Special School Board Meeting - December 1, 2022

001okay [Music] we will observe a moment of silence foreign thank you efforts applicant is surrounding um good evening Dr Dr Parks first thank you for applying for the position position on the school board we appreciate your commitment to civic duty and recognizing your obligation I guess specific Duty first we'll have our school board members to introduce themselves beginning with Ms Osborne Ellen Osborne Scottsville magisterial District okay daycuff Jack Jewett District Judy Lee Rivanna District Katrina Carlson Rio District John around Caro at large and I'm Graham Pete Samuel Miller District nice to meet you just to give a brief um description of what uh process we're going to follow this afternoon we had a total of nine applicants so we're going to allocate each applicant 20 minutes for the interview we all start out by giving

002you a few minutes to give us like a brief introductory then we'll have four of our board members to ask questions of you and there might be some follow-up questions during that period also um and we ask that you try to limit your answers to maybe three minutes or less um after this we will allow you to ask any questions that you might have of the board and we will be having a public hearing on December the 15th and that after that public hearing we'll be announcing the candidate that's been chosen to fulfill the um I mean the white all district seat so thank you again for applying and our first question will be asked by board member Dr AKA oh yes right you're I'm sorry your introduction thank you that's okay I wasn't sure

003if I was going to need to make a statement or anything okay no okay sorry about that first of all my name is Dr Amanda parks and I have lived in Crozet for six and a half years now with my family uh professionally I work as a political science instructor for Penn State University obviously remotely and I've been doing that for six and a half years I've also worked in education in the Middle School context and abroad in East Africa and I've home educated several of my children so um the reason that I was interested when this position opened up it's never really something I had thought about doing before it's based on my experience with my own college students and working in a lot of different educational contexts but also my personal experience with

004one of my children who has a learning disability I've really gotten interested in seeing K5 literacy improve across the board and I think it's a really interesting moment in our country for that right now so that was my motivation okay thank you Dr Parks now moving to our first question Dr Acuff well I think you've somewhat answered the first question but I'll ask it again anyway unless if you want to put some Ruffles and flourishes onto it tell us why you're interested in the school board and um how do you intend to represent the residents of Whitehall District yeah thank you so I as I said could you could you put the mic up a little closer there we go you got it okay I don't want to you know get my mouth on it

005so as I said you know I was I'm interested in education broadly I've worked in education my entire adult life which I can't believe I'm saying now and I also work as a political science instructor so governance and good governance is a part of what I do on a daily basis and teach my students about so this was just an interesting opportunity to marry those two interests together and serve the community in this Unique Kind of temporary here for the next year so that was my initial motivation and then as far as representing the interests of the Whitehall District you know we're pretty embedded in the community and we've talked to lots of parents and are part of a lot of community organizations and I see parents who really want to see their children get

006a great education and sometimes they're worried about the outcomes and I feel like as a parent with children who are school age I can engage with those families and their students and really work to see their children have an excellent experience thank you welcome thank you Dr Parks all right Miss Judy Lee will ask now second question plan learning for all and something that gives you pause for concern oh great question so the thing that excites me about learning for all is that I see an opportunity for improvement you know we have talked about for a while now about some differences in outcomes across groups like socioeconomically disadvantaged groups and different racial racial groups and so I think that we I think it's a great plan to try to get all of these groups reading

007well comprehending math well and there's room for improvement here and there's been a lot of research and a lot of energy in the last couple of years moving towards the science of reading and structured literacy and I think that those tools will really serve our students who aren't performing as well as we would like and you know with great quality instruction and practices we can move those scores up and see more Equity across the board um as far as the the learning for all strategic plan what was the second part of the question what concerns me or gives me pause no I think as schools we have a certain scope in what we are capable of doing and we should recognize that we cannot make up for for every disadvantage within society and so we

008have to do our very best to do what we can to educate with our best practices and we need to concentrate on that and follow through with fidelity foreign Osborne we'll ask our third question and anti-racism policy in 2019 and what ways do you think we have been successful in implementing that and in what areas could you help us improve sure so because I'm not in the schools every day and I haven't been on the board yet I I don't know all of the ins and outs of where we were before and where we are now prior to 2019 if I'm really honest I've become more interested in what's going on in the schools since I had a child who was identified and diagnosed with a learning disability through the school so I've become more

009engaged so I'll just tell you that I I don't know what the climate was in 2018. um but as far as the anti-racism policy moving forward I like like I said previously not to be a broken record is I really think that we can serve our our minority groups and our economically disadvantaged groups well by helping them achieve academic Excellence particularly in these critical years where we need to be building foundational math skills and literacy skills and so I think that's an area that we've made some promises and you know we haven't met those promises yet but the good news is is there are ways to achieve this change and I think that this is a moment where we can make big changes and Achieve improvements in those areas okay thank you all right Miss

010Dale Dr Parks it's nice to see you again good to see you too thank you um what do you see is the most important challenge facing public education in the next few years and how should it be addressed and I'd like you to take into account all the different levels that you yeah and aspects of right education that you've worked at do you mean the different levels like the university level as well as the K-12 you see some more K-12 I'm so sorry right so we do have some challenges in helping our students move forward after a difficult years and helping our teachers really be supported in educating these students who have a lot of needs and so I think continuing to remediate Lost learning continuing to work on Mental Health skills all of those

011things are going to be really important and then when our students graduate from acps then they can go on and they can come to the university classroom like mine and really be successful and have those skills to succeed at the Collegiate level or at the career level so I think that is a really important challenge that all school districts are facing across the country and I see it in my University students and they're struggling as well they're not quite in the same place as other students were you know four years ago thank you okay thank you Dr box um do you have we'll let uh now let I'll allow you to ask us questions or maybe give us any other things that you weren't covered in those questions but if you have questions um well

012I would love to know what is on tap for the school board over the next year or so where this position is going to be filled what are the big things that are going to be on the plate of the school board and how what need do you see in needing to be filled in the position you know the you know the whole that David oberg leaves behind so I would love to hear about that didn't want to jump in first uh projects on the horizon to help us with capacity issues we have a potential for um I guess reviewing collective bargaining on the horizon we have learning loss that's pretty significant due to the pandemic and that's also on the horizon those would be the things that I think of next year I mean

013I I would say that you know having just passed our strategic plan last year we are really focused on looking at how well we're doing what how are we how are we putting our strategic policies into operation and and that's the real challenge it's a dance between the school board and the division I mean the school boards set policy and work with the division as you know to see how that's implemented and our role is setting policy and oversight so I think that for me that's the largest thing we also as you probably are aware commissioned a study of salaries and we've made some adjustments but we haven't done part two of that and I think we really need to focus on um having a good environment for not only our students but for our

014teachers and other staff because we're all in this together and it's as successful as the good people that we can keep I think the one big one looming right around the corner is the budget right right and so there's going to be a lot of time spent on that a lot of Education given to the board and then we need to make the the decisions for uh using the superintendent's funding request and then sending our funding requests on to the county executive and so uh there'll be extra meetings and um but it's it's an important process and one that we need to think through carefully right and then another one I think Miss Carlson might have hit on this um but also overcrowding in our schools we'll have to make sure that we come up

015with some plan especially the urban ring schools overcrowding no the southern schools not the urban reading Southern the southern part of the urban range yeah Albert Albemarle County has this wonderful attribute that we're growing growing a lot and attracting a lot of people because it's such a beautiful place and so I think I had heard before I moved here about how good the schools were and that's something that we really want to we want to have that reputation and like you said the the added the added population poses challenges as well as being a strength for the area I think those are probably some of the million issues one yeah um I think um another challenge for us is communication we've gotten considerably better about that in the last few years but I still think

016there's room for improvement the way we communicate with parents and stakeholders yeah right okay any other items that they address their first question or all right all right anything else Ms Sparks from you well I just wanted to say thank you for the opportunity I know you have a lot of candidates and I think that's great that there's so many people who are interested in being involved in education in the community so thank you okay thank you again so much for applying we really appreciate it thank you thank you good yeah all right [Music] hopefully they might be here we might end up with a big nap along the way I think it I think it might be good to have after we do the four set questions to have us if we have any

017follow-up questions before we ask the candidate for questions I mean we're talking off Mike here we can we can talk sorry um one thing that Ellen pointed out in an email we can talk about it now is it's just generally good practice not to introduce any additional questions unless we plan to ask it of everyone but if it's follow-up specific to like their answer like if you're curious about what do you mean you're a professor tell me more or can you expand upon that but not to start a new thread okay yeah and if we do then we have to ask everyone else yeah that makes sense yeah and Kate the best time to do that would be at the time that the question is being asked me hello Dr Spillman how are you thank

018you so much for applying for the position of for the school board seat from the Whitehall District thank you I really appreciate your application thank you um first we'll allow our school board members to introduce themselves before I describe the format that we're going to use sure I'm Ellen Osborne from the Scottsville magisterial District I'm Kate acre from the Jack Jewett District Judy Lee Rivanna District Katrina Carlson Rio District John O L Carroll at large Grand paid Sammy amola District nice to meet all of you the format that we'll be using first will allow you some time to give us like an introduction or introductory remarks that you would like to make okay following that we'll have four of our board members to ask some questions that would be revealing things that would be important

019to us as a board sure following that we'll allow you to ask any questions that you might have of the board okay and I think you probably already know this but on December the 15th it'll be a public hearing and after that public hearing we'll announce the person who has been selected to fill the seed okay so again we thank you so very very much for applying thank you um thank you for having me my name is Allison Spillman I am a proud mother of five students in the Albemarle County school I have a um first grader who she and her brother were adopted from the Foster system a couple of years ago and they're both in elementary school first and third grade I have twins that are in seventh grade and then I have

020a junior at Western um and it the interesting challenges that my five kids face and that we face as a family I feel like is what kind of prompted me to put forward my application my son who was adopted uh has a lot of Trauma from being in the Foster system he and his sister but also on top of that was diagnosed earlier this year with a pretty significant genetic disorder which makes everyday life pretty difficult for him and so he has a pretty extensive IEP and I um have spent a lot of hours advocating for him and for kids like him um with uh within the special ed program at his school so that's kind of gives me an interesting perspective and then one of my twins is a proud member of the lgbtq

