WMLCPS 12/15/25 School Board Meeting

001like to call our meeting to order. Is there a motion for the board to reconvene into open session? >> Daniel Wallace. So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. Rebecca. >> All in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Okay, the motion's approved. We are now in open session. Good evening to everyone. Looks like we have a nice turnout tonight. Appreciate everybody coming out. And also uh we welcome those that are watching remotely. So during our meeting, I would like to ask each board member to state his or her name when making or seconding a motion or when speaking. At this time, I'm going to ask each board member to ver verbally indicate their presence when I call their name. Mrs. Rosemary Maym >> here. >> Mrs. Rebecca Miner >> here. >>

002Mrs. Amy Richards >> here. >> Dr. Daniel Wallace >> here. and I am Ralph Allen. At this time is our motion to verify that our close session was conducted in accordance with the Code of Virginia section 2.2-3712 paragraph D and that only matters exempted from open meeting requirements and only matters identified in the motion to go into close session were discussed. So moved by May. >> Is there a second? >> Richard second. >> Any discussion? >> Mrs. Maym, how do you vote? >> I. >> Mrs. Miner. >> I. >> Mrs. Richards. >> Hi. >> Dr. Wallace. >> Hi. >> The chair votes I. And our close session has been verified. If there are no objections at this time, I would like to ask Mrs. Rebecca Monor to lead us in prayer. Hearing none. Mrs. Mor,

003>> let us pray. Gracious God, we give thanks for this day for all that are gathered here or are watching online. We are mindful of the time of season that we are in and for the words of peace, love, joy, hope, and light. As we think about the chaos in the world around us, we are grateful for the opportunity to bring harmony and to bring opportunity, to bring resilience, to bring encouragement and support uh to our students, to our staff and beyond. We pray for wisdom and discernment this evening for all that is before us. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. >> Amen. Thank you, Mrs. Ma. At this time, let's stand and honor our country by reciting the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of

004America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. here to read our statement of vision and our statement of mission. >> I can do that. >> Thank you. >> Our vision is to provide an exemplary learning environment that empowers all students to find their voices and make meaningful contributions to the world. Mission is together we nurture the unlimited potential of all students through inclusive authentic learning experiences. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayan. Do we have any suggested changes or additions to our agenda? Anyone? Okay. Our agenda is approved by unanimous consent. Next, we have attendance recognition for students and staff. M for November. Miss Rice. >> Yes, sir. We will start with student attendance. Um we keep track of the average daily attendance at each

005of our schools. And for Copel Elementary for the month of November, average daily attendance was 93.55%. At Washington District Elementary School, 93.78%. At Montros Middle, 93.32%. And at West Morland High School, 93.58%. Look how close those all are. >> Wow. >> But our winner is Washington District Elementary School by a smidge. >> All right, cool. >> You're not going to be able to >> I got you. Yeah. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Congratulations to Washington District. And for our staff attendance, we keep track of the staff attendance as well. And for the month of November at Copel Elementary, average daily attendance for staff was 91.99%. Washington District Elementary 89.30%. Montros Middle School 94.16% and West Morland High School 92.48%. So our winning school is Montra Middle. Thank you. >> Congratulations. >> Okay, next we

006have character trait honores for the month of November. Mrs. Steel. Good evening everyone. This is a wonderful time of the agenda where we get to recognize some amazing students. So our character trait for the month of November was honesty. So at this time we ask our principles come up and recognize those students. Good evening. I am Holly Angela Copel and we would like to recognize fourth grader Remington Jones for our November student of the month. Remington's teacher, Miss Wear Morris, said, "As a valuable member of our fourth grades, Remington always takes responsibility for his own actions and feelings. He is very truthful and sincere, even when he is in a difficult situation and there may be consequences. He is not afraid to own his feelings and actions and to apologize both in public and private.

007He can be relied on to resolve problems with his peers, knowing that all conflicts end there. As a result of his honesty, he is respected by his peers and is building strong relationships as he interacts in class, at lunch, and on the playground. Congratulations, Mom and Daddy. Wait a minute. I'm Michelle Ras, the principal at WD. And I don't think our honor is here tonight, but it's Dia Gatkins. Um, she's a second grader in Miss McMonicle's class. And Miss McMonle wrote, um, Dia has such nice manners. She's kind to everyone and is a role model to all students, especially when there's conflicts. She goes above and beyond to make sure that everyone in the class feels included and that everyone has the say. Even when someone is struggling, Dia does not hesitate to help them.

008She comes in each day with a smile on her face and emates positive energy. Dia is a hard worker and is eager to learn. She also aims to please her classmates and her teachers. I don't think she's here. I'm Janet Brown, the principal at Montra Middle School. Our recipient is Ricardo Smith, who we call him Rico. Rico has transferred to Montra Middle School with a positive attitude and an honest spirit. He has on many occasions been asked various questions whether it pertains to his assignments, behavior or just when seeking information from him and he is always open and honest about any and all situations while taking full accountability. Also, Rico was honest with himself by asking questions when he needs help on assignments. He is always fair and truthful in all interactions. He is a

009joy to have in class and shows other students that it's okay to be honest with teachers and administration. Enrique is not here, but congratulations Thank you. >> Congratulations. >> Hi, my name is Michael Bathgate, principal at WHS and our student of the month goes out to Trenton Rose, grade 11, nominated by Mr. Kerry. Trenton is a student of mine because he consistently demonstrates outstanding honesty and one of the qualities that stands out most about Trenton is his willing to take responsibilities for his actions. If he forgets an assignment or makes a mistake, he doesn't try to hide it or makes excuses. He simply tells the truth. That doubleship of ownership is rare for students. Mrs. Gary has come to trust what Tren tells her. is accurate and sincere and that trust makes a tremendous difference

010in the classroom. His honesty creates a positive example for his classmates and contributes to respectful learning environment. For these reasons, WHS student of the month for November Thanks. >> Congratulations again to all of our students being honored this evening. Okay. Next we have Heart of Gold School District Award. And Miss Rice, I believe you're going to be speaking to this. >> Yes. I'm going to introduce a video. Um, thank you. All of West Morland County Public Schools uh individual schools participate with the American Heart Association in uh some activities around uh saving lives and saving lives by uh knowing how to take care of your heart, be kind to your heart, recognizing signs of heart attack or stroke, and knowing hands-on only CPR. Uh so we partner with American Heart Association as part of the

011Nation of Lifesavers uh with the goal of making sure our students and their families are prepared in the event of any kind of a cardiac related emergency. And so you see a picture of Marjgerie uh Churchborn. Uh Marjorie Church couldn't be with us this evening, but uh she is the one who is actually bestowing the school division with this honor. So, if you uh take a look at the next slide, you'll see that West Morland County Public Schools has been designated as a Heart of Gold School District. And that is because we do have 100% participation um from each of our four schools in the heart challenge programs uh that uh the Heart Association does with us. And we've listed some individuals that um Marjorie Church specifically wanted to call attention to. Uh we have

012a list that includes our principles and our assistant principles and also our health and PE teachers over there in the red along with uh Jade Lopez uh who is a part-time secretary but who has also been very instrumental in helping with the heart challenge programs. So, we recognize all of them. And we have a brief video uh recorded by Marjorie Church that she asked us to play tonight. Hello, my name is Marjorie Church and I am very proud to be the West Morland County Public Schools Park partner at the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association. And it has been my great honor to uh partner and work alongside our amazing schools here in West County. And I'm thrilled to share with you that every single one of our West Mland County public schools

013is now including our heart challenge program within their school years at our heart challenge program is our opportunity to connect with our families, our students and our staff and share some heart healthy resources and some life-saving lessons. Every year our staff, students and families will have the opportunity within our school system to join their school's kids heart challenge or American heart challenge team and they will have access to wonderful family engagement activities, heart healthy recipes and some really important life saving blessings including they will have the ability to watch together as a family at home. and learn the warning signs of a stroke, the dangers of vaping and smoking, and the life-saving skill of hands on CPR. This program has and does save lives every single year. And I am so very pleased and proud

014to share with you that West Morland County Schools is including it in all of our schools to make it available to every single family so they can be a part of it and access this information, watch it, learn it, share it with others to help us turn bystanders into lifesavers. So, I thank you so very much to our incredible superintendent, Miss Kathy Rice, for her incredible support of this playground, to our incredible administrators, all of the West Morland schools, and to all of my heart partner volunteer contacts and staff within this school who help partner with me every year and share this with you and your families. Thank you all so much. You help us raise awareness. You help us raise life-saving donations. and you help us save lives. You are now officially one of

015our heart of gold school districts and I thank you all so very much from the bottom of my very full and grateful heart. Thank you all. Thank you so very much. Take care and be >> okay. Thank you very much, Miss Rice. I I do believe that we have one of our student honores here. >> Okay. >> Yeah, we were trying to be discreet. We took a picture in the hallway, but >> Oh, okay. Well, it would it would it would be nice to personally recognize. >> Oh, awesome. Yeah, we got to have a picture. Awesome. >> Oh my goodness. Look at that smile. Oh, I'm glad we're able to do this. >> So, this is Dia and she was WD student of the month. Everybody were supposed to have such congratulations. >> Congratulations. Okay,

016November was uh tech legislative to school month and Miss Angel, I believe you and I think you're going to have some assistance from some of your students. Good evening again. Um, so we had the honor of having delegate Puket visit and I'm going to let my students introduce themselves, but they uh got to take her on a tour of Coco and um help her some activities. >> Hi, I'm Miles. Virginia school boards association take your legislator to school this every promotes a connection between state legislators and public education when delegate Kent was reading to the She read out loud so the little kids can hear her. When when we were showing her around, she was listening to what we were telling her. >> We were selected because we are a part of our school's safety

017patrol organization. On November 21st, our our state delegate Hillary Pew Kent visited Copel to celebrate taking legislator to school month. We were selected to give delegate Kent a tour of COP did an activity with the fifth graders to explain how the state budget process works. What I learned from it is that how they split the money up and how they what they do whenever they don't have enough money. >> Delegate Kent Red Duck for president in our kindergarten classes and talked about the election progress. We show delegate kit around coal and also talked about our duties as safe, our pet supply drive to benefit West Ming County Animal Shelter, and a potential field trip to the Virginia State Capital building. We we did a boys versus girls competition to see who could bring in more

