001e like to call our meeting to order is there a motion for the board to reconvene into Open Session rary May is there second second okay all in favor please signify by saying I I okay we now an open session good evening everyone uh we thank those of you who are here in person and also we thank those of you who are joining us online uh first I would like to start out by acknowledging our first student representative to the school board Miss Sydney Bedford so it's so nice to have you here this evening and we look forward to you being a part of that team so thank you we have one School Board member Dr Daniel Wallace who is unable to be with us this evening uh because he is on travel for his
002job I think he might actually be out on a ship right now so he's not going to be able to uh participate uh during our meeting I would like for each School 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 School Board member to verbally indicate their presence when I call that name Miss Rosemary Mayan present Miss Rebecca monor present Miss Amy Richards present and I am Ralph Fen is there a motion to verify that our Clos session was conducted in accordance with the code of Virginia Section 2.237837 session were discussed so MO is that second am rich second all right Miss Mayan how do you vote I miss Richards I miss monor I the chair votes I and
003our close session has been verified at this time if there are no objections I would like to ask Miss Amy Richards to lead us in prayer Rich dear heavenly father we come to you this evening to say thank you Lord dear Lord we pray that you will continue to be with us Lord God we ask for your wisdom Lord God as we go about business for the school system Lord God our students teachers staff the school board central office Lord God that we will always do what's right Lord God and do it in decency and in order dear Lord we pray that you would just watch over this world Lord God and lead us Lord God in what needs to be done in Jesus name we pray amen amen thank you Miss Richards at this
004time 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 America and the repic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all is there a volunteer to read our statement of vision and our statement of mission I'll read it thank you um our vision is to provide an exemplary learning environment that empowers all students to find their voices and make meaningful contributions to the world our mission working together we provide all students authentic learning experiences Knowledge and Skills to become successful Global Citizens thank you m monor do we have any suggest Ed changes or additions to our agenda okay our agenda is approved by unanimous consent next item that we have is student and staff
005attendance recognition for January Miss rice thank you I'm going to start with our student attendance at copal elementary school for the month of January the average daily attendance percentage was 94 4.49% at Washington District elementary 94.1% mantr middle school 94. 48% West Morland High School 92. 28% so our winner with 94.4 n% winning by 100th of a point uh we have copal Elementary School congratulations okay and now for staff attendance copal Elementary School 96.1 3% Washington District 89.2 two% montros middle 91.1 15% West Morland High School 94.1 14% so copal also [Applause] wins it's a clean sweep this month Miss Angel congratulations to copal okay next we uh have character trait honores Mr mcconville we will have our amazing principles come up and they're going to talk about character for courage this [Laughter] month winers
006go first but we're winners that's right uh good evening my name is Will hernanz principal at Washington District elementary school and for the month of January which is courage we have a first grade student from Miss Chris class um and the teacher statement is Joshua is a great student who always comes to school prepared and ready to learn in the beginning of school he struggle with speaking out loud in front of the class or participating in the classroom discussions as the year he developed a sense of confidence in himself and has been thriving ever since through courage he has succeeded in everything he does is admiring to watch him reach his goals and our student of the month for Washington District is Josh rber mom and dad and brother everybody else come on up the
007whole family lot of us thank [Applause] you good evening I'm Holly Angel principal of c and and I have the honor of congratulating Rona wall the fifth grade student on being selected as copal student of the month for January um Ronan is in Miss Carrie Reynolds class and Miss K Reynolds said that courage can be defined as doing something despite fear being the new kid at school can be challenging and especially frightening when many of your classmates have known each other since prek or kindergarten Ronin however has Blended in seamlessly with his new peers after moving here from Pennsylvania to start a new school year he quickly made friends and was even selected to be a safety patrol officer Ronan shows courage in his interactions with others if he's wrong he acknowledges it and quickly
008speaking up to write any wrong that takes an immense amount of Courage congratulations Ronan the fifth grade team is proud to nominate you as our student of the month for courage CH good job thank you [Applause] so hi I'm Janet G the principal at montos middle school and our um recipient tonight is eleno Nicholas hien elen bodies true courage it isn't about physical Feats or strength but about a quiet persistent Journey Elin is beginning to learn the English language and he tackles it with great courage he confronts his challenge each day with a smile and his face and a never give up attitude as his teacher Miss Beamer says she takes great pride The Bravery and determination he demonstrates on a daily basis 's courage is contagious inspiring us all to step outside of our
009comfort zone keep going keep learning elen we are proud of you but I had my son can speak Spanish but I cannot elen but I wanted your parents to hear it in Spanish are you ready I hope that we have enough Val [Music] [Applause] congratulations you thank [Applause] you good evening my name is Michael bath gate of the principal at West High our student month for January goes out to katrick grade 12 nominated by Mr Leo Avon is a respectful and dedicated young man who consistently engages in my class and shows a strong desire to learn he demonstrates Courage by asking insightful questions that enhances his understanding even when others are hesitant Avante Embraces mistakes as learning opportunities using them to grow he challenges himself by participating in discussions sharing his ideas and approaching difficult
010concepts with determination his ability to step out of the comfort zone and perseverance in facing academic changes makes him a truly inspired and courageous student way to go I don't think here okay Miss Gan a young writer you be recognized take a lot of courage to come here and do this so I appre for Amir Tate so this is the book where we have a famous person amongst us Amir Tate and it's through Young Writers Publications and their aim is to inspire the Next Generation and sell them a love of creative writing this is the book called trapped and we're famous Because of You Amir and now amir's going to read to you what she wrote you want to read from the book there all of a sudden I saw a tall figure walking towards
