Clarke County Public Schools School Board Meeting 06/25/2025

001Is the micro that working at all? Can you hear that? Can you hear that? You can. It doesn't sound. Testing. Testing. It's not working. Let me get Charles. test. Test test. Hello. Hello. Nope. Hello. Nope. Nope. We had a group in here and it got moving around. I'm not blame Charles, but I think it was Charles. Testing. Testing. There we go. There you go. Actually, it's not his fault. There was a pile of boxes back there and I was too lazy to pick them up and they fell over all in his face. So, I think it's my fault. Let me know when he's ready. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Good evening. I will now call to order the June 25th um Clark County School Board meeting. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of

002the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Um, any questions about tonight's agenda? May I have a motion? I move to approve the agenda as presented. Second. All in favor? I I I All opposed. Approval of consent agenda. Any questions? May I have a motion? I move to accept the consent agenda. Second. All in favor? I. All opposed. Okay. The SBA. Good evening everybody and everybody's here in attendance. I would I know that you may have to go, but we just have four um rather short recognitions, and I think some of them are things that a lot of us would be proud of for Clark County Public Schools. So, if you could stay through recognition, I think you'll find

003some good information there. We'll start with uh Miss uh Megan Gordon, who is the BSBA Valley Region Chair, and she's here to present a an award to Clark County Public Schools on behalf of the Virginia School Boards Association. Good evening, members of Clark County School Board. Thank you all for having me. My name is Megan Gordon and I'm the chair of the VSBA Valley Region. It's an honor to be here this evening on behalf of the Virginia School Boards Association to present you with this award. Clark County Public Schools has been selected as the winner of the inaugural VSBA Showcasing Innovation Award in the category of student population below 10,000. This award recognizes your outstanding work with the Clark County Jumpstart Program, an innovative initiative designed to empower students with real world experience, college credit

004opportunities, and a clear path toward high demand career fields. As the first partnership of its kind among states in Virginia, this program among schools in Virginia, this program reflects your commitment to creating forward-thinking solutions that prepare students for lifelong success. Your dedication to innovation and student achievement truly embodies the spirit of this award. Congratulations on this well-earned honor and thank you for setting a powerful example of excellence in public education. Thank you. And here's the word. I don't know. And when we um accept that, I'll um ask uh Shane Coleman who is our workbased learning coordinator to come forward and also Dr. Kathy Sil who was our is our assistant superintendent with who was instrumental with this program and I'm just really thankful for the work that they've done in the groundwork there and we

005got to do a BSBA podcast re recently which I thought was a lot of fun related to this. So Shane uh you or Kathy do you have anything you'd like to say? [Laughter] Oh, so uh you know thinking back several years now, Shane was really the dream behind this initiative and I was kind of the boots on the ground to make this happen um behind the scenes. It um was very interesting to pose this to VDOE for the first time when they said what you want students to go out of state to pursue CTE programming and then finally after much conversation we got the go-ahad. Um, this has been a great opportunity for our students as we have so many programs that we would not be able to house here in our division for their

006participation and their future career advancement. But I am going to put Shane on the spot and make him say a few words. And while Shane's coming to the microphone, also I I'm sorry and I would be remiss if I didn't mention that our partners at Blue Ridge, which are so critical to this initiative, are here with us tonight as well. So, thank you all. So, really the only thing I'm going to say is I'm going to introduce the two people that are with us uh because I guess y'all have heard enough from me. Y'all come about every year to talk about the program. Um so, we have Leslie C who is the vice president at Blige and also we have uh chef Steve Weiss um who is kind of a celebrity. Um he's he's been

007on Netflix, he's been on the Food Network uh so this is the type of individuals who our students get to work with. Uh so these uh we are accepting this. So thank you. And guys before um and I'll come forward that way we get it and we'll try to get everybody in. We did promise VSBA. So we'll have you hand it to Shane, but we promised VSBA that we'd have a picture that we would send them. So I'm going to put Patrick Houseman on the spot and ask if he'll take that. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for coming coming out. She drew a fart. Where is she from? From LA. Right. Yeah. Um, okay. Spring sports recognition. For our spring sports recognition, uh, Mr. Andre Kendrick will lead that for us.

008Good evening, ladies and gents. Um, I'm just here to recognize our spring sports teams. Um, I'll read from the prompt for some of the other teams. Uh we are very proud of our spring sports athletes uh and their accomplishments overall. Our teams had a very successful spring. Um CCHS softball and baseball teams both had a winning record with several players making all district. Uh skip uh girls soccer district and region champion and state runner up. Uh had several players. Megan Walker was region 2B player of the year. Uh boys soccer district and state uh finalist with Johnny Mercer district and region player of the year. Uh athletic recap before I get to my teams. I'm sorry. Um for the 2425 uh athletic recap, nine bullr run district titles, volleyball, football, boys cross country, girls cross

009country, girls basketball, boys track, girls track, uh boys soccer, and girls soccer, and nine region 2B titles, volleyball, uh golf, boys cross country, girls cross country, girls basketball, girls swim, boys track, girls track, boys soccer, and girls soccer. Um, and two state titles, boys cross country. And I'll go ahead and throw them up. Our girls track team who was also our girls and boys were uh district champions as mentioned and regional champions. And our girls were awesome and came out with a state championship. So, I'd like to give our spring sports athletes, mostly our track team boys and girls, and our state champion, Mr. Jackson Ellis, on the boys side, uh, a round of applause. Give him a round of applause. Thank you. Short and sweet. Um, Mr. Dr. Kendrick, I know I said this

010to you privately, but um congratulations on your new role. We do have high expectations, but I know you're going to do a great job. Thank you very much. Um immersive learning and project-based learning. Okay. U Mr. Houseman, I think you'll uh lead that component for us. And I have Miss Krauss and Miss Bis with me as well. Renee, do you want me to run the mouse? if you don't mind if it work. No joy. Is it turned on? Sometimes it's turned off. It is indeed. Well, I'll put new batteries in it for next time. That'll work. We can run it from here. Just just give me the Yeah. So, this was all part of an initiative that came around with a grant from BDOE, the Advancing Computer Science Education Grant. And this is actually one

011that was from last year that kind of rolled forward. And what it ultimately amounted to was five of our teachers, including myself, all working on creating Melment. And the immersive playground was essentially just the name of the grant. But Renee, if you go to slide two, it was all centered around a PBL course. So everybody was actually enrolled in a course from Shannondoa. And these are linked. So if you are in the slides, you can always click that and open it up. But we had six different in-person sessions at Shannondoa that worked us through how to create a PBL. We had textbooks and one of them is actually behind us. So it was a legitimate college course all geared towards getting computer science integrated more and then accompanying that with projectbased learning so that it

012was a more in-depth experience for the kids all designed around connecting to Switzerland maybe in some way because that was the essentially study abroad element of the course but also more integrating the computer science into the grade level the teachers were in. So, we had a third grade, we had high school, we had middle school teachers, and all of them came out with a fully flushed out project-based learning unit that is then supported by not only the trip as well as grant funding that was put in to buy resources and elements as well. Renee, you can go ahead and jump down to the next slide. So, I know this is super tiny, but you can always make it bigger later on, but this was the itinerary that was the trip part, which was really just

013the tail end of the class. But about 80% of the itinerary was all about going to a few different schools, virtual reality experiences, seeing how schools in Switzerland incorporate computer science, things along those lines. How are they structured? What does it look like for kids going through school there compared to here? A lot of it was geared all around the educational aspects and how do we talk to those people, whether it was people at school, whether it was people within industry there as far as connecting our projects, what we've created to those experiences. And part of that was going around and seeing some of the places, but majority of the time that we were there, which was good cuz it was meant to be an educational trip was really structured for us and meant to

014be an educational experience the whole way through. We did get a couple of side trips that allowed us to have some fun on the trip as well. So, that was great. And each one of the slides coming after are things that kind of summarize the experience for each one of the people involved as well as some pictures from the experience that we had. But Rene, you can go ahead and go to the next one. And I probably should have done this at the beginning, but in case anybody doesn't know me, I am Patrick Hman. I'm supervisor of instructional technology as well as an ITRT or tech coach for two of our schools. And I have with me Jacqueline Krauss who is a middle school English teacher and Mandy Bis who currently teaches at DG Koulie

015in third grade. They were both part of the trip. And I'm not going to read the whole thing to you that's up there but in a quick summarization as far as myself on the trip. I made a lot of different connections, not only project-based learning, computer science, but some of the different elements of the trip really brought in augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality as well, which are different initiative we've had for a few different years in Clark. So, it was very interesting to see the different technologies that they might use compared to what we use, as well as how they're integrating those different things both on the school side of things. But we also had an industry representative that showed us how they were using VR and where they go, what they do

