001great and we don't have anybody to participate electronically can I have a motion to approve the agenda second all right all in favor I any opposed okay we will move forward uh to the 2425 Head Start and Early Head Start refunding applic and board training um thank you guys so much for allowing me the time to to do this um I've included way more information than needed um you know I just kind of get a little bit excited about all that we do for families um first up is our philosophy um as you can see it's it's just a little bit wordy um we are going to work this summer to uh shorten it make it a little more memorable maybe with some taglines but really in summary we strive for partnership with family student
002and school just to ensure um successful futures for all involved um the next slide it is very similar to the add a glance that you guys have received in the past I do just want to call your attention to the fact that our Head Start program Early Head Start program Virginia preschool initiative full day program those numbers do not change we will always have 251 Head Start 28 Early Head Start and 83 full day Virginia preschool initiative students um our next couple of slides this one is just just really brief it's it's a summary of what it actually looks like in our school how many teachers classes but we have 710 students that we're serving as of February this year and the next slide just talks about our demographic so this is what it looks
003like in our program um the this slide is our academic slide so as you can see um I just want to show you our growth so the growth um the spring is in that light blue and then the darker or the fall is the light blue the darker blue is the spring um we take what you guys may know of as the pals it's LS now so those numbers reflect there and then we take the vkrp um which also go those are also done in kindergarten um we really set our kids up for success as you can see can you explain what the be KP is Yes Virginia kindergarten Readiness program so it um is math okay geometry four years old well sh shapes issues Pythagorean theorem a headache over there a never never too
004young to learn I just saw that I was like but then patterns are next to it which is why it didn't click so you could go to preschool and just be fting in just right I'm going back um so our next three slides are actually about Family Services family engagement and our library program um we do a lot of Outreach Of course as as you the board know you've been to our Thanksgiving meal you provided books for our families and um and just on this slide I really want to uh highlight the fact that we 4,200 books have been donated to families and that's so far this year year that to me is an outstanding number so thank you again for your donations and we receive those um from other community MERS as well um
005this is just a little snapshot of what our head start and Early Head Start um program looked like this is like the makeup so who we accept what it looks like for the parents on that side how many families we've sered and um and just like their income status all right this slide is um for our head Start program goals as you can see um we have three that we strive for this is in addition to our Stafford County School school Improvement plan um we're constantly seeking continuous Improvement for all of our goals and um and we assess that through our annual self assessment process so each one like we assess our human resources we assess our facilities and we talk about goals in those areas for improvement the next slide here as as you
006know from previous trainings Head Start is very very very into health and well-being health and wellness for staff students and the families that we serve so there's just a little snapshot of those numbers um this snapshot here is of our early childhood special education program which you guys are very familiar with because you know that our numbers are growing and um you the board have given us the money to expand our Northstar location so we're very thankful for that um but I do want to let you know that the way that we calculate um our student growth is different from K12 so we calculate it from the beginning of the school year to the end because we have ongoing enrollments if a child shows up a child find and and needs Services we we serve
007them so that's why our numbers look a little bit different and not typical as to what you're used to as far as growth um this this slide is about um we do have a quality rating so all of our schools K12 have a quality rating um on the Virginia Department of Education website and so now our prek will as well um we participated in the practice year last year and we met or exceeded the expectations in all categories but they use a system called class it's an observation system and what it is two internal observations and One external so someone from the state comes and observes in our classrooms and those scores um kind of merge together to create our um our final score for our quality rating what they're looking for is quality interactions
008with our students so positive climate um instructional support how productive are our classrooms and um and it gives us a great snapshot of what we need to work on and what we're doing really well um this this last slide is just about our budget it's a small snapshot which I'm sure you guys are familiar with um but I did just want to call your attention to you may see that in the Stafford County Public Schools column we did expend more than we received um that is because our ecse program has grown so much throughout the school year last year we added three additional classrooms so that's why you'll see that little disparity there um but otherwise uh that's our Snapshot from last year and so that is it I tried but I would love to
009answer any questions that you have about our program again thank you as the board for being so supportive of all of our programs we really appreciate it sort of surprising that between 2016 and 2022 the end of year ecsc enrollment was relatively stable and then all of a sudden there was a bump oh gosh yes that 2223 school year it was like everyone came that year was like 70% growth within the school year yeah that's a lot it was a lot is not that just postco though that people were reluctant it's from 2016 though you look 2016 to 17 all of the end of year is relatively static sure but you growth and so you may have had you may have had there may have been grow people just decided not wait well because they
010can enter it um what age do they two two at two so if you think about 2020 if we're talking about 22 23 school year they would be to almost three so what's the do you have a c a predictive calculation that you use for enrollment or like I mean how are you that and then what how do we avoid doing this to you next time see we really try our best I know we looked um we try to look generally we try to stay at like 35% growth per year okay that's just what we've seen has worked in the past now this one year was an outlier right and but generally we're kind of staying in the same that's why we asked for additional teachers next year and the extra space right right and
011and you know we're going to get it and that'll be good um but generally we try to look at 35% growth within this so this is the first time you've had a discrepancy this large is what you're saying in terms yes that 22 23 years yes okay all right I just want to make sure that we're like it's been two years cuz this year was aome this a bit of grow yes it's not the not the end of the year yet but we are at 64% growth within the school year right now w wow okay how do you I remember you've explained this before but how the weight list situation works like there are some kids we take all the time and and then everybody else we operate on like a weit list or yes
012so that's the Head Start Early Head Start and BPI full date programs that we have it's an income based um program so you apply and then we have a um an application kind of tool that you fill out when you want to enroll with us that you know if you receive SNAP benefits if you are widowed or divorced if you are a victim of domestic violence you check off these things and they are assigned a point value and so basically then students are ordered based on the point value and the point value is based on me right so if somebody is a foster student or a foster child or if they're they've witnessed domestic violence they're probably going to move up a little bit or they're homeless they're going to move up on that list
013so that they're the next when a slot becomes available do you all still have peer models in the early CH yes we do yes we do those are hard positions to fill correct what now the how successfully do you fill those pure positions well they are rolling applications just like um kind of our students who come through with disabilities we do struggle a little bit more um to fill those positions and my understanding is that um that we need to get better in our process of promoting that and so we're working on that we've got more things on our website when we're recruiting for Head Start and BPI we're also recruiting for those slots now so we're really up it anybody else have ahead I'm just looking at the budget page I see and understandably
014you know the federal um had started going up but based on this the Stafford County Public Schools amount it's going down from this year to next year is that um or maybe I'm reading it wrong well that's budgeted for 2324 that was this yeah that was this year this is a reflection of of last year this budget so so we actually budgeted less for this year than we did for last year then we expended budgeted in 22 23 for this you spent this and then you budgeted for this for this year mhm so you budgeted for less than you spent but not for what you budgeted correct okay I'm sorry this is all this year this line this this is all this year 23 okay so mhm what was budget received it means budgeted yeah
015M okay wait that doesn't and why was so the budgeted amount was 3 million and the received and expended million I'm I'm sorry yeah I me I'm just trying to get it straight in my mind so for so for the 22 23 last year we budgeted how much almost 4 million but we expended 4.6 all right so that was last year so so this year we budgeted we budgeted last less for this year than we actually spent last year because that just doesn't seem to make sense amount of growth and your and your federal revenue is going up so it's counter balancing a little bit there but your total budget down at the bottom is going up because your population is going it's just where you're getting the revenues are changing but if we if
016the First Column is what was budgeted from the previous year the previous year mhm right and the second column is what was spent so we must have adjusted the budget at some point because of growth you did last year it's like they don't do a September 30 count really right right so their budget was based yeah so we've spent more because we have kids coming in but they'll get this year compared to what we budgeted we know I think your projections pretty good um the you had a little bit of an abnormality with that budget year 22 23 um and and of course working through this year I think we're where we're that's a question for Mr Fulmer he's probably watching I do definitely think that we are better prepared and we are also we
017can apply for additional BPI slots for our ecse program as well because anybody that's four years old attends 5 days a week and has a IEP we can get money from the state for BPI for that so we have other sources this is one of the few programs that the that the cost went down from last year this year we look forces yeah the cost the cost to the staff school that's right that's good yeah very good i' I'd say that this is encouraging both in a couple of fronts because this is the best money spent in public education is in early childhood it's got the highest return on investment and um you know there's a there's a healthy mix of federal uh state and local funds that are being expended to support the program
018and uh proper planning thanks to our director so great job I would say just I know you said you're going to trim this down but there's so many intangible things that like you just people just don't know with Head Start it's like a magical world um I honestly think our society would actually be fixed if every class ran as a head start as a former Head Start mom so I just I understand why it's long because exactly so all so important like every little thing in here is what makes it so important so it's not about just building strong kids to enter kindergarten it's about building stronger families support those it's really really good and we were a peer person and I even I like I felt guilty taking advantage of some of the awesome
019things but they're like no M God come I'm like this is great like I needed this for my other kids you know just so much stuff so so so when is the school board going to go back before your time the school boy used to serve dinner I think we used to do it twice a twice a year serve it I mean no you guys are welcome any no we actually prepared we I think we paid for we paid for the dinner we catered it we served it to the it was a family night yes for Head Start but we used to do it twice a year just once a year but it was it stopped yeah it was in the springtime was but that gave us that exposure that yall are talking about with
020the impact of head start on on the families because we do the dinner and then they go off for training and the parents would have training the kids would have training there weren conflicts weren't as many conflicts for board members as Thanksgiving yes well that this was different though we spend an evening basically this thank you very much you thank you guys um please come visit me call me you can come to our schools but thank you all of you board members so much we appreciate of course of course thank you thanks student dress codes student cell phones and student code of conduct next crew is coming in from the uh it's actually G to be Dr ship and Dr stle I did this table bouncing there's one right there there's one right there the
021back made it work for me we have to use the wheel it's a PDF see this is stressful there we go go ahead okay it's all you well good evening we're here to present uh three topics for your information this evening so we'll dive in um first one is the student code of conduct summary of recommendations uh we need to communicate we need a better job communicating educating our students our staff or parents about specific expectations um we need to promote consistency and enforcement of consequences to the violations across all schools and then there are other changes uh forthcoming we believe after the general sess uh information um we also have areas of consideration uh laws and regulation results uh research results we'll share with you from our cell phone usage and our address code
022and some other recommendations my dity is not very good is so Virginia C Virginia code requires us to have a student code of conduct that is obviously required and Virginia code uh specifically States certain things that need to be in there we may have a more stringent uh code but the model policies are developed by the Virginia Board of Education and they must include procedures for suspension expulsion and exclusion decisions discipline options and Alternatives and uh it does have prohibition prohibitions on hazing profane abuse of language or conduct bullying cyber bulleting tobacco or nicotine vapor products interesting that the code specifically calls out certain things and not others so the first recommendation is Christmas I was thinking christas CH are calling Santa oh my God not yet the first recommendation for student discipline is an
023expectation for setting expectations and I say that is a former principle of 21 years uh that any expectation starts begins middle ends with what the expectation set by the principal of the school is and uh the culture of any organization shaped by The Worst Behavior leader willing to tolerate so the expect ation setting starts and must start with the principles of our schools uh some of the things that we're going to work with uh setting those expectations Town Halls we have the ability to do live Town Halls questions answers videos from principles class meetings letters home and we must begin and to get more involved our parents more involved in this process uh more use of our overnight suspensions to create Behavior bus suspensions uh parents can ride the bus for their kids with their
024kids to reinstate them on the bus uh we don't require that I will tell you probably took one or two times a parent doing that and changes their kids's Behavior they don't want to ride their bus with their kid uh with their parent um and then something Dr Taylor has instituted this year want to make sure that we are very tight on it is a re-entry meetings for all out of school suspensions parents must be with their child to reenter the school after suspens we ask questions now or should we wait probably wait I would there's two sections there's a student conduct section and then a address section so you maybe want to do it in two chunks three things right three things um and then level setting to eliminate the inconsistencies that you're hearing
025about you're seeing within schools I know you're hearing it uh we it's a constant working work in progress and one of the things we are going to hold this summer is discipline Summit is going to be held July for all administrators typically uh discipline things have been part of a long list of items covered in the day uh this will be the only thing we do one afternoon with all of our administrators we're just going to focus on discipline discipline hearings and so forth uh on that particular day it will not be part of 12 topics on one day where you just can't possibly take it all in it's going to be one afternoon one topic discipline in our schools uh and then uh more oversight's needed and we we recognize that uh we looking
026at a potential addition of an office of student conduct it's something that really needs to be considered so that we have some oversight uh for this in our and someone responsible for this in our school so break number one questions go ahead um okay I'm gonna go first um I I was wondering I know at the Phoenix Center they re a contract that the students come in they sign a contract the parents are part of that when we have students that have an out of school suspension particularly a prolonged one is that something that we can look at okay is it something we do no it's not something we do we do have um I just like things writing like to parents like this is what your child is expected to do to the kid
027this is what you are expected to do and everybody signs it I just think that it it adds that reinforcement that we're looking for um other question I have is just that we're getting an awful lot of complaints about bullying because there's so many opportunities for kids to bully it's not just you know getting beat up in the bathroom anymore it's the it's the online stuff it's the Instagram and Facebook and Tik Tok and it it seems to be um almost a doxing of students and then it becomes very prolific and I I don't know how we address that it is difficult when I held my parent meetings I would say you know when I grew up if you were bullied at school at least you would go home and get away from it yes
028now it's it's with you 24/7 because our kids won't put away phones they're addicted to them at night so doesn't stop and that's the hardest well other people get sucked into the whole process so it's not even just you're being bullied by one idiot you're being bullied by them and all their friends it concerns me that you say kids W put away at night I had an email and just answer I'm just saying you're making it the child's responsibility yeah yeah I mean I'm sorry they don't have the the prefrontal cortex to be taken care of that themselves right I think that I totally agree with that I think that we have to place a higher expectation level on the parents to understand what's bleading into our school system is a direct result of the
029constancy of social media um I'm going to wait for you to be done I have a few I'm I'm dead go so is it okay if I go next sure so I I have a bunch of things on the code of conduct in general I think the biggest thing for me I'd like to see us really start to do we have this overnight suspensions and parents must um parents have to meet the mandatory meeting I'd like to see us Institute a mandatory phone call if a child is kicked out of a classroom and that child cannot return back to that class until the parent has been made aware because here's what I'm hearing the kids getting sent home with a referral slip and where's that referral slip going 10 out of 10 times not to
030the parent so the parent may not even be aware and then I hear the same thing emails are gone unresponded phone calls are going UNR returned and it's super easy for a parent to just play dumb and say I don't know anything are happening I've never I didn't get your voicemail I didn't get your email I don't know if that's the truth or not that's not my job but at the end of the day I think these kids like the biggest complaint from teachers is a kid get kid out for being disrespectful or disrupting the learning environment and they're back in 2 minutes so for me I'd like to see us hey you got one shot okay we'll give you one more chance to get it right and if you can't after that your parent
031must call us in order for you to return to that classroom I don't think that's an unrealistic expectation Oh I thought you meant we would call them saying Hey Little Johnny got kicked out so you're saying that we notify the parent and then the parent has to make contact with someone in the administration right so we can say this is what's happening with your child in the classroom we will allow them back this is the behavior we anticipate from this child now the parent is aware and like everybody's on the same page right we've done it for these which I think is a great thing I'm not saying all parents are knowingly ignoring us but for those who don't actually have it it definitely goes a long way for us to be like Mom I
032can't go back to class until you call this this until you call my principal I just don't go to school I leave and then the school I can't go until my parent calls so my parent doesn't call I just won't go to school practitioner tell you that that's an easy out for a kid if I MA honestly have too and I can excuse my way I can find excuses for all of these things but at some point we have to draw the line and say this is what we're going to do and we can't let people excuse their no I I think there should be an initial contact from us but to that point Dr of point we have to set a higher expectation level and we are not doing that either and the higher
033expectation level is also to the parent like you have to start paying attention to what your child is doing during the school day it's not a free-for-all um so I would like us to consider that on the bullying topic um the complaint that I get and I have gotten this year three times is that there is not enough of a paper trail being kept for um parents to go back and feel they um I have two instances where the parent legitimately went in and said my child is going to break if this doesn't stop and when she asked for paper backup they were like we don't keep records which I know is not true I don't know why that was told but then again her daughter finally snapped and hit the kid and now she's
034suspended after 3 and a half months of trying to get somewhere with that we have to stop that there has to be a mechanism in place and I don't know what happens with the paperwork or how that works I'm not even getting involved with that but something has to be changed there because there needs to be a paper Trail for these kids um the third thing I had is uh and some of it's related to the dress code too I don't think our kids come in acting as they're dressed 90% of the time pajamas lazy right like I I cannot tell you how many times I have heard and I'm not asking for kids that coming coming later yeah she's in Ro why don't we just the parking lot I just remember there was like
035a survey and yeah but I I do think it ties into the discussion that we're having about Behavior which is we're not we are not placing I I don't not that all of our kids are going to meet our expectations but I think a lot of our kids that we've asked to thrive they rise up and meet that right so if I don't place a high expectation on them why would they bother trying to they're just going to meet the lowest one we said so for me I think that's a big issue I think we haven't placed a high enough expectation for our kids to strive to and I think they can do do it if we did it does anyone have anything so um how are we providing parents with the student code conduct
036these days it's only through Synergy unless you ask for it so you have to acknowledge that seen it through but you may not actually read it you can just go through click click you have to go all the way down though you can't just click it I tried you have to scroll all the way down for each child my kid is going to do what they're going to do okay I'm going to sign it I mean I just I just you know we used to send home a hard copy of it and then you would have a hard copy in your house of the student code of conduct and you had to sign it and I understand we probably save money by not killing those trees but we may be undermining parents actually knowing what
037the code of conduct is but I didn't read it I just flipped to the page and signed it so what you can't you can't make them P I just had a point of clarification I just want to know what oriz suspension cons consisted of because I'm not familiar with that so course not we have a process by so proud of you you suspend the student until the parent comes back comes in with that student it means they can't do like any sporting events or anything that might be happening at school that evening too so they're they they're BL correct they can't so you right so it's for all intenses purposes it's a suspension until the parent brings you in so parent can't you can come back the next day yeah so you could put like
038a multiple choice question at the end of the student code of conduct have a couple of questions just to make sure parents actually read them quiz I'm teacher there will be quiz where when do students sign the student code of conduct that's not even supposed to be rhetorical I mean do they do it during a class meeting do they no not during class meeting class meetings are usually so we have a student code of conduct that parents are allowed to click through and ignore but that students may or may not ever see unless we don't ask them for it and I there should be a quiz for the students that would be great have to sign I remember when I think I think I had to sign that I had gone over it with my
039children is what I so so I'm going to point out something here how members of the board and you have worked with your children is not necessarily consistent with how other families and Stafford have worked with their children and collecting and maintaining sheets with signatures on them has not been a strength of Stafford County in the past nope for the 209 plus thousand students that we have there are not 29,000 signature pages that get collected every year right um and the administrative burden of collecting a piece of paper and maintaining that record for a period of time is should factor into some of but we don't have it on their side of synergy we don't have it on student FS for secondary kids I can't confirm that or not actually we do but um I
040want and that's basically why I asked they the same um well maybe student orientation especially the the transition day transition day should be something that the code of conduct is discussed and students are made familiar with it and have to you know even go online and sign it scroll through it and sign it as it's being reviewed maybe that could be part of it then at least you know they're hitting it at each grade level you said they are already yeah they they did cover it we should make an so more so can I ask anyone recommendations uh for setting expectations in I'm glad to hear that you're going to have a discipline because that's also another thing reading through the um surveys was inconsistencies within a building but also inconsistencies outside of the buildings
041this building does it this way you know administratively um are our uh administrations currently holding town halls or is that going to be is that what you're recommending is a new we recommendation we had St did so okay some schools do and some schools don't okay so for clarity okay um some schools have a grade level assembly that is in the format of a town hall to discuss expectations to discuss the code of conduct and discuss other things that are happening in the school okay this is a practice that the majority of our schools do but not every school does wow so it's a it's a best practice will that change are we going to get consistent with school part of that is I thought they whenever I hear Town Hall I think us yeah
042that's what I was thinking but you're talking about building levels but I was also thinking that when with Town Hall you were talking about Administration to parents but this is Administration to students oh could be either way um but currently we don't have town hall with parent we have town hall with students and some locations some locations just bring some more clarity and some options for people to get their expectations set okay so this meeting that's going to be with uh discipline summon that's just with administrators so what is the idea then that the administrators will then talk with the teachers and their building share some best practices on how to implement the things we're talking about so one of the data points that you got in the survey data was reflective of the fact
043of of inconsistency uh within a certain school and adjudication of discipline so just like teachers need um professional learning on a specific topic so does the administration and not just within the scho but also within the County High School administering disciplinary consequences with some consistency middle doing it with some consistency Elementary doing it with some consistency right I mean I'm just I'm just you know you can train your administrators but if your teachers are all over the map then it doesn't you know so we ready to move on to the next section yes [Music] okay Bon here from Dr simple so following the format that we did when we just discussed discipline we're going to go through for both cell phone usage as well as dress code the law and regulation the research results that
044we've conducted within Stafford schools and then our recommendations I will get this I apologize here we go okay so the regulation regarding student cell phone um we in the Virginia code that it permits the school boards to regulate the use of cell phones and to establish the disciplinary procedures for violation so you have the ability to make decisions here so we to get a sense of how both our students as well as our staff and then of course our parents the three stakeholder groups we administered a survey uh we administered this survey and I'm so sorry for interrupting and I apologize Dr shedz um can we go back to the state law for a second yes this is actually way more important than than it really does need to be stated that very frequently we
