001[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Hello. Heat. [Music] I'd like to call our October 2nd, 2025 Reno County School Board work session to order. Madame clerk, will you please call the role? Yes, ma'am. Item 2.01, major construction project updates, Mr. Todd Kaggels, Mr. West Mitchell, and Mr. Kamal Khalil. Madam Chair, members of the board, uh, these guys really don't need any introduction. I think they're kind of part of the family now. But we have Kamal Khalil who's the project manager at W Kundiff and Glen Cove and Wes Mitchell who's the project manager at RCCTC to give us our updates. Uh good afternoon everybody. We'll start off with uh the CTE project. Obviously we had to out last week so a lot of these updates um many of you are already aware of but we'll
002go over them real quick. Um, starting with site work, um, coming along really nicely. Um, curb and gutter around the turn lane and entry road as of last week. And then early this week, we actually put some asphalt down. So, you drive by on Peters Creek, you'll see the turn lane and the roadway going up into the site is paved, at least that top coat. So, um, looks real nice. Um and then we're grading out the parking lot so they can work around and start paving that front parking lot to the building as well. Um also got gas um up to and tied into the building in the last month. Um storm structures in the east are complete. We're just removing the um all the stone that we had stacked up there to get it
003in. Um and then we'll start working north which that's all controlled fill so it should be pretty quick moving storm structures will will start rolling pretty nicely. Um the grease trap and sanitary installation also in the east um was completed um this month as well. area deconstruction. That's the back of the building um where the HVAC lab is and the um building trades shops. Um just on the exterior of that continued with brick and stack stone. Um pretty much got it all done less a few areas of brick um above some doorways. And we've got all the u the scaffolding down for that, too. So, if you can go up there, you'll be able to see how it all ties in together. The only skin we're missing is the metal paneling. So once that's up
004in the next couple months, you'll you'll see what the building's going to look like. Um aluminum frame um windows and glazing at the high bay windows also going in. Um, so and then doors just, you know, we don't have the sweeps in and stuff, but we're pretty much dried in um on in area D with a few windows missing, but for the most part, we're dried in. Um, and then we're actually even installing some hardware on our exterior doors. They're painted and ready to go. Um, area A construction in the last month, the roof was completed in all of area A. So, it's almost dried in that. That's released them to start doing top out board and insulation in the interior walls. Um, and then also on the exterior, they began stack stone and brick
005in area A as well. That front face of the building as you come up, the stack stone as of today was probably 85% complete. Um, and then the MEP MEP trades are still ongoing with inwall and overhead rough in area A getting all of our duct work and everything finished up and start be get we'll be getting close to insulating duck work here soon. Area B and C construction, steel erection is ongoing. Um we just got a little bit of decking and C our stairs and then just finish finishing up all our welds and stuff the steel work in area B and C. Um and then the second floor is prepped for concrete um which will be will have pour tomorrow morning at 5:00 a.m. So, the second floor slab on deck will be poured
006in the morning and not all of it. We'll break it up into several pores, but here soon we'll have a floor to walk up on in area B. So, you can see what that second floor looks like. Just going over some pictures. So, this is the completion of the brick in area D. You can also see the windows, the high bay windows above um with the glass. And then on the right, this is the east elevation. Um, where it's yellow, that's into area A. That'll be our metal paneling. But then you have your your two colors of brick and stack stone there on the east elevation. That's all complete. This is the roof over area A. This light monitor there on the left. So, in the big um common area, there's a a popup. That's
007what that is. It lets light into that big common area. Um, and the the roof le some detailing is all complete and we're dried in. Um that front that's the front of the the right side that's the front of the building um where the stack stone is going up. There's a lot more progress since that picture. They're moving pretty quick. Um this is the area B corridor on the first level. You can see that we've got all our hangers and stuff in for um all of our duct work. They've actually moved along quite nicely with that and we've got a lot of mechanical piping all the way down that corridor as well now. And then right above that is where they'll be pouring um the floor tomorrow morning. Um and then on the back side