021plus community and that's been really amazing for us as a family also presents its own challenges and has given me some interesting insight into what those students face and then my uh junior in high school is smart and funny and outgoing but struggles with mental health issues that were greatly exacerbated from the pandemic and remote learning and having to navigate that and so all of those things on top of my um pretty extensive business background uh kind of made me feel like I I might have something to offer to the citizens and definitely to uh the people that I would represent in Whitehall okay thank you so much Dr Spillman uh it's Mrs I wish I was a doctor but I'm not sorry thank you all right on me our first question will be asked

022by Dr Acuff that first of all thank you for being here um you've started talking about this but tell us why you're interested in being on the school board and how do you intend to represent the residents of the Whitehall District sure um yeah so I got into it a little bit um but yeah I think that I kind of have my finger on the pulse right now of what is needed and and what the challenges that are facing our families and our students and our teachers because I do have five kids and they're in all levels of school elementary middle and high school so it gives me a really interesting perspective on what's working and what's not working um and I also uh am very involved in the community and that has allowed me

023to consider myself lucky to have many teachers and counselors and support staff as friends and that has given me the opportunity to have an ear to what they're facing and so all of those things like I said kind of when this opportunity came up I thought okay you know maybe now is my time now that all the kids are in school and I have the time and the capacity to devote to advocating for kids like my own and that I could probably have a lot to offer uh and so you know it's an interesting situation because it's not an election um and so but with the intention that this isn't a short-term commitment and if I'm lucky enough to be chosen I would hope that it would you know continue on for a long time

024knowing that you know I might be able to make a difference thank you okay a follow-up question Miss Spillman sure based on what you just said um would you plan on running for the seat in November 2018. that that would be the intention yes I don't look at this as just a short term let's see how it goes um I think that it is it takes a long time to make a difference and it takes a lot of hard work and that would be the goal would be to if I was chosen to make this more than just a 10 month uh commitment okay thank you all right Ms Lee tell us something that excites you about our strategic plan learning for all and something that gives you pause for concern good question um I

025think that you know I've spent a lot of time reading over the Strategic plan over the last few days I had read it previously but obviously in preparation for this and I think that you know the Quest for equity and Excellence Community Wellness those things really excite me because that's what I want for my kids um and we moved back to uh Crozet in 2019 after having lived in Chicago and Scottsdale our youngest two were adopted from Arizona and so I've had experience in other public school systems and I have to say that my husband and I have been thoroughly impressed with the quality of teachers in these schools and the quality of families and how loving and accepting and welcoming people are especially given the challenges that some of my kids face um so

026the fact that that is comes from the top and it comes from the school board and it is emphasized in your strategic plan that those are all the things that matter the most and that's what we're all striving for uh it's very apparent in the everyday life that our kids and our teachers and our parents are experiencing um I will say that having a child with special needs and a very extensive IEP and a lot using a lot of resources and knowing that 13 of the student population have some sort of disability I would like to see more effort put into those resources and I think that the Strategic plan if you're talking about students thriving and that's your number one goal I think that it needs to Encompass all of those students as well

027and and from a personal standpoint I feel like there is some room for improvement okay thank you all right Miss Osborne so the board adopted an anti-racism policy in 2019 and what ways do you think we have been successful in implementing it and in what areas could you help us improve I think that the anti-racism policy is fantastic in that you know the majority of it is student written student-led I think that that's wonderful because that's where it starts is with our kids and um you know I think that seeing the way that my kids interact with other kids and the way that you know diversity is increasing in our school system and um the amount of acceptance especially after you know the riots in Charlottesville and things like that where you know our area

028kind of got a bad name that's not the impression that is given in our schools and the level of inclusiveness that you know as a white woman it's hard for me to say that but that I have seen in our community has been impressive um I think that the uh reading the racial disparities and the reading scores are definitely pause for concern um I appreciated Dr haas's email when those scores came out and I think that that's something that really needs to be and I'm sure you guys are you know are already doing that is really looking into why did that happen and what can we do to um to mitigate that and close those gaps so that it's not just the upper class white kids that are performing well in our schools okay thank

029you all right let's dial KR hi Miss Philbin nice to see you nice to see you again thank you what do you see is the most important challenge facing public education in the next few years and how should it be addressed that's on a as a whole basis and then how it impacts your family I think that we are um I think we're just now starting to see the true ramifications from the pandemic um I think that you know there were the immediate effects but I think the mental health issues that are really affecting our students because of that are really now just coming out um there's obviously uh learning gaps that took place um I think that you know it's it's going to be a long haul of of correcting and and getting us

030back on track um like I mentioned my oldest son you know he was entering high school during quarantine which is a really hard time to be a freshman in high school and you're stuck at home um and so you know he he got off track and we talk about it all the time his his path looks different now than what we thought that was going to look like uh a few years ago and that doesn't mean it's bad it's just different and I think that that's really important in public education is that recognizing that there isn't a single path for every one path for all kids to follow like everybody has their own passions and their own strengths and their weaknesses and the challenge in public education is really making sure that all kids are

031given the right opportunities to thrive and that they don't just fall into a certain category or a certain box that makes us look good it's what's going to make them look good what's going to make them succeed what's going to make them happy and if we as public Educators can provide them those opportunities we're setting ourselves up for a much better society and I think hopefully less divisive society as well okay thank you Miss Spillman um do you have any questions or any other things that you would like to address it this time well I mean I don't think specifically I think that um you guys have a hard job and I think a lot of people it's easy to be an armchair critic and to sit back and criticize but I guess I would

032ask then you know what is it that you're most proud of because a lot of people sit and criticize uh and and want to point out things that you know you may not be doing but I think that there's a lot of things that are done really really well and I'd just like to know what you know you're most proud of from serving on the board foreigners let's jump in first I don't know if there's a single thing but my back goes in public health so I've even been like was advocating for more mental health support in our school so I'm personally very uh pleased with that um I think I am I am proud of our strategic plan that doesn't mean we've accomplished what those goals are of course but I think we more

033explicit we worked with a consultant and we were told that no other School Division that they had worked with across the country had you know a central premise of anti-racism as I said we have a ways to go and we can con use the input along the way but I think that was important I think it was important basically where I'm going with this is I am pleased that we've been trying to make our schools a welcoming place for all of our students with our anti-racism policy our transgender policy with our mental health support I think those are all necessary for children to thrive I mean it's not sufficient I know we have a lot of work to do but I think we've taken on those supports that a lot of school divisions haven't been

034able to thank you yeah I would uh I would say that having a child in the lgbtq community that could walk in on the first day of sixth grade in a dress and makeup and feel confident and loved and you know I my husband and I were sitting in the car just saying please please let them be kind and he came home and he said it was the best day and people complimented me on my makeup and my dress that's not nothing that means something to those kids and it means something to our family so I would agree with you on that wholeheartedly I agree with Dr Acuff that probably the transgender policy and the anti-racism policy are two of the things that I'm most proud of that the board has um tackled or worked

035with big things to tackle yeah or do you have any other questions or any other comments I don't think so any other questions for me I can ask a follow-up question I think we've got just a couple minutes yeah um I understand that you took over a struggling business I did yes and that five or six years later it was no longer in that situation correct can you tell us some of the lessons that you learned in that that you might be able to bring to the board whether it's in budgeting or other areas yeah and I'll be quick because I know I don't have a ton of time um yeah so I took over uh family business um which was a medical billing company it was my parents business they were looking to retire

036and it had been struggling for a long time and it was large we had 150 employees in several offices at the time but there were a lot of just inefficiencies operational inefficiencies in the business and so um jumped in and and tried to look at where we could cut costs and improve efficiency and really looked at all the different processes involved and what were necessary what weren't and so over a couple of years we were able to turn the business around and I was able to sell it in 2015 for a profit and that allowed me to be able to take the time to focus on the adoption of our kids which was by itself a full-time job but yeah I think I learned that um one running a business that you know that's good

037practice for running a family I say all the time I'm the CEO of my family now but also I learned a lot about working with people with that many employees I learned a lot about you know listening first and uh you can't solve anything unless you listen to all the sides you understand the root of the problems and why people feel the same feel a certain way or why things are happening a certain way and not just come in and you know make a quick decision Without Really learning about what and why things are happening and I think that was the biggest lesson that I took away from that amazing experience was that the power of listening thank you yeah thank you thank you so much and again thank you so much for applying this

038bill so I thank you already know our schedule um on December the 15th we'll have a public hearing okay and after that hearing the person who has been uh selected to fulfill the position will be announced great is there anything else that you need from me and the time being not that I can think of but if so we'll contact you sounds great well thank you so much for your time and for your questions I really appreciate it okay good luck thank you thank you so much thank you okay what is there a time because it just we're not marking when they begin it since we're going early I'm like I don't know I know right right they basically looking sorry can we clarify we don't do this that often so can we clarify our

039our thing on follow-up questions are we asking people about what's on their resume or are we sticking to the I I don't care either way but I want us to be consistent I don't think we should add it right Donna that I would add that on to it I'm happy to to you know not do that I just want to make sure that we are consistent with all the applicants for the timing if we can Mark when they start because I didn't mark when she started so I didn't know when we were hitting yeah she took 17 minutes so we're ripping right through it all right so we are at least almost 20 minutes ahead of our schedule right now I have one since we have a little second I have one question should we

040let them know send in well they're going to know now if they're listening letters of recommendation because we have gotten those for some candidates and not others and if we're going to use those I think it's worthwhile to put it out there that letters and recommendations are coming in for some candidates okay I was sort of assuming that maybe somebody yeah another they already knew since we had some so okay do we want to see if the next candidate is available let's start if the next candidate is ready okay yes we'll break after number five okay great [Music] foreign first thank you so much for applying for the position it really we really appreciate your commitment to your civic duty here in Albemarle County mm-hmm the first thing that we'll do will be to have

041our board members to introduce themselves beginning with Ms Osborne magisterial District good evening I'm Kate Acuff I'm from Jack Jewett District Judy Liam from ribana District Katrina Carlson Rio District John O L Carroll at large and I'm Graham Paige Samuel Miller District so to briefly describe then for you the format that we're going to be following since we had nine applicants we are restricting the time for the interview to about 20 minutes and first we'll start out with you giving us any type of introductory remarks that you would like to make to tell us anything about yourself then we'll be following that with four questions from our board and after those questions if you have any uh questions that you'd like to ask the board or any other statements that you'd like to make we

