Stafford School Board 2 10 2026

001Good. Everybody's here. Um, can you approve the agenda? >> Second. >> Okay. All in favor? >> Do we have no one electronically? >> We um No, Josh is not here electronically, is he? No. >> Okay. Um, can we get an update on Bill 1491, Amanda? Go. >> Oh, yes, ma'am. >> Yes. I know I know you have a packed agenda tonight. So, I appreciate you making some time to speak about House Bill 1491. >> So, as we know, uh, transmission line sighting is an ongoing issue in Stafford County in general with implications for school safety, facility planning, and of course, community trust. The Stafford County Board of Supervisors passed resolution R25-303 in December of 2025 opposing transmission lines that would negatively impact communities and schools. Just a little bit of background. So, House Bill 1491

002as introduced patron by delegate Singh in the House of Delegates for the 2026 General Assembly. It introduces provisions for electric utilities regarding construction of certain electrical transmission lines as well as sighting requirements. So the two main con components in the bill as it was introduced were first to require the state corporation commission the SEC in order to approve construction lines of 138 kilovolts or more to determine that the corridor where these would be placed would avoid adverse effects on health and safety of people and ensure protection of the environment. The second component of this bill as introduced would prohibit construction of a line 138 kilos or more within 150 ft of school residential property and there were a host of other types of properties. But these were the the two most gerine I think to

003our discussion unless there were no other feasible alternatives um identified in existence or would conflict with designated open spaces lane use areas as specified in a local comprehensive plan. As you know, the general assembly moves quickly. So today, as heard in the House Labor and Commerce Subcommittee, a substitute bill, and this bill passed around three o'clock today, um 17 to four. So this will now go to the House floor for hearing. There were many substantive changes that were introduced in the substitute bill. This substitute bill, the first was a narrowed applicability. So it will apply to new overhead lines of 500 kilovolts or more constructed by phase 2 utilities of which dominion energy is one. A reduced setback. So this substitute bill reduces the prohibitive setback from schools from 500 ft to 150 ft. There

004was a shift in language from prohibition to discretion requiring the SEC to prioritize routes farther than 150 ft that does not prohibit approval of projects too close to schools or residential property etc. And there was an elimination of the local land use protections. This substitute bill removes provisions that would have prevented approval of lines in conflict with local comprehensive plans. And finally, there was removal of the health, safety, and environmental considerations. that language was um removed in the substitute bill. So that is the update that I have for you. >> Well, this is it completely not what what was originally. So how how does everybody feel about this? >> No. No. >> Can I ask a question? >> Yes. >> Um this says there was a change from 500 ft to 150 ft. But in

005the first page >> it says um 150 ft. >> It's full res. >> Oh, that is a typo. I'm so sorry, Missy. >> So, it should say >> should say 500 because the original the original was to try to move them away from schools, but Dominion's been involved in the negotiations now. So, we've got a substantive change. So, we have three choices. We can ask um our we can draft a letter that that supports the original language. Um we can just say no. Um or we can um just sign on to the county's letter. But um I think we're going to send this to legislative and let and so if you'd get your I I mean this is unacceptable. >> What is what is the timing for when does legislative need? >> The 17th. >>

006Next week is time >> to get to get back to us and then get back to the >> 17th is crossover. So this will go to the house floor and then we will have crossover that starts on Tuesday. Right. But doesn't it have to come back to us as a board? >> So, do we want to just draft language that we supported? >> No. No. I mean, I I don't have a problem sending it to legislative. I'm trying to get the timing so that Yeah. You know, our our whatever we send in is >> going to be heard and considered because if it's after they vote or >> so then maybe we do we want to consider what the county letter that when >> I do know the board of supervisors directed the county administrator

007to draft a letter. um in support of this bill is my understanding as it was >> when I talked to him this week. He he was directed to draft it. He had not drafted it yet. Something he was going to work on. And so I just said it's good to know and in case our board might want to be a part of that or I was going to bring that up tonight. So >> the bill is originally originally. >> Okay. And I I I have no problem with drafting a letter of this is originally written and then giving that to the legislative to discuss and >> I still just don't want anything to make it like if it comes to legislative after that. I don't want us to miss an opportunity to be heard. That's

008my I just don't know what what's a dead a drop dead >> that we should have something >> ideally before crossover. >> Okay. legislative >> which unfortunately is the exact date of >> well twothirds of the legislative is here so we can take a few minutes I don't think there's any going to be any opposition to opposing this the only issue is you know what are we going to say in addition to you know we don't like it >> well do we first want to clarify that where the six members who are here are falling with respect to this >> I say as originally written >> originally same well I'd like the original, but I'm not sure that we're going to have that much of an option since it's going in a different form. I

009mean, 17 to four is a pretty hefty vote. It's not like it was. >> So, I assume that was a compromise. >> So, we need to find out who the 17 are, get their phone numbers, and start making calls. >> No, no, because now it's going to go to what? >> Significantly more. I I would make I would prefer as a school board member to focus on the impact on the schools. >> Yes. >> And rather than say I like what was original because the difference on the second one, it looks like the difference is the setback from the schools. So that's something that I would like to you know address unless there's some reason we need to go beyond the the schools. Personally, I have other but as a school board member I want

010to I want to limit it. So rather than say I like what it was before, well what it was before may not be a nine option and if they compromised enough to get a 17 to four, but I I'm not a politician, but if they compromise enough, there's a pretty good, you know, reason to think they're not going to go back to where they were. So if we can focus on what is critical to us as a school system then I think we can make an impact and just say you know they can change what they want on other things but this is what you know our concern is. So is our our primary concern is the setback from the >> I don't like the shift from prohibition to discretion either because that's a pretty

011broad term that means that they're going to prioritize routes further than 15 but prohibit it. >> And what does that say to prioritize routes farther? Too close. Well, what's too close? Is that the less than 150? Is that >> I have the verbage regarding distance. I just need to get some glasses. >> Well, I'm sure it's gobble again. >> Give me one second. >> I'm sure it all right. Here we go. >> What exactly did they say there? >> I know it's where we are. Here we are. Okay. Okay. It says um for this is the substitute language regarding distance for new overhead transmission lines of 500 kilovolts or more constructed by a phase 2 utility as that term is defined in sub subdivision A1 of 56-51 five excuse me 585.1. The commission shall prioritize

012approving corridors or routes for construction pursuant to the subsection for which the center of such corridor or route is located further than 150 ft away from any dwelling, house, public or private school building, daycare or place of worship building unless no other practicable alternative exists. >> So they could even do it less than 100. >> Yeah, they could. So I think that we have to oppose. >> Well, what do we what what is our magic number that we think is quote too close? I mean, they had a 500 and they had 150. I mean, do is 500 >> is that that could possibly be too close? I don't know. >> Is there anyone in the room that can help us with that question? >> I mean, I know we we looked at the five different

013locations where it crosses our property. Um, you know, the the easement itself, I think, is 300 >> 300 feet wide is the So, depending on where they place it on that on that easement obviously has has some impact on us. I don't know that we have I don't recall the specific distances from our schools in terms of the >> not from our schools. I know on all of our sites it's crossing over >> field. Yes. You know a critical part of our property but not necessarily actually over the school. >> I would suggest that the 150 was so that they could center it in their 300T and run the ement right up next to >> so that makes sense. Is the set back to the center line or is the set back to the edge

014of the easement? >> Uh I in terms of the language it's I think the setback is I'm assuming it's to the uh to the school building itself but obviously if they center the line and the easement then it would be >> 150T back at least. >> I mean I'm okay with 500 but my question would be is 500 enough? I don't think that there's I don't know if there's specific data that can tell us that answer. I mean there are indications that um there are increased health risks associated with proximity to the contention lines but I don't know if there's a magic number. I don't know if we can come up with a magic number especially in the time we've got for this. Well, but the people who put together the first a delegate saying

015who put forward the first >> bill draft can we trust or is it to say that he had a reason or she had a reason for 500 ft >> and that's from the schools itself. So that's not even I mean that's from the building >> the facil. Well, I don't know what schools is. >> Is school a site or a school the building? Is could it be anywhere, you know, a um a dugout or playground or a building? It's not defined. I I I don't want to spend a lot more time on this because So, do we want to draft a letter number one focus on the impact on our schools and number two request the the initial language of of delegate Singh of the 500 ft or do we want to from schools and

016and >> I mean it's late notice we do have to come up with >> I guess we have to presume there was a basis and you all okay with the first one then we could say a minimum >> you no no closer than 500 ft. Now, we should just say not say schools from a school um >> facility >> improvement a school improvement. So, that could be any structure including >> you know a fieldhouse or a shed would it not Jason? Yeah. Playground. >> Yes. >> We say a school improvement property would be a little bit more. >> Wow. >> A shed right out there. So, does it does that sound like a reasonable accommodation? >> Cliff. >> So, so you'll get a draft letter to us and then hope we'll hopefully >> Well, I

017I'd say, you know, if it's in line with that, I would, you know, be comfortable with with the chair signing the letter. If you want to send it to us to review, you can, but I'm okay with just getting it out. >> Focus on schools 500 ft from a school improvement. I will have that for you tomorrow. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. >> Okay. And I and I think we should put in there that we we >> urge that they be prohibited from approving >> without their discretion >> that does you know the next one the shift from prohibition to discretion. So it's 500 ft and that there be no >> discretion. You notice she read shell. >> Discretion is a big word. Are there any other school districts that have addressed this? >> This

018was made this afternoon. I don't >> I know I didn't. >> There are other school districts that are likely impacted by their position. It's unclear. >> Okay. I didn't know if they're >> I did contact a couple Carolin they were doing anything they didn't know at that time. They were going to talk to the board about it. >> So the third thing is to remove the discretionary language. >> Yes. >> Got it. >> Thank you. Can we ask the other schools to jump on if they want? >> Um, >> I initially asked them that if you were interested, would they be interested? They said they haven't talked about >> I'd rather stand alone instead. >> I I think stand alone besides then if there's more letters and more complaints, if there's just one letter with

019multiple signitories, then it looks like just one group. >> But the superintendent can share your letter with >> Yes. He can share the letter for their information if he wants to. >> Okay. >> BDOE accredit. >> Any other questions before we move on? >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um, BDOE accreditation and school performance. This is very high level view. And if you would like to delve deeper into the data, we will arrange one-on-one or one-on- two meetings with staff so that you can look more closely at the data. >> Amy Sea is our director of research, evaluation, strategic improvement, and so also an expert on all things accountability uh and accreditation. And so she's going to give us an overview of our of the the system and our results. >> Yes, ma'am. >> All right.

020Scroll down. >> It's me, not Amy. I'm causing all kinds of problems. >> Down on the keyboard, too. We'll get us there. Right. I will get us there. >> Okay. All right. So, there was a new accreditation system that was put into place for the ratings that uh we received uh within the past month or so. Um the new accreditation system has two components. There is a compliance component that uh rates schools based on how well they meet the requirements of the standard of accreditation and that results in an accreditation status of either fully accredited, conditionally accredited or accreditation denied. And then there is another component that is uh based on student outcomes. when I'm talking about student outcomes that is uh student test scores, chronic absenteeism, graduation rates. Uh that system is called the

021school performance and support framework and that is where schools um get a summitive rating of either distinguished on track, offtrack or needs intensive support. That system is also the system that determines whether a school is federally identified. And what uh that means is there's three different federal identifications. Um there's a comprehensive support and improvement school. Targeted support and improvement and additional targeted support and improvement. Comprehensive support and improvement schools are the lowest 5% of title one schools in the state. Um, and also any high school that has a federal graduation index less than 67%. Targeted support and improvement schools are schools that have low performing student groups and it can be title one or non-title one. And uh, ATSI schools are schools that have been TSI for two years. Um, and they can be title

022one or not in title one schools. And that would be they would be identified for the same student group. Uh, we have schools identified for targeted support and improvement this year. Uh which we will get to a little bit uh in this presentation, but we did have eight elementary schools identified. Uh the support framework um you can see the distribution um of the different components on the screen. Elementary school and middle school have mastery, growth, and readiness. The high school has mastery, readiness, and graduation. the elementary schools. Uh you can see in the lefth hand column the uh tests the so tests and the VA tests that go into the mastery index and their uh associated weights. In the mastery index is also uh English uh learner progress uh that's based on the WEDA access

023for L test and making progress in English language proficiency from year to year. uh growth is in reading and math and readiness for elementary schools is chronic absenteeism. >> Middle schools um you can see that this is very similar to the elementary schools except the weights are a little bit different and readiness also uh has a component for uh advanced coursework in the middle school and this year it only includes mathematics courses. The high schools have a mastery index that is uh the the same components are within it as the other two levels but different weights. There is a federal graduation index that is the number of students who graduate within four years with a standard or advanced diploma. The readiness indicator consists of the 3E framework which uh allotss points for employment enlistment and

024enrollment. Chronic absenteeism is in that uh component and a six-year graduation rate that includes advanced studies standard advanced diplomas, standard diplomas and applied studies diplomas. And this is just an example of how they come up with the school's overall number. They basically take the rate that is for each of those components, multiply it by a weight to get the points for that particular uh piece of the framework and then you add up all the points and uh you get a total. And so this particular example is 88.07 points for the framework score. And if you look at this uh what's on the screen that will put them that particular example in the ontrack range. Um you can see that there is the four levels and you can see the points that are associated with each

025of those levels. Um one important note is that if a school is identified as TSI or ATSI uh whatever their rating was it goes down one because they earned that rating. So for instance in Stafford we did have schools that uh earned points in the 80 to 89 point range. They were on track, but they were identified for TSI and so their rating went down to offtrack. All right, so I want to go through the results. Um, all of our uh schools were accredited, which means that we met the requirements and the standards of accreditation. Um and you can see um on the slide the different components that were looked at in terms of compliance um promotion and retention curriculum that we're teaching the so staffing requirements uh facility and safety etc. Uh we did

026as I had mentioned have eight schools that were identified as targeted support and improvement. they are listed on the uh screen and you can see the student group for which that school was identified for. Most of our schools were identified for students with disabilities, but we did have um two schools that were identified for English learners. I provided this slide just to kind of give you a sense of where the students with disabilities uh student groups in Stafford fell within the distribution of schools uh across the state and the red bars are the uh the ranges where our schools fell. So this is the student performance uh support framework score for students with disabilities. Each school in Virginia gets a score for that student group. That's the distribution. And those red bars are where our

027schools fell. And this is the same bar for um English learners. And um you can see we had one school fall um in and the two red bars. One school fell in this bar and one fell in the other. Um, overall we had nine elementary schools that were designated as on track and I've listed the point values that went along with those designations. Uh, Margaret Brent, you can see, had the highest point value for the elementary schools with 89.5 points, so they were a half a point away from distinguished. We had six elementary schools that were offtrack. These schools do have scores that put them in the ontrack designation, but because they were TSI, they were designated as offtrack. Um, we had two elementary schools that uh were designated as needs intensive support. Uh, they

028were in the offtrack range. Their point values were actually uh somewhat close to 80, but they were in the offtrack range. And because they were TSI, they went to needs intensive support. Seven of our eight middle schools were designated as on track and we had one middle school that was off track. Our highest uh performing middle school was um Rodney Thompson. Our high schools uh four out of our five high schools were um rated as distinguished and Stafford High School was rated on track. Uh you can see that they were only.7 points away from having that distinguished level. So, our high schools paired very well in the new system. I put this in here just so you could get um a little sense of how our division the distribution of our schools across the uh

029the summitive ratings um how our schools fared compared to the state. So, that information is in there for uh you to look at. And I wanted to point out a couple things that really stood out uh as we looked at the data. We have several schools that are top ranking schools in the state. If you look at Margaret Brent Hartwood and Stafford Elementary, um you can see in that far right column that um Margaret Brent was in the 81st percentile in the state, which means they performed better than 81% of the elementary schools in the state. Hartwood was at the 69th percentile and Stafford Elementary was at the 68th. Rodney Thompson was ranked at the 88th percentile and Mountain View was ranked at the 75th percentile. So, those are just excellent. Um, another area where

030we did really well uh was English learner progress and that is um students making gains on their English language proficiency yeartoyear. You can see Margaret Brent was in the 98th percentile in the state. Hartwood, Stafford Elementary, Kate Waller Barrett, all in the 90 uh you know 90 percentiles and up. And um on the right hand side of the screen, you could also see Park Ridge, Rock Hill, Grafton, and um Anthony Burns all all did excellent. Um region three highlights, um we had many of our schools that uh were ranked in the top five in the region. Um overall uh SB uh SF scores we had um Margaret Brent uh Hartwood Stafford Elementary were ranked second, third and fourth. Uh we had schools that were came in the top five for growth in reading. We had

031Conway Elementary was ranked fifth in uh mathematics growth. Um on the right hand side you can uh read through the other um accolades that we received in the um the region and that bottom right hand bullet talks about the um our schools all f all five of those schools listed were in the top five for English learner progress in the region. Um middle schools um we had Rodney Thompson was the top performing middle school in the region. Uh we had um several of our middle schools in the top five for growth in mathematics, growth in reading. Uh we had some of our schools were in the top five for uh mastery, English, reading, science, and again that English learner progress. So we did we're doing very we did very well in the region. Um our

032high schools again, Mountain View was ranked third in the region. Um, Colonial Forge was fourth in the region for science mastery and second for math mastery. Uh, North Stafford was fourth in the region for math. So, we we're doing very well. And again, when you look on the right hand side when you see Mountain View that uh Mountain View ranked third overall for 3 readiness scores, which is really um which is which is really uh shows their our dedication to the to the 3 and college career uh readiness that Mountain View and Colonial Forge were second and third uh in the enrollment category and Mountain View was third in the employment category. Um just want to emphasize that the results that we're seeing are the results of the hard work of all of our staff.

