001evening sub movement i'm sure uh thank you uh mr bostic do we have a second a second thank you mr ball all in favor aye would you read the certification for executive session for november the 4th yes ma'am uh miss chairman i moved to certified that's the best of our knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements and only such public business matters as were indicated in the motion that go into the executive session were heard discussed consider an executive session okay mr psychoidji yes mr bostic yes mr ball yes mr gibson yes mr parsons yes and miss garrett yes and myself yes okay we'll stand for the pledge uh mr second pleasure if you would i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic
002for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all delegations dr brown that's great almighty god we thank you for the opportunity to be out tonight we just thank for the audience here and the board members and their collective desire to do what is best for russell county schools we ask that you give this board the wisdom of solomon to make the correct decisions and the courage of david to stand up for what is right we just give you all the praise and glory in christ's name amen yes our members of the board thank you for uh for making time for the delegation uh speeches and and the moment of prayer appreciate that a couple of things um and uh hopefully you all can answer this tonight um i'm assuming
003that virginia is a member of the national school board association um what i would like to see this board do is write a letter to our state school board requesting that virginia leave the national school board association and that request being referenced to the letter that they sent to president biden asking that the fbi investigate parents for speaking up at school board meetings listing them as domestic terrorists it's absolutely unacceptable clearly these people at the national school board associate have have an agenda and that is to keep parents out of the classroom to keep parents out of education so i'd ask you to take a vote tonight and make a resolution to write that letter to our school board association of virginia to request them to remove virginia from that association three other states have
004already done it pennsylvania ohio and yeah i had to i didn't make the notes i didn't get the other one so the other thing i want to bring up is that at the school board meeting three months ago brad hutchinson of the fitz turner commission for human and civil rights got up and spoke he said that we weren't going to have any issues with transgender assaults in the bathroom our daughters were safe that was three months ago this is october maybe september it'd be like what was that july august meeting well on may 28th of last year scott smith's daughter in loudoun county was forcibly sodomized in the bathroom by a male student who wore a skirt to school my question for this board is how long before is one of our daughters or our
005grandchildren in russell county schools before that happens make sure that you are doing everything in your power to make our bathroom safe my suggestion make every single bathroom in russell county a single-use bathroom one person at a time until that happens every single day you on this board are liable for that to happen here every day that public school is in session the risk is on every one of you so take action do something thirdly the budget i would like to see russell county do a forensic audit of our school system we spend almost and right at as much as all the counties around us and yet we pay our teachers less i'm talking about per student we need to find out why we're spending as much money and what we can do better our
006taxpayers deserve it our children deserve it we need to make that happen thank you mr kaiser um i was just here because i wanted to talk about the absence policy i moved here would you would you care to give us your name and oh sorry my name is sheryl davis um i moved here four months ago from washington state um i currently work at casville high school but i'm not here as a employee i'm here as a parent my child my son is in the elementary building my daughter is in the middle school she's in ninth grade and i received a letter last week from the elementary building because my son has had six excused absences and two unexcused absences while i was gone i had to fly back to washington to get the rest
007of our belongings and i was informed that if he had any more even if i called and said they were excused because he was sick or anything else like that or you know missed a call that we'd be looking at facing truancy and so i'm trying to find out what's going on because we were told that if our children are sick you know if they show any signs of coping to keep them home you know and if they persist for more than two or three days take them in and get them tested i have no problem with that i will absolutely do that but as a parent i don't want to be facing trinity court because i'm trying to keep the rest of the kids in the school safe because i don't know if it's
008coveted when i was put on quarantine because you know the volleyball players got you know exposed to covid and i actually ended up getting sick and actually ended up getting covered i went to four different locations to get a test four and every single one of those locations said you're not showing any symptoms we're not going to test you it's a waste of a test i was turned away not just here in virginia i even went to tennessee so i'm just trying to figure out what we can do about that i mean i don't i know i don't want to go to court just because i'm trying to keep other students safe you know keep my baby safe and i know that other parents don't want to be facing truman see court either i mean
