001that we exit executive session uh thank you mr boston do we have a second okay thank you miss carrick all in favor of accident executive session all uh right parsons would you yes ma'am madam sure i moved to certify that to the best of our knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements and only such public business matters as were intended in the motion to go into the executive session were heard discussed and considered an executive session thank you mr sakuya yes mr boston mr ball yes mr gibson yes mr parsons yes ms garrett yes and myself yes i would like to ask us to have a moment of remembrance and silence please this evening okay we'll stand and have a pledge mr sacra i pledge allegiance to the flag of the
002united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all god pray for us dr brown do we have any adjustments to the agenda this evening no madam chair thank you need approval for finalizing our agenda so movement thank you mr boston do we have a second second thank you mr ball all in favor approval of the minutes of july the 15th 2021. so move ma'am sure thank you mr bostic we have a second i'll second it madam chair thank you mr sagawija all in favor aye aye dr brown that brings us to the recognitions uh yes ma'am chair i'll ask mr fletcher assistant superintendent to lead them pleasure to catch us back up on our recognitions most of this is from end
003of the year last year but to start with we'd like to recognize our students from each of the three high schools that had the highest gpa the valedictorians so i'd like to ask them to come forward and i know some of them are already in college and they'll be here tonight but we are very honored to have them recognized tonight we're going to present their portrait and then we're going to take it back and hang it upstairs all right that would be abigail grace baker from castlewood high school akala grace boyd from home acre high school and emily taylor music lebanon high school those individuals their families and administrators if you come forward if they're able to be here and they're all in school [Laughter] well it is an honor to recognize those people who
004talk to present those principles don't break that thought maintain the gpa and he was difficult but at the end of the day maintain what she had to do to maintain a rank super proud of her abby would be attending east tennessee state in the fall or now or sometime but you know see uh i think has a bright fusion forever i'm just awful proud that's not only a great great in the classroom academically but she was also really good on the basketball court she said one after high school record for most three quarters and she is in the top five in all state of three corners very proud of her she's attending university of tennessee knoxville talked to her dad yesterday and uh she went into her dorm room and she told her dad that
005she thought she was going into a prison and he said well honey it's not the only thing to do for us to study and sleep in very proud hard worker great students [Applause] involved in lots of different things in school beyond academics she was the first one to sign up to come back to school and they could come back four days a week and was there every day even though most of her classmates were not also play softball play basketball and did very well in those as well emily is also attending the university of tennessee and uh has high aspirations of higher anatomy and physiology last year but i think he's going to be an um [Music] yes all right next we have fbla state winners from last spring castlewood high school chasity holly and
006lauren johnson if you and his parents would come forward along with your sponsors if they're here and we'll get mr robertson back in here just double duty mr robertson it's a pleasure i think tell us a little bit about uh cassie's not with us so lauren uh know her forever i think i know i'm not a mom forever second place state right uh i barely missed one in nationals 24 of our students competed uh virtually and was able to come through with this second place without in itself speaks volumes uh to be able to do this competition at that level and achieve this award it is amazing it speaks a lot of everything you do truly and i've gotten watched from competing with pride from various activities with volleyball and just you know this this
007if you know this generally no surprise we're just super proud of you uh the accomplishments look forward to doing this again next year hopefully an in-person uh competition and maybe head off to nationals onwards at this year but hopefully uh chicago that's a good plan so absolutely really proud of what you've done the board has a little token for you presented to lauren johnson castlewood high school by the russell county school board in recognition of winning second place in supply chain management at the 2021 fvla state leadership conference congratulations state congratulations [Applause] thank you appreciate you thank you thank you thank you thank you ladies thank you appreciate you thank you that's a sean [Laughter] next we had three state winners from capcom sorry honker high school that's mr bush something i think is here
008along with these students and their parents catherine jesse david dales and zane johnson we come forward this if you'd like to speak a little bit and then we'll ask this country to say if you work out the competition dave johnson outstanding young man [Music] i don't know if any other student in my school that has a better work ethic than mr james johnson right here i can tell you that name excels in the classroom and excels in anything that he does that then we are exactly does across country force play football force find out stunning young land i i think he did a thing in eagle scout kind of working working on it i almost finished up with his eagle scout but i will have to say that very proud of zane professional fourth place
009in uh in the state fda competition and through the business communication and uh and i look forward to having you again this year and you'll probably see him here many many times after this because he has those abilities um he can do anything he sets his mind to and he's not only a great student he's a great person his years has been challenging for us all but zane overcame every challenge that was thrown his way and there were days he kept me straight so i appreciate that he's very organized and i think that his success is based off of his organization appreciation for your work presented to zane johnson high school by the russell county school board in recognition of winning fourth place an introduction to business communication at the 2021 state leadership conference i'm