018pet food. And in the end, the boys >> So, the boys get 10 extra minutes of exciting supplies last Friday to the animal shelter and delivered them. Well, that's fantastic. >> Thank you, >> Miss Angel. Thank you so much. And thank you for having these wonderful students be a part of this. We appreciate it. Thank you. >> Okay. Next, with respect to take your legislators to school bump, we're going to hear from Mrs. Gin and Mr. Smith. I'm just here to support Kevin. He's gonna do it all. >> Hello, my name is Kevin Hley and I am a seventh grade student enrolled at Montros Middle School. Today I'm here to talk about Mr. Smith. He is the tech instructor at Montros Middle School and West M High School. Mr. Smith is on the Montro town

019council. He Mr. Smith came in to my civic class to talks about his role in the town council and uh his role as a town council member. As a town council member, he sets policies, serves a four-year term term, supports the fall festival, incentivizes businesses, and helps out with child safety. He does a lot for our community, but also for our town. A question a question that got asked during his visit was, "How much do you get paid?" I thought this was cool because He get he turns out he gets paid $100 a year for being on town council. >> Another question was why do you want to be on the town council? He said I was already involved with the town with the town during first Fridays. He felt like he wanted to represent

020the town even more. That's why he lives in town. He also said that he grew up in Cul Point and most of his friends lived in town. He said he likes the lifestyle of the town and hoped his kids would would like it as well. As I finish my speech tonight, I'd like to leave you with this quote said by Mr. Smith. He does it for the town and for the community. Well, >> yeah, Kevin's now my favorite student of all. Not even before. Thank you, Kevin. I appreciate those kind words. And uh yeah. Yeah. Uh that's that's very very sweet. Um, I guess I will mention since we're talking about that, it was a pleasure to go to Miss Dawson's classes and speak. Um, even though I've only been on town council for a

021year, um, it's been an interesting year even for a small town like Montros. And, uh, it was good because even in a small town, there's still a lot of, uh, a lot of responsibilities that, you know, as you know, as school board members, of course, on up, it's a microcosm of, you know, fair picture. So, um it was great to speak to the classes and everybody all the classes were extremely attentive and um yeah, asked good questions and uh yeah, it was very nice. Um and yeah, I did I did did share. It was a surprise to me. I had no idea that I was getting paid anything for it in July. They're like, "Hey, here's I shared that." I was like, "Yeah, maybe we even got $100 for doing that." Um but anyway, um

022thank you Kevin and Miss Garland. Um so I guess we're on to robotics ready robotics. >> So um I'm going to speak briefly. We got some students here. Um got Kevin Headley, of course, as you just met. He's our seventh grader. We have a couple of our sixth graders who just started with robotics, Luca Bertzall and Freddy Beamer. Um and there we're going to take a look. We've got a little video um basically to share um a little vision into what the robotics we actually do this at the high school as well, but today we're going to focus on the middle school. Um and got a little video to kind of show you what we do on our air eagle time. We have a few minutes to get together and uh then I'm going to

023ask them some questions to talk about challenges and things. So anyway, please um check out the video. >> This semester we have established teams for robotics during Eagle time at MMS and during flex time at WHS. This serves as a great way to learn practical engineering and problem solving skills while focusing on competition preparation. Competition is held annually by the Dalbrin NSWC and Mary Washington University's innovation challenge. Let's take a peek at how our students prepare. On the typical day, robotics team students come to the cafeteria at 109 to get to work solving problems we call missions to be consistent with the Navy theme. The competition will use a most recent mission entail the rescue of a down Navy pilot. The robot had to display SOS using LEDs to communicate with the neighboring ship. >>

024So, it's got to say SOS there, right? >> It does. Okay, I put it in a very wrong spot. I just need to see if this works. >> Yeah, >> almost. >> So, what are you guys doing? >> Trying to get the first barrel. >> Yeah. >> Trying to get the first barrel. >> Yeah, I'm trying to get the middle one. >> Gotcha. >> It went the wrong way. It was opposite. >> I did not fall. Mine. This mission tasks students with using their robot to recover radioactive barrels to return to the ship. As you can see, sometimes things don't always go as planned. That's where the engineering process allows us to improve our designs based on test results. Every team has a different approach and you can see designs evolve into improved iterations. Collaborating

025with other team members is important to solving problems. We look forward to seeing these students in action in February at the innovation challenge. >> Miss Bzaw. She's a very important part. >> I was going to say I completely forgot video. Miss Bzallaw is actually my um my partner in the robotics mission and uh you know she she's right there with me um with the kids. Um let me see one thing I wanted to uh them to share um is maybe a little insight on you know what what their challenges have been you know putting together these trying to solve these missions um and also a little bit of uh what they've learned in the process to the podium. >> Um so you know uh a lot of the challenging part is building robots and actually

026making the right kind of claws. Like one mission we had was saving a pilot from a broken airplane. And uh we had to design a claw or a something to save them. And it was really hard to design the claw. A lot of flaws came along the way, but we ended me and my teammate ended up u building the claw and we actually figured out how to get get them back safely to the ship. So, one of our most difficult missions was the one where we tried to get a toxic barrel back to a airship and we went through around. >> Yeah. Yeah. And they were all difficult because it every time we made a little mistake would mess up the whole entire program >> and we kept arguing trying to program it while it

027was running and he was deleting stuff. >> Learning how to do teamwork collaborate. It's not always not always peaches agreement. >> Just just say something about what you enjoy about. >> Were you all successful? >> Yeah. One thing that we have gained with the robotics program was that we have gained some new friends like moments. You face some challenges here. >> Yeah, >> we have fun. >> Yeah, just just as they mentioned um it's you know it's it's been a process. We do have 10 10 students in there um which is about all we can accommodate at this point at one time for 20 minutes. Um but hopefully I think this team we we won't because of the schedule um with the government the actual competition got put uh it was supposed to happen on

028November 8th but that got moved to February 13th. So the they the high school students and the middle school students will be competing on the same day at the Freredicksburg Convention Center. Um so we've got till February to get prepared for everything. So, running through these types of uh missions to try to get them prepared for what they will experience on the day. But, uh I got to tell you, I'm really uh really happy with our ourh both both teams. We got two teams of five and I'm really excited and I think they uh they're going to be well prepared to to go into competition based on last year. Um, so and of course our high school students I want to give them a shout out to because they are um they're working on some

029complex problems of course that's that's a little bit more little bit more difficult in the uh the trials that they have to uh complete for their missions but uh hopefully by the time this group gets to the high school they're going to be very well prepared to compete there too and uh I've really enjoyed it. Anyway, please uh give them a round of applause. They mention this. They come in at Eagle time. They hustle to get there. They go right to work and at, you know, usually at right when we got a couple minutes before the bell, I've got to force them to pack up because they're still working on trying to solve problems. So, yep. It's great. >> So, Miss Gollum, Mr. Spall, Mr. Smith and these awesome students. We thank each of you

030for what you >> It makes me so excited. >> It is. Oh, yeah. You can see the excitement. >> Something I wanted. >> If anyone else any other board member would like to make any comments, but >> it's it's just so awesome to have our students involved. So, thank each of you. Okay, next we have uh some more exciting news. Uh the uh VSBA, Virginia School Board Association High School Student Video Contest. >> So, Mr. Smith and you're going to have any assistance as well? >> Actually, uh all of my assistants are pretty much um wrestling or one one I thought was coming today, but the family work. >> So, it's all on you. >> Yes, it's all on me. Unfortunately, the high schoolers, one thing you'll find is that a lot of kids do

031a lot of different things and participate in a lot of different activities and uh sometimes it's quite difficult to get everybody together on the same page, right? >> But, uh but they they are proud and um excited about their their recognition. Also want to mention one thing too for the I had Trenton Groves in class. He was here tonight for the high school. He is absolutely a fantastic kid. I wish I think they split, but I wanted to mention that because he uh I had him two years ago and uh I can truly attest to uh him getting student of the month there. >> So anyway, um yeah, so we we have our our video. Um we had some choices. Actually, Mr. Kolinsky kind of inspired the the choice of the theme um for the

032video um just kind of uh walking through the office and mentioned you know about the the idea so we kind of rolled with that um but but I guess we're going to show it here. I didn't you never know if you're going to be able to place or not these types of things. It's a lot of competition. So yeah, we you we got honorable mention which is very exciting. But hope you enjoy the video. >> In the quiet moments of doubt, a voice rises from within. >> I'm a champion. >> That voice echoes through the halls of possibility. >> I'm a champion. >> It breaks barriers, defies odds, and ignites the spirit. >> We are champions. >> For every challenge faced, a hero emerges. We are champions >> forging futures bright as the dawn. >>

033But we have a question for you. >> Are you a champion? >> So, um, that that last student was Ethan Burke. Um, Joe Shanklin, who's a senior, he's also on our robotics team for the high school. Um, Margie Solarski, um, Eric Rivera. >> Um, and Did I miss a student? I think I got I think I got everybody there. But if I if I did, for the record, if you're watching on Facebook, I'm sorry, but um the students uh do a great job. So um and of course that that was uh our champion was the uh title of the video and um he had 30 seconds. We did it. So >> congratulations. Mr. >> I will add that we were very excited when we were at schoolboard convention and saw that we had gain that.

034So >> Oh, great. I'm very I mean like say you you never know. We submitted last year and you know we didn't receive anything. So it's so much competition. So I'm proud that we were able to pull it off this year. If I could if I could jump in as well. This having seen all of the all of the videos and and this is not a sour grapes thing. It really isn't. Okay. Um you never know what the judges are looking for, but I'll I'll tell you flat out that video compared to the others was right up there. Um could easily have been first place in my mind. >> It was my my favorite. >> Favorite. Yeah. >> But I'm and I think you know I'm I'm an engineer. I'm objective. But um but it

035was it was it was excellent and and again you don't know what the judges are looking for necessarily but that's something we can be very proud of. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Yeah. And what I think one of the challenges is the fact you don't have much time. >> You got to get a lot in. >> Sure. >> And a video in a very short amount of time. And I agree with Dr. Wallace. It was awesome. I I should mention too, we did have some other participation as well, but um for the students to be included, they had, you know, it's it's kind of like school, you know, oh man, I forgot my permission slip. They require um documentation, permission directly. So, we did have a couple students that wanted to participate, but I

036had to cut them out because we didn't get their paperwork in time. And so, um but but the particip you know, you got a number of different kids you're trying to get involved. I say kids, young adults. Um, so it can be challenging with high school, but >> but yeah, I'm I'm proud of what they did. >> We are, too. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Smith. We have certificates from the VSBA for each of them. >> Oh, excellent. Excellent. >> I'll hand them all off to you. >> Sure. Yeah, man. >> Oh, it's going to be a piece of paper. >> Thank you. I'll I'll get that in as soon as possible. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. >> Okay, next. Miss Rice, holiday card art contest winners. >> Uh yes. So,

