2022 11 14 - RCPS School Board Meeting

001audio test one second well who knows okay I'll text you and see if it's good time then I think prob okay supposed to be kind of nasty weather tomorrow rainy I know I know yeah yeah hey we missing somebody I I I know the time says that it's time to start but we're waiting on one member and I know he's here so we'll just wait until he gets here like to call this November 14th 2022 regular meeting of the roam County School Board to order welcome to those of you here um we have some students here tonight students welcome we'll try to get you out of here in time that you don't get any inclement weather before you um the first item on our agenda is approval of tonight's agenda and I will entertain a

002motion in that regard I move we approve the agenda as presented thank you Miss Lor is there a second second thank you Mr folk any questions comments or amendments hearing none all those in favor of approval as the of the agenda as it is before you please say I I I any opposed and that is 5 thank you all very much I would ask everyone who is here as you are able to stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge of aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for it stands one nation under God indivisible andice for all I was at a sporting event um earlier this year and when the national anthem played the public address announcer said if you rise as you are able

003and I thought that was a very nice thing for those who might not be able to stand so that's why I've copied them on that at this time I would ask ask that uh you would join us in a moment of silence thank you very much we will move into our public comment section of our meeting and as always there will be a timer um welcome there will be a timer um on the screen and I will gavel with 30 seconds left so that you may not have to watch the screen as closely and that may give you some uh some guidance we will start this evening with Michael stle thank you board uh thank you Dr cyel um several weeks ago I had the honor of attending a book launch of uh out in

004the valley lgbtq plus stories from the Shanda Valley several of the authors spoke about their personal experience in the valley AS lgbtq Plus individuals two things stood out to me one the importance of a personal autonomy to come out when one is ready one student shared a story of how they were forcibly added to their parents by a school counselor and how harmful that was um number two the other thing that stood out to me from these stories is the devastating impact of fundamentalist Christianity I put that in quotes air quotes with the little C on the psychological and emotional health of the individual sharing these stories as a person of faith in the Christian tradition I'm appalled at the lack of compassion and love of those who claimed to Floral Christ who told of

005Christ who told the story of a father who ran to embrace the prodical son who had squander his inheritance even after he saw him from a distance so these stories some of the stories that I heard reminded me of how yunan proposed model policies will be harmful to trans kids and The Wider lgbtq plus community and just as a reminder the guidance of the uh does not the policy itself does not follow the guidance of the legislation that it claims as its statutory Authority so delegate Marcus uh Simon who who wrote the legislation that um that was cited as the legislation to make the policy um one of the things issues it was supposed to address is address common issues related to transitor students in accordance with evidence-based best prati practices and of course the

006proposed policies uh that are cited they cite no evidence uh and are contrary to the best best practices of the treatment of transgender students so again I encourage you to reject the model policies um proposed by the yunan administration as they yeah David stus did I whater that last name I apologize if I did St stal F okay thank you I'd just like to share a story if I may uh our son uh started his former education at Mount Clinton Elementary School and he graduated from Turner Ashby in 2003 and for his college experience he chose to go to Messiah College up in Pennsylvania at the end of the first semester when the grades came out there he was up in the dorm room and one of the young men that lived lived on that

007floor came up to him and said Jonathan Jonathan I don't know what to do and Jonathan said what's the problem he said look I made a b two C's and a d and he says you know good and well that I want to go to graduate school in physical therapy this ain't going to cut it what am I going to do Jonathan what are we going to do and Jonathan said okay two things number one I'll be happy to help you understand any scientific uh Theory or any questions you have I'll be happy to help you until you can understand those your questions about science and he said okay all right you do that Jonathan what's number two Jonathan said number two is you're going to have to work your butt off and he says

008what does that mean he said what that means is when other kids are going home for the weekend to be with Mom and Dad or to visit your girlfriend you're going to be here studying in the science center you're going to be here studying in the library where whatever the best place is for you to be studying that's where you're going to be studying oh it was a different I think it was different for that young man to have have that expl explanation done for him well when we went to Jonathan's graduation um uh he had this he had a young man and with him and he had his arm around him and he said mom and dad i' like you to meet so and so and we're like oh hello it's good to see

009you and um he said Dad and Mom this is a young man that needed help back there in the in the in in the winter time and he got his he got his acceptance for graduate school two weeks ago so we gave him congratulations and the purpose of the story is is that this young man had ability but without hard work it wouldn't have happened thank you that concludes our speakers who have signed up for tonight we will move to board member comments um I will begin with Mr Fulk thank you sir Dr mcquilkin thank you Mr bre uh this evening my one of the highlights I have is the Veterans Day programs that were celebrated all over our County schools and I think it's it's what we need to do to say thank you

010to our veterans and I'm very pleased and proud of of those the faculties and and students in our schools who took the time and the initiative to say thank you to our veterans that was my number one and my number two is an upcoming event at Elton middle school tomorrow evening at six o'clock I believe there's going to be a basketball rockus basketball game in between the faculty at Elton middle and their raising funds for the Monica Pence Barlo educational grant in literacy through the Rockingham Educational Foundation so if anybody is interested I'm sure they would love for you to come and buy a ticket to watch them have a great great evening of fun miss lur um sorry I wasn't able to be with you all at the last meeting um and the this

011is hard for me because uh it was I was at National FFA convention had an amazingly great time and I want to be like screaming off the top of the rooftops that my kids did a really great jobs but that's a little embarrassing so but okay let me say please that my um middle son was a national winner FFA proficiency award in poultry which is a really great thing for Rockingham County in general because that's where we get our bread and butter a lot of the time so yay uh they're definitely learning great things in FFA and uh I can't thank the FFA program enough for letting me attend with them and we just had an amazing time I got to go with the uh eastrock Team Dairy judging team they met a uh coach

012from Wisconsin who couldn't believe that these young that these young people um were representing Virginia in Dairy because not one of them lived on a DA Farm uh and that was quite an accomplishment for them and that it was I just had a great time getting to know those kids and I I got to build relationships with lots of our students and uh guys we got some really great students out there and it was just a pleasure to get to go um and they're just great things happening in rham County so I came home and I went to the legislative breakfast and we got to talk to Dr Shel and I were able to attend and with um several of our delegates our delegates Representatives um and got to kind of advocate for things for

013our schools and got to work with other um school districts to Advocate on behalf of our kids and that was a that was a great morning with a lot of great conversation um so and those were the two big highlights of my couple of weeks so thank you all thank you Mr cars thank you Mr Breeden I'm I have the opportunity uh tonight to uh introduce uh a few awesome um soccer players Varsity soccer players from Spotswood High School and they're going to take my time in the high tonight but uh the next couple months we get to highlight and really um um say thank you to all the work that Dr shyo has done for ruam County Public Schools and so tonight I want to invite up and three awesome uh people here tonight

014Sophia Galino Maggie Thorp and Fiona Thompson and they have something to present to their coach uh coach Oscar Shel for the varsity girls program at Spotswood High School um thank you for having us first um Dr asro Shel is more than an educator he's the epitome of a leader he's given us the advice that we carry throughout our lifetime he has always been pushing us to be the best players we can be but more importantly the best people we can be Oscar has shown us that we are more than just students we are strong independent voices who can make a difference both on our teams and in our communities his commitment to us as students has not gone unnoticed and through tough times we still still feel heard and seen in his eyes there have

015been some big changes made for the county these past years and we have appreciated all the time and research she has poured into keeping us safe and still learning it has been more than a rough few years for everyone and one lesson he has emphasized to us is that nothing comes easy whether it's a job interview a college application or a district title it is not possible without hard work and that is what coach Oscar is a hardworking dedicated educator and Coach Oscar we are more than grateful to have had you as our super intendent and we thank you for always putting us first because no one remembers second place well thank you to the three of you and um to Mr Cross I'm looking forward to starting um out of season work in early

016January so be ready and um yeah I can't wait for the spring again so definitely my favorite part of the year and uh so many amazing students and student athletes uh who know that it's about U playing the game the right way not just about um what's on the um scoreboard at the end but uh to do it the the way it's supposed to be done and that's uh just quality play and high ethics and and all the things that make these ladies and the rest of the team so special so thank you so much that was my highlights did you have more Mr Cross I'm sorry yeah okay that was yours yeah I think um the others um Miss L had already talked about FFA convention and legislative breakfast so I'll leave it at

