001[Music] good evening my name is Kathleen Brown chair of the Virginia Beach School Board and I call this meeting on January sorry June 9th 2025 to order at 6 PM Madam Clerk would you please announce the role thank you Madam Chair present in the school board chamber are Chair Brown Vice Chair Weems Mr. Bohenstiel Mr. Callan Mr. Culpepper Mr. Cummings Miss Dwyer Miss Felton Dr. Green Miss Melnyk and Miss Rogers thank you um please join me in a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance and after the pledges of allegiance the national anthem will be sung by the Woodstock Elementary School Chorus their chorus director is Miss Nicole Storius and you guys can go ahead and walk in prior to our um moment of silence that way thank you please join me in
002a moment of silence to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all [Music] by the dawn early [Music] so proud we held at the twilight last stripes and bright stars Through the perilous [Music] or the we were so gallantly streaming and the rockets red [Music] flag still there oh say does that star spangled [Music] for the land of the free [Music] [Applause] Yes and now ladies and gentlemen we will move to the student employee and public awards and recognition part of our our meeting and Miss Dwyer so this evening the school board has the pleasure of recognizing students and staff for their achievements our first recognition this evening is for a winner in the Virginia School Board
003Association 2025 Spring Regional Art Contest please welcome student Nova Thompson [Applause] nova is a first grader at Woodstock Elementary School a contest is held every year at the VSBA everything okay everything okay okay a contest is held every year at the VSBA regional spring networking forums to showcase art from the region the first place artwork is shared throughout the year with the membership and spotlighted at the annual convention nova is a talented artist from Woodstock Elementary who has been drawing and creating in her free time since she was very little her winning piece was inspired by the work of an impressionist painter nova let her paint dance around the paper to create this artwork in true impressionist style congratulations Nova we are so proud of you [Applause] um I mean I can read it next
004we will recognize the winners of the VBCPS digital citizenship contest will those please come forward this contest titled Level Up: Thrive in the Digital World was a dynamic and student centered initiative led by the Office of Instructional Technology this division-wide effort was designed to promote responsible digital behavior among students across all grade levels in Virginia Beach City public schools students demonstrated their understanding of digital citizenship by creating original works that reflected how individuals can thrive in a technology driven world participants selected from a range of creative formats including posters infographics videos podcasts animations public service announcements and other digital products the winners are Ocean Lakes Elementary second graders Candace George and Lincoln Sisera did I say it right yes tallwood Elementary fourth graders Shayla Halman Jordan Horton and Naomi Houston Princess Anne Middle School 8th
005graders Edgar Faul Curran McInness and Eli Langenamp stay anywhere [Applause] and Kempsville High School 11th grader Matteline Delaware congratulations students we are so proud of you our next rec recognition recognition is for the VBCP s podcast contest winners please welcome our winners at this time the honores of the 2025 Virginia Beach City Public School podcast contest demonstrated exceptional creativity technical proficiency and storytelling ability through the winning projects which stood out among numerous divisions entries the theme this year was elevate your voice to inspire education and entertain their podcast served as a dynamic platform for expressing unique perspective sharing personal stories and exploring meaningful topics connected to the learning and interest through though provoking discussion engaging interviews and published audio design the student the team effectively captivated their audience while showcasing evidence and podcasting and community
006communication skills the winners in the kindergarten through fifth grade categories are from Redm Mill Elementary Hopper Ferguson [Applause] from Ocean Lakes Elementary Abigail Isukov [Applause] the winners in the sixth grade through eight are from Lynhaven Middle School Haley Waters Olivia Olivia Strauss and Meridan D Nu from Bayside 6 campus kay Hothley [Applause] the winners in the secondary contest levels are from Cox High School Denise Ruse Lucas Gandalfo Gabby Shakun Savannah Heisman Alicia Savosti Nate Nova Haven Thompson Seth Duville from Tallwood High School Railen Smith congratulations students we are proud of you give them a big hand give them a bigger hand our next recognition is for first place winners in the future business leaders of America competition fbla events recognize and reward excellence in a broad range of business and career related areas such as
007business management public speaking parliamentary procedures and social media strategies the competitions apply concepts learned in business and information technology courses we recognize the students by their school so would our winners from the advanced technology center please take a step forward [Laughter] our winners in the sports and entertainment management category are Tanner Mack and Trey Miller their scenario focused on a struggling recreation center recreation center in Florida tanner and Trey created a marketing and management plan that would increase participation in usage targeting Florida's high retirement community congratulations our winners in the in the coding and programming category are William Strong Miguel Duprey and Tristan TJ Walker [Applause] this team was asked to develop an app that tracks students finances their app allowed students to create categories that represented their spending or income and allowed for the
008entry of personal transactions way to go guys [Applause] our winners in the pitch perfect category are Gavin Lancaster Jack Tumer and Tristan TJ Walker these students developed a community service activity called Cybersafe to bring awareness to middle school students and their parents on the importance of personal cyber safety they pitched this activity to three business leaders and fielded questions after deliberations this team was awarded $2,500 to get this project underway congratulations [Applause] our winners in the networking design category are a are Nathan Figueroa Nick Moore and Elijah Aana this team was tasked with designing a network infrastructure that safely connected two remote sites together and secured data transmissions their final implementation included using encryption algorithms and incorporating security awareness training to employees way to go congratulations ATC students we are really proud of you [Applause]
009okay next we have an FBLA winner from P Cox High School please welcome Stellin Stafford [Applause] stellin has competed in the state FBA tournament for four years and has been to the national competition twice as a freshman he was fourth in the country in video game design he recently won the Virginia State website design competition and will be competing in the national competition in California this month he created a website for the student activities coordinator at Cox it allows people to book the auditorium cafeteria or library for afterchool events congratulations Stellin we are really proud of you too all right way to go guys i didn't even see my third page okay and our last group of FBLA winners is from Landstown High School this team won first place in the digital video production category
010they created and presented a video highlighting Virginia Beach tourism it will be presented at the FBLA National Leadership Conference this summer the team is made of the following juniors cara Nelson Trang Buouie and Kiti Nuin [Applause] congratulations team we are proud of you two congratulations everyone our next recognition is for the Area 5 drill athletic and academic championship will Green Runs Naval Jr roc please come forward [Applause] again okay earlier this year the Green Run Naval Junior ROC competed among the top eight teams from Virginia and North Carolina green Runs cadets earned first place overall for the meet they also won first place in overall athletics and overall drill first place in academic sit-ups and push-ups first place in the armed exhibition drill second place in the unit personnel inspection and third place in the
011armed basic drill fourth place in the Navy Nationals drill athletic and academic championship competition [Music] the green run cadetses are Coyum Afenty Leon Blandon Landon Ber Ania Chambers Leanne May Danden Zavon Dennis Tyson Don Emma Fonworth Jabari Faulk Rain Foreman Jaden Gerber Giovanni Griffith Ayana Hendrick Gabriel Hordeski Carl Igos Raymond Johnson Katherine Cororama sorry Wasim Lav Rabbit Margot Lauren Laoo Robin Larkin Aries Hill Padin Landon Pitman Leela Price Frank Franklin Resurrection Tamarin Rodney Jacob Sis Naruse Kenan Stanton Eleant Tate Adriana Trevino Yamar Bergaga Burgaka sorry Deanna Walker Kristen Washington Landon Whit Seavon Winfield also of note Cadet Leanne May Dannon became the first female to place first in sit-ups and push-ups at the Area 5 Championship Invitational [Music] instructing these cadetses are Commanders Commander Curtis Brown Master Chief Courtney Barber congratulations Green Run Cadets we
012are proud of you congratulations our next recognition is for the Virginia Beach City Public Schools Outstanding Teachers of the Gifted please welcome Dr kristen Pender and Ms ms melissa Ross the recipients of this year's Virginia gifted VBCPS outstanding teacher of the year award must exhibit outstanding qualities related to gifted education in the areas of teaching curriculum development and adaptation working with gifted children parents and staff additionally they must demonstrate a strong commitment to gifted education through professional experiences professional organizations and services in education for the gifted dr kristen Pender of Holland Elementary School has spent four of her 11 years in education working with gifted students and advocating for education she exhibits all the outstanding qualities mentioned in her work with gifted students and families each school division in Virginia submits nominees to the Virginia
013Association of the Gifted for the Outstanding Teacher of the Gifted award from this pool of exceptional educators one person is selected as the outstanding regional gifted teacher of the year this year Miss Melissa Ross gifted resource teacher at Salem Elementary School was chosen as the region 2 gifted teacher of the year miss Ross has spent 13 of her 17 years as an educator working with gifted students and advocating for gifted education she's a leader in her building and school division in addition to serving as a mentor for gifted resource teachers she has presented at local and state conferences and brings innovative ideas and progressive thinking to the gifted programs in Virginia Beach City public schools congratulations Miss Ross and Dr pender we are proud of you [Applause] this concludes the school board recognitions for this
014evening right that brings us to the adoption of the agenda um there is one modification um that was emailed out I believe by Miss Lannetti um that we would need to vote to appoint somebody for the regional recovery school governing board um so I ask that we add that to action 15C um and there is a motion in the back of that packet uh related to that are there any objections to adding that miss while I don't have an objection it would have been nice if um we could have discussed this as a board and the motion not already be um given to us with the name attached to it so it would have been nice if we could have just discussed it as a board but I don't have a problem with adding it
015to the agenda miss Rogers yeah I just saw the motion as well and I put my name in for that position as well and I'm not exactly sure why it came without discussion if there was more than one person it could be amended to just appoint a governing board member that's not a problem as far as the measure that's easier to do it and I apologize for coming late we we looked at the time period we realized we could not get it through PRC to amend the bylaw or on for two meetings for you the governing board for the region to recovery school will be having its first meeting at 2:00 on the June 24th and unfortunately we do need to get it on tonight i cannot get on two times and would not be
016able to vote wouldn't be able to vote in time for the June 24th meeting and we do need to have the individual who is serving as governing board member vote on matters that have to be official at that time so unfortunately we had little notice to get it to you i don't have an objection obviously with the amendment coming as u just amendment to appoint a governing board member if you'd approve that that's not a problem we can change it we've not added it to the agenda yet so if you just want to change it to a motion to appoint a governing board member I don't know that that's a problem then I respectfully request that it just read that that we need to to appoint a um a member of the school board to
017the governing board but it should have never been brought to the board with an an announced name that's that silences the voices of everybody else on this board and that's just not necessary so I'm just going to um take a comment and I will take a motion since there's dissent um on this matter but um as the chair of the school board the chair and vice chair create recommendations for committee that's clearly outlined in our bylaws um this represents that recommendation um so that is why it is brought forward uh with a name i am fine but um when this topic comes up I do recommend uh vice chair Williams for that position is there a motion to add the um appointment to the region 2 recovery school harbor hope center governing board to the
018agenda moved by Miss Dwyer seconded by Mr. Culpepper any further discussion seeing none I call for the votes to add this to the agenda okay so Madam Chair was that just to add that to the agenda or is it to approve the agenda as presented as as amended we were just voting at that time to add the appointment to the regional to recovery school governing board to the agenda and now we are to the 15C actually the 15C and now we are to the adoption of the agenda as it has been amended um so so just hold on one second i need to put that back in again okay thank you okay so now the vote is for the adoption of the agenda as presented and amended regarding data motion and a second it was
019already um Oh okay yes um do I have a motion for the adoption of the agenda as presented and amended moved by Miss Dwire seconded by Mr co Pepper any further discussion seeing none I call for the vote to adopt the agenda as presented and amended so Madam Chair we have 11 eyes the motion did pass for the adoption of the agenda as presented and amended thank you and we are now on to superintendent recognitions Dr. Robertson do you have any recognitions this evening i do i'm excited to uh have several recognitions tonight we'll start off with uh James Dob we are pleased you've accepted our recommendation for James Dob currently an assistant principal John B. Dey Elementary School to be the next principal at Luxford Elementary School and James I see you have some
