001chair of the Virginia Beach School Board and I call this meeting to order at 6 PM on this 24th day of 2025 um Madame Clerk at this time would you please announce the role thank you Madam Chair present in the schoolboard chamber are Chair Brown Vice Chair Williams Mr bowensteel Mr ken Mr cummings Miss Dwire Miss Felton Dr green Miss Melnik and presently online is Miss Rogers and Miss Rogers for the record can you explain why you're zooming in and your location uh I'm in Savannah Georgia on a family vacation thank you thank you and Mr co Pepper is on his way and we'll be here shortly um would you please join me in a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of
002America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right now ladies and gentlemen and students we're ready to recognize we've got lots of recognitions tonight of some great things that have been happening in our schools and and on our athletic fields so Miss Dwire would you please begin thank you good evening everyone our first recognition this evening is for Hampton Roads Workforce Council's top 20 under 20 will those students please come forward we just have a few tonight so I am going to read all the names though just a few are present the Hampton Roads Workforce Council honored eight students from several BB CPS high schools for their commitment to serving the community entrepreneurial endeavors leadership and academic achievement please join me in
003celebrating Ammani Morrison a dynamic a dynamic young leader whose innovative initiative and service set her apart as vice president of the future business leaders association and a standout in Kentville High School's entrepreneurship and business academy Ammani has led successful ventures earned top honors in social media strategy and secure and secured startup funding for her studentrun business let's recognize Bayside High School's Andrew Michael Jakabowski a true example of entrepreneurial spirit academic excellent and servicedriven leadership from running a toprated eBay business to learning over 440 to earning over 440 volunteer hours that's a lot andy leads with purpose he's a varsity soccer athlete and president of the math honor society let's honor Lanstown High School's Duke Trunk a brilliant scholar STEM innovator and servant leader with a 4.24 GPA eight tap courses and a 1420 SAT score
004you heard that right duke is an AP scholar with distinction NASA hunch state semifinalist and the founder of AP Dukeology a nonprofit helping students succeed in AP classes meet Lance Towns Jamaima Dison a driven leader and the current president of the school's FBLA chapter jamaima has competed in numerous FBLA events qualifying for the state's leadership conference each year she's committed to her community and has been recognized on the honor role and principal's list multiple times kylie Ward is a dedicated student at Chemville High School where she excels both academically and athletically as captain of the lacrosse team she earned all region honors a standout in entrepreneurship and business academy kylie competed in a Shark Tank style pitch and serves her community as a preschool leader and youth worship team member at her church awesome lancetown
005High School's Zavian Gaines is a young leader who exemplifies perseverance creativity and service last summer he interned with Operation Smile one of my favorites and from that connection he created the STEM Festival fundraiser for his school zabion has earned accolades for his work as a lead engineer in the Old Dominion University digital ship building competition meet Ocean Lakes High School's Dylan Mock a visionary researcher and problem solver already making waves in biomed engineering and environmental health his projects range from a lowcost arthritis device to a cutting edge non-invasive glucose monitor wow his latest innovation Hurb Health connects urban planning to community health and earned him a paid internship with the Virginia Department of Health ocean Lake High School's Mahi Zakuri I hope I said that right sakur Mahi Sakurpe is a techsavvy leader who founded
006Maui's magical math to teach problem solving and number sense to elementary students mahi's commitment to service is equally remarkable from fulfilling holiday wish lists for seniors through Silvertree Seniors to earning the prestigious presidential volunteer service award for over 200 hours of community service all amazing let's congratulate all these students we are so proud of you all right our next recognition is the VHSL state champion for extemporaneous speaking please welcome Norgie we are proud to recognize Nor for her outstanding achievement in capturing first place in exemporaneous speaking at the VHSL state speech tournament nor demonstrated exceptional poise quick thinking and articulate delivery in this challenging category where students are given a limited amount of time to prepare a well ststructured speech on a current event topic her success at the state level is a testament to
007her dedication critical thinking skills and ability to communicate complex ideas under pressure congratulations Nor we are proud of you our next recognition is for VHSL class 5 state debate champions please welcome the debate team from Princess Anne High School give it up for them the Princess Anne High School debate team followed up a strong season with six students qualifying for the state tournament at James Madison University senior Reagan McGroth and Deny Hassan led the team in round after round of outstanding matches against the other division teams maya Sproul won all seven rounds of the Lincoln Douglas event to take undefeated first place in the division i know that's right teammates Ara Ranski and Ly Konu Coutour let me get that right won the top spot in the public policy division with Lily taking the top
008public speaking award strong performance by Reagan in student congress and teammate Deny Hassan and Ava Walters in public policy countered the team to the top spot to win division state champion sweet give it up give it up come on congratulations team we are proud of you our next recognition is for an amazing track athlete from Bayside High School please welcome Andrew Salvadon andrew we are proud to celebrate Andrew a recent graduate from Bayside High School who has capped off an extraordinary high school track and field career as the 2025 class 5 state champion in both the 200 meter and 400 meter dash andrew won the 200 meter with a time of 21.74 seconds and the 400 meter with an outstanding time of 46.18 seconds over the past four years Andrew has compiled an exceptional list
009of of accomplishments his freshman year he set the Bayside High School record in the 400 meter dash with a time of 50.75 seconds his sophomore year he improved to 48.5 seconds in the 400 meter and clocked 35.2 seconds in the 300 meter dash his junior year he continued to rise with a 47.8 second 400 meter and 22.1 second 200 meter dash and his senior year personal bests in the 400 meter 46.44 in the 200 meter 21.84 listen to this andrew also made national headlines during the indoor season setting a new high school indoor record in the 500 meter dash with a blazing time of 1 minute 1 minute 49 seconds surpassing the previous record held by Olympian Quincy Wilson this time ranks as the eighth fastest performance in US high school indoor history andrew's performances
010have firmly established him among the nation's elite high school sprinters as a result Andrew has earned a commitment to continue his athletic and academic journey at the University of South Carolina in the fall congratulations Andrew we are really proud of you our next recognition is for additional track athletes from Bay Bayside High School please welcome the VHSL class 5 state champion 4x 100 meter relay team we are proud to recognize the members of the 2025 class 5 state champion boys 4 by 100 meter rele and they are Haleem Hardnett Brienne Hardnett Kyrie Rams and Elijah Willoughby haleem who could not be here with us this evening um because he is already at Virginia Military Institute um his brother is here and is accepting his award a dedicated four-year member of the boys track team Haleem
011has competed in the high jump 100 meter 200 meter and 400 meter dash tonight marks his third school board recognition for his outstanding athletic achievement yeah go ahead mama bion a junior made an impressive debut this season in his first year on the outdoor track team he competed in the long jump 100 meter 200 meter and 400 meter dash as well as the 4x400 meter state champion relay bion will return next season and is expected to continue his strong performance kyrie a sophomore is being honored by the school board for the first time this evening he contributed to the team's success by competing in the 100meter 200 meter and 400 meter dash events elijah a sophomore is receiving schoolboard recognition for the second time this year elijah competed in the long jump 100 meter 200
012meter and 400 meter dash showcasing his versatility and commitment to the team the team is coached by Thaad Harold Keon Britt and Warren Salvadon congratulations team i have no doubt we're going to be seeing you back again we're proud of you our next recognition is for the Virginia High School League class 5 baseball state champions please welcome Ocean Lakes High School ocean Lakes High School won their first state baseball title over Cox High School by a score of two to one on June 14th in a thrilling game that went to nine innings at Deep Run High School the team members are Adrien Alakon Senko Auggins Aiden Benson Bochnell Michael Buyers George Casher Liam Chow Austin Shu Luke Ellison Ryan Goio Daniel Hamilton Gregory Hamilton Ryland King Turner Cool Leland Lond Jeremiah Mos Benjamin Manasses Brady
013Nagel Donovan Nagle Traymond Pleasant Massie Brentland Powers Rowan Powers Devon Renshaw Aiden Silleski Grayson Walsh Zachary Waterman Emerson Woodward we'd also like to recognize the head coach Pete Zel the JV coach Ryan Anderson and assistant coaches Nick D napolei David Gmerson and AJ Buckland congratulations team we are proud of you go boys i would like to add one thing though it's my opinion that Virginia Beach has the two best high school state baseball teams go Dolphins that's right and this concludes our school board recognitions for the evening bye Pete give a kiss for me okay that brings us to the adoption of the agenda are there any modifications to the agenda as presented um Vice Chair Williams um yes I know we had the VSBA on um information a couple weeks ago so I would
014like to add that to the consent agenda so it would be GVSBA membership because I believe we need to vote on that okay um and I am going to um share that um that was either a miscommunication it was definitely an oversight on my part and so I apologize for that um are there any objections to adding it the membership is due on uh the 30th of June Miss Melnik so no discussion is that what you're saying i mean I'm fine if there was no discussion on information so I just assume nobody had discussion but we can it doesn't matter so somebody is allowed to still move it when we get to the consent agenda at that point if they want to because they say any objections to the consent agenda as presented so do
015you would you rather add it to action i'll be glad to change my amendment if anybody wants discussion and add it to action do I see any nods okay um I would like to amend the agenda to add the VSBA membership to action so it would be 15D okay thank you thank you any other modifications as presented seeing no more um modifications um Miss Dwire has motioned um to adopt the agenda as modified is there a second i think I'll need a raise of hands because my voting board is already um motioned by Miss Dwire seconded by Miss Williams any further discussion seeing none I call for the votes to approve the agenda as modified mr rogers how do you vote for the adoption of the agenda as presented and modified i vote yes thank
016you okay so Madam Chair we have 11 eyes the motion did pass for the adoption of the agenda as presented and modified thank you and I will turn it over to Dr robertson for the um superintendence report and recognitions thank you Madam Chair uh good evening uh Madam Chairwoman members of the board here are a few items of interest for you and our families i'm sure those of you who attended our graduation ceremonies were as proud and thankful as I am for our graduates and the work of our staff our seniors who had the privilege to speak at the graduations told us they feel wellprepared to face what lies ahead with confidence borne by their hard work discipline and encouragement they also noted a strong sense of belonging and support along the journey and listen
017to these impressive preliminary statistics about our 4,980 graduates 61.3% of our students or 3,52 students graduated with honors 17.2% of our students or 858 students graduated with above a 4.0 GPA 3,768 students or 76% of our graduates will be attending a two or four-year college in the fall the amount of scholarships this school this year's class accepted increased by over 9% to 62 million784,396 compared to last year and they were offered an astounding 115,547,6 in scholarships great things lie ahead for us in this school division and community i'm excited to raise the bar once again next year with the class of 2026 just before the school year ended about 150 of our third fourth and fifth graders were rewarded for improving their schoolwork this year by attending the Oceans of Success field trip at the
018Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center on June 6th i congratulated the students as they entered the building along with uh local attorney Jeffrey Bright at the aquarium they met Forest a six-foot long eastern indigo snake who eats mice about twice a week they learned that Hector the harbor seal likes to swim on his back at the top of his tank so he can see what's in the water below him many of the students had never been to the aquarium and they were captivated by what they saw and again I'd like to thank the law firm of Bright Benny Ozen thank you for that and retired Virginia Beach Circuit Court Judge Thomas Shadric for making this enriching experience possible the Virginia Beach Education Foundations and its partners came up with a new way to provide families
019with summer fund while supporting innovative projects for our teachers on the first weekend of summer break sea summer solstice featured giant water slides inflatables interactive games live music food trucks and more more than $11,000 was raised for the foundation's grants and programs including beach bags which provides meals to students in need across our division special thanks to the event's primary host Frogman's Party Reynolds and the title sponsor My Gym Children's Fitness Center for partnering with the foundation this effort and finally on June 17th we had the privilege of celebrating the careers and contributions of our newly retired staff at a heartfelt event hosted by the Department of Human Resources surrounded by colleagues families and friends over 100 retirees attended and were honored for their years of service dedication and the lasting impact they've made on
020our students and staff in Virginia Beach City Public Schools each retiree leaves behind a legacy of excellence compassion and commitment to public education as they embark on the next exciting chapter of their lives we offer our deepest gratitude and warmest wishes for the journey ahead whether they plan to travel relax or continue to give back in new ways we know they carry the spirit of Virginia Beach B City Public Schools with them so congratulations to our retirees and thank you for shaping futures one day at a time thank you Madam Chair this concludes my report okay thank you and we look forward to your recognitions as well yes I have some recognitions so we are pleased tonight to announce that you've uh approved several of our recommendations up first is Katherine Gazinski formerly an admin
021assistant at Virginia Beach Middle School and we're pleased you've accepted our recommendation for her to be the next assistant principal at Old Donation School and I see you have some guests congratulations next up we have Christina Lang formerly an admin assistant at Bayside High School and we are pleased that you've accepted our recommendation for her to be the next assistant principal at Bayside Middle School and I see you have some guests yeah congratulations so next up is Dr whitney Zoke who we're pleased that you've accepted our recommendation she was formerly the assistant principal at Bayside High School for her to be the next principal at Larksburg Middle School and I know you have some guests yes congratulations and then finally uh we're pleased that you've accepted our recommendation for Dominica Worsley formerly a health services
022nursing specialist in the office of student leadership to be the next coordinator of health services in the office of student leadership congratulations and I see you have some guests that's awesome so to all the families we certainly appreciate uh you being here tonight and uh we appreciate the support you will give to your your colleagues and friends and spouses over the next several years in this journey of administration they're incredibly important to our success and we're happy to have them thank you thank you and we are now on to the approval of the meeting minutes there are two sets of meetings minutes tonight to vote on the first set is the June 3rd 2025 special schoolboard meeting minutes are there any modifications to the June 3rd special schoolboard meeting minutes as presented seeing none I
023call for the motion to approve the June 3rd 2025 special school board meeting minutes moved by Mr kalen seconded by Miss Dwire any discussion seeing none I call for the vote to approve the June 3 meeting minutes and Miss Rogers how do you vote on the approval of the meeting minutes from June 3rd i vote yes thank you Madam Chair we have 11 eyes the motion did pass for the approval of the minutes from June 3rd thank you we are now on to the June 9th 2025 regular schoolboard meeting minutes are there any modifications to the June 9th meeting minutes as presented seeing none I call for a motion to approve the June 9th 2025 regular schoolboard meeting minutes is presented motion made by Miss Dwire seconded by Vice Chair Williams any discussion seeing none
024I call for the vote to approve the June 9th 2025 schoolboard meeting minutes and Miss Rogers how do you vote for the June 9th meeting minutes i vote yes thank you Madam Chair we have 11 eyes the motion to pass for the approval of the June 9th meeting minutes thank you very much that brings us to the public comment portion of our agenda the school board will now hear public comments on matters relevant to preK through 12 public education in Virginia Beach and the business of the school board and the school division from delegate citizens and delegations who signed up with the schoolboard clerk prior to noon today the purpose for the public comment section is for the school board to offer an orderly form to receive public comments during the schoolboard meeting i call
025upon all speakers and all persons in the chambers to be civil in discussion and decorum whatever views you wish to express the schoolboard wants to hear from you and to ensure that all viewpoints and perspectives are heard the best way to do this is for all of us to strive for civility and respect madame clerk would you please introduce the first speaker thank you Madam Chair our first speaker is Cody Connor then Heather Cyp then Dawn reading writing and arithmetic is what matters most in your schools reading writing and arithmetic is what matters most not diversity equity inclusion because reading writing and arithmetic is what matters most but when you read the writing and you do the math you learn that social and emotional well-being is what's more important to a person's success because reading
026writing and arithmetic is what matters most said no parent ever speeding towards a lockdown school hoping to see their child run out of it hands up traumatized but alive because reading writing and arithmetic is what matters most said no parent ever as they consoled their crying bullied child and tried to explain to them that the way they look shouldn't matter but does because reading writing and arithmetic is what matters most said no parent ever as they filled out the paperwork to have their child admitted into the psychiatric care unit because reading writing and arithmetic matters most said no parent ever as they rolled their overdosing child onto their side to prevent them from choking and begged the ambulance to hurry because reading writing and arithmetic said no teacher ever standing in a grocery line spending
027their own money on snacks to hand out to students that they know will stand show up to class hungry because reading writing and arithmetic is what the school board says matters most unless it's the wrong book the wrong color from the wrong country using the wrong name or the wrong pronoun or the wrong bathroom on the wrong sports team unless it doesn't add up the way you want because reading writing and arithmetic is what matters most in your schools my child stopped learning but in homeschool my child stopped selfharming do those scores count the absence of scored skin reading writing and arithmetic is what matters most chisel it into the tombstone of each lost child then look me in the eyes and tell me one more time what matters most our next speaker is Heather
028Cy good evening Chair Brown Vice Chair Williams members of the school board and Dr robertson my name is Heather Cyp and I am president of the Virginia Beach Education Association as a mother of a blended family of six with my youngest being 17 and the oldest being 21 and with 23 years of experience at the middle and high school level I am here to talk about allowing our students to keep their phones during one lunch at the high school level a lot of experience with teenagers a lot of them in my own house they need that time to learn proper time and proper place if our legislators intended for us to completely prohibit they would have used the word prohibit it appears over 8,000 times in Virginia code when they intend to prohibit they use
029the word prohibit they chose to use the word restrict this gives you the flexibility to do what is best for our students that is age and developmentally appropriate it is age and developmentally appropriate to allow our high school students to learn time and place use for their electronic devices i know firsthand how hard it is to keep it out of their hands in the classroom and I love the fact that we are limiting it and saying you cannot use it in the classroom but for those 50 minutes in the day for them to have a chance to listen to their music and decompress to check their schedules for those wreck teams that they can't get those notes for them to be able to check in with mom who's sick for them to be able to
030go "Oh I now have to go get my younger sibling." for those 50 minutes than being able to have those devices and learn proper time and place as we are educating them to be young adults in a productive society and to know when and where and how it is our job to allow this for them thank you our next speaker is Don Newman good evening Chairwoman Brown Vice Chair Williams Dr robertson and members of the board my name is Don Yum i'm a high school math teacher and resident of Virginia Beach i come tonight to address the cell phone policy the policy directly impacts me and honestly I am annoyed that elected officials or appointed attorneys who are not in the classroom have so much impact on the decisions involving cell phones i agree teens
031are addicted to their phones and I agree it's unhealthy i do not believe it is the job of the school system to solve this issue responsible phone use begins at home as a school division we are essentially trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube and is an exercise in insanity and overwhelmingly exhausting task for teachers and administrators the manpower spent addressing cell phone violations would astound you every cell phone violation that is documented requires a written referral that takes at least 5 minutes to write some schools requires teachers to call parents when a referral is written so that takes additional time time that impacts a teacher's planning bell or non-contract after school time in preparation for this evening I reached out to several administrators for information i learned that on average school administrators
032process 25 to 35 cell phone referrals per day and it can take approximately 10 minutes to process the referral on the conservative side it is 8.3 hours a day encumbered by cell phone discipline my high school has 2,200 students delivering a quality education that is rigorous and engaging is challenging enough additionally school safety is a paramount concern keeping 2,200 students safe at lunch and in the halls during transition is no easy task adults in schools spend a lot of time on tasks that have nothing to do with reading writing arithmetic cell phone violations add even more work to those already overworked restrict and prohibit mean two different things if you prohibit the use of cell phones all day to include lunch the number of referrals will increase and even more manpower will be spent on
033this task have you ever tried to shovel snow while it's snowing it's feudal i urge you to keep our current cell phone policy allow high school students to use them at lunch if you decide to completely ban cell phones and prohibit them then a divisionwide schoolboard policy that sets a stern consequence with a real sting must be established the consequence cannot be sightbased and it should not impact individual school budgets no matter when the infraction occurs administrators should be allowed to confiscate the phone secure it in a locked safe in the office and mandate that parents pick up the phones at 3:00 on Friday no other day if you want cell phone use to go away at the high school level you need to make the punishment sting for both teens and parents do we
