Clarke County Public Schools School Board Meeting 05/18/2026

001Mhm. >> What are you trying to say we don't have a good man? I got you. How do you shut these things off? Is it just What is this? No. He's got it on silent. He's got it on Okay. Yeah. I'm going to be shocked. >> We're live. I moved to come out of closed session. Second. All in favor. Aye. All opposed. Great. Pursuant to code section 2.2-3712D of the code of Virginia, do you certify that to the best of your knowledge during the closed session just concluded the Park 10 school board discussed only matters lawfully exempt from the open meeting requirements under the code of Virginia and identified in the motion convening the closed session. Mr. Rohrbach. Aye. Mr. Brumbaugh. Aye. Mr. Kennedy. Aye. Mr. Sites. Aye. Mr. Wilson. Aye. With regards to the

002disciplinary action, uh I make the motion that we remain back to staff. Second. All in favor. Aye. All opposed. And so we're now out of closed session. And I'm going to adjourn that meeting and then we're going to take just a 5-minute break. Right? Before we open the Are we good? We're good. Okay. All right, good. So then Moving on. Okay. So now I will um open the May 18th, 2026 regular school board meeting. And I'd ask everyone to join us in saying the pledge of allegiance. Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay. All right. Um approval of tonight's consent agenda. Are there any comments or questions? Okay,

003is there a motion? I move to approve the consent agenda as as presented. Second. All in favor? I. Next is the recognition of retirees. All right, I'll go ahead and do the recognition of our retirees. We have three at this point that we know of. Um if you're here tonight, you can come up and get your uh gifts. We have these up here for you. Also, once you're announced, we'll do that. Also, for everybody that's here, there's three flowers out there in the atrium with the cookies, so those are for you, one each, as well. Uh the first one is Patricia or Trish Alisaid. Trish studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City and Lord Fairfax Community College. She entered the education sector during the 1998-99 school year as a part-time

004elementary music teacher. In 2001, she served as an instructional assistant at Clark County High School before transitioning to her current role at DG Cooley. Throughout her tenure, Trish has actively supported student enrichment by coaching Destination Imagination and One Act Play. Alongside leading art instruction dedicated to continuous learning, she has completed specialized training through Commonwealth Autism Services including Autism 101, behavior, social skills, communication, and comprehensive instructional programming to enhance and to enhance her daily engagement with students, so. Not here tonight, so. All right, our um second retiree is Ms. Pamela Stivers. Pam joined our team in 2021 as a special education teacher at Clark County High School. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice with a minor in geography and planning from West Chester University as well as a Master's degree in special education

005from Shenandoah University. A highly qualified educator, Pam holds a postgraduate professional license with endorsements in family and consumer sciences, history and social sciences, and special education for the general curriculum K-12. Prior to joining Clark County, she brought 6 years of dedicated classroom experience to her role having taught special education for 2 years in Warren County Public Schools and 4 years in Loudoun County Public Schools. >> [applause] [applause] >> And Pam, you can come up here and get your gift. >> [applause] >> Thank you and there's an additional gift that hasn't come in yet. >> [laughter] >> flowers out there for you, okay? So, thank you. Do you want to say anything? Um no, just well, sure. Well, if you want to go to the microphone, you can go over and say it. >> Oh, I'm

006a teacher. I can talk. Um when I left Loudoun during COVID, I didn't know like where I was going to end up. So, being here for the past 5 years has been a really great way to end my career. So, thanks a lot. >> [applause] [applause] >> All right, and our final retiree that we know of at this point is Mr. Phil Harper. Phil joined Clark County Public Schools in 1986 as a Latin teacher at Clark County High School. Dedicatingly serving the community in his role for 40 years. In addition to teaching, he has served as the world language department chair since 2024. Phil holds a Bachelor of Science in History and Classical Studies from Hampden-Sydney College and has pursued advanced coursework at Shenandoah University, James Madison University, and UVA-Wise. He holds a collegiate professional

007license in history and Latin pre-K 12 and has completed specialized IB training in Texas and New Mexico. Passionate about exper- experiential learning, Phil has also led numerous summer student trips across Europe guiding tours through historic destinations including Rome, Pompeii, Florence, Pisa, the Riviera, Monaco, Barcelona, and Paris. >> [applause] [applause] >> flower out there for you. >> [laughter] >> with the Riviera right there cuz that's >> [laughter] >> Thanks for correcting me when we said when I said I think it's just 40 and when Renee said good thing you keep lying because uh it's only 39. 40 years here it's been a blast. I've met an awful lot of people, I've met a lot of faces all over the place, all over this county, and it's a place I'll call home. And I'm going to sit

008back and have a good good time for some more beer. >> [applause] >> And would anybody like to say anything cuz of course I do. >> [laughter] >> There goes the last teacher that was still there when I was there when I was there. Thanks for holding out so long, Mr. Harper. Congratulations to all the retirees and I know Mr. Harper uh 40 years is a long time to put in education. That's a very commendable and it's awesome. So, thank you for your service. And I'm I'm hopeful that I'm not going to cry. We'll see. We'll see. Um so, Mr. Harper uh just truly one of the best. Um and I still like I was thinking of a speech on my run this morning, but I decided not to write it down cuz maybe that

009will help lead to less tears, but um I still remember when you uh gave it to our eighth-grade class and I remember telling like coming home and telling my parents like I'm going to take Latin in high school because we're going to go to Europe. And um I remember my parents thinking that's not a language that's used anymore and I'm not encouraging that and um they were trying to steer me towards Spanish or French or whatever, but the you know, I think it says so much about our community the fact the fact that you've taught I think two of my brothers, pretty sure my brother-in-law, maybe, my husband, and me, and then both of my kids. And that's just amazing. And the fact that you've just given your entire career to our community and you've

010provided a subject that doesn't have a lot of teachers. You know, the applicant pool is not great for Latin. Um but you know, you just you've made such an impact on so many lives and you know, I think that you have like in the high school like Mr. Harper's little Latin cult. You know, because people stick with your class because it was just it was just fun and you introduced me to a world that I had no idea that existed and still have not been to Europe, but one day I will get there. And I also um remember one of my favorite memories and I don't know if Carter remembers this too, but um like I loved the days when we could get you off topic and we could get you to let us watch

011Ben-Hur. >> [laughter] >> Or when you would pull out the filmstrips and we could look at your pictures of um of of Europe and in your travels. So, I hope that you have the best retirement and that you you have lots and lots of adventures to come and just truly honored to be one of your students. So, thank you. >> [applause] >> All right, another good thing coming. Uh the recognition of the Widget Cup coach and team. All right, Mr. Uh Drowlatsky if he would come up and I'd like for him to come to the podium and um you introduce himself, the team, and then bring them up. Uh I think it's really important while he's coming up to talk about this. First of all, this year's beneficiary was the uh Blue Ridge Wildlife Center.

012This is something I find to be an incredibly important competition because I think this is one of those really measurable innovative assignments that really measures learning that goes beyond the bare minimum. Cuz kids come to this and they don't know what the project's going to be and they have to assess the materials, design it, and it's for a real world project. They do the math, they do the drawing, they do the design, they build it there, they're thrown a curveball that could change how, you know, things are happening, which often happens in real world engineering and design, and then they do a marketing or a branding video for that product. And when now, I think that's where true learning comes from or things like this. Now, I think that it's important that we understand this.

