001In accordance with the schedule, schoolboard meetings approved by the schoolboard at their January 13th, 2026 organizational regular meeting and pursuant to bylaw 146 and code of Virginia 2.2-3707, the school board will hold a special meeting on Tuesday, February 17th, 2026. The purpose of this special meeting is for presentations on budget workshop number five, fiscal year 2627, school board proposed operating budget in fiscal year 2627 through fiscal year 3132 capital improvement program discussion by schoolboard and schoolboard administration. Madame clerk, at this time would you please announce the role? Thank you, Madam Chair. Present in the school board chamber are Chair Brown, Vice Chair Williams, Mr. Bowensteel, Mr. Ken, Mr. Mr. Co Pepper, Mr. Cummings, Miss Felton, Dr. Green, Miss Melnik, and Miss Rogers. And attending via Zoom is Miss Dwire. And Mr. Dwire, for the record,
002can you explain why you're attending via Zoom? Miss Doyer, can you unmute? We're sorry. Yes, for medical reasons. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Please join me in a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance as you are able. I pledge algiance 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. Thank you. So we are now on to the adoption of the agenda. I call for a motion to approve the agenda as presented. Moved by Dr. Green, seconded by Mr. Cowen. Any discussion? Seeing none, I call for the votes to approve the agenda as presented. And Mr. Dwire, how do you vote on the approval of the agenda? I vote yes. I approve. And
003our voting board is There we go. So, Madam Chair, we have 11 eyes. the motion to pass for the adoption of the agenda as presented. Thank you. We are now on to budget workshop number five and we welcome Crystal Pate, chief financial officer. And uh Madam Chair, before uh Miss Pate begins, I just want to provide the board with a a couple of thoughts about this evening and how it plays into what will happen down the road. So, as board members know, we spent we've been spending months um at at least dedicated to trying to develop the 2627 operating budget and capital improvement plan. And where we are in the process right now is um in 48 hours, we have to release the CEO um to the public on Thursday evening as part of the
004agenda packet. So, it's going to be really important in this session today that if there's anything within the budget balancing document that we presented last week that the board feels needs to be adjusted, now is the time for make for us to make those adjustments uh prior to the end of this meeting because again, it's going to require some time tomorrow to make adjustments to to make any uh adjustments from that into the seon packet that again we want to have ready on Thursday. And we do all of this with still a proposed state budget. Uh working off of Governor Yncan's proposed budget released in December, we do not have a final state budget. So, it's likely there's going to be adjustments between what we present on February 24th as a superintendent's estimate of needs
005and what the board acts upon on March 24th. Uh so we do have time after tonight and after the seion is presented on February 24th to make adjustments but it will be important that if the board feels collectively strongly about any adjustments that that need to be made to what we've provided that really needs to be clear to us tonight so we can act. Okay. Good afternoon Chairwoman Brown, Vice Chairwoman Williams, school board members, Dr. Robertson. As mentioned, this afternoon marks our fifth budget workshop presentation. The agenda for this. The agenda, let's keep going. Okay. The agenda for this afternoon is outlined on this slide. We begin with a summary of the departmental budgets and the associated reductions. Next, we will address questions from schoolboard members and provide updates on any recent actions or guidance
006from the general assembly. We will then look to the board for discussion of priorities, including items to be included in or added to the SEO. And finally, we will conclude with next steps. This slide summarizes each department's current fiscal year 2026 budget, the proposed fiscal year 2027 line item and staffing reductions, and the resulting fisc year 2027 proposed budget. All of this information was previously shared during the departmental presentations. As shown, the total proposed reductions amount to $5.2 $2 million approximately and it's consistent with what was already been communicated. Please also recall that these reductions build upon cost savings from previous presentations already made over the past 3 years totaling approximately $16.7 million. The first school board question requested clarification regarding which budget requests were approved as part of the budget balancing process, specifically related
007to CTE courses. The CTE courses reflected in the budget balancing document were previously presented to the school board for information on November 12th, 2024 and for con consent on November 26, 2024. For the remaining budget request descriptions included in the budget balancing document, the relevant supporting information has been provided in your schoolboard materials. At this time, we have no updates regarding the next bianual budget. This slide outlines several key upcoming legislative dates. Today, February 17th, is the last day for bills to be acted upon in their chamber of origin other than budget bills. Bills must cross over to the opposite chamber by Wednesday, February 18th. Sunday, February 22nd, also known as budget Sunday, is the deadline for the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to report their respective proposals. Thursday, February 26th is the deadline for
008each chamber to act on its respective budget proposals. Wednesday, March 4th, is the deadline for each chamber to act on budget and revenue bills from the other chamber and appoint conferees as necessary. Monday, ma March 9th by midnight is the deadline for committee action on all legislation. Saturday, March 14th, the general assembly is scheduled to adjourn. Sendai I would like to draw your attention to the February 26th um date that is the deadline for the each chamber to act on its respective budget proposal. As miss as Dr. Robertson mentioned um please note that we will present the seon and capital improvement program 2 days earlier on February 24th and we will not have a finalized state budget at the time those items are presented. I also want to highlight March 14th when the general assembly
009is scheduled to adjourn, ideally with a finalized state budget. Following adjournment, we will make any necessary adjustments to the CEO and present updated information to the board at the March 24th meeting when you scheduled to adopt the budget and capital improvement plan. We have an updated revenue slide to share. The first revision reflects an update from the city regarding local revenue projections under the revenue sharing formula. After receiving closeout information last month, the city reviewed its projections and revised two revenue sources upward, hotel and cigarette taxes, both of which are included in the revenue sharing formula. As a result, revenue under the formula increased by $510,838 for fiscal year 2627. This revision increases the total additional revenue proposed for fiscal year 2026-27 from 33.4 million to 33.9 million as shown on this slide. Updates to
010budget balancing include allocating 360,838 to the health fund and designating $150,000 for general district court staffing and related expenses. This funding will support three additional FTEES needed due to the significant increase in citations associated with the stop arm program. This next slide is intended to prompt discussion as Dr. Robertson mentioned regarding the board's priorities for the upcoming budget. On the right side of the slide, you will see the budget balancing information. Much of this was reviewed at our last meeting. The only changes from what was previously presented reflect the additional local revenue from the revenue sharing formula and the allocation of those funds I just spoke about. We have also identified several a few areas for further consideration and discussion including employee compensation, instructional focus and payo. This final slide outlines the next steps. We
011are scheduled as Dr. Robertson mentioned to finalize the SEO within the next 48 hours. The SEO and CIP presentations are scheduled for February 24th. You will receive a health benefits update from Mercer on March 3rd, which will include updated information. And please also note the March budget workshops in advance of the Seon and capital improvement plan approval, which is scheduled for March 24th. And that concludes the presentation. I'll be glad to answer any questions that you have. Dr. Green. Thank you, Chair Brown, and thank you, Miss Pate. Um, my question is a moving target, so you may not be able to answer it all um right now. And I guess for me, and and this may help also our our our staff and viewing public um because I'm truly visual with things. The bottom line
012for uh I I understand that we right now may not know where we land with what percentages our staff will receive payraises because um if you could kind of recap for us or and viewing public what is going to be proposed and the seon for um teacher and staff pay raise with the understanding we know that's subject to change is the first question I have. This will be so this would be what we proposed when we did the budget balancing the last time. So originally you're going to have um for the teacher scenario A that was presented by Seagull which was a 2% entry and a 1 and a.5% step. And then we added additional funding to that scenario to add $1,000 to the entry level so that we would have an overall increase of
0135.23 23%. For the unified scale, Seagull presented information that was a 2% entry level plus a 1% for steps 1 through 14 and a one and a half for the one and a half% step for 15 and above. We added additional funding to that scenario that added a 1% to the entry level providing an overall average increase of 4.17%. Okay. So, the 5.2, how much are we relying on the state for for that? We have the funding to take care of that. I mean, it's going to it would be part of um that $33.9 million. I mean, the total. So, there's a part of the local, it's a part of the state, it's a part of that all of those pe all those revenue sources. All right. So, is there a possibility as to whatever
014we may receive from the state that our raise for our staff could increase. I Yes. So that would be a board discussion that if we get it when when we get a final number from the state, it will be a board decision on what to do with that funds. Okay. All right. And then the last part of my question, Miss Pate, um thank you for those variances on um slide six. And you I know it may be a challenge for us to figure out the answer to this question. How much of that pay raise that of that say right now hypothetically that 5.2% even though we we have a variance to offset I think you know where I'm going the health cost. How much of their 5.2% pay raise do you estimate if you're able
015to would go toward health and benefits? Yes. So I can answer that one too. We're March 3rd, we're going to get the the new update from Mercer, which will take us through the December, which so we'll have an entire picture of what the costs were in 2025. Um, which will give us much better indication of what the costs uh are going to be next year. And I have a meeting with the city manager this week cuz there is again interest to try to stay in in as close as possible to what we do with our employees and what they do with their employees related to health insurance. So the long short answer is March 3rd. All right. Thank you, Miss Rogers. Um thanks. And I know that um Dr. Dr. Robertson said this is sort
016of a discussion, but I think it's really important that we highlight the fact that our staff um their their raise came second as our decisions our teachers um had to wait for their raise last year. And with the health care costs um continuingly increasing and our staff are at the bottom of Hampton Roads for pay, we have to prioritize their pay if we want to keep our staff. I mean, it's that's going to be what I um am going to be really pushing for this year is that we um increase our staff as much as we possibly can um and put money in our um in the health account so that it's not at a negative. Those are the two priorities I think that we really need to focus on um simply because our staff
017are at the bottom and we've been saying that they are a priority and we just need to put um the dollars where we say that they need to be. Mr. Co Pepper, I got I got several and I think maybe I I suspect we're going to go round and around here a little Maybe I'll just hit one of them now and let somebody else speak. Um because the topic at the moment is is is healthcare. Um I see uh I'm looking at the presentation from uh from last week here as well. And you've got on there an additional 14.2 million uh essentially going to the the health fund balance. And I just want to make sure that's on top of the 5.3 we put in from reversion. Is that correct? It's 5.8 8 from 5.8.
