Roanoke County School Board Work Session - April 3, 2025

001[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] I'd like to call our April 3rd, 2025 Reno County School Board work session to order. Madame clerk, will you please call the role? Mr. Greenway? Yes, ma'am. Mr. London? Yes, ma'am. Mr. Chinese. Mr. Hudson? Yes, ma'am. Miss Clemens? 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 boardus. Uh we have with us as usual, Wes Mitchell from Scansa and Kamal Khalo from Scansa to give us uh updates on our major construction projects. And thanks again for having us. Um, I'll start off with the CTE project. A ton of progress this month. If you've been by there, um, it's it's very apparent. Um, mass grading um, still continues. That'll be going on for a while. Um, however, all

002backfill and compaction is complete in area C. So, we're never we're no longer taking material and putting it into the building pad. All the material rock crushing operations that's basically going non-stop. All that material is um being used as fill um for the lower slope now. It's all off the pad. So you'll see that slope start to take shape a little bit quicker now that we're all operations are off the pad sitewise. Anyway, all that those operations have moved to foundation construction, which is as far as the footings, all of those have been poured 100% um including the canopy peers on the outside. Um, and then so we've moved into our low foundation walls. So that's your CMU masonry walls. Um, 50% about complete in area B. Um, they pulled off they got pretty far

003ahead of our concrete guys. So they pulled off and focused on um our bearing walls in area D, which we'll get to here in a second. Um with going along with that with our foundation walls is our underground MEP. Um so all your plumbing and electrical service to the building that is under the slab. Um very hot and heavy in area B right now. A ton of that. So storm sanitary and then electrical distribution. Um they're all getting getting all that laid out in preparation for slab pores. So um area D slab was poured at the beginning of the month. um moved into area A. There was still a little bit of work to do with underground that was complete and area A pad was actually complete earlier this week. We have a pore scheduled

004for Monday morning. So half of that it will all be complete next week. Monday and Tuesday, two big pores, weather permitting. Um, area D where that slab was poured earlier in the month, they went straight into our CMU bearing walls. So, all your vertical walls that are supporting any other structure. Um, and those are are going up. So, if you go over there, you'll see, you know, 18 foot walls and hallways and and rooms and all that stuff. You can really see the building start to take shape. And we've got a ton of pictures that will kind of show you um what it looks like. But, as far as site activities, that's it. It's a lot going on. Um, no real new activities. We're just following that path D, A, B, and C around the

005building. Oh, that's awesome. And this is some of the drone footage that uh branch has been taking periodically about once a month. They'll get out there when the airport lets us and take some drone footage. Um, this is from very early in the month. So, you can see area D over here on the right corner. Um, that's that pad. And you can see the walls starting to come up. They're a lot further along. But if you pause it here, you can Well, if it'll let you. Yeah. Give me one second. Get there. You can see the lines here. That's all that's where all your walls are going to go up. Those are all your footings. So, you can kind of see the rooms and and how they're going to they are going to take shape.

006And then you can see the slope here on the side um where your parking lot's going to come up and in. And the next picture will show you what that'll look like. Unless you um So this is area D uh that has the that's already poured. And then this is area A that's going to be poured next week. Yep. Monday and Tuesday next week, weather permitting. That'll be poured. And then so all our foundation walls in area B, which is about half of the next se more than half of the next section are done. So, it's all coordinated well and moving along nicely. So, one of the things I wanted you guys to see was uh if you look right here, there's a workman uh right in that location. That gives you an idea of

007the scale of the building. If you think of what a long walk that is all the way down that hallway and out the other end of the building, that gives you an idea of the scale of the building. and to see this photograph which takes the rendering and puts it right here where uh where the pad is now. Remember that's what it's actually going to look like when uh when all is said and done. With that being said, area is a bunch of trees. This is area A right here. Are you going to have to bring in a lot of dirt? I mean, it looks like to me the grade around there. No. So, it's hard to tell from that uh from any overhead, but there's still a lot a lot of material um that

008has been crushed. Just looks like you're doing it for parking and so forth. Yeah. So, a lot about halfway up, you can kind of see this picture does not do it justice. Some of these stones are absolutely huge. And about halfway up, all that's still got to get stripped and put back in. There's a huge mound of dirt over in the um back left corner, too. And there what Todd was just showing you all that some of that's still 15 20 feet higher than the building path and it's going to come down to level. Um all that there and it's going to get pushed there. We may have to bring in some but just look like on this front left corner. We're thinking there may be a surplus of material actually when it's all said

009and done. That's good because it looks from that picture it look like it' be a lot and that's some of the slope that they've they've already done. That's sorry it's coming along. So these are just uh showing your footings and this is looking back all the way to the end of the building. You can see the mound there. That's dirt right on the edge of the building pad. So that kind of gives you an idea of the the distance um from from C to the end of A. And then obviously we go back north as well. There's some plumbing there that you can see. This is our first first pour. It's 4:00 a.m. in the morning. and they get an early start um so they have time to um finish the concrete and let it

010all cure. And that's the end result before our wall started going up. And this is where we're at now. You can see the yellow there. That's that's the vapor barrier for the area A pad that we're going to pour. Um and then into D. We're even further along than this now with the walls going up. But you can see this will be the corridor walking down area D. Building trades on your left and um criminal justice on your right. Any questions on CT? Okay. On the schools, um they came a long way. I'm going to condense it into phase 1 A and 1B. Uh they turned over one a um last week uh and the school moved into the rooms and everything is fine. On the punch list, we found a few items. We'll take

011care of that. But other than that, everything is done on on phase 1 A. Um the bathrooms are done, the classrooms are done, uh flooring, plumbing, uh everything is done, even the doors. So we're now we jump to uh the demolition and they're doing a good job. They're going fast on both schools. Um, and that's in a nutshell. That's what it is. I mean, now we starting 1B and we're going to go back to the same thing we did in phase 1A demo and then come back and do the rest. The the block wall, the flooring, the ceiling. It's all repetitive work, but it's it's they've done a good work to be honest with you, and they're moving along really good. That's on cond. That's the water line and the fire hydrant that they installed

012over the spring break. Wow. So, we had um our guys on site uh Brian Dodson and Mike Kaufman take pictures now that 1A has been turned over to us. So, they're fully occupied and in use. And um what I wanted you guys to see here in the pictures is uh you know, our goal is for it to be indistinguishable from new. And it really is. If you go over there and walk that section of the of the building, you can't tell that you're not in a not in a brand new building. You see all the furniture's in, all the casework is in. Um, like I said, they're it's just beautiful. If you look at the hallway there on the right, um, it looks it looks fantastic. They really have done a done a nice job.

013These are the new restrooms. Um, so we we took possession of eight classrooms at both schools and two sets of bathrooms, so four uh restrooms total. Uh, this is over at W. Kundiff. This pad right here is the new kitchen. Uh, that's this area to the right here in this photograph. This is the new cafeteria where you already have the walls up and then the the connecting corridor. This pad was poured this morning. Yeah. So, this one that that is not poured right here in this photo is poured today. And then what I wanted you to see here was they're um applying top soil. And so when you apply top soil, you know you're down to the final grade. So when you go around to the back side uh there, that's the kitchen here to

014the left. And that uh the the banking and uh grade work there is um is at final grade. Now that's when Tim showed up to the site, you asked about this. And that's the final product. Yeah. Nice. And I and I went by yesterday and it it's looking they came along. It's really good. There's a a lot of work that's happen. That's the steel work. That's the framing and the ceiling. Now it's it's it's already covered. Some of it's already covered. And over here on Glinko also it's already covered. Yeah. These are uh these are the admin areas. Um nurse's office those sorts of things. That's the uh connecting corridor there. And then Glen Cove. Glen Cove. If you're down going down Cove Road, you'll see this is done. All the storm drain stuff is

015done. Uh this is an old picture. I I cheated. Uh now it's probably got the top on. All the masonry is done. And this is cleaned up a little bit. Yeah, it's in a very similar state to what we have over at u at we kind of. These are interior pictures that uh Mr. Coffin, our guy down there, uh sent us. You again, you see the new bathrooms. Uh you know, this design concept, uh I would have loved when I was in the middle school because it makes it easy to to supervise the that area of the restrooms from the hallways. You go in, then you turn left and right to go back to the to the girls side of the restroom and the and the boy side of the restroom, but the sinks are

016exposed to the hallway. So, that's a relatively new design concept for us. Uh there's the new restrooms, the new classrooms. Again, everything's uh done over there except punch list stuff that uh Kamal and Mike are working on. Uh again, just other other shots from the classrooms. Um any questions on the elementary schools? It looks really good, honestly. Yeah, really does. We're super happy with our uh relationship with Branch and and the work that they've done to this point. I did want to share this with you also. Um, so this is the area that we just looked at, the eight eight classrooms, or is this section right here, 1A, uh, that we just took possession of. There's the bathrooms and and the eight classrooms. The mirror image of that is the next one, which is, if

017I can use the mouse is right there. And that is scheduled to be ready to go uh by the start of next school year. So that's where they they've started right now. So by the time the kids come back after the summer, that area should be ready to go. And uh correct me if I'm wrong, Kamal, but 2A should be ready to go. Also, ignore these dates over here on the right. This was an easier diagram to use, but it was an old document. So So those dates are not correct, but the dates that I'm telling you are correct. So we're we're going to take over um 1B and 2 A. And then go back to uh area one here which consists of the all of the admin areas, the connecting corridor, the kitchen, the

018cafeteria, and that back corridor. And that should be done in early fall. Uh so shortly into the school year. You can see we ought to have uh possession of of a large a large portion of that building. Uh how many phases are there? Oh, quite a bit. So, it's not Well, if you if you just in terms of which ones they gave nomenclature to, there's one 1 A, uh, 1 B, 2 A, 2, 2 A, 2 F. 2B, 3 A, 3 B. So, eight phases, but but some of those are concurrent. So, they don't all just go, you know, for some reason, I thought there were three. That's why I was probably more combined like combined them. That's but it I I was wondering how that comes together with so we get the center part

019but I noticed when when I was over there yesterday and of course they can't work on the cafeteria right because we got to have the cafeteria but I was thinking that hole down that whole phase down there or whatever that it's called in the bottom none of that's going to have been touched so glucon no no itund that that will be 3A and that's that part of the that's what's highlighted here on the uh on the app right there and that's scheduled for May of 2026. Okay. So that that's one of the last phases. I got Yeah. Yep. Makes sense. 1B is going to be shorter because it's a lessons learned and 1 A took a little bit longer. They had a few issues. You know what I mean? Y learn from that. Y any

