2022 05 23 - RCPS School Board Meeting

001May 23rd 2022 meeting of the Rockham County School Board to order welcome to all of you here um we're glad that you were able to be with us this evening the first item of business that we have is to approve tonight's operating agenda and I will entertain a motion in that regard if it be your wish thank you m low is there a second thank you Mr Cross any questions or comments hearing none all in favor of approval of tonight's agenda as presented please say I I any opposed that is 5 at this time I'd like to in invite all of those who are able to stand with me for the Pledge of Allegiance Al to the of the United States of America andice now you if I if you would please join me in

002a moment of silence meditation or prayer for thank you very much we will move right into recognitions and presentations and we have some school recognitions which are always great to see and I don't have on my agenda who's going to be doing those I'm sorry to say so field judge going to be doing them that makes perfectly good sense chairman Breeden members of the school board Dr Shel and other guests and attendance tonight welcome to Turner Ashby high school we appreciate the opportunity to host the school board meeting tonight uh T ta is truly an amazing school with outstanding students and a wonderful community and we are grateful for the support we receive and the tremendous accomplishments of our students at this time I want to introduce the administrative staff here my the three assistant

003principls here at Turner rashby High School that take care of a lot of things behind the scenes and in front of the scenes uh Mindy sh fet Chris null and will Crockett are the three assistant principes here and without those three uh we would have a diff difficult time functioning every day we are pleased to be able to recognize several members of the TA Community tonight for their accomplishments their character and their service I would like for Ava Grace Flory di Jalil and their parents and Cindy Warner to come down front please the hard part is deciding what to leave out and limiting the recognition in the best interest of time here but just some of the highlights um I want to recognize first Ava Grace Flory and Dr Jalil and Cindy Warner tonight for

004the present the school presentation tonight I'd like to begin by stating again what I said a minute ago about Turner Ashby High School being an amazing school with outstanding students and a tremendous Community to illustrate just a few of these qualities uh later on after we uh after I speak on these students uh we're going to have our TSA students uh demonstrate and explain some of their most recent accomplishments but I'd like to start off first with Ava Grace Flory we get about to get to the right page here Ava Grace Flor is recognized by the faculty and administration of Turner Ashby high school for demonstrating character in our school that goes far beyond what is expected for four years of high school she has set the bar high for herself in leadership citizenship and

005service above self in 2020 when the pandemic broke out Ava Grace entered a contest through the county school the county schools to design a face mask to represent rcps her design won first place and was distributed to schools throughout Rockingham County the message of her mask is typical of Ava Grace bringing people together and always looking out for the well-being of others her unselfishness servitude and Leadership have earned her the character CS recognition by her teachers and administrators that she so well deserves congratulations Ava Grace Dr mcquilkin come on Dr mcquilkin has uh something here for you Ava Grace I am excited to be able to present this to you do you know what this award is about it's really about um supporting your whole school community and um being a role model for underclassman

006as well yes and it's based upon the pillars of character that our students learn from kindergarten all the way through the 12th grade and the the six pillars of car character are caring citizenship fairness respect responsibility and trustworthiness would you say you all of those I agree I I would say that as well all right and I always have a quote do you have anybody here with you this evening your parents yes I have my mom and I I'm Ella I also brought my aunt Doris's doors her dad would have loved to have been here but he's helping with Aven flu in Pennsylvania oh wow is that Doris harsh it is oh my Heavens Doris harsh good Doris Doris harsh was my algebra teacher as well so good to see you Mrs and the school

007test coordinator yay this evening Ava Grace we have probably what everybody wants first is the Klein's Dairy Bar certificate and a pin and a certificate to hang in your house somewhere in a very prominent place thank you oh wait a wa just a second I always try to have a quote to go along with this and it says what lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us Oliver wend [Applause] Holmes next we have Dr Jalil di is recognized by the faculty and staff at Turner asby High School for the character counts honor from his work in the classroom to his character and demeanor throughout our school to his sponsorship of a peer tutoring program during his free time Dr is an outstanding representative for Turner asrey

008High School he sets a fine example for his classmates through his hard work and positive attitude more importantly he is always ready to help out others in need whether through his enthusiastic participation in a group project or simply taking the time to explain an assignment to a fellow student if every student were like Dr everyone would want to be a teacher congratulations Dr thank you Dr you already know it's coming the Klein's Dairy Bar thank you so much and of course some place to hang at your home and a pin uh but diar I listened and it's and you started some things and I'd like to read a quote that I think probably exemplifies you many times over it says never underestimate the power of an act of kindness and there you are thank you

009so much yeah and and today I'm here here with my mom Sabria Jalil um I'm not sure how many of you guys guys know me not really sure how many of you got what you guys think about me but if it wasn't for my mother I wouldn't be wouldn't be the kindhearted guy that I am today and I just want to thank my mom for everything that she's done for me there you go thank you and now we have Cindy Warner and Mike you don't want to come up Reagan you want you you don't want to come up Reagan come on up here I never pass up an opportunity to embarrass Reagan in public so Sydney Warner is the kind of parent volunteer that is always willing to jump in and help out wherever needed

010she is very involved in the athletic program at TA where she often provides meals for our student athletes assists in the concession stand and devotes many hours to helping our athletic department be the best that it can be and she and her F her husband Mike are pretty good neighbors to have in the neighborhood as well so I appreciate them in that capacity as well uh Cindy is the parent of two ta student athletes their son Cody uh played football and baseball here at Turner Ashby high school and then went on to play baseball at VMI and I understand is getting married this Summer uh Reagan is currently a freshman here at Turner Ashby she plays volleyball and softball and uh her softball team is still involved in in their action and we wish them

011the best of luck in our regional tournament coming up later this week Cindy is known for being selfless for all the students at TA and we gra greatly appreciate her time commitment and positive energy within our school thank you Cindy congratulations congratulations Mark well the reason Cindy and I know each other so well is because we sat together or close by at the TA football games and the very first time that I saw Cindy she was ringing that cow bell it was going going going because Cody was playing yes and you and then you were working in the for the schools when you were not even in ta Cody was at VMI and you were in Pence middle school and your mom was still there handing out bulletins or doing something so we appreciate we

012know what a great choice thank you thank you thank you so much appreciate it Klein's da bar and and really do need to hang this in your home thank [Applause] thank you so much thanks for sharing Mom thank you for sharing wife for the school presentation I I would like to begin by stating again uh what I said earlier about our uh TSA students uh Jerry Ridgeway and Carrie gray sponsor the TSA Jerry Ridgeway uh has been a a solid foundation in Turner Ashby high school for many years he was my uh shop teacher in eth grade at John wh and he was actually the our third shop teacher of the year uh he managed to put up with uh Eric Baylor and I and a few others along the way and finish out the

013year and here he is 30 some years later and he's still doing it just as just as strong as ever but he is here tonight with his T TSA students for our school presentation to talk to you all a little bit about their most recent accomplishments at technosphere and other TSA activities so Mr Ridgeway or Inu will thank you board for this opportunity I want to introduce will Simmons who is our the president-elect of our chapter will will also be serving this year as the valley region of Virginia TSA Regional president we're divided into six regions and humble brag will uh when he serves his term as president will be the fifth it'll be the fifth year in a row that the valley region president has been or is a TS is a Turner Ashby

014student so we're really proud of that well I just want to say thank you to Mr rich for that introduction and thank you to the board for letting me speak today and TSA has a lot of competitions like anything from Fashion Design to extemporaneous speech to flight endurance and today some of our uh competitors have trophies from that we got from the state conference so if you guys want to hold those up for us wow look at all those that's not even all of them either that's there are still a few in the room uh so yeah they all were able to win or not win not all of them won but they got second and third that was still pretty good uh but yeah they were able to beat some very good schools and

015very good counties especially from Northern Virginia which I think is pretty special that a team like a school of our size was able to beat some of those magnet schools that of like Governor schools and stemies and it really goes to show that hard work and learning can help you achieve anything because hard work and Challen the hard work and challenges that they faced this year uh I know that they'll all do great things later in life and that they're set and they got it so yeah I just want to thank the board one more time and here you go Mr rway so I I want to expand a little bit on on what will said and and before I get to that you I want to thank the parents of all these students who

016are so supportive um and and work with us on coming up here to school to picking them you know picking them up late and working around our crazy schedule providing them funds you know to go to these conferences and things of that nature of course the board um and you know all the county administrators have to say big thank you to Eric Fitzgerald who helps Shepherd our as advisers our paperwork through his office to make sure we have all the t's crossed and all the eyes dotted um in addition to that um if y'all got today's paper you saw on the front page our participation in the first ever shannond Valley Electric Vehicle Grand Prix that's an activity that's been going on for about eight years up in Northern Virginia and shannond Valley Co-op help