008in the shop areas, we're getting prepped um so we can start laying brick on that back side as well. This is the grease trap on the east side of the building. That's right right outside of the culinary classroom. um that's all finished up and tied in. And then on the right, you can see that's the entry to um the parking lot and that was paved at least that section of it this week. So, moving along. Any questions on CTE? Good afternoon. Nice to see you guys again. Uh on the cond um we handed in we turned over phase A 1B um phase 2 a second floor. You probably seen some of the pictures from Q business plan. Now the admin corridor, cafeteria, kitchen, all of that we're going to be turning over 10:24 hopefully. Uh
009but everything looks good. U we're good on time. We're making good progress. Um, on the gym, there's two rooms that's done. There's one room that's still in progress. As far as the sidewalk, uh, all the lights are done. All the pedestals or like foundations are done. They keep these lights on just as a test. Maybe they've been on for a week, maybe more. U, they just poured on the 2A like first floor. They poured the the sheer pudding. Um and the steel bracing they did that the other day. Um continuing on on condom phase two phase two uh to a continue we're doing drywall framing overhead copper piping um heat pumps electrical panels. Um on some of these they're waiting on the guts, you know, the breakers, but we should be fine in the next
010week or two. U water sprinklers overhead. That's also done. Now on Glen Cove, uh we turned over 1B. We're working on the punch a few items like a handful punch list item. the admin we turned over that that a month ago when the school started. Uh we're working on some of the punch list. Uh phase 2 a second floor that's ongoing now. Uh we just turned that over also not too long ago. Uh we're working on the punch list. We started like three days ago but all the electrical is done, all the painting is done. So inspection is done. uh phase 2 a first floor that's that's the nature of the work now where the cafeteria the the kitchen and some of the classrooms next to it that's being done from overhead wiring to panels
011you name it some of the block some of the block is done uh kitchen and cafeteria the same thing like the the HVAC system is being worked on uh they just installed the hood the kitchen hood uh finishing drywall starting like the ceing work. Some of the overhead sprinters are being done also. Uh the site work, landscaping is done. All the trees are done. Um reeding also is done. So pretty much the whole parking lot is done except we might have to come back and do another surface of asphalt later on. This is at the at condo. That's the cafeter. That's the dining area. It looks good, doesn't it? Um, that's when they cleaned it up a week ago. This is what we're going to hand in on 1024. These are a little bit messy,
012but I I I bring them in just to show you guys what the kind of work like the overhead work, the copper work, copper piping work. You can see And I'm glad that uh Todd add another one to show you the difference between this work and what the finished work. This is also in the kitchen on the right hand side. They're bringing in all the the equipment and and hooking them up. And you could see it's a little bit messy, but the on the left hand side there's a cool kakin coolers that's they're being also tested. They're on today. I checked they're like at 38 degrees. So they're doing their job. This is this is the picture that I showed you with the work before and this is after. This is also the this is
013the admin area all all the way to the front. That's the main office. Some offices and some storage area. And this is like the when you walk in the the vis like the visiting area, the the main office. And this is some of the like the clinic. And that's where the like the break room where the the mail slots. This is another picture of that dining area. And this is also the kitchen. Some of the equipment that's been connected and being worked on. These are the heat pumps. And this is it from the back. This is an admin area. This is like the lobby. That's when they poured that shear foundation and they put the brace of the steel and that's the some of the the furniture being delivered. Then the one on the left
014is the data area. Uh it's a it's a IT room I call it. And this one is like one of the classrooms that the the plumbers are working on the faucet that's outside. On the right hand side, you see the receding and the landscaping, the trees that they put in. And on the left hand side, just the the work being done in the corridor. Any questions? So, we've got scheduled for October 24th and either 9 or 9:30. I think we're working with the principal on setting the time, but that's when we're going to have the, you know, brief ceremony to open up the the new wing. So, look forward to doing that. Of course, everybody's invited to come out for that. I had the pleasure of going over this week and it does absolutely looks
015amazing. It really does. Um, there was one question that came up that that Ashley mentioned and I'm sure it's the same to Glen Cove was the elevators. Are those getting replaced or repaired or The reason I asked to be u Well, they should be repaired. They should be operational now. Well, they are operational, but she mentioned having trouble with them. Yeah, we did have some trouble uh earlier in the year, but all that's been repaired. Um, they are old. They are not uh in the scope to be replaced. uh we may have the option to replace those at the end if we have enough contingency left to to be uh to to do that. And that would certainly be one of the things we would suggest to do with the contingency because they are old.