020other questions on the elementary schools? Okay. Thank you, John. Appreciate it. Looks good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Item 2.02, minor construction and maintenance projects. Mr. Todd Kaggles, I didn't want you all to think that um our major construction projects were the only things we had going on. We got a lot of stuff going on in addition to those. Uh, so I just wanted to share just a few of them that I picked out that we uh worked on over um, you know, they represent significant investments and we worked on them over uh, spring break. Kring High School is one. Uh, that's about a4 million dollars worth of uh, air conditioning work replacing the uh, one of the two um, main gym units. This one will do dehumidification, which uh, was important because they

021have problems with the gym floor uh, constantly warping and cupping. Uh we think we've got it under control with some um some large temporary dehumidifiers that we've added. Uh but hopefully we can remove those. They're really loud. Hopefully we can remove those uh now that this new unit's in place. It's operational. It's not uh the control work isn't finished on it, but it will be finished soon. Most of that was done over spring break. It's Todd. One one question related to that, and we may have already answered this, but was that not part of our construction? these these units uh part of Kring High School's construction. No, it wasn't. Those were um value. Now, that was before my time, but my understanding is those were value engineered out, so they were kept. Uh one of

022the two that was left in place failed and was almost going to be as uh expensive to fix it as it was to to replace it. So, we replaced it with this one and we gained dehumidification uh capability. So, it was u you know, it was a good investment. I wish we'd have done that with the project. That makes a lot more sense. Yeah. Now, I will say with Bird, if if you recall, you all um approved additional funding when we got to the end to go back and do some of the things that were going to be left uh that weren't 100% with the HVAC system and and it is now. We did that. Makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. And you you all provided additional funding for that, but we did go back and uh

023do all the things that they felt like needed to be done, but but that was not done here at Kring. My reasoning is is because you take it from major capital to minor capital. Yeah. And they're not, that's not to say that a lot of stuff was left out like that at Cavespring. It wasn't. Most of the HVAC system is brand new, but those two gym units were left in place. Okay. Are we leaving anything out at either Glen Cove or Gundiff as far as a air conditioning goes? Uh, no. The cooling towers are both being replaced. They'll be brand new. And the um heat pumps uh had been purchased with Esser money uh just prior to the start of construction. So, we actually hadn't installed them at one of the schools. the other uh

024school we had installed it uh but they're just reusing the brand new heat pumps. They're only about a year old. So, no, we we feel good about the about the mechanical work that's being done at uh Glen Cove and W Cundiff. Um this photograph is um Glen Elementary School. Again, this is uh so this would have been about a quarter million dollars um investment except that our guys did all the installation work on this. And so this is about $175,000. They replaced three of the uh rooftop units over there. And again, that was uh a job that was completed over over spring break. So, they're they should be in real good shape out there. Uh this is Fort Lewis Elementary School. And I just kind of wanted to give you an idea of the condition

025uh that that existed and and to some extent may still exist in different locations uh just due to the age of the building. Uh so what happened in the main hall up there was they found uh some soft spots in the floor. And so we started investigating it and we found a significant amount of um no active termites but a significant amount of termite damage and uh rot in the in the floors up there. So uh our guys did all the work. That's uh one of our carpenters there, John Ashby. And um they reframed the whole they cut it all out. They reframed the whole thing. new subfloor, uh, new tile work over here on the right, and old tile work at the beginning. New tile work as you go further down the hallway. I

026told them they're just like, uh, just like Surf Pro, you can't ever tell that it happened. So, um, we did took care of that over uh, spring break as well. And, uh, that's all I have. Do you have any questions? I just like to say, Todd, that was a great job. I saw that this morning. Yeah, that's unbelievable. Yeah. Didn't they do a great job? You can't you can't tell that anything was ever done. Great. Uh John Ashby and uh Chris Noble did that and they're excellent carpenters and did fantastic work. For sure. Let those guys know that we say thank you because that's awesome job. Sure. Well, appreciate it. I think sometimes they're the unsung heroes. Absolutely. Thank you. Item 2.03 kinetic fundraiser report. Mr. Jason Sir, Mr. Carl York, Miss Karen Cox, Miss

027Janelle Johnson, Mr. Kevin Williamson. Borrow this. Thank you, Madam Chair. Members of the board, Dr. Nice and Dr. Sulttus. Um, we're pleased to have Kinetic with us today, members of uh the team that we've been working with over the past months um on the uh creating excellence uh campaign and um look forward to their presentation today. Uh just a little background. We we started work with them uh last year and uh really uh the impetus behind that was uh Carl and I were uh working together and quickly came to the realization that we were taking a wild stab in the dark when it came to uh fundraising. We thought let's go raise some money and um we we felt like a a more formal uh understanding was necessary for us to do an adequate job.

028Um we did a little bit of investigating about um who others had used etc. And um we uh ended up settling on getting permission from you all to settle on um Kinetic and uh we've been working with them ever since. Um so uh without further ado, I'm going to let Carl do a little bit more background. I don't know if uh you need the we need to put the uh stop. Okay. So, I really appreciate everybody's time tonight. Uh, we really enjoyed working with Kinetic. Like Jason said, when we started out with this, we thought we knew a little bit, but once we got into it, we we understood that uh probably we would be better served if we brought some professionals in with us to really help us get all we could get uh

029as we raise money. And so, these guys have done a great job and they've got a feasibility study they want to share with you tonight. Uh I know you guys have had some questions about uh what we've been working on and what we've been doing and I'm really proud of the work that they've done. But let me introduce them. Uh we have Karen Cox, president. Hi. Uh Janelle Johnson, chief chief growth officer and Kevin Williamson uh who's a senior vice president. And so uh if you'll give them some time, we we'd love for that for you to do that. Thank you. Before we do that, Carl, do you mind just reminding everybody, you know, what the focus of this fundraising effort is versus, you know, we got the construction costs paid for. We've got, of

030course, all the equipment, right? Uh just as just provide a real quick context in terms of what the focus of this is going to be in terms of this campaign. Yeah. So, those are some of the questions. We've been out I've been out meeting with a lot of businesses and talking to a lot of different people and and uh you know, sometimes we'll get questions. Well, we thought all this was paid for. We thought everything was taken care of and and uh you guys have done a great job with your vision and ra and getting the money for the the build the the land uh the equipment to start out with and really moving over the equipment that's already at Burton. Um but we knew right away there's no better time to uh develop long

031lasting relationships moving forward with companies than building a new school. And we know that uh as soon as we open the doors that technology is going to take us further. uh we're going to want to add programs. We're going to want to add to it right away. And we thought this would be a great time to uh build onto the relationships we already have and then add some more in the community uh uh with uh you know, fundraising. Um you know, it's a perfect storm right now for them. They they have uh a lot of these companies have um older experienced workers, but they don't have a lot of new young blood coming in and they're really interested in our kids and our CTE program and and connecting with us and building a relationship going

032forward. So, it's the perfect time, but we wanted to go ahead and set this up so that uh we could fund raise and get ahead of this. And and part of what we'd like to do is build an endowment where we can uh use that for some scholarships for these kids. We want to make sure that our kids have the tools that they need, have the equipment that they need. We want to uh give them a leg up right when they come out of school. Uh that uh ensures success. So that was our thinking around this. And there's no better time than when you're building a new school. And and I'll just add that that that funding that we're looking for is uh what we like saying is that for that margin of excellence that

033we want this RCCTC to be known for. We want it to be a shining beacon on that hill. We want um it to perpetually, not just when it opens. It will be a shining beacon at that moment, but we know quickly it's going to have turnover. We're going to have new programs. We're going to have equipment that we're going to need to be looking at. Um we want to maintain that margin of excellence and have that u margin to work with. So yeah, great. Sure. So um yeah well first of all thank you for your confidence in us and for allowing us to do this work for you. Um it's been great to work with both of you on this and you had already really laid some important groundwork. So we just took it from

034there and our job and the um the contract that we had with you of course was for um a feasibility study to um develop a plan for you for moving forward. You know, we know we wanted to raise a lot more money and do a major effort, but uh in this contract arrangement, we were testing the idea of how much money we could raise and developing a really solid plan uh for raising that money for moving forward. So, through our conversations, um we uh we developed a test uh case document. We'll talk about that later. But uh to test the idea of a campaign called partnering for excellence to raise $5.55 million and um throughout this arrangement we tested the idea of that. So, um, this campaign and the recommendations were designed, uh, that we'll

035talk about here were designed to not just raise that money, but to, um, uh, increase your visibility at the same time and build a broad base of support for ongoing funding well into the future as you develop those relationships. So, um, let me, uh, talk, uh, this is what I just said, and we're going to talk about the key findings right now of our feasibility study executive summary here, but our contract deliverables. Let me go through this, uh, for you real quick. This is what um, we uh, were engaged to do. That's a campaign readiness review. We'll talk about each of these. a case statement development, philanthropic scan, uh, looking at the philanthropy available to you, campaign assessment, the interviews and surveys, and then the foundation and corporate and foundation research, and then this report

036and presentation. So, we began this with a campaign readiness review. We started August 8th and um our internal assessment lasted over uh three days and then we did our external assessment and that was personal interviews. We spent some time identifying people that we wanted to talk to that could tell us if a campaign uh for these purposes could be successful and um lend their insight. So um uh we could use that data to help us um develop a report and a plan. So um we connected with 29 current and prospective donors through that process. So the internal assessment I mean usually it's a lot more uh it would be a lot more um lengthy on the internal side because we'll be looking at your fundraising history, your donor database, all of the um uh communications

037that we've been doing to date. And of course, you didn't have uh that. We're starting out with a major campaign. Um and so we really talked about your story, the history of the Burton Center, the need. Um and then we identified the goals of the campaign to be tested. When I talk about campaign, we talked about how do we raise a lot of money? And when we talk about a major gift campaign, that's really a fundraising strategy with a beginning and an end. And it creates an urgent and compelling need. And like you said, um, you know, the new building, uh, creates this great environment to to raise this money. So, and then we identified, uh, with the team, when I say we, I mean us. I identified the prospective donors and, uh, conducted research

038on those as well. This is a case statement. I think many of you saw this. Uh these are just two pages of the case statement, but it'll give you a glimpse uh at what the document we helped create to um articulate what a campaign might look like. So we could test that with our perspective uh donors, community leaders to uh get their ideas, their thoughts and insight. So um thank you Karen. Hello everybody. So with the external assessment, this is for lack of a better word, this is where we get the word on the street. So like Karen was talking about with the interview process, we were able to interview 29 folks. And first I want to say that Carl and Jason did a fabulous job of really putting us in touch with some really,