009that goes on their permanent record that's not just something that you just push under the rug oh you know truancy court it's just another tuesday you know so my concern here is that if we're going back to our old policies then maybe that letter should have been sent out to inform parents when they switch back over to the old policies you know when it was pre pandemic all i got to really say thank you thank you dr brook can you answer to that i mean about the jurassic policy sure that's that's our alternative policy is well defined it follows the requirements of the state of virginia but you know again some of the things you said didn't quite fit as far as them being excused absences and so forth we do have something called chronic
010absenteeism as a new player when it comes to state of virginia and students being in school so that actually includes that but if you will always mr fletcher to get your name and number and we'll give you a call he's the assistant superintendent okay and we'll give you a call we'll talk specifically about your child's situation okay sure anyone if i can address the board okay dr brown do you have any adjustments to the agenda uh no matter okay we need approval for the agenda so move out here thank you mr bostic do we have a second i'll second that madam chair thank you mr sakuya takes us down to a minute okay all in favor we need approval for minutes of october the 7th so moved uh thank you mr gibson do we have
011a second second thank you mr parsons all in favor dr brown this takes us to our recognitions for tonight thank you madam chair i'll start by asking mr antonio rice to come forward to speak to the board concerning our jag program thank you thank you good evening everyone and so this is um it's okay to take this song this is always a fun fun thing to do because this is kind of you know just like anything else this is your report card this tells you what you've been doing you've invested in in a jag program here are the outcomes everybody sitting down so i'll just let me just kind of read this because it's important says russell county career and technical center has been recognized by our national affiliate jobs for america's graduates for exceeding
012all five of jag's standards for the follow-up class of 20 20 20. russell county career and technical center was recognized at our jobs for america's graduate national training seminar and earlier this early this year in july and so what all this means is this so let me just kind of just lay it out here for you so you have 35 participants the average barriers were about six forty-eight percent lives in a single parent or with a or grandparent twelve percent low academic performance forty-nine percent did not pass state proficiency exam 26 have a past record of excessive absences 29 have been suspended expelled or put on probation during high school 12 have repeated um a grade in school 71 eligible for free or reduced lunch 54 have one or more parent who does not work
013and then the biggest number is 100 graduated that's awesome with those kind of barriers 100 graduated and so despite academics socioeconomic coveted and all that good stuff 100 of the students in your jag program graduated and and that's mainly because sharon owens said so [Laughter] because i think we all need a champion we need somebody who believes in you we need somebody who who you have to not always say what they want to hear but tell them what they need to hear be there for the shoulder the whatever whatever it takes you have that champion in sharon owens and it's a pleasure to work with you on a regular basis obviously but um you're the one that makes this program work right you're the foundation that just starts from you so goes the leader so
014it goes to group and so and i'm sure you all have been just been right next door it's amazing with the stuff that's coming going on over there and so actually when i every time i come have to take pictures and all that good stuff because it's absolutely amazing these kids are most certainly set up for what's next and um and you have a large part and to do with that so if you just look at the chart here you exceed even jvg standards so 100 graduation rate 89 employment rate 100 um full-time positive outcome rate further education rate and 97 full-time employment rate that's just outstanding it just really is and for the new guy it kind of makes me look good too so keep up the good works keep up the good work
015um that's all i really do have and i will tell you this coming down is it 19 right around five o'clock is the beautiful is look i think charlottesville is pretty cool you kind of want no one from shoulders around here got his beat it is absolutely stunning it's absolutely beautiful you're right about that yeah well there you go and so and coming from charlottesville i do i'd be remiss if i didn't say all the cars that had the hooky stickers on i beat them coming down i almost got a ticket but still you got to do what it takes about whatever it takes so any questions about jvg and what we're doing and what's happening and if you haven't been by there lately go by and check out that facility it's it's it's amazing
016it's absolutely amazing those instructors and you know hands down to all those instructors over there and and miss owens as well absolutely those those uh students when they graduate in the in the spring that is a good uh a good a good feel to be there isn't it yeah and i am yeah i apologize typically i have a big old plaque and all that good stuff but everything's backed up i have no plaques it's probably offshore or something it's probably sitting off the coast right that's exactly what's happening they'll make their own over there for sure matter of fact the the program fails tonight or meal yes well thank you very much [Applause] can we get a picture just just for a couple minutes here yes sir all right uh madam chair with our recognition