016Uh you really can't get parts for them anymore. We had to have uh the control panels rebuilt is is what was going on this summer. So um yeah, that would be a good use of the contingency if if it's left at the end. It's not current. I didn't know exactly the extent of the problem, but be a shame to have a new school and not be able to use it. Yeah, we agree there. It was over $100,000 to Yeah, I'm sure they're not cheap. Yep. Thank you. Looks great. Thank you. Are the HVAC systems at at both these elementary schools all brand new or are we reusing some of those? Almost brand new in both schools. like some of the heat pumps uh we had already installed them before the um so we purchased all
017those new heat pumps uh with Esser money and we had installed some of them and then the renovations were approved so we reused those units that were almost new one of the schools I think was kind of they hadn't been installed at all so those are all new installs the ones at Glen Cove are reused but they're only like less than a year old so Any other questions on those? Thank you. Item 2.02, minor capital projects. Discussion. Mr. Todd Cables. Yes, we have just quick updates on all of the other um minor capital projects that we have going on. Again, this doesn't encompass all of the uh maintenance projects that we have going on as well, but these are the ones the board has uh funded through minor capital uh bonds. There hasn't been any
018change since our last meeting. We're still working with the school to determine a convenient time. We think we have that worked out to where that's all going to be done during uh the school year this year. Uh out at North Side, the carpenters are working to do that fax to nutrition um or or convert the science rooms to facts and nutrition. And that should be done around the end of the month. We were hoping to be done a little bit earlier, but we hit a couple of snags and should still be finishing that up by the end of the month. Uh out at Hidden Valley Middle, um the first So, so we're breaking that ceiling and LED lighting replacement up into phases, uh to try to be able to work on that during the school
019year. Uh kind of be able to shut certain areas, certain corridors down the hall, do the the ceilings and the lights in those areas. The first phase is going to happen um in early November, actually over the election day weekend there uh and extend a little bit into the next week. And then the second phase, which is um gosh, about a third of the building, will be done over the Christmas break. And then we'll hit another phase in um uh during spring break and then the last one uh will be over the summer. So by the end of the summer that will you have new ceilings, new LED lightings throughout the through the public in that in that building. So, that's coming along. That's like I said, it's already under uh contract. That first phase
020is we're actually contracting out each phase separately. So, um first phase is under contract. Second phase, we already have the bids and we're working on that. One second. There we go. Uh at Fort Lewis, I do have some pictures of that one. Uh we're about done with the demolition out there. Remember what we're doing out there? So, this was the um surround on the cooling tower. Put in a new cooling tower. It's taller than the old tower. So, uh the brick walls uh you know, leave it exposed. So, remember you approved money to go ahead and um extend uh the height of the wall. So, what we're doing here is extending the height of the wall all the way around and completely replacing the the back wall. If you uh see here, the gap at
021the top of this wall is actually bigger than the gap at the bottom. And that's because that back wall had started to lean away from the rest of the structure. Uh so they're digging up the footer, replacing the footer, and then um uh rebuilding uh rebuilding that. So that's already underway. Should be done in in the next month or so. Uh at North Side High School, remember we're uh renovating the uh restrooms out there. The guys are um probably going to be finished by the end of the next week. This is just some pictures from earlier this week. They've actually come farther than than that. Now, I'm sure you don't remember what they look like when we took the before pictures, but uh you know, they were really bad and uh now they're going to
022be beautiful. They're they've made ton of progress. They've got new lights, new LED lighting in there, totally new ceiling, new ventilation, uh all new fixtures. Uh they've actually taken down the plastic sheeting that was on the walls and um you know, just gone back with the block and painted floors. They're going to be super nice. and they're making uh great progress on that. Uh Kring Middle School, remember we're regrading the softball field, uh replacing the fence, doing irrigation and drainage. Uh the engineering firm, this is same as where we were before. The engineering firm is under contract. Uh we're still waiting on those documents. We're about eight weeks out. Uh probably about six weeks out now. And it's still our goal to have it ready for play by the uh 27 uh softball season. out
023at Hidden Valley High School. Um same situation we were in uh at our last meeting. We're still waiting on the engineering documents. As soon as those are back, we'll be able to have a better gauge of what we need to do uh going forward. And remember on that one, we only approved funding to do the engineering work. So, um just waiting on the documents to come back from the engineering team. Uh at Northside High School, we're putting up new stadium lights. That's now that is a change from where we were uh at the last meeting. We uh have that under contract with Techline. Uh we're working with A. We've already uh requested the new service, 480 volts out there for the new system. And um what we're going to do is build it right alongside