020guests i have my wife All right congratulations [Applause] next up we're pleased that you've accepted our recommendation for Sarah Menddees currently an assistant principal at College Park Elementary School to be the next principal at Shelton Park Elementary School [Applause] and we see you have some guests all right outstanding a whole row [Applause] next up we're pleased you've accepted our recommendation for Dr leslie Ner currently the principal at Plaza Middle School to be the next principal at Ocean Lakes High School [Applause] i see you have some guests congratulations [Applause] might be a little conflict of interest though Matt during baseball season i'm not sure uh next up we're pleased you accepted our recommendation for Leah Nelson currently an assistant principal at Frank W cox High School to be the next principal at Kellam High School [Applause]
021i see you have some guests congratulations thank you [Applause] next up we're pleased you accepted our recommendation for Tama Singleary Johnson better known as SJ currently the principal at Larkspur Middle School to be the next principal at Kempsville High School [Applause] i believe S SJ Dr singleary Johnson is the first principal in Virginia Beach who's been at an elementary level a middle school level and now a high school level and so you have some guests i do i have a lot of family here that's awesome [Applause] so Xavier your mom talked about you a lot when I'd visit schools i've been following your career next up we're pleased you've accepted our recommendation for Anthony Smith currently an assistant principal at Oscar Smith High School in Chesapeake to be the next director of alternative education at
022Renaissance Academy and Anthony is a graduate of Green Run High School [Applause] and I see you have some guests father Teresa and my wonderful legendary uncle yeah congratulations we're not done yet uh we are pleased you've accepted our recommendation for Tasha Wearin currently current uh current currently the coordinator of business and information technology in the department of teaching and learning to be the next director of advanced technology center [Applause] and we see you have some guests [Applause] and then finally we're pleased that you've accepted our recommendation for Allison Zeuk currently a special education program specialist for Norfick Public Schools to be the next coordinator in special education the office of programs for exceptional children [Applause] and we see you have some guests [Applause] so to the families of all of the individuals that have been
023promoted tonight we say thank you in advance for the time we're going to take uh that they've they've all um assumed some pretty serious positions and they do great work already which is why they're sitting in front of us and they're going to need your support and I know they're going to have it and we're really excited to for for all those individuals that are here tonight so enjoy and July one we get started thank you that was no accident i mean it's embroidered right here too it wasn't just pink and green i had a feeling too which is why I wore my alpha sigma alpha sigma alpha sigma alpha that's why I told you to wear red tonight okay we are now to the approval of meeting minutes are there any modifications to the
024May 27th 2025 regular school board meeting minutes as presented seeing none the motion is made by Miss Dwire to approve the meeting minutes as presented seconded by Mr mr ken any discussion seeing none I call for the vote to approve the May 27th 2025 regular school board meeting minutes as presented so Madam Chair we have 11 eyes the motion did pass for the approval of the May 27th meeting minutes thank you we are now on to the public comment portion of the 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 citizens and delegations who signed up with the school board clerk prior to noon today the purpose for the public comment
025section is for the school board to offer an orderly forum to receive public comments during the school board meeting i call upon all speakers and all persons in the chamber to be civil in discussion and decorum whatever views you wish to express the school board 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 ser for civility and respect madame clerk would you please announce the first speaker thank you our first speakers are Cody Connor Susan Burman and then Jordan Brokoff you know it's a shame that you choose to time and time again place yourselves on the wrong side of history over here on the right side of history this month we're celebrating Pride Month where love
026and acceptance are not conditional where the truth of freedom is known in a way you couldn't comprehend where people just to exist as themselves will every day live the words "Give me liberty or give me death." That sounds like the land of the free and the home of the brave to me but I wouldn't expect you to understand two weeks ago you voted to eliminate diversity equity and inclusion you publicly declared yourself against diversity equity and inclusion actions like that are why I keep hearing the word fascism so much lately in the simplest terms fascism is a far-right authoritarian hyper nationalist political ideology that values and prioritizes the ruling class and the state over the people and human rights putting it in direct conflict with liberal democracy sound like any recent political movements you can
027think of you know when people think of fascists they usually think of somebody wearing a swastika or a white hood and while those people are dangerous it's the less obvious more subtle ones that I'm more concerned with i see fascists they walk around just like regular people some of them don't even know they're fascists there's nice polite I'm just doing what I think God wants fascist like Mr ken there's people that probably became fascist because they were just too damn arrogant to even question themselves like Mr co Pepper there's I'm just doing what my friends told me to fascist like Mrs. Weems and Mrs. Brown there's I'm not like those other fascists like Mr. Bohenstiel and the I don't even know what that means fascists like Rose Dwyer these people those that are too scared
028or dumb smug to know or do any better the support and supply train of fascism if you will they're what gives the movement strength and momentum but regardless of that momentum it's a movement doomed to fail because you'll always have to go through people like me because love and kindness uplifts and so good people will always rise up where hate and greed is an emptiness that consumes you and evil will always falter no matter what great thing you think you're building there is no solid ground on the wrong side of history no matter how pure you think your intentions there is no right way to do the wrong thing but I want you to know there's still time to do the right thing there's always plenty of room here on the right side of history
029there's still time to make good decisions our next speaker is Susan Burman then Jordan Brokaw then Alan Wakefield good evening my name is Suzanne Berman you may remember that I am the PTA president of one of the largest elementary schools in Virginia Beach and when I told my husband I was coming to speak tonight he said again so uh sorry to be here again tonight but uh this one hits close to home i'm here to ask the policy review committee to not move forward with the proposed language change to policy 610 on instruction the new proposed language would prohibit guest speakers during the school day and explicitly prohibits fundraising during the school day as well while this may sound harmless enough this policy change would have significant and widespread consequences across our school and community
030ptas fund raise through fund runs and these generally happen during one day of PE meaning for each student one PE session is spent running which happens to be a physical activity so that works nicely from this PTAs are able to raise up to tens of thousands of dollars that they then give back to the school in the form of approved supplies and activities like microscopes for the STEM lab field trips for the students carnivals books for the library etc fun runs and other events like holiday markets during lunch are conducted during the school day because that is the only time that we can guarantee student engagement while this is true for all schools it is particularly stark for lower resource schools like title one schools where parents are often unable to show up outside of
031the school day i'd like to remind the board that parents decide how PTA money is spent we allocate funding based on parent discussion or priorities do we want to buy new soccer nets for PE or do we want to give the school money to start an outdoor classroom we get staff and and administrative engagement but our budget is created and voted on by parents if you take away our fundraising ability you take away parent choice and engagement for example our PTA decided that we were going to have a fun run and we were going to use that money to pay for field trips for all students we took it on ourselves which we were only able to do because we had a very dedicated team with a flexible work schedule which almost never happens um
032and we were able to keep all of the funding minus a 3% fund uh credit card processing fee with this funding we gave every student a free field trip so that means that the fifth grade went to Pamplland Park a Civil War history museum and the fourth graders went to Jamestown both of these were aligned with their so curriculum and they made what they were learning in books real these were expensive because they required charter buses so if the PTA wasn't able to fund raise these kids wouldn't be able to take go on this trip if this if this rule changes our fundraising would diminish and we might not be able to fund these kinds of important field trips and other projects there are already policies on the books that would support and define fundraising
033and speakers so I find this policy change to be unnecessary and it would be harmful i think these consequences are unintended but they still could happen so please vote against this policy thank you our next speaker is Jordan Brokhaw Alen Wakefield and then Diane Muscovac hi so from 2019 to 2023 an average of 2,000 Virginians died each year due to traumatic brain injuries a traumatic brain injury is a condition caused by a bump jolt or blow to the head that disrupts the normal function of the brain millions of people get traumatic brain injuries each year ranging from severe which have extended periods of unconsciousness and memory loss to mild which is most commonly known as a concussion even with traumatic brain injuries affecting all ages the highest number of people who are admitted to emergency
034rooms for TBI are 15 to 17 year olds or high school students many assume that concussions only happen to athletes however car accidents falling off a bike walking to a wall falling off a bed or just an incident in PE class are just some of the ways traumatic brain injuries can happen to everyone there is a Virginia law that requires school divisions to inform student athletes their parents and coaches on the risk of concussions and the risk of continuing to play with them this law also requires that if a student athlete is suspected of having a concussion then they will be removed from play until they are cleared by a medical professional furthermore the law talks about the gradual return to academic work for student athletes there are many problems wrong with this law but
035one I want to focus on is the fact that it only addresses student athletes it says nothing about other students in the system or even teachers according to the CDC 1.7 to 3.8 million traumatic brain injuries happen in America each year and only 10% are sports related only focusing on sports related injuries excludes 90% of traumatic brain injuries traumatic brain injuries even on the mild side can have lasting effects that range from it could be a week or it could be the rest of your life from memory loss and poor eyesight to drug and alcohol addiction there are also many mental health effects including anxiety depression PTSD and an increased risk of suicide the suicide rate for those who have had concussions is three times higher than the general population it can concussions can also
036lead to a higher risk of developing Alzheime Alzheimer's and dementia these concussions go unreported a lot of the time teachers don't necessarily know how to recognize if a student has gotten a concussion and some students either don't report them because they they are athletes and they're scared of being taken out of their sports or because they just don't know what a concussion is and how serious it actually is the lack of education um of about concussions to teachers and students is harming today's youth and I just think that concussions should be taught to to students but also just to teachers need to be talked to about concussions our next speaker is Alan Wakefield then Diane Musk then Tara Campbell good evening everyone love to see all your smiling faces crash oh an alien no it's
037just meteors flying by hitting the Earth 16 meteors hit the Earth every day on average lara met Orion two meteors on an asteroid millions of miles away she landed before he did and they struck up a conversation that lasted for a few revolutions on the asteroid they were going around a planet then Granite yanked her off the asteroid orion stayed on for a few more years talk about a long distance relationship liar was so much ahead of him probably in many ways that's about the truth you know I know my wife and I were talking the other night and uh we just finished dinner and I was I said "You know honey I'm getting bags under my eyes you know." And I said "I wonder why I'm getting them like this." She looked up at
038me gave me the teacher's look and the thing I w I just turned shut up turned around and walked back and did started doing the dishes orin asked me if I could chart LRA's path i needed an astrophysicist just a few minutes ago my cell phone showed a news flash quietly that remains of a meteor meteor that fell in Northern California about a month ago equity was needed because they had different backgrounds orion recalled he had a girlfriend from millions of years before we have little time left so how about we take this up together again in a few months orion says "Okay but I can tell he is lonely." Orion asked me to tell two school board special media jokes hope y'all have why don't meteors ever get married because they're always falling for
039someone new why did Orion break up with his girlfriend because they were on different wavelengths oh god I know i should have left that one back i'm sorry thank you very much our next speaker is Diane Muskavac then Tara Campbell then Jessica Bruno reestablishing God in public education for the first time in over 60 years God is being welcomed back into public schools with the passing of the Texas Chaplain Act school chaplain are now playing a key role in restoring spiritual and emotional well-being in education the National School Chaplain Association reports reports powerful outcomes from international data including improved inner student relationships student motivation and goal setting respect for teachers and authority figures teacher morale and retention and overall school safety it has reported decreased alcohol and drug use among students teen pregnancies disciplinary incidents