017that they were both wonderful events and um yeah so many good things going on again Veterans Day events but yeah this is a highlight I can't top so yeah thank you to the three of you um those comments I think would be shared by most everyone up here um it has always been about doing it the right way way and doing it for the right reasons and um your your remarks are spoton thank you my highlight uh I got an opportunity to attend the uh dut and Juice um event at mville elementary with my grandson who was in the prek program there and was just absolutely Blown Away by the work that the teachers and reading Specialists ser doing there um to teach those kids to to read and the and the progress that that

018that my grandson alone has made um kudos to the prek teacher and to the staff there and to the principal and and everyone involved I I I I left their kind of jaw hanging really at amazed at at what those young kids were doing doing so and we could go on with stories like that all night long if we if we wanted to uh or had the time to but thank you to all of those hardworking people across the across the county and um it's certainly not a highlight but certainly our our thoughts are with the UVA Community tonight as once again we have seen violence up close and and um unfortunately had to see its ugly face again so we will move to action items board members we do have need to approve the

019minutes and if it be your desire I will entertain a motion in that regard I move that we approve the minutes of the October 24th meeting as presented thank you Dr mcquilkin is there a second second thank you Mr folk any questions or comments hearing none all those in favor of approval of the minutes as presented please say I I any opposed that is 5 bills and mileage you have the October bills and mileage in your materials and I recommend approval of both as presented thank you Dr shyo board members you've heard the superintendent's recommendation do I hear a motion and support I move that we uh follow the superintendent's recommendation and approve the October 2022 bills as presented thank you Dr mookin is there a second second thank you Miss lore any questions or

020comments the only thing I would ask is I brought it up at the beginning of the year but if we could uh on this on these bills I saw there's a lot of just purchases from Amazon and I know we all love Amazon to deliver stuff fast into our door but if we could at all possible um buy locally um that I would love to see that to spend more of our uh taxpayer money here locally to help local businesses especially in the economy that we have right now so uh if that could be a message that could be sent on uh through the superintendent's office uh to all employees to do their best to buy locally I I would appreciate that thank you all right any other questions comments I'm just going to add

021to that when you do you use Amazon everybody this is for everybody when you do use Amazon use Amazon smile and then you can I have riffy as my do my uh charity you can pick a charity in a portion of your uh purchase price doesn't cost you anymore but it goes to the charity that you pick and riffy is one of those Charities so when we do when we do rack up these bills from Amazon hopefully we can get a couple of cents back on each one all right all those in favor of approval of the rec recommendation and the motion please say I I any opposed it's 5 field trips Dr sh you have a number of field trips um for approval tonight East Rockingham High School TSA student Leadership Retreat November 18th

022through the 20th uh for8 students to Camp panat tank Hartfield Virginia spots with high school all Virginia Jazz Ensemble November 15th through the 17th two students to Richmond Elton Middle School TSA officer leadership training conference November 18th through the 20th eight students to Hartfield Virginia uh MTC is sending students to the skills USA state competition in April April 21st through the 23rd I'm not quite sure yet how many students uh will qualify for that but that's in Virginia Beach and then a national competition following that uh depending on how many students qualify uh June 19th through the 23rd in Atlanta Georgia turn rashby High School marching band April 13th through the 16th 45 students to New York City and J Frank hilard Middle School kidwind solar team visty conference December 4th and 5th six students

023to Virginia Beach and I recommend approval of all those field trips thank you Dr shy you've heard the superintendent's recommendation do I hear a motion in support I'll make a motion to follow superintendent's recommendations on these field trips thank you Mr Cross is there a second second thank you Mr folk any questions or comments hearing none all those in favor please say I I I any opposed and that is unanimous as well Family Life Education textbook resource adoption Mr rice hello chair Breeden other school board members Dr shakel my name is Sheldon rice and I am the coordinator for health and physical education House Bill 1023 amended Virginia code 22.1-cu as a committee we recommend using the prevention product project we chose this curriculum for multiple multiple reasons some of which include that it is

024age appropriate and the materials are eye-catching and easy for students to understand and for teachers to navigate it would be free to our school division thanks to a uh partnership with New Creation who would also provide local support to teachers also the resource has a teacher training module to help teachers become familiar with the material we ask that you vote to approve the prevention project for the fle curriculum to address human trafficking thank you I do recommend approval of the prevention project for the Family Life Education Program to meet the new state standards thank you Dr Shel again you've heard the superintendent's recommendation do I hear a motion in support I make a motion to support the superintendent's recommendation thank you Mr Cross is there a second second thank you Mr folk any questions or

025comments I'm happy that we went with the uh New Creations I think it's what it what it is a local Lady it's been doing this for a number of years and um so I'm I'm excited to see the curriculum as well of what what's being taught so thank you guys I know it's than please tell the group that got together and reviewed everything thank you for doing this and taking time out to do it thank you I appreciate and I'll will send a message on all right thanks other questions comments hearing none all those in favor please say I I any opposed that is 5 thank you Mr rice thank you information items rcps Capital Improvement plan Dr shyo Schoolboard members and uh members of the public as you know uh we worked uh with

026the capital improv Improvement plan committee uh from Rockingham County for the last few years to develop uh the next iteration of the CIP and this is basically an update of what we talked about um last year and the revisions that we included this year so you have a better sense of the capital projects that are coming and what they are based on um when we look at our schools uh capacity there are again over the last last few years we've looked at uh getting um resources aligned so that um capacity per grade level is the same throughout um the schools so if elementary schools in an attendance area fill up we would want the middle schools to fill up and then the high schools fill up and we're not aligned everywhere um Spotswood is actually

027fairly well aligned um but that's of course also the area where the county is growing because of the Urban Development Area a TA is also aligned um and then the other two attendance areas U East Rockingham the high school is basically really big for what the capacities are of below it and then in Broadway the high school is actually the bottleneck and so that um thinking you know went into the uh improvements to the capital Improvement plan and the changes uh these are the Broadway attendance area you can see that um we have you know per grade level 91 open seats basically um at the middle school and then about 94 at the elementary level and then at the high school that's only 27 and so that's where the bottleneck is uh that's addressed in

028the capital Improvement plan so you as you're aware the Broadway High School expansion will get underway shortly with Broadway High School uh then having the capacity to at students and uh we expect that to be completed in 2024 um eastrock him attendance area there plenty of Elementary capacity per grade level um the middle school is where the bottleneck is um and again we've talked about this at this point um they are just a little bit over um you know the 15 students over for the entire building so about five over uh per grade level and if um you know if for example there's additional capacity or additional students coming through for example if Gros grows um then the Middle School may be uh too much over capacity where you can't just add maybe one or

029two trailers and as we've talked about before you know the one solution for example uh if you want to avoid having to expand to middle school is to send eighth grade into a separate Wing at the high school it's fairly self-contained um that's a conversation we keep having you know with the middle school but ultimately you know that's one solution that's there again we always want to find the balance uh between you know traditional middle school education there where all the three grade uh grade levels are together but also you know the cost of an expansion you'll see that here in a little bit you know expanding a school is tremendously expensive and so there is one safety valve and that is moving eighth grade over and because eastra has so much capacity left you

030really could have a separate Wing so you don't have all these interactions all the time where you know the eighth graders would be uh with the high school senior years and so that's one of the approaches there but that's not an immediate concern there's not a tremendous growth in that area at this point so we'll be good for for a little while longer um Spotswood again the the high school there has um a little bit capacity left but not much right uh same for the other levels so when you look at elementary middle and high combined uh that's where the crunch still is um even with having redistricted some areas that will have to um happen again until the high school and the middle school um are expanded and so um we also see that

031you know cabun and Peak View uh they're simply a filling up two in fact cabun even though there's capacity left you know you have a school for 800 students on paper with 715 and one gym at the cafeteria the way it is that's already um pretty full in in those additional areas and so that's going to be one area that will have to be addressed um fairly soon and the expansion of Broadway provides a safety valve there uh and then ta that's actually um in the best shape of all the attendance areas certainly there's some Development coming in the TA attendance area but we're looking pretty good there um with you know 67 per grade level right this isn't um overall the the excess capacity of ta they have room uh for another 267 students