037each year uh as the school board knows, uh we do an art contest with our students to see which students will be the featured artist for the um Christmas cards that the school division sends out. So, this year uh we had some tough competition. We weren't able to pick just one from each school. So, you'll see uh what we did choose. Uh this is our winning card from Washington District Elementary School. Uh Violet Davis, who is in the third grade, drew this card full of penguins. And then at Copel Elementary School, the winning student artist is Lucas Bruce, who is in the first grade with his happy snowman. and The Snowman's Friends. And then at Montros Middle School, we had a tie for first place. So, this is one of the two winners for first

038place at Montros Middle. Ava Davis in seventh grade drew the Merry Christmas card with the Eagle ornament. And also in seventh grade, Isabella Ashton drew this card. also with an eagle ornament and the Grinch hand. And then at the high school level, we again had a tie for first place. Juliana Lewis, who is a senior, drew this card or created this card. and Abigail Coloulston in grade 11. This is her piece of work. I just think the cards are gorgeous. And then we have an overall winner from the high school, Daniela Rodriguez Chicas, who is a senior, created this card. So, we'll send these cards to the printers. Um, and we'll make sure that each student and their families receive uh numerous copies of the cards so they can give them out either this Christmas

039or next Christmas. And we thank them all for participating and thank the art teachers uh for their involvement in getting uh that beautiful artwork to us. >> Quite a bit of talent. >> Yes. >> Awesome. Thank you very much. And we we do appreciate uh all of our students that uh had a for the college and certainly appreciate those that got recognized. So, thank you so much, Miss Rice. Do we have any written public comments that were submitted prior to our meeting? >> No, sir. >> Okay. >> Do we have any public comments from anyone present? Okay. Don't see any. So, our public comment period is now closed. Next, we have our consent agenda for personnel appointments and also you have copies of school division bills and also school nutrition bills. Is there a motion

040to approve the consent agenda? >> Dan Wallace movement. >> Is there a second? >> Second recommended. >> Mrs. Maym, how do you vote? >> I. >> Mrs. Miner, >> I. >> Mrs. Richards, >> I. >> Dr. Wallace, >> I. >> And the chair votes I. And the consent agenda is approved. Uh, next, Miss Rice, we have donations and school gifts. >> Yes, sir. I >> think each one of our four schools received some donations this month, and we want to um bring those to the board for acceptance. At Copel Elementary School, St. Paul's Catholic Church, Knights of Columbus, donated uh food valued at $100. Bradford Holure donated books valued at $25. Crystal Williams donated paper products valued at $50 and Priscilla Or donated books valued at $75. We had a lengthy list of donations at

041Washington District Elementary School. Meredith Saunders donated fleece jackets for the clinic valued at $120. Laura and Jordan Coats donated pants for the clinic valued at $100. Karen Thompson donated laundry detergent for the clinic valued at $10. And Jessica Suard also donated clothes for the clinic valued at $100. Mark Repass donated books to serve as prizes for students and those were valued at $80. Mary Repass made a monetary donation for staff t-shirts and that was $200. We have a list of people who donated board games for prek and those included Tanya Lynn, Carol Gibson, Kathy Valley, Audrey Kowaltic, Diana Mcmonle, Brenda Gordon, Gwen Willis, Sharon Kowaltic, Joyce Ashton, Emily Pierce, and Susan Pearson. At Montrust Middle School, we received a donation from McDonald's Warsaw location and that was breakfast for teachers and staff valued at $120.

042Montrust Middle also received donations of treats for teachers and staff from Miss Self valued at $120, the Sherm family $25, the Birdsaw family $17, and Miss Rebecca Miner $55. And finally, at West Morland High School, Nancy Risto made a monetary donation to the special education department of $10. Ebenezer United Methodist Church made a monetary donation to Operation Christmas Child of $60. Lightest Properties LLC made a monetary donation to support the Eagle Invitational, uh, which was the drone competition held recently at the high school. and that was $100. And Angelos's donated five pizzas uh to feed the students who were involved in the drone competition and those were valued at $65. >> It's not listed here for Welch funeral home for $100. We'll make sure we get them on the next list. But u Miss Mayan

043is sharing that Welch Funeral Home uh also made a monetary donation uh which may have come in after we put the list together and that was for the Eagle Invitational as well. So we'll make sure we get them uh recognized at the next meeting but wanted to mention them tonight too. Thank you Miss M. >> Thank you very much Rice. In accordance with our policy KH, is there a motion to approve the donations as presented by Miss Rice? >> Dy Wallace. So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Miss second. >> Any discussion? All in favor, please signify by saying I. >> I. >> Okay. Thank you very much, Miss Rice. Okay. Next, uh, school board meeting calendar for 2026. Miss Rice. >> Yes, sir. Uh we have a proposed meeting calendar that was uh

044sent out in advance to all board members for your review. Um you can see it follows our normal uh meeting schedule, our typical meeting schedule. Uh there are uh meetings that don't land on the third Monday of the month. And when that occurred, uh we made a note on the notes page uh in red. So, um, in January, the regular scheduled meeting would land on Martin Luther King Day. So, we've moved it up a week to January 12th. The VSBA capital conference is uh the week following >> the normal day. So, we couldn't move it back, so we moved it up uh to January 12th. And then in February, we have President's Day on February 16th. So the regular scheduled meeting is moved to February 23rd. The fiscal cohort uh meeting in May is on

045May 12th. So we moved that meeting to the 18th and I think it was actually the work session that we moved to May 5th. >> And then if you go all the way down to December, winter break would uh be happening on December 21. So the December board meeting is moved to the 14th. So typically it is the third Monday of the month for regular board meeting and the Tuesday prior for the work session. Uh but we did make exceptions based on other events that are occurring. >> So are there any questions or suggestions for Miss Rice from anyone? >> Do you hear a motion to approve the school board 2026 meeting calendar as presented? So move. >> Okay. Is there a second? >> President Mayan second. >> Okay. Any discussion? >> Mrs. Maym, how

046do you vote? >> I. >> Mrs. Miner. >> I. >> Mrs. Richards. >> I. >> Dr. Wallace. >> I. >> Chair votes I. And the school board meeting calendar for 2026 is approved. M. Rice. >> Thank you so much. Okay. Next, we have a resolution of the school board authorizing tax compliance agreements. Miss Rice. >> Yes, sir. This is uh one of many documents uh that the school division uh needed to sign to support the financing plan that Davenport has put together. This particular document comes to us from Web Webster Day who is part of the bond council. Um, and it is uh just one of the documents that actually requires board vote and um signature of the board clerk to be able to be submitted as part of the packet of documents being submitted

047in support of the financing. >> Any questions for Miss Rice from anyone? Okay. >> Is there a motion to approve the resolution as presented? Thursday Mayan sub is a second wall second. >> Any discussion? Mrs. Maym, how do you vote? I >> Mrs. Mono. I >> Mrs. Richards. >> Hi. >> Dr. Wallace. >> Hi. >> Chair votes eye. And a resolution is is approved. >> Thank you for Rice. >> Okay. Next, we're very pleased to have Dr. Baker with us this evening uh who is going to uh present uh some information and also uh the governor's goals for the our governance team for 2025 2026. Dr. Baker, >> thank you. Good evening, Mr. Chair and of the board. It's a pleasure and an honor to be with you this evening and um it has also

048been a joy to um just be able to experience all of these wonderful school and student recognitions and you have so much to be proud of and I know that you are. Um so uh this evening I'm going to go very quickly just through a little bit of summary information. Um this was uh I guess as they would say the room where it happened. um where we had a um a great day together um partnering with you to look at your most recent um strategic plan that you adopted back in the summertime and begin to uh strategically align as a board and um so I'm going to go very quickly through this information and certainly answer any questions that you may have um at the end or any comments that you may have. So um

049you you know what we did but this gives a chance for you to be reminded of it but for those who are um here at the meeting and listening to to get a chance to see what you engaged in um in this very room and so uh at Berkeley Group when we are having any kind of a a retreat even though it's a collective experience individuals participate and so uh we began by my opportunity to to get a little bit um deeper in informing the process that we would engage in that day and it was just a pleasure getting to know all of you a little bit better um and learned a lot from those interviews and that was brought into um the retreat itself. We did some team building activities, but they weren't um

050you know, we didn't sit in a room and cry and I didn't blindfold anyone and make you trust each other to uh walk around the grounds, but we did have an opportunity to to team build in connection with um governance and leadership and it really reinforced I I know for me, but hopefully for you um just the effective leadership and and the collective strengths that you bring um individually and collectively as a and we're going to talk about those in just a second. Um, we actually went through um an activity where we looked at what research says are the the eight traits of highly effective boards. And uh it was a great experience to go through with this board because you were able to recognize that you really are on the right track with all

051of them. That um most of those traits are embedded in the work that you do as a board. And yet you also found some opportunities to say maybe we can go a little bit further, maybe we can get better in that area. And then looked at some of the things that you do now in terms of your norms, your commitments, your protocols and said where are you really kind of on target in terms of implementation and then are there some areas where you might be able to uh enhance the consistency of those norms and protocols. Then we did a a SWAT analysis and as Dr. Wallace will often say that process is sometimes as as important as the outcomes. It's just the opportunity to reflect on uh not just the West W County Public Schools

052where you are strong, where you have areas of growth, where you might find opportunities for improvement and where there are threats that are on the horizon that you have to be prepared for. But you looked at it from the perspective of as a board. Um because this whole day was focused on how can a really good board continue to grow and be better. And I will continue to applaud you for just that endeavor in and of itself, not to be satisfied and knowing how much your students and your staff uh and your roles mean to your community for you to take that time and continue to try to improve by going through that analysis. And then finally, we took that analysis and we moved it into trying to develop some specific concrete goals that this

053board governance goals that this board could focus on in the next year um and be able to be aligned directly with your um division strategic plan, which your superintendent and her staff are executing. Um what could you be doing alongside them to help move this process forward? And so you have such a strong foundation as a board. Um having been a former superintendent, not been I am a former superintendent. Um knowing how uh challenging this work is, you have so much to build off of and what came through among other things. There were many things that came through in terms of the strengths that you bring as a as a board, but the relationships that you have with each other. Um it really helps those that you lead to see you working not only in

054a civil manner but in a productive manner to represent them and their needs but also the relationships that you have that are positive with the staff with the community. Um and you always keep everything about students um in your work that unified commitment that came through um the cohesive culture. I think that you are able to um both come to consensus, but you're also able to disagree agreeably as they say. And I think that that is another strength. That type of culture again is a positive model for all of those that that you lead. And then finally, the it was wonderful to be able to come and start working with you in November. you adopted the plan back in uh I think it was July August and yet you had already taken specific steps to

