School Board Meeting May 8, 2018 Stafford County Public Schools CC

001[Music] you want to call this meeting to order madam clerk would you call the ball please you see I'm dr. chase yeah mr. Kator miss Egan here miss hazard here miss Healy yeah mr. micawber yeah miss young what a same thing I'm sure you have a quorum all right we have the Stafford High School's Navy JROTC presenting our colors this evening hold our whole left taste atlas arm evil eye any right breezy Oh Hey I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all ready Hut uh thanks Oh we'd like to thank detimore cadet Trembley cadet gallagher and cadet owens and the instructors of the stafford high school navy JROTC program Lieutenant Commander Felix

002Martinez and senior Chiefs guys show Shaw for being with us this evening do we have a motion for approval of the agenda for first do we have a revision of the agenda yes let's take a look at this for a motion to approve a revised agenda I'll make a motion to approve the agenda with the movement of item ten point oh five is that correct of the adoption of the fiscal year 1919 budget well do we want to move it any further well it looks like it looks like it's already at the end so I think are here at the end of the meeting we do have a quarterly financial report by the same person though well but that that could be could be later and it could be after the closed session a closed

003session I don't think will be very long what we're discussing for the audience's information is to move the information item to adopt a fiscal year 2019 budget to later in the evening because as we sit here and go through our meeting our chief financial officer and his staff are busily working on putting together a budget that can be approved adopted this evening by the school board we had our second work session this evening and we are in agreement with the budget and just to give you a little preview what's in there is a two and a half percent raise for all our employees on they have the other details later on but if anyone is here to speak about that then I think you'll know that that was unanimous and Mrs Decatur isn't with us

004at the meeting this evening because she had her baby last week but she did come to the work session and she too is in agreement with that two and a half percent raise across the board there are also some other market adjustments that we're in this bus the superintendent's proposed budget I know that's a little out of order to get into that but just so you know that the reason we're putting it at the end is so that we will be able to adopt it this evening and then contracts can go forward and they won't have to wait until a week from Friday which is when we had originally planned to adopt it madam chair if I could say why don't we leave it where it is right now because it is late in the

005agenda if finance staff comes forward at that time and says they need a few additional minutes I would make a motion or someone may to defer to later in the evening but I'm not sure moving it to after the closed session let's go for the earliest we could do it and if once we learn what the finance staffs recommendation is we can do it through maybe alternative motion okay I think that sounds good all right so so they are there working on that we're not trying to defer anything on the budget other than to get it to a point where we can actually adopt it tonight and then people will know what the salary scales and plans are going to be for next year so we have a motion to approve the agenda as it

006stated here do we have a second second a motion by mr. Hauser's second by a miss Eagan all in favor please say aye all opposed motion carries unanimously that brings us to awards and proclamations our first proclamation is for teacher appreciation week and we've asked our teacher dr. chase on our board to to read that Proclamation for us we're as strong and effective schools are essential to the economic prosperity of Virginia and ensure that we continue to make social technological and scientific advancements and we're as qualified dedicated teachers are critical to the success of our students and are fundamental to the strength of the Commonwealth and whereas Stafford County's teachers are entrusted with helping our students reach their full academic potential and exhibit an unwavering devotion to student success and whereas teachers are essential to

007empowering families and communities to support our children and their potential to achieve whereas teacher appreciation week is an opportunity for Stafford County citizens to join with the communities around the United States and recognizing and celebrating the critical role that teachers play in shaping our children and the future of the nation now therefore be it proclaimed that the Stafford County school board hereby designates May 7th to the 11th 2018 as teacher appreciation week in Stafford County we have any teachers in the audience if you could stand up we can clap for you okay there's somebody on that second so enjoy your week all right that brings us to the recognition of facilities I can't say which because I'm not sure that's grammatically correct facilities that qualified and earned an Energy Star Award mr. Harun do you

008have that company yes ma'am thank you very much Josh shrimp our Energy Manager for the division will help me hand out these awards as part of Stafford County Public Schools energy management program staff monitor and track utility usage for all of Stafford County public schools in early 2013 staff can salted with the US EPA to enroll in the Energy Star program Energy Star is a EPA voluntary program that helps organizations save money and protect our climate through superior energy efficiency the Energy Star program tracks and evaluates the cost consumption and behavior of each building and then provides a rating between 1 and 100 ports points to gain energy star status the facility must secure a rating of 75 points or greater Energy Star provides an in-depth assessment of each utility such as electric natural gas

009fuel oil propane and water collected data is compared to other similar facilities across the country factors such as regional climate age of facility square foot occupational load and building usage is considered since 2015 Energy Star has done has been done through our own M Department at no cost to the school division so a big thanks before we identify the schools that achieve this this year to Josh and the other building engineers at these middle schools high schools and our central maintenance staff that maintain our elementary schools without them this energy consumption in this award would not be obtainable in 2017 EPA identified 19 schools that qualified for Energy Star certification some of early in the past and others for the first time if a representative from the following schools could please come forward when their

010name is called Hampton Oaks Elementary School all right winding creek elementary school Falmouth elementary school Stafford middle school Brook Point High School Colonial Forge high school North Stafford high school in fairy farm elementary school just guys come on up here in front we have some schools that aren't represented tonight that I want to identify Anthony burns fairy farm Grafton village Park Ridge wide water Dixon Smith middle heartwood Oh fairy farm is here heartwood rocky run Shirley Haim Stafford and HH Poole again I want to congratulate all of you for a great job earning Energy Star is not easy and it takes a lot of work and diligence by your staff as well as your maintenance engineers so congratulations thank you guys good job thank you can and Thank You Josh thank you man Wendy miss

011Wendy Drogo from Mountain View High School FCCLA for presentation of awards maybe she didn't get the memo do we have a sub Oh so my name is Kari header and I'm the FCCLA advisor at Mountain View sorry my voice is gone these are my students who competed at FCCLA competition sorry the students please come forward to receive your certificates congratulations to the following students for their achievements at the family career and community leaders of America State Conference Jennifer Rodriguez was awarded a gold medal and life event-planning Mathias Spangler was awarded a bronze medal in illustrated Talk Isabela Cologne and Justyna Robinson were awarded bronze medals and advocacy school board and chair members and dr. Benson congratulate and thank you second eyes din receiving awards [Applause] thank you next we recognize miss Tina Robinson CTE and

012workforce preparedness lead for presentation of awards good evening madam chairman school board members in dr. Benson I have the honor tonight to recognize the Bhoots program which stands for bringing occupational opportunities to schools Booth's was created by the Stafford County Vocational Education Foundation in 1989 with a focus on the construction trades taught in high school under the supervision of stafford high school drafting carpentry masonry and electricity teachers students work together to design and build single-family homes the first boots house was completed in June of 1991 each year the project is overseen by the foundation's board of directors and the resulting house is marketed and sold in the community profit is reinvested by the foundation to acquire land and materials for the next residence since 1991 over 1,900 students have participated in the Bhoots program one

013of whom now teaches the electricity courses at stafford high school the program currently has over 28 business and community partners this is a milestone year for the program the Bhoots students are building house number 25 this year therefore we want to take this opportunity to recognize the administrators instructors and senior students that support this program at stafford high school I ask that they please join me upfront at this time we ask the audience to please hold your applause until the end we would like to recognize mr. Joe Lewis principal and mr. Andrew bath key assistant principal and Ct administrator at Stafford high school for their continued support of the boots program without support from our building level administrators programs like this would not be possible the backbone of the boots program is its instructors these

014teachers spend countless hours providing classroom and on-site instruction to our students making sure the work environment is safe and at the end product the boots house is of the highest standard at this time I would like to recognize them for their continued service to in support of the boots program first mr. Bobby Jett staff at high school drafting instructor mr. Jett has been a key and essential element of the program from its original inception in a 29 years ago mr. Robby Phipps electricity instructor has been part of the program on masonry sorry masonry program has been a part of the program for over 17 years mr. dan harding carpentry instructor has supported the program for the last nine years and mr. Jack Huff stickler electricity instructor is our newest teacher and former boot student unfortunately