033Um these results really were not surprising to us. they've really reflected what we already knew in terms of our strengths and where we needed to work um and what we needed to improve upon. We already have um any IDE areas that are identified, we've already uh done needs assessment and put them into our SIP. So, we're um we're aligned with really what we saw with the results. Um one important thing that Dr. Smith uh has said to the principles which I I think is important to state is that state accountability results are a benchmark and not an end point and we're committed to using this data to drive uh precise and effective action ensuring every student has the opportunity to accept um I do want to uh just let you know that there is probably

034going to be some flux with this system over the next year or two. Um Jark did a uh study. I think you all gave some feedback into that study um and made some recommendations. There is a house bill uh 643 that um was meant to address several of the recommendations that were in the JARK study plus some additional ones. And so I think we are going to see some changes to the system. Um I think we're going to see some this year. I think we'll see some the following there and maybe even the last slide just has some links for you if you want to do um further reading and um certainly I am open to questions now and also just available to meet any of you at any time if you wanted to go

035through. >> I appreciate how efficiently you had through that. Um who would like to start? >> I have a question. How um are the parents um just given the bottom line, how's the information communicated to them? >> They um in terms of what we've communicated to them. Um there is on the BDOE website there's a school quality profile that um we have links to on our website for them to to get the information and there's reports for every school. >> But we don't push the information. and we just have it available on the website that if they go to the website they can see this but we don't have anything that pushes to the parent they take a look at >> correct we didn't notify this year >> okay yeah because that's what I was

036trying to get to because sometimes just kind of weeding through all of the all of the extra information so how do they get the v the bottom line that hey our school or your your child's school is here or whatever the case may be so that's what I was trying to allude to >> I do know that some of our schools have talked about it in their newsletter. They've celebrated different different aspects of it depending on the school has put out different things in terms of that to let them know here's where we ranked in this >> um in terms of some of those. But um you know we also this also came out in December and so we also want to make sure that you had awareness of it and where you know where

037we were in terms of that in ter getting it to you first before putting it out more broadly. >> Yeah. And I think it's also hard sometimes um you know we have some schools that were close to a 90 and then were identified as TSI or were the top was the top school in the region and I don't know like it's hard >> it's hard to digest that for parents to understand that without really having the conversation. So >> it's hard to see off track and then see but best in this and best in this and best in this and you're like wait a second right >> and that's some of the things we anticipate will change next year. So about dropping automatically dropping for a TSI school is one of the key things they're

038talking about changing for next year. So that would not happen next year. >> It makes no sense. I mean if you're incentive to do testing as schools improve and then when the school improves and you still get dinged because you used to be it it just doesn't make sense from the logical. >> One of the aspects of the bill was to address some of the terminology to make it really digestible and understandable and representing a continuum rather than these distinct categories. >> Anybody else have any questions? Where can I look to see how the rate and is uh calculated? Because I'm I'm looking on the slide before nine and it shows one over 100%. So is there a range? >> So um the reason why that is over 100% in that example is that the

039mastery index is a weighted index where if you get an advanced pass you get 1.25 over one. So it's weighted heavier than one. And so um and a probation score is weighted a one. A failing score this past year was weighted like 75. So if you have a score over a 100, that means you had quite a few schools or quite a few students who scored um in the advanced pass range to to bump you over 100%. >> Yeah, that that makes sense. But where can I go to research that? I'm just I'm curious. Some of these are higher, some are lower. And I I I I get the formula is the percentage of the rate, but I wanted to know is there somewhere that defines how the rate is calculated because it must be

040different for you know obviously different for for a academic subject than from chronic absenteeism or you know course work. Is there something? >> We do not have any that I'm aware of published that goes through the calculations, but that is something I could have a conversation with you on to to go through the >> I just like to understand it better because >> it's all important. I mean, it's >> that's how you get your total points is taking the percentage of the weight times the rate. So, >> you go to the slide. >> It's easier for me to read it. Yeah, that's the >> So, this is one slide maybe we can that we tried to put it together around. >> Yeah, I I I'm not looking for an answer now, but if you can

041maybe >> I think she understand where the rate is coming from. >> How do they calculate >> how do how do they calculate the rate? What are the criteria and you know, how do you get to a certain percentage? I mean you must have pluses and minuses and you know so anyway if that's something you could you know make available to us >> your sort of answer to Miss Healey. So um would that indicate that if I'm a high school that has um more programs for high achieving students that then I may end up with higher scores. Right? So, if I have an IB program, um, and now Brook Point does not have an IB program, would that mean that I'm going to end up with this particular school scoring higher than other schools because

042it's going to attract more of those high-flying students? >> So, um, one of the things, and I don't know if Dr. Smith or Amanda can answer this uh particular question, but when kids are in particular programs, do they stay attached to their home school or do they attach >> IB is going to be transfer? >> Okay. So then the answer to your question is yes. >> Yeah. I mean it used to be at least that CGS kids well now kids move. They used to not move but if yeah you're at that particular school. So um >> and likewise the you know some of the programs that if they have um you know some of the programs where they can earn credentiing or they may end up getting more points in the three >> bucket and

043so we we have also talked about putting together comparable schools based on demographics programs and those types of things because some of our schools are just very different in terms of comparing them. >> Yeah. And I I mean I just look at your top schools and I know what the socioeconomics are of those particular schools. And so I'm not particularly thinking to myself, oh they must have the very best best teachers and the very best programs. I think to myself, well, they may have students who are coming from much more supportive backgrounds than the students at some of these other schools. And so it's a little concerning to me when we make such a big deal about particular schools that it really undermines some of our other schools and it results in people wanting to

044transfer their kids and all that kind of stuff. >> I also noticed one of those ones with the the higher level schools had um Anthony Burns which is a title school and has a very high percentage of you know free reviews. So, >> yeah, it's not always. >> No, but I mean that was I I just they went by very quickly, but I noticed that Anthony Burns was in there, which is right. >> We had we had several, you know, Drew was in in there as well. Um I do want to say that one of the things that um they're looking at in changing and was in the the JARK recommendation was um not having the same cut off or thresholds for the elementary, the middle and the high because um just the way they

045earn points are so different and so you know just having different definitions or different thresholds for each of the levels. I just wanted since we were talking about high school, I wanted to add one point of clarification that the ATI program at UMW, those students are attached to their base schools in terms of the the testing. So, they're not transfers to >> and many of them aren't Stafford students. >> Exactly. Regional. You're absolutely right. >> Any other questions? If anybody is interested in um delving deeper into the data reach out to Smith and I we can >> I'm just interested in looking at the criteria. Once I look at the criteria and understand that, I may want to dive into it. >> And the criteria is likely to be digested first. >> Happy to share

046we have with you. >> I mean, to me, I look at some of the numbers and it's pretty good information, but I think it's also hard for parents to understand what that means relative to their individual student. So, I'm not sure how how that translates. >> All right, moving right along. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Um the budget the big events. >> Oh yeah. Oops. >> So Mr. Fulmer's going to lead us through um this tonight from the the budget side and I'm I'm going to chime in on a couple of areas, but he's going to lead us through talking through. We're just going to drill down specifically uh specifically around some things around compensation, benefits, staffing standards. So, he's got the list up here, but the most you >> No, no, I'm sorry. No,

047I'm taking up way more amount of space than than allocated. I just want to point out uh I know many of you uh this was a handout that we had on our budget town hall. So, it was right after um Dr. Smith's presentation. And usually we hand these out on the night of the presentation, but just because of the virtual uh they were um handed out the next night. We have a nice bigger um gilly size version uh that you can have tonight. It's a little bit bigger than probably the handout version. Um and then obviously the slides from tonight. There's a couple other handouts to just some of the support that'll tie out as far as some of the position changes and the new schools. Uh the new school stuff is not new, but

048we'll be going through them uh tonight as well. So, we have um a lot on the agenda uh to try to get through and whatever we can't get through. Um we'll share out information later this week, whether it's um some of the questions. I know we've received some questions since last week. We've tried to bake as many of those into this presentation as we could, but we can't get to all of them. So, uh we are tracking all those and we'll share them all out uh to everybody later this week. Um, and I did want to point out, uh, I I put the budget link to the budget book in here, just as a FYI. Um, and this was this was posted immediately after the the budget was proposed. Um, I also shared this out

049with you last Thursday, just to kind of draw your attention to it. Uh, so this has a lot of detail. Um, a lot of work goes into this from from the budget team, so much appreciation to them. Uh, but, uh, has a lot of comparisons to prior year in there. uh some of the same stuff that you'll see that's that'll be linked in here. It has our other funds. We're not going to have time to get to our other funds tonight. I'm going to share those out and we'll try to touch on those at the next work session. Those are usually pretty straightforward other than our health benefits fund which we do talk about tonight. So, I'm not going to go through every page of the budget book. It's several hundred pages. >> Appreciate that.

050>> Just wanted to point that out that that link is in there and that's out on our website. >> You probably know it intimately. >> Yeah. All right. So starting uh just with projected revenue um overall the state revenue went up 21.6 million. We're going to next slide is going to jump into a little bit of what that breakdown is. Uh the county transfer we're assuming an $18.6 million increase and that is the new schools and it's also the local share of our um our salary increases that are proposed. And so we try to align our salary increases with what we believe the county is trying to propose uh in the county administrator's budget. Um he has not presented yet though. So but we are trying to align there. So we did receive state money

051that goes towards the 2% raise. Uh and then to get us from the 2% to the 3.75% uh that additional local match is also included in county transfer. So the exactly the new schools and what our local match is to do the full 3.75%. Um also had a little bit of change in our our federal and other local revenue. Actually don't have a slide for that because it's um not a lot of change there. We are assuming some Medicaid increase. So if you remember last year we're surprised there late in June uh with additional Medicaid money. Uh we only assumed basically half of that in FY27. So we think we're going to get that in 206. U we'll talk about that at the midyear update as well. Uh but we believe um that we're also

052going to get in 27. It's a little bit more u maybe questionable there. So we didn't want to assume the full 2.2 million that we saw that increase. So we um factored in about a million dollars. Overall projected revenue increase of 41.1 million assuming a fully funded local county transfer. So, when we look at um Governor Yncan's proposed budget, um my my first kind of caveat is we expect this to change. You know, there's a lot of talk at the state level. Um it is not uncommon for it to change, especially when we have an outgoing governor and then a new governor coming in. Uh so, there's been a lot of discussion about potential raises. Right now, there's a lot of discussion going on across not just education funding, but all uh state level funding.

053So, as we move forward, we'll get a a little bit clearer picture about where um education funding is going to lay, but overall in the state budget, our sales tax um projected increase is $1 million and our our state calcul um our kind of general basic aid from state funds was 12.1 compensation supplement. So, I mentioned that we're getting the state share of a 2%. So for the SOQ's that equates to $4 million. Um and that is not there's actually 3.96 million. So we round it up to four four million. So that is exactly um comes even though it's a nice round number pull straight from our capital tool. And then what we've seen the last two years but but another big jump this year is uh when we've seen our big increases in the

054state funding. Uh my theory is it's it it's a lot easier to you know put more funding into education if we say it's at for at risk funding. And so we've seen our at risk number jump up and it jumped up another 4.5 million. So there are state fund funds and then there are a local match required for that. Um and and you we we go back a couple years ago was a few million few million few million dollars. Um and that was easy. We had things in our budget already that qualified to meet those at risk um to qualify for at risk funding. Um and as we've made big jumps last year and this year. So when I say last year, the 26 budget and 27 budget, we looked at it at 26, we

055weren't concerned with making that match. As we get into 27, we have to pay a lot more attention to it, which is why you see that we've called out some things to meet um that at risk funding. >> What is the total at risk if this is the additional what what is our current? >> Yep, we have it. Do you know it off hand, Carter? It's >> I'm giving you a minute. >> The state portion is it's a little over 20 million, but it might be 22. And then there's a local match as well. >> 20.5. Is that without this 4.5? >> That's including the 4. >> Okay. So, it was 16. >> 16 roughly. >> Okay. >> And then also there's an increase in our local match too which we're accounting for. So, we

056did put some of the definitions on here of what qualifies for at risk. But one of the questions we actually receive from board members because it is a is a big number in our budget uh and something that we're calling out more so than we've had to in the past is, you know, how does how does a state calculate out risk? What does that formula look like? So, uh there's two big bullets and this is uh copied and paste directly from our calc tool. So there is a um the last tab in our cow tool and it's a big document. It kind of has a descriptions and definitions tab and so the program description is the first big bullet you read there and then the funding formula is that second bullet. The reason we put

057it all on there uh you know there was a question of how is it calculated? There's a lot a lot that goes into it. It's not as easy as just saying oh for every six students that are at risk we get you know $500. So it is is a very detailed formula. But we don't go back and recalculate that. The state provides us what that calcul is and provides that funding formula to us. Um and then we use that total basic aid, total sales tax and then and total compensation supplement and then in this case our total at risk form or total calculation and that's what we have to make sure we we meet on the local level. So, um, kind of what I'm going to do is if we take our kind of summary

058tab, I'm working working our way down to touch the the big chunks of our budget. >> Can I just So, I I see that that English language learners is part of the population that they're using to calculate at risk. What else? I mean, uh, is there some other thing they're using? It does look at um our kind of free and reduced looking at our economically disadvantaged students. >> Okay. >> Which is that's that three-year ISP percentage that's referenced there. >> Okay. >> And then when you see in the program description, it does talk about students who are education at risk prevention intervention remediation activities. So it goes in a little bit more description on some of those sample activities. We also looked at what other school divisions have done across the state and how they've

059spent some of that risk money. >> Yeah. I don't have a concern so much about how it's being spent as much as how do we know that it stays that number, right? So, so if our English language learning population went down, that number would go down. If our >> um uh free and reduced lunch number went down, that number would go down. Is that correct? I mean, I just just >> I mean, yeah. >> Do students move in and out of these categories? Because hypothetically an English language learner would get to a point where they would be >> Yes, ma'am. >> Yes. >> And so they they update these every bienium which is why we see a bigger jump at the you know the first year of a bienium and so they update all of

060their their data that goes into like kind of the calc tool. Uh same time they update our LCI that local composite index. So we see a bigger swing when they kind of update all those numbers, but they take they'll, you know, adjust it at the end of this year. They're going to look at our March 31st ADM or calculate our ADM based on that March 31 data that we send them as well. >> And when we have the uh I forget the acronym for it, but the community schools that >> eligibility, how do how do we calculate free reduce for that? >> Uh yeah, so great question. And this goes into we have to this factors in when we're calculating for title schools for C uh but um it takes it looks at that C

061so there's a C percentage they look at state qualified so state identified so if they're receiving state benefits uh for um being economically disadvantaged they take our total percentage of them for that for that school community and then we actually there's a multiplier on top of that because they know that that's not capturing everybody so it's like 1.6 multiplier. >> Is this recurring? This is my last question, but is this recurring money or is this reviewed every year? >> No, it's recurring. They just updated and that's why they've increased the funding that's gone into it over the last few years. >> It's recurring, but it fluctuates >> if our numbers go down, >> right? >> And there's additional there's a bill this year that talks about additional atrisisk funding and how to codify this a

062little bit more. So, there's some bills there to talk through that. So it's updated with the bianium. Is that when it it's updated? >> We say our most significant updates at the start of every benium. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um jumping into like our first section of the expenditures budget uh where we talk about our adjustments to base. So um as Dr. Smith mentioned in his presentation, the first thing all of our departments um do is they're going to look it's it really is a zerobased budget. They're starting from scratch. So, they're taking things from last year. If they've identified that we no longer need those items, there's a reduction and then they're building back up from there based on on their needs. So, that's where you see our departmental reductions on the

063left. Um also, um adjustments to base budget on the right. You'll see grant positions moving to the operating. This was similar to last year. Um we have some title funds that eventually these positions need to move off and every year we're a little hesitant to know what our title funding is going to look like going forward. Uh we're receiving some positive news that that's at least you know level funding uh in most instances. So, as we get a little bit farther, there might be uh some flexibility there where if we needed to uh we could leave some of these on title, uh you know, funded by title. Uh but ultimately, you know, something that, you know, several of the board members had mentioned in the past is um we kind of want to move from

064having grant funding fund positions because it gets us into um kind of rocky, you know, waters at times whenever those potential grants um could expire. Uh so we don't want to get into that business too often. So even if we can get to a point where we think that some of these can stay in the operating some can stay in the grants um or some can say in the grants maybe we try to move some of them into the operating fund we can you know do that gradually. What you uh will see our biggest number there which we talked a lot about are the elementary school interventionists that were funded with with all-in fundings funding. We had one FTE at each of our um elementary schools. Uh there were a couple because some of that

065funding started to run out so we moved a couple of those over into the operating fund last year. Um there is an asterk here. I want to be uh completely transparent. So it's 16.5 that does include the two for the new schools. So that's technically not in the grants fund now moving. Those are new positions but that they were not included in our new school funding because they were not part of our staffing standards at that time. Uh and the thought was when the grant expired they would go away. Uh but with wanting to retain those in the operating fund, we included them here as rolling in with all of the other positions that are moving off out of the grants fund. And >> am I correct? We don't have elementary school interventionists in our

066staffing standards. >> We do not correct. >> Just just so we have chosen to put this in rather than to meet some of the staffing standards we had. We're not doing those staffing standards, right? We we I say we you all made that decision. Yes. Okay. And I would say when we built those staffing standards um interventionist we didn't have those at the time and I think since we've had them when and some of the things we've heard is how beneficial they've been at the elementary school level and the results that they've seen. So assuming that we move these in these would become part of the staffing standards that it would be you know 1.0 know for >> but it was not discussed with the board just just just >> it wasn't our >> retreat

067and that's why number one >> yeah was part of the the retreat in terms of feedback we got it from board members in terms of what should be included so >> did something come off staffing standards that was deemed less effective >> pull anything no in fact we you know most of our staff I shouldn't say most there are a lot of our staffing standards that are not even fully funded yet you know doc part of Dr. Chase's point. So, we're choosing to implement this over some of the other staffing plans. >> So, these weren't included in your new school cost positions. Hypothetically, they that seems like who would be the logical place for >> those two that are for the new schools, the new elementary school, >> new positions to open the school, >>

068but we used our staffing standard kind of what we have in terms to do that. we did not include because those because they were grant funded in our other elementary schools and we couldn't assure that they were going to be in there. So that was our thinking. >> This is a little confusing to me. You I mean I get your footnote, but there there's no way those two new positions were ever grant funded. >> Well, that's why I wanted to clarify. >> Okay. >> And did you have a question about health benefits? >> Oh, not till we get to health benefit here. >> Yeah. >> No. And yeah, I've got a couple slides later on where we'll talk in a little bit more detail. >> They've got the 8100 >> is that are you >>

069that's an increase from previous years, >> but but that is for 100% of the new positions for the positions moving >> over. Yes. Every vacancy in every new position has $8,100 added to it for health insurance. That's an an average, you know, based on Anthem's projected rates for the >> bas. So, so you have that 8,100 is added to every single position >> for these 23 >> for every for every employee in Stafford County. No. >> So, every employee is based on what they actually have today. So, if they're on our family plan, we calculate what the employer share is of that. So, if they're an active employee, for every vacancy and new position, they have $8,100 attached to them. >> So, but but only 61% of them will actually be on our insurance. Yes,

070but the actual employer cost is more than 81. So 81 is an is an average based on how many based on the employees that participate in the plan. >> Okay. >> Just for curiosity, what is that? What is that that cost? >> It it it's going to vary based on what plan they're taking. >> The average it's we know it's more than 8,100. >> Uh I don't know that off the top the average across all question until we get to the health benefits. >> So I guess it's the range. What's the lowest the individual essentially the individual coverage and like the current plan cost about that like it we're also proposing to change the health rate so this could change but like for um and then the full family is like $20,000 um so another

071uh this is kind of building on that same 2.2 2 that we just saw as far as department reductions. We just broke that down a little bit differently. So you can see instead of by department a little bit of by some of our groups um or kind of object codes what we refer to them as as but those expenditure groups. So um for instance as uh for instance tuition paid for dual enrollment. So if you remember we cut some of that last year but we weren't 100% sure on what all was going to be covered at the state. Turns out they are covering uh everything. So we reduce that uh additional amount. We have you know some rental and some insurance. So these are reductions. Now that doesn't mean that in our rental lines overall

072it went down. But these were specific areas and specific departments that we could reduce based on actuals and that that review and then we'll have increases in these departments and and other areas. And then if you're interested, we can give you some more exact um examples of that. I know Dr. Smith mentioned some in his presentation as as he was uh speaking through it, but we can provide additional ones if if you're interested, but we tried to break them down to a little bit more detail. But these are reductions. So those were savings. We reduced that base budget and then we started adding that. >> We're not turning employees down for tuition assistance if they meet our criteria. Correct. This is just maybe we had more than we needed in the budget. I just want

073to make sure we're not >> cutting what we're going to use. >> No, that was actually um specifically for >> the student. >> It was for the um >> right there. >> Oh, yeah. I was looking back here. >> I'm trying to listen to this pitch in my ear. >> It was the um >> the dual enrollment. >> No, no, that's No, he's talking She's talking about the tuition assistance out of your department. It's It's not the um >> loan repayment. >> It's the loan repayment. Yeah. So looking at actuals for our loan repayment. So we do a new teacher student loan repayment that started three or four or five years ago. >> Four years ago, >> but that's under tuition assistance. >> It's falls in the same grouping of tuition assistance or loan repayment