017underwrite the cost of those Vehicles they 45 $500 a piece and they helped underwrite the cost of those vehicles um they gave those schools a grant and through Eric's hard work he was able to help us underwrite the other half of the cost um in the EV Grand Prix you all helped me out was Turner Ashby Spotswood Broadway those three schools from the county participated uh it was interesting for me because that stuff A lot of it was way out of my comfort zone my team just dove in and and dealt with it uh we worked around our technosphere schedule a lot of work on the on the car stop while we were getting ready for state competition which was fine because we came in fifth which is the best we've done for a while

018so I was really thrilled about that um and we were here the Night Before the Race until about 7:30 uh getting it ready um but we had a great time we're looking forward to participating again next year so you know thanks to Eric especially for all the work um that he does just a word about the technology Student Association and I know a lot of you board members understand this but it's it's not a club in the ordinary sense of the word it's a co-curricular organization along with uh you know here we have along with FFA FCCLA Deca and FBLA and what we attempt to do is bring the things the students are learning in the classroom into their competitive events and then also the things they have to learn for competitive events they can

019bring back to the classroom so they're very intertwined and even students that um don't pay dues and aren't members of those we still provide opportunities for them to participate in some of the things that we do do I got to read the awards at our state conference and I'm glad I don't want this to sound funny I'm glad I was sitting down when they announced the School Division Awards I knew that Rockingham County had done well but I want the board to know at the Middle School Division as a School Division we place third in competitive itive events we had two schools from Rockingham County competing Mon Mon videoo middle and Wilbur Pence middle they were competing against schools um like homman middle from hrio County that brought 60 kids and 80 parents and so

020you know to pull that off in in first place was henrio County in second place was Fairfax so that just shows the dedication of the teachers as TSA advisers um you know in this case at mon video we're talking about Brian basil and of course at Wilber Pence we're talking about Jason Hendricks and Justin hit and if those folks would go ahead and stand chapters two students two thank you and and we have a good time because and just to let y'all know that we're being really good stewards of County money Pence and ta ride the same bus and we've been doing that for years but it's kind of good because I get to see see their students they get to see me and and our students you know work with them a little bit

021Mentor them when they have the opportunity so that was at the middle school level at the high school level Rockingham County came in third there as well and the order was reversed Fairfax County came in first because they have the Thomas Jefferson Center for Science and Technology and Then followed by henrio County all of those school and and the schools that finished ahead of us all of them having enrollment of at least 4,000 students so when I got back you know and Eric came down and was and helped us um Saturday right yeah Friday night and into Saturday and I the first thing I did when I got back is I called Eric and I said you will not believe this but I said Brock andham was third in both divisions and I mean that

022is such an awesome accomplishment I told our kids I said well we're the number one rural School Division by far and away and we don't um like we do in athletics we don't divide up divisions you know by enrollment everybody is competing against everybody else and so again that goes to show the dedication of not only the teachers um but the students and the time that they want to put in and so the schools the high schools from Rockingham that competed were Turner Ashby Broadway uh Spotswood and so you know we um I know in the Bible it says not to be too prideful but by goly we are dagone proud of that so if those folks you know if my kids would stand up um again one more time um thank you so we

023we do appreciate we do appreciate the opportunity to be here tonight and and to do a little bragging you know one of the things I think sometimes as teachers in general that we don't do although this was never a problem with Eric is toting our horn you know and we need to follow Eric's example now Eric was always really good and he pushes us he says you need to let people know and um this was an incredible uh state conference for us uh and we're and and we had turn around we had 19 students there and we're taking 10 to National Conference so thank you for your approval of that trip and we are looking forward to that and hopefully we'll have good things to report when we get back from there so thank you

024very much for all that you do for the students in Rockingham County and CTE students in particular thank you would uh like to be aware next year of that EV vehicle race um I'm I'm just a huge race fan if it's got one wheel on it we need to race it to see what great OPP us connect yep like s Valley El and students to of those f one of former student and you they got tra stories a great day yeah I'm I'm up for any kind of race I officer I'm going be driving safely home but uh any kind of race I'm going to be spending the whole weekend in Charlotte watching racing so thank you so much for that next we will move to the shannond valley Soil and Water Conservation District teacher

025of the year Megan Trice am I correct on that so my name is Megan tce I'm the education coordinator at the and Water Conservation District thank you all for letting me come present this award today for a very deserving teacher um so a little bit about the Soil and Water District we're a political subdivision of the state we're charged with implementing conservation programs um designed to improve water quality in addition we also do a lot of education and Outreach we help classroom teachers we help with miwis we help with interactive presentations this this morning I spent all morning with Mountain View Elementary releasing their trout um at their annual trout release that they raise trout and trout in the classroom um we serve Rockingham County paage county in the city of Harrisonburg and we're supported

026by state funding but we rely on locality funding for all of our education support um and annually we recognize two teachers for our teacher the Year award one in K through fifth grade and one in 6 through 12th grade um and these teachers do an outstanding job of not only teaching their curriculum but incorporating conservation into their education um so our 2022 6th through 12th grade um conservation education teacher of the year is Shelley Garrison um Miss Garrison's been an educator for nine years and teaches biology and AP environmental science at Spotswood High School she has found many ways to incorporate conservation into her C curriculum um she gets her students Outdoors to investigate the school campus and explore to the Natural areas around the school she exposes our her students to environmental problems and

027challenges and makes them think outside of the box of to solve these problems she works with her students to instruct Local Elementary School students about water quality and stream health and she teaches um her students that teach the younger students about macro invertebrates and the importance of protecting our waterways um she works to bring the outdoors into her classroom so that her students can grow their appreciation of Nature and get a better understanding for the need to protect our natural resources she has worked with outside groups and organizations to provide her students with relevant engaging Hands-On activities some of which are the chese Bay Foundation pure water Forum where she's received grants for resources for her classrooms she's worked with our office and our partner agency the natural resource conservation service to figure out what

028invasive species are in the school property and figure out how to clean them up she goes above and beyond to get her students involved in clubs and other volunteer opportunities outside of school hours and it's because of all of this Dedication that we have selected her to get the 2022 conservation teacher of the year award so we brought this awesome plaque for her um today and we'll also be recognizing her at a faculty meeting in front of all of her co-workers um so we just appreciate all of your hard work to cor incorporate all of this into your curriculum you're [Applause] welcome thank you thank you so very much that concludes our recognition and presentation portion of our meeting we will move to public comments um again as always we would ask that when you

029come to the podium that you would state your name so that the clerk can record it uh the timer will be up on the screen over here at 2 and a half minutes I will thank you all guys thanks um I will gavel with 30 seconds left and U as always we just ask that the audience be respectful of whomever is speaking with that being said and I may have some difficulty with the name so help me out we'll begin with Cal roads good to go hi my name is Callum I use Heim pronouns and I'm a senior at Broadway High School I'm here to speak in opposition of the suggested policy to out transgender kids if they're going if they're going by a different name if never never was a policy to just let

030parents in and it's a transphobic policy and I want to share my trans experience at 10 years old I figured out being a boy felt a lot nicer to me than being a girl and when I was 13 I started going by Callum with certain friends 16 I started to come out at school now I'm 17 out to my family work and school I have resources that I wish I had when I was 14 and closeted I looked for a community with youth experiencing similar things as me and with teachers that understood or at least wanted to understand if a person doesn't come out to their family it usually means that the family is doing something to make the person feel invalid or unwanted we should not force these kids to come out just because

031of your religious and political beliefs last Friday night I broke down crying to my parents and told them I was transgender this 7-year-old weight on my shoulders was finally gone and I felt accepted just because I'm a minor doesn't mean I'm automatically confused on who I am being a boy has not changed for me for the past seven years I should be able to decide for myself who I am I don't want to rely on a person who is not a transgender to sit here and tell me I can't be trans because I'm 17 I've wanted nothing more than to be myself within your schools but it's hard when I walk through the halls and get called slurs when teachers tell me to take harder classes to avoid a transphobic teacher when I question will

032I get a bad grade on this because I'm trans and when I have to question my own safety in your schools according to the Trevor Project 1.8 million young LGBT individuals consider suicide every year reported suicide rates were reduce in LGBT individuals in LGBT youth by 35% when they had a supportive space such as schools supporting the LGBT community is suicide prevention Suicide Prevention can look like telling the transgender kid you won't tell their parents they're going by a different name members of the school board and staff at our schools preached so hard they care about all students but then turn around and discriminate against us if you cared so much about your students why didn't you ask the trans community in your in your county their thoughts before proposing a discriminatory policy against them

033I'm not here because this policy made me scared I did not come out to my parents last Friday night because of the suggested policy this policy cannot pass for so many reasons a prime example being Title 9 if somehow this policy or a similar policy passes we aren't just going to disappear my community has persevered through everything threat at us being gay bisexual lesbian transgender anything of the sort is not some woke New Gen Z creation if you think my gender identity or sexuality is new or rare maybe realize you're probably talking over us and I'm here tonight to give the trans Community a voice we have been here for decades centuries even we are not going anywhere I love my trans self and this policy won't stop that his policy won't make us disappear