016with businesses and things like that to, for instance, bring in experiences that are typically unsafe for people to do into a virtual reality space so they can still learn those different things without having either the money for those materials or having that exposure to essentially the unsafe side. Um, Rene, you can go ahead and go to the next one. So, I talked about one of those already as far as the augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality. On the left side there, we also had some different connections to artificial intelligence, which is one of the biggest things happening in technology things now and how they're either encouraging, not encouraging students to use it, what are their policies, what are their things look like. So again, it was really easy to see and interesting to see those

017different connections and then also continuing some of the progress we've had in the world of project-based learning because we have a number of great teachers doing that already in Clark, but seeing how we could connect that to an immersive experience like this and then see and collaborate with our teachers on the elementary, the middle school, and high school level to see how it not only got placed into core content areas like English, and reading, but also how could our art teachers because two of the people that were part of the class were the art teacher Meredith Stenberg from the middle school and Chrissy Schmol from the high school and seeing how they can also incorporate computer science project-based learning into disciplines that don't typically see a lot of that integration. And Rene, you can go

018ahead and go to the next one. Oh, now everybody can see it. And just a couple of the different experiences we had. the one in the middle that says, "If you can dream it, you can do it." I didn't feel right taking a lot of pictures inside of the schools and things we went, but they had the one school we went to had a number of posters and things on the wall that were meant to really make it inviting and kind of encourage the kids to dream and think of new things. And I really like the one that said the if you can dream it, you can do it. And we have a picture of the whole group that was part of it, all the teachers that were there from Clark, Frederick, and Winchester City.

019And up in the top right, we actually got to try some different VR experiences. They have a few places where they actually you get your own corner of the room, you get launched into a scenario, and then your whole team is trying to accomplish something. So, it was really great to work with our teachers kind of in an educational space as we went through the different things, but also get to know each other and develop some deeper relationships as we went through. And on a personal note, and the part that I'll end my piece here with is the bottom left hand picture, my family, and this is where my hard to spell last name comes in for everybody that gets to type that in. My grandfather came from Switzerland in the 50s. So, it's always

020been kind of a dream to get there at some point. And this is actually a side trip I got permission to do that was my grandfather's childhood home in Switzerland. So, it was really cool to bring that full circle on an educational trip. We got some weird looks by the guy that was working from home at the time, especially as we did circles and were like looking around, but it all worked out. It was a really cool thing to have that experience come around and be able to share it with some colleagues as well. That's so great. And Chrissy is not able to be with us today, but her piece is there as well as far as what she got out of the trip. Those of you that know Chrissy know that she travels a

021lot internationally. So, it's really great to have her as part of the group and have that experience with us. Rene, you can jump to the next one. And some of the different things she's already started to work on cuz one of the great things was because we got the funding for this grant project up front. As soon as we knew what people were committed to working on, we were able to get the materials right away. We actually got Chrissy a 3D printer to go with her project and her kids were designing things along with Mr. Novik at the high school within computer Aed design to then 3D print and then use in art class. And in this space it was mainly around ceramics and making different stamps that they could use to put in before

022it got fired and finalized. So it was really neat to see all of those pieces coming together from the technology to the experiential all the way through the end part. And of course, being an art teacher, she takes better pictures than I do. Rene, you can keep rolling to the next one. Meredith also, unfortunately, wasn't able to make it with us today. I have a video she made that I'll link into the slides, as well as another breakout piece for her, but her is goes a little bit different than the 3D printing. You can actually jump to the next one. What she was looking at really coincides with the virtual reality side of things. We just got a class VR headset at the middle school that'll allow us to be more of a closed environment,

023meaning you can't really create, you can't go to different apps with it, but you can get the experiences. Merit of this kind of levels that up and it's a headsets we're currently investigating that are more like the Metaquest headsets, things like that to where you can actually create different things, have different apps with it. And one of the things that she would like to do with it is design lessons around students creating art in a 3D space. So basically you can create it all around you. And then part of the art show that you would have would be a digital element where people could come put the headsets on and actually see that art that students have created in that 360 space. And you can go ahead and roll to the next one and I

024will hand it over to Mandy. Okay. Hello everyone. Thank you all so much for this opportunity to come and share um this incredible experience that um you all made possible. We're I'm so thankful. Um so this uh study abroad experience was truly impactful for me as an educator. Um it w grew me in a lot of different ways from the course at Shannondoa to then getting to go and actually study abroad in or experience Switzerland. um and their education and um just the innovations that they have. I would not deem myself a scientific person. Uh well, especially scientific science of reading, yes, but science in general, not as much. And so we went ended up at the CERN um for one of our experiences. And one of the things that was so impactful to me

025was that it drew you in. even the most complex ideas of atoms and these you know uh kind of for me far out ideas of science um were tangible and I could experiment and I brought this childlike um experience back to me of the importance of being hands-on with our learning and engagement and the different ways that they engaged us in this museum cross-cultural like it was across anybody could walk up and get something from that experience and so that really challenged me about just this idea of accessibility and education, no matter what we're bringing to our students, just the accessibility and how do we um get their minds to light up and engage with um whatever we're sharing. And so that was kind of a beginning of of of kind of a pressing outside

026my comfort zone and then kind of having to stretch my mind and think, you know, how can I bring this back to my students? Um so that fear of the unknown of feeling like a no vice. I don't know at all what I'm doing, but I'm just going to pick up this thing and figure out how these magnets work together and whatever um the different experiments were. Um it just kind of brought me back to that uh place that I see our students at every day. Um and then one of the other incredible experiences was just getting to be tra uh getting to travel with teachers from uh elementary to collegiate. And I'm telling you, there was not a downtime that wasn't uh it there was no waste of time. Um whether over a cup

027of coffee or a train ride or a bus ride, we were having these discussions of what we were doing in our classrooms and what we were seeing with the students and what we could do better and how what was happening in elementary school that could then transfer up to the middle school and the high school. And it was beautiful and it just reminded me of the power of collaboration. And it's something I didn't want to lose. And I know um Jacqueline will speak more to that as you know we we roommed together. Lucky her, right, with this talker. Okay. Sorry. Anyway, uh we'll leave that alone. Um but um it was just I came back with a full spark, ready to go and just ready to ignite um whatever I could as far as learning

028goes. And so with my PBL, my project-based learning activity, um I came back and I was ready to implement it with my students. I was so excited. We were going to read Heidi. We were going to do this awesome like mountain rescue experiment. And um time was of the essence. We could not read Heidi. Heidi is if you've ever read it, it's very long and complex. And so I was a able to pivot and I went with the books that I picked up because what other souvenir would a reading teacher bring back? Um and um I had them get to ch do have a power of choice and I saw that ignite in And I was like, you can pick any book, any um fable and um from Switzerland, and I want you to read

029it, and we're going to discuss it. We're going to, you know, develop elements from it. Anyway, the point of the story is I learned a lot about the power of collaboration. I learned about giving students choice. I learned about integrating technology and um I learned about what that looks like in a in a variety of ways. um empowering our students and um what it looks like to bring back passion and kind of enthuse that into what you're doing. So, it was awesome. I'm I'm so thankful. You can go to the next one. Sorry. So, my takeaways, collaboration is essential in every area with our students, with our teams, um across schools. I'd love to see that more. global awareness, just bringing that that that we're all global citizens and taking that to our kids and

030helping them feel like they're more a part of it, taking ownership of the global um world that we're in here. Um technology, not being afraid of it, but embracing the unplugged side as well as the plugged in side. Um and just sparking curiosity. So, and then I think it's Yep. And there's a bit of that. Thank you. So, I'm Jaclyn Krauss. Um, I don't have quite the elementary enthusiasm as Mandy does. I teach middle school, I teach 8th grade. Um, we're just built a little differently, but um, I really was thankful for this opportunity as well. It's my I just finished my 15th year teaching and as a teacher, you have to always be learning. 10 15 years later, you can imagine technology has started to be more advanced, but I'm trying to keep up

031with it because I teach eighth graders. And so, this was a really good opportunity to push myself to learn and not only learn, but become comfortable with the technology um to bring it back to my class my classes and helped me work on problem based learning. During COVID, I got my masters in curriculum and instruction, but as you can imagine, problem based learning was a little tricky during COVID. You had to be really creative. So, that was hard. Um, you can go ahead and click. So, my three takeaways from this trip was the world view. Um, just being able to experience outside opportunities, learning about the different schools as you, as you heard about, hearing how they take CTE to a huge level on what would basically be the high school level here, how they

