001Heat. Heat. Natal. All right, we call this meeting to order. Um, I will note that we're going to begin with a closed session and the workshop will begin after the closed session. Um, madame clerk, would you please announce the role? Thank you, Madam Chair. Present in the schoolboard chamber are Chair Brown, Vice Chair Williams, Mr. Kalen, Mr. Co Pepper, Mr. Cummings, Miss Dwire, Miss Felton, Dr. Green, Miss Meldick, and Miss Rogers. Thank you. Um, Mr. Bowen Steel plans to arrive at 4 p.m. Just for the record. Um, Vice Chair Rees, would you please read us into the close session? I move that the school board recess into close session in accordance with exceptions to open meetings law set forth in code of Virginia 2.2-3711 part A, paragraph 1, is amended to deliberate on the following
002matters. One, discussion, consideration or interviews of prospective candidates for employment, assignment, appointment, promotion, performance, demotion, salaries, disciplining or resignation of specific public officers, appointees or employees of any public body and evaluation of performance of departments or schools of public institutions of higher education where such an evaluation will necessarily involve discussion of the performance of specific individuals. Any teacher shall per be permitted to be present during a closed meeting in which there is a discussion or consideration of a disciplinary matter that involves the teacher and some student and the student involved in the matter is present provided that the teacher makes a written request to be present to the presiding officer or the appropriate board. Nothing in this subdivision, however, shall be construed to authorize a closed meeting by a local governing body or an elected
003school board to discuss compensation matters that affect the membership of such body or board collectively, namely to discuss a personnel matters, school board attorney's contract. Motion made by Vice Chair Williams, seconded by Miss Melnik. Any discussion? Seeing none, I call for the votes to go into close session. So, Madam Chair, we have 10 eyes. The motion did pass to go into close session. Thank you. Whereas the school board of the city of Virginia Beach has convened a closed meeting on this date pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. And whereas section 2.2-3712D of the code of Virginia requires a certification by the school board that such closed meeting was conducted in conformity with Virginia law. Now therefore, be it resolved that the school
004board of the city of Virginia Beach hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting to which the certification applies. And only such public business matters as were identified in the motion by which the closed meeting was convened were heard, discussed, or considered. All right. Motion made by Miss Dwire, seconded by Dr. Green. Any discussion? Seeing none, I call for the vote to certify close session. So, Madam Chair, we have 10 eyes. The motion did pass for certification of close session. Great. Thank you, Vice Chair Wings. I move that the school board approve amendment number two to the school board attorney's contract and authorizes legal counsel and the superintendent to take necessary action to finalize
005the amendment. Okay. Moved by Vice Chair W, seconded by Miss Wy. Any discussion? Seeing none, I call for the vote to approve the motion read by Vice Chair Williams. So, Madam Chair, we have 10 eyes. The motion did pass. Okay. Thank you. All right. We are now on to schoolboard administrative matters and reports. I have signup sheets for December 1:1 meetings with superintendent and school visits with the superintendent. I'm going to start these to the right this time. Um, also, uh, the superintendent student advisory council is December 4th at Lancetown, 3:15 to 5:00 pm. Um, our last, uh, student advisory council, Miss Melnik and Mr. Ken, attended, and just wanted to see if two board members um that haven't had the opportunity to attend this year would be interested in attending that December 4th student
006advisor. Oh, is Mr. Bow and Steel. Wasn't you? It was me and Mr. Bow and Steel. Oh, Mr. Bowensteel and I That was probably my error, not Mr. Kellen. Oh, it was okay. Okay. Um, Mr. Bowensteel and Miss Melnik um attended and so we're looking for two two folks that can attend that student advisory council. It is 3:15 to 5:00 p.m. at Lanstown on December 4th. Is that something you'd like to do? Yes. Okay. Um, so Miss Felton is available and then one other board member and if if you're interested, I guess just reach out to me or Dr. um Mr. Ken is also available. Okay, perfect. Do any other board members have anything to report? Sure. It is December 4th at Lanstown High School from 3:15 to 5:00 p.m. Miss Melnik, just a little
007late now, but um in the calendar when when we do the calendar next year and we discuss the meetings for next year, um we might consider not having a meeting on this Tuesday before Thanksgiving, if the teachers and the families, if this was their last day of if this is their last day of school next year, if we're giving that Wednesday off, it's never been off before, but um a little unfair to families who have already started their journeys. is um for the holiday. Um it's you know a lot of information we're we're being given tonight to discuss and you know people just might not even be able to tune in or participate. So just food for thought for next year. Okay. Um would you like the policy review committee to look at that since
008that's a bylaw? Um, we're I mean, if that's a bylaw, that's fine, but we've also move we've moved meetings sometimes for holidays well in advance. It's not I don't think it's a bylaw issue. I think it's a um it's let's be fair to the public and um we do it we do it quite a bit actually. Um well whatever what however it needs to be done it if we're if the teachers are finished on Tuesday we probably should not have a meeting. Okay thank you miss do any other board members have anything to report? Okay seeing none we are going to move on to our literacy update and we welcome Dr. Danielle Kawuchcci chief academic officer and Abigail Dory acting director of student services. Good afternoon, Chairwoman Brown, Vice Chair Williams, Dr. Robertson, and school
009board members. Um, I'm very happy to be here with you to share this literacy update and introduce our acting um, director of student support services, Abigail Doerty, to you. uh she is an expert in the state uh in the area of literacy instruction and we're very fortunate to have her leadership and she will do a great job this evening explaining some of the intricacies and nuances to literacy instruction. Uh since I have come to Virginia Beach and been stationed here with my husband about 12 years ago, I can say one consistent priority of this division is committing to making sure our students receive early intervention and literacy instruction and the most high quality education and literacy has been a constant priority. And so we're excited to share some of that this evening. I wanted to
010begin because I wanted to shed a little bit of light and provide context that literacy instruction is not simple. And so, um, giving a response, for example, to a parent that asks, "Is my child reading on grade level?" It seems like a simple thing, but if you know literacy instruction, that's a very complex question to be able to answer. Now, fortunately, we rely on our standards of learning that the state provides us for grade level expectations in reading, writing, research, and communication. And so, we have measures in place to be able to tell a parent if their child is meeting those expectations at the grade level in the area of those areas of literacy. But, as Dr. Luis Emotes explains uh learning to read is not a natural process for many students and it involves
011complex taught skills. And so while it may seem simple, many of us who are not trained in literacy instruction can fall to strategies like what does that picture? Can you guess the word based on the picture? Or can you guess the next word in the sentence? And those are not scientifically sound reading strategies. And so our teachers are highly trained as you know they've completed many modules per the Virginia Literacy Act over the past year. And we have also for the past five years been aligning our professional learning for teachers and our curriculum to science-based reading research. Uh reading development does does not unfold naturally by grade. Children's reading skills are distributed across a wide continuum and assigning a single grade level can really oversimplify that complex set of linguistic decoding fluency and comprehension abilities.
