School Board Meeting - January 9, 2023

001but to the best of each board member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully Exempted from the open meeting requirements of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and identified in the motion authorized in the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered in the closed meeting second can we get a roll call vote please [Music] Miss Osborne yes yes sir Paige yes Mr Alco yes Dr Berlin yes Miss Lee Yes chair Carlson yes so moved great I'm going to jump off the agenda for a second here just to say because I know we have a lot of people signed up for public comment we had over the 10 allotted and so the public comment time is getting short into two minutes I want to let you know now so you can try to adjust your speech if

002needed I'm sorry that that notification wasn't sent out but the list has grown so thank you okay next up will be um just a roll call of who's up here we'll start with Mr Holden and then just work our way around and and say who we are in our name for those listening Ross Holden School Board attorney uh Rebecca Berlin Whitehall District John O L Caro at large Judy Lee Rivanna District Ellen Osborne Scottsville District it's a new theme raising her student representative Matthew Hawes superintendent and then we have the lovely Christine Thompson who's our acting school board Clerk next up will be the Pledge of Allegiance it's rise pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and

003justice for this world and that will be followed by a brief moment of silence [Music] next up will be approval of our agenda can we have a motion please a move that we approved tonight's agenda I second do a Voice vote all in favor all against [Music] Next Step will be approval of the consent agenda can I have a motion please um if we approve the consent agenda second is there any discussion okay can we just do a Voice vote all in favor aye all opposed [Music] next up will be announcements and and buckle up because we have quite a few resolutions today but they're all good ones and I'm looking forward to getting through them so we are going to start with our Spotlight of education and that will be sanuthi leading that thank

004you Miss Coulson I had the opportunity the other day to do a little research and I discovered that during 2022 there were 34 meetings of the of this board this estimate of course is only a snapshot of the dedication of school board members who dedicate many hours serving on important committees visiting our visit our schools attend Community forums and conversations interact with the Myriad government officials on behalf of our students families and employees respond to institutions and participate in such important events as graduations and other celebrations at many of our schools February is School Board appreciation month and the theme this year is rising to the challenge these words and responsibilities and the responsibilities they Embrace could not be more a more fitting description of the leadership courage and focus of this board each of

005you have made standing up for Equity Excellence families and communities and wellness values in our strategic plan each of you have made this standard operating procedure despite appearances appearances this is never as easy as it sounds here's how the Virginia School Board Association characterizes this month an opportunity for you your School Division and Community to build a stronger understanding of the crucial roles rural school boards assume in a representative democracy as the student representative of this on this board I have a unique vantage point with which to view this crucial role I'm certain that there is no one in our audience this evening in person or at home whose life has been unlifted by the work of this of this board one of our schools took it to heart the meaningfulness of this occasion they

006made this board their own study of democracy fourth and fifth graders at Red Hill Elementary School researched the roles of the school boards and thoughtfully considered how you have changed their lives in the spirit of representative democracy I would suggest they speak for this for students across every one of our schools in expressing what your service has meant to them Red Hills outstanding principal Nancy McClellan is with us this evening and she has some very special guests with her I would like to thank principal McCullen and her guests to join us at the podium and share with us their own insight and maybe a gift that say thank you much more forcefully than I than can I [Music] good evening so I'd like to introduce you to some fourth and fifth graders from Red Hill

007Elementary who as you just heard learned all about the important role that you serve in making sure that they have the great school that they have and others have great schools in Albemarle County for students to come to to learn and play and so with me this evening I have Terry Bella Emmy Tony and Carly and in class they their teachers did a little lesson on your roles how you were elected to represent us and the different ways that you serve the community by being advocates for education and they thought about the things that they heard and wrote two different letters to you thanking you for the specific things that they wanted to tell you they were grateful for at Red Hill and so Terry's going to start by reading the first letter dear school

008board members our fourth and fifth grade classes talked about the main things we are thankful for at Red Hill a brand new a bigger gym a new library that is bright and cheerful technology like laptops and iPads a safe School a space to run and play outside a great hurt principal and church and Charming teachers field trips to the frontier culture Museum and Jamestown thank you school board members for caring about our education Miss Pages class fourth and fifth grade class is going to read a letter from her class dear Albemarle County School Board Miss gunter's class at Red Hill wants to thank you for free education and for giving us the opportunity to build a family of friends at our school thank you for the opportunity to go on field trips we haven't done

009field trips in a few years and we had a lot of fun when we went to the frontier culture Museum thank you for our new library and gym thank you for all of our nice principals teachers bus drivers custodians and cafeteria staff thank you for all of your y'all your hard work for building our acps community sincerely Miss gunter's class thank you Terry and Emma I'm Stella for representing all of your classmates including those here today and our whole school and extending our appreciation to all that you do um we have Mr Osborne is with us this evening our assistant principal we have a special surprise that we get to award you all with certificates from the state um sharing their appreciation for what you do for schools in Virginia and our students are going

010to come bring you each your certificate hello everyone we'd first like to thank and recognize Rebecca Berlin for her service this one's for thank you thanks Mr Jano or Caro we'd like to recognize you we'll bring Ms Judy Lee her certificate Katrina Carlson thank you for your service [Music] thank you Mr Graham page from the vspa scoreboard Miss Ellen Osborne thank you and Kate's certificate is here she's not with us as well okay thank you very much oh yep stay up here though oh no Terry Bella probably come I think there might be questions anyone have questions my one question is could we get copies of those letters we would I would love a copy of those thank you so much [Music] any other questions I have to say I I when I said we

011had good resolutions and announcements I didn't know this was one of them I wasn't trying to say this is what was the exciting part but I did like that that was probably the best one I've seen thank you so much if you could come around and we can shake your hand I think we'd love to do that and parents can take pictures if they're here [Music] this way thank you that's awesome thank you so much AC always hands her certificates okay so I know you guys are young ones and one thing I'd maybe maybe you learned oh did we turn them off I was gonna say maybe you learned when you were studying but the meetings last forever so feel free to leave now volume over there too many dude let's do you thank you

012I'll be done guys oh is it on are we on now yes it's hard to tell sometimes okay so we have a series of resolution there's three of them so you know how many to be expecting we're going to start with Judy um move to Jonna then I have one and then we will move into our public comment period um so Judy Miss Lee thank you jerk Olson I don't want to follow fourth and fifth graders but so just buy a lot whereas every seven years as provided for in the code of Virginia the state department of education is required to review and improve the history and social science standards for all public school divisions in the Commonwealth and whereas these standards directly impact student Discovery understanding and learning about the historical events influences and

013developments that have shaped our state and Nation resulting in a better informed and responsible citizenry committed to equality and justice under the law and the prosperity of all communities and whereas these standards are at their most Optimum you must Advance within each student the knowledge and skills required to strengthen our Democratic institutions including the constitutional rights and Privileges and protections of all and the guarantee of equality for and justice for all and whereas these standards offer the opportunity for all Albemarle County students to realize the promise of our strategic plan that all graduates possess such vital and cherished Civic personal and professional competencies as adaptability anti-racism creativity critical thinking empathy and social justice and inclusion and whereas the process by which these outcomes are best achieved is a collaborative one in which all voices are

014heard and respected governed by the wisdom experience and Judgment of those closest to the classroom whose professional insight and student relationships provide them with a unique perspective on how to engage students in serious matters of study and whereas just such a group of social studies teachers from across the Commonwealth came together over the course of an extended period of time to develop recommendations on standards that are responsive to the learning needs and the academic development of students in 2023 and Beyond and whereas This research and Collective input were conducted at the behest of the State Department of Education in 2020 but unilaterally rejected by the State Department of Education in 2022 and whereas these actions have been described by the National Council for social studies the Virginia social studies leaders Consortium the American historical Association

015and the association for supervision and curriculum development as a breach of public trust and whereas the Department of Education has put forth a set of Standards using an approach described by the above professional organizations as lacking transparency and developed in isolation and whereas this new version would return students to the rote learning that ill-prepared students for lifelong learning and success contrary to the commitment of this board to all Albemarle County Public Schools students and families and whereas these new standards contain such serious factual inaccuracies as described as describing the founding of the NAACP in the early 20th century as part of the Reconstruction that took place just after the Civil War and whereas the proposed new standards for the next seven years conflicts with the goals of the Albemarle County Public Schools social studies curriculum