032um so the capital Improvement plan committee um got this update as well and and this is what they've worked through now in terms of prioritizing projects so Broadway um is the case where we're not asking the county to um you know take uh borrow money to to build the addition at Broadway uh that's money that's available through end of year funds through some of the funds we've saved actually doing the pandemic um and that allows us to uh build that expansion without asking taxpayers for additional funds and in fact at the last time you saw the presentation a little bit over a year ago you know we were talking about a uh price tag that was about 5 million lower um so this is now at 17.5 million but we're still able uh to make

033that happen and so again the expectation is that U by um summer 2024 uh that expansion will be completed and so what that means in terms of redistricting that is a conversation that will have to happen uh this upcoming um calendar year so uh with the school expanding in the summer of 2024 you know scheduling uh takes place in you know that begins in early January and there's also you know the whole budget process of of Staffing and and all the other resources that are needed that will have to be a conversation um beginning next spring and then uh through the fall to make a final decision it's one of the few areas actually where I've received repeated requests from families to be redistricted it's highly unusual right we don't usually see that um but

034when um Spotswood was split and East Ro opened uh there was a lot of excess capacity at Spotswood and so the Route 11 North Area was redistricted into the Spotswood attendance area and there's there have been some developments there um that um have been built over the last few years and a number of families have reached out and said why is my child on a bus for 45 minutes or whatever it may be over to caban uh when Lacy Springs just up the road and so that Route 11 North quarter it is a High School attendance area change of course but when you look at uh where we are at Peak View where we are at cuab run and where we are at Spotswood that's the most logical move and um even though you know

035it's always a mixed bag right not everyone will be thrilled about uh changing that High School attendance area but again that's not been in the spots with attendance area you know uh very long and but long enough that you don't have students that were redistricted and now have to go back right we've they've been there long enough that that's not um yeah where you're sending students back that uh at one point already um you know were Broadway and then had to switch so uh that certainly will uh help quite a bit in the um spots with attendance area at all three levels because as you know cabun students then move up into Lacy and some of that may involve some line changes um in the Broadway Elementary attendance areas because they won't all neatly fit

036into Lacy but there is some room at lyol adum uh there's some room you know if you FK Ron for example has room I know that seems that's not where those students were would go but some John C students can move over if you move over one road so there are some Elementary adjustments that can be made and then again that will help in the area that has the strongest pressure which is uh Spotswood then Elon Elementary renovation again we've talked to uh you know Miss Mast has already been in contact with the county repeatedly uh because some of those decisions again we have to know this fall that we can move forward and that looks good uh in terms of where they are prior prioritized so elen Elementary that's a$1 19 million renovation um

037there you know there's an HVAC system in there that's 50 years old and so best as AB batement you see that consistently these kitchen updates Windows circuits and the expectation there would be that that's completed by September 20125 also mville um similar timelines so those two would be uh simultaneous and um again there's an an HVAC system that's outdated same kind of upgrades as you have at alen elementary muton Technical Center in the last um iteration of this conversation that was on unknown where would where that would fit in because we hadn't really um completed all the steps in terms of looking at you know what would Harrisonburg city for example be able to not what they would contribute because that's set it's 8020 uh for facilities but uh the timeline for that so we've

038been talking to City Schools as well and um certainly those of you who did the walk through at MTC saw the need for upgrades there and a small expansion as well and um just came very quickly right so um we tried to fit that in and and the way the pricing works with uh the expansions at Spotswood and um also at manav videoo you could the price tax per year don't really change much if you slide MTC in and then spatswood and and manav videoo are pushed back one year uh that you know postpones those by a year and makes MTC um possible um again there's no with none of U with these there's a green light you know where where the school board has requested the funds um so this is still a couple

039years out but it's certainly the next one then on the radar because of the needs at MTC and again a few new programs would be added there um Spotswood High School and you can see you know that's an expansion of a high school um the price tag for renovation and expansion uh the renovation was already going to be quite expensive uh for the existing building but given the needs in the um Urban Development Area um we decided you know to also propose an expansion of that and so that's a a price tag of 70 million and uh you can tell you know how quickly the cost of of building has gone up um again renovation uh that was already in the plans and then again uh the growth in the UDA kind of requires ultimately

040even if you use that you know Route 11 North safety valve um it's going to continue to grow right the the UDA and so the completion date there would be 2029 and Then followed by uh manav videoo again in aligning capacities completion date 2030 so we're talking you know um 8 years out um that completion date so there are some additional ways uh capacity can be shifted but not um you know not forever right and so um certainly some of this depends on the economy how much the UDA is going to grow and of course once you expand um monov videoo and Spotswood you know as you saw they're currently fairly well aligned with Elementary capacity so if you expand the high school and the middle school um now you're going to be still short

041um some Elementary capacity and um the you know a couple of options uh to consider down the road uh one would be you know whether a new elementary school should be built uh we had um last year looked at you know the different options you know what what would it cost for example to build a new high school that was you know you read some of of that in the media um and then turning Spotswood into middle school and manav in elementary school that would be way more expens uh expensive than to actually expanding the high school expanding the middle school and building a new elementary school but with you know and a new elementary school would be somewhere in that UDA um if at all possible but there are some other uh creative options

042as well because in other attendance areas you know the TA attendance are with Pleasant Valley um in the East Rock attendance area with mville elementary school there are schools that have significant capacity so for example mville is just a couple miles down the road and because there's capacity you know uh one consideration for example could be to Simply say you know one class or two classes in each grade level even though they remain in the monov video spots with attendance area their classes at the elementary level simply take place at mville elementary school so a number of school divisions you know have um elementary schools that are split um the students stay together you know the kids that come out of the spots with attendance area they stay together so they're with the kids that

043they're going to move through the um through those years with but they may attend at a different school again those are all just ideas the the timeline is far enough in the future that um that can be discussed at some point whether that's an elementary school or um finding Creative Solutions to um let kids attend in a building where where there is room right so um that's really I I don't think that that would be particularly uh controversial in that case because again they'd stay together and they'd move through and um yeah that's uh the plan for now again this went to the capital Improvement plan committee um a few weeks ago and then um a couple weeks ago again the priorities were uh presented by the CIP committee and and they align well uh

044with what we have and again the count is working through what that would mean in terms of Debt Service um but all of these are on the radar and then again of course as the projects happen you would you know get that information and then of course there the official requests so this is just with the CIP committee the conversations that we've had um you know how we can move forward in keeping our facilities modern um you know we just recently uh leadership team and and I attended the um vast conference uh Virginia Association of school superintendents and one of the main requests you know from many many school districts has been um Capital funding because facilities are not in great shape and you come to Rockingham it's one of the first things everyone who

045visits comments on is how amazing our buildings are and that's because the School Division and the county have worked together over the years to keep these facilities updated uh to make sure that again that the square footage cost is kept at a reasonable level uh without sacrificing educational quality and when you walk into the buildings that have been renovated uh you know even though from the outside you can tell that's a building from the 50s you walk in and you feel like you're in a brand new school so uh Steve Reed's done a marvelous job with our buildings um and he and Cheryl work together all the time to make sure that uh what we propose is fiscally responsible but also uh Ed you know supports our education goals and so um yeah this is

046the plan for moving forward and I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have has the committee looked at uh Elton Middle School their cafeteria and the size that that is and I know that we they can't fit um all the kids for grade level when they they're breaking up from eating in classrooms and different areas and and they can't get everyone in the cafeteria so we looked at expand ing that at all um yeah so at this point El middle is not on the horizon I think that would happen um you know in combination with either talking about expanding Elon Middle School period right or again if you move the eighth grade over to the high school then that solves that problem all by itself and um again um we've had these conversations

047right there's uh because eighth grade is fairly self-contained it's the most logical um Step at at least for a while right we've done it the other direction um at one point you know with fifth grade and um so if there's so much space still at the high school that to create an eighth grade Wing um would really make sense um at least for a while until uh because then you know expanding the cafeteria and not expanding the school you know when you have those numbers I'm not sure that that would make sense right the when you do a project you want to to combine that just like we're doing at um Spotswood it's a renovation and an expansion um so I think that would be discussed probably again since you're already over um it would

