001Hello. Good afternoon. My name is Kathleen Brown, chair of the Virginia Beach School Board, and I call this administrative, informal, and workshop session to order. Madame Clerk, would you please announce the role? Thank you, Madam Chair. Present in the schoolboard chamber are Chair Brown, Vice Chair Williams, Mr. Bowensteel, Mr. Kalen, Mr. Cummings, Miss Felton, Dr. Green, Miss Melnik, and Miss Rogers. And currently online is Mr. Co Pepper. And Mr. Co Pepper, for the record, can you say why you're zooming in and your location? Good afternoon. I'm in Pennsylvania on personal business. Thank you. All right. Thank you. We are on school board administrative matters and reports. Um I have a couple things. We have the meetings with the superintendent for March and school visits with the superintendent. I think that I started them to the
002right last time, so I'm going to start them to the left this time. Um, also since it's budget season, I just want to remind my colleagues that this is an excellent opportunity to make sure that you're meeting with the superintendent um to discuss that budget one to one. Um, and then Dr. Robertson, you had asked about a potential presentation related to the upcoming um special elections. Um, do you want to elaborate on that briefly so that we can determine what the board would like to do? Yes. Um we have two special elections coming up. Um one would be uh to uh do an election to handle the seat created by the loss of Barry Knight. And then the other special election, well let me go back. So that first special election for Barry Knight will
003occur first and that will be in I believe 13 sites. The larger special election is April 21st and and 50 of our schools and that's uh on the referendum about redistricting. So Mr. Freeman has been keeping us in the loop on that and so Mr. Freeman and I had talked about bringing um this to the board some recommendations and then get the board to weigh in. Mr. Freeman, do you want to add anything to that? I think that covers the the high level, but I'm kind of I'm happy to go into any more detail that helps you understand why we need to be able to get it on and get feedback to the board because it it could affect the school day uh on those days. Information on March 10th, but then actually follow the
004meeting or That's correct. I'm I'm sorry. The first special election is on the 17th. So, we would need to have a decision for what to do on the 10th, no later than to be able to execute for the 17th. All right. Well, we'll manage that. We'll put on information and then go from there. All right. Mr. Cummings. Yeah. I wanted to report to uh the school board, I had at the invite of Dr. Robertson. I attended one of the school support meetings at Woodstock Elementary School and I just had a phenomenal experience there. um seeing the intervention, seeing the strategy, seeing what our leadership is doing to continue to support um our students and to make sure that everyone is on track to succeed. And I just wanted to share uh with the board. I
005think it it was a remarkable experience seeing the structure of the meeting, seeing the large amount of data that our staff are looking at to make sure that every single child has the skills needed to thrive. Um so I wanted to echo Dr. Robertson's um invite to folks here if you have the opportunity you know attend one of these school support meetings because I will say that you know I left that meeting just amazed at how much information people are looking at the plans that they're utilizing to make sure kids are on track and I don't know it's just a great experience so I encourage everyone if you have time you know prioritize that um just to see because I know we get questions about what's happening with these school, these schools that you know
006are apparently allegedly not doing well. And I will say that our schools, our staff, our administration are working extremely hard to make sure everyone's on track to make sure that there's a plan in place. So great time. I had fun. I'll have to do it again sometime. Thank you, Miss Felton. Thank you, Chair Brown. And I d all that you said, um, Mr. coming to this absolutely right. Going to, uh, CEK Elementary last week was really phenomenal. Great visit. class sc uh scripture is really great. But let me go this way. I want to say, dear colleagues and community members, in recognition of Black History Month, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the importance of our shared history. While this board may no longer issue formal resolutions, I believe it remain essential
007to highlight significant national observance. Public announcements such as this serves as an as efficient way to provide meaningful information to our community. The 2026 national theme for Black History Month is a century of Black History commemoration. To bring this theme home to Virginia Beach, I want to reflect on the progress made by the Virginia Beach Historic Preservation Commission. Since being nominated to this commission um in 2018, I have been proud to support efforts to recognize the history of black Americans in our city through the installation of historical markers. These markers ensure that our history remains visual in the places where residents live and travel daily. I encourage everyone to visit and learn from the following local historical role markers. The skimmer. The skirimmage at Kent Landing located on South Birdneck Road near Singleton Way and
008the skirmish at James Plantation located on Elson Green Avenue near Three Oaks Elementary School. As we approach the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, the Kimp's Landing marker served as a timely reminder of the American resolution local impact. This engagement occurred 250 years ago on November the 15th, 1775 and resulted in the first patriot culties culture casualties in Virginia. Crrically, this site also document a pivotal moment in African-American heritage. Prior to the skirmish, Lord Dunore encouraged enslaved Virginiaians to join this Ethiopian regiment. Following the fight, he issued a proclamation offering freedom to a enslaved person who fought for that fight. The Historic Preservation Commission website features a story map that documents all historical highway markers in Virginia Beach, including several others that reveal our city diverse African-American history. I am honored to have contributed
009to the commissioner work in making these important stories accessible to all. My hope is that we treat Black History Month not merely as a formality but as an invitation to learn, reflect, and honor the people and stories that form the foundation of Virginia Beach. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Balensteel. Yes, I have a couple things I'd like to report. On Friday, I had the opportunity to go out to the entrepreneur business academy. They had the first annual mayor's volunteer service award and it was like a really pleasure just to see those students. They're very sharp and and working with them and talking to them and that was a really great time. And then today at the convention center, we had the STEM trifecta which about the only way I could sum it up is just
010amazing. And it was just totally awesome just seeing all the elementary schools competing with their projects that they had made and themies being out there supporting them and also recruiting and the different businesses that were out there. So that was a really good time. If uh next year definitely put it on your schedule to try and get out there and see that. Thank you Mr. Ken. Yes. My contribution to this part of the meeting is uh also to report on an event that I participated in. I was invited by Chris Freeman who is overseeing the environmental studies program at the Brock Center. He and his associate Danna McDow invited me to come out and just participate in the program. Uh view what was taking place as the students were going through their activities. uh it
011happened to coincide with the arrival of a group from UVA that was down conducting their similar activities and uh they were greatly impressed with the interaction that took place with the students from uh the environmental protection or environmental studies program. So if you have a chance get out and take a peek at uh what's going on out there interesting and it's quite impressive. Thank you Mr. Ronill. Oh yeah, I was I almost forgot that I actually had a chance to talk with Chris Freeman today and he was very excited and proud that they got the Back Bay program and it's up and running and they're going to be doing a ribbon cutting here next month. He was very excited about that. Chris is good. He's a great guy. Okay. Lots and lots of schoolboard um