016which emphasizes project-based learning student-initiated research the use by students of primary sources the promotion of critical thinking skills the exploration and examination of the experiences and perspectives of all who comprise the history of Virginia and that of the United States goals that we believe will prepare all students to be valued contributors to the success of their families communities and organizations and whereas the State Board of Education will be conducting a public hearing on the department of education's revised draft standards of learning for social studies at Piedmont Virginia Community College on Wednesday March 15th beginning at 7 pm be it resolved through the Albemarle County School board calls upon the State Board of Education to constructively construct a curriculum framework consistent with the established collaborative process that governed the development of learning standards for many years

017and be it further resolved that the State Board of Education revised the proposed standards now before it to incorporate the recommendations of leading Educators from across the Commonwealth with a strong emphasis on standards that are wholly truthful inclusive and inquiry-based and be it further resolve that all interested parties be urged to attend and submit comments to the State Board of Education during the public hearing that will be conducted at pvcc next month prior to the board's decision on the new standards that expected to be finalized on April 20th foreign thank you for reading that Miss Lee and now I get to follow fourth and fifth graders and Ms Lee Mr Carl though I'm going to pause you uh that is something that we the the history standards making sure we have truthful curriculum is something

018we've been focused on I would love to have a motion just approving that resolution as being um on behalf of all of us some move we approve that resolution a second and then can we just have a Voice vote all in favor aye any opposed and the floor is yours whereas the Virginia School Board Association has designated next week February 12th through 17th as school board clerk Appreciation Week throughout the Commonwealth and whereas the clerk of the school board here in Albemarle County is faithful to the Fulfillment of the most important duties and responsibilities of this board and whereas the responsible discharge of these duties and responsibilities are fundamental to the most sacred principle to the most sacred of public trusts that of fair inclusive and responsive representation of the public interest and of those

019who elect them to office and whereas the members of this school board and the interests of the Albemarle County Community are best served by public participation on matters of primary public interest and whereas there can be no higher responsibility than the education of children and no greater benefit to a community or country than a well-educated populace and whereas Christine Thompson as the clerk of this board has supported with great determination skill and adaptability board members and the public on these matters of primary public interest including the facilitation of public participation with school board members and whereas Ms Thompson has made a difficult transition seamless through the exercise of these outstanding professional qualities now therefore be it resolved that the third week in February 2023 be designated as school board Appreciation Week in Albemarle County Public

020Schools and be it further resolved that the members of the Albemarle County School Board offer their deepest gratitude and appreciation to Ms Thompson for the exemplary manner in which she has served this board this School Division and this County as a valued employee of our School Division foreign can I just say I know this isn't Jennifer never spoke bless her heart but there's a young woman sitting straight across from me Tanisha Thompson who has helped me these last couple of months who I would be remiss I have been cranky I have been sad I have been sick and I could not have done any of this to support you guys without that woman over there so Tanisha thank you very much so I made those flowers myself and I will bring some the next meeting

021so that you get some too um the last resolution and then we have a quick announcement from Dr Haas um this one is for Graham so it's been School Board I guess appreciation School Board clerk appreciation and now we're going to say um say not our farewells but our thank yous to to Graham for serving as chair for two years so whereas one second we need to have a vote in the last resolution okay and to approve that resolution a movie approved the resolution second can we have a Voice vote hi hi I'm sorry all those in favor I um any opposed okay next one whereas on January 12 2023 our own gentleman scholar Grant page completed his Service as chair of this board which dates back to July of 2020 and whereas Mr Page's

022leadership of this board was instrumental in guiding our School Division through such transformational challenges as the one in a hundred year occurrence of a global pandemic the adoption of a new strategic plan learning for all the continued implementation of one of the first anti-racism policies of any K-12 School Division in our nation a strengthened partnership with our Albemarle County government partners and new strategies for recruiting and developing world-class education professionals and whereas these accomplishments promoted the goals that Mr Page shared with constituents when he first became a candidate for the school board to support improvements in the quality of Education provided to students to consistently work towards and Achieve parity in the quality of Education delivered to students and to ensure that the School Division attracts develops and maintains excellent teachers and Partnerships between schools

023and the communities they serve and whereas Mr Page as board chair brought an extraordinary degree of trust collaboration respect thoughtfulness and decency to the deliberations and decisions of this board presiding over what has to be the largest number of unanimous votes in the history of the almoral County School Board and whereas Mr Page's long and distinguished record of Public Service includes his representation of the residents of the San Manuela district for seven years and nearly a quarter Century not to give away your age supporting students as a science teacher at Journey middle school and Western almoral High School and whereas the determination and accountability that Mr Page has urged upon all of us to close achievement gaps now the focus of a division-wide audit to expand student choice in selecting fields of study that align

024with their career interest which will happen in August and to increase Mental Health Services for all students which has resulted in an increase in Social and emotional counselors and whereas Mr Page will continue to be the conscience of this board as a representative from the Samuel Miller magisterial District now therefore be it resolved that the members of the elmiral County School Board express our deepest gratitude for your contributions Mr Page and the contributions you have made to the thousands of employees that we serve the thousands of students whose lives you have influenced and countless member of the Albemarle County Community who benefit from a high performing School Division so vital to all of our future prosperity and we made your gift oh really we're crafty now thank you yes you got to open it now

025listen I'm almost like Bonnie right at the ground Grandma's I didn't expect this at all so thank you so very much Miss Carlson and the rest of the school board members it's really appreciated and the pedestal even has the symbol of the county on it this is Miss Osborne made made that thank you so much so thanks so very very much this has really deeply appreciated so I know we have one more announcement from Matt thank you guys for bearing with us gratitude um great move that we accept that resolution all in favor any opposed okay thank you guys for bearing with us um someone once told me when I was sitting that gratitude unexpress is in gratitude implied so I know it's taking up time but um we're just so thankful for everybody who

026we mentioned and so thank you and now Dr so again I know we've got a lot going on so I just really quickly wanted to give a shout out of gratitude to the staff and students at Stony Point Elementary School for having Mr Page and Ms Lee and me visit on Monday we had a really wonderful visit got to see a lot of classrooms a lot of great teaching and learning happening in a wonderful atmosphere at the school so thank you very much to Stony Point thank you so now we will be moving to public comment I will be handing it over to Miss Lee to connect that part of the agenda thank you chair Carlson um as you mentioned earlier we uh are um having two minutes for commenters tonight so I apologize if

027that was had not been your plan we invite and actively seek The public's input in matters relevant to school board governance and provide time in our business meetings to hear from our residents and community members during public comment we expect respectful and on-topic comments disruptive behavior from speakers or from members of the public in attendance will not be tolerated anyone who willfully disrupts this meeting in a manner that prevents or interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting may be ejected by the chair individuals and organizations wishing to speak during public comment must sign in with the clerk sign up is available beginning at 9am on the Monday of the meeting week until 3 30 pm on the day of the meeting public testimony guidelines are as follows speakers should adhere to the following protocol

028state name and address or voting district address comments to the school board as a whole limit comments to those matters that are relevant to school board governance or School Division operations give written statements and other supporting material to the clerk if you're unable to complete the presentation in the time allowed a copy of supporting materials will be provided to school board members given there are more than 10 individuals 18 tonight sign up for public comment each speaker will be allowed two minutes to speak a color-coded light system is used to time presentations the yellow light means the speaker is one minute into their presentation and the red light means that the speaker is at two minutes and must wrap up and we actually have two people on Zoom so I'll be I guess waving in

029order to maintain respect for all points of view the scoreboard requests no clapping booing or any other audible form of support or non-support be used if members of the public wish to show their support for a speaker they may stand or raise their hands when multiple comments of the same topic have been presented the chair May request additional comments on the topic be limited to those who have new information to present debate and dialogue with the school board are not allowed with that I will first read the list in order so people know when they're coming so it can sort of mentally prepare as I said we have 18 tonight 16 in person and two via Zoom so we're going to start with the in person first we have uh so we'll have Tim Klobuchar

030Sarah Harris Vernon lecti Cheryl Knight Liz Koenig Mary McIntyre Kellen Squire Melissa Brown Chris Seaman Elizabeth Nicholson Sally Duncan Amy laufer Meg Bryce Jamie bogdanich zlotnik and I apologize if I said those wrong Jessica Taylor and then the two Zoom people are John keys and Brian banyo so I'll just start with a three so first we'll have Tim Klobuchar hello hello hi I'm Tim Klobuchar an English teacher at Monticello High School I spent 17 years teaching in Minnesota one of 35 States in which law requires collective bargaining between school divisions and teachers simply put collective bargaining is the way things are done in most schools and it needs to be done here the day after the city schools moved one step closer to collective bargaining at their board meeting acps sent an email touting its