042can you can do that after that time so please give us in a few remarks introductory well hello first of all to everyone um so I am cat elves I am have spent about 20 last 20 years working in education in this part of the state I moved here to this area in 2000 um to go to UVA and after I graduated I went and taught in Louisa for a while then in Albemarle for a few years special ed Elementary School and so I have some kind of like on the ground experience working with teachers and students and families and all of that and then after I went back for my PhD I moved to well job wise to Longwood I still live in Crozet but this is my seventh year at Longwood working as

043an assistant professor of special education and I also serve as our graduate program director so I work with School divisions and pre-service and service teachers kind of all around Region 8 primarily and then also our grad students are around the state so I have a fairly good sense of kind of what's going on in education both locally and Statewide and I also have kids I have a third grader who was at Brownsville and is now at Crozet after the redistricting and then an up-and-coming kindergartner who will start in about a year and a half so both professionally and personally I'm very invested in what's going on in education everywhere really but in particular in this area okay thank you I have a follow-up on that one yeah do you plan on running um for the

044seat if you were to be appointed assuming people wanted me to yes I assuming like people supported that and wanted me to run yes I would be interested in that okay thank you good question all right our first question will be coming from Dr AKA tell us why you're interested in being on the school board you told us a little bit about your background but why on the school board why in this policy role and secondly how do you intend to represent the residents of the Whitehall District yeah so I think the reason that I'm interested in the school board in particular in policy in particular is I've gotten more involved in that as part of my professional role I've been doing some state level work with the new Virginia literacy law and some universities

045around the state and other stakeholders at vdoe and really have seen firsthand how giving feedback on legislation and policy and meeting with are delegate that you know represents us that Longwood has helped impact kind of what's coming out of vdoe um we we're doing some work like I said with this higher ed Consortium that I'm on um on the literacy act and so um each stage of my career I've kind of thought about what broader impact how can I bring my skills um to service more people and make a broader impact with my expertise um and so that is one reason that I'm interested in that and then in terms of serving my constituents I love spending time in schools and talking to students and families and stakeholders and so I would want to hear

046you know what the needs are from the community all the different stakeholders staff teachers you know everyone who's involved and try to best represent you know their needs and their interests uh just just from being a parent in all the parent groups I have a good sense of some of the things that are of concern these days but but you know a more formal way obviously of doing that thank you any follow-up questions or is there anything I did not clarify for that um no I was just very interested in your work with the literacy act because I've I've gone to a couple workshops on that and I haven't completely unpacked it myself so yes our current work is trying to figure out what is changing at higher ed because we currently only require a

047couple courses in literacy and we're trying to figure out if that is changing and if so I need to create several more classes because I um that's my specialty is reading and literacy and So within special ed that's kind of what I do thank you okay Ms Lee tell us something that excites you about our strategic plan learning for all and something that gives you pause for concern question um so I think that what excites me is why I do this which is meeting the needs of all of our students um and then I don't know if it concern concern is the right word but something I always have in the back of my head is schools have not historically um had equal opportunities for all of their students and you know there have been

048discrepancies in education forever I mean ever since school public schools started and so making sure what does that actually mean in practice how are we going to close some of the gaps um pre-existing and coveted related you know there are pre-existing gaps in achievement and academic skills that you know based on whether that's um disability status or race ethnicity that kind of thing and so just making sure we address pre-existing gaps as well as anything that has come up um due to just the lack of instruction with covid do I'm very excited I do believe we can meet the needs of all of our students like that's what I always tell my students is we are here to meet the needs of all of our students and what do we need to do to make

049that happen and that doesn't necessarily mean the exact same thing for everyone like how can we make this work so just kind of seeing that through thank you welcome and I apologize for my voice I've been teaching too much this week okay uh Ms Osborne so the board adopted an anti-racism policy in 2019 in what ways do you think we have been successful in implementing it and in what areas could you help us improve another great question y'all are good I think that number one I really appreciate the policy I know that you know if there were it was a long road getting there so I really do really appreciate that this policy is up and very clear I think that you know if you read through it it's really you know pretty um clear

050what it means and what you don't know you're going for um and so just like with a lot of policies making sure that it trickles all the way down to all of the people um who are affected by it and then getting I would say you know getting feedback too from folks in the schools about how it's going and how they see it um changes that they see that might need to be made but I I do really feel very happy that this policy was passed and I think it was like a really great effort on everyone's part that was involved in this and I would see kind of my role with everything is just kind of continuing to monitor so whatever it is whether it's policy whether it's achievement data is kind of monitoring

051well how is it going and then do we need to make adjustments and if so you know getting stakeholder feedback about what those might be thank you Mr lko Dr Alves it's nice to see you again what do you see in as the most important challenge facing public education in the next few years and how should it be addressed um teacher and Staffing shortages I I think is a big I mean it's historically always been issues that when cert within certain High needs areas special education I think in the 20 years I've done it has always been a critical need area um but just based on anecdotally but also kind of research and policy things that I've been reading making sure we attract and retain our our Workforce teachers bus drivers School staff you know

052all of that um I I personally just again anecdotally have never had so many school divisions call me desperate for teachers even now every week but getting calls and I think Al Merle is ahead of some of these other ones for sure but making sure we're we're recruiting and retaining people I think is going to be a big Challenge and also again it's for the best interests of our students if we have you know teachers who are invested in here and School staff and you know it's going to help our students bus drivers also my poor child has been on the second bus route all week because her bus driver's been out sick so I know all of those roles are important okay thank you um do you have any questions or any other things

053that maybe those questions didn't cover that you would like to let us know any questions that you would like to address to the board I'm well let me see excuse me I guess sorry it's been a long day um so let me get my thoughts in order for that um I think like I said just to kind of reiterate I'm really you know invested in improving educational outcomes and making sure we're meeting the needs of our students and as part of that you know our our staff and our teachers as well are an important component of that and um just I'm really thankful for you all for your service and your tough decisions that you're going to have to make in the next couple of weeks and so I guess I do have a question

054about kind of the timeline of all of this I know you all have interviews and then a couple meetings and comment sessions and then and then I'm not really sure if I know what oh um on December the 15th there will be like a public here and after that hearing we will announce the person who has been selected to fulfill that position that's what I thought I read but I just wanted to make sure I have that straight that's it I've kind of but I've watched you all work over the past few years so I have a little sense of some of the work in some of the meeting structure and that kind of thing and I very much appreciate the zoom options for the meetings so okay any other follow-up questions the zoom option

055is one of the benefits the benefit I think of covid well yes it's nice when you know my kids are running around and I'm trying to Corral them I can pop the meeting on my laptop and thought well for sure I think that's it unless like I said there's any other follow-ups or okay thank you again and for your application we really do appreciate it thanks good luck y'all thank you thank you for your time thank you let's see okay it's like five minutes and then we can bring in um this free she's here all right and we are moving at a much more rapid Pace than I expected so blistering pace this free upper free foreign [Music] we really appreciate your application and we appreciate the fact that you were able to be here

056a little bit ahead of schedule also we are running a little bit ahead thank you am I speaking into it yeah right you're doing good all right so first to um explain the format that we're going to be using we had a total of nine applicants that applied so each applicant will be given 20 minutes for the interview process we'll start that process out with you giving us any background information or any uh introductory remarks that you would like to give to the board members that would be followed by questions from four of our board members and then if you have any questions that you would like to uh the board to address you can do that after we finish with the questions for you but first our board introduction so beginning with Ms Osborne

057Hello I'm I'm an Osborne with the Scottsville magisterial District I'm Kate Acuff from the Jack Jewett District I'm Judy Lee from The ravana District I'm Katrina Carlson from the Rio District I'm John O L Carroll at large and I'm Graham Paige Samuel Miller District thank you so thank you so much again Dr freed for applying so please give us any remarks that you would like to use to introduce yourself or to make us more aware of you as as a person well I did send you a bio and I've read all of yours which are really exciting mine does not measure up I think everything I've seen in red you are doing a very fine job under very difficult circumstances as I've known all my life there's never enough money in public education so we

058have to figure out how to do better knowing there's never going to be enough and I am really impressed with your strategic plan and your efforts to really close the achievement gaps which won't happen in a week a month five years it's something we have to do continuously I did spend eight years on the board of visitors and while it's a lot bigger more students more faculty a medical center that's half the university and lots of money on Research when it comes to students it doesn't matter if they're in pre-K first year high school or first year college you're trying to give them the critical thinking the critical skills the education that will enable them to have real confidence and move on to the next phase whatever that is there was a period of time

059when we were told tell the children all the time how terrific they are that didn't work because the kids knew wait a minute I'm really not that terrific so you have to give them the basis so confidence makes sense so it means something to them I have a friend who says everything went South when we got rid of dodgeball but I don't know if you'll feel that way I don't but I I get his drift that there have to be sometimes consequences so I would be excited to work with you on what you are trying to do and what you are achieving all right as a follow-up you remarks mistreat oh Dr freed um I would you plan on running for the position if you all think I have been a help I would run

060okay okay thank you all right um our first question is from dracuff first of all thank you for being here um tell us why you are interested in being on the school board K-12 and how do you intend to represent the residents of the Whitehall District I I as I have said I have a passionate belief in the public school system my three children all went to public school I went to P.S 152 a while ago and it named if you give a school a number it saves a lot of grief because you never have to change the name but the schools what is our democracy about without the schools there is no democracy we have parents we have families we have our communities we have a religious organizations but it's really only the school

061system that can bring everyone together and help them work together thank you and specifically the second part was about Whitehall and I'm sorry the second part of my question was how do you you know oh how will you represent them how would your specific interest in Whitehall I would go into the community and talk to parents and other people and gauge their opinions when I was on the board of visitors I would talk to students teachers to get viewpoints that we don't always get thank you all right Ms Lee Dr Fried please tell us something that excites you about our strategic plan learning for all and then something that gives you pause for concern I am very sorry I could not sorry um tell us something that excites you for about our strategic plan learning