015we cannot recognize the 19 hundred or more former boot students to have made this program successful but we can't pay tribute to their legacy by recognizing the current senior students for contributing to the program electricity students Justin Wilcox John Navasky and David deal drafting students autumn Koslow Alexis Anderson and Jennifer sprout masonry students Robert Hawkins pilot from Tyler Froman and Chris Washington and carpentry students Zeki beaver Ziggy beavers Charles Connor Patrick Fitzsimmons Ryan Hill and Cody McIntosh thank you to all of you [Applause] thank you wait alright next we'd like to recognize mr. Tammy Hulk principal of Brooke Point High School for presentation of awards all right moving right along what we see mrs. Huckle ater next okay next meeting mrs. Huckle be here we actually have more awards at the next meeting - this

016is a fun time of year because we have lots of awards see lots of staff and students so we will now recognize Anna Marie Bellino facilitator of fine and Performing Arts for presentation of awards good evening madam chair school board members dr. Benson it's my pleasure tonight to recognize Stafford's most gifted musicians this is one of the best parts of my job just like it is for you to recognize the students and the teachers their parents the school community for their commitment to excellence I'm going to begin with our elementary students 15 of our elementary singers were selected for the 2018 all Virginia Elementary chorus this event was held on April the 7th at Radford University 188 students from across the Commonwealth and 39 schools participated I'd like to invite the choral directors at Falmouth

017and Hampton Oaks to come forward so that they can introduce their students or be with them ISS students please come forward when your name is called and remain at the front and audience if you'd please hold your applause until the end thank you from Falmouth elementary Abigail de haba Alexander Holliday Morgan Hildebrand virginia john akan Michaela Kanu Amelia Marshall Christian Mitchell Daniella Rojo al al Donna excuse me from Hampton Oaks Elementary Patel asada Alexis Hill Isis Hodges isabel lynn shaw kaitlyn ox mackenzie pilant and Katie's Salmeron I'd like to congratulate their elementary music teachers Christian Peabody and Julie param who are hurting but also for their enthusiasm and commitment to teaching these amazing young singers and providing them this unique and enriching experience please join me in giving these singers a round of applause [Applause]

018and can those pictures be made available to all the parents that that we will let them know how to get them will let the teachers know how they can get the pictures that we take for our communications department congratulations next we're going to recognize two middle-school singers two of our students from h h pool middle school participated in the 2018 American choral Directors Association Allstate treble chorus I would also like to congratulate their choral director Enola Douglas for her enthusiasm and commitment to students students please come forward when your name is called an audience please hold your applause Avari Johnson and Kiley Moncure [Applause] we will continue with high school Allstate choir students this year 10 of Stafford County's finest vocalists earned a spot in state honors choir and for those of you who are

019unfamiliar they auditioned twice once in November at the district and then they come back in February and have to re-audition with more peers in order to make the ensemble and so these students attended the Allstate chorus which was held combined this year the very first time we've done it in Richmond was combined with choir band and orchestra it was really a spectacular event students please come forward when your name is called and remain at the front an audience please hold your applause from colonial Forge High School Samuel Cooke Elinor Hatton Shauna Keith Kayla rush for a Mountain View High School Thomas bush Sydney Gibbler Logan's Freeman from Stafford high school Kaia Connelly Malcolm Poe Harris and miles per on I'd also like to invite their choral directors Barbara parry Benita Keene and Joe eviler to

020join us and to thank them for their commitment and dedication to teaching these students congratulations [Applause] next we recognize 2018 all Virginia bans students to earn a placement in all Virginia band it's very similar to choir they go through to audition rounds one in December and one in February these students earned a place as a member of the band and attended in April students come forward audience please hold your applause from colonial Forge high school Sidney's salata Alexa Houghton Jalen Mims Brian Queenan Hayden Realmuto max Tabor Philip Todd from Mountain View High School Caroline Bingham Bryce - Olivia Evans Keegan Peters Petters excuse me and from Stafford high school Davis Smith I would also like to invite their band directors Rob Gillette Jean Welch and Eddie Steen shrah to join us upfront and thank them

021for their commitment and dedication to our students and please join me in a round of applause [Applause] but wait there's more next up program recognitions so two of our County banned programs earned a recognition as a 2018 VB OD a Virginia honor band so bands earned this distinction when both their marching band and their concert band received superior ratings at assessment and this year only seventy two high schools across the state can credit this so less than half of our state received this accomplishment I would like to invite the band directors forward at Colonial forge high school band director Rob Jillette and from Stafford high school band director Eddie seamstress so gentlemen please come forward and I want to congratulate not only the directors but the students the parents the band programs the administrators the

022community for the support in earning this honor it really takes a village you know the strength of our band boosters and our band programs so please join me in congratulating these guys [Applause] finally I'm thrilled to recognize three of our high schools and one of our middle schools as VMA a Blue Ribbon Schools recipients the band and chorus and orchestra directors at the following schools please come forward from AG right middle school Catherine pres Aaron Carly Sokol Arlene man dudas and Kevin Lynch from Colonial forge High School Barbara Perry Deborah Debbie Tripp and Rob Gillette for a Mountain View High School Benita Kean Tom McDonald and Jean Welch and from Stafford High School Joey Blair Mandy's a 'its and Eddie steam straw so in order to become a Blue Ribbon School the most advanced band

023choir and orchestra typically the eighth grade orchestra eighth grade ensembles at the middle school and at the high school level you're on your most advanced ons I will have to receive performance excuse me superior ratings at their performance assessment in a calendar year so it's kind of like a it all has the stores they'll have to align and and the efforts all have to align and look at AG right with their awesome shirts that they're sporting today it's been several years since we've had a middle school Blue Ribbon School so it's really special tonight so please join me in congratulating directors students parents administrators so as you can see our music programs consistently exhibit a high level of musical excellence I would like to apply the directors for their dedication and service to our schools

024and students and I'm very grateful to our building administrators central office leaders and you our school board for your continued support and enthusiasm for our efforts thank you I see miss hawk is with us again did you want to do yours tonight or did you you want to wait til next time all right well put what put you first next time how's that okay all right that brings us to a conclusion for our awards and congratulations to everyone that we recognized tonight and thank you for all the wonderful teachers and administrators and and especially the parents oh boy am i up I wasn't a band parent I was actually a soccer mom but those the band boosters are absolutely amazing it's I mean strong moving all those equipment things around you know financial supporters everything

025everything you do and our program would not be as successful as it is today without the wonderful parents and support that we have so thank you to the parents as well all right finish with awards that brings us to citizen comments no one signed up is there anyone that wishes to speak tonight if anyone wishes to speak mr. McCosker can read our little rolls okay well come on down and before you start mister McCosker will read our our rules and anyone that speaks will need to sign up on the sheet on the podium after you finish so as soon as mr. McCosker finishes will call you forward citizen comments public hearing individual individuals wishing to comment at this time they do so by responding to the general invitation by the chairman shall identify themselves by

026name address an organizational affiliation if the spokespersons represented organization speakers shall also announce the purpose and topic of their comments three minutes shall be allotted to speakers the chairman reserves the right to restrict the total citizen comment received at any particular meeting in the predetermined maximum number of minutes with the approval of the board citizen comment which is profane abusive or which threatens imminent physical harm shall be ruled out of order by the Chairman although the board provides the opportunity for citizen comment individuals desiring to register complaints against division employees or division programs services or activities may also utilize the procedures outlined in Stafford County public schools policy 1 1 1 3 public complaints thank you so come on down and please give us your name and your address when you start and then when

027you finish you can sign in all right well I'm Anthony bellotti I'm a student at cloning reports high school I live at 20 grace Manor Court down in the South Stafford I'm part of the superintendent's eDoc Committee so I guess I'll just jump right in June 13th of last year I came to the Stafford School Board and asked for your help adding gender identity to the anti-discrimination policy three months later at my school a student at my school posted a video of himself burning a pride flag another student harassed me on what online telling me that being myself was an illness neither student was punished however one week later I was pulled out of class and told that I had to start using a bathroom in the opposite wing of the school from my peers

028the year before I had my life threatened by another student I missed 17 days of school that year I tell you all of this now because tonight you have the opportunity to make Stafford safer for students like me LGBT students deserve support opportunity and equity although my goal of amending the anti-discrimination policy will not be met in my time in Stafford I do implore you to vote for the amended anti-bullying policy as a student whose Stafford County Public Schools has failed to protect I ask you to ensure that my trans brothers sisters and siblings never are thank you if you could please Sign In all right we'll have the next speaker please thank you good evening my name is Dylan amoral I also go to clone you for high school I live at one to

