001testing one two test test test camera test one but usually bring on e PR okay what oh yeah calling calling the superintendent please wa call this December 12th 2022 meet 2022 meeting of the Rockingham County School Board to order uh thank you all for being here this evening on a rather crisp evening I I thought on the way out it felt colder than the temperature looked but uh we're glad to have all of you here for this December meeting the first item of business that we have is to approve tonight's agenda and I will entertain a motion um pertaining to that if it be the board's desire I move we approve the agenda as presented thank you m l there a second second thank you Mr Faulk any additions or amendments to tonight's agenda hearing
002of none all in favor please say I I any opposed and that is 5 I would ask now for all who are able to please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge alance to the FL of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liy and justice for all now if you could join us in a moment of silence thank you next we will move to public comments and we will have the ordinary procedure rules in place uh through each speaker will be given three minutes I will gavel when there are 30 seconds left one time and then twice at the end of the 3 minutes we have Michael stample thank you board Dr Shel for the opportunity to speak today I would
003like to address the recent discussion of rcps and its connection to the Virginia inquiry collaborative and C3 teachers first of all I'd like to demystify a few terms and address some allegations by made by a school board member the C3 and C3 teacher simply stands for college career Civic life there was a concern about students becoming civically engaged this simply means encouraging students to be active in their communities think of the kind of community engagement you see with the boys and girl scouts another complaint was that some of the material presented is Marxist because it uses oppressed oppressor language I'll just say this the Bible is full of oppressed oppressor language and it predates Carl Marx by about 1500 to 2,000 years depending on the text the school board member posted concerns about the mention
004of white supremacy and some of the email conversations uh with participants of the AIC he also posted a slide that discussed whiteness as a social construct let's talk about that in 1928 delegate James H Prince of Richmond redefined what it meant to be non-white in Virginia and what became known as the one drop rule so you see who was considered white was was and is subjective and it changes over time laws like these were referred to as racial Purity laws and were studied by Nazi lawyers who created who were creating laws to discrimin discriminate against the Jewish population in Germany in the 1930s you can see the subjective nature of whiteness in the school board minutes of this County in April of 1951 this is a direct quote from the minutes Mr Henry C Clark
005an attorney for several citizens from the kelt toown community appeared before the bo board and asked the board to make an investigation of the report of of that the Edinger child is part colored and should not be permitted to attend the white school the board authorized superintendent Wilbur s Pence to investigate the complaint of these citizens from the kelt toown community so you see their white whiteness is subjective why do we need to talk about white supremacy we need to talk about it because it was openly discussed in The Daily News Record as an important topic for virgin white Virginia voters in the early part of the 20th century in The Daily News Record oper October 23rd 1924 Republican Congressional candidate JH rubush rub Bush of Dayton said the following when asked if he supported
006white supremacy on the proposition of white supremacy I want to say that the colored men should have every protection and right do is Du him I feel that many times he has been denied that protection and I stand firmly on the proposition that we as his superiors have not in many cases done our duty by him to win as a Republican and a state dominated by Southern Democrats you had to show your allegiance to white supremacy just three years prior Republican candidate for Governor Henry Anderson had declared the Republican party of Virginia a white man's party and finally there's a claim that some of the material in the viic is connect is included Concepts rooted in critical race Theory this is nothing more than a tactic to eliminate all discussions of race and racism as
007I have pointed out whiteness as a social social construct is written historical fact openly affirming white supremacy was an important component of Virginia poit politicians platform in the 20th century let's not whitewash history this is a painting entitled critical race Theory you can see the per whitewashing Harriet Tubman and uh Martin Luther King Malcolm Melissa ran okay thank you Paula Harold I am a guardian of a third grader several weeks ago we were sent pieces of paper to give permission for our children with Christmas decorations up in the corner to attend a musical event all parents would have assumed I don't know how many third graders I estimate 450 in Rockingham County would have assumed that that was a Christmas Holiday Special fall musical our children were bust of the forb center have any of