011me as the figure was walking it was saying a soft L like the kind you would sing to a baby then it stopped and said you're not going anywhere then slam the door I heard it locked I tried to escape but I couldn't I looked for something to cut the rope then I found a piece of glass I cut the rope and started going up the as I reached the top I heard a gunshot boom I woke up and it was all it was all a nightmare I feel like this book Amir has a copy at home with this will go in our library so it only seems fitting that you should sign it for usol am here tell them what you told me today this isn't your first first book you've been publishing that's
012right M fantastic congratulations that's standed good for her good for her yeah say so okay next we have uh Black History Month presentations from our principles uh it looks like any of them they're all coming up herandez oh you want to go let go I just to know who's first so I know which one to open that's all I want to [Music] know I'm get right there who's first okay I was looking at that I'm thinking that's a wrong screen the clicker should be on the podium I tried um so Wasington district elementary school Black History Month uh we did a couple things throughout um our building um so we have something in the prek Kaa which is an area where it's a common area in WD where uh some rooms are there like a
013little hallway so that's what AA is and we have some I just learned that this year so what a we have something in main hall and then we have some other things are going on at school so this is what our prek um uh students and teachers put on there I have I have decided to stick with love hate is too great of a burden to bear Dr Martin Luther King Jr we love black history month so those are from our little little ones at um WD so that's in their hallway so they see that and that's what they talk about so that is great uh they have some so took a picture it's a nice artwork uh had nothing to do with it so and this right here is in the main hall when
014you come on in uh it's a u a building board and it has some um again talks about the black history inspiring the future um and the pass and coming together uh with all hands and we had hands uh for our theme at the uh Elementary School on the window so we continue with the hands right there with the colors of black history so uh I have another picture to add to that afterwards so what we have down the hallway we have these um posters up of these famous um uh black Hiser um people throughout history that the kids can guess we give them a little clue and you look at the bottom there's a little question mark So if they don't know who that person is they can flip it up they can see
015who it is so a lot of traffic goes down that main hallway so sometimes they're waiting to go to lunch waiting to go to bathroom so that's a great place where they're going to sit and I'll actually stand and read on that throughout the the month if if they were really really smart if they look on the opposite side of the hallway some of those pictures already up there with their names and what they did so hopefully they didn't realize that on the other side of the hallway the answer um they might have but we have some right there with uh Steph Curry who's the one in the middle right there with 100 points anyone El Will Chamber Will Chamberlain next person one of the most important writers and thinkers of Harlem Renaissance back in
016the 1920s I come back then we have uh I was the first African-American women to go in space the space shuttle in Denver you say that Dr Jenners all right so we have 21 of those throughout and the students going there and they uh something know because little ones they know Steph Curry because he's the most prominent one they see right there Martin Luther King um what we have here is also some more uh name and this is a some more we have right here uh that the kids are looking at and U it's good that they don't forget and still remember who these people are even though they don't see them every day um and then also we have 28 days in February so we have on this date if it says February 24th
0171990 something happened on a DAT so we have students who come into my office and do announcements they say their name what class is the fifth grader and they will read their information for that date and they say on this date February 5th 1990 columb University gradua and Harvard University law student Barack Obama became the first African-American name president of the Harvard Law review so we give him a little tiet uh for every day and we go through there for the whole month of February and students read it and our fifth graders read it to so they here so that's what we doing this is what it looks like one of our students right now reading her uh script um sometimes they're shy I have to get the phone a little closer to their to
018their mouth but um they did a pretty good job doing that and then while I said went back here we have books of some of our famous uh black history moments they on there so if kids want to get a book uh this is some of the books we have in our library and with that that's what we do [Applause] thisth we cated Black History Month by having students in fourth and fifth grade read black three month facts on the morning announcement so um this is one fact we had so it kind of talked about um well did talk about clette C who was before Rosa Parks but all our kids know who Rosa Parks is um but they might not know Pak Calvin um who was arrested n months prior to parks for also
019refusing to give up her uh here's just another one we talked about HBCU one morning and other topics included the divine nine black fre letter organizations the tus Airman Black Wall Street and Oklahoma and Jun so at the end of January our read specialist also sent out a link to the read alloud of the ABCs of black history by Rio Cortez and Lauren simmer and this was also posted on our Facebook page each class was given a letter of the alphabet and used the letter to express what black history means as a class they chose a word that begins with their letter and use a word in a sentence that applies to Black History so here are some um we have F Fight For Freedom African-Americans were Brave when they fought for freedom to be
020treated equally and Q quilt for the Underground Railroad slaves that escaped slavery and travel the Underground Railroad would look for quilts hanging on houses along the way these quilts had code messages on them and pictures these messages would say they could stay there and get food or telling to keep moving because it was UN safe so we read the fact of the day in our alphabet of the day and some of the days says we missed had multiple facts and multiple letters but here's um some of our fifth graders reading their facts on the morning announcements and then like I said some days we had multiple facts so that is what we did [Applause] back so black fishy month at mon middle school so this quote from Amanda Gorman SE fitting because we really try
021to embody that it doesn't have to be a month to recognize that black history is important it should be every day so we said the new John blooms as we free it for there's always light if only we're brave enough to see it if only we're brave enough to be it so I think during this month some of our kids really showed how to be brave so each grade level did something different and our sixth grade English classes they were assigned um someone uh famous African-American from history they had to do research and then we made a quilt symbolizing how we all come together and we can be one and seventh grade they also researched um famous African-Americans from history and they made book booklets that say who am I and then in eighth grade