029four Executive Circle right across the street I'm in here in alliance with the LGBTQ community and in high school middle school elementary school obviously I didn't write anything but I hope my words still strike you the same recently we've had a lot of things going on across the country that brings up the topic of school safety and seeing as we will be reviewing our code of conducts and rules and regulations for the upcoming school year I hope that we take that into account seeing as you guys are the people that bring that into fruition as you guys see malls like respectable people so I hope we all take you guys take what the things that Tony has brought up and of the things that you may have heard because this is not an issue where

030one person has experienced that this is hundreds of people not just in Stafford County but I also feel as though Stafford County should be the leaders if not along with other counties and bringing about change that is so needed and not only in Virginia but across the country so I just want it to be sort of put a face to the issues that are have been affecting a lot of students that I know and I am friends with so thank you thank you good evening my name is Charter salata I'm a senior at Colonial Forge high school and I live at a 29 Rowley Lane tonight I stand in support with fellow students Dillon in mr. bellotti and I urge you all to support the proposed amendments by dr. Benson tonight to protect our our

031fellow students and ensure their safety you are all here for a reason and you were all elected for a reason and that is to stand for the best interest of our students and I really hope that you all do follow through with that this evening and vote in their best interests so uh thank you don't forget to sign in thank you my name is Daniel Hepburn and I am a freshman at Colonial Forge High School and I live on 27 Calvin Drive so as a member of not only the LGBTQ community upon which I am allied with with Anthony but the community of religious minorities I cannot stress how important it is to add to the LGBT community to implement the anti-discrimination policy more because I feel like we failed to implement it in that

032in the fact that it's kind of been kind of sidetracked in the fact that I feel like some people do not realize that it's actually there and then it just kind of been shoved to the side and over the course of my time in the Stafford County school system I myself have fallen victim to several multitudes of discrimination because of my sexuality and because of my religion from not only you know fellow students and peers but even teachers that I've come across and staff and faculty at the different schools I have went to throughout the years I've been involved in the school system in which I think it isn't fair because I have also seen a lot of other students go through the same things and how are you supposed to as a student how

033are you supposed to learn when everything just keeps coming into your face with discrimination and all that negativity comes spilling out like high school especially in high school is a big time and when you have all of this discrimination that you're trying to you know cope with but then you're trying to learning that that puts a halt in learning process and that can definitely side rail someone who's trying to learn and trying to become a good student in trying to have a future that puts a stop and I just think that that's not fair because it basically says that you know the rights of people like I am in the religious minority and in the LGBTQ community have kind of been sidetracked and I've seen a lot of students who have gone through discrimination time

034and time again kind of go through that into the fact that their grades basically sidereel because the high school is already stressful and you have to kind of deal with all of these external factors whether or not that's peer pressure puberty especially in the female gender and a lot of my you know lesbian friends that I've you know had relationships with that you have all these things to deal with so having all this discrimination coming at you is not you know the right thing for a student to come into contact with and it also you know leads to stuff like a lot of statistics show that it leads to a lot of teen suicide which we need to prevent and definitely we need to get more into the realm of safety try to protect your

035students or that thank you yeah is there anyone else that wishes to address the board Paul waldowski eight picket Lane when you retired every day is a federal holiday but today is Truman day in the state of Missouri I'm sure all you high school students are learning about the state of Missouri I'm also here represent the 2030 cicada you know they're out like you high school students trying to get a PhD a public high school diploma and it was enjoyable to listen to you young man I remember fairness is what Lady Justice represents with a blindfold and you need to point out when she's wearing a pirate's patch if she's favoring the left cuz she has the patch on the right eye or she's favoring the right because she's wearing a pirate's patch on the

036left eye you know that's what democracy is all about let me add to the energy star award I want to see tankless hot water heaters in all our schools it's a 21st century entity when I was in Germany in the early 80s I was in a dormitory and they already had tankless hot water heaters and I'm sure none of our schools have that especially fairy farm elementary school which we're gonna we're gonna redo now let me use the rest of my time to go over the school's by-election district I'm sorry it took me seven years to figure out that if you live off 6/10 you get elected and then Nord Stafford high school was in the Rock Hill district but then the garrison ville district school board member has north stafford high school amazing now

037Colonial forge High School has got to be as far away from hardwood district as any place in the county I just don't understand and I think I see on your car that do you have Mountain View basketball but not that I watch when everyone races by Mountain View because I live on a ticket Lane you know it's just interesting to me to see what's gonna happen in 2021 because we're gonna fix this district stuff and we're gonna get this gerrymandering under control and I heard a really neat statistic the other time at the Board of Supervisors that about 43,000 people in this county which is about one third of the hundred twenty eight thousand nine hundred sixty-one I don't have that written down that's twenty ten are in poverty or near poverty so we need

038to address that thank you is there anyone else who wishes to address the board see no one will close the public eyes or anyone else no all right well close the public comment period and come back to the board do we have a student disciplinary committee report mr. McCosker yes on April 19th 2018 a committee of the school board met to consider two student disciplinary matters the committee dismissed the charges against student a the committee suspended student B for the remainder of the 2017-2018 school year and the entirety of the 2018 and 2019 school year Thank You mr. micawber and that brings us to a board member comments miss Egan do you want to start us I just want to say thank you to dr. Benson and to Chris Fullmer for turning around this budget

039information so quickly and this was really a very pleasant process this year so thank you for everything that you did and for all the hard work you guys put into it appreciate it thank you dr. chase I would like to begin by thanking members of our Board of Supervisors for showing their support of Education in Stafford County by providing the funds needed to improve compensation for all of our teachers and support staff this year in addition it's my understanding that the Department of Human Resources at Spotsylvania schools has been interviewing candidates for the new director of the Commonwealth Governor's School the governing board meets tomorrow in closed session to decide whether or not to approve the appointment of a new director on April 14th I had the pleasure of attending the 50th anniversary celebration of

040Falmouth elementary school and it was really wonderful to see lots of familiar faces let's see I mentioned at the last school board meeting that I have questions about technology use in our schools miss young and I visited the information technology Resource teacher at Hampton Oaks Elementary to learn how technology is being used in our elementary schools and last week I visited Grafton elementary and was given a technology used tour by Principal Sidebottom and came away with the impression that Grafton has an amazing learning environment finally last week I had the pleasure of attending the honors teachers banquet hosted by Stafford high school the staff and students at Stafford high school did a phenomenal job the dinner was wonderful and I really enjoy the opportunity to recognize a few of the many fantastic teachers who make

041our schools such a great place for our children to learn thank you dr. chase miss hazard again I would like to say that I am very pleased that the compensation of our school employees falling as a as a huge priority for this board as it has always been has also been shared with by our Board of Supervisors I think it is apropos that it will come during teacher appreciation week I'm thrilled that we are looking at that compensation as for for everybody as always I I also though put out the cautionary tale as I always do because we are growing the schools in heartwood are all over a hundred and about a hundred one hundred and five percent in our elementary schools I want us to continue to invest in this compensation model but we

042are also going to have to continue to invest in additional and more teachers and I think we as a school division I hope working with our counterparts across the the street that we are going to look at compensation for all of our employees who work in Stafford County which include both sides that we can look towards offering similar benefits and compensation because the greatest resource we have in Stafford County are the staff who are out every day representing us whether on this side or on that side I think that is something we are very blessed with in our County is great people and we just need to make sure that we keep making sure that you all keep coming on a really fun note I would like to just talk about the wonderful fine arts

043that go on in our schools if anybody has been able to go in the last few weeks to other wonderful musicals in our schools it has been an amazing experience I had I loved going to Mountain View and I had a wonderful time also going to Colonial fours I'm gonna shout out to Kayla who I have watched grow up being in the lead role was fabulous I'm glad you're not getting older I'm glad you're getting older but I'm not you were amazing and so I just would like to say I hope that we as a community support these great things going on in our schools I think that's one thing that I hope we can't begin to continue to do better and I would like to make a shout out to our boys and blazars