032do simulations in their classroom through technology, but then also simulations through hands-on stuff, seeing how they incorporate those type of ideas. um just seeing different things in a a world view that we're supposed to bring to our students. Uh in my job as English teacher, I'm also the head of the English department and the eighth grade team. So I am also going to be bringing PD ideas back to my colleagues. We've already been working on that. So problem based learning, how they can easily incorporate that into their classroom. This past year, eighth grade, some of you may have known to some hydroponics units that we worked on together. So how to incorporate things they see in the news at home, what they're doing into the classrooms and do crosscurricular. We worked really hard on doing

033those type of technology pieces. And then VR, you can click one more. Um, here you will see a picture in the top right corner of the first time I've ever put VR goggles on at CERN. As Manny was talking about, like I said, technology isn't my huge area of comfort. So, this was the first time I really got to experience that. In that picture, we're seeing how CERN works with the particles through the VR goggles. Um, and so through that opportunity and then the gaming that we were able to be educated with that Patrick talked about earlier, I was able to become more comfortable with VR. So, my unit and technology and computer science lesson is actually taking place in summer school currently. So, if any of you would like to join us tomorrow, we'll

034actually be using our VR goggles. So, you guys are welcome. Kids get there at 8:30. We'll probably start around 8:50 with the ER VR goggles. Take about a half an hour. So, you're welcome to join us. But what we're using it in my class for kind of goes with the quote up there. What is it like to walk in someone's shoes? Books allows us to imagine it. Movies allow us to see it. But VR is the first opportunity where we can really experience it. So, I've been really pushing the background knowledge of reading into my students reading. During summer school, we've been doing learning about different countries. We started with Switzerland so we could talk about my trip. Um, and then putting the VR goggles on and being able to see what they're talking about.

035So, tomorrow what we will be experiencing has to do with the coral reef because they're reading on Friday will have to do with the coral reef. So, we'll see some beaches, then we will see underwater, then we'll see some coral reefs. There's even some 3D models that they get to twirl around and see what the coral reef looks like. There's some videos so they can see how the coral reef is so important to different fish and the wildlife to continue. And then tomorrow, well, Friday, we will then continue that by reading how do you keep the coral reef alive and doing well? Um, and doing some reading comprehension. And if you know about the middle school EBI, we'll be doing gist statements and vocabulary as well. Um, so that's how I've incorporated in my classroom.

036The invitation is open to you guys if you would like to see it or if you would like to experience the VR and put the headset on. So, thank you very much for the opportunity. We really appreciate it. Oh, I'm supposed to tell you one more thing. Through the PD, um, I'm also engaged and learning more. We started a little book club with a lady Stephanie who teaches at Shannondoa University who was on the trip with us. So we have a little book club we're reading lost at school. So our our learning is continuing even outside of this opportunity. And I believe she is presenting at the innovation conference. So not only is it helping our students and us, but it's also really helped us make some connections with people in education that are helping

037us grow every day. So, thank you. We also brought some cheese from Switzerland imported. Um, you're welcome to sample it. Thank you. Any questions? No, it's just such a fresh breath. Wait, is it breath fresh of air? Fresh breath of air. Fresh breath of air. Um, your um passion and excitement about this and I understand elementary school is definitely probably I love you, Mandy, but Um anyway, so but um I'm just really excited you all had this opportunity. It sounded like you had a great time and then to bring all the ideas with you and collaborate I think is is amazing. So um thanks for being here to present. I think you aren't in school anymore. So appreciate you coming out on a Wednesday night. Thank you. Thank you. Excuse me. I feel a little

038bit more sang when I hear talk from people who know even less about this than I do that teaching is going to hell in a hand cart and it's all kids are just being handed a computer when they come in to class and seeing the level of enthusiasm for this and understanding this world is changing whether we like it or not I feel a lot more comfortable going back to some of my constituents and tell them don't worry worry about it. I think this is all good. Thank you. Um, student achievement. And what we'll do, um, before we do the student achievement data presentation, and I do think that'll be a good one for everybody to kind of look at if you can to see how we're doing. And I'll make that brief. One thing

039though I do want you to know is that we did have the second most improvement out of a pretty large consortium. So, kind of seeing where we're at, I think will be fundamental. But one thing that we do want to do is have Andre to come back up and call the coaches up and the uh students so that they can do a picture. Okay. I apologize. Everybody that knows me knows me. I I like to be sometimes short and sweet. Unless I'm coaching, then the kids will tell you I talk a lot. But um first I'd like to call my coaches up here. Give me Miss Nancy Spec, Mr. Gary Wymer, and Miss Regina Downing. Um I've said it, if you've read any of the articles, um don't know where I'd be without this group.

040Uh this group of coaches probably has, uh 100 plus years of coaching experience between the Actually, we're missing uh Mr. Jeff Webster and Miss uh Jamie Starley. But amongst that group, the experience level is very high and it is an awesome group to have coached with. Um so I'd like to say thank you to these guys for doing a great job. We'll start with them. and Andre for like the audience outside too if you'll tell what they coach each one and maybe then call them up with their team and take a p let them take a picture. Okay. Well, we we share coaching responsibilities on both sides, boys and girls. Okay. So, um Coach Downing works with sprints and short distance. Coach Wymer is jumps. Um, and coach Spec is our leader of doing it

041all. She's our hurdles, our middle distance, short distance, sprints. Uh, she does a little bit of it all. Um, I am the head coach, but I coach the throwers. Uh, coach Webster and Coach Downing, uh, Coach Starley, coach the distance crew. Um, and again, they we all work together working with the boys and girls and getting the best out of them. Um, I'll go ahead because it is awesome that we're doing this and bring up some of the fellas. First, uh, I have Mr. Jackson Ellis, uh, 800 state champion. Um, distance runner, 4x8, does it all. Uh, leader of the boy side, he's a leader by example. Um, Mr. James Casey, distance runner again, leader of the boys team. I had a group of seniors that was boys and girls that was just phenomenal. And

042honestly, um, don't know that either team finished below fifth in any meet we were in. And we do a lot of invitationals and a lot of it has to do with the senior leadership that we have. Um, young Mr. Brody Ellis, Jackson's little brother, who's going to take over and be a a leader for us. Uh we'll go from there. That's our boys. Um the boys finished fifth out of 36 scoring teams at state. Uh and did an awesome job down there. Um, if you know anything about this year's state meet, um, we get there, it's raining, um, it's coming down, the wind is blowing, about 2 hours in, the sun comes out and it is a sauna. Uh, day two, same thing. Actually, day one, there was day one, it was a 2-hour break,

043uh, due to thunder and lightning in the area. Um came back out again in the sauna, finished up. Day two, kind of the same thing. Get there, it's raining for a couple hours, thunderstorm in the area. We only have about a 45 minute. Have to go inside. Um and then come back out and it is a sauna the rest of the afternoon. Um let me get to our young ladies. We'll start with our seniors. Um, give me Miss Reagan Meyer. Uh, multiport athlete. We We actually call her Megatron because she gets to a meet and like most of our young ladies come in, they smile, they're helpful, but when it is time to go, they get this look and they just let you know that it is on and they about to give you everything

044they got. Um, and it showed at this year's meet, let's see, give me uh Molly Houston, distance runner, uh, 4x8 meddling team. Uh, getting back to Reagan, I'm sorry. Earned four medals at the state meet. 4x1, 200, triple jump, and 4x4 state champions. They actually won the 4x4. Um, let's see. I don't have any more senior girls. All right, give me Miss Mia Timberlake, uh, distance runner. Does a lot of things for us. Member of the 4x8 team. Miss Emma Houston, distance runner. And as you can tell, that's why our cross country team had so much success. A lot of our distance runners from cross country came over to track and did an excellent job. and give me one of our young guns who we're excited to have her, Miss Kendall Harmon. Come on up.