008you attended the forb center you know the political thing that is said to the children that are 7 years old when that starts about white racism white people making slavery in this country in this Valley annihilating Native Americans of white people white people white people looking down on LGBT communities white people being racist and white supremist that comes on the loudspeaker for seven and eight year olds during this performance the first part of it the dancers worked in front of these seven and eighty olds that the school had subjected them to at the end of this the second part of this performance they constantly pushed one girl girl of color down submissive keeping her in the corner and these are seven and eighty olds that came to see a cheerful fall holiday whatever you want
009to have considered it that parents were you know the permission slip had Holly in the corners what would you have thought you were sending your child to in the end of it as they pushed this girl down in the corner you know being submissive she was not white at the end of this they stood at the very edge of this stage and yelled at our children 450 third grade children I will not shut up I will not be quiet I will not lower my voice they screamed at these children that's what the school system subjected our children to last week on the note that it gave you permission for your child to go it said nothing about this it implied holiday that's what it implied it is against the law in the state of Virginia
010without parental Comm permission to subject your children to racism statements LGBT things twerking and yelling at our children I am a member of a biracial family Multicultural and I am raising a traumatized eight-year-old that's a special needs child that had a panic attack in public in front of his friends because he was yelled at that's what we subjected our children to last week I called the school today and talked to the social worker that watches over my grandson may I continue to speak please and the principal she went straight to the principal no one within the school system even knows who put this in place for our seven and eighty olds to go and be called racial and the children came in and they were happy and cheerful they were going to see a musical
011performance they were slump shoulder and slouching in their seats at the end of this performance I would like to know who was responsible for subjecting our children to twerking and racial slurs I'm benev the parents I think that this school system owes every third grade parent an acknowledgement as to what their child was seeing and on this paper it said parents couldn't go because there weren't tickets available explain that to me where my grandson who suffers from PTSD and his biracial was subjected to that I would like to know who in the school system sent our three year three third graders to see such a thing to be subjected to that language been to be told that his grandmother is racist white supremist I want to know who did it because the principal at John
012whan was totally unfamiliar that that's what she was sending these children into twerking when these children go home and repeat this and the parents aren't ready to deal with this yet you put them in a place they don't need to be my grandson does not understand why his grandmother is white and he's not yeah I would like to know who programmed this who put my grandchild in that place along with 450 other parents that don't know what their children were subjected to right I I'm not familiar with the program ma'am I don't know nether neither neither was the principal at John whale and Elementary had no idea this this what was going to happen you did um contact the school today I believe is that correct along with the social work and I have no
013problems with going to non budsman or anyone else in the governor's education system right so um I appreciate you uh bringing it to the attention of the school right that's first because these these parents have no concept of what their kids were I when they go home and they twerk in front of their parents where did they learn that right so our elementary schools um I understand that there's an outside person who does this so right so um Rockham County schools Harrisonburg city schools and I believe a number of other school divisions uh partner with an organization called any given child right and um any given child the purpose of it is that um art experiences are made uh possible for students who don't normally have these um opportunities and so um because you contacted
014the school um the first thing we do is when a complaint comes in is we investigate it and so um what I can tell you is uh we've asked uh James Madison University because it's their a theater program that perform not the theater dance program I know and I really am sorry that your uh it was your grandson he is my grandon special need PTSD so I'm sorry that your grandson experienced um the performance that way now what we've asked Jame you for is a listing of the um dance pieces that were performed um and what the was uh We've also reached out to the other third grade teachers U and so again at this point it's rocking Camp County AB parents that they were subjected to this so I have to get the information