018Mhm. But it's not inclusive, right? The the the 9.2 million is now almost 9.6 million because of the extra money that we just recently received from the city based on the revenue sharing formula. So the 360 plus that 9.2 was about 9.6 million. that would be towards um the employer cost of health care premiums and then $5 million would go from this operating budget to rebuild the health fund balance. The $5.8 million um that we put in for the reversion that money is in a special reserve account that we can access um if if our uh health fund balance got to zero. So me mentally at least we can think of that as one and the same, right? Yes. Is put it underneath our health our health fund balance if yes we're going to present
019that that way March 3rd when we do the presentation. Okay. Um my other question is uh so you were just talking about option A. Option A for pay increases what you just discussed right? Mhm. And that is the that's the largest of the the ones that were offered by Seagull. There was three offered by Seagull. There were three, but that's the biggest one, right? Okay. Just want to make sure. Um we we we've talked here a little bit about, you know, not of trying to match up our our health costs with the city. I'm just kind of wondering too, are we getting into a a bidding war with the city for employee pay as well? What kind of a Do you know what kind of a raise the city's given employees? Um, in my discussions
020with uh the city manager from a couple of weeks ago, uh, they were going to do a step increase, which is 3%. Okay. And there were he the city manager indicated there were a couple of groups, employee groups they wanted to take care of last year that they couldn't and they want to take care of those groups this year. So, those groups may get more than the step increase. um when he and I speak on Thursday, we're going to talk about uh salary increases potentially what they're thinking about. We're going to talk about healthc care increases or staying the same that and that conversation again is preliminary to what the council may decide to do in their deliberations. And I understand you're right. Is the city talking about raising health care costs? Well, we're all
021looking at the increased health care costs overall and um in an initial meeting the city indicated they were looking at a range between 8 and 12%. But again, that was based upon um data from that you guys saw a week ago from November. Uh so it'll be a much clearer picture when we have our benefits executive committee meeting uh tomorrow. tomorrow. Um, where will we see the December data tomorrow? We'll see the December data tomorrow. Which will give us a more more clarity on where we where we believe we're going to be for 2027. Okay. I got one more, but I'll I'll wait till the end. Vice Chair Williams. Um, yes, those were some of my questions, too, about the um city and school board, but we'll wait to get that data. Um, Miss Pate,
022may I just have at some point this week if you could email us the last, I don't know, maybe eight years of um salary increases that we've given or or all staff employee increases that we've given our employees for the last eight years. Thank you. And um I'm going to turn this to some some student focused stuff here real quick. um the decrease in the local match of early reading intervention. Um why why is that there decreasing in that? Yeah, that's a grant and so when that grant comes out on the calc tool depending on the slots and I'm going to look probably at Tiffany cuz she delves really deep into the grant world um based on that slots in our composite index. That's how the local match is is determined because the grant came
023to an end or No, it's not to the end. It's just the number of per slots and there's a per pupil attached to it. Okay. Okay. It's just a calculation based on that information and then obviously the local match for all of those that require a match or based on our composite. Okay. Okay. All right. Um and then also the um restoring the early commitment incentive for student teachers. So we had that and then we stopped it and now we're just putting that back in. Can you tell me what um how much that is? I mean I know the total but what is the um what is it per per new student? Oh 2,000. Okay. 2,000. Okay. Okay. Okay. Very good. And um with technology I I know we don't have much on this slide
024except for some costs of obviously Microsoft and Google but can I get a cost of how much our Chromebooks cost at to to provide onetoone technology Chromebook for for every kindergartner, first grader and second grader K through two and could I have the cost of how much compared to the cost of how much it would cost to have a classroom um set of those which I'm assuming would be zero for that. But if I could have both of those, I would appreciate it. K through two, please. So So Miss Williams, the classroom set would probably be, if I remember, the carts come in 10. Is that what you mean? So instead of having each of those early grades with a device, there's a classroom set and a cart which is normally 10. Okay. So that
025is that correct, M? Yes. So there would be a Yes. Very good. Okay. Great. Thank you. Appreciate it. Mr. Ken, let me offer what may seem like a silly question to ask, but I'll ask it nonetheless. And the silly question is this. At a time when we're evaluating the budget and trying to manage our finances wisely and closely, does a quarter of a million dollars mean anything? And I don't mean that sarcastically or in any other manner, but is a quarter of a million dollars an interesting amount of money to be mindful of? It is. I would think so, too. And again, I don't mention that as a sarcastic question, but the point that I'm making is that we have a student loan funding for student meal debt for a quarter of a million dollars.
026And it struck me as this report was presented several months ago that this is not an issue that has to do with federal dollars that are available for lunch and breakfast programs that are available without impacting us. But as the report was delivered, I was left with this impression. People can pay, but they don't. We let it accumulate. and it reaches a quarter of a million dollars. And instead of seeking to establish what I guess would be an example of a responsible behavior on the part of adults, asking them to bear the responsibility of the expenses that are being incurred for their family members. We say by our behavior and by our analysis, don't worry about it. And if we set that as a precedent, human nature being what it is, we'll say to a
027parent in the future, we've got a tab running here and it keeps getting bigger. But you know what? We don't have to be concerned about that cuz somebody else is going to cover that. So you know what, honey? we'll just take our dollars and address it towards something else. And my concern, I think it's pretty obvious, is that it sets a bad precedent not for people who are receiving federal dollars for these meals, but people who are just not carrying their personal responsibilities. M I just say doing that sends the wrong message. And I would say if this is the time that we address columns and dollars for consideration since we go back to the initial question which was does a quarter of a million dollars mean anything especially when we have salaries that we
028could pay or health fund expenses that we could pay. Nah, let's not do that. Let's cover somebody else's responsibility. I think that's not wise. Yes, Mr. Ken, this is exactly why this conversation is really important. So, what I'll have Mr. Freeman's approaching the microphone, he he's going to share with you what we are doing to try to get those individuals to pay um their meal debts so that we don't have to um even consider this. But this is the absolute right time to point something out that doesn't make sense. So, Mr. Freeman, absolutely. And I'll acknowledge there's u everything that you described. So, what I'm going to attempt to do is uh give perspective of what has happened since we briefed the board uh related to this. Um, and it's never as simple um as
029you want it to be when you start looking into it. And I think I shared with the board during this presentation that this is the one of the more this is one of the toughest problems because of how many restrictions there are well-intended restrictions of uh what can be done to uh ensure that that money is being uh collected for meals that are being served to families who have not demonstrated a need uh that they can't afford the meal. So, um, and an example of that is earlier in the fall when there, uh, we had the first government shutdown, we sent out a communication to all of Virginia Beach, uh, parents and said, "Hey, we know that you might be affected by the shutdown. There are resources available like free and reduced lunch that have
030other benefits that go with them. So, if you're not aware of this, here's the lick to clink on click on and go in and do it." We got a tremendous amount of response of families that were eligible for free and reduced lunch just from that communication. So there's a portion out there of although we believe that we communicate and we have processes for how to share this with families. Um how do they walk away with something in their mind that I must go do this right now rather than hey I got a flyer that's great and then they never took any action. So the structure that we're putting around all of the things that we're learning about how do we communicate what's the challenge uh in different schools what we've done is we brought in
031a number of uh school principles and they were spec specifically selected because of who they are and the communities that they service and some challenges that we see related to uh do people even know that they're responsible for paying for a meal? and we're going through that process and we're seeing some good results in uh the couple of months that we've been doing it. We've got another meeting that's coming up at the end of February and the goal is to take what we learn from those principles and then start to roll it out to the broader group of principles to be able to capture. this is not the environment to to be able to share all of the details related to but there's some really good stuff in there and I'll I'll give one of
032them because when you hear do people even know that they're responsible for a meal you might ask yourself well how's that even possible if you started out at a C school which mean as a parent your child went to a school that you never had to pay for a meal just because it was designated a C c meal you may have never grasped that when they moved to a middle school that was not a C middle school that you needed to pay for for those meals. So, it can be confusing when you get communications uh about paying for a meal when you've never had to pay for them before. That's one tiny sliver of all of the uh different considerations. So, everything you said, hear you loud and clear and I can certainly echo Dr.