013Now, I'm not dismissing other things we do cuz I think everything has a place and time. You know, if you're going to go to law school, you got to do the LSAT. There's other pieces like that, even getting a driver's license. But I think we got to remember back in 1998 when state testing came about and I survived before it ever came about and I'll say that it was fine. But what it was done largely was to make sure that education was kind of uniform and universal across the state. I had a great high school education, but there were one or two maybe that didn't put as much effort into teaching prior to '98 in the building and academic freedom. There wasn't a lot of, you know, instructional oversight of learning. But in '98 when

014things like that came about, are they important? Yes, cuz they're a baseline measure of school quality. But you got to remember in '98 that a 400 and getting those state tests was considered the bare minimum understanding to be able to move on. And I don't think that we should ever be aiming for like a bare minimum. So, I think it's important that we understand the framework in that. But I think true learning that goes above and beyond is measured in things like this. So, I I really appreciate what you do with the kids. So Thank you. And I want to make sure I'm doing it right. I always try to I remember you mentioning your name one time, so I think it's really important that we pronounce it correctly. >> Drucker. Yep. And I really

015appreciate that. >> Nobody calls me that, but that's fine. All right. Well, it's important to me. Um but if you would introduce yourself and your team and then bring them up for recognition. I'm Jim Drucker. I'm a carpentry and small engine teacher at Clark County High School. And um Our second coach is Barbara Fairbanks. You can come up. Emily Vincent. Maxwell Aiello, Luigi Aiello, and Ben Mason, Lara Owens. Now, we have four >> [applause] >> We have four that that are not here for probably pretty good reasons. I think one's under the weather, and the other ones have this pesky thing called a job. They're working. Um this year was probably been the most fun of any of them. And for a couple different reasons. And the the biggest reason to me was that they

016introduced AI. And we intentionally went analog. We did not use it. And we won. So knowing the AI is going to be the future, it's we're not there yet. So it's a tool, but it it was it was really a lot of fun. Um it's always biting your nails. You never know what's going to happen. We just magically seem to pull it together. So we lost four. We keep We'll keep five. Um we took a we took a alternate this year, a younger brother of Maxwell. He's a freshman, right? Yes. Right. Junior. So we'll have five coming back. We'll recruit three more and go back and you know, hopefully do it again. But um it is genuinely a real-world experience. Um, and you're right, you can't you can't test this stuff. It's just either you

017have it or you don't. And I can guarantee you that anybody standing behind me is well prepared to leave and go out and do what they're going to do. So, it's been a joy. And correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the fifth year in a row that you've won this competition? >> Yes, we've been competing seven times and won six. So. >> [applause] >> Um, first year we won, second year lost. COVID. And then we've won ever since, so. It's it's really really good. And I can't tell you how we assemble the teams, there's no it's just magically just comes together. We find the talent in the building. They have to be in our department or have had been in our department, career and technical education. And but it's magically seem to put

018it together and it it's it just goes. Um, one person who was not here, um, her name is Victoria Russell. She ended up painting the project for us. She put uh, animal figures on the side of some rough-cut logs and everything. An amazing artist. Didn't even know she was an artist. She'd not been art classes. Somebody mentioned it and she did it for some community service hours, but she really wanted to be on the team, but I just wanted to throw her name out there as well. So. Thank you so much. Thank you. Um, so I do have um I was communicating with a friend whose husband works in a a local another county and he was saying to his wife like, "We've we've got Clark County this year. Like, I have assembled a team

019that that can beat them." And you guys are legendary. Like, it's hilarious to me that other counties are like, really focused on putting together the best team possible because they want to beat Clark County. They don't They don't practice. We just show up. >> [laughter] >> It's awesome. You guys, congratulations. >> Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations. What What was What was the the the project? What was the challenge? Go ahead. Okay, so this year we assembled a wildlife enrichment tower. So, there were four different levels. They gave us a couple of different things that we needed to put on there. So, there was a hammock, a feeder. There was We had ramps for each of the different levels. And I thought this year was particularly interesting because they gave us a pretty broad set of

020parameters. So, if you see any of the pictures from the competition, you'll notice that almost every single team has a completely unique design. And so, in the past, a lot of the designs have been really really similar to one another. So, I thought it was really cool this year that everyone was able to kind of put their own spin on it and each team was able to kind of create their own unique widget that showed a little bit of personality for their team. So, I thought that was really cool. And every other school did bring their project to the wildlife center. So, that was actually very nice to So, Jim, I did want to share. Remember years ago making that first call when I found out about Widget Cup and saying, "Why can't Clark County

021be involved in this, right?" And then telling you we were going to be involved and we were going to send a team. Yeah. And you dominated. And so, last last week I was in Winchester at the employer expo and someone said to me, "Yep, Clark County won Widget Cup again and everybody was pretty upset about that." And this individual said, "I turned around and told them they just got to learn how to bring it." >> [laughter] >> So, congrats. Thank you. Congratulations. Yeah. Job well done. >> [applause] >> Next on the agenda is a follow-up discussion with the county about the health and human services site. And before we Mr. Chris Boyce will come up here, Dr. Chris Boyce and present on this. And again, this is just a discussion piece tonight, but it may

022be good to kind of get your all's input and feelings on this piece. And Mr. Weiss will be with him. Um in addition to the presentation too, it may be good to kind of explain, you know, what this building is and what it would house and the proposed pieces if it happened. Yeah, thank you um Madam Chair and the members of the school board. This is a follow-up to our February conversation. We also discussed this I think about a year before. The county's been exploring sites for a health and human services building that would house our health department and social services and possibly have space for Northwestern Community Services. The board has approached the school board Board of Supervisors has approached the school board about this because we're looking for land that's currently owned by

023the county or schools. One because there's no acq- acquisition cost, uh which could help keep the project down. But then also, we don't really want to take a piece of commercial property in Berryville off the tax rolls. We're fairly small community and every property we take out of the tax rolls, we obviously wouldn't pay taxes if we owned the property. So, that was part of the discussion with the Board of Supervisors in looking uh for a site that's currently owned by the schools or the county. Uh I think there's also been some discussion of whether we could put the building inside Upper Cooley if the school board were to surplus that building to us. Um one of the things we were going to do with Upper Cooley if we received it was use it for

024Parks and Rec. And we were not going to do a major renovation of the inside. So, that if 5 10 years from now we needed to reopen that as a school, we would still have that as a possibility. Might be a slim possibility because of the, you know, changing nature of education and all of that, but we were going to leave the building mostly intact the way it is today uh for that purpose. Uh so, I wanted to talk you um through uh the Uh go ahead to the second slide. Yeah, that one's I think good. We don't need it if we don't need So, the slide is going to show a layout of the building. It includes um social services in the health department. We've not yet talked with Northwestern about any spaces. The

025health department is a facility that's open from 8:00 to 4:30. They have four employees that work on a regular basis there. They average between 10 and 15 clients per day. These are people that come in to get their flu shots. Uh we send our employees there to get their uh TB testing so they can work in the school system. Uh these are people that are going to get their septic and well permits, those kinds of things uh at the health department. Uh if you could go to the next slide if it's loading. There's a lot of graphics, so I know it's kind of hard to load. Um if it loaded, you'd see a diagram of the building but or a floor layout, but that's okay. There it goes. That's fine. We'll We'll keep going. Um

026Yeah, that's fine. Uh social services uh is open 8:30 to 4:30. They have between 12 and 16 employees. They average two to four clients a day. Most of their clients are elderly folks that come in to talk about their benefits. These are elderly folks that aren't comfortable doing it over the phone or over the internet. Um and often they just want to have someone to talk to. Um when social services does their other work, they're out in the field doing those type of things. Uh they're in someone's home or they're meeting the client where the problem is. So, those those folks aren't uh, typically in the building. And then Northwestern operates an open clinic on this property currently uh, for children on Wednesdays from 9:00 to 12:00 and for adults on Friday from 9:00 to

02712:00. As far as anyone remembers, no one um, remembers any law enforcement issues at any of those sites with having to come in and and address any problems there. Uh, on the slide you'll see um, so we're looking at the two sites we've looked at are this building behind this building and then um, based on the possibility of Upper Cooley being surplussed we were exploring whether it could fit there. So, this um, shows a layout of a possible subdivision of this property. Uh, so the school board building is the main building you see in the middle there. Um, at the road, we have to have 100 ft of frontage to meet the town's requirements. So, you could have this strange L-shaped property but that would allow us to transfer ownership to the county. Um, that's

028a possibility. Obviously, we don't need that much space at the road. We had talked about a segregated roadway to the back to keep the traffic separated. Um, but I think the rest of that 100 ft would still be used by the school board for parking. It would just be weird that we would own it, but we would work out an agreement on that. We don't want to take that much of your parking away. I think we think you need that. So, it is possible to subdivide um, we think. We haven't had a survey or actually go out and measure that yet. There is a side setback we have to meet from the building for that new line that would be created, but subdivision is a possibility. It's just a little um, messy to do. If

029you go to the next slide. Wait, um, sorry to interrupt you, Mr. Boyle. >> Go ahead. When you say um, that it's a a little messy to do, do I know that there was a discussion about like it kind of a lease agreement. Is that what you're alluding to? I think you we think there's a possibility of subdividing meaning you could surplus the property and we would own it. But we're going to own that strange 100-ft strip from the road back, which is not ideal, I don't think. Or we could do a ground lease with the school board, which is what we had originally talked about. When we went to the town, we thought subdivision wasn't even a possibility, but they said you could probably squeeze this in and you just have to meet the