012So, VBCPS employs many data points to make sure we are not missing anything with our children's reading skills and their development to make sure all of our students can access grade level text, can comprehend across multiple content areas, and access um rigorous coursework across the curriculum. And so at this time, I'm going to invite Abigail Dockerty to the podium and she's going to walk you through many of those data points and how we use them to inform instruction in Virginia Beach. All right. Good afternoon. It's so nice to be here with you all. Uh to the board and the viewing public, if you ever used any of the language that Dr. Kuchi shared around looking at the picture and trying to make a guess, know that I did that too early on in my career.
013And as we've kind of learned more about how the brain learns to read, uh when we know better, we do better. So if that has been you, it has been me as well. Um so this afternoon, I'm going to provide you a brief literacy update. It's our commitment to ensure that you are aware of the work we are supporting around the implementation of the Virginia Literacy Act, specifically related to literacy assessment and data. Over the past few years, we've been providing updates related to our compliance to the VA. We want to take a moment to thank you all for your most recent support uh approving our current division literacy plan at your November 10th meeting. Um as you know the Virginia Literacy Act has brought an increased focus on early literacy and foundational skills as
014well as evidence-based practices. Tonight we will focus specifically on literacy assessments and how the data are utilized to support student achievement. As noted by Dr. Kawuchi, the 2024 English standards of learning demonstrated a commitment to raising expectations and increasing the rigor of instruction to ensure our students are able to meet the demands of the present and future world. These newly adopted standards also reflect the VDOE's commitment to implementing science-based reading research and evidence-based instruction in alignment with the VLA in Virginia Beach. Our instruction is grounded in the Virginia Standards of Learning, which are organized by large strands that are vertically articulated. The standards allow teachers to use an evidence-based approach that starts with a strong foundation, develops in a meaningful progression, and creates an intentional focus on applying skills in rigorous texts and learning experiences.
015Virginia Beach's teaching and learning framework outlines the foundation for strong instruction. Our balanced assessment system provides educators with the necessary information to elevate the teaching and learning framework through assessment data from a variety of sources. This enables them to respond appropriately. You will note that respond is what links each part of the wheel together. Educators are constantly responding to student needs by utilizing a variety of data. Today we will share a few sources of data that provide unique perspectives of our students understanding and we will share how the data are used to respond using evidence-based literacy instruction. Displayed on this table are some of the assessments that are utilized to evaluate literacy proficiency and support determining if a student is meeting grade level expectations. These assessments include screening tools such as the Virginia Language and
016Literacy Screening System or Valve that seeks to either identify students who might be at risk of experiencing reading difficulties or to pinpoint what might be the cause of an identified reading concern. We look at criterion reference assessments such as the standards of learning tests which measure student proficiency on grade level standards. And we look at norm reference tests like the NWA MAP which compares student performance to similar age and grade level peers across the nation using normed data. This robust assessment system provides multiple data points that comprise a body of evidence that can be used to analyze student literacy achievement. For those of you all that have been with us over the last decade, you have been a part of this literacy journey and truly experienced the shifts in literacy and assessment practices. So, we're
017going to begin with the standards of learning or so assessments, which are criteria and reference tests that measure a student's performance based on grade level expectations. At the September 9th meeting, the Office of Planning, Innovation, and Accountability provided an update on spring so data from the 2024 2025 school year, including literacy data. Tonight, we're responding specifically to a request for reading so cohort data beginning in third grade. Displayed here in blue are the reading so pass rates for the same group of students beginning in their third grade year which was 2021 2022 and then each year after. The most recent data from the 20242 school year reflects these students performance in sixth grade. This specific cohort of students was selected because it represents a group of students beginning in grade three whose assessment conditions were
018not impacted by the pandemic. In other words, this data demonstrates uninterrupted testing. You will note that while Virginia Beach's pass rate trends mirror that of the state, which is shown in orange, we average about 10 percentage points above the statewide average overall. An additional consideration when reviewing this data is the implementation of the 2024 English SOS which began last year in alignment to the Virginia Literacy Act without the typical opportunity for a crosswalk year. This is one of the challenges that our educators navigated last school year with the roll out of the VLA and the lack of implementation dip speaks to the caliber of their work. Data from the Virginia Standards of Learning Reading Assessment is used by multiple stakeholders for various purposes. This includes teachers in professional learning communities analyzing students performance by question
019reports to reflect on instructional practices and identify trends to adjust instruction. Schools use scaled scores as one of the m many data points to identify and place students in intervention and support each year. And in accordance with the VLA, literacy leaders, English teachers, and interventionists use students scaled scores and score ranges to identify students in grades four through eight who are required to be screened with Valve and have a student reading plan, which outlines goals for their targeted intervention. Administrative and instructional leadership teams use overall pass rates and reporting category path rates to formulate PCI literacy goals that help drive their work towards continuous improvement. In addition, at the division level, we use trend data to analyze the need for additional instructional supports, updates to the curriculum, to drive the planning of professional learning, and
020to make program evaluations. Now, we're going to move to examining an assessment option that measures risk and truly supports the foundational skills prioritized in the VA. Virginia has been a leader in literacy screening for a number of years and we are fortunate to have had PALS now VAS in place to screen students in K through two to identify potential risk and put interventions in place long before they begin so testing at the end of third grade. Vows is likely relatively familiar to you all now given that Virginia Beach participated in the earliest pilots of this new assessment tool in the 2021 2022 and 2223 school years. We were also one of the few divisions identified to soft launch the screener in 2324 providing us the opportunity to learn this new assessment tool in advance of
021its mandated statewide rollout and also to be a key stakeholder in the feedback loop with the Virginia literacy partnerships which is the office of UVA that develops and maintains valves specifically in grades K through two. Val functions as a universal screening tool, meaning that all students are assessed for potential risk. The K3 subtests assess the parts of learning to read that the brain must consolidate in order to develop grade level proficiency. This means that Valve is evaluating the individual skills that are the foundation of reading comprehension, also known as the foundational literacy skills. Students are placed in a band of risk based on their vows scaled score. It is important to note that while students in K through two are universally screened, only students who scored in the high band of risk in the spring