022the students were asked to rewrite a poem that was written by an African-American used in today's words so the poem was called The Creation it was written by James wden Johnson there's his life 1871 to 1938 and he was a national organiz organizer for the NAACP and an author of poetry and non-fiction so onto is an eighth grade and we gave her this poem and she had to rewrite it in today's language so can you play that and she did um not want to come here in public and speak but she said she would do it like this so I'm thankful for that it should have a video with it it shows the words God around as lonely as can be decided to bring life with none other than his everywhere God looked was dark
023when God smiled in the abyss and he balanced the night sky with his light he took his light and created the sun then he took the leftovers and erupt into the moon stars God walked weing his cre every St he took part the ground him God paused for a moment taking his stand as he took another step closer towards the edge and SP out the sun se flashed and and he watch theen before as ading Hiser shoulder he made fish and Beast and all types of creatures for them to then God P looking around at all even the light himself shap was he really among in a world of living that did not understand him or more lively than he be God a man there a great God who from the sky finally happy sitting
024down scoping like him and with the body [Applause] Inc job and that's what we did for black history thank you thank you [Applause] all right uh for Black History Month whs is dedicated to honoring and celebrating Rich culture Heritage achievement contribution to Black and indidual throughout history so we started off by whs and jbg started Black History Month by inviting Ralph Samson to speak with our students who is Ralph Samson Ralph Samson is native Harrisburg uh Harrison bird Virginia played basketball at the University of Virginia before being selected first open all pick in 1983 NBA draft by the Houston Rockets he wanted to have a 12 12 season career in professional basketball was later inducted into the name Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame um we have a little video of him presenting to our students
025this is awesome we'll post just keep going I'm sorry about that but it it's about five minute video of him presenting to our students um kind of talking about talk about himself the struggles that he's went through and the advice that he's given to our students they really enjoyed him so what we did for presentations is first we had him present to to some classes and then we had him kind of kind of present to some small group of students some students who are student athletes some students who who really need to hear his wordss um a lot of the students involved in him and his to talk and then he did another presentation afterwards to talk to another two grades um but he got the kids motivated he kind of called them up some
026things that was really impressive he kind of called them up and says what what is your plan I want to hear what your what you plan to come graduate and he would call kids just come on of what is your plan and he would call them out and the kids like uh sh like really like shocked at first and then they started talking and they started engaging and he's like how you going to reach that plan you better go find that guidance kind you go there go find that administrator you go find that teacher to reach your goals and he was very motivating for our students uh it was something just it was fantastic to watch him listen to him speak um his his son Ralph stampson III um hopefully he going be coming back
027and making those relationships with our students calling the same students down working with those students um but it was it was really it was it was really awesome we also did a presentation we had him go to our media room and we had one of our students actually do like a little presentation with him in our green room um which which is pretty nice as well me the fingers crossed right so my attitude deter my altitude and they have a great attitude and I just know they are right the right CH so my attitude their attitud I come to school I do my math I want to go to BCU so he has a math to get out out here to be successful we get to the plan at this point but he go to
028attitude [Music] class how tall you are you show up okay this all the time some of you guys to be talking not paying attention some you guys going to get it right you're in the classroom and days an hour on your phone right now social media and phones are taking over the world with your grou on social media but you should be reading the book how to read you here talking not listening not listen to your teachers this is a phenomenal school first time I've been here I've been in a lot of hous I have a house in Harry do is really really great something like this one but you got Educators that love you to death coaches that love you to death you got listen to them and understand asking questions is your fault
029means I am highly motivated than myself to be successful I wake up every day I make my bed I clean my house I do whatever I can do I do my grades I'm on a schedule I'm highly motivated to be [Applause] successful got hold it here [Music] [Applause] [Music] my my my my motivation to be successful in anything I Do by got be better my attitude is being posit every day and make and be a changeing somebody life on a daily basis my plan is to create businesses and also work for kids like you for the rest of my life and help him build his life this compan is called the Legacy Sports and we get more inform later but we are trying to build that Legacy and you guys so when you leave the
030school you have leg that's what our school about growing every day hey guys let's give another round of [Applause] applause guys we are bringing guys this experience take it in not every kid gets this kind of or hear from these these athes these professionals these people they come here because they want to work with you they care about you they want to see you succeed so you know after that that's that kind of did our kickoff and then we did the words of wisdom and part of our words of wisdom um every day we kind of celebrate we do a quote so these were quotes that we us and we use these quotes for for our words of wisdom you know you can kind of go through talk about all these individuals on theor announcements
031and we talked about the dedication that they had um you know one that we recently did was in the Golden Rule with iwls that was Friday you know you write the wrongs you turn the light of the creu upon them and you know that is do on the others because you want done on yourself and we kind of talk about those rules and we kind of discuss it what does it actually mean that's what we do in our for our morning announcements um we kind of also do other examples so you can see other examples from classrooms I just took a few um you know English class there's pbls that we we talk about some articles some research and then even field trip that we have in there from other classrooms that's kind of what
032I have thank [Applause] you we very much appreciate all these presentations are very informative and all very well done so thank each of you for doing that [Applause] and okay I think next we're going to celebrate uh Virginia kind this week uh Miss rice are you going to introduce it yes introduce the princi then the principles are going to take over from there so principes go ahead and come on back up so this year uh for 2025 Virginia kindness week was officially February 10 through 16 however uh we had a good bit of snow that interrupted the week of February 10 through 16 so some of our kindness week activities also stretched into February 17 through 21 so we had two kindness weeks uh and the purpose of kindness week is to recognize that simple