030frontage requirements. Um this diagram shows what the building could look like. Uh the building is in the dark shaded area. You uh you see new parking for the building. There is a segregated entrance um to the building from Main Street that would separate the traffic going to the school board office and to the back of the um the property for this building. This is a one-story version. Uh so it the footprint is um fairly large. It could be um cut in half if we did a two-story building, but we weren't sure about the neighbors uh behind the property and how they would feel about they would see it much more if it was higher in the air, obviously. If you go to the next slide, um this is a concept based on the conversation with

031the school board about looking whether it could be located near the Upper Cooley campus. This is a one-story version. Um the architects showed a connected parking lot from the Upper Cooley to the Lower Cooley to accommodate overflow parking for uh football events and things of that nature. This is a one-story version as you see it takes up quite a bit of space. And if you go to the next slide, Renee, you'll see a two-story version. We do have the architect currently looking to see if that two-story version could be much closer to Upper Cooley uh after hearing the concerns about the green space. I don't have a drawing for that yet and it may not address all of the concerns we've heard, but just wanted to mention that that is a possibility. We could move

032it closer to the upper Cooley building to try to preserve as much of the green space in front of the football stadium. Go to the next slide. So just a quick comparison of the two sites. This site is in town, so it's zoned R1 in the town. In order to build on this site, we would have to do a text amendment or rezone the property to R2. If we rezone it to R2, that frontage requirement at the road actually goes down to 80 ft. So that's more desirable, I think. We also need to get the town's architectural review board approval of the building design because it's in the historic district. As I mentioned, the lot subdivision has some challenges or there could be a land lease. The upper Cooley site's located in the county. It's

033zoned agriculture. It does require a special use permit and site plan, but the board of supervisors has control over those things ultimately after public hearings and the planning commission. The boundary line adjustment for that is much easier. And as I said, the the board makes the final decision. Go to the next slide. From a utility and storm water comparison, they're both pretty comparable. They both have access to public water and sewer, which is kind of a requirement of our comprehensive plan we put in new public facilities. We can just skip this slide. It's not as important, I don't think. And then the other considerations, um you know, if it's on this property, it's not going to be visible from a main roadway. That has its plusses and minuses. I talked to the health department the

034other day and they like being on Buck Marsh where they are currently because they feel like it's good visibility. They said a a client had come in the other day and she said, "Oh yeah, I was riding by and I remembered I needed to get my whatever shot or immunization." I don't know how much of that is measurable, but I just pass that along for what it's worth. I don't think there um are as many traffic concerns with this site. Uh and then public input, I left that blank cuz we need to hear the public's input on this site. The upper Coolee um is certainly more visible, but it is further away from the center of town. Uh the traffic concerns uh roughly, you know, the Coolee traffic is pretty busy from quarter to 8:00

035to quarter after 8:00. Um and then from 3:00 to 3:30 generally. I mean, there's some exceptions to that. High school is pretty similar to that. Uh the health department opens at 8:00, they close at 4:30, and social services opens at 8:30 and closes at 4:30. And once again, I think we need to hear from the public um on this site. Um that's all I have for you. Um unless Mr. Weiss wants to say something, we can answer any questions you have. As a reminder, we were just exploring different sites. No decisions have been made. This has been discussed in several different public meetings, but um no one's made any promises, no one's made any decisions. Yeah, we're coming to you asking for a site. Um we are um it's a little bit easier for us

036to do the upper Coolee because we control the zoning, but you know, we're willing to work with the school board on whatever option works best for you. Um and I think that's all I have. Unless you want to say anything. Uh I'll just wait to see what questions you have. Um Mr. Bolus, before they do it, just a few thoughts you know that I had. One of the things too is I think we're open to anything or even if if it's not any of our properties, I think that we just owe it to the board of supervisors, you know, to kind of know to share our thoughts on this process. Um and in the past there's been concerns, you know, too that maybe we didn't want to give that property back there up. And if

037that is the direction we're going in, I would support that fully, but we need to make sure that we're not surveying three different ways, multiple sites and stuff like that cuz it does lead to unnecessary cost. Um one thing though about the safety piece cuz I never always see these buildings and as being community resources, I do think it's interesting though that when I asked nobody could remember a call for the sheriff's office to the health department, social services, or Northwestern. And being completely transparent, that wouldn't be the case for any of our public schools or us because, you know, we're dealing with parents and people, you know, things happen. So, I don't think any public school could say that law enforcement has not had had to been called there. One of the pieces though

038that we've got to do is we have other things, you know, to prioritize and take care of with academic learning and it's typically schools are not even a part of this conversation because the way it works is when something ceases to be used by a school board, they surplus it back to the board of supervisors to decide how that property gets used. And no matter if you decide to surplus back here or there, really unless there's not enough space, we have no control over it once it's, you know, surplus. That's not a school board decision. Um the one um piece about Cooley Upper, regardless of this decision of where if we have enough land that goes with it, we could re-survey it to make the land line go close enough to Cooley Upper to separate

039the field and the land out and that wouldn't allow, you know, them for a new building, but we cannot contain to continue to maintain the liability of Cooley Upper. We're looking at a building that needed millions of dollars of renovation several years ago that set largely vacant. And you know, there are times that we could use another classroom or two, but we're fitting in the current building. And to have a principal overhead, front office staff to operate a new building for one to two classrooms uh maybe needing it for 20 kids or so, and that much money, that's not a a good use of, you know, county funds. At that point, an addition to Cooley Lower would make much more sense. So, I do think eventually my personal if you I don't have a vote,

040you all do, but I do think that we would need to surplus the Cooley Upper campus to the county regardless, you know. And I think that would be fine for a parks and rec building. I do think that um you know, there's always concerns and you can't predict the future and we would want to hear public input about safety. But I think the more clear part is that the land would be lost there. And when I look at it, if we can get past the zoning piece, the land back here gets a lot less use because there's very little use of this land behind us. As far as the Northwestern, whether or not it had an office in there, that's actually operated at the exact capacity right next to us close to Johnson Williams in

041the school board office since 2018. So, you know, that's a piece to have in mind as well. And I did like that they explored if we did consider that it would be closer to Cooley Upper um As far as this here, one of the initial concerns was if we had to be fine and I appreciate the good working relationship between the county and the school board. Um but a a land lease is not ideal where you're building a multi-million dollar building on somebody else's land that they don't own. Um I do like if we could get enough frontage that that property could be surplus to them cuz I think it would be much more clean if this building set on county property. Also, another option might be if it's cheaper, you know, this house that's

042beside us and there may be emotional attachment to it. I don't know, but that could clear enough roadway to get back there potentially, too. I thought about that recently, but we need to just kind of you know, explore these options and I do want to make sure that you know, whether we give land up there for the um parts and rec and we cut the land off through a re-survey that if we are are open to this back here, we have that conversation cuz it's still going to be close to alternative ed and close to, you know, Johnson Williams around the corner. Um but these buildings do I've always looked at them more as providing easier access to health care and counseling and services to our families. And when we I think of them, I

043think of more of a resource and a positive instead of a negative because most of our back scene clinics happen through the health department's coming in our building and doing wellness checks and preventative care. Um and normally you're better off when there's strong partnerships between you know, schools and family services in the community. And these buildings are all designed to do one thing and I'm appreciative of a county that provides those type of services because they're there to create a stronger safety net for vulnerable kids and families. And they make it a lot more accessible for working uh parents if it's close by to have access to these type of services. Um and the whole goal would be to have a healthier, more connected and supportive health care, you know, network around that. And you

044know, you could correct me if I'm wrong, but what Northwestern's doing now are our kids, which if they're kids, they're mainly going to be our own students getting services there. Um as far as the one thing I wouldn't want to be ever connected to is any judgement or any, you know, generalization of a building that houses those type of services cuz they're for all individuals including people with temporary hardships. And seeking help is a responsible and a proactive step to be a good adult. And we would want support services that benefit people and these do benefit people from all backgrounds and income levels. I know that. When we do vaccine clinics, we partner with them. When it becomes TB screenings, normally where do we send our employees? The health department. Um and I would just

045want, you know, to never generalize that, you know, a building like that is being a safety concern or something of that nature because I think time here there's always the potential for the future but time here has proven that actually there's less law enforcement concern at buildings like that. And I think it's important that we proceed with respect and compassion. But one thing that may be a really valid concern could be traffic. Don't see a lot of those buildings. I drove by, you know, social services today to see how many cars were in the parking lot. But it is a little bit more congested area. And the other part would be loss of that green space which, you know, could be concerning. So, I think everybody in this office is very open to having it

046back here if that's a decision and a decision that the board's comfortable with. The good part there is I don't have to be a part of the vote and the good part for you all is once you vote to serve plus you really have no say at that point cuz it's not a school board decision at that point. Any questions for them? Chris, what was the average daily attendance at both facilities again? The um health department was 10 to 15, social services two to four. And that obviously varies, you know, depending if they do a flu shot clinic it may be, you know, 50 grandmothers going in there that day, but you know, it's on average across the year. Less than 20 visitors a day. Right. So, does anyone else have comments or questions? Yeah.