022of their second grade year or those who are new to Virginia are required to take vowels in the fall of third grade. This will be key as I provide you an update on the fall 2025 K through3 valves data. Displayed now are the results of K2 valves data for this fall. I'll pause to give you a moment to review. So the orange section of each bar represents students in the high band of risk who require a student reading plan and Erie or early intervention reading initiative services. I will elaborate further on how this data is used to support student literacy achievement after I review grade three data as well as four through eight vows. As previously noted, not all third grade students are screened in the fall. Only students who are in the high band
023of risk in the spring of second grade or those new to Virginia are screened. However, we recognize that many schools do elect to screen additional students to gather data to inform instruction. So, you will notice that in the bar graph on the left hand side of the screen, that total n is much smaller than you just saw in the bar graphs for grades K through two. Of the selected students screened in third grade, just under 1,000 or approximately 53% were high- risk. The bar on the right hand side of the screen shows that same group of high-risk students who when compared to all third graders represent 21% of the total third grade population. So when put in context to the entire grade level, this number is actually the same as the percentage of students in
024the high band of risk in second grade. New for this year is val 4 through 8. This assessment was added as a statewide part of the implementation of the Virginia Literacy Act. It is important to note that while this assessment includes the word screening in the title, I'm sorry, this yes, it includes the word screening in the title of the assessment, this tool is not utilized universally. So unlike Val's K2, this screening tool begins by examining the whole of reading comprehension and it's assuming that these discrete skills are already consolidated in a proficient reader. So this means that if a student is not demonstrating proficiency with reading comprehension on their reading so the prerequisite skills such as fluency, spelling, word reading, etc. need to be further examined to determine specific areas of underlying need. So
025this is different from K3. Only students in 48 who failed their spring reading so or those who passed with a readaloud or audio accommodation are required to be screened with vowels 4 through 8. This assessment then provides a deeper dive into a student's reading skills examining the subsklls that are required to be proficient. Also, unlike valves K through three, the 48 assessment does not provide an overall band of risk, but instead it gives us mastery level score ranges which are utilized to inform student reading plans, student literacy goals, and appropriate intervention placement. Val screening data is used to inform student reading plans in grades K through eight. In K through three, student reading plans are created for students who score in the high band of risk. And in four through eight, students who score in
026the basic or below basic range on the spring reading so receive a plan. Reading goals are created based on Val's subtest data and the line intervention is provided based on need. Ongoing progress monitoring is used to measure student progress and inform instructional decisions. The expansion of vowels to grades four through eight further increases that vertical articulation between primary and intermediate elementary grades as well as into middle school. Really providing teachers with both current and historical data that can be used to fine-tune instruction to support any identified gaps. To date, we have 8,160 students being supported by a reading plan. The implementation of Valve's K3 and the expansion to 48 has truly been a collaborative effort. Building leaders, literacy leaders, classroom teachers, and multiple offices across teaching and learning as well as school leadership have worked
027together over the past two years to support the roll out of vowels and student reading plans. The collaborative aspect of this work also extends to families through the communication shared related to Val's screening as well as the input that's sought for student reading plans. This prong of our balance assessment model continues to positively impact student literacy growth. The final divisionwide literacy assessment tool that we're going to examine tonight, which is used to measure and support student achievement is the NWA map. MAP data provides a norm referenced data point that compares student progress to others across the nation. At the division level, the data is used to evaluate overall trends, identify areas of strength and need, determine programmatic changes that may be needed in curriculum or intervention, and to guide resource allocation at the school and
028student levels. It helps educators set goals, differentiate instruction, and monitor progress. Data at the student level can be used in unison with other information such as classroom observations, formative assessment, vowels, and so data to truly de develop a comprehensive view of an individual students level of literacy performance. This data is used to identify instructional indicators to support in planning for intervention and enrichment or extension. As a norm referenced assessment, the NWA MAP achievement data represents students current levels of academic performance measured against national norms. During the detail update in October, MAP math data was shared. Tonight or this afternoon, I guess you will receive a reading update. I'll pause for a moment so that you can review This data displays the number of students assessed in each grade level, the median percentile rank for the
029grade level, and the achievement bands broken down by percent in each quantile. You will note if you're following down the far column on the left that the number of students assessed in grades nine and 10 are smaller than the other grades. This is due to 4x4 scheduling for English classes in grade nine and the limited use of the assessment for intervention placement purposes only in grade 10. So I recognize that this table contains a great deal of numerical data. So, I want to particularly highlight the fact that in grades three through nine, where all students are assessed, the median performance in Virginia Beach exceeds the 60th percentile in all grade levels. I hope that this literacy update illustrates the major tools that our dedicated teachers, teacher assistants, tutors, coaches, and administrators utilize to inform instructional
030decisions and monitor student literacy achievement. We used a balanced assessment model with varied data points and due to that complexity of reading that Dr. Kawuchcci spoke to, we looked at our readers progress from multiple angles. Leveraging these key measures of achievement truly help us to identify and address student specific instructional needs. We thank you for your attention and we stand by ready to answer what questions you may have. Thank you, Miss Rogers. Thank you so much for your presentation. Um, I had a question about MAPS testing. How long does it take to administer the MAPS testing? Each time it's administered and how many times throughout the year do we administer that? I'm going to defer to my executive director here. Hello. We um administer it in grades three through 10 three times a year. In
031second grade, it's two times a year. And students range it can take anywhere from 30 minutes to about an hour. That's the average. Okay. And do you do that on an individual or a group basis? The school gives it as a group. Okay. And the reason I'm asking is because I was part of the pilot as a prek teacher for our val testing and so I understand how long that takes each educator. You have to, and this is for my colleagues and for the public, you have to, every educator has to um test each child individually, and there's a three-week window three times a year to do this, which is a nine weeks of testing. Then you're adding MAPS testing on top of that. And while all of this is good data, I do have
032a concern, and I understand this is also at the state level that are we overesting our students to get these data points. how much time do we spend testing and which then diminishes our ability to then instruct. And so that is one thing that I have had my eye on for quite some time. And not that this is something that you guys can do anything about, but that perhaps our legislation can do something about is how much time it takes our educators to administer these tests for our students to get the data, which is critical for our literacy, but it also diminishes their ability to then teach the students who need it. And so we need to find a better balance because the MAPS testing is important, the valves testing is important, but people don't