040school violence and student suicides the crisis in public education is undeniable teacher resignation classroom violence student depression anxiety and suicide have reached unprecedented levels over 1 million felony assaults have been committed by students against teachers 44.2% 2% of students report persistent feelings of hopelessness here's what parents and teachers are saying about the impact of school chaplain this is from a middle school teacher she says "The support our chaplain provides has come to our school when we needed it the most i have someone I can confide in who's made my day less stressful." A high school principal reports "Having a chaplain on campus has helped our students and teachers navigate challenges with strength and grace it's one of the best decisions we've made and this is from a superintendent chaplain Miller has brought a new level
041of peace and stability to our campus we fully intend to add more National School Chaplain Association certified chaplain to additional schools in addition parents and teachers are saying "School chaplain are a light in the lives of our children every school in America needs this program our school feels like a community again there's definitely more peace as a parent I finally saw hope return when the chaplain stepped in this program has brought emotional healing to so many of our kids and not every child you know needs help but we can't leave behind the ones who do we feel safe knowing a chaplain is available for our children every day chaplain are not just a spiritual guide they are a part of a team you have your parents your counselors your administrators your principles your teachers and
042your chaplain all working together to make productive citizens for society let's work together to change the heart of people starting at a young age as early as kindergarten god's children deserve to feel safe in school let's make Virginia the next state to pass a chaplain bill thank you our next speaker is Tara Campbell then Jessica Bruno then Christristen Walsh good evening school board chair Brown Vice Chair Williams Dr robertson and members of the Virginia Beach School Board my name is Tara Campbell and I proudly serve as the president for the last four years of the Virginia Beach Council of PTAs in addition to that responsibility I'm the president of the PTA at Point of View Elementary School have served in various capacities at both middle and high school level on their PTA and PTSAs i'm
043a proud third grade teacher teaching at Point of View Elementary School one of our title one schools here in the district and I'm a parent to seven children one of whom just graduated from VBCPS and six more who are or will be enrolled here shortly ranging from high school down to ECSC i am speaking tonight to express serious concerns about the proposed changes to schoolboard policy 6-10 regarding guest speakers and fundraising activities during the school day as a PTA leader teacher and invested member of this community I urge you to vote against the proposed language specifically the restrictions on non-academic guest speakers and fundraisers during school hours would drastically [ __ ] how PTAs and PTSAs engage families foster school spirit and support our schools at Point of View for example we raise approximately $15,000 annually through
044a single fundraiser that takes place during the school day that one effort funds every single event that we do from trunk or treat to holiday celebrations movie nights the talent show to the beloved Students versus Teachers basketball game importantly we are able to provide these events at no cost to our families many of which would not be able to afford to attend an after-school event the same fundraiser also supports teacher appreciation efforts classroom needs campus beautification and extracurriculars like our chess club cheer squad and safety patrol we even fund a scholarship for a graduating senior who once walked our school's halls this fundraiser which takes no more than five minutes per day of school time teaches valuable social emotional lessons such as responsibility respect and leadership it does not detract from academic learning but in
045fact it enriches the social emotional experience in ways academics alone cannot beyond the PTA this proposed rule would create broad consequences it can impact school picture days book fairs supplies from vendors like Office Depot PECard purchases class ring and graduation sales many of these activities not only support students directly but also have a financial kickback to the district additionally the burden placed on administrators to make case-by-case determinations about every speaker or event is neither practical nor fair as they are already overworked i respectfully urge you to stop this policy change from advancing beyond the policy review committee and to work together with your PTAs for the commitment of our students thank you our next speaker is Jessica Bruno Kristen Walsh and then Lauren Celio good evening my name is Jessica Bueno i'm the vice president
046of Princess membership at Princess Aminal School as well as the recording secretary for the district council i'm also a mother of two current Virginia Beach students and one who has graduated the system i've committed 13 years of volunteer time to the PTA at both elementary and middle school levels holding board positions as well as numerous committee positions restricting the ability for PTA to fundra during school hours will directly impact the funding used to provide our teachers the supplies tools and grants requested which is used to supplement instruction materials and aid and support learning needed to pass the required so testing during my time on the Princess Ham Middle School executive board we've provided support to the music department purchasing new instruments which I would like to note added in the Princess Sal School being awarded
047the Blue Ribbon Music School for the past two years with new and more instruments in the classroom teachers have been able to lead students to excellent to excellence the science department we've also aided the science department with supplying oyster beds specimens for dissection and greenhouse supplies the tech department with a permanent racetrack the student activities department with end of with endofear student celebrations the AVID department used funds to pay for transportation for of students to visit colleges even the clinic uses funding raised during school hours to provide change of clothes to students when unexpected events arise pam's PTSA provided scholarship money to graduating Virginia Beach seniors totaling $15,000 in just my five years as a board member portions of this money again is raised during the school year and our school hours why would you
048want to strip our Virginia Beach public school teachers of funding to support classroom time lesson planning why rob our students of supplemental materials and experiences that will help build the foundations that will continue to build for the remainder of their time in our Virginia Beach public school system i ask you to please vote to not pass the 610 policy language and consider the impact on instruction that will be negatively impacted by wounding the PTA's ability to fund raise thank you our next speaker is Christian Walsh then Lauren Celio and then Heather Sight good evening my name is Kristen Walsh i'm a native of V Virginia Beach and a Tallwood High School graduate a proud parent and now the PTA president at John Bai Elementary i'm here to oppose the changes for policy 610 as the
049president of John Bidai and a voter of district 8 I strongly urge you to oppose the proposed language prohibiting non-academic guest speakers and fundraising during the school day the rule would severely limit the ability for the PTAs to engage in parents um to engage parents foster community and otherwise support Virginia Beach public schools the money raised by John Bi PTA each year benefits student staff and families the community and the community the booster fundraiser only took up five minutes um for five days it did not reduce learning or affect academic outcomes the glam run was held on the last day of the week during each student's PE period no academic time was missed every student was included whether they raised money or not at John Bidai fundraising isn't just about dollars it's about community enrichment
050and the support of our students and staff in ways that go beyond this what the school budget can provide let me share with you some of the things that the JBDPA has been able to offer because of our fundraising afterchool programs which provide a safe and structured enrichment be um beyond the classroom hours assemblies trunk or treat holiday pop-up festival field day all free to families and creating shared experiences to build joy and connection for our community staff welcome back breakfast lunches we stock the teachers lounges and teacher appreciation week these aren't perks these are expressions of gratitude that help retain and support our educators we've provided yearly teacher reimbursements snacks for students who don't have any and welcome welcome packages for new military students to ensure every child feels supported and included we directly
051uh contributed to the beautification of our school install garden beds that give students hands-on experiences growing food that go straight to the cafeteria and purchase spiritware to build school pride and then there are big ticket items the items that have been cut from renovation budgets are simply not funded by the city through the PTA we've stepped in and provided outdoor PE equipment benches by the playgrounds 3D printers microwaves in the staff lounges educational health themed artwork grade level signage throughout the school school spirit wear military appreciation dedication art wall reading nooks books solar eclipse glasses headphones for students that don't have them and STEM lab equipment these things matter they transformed the school into a place where students students thrive and staff feel appreciated every students reg every student regardless of their financial background gets
052the full John Beai experience removing fundraising from the PTA just doesn't shift responsibility it dismantles the structure that makes this possible fundraising would be best when it's done by the people who invested in the heart of the school please don't take that away from us thank you our next speaker is Lauren Celo then Heather Cy then Whitney Yansy good evening my name is Lauren Chillo i'm currently the PTA president of Great Neck Middle School and the John Dai Sele Seagull Circle PTA chair this is not to say how much I've done but I just want to point out that I was um awarded the volunteer of the year having not been here for a full year anyone who knows military families knows they jump right in i did not move here 12 months ago i
053moved here 10 months ago with two children in tow with a husband in combat training filling a pod and driving down i thank you for the opportunity to speak and I'm here to oppose the language change to policy 610 a little background about me i met my husband at a school many don't know unless you're military it's called Embry Riddle Aeronautical University there we ran cross country together and he commissioned into the US Navy we moved here to Hampton Roads where he wanted to give me the opportunity to quote try out Navy life before I felt trapped and committed to becoming a Navy spouse while my husband and I both got to choose this lifestyle our children didn't get a choice one of them attends Great Neck Middle and the other John Elementary mr dr
054co Pepper if I may borrow a line from you the best predictor of a student success is parental involvement ptas are the best opportunity for parent involvement helping at school events funding and how they're used everyone has given a long list about that stuff and I assure you Great Neck also has a long list but I wanted to speak about something else fundraises and school events are vital to students families and the school community especially military families when my spouse is out of the country I become a single parent there's only one of me neither of my children can drive when events take place that build that community during school hours there's a 100% chance that my children can attend when those events can't take place and have to take um place outside of school
055hours I can't guarantee they're going to be able to enjoy those events it also gives my children the opportunity to make friends and more importantly to feel like they're part of their new school community assemblies and other events that don't seem like that big of a deal really make the difference for military children and their ability to move we always talk about how resilient they are but in truth we see the tears we see the frustration we see the anxiousness of moving and making new friends and being the new kid over and over i'm sure you all have heard it takes a village as they say i'm respectfully asking all of you to be part of the village for not only my children but all military children in this area and I thank you very
056much for the time to speak and appreciate your consideration thank you our next speaker is Heather Cy then Whitney Yansy good evening Chairwoman Brown Vice Chair Williams members of the school board Dr robertson my name is Heather Cyp and I am the president of the Virginia Beach Education Association i'm here this evening to speak on regulation 5-52.1 cellular phones and personal electronic communication devices limitation on use and to urge the board to follow the recommendation from the policy review committee majority to keep section C number two which states high school students may use personal electronic communication devices during their designated lunch period recently Virginia House Bill 1961 and Senate Bill 738 were signed into law these identical bills law effective July 1 stipulate quote age appropriate and developmentally appropriate policies relating to student cell phone
057use and smart device possession and use on school property from bell to bell end quote they specifically cite the most restrictive limitations are to be in the classroom and to prevent quote distraction or disruption of the learning environment end quote this new law does not state that schools need to be 100% cell phone free during regular school hours restrict does not mean prohibit if it did why qualify with age and developmentally appropriate use the VDOE also does not make law only give their guidance this is a variance from Governor Ynan's executive order 33 which is not law just a strong recommendation the new law gives divisions more flexibility lunch is a free period for students a chance for them to decompress and rejuvenate many do this by listening to music on their device reading a
058book on their device or playing games on their device often time with friends it is both age and developmentally appropriate for us to teach high school students that there is a proper time and place for their cell phone use the classroom short time period for class change and bathroom is not the proper time or place for cell phone use but their free lunch period is please do what is best for our students and allow our high school students the opportunity to learn proper time and place use of their cell phones and other personal electronic devices i also urge you to read it for yourselves and I will email it to you our division also needs to ensure training and processes are in place in uniform across the division regarding handling disciplinary disciplinary action and to