045do have parents and students say you can't tell me what to do with my child's cell phone oh my God that's in my nose Okay I want to be very clear we can yes we can okay so I want to reiterate how absolutely important this one slide actually happens to be I'm so sorry for op social media post so to help inform your decision making around this topic we were able to conduct a survey and we administered the survey to our three primary stakeholder groups students secondary students so grade 6 through 12 uh parents but this was parents at all levels so we included Elementary and then our staff and this would be our school-based staff at all six through grade 6 through 12 so all levels what was your response rate so we are
046in cellone correct okay so we distributed the um mid to end of January of this year 2024 um we had 5,000 251 parents respond we had 24% of our students respond and we had uh 45% of our staff respond and I should also note in um you got a slew of attachments from me if and within those attachments there is a presentation that was um provided for a different session but it has a much more of a breakdown of those questions and then the response rate and you can see by level if you have any questions about that you know I'm always available to I just keep it at high level for you right now so moving on WE these were our survey questions so what were the top three ways to improve our current
047regulation um so what we saw here is no cell phone we gave a categorical options and we allowed people to choose and we didn't restrict to just one we allowed you to choose as many or as few as you thought were relevant so the top three um were no use at all um that would be our staff 75% and our largest proportion of parents said none at all um students were in favor of incorporating into lesson plans or incorporating into Class via educational applications or platforms and you can see our students were in favor of that that's funny that the students were about incorporating into lessons and educational apps but the teachers weren't and they're the ones who are doing the lessons yeah and what you're going to see as a theme is there really
048is inconsistency among the stakeholder groups so well I don't think it's inconsistency I think the reason the kids want it is exactly why the teachers don't also convinced there's that many applications that are on your cell phone that are necessary in any class unless we're providing cell phones to every student I don't see how we can definitely Google okay so we also asked um are students currently held accountable in the perception of the respondent regarding their cell phone use um the majority of students 70% said yes um students are held accountable parents were less sure it was a three item chice Choice yes no we unsure and the staff were there was a lack of consensus okay so concluding the takeaways here from the survey research um as I mentioned a moment ago there is
049a lack of consistency across the three stakeholder groups we have differences with students and of course with the staff and the parents um perhaps this is indicating that there's a lack of clarity surrounding the expectations for the use of cell phones in school if that permitted at all and then we started to get into the areas of inconsistent enforcement of the consequences and inconsistent application of discipline for what would be the stated violations that seems to be a consistent them is that inconsistent yes enforcement problem is that you're inconsistent then it's ineffective yeah so our recommendations regarding student cell phone use for your consideration the first is to simplify the regulation to make it very clear when and if cell phones are permitted during the school day and under what circumstances and then again the
050resounding theme as you just mentioned Miss ranel um promoting the consistency in the enforcement of the consequences to those violations within school and then across schools so did you did you look at middle versus high since they have different yeah so that yes we did we did in that companion um you'll see a breakdown you can see the responses by level did you see a difference I mean there's a different different different there's a different rule for Middle versus high so I'm just curious whether you saw a difference between middle versus high middle can't have their phones on at all during the day whereas high school students are allowed to have their phones during the day do we have any feedback on um the impact that rule changes had on Middle School teachers admin I've
051only is the rule you know because the rule is stricter are we having more kids getting in trouble for it or are we still getting in trouble but it's a lesser number I saw it on the our student discipline thing it is a lesser number but they're still getting it well I think we never going to eliminate kids getting in trouble for cell phones I don't think L other than the anecdotal I don't have anything that's really compelling in terms of data I was just curious if there's a difference in terms of because it's a good end of year question for us to definitely ask because I mean especially towards the end of the year when kids Behavior sort of ramps up to know hey was this one of those ramped up things or is
052it otherwise when presumbly we have the data from when the survey was done just have to look at the two different groups to see if there's a difference at least with the students with parents you might not know because parents could have kids in both gradev but teachers teachers if if you have the information about what grade level you teach see if we can drill down a little bit and get you an answer to that so my concerns are also related to the inconsistency piece and applying consequences for self-own usage so um I mean I I keep seeing comments and stuff online from teachers and people that are even from parents that have said if you Institute a cell phone B I'll just tell my kid to you know ignore it or whatever I'm sending
053my kid so so that doesn't help us either they also have the watches well that's true too but when when there's that level of open Defiance that we're trying to do something proactive but it's people already I mean these were in conversations around what kinds of suggestions do you have for us to consider and it's well if you ban the phones my kids comeing anyway I'll just tell them to you know violate whatever but right so so for me it's it has to be consistent and I don't know I don't even know what the consequences are now do you know what I'm saying like and I do hear there we need a production after we firm it up we need a video yeah and I'm serious like well it it sets the tone and it
054sets the expectations and it also lets the parents know what is supposed to happen and what isn't supposed to happen so if you ever need to hold the school accountable because listen I know my kid got whatever whatever well that didn't happen or that did happen you know but I think I think of video I love a production okay I think of video is a good thing and it and it like I said it just tells us what we're supposed to be seeing what we're not supposed to be seeing and some people watching right I mean I thought our regulation was pretty simplified I mean I'm like simplify the regulation that's already pretty simple I mean for Middle School it's pretty clear your phone is off from the start of school till the end of
055school yes period And I there's a gray area with high school that's administrations I've talked to have said that they feel the gray area in high school has made it difficult for them to be strict with borders and boundaries and that sort of thing so they definitely are looking for us in my mistaken did we not say last year that we were going to try middle school as sort of like the pilot of it and then move more into High School your numbers have gone down mean middle in middle school so so then that need one rule your school your phone is off from the start the end of school it's working at the Phoenix Center I mean it's just distractability thing yeah and if you if you looked at the one of her surveys
056that when uh it's not on this but it was in one of her uh attachments that she gave us it all three classes student parents and teachers said what's the problem with cell phone distractability like that is the number one thing and you know kids of obviously and I think it was like 60% of the kids were saying yeah the cell phones are for social media and making videos and no that's not what happens during school day so so are we well we would be well within our rights if we took the phone for a violation to say the parent has to come in and pick up can we do that legally you need to come in pick up the phone your child was was in violation of the code and so now you will
057come in pick up this phone you can have it back but your student cannot I mean to me those are the things we need to start putting in the place in order for us to really start getting at the root of this problem because otherwise it's nothing but disrespect they don't care that can have it to the kid that can't have it it will be a nightmare for administration say that again to manage if you say you're going to come and get your kids phone and they can't have it back to manage which kids can have their phone and which kids can't have their phone back is going to be a Lis I would if it's taken then your parent has to come get it right yeah or guardian or whoever on your list of
058people then come back to with it the next day right that's going to be the hard part like going try so I was going to say actually go back to what Miss guy was oh S no no no going back to what Miss guy was saying I also love a good media video and I feel like if there is production it should like obviously have students in it kind of like representing what the like regulations are like when you can use your phone when you can and then I also feel like rather than it being like an optional video kind of have it during like the whole like the game school orientation that way it's something that's like viewed by like across schools like across Middle Schools elementary schools and the high schools especially because
059like that's really it's really not even Elementary School un less so middle school but really like it is high school that kind of like the problem really get Chas in and yeah I think like a video oration would be really nice I feel like with the um s policy as well as the dress policy those would be like really key like they still bring them in those are effective for kids age right like for high school kids I like to guys were discussing about the teachers or Administration taking PHS away I believe that would be a bit of an issue especially with the older generation of kids um especially in high school um having taking students phone away it also depends on the teachers because sometimes students don't feel like you taking my phone away
060is a fe a fair thing maybe they were just doing something and the teacher took it away it's going to be very big issue you can't have it on at all right so if you can't have it on at all and it's on there is no issue there's no blurry line it's just it can't be used as another like it can't be used as a discipline for something that doesn't relate to having the phone on when it shouldn't be right so so I I I get what you're saying our line of clarity is blurry so we're trying to clarify that like it is off when you walk into the school building it cannot be turned back on again until whatever the Bell Rings you can turn it back on the second it rings but if
061it's on anywhere in between those hours and someone catches you it's mine can we implement the caddy thing because um for IB students we have Cades where we have to so can we just is that so I do do want to point everybody to the second bullet point um which is is important as setting whatever expectation that you are going to set um I I will say that that any kind of substantive change not the similar to the one that we made at Middle School although Amplified at the high school level this is what administrators will do for a period of time they will not do classroom observations they will be engaged engaged in this for a period of time while they are Norm setting and there is a resource component here to enforcement that
062we are not resourced for so there there is some thinking through some of the unintended consequences that that are going to come with this as well as you contemplate this over the next several weeks okay but how does that fit with um make sure I mean there's a consequence of not dealing with the problem to of course our attendance our discipline and our scores are all reflecting various things so to say we're not resourced to deal with our primary Mission resource to deal with every day cor but I also think that that's part of the problem which is we we have to set a rule and it has to be followed we have not done that in the past and because we've had the there's there's too many problems not enough people to handle them
063I get all that and I hopefully in the future we can remedy that but we can't not address this it has gone too far are and I think we've seen too many implications negatively yes of what is happening here when we get a hearing where you know someone has been texting a friend in first period to make sure that their phone video is ready to go for a fight that's going to happen in you know 20 minutes I'm sorry we're responsible for all that so the policy has to be very clear all day on social media bullying or about a situation that was said that you know it's just such a distraction in the day now hold on CU J had one more thing to say I also want to say that about like technology
064and the classroom environment for like lesson plans I think that technology and like education can be very stimulating and because like we have Chromebooks I think it's just like rather than like B technology I think it's rather like finding like alternative means on the Chromebooks since we aren't able to use our M yeah I I that as part of a lesson I know in chemistry we did that but but you can you know you can make plans for rende Deus with your Chromebook too that's all monitored and we have Pap at least at the high school level at the middle school level they cannot right so but you eliminate that communication and that escalation that tends to happen from the start of the day to the end of the day in some all right who's
065ready to talk dress code oh I'm sorry next to me no okay I'm just observing um I haven't heard anything I haven't heard before but I'd say if we're going to do something we need to do it fast so that we can get it in effect and plans in place procedures and however we're going to remedy this to get in for the the code of conduct for next year so if if the board it sounds like the board is somewhat in do you think we need another work session on this or do we want it on for you'll see this in a couple ways so the schedule what it would look like moving forward is you have a governance meeting on Thursday where the code of conduct will be discussed this is a part of
066that then you will have your may work session where you will get a review time of the code of conduct and then up for first review also in May and adoption in June okay so with the change in the high school yeah so you you still have about 60 days worth of okay good of movement before a decision point and an opportunity to edit over really the next 60 days uh if you want to make some substantiv so but we we're really going to address the student use of the cell phone it's really going to be more in the regulation or in your Arena and how the administration is going to handle it I do think we have to be very um careful about the burden we're going to place on the administrators if we
067are going to in effect confiscate the phones because not only is there you know an issue of potential liability we don't know what's on those phones um we just have to be cent of that and and maybe that's something that that you know Dr Taylor can bring back to us recommendations on you know the the the action I mean we can certainly you know have a policy whether you can or can't use the phones but and how it's going to be enforced I would I would think that's more in the um you know the administrative and and and that's something that that the administrators I'm sure will want to have some feedback because that has been one of the the biggest push backs we've had in the past is not wanting to be responsibility for
068the potential liability of taking a phone and there there may be ways I'm not saying we we shouldn't do it but we need to be able to to know how we're going to do it we're going to do a consistency and there is going to be safeguards there to protect both the administrator who who confiscates the phone as well as the you know the the family whose phone you know it belongs to so I so I I was just going to say so it makes sense to talk about a weaver problem in place if you want your kid to have a phone you're going to wave well then so to me you're you know we talked about a total ban and people you know lost their minds so we wanted to walk it back to
069see what we could do to support like some of the parental concerns some of the issues that we have going on with the kids and the buses and needing SC so we can do that but you're going to have to give a little too you're going to have to agree that we're doing the best we can to keep your kids safe during the school day you're going to have to provide support with that and if your kid is caught breaking the rules and that phone is taken you're responsible for that because you were the one responsible to tell your kid what the rule was during the school day so I I'm pontificating but that's my yes would be responsible for the child unless a child is an adult over 18 but what what I'm concerned
070about is the the um responsibility of the administrators and the additional burden that's going to be placed on them and how do we you know protect them from potential um in liability that's you know we're I don't think we need a waiver I think once we have a a a policy it applies to everyone what about um you know some of the stuff we've read about what they've been doing is at Alam Marl Charlottesville other places where they actually have bags that kids that's tell like concerts are even doing that and I was just saying is that the it would take the it would take the owners of the of the administration from physically handling the phone and putting it in like one of those Locker individual locker things where the kid still has his
071phone can't access it the only way they get their phone access is to go back to their administration at the end of the day to get it unlocked yeah so but then we're going to have the administration at the end of the day have to unlock it can be anybody I mean whoever they want it it's a lot of fun let's leave that up to it won't be for every student it won't be for every student I'm not listen I I don't like cell phones for kids my children don't get them until they're over 16 I just don't understand how you know a high school administration I don't know who's unlocking all those dag on bags well who knows how many it's going to be probably it would be everybody who has a phone would
072have a bag no no only for the ones who get in trouble with their phone by the rules they keep the phone it's in a bag locked and they hold on to their phone and then at the end of the day they have to go get it online but only the children who don't listen rather than taking it away from them they keep it keep it but it's locked I'm just going to I'm just going to take a scissor and cut the bag open that's one of those Bank bags yeah I don't think you can dress Cod okay all right so the third of our can't wear you canar nobody knows there and watches okay so just as we did with the prior to aspects we're going to present to you here what's the the
073legality the the code the requirements and the regulation there's a lot in here um we attached to again one of those attachments that was attached to this presentation is the specifics of what you have currently in our policy and okay so is this what we have or is this the state okay because that this has changed a little bit in terms of head wraps things like that right and what we what is actually written into ours is in your attachment if you want to see so for the the the research focused on our division this we actually did two um more of a qualitative aspect with a focus group um and we did a survey just as we did for the cell phone so what's nice about that is we get some numeric data and
074then we can delve in a little bit more to get some more of the Nuance that we can only get when we actually have a conversation so those focus groups were conducted with students in the secondary level from um grades middle all the way six through 12 all students were invited we had a range of participation um from as few of as 10 all the way up to close to 50 okay so this is specifically getting into the results the first primary finding is there is inconsistency just as we saw with the dress the cell phone um regarding the students parents and the staff so those three stakeholder groups in terms of their level of awareness um the survey results were neutral so this this survey was conducted a little bit differently they were conducted
075at different times so we made a change in the methodology so this was a basically at the lyer scale so the statements were written and then the respondents were to indicate their level of agreement on a five point scale so that's why you're seeing them presented slightly differently from what we did with cell phone so the survey results were neutral for all three what that tells us is there is and we don't really have a good sense of whether people are feeling like they are um aware or not um the student focus groups revealed a wide consistency and knowledge that's where we really were able to understand that the students really don't have um a general consensus about what is contained within our dress code regulation um we heard very ranging from very District to
076very lenient um all within the same school and AC certainly across schools um so what was the largest perceived benefit while it allows for the individual self- expression of the student and then we asked a question are students currently held accountable and the majority of the students said yes 70% um parents were unsure and lack of consistency very similar to what we found right when we looked at the at the cell phone so uh shouldn't students be held accountable we asked that question the majority of students say said no 75% parents said yes um 60% and staff also reported yes at 73% so clear consensus in the adults um differing from our students and should how students don't know what the rules are right yes I mean it's a you know but don't make me
077Happ so then and we then we asked how should students be held which is why they shouldn't be held accountable took the law is just to to make a footnote again if you want to get into the specifics of the questions that were asked and the individual responses that's in your companion uh document but the largest proportion of responses across all three groups were in favor of conversation conversation with students so whether it was a teacher or an administrator having that conversation with the student and then also a conversation with the parents so the largest proportion across all three groups all three stakeholder groups were in favor of conversation in terms of accountability I'd like to have the students who like don't talk I got this right very encouraging again common theme conclusion from our
078stakeholder research within our division um there was a lack of awareness regarding the specifics a lack of consensus among the three stakeholder groups and again common the inconsistent enforcement of the consequences and the discipline for the violations both within school and then certainly across schools so tying to that our recommendations communicate and educate all the groups about the specifics of the dress code we can't enforce and have expectations if we don't don't know what we're asking of them and then promoting that consistency and the enforcement of consequences to violations so addressing both of those aspects Consulting so this presentation when we looked at discipline when we looked at cell phone when we looked at dress code uh sum of our recommendations first to communicate and educate the three primary stakeholder groups regarding the expectations for
079all three secondly to promote consistency in the enforcement across schools and certainly within school um and then they as Dr simple mentioned there will be some other changes to the student code of conduct that will be forthcoming after the reconvene session when you say other changes is it going to be related to these three things or maybe yes maybe no it kind of depends on legislation that gets adopted okay if it isn't adopted by the time that school year starts is it next year should be going I wish yeah it depends on the legislation and what happens so that's an emergency protocol right yeah those that so I think as as a parent of a high schooler the thing that is most frustrating to me is I have to sign a permission slip for my
080child to attend homecoming and the dress code for homecoming is stricter than what it is for my child to attend school she's not allowed to um expose um her upper part or her mid drift to go to homecoming but that's all fair g at the during the school day so whatever the like I don't necessarily I mean I personally have my own opin inconsistent consist see again yes so like whatever is decided I have my P you know obviously my personal opinion but the will of the board they should always match under across PR sure that most girls should not wear tube tops or mid Dres to school sorry I think it's just you know so you think it's what I just think they shouldn't I Mrs ronsky used to wait for me at the
081end of third period at the end of the hall and send me home every time because I had a mid drift top on her all well miss romsky needed to mind her business would you have turned out as good as you did if she wasn't there no I'm just kidding um so so I for me you know I where I stand on this issue I think it's uniforms are the only way to go cover your ears don't listen to this part CU she will not be cool anymore I will not be cool anymore after this I mean I I I think it just gets rid of all of the the issues that we're having but I'll I mean we'll talk about this I'm sure at the governance meeting as well too but you know there
082are two or three things that I think are worth noting that I I have a person that came to me after they were in one of our high schools for a meeting and said they they literally left without having the meeting because they were so uncomfortable with what was being worn that it was it was it was it just didn't feel right to be there so they left and it's not because of a pervert and it's not because of whatever he just it just was very uncomfortable so that's super telling and I never forget a kid that I used to work with and this kid came into work at a at a dog kennel but he came in for the interview in a three-piece suit his mom made him put on his Sunday suit for
083that job and he he got it probably as he was walking in the door because his mom told him you go for the job you want not the job you're actually going for and so I think we tell our students a lot this is their job being a student is your job and then we hold no expectation for what that means and that is that's a failure on our part for them because but I think that's antiquated thinking my son makes six figures at Nasa he wears a baseball hat and sweatpants to work and he's highly professional and he's going to keep satellit fallen and killing us so your clothes don't necessarily make who you are and they don't they don't determine how you behave but what they do is older folks do judge us
084based on our clothing and that's really inappropriate uh I I don't know I mean maybe it is maybe it's old fashion I don't know it is old fashion I'll tell you what dress codes do especially the girls who have shapes like my children do is they get picked on by staff and staff doesn't even know it but they can be like the my my daughter would wear the same stuff her best friend had her best friend has a flat behind my daughter doesn't and she get dress coded the same size your my daughter would my daughter would wear what she wore and they tell oh you know you can't wear that because your breast or whatever but her friend who hasn't developed yet can wear it same outfit from Target I hate dressing codes that's
085just me I don't think it's fair my reaction to is a little bit of pick your battles so are we doing cell phone or dress code for this next year what I'm hearing is that I don't hear anything on dress code I don't hear any recommendations on dress code okay good leave the way it is other than let fight because it I resented Mrs conduct and self when my daughter was in high school i' come in the back door when they called me and I drag every girl that was dressed just like her to the office and say call their parents to so you got a you got a couple of landscape things to consider um in general students know that they should be paying attention to their teachers and not on their phones in
086the middle of class they generally know this and that if they are engaged on their cell phones that they are that they are my that they are probably not doing what they're supposed to be doing and they're they're not following through what the instructional program what the data reveals and I will say that this was an extensive research project for Dr shuts and Dr stle um extensive research project that involved many focus groups and surveys um is that there's a lack of understanding and that there are some steps that you can take to mitigate the dress code issue by having greater Clarity literally posting the dress code in a visible place for people to see it would be a great start um because you do have an existing one that has been longstanding without a
087lot of modification because the text of the dress code does is is not really objectionable when you look at it um it it does require some prolongation that's that's an administrative task for us to do so I think you do have two different Landscapes your one landscaped is that students in the cell phone space there's a distraction to the learning environment it's inherent students are knowledgeable about this distraction to the learning environment there's some addiction tied to it and some real challenges with that versus there is a very clear and genuine subset of the the other issue that lacks a lot of clarity and lacks a lot of information so um I think that that in our recommendations um as you're looking at these two issues their survey data was remarkably similar in terms of