033understand it is nine weeks just for the valves testing. and that is instructional time that our students don't get. And so I just wanted to make that point. And Mrs. Rogers, uh, we monitor that and agree we do not want to overassess our students. Both of these assessments are required. So you spoke to the importance of monitoring that at the state level. VA is statemandated and we are utilizing the legislation that allowed us to use NWA map as a replacement or an alternative I should say to the Virginia growth assessment the VGAs that we used to administer um and so that is statemandated as well. Um and so we are monitoring that and we'll uh continue to monitor the legislation that um may be written in the future. Yeah, I'm hoping Thank you for your
034comments. Yeah, I'm hoping we can lessen that to give our educators more time to actually spend with our students that need the help. It's great to have the data, but then if they don't have the time, it's kind of like a juosition. So, thank you, Miss Melnight. Okay. So, it begins with vowels testing, correct? In in cases of need, that creates a reading plan, you said. Okay. So, a student starts the school year with that plan and then all of a sudden it clicks and their reading has improved exponentially. Are they required to stay in the program for the full school year or can they test out? So, there's kind of two embedded questions within that. Um, the VDOE and the VA have directed us that the student reading plan is an annual plan. So
035students are qualify for student reading plan K3 based on that high band of risk in the fall. Okay. If at midyear the grade instruction that we're providing moves them out of that high band of risk, they're still required to have a student reading plan, we can adjust the goals within that plan based on what the data is now showing that student might need. Okay. Um so that's the plan piece. the intervention piece. If the student has moved out of the high band of risk into moderate or low, we have flexibility in terms of the support that we're providing them in intervention. Okay. I asked I had a child who went for PAL's testing in kindergarten and he was very shy and he would not talk to the testing the tester and um she just said
036he wrote an X for everything. I was like, "We can read, but he had to stay for a full year because he wouldn't talk to a teacher." So, um, and that's a difference between PALS and vows. Okay. Okay. So, that's the difference. Okay. Perfect. All right. Yeah. Thank you. Sure, Mr. Cummings. Yeah. Thank you so much for sharing. Um, and I'm going to ask you to go back a step and just reexlain one thing to me, which is you touched on, which was the end values on slide 10. You know, when I was looking at this deck ahead of time, I was like trying to figure out why there's two grade threes. If one was Virginia Beach, if one was a state, but just for my own sense, I know you jumped into it. Just
037walk me through who's walk me through that slide one more time. Yes. So, third grade is going to be our most inconsistent of the K3 band of testers that we have. Um because the only students that are required to be tested in third grade are those that in the spring of second grade were in the high band of risk. So metriculated to third now we have to test them or are new to Virginia and don't have existing valves data. And so we're required to screen them to get the requisite data that we might need to support them. And so what you'll notice then is that the number is much smaller for the total number of students screened. And in fact, it's more students than we're even required to screen. Because what we find in our
038schools is that this data is valuable to inform instruction regardless of whether or not we anticipate a student being on a reading plan. There's lots of great data that teachers can use to determine what needs need to be met in the classroom. And so schools will elect to screen additional students outside of the requirement. Um, and so that first bar is of the third graders that were screened where they fell in the bands of risk. And then the bar to the right puts them in the context of the entire third grade population. And so that kind of teal piece at the bottom would be the rest of the kids. They weren't screened and so they don't have a band of risk, but they comprise the bulk of third grade. Cool. That's what I thought I
039heard you say. I just wanted to make sure because that was going to be one of my questions going into this ahead of time as I was looking at the the deck. And then I I have a couple more quick questions. you know, I saw in here about interventions and I would love just to hear a little bit more, you know, we don't have to go in super ind depth, but just walk me through, say, and you could pick a grade, maybe grade two, I don't know, you're in second grade and you're in the high-risisk category. What do what do those targeted interventions look like for that for that kid? Dr. What we do is we follow as um Abby Mr. Doggery said we have Eerie intervention. So because of that eerie intervention those second
040graders that are high-risisk have to have 2.5 hours of intervention per week. So that's about 30 minutes a day. And you are aware that we have to use approved resources from the Virginia Literacy Act on the state list. And here in Virginia Beach, we actually implement SIPs. It's a specific program. So, we have our early uh literacy tutors that go into buildings at the elementary K3 level, and they would work with that second grade student based on the data that they have from the VA's intervention from collaboration with the classroom teacher and the reading specialist in the building. and they utilize that core that program for the core instruction and then make um the necessary instructional decisions based on the student reading plan that the student has and making sure that they're monitoring their progress
041and growing. Cool. Thank you so much for sharing. I was really curious to hear a little bit more. And then my final question is about the NWA map. And I'm just trying to make sense of like what's good, what's not so great in terms of like because I know what's new and what not. And so, you know, if I look at the 61st through 80th bucket and the I'm just going to say the green bucket and blue bucket and add those two together, you know, that equals what? 50. And so I'm trying to understand like is median really is that what we should be looking at when we're trying to benchmark or I don't know. I'm just trying to I'm trying to understand what I'm looking at if because we don't probably have state benchmarks
042or anything like that since it's new. But what's good and you know what's bad and how how do we feel about this assessment with what we're looking at here of the green and the blue? Well, we wouldn't say good or bad. Okay. What we would say is it is another point of data that we're using and uh one thing that we really appreciate about this as Miss Doerty said earlier is that it is a norm reference test. So this is one point that really gives us a broader picture because here in Virginia we follow the standards of learning. So all of our tests are geared towards that. This is a norm reference test. It really gives us a different glimpse of our students instead of just comparing across Virginia. This t gives us a look
043across the United States and so you know other nape assessments and things that um we also look at. So this gives us a different picture of us compared to a different set of students. So yes for us we are not uh a common core state. We're a standards of learning state. When we look at this data we're very happy that uh we are in the medium of 60 or above for third through um 9th grade. And what the way we're looking at it is we're going to be continuing to explore and examine this data. This was our first year of implementation last year. We're going to continue to look at this as a point of reference and we continue to utilize it to determine what are the overall trends we're seeing. How are we able
044to take this data at the individual student level and uh continue to utilize it as one point to support instruction as we go forward. Okay. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Yeah, just the things I was looking at and thinking about and I just jump back to slide number six when we look at our so assessments and comparing to the state and so I know that a lot of good work is being done within our schools specifically you know the results of our interventions and you know those things where we have folks spending 30 minutes a day with kids who need it and you know that has a measurable impact. So that was fun to hear about and thank you so much for all your great work with that. Miss Felton, thank you Chair Brown.