047Uh most of the emails I received on this kind of ran to a theme. One was traffic. And particularly was it Cooley Elementary. Uh Sorry, I don't see it. That's the major ingress and egress for the town anyway. The you know, few more vehicles we'd have and probably not during rush hour shouldn't bother anything. It seems there was another underlying theme that we're putting up some kind of a institution for homicidal maniacs or something who are going to be let out several times a day for exercise and they're going to get at the kids. I think this is at best exaggerated. And uh the other thing that I think we have to address is this piece of land in there and coming up with a solution for it. Uh as Dr. Bowling has pointed out,

048this is not something we can afford to keep on our books forever and ever and ever. The it's a building that's would take probably what was it uh 6 to 8 million estimate a couple of years ago to get it back to school use. Let's call that 10 now. Things ain't getting any cheaper out there. And uh we're better off moving it along and let somebody else get some use out of it. We can't rent it for anything for any appreciable money, so uh I think we really need to move this building along and there's been of some of these thing seem to be based on a premise that they're absolutely going to lose that piece of green green land in between the two schools. That seems to be avoidable now. So, let's go from

049that perspective. And I hope if I didn't get to a couple of you, send me emails and that will do as a response. Thank you. Do you all have a You laid out the the the some of the benefits of each site. Um as far as actually doing the job of what you all what what the social services building is going to do as far as effectiveness, is there is there one one place for another reason it may I understand the the zoning and all that. But just as far as actually functioning. No, there there has been nothing that's come up that would clearly say put it in this location versus another. I think they both have their plusses and minuses. As I said, this is closer to the middle of town, but it's going

050to be hidden behind the building. The other side's more visible, but it's further out of town, you know. So, there it's kind of a wash when you look at operationally and the client perspective. I think I think they're equal. I think surplus and upper Cooley would potentially eliminate the CIP for the addition at the Parks and Rec, correct? You're correct. Yeah, I should have mentioned that. >> money could be used in renovating that facility to get where it needs to be to use that space. Um I think when I look at it, the green space and the land in between Cooley upper and Cooley lower, um we can get into aesthetics, we can get into a lot of different things, but you know, from a capital land expense and everything else, you know, if we

051need to add, we need to build a new building for whatever reason down the line, kind of puts it right there in the heart of where our other campuses are. So, um I would certainly like to propose or or see what it might look like to resurvey for Upper Cooley and then look at this for the Okay. you know, at that I think it could be a win-win for both of us at the end of the day. And just so we're talking about the same I kind of envision a line along that playground line beside Cooley. Cuz you want to probably include the playground with it, but it basically goes straight up towards the road or straight from the road straight back. Yes. And you know, keep it as tight to the building as you

052can, but probably include the playground and that basketball court. And then the area in between the tennis courts and Upper Cooley. Right. >> Right. It would include that. Yeah. Yeah. We can certainly I mean we're obviously going to get a lot of public comments here for sure on both sides and which is great. Um but we can certainly you know, I can meet you up there. We can take a look at it and do what we need to. I've got you know some equipment if we need it just for a quick look before we invest any more into this. So Yeah, the surveyor has the coordinates of the properties. I think they could pretty easily draw us a line that we could share with you at a future meeting and say is this exactly what

053you're thinking. Right. Yeah. I think that'd be great. Yeah. And we obviously need to get public input on that when that drawing is done, too. Yeah. >> Right. And with something that um I can't remember which one somebody just brought up the renting and we do a lease right now with the Head Start for Cooley Upper. You know, something that does you know, concern me is when you're leasing something if something goes wrong, we have to fix it and we're making so little off that building that we could end up destroying our capital budget in a year as a liability just by holding on to it. So, I um generally think and that could destroy raises, salary increases in the future, you know, personnel, things like that. I do think the Cooley upper is a

054huge liability, you know, for us. But what everybody's talking about, I think maybe the best compromise piece would be to do just enough land at Cooley upper that it could serve as a parks and rec building. It's right there connected to the park anyway. And subdivide the property and if we could surplus this back here, cuz I do think it's important to have a good working relationship with the board of supervisors. That could be achieved by giving enough land back there and then the building. But, you know, this is still an input. It's a conversation point, not a decision, but we do need to have probably a general idea of what the consensus of the board is because if we're going to do this, you know, board attorneys have to a resolution is how you

055surplus property after the survey and we would have to be approaching too to go that direction. So, you know, just having a general thoughts of how you all feel as a board. Do you think just doing down here and uh doing the land, do you think doing just the building up there with the new boundary close to it and the land back here or do you think the whole side up there or neither, you know, would be kind of a a good, you know, kind of a general direction both us and the board of supervisors. Yep. Mhm. In my opinion, we're looking at surplussing upper Cooley and keeping it as tight as possible to the building. And then we would potentially either surplus the land back here or do a lease agreement. That's And that

056would be my suggestion, whatever we you know, think would be the most beneficial. We're a small community, so I also want to recognize that we use this for the farmers market and things like that. So, we would need to take that in consideration Right. for everything as well. so Yeah. What Mr. Kennedy just said. I agree with with what Mr. Kennedy presented and I also though um I have I struggle looking at the maps. So it would be helpful if we could walk it one day. >> Absolutely. >> Um because we did that with Mr. Dalton when we did some land switching a few years ago and that helped like just kind of visualize it provide a better better visual. Mr. Seibel will come along then, too. Because I I don't quite understand the parking

057lot, but you can Yeah, I'll be glad to do that with you. Yeah. And it's important to note with the Cooley upper, it's not the land that we don't need, but the building is just something we might maintain. >> And I do you know, as a a taxpayer citizen of Clark County, I I've I like the ideas of expansion ex- expanding some of these programs. Um on page four of the document that that you guys shared with us, um you know, having um maybe emergency operations center and training rooms and it you know, just programs that are important to our county. Um >> Right. And being able to provide um more space for for different types of of classes and um maker space areas. I think all of that's important, so Does anybody else have

058anything? I I I can go either way. I I think it's I think it's important to get as much input and knowledge out there of what these spaces are currently being used for. Um that that we might not be aware of whether it be the the uh you know, what the schools use them, what what communities use for for you know, wreck leagues or it just make sure we have all that information and like you said, we can walk over it and and kind of make the best decision we want to be fiscally responsible and and making sure that we're we're uh getting the service that we're we're after and Yeah. And and look in the future, too. I mean, like you you were rattling off these courses. I like, well, they're some good high

059school classes. Right. Right. >> So, we we've had a a strong relationship and we want to continue that and I'm sorry. And I do think um to my only concern with um the using the land in between Cooley upper and lower was just that it's that it is a space that's used by the schools and then also other community programs um and I'd rather use something that I'd rather have a have a structure have a building on a piece of property that we really are not using, which would be the field behind us versus um a place that's used for field day or or you know, practices and that kind of thing. Anything, Mr. Site? I agree 100% with that statement. Okay. It's been a a lot of talking the past few weeks or past

060week or so. All of it. >> I'm going to take next steps as um offering to walk the properties with any school board members that would like to and then working on some conceptual drawings that would show lot division and what that could look like. Perfect. So, I'm marching. Sounds great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you all. I just want to I will take yes for an answer and and be glad. Um but uh just want to reiterate why we're here to begin with is that the community has needs for new space. Uh our social service building is in the Melting Pot building that the county bought 20-plus years ago. It wasn't a terribly good restaurant. It's not a terribly good uh building for what we're using it for now. Um the