062for all and then something that gives you pause for concern I think the Strategic plan for empowering communities and getting resources a pretty equal resources are very worthy measures and they are exciting I think getting rid of racism is a lot harder than it looks [Music] um I know we talk about institutional racism structural racism but it's the day-to-day feelings of the students I think that we need to spend most on unless we can sit down together play together learn together and appreciate each other all of the programs I don't think will come to what we want them to come so that is something that has to be done with the teachers with the staff and in a conscious way of getting the children and some of them are older than children I recognize the

063fact that the students came up with the policy I think is terrific okay thank you Ms Osborne you've touched on this a little bit or you began to touch on this um but as you as you know the board adopted in anti-racism policy in 2019 in what ways do you think we have been successful in implementing it and in what areas could you help us improve I really don't know I mean I've seen the reports but I'm not sure from the metrics that I could give you an answer about how successful I think you've come up with policies and training so in that respect it's obviously been a success but can you measure one of the things was achievement gaps and I I don't see that that has yet happened nor could it given covet

064okay thank you uh Mr Al care doctor fried it's nice to see you again um what do you see as the most important challenge facing public education in the next few years and how should it be addressed 25 words or less I I think the most important challenge is we don't know no education will have to become the public education originally begun as a way to train people to go work in corporations the community college system in Virginia was specifically designed to train people to work in business what are we going to be training our students for in the future we have college tracks but we seem to have more and more especially young men who are not interested in college track what should we be teaching them how do we give them an education

065that is a lifelong learning process and I think with all the immediate problems of just how do we renovate 100 trailers or get rid of 100 trailers and renovate 50 year old high schools those are immediate problems but then you have to think of the future and none of us is going to be around 20 years from now I think we have to start thinking what is the school system going to look like then thank you so much for those answers Mr Dr free um do you have any questions or any other additional comments that you would like to address I don't think I know enough to talk more I'm curious as to what you are looking for in a board member what do you feel would be most helpful to you remember who would

066like to jump in on first broadly I mean uh we have a diverse set of skills and life experiences and I think adding to that mix is something that I'm looking for someone who is committed to public service because um as you know having been on the board of visitors there's always more time time than the advertised time it takes to to visit the schools and interact with you know a lot of committees someone who is a Problem Solver and a collegial member of our board I mean we differ on a lot of things but we have a commitment to a civil discourse and exchange and decision making so someone that can meet those qualities and another thing might be sometimes you might have to commit to going to other meetings or having other things

067outside of the two meetings that we know that we're going to have each month so visiting schools or doing some other uh activities in the community representing the school board would be something else that would be probably what we'll be looking for also I I understood that from Mr okaro and I assure you I have the time and the energy okay any other concerns that you have or any other statements that you would like to make sure I don't think so okay again thanks so much for your application thank you and uh thank you already aware of this but on December the 15th we'll have a public hearing and after that public hearing the person who has been selected to fill the position will be announced so that'll be on December the 15th so thanks

068again so much for coming and thank you I appreciate it thank you I thought he was true oh okay I don't know what I'm doing this is my first time all right the next candidate's not here it's not here okay yeah because we are good um 35 minutes should we take a break now yeah yeah I don't have the schedule in front of me but if there's a break we're probably even at the end of the break not gonna there's a breakaway after this yeah this person Mr Alderman and when is he supposed to start 5 45. yeah so we take a break now by the time we're done with break will be his start time that works then we take another break another break hopefully they show up early you're out there show up

069early all right so we're going to take a break until Mr Alderman arrives is there anyone out there no oh okay okay all right okay so consider ourselves adjourned for right now let's go let's hear a bunch of people there our next applicant is here so we are ready to continue [Music] [Applause] yes good evening hello Mr almond Alderman hello sir how are you I'm fine thank you so much for applying uh for the position um to briefly describe how we're going to conduct this session uh since we had nine applicants we allocated each applicant 20 minutes for the interview process so we'll start this off after we introduce the board members we'll start it off with um time for you to give us like some introductory remarks that you would like to make then

070we'll follow that up with four questions from the board members then if you have any questions or any more information that you would like to pass along you can do it then and then that'll be the format that we're going to be following for this so first with our board members hi I'm Ellen Osborne I'm from the Scottsville magisterial District Kate Acuff Jack Jewett District Judy Lee Rivanna District Katrina Colson Rio District General Caro at large and I'm Graham Pate Samuel Miller District so again Mr Alderman thank you so very very much for applying and if you have any any introductory remarks you'd like to make please do so at this time I wasn't expecting to be asked to make a speech I thought I'd be here to just answer questions um I'd just like

071to say that I am well aware of what a serious responsibility the school board is and um if given the opportunity to serve all these sort of the best of my ability okay thank you our first question will be coming from Dr Acuff good evening Mr Alderman as chair page has said we are asking each of our interviewees our candidates four different questions um tell us why you're interested in being on the school board and how do you intend to represent the residents of your of the Whitehall District I have uh one son who's already in the school system he started out in Virtual kindergarten last year and is now a first grader at Crozet Elementary I have another son who'll be joining him as a kindergartner next year so how education goes in the

072county matters a lot to me I've become aware that school boards across the country are facing unprecedented outside pressure to make decisions based on politics rather than common sense and policy and I'm aware that this is very much not a political position it is an emphatically non-partisan one and I want I wanted to at least make sure that there was I didn't know who would apply for the job when it came open I wanted to make sure that there was at least one candidate I hope there would be more and I'm glad to say that there are who cared about making decisions based on evidence based on facts and based on what was best for the kids rather than on some outside philosophy or political band and and the second part of the question thank

073you for that but the second part of the question was how do you plan to represent your constituents in the Whitehall District um I've been doing a lot of reading about what makes a good school board member and while it's important certainly for me to listen to all the residents in the white hole School District I would feel wrong if I came to the board trying to advocate for any particular supporter or group of supporters I would want to make decisions that would benefit every student in the district including those in Whitehall thank you for that thank you Mr alderman Judy Lee um member will ask the next next question about our strategic teaching learning for all pause for concern um well what excites me is I've seen that the schools are exploring um Community

074Schools as a way to close achievement gaps which is a topic that I've become interested in since reading about it as something that didn't quite make it through the legislature a few years back I like the idea of enabling schools to become community hubs we're struggling students and their families can get resources they can not only help their families and create better conditions at home but can provide direct assistance for you know improving children's Scholastic activities I've seen one case study where a school in New Mexico did homework diners where they gathered together teachers had volunteers cook meals and invited kids and their parents to come have a nice home-cooked meal and work on their homework together apparently that significantly improved achievement gaps in the county and in the school system I know this this

075County and this district is wrestling with those achievement gaps themselves so that really excited me um what gave me pause and I completely understand why it happened but I was I was dismayed to hear that Virginia hasn't given you guys enough of a sound financial basis to enable collective bargaining among employees I was really happy to see that you have taken the initiative on your own to uh to increase salaries for staff members and teachers my mom was a public school teacher for 20 years so I know how hard everyone in a school works um and I would love to see the board if I got on assuming it was legal assuming it was compliant with labor laws explore possibilities to maybe uh enable collective bargaining for things other than salaries things that are within

076our control if only as a show of good faith to uh to the many hard-working employees in the district thank you okay Mr Alderman a sort of a follow-up question based on what you just said um would you be interested in running for the position in November 2023 um provided that I find that I can do the job as well as it deserves to be done then yes sir I would okay all right thank you all right our next question will be asked by Mrs Osborne so the board adopt adopt a racism policy in 20 full and implementing it and in what areas could you help us improve well I very much like that the the policy came from the students and was not imposed from from the board down I think that gives the

077policy a lot more legitimacy I'm excited to see that from from looking at the statistics in the school district it's become so widely embraced among teachers staff members and among you here on the board I think that's an excellent sign um clearly based on the achievement gaps um I'm certainly not suggesting that's the result of any active discrimination or harmful behavior on the path behalf of the school district but judging by the the racial disparities in the achievement gaps that we're seeing it's clear that you know we have more work to do as a as a county and as a school district to try and take the good ideals that are in the anti-racism policy and translate them into positive results that close those achievement gaps okay thank you Mr alderman our next question John

078O L Caro Mr Alderman it's nice to see you again likewise sir what do you see as the most important challenge facing public education in the next few years and how should it be addressed um well I see two challenges One external and one internal the external one would be as I mentioned mentioned the pressure to force politics onto school boards where it really doesn't belong I think that's I've seen and read articles about how in school districts in red States and blue States alike it has led to driving only qualified teachers worsening results for students so I think that's going to be a real challenge for public education and I'm here tonight to try to be part of the solution to that um the internal challenge I think is something I've seen with my

079own kids the pandemic has taken a chunk out of a lot of kids childhoods and I think that is uh in part to blame for the achievement gaps and some of the other issues that I've seen the school district wrestling with over the past few years it's thrown everything out of kilter of my own son isn't as caught up as I would like I hoped it would be despite having a wonderful experience in Virtual kindergarten I can just see it's unavoidable that these strains and these stresses are going to show themselves in the system and are going to lead to kids coming from a place where they're possibly less able to learn because of environmental factors because of the trauma that we've all lived through these past few years and I think the best way

080we can deal with that is just to look at the data to listen to people and to try to make careful thoughtful decisions that are best for for our students I I'm I realize that's vague and generic that's just because I don't have solid facts and details at hand and I don't want to commit to some strategy without knowing firsthand that that it's effective but I think taking the time to make thoughtful and careful decisions and being willing to course correct when you see that they're not working despite your best intentions is probably what's going to get us through this plus just I think time and healing uh and a chance for kids to get their lives back to something resembling normal thank you so much um that ends out questions uh do you have

081any other comments that you would like to make that may not have been coveted doing the questions or any questions that you might have for the board members foreign I will say no thank you very much okay thank you right I didn't want to put you under any pressure with that okay so thanks again Mr alderman for um your application we really appreciate it and I think you already know um the schedule that we'll be following um on December the 15th there will be a public hearing and after that hearing then the person who has been selected to fill deceitful um Whitehall district will be announced so once again thank you so very very much for your application thank you very much Mr Page Mr alcaro Ms Carlson Miss Lee Dr akuff Miss Osborne thank

