Clarke County Public Schools School Board Meeting 10/20/2025

001Madam Chair, This is better. See, we can read that. Good evening. I'll now call to order the October 20th, 2025 school board meeting. And I'd ask for everyone to join us in saying the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands, one nation under God. with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. Um, review and approval of tonight's agenda. Um, are there any comments or questions about tonight's agenda? >> I move to approve the agenda as presented. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? Okay, tonight's consent agenda. Um, are there any comments or questions regarding the consent agenda? >> I move not to approve the agendas presented. >> Okay. Sorry. I just have one comment. Um, I wanted to be sure to thank um Ryan

002McCavish and the Schneable Foundation Company because they've donated $2,500 to the girls basketball program which is donations like that from private organizations are really helpful. So, thank you to the Macavish family. Anything else? Okay. Sorry. So, is there a second? >> A second. >> All in favor? >> I Anyone opposed? Okay. and audience comments. So, student, staff, and community participation is encouraged at all schoolboard meetings and work sessions. Audience comments are limited to three minutes per person in order to allow for ample time for all who wish to speak. Patrons speaking on behalf of a group are also allowed three minutes and should identify the group they're representing prior to speaking. Those wishing to speak should fill out a speaker card and present it to the clerk. All speakers should follow the rules of decorum

003and order and are asked to bring at least seven copies of any handouts they wish to share. Regulations related to decorum and order at schoolboard meetings. >> Okay. And public participation as well as the citizen comment form are provided on board docs. The citizen comment card is also available at schoolboard meetings. We don't need it. Okay. Do we have any comments or people who wish to speak? >> Okay. >> Thank you. I'm Mary Veloo. I live in Barryville and I have eight grandchildren in Clark County Public Schools. I appreciate the opportunity to feedback on the family life education program and this evening I'd like to present my opinion as well as an alternative to for the school district to consider the first one the focus on education in any school should be academic instruction introduction

004to the arts and physical education the material presented as an unnecessary burden to teachers and especially on the PE teachers and for example I thought on the opt- out form that I looked at who keep tracks who keeps track of all the children and what objectives the parents parents want exemptions from. I just find that an unnecessary burden. Number two, for parents and grandparents like me, the family is the primary teacher and example when it comes to these topics. For the religiously minded, teaching about the human body and human sexuality is a sacred trust since we believe that each person is created in the image of God. Even the human body is a sacred trust. This infuses incredible and unmatched meaning and purposefulness to our lives and decisions. Number three, I am curious about the

005effectiven effect effectiveness of any family life program in the United States. Is it really helping to achieve the goal that has been stated on your website to provide students with the knowledge and skills to make informed, responsible decisions related to growth and development and emotional and social health? Looking at statistics today of teen porn sites, increase in STDs, etc., I am highly doubtful. knowledge does not translate into responsible behavior. Number four, I understand that parents can opt their children out of the program, but as you know is true, removing children, they are the ones singled out and feel embarrassed to go to the library for an alternative assignment. Number five, as presented, this program is not purely biological or scientific. By its very nature, it involves values and moral implications. The burden should not be

006on the PE teacher to navigate this. It's best to present with the values of the parents. For number six, for an alternative, why not email the parents or guardians the information you deem important for their child to know and let each parent determine the time and appropriate way to deliver that information in the security of their own home. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Tara Krider. I'm live in White Post and I have two children that are in uh third grade and kindergarten. And I am opposed to uh bringing the family life education to Clark County. I am a strong believer that um the family, the parents should be the primary educators of our children and especially when we're um considering topics like this, family life that should be taught by the family and

007not um the school. Um I understand and I I do appreciate the option of having the opt out. However, I second what the previous speaker said that that does single our children out if they are going to be opting out and it it um brings an unnecessary burden upon the teachers trying to track which students are supposed to be in or out of these programs. Um I left some heavy feedback on the online forum and um at a minimum I would appreciate um some sort of response to a lot of the questions that I brought up um on that online forum if this does move forward. um a lot of clarifying questions as to what certain things were being defined um before I would could could make a decision on whether or not I would

008want my child to opt out or not. But the bottom line for me is that um I do believe that these sorts of topics that are being discussed in the family life education are um deal with family values and that should be taught in the home and not in the school. Thank you. And I'm not texting. I'm trying to pay attention to Hi everyone. My name is Chris Clifford and I'm a resident of Boyce and a parent to a student in Clark County schools. I'm also a member of the school health advisory board committee where I first learned that Clark County did not have a family life education program and embarrassingly had not for many years. I worked last spring to review the standards. I have read through each grade level carefully and provided feedback

009to educators involved in developing our framework and I've written each of you as well. I am fully supportive of teaching all aspects of which follow state standards and guidelines and which have been vetted by our community's educators. I will say my only complaint is that the standards are actually not as comprehensive as those I was taught in the 1990s and that's saying something. As a former teacher and a parent, I believe firmly that education is not just for learning facts, but it's also for creating future citizens in our community. They have to navigate the complex world of adulthood after our schools. Knowing the causes of World War II is a key historical knowledge, but it isn't something that's going to help you in everyday adult civic life. Things like navigating relationships is a big part

010of this curriculum. That's something we do every day. Things like dealing with family, friends, and romantic partners are things you're going to do every day. Knowing about toxic relationships, knowing the signs of drug abuse in family and friends, and how to get help. Knowing the effects of the internet, media, or phones on your life, or knowing the signs of sexual exploitation and the consequences of sexing, all of these things in the curriculum. And yes, knowing about sexual and reproductive health or family planning is something that will touch the daily lives of our future citizens. So I believe it fully has a place in our schools taught by our trusted educators. I know there was discussion about teaching in elementary and again I believe the pieces about relationships are very key for this age group. But

011also the reality is many girls are going to start their periods in third, fourth or fifth grade. And it isn't a dirty secret. It's a biological fact and we should educate our kids about it just as we do decimals. In fact, I feel less afraid that my child will learn factual information about sex and reproduction than I feel afraid that a board of education would try to keep this knowledge from our community and from parents who want it taught in our schools, especially as there is a strong parent opt out. Please support giving our kids the knowledge they deserve, especially as you are our board of education. Thank you. Good evening, members of the board, superintendent bowling, and fellow community members. My name is Amy Martin, and I have a daughter in the fourth grade

012at DG I'm here tonight to urge you respectfully but urgently to vote in favor of implementing the family life education curriculum that was in fact already approved by the board in 2019. It was supposed to be in place in the classroom in the spring of 2020. And while we all understand the extraordinary disruption caused by CO, I think that we can agree that it does not explain a six-year delay in delivering basic age appropriate education to the students of Clark County. This curriculum is not radical. It is not controversial, but it is statemandated. And yet here we are still debating whether children should learn how their bodies work, how to recognize unsafe situations, how to establish healthy, respectful boundaries and relationships. Some of this resistance seems rooted in old-fashioned discomfort with words like menration. But

013young girls are still getting their periods whether adults acknowledge it or not. And wouldn't it be better if they understood what was happening rather than being confused or ashamed? And let's be clear, we're not talking just about anatomy. We're talking about teaching kindness, consent, safety, and respect. Foundational life skills that are not provocative. They are protective. I heard the argument that these lessons should be taught at home, and I agree. They should. But not children have engaged, informed adults at home who are prepared to provide this guidance. Should we leave those children behind? Besides, all public education is at its best when lessons introduced at home are reinforced in the classroom and vice versa. Whether it's basic math, reading comprehension, or understanding how the human body works, our learners thrive when schools and families work

014together. And for parents who truly object, the opt out option remains clear and available. This curriculum does not prevent parental choice. It simply ensures that all children have access to the education that they need to stay healthy and safe. So the real question tonight isn't whether the curriculum is useful because it is. And it's not whether it has value because it does or whether the content is age appropriate because it was designed experts to be age appropriate. The question is whether Clark County is finally ready to do what it committed to do six years ago. Let's stop asking kids to wait for knowledge that they needed yesterday because some adults today are uncomfortable. Please vote to implement the family education curriculum and our students are ready and quite frankly it's overdue. Thank you. Good evening.