034want to teach students do we want to keep them safe or constantly nag and discipline them about cell phones will a cell phone at lunch be the worst thing ever where was your cell phone today at lunch where is your cell phone now madam Chair we're going to move on to our online speaker Julie Bentley Sykes please unmute thank you members of the board for granting me these three minutes to speak on behalf of my son Joshua Sykes also known as Joshy josh was an 11year-old boy whose lack filled every single room he entered he had autism and intellectual disability and heart grimming with love on October 31st he experienced head trauma in a makeshift seclusion room constructed in Pinrook Elementary CEP in the early hours of November the 3rd his bright light went out
035alone in his bed and unheard and unseen suffering a seizure that no one noticed in time seclusion is not a neutral tool it is isolation that strips away human connection heightens anxiety and can turn a manageable behavioral crisis into a lifethreatening emergency such as in Josh's case are children like Josh who communicate through actions and subtle cues versus words blocking them away can mean they are literally shut off from help my son's death certificate lists seizure disorder as the cause but make no mistake it was seclusion and a lack of intervention that robbed him of the chance for immediate care that left him unable to call out for help for almost three hours his head hit the wall at school with no intervention from anyone and I only learned so after his death i never
036had the opportunity to seek medical care for my child behind every statistic is a child with dreams and nicknames and favorite songs a child like Joshy seclusion doesn't teach it traumatizes it denies children the dignity that they deserve and places them at risk of physical harm sometimes worse as we have tragically and horrifically experienced schools exist to educate and protect not to lock away our vulnerable children until someone remembers they're still there at the end of the day whenever it's time for them to go home that's why tonight I urge you to abolish seclusion in every Virginia Beach school replace it with proven compassionate strategies positive behavioral supports deescalation techniques sensory rooms supervised by trained professionals and staff equipped to honor each child's unique needs let every student know know that they are seen heard
037and valued we must choose empathy over isolation prevention over punishment and above all the safety and well-being of our most vulnerable learners for Josh's memory and for every child who walks through Virginia Beach school halls please end seclusion now give them the care and the respect that they deserve no innocent child deserves to lose their life and no parent should ever have to lay their child to rest due to the negligence of others thank you our next speaker is Kim Mayo please unmute good evening my name is Kim Mayo i'm very sorry to the previous speaker um I'd like to address gifted committee recommendations on tonight's agenda often public speakers introduce themselves as graduates of Virginia Beach schools i went to Actton Boxboro recently ranked in the top 320 of all US public high schools
038and I appreciate that most schoolboard members did not attend VBCPS which gives you broader perspective remember you should all be disruptors clutching red pens and not rubber stamps mrs brown and Williams had the good sense to reject the five-year gifted plan which didn't do much for regular schools melinda Rogers also seems well-versed on gifted ed based on her public comments before she was elected my first point is about the budget ods is not a private boarding school and shouldn't get anywhere close to 57% of the $20 million gifted budget while serving roughly 11% of the gifted population per year 2024 retreat regarding number one regarding GCAC proposed funding for gifted temporary employment staff I agree schools with high numbers of gifted should have multiple GRTs but why not permanent staff you can come back at
039ODS or elsewhere i look forward to hearing Allison and Crystal's presentation tonight number two schools with no lumber schools with low numbers of gifted kids are focused on tutoring and bringing the bottom up and are not ideal environments for gifted learners no child should be stuck in a school that doesn't fit their needs all of the aspirational coaching and mentorship doesn't mean much if the system is broken we experience this at our zoned elementary so want to be candid number three all ODS fifth graders should be retested to earn their place for the entry point of sixth grade to create opportunity for others alli Krug chair of GCAC gifted council is outstanding school board should out should engage her and leverage her expertise i've learned from national thought leaders on roundts she hosts dr crystal
040Wilkerson inherited a mess when she started but she seems capable also thanks for letting me share my thoughts as a parent and taxpayer and Madam Chair that was all our speaker for this evening okay thank you very much and thanks to everybody that came out to speak um we are now on information A interim financial statements and we welcome Daniel Hopkins director of business services i don't think that was me good evening Chair Brown Vice Chair Williams school board members Dr robertson as of May 31st the overall revenue trend remains acceptable at this point in the fiscal year state revenues are acceptable at this point in the fiscal year but will be favorable by the end of the year based on the final governor's budget the state revenue will be over budget due to the
041state sales tax increase of 2.3 million state basic aid will then decrease by 1 million based on our composite index and the SOQ bonus we received of $6.5 million federal revenues are showing a favorable trend as of the end of May we have received federal impact aid payments of approximately $14.6 million other sources of revenue through the month are favorable at this point in the fiscal year even though they are favorable to budget they are down still down about $400,000 mainly due to the stop arm enforcement program the next graph shows that the sales tax receipts are an acceptable level vdoe is reporting we'll have a slight increase in sales tax compared to the CL tool and they will not adjust the base state basic aid as a result of this surplus year to date
042through May we are approximately $800,000 higher than the same time last year the last graph shows that the expenditures and incumbrance trends remains acceptable at this point in the fiscal year i'll be glad to take any questions okay is there any hands raised Madame Clerk okay i don't see any thank you very much thank you and so our next one is the gifted community advisory committee 2425 report and we welcome Dr crystal Wilkerson director of K through 12 and gifted programs and I'm sure you'll introduce the chair of the gifted cip i'll allow you to do that thank you okay good evening school board chair Brown Vice Chair Williams school board members and Dr robertson i'm Crystal Wilkerson director of K12 and gifted programs and I'm here this evening to present the gifted community advisory
043committee's annual recommendations joining me tonight is the uh current chair of the GCA Mrs allison Krug along with members of the gifted leadership team the coordinators Mrs booheropoulos and Mrs scott community advisory committees support school divisions by providing feedback and offering community perspectives the gifted advisory committee per Virginia code has two key roles which are to review the local plan according to I'm sorry I just lost my place no it's up it's down here um the gifted advisor committee per the Virginia code has two key roles which are to review their local plan including any revisions and to provide the administration and school board with an annual report containing feedback related to the implementation of the five-year plan for the previous year vbcps engages with the gifted community advisory committee or GCAC in many meaningful
044ways beyond their two required responsibilities as we value their partnership and community voice when we plan and develop practices to support our gifted learners displayed here you can see just a few of the outcomes from the VBCPS and GCAT partnership throughout this school year in response to these GCAC 2324 recommendations the Office of Gifted Programs partnered with key departments and stakeholders to support the local plan evaluation and their advisory work this evening Mrs krug our GCAC chair is here with me to provide GCA's review and recommendations from this school year thank you so much of course good evening board it's really nice to see you again and uh it's certainly a hot day so it's nice to be here with you um so there are five recommendations i'll keep them brief uh the very first
045one I brought little graph just so you can see what it is we're talking about and I'll leave this with Crystal i'll leave that with you so we can talk about that later um so the first recommendation is one of my favorite subjects it pertains to using data to understand our population because when we have good data we can make good decisions so the first one is continue to strengthen partnerships between the GCAC and the district offices which has been a wonderful partnership this year to identify meaningful outcome measures to evaluate the extent to which the local plan is implemented with integrity and fidelity and that was one of our two responsibilities so to support you the school board in determining if the local plan is implemented it's very helpful to have a suite of
046data indicators that will let us know how are we doing for instance where are the kids the gifted kids where are they starting brought you a little graphic that I did in 2012 that was some years ago back in Banebridge Island but gives you a sense of these are first graders through sixth graders and this shows you where they're starting compared to national norms and so you could see for instance we have fourth graders who are ready for fifth grade math they're already doing fifth grade math so I'll leave this with Crystal and I'm happy to walk through this but the red lines are national norms for the median inside the boxes are 50% of the kids so inside the box is half of that class and then the whiskers are 25% on either side
047so you can see where the outliers are you can see we have 10 fourth and fifth graders ready for high school math so with the map data that you currently have which is such a great move thank you so much for investing in that you can create graphics like this to help you understand who your population is and how you can best serve them so that's number one and that's what the GCAC is looking forward to developing is a suite of indicators that are meaningful to you okay so that would require partnership with the GCAC and with the division offices and perhaps research to see what's reasonable what you already have let's not spend a ton of extra money but you have map data and it's good data number two is continue to communicate essential
048gifted resource teacher responsibilities to administrators to ensure strategic assignment of duties and align efforts and responsibilities to meet the goals outlined in the 2024 to 29 local plan for the education of the gifted so that's a focus on supporting the GRTS number three continue to advocate for the implementation and bridging of rigorous best practices and gifted pedigogy between ODS in all elementary and middle middle school gifted resource cluster classes so this is looking to satisfy the state requirements for gifted instruction which includes advanced content and pacing of instruction original research or production problem finding and solving higher level thinking that leads to the generation of products and a focus on issues themes and ideas with within and across fields of study so essentially that's best practices let's bridge between ODS to the clusters and from
049the clusters to ODS let's scale what's working well and you can use that map data I just talked about to find out which schools have gifted kids who are growing that is hard to do it is really hard to do unless you have the right curriculum and you have teachers who are capable of high quality differentiation it is really hard to grow a gifted kid if they're already starting a year or two ahead of the u materials that are available in the classroom number four this is again related to service prioritize staffing allocations for GRTs and differentiate based on the number of gifted identified learners including approving funding to provide gifted temporary employment staff to support the unique needs of schools such as Renaissance Academy schools with Spanish immersion programs and schools with exceptionally large
050numbers of gifted identified students we have several of those with 20% or more identified gifted and that means it is a lot of work for the GRT to process the applications and reach and extend those students and do the pull outs that we're doing number five provide additional coaching and support for schools that have lower rates of identification for intellectually gifted students and this is where your GCAT can be very very helpful with deep knowledge and expertise for what's working based on the site visits so thank you very much for your time i appreciate your attention and again I will leave this with Dr wilkerson please reach out with any questions that you have i am always available and very interested in supporting you all i have a senior in high school but my interest
051in high quality education here in Virginia Beach will not quit once he leaves so thank you for your time the Office of Gifted Programs acknowledges the five recommendations provided by the GCAC and we're so thankful for the time and commitment that they give to providing our division with their voluntary support displayed here are some of the anticipated dates for the upcoming school year's GCAC meetings the new chair and co-chair will lead the newly elected committee to determine any additional meeting dates which will be posted on our division's website all meetings will be held at Plaza Annex either in the phase building or the professional development development center from 6 to 7:30 p.m again we're grateful for our partnership with the participating members of the GCAC and appreciate the time that they have devoted throughout this
052year this concludes the recommendations from the gifted community advisory committee we collectively welcome any questions that you might have at this time miss Melnik um I appreciate the first step that was taken um and I hope that it went well um with um the first at least one student from each school is first on the list for old donations and so I appreciate that especially with that last recommendation where it said um uh the lower the lower rates of identification for intellectually gifted students so I really hope that that you know at least was a a jumping off point because I know Green Run Elementary last school year did not have um was not represented at OD at ODS so that um due to the metriculation from second grade to third grade that initiative will
053start next school year next yes okay so August so in the spring when we start to do our identification and selection that's when we'll identify those students that will move into the following school so 26 27 yes ma'am okay well I'm I'm really looking forward to that piece i think that's a really um positive step um um yeah to help meet that goal yeah thank you thank you okay well um I actually and it's not really so much a question but a comment um I put a little asterisk here by number four and number five um I do think it's really important um hopefully this is captured here that when we're providing additional coaching and support for schools that have lower rates of identification for intellectually gifted students um some of our schools do a
054really great job identifying the gifted students and meeting them where they are to really make sure that we're we're getting all the students that we should be getting um and so and I'm sure we're probably doing this to a degree already but I would love to see where our GRTs are doing a really great job to have some interaction um with those schools that could use a little coaching to see if there's maybe something that they're doing a little bit differently that could be implemented in the other schools so that you know we can make sure that again we're getting all of our students identified um in getting them the services that they need uh to really thrive um and then uh number four I I also do think we need to um prioritize staffing
055allocations and I'm thankful that I had the opportunity to talk to you i appreciate that conversation and you um being open to have a conversation and I like the graphic i would just ask um if you could send a copy of the graphic that she gave you to the full board that would be great um is there any hands raised Madame Clerk okay and it looks like Oh Mr cummings sorry I was taking some time to read through and think about my my questions a little bit um so jumping I'd love to dive deeper into some of these recommendations that you have and just kind of hear you know some of the thoughts and of where you think things are going so specifically in number one and point one um identifying meaningful outcome measures you
056touched on it a little bit but what type of things do you think that we should be thinking about as a board when you're talking about you know meaningful outcomes to measure and evaluate the the local plan that's a great question um I think where I would start because you can get lost in a sea of data i would start with the a simple graphic like this basically just describing the demographics of our kids where are they you know where are they starting this is just in the fall these are the norms these are where the kids are distributed around the mean and so you can see just how much variation there is across you can see how hard it is for the teachers in the classrooms to reach you know this is around 70
057levels of ability see that well yeah i'm I'm sure I would start with demographics i would start with where are they you know what is their median rit in the map what is a median for each grade i would break it down by subgroup you know so uh English language learners um economic disadvantage military connected gifted so I would do that for the whole division not just gifted and so then you could take gifted and look at them more closely you could figure out what are some subgroups that might be struggling there is it gifted and economically dis disadvantaged is it the kids who are three or more grade levels ahead who are not growing um so I would look at demographics and I would look at growth those two things growth tells you how
058well your current curriculum and your staffing is working to meet the needs the mental nutrition of the students and I would look at math and English look at growth just to keep it simple and then thank you for sharing and then my next question is with 0.5 um providing additional coaching and support for schools that have lower rates of identification walk me through just like what would that look like in the day of the life of a student who would get additional be provided additional coaching um so number five is what you're referring to so this is to support the schools that have lower rates of identification so this is back to identification versus service delivery mhm and really what this is looking at is it's frankly what we heard from the GRT GRTs it's
059difficult when you have a lot of gifted students to process all of those applications so in the schools that have fewer identified gifted students it could be awareness about what the gifted program even is so that requires parent engagement um it requires taking um you know going out into neighborhoods as one of our schools did point of view I think is where we were um for a site visit that talked about increasing awareness by actually going out into the neighborhoods to discuss the gifted education program and you know then it also is talking to the parents about stereotype threat and reasons that kids may not even want to take the tests we did hear that from our GCAC members so it's really important if you can to come to the meetings Mr comingings you ask
060great questions come to the GCAC or at least visit um for one of them because you'll understand what gets in the way of the students wanting to even test into the gifted program they they have uh some of these students will say "Why even bother trying i'm not going to be accepted." And this is from our district this is not anecdote from outside our our division so there's a lot that goes into it and then also bear in mind that our tests do not necessarily do well for highly creative kids we don't have a test that picks up on creativity and that would do well to pick up the economically disadvantaged students they tend to um really shine in other areas that are non-intellectual necessarily they're not necessarily interested in the intellectual test they may
061not stick with it for 45 minutes so they won't necessarily pop as gifted on Kogat or the NNAT but they would if you were able if you had a gifted like a a deep gifted education background yourself then you could be in the classroom or you could be out on the playground and you could say "Oh that's an athletically gifted person or that's that person is really uh is strong in leadership for example areas that the tests are not picking up." So it requires people who have a keen eye for what how giftedness shows up because it's not um it's not going to necessarily come through the way that we have a very good holistic identification approach it's very good but frankly we're going to miss kids from economically disadvantaged schools because it's not as
062robust as some other areas like uh Miami um and some districts in Texas so there are best practices outside that I could share with you sometime that picks up on creativity better thank you so much for sharing that's all all my questions miss Felton thank you Chair Brown miss Cruz you really sparked my um my ears when you in four um about uh reaching out to you mentioned two two programs and a school that is special schools and programs in our division uh what indicators uh led you to the Renaissance Academy and our Spanish emerging program what indicators led you there and has there been anything other than your conversation of what your um indicated that we should do have anything else been done to pull out these GRT students or learners thank you for
063your question i'm sure Crystal may want to add something there too um for background but um it's not just anecdote it is research-based recommendation uh we do know that these gifted tests as I mentioned are not perfect um and we do know that students who have ADHD for instance um may be gifted as well and their giftedness may be masked by their ADHD and vice versa and so they may not do well in the gifted test and I can tell you uh from personal experience that they really may be quite disruptive in class and get those referrals that end up causing them to to go over to Renaissance Academy i would not be at all surprised if we have quite a few intelligent people there and it was shared with me by one of your
064former board members that every time a student came before referral she was astounded and was like I wonder if this person has been tested for giftedness so I I highly suspect that we have very divergent thinkers over there some of our most creative students I would imagine are over there um and as a mother I know that the brightest students tend not to do well in school um and I just couldn't believe how often that story got repeated and so it really made me very curious about you know the the folks who do well in school and the folks who don't and we just simply cannot look at grades we cannot look at academic performance and assume that's going to get our gifted kids to pop the map tests though are another way to go
065through the the population and see who we missed because you'll have a kid who finds the map testing to be a game and you'll have a kid who will stick with that long enough to do very very well and so they'll be five grades ahead in math and never pop on your gifted Kogat i know one of them like that so I would not be at all surprised if you went through there and picked out your outliers and we're like I wonder if they're even in the gifted program that would be fascinating you answered my second question because I was going to ask that as well thank you so much uh has really given me um thought process and how we should lean into especially you brought up Renaissance Academy and our Spanish immersion program
066thank you for shedding light on that it puts a whole new a whole different perspective on that academy and I appreciate that thank you Madam Chair um Miss Rogers has her hand raised to go into the queue can I just add um a couple of things so I just want to go back to when you when um Mrs krue was answering the question about um delivery of services we do have delivery of services for um identifying students for our um visual and performing arts so we have the um the other aspect of serving our students that are gifted identified in those areas so I just wanted to make sure that you were aware of that and we have been providing services for um gifted identified students that might be um at Renaissance Academy this past