082you thank you thank you all right so we'll take um a break lunch dinner has been provided over in room 2 35. foreign okay because if we call our session back into quebecue decision rather um the mic's on oh I'm sorry they are the mic Zone yeah yeah all right um now Nick's candidate is Dr Rebecca Berlin and Dr Berlin is going to appear via Zoom so um yeah Dr Berlin can you hear us thank you so very very much for being able to join us about Zoom yes thank you for understanding that I couldn't be in in the county today I apologize and I'm seeing how large my face is on this big screen all right stop stage screen and television right yeah like four all right so um we really do thank you

083for applying for the position and for sort of accepting a civic duty backline um so to sort of uh introduce you to let you know what type of format we're going to be following first we'll allow some time for you to give us like a brief introductory statement or tell us anything that you would like us to know about you then we'll have [Music] um four of our board members to ask some questions related to uh policies and other things that would be related to the school board then we'll allow you to have any type of questions that you would like to ask the board or any other information that you'd like to pass along but um first to introduce our board members to you I'm not I don't think you'll be able to see

084anybody out on faith but beginning with Ms Osborne I'm Ellen Osborne Scottsville District Jewett District Judy lee rymana district Katrina Carlson Rio District John O L Caro at large and I'm Graham Paige Samuel Miller District so again thank you so very very much Dr Berlin for applying and um please give us in some introductory material or any statements that you'd like to make this meeting it's an honor to to to to think about this opportunity and to have you um and the and the public consider me um so I am the I am first the mother of two children um a son who is a graduate of Broadus wood um journey in Albert High School who is a sophomore at Georgetown University um and I am the mother of a daughter who is a junior

085at albemar high school and we have had a wonderful experience um at the schools um my background is as a special education teacher as a teacher of children with autism as an inclusion teacher and as a researcher and as a agent faculty member providing both research at UVA on teacher child interactions as well as a teacher preparation faculty member um and I have worked at a number of national organizations which has allowed me to work with communities and States all across the country um but the one thing I think that has been the hardest to me in that career while it's been wonderful and rewarding is that it has been taken me away from Charlottesville and Albemarle County so much and that I haven't been able to directly support my children's schools in my children's

086school system and due to a change in my job I'll be spending much more time in Charlottesville and I'm excited to have the opportunity to support our community right now there is such a need with the opportunity Gap with the the need for for mental health support um as a as a former teacher I understand both the Staffing shortage as well as the wellness and mental health needs of our teachers and then lastly just being a resident of the county for over 20 years I've seen the growth that has happened and in Earlysville as well as in the western part in Crozet um and can know that there will be continued growth for the next 30 Years and want to make sure that we are ready um as a school system to to take on

087that growth and to support all students um so thank you okay thank you so much Miss Berlin all right our first question is coming to us from Dr Acuff good evening Rebecca um nice to see you um as as Mr Page has said we're asking each of our candidates four questions or for clusters of questions tell us why you're interested in being on the school board and second how do you intend to represent the residents of Whitehall absolutely um I am most interested in being on the school board because I think um as I know everyone has probably said today that the pandemic has taught her so much um but as I spent time looking through and have kind of followed the data for the school system um over the last five to ten years

088I know that there have been um uh differences in scores Sol scores and achievement scores across all of our children but particularly our black children are Hispanic children and are economically disadvantaged children and because of my background I'm always closely watching the children's with um in special education that those differences were there before the pandemic and those differences are even worse after the pandemic um and as I was looking at the Sol scores for um the county this fall um around the time I was thinking about making a change in my career that would give me more time in Charlottesville I remember looking at the scores that were really showing that um you know in math and reading in science that we had children um in the bottom 10 of the state with scores that

089were between 10 and 25 percent passing and as I think about the fact that we are a community with you know average student expenses above the state average in a University Town um that made me pause that made me pause as a mom that made me pause as a um as a taxpayer and and maybe Clause as a teacher made me pause as a researcher and is maybe positive as a community member and I felt like this was the time um that um that my background could be used to help and to support the difficult conversations um that are in front of the school board and to be a time to support um Dr Haas in the 2700 staff members of the county so that's really why at this point I put my name in

090um thank you the second part of the question was do you have any specific ideas about how you're going to represent your White Hall District absolutely um I mean first of all as I think about the Whitehall District um one of the things I think about is the growth that district has provided and the continued growth that will happen there's been so much work that has been done um uh as we look at the Crozet Elementary in Brownsville Elementary and the work that has done been done to you to to move some of those children to do the build out to support that continued growth but I want to make sure that that is not just a solution for today but that we are always looking ahead and thinking about what the needs are for

091that growth in that area as well as in in Earlysville and to make sure that those schools are are ready for those kids and those schools are ready to meet the needs of all the kids um and then as I think in other schools particularly as I think about Broadus Woods which is one of the smaller schools in the county making sure that all schools have the resources that are needed you know is we're seeing the demographics change in all of our schools we're seeing more students whose family speak languages other than English I think you know the latest count is that there's 73 languages spoken in the county and making sure that all families no matter what language they speak are able to fully participate in those School communities and sometimes some of the

092schools um like brought us wood don't have the resources that they need because of their small size and then also as we look at the this reading scores particularly of the elementary schools in the white house district making sure that all students have the academic intervention that they need to do to make not just passing rates but to continue to grow in Reading because we all know that research shows that reading is so predictive of achievement later on so as I think about what is needed again I think about making sure we're being proactive about the growth in that that Western that northern part of account County making sure that we have that academic interventions that we need and then lastly the the teachers and the staff in the White Hall districts are no different

093than the teachers across the entire County um in the last three years have been extremely stressful on staff as I talk to teachers across the county um that stress is Weighing on them the behavior needs that the kids are waiting on them the mental health needs of the of the kids are waiting on them um and you know we have seen turnover at teachers over 20 percent um and as a teacher preparation person I know with the pipeline of future Educators looks like and unfortunately it's not great um and so it's another things that I would would love to bring is to figure out how do we um you know increase the program that's already started in the county about grow your own um and teachers to make sure we really have the the faculty

094and the staff that's needed to support um the growth that we're seeing and the needs of our kids thank you Rebecca thank you so much all right our next question is from Miss Lee Rebecca tell us something that excites you about our strategic plan learning for all and something that gives you pause for concern absolutely so um as someone who looks at strategic plans and and helps communities and counties write them um I have to say I was I beyond impressed and so excited thinking about thriving students thinking about affirming and empowering communities and thinking about Equitable transformative resources I love the fact that um that that the county and the school board chose to focus on those those three things and I love the word thriving as someone who does a lot of thinking

095about kids how do we use language that is positive and the the facts that thrive like we don't want kids just to be successful we don't want kids just to pass sols we want kids to thrive we want them to thrive socially we want them to to thrive academically and we want to make them be lifelong Learners and so the fact that that active sense comes out so strong in the Strategic plan um is what excites me I think what gives me me pause is as I look at those goals that the county has set for itself those are high goals right those are goals that we each of our children deserve each of our grandchildren Deserve Each of our friends children deserve and the community at large deserves however where we are compared to

096where we need to go gives me pause um and and that is what I mean that's what brought me to to put my name in and to think about how are we going to make those are those are amazing goals and I want to live in a community I want my kids to live in my community that has those goals and I want to figure out how to do it but I know as we look at the budget for next year that's going to be tough we need to continue to increase compensation for teachers we need to figure out how to make sure we can continue academic interventionists and we need to figure out how we can continue to to the with the mental health support and the school counselors and stay up with infrastructure

097needs and so that's I think that's what everyone say scares me but that's that's the challenge or the pause that I feel is figuring out how do you how do you make those goals a reality um in the budget that we live and then how can I as a part of the school board be supportive of both the work that we do as a county but all also work with it would be an honor to work with the state to continue to figure out how to um to legislate and to to advocate for increased funding for the schools particularly for those needs great thank you very much thank you our next question is uh will be delivered by Ms Osborne so the board adopted an anti-racism policy in 2019 and what ways do you think

098we have been successful in implementing it and in what areas could you help us improve absolutely um I have been um Amazed by both the anti-racist policy um I love the fact that it was student driven and student supported um the fact that the teachers that there's a hundred percent training of the teachers and that there's that the there's continued professional development for the teachers on this um I think is an example for the for the state as well as an example for the country um I think the biggest challenge is is you know when there is something new right it and we we that is our number one Focus it's our number one Focus but as we continue to add these additional focus focus of how are we going to make sure we're making

099the academic needs how are we going to make sure we're balancing our budget we need to make sure that that policy continues and continues to stay at the Forefront of everyone's mind that it wasn't just a we did it and we're done how do we make sure it continues to be a priority for everyone for all new staff for all new families and for all the children because that's what I would sometimes fear is is we kind of we did it and and now we can move on to the next thing but this is something that isn't the next thing this is something that we need to focus on um to make sure um we know that we don't go back um and that we continue to go forward and that it's something that that

100everyone lives by every day thank you all right our next question is from Miss Dale KR hi Rebecca it's good to see you again if only virtually um what do you see as the most important challenge facing Public public education in the next few years and how should it be addressed yeah thank you um I am I'm going to go back to that to the achievement and opportunity Gap um it is an amazing challenge that we're going to face we're going to face it every school district across Virginia is going to face it every school district across the country is going to face it um I think one of the things I always think about is the these are not challenges that are because of the pandemic these are challenges that existed before the pandemic

101and the pandemics shed a light on them they shed a light on the Mental Health crisis that is across our children particularly our children um from 12 to 23. um they shun a light on the differences in academic achievement and they really set a light on the teacher shortages like we were seeing this this the teacher shortage we are seeing turnover rates beginning before the pandemic uh but we definitely are seeing them as a result um and so I know you asked me for one so those are the three but I would say if I would have to pick one it really would be this opportunity um uh and an academic achievement Gap it is something that is not going to be I mean I think this is the hard thing for all the public

102to understand is that this is something that we're not going to fix overnight like we are not going to see the scores go up in a year or two years this is going to take concentrated effort it is going to take every single staff member every single parent every single Community member to understand this challenge to understand the cost that this is going to take this is not a one-time budget but this is something that we are going to have to figure out to make sure we have enough money to support both the academic needs as well as the mental health needs because these kids are we're not going to make the academic benchmarks that we want for all of our children unless we can make sure that all children feel safe and secure and