015first right so that we know um what happened at the performance and so again just like any investigation and you understand was over the intercom about white supremacist white races LGBT community we're getting the information that we need um to understand um how because again um any given child the organization so they partner with in this case with the J dance department and so um what parents were told and what um our well and what our schools were told is that the dance department will put on a performance that contains two pieces from their normal performance um for third graders so I don't have any additional information at this point because I wasn't at that performance and um but I will again we've asked the schools to speak to the teachers to see um how
016uh what their view of it was what the children said and we also asked jamu for all the information related to it so at this point I don't have anything to tell you because again you told the school about it today and so that's the investigation of that is just understand why the teachers haven't stepped forward and acknowledge to the parents what was in that program and that's all I can tell you at this point um we're asking for the information and when we have all of it then you know we'll certainly take a look at it and and I don't have a problem with taking further steps sure thank you m Harold you're welcome this concludes concludes our public comments we'll move to Schoolboard highlights and I'll begin with Mr Fulk Mr chairman wait
017a second could we could we have the gentleman in the excuse Mr chairman I'm I'm coming that way sir okay thank you Dr mcil my first highlight is about the tree planting that occurred I think on Friday that's Friday in honor of Larry Huffman who was the principal who opened Lacy Spring Elementary School he opened Plains Elementary School but he opened Lacy Spring Elementary School and there was a tree planted in his honor were you there miss I didn't make it neither neither did I but I I do want to acknowledge it because Larry Huffman has has given a long time to Rockingham County Public Schools as a as a principal as administrator and teacher and and I thought the recognition for him um was was warranted and we're we're grateful that they did this
018this is lazy spring the second uh on my agenda highlight is that Rob loville who's the girls basketball coach at Turner Ashby High School celebrated his 500th win so uh so we have a remembrance and a a congratulations and my last um highlight has to do with the fact that this season many of our schools I would say all of our schools have some special program some holiday program and I would like to encourage anybody who who would like to to come and see the programs just call the schools to find out whether it's a concert or it's a play or it's a production of some kind I know that the students would appreciate your being in the audience and and since this is our last meeting before the holiday I'd like to wish everybody
019a happy holiday thank you Miss lur thank you no I was unable to make it to the tree planting I apologize my real job was keeping me busy it's lamming season so uh I'm I'm getting to cut a little lamb so it's great um but I did make it to the uh uh gymnas mum dedication for Larry s Pence that was wonderful and I thank the board for supporting that um it it was a great occasion it was wonderful to see I think they had three folks there that have facilities at TA named after them um so it was really great to see these pillars of the community um honored in such a way uh and then yes we have lots of holiday um uh festivities coming up and I know I know there's that
020snow there's weather winter in the forecast and I would ask you all to pray that that goes away and that we can have please have school on Friday because like I said I'm lamming so I haven't had time to decorate my own house but I'm going to Lacy spring and we're going to decorate that whole area and uh we're going to have blowups and all sorts of cool things for the kids to see and that's scheduled for Friday so one please pray for no snow and please I would like to um ask the superintendent to not cancel school that day and he is not listening to me whatsoever and then also if you have a chance come on by and drive through Lacy or uh yeah Lacy Springs Elementary School and and enjoy some of
021the holiday festivities um thank you thank you m car first of all I want to say to miss Harold um I know you she left but that is very disturbing and um we will get to the bottom of that and try to find out what exactly was done what was said what went on there at the the forb center and um also look into our future uh Endeavors and taking third graders there to be subjected to things like that uh the second thing I wanted to say when um just a second ago is that we got two grown men on the back row uh one part of the community dialog group that uh speaks at every single board meeting uh and goes against uh really our policies in which we ask the public that they
022not speak at every single board meeting which is fine but when other people are told they can't be on a community dialogue group because they can't um get along with others I think it's pretty immature when a grandmother who's raising a special need child comes in and brings something like she did tonight and two grown men on the back roow and they're holding up signs while she talks very disrespectful and very much uncalled for and one of them sits on the on the community dialogue group besides that that I'd like to say Merry Christmas to all our teachers at Rockham County Public Schools um thank you for all that you do thank you for uh all that that you've been through in the last couple of years I hope that you have a Merry Christmas