044group we had a wonderful day and I would like to thank dr. Benson he can tie a bowtie they didn't want to get in my line because man I am NOT good at tying bow ties but it was a wonderful day so thank you for coming and teaching our voice thank you Miss young good evening everyone thank you to the Board of Supervisors for the passing of the funds for our teachers and staff and helping us grow this relationship that we're working on Thank You superintendent for your guidance and always being there to answer questions and also thank you to all the staff that worked so hard not just Chris but everyone that given me answer my emails and questions and questions again even though sometimes is the same I want to also talk about

045the teachers I know Sarah dr. chase just mentioned that but the teachers and all our staff are our most precious assets and resources for that all employees should have races for their hard work we had several celebrations this past week or so some we attended the honors banquet for Teacher of the Year principals of the year system principal at Stafford high and thank you Stafford high for hosting it we also had the SCF which is the Stafford Education Foundation where the teachers were recipient of scholarship and innovative ideas and receive teaching grants at Mountain View Thank You Mountain View for hosting that I think both of them the kids were awesome Congrats to all but I also want to thank all teachers for their time and effort and caregiving to our students and I thank

046all the supporting staff also for all they do we can thank you verbally but putting something in your paycheck means more so that's the plan we also will be talking about redistricting once the new Moncure opens in garrison Ville area ensuring that all students that are living in the neighborhood no matter the income or the neighborhood they came from can go to that new Moncure for this reason we need to redistricting the ones the ones in the jarasandha's district are 50 percent free and reduced lunch so we need to even that out it's about parity it's about making sure that all students have the same opportunity to succeed and last but not least there is a listening tour on May the 18th we will be expecting to talk about several subjects May 1000 saw 18th

047okay so make sure that everyone is there we're hoping that we have a lot of parents and individuals from the community to come and support us it would be that the Bensons last listening tour okay so please come out thank you thank you well that that's a good segue to mr. McCosker well you know she gave the wrong date because it's that fairy farm so this is how you know miss young roles I'm just teasing she she knows we go back we go back and forth all day long alright hey so listen I usually don't say a few words but I'm gonna say a few words tonight and you're gonna like it right so here we go get your pens ready hey first of all congratulations to the Commonwealth Governor's School students I heard the

048the these students applied and their parents applied to the Commonwealth Government school and I heard that all the stuff went out and they've got their letter in the mail I got a talk to a person today mr. Blankenship from rowdy Thompson and and his daughter very talented daughter is going to colonial Forge High School and she ended up crying when she got it in the mail so she she's happy and she now when she gets the homework I don't know if she's gonna be crying so much that but so congratulations to all that to all the kids out of our County who made it in the Commonwealth Governor's School speaking of the Commonwealth Government school while everyone was at the Stafford Education Foundation grants I was at the focus are the Commonwealth Governor's School senior

049symposium night at Mary wash a couple hundred kids were all there showing off their Senior Projects pretty impressive stuff and I'd like to thank Mary Kay and the CGS teachers and support staff for making that night happen it was a wonderful night also while at the another event that I should have been at I was at the gifted focus festival at Brook point so you know thanks for dr. falender breath I think that was her first focus festival yes it's a couple of hundred kids going in and about you know in 100 different directions and you have all the elementary schools represented just about you have all the middle schools and a good portion of the high schools represented at that focus festival and so I got to spoke to a lot of kids I

050spoke to a lot of kids and it was a wonderful you know costumes and you know it was just just a great night I got a call from Miss Healy saying hey why aren't you at this other event I said I'm talking to the kids right now and so I I spoke to kids from a course fairy farm and grafton Marga Brent Conway and winding creek that's about as far as I got and then they the night ended so unfortunately but it was a wonderful night we also went to the teachers on honor banquet at Mountain View High School thanks for the support Mountain View and great great to see all of our teachers our award winning award winners teachers employees and principals at night and that was that was definitely a great night and

051I'm glad I attended listening tour may 10th be there at ferry farm if you want and if you have input and you know I just want to finish with you know thanks to the hard work on the budget we'll talk about it a little bit later but I do want to finish with ferry farm is our second oldest school at 1957 it was pulled off the CIP after years of going back and forth with as we know you've heard this story from me over and over again but I want to make sure that we just remember that you know just because we've we get new kids in this county in different locations and they are some schools are getting close to bursting at the seams we still can't neglect the taxpayers that have been living

052here for years and putting off renovations to schools that need it so fairy farm was due to start getting money put into it in nineteen twenty and twenty-one should have been open for a renovation now it did go back and forth or rebuild renovation but you know I want to make sure that the school board and the community is plugged in and I'll trust me I'll be talking about it at ferry farm the forum the listening tour as well that we're plugged in with hey we need to make sure we we keep up our end to parity we need to keep that you know our kids are important down ferry farm to make sure that they're in a you know in a safe clean 21st century school and so and I'm gonna keep beating that

053drum until I go bye-bye off this board and so and I'm really happy about the people to my left and right also realize that I gotta be a drummer all right I'll play my bagpipes is that better I think that might scare more people away but so anyway fairy farm rebuild lower renovation I'm done now thank you mister McCosker I think it's certainly significant that this board identified either a rebuild or renovation of fairy farm as our number two capital improvement priority and we sent those priorities over to the Board of Supervisors so that their request the first priority that we identified was the acquisition of the Fredericksburg Christian school which we would if we were fortunate enough to be able to acquire it use for the a preschool we have preschool classes scattered throughout

054our elementary schools and it would be our intention to devote to half of the twenty classrooms at Fredericksburg Christian to preschool classes and the other half to a northern headstart program so hopefully you know that will come to fruition but right after that the next priority of this board was a renovation or rebuild and we did not state which was a choice because we are going to leave that to the discretion of the board supervisors because there will be some funding differences between the two you know there are definitely advantages of rebuild which would give us more capacity because we could actually build a a larger school and the transition would be much simpler because we could build a school while the students are in the current school however you know we will take a

055renovation if that's what we can do but we we we all recognize we want to do something so we're we're on your team mr. McCosker count us in thank you um speaking of children we want to recognize Parker Memphis Decatur who was born last week and came to his first school board work session this evening he was 8 pounds 10 ounces and 20 inches long and he slept through our whole work session so I don't know if that's because we were boring him or if he's just a wonderful baby but we want to thank mrs. Decatur for for for joining us actually I think it was the day after he was born we had our budget work session last week she called in because she you know was that important to her you know to

056participate in this and she fully supported those raises for all our staff as well so thank you mrs. Decatur and Parker Memphis Decatur we welcome welcome you to the world I just wanted to recognize representative Wittman who last week it came to North Stafford High School he toured a number of our CTE programs and was very interactive with the students he you know was talking about you know the value of the programs the the skills that they have and how they are they are our next generation and there was a whole variety of CTE programs it was quite impressive up at North and then following his tour of the I think it was six or seven programs he met with the students and and talked with the students and there was some some discussions back

057and forth during the classroom visits as well and I know he has an incredibly busy schedule because that morning he was down in Fredericksburg you know meeting with with other CTE programs so thank you representative Whitman for for visiting our schools it's always a pleasure to have him and I think he recognizes the importance of education no doubt about that I also wanted to thank stafford high school for hosting the the banquet for the recipients of the teacher and principals of the year and first year teachers and you know all the other awardees but but want to recognize the collaboration with the mountain view culinary arts program as well our culinary arts programs that put on these dinners and host things for us are just magnificent and they they work together I I assume that

058there there may have been even more it was was Brooke point involved in that I don't know because they have a culinary arts program but our schools work together so when we go to a host school it doesn't mean that just that school is doing it they reach out to other schools with programs and then they all work together and and I really appreciate these students because this is unpaid and they do it outside of ours and you know they they provide a great service yes an excellent food we like to eat yes it is excellent so thank you very much and finally I want to say I'm really excited about the opportunity that we as a board will have next week to meet with the Board of Supervisors we've been invited for a work

059session and we are all optimistic that this is going to be a collaborative meeting our staff is working very hard on responses to questions that have been raised and this is our opportunity to make our case as to why Fredricksburg Christian school acquisition is our number one priority what we would do with it and and you know why it is you know in the best interest of Stafford County schools economically to purchase the school and be able to use it for our preschools so we're also going to talk about the possibility of using Moncure Elementary which at at the end of the building of the new Moncure our Memorandum of Understanding with the supervisors requires us to deed that property back to the supervisor so they have have had some discussion about potentially leasing it