033Robertson's uh uh weighing with it, but we are continuing to work on how do we uh conduct everything around that process so that we effectively get um those who um are eligible for free and reduced lunch to be able to get them on the program. for those who are not, how do we work with them, communicate with them in a way where we are consistently getting our um uh student meal debt that's paid. So with that again, this could be a discussion that uh the board may want to say, you know what, we're you're going to keep that dollar amount or yeah, you're going to take that dollar amount off. So we would look for some guidance from the board. Yeah, Mr. Brownsteel. Yes. Um, I just wanted to say I do agree with Miss
034Rogers on her two points that she uh brought up. That's definitely important. But I also wanted to know the cost of the Chromebooks from K through two. And also, what kind of effect is that going to have if we do away with them? or how do we have a program that if we were thinking about it like to fade them out or and then also when they get into the third grade and they've never used one, how would that affect their situation? So, uh Dr. Goldberg, do you want to uh address that one? Good afternoon. Nice to see you guys. To answer your question about the impact for third grade, the concern for instruction would be, excuse me, that the students would not have prior um time to learn and get adjusted to using the
035computers and the Chromebooks. There's also assessments in second grade that require students to use the Chromebooks. So, but Dr. Goldberg, if you had a class set of computer of computer or devices in a classroom in second grade of 10, the teacher would be able to do what we did prior to going one to one and they would have to schedule student use of the 10 at a time. So we they were going to be prepared. Yeah. So if you have a set of 10, the idea would be that you could use those Chromebooks in a small group setting. So typically small groups would be five or six kids in a group, maybe seven. And those assessments would be given in a small group setting versus a whole groups class setting. We do typically recommend that
036in those younger grades, you're not giving assessments in a whole group setting at this time. Anyway, if I figure out anything else to add to it, I'll I'll bring it back. Miss Rogers. Thank you. Wait, I'm sorry. Um, Mr. Cummings hasn't gone, so Mr. Cummings, then Miss Rogers. Sorry, it's all good. Um, I just had some follow-up questions about health fund and so can you, Dr. Roberts, can you just reiterate just for my own personal being where where is the health fans fund stand at right now? Uh, can anybody pull the presentation we did last week from Mercer based on the November data which gave us the health fund balance? projected. It was a projected health fund balance, right? So, somebody's looking. Well, I guess it it it stretches to a a bigger discussion of,
037you know, when I I think about the health fund and I think about um all the red numbers we saw, what is, you know, and we have this chunk of money, $33 some million dollars, just thinking about what our road map is to restoring that to where it needs to be. Um, and so I guess that's kind of what my question is is like what is what does that road map look like to us getting to a place where the health fund needs to be stable, balanced, everything that we you know in a nice healthy spot. Yeah. So this the the gold standard is two months of reserve. Mhm. Um, and our our thought is based upon the budget we're developing right now, the uh availability of the $5.8 million in reserve that we can
038get uh more than h halfway to where we want to be in terms of the two-month reserve and then as part of next year's budget cycle get all the way there. That's that's the the the plan right now. I don't think we're going to be in a position to get all the way there this year without taking a a look at the other part of compensation, which is salaries. So, the goal, if I hear you correctly, then then when we're sitting here next year, we'll be talking about how we'll be at that nice glorious spot of our health fund being where it needs to be. That's correct. That's the goal. Okay. Um, and then I guess my my next question would be around reversion funds for this year. And I don't think there'll be an
039answer right now, but just I'd love additional information how we're trending um towards whatever that bucket of potential reversion might be um and unused funds and then thinking through you know what is our how we plan to maybe utilize those funds as well. Um, so we do look at that monthly and try to trend that out um and annualize that based on actual data up to the point that we know it. So we do look at that. We're getting ready to have a meeting on that again so that we kind of know where we are and then if we have any changes in the current budget at one point there's still some clarification around the bonus and how that's going to work because um that could and that because of some enrollment drop that could
040drop what our state revenue is and I think when Mr. Hopkins presented the interims. He kind of explained that we are seeing a projected decrease once the b the first this current piece of the bienium budget is finalized with the general assembly. But we do look at that and take those adjustments into account as we know them um and look at those projections as we head into the end of the fiscal year because we have to know where we stand and and if anything is coming through that is going to surprise us or that we need to take a look at and that kind of thing. Sweet. you I was just to say I think just yeah if we could just see if the board can just receive an update I I I'd appreciate it.
041Um cuz I'm thinking about that big old list of buses we need and and everything else on there and just seeing like you know as we're trying to play whack-a-ole with all the demands you know what are the different sources of funding that are going to become available. though. Yes. So, one one one uh monthly um look the board receives when Dan Hopkins comes and gives you um the expenditures versus the revenues. And what you always want to see is that the revenues far out exceed the expenditures and it also I believe he shows three years of trend data. So, it gives you an idea of where we are this year compared to the same time over the previous two years. So that's a really good predictor of the position we're in, the financial position.
042I believe Miss Pate has the health insurance number. And then Mr. Freeman can talk to you about buses. Okay. Yes. So this is um from the Mercer presentation and this is on a fiscal year basis. So, the projection for fiscal year 2026 based on Mercer's um estimates was the fund balance is projected at $18.7 million. And then for fiscal year 27, it's projected at $17 million, but that was as of the November data that we received. Um so related to to the buses we appreciate the concern of the how do we balance priorities uh related to to what we have. So from the brief that we gave uh from school division services one of the things we mentioned in there is looking for opportunities for when we might be able to use money that's available
043uh to purchase buses. And so you mentioned reversion funds uh but before it get ever gets to that point what was mentioned in the brief is the potential for using endofear money. Now again that mean needs to meet a lot of wickets from the uh budget side of the house to make sure that appropriate buffers are in in place um so that uh you don't go too far with it but there is an option uh of if money is available and it meets all the right wickets for the budget team to be able to do an endofear purchase before it ever even gets to reversion funds. Is that is that also the plan for I remember the deferred maintenance as well is that so what we shared in the deferred maintenance is there's an ongoing
044discussion and so in uh past history there used to be midyear funds that would uh go to maintenance to be able to uh execute projects. Um we've continued to try and work on that process uh capture opportunities when they are there. It's challenging from a maintenance standpoint uh the later it gets in the year to be able to execute the projects. Um so the budget team's been working with us what on what possibilities might exist and the same thing is occurring this year again once the uh um enough information is made available of what's possible and what's not possible then we can move forward. Okay cool. And my final question, comment in regards probably just pairing along with some of my colleagues as well about K through 2 grade um Chromebook time. You know, I'm
045also interested in that. I'm also interested to know um the average hours as well for those students. And then I also think about profit, right? Like what are the what are the results of our students utilizing these programs? um you know is there what is the academic achievement of utilizing some of the software that they use on on that basis and is there a way just to kind compare pre and I mean it's been years and covid and everything so I don't think we could actually have a good measure but is there a way to know like pre and post Chromebook and academic experience and is that even a fair comparison is a question I'd probably have but those are just the things that I think about you know what is the net learning of
046the student utilization in that early age and if it's removed or what not where would how would that impact the student experience as well? Yeah. So I would what I would say to that Mr. comingings. I don't think we can give a fair comparison between uh precoid and now because the assessments have changed, standards have changed. Um what we can show is how our students have performed on the state assessments at those grade levels, whether it's through reading proficiency, um the vowels screeners in those grades. Uh, but I think it would be more difficult to to to quantify the impact of um Chromebooks or or iPads versus not since virtually every school division in Virginia is using those devices um at some level in their classrooms. So, I don't know if we could get you
047a fair comparison. Yeah, I kind of thought about that as I was speaking and unfortunately I wish I thought about it earlier before I spoke, but I was like, "Oh, yeah, I don't think that'd work." But yeah, I appreciate that. That's all my questions. So, Miss Rogers, thanks so much. Um, I wanted to kind of circle back to what Mr. Kellen was talking about. And first, I want to thank you, Mr. Freeman um for really sharing how you know our the the balance on our lunch funds isn't as simple as people not paying and I am concerned about the fact that as um you know we are in service to the community as educators and I want to make sure that we're not stigmatizing people to feel like they can't come forward um because they
048can't pay and they don't want to be made to feel like they're just not paying. And I don't know if it's possible. Obviously, there's rules around this, but really um to reach out at some point when we find out everything that you're finding out um to community partners because honestly this is about kids eating and I firmly believe that as a community when children cannot eat it, we need to step up and feed them when they are in our care. That is something I will never budge on ever because I have taught children who come to school with no food and I have fed them and I think that as a community that is our responsibility and yes there are instances as you have said where people don't realize that they need to pay because
049they are going from a school that you know they don't have to pay and then they do but there are going to be families you know that are caught in all of these um government um shutdowns where they're not getting a paycheck and they simply cannot afford to pay it and they don't know what resources we have available or, you know, unemployment, you know, our our our economy isn't um booming for all families. Um, and so I think that we really, if we're talking about this, need to be sensitive to our our community who's listening and especially to our families who can't afford to pay and don't want to be made to feel like this is something that they are being neglectful about when they're sending their child to school without food and they know
050that they're going without food. They are hoping that their children get fed and we need to be sensitive to that. And so if there's a way that we can have um a pickup somehow through community partnerships, you know, we have the education association doing beach bags for our students who may go home without food and maybe look at those avenues, but some way that we can um find a way to bridge the gap so that we're not asking our teachers to take that hit on as well. So that's what I wanted to say about that. Shoot, I was going to start taking notes and uh sorry. So, uh let me first make this absolutely clear. There are no students who are turned away to have a meal. That's our values, right? It's a state mandate.