039really solid people. And the success of a campaign, one of those key uh points of success is being able to get the right kind of data. And that's why we did the interviews and that's why we were testing everything. Um so through that interview process questions we asked were um well we wanted to identify the familiarity of the project just seeing how who in the community knows what's going on. They know about this new center. They know what this project's about. Um assessing the import the importance really finding out do people think this is important? You know so really really asking those questions like what does this mean to you? Is this important? Is this important to this community? Um, perceptions about our case statement because if everybody we interviewed, they had a chance to

040see the case statement that Karen just referenced. Uh, assess community engagement and support. So, that's where we get to ask everybody, do you believe you would support this? Do you believe others in the community would support this? And when I say support, I mean financial support, um, capacity and potential giving. Um, do you believe that the money we're trying to raise could come out of this community? Be it individual gifts or corporate foundation gifts and key influencers and that's leadership. Um, here so 15 development benchmarks, strategic plan with every campaign want to definitely have a strategic plan and that's something that we worked on with this case statement which I just talked about. Um not going to read every last one of the every last one of these, but some of the key ones. Um

041efficient recordkeeping. Definitely want to make sure we keep a record of who's giving, what they're giving for, how their gift is structured, all those little in the weeds kind of things. That's going to be important as we move through this campaign. I already talked about the fundraising plan. Um prospect development. That's how you're cultivating your prospects. Want to make sure we're building relationships. And that's going to be a recurring theme that you'll see through this presentation. Uh leadership, recruitment, involvement, and fundraising leadership kind of all go together. One of the biggest keys of making sure a campaign is successful is that you've got the right kind of volunteer leadership in place. You can have all the professionals in the world working on this. If the volunteer leadership is not compelled to see this through and

042involved and engaged in it, it's not going to happen. So that's one of the things that we're really focused on. Key campaign readiness review recommendations. Um so really want to focus on building donor relationships, which is what I just talked about, making sure people feel good about what's going on and they're up to speed and educated on what this project is and how it's going to impact the community. Uh communicate with our philanthropic community. Again, this is back to the interviews, seeing who in town is philanthropic. Um, and that's that's a big deal. Not everybody's interested in giving to causes, you know, so it's really important to identify those folks and build those relationships with those people and just really see see what's important to them and build that. Um, this is this is one

043of those kind of interesting points where it takes time to build those relationships. Um, so we're not just rushing in, but making sure that we know who we're talking to and we know what's important to them and we're asking for the right things. Formalizing a donor appreciation program. And that's your stewardship. Making sure people are thanked properly. It's nothing worse than giving a gift big or small and nobody's recognizing it. It makes a difference. Assessment outcomes. Everyone we talked to believe that this center is distinctive and it's important and that's a huge deal. Um strong support for the the campaign and its mission and people believe as long as the mission is followed and folks are properly identified, qualified, cultivated and so on this campaign can be a success. warning. Okay, [Music] keep going. Okay,

044all right. I'm sorry. Feel like I should be doing something. Uh, Kinetic recommends camp. So, this is the great part. Kind of drum roll. Kinetic recommends a campaign goal of 5.55 million in a three-year timeline. This is based on quality and input um from the interviews. That's what I referenced earlier. As long as we've got the right people to talk to, which we believe we have, and they're giving us accurate and honest feedback, we're going to be able to u make a success out of this with a timeline of 36 months. We believe that the leadership for this center and particularly with Carl and Jason um they're going to be able to handle a high degree of donor centricity. They're going to be able to celebrate philanthropy and make sure that it's embedded in the

045center. Um build a strong case for support and high have a high degree of volunteer leadership. And that's at the beginning. That's during and towards the end because one of the things we want to make sure that you're left with after the campaign is over is what happens the day after the campaign. Making sure that these gifts that come in are sustainable that you keep going so that you've got a center that you can always be proud of and that's always going to be something that the students and parents will be proud of. Sure. Thank you. We wanted to share a little bit about the landscape of philanthropy. So we of course talked a lot about our conversations with people in this community and this region that would care about this project. We also want

046to of course consider what does philanthropy look like in the US. So the good news is this has been tracked for about 50 years. New data for 2024 will come out next month or in June um from giving USA and giving institute but over 557 billion dollars was given in 2023 and if you look at this pie chart you'll see that between individuals and bequest so all individuals that's about 75% of philanthropy in this company in this country that has held true for all 50 years it has been at least 75% comes from individuals foundations at 19% and corporations at 7%. We wanted to share this with you really to tell you that although the individuals we think will be very important in this, we don't think your pie chart at the end of this

047successful campaign will look like this. We have talked to great corporate partners in the community that have a vested interest and foundations in supporting you all. So we actually see that that part will be a much higher um and there's of course a million reasons you know businesses in this community wanting to invest in their future employees and the education of kids. This um chart doesn't depict this but um education is actually the second largest piece of the pie as well after religion education and human resources are tied human services. So that's also good news for you. We know people care about investing in the education of our future um adults. So attracting financial support, how we will do this um we'll continue to ex expand the visibility. Of course, this isn't a quiet phase

048of the campaign. People know that this is happening. Um so it's really important that we help control those messages and put out good stories of what will happen in this new space. How many more kids will be served? how many new programs we can serve and how it will impact this community in the future. Um the volunteer leadership, we've touched on that, but that's really important because we know that's how our networks will be built. That's how we will get in front of potential donors, corporations, and foundations is through a great volunteer leadership base. Um and obviously you all have had the courage to take the the step to make this plan. So we need to have confidence and we'll work the plan. some key recommendations. Kevin got the big drum roll. We're recommending your

049full campaign. We think you can raise this over a 36-month period. We recommend a fiveyear pledge period and that allows people to make the most meaningful gifts that they can. Um we recommend early on that we will set benchmarks. So, um we don't want to just have that $5.55 million number hanging out. We usually want at least two benchmarks throughout the year so that we can track the success of this campaign and know it's on track. Recruiting a campaign cabinet that has already begun. There's individuals in this community that have said, "I want to help with this and um have already started because of the great connections of Carl and Jason." And then in your final report that you have, there's a chart of giving. And that's where we see the breakdown of gifts for

050this campaign. typical campaigns um 60 to 70% is often raised by 20 to 30 individuals, foundations or corporations. Um so we stay high focused especially in the beginning of ensuring we're talking to the right people and taking the time to cultivate those relationships so we can ask for that meaningful gift. That chart she's referring to is on page 42 of the the study booklet if you want to take a look what she's talking about there. Thank you. Laying out different uh giving levels and how many folks you would need to reach that. I'm sure that's fluid, but yes, yeah, it's page 42 of the actual report. Additionally, wanted to share um we spent a lot of time with foundation research. So, we really surfaced what we were especially excited about was nine foundations that have

051a giving history of giving a million dollars or more and we fall into more than one of their categories of funding. So it gives a higher propensity that they would be supportive of this project. Additionally, there's 23 local and regional foundations that had a great matches and that was up to about 6.4 million of giving between those foundations. So we see great potential in that area as well as corporations and individuals. So um that's actually the end of our uh our report. your full feasibility uh study report that Dr. Nicely referred to has your case statement in it that we've talked about. It has a list of the who participated in the interviews with us and then uh sample fundraising policies that will be important for your campaign. And then there's a timeline uh what

052activities would need to be taking place when. And then um you'll have some raw data just the the comments that people gave us um assessment the names won't be associated with those comments. They were confidential interviews but you'll see some of the responses so they'll kind of help you understand how we arrived at some of the conclusions. So that's it. I have one question for you if you don't mind. So I know the the the case statement that you're referring to is on page 51 of the plan. uh can you just uh it goes on for several pages there. I think it's you know really well done. Can you talk a little bit about how that tool is used um you know how why that's important? Yes, thank you. So um that's a very good

053question. The case statement is um is really intended to accompany a conversation with a major gift prospect and that's an individual, a foundation, a corporation, corporate individual. But when we're doing the major gift fundraising, Janelle said this isn't the quiet phase and that doesn't mean it's a secret because everybody knows about it. But it is that phase of the campaign where we want to ask people face to face. So we want to be very strategic about uh who we're talking to and to make sure we've done our research. We want to make sure we're listening more than we're talking and have this case statement with us. It's a leave behind document. Um, it's really intended to surface questions so we can continue the conversation and develop the relationship. We really appreciate all all of you

054being a a part of the of the questions and a part of helping us uh uh unearth, you know, this process. All of you participated and uh and I appreciate your time with me, too. you know, we're trying to make sure that we're talking to every every resource we have on who you know and who we should be talking to. So, um, that's another part of this. So, we really appreciate all your your support. My understanding is you all had an opportunity to, I think, interview all the board members individually and of course all the other folks you mentioned. So, yeah. Um, I I I think one of the questions um I think it's important to articulate, Carl, is you know, we we've got we've got a plan that we've been presented. we feel good

055about the the the goal being reasonable and achievable. What you know what what what next? What will we do with this? Yeah, it's a you know it's a great question. So um right now we've been we haven't stopped talking to these companies. So, as a matter of fact, next week I have five days in a row where I'm talking I'm with a company talking about and again, we're we're some of this is is softening the ground. Uh making sure they understand exactly where we're going and what we're doing, but getting their temperature on, you know, how they feel about what we're doing and trying to get feedback as far as what, you know, what what they're willing to do. So, um we're getting ready to move into we're still in the quiet phase, but we're

056getting ready to move into a part where we're going to be asking them for um donations and uh we've already we already have a few that have come in and so that's encouraging. You know, they they don't want to some people don't want to wait. They they want to be a part of this uh from the get-go. And so, that's very encouraging. So, um we're excited now that we have the plan. we we can map out how much we need to do over each quarter and that'll help us stay on on task and and uh you know some that we think will contribute may not but then there's always some that come kind of out of the woodwork that that want to be a part of it once they hear about it. So um it's

057exciting right now Dr. Nicely because we can uh now we feel like we have a plan that we can work Thank you for the work. You know, we've got a barometer we can kind of gauge how we can can move forward and do well. Again, we want to thank you for the opportunity. We don't um always get to deliver good news. Um and we're very happy to be able to recommend the full amount to you and um to deliver that good news to you. It will never be easy. Campaigns are not easy. They have to be very strategic and well thought out and and carefully planned. But um but that you have the opportunity. We're really happy to recommend that. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Item 2.04, request to approve RCPS 202526 Perkins

058plan. Mr. Jason, sir. Thank you, Madam Chair, again and members of the board. Dr. Nicely. Uh the strengthening career and technical education for the 21st century act, we call it uh Perkins 5, uh is similar to past years. Um and uh Ron County Public Schools proposed 2526 local Perkins plan has been made available on board docs uh for your perusal. Um, Perkins funds, as you know, augment uh local effort to supply high level CTE programs. It's part of our funding that we rely on. Um, it it it pales in comparison to what the school board generously helps with. Um, uh, a major use of the federal monies is for equipment such as computers, uh, for teched classes or heavy equipment and trade and industry classes. The, uh, RCPS Perkins plan is locally developed. Um and

059a couple of you uh a couple of you sit on the general advisory committee. I appreciate your input on that. Uh the Perkins plan was approved by the CTE general advisory committee at uh Tuesday's meeting this week and uh the next steps in the process uh is to request your approval. Um since the local plan and budget is very lengthy and if you've had any chance to delve into it, it has many tabs at the bottom and um it's an a lengthy Excel spreadsheet a summary has been provided on board docs as well. So if you look at that, it will reference the different parts of the plan so that you can easily reference what's going on between the two. Um I appreciate your consideration of the plan um with with the hopes of it.