031willingness to listen to employee voices citing various meetings committees and surveys to this up to this point the division has made clear they see these as the preferred methods of interacting with employees and that they see collective bargaining as an unnecessary addition but they have it backwards collective bargaining sets the floor it is the minimum standard it is also the one proven method to achieve a healthy working relationship between school divisions and their employees leading to better experiences and outcomes for our students all the other approaches continue them they will help things go more smoothly at the bargaining table but they do not replace the bargaining table we don't simply want to be heard we want a contract we don't want paternalism we want a partnership so that's why we want collective bargaining but why

032would the division want it because as former NFL coach Bill Parcell said you are what your record says you are engaging in collective bargaining will help the division's record match who they say they are the division says it listens to its employees but it's fought against collective bargaining which is a vast majority of teachers said in writing they wanted division says they want to recruit and retain great teachers well data shows that schools with collective bargaining have lower teacher turnover because of improved working conditions and teacher morale these better working conditions for teachers equal Better Learning conditions for students numerous Studies have shown collective bargaining has a positive impact on student achievement participate in collective bargaining and the division's record will finally match its rhetoric in all of these areas we know that adopting collective

033bargaining isn't like flipping a switch it will require a lot of hard work but this is not a moonshot over two-thirds of states have guaranteed bargaining rights or education Professionals for decades we understand unique circumstances here which is why we want to partner with the division to come up with a creative solution just like the city schools so if acps wants to record wants its record to actually reflect how they see themselves they'll engage in collective bargaining with us thank you thank you for your comments Mr Klobuchar next we have Sarah Harris hi can you hear me I'm a little closer yeah yeah can you hear me yep hi my name is Sarah Harris and I'm a parent of three acps students and tonight I'm here for the teachers I'm urging you to begin in

034good faith a process through which you and our acps teachers and staff can come together to draft a collective bargaining resolution last Thursday Charlottesville City Schools announced its support for what is being hailed as one of the strongest collective bargaining resolutions in the state now it's time for Albemarle County to do the same acps must go beyond the meet and confer model which by the division's own bit own admission was never intended to be a replacement for collective bargaining I'm grateful to the school board members who have taken the time to sit down with Educators and members of the aea to hear directly how this process can work and what it would mean for their professional relationship with the school division in addition to being a former teacher and current substitute in acps I'm a

035co-founder of a local non-profit forward Albemarle or an advocacy organization working to support excellence in equity in public education and to support our Educators at a time when the profession as a whole is under incredible strain since launching last year we have been approached by multiple acps staff members and educator groups asking for our help in advocating for particular issues or policies that directly impact their ability to do their jobs with Fidelity and in the best interest of our students while we're happy to provide the support and to Advocate on behalf of the professionals who show up each and every day in a million different ways for our kids I would much prefer to be in a position where our advocacy is no longer needed at the local level because our staff feel heard by

036the division that hired them and included in the decision-making process when policies and procedures are implemented to retain the excellent teachers we currently have to recruit new teachers we desperately need and to show not just tell our teachers that we value them it's time that Albemarle County Public Schools pass a collective bargaining resolution thank you thanks Ms Harris next we'll have Vernon lucky [Music] good evening I'm Vernon lecti and I'm a teacher at Albemarle High School and I'm the president of the Albemarle Education Association the Albemarle Education Association is pleased to announce that a majority of our colleagues in a bargaining unit have committed to collective bargaining with the school board for their employment contracts therefore please accept this as notice and certification that a majority of the licensed professionals now employed by the school

037board respectfully request that this honorable board vote to adopt the attached resolution authorizing collective bargaining within 120 days pursuant to Virginia code section 40.1 57.2 C we have verified the majority supporting the certification nevertheless the Albemarle Education Association is ready and willing to collaborate with school board Representatives if they wish to do so within the next 30 days to further verify the majority support for this certification at a mutually agreeable time place and manner that does not extend the 120 days statutory deadline we look forward to working with you to ensure a fair and clear process for cementing this new phase of our relationship specifically we offer to participate in a Joint Task Force between the aea and the school board to collaborate on the development of a joint resolution we submit as a draft

038the product of such a task force in a neighboring locality to demonstrate how this can work and here's all our cards thank you so much thanks very much Mr Lexi our next three commenters will be Cheryl Knight Liz Koenig and Mary McIntyre good evening school board members my name is Cheryl Knight and I work at Murray Elementary School I have been an employee with Albemarle County for 25 years now um it's been a while in fact I was and I live in this city just for the record here I was going through my iPad notes that I've had for a while in pages and going back and looking at there's a school board note and I went back and it was like 2015 I think was probably the first time I spoke in front of

039the school board so it's it's been a little while um I'm here in support of joining together with you all in working towards a resolution where we can set the tone in the stage for how we will work together um I love how our mission statement starts with working together as a team to accomplish our goals and I believe that when we work together as a team that we can achieve those things um and I think that we talked about Collective efficacy today at my faculty meeting and I think that's also a good model here of a way to build Collective I can't speak collected efficacy is for us to work together and that means that we know that we have capabilities within our group and we acknowledge and we respect that others have something

040important to bring to the table and that we also know that when we take the time to reflect upon what we're doing that we can make Improvement and that is the whole idea behind Collective efficacy and I think that works in this situation as well so I thank you for your time this evening and um thank you for your service to the school board thank you Ms Knight next we have Liz Koenig [Music] good evening my name is Liz Koenig and I'm a secretary of the Albemarle Education Association and a teacher at Woodbrook Elementary none of this is going to work unless you trust us your employees I don't just mean collective bargaining won't work I mean the whole thing raising student achievement high quality teaching and learning creating inclusive and transformational learning communities each

041one of these 1300 cards represents the voice of one of our division employees trusting the aea to come up and relay their message to you the majority of your employees have the same message they want the security and dignity of a negotiated contract they want their labor rights recognized they want to be partners in the task of creating a thriving work environment they want to be listened to as Educators we're often asked to do Equity audits of our teaching practice I urge you to do an equity audit of who you are listening to on this issue what's their job title what's their salary if many of those voices are working in central office and make two to three times what Tas and custodians do that then you're listening to the wrong voices I urge you

042to listen to the voices of your school staff the cards represent voices of Tas who continue to feel the sting of new pay policies the voices of bus drivers voluntarily working multiple routes yet still have trouble taking an hour and a half off for Family Care special education Personnel who are worn thin by the ongoing failure to attract and retain special education staff teacher whose teachers whose extra labor goes unrecognized and uncompensated people who signed cards believe things can change and they're hopeful it should be easy for you to say yes we have models now right next door we have a school system working with its staff as respected Partners towards negotiated contracts but none of this will work if your employees don't trust you don't say no don't say not yet you will lose

043the trust of your staff and ultimately students will lose teachers whatever you decide to do we won't lose hope and we won't stop asking for what we deserve because we are Albemarle and we stand together thanks very much Miss Koenig next we have Mary McIntyre hi I'm Mary McIntyre Ryder District I'm going to read a statement from Bill Mack a bus driver who no longer works for Albemarle County I believe employee associations fulfill a need and in certain circumstances have an appropriate role collective bargaining for the Albemarle School Employees is one such need that should be approved across all levels of school staff there's a need for a centralized voice to represent employee needs that voice should come from an outside Source if an in-house bargaining tool had worked in the past we more than

044likely would not be in the current position that we are in being paid less than our State ranking deserves teachers are paid less than districts with similar State Testing results the support staff would not be in the 30th to 35th on the pay scale when Albemarle County ranks in the top third or fourth in the cost of living across the state a quick Google search of other counties shows most of these comparisons however this is a two-sided coin the other side of collective bargaining commits the entire School staff to keeping these rankings high if not going higher than they are now essentially no one loses with collective bargaining respectfully submitted Bill Mack February 6th my own statement I am the vice president of the aea and I'm a member of the employee voice in action

045committee because I'm a team player and I want it to work I want to make it really clear though Evac has potential to be good but it can never give us what bargain contracts can Evac is limited to discussing issues that affect employees across the division meaning specific things like elementary teacher planning time or bus driver safety concerns will never be fixed there bargaining can hammer out those issues Evac is still missing representatives from several schools and has managers and supervisors in the group which can suppress employee voices when we win bargaining I think Evac should continue as a labor relations group because even after new contracts are signed employee voices still need to be heard please don't use Evac as an excuse to deny us bargaining they are completely different thanks very much Miss