088the outcomes but but the Landscapes themselves are very different and and that needs to be taken into consideration as governance meets and as a um modifications are made to your student code of conduct great well there doesn't seem to be a basis to even talk about a change of dress code since nobody knows exactly what it is so if we do clarify it and make because we don't really have any rest next year we're looking at potential changes but we can't change what we don't know is the restrictions right now are safety concerns like you know while it's chains I think because in like CTE classrooms those can be an issue um and then of course you know anything that's abusive offensive hate speech but apart from that there's no restriction on student dress right
089now at all for regular attendance I'm to we do restrictions on please do should there there's a lot going I mean I see the fashion at the college level that's different I'm just going to say that is different I go to the college there's probably a lot more pajama pants at the college level than there is the high school level and they're definitely mid drifts and they're definitely like go to school I will ask one request that our student reps um think about these issues and make sure that your opinion is known um when the board comes back in May and they they know how you feel about after talking to some of your peers and some of your friends that's going to be really important yes thank you madam chair we know uniform we're
090going to move on to the topic of the cliff Farm property is that Mr C and Mr pulmer so like more like just like a okay we're separating you okay Sor sorry okay so there's I'll just kind of get it started we just um kind of Fallen up we've given some know kind of brief updates on the cliff Farm property um over several months whether it was the um school board retreat or other avenues so uh School Board asked us to kind of come back in April and just give an overview of where we stand on the cliff Farm property any updates um from kind of County um perspective as well and what's going on there so uh Jason and I Mr Tower and I just prepared a short presentation with some of those bullet
091points and then wanted to share that information and then see what additional questions you had and if we don't have the answer to that something that um we'll find out and get back to you so I'm turn it over to mrry okay yeah um so um as Mr Fulmer said this there's kind of a couple different things going on here we look the site um one is obviously um we're in land search mode for um we've been in land search mode for elementary sites and now middle site Middle School site um and so this is obviously one that's come up on the radar and some of our discussions is for potential use um also the resoning that's going on up along front along Leland Road um has our attention as well as that impacts um
092essentially the developability of our site um so there's total of a little over 180 acres in all of Cliff Farm but when you get right down to it there's about 50 to 70 that is very what we would say very easily buildable um within the urban service area everything there in red is within the urban service area um which is where again Public Water and Sewer is not necessarily available but is is in theory um allowed to be extended to by um the county water and um sewer uh utility um in this specific situation um and I happen to have some background knowledge on this one with my previous rooll over at the county the sewer situation um is probably the most difficult to solve um essentially um getting um sewer up to this property
093we'd have to probably go all the way back almost to uh Conway Elementary School uh to tie into reasonable um sewer and that would be via a pump station and Force main out there um the current um sewer capacity of the Hickory Ridge which is the large residential subdivision right next door to it um is is really not great um there's there's a series of old pump stations through there that would probably need some upgrades and by the time you did all that it would probably be cheaper just to build the sewer and head up the road um water's a little bit better situation there is um a 12in water line roughly around the intersection if you're familiar with the area where Morton Road and Leland Road intersect um but again we would be needing
094to bring water up through the site as well and then as far as the road network is concerned um and we um look at this a little bit more um for uh you know an elementary or middle school the existing Road network is it's not unreasonable I'll I'll use that I'll I'll use those words um it's it's not the greatest Leland Road in that area is um is two lane you know it's a narrow two lane road typical of what we see in a lot of more rural areas of Stafford County at the very least I would think um um that vot would likely require some sort of what we call Wedge widening safety improvements along that section of the road do you think that this l Road is different than like the one the
095road in front of doas though like the as far as wiing um well in terms of overall volume yes it is different um this is definitely a much lower volume section of road road for the moment for the moment yes and also keep in mind expectations from V Dot have changed since fouth was built I was going to add where are the schools relative to Cliff where are the nearest closest and St too far stord high is very close actually super close it's attendant Z yeah um so long and short we would have to have to do some sort of Road improvements it's a little unclear until we Define exactly what type of school facility we would have out there um you know that we could really get down into the nitty-gritty obviously doing Road
096improvements for an elementary or even a Middle School site an 1100 student Middle School um would be different than a say a 22 2300 student High School right where you have a lot more student drivers as well system okay oh and one other thing there was a question about what are we doing out there in terms of yearly maintenance right now we're basically just trying to keep it to a reasonable cut um from time to time but it's it's pretty infrequent um and we spend about $5,000 um on per year on that per year we could save you that please don't do it it says they used to they used to actually that was why we were still maintaining it and they just chose not to not to use it but um we've actually Hur
097from kind of neighbors of that area going both ways saying hey cut it don't cut it um actually at the end of last year um a gentleman reached out and asked us to stop cutting because they thought it was disturbing the wildlife so we'll probably even cut back on that a little bit um so but through last year we were cutting it um routinely and then kind of did our during our our last cut at the end of the season um before the winter uh has been kind of felt like we were disturbing Wildlife a little B too much yeah so this um map here kind of G gives you a little bit closer in look at some of the site constraints we were talking about that peach area if you will in the middle
098is what we would kind of have designate as being the very buildable area um once you get past that you start getting into steeper slopes and then eventually especially up on the right top right hand side you get into a lot of environmental constraints um up through there you also you see that light blue overlay up there that's part of um the airport overlay zone for Stafford airport okay that's that is is not um the same as the Dogwood airport which is smaller private um and is actually technically at the moment in the flight path um with with Dogwood um at one point our understanding is that Dogwood was actually approaching from the Stafford High side and Stafford High and schools asked hey could you maybe approach from the other side um so this would
099potentially um be something for us to consider although it's not NE it's not there's nothing technically wrong with it it would just be something we would want to be aware of as we as we move if if we consider moving can you just explain your I mean ap2 not what am I looking at here what does this mean ap2 those the airport compatibility zones okay and they're okay so then what I'm looking at is the blue is not compatible correct and the C the purple if you will there which is actually underlying that peach color as well it's considered compatible okay from now this is again for the Stafford airport right right zone right so we're right on the edge but we're in the compatible Zone can you um remind me how many total Acres
100the parcel is 188 I believe and I do remember you know this was my old neighborhood it was originally purchased to be a High School site and then can we read why that wasn't able to happen as far as it was something with land suitability but I can't expense so it was going to cost because of the water sewer it was because of the water sewer and everything it was going to be 60 million right it was going to be 60 million of land site prep and then 60 million for the school for 120 million we could have had a high school wow yeah at the time I feel like I remember something about the airport oh she's talking total you're talking total yeah but this is when this is when we built Stafford and
101weirdly it would feel compact on the 50 buildable Acres yes because of the of your 188 Acres less than a third of it is really usable right and we spent five unless you put zip lines I'm going to tell you I went there it's really so and I do want to clarify on that point it's not to say that we couldn't couldn't make the other areas usable right you're just getting into more grading more site development costs right so there's there's just costs associated I just wanted to kind of get a no why and that's why and then and then also to see like 50 acres sounds like a lot but 50 acres out of out of how much you know so what the rest of that space looks like is it usable for anything
102like is it the other part could it be green space is it or not nature trail I mean so yeah you could have one heck of a cross country course um or Mountain green houses and Miss Sig we um we did look at this when we were looking for a site for high school six is one of the sites that we looked at and kind of narrowed out but Nar um but we really wanted to focus on an area of the county we didn't have a school and so that's why we focus on that we first start all right let's look at the property we have which just was the only property um and and West Lake at the time was in discussion too because it was a potential profit site but narrowing those out
103um at the time because it wasn't really in the zone of the county so that Southwest quadrant is where we targeted for high school right so we have all these kids that are being busted to Colonial Forge when staff much closer so it makes sense to put the school over in Heartwood that's where the kids um I know it was 60 million back then to develop it the land do you guys know how much it would be now because I know it's different since it's in the urban not less not less so so running water and sewer out there and some of the road improvements I would say you're probably in the let's say 15 to2 million range for for the infrastructure improvements needed to the enabling cost for the site what we kind of
104talk about it could be a little more a little less depending what we find um some of that will depend on the next topic here that we'll talk about with the rezoning but um in terms of the overall site development costs again once you get into that peach area in there pretty standard site development through there I would would would be pretty typical for the area and there's no exit Road there it's only in and out there's no yeah um okay so let's talk real quick about the um proposed rezoning up at the front and that's the area that's highlighted there in the magenta um because there's been some questions about kind of what's going on there and what what has staff there's a proposed resoning on Schoolboard property no no below it and in
105between is residential yes there's a couple single family larger Residential Properties correct um so the the proposed rezoning um 141 single family age restricted Planning Commission recommended denial back on almost about a month and a half ago in late February um and it is scheduled to come up at the Board of Supervisors um meeting in May for consideration um we have been monitoring it I will say that um in terms of one of some of the benefits that that would bring for our property would be that it would make a lot of these water and Sewer improvements for us right so they would bring Water and Sewer back um to basically our property's Edge and provide um some a a lot of the backbone of the infrastructure that would be needed for our site development
106so that would substantially decrease our costs um in terms of some of the road and transportation improvements they really haven't proferred much or shown much in that way that could be something that perhaps if the County Board of Supervisors could impress upon them hey how about some safety widening out here on Leland Road something of that nature that could benefit us um longer term but again until we fully understand what the school board's intention for um The Cliff Farm site might be it's a little hard to determine on the transportation side how to develop out you know wheel and Road in that area um I'll say you know that um from my experience um dealing with these types of things I I do think that some fairly um minimal improvements to Leland Road um would
107be necessary you know some wedge winding you know you're talking um couple $1,000 in some wedge widening you know couple or1 $200,000 in some turn Lan improvements I don't think we're in the millions I think we're in the hundreds of thousands for some of the transportation right there along Leland now if we look to punch out a second road somewhere and make a another connection somewhere then then we could definitely be inreasing cost but as long as we're just talking about improvements along the Leland Road area I think we're in the hundreds of thousands not in the millions mad can ask a question so um one of the things uh I did get to go and tour this um property it was actually kind of fun thank you Mr rette um but the um the
108pump station that they're talking about putting in for the um that would supposedly help us a little bit um they didn't turn they did not release the plans until December but it was found in January that those that pump station would not be adequate enough to support the schools it was only going to um they they mathematically used an equation for 51 homes um and the county also agreed that that was not adequate so what are we doing if I know that it's in this flux space right now but what are we doing with conversations even to ensure that I I I guess what I would like to make sure is that something isn't done that we can't undo yeah absolutely so I've had a few um conversations with the folks at utilities reminding them
109again and again right like hey this goes through you have to keep in mind the school's interest of developing a site back here that that pump station ultimately would need to have room for expansion and upgrades to accommodate you know the flows from some some sort of you know larger some sort of School site right right um so they're very well aware of that um they've um consistently said that that is something that they have in mind some of this is um you won't really be able to design that until won't really be able to fully kind of yeah figure all that out until they get into a little bit more of the details of the design they're still in the rezoning stage a little bit right now um and also it's going to again
110you know um chicken and egg right um what are we doing right is it a 2,000 student school is it a th000 student school right in terms of which I think at this point we're not building a high school year we know that at this point I say um just said that out loud Maybe I'm Wrong maybe you all change your mind at some point um it's not high school six going we know that so um um but you know in terms of you know the does that does that answer the question terms of because the other part of it that I would worry I mean you're talking about potential um wedge widening Road Improvement turning lane those types of things and and I've been there and I see again where the um the the
111front project would be and my concern and we're running into this in other areas is um what do we have what would we have to do or could we preemptively I'm thinking no um for supporting what we would potentially need that wouldn't require us to have to do something to a land owner homeowner I think so to to answer your question I think really what what we need from the school board as as soon as we reasonably can as get some direction in terms of the intended use for the Pro property I I think that we can again generally stake out a position of you know 1,500 student school um and keep us in mind guys as you size the pipes and Pump Station capacity and so forth on the transportation side it gets a
112little trickier because um someone's property is going to be right there right um but it's it's it's you you kind of get into these different thresholds with with with do in terms of how you size the roads and so forth but right um I think we can generally speak out that position we have um with the county they they they're aware of that um okay we've talked to them again this morning um in our joint land acquisition committee again reminded them Deputy County Administrator was on there um head of code was on there um the plan the main planner Mike zaraf who's been dealing with this was on there so they're aware they're very keenly aware of our interests but um once we actually say this is what we're going to do then that's what
113is really going to drive the final design the problem seems to be though that we don't really need a middle school in that area unless we were to put Drew there but I think there are better sites for Drew and I'm not sure you know maybe in elementary school at some point but then you've got Graft in village and Conway and fouth and you all have trailers though too yes they do and they do so so I me me what would be the most beneficial use for us because we're looking we're looking at our 10year CIP for for Middle School design so the only thing makes sense would be an elementary school because any high school is going to be have to be up North so so just for clarification though because when we met
114last time we were in agreement that we don't own enough property to be given s correct right right so is that what you're asking us to do or are we I mean because we can futuristically your direction can be nothing okay do nothing because I mean yeah that that is a direction and and does do what what we decide to do with this property doesn't have an impact on how they vote on what this other than we don't need any more people no off other other than it would again the people other than it would improve the our improve the school's property School improve the value of the property of water and sewer we brought there absolutely but but the I mean currently they've declined to approve the zoning rezoning the Planning Commission has recommended
115denial it has to be officially by the bo of supervis the Board of Supervisors has asked for this property so so why so all I'm saying is if if it would seem to me that they're going to be ignoring the recommendation of their Z which may happen regularly I have no idea um but but it seems like for us the only issue is if this resoning happens you've already communicated that we want to make sure that the sewer pump station will handle A500 potentially 1500 seat School other than that I don't know what we need to do I mean would we have to pay Pro rabes if they did bring the water in store um yep if they brought if they brought the water and sewer um we would probably not have much as much
116well we would still have some prata fees that we would pay typically yes I understand your question yes I mean if they're paying to bring it their site they would probably offset a lot of their PR responsibilities by the construction of that in water well I would I would say hypothetically that we should um advise them that this site was purchased for schools um that whether it's a high school or an elementary and middle they should plan on approximately 2500 students on there I mean h i mean it would not be unusual I'm not saying it's not in the plan right now but but if we're going to keep the land and keep it for a school we're not going to put one school right on a 55 to 80 Acre Site so I would
117I would say that that the potential future use just like in assessments where you have to do the highest and best use you know what is the highest and best use of this for staff rties either for a high school or an elementary in the middle so either one of those would give you what about 2500 students and use that for planning purposes in terms of the capacity we would need for a sewer and water and when it was purchased there was never um an expectation we'd use it all for schools we knew there was a lot that was not going to be buildable and the the the thought at that time was that we perhaps you know share some with the county for parks and wreck you know even though we couldn't build there
118could be some recreational uses put on there and and but it's it's never been pursued because it's just hasn't been radar sure yeah and and two you think with you know Conway and fth and others being schooled right around the corner we'll have rebuilds on the horizon for those and I'm thinking about Conway in particular I don't know how we're going to rebuild that school on the Conway property right now it might be that we perhaps if you were to rebuild Drew here and then you set aside 20 or 30 acres for future Elementary you know something of that nature to be consider I mean we have to start out saying there is not a site on the CIP however you know we're holding the land because you know there could be a potential future
119use for it and if we were to use it this is what the expectation I think that's the consensus here is that to protect future interests that's that's what I um because County I mean County assets are School assets are technically you know taxpayer asset or taxpayer assets and they money assets so we need to do our best to protect those but we are not making any statement about putting it there now wanting this development there or anything like that we're just saying if it went through we would want the county to in effect protect the school's future interest by making sure that the infrastructure would at least have the capacity to be U modified to at a reasonable price um you know to to meet our needs we could move forward on our budget
120agenda item and then give us a few minutes to have some food before dinner for our 7 o'cl meeting we're going all right we'll go for it yeah um all right so the first big thing is um we do we do owe a big thank you to our Board of super visors and State legisl uh straight state legislators uh the legislature did a great job for us this year um granted that's been tempered a little bit uh by the executive um we we came out of the legislature in the general assembly this year with a p castic uh state budget um the supervisors came very close to to their advertised uh tax rate and proportionally uh accounted for um public education um to to the maximum of their uh advertised tax rate and and what
121they had said and uh we owe them a thank you and so that's a good place to start um um our recommendation this kind of like the bottom line up front and what we're going to ask the board to do this evening um is to pass a provisional budget to get us from point A to point B this won't be the final budget um because the state isn't done um passing its budget once the state does pass its budget we actually have a very firm number um whatever that number is uh that we will come back and uh and and make uh adjustments and and bring that to the board for consideration we feel pretty confident with the numbers we're going to present to you tonight for where we are today it's a conservative look
122but it does give us the chance to issue contracts and uh does get us the chance to move forward and that that's really what our aim is for today um some huge successes that we have to report uh from uh the general General uh excuse me from our Board of Supervisors um having to do with four projects moving forward um this is a big move in the last three years Stafford schools um and the Board of Supervisors have been able to come to consensus on uh School uh construction projects and that is just wonderful um that uh we are moving ahead with four projects another um really significant uh move and and uh Mr Tower left and Matt is here um they can certainly take a bow for their role in in helping to uh
123share the very hard reality that we have with major maintenance um and getting us closer to funding um our major maintenance needs for this year it's not quite exactly what we would need uh uh year-over-year and it was a lot was cobbled together with onetime resources whether they be Bond financing or cash uh but uh but we'll take it we'll take it and um and having add funds set aside for emergencies uh you know this is this is good financial management this is good fiscal management this is a step in the right direction um love to see more of that in cash and less in financing because we don't want to pay Banks using tax dollars we'd rather pay um our citizens and our stuff um to get to get actually taken care of but
124we're we're at least moving in the right direction um so some adjustments and and Chris and I willine on this but but this is really where we're kind of kind of hung up at the moment is the revenue side the the 13 million um in in local Revenue that was adopted by the supervisors is in fact $2 million less than the request from the school board and what we need um we feel pretty good about the governor's proposed budget plus the estimate that we came back to the board with we feel like at this point that's a very conservative number which is good um and the legislature although they added an additional 3 million it's important to not that this is potential and it's that potential question mark coupled together with the $2 million cut
125from the supervisors that is gives us a little bit of heartburn and here's what we don't want to do we don't want to adopt even a provisional budget that we then have to go back to our employees and say remember that pay raise whoops just kidding so what we want to do is be able to hire adequate staff to staff our classrooms for our growth give our staff the pay raise they deserve um and then if we get additional funds from the legislature which is looking likely and that's a very positive thing is that it's looking likely um that we can then come back and address some of the other additional needs that we have so next um not recommending any changes to our non-discretionary funds because they're non-discretionary so that is what it is
126I think we've talked about that to death um uh to our uh discretionary fun funds we broke these out into two big categories we made some really tough decisions with Staffing um we had adopted Staffing standards and then we walked back some immediately and so some of this is the walk back of some of our staffing standards uh to the tune of uh of of many positions um we it is going to be our first recommendation that we go back and look at uh compensation and that we go back and look at Staffing when additional funds Avail themselves because this is this a pretty substantial price to pay to balance a budget but uh we feel like this is a a get us from0 a to pointb conversation that way so all broken out um
127we had our staffing standards then we had the deferral of our year year one implementation then the deferral of our year 2 implementation and so that accounts for the changes that we've made and then the reductions of our standards which actually increase class size which is not awesome um and then the full implementation of phase three for our license uh staff we are walking back 1% temporarily to balance the budget for today it is our aim to add that back when we have additional revenue from the state which is looking likely and very positive um to do a full phase one of our service scale and because we're making an adjustment to phase three there's a proportional adjustment to our our uh instructional support and then we're going to hold about a million1 in abayance
128just in case the sky explodes on us um this is still representative of a 9% increase for our PA professionals an 8.7% average increase for our service scale and a 5.2% increase for our license scale which is still way better than what the state is offering this year but let's just average average there will be people who get less and there will be people who get more I just y but that that is transparency make it making the making the put us put we were that way at the start of this sure but sometimes people listening may be like I didn't get 5.5 right correct okay this a lines five and six how does this compare to your initial recommended budget this this is so this or it's either closer this is the same so
129basically what we're doing is we're roll going back to your initial recommendation but adding the license scale up to phase one and the two really the service scale so so the two really big adjustments here is that the revenue mix looks different than it did in January um we have less local revenue from our Board of Supervisors and more revenue from the state that's good poti potentially well even even what we think is reasonable even from today even with the governor's proposed amendments right we feel like we're in a pretty good spot so the things that's different from the superintendent's proposed budget is full phase one for the license for the for the service scale so our non-licensed staff full phase one that's the difference w't we weren't on the on the license your recommendation
130was not for full right half it was a portion that's why I just wanted so this really is just it's adding the support service one one that's the different the main difference between your budget which was approved by the board y so it's an improvement so we are better today than we were a few months ago I that's what I thought but I just wanted so could you just remind us of the adjustment to the phase three of the teacher of the license scale that's just like above 15 years correct um it it is actually from Step Zero all the way through but but what we are doing and if you and we've been kind of going 5 years chunks at a time adjusting the scale which has a huge impact on our experienc folks
131who kind of suffered with us through the housing market and everything else so we we have done step 0 to 10 we are going now step 0 to 15 which is doing 3% per step which is dramatically adjusted that slope but everybody north of 15 gets bent up pretty significantly because they've been kind of suffering in silence for for decades um on this and so that's a that's a huge bump what we would like to do and we'll come back to the board with this when we have our final state revenue numbers is looking at how we can close the final Gap with that licensed staff so next I I just so two things so and tell me if I'm in the weeds up here because I'm I'm off in the right spot into this