012work going in. And so, you know, we have a very committed school board uh to attending events at our schools and supporting. So, I just want to, you know, send my thanks to everybody on the board that's participated in our student events here. Um, we are now on to the middle school schedule update and we welcome Dr. James Smith, senior executive director of middle schools. Good evening. Do we have a clicker? Nope. There we go. Thank you. Good evening, Chairwoman Brown, Vice Chairwoman Williams, Dr. Robertson, members of the school board. This evening, I'd like to provide an update on the implementation of the middle school master schedule. During this presentation, I will revisit our why and our journey, review key changes to the schedule, share the impact of Thrive on instructional support and opportunities it
013has provided to students, discuss avenues for staff feedback, share feedback from principal workshop, and share positive impacts and our focus on continuous improvement. Before moving forward, it's important to revisit our why. Recall last year we revisit the master schedule due to the new VDOE school performance framework, the implementation of the Virginia Literacy Act, to maximize opportunities for our students, and to maximize our resources and better leverage our schedule. Throughout the development of the implementation of the master schedule, the following were kept front and center. maximizing support for our English language learners, students with disabilities, academic support, and accelerated learners to provide students the opportunity to maximize access to level elective courses and to maximize access to higher level courses and opportunities to earn high school credit. I want to take a moment to recognize the
014tremendous work of our teachers and our school leadership teams by brief briefly revisiting our journey. In October of last year, a committee of principles and members from the department of teaching and learning collaborated to design a master schedule focused on maximizing student opportunities and resources. In December of 2024, a draft master schedule was provided to teachers from each school, all the middle school principles, and each office within the department of teaching and learning to elicit feedback. The teacher group consisted of six teachers from each school. Each school identified one special education teacher, one elective teacher, and four content teachers. One math, English, science, and social studies. Principles provided ongoing feedback throughout the first semester and overwhelmingly favored shifting to this new schedule. Members from the Department of Teaching and Learning participated in feedback sessions throughout
015the process. In January of 2025, the board received a presentation on January 14th during a workshop and on January 28th, they received a presentation during the information portion of the schoolboard meeting. On February 11th, the new the new schedule was approved by the school board. And throughout the month of February and March, we continue to focus on our new schedule during our middle school professional development sessions and providing each each principal providing an overview to their staff. From April through August 2025, schools developed their master schedule, continued to collaborate across middle schools, and office hours were held for school-based teams throughout the summer. In all approximately 32 meetings and sessions were held to elicit feedback and to come to the schedule that we have implemented now which was implemented in August 2025. The schedule had
016two key changes that allowed us to leverage additional opportunities for our students and to maximize our resources. The first change provided greater uniformity in the master schedule across the division middle schools. All schools are operating on a 90minute block and a bell class of approximately 50 minutes. The implementation of the uniform schedule has provided greater consistency across the division and has allowed us to more effectively maximize scheduling opportunities. scheduling has provided better alignment for our elective classes and has allowed us to leverage our distance learning courses for world language. It has established consistent times during the day for our department of teaching and learning to work with middle school PLC's as well. This schedule has offered consistency and has made it easier for our students who transfer within the school division. The second key change
017was the addition of Thrive Time. Thrive time has given more students access to a full elective schedule, providing them the opportunity to explore their interests and talents while also receiving instructional support to meet their needs. This time is also given the opportunity to provide so and academic support for students who need additional instructional assistance. provide support for students with disabilities and our English language learners and provide flexibility for our school counselors to engage students in lessons in academic and career planning. It has also provided teachers the opportunity for small group pull out and support math and for leveraging of our math and literacy coaches to support our students and gifted resource teachers to assist with students. Other examples include working with students who require literacy support under the Virginia Literacy Act. Now, I want to
018pause here because I want to give a shout out to our reading specialists, to our teachers, and our schools. Right now, we have 2,887 individual student reading plans. So to quantify that and you spread that across the middle schools that is a lot of work that our reading specialists and our teachers have done in this time has allowed us to be able to execute that act from the BDOE has also given us time to work with gifted students for independent projects and provide support for students engaged in rigorous and advanced coursework. I want to be clear. Thrive is one component of the master schedule. This component is where we saw an opportunity when we were reviewing the master schedule. I also want to point out under the old schedule, there was a 30 minute block
019of time where students did nothing. That block of time was there to allow for supervision and to split cafeteria so that we could meet the cafeteria capacity. And when I say nothing, the students would go to the classroom and they would work on whatever work they had. We saw this as an opportunity to expand that time to 50 minutes and to maximize that time to better meet the needs of our students. So, I wanted to add that piece. Over the next slides, we'll take a look at how impactful this schedule has been. So, you're not going to see a a chart just yet because I want to give it some context first. As shared last year, the importance of elective programs cannot be overstated. Elective classes allow students to explore interests beyond the core curriculum
020and discover their passion. As a former principal, I've witnessed firsthand how discouraging it is to pull a student out of elective class because they have to go to a remedial class to see additional support and therefore only receive one elective course. Looking at this chart, I'm proud to share uh that schools have maximized access. So this chart on this slide illustrates how schools have maximized access to first quarter elective classes by providing instructional support during thrive time. The vertical axis represents student counts. The horizontal axis represents the type of instructional supports provided. Looking at the blue bar labeled total, 3,875 students received much needed instructional support during Thrive time while still accessing two elective courses. In the past, these students would have to have forgone a class and be removed from an elective course. I
021want to break it down by the type of support that was provided. 2,168 students received so lab support in math and/or English during first quarter. This support is provided the students who did not meet with success during the spring reading or writing so assessment. 621 students received academic concepts report support. This support is provided to students with disabilities and is listed as a service on their IEP. So I want to pause again because I want to give this great context and this was part of what we talked about when we provided this schedule and presented it the first time. We have had special needs students who have gone sixth, seventh, and eighth grade with only PE and had never had the opportunity because of that academic concept to explore any other elective. This has provided