046McIntyre the next three speakers are Colin Squire Melissa Brown and Chris Seaman [Music] out of y'all my name is Kellen Squire and for two and a half years I was in Albemarle County public school nurse and I thought that time acquainted me with how much work our teachers did for our community I took a thing it'd be a sort of cushy job to supplement my job as an ER nurse and quickly was disabused of that notion while I was doing tube feeding and sucking tracheostomies and calculating insulin and giving rectal Valium to kids having seizures but as much as I did as a school nurse the teachers always always did more for our students and I thought I had a good idea of the role that they played in our community but it's been the

047last three years as I've worked in the emergency department during this pandemic that really cemented to me the spot that they occupy in our social safety net now I know a lot of you know how bad things got here during the pandemic because I told you personally while it was happening I told you how close we came to joining our friends in southwest and South Side in Shenandoah when their Health Care Systems collapsed and they didn't happen here but it could have if it hadn't been for the hard work and sacrifice made by the people behind me and everybody that works for the Albemarle County Public School District we came a lot closer to the edge than I would like to admit publicly it was because they turned around on a dime and worked their

048butts off for our kids that that we didn't have we didn't join we didn't become a statistic like so many other communities let's be clear the folks behind me have deserved the right to collectively bargain since they I mean forever right that wasn't because of the pandemic that they deserve it they've always deserved it but if it's ever been more clear about the hard-working place that they occupy in our community social safety net it's been made clear to me over the last three years and I would encourage you all to reward that and give them the right to collectively bargain and get what they deserve thank you good evening members of the school board Dr Haas student representative my name is Melissa Brown and I live in the Whitehall District I've been a teacher in

049Albemarle County Public Schools at Albemarle High School for 26 years my children graduated from Albemarle High School so I'm invested in this County I care about the students as I tell them they are my babies that didn't give me stretch marks now there is some truth to that we're supposed to act in loco parentis and we do people behind me come in before their contract hours they stay after their contract hours so do not for a minute think that contract hours are all that teachers work because it's not we give up nights we give up weekends we give up time with our families for our students all we are asking is for the school board to recognize that we deserve collective bargaining we want a seat at the table we don't want scraps from the

050table so I encourage those of you who are on the fence about voting for collective bargaining to take a look at Charlottesville think about graduates from our universities who are going into teaching which school district would they choose one with higher wages and collective bargaining or one with lower wages and no collective bargaining I think the choice would be clear to those individuals and I encourage you to vote for collective bargaining thank you thank you Ms Brown next we'll have Chris Seaman [Music] good evening my name is Chris Seaman I'm a resident of the Whitehall district and I'm the parent of two children acps as a parent an educator at the University level and a Community member I'm here tonight to urge that the school board moved forward with the collective bargaining process for our

051wonderful ECS teachers teachers and staff collective bargaining strengthens Public Schools our communities and ultimately our democracy all public employees should have the right to join together and fight for better working conditions for teachers and staff that includes advocating for smaller class sizes adequate planning time and sufficient classroom supplies ultimately Educators working environments are our children's learning environment in addition Collective Barney is just good public policy it will help attract and retain high quality teachers and other in-demand staff such as School nurses and reading Specialists according to Economic Policy Institute collective bargaining also promotes Equity because it helps reduce paid disparities particularly for women and people of color and it helps improve student outcomes according to a 2020 study in the Journal of Education policy co-teachers unions have a significantly positive association with student test scores

052in both math and English particularly for Black and Hispanic students finally in the current political environment acps employees need the due process protections provided by collective bargaining we have a governor whose administration has set up teacher snitch lines attack trans students as currently attempting to whitewash the teaching history of our kids our teachers and staff need to know that we have their backs in the face of these attacks in some it is time to act I urge you to work with the Apple Education Association begin the process of adopting collective bargaining resolution immediately thank you for your time thanks very much Mr Seaman the next three speakers are Elizabeth Nicholson Sally Duncan and Amy Laffer my prop hello my name is Libby Nicholson and I am a fourth grade teacher at bartiswood elementary school I

053am also a proud graduate of Albemarle High School Piedmont Virginia Community College and UVA our class mascot is the honeybee the honeybee is an amazing creature that has existed for thousands of years I ask my students to be the best they can be in fourth grade we studied Virginia history in Jamestown in particular I shared how the honeybee was not a native to the United States but was brought over by the colonists in 1622 to benefit the survival of the colony collective bargaining is very similar we need it for the survival of my beloved profession the teaching profession is in crisis over the 18 years I have been in with this County I have seen countless fantastic teachers aides bus drivers cafeteria workers Specialists and more leave due to the unrealistic expectations and lack of

054support collective bargaining will help with the Recruitment and Retention and with my beloved profession not only to survive but to thrive as with the honeybee we are all working towards the same goal we all want what is good for the colony students to succeed teaching Jamestown also connects to collective bargaining where the majority of Elmore County teachers have voted to elect a representative to negotiate better pay working conditions and most importantly a seat at the table to obtain support for us to do our job and do it well so we can all be our best Jamestown was the first representative government we want representation please agree to collective bargaining for the good of the colony thank you thank you very much Miss Nicholson next we have Sally Duncan [Music] hi my name is Sally Duncan

055and I'm a parent of separable Albemarle students but I'm also a substitute teacher within the district within that role I've gotten to experience a wide variety of classroom situations and seeing just how many people it takes to keep the schools running there's teachers there's esol teachers special ed teachers nurses for special ed students as well as teachers assistants front office and guidance staff not to mention bus drivers and custodial staff it's easy to acknowledge that people who work in schools work hard but it's another thing to see it up close if you have never substituted in the classroom I urge you to do it more than once and I actually think that being a substitute should be a requirement of being a school board member um working in schools can be difficult and exhausting and

056all these various people work incredibly hard and they also are all potentially putting their life on the line for our kids they deserve the right to have collective bargaining and have a say in what their working conditions are and what their compensation is you as school board members should be partners with staff not a roadblock or even worse people who actively make their jobs harder so please vote to allow collective bargaining within our school district thank you Ms Duncan thanks we have Amy Laffer [Music] good evening school board members and Dr Huss I am Amy lauffer I live in the Ravenna district and my youngest son goes to Monticello High School and I've addressed you before on this issue uh years ago as many of you know I served on the Charlottesville school board and

057before that I was a school teacher a public school teacher and I know how daunting this may seem today but I also understand how important it is for our teachers to have this collective bargaining you know even as a former teacher when the schools were closed and I had my own three kids to teach Middle School which is what I taught it was impossible we know how hard the teachers work they need this support you know our community strongly supports teachers in public schools but that doesn't change the fact that public school teachers administrators and even school boards are being under attack there is a national coordinated effort to ban books there are pushes to punish those that properly teach history or help vulnerable lgbtq plus children our own Governor as someone mentioned had a

058snitch line with the express purpose of attacking teachers and banning what they call divisive content the teachers in Albemarle County are asking for your support to help them with these outside forces I know that there are many unanswered questions about this and it's a difficult shift while these are valid questions the current situation and our Commonwealth requires that teachers get support because of these outside forces and you are in the position to support them we all know the value of a good education we've all had education if you protect our educational professionals and you will be making our division even more attractive to qualified teachers staff and administrators which will only benefit our children and our community and part of the reason I have to say I ran for the school board was I wanted

059to advocate for teachers they are professionals they deserve to be treated as such and that's why I'm here today I know that you are all up to the challenge and I'm really grateful for everything you do for our community thank you thanks very much MS laufer our next three speakers will be Meg Bryce Jamie bogdanich and arelana zlotnik [Music] hi I'm Meg Bryson from the Samuel Miller District I'm here to speak about the need for transparency in the school district's policies and decision making specifically I want to speak to the most recent school name review process at Meriwether Lewis Elementary in the last school board meeting Dr Haas said when we do that first survey the majority of the community when we ask them what should the school be named after they say after a

060geographic location but then they turn around and say keep the name that we have Dr Haas was referring to survey one that survey asked when reviewing a school's current name or proposing a new name what naming categories are important to consider and three choices were given places themes or values nowhere in that survey were people given the option of people or historical figures or keep the current name so yes in that survey people chose places because you literally did not give the option to keep the name in survey 2 when people were given the option to keep the name 85 percent chose to do so so to describe that as they say they want geographic location but then they turn around and say keep the name that we have is a gross misrepresentation of the