132but revert ratio back to one teacher and three pair of professionals per acre okay so back slides we did this for for the cost savings here right uh we literally did this to balance the budget and so that's what that's what these cuts are right here so before we even brought our board our budget to the Board of Supervisors we made these reductions so what it is doing is adding more work for a special education teacher as opposed to adding another teacher to that room so none of what we have at our availability like none of our available funds currently that we're working with adjusts any of this or fixes any of this issue how does this impact to what is this a reduction on what we have currently or a reduction on what we
133proposed for next year it takes into account growth so you know we're between turnover and growth no one loses any jobs or anything like that so there's no reduction in force or anything along those lines but we were stretching thinner we are stretching thinner and that is a great way of of looking at this is that our very thin coverage of Staffing just got thinner thinner okay um and then um the proportional adjustments to the instructional support scale and whatnot um because I know it's confusing for a lot of people yeah can can you help me again understand we're moving them up our goal is to make sure that we bring them into a percentage rate of the teacher salary 100% this doesn't do that yet no it does okay so this does do that
134so so your par professional scale going to mirror everything that happens to your teacher scale so as your teacher scale gets bigger so does your par scale get bigger okay and and so that's a that's a huge step so with us backing out a percent on the license scale it backs out half a percent on the on the pair scale okay 50% we're we're feeling pretty good at the moment because we're at like a 9% average on the pair scale so that's a big Improvement for them and long overd got take the wi so we're we're just making choices I mean right we did the Staffing standard reduction yes in in a fact we're still deferring Staffing standards could increase the the salaries for both the license and the and the service staff so it's
135it's just a matter of choices right well when we were at The Retreat we all to a person put our stickers on compensation if being I agree with it I just don't want it to look like we're just cut you know these are but they're cut so that we could better compensate right or adequately comp can you help me understand just again the 1.1 million we are using that or are we holding that in case here's jail yeah that's the that's the out right the state budget's not finalized let's wait until the state finalizes before we spend that 1.1 million let's not commit it yet because if we commit it you know there's the orangr jumpsuit kind of conversation that we keep it in the checking account pretend it's not there so you we no
136matter what you are going to have to come back and adopt a budget no matter what deal but you have to wait for the state revenue so that you have a Topline number to take a look at since we don't have 100% confidence in what that Topline number is it's good to have a portion of your budget set aside just in case we don't think we're going to need it we actually think we're going to up okay but just in case keep it on let's hold it in advance and then my actual little final question on the three list because we put a lot of interest into our fields and our like our track stuff and our are we including that in the 18 million like three hours how to look like some of those
137fixes coming back in yeah we're coming back in May with your three okay so that's where we're looking directly at that so that's not for today's meeting that's a discuss okay to to finish this up real quick so that you guys can grab a bite in between the meetings um this is what your proposed expend man is going to look like this is not different than what we've presented um and in the documents that you have um this kind of answers your abeyance question is that we're working with the it's just a projection uh conversation and so we we'd all rather not go to jail and uh and that's kind of the the story behind that um so our bottom line is um let's sit tight um our our state our state legislature did a
138great job in getting us to this point they've got work to do with the executive and then uh and hopefully we can conclude this before June fingers crossed um but but this is basically where we're at today so are we [Music] good very very close to the advertised tax rate that but that wouldn't have done you were busy start with our presentation of their national colors and the Pledge of Allegiance I to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God with liy and justice for all thank you very much to Colonial Forge thank you to clonial Forge High School's Army jrc members of tonight's Color Guard include Logan Riley Ethan Donaldson Lillian Hawks and Angela Goodman the instructors for the Colonial Forge JC
139program are Mark Strong Lee Wortham and Philip Roberts thank you all Miss Hall if you could take the role yes ma'am Dr Chase here miss uku here miss guy here m holstead here miss hey here miss Oda toen here Miss Randall here miss Sigman here and Dr Warner here Madam chair you have a quum great so we have no electronic participation tonight is there a motion and a second for the agenda motion to approve second thank you any discussion okay we could cast our votes on the agenda Miss hon we approved the agenda with a motion of uh vote of 7 to zero moving on to the consent items motion to approve the consent agenda with the amendment that we pulled January 4th M minutes and bring them back next time okay second thank you
140any discussion on that change okay cast our votes that motion passes unanimously it's a longent okay announcement of administrative Personnel thank you madam chair I'm delighted to make uh several announcements this evening of new administrative personnel and and some familiar faces in uh new offices and new locations um though this first one is a little sad for our Rock Hill Elementary School Community it's a little Bittersweet for them uh they are gaining uh their principal in a new capacity for the school division i' would ask that Terry Rivero please come down uh Terry Rivero Miss Rivero will will be joining our uh office of human resources and talent management is our new assistant director supervising Staffing a native of Stafford schools Mr Rivera has served as the principal of Rock Hill Elementary School for the
141past nine years under her Direction Rock Hill has become a Common Sense Media and purple STAR certified school um Miss Rivero has also served as an instructor for foundations and teaching a program designed to serve our early uh career Educators prior to this role Miss Rivero served as an assistant principal at fouth elementary school and then at Rodney Thompson Middle School where she was awarded assistant principal of the year for Stafford County uh she began her teaching career at HH pool middle school and then moved to Dixon Smith Middle uh upon its opening Miss Rivera was named uh Stafford County Public Schools teacher of the year at uh both schools uh pool and Dixon Smith Middle we so proud of her Miss Rivero uh earned her Bachelor of Science degree uh from James Madison University
142and her master of education degree in educational leadership uh from the University of Mary Washington and now has her new home in this building as her uh supervisor of Staffing and uh human uh resources assistant director welcome Miss Rivero thank you while you're taking your picture did you bring anybody with you to that you want to recognize this evening um yes my husband Brian is here thank you Husband Brian thank you we'll give her back to you on the weekends in the fall but between now and then it's going to be a little busy um very excited uh to announce uh the appointment of a brand new principal in uh Stafford County uh schools uh would Nikki Sims please come forward Miss Sims uh will be the new principal at Park Ridge Elementary School uh
143for the coming school year Miss Sims has been a part of Team Stafford for the past six years uh first as a teacher at Widewater Elementary School and most recently as an assistant principal at Conway Elementary School where she has served as the uh for the last four years in this role Miss Sims has worked with teachers to improve student achievement and reduce uh chronic absenteeism Miss Sims began her teaching career in Richmond City Public Schools before team Stafford Stoler uh Miss Sims earned her Bachelor uh bachelor's degree in elementary education from Virginia State University and her master's degree in educational leadership from Liberty University we are thrilled to have you at at uh Park Ridge as a patriot thank thank you Miss s thank [Applause] you we'll snap a pick real quick and if
144there's anybody that you brought with you other than your very supportive uh leadership uh Team from Stafford schools I see of course I see your current principal here that's right I have my Conway family I have Kayla Kon Kay I love you and I also have my amazing husband kisan s thank you Mr Sims thank you guys um our last appointment this evening is for an assistant principal Position will Katie uh bolets please come forward thank you uh Miss bolit returns to Stafford County as the new assistant principal at Anthony Burns Elementary School uh for the past two years Miss bolit has served as an assistant principle in manasse City uh Public Schools prior to this uh role uh Miss bolet was an educator with Stafford schools for 11 years a special education teacher and
145an instructional excuse me an educational diagnostician and the special education department uh she has worked at all three levels in Stafford Miss bolat began her teaching career in Pennsylvania before she was nabbed in Stafford schools uh Miss bulget earned her uh bachelor degree in Psychology from Virginia Tech her master's degree in special education from uh marrywood University and Granton Pennsylvania and her educational leadership certificate from the University of Mary Washington congratulations and welcome thank you very much Katie I think you also brought a special guest with you this evening I have two My Son Nolan bigus and my dad danal Hearn fantastic there you go yeah it didn't take much to win son of the year did it it's pretty good Madam chair this concludes administrative appointments for this evening wonderful moving on to Awards
146and recognitions good evening Schoolboard members and Dr Taylor this evening we'll recognize students staff and community members that epitomize our values of students Integrity respect Community opportunity and Excellence will Scott flath and farita Crowley please join us at the podium annually April is designated as Workforce Readiness month emphasizing the importance of identifying opportunities for Workforce Development to prepare students for success in life After High School by proclaiming April as Workforce Readiness month Stafford schools reaffirms its dedication to providing students with the skills and resources necessary to thrive in the workforce and contribute positively to society accepting the proclamation are our work-based learning coordinators Scott flath and farita Crowley two essential Connections in providing students with Workforce Readiness opportunities thank you Scott and fita for your work to inspire and Empower our students so that they
147are prepared to [Applause] excel will Tanya Mitchell please join us at the podium Tanya is on her way we'll come back to her well Colonel Michael Brooks along with Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Hudson his wife Elena and their children Grace Gabriel Hannah and Jack please join us at the podium the school board recognizes the significant contributions and sacrifices made by military families and their children highing highlighting April as the month of the military child Stafford schools professes its commitment to supporting military children Stafford schools with a high number of military schoolage children actively participates in initiatives like the interstate compact on educational opportunity for military children facilitating seamless transitions for military families across state lines the board reaffirms its dedication to providing exceptional care and education to military children through collaboration with various stakeholders including schoola
148on officers and Community organizations by proclaiming April 2024 as the month of the military child Stafford schools emphasizes its commit to ensuring excellence in education and support services for military children facing unique challenges accepting the proclamation on behalf of all military families are Colonel Brooks the commander of rine cor base quanico and US Marine lieutenant colonel Hudson and his supportive family thank you to all our military families for their service sacrifice and support while we are discussing our military families tonight I'm proud to um proud to let the community know we have started a brand new military families advisory committee they had their for you training this evening and if you are a member of our new military family advisory committee will you please stand thank you while Aaron Dow Amy Snider and Aaron Cunningham
149please join us at the podium Stafford schools acknowledges the impact autism may have on social learning and behavioral skills with increasing awareness and diagnosis rates it is noted that one in 44 children are diagnosed on the autism spectrum while there is no cure early intervention can significantly improve outcomes for individuals with autism by designating April 2024 as autism acceptance month Stafford schools reaffirms its commitment to raising awareness and fostering acceptance of autism within the community accepting the proclamation are Aaron Dow Amy Snyder and Aaron Cunningham from hether mfield day school and Rocky Run Elementary thank you ladies well D Ryan Ashley wel and Anna McConnell please join us at the podium Stafford schools recognizes the vital role of school libraries and Librarians in promoting education and fostering a love for learning school library Month celebrated
150Nationwide in April highlights the importance of school libraries and the dedicated Library professionals supporting students through reinforcement of information literacy skills school librarians build quality library programs that contribute to students growth and development while promoting excellence and Ed equity in education Stafford schools reaffirms its commitment to supporting and promoting the mission of the school libraries in the district ensuring they remain vibrant centers of knowledge and exploration for students through the designation of April 2024 a school library month accepting the proclamation are our lead Librarians D Ryan Ashley Welch and Anna McConnell thank you ladies oh we have more Librarians if you are a school librarian will you please stand [Applause] will Casey Conroy and Virginia Murphy please join us at the podium Stafford schools recognizes the importance of fostering positive relationships with local communities including
151businesses agencies Faith institutions and Community organizations the significant role provided by the community to students staff and families enhances educational opportunities and prepares students for success in various aspects of their lives Stafford schools appreciates the work businesses and organizations put into improving educational outcomes through meaningful Partnerships that enhance student education furthermore in recognition of the community's support the school board designates April 2024 is community appreciation month formally acknowledging the Stafford Community for their Contin Ed support of schools students families and the broader Community accepting the proclamation this evening are the rapaic area YMCA member engagement manager Casey Conroy and the sack operations director Virginia Murphy thank you ladies was Miss Mitchell able to join us y School nurses play crucial role in ensuring the well-being and academic success of students daily investing in their health
152and safety School nurses serve as Frontline professionals promoting Wellness coordinating care and acting as liaison between families and healthc care providers the board expresses gratitude to School nurses everywhere and designates May 8th 2024 as school nurse day throughout the School Division recognizing the invaluable contributions to student well-being and academic success accepting the Proclamation is Tanya michell the school nurse at Edward Drew Middle [Applause] School while Miss Amy Miss Amy Ivory is not able to join us tonight we want to recognize Edward Drew's principal Amy Ivory for her recognition as a leader in the local community by the National Coalition of 100 black women Inc this prestigious Nationwide recognition highlights her dedication to advocating for all students under her guidance ensuring they are prepared to excel Mrs Ivory's commitment to Student Success and her advocacy efforts
153have earned her this esteemed recognition reflecting her ongoing dedication to making a positive impact on the lives of those she serves Mrs Ivory thank you for leading by example and for modeling our values of students Integrity respect Community opportunity and Excellence you [Applause] thank you everyone moving forward with our presentation this evening annual report and recommendations for the school board of the school board's diversity equity and inclusion advisory committee good afternoon this is a PDF so just use your mouse whe on the mouse will on the mouse thank you I'm so good afternoon superintendent and school board it does bring me great honor to be the chair for the diversity equity and inclusion advisory committee and today we want to share really a few recommendations for your consideration um within the presentation today we're going
154to share the recommendations um the purpose behind those recommendations and how it does align to the um School boards um goals and objectives so as we were looking at true learning for all students and we thought about it from A diversity Equity inclusion lens um a couple of things that we know to be true is that all students can learn they definitely can achieve and they can meet the the level of Mastery that we want all kids to be able to achieve when we looked at um the performance and we've looked at the summi of assessment data summi of assessment data doesn't necessarily capture um the True Performance of students nor does it actually accurately tell us the story of our teachers it's one snapshot in time and as we look at taking action with
155data is what we're going to talk about today and that recommendation having really that holistic real-time data on students at all times enables two things to happen true data conversations and that level of cycle of inquiry that allows all education um leaders regardless of whether you're in a classroom or you're in an administrative role to really utilize data to look at the root cause and the needs of students and put in interventions that can definitely be utilized as well as really monitor the progress of those interventions so that you can really determine if it's the actual solution is generalizable across the district so it's really getting that return on investment but using data to drive the conver conversations that we even have with students as well so for the first recommendation um we really looking
156at developing an infrastructure or leveraging existing infrastructure to collect and maintain holistic student performance data um enabling educational leaders to use the data to meet students instructional needs and it's really enabling having those data Centric conversations on what's working what's not working not necessarily from a gap perspective but even for students that we really definitely want to accelerate their learning as well and so using data drives the ability to identify where there's root cause for gaps but also how we can identify solutions for students that have really demonstrated a high level of Mastery and needs to go that extra step in their learning projection um one of the things that we do is we do have a sub recommendation here as well and it's really leverage and equip School Improvement special school Improvement specialist within
157all schools to support Educators analysis and use of data to drive achievement gaps in mathematics and literacy when we talk about the use of data a lot of times it's overwhelming not overwhelming from a level of capacity but when we think of the everyday lives of a teacher and all that they encounter their social workers their mom their dad they're so much involved with the kids every day that having that additional support that can help them utilize that data in real time and when we look at formative and summative assessment data even working with teachers on how do you use that data conversation that you're having with kids to better strive and and actually increase your instructional practices really utilizing data how when teachers are differentiating their learning and putting those learning groups together in
158the classroom um when you know you think about the old school you call it centers really how do you use data to frame that instructional pattern and using existing um systems if possible or leveraging a new one and the rationale here is the ability to access and utilize data among educational leaders really enables the ability to analyze strategize and act and that is the heart of what Educators do every day that is that cycle of inquiry thinking as a researcher to make a difference for kids um so we go into recommendation two and one of the things with recommendation two that we really considered is that there is a wealth of professional learning that's provided to ensure that all teachers leaders are equipped to serve the diverse needs of of students and when you look
159at the population of students that serve they're truly unique in this community with that um one of the things that we did identify within that recommendation is the ability to establish maintain and utilize success measures I'm ended to determine the effectiveness of the professional learning I'm provided to Educators and within that measuring the impact of professional learning is truly um intrical to advancing um Equitable student outcomes and that's one of the things the research States is that when you really measure the learning of the professionals it really drives Equitable access for all kids and when we look at measuring um two key things is measuring behaviors as well as measuring um results and so is there Behavior change based off the learning that they're provided um and did we actually achieve the targeted outcomes that
160we sought to achieve based on that learning how do we see that in the classroom and did the learning truly make a difference and at points in Times by measuring the progress of the learning is not necessarily that the learning was ineffective but there could be the need to have additional followup and just support to ensure that the learning manifests in behaviors in the classroom so one of the things we really want wanted to do is really look at how did these recommendations align to the Strategic plan and when looked at Gold to support high expectations um for academic performance one way to really support high expectations um for academic performance is really through the use um and Analysis of data and the ability to really do that root cause and determine what the needs
161are effectively across the board and how do we really measure the effectiveness of solutions that we're identifying to meet the needs of students and really by having that data does enable we talk about every student annual growth grows um when we think about high delivery um high quality rigorous um cross-curricular math instruction and it's the same for reading within the Strategic plan is using the data to really tell the story and drive and we know that a Year's growth of a student may look different um depending on that student's unique needs but again that data really does tell the story of how performance is happening every day for kids um we do actually have a few additional considerations for the committee um and these actually were not the main recommendations but I wanted to make
162sure that we did provide the full spectrum of conversation to this group I will not take the time to read each of these considerations to the committee but really want to close out with um the key point of this brief really is taking action with data and so out of all the recommendations for consideration what we do ask the board is truly to consider recommendation one um 1A and recommendation two and it's really how are we leveraging data um across the board and that is holistic real-time data to drive instruction for all kids and also with a recommendation to is really looking at the performance measure and what I call is making success actionable for um professional learning and how those behaviors are U manifest and changing within the classroom and we do think from
163that lens that all students will be served and the academic performance that we seek for all of our students will be evident by using data to drive instruction thank you thank you just come back come back yeah come back anybody have any comments or questions Dr Chase yeah thank you so much that was um a a terrific set of recommendations um I just wanted to mention i' I've mentioned this to Dr Taylor before I have a constituent who works with a group called learning Heroes and their big message seems to be parental involvement and particularly this idea that um yes you have this data but often what the parent gets is a report card and the report card says your kid has a b or an A and the parents like my kid's doing great
164but the data that you've got here is showing a more nuanced picture and that isn't com that isn't communicated to the parent and then the parent can't be a partner in the conversation and so I I love this um I would also like us to make sure that we um are engaging our parents because most of the parents I know really want the best for their children and um that would be a they'd be a great partner for us but I think this is fantastic thank you thank you may I add one thing to your statement ma'am so I think one of the big pieces when you're engaging families with the data oftentimes I think of younger kids and you're reading on a level let's say m and you got to get to a level
165P well really what does that mean as far as strategy so when we were really looking at taking action with data is helping teachers to really understand that we have the different grades we have the different levels but what is the skill that this child needs to be able to demonstrate Mastery and by having that level of data and truly understanding that it changes that parent conversation and so I'm definitely agree and concur with your statement and really believe by using that data it can drive a different conversation so we as parents can also really strategically and intentionally help our children as well miss h um so I this is fabulous I I have two just two questions that I wrote down um to the professional learning you were talking about um how you measure
166the effect like how that changes what they're in did you guys discuss like how you would measure that is it's based on student performance is it based on people evaluating the teacher and their Improvement in the class how how do we measure that particular part of it like where that is and then the other question is just these other ones that are on this last page I think are so fabulous the addition considerations page um do we just want like do we not have time for enough goals or we move them up over I just they're fabulous and I don't want them to get lost I just wondered what that discussion was so I'm going to start with the additional considerations and then move to the main ones so one of the things the reason
167why we have the additional considerations here is because we really identified the priority is to really get that data so when we were looking for data as we worked within our committee we wanted to really evaluate what's the effectiveness of the intervention classes how are students reating to their Community but from a holistic level that level of data wasn't available so when we were really looking at getting down to really that root cause analysis to further um really analyze the additional committee recommendations we identifi the fact that we didn't necessarily have the data we wanted to drill deeper like sumita of assessment is so surface um but it doesn't paint the whole picture but the ability at a higher holistic level like each School may have different data that they're using but at that Central
168level to be able to identify the effectivess of strategies across the district that's where we identify the Gap so not that these are not important it's just that we needed that data Gap to be plugged in order to really use the data to drive these because one of the things that we're big on is return of investment but we want the data to drive truly what that intervention and what that solution is so when we really put those two things together we can adequate adequately say yes the data supported implementation of this and this is the progress we made from that and without the data you're almost kind of guessing what that fix is where we want it to really to be more spot-on and accurate with use of the data to determine this is
169what needs to happen um for the um actual um behaviors and results one of the ways we were literally looking at the Kurt Patrick model um we utilize that framework to determine those two levels you know the first two levels really looks at um kind of how you do that kind of post assessment with your um whatever learner comes in but when we're looking at the behavior in the results one of the things for behavior is really looking at um is there a class like a behavior change of the professional which does evolve some level of yes definitely communication but I do believe that it personally involves some level of analysis of if the behavior the instructional practice that we provided instruction on is truly taking place in that classroom so if we're expecting like
170um you know we say like the components of reading taught every day and we provide um the science of reading and it went through the science of reading and this this is the training we provided our teachers when I'm going into that classroom now I'm going in to analyze am I seeing the teacher provide the strategies that we provided in the science of reading in that classroom and if not what support can I give them to really Supply the learning that we provided and then the other piece is from a learning opportunity and some of that does actually the results does pull in that student data based on what the actual um learning is being or the professional learning and how that's being implemented in the classroom are students truly growing if that's what we
171were measuring me in sometimes it could be measuring um not necessarily learning but it could be a more functional goal that we're measuring but it does boil down to once we have that targeted outcome are we getting the results from the learning and that could actually involve measuring um student performance as well thank you Dr Wonder did you have something just first of all you guys did a great job thank you for all the efforts that you put into this um I do appreciate the um recommendation for the um data um the data analysis I think that within the school I think those there's we're data driven but sometimes it's really hard to process and I think that um these are good recommendations thank you anyone else have anything they'd like to add Madam chair