010proud always thank you catherine jesse presented to captain jessie huntington high school by the rose county school board in recognition of winning fifth place in county one 2021 leadership conference also presented to davis dale's hunter high school by the russell county school board and recognition of fifth place in the county two 2021 state conferences [Applause] high school 2021 state baseball champions with 2a hertig zach kirk nick belcher sage potts and houston's preston steele sedan matthew mckinnon tanner keys dagan barton and chandler morrison come forward i'm oh parents he's taller than you here all right miss fletcher would you like to say a few words about this honor i feel like there's so much you can say about this team and their coaches this is probably the most dedicated and one of the most hard working
011companies that i've seen at leadman high school over the years they work day in day out they never gave up on the dream of winning that state championship and not only did they want it for themselves but for coach adams as well he's also been working towards that dream for many years now i finally got it but london high school couldn't be more proud of you guys so thank you to the parents for being supportive of your kids all of our coaching staff dr brown mr fletcher aboard thank you guys for your unwavering support throughout the whole process for this team um [Applause] coach adams has retired from teaching i don't think he's retired from coaching maybe but he's retired from teaching we'd like to give you an opportunity to speak about your team first
012of all i like to say frankfurt school board uh and everybody really is supporting high school baseball i saw everybody everywhere that was supporting us this year for my team here they gave it to me [Applause] high school presented to the lebanon high school baseball team by the rosa county school board in recognition of their outstanding achievement of winning first place in the 2021 vhsl group 2a state baseball tournament august 2021 and this one is [Applause] nick belcher fox [Applause] preston steele [Applause] keys [Applause] chandler morrison [Applause] [Music] [Applause] oh yes [Applause] there he comes [Applause] oh on the final flight that will be in the halls of high school i like to say one thing about coach adams i played college baseball about 100 pounds ago you know things that i heard from coach
013adams when i go to a ball game are things that you know i heard when i was in college when i was in high school i didn't hear those things come from my high school coach i had a pretty good coach but i can tell five years ago 11 high school had something special for coach and uh doc i've been impressed with day one and just as impressed today thank you so much appreciate enjoy watching congratulations [Music] thank you you're doing a great job [Music] thank you [Applause] oh hey appreciate you thank you good to see you thank you for coming you know we honor our students for their hard work and dedication and the parents who support it but we don't need to forget the teachers with the fbla and the sponsors that keep
014them going with that and it makes it extra nice tonight to be able to recognize employees of the year you want to recognize 10 support employees of the month and 10 teachers of the month throughout the past year and all 10 of those winners in each category were submitted to the committee that scores these and judges them for us and we're happy tonight to present to you the employee of the year the support employee is brienne jesse latino middle school the teacher of the year amanda browning formerly of copper creek that she has since applied for and been placed at the current technology center as the instructional technology teacher [Applause] so this is a great honor for you and we're so very proud of you and glad that you received this award thank you [Applause]
015is good thank you dr brown we're down to the delegations on the agenda this evening uh yes ma'am michelle vance contacted uh miss kaiser okay good evening three minutes and tell them tell us your name and where you're from please michelle bands russell county moccasin valley thank you um i didn't get to speak at the last meeting i had a family emergency so i couldn't could speak you all called my name but at the last meeting most of the parents and grandparents walked away thinking they had a victory because it was stated that schools are in compliance and did not have to specifically adopt the model policies that victory was quickly deflated i contacted dr brownbee email after the meeting as he requested during the last meeting and asked my questions directly to him i
016thought i was pretty specific in my questions i have a copy of the emails here if you all would like to see them but there was no yes or no answer there was just spewing of the codes of virginia he stated the model policies are not referenced in the russell county policies but they will work with the parent and the student to determine specifics and follow the law in the russell county non-discrimination policy it states russell county public schools shall not discriminate on the basis of race color national origin religion age disability or gender it also states that russell county is to comply with both the letter and spirit of the law in making certain that discrimination does not exist in its policies regulations and operations since you've confirmed that you are in compliance with
017virginia code 22.1-23.3 treatment of transgender students policies you are saying you are compliant with number eight of this policy which states student participation in sex specific school activities and events and use of school facilities which is exactly what we were speaking about at the last meeting as the only answer i could get from dr brown was the current practices or that administration is expected or required to file russell county school policy the code of virginia federal law and any other requirements imposed on public schools in virginia your statement of being compliant with the model policy is not enough i'm not going to go over the whys because i believe it was made very clear at the list meaning of the wise all children not protected by these policies there's a very fine line where your