022them the opportunity to explore the electives which we are very proud of. 815 students received read 180 support. This support is provided to students who read below grade level and 271 students receive SIP support. SIP's systematic instruction and funological awareness phonics and site words is a structured researchbased literacy program designed to support students who need targeted instruction and foundational reading skills. How did I do detail? Yay. I want to move to the next chart. Uh this chart reflects second quarter data. Please note that so lab data is not presented on this chart because it is only offered during the first quarter. Instead, academic support represented by the purple bar has been added. The purpose for academic support is to provide targeted assistance for students who earned a failing grade on their report card. Academic support
023is offered during quarter 2, three, and four. Just so you're aware, the purpose behind that is not to wait for summer. It's to to give the student support throughout. So academic support was first used in in 2011. We are now able to offer that during the Thrive time and not remove a student from electives. As you can see, a total of 3,456 students received instructional support and therefore were provided a second elective. I'll pause so you can look at the remaining numbers and the type of instructional supports provided. This chart provides data for quarter 3. Currently, 4,669 students receive instructional support during Thrive Time. Again, I'll pause for a second for you to see the other types of supports provided for students. As you can see, this schedule has benefited our students who need instructional
024support while giving them more access to elective courses. In the past, for example, a student could have been removed from band to participate in academic support. In many cases, this is no longer the case. This schedule has also given elective teachers the opportunity to strengthen and grow their program. One example is reflected on this slide. Two years ago, there was significant discussion about low enrollment in our fine arts programs and its impact on staffing. One contributing factor was shared last January was that we needed to pull students from electives to provide additional instructional support. As a result of recent schedule changes, fine arts enrollment has increased by 752 students across our middle schools. This schedule has not only allowed students to explore and develop their talents, but has also created opportunities for our teachers to
025expand, strengthen, and grow their elective programs. With any change, assessing progress and examining what is working well and where improvements can be made is an ongoing process aligned with our commitment to continuous improvement. Prior to the start of the school year, principles received a memo outlining expectations to use their their instructional leadership team and their principal advisory committees as a vehicle for gathering staff feedback and exploring opportunities with the following focus. Collect, review, and discuss feedback throughout the school year. Share timely response and updates with staff. and to review common themes across schools to inform potential adjustments for year two. In November, principles participated in a workshop to examine and reflect on the implementation of the schedule. Prior to the session, principles completed a SWAT analysis. This is a tool used to identify strengths, weaknesses,
026opportunities, and potential threats. Their analysis create centered on two key objectives. First, evaluating and reflecting on the effectiveness and challenges of their newly implemented master schedule. And second, identifying next steps to strengthen the schedule and expand opportunities for both students and teachers. In many cases, I want to I want to pause for a second and let you know many cases what the principles did was receive feedback on what were some of the positives and what were some of the things that we can grow upon. During the workshop, principles identified several emerging themes that had a positive impact. I think these themes will look familiar as they hit on what our three guiding questions were. Maximize access to elective courses for students has been accomplished. Thriving intervention times have enhanced academic support and strengthened teacher student
027relationships. Common schedules and structures across middle schools have improved alignment has allowed opportunity to maximize distance learning and again creating a common planning time for PLC's to have division support as well and this was one of the unintended outcomes that that we happened upon. It made it much easier for a student who transfers within the division. I think it was one of the things that came from our reflection. Lastly, the increased planning time has been beneficial to our teachers. However, during the workshop, principles also identified the following emerging themes to focus on as we strive for continuous improvement. Continue to evaluate and share structures on how Thrive is being utilized across middle schools. While I'm very proud of our teachers and their hard work, I do recognize that we need to continue to share information
028in what we're doing at each school. Continue collaboration opportunities for teachers who teach Scott's grade level and to con consider increasing the grade six elective time from 48 minutes to 50 minutes. I think that came from the kids changing out, getting out into PE and not having enough time. Let me go back one. Throughout the second semester, a team of principles will look at these themes and see if any adjustments can be made. In addition, each school will continue to leverage their instructional leadership team and a principal advisory committee as a vehicle to seek feedback and explore possible solutions to any challenges they may have. In closing, I return to our why, supporting student learning. I'm very proud of our teachers and our administrative leadership teams for their strong commitment to our students and for
029recognizing the benefits that this schedule has provided. As with any schedule, challenges remain, but our focus on continuous improvement will ensure we meet students needs and stay true to our why. I want to say uh before I take questions think it's important very important to recognize and I know Dr. Robertson said it last year with any new schedule you're going to have challenges. We are just beyond first semester and looking at the data and hearing and seeing and going into these thrive classrooms, I'm in awe of what they've created. And it just shows you when you give great leaders and great teachers the opportunity to make decisions for our students, this is the outcome. So, at this time, if there are any questions, I'll be happy to answer them. Just a few. Mr. Cummings. Well,
030I had to hit that button fast because Can we Can we go back to slide 10 real quick? I'm going to put that slide right back on that board on the TV so the public can consume this phenomenal data. This just warms my heart so much as I know we had the discussion around Thrive and increasing enrollments in um electives and you know as a musician as someone who is very a strong advocate for creative uh arts and music classes and all those things seeing an enrollment increase of 752 students is a phenomenal and I want to speak that out to the public that you know we're seeing nationwide decreases in some of these types of courses and for Virginia Beach City Public Schools to tremendous growth based on just a thing like a schedule
031adjustment. I think it's remarkable that more kids are having at their fingertips scening, streamed instruments, drums, percussion, and so I feel very very good about, you know, achieving this goal and unlocking our why. I'm just kind of curious, we increased by 752 enrollments. What does our kind of staffing plan look like with that amount of increase? How have we respond? How have we been agile in responding to that huge increase? So staffing will still be based on student enrollment and based on student interest and so I only see these numbers increasing if not staying the same. uh and we have other ways to ensure that we're able to offer the sections that need to be offered based on the number of students who want to take part in in our liberal or our fine arts.