172I just want to point out um as you as the board knows but public may not know um each committee has a staff Le aison and the staff Le aison for this committee is U Monica Cortez foran she's leaving us to go to the private sector uh but she came back for this meeting uh and uh I just wanted to give her a shout out for her uh support of this committee over the last couple years and uh and the the committee did a phenomenal job Clear succinct direct actionable steps for uh the board to consider uh moving forward and uh and just want to give that team just a huge shout out they've come a long way in a short period of time thank you thank you thank you thank you very much [Applause]
173next we are going to hear our annual report and recommendations for the school board's Visual and Performing Arts advisory committee to introduce you I want to introduce you oh please thank you good evening everyone my name is dearra hazley I am the staff leison for the Visual and Performing Arts advisory committee and I am the new coordinator for Visual and Performing Arts for Stafford schools yay thank you dear how am I pulling up the next one thank you oh while that's coming up I can get started good evening members of the board Dr Taylor uh good evening to the Stafford Community uh my name is Jimmy gertzog and as the appointed chairperson for 2024 I am here representing the Visual and Performing Arts advisory committee thank you I'm here tonight to update the school board
174and the community as a whole on the Visual and Performing Arts work over the past year I would like to ask any of my fellow members of the committee who are present tonight to please stand up I think it's just my co-chair my vice chair who's present tonight thank you for all your work um I would like to express my thanks to the committee members um you know those who are present with the committee and whose terms have recently Sunset thank you for their commit in their volunteerism and their efforts over the past year I would also uh like to acknowledge the support and guidance from our board liaison Maya guy thank you and um also to recognize former vpa coordinator anamarie Bolino who Departed the role earlier this year um right around the time
175we were preparing for our presentation uh and in light of that um I would like to express my thanks to roxan bandis moldun uh for assisting through the transition and of course extend my thanks and Welcome to our new liaison dearra hazley she has uh hit the ground running as we prepared for our annual presentation and I look forward to working with her throughout the rest of the year dis disappeared on me um our committee's purpose is to advise the school board on the Arts education needs of all students throughout the school system and to Advocate on behalf of our students to ensure high quality or access to high quality Equitable consistent and vibrant Visual and Performing Arts programming our mission statement drives our work to support all students our guiding star is that participation
176in the Arts is an essential building block in the education of the whole child in 2023 and early 2024 we set about to evaluate opportunities and models for implementing an academy based Specialty Center or Pathways model um in the Visual and Performing Arts while strengthening the current Stafford County Public Schools programs of study the committee continues to operate with an understanding that ensuring access to highquality Equitable vpa programming Falls squarely within the framework of the school systems strategic goals and we focused our time and energy in 2023 um primarily on the opportunities to introduce Pathways centered on nent high school 6 bolstering and fully resourcing the existing Arts curriculum and charting the way for pathways for a Pathways model for new and specialized courses of study will enhance students academic performance within the school system
177and prepare them um and meaningfully broaden post-secondary opportunities um to that end here's where we spent our time since last April we reviewed Regional models uh for specialty Arts centers and Pathways courses and identified successful programs and the traits that they had that brought them success um we guided the development of two surveys um one to graduate uating High School seniors this year and to sixth grade uh art students in their uh Visual and Performing Arts classes we collected feedback from the community on pitfalls and stumbling blocks to achieving successful and durable vpa Pathways program throughout the year uh we also developing um an industry and Community Partnership resource list uh that we hope will help aid Us in in building an enduring program uh we made a similar last year however it bearss repeating
178uh we do not believe a successful Visual and Performing Arts education in Stafford County works without fully resourcing essential Arts education sequences throughout the public school's infrastructure and this includes the courses of study seen on the screen this is the courses of study that exist in from elementary all the way through High School programming that exists today so we used two student surveys to help guide us toward the types of educational opportunities provided by a Visual and Performing Arts Pathways program our targeted audiences were sixth graders and 12th graders surveys were conducted uh this past fall and results were presented to the committee this past February our audiences were chosen strategically uh the current sixth grade class would be the first potential Rising nth graders with an opportunity to enter the new high school and
179new programming available while the younger age necessitated more generalized questions uh vpa teachers administered the survey during their Orchestra art or drama class time this ensured a venue for student questions or clarification uh graduating high school seniors were asked to reflect on their time uh participating in the Arts these are results uh from the sixth grade survey I apologize for the small size so I will uh walk us through some of the notable examples on this um the survey had 1,375 respondents 40% were in band 30% were in visual art and Theater Arts 70% in chorus and 14% in Orchestra uh this is the sort of Crux of the central question question four we asked here and told the students we are currently exploring different options for a Visual and Performing Arts Specialty Center that
180you could attend in high school this Center will allow students to select courses and experiences specifically in art dance music and drama theater Arts which of these uh areas would be appealing to you uh so students could select multiple options uh the most popular responses were digital art uh musical performance so specialized performance and band Orchestra chorus piano uh specialize specialization in acting photography and costume design and studio art classes uh as well as industrial and interior design on average kids selected three areas of interest and close to 40% have responded that they might choose to participate in such a program critically we also ask kids whether they would the whether participating in the Arts outside of the school day um or whether excuse me whether uh uh whether they were participating in the Arts
181outside of their school day and it certainly caught our attention that 48% % of the sixth graders close to 800 of them said that they do not participate in the Arts outside of the school day about half of sixth grade students are only receiving structured exposure to the Visual and Performing Arts in their school day this was eye openening for the committee for the senior survey we had similar we had a smaller respondent pool of only 165 students uh but it was certainly a self- selecting group uh for those responding 60% uh or 100 of them were taking Visual and Performing Arts courses in high school and 60% of those had taken the arts for all four years of their High School career so clearly they are devotees and and very interested and passionate artists
182within the school system the 12th graders also had the chance to indicate which Pathways would be appealing to them uh they included specialized performance photography music composition digital art acting costume design uh we did notice that between the sixth graders and 12th graders there was a lot of similarities in terms of the areas of highest interest the performance the digital art photography and costume design so these certainly caught our eye although across the board there was interest uh throughout um the offerings that we were suggesting to them we asked seniors if you could do it all over again would you have been interested or participated in one of these Pathways even if it meant leaving your base School 63% said yes that they would and only 15% said that they would not have been interested
183at all in such a pathway uh if they could do it all over again finally I I want to use the remaining time um to share some of the incredibly nuanced and thoughtful responses from uh our seniors that they shared with us I have grouped them from by General themes and these are hardly the entire list of responses so these are the seniors in their own words um I grouped them for example by an expression of aspirations and career prospects gained in the Visual and Performing Arts students said experience and knowledge in the creative career uh was one of the things they got out of programs another said I have gained a career from taking Visual and Performing Arts course application to my post-secondary work I would like to be a performing arts teacher and
184then learning skills that they gained to help with my art outside of school seniors wrote about skill development both artistic techn technical skills but also soft skills quote I have learned to not be so critical of myself and to just enjoy the things I love I have learned to separate myself from Perfection and focus more on enjoyment of a longer response quote I have been I have been taught to observe the details of the natural world and it has made me more perceptive I have learned the ability to follow and lead with not just words but my actions seniors wrote about the role the Arts have played in their maturation quote the ability to feel comfortable on stage for any reason another said more comfortable and confident in myself and my work one acknowledge that
185it got me more sociable they said that they gained a skill friends in the exhilaration of Performing music another said I've gained skill and discipline even to the point where it became obsessive so I took a [Music] break the seniors were also candid quite candid in some cases about some of the barriers to their success in the pursuit of the Arts uh scheduling conflicts was a big one uh the desire to have more Choice more optionality in their courses the pressures of doing what they felt they had to do for college preparation SS AP Prep IB you know certification college applications versus what was always most fulfilling to them quote if I want to take an advanced Visual and Performing Arts course I have to sacrifice my GPA it's not fair that I have to
186choose between higher academic success or learning about what I enjoy doing seniors also spoke about the absence of the types of specialized Pathways we are investigating personally I think there should be a class to teach piano but there isn't another said the main thing that hurts my participation was moving the moving of Wind Ensemble which caused a conflict with chamber singers and a significant challenge was mentioned in the lack uh of resources this could be practice space or just the insufficient uh availability of instructors mentors assistant directors or other staff resources quote some instructors don't have proper spaces to teach in my band director is in charge of such a large a huge program quote our theater classroom is a normal carpeted classroom while all the other schools have actual blackbox theaters on the topic
187of barriers this was a takeaway for us in the committee there was an expression from senior respondents acknowledging and expressing frustration about inequality inequality of course offering of choice uh inequality of resources even amongst their peers at other schools uh funding out of pocket for events costumes props and usable practice space and the lack of quality up-to-date materials to summarize the highest rated pathway specializations were digital art photography music technology and production performance specialization acting and costume design most of these r ranked highly amongst both surveyed groups students in both surveys though did not always choose any overwhelming favorites and there was broad support expressed for many potential Pathways the sixth graders showed us the school system is critical in meeting the needs of uh of students for providing a well-rounded education that includes the
188Visual and Performing Arts with only half having vpa instruction in school day and seers told us a pathway program definitely would have been something they would choose if they did it all over again so they showed us the wealth and breath of personal development even within their own high school careers and the career preparation that they acquired through the Arts they also showed us our biggest barriers scheduled conflicts transportation and inequality the Visual and Performing Arts committee will be taking on the following tasks in 2024 we hope to inform and guide the school board on three essential questions we want to give actionable recommendations on what an inclusive and Equitable application process could look like what are those Outreach efforts to appeal to a wider audience what do what do students not know about how
189have they been proactively asked to participate in a Pathways program and then the introduction and perform or uh execution of a lottery system and building trust in that process through accessibility how might such a pathway or Academy secure funding to ensure longevity and then which business and industry partners could support and provide additional opportunities for students with mentorships internships and other career opportunities on behalf of the committee I would like to thank the board for your support in supporting highquality and Equitable and comprehensive Arts education programs for our students we appreciate I especially appreciate the opportunity to share our current work and with you and for uh your continued support with for the Arts in Stafford County Public Schools thank you thank you so much there any questions or comments from the board yeah I
190just wanted to say um I find really interesting the schedule concern and how that would work with having a pathway right that if if you want to be in the IB Program which is at Mountain View but you also want to be on this Arts pathway you're going to have to pick right I mean that's just just the way it's going to be set up um and I'm also intrigued by this question of do we have a lottery system or do we have a um an audition type system and um that's an interesting question in terms of the whole Equity piece and all of that so I'll be very interested in what your committee um brings brings us in in terms of what people are thinking yeah it it certainly is uh the foremost conversation
191we're having internally about what our senses between um an audition process and and aot Lottery process um on your first point I think that ideally we would like to see what we would like to see is a Pathways program that is a um a Gateway into something of an arts career so certainly there is going to be choices but with those choices come flexibility because you're driving towards um something that you will find meaningful and will contribute to your post-secondary studies so well and as Dr Taylor has often mentioned to is sometimes pathways teach you the pathway you don't want to go on so who knows yeah and uh we wouldn't be replacing Performing Arts at our other high schools we would just have a more robust um so an IB student could participate in
192find and Performing Arts at their base school just not through the Madam chair the Arts are for everybody it's an affirmation at every committee meeting we start with we are supporting the Arts continuation of the Arts in the schools as they are today so yeah it's it's something that we focus on and uh are conscientious of Miss Randall did you have something I I just want to say one thing I'm so happy to hear like photography I feel like photography is such a lost art and recently like my um my daughter's playing hockey and they had a photographer there and you don't realize you know your iPhone's not catching right so I'm so happy to see this on the list of things because those cameras and the beauty of what you actually catch in that
193moment from a camera you can't replace seeing that by you know the pixelated iPhone whatever thing so that makes me really happy also piano total Lost Art and I I mean it's an amazing instrument and I wish we could have one everywhere that's all I wanted to say I love the piano Dr War just just oh sorry go ahead I'll just address one thing and say that the it was interesting to me that photography ranked highly among the seniors but the digital art was lower than the younger students almost like that there was more interest in in the physical medium and and maybe in developing film and and staging your shot so I think that was shared a little bit I I just want to say thank you for all the work you put into
194this I think the difference will be in the pathways program whether you're seeking an arts career or whether you're seeking something I took um I took wheel throwing and hand forming and and photography courses between genetics and organic chemistry and analytical chemistry because it it was nice to have that creative outlet and it was I think helpful when I was in university so I think for our students I think that balance of Arts is always an important aspect of their education and thank you an excellent Outlet yes we agree and I want to I also wanted to thank you and welcome Miss hazley um to central office that means I won't see her at Rodney anymore she's been um there sorry to see you go I've actually gotten a message already asking why we took
195you so thank you for your hard work on both accounts thank you thank [Applause] you okay student representative reports good evening everybody so um Jennifer and I had discussions and we decided to establish end of April goals which Jennifer will go into later but we basically have finalized our media takeover we selected all our officers and they are here with us tonight and we'll be so excited to present them um we just want to kind of figure out how to highlight everybody countywide because we are St like Stafford County Public Schools we're together like as Excellence we don't just want to focus on certain schools um and yeah I'll have Jennifer go into everything else all right good evening everyone I am Jennifer odan your student alternate representative and today I will be giving you
196guys a quick little debrief of everything your student rep Jolene Dooku and I have been working on this month um one of Jolene and I's primary objective going into our term is to give students a voice and as we attended these board meetings one of the main issues that we have seen so far is that there's a lot of information being discussed information in which students don't tend to have a a proper or thorough comprehension of um so with that being being said this might discourage or lend students to not being more engaged into our school board um so with that in mind jolian and I came up with the idea of having a sort of social media team that will help us tackle that issue working together with the school board we were able
197to distribute an application to students who are part of their Student Government um for our social media team this group which consists of four distinctive um positions writer a news anchor a creative director and a photographer will collaborate with the school board and the student representatives to ensure that students fully comprehend the information being presented at board meetings um I will give a brief description of each of the roles to have a little better understanding of each of them um the student writers are asked to provide a synapsis of every meeting they attend along with captions for photographers photos the news anchor will be in charge of interviewing board members or other personnels that attend board meting meetings in order to get their views on certain topics um the photographer that student will be expected
198to collaborate closely with the writer and be available to take photos at meetings and other important um occasions that we attend last but certainly not least our creative director the students will be required to regularly create posts for the Instagram that we um just launch I'm sorry I didn't mention that we were able to launch our Instagram um accounts a couple couple of weeks ago so our created director will be posting on that for us on a regular basis to close I would like to express my gratitude to everyone who applied for these positions as your student Representatives we consider it an honor to collaborate with such extraordinary students who have as much as a passion that we do to bettering our education system with that being said it is my absolute honor to introduce
199you guys to our social media team who is sitting right there um we have Samantha eugeno who is from brookpoint high school she is our creative director um we have Kaylee Tapley who is our news anchor um we have Maya Samuels who is our writer and then unfortunately our photographer wasn't able to make it today but his name is Owen Hoy who is from North Stafford and he will be in charge of taking all our photos thank you so much thank you all we should have Jolene go down there the account promotion on inst oh at students of Stafford on Instagram so while they're taking the picture again that's at students of staff Stafford on Instagram [Applause] so are you all set are they all set thank you both for your efforts and all of
200you for joining the team um moving forward onto our citizen comments three minutes are allotted to each speaker or group speakers are encouraged to provide a copy of the comments to the board clerk speaker shall identify themselves by name citizen comment which is profane abusive or which threatens imminent physical harm shall be ruled out of order by the chair Miss Hall if you will call people up yes ma'am we have eight individuals signed up so I'll call the first four the first will be David fouth shamgar Connors Molly Denim and then Logan limbo there's no colors here awesome that's sry you can cut me off uh my name's David F uh in TM Loop Stafford Virginia in the AC District thank you madam chair members of the board Dr Taylor um first of all as
201a member of the CTE e committee thank you for recognizing Miss Crawley and Mr flath his name is so similar to mine I always get it messed up in in the minutes but um they have been phenomenal on the committee their information and their just their knowledge for promoting CTE has been great so thank you thank you thank you for recognizing them um CTE committees these presentations are so valuable so in informative so informational um just as a follow-up to today's working group session really around the cell phone policy um we did hear just in the earlier presentation about the value of data I think Dr Chase mentioned about you know I caught your point earlier about it's really you know it's a parents responsibility students don't quite have that capability um one resource I
202would highly recommend that you take a look at is a new book that came out by Jonathan hate talking about the anxious generation just came out I mean I think think his recommendation to actually create a cell phone free school is something that should be seriously considered I did look at I downloaded all of the forms I went through a lot of the parent um spreadsheet I think every um pushback on those from the parents could be easily addressed I think his book covers all of them so I think it's you know as you think through it as you look at just the research I mean I know this board looked at research significant research during the co you look at scientific research So This research that is out there that's saying the effects of
203cell phone the effects of social media the issues that you're having with bullying the issues that we're having with mental illness image all the things that we're saying highly recommend that you take a look at that and I think it's you know I'll probably catch hell for you'll catch hell for but I think it's a bold step to take a look at that I'd be interested I don't think you talked about it today but you know Stafford Middle how have the great scores gone up in this past year I know you talked briefly about you know the the violence and you know the challenges with disciplin but have the grade scores gone up have you seen a change in that have you seen performance gone up and I think if that's a driving Factor both
204are a win-win so highly recommend that book highly recommend some bold steps on addressing the issues and being at the Forefront of that thank you thank you very much and I don't know how much time I used 18 seconds [Applause] next Shamar all right hey everybody I'm sham Connors I live in Stafford County um I have a school I have a child in the school system right now I wrote some notes what I wanted to say today before I wanted to start I want to say I wanted to give some background myself so you know where I'm coming from when I talk about this stuff I was a teacher in Virginia for 14 years Middle School I coached basketball and soccer during the whole time until I had to medically retire due to kidy failure
205because I do dysis every day have a port sticking out my neck you can there you see it anyway I was then kicked off the kidney transplant list because I refused to get the covid vaccine even though I had covid and had the antibodies had it tested whatever I was all over the news for it I was even on the front page of Fox News and after I went on the news liberals have spent every day to the day today even harassing me and my family doxing me threatening me there's a website about them threatening me all sorts of stuff anyway in the I've had a lot of experience in the school system I figured I'd come talk about some things because I've heard some stuff going on I'll give a story so and then
206I'll relate it to what's going on in schools when I was teaching um I had a student in eth grade threatened to kill me in front of the whole class I sent the student out and I said okay yeah you're not you're not going to stay in my classroom and then um this student had been threatening other teachers other students for years he got caught bringing throwing stars throwing them at other kids bringing knives to school you name it okay and the next day it come to school you'd figure um and by the way I've been in Virginia my was teaching my whole career in Virginia they I come he's in at my door and I was like what are you doing at my doorway he's oh they told me to come back to your
207class and so I I submitted as a report to the school police officer and then the principal got really mad at me so I was trying to figure out why was I being blamed for this why do you have all these kids fighting doing all this stuff going on well after schooling time there was a meeting and then we had and I found out the real reason why which I think is important for all the parents and all the people in the the county and people that are going to watch us at home they know real reason why I found out was the we had a meeting after school and they said okay well we're getting this many x amount of writeups on white kids Hispanic kids and black kids and the problem is that
208if every minute of class time and instruction time that the students aren't in the class the school loses funding and they lose even more funding for kids that are in minority demographic and so then it made sense oh why are they not suspending and expelling kids even though in the rulebook it says you can that's right because then the school loses funding right and so and then there's on top of that and I don't know if anyone knows this but then you're encouraged as a teacher to fudge the grades they told me you're not allowed to fail these kids if you do then you're in trouble and you have to resubmit your grades they do this all this was this was the whole time I was teaching everywhere I was teaching at in Virginia by
209the way so this is a Virginia wide thing and so then you have social promotion why don't parents know this but if your student fails one year they can't fail again they just automatically get promoted the next year now obviously you can see how this creates a massive amount of problems in the schools okay you're not holding anyone accountable what do you think these kids are going to do they're going to act out what does that mean oh it just means I think you guys have the power to control the kids and tell them hey you have to be disciplined oh you're just going to get way worse there going to be more than just fights you're going to have riots and it's going to be really bad thank you thank you very much I
210won't take all three of my minutes I promise Molly denim from the Hartwood District um in accordance with policy 1108 regular monthly Schoolboard business meetings are typically held the second Tuesday of each month the Board of Supervisors has also chosen Tuesday as the day of the week to hold their meetings and they meet the first and third Tuesday of each month in Ideal World this would work seamlessly to allow the public to have a specific day of the week set aside to attend both boards to remain current on all topics affecting the county unfortunately we don't live in an ideal world and the current Arrangement continues to create massive problems for the public each year starting in November and running through April both boards adjust their schedules based on holiday activities inclement uh winter weather
211and other needs of the respective boards and each year these res reschedule attempts result in multiple overlapping meetings between the boards forcing the public to divide their attention amongst competing priorities November through April is when the Public's attention is most needed by both boards and is the most active time for the budget cycle our ability to not only attend the meetings of both boards but remain aware of County issues is being severely hampered and is damaging the effectiveness of the public to fully advocate for our schools I would like this board to revisit policy 1108 and request the board find a different day of the week other than Tuesday to hold their meetings though I understand the intention may have been to provide a consistent day of the week throughout the month for the public
212to attend County meetings it has had the opposite effect and each year causes problems with the Public's ability to participate in the governance of this County in addition I believe this board would better be served scheduling their meetings on a Wednesday or Thursday not only will this ensure any rescheduled attempts by either board won't create Havoc for the public but it could also potentially allow you to have a better response time to any action taken by the supervisors during their normal Tuesday meetings especially during budget season when time is limited and decisions must be made rapidly thank you thank you very much good evening board um I am not a resident of the county I am I do have a son though that goes to Margaret Brent so go Bobcats um I'm here on behalf