055move things forward and so it was really great to see you weren't waiting for a partner or a consultant or someone to come in you were already working and saying here's what we're doing how can we continue to build off of that momentum and so these were some of the areas that you identified in terms of growth that in just a moment we'll will reveal. Uh this is what resulted in the the focus in goal setting uh which was um in your lane of leading the school division uh policy. Uh the development of policy, the approval of policy is really front and center in the work of a school board. and you recognize that while you have some great tools and some great um processes at your disposal such as your partnership with Virginia School

056Boards Association, you wanted to take deeper dives into looking at how policy can um be more transformative in terms of moving you forward, how you might not just um passively say this was um gained through BSBA, but let's let's scrutinize it a little more. Let's see how we can better align it to the needs of our students and our staff and our school division. And then to increase um that through expanding how you um conduct your work sessions which you already have in place, but you know maybe take some more time to look even more deeper at policies and regulations. Communication and engagement was something that is uh definitely foremost in your strategic plan. not only in one area but that is embedded all throughout and you wanted to say well as a board how

057can we do our part to communicate effectively how can we take those next steps and one was to develop a board level communication plan um obviously not to uh be in conflict with the school division's planning but to complement it to help reinforce the messages and then ideas that we'll talk about in a second s such as a state of a school is a that's not just people come to to hear you or to be here to listen to Miss Rice or the school board talk about the state of the schools, but I think I I've got something in there about a road show. You know, getting out there and really taking all the good things that are happening in West Morland that that both the strengths as well as some of the needs that

058you have um out to your community. And then uh we talked about a trait of effective boards uh is really being data savvy. Not just um receiving data but understanding how to use data, how to review it as a board in order to not only be informed but maybe to take appropriate actions. And so you wanted to determine what is the essential board data that you need to best support those uh that you govern. Um and not that you're not getting the data you need now, but maybe determine if there's other types of data or other ways that you could be looking at it. And then finally, aligning um the the newly adopted strategic plan into all that you do in ways that are very visible um very concrete. And so that would even be

059for example in these meetings um how do you make sure that your board agendas are connected to your strategic plan? And so that resulted in these four goals. And since I've already highlighted some of the objectives and some of the actions that are recommended as part of these goals, um we'll just kind of go through them very quickly. Communication and engagement. And even though those two words tend to go together, they're not always the same thing. Uh communication can sometimes mean that we send communication out and then it comes back. Sort of like that image. But a lot of what you want to do is to not only communicate to folks and have them communicate back to you, but you want to engage with them. Part of the the thing that I thought was really

060um was really cool uh was that you as a board want to find more and more ways to be visible um in support of what's happening in your schools to be at school events. um not all at the same one every year as some had said, but to continue to be highly visible, highly engaged and to use that visibility as an opportunity to engage more with families, more with staff to better inform uh the work that you do. And then um tonight was a great example. you had a number of opportunities that you took to recognize your staff knowing that the the future um is future threat is how do you continue to retain um highquality staff at all levels and some of it is making folks feel as though there's no other place they

061would rather work here in West Morland County Public Schools. The board wants to continue as you had reflected that day on being able to keep enhancing and ratching that ratcheting up that sense of value that you have for the good work that staff is doing each and every day. Oversight and accountability uh was what we talked about in terms of um you know aligning with the strategic plan. Um but going to go down to the bottom um there is a distinction um a recognition through the Virginia School Boards Association that I think that having seen various boards achieved this over the years. I can't think of no board who is better positioned um who has the the right focus and the mentality um to pursue this not so much as an end but as a

062way to validate and to um kind of check your own uh processes and quality um individually and collectively making sure that everyone is working together uh to move forward your strategic plan. And then policy development. We talked about those deep dives. Um sometimes it helps to begin to look at different ways to track policies in a proactive manner. And we talked about that as a possible strategy where you can see when policies are coming well ahead of well ahead of time before you have to actually adopt them to be able to really review them to ask good questions and begin to think are there any adjustments that we need to make or do we need to add um I often have found that in policy work that our polic may be very rich with policies

063but kind of regulation for we have the what but we don't always have the how in how policies should be uh implemented or executed. So you might find in that deep dive and having that tracking mechanism that you're able to see where there are additional needs in the uh area of policies and then to uh continue to incorporate evaluation metrics in terms of how it aligns with your policy work. And I know that as a board you don't have a ton of active committees and it's not so much a matter of quantity, but just the idea that the committees that you do have continuing to use the information that they give you to inform policy and to sometimes reach out to your stakeholders to give you insight into needs to inform that as well. And

064then finally, we talked about the board essential data. Um, I know that you already do this at least um implicitly, but even more explicitly um connecting your budget priorities to your strategic plan. Um, making sure that that's visible not only to your uh funding body, but also to your community and your staff. And then uh that third uh strategy or action is not going to be a problem for the sport because you were actively um seeking training. Um that's what I got to be a part of. and it was an honor. And then continuing to grow um in the area of fiscal governance, what we couldn't to be able to count on in public education is from year to year, we know there's not going to be a lot more money. >> Um but that

065means that the ability to manage effectively the resources that you have becomes even more important. And so that is another reason for that focus on a potential fiscal governance cohort being part of that. And then this is just a slide to show that there was that alignment specifically uh with the goals that you helped to develop that day and your current strategic plan where it aligns with your mission, vision and core values. And so this general uh work plan uh just some ideas for the things when they might best be initiated and uh when they might begin. Certainly this is much more in a moldable fashion for you because sometimes you know bestlaid plants it might be best to reposition an action or reorder it. But this was just to give you something very specific

066in order to be able to move forward and follow through on your goals. And so moving forward um together um these are the the key areas where you want to focus and I will just share before I open it up to any questions or feedback that you have. Um I I always find it interesting that that those that are already um working at a high level um want to continue to grow and want to take the opportunity to move to a state of excellence. And a state of excellence to me is is not something where you achieve it and then you go, "Yay, we made it." It's really about how you sustain that uh from year to year and continue to get better. And that continuous improvement mindset that you have demonstrated through this process

067that I've had the pleasure of working with you through again is a great model for all of those who you govern and lead alongside each day. With that, I will open it up to you for any questions, feedback. >> Anyone? >> I just want to say that it's been a pleasure working alongside you, Dr. Baker, for several months now. Um, and to have real downto-earth conversation and how we can improve upon what we've built so far. I appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Anyone else? I couldn't say that better. Thank you so much, >> Miss Rice. Did you have a thing? These are governance goals, realities. >> Well, honestly, I'm I'm really tickled that we have both uh goals for school administration to be working on uh with with the staff members of the the

068school division. And we have governance goals uh for the governance team to work on and that they're totally completely aligned. So, we're all working in support of the same mission, the same vision. So, I think it's exciting and it's very uh actionable, which I also like specific actionable things to do. So, >> Dr. Baker, it's uh very rewarding to have members of a governance team that have open and honest discussions all based on student success and also being able to hopefully show appreciation for our outstanding staff, which means all of our employees, every one of them. But uh you you can't you can't come up with meaningful goals unless you have those open honest discussions >> and listen to one another and I think this board excels at that. So given that would anyone like

069to make a motion that we adopt these goals governance goals? >> Daniel so moved. >> Is there a second? Second. >> All right. Is there any more discussion? >> Miss Maym, how do you vote? >> I. >> Mrs. Miner, >> I. >> Mrs. Richards, >> Dr. Wallace, >> I. >> Miss Rice, >> I surprised you, didn't >> you? Did surprise me. I never get to vote. That was cool. >> Well, these are governor's goals, so I think you you should vote. And the chair votes I >> and the goal is all approved. >> Ready for action. >> As a former superintendent, a unanimous vote like that means a lot. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you, >> Miss Rice. Accountability results. >> Yes, sir. >> You are. >> Thank you. So, I too will

070uh try to be brief. We have some exciting uh news and things to celebrate here in West Morland. So, I'm going to try to be brief, but I also uh want to do my due diligence and and let people uh receive the recognition that they're so deserving. So, uh this is an update on accreditation and and accountability results. As you know, we finally have some uh we finally have the release from uh Virginia Department of Education. So just background so that um everybody understands what we're looking at. This is a review really for those who might be uh listening online or uh watching but the state has moved from the old accreditation system that we were all uh familiar with and that terminology and has separated accreditation from accountability. So accreditation is more uh compliance

071with uh the standards of quality and the standards of accreditation and each school does still receive a rating of fully accredited or conditionally accredited or accreditation denied. Um but that is all focused on compliance really with with the SOQ and the S SOA. Separate and apart from that now is accountability and that's the school performance and support framework and that is focused on uh the accomplishments of our schools. So accountability now covers what accreditation used to cover is is the shortest way to say it. and accountability is focused on mastery, growth, and readiness. And then at the high school level also focused on graduation. So two different systems, both still in play. And this is the first annual release of the school performance and support uh framework results. The state department of education indicates that

072uh the framework is designed to provide a clear picture of how well schools are fulfilling their responsibility to ensure students learn and grow and graduate prepared for life after high school. Just a reminder and I know the board is very familiar with this that there are four components or pillars to the framework. One component is mastery and that's really how well are the students doing on the Virginia standards of learning assessments whether that's the traditional so assessment or the alternate assessment for students with disabilities and it also includes progress in English language proficiency. A second pillar is growth and that is student progress on reading and math by uh comparing their prior performance in earlier years on so assessments to how well they did this year and whether students achieved the the amount of growth

073that was expected based on their historical performance. And then there's a pillar of readiness and in K8 schools readiness points are earned by reducing chronic absenteeism. And then in the middle school, we continue with chronic absenteeism, but the middle school also has an opportunity to offer advanced coursework such as students earning high school credits while still in the middle school. And in high school, it's based on the chronic absenteeism, but also students demonstrating readiness for employment and educa, post-secary education, andor enlistment. And finally, graduation. The graduation pillar is based on high schools uh students who earn a standard or an advanced studies diploma in a 4-year time frame. Framework overview just to show uh how that all breaks down at each of the levels. At the elementary level, there's greater emphasis on mastery. And at

074the middle school level, uh it's very similar to elementary. Uh there's a little less emphasis on mastery because there's a little more emphasis on readiness. And that's because absenteeism and the advanced coursework fall under readiness. And then then at the high school level, um there is no measure for growth, but there is a significant emphasis on readiness. And that's students being ready for life after high school. So it makes sense that the emphasis on readiness would be greater there. And then also there's a focus on graduation. You can see how much of the 100% uh is weighted for each of the big components >> at the elementary level. I'm going to go really quickly through these. You see the u breakdown of what goes into mastery for the elementary schools. So it's reading and math