018rights end and mine beginning and my grandchildren's rights as well you chose to be in those seats to be the voice of our children if you won't stand up and take action then we as parents and grandparents will i have two school-aged grandchildren here in russell county however because of this county's unwillingness to stand up for them their parents have decided to homeschool them that's at least 24 000 that is going to be cut from your budget our fight now will be taken to another level for school choice it's my suggestion that you start looking at where you're going to cut your budget thank you miss vance if it was my decision i would start from the top down meaning dr brown okay if you had the opportunity to look at the bills thank you
019mr bostic do i have a second thank you mr parsons all in favor any opposed okay dr brown it brings us to the resignations and retirements yes madam chair we have a list here for the board's review and approval i would just like to say well for everyone for whatever reasons they choose to transfer to other jobs or retire or whatever but i looked on the computer before i came in this evening and there was a friend that has given she's given her entire work career to russell county schools and that's karma peck and she has been a truly caring bus driver and watched after each and every one of those students just like they were her own grandchild or child she was and we're going to miss her but we're going to wish her
020the very best with her with her retirements all in favor of and yeah we do need a motion in a second uh thank you mr persons and we have a second i'll second that madam chair thank you mr second weekend all in favor any opposed okay dr brown uh new personnel and transfers yes ma'am chair we have a fairly lengthy list there for the board's review okay do we have a motion that we approve new personnel absolutely thank you mr bostic do we have a second second thank you mr parsons all in favor of the new hires and transfers okay dr brown approval of the reopening uh yes ma'am uh chair we do have one action item adjustments that we have to make to our reopening plan staff review today's health public health emergency order
021provided by the virginia health commissioner and guidance from state superintendent virginia department of health governor's office legal counsel senate bill 1303 and also review the local metrics for the transmission of code 19 in the region with that being said the recommendation tonight due to the health commissioner's public health order uh staff recommend rose camp public schools transition to requiring mass indoors for all staff students and visitors over the age of two again within our schools as required with the expectation to reevaluate mass being optional as soon as legally permissible staff will continue to monitor the transmission rates for our area and recommendations from the cdc thank you dr brown and hopefully we can get them back out as quick as possible yes sir you have the chronovirus uptake we need emotion okay we need a
022motion we don't need this one uh this this is still an action item uh we left it there okay yes then we'll need um we'll need a motion and a second not second thank you mr secretary all in favor aye can we speak before we go sure yes yes please go ahead until the governor through the health department today did what he did about mask if you don't know he uh he mandated k-12 or mask indoors he this time they attached a criminal code to it it's uh when i said mr manor if he violated it so he took the choice away from us uh we need to remember that he took the you know he took the choice away from us it's a moot point uh because we were i was fully prepared tonight
023to make a motion must be optional but the governor through the health department i don't think he's brave enough to do it himself uh put that order out today yeah very heartbreaking that he is on our agenda month to month is that correct yes sir bring us up every month and it would be great if nationally if if they would be concerned about our southern border yeah of course that's a whole big issue there but we've got the cdc and dr falci they're total hypocrites they the the border is wide open they state they stay silent on that but they won't put our kids in masks and our americans in mass well they let thousands daily come across the border right 18 to 20 percent of them are positively covered what they do with them
024but they put them on buses or planes and shipping all across this country so if they care about coving and our governor and i've never heard him say close the border you know if they cared they would say close the border because that is the true super spreader event and if a governor and legislature cared about virginians why would they legalize an illegal drug everybody knows marijuana is a gateway drug so i mean i just the the hypocrisy of it all it's just manning amen amen but then don't follow it as russell county say no we're not going to do it law or not they don't follow the rules why should we um got a motion in a second all in favor any opposed i'm opposed thank thank you okay dr brown do you have
025a garanda virus update yes man and chair we continue to monitor the health metrics and so forth communication daily with the health department and other providers you know the information that has been provided to schools in southwest virginia in region 7 is of course that the numbers are increasing there is a larger population of of course juveniles in that due to the fact that the juveniles of course do not have the vaccine at this point in time so that's a that's a variable that is coming into play as well but um compared to where we were at last year madam chair uh i was thinking back on this earlier today uh you know when i was looking at this particular item you know this time last year we were talking about required social distancing no