060If there's any questions, I'll be glad to entertain those. Um, but the uh the hope would and and plan would be to put it on consent for next week's board meeting. Okay, question. Just to remind everybody this these are federal funds. Federal funds. Yes, that's correct. Yep. And and uh did have a question uh just recently, you know, do you anticipate any changes? Uh Miss Peterson's been helpful in in in looking at at you know with with all the turmoil and and what's going on federally u uh we don't anticipate any changes in the immediate u of course down the road not not sure but for the immediate we're looking at at least level funding on boards does it have on that last page that you presented us at the meeting the other day it

061broke down how much is being sent where is that on there okay that will be that that is on that somewhere I think that's the best page of that it just shows you where the money's being used Correct. Yes. Okay. And and things like equipment. Uh but it also provides federal money. We use a good chunk of it for professional development for our teachers, sending students to uh CTSOs, uh travel for state and and national travel. Uh there's um good and and we'll be using a small portion of it for our goatee uh labs for the middle schools as well. Can you tell everybody what a CTSO is? I'm sorry. CTSO. I use my acronyms. uh career and technical student organizations such as Skills USA, which by the way is at the civic center this

062weekend. Uh but FBLA, DECA, those student organizations that are co-curricular with our programs, um and and students compete in those competitions, leadership skilled competitions, uh and they succeed at the regional level, they'll go on to state. We can help fund those trips also on to nationals. and we every year have students that succeed and go you you recognize them um on a regular basis going to state and national contests. Can you also Sorry, I was uh mentioning Skills USA, but go ahead. Well, I was just going to say ask if you would mention um a little bit about Goateech. Sure. Uh so GOEK um is um a a program that is uh out of the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research out of Danville. Um that's where it's centered out of. Uh, Goat uh provides

063specialized equipment, especially on the manufacturing front. Um, a little bit with the health sciences, but uh, in our teched classes at the middle school level, we we feel like this equipment is going to really help our our labs in those schools get to the next level with manufacturing awareness for our students, which is a really good thing. We have a strong manufacturing program at the high school. We need our middle school students to start looking into that. Um equipment uh on on that front might be a CNC programming unit that they can meddle with at the middle school. Um a a virtual welding machine where students actually get to um do some welding virtually in a safe environment, but at the middle school level, we haven't had that before. Um and and I you know

064have a strong welding program at at Burton. So it's it's those types of things that this is going to provide. It's a lot of a lot of equipment, high dollar equipment. Uh probably $125,000 per lab. Um and it's being it's being u and professional development. Thank you, Dr. Sultus. Um it provides professional development as well. That's one of the unique things about the Goatee Tech program is it has u the professional development lab where uh it's staffed with people who are on call for our teachers to call up and get help with maybe a piece of machinery that's gone down that's part of the goatee or they want to derive a new lesson plan. they need some help getting some a new lesson around a certain area th that staff will be there to help

065them at a moment's notice. Um we will there are six labs being put in in this iteration of the uh goatee funding. The goatee funding uh I'm sorry the goatee program is being funded by go Virginia region 2. That's the proposal going before go Virginia region two. It's over a million dollars worth of of of equipment. Our contribution to that is um in kind primarily with uh that $8,000 uh Miss Clemens mentioned on that sheet in the Perkins plan. We will be contributing $8,000 a year to be part of the Goatee Tech program. So, it's really a small portion of cash, if you will, a lot of inind and go Virginia funding is providing the vast majority of the of the equipment. And we get two labs. We get two labs out of the six.

066The other school divisions in the consortium that we're all we're working with uh each get one. So, kind of proud of that. Yeah. Very cool. Yours is one. Is it one of them? Uh I'm so Hidden Valley and William. Um those are the two with the most active teched programs. The plan is in further iterations of the Go Virginia funding to put them at all five middle schools. So um we'll have to go back and and work with the schools to reapply for for more funding to get more labs put in. Um but we're very confident that'll happen. a little bit off topic, but I want to follow up on something you mentioned about middle schools. So, currently with our middle schools, are we h we've talked about this before? We send them there's some

067kind of I don't know what you call it, career day, whatever. Uh to go over to to Career Quest. Career Quest. Yes. So, do we do that once a year? Yes, it's once a year. Um and then we do it once a year with 10th graders. Okay. Um there are changes coming to that. I'll just give you all a heads up. Um the workforce development board who organizes that career quest and Morgan Romeo is the executive director there. Uh we just had a call with them uh last week I believe it was um talking about what needs to happen with the seventh grade career quest. Um the seventh grade career quest is a great thing in in my mind. Um, we need to reach our students when they're young and help them just understand what's

068out there. Um, we're not asking them to pick a career. We're asking them to see what's out there. The problem they're running into at the Workforce Development Board is they're they're having trouble with companies really um wanting to invest all that time. It's a lot of time for those companies. Two full days of uh company involvement plus the two days for the 10th grade career quest. companies are are are are hedging on the seventh grade. Um, and so we're not giving up on seventh grade. We know that's important. We're brainstorming ways to get seventh graders and their parents possibly to an event in the future. So, right now it's just the students and some of the teachers. Um, in the future I think it's going to be it could be a little look a lot

069different. Wouldn't be during the school day maybe. Um we're we're throwing around some ideas, but so I'd like to throw out an idea that I think needs to be explored is that we need more of those day uh more days. Uh you know, we've got a mentoring program in some of the high schools that mentor some of our middle school kids. I'd love to see our Burton as it is now, CTE, as it's going to be. You know, look, we're going to grow this per this is this should be the one of the shining lights. You know, when you go see the star, you ought to go see CTE. You know, this is one of those things that we need to promote in the largest way we possibly can. And for me, it's if sometimes

070I think if you start in the high school, you started too late. I would love to see us once a it's not a quarter now. We're on semesters. let's say twice a semester have the ability for these kids to be exposed in some way to and I hate that it's Burton right now because it's going to be so nice but let's let's say CT our new ones here I'd love to have them exposed to that because I think that is real to a lot of our kids that's not real sitting in classrooms all day and hearing about sure the CTE facility but if you had and and so when I was talking about mentoring if if some of our kids that are at Burton would have a uh mentoring day where a middle schooler comes

071and and follows Johnny along for the day in his classes at at Burton um or you know some other and then the next time in the semester they do something they get exposed to this in many different ways to you know and I think about well I'm not going to go there but anyway I think about the kids that that you know uh may be lost in the way that they want to you know move through high school or move through the future even if they're in high school to move on. I just think that there you might hit on something that they get excited about and if we've waited to high school sometimes I think they think well good lord I've got a year left. What am I going to do in a year?

072But if we expose them in middle school and they get that exposure in middle school and then they get exposed again and and they kind of like it and maybe by freshman or sophomore they say, "Well, you know, I'm going to go back to this and and explore what can I do with welding? What can I do with auto mechanic? What can I do with whatever uh criminal justice or whatever that is?" But the more we expose them doesn't mean they have to go in that direction, but they know it's there. And I of course this was back in the dark ages when I went to school. I didn't know anything about Burton. And I I hope our kids and I know we do a much better job of that now. But I just think

073the exposure of going and seeing and seeing our kids do the work uh you know some type of mentoring program for a day or let them follow them the whole time. Job shaft. you know, I know that those kids in middle school can't, you know, there's laws and different things that, you know, preclude them from doing a lot of the work, but just being exposed to it may help them. So, I'd like to see us do that in a more quantitative way in middle school, 7th, 8th grade, and if there's thoughts or ways to do that, and I know that's disruptive to learning. some you know uh at the schools but if there's a way to incorporate that some way somehow right I think it could be I think there mean the thought about you

074don't you don't know what you don't know is uh is so true in terms of economic development you know career choices and and truly want kids to be opportunity ready which means they need to know what the options are and I so I you know I think you're right I mean just for kids to see what the options are for their parents and families that's a huge piece of that especially when considering some of these sort of CTE oriented careers, getting the parents to see is is a huge piece of it. And I think something that's also been effective. It's it's not exactly what you're talking about, but I applaud all the efforts, all these industry tours that we're doing. Some of you guys have had a chance to do that where, you know, the

075teachers and the counselors are out there, you know, seeing these things too, just being exposed to, you know, the different businesses that are out there. I think all those efforts, uh, which could be expanded, absolutely, but all those things are very important. Yeah. Well, Tim, I think you hit a good point. And one thing that we do is the summer camps. Yes. For middle school. That's correct. And it might be something I know there's only limited programs there, but maybe that's something that we can expand on. I'd like to see every program do them. Right now, I think we have six. I was just looking at the other day. I think we have six programs doing that. Um, but that would be Yeah, that's a great way. That could get some interest. Absolutely. You know,

076early on, and those usually sell out. Our our summer camps usually do real well. you give give a give a plug for that real quick. Describe what that is. Sure. So, uh we have summer camps usually early in the summer. I think uh the first one is June 2nd through uh the whatever that week is, the June 2nd week. And then there's some program some of those programs run two weeks of camps. So, it might be that June 2nd week and then the June 9th week if I'm not mistaken. Um but are they're uh available to uh Rono County students uh to to register for uh they're four days a week, three hours each morning except for I believe our manufacturing camp is I think that's an all day uh camp. Um so those are

077available to our students and a great way for them to kind of get into those labs at Burton right now and of course we'll carry that to the new center. But how have we how have we went about choosing what subjects or or what are we incentivizing teachers? Is it something that the teachers are doing? Hey, I want to do this or is it something that we've because I know it's like auto mechanics, robotics, uh mechatronics robotics, we have a culinary, I think masscom does one. Um there's a couple more. I mean, if it's something that maybe we need to incentivize teachers to kind of expand on and maybe build this to a bigger we we I I I think that that's not a bad idea. Um because right now it really is up to