074because it's loan tuition repayment. >> It's the same it's the same budget category, but it is separated out. But >> all right. Uh looking at um a little bit bigger numbers here. So I mentioned at the retreat uh that we were seeing a reduction in our VRS rates. Uh so that was a a positive technically that was included in the governor's budget. At that time it we knew the VRS rate was or VRS was proposing a reduction. Uh the governor did include that have have no inclination that that's not going to go through and and be formally adopted here in a few months. Uh so what that is is on our expenditure side we see a $6.5 million reduction in our benefits because now the employer does not have to pay that in. I want

075to clarify this does not change our benefits for our employees for anyone that's listening that has no impact on the employee rate uh but the employer portion of the RS did go down by six and a half million for us overall. Can I ask that 6 and a half million is that calculated based on number of employees or is that calculated? >> So for every employee we we pay a percentage and in the past it's just roughly 16% of everybody's compensation we have to pay directly into VRS and that they they calculate that every bienium and then that went down and was roughly 14%. So, so what I'm a little concerned about is we're taking >> money that we aren't paying for every single employee and we're putting it all into a pile for 61%

076of our employees and 39% of our employees get no benefit from this reduction in the BRS rate. Right? So, if I were to take this six and a half million and I I when I did my back of the envelope calculation, I thought it was six million. So, if I take that six million and I take uh I take 39% of it, I get I think two and a half million or something. And then if I take 39% of the employees, I could give every one of those employees $1,200. So, I'm basically taking $1,200 and not giving it to employees who don't take our health insurance in order to give it to all the employees who do take our health insurance. So I just curious why we make that decision. >> Yeah. So I just

077looked at or we looked at compensation and benefits as a whole and knew that um right off the bat we were going to have significant savings there while we also knew we were facing a significant increase in our employer portion of the health benefits. And um honestly it was timely that we were able to recognize those savings on the VRS benefit side so that we could have the ability to turn that around and increase our contributions to the health benefits fun. >> I mean we're we're increasing health the premiums for our employees by a very very small amount. I mean, when you think about our costs went up what, 28% last year, and we sat in this room and said, well, this is an aberration and we anticipate it's only going to go up 4%

078next year, but now it's gone up 20% this year. So, my my issue is we have 39% of our employees who are getting no benefit from all of this money that's getting dumped into health care for 61% of our employees. And so I just it's just something that I'm a little concerned about in terms of, you know, we talked about equity and fairness and all of that and and so we're saying to many of our employees, nope, we're going to keep your rates really low, but it does come at a cost to other employees. >> And it's not just the other employees. I mean, hypothetically, that $6.5 million savings could be applied to anything. it could be applied to the additional costs so we wouldn't have as much of an ask um you know for

079this year. So my concern to follow up with Dr. Chase is we are now going into year three where we have millions and millions of dollars of a shortfall in the health benefits plan. I mean last year we put in how many million >> at the end of the year? Well I mean just over the budget what >> um I think it was six or seven million. >> Okay. six or seven million. This year we're looking at >> 10 million. Is that >> this current year we're going to put in, you know, tonight it's on the agenda for many many millions that we're putting in which was not budgeted. And I'm presuming that this this um 8 million is not budgeted not officially budgeted in terms of you know being in part of the program.

080It's just it's is looking at it as quote, you know, extra money or it's not even a savings. It's just a cost that we're not incurring. So, three years in a row, many many millions of dollars shortage, but yet we're looking at, you know, a few dollars a month. So, I I I think we we really need to look at this. And Miss Fingerhold used to bring that can down to the podium. >> And yeah, I mean kicking the can down the road. This is year three. We're looking at putting $8 million in that >> that may or may not be enough. I mean, because this is operating on hope. We don't we believe that it's going to stabilize, but there's no indication that any of these healthcare costs are going to do that. but

081how we're identifying it as available money. If this money were not available, would we be looking at this or not? Or would we be be sitting here a year from now and saying, "How are we going to come up with, you know, these many millions of dollars?" So, I I I share the concern >> as well as and I' I've said many many times when we have this, the employees that don't take have our health insurance are actually saving us significant amount of money, but they get, you know, no benefit in return. So I share that concern. >> I think there's more information coming on this too. So we'll have a further conversation. >> Uh so when we look at our um staffing for growth and SOQ um this is a this is another a

082positive I would I would say is normally we come and we we've added six or 700 students and we're also trying to figure out how do we staff for all of those additional students. Uh so fortunately this year as as also shared at the retreat we were seeing uh projecting forward we had Mr. Whites updated uh enrollment projections for next year uh and Mr. Brunette and HR worked on calculating what would um what does that equate to in our teacher allocations our counselors uh for next year and so actually for general education uh teachers we can actually see a a reduction there. Now those are ones that we're uh predominantly currently holding already. We've we've talked about that. Um so we're not looking this isn't require any riffs or we're not reducing our current workforce.

083Uh but overall you can see between the teachers counselor the assistant principles also daily building substitutes we see a reduction there. Uh the one uh general area uh that we still see an an increase in is our um pair professionals at the elementary school level. And that is tied to uh it's um a little bit of kind of the funny school math of even sometimes the your enrollment can be shifting down but the way they break out in our classes um at the elementary school level still require a pair professional. The number of sections at certain schools can be increasing. Uh so the way we do our pair of professional allocations would require that we still add five paras overall that's relatively inexpensive. Uh and so but um I do want to point out that

084we still are uh you know last year we added a considerable amount of ESOL teachers in the budget. We held back a lot of those because we didn't quite hit the entire number but we are still growing. So we still need a 1.5 there when we take that and assuming a projection for next year. Uh we did put in there um on the left a percentage of our student population. So you see English language learners from last year to this year. That percentage increased and that's not just tied to our overall enrollment going down. I believe it was um about 5550 total English um English language learners that increased this year. Um and then our students with disabilities is still increasing even though our total student enrollment is going down. I believe that was about

085150 150 students. So it says students with disabilities percent of student population last year or I'm sorry two years ago was 14% and then it went up four point 4%. >> Yeah. So a 5% it's a roughly about 150 students. >> Is this IEPs and 504s or just IEPs? That is just >> it's just that we're adding 16 spat teachers and 29 pair professionals to special education alone. It just seems high very half a percentage increase in numbers. Is this related to >> So I want to I first I want to clarify that that was last year to this year the half a percent that's 150 and then there still is a projection going forward for next year that we're but I can add >> Are you thinking it's going to be another half a

086percent or what do you >> do you recall with the >> for special ed growth? >> Yeah. So I'm I'm trying to see like we have the 2425 we have the 2526. Do we have a projection number for the 26 27? >> Sure. So when we develop our projections for special education population, what we do is look at uh two major factors. One is who are the students that we have right now um whether they're at the early childhood centers uh or already in our schools who are going to be in our schools next year and in particular this year with redistricting which school are they going to be at next year either because of redistricting or promotion uh across grades. We look at those actual students as a starting place. We then add a

087percentage buffer u particularly in elementary school to recognize the number of new identifications that we're going to face. That's the elementary unsurprisingly is where most new uh identifications of students with special needs occurs. Um and so we put a buffer in there. Um I can pull up the projections. It was not a huge uh percentage increase uh from uh last year to this year though it was some some of it comes down to the distribution of how those students um you know just like not all stu not all students are the same not all teachers are the same um and not all uh students with disabilities have the same needs. Uh so uh one of the things we've seen over the last two years is in addition to growth in the students with disabilities population

088generally, we've also seen a shift in the amount of service time that is required for the students who have disabilities. Students with a higher service time need uh tend to shift us over into the staffing where we need uh level two teachers with a smaller case load. >> Would these teachers paras qualify for um being paid for with at risk funds? It's theoretically I guess the amounts above SQ and above like what we're already spending what we already there's also another bucket of money that's like for sped. So be the amount above >> above SQ above the sped if there's additional money then potentially yes. >> One of the challenges that we run into regularly in this space uh is that uh there there are multiple things that factor into uh your special education staffing

089requirements and the state funding. So the state funding staffing requirements don't line up with the case load maximums that are established elsewhere in state regulation. So, this is another place of unfounded mandate uh where the state will say, "We'll give you uh money for the equivalent of this, but oh, by the way, over here we're going to require you to do more. Go figure it out." School divisions. >> I mean, I'm just I I mean, I know that that at at least back in the day, our staffing for sped was um was more than what's required by the state. Mhm. >> And so I mean I'm just curious, you know, how we're deciding what we're using that at risk money for. Is that the right thing to use it for? And just we added a

090lot of sped paras and sped teachers last year and it just seems like we're adding a whole lot more this year. I I will say you're right in terms of the state for example level one students um based on their service levels we can have a 20 the state is at 24 to1 on the case load um right now we're going to talk about that you're you're the staffing standard is 20 to1 and one of the things is we're seeing is just the real struggle for us to get out of get through compliance but then also get to the instructional side we talk about specialized instruction is is actually a mandate from the state that we have to start uh hear this up in in a year and so how do we get to the

091instructional tie and actually co-eing even at 20 to1 it's been very difficult and so that's and but that's where we are but it is a state requirement to be 24 to1 for level one >> okay this heading says current staffing standard is that current for this year or for next year on the proposal because you're talking about a you know an increase so what is what is those numbers are they for are current as of the current fiscal year or is it projected for next year? Current staffing standards and SOQ schoolbased >> so >> I believe it's current for this year. There's only been a couple of changes which I'm going to talk through in just a second. There's one additional one that I want to make sure call your attention around special education but

092um but no so that would be this year and next year because the only changes I'm proposing it it would include it though. So yes, >> Mr. Bernard just said we we add a buffer for you know we're projecting more or we've been experienced more and I thought you said we're going to go up again next year. So if this is for current is is there going to be an increase >> the staffing standards apply to next year's enrollment projection? So it's applying our current staffing standard to the projected enrollment including projected membership for special education. >> Right. But there's no projection up there. That's that's what's a little confusing to me. I mean I you you've got 24 25 26 but what we're budgeting for is 2627 correct. So there must be >> projection.

093>> You must have some projection if that's based if it's based on that. >> Yeah. >> I could let's go a couple more minutes and then um take a quick break and get dinner and then finish up. Maybe if we can update that slide for us at some time in, you know, to to come forward so we can actually look at >> the projection for next year and the >> projected um amounts. >> Give you the projected numbers. Okay. >> So, talk through a couple staffing standards. Um most of these I I talked through um the last time we were together. So, here you do see some some recommended changes to staffing standards. Um the deans and SSOs were previously previous staffing standards from 2022 that you adopted but have not been funded. And so

094those uh I am recommending there and you see the cost there. So for one at each one of our middle schools um also looking at high school you'll see um the the recommended changes there and the the way that we get there. So the first two lines actually go together. It's an administrative assistant adjustment of six um total. that does equate actually it's a little bit you'll see that we actually have some savings overall there um when you equate that to a 0.5 teacher which is the assistant athletic director and so that is a for the most part budget neutral but it is a little bit of savings there and then the adjustment there that I spoke with you about the uh virtual learning we're seeing about efficiencies with virtual learning and distance learning we

095could uh my suggestion was to um swap six teachers for 12 pair professionals that can support that does not require those teachers to be the teacher of record and so uh we'll have that endorsement and so you see the overall net savings there um overall in terms of those recommended changes >> I still have a question I I submitted my questions obviously but I haven't seen any answers yet but um the when it comes to the virtual learning are you talking for egeneuity and virtual Virginia or >> Yes ma'am both >> they're both together yes >> ma'am and then are we offering a uh a virtual learning time every period of the day or are they like we offer ver you know at this high school we offer virtual learning in your second and fourth

096block x day and your first and your third block y day like how is that done? >> Every school's a little bit different but but most high schools have it for most blocks just depending on how their schedule works out. Um and some have it multiple periods within a block. when I've seen some schedules where you've had multiple teachers assigned to a virtual section with different numbers of students say they're in x 1x right um in >> there more than 15 students in that block >> no not necessarily and that's one of the things we've identified as an efficiency that why yes ma'am so that's we discovered >> concern is that there's electives that can't happen but if you can offer less than 15 students to do a virtual opportunity I mean I know the

097inefficiencies that happened when Evan took it and you know his teacher of record was at Colonial Forge and he sat in a business class in a um cosmetology class but he was losing couldn't take tests in cosmetology because the internet wasn't working. He could only Yeah. So, but I just I'm I just would like to see that virtual learning. I I don't mind it, but can we tighten that up to where we have the proper number of students so that we can have opportunities for >> other students on the same page. That's what we've seen too and that's what we saw it and we identified the efficiency because we recognized that. So, we're on the same page. Absolutely. >> Just to speak on the virtual Virginia, I'm in both and virtual Virginia. So, at North

098Stafford, we have like a entire designated room for virtual Virginia and it's uh >> Ingenuity in there, too. >> No, they're two separate rooms that they're right next to each other. I think they just put like a divider wall. >> Okay. >> But, uh the teacher is different for Ingenuity and Virtual Virginia. So, virtual Virginia is uh taught by our focus teacher and our CGS teacher >> and Ingenuity is taught by a previous chem teacher. So, he's there. Um, but virtual Virginia there's blocks for almost every single time I take it 1x and then uh engine I take four Y >> and those are also every day and then my virtual Virginia class has like four people in it >> but I know some blocks have more or less but it it never exceeds over

099like seven >> and then NG duty is a little bit more because that's more of like the base level learning okay and then virtual Virginia is like most people take AP classes there >> through there. Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that perspective. Followup question. Would you expect there to be a difference in your learning by replacing the teacher with a parah? >> Um, I personally like always having a nice teacher. I've taken like highle classes my entire career. So, having those teachers that know what they're doing really does help. And doing it through virtual Virginia. Like I take AP bio through virtual Virginia. And I would say it's it's not too hard, but definitely like my friends who are taking like calculus like AP calculus or another high advanced math, they need an

100actual teacher. So virtual is like the where for a parat teacher. I would say my ingenuity teacher, he's slightly disabled. Like he can't move his arm. He had a stroke and everything. So he can't really get up and assist that much. So I would say having an actual teacher for virtual Virginia classes would be better. and an ingenuity slightly cut the budget, I guess you could say. >> And I think we're finding that when you in some of those classes, you'll have kids taking multiple courses, right? It's not all the same course and you might have a teacher that's endorsed in pick pick a subject, right? And so in terms of that, so being able to support those students and all those likely they're not going to be endorsed to support those in terms of

101a from an instructional side. >> Yes. Um but >> so the expectation in trading a teacher for to Paris is that there's not a um a need that right we would have training that was that would we who would train up a pair professional to be able to support the the needs in terms of B Virginia and Egeneuity they do have the instructor there that's a part of that course that supports those classes um so yeah it was just an efficiency that we identified it >> all right let's go get lunch or dinner and whatever it is to take a quick break. Um, be back at 6:25 going to be less than 500. We also have two elementary schools that are greater than a thousand. And so when you look at that, every every elementary

102school in the past has gotten two um two cler 10-month clerical, as you see here, that's in the middle. We'll have two that will drop below 500. Um and then we will have two that go above a thousand. So really just moving that that staffing standard support our uh our schools with the larger student population but still keeping that at the elementary level. >> And what are those numbers? I'm sorry. >> I was going to say what are we doing for those schools elementary schools that need quote intensive support. What's the plan in the budget for those those two schools? Um, so in terms of the the schools that need intensive support, we've worked with them on their uh their grant applications for additional funds. We are also looking at those schools in terms of

103any any staffing exceptions that may be helpful um as they look at that as we look at their staffing and where they are for next year in terms of any if there's flexibility we can provide any differentiated staffing. >> Sorry, you're going to help them get grants. >> They received a 45,000. Well, it's actually on going to be on your agenda this evening. your your consent for their school improvement grants. So, they got they the state says about $45,000 for each of those one of of those schools. Yes. >> Okay. >> Um so, that's the elementary uh clerical change. There's one more that I wanted to call to your attention. Uh we've been working on elementary level one teachers. Again, looking at the v the the sizes of our of our student population. So, this

104gets down to case load since we were able to to put this together and I want to call this to your attention. Your current staffing standard that you adopted in 2022 was 15 to1 at the elementary level for level one teachers. That has never been funded. Uh as I shared a little bit earlier, we are at 20 to1 and typically we've done uh a minimum of 3.0 posi positions at the elementary level. Looking at next year, especially with redistricting, uh we have some schools with some some very small um number of level one students. And so, and when I say very small, I'm saying in the 20s. So let's just use 24 as a number. And so if you have a minimum of three, those teachers have an average of eight on their case load.

105And so looking at that and as a way that we can get closer to your adopted staffing standard of 15 to1, uh we can get to 17 to1 uh if we do an an average of 2.5 minimum FTE per school um to to be able to make that staffing standard change in order to get again closer to your 15 to1. That was the intent there to see about how we can make that work. Um the the rationale honestly with the because we've talked with principles and with schools around this what for the 3.0 is because they have six grades and you kind of schedule them out. But when you do only have I'll just say 24 students um you know it really puts our our ratio pretty low. And so that was a a piece

106that we had worked on that we think will help. It will also help us get closer to co-eing and the instructional side. I I don't recall seeing not not just while you're here but just since we set those staffing standards an evaluation of how it's working since we haven't gotten to that point before we you know keep targeting on that number you know I'd like to see how it's going with what we have and is that you know a practical number >> sure >> you to even have I mean soal yeah evaluation >> I I've already written down we need um a review of the staffing standards and an evaluation. >> Thank you. >> So for clarity, Miss speaking about all the staffing standards or this one in particular >> just a general all of

107them at some point. >> Okay. >> Was trying to because we have provided updates on the implementation staffing standards and there's a good number that of course have not been funded. Um and so part of the reason that there hasn't been a >> but it's not it's not just how much have we gotten is it is it having the outcome outcome that we expected. I think there's two questions, but that's for another day. >> New schools. >> Yep. Um, not going to spend a ton of time on this. This is not new information. Seen it a few times or presented it a few times. Just pointing out that the last time we presented this prior to Dr. Smith's presentation obviously was that um we were assuming the higher VRS rate. Since then, VRS reduced it.