051There are no students who are turned away. Number one. Number two, our families get a lot of communication. Again, we work on how to improve that and make things look in a way where it grabs their attention so that they can sign up uh and be a part of free and reduced lunch and all of the other benefits that go with that. So, if you're on free lunch, you don't you're not charged for a meal, right? If you're on reduced under the current guidance, they don't get charged for a meal. It's only the families that haven't demonstrated that need. those families are required to pay, right? And that's how the student meal debt develops is because we don't turn kids away. And if it's not paid, then that will go up, right? But circumstances do
052change for our families obviously. So we have families who did not qualify who then do qualify, but then they don't know where to turn to get this the information. And obviously when a parent loses a job, they're not sending their child to school and say, "Hey, tell your teacher I lost my job and I need help." That's not happening. So that's where we kind of need to find the communication. And when families who have had those things happen and leave the system because their children are done and we have to chase that down, that's where maybe we can bridge the gap with community partnerships where we're not, you know, able, we don't have those children. Either their families have moved away or whatever. We don't have those children in our communities anymore, but the debt
053remains. Does that make sense? Couple of things. Uh yes. So the communication absolutely that's what we intended to communicate of when we brought those principles and others in to try and find all of the gaps in how we communicate. Going back to the example that we shared uh when Mr. Ken brought it up, we sent out a uh a divisionwide communication to everybody during the last shutdown and we got good response from that. Good response means we got a number of people that submitted and a high percentage of those that submitted were eligible. There were some that were not. Um there there is a uh a structure behind what you can demonstrate the need is and there is a cut off that goes with it. So to your point about the community partner, we we've
054been talking about this for a long time and we think we have a good solution. Um, and there's a because it's always been there to be able to engage with community community partners or for them to be able to pay. What hasn't been there was intent meeting reality of it actually getting there. Um, we think we're on track uh where we have something that's simple um that is an external uh resource that this is what they do where you can go click on that link um and it's just easy. That's part of what we have. We got to do a little bit more work and when we have something settled on we'll roll it out. But to your point of how can we engage community partners where they can give we've been doing that for
055years now we it's always been a challenge of taking that intent and turning it into the reality. We think we have a step that's going to give us the best opportunity to get success related to those uh intents. And that's excellent because again we are here to serve our community. And I just want to make sure our families understand that when we're talking about this, we're not trying to make anyone feel stigmatized because they can't pay, but we do want to do our best to try and help each family do um as much as they can to um have their children fed if they can't pay for it. Thank you, Miss Melnight. Okay, so Mr. Freeman, I don't mean to keep this going, but at the last presentation, my takeaway was the other part of
056Mr. Ken's comment, which is I thought we were told there are plenty of families who can afford to pay for lunch who just aren't. And so my question is maybe just piggybacking on Mr. Kellen is what what steps do we take to make sure the families who can pay are paying their debt because there is a portion of that 250,000 that belong to people who can pay their debt. I think you addressed it then there's a difficulty I think is it turned I'll let you you go ahead. No, it's it's what's interesting is this mirrors uh every discussion that we're having about this is how do we account for the families that have a need and connect them with resources and work with them uh even if they haven't met the definition of the need.
057How do we work with them to be able to responsibly be able to move forward? Um, and the human nature piece of, um, if there's not a hard driver, um, it's easy to let it, uh, it can be easy to let it slip. We're trying to figure out what level it is, uh, of those as we go through the process. And that's why we've engaged with some excellent principles on the docsel side of the house, okay? to be able to get uh that level of our school teams know their kids and they know their families. Yeah. And there's other benefits that come out of it as well. I'll share this with you that when uh as we've gone through this work, what does come up is um there it is a a design there's an
058indicator of need that is associated with some of these debts that you're not aware of and there are resources that we're able to bring to bear when those things become available. And there was a good news story that came out of our process that we learned that hey there was a family that needed a little bit of help. And it wasn't until this conversation uh happened that we learned that and we were able to connect those resources. So some of both we don't know what level. That's what we're working through and making sure that we do all the right things related to supporting uh and providing opportunities to be able to uh uh uh get on free and reduced lunch to be able to get opportunities for those who want to contribute to be able
059to help while still also for the families who can that just uh haven't uh to be able to communicate in a way where they understand what their responsibility is. Okay, that's fair. I just wanted to make sure all the bases were covered. That's what we're trying to do. I know you are and we're good. We're good in the support in the support world. I just wanted to make sure I understood the entire situation. So what and uh one of the things that comes to my mind is um when we uh talked to you at that brief many uh uh a couple of months ago. It's a incredibly challenging problem and we presented as an incredibly challenging problem. we didn't have uh as many solutions as we would have liked at that point in time. So,
060what I'm realizing now is the work that we've been doing, it hasn't been appropriate to come back and talk to you because we're in the midst of it, but we're making really good progress uh on this. Um still early. It's not going to happen as quickly as we like. This is not something that will be completely fixed by the end of this year. Um, however, we'll I am confident that we will be on track to be able to have systems and processes in place to account for all of these things and to be able to move forward where we're not growing any more debt um and that we're chipping away at over time and that we're targeting in the right way where there is uh excess. How do you make sure that those go to
061the right uh families based on whatever conditions um in the time that they need it? Thank you for that. And while I have the floor, Madam Chair, if just one other thing, um I I just wanted to thank each department for your presentations leading up to this um budget process because it's been incredibly helpful just in just the daily thoughts that that we have just in in this budget process. Um, and also putting it in writing for the community to see where each department make cuts. That that's huge. And um, just shows that we're committed to spending taxpayer dollars wisely. Um, and they can see how and where we can make cuts and where we can't make cuts. And I really appreciate it. For me personally, it made things so much easier. And um, kudos
062to uh, each department for that. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Madam Chair, I wanted to let you know that Mr. Dwire does have her hand raised. Did she put it in before Miss Felton did or just um she had it up before? Okay, Miss Dwire. Yes, thank you. Um Mr. Freriedman, uh clarification here. I thought the school had access to this for students that had free and reduced lunch who were eligible for that. Um, we we are aware as an organization who is eligible for free and reduced lunch. I'm not sure if that answers it. So then there are students that aren't and you're aware of that as well. That is correct. I just wanted to make that clarification. By all means, definitely. Um, I like what you were saying that needs to be
063addressed. Um because you know parents aren't perfect and uh you know you have young children two two parents working in the home you get m you know it becomes you get mundane with uh things that come up and obviously their focus isn't on that or maybe perhaps it was in the past but definitely um I I appreciate you wanting to troubleshoot that and uh because it needs to be addressed. And also I have another concern um because my number one is that all students should be reading. Um and even with Chromebooks, we have students that aren't. Um and so what would we be saving if we eliminated Chromebooks for kindergarten? And then what would we be saving if we eliminated both kindergarten and first grade? So, Mr. Dwire, that's part of the information we're going