024the old system. So the poles are going in slightly different locations. They'll actually re relocate a little bit behind the uh bleachers on both sides. and um they'll be able to build the new system right alongside of the old system and keep both systems uh or keep the old system functional while the new system is under construction and then we'll just switch over when it's done. So there shouldn't be any interruption to the uh you know in service to the stadium and uh our goal is to have that ready by spring sports the first week of spring sports uh out at Hidden Valley High School. We're doing that artificial turf uh on the soccer field. I was actually in touch with the engineers and the contractor today. Uh the survey work has been completed. Um
025we've sent the the designs from the contractor over to the engineer who's putting all that together and as soon as those documents are finished, they'll go to Ronaldo County for uh approval and then once it's approved, then we can break ground on that. But u that is that is coming along and we still anticipate being done before uh the first game in the spring. At Cavespring High School, we're renovating the snack bar out there. Uh this week, we held a meeting with the stakeholders. Miss uh Clemens was there and we uh went through the scope of work and what they would like to do out there. We're actually doing a little pre-construction meeting with our electrical guys uh tomorrow. We need to increase the capacity electrical service to that building. So, uh that's going to
026be our first step. And we were requested to wait until the end of football season to start. So, um that that's what we're doing. Uh and our goal there would be to be done by by spring sports. Uh Glen Elementary School, uh we're replacing the office suite flooring. That's actually going to be done over the um election day weekend. So that first weekend in uh November, and it should all be done in the two or three days that that we have available to us there. So uh that'll that'll be done soon. And then out at uh Glen Elementary, remember we're uh adding restrooms for uh the staff out there. Two restrooms for the staff. We um contracted with RRMM for the design work. Uh the floor plan has been completed and approved uh by the
027school. Uh that was the initial floor plan. So now we're just waiting on the engineering work to be completed and as soon as that's done, we'll figure out um how we move forward from there. We're we're kind of debating whether our guys can do that. Uh they have the capability to do that. I'm not sure we have the time to do that along with all the other jobs that we have for them to do and be able to get all that done by the spring. So, we're trying to see if there's a way to get it within our budget and have a contractor possibly complete those those restrooms. Uh, any questions on any other minor capital projects? That's all I have to Thank you. Item 2.03, Glenver High School naming of baseball field. Miss Tammy
028Nukem. Thank you. Um, on behalf of Dr. Nicely, I'ming the request from Dr. Franklin and her committee to name the Glimmer High School baseball field in honor of longtime coach and teacher, Mr. Larry Wood. The division committee carefully reviewed the request and verified that all steps outlined in policy procedures for naming a school facility have been followed. Coach Larry Wood's legacy is unparalleled in Renick County schools. Since beginning his coaching career in 1971, he dedicated more than five decades to high school athletics. 49 of those years at Glenver High School. His contributions to students, athletes, and the Glenn community span across multiple sports, including 18 years coaching football, 15 years coaching basketball, 25 years coaching baseball, 14 years coaching softball, two years coaching gymnastics, and one year coaching wrestling. In addition, Mr. Wood taught health
029and PE at Glimmer for 29 years, drove an athletic bus from 1971 to 2010, served faithfully on the football chain crew from 1988 to 2022, and led the Glenber baseball program to its first and only state championship in 1994. In recognition of his extraordinary service, lifelong dedication, and lasting impact on countless students and athletes, I respect respectfully recommend that the school board approved the name of the Glenver High School baseball field as Larry Woodfield in his honor. We have in attendance with us Glenn community members who recommended this honor with us. Jason Murray, Jeremy Chromemer, Troy Henderson, and Brian Crockett. If you have any questions for them, um, they are here. I personally don't have any questions from my district. I wholeheartedly support the idea. I've met Larry. He's a wonderful guy. Beyond the accolades,
030he's just a really nice guy that truly cares about the community. Love him to death and I definitely support this. My son had the pleasure of playing for him, not at Glenn, but at Renault College and he he thought the world of it. So, I believe this is an action item at the next school board meeting. Yeah. I mean, you could do it as consent, but you might want to consider doing as an action item to as a way to celebrate it, make it more public. I think you would. Sounds good. Yeah. Thank you. Congratulations, guys. Thank you. Pan's already in production. Item 2.04, policy updates. Dr. Jamie Sulttus. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. So, we just have two policy updates and one admin rag update and these are updates that uh