061facts the other thing I would say about the process at Meriwether Lewis is this it is a fact that the name Review Committee was assured by Miss Waters that they did not need a unanimous vote it is a fact that the name Review Committee came back with a recommendation of nine to three in favor of keeping the name it is also a fact that they were then told actually we're changing the policy you now need a unanimous vote in other words as soon as it was clear that the process wasn't going to yield the district's desired result the rules were changed on them even why six-year-old knows it's not right to change the rules like that this must not be brushed off as a misunderstanding or a failure to communicate this was dishonest to the

062point of being deceitful and manipulative we would all like our schools names to be a reflection of our community's values you must realize that a new name given through such a dishonest process would be a very poor reflection of our values thank you thanks very much Miss Bryce next we have Jamie bogdanich [Music] good evening my name is Jamie bogdanich and I live in the Samuel Miller District I'm here because I believe in community and I believe that our neighborhood school and Community thrive in relationship and a healthy relationship is based on trust transparency and mutual respect as neighbors we should all strive for those qualities in our community and the relationship between the school board and our community broke down in the decision to rename Meriwether Lewis Elementary the Albemarle school board code of

063conduct states that as a school board member number one I will have integrity in all matters and support the full development of all children and the welfare of the community Commonwealth the nation it has become clear that no matter what input was provided by the community there is a desired outcome by the superintendent in this board to rename Mary weather Lewis the results of the surveys included 85 percent surveyed selected Merriweather Lewis as her first choice name the name Mary weather Lewis was preferred by 160 out of 321 students over twice as many of those who voted for the second place name and after an established Community mailing Review Committee voted overwhelmingly to keep the Meriwether Lewis name that decision was not accepted in fact the desired outcome was not achieved the review committee's input

064was rejected and the defined process was changed to meet the desired outcome to rename the school my question is why why ask the community if you don't want the answer why put together a Community Committee if we're not going to accept the results well I spell out a process on paper that's not going to be followed and can be modified to reach the desired end does this process that I described to rename Merriweather Lewis and still integrity and Trust in our relationship or does it leave us wondering if the guiding principle is integrity and what took place at Meriwether should be Revisited if we can't trust a defined written process for renaming a school then what else do we need a question thank you Ms budinage next we have Ariana zlatnick [Music] hi my name

065is Ari zlotnik and I am a school counselor at Red Hill Elementary I'm speaking tonight to urge you to adopt the collective bargaining resolution as a counselor I truly believe that the pressures and workload that acps Educators experience is unhealthy and unsustainable this problem transcends individual schools at Red Hill I work with supportive administrators amazing colleagues in a community of wonderful students and families however last year the working condition survey showed that more than 60 percent of staff at my school reported symptoms of burnout although working with students has become more challenging since the pandemic I think most teachers would say that it is not the students that are leading us to feel burned out rather it is the piling on of unreasonable job duties without a corresponding increase in time or compensation our contracts

066are so broadly written that there does not seem to be a limit to what can be asked of us I have worked over 120 hours outside my contract hours this year and I have colleagues who work even longer hours than I do yet we still feel like we are drowning surveys stay interviews and the employee voice and action committee are not adequate to address the systemic problems that are leading to educator burnout we need a collective bargaining to give us a meaningful voice denying acps employees collective bargaining and substituting meet and confer instead is like denying citizens the right to vote and asking us to be content with a town hall I have seen an increase in anxiety among the elementary students I serve in the past few years one of our most powerful tools

067to help students regulate their emotions is to model emotion regulation ourselves yet the current conditions in acps make it impossible for us to be our best selves for our students collective bargaining would allow us to work in partnership with our leaders to make our schools healthier happier places for educators to work and for students to learn thanks for your time thanks very much Ms zodnick our last three speakers are Jessica Taylor John keys and Brian mano foreign hello my name is Jessica Taylor I'm the proud parent of two acps graduates I am also the president of the Charlottesville Education Association the process we just went through in the city to come to a collective bargaining resolution both sides agreed upon was not without its struggle it took time and determination but because our board and

068Dr Gurley believe in the value and power of the collective voice we will we were able to finalize our resolution that the board has already announced it will pass at its March meeting that's the core belief I think you are still missing collective bargaining doesn't mean that your staff are looking to get power over you collective bargaining means they want the power to work with you they want to be at the table with Equity of voice speaking freely with solidarity about your Collective vision teachers in Elmore County public schools are viewed as objects of change rather than agents of change you have made that happen your Educators nutrition workers custodians bus drivers nurses and instructional assistants come to work and give of themselves every day for the children of this County they deserve the same

069rights to bargain for their contracts as other public sector workers in Virginia it's happening in the city right next door dialogic action is the path to equity for your teachers you can make that happen I am available to answer any questions provide any resources or support you in any way personally or professionally that will move this District forward towards the adoption of a collective bargaining resolution thank you thank you Miss Taylor um I is Brian banyo here in person yeah man okay you can speak next [Music] good evening my name is Brian vano I live in the Samuel Miller District I'm here to express my disappointment in a couple events that took place at Burley Middle School this year and to express my disappointment in two School Board chairs who have lied about these events

070on October 5th Burley Middle School supported a student walkout opposing transgender policy proposed by the current governor where the administrators assisted in the planning of that event and also waived attendance requirements for students who chose to skip class to join the walkout after the event my daughter complained that no instruction was provided during this time Mr Page you asserted that she actually did receive instruction last week I learned that building Middle School sent emails only to members of the quote black community inviting them to an event catered from local black owned businesses to improve academic experiences for black students such an event on its face is racially discriminatory ethos Miss Carlson you said that the event was open to all and was meant to mitigate barriers to learning for all students that's not true regarding

071the walkout I believe that school administrators should not encourage disruptive activities like this at the expense of classroom learning regarding the black student event statistical disparities in educational outcomes do not justify racial discrimination and I find the principal statement that quote The Pursuit is equity not equality to be extremely objectionable finally regarding the response I got from two School Board chairs nobody likes being lied to I find your dishonesty insulting and offensive I would ask you to stop the gaslighting and if you're looking for a suggestion to improve academic outcomes for not just black students but all students let me offer this perhaps you should enforce policies that are designed to keep kids in the classroom so they can actually learn thank you thanks Mr Randy for your comments and then we have one Zoom

072commenter John keys I I can my name is still my kids went to Monticello they had a great experience there I think we all need to respect each other and our opinions but to resort to intimidation violence and threats is totally undemocratic it's unacceptable in any Democratic Society and you know I will not tolerate myself personally so that's what happened just imagine somebody coming onto your property uh late at night and vandalized it and you know doing a lot of damage so and then I'll I'll I would like to reaffirm my uh sport to the board y'all are doing a great job um and keep up the good work thank you I'm sorry to record this there is a police report on it and um I did send you an email have a good evening

073thanks very much that concludes public comment and I yield back to chair Coulson let me pull this back up so thank you everyone who gave public comment I know that can be daunting and thank you for coming out and and sharing your thoughts with us it's really helpful and it's nice to hear voices so thank you um the next thing that we have on our agenda actually says School Board superintendent business which I think is a typo but I'm just going to take this time to to address since we had so many comments that we did discuss as a board and what we're going to do is we're going to make this an agenda item on our December 23rd sorry time's flying it's not flying that fast um February 23rd so not our next meeting

074which is budget specific but the meeting after that so two weeks from now and we will make it an item and then we will discuss it then so that you know what to expect and with that we're going to move to our two sessions that we have scheduled for this one which is local government broadband and transportation and you are forgiven for making your exit because I know you're working hard [Music] about today do we want to just go and do a five minute break real quick since we're yeah let's do it we're gonna do a five minute break since that took a lot of time anyway and that will allow us to regroup and get set up yeah oh it's ridiculous um [Music] oh my God foreign as a School Division our priority is

075that our students have Equitable Equitable access to the tools and resources they need for Learning and that includes internet connectivity at home this evening's presentation is about the work being done to provide connectivity in our community and about how we as a School Division work with Albemarle County Broadband office towards that goal on this slide you'll see some of the ways that we work with the county on behalf of our students we do all that we can to support and supplement the County's efforts and now I'd like to introduce Jason andofuentes who will share with you the work and progress being made by the county Broadband office thank you Chris thank you school board thank you for the opportunity to speak before you all and give you an update before I begin I want to

076acknowledge that none of what we have accomplished would have been possible without the work that preceded us that work includes the Decades of service by my director Mike Culp who served as I.T director while ably preparing the the county to be a leader in making Broadband affordable for everyone that work also includes the efforts of director Diggs and her team including clay Todd Kelsey Whalen and previously Bert Jacoby who were prepared to act when the pandemic made the digital divide as evident as ever so while I'm proud of the work that we've done I'd like to acknowledge that it builds on work that precedes our office I titled this presentation connecting communities because ultimately that's what we are trying to do but in this instance it is something to emphasize because students aren't just children