213of of Naval surface Warfare Center dogin division um I came from my son's practice so I'm sorry for the attire um and we are doing our third annual dogin downtown um that we host at the silk Mill Inn in Fredericksburg um it'll be October 11th from 11:00 a.m. to 300 p.m. um I realize it's a little bit early but we would like to get on uh school's calendars for next uh next year um it's a great event uh we do a lot of showing off for n WC um a lot of people know that we're out there but might not know what we do or you know there still are some people that actually don't know that we're out there um so it gives us an opportunity to um show the history um we do
214a lot of stem activities for the students and that's why um I'm coming to each individual individual counties um kind of introducing the event so that maybe um it could be a potential um field trip I know it has some scheduling with bus drivers and and chaperons and things like that um but we do have um our robotics team that comes out our underwater robotics team we do activities for the kids um our explosive ordinance team comes out a real live range boat comes out and it's all done at the silk Mill outside during the day um last year it rained so we didn't have great attendance the year before we had um I believe two schools uh montros and rap ranic Regional and then we had homeschoolers that attended both years um it's a
215great opportunity to kind of highlight um opportunities outside of the regular if uh kids don't want to go to school we do have student internships and um programs and so it just gives an opportunity to showcase what we do other options um for kids in the stem program so I do have Flyers um that I am more than willing to give to you all um and yeah hopefully we can get on your calendars for next school year thank you so much is your contact information on the Flyers if we have any if anybody has any questions it is not it is not um you can just write it down and give it to somebody or email us or something yes I can thank you madam chair the next four speakers will be Peter Ryan Robert
216pette Kevin walls and Lee Steven rette thank you my name is Peter Ryan and I live right next to the cliff Farm school property that we discussed in the that you discussed in the uh work session um this development of the school which uses would need to use a pump station will affect me its initial installation and possible upgrade is going to affect me the profer statement says that the county shall use the powers of condemnation to obtain easements as well so this would directly affect me as well um The Pump Station that the uh School may possibly be able to tag team on and use is actually about one tenen the size of what is needed for an elementary school so that means not only the proa cost but also the additional cost of
217condemning brand new properties to put a much larger Pump Station in would affect the county the Stafford County Department of Public Works final report revised May 14 2018 chapter 3 page 11 just doing a bunch of words here uh says that per 10,000 square fet a public building needs 2200 gallons per day for capacity um average Middle School is about 110,000 Square F feet so this means about 24,200 gallons per day as needed and this pump station is 2200 gallons so that's some math and was homeschooled it's amazing the 2007 County assessment of the property also had the estimated daily trips at approximately 2200 Vehicles if there was a school there right now it's at 114 so that means big improvements will be needed for the road on uh that leads into it uh the
218proposed development at the entrance to the school this is the uh the one by JPI with 141 homes if that goes in and then a school goes in um it's an active adult Community I don't think that's going to be very easy to get a school in after the fact uh so with these issues and the others the Planning Commission tabulated we are convinced that the proposed development not the school but the Housing Development will not benefit the school's ability to develop this land but may instead create roadblocks for planning and um hopefully maybe we could have a town hall to get some Community feedback on potential uses for that that school property for the school's use um to help better plan this before we're all backed into a corner so we greatly appreciate your
219consideration of this matter and you heard us you brought this all up to re-evaluate the property and that's awesome we really appreciate all you've done for us thank you very much thank you he stole my thunder good evening Madam chair members of the board Dr Taylor my name is Bob rette I live at 76 Cliff Farm Road um in the fet district so obviously I'm one of the properties that's directly impacted by the development potentially by a school that might be built on the school property down on Cliff Farm I appreciate you all finally discussing this this is a discussion that is long long overdue we've been hounding this for for a long time and with an impending vote by the Board of Supervisors it's even more imperative that this discussion occurs you what we
220heard today there was a large group of us that were in there you know attending and listening um you know and what we heard was about the fact that you want to preserve your options with the school property down there and as a taxpayer that's absolutely important we're the ones that paid to buy that land we're the ones that that that you know will will pay to build the school and everything else that will be needed so having that conversation with us the residents the taxpayers is extremely important I can tell you personally I've been kneee in this for over three years thousands of hours looking into the plans the comprehensive plan the ordinances all of this and we've tried to have this conversation I can tell you that what JPI is planning will negatively
221impact your options down the road there was a lot of information that was presented tonight that unfortunately was not accurate Water and Sewer will not come down to the school property line it will end at the JPI development it'll have to run through our properties and we're outside of the urban Services area so does that mean easements rideways condemnations I don't know let's have that discussion the proposed Road improvements there are none painting in line and cutting down some trees that's the only thing Gerald properties is proposing so what does that mean for a school that might be built down the road that means now you're going to have to come in and ask for land possibly condom Nation from a new community that was built and redesign and redo all that work not smart
222planning not a good use of taxpayer dollars and we all know we just went through the budget we just went through the CIP it's tough out there I listen to these discussions that you all had about more money for schools and I'm a big supporter I put four kids through Stafford County Public Schools three of them through Governor's School I'm proud of our school system they're all successful but we need you to have a conversation with us and we're not having that and so it's important that you get involved and you defend your equities with your property our property our tax dollars because if you wait to have that discussion it's going to cost us Millions more in rework and infrastructure roads schools public services all those things so please please have these conversations defend
223your equities defend our equities protect your land protect our land thank you you thank you very much uh good evening board members Dr Taylor uh my name is Kevin walls I also live at Cliff Farm uh in the fouth district and again I'm going to talk a little bit about the school property on Clif Farm uh we were at the meeting earlier work session we stood in there we kind of watched yall when we walked in uh our our presence is is somewhat maybe intimidating but that's not our intent our intent is to really ask you as board we've done it with the Board of Supervisors we've done it with the Planning Commission here what we got to say come out to our property come out to the property and look at it because significantly
224what I really want to talk about real quickly is I heard a lot about Transportation you've heard us say that property is going to be locked that property you're not going to be able to do it if you come down Leland the only Improvement that are going to do is they want to put some pin striping on Leland Road no turn Lanes if you've driven down that road you've seen all the dump trucks safety's an issue you put a school bus coming from pic run down that road you can't make a school bus turn there and if you want to do that you want to have that option Now's the Time to act because if they build the houses in the application they're proposing those houses are going to run right up against that road
225your options are gone you're not going to be able to do that other issues um uh about Road improvements again like we said no turnl Cliff Farm Road there's no change no application they're not even attempting to do anything on Cliff Farm Road it drive up Cliff Farm Road it's an unimproved half paav former dirt road it ends to a dirt road put a school bus on that we've seen school buses come up when there were kids on there they struggled we had to pull over so the buses could come up the road that's a problem no improvements and if you want to improve that road now you're talking about condemnation of my property because my property is right there right across the street from where this development's going I'm literally next door to the
226school property the front door of the high school literally is going to be less than 100 yards from my front door and I was okay with that last thing I want to talk about is the only benefit to this whole program this whole property development again we're not against development we know it's coming but the county in that area is not prepared to do that they're going to back the school board into a corner where your property you can't do with it what you want to do I heard what you want to do with it you want to hold that property it's important we have land available for students in this County if we don't do something now you're not going to be able to do it later I ask you some of you have
227been out to the property I'll stand out at the end of the road I'll give you my phone number I'll walk you the property and you see it for yourselves thank you thank you good evening my name is Lee Steven uh I'm a property owner uh on Cliff Cliff Farm I will be directly impacted by any development that you would will decide to do on on your property and will be directly affected by the housing development plan that is being currently being um uh uh currently before the Board of Supervisors I do want to emphasize that the the issue before the Board of Supervisors is not just the resoning but the development plan itself so the approval or disapproval of that plan is actually uh on the agenda and that development plan I encourage you
228and I urge you to please inform yourself of the details of that plan because as my fellow uh as my neighbors have just explained that development plan as it exists today will shut down the flexibility that you articulated in the work session earlier today that you wish to have you mentioned that you want to maintain the maximum flexibility you don't don't know what what the best use of that property is today and that's understandable but you want to maintain the flexibility to use that land but this development plan as it's being proferred today and as it will be voted on is going to shut down that flexibility and hinder that flexibility so I urge you uh uh to understand the details uh of that plan and to be be involved in the in the conversation
229with the Board of Supervisors about that plan today before they vote on it uh I also want to mention just one other one other thing um and that is that that this area actually is a historic area it's Stoneman station and um part of the uh the issue that we were able to uh get the development developer to to do was to do a what's called a a phase two uh um I'm blanking now a phase two uh archaeological uh survey of the area uh they had decid they they had not done that the uh the the historical commission had decided had had thought that that had been done but they recommended that when when it became clear that they had not been done completely they've recommended do that so this is this area requires
230careful planning and careful uh uh insight into what's being what is what is possible and and um I therefore I urge you therefore to to inform yourself and and especially get into the details of the plan thank you thank [Applause] you madam shair that concludes the citizen comments for tonight great thank you very much to everyone moving forward to our action items uh first item is adoption of proposed amended policy 213 addresses student transfers motion to approve second okay are there any questions or discussion um I just wanted to it looked to me like the only thing that changed was taking out guidance for children no longer participating in half day programs is that pretty much it's mostly to address theems and the fact that students will be now attending the particular High School not
231be transfering in but but if students are in a program and then they leave that program they would go back to their regular school is that correct yeah any other questions or comments if we can cast our votes motion passes 7 to zero item 9.02 approval of the proposed amendment amended governance committee Charter motion to approve second any questions or discussion I would excuse me I would like to point out I think there was a sentence that was accidentally crossed out um oops oh this is the charter right okay never mind I'm thinking about the code of conduct um so this was just we tried to update the charter so that it was more ref of what we do okay any other questions or comments okay we'll cast our votes motion to reconsider or whatever
232that is because my accidentally hit the wrong button because I told her that the charter said she was going to buy us breakfast every time we had so we need to like second and vote on that yeah did you announce it D it was uh ped 6 to1 with Maya voting no wait this is our code of no this was the so motion motion to revote this is this is the second Char I second Dr Chase's motion to revote you want to vote for it okay well Madam chairman I I think don't I'm on the side that voted for it so can I just make a motion to bring it back that's what she just did oh it's all right okay I'm still confused so we're going voting now on whether or not we're going
233to revote this is the vote to revote vote to rote Sor sign that all right okay unanimous vote for rev voting now second okay cast your vote for the governance committee Charter look at the buttons that vote passes unanimously uh of item 9.03 adoption of the proposed amended board member code of conduct and board governance handbook motion to approve second I would like to make one minor change um I just noticed I think the I will have integrity in all matters and support the education safety and development of the whole student and I think that was accidentally crossed out and acknowledged the term whole student applies to all students in Stafford County so is that acceptable I think that got crossed out by accident the first what page are you on up to the page
234two page two page first item oh page two but the yeah right here she saying this was I think the first part yeah I think that got crossed out by accident so that should probably be there otherwise the sentence doesn't make a whole lot of sense yeah the whole point of that sentence is the Integrity piece so we're going to a that's I'd like to make a friendly amendment to um amend the first item to to include the statement I will have integrity in all matters and support the education safety and development of the whole student and then and acknowledge the term whole student applies to all students attending Stafford schools acceptable to is that acceptable Miss Hallstead sounds like it is yes it is acceptable okay all right so motion now any other discussion
235I would like to point out there were specific things requested which I think are covered in item six and in it item um nine so I just want to draw your attention to those Madam chairman just a comment sure um I interesting um that the social media um I'll call it restrictions or only to public so that means privately you can do anything you want just is that the that the intent about number 13 see where the the number okay than here which number is that um I'm looking looking for the pages but just I I don't have it in front of me but but the one that said that you you would not um say I I think publicar statements against other board members in public um social media okay I will refrain from
236making disparaging statements about fellow board members board decisions staff families and students including but not limited to on public social media and in public statements so was that intended to restrict it to public or um I see where you're going so I just took it as public meaning it's public facing so I you know on any platform but I can see where because public and private are two totally different things that that might need to be clarified um so I took it as public face so we're saying like I can still talk about y'all behind your back on my personal Facebook page but I can't put it on my professional Facebook page is that what we're that's the way I read it okay I agree with that that's fine so wait a minute you agree
237that you can talk about us behind our backs only in private so I mean private social media it's still public facing I interpret public meaning that anything I say in a group it doesn't matter whether it's my personal page or my public page is still being put out there in the other sphere that anybody could and and to reference and to frame the discussion I see what you're saying I do see to frame it the discussion that took place was that as public officials there should be a higher expectation that we will manage ourselves better um in public and in Social in public forums um so that's why I see what you're saying that because there's a there's a concept of public versus private in this regard but we were just I think the discussion
238was about for the public doing better um so that any forward-facing social media page or whatever this applies to so so there was including a private one Maya to restrict it if if there wasn't any intent is there any uh issue with making it on social media rather than on public that would be fine would you like to make a friendly amendment to change yeah I I wasn't a party to the discussion so I didn't know what they so so you're suggesting just take out the word public in front of social media and just say um limited to social media and in public statements and then um thoughtful in my public statements so just take out the first public yeah I guess I mean and then you get public versus private statements it's just this
239public part thoughtful in my statements part that confus me so so should we take public out completely and just then we would just be able to because TW 12d uh opens up the same conversation I think too yeah there there's rules further in the second half of this document that go into great greater detail about what those well operating protocol s are different from the code of conduct I would think they may be explanatory it's more explanat they should be consistent I I you know I I just didn't know what the what the intent is I I don't do social media public or private so but I know that many people do and your private ones are are are not open to the public so my interpretation your priv you want in your private even
240your personal one if you have enough followers your stuff can still it's gonna it's GNA leak out so I think it's all public I don't think you can count on anything on a social media page remaining private may talk crap so I can't do the friendly Amendment right I can only second it but I think if we remove the word public what we're actually just saying intended to limit it and then you know just take it out and then be more 12d as well because it also says public social media which one 12d page six I guess is that a friendly Amendment then we're changing the we're taking that word public out in that um in item social media 13 and we're taking it in front of social media and we're taking it out um
241I think it was 12b you said 12 d d on their public scho on their school social on public schools politically devices marks regarding current iners should refrain from disparity fls on or board decisions on personal Media or on all social on social media social media add on social media we'll get this done before next year I promise I'm new to governance so my first meeting was when we were finishing this out I wanted some clarification on 12C the board shall limit the use of board link social media accounts for purposes connected to school programs or services that seems counterintuitive to me because that feels like that's exactly when we would want to use board linked social medias to promote programs and Services I think what we're saying what we're saying is that we're going
242to limit our use of school-based social media to things that are relevant to our job on the school board okay that's not how I read that I see that now that you're explaining it that way but it definitely read like we should restrict yeah yeah I see what you're saying too but yeah no it's you can't be you know like advertising a public sale and or like you know free ice cream at some place or whatever it's just School connected stuff so I second the friendly Amendment did I need to do that again yeah okay so I second any other questions okay if we move forward with our vote please oh wait so if you don't follow if we don't follow this what happens then then we get I I don't know we each get
243to slap the person who misbehaved I guess everyone an article motion passes unanimous ly are aspirational affirmations of our our options it04 approval for the reallocation of 2020 bond funds and available Cash Fund for funds for small capital projects Mr Fulmer so I'm sure Mr Tower will join me up here too but um just wanted to give like a a brief introduction into this and then we as we take questions um we'll we I'll pull Mr Tower in but a little bit of background here is um uh we have some project funds some of them are savings from projects that have been completed so kudos to our facilities our project managers and and an OM omm team that um have created some savings on some of our projects we don't always get to hear the
244good U this is a situation we do have some savings so that's a good thing also have projects that have kind of either we make that decision whether we just defer them um they've been out there like the North Stafford some exterior work at North Stafford uh that's also tied to some ongoing litigation so uh we and some of those are tied to bonds that go all the way back to 2020 uh some of these are cash funded items so what we want to do um originally we were coming and we wanted all of this to be reallocated tonight and that's how it's presented on the agenda uh sent a message Friday kind of saying hey with with everything that's happened at the Board of Supervisors the additional funding that we have from the 3r
245and all the additional needs at this time um we want to kind of table some of these projects and bring them back in May because we want to come at the May meeting a work session and into the full uh board meeting to discuss kind of a whole re prioritization of some of our three projects um one because um our initial list that we brought to you and it was approved in September October time frame um assumed that some of our major mechanical HVAC work was large projects um those were not funded but we did receive additional three funding so those large projects need to be put back onto our three list we technically don't have an approved three list that has those HVAC project so we want to look at that for 25 and
246Beyond but we also want to rep prioritize reallocate These funds for FY 24 um as I mentioned some of those are savings and some of it is Cash uh the piece that is um more pressing that isn't really tied to a a you know kind of three r large Capital item is Furniture needs um we budget less than $200,000 a year in replacement and expansion for for furniture and when you're adding 600 700 um plus kids a year um we're just not keeping up um and our furniture is really old so um right now we're out um asking that if we can reallocate the cash funds so that we can uh the subsequent item on the agenda is a is a purchase order for furniture uh all of it is going towards um elementary school
247classroom Furniture so uh classroom desks uh student desks student chairs um think about a thousand of them so some replacement and some catchup really um there's a little bit at going to prek as well because we need to expand our classrooms at at prek it is also going to student desk or sorry uh teacher desks and teacher chairs because as we expand classrooms so think uh think modular so at the schools that where we've added classrooms for uh the modular for classroom space we've got to furnish those classrooms uh and so the students are continuing to come we need uh desks and chairs the last several years um team's done a phenomenal job of rounding up every available desk and chair we can find uh we used to have like a warehouse where we've collected
248all those desks and chairs that were extra from from each school and we put them in the warehouse and I was just at the warehouse last week and that warehouse is bare so um really do not um have uh have any excess chairs at especially at the elementary school level so as we get to July 1 we'll probably be using some of that furniture money um for some uh honestly cafeteria table Replacements we have cafeteria tables falling apart that are in very dire need of replacement right now uh so for tonight um as I mentioned just wanted to reallocate some of those cash froms from the uh savings from three R projects and put it towards a Furniture purchase uh the reason we broke that out separately and asked for it to be uh done
249tonight is just a timing issue uh the vendors are saying the lead time if we want them here by that time to set up and get into the the schools we're really on a very short timeline of about the next couple of weeks um they're pushing us really for next week um I think we have a couple of weeks but I don't think we have a month in order to get those in in time get them assembled and get them set up in the classrooms so Madam chair really quick just to add a little bit of clarification this is really like a four-step process so the first step um that we're asking the board to consider tonight is one to reallocate some funds for the use of uh Furniture that's that's uh 9.04 and then
2509.05 to then act on that reallocation to then authorize some purchase of some furniture and then part three to come back in May to take a look at your needs because the supervisors although they funded some three things did not fund some of the major maintenance projects on HVAC and major mechanical systems so to re-evaluate that list and then part four to take action on that list in May so this is really like a 30-day four-step process to look at at three R so I hope that that helps clarify okay I think we all have some questions we'll start with uh Dr Chase and work our way down yeah so um Mr Fulmer why don't the two numbers match so we've got cash funds for 444,000 but then you want a purchase order for $
2514179 yeah so we don't need to use every dollar 4117 is the actual cost of the furniture that we're purchasing so that's the amount we need reallocated not the entire cash amount if if you didn't want to do that okay so um there will then be an extra 20,000 or something like that yeah which will be reallocated it'll still be available for us when we come back right okay next month and what does this mean for the Ferry Farm roof and what about the Hampton Oaks um uh HVAC system that got put on hold for the Stafford uh middle um HVAC system oh thanks so yeah great question on the Hampton Oaks and Stafford Middle so we'll come back and talk about that in May all we're doing here tonight is we're basically taking if
252you if you you can see the table in your agenda item there there's lines 2 three four five six and seven it starts with ag right repair track I liked the 62 cents yeah yeah uh through the Ferry Farm Elementary repair sewer it's largely the Fairy Farm um funds there we're swapping the bond funds with cash funds that are on the roof project and so that will allow those bond funds to be used on the roof project and that frees up the cash and then that cash can be used on furniture purchases okay but I mean but we are potentially taking half a million dollars that could be used for three R projects of one sort or another and instead spending them on furniture so right I mean I'm just I'm just that that's what
253we're doing right correct that's what we're that's what we're trying to decide if we want to do that got it yeah and normally we would say you know just do it all together and prioritize your your lists in May the the ordering timeline so that we can have chairs for the children to sit in in August is now we still think that you need to take a hard look at your list of three R and do some reprioritization to account for some of those major mechanical systems and do we have a list of this furniture we're buying for $417,000 we do yeah and I'll say too that the 444 we're anticipating so the 417 is is the immediate order we have ready to go click Send if you will um we're anticipating as Mr Mr
254Fulmer alluded to earlier some other incidental items that are going to come up between now and the end of the summer to be prepared for August so that's part of the reason for the additional 20,000 or so just to because I know 400,000 seems like a lot for furniture doesn't actually take you that far with classroom Furniture is very very expensive uh Furniture in general is uh but just some kind of nice round numbers I I could send you the exact numbers but um over a, student elementary school chairs um over 825 elementary school desks um only about 35 teacher uh desks um and then the corresponding chairs also it's bookcases and like the I think the kidney tables that go in each classroom Dr Warner you have well I I will say that my
255visits to elementary schools have revealed that some of our teachers are sitting at some pretty sad little desks and many of our students you know it's just like the furniture at home it wears out so and and I I mean I hate to say this but this actually isn't going to replace any of that furniture so we're still going to be stuck this is still just for grow with the 30-year-old Furniture this is just for expansion this is just for the growth yes ma' okay guy yeah I just had a um a question in a comment um because you mentioned buying cafeteria tables but I thought we could use a different different money like can you can you do that or am I mistaken the nutrition money um not for cafeteria tables but for things