032So, we'll know after staffing. Uh but right now, I feel pretty good about continuing to offer and we could just leave that slide up for the rest of the evening. Miss Melnik, ditto. Ditto. Um, but I'm just going to take your words before I ask my question and say you're in awe of the teachers that are doing the work during Thrive Time and that's why that's 752, right? Um because while administration recognized there was a problem, the teachers are the ones that have stepped up and um so kudos to them. This is a lot of work. Um appreciated and necessary though. Um, but I have a question on slide eight. Slide eight shows academic support. So I wrote is failing grade on report card. Are those academic that purple bar are students that received a
033failing grade on a report card? Yes. Okay. For math, English, science, or social studies. Okay. For one of the four. For one of the four. Um, so the number increased a lot for third quarter. So is that typical as Yes. Okay. Yeah. You Well, usually first quarter is a lot of uh spiraling. Yeah. and and a lot of testing is going on in first quarter and so you know there's an adjustment period second quarter it gets a little more intense and so you see more but also keep in mind that there are some students who may have had a failing grade but there are in read 180 or in one of the other intervention markers. Okay. All right. Just wanted to make sure I understood that that bar. And then my last question is what
034exactly does continue to evaluate and share structures on how Thrive Time is being utilized across middle schools mean? So a lot of the schools so so we created the schedule as a group and all of the academic supports that are being provided during Thrive are straight across all middle schools. Okay. Some schools are being creative on how they're using that time. For example, we have a school that is doing a writing uh club and a newspaper. Um we have some schools they have a structure each day where they have a certain amount of time where they're working on their planners or updating their table contents. They're working on those fine AVID skills. Okay. Um, one of the things I did hear from a few students when I talked to them was they wish they had
035a period of time uh, particularly those students who are in after school activities where they could focus on their work. Okay. Um, so those are things that when when I said we're going to re-evaluate some of the things are happening, it's more sharing across schools. Hey, this is everything we're doing. Okay. I'm glad I asked that question. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Dr. Green, thank you for your presentation, Dr. Smith. Um, I just have two things. The first, I wanted to make my colleagues aware that I had requested of staff uh via um Dr. Robertson and Miss Woodhouse to see the data for slides um 7, 8, 9, and 10 disagregated by school. so we can um drill down and and see where that impact and how it looks at in each of our middle
036schools. So, thank you. I had uh PD flashback when you said SWAT with the principal workshop, but my second item uh well a question and I don't know if you'll be able to answer it now, you may be able to answer it better at the end of the third quarter. Um given the current outcomes, um do you anticipate middle school summer school numbers uh going down seeing that a lot of things that typically we have waited that are uh reactive uh as a result of a a tough school year uh happening now in Thrive being proactive that possibly um that may look a little bit numbers would be lower. So it's it's hard to project that. What I will say based on the work that the teachers are doing and even in those thrive classes
037like you have students who are taking advanced EOC courses that they struggle with. They're getting help in there and we have some students that may not be in any of these tiered supports. maybe a STE student who struggles with testing, they're still getting a level of support during this block of time. So, I think so. Uh, but I I can't wager any money on it, right? And and that I don't have money to wager, but Crystal has money, but I don't say thank you, Miss Rogers. Yeah. And I just wanted to bring something up to Miss Woodhouse C. We are all offering enrichment as well. Thank you, Miss Woodhouse. Miss Rogers, thanks so much. Um, first of all, I want to say that um I do volunteer with bands at the middle school level in
038my limited free time um as my children are band um members. And we did see a massive increase in sixth graders youth coming into the ma band and marching band um from last year's seventh grade class. It is actually quite small compared to our sixth and eighth grade classes. So I mean saying that we I did see it in real time is wonderful that this was part of that. Um I also want to state that I am really glad that we are not pulling students from um these electives that we are able to give students the supports that they need. Um, and I think that having that continuity across the division so if a student does move from school to school, it doesn't turn into an entirely new experience going from one middle school to
039another because families do move. Um but I do want to have um give some feedback um from an educator that I used to speak to on a regular basis when this rolled out. Um especially for some of our um students who don't need that support um it was difficult for some of our educators to try and kind of figure out what they were doing. And one of this educators, and normally I would not call people by name, but this particular educator um who was a fantastic educator at Brandon Middle, um she was a math teacher. Um she would contact me about this frequently. Um and finally said, you know, I decided that I was going to just ask the kids every week, what do you want to study this week? And let them direct me.
040And sometimes I didn't know what I was doing and would say, "Well, I don't know how to do that, but let's figure it out together." And to me, that is the epitome of education, allowing the students to have a say as a collective class, what they want to study, and have their teacher help them study whatever it is that they want to study for the week. And maybe, and this teacher's name was Marlene Perah. She was amazing. Unfortunately, we lost her in November, not because she left, but because she passed away, and it was a huge loss to Brandon. But in her honor, it would be amazing for us to be able to build some sort of um educational space where teachers can put lessons like that that they've created for each other to use
041during Thrive Time. So, if they've learned origami with their students and created a middle school lesson on origami, we can put it in a space where another teacher can grab that and make it easier for our staff to then use these enrichment times for our students and have a huge collection of different lessons for our middle schoolers so that they can learn different things and we're not recreating the wheel every time we want to learn something new. So that's just feedback from me as an educator as well as from my friend Marina and it would be great that we could um do that kind of inner honor. Mr. Ken, thank you for your presentation. Uh there's a lot of material here that I have to admit I can't fully appreciate because of the scope and
042the magnitude of it, but I do want you to know I appreciate the enthusiasm that you bring to your reporting. Thank you. There was a previous report that you gave us in the past and when it was time to vote, I had to vote yes because I was just so excited about the enthusiasm that you were projecting. So if you ever seek another career, sales would be a good opportunity for you. All right, I'll I'll keep that in mind. On page 14, you you make a statement that uh was intriguing. First of all, you're asking for a consideration of increasing the grade 6 elective time from 48 to 50 minutes. Question number one is who should consider that? Is that something that you want the school board to be considering as a future decision or
043is that something internally within your administration? Yeah. No, not for that because it's, you know, while we have 90 minutes of block, sometimes it's 91 minutes because there's a five minute buffer for transition. So those minor tweaks or or adjustments that will be made that we would do uh we wouldn't need schoolboard approval for. We wouldn't uproot any of the components of the schedule or do away with Thrive or Block or anything like that, but we're looking at minor tweaks. We have some schools depending on the size where transition time is different because they're not all the same footprint. So, uh, no, I don't envision that. Secondarily, then what was intriguing to me was, does making a shift from 48 to 50 minutes have that much of an impact? It seemed so insignificant that it
044was it was an curiosity item as a result of the minor amount of time involved. Yeah. I guess if for PE teachers the others are 50 and so having and it may be something where we're like we we're because when you're transitioning from one elective to another grade level they're crossing. So you have to let one go before the other comes. So we may not be able to do that. That's being flexible and looking at how we're scheduling our transition times. And that's under any normal circumstance. We always look at that even without the new schedule. Is it going to break the schedule? No, not at all. Is it allow an extra two minutes for a student to dress out? It's just one of the things that the principles brought up. Well, let me again
045encourage you, keep your enthusiasm high. It's very effective. Thank you, Vice Chair Williams. Yes, thank you. I just want to make a a comment first. I of course we know how important electives are and and many of us have children here. Uh I have five who went to the school through the school system and now grandchildren in the school system and some kids love school but some kids aren't big fans of f school. So what keeps them engaged are these electives that they really have something to look forward to to go to school to excel at something especially if they struggle in you know different areas. So we know how important this is. I especially like the fact that you noted our special education um students now get to take electives because there's so much
046data that shows these electives, music, art are actually so helpful for the creativity, the part of their brain and for special education students who may struggle in other areas that this is exactly what they need. Music, art and it will really help them in the other academic subjects. So I really like that. Um, so with academic improvements, we know that this is so helpful for the for the reasons I have noted and you have noted, but are we going to, I'm assuming, get an update maybe next in the fall about the academic improvements, specific data about um, you know, about like Miss Melan said, these these purple bars indicate that more students had failing grades third quarter. When can we expect a academic update that shows these thrive classes also helped this percentage academically? Yeah.