078the teacher to that that runs that program to want to do a summer camp. All right. So, it hasn't been a mandate. Absolutely not that way. But, um if we could if we could maybe come up with a cost analysis of what what it would cost us to to take care of. I mean, what do you guys think? I mean, it's Yeah, absolutely. He's going to have to put work into it. I don't want to be telling him to do it myself. Well, anything anything would I, you know, I'd like to double the size of CTE. I mean, I I know I know that's pie in the sky and what we had to go through to get what we got. But, I mean, I think anything we can do with C that the way of

079the future, right? That's what companies are looking at. So, anything we can do, I I'm all for uh looking at how we can uh bring attract more kids in. And if they're weighing the options of uh getting into a trade versus going to college, you know, what have we always told our kids? Of course, y'all may not have kids grown yet, but but we all taught you got to go to college. Got to go to college. You got to get that college done. Uh I wish I'd have made my kids learn a trade, you know, because if they're out of a job, you know, they can always do a trade. And so, uh I Yeah, I applaud the idea. Well, I'd like to see some sort of presentation on how we can incentivize teachers and

080maybe expand that program a little bit, reach out a little further than what we're doing right now. That's a great idea. Okay. Thank you. What grade do um our middle schoolers already do a tour of Burton? Is that seventh grade? Eighth grade. Eighth grade. Eighth grade is as they get are able to apply for classes at Burton. It'll be during their eighth grade year, believe it or not. I mean, it's it's young when they get to start buying for spots in the specialty centers and most of our programs. Some of our health sciences have to students have to wait till they're 16. Um, but yeah, the majority of our programs they start applying in 8th grade. So, they go over and tour Burton and that is an effective way as effective and as efficient as

081we can do it to make sure all students get a at least a glimpse of what goes on in those programs. Is it ideal? uh you know what Mr. Greenway is talking about about kind of a maybe a couple hour uh job shadow or or you know upper level student shadow if you will as they're in the program you know that would give give students a better eye but is far more complex too so time time yeah but the idea of exposing you know seventh graders to that versus waiting till 8th grade when they're having to sign up for the or you know decide to apply right kind of planting those seeds a little earlier is is something to really consider We're the idea, but in that respect, but you know, I'd love for you

082to bring us back three or four ideas of how we can expose those kids. Sure. A little younger to uh to the idea. The more we expose them, I feel like the more opportunities Great they're going to see that they can have. Just there's no question the new facility will help. Yes. When they show up there and see that. not speaking out of term, but when I was the middle school principal at Glenver, I took sixth graders over there, had them sign up for a program that they wanted to shadow, and they did shadow because what I saw was by the time they were in eighth grade, they'd say, "Hey, I want to be an auto I want to go to auto mechanics or whatever, but they weren't getting accepted because they hadn't gotten the

083good grades. They hadn't had the good attendance." So, the earlier we can expose them, the better. or the eighth grade quick go through is great to expose them to all the programs, but them having an opportunity to to see it earlier is way better. And I like your mentoring idea. Thank you. Thank you. And we are we're adding that to the consent agenda, right? That has to be added to the consent agenda. the Perkins plant. Yes. The kids know what they want to do. I'm still trying to figure out I felt bad. I was like nothing left. I was looking down. I think they just screw these kids. No financially. Yeah. But when they go to online learning from anything else and they just reduce the rate item 2.05 RCPS accepted for future of high

084schools network and request to accept honoraria for participation in the Carnegie Foundation of the for the advancement of teaching Mr. Mike Riley and Miss Susan Peterson. Thank you Madam Chair. Members of the board um we're excited to bring this opportunity to the board. We've been talking a little bit about this uh but we want to kind of let you know not only what it is but kind of how we got here and uh kind of the direction we'll be going with this. So uh back in November um we had uh and do we have control of this here? No. Back in November of this year um we were contacted by the Carnegie Foundation. um they had reached out across the country. Um they're looking at uh ways to kind of reimagine what high school should

085look like. Um we know that high school works for some, like you said, Mr. Greenway. We've got others who just for whatever reason, college isn't their path. Um if you're familiar with Carnegie, they're the ones who came up with the Carnegie unit. That's kind of the the traditional units or graduation credits that students need. So they're looking to to innovate at the high school level in terms of what high school should look like. So they reached out to some partners across the country that they work with and said, "What are some schools that are doing some unique and innovative things?" Um, and Renault County was actually one of the schools that got brought up, got mentioned. Um, and they reached out to us and there were about a hundred schools across the entire country, uh,

086school systems that they reached out to and said, "We'd be interested in talking to you and we'd like you to apply to be a part of what they refer to as the future of high school network." Um, so we did that. We went ahead and applied. In December, a team of folks from Rono County Public Schools actually had an interview with the Carnegie Foundation. And really what they were interested in is the opportunity ready work we've been doing, especially at the high schools. Many of you had an opportunity or at least were invited and had a chance to come see some of the defenses that our students did around their portfolios and the work we're doing there. Um and uh so we were able to explain that, explain kind of the history of that and

087the fact that we do it at all levels. Elementary schools have studentled conferences around those same ideas. Middle schools do the same thing. And that at our high school level, not only is it just a small pocket of students that get to do this, but our vision was all students. And of course you guys know this year all high schools participated, next year we're actually going to have some dedicated days to do this. So, we were able to share that with Carnegie. Um, and then it's going too fast. Oh, I think Chuck and I are both doing it. We found out in February that uh we were one of 20, and this is kind of a big deal if you think about the entire country. We were one of 20 divisions across the country that

088the Carnegie Foundation invited to be a member of this network. So, they would like Rono County Schools to partner with 20 other divisions to share what we're doing, to partner with other divisions to imagine what high school can be for our students. Um, one nice thing that they do provide as membership in the network includes a $100,000 award to help us with this work. It'll help fund travel, professional development, things like that. So over the next two years, educators from our system, we're we're going to be able to help chart a path for improved outcomes for students, not only in Rono County, which has kind of always been our focus, but it's exciting that hopefully we'll be able to kind of inform the conversation and help move the narrative forward across the country in terms

089of what schools can do. um their focus um just so you're aware of kind of their goals is they want a broader set of goals for what students should know and be able to do and it really pairs well with what we do. They understand that content knowledge is still important. We want to make sure that students know the content well, but there's also those skills that they need. Those of you that were able to come and watch some of those presentations saw those students talk about those skills that they're developing in Rono County schools. And the Carnegie Foundation realizes it's not just enough to have that content knowledge. You've also got to have the skills in our evolving society and our evolving economy to thrive. And whether it's in CTE, even those students have

090to have the ability to communicate, collaborate, and critically think. So we want to make sure that that's incorporated in everything we do. They also want rigorous engaging learning experiences across all subject matters that are deeply rooted in the science of learning. And then finally, meaningful and actionable signaling systems. Basically, how do you measure it? Schools are struggling with how you measure that. And that's one of the unique things that we've really started to delve into is our measurement system are those portfolio defenses where they actually get up and present to a panel their accomplishments their mastery of those seas and the panel gives them real feedback in those areas. So I think because of all the work we've already done and hope to do, Carnegie was very intrigued. So as a result they've asked us

091to partner with them. Um, go ahead, Chuck. It's not. And again, our opportunity portfolio defense is going to be the centerpiece of what we're going to be modeling and refining over the next two years. So, it's nothing new that we're doing. It's just now we're going to get to partner with others and we're going to get to share some of the things that we're learning and doing with our students with other schools across the country. So that brings us to the grant process because we do have uh money attached to this. So uh Miss Peterson's going to talk a little bit about what the board needs to do to go ahead and appropriate those funds. Yep. So uh just to remind you, uh the grant process is that when you adopt the original budget, uh

092you adopt all the grants that are presented, the recurring grants. Um special grants um are adopted every year. Uh we do set aside during the budget a special project account as kind of a buffer. Um this is used to uh true up recurring grants um as we get changes from BDOE. It is also used for these unbudget awards kind of like this Carnegi one. Um when we do have an unbudgeted grant or award uh we have to bring it to you for approval of the award itself. Uh and then we will look at the special projects account and if there is funds in there and there is at this time um we will ask for an appropriation from that special projects. Uh we will not have to go to the board of supervisors since we

093have enough in here. We'll just go try for some reason it's not line. Um and so uh what we would ask is that at the next board meeting uh we would request approval of the grant in appropriation of 100,000 uh from the 2024 2025 grant fund special project. Uh we do expect for the payment to come in the first payment will be in the current year and the next payment will be in next year. And so that just kind of weighs that out for you. I think our meeting is actually on the 10th next week. So just oh that's okay. I'm going to say one thing to actually uh bring back together the previous report as well as what you're saying. Um I was going to give a plug to the skills USA which is

094a state competition happening this Saturday down at the Berkeland Center in the exhibition space. And I bring that to your attention now because really encourage you to go see this. These are all of our you know kids are in the trades and in these different CTE programs down there. They're not just demonstrating that kind of theft. you know, in terms of what they can do without a, you know, hammer or a welder or whatever. It's it's all of those things that we're talking about in terms of their ability to collaborate with each other in a group project to communicate, uh, to problem solve, think critically. Um, I remember we're going to, um, then seeing the, uh, the building trades one. It's a competition really. And I think the way this works is they have a

095team of you know three to four kids in the building trades for example using that one example and they're given a a project or or something they have to build and construct within a time frame. They've got to take leadership and decide deciding how they're going to tackle this problem and who's going to do what role and that kind of stuff and they have to execute it. And I just love that because it's it's one way I mean showing that you're an opportunity ready graduate and you have communication skills and collaboration skills and you can problem solve through critical thinking. It's you know it's true in a AP chemistry class. It's true in a building trades class. And so I'm hope more and more of our students will actually, you know, graduate with these this

096new diploma seal the chords that we're putting out there. I know again I know some of you guys saw the uh defenses but um this is just exciting stuff and it's it's exciting to see you know our school division and that our efforts being recognized you know at a national level through an effort like this and and frankly getting some funds to to support it. So thank you guys. Any questions? All right. Great. Thank you. Oh, if I didn't say this Saturday, Burgland Center Exhibition Hall starts about 7:30 in the morning, but in the morning time is the way time to go. So, if you have any time Saturday morning, encourage folks to get down and see this. It's good stuff, isn't it? It is 7:30. Oh, I know. You can come out. You can

