia Department of Education uh to take a deeper dive into their data into the information in their in their schools so two particular uh tools that were required one on instructional leadership um so uh schools

122and again this was administrators and teachers Some central office uh administrators as well uh looked at look assessments teacher goals profession development materials again academic um uh instructional materials that teachers are using to determine if there's any changes or adjustments that should be made in those areas additionally they looked through lesson plans of teachers in the areas that were in need so science for the elementary schools and English at jfrank hilard as well as classroom observations in those subjects uh that were reviewed so those were all put together it's quite a process takes several hours in some cases even broken over uh over a couple of days to to break down that information and then to um put together some essential actions so um lastly this academic review report um so School administrators uh needed

123to complete a a report of this which is provided to us the format is provided by the doe um to essentially summarize the information um there's some essential actions that are put into place that will be taken uh that need to to improve um performance and it's particularly why I waited until now to share the our reports uh the The Continuous School Improvement plans with you because we didn't just do those now right so they're due in O October um but it's wasn't possible we didn't actually get the information about the academic reviews until into November so we had already completed our our school Improvement plans and then we did the academic reviews and then based on that information then adjustments were made to our uh continuous School Improvement plan so those have just now

124been in January uh we we sent those to the to doe but we've been working on this the whole fall so there were just additions that were added to that um the school's continuous School Improvement plan is updated as I mentioned uh and then the copy of the academic review and the updated um CIP um is sent to the vdoe for review and then in April I'll be meeting with each of the principles and a representative from the do e um to review the progress and take a look at um how they are working and how they're the efforts they're putting into to their continuous School Improvement plan so as you can see um in summary we have a plan that we U put into place for all schools uh we've done this for uh

125consistently over the years uh but want to give you a sense of what that looks like for all of our schools and then if uh a school does fall into a need for improvement then we have a another kind of advanced process we go through to to dig in to be sure that we're um helping those schools the best we can so I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have thank you Dr alifer do we have any questions board members I do have just one just for clarification um so the standards are set forth by the doe corre not by our division that's right because I know that the the absenteeism is a little bit tricky because our administrators and teachers don't really have a lot of control over that but um so

126yes I'll say this too about The Chronic absenteeism so this past year um that was not one while it was listed and they gave us um they shared with us what our statistics were in that area no schools were put in or in Improvement for chronic absenteeism even though some of our schools would have but they just didn't count it for this year for last year because of covid and some of those things that now um for this year 2022 23 we are um responsible kind of uh expected to meet those the thresholds for that so there are we've been working on on um absenteeism all year in our schools even though we weren't necessarily in Improvement for that um but it is a a challenge for all of our schools right um absenteeism has

127been has been an issue again that's not unique to Rockingham County Public Schools um that's been an experience for our neighbors as well thank you very much we'll now move on to um the school calendar and I believe Dr shifflet is going to present oh all right there we go it's better thank you chair Lord members of the board Dr alifer uh I'm sharing a draft of the 2324 school calendar for information this evening you will notice the draft calendar has 175 instructional days and 23 days dedicated for teacher work days parent conferences professional development and collaboration uh I want to talk with you a little bit about the process as to how we got to this calendar and also just kind of remind ourselves that as we're creating a school calendar of the needs

128of our elementary school students very from the needs of our middle school and high school students so uh it's a little bit challenging sometimes to take all that in consideration so we started working on the draft in December and basically we just took this school Year's calendar and moved it into the upcoming school year you got to adjust some dates uh 2024's Leap Year by the way so February has an extra day in the calendar and then uh in December we shared this first draft with our principes assistant principles our instructional staff uh during our regularly scheduled meetings in December and said here it is take a look at it let's get some feedback and so we started the process and we began working on it uh we made some revisions based on those conversations