061health department is in a brick building that um I can't remember it not being there. I'm now 62. Um and they have a month-to-month lease. So, that's not a very practical way to go forward. So, these are important um services to our community, to folks that um otherwise don't have these things and need them very much. Children, elderly, folks that are needing uh counseling and have the courage to ask for it. So, I would just say that these these needs are where why we started this conversation uh two, three superintendents ago. So, um we appreciate we're very appreciative, the board is very appreciative of the conversations and the partnership we have with you. And um I think we're on the right track. As a board, we are uh happy with either site. Uh we want

062to have public input on that, to understand the conflicts and the problems with either one of them. But, we need we have a need. Uh financially, we need to use property that the county/schools already owns. Otherwise, that ups the price, which then gets passed along to the taxpayer. So, this is a situation that is we're very fortunate to be in as a as a county board and as a county to have this partnership and relationship that allows us to utilize these uh properties. So, we appreciate that. And at the risk of being a little over dramatic, uh as far as the folks that need these things and and use them, you know, but for the grace of God, go I. So, we thank you and uh we look forward to working with you and working

063out these issues. So, thanks very much. Thank you. Thank Thank you, Dan. Thank you. Thanks very Okay, yeah. Um Finance Committee report. So, Mr. Newty will provide a report on the May 13th, 2026 Finance Committee meeting. So, good afternoon, everyone. I'll go ahead and give you guys the Finance Committee update for the month of May. So, there's three things we'll go over. All three things we'll be voting on in new business. Two of them are supplemental appropriation requests. So, the first one is just for $3,000 for insurance funds. This is related to property damage. Um in order for us to receive this funding from the insurance company, we need to be uh an increase our expenditure and appropriation needs to be brought to the school board for a vote and then eventually the board of

064supervisors. The next thing we talk about, that'll be on the slide that we have attached, is for the E-Rate supplemental appropriation. So, this is the second supplemental appropriation. The first thing you need to know here is just what the E-Rate program is, which provides schools and libraries with discounts on internet access, telecommunication services, and network equipment. The second thing would be about tech bonds, which fund computers, high-speed internet, and security equipment for local school divisions to improve computer-based instruction and testing. So, the original plan on the left there was to fund this with a 60/40 model. 60% would be fund uh funded federally. 40% would be funded locally. So, the local portion was the 18,400 and that would come to the total of $46,000. There was a price increase for this plan, so now the

065total plan is on the right at about a little over $68,000. We're still following the 60/40 split, but the 40% can now be funded with tech bond funding, so we save 18,400 of local funds. So, we carry over the tech bond funding and then for the upper portion of the 60% we would would still use the E-Rate uh federal funds. The 27,600 would carry over, and then we would make up the difference. And the difference there is highlighted for you in yellow, which is the $13,579. That's the addition that we're asking for that you'll be voting on in new business. And again, in order for this for us to do this, it has to be voted on and approved by the school board and then the board of supervisors. Any question on those two supplemental

066appropriations? Okay. Hearing none, the last thing we'll talk about is just the fiscal year '26 school educator bonus. So, where we left this off last month is we had a range that we voted on, anywhere from 1,200 to 1,500 dollars. Uh we wanted to push that vote off of an exact amount a month later just so we're a month later towards the end of the fiscal year. We can see where the finances settle and see what we can afford. So, the recommendation out of the finance committee was a $1,500 bonus for all eligible employees. Um the finance team's role in this is merely from a feasibility standpoint, what we can afford by having a safe buffer in our operating fund and not having to go back to the board of supervisors asking for additional funding.

067Going to the board of supervisors asking for additional funding would be the worst-case scenario. We want to avoid that, but we do feel from a feasibility standpoint we're in a good place where we can afford 1,500 per eligible employee and still have a buffer in our operating fund. So, that ultimate decision will be made by the school board, and that's something that you'll be voting on in new business to kind of finish that out. And then the tentative date to pay this out would be in the middle of June. Any questions on those three things? That's all I got for finance. And on the bonus, to be brief, but um one thing, this bonus was incredibly complicated, and we won't go through it. Um but, I am thankful for everybody working together to make this

068possible. Um the other thing is I would, you know, challenge our employees, you know, to say a thank you to the school board and board of supervisors cuz although this was portrayed as a statewide $1,500 educator bonus from all, it's not the case. It had many matches built in with it. And also, you know, counties could, if they gave a appropriate salary increase last year, count that, keep the money and not give a bonus. And there are a lot of counties around us that are doing that. Um also, there are a lot of jurisdictions that are not giving the raise at all not giving the bonus at all, but are returning the state money. Now, there are also others that are doing just what we're doing, and some are doing in between. Um it'll be

069interesting once this bonus is done to see a summary of all 131 districts and what they did. But having said that, this is something that not every and no school system is getting, so I hope that our, you know, employees will recognize and say thank you for that cuz it is through your all's dedication and work that we're able to do this, and also the board of supervisors, so I think it's important to be appreciative, you know. Thank you, Mr. Doce. Anyone have any questions or comments for Mr. Newcomb? All right, thank you. >> Thank you. Next is the superintendent's update. All right, um not too many things this evening. One thing I just read about today, though, so I'll mention before I forget it is today is uh National School Social Worker Day, and

070I didn't know that one, so that one's not on there, so want to say thank you to them for all they do. Um also, the Virginia Board of Nursing conducted an on-site review of our CNA program at Clarke County High School. This program is under Teresa Shank's supervision. It was found to be in compliance. The review included interviews with appropriate staff, students, and directors at each of the four clinical sites, so you can see um you know, that piece there attached. Also, April 28th, we had our fourth and fifth graders attend a reading rally at Shenandoah University. Uh so, I want to recognize that. Teacher Appreciation Week was May 4th through the 8th. Uh we tried to do a lot of things for our teachers and different organizations. We did um feed them with Sodexo

071food and went out there at that. We didn't only do our teachers, but did the entire staff, which I think is important. National School Nurse Day is May the 6th. So, I want to thank them for all that they do. Also, uh closing out the uh Clark County Education Foundation supported Casey Trees Project. Our third grade students explored the power of their own voices. They met with Chris Boyce, um administrator, and other people there to learn about active citizenship and how to protect the local environment and community. So, that's important there. Uh we also do have SEAC, gifted, and CTE minutes attached. Now, the uh School Health Advisory Board um minutes are attached there, and they also include a summary of their work that they've done as a board throughout the 2025-2026 school year. That's

072one of our uh really um active committees. And one highlight was the development of a family and student support resource directory. This can be found on the division's website, and there's a link there. Um and also, the committee wanted to ask the board, being the school board, if there was anything they would like for them to work on in the future to consider reaching out to them. Uh I'm finished at that point, but if uh Ms. Weir would like to show them the resource side. This is really nice. If somebody took one mouse and just saying that out loud in case somebody finds it. Hiding under a chair. Yes. That's awesome. Thank you, guys. So, next we have audience comments. Those wishing to speak should fill out a speaker's card and present it to the

073clerk. Audience comments are limited to 3 minutes per person in order to allow for ample time for all who wish to speak. All speakers should follow the rules of decorum and order um K under KDCPS are. And if some people don't want to speak based on the conversation that we've just had a few minutes ago maybe that don't have to speak. >> [laughter] [laughter] >> We're not used to having such a big crowd. Oh, is that it? We all generated heat. Madam Chair, members of the board, Dr. Bowling and Dr. Seal, good evening. My name is Pam Thompson. I am a taxpayer in Clark County, a retired teacher, and currently I am the math tutor at D.G. Cooley. I appreciate you taking the time to listen to all of the concerns about the placement of

074the new building that the county would like to build. I have not heard of anyone who is opposed to that building, but the idea of placing the building in the green space between Cooley Upper Campus and the stadium is a great concern to many people, as you all have already discussed. For one thing, the county prides itself on limiting growth and preserving green space, yet the Board of Supervisors wants to take away the um very visible green space and replace it with bricks, mortar, and asphalt. I just don't understand that rationale. Secondly, the area is also used by the schools and the community. It is so amazing to sit in the stadium and watch the band members walk across that field on their way to the stadium for games. If the space is not available,

075would you be adding money to the already tight budget to provide transportation to bring the band back and forth safely from the stadium to and from the stadium on Friday nights? Next would be to consider the extra traffic. The roundabout is already congested at certain times of the day, and if you were not here during the times of the Lucketts Fair, you missed a an awesome sight. It just was crazy. Um so, it's concerning that at times there may be quite a bit of additional traffic. And lastly, someone mentioned that Augusta County has numerous services housed at in the same location. So, I I some research, and it appears that the address is the same as their school board office, which is not located close to a school. Would it be possible to add on