031are due to changes in code and one was a uh in reviewing the policy with Stacy the attorney, Miss Haney said that we should align it with the state code. So, I I gave you guys a packet uh that has the actual policies. I tapped where I or where the the person who's making the recommendation had made the change. So, according to um state code Now, when a a child is at risk for suicide, um we are required to provide them with suicide prevention materials, not the child, the parents. Um and it should include things that lays out in code exactly what it's supposed to include, which is safe storage of firearms. Uh it also may include recommended best practices and strategies for reducing a student's access to lethal means such as firearms and medications.
032I actually uh will give this credit to Shawn. The state is supposed to be producing some things and we haven't received those yet. We did have some stuff the state had given us before. So Sean worked with Chuck to kind of give create some resources to make sure that we would be in compliance with the code until we get the actual state documentation and then we'll line it up. But so that's the only change to that was we added a line that provided to the parent materials on suicide prevention that include the information on the legal requirements set forth in the Virginia code relating to the safe storage of firearms in the presence of minors and that may include guidance on best practices for strategies for limiting a student's access to legal means including firearms
033and medications. So basically just trying to inform the parents to keep kids safe. Then policy 7.0 07 uh Miss Nukem was reviewing this policy uh with um Miss Haney the lawyer and basically in the code it said um we had three days in our policy and it needed to be changed to five days to match the code of Virginia. So if you go to the page I'm at uh I marked basically all we did was change it from 3 days to 5 days so that it was in alignment with code and that this notification will not be accepted after 5 days upon the students u return to school. That's all it is. We were a little stricter in the Virginia code. And then the last one um is an admin rag. And I just wanted
034to make you guys aware, we added one sentence to this and and we tried to carefully craft this sentence. Under class A, which are the the organizations that we partner with that we do not charge fees for for our facilities, we added a nonprofit organization that provides licensed daily after school child care services on all regular school days during the academic school year. So this would be like the Y Boys and Girls Club and things like that where it's actually a benefit to our community because they are allowed to come in there and operate. So, they would be exempt from fees. And that's all I had. They do. However, they they really should be uh completing a long-term uh agreement like we do other long-term things. And so, that's something that we've discovered was was
035not in place. We want to get that in place, but our recommendation is that we u consider not um you know doing any charges for that because like Dr. Saltza said that we think that's a benefit to the schools. So currently under class A the only um organizations that are not charged are anything school related like the school events PTA or anything run county government like parks and wreck. So parks and wreck you know they run a number of these after school childcare programs to their ask program. So all this would do would just be bring the boys and girls club and the YMCA who also do programs um into that same fold. So it this doesn't require your approval, but unless there's an objection, that's how we like to move forward with that. And
036so then my recommendation is if you don't have any concerns about the policies that I talked about that we move those to consent. Let me just say one thing further about that whole notion. If you don't have one of these organizations in your community, we now have one uh at our church at Boys and Girls Club, which is working out fabulously. We probably need more capacity and and room, and we're talking about that and how we can increase the size of that program, but for our kids and for kids that that need a little structure, you not to be at home by themselves, different things. Uh, I encourage you to look into this for your communities. Um, I want to grow ours because I think it's that useful and that helpful to our families. So,
037um, and I will vote every time to provide service to these groups to get our kids there. So, we we'll actually be bringing back to you for your approval, your formal approval those long-term agreements. Uh, and one reason this came up is because YMCA is actually wanting to expand and add a program out of Mason's Code. We're looking forward to that. Good. Good. It's great when our buildings can be used for multiple purposes that serve our community. Item 2.05 2025 2026 PDOE security equipment grant. Miss Susan Peterson. Schools applies to the Virginia Department of Education Security Equipment Grant. This is a competitive grant that school divisions can win up to $250,000 for safety improvements. Uh we applied for three schools and were awarded one. Uh we were awarded $56,000 for Herman El Horn Elementary School.