077in a household they're a community in and of themselves and so we take seriously the idea that their issues and concerns should be heard this is a brief overview of what we're going to be covering um I'd like to give a quick history of our office our office was formed by Board of Supervisors action in Spring 2021 in recognition that the influx of federal funding for Broadband expansion grants would would require further management to effectively capture and administer director Culp who had effectively been serving as a one-man Broadband office while also serving as director of it opened the office that may and I joined in September about myself briefly I first caught the public service bug as a volunteer EMT and later paramedic with the Charlottesville Alma Rescue Squad after serving for more than a

078decade I left the workforce to stay home with my children while my wife finished her training I freelanced for several years as a technology journalist before obtaining my masters of urban and environmental planning at UVA School of Architecture in May of 2020. I was an associate with the County's office of equity and inclusion before beginning this role our office takes the County's mission to enhance the well-being and quality of life for all community members and adapts it to our mandate we seek to ensure that community members of all means have access to adequate and affordable broadband service we highlight those three words as they were the guiding principles for all of our work access means that service is available to the Community member affordable means that community members do not need to forego other essential

079costs in order to pay monthly Broadband fees adequate means that the service meets the needs of the community members the interplay between these three different goals is important whenever we consider interventions and actions that we can take a solution that is unaffordable or inadequate or both is not worth considering our first year objectives included developing a plan for Universal Broadband access and establishing an affordability plan in both objectives we were very direct in our efforts the body 22 award that's the Virginia telecommunications initiative 22 award granted to us last year places us in a position to achieve universal access by the end of 2025. this grant is a partnership with firefly fiber Broadband which is a subsidiary of the Central Virginia Electric Cooperative and the Thomas Jefferson planning district Commission the partnership involves 13 counties

080total and is among the most ambitious efforts to address the digital divide undertaken in the Commonwealth additional Broadband projects including a pending body 23 application and future opportunities from the Commonwealth and the infrastructure investment and jobs act will fill any other any remaining unserved gaps the key takeaway here is that every day acps household households that were previously unserved are being connected for our affordability program our first effort was to initiate our own Internet Essentials partnership program through Comcast this program provides no cost broadband service that can be quickly activated and has been a Mainstay of the school's efforts since early in the pandemic taking over Administration for this program allows us to work with other Community Partners to expand its reach the ACP Bridge initiative was developed with months of stakeholder engagement within the

081county staff to develop a supplement to the federal affordable connectivity program the ACP provides up to 30 dollars per month towards monthly Broadband costs for community members under a wide criteria for eligibility including any DSS benefit participation in the national school lunch program certain veterans benefits and receiving a Pell Grant with average Broadband costs in the area well above 30 though the benefit was insufficient for most for our most vulnerable households ACP Bridge our program using general fund Appropriations from the Board of Supervisors provides up to an additional twenty dollars per month for ACP beneficiaries in Albemarle County whose providers have enrolled in the program at present Comcast is our initial partner and we are eager to enroll additional providers in the coming months foreign as we entered our second year we took an opportunity

082to revisit our goals and see if we could refine them to provide additional paradigms for future work our analysis led us to these three lenses digital literacy digital parity and digital evolution the American literary literacy Association defines digital literacy as the ability to use information and communication Technologies to find evaluate create and communicate information the internet is an incredibly empowering technology but like most tools it requires a certain familiarity we have to know what tools or devices best suit our needs we need to be familiar with the operation and troubleshooting of those devices we need to speak the right language the internet is a multi-ethnic and multilingual place but so often too often tools are exclusively in one language we even have to be familiar with technology culture and crucially we have to know how

083to protect our personal information while utilizing these Technologies in a global index on the topic Tufts University defines digital parity as iniquities in digital access and usage between the typically excluded and typically included using three lenses gender rural urban and socioeconomic status Broadband coverage is a layered topology a provider may have excellent coverage they may also have degraded or outdated infrastructure there may be a fiber provider in a given location but there may be no cellular service there when we consider access and adequacy it isn't enough for there to be a solution there must be the right solution and that varies across demographics for lots of reasons digital parity is a lens for evaluating the Deltas between need and availability house consultancy Highlands defines digital Evolution as the ongoing gradual accumulation of change in an

084organization's process digitization to say the pandemic forced most organizations including this one to advance their process digitization all at once digital evolution is about skating to where the puck is going to be it is about asking the experts what the Broadband needs will be 10 or 20 years from now and planning for that challenge it's a response to the reality laid bare by the pandemic that Broadband infrastructure in the United States has been playing catch-up in the near term our office has four objectives that touch on our goals in these new paradigms to develop a regional digital Equity plan to develop service level metrics to develop parity metrics and to Pilot an Open Access conduit project over the last several months our office has pulled together a coalition of stakeholders and key champions from within

085the county the city and the University along with many Community Partners with the shared goal of addressing digital iniquities throughout our first year every effort to collaborate with Community Partners face the challenge of differentiating between non-county and County residents regarding efforts to support our community it became evident quickly that working in silos was ineffective by developing a plan that has buy-in from Representatives within the city this University and the county interventions can have an impact across the entire community so far this Coalition has undertaken two major initiatives the first is to partner with a cohort of UVA planning students to undertake Community engagement through focus groups and conduct demographic analysis utilizing sentiment survey data that our office and the Coalition have been compiling additionally our office on behalf of the Coalition has applied for a

086Federal Communications Commission Grant to engage in Broad Outreach activities to boost the affordable connectivity program across our area only 15 percent of eligible households are enrolled in ACP boosting that figure will have a tremendous impact on thousands of low-income households awards are expected within the next month as part of AC 44 the County's comprehensive Plan update our office will be working with Partners in economic and Community Development to determine what the Broadband needs of community members and businesses will be in the next two decades these efforts can be a component of the comprehensive plan establishing a benchmark for future Broadband development while also establishing a framework for prioritizing Broadband funding opportunities contributing to those priorities will be the development of parity metrics our office will work with community members and County stakeholders develop measures for

087parity providing the framework to assess the extent of iniquities in Broadband availability this will be a vital component of our efforts to identify what areas both geographically and technologically require prompt intervention one intervention that we have considered is the deployment of a network of county-owned conduit which could be used by providers to advance our digital Equity goals fully eighty percent of a Broadband Expansion Project of the cost of a Broadband Expansion Project is the cost of boring conduit into the ground our initiative would involve opportunistically placing conduit during Road sidewalk or Trail construction along advantageous routes providing access to this conduit to providers could improve Network resilience encourage provision of service to target areas and increase competition particularly in the development area none of these objectives would be possible without our collaborators and that includes

088the school's technology team um and that that is true across all of our initiatives so discuss that more I'd like to welcome clay Todd to share thank you Jason good evening and uh thank you all for the opportunity to speak with you again to Dr Berlin uh it's nice to see you for the first time I'm clay Todd I serve as the assistant director for technology integration with our School Division supervising the direction of various learning technology initiatives and leading our team of learning technology integrators tonight I'd like to share some further details on the connectivity and the digital literacy programs offered by our division in support of the county Broadband offices work regarding connectivity we partner with the Broadband office around our acps at home program through this program families who do not have

089internet access are able to work with school points of contact to attain connectivity through two possible pathways first families who financially qualify and live in the Comcast service area can be provided with no cost broadband service through the Comcast Internet Essentials program due to the relative reliability and speed of this service we encourage schools to explore this pathway whenever possible this school year management of this program was transferred over to the Broadband office who we worked directly with to connect families identified by schools to get them the service that they need second for any family who lives outside of a broad brand provider service area are able to request a cell carrier-based wireless hotspot through their school regardless of financial status these hot spots are centrally managed by the acps department of technology and provide

090a baseline level of connectivity sufficient for completing schoolwork conducting research or supporting other needs that a family may have such as conducting Job searches contacting International family members and so forth most of these hot spots you will find are located around the perimeter of our County just given the lack of availability of broadband in those areas thanks to these core coordinated efforts with the county Broadband office we have seen a significant and measurable Improvement in the connectivity of our students to the internet at home from the 2019-2020 school year until now we have moved the percentage of unconnected students from 11 to 3 percent this amounts to about 1100 students being brought online during that time these figures are based on data compiled by previous surveys of families enrollment forms collected at the start of