023uh and a Happy New Year and that you enjoy your time with your uh your loved ones and your families uh as you get a few weeks off uh this time of year we're thinking about you we're praying for you and we thank you uh to all of our teachers for everything you do for Rockham count County Public Schools so thank you Mr chairman Dr sh thank you um again uh the tree dedication for Larry Huffman was well attended Dr Al the was was there um he joined me and then we had um speakers including Susan um Huffman and then also former students of Larry's former colleagues other principles who worked with him and it was a really nice event um also the Pleasant Valley winter showcase I only had the chance to see the
024video but it was an amazing performance by the students that Becky Ford uh sent us a video of and then in um we also had uh the um first FFA um Galla last week it was a black tie event that raised uh in one evening U more than $100,000 for the F Foundation it was pretty amazing to see um all the Blue Jackets and and um all the um people that are so connected to our act community and and um also you know again raising significant amounts of money so this was a Statewide event it wasn't $100,000 for the Rockham County FFA but it was pretty amazing uh to be there and to um have the conversations with all our a leaders in the community thank you I I would just like to restate that
025the the the public the comments from the public section of our board meeting is often times becomes one of the most difficult because it they are comments from the public and it's not designed to be a an an interaction and exchange between the board uh we will often do as the superintendent did tonight and as Mr Cross has done um let speakers know that we intend to continue an invest tigation and look into things and and you know I guess because I don't know if it's because it was this is my last meeting to chair or if it was uh just that it's the holiday spirit but uh um I I I could sense that uh Miss Harold was concerned about what she had to say and I gave her extra latitude in speaking I
026apologize to Mr stle that I did not afford you the same um the same luxury um as as far as the as far as the uh rule with signs I my thinking has always been that uh as long as someone's not blocking the view of somebody else um that that is a a freedom of expression and so um I guess we'll just agree to disagree as we all of and do but uh I take no offense I think it's a it's reason why I said that Mr chairman was is it's basically it comes down to respect and here is a elderly lady raising a grandchild and you got two grown men sitting on the back road holding up a sign being disrespectful but to me I'm a man of Honor a man of respect and
027when you got someone treating someone like that we talk about being um showing empathy and um being respectful in Rockingham County Public Schools just that's just not respectful when you treat a grandmother like that it is the Christmas season I'm not going to argue with you tonight um we will move into action items we do have reason to or need to approve our minutes from November 28th as well as December the e8th we can take them uh individually or we can U appr Pro them both simultaneously whichever the board's pleasure is I I suggest uh approve them together thank you Mr folk is there a second thank you Mr carw any questions or comments regarding the minutes hearing none all in favor please say I I any opposed that is 5 bills and mileage you
028have the bills and mileage for November in your materials and I recommend approval of those as um presented thank you Dr Shel you've heard the superintendent's recommendation do I hear a motion and support I move that we follow the superintendent's recommendation to approve the November 2022 bills as presented thank you Dr mcquilkin is there a second second thank you Miss lore any questions or comments regarding those bills I would just like to just continue to ask that as we looked as I looked over the the uh bills just a lot of expensive going towards Amazon and I know that some of these things that we can't help and to buy from there but if we could do our best to to cut back as much especially in the economy that we're in right now and
029try to buy as much as we can locally uh that would put back our taxpayer money back into our community uh that's would be my suggestion to the superintendent uh message going to our employees thank you thank you any other questions hearing none all in favor please say I I any opposed that is 5 field trips Dr shyo you have a number of field trips for your approval tonight um East Rockingham High School honor band January 20th and 21st four students to Virginia Tech in blackburg honor band um also on January 27th through the 29th for students to sheno University in Winchester and then the theater class April 6th through the 10th 10 students to New York City and then two field trips from Turner Ashby theater class April 6th through 10th 10 students to