045Freshman, sprints, jumps, um going to be a leader of the team for years to come. Let's see. I got all of the girls here present, right? Yep. Um and this is members of our girls state champion team and members of our boys. fifth place out of 36 teams there at states. So, that's a phenomenal finish. Um, let's give him a hand and get a picture. All right, you take a picture. All right, ladies. Come on up. Yeah. Come on up front, ladies. The back. Come on. Come on. We love you. Hey, look. Get your face in the window. Get in the window. Be seen. If you can't see him, he can't see you. Yep. Big smiles. Everybody smile. Stand up. Stand up straight. And these are awesome parents. Could not have asked for a better

046crew of parents. Yay. Thank you. And yes, I would be remiss without mentioning our parent group who made everything so easy doing invitationals. Those meets we get there at about 8:00. Meet starts at about 9. We usually don't leave till 4:30, 5:00. Our parents do a phenomenal job of bringing the kids. We always discuss healthy snacks. Um, our kids ate well at meets. And if you've ever been to a track meet, the concession stand is going all day. And our kids did a great job of avoiding the concession stand so they're not weighed down and ate healthy all day. But it was always fun um when I got to ride the bus to ride home and you know just stop and watching them eat. We'd tear sheets up. Sheets have has a wide menu and

047they would have a ball. But uh once again, thank you for having us. Really appreciate it. And thank you gentlemen, coaches, ladies. Thank you all. Thank All right, guys. If we would go ahead and look now at the uh academic data achievement update piece, um I do think it's always important that we talk about our core mission, you know, being uh student learning data and where we're at with that. And I think a hallmark of an effective school system is to be transparent with the data piece. Now, you'll find a lot of information there, and I'm going to make this brief and not go over all of it, but I want you to have access to all of it. The Google doc there, what it does is it shows the comparison of our pass rates

048from the spring of 24 to the and I'm going to tell you which one to pull up, the only one in a minute to the uh spring of 25. That just shows you the difference. Now, this is ba on based on state assessments and there's a lot of other things that go into a school being high quality, but I will tell you that when the Virginia Department of Education and Richmond are looking at school quality, these are the essential measures and they are um well constructed tests and assessments that typically do indicate how students are going to perform when they go on to collegate work or post-secary work or CTE, fundamentals of reading, writing, and mathematics. addicts. Um the other document that's up there that says 2025 final so report. What that does is it'll

049give us a comparison of how we did relative to other districts and the comprehensive instructional program consortium. We got these spreadsheets every morning around 6 or 7 a.m. to tell us a snapshot of where we're doing on that given day and on that given time. If you look at those, and I'm not going to go through this one. I'm just kind of telling you as you read through it, there are some uh different tests and they'll have a pass rate and a percent. And then there's another column that says PR. And a lot of people think that's pass rate, but it's actually percentile ranking is what that is. And that's percentile ranking out of the consortium. So, for instance, if you're at the 62nd uh PR, that means that you outperformed 62% of the districts

050in the consortium on that assessment. And um 38% of school districts in the consortium outperformed you. So, you want your percentile rank to be as high as possible. And I would actually argue that percentile rank is probably more important than uh pass rate because it actually indicates school quality in comparison to other districts in the uh state of Virginia or the Commonwealth. But that actually breaks it down by school and down to each other tests. There's tons of tabs down there. I think that's a good document. and historical trends. We won't open that one now, but what that does is just show different um where Clark has been through the years. The one that I'd like for us to open is the one that's just numeric and has a PDF. I prepared kind of this

051as a summary and we'll have to rotate it at the top there because of the orientation of it. And it's just kind of a summary of our 2025 results. and the uh first page there and I did crop the picture um cuz it's a picture of a a Google slide and I don't think they'll mind because I couldn't take the one that beat us out but I think having the best and pass rate improvement in the Commonwealth in the consortium would actually be a good thing. So what you'll see is there are in the neighborhood of somewhere between like 71 and 74 districts in the comprehensive instructional program based on academic marks. And then what they do is they try to look at the most relevant and most honest and transparent representation of where you're

052at. So we have a this data set contains um around 70ome districts and you got to remember in the Commonwealth of Virginia there are 131 districts so we have well over half the districts represented um and where we'll land because some districts aren't in there maybe a little bit higher a little bit lower but because it's so such a big consortium we actually get a snapshot of likely where we're to land comparative to other districts in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Now, if you'll notice, the one district that outpaced us this year in the consortium on academic gains was Nelson County. So, I don't think they would have any problem with that being left in there because I'm not savvy enough technology-wise to be able to take a sale out in between. But, um, they did

053actually outpace us. their um increase in pass rate this year was 18.3 percentage points increase um which was really impressive for them at the like two days before this ended. We were only a hundth of a percentage point behind them to end up being first and second. So I liked it better then but it still ended up uh to be pretty good and there's a big gap down to third. So it's a clearly indicator that we have the second most improvement in the consortium in um pass rates and we increased the percentile percentile ranking of our pass rate 16.90 percentage points in the consortium and this is only for one semester's worth of membership. So I think that's you know important to note and our overall pass rate went up 4.01% 101% and on a

054data set that big that's pretty fundamental for that uh time period. If you look our pass rate across all the academic areas for spring 25 was 74.35% and our percentile ranking for pass rate in the consortium this spring was 67.60%. So we did better than 2thirds of the members of the consortium. Now, our advanced pass rate, if you look at that, we had a 12.99% of our students across all areas score of 500 or better. And actually that's the biggest indicator of success in later CTE, military or college is actually getting to the 500 because we got to remember passing is the bare minimum proficiency to understand the material technically you know to move on and based on that by advanced pass rates we were at the 81st or 81.60 percentile. So we outpaced over

05580% of the districts in the consortium for um Ava advanced pass rates and the gains over 24 are quite impressive. See that we are at the 67.60 percentile for pass rate this year. Last spring we were at 50.70 percentile ranking. So we were just dead even in the middle and right now we're above 2/3. And if you look, we had an advanced pass rate percentile rank at 67.6, which is right at 2/3. And this year we are at 81.60, which shows tremendous gains. And like I said, of the uh 70ome divisions in the consortium, we had the second most gains. Now what that means is we will move up 14 places in uh state ranking for academic achievement in the consortium which means that our ranking in the state will move up at least 14

056places but because there's other districts that are not in the consortium it'll likely be significantly more than 14 places increase. Um the next uh page slide there is the historical trend data and you can actually go all the way back to 1998 on the BDOE website if you use build a table quite well and you can see where we were last year we were at the 57th um uh ranking in academic achievement in the Commonwealth of Virginia out of 131 districts. So, we were in the top half, which is good, but I think striving for continual improvement is always very important. And you can see that we have it all the way back to 2006 there. And our highest one, I believe in that range is 35th in 2016. And actually, when you go back

057to 1998, our highest one ever is that 2016 of 35. So, it'd be really nice to surpass that either now or in the near future. The next page shows where we're at with students overall. And these are kind of colorcoded that if you're in the bottom third in the consortium, your red, middle third yellow, and upper third green. And one of the things you'll notice is the 2025 has become for overall student bodies all yellow and green compared to a lot of red there on 24. Um some significant gains. The pass rate overall at Johnson Williams went from 62.3 to 70.02 and our ranking in the state um among middle schools went from the 20th percentile ranking among middle schools to uh 37.70 in the consortium. If you look there at Kulie um the pass

058rate increased from 66.04 to 71.49 49 and our percentile ranking uh within the consortium moved from 30 to 41.50 and by the way this is all if we had have been a member in 24 we're not we weren't but it is important to look at the data pieces there increased from 67.04 to 72.02 and went up from 3250 percentile ranking to 42.60. The high school you can see has um it was always you know doing great just a little dip there and things like that will happen. Went from the 83.96 pass rate to 82.66 66. Still really good. And we are still sitting at the 79.50 percentile ranking of pass rates, which means we roughly outperform 80% of the high schools in the Commonwealth of Virginia represented in the consortium. And probably with the new

059matrix, there's a whole lot of emphasis on kids doing exemplary and doing better. The advanced pass rate column is equally important to me, if not more. And if you'll look at it there, Johnson Williams advanced pass rate is at the 59th percentile in the state. Kulie at the 81st. Uh Boyce at the 75th in the state within the consortium. And Clark County High School at the 67.5 percentile ranking for advanced within the consortium. And we will update the board when this comes out in Septemberish, maybe October with when we get the every district represented for state rankings. The next page um is the students with disabilities. And I will say this is something we need to always strive for continuous improvement. Although there's a lot of good, there's still a lot to work on in

060this file. But one thing that I am proud of of the between 70 and 75% of districts in the consortium, we were the most improved for students with disabilities this year. Um so that was actually the highest and increase and we increased our percentile ranking for students with disabilities pass rate by 40.5 40.80 percentage points. And if you look our pass rate for students with disabilities last year was 28.78 and our pass rate for students with disabilities this year is 39.13. We were at the 21st percentile in the consortium last year. We're at the 61.90 this year. A lot of gains. Now, having said that though, I want us to be really proud of that. But the goal is to not have a discrepancy between the two and have it be as high. And before

061we went into the new accreditation matrix which or framework which is this year the the the required pass rate for students with disabilities in English was 75 and the required pass rate for students with disabilities in mathematics was 70. So while I want to be proud of this there's still work to be done. Okay. But we did have the highest uh increase in students with disabilities pass rate in the consortium. And if you look there at the 2024, we had a whole lot of red and there's still some red on students with disabilities at individual schools. Johnson Williams in the consortium was at the 24th percentile in the consortium overall for students with disabilities and Kulie was at the 22nd. 1000 percentile in the consortium for students with disabilities. So, a lot of gains, but