097come. You can drop in anytime. Come this Saturday. This Saturday, right? But you can you can drop in uh later in the morning, too. So, item 2.06 0620242025 employee bonus options for consideration. Miss Susan Peterson, you can just pull up that the PDF and I'll just walk through it if you can go to the next page. Sorry, we're having a little technical difficulty. Um, all right. So I brought uh to your attention throughout the budgeting process that uh the general assembly did uh put forth both the Senate and House had different versions. Uh they came to an agreement as the general assembly uh to um provide school divisions within the the current year um a a bonus. Um, the bonus is actually uh calculated based on $1,000 per FTE in the SOQ modeling system. Um,

098and that's how much that the school division would receive. Uh, this bonus, um, I have on here the second bullet point, um, indicating that it would be paid no later than June 1. Uh we have some additional clarification um as this is moving through the budgeting process uh that the money would come to the school division by June 1 and we would pay our employee by July 1st. So by June 30th. So it would be in the current fiscal year. Uh but it doesn't have to be before June 1st. Um like I said, the bonus is based off of $1,000 for the FTE in the SOQ funding model. Um but it is up to the school division as to how they want to devy up the funds. The the school division is not required to

099match. So the school division can take the entire amount and just divide it by who they want to provide it to. Uh they don't have to provide the same amount. It's really up to the school division to determine how they want to provide this bonus um in order to maximize the use of the state funds and promote retention among the instructional and support positions. Um, can you go to the next page? Thank you. So, this chart just shows how I have uh kind of calculated if we did give a gross $1,000 bonus. So, the top line shows the subsidy, how much the general fund would have to uh provide. uh the dark blue is the gross payment to the employee and the uh green number is the net payment the the cash that the employee

100would see after all taxes are taken out. Uh so if we provided the full 1,000 we would have to supplement about 900,000 um and the employee would only see $646 out of that. Um, and then you could see I've shown what it would be. The supplement would be 362,000 if we gave them a 775 gross 500 net bonus. Uh, it'd be 59,000. If we uh pulled that down to 650 and and 419 net or if we did not supplement it at all and didn't touch any general fund money, uh it would be approximately $625 gross payment and $43 um net payment to the employee. And so it would be up to the school board to determine um you know, we do have a lot of uh expenses that we are facing right now. um we

101have looked at it and we can afford uh to do the full 10,000 or we could take that money and use it for other needs and um leave it at the one at the the zero subsidy. Uh so that would really be up to uh the school board. Um can you go to the next page? So um initially we were thinking uh we would identify all active employees as of April and then make the payment on May 31st but with the changing in the timing it will probably be more anyone who is an active employee as of probably May 31st and then we could pay the bonus as of June 15th. That's going to be better timing because we are uh more likely than not going to have to take this to the board of

102supervisors because the total revenue for this is $1.5 million. Um, and um, I'll have to do the math, but I think that's going to be high enough that it'll increase our ordinance. Um, and we would uh, probably have to bring it to you guys for approval on May 28th. Um, and then ask the county for a first and final approval of an ordinance on June 10th, which would be before we would cut the check. Uh, so that's a really tight timing. the um on a budget kind of side of things. Uh the reconvening session uh ended yesterday and so now the governor has 30 days uh to take a look at what happened throughout the the the special session and then I'm hoping you know early May we would have final budget numbers. Yes. Yes.

103Um, so with $97,000 you said come out of the general fund. So I guess my concern, like you said, we have some needs. Now I've always fought for higher pay and benefits for our teachers. Everybody knows that. So I don't want anybody to take this wrong when I say this, but you're talking about a 240 essentially a $240 difference, $243 difference going from zero to 97,000 out of our budget. And to the employee that again, $243. Well, that's about two months worth of insurance increases with what we just had to raise our insurance. And we've done everything we can to try to keep that lower, but unfortunately, we see where we're at. And I know that our um reserves are riding kind of thin, right? So, for me, the difference in $200 versus $600 and

104then trying to keep this health insurance in check, I think we have more important priorities. Um, I don't know what you guys think, but I feel like that I would love to give them the 646 net. However, I feel like if we don't get a hold of some other issues, it's going to hurt them in the long run. But I want everybody to understand that and kind of make that clear for anybody that's listening that we're not I personally am not trying to keep someone from getting a bigger bonus. I wish we could give them a bigger raise because that affects them long term in VRS. But looking at it from a perspective of $200 now or your insurance is going to go up $2,000 next year because of this insurance reserve that we really

105don't have a whole lot of control over obviously with the amount of claims and the cost increased costs in medical care. I think we've done a good job at trying to reduce those costs, but for me personally, I feel like it'd be irresponsible to vote for us to use $97,000 out of our budget when we know that we're hurting in another area pretty bad that will directly infect most of the employees. Madam Chair, I I agree with Mr. Hudson. Um I'd like to know first off, did we include the 907 in our budget that we sent over to I remember this number and I can't remember. We were talking about leaving it, taking it out. Did we leave that in for the This is for fiscal year 25, which is the current year. That is

106not what we took over to the county. So for the county, maybe I'm mixing that up with another we're talking about next year. Okay. It see I've talked about the this is flip-flopped between the current year and future year. And so it's been in both iterations of the budget. Uh but they the final um iteration has this coming out of the current year and not the next year. So, it was in one of the iterations for next year. All right. And don't shoot me for bringing this idea kind of with Mr. Hudson's thought in mind because I know we just went through what we had to set all these rates and all that stuff for, but if we did what Mr. Hudson said, and I I kind of agree. I mean, I, you know, the

107$200, $250, whatever, would be nice to give the extra to the to the teachers, but what if we took half a million and put in our reserves and took the other 400,000 to reduce the rates we have to charge our our our folks. I don't know how much of a difference that would make, but to to help reduce the rates of what we're going to have to charge for insurance this coming year. Or does it just make sense to put all 97? I I would probably recommend um putting the 97 into the reserves. Um so I get it. But if we could reduce that rate, that's that's meaningful to our teachers. That's the only thing I'm kind of bouncing back and forth on. that if we take that 400,000 if we take half and half

108whatever and we put half in in for our reducing these rates where and I can't remember those rates there's 200 of them almost when you go you know employee employee child and all that but my point is if we could knock that down another I don't know 15 or $20 a a month or or whatever again it's not huge but any piece of that that helps look when we get to June 25th, hopefully we're back to whole and everything's fine with our reserves. Not saying that something can't go wrong, but my gosh, if we continue this path of we think we got to hold everything hostage, you know, when we know we're going to be whole at July 1, um I think if we know throw another half of this in there, and I'd like

109to see us throwing half of this at reducing our rates to our staff and to teachers and for insurance rates. And and let me even throw that one step further before y'all kill me with that idea is I would like to see higher earning staff not participate in that. I'm sorry to say that. Y'all can all shoot me. Not participate in that half of that money to reduce the rates to our staff and our teachers and so forth. Um I know I'm getting complicated, but we can do that. You know, look, they can put men on the moon, women on the moon. we can do this. Um, the only thing I wanted to point out is this is onetime money. This is not recurring money. Our premiums are set for recurring say recurring income into

110the health insurance fund. And so you're you're kind of marrying up different types of funding sources. Um, we can look at uh how we could re re look at the premiums, but again looking at onetime money versus recurring money, I get it. But we but we we don't know what one time's going to happen next year. We didn't know what one time was going to happen the year before. I know I'm going to get a ton of push back on this, but I think it's best for our staff and our and our our folks that are barely making it to pay these premiums. Again, Mr. Hudson, I love the idea. I'm just trying to think of a combination of the best ways to help um help our folks, but putting that money in reserves. I

111get I'd love to reduce these rates to our to our uh younger folks uh that are coming into the profession that are single f single parent uh staff members uh whatever the case is that they need the help you know um hey I'm sorry to say it this way but I think you guys can absorb some of that where a lot of our our staff and different folks uh maybe can't, but I that's I'd love to see us do that. Can Can you clarify is this are these funds that would be used this year to go towards the claims that are still or are we talking about putting in reserves for next year? I think that's some confusion there. Yeah. Just to clarify, so as you all know, uh, in terms of our health insurance

112reserve balance, we're we've been keeping track every couple weeks in terms of what the claim bills have come in. U, the latest report was a little better news. uh we're still looking at a negative projected balance by June and we can't you all understand we can't be negative, right? We're gonna have to if if it winds up, you know, being drained, we have to put money in there. We can't just be negative, you know, and thinking we're going to start all over. So, uh but it was down to a negative $156,660 projection. We're we're getting new projection numbers on Tuesday. I know we've seen similar numbers several weeks ago that went up. So it's that it's it's like walk watching the stock market, right? In terms of the up and down. So just for clarifi,

113you know, clarifying for everybody, you know, whatever that number winds up being is going to play into our ability to do to do anything. Um and clarify one thing, uh Miss Peterson, um in terms of the general assembly and the governor's budget. I know the general assembly did their work yesterday. [Music] Um, is is there something that still could happen in terms of the governor's action that would still even put the state money in jeopardy? So, this is not this is still not a done deal, is it? Correct. Just just make that clear for everybody. Every reason we can think of that it won't work, I get. But all I'm If we borrow, if we go negative uh June 1, we've got to get to July 1 and we're back to whole. But we have

114to we have to cover whatever that negative is going to be. So that's where the fun borrow it for a month and we're whole July one. This is one one piece of clarification. Well, that's not how it works. That the the any money you get the year end does not just roll back into operating budget. You that that goes into the whole ordinance in terms of major minor capital. Well, that was going to be my question. So, if we were to put this money over and we had a positive amount at the end of the year in the insurance reserves, does that carry over to next year? Yes. Yes. the health insurance keeps it which in turn would help the rates because yes a portion of the rates being calculated is based off of how

115much money you have in the reserves. Correct. Right. It certainly help you know up for next year's rates when you when you redo that. I'm still worried to be honest with you. I'm still worried about the I mean I think it's good that we're projecting to get to the 4 million for next year but if our claims continue the way they are that's that's not going to be enough. I mean, not trying to be Debbie Downer here. I just want to make sure everybody has the information. Well, and that's the biggest piece of this is I want everybody to understand that, you know, the $200 difference in the bonus could mean a whole lot of impact, more than the $200 impact on your insurance next year if we can get this under control because the

116more we have in the insurance reserve, the more we're going to be able to keep the insurance rates at a static rate instead of elevating to the amount that we had to this year, right? But before we get there, we're going to have to pay whatever the negative is, which hopefully wouldn't go over for a month. Right. Well, can I can can I offer maybe a a consideration? So, the health insurance fund that we had been told to keep that reserve level at 4 million. Um, we're looking to have negative balance by the end of this year. So, if we put the 97,000 into it, we're not going to be at the 4 million, but we'll be positive, right? And and just a reminder, the 97 that is payroll lapse of the current year operating