108So, we took that 2% reduced it saved um a little under 200,000 about 160,000. So, our our salaries and benefits number went down. on the overall number went down a little bit. All right. So, um, anybody interested in talking about health insurance, you want to skip over. All right, >> we can skip. >> All right. Um, so >> it's a starting discussion. This is we're going to have to address this after we finish the budget as well. >> Yeah. Um, and and we started discussing a little bit in FAB C, right? Because this started coming up during our FAB C meeting last week, I think. Um, so, uh, looking forward to continuing this. Um, so I want to want to point out uh this is I think actually you might have added this last column

109here uh at the request of the FAB C's. Um, so looking at that proposed budget. Um, so I'm going to stand up for a minute and kind of walk so I can can point. Uh, so everything from from FY25 back are based on actual. So the dark blue are the employer contributions. So what is the school division contributing into our health benefits fund? The light blue is what the employee contributes. Um, and then the red is you'll have some interest income in there in some of the other years, but you see that big large um the the what we contributed last year above. So, we did those additional fund transfers. That's where you see it show up in the red. So, last year our actual expenditures still exceeded what the total amount we put in,

110but we had fund balance in there. We knew at that time that that was uh what was going to occur. Uh so, you can see we were pretty much in line. uh we were budgeting pretty aggressively in in a lot of these years because we had a large reserve in our in our fund balance. Um however, over these last couple of years, we've started to deplete that reserve. Um you can see our FY26 projection. We'll talk about this in the midyear update. We still have um a little a pretty sizable gap there. And so we are going to propose some additional fund transfers into there. That's where you'll see that red line jump up and come up to that projection. What we're showing in FY27 is we're trying to meet that projected increase um without

111a fund transfer. So, we don't want to come back every year and try to make sure we have savings identified in our operating fund to contribute back into our health benefits fund. So, we've increased our employer contribution and the employee contribution. It's hard to tell there, but it did go up uh roughly on there. It was the five or seven%, but it was about 700,000. >> That 8 million, the 6.5 plus the 1 Yes. So, it's going to be that's really this gap that you're going to kind of see here, >> right? So, so you said we've increased it, but we've increased it by putting 8 million >> in unanticipated. >> So, we're putting in half of the employer increase. A chunk of that is coming from that 6.5 million. >> It's all of the

1126.5 plus it's coming plus it's another 1.5 on top of that. So the employer is technically paying it but it's really coming out of everybody's >> right it's where we're putting but that's going to increase >> our basis >> so are we expecting to have to put in that 8 million additional every year >> I would say that's a re expected to be a recurring cost until we unless we see a start seeing a decline in health insurance right so but we're not expecting that every year going forward this, you know, 10 million that we're putting in because at 6 and a half, one and a half, we also there was an additional 2 million identified in here on top of those reinvested savings to get us up to an additional $10 million >> in

113contributions. Um that is playing catch-up for last year and also providing an increase um going forward. But we're not we do not suspect um expect that we're going to have to provide another eight or$10 million unless we have some horrendous years again. But we believe that we're seeing it leveling off some. We're not we didn't see another 30% increase. The reason we have a 28% increase overall in our health insurance from budget to budget is we didn't budget enough in FY26. So that 10 million is catching us up for the shortfall in 26 that you're that will come to you as an additional transfer that you kind of see there that we're already falling behind. um and then projecting an additional increase for next year. >> But do we expect to have to put that

114the 8 million extra? And I'm calling it extra because it really is savings that hypothetically could be used anywhere to meet our needs. That 8 million that is projected to go in here for for 2627 is that going to become part of the base expectation for the employer to put in? >> Yes. Unless we see trends change in health. >> Yeah. Because it's quite a jump in the employer share. The dark blue line between 26 and 27. >> Well, not after we add the money from tonight. >> No, it includes the money from tonight. >> It does. >> It's all in there. Yeah. >> The 26 projection that the money we're >> the 26 projection. So, the black line with is our true projection, but what we're contributing is not included in there yet. That

115red line will jump up to that black. It's going to >> so it's >> but the but the 27 the employer share is the projected. >> Yes. >> Right. But if we have a shortfall then there has to be some red >> there's going to be red added to that and we're going to be in the same boat next year. So I mean I I guess one question I have is is one Stafford um across the street the single insurance folks are paying almost 40% more than what our folks are paying. >> Yeah. And then if you look at the family plan right they're playing less. So it varies overall on the employeeonly plan. I think maybe employee plus child or employee and spouse were still a little bit below them, but really the employee

116only is the only one we're below them. The rest of them, they're actually below us. >> Right. I would just add there's like a benefit to keeping our individual plans like really low because we're benefiting the employee only and we're not having to pay like the additional family expense or like family plans are really expensive for us but it's more beneficial if our like cheaper for us if the employees have >> I'm just you know we're increasing it by 5 to 7% but we are assuming last year and this year very large percentage increases and I I I don't know how sustainable that is. It doesn't feel particularly We had this discussion last year where was like, well, could we ask the employees to pay a little bit more? And I'm asking that question again

117this year. >> Yeah. What is the percent increase in the employer share between FY26 and FY27? >> Employee share. >> Employer employer share. >> Could you get us that? Not today if I at some point. >> And then what are we proposing for next year? >> Yeah. >> Right. But if you add in what we're going to approve tonight gets approved, then it's not going to be as much of a difference. I would like to look at the budgeted amounts >> as well budgeted and the actual because when we're putting in $10 million, you know, to catch up that it's a difference because that 10 million has to come from somewhere. So I know the next slide doesn't tell the whole picture because we don't know what 26 and 27 are yet. So I left

118those off of here, but I wanted to give a historical at least 25 going back. So you can see original budget and then what our actual expenditures were. So we already know in FY25. So that was last year where we first had to start contributing additional funds in there. So that's that first year we saw the big jump. Um prior to that we had pretty moderate um kind of increases. Uh and going back to 21, we actually, you know, our expenditures were less uh than the um original budget. I put original budget in there specifically because we've had to contribute additional funds in there. So that revised budget would have would have accounted for the six or $7 million that we put in last year. So I wanted a true what did we budget in

119the actual adopted budget versus what our actual expenditure were? >> That's helpful. Thank you for putting that in. >> Yeah. Um sure. And >> yes, ma'am. Is there a concern that if we increase the health insurance cost for the employees and then we do end up having them utilize it less that we have prematurely increased it on them? Is there a concern for that at all or probably? Um, no. I mean, I think the bigger concern is is always you're weighing, you know, the cost of like u retention and right recruitment. Absolutely. And so I think it's a it's a great recruitment effort for us now or factor with with recruitment. >> Yeah. >> Uh obviously there's always an adverse reaction either way, right? You increase rates, less people are going to be on the

120plan, you have them lower, more people come onto the plan depending on which plans you have. Kind of as Miss Fitch mentioned, you have your employeeonly plans a little bit less. are going to drive maybe some of the families that hey I'll be on as an employee my family can stay on with my spouse that is on a federal government plan >> right >> is there a reason that we since we share a health plan with the county is there a reason that we've set our rates differently at some point in time >> um no other than we've looked at what the cost would be at least for us to try to match them and it was a considerable investment that we had to make and because their rates are lower for the employee that

121means the employer is contributing more. So I know Dr. Chase mentioned the employee only is less but the rest of them are above. So and that's where the bigger costs are. So we would actually have to I forget what it was when we looked at it a few years ago that if we try to match their rates it was several million dollars additional that we had to contribute to the health benefits. But does it make it better for better for us to encourage them to do the single family the single person plan because we are going to be paying out less overall and the rest of their family stay on their federal or you know whatever other plan they have. >> Yes. Yeah. On average. Yes. >> Even though we don't charge as much as

122the county, we're also spending less because we're encouraging them to keep their family fund. >> Yeah. And overall because um you know there's a lot that goes into this but overall we have more employees. So, um, which is why we're self, you know, self-funded. It makes sense and we're only going to pay more if we were not self-unded because somebody else is then going to pay to have that insurance to make sure they're not paying the seven or eight million. So, you're typically only going to overpay if we were trying to have it fully insured by somebody else. And we're fully self-insured. >> Um, and so, um, you know, a lot can go into that influence. >> Yes. >> I mean, we're not fully selfinsured. >> We have a stop-loss gap. >> 200,000. Do we

123still have opportunity do the county still provide uh money to people who don't use their insurance? >> No, they actually eliminated that last year which is an antiquated approach. We had four or five years ago there actually was a study done between the county and the schools and actually the recommendation then was to not do >> that incentive. Um, we're going to move the close session that was scheduled for the work session to the end of um, our board meeting because there's I think this is just too important. >> Okay. I move that >> we're going to move it to the end of >> the end of our board meeting. >> Okay. >> Um, let's finish getting through the budget. I think that's really critical. >> So, I know we had some questions come in

124from board members. So, we were able to sneak this into the presentation, which is at um what we've shared before in FAB C and maybe in some midyear updates were the percentage of our employees that um participated in our health insurance. There was a request also of how many um employees that actually equated to was the actual number. So, we included that here as well. Went back to 21. We're working on trying to go back farther. I think there maybe was a request we go back 10 years and so we went back got at least five years of historical data. So, um I it's so funny though to look at the employees numbers um and the percentages because I thought our employee numbers have gone up so much >> that it would be >> they

125have less right this is a bigger number than this but it's only% thanks >> so >> does that retirees >> this does not include retirees these are >> the monies don't include retirees as Oh, right. No, because that's in the operating I learned this at MC retiree premiums expense is in the operating fund. So, it's not >> the reimbursement portion of it. >> Well, but we only reimburse the ones on Medicare. Don't we have a lot of other employees that are >> No, we have retirees that before they meet reach their uh Medicare age, they can stay on our plan. Obviously, not their whole family. That's an employee only. And then we re there's a reimbursement of that. the same percentage is applied to that until they reach Medicare age. Then um we alert them

126they have the option of then joining our Medicare plan. They cannot stay on our Anthem plan once they reach that Medicare age. >> And do we know do you know offhand what how much in our budget is that like how much are we paying >> the Medicare or sorry the retiree reimbursement is approximately 2.5. >> Okay. And and the Medicare do we know what that is? So the 2.5 includes the Anthem and the Medicare reimbursement portion combined. >> So that's the what we're spending for uh retire >> retiree premium reimbursements. >> Okay. But >> which the county still does that as well like they they in fact they get to their 100% at a lot shorter period than we do that. How does that 8 8 8,100 figure in with the retirees that you budgeting

127for employees? >> Um I believe I mean it's an overall number that we're getting from Anthem. I'm assuming it's just active employees but I can confirm that >> that would be helpful. And if it is retirees how many you know >> Yeah. I guess you how many retirees are participating? All right. Uh, any other questions on this? Was our last health insurance slide. >> Okay. >> It's going to come back up in the midyear update, so I don't y'all are primed for it. >> All right, the next few slides are are jumping into more of the compensation and how we get to the 3.75. Some of this we um already mentioned. So if we look at our overall compensation uh the portion of we have the 2% compensation adjustment by the state um and actually

128this was Miss Healey suggestion last year last year all of our salaries were down in the non or sorry the discretionary section of our budget uh and it was a great point um I believe it was Miss Healey that pointed this out last year of hey if we're required to do this in order to get the state funding it should be up in the non-discretionary line. So we actually moved it up into the non-discretionary line and so the state's uh budget included a 2% compensation supplement. Um so the entire cost the local share and the state share are up in the non-discretionary line and then the revenue >> for that >> because I think it would be discretionary but >> um well if it was disc if we did not do it we would have

129to turn away the $4 million. I'm not suggesting we do it, but that wasn't I know I know that wasn't a big thing. >> All right. Um, so and then addition to in the discretionary, we include the amount above that 2%. So the additional 1.75 to get us to the 3.75% average. We also have in the discretionary approximately $1 million for our school administrator market correction. land um in both non-discretionary and the discretionary there some small amounts for uh stipens based on growth or in our non-discretionary. So that's going to include we have stipens based on our special ed uh teachers. So uh if we based on our uh number or sorry level two special ed teachers they receive an additional stipenment each year as a incentive and um so that because of the growth

130there is included in the non-discretionary and then a discretionary line we have it's only $60,000 and it is looking at a increasing the stipen for our middle school athletic coordinator so they have one for each season. It's a small amount right now. Um and then also looking at at the high school level um athletic type adjustments just to to two sports. So um golf right now is a reduced rate but it's um boys and girls. So we adjusted it to match um tennis which is also a boys and a girls kind of joint sport. And then girls wrestling um has really taken off the last few years. It is an approved um beach a cell sport. uh and they now have all of their own separate tournaments including their um district, regional, state tournaments. Uh

131and so prior to this year, we've been able to look at it and you know, they were able to practice together. They went to some of the same events and it was a smaller number. As it's grown and they have all their separate events, we're now asking our coaches basically to coach two teams and split up um or you have to have more than one coach. They're typically both going all the tournaments. >> Both antennas are going >> Yes. How did you determine which sip to look at? Because we have as a board periodically looked at them, but we never dived into them because there's so much that needs to be >> Adjusted. So, I just don't want >> Yeah. >> You know, yeah. >> That these are more important than anything else because as

132I recall, there were quite a few >> that needed some adjustment. When I and so when I did look at this and looked at our stipens for a head coach, generally they had the same stipen throughout in terms of there was the same amount for a head coach for the season. And so >> no football, >> not football generally. Yes. And so um there's a couple of anomalies, but when I looked at golf, golf was way off in terms of it was much lower than we had for several of our other sports. So like we looked at like they said girls and boys both in tennis, like it wasn't it wasn't close in terms of that. So, >> so when you say golf, is it going to be a girls golf coach and a boys

133golf coach? >> No, it was just bringing them up to where the for some reason it was a lot lower than any of the other head coaching positions and stipens. And so it I saw it as inequitable in terms of that in golfing. >> Do all our schools have golf teams and do they all have the same number of kids participating? >> Generally, usually when they play um I believe they and I could be wrong, but I believe it's six at a time that play because they have like kind of like tennis when you have like your top numbers that you play um that compete there and then how they compete there. Now, golf is different in that girls and boys play together and like on the same, you know, the same uh tournaments and

134the same uh meets for the regular se for the regular season. Uh girls girls wrestling is just different and that we did look at that to see they do have separate tournaments, separate meets uh than the boys and a separate as well. >> I can understand tournaments being different, but their meets are now different. They don't have the same >> for girls that girls and girls wrestle. Yes, girls wrestle against each other. I mean, I still have, you know, still still annoying that that like some of our CT teachers who do all this Skills USA stuff don't get a statement and they're doing a lot of work. So, >> yeah, happy to look at that. Those are just some inequities that I saw. >> Pepsi. >> I think absolutely stipens need to be because stipens

135have been a mess for a while. >> Yeah, we need formula for that. >> Yes. >> To um or >> Yep. >> Um so we'll be looking at kind of some of the individual employee groups. >> Um so one of the things we were looking at as we've talked about is our license scale. um we wanted to increase the base and then also um decrease our um the step percentage increases. So what's the percentage increase between each step um and in just a minute I'll show you a little bit more of that breakdown. Um overall on the teacher scale it is an average increase of 3.75. So it does have a range there. Um and then just a reminder that our instructional support scale so those pair of professionals do follow that licensed teacher scale

136now. So they're a percentage of that scale. So when we adjust that license scale, it also adjusts that instructional support scale. >> Um kind of similar to our on on the service scale side, we didn't uh make major changes there. We did increase the base of the step scale though. Um for for these scales, it's going to depend on each individual um service scale though. the bus drivers might be different than some of our other service positions as far as the increase, but overall the average for um across all of our service scales is 3.75%. Um and then as we've mentioned, we're going to, you know, continue to review that compensation and classification study that that was completed last year. Um unfortunately, there just wasn't a way to implement all of that with the funding

137available in your budget. Um just a reminder, it just went into effect on January 1. And so that's just the second half of the schoolboard member increase that was approved last year. Uh and then we um also just a reminder that we have the school administrator market correction. Uh so when we look at the just the teacher scale, I know this is kind of busy. Uh we've looked at something similar to this in either FAPS and and at the retreat. uh we are kind of showing a couple of years because it is a multi-year plan to get all the way back to a 2.15 step um in or differential so that we can then start building on the base uh more equitably across all of our teacher scales and steps. So our current scale, you

138know, we're 3% steps 2 to 16 and then 1 and a.5% at step 30. And our goal is to get that to 2.15% really to um step 25 and then 26 and above will be that 1.5%. So in the scale presented in this budget, we're getting to a 2.15% differential from steps one to five. But um more importantly, we increased the base of the teacher scale by $2,300, which is why we were able to condense those step differentials at the lower end. Uh did the same got to 2.5% step six, 2.75% step seven to 13. Uh and then we're still at that 3% and then we have 2% 1.5. Uh and then looking forward to next year, and these are preliminary, right? And so I don't even want to call them proposed because a lot

139can change. We don't know what the proposed in FY27 is going to ultimately land at. We don't know what our funding next year and FY29 is going to look at. This was just to give you kind of a multi-year plan of how maybe it would uh or could be implemented. So, we can continue to increase the base of our scale to 54 and 56 and 28 and 29 respectively. But in 28 uh you can see where we get that 2 point uh we don't really add to the bottom at the 2.15%. We don't make a ton of progress there, but we do start to compress it down at the top. Uh and then in 29 we're able to get that 2.15% from zero to 25 or 1 to 25 and then 1.5% from 26 to

14030. And our in the next in this year it's a 3.75% average uh and then in the following two years it's about three and a half percent. Uh with roughly the same cost each year. We know that um you know that's going to probably be adjusted. I wanted to say that there is at least a plan. We've been looking looking ahead to see what that might look like depending on funding going forward. um as we move off of department or move off of kind of compensation and look more of like the non-com. So once again I have a couple a couple of slides here somewhat showing some of the same information. Uh so on the on the left is more by department what some of this and then on the right is is the same

141total. So you'll see some of that 11.9 million uh but it is now broken out more by uh a expense grouping. Uh when you look at this 11.9 remember 5 million right off the bat is is increases in textbooks. Can we see is is that broken out somewhere that we can see textbooks at that rate because and when we say textbooks are we talking like physical textbooks or we talking subscriptions or what are we talking in this um 5.1 >> it's significantly textbook adoption. >> Yeah and we can give that to you um because it was it's K12 literacy is the large one and then there's uh some math renewals that are included in there. We talked about adoption. It is, you know, the entire textbooks, uh, the supplemental resources and everything that comes with

142it in terms of that because right now our we have new standards in English and so our curriculum materials don't line up. So our teachers have to match go and figure out how are we going to match this rigor and really have to go back and look at some of that. But but I also know that you know one of the things that have come out from teachers is that less use of a textbook more use of things like they see their class and they're like okay to meet the needs of this class I want to do you know teacher pay teachers I want to do you know whatever this particular person is that specialty is this they follow. So, I'm just curious as to like the the I understand the curriculum change. I'm just

143not wholeheartedly like are we going to have just books sitting in piles um not used? >> Yeah. And so, we I mean as a part of our adoption process, we involved teachers as a part of that or on that committee that take a look at all of that. Um textbooks have shifted more so it's not we might just have a set in the classroom. It might have a digital depending on the level. Well, obviously not at elementary, but they would look at all that as a part of that. Depends on the >> Well, they would still use that in the classroom because they wouldn't send anything home. But >> I'm just wanting to are we looking at because at one point I know that they had a set of class textbooks in middle school. They

144had a set of class textbooks, but every child was given a textbook also to take home. So, you know, they didn't have to carry and whatever. But I so I'm just curious as to what is the because this is just a really high number and I get what you said, >> but it's like it's less than $165 a student. >> I'm just I'm just like just I'm just thinking to myself, how much are we talking here? And it would last how long? >> Uh we usually every seven years is when they update the standards or take a look at those. >> When was the last time we did these adoptions though? I mean, did we make it that long or we had to go sooner because of the >> A lot of times they're actually

145extended. >> Yeah, I know. But I didn't know because we got the new curriculum, but do we have to do it differently? >> And how much of this is matching from the state? >> We do get textbook funds from the state. >> Okay, we're approaching 7:00. So, >> um, clearly we are not going to get through the budget. Um, >> almost. >> So, this was a a little bit more of descriptions of what some of those departmental requests were. Uh, I just do want to point out one of the questions we received was um on here we actually listed that we were purchasing the the mini tour buses, miniur buses. And so those are um basically 15 passenger, they're smaller buses, but they're fully equipped to be on the road and with the stop arm

146cameras, those flashing lights, >> not stop arm cameras, stop arms and and the flashing lights. So when we've had nine passenger, eight passenger buses in the past, they were not allowed to make actual official stops, right? So, these ones are allowed to make official stops. Really, the idea is to be more efficient when we're making some of our longer runs maybe to Richmond. Um, or we have some of our more rural areas of the county where we can pick up smaller numbers of students. We can use these buses as fully equipped school buses and become more efficient. And so, those were as as new purchases. We also have some other cyclic replacement buses in there >> because didn't we get rid of our other mini buses that we had or minivans? >> We not all

147of them. So some of them we were we traded in uh to purchase buses with but we still have I believe one. >> I thought we had like six of yours. >> We will have another budget um work session on the 19th and meeting. >> So start you can go through this data and start writing your questions. If there's anything you can submit it and we will have more in-depth discussions on the 19th. Well, if you um if you have any other questions from tonight, I know we already received several questions, but if you have others, the sooner you can get them to me tomorrow, hopefully we can get them back to you by Thursday evening. >> Mr. 2019 1920 is the last adoption. Um, can I have a presentation of colors? United States of

148America and justice for all. I'd like to thank the Stafford High School JRTC for the presentation of colors. I'm sorry I can't identify you individually. I do not have your list of names. Um, madame uh, Miss Clerk, could you Miss Paul, could you call the role, please? >> Yes, ma'am. Miss Blackwell, >> here. >> Dr. Chase, >> here. Miss Davis >> here. >> M Miss Fingerholtz >> here. Miss Healey >> here. >> Mr. Careshi >> here. >> Miss Randall >> here. >> Mr. Regan is absent. Dr. Warner >> here. And Madam Chair, you have a quorum. >> Thank you. >> Madame Chair, I would make like to make a motion to approve the agenda with the amendment that we add the closed meeting that we did not get to in our work session to the

149end of this meeting. >> Thank you. Do I have a second? Second. >> Okay. Please cast your vote. The motion carries six to one. Josh Reagan is not here. Um moving. Can I get the consent ag motion for the consent agenda? Motion to approve the consent agenda. >> Second. >> Please cast your vote. >> Okay. Dr. Smith, do you have any administrative personnel announcements? >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you. So, I am pleased to announce Mr. Germaine Johnson as the new direct director of athletics activities at Hartwood High School. Mr. Johnson will join the Hartwood High School administrative team as the director of athletics and activities. Since joining team Stafford in 2023, Mr. Johnson has served as a teacher at Brook Point High School and most recently as dean of students at North Stafford High School.