256that are happening in the kitchen yes yes so yeah um and and I mean this is a good lesson I think for for everybody in this space is that whether it's an HVAC system or a cafeteria table or a teacher desk or a computer that that the assets have a useful life and um we have a long history of of actually getting great value out of the assets past their useful life but when they go they go and um there there is some replacement that that needs to take place so that that the schools can function properly so we need to be mindful of that in addition to the growth needs and then my my comment is um just because you know we all have constituents who are constantly on us about every thing that
257we do and um I know be like $400,000 of furniture my what did y'all buy so if if like the list that you had if that could be a part of our attachment um when when something like this comes up where it's like a qu you know like a lot of money because we're not paying $1,000 for a hammer but that's what they're going to say yeah so that's all if I could just have those lists not I don't need it now because you you said it so I wrote it I can write it down but so that's actually a great point and I will add that if you just divided it by the number of schools we have it's about $113,000 per school doesn't go very far uh now granted it won't be divided
258evenly because obviously our population growth is not evenly distributed across the county but yeah it's not a lot of money it really isn't relative to what we're how fast we're growing Miss holon um so just to make sure I'm reading this paper right um there really at the end of all this about 1.5 little over I did my calculator and do that math In My Head by the way I took my calculator out and did that there's about $1.5 million more that we're switching over and swapping out and doing stuff with correct um so so yes so the end first chart it says 132 it's like 1.3 million at the end of the second one it's 205 yeah and we're not we're not asking you to do anything with that tonight so we're going to
259come back in May and have a more that's being folded into the next priority ation project that we or the three project for for next month so so to add to miss halstead's point the you have the the the budgeted amount in Cash Plus new Bond issuance for 3r that the supervisors approved plus this project savings you you do have a healthy dollar sum to to start chipping away at your three Rs and this is a part of that mix okay and that is fantastic for us it actually positions us very well go into three but it'll go quickly because the projects are very expensive um so if we can also get a breakdown of the 32 cents and what we're g how we're no I'm just kidding um but can you now I I
260thought I understood the cash Bond can the one the Fairy Farm roof thing can you just explain that you because it's listed up here we're swapping out bond funds for cash money because we need the liquid asset right now to put towards what we're yeah so we don't we don't want to use Bond money to go buy furniture right so so we're kind of switching it there so that we use the bond money on the ferry Farm roof um and it frees up the cash that was identified for that project I'm assuming there's no little like fine print writing that says we can't do that right no so all of these funds have been appropriated by um the County Board of Supervisors but um we'll still um just add a full disclosure we'll let them
261know and I've already talked to their County staff letting them know that we're doing this and um there was there was no heartburn there um I told them that we would let them know formally exactly what happens so they can notify their board I mean I didn't mean to make it sound like it was you know we were doing this like under our seet I just don't I didn't understand the process and I didn't know how that swap over yeah know it's a great already know and stuff I feel like that's better too that just makes me in the spirit of our new transparency Miss Hy it it looks like a about 2third of the bond money is coming from the North Stafford um repair exterior envelope yes ma'am correct um is that going to
262be back on the three R list so that will be up to the board we'll discuss that in May um uh because we're not actually reallocating that nor Stafford money tonight uh but I think the board's going to have a lot of difficult decisions to make um when we come back in May so this North Stafford project to do these exterior improvements so so think a little bit of uh doors and windows uh this was supposed to be kind of phase two after we did some of the other exterior work um and there's still more phases um but that project has probably doubled in price since we initially got this Bond money in 2020 uh so we don't have enough funds to do that project and so now with other projects that have come to
263light uh we want to bring everything back to you and am I correct prioritize that money needs to be used in a like we have to use the money within the next year is that right yeah so so technically it's about five years that you're supposed to spend down the vpsa money uh we're talking to um kind of bond counsel and vpsa now to clarify exactly do we have to spend it within five years or can we get an extension there there does become a legal cost of having to go back and and redo some paperwork so we're trying to avoid that so if we know um if we have a project that can be done in that timeline and we the board chooses to R reprioritize and it can be done then we'll do
264that if not then we'll go back to vpsa and ask them to extend so does it have to be spent or allocated spent yeah I I want to um be cautious about deferring projects at North Stafford because now that we've got um you know we've got a new high school coming on but North Stafford is our oldest high school so this was uh important to the board at the time it was done it was not for cosmetic purposes I recall specifically discussion that there were safety issues and you know reasons why this exterior work had to be done so I I I just I don't want to lose sight of that so you know this looks like a sizable amount of money but if two-thirds of it is coming from a project that we are
265quote deferring then is that really a savings I I don't know um I have questions about fairy Farms but I'm going to you know um let Miss U Randall take the the lead on that because again you know that's another project that has just been um Fiasco you you know in terms of getting the the work contracted getting it done getting the project finished and you know the the you know say we had um over $100,000 left in the repair pavement isn't that because we did not do all the work that we had originally said we were going to do so it's really not a savings as much as it is a a change um so to your point there are actually two really important important things to illuminate right now not all project savings
266are good and and the North Stafford project is a good example of that because the the cost of the project escalated beyond the scope so rapidly that it's no longer affordable so it shows as a savings when in reality just the work didn't get done because it was too expensive and I I I get all that I think it might be helpful to have some type typ of footnotes to these projects because when it looks like it's completed and we're saving all this money it appears that we either overestimated or right you know you know something went wrong but it's it's it's none of the above it's because we had to cut the scope so that that's just you know my my questions with with those and then I I just have a comment on
267the on the furniture and I understand we need Furniture we go into schools and we see you know sometimes there's not enough chairs or or or desk but every time we um present our budget to the supervisors we include a substantial amount for growth the cost of growth and that includes you know the the staff the the space you know the furniture so to say that we need to spend this 400,000 today for furniture for growth and I'm assuming is this past growth or future growth I I don't know is it's it's almost like a windfall I'm not saying we don't need it and I'm going to support it but if we're budgeting for growth then surely that includes furniture and we should not be in a position where we need to to to to
268come up with funds just just spend more I I appreciate the confidence that you've had in our past budgeting unfortunately in this instance it's not merited um we identified uh growth funds specifically for Staffing for fuel for buses for a lot of physical assets even computers in some instances but there are some elements that we have been working off of a back inventory uh this is for uh current needs and projected needs um and it needs to be something that we factor into our growth costs in the future now what that means is that growth number is going to even look more significant in the future because this is going to be a component that has to be tied into it and um I mean Miss hey you actually are the only person on the
269board that may recall what this is like but The Upfront cost and the soft cost for opening a school it's going to be some sticker shock tied to some of those purchase orders because of just obtaining those physical assets to to put um even furniture and fixtures in some of the new schools that we're about to build is going to it it's going to it's going to turn some heads for sure but but but uh you know we are we are out of the inventory and now we are moving into needing to make sure that that is a part of the Staffing is a part of the growth conversation that we have in the future but it wasn't in the past several years the budget that we are going to be look at next um
270well after the furniture does not include that growth that growth cost doesn't include Furniture it is people fuel um and other physical assets but not Furniture now all right so so this is a rhetorical question but it's why not and I'm it it absolutely should be cost just like just like the the new computers that we need the the new Chromebooks we we have those for students if we're not including Furniture then then we we certainly should be then we would not be in this position because this is um and it's to me it's something that that we should have been anticipating when we plan for next year and if we have a P need for it that has not been met then that needs to be put into the budget so the budget next
271year does not have this furniture in it do you anticipate that we're going to be looking at this again with the the growth that's anticipate oh I think you're going to be looking at this as a separate line that gets added in your non-discretionary uh category um as long as Stafford County is going to grow this is like one more component that's going to be added to that mix the the why why this year why now why all of this is that we have benefited from the fact that we have had some furniture that we have used and reallocated from even other classrooms uh to be very efficient and just that opportunity is not available to us anymore and that's the good I'm I'm not being critical I'm just asking these exploratory questions good question
272we know we've kind of reached the end of the line in our reserves there are no more Reserves so then when we pass a budget for next year it absolutely should be in there and perhaps that's something between the provisional budget and the final budget that you know we're going to have hopefully you know um you know next month we we need to relook at when we get the governor's final month um numbers what we're getting from the state if there if we are anticipating needs in that furniture line then I'd like to see that added into next year's budget not tonight too late for that but when we come back for a final budget for for next year so we're not in this position about having to scrs money you know to um to
273meet these essential needs yeah and Dr um Taylor kind of hit it on the head we had a had a surplus I think when we open a school um we we kind of furnish every classroom with the the set number of uh students identified excuse me um and now that we've are expanding Beyond those classrooms and having to and usually we build a new school and we furnish it um with those Capital project funds and now we've hit the point where we're add we've added all these Modell and we've sucked up all of that Surplus and um furniture that we had and um and so I will tell you even before uh this requirement came up to the purchase additional desk we're actually working on it now and it's a it's a project for this
274summer before next year's budget we'll have kind of like a full Furniture um replacement schedule similar like we would have a fleet vehicle replacement schedule so um we can plan kind of in our Five-Year Plan for that furniture and then we have to fund it and so that's really been the key we know that we've been underfunding our underfunding our furniture line for um 10 years now um so I think we're at $175,000 actually this year we've always been between1 15 and 200,000 was what's in the budget so honestly that number needs to be several hundred, higher in order to to maintain it and that's in our fiveyear plan to grow that uh it just didn't land in this budget so um unfortunately with because of Replacements and stuff that we've had this year we
275haven't been able to keep up with the growth um but we are going to have a a pretty detailed furniture replacement schedule going forward so I'm going to reiterate my request this is me speaking for myself when this budget comes to us for adoption that that be considered particularly if there are some additional funds that are coming in from the state that the furniture line the anticipated needs for next year be included in the budget if we know we're going to need them we should be planning for it I'll add just one more thing um so when we do when we do the modular budgets the last two years we have added um typically added some furniture costs into that because that's where a lot of um the you know expansion of furniture is headed
276towards at least in terms of numbers um what's happened what we've noticed uh over the past few months is that those numbers are getting sucked into other more pressing needs at the modular um unti ipated um the the county did give us some extra funds as an example on the Footers that came we got 350 that came in at 390 as an example so there's 40,000 right so there's there's some other things that are kind of eaten away at the edges of budgets that were put together six months ago that have kind of evolved so I wouldn't say we didn't completely um plan some of the furniture stuff I think that we're just also we've been budgeting on shoe strings and and we need to um probably um to your point I think re-evaluate that
277at this point and say hey we need to we need to do this differently moving forward absolutely M Randall um so the Ferry Farm repair pavement um it says complete and then it has a balance what does that mean so those were um the funds that you recall we originally the original scope of that project included did a lot of drainage improvements out there um and because of rats and and whatnot that was in the report I remember what's that there were rats that were named in the report as I remember but go ahead yeah so um we changed the scope out there kind of on the Fly and ended up Paving the front gravel area and then repaving and resurfacing um a lot of the other areas that were in need um so the
278original budget when it was set five or six four or five years ago um anticipated doing a lot more work we didn't do that work we only did a a portion of that work and so there ends up being a bit of a balance the 100 okay five and then the renovation it again it says complete what's not being done for fourth and fifth on the fourth and fifth grid Wing so we've done everything um that we were able to scope in there in the budget um I would say you know it would have been ideal if we could have done some of the um uh some of the case work out there we just it was kind of next level in terms of cost that we just couldn't reach to so um but everything
279else in terms of the painting and um flooring what's that flooring a lot of the flooring yes in the classrooms so forth has been done okay and then um so then I'm confused I guess at the bottom when it says uh Fairy Farm roof from above and project status swap what is that so we have a separate project to do the Fairy Farm fourth and fifth grade um Wing to do the roof out there this summer there are cash funds set aside to do that roof okay project and so what we're saying is basically take the take the bond funds use that on the roof then take the cash funds from the roof and use that free that up so we can add it to the other cash funds down here and purchase the furniture
280so we will get the roof done in the fourth and fifth yes thank you okay I uh first of all I want I really do want to commend you for people watching at home we're looking at a spreadsheet where we're literally reappropriate 32 cents 32 cents um for projects and I just think that's fantastic um in the best and worst ways possible but we are using every penny and we now have proof um I did want to ask about the North Stafford uh Auditorium Improvement um fund balance because I know that that started as an underfunded project and then we were able to um find funds to complete that project this is a pretty significant number left over so I didn't know if something didn't happen or we really just had a good Stroke of
281Luck yeah no that's one where we can kind of give kudos to our own team because we we tried to bid that out um we didn't get bids or first that came in way over budget then we couldn't get biders and it kind of was going back and forth there we ended up pulling it and um doing it all inhouse where we did individual pieces we managed the project with our own staff it kind of put a strain while we had a lot going on um but they were able to break it up and kind of subcontract each little piece of it out instead of using one general contractor and it generated significant savings that's great news um and not to be a downer but in deferring our repair of the exterior envelope at North
282Stafford High School what should we as a community be prepared for is what's the worst case scenario here you say windows and doors are we talking about wearing coats and classrooms are we talking about water um water tightness um some of it's definitely going to be visual impact visually impactful but it's it's it's more or less potential water damage type of um things that we're going to be Energy Efficiency Energy Efficiency those types of things so um again I think our um 202 I'm lost in the three hour list one I think the 2025 3 hour list requested an additional one point I'm doing this off top my head 1.2 or 1.3 million in funds to supplement the 994 th000 and finish that out and get that done so that'll be in front of the
283board for consideration next month as an option that could perhaps be moved forward with now at this time you know in terms of I'm a little confused there if we're deferring this with potentially using it for another project so then we're like then this 994 does not exist anymore yeah that that deferral is technically coming to you in May um so that's where we want to push them and look at it all together with the entire 3r list the only piece we want to look at tonight is that the cash available cash section so we can reallocate it towards furniture sure all right well Dr Chase first and then we'll come back to you yep so um I just want to ask so this furniture that we're putting into modular when we open the new
284elementary schools we have money for furniture but if we're closing modulars then what's happening with that furniture yeah so we can definitely be reused it could be replacing existing furniture that we have in the schools that believe me is needed as was it Dr Warner I think you mentioned that of what you've seen in the classrooms so we need to we have furniture that's 30 years old now so let's start uh recycling some of that and replacing it or if we had to it could move into es18 or es9 this new furniture okay and then I just just want to remind my fellow board members that a number of these projects were paid for with bond funds that were supposed to repair Drew's hva system because if people are concerned about various projects being moved
285$3.5 million dollar was what was allocated for Drew's HVAC system and that's what paid for these track repairs and and various other things which is fine but um I think we really need to bring in May everything and really take a a a good look because we are having to make you know which child are we giving clothes to kind of thing right it's a really tough it's a really tough thing that you know Stafford Middle School's HVAC system is being paid for by putting Hampton Oaks is on the back burner and so we really need to be thinking very seriously about what we're going to pay for with three R funds and it needs to be things like HVAC systems not things that are a little more discretionary thanks M holed um so the
286North Stafford High School this exterior just a quick question is there any because the solar is going up there right now right so none of this is contingent upon the solar none of that is impacted no ma'am okay then the only other question or the only other thing I would ask to tie um just to to piggyback on Dr Chase is that when when we get this list next month um like are we prioritizing it based on need I understand but we need to be very specific about the Years anyway that it's behind MH um and I and I'm not so NE I'm not necessarily sure that just because something is you know three years behind that it's less important than something that's 10 you know 10 years behind or vice versa so so that
287kind of comparison might be nice to also see in terms of um I think there's plenty on here that's that has a sense of urgency to it but it also just in terms of like really for us to be able to process and understand where we're at how long it's been on the CIP where how it's been moved around or the three hour list sorry um and and I I I just would like to see that so that I can understand better because as I know most of our projects are overdue by 20 years anyway but but it would be good to see that just as a as a way to kind of pull the numbers out that's just my request sure thing anyone else would someone we actually don't have a motion right now
288motion to approve the reallocation we had that whole discussion without a motion I thought we made that's not the rules and I do want to clarify as you're making the motion I I would probably clarify in the motion what we're um reallocating there because it's not the entire list that's provided we are def waiting to reallocate the rest of that until May so more specifically the cash funds reallocated is motion to reallocate the cash funds from the 2020 um $444,000 second should we also note in that motion that the fery farm roof will be um swapped for the bond funds because otherwise it just the cash comes out and the swap isn't there and most it's part of the motion that's yeah yeah it's it's part of the reallocation but but the motion had to
289do with the cash funds yes you have several sources of cash funds you have several sources of cash funds noted on the spreadsheet that's the attachment so um you you actually have a a lot of things that are generating the cash funds not so that doesn't include that 102,000 from that's part of it but you have other sources that are generating those cash funds yeah it does you you perhaps could friendly amend take a friendly Amendment to the motion to also not it should be about the reallocation of funds doesn't hurt to clarify to Miss's point I think I think I agree yeah I mean that's specifically cash that we're using that wasn't cash to begin with it was I mean it's converting cash into Bond but if the motion is just to use the
290cash funds it doesn't do anything to move it up to the bond list at least from my view maybe we need to read the motion that it's on action item 9.04 just as it is because it talks about approval of the reallocation of 2020 bond funds and available cash funds for small capital projects is that your substitute motion absolutely second okay support that voting in favor uh or against the substitute motion made by Miss Randall yes I'll we'll cast our votes that motion passes unanimously um I move that we approve uh 9 04 the approval of purchase of amount for for 9.05 for the purchase of furniture second any discussion discussion oh sure I I would just ask and and follow up with Miss guy's comment earlier because I too looked for an attachment to
291this to see you know what furniture we were exactly purchasing I know you have a list that that list of the furniture that um ounts to this sum of money be attached to the um the meeting minutes so that it's clear um on the record um what is being purchased and cast our votes motion passes unanimously moving on to 9.06 adoption of a provisional fy2 Schoolboard budget motion to approve the adoption of a provisional fy2 budget second any discussion Madam chair I'll just add that um this would be the second budget that you're voting on but not the last and that you have one more budget to vote on and that is after the uh State uh approves uh the final uh their final version uh we'll come back uh with a final version for
292the board to consider Miss Hy um Dr Taylor Just for the the record could you state the um position of the service staff uh salaries increases that are included in this provisional budget we're we're voting on absolutely I'm very proud to say um that uh this budget includes uh the full implementation of phase one of the non-licensed service scale thank you for further clarification I'm sorry just because we're we're approving another provisional budget because we're still awaiting more information from whatever so now there were some concerns that it might be a protracted budget process with the state are we pass that are we thinking after because it's April 17th right that's the sort of Do or Die day now is that the is that still um like if we come back in two weeks are
293we gonna have the information we need yeah so that so I think it's going to be longer than two weeks so with with this adoption on and this is an important Point um your need for a special called meeting in two weeks is null so you you are you're actually saving yourself uh a meeting in two weeks by by adoption of this provisional budget but um if if the veto session and the reconvene session is successful and there's a budget that comes out of that your May meeting is a very realistic timeline um I will say that the only scenario that puts us into really significant trouble is that if it goes far past the reconvene session what this looks like um if they are unable to settle on a budget during the reconvene session
294where the governor can sign something into law the governor will call a a special um a special session of the general assembly just to uh deal with the budget or any other items uh that that the governor calls the the assembly into session um it is in every Virginia's best interest that this happened before July one um that that is a a big question mark for us as 60% of over 60% of our Revenue comes from uh state government um our ability to operate is in question if we do not have an adopted State Budget prior to July 1 and so um we we def we definitely want government to do its job and to and to have something uh that's agreed upon obviously the more time that they do this in advance the better
295um if it if it comes to it and they're right up to the wire on June 30th guess who's having an emergency school board meeting on July 1 so you know there there there are some things that are going to happen as a consequence of that uh for sure but we we obviously would love to avoid that thank you anyone else all right then we'll cast our votes on the adoption of the provisional Schoolboard budget that motion passes unanimously superintendent report and comments uh thank you madam chair I'll be very brief this evening um I am delighted as I'm sure um most of the staff in the community are delighted that you have uh no need for item 12.01 on your agenda which is uh announcement of a special called meeting I do want to
296Echo my thanks to our state legislators uh who worked as a team to represent Stafford's interest uh in the general assembly this year and uh to work very hard on our behalf to to to um require to acquire revenues uh that position Stafford schools very well I'd also like to thank the Board of Supervisors after uh a very difficult and contentious budget season um a majority of the Board of Supervisors did come to to make a revenues available in Aid of the school system uh within their uh uh advertised tax rate um this was a good compromise under the circumstances although I would be remiss if I didn't point out that over $40 million of unfunded needs are still um uh within our grasp and and need to be addressed in the very near future
297this was not a budget that is really moving us forward it it's a budget that is um helping us live to fight another day um uh that that's not uh what we would call success although um we're thankful that our our funding Partners did come to the table to to have a lot of really tough conversations with us and uh did come up big for us on um on addressing some of our major maintenance needs uh which continues to be a priority and continues to be a need and I think that that there were some realities that that came uh to to uh the general Public's understanding um we wouldn't have had a successful budget process to the extent that it was successful without the support of a lot of community members who are very
298engaged at every step along the way um several of which are are in the audience this evening or were here earlier this evening um in addition to the uh green shirt posi um we had a a large number of community members that didn't attend one meeting didn't attend two meeting but attended dozens of meetings and uh really helped to drive home the message that this community cares about its schools and they care about its children and they want success uh not just um for uh County government but they want success for the entire County and the entire community and it is it is I am so proud to be a superintendent in a community that stands up for schools it's really that important so thank you um to our teachers community members parents and even
299students who stepped up uh to advocate for the schools A lot's happened since our last board meeting um the uh Stafford schools team won in double overtime at the Dare basketball game um I will say the Sheriff's Office crushed us last year it was not close well it was maybe close for like a couple minutes but then it was n close this year it was really close and it was really exciting for the kids and parents who attended the Dare basketball game double overtime what a thrilling conclusion very exciting uh huge shout out to our Communications Department and North Stafford High School who hosted senior prom for our 55 and up Community uh this past weekend uh thank you to brookpoint high school and all of our fantastic Visual and Performing Arts teachers who held