064to collect for the board to share um because we don't have that right in front of us right now and we're looking at K2. Mhm. So, Okay. All right. Thank you. Because I think even with Chromebooks, we still have students that fall through the cracks and can't read. So, my number one is reading capability and by a certain age. Um, so, okay. Thank you. I would appreciate all that information. Thank you, Dr. Robertson. Miss Felton. Thank you, Chair Brown. Um, first I'd like to say, Mr. Freeman, thank you for your approach and making parents aware of the applications that they needed to fill out for the lunches and making it uh possible because you're right, a lot of them don't know and it's so unfortunate that when students move from school to school that their
065paperwork is not transferable that it goes with them. That would be something that will help as well so they wouldn't lose that and and then they forget. So hopefully that will be a practice that we keep it transferable that they will have that that paperwork going forward. Um also about the Chromebooks now that you want to elaborate on that the transferable paperwork you don't need feedback also on the Chromebooks. Um uh I I know we were talking about how much the students using, but I remember uh one of my concerns getting back was that parents uh who student had either broken a Chromebook, lost the Chromebook or did not receive the chrome Chromebook back to the school, they were getting shared, right? Ghana shared those parents. So is that still one of our practice because
066some of the parents were saying that you know if if it's required for my child to have it and I'm barely making it they're going to garnish it and I and I try to find out who were the garnisher e and how was that happening to our parents and our students? Sure. Good afternoon Miss Belton. Good afternoon. So, uh when there are any fees or assessments that are uh assessed due to Chromebook, uh repairs, those are decided by the uh principal at each building whether or not it is appropriate that those be assigned to the family or not. If they are so assigned to the family, it goes uh onto uh our ledger, if you will, with the city and those assessments are provided to the city who then follows up with their processes on
067uh reclaiming any funds, right? And you know, I'm I'm not going to dig into this deep, but I if they if they can garnish their parents for a Chromebook, and I'm not going anywhere, and I'm hearing this conversation about those that can't pay and cannot pay for student lunches. G being garnished is a very devastating thing. We don't know every parent need every household. But if my my parents are crying out, they garnishing my paycheck because of Chromebook. Okay. And I'll just leave it at that. My father used to say, "You don't have to eat a whole cow to know you're eating beef." So, I'll leave that there and go to the bus drivers. Uh, I am excited that we we are putting the bus buses back on the list as far as we need
068the buses. Uh, just had a com conversation with some students the other day saying that they're having to wait because they don't have a bus driver. So, as we are collecting and looking forward to getting buses, are we including bus drivers and then are we making incentive to get bus drivers to come back for the school buses because uh I'm hearing that our students are having some are having to wait for a third run before they can get home on on buses. Yeah. So, um we can get you whatever details you need on the numbers, but what I can tell you is our uh vacancy rate is incredibly low. Um, and when you compare it with the divisions, Virginia Beach City Public Schools is well, uh, positioned when it comes to our fill rate for
069bus drivers. Uh, that being said, on any given day, um, any employee can be out for illness, um, FMLA, other items. So there are days that we can go as high as 50 to 70 bus drivers that are out for the day. So we fund our bus driver positions based on the number of runs. So you can imagine when we have those bad days of 50 to 70 drivers that are not out, they're the bus drivers that were able to work that day are doubling up or doubling back to be able to get to those students. So, in order to be able to account for that uh not ever having doubling back up or doubling back, you would need to have a substantial number more bus drivers. I'm not advocating for that. I'm just saying
070that's the reality of uh the way that it is. Um we're we're appropriately funded for the number of drivers that we have. The HR team has done an incredible job working with transportation to ensure that our vacancy rate is as low as you're going to find. um in a transportation department, but there are some uh that doesn't mean that it's perfect and there will still be doubling up and doubling back some days more than others. Okay. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Yeah. And Miss F, if I could just add a couple of comments related to the buses, but also to the Chromebooks. I think it's very important that I'm going to take you back take you back to when I was in school. But first about the buses. So, we have plenty of buses that that
071can operate and do every run every day. And we'll have a a a fleet of a small fleet of buses that are sitting in the parking lots in case a bus is out that we because of the strength of our transportation fleet team. We're never going to be in a situation where we don't have a bus in good condition that can go pick up kids. The second thing is to Mr. Freeman's point about uh vacancies. In a perfect world, you would overstaff every position by 10%. just to make sure that any given day you'd have a qualified person in front. You can't do that because the cost is prohibitive. So, we determine how many bus drivers we need and we are as close as we have ever been to fully I think we were seven
072today. I mean, there were times we were 50 drivers short and so we're we're doing really well there. So from that situation with the buses, we're in a good position and we have a strong plan to address any minor adjustments that might need to be made. So let's go back to Chromebooks for a moment because I think it's important for everyone to understand Chromebook is a resource. So when I was in school, it was textbooks. When I was a principal, it was textbooks. Kids would sign out textbooks from all of their classes. They would put them in their book bags and lug them around. At the end of the year, we would do textbook checks and collects and we would assess those students for damage to their textbooks. And then that information would go to
073their parents and say, "You your kid damaged three books and you owe us $75." And if those parents didn't pay, that money then got reported to the division who then reported it to the city who then made an attempt to collect it. That's the same process that happens now. It's just no longer a textbook. It is a Chromebook. And so it is the exact same process that we've always used. It's just a Chromebook. Now, a Chromebook is a valuable resource when it's used effectively. And we have heard loudly and clearly from this board for the last four years that you guys are uh uh really focused on appropriate screen time. And so, Dr. Goldberg and her team and prior to that, Dr. shoe bridge and as I encourage you to go on school visits and
074look in those classrooms and see what those kids are doing. Uh because for a student learning to read who can wear a microphone or I'm sorry, wear a a set of headphones and hear the the correct pronunciation of words that are being read on a screen is an individual uh t tutor to that kid that they can only get if they're in front of the teacher who might be with another group of five or six kids. So, do I think we can we can uh provide a quality education K2 with a Chromebook cart in every classroom versus a device in everybody's hand? I do. Um, but I want to make sure that we all understand where we are in 2026 in terms of the use of technology. No one is looking for to hire someone
075who can't navigate a device. Unless you're going to be a hands-on worker, you've got to be able to navigate a device and have those skills. Um, and you know, I was on a plane a couple days ago, no one had a book reading, but a bunch of people had their iPads reading. So, it's just we things have changed and adjusted. Um, and we are going to make sure we meet your expectations and the use of um technology in the classroom. Am I still online, Miss Brown? Okay. And I just want to say to piggy back on to to further uh to kudos to Dr. Rob. He's absolutely right. I was in corporate middle school uh just this past week and I met a gentleman named uh Devon and Devon spoke with me on a device
076that he uses eyes and he had a whole conversation with me. So you're right. Technology is in a place it's good use and I don't want us to get caught up in uh what is it is for and not for because we do need it in circumstances. Devon talked with me had a whole conversation nothing but with his eyes. Thank you. Okay. Um so since everybody's had the chance to speak, I'm going to go ahead and throw some comments in before we circle back through here. Um, I want to kind of focus the budget for me and my perspective on the budget into three areas. Um, one is staff and compensation. Two is academics, academic outcomes because that's really what we're here for at the end of the day. But all these things are related.