038Um this grant does require 25% local match. Uh we will use the funds to replace uh cameras inside and out of outside of the building that are um compatible with the BCRA cameras that we're installing. Um the 56,000 we would request you accept the grant and appropriate funds from the grant fund special projects. And then the local match 14,000 we would request that you appropriate funds from the minor capital special projects which is consistent with where the security grant typically comes from for the match. And if you agree then this can just roll into consent. Did I say that? You did say. Thank you. Item 2.06, calendars for the 2026 summer school programs. Miss Kim Bradshaw and Mr. Mike Riley. Good afternoon, Madam Chair, members of the board. Uh the instructional department wants to bring
039the summer school calendars here for your consideration. Um Chuck, if you can just open up the elementary one first. Um they're very similar to ones we've had in the past. Um what we would do is we would start the summer program at the elementary level. Um be housed at most of the schools. Um, of course with construction, sometimes we'll have to have students at other schools, but it would start June 8th, which is a Monday, and run through the 25th. Um, getting us finished before the Fourth of July week, um, which is what we always try and do with our elementary and middle school programs gives us a total of 11 student days, 14 teacher days running the same hours we have in the past. Um, with the one day we don't hold it is
040the day we have the primary elections in all our buildings. That's the June 16th date. Um, we're getting an extra day this year just because Junth falls on a Friday. So, we've had to also have that off in the past. So, we won't have to do that this year for our summer school folks. Um, moving on to the middle school calendar, it's exactly the same. We try and pair them up for transportation reasons. That way, buses can run at the same time. Um, so they'll again start on June 8th, running through the 25th, again, 11 days. um with the June 16th off and both of those programs are of no charge. We have some federal grant funding still remaining and uh state reimbursement that fund those remedial programs. So before I move on to the
041high school, there any any questions about the elementary or middle school summer programs or the calendars? And then if not the high school, we've got two different programs that run. Um, we've got our face-to-face programs that run at North Side High School. Um, those will also start on June 8th, the same start date, but they will run through July 7th because we need 20 days to run those because those are credit recovery or in some cases new classes. I know a lot of students like our face-to-face health and PE classes that we offer along with driver's education. So, those will run through July 7th. Um the days off for those uh students would be June 19th, of course that's the Junth holiday because we do run through Friday at the high school and then July
0423rd for the Fourth of July holiday. Um we would finish up on July 7th for students. Um again, we would hopefully provide transportation for those. Um and that is funded by student tuition. And then of course in the summer we also run our online academy. Uh, a lot of new classes are offered there. Um, that runs a little different because those are all new classes. So, those would start on June 3rd and run through July 14th. And again, those are funded by student tuition. Um, are there any questions on the high school programs? Just want to thank you for getting this out earlier. Yep. That's as as a parent myself who is organized, everybody wants this information sooner than later. So, thank you for working on this. You're welcome. All right. And so what we'll
043do then is we'll put that in consent agenda for the next board meeting. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Item 2.07, report on enrollment data, Miss Tammy Nukem. I don't want to get up there. I do those little Sure. Because that's usually me that it's me. It always happens to me. Should I put on this side? No, this is this is HDMI. It doesn't look Oh, hold on. Here we go. There we go. All right. Thank you for waiting. Um, last meeting we talked about ADM. Miss Peterson had brought it up in the budget. So, I wanted to review on where we are currently and where we've been in the past um, with our ADM and with enrollment. So, here you can see from 2122 school year um, Our enrollment this year we're at 13,136.