048be in combination with a with an expansion of the school if that's the goal or and again you know moving eighth grade to a high school even though it's a move and it's unusual for here that's actually uh there are quite a number of school divisions that have high schools that are 8 through 12 and so I think that's probably the way um in the short term you would go but we have not again for everyone who's listening to there have been no decisions right that oh you know this year eighth grade's going to go over to school there's a little bit time you know at this point where you can still wait and then make a decision whether um if developments you know um happen where we expand the um number of students that

049we have in that attendance area then maybe an expansion of Alexon Middle School is the answer but you know if you're staying where you are then either you know you move that grade level over or um you talk about you know right expansion it's Broadway High School will drop the numbers at in spotswood's attendance area even though we have growth right now that'll drop the numbers at cabon and Peak View and monid as well and right now we're overc capacity at at Elton Middle School uh so yeah thank you I appreciate that what does moving the eighth grade do to our Fine Arts and our CTE programs who are typically split between like sixth seventh and eighth grade yeah um so the in some areas certainly there has to be some creative scheduling right um

050one of the you know if you have for example ta and Pence um you have quite a bit of distance right East Rock and Elton middle school that's uh fairly close so you know we we have that in other areas where teachers um for you know either for one of the two days or for some periods of the day you know the afternoon at a different School uh with CTE program certainly there can be some integration uh with the teachers that teach at the high school so you can expand that um so there are a number of options you have there we certainly wouldn't expect students to then not have access to the programs there are some advantages too right so um of having having the eighth graders there because they can participate in some

051programs that the high school um runs and and where it's appropriate you you can then take advantage of that go ahead um and should we consider redistricting the middle school and elementary schools this year uh into the Broadway District since that or I mean you could um it's mid November um again those schools start working on budget now I think that um that work takes more time then you have to make that decision so quickly right so we've looked at some lines but um again I think that's a conversation of for the uh 23 calendar year I think it's good to take the time to see you know what happens if you move uh for example other line for folks run because you know folks run for example you have some really small classes and

052so adding students doesn't mean you have to add staff there right so um adding to some of those smaller schools L Linville Edom in some grade levels as well you actually across the board then lower uh class sizes a little bit because right now if you have you know 26 students for example um in a class at folks run you're not going to leave that as one class so you have 13 and 13 and so if you shift kids in you know you can add um you know another you know eight kids um in each of those classes without having to add a teacher but that reduces then class sizes at those schools that you're pulling from and so I think it's more comprehensive look and you know we talked about this whether because the

053high school's going to be finished you could in theory um you know alleviate the pressure on Cub Run and Peak View and um next summer right even the Middle School uh you could move those because it doesn't yet affect the high school but I think if you want to take a more comprehensive approach to a shifting some of the other lines again not all the students in the Route 11 North Corridor would have room at Lacy's so there has to be some shifting I think it's better to to take the time and do that um we'll we would talk about that early spring um and you know a decision could be made if everyone feels comfortable before the summer and otherwise it's a decision for the fall but we certainly bring uh proposals in the

054spring I'm already leading the Coalition uh to grandfather all our soccer players in the spotwood so they won't have to leave the attendance area yeah these three I think would not be affected but there is certainly the possibility I think of some uh students that leave uh live in that Route 11 North Corridor I think I'm not sure how much it affects the boys team I'm not aware of anyone on the girls team but as you know uh that of course will be the basis for all my decisions I'm just kidding yes let's make that clear that you're just kidding yeah and my my question was basically from a standpoint of kids building relationships um and there's probably stuff that we can also do I mean the kids in the red 11 North Area are

055probably already playing soccer with the kids at Broadway aren't they and and there's probably things that we could do to maybe build relationships sure in many environments and again I mean there's always that that year when the move happens right so whether that happens uh this spring you know or this summer um or the following year you know those there's already a group of students of course that are together you know you're not moving just uh two or three that are in a new environment and um there are all kinds of um events that those students participate in together you know whe and when we talk about sports for example you know you have um travel soccer Rec Soccer that's um you have you know all the basketball leagues um at Horizon's Edge and and

056whatever else it may be um you know the swim team up in Broadway so again in many ways it's it's this isn't based on School attendance U lines in all these cases and so yeah again I think there will be that point and whether that's sooner or or the following year I'm not sure that that is a critical difference I think it's better to take the time and and draw these lines in a way that they can remain then for a while I first I apologize for my coughing I don't know if it was the price tag that had me choked up or the fact that we were talking about 2031 already but I would just issue a a word of caution I obviously won't be around to participate in that decision making at that

057point but with expansion at sponsord High School the last time we looked at that there were restrictions um Upon Us due to just the the the land that we own um it's a very long narrow plat of land and currently the school kind of goes side to side so the only areas of for expansion were back or forward back toward the mountain there's the issue of limestone that is quite significant out toward the front you eliminate parking you get into potentially Playing Fields um and a sinkhole that was there and so I I'm sure that all of that has been considered this time I I certainly hope so but I think if it's not we need to revisit that before we put all of our all of our eggs so to speak in the basket

058of eventually heading towards an expansion of Spotswood um up is not an option or it wasn't at that time Steve because when a building is built it has to be built so that it can support what goes uh on top of it and then the issue of the railroad tracks remains an an issue with that school as you increase the number of students who potentially move in there and I'm well aware as I look at these numbers of the of the costs of building a new high school but at the time that we were looking at East uh East Rockingham High School what is now East Rockingham High School those were very real limitations that were placed upon us with regards to expanding Spotswood so I just sort of bring that historical perspective back into

059it so thank you absolutely and I don't think the expansion of spots with this time would be at the scale that you would have needed it um in terms of you know adding e right so and that would be a couple hundred students other questions or comments thank you sir good report 2022 23 accreditation report M Cheryl Eep Mr Breeden Dr Shel members of the board and those in attendance I am pleased to share our division's 2022 2023 accreditation report accreditation standards in Virginia include multiple indicators in addition to pass rates for all students on the so assessments accreditation standards have school quality indicators that address achievement gaps and student engagement in order for a school to be accredited all School quality indicators must be at either level one or level two or the student

060must be under an accreditation waiver schools who have been accredited for three consecutive years are granted a waiver for three years during this waiver period School are designated as accredited schools who have any school quality indicators at level three will be designated as accredited with conditions in order for a school to be denied accreditation the school must fail to adopt or fully Implement required corrective actions to address level three indicators for the 2022 2023 school year 89% of Virginia's public schools are accredited in Rockingham County all of our 23 schools are accredited four of our schools were accredited under the three-year waiver these are the school quality indicators that are used to determine State accreditation the achievement indicators in English Math and Science include the so results for all students the achievement Gap indicators in

061English and math include so results for subgroups of students schools also earn level s for the school quality indicators listed under student engagement this year chronic absenteeism was not considered when determining a school's accreditation status but it will resume as an indicator in 2022 excuse me in 2023 2024 the high schools also earned levels for graduation and completion and Dropout rates beginning in 2023 the college career Readiness quality indicator will also be included the level for the academic achievement indicator is determined by the pass rate for all students on the so assessments 22 of our schools earned a level one rating for English and one of our schools earned a level two for math all of our schools are rated at level one for science 16 of our schools are rated at level one four

062schools are rated at level two and three schools are rated at level three a school's achievement Gap indicator they are determined by the English and math so test performance of the eight student subgroups the subgroups include Asian black white Hispanic multiple races economically disadvantaged students with disabilities and English Learners an overall level is determined based on the levels of these separate subgroups Rockingham County has 15 schools at level one for English and 17 schools at level one for math when determining the performance level for English and math in grades three 3-8 the combined rate is used the com the combined rate includes students who did not pass the so assessment but showed growth the English combined rate also includes English learner students who failed the reading s test but showed progress towards Proficiency in English

063as measured by the English language proficiency assessment in addition to English in grades 3 through eight progress on the English language proficiency assessment is also included in the combined rate for English at the high school level the levels for the student engagement indicators are found in these tables for chronic absenteeism a level one represents that 15% or less of the school students were chronically absent having a dropout rate of less than or equal to 6% is required for a high school to earn a level one on this indicator a graduation and completion index of 88 or higher is needed to earn a level one the GCI is calculated using a point system which is based on the final status of students in the senior cohort each diploma earns 100 points geds certificates of completion and