045Uh and thank you for this uh detailed data that you've given us so far and and staying with on on um slide 10. Uh my interest is uh and I like the explanation you made. You said you yet exploring and examining data to help improve our students. So I would like to know if you have the data in front of you or we could get it. What are the demographics for the uh for all students or partial student for both bar? What are the demographics? What is the gender? What is the ESL students for this particular data? I'm glad that you asked that question. I don't have that in front of me but I do want to note that we can provide that to you. But most importantly, we have Dossel here and at every
046one of our school support team meetings, I do want you to know the schools have that data in front of them and utilize that data. So, while we don't have it as part of the presentation this evening, um please know that it is uh an important part of what schools look at and what they're using to drive their decision- making in their buildings. Um but we can work to get that for you. Yeah. and for you know for all that you're doing this is a crucial time for our students especially with the when I see the so scores as well it is important that we know where we are and I love I like what you said exploring and examining data to make sure that all of our students are covered. I would like to
047have that that information. Thank you so much. Thank you. So to me, um, and I appreciate everything you guys presented and it it's great to know that we're on a good path and reading, um, is one of those things that's super important to me. And so, you know, and like I said before, until every student is able to, you know, be reading on grade level and I know that you mentioned that there's some complexities and exactly what that means and pinpointing that. But, um, we're still going to have work to do. And you know um I uh I wanted to speak a little bit uh before I asked my questions to the PALS versus the vowels and I know that um there was some question about you know are we over testing and the time
048and you know I I understand those concerns um certainly but um I have a first grader and I I also have a senior in high school. my senior in high school, I believe, was obsessed with PALS and um he was at risk when he was younger and so you know the system in place I wouldn't say that it didn't work um I don't know I haven't reviewed the data back that far here uh to see you know what the difference is between this system and the last system um but what I will say as a parent my understanding of the data and where my child is at is much much greater with what's coming um home in this new system with my daughter. Um with the bands of risk, it's just much easier for me
049to understand. I'm getting that feedback and and so I really as a parent I I do tend to like it better um personally and you know other people have communicated that to me as well that they like that a little bit better. Um my question is uh my first one is you know you spoke a little bit about the repeat reading plan and the annual plan and the support and intervention. Can you talk a little bit more about what those types of interventions look like? So you know we have a high band of high risk and we have a moderate risk. So, what would that intervention look like for somebody that's high risk? And what would we be doing for a student that's also moderate at moderate risk? Go ahead. Okay. We actually provide support
050to all of our learners, even the students that are in the low band of risk. Um, that's the core of our differentiation here in Virginia Beach City Public Schools. So you're looking at an increase maybe of the amount of time that a teacher might spend with a student in that moderate band. Um the data drives everything. So we use the data from the assessment to remediate or try to accelerate students who are not where we would consider proficient. But we also use it to extend our learners. So the intervention is an important part of it and teachers use programs and resources from the list. Um, here in Virginia Beach, we have very specific ones that you guys have approved on our division literacy plan uh to teachers and coaches have received professional learning and those
051are the the resources that are utilized to help with that supplemental and intervention instruction. But I also don't want to miss that part about the um students in low band of risk too. They still do get um additional support to ensure that all of our students are progressing forward no matter where they fall in that band of risk. Is that a little bit better? Yeah. and and I appreciate that. Um I was just I guess kind of curious specifically what types of interventions and um I appreciate that we're challenging every student where they're at to just get that little bit of extra growth. So that's that's really great information. Thank you. Um Vice Chair Williams. Yes. Um I think it's slide seven with the with the blue and red and orange all that. Yeah. Um
052so with 10th grade obviously we're testing just very few people but why do you think that we're at the 28th percentile? Because we are only utilizing this assessment for placement within a specific intervention program. So the the students that are taking the test at 10th grade have already been identified as at risk, which is why they're receiving the specific intervention. Um so it's only used for placement within that program. We're not testing um additional kids that would be all across the spectrum in terms of proficiency. And this is this is compared is this a national you said? Yes. So I I would are other places doing the same thing that we're doing only testing like for the 10th grade you know the hybrid you have no idea it would just depend on their program. So
053one of the programs that this uh assessment feeds into is read 180 and code and and that informs the read 180 teacher on the explicit instruction that they need to provide. And so they use the skills and the reports that come out of this to design their instruction, their direct instruction, small groupoup instruction, one-on-one instruction. Um, and then that also um informs the digital practice component that goes right on their level through the data that feeds from that assessment that gives them explicit practice. And so they rotate from the teacher to that um in several ways. And so that's why you see only a few tenth graders that really need that course um to remediate are being assessed. Okay. Well, I was in one of our middle schools yesterday and I got to chat with
054the reading specialist and she was so excited about the and the things that she's doing just the extra things that she's doing. Well, I mean, can I say what middle school it is? Independence Middle Eagles. And um she's just I mean she just shared with me all these extra things and incentives that she's using with the students and the students are fully engaged and she was just so excited and um so just thank you for all this. That's amazing feedback. Thank you for sharing. Yeah. Yeah. She was she she was just dynamic yesterday. So thank you. That group has worked extremely hard this year. Miss Malnik. So before I ask my question, I want to say I I really appreciated um the beginning part of of this presentation where you really talked about the science
055of reading because it really is it it really is a science and we really have evolved. I taught first grade and when you mentioned the picture I was like we were taught to do that like what do you think it is right? So um so thank you for saying that. But um back to slide five when you started talking about assessment types. The first one is the screening assessments and you said this is first used to identify students who are ex who are experienced or or are at risk. But then you also said or what is the cause? And so is that when you try to start figuring out what might be going on, but how long might that take? So valve is interesting in that it's called a screening assessment and at the same
056time it does provide some diagnostic information to help us know what the entry point is for that student. So, if you're looking at the following sides that list the subtests that either K3 or 48 assesses, um, Valves is going to give us indicators to say this is an area of concern. Sometimes that's enough. Sometimes our educators or our reading specialists need a little bit more diagnostic information. And so, I might give a quick additional 10 spelling words to be like, "Oh, she really needs to work more on these vowel teams." Right? Vowel teams is large. Vowels might say, "I need help in vowel teams. I can give you 10 more words and very quickly know where I need to start instruction. Um, and so we kind of screening in many instances can lead directly to
057instruction. There are cases where sometimes we have to do a quick additional diagnostic. Yeah, that's so important and I'm glad you mentioned all of that because again that's the science whereas in years past we might have thought it was developmental or whatever or Yeah, that I'm so glad I went back to this. Thank you for that explanation. Absolutely. Thanks. Trying to leave together. Yeah. All right. Thank you. I appreciate all of your work. Okay. We will now have an AI update and we welcome Dr. Ryan Goldberg, director of instructional technology. Good afternoon, Chair Chairwoman Brown, Vice Chair Williams, Dr. Robertson, and school board members. My name is Ryan Goldberg, and I serve as our division's director of instructional technology with the Department of Teaching and Learning. Joining me this afternoon are also my instructional technology