067school year as well so I just wanted to make sure that you were aware that those services um have been prioritized by the Office of Gifted Programs mhm madame Clerk um did Miss Rogers put her hand in line after or before Vice Chair Williams before uh Chair Vice Chair Williams okay thank you Miss Rogers thanks so much um thank you for the presentation i really appreciate it i actually am a parent of a gifted student and so I my child does not however attend ODS i have um a lot of questions regarding um the information that you provided to us do you separate out the different um delivery ways like you have some uh information regarding student achievement is it separated by those who attend ODS and those who do not or is it all
068just one i don't I don't have that data but I'm hoping that we will begin to have that data um Dr wilkerson can speak to what's available but MAP would be available this is NWA's MAP testing that would be available by school okay great and then my next question would be have you guys thought about um per like how we would do a better job delivering gifted services to our twice exceptional students i know that the twice exceptional population at ODS is very very low and that there are many many students in our special education program that are in fact twice exceptional where they are requiring special education services as well as gifted services so we are um continuously looking at our program and our services for delivery for our um gifted programs and every
069student that has an IEP they have specific and unique needs and so we look at those on a case- by case basis about how we can improve uh the unique needs that each of those students might need so um when we're looking at delivery of services for our special education students or our twice exceptional students um oftentimes those are unique if you're looking at how we are um identifying or increasing our identification practices uh we are continuously partnering with our um psych services department as well as our um OPEC department and making sure that we have um collaborative conversations about how to ensure that we are capturing um the students that might be missed um in that process so we're just constantly trying to have those collaborative conversations to refine our processes okay thank you
070so much i appreciate it and then I guess one more uh question or comment it would just be um uh that would be more about delivery of the curriculum i know that it was identified that ODS was running a a different curriculum than the rest of the gifted program within the schools when the um gentleman from John's Hopkins was here and is that something we've changed as far as older nation having a different curriculum they do not have a different curriculum they have um sometimes they accelerate at a different rate they might have um advanced some things but we do have collaborative sharing of the curriculum that we use um and that's why we started last year those reciprocal learning walks within um old donation school and our elementary and middle schools was to have
071some of that um exposure and some of those collaborative conversations so again that will continue moving forward into the following school year but as far as a different and a separate curriculum they do not have I believe that was something that had been mentioned so that's why I was asking miss Rogers I would like to comment on that you're absolutely right it's not a different curriculum but the pacing is vital to serving gifted students so the acceleration is the single most researchbased and cost-effective way of reaching our gifted students so ODS may have the same curriculum as available in the clusters but the way it's delivered and the timing of its delivery and how it's compacted and how the children are given access to it may be very different and I would highly recommend that
072these you know bridging walks continue so that in the clusters they can learn from the ODS teachers about how to offer that to the students it it really is vital to a student's emotional and mental well-being that they be given access to instruction that is rich and allows them to work they need a challenge if you find a student who's underperforming turn the dial up to 11 do not force them to go through everything that everyone else has already done find a way to telescope it compact it accelerate and that's actually required by state law thanks so much for your input i appreciate it vice Chair Williams yes thank you um I was just going to comment on on number three as well well I love the walks and the best practices because we heard
073that loud and clear from the community about the um cluster classes in the elementary and middle schools so I I am so glad that that's continuing and um also Miss Krug I I appreciate you emphasizing again that we need to make sure that each student is reaching his or her potential and if you're starting up here you need to get up there and um and and sometimes I think that we we don't do that as well as that we could because like you said we're they're starting so high and then we're not to get that growth takes a lot of extra you know and so I appreciate that comment um I was going to ask too about the um twice exceptional so that I mean this I I think we've definitely improved on identifying twice
074exceptional um is there some sort of number you know how percentage you should have X percent kind of in the gifted and X percent in special ed and then is there some sort of magic percentage that there should be or probably are X% of twice exceptional and are we meeting that or does that not exist no we don't have a um percentage that we try to obtain it's it's you're gifted and you're identified or you're not um but we do have blind processes and so um I think it was brought to the attention of the um office that there might be some um students that might have been overlooked uh considering that they had um special education or received special education services and so that um is a blind uh process so that students um
075aren't being identified as as being receiving those special education services and so um our office seems to see an increase in the identification because of that it for whatever reason we're seeing that um those students are being captured and so we don't have a um minimum quota or an expectation but um but the review committee if they've met the the um identification qualifications then that's when they are identified okay so I would love to hear more about the test on creativity because I think that that goes in right right with the twice exceptional and if you look at our great inventors and scientists and musicians a lot of them were and are twice exceptional miss Falton I wanted this to be a statement but I really appreciate you two coming and giving us a whole
076new different light on this as well because you mentioned when students are bored or labeled as bored or overactive or not engaged or behavioral problems we finding that they were on that gift uh spectrum and were not tested and I can begin to name a lot of those especially we um had uh for lack of identification a lot of African-American male that fell into that uh criteria and they went off to be inventors they went off to be colonels they went off to be entrepreneurs did great works but my question and I like what you said about parents engagement uh community and neighborhood engagement and even engaging the student because there are some students that don't want that identification there is there data showing that when you include those particular criteria that it it uplifts
077or bring about different um um engagement with those particular ones I just named is it down on it yes ma'am there is uh the social work literature is pretty rich in this area and strengthening uh a parent's sense of efficacy or sense of belonging with the school is really vital to a student thriving and students I'm sure you all have heard this data before but when the students see the parents involved it sends a message that school is important all kids gifted or not um but it would also support the parent in understanding why the child might be such a challenge at home i run groups to support parents of twice exceptional students and it's really a lot of work for the parents as I'm sure you all can appreciate to have a a child
078with behavioral issues who's also very very bright and not doing well at school the parent can feel like a failure can cause friction in the marriage why is this happening i mean it's a it's a lot for a parent to manage so I think that the schools really could play a vital role in bringing the parents back in a stronger connection with the parents it's good for Virginia Beach um it's I know the pandemic threw a kind of a monkey wrench in parent engagement but I think if we were to do that we would be making great great strides to strengthening that bond and supporting the parents and seeing academic flourishing and families flourishing too and sound like to me you're just mentioning that students and parents need to feel included in order to get
079the equity there because we have such a diverse component and gifted kids so that diverse thing that we need we need to meet their needs where they are so we have to have the equity for them as well and and to make them inclusive in our division yes ma'am thank you so much the the parents uh particularly of uh minority families they often feel and I'm just quoting the literature here it's not my view it's the literature often feel threatened by the language that's used among educators they don't know the language they don't know how to advocate for the students and so really um you know supporting the parents in in having those conversations and feeling welcomed on campus is is a huge uh I think opportunity that we have here we have a very
080diverse population including NATO families and um immigrants miss Dwire yes so um I'm still stuck on what you said earlier could you elaborate a little further either one of you on the identification part of some gifted students what they encounter what they have to uh maybe it's a peer type of bullying and pressure is that what you're specifically talking about because I'm newer to this i'm new this year and I'd like to have a little more information so if you could elaborate further for me I'd appreciate it well I'd love to share the mic with Dr for Wilkerson because you'll know things I don't but um from what I have heard just on our gifted committee you know it's very common for kids to talk um they're if they're tested in third grade you know
081they know what the gifted test is they may know about pull out they may you know shrink from being the smart kid um very often kids will disguise their ability and not do as well um because their peer group the kids that they want to be considered popular with you know that's not really their thing for whatever reason and um this is also common among girls can be common among boys it's it's not a gender specific thing it's not an economic advantage specific thing um but specifically I worked in stereotype threat about a decade ago when I was trying to boost um gifted representation in a DODA school so that's a military school in Japan and I I did a whole presentation on stereotype threat and that is a real thing um when African-American students
082uh some of them when they are confronted with a test of any kind including a gifted test could feel like you know it's it's not something that they're going to do well at and for that reason the anxiety levels could go up and it may be very difficult for them to perform their best and so I think that's something we need to be mindful of too so as a school division would you say that's on the uprise because that kind of concerns me we need to um encourage more maybe are we not doing our part um because certainly more and more women are entering into quote unquote a man's world so to speak men professional uh profession and they I don't know um I just find that concerning I guess because my I have several
083children that were gifted and they went and it because it wasn't like that i'm kind of taken aback i mean there was a group but um maybe because are they what are we doing to make them embrace more who they are and what they are and to propel them forward what can we do well if anything I think Virginia Beach is working very hard on that but as you saw from one of the public comments it's always a challenge um and it's particularly challenging for neurode divergent students to feel fully welcomed um in any district anywhere um so this is a challenge that's you know common across time i remember my own childhood growing up and and sitting in the front so that I could ask questions without turning bright red and having everyone see
084me turn bright red so I think many of us have always had strategies to try to figure out how to fit in um and I think that our teachers here try to do a very good job our big opportunity is supporting our teachers with the right curriculum so that everyone has a chance to be challenged we also did something good last year we started pull out instruction which allows for homogeneous grouping so being around intellectual peers that's very important for students to be with people who that they can see themselves with and they have a relationship with it might even be the first friend that they ever make so doing things like walk to math if you have a second grader ready for fourth grade math that's a good opportunity to allow them to do
085that for math instruction that's how my son made his first friend is by walking to math um so I think that there's a lot that we can do it requires flexibility and intentionality with the data to understand who's in our district who's ready for more and then working with the teachers and with the incredible gifted office staff to figure out how to make that work because we have very dedicated people and good curriculum but we need to get it in front of the students and of course the the staff is looking at other programs like art of problem solving and beast academy which would be plug-andplay so the teachers don't have to be trained on that but we can immediately deliver it to all students across the division and bring those who are struggling up
086as well so I think we have opportunities across the board not just with the gifted but with our struggling students to do a better job of differentiation so it sounds like we have stereotypes that we have to plow through right now there's been um probably u I don't know it just it it just seems like there's a stigma attached to being gifted from what you're saying and what certain students are encountering and why they're shrinking back i I don't have any data on that i can't comment about our division specifically i imagine that there is always going to be a certain stigma um that's nothing new and um I'm sure that we're doing the best we can but it's something that we can look at in our next gifted cluster survey where we do actually
087ask students specific questions about the gifted program um so speak to that yes we do incorporate things like our morning meetings and um lunch bunches and things of that nature that helps with that um social emotional learning component to combat some of those um concerns that might be uh what students might be feeling or have an opportunity to express with their um peers or their teachers miss Malik so I try I really try to listen as a lay person because you know I I come to the table with a lot of information so this presentation really has made me feel like we focus a lot of the gifted education piece and I know this not to be true but I'm going to say this is what I'm thinking if I were not here this is
088an ODS thing that's what this is gcac is for I know I'm just saying we had a speaker tonight who said that 50% 7% of the gifted budget goes to old donation and I'm hearing a lot of information only about old donation old donation I know but just wait please I'm not clear on what you're asking but it's not I'm not I'm not asking you I'm just saying I'm just giving you my opinion for people who listen who really don't know what's going on with Gac and so I'm not seeing this as every gifted student i'm hearing a lot of focus on old donation and I'm sorry I need to correct that it's not at all related to ODS i'm just I'm just going to have to ask you to stop for just a second
089because I'm speaking for people who see this differently who see this as an ODS thing and you mentioned it yourself that there are bridging and that we're trying to bridge one of the recommendations is continue to bridge and I'm I like ODS but I just see that there's just so much heavy focus there because that's our gifted school and I see kids getting left behind in schools who deserve the same opportunities as a matter of fact I'm hearing what I'm hearing tonight and I'm listening I'm thinking about Miss Mayo who called in tonight about asking fifth graders to be retested i feel from what I've heard tonight that the really juicy stuff is at ODS and now I'm thinking would fifth grade students at X school even stand a chance when old donation is a
090faster pace i heard faster pace some accelerated material that maybe students who are gifted at Indian Lakes Elementary aren't getting or Green Elementary where they didn't even have a single student there i have a presence at Green Run Elementary where teachers will say "I have students here who deserve to go and exchool has 57 students that go." And those are my concerns when we're addressing the entire group that we sometimes focus on old donation because because we can't because it's a it's it's a single standing school but there are lots of parents who feel that their kid that their students aren't getting what they need when they are in their school and so it doesn't really require an answer other than I hope that the geek the GCAT committee is filled with parents whose children
091do not attend Old Donation you raise a really good point and I want to assure you that that is true i I think Dr wilkerson could say how many have students at ODS but you raised such a vital question and that's why I keep pushing for the data on growth because that's how we will know if ODS is actually really a lot better than our neighborhood schools and which neighborhood schools can approximate what's happening at ODS except tonight it was mentioned Mrs williams mentioned that because of the level that ODS may not show the same type of growth no we can grow we can we can stratify by school and then look at growth by school i would love to sit down with you and show you what's possible with this data well I'd like
092to see like to see our data i would too well I I I would like to see I mean I'm just about beefing it up for for for everybody and I know that that was our intention but you know there's only so much you can do um when you're not in a gifted school and and those are the those are the kids that I'm thinking about who want more and are hungry for more and don't have the same opportunities that they have at Older Nation and I know we can't open up for everybody so there's your question with no answer i guess we can do a lot in our cluster programs i'm convinced of that and I know that to be true i've seen it in other districts and we're on the way there i
093know that the office staff is looking at some programs that could do things okay and and I also want to assure you that we have some pretty um incredible things happening in our cluster programs and I know that um the GCAC has had an opportunity to see those things in action as they've done the learning walks and the site visits um Mr kalen was able to join us this year um for one of those site visits um and we've also done a lot of work with our extension lessons and trying to bolster our curriculum and we've really worked um to um bolster our our cluster programming and continue to do that so I I don't want um the viewing audience to have this impression that um there's not really wonderful work happening in our cluster
094programs because there really is we have a lot of really really talented GR 100% and we do but the way it was presented tonight sounds like there's so much more at Old Donation and there's so much more we could do i don't know if there's more at Old Donation we need the data to tell us the full story go back and watch the presentation and try to do it through a different lens it just sounds like there's so much more and I know our gifted our gifted resource teachers are phenomenal in our school it just it the minute I heard something I thought of Mrs mayo and thought "Huh I wonder if if those fifth graders in another school even stand a chance with a retest." That was just my takeaway thank you Dr green
095thank you and thank you ladies for your information um and I'm just dubtailing on some of the things that have already been stated um in terms of cluster programs I am glad to hear that you stated that you're going to be exploring some other models because just like some of my other colleagues I do have concerns um about ODS in terms of how what is given what is service is being provided there um and so one of the models I hope you will explore um is in Fairfax County uh how they do their cluster programs to ensure uh that all students who are eligible do receive uh services but they don't have a specialty center uh and and I think down the road at some point um as we talk about things in our school
096division such as repurposing buildings and some of those topics i think that is worthy of consideration is seriously looking at some other programs where I think it would also help get rid of the issues that you have being able to service students at ODS um and eliminating um I think it would be more equitable for all students you know as well so I thank you for considering looking at some other models school within a school is maybe something that you're alluding to i think that is a good model to look at yeah yes yes and I also taught in a department of defense schools so I I know the opportunities that we then as well with gifted programs okay well it looks like um we don't have any more questions the gifted um recommendations will
097be up for action at our next schoolboard meeting um and I am not sure if Mr ken did you go to the um was did you do the learning walk at point of view okay i'm going to probably follow up via phone i would like to hear a little bit more about how um you went out into the community but the school did okay all right well either way I'd like to get a little bit more um insight on that but I'll follow up offline for that information i just want to understand what happened there a little bit better so all right thank you thank you everyone and that brings us to special education community advisory committee annual report and we welcome Dr ronnie Meyers Dob executive director office for programs for exceptional children hi
098good evening uh school board chair Brown Vice Chair Williams school board members and Dr robertson i am Ronnie Myers Dove executive director of the Office of Programs for Exceptional Children and I am here this evening with Megan Ashburn who was our special education advisory committee chair to share information and recommendations included in their annual report katie Elli is also here and Don Candi is another one of our um SEAK officers i know she's watching hopefully along with some of the others tonight so every school division is required to have a local SEAK as detailed in the regulations governing special education programs for children with disabilities in Virginia the major purpose of SEAK is to provide an opportunity for parents of children with disabilities individuals with disabilities and representatives from agencies who support students with disabilities
099to have a voice in how the division provides services to students with disabilities spec specific functions of SEAK include soliciting and receiving public comments to advise the division of needs related to the education of students with disabilities and to participate in the development of priorities to meet these needs review policies regulations procedures related to the provision of special education and related services and participate in the review of the division's local special education annual plan so displayed here are few key activities and accomplishments of SEAK this school year there was a continued focus on the solicitation of public comments to develop priorities seak also participated in several presentations by division staff related to early childhood programs the local special education plan and restraint and seclusion in addition Megan Ashburn SEAK chair and Py family support specialist
100from region 2 shared information related to the resources services and supports PY provides to empower Virginia students with disabilities and their families so at this point in time Miss Ashburn will now provide CAX CAK's recommendations for the 2526 school year thanks Ronnie thanks for having us uh we only have three recommendations this year uh we wanted to keep it brief because they are pretty significant uh the first one is that we want to continue to review regulation 5-93.3 disruptive student behavior and the use of physical restraint and seclusion and prohibit the use of seclusion in BBCPS schools beginning the 2526 school year uh in addition to that we did um hold back real quick here going along with that we want to uh we also request that the school administrators for BBCPS who have CEP
101classrooms in their buildings have an awareness of programming and practices in these classrooms actively collaborate with CEP administrators and report any concerns to CEP administrators and division administrators when necessary that goes along with recommendation one thank you uh our second one is to continue to support the work of OPEC and title one programs to increase the number of students with disabilities accessing the preK program as aligned with indicator six of preschool environments and that would directly correlates with graduation rates on the back end uh and then the third one is to support the division and school staff in addressing any findings related to the cyclical review that happened this year that we should get those results in Julyish in Julyish and just um support OPEC in their recommendations and kind of give them the support