075performance, science so performance and then progress on English language proficiency growth is exactly that uh reading expected growth and math expected growth and those are split pretty evenly and then readiness 10% is focused on chronic absenteeism. At the middle school level, we still have reading and math performance and s uh science performance on the SOS. We still have English language proficiency. Reading and math expected growth remains a component. And then chronic absenteeism and advanced coursework make up the readiness. And then at the high school level, uh we're still focused on reading, math, and science performance, English language progress, proficiency progress, and then readiness continues to include chronic absenteeism, but also includes uh the six-year graduation cohort, and that could be an applied studies diploma in addition to an advanced or standard diploma. and then ready

076for life, the three E of employment, uh, education or enlistment. And then finally, the graduation cohort, uh, component is based on the four-year graduation component with standard and advanced studies diplomas. So that's the breakdown of everything that gets mixed up in uh, this framework to come up with an overall school performance score and rating. So for a school to be considered distinguished, a school needs to earn 90 to 100 points out of the framework or actually it could be more than 100 um points. You can score more than 100 um but at least 90 points in order to reach the distinguished level. And a school that's labeled distinguished is considered to be exceeding the state's expectations uh for student achievement, growth, readiness, and graduation if you're a high school. Distinguished schools also serve as models

077of best practice from which others can learn. And then to be on track, a school needs to have 80 to 89 points. And on track schools are considered to be meeting the state standards. An offtrack school is a school earning 65 to 79 points and they're considered uh to be not meeting. And then schools that need intensive support are those uh who are scoring below 65 points. So I wanted to begin with statewide results uh because this is it's just interesting information. It's the first roll out under the new framework. Uh there are 1,819 schools throughout the Commonwealth and of those 1,819 23% are considered distinguished after this first year of ratings and another 774 are considered to be on track. So twothirds of Virginia schools are meeting or exceeding the state standards in terms

078of this framework and then another third are off track or in need of intensive support. Also significant um on this slide, if you look at high schools, traditional high schools, third row down, you can see that 65% of the high schools across the Commonwealth earned the rating of distinguished. And if you look just above that in the middle school row, you can see 59% of middle schools are considered to be on track. So there are some real highlights uh throughout the Commonwealth in terms of how schools are performing and meeting the new challenges. And then on this slide, these are still statewide results, but I wanted to show uh federal identification because federal identification uh factors in heavily into the new uh performance and support framework and it focuses on how individual subgroups are doing.

079So not just total students altogether, your entire student population, but your individual subgroups and schools who are federally identified um are reduced one level on the student uh performance and support framework. So theoretically, if if your points landed you in the distinguished category and you were identified for federal um support, you would go from distinguished down to on track. And if you were on track, you would go from on track down to off track and so on. Uh so the federal identification is really significant as part of the framework. And overall there were uh 3 46 schools uh who were target identified as needing targeted support and improvement. Another 80 schools need comprehensive support and improvement. So targeted support is based on a subgroup. Comprehensive support is based on the total student population. And then

080additional targeted support and improvement means for this year that those schools had previously been identified for targeted support and improvement and they did not yet exit uh targeted support and improvement. So there were no new schools identified for additional this year um just for this one year. that there were eight schools across the state who continue uh with the designation. And then what we really all want to see is uh West Morland results. So um I just want you to soak this slide in um because we certainly have been uh celebrating I hope every staff member in every school has been celebrating uh the accomplishments of our students and staff. Uh, every one of West Morland County schools is designated fully accredited. And remember that's the compliance part. So we're each school is fully accredited,

081meaning we're fully compliant with the standards of quality and the standards of accreditation. But when you move over into the performance categories, um both of our elementary schools and our middle school are performing on track uh with the new framework and the high school is distinguished under the new framework. And then none of our schools has received a federal identification this year, meaning uh we don't have any subgroups that have been identified as lagging behind uh the rest of the student body. Uh we are meeting the needs of every student in West Morland County Schools in the subgroups and in the total student population. So, this is absolutely thrilling uh for the first year with the new framework. Um I know there's there's been a lot of uh celebrating going on out in the schools

082and there should be. Um our students should be really proud of themselves and our staff should be as well. Um because they've done an incredible job meeting the challenges uh that the state has put forth. >> Yes. Um, and I'm not going to take the deep dive uh into each of the individual school uh quality profiles this evening in the interest of time, but I did link them all there for you. So you can take the deep dive and we will uh in January we'll be back uh when we don't have quite such a long agenda and uh we'll talk about some of the um really incredible highlights uh at each of our individual four schools tonight. The principles are already going to talk about um some of the areas that they have identified for

083uh continuous improvement. So just as Dr. Baker was talking about, you know, you never arrive um no matter how great you're doing, there's always, you know, more to do. And I know our principles are never going to be satisfied or our division leadership um until we have 100% pass rate and every student is excelling at very high levels. Um so there's always there's always room to do more. But when you do this well, you need to pause and say, "Yay, you know, we did it." and they they need to take a breath and celebrate the current uh accomplishments as they continue uh moving forward. I do want to show one last slide and this is the superintendent region 3 snapshot. Uh none of us knew this was coming. Um but the Virginia Department of Ed

084did release a snapshot to show how each division and each school is performing among other divisions in the same region of the state. So um there is a regional snapshot and that includes top performers in each of the performance categories that we've already talked about including distinguished schools. VDOE indicates their reason for uh releasing these snapshots is really so we can look across the region um at our peers and identify somebody who might be outperforming us. Um if you're in X division, is there another division who has a higher score in a particular performance indicator? And so they might have ideas that we want to um borrow from each other. Um, conversely, we might um have ideas that other divisions want to borrow from us uh because we're doing really well in a particular area.

085So, Chris, if you would click on the regional snapshot, I do want to show that. Thank you for zooming. Um and wherever West Morland is on these uh this regional snapshot I have highlighted us. So you can uh look and see all the school divisions that make up region 3. The state has identified that there are 16 schools um that have been uh designated as distinguished across our region. And then you can see how many schools are considered on track and offtrack and needs intensive support. And so West Morland is highlighted. You can see we have one school uh considered distinguished and three who are considered on track. And fortunately, we do not have any schools that are designated as offtrack or in need of intensive support. And we have no schools that have any

086federal identification this year. And then this just shows where the distinguished schools um are identified. You can see they're all over the region. So um that's exciting to me that uh we're sharing the the joy of having distinguished schools all over the region. Uh we have distinguished schools and that includes West Morland High School here in West Morland County. And on the next page, uh, we have the top five elementary schools by total points. And this is just for region three. So the state has done this region by region. And so you can see which schools had uh the top number of points. And then they did the same thing for the top five schools for mastery in reading, growth in reading, mastery in math, growth in math, mastery in science, and then chronic absenteeism

087where the goal is to have the smallest number possible. Um, you have the fewest students who are chronically absent. And then at the bottom there, you do see a West Morland school. Copel Elementary School is uh number two in region three for English learner progress. So we wanted to do a shout out to Copel Elementary School for being on the leaderboard. So kudos to Mrs. Cisneros and and others at Copel who support our uh English language learners. And then the middle school leaderboard. I do want to highlight Montros Middle um is not only on track, Montros Middle School is number four for the region. So Montros Middle landed in the top five school middle schools uh for region three and should be very proud of that distinction. And then uh the top five mastery for

088reading is listed. And if you slide over the top five school middle schools for growth, you see Montros uh middle school is number two in the region. Top five for mastery in math. Uh Montrust Middle School is number two for the region. And for growth in math, uh Montros Middle School is number one for region three. And then moving on down, we see the top five for mastery in science. The top seven, I don't know why seven. Maybe we tied. Maybe it's like our art our Christmas card art competition, but West Morland County is number seven uh for advanced coursework. And that's students taking the advanced course. We see chronic absenteeism and English learner progress. And then finally, we move on to the high school leaderboard. And you can see that uh West Morland High

089School is number four for the region, making it into the top five for high schools across the region. And we have the same top five for uh reading mastery, English learner progress, science mastery, math mastery, graduation rate, chronic absenteeism, six-year graduation rate, and it's encouraging to see many, many divisions are being recognized for something um on this leaderboard. And so if you scroll a little further, um, West Morland High School has a few more highlights to call out and that is we are number five in the region for 3E readiness overall. And you'll see we are also number two in the region for employment readiness and number two in the region for enlistment readiness. So, I think uh West Morland County Schools uh has a lot to be uh proud of. We know we have

090a lot of work to do. Uh and the work is never ending. U but it's nice uh Dr. Baker said some you use the word validated. It is nice when results come back. We know we have great students in West Morland County. We know we have great teachers and staff members and leaders in West Morland County. It is incredible to have the state data validate what we already know uh that great things are happening in West Morland County and West Morland County is a place to keep your eye on because uh West Morland County students are showing up and showing out. So, uh, it's nice to have results to validate. And that's all I have except to say congratulations again and thank you. >> Well, it took a long time to get to you. >>

091Indeed, it did, >> but I think it was worth waiting for. >> Say it's worth the wait. >> There's a lot of uh credit that goes around. uh almost hate to it's all of us. >> It's everybody. So, thank each one of you uh that has a role in this and that includes our parents. >> Yes. >> So, thank all of you so much. >> Okay. So, next we will move on to school improvement plans. our principles are going and I'm guessing uh well based on looking at the agenda uh is Copel going first? >> Yeah, it looks like Copel is going to go first. >> Good evening. I'm here to present about our school improvement goals for this upcoming school year. Um first I would like to start with our mission statement. Mission statement

092is um that we want to ensure our students are intellectually, socially and emotionally ready for the everchanging global society through authentic learning experiences in a positive and engaging environment. Um all of our goals and action steps that you'll see in this presentation are grounded in the division's uh strategic plan. Um so we look forward to seeing how our students continue to grow this school year. First up, we have our literacy goal. So, our smart goal statement is by the end of the 2526 school year, we will increase our readiness pass rate from a 60 26% to 70%. And our action steps on how we'll get there. Uh teachers will implement direct and explicit instruction during our structured literacy block. Actually step two is teachers will progress monitor students for growth according to their instructional indicators