015I appreciate the opportunity to uh speak. My name is Bryant Seymour. Um, admittedly I'm speaking on behalf of my better half this evening. She's actually at a uh a special needs function with my youngest son, stepson. Anyway, um I see a lot of familiar faces in this room tonight and I'm sure a lot of them know Aiden. He's like the mayor of uh Barville. But anyway, I digress. Um the point I'd like to make is a little bit different. It's about communication. Um I I have some questions here. I know this is comments and not questions, but um we um completed the survey. We also couple weeks ago sent an email to the board. We're in the Buck Mar Buck Marsh district. Um but we sent an email to the board um with a a

016few questions. Um I'm going to go ahead and just put these questions on the record. Um, when was the last year sexed and family life was provided? Um, how were the parents notified? How often were the uh notifications sent out? These are questions that we don't know. Okay. Um, we have a recent Clark grad and I don't remember or Lindsay does not remember ever receiving as much as a yearly notification, right? And that troubles me because I remember having the talk with Wyatt. He's our oldest, okay? And that talk was in middle school and of course his you know that uncomfortable from him and we we talk about this in school and this was when he was in middle school. Okay. So I know that then and he's in his sophomore year at Tech. So

017this was six years ago I'd say. But anyway, if from what I'm hearing is correct, those classes never took place while he was in high school. And to me, that's a travesty. Okay. Um, obviously we've talked about that kind of stuff, but in my mind, you know, he was getting information in high school at that point. And I would hate to think that he was learning more about the things that he needed to learn about from the internet most likely like a lot of kids do, you know, than from his parents. I feel like we would have had a lot more discussions if I had known >> that this wasn't happening in school. All right, I'm 50. I'm getting ready to turn 51 years old. We had sex education in the 80s, in the 90s.

018Okay, it's 20 25. I just feel like, you know, have we, you know, digressed this far? I I just uh anyway, I'm getting off track. >> So, your time is up. I'm sorry. >> Okay. No, that's okay. Listen, >> thank you, Mr. Seymour. >> I really appreciate the opportunity to speak. >> Thank you. >> Hello, ladies and gentlemen. I'm here to discuss my opposition to the curric to the FLLE program on the agenda today. Uh I'm in complete agreement with the moral arguments discussed here tonight and those that were sent in uh via email. Here's the bottom line. These are topics for parents to discuss with their children when the parents feel the time is right. I fully understand there's an opt out clause for the family and trust me that's going to happen. But

019even if I opt out my child, here is how it affects her and every other child in the Clark County school system. This is I'm going in a completely different direction here. Our children at a national level, worldwide, sorry, worldwide, we rank 13th in the world and we claim to have the greatest country in the world. 13th for education. At the state level, Virginia is 15th out of 50 plus probably, you know, 51 for DC maybe and Clark County is 56 in the state of Virginia. So bottom line, even if a child has opted out, this program utilizes time that would that would serve better by focusing on the subjects that are core. reading, writing, math, science. 56 in Virginia isn't bad as far as Clark County, I will say, but Virginia being 15th is

020unacceptable. And 13th in the world is shameful. Schools need to focus on education and educating our children on the basics that drive success and stop trying to part-time parent of every child. Our teachers are limited with their time with our kids and they're doing the best that they best that they can with what they got. This program takes away precious time that could be served for those core subjects. Reading, writing, math, sciences. Parents can and should be responsible parties for teaching these sensitive topics to their children. This being said, I'm in complete opposition to this program being implemented in Clark County schools. One tidbit I'd like to say, I was a child of the 90s myself and I had something similar in my school system and I grew up in Ohio and my senior year,

021my high school had the highest per capita pregnancy in the state of Ohio and we had this pushed since I think it was seventh grade. It surely did us a lot of good. We we should have had a daycare at our high school. It was that bad. So, thank you. Thank you for your time and attention. >> Thank you. Good evening. My name is Carrie McKenna and I'm a Clark County parent of two boys, one in middle school and one in high school. Thank you for giving me the the community the opportunity to speak tonight in favor of the flee curriculum as I did in 2018 and 2019 when my kiddos were then in kindergarten and fourth grade. I want to start by reminding us of some of the things we all share here tonight.

022Every one of us here cares deeply about the children in this county. And as a public school system, we are responsible for all of our children. those in everyday families, but also those in foster care, those being raised by grandparents, those who have parents that don't feel comfortable or qualified to talk about all the subjects, you know, like algebra, and those who parents are just getting by. So, please keep that in mind, all of our county's children when you vote tonight. And I also want you to remember that is a statemandated part of the Virginia Standards of Learning. It is not an optional curriculum. And I know and understand that it's a tough topic for many people to talk about. Conversations about mental health, safety, peer pressure, and our bodies can feel very uncomfortable. But

023it's sometimes these hard conversations that matter most, especially when they're about the well-being of our children. And as a board, you've often said that you respect and appreciate our teachers and staff. The proposed curriculum was partially designed and written by those same people, our local educators, many of them parents themselves, who understand and care very deeply about this community. And I ask that you have the confidence in their ability to teach it with the same professionalism, care, and integrity they show in every other subject. They will implement it faithfully while also honoring the rights of families who choose to opt their children out. And we can do both. teach the curriculum responsibly and respect famil family's beliefs. Our local teachers created it to meet the state standards and to reflect our local values. As a

024board, you've also expressed concerns about safety like vaping, drugs, alcohol, and the impact of social media. This curriculum directly supports those priorities, helping students learn to make healthy choices, create boundaries, and online safety. If we start teaching these lessons early, we can start to prevent the problems before they start. And finally, I want you to think about the one child who may be living in a home where inappropriate touches are all they know. If this curriculum gives even one child the correct words and courage to ask for help, isn't that one child worth it? This isn't about politics or ideology. This is about giving every child in Clark County the tools to be safe, healthy, and informed citizens of our community. Please vote, approve, and teach the current family life education curriculum as required by

025the state and as needed by our children. Thank you. Hi, excuse me. Um, hi. I'm speaking to you as a resident of the Milwood district, a parent of a fifth grader at Boyce who was adopted from foster care, and someone who teaches students with disabilities. Not only are we out of compliance with the law by not providing this education, we are contributing to Virginia's crises of sexual assault, unwanted pregnancies, and sexually transmitted infection transmission by sending young adults into the world without even the most basic instruction on human development. Those statistics are even scarier when you look specifically at our vulnerable po populations such as students with disabilities and kids from foster care. My son Now, we are I'm going to go off script a minute here. We are teaching it at home. I'm not

026saying we're not, but that doesn't cover everybody else. Just my son knowing the information doesn't keep him safe. Just him knowing the information. Um, kids will find answers to their questions. If they haven't been taught at home or school, they'll look it up. And can you imagine what that first AI generated paragraph is going to say to our children? or worse, they'll ask a peer and our kids are only as protected as their friend with the lowest parental restrictions on their phone. I know as a parent whose kid rides the bus, he's learned some intense things from friends with phones. So, if we aren't getting ahead of it and teaching them truth before they go looking for answers, we're falling behind. Um, so yeah, I agree that the curriculum could put teachers in the position

027of having to address sensitive topics. We've talked about how we can communicate it with the parents and let them make a decision. They can opt out of all or some. Yes, it is going to put some of the onus on the parents, but obviously the parents that care are already having this conversation. You know, it's the parents that aren't having the conversations that we're trying to support. Um, I think that we've done our best to put the curriculum out there for the parents to look at and to make a decision about whether or not they want to opt out. And everybody has that option. Yes, your child might feel a little different, but if the majority of kids are opting out, then they'll have somebody to hang out with. We have to do what our