077Um, and then safety and well-being of students and and what that looks like. And so I'm going to kind of go through um those sections. Um so the first for compensation um I am actually pretty happy about where we're at and what's being proposed with the $1,000. But what I would like to see and I think the community would like to see and we've done this historically too. those proposed numbers. I think they should be when this on the budget page so that people can see this is what you know 0 1 2 3 4 5 for our teachers is proposed to look like. Um I think if the public can have that available easily and accessible uh before we put on the page with the seon. Um, but I would like to see what
078those steps look like so that our community can really do a compare and contrast and the board can also do a compare and contrast about what we're offering in comparison to other divisions. I and I do think that we do offer a lot as a school division. We offer a lot of resources to our staff and so I don't want to overlook what we are offering and why Virginia Beach is such a great place to work because it is really a great place to work. Um on that thread of compensation um we do have that health fund balance and I am glad to see that we are putting in 5 million 360 I guess about 5.4 4 million um into the health fund in this particular budget year. But I'm a little bit unclear if
079employee contributions, employer contributions are adding if if they're not taking away from the fund balance. Does that make sense? I'm a little unclear in all of these presentations as to if we're increasing the fund balance or if we're just making, you know, deposits into it here and there and not really fixing the problem. I think and that's a good point, but I think you have to look at the two things. When we say we're going to do a contribution to the fund balance, then that's just where it's going to go. So, it's just going to add that dollar amount to that fund balance based on Mercer's projections and the cost that they were looking at and the trend employer and employee contributions are set. So, that what we hope is that we are we are
080using that revenue source from those two sources to fund the medical claims and all the other expenses that we have. So, we've been looking at that really closely. What happens is if those claims or those trends go higher than what's projected and then it will take away from the fund balance. And so what we've been doing is doing very deep dives into what those rates are, what that revenue generates, what that enrollment is for open enrollment, and trying to look to see what is that going to generate for revenue. Because I think where we want to be right now is to say we want to get our health fund back to a two months reserve as recommended and then we want to be able to cover the cost of our claims through employer and employee
081contributions without touching the health fund. Okay. Um, and so without maybe getting further into the weed, um, do those projections based on the employer and employee contributions match up to where we are not projected to take anything from the health fund balance. We are doing that right now. When you see those projections and I think when Mercer did their presentation, they showed you that they stopped depending on the fund balance. Okay. And so so a lot of this gets hinged on total cost of the plan too. So as as costs continue to rise, we have to adjust that employer employee contribution in order to stay in that in on that plane. Okay. So that that conversation then will be more detailed on March 3rd um is what I'm hearing here. Okay. Um and I think
082that's great information. Thank you. Um I also I want I want to talk about the meal debt. Um, and I understand that it's a difficult topic to handle, but if I'm recalling correctly, the meal debt was closer to a million dollars. Correct. No. My is is my recollection incorrect on that? I I believe it is. It's okay. I don't have the exact number on the top of my head, but that's not the magnitude. Okay. Is it more than $250,000? Not not substantially more from percentage wise, but that's in the right ballpark. So, I'm just really curious here. Um the meal debt, if the meal debt exists, it just sits there and it's still meal debt right now. Um, and so I'm just I'm contemplating priorities here when we have the health fund balance that we
083need to really chip away at. And I understand that there's families that may have the need. That's not a I'm not even disputing that. But my question really is related to how are we selecting which debts we are and are not going to cover. So uh that's a great question and I'll I'll I'll stay at the high level which I think which Dr. Robertson was trying to share earlier is these are all for considerations for the school board uh to prioritize. Um so um it's it's your decision uh when it comes down to it how to prioritize where that that that is another element to the conversation because it's not just a um a discussion for operating budget dollars that we would use to be able to uh go to that. But it's also a
084if we have community partners that want to how do you appropriately uh carve that out um rather than trying to go through the details that we've talked about so far or early in the process because we do have an idea of what of how you could begin to target that. A lot of that is going to come from our principles and their understanding of what the situation is of the families that are in their schools. Um but there are some other elements as well. I I I don't know that we want to go into that, but we can definitely provide you once we have a more packaged outcome from uh what we've learned and what the next steps are. We can give you a nice concise concise brief for hey, here's what we learned. Here's
085what we intend to do moving forward. I think there's a lot of opportunity. So, so the the question is how do I prioritize this? um we're on the early stages and making good progress um to be able to arrest the growth and begin to reduce it. Like I said, it's it's not going to be an end of this year kind of thing, but we're once we do a little bit of work with this group of about four schools and then start rolling it out to others, then we're really going to have a grasp for all right, what's what's working? Uh what's not working? um and how substantial is the need? Um uh acknowledging that hey community partners can assist with it as well before having to then spend operational dollars uh to um uh to
086cover those. And if I could add, uh, uh, Miss Brown, um, our our goal is not to pay the meal debt for families who can pay, but we've gotten into a position over the last several years where that number has continued to grow. And really, Jack, Mr. Freeman, use the term arrest. We're trying to through if if we if we don't make the progress we're hoping to make. This is a number where we felt like we would get it down to a number where we might be able to get this to zero because there are some uh dollar amounts in here that are from families who are no longer with Virginia Beach City Public Schools. So, we're never going to capture that money back. Um, and so this was this was really a struggle for
087us to put in because quite frankly it's it's something we're going to have to cover and do we bring it out to the open so we can have this really good conversation so people listening going you know I I got to make sure am I supposed to be paying for lunch and do that for us so that because we can't this is not sustainable to Mr. Call's point, we should not be paying uh taxpayer funds for meal debt for families who can pay. We should not be doing that. But this was relatively kind of a stop gap. and and in to I think it was Miss Rogers point some families don't even know it used to be when I was a principal that um if you had a debt and you took you to got
088in a lunch line and you went through and picked your food and you got to the lady at the end and she puts your pen in and you have a debt they took your food away and they said you can get a bologn sandwich and that was just devastating to families. So what they did was and the state said you can't do that. You cannot do that at all. So Miss Dwire asked about, you know, do we know who the kids are? The cafeteria manager does, but nobody else does. So that kid can't go up to the line and and and there's no longer any data that comes out this that like my kids, hey uh Dr. Robertson, you do know you got to put money back in your kids' account, right? That stopped happening.
089So now we are reinitiating conversations with families to say hey didn't know if you were aware but you do have you do need should be paying for lunch unless there's any circumstances we so we need to redirect behavior that we created by previous practices. I also point out in 2020 when they initiated the general assembly put the law in which says you cannot deny a child lunch. So if you know my kid I hand him lunch and he walks in throws in the trash and gets that lunch you still have to give them the lunch unless the parent writes a note saying please do not give Cammy's child lunch in this point. It also limited the ability on debt collection. It's not impossible. They made it harder to collect the debt. So even though you
090might have $250,000 due and you send to city treasures office, it may not be worth it to them where they can't go after because they can't use third party non-governmental services. So part of this is created by the general assemblies limitation on how we can collect that debt. So we may have it but we never collect it again. We may be stuck because the amount's too small or we cannot go after them. Thank you. Mind if I just clarify? So and this was part of the brief that Mato gave before. So um when students leave the division it goes to debt collection. So we just generally say it goes to the city and we don't see much of that money back. I think the what was reported at the brief was we got $900 back
091last year, which you guys know the substantial sums of money that we're talking about of increasing student meal debt. But I I do want to make sure that I that I say this very uh loud and clear, we have seen effectiveness in parents paying for uh meal debt as part of this pilot program we're working on with the four principles. So, we're looking to understand what moves the needle, what's helpful from that communication process with as uh take this in the the most positive way, little effort and overhead on our schools as possible to be able to effectively get um uh that process going. And we're learning a lot and we have seen reduction uh in a uh short period of time. Uh but we're going to need to continue to do some other work
092to make uh to get there. So what I'm uh what I am trying to communicate I might want to make sure we communicate this very clearly is we are seeing uh parents um or or debt go down from previously where it was with uh just the initial parts of our um uh updated processes that we're using. Thank you. Um, and I don't uh need a response to this, but of course I'm I'm not suggesting that we would turn any kids away for a meal at all um by any stretch of the imagination. So, I just want to make sure um that that's clear. But I would be curious if there was a way, and this may be more complicated um in in practice um than reality, but I'd be curious if there was a way
093for us to determine um the total meal debt of families that are now on free and reduced cost lunches that maybe previously were not. Um and maybe that might give us a little bit better of a number uh to kind of come around and um as a as a group and be cohesive about. So um and then finally you know a lot of my colleagues have mentioned um the onetoone technology and uh the Chromebooks and I really don't know how much we spend as a division on Chromebooks specifically. Uh, I do know that a lot of people in the community have mentioned to me that they do not like their youngest learners on the devices in the classrooms. And um, I don't think that not having them in preK through first or even second grade
094is going to stop a student from learning how to use a device well enough for assessments in third grade. by the time those assessments come around um or make it so that they are not able to be future ready um in the high school years. I I think that students can learn how to use those devices for that pretty quickly. Um and so I don't know to me that that really is is as effective as whether or not these devices are improving student academic outcomes, student reading on grade level. Um and to me student reading on grade level is act is very very important um by third grade. And so I think maybe maybe we can try and see if that improves student outcomes and you know see if maybe we can be the division