060back to us and that's something we're looking into and at their request we are also looking at the pros and cons of that as well as a preferred Christian school but but I I wanted to give a special thanks to mrs. bomb key because you know she made this offer to us and is very much appreciative so whatever happened in our past meetings that is behind we are going to go forward and have a positive experience and look forward to it it's only going to be an hour so we'll have to to talk fast so that's all I have for this evening and I see that mr. Palmer is back does that mean you are ready wait a minute was that a time zone yeah you're not ready no okay well I just want to

061get the word don't keep us in suspense come on down we're still in my time I'm gonna propose that we wait just don't want to push it and we're close but not quite there okay and that's so we can make sure that everything is exactly a hundred percent correct correct right okay well we've already we've already given the previews that that the two and a half percent increase for all employees is part of what you know we've all discussed and is in the adopted budget that's going to be presented to us so yes ma'am and I can still speak during information if you want to give a quick update that would be that would be good I think that would be helpful for people to do that okay Thank You mr. boomer and and we've

062all recognized mr. follmer and his staff and dr. Benson and all the work they've done for the budget but I want to also recognize the work of this board this this really has been a very cohesive experience unlike other experiences with budgets I think this board is is a hundred percent there for the students and looking for what is best for the students and and for the staff so it has been a pleasure to work for this board and and thank you all because we do not have to meet Friday night now because we had a budget meeting scheduled for Friday night but because we got everything done we're we're off the hook now it's in Mr Palmer's court all right that brings us to superintendents comments dr. Benson do you have any thank you

063madam chair we had some several board members made reference to the honors recognition that we had this week and I have to say that what we do to recognize the staff that's doing an incredible job across the division and lots of different capacities is really superior to anything I have seen in my 35 years in education in the Commonwealth of Virginia so I just I want to thank our folks in HR for coordinating that you know that's important for us to take some time step back and just thank folks for doing a great job that they're doing one of the things that I really appreciate about that is kind of the tradition that we have of having the previous year's Teacher of the Year come to the honors banquet and share some thoughts with this

064year's award winners and mrs. Nicole Sutton who's fourth grade teacher at Kate Waller Barrett came back this year and provided some remarks and she said something that has really stuck with me that I just want to say again she and her remark she said that teachers are there when students need them the most and that's just I think that's a really powerful statement I am deep deeply thankful that our teachers are here for Stafford County students and in the light of this being Teacher Appreciation Week I just want to add another thank-you because our folks are there when our students need them the most thank you thank you dr. Benson that brings us to the consent agenda do we have a motion for approval motion to approve consent but I will have comment before we

065vote okay do we have a second second question by mrs. hazard a second by miss Egan comment miss hazard the only comment I'm sure that all board members saw that we will be losing a very valued long-term employee to the division with Ms Cathy tortoises retirement so I would like to just publicly thank Cathy for all the help that she has hand held me through five years I hope she really doesn't retire but I know she's her name's on there but I just want to make a special shout out to Cathy because she's been invaluable to me at least as a board member sure sure just one typo on on comments for minutes April 10th minutes page page four and then it's a that first at first statement said mr. micawber stated that if listing

066ferry farm as a rebuild would result in a continued delay for this school then he will not support a renovation that should be would not support a rebuild thank you thank you mr. Mike Oscar all right any other comments all right all in favor the motion to approve the consent agenda please say aye aye all opposed motion carries unanimously that brings us to action items 9.01 approved the 2018 2019 annual plan for special education do we have a motion motion to approve 9.01 motion by mr. Youk and second by Miss young any discussion all in favor of the motion please say aye aye all opposed motion carries unanimously action item 9.02 approved the awarded professional services consulting contracts open-ended term contracts for architectural services so we have a motion to approve I'm sorry do we

067have a motion motion to approve 9.02 second okay motion by miss hazard second by miss Egan any discussion I just have one question mr. Moran is the is there any cost associated with just laying on these contracts okay no okay thank you for that very succinct answer mr. Moran like it alright any other questions all in favor the motion to approve 9.02 please say aye aye all opposed motion carries unanimously that brings us to the information items ten-point o1 approved the awarded professional services consulting contracts open-ended term contracts for archaeological structural civil and sanitary engineering geotechnical environmental industrial hygiene roofing and mechanical / electrical / plumbing she's here for information if you have a question just a quick question is this for across the board Scott I'm sorry is this going to be a standard

068contract across the board we're gonna use these folks for we are it's a one-year contract with four option years for these and there's obviously a whole group of different firms thanks I had a question I noticed that a lot of the firms are located in Fredericksburg Virginia are they actually in the city of Fredericksburg are some of them in Stafford but they have Fredericksburg down as their address well the address is Fredericksburg so I couldn't tell you but I would think the majority of the ones that we selected I think our archaeological one was infringed of further sin geotech F&R they're actually in the city of Fergus work okay so is it the case that we just don't have these kinds of businesses in Stafford County oh yes you know there are some that are

069in Stafford STI one of our civil engineers I think they're also in Fredericksburg but there are some that have offices but it is more if they had that Fredericksburg address I think they carry the residents of Frederick's were not with a Stafford so did they pay the business tax to the city of Fredericksburg I can't speak that I don't know I'm just curious about where our tax dollars are going okay thank you yes maybe great minds that's exactly what I was gonna ask and it's gonna ask is there any without getting it being illegal it can we show favoritism to our Stafford well we certainly look in the criteria that we established we look at the location and the distance we certainly don't pick folks in Baltimore per se when there's some firms or I

070won't say we don't pick that we weigh the factors you know when we look and use the evaluation and score them so we look for quality firms that are going to meet our needs and location is one of the items that we look at okay okay no other questions Thank You mr. Wran the next item TenPoint o2 is to approve the superintendent's proposed revisions to policies and regulations as reviewed by office of administrative and legal services so anybody have any questions about these proposals mr. Nelson is here if we need him No well these will be coming back to us I believe these are to make them consistent with the law generally not generally consistent with the law generally we're always consistent with the law right mr. Nelson yes at least in our regulations right

071all right TenPoint o3 approved the superintendent's proposed revisions to policy 2401 and regulation 2401 our Code of Student Conduct as reviewed by the office of administrative and legal services I think mr. Nelson if you wouldn't mind just giving us a brief overview of this because this is a proposed revision that's you know not law related good evening man madam chair members of the board dr. Benson madam clerk good to be here again as you know annually we come forward with the code of conduct it belongs to you we do have a committee that is formed in the spring to review the code of conduct we take into account parent comments have been made during the year two different sources including at hearings and two principals we did have a committee this year and you can

072see the makeup of it and included the associate superintendent for instruction the chief secondary and elementary officers all five high school principals two middle school principals and Middle School assistant principal two elementary school principals and the alternative program administrator and myself now in addition to comments that we receive about the code of conduct this year the General Assembly was quite busy so we took a look at the changes that came out of this legislative session and are going to be effective July 1 and you'll note that the first item that you have here we're making a statement in both your policy in your rig that no suspension or expulsion is going to exceed that which is provided by statute or by video II regulation or guidance the bottom line is that twenty-eight of our code

073of conduct rules are going to be modified to cap them at 45 days for our first defense this is in keeping with the General Assembly's view that suspension duration needs to be reduced the feeling being that this will help students and we all hope that they are correct in that assessment there's particular rules that we are amending as well rule 3 which pertains to alcoholic beverages as those of you that have been on the board a few years will remember at one time we received a grant that enabled us to have a program for students to participate in for substance abuse and it could lessen the duration of their suspension we're deleting that section because the grants not coming back we were facing that reality now item 4 which is the bullying reference which we've

074had several students speak to this evening this it's always been the spirit of our code of conduct that we're not going to tolerate bullying but I think there's been some groups which felt that they had been overlooked perhaps neglected and this incorporates into the bullying rule there a recognition in effect that we're not tolerating bullying of these of these groups either bullet five smoking we've had some groups come forward in the past asking us to expand our definition we can only expand here tonight the code of conduct not rules that would apply to personnel per se but we're looking at vaping and adding that specifically to the Code of Conduct and we're specifically including nicotine as a prohibited substance we think that will help greatly and lastly bullet six this is going to prohibit and