033dayto day acts of kindness enable our schools our communities and our state to be a kinder safer healthier and more inclusive place to live work learn and play so each of the principles is going to share um some of the activities that they were still able to squeeze in to the two kindness weeks even with the snow so we kept it simple after kindness and what we end up doing was we had kindness notes and we had students that if they did an act of kindness where they wanted to write you know some words of WID some point they wanted to write something nice that they did for their schools that for those days we had students come at lunch write it up and just post it for for all the students other students to
034see so they all the students can kind of see the wonderful things that that we did or they that they have showed some of the things that they wrote on there um you know nice just to see a person's my job today was make four or five people's mou or it kindness you know goes you I think goes goes quietly an act of kindness no one recognizes but this um just some of the quotes there so you can kind of see the pictures during during the week that we had of students kind of writing about it like I said we kept it simple we kept it nice we kept it multiple things that they they can show so WS students you know like I said WR compliments the staff members and friends and that was
035kind of our Our Kind we we had the snow stuff and everything we had all these different like kind of activities and I'm like I'm not s this again so we're going to keep it we keep it simp we keep it nice that's kind of what we have thank you and I'm first I can sit down thank you so again this picture just represents love because that's really what kindness is and the hands are just it takes all of us to love one another so our SCA our student council Association Along led by Mrs Turner gave treats to all of our teachers and staff spreading more of the love and then we had a Spirit Week um during that first week and these are the things that we wore team up for kindness don't sweat
036the small stuff kindness ties us together and then kindness shines and then we decided to have we have eagle time which is about 24 minutes and it's usually remediation intervention but it's also a time to bond together so our um students made these cards on during Valentine's Day and it's actually my mother on the right there um who lives in Assistant Living facility so we um hand these out to different assistant living facilities and she was very excited to receive her too and then on Tuesdays we do what's called rville it's our social emotional learning so during this week on Tuesday sixth graders talked about going through tough times learning how to handle one of those barriers and what do you do and how does that look like and how do we not react but
037we respond we think about our responses and seventh and eighth grade focused on conflict resolution all the kids Circle up and we just talked about how we are going to have confence with how can you restore those relationships and become broken again through kindness and then I started a leadership a student leadership advisory Council this year at mon Middle School it was an application process so one of their first acts of business was they wanted opportunities for all the students to get together across grade levels so I presented this to our PBIS committee so we did it on that first Friday we called it friendly Friday and the first one to the left are um there are seventh and eighth graders mixing together and they play musical chairs some of them don't want their picture
038taken and then this is an eighth grader seventh grader they just wanted to color and just talk to each other and then they played um a game different games here at this one Checkers and cards again mixing up the grade levels but to me this just speaks to my heart because that's what it's all about it's an eighth grader and a sixth grader and they just enjoyed being together and that's what kind of says well by being together so that's what we did at mon M all right uh Washington District I guess we're going to start off we had um a spirit week also that was interrupted by snow but it didn't stop us so Monday we had two up kindness so we uh you wore uh your jersey that could be any professional team
039or you know West Morland uh so they wore that we had somebody wear um from Jersey so um but we took him in I took that person in because it's kind of this month so we we take everybody in so see how that work uh Tuesday wild for kindness wearing animal print or wear a shirt with animal print on it I should have had some pictures I don't know what happened to my pictures on there uh we had some good uh shots of that um I wear my my Dolphins one so the kids realized that it was an animal little dolphin on there um they made fun of my team afterwards so but it was all about kindness uh we had L's workout for problems peace love and kindness wear a tie dye uh we
040did have a teacher who wore a tie dye um um I think a minute it's uh overalls I never seen tie that overall it was it was pretty good teacher had that on so that was uh the big hit for that day and then on Friday uh we actually you wore any of the days on Friday on Wednesday Thursday or Friday you can wear it on Friday since we were back to school and was WD days so we wore our gear and blue and gold and that was a big hit um when you come on in and we had one of our secretaries was really good with her artwork um we have hands on there for most of the year and we repl the hands with the word kindness along uh the windows coming into
041the cafeteria and you see up top it's uh United against buing so being kind and so forth and we have signs throughout the building that's up all year long not just for kindness week but this is one right here that one of the bathrooms that our third grade is going there it says I can be kind by and give some examples of how they can be kind so we do have those little posters without the school throughout the year so not just for this week only our big hit if you look to the left we had students draw a kindness theme on a coffee cup uh coaster holder we got from art of coffee the kid Drew on them and we sent them all back to Art of coffee who gave them out to their
042customers so now just not only do we have it for school so somebody in mantas King somebody coming through got a personalized handwritten drawing for one of our students uh while they drink their coffee that day um that was a big hit um I didn't even keep a copy and I thought about it afterwards but that was U that's only a few the stock was big so that was a big hit I think we're going to do that again next year so that was good right there um and then the main hallway another signs right there it says act of kindness and you see there's different things uh don't be a bully and so forth so all that's on there throughout the building and we just re uh emphasize of being kind not just for
043that we but every day and all day all right and that's it for us all right so kindness week at C so we had a spirit week and it's kind of funny because the um text on the right hand side was the same text I had last year and it also got cut short last year so um it did get cut short again this year but these are some of the days that we had um lined up for kiddos and staff so on Valentine's Day was wear red um this is our prek class with our local celebrity Mr Tate and then um we have a Kindergarten class there we have some more kindergarten and second grade and we did kindness bingo so this was that home um at the beginning of the week for kids