059follow this new state law which says quote implementation and enforcement of the policy is the responsibility of the administration end quote and is to quote minimize to the extent possible any conflict with the instructional responsibilities of teachers or any disruption to instructional time and does not involve any school resource officer end quote how this is handled cannot be a sightbased decision we need uniformity across the district in every school and that is time thank you our next speaker is Whitney Yansy um hello i'm going to try to put this into three minutes but I don't know how so just following me cuz it's going to be all over the place as my life has been all over the place dealing with this situation um so I tried to write stuff because I didn't know it
060was today that's one of my issues too we wouldn't have known if God wasn't on my heart i wouldn't have looked on the site but I was trying to get my my calendar together so I'm going start with and I hate that we have to start with saying who we are to get respect the same issue while I'm here almost happened in here today so I'm going to ask who's the the security officer's name because I address Miss Ner who is the principal for Plaza Middle School um my children go there um so I want to first say I'm a missionary for God so that's who's leading all of this and um it has been very difficult i am an advocate i'm a mother so I'm picking between being a moder and a mother today
061and I have to be a mother um I'm a north educator i do the same thing in another city i'm a volunteer social service commissioner so it shows you how much I love my cities in the area I live in i do this stuff for free when I'm a single mother of children with cystic fibrosis if you know what that is so I live at CHKD so this movie Straw just came out the other day they sent it to me um some elders because I was trying to get together i have seen so much being a missionary but Virginia Beach public school was almost the one thing to break me so I want to start with first saying um I went to the school on April the 22nd to tell them about bullies i left
062my school and my principal to go let them know there was an incident that was going to happen with a fight i get there um I talk to the principles and I've been working with Dr igner and princip Mr mette the whole school the whole year so let me just start with I also have a very seasoned nonprofit that specializes in etiquette entrepreneurship education resiliency because that's what these children need to deal with all of this so I know why this is happening with me so because of this I go to the school i let them know that there was an incident that was about to happen they did nothing these children got into a brutal fight and it's sad because I can tell some of you have no clue they hit it so she
063can get that nice little job that she's about to get at Ocean Lakes but this will not be the end so on April the 22nd it was a big brawl at a middle school 12 and 13 year olds that ended in broken fingers and concussions i went there before my school starts at 7:00 in the morning so I have to get there with the older kids so I left my class to go to the school because my daughters were getting bullied i teach my kids not to fight so since my children don't want to fight and my daughter will tell you straight up she's not fighting and now we here i was assaulted by a police officer the same SRO at that school in front of my children he put a car and wants me
064to uh forgive him my attorney said I think not if the senator and uh if I didn't have the community engagement that I have I would be in jail now it's everyone wants to fix what they're doing behind the scenes so no one knows that's over today i had to really get myself together to advocate but this is really bad so because of Virginia Beach Police Department I mean uh board yeah I was assaulted and now apologies we're going to go to our online speaker Kim Mayo please unmute good evening i'd like to discuss Good evening i'd like to discuss social emotional learning and ODS admissions now that we have an office for opportunity and advancement first big congratulations to my Virginia Wesley and Marlin softball program on another great season so close to another
065national championship social emotional learning known as SEAL this is a big expense for school divisions i opted mine out and recommend the book Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren't Growing Up by Abigail Sh she explains "Cle hand handicaps the most vulnerable children the problem is the mental health experts not the kids." Ellie Krug chair of our gifted advisory council hosts monthly roundts with national thought leaders and occasional local guests she recently hosted Nicole Renan who linked technology overuse driving the need for SEAL neither is the answer this does not diminish the important work some counselors do but I'm unclear why VB schools needs SEAL we don't use Chromebooks at all or spend time in SEAL in my elementary tuition program i've often said we can learn a lot from other cultures and school communities to
066improve secondly regarding old donation school many feel it's problematic to have one gifted school monopolizing resources i've been very vocal about this i was told gifted education is on the agenda for July so I wanted to tell you something as someone well-versed on this topic let's rethink ODS admissions all ODS students should be retested as fifth graders to earn their spot for grades six through eight no student should be handed a golden ticket for a coveted spot for six or seven years a college athlete who starts as a freshman doesn't just keep their spot as a senior let's create opportunities for all especially current third graders who were impacted by the admissions scandal if we're going to have an office of opportunity let's stay true to that mission thank you school board and staff for
067all your hard work this year i really appreciate the opportunity to discuss various education related topics with you i hope everyone has a nice summer and Madam Chair that was our last speaker for this evening thank you that brings us to the information portion of our agenda and we'll start with the policy review committee recommendations welcome Kami Lannetti school board attorney good evening madam chair vice chair school board members and Dr. Robertson i'm Kami Lannetti school board attorney on behalf of the policy review committee I will be re bringing you recommendations from the June I'm sorry the May 21st 2025 PRC meeting there are four policies tonight actually five policies and one regulation we'll be covering the first one up is section two which is your administration section this is staff members as consultants outside
068the school division the only recommendation happens in section in paragraph one sorry sentence one which will read staff members may instead of using leave we may use annual leave that is the only recommendation that is coming to us from the administration are there any questions about policy 257 miss Rogers yes i just had a quick question i was um I know that the it I know the purpose of this but if we specify annual leave like say someone is got a consultant gig there's some sort of family emergency someone goes on FMLA will that stop them from being able to do like that consulting if they're like on FMLA if we specify just annual or can we say that can't use sick leave because I know that that was the purpose But I don't want
069to make it so that you can only be on annual leave and if you have like an FMLA situation we're then precluding you from doing a consulting thing does that I may have to turn that one over to Dr. Trotman as to the reason why we made this change we'd like to take a look at the policy as we as it currently reads that read the leave they change that annual leave and and I remember during the the PRC meeting they talked about having people not go on sick leave to do that which I agree with but I just don't want it to be that somebody's like if you're in an FMLA situation that you can't make any money because like you're sp you know if you're caring for somebody and then you already have
070a consulting gig that that would preclude someone from being able to like do that that's not our answer so if you push um so if you're on FMLA leave you can um contact ER and ER can put you in another leave status and then go back to FMLA leave but we would have to have that rationale so that's why I'm saying like is just saying annual going to preclude anyone other than annual leave from doing consulting like I just don't want to let me read it because I'm not sure it will affect and I I understand what Jerk is saying but when I read it I'm not sure it affects the way you're you're looking at although I understand where you're trying to go but I'm not sure the way the policy written would I'm
071just trying to make sure that we're not accidentally doing something that we don't mean to it currently reads with the approval of the superintendent staff members may use leave to do private consulting so I'm assuming that that's their time that they're working with us right on there private consulting work will not be done on school division time so that's assuming you're leaving school division or with use of school division facilities equipment computer systems or materials the staff members are responsible confirming that the consulting is not in violation of the vision and conflict of interest act um the way I'm reading the policy and I I will have to have HR correct me if I'm wrong is that they're concerned about you leaving your assigned work to go do private consulting that you can't do it
072you can't just take lunchtime and go do it right or take a day off when you should be in training for it it appears that now am I wrong about that the way it's written is for an employee who's in active status so you're working for us and if you have a consultant job you're not taking the division's time you're taking your own time so you're submitting your own leave okay so that's the context that the policy is written in um for active employees and active status a payable status working you can't be paid for two right different yeah you wouldn't want them i'm sorry you wouldn't want them doing sick leaves take let's say you had abundance sick leave and you wanted sick leave and you would call it and I think it might
073have to do with the approval path for sick leave you don't necessarily have to get prior approval for a couple days you can just call out sick annual leave you are supposed to get prior approval for so that way you can't take a job for two days call and say I was sick this one because that would put us at a disadvantage i just want to make sure though like I said would but from what you're saying it wouldn't preclude someone on any other type of leave to like do that consulting work but we'd we we'd have to look at it case by case because if you're on FMLA leave from the division we'd have to look at what you are um er we look at what you're doing because you're on FMLA leave so
074sometimes it's that you can't work so but you're working for the school that's from the school division's perspective this policy is written for the school division's perspective that you are working and you need to take time away from work to do the consultant work it wasn't written for if you're not in active status working for us okay and and I understand where you're coming from but because like I just think of like scenarios where like someone's spouse gets very ill and they take FMLA to care for their spouse but they have this thing on the books and then they can't do that thing you know I just want to make sure that we're not doing something like that but if we are or not then that's fine i'm just trying to you know make sure
075that Yeah come on okay so uh Miss Rogers when you take FMLA the doctor is basically saying that you are unable to fulfill the responsibilities of your current role now FMLA was not designed for you to be on leave and go work another job it's actually a terminating offense um and so I don't want people to leave with the impression that you can go out on FMLA and then work a second job so whether you're caring for yourself or you're caring for a spouse or a family member they're saying it's to the level and degree that it needs your help however the doctor stipulates it could be you know but if it's full-time care and you are out on FMLA and you're still being paid by the division you cannot go out and work another
076job and be making money and so um I'm not and that's why I'm trying to figure out why would you use the example of FMLA because there's so many laws around FMLA no it's just another leave example because we're specifying just annual correct so I don't like I don't know if there's another leave that someone could use i just pull they would have to use their annual or their personal leave because basically they're taking off for their from their job to work a second job so is annual and personal different yes it yes it depends on what type of employee you are and how many uh months a year you work so yes but they're basically the leave that you can use to do other things but that's what I'm saying so should we say
077annual or personal if if it's you know what I'm saying like I just don't want to box people in that's my Dr chong is this something we can clear up in a regulation do you think i do because 12-month employees earn or acrue annual leave right you're coming from the standard that a teacher earns personal reasons leave so although it's the the leave is used in the same capacity per se it is a different terminology so if you are questioning the terminology I do think that that's something that we can um deal with okay i just like I said I just don't want to box this in that it's not annual it must be annual if somebody can take personal because they're 12 10 month and not 12 you know what I'm saying why don't
078I work with the department to see if we can come up with a regulation to clarify i think I understand where you're concerned about i just don't want to box people in and then they can't take the the leave that's all because it's very specific that says annual so if we say annual or personal I just want to make sure we're not boxing our employees into just annual leave that's all as long as it's not sick yeah as long as it's not sick that that was my concern how about we work on the regulation see if that helps clarify this perfect and I'm going to ask that the chair of the PRC weigh in as well yeah i mean I obviously the intention is exactly what Miss Woodhouse said so I think if you just
079clarify that personal is for those that work this job and annual is for that just I would suggest clarifying regulation just the definitions so I'm hearing consensus on moving policy five 257 forward with the understanding that the school administration will look at a regulation to clarify the concern that Miss Rogers has brought to our attention okay is there any objections to that okay all right so seeing none we'll go ahead and do that um All right thank you the next policy is 367 this is in section three which is business and non-instructional operations this is environmentally sustainable practices we kicked this one around back and forth at PRC for a couple months we're coming back to a couple recommendations um after looking at this in section A we were changing the um wording in the
080third sentence and it will be social stewardship by encouraging rather than through so we got by encouraging the corporation sustainable practices down in section C after some discussion we had to go back and forth on this issue for a while we are recommending that from the PRC that you take out section one renumber after that one section one is required that all school division new construction projects the major modernization and renovation projects be designed and constructed to a minimum lead standard certified or equal after much discussion and looking at city policies we've decided that perhaps this is not necessary anymore so we'd be pulling that out that would then renumber the rest of the section and those are recommendations coming out of the PRC 4367 Mr. Cummings when looking at starting out the section one