102they need to make any trainings mandatory uh for all school staff so that everybody is on the same page and those are our three recommendations and I'm I'm guessing that everybody had a chance to review this ahead of time or was briefed and we'd be happy to answer some questions about this oh yeah question and these are our meeting dates for next year everyone is welcome to come this is open to the public um we will meet first on August 18th and October January March May and June and all of the uh all of the meetings will be taking place in room one at the Plaza annex except for in January will be in room 12 so uh we welcome anyone that wants to come okay miss Melnick so our special education numbers have grown
103exponentially and so specifically um referencing your number two recommendation number two how how do we um so it specifically says um increase the number of students with disabilities accessing the prek program as aligned to indicator six how many preschool programs pre-K programs do we have and how do we plan to um grow that program so this is about our students with disabilities accessing preK4 classroom right as opposed to many of them right now are served in the early childhood special education classrooms so let me rephrase that how do we grow that right okay well I still didn't ask it right but go ahead sorry I know what you meant so uh we are working collaboratively OPEC with the off office of title one programs and looking at how we can increase the opportunities for students
104with disabilities in preK4 because that is an indicator as noted in the um recommendations it's indicator six and there's a benchmark for that which is about 25% and we're at nine so we know that there is a lot of opportunity for growth and this is just giving our students with disabilities the opportunity to access those programs because as um Megan shared when you look at them having the opportunity to be in the general education setting when they're the youngest learners it's going to increase that opportunity for them to be in the general education setting as they progress through their educational career which is going to increase the per participation ation and proficiency in our state assessments as well as impact our graduation rate increase that lower our dropout rate increase pro postsecary opportunities for s
105students with disabilities so that one opportunity for us can really have an impact on our other indicators and students as they progress through their educational career but a 16% increase though right so does that mean we'll we will be adding classes additional pre-k classes or it may not necessarily be classes it may end up being that we might have a few less classes that the early childhood special education classrooms okay and we may need more prek4 classrooms so remember this is based on individual individualized education programs for students based on their needs requires consent from parents so there's a lot of factors that impact this but we want to make sure I know that we can improve that okay and again we've had the collaboration ongoing collaboration and we have a focus on it this
106year and so we really appreciate title one programs working with us on this okay well I definitely appreciate number two yeah that's that's Thank you for that yeah it's a very important recommendation thank you Mr kalen i had an opportunity to visit Pimrook Elementary School and was given a guided tour by the principal and we saw many of the facilities and the rooms that were available i'm curious i did not encounter incidents of disruptive behavior but since that's uh recommendation number one is behavior an issue of any degree of significance in dealing with special ed students and seeking to educate them is that a a common difficulty that teachers are confronted with we have students with specific disabilities that have interfering behaviors that we do have to work through positive behavioral supports or prevention and
107intervention strategies to help reduce those behaviors deescalate those behavior self-regulation strategies yes yes so we have an opportunity you know different disabilities present very differently and so um we do have some students that have more behaviors than others just as we have general education students that might have more behaviors than others so yes and I would say that the environment that a student is in makes a huge difference in terms of how they are presenting outwardly with behaviors and so making sure that we're having a safe environment where students feel uh like they're coming to school they're going to be safe and not be um punished for for displaying parts of their disability is really important and I feel like the more supported our students feel and the safer that they feel those outward behaviors
108that you're seeing will lessen okay thank you Madam Chair um Miss Rogers has her hand raised to get into the queue miss Rogers thank you so much um I want you to know that I was a pre kindergarten teacher for 5 years in our school division and so I have very intimate knowledge of the program and how it works my concern uh for number two is the amount of support that you intend on giving the preK4 teachers as they are not special education teachers and I say this because as someone who worked as a general education teacher and had prek students in her classroom I did not have access to an ECSC teacher in my building to be able to help me when students did need that break or did need to have um a
109collaborative discussion um myself with the ECSE teacher they were in another building and so I feel that you are going to find an increase in behaviors when we don't have staff that know how to handle um specific students and their needs because they don't have a special education degree and so my concern is that if we increase the number of special education students and we don't support our general education prek4 teachers we are asking for those teachers to then be put in a situation that they don't know how to handle some of the behaviors that are being presented to them and again just like K12 we have a continuum of services um at the prek level so when you're talking about preK4 we have some students with disabilities that are in preK4 that have what
110we call itinerate services which are going to be minimal services which could be 20 minutes two times a week and then we have other students that require a higher level amount of services which let's it could be three hours a week so depending on the needs of the students we have available staff so that's that's one thing that we're doing in partnering with title one programs is we've identified certain classrooms where we have students that have those more that higher needs than itinerate where we have staff more readily available to support them so that is part of what we know that we have to work through as we look at the possibility of increasing students with disabilities in preK4 but we've also done some co-raining or some training with both office with prek4 teachers as
111well as ECSE teachers just to kind of bring those two groups together so we're that's going to be a continued focus can I add to that i appreciate that i'm sorry um however my my concern is is that when you have a student that has itinerant needs and especially if they're coming from an ECSE situation ECSE is a parttime uh classroom the students are only there for half a day prek4 is a full day um expectation and some of our students in special education have a difficult time transitioning from their part-time or part day to a full day and if your only support is an itinerant who is not in your building you can imagine that some of our general education teachers have a very difficult time helping those students and some of those students
112aren't successful in transitioning to a full day so my concern again is supporting our staff that need that support if it they need more than just a staff member available to them two times a week it's not just the services provided to our students but the support that should be provided to our staff who are not special education and they have a student who is displaying behaviors yet they don't have access to a special education teacher because their itinerant is in another building can I uh so I hear your concerns and they're very valid and that's why at SEAK we do support teacher training were always asking for more teacher training and making it mandatory for even general education teachers and I understand uh that you are coming from the lens of a teacher but
113as a student I don't think that students should have to pay for our lack of training the teachers I don't think that they should have to be secluded or um segregated because of the lack of training for for our teachers I think that there are barriers And there are also solutions and we would like to see uh support for OPEC in finding those solutions i I didn't suggest that any student be secluded this is I'm sorry i meant segregated excuse me i meant segregated not secluded that's just been on my mind so and again I'm not saying student should be secluded what I am saying is that we need to increase our support for our general education teachers that that they need support from our special education teachers when they are have special education students
114in their classrooms that they are not trained um and it and it's not just like a a a training one day and here you're ready to go a lot of these students have individual education plans and if those plans need to be adjusted our general education teachers do not have the ability to do that without their itinerate and so those are the kind of supports I'm talking about where they need access and or in the middle of a behavior they need to be able to ask the itinerate what do I do with this student this is a behavior I haven't seen before how do I help them and they don't have that access to someone that they can ask in the middle of a situation and so because our preks are are really a special
115program and it's really um you know almost uh in a way our prek is sort of um a program unto itself they need that special education support the more special education students that are in those classrooms they have to be able to um collaborate with these iterate teachers they have to be able to have access so that they can help these students these students will not be successful in these classrooms if the teachers don't have the access to those um special education teachers and that's my biggest concern that we do more for our general education teachers to help them help our students well and I think it's important to remember that's why VDOE has mandated training for all general education teachers in specially designed instruction because that's one of the things that we need to
116remember is there's a shared responsibility and educating students with disabilities so it we do need to ensure that general education teachers have the skills to also support our students with disabilities and when you think about preK4 you mentioned that our some of our students that receive services in early childhood special education classrooms that they're only attending for three hours well when they go to kindergarten they are attending a full day so that's one of the things that we want to do is look at what which students can participate in preK4 because it is going to better prepare them for that full day kindergarten program absolutely i agree with that again there is a transition period and so a student has to be able to transition successfully and their teacher needs to be able to help
117them do that and therefore they need to make sure we need to make sure that they're being supported while they're helping that student transition and again while I don't disagree that our trainings are are positive it's access to their itinerants at the beginning of the school year especially when we're setting up all of these norms for our special education students that really we need to step up at okay um I'm actually I have myself but I don't have a button um so I think and I I believe after looking here the regulation number is 5- 59.3 i think that was just a a typo but um you know and maybe somebody else uh can answer this question i don't know if this is a question for you or Dr robertson but um are there instances
118where students that are not special education students um utilize seclusion in Virginia Beach schools i'm just curious because I will say when the policy was put down it's not meant just for special education students why when it when it came down from the US Department of Education and it took about 11 years to get to the Virginia Department of Education it is not intended just for special education students it's any student we would have to restrain or seclude and that's why it's not written as a special education you tend to see it more in the special education realm because a lot of times some of these things are written into the IEPs or 504 plans on how we handle behavior intervention and they do a very good job documenting it which is why we see
119it there but it's not intended just for special ed and and I I only ask and the reason I'm asking is is because you know obviously I I don't I don't love it at all um but my only thing that goes on in my mind when we use the word prohibit um is not as it relates to a special education student it's as it relates to a student that may be not a special education student but something has happened and that student is unsafe for other students and or our staff and so um I have a little bit of pause about the use of the word prohibit um I I do think that there is room to revisit what I'm looking at here um I definitely think that you know if we have a student
120in the special education area that um is having difficulties that um at that minute regulating that perhaps um supervised regulation would be most ideal um but I'm I'm just curious because this recommendation says that the school board is going to completely prohibit under all circumstances no matter what starting next year and so I'm just curious from our superintendent whether or not that is feasible so we just uh received these recommendations last week and so this it requires further discussion and investigation okay so but we're due to vote on these um here shortly correct well I I would just I would be interested to hear more um not that I have a problem with the recommendation i I a good idea yeah I think that would be a good idea to get a a better picture
121of where it's happening there's only two sites in Virginia Beach where seclusion is even allowed and that was my next question so and and that Ronnie can speak to that but like I don't have the exact figure but like 99% of your schools don't even allow seclusion seclusion is very specific in definition and so learning a little bit about that would be probably beneficial and then um and then revisiting yeah I I would just ask um you know and my colleagues if if that's okay with you guys um I would personally like a little bit more information and I don't have an issue with the recommendation but I I do question whether or not maybe there's some work on the wording um to make sure that we're we're doing exactly what we're we're trying to
122accomplish here um and there are other schools in the state that have done this already so there's a road map there's also other um there are several states in general that have already prohibited the use of seclusion i think Florida is one i can't think of the rest of them but there are road maps to to make that happen and do you know off the top of your head what other schools in the state have have done it that have that roadmap so that I have the chance to research that well there were a couple um school divisions included in their report so for example Lowden County Public Schools prohibited the use of seclusion practices in February of 2025 fairfax started their journey in 2021 they prohibited it in all schools with the exception of
123three those schools were had programs similar to um CESP and then they moved forward effective the start of 2223 school year and prohibited it in all schools and then Norphick has prohibited the use of seclusion since May of 2021 okay that's very useful thank you all right um let's see did Vice Chair Williams go already nope no she hasn't had the chance to speak okay oh did you take yourself out Matt you hit speaking oh oh okay it was Matt Mr cummings and then it's you that's fine i apologize for not touching my buttons correctly apparently it happens sometimes when you got a lot of things going on up here um but I do applaud I do applaud our efforts to join Fairfax and Louden and that was what I was reading ahead of time
124before this meeting and and seeing this um prohibition um prohibiting the use of of of seclusion in VBCPS so I'm I'm glad that's on the road map um and my question was is very similar to Miss Brown and I think this is for you Miss Lenetti is would this be something that goes through policy review committee or is this something Yes absolutely this is this recommendation and like I said this came down originally from the US Department of Education it went to the Virginia Department of Education you were required to adopt a policy you have choices in this so it is a very it's a mandated policy there are a lot of aspects to this so it would definitely be something you want to take the policy view and take a closer look at so
125from a time I mean well from a timeline perspective when would we actually have this in action you think would it be before the would we be able to have this before the school year we could get it on to a PRC agenda it just would kind of depend on how much time it took them to research if they want to research it and look at it um it's not impractical but with only one or two meetings I'm not sure we'd have in place by September but again you probably want to take a look at the regulation itself to see what's actually involved in seclusion restraint so it's not an it doesn't say you can just absolutely sec this we don't have a whole lot of it in there but it's not certainly something we
126bring back to the PRC to look at but I would want the administration to get involved and start looking at numbers and be able to bring you back more details about it before we brought it through to PRC thank you Vice Chair Williams yes I was going to say I would love some more information and just simply starting by what exactly is the definition of seclusion and um also so this number one is basically saying we if if we agree to this we are prohibiting it in VPCPS but what about CEP that's actually in our buildings we can't that yeah that's part of the recommendation is to make sure that CEP is aligned with the B V BBCPS policy so if you go on to CEP's website and look up their policy on seclusion and
127restraint it says like on the first page this does not apply to Norolk because we're not allowed to do this in Norolk okay so they are so they are following the school district of where that class is okay okay that's that's good to know um number three I am just such a strong proponent Miss Ashurn it's something that you said too that I totally agree with um the training we just we need to train everybody and I know at one point when we had mandated training in Virginia Beach City Public Schools we did change that um and Dr robertson this was maybe even before your time was it when you were principal i don't even remember but we did say we want all teachers trained and we added that to a requirement that they had
128to have special education no matter what you taught um there are children with IEPs with challenges in every classroom on every bus and every cafeteria playing on every playground i think anybody who has contact with children need need this training so when it says here mandate training for school administrators and other identified staff groups who's identifying them and what does that mean exactly so this is related to the cyclical review process that we've gone through this year so re we had that self assessment that was due in December and then VDOE staff was on site in March and they went into a number of schools and we were told that typically we get those uh get the final report back within 90 days of their visit so we yet we have not received it yet
129but as a result of that report any findings where we have to develop corrective actions that may require training so depending on what it's related to okay all right so that's more specific but I agree with Miss Ashurn i I I think we need to ramp up training for everyone who has contact with children and it's pretty much everybody in this yeah i think like the the the legislation that came down last year last July I believe mandated that all teachers are getting that that training and specially designed instruction so that more teachers would be prepared to to have inclusion inclusive environments right right okay thank you for all that you you guys do thank you Dr green thank you um ladies first of all thank you for these great recommendations and my question is
130more related I don't know Dr robertson if you or Miss Lenetti may need to weigh in um with the prohibition of seclusion which I you know think is very important and I'm glad to to see this uh in one of your recommendations based on some of the feedback I'm hearing right now um I'm a little concerned because what impact would it have in rolling things out for the upcoming school year if uh because I think it's important that we have everything in place and and ready for staff to know so how do we prioritize and uplifting this so that um staff will be ready for any trainings that they may need to do because of this um understanding you know what seclusion uh means what you cannot do because we're at the end of June
131and we come back in what about nine weeks to school and I just think it's so important um that we be ready to roll it out um to avoid you know any problems or or or misunderstanding because some of it you know a lot of it is not new because we have been following the practices but still you know based on some of the questions I think we really need to prioritize this um and working with OPEC to make sure everything is ready to roll out in uh August so uh Ryan do you recall what the percentage of seclusion incidents involve CEP staff isn't it like 99% something like that in 2024 there were 305 incidents of seclusion and two of those were for students in Virginia Beach so 303 were CE yeah 303 out
132of 305 were CEUP staff and two were Virginia Beach but to your question Dr green if the uh if coming out of the PRC the indications are that we want to prohibit seclusion we can signal to start the school year that we are not going to use seclusion until we complete the process of having the board vote that's just saying that we can do that it's it's easier to do that than say we're going to put training together on um the seclusion practices with limited time before the school year starts thank you Miss Miss I think it's Miss Dwire correct did you just speak no no I don't touch my button but I was um but so we say that so that sends the signal to CEP so with 303 incidences of seclusion with CEP
133I mean that's a that's a grinding halt for a group that I I mean that's right a grinding halt right and I understand that i I do understand what you're saying i just don't I don't understand each individual case and so I don't know what Can I speak to that just quickly um so the data on seclusion and restraint is very clear that it does not help it is not beneficial for the child it's not beneficial for the environment um and also CEP is not doing this in Norol so if they're not if they're able to not do this in Norfol they're able to not do this in two of our placements perfect so um but there are legal definitions so like for instance um restraints so it's all defined it's it's all federal definition
134we they're just not randomly doing very very specific rules that they're doing this is it's a very well- definfined policy your choices whether you're going to use it or not perfect and that's I think that's the important part too yeah okay Miss Dwire so I just have a quick question and hopefully you have your finger on your notes there you said the uh you mentioned three divisions already that have prohibited seclusion i have Louden Fairfax and Norfolk you said Norfolk did in 2021 and Fairfax also did in 2021 they started in 2021 with prohibiting it in all schools except for three and then in effect of the start of the 2223 school year they prohibited it across all schools and what about Louden when did they start february 2025 okay yeah that's very it would
135be interesting to research that see what the outcomes are thank you and again there are other places those those were just three that we had identified in the state there are there are entire states that have already done this so we can look to them as well to see you know a roadmap for that and the data um I'm encouraged thank you i like where the direction you're going and I'm on board thank you madam chair u Miss Rogers has her hand to get into this queue thank you Miss Rogers thank you sorry it's just one more I guess little questions um now that we're mentioning data do y'all have the data for number two for for the prek um how many special education students in the last what is it seven years that the