026athletics uh no common areas being used and such just to name a few things and and of course those things are not in place hopefully they won't be reinstated but those things are not in place now so we're you know looking toward the future hopefully we can reevaluate the mass mandate here in the near future is hopefully things improve but you know again we're meeting now with the state superintendent on a weekly basis in the health department as well providing uh they're providing us with information daily meaning weekly again so but that's our update madden chair and also dr brown you mentioned that you will work with the employees the teachers to allow maybe mass breaks or giving them a little bit of you know and if they're outside on the playground they wouldn't be
027required as well anything outside would not be required we'll deal with uh creating some mass breaks and so forth for those longer periods of time but we'll be working with the you know the administrators and we of course have dealt with that we dealt that in spring so uh we we know what to do when we're dealing with those such those such things first reading of policies um yes madam chair we have uh our next wave of policies for the year uh again as a member of the virginia school board association russ county public schools periodically receives vsba policy updates to be examined by our school board for implementation in russkind public schools policy manual policies under consideration can be seen under the policy tab on board docs for the board members this will be
028an item for the board next month thank you dr brown the sales tax for july 369 thousand two seventy five twenty we don't need one mr parsons thank you okay the board had opportunity for the maintenance report expenditure report can future agenda items dr brown yes ma'am chair again we'll have the uh school reopening plan on the agenda again next month for uh discussion and adjustments if allowable at that time we'll continue with the coronavirus update we're thinking about phasing that out but we'll continue with that and again the first readings of policies that will be an accident for board consideration next month thank you dr brown delegation's not on the agenda this evening i guess anyone would like to speak to the board thank you three minutes state where you're from and go for
029it nathan kaiser uh lebanon thank you um had a few questions to follow up on the last board meeting um and i know you can't do back and forth but it would be nice that the board would make these answers to these questions public first one is will the school system discipline any teachers for not using pronouns requested by the students that's one thing i think is very important the teachers know that they're not going to be disciplined by the school system second one will students be allowed to use the bathroom in the with the gender of their choice and by state law that that is required so just so you know i just want to know if you're going to follow state law or if you're not um this one kind of falls off
030of that one uh will the school system convert the bathrooms to accom to accommodate the law and provide safe single-use bathrooms for all students or we force the kids to have boys and girls or even girls in the boys room and lastly will racial racial or social bias training be a continued part of teacher training so the critical race theory as dr brown mentioned is not necessarily a curriculum item that is on um on the curriculum of the state of virginia however the curriculum goes through the process and is filtered through the lens of critical race theory so your history is is then mulled down to what the critical race theory version of history is more anti-american it's more white guilt it's all these things that go into it and my wife did her continuing
031education for a teacher's license and part of that continuing education was for racial and social bias training which is crt that's what it is without a doubt it's telling you because you're white you're guilty of some form of racism and if you don't think you are that itself is a form of racism so go figure it out i can't but it's absolutely ridiculous and it is part of teacher training and it is part of the curriculum even though it's not a curriculum item on the tally on the subjects so be aware of that make sure you look into that it's very important the future of our country depends on the children of today we need to be raising them right to love america and care about their communities but not be socially and racially toned
032in a way that's actually creating more division than it's helping it really is critical racer and like it or not since barack obama got elected this country has been more racially divided than any time since martin luther uh martin luther king ever since then we've been healing as a nation since then and when he came president he started dividing us and we've been getting more divided every year because of what they're pushing through our school systems and our public systems thank you thank you mr kaiser um may i say something um we have uh encouraged dr brown to look into all the schools hiring someone to come in look at the restrooms and giving us plans for remodeling to meet these these things and it's going to happen and some of these items have already
033that you've talked about have already been addressed and it's going to work sort of like we have the last last little bit and we're going to it's going on it's going to work out and we're going to get through this mess and uh well it's a it's been a it's it's uh seemed like it's just one [Music] step after the other okay go ahead but we're going to we're going to get through it and it's going to be um it's not going to satisfy everybody as you well know you and your wife have differences i'm sure but you still live with it and i'm still boss and i still live with her but we're we're going to get through this mess and and we're going to try to look after all the students and it's
034going to it's going to work out it's not going to be the it's not going to be 100 for everybody and but it's going to work out and it's going to it's going to be good and and this county is going to go forward this i'm proud of what the school system has done as right now again this past year was number 12 in the state the southwest region was like second in this in the first in the state in in their scores and uh we got a lot to be proud of in these hills and uh we're gonna get through it okay we're also asking dr brown to when he meets with the district 7 superintendents to request from richmond to help pay for these bathrooms because it will be two or three million