062we still need to, you know, look at what we could do for improvement pieces there. On the next slide, we have the subgroup differences. And one thing when you actually start breaking it down by subject areas, um, you can see the overall column for all students being in the bottom third of the consortium. Uh the only areas in that part for overall are history at Boyce uh reading at DG Kulie and um the math at Johnson Williams. But when you do look at the special education column, it's definitely strongly improved over the last year. Um, one thing with federal identification though is to remember that if any subgroups in the bottom 5% of the state, then you are in federal improvement. Nothing's in the bottom five. Um, so we're hoping that we'll be able to

063move beyond that point, but we have it's a little bit close to call. you normally don't change more than five or seven percentage points, but some of those there if you do look there at for instance um mathematics at Johnson Williams Middle School for econom or for special educations at the 13th percentile in the consortium. So we'll we'll hope that we will um move beyond that and we'll continue for always increasing academic performance. One thing that is more of a concern to me and we've talked about this and we'll work through it um is the you know a little bit of a difference in the achievement of our economically disadvantaged students which is also a subgroup and there's quite a bit of red down that column still it was almost all red in the previous

064year and I think maybe too that's a a lot of times that one is as high or equally as good as the overall because a lot of districts almost every kid is economically disadvantaged. So there's a lot of experience in working with students in poverty or close to poverty situations. It may be that our p our poverty index is only around 30%. So you know maybe some ongoing conversations and trainings about how to work and to move that pass rate piece up. But one thing that I will note to you all is that it is conclusive that we are the second most improved district in the consortium with overall academic achievement and we did increase the percentile ranking within the consortium 16.90% and we also made tremendous gains on advanced pass rates. Our advanced pass

065rates are up 14 percentage points. So we will make at least 14 uh steps gain in the state which would take us from 57 to 43 but when other districts are in there it may be even more. So overall I think some really good information. Okay. And if y'all don't you any questions that you may have I'll try to answer and if you don't we'll move on. Well, all that's great. So, the what I'm thinking is there. What I'm thinking is um I'm sure we we can we can tie in what what we've done or our methods and how we got to these improvement numbers. Am I right? Are we going to get some uh followup maybe on, you know, hey, this is what we've done and this is a direct correlation to why our

066numbers went up and so we're going to keep doing that. Um I think so. I think a lot of it has to do with actually embracing data and looking at it daily and being really transparent and I think that's a key hallmark of highly successful divisions and I think a big part of it is joining the comprehensive instructional program which gives us really high quality relative benchmarks to the state instructional material and uh give us daily data reports. It's kind of like you know playing a game or something. If you're down, you need to work a little bit harder the next day. And if you're not pressing out timely information each day and data, you're not going to really know. And then it's just kind of aiming in the dark for the final result. I

067think that's a component of it. I think that also making sure that your materials are aligned and that um instructional leaders are pressing in and kind of doing some modeling of things that you need to do. I'm sure that um the increase to the Virginia Literacy Act will have an impact and is having an impact and it's probably more of a collective effort. So to say that this one particular thing, but most all research shows that the most significant thing to student achievement increases is having leadership in the buildings that understand instruction and alignment to standards and that they make it the number one priority and don't let anything else stand in the way of that. And in hiring that you always hire the best teachers who have the best content knowledge and things of

068that nature. And that's how you sustain improvement. Um, but we'll certainly keep looking through that and keep working through. But I think it's knowing that everybody's tracking data and everybody's working in one direction because if you don't know how things are coming out along the way, you're not going to make as good a decisions. And a lot of it is knowing how you're doing relative to other people in the state as you go. Because even though I think competition academically sometimes gets a bad rap, but I'm actually all for it. I think the competition in the world in general is a good thing and we need to remind kids of that and probably being competitive academically may be the most important thing that they can be competitive with. Um, and knowing how you're doing relative

069to other people is an important uh piece of information. Question. Uh, are you using the comparisons as a motivational thing or are we still looking to uh be the best that we can be? I think it needs to be both. We know that we're being the best that we can be by looking at how others are doing and what we can do. And even though we made a lot of gains, there are districts in the state that face a lot of similar situations or even harder that are, you know, consistently performing at the 90th percentile across the board. and we got to go there and emulate those practices because I think even with gains, let's say you get to a 70% pass rate, we got to remember that in 1998 when the state of Virginia

070defined the standards of learning test, it was the minimum understanding to move on to the next course. I think we can't ever rest on laurels and say we've done the best we can or we've done the best for us. I think we need to do the best for each individual kid. And if we do that, it's never okay to say 30% of kids don't achieve the minimum standard. This is the first time that Thank you. we've um You're welcome. seen this data the data in this format. So, this is it's tremendously helpful and it what you just said, Mr. Wilson made me think of all of these athletes that we've brought in throughout the school year and you know there's so much emphasis on the success that they've had but this is this is really

071why we're here and I am thankful to um Dr. Bowling and Dr. seal for for making this our priority because that's this is what what we're here for and if we can be that successful in acetics then why not in academics I heard a rumor you were tutoring some students for the so testing I want to personally thank you for taking the time up and and making that I know that's why you got into education to begin with but that speaks a lot to for your character and we appreciate it. I did just cuz I wanted to do it. I think that it makes a connection piece. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for all of that. Um finance committee report. Mr. Nucci, welcome. Don't be offended that all these people leave before you um

072before your presentation. Happens all the time. Absolutely. So, good afternoon everyone. Um before I get started, I'd just like to introduce myself in case we haven't met um or you guys forgot about me. Uh my name is Steve Nucci. I'll be replacing Brenda Bennett as the director of the joint administrative services uh department. I think I pretty much met everyone on the board at least once and even working with a couple of you. So, it's good to see you all again be here today. Uh my first couple weeks on the job have been great. I started on June 2nd. Um the JS staff is very welcoming. Uh they're supportive. They're very smart and uh so is the leadership on the school side as well with Dr. Bowling and Dr. Seal as well. And everyone on

073down through the line has been nothing short of fantastic. So really look forward to continue working uh with this group now and in the future. With that being said, we'll go ahead and jump into the finance committee updates. Um the finance committee met on June 12th and did a review and did review an updated fiscal year 25 revenue projection. Um the thing about revenue is where you start the year in most cases isn't where you'll end the year. Um there are changes or adjustments that happen throughout the year. Like uh you'll have an adjustment to enrollment numbers which affects how much revenue you receive. Um you'll receive a grant in the middle of the year that you didn't know that was even out there in the beginning of the year or you receive more funding

074than you uh budgeted for for a particular line item. So, it's important that we track all those variances throughout the year and make you guys aware of that. So, Renee, we can go to the revenue packet and I'll kind of speak to what's on the memorandum because it kind of describes what's on the revenue packet. Right. So, this is um the first page is the summary of changes to the revenue budget. If you look at the top left where it says funding source, uh right under that is the 25 revised budget. So, to start the fiscal year, we were at 29.2 million. That was our uh budget. Then we had changes to local funding. So some of the changes to local funding added up to $58,000. What were those changes? So based on year-to- date

075actuals, our dual enrollment actually increased. So we received 30 thou $30,000 more than what we budgeted for. Our tuition for private services increased by $21,000. And also our rental and facility fees also increased by $8,000. Add that all up, plus a little bit of adjustments based on year-to- date actuals, and our local funding is $58,000 higher than what we planned for in the beginning of the fiscal year. Below that, state funding, and that's a little bit different. Um, our state funding changed about $318,000 less than what we planned in the beginning of the year. Why? Well, the big thing there is the change uh due to the funding headcount. So, our ADM, our average daily membership, in the beginning of the year, we budgeted about $1870 for that number, but then it came back in

076the spring at $1830. So, with um a lower ADM, which means you're going to receive lower funding per ADM. So, we're expecting to receive about $200,000 less than what we budgeted for in the beginning of the year. We also had a change to our calc file. The calc file is what the state uses to determine how much funding they give us in relation to our local funding. Um, there's a couple adjustments we needed to make there. So, we're receiving about $62,000 less from the state. And then all in VA, we have $50,000 that is being unspent and rolled over to fiscal year 26. When funding is rolled over to fisc fiscal year 26, it can't be recognized as revenue in fiscal year 25, which is why you see the negative amount there. So, if you

077add that all together plus a little bit adjustments, the state is going to be the state funding is about $318,000 less than what we planned. Federal just a little bit of an adjustment there. the insurance recovery is about $2,000 less. So when you add local, state, and federal together, uh the total of estimated changes is the second line at the bottom, 26 262,000. So our fiscal year 25 estimate revenue is that bottom line, 28.9 million as opposed to what we thought it was in the beginning of the year, 29.2. Any questions on that? Okay, hearing none, we'll jump on and then we'll we'll go on to uh page two and page three, which will talk about the operating funding. So, this is getting into the weeds a little bit more. Um, if you look on