075abling others to gain access to our school buildings this is a security factor we have students that open the door for others it's inappropriate and this will give the principal some latitude in dealing with that effectively so the code of conduct answer any questions that you may have about it but that's your your overview does anyone have any questions for mr. Nelson yeah I do and it's not specifically on your on your itemized adjustments after reading the code of conduct and there was a case that came to us I'm not gonna mention who what when where and why but long story short it was a you know a threat to someone's life over media not in school yes and so I didn't really get closure on that issue on how what are we what do

076we do it doesn't it seems we skirt a lot of that you know we talk about digital bullying but when someone says I'm gonna kill you tomorrow and science class and he sends that to all his friends on Facebook that we're powerless as a school division is that not necessarily powerless it depends on whether there's a nexus to the school that we can step in and exercise our jurisdiction so much social media is often in the community but not within the school per se kids know each other from you know playing soccer or playing baseball or just living in the same neighborhood or riding the same bus but it's not a school offense per se unless there's a nexus to the school so the typical example we is somebody that's threatening somebody at school to

077get into a fight I'm gonna beat you up after school or something like that well that's originated in the school so even if they ride the bus home and then walk another mile down to the drugstore or something it's still a nexus to the school because it has originated in the school so when we get a threat we look at the origins of it whether we have a definite nexus to the school and if we do we exercise our jurisdiction I know the case you're talking about it is coming back to that committee good and the although we've had changes by the General Assembly I do feel that once we get those video II guidelines we're still going to be able to deal with that we have left in the rule about threats up to

078expulsion because they're quite serious right and so an intent of that that my question was because I think it's a very serious matter number one number two I don't wanna play Perry Mason here right but I do think I do think I do think that the board we need to you know we need to address that as a board and make sure that at least at a minimum we have a opine on you know when a parent says hey student X threatened to kill my son and provided all the data and this email although it wasn't at school is the school's position you do nothing and I don't think that's just what we do however I think I think we need to address that sometimes it might be a perception and sometimes even though the

079school cannot deal with it through the code of conduct they might be able to deal with it through the SRO that's in their school who may inform that parent of a student that's threatened that this is what's happening this is what we're doing as a law enforcement agency this is what you can do so it's not ignored and we may still undertake a threat assessment of the situation right whether we have jurisdiction or not depends on the Nexus right and that's my concern is you know even if you do turn it over to the police that the police say okay come back and come back in six months for your court date and go back to school tomorrow and then we can't do anything about it so anyway what we'll hopefully we'll we'll get a

080hold of do in those situations as a school board via policy I just have a follow-up question to mr. mcmack Oscar's example if there is a threat of someone being harmed at school would there not be a next election that there would be a nexus there it's where it's totally off campus and in the case that you are referring to I know that our staff has worked very diligently you know on that matter to see you know what can be done it's not that we don't want to do something but you know our hands may be tied to a certain extent but we are you know we are working on it and I know not just mr. mr. Nelson there are other staff that are that aren't involved in working that sure so I just

081wanted to clarify if there is a threat that there is as mr. Nelson said uh Nexus to the school then we can't address it in this in the code of conduct you know okay I just still think that I we as a board we need to discuss I don't I don't think there's any issue on student safety is is certainly a target is pretty the issue is what what tools we have from a legal perspective what we can do and that's something perhaps we can look at you know over the summer but I know we're working on that I'm miss young had a question for mr. Nelson my question relates to ensuring that the equality diversity opportunity committee suggestions or comments are included in any of those rules I did not read every single one

082of them but I know for sure they are number one but they're in here and okay thank you thank you and and thank you to dr. Benson for having that committee up and running in time to have input into these amendments because this is the only time of year that we can do that if a recommendation came to us in June it would be too late to make a change to this year so that the timing was excellent so thank you and thank you for the members of the committee who may be here this evening as well as those who who aren't any other questions from mr. Nelson no all right mr. Nelson don't go away we are now on with Zoe on Co 1003 approved the superintendent's proposed revisions to policy no that's when

083we just did 1004 approved the superintendent's proposed revisions to regulation 24:12 are symbolic expression appearance slash dress slash gestures as reviewed by the office of administrative and legal services if you could just give us a brief summary of this proposal proposed revisions I'll give you a nutshell this went before the same committee that studies the Student Code of Conduct and if you remember over the past couple of years we've had some students come forward and express their yeah thank you their displeasure with our existing code of our dress code some felt that it was aimed against girls others thought it was just unclear how do you enforce this why'd you name this item of clothing and not that our committee the big committee was very fortunate we were able to form a subcommittee with mrs.

084Howe dr. Smith mrs. McKinney Nash they were our subgroup they studied the dress code very thoroughly they compared it with division other divisions to look at what their dress codes looked like they presented it to the big committee and the big committee was quite happy with it and we brought it forward to you and mrs. Howe and dr. Smith are present here if he would have questions for him they're certainly able to answer them but they had this vetted and our high school principals and our middle school principals vetted this as well by taking it before some of their student leaders asking them to critique it it went before the equity diversity opportunity committee as well I think they were generally pleased with it our subcommittee did a great job we feel the the way

085I would define the change is that and so much of the current dress code focuses on particular items like you can't have two tops and you you got to hold your arm across your chest and make sure that you know the dress is appropriate this is going to eliminate that type of category and it's going to put in there item don't expose this part of your body basically so it's going to be easier to enforce I think one of the things that's been very difficult for our principals is enforcing our current dress code you know are these pajama pants are they dorm pants you get into all this vernacular address and I think this eliminates it I have I have one question in terms of the length of the dress or skirt or shorts there

086are individuals that are slim and there are other individuals that are heavy but the length is the same I just want to make sure that some days I'm going to have to cut you to mrs. Howell or dr. Smith that they and it just happens to be the same individuals that are called out when at 6 p.m. even though the length is the same son that was one of individuals are close and they just happened to be a certain type good evening good evening appreciate you having us and we did take a lot of time to review that and I appreciate that question about the length one of the challenges that we found was actually regulating the length and seeing what was appropriate for length and what we was visually disruptive let's say and you

087may be referring to the Washington Post article that spoke to some of those things that talk now okay my example is my daughter okay very good and so what we found is as building administrators was that when you looked at length and you compared across different body types we found that the length itself wasn't the challenge it was what the length could do and so when we included here in specific language in terms of item G we looked at what does a short skirt short dress tend to create it may create the exposure of private parts who may create the exposure of undergarments and that's what we looked to prohibit because that's what we found we looked at comparison divisions when we talked to art the Advisory groups that's what was the concern it wasn't

088so much the length of the skirt of the length of the dress it was what could happen if the dress was too short depending on the body type and so we found that there are a lot of shorts and pants and skirts that were okay we heard from our parent advisory groups that they found it was very difficult to purchase clothing for their daughters to go to school and that was a challenge for them so we acknowledged that as well and so when we tried to create some language we looked to see what was appropriate what we felt was safe was not disruptive and then we couched that in principals having the discretion to address things that they felt were inappropriate or unsafe and may require a little bit of professional learning on our part

089which we acknowledged but we found that addressing the length specifically was very very difficult and challenging for us and so we felt that that was something we need to adjust okay good hopefully the teachers or the hall monitors will get a little bit of training or some guidance on that yes ma'am sure because I do know I remember where it was like you have your hand down and it's your your longest nail and you could put two young ladies next to each other and one has a little curve and the the skirt or shorts is the same but the the thinner girl gets the pass and the other one doesn't yes ma'am the other one happens to be my daughter so I just want to make sure we're our ultimate goal is to some kids

090maintain the environment for instruction we want to make sure it's an appropriate environment because instructions our number one goal but we do want to acknowledge that students have an opportunity to express themselves through dress and so we talk about it a lot that students don't come to school to violate the dress code or to up set us and sometimes when we say disruption who's actually being disrupted who's being distracted and so it's not the adults it's really the students and so it's a partnership there and I know that the high school spent a lot of time with the student leaders and some of the student leaders responded that they liked the the length from the administrator standpoint they were a little concerned about us as the administrators trying to enforce it without that specific length