058coordinators. Today I will provide a brief update to you on our journey with artificial intelligence AI for the start of the 2025 2026 school year. This quarterly update is a result of a request at the schoolboard retreat. On August 11th, schoolboard members received a follow-up memo on AI co covering government, excuse me, covering government requirements, our VBCPS AI integration plan, and a progress timeline. All high school instructional staff completed a required 90minute AI session over the summer with additional training available at DLCcon and online. During teacher inservice week, staff engaged in professional learning on digital literacy, internet safety, and AI. High school students receive technology responsibilities and an AI introduction during the first two weeks of school. In partnership with DOS and DETL, staff across all levels will participate in three one-hour AI professional learning
059sessions. Elementary and middle school session number one was delivered on September 29th. Session number two will be on January 27th, and session number three will be by April 3rd. High school sessions number one and number two were completed before November 5th. Session number three will be delivered by January 27th. These sessions aimed to strengthen AI knowledge, confidence, and awareness of safety and ethics. High school students had the ability to begin engaging with generative AI on November 5th. The direction that we have continued to provide our teachers and staff is that this AI implementation year is a year of guided practice and students should only engage under their supervision for specific purposes. Implementation of AI is optional and at the teacher selected pace. While implementation of AI is optional, the professional learning is not optional. The
060message that is the message that has been shared with administrators, instructional specialists and teachers is that any AI use with students should be selective and intentional. It is not recommended for integration into every lesson and we are not encouraging AI use at a high rate this year. We also recommended teachers work with their instructional technology coach and or library media specialists as another layer of support from experts in the building. Our focus continues to be sound instruction, academic standards, and selective and thoughtful use of technology including AI. Our team is developing three professional learning sessions per level to provide highquality teacher development. These were first shared with principles for feedback, then delivered to instructional technology and library media specialists who have trained the teachers. The first session introduced teachers to current BBCPS AI guidelines and
061expectations, emphasizing ethical and purposeful AI integration. Teachers learned to assess student AI usage, distinguishing from AI resistant experiences, which discourage usage, from AI assisted experiences, which use AI as a supportive tool. The session also covered best instructional practices for each approach and strategies to ensure student disclosure when using AI. Overall, it established a foundation for responsible AI usage. This slide shows a summary of the second high school professional learning session which focused on deepening teachers understanding of AI as both a pedagogical tool and an ethical responsibility. We want to ensure that teachers understand how to use AI thoughtfully and responsibly to enhance teaching and learning. Teachers engaged in four learning activities. Verifying AI generated responses, employing lateral reading to assess for accuracy, identifying bias and AI outputs, and apply applying the ABCs of ethical use.
062The ABCs of ethical use include discussions around is this accurate? Is it biased, too narrow in scope or one-sided? and is the AI output a clear response to the prompt it was given. The image on the screen is a one-pager that was also provided to high school teachers. You also have a copy in your packet this afternoon. These practices underscore our commitment to fostering ethical awareness, critical thinking, and responsible AI engagement across our learning community. We have also provided one professional learning to both elementary and middle school teachers for this school year. Elementary and middle school students will not engage with generative AI with the exception of student use of Adobe Express School AI and notebook LM outputs. This session focused on an introduction to AI and AI literacy emphasizing responsible use that is aligned
063to our guidelines. Teachers explored the benefits and risk of using AI, focusing on how it can enhance their personal efficiency and support inclusion. The learning session highlighted practical applications for educators, recommended tools, and effective prompting strategies. The session concluded with scenario-based activities across the core content areas and a few specialty areas that provided teachers with examples of how they may use AI to support in the classroom. Elementary and middle school teachers will have two additional professional learning sessions this school year. In these trainings, we provided IT's and administrators with sample activities to help model and guide high school teachers. This slide shows a sample lesson that is AI assisted that was modeled during the professional learning for teachers. I will give you a moment to review the example. This particular activity aims to strengthen students
064reasoning by having them defend their claims. Students will first independently draft a persuasive argument and teachers will review. Then students will prompt Gemini to provide counterarguments and then use Gemini's output to revise their work to address and refute the AI challenges, ultimately building a more robust position. This activity is at a level one on the AI usage scale, meaning the teacher is giving explicit guidance on when and how to use the AI. The teacher is also monitoring student usage of AI during the entire activity. Now that we've reviewed the professional learning provided to teachers, we will transition to parent communication, information, and guardrails. BBCPS remains committed to forward- facing communication efforts, including increasing awareness and knowledge for our community. In alignment with our commitment to transparency, digital literacy, and innovation, our team has developed resources
065to help staff, students, and families understand AI's role in education. Current communication emphasizes AI literacy, responsible use aligned with division guidelines, and the potential to use AI to enhance efficiency, creativity, and instructional support. Recent initiatives include the launch of the digital literacy web page focused on AI. This site was developed in partnership with Department of Teaching and Learning, Department of Technology, Family and Community Engagement, and several parent stakeholders. The web page serves as a guide for parents with frequently asked questions, resources, policies, and guidance, and a parentfriendly version of the student usage document. This usage document is on the screen and also provided to you with tonight's papers. The site also highlights our guardrails for home and school. Now, for a brief moment, we will show you the digital literacy web page. So, this is
066the homepage that you'll come to. And if you scroll down, you'll see that there's several tabs that will take you to different landing pages, including what is artificial intelligence, how will it be used. We're going to focus on for tonight the FAQs. So, you would click on the frequently asked questions if you were a parent and then scroll down and open certain tabs of questions. These are sample questions that we received when we had one of our parent stakeholder meetings of questions they were inquiring about. Thank you. This slide shows a document that parents also have found helpful and is also included on the AIformational site. From the beginning, guardrails around AI and prioritizing student safety have been of the utmost importance. We continue to partner across several different departments, including the Department of Technology
067and family and community engagement to ensure alignment and that this remains a priority. The slide highlights an image from the website including what the school does and how families can partner with us. Please take a moment to review the slide. Now I will highlight a few of the guardrails. High school students only have access to approved AI tools and Google Gemini during their instructional day. During the school day, students are provided clear expectations on student usage of AI and are closely monitored by teachers through securely. The use of Gemini on a task is teacherdirected and by assignment only. Teachers also have access to block Gemini using securely. Google Gemini is turned off on school devices from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. to prevent unsupervised use on class assignments. As the school division continues its intentional