300our annual art show at Brook point a couple of weeks ago it just was absolutely fantastic thousands of pieces of art on display on multiple stories of Brook Point's campus several fantastic uh performances from our kids it really was something to be very proud of um I have to give a a shout out to Imam shahada of mesg Aliyah uh who uh offered uh an invitation to Ramadan ifar to the school board and Senior staff um where we had an opportunity to learn about Ramadan and also break bread um with the mosque and uh the event got even extended in an additional week uh thanks to our board chair who pressed uh to make sure that our principls were invited as well uh to an ifar and uh that was a a memorable experience uh
301for our our team as well because they joined um some of our uh our our service team uh from the sheriff's office at at that if our celebration as well um Stafford schools love science uh we celebrated uh the solar eclipse on Monday uh with our students in session and had a great experience uh learned a lot and our kids learned a lot too and uh that was certainly something uh that was memorable in a twice in a in a generation kind of experience for our kids and we're just super proud uh that that was uh such a such a success for us although of course next time we'd like to be in the direct path not the not the 80% path or the 90% path um he was here this evening um and I
302and I uh was remiss not to to share my thanks a little bit more while he was here uh but Colonel Brooks uh during his command of the of Marine Corps Base quanico has just done an outstanding job and has been such a friend and partner to the school system and to the county he's visible in Stafford County um he's he's supportive of the programs that we do uh he and Penny rally are are definitely worthy of uh a lot of the recognition that we that we shared with them this evening um I'm so proud that the board wanted to do a military uh support ad uh family support advisory committee um as the son of a sailor the nephew of a marine and the husband of a soldier I can tell you that military
303families need a ton of support and uh it is just absolutely fantastic that uh we are committed to that as the second um School Division in the Commonwealth to be an entire purple star division uh so I celebrate um with our military families by wearing purple today and uh I just absolutely thank you for uh your dedicated service at home uh while your soldiers Marines and sailors are uh defending uh our nation uh with that I just want to thank the board uh for another great month as we uh close out the next 32 school days and then it's all buttoned up um and we'll see you next month talk about graduations Miss Randall all right okay I also would like to um share my grateful um gratefulness to have a what are you laughing
304at me for now oh good all right uh for attending ifar at the mosque that was a first for me excellent lessons amazing experience and of course the food was phenomenal um I also attended the uh all count Stafford County Fine Arts Festival at Brook Point um and it was amazing to see all the art pieces there I think our digital art programs in the Middle School have come such a long way but the one thing I would also like to give a shout out to anarie Bolino even though she left us she kind of like snuck back in um to make sure this was a super successful event so although she's not with us I do do do greatly appreciate her work in this you could totally tell but I also having been a
305teacher I guess when you walk through there we don't have a place in Stafford where you can walk through and really admire art all different mediums of art even the theatricals and the musical arts and this is such an amazing occasion that thousands of people they come in to see their child's art and end up getting a full art experience by walking through the entire school it's phenomenal but the thing that also struck me was how many lessons were prepared um and how by these teachers and how they prepared the art by cutting it selecting it matting it labeling it bringing it in designing their setups um purchasing magnetic Clips so they could because they knew they had the section in front of lockers putting background um bulletin board paper up um putting it all
306up some of them were there from three till 11: p.m. then coming back for the next two days with Perrin because they weren't forced they were excited they were excited to see their kids they were excited to meet their families and help them share and show off their beautiful art but then when it was all said and done they had to take it all down load it all back up again that is such a heavy lift for those teachers and I just want to give them all the Kudos because it didn't look so good and sound so good without you um I'm I'm very much looking forward to our award recognition celebrations of students and staff that we have coming up um but there is and I would also like to say I attended spark
307which um um Angie MGO um Dr Taylor's Administrative Assistant um it was an idea she had a spark of an idea and she knocked it out of the park with so much help um I enjoyed going and seeing teachers uh our Educators say raise their hands to say that they had never been to a conference before and yet we provided them one that they thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated and the gift baskets were out of this world um but there it's really interesting when you go to our social media accounts and you see these beautiful videos of the Fine Arts Festival or spark or new teacher Institute um we have even videos where our Elementary School principles tell us to go to school or Dr Taylor telling us not to go to school and then there's
308this one particular person that does this work Jose Ruiz and he is like you you just have to he's so stealth and so quiet but he is there at everything to capture everything and then share these amazing videos um that just do our school system such good Justice justice so he's he's a quiet person he's a really great person and I just wanted to call out um Jose as part of our Communications team um for the amazing amazing work that he does and that's all thank you Miss Hy all right well I'm not GNA go over all those events which were all fantastic um but I do want to thank uh Dr Taylor for um helping to I'll call it facilitate uh her invitation to the mosque that was a real learning experience for me
309and it was um you know it was a wonderful opportunity and you know it was great to be able to be part of a celebration and a culture and the the members were were I think genuinely interested in us and very thankful that we were there where you know I was on the other side thank you for for for having us and and I agree with with Miss Randall food was amazing so if you get invited take take take advantage of of the invitation um I want to thank Mrs Rivera for her outstanding leadership at at Rock Hill over the past nine years I I know she's going to be great in HR and um it certainly is my hope that she will be very um involved in the um Recruitment and you know recommendation
310for a new principal because you know each of our schools has their own culture and they have you know they're they're all communities we're all Stafford County Schools but particularly I think in the in the elementary it's it's it's very much a a a um a small town community and Mrs Rivera has just done such an incredible job of of making everyone welcome and um and appreciated uh both students and and staff at at Rock Hill so I will I will very much miss her as one of the principls in my district but I will be um looking forward to great things from her from from the HR department and HR is very fortunate to to have recruited her um I also want to thank the the members of the Board of Supervisors who supported
311uh Us in the in the budget process and also in the um the the construction going forward um you know we we heard lots of rumors and um it was not an easy um task on their part because I know there was some angst uh particularly with the location of of Elementary School 19 but I feel that the the majority of the Board of Supervisors um listen to our um request and respected our our decisions on this board and for that I'm I'm very grateful and look forward to you know working with them in the future um and and also very appreciative of the money that they have allocated um you know sub substantial Bond money and other cash for the three R projects and and again Dr Taylor I think that was your um
312your your statement of the the you know the the the case the state the State of the Union here is is not very um secure in terms of its um it's physical structure and Facilities so it's it's it's time it's it's critical and and I I think they hurt us um you know sometimes when we meet with the supervisors you you never know you know what's what's going to come of it but but on this time I I think they did listen and and we do have you know had a majority that that supported us so I I thank them for that um the the other events the the the Fine Arts is is incredible in addition to the teachers who put in an incredible amount of hours I think there are also students students
313that volunteer for um to help them in some you know for community service or or other um you know activities but there's a lot of students high school students that come in to to help the teachers either you know um set up or break down and the it it it would be interesting to to to tally the number of hours because I have no doubt it would be in the thousands um the amount of time that goes into that um that event and and I I I I think we should um make every effort to advertise it to the the general public who may not have students in our schools but so that they're aware of this this opportunity to come and see the product of our schools because as as you said you know
314you may come in for your child's artwork I remember mine was this little Clay Pot we still have it she graduated what 14 years ago or so but you know she made it and it was on display and it was like oh my child did that you know so so so it's it's great and and I I think it gives our teachers a lot of satisfaction even though they're exhausted our our art teachers and and music teachers and and all the Fine Arts so I don't want to go on because it's a late night and just thank you everybody and turn up the uh speed on those treadmills because the the the end comes much sooner than we expected to of the year miss good Lord several times you guys have said something about poor
315an Marie you've all said since she left this world and then you were talking about her being gone I'm like does somebody want to clarify that statement good Lord poor Amry um she left for a district to the north right which is way better than she left us and left the world I don't know anyway um so I want to I do want to thank um the supervisors and the staff and the community that came out to um to support this school system I mean it definitely takes a village um and I'm can now confirm wholeheartedly after three years of this there is no shortness of angst during budget season for anyone um so the dedication that our staff shows the constant Pace that they keep I mean I don't I don't think that can
316be recognized enough how much effort and energy that Mr Fulmer and his team and put into making sure um that every tea is crossed and every every eye is dotted so so I just want I really want to thank and particularly um Safford County parents that really stood up and and came out um we often have the reputation of you know being sort of I can't think of the the only word I could think of was like apathetic because it's we're so involved in our own schedule and times it's not really what I mean but um but you always come through like always always always at the end you are there and it is great to hear all of your voices and everything was well researched well spoken and I'm just super appreciative um I'm
317so I don't normally talk about like the things that I go to or whatever but I do want to reach out and and give a big shout out on teachers versus Leo's the basketball game the law enforcement that's the first time I've ever attended that that was a hoot I had to leave a little early to get my daughter gymnastics but man that was some that was some competition and that was a ton of fun and I cannot wait for them to do it next year um I also did project impact at North stappord High School um we have reinstituted project impact this year um across our five high schools Colonial Forge is the only one left to go it is super powerful um and super impactful um uh Virginia uh VCU comes up with
318their medical team they do a simulated accident in the parking lot our our drama kids are out there the poor North Stafford kids were laying on the cold rainy pavement the day that I went I did feel really bad for them but they were Troopers man and and they were they were really excited about it but um but the speakers that come to speak to our kids to get them to make better decisions and to focus on their stories are truly eye openening um the things that they have been through in their lives and what they have overcome and survived is truly phenomenal so I'm grateful that our schools welcomed project impact back and that our students have an opportunity to see um that this isn't we take our responsibility to your safety very very
319very seriously and that's in all facets particularly in helping you to step out of your 2D world into the 3D one and get a look at some of the um some of the consequences of the decisions that you make um so that was there is still one more Colonial Forge if anybody wants to come see it that's on May 14th I think I'll be at that one as well um the two women Candace Lightner and Tammy Guido are just amazingly powerful women that you should meet anyway um I am a military spouse my husband's a retired Marines so I am also here in purple um and supporting our military families always I it is an it's a very different lifestyle um as a military individual but also as a child last month I went to
320and I'm going this month again to the Margaret Brent military kids club where they bring all the kids in before school and they have a bit of community for them there last month they talked about um uh sacrifice and what sacrifice actually means and the kids get to talk a little bit about what they think and feel and go through as a military kid yeah um and they're really open really honest about things they're s we talked about their sacrifices from leaving family members behind in other states and not getting to hang out with Nana and pop up all week on the weekends um all the way to have to making new friends over and over and over again so so it it's a good time for us to pause and just respect what our
321milit kids go through um it's not an easy lifestyle for them to be picked up packed up and and taken all over the place sometimes from International spaces back to America back to International um spaces so so shout out to them and just all of my respect and gratitude um so I want to talk for a second about the eclipse I built the box with my kid I felt so Bill NY running out with that box next year I'm next time I'm buying glasses because I did not understand whatever next time there's an eclipse I'm buying the glasses oh good lord I'll need like Tri focals by then um but anyway if you don't know the box it's a projection device I mean it's F it's kind of fascinating but I don't know what I
322was expecting to see in that box but I did use it as a science moment because I felt that it was an important moment to have with my child to experience this Eclipse through a box not sure that I thought it was going to be the whole length of the box but I certainly wasn't expecting to see this little teeny tiny dot at the bottom of it so you know kind of anti-climatic so all of you who had glasses you had a much better experience than myself that's all I'm saying what did you not do a box did you get glasses no um but anyway I I also want to want to talk about what our teachers did for our kids um getting on the buses with our elementary school kids you know it's not
323easy to place an additional task on any of our staff members so I want to say thank you to any one of those that actually got up on the bus with our kids to make sure that they made it home safely because honestly without you I I just don't know what we are we're just a lot of big buildings with maintenance issues um but anyway so that's all I wanted to say thank you for coming and being a part of our family every time stepping up and just being with us Dr Warner it's not that long girl you're jumping around here um first of all I would like to say the art show that we do every year is one of my favorite events and what I love about it is the opportunity that each
324student has to present something that they made in school and I'm so excited to see how well the art teachers work with our our general edit teachers to incorporate these art projects into the curriculum that they're studying but it's not just our K12 student students it's our Heather Enfield students it's our um Phoenix students it's our early childhood students everybody gets to participate and I just want to say that the kids at Moncure that did the drum program what a great job they did um everything is so organized and the way those teachers pull that together and make that such a successful event and I think every member of the community should go see it whether you've got kids in school or not because we have some really really really talented kids in Stafford I'm
325just going to say that um I want to thank all the teachers that took kids outside to see the eclipse and use their eclipse glasses I think it was a great learning moment I know that kids from kindergarten to high school were enjoying it because I heard from several of them um and I appreciate that that they had the opportunity to do that um I would like to thank uh the community for coming out and advocating for our budget I think your voices are important in this discussion as as Dr Taylor said we still have $40 million in unfunded needs because we can't we can't fix the budget issues in one cycle but I think this year um I want to thank the supervisors they made a huge commitment to three our repairs which we
326have been screaming about for years um and they they did increase our budget by 9% and they're juggling a lot of um issues as well Transportation Public Safety fire and rescue education and they have to do it with the resources that they have I think that even though some of our meetings were contentious I think that we did reach a point where we were having a good conversation about what the school's needs are and why we've been advocating and why there's been so much um tension and I think that they came through for us in a lot of ways and I appreciate that um I would like to welcome our new military um advisory committee and I just I'm kind of interested to see if this was a happy coincidence that Colonel Brooks was here
327or if it was um it was planned everything's planned yes so I do think um we do have a lot of military families represented in our schools and our kids face different hardships when their parents are deployed and I appreciate that we have um this opportunity one more opportunity to help them um let's see and that's it for me thank you before I call Dr Chase just something I was thinking about could we add for our our uh that demographic page we put out the at a glance how many military connected kids we have as one of our numbers I thought we had that I didn't remember seeing that I'm sure we have it it's just to put it on the public facing document I think would be really impactful Dr Chase yeah hi um
328so uh I just want to mention very quickly that the regional Governor's board decided to move the Fiscal Agent for CGS to Stafford County so that'll be happening I think July 1 yeah um and then um you know we we were talking about the fact that that uh we did reasonably well with the budget this year um and I think a lot of uh a lot of that goes to um Dr Taylor really doing a phenomenal job of um leveraging the community right and and his staff um in Communications really getting the word out um I also want to mention that Mr to and Mr Townson did a phenomenal job of going to every I I don't know how many PTA meetings the CIP and and I mean I went to three of them but
329I know there were were more and I think that we really did get a lot of Community Support calling supervisors and saying look we have major 3r needs and and that was huge and so um there's a lot of work that happens behind the scenes that we don't always see or that doesn't always get acknowledged and I think that's really important um I'm absolutely thrilled that that Drew Middle School's design process is moving forward and we might actually get Drew opening by by 2028 um and so uh but at the same time a huge thanks does need to go to the Board of Supervisors and to the entire Board of Supervisors right I mean um we we can't uh Overlook the fact that that we did very well um in terms of funding this year
330um on a slightly negative note um unfortunately when we were at the with PTA members talking about the CIP one of the things we mentioned was that the legislative branch had approved allowing districts to hold referendums to get a 1% increase to cover infrastructure and unfortunately our governor chose to veto that um so we will have to uh try to fight that one um on another day and then finally um you know we have this provisional budget we're hoping that with the um when it comes back when the legislature finally legislature and the governor figure out exactly how much money we get that we will be able able to um have the compensation for everybody be what it was in our proposed budget so hopefully that will happen and that's all I have thank you
331Miss guy I forgot so I will make this quick because um I'm so tired I'm I'm Giddy and and Behaving Badly um but I want to thank the eclipse for eclipsing because that was phenomenal I loved it I I'm I'm so thankful for passing in front of the sun yeah that we got the glasses I I thought it was adorable seeing the elementary students get out and one little girl refused to put her glasses on but she walked like this the whole time with her head down across the street and I was like oh my gosh she's going to fall in the ditch but she did not um but it was it was really fun and I love seeing the post of the students and staff outside and stuff um want to thank the Board
332of Supervisors for appropriating money to keep us open um um and you know adding extra to the three R because we desperately needed it um I I W I tried to watch most of their meetings I know supervisor Allan deferred something from her district and maybe other border supervisors did as well I didn't see every single thing but that was really impactful to me because um you know I mean it doesn't happen without sacrifices because we're at the point where doing the right thing by us now requires sacrifices for other things which is crazy um also um I attended ifar the celebration with with everybody and it was fantastic it was phenomenal it was very um very educational you know like I I knew I've been to one before and um I've been around that
333Community a lot but I loved the way that Iman explained everything it just made it so accessible and um relatable and um I want to thank the parents and the community members that advocated for us you know the green shirt gang the mes the finger holters the denims the everybody's you know the Freemans who came out all you guys um advocating for us even when we get on your nerves and you don't appreciate our votes at the end of the day you know it's about our staff and our students and so you swallow your frustration and I I love how Shannon shaking her head's like yep can't stand you guys but you still come out every time and that is what a good Community person does so I just want to let you guys know
334that I really appreciate you guys because um we've I don't think I don't remember Stafford County Schoolboard ever having as much public support as we do now and that doesn't happen if you guys don't continue to speak out when you're you know hanging out with your friends or on your social media so um we accomplished a lot this budget season with you guys so go and duplicate yourselves and let's do more next year thank you um okay I'd like to start today with uh congratulations to miss candy at uh HH pool who was recognized today by Longwood University as their Theater Arts teacher or their Theater Arts teacher of the year um this award is actually typically reserved for high school teachers but a former student uh wrote an essay that so moved the selection
335committee that they actually bent their rules to come back and recognize her uh and I was really grateful to be uh invited um to I love surprised with a big check she gets um season passes to the theater season and she and her husband are actually both Alum of the theater arts program at longward so it was it was it was just a fantastic visit um I also want to thank the First Responders from Stafford County Fire and Rescue is Stafford school's maintenance for responding to Rodney Thompson for our recent incident and working so hard at clean up to get our cafeteria back in Action um and for coming out to Advocate um one of the First Responders did Advocate on behalf of our Capital needs and and I his comments U by luck I
336guess were the absolute last of the night and I think they left a pretty profound impact um I'm actually grateful for everyone's advocacy during the budget season whether it's our staff whether it's our our people our parents that are going out anybody who helped to make this uh where we landed possible um including you know everybody who voted and everything I'm just so grateful that we are moving forward with um the funds that we have the additional funds we have for deferred projects and our construction projects um it has been a very exciting month uh even though spring break was thrown in there and we didn't my family didn't do a ton during spring break which was lovely um we had the vdoe here presenting an award at brookpoint high school for the winning the
337Virginia school breakfast award um some of our middle schools had their showcase night I attended the one at Rodney Thompson I also want to uh thank the masg aah for welcoming us not once but twice um because when I was there the first time I felt very strongly about what we learned is what our principles needed to hear and I'm really grateful for the people there making themselves available to our school uh staff to help manage the needs of our students during um during Ramadan and throughout the year um so I mean ramadan's over now it's tomorrow um also love the dback ball game I had the added benefit of bringing my fifth grader with me so it was even more exciting um and we can't wait for Dar day which should be right around
338the corner uh again the Fine Arts Festival amazing as usual and I do want to reach out to every member of our community even if you have little kids that aren't in our schools yet this is a great place to have them come and kind of see and explore we bought our four-year-old um some of you out there witnessed his little um he had a great great visit they have interactive art station but he had a moment at the end because Rocky runs chorus finished singing and he did not want them to be finished singing so he cried the whole way out um so Rocky Run I might be coming to your course sometime soon um they also have a kind of like a cooldown room for kids who are having kind of a sensory
339overload because it was there was so much to do and see and hear um so I was really appreciative of that space for us to kind of have a quiet space and get away from that um so if you are at all concerned about whether or not your family can be accommodated at an event of this size and magnitude they absolutely can so I encourage you to come uh we had a prop-up prom prom shop at AG Wright Middle School if your kids are paying for prom Weare they should not be you should go check it out they had so much stuff um and they do multiple events throughout the years for the for for the varying homecoming prom um Senior Pro the senior citizen prom and some of the Church events so go and
340it is completely free to get dress accessories men's wear shoes anything you can find they run it so so well uh open not just to public school children but to private school children and homeschool children so the entire Community can stop by and participate um North Stafford High School had a business expo that I was able to stop by and it was a great opportunity to introduce some of our students to employment opportunities in our community during their school day so it's not an extra stop um outside of school uh if you are local business that hires high school students and graduates please reach out to our community because we will um get you included in the next one we had a great student government day thank you to Mr Cohen for your work in
341coordinating that again and uh special guests congresswoman spanberger and delegate Cole were around so they came by and greeted our students as well that was a huge huge surprise and they were really really excited about that um uh like the others thank you to everyone helped make the ex Eclipse viewing more fun for our kids I helped at Anthony Burns during dismissal and again the elementary kids are so tickled by the whole experience um even the ones that are walking out like this um which was so cute and I do want to say thank you on behalf of our school division to State superintendent Coons for visiting Grafton Village Elementary School uh who came to learn more about how we manage our varying student needs in the county um we hope she comes back again
342I personally love she they had one of those sensory walks and she did the tiptoes and the jumps and the zigzag walks and the Box breathing she did the whole thing she really jumped literally jumped in with both feet um and lastly I will say that if you are board in Stafford County you are not working hard enough on finding things to do because um we have so much going on the middle school track meets started today so uh as well as all of our spring Sports so we have tons of kids in middle and high school that would love to have you cheering on the sidelines uh the spring theater season is upon us as well Colonial Forge will be doing Alice in Wonderland this weekend um they will also have their Pops concert
343on the 26th which is going to be Disney music um Mountain View has their perfor the performances of their musical called something rotten on Friday and Saturday of this week and starting the 18th Brook point will be performing Mean Girls and we'll have um some sensory friendly performances as well um with that I want to remind everyone there's no school tomorrow uh ID Mubarak uh which I'm this is our first time observing it as a School Division and I'm really really grateful we were able to add that to our calendar um standing committee reports anyone no okay good okay announcements the notes are attached if anybody want um I would like you to just the only thing I'm going to say is that we are having the school board self- evaluation on June 11th and
344I'm just requesting that all board members fill out the vsba effective school board self-reflection template it's just a lyer scale and just we'll use that in establishing an agenda okay our next regular monthly board meeting is May 14th with a work session at 5: and business meeting at 7 we are adjourned