103that their mental health needs are met thank you thank you so much uh Rebecca uh are there is there anything else that you would like to tell the board or do you have any questions that you would like to um ask of us it's time okay it's been on if there's any other questions that I can answer in the future I'd be happy to okay thank you so very very much again for applying and also appearing uh virtually so thanks so very much thank you thank you for allowing me to appear virtually okay thank you have a good afternoon me too thank you next candidate [Applause] foreign [Music] thank you good evening Dr McDermott in here okay good evening board can everyone hear my mic okay yeah yep thank you thank you all right so

104we really thank you so much for applying for this position for the Whitehall uh seat on the school board um since we had nine applicants for their position we are limiting our interview to 20 minutes for each applicant and we are going to first allow you to give us maybe a brief introductory statement if you would like to do that then we'll introduce the board members and we have four board members who will ask you some questions there might be some follow-up questions based on those four and then after that if you have any questions or any other comments that you would like to make to the board we'll allow time for that too so again thank you so very very much for applying for the position so please um tell us anything that you'd

105like to for us to know introductory wise all right thank you again for the invitation and for the opportunity to have spoken with a few people prior to this meeting the reason I'm interested in this is because I think that I would bring some new and different perspectives to the board um as a scientist I'm able to evaluate data and look at different perspectives look at different lines of evidence to help inform decisions um as a former Professor I'm able to uh see what sort of things are important to students as they're going forth in their careers and in their college readiness to understand what sort of skills and attributes really help them at their next stage um as someone with their Virginia teaching credentials in a career in technical education endorsement I'm also able

106to understand you know what sort of things are going on at the secondary school level that are important for students um you know I think that public education is important I think it's a way that a lot of our children in our society have a way to get to better places in life and so I think that the combination of the skills that I could bring to the board to help inform the decisions that the superintendent needs to take at his stage would be really valuable um I don't know how long my statement can be but perhaps if I pass it back and then if there's additional questions all right thank you all right board members will now introduce themselves and then we'll start with the questions and I am with the Jack Jewett District

107I'm Judy Lee the ravana district Katrina Carlson Rio District jono alcaro at large and Grampy Samuel Mulla District so our first question will be coming from Dr Acuff well I think you've somewhat answered this first question but you can expand upon it tell us why you're interested on being on the school board and the second part how do you intend to represent the residents of the Whitehall District right so perhaps I've answered a bit of the first part the way that I think that the way I Envision my representation on the board it's almost like like a pyramid sitting here is at the Pinnacle and probably the least amount of time being spent here in this chair I think a lot of the time would be spent at the foundational level understanding what is going

108on in the community understanding what is going on in the school and um you know I'm experienced in field research where you go out and you actually observe where you go out and you actually try to understand what is going on in first person rather than just relying on the opinions and perspectives of others and so I do Envision being and spending time in the community spending time asking people what their perspectives are you know I think that Community engagement is very important and there's you know you have different committees set up for that but I think that there's also value in a board member being accessible themselves to the to the school because you get different perspectives and unfiltered perspectives and I think that that's important in shaping our opinions so I almost think

109that that level and learning um you know there's a lot of documents that the board has there's a lot of documents that the division has you know all of the policies understanding and learning all of that comes before actually sitting in this seat and I think that all of those things are important to be able to shape the opinion that we come up with our perspectives to be able to have an informed discussion and I think that that really is what is important to be able to provide the board the you know perspectives and tools to be able to make good policy decisions and policy that's implementable and will be successful because in essence we're trying to make the superintendent's job easier we're trying to create the budgetary conditions to be able to make that

110job you know be able to go forward be able to make the policy decisions around employees around students instructions etc for that system to actually function well thank you for your answers thank you all right uh Miss Lee Judy Lee will be next tell us something and something that gives you pause for concern so I think that um first I'll maybe start with the second part of that so the pause for a concern I think that it's very clear to the board to the division and to the community that the academic achievement is not at a level where we want it to be where we would expect it to be and where we would strive for it to be and I know that the the board and the division and everyone is working hard very

111hard to to have a better outcome but it really isn't so that gives me pause for concern there are strategies that are being implemented now and in place now that perhaps we will see things being changing in the future over the next couple of years sometimes these strategies you implement and you don't see the results right away so um but I think that that really needs to have a very careful look and again you know I think that perhaps I could bring some New Perspectives to that having that ability to think both as someone with teaching credentials but also as someone having worked in as a professor you see that kind of different outcomes and different perspectives to bring that in so so that's I guess the thing that I would have a cause for

112concern things that I'm excited about um within the Strategic plan I think that there's a lot of things that are really exciting I guess one of the strategies that I really and I talked to Mr alcaro about this is those career Learning Centers I think that those are very exciting um they're not yet implemented but I mean all the plans are going into place the reason why I think those are exciting is because they're addressing needs interests of students at all stages of and with all things like kids that are want to go into more practical immediate careers but also kids that are looking at going into you know a four-year College a two-year College all of all of these things are open I also like them because they translate a very real pragmatic they

113can see it immediately where this is relevant to their lives um you know that maybe fit students and allow them to be more interested in school allow them to be more excited at school um I guess those are the two main things thank you all right next Miss Osborne the board adopted and anti-racism policy in 2019 and what ways do you think we have been successful in implementing it and in what areas could you help us improve I think that the ways that you've been successful is that you're striving to have almost 100 like to have a hundred percent of your staff uh having gone through their training program for that and received the micro credentials or the um Fuller certification in that um and that's you know the teaching staff but it's also board

114members it's it's really looking at disseminating that whole approach to culturally responsive teaching and um you know all of the anti-racial racism policies that you've got in place um so I think that that it's kind of like it's embedded in the perspective of everyone it's now something that is going to be a theme across everything um that that the school does I guess and that students see um so I think that that's you know very successful I think one thing that maybe could be seen as needing further work is first of all continually getting perspectives of communities because sometimes these policies change what we learn is effective can change and so it's continually getting the pulse it's not thinking well we have a policy now this is perfect we're done it's looking at what needs

115to be modified what is working what is not working what additional perspectives does the community have on this are the perspectives of the community changing so you have all of these moving Parts it's not a static kind of we got this and now we're done um so I guess I guess that would just caution that we need to be careful on that thank you that's delicare Dr McDermott it's good to see you again what do you see as the most important challenge facing public education in the next few years and how should it be addressed yeah again so if you're looking at public education across the whole U.S I mean I think that that is always going to be perhaps a broader question and and really what I'm thinking more about what is public aid

116what is the biggest issues in our community because that's where as a school board member you're going to have the most I guess Merit or ability to make change um I think that one of the issues that it's maybe not necessarily a new issue but it's an ongoing issue is how do we have kids continue to be interested in school one of the you know most disappointing and shocking sort of realizations I had during my teaching training is that the older kids get the less interested or the less fun they have in school this was the Gallup poll that has done Nationwide and to me that was really disheartening really disheartening because kids don't have a choice whether they go to school or not they have to go to school they're there by law and

117to be going to a place five days a week that you did not have any sort of fun or you know it was diminishing as you went on I think that's a problem and again that's why it ties back to that excitement in the career learning clusters that if there is something that can start addressing that perspective so that they are interested in schools so that they want to go to school so that they see the value in school um you know I think that that's something again that could help uh address that sort of perspective that that some students have thank you Dr McDermott um is there anything else that you would like to um tell the board or do you have any questions that you would like to ask of the board I

118guess I've been thinking about you know some of the issues that I think are on the horizon over the next year um you know what are some of the issues I've listened to you know over the last year the public comments started to hear you know what are some of the themes that are coming through um you know the the budget has gone up this last year for the board but there may not be that sustained high level of budget um you know I think the board is grappling with things from Capital Improvement to trying to maintain the the support for students with mental health issues that seem to be increasing um so I guess I mean the questions are what perhaps does the board see is going to be the most significant headwinds going

119forward over the course of the next year okay board members I mean I think I think following the implementation of our strategic plan to make sure that we are directing the resources and the expertise to where it needs to go to close that achievement Gap but the other issue that my colleague jono and I have been very focused on is the capital needs as well is that learning environments actually make a difference it's that yes yes we need uh to support our staff our teachers support the mental health but we also need to invest in our learning environments and I I agree with that every aspect of the school experience is important whether it's teachers whether it's staff whether it's Administration whether it's coaches and um and and parents but it's important to have a

120good safe environment physical environment and we have some old buildings that are in need of renovation and there are new buildings that are needed yeah and so I think that's going to be one of the biggest challenges we're going to we're going to face yep and I mean I think also you know when you're looking at those buildings I mean Albemarle County is a huge geographic area and a lot of these kids are on buses for an awfully long time it adds a lot of time to their day and you know then that has an impact on how much homework there they can do how much extracurriculars they have whether they can take a job all of these other aspects and so when thinking about Capital Improvements um you know I hope that we're also

121considering how these relate to the transportation issue that's ongoing how do we you know try to make it so that it's Equitable amongst the urban and the rural communities in terms of the amount of time that they're having to spend on these bus routes um you know I think that you know you you said in the past that Albemarle County is one of is the sixth largest District by geographic area but a lot of those larger Geographic areas maybe have more density of schools in them um you know I don't know so if kids are riding the bus longer here that that's something that ties into that as well okay thank you so very much Dr McDermott thank you okay and uh thank you already are familiar with um the timetable that we'll be following

122on December the 15th we'll have a public hearing and after that public hearing we'll announce the person who will be um sort of uh decided on it to accept the seat so again we thank you so very very much for your application I'm sorry I just are you thinking of running for election next year yes okay okay thank you thank you thank you it's 55 almost [Music] we're still early five minutes I'm still five minutes ahead yeah right and we have just about completely on time the schedules questions yes thank you [Music] good evening Miss almonds almonds okay all right thank you all right we really thank you for applying for uh the vacant seat for the Whitehall District um since we had nine applicants we are allocating each interview to last 20 minutes so