044Um the number like 26 CISna those numbers are students who have um reimbursement from a grant because of the services they're the additional services that they they get. They're not included in the ADM but they are funded through a different grant. And to give an example with those students would be like if they had a 101 or if they had some other significant services that are above what other students receive. Double the number 2021 to 2025. So more getting that funding more getting that which is actually good because we're getting more revenue. Yeah. For the services. What's the amount of the money currently? It is um question. So with the system enrollment with 52 it is we're having a revenue estimate of about 1.3 million. Okay. On the 52nd I have the numbers. I'm not
045sure which number it is. It's all right. It's it's not a big deal. Okay. I was just curious. Yeah, it's a lot. Um, so we do have our own academy full-time students and I wanted you to see how that's in, you know, that's going. Um, so when we first started, we full-time academy, meaning students can do academy. It's almost like home school, but they do our school, but they can participate in our um our events and our activities. So that's increased to 150. Um, that's full-time. The academy is really utilized for kids who just take one class here or two classes there. So, it's it's really a a good benefit. We also put this on our homeschool page that we have for students and staff to see. So, if they're looking at homeschool, they also
046can see that academy is an option. These are kindergarten enrollment numbers. If you can see it has decreased. Um that aligns with remember the county funded that demographic study. We looked at that last year in terms of the birth rates and and then then of course the ongoing issue they pointed out with the single family housing uh you know lack thereof in Reno County. So those are things you've seen before. So what what are you saying? What are you saying by that? What's that in terms of the lower number? You're saying they're leaving the area? What's that? Are you saying people are leaving the area? The birth rates the birth rate's lower, right? So you're saying in the five years there's about 100 100 less kids uh about 100 less yes or fewer I think
047that's a birth rate issue enrolling not all birth rate I'll show you okay yeah I didn't that would shock me well the net migration right part of what the demographic study pointed out was just the the lack of single family housing you know being an issue as far as getting that see I get the the lower numbers what I keep having a and I get that we're having less kids as families but in five years did they all of a sudden stop so that's having kids right so I think to your point there must be some other issues yeah that is one factor one factor that the growth rate is is lowering um and I'll show you the difference with homeschool and where some of the other kids are going this is our non-resident transfers
048this is how many kids we are accepting um who are not ren county residents but pay tuition to come to us. So that's steadily increasing which helps us and I think that's something board that we ought to continue to look at. I think what are we at a$1,000 or $1,100 now? A,000. So, and if they're good kids and we don't have a lot of issues and problems, whatnot, I'm not sure this is the way the world's going, but I think it's probably more of a competitive and we are top topnotch school division, right? I'm not sure we don't reduce that a little bit still and we get about $8,500 a kid that we educate through the state through the ADM. Right. For me, uh that might be something $1,000 that probably isn't going to deter
049them, but it's still worth noting. If you know, if they're good kids and productive in classroom and so forth, then why not take them? Yeah. And we did really look at every application that came in this year. there's any question. So, so these are the withdrawals. Um, of course, 2526, we're very early into the year. Um, but things are different than they used to be where I stay in the same school the whole entire time. Many kids don't nowadays. And so, not only they're going from, let's say, William Bird and Northside, but we've got kids coming from out of state, we've got kids coming from out of the country. um and moving. So when you see public school in state, that means they moved from our school system to another school system in the state
050of Virginia and the public out of state is they've moved out of the state of Virginia. Um when you see the private numbers and the homeschool numbers, now the homeschool number will increase as the school year goes. Um but that's all of those have dropped fairly drastically, right? Well, it has, but you'll see that it'll increase because we'll have kids who will with hit the homeschool piece. I'm talking about all all those sections right there. Well, because it's early on, so the we're only a couple months in, right? Yeah, but it'll grow up. It will it'll Well, let's take out this year. Um, so private came down 24 over two years uh and and the year before. Now, homeschool's going and I think that's going to continue to be a trend. Well, I guess public