076to the back of this building to provide the needed space? The cost may be lower for an addition and there is already an elevator here if it's needed. So in closing, I would just ask you to consider all aspects of this decision before voting. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you. >> [applause] >> And Andie Labadie? Um based on the discussion that we've had, I'd like to table for now, but I would like to thank the board for our vote. I really appreciate >> [laughter] >> Nikki Bluebaugh? Yes, this is actually on a different matter, but I'm going to go ahead and put it out there. Okay. Just give me a minute. You got this. I know. >> [snorts] >> My husband wanted to be here today, too, but he's taking my uh duties

077of watching my granddaughter tonight. My name is Nikki Bluebaugh. On Thursday, April the 30th, my son, who is a freshman, on school grounds during school hours, was aggressively threatened by a male teacher who told my son, "I will kill you." My son feared for his life, went into the office immediately to tell them what had just happened. Mr. Whipkey from there took my son, placed him into Mrs. Mrs. Wolf's office, while he then he went and spoke to the teacher. Ms. Woof then belittled my son by questioning my son, his attendance, his grades. And finally, let's look up what happened in middle school. Why? What did that have to do with anything that just happened? Making my son feel as if he did something wrong. A teacher just told him, "I will kill you." And

078he And that's what he was treated like? By the both vice principals at the school. Mr. Wimpy and Ms. Woof ensured my did not ensure my son's safety. Ms. Woof is the one who called me to let me know that there was an altercation between my son and a teacher with no explanation and that he'd be ready in 10 minutes. I arrived at the school where my son and I talked to Mr. Wimpy. I mean, Wimpy. And in his office, his demeanor and harshness with my son was unwarranted and uncalled for. I asked, "What are What are we What are we going to do about this teacher?" He then asked my son, "What do you think the teacher said?" My son looked at him and said, "He denied it." And Mr. Wimpy "Okay then, you

079know." So from there, I asked again, "What are we going to do about this teacher?" He looked at me and he said, "You have the ball." So basically, the school gave me the teacher's balls to deal with and trust me, I am and I will. The sheriff's department should have been called immediately. This was a death threat from a teacher to a student on school grounds. I will kill you. Monday, May 4th, the teacher was in class teaching. Clark County High School. He kept I kept my son home out of fear for his life. Several other parents did the same. Their courage through this gave me courage and I'm so thankful for them. How could Clark County school officials let this happen? A male teacher threatens to kill a student and they did nothing. If

080it was a female student, would that have changed the outcome of it? I then called to talk to Mrs. Seal and Mr. Bowling that day and trusting and knowing that that is what led for that teacher to be escorted out of school and placed on administrative leave. Thank you. But it's not over. Somehow, that teacher got special permission to come back on those school grounds. I don't care what was going on. He should not have been back there at all. And it blows my mind. The teacher had a protective order on him from my son to stay away from my son. My son That's my son's school. And he still showed up there. There's an active investigation at Clark County Sheriff's Department, the teacher knowing of that as well. So, a teacher can threaten to

081kill a [snorts] student, get special privileges. He's dangerous and he's a liar. My 5-year-old son filled with guilt >> timer is kind of wrapping up. My My son was filled with guilt that the teacher would come back and try to harm him and instead harm his friends. That he took time off from school not because he didn't want to be there, because he didn't want anything else to happen. I'm going to pull myself together, but for my son, I'm going to finish this cuz he deserves it. >> Thank you. Your time is up. In this society, we know better. There was a warning. You had a warning, and nothing was done. Okay? Excuse me, ma'am. Yes. This is a very serious matter. It is under administrative uh advisement right now, plus criminal advisement. >> Yeah.

082This is not the place to make these uh what would happen these allegations. These are allegations. >> me, ma'am. You'll get your chance, and while I completely sympathize with your position >> Okay. uh I would not say you're doing your case any good by bringing it up in an open forum like this. Let the investigations proceed. Uh we'll see where we go from there. Okay. Trust me. Trust me. Neither the board nor the administration Okay, let's Thank you. Please have a seat. Mr. Wilson, thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Okay, listen. Can you please ask her to leave? Thank you. I did not know it was going to turn out this way, and I'm very disappointed in all Thank you. Nice. Hello. Um I had a lot of remarks prepared, but after the discussion I'm

083going to skip, but I did just want to come up and just sincerely say thank you. Thank you for listening. Thank you for reading all the emails. Um I became Miss Clark County Community Facebook page um over the weekend, and that's not anything I enjoyed doing, but we're passionate about our school, and we feel I think the general consensus is that we feel like, "Wow, thank you. You listened." We're very concerned about the green space. Um we totally understand about Cooley Upper, everything that you're saying. You know, we've we've lived it. We've taught there when when four grades have been up there, and when an administrator um a pseudo administrator was up there, it's never worked. It's it's not good. So, we totally hear what you're saying about it's time to kind of turn that

084over and let the building be used by people that can truly utilize it. And then we were so relieved to hear you specifically mention about changing the property lines, and definitely maintaining that green space because if you don't, we would be the only school in Clark County Public Schools without a green space um large enough for whole school events. The high school has two, middle school, Boyce Elementary. They all have large whole green spaces. So, if something would happen to that green space in between the campuses, Cooley would be the only school in our division without a green space. So, thank you for listening. We appreciate you very much, and we look forward to more dialogue about this as more decisions are made. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Timson Blair >>

085Good evening, board. My name is Tim Sinclair. I'm a father of children that are at all three levels throughout the school system here. And I wanted to come before you just as an advocate for accessibility and walkability within the town, within the community, and our services. I appreciate a lot of the thoughts and discussion that you all had. I thank the the county representatives from being out here as well. And I'm here to just ask you to further consider using the lot behind the building here for the proposed health and human services building. From an accessibility and walkability perspective, obviously it's close to our urban core where we know we already have income-limited and age-restricted living individuals that would use those services as well as the services are provided today not too far from this

086building. With Upper Cooley, I applaud the idea of retrofitting that, reusing it, finding other community use for it and the parks and recreation space. It fits from a planning and land use perspective. It fits what is actually right next to it, which is the parks and recreation right there at Chet Hobart. Leaving that green space there for our local sports, for the schools, for as Mr. Kennedy as you mentioned, if you needed another building up there, you've got it. Right? I don't think the the retooling and reuse of Upper Cooley has to exactly be tied to the health and human services building. Those things can be separate. And I would actually ask you to kind of consider that because I think it's more of a win-win for the community and for the Upper Cooley repurposing

087that it happen in that way. I know there's more administrative stuff that might need to happen, but that's administrative stuff for a building. It's a building. The people that work in that building and the people that visit that building are the community that is served. And so consider the community service that would be met by having a building directly back here, ease of accessibility throughout the town, and that's what I'm here to advocate for this evening. Thank you. Thank you. RYAN COPPAGE GOOD EVENING. THIS WHOLE THING WENT A little different. Um I'm that green space needs to be conserved. Um I'm thinking I'm I'm a parent of two students. I have a daughter that plans on running cross country in that green space. I don't know why, but she's going to. I have a son

088that is, you'll appreciate this, he plans on celebrating the Clark County football state championship in That green space is for education. It's for our students. It's for our athletes. It's for our parents. It needs to be maintained. We don't need a high-rise building taking up hopes and dreams for our kids and our and our athletes. This is not Fairfax County. This is not Loudoun County. This is Clark County. We're a unique system for that very reason. The Board of Supervisors needs to do better work. We're seeing that. I appreciate you all taking this into serious consideration. You all are here for to represent the parents and the students, and that's your number one goal. So, when you vote and when you make these decisions, you're representing those kids that are out there. You're representing the

089parents. You're not representing the Board of Super- Supervisors. You're not representing financial and money. You're representing the students. That's what we put you all up here for. I appreciate you all taking this into consideration and not making a a spur moment decision. But take it seriously. This site would probably be the best. Those services need are needed. But they don't need to be needed over at Cooley. This is for our students, our students' safety, our students' livelihoods, parents. Let the kids be kids. Thank you. Thank you. >> Joanna Hembree? Is that it? Hembree. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. I hate public speaking. We're just going to say that. >> [laughter] >> Um good evening, members of the board and fellow parents. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight. I'm here as a