064students who are still active on the last day of school earn less points this table shows the comparison of the state and County ontime graduation rates the division's 2022 graduation rate was 94.5% and the rate for Virginia was 92.1% as shown in the chart Rockingham County has met or exceeded the State graduation rate for the past several years the drop at rate is not the inverse of the ontime graduation rate in addition to graduates and dropouts a cohort includes students who completed high school with a GED students on long-term medical leave students who completed high school without earning a state recognized credential and students who are still still enrolled the 2021 2022 Dropout rates for the state and the division are shown here as we work to continue to improve we are focusing on reading

065and math instruction we are expanding expanding our use of authentic performance assessments and are striving to achieve effective technology integration in our classrooms thank you thank you questions comments thank you I would I certainly do not need it this evening but I would I'd like some some more specific information on the achievement Gap in terms of you know what what groups do we have a particular group or groups that are that are not meeting or that there's a I just like to see how how big the Gap is I guess is what I'm stammering to say say and um and then maybe we can have a discussion about how we close that Gap as to why that may be the case thank you all right uh policy revisions Dr alifer and Miss Williams good evening

066Mr Breeden Dr shyo on Schoolboard members this evening we have several um policies for your information I've kind of broken them into a couple of groups the first five policies are those that we're adding some revisions too policy uh GBC is a political activities policy and we are actually adopting the vsba policy um as they have it written and I believe the difference that you'll see in that one is the definition of what political restrictions are as you review that policy policy G excuse me GC BB the supplemental pay we're moving away from our Rockingham County policy to the vsba policy and the difference there is just the wording uh within the first paragraph of our current policy and that of the vsba policy GCB d-2 personal leave policy we're staying with our Rockingham County

067policy but we have updated that a bit and you'll notice under um 7B where it talks about carrying over leave um in the previous policy you had to be employed for an X period of time in order to do that and now that's just becomes automatic you get to carry that leave over each year is the minor difference there gcpa um is a policy that talks about reduction of Workforce and again we're updating our current Rockingham County policy and then GDI is support staff when when they're a transfer request we're updating our Rockingham County policy uh initially it was said that you were entitled to a move and now it will be as um you may request that move it's not always a guarantee each as you know many of these policies are just being

068updated as we review our policies on a regular basis so we change some wording that better meets the the need of the day uh so most of these were just updates of Rock inham County policies and they were all from the Personnel Department any questions on those updates um and then there was another group of policies that were also Personnel policies that are listed there G dbd GD d g DJ gdpd these are all policies that deal with scheduling leave absences hiring schedules um they were policies that pun revieww were contained within other policies at some point in time we had a Rockingham County policy specific to those but upon review We Now note that they are contained within other policy so they're just being deleted and then the final one I'm going to turn

069over to Dr alderford um for his review of jcf thank you Miss Williams chairman Breeden members of the board um Dr Dr Shel um the policy that I'll be reviewing will be as she mentioned a JFC which is alcohol and drugs in school U unfortunately over the course of uh the beginning of this year we've seen a significant increase uh in the number of cases in which students have been um having in possession of or using um substances at school um this was a concern of ours obviously uh we spent some time talking about it uh with our uh Secondary School principles um and have had an opportunity to discuss some ideas with them as far as what some changes uh that we may want to put in place uh to the policy um a

070few weeks ago uh uh central office staff um put together a draft of the policy uh we shared that with uh the Middle School principles and High School principles um they had a chance to provide some input uh I made a couple of adjustments um as well uh and that uh is the the revised policy that you have before you tonight for information um I wanted to just highlight a few of the changes and then um I'll be happy to answer questions you may have um the first change was on page two where there's uh the inclusion of THC um as one of the specific uh substances um that's listed there um that is the number one issue that we're seeing uh we're seeing students with uh Vape uh pin Vape uh devices uh that

071have THC with them so U by far that is the thing that we're seeing the most that uh as far as the increase uh from this year from from the past uh the next uh area that there are some changes is in the um section on penalties for substance abuse violation um before I talk about the kind the changes or the adjustments that we're making I wanted to just share what the current practice is so uh currently whenever there's a situation where a student um has is in possession of or is under the influence of of a uh a substance uh they are suspended for 10 days and they are referred to a hearing officer um that will meet with them and the family during that that 10-day period uh that hearing officer then makes

072a determination about um what to do with that situation if there's a change in placement or um whether there's other expectations poor School standing uh those types of things that could that could happen um most often um the student is returned back to the school um and then they will be on poor School standing for some period of time um but that typically is the extent uh there may be recommendation for um for substance abuse uh counseling or or uh training um but not always um so uh we wanted to make a few adjustments to that um and I'll I'll talk about what those are in a moment um well I'll talk about them first and then and then tell you some of the rationale uh for them so so the proposal would be for

073U there to be a consistent um approach for any firsttime offense unless a principal saw the need to send it to a hearing officer so uh on a first offense a student would be um given an out of school suspension or excuse me a suspension of 10 days which could be some combination of out of school suspension or in school suspension um so that would be up to the principal's discretion but it does allow again the student to be separated uh from other students um Again part of that time would be out of school but also then be in school for some period receiving uh Services additionally um each student would be placed on poor School standing for uh 90 school days that would be uh defined in policy and be consistent across the board

074so that all students would be receiving the same thing and probably most importantly um each student would be required to complete a substance abuse course uh in in order for them to uh eventually be removed from poor School standing um so they would be doing the 90 days of poor School standing regardless um but in order for them to be removed off of that they would need to complete that substance abuse training which we would be we partnering or would be partnering with um ASAP in Harrisonburg uh and we would be uh paying for that um for students as well um as I mentioned before um at any point a student or excuse me a principal if they feel the need that this situation should go to the hearing officer because they believe that a

075potential change of placement to either Rockingham Academy or night school or some other situation uh would be um a good option they can do so um but in situations in which they would expect their recommendation for the student to come back to the school uh that this would be uh we would follow this this first set of the policy um the second part of this is um for any subsequent offense uh in those situ situations the student would automatically be referred to either uh the hearing officer or to the school board um per possible expulsion if it felt we felt like the need was there for for that to happen um so again that would be very similar to what our current practice is where we bring students in uh again they have a hearing

076and then the that hearing officer then makes uh makes a determination U some of the rationale for um the revision or the changes um is number one uh providing just Clarity regarding the consequences it's spelled out in policy uh students parents everyone knows exactly what would be the case in case a student were to again bring a substance alcohol or some drugs to school um there's transparency about what's expected and there's consistency across the board um so those are two items um thirdly uh it would reduce the number of uh days that students would be out of school um for such an off events again they would be away from students for the entire 10 days but it would provide some opportunity for students to be in school and in school suspension receiving uh Services

077there research has supported uh that approach that having kids out of school for that length of time for 10 days is not productive for them um in any way um importantly as I mentioned before it ensures the substance abuse uh course is taken by all students um so that's something that would be expected of them and again in order for them to be removed uh from poor School standing um they would need to complete that course through ASAP and finally it uh reduces demands on staff So currently a hearing officer process um demands we have four people who serve in that that capacity so those folks um their time is committed as well as principes and other folks to come into the central office uh in many cases when we're um pretty much doing something

078that about the 10 days and sending kids back so uh that also saves some of their time um again this is a problem um we're not the only ones that are seeing this issue um around the the state um but it's something that we felt strongly that we needed to get a handle on uh we hope again that a change like this will be um open some kids' eyes make sure they know what's going on what to be expecting um and also provide some education to them uh for those who are in violation I'm happy to answer any questions you may have questions board members what I guess one of the changes would would be them taking a substance abuse class is that correct talking about that that would be mandated under this policy currently

079students are able to uh they're offered that option and in those cases they're able to take it and if they complete it they can it allows them to get um off of poor School standing early um this wouldn't that wouldn't be an OP option in this case this would be essentially for them they would need to take it in order for them to get back onto their kind of good school standing after the 90 days have you looked at uh it being more than 90 days I mean we've progressively throughout the years uh it used to be that if someone was if a student had uh drugs on them then they was ex um expelled for a year and so our our our standards have just continually dropped as well so there's really I mean

080there's really no um when they make an offense in doing this there's really no responsibility that they're they're being held to in such a way that they come back to school within 10 days they got only have a 90day period when they're on poor School standing so if they play sports you know that's that's a reason for some of them not to do drugs while they're at school um so I would like to see it have a little bit more teeth in it of saying you if you're going to bring drugs to school and and get caught with drugs is school like this then this going to be more than just a 90day slap on the wrist come back to school play sports and everything else so maybe that's an idea of of seeing kids