028kids need, not just what a few parents want. And when it comes down to questions of, you know, that might be a little bit where where there is some wiggle room or there's some unsure there's a moral sorry there's a moral aspect to it. Teachers know how to refer the kids back to their parents. We get asked about Santa every year. We refer you back to your parents. We know that if it's touchy, we're not going to answer that question. We're going to put it back to the parent. We're only trying to teach kids what they need to stay safe. So, I mean, if we are going to continue to not adopt a curriculum, you guys need to go to the state level because this is a state law. So, somebody's going to have to

029talk to VOE. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Does anyone else want to speak who may not have signed up? Good evening. My name is Logan Thompson. My wife and I live in the White Post district outside of Boyce. We have two young kids. Uh the oldest of which will be a kindergartener next year. Um so we're following this uh a bit late in the game. uh would just would just offer and appreciate the school board's um work on this, the consideration of this um navigating something that that is a touchy subject between family and uh our responsibilities as a school. Uh I would just offer that my wife and I as written would urge you to uh vote against the the curriculum uh mainly due to the too much too soon concern at the

030elementary school level. this this curriculum, these topics have a place. They are important and and and actually I agree with comments on both sides of the the aisle tonight about making sure that our kids have a have a development in a school that teaches all all sorts of subjects that make our kids successful. I can certainly get on board with that, but would ask that this be reconsidered in in a way that takes some of those sensitive subjects that should be taught at the school or at the home by the parents and pushes that out at least to the middle school level. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? Thank you. The next um so now we'll hear from our high school um presentation on Clark County High School scheduling and modules. So Mrs.

031Wearing and staff from the high school will present information for us. Thank you all for coming. You're probably a little tired. post homecoming. >> Excuse me. Let me start. Can we ask some of the people who have commented here tonight to hang around so that some of the members of the board can address some of your questions? I know sometimes online. >> Thank you. My name is Dana Wearing. I'm the principal at Clark County High School. I'd like to go ahead and introduce part of our leadership admin team. U Mr. Tim Whipki and Joanne Wolf are assistant principles. Miss Nikki McInley is our lead school counselor. Miss Rachel Crawford is a department lead and admin intern. And Mr. Shane Coleman is our workbased learning um postsecary extraordinaire. He does a lot of he does a

032lot of things. So, we are here tonight to go over our schedule. Um the the first thing we like to recognize and while we're not going to go in depth too much, um Clark County High School has received the top category for the 2425 school year accountability as distinguished. Um we presented that to our faculty and staff this past week. We are very proud of all their efforts and everything that they have done. Um and we'll probably present later on a little bit more in depth in regards to what that is about. But tonight um we're here to talk about scheduling. What we had done last year is review this presentation and there'll be some additional slides regarding our scheduling and how that works for programs that fit all students. um part of our schedule

033when we talk about it, we refer to it as onion. There are multiple levels. It just peels back. So, this is part of what you're going to get when we um talk tonight and and present different things. So, scheduling essentials, um program scheduling, the first thing is that it's student centered. So, at the high school level, the schedule this year will not be the schedule next year. It wasn't the schedule the previous year. It's based on student input and what they would like to um take for their postsecary interests that they're uh moving towards. It also has to meet the needs of all students. And we're going to talk a little bit more about the different um niches of students and organizations and needs that we have for our scheduling. We have our Virginia diploma

034requirements. Miss McInley will talk a little bit about that that we have discussed previously um at program of studies tonight and for our upcoming freshmen. And then scheduling essential is a comprehensive review and understanding of the background of scheduling. um reviewing all aspects of student needs and what all students need and compare and contrast and remember that no one sizefits all or state of Virginia would have one schedule for high school. All right, I'm going to go ahead and turn this over to Miss McInley. She's going to go ahead and talk about diploma requirements. So, the state of Virginia has two types of diplomas. We have the advanced studies and the standard. Um, Clark County High School actually has a third diploma, which is our IB diploma, which we call basically kind of like our

035uh the icing on the cake. A lot of students who do our IB diploma also are getting their advanced studies diploma as well. Next slide. Yes. So, here's our advanced studies standard diploma uh breakdown. So, so a student who is earning an advanced studies diploma would need 26 total credits to earn that. and a standard diploma, they'd need 22. Um, and in the biggest difference between the advanced studies and the standard diploma is the uh world language. So, an advanced studies student needs to earn at least three years of a world language or you can do it with um four four years of two different types of languages. We also have to No, it's fine. This is fine. Um so students also there are a few additional diploma requirements that are needed. Now we have

036to have the completion of econ and personal finance along with the completion of an honors IBA dual enrollment or CTE credential. All of our students have the opportunity to earn the CTE credential within their econ and personal finance class. So we also have to the students have to complete a virtual class which we also have with the completion of econ and personal finance. We uh had the completion of CPR in our health and PE9 and PE10 courses. So referred back to all students and the student population. So we represent 9th through 12th. We're currently about 675 students. Um when we look at the different categories of students the combination of many are ELELLL students we have about a 8% population which is growing our special education um 504 special education is about 12% our IB

037students um which represented last year 560 credits um that might be one student who took multiple IB uh credits response to intervention many times you'll hear the term RTI these are students that struggle that might be at what we call tier 2, tier three that need extra supports within their academics. We have the average academic student. We have socioeconomic uh disadvantaged students. Uh Clark County High School is at approximately 30%. We have behavioral support needs, students who require uh a little bit more help and assistance in the regulation within classes. We have transfer in andout students. And why that is important, we'll discuss a little bit later through some of the designs of the models that we look at. On average, from year to year, we have anywhere from um 60 to 70 students who

038transfer into Clark County Public Schools at any point in time during the school year. We have Blue Ridge Community College and Laurel Ridge Community College. Um Blue Ridge Community College, Mr. Coleman will talk a little bit more about that. Our students attend in the morning uh Blue Ridge uh for some culinary. Um there are also welding opportunities and there is cyber security. Laurel Ridge Community College, we have an industrial maintenance tech program that is also in the morning along with our governor school students. So they all attend these different campuses in the morning and then they return to Clark County High School to complete other requirements and other coursework. And then we have our apprentice internships. Um, this is mostly opened to our seniors. Um, this program has grown. We're very proud of it. We

039have about 20 seniors who participate in a variety of ways and and when we go through some scheduling, we'll talk about what that might look like as well. So our program offerings when we talk about these students um IB diploma or course selection that means we might have students that complete the entire IB diploma or we have many students who complete course selection. They might have a favorite subject area or strength area. We also have select AP courses. We have dual enrollment and early college scholars. Many of our students that take these courses, our teachers are certified um at the high school to teach dual enrollment. They also teach IB and AP courses. Our students are able to earn college credit. Many of them will graduate from Clark County with um some 15 or more

040credits. We are also adding additional uh career technical dual enrollment opportunities um such as medical terminology um forensics science and a couple of other courses. Mount Vista Governor School as I spoke to earlier is a program in which we are regional partners and we have a select few students that attend that at Laurel Ridge. Again, they attend in the morning and then return to the high school for their rest of their diploma requirements. Um, Laurel Ridge Community College, Blue Ridge, those are the different programs. Many of the classes that are offered at Blige, we offer the prerequisites at Clark County High School. The Shad Innovation Center, this is a new venture that we have entered into this year with Hanley High School. Um, we are not able to offer firefighting EMT. So our students that

041are interested in that career are able to attend once again half the day at Hanley and then return to Clark County High School. Some of the internships that we have um we have everything from Oddly Farm, Nissan Automotive, Howard Shocki, Berryville, um physical therapy and then our CNA co-ops but there are several others just to mention a few. We are proud and this is part of the accountability. 75% of our graduates earn the advanced studies diploma compared to 51% around the state. 65 of our graduates enroll in a two or four-year post-secary institution after graduation. And we continually strive to meet a high success rate of 100% ontime graduation rate, one of the consistent ones across the state. So, as I said, we um went over these different scheduling options last year with our faculty.