078page two at the local revenue, second column over, revised budget was 292,000. Year-to- date actual is higher like we talked about at 347. Below that, state revised budget is 12,12.1 and then the year-to- date actual is about 10.3. Top of page three will talk about federal revised budget is 800,000 and we received about 520,000 of that. So in total um grand total our revised budget is 29.2 million and we received year-to- date actuals 22.9 of that for the operating fund. Next we'll jump over to page four and we'll talk about the food service fund. So we'll just quickly touch on the grand total at the bottom. The revised budget amount is 1.5 million. uh year to date is 88,000. If you're asking, hey, why is that such a big gap this late in the fiscal

079year? It's because um our revised total takes into account excess fund balance but not to our our year-to- date actuals. It does not. And I believe that's because we don't tap into our excess fund balance unless we have to, which is why we have that difference there for food service. Uh jumping over to the capital fund on page five, uh same story there. The revised budget amount is 1.9 million and the year-to- date actual is 1.4 and then we have a little less than $500,000 to spend in that line item. It did come up in the finance committee. Um I think we are planning majority of that purchase is for a bus and I do believe we were planning to receive it in fiscal year 25. We um were and actually we had uh reallocated

080money within capital to do that and it was to help this next year's budget. So, it looks like we're going to have to ask um for the uh appropriation to carry forward because uh it was to be delivered in this year and ready. Then Mr. Trinary got a call maybe a month ago or so and it was we hope it'll be ready, but it may not. And then last couple weeks, our suppliers are behind. There's no way it's going to be ready um to take possession by June 30th. So, that's where we're at on that. Yep. And then quickly touching on the last one, which is the uh debt fund. Uh the revised budget is 2.2 million and the year-to- date actuals match at 2.2 million as well. Any questions on that? If not, that's

081all I got. And um while Mr. Mr. Nucci is still there. One thing and I thought I'd linked in there so I hadn't all added in there which is one thing that I think is very important for us to do is after we get our actual appropriation of the budget is to start a completely balanced budget and a plan. You know, we did get the um what we thought we were going to get at the best from the state. So that's good. The federal remained out. But one thing, we are incredibly grateful to the board of supervisors and the locality for the funding that we gotten. They were wonderful, but it was at 99.5% of the request. So, it did leave a budget shortfall of $173,320. So, what we did was in our budget, the

082cost of new positions was $264,747. When you take off the $173,320, we had $91,427 toward the new positions. One thing that Mr. Trinary and I did, we did have an increase in our um insurance uh quote for this year. Uh Vor was wonderful. We spoke with them and they didn't want to lose us as a customer. So they did a reduction a discount of $45,764 for this year. So you add that to the $91,427. Also we do not have to fill the up position due to the prek move which is $89,000. That gives us a total net positive of $226,191. Now, initially we thought we um with the teacher being one less at I mean upper related to the uh prek we'd actually have more funding but one of the things we found out was

083that by our student need and our number of e students our English language learners that now we're in the category that the state requires us to have four teachers for English language as opposed to three. So that occupied that extra teaching position. So that's not there in the savings. So we have $226,191 toward new positions. And new positions cost 264,747. That means to fund all the new positions, we're short $38,556. So, what we've decided is I've recommended that we would not fund the additional instructional assistant at Culie, which is $31,433, which leaves us just in um a shortfall of $7,123, and we'll make that up in salary savings. So, we'll actually be able to fund all the new positions less the IA at Kulie, which I think's a good place. And that starts us off

084with a balanced budget. That's great. So, we'll attach that in and just wanted to be transparent about that. That you know, we were cut we did we had a shortfall of 173. How did we get there? And I think having that paper trail is important. Thanks for explaining that. Yep. Um for for you all who don't know, um Steve came from the government, US government, and he worked for the FDA. And today I feel like you've been part of the school system for like 10 years. So well done with everything you've learned in just the few weeks you've been here. I'm sorry we won't be able to work together, but um you are going to do amazing. I think we're really lucky to have you. So appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah, that was I mean

085if you practiced before coming here and all week, you did great. Yeah, I did. Thank you. Um okay, superintendent update. Okay. because of everything we've done so far tonight. This is going to be incredibly brief. Um, our nurse aid education program has earned continued approval for next year by the board of education. I will say that our graduation and promotion ceremonies were beautiful. I've already shared that we did a podcast related to the jump start and the BSBA award. Um, so there's about a 30 minute edition of us speaking on the BSBA website if you want to hear that. Um, and then that's all I have for the superintendent's update pieces. Okay, audience comments. Okay, hold on. Oh, sorry. Sorry. No, sorry about that. Normally I ask. Sorry about that. Uh, Dr. Bowling, Dr. Seal,

086Miss Wear, Chair Singh Smith, Vice Chair Hover, Kur Hovert, uh, members, uh, the rest of us Kennedy Wilson and and Grumbach, Missing Supervisor Lawrence, thank you very much for coming. It's really important that our our county leadership comes to these things because you need to hear these things and I really appreciate Doug you coming and uh it means a lot. So, uh um teachers, you guys are the best. Uh without you and uh this wouldn't be here. So, uh and that enthusiasm is awesome. Keep going. and money man. I'm a money man, too. So, let's talk because I I I can learn more from you and and I'm here in several capacities. Um I'm the general manager of Oddley Farm and I'm also the vice president of the Clark County Education Foundation. And uh we

087want to thank everyone here for all your hard work on another successful school year. And uh it's kind of bittersweet. We hear all these great things and uh we get all excited and then we have some sad news that uh chair chair Sing Smith is leaving. And uh I wanted to thank you personally and also from the education foundation. Beth Williams would have been here tonight but you wouldn't be wasn't able to. You are an incredible leader. You are a incredible public servant. Uh what you have done over the years has been tremendous. You did it through a very very difficult time, a very unique situation in the entire world through the COVID crisis and just the craziness that came with it. I mean it was crazy. So, um, it's really exciting to see where

088this board is and where the leadership is. Dr. Bowling, it's every time in a meeting with you, I walk away with, "Oh my god, this guy, where does it end?" It doesn't. So, it's awesome. But, um, but seriously, Monica, you're wonderful. And, um, I can't thank you enough. Personally, the board thanks you. My job as the education foundation vice president is to is to raise funds. Okay? So, I'm the money guy. And um I will do everything I can to to raise personally and al as well as a business as well as a foundation. And I and I will challenge our board because guys, we know money talks. You guys need it. Uh we heard it where we are. And uh in the last three years since I've been on the board, we've in we've

089we've reached record numbers of fundraising and uh we're just beginning and I want to do everything I can to provide trips to Switzerland and and VR things and and drone programs and anything we can to help make the school system better. So I just want to let you know I'm here to commit it and support you guys. But Miss Sing, thank you very much from all of us. Thank you. I appreciate that. [Applause] Um, new business, approval of meal prices. All right. The, um, and I'll let Miss Weer speak to this. She's absolutely wonderful with running this. If we, if y'all have any questions, done a great job. Basically the main thing there though is at the very minimum that we are allowed to increase um cost on meals and I will say it's not

090something we take lightly. So, we try to make it the very minimal um increase that is allowed. But you do have to realize with the federal lunch program, they say it's this as a minimum and so does the state. And the minimum allowed that we were allowed to increase um the cost of student meals this year was 10 cents. So that's what we did was go with the minimum allowed calculation increase there. So if you look at that, that is what um the proposed increases are. They're uh one dime across the board. Um and um I would just recommend that we approve the 25 26 mill prices as presented. Renee, do you have anything to add? um other than it's not a minimum allowed. We we we um after doing the it's called the paid

091longevity tool and after completing it uh we recommended a nickel and the state came back and said no your minimum has to be 10 cents. So yeah. Yep. So we don't really have a choice. Yeah. Actually, this is the best scenario we can and without saying that directly, I said it was the minimum we could do. Yeah, this is the very least that we can approve, unfortunately, cuz we were hoping for a nickel, but it didn't didn't work. Um, any questions? May I have a motion? I move to approve the 25 2025 26 fee schedule as presented. Second. Um, meal prices as presented. Sorry, that's okay. Um, uh, all in favor? All opposed. Thank you. Um, approval of 2025 26 fee schedule. Um, I would just note that Dr. Nail, Dr. Seal, and Miss Wear

092worked really hard on this and worked with the principles. I think we tried to make it very mindful and that each thing they was very transparent what it was going to and we attached that. So my recommendation would just be to approve the 2526 fee schedule as presented. Any questions? No, but I just want to make a comment that this was remember brought up I guess last summer or at the um start of the school year. There was a lot of concern about fees and where their money is going to. So I'm glad that this is that we have this to share. May I have a motion? I move to approve the 202526 fee schedule as presented. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? All opposed. Um consideration of date change for July board