030New York City and the thespians January 12th through the 15th eight students to shannond University in Winchester and I recommend approval of those field trips thank you Dr Shel I will move to approve the superintendent recommendation is there a second thank you Mr Cross any questions or comments hearing none all in favor please say I I I any opposed that is 5 policy revisions Dr aler chair Breeden members of the board Dr Shel um we have before you tonight for Action um a revised policy provided to us by the vsba on instructional materials uh specific specifically it outlines um procedures for working through sexually explicit content um the policy the revisions or additions to the policy focus on two major areas one is the um elements that should be in an administrative directive um created
031by the superintendent and staff and then also uh there are five uh definitions about uh uh things words uh in the policy happy to answer any questions you may have I do want to add um just a few comments to that um since Mr Cross last time um made a comment that he intends to offer an amendment he and I have spoken since then um I've also um gotten details Council from our legal council and uh when we talked in January about um a complaint at one of the schools um I told Mr Cross you know that uh please tell the parent you know go to the school and so that you know in a in a complaint process that's not really appropriate um to start that process with board members and um again there
032are a number of reasons for that one is that the board ultimately may hear that case and so it you know uh getting involved uh in the early stages uh could create problems then with being able to U make a judgment at the end and also uh certainly again if a complaint is filed that ultimately could result uh in Personnel action that and it's the same issue and there is a distinction between that so the complaint we had talked about in January and uh generally having access to curriculum and uh Mr Cross has asked me for a few things over the last few weeks that um I gave them when they were available when we actually had things and so um again I want to clarify that because um you know based on the newspaper
033article in the in the DNR following the last meeting it kind of created an impression that board doesn't have access to curriculum at all um certainly that's the uh that's the board's Duty um to um approve you know especially textbooks and then of course there's a policy for a supplemental materials that gives that authority to the schools um but uh again I want to make that clear from the legal perspective uh certainly the board has access to curriculum but when it's a complaint then that falls into kind of a separate track and so in my conversations with Mr Cross he he felt then um that that cleared that up for him again I don't know um but based on what you had told me on the phone I think um you said that you were
034comfortable with the policy then um certainly if you still want to um offer that Amendment but that would get tricky again based on on that understanding and so I think I just wanted to make that clear that we had that conversation and that legal council provided a detailed update to me regarding those two different tracks right curriculum in general and um the complaint procedure I I appreciate that thank you for getting back to me and uh yeah you did uh I did reach out to you and um ask for some curriculum that um that I would like to see to see and you were able to provide me with that curriculum and I I appreciate that so yeah i' once we talked about it and we uh we went through it I feel good about
035where it's at thank you have a recommendation on the policy sir I do recommend approval of the policy um it's important to remember that part of the policy so once the policy is approved that then uh we need to then create uh the administrative directive that outlines the process for that so the board is required by law to adopt the policy regarding this um by January so we're well within that time frame and uh then there will be some explanations um in the in the administrative directive again just to update the board on that it's um we had some questions from teachers well what does that do uh to materials that a student may select because there's this 30-day window for notifying families and what the policy outlines there is that if it's an assignment
036so if a if a library book for example were to be assigned as part of a classroom assignment so you need to read this book as part of the assignment then it would be uh under this policy because in general uh again there's a distinction between uh library books and and uh what's assigned in the classroom but if a library book or any other material for that matter if it's a website is assigned uh to be used then uh it falls under this policy uh certainly when an assignment is given we don't always know what a student selects on their own and so if a student writes a paper and then uses material that the teacher may not even know would fall under this policy it's simply a student selection to complete an assignment that
037where the individual resource was not assigned then it does not fall under this policy obviously if a teacher became aware and knew what the material was you know that could be an effort to uh make the parents aware but uh again that's an important distinction in this policy it is when the teacher assigns materials um to the students that then that is that 30-day window for notification before you take this vote but I do recommend approval of the policy as presented thank you Dr Sho do I hear a motion in support of the superintendent's recommendation I move we uh approve the superintendent's recommendation thank you Miss lore is there a second second thank you Dr mcquilkin any questions or comments I have a question but it's not about the policy and it's not about it's