091the school year and additional data provided to us by the Broadband office of course these successes while significant are incomplete and our efforts do need to continue indeed three percent is still roughly 400 students many of whom are located in regions of our County not serviced by Broadband or wireless cell providers we continue to explore options to close the digital Equity divide and bring other families into the folds these efforts include our digital literacy and digital citizenship initiatives indeed without the knowledge of how to access the internet and safely navigate digital spaces the impact of connectivity programs is diluted previously Jason spoke to you about the steps being taken by the Broadband office to increase digital literacy amongst the residents of our County our School Division also continues to make strides in this area through

092curriculum and Family Outreach acps has adopted a curriculum developed by Common Sense education created in partnership with with project zero out of the Harvard Graduate School of Education you may recall the presentation of this curriculum to the board last fall this curriculum focuses on real challenges and digital dilemmas that students face today in the domains of media balance privacy and security digital footprint and identity relationships and communication cyber bullying and digital drama and media literacy through this curriculum students are encouraged to think about the proactive dues of cultivating healthy relationship technology while also developing their own cautious lens to navigate online spaces safely this curriculum is currently being implemented in partnership with each school's learning technology integrator at the Elementary and high school levels and is a part of our Middle School advisory curriculum that

093was approved earlier in the fall in addition to this curriculum our learning Technology integrators support digital literacy at home through various Family Outreach strategies this includes the hosting of school and division-based Technology nights where families can come and learn about the use of technology in school and strategies for supporting healthy Technologies at home we've also created and distributed our family Field Guide I do have copies here for those that have not seen it if you would like this is in English and Spanish and includes conversation starters and resources around digital citizenship digital literacy and we've also participated in many community outreach events across our County this past summer these collected digital literacy efforts led to our division being certified as a common sense District a recognition which verifies the steps we've taken to increase the

094digital literacy and citizenship of our students indeed the future in front of all of our students is one which necessitates navigating and adapting to the challenging challenges of digital spaces in a healthy safe and ethical way and our division in partnership with the county Broadband office remains committed to Preparing our students for this future thank you for your time and we will welcome any questions that you all have thank you what question I have is could you tell me what if school or schools are most proportionally affected by that three percent of kids who don't have access um I don't believe I have that figure with me at the moment I'm happy to go and get that for you I do know that the majority of our hot spots though do as I mentioned tend

095to go to the schools more at the perimeter of our County closer to the mountains and so forth where there's just less broadband appreciate it okay I have a question um related to that do the hot spots help those kids who are in that three percent uh how many of well what percentage of do you know of the three percent would be affected or would be able to have access to the hot spot of the three percent uh that remains that's um it's typically determined by by the school themselves as to who actually needs it so when a teacher or a family member contacts the school or a teacher learns that a student can complete homework so on and so forth they reach out to the point of contact in their building if you're looking

096for the hard numbers there I can certainly take a look in our system and and get a better better sense of that there the the truth of the matter to some extent is that there are some students who live in areas geographically where uh cell service does not reach um so Verizon T-Mobile your your typical cell providers and that's who who Powers those hot spots so if there's no service through cell provider and there's no broadband service currently there is not a way to reach them so that that is the majority of those three percent are in those Geographic locations that just don't have access to that service and some and a lot of that is the work that uh Jason's office has been doing too get into those areas does that help answer your

097question too thanks do we have any other questions um yes if a family doesn't speak English or Spanish um your guide there what resources are available to them for understanding this uh regarding our guide it is all available digitally and we do have our udl tools that are available to every student it's Universal Design for Learning which are able to screenshot anything and translate it into any language authored through essentially through Google's translation services we are looking at other platforms that reach particularly some of our students that speak past to that is not currently a language offered by the Google Translation but is by Microsoft so we're doing some so we're investigating into that as well thank you Mr Todd back in the way way Dark Times but I'm talking about 2016 you know in

098comparison uh when we were trying to put a program a Broadband together for the school division um we were told that we had a wavelength I'm going to get this wrong uh about uh 2.5 uh gigs yes thank you and uh whereas Verizon and and all the other providers were about 30 of that um I know things have changed and not at our particular house because we've got lousy DSL I mean I obviously phone lines but um what are we looking at for the for the the students in the system whether they're on coax or their you know over-the-air um a reception what do we have at for speeds for students I think that your question would be better answered by Robert or Jason I am an educator by trade and don't quite speak the

099technical language that I think you're asking so if I'll bring one of them up to address it I'm I'm happy to um to expand on that so um the the the the key takeaways to our first year of work um like I said are one a plan to achieve universal access so one of the and it truly is an accomplishment one of the things that we're most proud of is that work is is currently ongoing so that those furthest reaches of the county where there are no cell phone towers where there is no uh provision of service that is at all reliable they will by 2025 um have access to fiber broadband service to their homes um and and so what we're working towards is making sure that no matter the condition no matter the

100situation that service will be affordable to those households and that's involved working with the the partners to make sure that they have plans that are uh vary in price and to make sure that we have affordability programs in place to make the most of those those opportunities so in the first case how can we make sure that those are those locations are connected we have a plan and we're working on that um I I think to the to the other point that you're making about um utilizing EBS spectrum and other Spectrum assets and other Solutions um one of the the reasons that it's so important to have um a coalition uh working on this and that's what the rdep the regional digital Equity plan Coalition is about is so that um Partners can come together

101um and and to a certain extent put their cards on the table and say we have these resources um and it's in the the connecting of those resources that you can make best use of Technologies like EBS and another similar program known as cbrs Community Broadband radio system that leverages not just the Spectrum but you have to have something to feed that spectrum and so I know Robert has extensive awareness and knowledge about um the the school's assets and so it's one of the reasons why our office relies on the on the on the school system um for uh partnership in utilizing these assets to their best ability thank you I hope you don't mind if I asked Robert do you have a sense of speeds that kids are getting now uh so the speeds

102related to the FCC standards are really the target for the Broadband of course fiber optic is the the gold standard for providing those some of the latest fcc's starting to Target 100 megabits and so the the federal I tried not to get too technical on the presentation the Federal Communication Commission um lists 25 megabits per second down and three megabits per second up um and I usually carry a prop which is an old iPhone 5 which is about 10 years old to demonstrate like when it was brand new that was the speeds that you could get from that device that is uh you know that is not much and so the FCC definition is a little outdated we have set a standard of 100 megabits per second down and 20 megabits per second up that

103is our Target and in fact we um strive for a Target actually higher than that but the the speeds that students in served areas are getting are at a minimum 25 megabits per second down three megabits per second half um anybody that has received an intervention um through through our Broadband expansion programs they have available to them uh up to a gigabit per second down and up great thank you for the quantification I appreciate it [Music] any additional questions I have one quick one which is just when you're talking about the pro when you were talking about the programs where it's thirty dollars which doesn't cover the amount and you do an additional 20. does that come directly off their bill is this just a how do they get that and what's is there an

104arrangement with the provider to make sure that rates stayed locked at an amount or that they can't just increase them twenty dollars and then get your twenty um so that program the reason that uh it required so much stakeholder uh involvement within the county is because we wanted to make sure we did it right so we brought in the department of social services and met every week for about four months to talk through and work through how to craft a solution that didn't have a negative impact on vulnerable households by risking their uh benefit eligibility generating taxable income or burdening administratively either the providers or our office we're a small two-man team and so we wanted to make sure that nobody was going to find themselves with their internet cut off because we weren't administered

105administratively capable of fulfilling our promise so the program that we structured requires partnership with the providers they commit to providing the statement credits so the provide the the resident just sees a credit on their bill the other thing that we're relying on is that providers as part of the ACP and as part of participation in American Rescue plan funds and iija funds have to commit to providing a low income option so a low-cost plan and that gives us the opportunity to make sure that even if that low income plan is at fifty dollars rather than thirty dollars household should be able to afford it with the combined supplements thank you [Music] if you don't mind Ms Osborne I feel like I didn't fully answer your question in terms of the translation of our Field Guide

106it is on my roadmap to extend the translation of that document to other languages we certainly the last couple years have had quite the influx of students internationally and we have the capability to work with our esol office to translate that document into other languages as well so that that is also on the roadmap in addition to the current solution which is the screenshot readers to do so so great thank you and did you say you had copies of something that you could distribute to us or yeah I've got it's the same Field Guide that many of you have seen but I'm happy to to send it around nothing more time all right yeah I'll send it I'll send it down sure your kid didn't bring you one it's still in his back it might