081not bring the drugs to school as much as to require more out of them uh and the responsibility they have so um I would I would definitely suggest that there would be something more than just a 90-day period of where they can't with they're on poor school standings okay thank you yeah just to clarify the 90 days is only um if the student completes the substance abuse training right so right now the student may come back actually significantly uh sooner if they complete the training so this is a minimum of 90 days and then if the student does not complete the substance abuse training it can be longer right and it also changes and and that's intentional of course that there will be uh one it will alleviate this kind of constant visit to the

082hearing officer and then you're going right back it just takes up the hearing officer's time if that's kind of the standard response uh but what we're seeing is I'm attende out of school suspension um you know no one comes back better um because what you know what a student will likely do for the 10 days is that they're at home have you considered night school um so well in this case so it is um in school right so they would have they uh what we're hoping is that instead of saying there's a 10-day break uh that the student remains in school but separate um in in the Bas program um or some other you know so they'll be in school right that alone um for some students is sometimes the incentive is because now okay

083have a and we've heard that right I mean we've heard it from students C my 10day break right and if the student's been vaping THC at school well you can imagine during those 10 days um that that's exactly what's likely happening during those 10 days and so um changing it to in school suspension you you know some people argue well that's you know that's not as strict in fact for many students it's a disincentive right because they don't then they're still coming to school every day and then again uh for the subsequent um offense it's it it steps it up right so so I think it's a mix of incentive for First Response uh for the first incident but then um you know second incident's going to be different so so it's definitely longer than

084than it has been I'll also note that uh the uh adjustment was made and this was one of the suggestions from the principles uh we initially just put 90 days and they uh wanted it to be clear that it was 90 school days and the reason for that is that sometimes we would have situations where um if it said 90 days or whatever the case may be and then uh if the violation happened in May and then students came back and it it was unclear whether that picked up then in September Etc so this is clear that it it goes for 90 school days right so those the days that we're counting um not counting weekends not counting holidays those types of things so um that's also consistent which would be right at exactly a

085semester right so 90 days that's how many days we would have in a in a typical semester quite just a few days over in fact we use night school um we use night school that that is one of the options that the um hearing officer would have available to them right and so the in a second uh subsequent offense uh when it would come to to the um to the hearing officer they would have and that would typically uh end in a change in placement any kind of second offense would typically in there which would either be Rockingham Academy night school or in some cases we even have students at home uh working through online uh and then they may check in at the school so um we typically try to do it in the

086order of um kind of tier one would be at the school we even have some alternative Ed there then we would go to Rockingham Academy which would be our tier two um where they're in school all day and then night school which is only several hours is our kind of The Last Resort typically I'm confused I'm sorry um so the substance abuse course is that required at this point currently it is not required but this would require would make it a requirement correct it's not just you're out for 10 days and then 90 days you're on uh correct bad what's it called standing correct this would you're on poor School standing and you have to you have to do the class that's correct and we are providing u in fact we're we're working with ASAP

087they are they are on board with helping us with this um and and providing the the instructor in the program um currently um that takes place um students get transportation to Rockingham Academy they do that over the course of uh several weeks where they can get so during the school day they can go there for several hours and get training we're also working with them to offer it at other times whether that be in the evening or whether it be on Saturdays to give uh families options about how they would handle that thank you longevity has some benefits and I've served long enough that I can remember when boards would expel students pretty pretty quickly and one of the things that we heard from the juvenile courts and from probation officers and others was that

088that just tends to accelerate a vicious circle that as kids are put out of school that they're more likely to be seen in the courts wind up in the penal system um because a lot of these kids unfortunately don't have the support structure at home to see that when they are out of school that they're doing uh what it is they need to be doing and so uh over the years we have found that there are other ways of keeping kids engaged in their education um that doesn't just put them out there to the Wolves so to speak and U and that has at least from what I've witnessed seems to have worked uh a little more effectively that's not to say that there's not consequences it's not to say that our um our standards

089have de increased it's just a difference in the methodology we use to deal with it yeah well so and I do believe that the inclusion of a required substance abuse training is significant in this too right so this is something that it's not just about a punishment situation we are trying to educate kids trying to put them in a position where they can make better decisions uh and understand maybe the you know implications of their of their choices thank you both we'll call if we have questions about those board members you do have a financial review an attendance report and um a reminder of the vsba capital conference in January um if you're interested in attending that conference uh contact the board Clerk and um with that we will move into other business of Schoolboard

090questions and reversing the order I'll start with Mr Cross thank you I'm sorry had to go restroom I like to ask Dr Shel this I got two questions uh with the community dialogue group what what is the endgame would you say what's the end game for this group uh at the end of it all and when is the end date that you found with that that's a great question um so the purpose of the community dialogue was of course to create a process where we can tackle um topics that are very emotional in the community that are controversial in the community in a um in a respectful but also well planned way um it's uh we started with a very small group just to see whether we can get people who really strongly disagree but

091have that commitment to public education in Rockingham County and also um agree on the communications protocol basically you know you you speak for yourself uh we don't assign you know in public who said what we uh focus on um listening as much as we focus on uh speaking and uh we started that very small just to see whether even two people you know can successfully do that or four people and then we expanded it to a larger group to see whether uh with one fa facilitator who is highly qualified um whether we can really get people from across the political Spectrum social um ideas you know um to be in these meetings and it wasn't always easy um but really with enough work and the commitment to the process that worked really really well um

092originally the plan was actually to have the smaller group and then to just have a public event and the example we had seen was uh from New England where that there was a community event about at that time I think it was a healthcare related topic and um but what we found was that in the in the smaller group so 20 some people it took significant work to really get to a point where we felt like now we can take the next step and there was somewhat of a consensus that we weren't quite ready for uh you know full community dialogue where you say anyone now in any case uh people who want to participate uh would have to agree to that you know Communications protocol call we're not going to be yelling at people

093you know we're not going to call people names we're focusing on listening um speaking speaking for ourselves and and again being respectful in that dialogue but where we can talk about all the topics that are um sometimes on our minds and um you know what we found was that even at 23 we weren't quite comfortable yet to say and now let's have the full community dialogue and so there was this idea to expand it one more time to expand it to uh maybe 80 people or so so and and give that a try and if we see that that works it's kind of a small scale version of the big Community dialogue uh that then uh we can move on and so um the goal would be um in the spring so again in the

094while we're doing this you know there's student voice that's included so 11th graders are working on a project across all for high schools they will present to the board in January just their ideas for ensuring that um all students you know are cared for and safe and respected in school and then um in the spring we would have the community event so again where the only um pie is you know be willing to talk about these topics respectfully agree to the communications protocol and it'll be facilitated and so what happens now it's just this kind of last inter immediate step and so um once we see that that works then we can expand that now long term of course you know at the event with about 80 people we'll have a number of facil ators

095you know they're uh graduate students in in various um areas like conflict resolution or mediation and so they trained um for that the people that were part of the um that group of 20 some people they will also be at those tables do we have experience you know with just how the process works and um yeah that's basically you know we're we're experimenting with that and it gives us a method so the communications protocol has been developed so once the public event happens which I would still expect to be heavily facilitated um then there is a a method in place that's really the ultimate goal it's not to have every conversation in the community uh professionally mediated and we can get to a point where we've done it often enough that there's a process in

096place here's how we set this up here's what you have to agree on here are lots of questions that can be asked and um that can then be discussed and so I think ultimately it's an approach to to tackling difficult topics um more than anything um but it's really helpful to have the expertise at the table to see how this can work at a larger and larger scale but I fully expect there to be an event at the spring where anyone who agrees to again that respectful uh dialogue protocol is welcome to attend um I will say that or there go I will say that when I looked at the the dialogue group as a whole just as uh who was on it um because I really didn't know who was on it for a

097long time um but when I saw the names of those were on it I I am disappointed that we didn't have a broader sense of minorities sitting on this group like the Latino population I believe was totally missed out on this uh our Muslim population as well being represented on there are Russians ukrainians we have a large uh number of the um that demographics in our in our community so I would have liked to have seen at the initial step these minorities sitting on this uh Community dialogue because it's very important that they that their voices would be heard as well so hopefully going forward in the group we see uh their voices being represented uh in this dialogue that we're having uh as a School Division no question about it and again in this