042We're going to go ahead and present some of these to you this year. There are uh pros and cons to every schedule. There is no perfect schedule. Um but we'll go ahead and begin with the different scheduling options. Uh precoid we were the AB 90-minute block scheduling. Uh postco we decided to make the move to the eight period day uh with 48 minute periods. Um the current eight period day that we're in the advantages advantages are students see their teacher every day. Coming out of COVID and seeing what children were going through, we thought it was super important for each kid to see their teacher every single day. Came from a lot of conversations with students that we had. uh for example I had many many students in in subjects such as math would tell

043me you know I meet with the teacher on Thursday then I don't see them again on Friday Saturday Sunday and they were even struggling with do I do the homework on Thursday night or do I do it Sunday night and they were they were losing that connection with the teacher which which was a struggle to hear over and over and these are high level students that we're talking about struggling with that um the shortened periods help students who require a smaller focused increments of uh instruction, which we know that chunking instruction is better for students, especially coming out of COVID um with what they were struggling with with the online learning. Um also, we found attendance. We we did a lot of studying on attendance with students that would pick and choose days that they

044would come and not come to school, which hurts them. Even if it's just one period, they need to be in school every day. So, having that every day helped them stay in a pretty good cycle. uh allows 32 periods of high school to remediate if needed for graduation, allow for additional coursework, uh smaller class sizes, and helps tremendously with transfer students, which we see a lot of here in Clark County. Uh disadvantage is an eight period day with a course load that's all year. Some classes would like additional time per class period. Um course workload for IB students, possibly too many summitives in one day, and could be a lot of prep for teachers. Uh we looked at the 4x4 semester students would only carry four classes every day uh for a semester and then

045switch it would allow for 90 minutes allows 32 periods during the high school for remediation. Students cannot selectively choose which day they attend uh with the block scheduling immediate remediation for students. If a student is not successful in a core class, it can be retaken in the fall. Um and there's less preps for teachers. uh disadvantages not compatible with surrounding jurisdictions and transfer students in and out. Students may not complete math foreign language in uh subsequent semester. Uh difficult for many students to maintain focus with 90-minute period. Incremental instruction would require three to four relevant student focuses activities per class which if you look at that you're there's a lot of information and a lot of activities they have to find that's engaging which can be tough for certain content. Uh teacher schedule is not

046concrete for the teacher. The alternating block scheduling AB day 8 period advantage allows for 90 minutes 32 periods in the high school to remediate if graduation or additional coursework opportunities. Remediation activities uh periods could be built into the school week. We would have three lunches and it would help with transfer students. Disadvantages would be days missed for any reason could have student missing instruction for one week at a time. Students selectively choose which day they attend school. Snow days, PD days can throw a balance off of alternating days off. Difficulty for many students to maintain focus for 90 minutes such as special education or RTI. Incremental instruction would require three to four relevant uh student focused activities per class. 7-day period advantages allows for approximately 10 additional minutes per period. Continually um continuity of seeing

047students every day. teaching load would be five of seven. Students cannot selectively again choose which day they attend and we would be back to three lunch periods. Disadvantages um advanced diploma students would only have 28 opportunities for remediation or additional coursework to meet graduation requirements. Students will lose one period per year impact special ed programs uh special programs, I'm sorry. Certain students will have one or no elective offerings. Class sizes will increase. Courses will be cut to meet the needs of the state requirement to graduate. Transfer students will lose credits and only allows for 10 additional minutes period. The eight period block hybrid. Nope. I'm sorry. >> He was just on a roll. He was on a roll. Sorry. So this schedule is a little bit funky. So um what this would look like is

048two days a week we would have students doing 90 minute blocks and then three days a week they would be doing 45 minutes. Um so they would have you know one day a week where they would only see their first four, one day where they would see five through eight and then the remainder of the week they would be doing shorter one through eight. Um this would be helpful because it would allow for both periods and blocks. So it would be, you know, there are some days where you're seeing them for 45 minutes and some for 90. Um, they still would keep the same amount of classes during high school. They would not be losing any options. Um, and so it does allow, especially for like extended labs or extended learning activities if necessary in

049that 90-minute block. And there is a possibility to build in remediation and activity time uh one day a week. However, um, this basically becomes impossible when we look at all of the other programs that we offer. um particularly with Blue Ridge and Governor's School, we would not be able to line this up with them. So, we would have to essentially eliminate those programs if we uh did this schedule, which would be a big uh big loss for our students. Um it's also one that we have not really been able to see done anywhere. So, there are a lot of unknowns in this this hybrid schedule. Um and we would still be carrying the eight course load all year long for the students. So they would not get that benefit of only seeing uh four courses

050at a time. Thank you. Um so this one is the 4x4 where you have a four period hybrid. It's something new, something we all talked about together as a team. U I'm going to kind of explain some of the advantages and disadvantages that we can think of right now. Um and then I'll show you on the next slide what that's could look like possibly. Um this allows for both 90 minute periods um and 45 minutes. So you get that those classes for like extended labs, extending learning opportunities um and all those things. Still allows 32 credits. 32 opportunities for students to to get their graduation requirements. Um it also if a student fails they have the opportunity for remedi remediation the next the next semester. Um some disadvantages are the IB and AP testing is

051really tough because say you have a 90 minute um semester level semester class of IB. Those students aren't going to test until the spring for their IB test. So that's a lot of time with no with no content. and then vice versa if they start that IB class the next semester not quite enough time to prepare for that test. So that's a huge disadvantage for IB and AP. Um very very complex for our transfer students which I think Miss Wearing said is about 60 throughout the year. Um it's just it's it's very complex. Scheduling would be complex. It would be difficult for our for our guidance department and even for our teachers like they might have like take example Miss Crawford teaches world geography. She might have one class of 90 minutes and then one

052class of 45 minutes of world geography. That's almost like two different preps because you have to pace all the pacing. Um and really the unknown because nobody does this schedule. So, if you flip to the next one, I'd like to focus more on the right hand side because I think we already said the left one really wouldn't work well for Clark. Um, so what what a day would look like. So, the first first period they would have a 90 minute one semester class. Then for the whole year, they would have third and fourth as 45 minute classes. and then a fifth period they would have once again a one credit semester class and then seventh and eighth would be 45 minutes. Um this accommodate our our lunch and our band. We thought the one on

053the first um just wouldn't wouldn't do that. So that is an example of of the hybrid. Mr. Coleman's going to present some sample student profiles. But just to give you an idea when he does this, we took existing students um that are currently enrolled in specific courses and we kind of broke them down into different schedules so you would have an idea of what impact these different schedules would have with a particular student in a specific program. So I'm going to let Mr. Coleman go ahead and introduce some of those. Okay, so this is actually a pretty good one to start with because this is um a really good example of a scheduling conflict. So, Miss McInley, when we first uh went for this idea of sending students to Hanley, um they're on a block

054schedule. We're on a four by we're on a a block day. They start school at 8 um and run until around 11:30, which put our kids back here at 11:45. So, basically, the kids have to eat lunch in the car. Hanley is gracious enough to supply them lunch and then they come back and finish out their core classes. Um, so that is where having a schedule like an eight block day actually helps us out. Uh, because if we were on a seven block day or 4x4, this wouldn't be able to work. Uh because they're on a strict schedule. EMT and firefighting are required to have a certain number of hours. Um so then this class wouldn't be able to happen. Next, uh Blige luckily um with them they are very willing to work with us.