034it won't make us rethink us rethink our genders or our names it won't make us back down if anything it wants us to fight back harder we will be seen and heard thank you w I'm going to attempt the last name so that I don't is is it avlon or Arlon I'm sorry you can correct me when you come to the podium thank you good evening my name is ior Asen my pronouns are he and I'm a sophomore Broadway High and I'm a transgender man I'm here tonight to talk about the rights and safety of lgbtq use in schools but more specifically transgender kids especially considering recent conversations regarding a policy to notify a parent when a student wants to use a different name a transgender student may not come out to their family for

035many reasons perhaps their parents are against it maybe it they'll be kicked out or just in general danger so they may confide in a teacher who they trust will accept them invalidate them unconditionally regardless of who they are or where they come from we deserve to have a loving and welcoming space we deserve to be protected and we deserve to feel safe this is absolutely not about the rights of parents and this policy is a prime example of transphobia we have the right to have a say in who we are and who knows we know ourselves and what's best for us better than anyone else does for students to have a safe space to express thems and to be who they are is life-saving according to the Trevor Project 45% of lgbtq Youth have considered

036suicide in the past year and 14% have attempted less than one three transgender youth have an ass affirming and safe household that could be any person attending any school in this County or in the state these are not just numbers these are real people real teenagers just like me and even your own kids for schools to be a safe space is extremely important we hear all this talk about wanting to create a safe space for transgender youth in schools so we must make that happen and we must let that happen educate teachers and staff and let students know that they are safe and actually mean it we should not have to carry this burden worrying about whether or not we will be welcome here anymore we should not have to feel sick with fear of

037coming to school every single day simply because of who we are we are not here to be punished or spoken over because of who we are we here to learn and express ourselves and we are here simply existing this policy will not get rid of us when I came out to my teachers and I heard them call me ior I felt validated and I felt supported and I felt loved every day slowly got easier and easier I used to isolate myself and barely talk to anyone because I was so scared of who I was and who would find out now I'm the happiest and most content with myself that I've ever been and I want other people older and younger than me to be able to feel the same way I buil incred rible friendships

038and bonds I never would have if I was forced back in the closet merely because of the hatred brought by those around me although I'm of those who are fortunate enough to have a loving and supportive family I will not stop fighting for those who do not get get to come home to their family with open arms I will not stop fighting for those who need to hide and I will never stop fighting for those who couldn't fight any longer thank you for your time thank you again my apologies last name is Shy thank you all right good evening I'm a marip I I'm a transgender woman at Broadway High School and I use she her pronouns I am also here in opposition to the policy that would out transgender students myself and other students

039would lose this safe space that we've built at school um we entrust teachers and counselors and other staff members with our names our pronouns our identities because we feel safe and validated and we can just express ourselves around them some of us just don't feel safe at home because our parents don't value who we are truly so we just have to hide countless days I know that I know that from experience my parents just they don't look at me the same way anymore now that they know I I don't want that for other students and if they decide to tell their parents that is their opinion and that is their choice but if they also don't tell their parents that is still their choice and that needs to be respected transgender students are still people

040and our safety should take priority over everything else and if we do not want our parents to know they do not have to know please I beg you to ask sorry I ask you to respect our safety thank you Zoe hello my name is zo mongold and I graduated from Broadway High School two years ago it's recently come to my attention that the amount of sexual violence in the schools is at an all-time high yesterday the community came to together to share their experiences with sexual assault none of the stories ended with the school principls or the school board doing their jobs I was under the impression that when sexual violence occurred in the schools that the school was obligated to report but after all the stories I heard yesterday I don't find this to

041be the truth if you've been a victim or know of someone who has been a victim of sexual violence in Rockingham County Schools I ask that you please raise your hand if you reported the sexual violence to the school authorities and they did nothing please keep your hand up I now ask the school board to take a look around at everyone these are the people of the very Community you work for that have been let down because the schools aren't doing their jobs students at the schools are being touched inappropriately catall harassed and even raped and when they tell the appropriate authorities they are hearing things like well maybe watch what you wear what you do and people won't say these things or try not to draw too much attention to yourself they're probably doing

042it because they like you just don't make a big deal out of it I think we should make a big deal out of it because teachers and admin Administration are just allowing these things to happen almost 15,000 almost 15,000 students experience sexual violence at schools every year since 2015 there have been students exper oh since 2015 there have been four big sexual violence cases just here at Turner Ashby 2015 a teacher and a 16-year-old child exchanged new photos of themselves 2017 a football coach sexually assaulted two female students 2018 a female teacher assaulted a male student 2019 a teacher groomed sexually assaulted and raped a student in this case the staff here at Turner Ashby knew what was occurring and told the two to knock it off if you think these are the only times

043that sexual violence has occurred in the schools you are mistaken as a school board member we choose to put you in the seat to protect the students of the schools and you clearly are not if you cannot work together with this community to fight against sexual violence in the schools we will gladly find someone else to do so thank you for your time thank you next Mike stample thank you all for the opportunity to speak um I think we need to stop playing conservative issue Bingo um let's keep the focus on the kids I'm here to support Amara Ivor and Cal and those like them I would just like to applaud uh their courage their moral courage to stand up today character counts they clearly showed that today and I don't think I need to

044say anything else that they haven't said already um they were very articulate in their words and they spoke that I cannot expound on that at all I will say plain and simple if this policy is implemented it it will be a violation of Title 9 thank you Ashley Saunders my name is Ashley Saunders I have two children in the Broadway school system my son graduated from Broadway high school and was openly trans while attending I am also a children's minister in Harrisonburg and usually I have something incredibly nice and uplifting to say because I believe wholeheartedly in peacemaking but I would be lying if I said anything peaceful this evening I am exhausted the parents of LGBT ttq children in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County public schools are exhausted we fear for our children's safety within

045the school system we fear for all children who are queer who are being attacked as a political talking point by a member of our board outing a trans child to their parents has nothing to do with parental rights it is about scaring them back into gender Conformity by outing students by contact by contacting parents of social name and gender change you are actively putting children In Harm's Way and for what no child's life is worth any amount of political grandstanding Studies have found using a trans or non-binary person's chosen name and identi and identified pronoun can improve their mental health significantly reduce overall negative Health outcomes plus doing so helps boost CH a child self-confidence promotes safer communities for all gender non-conforming youth which creates safer communities for all youth but this information falls on

046deaf ears of a member of our school board who has told me to my face they do not want this information to the queer and transparents and the students of Rockingham County Public Schools I am tired but I am not going anywhere our numbers are growing and our patience is thin tomorrow when I wake up and continue to do this work I will know that I am fighting for the well-being of all children in Rockingham County Public Schools I want to see them get an emotionally safe and develop developmentally appropriate education but there is one on our school board I know for a fact cannot do the same [Applause] you Kirsten beachy Ashley one parent to another that is a powerful example of advocating for your kids and for all of our kids good evening

047school board members and Dr Shel and neighbors my name is Kirsten beachy my children go to Mountain View Elementary one of my twins is an awesome reader and the other one is a great dancer the dancer has Down syndrome we have been grateful for books that celebrate and represent her experiences earlier this year kindergarten and first grade teachers invited the twins to come to their classrooms and read the story just ask to their students helping everyone to learn a little more about themselves and their classmates living with allergies ADHD autism diabetes Down syndrome and other conditions and another day after school our librarian gave me a new book about Sophia Sanchez a little girl with Down Syndrome who works as a model for several major Clothing outlets here I'll pass them down while I talk

048sharing books together helps our children become Kinder as they understand more about each other and more curious as they learn to ask about new things instead of avoiding them or fearing them it means so much to all of us as parents to see our children's and teens experiences represented in the curriculum all of us from various cult cultural and religious backgrounds various experiences of race and class various expressions of gender and diverse family structures I'm here tonight to thank teachers and Librarians in rcps who are making diverse Stories part of our kids education please don't let the fuss over critical race Theory or anxiety around changing gender Norms cause us to self-censor representative bookshelves and curriculum let's keep our focus on equipping and supporting teachers to foster a sense of belonging and civic responsibility in

049every student anxieties about the names that our trans teens are called by their own choice by teachers they trust are misplaced worry instead about the names that our kids call each other worry about sexual assault in our schools worry that an 18-year-old massacred folks strangers in a supermarket last week just because they were black kindness and curiosity and civic responsibility aren't just the pretty words to put up on the walls of the school but they are literally what save us from each other and so books I think are a little piece of that my time's up thank you thank you Todd Matthew my name is Todd Matthew and I'm a teacher at Rockingham County schools and I'm concerned about the lack of a policy at rcps to notify parents if their child begins identifying as

