001All right. Good evening and welcome to the Jefferson County Board of Education regular meeting on Monday, December 15, 2025 on a nice cold and icy evening. Hence the the virtual. And if you'd please join us for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> For all. [clears throat] >> All right. So, um, being virtual, we have pushed the student and staff recognitions to the next meeting. So, the first thing on the agenda this evening is the approval of the minutes of the regular board meeting held December 1st, 2025. Is there a motion to approve those minutes? I'll make a motion. >> A second. >> Thank you, Miss Bratton. Any
002discussion or questions? >> Hearing none. All in favor of the minutes of the regular board meeting held December 1st, 2025, say I. >> I. >> Opposed. All right. Thank you. Next up, we have the We don't have any speakers this evening for public comment. So, next up is the consent agenda. Is there a motion? Oh, >> there are no changes to the personnel agenda as presented this evening. >> Okay, perfect. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? >> I'll make a motion. >> Thank you, M. >> Thank you, Dr. Joy. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor of the consent agenda as um proposed [clears throat] say I. >> I. >> Oppose. All right. Thank you very much. Moving right along. Next, we have um presentations and reports and operations update
003on child nutrition. I believe Mr. Bites is with us this evening. >> Mr. Bites is here to do an update on our school nutrition program. >> Y >> good evening. >> Hey, good evening. So, first off, apologize my camera's not working. Um, but I'll give you some of the updates on kind of the things that we're doing that you guys wouldn't normally see or doesn't necessarily come up uh every day. Um, one of the first things that we're starting is January 5th on our staff development day. We are implementing a new inventory management and ordering system. So, we will have training for the staff uh on that day and that should streamline our ordering process, give us a little bit more oversight on inventory. So hopefully saving us some money there and seeing where we
004can kind of cut cost um and generally improve ease once we get used to it with the keier maners make keeping track of our inventory a little bit easier for them. Um so we're looking at moving to that and like I said training is going to start on the 5th. We're going to do a slow roll out and start with our warehouse and commodity items and kind of work our way and progress until we're full functioning at the start of next year. Um, but we're hoping we bring it on nice and slow so we can get a lot of buy in and make it a little bit easier for the cafeteria managers uh to transition this new system because it will be a big change for for some of them. Um, one of the other
005programs that we started with Rachel Wringler is we did start a future cafeteria manager training course. Um, in the next three to five years, we kind of expect there to be a decent amount of retirements from in that cafeteria management position. So, we are already trying to look ahead and trying to train some staff members that have interest in becoming cafeteria managers. kind of give them, you know, a heads up of what it's like, uh, make it so they can pass the cafeteria manager uh, training course um, before they apply for the job. And then also things that we want to see as far as good kitchen practices and ways to kind of make a, you know, positive workplace environment, you know, different ways to manage and different ways to deal with situations. Um, so
006so far in that first one, I think we had roughly about 10 people show up on our first one, which I thought was pretty good. Um, but we'll continue to build from there. The next thing is we do have local backpacks uh program. I know we asked to go out to bid a while ago. That kind of got put on a back burner when we had the issue with SNAP not necessarily being funding and nobody knew what was happening there. So, we kind of pivoted from that and saved some funds. Um, we still plan on doing that. We'll get that started right up at the beginning of the new year. So, we should be spending, you know, roughly between 25 30,000 in local businesses to help with those local backpack programs. Um, and then we
007were also able to, you know, give some funds to SOMO to help out families in needs. um especially around this time and when we're unsure about the SNAP benefits, uh kind of support local families so we're able to transition or able to help out on that end. And then the last thing that we're kind of looking at is we are looking at bringing in some local farmer markets to the schools at the end of the year, uh late spring, you know, May region. Uh we're going to have to work with a couple school systems, see if we can get them involved, but that's something that we'd like to do and we've already talked with a few vendors about bringing people in for that. Um we've also picked up some other food items from local vendors.
008So, we're trying to source some people. Uh the one that we brought in is one that we worked with on that local backpack program and they went and got a commercial commercial kitchen installed and they got all their paperwork done. So, we're able to bring in some local vendors um and we'll be sourcing their product as well. So, that's kind of the update that I've got. If you guys got any questions, just let me know and I'll see if I can answer them. >> Well, just a statement. I really love the fact that the professional development is geared towards your cafeteria workers and very relevant to them. So, um I think that's very important and not just a generalized professional development. And then you said that 10 people um participated in the future cafeteria manager
009course. How long is that course? Is it just a one-time thing or? >> Yes. So, so as of right now, like I said, in the next three to five years, we kind of expect a decent amount of retirements. So, this was just something that we put out. Um, what we noticed was the cooks take a computer operator test. That's how the cafeteria managers received their extra stipens. And we're having a lot of people uh not pass that. And it's not any fault of their own. Uh, that was something that was added to get them an extra stipent, but I'm going to be honest, that test is kind of outdated. It's issued by the state. Um, but they have to take that in order to get that extra stipen. So we wanted to give a training
010course so we'd have a better success rate at that. And then also some of the generally when we have issues in the kitchen it's not necessarily the work it's kind of the people management side of things you know and that's something that a lot of people don't don't think of. So it was a good chance to get people in there and kind of talk about hey you know these are the ways that we'd like to handle situations. This is that type of atmosphere that we'd like. Um so it's kind of geared towards that. So, as of right now, it's just a a one-time thing, but it went pretty well. We'll probably try to build off of that and continue to offer offer that uh I say course, but really that that session session would have
011been a better term to people that are are thinking about, hey, maybe this is something I'd like to take on. And that if they have any questions or maybe they think it might be overwhelming, you know, taking over ordering, we can kind of ease them into that because as you guys know, there's there's not a ton of training that that goes on. You know, they've been on position, they take it, and then we work with them kind of on the fly. Um, so I'd like to get a nice introduction to kind of smooth that transition over and kind of build people up so they're more willing to kind of take these these positions as they come open. >> Excellent. Thank you very much. Any other questions or comments for Mr. Bites? All right, hearing none.