081um did we do any cost-benefit analysis of lead versus non-lead or certified or equal in terms of you know what is the actual impact of this requirement on construction I might have to turn this over to Miss Ingram but I do believe with each project that is considered into the design and the individual aspects of it not every every project meets the same lead standard so it depends on what we're incorporating into that but anyhow Miss Ingram addressed this um yes and we did look at there is a nominal fee for um the contractor um to be able to utilize this framework um to be able to um basically uh track that they're addressing the framework um so and then there's also a fee for the A&E firm to go ahead and um go through
082the paperwork the application process and making sure that the contractor is abiding by it u it's fairly nominal in terms of um being um roughly 1 to 5% depending on as Miss Lannetti said the cost of the project so um in in the case of a larger project of course it would be less in the case of a smaller project be greater um just to clarify we've talked to the policy review committee and this just appi applied to um large modernizations or new construction buildings so like the D elementary school renovation or um the elementary school type of projects we do not um use this policy at all for our like hrack replacement or roof replacement projects so we're talking about larger construction and um I actually because I looked at uh the fact that
083there was an administrative directive attached to the PRC's packet so I did reach out to city council uh for clarification on that administrative directive i am going to skip over the part where they're discussing how old the administrative directive is but I am going to read this um from the city manager to the vice mayor that I received says "This administrative directive was adopted well before significant inflationary increases associated with construction material and labor costs if you recall from our 5-year forecast construction costs have increased around 99% from what they were 5 years ago economists and construction estimators do not foresee any significant reductions in construction prices on the horizons is why the past several years city staff has recommended and the city council has adopted CIP focused on reducing rescoping in some cases eliminating
084CIP projects i checked with staff and we have not built a LEED-certified building since the parks and wreck admin building opened in 2018 the new city hall was not built or designed to lead requirements in addition the new police headquarters the old city hall building the old police headquarters building and the newly renovated aquarium south building were not designed or built to lead requirements we're not planning to use lead requirements for redesign and renovation of Great Neck Bayside Princess Anne Wreck um and then he goes in to say "Don't get me wrong we in incorporate the use of energy efficient equipment and lighting when possible to reduce operating costs but we do not build to lead as in not fiscally in our best interest to do so there are money studies that show that lead
085and green building projects cost more with ranges cited as typically around 5 to 10% more um as such unless city council says otherwise in accordance with section 4.1 city staff has taken the position due to economic environment is not fiscally in the best interest of the city to pursue lead certification requirements on a new building or building renovation products projects as mentioned above we're in the process of revising our updated administrative directives to clear up any further confusion with respect to this one i will notify staff that this one is to be considered null and void um I'm happy to share this with any of the members of the board as as needed but I did want to um bring that to attention since I had requested um that from or I had asked information
086from somebody on our other counterpart um as it pertains to LEAD and whether or not uh we need to do LEAD because the city approves our CIP um package um but I do have um one policy question and that is as it relates to um the curriculum piece um under it's now the newly numbered section two um and I've noticed recently in some of our energy performance and management contracts uh that curriculum upgrades is included in those approval packets are we utilizing CIP funding um when we are upgrading lighting and such to make curriculum modifications and enhancements um so for the energy performance contract um language the contract does allow um very nominal fee I think it was um um for for um curriculum related um it was a virtual sandbox was the last one
087that we purchased um using the the contract for energy performance contract yes ma'am do you happen to know what the total cost of that addition was i can look into that for you okay thank you all right Mr. Cummings i was just going to follow up chair Brown just asked that it be sent out to the board what you just read we'll do thank you all right Miss Lannetti i will note as as taken out of section C the way it currently reads it's required doesn't mean we can't consider it can't be proposed the way we read it you have to do that on there and the decision was it still would be incorporated much of the lead so if it's also currently incorporated into state building code and other areas on so it doesn't
088prohibit us from doing it would just be something we would consider in the decision as to whether to approve a project or not are there any further questions on 367 hearing no questions further questions on 367 we're going to move on to 4-3 which is grievances and grievance procedures for teachers on here we have two grievance policies one is for teachers because they have set regulations and then one is for other employees there are simply a modification or grammatical error changes in the first section one and two there's nothing significant other than that so just a minor correction is rather than say decisions regarding whether or not it's it'll simply read decisions regarding whether a matter is grievable and those are the only recommendation for amendments to policy 4-0 any questions about policy 43 okay
089no questions on 43 i will move on to policy 44 this is in our personnel section this is equal opportunity non-discrimination anti-harassment and compliance officers there are simply a recommendation in section B to include a word that was left out which is the word ethnic under section D which is a required notice about who to contact for compliance officers we needed to update the address it was reading the Alaska road annex which we no longer own and now we'll read the Plaza annex where we do at which is located at Carriage Hills so we're just updating the contact information for that that's the only recommendations for policy 44 there any questions on policy 44 hearing no questions on policy 44 we're going to move on to policy 415 which is personnel records these are what
090I would consider mostly describical errors you'll see a minor change simplifying the sentence in the second paragraph of par second paragraph for sentence paragraph A um assume changes under section C on to what constitutes the cont content of files other than that there is just some corrective language or grammatical changes on there other than that there are no significant changes recommended for policy 415 which is our personnel records are there any questions on policy 415 hearing no questions on policy 415 we're going to move on to a regulation again we normally don't do regulations however the school board does have responsibility for regulations that can result in student discipline excuse me so under regulation 552.1 remember the superintendent brought this to you earlier in the year after the governor's executive order at that time the
091recommendation was to allow for students in high school to be allowed to use their cell phones during the lunch period this was different than what how the the um state executive order was reading the superintendent told you at that time he would be coming back to you at the end of the school year with a recommendation to remove that but he didn't feel like it was going to be appropriate at that time period can Mr delaney brought back to the policy review committee that exact recommendation at last meeting to remove the use of cell phone for high school students at the lunch period that is how the recommendation came to PRC was approved for legal sufficiency at that time period so it is the school administration's recommendation that you remove the opportunity for students in
092high school to use the their cell phones during their lunch periods as mentioned during the administrative issues it was what was asked as uh one of the the PRC members asked could we continue to consider allowing students to use the lunch use their high school units to use their cell phones during the lunch period it was my understanding looking at the current policy that that was going to be allowable since that time period we've had significant bad discussion it became an issue at the Virginia School Board Association's law conference last week before actually we were looking at as to what the intent was there's some confusion right now as to what what the word restrict means when you look at the bill as written it says you have the opportunity to restrict use during the
093school bell and this falls under the new policy 22.1 sorry statute 22.1793 colon 1 under subsection B it reads each school board shall develop and each public elementary and secondary school shall implement age appropriate and developmentally appropriate policies relating to student cell phone smartphone device possession use on school property from bell to bell the definition of belttobell which appears in section 8 means belt tobell includes lunchtime and time in between classes so it's a little confusion as to what the word restrict means under B1 it reads except as provided in subdivision 4 which is subdivision having to do with students with IEPs or 504s that require use of a cell phone it says except as provided in subdivision 4 restrict cell phone and smart device possession use on school property from bell to bell so
094it's a little confusing for us right now and I don't have really great guidance on it as the superintendent has instructed the you Virginia Department of Education indicated there will be some further guidance coming out the Virginia Schoolboard Association legislative team believes that the it was intended to be have some flexibility but I can certainly read the word restrict to mean that you cannot allow them from belt to bell coming out so I will tell you at this time it is not clear as to what the state intent was and it I was not able to clear it up for the PRC at their last meeting there was a 2-1 decision at the PRC to allow this to come forward and remain as it is currently written which is to allow for high school students
095to use their cell phones during lunch periods again that is not the recommendation of the school administration their school administration believes starting next year that all students should be prohibited from using their cell phone devices or personal other communication devices from belt to bell again first bell to last bell of the day so is there a little bit of confusion yes there is we believe there might be some clarifying um clarification coming out i do believe if you were to restrict use completely from bell to bell that would be completely compliant with the law i can't 100% tell you whether you allow some use of cell phone use during the bell to bell period whether that's going to be a problem for us that might have some clarification next week or so but again the
096recommendation coming out of the school administration to the PRC was to not allow use of cell phone from bell to bell that I will leave it in your hands to leave that discussion um I'm going to just let maybe Dr. Robertson speak first since it was the administration's recommendation to not have cell phone use during the day bel can you elaborate why and why now and not then and can you elaborate that on madam chair before he he speaks I I was sick in bed for five weeks and if I sit up here for another minute in this freezing cold underneath this vent I'm going to have to go finish this meeting meeting at um at home it is so cold up here that's why the chair is out there it is so cold we
097It We cannot even breathe back here so I'm sorry to interrupt but it is bad good good point do we know Ditto um okay so Dr. Robertson and then then we've got Miss Melnyk and Miss Rogers thank you yes um so our recommendation earlier in the year was to not go full effect January 6th uh with bell-to-bell at the high school level because it was such a dramatic change in the middle of the year we felt like a phased approach would would be most appropriate where uh high school students could only use the their cell phones during lunch my all of my conversations I've had with the principles in the spring semester including Mr. Delaney and and his leadership of schools and my conversations with students was that next year we were going to be
098cell phone free bell-to-bell um and I still feel that way my team feels still still feels that it's appropriate to eliminate the use of cell phones the access to cell phones bell to bell now we've also created some caveats for example if there's an emergency situation occurring and a student can access their phone and does so there that student's not going to be disciplined for that because it's an emergency situation uh but early indications are that students are adapting to focus their cell phone use during the lunch period my fear is we start next school year and allow students to use cell phones during lunch at the high school level it will not be long before lunch turns in the hallways lunch turns in the classrooms lunch turns in the restrooms we're going to be
099back where we were a year and a half ago we had a speaker earlier tonight rightfully so talk about enforcement we do not want our teachers to have to enforce cell phones we ask our teachers to write referrals and then we take care of the discipline our discipline data showed in January and February our number one infraction was cell phones and the kids eventually learned we were going to be enforcing discipline we did not suspend anyone out of school for the use of cell phones um so that's something that's restricted and rightly so so we feel like we're we we still believe that uh a bell-to-bell ban is appropriate now there is going to be some additional guidance coming out hopefully this week from the Virginia Department of Education so perhaps because this is a
100regulation we might be able to be given a couple of weeks to see what that um language is from the Department of Education then bring it back and have another conversation with the board on June 24th because we don't need a decision right now the decision doesn't go in effect until we uh the time we come back to school so we do have the luxury of time for the first time in a long time and uh perhaps it's best that we use that at this time Miss Rogers thank you um Dr. Robertson you just made a statement about your concerns um about the increase in cell phone usage has that been the case since we've been with One Lunch having cell phones so have you seen an increase from January till now as opposed to