050a different gender at school our schools notify parents about a myriad of or our students notify parents and obtain their permission for a myriad of things to name just a few we obtain a parents permission for their child to ride on a school bus go on a field trip to a park or take an aspirin we notify parents about their child's Behavior academic progress or if something or out of the ordinary happens at school I assert that many of these things requiring permission or notification pale in comparison to a child identifying as a different gender I hope you can appreciate that many parents believe that this situation is very different from Daniel being asked to call being asked asking to be called Dany it's an indication that something substantial is happening at an emotional social

051and psychological level to keep parents in the dark about this would be akin to school Personnel failing to identify parents if they became aware that their child was struggling with something like anorexia or depression informing parents is not discriminatory parents have a right to know about the well-being of their children Dr Shel I appreciate your valid concerns about discriminating against certain groups of students and I would like to propose a solution have all parents sign a form at the beginning of the year indicating if they want to be notified if their child requests to be called by a name other than their given name A variation of their given name or their middle name this would give all parents the ability to indicate their preference without discrimination against any group before Mr Cross spoke up

052recently most parents had no idea that this is going on if Rockingham County Schools is going to keep name changes quiet parents need to be made aware of this parents want to know what their children are being taught and what's going on in their schools enact policies that keep parents in the loop and promote open and honest communication that's it thank you thank you that concludes our public comment section of our meeting tonight we will move next to board member highlights and I will begin with Mr folk I just like to say that um this evening has been a highlight we got to uh watch as three years worth of retirees were honored for their service to Rockingham County public schools in the community uh we've got to hear from our community members about issues

053that are important to them and also hear about the wonderful things that are being done here at Turner ashp and in our schools so this evening has been a great highlight for me Mr chairman thank you Dr M thank you Mr Breen I'd like to begin by thanking Mr jug and his team for hosting us this evening you hosted not only the din but the meeting it's been a busy night for you and we thank you very much I would like to Second Mr FKS of words it was nice to meet in person after three years we're all together again and it was it was wonderful to be with everybody together uh I have several highlights that I I will be as brief as I possibly can the musicals this year the high school middle

054musicals have concluded and they were all wonderful the FF a had Banquets and still are and there are Banquets to come so thank you FFA for inviting us uh Rockingham Educational Foundation riffy held two events uh honoring the teachers of the year and also the the students receiving scholarships and as far as sports events were concerned I know they're ongoing and we heard Mr Jud say that he has some uh sports teams still participating and I know other high schools do as well but one week ago from today uh the United basketball was held right here in this audit in this gym and Turner Ashby and and it was a wonderful evening so we were glad to have United basketball back unified excuse me unified basketball uh MTC celebrated their 50th anniversary of existence and

055highlighted those accomplishments at a community breakfast uh the Rockingham Farm Bureau women's committee held their annual legislative dinner and in conclusion uh there were many project presentations at the governor schools with the students one of which was the electric vehicle competition thank you thank you Dr mookin Miss lur thank you so it's a little bit of brag time sorry um but I have had the best two weeks uh I know there's been a lot of stuff going on in the community that it's easy to get wrapped up in but let me tell you about the blessings I have had um started with I've got to put on my glasses because I'm not blessed with eyesight anymore um started with the uh FFA banquet No it started with um musical I went to the um Elton

056Middle School Musical it was amazing uh if you didn't get out to see a musical this year definitely put it on your list because um the arts program in Rockingham County School is strong and the kids are so very talented um you would definitely enjoy the performances um and and then um I went the the next night I was able to go to Broadway High School's FFA banquet and see the accomplishments of those students and it was wonderful and it was so amazing because my kids go there so I've been going to these Banquets for a while and it was so amazing to see kids in the eth grade stumble through scripts and be real nervous on stage and then as Juniors get up and speak eloquently and um just do an amazing job it's

057so great to see the growth of the students in Rockingham County um and then uh I was able to go to back to J FR I was able to go to J Frank hilard uh the next week they were doing a a class on shearing sheep so I was able to help a class Shear some sheep kids that had never worked with sheep before had the opportunity thanks to the a department there and that was a lot of fun uh and then we had like uh Dr mcquilkin said we had the MTC banquet or breakfast celebrating the massive accomplishments of our students at MTC we had just Oodles of students that had competed um Statewide and brought home Awards uh and I think somebody said ear oh the TSA guy he said we didn't all

058win but you did you know if you get up there and you partake in these events no matter where you place you won so I'm just so proud of those students and then I had to slip out of the MTC Breakfast early and rush home because I had some a class of special ed students come and tour the farm and pet the sheep and play in the tractors and it was so heartwarming to see the great big smiles on those students faces and help them just learn just a little bit and have a fun day so that was awesome and then we had the uh J Frank Hillyard banquet where I got to see a new crop of kids so many kids now participating in FFA so many of our kids in Rockingham County Schools

059getting involved and finding their passions it's so heartwarming and then tonight to to to finish it up with a the reception for our retirees and to see teachers who have spent their lives dedicated to Rockingham County Public Schools and making these kids so awesome it's been a great week and I'm looking forward to another great week so go out there enjoy the community find the beauty around you because man we've got a lot of it in this community thank you thank you m b Mr cross I would agree with that I growing up here as a kid I didn't love the always wanted to move to Amsterdam and do things I shouldn't do but I'm this this place is is such a beautiful place to live at and the older I get the more I

060fall in love with the shandel valley and where we live so and it got to love this time of year and the smells it gives you but I I love where we live um first of all I want to thank every that came out here tonight uh for parents that came out and and spoke uh thank you for the students who got up and spoke tonight took a lot of Bravery of you to come up here and speak before the public and I just want to say thank you for being brave and coming out and speaking tonight and uh to the employees that come out tonight and for those who are brave enough to speak as well thank you so much for your bravery coming and expressing your thoughts and feelings as we take that

061all in um I want to thank also also or congratulate uh Chris null for taking over here at Turner Ashby high school and Chris I know you're going to do a great job here at at TA and U it's going to be a good experience for you good experience for the community and a good experience for these kids coming to school here so Chris I know you're going to do a great job in that um I also want to H tell Mindy shiffler tonight you look great and my thoughts and my prayers go out to you as well and to your family and I'm praying for you you look great tonight and um and to say to um Phil Jud that's leaving here thank you so much I don't know where Phil went but uh

062thanks Phil for all your many years of dedication here at Turner Ashby High School all the sweat and uh blood you put in for to this school and and doing your best job that you could do here I I really appreciate you I got opportunity to work with you for a couple years here at TA and it was an honor to work with you and and we're going to miss you the community here in ta is is going to miss you as well but uh congratulations Chris again for all you've uh for your getting you that position and um yeah I know ta is in in good hands with Mr Mr null coming out here and thank you Mr Jud for all youve done uh last tonight I want to thank I'm I say congratulations

063to Marcus Davis the head baseball coach at Spotswood High School they set a not only did they win districts this year but they set a School record uh for the most wins in the regular season and what a great accomplishment that was I had the opportunity to watch a lot of those games because my son plays on that team so I am biased and congratulations to all the other District winners at Spotswood congratulations to Dr shyo and his his team uh for winning the girls soccer team out at Spotswood High School as well for winning for winning districts uh the girl uh the tennis team I don't know if it's girls are boys but I know that they won districts and then there was another District at Spotswood as well well I believe um but

064anyway Spotswood had a great year and it's been a great uh year to watch what Marcus Davis and his coaching staff out there uh has done they went 19 and one for the regular season and they beat a record this year for the uh the most wins in a roow that had been set I think back in the day when Dale Curry was was around here in in Rockham County so it's been a long time U so congratulations Marcus and to your coaching staff look forward to seeing you win the state title and to Oscar for you winning State title as well bring bring the gold home here here at Rockham County so uh with that said uh thank you Mr chairman appreciate it Dr Sho yeah thank you Mr Cross for that um always

065happy to have the girls celebrated for their accomplishments um Dr mcin and Miss L had already covered a lot of the events that we had attended uh many of those were true highlights scholarship banquet um absolutely unified basketball every year here so glad we could have it again we had it a little bit as a jamboree um and one evening rather than um in you know an extended period where we played every week for a few weeks we had really good conversations with our uh delegates and Senators uh from the general assembly at the Farm Bureau legislative ther hopefully they'll bring a budget to the governor soon so that we know what our budget actually is for next year um and then the community leaders breakfast for MTC that's again always a highlight um if

066you're um lucky enough they on June 3 they have a concert that sold out within minutes but on StubHub you may still get some tickets um I hear it's going to be a great event they they booked this uh group uh before they actually uh won The Voice and then became famous the band is named a girl named Tom and uh there might still be be some tickets available and um then also I want to say uh thanks to miss Pichi for bringing the books up here here uh it's great to see when a book like just ask um is being handed around and when you look at the author of that book it's a Sonia sotoor who is a Supreme Court Justice so uh you know that's fascinating to see that those kinds of