055Um I've been told by Jen and uh Dr. Czechovich that we are well above the amount of hours that we need u because we do go there from 8 to to 10:45. The kids come back at 11:15 and are able to do the rest of their classes. Um this is a senior class so typically seniors will take uh English and government and then some leave at seventh block some leave during eth um but with the schedule changes possibly Blige is willing to work with us uh because we are well above the class uh class hours. Um there's nothing we can do with Are you you're on this one? Yeah. So there there's nothing that we don't we don't manage the mess schedule. >> So at the Mount Vista Governor's School, we took one of our

056students schedules and and looked at it if we were to move to a seven period day. um it would really restrict the amount of elective choices and co-curriculars that they'd be able to do because if you look at this would be a sophomore year and um they would just be able to take only their graduation requirements at that point and where um when I was looking at it basically until they wouldn't get any fun elective choices any of those things they might want to enjoy whether it's CTE or band or any of those maybe till senior year. And also with our same with our IB diploma candidates, um it really will restrict them as far as a 7-day period um to just their IB diploma requirements. So, um when they get to that junior senior

057year and they're just strictly trying to get their IB diploma, if they are um whatever it is that they may like, whether it's you know, their CT or anything like like that. Um, it would not fit. So, we also looked at our special ed student um or an RTI student. And just to preface, these are the students who struggle the most academically in our schools. Um, if we had gone to if we go to a seventh period day, you can look at this schedule and there is literally nothing in there for them to do that they might enjoy. So, here's kids that we're going to struggle to get to come to school um and say, "Okay, yeah, we really want you here, but you you can only take these classes." And this doesn't even include

058the students who might have a reading class as well. um many times to get some of our students um the the electives that they want. We'll pick one year where they'll do history and then they won't do a science and then vice versa the next year. Um because most of our those students are going for a standard diploma. So that that is a possibility. So, so the next thing we did, we took a seven period class size and we took the existing student population and our teachers and the sections that are accounted for. So, I'd like to go through a couple of those scenarios. When we talk about class balancing, currently our physical education, we have three teachers, PE9 and 10. um they each teach an additional section as it is. Um and right now

05928 students per class evenly distributed. If we went to a seven period class when we say even evenly distributed um there is no class such as that because we have just the way the schedule works we can't just divide them up and put them neatly into different sections. So the top number would be for um 28 if our teachers were gracious enough to say yes I'll teach an extra section. If they said at some point no thank you that would be 33 students per class again evenly distributed with them teaching five sections. We also have to take in account is just not the gym. We do have the driver's ed portion um and the health portion and a classroom would probably have to move to the auditorium if we were going to have to accommodate

06033 uh students but again that's if they are evenly distributed. Then we look at biology which is a science lab class and that taken in a seven period class balancing would be about 23 students again evenly distributed but the reality is we could be 30 or more in one class and maybe 20 in another class. Math 24 students evenly distributed with five sections. history 25 students again evenly distributed English um 25 students again the classes are not evenly distributed and I think a big thing that we do with many of our classes and if we take English for example and we talk about our RTI students we have over the last six years tried to design English and math very specifically for these at risk learners and currently we have classes for our RT our

061RTI students that are smaller in number um so they can get a more focused instruction. We've been successful with that. We offer that at 9th, 10th, and 11th and we're planning on offering that during 12th grade as well. Um so even though we say 25 per class, that would be a lopsided figure as well. uh if we wanted to ensure the success of our struggling learners. I'm going to let Miss Crop go over our spring survey results. Um so last year we gave a survey to our staff uh with a very amended version of what we showed you to uh today. Um the first question that we asked was would you like to keep the current a period day model? Um you can see there 77.6% said yes. Uh go to the next one please.

062Um and then we kind of broke it down to be more specific as far as beyond just like what models they would like. Um if we were lining them up all comparatively 69.4% said that they uh liked the eight period day. And then the next biggest was um that eight period fourb block hybrid which I talked about earlier that actually wouldn't really work with our uh other outside programs. Um next slide please. And then this is uh which scheduling model would be your second choice. You can see that this one is not really uh as overwhelming but uh 36.7% said seven period day and about 20.4% said again that hybrid model. So, this one's a little bit more um open, I guess, but this is just to give you an idea of what our staff

063said last year when they were surveyed. So, again, when we talk about any high school or any school, they have to serve all students. So, it left you with the Blueberry story. I'm not going to recount that to you, but um for those that might know it. Um it deals with a a businessman who comes in to give a speech to a uh group of uh school teachers and um ends up being schooled himself. Um so I I leave you with that. I think the biggest thing is talking about when we look at schedules again there is no one perfect schedule and the most important thing is we have to look at the needs of all of our students and not just one or two groups of students. Um we've been successful with building new

064programs um so we want to make sure that those programs um continue to thrive. >> Allow you all We are where we are. >> Can't you hear? >> All right. It was all the way up, but it may not have made good connection there. Since I had taken the job here, the schedule model has been a continuous discussion about what's best for most of our students, but also what's best for our faculty as well. Um, and one thing before we get started, I glad to see Rachel here because if you'll remember, she was one of our recognized history teachers last year for doing a great job with our students with their state of test, which are not everything, but they are one valid measure. But as we work through this, I ask that you would

065look at or consider what's best for our students and our faculty and our staff. Um, you know what one teacher had mentioned to me and I think this is a relevant thing. I did not have time to do it yet, but we've talked a lot about academic success of different divisions and where they are at in terms of academic rank in the state. And a teacher at the high school recently mentioned to me, has anyone cross-referenced scheduling model with academic success? And to my knowledge, no. And I do have, you know, the listing from and it's just academics, the core areas. There's a lot of other things that go into making a school successful, but the list is readily available for the 131 districts as far as their achievements in the four core areas. Um,

066what I thought he brought up, you know, 131 districts, you'd have to go to each one of them and talk to them, then compare the results. But that may be too much for all 131, but could we consider the top 10% of districts and see what scheduling model they're on? That would only be roughly 13 or 14 school divisions. And I think we could easily accomplish that. and I could present that to you all next time, but my fear is that it would be a random assortment because I don't know that a scheduling model is the absolute most crucial component about what makes a school successful academically. But I do think it could be, you know, interesting to look at. And like they've shared, each scheduling model offers positives and negatives. Now, the two that

067I'm most familiar with or three, but one of them is almost out of never seen. I went to high school on a six period day. Um, I thought it was a lot of homework each night having to keep up with six classes, but I think that was in a different era as well. and there wasn't a lot of talk to me about electives and going to some career in technical education which I would have found very valuable because of academically where I was at was never mentioned to me. I I can only remember picking a few courses in high school. Now I'm a big proponent of public schools and I think they prepared me wonderfully for life later on. So I'm always going to say that the high school I went to hands down was

068wonderful. But that is one thing that it was you fit into a couple different models under that. Now the sixth period day is not very common in the Commonwealth of Virginia anymore. When I become a teacher, we were on the um and my whole teaching career was on a 90minute 4x4 block. Now I personally loved it as a teacher because I was preparing for three classes at a time and I'm a person who likes to talk. So I thought I could go from one activity to another and I thought was math was wonderful for 90 minutes. Some of the students may have disagreed but um uh a true advantage of that was the kids who are really academically inclined and who were doing a lot of um band and sports were only focusing on four

069classes at a time and it kind of mirrors what they're going to be doing in college. Another advantage is if a student who is struggling, the other end is they're only focusing on four at a time. But let's say that they don't pass English nine during their ninth grade year. Then you're not looking at having to do a summer school or finding a bridge way over during their 10th grade year. They could do English nine in the fall and English 10 in the uh spring, which offers some chance for redemption with that model. And then um I'm familiar with the seven period day. Um from my previous superintendency they switched from a seven period day and almost the whole community wanted to go to a 4x4 block. So that is what we did there. But

070that was by far the prevalent scheduling model in that region and it's almost universal in some regions and that's not the case here for us. So, we need to think about our transfer students because the majority of our kids are coming from districts and we really don't have one common scheduling model in Northern Virginia which makes this a lot more complex when you look at you know, you know, the um different scheduling models we could look at as we go into looking at course registration and program of studies. We do need to make a timely decision if we're going to stay or change because it does have implications on things we're getting ready to do. And it also has implications for our middle school because they don't have to be on exactly the same schedule,