044to do at home so it was things that they could do with their parents or just you know with their siblings to like clean up their room without being ask um hold the door open for someone help someone carry on groceries so they completed the Bingo and they turned it in for a prize so we um met with our OAS committee prior to kindness week and the data that we got from our student survey um showed that kids felt they had difficult social situations during lunch so our OAS committee designed activities for the students to do together to increase positive social interactions so they had kindness them coloring pages that they could do after they um dump their lunch they could go grab a thing of crayons and um a color page and color together
045we had conversation starters for the older kids so it was like you know this or that would you rather have a dog or a cat would you rather play this or play that so they could have those conversations with each other and then for like fourth and fifth grade we did kindness mad Li so they got to do Mad Libs um that revolve around kindness them um we also had a kindness window display so our OAS committee cut out U winter trees and classes were given winter themed cutouts so that the uh display could go all the way into the spring um and the students wrote kind words or phrases or the little kids drew pictures on how to be kind and then we hung them up so here are two um of our kindness
046themed window displays and so the hearts that spread kindness around the world be nice to others around you caring is the key to smiles and our mittens as helping people like helping a grandma across the street and um like there's bunnies and big cut out so like I said it could stay up till um Easter and that is kind of [Applause] we we've had some very outstanding presentations on black history and kindness week and I didn't know if any of our board members would like to make any comments at all um I'm amazed how busy you all have been with all the snow that's been going on I'm just um very impressed very impressed with all the schools and what you've been doing and it does my heart good to see what you're doing with
047the kids just bringing out the best in them I thought it was great to get the um Community involved with the coffee sleeves that that was great it was definitely good to see the things from copal with the little you know signs I have a little box up a lot of that you know even withell word it's awesome to see that I think everybody did a great job I just love the creativity that to see the diversity of what comes out of each school and what you offer up to the students to experience one of one of the goals of our school board at our meetings is to showcase our students and the work of our students and I think that's really uh te place here this evening already so it's so great to see
048that Miss rice I didn't know if you wanted to add anything else to no just great job everybody exciting to see absolutely outstanding so thank thank everyone involved in that so next Miss rice um School Board appreciation yes sir so February um for those who don't know February is Schoolboard appreciation month so we received a Proclamation from the governor which I will read and then we have a certificate for each board member um so whereas school board members are elected or appointed to represent the interest of students teachers parents and other stakeholders and whereas Schoolboard members play a vital role in ensuring that students across the Commonwealth have access to a highquality rigorous education and are best positioned to uphold educational excellence in Virginia's School and whereas school boards are the governing bodies responsible for
049the oversight success transparency Effectiveness and outcome of school systems across the Commonwealth and whereas local school board members work for their community's parents businesses education professionals and other community members to execute a shared vision of success for students and whereas these decisions affect the present and future lives of children and Charter path to prepare all students to be productive workers in the Virginia economy informed and engaged citizens in our pluralistic democracy and responsible and Good Neighbors in our communities and whereas Schoolboard appreciation month acknowledges the contributions dedication and service of Virginia's local Schoolboard members now therefore I Glenn yunan do hereby recognize February 20 25 as school board appreciation month in our Commonwealth of Virginia and I call this observance to the attention of all of our citizens so on behalf of the vsba and
050Glenn yunan and our community um in particular we have a certificate for each one of you that says 2025 vsba Schoolboard appreciation month champions of opportunity advocates for excellence so this one is for Rosemary mayh Amy Richards Rebecca Miner thank you Miss monor Ralph Fallon thank you and this one is a 2025 certificate of recognition for our first student representative Miss Sydney [Applause] Bedford thank you awesome okay thank you the week of February 17 through the 21st is School Board Clerk of appreciation week so as a result of that we want to recognize our uh clerks and our Schoolboard clerks perform a variety of Duties uh and it's all in support of the school board and also the superintendent uh often there are are meetings and conversations with members of the public uh also employees
051uh I think one of the very important roles of being a clerk is board minutes and uh at each of our school board meetings doing our conent agender uh the School Board gets to approve those minutes and prior to the meeting we are get to review those minutes uh so it's uh keeping accurate records of all of our school board meetings uh is absolutely essential and when you get to be a certain age it's nice to be able to go back and read something and see what you actually did during a a school board meeting so um we we need we need good records of that and that's just one of the very important uh functions that clerks um do for us uh I want to start out by acknowledging and uh recognizing miss Connie
052Allen uh who has been a board clerk for the past several years I don't think Connie is with us tonight but at least I don't see her but we are very appreciative of uh what she's done over the years and I do we do have a certificate for her [Music] and next I want to recognize our new school board clerk uh who who uh was elected in January uh and we are very appreciative of you taking on this role and we look forward to you being a part of that team so we do have a certificate for [Applause] you okay thank you so much and then we also have uh a deputy School Board clerk in case our Schoolboard clerk is for some reason unable to be here and Miss rice you've served that role
053for a number of years and we very much appreciate you being here and always being prepared to be the deputy clerk participating our meetings and be our superintendent so obviously you can carry on a lot of task at one time so we would like to present the certificate to you thank you thank [Applause] you Miss rice do we have any public comments that would submitt it prior to our meeting nothing prior okay do we have any public comments from anyone present this evening they said they said okay yes sir yes sir uh we do uh we do have a set of uh requirements for anyone uh making public comments and I would like to read those first of all uh and anyway uh any anyone that wants to make public comments uh we need for