038not for Dr aler it's for our Tech team are we having trouble or is it just me okay and are we we're but we're okay to proceed you can yeah I noticed which which explains the way I just made that motion I apologize so okay so it's not just me but we're okay to continue to move forward with the meeting okay thank you paper paper's always good thank you okay okay all those in favor please say I I I any opposed that is 5 thank you Dr alifer we will move into information items superintendent search update Dr mcquilkin thank you Mr Breen uh as you know Dr Shel earlier in this year indicated that he was going to step down at the end of June 2023 is our superintendent which meant that the board has
039responsibility to select a new superintendent and uh we as a board decided that we would like to proceed with a uh superintendent search firm um we have found that to be successful in the past and would like to continue that so we have U put out what are called rfps that are known as um request requests for proposals to uh so that firms could submit uh proposals to us we are now in the stage uh of uh looking into a negotiation with a a firm and the announcement will be forthcoming upon the completion of a signed agreement so we are moving along in this process thank you ma'am High School course offerings Mr Fitzgerald good evening chair Breeden board members Dr Shel um in your documents you have a list of proposed High School courses
040for the 2023 2024 school year uh there are a number six of new courses that are proposed and I want to kind of run down real quick those courses just so you know what we're thinking uh about offering there uh the first one you'll notice is in the social studies curriculum and it's called law studies uh this is not necessarily a new course but the renaming of an old course that we've been teaching uh called Street law and so basically what we're doing is just updating our name uh to match the VOE name for codes uh there's no cost associated with that uh the second one is in mathematics and it's a data science course uh it's an upper level Math course that has a prerequisite of Algebra 1 and what that course involves is
041basically problem solving using data intensive Computing and uh the course course U has a curriculum that's been developed by the state and the state will fund uh everything for that course with the exception of some PD travel expense uh for our teachers that would be about $400 we think uh physical education uh there's an addition of advanced physical education three which is an upper level uh physical education course that will allow students to do some extra weight training and actually look into all of the Dynamics of weight training from Up a personal development uh standpoint rather than just pumping some iron so uh I think that'll be good for our upper classman and again that's a no cost um no extra cost to the division uh in business and marketing we want to offer a
042real estate course uh this is a really unique course in the state because the course is is designed for upper classmen with the intent of preparing them uh to obtain the real estate license now of course that can't happen until they're 18 years old but they'll have everything that they need to be ready to do that uh we would like to do that for juniors and seniors uh to give them time so that if they'd like to do that they can but again no that be offered at school and not MTC right that'll be offered at school through the business department right business and marketing that's a great idea yeah so I think it'll be neat that request came from um East Rockingham and all of the schools were very interested that we did a
043survey and students uh I think we have good enrollment so again no cost of Vision uh in the art curriculum there's a new course digital art and that course is a course that will allow students to take their artistic ability and actually use computer computerated design to do graphic designing it's um something that's kind of a hot market right now and uh so it's just an expansion of our current art program uh there is a budget cost uh that was provided to me of just under $20,000 that would be about $5,000 uh per school to purch Pur equipment but I wanted you to know that that there is a a cost associated with that one yes they met as a group um with Becky Ford and I think they're going to need some training some
044of the old I shouldn't say old teachers right but some of the older School teachers will need a little training but I think that's uh it's something they're interested in and the students are interested in so I think can we can handle that uh Theater Arts um there was a request for technical theater 2 by the schools and basically what this is this is the um the kind of course that teaches students to do the behindth scenes stuff for theater uh that would be the set design that would be the production the sound all of that for theater um it'll allow a sequential elective or technical theater and again there's no additional new cost for that so I present this list tonight as an information item and I would like to have uh possible approval