047So always willing to give an update. The hard part is attributing any of the successes to one element there. In other words, if we see great concess, we can't say it was this schedule alone. There are elements like teach and professional development, but absolutely any uh increase in in scores. Yeah, we could definitely I would definitely like to see that update because I I I would think that definitely it would we would see an improvement if they are getting targeted resources and targeted help in the areas that they are struggling in academically. Um I also kind of had a question along with one of my colleagues is is what do you do with the students who aren't on these bars um who just need enrichment and how does that because that's a lot for a
048teacher. I mean, every Monday I eat lunch with 25 fifth grade girls and I do a whole like curriculum all myself. And that I mean, I love it, but it adds a lot because it's like a separate little class that, you know, nobody really knows about except for these 25 girls that I that I mentor and I eat with every Monday, but I'm having to do the whole lesson plan and figure out what can we talk about today, what can we do, you know, all that stuff. So, how So, I think that's I don't know. That just seems a lot for the teacher to do with the kids that don't fall in this category and what are they doing and how are we helping the teacher to make sure that she or he has and
049so that's part of the recommendation to bring everybody together to share the resources. So I'll I'll say this. The students who aren't receiving this level of support, schools have a structure in place and it might look like the first 15 20 minutes are going through your AVID protocols, right? Like updating your table of contents, organizing your binder, summarizing your notes. So that was that piece of we weren't doing that with a 30 minute time frame because we didn't have the time to do that. We're maximizing that time. The other part and this is the feedback I've gotten from from talking to students and a few teachers are they want students to have a period of time where they're able to do their work. And we don't want it to be a study hall per se,
050but each school has a protocol what they should be doing during the bell. And that's the process of when we come back together sharing across the schools saying how can we make this better and provide a better structure. Okay. Now I will say that a a teacher teaches five bells and that means they have five classes to plan for. So this is part of their planning as a PLC. Some of our teachers are teaching five bells which are five contents and they don't teach thrive. So we have, you know, keep in mind we have teachers teaching cross grade level. So if I'm one of those teachers that's teaching cross grade level, I'm planning for maybe six I'm just going to use a a subject out there. I may be I may have four bells in
051math seven in advanced math and one bell of math 8. So they're planning for five classes and that's part of, you know, everyone having five bells. Okay. Um and I do think the idea of the resources and and more of what we can do. Yeah. Uh and that's where that information sharing comes from. And again, after one semester, I'm blown away with the work that the schools have done, but we know there there's always work to be done. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Yep. Miss Dwire. So, yeah, your sales capabilities are catching and um I'm impressed. Um and um some of the things that I wanted to address were already addressed, but I just want to say that for a program that has just been rolled out, I'm not the least bit intimidated by the numbers
052on slides 7, 8, and nine because I see that as a positive, you're capturing these students that we didn't capture before. Somehow the teachers and the principles and everybody unified here has okay that's okay somehow you guys have connected in such a way where you've motivated these students and like I said um those numbers don't necessarily intimidate me I'm als I'm actually encouraged because students are getting the help they need on every level so thank you and I hope it continues Miss Felton. Thank you, Chair Brown. Dr. Smith, thank you so much for this detail. Um, uh, presentation and I just like to say uh, maybe a week ago, I was in a forum with studentled forum and they and along with their parents, but the students led it and they spoke on um, uh,
053the fine arts and being able to get in and be more available to them. So, I'm glad to see that this is happening for them. I will go back and express this at this form again. They're going to have another one. Invite me. But I'd like to go back to um slide seven concerning so labs. First, let me say I appreciate the extra mile and the effort that you all are going to even have labs. When you say so labs, that means that students are coming in helping with those labs, getting them up to par with their SOS. But could you elaborate on if you can what that look like? What what's the criteria for the students and how far that they go after sitting in a meeting meeting with uh Dr. Kawuchcci explaining how
054the SOS are done and how the parents uh are supposed to be supposed to be engaged in and given information about it. But the way that she they were given information, I said, "Well, we're going to have to do better to meet the parents where they are because ultimately doesn't have assessed ability to a computer to sit down and see where my child has felt at these so could you expand on that so lab and I like that the word is lab meaning they're going to get happy." Well, absolutely, but I want to preference by saying we're not going to call it so lab anymore. And the reason the reason being is because uh it gives the impression that all you're doing is coming into a class and you're looking at the SOS that you
055failed and you're just focused on that. We're not studying for an SAT. The reason is that we've identified in the spring based on your test results that you're going to need support the first quarter of the next grading of the next school year. And so that support looks a lot like the academic support in quarter 2, quarter 3, quarter 4. So we're looking at student data and a lot of this is done in our professional development community. uh the teachers professional learning communities and a lot of it is looking at individual student data reting what was taught in the classroom to slow it down for students to provide more practice for students to engage students in in collaborative working. So we've decided we're going to call it academic support because we don't want people to
056have that. And if you and being on the board before I and I know Miss Woodhouse went through this as well throughout the summer when we had so lab and a student was pulled from an elective. You received emails, we received emails, principals received emails. No one was happy about it. Even the principles, even myself, I hated to do it, but it was what we had to do to get that student the support. So, it's retaching the skills, slowing it down for the student, and and helping them understand. Now, I do want to say we have 14,000 students in middle school. So, that's there's a lot of great teaching going on. And when you look at these numbers, keep in mind that the number of students we have middle school. So, I don't know if