067books are written by people in those positions and her experiences um as well and um Governor School recognitions we went to um Mountain View High School and uh got to celebrate the graduates from from the governor school that's also always a highlight the students who um take advanced classes at that school and then um move on to great things to see the number of um top level schools that our students from Rockingham County attend as a result of the education here and at the Governor's School so those are my highlights thank you thank you Dr Sho one of the benefits of going last as chair is I don't have to remember all these great highlights I can just let my colleagues uh go through them and then I don't have to to try to remember

068them but thank you all so I'm going to use my time tonight to share with you a u a favorite quote of mine that I often turn to when I'm watching the news and feeling a little depressed about the way things are going and if you and if you will allow me I'm going to take some Liberty with it and make it more pertaining to our County here and the quote says in essence what we need in Rockingham County is not division what we need in Rockingham County is not hatred what we need in Rockingham County is not violence or lawlessness but love and wisdom and compassion toward one another and a feeling of Justice towards those who still suffer within our County wherever they may be or wherever they may come from so I

069ask you tonight when you return home to say a prayer for our own County which all of us love a prayer for understanding and that compassion of which I spoke we can do well in this County we will have difficult times we've had difficult times in the past we will have difficult times in the future it is not the end of violence it is not the end of lawlessness it is not the end of disorder but the vast majority of people in this County want to live together want to improve the quality of our life and want justice for all human beings who abide in this County let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world let

070us dedicate ourselves to that and say a prayer for our County and for its people next we will move into action item uh we do have reason a need to approve the minutes from our last meeting I will entertain a motion for that approval if it be the board's desire I move we approve the minutes as presented thank you m lore is there a second a second thank you Mr car any comments or questions concerning the minutes hearing none I'll all those in favor please say I I I any opposed that is 5 field trips Dr Shel I have um a number of field trips for your approval tonight from Broadway High School Marching Band summer Symposium July 10th through the 14th uh 2022 one to four students to Western Carolina University in Cola North

071Carolina a TSA national conference June 26 through July 1 three students to grade Vine Texas and that's really combination with Turner Ashby High School TSA National Conference uh June 26th through July 1 10 students to Great by Texas and then finally manavo Middle School FFA June 27 through 30 six students to Virginia Tech in blackburg Virginia and I recommend approval of those field trips thank you Dr shyo board members You' heard the superintendent's recommendation do I hear a motion in support I'd like to make a motion to follow superintendent's recommendation to approve the field trips as presented thank you Mr Cross is there a second thank you Mr folk any questions or comments hearing none all in favor please say I I I any opposed that is 0 appointment of clerk Dr sh I recommend

072um to appoint Caitlyn gilon as Clerk of the school board beginning July 1 2022 through the end of the 2022 calendar year uh Miss gilon is over here working with Pam Bok who who I've tried to talk out of this for a year now but she was part of the retiree reception earlier as you know she's retiring um this summer so again thank you for everything Pam uh welcome to um my office Caitlyn and I do recommend Caitlyn kulen as Clerk of the board again beginning July 1 and serving through the rest of the calendar year at which time you will appoint um again um when the new calendar year begins thank you Dr I will make a motion to accept that recommendation do I hear a second thank you Mr folk any discussion I

073just don't want to get through this meeting uh without expressing my extreme gratitude to Pam um there are two people over the past 20 years who have kept me going where I need to be and and when I need to be there one is my wife uh the other is Pam boock as she will send me emails in reminders and um your support throughout this Pam has been uh tremendous and your friendship is indelible any other discussion Thank you Pam for all you've done and for helping me out as I come on as a new school board member and and helping keep me straight to know what I needed to do and get done when I first came on was quite a bit of stuff so I really appreciate your help in the whole in

074the whole process and I wish wish you the the best in your retirement and may God bless you in everything that you do and and and buckle up Caitlyn welcome welcome Kaitlyn welcome they say it takes three school board members to uh do conduct business with school board I think we could get a unanimous decision to cancel Pam's retirement however yeah I don't think we can get Pam on board with that Pam you have been just a pleasure to work with and yeah keeping us all on track it's quite a and Oscar she keeps Oscar on track too so uh thank you for your service you will be missed but welcome um you've got big shoes to fill but I'm I have no doubt and look forward to working with you but I have no

075doubt that you'll you'll do an excellent job and look forward to working with you heing no other discussion all those in favor please say I I any opposed it's 5 thank you and congratulations Caitlyn I think MTC Surplus property for auction Dr shik board members you have a list of surplus items from Mass nuton Technical Center in your materials and the recommend to approve the MTC list of surplus property for auction on June 4th 2022 as presented thank you Dr shael refer to the superintendent's recommendation do I hear a motion in support uh I move we follow the superintendent's recommendation to approve the MTC list of surplus property for auction on June 4th thank you Mr Lis there second last second thank you Mr Cross any questions or comments hearing none all in favor please

076say I I I any opposed that is by vote thank you world geography textbook adoption committee Dr shefflin chair Breeden members of the board and Dr Shel this is a request to approve a textbook adoption committee for World Geography as a n9th grade so course World Geography has become the primary path for students to earn the social studies verified credit required for high High School graduation in light of this requirement the social studies supervisor Bo Dickinson and secondary curriculum leaders agree that it should be prioritized for an updated text that supports the Virginia so curriculum this committee will be comprised of teachers parents and students who have confirmed a willingness to review textbook samples complete an online evaluation form and meet to discuss a recommendation for purchase the two textbooks being considered are the ones

077on the state approved list World cultures and geography survey by National Geographic and S saged learning and geography the human and physical world by mcgall Hill thank you Dr ship I recommend approval of the world geography textbook adoption committee as presented by Dr shifflet thank you to both of you is there a motion in support I move that we follow the superintendent's recommendation to approve the world geography textbook adoption committee thank you Dr mooken is there a second thank you Mr folk any questions is so this is is this adopting the books you've already had the committee and we're going going to adopt those this the committee that's going to review yes this is the committee we're we're looking for the board to approve the committee that will make a recommendation so we'll come back

078here maybe in a month or so and say of these two here's the one that the committee recommends okay okay but this is the first step yes good question thank you other questions or comments hearing none all those in favor of the superintendent's recommendation please say I I I any opposed that's 5 thank you Dr shley all right thank you moving into information items that our last meeting Mr Cross asked to be placed uh have a place on the agenda to talk about a potential policy uh change and I will call on Mr Cross if you have anything to add tonight yeah absolutely I me handies out I um at the last Schoolboard meeting I was I was shocked that we that we didn't um have a policy so we really don't have a policy

079we're kind of going by the recommendations of the videoe way out understanding um and I was just really shocked on the on the fact that um a child can go to school and they can be called by whatever name they want to and the parents have no say or don't are not even notified on that I I don't I don't care if if Billy wants to be called Sally that's okay I have no business in that I don't I don't care what your sexuality is or or what um or what sex you prefer that has nothing to do with that it has everything about parent notification and uh parents being notified and also parents saying hey I consent to my child being called this certain name at school it has everything to do with parents

080and so I think it was Miss lore that asked at the last Schoolboard meeting where do we draw the line and I I rightfully said parents is where we draw the line and parents need to be involved they need to be made aware and they need to consent of having teachers administrators counselors all of that everyone at school to to call their child by another name that they did not give them at Birth and so if a parent wants to do that that's 100% their right to do that but parents should be involved and I don't and I think as a school board that we should support parents rights on this school board um the majority of our community stands behind what I said here tonight and and we need to support our parents so

081I wrote a policy what your sign say Okay um I want to I want to read the PO a policy that I wrote tonight and way I understand it this Mr Breeden is um that we won't vote on this tonight but it'll be something that we'll talk about and we'll discuss and that the next school board meeting we we'll take that yeah uh the the process will be that what is presented here tonight will be sent for division review okay and legal review if need be and um then we will bring it back if there are any changes that are made uh for discussion and then vote so it's not it may be two meetings out or so before a vote take it's on the it's on the table for us to talk about and

082it's and it's a concern for parents as well and and you know this idea that parents are going to abuse the majority of parents are going to abuse their children or or not accept them that that's the biggest lie that I've ever heard my there's a difference between affirming a child and loving a child and my children do things all the time that I don't affirm but I still love them I'd give my life for them and and that's what we're talking about tonight parents being having the right to know what's going on inside their child's life I think the statistics for transgender kids um that came up and spoke tonight I think the statistic is somewhere between 80 or 90% of those who suffer with uh gender dysphoria will grow out of that when

083they get into their 20s and so yeah okay and and inform I'm I'm sorry but we are out of the public comment section of the meeting and this is now into the board section discussion so thank you thank you um so this has everything to do with parents being in the know of their children and what's going on with them so they can love them so they can know what's going on in their lives and that's what I want as as parents in our community we want to know what everything is going on so I want to read this tonight um parental consent knowledge of students name change the Rockham County School Board recognize the sacred responsibility of a parents or guardian's decision in naming their child from birth and will uphold the parents or