150He began his career in Lynchburg City Schools as a teacher and an associate head football coach. In his current role, Mr. Johnson streamlined daily transportation by developing a comprehensive schoolwide arrival and dismissal system. He also worked closely with the director of athletics and activities to refine game day operations and manage facility logistics. Mr. Johnson holds a bachelor of science and social studies from Liberty University and a master of science and education from Old Dominion University. Congratulations, Mr. Johnson. Thank you, Dr. Smith, and members of the board. I appreciate the uh the opportunity. I'm honored and I'm excited to uh serve the families and students of Hartwood High School. Thank you guys. >> Congratulations. >> Moving on to board reports. I'm going to go ahead and start with CGS. CGS. He has a new chair from

151Caroline County, Allison Sears, which makes the new um executive superintendent, Dr. Caleric, and take something off Dr. Smith's plate. Um so, next I will go to Dr. Chase for Head Start Policy Council. And yes, so I'm Head Start Policy Council Legislative and Governance Committees. Um Head Start Policy Council, we met last week. Uh it was virtual because the previous meeting was cancelled. Um they seem to be doing great things. The only thing I have to report is just they're getting ready to get their four-year-olds ready for kindergarten, which is like already um it's already time to start getting those kindergarteners uh signed up and registered. Um legislative don't have much to report other than that I am so thankful that Miss Randall has agreed to take over the job of chair which will happen at

152our next meeting. And then um I don't really have much for governance, Miss Boltz. >> So I am the finance and budget committee chair. So we did look at the midyear financial update which we're going to see here in just a little bit. Um health insurance was definitely a big topic um just like it was in our work session earlier. So Miss Healey had asked that we do a deeper dive in the spring kind of really get into a lot of those details. So we'll revisit that. Um there's not been any additional progress on the revenue sharing agreement, although since our last August update on that, but there is an open conversation with county staff, so that is definitely still being worked on. And um we received some updates on what we've done for the

153suggestions from last year's citizens um budget advisory. >> Thank you so much. And moving on to Miss Randall and ATI. >> Thank you. Um we just had our our uh first meeting this year of with ATI um last Wednesday. I am the chair of ATI again this year. Um our meeting was focused mainly around the budget um and getting things um in line because uh Dr. Tyrie, as you may know, has tried to build a budget that works within the grant and then tapers herself off of any kind of reliance. Um, so we were able to talk about um additional uh personnel. She's one who will find someone that has one endorsement and by the time they're done with their interview and hiring process, they have three. So she really does stretch herself there um

154to make opportunities and experiences for the kids that attend ATI. So we were very happy to um and and MW is really starting to step up um more with their participation and ideas. Um Dr. Towry gets to be um a teacher for them and they're teachers that are learning to become teachers um get an experience unlike most teaching experiences but being able to use that creative edge. The other thing that they're also realizing is that these kinds of students really do um have a favor for the arts and so they have come up with creative there was a two bathrooms and in the middle there was a closet for a coffee station and she thought that was not really great and appropriate. Who wants coffee between two bathrooms? So, she had it converted into a

155closet for the art students to wash out like their art equipment and that sort of thing. So, um like I said, she has really made some excellent changes and um adaptations to the building as well. Um, so and I know Dr. Chase and Miss Finger Holtz are going to get to go visit it. So you'll get to see the um brand new chemistry room that they've finished. So that's really they have a a lab space, a true lab space now, which is what they needed as well. So that's all I have to report. >> Thank you so much. It's good to hear about what's going on at ATI. I did forget to mention joint schools working group did meet and um they've sort of refined the mission so that it's um focuses on items that

156are mutually necessary for both the school board and the county. We've looked at land acquisition and land banking and one of the changes to the charter was that the staff has requested more time for some of these in-depth studies so that many items are 45 days but we still do have mechanisms to bring things to the two boards more more quickly. So, um, Dr. Warner, may I also ask, um, uh, I understand that the next meeting has been set and there's somewhat of an agenda for that already. Is there not? >> There is a partial agenda for that, but things can be edited. >> Can we see it? Can it >> I'll have it. I will send it to you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Um, okay. Moving on to um recognitions and awards. Good

157evening, school board members and Dr. Smith. This evening, we recognize groups of staff members and students that epitomize our values of students integrity, respect, community, opportunity, and excellence. Will Monique Stokes and Abaya Fox please join us at the podium? Recently, an Anthony Burns Elementary School student, Abaya, experienced a medical emergency while riding the school bus. While the bus was in motion, Abaya began choking, creating a medical emergency that required immediate attention. The bus driver, Miss Mon'nique, responded immediately. She safely stopped the bus, remained calm, and used her first aid training to dislodge the obstruction, allowing Abaya to breathe safely again. Her quick thinking and steady response help prevent what could have been a much more serious situation. This moment matters because it reflects who we are and why we do this work. We invest in

158training, preparations, and clear expectations because we care deeply about our students and want to do the right thing for them every time in every situation. Keeping children safe is not a checkbox or a requirement. It is a responsibility we take seriously. Those choices are reflected in our strategic plan, which supports safe, supportive environments where students are cared for in every setting. Miss Monique's actions demonstrate how our commitments are carried out through our people. Her professionalism and compassion reflect our focus on student well-being, operational safety, and supporting staff who serve students beyond the classroom. Safety in our division extends beyond school buildings to transportation in every part of the student experience. This incident highlights the strength of our school and community. When staff are supported and empowered, they are prepared to act decisively in critical moments.

159Miss Mon'nique's response is a clear example of our values in action, putting students first and ensuring they are safe from the moment they step on a bus until they return home. Okay. Right here. Will Yolanda Rousell, president of the Stafford chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, please join us at the podium. Stafford County Public Schools recognizes February 2026 as Black History Month, a time dedicated to learning, reflection, and appreciation of the rich history and lasting contributions of Black Americans. This year's theme, a century of Black History commemoration, marks 100 years of national efforts to study, honor, and elevate black history and culture. It reminds us that the intentional recognition of black history of black voices story and achievements has played an important role in shaping identity, fostering pride, and advancing

160understanding across generations. As we observe this month, we're invited to reflect on how a century of commemoration has influenced our shared history and continues to inform the ongoing pursuit of advancement and opportunity. By exploring African heritage from ancient and advanced civilizations to modern leaders and innovators in fields such as science, aerospace education, government, and the arts, we deepen our understanding of the profound impact black Americans have had on our nation and the broader human experience. Black History Month also serves as an opportunity for our school community to engage in meaningful learning and conversation to honor resilience and excellence and to recognize that black history is not separate from American history. It is essential to it. The NAACP has played a vital role in preserving, advancing, and advocating for recognition of black history and culture for

161more than a century. In recognition of that legacy and the continued work of the organization at the local level, we are proud to present this proclamation to Miss Russell. Thank you for your partnership, lead leadership, and advocacy that continue to support education and opportunity within our community. Will Aiden Flynn, technology and engineering teacher at AG Wright, please join us at the podium. Stafford County Public Schools recognizes February 2026 as Career and Technical Education Month, a time to celebrate the programs, educators, and students who are preparing the next generation of skilled professionals. Career and technical education programs are the foundation of a strong modern workforce. They foster productivity, innovation, and contribute to Virginia's leadership in the international marketplace. More than teaching concepts, CTE programs give students meaningful opportunities to apply their skills in realworld settings, preparing

162them for high demand, high wage careers in fields that require both technical knowledge and critical thinking. As economic and technological changes continue to reshape today's workplace, CTE ensures that our students are not just ready to meet those needs, they are positioned to lead. These programs reflect our commitment to education that is relevant, hands-on, and focused on empowering students to explore their interests while developing skills that matter in workforce and in life. Today, we're proud to present this proclamation to Mr. Flynn in recognition of his outstanding contributions to our students learning and growth. Through his leadership, guidance, and commitment to hands-on education, Mr. Flynn exemplifies the values of career and technical education, preparing students to succeed, fostering curiosity, and helping them discover the potential within themselves. Thank you. Will Tammy Robinson of AG Wright Middle School

163and Ashley Lingafelt of Hartwood Elementary School please join us to the podium. Annually, a week in March is set aside to celebrate school social worker week, a time to honor the vital contributions of these dedicated professionals in our school. School social workers are highly skilled and compassionate educators who provide critical support to students navigating serious challenges including poverty, bullying, and mental health barriers. They are often on the front lines helping students overcome obstacles that can impact learning, well-being, and overall success. Now more than ever, school social workers are essential to supporting the mental and behavioral health of our students. They provide assessments, counseling, family outreach, and guidance that help students thrive academically and personally. Their work builds bridges between home, school, and community, fostering partnerships that are central to ensuring every student has the opportunity

164to succeed. Today, we're proud to present this proclamation to Miss Robinson and Miss Lingfelt in recognition of their outstanding dedication, professionalism, and impact. Through their expertise, empathy, and unwavering commitment, they embody the very best of our school support systems. Their work reminds us that student success is not just about instruction. It is about creating safe, caring, and connected environment where every student can reach their full potential. Will Missy Hall and Angie Mgo please join us at the podium. Today, we want to take a moment to celebrate two individuals whose work often happens behind the scenes, but is absolutely essential to the success of our schools. Our schoolboard clerks are the steady hands and trusted guides who keep our division organized, transparent, and running smoothly. While much of what they do may go unseen, their impact

165is felt every day by the board, the superintendent, our staff, and ultimately our students. They carefully maintain accurate records of meetings and official actions, manage important financial processes, and serve as a vital link between the board and the public. Their attention to detail, professionalism, and dedication ensure that the important work of the board is carried out efficiently and effectively. And often this requires extra hours attending meetings, events, and functions well beyond a typical workday. All with a goal of supporting our students and families. We're proud to present this proclamation to Miss Hall and Miss MGO in recognition of their tireless dedication, their expertise, and the care they bring to every task. Their hard work, reliability, and commitment are a model for all of us and a reminder that the smooth operation of our schools and

166the success of our students depends on people like them. Thank you for all you do every day to make our division stronger. Okay, finally this evening, can we have all of our schoolboard members and our two student reps please join us up front. This evening, the superintendent would like to take a moment to recognize our school board members. February is schoolboard appreciation month and it gives us the opportunity to pause and thank the men and women who dedicate their time, energy, and expertise to guiding our schools and supporting our students. Your work is not always visible, but it touches every corner of our division. From setting a vision for student success to making sure our schools have the resources and support they need to thrive. This year's theme, from strong roots come endless possibilities, is

167a perfect reflection of your role as schoolboard members. Through your leadership, guidance, and thoughtful decisions, you plant the seeds that help our students grow academically, socially, and emotionally. You help create opportunities, open doors, and nurture an environment where every student has a chance to reach their full potential. We're grateful for your dedication, your service, and the countless ways you contribute to the success and well-being of our students. Thank you for investing in our schools, believing in our students, and helping build a stronger future for our community. and make it go. Thank you so much. And you know, we appreciate all of you. So, we have a presentation on the um from the citizens budget advisory committee. Doc Yeah. >> All right. Good evening board. Um, it is a pleasure to represent the citizens budget advisory

168committee to the school board tonight. My name is Dr. Alicia Hunter and I'm a resident and a parent here in Stafford as well as a 16-year educator. I want to thank the school board for creating citizen advisory committees to invite community voices. And a special thank you to uh our director of budgets Carter Fitch and her team for their responsiveness and support to our committee over the last few years. So I want to begin with our title which will frame the narrative of this presentation. The cost of everything the value of nothing. This title reflects attention families feel every budget season. We talk endlessly about cost, but rarely about value. Our annual report centers community voice and Stafford School's budget conversations, asking not just what does it cost, but what does it produce for students,

169families, and Stafford County as a whole. My presentation tonight will highlight how citizen engagement influence real decisions and where structural challenges still limit progress. Just a quick overview of the citizens budget advisory committee. We advise the school board by elevating community perspectives and how resources are evaluated and allocated. Our committee is a diverse group of residents who are parents, business owners, veterans, uh take part in commercial real estate, research. We have civil servants as well as several committee members with backgrounds in finance. Uh we still have some vacancy open um in Aqua as well as in the Griffith Whitewater area and Rock Hill. So for those that are watching and listening, we welcome you to join our committee. So just kind of an overview of our purpose from the last year into this year in

1702025 and that's the year I'll be reviewing shortly. Our work was largely responsive reviewing departmental needs and reacting to statewide findings from the JARK study the joint legislative audit and review commission report. And we're looking forward to 2026 where our role will become more proactive and strategic in shifting from simply receiving information to analyzing how funding aligns with stated goals and student outcomes. But we're most excited about the advocacy side at both the local and state level with our board of supervisors and our state representatives to be a core feature of our work knowing our challenges here and staffer with our funding mechanisms. So let's talk about how do we respond to the JARK study. So we had a chance to review the study deeply. So the JARK study really confirmed what families and educators

171are already experiencing. Virginia's schools funding system creates structural inequities. We've invited state representatives Joshua Cole and Tara Durant to explain how legislative advocacy uh will support our work and our interests as well as sharing our concerns directly with state representatives about funding challenges in Stafford. We also responded to the report by forming a legislative subcommittee to focus specifically on state level funding issues. Also, we were invited to participate in the Stafford County Schools Legislative Summit, which would ensure state representatives heard directly from what citizens were interested in. And most importantly, we helped to influence a decision to hire a dedicated legislative lobbyist, which signals a long-term commitment from the board and from SCPS leadership. Next, our response to how we're going to engage the community. Um, last year the board of supervisors approved more local

172funding than the superintendent originally proposed, which was a celebration and a win for our schools. From our work, we increase citizen participation at public hearings for board of supervisors meetings as well as schoolboard meetings, which helped to elevate priorities like staffing, stability, and compensation, and to communicate to our supervisors that citizens value an investment in our public schools. Additionally, we synthesized public comments at these meetings so that way we could identify themes and concerns what um that were clearly communicated. So, we do have a dashboard that's available. Additionally, I met with the chair of the supervisors and learned more that the supervisors are open to hearing from in from citizens around how can we engage around innovative thinking to address our local revenue options. So, that was a celebration there. How do we respond to

173advocacy for financial support? We expanded our reach by meeting families where they were in our partnership with the CPAC team to engage open houses and parent teacher or uh PTO's and PTAs. Additionally, we collaborated with the communications department to improve clarity and consistency in budget messaging. We're really proud to celebrate there is now a quick reference page on the budget website that also has FAQs and other resources that are created by citizens. Also, we're happy to hear that student voice has been considered in student engagement. Uh Carter's team, they directly uh worked with students in a budget simulation at Mountain View, building early civic understanding of how public funding decisions are made. Additionally, we expanded our reach by engaging with the county administrator, Bill Ashton, as well as Curry Roberts with the Fredericksburg Regional Alliance

174to better understand long-term planning uh fiscal planning and economic development plans and opportunities and Stafford. And we're also very proud of facilitating a community budget survey that ensures schoolboard priorities reflected lived experiences and not assumptions. So now I want to bring your attention to a handout that you have or yeah handout it's our report card and so this is not a an evaluation of the board at all but I think we all have spent some time in the classroom at some journey in our lives and so report card is very accessible. So this is a way to look beyond total dollars but also to reflect on trust transparency community voice and alignment. So I want to give a pause for a moment and see how well you did board. So for our first subject we

175have transparency and communications. We rated you a B. All right. We've seen a huge effort from last year into this year. We're really grateful of transparency and even with Dr. Smith's presentation last week, there was a real effort to share with the community how decisions are being made. So that was a B there. Our next subject area was citizen informed decisions. We graded a C. Uh we're still looking for just a little more uh transparency of how you collected citizens voices and how that navigated or helped to influence decision-m. Not saying it's not happening, it's just isn't as clear. And our area for instruction and student services, we rated a B. Uh we recognize that funding continues to support classrooms and instruction and student learning and that is visible, but there is a little room

176to grow. uh advocacy for sustainable school funding, we rated it a C. We want to see more from the board as far as those innovative solutions. We recognize there's a partnership with across the street, but also we think about Steven Cubby's work with your circle of influence. Uh what can you do within your circle of influence uh around advocacy? And then I think we all are here with teacher pay and stability. We rated a D and we know that that comes down to our budget challenges, but we want to also say we are aligned with Dr. Smith's presentation from last week that we want teachers to be paid more. We want support staff to be paid more. We want our school-based administrators to be paid more. So, we are in alignment there. And that is

177a real opportunity. And I'll just close here again. This tool is for dialogue and continuous improvement. It's not a judgment. This is really a framework for us to have future conversations. I always have to come back to Stafford County at a glance. Stafford County consistently ranks among the best places to live and raise a family. Yet, our per people spending tells a different story. We're now 121st in our spending compared to last year with 117 as we rank in the state. expectations for schools, class sizes, programs, staffing, transportation continues to rise faster than funding mechanisms can respond. So, here's our final recommendations and commitments we're asking from the board. So, there's a second handout that you have that's a one-page summary. So these recommendations focus on rebuilding trust, not rebuilding, but more so continuing to

178establish the trust with the community through transparency and shared understanding as well as action. So we'll start with how do we strengthen public trust and transparency. We know that's an ongoing interest not just in Stafford, but that's just a theme that's happening right now in our nation. So recommendations from citizens. We would like to see a long-term efficiency study which could establish set of facts for future decisions. There was an efficiency study that was done back in 2015. So there are members of the committee, there are citizens that are interested in how could we do another one now that we're about 11 years later. Also, as we think about strengthening public trust and transparency, we're asking for clearer clearer explanations for major budget increases to help families understand not just what changed, but the why.