057I fully answered it. You did. And and I have other questions, but I'm going to email you. Okay, I'll do that. Thank you so much. Miss Brown, do you mind if I clarify one thing that I heard in this conversation with the schedule that I just want to make sure is clear? Yes. Very briefly quickly. Thank you. Because I heard individuals say that we're glad to see they're getting this support final that they did not receive before. academic support, so lab, all of those on the graph previously existed and were done on a daily basis. The difference now is they don't lose an elective, but I heard several say we're glad to see they're getting that support now. They've always received it. So, I just wanted to provide that clarity because I didn't I didn't
058want any confusion on that. Thank you, Miss Brown. Thank you, Mr. Delaney. Okay. Thank you. So, I appreciate your presentation and because uh we have a a meaty presentation right after you, I'm going to get right to it here. Um we have the building utilization committee report to the school board and we welcome Ronald Burkile, demographer, GIS manager. Um yes, ma'am. And bring him up is is when you're complete, I just want to provide some context. Sure. Ready for us? All right. So, big picture, this is an annual process. So by policy, staff is required to uh report to you no later than the last regular meeting in March what the process was related to the building utilization committee meeting throughout the course of the year. So this is the conclusion of this year's process
059that we'll brief you on that is going to set our work up for next year. So with that, I'll bring Mr. Ron Burkab to walk you through it. Good evening, Madam Chair, Madame Vice Chair, school board members, and the superintendent, uh, Dr. Robertson. Uh, I will say just to start out that I'm an economist, and economists are not issued a warm fuzzy personality like Dr. Smith. So, this is going to be pretty straightforward uh, tonight. Um, so, thanks for setting it up. On October 24th, the building utilization committee convened its first school year 2526 uh meeting. At this meeting, the BUC requested demographics and planning to analyze school closure potential. We agreed to conduct the research. On December 19th, a second BUC meeting was convened to review annual membership projections, capacity, and closure progress. This
060information will be reviewed in this presentation. These are the BU members. Mrs. Melnik was elected chairperson. Throughout this presentation, you'll find binder page numbers on the bottom left corner of each slide. If you desire to view the information in the binder, these will help you navigate. The BUC process is governed by policy 514. To date, all policy requirements have been achieved. With the housekeeping information complete, now I'll begin reviewing the data. The high school the highest school density remains in the four traditional areas on the map. The dense areas are identified by the red arrows. dark blue color and elementary schools. They are they are Triampus, Green Run Elementary School, Glenwood Elementary School and Windsor Oaks Elementary School. The associated middle schools and high schools are listed on the slides left side. This year, one
061area increased in density. It is identified by a red oval and is in the Rosemont Forest Zone near Glenwood. Divisionwide membership dis uh declined 1.3%. Elementary and high schools declined 1.6% and 1.9% respectively. Middle schools experienced a small increase of 3/10en of 1%. This table segregates the total membership into K through 12 and programmatic enumerations following the boxes from left to right. In school year 2526, K through 12 declined 1.4%. The declines occurred in elementary and high schools. Elementary schools declined 1.8% and high schools 2.0%. Middle schools experienced a small increase of 4/10en of 1%. ECSSE and preK continues to grow. These programs increased 2.8%. Conversely, CEP decreased 3.9%. The largest CEP decline was at the middle school level. From a long-term perspective, the declines follow the continuous trend of smaller annual aggregate uh membership
062enumerations. While the declining trend continues, the pace of the decline has slowed. The 5-year forecast on average continues this trend. Average uh average expected declines are forecast to be 9/10 of 1% peranom. This information is contained in the blue arrow at the bottom right of the slide. Shifting from the long-term to the short-term perspective, in school year 2627, membership is forecast to slightly increase. The small gain can best be described as flat. This can be viewed in the red boxes in the forecast. If the forecast margin of error however is two ten of or two 100ths of 1% the actual membership would indicate a decline. So this is very close to a decline in school year 2728. The forecast indicates a continuation of membership declines for this year. For this 2-year period K through2 membership
063is forecast to decline an average of 610 of 1%. This can be viewed in the blue arrow. Taking a look at capacity measurements. This elementary school map indicates four schools exceeded the capacity range of -10% to positive 10%. Three schools are under capacity, are colored in yellow, and exceed the - 10% lower bound. One school is over capacity is colored red and exceeds the 10% positive 10% upper bound. On the map, white zones are within the capacity range. Overall, elementary schools are within the capacity range at negative 1.6%. In addition, in school year 202526, point of view resoning plan uh was imp was implemented located in the map's green box. the resoning achieved its goals. To recap about point of view, two school years ago, demographics began research for resoning point of view elementary school.
064The point of view resoning accomplished four goals. It reszoned two large multifamily complexes out of the zone. The school's capacity was habd to 3.1%. The school now now accommodates pre kindergarten and early childhood uh special education children and Arrowhead Elementary School is positioned to accommodate the large artistry on Greenwich development and can assist with potential resoning needs. We continue to monitor schools and the and use continuous improvement strategies to refine the resoning process. Woodstock Elementary is an example. Woodstock Elementary School is currently over capacity at 45.4%. Demographics and planning has monitored the school for two years, added five portables, and conducted a number of walkthroughs with DOSEL and the principal. The BUC agreed to monitor the school the remainder of this school year with potential to mitigate through reszoning in school year 2728. Examining uh
065middle school capacity, two schools are slightly over capacity. They are Salem and Princess Anne. Walkthroughs with Dosel and the principles have been conducted. The principles indicate academic standards are not being compromised by the over capacity. Overall, the middle schools are in capacity range at -210 of 1%. For high schools, there is one school under capacity. Overall, high schools are in range at -6.7%. Divisionwide, capacity is in range at -3.7%. Forformational purposes, alternative alternative schools are under capacity at 20.8%. Again, with the exception of school year 2627, declining membership is forecast for the following four years. This is illustrated in the blue box at the bottom right of the slide. As discussed last year, the cause is a smaller metriculation of kindergarten students compared to graduating 12th grade students. This was illustrated in the green boxes.