123we'll start out by allowing you to give us like some introductory remarks anything that you would like for us to know about you that will be followed by the introduction of our school board members and then we'll have four of the members to ask you questions that's related to accepting the seed and then finally if you have at the end of those questions if you have any other information that you would like to pass along or any questions that you have of the board we'll have time after that for those things okay so please give us first like a brief introductory statement so I'm Jessica Ammons and I live in the White Hall District of course and I've been in Crozet for about 13 years I've applied for this open seat basically because of the

124timing I just feel like I'm in a season of my life right now where I have some time to commit to other um Endeavors and I also feel like I have a voice that could possibly help and um I would I would really like to just be a part of something maybe it's this board maybe it's something else but this is sort of my first attempt at you know being a part of something bigger than just you know what I have been a part of which is mainly family and my and my job um I'm a little nervous but after having a coffee with jono he guaranteed that you guys were very nice and friendly so it kind of um you know it feels good so far and I'm looking forward to answering any questions

125that you might have yeah we want you to feel completely relaxed Among Us so now we'll I have the board members to introduce themselves hi I'm Ellen Osborne from the Scottsville District I'm very nice Kate from Jack to Heart District Midland Judy Lee from Rivanna I have no joke just Katrina Clawson from Rio District John O L Caro at large and Graham page Samuel Miller so again we want you to feel completely relaxed doing this whole process okay okay all right our first question is coming from Dr Acuff yes Jessica you've started to answer it I think but the first question is tell us why you're interested in being on the school board and the second part of that is how do you intend to represent the residents of the Whitehall District um so I

126do feel like my values are in line with the school board's values um and so that's that's a pretty easy transition uh as it relates to having the same end goal in mind I also feel like given the special gift or skills that I have to sort of be um cognizant of all different aspects and all different positions and all different people and all different opinions I really do feel like genuinely I can be a voice that sort of speaks for the good of of all people and so I feel like that value is definitely in line with um what the the school board is trying to do and their strategic plan um and I again I just feel like the timing is right for me to consider other things than what I have been

127focused on just in general and this this could be it and it um it may not be it but if so then I feel like things happen for a reason and this opportunity presented itself for a reason and so I'm um definitely a rookie I I don't claim to have any um experience in public service but I do generally uh genuinely care about people and their well-being everyone included do you have any specific ideas about interacting with the constituents in the Whitehall district oh um yeah so I've I've participated in some of the zoom board meetings and I've heard interesting comments from all different sides and it's um you know it's clear that there is a I think a a divide in the Whitehall District right now and so I would be remiss if I

128didn't acknowledge that at least but also I feel like um there has to be some middle ground and and there has to be you know the person that fills this seat would have to be open to uh the values of of everyone in that District instead of um you know having one's own agenda or making that their priority and I do feel like um again I'm just I'm gifted in that sense where I can um sort of remove myself from what is most important for a set or a group of people and consider you know what's best for the greater good of of the community thank you okay thank you all right Miss Lee Jessica tell us something that excites you about our strategic plan learning for all and something that gives you pause for

129concern so learning for all is uh it's it's a great slogan and I think that being in the public schools you have to consider everyone um and their needs and so I I do get excited when I hear about um specific things like um I guess I get excited when I hear about learning with a high level of expectations and responsibility I think that that is why we're sending our kids to school it's to get a an education and I think that um creating a a relevant and um all-inclusive environment to where students are actually curious to learn and want to learn and are also held accountable is is definitely important and maybe in my opinion not necessarily in the Forefront from what I have seen so I would I would definitely like to see

130higher expectations and being held accountable all the students um and specifically you know I think that having the opportunity to retake tests and turn things in um at a later date uh past the due date I think those are the types of things that at least what I've seen in my household those are the things that are not serving our students um not not serving our students well at this point thank you okay thank you all right Miss Osborne the board adopted an anti-racism policy in 2019 and what ways do you think we have been successful in implementing that and in what areas do you think we could improve yeah I remember that when that was implemented and I think it's great I think I'm sure that it was a long time coming and I'm

131sure it didn't happen overnight as things can't happen automatically you know it's it's a process and you can't just flip a switch and expect everyone to um to be on board with with new policies but that was um to me that was a long time coming I feel like you know in looking at the slides from uh the overview the El Moro County Public School overview and the demographics you know 80 UH 60 are white seven percent are multi-racial 16 percent are Hispanic or Latino 11 or black or African-American and five percent are Asian I mean I think the demographics are important but I also think that diversity comes from within each of those groups each of those demographic groups in itself and so the the anti-racist policy that was put forth in 2019 was

132100 necessary and I think that by and large I would say most of our community would agree with that um it's important to include everyone but I also think that you know if you look at the 60 um white demographic there's also diversity in that as well and so um I think all of all of the policy that particular policy is just one step closer to Bringing awareness around people or groups that need um that need to be noticed or that have not been um that have not felt included in the past yep and was our second part to that question um in in what areas could you help us improve on implementing the anti-racism policy uh well I don't know that there I don't I see Improvement happening at home I see Improvement happening

133um organically I think by and large it happens at home and so I think that transferring or bringing it to school is also very important but I do think that the family unit is really the um the driving Factor there thank you Miss Simmons and now um jono Ms Dale Caro hi Miss Simmons good to see you again you as well thank you foreign what do you see is the most important challenge facing public education over the next few years and how should it be addressed um I think probably the biggest challenge is going to be finding a a formula that fits every student I think that because we are so diverse whether it be demographically or socioeconomically I think that there is no one uh Magic Bullet to uh apply to everyone I think

134it's gonna in my opinion I think it's gonna require a lot of specialized um focus on uh pointing out and picking out individual qualities and sort of shuffling or guiding students on a path that is is best suited for them and so I think that seems like a a task that could take forever honestly because we're always changing and we're always welcoming new people into the community and so I think that a more unless General umbrella of curriculum is is [Applause] going to be the biggest challenge but also excuse me the the biggest challenge will be finding that um that path to more specialized education and uh tailoring it to each individual's you know needs or special requirements or socio economic situations I think that's a huge Challenge and I just don't think that um

135I don't think that there's one great umbrella that we can all um that we can all accept as being the right the right way because each student is different and it's um in its basic needs and what was the second part of that uh and how should it be addressed yeah so that that would be tricky I mean that would be a huge undertaking but I think it's going to require a lot more um uh mental professionals mental health professionals in our schools I think it's gonna I think it's gonna put even more pressure on the teachers to sort of recognize when we're um when we're in need of a different direction for a certain student that needs special attention or for those you know gifted students those would those folks might have a different

136path and so I think that um just identifying each each of those groups for what their specific needs are is um is going to be a challenge but it's just going to take more people it's going to take more professionals more you know trained professionals um that can recognize the need for a call to action Within their student body which I guess should be attainable because if if the goal of the board is to know one of the goals of the board is to know all students then you know it could it could definitely work it could it could be possible but I think we'll need more bodies to do it more trained professionals to do do such thank you thanks so much Ms Ammons all right so do you have any other statements or

137any other information you would like to pass along to the board or do you have any questions that you would like to address to the board I don't I don't I don't express my gratitude for the opportunity and wish you all luck in making the decision because the hard work is is on you you know I just I don't I don't I don't have all the answers and I have been the type of person to where if I don't have the answers then I can go and find the answers and I like to um I like to grab information from all different angles and consider how certain choices would affect all different people involved and so um I'm I'm hopeful that I could be a part of the board I think I could be helpful

138in that sense um but if not then that's okay too I just appreciate the opportunity okay thank you so much and I hope that this has been a pleasant experience and not too frightening for you no I'm okay okay thank you I think I'm gonna make it okay all right thank you so very very much thank you and I think you know our timetable on December the 15th there will be a public hearing and after that public hearing the person who has been appointed to the seat will be announced so that's on December the 15th that sounds good okay thank you great thank you thank you [Music] [Applause] foreign yeah we yeah we are still a little bit ahead of schedule he's scheduled for 7 20. 7 20. huh we asked him to be here

139at 7 10. okay in the nick of time I think is anybody who could drive by a dead bear on the side of the road and just keep on driving and we've got it yes but stress oh yeah [Laughter] my mother and stepfather visited us when we lived in Atlanta and on the route through Alabama they saw a dead camel on the side of the road okay then you do stuff that evidently didn't run away from user a zoo preserver leaves a llama I never know some alligator crocodile [Music] all right Mr Tavares thank you so very very much for applying and for being with us this afternoon it's evening the ending right well it's dark outside it's still afternoon in L.A all right so um since we had uh nine applicants we are allocating

140like about 20 minutes so 20 minutes rather for each interview perfect so we're going to start out with you giving us some introductory remarks then um each remember the board will introduce themselves and we have four board members who will be asking questions okay there might be some follow-up questions during that time also then after those questions if you have any other information that you would like to pass to the board or any questions that you have you can give them to us at that time so first maybe a few introductory remarks from you sure my name is Stephen Tavares I'm a resident of Crozet I live in Old Trail Community out there I have a 13 year old son who goes to Henley he's we've been living out there for about four years and

141during fifth grade when he was during in the pandemic I saw the transformational transformational work that one of the teachers did um even despite it being online and how that changed his life and I'm just interested in working on the board to make to give everybody access to Opportunities like that um another part of me that is probably also important for references while I have a lot of my experience prior to coming to Charlottesville was in the corporate sector most recently started a PhD in the education school here at UVA um the topic of interest for me personally and this is more of a family issue that I have dealt with um in the past is this idea of burnout and so in my mind I believe that students well-being is inextricably inextricably linked to

142teacher well-being so my other interest in being on the board is ensuring that our students are well as well as our teachers are well um I don't know if there's anything else if you want me to want more detail or if there's I know it's only 20 minutes so I don't want to take up too much time but that's kind of my rationale for why I want to join the board and be part of kind of the decision making and just help making the the experience of Education a better place for all those students that go to school in the White Hall District in the broader County okay all right one of our questions might go into some more details or might provide you an opportunity to give some more details for that also but

143first to introduce um board members hi I'm Ellen Osborne from the Scottsville District Kate AKA from the Jack Jewett District Judy Lee Rivanna District Katrina Carlson Rio District John O L Caro at Large Grand paid Samuel Miller District so our first question is coming from Dr AKA good evening um tell us why you're interested in going to this running for the school board or being on the school board and secondly how do you intend to represent the residents of the Whitehall District sure um I think I mentioned my one so that's that's kind of already taken up my hope is that in this position I can begin speaking with members of the community um at large and be more engaged to understand what the issues are that are most pressing to them um I often