054you to state your name and your topic uh and prior to leaving we want to make sure that we have contact information so we can get back in contact uh with you uh comments that uh harassing or amount to a personal attack against any identifiable individual identifiable individual uh whether it's a board member a staff member or student or an employee or having the potential to cause unnecessary delay are prohibited and comments must be limited to 3 minutes and this is a statement that we read at each board meeting for anyone that makes comments so if you'd like to come to the podium and start it by uh giving your name and your topic and limit your comments to three minutes please do you answer questions oh you just you just present uh we we
055uh done this before okay yeah we need you we just need you to come to the podium okay and and then uh once you get there state your name and the topic and limit your comments to minutes and then I'll I'll say this now once you finished uh our uh intent is within five working days to give you a reply to your comments okay and you will get a reply okay so if you could just stand at the podium and I okay um Timothy Kelly that's my name Timothy Kelly okay um question you want for me okay the topic okay the topic um High School athletic practice okay okay um all right so okay no one really cares about me so to tell you I'm to wor about I'm not going to yell I'm not
056toise Voice or any of that type of stuff I'm retired Mar so you're going to get nothing start okay okay but I also um I'm pretty stickler when it comes to certain things okay so what I'd like to know is are parents allowed to attend your own child's athletic practice especially if it's out in the open it's not school property County um and I was told that first it was dhsl rules it's not I did two days worth the searches with my wife can't find it anywhere any we were told then to search West M policies in their handbook we did there's nothing in there do um this is my sixth child I have set that have gone through multiple school systems private Catholic Prince William uh fore Warren County and now v um and
057I've never heard of that before in then I was told well in order to be around the kids you need a background check I'm okay with that I've lived the last 35 years of my life uh not trying trying to be perfect but not but you know um so I know the rules I know some laws and and um I have four kids that graduated college uh I don't understand why would you discourage a parent from being that practice that's my first second thing is if I'm not allowed and it's because you need FBI background checks well that means no other BR can come not only just during practices but then during games and if it's not just here why then ranic has to do it Essex has to do it they'll have to run
058background checks on everybody attends the game because it makes no sense that if you you would have to run FBI background on a to be at your kids breast and then my kid's fortunate enough and there's another person that's fortunate enough um that college teachers are going to be coming unannounced and announced to watch practices to watch games they're going to film them they're going to ask questions to coaches parents other players does he need to get permission every single time he's going to show up and try to recruit my kid that's what we're trying to do I've already have three or four colleges come I already know the other kid who's a senior he probably has even more than that and so that's I don't understand is it policy or not because for two
059years I've been going to practice every day so I was told new coaches new team new rules what can't just come in and make these rules um the property is County property not school property um and it's public so why would you me out of my own kid PR try to film so I can get him at and recruiting people come here bu so that's my issue that's my problem and I just need clarification on whether or not it's accurate or not um because I'm not a troublemaker but I'm really not yes sir and and um as I stated earli uh you will get a reply to your questions and your concerns uh we don't give them at a board meeting and the reason why is we want to make sure you get a totally
060accurate reply and that's fair and that's what I would like um because it just seemed pretty Wishy should about and and wasn't doing anything yes sir and Now intent would be to try to get you a a reply within five days that's our goal and just to give you some back background information when I did book up the law it actually gives permission to non-custodial parents and nonparents in a vhsl non-parents can go to a kid's practice or a game with special permission from the school that's what's written in okay so even you they made exemptions for non-custodial and nonparents why would you not want to parent there so um the only other thing is I'll leave on a positive note hope I didn't upset anybody but uh on the best ever me was principal
061he's the one my son and he's gone way above and beyond call duty and coming from a former Marine and a law enforement officer reti Marine um that means a lot he has taken a personal interest in my son's um education that's helped him every bit of the way help never turned it down I think it's one of the best okay we appreciate your comments sir thank you very much for your time okay all right do we have any additional public comments at this time then our public comment Pur is now close uh next we have our consent agenda uh for personnel appointments and resignations you have copies of board minuts from the December 16th 2024 regular session the January 13th work session and the January 13th regular session and you have copies of School
062Division bills and school nutrition bills do I hear a motion to approve thatum sener agenda move that second second okay Miss Mayan how do you vote I miss Manor I miss Richards I chair votes I and consent agenda is approved next uh Miss rice donations and school gifts yes sir uh we did have a few donations that were received by Washington District elementary and mantras Middle School this month at Washington District elementary uh Joey sickle donated books valued at $250 and at montros Middle School Meg McDonald who I believe is a grandparent of one of the students student at the high school she did still help with our program okay thank you um she donated concession items for the all Area band event valued at $518 and then an anonymous donor uh gave teacher incentives
063valued at $30 so we are very grateful for all of those generous donations yeah we we are indeed appreciative and it seems like every month we have donations so it's says a lot about uh our community all right is there a motion to approve accept these donations as presented by Miss rice okay is that second second Rosemary Mayhem right all in favor please signify by saying I I I okay these donations are approved thank you very much thank you okay next we have uh request to approve our 2025 2026 instructional C with Miss rice yes sir uh and before we um get into the 2526 calendar uh I did want to share with the public uh because the board already knows uh we missed five days during we missed all of one week in January