093on the vows assessment which now every student uh K through five takes at the elementary level. Uh action step three instruction will be aligned to data from the progress monitoring and the growth assessment data that we get from the state. And then four, student reading plans will be followed. Identify students will receive tier 2 and or tier three instruction based on their needs. Um so again, our literacy goal and our corresponding action steps are aligned with the division strategic plan through curriculum alignment with the BLA and our uh HMH curriculum that we adopted last year. Implementation of routine progress monitoring. So by every two to three weeks, teachers are progress monitoring their students based on the instructional indicators from val screening and the assessments and the use of MTSS to meet the needs of all

094learners. Our next goal is for math. So by the end of the 2526 school year, we will increase our math as well pass rate from a 66 to a 70%. And to get there, we will implement direct and explicit instruction during a math block. Um, teachers will progress monitor students for growth according to their needs. That's used uh through uh formative and summitive assessments like your quizzes and also um we have exit tickets that all our teachers use that are provided from our Hampton curriculum. Actually, step three is instruction be aligned to data from classroom assessment and growth assessment data. again that growth assessment data come from the state for three, four and five. Um and then they also have those exit exit ticket data um formative and summitative assessment data. And then step four,

095we implement Zern K through five uh during the math block to provide explicit instruction in math. Uh Zern is a computer program that came I don't say it came about but we started using it with the all-in um action plan and so it gives uh direct and explicit instruction and feedback in the moment for students. So that in the moment feedback is really important to help guide their understanding of math concepts. So again these goals and action steps align with the division strategic plan. They incorporate best practices and are high yield instructional strategies. may heard me talk about explicit instruction um and that data that we use for assessments um the implementation of the MTSS with progress monitoring and our alignment to the standards by using the Hampton curriculum from math um we have monthly

096PLC meetings with our grade levels and that's where we go into the data and actually talk about where are our students where do they need to be and then how will we get there so we compile all the data from the vows um from the growth assessment from class assessments and we just have a deep dive discussion of the data. And our last uh goal is for attendance. So by the end of the 2526 school year, we would decrease the chronic absenteeism rate from a 15.74% to a 12%. Um so like Miss Ryster shared that is part of our um the framework. So we hope to get a little bit more points in that area um next year. So action steps we will have attendance meetings um according to division policy. So we start with

097our five day and then 10 day and so on. We also will recognize students for perfect attendance and less than five days miss for each quarter. So, we had a quarter one um a quarter one um um awards. That's a award ceremony where students got um the perfect attendance awards in lesson five. And we also um Mr. Hernandez had a vision and Mr. Tate made the vision possible. Um we have an awards board um kind of a little bit before the music room. So if you're going towards like the fifth grade hallway, it's that whole wall right there where we'll recognize students for not only attendance but also avonal and principal list and then some other awards that we give outly. Um so action step three uh again attendants will be incentivized through competition and

098tangible rewards. So, uh, grade levels for the month of November also earn extra recess time if they with the highest whatever grade level had the highest percentage got, um, extended recess. And then grades with the highest percentage will be recognized in the cohole connection parent newsletter as well as as well as um, so outside of Mr. Hernand's office, he has a list of the weekly attendance for the grade levels. So, everyone can see uh what grade had the highest attendance for that previous week. And it's daily too, so they can see what day and the previous week. Uh so again, these all align with the division strategic plan by identifying the students at risk through those attendance meetings. Um we incentivize the attendance through extra recess, which is uh free and the students like it,

099so it works well for everybody. And then through the attendance meetings, we foster strong communication relationships between the families and the schools. And sometimes even in those attendance meetings, we might be able to uh refer that family for services if that's a if something like that is a barrier to getting their child to school. >> Any questions or comments? >> Thank you very much. Thank you. Um, this is going to sound really familiar. Um, we have the same three goals and some of our action steps are the same, too. But so, Washington District's comprehensive school improvement plan in a snapshot. Um we have three goals. Um we want to improve reading scores, we want to improve math scores, and we want to improve attendance. So improving lots of things. Um but I said very similar

100to what you just heard. Um so the first goal, um and there's our smart goal statement. Um we want to all of our subgroups to have a minimum of 70% on the reading so um so some of our groups have quite a ways to go. Um if you look at students um and black students in third grade only scored 45% And so lots and lots of work to do there, but we want everyone across all the subgroups to score 70%. Because if you look at our scores now, it looks great with the average, but um we want to make sure we're reaching every student. So our action steps um again similar to analyzing um student data using the HMH assessments to monitor student progress. Um our teachers have always had common plan with the reading

101specialists, but we haven't also had a separate PLC time. So they meet with the reading specialist to plan one day during planning, but they also have every other week. They meet with the reading specialist for PLC's and that could be training on some strategies to use that could be looking at data. Um it kind of depends on where they are in the cycle. But um so we added that this year. And then we also have a designated time for intervention. So if you look at our master schedule, there's small group time um and then the whole group time. So making sure that we're very mindful that students need that small group instruction whether they're doing well, they're not doing so well across the board, they need that time. Um our second goal is math instruction.

102Um same sort of thing. If you look at our average across our grade levels, it looks pretty good, but if you look at all our subgroups, some of them aren't doing quite as well. Um our lowest are Hispanic students in fourth grade with only 64% pass rate. Um, so we really want to make sure everyone's learning and our goal is 75% across the subgroups. Our action sets, um, they look really familiar, um, similar to the reading ones. Um, they're just meeting with the math specialist this time instead of the reading specialist, and they alternate back and forth with those PLC's between reading and math. And recently, Miss Calhoun and I have been taking one of the meetings, too, just to pop in and check on things, see how things are going. We're there anyway, but

103like the meetings. Um, and then our third goal is also absenteeism. Um, we want to decrease it from 18% to 12%. And doing some of the same things as Copel, having those meetings. Miss Kalpy does a great job of meeting with um, parents and talking to parents and she has a great way of talking to them. Um, sometimes I didn't do so well those conversations and she does a great job with them. So, um, definitely contacting parents. And then we're also trying to incentivize um, students being there. Um we have the house system this year that we've talked about before and um we have on Wednesdays our attendance is always great because that's the day they wear their house colors um so we almost seem to wear house colors every day or something but um

104that helps and then teachers um Mr. O has provided some resources for um morning meetings um where there's it's kind of based on responsive classroom you're familiar where they have a greeting and they have a share time and they have an activity that they do and then some of the teachers have incorporated a writing prompt with it too like journal prompt so that they do some writing during the readings too. Um, and we're trying to be like you want to be here because we're doing these things and um, we'll see how those are goals and they all align um, just like Miss Angel your name. Jeez, just like Miss Angel is saying, it all aligns with our strategic plans. The first two are the math and reading goals um, and growing and improving um, and

105using um, researchbased instruction and engaging instruction and high yield strategies, all the all the good things. And then the attendance is definitely one of the school systems goals too. All >> align questions. >> Yes, I do have a question. Um I I'm really happy to see you, you know, focusing down on those subgroups and you know, how can we help them? But I was thinking, you know, we've got our heroes program as an example. You know, this kind of in my vision of of Heroes is, you know, sitting down, opening a book, and just reading to the kid, you know, and it seems like, you know, that especially, you know, getting that 45, you know, percent pass rate in reading up is um something I'm seeing that might be able to help with. I mean,

106are you able to integrate like with some of the heroes to say, "Hey, can we really focus on this, right, >> for for Billy?" So, we actually only have one hero. It's Mr. Fallon. I don't remember that. Um, and he's only been twice so far because we're just starting the program, but that's definitely part of the plan is to have like be very targeted and specific. Um, there are two students he's working with. >> Okay. >> Yeah. But you're right, that would be an excellent opportunity. And actually, Miss Calhoun started um called Manhood Mornings on is it Tuesday mornings? Tuesday mornings um for gentlemen from the community to come in. And that's more of a um like a respectful and leadership and building that way. But that might be another avenue that having those resources

107in the building to help. >> It's kind of a unintentional but maybe we need to get another PSA out there for hey heroes is a good program. >> Yeah. And it's like um in Staff County we used the college students a lot because they were there and besides just practical students just students who wanted to help and we're a little far for that but to try to Dr. Reass, I would like to put in a plug for the Heroes program. Uh, and and I know it's really to help students, but it is so beneficial to those that are a hero, if you will. It's an awesome experience, >> isn't it? >> It really is. And uh, actually, I can't wait to come. >> I'm so glad to hear that. Yeah. >> But but I mean

108it that's I think that's the way it is for most people. >> So the opportunity is there. So we just need more volunteers. >> Yes. Totally. People are busy. I mean understand lots going on. You're right. More volunteers. >> I can't wait to come to see those days children. Yep. I'll be there Thursday afternoon. Yeah. >> Anything else? Anyone? >> Hey. Thank you so much. Hello. >> Hello. So at Montrest Middle School, everything we do is aligned to four core values around so as being supportive, O on task, A accountable, and R, respectful, which really comes from the vision and mission from our division, which also aligns with goal two of the strategic plan that states that u we want to have a safe, supportive, and inclusive learn environment for all of our students and

109our teachers and our families. So that's what everything is going to guide what we're going to talk about tonight. So when we first had to get this ready was before the results came out. So we had to base it on the federal detail report which really is just looking at academic performance. So based on the federal detail report, by May of 2026, we want to increase our reading pass rate for all students from 77.19% to 81% and the science from the 64 to 70, which aligns with the same percentage that they also use. And to do that, um, I thought it would be important to point some of these things out. For the past three years, we've been above the pass rate of the state for reading, which is something that we're proud about. And

110what has helped us do that? We um three years ago we started doing small group instruction. So a block is 91 minutes. So 60 minutes is whole group, 30 minutes is small group which is differentiated and targeted to what they need. Um and we also added a reading pair professional. So she can also pull small groups since we just have one reading specialist. And then u we have our K12 tutors during Eagle Time this school year. they really are focusing on those foundational reading skills that students are lacking that's more aligned with the science and reading. And then we have Lexia, which has three components, word study, grammar, and comprehension. And then when it's time for SOS, I think another thing that's helped us is having the 15-day so plan, which we really look at

111where their weaknesses are and we really target them. Um, and our science for dip this year compared to the year before. I think some of the things well not I but as a team that we had the English teacher who resigned which did impact reading instruction. The eighth grade science so was really rich with vocabulary and then last year we changed from year round to um semester courses. We I'm sorry we changed from semester to year round. So what we're going to do moving forward is keep on getting at the reading skills um and we added more tutors for the foundational reading skills. And then this year we have and reading English class which we didn't have the year before and that's really helped. And then we didn't have vowels last year. So just like