136program's been around um how many students that we started with versus how many that were um in the program last year no I don't have that data that's something that we can work and get you great and then while you're working on that data could you also give data on um the instance the behaviors and the instances of um behaviors within the classrooms um for the preK4 program i know that they have their own behavioral specialist and I'm just interested to see um you know the in what the data shows i don't think that there would be data related to that unless the students received a referral i wouldn't have access to anything related to PreK4 unless they received a referral okay well I know that PreK4s do receive referrals so if I could get
137that data um that would be great thanks Mr balensteel yes i just want to thank you on your presentation and uh also thank you for all you do at the special education and uh one of the things I wanted to highlight on was you coming out and saying how the seclusion doesn't do any good and it just harms it i think we need to keep pushing that out until people finally get a clue thank you thank you Mr cummings i I just have one point of a clarification so we have two schools with 303 incidents do we know what state averages are for Okay lower than our numbers yeah some of my quick googly searchy is saying that we have we had the highest seclusion incidences incidents in 2023 to 2024 as well as restraint
138incidences yes and that's just with two schools y and that's Renaissance Academy and one other Windsor Woods windsor Woods because they both have wings that have classrooms where for CESAP can you say those schools again one more time is RA and what winds or woods all right well thank you so much all right I don't see any more questions thank you so much for everything that you do and and that you all do as well um so I appreciate that and it looks like that'll be up for action at our next formal meeting so thank you thank you point of order may I ask a question i I don't know how we're going to vote on this in two weeks will you the next formal meeting we're going to come back in August correct okay
139so we're not talking about the bridge meeting that's right okay miss Lenetti um do you have any clarification on that when when would we vote on this typically I actually check on that whether you even vote on this and supposed to accept it but if you did it wouldn't be scheduled for the bridge meeting it would go to your August meeting unless you felt need so same same for the gifted recommendation as well correct and if I'm correct I think you're doing a gifted presentation at your bridge aren't you yes so you may want to wait anyway to to look at that but I typically this would not be something that you would put on the a bridge meeting unless you absolutely needed it done and so there's there's no requirement to vote on it
140before that August meeting then no okay um is everybody okay with that yes okay very good um all right we are now on to video services transition and we welcome David Den chief information officer good evening Chair Brown Vice Chair Williams members members of the board and Dr robertson as Chair Brown just said my name is David Den i am the chief information officer for VBCPS this evening I wanted to talk to you a little bit about our video services transition that we'll be having so for many years VBCPS has benefited from a successful partnership with the city of Virginia Beach for video services including video creation and the broadcast of schoolboard meetings and graduations as you may know in February 2024 the city asked to renegotiate the video services with VBCPS as a result
141of that negotiation VBCPS will assume full responsibility for video services in effect ending our partnership with the city we sincerely appreciate all that the city VBTV staff have done for VBCPS over the years video responsibilities will transition to VBCPS in three phases over the next two years during phase one through the end of this month VBCPS has added two new team members to assume video services responsibilities vbtv staff have provided expertise and training on broadcast equipment and services they have also updated all VBCPS broadcast equipment giving us the capabilities we need to assume broadcast responsibilities in phase two beginning July 1st through the end of June 2026 VBCPS will assume video services and programming responsibilities this means that VBCPS will be 100% in control of all recordings and the broadcast of all programming to the
142public educational and government station assigned to schools on both Cox and Verizon cable systems city VBTV staff will assume a support role as VBCPS assumes primary responsibility finally in phase three beginning on July the 1st 2026 VBCPS will receive 50% of proceeds from the fees collected from Cox and Verizon for the public TV stations today the city receives 100% of th of those fees and uses them to support the broadcasting equipment VBTV uses while those proceeds continue to decline as cable viewership declines they will still help us to support the broadcast equipment as VBCPS assumes full control of video services several new capabilities will become available to us as I mentioned VBCPS will be 100% in control of all programming on the cable stations our department of communications and community engagement will decide what content
143is best for our viewing public and have granular control over the broadcast schedule in addition we'll have some new capabilities like the ability to link agendas with event recordings so for example if someone is interested in viewing the part of our board meeting associated with the budget they don't need to sit through a long meeting recording they can simply click on that agenda item and go right to that portion of the recording we're also experimenting with AI generated meeting summaries highlighting the major topics and decisions that were made during the course of the meeting finally we will also have the ability to stream meetings to social media and online video networks such as YouTube as we close out the first phase of our transition we're finalizing the training of the newly hired BBCPS staff and
144the installation and configuration of all the new broadcast equipment so that we're ready to assume full responsibilities for all video services as of July the 1st we ask for the board's direction if you would like to take advantage of our new streaming capabilities for any meetings in addition to board workshop and formal sessions please know that meetings must take place in the Einstein lab or board chambers as these two rooms are outfitted with the required cameras and microphones to facilitate meeting broadcasts i appreciate your time this evening i hope that was helpful to understand the video services transition i am available for any questions that you may have miss Malik so my first question is are we going to start workshops in the Einstein lab now that is I mean that was just a I
145mean you mentioned the Einstein lab being um you know ready to go so as a as a as a meeting spot so are we going back that's up to you guys the other question is um one more question and a comment do we know what channels um we'll be broadcasting on on Cox they will they will remain the same as they are today 47 yeah 47 and I don't know what it is on Verizon off the top of my head okay so it still is it still streams through that correct and um I look at Braden who who's who's who to me is like a baby like he's you know but I look at this amazing opportunity now for growth in his career i he started back here and and then I arrived today and
146he was he was in the room over here he's in the broadcast room and I thought wow what an amazing opportunity for for you with your career um Braden and uh really and I think Virginia Beach is the creme de la creme anyway BBCPS so I'm looking forward to um this next step with broadcasting not only these meetings but we've talked about um uh committee meetings too so kudos kudos all the way around thank you absolutely mr cummings yep thank you so much and I'm a major fan of all things on this presentation um specifically uh with you know things like AI generated meeting summaries because I think the public I think the public really does yearn to understand you know what schoolboard does the decisions happening and and whatnot and I think it's important
147to also note that I don't think you know AI is at the capability yet to summarize you know official meeting minutes but I do think it is um at the point where it can provide you know great summaries of you know our discussion and our conversation and so I'm curious to what we can do to help make you know help that you know if we've identified a product to use and how we can move forward um that's my first quick question and then to answer your question about streaming needs you know as a personally I I'm a huge advocate of transparency and I would love to see and I know other folks on the board as are as well as seeing to see how many of our meetings we could or committee meetings we can
148get to be broadcasted to the public as well um you know I think it's it's great for the public to have those opportunities to observe government in action and so I would push you know our board to prioritize and think through what we can easily do quickly or if we just go for it and stream everything that we do um but I'm very curious how where where do you feel that we are at with you know unleashing some of the AI stuff so what I've seen uh with some government uh organizations who are doing that is when they generate those types of reports they'll put a caveat at the top or the bottom of the report saying that this was generated by AI and all content should be verified now that is still done after
149someone has taken the opportunity to skim through the report make sure that everything does still look good so it is proof read but they still go ahead and go put that caveat at the bottom uh of course we will still make the full recording of the meeting available in addition to the summary uh should anyone want to uh see everything how the sausage is made if you will that's perfect and I can't wait for a little schoolboard chatbot to come out of this where people can ask the chatbot what was discussed at a schoolboard event and how did people vote things like that those are the great directions that I love in in the AI world in life mr callen mine's a simple question you mentioned that this will be available in the Einstein lab
150and this room in the school board chambers thank you that's all I needed thank you Madam Chair um Miss Rogers has her hand up to get into the queue miss Rogers thanks um Mr den thank you so much for um this presentation i wanted to just add that I am also looking forward to having all of our committee meetings being broadcast i do think it's important for community tr um transparency and so that um people understand what decisions have been made when we're not you know specifically on the dis um I also wanted to thank you for thinking about having the um the tabs or the marks for when we make specific decisions i cannot tell you how many times I have scrubbed through videos myself looking for something specific and having to spend hours
151trying to find the one piece of information I'm looking for so I think that'll be really helpful to our public especially if they're looking to see how we voted on specific things or what decisions were made in the uh uh you know in the past if there was something that we decided we need you know we want to look back on it so I think that this is really great and I appreciate uh your efforts in this absolutely thank you so I'm actually very happy about this presentation because um I believe I started advocating for streaming of um standing committees i I you know we have I want to say 20some committees where we have one board member so I I do think that more conversation about which committees exactly um is definitely warranted i
152think we should do audit policy review legislative and building utilization committee uh personally that's that's what I would like to see um but I very first mentioned this in November 2023 in a governance committee meeting um I mentioned it again in December and um I kind of felt like it fell by the wayside and so you know I was happy that when um theou had to be renegotiated that it kind of uh lended an opportunity for the streaming of some committee meetings but um I do have a couple of questions and um one is so when when did theou um negotiation when was that completed with the city because we're separate we're we're ending our second year so I want to say it started like two summers ago and we finished it so and so
153you'll be starting your third year coming into this and they we've been working on for a couple months before that a lot of it had to do when the cable franchise agreement came out because what they call the PEG fees which is what funds the public stations it's tied to the cable franchise so when that came out they started talking with us and then other things that were happening the city resulted in that so it's a combination of issues so we're starting in like the third year on July 1st so I would say it was about two and a half years ago okay thank you um and I I do feel like um I feel like the city has been uh pretty kind uh in this process or at least it looks like it here
154um do we have any idea how much revenue is being taken in currently from public broadcast fees this current moment in time i don't have that number i know it's declining but my video folks might be able to see i believe it's only like a hund thousand what they what the city informed us was that what you're seeing on cable users tends to be the older generation people in their 70s and 80s and you're starting fewer and fewer people are doing they are expecting these fees to start going away but they think it'll probably be something like another 10 years with that but they are dramatically coming down because fewer and fewer people are using cable they're using streaming but they believe very strongly they need to keep this in place because there is this
155portion of the population who still uses cable but I don't I don't I think you're going to see much annoyed fees in the next 5 to seven years after that okay great um and then so would this be streamed um on Facebook or just YouTube i mean I've seen um the city council they do Facebook and so I don't know what what exactly is the capability here we have lots of capabilities we're happy to consider anything that the board is interested in doing uh the only things that come to my mind that we should uh consider when making those types of decisions because we want to make sure that the public has the best experience in whatever platform that we use so the more options that we choose are the more options that we need
156to support right so I just want to be strategic about which ones uh that we may choose so for example if we select YouTube YouTube is pervasive youtube is everywhere youtube is very very accessible regardless of whatever platform or device uh that you're using it's built into many TVs these days right so we we think about those types of things when deciding which ones are strategically the right choice versus uh other ones okay and is there additional cost associated because I know you know when we're talking about committees we're also talking about additional um manpower correct uh there is manpower associated with it yes uh but no uh additional costs other than that okay so I I'd be interested um to hear from you all um after Miss Felton has the opportunity to speak um
157what kind of direction you're looking for and also uh what is really truly feasible and when and for timeline and whether or not we need to um vote on that i think probably would be most appropriate so Miss Falton thank you Chair Brown uh first I'd like to say I appreciate the city council uh cutting us from our April the April stream stream that we can be responsible to do things on our own so I appreciate that as well so I want to know are we the first to do this first school board no no we are we're always the first we're not the first you're not the first on that one oh wow okay so will this mean equipment updates and will there be probably uh lessons in what we need to get used
158to with the new equipment and while I'm on Oh that's my question so I want to say I I am all for all multimedia wherever we can be posted and seen because I believe that our schoolboard meetings are very important to many people and as we are speaking now there are many that look in on our schoolboard meetings in other states as well and I say that reassuringly because I'm called from other states so they looking on our school board meeting but um I'm I'm glad the strings from the city council is letting us go and let us be responsible for what we can do but will there be equipment update and um other maybe classes that come with the school would have to learn as well so all of the equipment has already been
159updated and uh the training is just about done i don't know if you even noticed but Mr braden back there actually has handled some of our meetings 100% on his own so we're we're well uh on the way to being able to make that switch by July the 1st as per theou already okay Dr robertson what kind of um direction do we need on which meetings are being streamed and so we would need we would absolutely need board direction on whether or not they wanted to stream any type of meetings other than the ones that we do with board meetings and special meetings so if it wants to be the PRC or the audit committee or any committee meetings we're in need direction do the capabilities how how soon do the capabilities exist to do
160that would it be best to do start with one and then add uh just to make sure that we're able to We believe that we're ready so it's it's always easiest to start with one and then add but we believe that we're ready to go okay Miss Dwire I I just had a quick question and maybe you said this early on but how many social how many media um I guess where Okay so is the sky the limit as to where we can stream and where do you recommend what are your three recommendations so um I'm hesitant to say that the sky's is the limit we can easily cover all of the major social media platforms i'll say it that way um and with regards to my recommendations uh I think that it's very easy
161to go ahead and start with YouTube right so we can go ahead and start with YouTube do things like disable uh comments on a YouTube feed to make sure that there isn't comments that we need to u negotiate mitigate uh or anything like that and we would want to take a look at those types of capabilities on other social media feeds uh prior to moving to them as well so the less is probably better because that would be a lot of maintenance and upkeep maybe uh we are happy to do as much that the board is interested in doing i just want to make sure that we do it strategically and is there cost involved outside of manpower outside of manpower no there isn't okay okay thank you sure great vice Chair Williams um yes
162I would like to see as um stream for the committees the four standing ones which are PRC BU audit and legislative is that right um I would like to start with those four because those are easily um we can easily meet some of the committees don't meet here um and some of them meet like in Chesape so you know and so that's going to be difficult so but I think those four are are appropriate to start with um if you think that I mean I think that we should leave it to the expertise of if you want to start one or all four um but I but I definitely think those four to begin with happy to as the board wants to do it just again with that caveat as I mentioned in the presentation
163we're limited to this room and the Einstein lab right right that's why these four committees it's very easily because they usually always meet here anyway i mean one meets in there but they can just move the audit moves in there but we can just move so um that's my suggestion and my desire okay so I'll work with Dr robertson on when to bring this back forward and thank you very much again very exciting things and um making information easier for the community and board members to find so that's great great news um we are now on to regulation 552.1 update and we welcome Matthew Delaney chief schools officer and real quick just before he starts this is the presentation um several members of the board had asked for more information so um Mr delane he's
164going to give it to us thank you uh selfishly I just want to thank Mr den for his presentation i'm excited about the agenda link as well my 89year-old father who religiously tunes in if I'm presenting to be able to let him go to bed early dad it's right here click and watch and you can get a look so thank you uh Mr den i appreciate that uh good evening Chairwoman Brown Vice Chair Williams Dr robertson members of the board as as Miss Brown just kind of shared the purpose of this session is to provide an update regarding some of the requests you made last meeting obviously there was a lot of discussion on some legal components of the regulation change but there was also some desire to hear any updated guidance from the VDOE
165uh there's a question about how's it going for the year so I'm going to show you some discipline data or some cell phone violation data and and walk you through a little bit of that and then a there's a final question asked about one lunch across other divisions and and who else is doing those things so Dr robertson at the last board meeting on June 9th referenced and read components of the June 6 message that was called Belltobell law the land uh the memo as he shared with you included a statement that the VDOE would have a special addition in the next week for other recent legislation and implementation support i know for many of you you said we will want to hear that those updates well unfortunately as of now we have not received
166any information from the VDOE on recent legislation and implementation support so I have nothing to provide on that end we also had inqu in inquiries regarding how schools were doing with implementing the current cell phone regulation particularly after January when the decision was made to allow high school students to continue to use cell phones during lunch so this slide provides you with some comparison cell phone uh violation as a primary violation that means they said this is the violation was strictly a cell phone violation uh for the 23 24 to the 2425 school year the blue bars show data from 2324 school year and the orange bars for the 2425 school year each quarter represents a 9-week period the implementation of Belltobell was uh was on January 1st 2025 which would include the final three
167weeks of January which is in quarter 2 and then quarter 3 and quarter 4 would go from February to June during the 2425 school year there were 6,684 referrals where cell phone violations were the primary reason for the referral that's four times the amount of 2324 vast majority of these violations occur at the high school level in 2425 high school accounted for 76% of the cell phone violations which is a similar percentage to 75% in 2324 middle school accounted for 23% this past year and 24% in 23 24 and cell phone violations at elementary schools were rare and did not see really the same level of increase there only 25 violations last year and that's seven more than in 23 24 that had 18 this is the time when you look at data and it
168can tell a different story so I just want to share with you a couple of things around this it's important to note in executive order 33 was released in July of 2024 and the final guidance was released in September you may remember we were doing a presentation at the retreat on the cell phone policy and regulation when that was released so in preparation for what we believed was coming Dr robertson and Dell leadership was very adamant in sharing with principles and others at the expectation uh that the cell phone regulation be enforced with more consistency so I think you're seeing the data sh certainly shows that uh the staff understood that expectation we were not surprised by the increase in number as a result of that we also have some kind of qualitative or anecdotal
169data where we walk into schools and we did see kids generally more compliant with the cell phone uh regulation versus what the data shows so I want to make sure I paint that picture for you because the numbers can look somewhat alarming we also wanted to ensure that you understood some cell phone data by location where were these violations occurring we felt this was important as you start to think through this um this this slide outlines again the cell phone violations by locations the comparisons of 2324 in blue and 2425 in orange in 2425 83% of cell phone violations in occurred in the classroom this is similar to what was in 2324 where was 85% of the cell phone violations occurred in the classroom the fi violations did not occur in the classroom most of
170them occur in the commons areas of the school building such as the hallway the gym cafeteria or the restroom note all other location combines with lower numbers of referrals into a larger group for reporting purposes could have been the skola could have been a field trip it could have been out on the track or something of that nature so prior to taking questions we were also asked what other school divisions have one lunch and as I shared in the last meeting the school that we visited years ago was Deep Run High School in Henriiko which was the only other school running one lunch and they are still continuing that practice but they're the only school in Henriiko that has one lunch i'm unaware of any other school divisions or schools that offer a high school