066Recognizing the long-term historical declines and projection decreases, the BUC requested potential closure research to identify a site. Schools were reviewed and analyzed to determine candidates. A quantitative scorecard was used to identify priority sites. On the left side of the slide are the quantitative categories that were used. They range from membership to previous analytical work. All aligned with policy 514 resoning guidelines. The school age and modernization map on the right is from the adopted CIP book. It indicates elementary schools uh school ages. White zones are older facilities and the circles and ovals identify empirical scorecard candidates. Based upon the scorecard results, the red circle became the primary research area, the orange circle is the secondary and the black ovals the tertiary areas. The BU agreed for demographics to conduct further research within the red area, specifically
067Holland Elementary School. This is the scorecard. Granted, it is a little complicated, but I'm going to try to get through this, help you to understand it. At the top of the uh uh the table are the scoring categories illustrated on the previous slide using facility age as an an example of functionality. The middle red box contains the year built column, the an age column and the uh score column. The far left red box indicates the potential closure candidates. The first school identified is Holland Elementary School. It was built in 1968 and is 58 years old. Based upon its age, the oldest facility is Holland Elementary School and became the first consideration for this category. King's Grant is the second oldest, etc. After the scorecard's implementation, a facility age uh redundancy was identified and noticed and
068the scorecard was adjusted. So, this may not match what's in your binder. uh we had to adjust that but it did not change having a negative effect upon the overall rankings to determine the primary location to be researched. The colored category columns were um were summed across to derive the the grand total. The grand total is illustrated in the red box on the right of the slide attributable to this ranking process. The lowest score identified the primary research school in this um in this uh in this call. Again, Holland Elementary School was recommended and the BU agreed. Here's where Holland Elementary School is located. The school's polygon is outlined in yellow. While the scorecard did not consider qualitative information or potential, the location on a um it the location is on a main arterial road
069and offers consideration as directed by the BUC and school board. Our work continues to meet schoolboard needs. The next steps include reconvening the BUC in September 2026 to share closure and resoning potential. for information. The soonest the closure or resoning can take place is school year 2728. At this point, I'd be happy to entertain any questions. If none, if desired, BUC committee members or schoolboard members are free to to share their comments with us. Before I open the floor, um I just want to offer the floor to the chair of the committee. Um Miss Malik, I don't know if you have anything that you want to add. Um, I don't really have I don't really have anything to add. It was This is pretty cut and dry. Except I will say Dr. Smith did not
070use words like empirical or teriary. Teriary. So kudos to you. And I probably didn't even say it right, but I wrote it down. So you may have won. That That's okay. I'll I'll teach him those words. Okay. Thank you. Um, but I I I think um the the main takeaway just to be just to repeat what you said is that we're watching Holland Elementary School. And for anyone not 100% familiar, I think everybody is on the board. It is right across the street from Green Run Elementary. So, as you're traveling north on Holland Road, it's on your right hand side, but where that school is, there's a light to turn left into the Circle of Green Run. So, they're very close. Stones throw, Miss Rogers. Thanks. Um, I have a few questions. Um, so Holland
071is our target, but on the map that we were looking at on Oops, now I have to look at the slide number. Uh, slide number, it says on page 95. I have no idea which slide that is. The one that shows all the elementary schools on the map. There's a green like rectangle near the nail near. And what does that represent? That's not showing up on mine. Can I get you to to Miss Tony Auto to turn to uh slide 23 so I can see that? Yeah. Yes. Slide nine. Yes. What does that represent? That's point of view. That was uh in in conjunction with the point of view discussion for the reasoning. Okay. Because I was confused as my my we were being drawn to that. So then my next question about Holland. How
072many students are in that school right now? Do we know? Approximately about 350. And so we can't just put 350 students into another school because that would put it over capacity. So, is then the plan, just out of curiosity, to spread those students out around Brookwood, Windsor Oaks, uh, Green Run, um, even possibly Christopher Farms and Bird Neck like that. Is that what the plan is? Yes, that's a very good, very good question. Um, that is exactly what's going to happen. We've develop we're developing four scenarios, one north, one south, one east, one west, and it would spread them out amongst the various schools that are on the periphery of that. And there's also probably going to be some cascading effects with with uh uh you know, you fill up one zone, you have to
073push it to another zone, right? And so that's I guess that's my question is like is this going to create such a cascade that we may be possibly reszoning a lot more than we intend? That's kind of my question. Or do we not like know at this point? Yeah. So, it's possible. Um, but with the four scenarios that we're we're going to introduce to you, one of the things that you all will be looking at is the number of students that will be moved that there'll be movements associated with. And so, you know, that'll probably be a primary reason for choosing a scenario uh in the future. and scenarios are just to allow the BU to have some choices to make during the uh process. Yeah. And then you did say we were also discussing
074um reszoning at Woodstock because it's over capacity or no before moving on just to clearly so number one any contingency that Mr. Burkabal talked about doing would be at the direction of the board, right? So number one, it would be if uh the board did not object to what was being described as what came from the BU, then we would move forward. Your concern was if we shift those students, will we put ourselves into a another uh scenario where we need to reszone? Well, as you've seen, everything that we do, we try and uh we have very good numbers that we have seen over time. So the objective would be make one change, make a good recommendation that's well within the capacity of the schools and projected capacity which would go on so that there
075was no need to reszone. So that will be if directed by the board that would be the types of plans that we would present. He mentioned that we would present multiple options. Okay. And and were we talking about Woodstock as well or no? I I wanted to cover that one before you had a question about Woodstock. Happy to answer your question about Woodstock. Um, that one is over capacity. Were we talking about reszoning that as well? Yes, possibly. So, we that is one of the one of the the tasks that the BUC has has recommended that we take a look at and we are looking at that for potential reasonzoning because of the numbers that are associated with the Okay. And then I guess my other question was about you said that there are two
076middle schools that are technically over but not. Can you give me more information on that? Yeah, so they're slightly over. They're they're not not like Woodstock, which is 45% over. Um, let's see here. I've got Princess Anne at 10.9%. Remember that the the upper bound is plus 10%. Right. And then I've got Salem at 11.9% which is just a little bit further. Got it. Okay. That I mean and I just want to make sure that you know we only see a color. So, and you said it was slightly over, so I just was asking that. Okay. And that's about it. Thank you. Vice Chair Williams. Um, yes. I was just going to comment on Woodstock. Um, because when when they're 11%, I mean, you could be speaking of 10 students, but this school has over
077200 students over capacity. I I just that's that's just that's mindboggling. Um, the enrollment was 653. The optimum capacity is 449. So, I'm glad that the BUC is seriously looking at that. That's a lot of extra extra people in that building. Um, as far as the decreasing um school enrollment, do you know how that correlates with the um just the general citizenship of Virginia Beach, specifically families with school age children? I mean, is it kind of the same trajectory or is it not or do we know or can we find that out? Well, we have we we've talked considerably in our BC meeting about birth rates and how they've declined a lot um over the the last 20 years and they they continue to decline. For instance, in 1998 97 there were 6,300 births and
078in 2025 26 there are 4,100. So that definitely has a plays a role in this. Okay, that would just kind of be interesting how how our city's doing versus school board as far as population and enrollment. Um, okay. Thank you, Mr. Cummings. Yeah, thank you. Um, I recognize that I omitted some information when I was sharing my board update about how great my academic support meeting was because we see these growing numbers at Woodstock and despite this 45% increase um, you know, they're seeing a a a significant decrease in their referrals and suspensions year-over-year. And so that was the thing that stood out to me um when I was at my support meeting, how they're utilizing uh the BIST program and how that they're seeing results. And so I wanted to share that. I kind