017we do have our teacher of the month and sports after the month and i asked mr fletcher to help us with that dr brown and the chairman of the board's pleasure to bring to you tonight our october employees of the month i'd like to ask mr brian keith ray honaker elementary school to come forward as the support employee of the month he's a long-term substitute there and their teacher of the month is mr chandler of arts if you come forward please i'd like to read to you the uh recognition nomination form that came with him first follow mr ray this is mr ray's first year teaching sixth grade math he's been an exceptional co-worker and even better teacher he's always at school early preparing his lessons or to help his students who may need extra
018help i have twin daughters in the sixth grade and they have recently been out in quarantine due to code mr ray kept in touch with them through me at school and also answered any questions my girls had through email messages or through his own through his own phone even after school hours since math has never been my daughter's favorite subject she often struggles in that area this year mr ray has brought everything down to her level and made it much more understanding for her when she seems to struggle mr ray will always touch base with me to check on her and make sure she's understanding the material and even go back over things with her he goes above and beyond for each of his students i have seen firsthand how he wants each child to
019understand and excel i just want you all to know what an excellent decision was made in hiring mr ray for sixth grade [Applause] thank you for all you do thank you for all that i've had more than one comment thank you by the way he's working on his teaching license all right mr barks is band director as a home acre into the county i've got three nominations for him first one he goes out of his way out of his pocket to make sure every student has the same opportunity he finds the good in all kids he deserves this more than any teacher i know my daughter is a senior and this has been and has been his student for six years now please give this to this outstanding man second one he truly goes above
020and beyond more than any teacher i have ever seen every child is vital to his program and he makes them aware of how important they are he often uses uses his own money to have instruments repaired so that any student wishing to participate doesn't have to pay and are never excluded he stays after normal hours and sometimes on weekends as well he is so deserving of this award my son was introduced to banned by mr bartz in the fall of 2019. i was going through cancer treatments at the time and he really took aiden under his wing we just purchased aidan's saxophone around december or january and then kovic shut everything down in march mr bart still continued to teach aiden virtually not an easy task he allowed him to progress at his own pace
021through his banned books to where aiden was in the third book by the time school started in the fall of 2020. he was so far ahead mr bartz introduced him to a second instrument the trombone he invited him to play at the home football games with a high school band and encouraged him to come to honaker high school and after after school practices he did this with others as well my son who is becoming so despondent has flourished under his instruction not just in band class where today is an eighth grade student he can play multiple instruments mr bart's love and dedication to all students has spilled over into their daily lives their other classes their self-confidence their pride in their school and community these children are thriving despite all that is wrong in today's
022world mr bartsch is their cheerleader and a safe place for many he radiates positivity and encouragement he pays out of his own pocket for any things the students need is also a real blessing to us parents we know how special this man is we are honored to have him so involved in our children's lives i nominate him not just the teacher of the month the teacher of the year [Applause] thank you your band's great they are wonderful so much thank you for taking care of this i'm so sorry i'm so you okay support had the opportunity to look at the bills do i have a motion that we pay the bills i make that motion man i'm sure thank you mr parsons do we have a second i'll second that madam chairman thank you mr
023sakaija all in favor everybody good with paying the bills yes ma'am okay uh dr brown our resignations and retirements yes madam chair have a small list for the board's consideration tonight do we have a motion that we approve madam chair i'll make the motion to approve the resignations retirement has presented thank you mr zakawija do we have a second a second thank you mr gibson all in favor any opposed new hires dr brown uh yes manager again i have a list for the board's consideration okay do we have a motion that we new personnel and transfers so movement chair thank you mr bostic we have a second segment thank you mr parsons all in favor aye hi uh dr brown the second reading of the policies yes madam chair we have one action item and
024one information item for the board's consideration tonight on the action item as members of the vsba the virginia school board association west camp public schools receives the sba policy updates to be examined by our school board members for implementation to our policy manual the policies under consideration can be seen under the policy tab on board docs this was presented last board meeting as an information item and i have it tonight for the board's approval okay do i have a motion thank you mr parsons do we have a second i'll second that madam chair thank you mr psycho weeja all in favor opposed dr brown do you have the coronavirus update uh yes ma'am chair a few items for the board's information tonight uh the booster club for our adults is underway it was at home