171one lunch uh it's my understanding that Henriiko does allow cell phones at lunch and during transitions currently and so I'd be happy at this time to answer any questions and obviously any legal questions I will step back and let Miss Lenetti handle those miss Melnik okay so I'm glad you clarified because if I were a visual learner correct i would have been freaking out but then you clarified and so can I give you additional clarity on that that may be helpful do you mind am I going to like it i don't know i But I think I think sometimes that clarity of that number Yeah and then you take that number and you divide it by 181 just on an average of days and then you take it by the number of high schools for
172example that's two per high school per day okay so I give you that context as well i also liked what you said that um the students were doing a much better job with their cell phone usage um and we've heard from a lot of parents we've heard from a lot of students and I've been a really big fan of our high school redesign you know the the redesign model like we talked about this for years and I just don't know how we move forward with this um without giving kids for a 50inute period of time the opportunity to use their devices and it's music it's re you know it's it's an it's a it's a book it's an it's an online book it's signing up for um um I'm sorry tutoring um there are apps
173that students have launched um and the opportunity for students to sign up on these applications i I I think since you've explained this this is not visually pleasing but since you explained it I think our students have reacted exactly how I wanted them to react which was with a little more maturity and of course we always have the outliers right i mean we see it it's two a day in a school but I think that's far better um and I personally just think that hammering the message a couple of times a year with a year with our students they're going to get it um uh so Deeprun High School is the only other school with a one lunch and they're allowed to have their cell phones correct i don't know how you It's just too
174long and honestly two things i think it's going to be horrible for our teachers who are going to be policing students all over a building i mean you mentioned the track like kids can go outside and run the track or play in the gym um how do we what are we expecting from our teachers or they're sitting in the theater having lunch or they're sitting in a classroom and they're sitting with the teacher who actually may not really care that they're checking you know something on their phone i don't know how you possibly police that and I expect this bar graph to be off the charts if we had to to do that and then I look at two speakers tonight who talk a lot about teacher responsibilities they talk a lot about behaviors they
175talk about a lot of things and they came before us and they said "As teachers we think students should be able to have these during lunch." That's my personal opinion um I'm happy to see that students reacted properly and um again the only other high school in Virginia that has a one lunch allows their students to have them during one one lunch but also during transition and we took that away which I think helps you're not putting something away as you're stepping into a classroom there's just going to be one time during the day that you can use it mr brown still so the only other one lunch is Hiko at is it deep run okay and they're able to use their cell phones at lunch so what is the legal ratifications on them doing
176it i mean how can they get away with it so to speak well again you don't need to be in compliance until July one so the law will be effective July 1 so they still have time to make adjustments i can't tell you what the move ramifications are until afterwards so we don't know going forward if they're going to continue with the cell phones at lunch i've not spoken with him i can't speak to whether they're going to do that or not all right thank you Madam Chair uh Miss Rogers has her hand raised to go into the queue okay um and I I do just want to clarify because I did actually watch uh the June 12th Henriiko County Schoolboard meeting um they had 57 items on their consent agenda and one of them
177was their student code of conduct and they did actually change for next year that they are going bell to bell including instructional um and it was in there it so included one lunch yes including the one lunch um and so um I'm in the process of pulling that back up so I'll speak on it more in a little bit but Well thank you for the clarification because my communication with the secondary leader there was prior to June 12th so I appreciate that clarification okay i I appreciate that um that that makes sense um was Miss Rogers in line next okay all right miss Rogers thanks so much um thanks for your presentation U Mr delaney um as everyone knows I have high schoolers uh myself um a rising 11th grader and a rising eighth grader
178um so I will have high school students for quite a while and I am an advocate of teaching students time and place and I do think it's right to teach our students time and place when it comes to one lunch but on another note I um was looking up the video guidance for when this executive order first came out and um in the VDOA guidance on page five it says parents should use school-based communication tools and channels to communicate emergencies during bell-to-bell instructional time as of right now our parents cannot contact their students from outside emails so um instead of clogging up our office with parent emergencies how are we going to make it um so that our parents can contact their students through schoolbased communications and tools and channels um if we are going
179to go bell-to-bell not certain I understand the question completely as we've had several situations of this level and as you recognize we sometimes communicate very quickly out from a central level of what's occurring at a school building um in terms of contacting your student via those means if we're in a significant security situation they would not have access to those if we're in a lockdown situation or other components so when you're talking about a school-based emergency it is challenging whatever you decide to do cell phones no cell phones to get in contact with students quickly to see how their well-being is doing and in many instances as we've talked about over the years it does create additional security concerns until we can mitigate whatever challenges in front of us i don't have a clean answer
180for you obviously Miss Rogers because I don't know what steps we would take to ensure in any level of emergency we can ensure that a parent can immediately get in contact with their child and and it's not school-based emergencies that I'm really considering but um family emergencies death in the family someone needs to get hold of their child for whatever reason and if we are going bellto bell parents it says here number five parents should use school-based communication tools and channels to communicate emergencies during the bell-to-bell instructional time so how will our parents be able to communicate their own emergencies other than calling the office if they're unable to email call text any of those options are now being cut and we can't they're they're not I I cannot email my own children from my
181outside email um and so I'm asking as a parent okay if I had an emergency and I needed to get a hold of my kids outside of just calling the office and hoping that they get the message to my kids how do I get a hold of them if we haven't provided any other way of communicating i think we currently do that at our elementaryaries and middle schools where students do not have access to that either so calling the school is always the top means to have that occur and I think it's very rare where somebody would say they could not get in contact with any school-based official to communicate something to their child so we currently have those mechanisms in place for especially as I said at levels that don't have children have any
182access to cell phones so I would just encourage them to continue to to do that level of reach out and if they're not able to reach somebody in the main office they are able to reach a school counselor or somebody of that end that they could communicate that through and while I agree that elementary school and middle schoolers don't have that access they don't have the level of responsibility as a high schooler i wouldn't be sending my middle schooler um to take care of something um necessary i would only be sending my high schooler who has the responsibility um to be able to handle something in emergency situation so that's where I think that it's a little bit different for high schoolers because they are learning the maturity they are becoming more responsible even for
183siblings that are younger than themselves and so in an emergency I would need to contact my high schooler to then take care of my middle schooler that's something I would need to do and expect as many as many many other parents across this division if there's an emergency they're going to ask their high schoolers to take care of their younger siblings and so that's where my concern is again if we're if we're doing a bell-to-bell situation and students can't get a hold of their you know can't get these messages it could be a problem for them and you know this is what the VDOA guidance states um and again I also echo Miss uh Melnik's Mrs melnik's sentiments with regard to all of the different um apps and things but I think my biggest concern
184is that this is what the VDA guidance states and if we're going by VDA guidance and we're doing what the law says then I think we need to have um a way for parents to be able to contact their high schoolers that is you know not just going through the office because not everything is going to be the level of emergency um to the school but is to the parent thanks Chair Wings yes Mr delaney so believe it or not not everyone has a cell phone in high school is that a correct statement do is do a 100% of our students have cell phones i have not looked at that data Miss Williams to give you a answer i know for sure not everybody has a cell phone in high school and middle school because
185I know students who do not in high school so if I don't have a cell phone in high school whether it's because of lack of affordability or my parents don't want me to have a cell phone or whatever how do I find out about practice how do I find out about my job how do I find out about my sports well this if you're I don't know do you want me to try to go through every one of those i think if you're talking from a standpoint of a coach saying practice is canled we typically have announcements that go out through a variety of channels that practices are cancelled uh on the high school you said without a cell phone so those announcements can go out in those manners uh they have other means of
186communication through uh their teammates and others that they talk to during lunch and other components of that from the work standpoint I think some of those things should not necessarily occur during the school day that the day does end for them to check on those experiences but I I don't know the job end of it but I do know as a former coach typically without cell phones we were just ensuring that announcement went on on what games were canceled what practices were cancelled what tutoring was canceled i believe they still do some of those announcements at the end of the day um and I have raised six teenagers and they were 12 my first and fifth were 12 years apart so there was a little bit changes but they were very involved with sports both
187in and outside the school some of them had jobs they had younger siblings and they did not have cell phones in the building and they were able to carry on their responsibilities and we've had our shares of emergencies where I've had to call for different things up to the office or I've had to drive to school make that phone call so I I think that that through the Chromebook and through the teachers and through the coaches and I would hope not too many people bosses are changing work schedule at at 12 or 1:00 in the day for that afternoon um but but I think that our that our kids are going to be fine um without the cell phone because they've done it before and some are doing it now because not everybody has a
188cell phone um and I know many many schools in Virginia have gone bellto bell with with exactly what the governor um message was intended to do so um so and I I think that we need to remember too with the safety situation i know Dr robertson um has assured people that in a in a crisis that if someone uses a phone that there's going to be some grace given and we've heard many times from our safety folks just what you alluded to when there is a lockdown or something going on um many many many cell phones going off is is not the ideal situation so um I've been pretty consistent with um this i think the law is pretty clear i think the intention is pretty clear i'm glad that our students seem to be
189more responsible mature and I expect nothing less if we say no cell phones bell I think they'll adapt and I think they'll do quite well i'm going to lean in on the data um that's overwhelming in regard to screen time um and and so I'm I'm not going to be able to support um having it at lunchtime obviously thank you Miss Dwire so um Cammy I just want to make sure that I heard you correctly you said as of July 1st it's the law of the land yes you you you have to deal with the policy the statute goes into effect that went prior to this it was a governor's order the general sum of shares implemented the policies the policy needs to be done what I can tell you is that if you if
190you were to ban cell phone bill you be completely in compliance that's always been an option there is some question as I mentioned last time this came up with the Virginia schoolware association there appears to be some miscommunication because of the use of the words sometimes prohibit and restrict It is not 100% clear so I cannot guarantee you without clarification that if you allowed it at lunch you'd be in compliance with the statute there seems to be some confusion as to that was just poor choice in wording again we thought we'd have clarification we don't at this point um again you've always been allowed to do bell to bell after the executive order came out if you let anything between that would just be we'd have to manage that and deal with the Virginia Department
191of Education if that happened okay i'm sorry sorry I thought you said something about Enrico County with uh July 1st well July 1st is when the law is in effect it that this was a recent law clarifying it it was essentially before this current law that's going in effect what it said you had you had the complete right as a school board to do cell phones but the governor had come out with directed the video department of education put a role this this year the general assembly codified that cell phone statute unfortunately the wording it uses the two words in one section and then uses different word but prohibit and restrict it is a little bit unclear at the moment what that means but it before prior to this it was just regulations coming from
192the Virginia Department of Education we were complying with okay thank you okay we are going to jump to Mr cummings because he hasn't had the chance to speak and then we'll cycle back through and then Mr cow i'm gonna preface just my comments that I think every single board member recognizes that we don't want kids on their phones in the classroom and um I mean I think we all see the research of screen time and the negative impact i mean I guess I can't speak for every board member so I apologize for that but I do think that based on folks that I've chatted with that we see that we're in agreement and alignment that you know cell phones in classrooms is not a great avenue to go down um and then you know I
193think about the screen time research uh and how that negatively impacts kids i think about the social media research on te on youth and how that impacts um you know mental health and I think we have to have a serious conversation on you know technology use and how how it impacts our how it impacts our kids and I think that conversation is something that we have to lean in more towards um with our youth and so when I look at this you know I preface my comments with all that that at the end of the day I think we need strong policy to guide the classroom um and I think that we need a consistent congruent experience across every single school um with how to handle you know cell phone use in the classroom and
194I think that looking at this data and I appreciate your clarification because that was the first thing that I thought about was like well yeah this just shows that when you enforce policy you know the numbers rise and I think that's a great avenue to go down and so for me I'm always interested in what problem am I trying to solve and the problem I'm trying to solve is cell phone use in class because our internal data shows that only you know 2% of these violations are in the cafeteria and I think you know teaching responsibility and teaching you know individual use on moderation i think that's a healthy conversation and so I do lean in towards if there is wiggle room within state policy to all lot our kids um the avenue to utilize
195their phones um during lunch um I just personally just think that you know that's their free time um I think that that's time that I mean whenever I did tours of high schools I didn't see gobs of kids on their phone i saw kids or young folks you know chatting with each other sitting in groups and I think you know it's pure qualitative and pure you know my one experience and I know that can't speak for all but I do see a lot of social interaction with with our youth during lunch um and so I do lean in towards you know indivi teaching more individual responsibility um I think there's a lesson to be learned there and you know I'm reading through just kind of the the state bills because I think you know in
196the summary of the bill um it says the bill this this bill requires such policies to restrict to the fullest extent possible student phone cell phone possession and use in the classroom during regular school hours and so you know there's in the summary it looks like they're saying in use of classroom and then when you jump into the language you know there's the talk and of course I unhighlighted where I was going to mention it says um you know restricting student of cell phone and smart device possession and use on the school property from bell to bell so I think that clarification is the hardest part I think for the school for me as a school board member to understand like what is the state law actually requiring us to do and if there's ability
197to lean in and allow exception to me I don't see a strong argument based on just 2% and what I've observed to say why we should prohibit what I see as a strong argument is how do we continue to enforce classroom behavior here and um you know have a congruent experience for all kids and what they're doing in all schools so those are just my thoughts and I I definitely appreciate the information you provided you know I agree with what was said earlier looking at my first impression was like well and then you know thinking through it a little more you know it shows that when we have policy in place and when we force it um you know these are the consequences so appreciate the presentation thank you mr ken I return to exhibit
198A i returned to it not in reading but just as a reference this book became a worldwide phenomenon it influenced what's happening in this country in this state and in this globe that we all live on it made that much of a difference and 18% of the information that's contained within this book had to do with the research that surrounded all of the depths and the analysis and the observations that took place to examine the impact and the interesting thing was that it made such a distinction on the totality of the ban if you did anything less than a full bell-to-bell institution of the the rules itself it made a difference i say let's not argue with the enormous amount of research that accompanied this book interestingly in Sunday's edition of the Virginia Pilot was
199this headline let's focus on learning mark July 1 on your calendar that's the day a state law goes into effect mandating that public school students not use cell phones during the school day i'll read just one other section last year Governor Ynan after legislative attempts failed issued an executive order directing the state's Department of Education and Secretaries of Education and Health and Human Resources to define cell phone free education and provide guidance for school systems to make it happen this year legislation cottifying belltobell cell phone free education in schools across Virginia passed with strong support from both Democrats and Republicans i think it's important that we apply the principles that were found in the research that's been done to do so completely and totally and what might seem to many as an extreme measure but
200to do so bell to bell including lunch thank you Mr bowensteel yes i just want some clarification from the chair you said that Herika will not be Yes and I emailed that um to everyone on the school board so that you can look at it on page 10 of their student code of conduct uh that they voted on June 12th um they changed what said air on silenced and airplane mode during scheduled class time to the school day um and during instruction related afterchool activities unless being used for instructional purposes with the teacher's permission so I uh I suppose that there may be some leniency for instructional based on what I'm looking at um they didn't really have a lot of conversation about it they just voted on it um so you know it was
201unanimous there and um I I definitely have some other examples but I'm waiting to cycle through to get to those so okay thank you and then this is more of a legal question so if we were to allow them to have their cell phones at lunch and then it came back on us as far as the law stating that we can't do this what would happen then my guess is the attorney general's office on behalf of the Virginia Department of Education would attempt to bring an action against us possibility that the governor's office could take action against us i don't know exactly they haven't detailed for us what would happen there's a possibility that you might get cited by the department of education attorney General's office may attempt to enjoin you from doing it they
202may not do anything for a while there's also you run into the possibility of a student discipline appeal on it but it's most likely if I had to guess would it be something from the attorney general's office asking it to be in compliance well I mean I'm all for following the law but and I disagree with some of the reasonings that they are saying for to use a cell phone i don't agree with all of it but I do believe that and my thought is that we should allow them to have it i understand that Richmond said that that's not a possibility i guess uh it just to me it just seems that it will show them some acts of where they can be mature i mean almost everybody that's an adult that has a
203job first thing they do is probably go to their cell phone when they hit lunch and uh you know like I said I will go along with this with the state's recommendation but I'm totally think it's wrong i think their students should be able to use their phone during lunch well clarification VDOE has indicated they were going to come out with an interpretation of it again it would just be an interpretation this is what we call a question of statutory construction technically the general assembly would have to correct it but the Virginia Department of Education has responsibility for enforcing it so you could follow what BDOE gave out we just don't have that guidance right now so I can't tell you one way or the other and I I also want to clarify it has
204been the school administration's recommendation you go to bell to bell they they were not the ones saying lunch so this one there seemed to be some indication the school school administration said they wanted to go bell to bell this one the recommendation for lunch to lunch obvious not for allowing use during lunchtime was from the PRC so I'm going to make sure that was clearer in some of the discussion again I can't tell you yet what BDOE's interpretation is because we just haven't seen it miss Melnik well I certainly wish there were no ambiguity in the in the language right because that would have been really nice we could have just said we're done but you give I mean you leave that open and that's the hard part for people but I I just want
205to say a couple of things um first thing is I am 100% certain that if there were an emergency in a school I won't name the emergency but let's just call it a bad one all those cell phones are coming out like we know that so I'm assuming that we're not going to be writing 2,000 referrals if there's an emergency the regulation states that they have that opportunity but I I share that with in continually encouraging folks that that is a bad practice and it really I say that because it really hurts the emergency response and I say that with all seriousness i know the reality but yes the regulation says they would not be disciplined for accessing during emergency the same would hold true if their teacher started choking on something in the classroom