179And so specifically with budget line items, if there's any increases that are happening year-toear, that's more than 10%. Citizens want to know why. Also with the naming conventions for budget lines, some of them are very vague. People want to know more. What do we mean by furniture? What do we mean by food? A deeper explanation. And also, we want to keep the synergy with our community budget survey. So we just offer that for the first time and we're grateful for the support that we receive, but that is something we would like to consider to do maybe once a year or even twice a year. Now, as we talk about addressing structural funding gaps, we recognize this is a state level issue, but there's more that we can do. So, we're looking to how can we

180focus on advocating at the state level on our state funding gaps and unfunded mandates. We recognize some of the pressure and challenges with our budget are unfunded mandates from the state. We want to advocate of disrupting that and and getting the state to pay their share. Additionally, we want to see more partnership that is visible to the community of how we're working with board of supervisors on viable local revenue options. What does that look like? And I go back to us inviting the Fredericksburg Regional Alliance um to talk to us more about how are we being positioned to developers? How are we attracting businesses and industries? Want to see how can schools be positioned in those conversations? And also there was a recommendation we heard that Henriiko and Chesterfield has some similarities to Stafford County

181and that they've done a great job with having some innovative thinking around sustainable funding. So, it might be worth your while to reach out down south to see what they've done over the years to be able to keep up with their demands. We also want to prioritize teacher and staff compensation. I know there's been conversations around just getting rid of COA all together. If that's the case, let's figure out how do we get more uh funding from the state for compensation that keeps pace with inflation and regional competition. That is something that's not going away and we're still trying to catch up with inflation that's been going on for the last 10 years. And as I mentioned before, we support we want to increase the staff compensation for all staff, teachers, schoolbased administrators, and support

182staff. Also, conversations came up around sustaining student enrollment. Uh this came directly from our students on the committee. Um there is a interest in continuing to invest in specialty programs and workforce development and to take into consideration competition from private schools. Additionally, we want to see efforts to center schools and Stafford County's brand identity and county strategic plan. And we're there in the strategic plan, but I'm hearing there may be some proposals of how we are reimagining our our brand and our identity here in Stafford. And what a great opportunity to center schools in that new vision for Stafford and that new identity. And then ultimately we want to continue our work with the communications department and continue to see a clear ownership of budget messaging and communications because the reach with all of our

183stakeholders we felt has been um very successful. And so I'll wrap there. So, um, in closing, our work really reflects hundreds of community voices and hours of analysis and meeting, and that goes from our surveys and also the comments we're collecting from uh, public hearings. These recommendations are offered as a partnership, not a critique. We look forward to continuing this work together to ensure staffers budget reflects both cost and value. Thank you. >> Thank you so much, Dr. Hunter. I always appreciate your input and the work that the citizens budget advisory committee does. Um I think you've got a lot of really good recommendations and I'm going to open this up for questions just and Miss Randall. >> Hi, thank you very much Dr. Hunter. Um just out of curiosity when I was looking at

184the um report card and you me mentioned resident uh on the um first subject line residents want clear explanation in independent auditing. What do you mean by independent auditing? >> Yeah. So, there's some concerns from citizens that um we're not focused enough on accountability as it relates to the budget. And so, I know there's some internal mechanisms there, but they're hoping that an independent auditor can come in to check for accountability. So, that that's that focus there. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> We actually do have an independent audit done annually and that report I is Mr. Yeah. Mr. Mr. Fulmer, is that report available online? So that is available on the website. Okay. >> Can we can we share it with the FAB with the budget committee too? >> Oh, 170 pages of it. It might

185be great to be a part of the FAQs for people who are looking for that information because another some feedback is just it's very dense on the website and so just helping people navigate it and I get it but you know the less clicks the better. So if it's in the FAQ it'll be more accessible. That's very helpful. Other questions? >> Miss Huey, >> could you uh tell us a little more about what you're looking for in terms of the accountability because the auditor strictly is is pretty much looking at the the numbers and the expenditures. And I'm happy to say we we come out with no with no findings, which is a good thing, you know, with with the audit. But it sounded like you were maybe looking for something beyond just checking the

186numbers. >> Yes. I think one is that enough citizens just don't know that there is an independent auditor that's doing the work. So maybe giving some background who is the consultant, who are you working with? I think there's concerns that there are internal relationships with the auditor and so just having a separate entity to ensure that you know you have the credibility there. So if we can maybe give more information about who is the consultant, who's doing the auditing, that might give more clarity of what people are looking for so they know the independent piece is there. Miss Finger Holtz, >> I just want to thank you because I know you guys do a ton a ton of work. Um, but also you gave very specific things that we can do. Um, especially like the

18710% if there's a 10% change, you know, specifically call it out and say, "Hey, this is what this change is for." Because I know sometimes you can see something where it looks like it jumps and from the outside you don't know why there's that jump, but an explanation, okay, it makes sense. So just building that trust I think is is really important. So thank you >> Blackwell. >> Hi Dr. Hunter. Um I have two questions I think. Yeah I hope I don't think you answered them but um well we have that C on citizen informed decisions. Um what would you how would you um how could we increase their grade to a a um what are some of the Um, what are some of the things you think we could do better? >> Yeah, here

188>> that's something we need to unpack a little further. I just think you don't know what you don't know. And so, you know, as I was saying before, there's an assumption that things aren't happening because we just don't know about it. So, if there are decisions that are being made and that consideration was taken from students or from teachers or citizens, tell us tell the story. Um, how did you arrive to that conclusion? So it just may be a gap in the communication where you did take in consideration what citizens are saying, what residents are saying or stakeholders are saying for various schools. We just didn't have that background information. So it just may just be a communications piece or we just add kind of a feature story behind it or a narrative behind the

189why. And I will say um Fairfax County Public Schools is another resource to kind of see how they do their budget messaging. I think they do a really great job of kind of telling uh providing narratives behind the budget especially this year because they're having their own challenges. So again just maybe another suggestion of looking at what others are doing um that's working well but Fairfax County Public Schools I've noticed what they have on their public facing website it does close some of those gaps where questions may arise. >> And my other question is I know you spoke about uh students and send the surveys and so forth to collect your information. Um, can you tell me about how long it took um to gather all this information? It was a very very good briefing,

190very thorough. So, just cons just interested how long it take you to gather all this information for this presentation today. >> Oh, well, this has been a work in progress for a while. Um, this was really just all year, honestly. we've been building all year and just being really intentional of how we wanted to prepare and that's why even this the presentation was structured the way that it was in a response to what the board wanted us to do in 2025. And so it's really been an effort for all year and just really coming together as a committee these last two or three months. Um even we had our last meeting last week and we had a guest speaker come in the last two meetings because it was really important for us to bring in

191more people from the community u from the community. So last week we had Curry Roberts come in from the Fredericksburg Regional Alliance. The week before that or a couple weeks before that we had Bill Ashton come in. So even with being this close to the presentation, it was really important for us to still bring in other people because people really do want to see a plan and some innovation around sustainable funding, long-term funding, and not just always putting the fire out or thinking yeartoyear. And we also recognize the role the state plays but also locally what are we doing? I go back to what's in our circle of influence as the board but all your effort for sure. >> Thank you Miss Blackwell. Dr. Chase just thank you >> Dr. Smith. >> Yes Dr. Hunter

192just want to say thank you for your leadership. uh thanks for your partnership and the recommendations here and we look forward to partnering with you on bring some of those to life and talk about other ways we can continue to get better. So thank you. >> I appreciate it. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you everyone. >> Thank you. It wasn't ignoring Dr. Smith. >> Okay, next we have our student representative report. I think it's Oh, midyear update. The Yes. Mr. Fulmer, give us the news. >> All right, good evening. Thanks again. Um, I did provide this report to the FAB C uh just last week. Uh, but um, thanks for the opportunity to provide it to the rest of the board. See if this works. Yeah. Uh so um looking at our our ADM

193um and when the state governor releases the calc tool uh in December they have what our projected ADM is for this year. So prior to that we are projecting based on what our enrollment is and so the projected ADM was released in December and it was about 31,071. Our budget ADM was 31,550. So as you can imagine that has an impact on our state funding and I'm going to touch on that shortly. Uh just high level um overall of all of our operating fund revenues uh to clarify and be specific about operating fund. Our state funds and sales tax uh makes up a little over 60%. The federal funds does not look like a lot. It really in here is just some Medicaid impact aid funding. The rest of our federal funds that are restricted

194are tied to grants um and have reporting requirements on those. And so those are actually reported in our grants fund. And right now I'm just showing our operating fund. So speaking of the the state revenue, um overall with that reduction in ADM, we're looking at a net decrease from budget of approximately $3.7 million made up of basic aid and sales tax decreases. Um and this is primarily due to the reduction in um in our enrollment. I will say there's a lot of talk about the at the state level that they're in a positive financial position, have a pretty hefty reserve balance. Um, however, we're not hearing much about some of that um being adjusted in our FY26 funding. So, right now, a lot of the talk is FY27. We do get the updated uh calc

195tool for 26, and that's where we calculated the $3.7 million reduction. uh we sometimes are more hopeful that we're going to see some mid-year adjustments in our current year as well. Uh it does not look um like that's going to happen this year. So we will have to make sure we account for the $3.7 million reduction. Uh on on top of that um we do have some positives. So on on the federal side, as I mentioned in our budget work session, uh in late in FY25, we saw a big jump in our Medicaid uh funding. We are assuming that that will um be higher than budgeted. We're not assuming the full amount similar to uh what we're projecting FY27. We kind of want to see what another year of that does. Uh and also uh

196some of the activity at the federal level. Um on the other local funds, it's only about $300,000, very minor. Uh some of that is uh some facility rentals, primarily some insurance reimbursements, uh maybe for you know bus accidents. And so insurance reimbures us the the funds for that. Um overall that um equates to about a $2.1 million revenue deficit. Um this just high level looking at where um overall our expenditures go. Um we always talk about our comp benefits being of the original budget is about 85%. This here is a reduction because of some of our budgeted um PO carryovers that come in. So the revised budget looks a little bit different. Uh, one of the things I want to point out is even though we're halfway through, we never actually spend half of our

197um our budget at that point primarily in our comp and benefits line because we actually pay our 10-month employees through August one. So, they get an extra month in the second half of the year. Shifting kind of to the um overall and our and the expenditures um for our non-compensation increases. So areas that we're projecting to be over budget right now, legal projecting about 225,000. Hopefully maybe we don't reach that amount. We have settled some cases over the last few months. So hopefully we see that trend down for the rest of this year. Um and but some savings on the operating side. We've seen this maybe the last two years, three years ago is when we really b um uh increased our fuel budget. Uh and we were right on online about three years ago.

198In the last couple of years, fuel prices have come down. Uh we actually reduced our fuel budget in FY26 slightly because of that. And so even with that reduction, we're still seeing some savings projected about 400,000 right now. Um also we have our fleet services facility and they u basically operate um equivalent to a Jify Lube where we take our buses in there, they do the maintenance, but they're actually charging us and that's how they keep that shop going. So, our operating fund pays into that fleet services fund. We're actually projecting based on uh our midyear that we'll have savings in our fleet services lines of our operating budget of about $350,000. Um we know there's going to be other savings across our departments every year when we get to the end of the year.

199We pull up all remaining funds after the spending cut offs. Uh and and every department will have a little bit of savings here and a little bit there. And so when we pull those in, uh, expect that we'll have several hundred thousand if not, you know, a million dollars in savings there. We account for that when we come back to the to the school board, uh, when we approve a yearend funding list and we'll have a better idea of what those uh, department savings are. On the comp and and benefits side, I want to look um, first just kind of exclude our health benefits. We know we're going to talk about that a lot over the next few weeks and and months. Uh right now when we exclude maybe our health benefits fund being underfunded

200um just on our comp benefits excluding health benefits we're actually projecting savings of about $5 million right now. So that's really good news. Some of that uh is because we held back positions because our enrollment was down. So we wanted to account for that early on. Held back approximately $1.7 million worth of positions because uh we didn't hit our enrollment marks. So, um just to kind of recap, when we we build our budget, we have a projection for um students. We have our teachers uh and other staff members that are are budgeted and approved by the board. Uh and then we provide those out um allocate those out to the uh to the school so they can start hiring. Um however, as we get through the summer and we see that our numbers aren't quite

201hitting, we pull back some of those positions and we hold them or some of them aren't allocated from the beginning until the students actually do show up. Usually that's hasn't been a problem because we've actually exceeded some of our enrollment projections or Mr. White's been really spot on with the enrollment projections. So just similar to what every division across the state is experiencing. I think everybody saw a dip in enrollment this year. Uh not that we saw a huge dip um over last year was about 160 students, but it was still um six or 700 students short of our overall projection for this year. So we held those positions back uh with knowing that the less enrollment would mean less state revenue. Uh so overall with the projected revenue deficit of 2.1 projected expenditure surplus

202of 5.6 overall having an operating fund projected surplus of about 3.5 million before we account for our health insurance. So, um I'm going to talk about a couple other funds and then we're going to come back to our health benefits fund last where we'll we'll uh talk about our strategies there. So, for our school nutrition fund um through December is is losing losing money and projected to lose money for the year. That was by design. As I explained at FAB C, uh the nutrition fund um still has excess fund balance, excess cash reserve that the state directs us that we have to spend down. Uh so this is additional capital equipment purchases that we're buying and replacing a lot of kitchen equipment uh in some of these targeted years. Uh so overall expecting us to

203have a deficit in the nutrition fund but it is lining up with what was expected for budget. Uh in our fleet services fund uh right about break even projected to be right right about break even. Uh once again that is kind of really our goal in in all of our funds but fleet services specifically as well. Um start with workers comp first on the right. And so workers comp, we are fully self-insure, sorry, fully insured now for workers comp. We switched I think to this is our second budget year building into our third budget year in FY27. And prior to that, we had when we were fully self-insured, we carried a a fund balance. And so that's going to come into play here in a few minutes. But uh we um have a about a

204$1.6 million fund balance in our workers comp fund. Uh so what we do is transfer from our other funds into our workers comp fund and then we pay out our premiums from there. And so that's where in the projection in the far right column you'll see that that's about $900,000 in premiums a little bit over our expenditure line of of 08. Uh so we believe we're going to, you know, pretty much be uh break even there. Uh in our our workers comp fund, uh we still do pay out um from when we were fully insured. We still have some claims that are being paid out. Uh the first year we switched over was several hundred,000 in claims we were still paying out. Now that has come down to tens of thousands of dollars that we

205were paying out, much smaller amounts, and we track those claims with the uh insurance company. Uh so we're able to know that those are are winding down. So shifting over to to health health benefits. Um really just looking at the projection right now uh expect our expenditures we there's a range there. So that's not typical. I usually uh projection we we try to give you an exact number but health benefits right now is um very unpredictable over the last couple of years. So uh we kind of give a a best worst case scenario situation. Uh and we we think we're going to end up if if nothing changes, we don't contribute any additional funds um between five and $6.87 million. Um our health benefits fund did have a fund balance at the end of 2025

206of 1.4 million. Uh we did uh take reduce that fund balance. We ate into it a little bit in in FY25. In the years prior to that, as we talked about in the work session as well, there were years going back six or seven years ago, we had about 20 $25 million fund balance in that health benefits fund uh which we felt was way too high. So, we actually spent it down. We provided health benefit holidays back to um our employees on occasion. We we pulled money out of there actually to pay for bonuses for all of our employees a few years back. Uh so shifting um still health benefits fund but just looking at it a little bit different way. So you saw um this in the other room although um what I added

207in that one you know kind of based on this discussion and then in working into the work session was we had an FY27 projection this doesn't have that because we're not quite getting that far ahead. Uh but you can see that in FY26 and our our far right bar there that even with the employee and employee contributions, we are still that, you know, five to six to7 million short. So, uh this is just another way to look at our health insurance claims. Um looking at budget and actuals over the last few years, you can see some of those increases. So, going back to 23, we only saw uh just shy of a 4%. So, 3.99% increase. you know, 24 actuals was, you know, eight and a half, 9% increase. And then you see 25 was

208the 24%. And the 26 projected um is the 2.75. And which you might, you know, question, well, if it's only a 2.75, why are we still need to contribute $7 million this year? Um really comes down we didn't budget enough in 26. We were hoping that 25 was our anomaly and that we were going to kind of level back off and come back down and that was not the case. um we're not seeing, you know, another 25 30% increase, but we do need to make up for um the underfunding this year and then in 27 we're making up for this year and trying to plan for an increase next year. We we have had some meetings with our insurance provider who still believes based on the years that they're looking at that um it is

209a little bit of an anomaly. I think at this point we don't expect it to drop down back into that 35 to $40 million range. Uh but you can see maybe we're not growing at the same rates uh that we were in FY25. Uh but uh same thing I I mentioned to our um insurance provider at the time when I talked to him is um I heard similar comments last year and I relayed those to you that hey, we don't think we're going to see these these big increases again, which I don't think we're seeing those same big increases again, but we're also not seeing it drop off. uh another another way just to look at just our our contributions and and claims, but just for a spirit of time, we'll we'll keep jumping forward.

210So on your agenda later tonight is a recommended approach to filling our shortfall in our health benefits fund for this current year. So already mentioned we had about $3.5 million in payroll savings. So targeting 3.3 of that, moving it to our health benefits fund. Um we our workers comp fund has a $1.6 $6 million fund balance. We don't want to deplete all of that, but we believe leaving approximately $400,000 in our workers comp fund will be more than enough to cover um any of the out um outstanding claims from a few years ago when we were fully insured. And then similar to last year, uh last year we pulled 2.2 2.3 million um out of our oped trust fund uh and we use that to help excuse me help offset our um health benefits fund.