025acre high school today it will be at 11 high school on the 18th and castlewood high school on the 19th for our adults again that is a booster clinic so they'll have a choice of whatever you know vaccine they would like there again we feel that we'll have you know again you know nice turnout for that but nothing compared to what we dealt with back in february is the you know the booster is widely available now at any pharmacy in most doctor's offices and so forth but we are preparing uh providing that service for our employees additionally we have the pfizer vaccine clinic for our students ages 5 to 11 that has been approved for emergency authorization and we are working with the health department this information is posted on our website and our facebook
026page as far as the uh clinics and so forth those will be on the 17th and the 19th uh and again any information that you know folks need that's available on our facebook page and of course they can call and we'll provide that information as well that's been shared on all calls by the principles um as far as our notifications that we receive uh we do receive a scorecard from uh from ballad uh every day and our numbers again are are improving as far as the number of individuals that are in our hospitals in our area not too long ago five five weeks ago we were looking at a you know again a new high up to 413 that were in the hospitals with the information we received today it's down to 166 so that's
027that's encouraging individuals within the school division i have provided that information to the board with our last board meeting again we had students uh quarantine 181 that's down to 33. these are active currently active last month students testing positive and currently again active with that was 40. we're down to eight at this point in time we have new staff quarantined or have tested positive that are active for today so we're encouraged and we are in weekly contact with the bdh and hopefully moving in the right direction with making things uh closer and closer and closer to normal that's what i have tonight madam chair thank you dr brown for that update sure dr brown was talking about the chromovirus pin down i'd like to make a motion that we make mass optional if the pirates
028want some of the wire they can and i don't think it should be a mandate i think it should be made optional um madam chair i thought we'd already discussed this in the back room and we decided to uh i think the attorney was going to be looking to look into it at that senate 1303 bill and i would hate to do anything at this point to take i think you should take that chair okay it's not been seconded yet it's not been second so i mean with the election i 100 percent agree and it's it's going in that direction but we did ask mr compton to read that bill and fellow death and i fully expect next month we'll be making that motion and passing it i hope well you read over it what
029do you think didn't have the full bill that i could get on online would be yes yes there's a motion to take all right so there's no second we got emotional at the table on the motion i appreciate that the motion has been table with uh mr ball's second so you're going to be back and we need a vote all in favor any oppose opposed okay thank you mr parsons uh you know we we want to come through this thing as as quickly as we can and we want to stay with within our boundaries as much you know that we can too i agree madam chair with the new governor i don't think we can wait for the cdc to direct us what to do or ddh i think with our new governor if he
030opens it up for us we need to go option i mean i'm not going to wait on cdh taking their orders from dr okay that's that's how i feel i think i like to have mr compton to bring that in depth and give us uh very learning uh i understand where he's come from bob i i can't vote for something the way it is right now that they can put us in jail or violence individually dr brown our sales tax is 376 thousand three thirty seven eighty four uh adm is thirty two sixty four had a chance for the maintenance and expenditure report we have future agenda items uh i uh in reference to his uh speak about the association yes we might need to look into to that but we did receive something from
031our association we did from gina patterson you know right they didn't support that did not support that that don't mean that we're still not a member of it but they were part i wouldn't even ask about the decision and then we did forward uh as well didn't we that to uh you've already fought forward something uh about that yes issue i agree that would but it may not be as strong as what might be i think we need to do that i mean i think we do need to if i make a motion that we do send a letter to the vspa that we recommend that we don't want to be a part of the national school board association i'll second that well we're having our convention that'll be all your counties in the state
032of virginia uh november the 17th uh and what is the day 17th 18th 17th and 18th and i think that would be a good discussion that we as a board uh talk with our other other board members across the state and um i think the other board members see that we took this action that they may follow soon just like the transgender issue and just like the sporting issue last year we were the first to act right to bring on the sporting and if we hadn't done that if we had sports in southwest virginia i mean there's a motion on the floor and a second you speak now uh i've missed my channel we have audiences speaking out of turn i don't think they should be doing that okay from the from the back room