090mother, like every parent in this room, my single most important job is keeping my children safe. When we send our kids to school, we trust that this community will provide sanctuary where they can focus on learning, growing, and just being kids. That is why I'm urging you to reconsider the proposed location for the new mental health, social service, and health department facility. To be absolutely clear, I'm for these services, just not right right beside my kids' school. Um but location, you know, it definitely matters and um let's just take a look at what these facilities entail. I did a little research looking at their websites and looking at what kind of services they provide to the community. Social services provide vital care, which include crisis intervention for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. Individuals

091in navigating raw trauma and volatile, high conflict dynamics. Furthermore, adult patient and crisis stabilization services that are provided at Northwestern Mental Health are explicitly designed for individuals in acute distress, meaning helping those looking to harm themselves or others. This is directly stated on the website under services. These are heavy, intense adult realities. Placing a center that handles these exact vulnerabilities directly adjacent to where children play at recess, walk to their cars, is a massive lapse in judgment. The practical realities cannot be ignored. Introducing a separate high-volume flow of adult crisis into a chaotic school zone creates an unnecessary safety risk. While our schools have tight internal security and protocol, we cannot control shared shared perimeters, public sidewalks, or parking lots. A person experiencing a severe breakthrough episode or a victim fleeing a domestic crisis deserves

092privacy, dignity, and a calm environment, not the sightline of hundreds of school children. And our kids deserve to navigate their day without being exposed to these crises. We do not have to choose between supporting mental health or protecting our kids. We can do both. There are other properties in our town that offer privacy for patients and a safe distance from our classroom. Because of the high stakes involved for both patients and our children, we're asking for complete transparency. We need clear communication of exactly what is being placed in this location, every specific service that will be provided there. Families have the right to know the full scope of what is being planned for our school's perimeter. I'm asking the board to pause this project, look at the map, put yourselves in our shoes as parents,

093and reconsider. Um I just want to say, you know, a closing note that just because the land might be free and money is tight, it doesn't mean a single child's life is worth this risk. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Excuse me. Hands up the board members who have children in Clark County public school system, please. There's one, there's two, there's Mine's out. >> [laughter] >> Sorry about that. Uh Believe it or not, the board has these concerns, too. The next person is Matt McDonald. Hello. Good evening. My name is Matt McDonald. So, I'm here as a parent. Um just for some background, just my perspective. I'm the director of information technology at Toys for Tots. We do, you know, last year 10 million children, including 2,500 in the Warren, Frederick, and Clark County, including over

094300 in Clark County last year. So, I have some understanding about some of the social services and needs in the county. My fourth child is about to graduate from Clark County High School. They've been through all the schools. I've been here since 2011. Very familiar with the school systems here. Um I think, uh what you're seeing here is that we have very passionate community. We have residents that very much care about the community. And I think you can see by this passionate response of, uh, what happens if you don't get the community behind you. And the community does not feel like they are being properly represented. And their their wants and desires, and what they feel is best for the community is being considered properly. So, I think that's what really I think I know

095you have just came in or late, so I'm not sure everything, but I think what is very clear is that something has been flawed and not work with this process. And it does need to be paused. And you should look at this as a as a good thing, that the community wants to get involved. The community is passionate about this. We are community very passionate about we take care of our people, we take care of our residents, and it's very important to us. But, we want to be part of that. We don't want to feel like we're being cut out. We do certainly don't want to feel like people know our community, our residents, and our children better than we do. So, what I would say from the board and what the board should see

096here is this is a great opportunity to get the community behind you, get a good solution in place, get an appropriate solution in place that the community can fall behind, and community can work with you, and you'll be successful. I can guarantee that if you do not do that, this will be a failure. This is the way Clark County is. This is the way the residents are. We are not We are Clark County. We do things different. And as a parent who also has a 26-year-old son with a disability, who's very entrenched in this community, I came from Northern Virginia because I wanted him to be a part of a community. He works at the mines. He goes Taekwondo. I went to those people, I said, "Give my son a chance." Clark County did. Prince

097William County didn't. Loudoun County didn't. Other places didn't. That's what Clark County is. So, please do not take this in a bad way. Please hear what we're saying. Please hear that we want to be part of it. We want it to be successful. We want to take care of all our residents. And uh I think if you just pause for a minute, give us a chance, maybe we haven't been as attentive to this to this situation as we should have been really, but now we are. So, give us a chance to make sure we get our input, and I think we can come up with a solution that everyone likes, and that will serve the residents appropriately and to the best, and everyone in Clark. So. Thank you very much. Thank you. You're welcome. Shane.

098Can you tell me what your last name is, sir? Boswell. See, we were debating. I was right. Shane, sir. Come on down. He's the last one. Okay. I've got a quick one. Uh Shane Boswell, I'm a parent of kids in Clark County Public Schools. I got two at DG Cooley, and I'm honored to have my school board representative and my board of supervisors member here at the same time. This is the second or third time I've showed up to a meeting with a long list of stuff I wanted to address. >> [snorts] >> Then over the course of the meeting it's been worked out. Right? It you know, it it it is always delightful to see folks who are elected that listen to the folks who reach out, that are passionate, that have concerns. We're

099not always going to agree on everything. Uh some of the stuff that that I've parsing the notes on on Facebook and some of the conversation, there are some things that didn't get addressed. Westfield is a little bit dangerous. It's not going to be uh uh uh uh fixed by adding in a health and human services building in that green space. It's not going to be solved by not putting it there. We probably ought to take a look at doing a traffic study in front of DG Cooley. Almost been hit multiple times pulling in and pulling out. We have an opportunity as we move the upper campus off of our books, if that's the direction we decide to go, to free up a little capital and to partner with the county to line that stretch of

100road with some really nice trees that'll give can canopy to all the folks who walk their kids to schools and they're going to be walking their kids to those parks and recs facilities. We have an obligation to invest in planting trees our children will sit under and will walk under when they're walking their kids to our schools. So, however we end up going with this health and human services building, and I'm in support of wherever we end up needing to put it. I I have fed my children on Wick. My oldest, he went and got his very first shots to start kindergarten at a free clinic because we did not have health insurance. Um we came up through that system. It's part of the reason why I am who I am today. So is public

101education. And we have an opportunity to partner together to make a better Clark County and a better Berryville for our kids and for their kids. Thank you. Thank you. OKAY. IS THERE ANYONE ELSE WHO'D LIKE TO SPEAK THAT MAYBE didn't sign up? Okay. Moving on to new business, consideration of policy for first and second reading. Consideration of Okay. Sorry. All right. Before you all vote, I wanted to kind of quickly give a summary of these two. Uh they're relatively simple tonight. I was hoping that over summer we could focus on three or four ones that we really needed to apply. That's [snorts] not probably the case because now we got another 40 or 50 that the SBA wants us to reconsider. It seems like that's happening more and more. Um but anyway, one of them

102is really simple, which is the support staff probationary period. Um before the SBA had not defined how long a probationary period would be for support staff. Um in the new um policy services, they did. And we intended to mirror the county's 6 months. Oh, sorry. Uh we intended to mirror the county's 6 months. And the good thing is that wasn't very important. What I just said cuz it was a typo is what I was getting to. Uh we had a typo with 3 months the last time we voted on it versus six. So, that's the only difference there is the digit changing from three to six. Um that's why we feel confident in the first and the second read cuz it's really nothing new, just something that had gone through. The other one I think

103is an example of listening to. We try to take care of our people and I think that's how we got to the floating holidays for our 12-month people because sometimes we need to look at no-cost, low-cost ways to take care of people as well and that what is what makes, you know, a place unique. This came up out of Superintendent's Advisory and um CCEA meetings, which was that we could that a 10- or 11-month employee, be it a teacher or anybody in IA, there's no avenue that they could take a week off during school year, which we strongly do not encourage that happening, but there are times that a teacher's child may be getting married across the country or something like that. Um And always try to listen when I hear it. Um And I

104do recall in one division I worked, the superintendent having somebody who was Miss Virginia and had a required um thing in the middle of the year. She was a great lady, but come to me and I said, "I'm sorry. You've told me and it has to be 2 days unpaid cuz you only can have 3 days personal that you can use. Um And often that policy that only allowed that you get rid of at the end of the year and it's only 3 days personal. I am big for being ethical and moral, but it's one of those policies that sometimes punishes the ethical moral cuz as long as somebody doesn't do something unintelligent, which would be to put in some sick days and post it on social media or something, then there's very little way