091and we appreciated that they liked the rule because the fella that gave them more flexibility but they did express some concern for us in terms of how we would actually enforce it we appreciated that and we acknowledge that we need to make sure that we're together and unified with what dress should signify in our schools but at the same time giving students that opportunity to express themselves within our our guidelines thank you very much and you don't look a day over so it's ten years ago well thank you are there any other questions No thank you very much well this will come back to us for approval and thank you mrs. out for your work as well and dr. Smith all right mr. Nelson I think you're done thank you but mr. follmer is up

092ten point oh five it's information but the title is adoptive fiscal year 2019 budget mr. former if you could give us a what's coming preview what will be coming to us for approval are we still aren't we still all right for the May 18th at 8 o'clock is that so yes absolutely and and mrs. boat right that's it works for you as well well I think the yeah all right you're on so this presentation if you're in the work session will look familiar I did make some quick edits to update it based on our discussion in the work session go to full screen on the bottom there so we talked about the timeline and obviously at the were exception tonight we reviewed some of the changes and then as we stand right now we're at

093the regular meeting and as you just mentioned to miss Healy at that may 18 special called meeting will the current plan is to adopt at that meeting so bottom line up front is our net increase in our budget is little over ten point seven million dollars which is a three point eight six percent increase as we stand right now we are balanced and leaves no funding gap included in this over the school board approved budget is a six point four seven million dollar increase from the local government that resolution does have a caveat that we must include a two and a half percent Cola or else they will reduce our transfer by approximately five point two million dollars there is a 5 percent hold back clause which means after the audit is complete and roughly

094January the additional 5% appropriation will be released and that is not new we increased our local revenue by approximately we're not approximately was exactly $25,000 for additional rebates that are planned that we received in the current year has an increase over the budget and completely expect that we'll have the same rebate in the following year as far as the state is concerned the state has still not adopted a budget the current plan is for the Senate to reconvene I believe next week mid-may are 7 May 14th and currently the house budget includes 1.5 the Senate is going to review review that House budget so but there's not a whole lot coming out yet on where that's going to end up there's still a lot of debate to go on there so we will not know

095until probably at the earliest May 14th but really formally we're probably looking at later May early June 2012 to make a request of the supervisors for use of those additional funds so as we talked about in the work session so from a non comp none of these changed since what we discussed in the work session if you'd like I can still run through them quickly or we can jump to the next slide you see LD have a preference I mean run buddy you can go ahead and so reductions and what is remaining and for compensation and our FY 19 positions so what we the changes board directed in the work session were to increase our music teacher by one and we're funding that by using savings of the two of the pre-k teachers who are

096not planned to start until mid-year based on the need and the growth of our pre-k population so ultimately that leads funding for one additional teacher which we are putting into music so that does not increase the total budget or create a gap it's just reallocating the spend for those teachers so overall you know two percent two and a half percent Cola for all employees fully funding the teaching mark teacher market enhancement to get us to the median of the market fully funding the service skill enhancement to get Paras bus drivers monitors to the pay band minimum the teacher growth positions there are 13 total growth positions class size reduction as directed by the state we get direct funding which covers all four of those teachers in the current year they did add a school in

097the current year which was rocky run and so there are class additional class size caps which exceed our class size standards that the board has adopted there are four additional isaw teachers seven additional special education teachers as I already mentioned for pre-k teachers there are for pre-k pairs and 25 and a half special education pairs there is a social worker speech path one and a half counselors to psych interns and if you remember and the approved budget we had three psych interns we don't expect that we're gonna be able to fill that third position at all this coming year it is something we re-evaluate for fy2011 turns there is not going to be enough interest to fund all three positions we do believe we can fund two or fill two I should say there are

098four diagnosticians so in the school board approved budget we were asking for seven and a half we reduced that three and a half down to four diagnosticians three focused teachers and as I mentioned the two music teachers that's also there's funding in this budget to extend the admin assistants at the a military schools to 12 months one at each and also 12-month funding for our child find office questions or clarification needed for our compensation positions big thank you so here's just a summary ultimately did not change from our meeting as we just move some of the funding in our FY 19 positions around but the most important point here is our very bottom line in red which is a total funding gap is it zero dollars for our school board adopted budget so that leaves

099us at what's next which is to adopt a budget unfortunately it won't be this evening but it will be whenever you advise next we'll be ready and just really a couple days but I know we can't advertise that quickly let's just we'll just go down the down the line if you want no are we okay with what we scheduled for May 18th or do we need to set something we are going to be meeting with the supervisors next Tuesday across the street but you know we could set something you know to come back here we're gonna be out of that room at five o'clock because someone else is coming in at five if it would be helpful for you and mrs. Boatwright you know in terms of getting the contracts forward I'm sure the board

100would be willing to you know to come over here and have that special meeting at that point I mean we're going to be here anyway on the on the 18th but if you know we want to do what we can to give these contracts out to our employees and and our prospective employees as well so from finances perspective we'll be ready for either those dates so ultimately HR and finance finance working with hor predominantly HR though is prepping those contracts as we speak they know based on board discussion that they aren't going to be significant changes so they're getting a head start on that now so they can be ready sooner than the original projection so I think the current timeline that Miss Bo right laid out is that we can release those contracts before

101Memorial Day weekend originally it would have been after Memorial Day so we've already bumped that up with the expectation that no changes are coming in the compensation and benefit lines okay so does that mean we're good for the 18th or I'm gonna make my comments when time yeah the 15th was right but we're already we've were noticed for the 18th but we can cancel that special called meeting and reschedule it or do we want dr. Benson to let us know we we have when will we have to schedule to announce the meeting for next Tuesday that be Thursday do we want to just let dr. Benson can you know let us know if it would be helpful I mean we're willing we're willing to do it next Tuesday don't we don't we have to be

102here anyway on Friday for that yeah 9 o'clock yes that's why that's why we scheduled it for a day right so that morning yeah I I won't be able to get here until at least 5:30 okay of teeth so I mean it sounded it's it sounded to me as if nothing's going to go out until right before Labor Labor Day Memorial Day in any event whether we do this on the 15th or the 18th is that correct it will what make a difference if we have a meeting to approve it on the 15th versus on the 8th at least I find like I mean I'd like to speak to it because I'm the one that raised this pretty hard in there and Chris you know I always want you all to do the right thing

103so it's not that my concern as I stated in there are the intent contracts we will then have passed a budget three to four weeks after folk cure and Spotsylvania County I think that's something that the fab needs to look at next year if we can and I know that we will need some discussion with our counterparts my concern is they are graduating this weekend I was just at a graduation for my niece this weekend I know many of the parents there their first question was so do you have a job because most of us want to get our children eventually probably offer payroll if a few days makes a difference that ms wrote right and her team can start to call these people and say hey there is an approved budget we would like

104to make sure that we can offer you a contract at and fill in the blank if it gets us a couple days I am very concerned we are going to lose de-spawn Sylvania and and Thera and I'm bulkier who already have passed their budgets at 3% and 4% so they've already got their number so I am going to continue to argue the earlier we can get it out I am going to continue to argue for anybody anybody else I'm dr. Benson should we invite mr. Boatwright up to tell us if it's going to make a difference and what we're talking about is the difference between the evening of the 15th or the early morning of the 18th certainly it would be helpful we at least would be able to send the intent candidates at least

105an email with their salaries in it if we're not able at that time to at least get them the contract okay because we do send that electronically okay 5:30 work for you miss Egan I mean we're not talking about it a bit sir from eating that's let's go ahead and set it for 5:30 because we have to cross courthouse Road I might take a while to get through that traffic light it's a little I work for everybody we'll be out of here by 6:00 o'clock yeah I think that's good probably earlier and we'll we'll start at 5:30 is that that works for everybody yeah no and I was sensitive to that as well let's try to get it out you know but just did you know May 2nd was the Board of Supervisors approving their

106budget so it's not like we were sitting on it for weeks that's a board I just want to make sure that's clear you know we we kind of got to it and kind of fixed actually I think it's record time yeah that we've gotten this done so yeah so I just wanted to say very quickly you know I'm real I'm very very pleased I didn't say it then my opening remarks with the Board of Supervisors give you know we always want more more more but hey I tell you what you know six point four million dollars given to the school division it's probably a record that I'm trying to go back ten years and I don't think they've given that much back in the ancient days yeah and so I really you know I really