211Uh we do it a little indirectly. uh we we pull out the O oped trust funds, we put it into our operating fund to create savings and to pay those um retiree um health insurance reimbursements. Uh that will create that additional $2.5 million in savings. So our total transfer from our operating fund will be the 3.3 plus the 2.5. So we're at that 5.8 million of a total transfer from the operating fund. The OPED trust fund right now has about um a market value of $48 million. Uh, but as we discussed in FAB C, the um actual OPED liability when you project out all of our employees over time, this isn't paid out today, but this would be paid out over, I don't know, 30, 50 years, um, is over, you know, $100 million. So,

212we're still overall well underfunded in in that OP trust. Um, I was getting ahead of myself. So, uh, you can see here the market value is 48.4 million and we would want to pull out 2.5 million for that health insurance reimbursement. questions. This portion of it will come back to you. I think it's our I don't know if it's our first or second I think it's our second action item on the agenda tonight. >> Thank you, Mr. Fulmer. Any questions? >> Dr. Chase. Yeah. So, the um five million in savings from compensation and benefits, those positions that we hold back, um how good are we at making sure that those positions go to that the positions that we're holding back are from schools that have fewer students? How do we make sure that that we

213are distributing that in an equitable fashion? >> Yeah. So, we follow the staffing standards. Um, so we're looking at actual enrollment at those schools and those positions are not released um, unless we believe I don't want to say not released until they hit a number because if we believe the students are coming, some schools don't, you know, they're they're um, known to have late kindergarten registrations. So, um, we would assume that some of those registrations are going to come in, but we can do some projections throughout the summer and when the school year starts. So, um, all of our all of our allocations on our per school basis. are not um holding back from the the entire pool. It's actually holding back from specific schools that have not reached their enrollment numbers. >> And is

214some of this five million um people who retired early or positions that we just weren't able to fill? >> Yeah, absolutely. It's a a combination of positions that we've intentionally left vacant and held back. Um it could be from uh folks retiring and then we fill them uh with a less experienced uh individual or just people that leave during the year and we have vacancies. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you, Mr. Fulmer. >> All right. Thank you. >> Okay. I now we'll move on to our student representative and I believe it's Mr. Karashi. Is that today or Miss Davis? >> Kashi. I thought it was Mr. Keshi. And I do want to say how much I appreciate the insight some of our students have. Even when we were having budget discussions, knowing how some

215of our decisions impact the classroom does make a big difference. >> Good afternoon, uh, school board members, Dr. Smith and Stafford citizens. As this is our first student representative report, we'll be providing an overview of the initiatives we have worked on in January and February along with our plan plans moving forward. To start off our role as student representatives, Tlea and I took the time to meet in person so that we could start we we could begin our initial plannings for what we want to achieve with this position. We both agreed that we value student voice, student academics, and creating a genuine connection with students. To help us stay on top of our values and goals, we created our marvelous mighty mullet mission. This highlights what we want to accomplish each miss each sorry, each

216month in short bite-sized chunks. For January, we wanted to understand how procedures truly work, what's going on behind the scenes, and how we can find ways to showcase this information to all students. January was spent on building relationships, handling administrative responsibilities, and gaining clarity on how decisions are made so student advocacy can be informed and effective. For February, we focused on elementary outreach and early student encouragement. We already started this mission by sending out an application to all high school students for our media team. This is an opportunity where students can help us create content to hopefully showcase what is really happening across our school division. As elementary school outreach is another focus that we have for this month, we plan to visit surrounding elementary schools. These visits will be to establish studentto student connection

217as well as to branch out and showcase the students that we're really here for them. As we wrap up our first report, we appreciate the opportunity to serve in uh the trust placed in our representation for the student body. We're excited to continue this work and we're just getting started here. Thank you so much, Miss Hall. Do we have anyone for the um public hearing? >> Yes, there are two people signed up for the public hearing. They are Logan Felenstein and Adrien Min. >> Okay, we will be holding a public hearing on the proposed FY27 budget. Three minutes are allocated to each speaker or group. Speakers shall identify themselves by name and organizational affiliation if applicable and um if the speaker represents an organization and speakers shall limit their comments to the topic of the

218FY27 budget. Citizen comment which is profane abusive or which threatens imminent physical harm shall be ruled out of order by the chairperson. Individuals who would like to address the school board during this meeting are required to sign up no later than 6:50 p.m. on the meeting date. A printed signup sheet is made available between 4:30 and 6:50 p.m. on the meeting date in the foyer. Citizens wishing to sign up early may do so via an online signup sheet. Go ahead and call the first name, please. >> Logan Felenstein. Good evening. I'm Logan Valenstein and I'm a teacher at Drew Middle School. Um, I want to first thank you for listening tonight. Um, I really hope the words that I have to say are heard by everyone because I don't actually want to be here right

219now. I want to be at the orchestra auditions down the street. Um, but we had a really pressing issue here. So, I actually asked permission to step out of that event. Last year, during the same public comment on the budget, I stood in this spot and I pointed out parts of the teacher salary scale that were moving backwards. And unfortunately, I'm here again because the same issue remains. And once again, I fall into that category of educators whose steps are being decreased. To see year after year in writing that I'm worth less than someone who stood in my exact same position a year ago is more than discouraging. It's honestly appalling. And the sting from it doesn't go away. For teachers currently on steps seven through 15, the proposed salary scale is pretty abysmal. I'm

220not mincing words here because this community deserves to understand exactly what's happening. In this proposed salary scale, I'll lay it out really clearly. A teacher starting the next school year with 15 years of experience will make $1,000 less than a person who started the current school year with that same 15 years of experience. And just to highlight how this is a continuing trend, we'll compare it to two years ago. The proposed salary is $1,300 less than it was two years ago. Despite the cost of living in that time increasing by roughly 5.6%, they'll be paid $100 less per month. And it's being touted as a raise. So I ask you, what are you doing? These numbers tell our teachers that our years in the classroom don't matter. These numbers tell us that dedication, growth, and

221professional expertise are not valued. And I'm telling you, these numbers make people want to leave. Our students here need a different story, though, because every day those students walk into the classroom and they're eager to learn and they grow and they succeed. And the learning that happens there is real and it's powerful. And those students deserve stability. They deserve experienced educators who stay. But unfortunately, proposals like this, if adopted, make it impossible to justify staying. This is not sustainable. You can't retain strong educators while repeatedly moving the goalpost backwards and asking us to accept that as progress. My experience matters, my colleagues experience matters, and most importantly, the experience of my students in the classroom matters. Do you agree? And will you adjust the proposed salary scale to show that you agree? Miss Min, Adrien

222Min. >> Good evening, Madam Chair and members of the board. Thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening. My name is Adrienne Men and I'm a parent from Garrisonville district. I want to begin by thanking the board, Dr. Smith, our administrators, teachers, and staff. I appreciate the work that you do every day, often under very difficult circumstances. I strongly support continued investment in educator compensation and retention because strong relationships with trusted adults are foundational to student success and safety. I'm here tonight because I'm concerned about what our own data is telling us about the emotional health of our students and how the proposed budget addresses this issue. According to the 2024 and 2025 Virginia school climate surveys, more than onethird of Stafford County middle school students and over 40% of high school students reported

223prolonged feelings of sadness and hopelessness that interfered with daily activities. More than 60% of middle school students and nearly half of high school students indicated they had no adults they could turn to for help when they feel sad or hopeless. and nearly 12% of middle school and 13% of high school students reported having seriously considered suicide within the last year. This these data represent youth in our community. Over 4,800 middle and high school students may be suffering from depression. Over 5,300 students report having no adult that they can turn to. And over 1,500 students seriously considering attempting suicide. This is not a small group. That is thousands of young people. These are our sons and daughters, our neighbors children, our classmates, and our friends. As you know, we have lost young people in this community

224to self harm. This past November, a student representative on the student health advisory committee asked the committee to focus on suicide awareness. That brave student recognizes the problem and our students are telling us that they're struggling. We need to listen. National research gives us further reason to take this seriously. Studies of targeted school violence have found that more than 75% of those who committed such acts were experiencing significant emotional distress beforehand, including suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Violence is often preceded by despair, isolation, and untreated mental health needs. That means prevention starts long before a weapon ever enters a campus. And addressing these needs is both an educational and safety imperative. I appreciate Dr. Smith's focus on safety. He referenced the district's layered security approach and many of his FY27 proposals support that. Respectfully, this approach

225is flawed. The focus of these efforts need to be a layered prevention approach. Our approach should be to make the youth feel worthwhile, needed, and a part of our community. So, they never want to harm themselves or enter a school with a weapon and the intent to harm someone else. Respectfully, eight deans, eight nonsworn school security officers, and 12 weapons systems were not an answer to the problem. Thank you. >> Thank you. I will close the public hearing for the budget and move on to general citizen comments. Um, three minutes are allocated to each speaker or group. Speakers shall identify themselves by name and organizational affiliation if the spokesperson represents an organization. Speakers shall also announce the purpose or topic of their comments. Citizen comment which is profane, abusive, or which threatens imminent physical harm

226shall be ruled out of order by the chairperson. Individuals who would like to address the school board during this meeting are required to sign up no later than 6:50 p.m. on the meeting date. A printed signup sheet is made available between 4:30 and 6:50 in the foyer of the chamber. Do we have any anyone signed up? >> There are two individuals who are signed up. Barbara Caprat and Madison Crouch. >> Miss Caprat. Miss Crouch. Good evening. My name is Madison Crouch and I'm a senior at Colonial Forge High School. I'm here to speak about how I think eliminating the use of AI in the classroom would be very beneficial. The literacy and comprehension rates have declined since there has been a rise of the use of AI. Harvard.edu states that the national report card posted

227at September 2025 showed that reading scores for high school seniors fell to their lowest level since 1992. On the other hand, a survey taken by Pew Research states that 64% of teens use AI, including about three and 10 who do so daily. AI gives quick, simple, and convenient answers. It can write one's entire essay. It can give homework answers. All this seems pretty nice until you realize that this is corroding the cognitive thinking skills and attention span of the younger generations. Reading, for instance, has become a lost activity. Many students don't like reading. Scrolling through the internet has captured the attention of millions worldwide. Instead of reading books for English class, asking AI for a summary seems quicker and easier than actually reading the book given to them. I see my peers in my classes

228using AI for the answers to the work given instead of even giving it a shot or asking for help. And it worries me to know that our future possibly lies in the hands of those who can't think for themselves or even ask for help if needed. The human brain requires human connection, real life communication, and the ability to be challenged to have healthy growth. It's especially critical in the teenage years of development. If everyone uses AI to fill the gaps of real world isolation, how are we ever going to get over that anxiety to ask questions or to feel challenged? AI gives answers quickly and seemingly from a trusted source. People are losing the ability to fact check AI's responses and just submit what was given to them without a care if it's correct or

229not. We are regressing. Cognitive thinking skills are rapidly declining without us even noticing. And this is where AI is abused. Instead of using it to aid in our thought process with assignments, tasks, summaries, etc., we take the mediocre response and use it and use it as our own. The students who use AI regularly have become so used to being able to have all the answers at their fingertips, they're not realizing it's rotting their brain. It's becoming extremely normalized and no one realizes the long-term effects this will have on our future as the new adults. So, what can we do? AI is inevitable. It's everywhere and on top of that, it's ruining our environment drastically. So, to reduce the unnecessary usage of AI, I believe it should be eliminated in the classroom. Gemini and chat GBT

230should be blocked on the school Chromebooks to reduce the amount of students using it during class time and create a better environment to learn effectively. Thank you for listening to a student's perspective on this issue. Thank you. Seeing no one else, um we have two action items. First, the 12.01 1 adoption of a resolution authorizing the application to the Virginia Public School BSPA to allow the county to borrow funds for school construction. >> Motion to approve. >> One. Sorry, >> Miss Finger Holtz. Did you second? >> Okay. Um, do we have any discussion? >> Could we, um, just for the public have a statement of what exactly we're borrowing and what we're going to use it for supposedly? >> Absolutely. Um, so first of all, we are not borrowing any money as a school division.

231Uh, but the county is borrowing money. Uh so we go through uh what is the BPSA pulled borrow uh and there's an application process. So the resolution actually tonight is the school board authorizing um us to participate and submit an application for that VPSA uh poolled borrow. What's changed over the last few years is because of the amount we've been uh borrowing for all of our uh major construction projects is the county has been doing standalone borrows. So, it used to be that every spring and fall we would come in front of the board. We would do good do this and go through and anything that was on our 3R list um we would borrow money for um and or our our large capital items and we would we'd borrow that money. The county would

232borrow the money. They then appropriate it to the school board and then we spend it on those projects. Uh and then the county would then pay the debt service over um sometimes it ranges between 15 and 25 years uh for the bond borrow. uh the last few years because of the dollar amounts are high enough it makes more financial sense actually to do the standalone borrows. So we are taking advantage of the county's um bond rating. So uh when we were doing smaller amounts we would actually participate in this poolled bond borrow uh and we would use the VPSA pulled bond uh interest rate uh and now we are part of our own standalone borrow. So we take account uh we have our own interest rate own borrow with the county. Uh the projects are

233listed in here. It's primarily our three projects that currently are ongoing. It would also be for the Drew Middle School and Hartwood uh elementary school rebuild along with several projects on our upcoming 3R list. This resolution um in total is 175 million which would cover us um all of this calendar year and through next fiscal year. So, it's trying to really target June of 2027. Um, into the fall, we would do another borrow or um application process in the fall of 2027. >> So, so this does not cover the entire rebuilding of Drew and Hartwood, right? I just want to I just want to be clear that it's it's sort of finishing up Hartwood High, Falls Run, Crow's Nest, and then starting the process on these other schools. Is that correct? >> Yes, ma'am. Thank

234you. Are there any questions? Miss Randall, >> how many more um exterior envelope phases do we have for North Stafford? >> Um I do not know. Maybe >> This is it. All right. >> Promise. >> I swear I swear I've done one of those every year that I've been on the board. >> And is this replacing the switch gear at North Stafford? Wasn't that what was done part in part over the summer? Okay, thank you. Any other questions? Cast your vote, please. The vote passes six to one with Mr. Reagan not voting. Moving on to the second request is to the board of supervisors for an additional appropriations for the health benefits fund work from from workers compensation fund and operating fund due to increase in health costs. Motion to approve the request to the

235board of supervisors for additional appropriations for the health benefits fund, workers comp, and operating fund due to increased costs in healthcare. Is that it? >> Any discussion? >> I just have a procedural question. You go ahead. No, I I just wanted to to note that we've been um addressed this evening by the uh finance citizens advisory committee and by a member of the public on the budget comments about um employee compensation and that you know we clearly need to do better. But I I would like to note that that this $7 million that we're transferring and it's from this year's savings is going to benefit employees, albeit 61% that take advantage of our health insurance. It's available to 100% of our employees. But if we did not have these kind of expenses and it started

236last year, it's this year and we're already anticipating it for the the coming budget that's going to be um approved for the next fiscal year. Perhaps there would be more funds available, you know, for for compensation. So, it's not that we are not putting money into staff. It's just that these benefits are just really costing much more than anyone had anticipated when the last year's budget was approved. um we are addressing it for next year, but it's um it's it's a pretty heavy cost that we're putting in, but it it is in effect a benefit for the employees that choose to to participate in our health insurance. And I would just say um I I personally think of health insurance as something that we should all have and I don't necessarily think of it as

237so much of a benefit as something that we uh we should have. But um aside from that, just a procedural question, Mr. Fulmer, I understood that we had to go across the street for permission to take money out of the health benefits fund. I didn't know that we had to to move money into the health benefits fund. >> So, it's not that we're moving it into the other funds, but we have to have authority and it's not that we're moving it have authority to move it into the health benefits fund. We have to have the authority to increase our appropriation in the funds that we're moving it out of. So, our operating fund, you'll notice that the additional appropriation is actually only the 2.5 that is coming out of the local OPED trust. the other

238that we're actually using as payroll savings, comp benefit savings in the current year, those monies are already budgeted. So, we don't need an additional appropriation for that. So, y'all are ultimately approving that plus the 2.5 to be transferred in. So, we need the authority for the 2.5 and then we also need the authority in the workers comp fund, >> right? So, but we don't actually need the authority to transfer that 3.3. >> We do not. >> Okay. I just looking at it, it made it look like we were asking for permission to do that. I didn't think we needed permission to do that. Okay. We do not and you will see an increase in the appropriation and health benefits fund because it is overall exceeding its appropriation. >> Absolutely. Thank you. >> And I will

239just clarify that if it ends up being on the lower end and we're only at $5 million over budget and health benefits and we've transferred in seven that will just stay in the health benefits fund and try to build up a little bit of that reserve. And so we'll report back, you know, when we do a third quarter update. I'll let you know how the health benefits fund is looking then. >> Any other questions or comments? Please cast your vote again. This passes six to one. One, no voting. This uh next item is just the first just for information, the first read of the policy 11:07 officers of the board. Um there were just some slight changes that have been discussed in previous board retreats and in governance. There's no action required. >> Any questions?

240>> I would just note that the proposal here is that if somebody is running for some office other than school board that they cannot be chair or vice chair. Um, I personally don't think they should be able to be chair or vice chair if they're running for school board because it is very time consuming and it does um it does make it difficult. So, um, but I understand that that may not be the will of the entire board. >> Dr. Smith, >> just just to clarify there, the the lines in that policy, line six does about any member of the board. It's eligible to serve as vice or vice chair or chair. But then on on line nine, it does talk about just only for chair in terms of the running for an election. Just

241to clarify that, >> then I would say it should be chair and vice chair >> because because if you're vice chair, you are in line to be chair should something happen. But that that I don't know if the rest of the board would be willing to at least amend that. >> Miss Finger Holds. Um, as this moves forward, I'm not going to support it as written just because it limits our um, options. And I know there's a clause in there for or for any of our rules really, we have twothirds votes. And if we are already putting in a way out of a policy, then it's probably not a solid policy. I know we had a little bit of discussions and issues um with joining chair and vice chair this year. So, I want to

242leave those options open to us in the future and trust that boards will make the the right choice going forward without their hand being forced. >> Miss Random. >> Um yes, I I kind of agree with um Miss Finger Holtz. I mean I can also be supportive of the will of the board as well. But I think one of the things that um in our discussions this year but also understanding where this is um come from from with experience as well. I just think that as the adults that are sitting up here, I don't think I want a rule that tells me who I can and cannot vote for. um because I'm I'm able to discern um for myself who I feel can be uh better serving in the chair and the vice chair role.

243Um and I do understand I do understand the the challenges that come with elections and serving as well. Um, but I just, um, like I said, I can support the will of the board on this either way. I just also, you know, like to know that I can make, um, decisions for myself or, you know, anyone as an adult can make a decision for themsel as to um, how they can best be served uh, on the board for the year. >> Thank you. Anybody else? We have no action on this at this time. Um so moving on to the next thing, superintendent. >> All right. Good evening board members and the staffer community. Uh thank you for tuning in uh this evening. We're going to start first start off with Winter Storm Fern. uh at

244Fern and want to just acknowledge the tremendous effort our transportation fleet maintenance nutrition custodial teams all of our division staff that really chipped in during the recent winter storm. Thank you to everyone that helped support our families and keep our facility safe. I especially want to thank our nutrition services team who served over 7,000 meals to our families during the weeklong shutdown of our buildings. And I know we had a lot of folks come out and help us with that, including several of our schoolboard members and staff that really supported that effort. And just a tremendous effort for our families. Mitigating the snow and ice and monitoring road and weather conditions required long hours, early mornings, and constant coordination to ensure that safety remained our top priority. Frankly, our our equipment and infrastructure, they're not

245designed for storms like uh we received. And uh with such low temperatures over a long period of time, frankly, we we probably shouldn't get that equipment because it's not going to be good when it sits for 10 years and we don't ever have this type of a storm again. Um but I really do appreciate our teams who work creatively and diligently within those constraints and so we were able to to go back safely. So we do understand that no decision will be perfect. I know some may have wished to be closed while other thinks we should be open. Um and I wish I had a perfect solution every single time but simply not the case. These calls are made based on safety safety of our students and our staff. And I do appreciate the patience

246and understanding while we prioritize this safety while keeping learning on track. I'm excited to to share this evening that a new tool that we're introducing to help our students uh to prepare for life after graduation and preparing up to graduation. And it's called School Links. This is a comprehensive platform designed to support college, career, and life readiness beginning in third grade and continuing through graduation and after. Students will work with their counselor to develop a personalized plan for success after high school while aligning it with our strategic plan goal to make sure that every student is college, career, and life ready. Families are an essential part of this process. And one thing I really appreciate about this platform is that parents and guardians can follow along with their students career and college exploration. They can

247review assessments. They can see their favorite colleges or careers and have those meaningful conversations with their children. With this program, you can access personalized dashboards, track important events and reminders, research colleges and careers, compare costs, and even connect directly with your your students school counselor. for their eighth and tth graders. You can also review course plans to make sure they're on track uh for their goals. We'll be sending families full instructions or resources later this month. So, keep an eye out and we're happy to partner with you, our families, to ensure our students plan, explore, and take charge of their futures. On January 14th, we celebrated our spelling bee champions. Congratulations to Athena from T-bitten Gale Middle School who won the 2026 Stafford School's divisionwide spelling bee and to Israel from Stafford Elementary School which

248was this year's runnerup. The winning word was phum which is the living tissue and vascular plants that transports the soluble soluble organic compounds made during photosynthesis. I do want to extend a thank you to Stafford printing as they sponsored this year's event. Athena will now advance to the Fredericksburg regional spelling bee on February 28th where she'll compete for the opportunity to represent our region as the national spelling be. Last week we had the opportunity to showcase the incredible work happening across Stafford schools uh through a specialty centers tour with several of our key part community partners. Representatives from the Stafford County Economic Development, the Economic Development and Tourism Department, the Stafford Education Foundation, and our school board chair and vice chair joined us for a visit to our specialty centers, including a construction walkthrough at