071but the times at least have to align because we do share staff. So, we need to think about that. Now, what's up there is a really great summary. There is a possibility, but you have to look at do kids have internet access to do a zero block before school. If we do it, you know, that's a seven period day and you could offer an eighth period optional at home. And you could make that class that some kids that just want to do seven can just do seven, but they could do eight either being at the school early or doing it online. But my concerns there about online is everybody have an internet access and then availability to come to the school for kids who choose to do an extra class. Now I don't know if

072that would be a large number or a small number with that. You know you would think that saying I really want to take an eighth class may not be a huge number but it is something that if we looked at the zero period we would have to um consider. And the other pieces up there, I would say when you look at um all these schedule models, part of it has to do with opportunity versus in-depth learning and really learning the content a little bit more deeply. Um for instance, a seven period day, you're probably going to learn the basics and the core a little bit more deeply because you're going to spend more time in each class, but you're going to get one less class to select each year. and the AB 90 minute block,

073the 4x4 90minute block, and the eight period day allow eight classes. So, you've got to balance opportunity versus in-depth. But I do think that we need to consider and do what's best for our faculty and students and put the scheduling model piece, you know, conversation that we're all working together toward one because it is an ongoing topic among some of the faculty, you know, about the number of preps and the number of classes that they're teaching each day. and each week. So, that's just my input and I would like for you all, you know, if you have any questions to ask the panel that you can feel free to do so and we'll continue this um next month as well. >> I have a question for you, doctor. >> Uhhuh. >> Uh does this same

074set of options work for the entire system or just for the high school? Um, this would be something that would be high school and somewhat middle. I don't, no one has ever done any type of model. Most of the time in an elementary school up to a certain grade, you're self-contained. You're with your teacher all day >> and you're just going from class to class. So, when you look at lower than sixth grade, none of this really applies. Now, uh, middle schools, if the high school's on a 4x4 block, it's very common for middle school to run 90 minutes of English all year, 90 minutes of math all year, and then switch off history and science or run them as two 45 minute singletons, and then to do two electives at 45 minutes each. So,

075they fit within that model, and so does a middle school on an AB or a seven period. So, really, you get kind of the implication starting with um the middle school at sixth grade up is where you kind of get a similarity, but this really does not affect the elementary at all. Now, one thing that's not there, I guess, you know, everybody in each board has got to pick what's best for their own division as far as the scheduling model. So, not really a database of what different divisions are doing of scheduling models, but I think what makes it imperative that we consider too because we got to retain and think about our teachers. Um, we worked on this last spring and it took a lot of time and I doubt many have changed in

076trying to contact all the different school divisions, but we did a pie chart and of the number of high schools in Virginia, by far the most prevalent model is the 4x4 block that ends in a semester. Looking at the division, and it's nothing I would go on record saying it's definitely this percent, but having taught math, I would say roughly about 40% of the schools in Virginia on a 4x4 block. Probably about 30% of high schools in Virginia are on an AB alternating 90-minute block. So that when you look at block as a whole, it's probably about seven out of 10 schools. And when you look at the seven period day, it comprises at least about 25%. Which only leaves about 5%. It's probably less. We were able to find five high schools in the

077state of Virginia on a six period day still. I told you that's very uncommon anymore. And we also were only able to find five high schools on an eight period day. So, you know, we're in those very small slivers of those two scheduling models. >> I have a question. How many how long have we been on eighth period day scheduling? >> This is year four, I believe. What were previously before that? >> AB AB block. When the AB block does not affect the class sizes, would it stay about the same as now or would it increase or decrease? >> still remain about the same. What about as preps for teachers? >> Still remain the same. >> Remain the same. >> Okay. Do we know the reason why we changed back then? >> During co co

078answer again. >> It was I mean again, you know, we transitioned that year, we only had half the population of students coming in every other day. Um and we had many who didn't come to school, they were still online. So when we talked about what does that look like when everyone came back together, still a lot of concerns, we felt that relationships were very important. um that a student could be with eight individual teachers day in and day out. Um and you know they might not have a connection with all those teachers or all those subjects but they would have eight opportunities every day to be with someone that can connect with them. That that was the the purpose and the fact that many of them had been out there you know doing education on

079their own. Um so we talked about you know limiting the the time in which they were transition back. >> Have we done any question to students? Ask them for their feedback. >> Transition years. How understand. They started really like with period. We were talking I went through that. I was teaching at the same time transition. I preferred it block to be honest with you. I think it depends on the course you teach as well. >> You know, you're running a science lab and you got 90 minutes, you can get a lot of stuff done. You got 48 minutes or less than 50 minutes. You're starting something, you're finishing, bam, it's over with PD classes. Um, I know some, you know, maybe different Englishes or maybe math. It is a little more difficult. It does depend

080on the course. I agree with you. I think that's our culture in general, the drop of participation. Okay. I don't think it's I don't think it's 90 90 minute versus 50-minute class periods. >> Yeah. Yeah, there are some challenges in each level. I agree 100%. >> Right. Monday. >> I I don't disagree with you there, but it does concern me at high level kids. One's going to go to college. That's what's going to happen to him in college as well. >> That's exactly where I was. My question >> that that concerns me. >> How does your high school sophomore know what is best for him? That's why he's seen you. You were supposed to tell him because he hasn't been to college. you have so or he hasn't been in the work an eight hour

081day, you know, five days a week where he has to be there, do this, that the other >> that that that I can very much believe. Yeah. manage one of the hardest things for learners. >> No, that's I take your point completely there. I just had some queries as to who is the best judge of what they need. >> The other question I had When you mentioned, do you do a full calendar throughout the year and say, "All right, this day is A. This day is B." >> No, it's every other. No. Do we You're talking about the notorious even odd days, >> right? >> No. >> Okay. Good. Good. >> Because that's a very confusing. >> But let me ask you this. So, we're going to school Monday through Friday. We get a snow

082day on Wednesday. When they come back on Thursday, do they go to their Wednesday class? Good. All right. >> Yeah. That's called the rolling AB block. Um, which is I think the wise way if you introduce that. Now, as far as class size, they would be equivalent class sizes under the AB, the 4x4, any modifications of those in the 8 period day. The only one that would have an implication um would be the seven period day. If we were to move to an AB day, eight period, >> eight periods, um it wouldn't impact any of the Mountain Beast Governor's School, everything would would continue on. Um and there has been a lot of there has been effort a lot of effort to alleviate kids just missing school and you know again coming out of COVID.

083Um, so do you think that the efforts that you guys have been have have made in terms of decreasing absences, do you think that you would be able to work through that if it was an AV schedule? >> I like to think so, but when we go back to attendance, particularly at the high school level, again, we've talked about the biggest misses. >> It's families taking kids out of school during the school year. Um, we struggle with that still. >> Um, And then but the conversations that we continue to have, the programs that we're expanding and offering, the hope is that, you know, if you want to get to this program, we need you to be here in order to do that. And your, you know, your classes and academics are first and foremost and

084then as a senior, you can have that opportunity for one of those, you know, great programs and internships. Another question that I that came to mind. Um, so it is difficult for students to maintain focus for for 90 minutes especially for kids who are in an RTI program or or special education students. Is there a way to alter that that schedule in some way with like I feel like it's just cruel of me to even ask but like is there another way to work towards meeting the needs of those students in a creative fashion? I mean there could there there's a multitude you know we put up how many and there's still yet another multitude. I mean, even the AB has a variation of um a of flex block every day, you know, where there's

08520 minutes um the day, which would reduce it like by 85% the old days of Eagle Block. Um so that that could be um an option and then you know going back and and looking at what are the possibilities but it is difficult. We're very fortunate. Um, we have a small school and we are very fortunate and blessed with >> the numerous opportunities that we do provide students and and I think that's all of our focus is to make sure that kids have those opportunities and continue to have those. But we could absolutely, you know, >> go back and look. And and I know that you guys would do that anyway if you saw that something wasn't working for a student that you work I know you all and I know that you do your