084Guardians decision regarding the name which the school addresses the child while in the school's custody a parent or Guardian has a fundamental right to direct the care custody and control of their children a parent or Guardian is recognized as having the primary responsibility for the upbringing of their child and is recognized as the highest Authority in a child's upbringing not the school I may add therefore a parent or Guardian has a fundamental right to have knowledge and be in full agreement of any name change other than that which is presented in the child's official school records all employees or agents of Rockingham County Public Schools will address a student by the name or name names listed only in the students Power School records if any student wishes to be called by Any Other Name that

085does not reflect the students official school records a parent or Guardian shall be notified by the school administrator and consent must be given of any such name change if any employee or agent of the Rockham County Public Schools who knowingly disregards parental knowledge or consent in regards of a student's name change the superintendent and the school board will take appropriate personnel action up to and including dismissal of any employee found in violation of this provision such actions of the superintendent and School Board shall begin immediately on notification of violation and this is a policy that I present to you tonight school board on parental consent and knowledge of students name change since this will go to for division review um I think there will be an opportunity perhaps if there are questions to to ask

086as we go along through this process uh just as a matter of clarification Mr Cross we would in in this policy we would be talking about even a student who's named Robert who wants to be called Bob yeah I think that the parent tonight had a was it it was a parent or actually the employee that spoke tonight go back to my notes but it's a simple fix uh at the beginning of school year when you register your child for school if whatever names that you want your child to go by that can be added into power school at that time so it's it's not something that's that's hard to do we get notifications that the kid wants to ride the school bus home if a k my son I got called plenty of times

087when he didn't wear his mask properly during Co season um so there's many things that that the school calls home and asks the parents in the process of the school year if school has began it would be something that that the child would go and The Counselor come to the counselor or their teacher they would go and talk to the administrator the administrator would call home and talk with the parents or have a meeting and then the ma then the parents would consent uh or not to the name change being added to power school so it's it's an easy easy fix okay all right we will move to um Dr Shel um Governor Yan's education report and priorities yeah on the previous item so do you want me to reach out to Mr crosson I

088have a number of questions in terms of the logistics of this policy um do you want me to meet with Mr Cross on that separately during the division review um yeah I think that's fine and then perhaps you can report support individually to us okay sounds good or Mr Cross can whichever thank you chairman Breen members of the board and um public last week uh governor yanen received a 90-day report from uh the state superintendent uh he had originally requested a 30-day report on the state of education followed by a 90-day report so the first 30-day report came out uh two months ago and then um late last week uh Governor yankin held a press conference that included the uh the people who spoke were the Secretary of Education the state superintendent uh the chief

089Equity uh sorry the chief uh divers opportunity and inclusion officer Dr Rosa um Atkins who previously served as the superintendent in Charlottesville and then Governor yankan spoke and so they covered a a number of different topics and the report itself is available on the doe website it's 30 some pages long so I'm not going to go into all that detail but I'll try to cover basically the basics of the the seven principles that underly Governor yanan's education plan and also just give a little bit of an idea of of what we're talking about in terms of how that may affect rakam County Public Schools there's no implementation plan yet and we don't have timelines but it's important just to understand initially you know what we may hear more about and so uh this is the

090image from the actual plan so there are seven principles that Governor yankan outlined high expectations empowering parents and teachers zero tolerance for discrimination Innovation transparency and accountability postsecondary Readiness and freedom of speech and inquiry so I'll just briefly touch on each of those uh when it comes to high expectations um both the state superintendent and Governor yankin talked about this Gap so there are our standards of learning in Virginia and they are measured you know through so testing and then there are proficiency cut scores so uh when you look at these three years that they um you know pointed out in the report this is for grade four reading uh 43 77% of students um showed a proficient level in 2015 79% in 2017 and 75% in 2019 according to the Virginia standards of learning

091now there's also um a national exam um it's called the nape National assessment of educational progress and so uh that allows the federal government or anyone really to compare as States across the board so you know if Virginia has its sosos and then Tennessee has a different set of Standards it's hard to compare a proficiency levels and so nape serves as part of that and so the nape standards are different and so according to their standards uh those numbers aren't uh in the 70% range than the 40% range so when it comes to proficient 43 43 and 38% and so it's important to understand that that Gap is there and uh it's one of the ways you can compare achievement by States now Virginia generally ranks um pretty high on National assessment so this doesn't

092mean that you know Virginia is at the bottom of the of the table in fact in in many of these assessments Virginia is in the top 10 and many even in the top five but uh those are simply different um assessments and we have to take it seriously right that there is a national assessment uh that has a significantly higher standard when it comes to proficiency but all states are struggling with that and so again it's simply a matter of um comparing Virginia to other states what I found interesting is that um the governor at length talked about what he wants to see uh Virginia adopt so Virginia just recently the general assembly passed the Virginia literacy act the governor signed it and basically the statement from the report is we will ensure that evidence-based

093literacy instruction is prioritized across Virginia schools through faithful implementation of the Virginia literacy Act of 2022 which requires alignment with the science of reading in all instruction and that's the goal there will be funds available for coaches there will be funds available for professional development well this is exactly what rcps implemented a year ago so letters our letters project is exactly the science of reading and I will say um there's full agreement that when we want to uh raise the levels of reading Proficiency in Virginia that this is exactly the right direction to go and so as I listened to the presentation it was like that's great uh even spoke to some of our legislators and said you know if the governor wants to see um what an implementation looks like where we don't just

094worry about a twoyear training uh process but what happens to the teacher who is a first year teacher when our teachers are going through year two what happens the following year when our teachers are you know that started now are uh completed that training and then what happens in future years there will always be first year teachers second year teachers what happens at the college level and so we have a plan in place to continue that professional development for every first year and second year teacher and then also um you know push it up to the higher grade levels but that's exactly um based on a pilot project that John Wayland two years ago during the pandemic uh we this was one of the most difficult decisions we made to say literacy can't wait we

095need to implement this division wide and our elementary teachers have done all the heavy lifting and there is a story after story from teachers and from parents who will say this has been life altering for kids so the governor is right on The Mark with his focus on the science of reading and um we are already on the way and so we will start year two of that implementation next year um there are similar you know pieces about math instruction and again when it comes to the focus that the governor expressed in terms of rigor uh data analysis and best practice evaluation and that this is why we partner with Harvard Proving Ground not for a curriculum but what Harvard brings to the table is some of the most rigorous um process for evaluating data

096and evaluating strategies uh that you can find and so that's why we went in that direction to make sure that we have the best people in the field at the table parent and teacher empowerment so Governor yanin talked you know this is um again from the report we we commit to providing honest timely accurate and actionable information parents Educators and Learners will know where every student is succeeding and where they are off track they will be supporting and acting upon this information providing interventions that put Learners back on track for short and long-term success and so what governor yunan talked about there is if students are behind uh grade level in reading that there will be specific reports available to parents um he said that you know the Department of Education over the last um

097years you know the data that we've received isn't always really easily actionable what do you do now so now you find out what your kids uh reading score is but now what and so again Governor yanan um promised some resources to help parents you know when we talk about a child being behind in Reading what can parents do at home and what direction does that take so it's important to have that information and to partner with parents and I think that's really important to understand in all the areas you know um our schools partner with parents all the time and uh it's important that you know our school counselors they're engaged with parents all the time teachers are and have the appropriate conversations about uh their children's uh learning experiences zero tolerance for discrimination so

098both um Rosa Atkins and the governor talked about this uh we have to realize that there are when we talk about Virginia being uh at the top of the national scale in some of these assessments that we still have to realize that the picture is not the same for all groups and so Governor yankin said all students deserve an education that does not teach nor practice discrimination whether it be through the funding their schools receive the opportunities they have to learn or preconceived judgments and they used uh this particular chart to make that point that when we look at uh napes nape scores for example um that when you look at all students 38% um of Virginia students showed Proficiency in grade four reading uh but when you disaggregate that uh 63% of Asian students

09946% of white students uh 19% of black students and 20 um 6% of Hispanic students and the Secretary of Education uh the state superintendent um made a statement that you could have come straight from Dr shifflet's presentations in the past um in a Statewide call with superintendent she said um zip code um family income race gender ethnicity these shouldn't be the predictors of success when we see these discrepancies then we need to provide resources it is to create Fair opportunities that's what we're talking about and so we have to realize where those discrepancies are and that a demographic Factor shouldn't be the predictor there's not about equal outcomes for every child we know students um don't all progress equally and have the same outcomes and it's not desirable anyway we don't want everyone for example

100to go to a four-year College that's not useful for society we need to ensure that all students uh can follow the path that they desire but it shouldn't be those demographic factors that um should determine it and so Governor yankin did talk about that as well when it comes to Innovation um you know he said that we need to look at schools that have tried different things um we need to look look at lab schools we need to look at um magnet schools Charter Schools the department of strategic Innovation will catalog Innovative education opportunities in schools including lab Governor magnet and charter schools now I will say this if you want to know how Rockham County Schools stack up against some of these magnet schools yeah you heard the TSA kids earlier right so um