206and they correct went to 911 and called they would not be we would not write a referral for that so that is in the regulation that that you know leeway is there perfect um so I'm also assuming that principles will have I mean this is not going to be a problem for the rising freshmen right because they're coming from a place where they're not allowed to have their cell phones so we have three years of reprogramming and then these kids aren't really going to know any different so the other thing is um we need a lot of help from the principles kind of the way uh Tenil Bowser does her green run you know she has these school meetings and she hammers she hammers the rules home right she's like "Not in here and I
207expect you to to listen to me." But we're also going to need a lot of parental support and that's where we lack sometimes is in that parental support per piece and um I am a bit worried that some parents are going to say sorry I want to be able to you know reach my kid um can I comment on that to help with that message please i was hoping someone would ask that question and I think when anybody talks about the challenge of enforcement the thing I always recognize is what is the support that's given to those that have to enforce it from the security assistant to the teacher assistant to the teacher the assistant principal the principal all the way to Dr brower's office as those things elevate up do they get full support
208for implementing policy across those that are all involved when they have to make these decisions because you're absolutely right we're going to have some parents don't agree we're going to see those numbers go up we're prepared for that okay uh that that's going to it's going to happen um but we also are going to work very closely with our principles as we did this year to ensure their support and staff but we also need to ensure we're supporting our principles who are going to deal with those initial calls of somebody being angry their child's being disciplined for that if we don't provide that level of support we're putting our teachers in a real difficult spot and our staff in a real difficult spot so I appreciate you bringing that up because that's going to be
209paramount yeah and then my last my my question for you is the last bell rang it's 2:10 is a student allowed to check their phone before they get on the bus perhaps there's a text for mom or mom says "Check your phone before you get on the bus every day make sure there's nothing for me." Or are those in airplane mode until they get on the bus the regulation says that moment the school day ends which for us is when the final bell rings okay uh we would expect that they would have that opportunity to do that and again you talk about policing something such as that that'd be extremely difficult to do when you have 1,600 kids or 1,400 kids exiting the building in a variety of ways so the indication is bell rings
210day is over you now have that so they can check their phone okay i feel better knowing because we talk about parents being able to reach their children for an emergency or for something else that you know come 210 they can check okay miss Maller the definition under A2 is until the dismissal bell rings okay so that's that's stop and that's consistent with the state definition okay Madam Chair uh Mr rogers is in the queue um so we're going to do Dr green first and then we'll do Miss Rogers thank you so right now um state law requires that the students will not have it and and I think that's an important thing during instructional time and whereas this past school year we gave grace I think with allowing for the one lunch correct correct
211so right so so now we are in a place where I mean we really don't have a choice but to follow the law Is that correct i I know i know and and and to that point we keep saying and Miss Lenetti and this is where you you may be able to help a little bit is that um I think it's important that we model the behavior that we also want our students to follow which would mean you know in terms of when there are laws I mean whether we like them or not we have to follow them um if you don't there are consequences um and we are a generation I'm not of that generation but now our our students you know they're so used to having those devices and I'm old enough I
212remember a time when we started teaching school you did not have those devices and and some kind of way we got through all the emergencies um you know when there were things that required you know building evacuations the rallying points the the the safety plans and and things and I think one of the things we would be remiss and Dr robertson I know you Mr delaney will will follow through is I think assuring the public that when there or or parents rather when there is an emergency that we do have procedures in place um I remember a time when those procedures were followed without without you know cell phones because I really feel right now our hands are tied with with with having to comply um with the policy u Miss Lanetti once we get
213guidance from the state or or from VDOE for clarification um I would assume that we could go back and look at modifying if we have to is is that going to be an option Dr robertson once we get the guidance but I know July 1 is next week so we we do have to comply yes you could it's a regulation it can actually change relatively quickly but um but yeah you could you certainly can change if you get different guidance and then I would assume right now I guess my fear with all of this once we get the regulations because I know sometimes how VDOE will get it after student code of conduct has been disseminated and things and so then we'll have to then again do a very aggressive communication plan with informing I
214see Miss Lavas looked up uh about what the new procedures are but in the meantime we will be informing our community once we vote as to what the the guidance is okay thank you and Miss Rogers thanks um I appreciate that uh we've been comparing ourselves to Henriiko um but they still have an equity policy so and we don't so I I think we can do something for ourselves i It is my understanding though after talking to several legislators after this um came out that um this law was passed with bipartisan support because it wasn't about prohibiting it was about restricting and so that's where I feel like the clarification is really important here um because I don't even think that um the legislators that voted for this um meant to legislate exactly how we're
215supposed to govern our own schools and so I would really like to hear what the VDO has to say and their input um before restricting altogether um specifically when our community has overwhelmingly supported um allowing their students to have it during one lunch every parent I've talked to bipartisan has supported their student having their phone during one lunch for our city and our schools and so I want to ensure that we are doing exactly what our community needs as well as following what the law in and its intent was and so um you know that's my biggest concern and Mrs lenetti do you have any idea as to when the VDA guidance is supposed to come out ma'am I've been looking for it every day i have not seen so my experience with VDOE right
216now is they've been pretty swamped the last couple months so they're not doing this and and then one other question um obviously the governor is leaving in November um and there will be a new governor and so um would that then change this policy regulation what have you uh after November is that a possibility there is a possibility that a new governor could come in and have a new interpretation of what they think it is but at that point you're getting close to the general assembly taking action my guess is the general assembly will go back and clarify this if they disagree with what the governor's interpretation is so there's a possibility that a new governor might change something but by the time VDOE got out directions on it it's a possibility we would be
217looking at guidance from coming out of the general assembly again okay so then that's where I stand on this Mr cummings yeah I know we've been talking a while about it so I'll be brief um it seems like we're waiting for clarification on terms that of what actually compliance means what is our possibility to move the vote to to give the go to give you know the VDOE more time to clarify can't That's kind of what I thought but okay all right um lot of good conversation on this i think that uh I think it would be pretty clear to the public that this board has really thoroughly um discussed this issue um I do have a couple of questions um for Mr delaney and of course um Dr robertson i would be curious if
218VDOE was to issue guidance um that indicated that lunchtime is permitted um does your recommendation change that's a really good question um my my personal opinion um and I'll answer first is my it would not change i would agree you know it's going to be a challenge to enforce i'll acknowledge that upfront but we have traditionally not gone against executive orders or anything that comes down from the VDOE we haven't done that on either side and I was just leerary of some of that slope that could occur as a result of it dr robertson was very clear in the winter and Dr green kind of asked some of the questions around communications we had threeformational sessions in October we did three presentations in November remember they pretty pretty strong conversations and he was pretty clear
219at that time that we are going to bell-to-bell next year based on that guidance we prepped our principles for that to be prepared for that we prepped had them speaking to their students to be prepared for that so I just many of you were not here during that time yet so we were pretty clear that we were going to try and move in that direction and understand the challenge that come with it but just wanted to give that additional context okay thank you um and what exactly is our plan uh to communicate if this changes um and even if it doesn't change um to our families what the expectations are in the upcoming school year and what what kind of reminders are we going to send and um how are we going to communicate exactly
220what the process is to each family because that is a big problem um I I've actually had that same dilemma where sometimes getting a hold of my child uh to tell them something at school during the school day is a little bit of a challenge so how are we going to make sure that our families know what to expect well there's a couple things we do every year we do Dr robertson usually does a back to school kind of acknowledgement and video around what we're doing we work with our schools on that end when you talk about being able to get in touch with a child we talk with our schools and our parents about and it's in the when we talked about the presentations previously of for parents and families to really ensure what
221they're calling on is an emergency because we do have office staff that has some limitations in the amount of calls they can take dr brower will be con you know sharing this with principles probably tomorrow depending on where this vote goes um we will work through the summer in terms of how we're communicating those expectations out to families and work with our principles and sure to ensure in their letters that go out to staff proper procedures for contacting a school we'll clearly define for all of them what we see as a school-based emergency and what are things that or a family emergency that can come as a quick response versus those that should not necessarily deemed as such because that does delay sometimes the response time on how people interpret what is the emergency so
222to summarize it because I jumped a little bit there you'll have an opening of school kind of packet and video and information that goes out code of conduct will have that information in the parents are expected to sign as you know before school starts or right when school starts we will work with our principles on their when they do their code of conduct assemblies with students on how to walk through that process with their students and the expectations and we'll ensure they're communicating those out at any parent events they have to open the school year as well uh we we will work very closely with our high school principles on how they are implementing this in a one lunch scenario how they're utilizing their staff and not causing their teachers to be overwhelmed in this
223process and what is the expectation because that was also clear in the guidance that they do not want teachers to become cell phone police to that level we did work on that this year so we looked at obviously you got 5,000 some odd in a classroom so teachers do have to enforce and write the referral but we tried to work really closely with like we don't want teachers to engage with the student directly on that cell phone violation and disrupt instruction so reminding our principles on how to support teachers um and they may need to make some alterations to how they run one lunch initially to ensure how they're going to enforce this process so we'll have to strategically work with our principles on that because that is the big difference and if I can
224add one piece and this is just a dilemma when you have a school division the size of Virginia Beach and 12 high schools two two centers a Brock Center 21,000 high school students about 2,000 teachers in a high school when you add in staff in high school you're about 3,500 and we're people and so we will provide as much training as we possibly can but there will be times where human nature because we're a human centric organization will take take over and a a a staff member may ignore a cell phone right in their classroom you know so we're going to do the very best we can u we're going to have consistency from school to school level to level and to your point Miss Melting made two really good points we it's unlikely we
225have parental support at 100% so we don't have parental support at 100% as soon as there's an issue with that child of that parent it's going to be the school's fault and what we can't do because this will [ __ ] the process is that every email that you get turns into an email to school leadership that turns into an investigation and a response because that will [ __ ] the organization we will just stop doing any of our work to build uh teaching and learning and we'll be responding to emails from parents you have to trust that we're going to put something in place and be consistent with the process and when those parents call you and say "But Mike have you contacted the school have you talked to the principal?" And they they're going to need to
226do that so to Dr green's point I taught my entire career and there were no cell phones i coached my entire career there were no cell phones my kids knew when practice was they knew when it wasn't you know there were kids on my team who had jobs you know cell phones have been a convenience but they're also a distraction and the research is pretty clear that they're a distraction and for the teachers that are listening what we want the teachers to know is we need you to take care of your environment which is in the walls of your classroom we'll take care of the rest okay all right and then um you know I I also um agree with one of my colleagues that mentioned the um overview of the law and it said
227you know to the fullest extent possible and um you know when I read that I had a different interpretation which is that the fullest extent possible does not include lunchtime um I think it really boils down to what you believe the word restrict means um you know and and I think that's that's the boil down here but um there's been a lot of conversation about you know other divisions and you know Virginia Beach's size versus other divisions and so I did take quite a bit of time uh to research other divisions which is why um I had watched Henriiko County's schoolboard meeting because I want to watch other divisions meetings too apparently um Henri Reicho County has about um 50,000 students chesterfield has been bell-to- bell since January of 2025 they have 64,000 students uh
228Fairfax is allowing um schools in lunch and um I actually thought this was interesting in my research of Fairfax County schools because um in DC news now um the governor's governor's office shared a statement and this article was on June 5th um there was a statement shared from the governor's office from the secretary of education Amy Guerrera where she criticizes the district's decision quote "It's a shame Fairfax continues to deny the well-established fact that btobell self education is most beneficial for students and is choosing instead to be an outlier among the overwhelming number of school districts that have gone bell-to-bell in Virginia," the statement read in part and so you know when when we're in absence of guidance and then I have other representation from the VDOE um clearly saying this is not what we
229mean when we say btobell and they're from the VDOE it kind of makes it a little challenging for me to believe that that guidance that comes from the VDOE is going to be um any different i do think that there is lots of peer-reviewed research um some of my colleagues have mentioned that and and a lot of us have talked about how we're a data-driven division and if we're going to be using data and driving it we're going to have to and then um I do agree with another colleague of mine and I had actually written this down here um that we have to model student behavior and one thing that I can't really personally get behind is um agreeing to make it appear here as though we're telling our students that it's okay to
230not follow the laws that you believe are laws um if you don't like them um and so you know especially for a group of teenagers I I really struggle with that um that piece um but I I do believe that the law is pretty clear i think that was unanimous after the governor made his amendments in both the House and the Senate um not all members were present but it was unanimous nonetheless and um so I'm I'm only going to be supporting what is the whole law and um I would hope that somebody would modify the uh regulation and remove that part um because otherwise what we've done is we've implemented half of the law the one that makes it more difficult to have our division do student discipline but we haven't done the other
231half of the law so I don't know why we're I I don't know why we would only do half of the law so anyway Miss Melnik so I'm a rule follower i make full and complete stops at every stop sign um much to my my family thinks that's hysterical um all I ask is that when we talk to families that we ask them to help us in our redesign based on a law and what I don't ask what I ask of my colleagues is is to share that that same sentiment with the community and not the well you know when I was a kid we I didn't have a cell phone and look at me now because our children today don't know life without a cell phone it's like um you know somebody with a
232vict and and now I'm talking about streaming my music if they never had that they don't know right and so families are buying cell phones for very young children we have kids that bring them to elementary school so that is our reality and all I ask is that we please just say you know we've made a decision as a board this is the law and we need your help in this part of our high school redesign miss Felton Nikia Brown I'm struggling i'm really really struggling because um I'm hearing the word law brought up a lot and um I saw how we moved very fiercely with an executive order dismantling and moving things real quickly and not considering the parents or the students uh I asked the question um will our students be able to
233utilize the school landlines if the students have an urgent call and what will you define as urgent when they have to come out to class and make that call i I I asked that question as well i birth four children but I raised 10 i raised 10 no they did not have cell phones but every one of those 10 children have children and they have evolved from landline to cell phones and they use them frequently mostly all the time they have very um some of them have working hours that obscure and not like my working hours and then I go outside of my own household of parents that I've talked to and said "Miss F I really need to be in touch with my child because there are times that I have to call i
234have to be with them." And and and believe it or not I really leaned into no phones during instructional time not at all not even from bail to bail because that's a distraction as well get it get all off trying to get to the class but I did consider uh doing their lunchtime that could catch up and do things and make calls i'm struggling because I've heard this saying before I got on this board and while I was on the board parents first parents first and we're going to listen to the parents holistically the parents are asking you for one thing to do and they I sort of talk with them as well too and I say to my colleagues let let us get through this and maybe we will have lunchtime you can your
235childs can have their phone they can catch up because I do have some students that work they have not work but they're in school and sometimes their uh training time or when they have the practice for the team that changes right in the middle of the day and they have to call the parents has changed can you come pick me up now or or later I'm struggling because I felt that what we were going to vote in on today was students allowed to have their phones so much time and talk on But it look like we're going in another direction because we're talking about the law now and I am a person that abide by the law i really do scripturally it say obey the laws of the land it tells me that as well
236and if you do not do that it causes a consequence but I'm struggling with this i really I'm going tell you seriously i am really struggling with what you all have said and we've gone back and retic something else the law I'm struggling but I just like to say that I hope that uh as we're leaning into this change that you will lean into when my students these students have to go to office with the urgent and they can use their landline and see how long the line comes will we give them that um that that right to do that as well thank you okay I think that was the last question so thank you very much thank you all right we are now on to textbook adoption AP Latin we welcome Dr crystal Wilkerson
237director of K through 12 and gifted programs and Kelly Arbal world languages coordinator okay good evening again school board chair Brown Vice Chair Williams members of the school board and Dr robertson my name is Crystal Wilkerson director of K12 and gifted programs and I'm here this evening to provide you with information regarding the textbook adoption committee selection for the AP Latin World Language course i would like to thank Kelly Arbble World Languages Coordinator as well as the committee members for dedicating their time and efforts in choosing the best textbook for our students before we discuss the proposed textbook adoption I would like to briefly review open educational resources or OEER which is the school board which the school board requires the committee to find and review as part of this process oeer are defined as
238shown here on this slide oeer might include full textbooks individual curriculum resources or even just an image for textbook adoption OEER is not always available or identified as a top choice when a suitable OEER text adoption is identified meaning it is an ali it is aligned to the standards comprehensive enough to serve as a primary source and of high quality and the committee agrees that it is the best option for the course the resources put out for public and teacher to review before being brought to the school board for approval currently VBCPS has incorporated a variety of OEER resources into the curriculum including the secondary math science social studies English and language arts curriculum for our AP Latin textbook adoption process one OEER and digital material from a traditional publisher was considered by the AP
239Latin textbook adoption committee the committee has selected college piln and Virgil as its first choice for AP Latin the text is freely available online in PDF format that's twice I've done that tonight and additional free resources are provided on the publishers's website including student translation sheets and vocabulary powerpoints the textbook recommended for consideration is scheduled for implementation in the fall of 2025 and aligns with the college board's revised AP Latin curriculum framework which will also take effect in the fall of 2025 the four current books for this course have been in use for 12 years because this is an OEER digital resource the initial cost of this textbook for the 15 students enrolled in AP Latin is $0 with a total implementation cost for six years of $0 thank you for your consideration of the
240committee's recommendation we'll join you again on August the 12th when this book will be on the consent agenda i have with me this evening Kelly Arbal World Languages Coordinator and we welcome any questions that you might have at this time miss Melnik it's not a question i'm just like yes i'm just assuming the answer is going to be yes on August 12th so it's $0 12 years since the last textbook 15 students and zero dollars so yeah that's a nice My vote will be yes I'm telling you now chair vice chair um Miss Rogers has her hand raised okay Miss Rogers um hi yes thanks for that presentation um I have a question um if we were to if more students actually first let me ask where are the 15 students that are taking this