064before the subsequent snows uh we missed five days consecutively and we scheduled three in-person makeup days and we were looking into the possibility of two virtual makeup days days to make up the other two Miss days of instruction um but we also listened to our community and the community's feedback was that making up a lost instruction through virtual instruction in the evenings which is family time was not going to be uh very conducive um not something that was going to be well received by the community so we heard the community uh we understand where the community is coming from and we are not going to need to make up those two additional days through virtual instruction in the evenings the three makeup days that we did in person coupled with uh using remote learning for
065any subsequent days missed due to snow is sufficient so uh that's our big announcement uh we have scheduled the three inperson makeup days we've already had two of them February 14th and the 17th we'll do our last in-person makeup day I think it was March 10 and we will not need to make up those other two days with any virtual instruction in the evenings we will continue if we have any future snow uh we will continue to use remote learning uh as opposed to cancelling school and that will keep us on track so I wanted to announce that first um because I know some community members wanted to hear that so uh and then the next thing for the 2526 school year I do have the draft uh calendar uh for board consideration and approval
066there are some changes in this calendar from the current year and from the last couple of years uh the first change is that we are proposing that our first day of school be August 2025 that is one week later than we have been starting and that is the same date that the other school divisions in the Northern Neck will be starting uh the new school year so we would be aligned with the other divisions who participate in the Northern Neck Technical Center and in the Chesapeake Bay Governor School so that's a change August 11 being our first day of school we will still complete the entire first semester before the Christmas break uh which is always the goal uh we want to wrap up first semester and start new classes second semester after the Break
067um the other thing that you'll notice as a change uh we have listed a back to school openhouse day right in the center of the calendar so that families can start planning now for August 4th of 2025 we will start with prek orientation for those parents who have prek children at 9:00 at the elementary schools and we will go all the way through High School openhouse uh that evening and none of them overlap so we have Elementary open houses in the morning and then a 1hour break and then Middle School open houses and then a 1our break and then High School open houses um so we packed it all into one day and that way if a parent needs to take time off in order to come to openhouse they can do one day and
068knock out all of the open houses and none of them conflict with each other so that's new um we have moved uh we have included the fifth grade moving up ceremonies the eighth grade moving up ceremony and high school graduation all on the calendar as opposed to just High School graduation again so that parents can plan well in advance so may 19th will be fifth grade moving up at both elementary schools 8th grade moving up will be May 20th and then High School graduation will be on Saturday May 23rd uh we are aligned with the other divisions of the Northern Neck for Christmas break and spring break and uh some of the one day uh like MLK day and President's Day we are aligned and we have included Summer Academy uh for those students who
069will be attending Summer Academy not every student will attend I think last year when we put it on there people thought we were moving to yearr round school um and that caused some concern we are not we are not but some students will attend Summer Academy and we like to put those dates out um a year in advance as well we do have makeup days built in so next year if we have a winter like this winter or uh we have inclement weather in the fall we do have uh one buffer day one the first day missed in the fall semester would not need to be made up the first three days in the second semester would not need to be made up um and if needed then we have makeup days listed there but
070remote instruction Also may be used next year in the event of school closure so we present for your approval I do want to say thank you to the calendar committee um we had um Miss steel and Mr mcconville both served on the calendar committee all four of the School principles served on the calendar committee and then we also had teacher representatives from each of the four schools who served on the committee and actually have Faithfully served a number of years and that included uh Miss isig from the high school uh Miss Beal from montr Middle School Miss Tate from copal Elementry and Mr fro from Washington District so this is a tough committee to serve on because you cannot please everyone with every aspect of the calendar uh it's a tough committee they they bring
071input from the schools then they take drafts back and get more Ina you know feedback and input and then they come back again we go back and forth back and forth so it's a tough committee to be on and we're grateful for their service well it's it's nice to see so many constraints if you will yes uh taken into account and it's uh nice to be able to plan ahead and it's also nice to minimize any overlap yes with events so uh a great job I think thank you questions question I don't know if there was any intention of um students participation in what their thoughts were or anything but I do know that there was some people on the committee that did reach out to the community as parents and stuff and said what
072what's your thought and I I appreciate that excellent other questions or comments Miss rice okay is there a motion to approve the 2026 instructional calendar as presented by Miss rice is that second second raise hand any discussion Miss Mayan how do you vote I miss Richards I miss monor I Sheriff votes I and Miss rice the instructional calendar is approved thank you thank you very much okay next uh Miss steel I think you have some exciting news for us I do I do good evening chairman Bon board members superintendent rice community members and colleagues we are excited to announce the relaunch of Our Heroes program um Heroes stands for um helping everyone reach outstanding educational success and um again we're back this is a program that takes place in our elementary schools um so we're
073excited to have this back the program will be in cople and Washington District this spring as an introduction um just some information about heroes if you aren't familiar it started back in 201516 at Washington District and then expanded to copal in 201617 um each volunteer hero is prepared with a student student um they work with the student for 30 minutes a week and their sessions um this year will be facilitated with various activities that will encourage mentorship and um better attendance so we start we started recruitment hopefully you've seen on our Facebook page um the webites copal and Washington District have also posted on their Facebook page our flyer um to recruit Heroes we have five people who have um applied so far so get the word out um we've mailed letters to community churches
074to solicit um Heroes you're going to see it everywhere for for the rest of the year because we're going to keep recruiting um because the more Heroes we have the more students who can participate so just be on the lookout spread the word um we added a QR code to the flyer and also posted the link we're trying to make it as easy as possible for people to access the application and apply but um I'm getting ahead of myself so we're recruiting in February we're looking to do orientation in March and have our meet and greet and then begin our sessions in April um and may um of course the security aspect all heroes will go through TV screening background checks and they'll have have an ID badge they'll have to have that ID badge