101they don't they don't worry about um being in the same competition uh with TJ so Thomas Jefferson school and they do quite well in those environments and also then the Sate best practices the department aims to inspire and incubate Innovation across School divisions and the Commonwealth and actually one of the um applications for a lab school that was uh received by the governor's um team was one that involves rcps so again we've said uh this shouldn't be locally funded if the state wants to see these lab schools you know make it happen financially and so that's what we're talking about with JMU still uh there this isn't for another year that that would start but um it is those Innovation U projects where we have local universities and that's that legislation we don't quite know

102yet whether it made it into the budget but again we're at the table uh with the governor's team and also with vooe uh to look at whether we can have small environments where we can try things uh differently and and make things happen differently but certainly lots of work at um in that area transparency and accountability so so um again the same conversation about nape scores about so scores um there was also a conversation about um how how many students get um college credit through AP scores that that's dropped in Virginia a little bit um that can be for a number of reasons so for example in Rockham County we've um emphasized dual enrollment classes more for getting college credit rather than just the because it's so content heavy and VAR um it there's no

103application level to AP tests uh and so that is part of the reason why if fewer kids take AP classes but instead take dual enrollment classes at the college level they also get that college credit and so sometimes we have to be careful with the data but we need to be having these conversations right what are these uh what does the information show and where can we get better because uh one thing's for sure there's a lot of room for improvement in all School divisions um across the country but um certainly in Virginia and in Rockingham County uh we can improve in in many areas accreditation standards may be revised now one of the concerns always is that um standard standards of learning testing so the S testing uh becomes again this only measure and

104I don't think that's the direction that the governor's team is going now there are a number of um team members on his team who are proponents of letting students show that they have a skill and um show that they understand a concept so the performance-based assessments that we talk about that have been developed in some of the subject areas language artarts social studies so we'll see where the specifics are but that will be work for uh the Board of Education enrichment right but there are certainly uh changes to be expected in the accreditation standards because they've changed a number of times and again the more that's fuzzy and and not clear to the public you know what does this really mean for my child uh the worse off we are because that is again that

105information sharing so that parents know where their kids are that we have a better understanding what happens next next to improve that child's learning because it is uh very individual and they talked about you know individual learning planes so something we know from special education um and that I know when I was um at UVA you know they were talking about why don't we have an IP for every student you know an individualized education plan not tied to disability but in general you know where is the student and on what happens uh to help and so transparency and and standards are part of that postsecondary Readiness when he talked about that it was like okay again um he could come and look at this you saw TSA earlier right um schools will provide multiple Pathways

106to post secondary success apprenticeship internships he said we need more uh work-based learning opportunities for students College preparation dueling concurrent enrollment and Career and Technical education uh the CTE program uh that Eric Fitzgerald has led for years now is second to none in the state and so we have MTC right right which is when it comes to um technical schools Korean technical schools um MTC is the Envy of many school divisions in Virginia and uh when Governor yanan talked about high-tech you know the only um C the only class of its kind with um a security operations center for high school students when it comes to cyber security so um the new program for aviation maintenance and all the other programs that we have and again we see that at MTC and just a few

107weeks ago you approved a second work-based learning coordinator and so enrichment there are conversations you know School divisions should have workbed learning coordinators so this school board and this community has supported Korean technical education in Rockingham County um Eric Fitzgerald has done an amazing job to really um make Rockingham County known for that and and he always tells me stories you know when he uh goes to other school divisions and when it comes to CTE programs people say oh Rockingham the land of milk and honey when it comes to uh CTE programs because that's what he's built and that's what this board has supported and um we're proud of that and so again um certainly if there's interest from Richmond to see how this component and the science of reading is done um we are

108all ready to Showcase so we have we have to improve in other areas clearly right so um but I feel like we are doing um significant work in all these areas freedom of speech and inquiry so this was interesting um again Governor yankan talked about that we have to address complicated and uncomfortable topics in ways that support critical thinking and vigorous classroom discussion without injecting trendy political views or inhibiting Free Speech we will support this Prov by providing training to our teachers and school leaders on teaching such subjects and facilitating difficult conversation he very specifically talked about history and said we do need to teach all of history the good and the bad and I think there 's agreement um on the board on that as well we do need to teach the uncomfortable parts

109of history but we need to do it in a way um as we've said on many occasions you know this isn't about making someone feel guilty for what happened a 100 years ago it is about understanding and making the world a better place by understanding what happens uh when certain things um go on and and again Bo Dickinson with the way Social Studies have been taught in Rockingham County we do try to make sure that it speaks to the lives of our students and that our students play an active role in their learning um I know you know maybe next year we'll we'll be able to go to Farmville I um Mr Cross was planning to attend the Farmville two guides um you know had something come up and again uh those are the opportunities

110uh that I know you will enjoy and I know some other board members have been there I've been there and it is a place where our students give tours to uh their classmates in historical settings um where there is uncomfortable history uh to be talked about but where it's done you know by those students actively learning um I know we've done this at Anam Battlefield my daughter was one of the tour guyses there uh the other one then went to Farmville and so there's all this history you know you've mentioned many times you know all the local history we have and our students engage in that history that's local to them and then they uh do this at East Rock you know there's an amazing exhibit on um how the building of the national park

111in Skyline Drive affected the local community you know that's what we're talking about uh it explains some of the tensions with the uh federal government and how people lost their um their land and really how this continues to affect the community so so much amazing history and yes it's uncomfortable in many ways but we can talk about it in responsible ways without um again without out making the students feel guilty about it but it's important for them to learn and and there's so much to learn when it comes to that and so those are those Seven Pillars again there will be a lot more conversation around the standards in where Virginia has slid a little bit over the last few years and what decisions precipitated that um how to create meaningful Partnerships uh with our

112community and with our families um certainly you know Educators have said for decades you know we need families involved right um that's that's an important conversation um to make sure that families understand where the students are in terms of their learning and and how they can improve and be where those um students need to be in order to be successful through a variety of different ways and so there'll be additional conversations to be had again Governor yanan just talked about this last week had a couple good conversations with our local legislators about it and so uh we'll see where it goes but uh we're ready and uh we're ready to you know see what the details are and then act accordingly to certainly improve our system as we always try you know this isn't about

113saying oh no now we got to do something better we always said you know when we know better we need to do better so that was an interesting presentation and um yeah I'm I'm sure we'll hear more from Richmond on what that may look like because again at this point it was a 90-day report from the state superintendent uh but I'm certain that we'll get more details of what these new expectations may be so if you have any questions I'll try to answer those I can't speak for the governor obviously he wouldn't want me to speak for him but um at least I can maybe give a sense of what I heard um how how do you I think one of the graphs he showed up there Governor y showed was a graph that showed

114math maybe yeah it showed the Asians being at the top and whites blacks and Latinos how do you how do you make education fair in in math like that so what's what's some that's great so um and in fact I don't we're not quite there yet with uh Harvard so what they did for almost entire year is work with um our Math teachers on looking at uh what current assessment scores are and to really look at where do we see the explanation because this is Middle School right so um how well someone does in a middle school class obviously there are a number of factors that can cause that and so um some of the conversations certainly then go to well you know it's not necessarily um to say that well these are students who

115do poorly in math because they are Hispanic right that can be underlying uh reasons for that so for example um if someone moves here from another country so I was going to ask that yeah when I came to the United States um math was a little odd for me because the entire terminology was different I was good in math and I um could do all the math you know that they asked me to do at JMU um fairly easily but when it came to talking about it and reading about it I constantly had to look up stuff because it's just called something different and so what we have to be careful for example uh with is to not say oh this student is struggling with this and now early on in their school career we

116track differently right and we don't provide the support so for example in many school divisions you know math may be taught um in the students's home language or they could you know in their El class uh where students can get the support in their home language to learn math and can show what they can actually do and so it gets very complicated very quickly we obviously know that um you know family support uh family income can be tied to it and it's it's not necessarily saying oh this student is lagging in math math the real question then is what do we do about it right and so um in math for example there can be some interventions some of it has to do for example with what students believe about their math ability so it's

117called mindset so many students who aren't doing well in math simply believe they're not good in math that's not it it is because early on when students struggle to some extent the message that they hear all the time is well that's just not your thing and they believe it and there is really really good research that when you work on mindset so students that are struggling that you work on mindset it's the belief that teachers have about what students can achieve but also the students what they believe they can accomplish and you can change that to a growth mindset I can learn anything I just need some extra supports and then to provide those supports that not all students need just like we do um with an IEP you know if a student um has