093meeting. Um I guess due to a scheduling conflict, there's a request to change to July 28th school board meeting to July 21st. Um I'm sorry. Could you say that again? I'm sorry. So, there's a scheduling conflict for the July meeting. So, there's been an ask to change the meeting from July 28th to July 21st. That works for me. Okay. As long as you can be there, Mr. Wilson. And basically, it's a request with the scheduling complex. So, as long as you all can all attend and then are okay with it, then we'd make the motion and do it. Okay. Mhm. So basically the big start there is are all of you able to attend on July 21st would be the key. Yes. Okay. Okay. I have a motion. I move to change the date of

094the July 28, 2025 school board meeting to to July 21st, 2025. Is there a second? Second. Second. All in favor? I. All opposed. School board member comments. Mr. run back. I get to I get to start this. Um don't really have anything as far as uh to comment with the school system. Wonderful. I think the data is great and and showing that and I agree with um presenting that and having it out there in front of us. Idea I think that's a big thing. I was sitting here thinking when I sell my cows, I want to compare to other people that are doing it. I want to be at the top, whatever the money is. And I think that that does speak a lot to our teachers so they know where where uh where we're

095sitting. We need a a current snapshot to uh to incentivize. So that that that was wonderful. Proud of our sports teams. Uh they're all gone, but it's a lot of hard work and and those state championships are wonderful. I I was I was glad that that you all brought them back up. Um the coaches have worked hard and they've been there for a while. I think I think we're all proud of them. Um so then it comes to our chairman leaving and haven't been on the board long, but I've certainly known you for a while. And I will say the one thing, not the one thing, but the thing that really sticks out uh and even more so being a part of this board is even though we may have different perspectives on things and

096uh and I think you do this with everybody, not just me, but you are always approachable and you always acknowledge uh other people's points of view whether you may see it the same way or not. And I think that is a very rare quality especially in today's time. And so thank you for that. And I and at as a board member, uh, when when constituents come up and challenge things, what the board does, uh, it it I I feel good about responding and and I think, uh, this board in as a whole has done pretty good uh, and talking things out and and discussing things and really trying to pursue the best the best option and something that sits well with all of us whether we're whether we all get what we want exactly or

097not and and that comes from the head. So, thank you Monica and good luck. Thank you. Yeah. Uh I would like to thank you. This is a group of people in different circumstances perhaps with a beer or two in us might not get as long nearly as harmoniously as we do at these meetings. You have run a board that leaves personal opinions, political opinions, and everything else at the door when we go in. We are there to serve the students, Department of Education, the taxpayers of Clark County, and that reflects on you that this was able to happen. So, uh, thank you very much for the job you've done. Sorry that you're leaving, but uh, and I wish you all the best in your future endeavors. And I don't know if you whatever that little

098darp is up there in Maine's going to be a lot colder than Mumbai. Uh could be a place for you if you ever come back. So thank you. Thank you. Now the you know the fun part of being third to basically reiterate what everybody else said. So, but to echo what Turner had mentioned when you, you know, provided the leadership during um COVID and the struggles and the challenges that that have brought, you did it with grace and honor and we appreciate what you did as a community whole. You did everything at the will of the board, at the will of the students in their best interest in mind and and I sincerely appreciate that. Um, and we do wish you luck and Maine's a fun state. We we we enjoy it. So, I'm sure

099you'll have many adventures and you can start at the head of the Appalachian Trail up there. It's certainly a whole lot cooler right now. Probably a good thing you decided to relocate now because you might not be able to get there from here if you do. Right. Um well, first thank you to our teachers for coming tonight and and Mr. Hman for um sharing your presentation. I had no idea that you guys did that and it was it was really awesome to like at first when you started the presentation I thought it was like all virtual reality and I was like man that's it but then I was like those pictures look like they were really there. Yeah cuz you never hear about teachers actually getting to like go someplace. So that's that was it's

100just awesome and and it's so cool too, Miss Krauss, to hear how you're implementing what you know what you've learned with kids who need instruction probably the most right now, you know, with our summer school students and especially knowing that um some of our kids at Johnson Williams have have been struggling um academically. So, thank you guys for spending the time to come here tonight and then also for like sitting it out cuz I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to leave. Um, and um, thank you to Mr. Nucci for your great presentation. We're excited to have you on board. Um, so I'm gonna read this because it will it will probably help me to um keep myself focused, but um my kids asked me this more or this afternoon before I left. They were

101like, "Are you going to cry?" Probably. Um, but I've spent a lot of days um procrastinating on writing this message for you, mostly because um I like to procrastinate anyway. It's just who I am. But um I've kind of been in denial about this being our last meeting together. And I even tried to skip the meeting. Um shoot. Okay. So um there's a lot of a lot to say about the time that we've um spent together. I don't know. It might be too hard. Casey, I might get you to um Let me read it. Okay. So, um I've thought to myself over the past six years since we've been together that we've faced like every difficult scenario as schoolboard members. But then I quickly knock on wood cuz we haven't. There's there's so many other

102things that could happen, but um we've certainly been through the ringer over the past six years that I've been with you, and we've also shared a lot of awesome moments like the graduations of Sophia and Hannah from um the high school. Um but tonight we want to recognize you, Monica, for the courage that it's taken you to serve on the board, especially during um a fraught time in public education. And as much as I don't like thinking back to 2020 and the immediate years after, you guided the board through astoundingly difficult decisions from closing for the remainder of the year to virtual learning and hybrid instruction to wearing masks and then to a relative return to normal um even though our kids were still struggling. and somehow you were able to compartmentalize the risks that

103your family faced during the pandemic while also trying to do your best to do what was right for the children in our community. And for the most part, we were able to weather that storm as a unified and strong school board that worked collaborative collaboratively with Dr. Bishop. And the decisions that you made and your leadership certainly didn't come without cost. And I think a lot of people don't realize the toll that your role in in this leadership position took on a lot of your personal relationships, your friendships, and your well-being. Um, I doubt that when you embraced the opportunity to be the chair of our school board that you had any idea that you would lose so many dear friendships along the way because of decisions that you had to make. Um, we've spent

104countless hours together in finance and policy meetings, interviews for new board members, interviews for the search firm to help us find applicants for the superintendentship, as well as interviews for our acting superintendent, and you've spent countless late nights deliberating and hashing out important decisions for our community. Um, I remember last summer it was like 11:00 p.m. You're standing at the whiteboard upstairs trying to like make lists and you know it's 11:00 p.m. and it was it was exhausting but it was also that you were ready to go. Um, but you know, you're doing this all while taking care of your family and then showing up for work the next day. And serving as the chair of the school board for eight years truly was a second job for you without much of a paycheck and

105certainly without leave. And you took your position on the school board seriously and you treasured the opportunities to serve as the board chair since 2018. And I think we can both say that being a school member can be really lonely and isolating because of the sensitivity and discussions and decisions that we make collectively. And oftentimes we faced constituents who were angry, disappointed, disgusted with us no matter what decision was made. and knowing that I had you to lean on uh through those difficult times and knowing that we were a team made those moments easier to face. I'll miss being able to lean on you uh for the rest of my term terribly. And uh you have an awesome ability to bring a group of drastically different individuals together to make tough decisions even when we

106don't even when we may not fully agree with one another. And as as as much as I hate to see you leave us and begin a beautiful new chapter in your life, um you're leaving us in a really good place. And thank goodness we still have Renee. Um but all kidding aside, I think one of the best decisions that this board has made is hiring Dr. Bowling to direct our school system through a tumultuous time in public educations and public education. The words, "Thank you," fall short for all that you've given of yourself throughout your time as a Clark County School Board member. You'll be missed immeasurably, and we're grateful to you for um leaving Clark County better than how you found it when you and your family moved here all those years ago. So,

107thank you. That's it. Um, I had stuff written. I'm not going to make it through it. So, um, it is so fun to see how enthusiastic you were tonight. And I don't want to keep calling you out, but like it was it was a little over the top, but that's like what I love about you. And so, it just makes me feel so good about the teachers we invest in here in Clark. And I hope all the teachers see and know how much we have advocated for them, especially during my time here. Um, but it just really warms my heart to see, you know, Katie brought up co and it everybody's still so tired from it, right? And so we're all coming out of it, but then seeing you both so excited, I just thought,

108oh, like, you know, we've kind of turned this corner. So, um, anyway, thanks for being here and sticking through the meeting. Um um so I've been in Barryville for um just over 19 years and I realized I've spent half of that here on this board. Um and there are definitely days where we were quiet quitting the board because we didn't we weren't going to be able to handle this. But um and thinking over the past few weeks after I put in my resignation, I just thought this is probably one of the um one of the biggest honors I've ever had is is serving on this board. Um it's been hard. We've had hard days. Um but it's definitely I just feel deep satisfaction and and it's just been such a privilege um to be here