117budget. It is one-time money. And so, um, I hear what you're saying about re recalculating the premiums, but but maybe what we can do because the four million that we've budgeted to shore it up for next year is not going to occur in July 1. The only thing that's going to occur in July 1 is the transfer of about 2 million that we recommended to put in there. The rest of the money is going to come from payroll premiums from the employee and employer. And so that's going to take all year long. So it may take until June 30th to get to that 4 million. And so my recommendation would be let us move forward in this manner. Let leave the premiums as they are. And then if we hit the 4 million earlier and

118we can return some of that premium back to our employees, let's calculate that and return it back to our employees next year. Well, also that our funding for the marathon once that takes effect later in the year would be put towards insurance reserves. We've already calculated that. Okay. So, that's already that's already in there. Okay. Definitely it's it's an ongoing future savings though too to your point, right? Yeah. I mean, and that's the big thing. I think, you know, a lot of folks were upset with that, but I don't think they understood the big picture of how it's going to save them in the long run. Yeah, I do think you've got a great point there, Mr. Hudson. It's it doesn't help them with VRS. It doesn't help our employees that way. And when it's

11935 12% taxed, I mean, $322,000 of that 907 would go to the government right right off the bat. So, I'd love to be able to give as as big a bonus as possible, but um not subsidizing it and and going with the 625 makes the most sense to me. Yeah. what I mean we don't need an answer to that say um we can I can take your recommendations back um is a majority and continue to work out the numbers and and uh when we get the final governor's budget I can bring back a more firm plan works for me thank Thank you. Thank you. Just glad Jim didn't hit me. I could feel the gasp everywhere. presentation of the special education annual plan. Dr. Beth Harmon. Good afternoon, Madam Chairman, chair not men, um, and

120members of the board. Um, in your documents is the annual presentation of the special education plan for the part B flowth through grant application. The purpose of this document is to provide assurances that our division certifies throughout the grant award period of the 2526 year um that will meet the federal IDEIDA and Virginia regulations governing special education programs for children with disabilities. We are further certifying that the division has current local policies and procedures for the provision of special education and related services which ensure compliance of IDEIDA federal implementing regulations and the Virginia Board of Education's regulations. Additionally, you've been provided documentation regarding our fiscal responsibilities of maintenance of effort, proportionate set aside for parentally placed students and private schools and our projected spending for the IDEIDA part B sections 611 and 619 grant funds.

121Um, you have the comprehensive document and we're going to ask for consent at the next schoolboard meeting. Do you have questions? Thank you. Thank you. Item 2.08, recommended policy changes. Dr. Jamie Sulttus. So, I gave everybody three sets of handouts. One was reviewed with no changes, one was minor changes, and then one was new policies. So, Chuck's trying to help me out. We got a microphone. So, as you guys know, code the majority of policies have to be reviewed every five years. Um so in doing policy audit we found policies that needed to be updated. Additionally, additionally um the BSBA came out with some updates February policy updates. So we were cross referencing what we were doing with changes they were making as well. So this first sheet of review and all the policies are

122in board doc you guys to see and I also have them here. I have them all here if you want to actually see the changes that were made. But but for review with no no changes basically staff reviewed it based off of whose area was responsibility it was. And if there were no changes other than just changing the review date those are these policies. So, without having to show you policies we already have and you already know about, that's that's that list, but I wanted to give it to you. All right. The next list I'd look at are the minor changes. So, these are policies that staff reviewed uh that it ranged from anything from a legal update to uh adding review and revised dates because it still just had like active and so making

123sure that we're keeping up with when it was last reviewed when it was last revised. Uh one of the policies that was up for review is policy 3.16, which is the bullying and harassment policy. uh which we do have some minor changes to but based on lots of questions we've been getting lately I would like permission to present that policy along with the admin rag at the next board meeting to kind of do anformational session with Dr. Hughes on how we actually handle these things if you guys are good with that. So going through these there's nothing really major in here like for example policy 2.10 one zero student representatives to the school board. It just made sure that the language made sure that a student couldn't count towards the quorum. Uh that and that

124they um had to adhere to any of the rules established by you guys while fulfilling their role. Um so these are just mainly minor changes and I wanted to point out a couple more requirements for school bus drivers. Like this is the kind of thing we had to change. How's that? 5.28 28. I'm sorry, but we added the word public to a lot of these because it had Ronup County Schools and we were just trying to get them all formatted the same where it say Ronup County Public Schools, but 5.28 bus drivers have reached the age of 18 by the first day of school instead of on the first day of school. So, I think Mr. Bradshaw helped us with that. Um, the employee extended work plan 5.48. Just wanted to point this one out

125and and you guys that helped work through this, Mr. Bradshaw, you can help me if you want, but updated section G to clarify the medical rate for uh retirees. I need my glasses. Sorry. Participating in EWHIP. So, basically, you guys at an earlier board meeting uh decided to contribute 3,000 instead of 2500 towards the EWHIP for for the retirees. And this just spells it out that retirees participating in EWHIP will receive medical insurance rates equal to that of an active employee during their first year and then the school board will contribute 3,000 towards the RCPS annual group medical insurance benefit for employees while they're participating in years 2 through five. Uh so we made that change. Mr. Bradshaw uh he he made a lot of changes. Uh he made the change here where it says

126personnel policy goals. Originally they said reviewed annually and then he got excited when he saw that that was one that could be reviewed every five years. So he wanted to make sure he changed that policy to to align with that. Um Dr. Hughes in 6.46 the school counseling program just wanted to make sure that this was a policy that still used outdated terminology called it guidance and so we made sure we put counselor instead of guidance u throughout that policy. Uh here's one 7.08 08 was dropouts. So back in the day, even when I was first starting teaching, back in when the stone tablets were here, uh we used to have visiting teachers and now we have social workers. So it's just changing the terminology to the position we actually have. And other than that,

127there really are just nothing major. The two that I wanted to point out were the uh 3.16 bullion and the 3.16 AR. and to have permission to do a presentation at the next board meeting on those policies. Just to clarify one thing, Mr. Bradshaw, sorry, I should already know this. I apologize, but for 5.48, the EWHIP policy where we're saying uh retirees participate in e-hip will receive medical insurance rates equal to that of active employees during their first year. Is that a change or is that something we already do? That's what we already do. I just wanted to clarify that. Okay. Otherwise, two. Okay. Otherwise, there's a budget implication. I just want to make sure we're and I and I was just trying to put enough notes to where it would make sense without having

128to you guys have to read the whole policy. So now for the new and updated ones and I'll go through each one of these. Um and I'm happy to if anybody has any questions on the minor changes I'm happy to make uh go into more detail as well. All right. So the first one policy 3.32 and I will bring this up. It's funny I can't see far with these on. I can't see close with them off. So this is the strike through underlined version and Miss Nukem did a really good job of reading through this policy really thoroughly and just making changes to make it more readable and make make more sense to the everyday person. So basically she included this statement. She said participants and responsible adults involved in schoolboard approved extracurricular activities are

129expected to demonstrate the same level of responsibility and behavior at practice and competitions as is expected in the classroom. The school board further encourages the development and promotion of sportsmanships, sportsmanship, sorry, ethics and integrity in all phases of the educational process and in all segments in the community including administrators, participants, adult supervisors, parents, fans, spirits, spirit groups and supporting booster clubs. I think we've seen even in the most recent VHSL playoffs some behaviors that are outlandish and we just are putting it in here to make sure. And she she made it sound better that that that's not tolerable and it violates policy. You've seen me hollering at the refs at basketball man. Yeah. Oh yeah. She saw you and wanted to create a said school boarding. I got sorry. All right. 3.39 the distribution of

130materials. This is another policy uh that we actually worked on with with pack as well to get the language the way we wanted it. Um, so the biggest change in this one is the policy was rewritten to to match current practices and to provide clarity. It added that for nonprofit community organizations for profit endeavors, private or religious organizations that are approved by the executive director of administration, which is Miss Nukem, for posting in a central location for students to select on a voluntary basis still have to meet the following three criteria. So they basically have to have um hold on a second. They have to give me a second. They have to have the statement that these materials and and the activity described herein are not sponsored or endorsed by the Ron County Public School

131Board because we don't want something that's been approved from a third party. It could look like you're the ones endorsing it because it's voluntary for them to pick it up. Commercial establishment whose primary source of revenue is the sale of intoxicants may not be advertised in school publications nor be eligible for communications to be placed in central location. An approval will not be given for materials that are likely to cause a substantial disruption or interference with school activities. endorse or encourage the use of alcohol, tobacco, electronic cigarettes, nicotine, vapor products, or illegal substances, or obviously obscene or p pornographic or defamatory or endorse or encourage any violation of our student conduct code. So, we just wanted to basically lay out what are the standards that will not be approved by Miss Nukem from those parties.

132Um, the next one is a simple change, but an important change. So, policy 3.41 41 is the teacher removal of students from class. We added in the line that before a student can be removed from class, interventions by the teacher and/or administrators must have been attempted and failed to end the student's disruptive behavior. And that's not saying like if if Mr. Hudson is sorry is disruptive in my class, I can't send him to the office. This is me removing him from my class completely like he's no longer enrolled in my class. So that's that's what that's about. 4.22 is is a u it's just a telephone policy and the original policy was talking about beepers and uh and text message minutes and not you had to pay any minutes that you went over your minutes

133and it was we had to bring that in line with modern world um personnel policy goals and I already talked about this in the other one but basically that fell along with Mr. Bradshaw want it to be in the five-year code requirement so he didn't have to do it every year. um 5.05 credit for experience on the on the um salary scale. I just want to show you guys this one. So, basically, Mr. Bradshaw wanted to make this um policy much more clear on what what you have to do to get experience to be placed on whatever level uh in your job. So he made it very specific um and you guys can read this but basically a maximum of two years of active military service is allowed nonredited partial years of experience maybe acred

134for placement on the salary scale and then the big thing he has down here is the timeline of when they have to turn stuff in to get that verification to be placed on the scale. Mr. Bradshaw, anything else you want to add to that? This is our practice right now. It's what we have been doing all along. just clarified it to make it easier so everybody would understand and and that's what we saw in a lot of these is we were just aligning them to what we were currently doing. All right. Um Mr. Bradshaw, I'm going to throw you on the spot here. So the PTO sick leave guaranteed policy. You guys uh knew that during the budget discussion there was some concern because we weren't sure how much money we we were going to

135have to pay out at the end. So in thinking about that, Mr. Mr. Bradshaw did a really nice job of going back and reflecting on that policy and coming up with a solution that would let us be more certain in future years and you want to tell them how you did it? Yeah, absolutely. And and we mentioned this when we were passing this originally or you all passed it was that we wanted to adjust it as needed. You know, it was going to be fluid and one of the big things that we needed to look at was what the cost was going to be. Well, if we wait until June to actually pay it out, we're right at the end of that fiscal year cycle. So, if we can do it in the middle of

136year, instead of guessing what that cost is going to be, we can do it in January where we know it's a definite cost, it gives us six months basically to either worry about having to supplement that money or personal apps or whatever we need to do to make up for that. So, we feel like moving the date to the January time frame compared to the June time frame makes a lot more sense budgetarily. So, and it allows all our employees to get the money at the same time because, you know, we have some employees that their last day is end of May. Some are then at the end of June. So, it it does a one payout time instead of multiple. So, another this is a brand new that's why the whole policy is underlined.