098next step uh we already have um some of that that expansion and a translator right so we have to the logistics sometimes can get uh pretty complicated we were um you know in the discussions early on that was certainly part of the conversation um and sometimes again there short notice and and um you know finding people that are willing to join us it's also difficult I think sometimes for um especially for a non-english speakers right to to feel confident enough to uh go to a group where you have 20 some people discussing uh these uh political and educational topics and to be willing to join that and so that Outreach is continuing and then certainly uh that's the goal because um the more we can be reflective of the community in all its ways uh

099the better off we will be so uh no voices should be excluded I agree with you 100% and that will just take uh some uh heavy lifting and and certainly you know that's that certainly the goal and uh absolutely uh some groups um probably under represented in that group of 20 but what you also find is when you look at who needs to be at the table you know that 20 just isn't you you very quickly um exceed that number and so in the group with um 80 that will be a little bit better and then absolutely that Outreach needs to be there to all groups I agree with you wholeheartedly I'm thank you um for answering those questions um last I I have a questions on um what are we doing with um with

100our concerns with security when it comes to open doors within our school or unlock doors throughout the school day um throughout our School Division have we addressed that are we are we what are we doing as a School Division to make sure throughout our school day that our that our students and staff are safe while they're at school in just one area making sure the doors are locked yeah good question and um it It's tricky sometimes when we talk about security posture right that we don't necessarily talk about that in public um but uh you know we had that conversation about uh for example when the um when the schools are audited you know for their safety posture what happens we've added a follow-up step to that just like the fire marshall does you know

101when when they come through but there's also a project on the way particularly and again I don't want to say too much um at this point but we're looking at a number of options especially for securing doors so um we have an item I believe on the executive agenda tomorrow again to talk about that uh involving um you know different approaches to ensuring that the doors are closed um it involves you know whether uh we want to go in the direction of uh key cards uh where you know door each individual door costs you know a couple thousand dollars because you have to have electricity there but then you also have you know alarms that don't stay open but uh one key card can open all the doors some someone needs to open so you

102know those are some of the conversations we're having but external access absolutely is one of the most critical areas yeah I'm one of the recommendations that of course this is an area I worked in for almost 10 years in Rockham County Public Schools and uh looking at the doors and them being open I mean students are leaving at the high school level they'll prop the doors open or put blocks in there or rocks whatever it may be to going out to their car and coming back in those things are left in there sometimes um um teachers Keys they'll forget to lock them back sometimes when they come in our buildings um different things like that well one of the an easi um solution to this would be and the SRO is not available to check

103doors all the time because his he may be called here or there but we do have custodial staff and other people in within the buildings that could easily do a a quick s uh search in the morning time before school start to make sure those doors are locked and um and then also have something accountable ability to where we have a sheet that's saying yes I checked all those doors this morning before school started and then another time halfway through the day because there's people that coming and going throughout the day and I think it's important just to have this simple defense um from any outside threats trying to come in our schools uh just making sure that our doors are locked and we have uh the Personnel we have the staff there to be

104able to do this uh it's just something of implementing and something that's very C effective I mean all all we're asking as them to do is to check their doors first thing in the mornings when the bell rings that they could check it and then maybe sometime after lunch uh the last lunch block or something to check those doors again that way they're safe and secure in the evening uh going forward because sometimes it just mistakes happen I'm not I'm not blaming uh anything happen but it would be nice to have those doors uh checked uh throughout the daytime and that that is something that's just um um cost effective that we can do it's easy uh but just doing it and having that done so I'd like to throw that in there as y'all

105talk about this um there that to at least think about that idea going forward that there's someone checking those doors uh once or twice a day uh throughout the school day and at elementary level all the way to the high school thank you yeah and again we're trying to figure out the best combination between you know um the technical approach to it you know where certain to just um there are no keys you know so we can restrict who can even open those uh so that they're not unlocked and then others the more necessary ones with maybe a key card uh because again inevitably um you know these approaches where you say well we rely on people to do the right thing again we find then um it just takes one right um where that's

106not done and and then of course you know that's where the issue happen so we're trying to find a combination of and we'll certainly keep that in mind in terms of uh you know scheduled checks absolutely thank you for doing that and I and I will say by experience that I'm it's it's not just occasionally the doors are left unlocked or propped open or anything like that so if we could address that um I'll tell you again it is um but if we could address this issue it's a simple address to address the do I mean it's something that it was a battle I fought all the time as a school resource officer was making sure our doors were locked in the schools and and most definitely at the high school level you see more

107of of that offense happening but it does happen at the middle in the elementary school as well so I will say the elementary schools are are harder to get into when it comes to unlock doors um but a simple fix would be if the custodial staff or someone in the school could check those doors in the morning time before school starts and then maybe a second time throughout the day just going through and checking and make sure the doors are locked something's in there Y and we have talk to all our principles about this school year right about um needing to be better at that thank you follow thank no thank you thank you m lore I'll pass thank you Dr mcquilkin thank you Mr Breen uh I'm going to make a request that um

108second semester February March April that we hear we hear some presentations of the academic uh programs that are going on in our school division uh I think we have a lot of good things happening some new things happening and I I think that um because that's what we're here for is to educate our students I think we would like to hear about those programs absolutely Mr folk Dr Shel um in November the uh joint legislative audit and review Commission released a report on the effects on K12 public education in Virginia from the uh pandemic and they list everything from uh chronic absenteeism to mental health issues among students to the difficulty in finding teachers and retaining teachers and the fact that fewer teachers fewer people are getting certified to teach in Virginia at uh and

109just all of those issues and could you give us some idea of how we stand on those circumstances with that are contained in the jart report yeah so the jar report there were a number of news articles about two weeks ago um well even last week uh related to it and there was some real those really interesting information and unfortunately as with many things that so jar is nonpartisan so that's a really a research organization uh that doesn't lean you know one way or the other um it gets politicized very quickly um when we you know no one was surprised that uh during the pandemic for example um academic achievement as measured in standardized tests that cover um let's say fifth grade right that those achievement scores would be lower than they were before the

110pandemic and even coming back right so even now uh we still see achievement scores uh below what they were pre pandemic and it it makes a lot of sense um because you know what we said to teacher specifically is you know let's not focus on these tests that you know we sometimes teach to uh that are focused on just teaching that fifth grade curriculum you you know these fifth graders the last normal year in school you know was third grade so um or second grade what do we do for what they missed in third and fourth and to fill in those gaps and then move forward because these are long-term projects really of recovery and um so that's what we focused on but then when you listen to what the politicians are saying it's immediately

111oh students are achieving we need to have tougher standards we need to punish schools you know for not achieving uh when what we really find is that school divisions that uh focus on uh kind of these long-term recovery plans uh may be uh doing students um you know a better service than than to Simply say oh you didn't learn all the fifth grade stuff yeah because you missed you know you know third and fourth uh to a large extent and so um what we have done is is make sure that teachers focus on uh ensuring that you know their students are okay first of all you know mental Behavioral Health um we see that in many school districts it's not you know we've seen it too an increase in um in disciplinary issues but you

112have talk to superintendent all the time you know it's it's massive in some school districts and um for us you know with the way we approached it we already had a system in place you know to really focus on mental Behavioral Health First students had toar learn how to be in school again um we need to make sure teachers are okay and so for us we have the two systems of support piece in place and other school divisions you know they quickly realized they needed that and so uh they focused on throwing a lot of exra money at um additional staff and mental Behavioral Health but they also realize that you know you wait another year and a half that money is gone and so what are they going to do then so they're just

113hoping for additional State money because our T Systems uh structure is fully funded you know we don't have that concern it's going to be here and so uh we're in a good position for that uh when it comes to learning recovery realizing what's really really important you saw some of the accreditation stuff you know where you looked at science well it's because when you come back and you have these kids that didn't have you know second third grade or third fourth grade whatever it may be we need to focus on literacy right uh so science maybe did take a little bit of a backseat but in many cases you know there was an additional focus on we need to get reading right that's the most fundamental skill we need to focus on how can we