109working with all of you and our past board members. Um, I my first my first my second meeting on the board was about foreign exchange. And um it was about whether or not we were going to keep the program. And um we walked into that February meeting and um there must have been 30 kids there and it was packed. Do you remember? It was packed and I just thought, "Oh my, like what is going on here?" And I thought, "Is this how every meeting is? Like is this what's going on in Clark County?" Um anyway, it was about whether or not we were going to keep the program. Unfortunately, we decided not to that year and I was on the losing end of that vote. It was four to one. And I remember a lot

110of people came like texted saying, "Are you okay? Are you okay?" And I, you know, I was fine. But I went home and I just I was emotionally exhausted. I cried because I just thought, "Oh my god, is this is this what this is going to be like? Am I going to be on the losing end all the time?" first of all, but um but then I just realized what a huge impact we make on these kids and this county and this community um because so many people were so passionate about this program and it was decided that we weren't going to bring it back for a year and people were devastated. Students were devastated. Um luckily we were able to bring it back the following year but that was when it hit me like

111oh this is this is serious stuff. Not that I didn't take it serious, right? But this is serious stuff. Um, and I thought that was going to be my hardest meeting. Little did I know, um, little did I know, uh, it was not going to be the hardest one. But, um, I'm really proud of all the work we've done advocating for our students. I think we've always said when we make decisions, we come down to this the the um the same question, which is basically what's what's going to be best for our kids, right? I think um, we've done a really good job. I I really am proud of us for all the work we have done for advocating for salary increases for our teachers. I'm really really really proud of that. Um and I'm

112incredibly proud about how we got through CO. Thank you for recognizing that. Um that was hard. I never would have thought we would go through that, much less the country and the world. Um, but I was really I was I was very we were very lucky when you heard everything going on in the news and you know we didn't make it to the Washington Post, right? Like we weren't on the news and so it was just it was really I was really proud of that. Um I'm really um I'm proud of a lot of things so forgive me. I'm really grateful for the relationship we have with the board of supervisors. Um, I know that was tricky at the beginning. Um, but I feel like I really helped. We all helped facilitate a solid relationship

113with them. Um, I think it's important to have a good relationship with them and to continue it. I know you will. Um, but if you if we don't foster that positive relationship, then things don't work for the community, right? And when you look at it from that point of view, it's not just what are we doing for the kids, but what are we doing for the community? And um I I think that's something we can't forget. Um I do think one of the best decisions I was ever a part of was hiring you, Rick. Um so I'm really I'm not grateful I went through that experience um at all other than it was the best bonding experience for the for the five of us. Um but you really are the best thing I think I

114did here. And so um thank you for accepting the position. Um, I feel really good about leaving knowing you are here um to kind of um lead the way. I know I know you're going to do great things and you're going to elevate Clark um in a way that I don't think we've we've been before. Um so um I'm really happy you're here. Miss Weir, I don't even know. So I won't because you know um and it's been great with all of you. I know the three of you are new and and Mr. Wilson, I know I pick on you mostly all the time. Um, but who would have thought we would actually become friends. Um, we are from very different backgrounds and and all levels of life and um and I'm just I'm really

115Thank you. Thanks to you and Karen for just being um it is kind of strange. I came ran for office thinking I might very well have to run against you as chair to get rid of you and found out that seriously I and I found out very quickly that there was no way in hell I was going to do the job as well as you do. I never fire anybody until I got somebody at least as good to replace them. And I know I wasn't that person. And it came there was a point when some of your personal problems kind of spilled over into the public and I had to go to some of my backers and tell them no way that you know we're going to get rid of this woman. So uh I

116wish you were staying. I'm glad you stayed as long as you did but uh who thought that the conservative constituency were the ones who had to go to bat for you with their own people. I mean I'm telling you. Yeah. Um, not to mention, I mean, I just kind of like you anyway, regardless. I don't blame you. And it's only because of your wife. Um, but anyway, um, and Clay, you and I have known each other for a very long time, and I remember when CO happened, you I shouldn't say this out loud, but you asked me to come over during COVID, and we were fine, but we had a three-hour 3 4 hour conversation on Monica, you were not making the right decision. and I had to tell you otherwise. Um, but anyway, you've

117been a great friend, too, and I'm really glad we were able to muscle you into joining the board. I think you're a great asset. Um, and so obviously I'll be happy to stay in touch. Mr. Kennedy, you are new to my sphere, but I have enjoyed working with you so much. Um, I think you bring um you bring a not I don't want to say unique, but you bring a really good solid perspective on things and I have appreciated all of that. I've appreciated our honest conversations. Um, and and so thank you for for joining the board as well. Um, I will not. So, um, having you as vice chair has been amazing. Um, I do think we're wonder twins. Um, you're my partner in crime and I think we both supported each other in

118ways we probably never imagined. Um, sometimes it's hard also being the only women on the board. No offense, but like we kind of had to stick together. Um, so, um, I'll just leave it at that. Thank you. Um, and then thank you for all of you and your support. My kids here. Um, Dana, you're the only principal here, which is great, but I just want you to know I think you've done an amazing job at the high school. I've known you for a long time, and um, you've really elevated it, and you're just such a great leader for that building. So, um, thank you for always showing up. I know it's been hard. I know there have been times where you felt like people weren't on your side, and I just I hope you know,

119we always tried to support you as well as the other um, principles as well. So, Um, thanks to everybody for this. This has really been great. And thank you for your for your comments. Appreciate that. Um, I'm going to end. And one thing, it's very small and in the middle middle of this very tender and emotional moment. To give a t-shirt away doesn't seem like the most um grandiose effort. Um, but uh I do want to tell you I appreciate your student first approach and I think that's the key to having people from different perspectives is if you're trying to do what's best for kids and you're always keeping that in mind that's what keeps things good and important. But one thing um I wanted to say from Mr. Houseman who brought this here from

120Dr. Sill myself just one thing our uh innovation conference uh shirt for the fall we wanted you to have one of those. So, you get to wear it ahead of time. If you know me, you know I'm always begging for the innovation shirt. So, Oh my, I love it. Who designed this? I'm sorry. I want to say something on behalf of if that's okay. Sure. It's on. Thank you. Of course. Um, I know it's embarrassing. I'm sorry. I don't usually do this at all, but um I just want to say for you, congratulations. and uh you know, not even just congratulations, but you're moving forward. But at the end of the day, you've just been a blessing to everybody here. I know when I first worked here and I got the pleasure, I was like,

121"Why is this lady crying all the time up here?" And I was like, "Hey, listen." I said, "What?" But that's the spirit I know with you and and K and Miss K, Miss uh both of you guys, Miss Cobert. I was like, "You know what? They care." And so the one thing I just wanted to come on the back and say was just keep keep that heart of just caring please because you do care. And uh you know I've recognized that just from me coming in here and like oh my god Clark County is a little different from what I know. But at the end of the day I see the care from you and I see the care from a lot of the of you guys on the school board. But with you leaving

122I just want to say your impact here was phenomenal. And you know sometimes I know you had to make some hard decision. I know there's a lot of times where you had to look back and be like this is suffering here at home and this and this and that and this but you cared about the community. And so I know a lot of people can't recognize that. But I I always recognize that and I'm a I'm a nobody it guy but at the end of the day I just want to let you know you are recognized. You're appreciated and thank you. So sorry guys. That's that's all I got. I love you. Thank you. Those are you. I'm gonna give you a hug again. So lovely. Did you put this together? No. Oh, you didn't.

123Oh, you could have lied. That's lovely. Thank you. Um, thank you for this. I'm so excited. I don't know how I can stay in the club to make sure I get one every year. Um, your address. I know a guy. You know a guy. Awesome. Thank you for this. Um, okay. I will um may I have a motion to convene to close session, please? I move to convene a close session to discuss personnel matters including appointments and resignations pursuant to Code of Virginia 2.2-3711A1. The estimated time required for the close session is 15 minutes in action is expected. Second. All in favor? I. All opposed. member signing. Uh may I have a motion to reconvene to open session, please? I move to reconvene to open session. Second. All in favor? I. All opposed. Uh certification

124code section 2.2-3712D of the code Virginia. How do you certify? Mr. Hi, Mr. Kennedy. Hi, Mr. Hi, Smith. Hi, Mr. Wilson. Hi. Um, motion based on close session. Um, I move to approve the items discussed in closed session as identified on the close session agenda. Second. All in favor? I I All opposed. All right. Last time I'm adjourning. Thanks everybody for being here.