137Uh a brand new policy that we're we're requesting to put in is leave without pay. So, Mr. Bradshaw, correct me if I'm wrong, but we've had a lot of challenging situations with all kinds of staff, be it Todd's group or be it a teachers that are just choosing to not come to work and take leave without pay. So, some divisions around us had a leave without pay policy as did the VSBA. So, we kind of took those and Mr. Bradshaw kind of made a policy that basically lays out when you can take leave without pay, when you should, and when you shouldn't. Um, I'm just going to be flat honest. We have we we've had some employees who when it's going to be a tough day and they know the assignment's going to be tough

138work, maybe not show up for work because they know it. They just take the leave without pay. Um so the the really the thing is they can take leave without pay is not to exceed two days per year and may be granted by employees immediate supervisor. Requests for more than two days per year must be submitted to Mr. Bradshaw prior for approval. And then obviously if there's extenduating circumstances and things like that, that gives Jim the ability to work with them, but it also makes them have to report it before they're approved and just say, "I'm not coming in tomorrow." Any questions on that one? I know this is exciting. Policy 6.08, research studies. We didn't want poor Ken to have to do this. So the first sentence in this policy used to say the

139superintendent is encouraged to search out and to initiate research into courses of study and other means by which the division might enhance the educational program for the student. Uh in looking at that we didn't really feel like Mr. rally and I didn't really feel like that that was a needed sentence in there because all staff should be doing that and any experimental or innovative program that's not consistent with accreditation standards uh or allowed by the board of education we would have to submit for approval prime to prior to implementing that. So um not that we don't think you would really go out and search for great stuff. We do that anyway. We do that anyway. All right. 6.32 remedial instruction program. Basically, this whole policy was just rewritten for clarity. Uh, Mr. Mr. Riley, do

140you have anything you want to add to that? I mean, basically, you struck it out and rewrote it to make it simpler and easier to understand. That's pretty much it. That's pretty much it in a nutshell. Uh, 6.33. Here's one that we're actually recommending to delete. um in working with the VSBA and Ben the remediation recovery program, all the information that was in that policy was actually in other policies. So there was no use in having another policy. And one of the things the VSBA is doing right now is trying to go through their policy manual and if it's not a required needed policy, looking at deleting it. Um retaking SOS. I think uh we we've run into some challenges here just because the state changes the rules a lot. Um am I right, Mr.

141Williams? Yes, sir. And this this general assembly session, they're changing the rules some more. Right. So So at the end of the day, we rewrote the rewrote this policy to be more general so that we didn't have to come back and present you with a new policy every time they decided on a whim they were going to change something. All right. Um tutoring. So, when I first saw this, I was like, I can't believe we're recommending to delete this. But then I actually read the policy. And the policy for this was basically saying kids can't get credit for just Mr. Nicely or whoever tutoring them. Well, that's already articulated in other policies like how to earn how you can award a credit. So, when I first read it, I was thinking I was going to

142read, you know, you can't get paid for tutoring your own kids or something like that, but that's not what it was. So, which is another policy. We already have that, right? But that's not what this is. That's not what that one is, right? Um the next few are are simple changes, but just school service providers, if they're going to delete personal information, if if this says unless a student is under the age of 18, a parent can consent to the maintenance of it. But if the student's over 18, they have to consent to the maintenance of their of their information. Um school attendance areas and student transfers. just in looking at the changes in the code. Uh obviously if if there was an attempted homicide on a child in a school, we would allow that

143kid to go to a different school within the division. It it was just not listed. um student transportation on the bus. Miss Nukem really worked hard on this policy to eliminate redundancies in the policy and to um just basically clarify behavior and what can happen if you're not behaving on a school bus. So you can see she had all these these markouts and then just tried to make it more clear. Uh nothing different than what our actual practice is. Just trying to make the policy more readable. Um 7.20 the admission of non-public students for part-time enrollment. Ron County Schools does not allow part-time enrollment. However, with a change in the code, there has to be an exception. If a homeschool student is a member in the division of JOTC, which we don't have right now,

144but in case we did, we would have to allow that that student to be part-time enrolled. um public complaints and accommodations. At the advice of our attorney, he wanted to remove the statement that you see there that any parent, guardian or legal guardian of a pup attending Ronic County Public School has agreed by the action of the school board may within 30 days after such action petition the local circuit court to review uh the information. Um our attorney basically said that that's not needed in there. 8.19. I'm gonna let Jessica talk about uh this is her recording of meetings. She actually changed it. The policy title used to be audio recording of meetings, but now we know there's all kinds of different ways people video and record me well video meetings. Um so Jess, do

145you just kind of want to go over? There there are only two areas in the law in which recordings of meetings are allowed and that's um an IEP meeting or a discipline meeting or eligibility meeting for special education. So, um, we if you can scroll down a little bit. Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry. That's all right. Um, so what we did was added not only in meetings but in conversations because so many people are having just day-to-day conversations and recording conversations and it really creates a lack of trust and respect and professionalism. So, we've changed that to meetings and conversations in general. Um, and if a parent does want to record an allowable meeting, then they let us know in advance and we will record that also in a bow in the students file. Thank you.

146Um, back to uh communical infectious diseases. Charlene and and Tammy both updated that one to the latest guidelines and they added the statement that coaches, officials, and appropriate healthc care providers must follow the National Federation of State High School Association or state local guidelines on the time uh time until returning to competition. So, as a former wrestling coach, I can talk about this one. Lots of time kids have skin infections and ringorm whatever and you have to wait until the the time that you've been to see the doctor that it gets treated before you're allowed to participate. Um if the local guidelines are different from the national federation guidelines then we would follow the local guidelines but most of them are the same. Like for example, the um like the wrestling, the VHSL guidelines for

147returning for whatever are the exact same as the National Federation of High School. They kind of align with each other. Um staff leaves and absences. So Jim, you want to talk about this one? You moved when and how RCPS pays holiday pay to the top instead of at the end. That was just rearranging the policy. Correct. Just rearranging. Um and you change payment for the holidays will occur to the first and last day work from the first and the last day employed. Correct. Just another um thing. And then you added the cross reference to leave without pay. Correct. All right. I know this is not exa exactly uh stimulating. I'm sorry. I would say we could read this and if we have questions that's fine, too. We could I don't that's fine, too. I'm not

148sure why we're reading every page. I was just trying to help you. No, no. And I love Look, you've done a great job, but but I I was just saying for anybody who might not have read it. Your phonics skills are wonderful. My phonic skills are wonderful. Oh, keep going. Whatever. I mean, if y'all want to hear if y'all want to hear. So, basically on 6.28 AR, we added other um licensed people who are allowed to certify that a student can be put on homebound. for example, uh a physician's assistant, an advanced practice registered nurse. We also added that homebound services are temporary and require proper medical certification. And we also, this is in state code, the teacher is the still the one responsible for grading the assignments and a homebound thing. The homebound teacher

149is basically a facilitator who provides information and provides support as they could. So clarified that. Uh the next one, Mr. Williams updated the uh definition of gifted to match the latest definition of of gifted. Correct. Um yeah. No, no, no. You stay seated. Stay seated. They know that you'll be even worse than me. I'd love to talk about it. No, you're good. Summer school. We um updated the high school information in the summer school policy to match what we actually do with high school summer school technology use guidelines. We basically just put in there rules that we enforce anyway that you shouldn't um students users should not attempt to bypass any form of security and that also um if staff wants to use a digital resource that it has to go through an approval process

150and I can remember when I was here the first time and you know technology was really booming it was kind of the wild wild west of hey that's awesome I want to use that in my classroom hey that's awesome I want to use that in my classroom and poor Jeff and them were trying to support 9,000 different platforms. Um, all right. And then use of email. Just letting you guys know that you might get a fishing email. I saw one on uh Miss Clemen's phone the other day at the at the general advisory committee and I was like, don't click that one. Because I had gotten the same email and I knew if we both got it that it was probably spam and it was one of Jeff's fishing attacks about healthcare or something. I

151can't remember. H just tricky. H just training. Just training. I didn't know how. Um, another change is student transcripts. So, this was a change for Virginia Foye and uh Sean and I dealt with this at the beginning of the year. We are not allowed to to charge for student transcripts because that is considered a student record which falls under FOYA. So, we had to remove uh removal of fee from student transcripts. And then lastly, because this the last one I'm going to talk about, we aligned the volunteer policy with the substitute policy. You have to be 18 years old to volunteer in a middle or an elementary school and you have to be 21 years old to volunteer at a high school. So that those were all aligned and and so you, you know, you

152couldn't be 18 years old volunteering at high school. Any other questions? in Al the one thing that I see that we might want to check on and uh we can just adjust it if it's an issue or not. But uh 7.20 which talks about um gerot I don't suspect I sus or I should say say it this way I suspect that our NNDC program probably does not uh equate to this just because that's something we pay for versus the military paying for. We'll we'll double check that just make sure and I had double checked that already with Jason. So I think Thank you. He had everything in here. He did. You want anything else? Any questions? I'm going be glad one day when I'm not the policy guy. All right. If there's nothing else, um

153Well, I guess my recommend I have to make a recommendation that these get moved to consent. Okay. For the next meeting. Sorry, Edie would appreciate that. That would be my recommendation. Okay. Thank you. All right. If there's nothing else, we'll move to close. Mr. Lyndon, will you read us into closed? Yes, Madam Chair. I move that Toronto County School Board convene in close session for the following. to discuss the investigation of a student matter present to the scholastic record exemption at 22-3711A2 of the code of Virginia and for consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members pertaining to actual or probable litigation and consultation with legal counsel regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such council pursuant to 2.2-3711A 7 of the code of Virginia. Second, Madame Clerk. Mr. Green.

154Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Mr. Hudson. Yes, ma'am. Miss. Yes, ma'am. [Music]