033if they're going to speak from the back room i think they need to be escorted out of the room should we do a road call vote how about discussion yes let's have a discussion um i have no problem doing it i just think we need to to i agree with you on your feeling because we need to wait until uh this next board meeting i don't think 30 days is going to make that much difference well let's uh it may come down lesser than 30 days it's uh yeah it's less than 30 days right but uh be 30 days before we come back right here here but i'm thinking in my little finite mind that uh something may come down even thing we may not even have to i think we may not have to
034act i think there's enough heat being uh pressured in other places that that yeah i think it may come from the this one would be the heat yeah yeah that's what's going with it i mean you don't speak question if they don't know that we're upset i mean for well this board organization that was sent a letter to parents in here deemed as a tariff domestic terrorist what i want no part of well this board has never uh as long as i've been on the board has never tried to sanction any parent that that comes before us for what any reason well yes and we try to address it it's up to the fbi now well that's that's a federal issue right i mean we got it and uh we'll be in i call for
035the vote chair okay mr sekuija i'm with uh the chairman and mr bostic i'm gonna vote no in lieu of our upcoming convention and see what comes out of that no mr ball i'm i'm with mr z i'm i'm i am for doing it but i would like to wait 30 days okay so i'm gonna vote no okay mr persons yes miss garrett no and myself no okay what else do we have this evening we don't need to uh adjourn later tonight uh because we will be reconvening for our virtual meeting with uh the 18th and 19th appreciate all of all of you and that's going to be here right we're going to do it here i'm going to be virtual and yeah we'll we'll set up the tv screens and so forth so the
036board can deal with the annual convention right and we can interact with and that should present a savings of travel and all that and plus we can be here and and learn about things that we need to be focusing on and let our and let our points be known as well also dr brown uh i think hoenaker elementary maybe next month you would have some information on that i'm not familiar exactly they were 146 out of a thousand middle schools what type of achievement did they and that would be a reflection i guess upon our teachers and their employees there right i've been told that there's some information from the u.s news world reports concerning that i have not been notified okay from vspa or from the vdoe concerning any official recognition i'd be more
037than happy to investigate that that would be good and we would like to know and i appreciate his music being here this evening and also miss kitts thank you for coming and you all are welcome to speak to us at any time and all the other and we need to thank them for our meal too so okay yes command chair i guess one one additional point there uh as far as our uh i guess future calendar items and the date of our next school board meeting is that's december the 2nd we are going to have a public hearing prior to that for the fy 23 budget input so we'll have that available to to anyone that likes to step forward and share that okay and i want to thank our new counselor for being here
038yes thanks uh mr compton and ms compton i don't think we're real close close relation i mean family tree wise but we've known known new gene and dolly for a long time and we appreciate them fill in those shoes and also thank you mr street we really appreciate you coming to our meetings yes thank you all right one other thing yes i would like for uh dr brown to get with the gentleman about his request there on the uh our cost and things like that uh to get his understanding of what he thinks he might information that he he might want that uh that we can give him without having to get it we what depth he's wanting to go into sure it's all there to see him and it's all also online everything's everything's
039online okay in regards to the bathrooms we've clearly stated that doesn't a male cannot go in a female's bathroom or vice versa in russell county if that issue happens i mean it's not it's not going to happen they are to go to the uh administrator for single use bathroom we clearly said that's not going to happen and also the pronoun news that's not approved in russell county you are not forced and also inappropriately excuse me both i'm sorry go ahead also we have got uh estimates on changing the bathrooms uh in the schools and it's going to cost about a half a million dollars each bathroom to bring those up to single single use type bathrooms and so that's gonna be several million dollars for each uh for each school but for the school system
040i don't know maybe then you and so things might change administration can make change may change that in a positive way too but it's not it has been looked into and it's been looked into a couple of months ago it's forced cost and also the design of what i just uh um just seen him uh reading his lips back there and i think he said we lied okay what's that look what it looked like okay uh i'll tell you right now i didn't say to continue our meeting on um for the second 17th so we're dismissed of the 18th match the 18th until november 18th you need a motion to continue no we're we're good and thanks to everyone for coming this evening oh we forgot dr brown uh to mention the ace ace program
041that we're looking forward for you to go ahead with that that's no problem manager i'll take care of that