079of for you I know I apologize to them for because I forgot about that in my board update, but I just had general comments and I'm going to just share some of my comments that I had um at the at our committee meeting that you know this is a tough subject and we recognize that uh for the communities, for the neighborhoods, for families. Um and I really appreciate the closure scorecard, you know, that goes through and evaluates. It's almost like you could put your thumb, you know, over the the school the elementary school name and come up with a blind method to make an informed decision. And so I just wanted to say that I appreciate the quantitative, you know, evaluation of taking this um endeavor and for the public, you know, this is, you
080know, we do recognize I think that this could be a touchy subject for folks, but know that, you know, we're looking at data um to make, I think, informed decisions about, you know, the the future of our schools. And I know for a fact that no matter what the outcome is that our students will receive quality education um at our schools and that they will find a home where there will be you know work with great teachers, great leaders and you know our service to those folks never give up. So I just wanted to share some of the comments I shared at um our meeting and thank you again for this presentation. You're welcome Miss Dwire. I just have a quick question because I'm sitting here and um what used to be military as our
081our driving um as a the largest employer, what is driving the birth uh or the po the the population in our schools? What do you think it is? I'm just asking you. Yeah, I think I think uh getting back to what Miss Williams was asking and and it is that that the birth rates are declining. that's trickling up now. We're starting to see that in the uh uh middle school and eventually it's going to reach the high schools as well. And so that that is the primary factor. So what are they coming here for outside of the birth rate? So I don't quite understand your question. Well, I I guess what I'm saying is it's not military anymore. And um so you're saying it's solely the birth rates are going up in our community. They're
082going down. Down. I mean, I'm sorry. Let me get my let me get this straight. Let me let me rephrase it. So, if the birth rate is going down, um, but you said there's been, and we saw it on the graphs, a increase in population in the middle schools. What do you think it is that's driving that? Yeah, that's a good question. Um, the it's not that doesn't have anything to do with the the birth rates. It's a it's an accumulation of let's let's say for instance you have a home-taught student and they go through all of elementary school uh being home taught well now when they reach the middle school level they have additional academic opportunities like plaza middle school and such and even most more so in the high schools they have all
083themmies that are available so I think that that has something to do with with the slight it's not a big increase. No, it's not. But that's a good point. I guess the opportunities and the options we offer here in our city. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay. So, um I appreciate everything that you've presented and I have a couple of comments and then I guess some questions about timelines here. Um because Holland Elementary does sit in district 10, which is the district that I represent. Um that is the lakes and it looks like there's a portion um that attends Holland Elementary also in district 3 over there in Scarboro Square um area. So um you know obviously as I I represent this community, there's going to be some concerns and some fears um apprehensions and
084you know I'm going to keep an open mind. I know that the recommendation has not come at this time, but I do think um that the community would like to better understand um at the end of this when it says, you know, 2728 target date for potential closure and reszoning. Um exactly what does the timeline look for that? Um because September 26 there's a meeting. When does the public get to, you know, weigh in? I I know that that may not be a cut and dry answer, but yeah, I think I can answer that question. So, um a couple things. One, we are seeking direction from the board. We are recommending that we proceed with looking at scenarios for Holland Elementary School, but of course, we'll need board direction. Uh secondly, um the 2728 was
085the earliest possible date by which we could close Holland Elementary School to So to your point, Chairwoman Brown, there would be a robust communication plan with the community at all of the impacted schools, but in particular the impacted school that's going to close, which would be a series of parent meetings, some visitation set up for the schools where those students will end up. Um because as Mr. Cummings said, and I appreciate this, wherever you go in Virginia Beach B City Public Schools, you're going to get a a high quality education. And when parents are faced with a school that's going to close, they want to know that they are not going to get less than. In fact, they are looking for more than. And so we will look at the various sites and determine what
086are the additional options that they might enjoy at the new school that they wouldn't get at the old school. Besides the fact that uh although all of our facilities are in good condition, a a newer facility is going to be, you know, a little bit better condition. But there would be a plan that we would propose to the board and the board would say, "Yep, you're good for 2728 or you need more time and it's 2829." So that's still to be determined. Okay. So, but we're not voting on the closure. I I just want to make sure that I understand because the way that it sounds when you're saying you're looking for board direction, I mean, it would be impossible for me to say what my district would want. Um and and so it looks
087to me like you're talking about September maybe that that that you'd be looking for direction. Yes. In September, we would come to you in September with with here's potential plans. Then the board would go through the process of developing uh workshops, information item to make a decision. Okay. But it would go so it goes to the BU in September. Then it comes to the board and then the board has those conversations. And so generally there's, you know, outreach and public hearings and I'm I'm trying to figure out when those public hearings might occur so that the the community can be keyed in. So we would look at the go. So if I may, so there is an entire process and you've seen a similar one with the reszoning of point of view. So uh typically
088the BU in a year where we don't anticipate there's going to be recommended changes meet a little bit later. The reason why uh Mr. Burkabal talked about meeting in September is to get in front of it to account for everything that you're describing. So there is an entire process that the school board will be briefed on of here's what will occur, here's the communication process, here's the timeline, here's when a decision would be uh need to be made to have an effective uh transition with whatever meetings and types of communications that are needed for the public and make sure that we're incorporating all the schoolboard feedback in addition to what we would traditionally do with, hey, here are some other good ideas uh to incorporate for our communication to make sure that we've accomplished everything
089that the school board wants to accomplish if this is the direction that the board wants to go. Okay. All right. And I I heard Miss Melnik said we're kind of in a a little bit of a holding pattern here temporarily. So I appreciate that and then I can communicate that um as as necessary here. Um and if I if I may, so I wouldn't say that we're in a holding pattern. We're on timeline. So this is the expected meeting that staff comes and reports to you what the building utilization committee who it's comprised of three members of the board said yes take this to the board so that you had an opportunity to provide any updated guidance related to what we're sharing and then next September on timeline having that first meeting to get in
090front of the school board if that is still the uh proposal from the BU to be able to have the school board then make a decision and then have all of the discussion in and around that of okay, what's the process going to look like to be able to get there. Okay, I appreciate that. And you know, I I do not envy uh the work that the building utilization committee um has to do. I appreciate all of the work. It's never an easy conversation or a decision, but you know, there is definitely some realities surrounding declining enrollment and aging facilities. And so, you know, I I want to be as reasonable as possible, but I also want to make sure that I'm representing the district I represent. Miss Rogers, one more quick question for Dr.
091Robertson. Um, should we make the decision to close a school, whatever it may be, what how would that impact our staff as far as the staff in those buildings or building or whatever? Yes. So because we are such a large system, I'm very confident based upon historical numbers that attrition would cover uh everything around those staff. No one would be losing their jobs. That's what I was asking. Thank you so much. All right. Um thank you very much. And with that, we are going to recess and reconvene at 6 p.m. for our formal meeting. And we are adjourned.