035dollar project and we're one of the lowest paid counties we don't have the money and our educational system when you have industries looking to come into a community or into a region they look at that's probably one of the first things they look at before they even think about coming to locate in an area is their education uh how they write and all about the education system because i know that from past experience they look at that and i'm proud of our employees very proud of all of our teachers and i am most proud of our students just like they lined up here tonight and when you drive through abingdon and washington county they were signs everywhere congratulating this lebanon team and we got a lot to be proud of we're not a perfect quill
036but but we do have a whole lot to be proud of right and i'm sorry you know and we won't be allowing the them to go in the bathroom until until we get ours and the pronoun use we didn't adopt that policy so i would never support any discipline to a child or teacher or administrator to use the improper program matter of fact i hope it better not happen to my sons because i've taught them all their life not to lie so i would never support anybody for doing it proper from yes sorry we got we got off the key okay towards uh belfast okay and i come out of the building they're about 4 40. y'all must close early or something i rang the doorbell didn't get in but anyway this is the letter
037i want to get i guess dr brown man and it's just i'm taking my kids out of school right now because there's a lot of stuff going on don't know what's going to happen and i just feel like for now we're going to homeschool our kids okay so i put my name on there my telephone number have any questions just feel free to call me okay thank you thank you and best of luck to you and your family anyone else [Music] tonight is that something different yes sir yes sir they take it away from us i'm proud of this town and this scammed me too today i'm losing me quick you let no people come in their house we can't pray i'll be praying for all of you that's a bunch of horse hockeys what
038that is sir if you want to say a prayer we appreciate it yeah well yeah you're welcome i will well we greatly appreciate it father god let us come before you right now lord and i just i raise this board up to you not trying to cause problems with them but uh we need to be about your business and about the kids business and all about our agendas and some man sitting up there in richmond's agenda and lord i'll just reach each and every one of them up to you and ask you to prick their hearts and to see what it is that they need and we need prayer we need prayer in the schools we need prayer everywhere but uh i'm just at a loss right now lord it's jesus name i pray amen
039hey sir i mean just to be uh totally transparent after the last meeting we got a letter from uh freedom from religion out of madison wisconsin first wisconsin i know i mean you know but they got a report and they looked at our agendas and you know we say our prayer after we open the meeting now you know now i've uh my fact i asked the guy from the family foundation katie and other attorneys several and they all say that once a meeting is open once she hits that gavel that one of us cannot say a prayer because senate is government proposing promoting a religion but for anybody else who wants to come here and say a prayer we welcome it but you know all these learning attorneys they said by the conflict you know
040by supreme court rulings recently that we would be in violation if one of us do it after she hits that gavel or if we invite you but you're welcome you look where you're at people i mean look where you at we're not i hear you i'm not saying there's not somebody here that don't believe and i pray that they get right and i'll be praying for every one of you i do uh my kids are gone i went to school here i was in the first class this man ever taught you know i pray for y'all i pray for all of our leaders ain't threatening nobody put the hang on and y'all come up and you're saying y'all can kiss my mask because but i just want to we appreciate your prayer i just don't
041like it that took out it's on the agenda well i did a moment of silence [Laughter] thank you for coming my name is sean vance i live in big moccasin i hear a lot of you all saying that you know it's the government's rules it's northland's rules one thing i do know you're teaching our children is how to bend a knee if you do not bend if you keep on bending the knee you will never have no rights sometimes you just got to stand up and say no so you all could have said no to the mask no to this no to that but you chose not to you bent the knee sometimes you have to go against the grain now i'm not a religious man i don't go to church and all that but
042i would fight all day long for y'all's right to pray this way you're teaching our children to bend the knee the government said you had to do it we're gonna do it sometimes you gotta say why why we gotta do it sometimes you gotta say you can't make me do it sometimes you gotta say i'm not to do it so pick one thank you anyone else my name's william home and i'm from casseroy my question to y'all is how often do you look and see why we're losing teachers and students from book do you all stand behind your teachers i know a lot of them tell me you don't because they're afraid to speak up of being fired but we lose teachers and students from cass wood especially elementary every year do you know why
043do you even ask questions i can tell you why it's the one you got into elementary school that runs that scope i've noticed that my youngman was in there for seven years i noticed it for six my mommy taught school at this county for years she'll tell you she ain't worth the dollar she's poked thank you thank you thank you anyone else okay if not we thank everyone for coming this evening and dr brown you have anything to add next meeting will be thursday september the 2nd yes ma'am do you have anything uh no again those future event items that i shared earlier as far as the calendar is concerned again the board meet will be our next event go ahead miss garrett and i'd like to thank belfast and swords creek for the dinner
044we had tonight it was great i hope everyone a successful start of school next monday and need a motion to adjourn thank you mr bostic do we have a second thank you miss garrett all in favor right here