107want to thank the Board of Supervisors for for giving us that money because it makes life for our employees a heck of a lot nicer when we can really spend some money and get them up to market or get them get them raises get them a living wage and we still have a lot of work to do there as well so thank you Board of Supervisors across the street you didn't have to raise the tax to $0.99 and you didn't have to give us 6.4 million dollars but she did so that's good you know in this budget real quick you know the five point five point two million dollars goes for our Cola adjustment across the board that's everybody gets a two point five percent you know we promised that we would take care of

108the paraprofessionals the bus drivers and monitors okay and and we did that we put two point one four million dollars towards paraprofessionals bus drivers and monitors and you know that's a pretty significant amount do we have more to go sure we do but I'd like to thank this board and the staff for pushing forward and keeping that promise to our power professionals bus drivers and monitors that we at least have them up to the bottom of the scale and well and then we can continue to work next year and the years after to get them to the medium and hopefully the top quartile and move on to another scale you know 1.8 million dollars for our teachers at 0 to 11 years and in accordance with the scale I know that kind of set didn't

109sit well with a lot of our senior teachers and I understand and I'm empathetic but we too need to make sure that we're we're paying a competitive market rate for our teachers and this kind of takes it we had the money this year this kind of takes it right up there and so that we will have to do minimal adjustments or we'll have to as a board now talk about maybe we start the top quartile of our of our market band or some other amount for next year and I'm really happy that we finally got to you know we've got 78 FTEs I think it wasn't in here that's a lot you know people people 78 new folks working in the school division that's a wonderful amount of folks and that's that's a great news

110story with music teachers not sharing schools and not moving running around with focus teachers now so we'll have one focused teacher for every elementary school that's huge and then our and then all the other excellent folks that the staff and then the board has put forth and approve that's just a wonderful wonderful budget to take care of all those folks and so I just wanted to make sure you know that we're not you know the administrative assistants came to us you know heavy and hard and they should have months ago about hey listen don't forget us and so you know the new the new focus for me is going to make sure that next year we I kind of and I know the board will support it that we kind of make sure that we

111take care of our administrative assistants you know we I've said this once and I've said this before is the administrative assistants you know and my wife I got a kitten I've had kids in schools for a long time in Stafford County and right now I got one in elementary I got one of middle and I got one in high and my wife stays there all day long okay it's what she does and those administrative assistants that are at those front desks and those supporting our senior leaders here at the division they are doing a Herculean job and you know and we always kid we really know who runs the school it's to administrative assistants at our thirty schools okay they're the ones keeping things to the left and to the right and to making sure

112our kids are getting taken care of so so we need to make sure that as a board we take care of them next year and really take a good look at their at their scale and give them what they deserve and so I just wanted to say those few words thank you madam anybody else yes I just wanted to also thank the community for the pressure that and the time that they've taken to go to meetings to come to the school board meetings to send us a lot of emails but we already had the intention to give raises to everyone that's and that was in our heart but we were able to make it happen so thank you all for the support and we will continue to move forward and ensure that we keep our

113teachers and keep up make sure that our bus drivers monitors and paralegals and administration is happy because they take care of our kids thank you thank you videos no that brings us to the quarterly financial report for fiscal year 18 mr. follmer almost of your time so make it quick and I will take less than you took in third quarter report through March 31st so I apologize I try to get to you you know the month after with budget and everything and then trying to get through some things we're probably a meeting behind that so but I will try to breeze through this a lot of this you already know so revenues are tracking pretty closely as expected the state revenues we won't get the final numbers until they adopt FY 19 when they will

114usually make some tweaks to our FY 18 budget the governor's budget was very much in line as far as total funding so I don't expect major changes there the local transfer the 5% hold back was released the we did have an additional appropriation of over carry-forward funds that are reflected in this quarter of the report of one point six four million for the transportation radios and we're all getting a little bit more detail but we're asking the county to increase our appropriation for unfunded contingency we have some insurance proceeds that are coming in to do repair work and technically we're legally restricted on spending that money right now I'll get to that just a second so most expenditures are tracking as expected as well these aren't new items a couple of these are but legal

115fees and water testings are ones I brought to you guys before utilities and then just a quick update on our comp benefits so legal fee costs our original adopted budget was 240 our actual expenditures a 3 March 31st were around one or three hundred thousand dollars so we've had to fund that with our unfunded contingency as we did our water testing costs of roughly 150 Cades what we funded currently out of funded contingency I think there were some additional costs that exceeded that that were picked up out of the Owen budget and that's for the testing and some of the remediation efforts we did have savings projected savings in our utilities lines of coincidentally roughly about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars so comp and benefit savings I've talked to you guys about health insurance

116already we continue to see positive trends there over the last two years so that will create savings in FY 18 not a considerable amount bullet will contribute to the budgeted salary lapse and benefits that we have at the end of the year so of our comp and benefit lines we're currently projecting less than 2% we'll be back to you guys at probably the next board meeting with some preliminary numbers and approval of our project list just like we did last year of as those as we can confirm that those funds are available we'll start to execute going down a prior order priority order set by the school board so as I mention that will be coming soon to the board so back to the insurance proceeds there's been wind and hail storms some of this

117and 17 some of it early and 18 so we have a always budget for 1 million dollars in unfunded contingency which means if we have a crash bus or a fire our and that we have to replace the bus we've one year we had a stolen bus that was crashed and told we had got insurance proceeds to replace that bus we normally wouldn't budget for that so when the insurance proceeds come in we have our unfunded contingency that gives us the appropriation to legally spend but only if the revenue comes in to offset it well with the large number of storms and the impact that it had on some of the major roofs we have exceeded that 1 million dollars so we're asking the county to give us another seven hundred fifty thousand dollars in

118unfunded contingency it's not increasing the local transfer it's going to be paid for out of insurance proceeds expect that it'll go on their next agenda and it's something that's actually in their resolution now that they it gives the staff authority that if they have insurance proceeds unfortunately schools aren't named specifically for next year we are just to try to head this off a little bit earlier and just want to stress again that we don't spend it unless that in those insurance proceeds are received so also attached to the board agenda item is the quarterly report by the functional category it's similar to prior years there in Prior quarterly reports but the exception of I didn't do it for the first quarter report and the second quarter but I did do it one time at the

119end of FY 17 and going forward we're going to start doing this Mutis lets us take our actual results and only look at the current year so we have purchase orders at the end of FY 17 that are encumbered but they don't actually get spin until July August September because that's when it gets paid so that bleeds into for accounting purposes into the next year our system lets us pull those out and keep them in the prior year for internal reporting purposes so when it really comes down to it and reporting to you guys we only want to look at what we're approaching - spend in the current year not what was encumbered in the prior year so this report it makes it a lot cleaner when looking at it we don't have to worry

120about five million dollars in appropriations that start to make the reports just a little bit quirkier and have to explain all the increases in the in the budget so sure we before munis we didn't have the ability to do that correct correct because I remember that coming up on many occasions so another plus for us with this Mena system thank you yeah thanks and also attached is the county's third quarter proper report which they list the school's proffers in their questions any more questions for mr. floor thank you very much and as you guys review the actual quarterly report by functional category if you have any questions feel free to ask what we know how to find you all right so the next school board meeting will be May 15th for a special called meeting

121to approve the budget to adopt a budget at 5:30 p.m. and that will be here in these chambers we do have a joint meeting with the board of supervisors at about 4 o'clock that will end no later than 5 o'clock and that's going to be across the street in the ABC conference room and both those meetings will be noticed correct miss Missy thank you all right that brings us to close on the announcements but we have a closed session that will not take long I believe madam chair 1301 convene closed session to discuss and consider a personnel matter pursuant to a personal exemption at 2-2 37 a 1 code of Virginia whereas the Stafford County school board has convened a closed meeting on this date pursuant to the affirmative recorded vote where's the where's the

122one reading in he's thinking I had oh I move sorry I did say it was gonna be quick but we have to convene in close the door and have a little discussion come out I moved the staff County School Board convening a closed meeting to discuss consider a personal matter pursuant to the personal exemption that section 2-2 you 3781 Code of Virginia okay thank you my Michigan all favor say aye all right let's go no breaks we're gonna