112the elementary schools we decided instead of just doing students with reading plans we um did the vowels on every student in our school just to see where their weaknesses are. Again it gave us another data point. And then for science we switched back to semester. And then what what we're changing is um every day we're spiraling back because the eighth grade science is sixth, seventh and eighth grade together and it's really rich in vocabulary. So the next one we also um focused on our gap groups and based on the federal detail report um we're going to increase the reading pass rate of students with disabilities from the 52 to 64 and that's just again for students with disabilities and then um our L students English language learners and the numbers that are there. So again

113we're going to utilize that vowels data. We also added um an L teacher just for one grade level. So, Miss Halchin, who taught Spanish, um she is helping with seventh grade and she does small group instruction and really focusing on those four domains um to help them reading, writing, speaking, and listening. And then we also added a special education teacher in the eighth grade, which will help. And then we're going to continue with those targeted small groups and then the 15-day so plan. And then for our um next gap group increase the math pass rate again for students with disabilities and the numbers are there. So the other thing that we added during Eagle time is we had the foundational reading skills with K12, but some students also will get foundational skills for math. Really

114building their number sense, the areas that they're lacking to help lay that foundation. And again, we sixth grade really use, but now we're really focusing across all grade levels. We're fortunate to have Mr. Brown who is just the guru who really develops our curriculum and we have so workbooks across grade levels and our pods for problems of the day that spiral back every day and all the students are used to it and again we have a 15-day so plan that's in math and then readiness is another component. So we're trying to decrease that absentee rate from the 16.62 to less than 10%. Um and those were the points that we had before. So chronic absenteeism 8.41. So advanced coursework. Um it's I put this here because on 2324 23 out of 115 students in 8th

115grade were enrolled. And then 24 25 is 26. So in order to get the full 10 points everybody has to pass. It's not just that you take it, you have to pass. So in the last two years and we'll find out this year every student that's been enrolled has passed their so and so our attendance some of the things that we're going to do that when um students are have a chronic absenteeism problem then we are connecting with a sore contract which aligns with our core values and the attendance plans and the PBIS events are our positive behaviors intervention and supports students can earn equal bucks um for various reasons throughout the day. And then every quarter we have an event on January the 6 when we come back we're going to have a pep

116rally and have different events scheduled. And we are going to start mentoring to help with the attendance. Um and we hope to talk to Dr. Temple to do we already offered it last year but maybe we can partner together to see what we can do just to match those kids up to give them a reason to want to come to school if there's someone there that wants to meet with them. So, I just wanted to just close by saying um that I'm proud that I was able to share with you how our school continues to be a high performing academic environment where students are challenged, supported, and successful. And I think the success that you saw earlier with the different um ranks with region three is a result of dedicated teachers who hold high expectations,

117students who rise to meet the expectations, and the families who partner with us. And all of that being said, again goes back to our strategic plan for the division of goal four and five, family engagement and efficient and effective um systems. And we're really proud of the growth that we see across grade levels. Um so we will continue to focus on achievement and continuous improvement. So it's really important that we just keep getting better at getting better and we thank you for your continued support. >> Thank you. Questions, comments from anyone? >> Thank you. >> Excellent presentation. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> All right. 653 and I'm done. >> So, here's here's ours. Um when we looked at our groups, the kind of things that kind of spoke to us is the

118academic growth, senior success and post-secary readiness and our graduation rates. Um so our first goal, our first target is a 10% increase or an 80% pass rate on all SWS in all subgroups. This year we're focusing on all subgroups. Now I could write the data for each and every single one of the pages. Um so I put on the right hand side you can see on the 23 24 just give an example from last year two years ago to last year we made a 19% point gain that was our biggest point gain in females in reading English um we're going to achieve this kind of what we did last year we're keep it the same um but we're going to you know continue it's data driven instruction we look at the data look at all

119data points at all points and then we try to we send it out to our leads and we send it talk to the teachers. We tell them the strength and weaknesses, how to improve. Um, also part of that, which we're getting back to, which I'm really excited about, is project based learning, getting those project based learning projects back into it. Um, our dedicated academic support, which we have our flex periods, which we do um, you know, sometimes we do tutoring, sometimes we do remediation and and sometimes we we just do clubs. Um, and then curriculum alignment. You know, we always go back to looking at the curriculum. How can we support and make it better? Um, just to give you kind of an example about the growth that we had last year, WH increased the

120pass rate in math, reading, and science in all subgroups with the exception of one, which was science mail that stayed at 74%. And the average growth per subgroup was 5.44%. So, we we dramatically showed improvement across the board. And we're going to want to continue to shoot that improvement by continuing doing the same stuff. um getting on board, having everyone getting on board. Um so once again, our math focus is focused on those foundation skills, problem solving strategies, and real world applications. And then you can see below the instructional approaches that we use um explicit instruction, teacher modeling, ongoing support and reflection. Our reading focus is comprehension, vocabulary development, critical thinking, and active engagement. And then you can see the instructional approach there. looking at science, it's active learning, scientific methods and critical thinking. Big

121one is the active learning having more additional hands-on experience and explor uh explore. And then you can see uh the instructional approach for those um once again you know it's about supporting the academic growth. It's the analyzing and sharing the data. It's about the PBLS. supporting flex and realign the curriculum and pacing guides. So, we're going to be using Hampton to kind of look through that, checking our our curriculum guides and using Hampton to kind of reinforce those goals. Goal two, u senior success for postsecary readiness. We are going to um part of our goal was 95% of our students were a CTE credential and complete the ASMAP test. Uh we're going to try to show schoolwide a 20% increase in dual enrollment participation. We're going to reduce chronic acetism by 5% and we're going

122to have that focus on attendance, enrollment, employment and enlistment. Uh attendance and enrollment focus. You know, the biggest thing is improve parent communication, engagement, tell them what's going on, sending out, you know, messages, you know, bombing the parents with information. um early intervention um for students with acade attendance concerns, you know, that continue uh communication with parents and then kind of get students involved and increase participation in our AP dual enrollment governor school gear and jobs for Virginia. So, it's it's kind of trying telling students what these programs are about, showing them what's about, getting them excited about the programs. um career in technical CTE success. Um if you saw on our data, you saw how well the three E worked that they did fantastic. That that was a huge improvement. So, you know, we're

123going to continue that. We're going to ensure looking at the data, looking at CTE completions, credentials, and getting them tutored and getting them tested and making sure that they're on track. We're going to look at with our guidance workplace readiness career skills also with our CTE department you know and can I continue with that partnership with nor tech center uh we have a lot of students who go there and a lot of our students love the tech center and we got to try to give try to push because you know we all know college is not for everyone but we want to make sure those kids are successful at wherever they want to go. Um, and then we just got to make sure we track what their technical certifications are. Once again, our military and

124career readiness. Just kind of kind of post it out there. Explore the different options that you have. Um, provide ASVAB testing and career insights and um, making sure that students are academically or career prepared for support. Just kind of support them, give them more information about what these jobs are about. Um, we've always, you know, through JBG, we've had presentations. We had, you know, adults come in and tell them about what kind of jobs and what kind of things, entry level positions, how getting student prepared for when they do get out, having them create their own resumes, having them talk and do I can't tell you how many times I've talked with students, you know, hey, what kind of job you looking for? And then kind of quiz them. You know, we're trying to get

125these students ready beyond high school. Um, our goal three is increase the graduation rate. Um, right now our four-year graduation rate, we're going to try to get it above 92%. And, you know, part of that is early intervention, monitoring the students progress and making sure that we provide any and all academic and career support. In the end, you know, together toward success, it takes all of us. Um, that's how we made such such an improvement. You know, it's got that top floor overall. Um, it's it's all of us, you know, it's just it's the school boards, the superintendent, Mr. directors, it's the teachers, it's it's everyone. It's the custodians in the building. It's everyone who's involved with any student that we have in the building. We're all committed. You know, everyone wants to be positive.

126everyone. It makes a student day when someone they don't know say, "Hey, how are you doing?" I'm always asking for everyone come to our building, check us out, you know, make that relationship. So, once again, together towards success. That's what that's what we're about. That's all. You guys have any questions? >> I guess I Well, I'll cover mine in Ches Bay Governor school report. >> That's good. Anything else? Well, we appreciate all the effort from everyone and uh as you've already said, everyone's involved. So, so we appreciate that and the focus uh obviously has to be on student achievement >> and that's what you've addressed. So, thank you very much for your comprehensive plan. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> I have a quick >> Sure. Please. Please, >> I just want

127to say to each of you all, um, I don't know that we get the chance and the opportunity to really say that tonight. We have both our principles and assistant principles here tonight and and others. Okay. So, I just want to say from the bottom of my heart, these results are yours and the superintendent, the school board. We we're willing to do whatever we can to support you. This is you. And I'm so proud of the people that we have working and leading each of our schools. And I just felt like I needed to say that. I want to thank you guys. And I know each of you have programs in your schools where you need help or you need heroes. And so, um, if you need us, I mean, Mr. balance seems to be

128wherever, you know, but the rest of us are willing to help. So, if you know of somewhere an area that you feel like, hey, could you come help me? It could be just one day a week. It could be every day or whatever. Um, let us know where your needs are and that way we can help you wherever you need us. Just saying. >> Okay. >> Thank you for your comment. >> Sure. and and uh Miss Man's absolutely correct. You're the ones in school every day, >> all day long. So, you're the ones that make it happen >> and passing it down to your teachers as well, right? Yes. Which is huge. >> Absolutely. And uh and hopefully we do what we can to provide support, >> put you in there. Anyone else would like

129to make any comments? Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. >> Okay. Next, uh the Virginia School Board uh Association has a convention every year uh in November in Williamsburg and I would like to mention a few highlights from that as well as give board members an opportunity to uh make any comments. But uh we've already acknowledged the fact that the high school student video contest received honorary mention at the uh convention in front of uh lots of people probably 800 or so maybe eight or 900 quite a few people attend that but also in addition to that uh Ms. minor participated in a governance panel. Uh some of us got to attend that and did an outstanding job and we thank you for your participation and and doing that and it was it was

130really an awesome panel discussion. So thank you for doing that. Uh and also uh Dr. Wallace, Mr. Lightfoot >> uh actually uh conducted jointly a breakout session on digital literacy >> and uh that was also outstanding and I think the expectation is that that will be repeated at some other VSBA event maybe to be determined. >> Yeah. Like a like a lunch and learn >> like a lunch and learn something like that. So that was very good. Uh these two ladies beside me participated uh in the legislative uh delegate assembly. >> I proved I could count >> and you proved you could count and you did quite well. Uh and Miss Richard was actually uh uh this delegate from behalf of the school board to vote on on legislation and uh all of our school

131board members at some point uh have participated in the GSBA in various ways, but we just had exceptional uh participation I think this time around. And if I remember this uh correctly, uh our governance team was one of only five school divisions that got recognized for reertification as a master board. And uh I know some school divisions aren't in the VSBA, but I think it's like 132 school divisions in the state, something like that. So, so this governance team was uh one of five that got recognized and it's not just automatic. You have to really earn it. So, uh thank each of you for you know your willingness to continue to participate in professional development. And I've already mentioned that uh Miss Richards served as our delegate to the uh delegate assembly at the VSBA.