107be so um thank you so much for that presentation that was helpful information for us to know as we move forward I know that we've had some conversations around expanding internet access for our students so it's exciting to know that we're making great progress and it sounds like we're continuing to chip away at the remainder the three percent that we need to reach so thank you the next presentation will be the transportation update we are behind schedule because not because of me um because we had so much public comment and we took a break but we're not doing too bad we have 20 minutes scheduled for this which should hopefully get us out by 8 40. and then we'll begin stay that long yeah I'm sorry oh [Music] [Applause] I apologize for you being at

108the end of the meeting the last person is no problem it's usually Mr Zimmerman but he's not here it just means we're agreeable at this point okay hello how are you yeah and you'll be the you'll probably be up before any of us tomorrow morning so thank you for staying so late sure you're welcome thank you all right we're ready good evening to the members of the school board thank you for the opportunity to present updates concerning the status of the transportation department I was here before you in August and I had provided updates on each consent agenda since the data we have consistently reported on your consent agenda is also attached as an attachment to tonight's agenda item I would like to provide an update on what has occurred so since start of the

109school and plans going forward it has certainly been a challenging year I'm grateful to our drivers for their dedication to our students um they are doing an amazing work with no with not enough people um bottom line it would be no transportation department without them I'm also grateful to our students and our families School staff for their patients and continued support at the street strategic plan of the school division learning for all the transportation department primarily aligns with Goal three um Equitable and transformative resources [Music] department has Improvement plan I would like to highlight here the goals of Transportation the transportations Department Improvement plan our goals are decreased driver vacancy rate we have partnered with HR to launch an advertisement campaign we launched the we launched the first video Monday February the 6th um you

110can expect to see more advertisement via social media newspaper TV commercials and radio in addition we are planning a job fair secondly improve student management support for our drivers this is something they've asked for we are working with the professional development team to improve responsive classroom training or to to implement responsive classroom training for all driving drivers transporting student students lastly improve engagement through employee recognition this is part of our Gallup survey and we asked our employees what's important to you and so recognition was at the top of the list the department has revamped the engagement committee it's called teams the group Works to develop strategies and Implement more frequent events and team building exercises this is one of the events we had today um everyone shared in we had fun we were fortunate and

111happy that our superintendent came out to share with us okay so I would like to elaborate on our efforts related to Recruitment and Retention first thank you for the in for the driver's increase the the pay increase it is our Endeavor to be competitive this increase along with the salary step scale has set us above the surrounding counties as stated we're launching an advertising campaign and the slogan is your your future rise with us um to include job fairs and recruitment events in addition we will link with our Community Partners such as the Virginia Career works the International Rescue committee pvcc UVA Career Services Etc as part of our retention efforts we are conducting State interviews for existing staff we have also created two new positions with the intent of supporting recruitment and retention our

112staffing update here is our latest Staffing information this chart shows the different types of driving positions the number of staffs positions in each type the number of vacancies and the vacancies rate as a percentage we currently have a hundred and thirty one point five driving positions staffed and 30 vacancies 11.5 of which are home to school routes so since the start of the school year 12 routes have been Consolidated seven drivers have been have completed the training and started a started a route five drivers have resigned or retired and zero drivers have been terminated we haven't terminated anyone seven drivers are currently in training and three drivers are in the hiring process and will start March the 6th [Music] uh I'll drive a shortage when we think about the driver's shortage it isn't an albemarie

113County issue this is just one headline of many you can find about the challenges school districts are facing across the country and finding enough drivers foreign this slide is a summary of our on-time arrival data as reported in our regular board updates the bottom line is our most recent data during the week beginning January the 30th of the 251 morning routes about 96 percent arrived on time or up to only 15 minutes late the remaining columns break down the on time arrival rate and how late the other routes are arriving I acknowledge we are not meeting our 98 percent goal on-time arrival but I would also like to commend our staff for making lemonade out of lemons they are achieving this data with with an almost 30 percent vacancy rate our drivers are doing double

114back runs they are splitting out runs our technicians are driving our routing team is constantly review reviewing routes we are doing everything we can with the people we have our Fleet update we have some exciting updates to our Fleet our first electric bus has arrived it's a sign at Greer School serving the Georgetown Community we must keep the route miles within a hundred miles between the charging between the charging morning and afternoon the second electric bus will arrive within two weeks in addition the type A buses will will be assigned to various locations throughout the county as a reminder the Taipei bus is a small smaller capacity bus Which does not require CDL to drive lastly I would like to end with highlights of our plans going forward the department is actively and strategically working

115to ensure students arrive to school safely and on time and these are some these are some options that we're reviewing Outsourcing Recruitment and Retention walk Zone route evaluations and Bell schedules we will share more details with the board as we work through our plans and continue our evaluation of these options that concludes my presentation what questions do you have for me hi thank you very much for your presentation and thank you very much for your Department's work um so when you said that we have a nearly 30 percent vacancy rate is that because of the long-term medical absences so again I'm sorry I didn't hear you um when you said that we have about nearly 30 vacancy rate is that in part because of the long-term medical absences yes exactly that it includes that as

116well um and I I'm very glad that we're looking at those ideas for next year is there um do you have a sense if we're going to get to the 80 98 goal this year we are certainly striving um each month we are evaluating and looking at our applicant's pool we are hitting recruitment with everything we got um that's what this campaign is about and we're hoping that once we make the announcement and and we've made the announcement but we we want to do more advertisement around the step scale so I'm hoping that um when we put the message out there and begin to just talk about it more we'll get more applicants and we can see a difference in that on time arrival thank you thanks for the presentation but um with the resignations

117were you able to determine any reasons for why the people are leaving those people left the county aside from the Personnel issues of course that I can't discuss I can't share some of the life situations changed for them and they had to make other decisions regarding continuing to drive a school bus some long-term sickness and so for those reasons they made the decision that they needed to leave okay no thanks could you talk a little bit about the is it the type A for buses and how many we have and how you might be using them as a way to presently we have about four type A buses and so what we're trying to do with them um with our special needs Community if we're able to for for example if a route does not

118have a wheelchair and we're able to combine or put some students on those buses we can then utilize the type A buses on those routes and shift those drivers over to vacant routes who have a CDL license that's one where we're using them another way we're looking at is also where our double back runs that are really long and we're getting the school the children to school late so somehow another we can maybe split out some of the run and get our children to school on time how many without without wheelchairs how many seats are on those buses um it all depends you could have anywhere from 16 up to 48. passenger on their special needs I have one other question um how popular has the eight hour position uh offering been we have not

119seen a lot of movement with those positions some of the employees had a some of the applicants that applied until they realized that they would need to work in another department but we haven't seen a lot of movement with those positions yet foreign are there any additional questions thank you sure thank you okay thank you thank you I I had one quick one okay um when are we gonna get another update just to keep parents in the loop because I know it sounds like we're undertaking a really big effort right now to drum up this last bit a drama more interesting get more bus drivers trained you talk through the pipeline but it's sounding like we might be in a very similar position at the start of next year when are we going to get

120the next update about what what is going on and happening okay so we can certainly um we're going to report back at your next meeting we're going to give you the information and then we're open and flexible to hear how we need to how you would like for us to get that information out to the community certainly we will let the families know principals Administration and the families know where we are so it's whether it's through a bright error message or whether we're meeting with our administrators to talk about how we need to communicate that information to our parents we certainly can do that so the community so families and everyone will know where we are in transportation concerning our bus routes so that would be my second question that I wasn't going to ask

121I don't want to extend but I was just say what is the communication between you and the school so like when it when a bus is going to be late when the 15 minutes late I mean have y'all what how do you communicate with like school principals okay so how do we do that and we have I'm going to be transparent we have struggled in that area getting the right error message that we don't always nail it the way we should where that bright and recess message but that's how we do it we get the message out through our bright and error message now sometimes the the call come in so last minute that we have to pick up the phone and call the administrator and say this is what's happening so but we're working

122on those areas to make sure we are improving and we're working on it the more we know and we can plan the better we can communicate the message awesome those are all my questions and I think we're going to have some thank yous for you I cut some people off when I ask my question I think Dr Haas was going to say something oh no I just I I got to say thank you I snuck it in I have seen the TV commercials and they really are pretty effective so I hope that they'll be able to bring in some new drivers Wars I hope so too we're certainly going to do more thank you so much for the hard work you're doing you you can tell and I can tell you're having a pivot and

123be creative and you're doing hard work and we we appreciate it thank you and your colleagues this is is this your colleague in the back yes yes hey stuck around thank you um that concludes includes check the gym to make sure I'm not missing anything um is there any other School Division business okay that concludes the meeting right we are adjourned all right