114make all students successful in math and and I will say you know when it comes to our reading instruction um you know we've uh when you look at the pal scores for example are the spring pal scores after for kindergarteners so for the students you know that were in kindergarten in 2019 but then the kindergarteners this past year so the first time we see them how much our new reading program is already paying dividends so um even after a difficult year like we had last year um our kindergarten pal scores uh we had fewer kids below Benchmark last year than we had pre pandemic and so that's kindergarten and then we saw the same thing when you looked at growth within the year uh how much our teachers are working to look at where students

115are and then move them ahead uh when you look at students that when they come in are below Benchmark in Pals and then the higher Benchmark is in the the spring how many of the students that were below Benchmark in the fall um then made it above Benchmark we did better um last year than we did pre pandemic so this you know this focus on reading so we have to be very careful you know when we look at reading so scores because that tests not matched with what you know we taught that year and so um you know focusing on what where the kids are and and what's needed and so when it comes to achievement absolutely we saw a drop and um we're working very hard to address that when you talk about behaviors

116having uh mental and behavioral support there that's continuing and where we have experts uh that do that and have First Responders you know with our Behavior Support assistants and this medical model you know with behavior Specialists bcbas psychologists social workers counselors and so on and so I think that gets us um well prepared for that and um really the the piece that's um also clearly visible is like you said uh the enormous teacher shortage and again because of the work of our HR department and what our principles do and how um we treat our employees uh we don't see it quite yet to the same extent that other school divisions do um Miss lure was at the legislative breakfast with me shann andoa county is half the size of Rockingham County and they had 17

117openings uh for teachers 17 um at this point of the school year right and uh we have three and so that's a big difference right so again what we've talked about is being a destination Division and when they looked at um from so at the end of last year more than 10,000 teachers left the profession whether that's you know for a number of reasons um you know including retirees but 10,000 fewer teachers but then only um about 8,000 new ones came in and so there are lots and lots of classrooms in Virginia um without a qualified educator and so you want to focus on um student achievement you know you first have to address to have a highly qualified person in the room and um and it's historically really been for the same reasons that

118teachers leave the profession you know education schools don't graduate um as many um students anymore and uh the factors are certainly pay and the general assembly addressed that with the governor's budget so uh Governor yonan uh in in the budget that 5 % pay increase two years in a row so um but we were able to make it 7% here you know for teachers to make sure that again we acknowledge that um but pay isn't the only thing it's time with colleagues time available to actually uh plan and then also a major factor when they looked at um the feedback that jart got was a respect right respect um of course from the school division from administrators but also respect from from the public um we saw that very quickly you know teachers being the

119heroes for turning on a dime and in the spring of 2020 U making uh at least some educational opportunities available even though the state shut down the education programs um but then that very quickly became uh very critical of teachers and and it it is a little bit uh concerning right now that um and this is you know again we've said a lot of good things about um for example the lab school model you know the funding for that that's coming out of Richmond uh the focus on the science of reading so lots of good things but there are also concerns and right now it is U not showing appropriate respect to the professional Educators you know we uh the new history and social studies um standards are up for review and they were developed

120in collaboration with Educators for years uh we had um African-American history uh committee we had all this input from superintendents from teachers from families on what uh social study standards should be and that they address more of you know this place-based learning we've talked about where we really look at local history uh where we allow students to bring their own families history in whether that's you know through some of the inquiries or you know the project uh with the national park you know at East Rockingham high school and that's completely kind of been shut down so um this week on Thursday the new social science standards are coming to the Board of Education which makes the decision and du had been dragging their feet now for a couple months and finally the board said we

121want to see these standards and so rather than saying okay we'll bring them and then we can talk about what may need to change um without anyone knowing no teachers no superintendents no one was contacted about this at the last minute they just had an outset organization rewrite them um where all of a sudden Martin Luther King Jr disappears from the elementary curriculum in social studies where uh there are number numerous historical errors in the document and it was done without asking Educators and in addition to what we had with the tip line right um it's that's showing disrespect um to the profession and I think we have to be very very careful there all kinds of conversations to be have in discussions and so respect for teachers is critical and um while we still

122have highly qualified applicants in the school division um if that gets worse right the when you have one or two applicants we used to have 20 or 30 for each position now you're down to maybe having 1 two three applicants for a position that goes to zero very quickly right if more and more people leave the profession and so I think the jar study pointed uh to things across the picture you know whether that's student Behavior where we have to have these structures in place uh whether that's achievement where we really have to focus on what are the really important skills that you know kids need particularly literacy and math so when you talk about reading writing or arithmetic gr it's not that far off from that I mean these are the key pieces but

123certainly then you have science social studies uh Fine Arts PE you know all the other things um but we need to make sure that we you know align what we do with what kids need and then um yeah respect for for the profession I think is important and so the jarch study um was came at a time when it's sorely needed to bring these topics into the public conversation and and again uh we're trying to address all of that even again when we talk about respectful Community dialogue I think it goes a long way uh when as Educators we engage with the community in a respectful way and can discuss differences in philosophy but but do it in a way where we don't feel like um as as Educators we're attacked that the profession is

124attacked right and so um it was an important um commission report and I think everyone's now um trying to address it but again these are all pieces that we're working on um daily for those interested in seeing the report you can find it at jc. virginas spell. goov and then go to the area that says reports and it's uh it's a very informative and Well Done piece and it it it outlines all of the challenges that uh are being faced and and I was in reading it over the part that impressed me was uh under the what we recommend and in legislative and executive action and it's these are things that Rockingham has done for the past four years or five years to to prepare we didn't know that we were preparing for a pandemic

125but we were just doing what you know studied best practices indicate you do and that has helped thank you Dr shik pass okay um I'll be brief because as we have in our closed beating uh motion we do have consultation with legal counsel and they're sitting and waiting and they don't wait cheaply if cheaply is a word um but I to get back to the um Community dialogue pieces uh I have noticed particularly with the with the mushrooming of social media that it has become more and more challenging through the limited structure of board meetings to have meaningful dialogue with people at at at meetings because there's just so much information good and correct and incorrect that you would that you would spend your time dealing with and I there was one meeting at Spotswood

126I think sometime in 2020 um where there were people shouting at one another in the audience and demanding answers from the board and I I offered to stay I said the other board members have to go into close session but I I'll stay and answer questions to the best of my ability um I can't speak for the entire board but I could tell that people wanted to have dialogue and for people stayed and I took from that I I went to Dr Shel and I said we've got to come up with some mechanism for people to be able to have dialogue about this stuff and understand what's accurate and what's not accurate without just having this deal where this side of the room is trying to outshout the other side of the room and um

127but we quickly realized I think that unless you had some sort sort of mediation in the middle that that could that could very well happen it could just be a a shouting match because people believe very passionately on both sides of most issues and so um that was my thinking in terms of where we were going with it to try to get to try to provide a mechanism for people to talk to one another and um and and perhaps that would expand into how we dealt with our with our meetings and how we communicated with folks I mean that was kind of what what I was envisioning with that um but I also agree with Dr mcquilkin that I would very much welcome us getting back to the topic of of education and educating our

128kids uh we lost a little over a year to the pandemic um and it seems like for the last 10 or 11 months we've dealt with sociopolitical issues um and I'm not saying they don't have Merit I'm just saying that we've we've had very few substantiative issues that I can recall among this board about how we educate kids so you know I I would appreciate a refresher on as we look at the kids who who who have fallen behind you know what are we doing to identify those kids what are we doing to catch them up and it all goes into that achievement Gap thing I suppose um you know and and and what's the what's the next thing that we might be able to do to make sure that um that we don't have

129anybody falling behind and so I would I would welcome that conversation uh very much and um I I've heard Schoolboard meetings unfortunately describe someone described them to me lately as a circus and and as the ring master of this circus for at least two more meetings uh I will do my best to try to bring us back to the topic topic of education so so thank you all for that we do have reason to enter into Clos meeting and I will entertain a motion in that regard thank everyone thank you all for sticking with us the students I know you heard more that you probably wanted to hear but uh we thank you for with us and uh the rest of you for coming as well so I will entertain a motion to inter close

130meeting if it be your desire I move that the board enter closed meeting to discuss and consider the following pursuant to the provisions of Virginia code section 2.2-fold cons consultation with legal council regarding specific legal legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such Council thank you Mr lur is there a second thank you Mr folk all those in favor please say I I any opposed and that is unanimous thank you everyone please be safe driving home if we could find some money in the budget for here that would be