129uh I also then reached out to Harrisonburg city public schools to talk to them about their school calendar trying to align with them as much as we can because we share Mass nut Technical Center so we try to get as close as we can but it's never really perfect then in uh January we did ask uh the principles then to share the draft with their faculty and staff and parent groups uh and and to solicit feedback from those folks so we could you know see what what else we could uncover and so our principls worked on that and then they brought that information back to us again uh late January February meetings now uh in your folders you will also find a different calendar that I shared with you and this that calendar is a

130little simple in some ways but it just says calendar all feedback and what I did is I took the liberty to take everyone's feedback and create a calendar based on what everyone wants and so it's quite interesting if you look at this so if someone says well they didn't listen to us well we just can't listen to everyone this particular calendar if we would if you choose to want to use this one um has 185 designated or encumbered day so our teachers typically have a 200 day contract this would have 10 um 85 encumbered days only 162 instructional days so we would be missing uh 13 days less of instruction uh this year uh but there would be some work days you notice in that uh there's a full week off at Thanksgiving um several

131weeks off at um around the winter holidays and we get out the end of May uh so that that would be a look at a calendar if we just said we'll do what everybody would like us to do right so we we have to take all the different feedback we get from different groups and try to make sense of it and put together a calendar that makes sense for students and their learning what also recognizes teachers and the work that they need to do outside the classroom and it's you may recall last year was probably one of our more significant transitions in the calendar we went from 183 days of instruction three of those were snow days and we moved to 175 days and we repurposed those days for collaboration for teachers and we tried

132to space those out throughout the year so students would have frequent breaks but not these long stretches without a break and so that's kind of how we ended up with the draft that's in front of you uh and again it is a draft and I would like to come back to the board at our next meeting and look to get this calendar approved or approve it with what suggestions you may have any questions wait which one are you coming back with this this one or that one that one sorry the the real one okay yeah yeah yeah not that's up to you if you want to do the other one that's that would be kind of bold well I did notice on on this one that we had you know a Thursday start which is

133what I always ask for and I have to uh admit that I felt some pain that our previous speak our speaker our public comment speaker had as a mother there have been a couple times this year I'm like what what Daffy School Board did that so if we could and I looked at this calendar and I like the new calendar much better because one time I looked at like we gave you the Friday before Super Bowl off that was not smart but now we have Monday after Super Bowl off so and so I wasn't going to point that out but now that you have yes um I think that's and that's in the right direction that actually came from U one of our first meetings with our principles and also some parents had emailed and

134made that suggestion so so we do listen to people right we take feedback and we say okay what can we do to put together a calendar but uh we we're just not at a place where we can listen to to all the suggestions right it's just impossible but I did notice that we have Super Bowl Monday off Easter Monday off uh and even it works out really well um um I I heard from the a folks last year and coming back from National Convention and having to go right back to school was tough well they've moved National Convention so now we come back from National Convention and we have the two days off at at um the election day so I I really commend you guys for working hard that was just coincidental by the

135way I'm just I'm not going to take credit for something I had nothing to do with but but I understand that there's a lot of hard work that goes into this if you could take one look at it and see if we're close on any holidays um you know like if there's if we take off Friday and then Monday is uh President's Day yeah I would appreciate that does any other school board members have any I would just like to comment to thank Dr shifflet in the process they went through I work with the principles and we we ran this through the principal meeting so again the principles went back and got feedback and we we talked a lot about this calendar right and there was a lot of feedback that was provided we reviewed

136that I I don't want there to be any sense that any of this was ever rubber stamped right I mean so we the the calendar that a little tongue and cheek right that that Dr Shi put together saying this is what everything is I just want to be sure that people do understand that we we do listen right and um and try to do the best we possibly can but it's not going to be possible that everybody gets the thing that they want right um but it this has been quite an extensive process I'll just say thank you Larry just thank you so much for all your work on it um I've lost my agenda okay now we'll move on to the budget planning Miss Cheryl mast good evening chairl Dr alord members of the