144follow next door and see kind of where parents are leaning um I think this would just give me a more of an opportunity and a platform to actually go and talk to people about some of those issues rather than than just being left on that Seer so that's kind of how I imagine representing the the folks of the White Hall District um I'm only one person and there's plenty of students and parents so I imagine that would be a challenge especially in given that this is kind of a temporary position for the the incoming person next year but that's my initial thinking um around how to represent the folks appropriately thank you okay follow-up question Mr Tavares um would you be thinking about running for the position in November 2023 if you are appointed or

145even if you are not appointed whatever you thought that far I have thought that uh well this was um this opportunity came without a lot of things I had originally thought that I might want to um Run for the position in 2023 starting to get more involved in the new year um however this opportunity arose and it kind of jump started a little bit more of that conversation now and I think it a I would like to run um and hopefully this experience will give me the um the eyes and to see what it's like to be part of the board prior to running and getting that experience within a year um instead of being a newly elected member and kind of having to get onboarded and probably might be might be ineffective in the

146first few months of that new term so that was my that was my initial thinking I apologize if it's not more um sophisticated at this point in time okay who thinks nothing all right next question from Miss Judy Lee tell us something that excites you about our strategic plan learning for all and something that gives you pause for concern what excites me about the the teaching plan is that it's is all-encompassing and it really attempts to at least what I've seen from my experience with my son and being um engaged in his experiences in the classroom is he's learning things I never learned in school um which a amazes me but B represents the lack of um education I received when I was his age and younger especially with regards to things that are may

147seem more sensitive in this day and age I don't want to go into so much of the details there but I would tell them stories about things I I found out about as an adult and that I'm amazed that that I found out about it as an adult because he's telling me what he's learning in school as a student so that excites me because I'm learning as he's learning and there are things that um that are new to me even even though we have a 25-year age difference one thing that concerns me and I think this is [Music] um representative of what I saw in recent board meeting minutes and um recent board meetings is just the reaction to that plan by the community members and how we can help the broader Community the parents

148students teachers and other stakeholders in the community understand why the plan in teaching more a lot teaching more topic areas is important to the health of the broader community and the future of you know the county and the city and our the state I feel like that's always missed and it causes a lot of friction and unnecessary friction that ends up affecting the teacher's ability to teach the student's ability to learn the administrator's ability Ministry so those are things that pause me cause of the plan although I think it's not a reflection of the plan itself but more of how do we do a better job of communicating the benefits and addressing some of the issues that might not be related to student to increasing the ability for students to learn in the classroom thank

149you I'm Miss Osborne the board adopted an anti-racism policy in 2019 in what ways do you think we have been successful in implementing that plan and in what areas could you help us improve so it's a that's a very difficult question I I just I think in terms of what ways have I seen it be effective is really around the immediate reaction that whenever I see or emailed about um an interaction that is race that involves racism on the on any school campuses or any school communities the fast reaction to that event and the communication to the rest of the community about what's happened and the actions that the administrators or teachers are taking um I think that's holding everybody accountable for those policies is very important to addressing that issue and make it meaningful

150at the end of the day as I read the anti-racism policy I didn't when I my first reaction to it wasn't that it was so new or novel but that it was more just yes this is what we should be doing in the year 2022 um in terms of how do we make how do we improve it and make it better I think more of it again I kind of think more less about the policy itself but more about the implementation how do we help people understand what it means in in the schools and I'll talk about a recent example from my son's school there was a story going around of a teacher using um some Source documentation talking about the Civil War and slavery and the source documentation there there was some racial slurs

151what we consider racial slurs today however that was part of the law back in 1850s 1860s that was cause for um the students finding out or creating stories around it teachers finding out and then kind of an upheaval in the school in the community and I thought that wasn't the right approach to addressing that issue um there might have been reasons for the teacher including it however a parent calling in and then create um it causing a teacher to leave for a temporary period of time and then the students finding out about it and making up their own stories it just it left a bad taste of my son's mouth his friend's mouth and they didn't understand what was going on in addition a lot of those words have are often used in popular media

152so the kids already know that these words exist and they use them and they see them a lot and hear them a lot so I think it's an opportunity to understand what the policy is but also how do we renew that policy and make it something that is more relevant to what's happening on the ground and enabling teachers to teach I think it goes back to the student learning plan enabling teachers to teach what needs to be taught so people like me don't end up in their 30s and 40s not knowing what happened and not being educated to the full um to the fullness of what we can educate everybody on they're not loving the education I hope that helps answer that question yeah sometimes I kind of go on tangents and I apologize if

153I did you know that never happens to us all right next um Mr Tavares good to see you see you too thank you um what do you see as the most important challenge facing public education in the next few years and how should it be addressed I see the most important issue addressing education next few years is the lack the teacher shortage and the lack of good teachers being in um in our schools we can't have a good educational experience and we can't expect a great educational experience for our kids if the teachers the people doing that job the teachers are burning out they don't have the supports and structures in place and we don't have the best and brightest folks kind of going in one teacher can make all of the difference in a

154student's life I've seen it I've experienced it but when those teachers leave or they're just emotionally unwell that creates a problem um I think we can provide more attention to it um just looking at the when I was at the board meeting last time um you showed the Strategic plan and a lot of metrics around what's going on the school district one of the things that was um an insight for me is there's a lot there's a lot of metrics around students and there's a lot of metrics around what's going on in the school but there's not a lot of metrics around how the teacher is doing and what can we do to improve that experience um I think that's the the Crux of the matter and I think if we can help to think

155about that do something to address the issues surrounding um the teacher experience more holistically um I think it'll lead to a better educational experience for everybody so I think that's the biggest issue facing education in the next five years especially as I've seen a lot of people that I know there's teachers leaving the profession either temporarily or permanently and most people I see leaving at least in my personal experience are people that are the best the best and brightest Focus I can imagine um so that's that's my my perspective on do you want to add anything more about how to address it oh how to address it one thing I mentioned I think first we have to measure we have to think that it's an important thing to measure if it's not part of our

156metrics that we're measuring then we're never going to think that it's an important thing to do anything about so I think that's the the first the first um impasses right there the second one is maybe creating more policies um around not necessarily giving teachers time off um or Starbucks gift cards things that kind of come to mind quickly but offering them the same kind of supports that we're offering our students so one of the things that we do in the counties we have mental health counselors for all of the students I'm curious why that's not offered to the teachers as well and the administrators they're going through the same stresses of Life same stresses of parents and it seems like we're expecting the adults to behave in a way that isn't human um and that

157is more more than what we're expecting the students uh how the students behave and especially in the event where a lot of new teachers are relatively Young I think they could use some of those same supports they've been through the same stresses um in a post-covered world um all these things are much more nuanced and I can understand the the difficulties in doing these things but I think we need we need to think about those types of policies to address um those the unique challenges the teachers face in today's day and age another another potential policy and I'm not sure how to address this is a lot of the is how do we not protect our teachers from the political wave that's coming down um I think y'all can notice or this is probably something

158that probably not the right thing to say but I'll just say it anyways um to feel that education is a being politicized at the highest levels and at local levels and to have teachers as like the in the crosshairs of all those discussions especially none of them have asked for that to be put in that position they really just want to be able to teach in the classroom what can we do and what policies can we pass to make sure that they're as protected as they can be so they can do the job that they're hired to do thank you you're welcome okay thank you so much uh Mr Tavares so you have any other information that you would like to pass on to the board that maybe wasn't covered in those questions or do

159you have any questions to address to the board I don't have anything else to say I I it wasn't um I'm sure other candidates have a whole story of why they want to be on the board I'm for me it's really as simple as when opportunity comes up and you feel like you're in a position that you could help that take it and I really want to make sure I really care about the student experience and making it accessible to people making sure the kids and the teachers are well another thing that is probably color is a reason for why I'm so concerned about this is because um earlier this year when the students one of the middle school students I think who he attended Journey middle Journey um he attended Journey at some point

160and then he switched to a private school I can't recall but he was on my son's soccer team and he died by Suicide early this year the impact of having a 12 year old child go through that and have then his class his teammates go through that experience is unbelievably difficult and so why I'm so passionate about the well-being and mental health of our students and teachers is because those things happen and they're very real and once you've experienced it once it's something that I never want to have anybody else have to experience that and if we can do something at the board level that's past policies or just acknowledge the fact that people are people and have and provide structures that can help um I'm all for it and that's really but I want

161to be on the board there's not there's not much more behind it than that okay thank you so very much for your interview and for your applying and I think you're aware of our timetable but on December the 15th we'll have a public hearing and after that public hearing the person who has been appointed to the position will be announced so thank you again for appearing with us this afternoon this evening and also for applying thank you [Music] all right the center in the interview process we thank everybody in the audience who has been here with us and who's been so patient doing the whole process thank you all for fearing and Miss Carlson do you have I do have a closed meeting motion I have a quick comment for there's an audience and perhaps

162anyone who might be listening online feel free to send perspectives to us I mean I know we're having a public hearing which you can do that during but also email is a another method which you can communicate with us so close meeting motion I move that the school board of emerald County Virginia go into a closed meeting as authorized by the Virginia Freedom of Information Act section 2.2 3711a of Dakota Virginia under subsection one for the discussion consideration or interviews of prospective candidates for employment and the assignment appointment promotion performance why are you all moving y'all don't want to listen to the whole motion you're not experienced you're not excused appointment promotion performance the motion salaries disciplining or resignation of specific public officers appointees are employees of any public body as well as subsection three

163for discussion where God was joking our consideration of the acquisition of real property for a public purpose are the disposition of publicly held real property where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position our negotiating strategy of the public body and subsection 8 for consultation with legal counsel employed or retained by a public body regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel second okay move by Ms Carson Second Baptist alcara that we go into closed session because of all of those various portions of State Statute um Miss Johnston Mr alcaro yes Miss Golson yes Miss Lee Yes Dr AKA yes Ms Osborne yes Mr Page yes well um Bush passed all right so we're in we'll go into closed session