095that isn't relying as heavily in those years on it. And I know that the data and that is um Dr. Robertson. Correct me if I'm wrong. It's very difficult to see how long the computer was open and they were reading versus the active movement around, but I would imagine that our students that probably need the hands-on learning um and not being on the devices are probably using the devices more heavily. So, um I I too would echo some of my colleagues uh thoughts on wanting to know what the cost of that is so that we can consider that. Mr. Call pepper. Thank you. Um I think all I'll say about Chromebooks is I'll echo what the chair just said. It's pretty much my thoughts exactly. Um and then I think two other things I'll hit
096here. Uh one's really a question. So there are two lines in here from McKini Vento. I remember last time you discussed the fact that uh outsourcing uh that has become exceedingly expensive. So, I see the first line here is uh is half a million dollars to hire five drivers and vehicles and buy vehicles uh to do that. There's still another line. It's an increase of half million dollars uh for outsourcing. So, there's no payback yet, I guess, is what I gather. Yeah. So, um and I think I what I mentioned last time is that we that that mandate is costing and we're having to cover that every year. Even though when we budget for it, it it exceeds that budget and we're having to cover that cost. So even though we are trying to do
097an initiative in house, we are trying we are still seeing that what the budget is is probably not sufficient to cover that until we completely transition into that initiative to see because it's a work in progress kind of thing. So that's an increase of half million dollars. What is that budget line? Do you know? Oh, it's a contracted service. So how how much is it we're paying? Oh, I'd have to go back and look and see. I don't know. It's because we I will tell you in prior years we've transferred money incrementally in there. Um and this time when we did the transfer that came before the board, um we increased it quite a bit. Oh, good to help. Good afternoon. So, we went through the request for proposals process last school year and we
098have three contracted services that we have through ZRIP, LPR or yeah, LPR and uh True Heart. And we have over 480 students who are experiencing homelessness who require transportation. And each of those companies, their c, you can imagine their costs have gone up over the years. We use the three different corporations for different reasons. Any student who's being transported within the city of Virginia Beach, we use True Hart. And the True Hart cost is $16 per student round trip each day. Uh the LPR we use because we're able to share the cost with local school divisions who use the same service. That's at $70. So, we use LPR for students who are traveling from outside of Virginia Beach uh to inside our school division. And then for Ztrip, which has the lowest capacity in terms
099of number of drivers, we tend to focus solely on inside the city of Virginia Beach and they're at $92 per trip. Okay. Um have you kind of projected out when this will pay back and perhaps maybe equate it to your cost per uh per student? Yes. The biggest piece would be that we're merely transitioning the $500,000 that we were going to be spending on transportation anyway over to another option on transportation. So, it's really a matter of shifting funds. So, your expectation here this year, in other words, was you going to have to raise that contract budget line a million dollars because of where we just currently are right now, right? So, next year we're looking to see that offset. To give an idea, the focus on this offset will be on True Hart. No
100offense to True Art, but at $16 per student each day, if we're able to find even 30 students, that right now is costing us $538,000 every year. $563,000. We're looking just for those 30. We're able to transport them at far less than $563,000. But to get us started, that's where you're seeing the 500,000 come in. So in two years that then would give us the biggest offset and then a continued offset because we would not have to spend the $16 per roundtrip each day. All right. Awesome. Thank you. Um my other question, I know the CIP is a totally different subject, but where does where does PGO come from in the CIP? Does it come from our budget? It does come from the operating I see that line in here anyway. So what does the
101PGO I assume that means because it's the same as it was last year, right? It comes off the top of the revenue sharing formula that we do. So like I think when I presented that revenue we talked about that excludes the debt service and the payo. Okay, that's not on this slide but okay. Um we can resend the slide. It was on the other one when we went through that we were trying to like just show dollar amounts at this point. But I I bring that up because uh you know the the chair pointed out that she sees this and in terms of various buckets and I see I'm kind of seeing it frankly in terms of various crises. Uh the health fund balance is a crisis. Uh maintenance is a crisis. Uh CIP I'll
102call it maybe not a crisis but it's certainly a huge budget item. And then of course debt debt service. Uh again, perhaps not a crisis, but it's a huge budget line and maybe over the next 10 years it is a crisis because of the construction we're planning and the debt we're planning on taking on. But I guess that's why I bring that up. Are we putting enough into PO? Um, you know, we're putting we're putting almost $50 million uh towards paying compensation, okay, which is a combination of uh health fund balance, closing the the uh I'll call it the deficit um in the uh the employer contributions to the health fund and then of course in pay increases. That's that's 5% of our budget um basically just in pay paying compensation. And I'm well frankly
103I guess I'm worried about whether or not we're putting enough into maintenance which Mr. Freeman has pointed out here quite clearly is a crisis. Um and then not excessively increasing the debt over the next 10 to 20 years. You thought I mean I guess that's kind of to the superintendent a little bit. Thoughts on balancing those requirements? describe I think you've accurately described the challenge from a decision-m standpoint because they're they're all high priority areas and um if as you make adjustments to based on board priorities something's going to be less than it in a in a perfect world it could be. So that's part of the budget deliberations, right? So, uh, our, uh, the dev service is roughly 50 million. Is that right? We budget for 50 million right now. Um, it's been coming
104in less because some of that debt is being paid off, but then they're getting ready to do a bond sale. I don't know if it's on the street yet, but the city was getting ready to do a bond sale. Then the projections it'll start going up and certainly as we start construction it. Yeah. So, so we're paying, you know, 5% of our budget just in you staying afloat, so to speak. Um, anyway, that's that's why I'm very concerned about increasing our debt, you know, and for example, last year in the CIP, we were taking we were taking on debt to do um AC services, wrong word, but you know, basic maintenance projects, we we were using debt to pay to fund, right? There's not not really an answer to that. I'm just pointing that out.
105No, but the reason I'm coming up is for perspective again because you're um what you're sharing a concept about increasing payo as we talked about in our recent briefs is Davenport recommend that that's a a good goal as well. Um so again we're we're talking priorities. How do you balance the priorities? So, um, we we briefed you last year and then the current capital program had a debt service projected increase of about $30 million over a 5year period, which is $6 million additional per year. We're going to share with you the seon what those updated numbers are, and it's still pretty close. So that's a competing interest in order to be able to and that that's that's a that's a mustave before Prince High School can be executed. You have to get to a certain
106level of debt service. So with the mustave of Princean High School to be able to get there um that is already cash that's going to be flowing in uh on the order of and again what we presented you last year and we'll update it was $6 million a year for 5 years to get to $30 million of additional debt service. It's extremely challenging to balance all the other priorities that are needed and also add PIGO funding with that in front. But that's what the board has to consider from a priority standpoint. Okay. All right. Thanks, Jack. Mr. B, you'll go ahead. Yes. Thank you. So, back to school lunches. I'm have a little different perspective on it. I spend a lot of time in the cafeterias and see a lot of things and I know
107we don't live in a perfect world and it's probably complicated. However, one of the things I do notice is the amount of food that gets thrown in the garbage can. And it's not so much because they don't like it. They just can't eat it all. So, I would just bring up something maybe in the future we could take a look at. Instead of giving them three chicken fingers, ask them, "Hey, how many chicken fingers you want?" cuz the majority of the chicken they when I was at the school today, two of almost everybody's chicken fingers went in the garbage can. Uh, a lot of them don't drink the milk. I say, "You going to drink the milk?" "Nope, I don't like it." And they throw it away. So, I didn't know, you know, maybe some
108down the road we could take a look at something to where if they don't want the milk, they're not going to drink it while I charge them for it. and it's just costing us money because the $250,000 is not going down. And um that's what I thought on that. However, the other side of it, I actually had the pleasure of meeting Devin at a corporate landing school back during the baseball playoffs. And that device is really cool and it's probably going to come to a shock, but we mostly talked about sports and it was really neat to be able to talk to somebody who couldn't talk and they had an opinion on sports and different things. That's it. Mr. So I wanted to point out to that USDA defines how much you have to provide
109every single meal. We don't control that. It's actually audited very very carefully. If you've ever if you sit in the audit committee, you'll see these reports sometimes say we don't get to control the portion that comes out. And I just also want to clarify um those students that use devices that are special education or have it in their IEP or 504. That's that's not what I am referencing. I'm referencing the other devices. So just just to make sure that I'm providing that clarity there, too. Um Miss Rogers, I'm sorry, Mr. Freriedman, sorry. Um, I just had some quick questions. So, we have a million on this spreadsheet and 535,000 in change or whatever for increase in general maintenance, I'm sorry, and 500,000 for increase in funding for utilities. Can you just explain more what that
110means because it's pretty general. Yeah. So, uh, general m the additional million dollars is, uh, to help us be able to do more work, uh, from a maintenance standpoint in our schools. Again, when you have a, uh, an an aging group of buildings, the most important thing you can do is to make sure that you're maintaining them over time. And that's what that million dollars is for related to the utilities. The utilities budget, although it falls under us, is really we don't touch that. That's managed by the budget team. and utilities have gone up over time. Um, and they, again, we're monitoring to see what happens for the announcement for rates for July. Okay. And we're expecting those to go up. Okay. So, that 500,000 then is kind of like a buffer, I'm guessing, or
111like or that we're anticipating an increase. We are anticipating increase. We need to cover that. Yes. Okay. That that was that. Um, Dr. Robertson 1.2 million for Lexia and it says from All-In grant. What does that mean? So Allin uh the the All-In Virginia grant expires June 30th. Okay. And Lexia was covered as part of that grant. So that's a a really valuable tool for us. We're going to need to incur the cost. Is there not another grant available? Not at this point. All right. There is discussion in Richmond around how to handle at risk funding. It's still being uh clarified as what accounts for at risk funding, but at this point in time, what I am hearing out of Richmond is you're gonna have to fund that yourself. Okay. So, that would be like
112another unfunded mandate. Yes or no? Or is that going to Well, I don't know if I would call it an unfunded mandate because it's it's a resource that we were choosing to use. Uh it was just fortunate that for two years the state covered it. Okay. And then the interactive whiteboards for a million. Um, tell me more. Is this is this to replace things or I'm sorry I'm getting everybody on the mic today. Sorry. That is quite all right. So we have uh approximately around 5,000 interactive whiteboards in use around the division. Uh we recognize those to be a crucial element of instruction in a classroom. We use a 10-year replacement cycle for those boards. And if you just straight run those numbers, uh, along with the cost of a board, you come out to