051school instate is about the same and and public out of state is a little bit less. So, yeah, I guess some have and some haven't, but that's kind of not where we're losing them, I guess. So far, that's what And keep in mind, the other thing that came out of that demographic study was they really commended uh Vernon County Schools in terms of what they called their capture rate. that in terms of all those things, you know, compared to other places they looked at, we do a good job of keeping people in public school here. Well, that's again, did the demographic study that you referred to, did that project out in the future years? Where does a next I think that was included. We can send that back out to you. This is the one
052that we had the, you know, the joint meeting. Yeah, it was in there. I can't remember. I have that too. So, one or two% I feel like is a trickle. It wasn't a sudden drop like the the big drop I feel like has already happened. So Tim, you mentioned why. Everything I've read about it is 2007 seems to be this year that fewer babies were born after 2007. Whatever you want to attribute it to the stock market. There's that. So that's a total of our homeschool students. Um and I broke it down by grade level. So you can see we do have students who will be homeschooled in elementary and then they return to us in secondary. That seems to be um a trend if they do return to us. And that's all I have
053to show you. Any questions? No. But here here's what you can't argue about that. And this is the reason it's important to know where these kids are going, right? We So when I started 10 years ago on the school board, I'm going to have these numbers wrong because I didn't come in prepared for that, but we were at about 14,200 300, something like that. Now we're down to 13,100. Now, I don't know if that's a societal thing, you know, because we hear a lot about homeschooling, private schooling, all that stuff. And whether we want to agree with the board of supervisors on this or not, they're right. The trend is down and and we're the one of the top-notch school divisions in the state of Virginia, right? So, it's got nothing to do with that
054piece. So, and I get families are having less kids, but they didn't just stop all of a sudden. So there's some somewhere I still think we ought to drill into that and and just look at that and and see what's going on so that we have a better understanding. Otherwise, I'm telling you because the pressure has been put on in the last number of years to look at do we have are we adequately the demographic study actually uh patted us on the back for having the schools with with students the proper numbers but we've had pressures put on us to consider you know that number going down. Do we need the same number of facilities? So, I think it behooves us. Now, we can wait until an emergency or crisis happens, but if we can
055figure that number, what's going on with that? Figure that out. And we can't just say people are having less babies. And if they are, that's still a it's still we're going down. I think we it would behoove us to find that out now rather than wait five or six more years and find out, hey, we're down to 12,500. What's going on? And then the pressure is going to really be on to shut down some of these facilities to to better utilize. You know, for instance, the demographic study eight or so years ago that we did when I first came on, maybe it was eight or nine years ago, told us, and this is Bonsack, Bonsack Elementary was going to steadily climb. We went from 400, I forget what it was, 425 students. We're down to
056300 now. I I just don't trust those demographics because it's a best case scenario in time and and I get they're making an educated guess. But um there's a reason we're declining and and again we're one of the top school divisions in the state of Virginia. I think it behooves us to figure that out. But thank you for the report. You know, can I just be comment on the vein that you're going off, Tim? I like to see us come up with a solution and campaign actively for other students. So, I don't know, as a marketing tactic, would it be appropriate to kind of target some other school divisions and say, "Hey, come to Rono County and here's why. This is what it's going to cost you and um we'd love to have you as
057a student if if you're accepted because we not going to take everybody. There's an application process." So, I just think that something that we might want to consider as a board is uh bringing on somebody or putting our heads together on how we can campaign and actively market ourselves to other divisions and effectively steal the students. Thank you. Okay, we don't have anything else. We can move into close. Mr. Mr. London, will you read us into closed? Yes, Madam Chair. I move that the Renault County School Board convene in closed session for the following. To consider a confidential matter as authorized by section 2.2-3711A1 of the code of Virginia for purposes of discussion of the performance of specific public officers, appointees or employees of the school board. Second. Madame clerk. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. [Music]