045at the January 9th meeting so do you have any questions about any of the courses questions the real estate offer will that be uh that'll get them prepared to go to Richmond and take the test when they're 18 when they're 18 yeah it will uh it'll give them all the background that they need the cool thing about that course too it not only investigates all the legal aspect of that but it also um has a homeowner component to it about how to talk to a homeowner about um things like inspections and and those types of things so even if a student didn't set for the license um it would still be valuable to them just as a you know as a potential homeowner to that's great great idea thank you Mr fiter okay thanks so
046much thank you board members you have in your packet of information a financial review for November and an attendance report for November um now we will move into other business of Schoolboard questions I'll reverse it and start with Mr Cross thank you I I was looking at the um had aant I had a question about the attendance report oh okay we're gonna go over no you can go ahead if you want to oh did you did you ask me to go first yeah I was going to on Schoolboard question so go ahead oh okay for the attendance report Dr could you just kind of go over that a little bit for us um briefly and pull it up right now all right sorry apologize speciic questions well I was was that was that just a
047decrease in the the numbers at the for each School District uh for each there is popped up there is that just a decrease in the last couple years of students uh at each school I think we start out at three years and go to last year thisth those are those are um those are attendance percentages okay yeah so what you see is uh Broadway High School for example um the three-year cumulative average um when we look at U the attendance report was 93.5% attendance uh last year was 9.39 last month it was 91.1 16 uh this month was lower at 89 and the cumulative average for the year is 91.0 6 so attendance of Broadway is somewhat lower so more students are missing days than they did um when you look at the three-year average
048did we feel like we have some flu going around well so for this month certainly you know there are always um you know when you look at the current month uh that's probably uh the one that you know one yes you immediately see the impact of for example all the flu cases because we're in with pretty significant uh numbers of uh students out for the flu um but still when we look at last year versus the three-year average or the cumulative average for the year you still do see that attendance was lower than it was for the threeyear average so um for the school division of course you see the same thing um it's 92.5 five uh versus 94.3 so attendance uh certainly uh that percentage is lower and so again schools work through that
049um for the yeah for the current month you always immediately see when uh when you have numbers out for for the flu and that certainly again I don't know if that's the only explanation but that's one a significant one currently is um number of students out um with illnesses um whether that's the confirmed flu I don't have the exact numbers for that um I'm sorry how did we do the the three-year cumulative like during covid it got weird I remember that I don't remember how we counted it but it got weird yeah I mean again that's um you know these are based on the numbers we get from the schools so you're talking about um 2021 right so you those numbers are are not particularly reliable but still again um it's good when we compared
050to last year so compared to last year the average at you know Broadway is higher and the average at eastrock is higher Spotswood is slightly higher so um for that again overall we're just slightly above it but then again we'll have to wait and see how that plays out for the whole year yeah yeah I so in the question I'll hold off on some the half night just to see I need to talk at the end but one of the things that I I'm really concerned about and i' like to kind of as a county kind of get ahead of the curve uh curve on this is in the news this past week it talked about how uh there were a lot of um City uh School teachers that came out to the Schoolboard meeting
051and really were uh crying trying and begging for help in the classroom and and uh and talking about the discipline issues that are happening within the city and everything and I'd like to ask and for us to if we could Dr Sho and the board would be willing to do this uh to send out a climate Sur survey to our teachers and ask them how they feel of where they're at right now I think it'd be important to hear back from our teachers when it comes to the the the help that they may feel like they they're getting or not getting right now and if they have issues with uh discipline uh in the classroom uh any way that we can have any information back as a as a board uh would help out a
052whole lot for us to kind of hit get ahead of that curve there so if we could send out a survey uh toward to our teachers and get some input uh input back from them that would be great I don't know if uh so often times uh during a superintendent search um surveys are conducted right so I'm going to defer to the board on that um I I can tell you that when we talk about um concerns from teachers in teacher advisory uh discipline doesn't come up as often as um the lack of available substitutes right um we Face both uh shortage in the number of people who want to substitute uh but also you know we're working really hard to increase the days that substitutes already sub for us um may be willing to