113approximately about $1.5 million a year that you'll need in order to replace the appropriate number of boards in a 10-year life cycle. We weren't able to come up with that uh those amount of funds. So, we uh this is a step towards that. Uh and uh hopefully in the future we'll be able to uh gather the appropriate amount of funds to be on that uh 10-year replacement cycle. Okay. So we're Is this the first year we're not able to cover that or? No, it's not. So do you know how many years we've been not able to do it? Three. It's been about 3 to four years now. Okay. I just just so that I know that it so we've three to four years behind on our cycles. Okay. Okay. Okay. And I think my other
114my only last comment Dr. Robertson about making sure our youngest learners um learn technology. I would agree with Chair Brown that I'm not so sure that it's they can't do it. And I, as a former pre-K teacher, used to tell my parents whose students were having trouble potty training that they never ask when you're going to college, well, what how old was your child when they potty trained? It doesn't matter when you get to that age. And I think that um it kind of translates into whether or not you learn to use a Chromebook in kindergarten or second grade that it's it won't matter. It'll be a wash at the end. They'll they'll be able to do it. So, just want to make that comment. Dr. Green, thank you. and my comments that's what they
115are comments uh editorial from having the perspective of being on this side of budget development on as an employee um and now looking at it through the lens of um board member and I think it was Mrs. Williams who said in the beginning her comment and and it kind of stuck out uh with me uh reminding us that you know a lot of what we're doing is regarding being focused on students and with that being said there are a lot of things that are hard to quantify because they're going to always be changing such as hunger and we've had a lot of discussion about you know the lunch bill. And I mean, just look at our community, the food bank, um, churches, people having food drives. So that that's it's hard to quantify it because
116there's so many variables. Um, Mr. Jameson spoke of the homeless population right now and and I know McKente Vinel well. I lived it for 17 years in Virginia Beach public schools. Today we have let's say hypothetically 450 students. I know what happens in June when that homeless rate ups to almost 800 to a,000 students. We have no control over what that cab bill is going to be because we don't know where we're going to be transporting students from, how far. Uh so so there are many lot of unknown variables even when we deal with our CIP and and and I know at some point we're going to have to make some decisions very quickly Mr. Freeman because those are buildings for our students and the longer we wait costs will increase and and so that's
117another expense that you know we may not have budgeted for appropriately by the time you know you get to groundbreaking. So I I just want us, you know, to be mindful. We are doing a phenomenal job, you know, colleagues working together with you on the budget, but there are so many unknown variables that we will not have control over that will constantly keep changing that today it cost, you know, 10 million, tomorrow it may be 15 million. Thank you. And I just I want to thank all of my colleagues. There's been a lot of really great rigorous conversation and it is very difficult uh in budget season. There's always competing needs and we have a budget to live within just like all the households in Virginia Beach have to live within their budgets too. So,
118you know, sometimes we have to pick and choose priorities and sometimes that is the challenge and I think though that we're doing a lot of really great work having these conversations. Um, we are now on to discussion schoolboard budget workshop uh for fiscal year 2627 proposed operating budget and capital improvement program for fiscal year 26 27 through fiscal year 20 31 to 32. And I'm I feel like we've probably had a lot of this conversation already and it may be a little duplicative at this point. So I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Robertson uh for some guidance on what what you'd like from us. So you you are correct um Chairwoman Brown that we've we've had a lot of discussion that would go into this particular agenda item. Uh just a couple of
119takeaways. Um first you guys have provided us some really good feedback. So some takeaways for us. We are going to provide the board information as to the cost savings if we eliminated Chromebooks in K1 and if we eliminated Chromebooks in K2 and replaced Chromebooks with a cart in second grade and replace Chromebooks and a cart in K1 as well. so that this board has an opportunity to give us direction on whether or not you want Chromebooks in kindergarten and first grade or not or do you want Chromebooks introduced in second grade as through a class set of carts. There will be a savings if that is a decision that you make because uh we won't have to replace those devices. Um we will probably just reallocate those devices into other grades. So you'll have that
120information. Unfortunately, you won't have it before the seon. So we'll have plenty of time to have conversations about where the board wants to land on uh those devices in K2 prior to the March 24th final seon. Um, as we move forward in the next couple of meetings, we'll have a better idea of what uh the state is planning to do about their own budget to include this this bonus that they've been talking about still and what that looks like. Um, a lot of our discussions are on the at this point still unknowns about what's the what's the final health care premium cost going to be to the division employees employers. March 3rd will prevent provide a a closer look at information and we can discuss at that point whether it's the right time to uh
121determine what the premiums are or do we want to wait. We've traditionally waited to make that decision to get some data from the first quarter of 2026. That'll be a board decision as well. Um and so this has been helpful. It from what I've heard tonight. Um although we had much discussion about the $250,000 and whether or not it should stay in the the budget balancing um document, I haven't heard enough to say we're going to remove that at this point. Uh but again, that could be a discussion that comes after the can is presented February 24th and over the next couple of meetings. Um what I've heard tonight is is there's sufficient support for the budget balancing document that we provided to the board to go ahead and proceed with developing the SEO that
122you'll see February 24th recognizing again you'll we'll have another 3 weeks of deliberations to make any adjustments to that document before it be comes to the one that you'll vote on March 24th. Okay, thank you for that. um that final and then for the devices if you could also make sure that that cost includes any you know licensing usages um so we're not just talking about the Chromebooks but we're talking about any programs that we may be purchasing um additional programs of so that we have a clear picture I think that would be great um and Mr. Cummings. Yeah, just hearing you share about that made me led to me to a question if you know if there's a reduction what is what's replacing and so is there any incurred cost with what replaces the
123reduction of Chromebooks? So the Chromebooks are a resource and what teaching and learning under Dr. Goldberg and Dr. Kelly will be working on is what what would the replacement resources be? Um clearly if you if the devices are not present some of the online resources there's no reason to have right so we would look at uh I don't want to speak for them but maybe consumables or something like that which so Dr. Kelly, do you want to speak to that? I think that's a really good question, though. Just want to make sure that Good afternoon. I just wanted to make sure that everyone's aware that we do have the consumables now. So, in kindergarten, first, and second grade, all of our students have the My Books for literacy. They have the Go Math books for
124math. And the um times that they are on their devices right now are for some of the programs as Dr. Robertson had shared um like the reading programs and the math programs that we do have access to kindergarten through fifth grade, but the focus is always on the um actual print texts in the lower grades. So, we do that and we're happy to pull this information for you guys as we move forward and um we could bring that to the next meeting, but the information is always um the focus is always on the print resources in the lower grades. All right. So, it sounds like if I hear you correctly, then we'll have the price for the next meeting of what would be replacing then. Okay. Thank you, Miss Rogers. Dr. Kelly, sorry, don't run
125away. Um would it be then like uh conceivable that we may um we need um manipulatives in order to or would we just we already supply that so it wouldn't need to increase? We have manipulatives now that we use to support the um development of our students especially in math and reading all the pushets and everything that we have in place. So we wouldn't need to like get extra if we were removing our Chromebooks is my question. We have a a process just like we do with replacement for everything. So I wouldn't say we need additional for I would say that our students do use the virtual manipulatives online when they are and you you are aware of that. So that might be why you're asking this question. Just like we have hands-on manipulatives, all
126of the devices have virtual manipulatives that students engage with because by the time they do get to second, and third grade, they are taking those assessments where they're utilizing the virtual um components of that just like we have our computer science standards that the students are engaging with in kindergarten, first and second grade. So, okay. So, then I guess that would then lead me to Dr. Robertson. We would not be are are you are the two choices to eliminate completely or do carts or is it just going to be carts? We would give you choices as to whether or not and and I think I think your considerations are from what I'm hearing is you've got a K1 consideration and you have a K2 and then you bring in second grade. So is it K1
127you make a decision and then second grade you make a different decision? Yes. Yes. We you would have all that information to make that decision. But but would it be one of the choices I guess I'm asking is eliminating all together from K1 or Yes, that would be one of the choices. Okay. That's that's what I I wanted to ask. Okay. Thank you so much for all of your Can you reiterate K computer science? Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Yes, we do have from the Virginia Department of Ed, we have um K through 12 computer science standards. So, beginning in the kindergarten grade level, there are specific computer science standards. I I just want to make sure that you guys are aware of that when we're considering zero chrome, zero digital devices in the classroom versus
128a class set because they do have expectations to have um exposure to those computer science standards beginning in kindergarten. um the and they all build on each other just like every other standards do that impact course selection by the time they get to middle school and the high school level, right? Okay. So, and that's why I was saying would a choice be zero and that's why I asked. So, I guess then we're probably going to be looking more at cards. Yeah. Based upon that information, I don't see how we would be able to eliminate completely. Right. Okay. That's Thank you, Mr. Cummings. Yeah. Sorry, just for the back and forth, but um I guess I'd also want to know what the workload looks like for the teacher for, you know, if we do a reduction
129um does that increase labor, how much can we can we paper, paper costs, all those different things. Um kind of get some perspective around that as well. What the human cost is by switching up. Probably best we could do is is maybe h have a conversation with a couple of teachers. K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K K teach teachers, first grade teachers. It would we would also just consider the um textbooks that we have digital access to because we don't for specific things use the digital versions. They are they have access of them through the device. So we could definitely ask
130a few teachers and get that information to you. Okay. All right. So, it looks like we'll have that information. Okay. All right. Very good. And speaking of the 24th, our next meeting is the 24th and it is going to start at 400 p.m. With that, it is 5:52 p.m. and we are adjourned.