101September or I'm sorry August to January or has there been a decrease or do you not know so in if we're are we talking about just in fractions we're talking which which would be we would track by infractions okay so the last data that I reviewed w was the Janu January February March data and that's where the cell phone uh violations at the high school level jumped up to our number one violation and that three month period but was it more so than the cell phone violations prior to one lunch implementation yes okay because and I would chalk that up to um that the fact is I think that u there were some staff just not enforcing it at all okay okay um and with all due respect I appreciate your stance and I know
102that we've heard it a bunch um but I also think that it is actually the board's decision as to what we want to do and I also know that uh the public has commented at nauseium uh including the students and the parents that um cell phone usage during one lunch is important for many many many reasons and I also firmly believe in teaching students time and place i cannot tell you even from my uh own personal experience how difficult it is once a child graduates to teach them something that they never had an opportunity to learn in high school um even so much that I know of of adults young adults graduating college never learned time and place and have been fired from their jobs because they couldn't stay off their phone i think it
103is crucial in ensuring our students are career ready to understand lunchtime is your time work time is not your time to do cell phone usage and so I um support the 21 decision out of the PRC and I think it's extremely important that we teach students how to use their cell phones and high school is the age appropriate time to do that elementary school middle school no cell phones fine with that but I it's imperative that high school students before they go into the military out to college or into a job understand when to use their devices and I'll yield Mr. Cummings uh thank you i think my only request is before we vote on this that we probably have a more in-depth presentation about some of the things that you discussed and because I
104think you know when I think about hot button issues in the school board nothing warrants more comments than talking about cell phones in the school um from folks saying I should have the right to contact my child whenever I want to we need to get those phones out of the kids' hands and back in books um and so I think that we need to make sure that the public I mean I lean towards the decision of the 21 and the PRC but I do think the public need would it'll benefit the public to see all the information that is being presented um into the choices that are being made so that's what I would just ask of before we vote Miss Melnyk and I agree with with Mr. Cummings i just I'm I'm just a
105little confused because initially we were told that the students were doing great and that they were really starting to respect just that one that one period of time which was lunch um and so I hope that's part of the presentation too that um you know we took them from no restrictions with cell phones down to one lunch and I thought the students really reacted to that and I and we're doing well with that and even attending a superintendent round table that's what we heard from those students that they were really respecting that and they were grateful for the for the lunch part because they really do use their phones academically too i know there are I mean just like we heard tonight with FBLA with opportunities through apps um to reserve rooms um I know
106there are tutoring opportunities that you sign up for um and you sign you can sign up day of um and you get that clarification um through an app so I'd like to have more conversation you know some of our high schoolers are adults they are 18 and it you know I I I do agree with um with Miss Rogers that high school is a good time to teach the responsibility and um and and the respect that comes along with that um you know it's very easy for a teacher to say "I don't have my phone out while I'm teaching you and I worked really hard on this lesson so make sure your phones are not in my classroom and um unless there's an emergency and then it's fine." I had a teacher friend that said
107that every year and she never had a cell phone issue ever miss Felton thank you Chair Brown um I'm in agreement with with what some of my colleagues Mr. Cummings has said as well getting more information especially after um Mr. Andrus has said that there are some things that are not clear about the the policy of the law that was written by Governor Youngkin also you've expressed that to uh superintendent about uh we have time to have more conversation about it as well but one of my major concern that came out of the PRC meeting was having the teachers to add something else to their uh duties uh following the students around on their lunch break very concerned about that very concerned so I think now that you're saying we have more time yeah I'm
108in agreement to go back have more conversation and then we can make a a more um logistical more better uh plan as to how we're moving forward with our students thank you all right um I have a couple of questions uh the first one is when Governor Youngkin signed and I believe it was executive order 33 did the VDOE issue any guidance at that time yeah their guidance was um to enforce the bell-to-bell u which pretty much we did except for lunch at high school and in that guidance bell to bell was defined as including lunch yes okay so when the VDOE sent out a letter saying what you shared earlier with the guidance um but that it codifies the executive order wouldn't that seem to indicate that the guidance represents that the executive order
109and the law are similar or and the same i think the operative word there seam i think it does seem that way um what I found interesting was the very last paragraph was that the DOE hopes to come out with further um guidance and direction in this week's newslet news um letter that we'll get by the end of the week so yeah we we are absolutely willing to bring information back to this group so you have every all the information you need to make the right decision thank you um and I I do think um you know we've had several board members request a presentation i I'll work with you and um the vice chair to determine if you know the workshop is more appropriate or the information portion for that um so that that
110information is brought forward um I have reviewed 22.1-79.3 colon 1 and I'm having a little bit of trouble wrapping my um I'm having trouble wrapping my arms around the fact that we have flexibility to allow lunch um I had actually started to reach out and I had knocked on some doors in my district because um my impression initially of the law was different and so I was surveying people uh to determine I will admit those were actually relatively even um but what I'm reading is under section A definition bell to bell means after the first bell rings at the start of the school day to begin instructional time until the dismissal bell rings at the end of the school day belltobell includes lunch and time in between class periods and I feel like that definition
111is really important to the entire remaining pieces of law and I I understand that my colleagues may have differing thoughts and opinions on this and that's that's not to um diminish those but it's my interpretation um that the law is pretty clear and then under B each school board shall develop and each public elementary and secondary school shall implement age appropriate and developmentally appropriate policies relating to cell phone and smart device possession and use on school property from bell to bell which includes lunch such policies sorry um shall one um except as provided in subdivision 4 restrict student and smart device possession and use on school property from bell to bell so then I went down to subdivision 4 as it was previously mentioned permit any student pursuant to an individualized education plan section 504
112individualized health care plan or limited English proficiency plan to possess and use a cell phone or smart device on school property including in the classroom from bell to bell to monitor or address a health concern or as an accommodation or assistive technology support um so I'm I'm having a little bit of trouble here and I I understand the guidance but when I'm reading the law my interpretation personally is that it it clearly outlines what bell-to-bell is to include the lunchtime um period and that's creating some confusion to me and I would also note that um the regulation as presented um I I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to vote on it because a yes vote and a no vote are the same so um a yes vote is to keep it the same as
113it was a no vote is to keep it the same as it was i I do not feel like either follow the law so Miss Rogers um thank you i just wanted to follow up really quick that with bell-to-bell our calendar is not in alignment with expecting teachers to go bell-to-bell with instructional time we don't count hours we count days and there are I I I think that this would put educators in a position to have to work to police this on times when they should be planning and or uh ensuring that you know that they have time to do things that they need to do outside of checking on students so that's where I have real heartache with this is that during one lunch our staff many of them are planning are getting things
114prepared are doing things that they need to get done which will then be impeded by this bell to bell and so I don't exactly know how we would adjust that so Miss Rogers if I may because that's a good point one of the things that we talked about uh moving into this year when we we restricted it in the hallways and things like that we we told our teachers "You are not the cell phone police." You know it would be uh you got 2,000 kids in high school you're not going to know all the names of the kids and the kids are walking down the hall and you see somebody have their cell phone out we don't want you to go after them that's a that's a mistake however we did equip our security and
115our administrators who have duties in the hall when they saw those infractions occurring to take care of those so we would not ask our teachers even if uh a decision was for lunch next year we would not ask our teachers to uh be cell phone policed in those periods we are expecting our students to demonstrate the type of growth that you're talking about um with the expectations it would be outside of the instructional class time that where the teacher is responsible to handle those referrals it's on administrators and and staff right and then with one lunch though that's the whole school to only be monitored for cell phones by our security than an admin so again that's a heavy lift for them so that's my concern because we have such a unique situation i mean
116I know other districts do it but in Virginia Beach we have this one lunch very very successful in across the division is my understanding i just don't want to put extra stress on our staff that is not necessary and also unpopular with the community okay I'm done vice Chair Williams um Miss Lenetti or Dr robertson do you know if what other divisions have done or is everybody waiting to hopefully get clarification or have some divisions gone forward and stated we're going to do it this way when we were at the council of school attorneys meeting after the law conference on the 30th a lot of school divisions have already eliminated SC belto so they weren't going to change anything there were a couple that were still discussing what to do i said we were all
117kicking around what did the word restrict mean does it mean prohibit or does it mean limitation on it so I believe there are some still working out but many school divisions have already gone ahead and moved it from bel removed from belt to bell so they weren't going to do anything different so they had done that in January sometime after January yes all right thank you at this time there are no for policies or regulations from the policy review committee and I have one follow-up question to Miss Williams's question um I know that when we implemented one lunch that that was Model F or Fairfax correct no excuse me no it was actually at I believe Dron High School in Richmond was the school we visited initially with one lunch and I was a high
118school principal at the time when we did that that was that was probably 2018 2017 2018 range okay um do we know what Richmond has done in regards to one lunch and cell phone usage and bell to bell as defined no we certainly find out okay i think that would be useful information for the community and the board all right and with that we are now on to school board committee assignments for term ending June 30th 2026 um these were in the packets um and uh there was a couple of smaller modifications but not a whole lot um based on conversations that board members had uh mentioned what their thoughts on certain committees that they were on and um movement that they would like to see personally um for themselves um and I'm probably butchering
119that i'm sorry it's freezing up here it is getting a little warmer but um so these are the recommendations vice Chair Williams and I worked on them and um Vice Chair Williams do you have anything to add okay any discussion all right we will now move on to the updated general fee schedule for 2526 good evening Chairwoman Brown Vice Chairwoman Weems school board members and Dr. Robertson we wanted to bring forward to you this evening a few revisions to the fiscal year 202526 general fee schedule you all approved back on May 13th the revisions are at the bottom of page two under adult learning center community education courses and it's the fee for the PN1 and PN2 adult student LPN program and it decreased from $2,750 to $2,631 due to a reduction in technology fees
120and HSA ah I'm just going to say American Heart Association offset costs i thought I could say the acronym um for the PN3 new adult student LPN program the fee increased from $4,730 to $4,855 due to an increase in background checks ATI test lab packs HOSA which is a national uh CTE uh student organization for students preparing for uh careers and health profession materials fees and uh graduation related materials and lure and then for the PN3 adult student LPN program the increase the fee increased from $6,985 to $7,085 and that's also due to an increase in background checks ADI ATI test lab packs HOSA material fees and uh grad related graduation related activities and lensure and so that concludes the information portion of this presentation i'll be glad to answer any questions okay I don't
121see any thank you so much we are now on to information item 12D Virginia School Board Association renewal dues um so this will be up for a vote at our next school board meeting and the total uh cost of this and I did ask Regina to break it down for us is $13,779.78 of that $13,279.78 is for dues and $500 for legal assistance fees when we reached out to the VSBA that that part is optional although I I will note that we have had board members reach out and utilize that so I do recommend that we include that in this um member school boards pay separately for attending conferences training or other services and um on the back of this in your packet there is a flyer about the member benefits many of our school