086best to to meet the needs of everybody as best as you can. >> And one thing that was brought up was the number of teacher preparations. Now, they could still end up teaching three different courses, but the only one of these models, and I always think taking count, you know, the impact on teachers, but the only one of these models that has them preparing for less cl less classes at a time is the 4x4 because they're only having three classes at a time and the kids are only having four. Uh the other three are also equivalent, you know, on that piece other than the seven period being one less. So, I heard the the co excuse earlier. You know, we we've made some we adapted, right? But from what we were trying to do, lessons

087learned. What we're going to start seeing and live one of the joys of living in a small community is that some of our teachers are post Clark County graduates and we're going to start seeing those hopefully those postgraduates come back. And I would certainly um entertain the idea of doing like a post-graduate survey to see how this block may affected their ability to learn in college because where you they are faced with the 90-minute you know classes and everything else and understanding what they went through and how that transition worked for them. um you know where they've >> so I would think most most college classes are 60 to 90 minutes it depends some are two hours depending on the lab >> right >> I I think when you look at where our graduates have

088gone and where they continue to be accepted I think that that they're successful >> no doubt absolutely >> and so I I think that's the reason why they continue to have very high acceptance rates across not only the state of Virginia but for other schools Um, so >> yeah, and I think my the point I was just saying is just to get their feedback on, hey, is this did this help? Did it hurt? >> What are your, you know, lessons learned on how your schedule was here from when your first day of class when you entered Virginia Tech or wherever. Um, there's no doubt we have successful students and all that. I just am curious to what their thoughts were and and um because they also we've heard all the horror stories that they go

089from a class of 25 to a class of 12,200 um so that's it's um it's a challenge you know what we might do because I know we still got the presentation but unfortunately one of these things that if we were to decide to make a change and felt it was best for our faculty and student we'd have to do you know, pretty quickly to get ready for registration. When we did this survey before, when you throw in the eight period date, which is popular among a lot of our teachers, but not all, and we have to consider all, you know, and the number of courses they have to teach. Um, we might say we could repeat that survey with just two options and then you don't split it down to everybody choosing. But we'd have

090to know, and I know we're just now having this conversation, which two models are you most interested in? A thought to me is we could repeat it with if we were to change because six periods really off the limit. What do you like better, 7A, or 4x4 and come back with that information next month might be useful to you. >> So, I'd like a little summary uh of the of the options that are offered that that you all presented. Um it sounds like uh the eight period day, the AB, and I'm not sure there's another one would have zero effect on all the offerings that that the high school pass with all the >> the 4x4 or the AB >> just but the 4x4 Well, you can do like a lot of high schools do

091AB and I IB, but they do it as singletons in a block with it where they ran them run them as a 45m minute year long, like a certain period because now when you say a 4x4, probably the majority of school divisions that do a 4x4 run one period, one block is split down the middle year long. I I think with with some of the things we talk about most of our teachers teach both higher level and academic you know that's where this balance comes in. This is the reason why Miss McInley her team you put all this and are so very good at it. So a lot of it is the unknown of what all these things would potentially look like um when you get into variations but AB or eight period um or

092block would would work with the programs for the most of the programs but it might be you know as Mr. and said depending on how that schedule looks and then you have to balance that with our RTI and our special ed students and our outside students >> and then again with the new standards and the way that they've changed that's going to upend everything in terms of who's who's going to need additional time or additional focus. So if you offer this survey again, would you just give the choices of those three then is that that's >> I think because it would be prefaced with if we were to make a change which one and that would there's three predominant models and we could manipulate within one if you all voted as a board to change

093to something you know as far as like some people even do the alternating AB with modification but the most typically the most modified is the 4x4 block that they'll split one down the or something >> because I think we can all agree with that the offerings that we that we have at the high school have been so successful in these other programs and and the students seem excited about it, staff, everybody. And so I I agree. I don't think we would uh should do anything that that would deter from that. at least not with a lot of thought and and coming up with something to to to fill that void. >> Well, we've heard all the input. We've seen the pie charts. We've heard all the different opinions. Uh we have a principal here who's

094running from what I can see a fantastic program. Uh and she has never seemed to me in the three or four years I've known her to be hesitant to make her position though. I would like to know what Miss Wearing wants if not tonight by next month by our next meeting >> and I will support my staff and what they want their boots on the ground. I I respect that. Thank you. But I I don't stand here by myself. I have an incredible group of teachers and faculty and staff that >> a lot of principles have fantastic staff faculty. Yeah, it may be good though if um she can see, you know, the survey results if we do it and kind of talk to the faculty and then come back with, you know, a potential

095recommendation. >> Way to put her on the spot. >> And I do. >> How you feeling, Miss Little? >> Little hot little hot in here. You could put a picture of the school board there. That would make everybody happy. Something to throw dark though. I do want to say thank you to all of you for for talking to us about scheduling, but especially Miss McGinley because I think that every high school kid or I don't I shouldn't say every, but like 90% when the schedule comes out in August, they're like, I gota I got to contact my counselor, but this is not going to work for me. So, I appreciate all that you guys do because it is a it is figuring out a puzzle um to make kids happy, but then also to to

096get what they need. So, I appreciate you and all of your staff. So, thank you guys. >> And I guess um we could just change seats now because we got a panel of two, I believe. Is that correct for the next part? You just want to sit here, right? >> You all could go over there, but I thought it's already set up. So, >> could we take like a five minute break? >> Is that okay? >> We got 8:30. We got about >> We have We need to move >> instead of Yeah. >> Okay. Well, if we could do five minutes, but we have we need to try to be finished by about 8:30. >> So, >> okay. Let's just keep going. Okay. Hello board. Thank you for having us again. Um I'm Jessica Nail,

097director of curriculum instruction, and this is Patrick Casman, supervisor of instructional technology. Um and we've both been working uh to chair the family life education committee. And I just wanted to start off tonight by thanking all of our stakeholders who filled out the for feedback form, emailed myself or Dr. Bowling or one of your board members or spoke here tonight because we truly do value your input um and and perspective as we're working through this process. Tonight we're here to talk about um the results of the surveys and the feedback. Um if you remember the last time we were here we had gotten 12 um pieces of feedback from the community. Tonight is a very different picture. And um we have had 82 responses um prior to of course the the speakers tonight and I

098know some of them were also reflected in uh our feedback up here. >> And just briefly to just in case anybody is seeing this the first time as we you can see we did jump up 70 responses and one thing that we'll note after this too there's about four duplicates in there. So the number is right at about 78. So it did jump up significantly, but that 82 is just a little off because there was a couple form submissions that went in more than once, but the vast majority were community members. And you can see the second number there comes in with the light blue, which is actually cut off, and that would have been staff members. You can go ahead and go to the next. And then the next one as we break it

099down as far as what was commented on the vast majority were overall comments in that 67% and then coming in after that was the elementary curriculum had the next largest piece of feedback. So the feedback up here we created a pie chart. You can see 70 um people were in favor of the curriculum which is 89.7% and eight were opposed which is 10.3%. On the next slide you can see we broke that down even further. So we had 59 who were in favor of the curriculum. um 11 who were in favor, however, they felt like there should be edits made to the curriculum and then we had our eight who were opposed. We did want to bring your attention um to the work that was done on the opt out forms by grade level um

100per the request at our last meeting. So, we would just want to pull up um one of those forms to go over with you. >> And for those that have looked at it or maybe haven't yet, the link in the document goes to the entire folder of every grade. We're just going to pull up one for the sake of time because the top part of the letter is the exact same. So, you can actually scroll down to page two. What we did was work with staff to make sure that the standards that were still in the curriculum that were not admitted, the ones that were 100% planned to be taught, each row on that chart that you can see that has 1.4 and 1.5 on it, that row would be lesson one. And then in