075to get into the schools um again our current status we posted on our social media pages and our division website um our elementary school counselors our Behavior Specialists and miss m Miss I'm Sorry Miss England are sharing activities that um the heroes can do with their students we want them to do Getting to Know You activities um mentoring activities and things like that so it's a little different from the program that we had before um but we know that that 30 minutes is still going to be impactful um the schools are composing lists of students to participate in the program and we'll be sending permission slips home to parents so again we're still looking for Heroes um you can scan the QR code that's on our social media Pages or our website or you can
076contact Miss Carol Washington Miss Julie whis or myself or either of the principles that they can direct you in the right um to the right people that's what we have thank you all and here's the QR code i ph SC the QR Cod complete the application Miss Ste uh oh I'm sorry we I know we have a couple of board members that have particip and and it might be helpful to uh hear from them so and maybe you were going to say something along those lines I was to speak to that but I was a um hero I participated in the program as well um it was very good it's not always um academic sometimes students just want to talk and my question was does the criteria or can the criteria in the students who
077are introverts who don't speak much or have problems socializing and dealing with people that could also help them with the hero it's funny you said that because when we ask the principles to compose their list we ask them to consider students who might be motivating um who may have like attendance concerns or you know need that boosting their social skills so it's it's funny you said that because we're trying to Target a different group of students not just academic but those students who can benefit from a mentor and we were wondering if you the heroes were G to come back we had a few up here I I really enjoyed I I loved participating with the heroes program um back at copal when my daughter was a student at copal and I still see um
078the child that I was really focused on engaged with and um she's in high school now and she's like hey it's it's very impactful yes yes 30 minutes makes a huge difference and I had the opportunity to participate both at copal and WD and I'll have to say it's an outstanding program and you can make a huge difference uh in the student uh not just academically but like Miss Richards was saying but you build a relationship yes and when you build that relationship these students don't want to disappoint you and I don't know how many times I when we it was very active program going in the grocery store and having somebody come up and that's my hero you know and and come and give you a hug uh while their parents were stand there
079wondering what was going on uh but but you know it's it's it's a great feeling to to actually uh help students in that capacity the 30 minutes goes by fast it do it really does so I am so glad that this is uh uh coming to being again it's going to be a big benefit and hopefully starting it now hopefully next year when school starts yes we can get started early so I have to give the specialist like the the first couple of months to get all the pretested and all of that you got you got to do those things October we should be ready to go yeah so so very appreciative of this thank you absolutely any more questions or comments Miss Bean do you have uh anything any report on the no technical
080s evening I do not unless you have something I don't the uh the last meeting I know you were unable to go because you had additional appointments uh the last meeting really was it was really two things one was it was that organization and then the other thing is that there was a little bit of discussion on on budget and I think that was information that probably had been talked about a little bit but there wasn't any action on budgets just some information that was presented in fact they're not meeting this month um so the next meeting will be until March so I probably won't have much to say next yeah well that that was a uh that was a other thing I guess this had been talked today but that was a decision made
081to do the meetings every other month as and I think that had been talked about previously but that's pretty much it really so thank you and um Miss monor I I know that you the alternate I believe for the Chesapeake Bay's Governor School and uh I don't know that I'm expecting a report but I want to give you the opportunity in case you did have something okay all right thank you very much okay uh Miss rice upcoming events please yes sir um there are several upcoming events for the school board the first is our communication Forum meets for the third and final time this year on the 26th at 2 o'cl and Miss Mayan is the board representative for that meeting uh March 4th we have the vsba Eastern region spring Network Forum uh Caroline
082County is hosting this year so we will be in Ruther Glenn Virginia and everyone is registered March 25th uh is the vsba superintendent evaluation workshop and that's in Charlottesville at the vsba office or virtual April 17th vsba Hot Topic conference in Charlottesville and May 30th is is the BBA School law conference okay all right any questions for Miss Royce Miss Mayhan do you have any additional comments this evening um not really other than I just want to welcome Sydney to our group this is probably overwhelming for you this is all probably been new and um but whenever we talk about com you know there if you have a comment we we tend to forget you're over there because you're quiet but we want you to engage so if you have questions or anything about what
083we're doing or um questions from presentations and so forth or comments just speak up okay it's the only thing I have to say thank you all for all your work this week this month Miss Richard do you have anything um just want to say thank you to all the schools for their love offerings we truly appreciate it thank you very much and I just appreciate everyone just sticking with us as we go through our school board meetings so thank you okay thank you Miss monor um feel the same um Amy as well as Sydney feel strong and take your voice um but I I do want to offer um it's fun to see virtual learning that takes place when you're a parent also and I want to give props to our SRO for the works
084that they they do in school systems and it was nice to have officer pittz teaching my daughter in civics class uh during that virtual time so appreciate all that all that they they do for us so I just wanted to mention that okay thank you U Miss rice no sir no okay and again very much appreciate uh the gifts this evening and appreciate the attendance it's always nice uh when people stick around for the entire board meeting so uh we thank you for that our next uh board meeting is on Tuesday March 11th we have a work session beginning at 5:00 p.m. and then on Monday March the 17th we have our regular meeting with Clos session beginning at 5:00 p.m. Open Session beginning at 6:00 p.m. and public hearing on the budget at 700
085p.m. is there a motion to adjourn so move Rebecca Miner is there a second Rise Mary hand second all in favor signify by saying I I I we are adjourn have a good evening