012Thank you very much for joining us this evening. >> Hey, thank you guys. >> Thank you. >> All right, next up we have um unfinished business discussion and possible action on Neola policy updates for November 2025. And I bet if I remember correctly, this was the second set of November 2025. It is uh both of these policies were placed out for public comment after the last meeting. Uh no comments were received and the recommendation tonight is to approve these. >> All right. So is there a motion to approve the Neola updates for policy 5223 and 7540.02? >> I make a motion. >> Thank you, Dr. Joy. Second. >> I second it. >> Thank you, Miss Bratton. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor of approving the Neola policy updates for policy number 5223 and 7540.02
013say I. >> I >> oppose. All right. Thank you very much. Next we have um discussion and possible action on proposed easement. >> Yes. the uh developer uh emailed just a little while ago and said that they were unable to uh attend this evening and uh because of lack of information that they needed to uh come back before the board. So our recommendation is to push this until our meeting in our first meeting in January. >> Okay. And that was at their request. Correct. >> That is correct. >> Okay. Because I know they were pretty adamant at the last meeting that they wanted to be at this one. So >> correct. >> All right. So moving along. No new business tonight. So that brings us to board member comments and committee reports. Mr. Upson, do
014you have anything for us this evening? >> No, ma'am. I do not. >> All right. Dr. Joy. >> Yeah. Um let's see. Um, I attended the Eastern Panhandle Legislative Forum and um with several legislators and the key takeaway was that they will be voting against the um across the board pay raises for teachers unless the bill um includes uh something for locality pay. Um what's the other thing? Um yeah, so that was the main takeaway from that. There was no epic meeting last month and um the only other thing is I wanted to wish everyone um merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, happy Quanza, any kind of um celebrations of solstice, the light um that are happening this month before the new year. I guess we won't be back for the new year either. So, and happy
015new year. That's it. >> All right. Thank you, Miss Bratton. >> Yes. Um, I would like to congratulate the students who were inducted into the National Honor Society for um, Washington High School on Sunday. Um, also give recognition to our Washington High School football team. they had their banquet and all the children who earned their uh letters and awards. Um congratulations um to as usual to any of our students who um are competing or just doing stuff. Uh you're winning. You're just in it for competition. Um I just want to say congratulations to you and to keep up the good work. Um again, um as Dr. Joy said, um I want to wish happy holidays and a happy new year to everyone because we won't see you again until the first of after the first
016of the year. So, thank you and again, happy holidays. >> Thank you, Mrs. Ogden. >> I'm good. Just have a merry Christmas and a happy new year, everyone. >> All right. Thank you. And the only additional information I have is um James Rumsy and the development authority both meet both meet this week. So I don't have anything to report on that. And with the legislative forum, the one thing that they did um emphasize is they're not going to try to call it locality pay. They're going to try to call it either regional pay or cost of living pay. So that was the the big takeaway there that it impacted the school system and teachers. Um, I also want to do a quick thank you to our logistical team on school closures. I know your job
017is not easy and I know a couple weeks ago, Mother Nature caught us a little off guard and you were able to pivot pretty quickly and um, you know, make the decisions that needed to be made and I just appreciated you um, keeping all of our students and staff safe. And then also this morning, you know, the roads were not the easiest call because some roads are perfectly clear and other roads are not. So, it's just it's not an easy job. I'm glad it's not the board's job. And um thank you to for those of you that spend the hours and um gray hairs coming up with those decisions. Well, maybe not you, Dr. Bishop, but um [laughter] uh just you know the fact that you take the time and effort and there's an entire
018process and an entire team that does work very hard and very diligently to come up with the right decisions with the information that you have at the time. So just a thank you for that. >> I did have one more thing if you're finished. Um I um uh Senator Rucker said that she was going to introduce a bill to deregulate the um the way that uh information and policies are dealt with. She wants to have it have there be more local control. Um and she said that a lot of the problems that we have in public education, uh especially with the comparison of the regulations for public schools versus the minimal amount of regulations for um micro schools or private schools, charter schools. She's she wants to um make it so that the local school
019districts have more control. So that makes sense. That was the only other thing I wanted to add. >> Thank you. Dr. Bishop, do you have any comments this evening? >> The only thing that I have is this Friday is our last day before the holiday break. Uh it is also the end of the first semester. Uh so once we return back from the new year, we'll be in second or for the new year. We'll be in second semester and report cards will come out pretty quickly after we start after I return in January. I just like to wish everybody happy holidays and uh agree with Dr. Joy regardless of what you celebrate hope you get time to spend uh some time relaxing as well as with family and friends. That's all that I have this
020evening. >> All right. Well, thank you very much and we will see you again next year. >> Thank you. >> And it is now 6:17. Meeting adjourned. Thank you very much. >> Bye-bye.