068approach to integrating AI, the following next steps are planned. We will complete elementary and middle school professional learning two and three along with high school session three to further develop staff capacity in the effective and responsible use of AI. The focus of these sessions is driven by feedback from teachers, staff and administrators on their needs aligned to the digital literacy and AI. We will continue to gather feedback from stakeholders including parents to inform a measured and sustainable rollout of AI practices across schools. For example, we plan to maintain ongoing outreach to parents through PTA meetings across all three levels to ensure transparent communication and methods to receive feedback. Our front-facing digital literacy page on the VB school site will continue to be updated with AI information to support families and community members. We have collaborated
069with our professional growth and innovation team to create an AI training for central office and support staff. We also plan to have a webinar with frequently asked questions for the community. Our team plans to return to the schoolboard for another update in the third quarter. Thank you for allowing us to join you this afternoon for the quarterly update. We are ready for any questions you may have at this time. Miss Melnik, thank you. While I don't have a question, I just wanted to highlight a few important things that I heard. So, the first is um high schoolers have limited access from it turns off at 3:00 and doesn't turn back on till 7 a.m. I really love that. That that's really important. Um I also love the guardrail that you have listed which is promoting
070honesty and putting that onus really on the parents to have that conversation with their kids. um as tempting as it may be, really talk about the consequences of just relying on AI and and just really honestly how dangerous that could be. Um the other is um the sample lesson that you gave. So, it it this was really a great lesson and I and I really love I I love this because I really think it strengthens the writing process that it really teaches kids that writing process writing a well-written whatever it is essay term whatever it is but really putting a bow on it and that's what I see here with AI giving the feedback and so I really appreciate um the concentration on those. And um thank you. And you look so young. Oh, thank
071you. From here, maybe it's without glasses. I was like I I said to Dr. Green, she's like she looks like she's 16. But yes, can't say that's the first time I've heard that, but thank you. We are appreciate it one day. We That's what my mom tells me too, actually. But in regards to the example, we are really appreciative of the team and actually our partnership with department of teaching and learning and all the coordinators because all coordinators had a hand in help developing these lessons to provide to teachers as sample activities. Yes. Yes. Thank you. And kids need to know the importance of doing their own work and being their own person and not only kids are smart enough not to rely on AI as tempting as it might be. Thank you, Miss Rogers.
072Thank you so much for your presentation. I am certainly one of the people during the um during the workshop at this past summer that was highly concerned about AI. So what I would like to hear more about is um the feedback and the data that you guys will be collecting from each school um to help guide the division on the AI implementation. It's really important to me that we have um a lot of feedback and a lot of understanding of what's happening at each school. Um I know that there's a lot of sitebased decision-m but we do need to have full understanding of how this is being implemented, what is working, what is not working. So can you give me more information on on the feedback process? Yes. So um we have at the end
073of every turnkey what we've done is taking a step back actually we have taken all of the turnkeys and we present them to principles first high school principles elementary and middle high school principles for the majority have given us feedback on the turnkey we then take that and we revise based on the needs after the turnkey all teachers have the opportunity to provide feedback from the turnkey um or the professional learning on a Google form. My team then analyzes that Google form and we use that to drive the steps moving forward. So, as an example, we are currently planning for the professional learning number three for high school. And a lot of the feedback said that they want more time for examples and more time to dive into the work. So, we're continuing our slow
074progress and basing the professional learning number three on that feedback from teachers. In regards to parents, if I might add that part, we will starting after this moving into the after the holidays, we will plan on going to PTA meetings and talking to parents as getting feedback on how they see it from a from a parent perspective. Do you guys have a plan on continuing the conversation with teachers after it's been introduced to students? because that I think is more of a critical area where we can plan all the things um as many different layers as we possibly can and students throw a monkey wrench into our plans and figure out a million different ways on how to um circumvent some of our best guardrail decision making. So that's where I'm kind of wondering what
075is our plan for once it's opened up to students, how will we then get that feedback into what's working, what's not. Yes. So it opened up for students on November 5th. So when we have that professional learning number three, we will get additional feedback from teachers then which that's delivered by January 27th. Okay. After that, we do plan on offering some that would be the end of their required training. We do plan on offering some optional trainings if the teachers are interested around different areas. We do certainly and we'll use our instructional technology specialist and our library media specialists to provide us feedback in the classroom from the classroom and and that I think like I said is the most important to me because again best blade plans don't always go as as we thought.
076So I just want to make sure that whatever our students are doing are not doing or are overly doing that we have a full idea of what they're doing with AI. Again, this is um it's test ground and so I just want us to be extra careful. Yes, I agree, Miss Felton. Thank you. Just a statement. Uh I appreciate this detailed presentation that you've given us, but I like what you said in the beginning. You said selective and intentional not to be in every class or subject. I do appreciate that as well. uh writing and good writing is essential. When I was at ODU, uh when students were coming in from the school, they were so concerned because they had to build a community because our students could not write appropriately that they wanted to
077coming from uh high school. So, this is going to be a good thing. It It's great to know because when I get a text from some of my uh children using SMHK, ETA, I said, "No way. What does this mean? Yes, I I went to I learned I went it was intentional for me to learn how to write and write properly. I am not going to accept SMH and ID all that. I'm not. So, they know not to write me like that. They say ah and they'll tell me what to me. Yeah. And they'll write back to me properly. But I do appreciate the the extent that you're going. Uh we were in at the Virginia School Board Association this week and it was very informative and they showed several several uh AI components that
078they could use for writing. But I'm glad we're sticking with this and just keeping it inhouse because too much at one time can be too too great of a temptation. Thank you so much for your presentation. You're welcome Dr. Green. Thank you and thank you for your presentation. I'm glad to hear that you will be engaging the community um through PTAs. Um do you have a plan yet or will it be announced later on? Um how um we have 86 schools. So re I know reasonably can't expect you to make all of them. So, are you going to do the meetings in clusters or are you targeting certain schools first? I think those are great suggestions. We have not decided that exact aspect yet, but certainly we will make sure we get um a a
079good amount of schools in different areas. Yes. All right. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Melnik. And I think it bears repeating for the public that Virginia Beach City Public Schools is not trying to be the first horse out of the gate on this. like this is state and federally mandated and um and I think that uh you're doing a good job with just being cognizant of of of where all of this can go and uh really taking control of this. Thank you, Mr. Co Pepper. I just want to catch you before you hit yours. I I I was hesitant to ask this question, but I'm going to ask it anyway. Um I I really did like your slide. Miss Meltic pointed this out, too, and I just wanted to emphasize it. I like your your