053work um with discipline still you know you talk to teachers certainly after the pandemic um the behavior certainly increased um across the board right you'll see that in every School Division um there a number of things that um our schools are working on at the elementary level whether that's um conscious discipline and number of other efforts um but I will say when it comes to other concerns from teachers uh I've not gotten a lot uh in terms of teacher advisory where people can submit comments anonymously uh when it comes to discipline more so it is uh teachers losing their planning period to cover for other teachers uh when it comes to substitutes and and my response to teachers there has been um you know we're looking at uh for example you know creating incentives for
054people who already sub to maybe sub more uh by having um maybe some pay structure that rewards you know after certain thresholds are reached um or whether that's a bonus at the end of the year depending on how many um days someone subbed uh HR is adding substitutes you know you see it in every Personnel report um we're also looking at um again managing that when uh people who are on the subl list but are never then actually subbing that creates uh tremendous work for the principles when they're trying to have someone you know at the last minute and so that's been the bigger concern there but certainly um you know student behavior um is likely something that you'll also get some feedback on if the board decides to conduct a climate survey as part
055of the superintendent search so that's often done but again I'm not part of that process uh for obvious reasons and so um I'll leave that up to the board of course to to decide whether it's as part of that or or whether the board wants to conduct it some other way okay good um boy that brought up some questions for me first can we bring I know we've talked about it uh and it got sidelined during Co but the Inspire Awards can we revisit bringing back the Inspire Awards yes that's currently in the works great thank you um and then where are my my high school students do we have some high school students in the house tonight thank you guys for coming let's give them a round of applause thank you guys for coming
056and hanging in there with us tonight this one's been kind of quick so hopefully we can get you out here out of here in just a few more minutes um and then also Dr shyo you mentioned that you got to watch the Pleasant Valley performance on video is there any way you can forward that to the members of the board absolutely that would and any other uh holiday um performances that get recorded if you could shoot those our way that would be fantastic thank you everyone have a great holiday Dr mooken pass thank you Mr folk i' just like to say that U mention to Mr Fitzgerald that the the real estate offering for high school students is absolutely a rich offering and and I'm glad to see it I know uh I tried to
057put my 65y old head through the real estate study course that you get you a big book and and study and read it online and everything and I I can say that uh if you're 18 to 20 years old you're probably a whole lot better to train than a 65 year old person is because that's a whole different language so I'm I'm excited about that thank you Dr shyo just one quick comment to miss lore um and I did hear you about the weather thank you so we're high school Friday you heard yeah it's like Friday looks pretty good partly cloudy 20 uh 47° the concern I think is Thursday morning uh freezing rain so um we'll see what that does yeah I just wanted to check with you so since you said Friday needs
058to be school I was just wondering about Thursday Thursday I think we're good on Thursday yeah yeah I'm getting the high school students are like yeah we can we can stay home on Thursday that works sounds good thank you all right we uh I certainly would like to wish everyone here a merry Christmas happy holidays um just hope that uh your blessings are rich we thank you for being here tonight we I hope that uh hope that you have a safe trip home tonight and um I hope that the the spirit of the Season prevails upon everyone as they deal with one another over the course of this holiday season we do have reason to enter into closed meeting and I will entertain a motion in that regard I move that the board enter a
059closed meeting to discuss and consider the following pursuant to the provisions of Virginia code section 2.2 3711 A1 Personnel specific public officers appointees or employees for the purpose of considering such individuals assignment appointment promotion performance demotion salaries disciplining or resignation and A2 one or more particular students specifically related to discipline and requests regarding compulsory School attendance based on religious beliefs that would involve disclosure of information contained in a Scholastic record concerning a student thank you Miss lur is there a second second thank you Mr Folk okay all those in favor of entering into to close meeting um pursuant to the code cited so eloquently by m lore please say I I I any opposed that's 0 thank you we are now in close session