101first grade for instance, there's two lessons that would be dedicated to FLLE. So you can see there's four standards that would come out of that in curriculum as an entirety. There's four standards we would teach and they'd be done in two lessons. So if you were going to opt out, maybe you don't like lesson one, you could opt out of lesson one, but keep lesson two. And then each grade level that you click on is going to be separated that way. Okay. So, you'll be able to see each lesson is a row and what you would be opting out of or opting into if you did not return the form. >> And that is our summary for tonight. What questions do you have? We were short and sweet tonight. since I spent all day today

102responding to comments uh and I'm sitting here t keeping a little uh tabs on who was in favor and who wasn't. They're pretty evenly split. I don't see I'm really curious and I did not find in all the stuff that came either to me or to my colleagues and got forwarded to me uh where these where you could come up with what was it 79% in favor. >> Mhm. >> Okay. >> So, we took the comments that came in and if they were in favor but wanted edits, we counted those as in favor because they're asking us to edit the document, right? Um or the lessons. So, some people maybe emailed and said, um, there's certain lessons we would like to admit out of the curriculum, but generally we do feel strongly that certain parts

103should be taught. So, we consider that in favor and with edits. That would be that would be how we broke that down. >> And those those charts are created directly from the survey. So, there's no >> this is the subsequent survey, not the original. >> It's the original. The original stayed the same. >> Well, only 10 10 people responded and two later. So, >> so we just reopened the link. >> I'm sorry. >> Survey. All we did is >> Okay, that's >> and then emails that >> there was subsequent responses, not the original 10 people, but >> the original 10 would be in that total number. And then as you guys got emails and they got forwarded to us, we submitted them into that survey so that those charts are representative of everything that we

104got. >> Yeah. So we appreciate you forwarding all of them to us as well. >> That was in the report that Jessica sent out. >> And I know we started this, but huge thank you as well for pushing it out again to get us past that. >> We really appreciate that. >> Yeah. May I say something at this point for a couple of the people who criticized me for being so goes to go on social media. I went on social media when I heard that 10 people out of how many how many students we have total in the system? about 1850 >> out of 1800 10 people saw fit to respond and I thought that was incredibly unsatisfactory and that is why I took to the only medium I had which was social media the

105county one to say this is pretty poor we better hear from some more people and apparently you have so this is a good thing but uh is there any reason uh I don't think there's too much objection to the high school. In fact, I'm a very I am not at all happy with the elementary school kids getting it. I think it bears a lot of watching in a middle school and I think it's a great thing in high school. I mean, most a lot of parents out there don't even realize the things that can happen to their kids today and they can't get it here. I'd even like to see uh I spoke to Sheriff Sumption. He said he'd be happy to provide, you know, people come up and talk about some of these other

106uh aspects of life for a teenager in Clark County. Uh so I I would like to see this thing broken down and I'm not trying to drag this thing any further, kick the can down the road. I know where I stand essentially, >> but uh I would like to see it broken down into three components, high school, middle school, and elementary school, and deal with each of these because each is a very separate problem. One is not a problem, I don't think. I think it's a good thing. The other two are problems of varying degree, and I would like to see it handled that way. So, I'm gonna >> Okay, so let's ask turn on my microphone. Um, so I think >> 8:30 Yeah, we got 20 minutes. Um, so I think what we should

107do right now is ask any questions of Dr. Neil and Mr. Hman and then we can discuss and I I would like to to also specifically discuss exactly what it is that's of concern for elementary school and then also middle school. Um, I think that we need to be pointing out standards that you feel are not appropriate um for elementary and middle school and high school. And then we can also um when we get to new business, we can vote on either adopting the the curriculum as it is, not adopting it, or adopting a portion of it when we get to that. >> Okay. >> When you get to it, you can adopt if you all all feel comfortable with high you could go ahead and adopt that. I'm not um and if you all

108feel comfortable with middle and high, you could adopt that or you could adopt it all. I think, you know, we'll just have to see where everybody lands on that and I'll read some of the a part of a study when we get to the motion from the Virginia Department of Ed related to family life education and share some things, but you can break it apart if you're more comfortable with certain pieces at this point. >> Okay. So questions for >> I'd like uh Dr. Neil to address some concerns that I think were voiced in some of the responses that we got. Um there was uh several comments about um surprised that none of this was this this material was being taught or was has not been in the school system. And um I think some

109has even you know just a specific thing on the on on the the league there at 9.8 you know substance abuse and uh uh it says you know this information is already being taught in the ninth grade health and 10th grade you know so I'd like you to to kind of uh speak to that if you would what what may be already uh included in is already being taught. >> Sure. Um Mr. Grum Brumreck, sorry, Mr. Brumreck, he is correct. Some of the feedback that came in was um about transparency and parents feeling like um or stakeholders feeling like they were surprised that they that some of this isn't covered in in the curriculum as is. Um some of the things that are already being covered are the social emotional learning, so getting along with

110others. um how do you properly address conflict? Those are some of the lessons that we do do at the elementary level in our um social emotional learning curriculum in addition to some of the behavior um lessons. Those are covered naturally through um classroom management in a lot of instances. Um, in addition, throughout the curriculum, you can find some of the um items that are marked that say these are already covered in um health education. And if you remember back to our last um meeting, a lot of the standards do overlap um with some of the curriculum that is taught in health and PE or in our social emotional learning or counseling lessons. and we did omit some of that that was an overlap so that it was a more condensed document um for you to

111look at. So some of those pieces are are still in there but it's not a um full curriculum that is being implemented for family life education in Clark County Public Schools at this point. >> Are there are those lessons being taught in elementary schools? So um Mr. Dr. Wilson, vaping has been really important to you and an important issue for you and you've talked to Sheriff Sumpion about it and you've done work on it. So, if we know that vaping is an issue with high schoolers, why are we not talking to elementary school kids about it to say this is this is so dangerous for your body? and why, you know, a lot of children are growing up in in homes where maybe both parents vape and they get their hands on it when they

112go to middle school and it becomes an addiction. So, I don't understand why why that's not being I know, but I'm just saying I know you're really concerned about the elementary school. So, why are we not teaching that? >> We haven't defined a lot of these things. >> If I poke the kid next to me who doesn't want to be poked, that's an inappropriate touch. just as much as following somebody. If somebody's getting pitched all the time, that is inappropriate. I don't see anything about that. We're just worried about the sexual conotations here. Uh as far as ministration, it seems to be a major issue with a number of the women. Do you not have a school nurse deals with this sort of thing? >> Um okay. So, one question that I had that came

113up frequently in the um in our uh notes is community resources. And so, um it asks, this was asked frequently, does that include access to abortion? So, when we say that there are community resources being shared with students, can you tell us please what those community resources may include >> as it relates to abortion? No, just as it relates to the family life curriculum and I'm I'm sorry. I'm trying to find like a specific standard, but it does if I can I can give you I can look for you and >> I may need a specific one just to just to be able to answer that question. >> I will >> fully. >> I'm sorry. I should have >> No, that no that's okay. >> Given you >> preparation. Does anybody else have other questions?

114Yeah, the right. Yeah, I mean the abortion question would not be a community resource we'd be connecting with, but other community resources may be um like um mental health. Yeah, through through our student support services, we do have access to community resources that we connect students with. So that would be something that would go through a counseling department and through our student support services. And it also brought to mind too when I was when I read the curriculum hearing community resources, it made me think the health department if you need like if you're sick or um just just knowing that you know social services like just based on the standards that I looked at, it's just student knowledge that community resources are available and parent knowledge. that community resources are available. Um, part of the

115standards, if you read the beginning part, is making sure that parents are informed as much as students about what is being taught, what resources are available, and just being a partner um between the school and the home on these topics. >> I It was it was brought up, I think, the last meeting. Um, uh, what if scenario as far as the number of uh of parents choosing to opt out u choosing and um it seemed like there was maybe a a number that we could handle or not handle. Do we have do we do we know those those answers? If if say you know 20 kids opt out in elementary school, what what what presents a problem or what what number of opt out students is too much that that's going to present a problem?

116I think that we would figure out how