241which school is it at the world languages at Tallwood or is it across the division um it's across the division through distance learning um but they're mostly at Ocean Lakes and Princess Anne High School okay awesome and then if we were to offer this um to more students would that increase the cost then because obviously I mean I have no idea how it is $0 but I'm just asking in case you know more students would be interested in this course no it would still be $0 it's free freely available online so there's no cost it's a digital resource okay perfect thanks so much digital okay thank you i appreciate it thank you all right we are now on to the consent agenda i'm going to read these real quick um we have the policy review
242committee recommendations policy 3-67 policy 4-3 policy 4-4 policy 4-15 uh we have schoolboard organizational matters superintendent designate in the absence of superintendent superintendent signature authority payroll deductions Linhaven Elementary School HVAC replacement Pinuk Pinbrook Elementary School HVAC replacement updated general fees schedule 2526 and Old CEC elementary school law enforcement training academy lease are there any objections to voting on the consent agenda as presented seeing none I call for a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented moved by Somebody can raise a hand do I have a motion moved by Miss Melnik seconded by Mr cummings there we go if you could just go ahead and hit that button that would make it easier for our clerk thank you all right um I call for the vote to approve the consent agenda as presented and Miss
243Rogers how do you vote on the consent agenda vote yes thank you Madam Chair we have 11 eyes the motion to pass for the approval of the consent agenda thank you we are now on to the personnel report and administrative appointments um I call for a motion to approve the personnel report and administrative appointments for June 24th 2025 as presented moved by Miss Dwire seconded by Miss Melnik any discussion seeing none I call for the vote to approve the personnel report and administrative appointments and Miss Rogers how do you vote on the personnel report and administrative appointments yes thank you Madam Chair we have 11 eyes the motion did pass for the personnel report and administrative appointments thank you uh we are now on to schoolboard committee assignment modific Oh sorry Dr robertson so I'll
244need a little patience here because there's there are several as you know so we're pleased tonight you've accepted our recommendation for Alicia Broadwater currently an instructional specialist in the department of teaching and learning to be the next assistant principal at Kimville Elementary School next uh we're pleased that you've accepted our recommendation for Jonathan Dugen currently an admin assistant at Providence Elementary School to be the next assistant principal at Allent Elementary School next we have Britney Ferguson previously an instructional technology specialist at Redm Mill Elementary School we're pleased you've accepted our recommendation for her to be the next assistant principal at Birdneck Elementary School next up Parker Thurood currently Parker is an admin assistant at WT Cook and Luxford Elementary School we're pleased you've accepted our recommendation for him for Parker to be an assistant principal
245at Prince Elementary School next up for middle schools we're pleased that you've accepted the recommendation for Dr jana Washington currently an admin assistant at Larksburg Middle School to be the next assistant principal at Lanstown Middle School next is Jeremy Cox currently an assistant principal at Salem Middle School we're pleased that you've accepted our recommendation for him to be an assistant principal at Renaissance Academy uh next up Serge Gil Sergio Gillian uh currently an admin assistant at Lancetown High School we're pleased you've accepted our recommendation for Sergio to be an assistant principal at Kellum High School next year next up is Dennis Kelly currently a dean of students at Bayside Middle School and we're pleased you've accepted our recommendation for uh Dennis to be an assistant principal at Renaissance Academy next up is Meredith Brookman currently
246an instructional specialist in the office of K12 and gifted programs we're pleased that you've accepted our recommendation for her to be a coordinator of fine arts him yes good gracious Lloyd 94 coordinator fine arts in the office of K12 and gifted programs next up we got you back wow andrea Ketta uh uh currently a finance financial management specialist in department of budget and finance to be the next coordinator of budget development in the department of budget and finance bruce Clark currently an assistant principal at Windsor Woods Elementary School to be the program coordinator coordinator at the regional recovery school the Harbor Hope School Center uh Dr katherine Goldberg currently the principal at Point of View Elementary School to be the next director of instructional technology in the department of teaching and learning and you got
247a guy on the back is pretty excited thomas Shadic currently a coordinator in security and safe schools in the office of security emergency management to be the next director of safe schools and the office of security emergency management next up Caitlyn Stro currently an assistant principal at Betty F williams Elementary School to be an employee relations specialist in Department of Human Resources and then finally Christy Verbly currently a principal in CEP to be the next coordinator of special education in the office of programs for exceptional children so thank you very much thank you i appreciate that thank you uh we are now on to schoolboard committee assignment modifications for term ending June 30th 2026 um I'll accept a motion to approve the schoolboard committee assignment modifications for the term ending June 30th 2026 at this
248time moved by Mr cummings seconded by Mr co Pepper any discussion seeing none I call for the vote to approve the schoolboard committee assignment modifications for term ending June 30th 2026 as presented mr wy how do you vote and Miss Rogers how do you vote on the committee assignments yes thank you Madam Chair we have 11 eyes the motion to pass for the committee assignments uh through June 30th of 2026 thank you um and we are now on to regulation 5-52.1 cellular phones and personal electronic communication devices i call for a motion to approve regulation 5-52.1 as presented moved by Miss Dwire seconded by my vice chair Williams any discussion yes application when you said presented as discussed are we voting on what is written in this policy now students from last time is that
249what we're voting on or something are we voting on something else correct so the current recommendation from the committee is what's on the floor um and I I believe m vice chair Williams is going to ask for some modifications here but um as chair it wouldn't be appropriate for me to have just changed it So face chair wings um yes i would like to make a modification and I've got this printed out it's very simple i probably shouldn't have didn't need to print it all out but um so I make the motion okay so the modifications are in um before I make the motion I'll just explain it briefly and it's basically what we've discussed this pretty long time but um A2 I have taken out for elementary and middle school students so it reads
250it reads lunch times bathroom breaks travel between locations during class periods and time between class periods are included in the definition of instructional time and then also in C the next page I removed number two high school students may use personal electronic communication devices during their designated lunch period and then I renumbered the the three and four to two and three so um basically this says what what some of us have discussed that we think um that phone should not be used at launch and should be bell-to- bell so I move that we adopt this um regulation 5-52.1 as amended okay uh point of clarification so is this an amendment or a substitute at this point i actually think it's amending the the policies present okay so we're going to be voting on Vice Chair
251Williams motion to amend uh those those couple of areas first and then we if that passes then we would be voting on the whole thing or if it fails we'd be voting on it without it correct actually correct if we amend it then you'd be voting to amend it and vote it again if it was a substitute you would just vote on the substitute so that might be why I'm asking might be more right i would Okay i would like to pull my amendment back and offer a substitute motion that we approve this with um with the changes that I've made that you have in your hand that we eliminate for elementary and middle school students and we eliminate number two C2 substitute motion mr b needs to accept that because you haven't i do
252accept that Mr robert my change to substitute motion thank you all right and let's give Miss Tony an opportunity to get that board all right any discussion seeing none I call for the vote to approve Miss Williams substitute motion miss Williams will you restate your motion uh for the vote to approve um to approve regulation 5-52.1 as um change striking out in A2 for elementary and middle school students and C2 and then renumbering three and four to two and three okay voting board is open miss Rogers how do you vote on the substitute motion by Vice Chair Williams no so Madam Chair we have nine eyes's and two Naz so the substitute motion did pass thank you we are now on to the approval of the VSBA membership for the 2526 uh fiscal year um
253I call for a motion to approve the VSBA membership um for the 2526 fiscal year moved by Miss Dwire seconded by Miss Melnik any discussion Miss Melnik so I appreciate this being moved to um action this evening because when this was presented for information nobody said anything and so it left me wondering um how this board felt because last year it was a pretty close vote and so for for many of us on this board VSBA is all we have for our professional development um we don't have a choice with any with anyone else i know Mrs lenetti our attorney and her group of attorneys um benefit from our membership um our our clerk um and our assistant clerk also uh benefit from this membership and um we are required our duty requires us to
254um do professional development and this is the only way I can do it so um I thank you in advance i know Mr co Pepper is our um person cast the cast the vote guy okay i need a point of order real quick though chair um I thought for the substitute motion we were just at substituting it to be part of it not substituting whether or not we want the policy to go forward okay so we're not on that anymore but when you have a substitute you're voting on the substitute as the motion when you're voting on an amendment you're amending you're amending okay so I need to change my vote to no then okay how do you how do we go about that since we're on a different um topic right now because that
255would be a motion to reconsider you can do as a motion to reconsider i believe there's a way to correct the vote during the same meeting you can go back and ask that your vote be corrected when is the appropriate time to do that since we're on a different item i need to look that up i think you can do it during the same meeting i just don't know if you can do it while something else is on the floor so I'm I'm going to ask that we finish out the VSBA and then we can do uh that motion to reconsider we can just reopen the vote if that works thank you all right Mr bowensteel i'm going to be voting no on this because I was supposed to get an athletic card i've never
256received it and I'm very disappointed so I'm going to vote no mr co Pepper I just want to say briefly uh uh VSBA does do many great things and and obviously one of the most important things they do for us is what Miss Melik just mentioned uh provide professional training for members of our staff however I don't agree with VSBA's policy that it's all or nothing uh essentially that the board has to um join as a whole and pay a single fee regardless of what services that we we provide for that reason i'll vote no miss Melnik so there's another there is another um there's an another school board member group in Virginia but I was denied access and so now I have nothing and they'll have nothing if we don't have six votes to
257carry this forward and that's that's my fear is that because you don't agree with their policies that I'm gonna lose my opportunity or because you didn't get a card all you do is call you you uh Oh okay well there's that but my opportunity for my professional development will be stripped from me as will our staff and so perhaps those in the dissenting can maybe tell us where we can do our professional development that's required vice Chair Williams um yeah I also am disappointed that it does not have a option to join individually um I think the price is is a little bit high because if you look at the other group even if all 11 of us joined individually it would be about 17th of the cost so but however I do understand that
258some of my colleagues really take you try again yes I will try again i do understand that some of my colleagues um attend VSBA events and and that's where you would like to get your um professional training some of us do the other one and so um I will I will be supporting this even though I wish that they did it differently and maybe we can um try to convince them to do so probably not because most pe most school divisions join them anyway but um I I do respect that that some of my colleagues would prefer that organization u Madam Chair uh Miss Rogers has her hand to go into the queue and she was next miss Rogers thanks so much um I totally appreciate this discussion um and I did actually talk to
259Regina about our um membership with BSBA as opposed to um the uh and I'm going to get the letters wrong the other schoolboard association and I can't remember off the top of my head um and I was told that about um 40 of our senior leadership also do professional development through the V through the VSBA and the cost the total cost is 13,000 and something and I know Regina gave me the number and because I am not at my desk I don't have that information with me um but at 350 uh a person times 40 um senior leadership and 11 school board members it's actually more expensive it's $14,000 for the other um school board association and so I actually support us doing the VSBA because it is in fact cheaper when you include all
260of the professional development with our attorney and um her group as well as senior leadership so thanks oh and I wanted to add to that I also believe in choice and I think it's great that we have choices and I fully support everyone choosing what's best for them dr green thank you um one of the things that we do as a school division is promote learning whether it's for students or for teachers and course opportunities a variety of courses for our students to take and I see the VSBA as an opportunity for those of us um who elect to do it to um learn from the professional development i personally this year um have learned a lot from some of the courses I've taken through the VSBA uh I believe in lifelong learning and so
261I hope for the vote for this that um my colleagues will join me in the name of learning and because you do have a choice as to whether or not and and and Mr pepper and any of my I do respect that you know you may not agree with the philosophical pieces just as with things in school sometimes we don't as well but we do benefit um if we elect to so I just hope you know that we would have an opportunity those of us who want to take that track of courses um offerings that we will be able to do so because um we have the votes to do um continue with the membership and this has already been said i believe Miss Lanetti could correct me if I'm wrong is this the only
262place you can get a lot of your training on legal matters or are there other There aren't a lot of options for us this is the one we get the most direct training from but there aren't a lot of other options for us okay that that's what I thought because I know they're heavy at least they used to be and I saw some of that in one of the legal matters that sessions I that would a focus would attract to for school board attorneys as well as for um school board clerk so I hope some of you will join me in supporting um that we continue our membership thank you Miss Dwire so I just want to reiterate what Carolyn said and um I get it um clearly lines are drawn unfortunately I'm being realistic
263and you might not like that i I think as board members were supposed to be impartial though and for me the VSBA um I will vote because I know my colleagues will only go there but it's been a huge disappointment for me personally and so I won't be attending but I do support it because I believe that my colleagues would prefer to go there so I I'll be supportive of them thank you Miss Felton thank you Chip Brown i just like to say that not only does this um VSBA support but our students get high recognition at this uh state functioning through their art through their music through their writings and I've been there we've been represented even by our students also we've had our attorney herself to do to be a presenter for the
264lawyers at this particular state event um even our superintendent get his uh professional development and they do present there as well our division this one is considered as one of the most robust divisions in the Hampton Roads and when we go to these event when they see us coming we sometime in in uh in gesture they jerry us say here come the elites but they really get a lot a lot from us from what we do in this division uh we also had opportunity when I served uh at the VSBA and I was on the school board i was the liaison for our divisional I served as the chair as well and got a lot of inside information i was able to go to the uh official governor's board meeting to make sure that our
265issues and concerns were heard i served that as well for our division so I would I would ask our school board members to reconsider this is this this particular VSBA is over 115 plus years old this is how long they've been in their service and and doing what they do and we all come away with a lot of information i do get a lot of professional development and interacting networking with other school board members as well so I would hope you would reconsider and vote for this particular um professional development uh organization thank you Mr bowensdale upon further review I will support it i call for the votes to approve the VSBA membership for the 2526 school year miss Rogers how do you vote for the VSBA membership i vote yes thank you Madam Chair
266we have nine eyes and two Naz so the motion did pass thank you we are now on to committee organizations and board reports um I do um want to turn it over very briefly uh to Dr robertson um in regards to the question about whether or not we vote on the gifted um recommendations and the special education recommendations and Miss Lenetti because I just want to make sure that that's clarified yeah that was something I was trying to clear up before i don't remember us ever voting you accepted because they're required to bring you recommendations i did go back and check prior minutes and I don't see anywhere where you've actually voted on those recommendations on there and I don't think Dr roberts hadn't seen him either so I went back to check to make
267sure and I can't see that you vote on they're required to come to you once a year with recommendations and then you can take the actions you see are appropriate as necessary and they do have to report out to you but I've never seen you actually adopt those or you just work them into whatever you need to do for that year okay well that makes me feel much better about the the timelines and the ability to accomplish everything anyway does anyone have anything to report for committee organizations or board reports okay did you want clarification on Mr cummings vote yes yes let's uh we actually So we need to re we need to reopen that right you voted in the majority correct correct so it's a motion to reconsider yeah technically you can ask to
268have once you voted once it's voted you can't just change your vote you could ask for um permission from the rest of the board to do that to allow you to change it but under the circumstances since you voted in in the majority it might be just quicker to ask for a motion to reconsider mr cummings um would you mind making a motion to reconsider your vote on Vice Chair Williams substitute motion on regulation 5-5 52.1 so that we can I'd like to make a motion to reconsider i can't remember just all that Miss Brown said but that doesn't apologize to my colleagues as well as I think this is our first substitute motion and I thought we were following I thought it followed the process of where we've done amendments before so I do
269apologize to the public for not recognizing how the substitute motions work in Robert's rules of order and I will do better educating myself so that motion is to reconsider the vote on the substitute motion on regulation 5-52.1 and that is seconded by Vice Chair Williams yes okay so um I don't know if there's any discussion but before I open it for discussion we're voting on the changed language that doesn't allow lunchtime um any discussion Mr bowenste I'm just curious on is now is this just for Matt changing his vote or we just going to vote all over again on it all of us are going to vote so that Matt has the opportunity to change his vote he was in the prevailing side so he's asked to um reconsider all right any discussion seeing none
270I we're on Vice Chair Williams substitute um that passed so if you don't want to change your vote just vote yes again okay i call for the vote and Miss Rogers how do you vote on the motion to reconsider the substitute by Vice Chair Weeds on regulation 5-52.1 no and Miss Brown how do you vote i vote yes okay so Madam Chair we have eight eyes and three naysay so the motion did pass thank you all right and Vice Chair Williams had a um Yes mr bowensteel Miss Felton and I will be in the audit um committee meeting tomorrow at 1 I mean PRC policy review committee tomorrow at 1:30 mr balensteel yes i just wanted to report on the GRC uh that they uh once again graduated every everybody from their class which is
271amazing not that it's impossible but you know what I'm saying it's just great that you do it all the time they did have some difficulties though they went down to the wire and they were very nervous but they did pull it off so I just want to congratulate them on that all right seeing no other reports Vice Chair Williams is going to um read us back into close session i move that the school board recess into close session in accordance with the exceptions to open meeting laws set forth in the code of Virginia 2-2.2-3711 part A paragraphs 1378 is amended to deliberate on the following matters 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
272body evaluation of perform performance of departments or schools of public institutions of higher education where such evaluation will necessarily involve discussion of the performance of specific individuals any teacher shall be permitted to be present during a closed meeting in which there's 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 of the appropriate board nothing in this subdivision however shall be construed to authorize a closed meeting by a local governing body or an elected school board to discuss compensation matters that affect the membership of such body or board collectively three discussion or consideration of the acquisition of real property for a public purpose or for disposition
273or public held real property where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the public body seven consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members or consultants pertaining to actual or probable litigation where such a consultation or briefing and 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 by which the public body or its legal council has a reasonable basis to believe will be commenced or against a known party nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to permit the closure of meeting merely because an attorney representing the public body is in attendance or is consulted on a matter eight consultation with legal council employed or retained
274by 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 by is in attendance or is consulted on a matter namely to discuss A superintendent contract B schoolboard attorney evaluation C status of pending litigation or administrative cases D consultation with legal counsel regarding probable litigation and pending litigation matters hold on a second you guys we don't have quorum right now okay now we have quorum all right motion made by Vice Chair Williams seconded by Mr cummings any discussion seeing none I call for the vote to go into close session i Yep okay so our our boards are not working right now so if you're in favor please
275raise your hand how do you vote so Madam Chair we have 10 eyes the motion to pass to go into close session thank you hey hey hey do you hey heat heat natal heat heat i need you do you hey hey hey hey heat heat natal heat hey Heat there are every sound heat whereas the school board of the city of Virginia Beach has convened a closed meeting on this day pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in accordance 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 meeting was conducted in conformity with Virginia law now therefore be it resolved that the school board of the city of Virginia Beach here certifies that to the
276best 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 all right moved by Miss Melnik is there a second seconded by Miss Dwire any discussion seeing none I call for the vote to certify close session uh all those in favor please raise your hand so Madam Chair we have 10 eyes the motion to pass for certification of closed and it is 11:59 p.m this meeting is adjourned hey