132And on behalf of the uh our governance team, I'd like to present this plaque to you. >> Thank you. Would any board member like to make any comments >> at all, please? >> I I have two things that I want to mention. Um the first is that um Mr. Lightoot and Dr. Wallace's presentation was very lightly attended. Unfortunately, it fit in the lunch and learn category, which people like to rather just have lunch than learn at the same time. Um, so we we have talked to um the SBA leadership already about doing a webinar or something for them to present again because um what they presented was um a wealth of knowledge that needs to be shared. Um so we'll leave that at that. Another thing is that I hope that um Miss Rice has

133possibly handed out. If not, she will. Um we have a new VSBA president for the year and her theme is rooted in education and they have little pins that we were all given and so we were stealing from other tables to make sure that we could offer those up to our principles and assistant principles and more. So, >> Wednesday. >> But there you go. >> Yes. Yeah. >> That's all. >> Okay. Anything else? >> I just like to say that attending the conference is very educational. Um, every year I learned so much and to be able to fellowship with public schools. One thing that I really notice when I go is that public schools have so much support and persons are very passionate about public schools. And to hear some of the stories from the

134speakers about where they were and where they are now and how public education helped them, I think it's just huge. I know we hear a lot of on the news, but there's a lot of support for public education. So, we just can never give up hope. And congratulations again on getting all the schools um credited. Um you're doing great things and just keep up the great work. Anyone else like to make any comments? I learn something every year I go. Uh and uh I know I will as long as I get to go. So it is a very educational event that the only challenge is there are so many breakage sessions >> uh that we want to attend and we have to make some tough choices sometimes. Uh we we do try to split up

135a little bit and and share information, but even with that uh you can't get everything that you want, but Miss Rice, would you like to share anything? >> No. >> Okay. All right. So, thank each of you. Anything else? >> Okay. All right. Um next, uh Miss Mayan, do you have anything to report from that technical center? I was hoping to be able to pull up the actual numbers, but they gave us um preliminary numbers of the number of students from each of the school districts who are already enrolled for next year in at the tech center. We are like leading the pack at already. 43 children, students signed up at the tech center compared to eight, five, and two at the other schools. We have 43 students. Um, and so I was so tickled.

136That means we're getting the message out. We're getting them We're getting them ready. We're doing exactly what we said we were going to do and what we're saying in our messages and and in our uh strategic plan. So, not really much going on this right now that they had special to tell us. But yeah, it was it was a good night to get that information. So, keep up the good work. He could end up taking over the Texan. >> Thank you, Mrs. Sure. Appreciate that. Uh Dr. Wallace, do you have anything to report on from the Chesapeake Bay Governor School? >> Uh yeah, just real quickly, um the importance of, you know, getting students. Okay, we've got slots available. Um as Mr. Bathgate already, you know, talked about that's that's an important um way of

137of getting getting students, you know, exposure to and opportunities for some of those advanced classes. But um here I will lean to middle school as well. Okay, that's something that has to be cultivated early on. let you know this those you know seventh and eighth graders need to know that a this is an opportunity they can start taking some of the high school classes. Um so if we can just you know get the get the word out there and obviously you know it's you've only got the freshman really to to influence you know to to sign up. So um so yeah it's really a team effort there. So, let me just encourage you to try to get more kids involved. >> Okay. Anything else, Dr. Ross? >> That's it. >> Okay. Thank you very much.

138>> Okay. Uh, Miss Rice, upcoming events. >> Yes, sir. There are uh a number of upcoming events. The most uh the one that's soonest is January 26 and 27 is the VSBA capital conference. I believe four of us are already registered for that. and uh Miss Sumpter has made the hotel reservations as well. So, we are all set. We'll talk about travel when we get closer. Uh February 25th is our next communication forum meeting, our third and final one for the year. Um and then March 3rd is just a look ahead for the regional spring network forum. We're going to be in King William this year for that. The VSBA hot topic conference is coming up March 19. law conference June 5th and conference on education July 16 with a new location this year. This

139year the um conference on education has moved to Virginia Beach. Um the VSBA fiscal governance cohort was mentioned as part of the board goals. It's something we've talked about a little bit. Um VSBA is holding a slot for West Morland's uh cohort in case you all decide you would definitely like to attend. But we do need a definite decision so that we can let VSBA know uh for certain uh that we are in or out with this year's fiscal cohort. So the dates are there. Um this is an in-person training. We would go to Charlottesville. It they indicated we would wrap up around 1:30 2:00 each of the four days. And I think we start somewhere around 9. Um Jeff Smith and Michael Thornton will continue to be th the two instructors. Um both former

140superintendent um both very active and well known to everyone on on the board. Um so they will be the facilitators of the fiscal cohort. U it would include board members. It would also include our director of HR, our directors of instruction and our director of finance. um we would all be going together as part of the cohort should we decide to participate. >> And this the first uh session is in March >> March 3rd. >> So we really we really need to decide pretty quickly. >> Uh and this is something that's uh by invitation. >> Yes. So, uh, we were invited last year, but we knew we couldn't fit it in and hopefully we would be able to fit it in. Uh, do you want to hear from board members about interest at least? >>

141Yes. So, we can uh let the SBA know. The the good thing is there's no overnight uh it would be travel up, >> participate, and travel back. We would do that four times, >> right? And I've already expressed interest and I think you are interested. >> I'm interested. >> Okay. Miss Mayan is interested. >> I am as well. >> I just have to look at calendars, but I guess I'm interested. >> Is that something that you could do quickly? I mean, maybe you don't have to tonight, but could you do that quickly so we at least can, you know, let them know that we're going to do it. We may not have exact numbers, but we're going to do it. >> Well, it's my understanding that we don't all have to be present. >> That

142is correct. >> Master portrait. >> That is correct. It would be nice if we are, but we don't all have to be. That's correct. So, if each of you and you've already given an answer, but if each each board member and I'll let you take care of the the rest of the individuals that are invited, but for board members, if you could please let Miss Rice know as soon as possible so we can give a decision. And was there anything else, Miss Rice? Now, I I did attach um in board docs, you'll see something that's a little more of a description of the program and it also has the dates so you can >> you can peruse and see if this is the year. >> Yeah. And there there is there will be board governance

143in it. But one of one of the uh things that all of you know that's happened to some school divisions uh because of poor my understanding at least is because of poor financial management there have been some issues raised and I think I think this would put our board in a position of making it clear to everyone that we are good financial stewards. I mean, I we know we are, but I think it would uh let everyone know that we are. I don't know, Miss Rice, I don't know how you might feel about what I just said, but uh that's kind of my take on it. Anyway, I know it's more than financial management, but >> and we may want to look because it does say that additional members of the school board can >>

144correct >> participate, but there's an additional $1,500, >> right? So, we may want to look at all that as well. >> Yeah. >> And we know it's expensive, but it is a one time. >> It's a one time shot one time. >> Do it. Let's do it. >> So, if we could do I just think it would be awesome for all of us to do it. >> Absolutely. >> So, >> there's another engagement on March the 3. >> Yeah, we would hit that on the way back. >> Yeah, I did check on that's how we know we're done at 1:32 o'clock. Uh because we we saw the conflict with the region three forum. >> Yep. >> So we'll be in Charlottesville and we'll just swoop into King William on our way back and do the

145regional forum and make it a long day. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Anyway, given that um Miss Mayan, do you have any additional comments this evening? >> No, I've already spoken. >> Thank you, Miss Bonner. Um the only thing that I would say is that um um kudos to our um middle school music department. I would like to highlight that um as much as we believe that our um high school is to the size that we need the band concert will tell you otherwise as there was standing room only. So, I don't know what they're going to do come May when all three grades are supposed to be presenting. >> Um because it was only seventh and eighth grade and again there was standing room only. >> Um so, we'll see what happens. But um just

146the the the teachers um that work in the music department and how much the kids love it and want to be a part of it. They cling to it. My daughter does not want to leave eighth grade because of it. Um but that's okay. Anyway, >> yeah. And to have 60 I think it's 62% of sixth graders that are in the band, I think that's >> it. Keeps increasing. >> Yeah. >> So, I mean, that's unheard of. It's awesome. >> Can I have my nickel back? >> Excuse me. >> Can I have my nickel? >> Of course. >> I forgot. Um, likewise. Yes. Because I got to go to the high school band and just unbelievable. Excellent. excellent presentation. But I also went to our um Eagle Invitational, which was the drone competition. >> That

147was so cool. So cool to watch those kids get so excited about driving those drones. And I mean, they had specific tasks they had to complete. And I we were supposed to have four um schools presenting two because that was a night that we might have snow. Two of the schools or had just had some of the schools had had snow the day before. So like Lynchburg did not show up and Gloucester did not show up but the one from Newport News did come and they had been the top school to win before. I don't agree that they won this time, but that's another whole story. The scoring was a little jaded, I think. Um because I was so proud of our parents. I and they are the only ones that completed all the tasks,

148our students. Um but anyway, just once again, >> but the the other impressive thing about that is that this is the first year. >> Oh, absolutely. This is the first year for us. >> And so I think they were pretty impressive. >> Oh, yes. given that. So, >> so anyway, >> so it's nice to have some new competition, if you will. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Uh, Dr. Wallace to add. >> So, Miss Richards, did you have anything else? >> Yeah. >> M. Rice, >> Copel's fine arts night is tomorrow at 5:30 and then the spelling bee is coming up January >> January 14th. >> Thank you. January 14th at >> the high school at 5:30. >> Thank you. >> And then there's a supervisor meeting, correct? Tomorrow. That's still at 4. >> Yeah, they have

149a work session tomorrow. >> They have a work session. So anyway, >> uh thank thanks for the gifts. We all always appreciate gifts. >> Yes, absolutely. >> So, thank you very much. Okay. Our next uh meeting uh Monday, Monday, January the 12th, we have a school board work session, budget work session at 400 pm, uh close session at 5:00 p. p.m. and open session at 6 pm. Do I hear a motion to adjurnn? >> So move, Rebecca. >> Okay. Is there a second? >> Second. Oh, second. Rose. >> Okay. All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. I. We are jerk.