122board members participate in various BSBA um trainings and and so um and networking events and so so does our clerk so does our school board attorney and so does our um superintendent is there any discussion on the VSBA membership okay yes Miss Rogers sorry just have a quick question is there a reason why we wouldn't renew it the board voted a few years ago to vote on the renewal because of the budgetary implications each year when this comes up so that's why this is on the agenda okay just wondering if and they sent the invoice okay thanks okay there's no more public comment there's no items on consent so that brings us to action A personnel report and administrative appointments i call for the June 9th 2025 um to approve the June 9th 2025 personnel
123report and administrative appointments as presented motion was made by Dr green seconded by Miss Dwyer any discussion seeing none I call for the vote to approve the June 9th 2025 personnel and administration administrative appointments as presented so Madam Chair we have 10 eyes the motion did pass for the personnel report for June 9th 2025 thank you um we are now on to citizens advisory committee appointment recommendations i call for a motion to approve the citizens advisory committee appointment recommendations as presented moved by Mr. Callan seconded by Miss Dwyer any discussion seeing none I call for the vote to approve the citizens advisory committee appointment recommendations as presented so Madam Chair we have 10 eyes the motion to pass for the citizens advisory committee appointment recommendations thank you um Miss Lannetti I would like some clarification
124because we did add uh to the agenda to appoint somebody to serve on the region 2 recovery school uh governing board um do I just accept a motion to open the floor for that and then make the recommendation or do I ask for a motion on what's in front of us i think you might want excuse me might want to take a motion to nominate someone to serve as a governing board member of the region 2 recovery school or the Harbor Hope Center and that would be an this is going to need to be a term from starting tomorrow until June 30th so somebody could just read this motion then that's in front of us one way to do that okay um does anyone have a motion relating to the region 2 recovery school governing
125board okay Miss Rogers I'd like to make a substitute motion to discuss the regional to recovery school school uh board recommendation you could do it that way or if you make a nomination you would also discuss you would just have to do a second vote if there's a nomination afterwards okay there's a motion by Miss Rogers this is their seconded by Miss Melnyk sorry I didn't hit the motion button because she was still being done so sorry my bad um substitute motion to discuss the nomination for the recovery recovery school board and I don't think it's a substitute i think it's an original motion yes uh no i think her motion if I'm correct is to have a discussion about nominating a school board member of the region to That's what I recovery school governing
126board sorry that was a motion to have a discussion about the nomination of a school board member to serve on the region 2 recovery school governing board okay and while um our clerk is typing that in I'm going to open the floor to Miss Melnyk to it then and then Kim you have to second that absolutely so I hate to waste time on principle but I am going to waste a minute on principle so I am a firm believer in serving where you can be where you can best serve um and I really didn't think a whole lot i I happened to talk to to Mrs brown this week and and she mentioned this to me but it was coming to my seat and seeing a motion already written um just because it was understood
127and I Miss Brown you made a comment earlier about you and Mrs. Weems appoint committees but you also ask us where would you like to serve and that that was not done it wasn't done for the board and so nobody else had a chance to put their name in i think Mrs. Weems is the right person to serve it just it's just the look that it was just an automatic and then you come to your seat and the motion's already written and so it just it wasn't a good look for the rest of the board and that that was my that was my point so Miss Rogers okay so I actually did Whoops i actually did put in my name for the regional recovery board and the reason I did so is a because I
128want to learn more about the school but b because Mrs. Weems is currently on internal audit PRC workforce development and she had to come back off the mental health task force because it was a lot of work and I think adding this would actually be putting it a lot of work back on her i was offering to do it a to learn more but also to be um of help so I was hoping I actually asked for other you know um committees i did not get them and that is fine but I was hoping to be able to do more for the board that's why I put my name in the ring um I'm concerned about if Mrs. Weems can she's not she's on a lot and it's not to be disrespectful she's chairing the
129PRC on the internal audit committee on workforce development um and then would be doing this so I just I would like to um that's why I put my hand in the ring so So I'm I'm going to um temporarily get involved uh right now because I don't have a button here but um members of this board when I tried to go through the two-step process uh for committee assignments instead of just bringing them forward for a vote they're sitting up here uh tonight actually had emailed me saying that that isn't the process that had been followed previously it is the process that was followed um and it it actually would be my preferred process tonight to have brought this forward to the board for information then action but then I found out that there's a
130meeting on the 24th and that didn't allow for the opportunity and theou requires us to have a board member on that committee i do appreciate the request and I understand the request completely um there's no way that I would feel comfortable recommending anyone else than Miss Williams for this position um she is deeply involved in this it has deeply affected her and her family she was the driving force behind this and and while I appreciate the concerns I I did ask Vice Chair Weems if she felt as though she had the time for this and I asked her if she wanted to do it and she said she would make time for it and I said okay and so I I do appreciate that um you know that after the email went out from Miss
131Lannetti that you emailed me that and I I did response to your email but um I cannot in good faith make a different recommendation um and so that that will be my recommendation Miss Weems um yes the the reason why in committees there's always a name because if we if if the chair has three or four people sign up for the right committees you just don't throw out three or four names because then that would be very hard to get around who to vote for that's why in all committees the chair and the vice chair ever since I've been on the board has recommended a slate these are the people on the committee if a committee is late or early this is the the person that we're recommending and then you can discuss it and
132then you vote yay or nay instead of just opening up and saying these are the five people that wanted this committee or these are the three people so that's why I mean we're following um um Chair Brown was following the um process um I appreciate my colleague being considerate considerate of my time management but this will be something that um I've already talked with with my administration at work and I will make all the meetings and I will be able to do a good job i've worked with the opioid um crisis for a decade now in 2019 I brought it forth um to this school division i've done approximately 50 presentations in our own middle and high schools about the opioid epidemic i've gone to Richmond I can't remember how many times to testify in
133subcommittees regarding the opioid crisis i've um done a public service announcement i've done op-eds i've been featured in two documentaries statewide numerous interviews to say that I have passion and direct knowledge on this is an understatement so I hope that my colleagues will vote for me to represent them and to work very very hard in this area that I know about and I have a lot of passion passion for and I would appreciate your support in this thank you Miss Dwyer so um I can't think of a better person on this board to represent the Harbor Hope Center and just as Miss Melnyk even recognized Carolyn that you are the person you were on this project from the start and you fought for this project so you deserve to be our representation there and it's
134going to be part of your legacy and like Miss Brown said this hits close to you very close and I'm proud of you and I do want you to head up our Harbor Hope Center to be that governing board person for the year and possibly through the duration Miss Rogers um I would agree that uh Mrs. Weems has a ton of knowledge information has been involved in this i would just since we are talking about or we had information on our committee assignments I would just respectfully request then um that perhaps I would be added to something else to give Mrs. Weems the room to be able to take on that and so that I would be able to serve on something else as well whether that's audit or PRC or workforce development i would
135appreciate that opportunity Miss Melnyk so okay I am going to do that i'm just going to make a motion but Mrs. Lannetti I think we've heard some We I heard the wordouou mentioned i think we need an update if somebody's read anou or has been able to reference anou I've not seen or heard anything about anou so I got the final signatures this this weekend so we have I got the final signatures on the the governing this weekend so we do have it all right um so I'd like to make a motion that um Carolyn Weems be appointed to the um recovery school um so that she can attend that meeting on the 24th of June um I mean simple motion this is Tony i make a motion that Carolyn Weems be appointed to the
136regional recovery school board they meet quarterly i believe um that's what Miss Lannetti believes they will meet as quarterly is that correct we believe other it will be the design to run similar to CEP and governor school and a regional kind it's technically not a regional board we expect it to be the governor and we do recognize as you're starting off there may be some extra meetings because we're really creating this this organization so we expect it to be quarterly but it's a possible there might be a few more meetings can I get a point of clarification on your motion are you um making this motion for the one meeting or are you making it through June 30th 2026 yes okay thank you all right motion was made by Miss Melnyk second by Miss Dwyer
137and I know there was a lot of folks in line so if you could put yourself back in line if you want to um speak Mr. Bohenstiel like everybody else I pretty much just assumed and thought Mrs. Weems would be the perfect person uh for this mostly because it's a brand new school and we do need somebody that has some experience in this although I do appreciate Mrs. Rogers interest and learning more about this because it's pretty serious and we need a lot of people to have information on it so my you know I'm I'm all for the motion and voting for Miss Weems for this year you know maybe Miss Rogers maybe learn something you know collaborate with Miss Weems and then next year we can vote again that's just kind of But I
138do appreciate your interest in being involved in this miss Felton as a point of order uh Mr [ __ ] was before us before me before we sat down the board so I'll step back and let him speak first and I'll come after him i I just had some clarification questions um and I think just for public sake I just wanted to ask a couple questions Miss Lannetti um so board received an email about this on 64 today 69 why weren't we able to add this to the agenda why does it require a motion to add when there's Because I was assuming we had I forgot we were having the Monday meeting so I was sad till Thursday and the agenda went out when we realized um we did not have it included on the agenda that
139we're going to have to make a motion to do this it's not back up 128 does not include that the um policy bylaw 128 which is where you get a lot of the committees and outside organizations does not have the region 2 recovery school added to it so it doesn't automatically show up on this list that you have when we realized that we needed to get the governing school up and going it's taken us a little while theou to get the other cities to sign off on it we finally got that moving uh we needed to get a meeting for June 24th when looking at that I realized we we're not going to have time to go to the policy review committee to have bylaw 128 amended to add the region 2 recovery school to
140one of the appointed things which would have put it here on your chart on there because to do that we would have had to go policy review doesn't meet till June 25th so we ran out of time for policy review committee we didn't even have enough time to pull an emergency special meeting for this i had missed the time period to get it on the agenda which would have gone out on Wednesday i was thinking I had till Thursday because I forgot that we had the it was on Monday this week so I had to Thursday to do it the agenda had gone out when we talked through it and I realized at that point I was going to have to ask you to be able to get a person appointed into the spot so
141it was a last minute issue that had normally I would have made sure we had on the agenda there's not a way for us to time it out to get it the bylaw fixed to add this is to one of the organizations that you point to so it's just going to have to be a straight motion to do this so I'm just trying to understand just so I understand correctly so because I I see like school board agendas get modified after they're posted and you know see and our see items say that like this was added at X time so you're saying that our bylaws needed to be changed in order to have this person no it doesn't it's a new organization for us it's It's not listed on or previous yeah was sorry so
142um to add it to the list is what needed to be to automatically have shown up on this list the way you fill it out it would have pulled either it would have pulled from bylaw 128 it's not in bylaw 128 because it's a new organization and I didn't realize we were going to need to get that done i wasn't thinking through that we need to get it done before the meeting we were going to have on June 24th governing board it's important that the governing board have a person can officially vote to fill that spot because there are things we need to get done that meeting is 2 o'clock on June 24th that's before your second June meeting so even if I pull PR it was going to be too hard and because we
143don't have PRC scheduled until June 25th the day after our meeting it can't go through PRC to get it added on here which meant I was going to have to ask the school board to make a special motion to get this person appointed which is one way one way to do this and then when I realized we had missed the agenda because it went out on Wednesday instead of Thursday contacted the chair and that's why I sent the email to you said I missed this i'm going to have to ask you to add it to the agenda and I guess just like for the my own sake of clarification for what I'm trying to understand you know we don't vote on anyone else's name by name as we go through we vote as in a