080slide about guardrails. Uh I think that's actually more developed than I would have imagined at this point. I really like it. Uh but I wanted to add that I assume you're all you're already thinking it's going to be an iterative process and that those will change and develop as we see how this uses, right? Yes. The thing that goes along with that, this is the part I was hesitant to ask in public at this stage, is have you at least considered, you don't need to tell me what it is, but have you at least considered what enforcement mechanisms might look like because inevitably I think that's going to be necessary enforcement. Yeah, I think if we had to have some conversation around enforcement, that would be in partnership with Dr. Robertson, Department of School Leadership,
081Department of Student Leadership, and have conversations there. Um, I will tell you in the short time frame since November 5th, to my knowledge, I have not heard anything about inappropriate use. Not that it's not coming. Um, we would acknowledge that it I'm sure it's coming and may be happening. We just have not heard any um scenarios, but certainly we would work together as a team to address that. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Cole. But if I can add, we did u adjust our acceptable use policy to address um expectations around this which signals and tags to our student code of conduct for any student who violates it. Okay. And it which actually highlights in a way the right column of your guard rails. I mean involving family in that I think is key to keeping us
082from ever having to worry about that problem. I mean like I said it's inevitable but the more it's minimized obviously the better. And Mr. Co Pepper I would add to that this is also I think increased prevention of unethical use because we're training in AI resistance. So English teachers already with Google in the past could you know they could craft things on Google. They have the control to turn it off in the classroom or social studies whoever's writing a response to literature or developing an essay. And so they're having to do some of that on paper pencil. And so students are because of this shift in focus to ensure they're able to do the work on their own without the device when appropriate. Um are also learning naturally that oh I better not do this
083on my phone with AI because I need to be ready in the classroom without that. And I think that's one of the benefits that will come even though we're going to be learning constantly and we're going to have to continuously evolve and adjust. Thank you. All right. So, um, one of my colleagues spoke to, you know, being one of the school board members that had concerns and, um, I am, uh, one of those board members also that is cautious and I agree a lot with what my, um, colleague mentioned surrounding the data. Um, I do have a couple of questions though um, related to slide nine, guard rails at school and home. So, when we're talking about what the school does, are we talking about um and limiting access during the school day, AI tools
084are turned off on school devices? Are we talking specifically about student devices? Yes. Okay. So, and I I appreciate that. I'm just curious if we were going to try to eliminate the possibility of unsupervised use on class assignments um in high school and high school ends at 2 p.m. Why would we turn it off at 3 p.m.? Is there a reason that 3 p.m. was selected? Yes, we try to take into consideration that there are schools that have after school tutoring that access their computers and might still need assistance with teacher supervision. Okay. All right. Um Okay. Um is there any guard rails surrounding what types of keywords students are permitted to type in? Because we haven't really, you know, talked about that that type of stuff. um any restrictions that on our end we've
085kind of done um yes so securely is going to continue to monitor based on a rubric that's been created just as it did before for um things that are typed into the chat. So security will monitor that it will flag for inappropriate content or flag inappropriate things just as it does before and it does that for all Chromebook usage. if there is a significant concern, we do have a way to access through a Google vault with department of technology um their entire process. Okay. Um and in addition to you know the data questions that my colleague had, I was curious what type of data or or information are we going to collect to see if maybe the AI is being used a little too much um in the classrooms? How are we going to make
086sure that we're safeguarding against that? Yes, I actually have some preliminary data that I'd be happy to share just on the past um usage for students in the past since November 5th and that's something that my team tracks frequently and we look at and we monitor along with the applications that students are accessing not just with AI. So, in just the again since in just November since since just November 5th, excuse me. Um there's been for there's been five to nine active days for 1,800 students, two to four active days for 3,600 students. But overall, if you're looking at just in general, how many prompts a student is making. So, if you take for example Google Gemini, the only thing they have access to, how many prompts are these kids putting into Gemini? There are
087200 to 499 prompts would be 69 students. 50 to 1999 prompts is 1,79 students. 10 to 49 prompts is 3,500 students. And then 1 to nine prompts is 3,940 students. So you can see the majority of our students are prompting under 200 prompts since that start. So we are very pleased with those numbers. Okay. Um, can I get you to email that to the board as well so that we have those because there's a lot of numbers. So, I appreciate that and I'm glad that we're able to have that level of um data available to continue to monitor. So, I'm happy to hear that you have that. All right. Thank you. I don't see any additional questions. Thank you. Vice Chair Williams, would you please read us into close session? I move the school board
088recess into close session in accordance with the exceptions to open meetings law set forth in code of Virginia 2.2-3711 part A paragraph 7812 is amended to deliberate on the following matters. Seven, consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members or consultants pertaining to actual or probable litigation where such consultation or briefing at open meetings would adversely affect the negotiating or litigating posture of the public body. For the purpose of this subdivision, probable litigation means litigation that has been specifically threatened or on which the public body or its legal council has a reasonable basis to believe will be commenced by or against a known party. Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to permit the closure of a meeting merely because an attorney representing the public body is in attendance or is consulted on the
089matter. Eight, consultation with legal counsel employed or retained by a public body regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel. Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to permit the closure of a meeting merely because an attorney representing the public body is in attendance or is consulted on a matter. 12. information related to the negotiation and award of a specific contract where competition or bargaining is involved and where the release of such information would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public body. Such information shall not be withheld after the public body has made a decision to award or not to award the contract. In the case of procurement transactions conducted pursuant to the Virginia Public Procurement Act, the provisions of this subdivision shall not apply and
090any release of information relating to such transactions shall be governed by the Virginia Public Procurement Act, namely to discuss A unsolicited PPE offer, B status of pending litigation or administration cases, C consultation with legal counsel regarding probable litigation and pending litigation matters. Okay. Motion made by Vice Chair Williams, seconded by Mr. Co Pepper. Any discussion? Seeing none, I call for the vote to go into closed session. Miss Felton, how do you vote to go into closed? Thank you, Madam Chair. We have 11 eyes. The motion did pass to go into close session. Thank you. Why? Hey. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. Hey, hey, hey. Whereas the school board of the city of Virginia Beach has convened a closed meeting on this date pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in
091accordance with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. And whereas section 2.2-3712 of the code of Virginia requires a certification by the school board that such closed meetings was conducted in conformity with the Virginia law. Now therefore, be it resolved that the school board of the city of Virginia Beach hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting to which the certification applies and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion by which the closed meeting was convened were heard, discussed, or considered. Okay. Moved by Miss Dwire, seconded by Dr. Green. Any discussion? Seeing none, I call for the vote to certify close session. Mr. Ken, how do you vote?
092Thank you, Madam Chair. We have 11 eyes. The motion did pass for a certification of close session. All right. Thank you. It is 5:28 p.m. and we will reconvene at 6 p.m. for our formal session and we are ajourned.