137board this evening for your review we will look at the House and Senate version of the budget the house budget is very similar to the governor's budget except it has a 7% raise in it instead of the 5% raise that the governor recommended it also has the correction for the budget tool that we talked about last meeting where there was a correction that needed to be made the Senate budget has about5 million more dollars in Revenue if you look at the spreadsheet that I laid out at your seat I'll go over some of these changes this first section that you see there that I titled that miscellaneous Revenue that revenue is the same across all whether it's the governor's house senate and down the left hand side you can see the different categories and we

138are not expecting much change um next year compared to this year you'll see it's only a $40,000 difference this next slide represents our state funding and if you'll just drop down there to the bottom line just to point out there the house has 7.4 million and the state has a increase the Senate excuse me increased budget of 12. six so that's almost a $5 million swing that we're looking at I'll point out a few of the main differences again the house is the orange colored uh area and the Senate version is blue Governor being purple that we looked at last time if you look there at the basic Aid line the second one down the house version is basically what the governor had with the Cal tool corrected so that's what that change is the

139Senate version however has about $3 million more that 3 million represents what is called the support cap cap uh in 2008 2009 during that recession there was a funding change on the amount of Revenue we received for our support personnel there was a cap put on that and that has never come back to State funding the Senate is recommending putting that back and that's about $3 million for Rockingham County so that's part of that's a large portion of our uh $5 million swing if you'll drop down two more lines you'll see the compensation supplement again they're pretty similar in the House and Senate but that difference from the governor is going from 5% to the 7% and then if you drop down two more lines in the governor's budget he had what was called a

140retention bonus and that was 449,000 both the house and the Senate got rid of that but the Senate turned around and put in what they called an soq bonus and that's why you'll see that 1.2 million in the Senate version and not the house most of the other lines except except the E ESL and at risk lines are almost identical in all three so again just to summarize the real difference between governor and the house and the Senate is the house and the Senate correct the error that was made the house follows then the governor's budget pretty closely except it gives 7% raise Senate gives the 7% raise and also has the support cap of $3 million in it that then that brings us to the bottom part of that sheet you have there and

141that is our federal funds and you'll see we're having a decrease in federal funds but that decrease in federal funds is also happening on the revenue side it is the Esser funds some people call it covid relief funds that is corresponding on the revenue so it's not really uh we don't really feel feel a loss for that so then the bottom subtotal there you can see the house version is 5.9 million increase or with all miscellaneous state and federal 5.9 versus 11 million so as you know the general assembly did not pass a budget before adjourning therefore we're unsure at this time what our state revenue for 2324 for school year will be we will be working though on different approaches over the next few weeks to try and create a budget within such wide

142parameters in my 25 years of experience with the budget I don't think I've ever seen the house and the Senate have a $5 million swing there's always a difference and we often you know come right in the middle but we're talking 1, 1500 um excuse me 1.5 million difference versus 5 million so we will see where that ends um I'd be glad to answer any questions you have about this right now board members any questions just keep us keep us up to date as as things progress and we'll work on some different when are they supposed to come back I have not did notar when they were coming back I don't believe they said did that no so we will we we're gonna have to figure out an approach to at least pass something so

143we'll work on that well thank you for all your work you're welcome I mean I don't think that we're expecting them to get back before we have to make decisions about it no we are not we will have we're going to have to make some assumptions and we're working right now on what is the best way to approach this difference and we're going to have to come with a budget and then say we'll pass if it turns out to be different and then we'll have a list of things we'll need to start putting back in so yeah okay and that I think will come maybe June hopefully at least before July one what fun just keeps keeps things interesting thank you very much okay board that concludes our information items for tonight now we'll move