118a hearing impairment we simply provide services right and we need to look at at um students being um not at the same grade level with their peers necessarily in whether it's math reading or or other subjects what are the supports we now need to put in place to make sure that because you maybe read at a lower grade level or were behind in math in grade three that that doesn't now become the self-fulfilling prophecy that by 11th grade you know you're further behind so what are the supports that that student needs to catch up you know what uh tutor is available what activities are available that's what we're talking about there what what kind of supports are we doing I know I'll make this long what kind of supports are we doing right now uh

119especially in Middle School area to get uh these kids up because like you said a lot of times children that maybe do really well in math they have a a great support system at home where parents are pushing them and uh getting them the extra help and tutors and things like what about the kids who can't afford the tutors and uh things like that do we provide some type of after school we provide tutoring um as needed we have students for example the last few years our summer school focused on reading camps to make sure that in Reading we catch up but that's also part of the work with Harvard right and they really are um I listen in on some of the conversations with the Math teachers and our division leaders where it's like

120no that's not when they talk about root cause analysis like what's the real root cause and then it's like no that's not quite yet you know we need to dig deeper we need to and then what intervention do we select and so I think that's the point where they're at now um it's trying interventions for those students so whether that's again um some people suggest simply highd dosage tutoring or it could be you know that students get um extra help from peers uh because uh interestingly you know when you have students working with other students the students that are Advanced actually learn a lot when they have to now explain it to another student because explaining something means you really have to understand that mat you can't just do well on a test but now

121you have to explain it um just as most teachers will tell you they learned most about the subject once they started teaching it and and so there are all kinds of things we can do and that's what the work with Harvard is about what interventions are successful and they provide that rigorous you know worldclass data analysis to say now what evidence do we have that the intervention we tried um actually worked and so I think that some of the work um that governor yankan also talked about right Innovation how do we know that what we did worked because for example with reading a lot of kids learn to read the spite of what we do they they may some kids learn to read without going to school so we can't always say you know oh

122it's because we did this and so there has to be really a good process of looking at data and saying okay here are the two groups we tried this intervention what difference do we see in those groups so that we do the things that work the the most and U mindset training for example is one um the biggest impact on student learning is actually what teachers collectively believe about their students so Collective teacher efficacy has the highest um levels of outcomes when we talk about effect size so teachers as a group believing that these students can do well and so that requires work with teachers and then what students believe about themselves right and so it it's not always just tutoring it's really it also has to do with uh working as a School Division

123to make sure we don't look at the kid like I always said you know the some teachers looked at me uh because I grew up in poverty and said nothing good will happen and when teachers don't do that all of a sudden you know you open doors for kids and it doesn't mean the other kids didn't get any help but I need a different help uh from other kids and I think we need again that's where we have to focus on what we can provide to help each child be successful awesome and the last thing I wanted to say was definitely on the local history stuff I know we we do a great job down in Elton with the the families got kicked off The Skyland drive and actually my I have family um my

124my brother's uh in-laws were part of that group uh family they got kicked off to the Skyland drive and were given land down below many of them wasn't given land but they were fortunate enough to receive to receive land but I that's one of the things that really come on the school board that I really want to would love for the division to focus on is is really local history and we have so much local history I was out in the Pineville Cross Keys area last week and stopped by and talked to a to a a gentleman who bought a home there uh that was built in 1791 and man the stories he was tell telling me of everything that happened there during the Civil War time was incredible and I to think that you

125know I sat in a school just four miles away in mon videoo growing up and and didn't know hardly anything of local history of that part is is is is frustrating so I I would love for our kids to know the Good Bad and the Ugly I just don't want uh English or not English but history teachers demonizing our founding fathers uh the way it was to teach history how it was and to to go there so right and yeah anything we can do for local history and doing that I would love uh to see thank you other questions thank you Dr shy board members you have in your packet an attendance report for April 2022 and information on the vsba conference on education if you are interested in attending that you can catch up

126with Caitlyn um so next we will move to Schoolboard questions and I will go in the reverse order that I went Mr Cross you'll be first thank you Miss lore I don't have any questions either okay except how to work the microphone apparently okay Dr mcquilkin thank you Mr Breeden I passed thank you Mr Fulk thank you Mr Bren um I would like to request uh the superintendent look into U maybe setting up a study of of the uh the student climate in our buildings and how it has been impacted by the the the two years of covid mitigation and things like that and uh specifically uh their interactions with one another and uh respectful treatment of one another so basically a studying of of of bullying and things like that if that makes sense

127yeah again I'll look into what options may be available and then I'll bring that to the board and the board can decide thank you you want to move forward Dr shyo you have any comments I do want to make one quick comment because um it came up during public comments and it's important for everyone to know that when we read stories on social media of how a process plays out that please be careful um I know U as related to uh Broadway High School there are a number of stories that keep popping up on social media and it's important for everyone to understand of course because it involves students uh you know we can't talk about um any information specific to a case but there a couple things I can say and uh one is

128that um the Facebook posts that talk about um Broadway High School not having um alerted law enforcement uh these are all verifiable um pieces to the story and I I know um that there is um clear evidence of who was told at what point and uh Sheriff Hutcherson has spoken to that and I can tell you that from the time um an allegation was made at Broadway High School to the principal to law enforcement being notified was three minutes there are stories that again others contacted law enforcement that doesn't mean that didn't happen right um but we often have incidents where um multiple people contact law enforcement but it was three minutes and that's important to know and one of the reasons is that we have worked very hard uh with law enforcement to determine

129what the best approach is for these investigations it's important to understand that when people say only law enforcement is doing something the school is not um once law enforcement is involved we actually Stand Down um it's very important for law enforcement investigators to be the ones conducting interviews when it comes to potential serious criminal conduct and so we've um worked on our memorandum of understanding with the sheriff to say when serious criminal conduct is suspected this is what schools will do and then we our staff uh don't sit in on the interviews necessarily now we have to do certain investigative steps for you know federal law for Title 9 for all these other things but uh law enforcement needs to do the interview and um it's also one of the reasons I know there's a

130lot of criticism for why did why didn't we immediately notify the entire Community uh law enforcement oftentimes investigates for weeks uh we've had cases you know and you mentioned some of those where investigations took months and the more information that comes up on social media about something all the rumors start going it actually makes law enforcement's investigation more difficult so we try to let law enforcement work in quiet for as long as they can because when they talk to a student or to a staff member or anyone else you know who's listed as a person they want to talk to uh without that person already having received a flood of information on social media and so there's a there is a process in place for that and so if people think that I don't take

131it seriously or that the school doesn't take it seriously um that's not it I lost my brother to suicide and he was sexually assaulted as a kid and so for me this is a very very personal topic and um for us it's been key for years now um since I became superintendent and started working with the sheriff if I you know I wasn't uh doing these investigations before then that even though the law says um there's a 24-hour notification period for social services or for the sheriff um that it is often um within minutes and typically within the hour that as soon as we get that call and we asked hey this is uh what we're hearing um my first response is call call law enforcement now and in this case that didn't even have

132to happen um I know that principal aathy immediately contacted law enforcement uh that then goes through their channels to have the appropriate people at the building and so I know these cases are incredibly difficult for Community but from the perspective of how quickly the school reacted and what happened as a result so again Facebook posted say oh I heard someone saw a student at the school two days later um these are all verifiable things and so please be careful that's all I'm asking when it comes to those facts because when you when you then read that the School Division just wants to sweep it under the rug or never called um the authorities it immediately sets that tone right that what are they trying to hide and from our perspective that was an almost instant

133request to say we need the professionals um at the table to conduct investigation and once that happens there's nothing else we can say and so um please understand that um and again there are lots of other stories of course on social media about it but when it comes to those uh pieces of information um those are simply not accurate and I just need to say that publicly so that everyone understands how we operate and that I would never let that happen that if I'm told um we have an allegation that we would just hold off on working with the authorities on that because it is very very personal to me so that's all I want to say on that topic thank you thank you thank you Dr Sho um I wanted to share a story

134with my colleagues because it saddens me um I had a parent come to see me that uh was concerned about some of the things they had seen on social media and they wanted to to the degree that I was able um confirm or deny what was on there and uh during the course of the conversation I asked them if they attended Schoolboard meetings and they said I don't anymore because they've become a circus and I said why do you think that is and they gave me a few reasons as to as to why they think that is the case and then they said to meh do you think it is and I thought long and hard and I answered like this from my perspective for two decades this board has worked to address real problems

135that arose lately it seems like we're working on problems that are invented that's just my perspective and um that makes me sad because there's a lot of really serious educational work to be done um lots of things I'd like to see accomplished before I leave and um but we'll continue to address things as they come along we do have reason to enter into Clos meeting and I will enter main a motion to that effect if you desire I move that the board inter closed meeting to discuss and consider the following pursuant to Provisions VG of Virginia code section 2.2-fold thank you Dr mooken all in favor please say I I any opposed that's 5 thank you all very much for sticking with us and um be safe going home