105to prove that they've done it. Um And we had the same thing. I had a staff member this year who won a trip. And it was an all expenses trip that rarely ever missed a school day. And they had to do two days unpaid leave, which concerned me. Um having that been brought up at the CCEA and the superintendent's advisory, is there an avenue? Well, we can't there's not many, but we couldn't do leave as leave because then when they retire we would be required to pay them at per diem. And we don't have the finances to do that piece. But I did know of at least two or three school divisions in the Commonwealth of Virginia that had an in-between policy which was no cost cuz it did not give a person any additional

106leave. Which is what it did was that a staff member earns the three personal days each year like they always do. But they can carry them forward without them being converted to uh sick up to a maximum accrual of five. What that means is if a teacher ends this year with three you know, we advance them three on July 1, that would be six. They couldn't keep six, but they could keep five in personal and the one would go over to sick if that makes sense. So, there's no additional leave. It would take every so many years that they would have to save that up. You know, but I do think there are times that we need to take care of our people and be mindful of stuff like that. Having said that would not

107be at all encouraging to make it a regular habit. But unfortunately, people who are doing that as a regular habit are probably doing it and just not telling us anyway. So, I think we take care of the people who do things with dignity. And that's what that policy is. Does not include any additional leave, but it just allows the personal to be in accrual up to five. Um and that would mainly benefit our 10 and 11-month people. But our recommendation would be a first and second read on both of those. I move to approve the policies presented for the first and second reading. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. Uh consideration for graduation dates for 2027 and 2028. No. These are pretty straightforward. They're just recommended dates based on the calendar.

108Okay. Is there a motion? I move to approve the 26-27 Oh, sorry. I'm on the wrong one. Here we go. I move to approve May 20th, 2027 and May 18th, 2028 as graduation dates for Clark County High School with the inclement weather dates on May 21st, 2027 and May 19th, 2028. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. Approval of 2026-2027 fee schedule. The rest of it I don't have any comments on. You don't have any com- Okay. Okay. So, Dr. Bowling doesn't have any comments on this. Um Does anyone have any questions or comments? Okay. Is there a motion? I move to approve the 2026-2027 fee schedule as presented. Second. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. Approval of E-rate. So, this is what uh Mr. Nucci presented

109to us just a few minutes ago. I move that the FY26 school capital fund budgeted expenditure and appropriation be increased $13,579.75 and that revenue budget and appropriation be increased by the same amount for the purpose of receiving federal funds to be used for Clark County's E-rate program. Second. All in favor? I. All opposed? Motion passes. Approval of insurance funds. This is also something that Mr. Nucci spoke to. I move that the FY26 school operating fund budgeted expenditure and appropriations be increased 3,000 and that revenue budget and appropriations be increased by the same amount for the purpose of receiving insurance funds to be used for property damage payments. Second. All in favor? I. All opposed? Motion passes. Determination of FY26 educator bonus payment amount. So, this is also what um Mr. Nucci alluded to just a

110little bit ago that >> [snorts] >> um well, that we're going to pay all those who qualify 1,500 the $1,500 bonus. The only thing, it's no comment with it, but whoever makes that motion, our recommendation is the $1,500 bonus, but because this bonus is incredibly specific, that is state language that we would need to read that motion in its entirety. I move to pay a $1,500 bonus to all contracted employees of Clark County Public Schools that were on contract as of April 1st, 2026 and sign a contract for the 2026-27 school year or file paperwork to retire through VRS at the conclusion of the 25 2025-26 school year. The bonus will be contingent upon the receipt of of state appropriated funding for the 2026 educator bonus. If funding has been received by Clark County on

111or before June 1st, 2026, the bonus will be paid on June 15th, 2026. Otherwise, the bonus will be paid as soon as possible after state funding is received. Second. All in favor? I. All opposed, motion passes. Well, we're moving on to school board comments. School board member comments. Mr. Site? Uh I appreciate the community being here, especially your concerns. It's greatly appreciated. We always need the input. Um I think we're going to come across a nice solution to the situation. I believe that will happen. So, thank you. All right, Mr. Wilson? Yeah, I just second what he said. I believe there is a solution here that's going to be acceptable to all. And uh the other thing is please understand that your faculty and administrations put up a lot that you never hear about. And

112if you have a problem and you want to solve it, you have routes open to you. And coming to a public meeting and going off on a diatribe is not the way to accomplish your goals and it's not the way to help any student you feel may be hard done by. Thank you. Thank you. Um as a school board member with with students in the in the schools, I want to click to be clear that we take the safety of our students, staff, everybody um into consideration on every decision. So, I don't think that was um I think there was maybe some confusion on on what that looked like when we were looking at that green space. It was It was all open for discussion, public discussion, public comments, everything else. Um we're going to

113work together with the Board of Supervisors to to make this amicable for everybody. Um I think it's important that we maintain that relationship and we do want your input. Absolutely. Please feel free to call us, email us, whatever you you know, we we can do. Um and then, you know, obviously it ultimately we're going to collaborate with with the Board of Supervisors to and help in that decision-making as well. So, um we have SROs in the in the schools. So, that's something to to consider as well. Not that we're we're going back on what we said, so just keep that in mind that safety is the utmost importance. So, that's all I have. Thank you. Um I'll [clears throat] uh tag on with what's been said. Um also want to make sure that uh the

114people know that that we do care and we do listen and and uh certainly appreciate comments. Um We also I want to say that, you know, everybody's wanting the same goal, maybe just a different uh path to get there, but certainly uh the comment was made about Clark County and open space and and you know, we are a I think a bastion of that uh with development pressure and and those type of things. But, there are there are needs, and sometimes there are there are you have to kind of give up some things or at least come up with something to to replace maybe what you're giving up. So, those those uh those conversations [clears throat] will happen, and we encourage you to to to to stay in tune and and informed about those. Um

115I'd like to say that I went to the awards ceremony last night at Clark County High School, and um this is a wonderful wonderful community, and it uh is certainly evident by the amount of scholarships and the of organizations and and and and private groups that provide scholarships for our our students. And it was just a very nice time. It was it was fun and there's a lot of memories cuz people going to school and and remembering the people that are were being honored. Um anyway, it was just a very nice thing and I think we're a blessed community and I uh I I hope we continue that all be kind to each other and and support each other as as well as our students and and staff. Thank you. Um Can I say one

116more thing? >> Sure, go right ahead. With all the passion that was shown in the room tonight, I don't want it to go by the wayside of our retirees. I I do want to thank you guys for all your years of service. Um we appreciate it. You've obviously had impacted many lives. And thank you very much for that and go Clark on the widget cup. It's pretty awesome. Um so I think just to wrap up the conversation that we've had tonight about the the land use, I do think it's important for the community to understand that we have so many rules that um limit us in terms of being able to meet as a group and it makes it really difficult and it it we're constantly on the phone because you can't have what more

117than three of us more than two or it's considered um a meeting and so it makes it a challenge for us to work together as a group. It's not like we could we can come together and say, "Hey, let's meet for 30 minutes um to talk this out." It's it's a constant back and forth calling um and saying what about this? What about this? What about this? Um and so I really appreciate the time that we've all spent over the past week cuz it's been a lot and I don't like to talk on the phone that much. >> [laughter] >> But I've spent um many days on the phone. So anyway, I I really appreciate that and and we also have the same you know, the Board of Supervisors also has the same limitations and

118so it's difficult. It makes um communication a challenge sometimes and it is definitely time consuming. So I genuinely appreciate the way that we've all worked together to figure this out and I think it's going to take a little bit longer um and more discussions and walk-throughs and all of that, but I'm glad that I we have no intention this board has no intention of fighting with the Board of Supervisors. We all do better when we get along. And and it keeps our students as a top priority. Um and then lastly, like graduation's coming up. So congratulations to our high schoolers and um uh and congratulations to our retirees and thank you to the high school also for a safe and happy prom at the Barnes of Rose Hill. That It looked like a fun weekend.

119So um and with that is there a motion to convene in closed session? I move to convene a closed session to discuss personnel matters including appointments, resignations, and retirement pursuant to Code of Virginia 2.2-3711 A1 and for legal [clears throat] discussion pursuant to Code of Virginia 2.2-3711 A7. The estimated time required for the closed session is 30 minutes and action is expected. Second. All in favor? Aye. >> Aye. All opposed? Okay. >> Mhm. >> I move that we can reconvene in open session. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? I. Certification of closed session. I. All right, action based on closed session. Is there a motion? I move to approve all personnel matters as discussed. Second. All in favor? I. All right, I will join adjourn the meeting. >> Mhm.