144whole like what and I I feel like you touched on it i just want to make sure I understand correctly i mean we could have what's this if we if the motion was just to add that this the chair and vice chair would appoint somebody would that not so not not also been sufficient why does a a person have to be named because generally your process under 128 the re way it reads is that the chair and the vice chair will make a recommendation to the board and the board will vote on it that was amendment made about four or five years ago it used to read that the chair and the vice chair would appoint individuals we changed bylaw 128 that the chair and the vice chair will now make a recommendation the school
145board will vote on it so had we said this if the motion was just for the chair and the vice chair to make a recommendation if that didn't get done the same meeting I would still miss the time period to get this person because I can't wait to the second June meeting because it's the meeting of the governing board is 2 o'clock it's before the June 24th meeting cool so my only request is that I feel like this could have been emailed and distributed to the board ahead of time um just because I mean I'm trying to understand things as a new board member it was I did email to Well not the the motion it wasn't emailed to us if I recall correctly unless I missed it no no I drafted the motion today
146yeah because I wasn't sure if it was something we could get out on um I wanted went by to make sure if it was okay no one came back and said they were going to object to it so then trying to follow along with Bon 128 we had the chair and the vice chair make a recommendation so it would be consistent i think that would have been helpful to have that information ahead of time um I mean I don't assume any ill play as I think Miss Williams is the correct person for this position and I'll you know support her in doing it i just think there's some lack of clarity and you know why is there a person name on this thing why is there a motion when I'm voting for all these not
147individually I I think there's just a little bit of sense of my request was to have someone appointed in time i left it to the board to decide how that recommendation would come through that clarity came to me today so I drafted that motion today cool and as I mentioned I was out on Friday so that's why I didn't draft you on Friday all right well I'll yield my time i do think you know if we printed 11 copies we could have emailed this to the board ahead of time and I just wanted to clarify that I believe I talked to Miss Lynetti and asked her if she had written something related to her email around 2 PM yes ma'am so it's not like I did this way in advance here um so Miss Felton
148thank you Chair Brown um I respect uh the motion that Miss Milick has made concerning Miss Wings and of course like she stated you know you work best at what you know um I would use that uh she has been deeply affected deeply involved and deeply concerned about this particular situation effects of effects of be known and truth be told we all have had most of us have had addictions that has been close to us and had weighed us down as well but my my concern here um attorney Lynetti is that uh coming back I've never been fully informed about information about the recovery school and now you're saying about the uhou requires um a school board member to serve out of all of my history being here I know that when we need a
149person to to serve on VSBA there was nominees and we talked and we planned it around that even with the chair for this school board nominees are put forth so that's why I can understand I was surprised too to see a nomination on u my desk and in my packet concerning um a board member being uh addressed or served on the recovery school really surprised about because it was the name named um the nominee has spoken she spoke well to the job that she want and uh she's put out there who she is what she's done all her work that's normally process that I remember with this certain board that we needed a board member to serve on but uh as Miss Melnyk has put forth and I respectfully said as well I respect the
150motion and I think Miss uh Weems should be the one that that serves on this but in the future I think we should be more um sensitive to the fact of there are policies there are things that we've done and people just have um just we're used to those things being done in that way but uh respectfully um I accept the nomination of Miss Wes for this recovery scope thank you great thank you um I'm going to call for the vote miss Melnyk will you please um repeat your motion before we vote i'm sorry Miss Melnyk did I say anything yeah I think so but I don't like the wording of that but it says motion to make Carolyn Weems two appointed to to make Carolyn Weems be appointed to so just motion to appoint
151Carolyn Weems to the regional to recovery school board through June 30th 2026 motion to appoint all right and whenever she's ready for us we will um vote on that voting to approve Carolyn Weems to serve on the region 2 recovery school governing board for a term ending June 30th 2026 so Madam Chair we have 10 eyes that motion did pass thank you and we are now on to committee organization or board reports does anybody have anything to report why is it got our voting board up mr balance deal um I just wanted to say that I did complete my goal this year of getting all the schools but I do want to I do want to acknowledge the fact that it would have never been possible if I didn't receive so much help uh lot
152from Dr. Robertson school board members who have been on school visits kind of showing me what to do because I'll be honest with you the first time I walked into kindergarten our first grade class this year I was nervous and them little guys had me scared but uh watching others talk to the children and say "Go talk to them go talk to them." And all the encouragement and support I got I do appreciate it because without all that there would have been no way I could have done that so thank you thank you Mr ken yes uh I have been appointed to be the representative for the school board in the inter agency adult basic education advisory committee and this was my second meeting recently and I just leave there as I did recently uh
153for a GED ceremony and then English language uh acquisition ceremony as well uh the adult education program that exists here is so impressive in its scope its magnitude uh the network of organizations that are a part of it that come speak offer their resources and their information you walk away with the realization that this is a gem and so very few people myself included know very much about it and it's just an example of again one of the things that we do really well and I just wanted to put a spotlight on it because of how impressed I was thank you thank you Miss Melnyk i just want to say congratulations to all of our students who are graduating this week um I look forward to attending the ones that I can um um it's
154such an exciting time um walking in with those students is really it's really remarkable and the energy and the excitement you just you just can't you can't capture it all and just to be a part of that um is such a gift but I also want to commend my colleague um Mr. Bohenstiel for really honestly and I'm glad you said it yourself but to visit all 86 schools in one year is is quite a feat i did it myself and that first year and it you you were amazing and I will tell you you are my favorite person to visit schools with you he he really is remarkable and you are now in the most amazing position to make decisions for this school division because you have been to every school you have met every
155principal you have been in classrooms in every single school and you know that each school has its own feel it has its own personality and um each school like every human is different and um and now you know and that's very very special place to be to understand all 86 of our schools so congratulations again Miss Rogers so Mrs. Melnyk stole a little bit of my thunder to congratulate all of our seniors who are graduating but um I also want to thank all of our educators who have spent the entire school year um working with our students um all of our custodial staff all of our nursing staff all of our cafeteria staff every single one of our staff members that have been working every single day with our students we just have one more
156week left to go and I do appreciate all of your hard work and your dedication to us and our sta our students and our community um these schools would not run without our staff and so I just want them to know how much I appreciate all of their hard work and I know they are happy it's almost done in time for summer but again also congratulations to our graduating seniors and to our students who are almost for summer break mr bones Steel then there is one other thing i've just been talking to some tech people and I keep getting this name mentioned to me i'm sure some of you have heard of his name's Charlie Hinch i'm sure you're aware of this name but anyway I keep hearing this name how something there's a promotion
157or something i don't know but he seems to be the person that is the favorite from a lot of people so I just thought I'd throw that out there all right uh I wanna I want to thank my colleagues i know that we continuously do work on this board and that we will be back uh the end of June this is our last meeting prior to graduations want to congratulate all of the um and I know other people have mentioned this but I want to congratulate all of our students and that are graduating and I want to um congratulate all of our students that are moving to the next grade and have shown progress throughout this year and all of our staff thank you so much um I do have kids in our school system
158and I am grateful for the excellent staff that we have um in the up uplifting experience and the educational opportunities um that my students have and the students in Virginia Beach have and so thank you so much uh for all of that and congratulations to everyone and we look forward to seeing our students back next academic year when this one's over and Vice Chair Williams we still have closed so if you would please motion into close session i move that the school board recess into close session in accordance with ex exceptions to open meetings law set forth in code of Virginia 2.2-3711 2-3711 part A paragraphs 1278 is amended to deliberate the following matters one discussion consideration or interviews of prospective candidates for employment assignment appointment promotion performance demotion salaries disciplining or resignation of specific
159public officers appointees or employees of any public body and evaluation of performance of departments or schools and public institutions of higher education where such evaluation will necessarily involve discussion of the performance of specific individuals any teacher shall be permitted to present 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 two discussion or consideration of an admission
160or disciplinary matters or any other matters that would involve the disclosure of information contained in the scholastic record concerning any student of any public institution of higher education in the Commonwealth or any STO school state system however any such student legal counsel and if the student is a minor the student's parents or legal guardians shall be permitted to be present during the taking of testimony or presentation of evidence at a closed meeting if such student parents or guardians serve request in writing and such request is submitted to the presiding officer of the appropriate board seven consultation with legal counsel and briefings by staff members or consultants pertaining to actual probable litigation where such consultation or briefing in open meeting would adversely affect the negotiating or litigating posture of the public body for the purpose of
161this subdivision probable litigation means litigation that has been specifically threatened or in which the body public body or its legal council has a reasonable basis to believe will be commenced by or against party nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to permit the closure of a meeting merely because an attorney representing the public body is in attendance or is consultant on the matter number eight consultation with legal counsel employed or retained by a public body regarding specific legal matters requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel nothing in this subdivision should be construed to permit the closure of a meeting merely because an attorney representing the public body is in attendance or in consultant on a matter namely to discuss a school board internal auditor evaluation b decision on student discrimination appeal c status
162of pending litigation or administrative cases d consultation with legal counsel regarding probable litigation and pending litigation matters motion made by Vice Chair Williams seconded by Miss Dwyer any discussion seeing none I call for the vote to go into close session and my board isn't coming up Miss Brown how do you vote i vote yes okay so Madam Chair we have eight eyes the motion to pass to go into close session thank you [Music] 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 2-3712 of the code of Virginia requires a certification by the school board that such closed meeting was conducted in conformity with
163Virginia law now therefore be it the resolve that the school board of the city of Virginia Beach hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting to which the certification applies and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion by which the mo the closed meeting was convened or discussed or considerable okay do I have a motion on the certification of close session i think we might have to do a show of hands is there a motion moved by Mr. Bohenstiel seconded by Miss Dwyer any discussion seeing none I call for the vote to certify close session raise your hand if you are in favor okay okay so madam chair we have
164eight eyes the motion did pass for certification of close session okay thank you um I make the following motion whereas on 121624 the parent of a princess and student filed a religious discrimination complaint guardian student discipline matters in November and December 2024 and whereas on 12725 the school administration issued an investigation report regarding the parents complaint that concluded that the allegations of discrimination by the school were unfounded however the report found procedural inconsistencies and made recommendations for corrective actions regarding the discipline actions for the complainant's children grading and evaluation procedures for students to express discomfort with certain assignments and professional development for school staff and whereas on 47 2025 a hearing officer conducted an appeal hearing regarding the investigation report and the complainant's objection to the investigation report and whereas on 51425 the hearing officer
165issued findings of facts and conclusions and recommendations and whereas on 692025 the school board deliberated on the 514205 hearing officer's finding of fact and conclusions and recommendations the transcript and exhibits from the 47205 hearing now there it is now therefore it is determined one that the 514 hearing officer's report of finding facts and conclusions and recommendations is upheld two that the school administration is ordered to notify the parents of this decision and to place a copy of this decision and the supporting documentation and any recording of the hearing in the students official files is there a second second by Vice Chair Weems any discussion seeing none I call for the vote to approve the motion related to the student discrimination appeal if you're in favor please raise your hand so Madam Chair we have eight
166eyes the motion did pass thank you it is 8:51 p.m and this meeting is adjourned [Music]