249Hartwood High School, where we highlighted the progress of our new AMP Center, which is arts, media, and production center that's scheduled to open this fall. Throughout the day, our guests engage directly with students and staff at each site, gaining firsthand insight into the innovative, hands-on learning experiences taking place across our specialty programs. These conversations reinforce how intentionally our schools are connecting students to high demand career paths and preparing them for the future and those workforce opportunities right here in Stafford County. We concluded the day with a roundt discussion uh from staff across the division focused on how our local business community can play an active role in supporting these programs and strengthening workforce development partnerships. The conversation was proudly served by Stafford High School culinary program providing a perfect example of student talent in action

250and the real world skills our students are developing every day. I'm grateful for our staff, students, and community partners for helping to tell the story about how our Stafford schools continues to inspire, empower, and prepare our students for what's next. This this past weekend on Saturday, we held our fifth annual health and wellness fair at Colonial Forge High School, and it was a tremendous success, welcoming more than 300 members of our community. We're deeply grateful for the families, community partners, staff, and volunteers who helped to come out, be a part of the event, and making a making a meaningful one. Although unfortunately we were sad that our Polar Pals fun run was unfortunately canled to the day uh because of the low temperatures and the inclement weather. Uh we were able to stay on track

251with mental health and holistic wellness sessions featured health screenings, wellness resources, familyfriendly activities, a 3D art contest, and a school nutrition taste testing. Mental health is a responsibility we all share and addressing it effectively requires a community approach that connects families with resources and support they need. It was also inspiring to see our community come together and support the many aspects of wellness. Also this Saturday and also at Colonial Forge High School, we hosted the Commonwealth District One Act Festival and our students delivered an exceptional showcase of talent and creativity. Performers from Brook Point, Colonial Forge, Mountain View, and North Stafford's high schools captivated audiences with powerful performances and compelling storytelling. Their hard work and commitment to the arts were evident on stage and reflect the strength of our theater programs across the divisions. Congratulations

252to Colonial Forge for turning earning the top honors and North Stafford High School as runnerup. Both will advance to regionals next week and bravo to all of our student artists for an outstanding performance. Yesterday, I was pleased to join Congressman Eugene Vinman as we traveled to Colonial Forge High School to personally congratulate senior Prrenav for winning the 2025 Congressional App Challenge in Virginia's 7th district. The Congressional App Challenge is a nationwide competition that encourages middle and high school students to explore STEM, coding, and computer science by creating original software application. Prennav's app, it's called Recheck, is a productivity app designed to help individuals experiencing memory loss. Congratulations to Prennav and this incredible achievement. And now for this morning. This morning, Stafford schools, we welcomed realers from across the region to the third annual realtor open

253house held at the Augustine Golf Club. We provided the latest and most reliable information about Stafford schools to share with prospective families such as how is our division is inspiring students, launching three new schools, secondary programs, and available resources for families moving to Stafford County. These folks are usually the first point of contact in our community uh when some when someone moving is coming to move to Stafford. And by partnering with them, we can ensure that Stafford County is a great place to live, work, and learn. And now as we look ahead, looking ahead to the end of the month, we invite students, families, staff, and community members to attend the social studies showcase on Saturday, February 28th from 9 to 1 at Stafford High School. This engaging event highlights student learning across elementary, middle,

254and high school levels, featuring a wide range of school-based projects and National History Day projects. Medals will be awarded at each level and the Stafford Museum and Cultural Center will present cash prizes for outstanding local history projects. The showcase will also include community exhibits that highlight local historic sites, organizations, and stories connected to Stafford's rich history. Students may participate individually, in groups, or as a class. And the National History Day participants are encouraged to use the event as preparation for the regional competition. Our team is already preparing for to recruit outstanding educators and staff for the 2627 school year. We're hosting walk-in Wednesday hiring events and job fairs this spring and candidates are offered the opportunity to register and interview for all available positions. In addition, we're partnering again with the Stafford County government for

255a joint job fair on February 28th. This will provide a one-stop opportunity for job seekers to explore careers across both the school division and county departments. We encourage qualified applicants to attend and learn more about how they can serve our community. As a reminder, schools and offices are closed in observance of President's Day this upcoming Monday, February 16th. We thank you for your continued partnership and flexibility during weather disruptions and your ongoing support of Stafford schools. Thank you. And this concludes my remarks for the evening. >> Thank you, Dr. Smith. Um, now we'll move on to board member comments. Does anybody volunteer to go first? Miss Healey. >> No. Okay. Miss, you were saved by Miss Blackwell. Um, hello everyone. Uh, I just real quick, I just want to congratulate again the individuals from HH

256Pool um who were uh recognized for some writing that they did for HH pool day. Three of the um young young students. So it was great talking to them. Um and the event was very simple but it was very informative uh trying to um the information that they passed out on HH Pool himself. Um I was very happy to be there was able to meet some of the individuals who were um initially attending the first HH pool school. Um so that was really great to see them. They had their yearbook and everything can I don't know how old it was but >> 1961. Yeah, that was really good. And um I know that uh for most people that know me know I do a lot of running and um as a person who was stationed

257in Alaska, I was ready to run on Saturday at 21 degrees. Um I just also want to say congratulations to the individuals that came out and put the fair on together. Hunter. Um, I'm not sure who else was involved. I know I'd work with Hunter a little bit. So, congratulations on getting it fair off the ground because I know it was counled one time. And let me also add that I want to know how often I can go to some of the cafeterias in the school and eat because the taste test was really good. Food was really good. So, but that's all I have to to share. Thanks. >> Thank you, Miss Blackwell. Miss Randall. Okay. Um, tonight I would like to uh share some heavy heart information. First, um, our hearts are a little

258heavy tonight as we acknowledge the passing of a couple of hard losses um, for our community. The first was Jacob Hall. He was a senior at Stafford High School who passed away earlier in January from a car crash. He was a member of the uh high school fire academy. And um we also lost at Stafford High School, Miss Judy Rossy. She was a chemistry teacher. Um I met her uh quite a number of times actually or was around her. uh she was my son's chemistry teacher and it was the one subject he was uh not looking forward to and she was the one who made it very understandable, very reachable. She was just one of those really really good connecting teachers. Um she was in Stafford for almost 20 years. I think the end of

259this year would have been 20 for her serving both at North Stafford and at Stafford High School. Um we extend our deepest sympathy to the family, the friends and the colleagues. Um and we also want to share our appreciation for our counselors, staff and school leaders who keep offering space and support for those who still have a need. Um, I also attended um a meeting with Miss Hollstead um involving uh with the chaplain of the fire department and we're meeting with u other people um to work together in trying to find uh ways and I have some connecting points I'll talk to you about as well, Dr. Smith. um regarding suicides. Um I know just recently we had one in our schools, but I just also recently had a friend uh whose son passed away

260from suicide as well um just a couple weeks ago. and the chaplain were talking to us about just how difficult it has been for them as well in um trying to support the community and just really um come to grips with something that's truly challenging. Um in the wake of that um you know you just have uh uh some heaviness that can come. Everybody does. Um we're not supposed to be happy 247. we have our heavies and we just have to handle them. Um, but I was very nervous with all of our um, closures and that I wouldn't have an opportunity with makeup meetings and also I moved my daughter to North Carolina this weekend too that I wouldn't get to see the monks that I've been following since November. So I heard that they

261had changed their route and they were going to be within like two minutes of my lake house. So I drove down there and got to see them three times in one day, even two and a half hours in the evening listening to them. And one of the things, it's just the simple things. I've talked to you before about how in the morning I don't touch my phone for the first hour. Um, my kids know, call dad. He's on his phone first thing. Um, but I just have to get my head straight and my life straight and myself straight before I let the outside world have a crack at me. The second thing though that the monks taught and I've done lots of different things to try to help myself over the years is just even

262the um you know they I wake up every morning and say to myself even when everything in my body hurts because I'm old and I'm getting out of bed and I say to myself something good is going to happen to me today and I can't wait and it helps me find the good things in my day. But the monks gave me two other things to to add to that. First was today is going to be my peaceful day. So I add that um because if I train my brain to look for those things, it happens very easily. The other part is breathing. Sometimes like this afternoon I absolutely came I came home from North Carolina. Uh, I had a weekend to see my son, moved my daughter, and some other things happened that shifted me.

263And I was by myself, thankfully, and had a little fit. Okay, it was a big fit, but I really had to get myself straight because obviously I'm going to be around people tonight and I wasn't fit for that. So, I uh did a simple practice and it was just breathing. Um, and I just so that my mind doesn't go in a thousand other directions. Just keep poking my nose. Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. And it just got me focused so I could get past my little fit and make myself presentable to come here tonight. So, I would just um offer those simple things, silly as they may be, small as they may be, they do make a big difference when you need something and there's nothing for you. So anyways, just wanted

264to share. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Randall. Miss Blackwell, you wanted to add something. >> I'm sorry. I just wanted to add that I want to say thank you all for the flowers in the >> Yes. All of those. >> Missing. >> Thank you. My hands up. >> I appreciate it. And and I want to thank uh thank you Dr. Warner and Dr. Chase for all of your efforts to date. I know it's not easy to uh to jump in to those roles. Uh then you your training got virtual. Is that a verb? Um but I I I look forward to to working with both of you and it and I I think I've actually talked to to you more in the past what is it month and a half than you know in

265in years. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you for reaching out. And Dr. Warner already knows. She goes, "I know you don't text." Because I'll respond to her text at 10:00 at night. That's when I get to my phone. That's my little my little ritual. Miss Randle, before I go to bed, I look at all my calls and my my text and get through. And we all have our our uh our methods of madness to to get through. But I I must say I I I would have liked to have seen you having a fit, Miss Randall, because my my daughter often tells me to focus my inner Susan. And Susan is Miss Randall because she is one of the calst, most kind and generous people I know. You know that. I love you. But

266anyway, I want to thank everyone associated with the schools for all of your efforts with this snowageddon that we went through. And I hope you have enough snow for the year, Miss Randall. I know there's probably never enough snow for you, but I know I'm done. I'm ready for for the spring. Um, it's hard. It's hard on It's hard on everyone. And thank you, Dr. um Smith, for setting up those meals because I know there are a lot of families that just don't have the resources to buy food. I mean, you don't really think about that, but if we feed breakfast and lunch five days a week and all of a sudden that's not available, you know, that's that hits hard, especially with the the the economy. So, thank you for taking care of that.

267The administrators for getting the schools ready. Uh transportation, who I understand, even though the buses weren't running, was out there checking the roads every day. Every day. And And that's that that's just, you know, above and beyond because I know my road is still icy in part. So, I'm hoping after the 50 degrees it'll it'll get passable. Um, but I and I know um that Mr. Fulmer and his staff were busy the whole time working on the on the budget. So, thank you for tolerating and responding to all of my questions. And I I if if anybody hasn't noticed, I have a particular interest in this health insurance. I mean, it's absolutely critical, but I'm trying to figure out how we're going to be able to address it and, you know, as as a as

268a school division and and move forward, not just catching up, you know, every year. So, thanks to everyone. and I look forward to spring and uh it's going to be 50 degrees this week and we can start to to enjoy it and get rid of all that snow. >> Thank you, Miss Huey. Miss Finger Holds. >> Um again, I want to re reiterate what everybody else has said and thank staff and maintenance. Um this frozen weather was not easy and I know a lot of people worked a lot of long really cold hours. So definitely want to thank that. Um thank you also for the staff members that came out. um to help provide food to families. Um thank you to our speakers that spoke today and the folks that submitted digital comments. I really

269appreciate your thoughts. Um I did get to do Phoenix Cent's graduation right after the last board meeting. Um and that was my first graduation that I got to attend and I didn't walk in my own graduation. So that was actually the first time that I got to wear a gown and they had no idea. But I was so excited for them. So, it was awesome. I really appreciated that. And my daughter got to see it, too, which was great. So, um I wanted to say congratulations to the spelling be champs. They could teach me a thing or two. So, may need to have those kids hang around me a bit. Um I also went to the HH pool celebration day. Um so, if you guys haven't been to the Rouser building, that used to be

270HH pool and you can walk in during the day during normal hours. It's open. Parks and Rex maintains that building. Um, and it has the history of the building there because it was segregated. So, it it um it's an interesting part of Stafford history to be able to visit and see. So, um, Gail PTA allowed me to host their bingo. Sorry, Dr. Smith. Oh, did you hear Oh, no. That was the first time I did it. Oh, there's a video. Oh, lord. Um, I only messed up one one number that I called and I said it wrong, but they they caught me. So, definitely thanks to those folks. Um, thanks to the folks that came out, staff, families, community members for the budget town hall or even the ones that watched online. Apparently, we had

271a bunch of folks online for it. So, that was great. Um, the realtor open house today was awesome to meet the folks that help keep our community growing. Um, I'm excited to look forward to LEAPS. Um, like you said, ATI this week. I'm going to be visiting both of those. Um, let's see what else. Thank you to all our staff who organizes all of these events that we hear about. Like you said, Hunter, he's everywhere. So, definitely thank you everywhere. Always everywhere. Um, some learning opportunities that I took advantage of this last month. Um, I know Wanda was there also with or sorry, Miss Blackwell was there with me as well for capital conference and the new board member training. Um, unfortunately because of the weather because that was on that first Monday, it did

272get turned virtual. Um, but it was great to to just continue to learn and and hear perspectives and understand the role that we're supposed to play as board members and make sure that we stay within that lane. Um, and I've been getting legislative updates um, also from the Virginia School Board Association every Friday. They tell us what's going on um, in Richmond. So um, as far as Hartwood specifically, I have heard from multiple families about transportation challenges still. Um, I know our district is very challenging because we are pretty spread out. Our roads don't connect as easily. Um, so I appreciate everyone sharing those experiences, but definitely keep filling out the transportation form. Um, if you go on our website, it just says report a transportation concern. Um, I've heard that people have just gotten

273frustrated and gave up reporting. If you give up and don't tell anyone, then it looks like it's been solved. So, um, definitely keep reporting and this is on my radar for sure. So, um, let's see. I think that's pretty much it. Oh, and thank you Missy and Angie for being amazing. You are the duct tape that holds all of us together and keeps us moving in the right direction. So, so thank you. That's it. >> I do like virtual. I think that's a great new herb. Virtual. Um, Dr. Chase. >> Yeah, I don't have a huge amount. Um, I enjoyed touring the specialty centers. Um, I very much enjoyed the student comment about AI and um, it's very timely given the Kraken loop. Um, I don't know how many people realize just how much electricity

274AI uses, but it is an enormous amount. And so when we uh get in there and do Gemini and chat GPT, we are burning a lot of electrons. Um so just a thought. Um and uh just want to thank uh my fellow board members for um trusting me with the position of being vice chair this year and I will try to do my best and um just encourage people with respect to the budget to definitely talk to us about it but also talk with supervisors about it because we definitely need um advocacy for that. Thank you. >> Thank you. First of all, I would I would also like to extend my thanks to maintenance. I know that clearing that ice was just unbelievably difficult. Um, and I I and the bus drivers for for getting

275our kids to school because a lot of adjustments had to be made to those routes. And you don't always appreciate just how big Stafford is and how rural and how narrow some of those roads are until you're out driving in Stafford. It can take me 45 minutes to get from my house to Ferry Farm Elementary School or an hour. Yeah. So, it it it really does pose a challenge. It's a very large county and a lot of our roads are are barely big enough for two lanes. So, I do appreciate that parents I made, you know, I appreciate how much sacrifice parents made and how challenging it was for them to have their students home. Um, I know that we are looking at ways to do asynchronous learning and to to make sure that learning

276still takes place. Hopefully, we won't have any more of these extended um vacations, unplanned vacations in the future. Um, I do want to congratulate the Phoenix graduates. That was our first graduation of 2026, and it's always one of the most heartwarming graduations that I attend. Um, I visited a couple schools which were very good and I also uh really enjoyed the the trip to the specialty centers and the opportunity to talk to some of our community partners who were really blown away with not only our programs but our students and I want to thank the students that one of the classes they were reading a book called um Poison Squad which I have ordered and I'm going to read because I have a morbid interest in chemistry and that kind of food safety and and

277those kind of things. So, um I will be reading that book. Um I also um had my first SEF meeting and I was really impressed with their mission statement and how they've pulled together and they're really um turning uh the program around and I I expect to see some great things for them. And I also would like to thank you for the gifts and the recognition for tonight. Um, thank you all. And now I will ask Dr. Chase to read us into closed. >> Yep. I move that the board convene a closed meeting at this time pursuant to section 2.23711A3 of the code of Virginia to discuss and or consider off-site easement acquisitions associated with school construction project where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the board's bargaining position or negotiating strategy. and

278two, pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2-3711A19 to discuss information subject to the exclusion in subdivision 14 of Virginia code section 2.2-37052 2-37052 where discussion in an open meeting would jeopardize the safety of any person or the security of any facility, building structure, information technology system or software program or discussion of reports, security plans, vulnerability assessments, surveillance techniques and operational plans and protocols related to the security of any governmental facility, building or structure or the safety of persons using such facility, building or structure. do >> second. >> Okay, please cast your vote. >> It passes six one with no one. No vote. >> One not voting. Yes. >> We're good. >> Okay. I move pursuant to section 2.2-3712 of the code of Virginia that the closed meeting held by the school board on February 10th, 2026

279be certified by adopting the following resolution. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the school board of Stafford County, Virginia, hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge, one, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements were discussed in the closed meeting to which this certification resolution applies, and two, only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered by the board. >> Is there a second? >> Second. Thank you, >> Miss Blackwell. >> Yes. >> Dr. Chase, >> agree. >> Miss Singer, >> agree. >> Miss Healey, >> yes. >> Miss Randall, >> yes. >> And Dr. Warner, >> agree. Madam Chair, the motion passes. >> Do we have a motion? >> Yeah. Um move I move that the school board approve

280off-site easement purchase agreements for tax map numbers 46-57H 46M-7A-P and 46M-8- A as presented during the closed meeting and to permit the chair or vice chair in the chair's absent to sign all documents associated with the forementioned p purchase agreements on behalf of the school board. also move that the school board approve an agreement after certifi certificate for tax map number 46N-1 as presented during the closed meeting and to permit the chair or vice chair in the chair's absence to sign all documents associated with the aforementioned agreement on behalf of the school board. >> Can you break that into two motions? I'm going to have a different >> Yep. Yep. Yep. Okay. So, uh we are dividing that. The first motion is um was the first part. Let's vote on that one first and then

281I'll just >> first the first three ements. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> Okay. Okay. Um that was unanimous. >> Yeah. Yeah. Um then I move that the school board approve an agreement after certificate for tax map number 50 46N-1 as presented during the closed meeting and to permit the chair or vice chair in the chair's absence to sign all documents associated with the aforementioned agreement on behalf of the school board. >> Thank you. >> Who said this? Who got it first? I'm good. >> I think who got it first? >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um um all in favor >> opposed. No. >> Five in favor, one >> opposed. We were doing so well. >> We might get >> Yes, we're sorry. Welcome to Stafford

282County Schools, where we inspire and empower our students so they're prepared to excel. Today, we're going to take you into the life of our dedicated school nutrition service heroes. Follow me. >> Here, we take food safety very seriously. Our team diligently checks temperatures, wears gloves, and ensures that workstations are cleaned and sanitized regularly to maintain the highest standards of hygiene. >> We're proud of our focus on fresh produce and cooking from scratch. It's all about nourishing young minds and bodies with wholesome meals every day. >> Our workday starts early to ensure everything is ready for our students when they arrive. Speed of service is crucial as we strive to serve nutritious meals efficiently. >> We believe in fostering a positive environment where every student feels valued and appreciated starting with a friendly greeting at the

283lunch line. >> I have worked for Stafford Schools nutrition going on for 2 years. >> I have worked for Stafford School nutrition for 12 years. I am committed to Stafford schools because I love seeing the children and feeding them nutritious meals each day.