144on to board members uh comments and questions and we'll start with Mr Fulk again thank you uh Mr Breeden thank you chair lore uh as most of you know and I've repeated a few times uh I made it perfectly clear in 2019 that if reelected this would be my final term on the school board and have not deviated um from that but I now like others find themselves I've become part of the sandwich generation I am still blessed to have both of my parents both of whom are into their 80s um I have some grandchildren that range from two years of age up to 17 and uh there are health issues within my family which are requiring my brother and I to sort of expedite the U uh the transfer of leadership of our family-owned

145business from um second generation to third generation a little quicker than than maybe we would have anticipated so where I'm going with all of this is is to announce that it is my intention um to conclude my boardsmy this year um that is uh instead of of going to December 31st of 2023 um I'm I'm ready I'm ready to be Granddad and um and I need to be son and uh if if folks wonder why and I'll say this that you know that's my intention it could change it could be sooner it could be a little after uh depending upon events um folks May Wonder well why why mention it now and there are multiple reasons why I'd like to let it be known now one is the superintendent search I'd like for the applicants

146for the superintendency to know that uh what what my plans are and I did not want to leave immediately after a new superintendent was hired and have that misinterpreted that it was somehow connected uh to the to the new superintendency um also uh it will give the board an opportunity to begin to familiarize themselves with the process C of selecting an an interim replacement from July through December that's not been done in many many years as as I recall so it'll give them time to do that and also I wanted to go until June because I didn't want it to interfere in the election cycle um I did not want someone who plans to run uh to inadvertently be appointed to the board and and therefore gain some sort of an advantage uh and all

147candidates must have their paperwork filed um by June sometime I think and um so um I've been extremely blessed to be um to have the citizens of mville and Elton and some of pen L and that whole District trust me for um six different election Cycles with their with the care of their children's education and and um so I just I just wanted to to lay that out there so that there was transparency in the process so thank you guys thank you Mr Breeden and um you caught me a little by surprise uh but so is this an this isn't your official this is just your timeline for now that's correct I I don't I don't en Envision that it will change uh if there were a glitch in the super attendant search that we

148needed to go beyond July 1 perhaps it might um if circumstances change within my family obviously uh that would that would expedite things but uh right now that's the plan and I will keep the board posted as we get closer um so that uh the official resignation could be submitted at least hopefully 30 days in advance of of my leaving so thank you very much um I hate to see you go but we need to take care of our families and it's you know the uh nothing should be more important than your family even though we at rocking County Schools I like to think of us as a family your your Biologicals need your attention so thank you very much um Dr mcquilkin this has been an evening of surprises right I'd like to say

149thank you to Mr Breen and we respect uh we we respect your judgment and and uh thank you very much thank you for on many levels Dr Oliver um I just wanted to comment um regarding the the question you had had Miss Hurst about reading Specialists um so that process uh about adjusting reading specialists in and the Staffing in each school has been in the works for about two years uh or last year and this year as we've been kind of working through that and there's sort of a A system that we've been working through to do that but I would encourage you to talk with Dr schifflet afterwards and he can give you some more details about what that looked like so I just wanted to be sure people understood that it wasn't we

150were just kind of randomly pulling um teachers out of classrooms um or out of the positions of reading Specialists that there has to do with some numbers and making sure there's Equity across School uh schools based on numbers and those types of things so but um feel free to speak with Dr shifflet afterwards thank you um reading the room I think I know the answer to this but do we have any students present tonight yay we oh oh wow we have two students present so thank you all for coming tonight I hope you learned Lots um uh I guess this this pretty much concludes our uh question session and our information item so now we'll move along to we do have reason to move in to close session do I have a motion to move

151into close session I move that the board enter a closed meeting to discuss and consider the following pursuant to the provisions of Virginia code section 2.2 A1 personnel specific public officers appointees or employees for the purpose of considering such individuals assignment appointment promotion performance salary or resignation thank you Dr mcquilkin do I have a second second thank you Mr folk is there any discussion hearing none we'll move to vote all those in favor please say I I I all those opposed same sign we're unanimous um but right before we go into close session thank you all for attending please have safe travels home have a wonderful week