001All right. Good afternoon. I'd like to call to order the October 27th, 2025 work session of the York County School Board. We appreciate everybody's flexibility and understanding as this meeting was rescheduled from October 13th due to weather. Thank you for joining us as we continue our important work and discussions on behalf of our students, staff, and community. Uh we have quite a few presentations this evening. So we're going to start off with our uh pupil teacher teacher ratios. Dr. Carol, would you like to introduce our first presenter? >> Yes. Thank you, Mrs. Goodwin. Dr. David Wrights, chief human resources officer, has the first three reports tonight, and the first one will provide an update on current FY26 pupil teacher ratios. Dr. Wrights. Thank you, Dr. Carol, Miss Goodwin, members of the board. Thank you for
002this opportunity to present the annual report on pupil teacher ratios, employee retention, and new hires. Tonight's presentation supports two strategic priorities. Supportive culture is paramount in attracting and retaining highly effective talent. Our two areas of focus are learning environment and working conditions. A strong connection exists between learning environments, working conditions, and organizational culture. And these directly affect how well a school division can attract, support, and retain highly effective talent. The quality of the learning environment and working conditions directly shape culture. When they are positive, they create a supportive, growthoriented atmosphere where staff feel valued. This not only retains highly effective employees, but also enhances the division's reputation, making it more attractive to our top talent. This connection is noted through research published by the National Center of English Statistics, Gallup Workplace Reports, and Sherm. The
003Virginia Standards of Quality set forth guidelines for assigning licensed instructional personnel in a manner that produces schoolwide or divisionwide ratios of students in average daily membership to full-time equivalent teaching positions as well as designated individual class size limits for specific grade levels. This chart is a summary of the most current SOQ class size guidelines. School board shall report pupil teacher ratios that include resource teachers in the same annual report. Any classes funded through the voluntary kindergarten through third grade class reduction program shall be identified as such classes. At this time we have McGrder and Yorktown Elementary included in this reduction program for FY26. Any classes having waiverss to exceed the requirements of this subsection shall be identified and schools shall be identified. However, the data shall be compiled in a manner to ensure the confident
004confidentiality of our teachers and pupil identities. Here are the elementary school pupil teacher ratios for the school year. The first column actual pupil teacher ratio which does not include resource teachers has a range of ratios from 20 to 24 to1 with a division average of 21.8. Our division average for FY25 was 22. and elementary and secondary schools. Resource teachers include but not necessarily or limited to our music, art, PE, STEM, and technology. Administrators, school counselors, and librarians are excluded per VOE. The column on the right shows the pupil teacher ratios for resource teachers. These ratios range from 15 to 18 to1 with a division average of 16.2:1, 2:1, which is well below the limits of 24:1 in grades K through 3 and 25 to one in grades 4 and five. The Department of Education standards
005of quality require school divisions to assign instructional staff in a manner that produces schoolwide ratios of students in average daily membership to full-time equivalent teaching positions no more than 21:1 in middle school and high school as a divisionwide ratio of 24:1 for English classes. In secondary schools and higher education, it is best practice for English courses offerings to include opportunities in all areas of the English English language such as literature, public speaking, creative writing, journalism, poetry, philosophy, theater, and playwriting along with psychology. In addition to the tra traditional English language arts classes, specific course offerings have some variability by school due to the student interest in the program of studies. All classes that fall in these categories are considered when determining pupil teacher ratios. As you can see, schoolwide average pupil teacher ratios range from
00611 to 15 to1 with a division average of 14.1 to1. This is below the SOQ guidance of 21 to1. Schoolwide averages for English classes range from 15 to 17 with a division average of 15.8 to1 and this is below the SOQ guidance of 24 to1. For high schoolwide average pupil teacher ratios range from 12 to 18 to1 with a division average of 15.7 to1. This is below the SOQ guidance of 21 to1. Schoolwide averages for English classes range from 12 to 22 with a division average of 19.6 to1 and this is below the SOQ guidance of 24 to 1. Per the standards of quality, families must be notified if their student is assigned to a class that exceeds the maximum limit. At this time, we have five PE classes at TAB Middle School that exceed
007the maximum of 35 students. Letters to those families were mailed the week of October 7th. These classes are over the limit by less than five students each. And I'm going to stop there before I go on to my next se section if anyone has any questions. >> I have one. Why um why are they so much higher at Tab Middle uh for the PE >> the PE classes? Well, currently right now P Tab Middle is probably our largest middle school and the way that the classes have been divided by those teachers, it just exceeded we're talking one or two um students above that 35 ratio. >> Okay? And that would just mean adding another teacher would then take the ratios down. So sending the letter home just assures us the opportunity that parents know that.
008And we got no feedback from our parents that they were okay with they weren't okay with that. >> What about feedback from the teachers having that larger class size especially for PE? >> We have not received any feedback from those teachers nor has the administration that those class sizes were too large for them. Typically our class sizes for PEU range around 35 anyway. So having one or two extra is typically they're able to handle. >> Have they been asked? >> Uh I haven't specifically gone out and asked them. And then they also have >> be a good idea just to get their viewpoint as opposed to just assuming they would let you know. >> And a lot of times what happens Miss Fairman is whenever a class size is above the 35 that the principal
009will send in a para to help in those classes. So just um transitioning those paras into those classes that are a little bit higher to provide support too. But I can >> Is there a way to identify that on here? >> We do not do that. No, it's only teachers. >> Um we could look at that. Yes. >> And I would excuse me. I would add that uh each year it's common that we would have some classes that that go over and sixth grade uh PE and band classes are usually the culprits. And sometimes we've had it with some higherend math uh where we might be over just one or two because when you're dealing with secondary classes, if you add another teacher, then your ratios are going to plummet. >> Uh so if you're
010you're looking I'd have to do the math, but let's say you're talking about three sections of geometry and you've got uh 95 kids. Well, if you have three sections, you're going to have 31 32. you put a fourth one in there, now you're going to be uh into the low 20s. So, it's it's kind of, you know, it's a balancing act. >> And I would have to point out, we've done this over the years I've been on the school board, we're kind of right on that cusp of you probably need one, but not quite yet. But maybe the next year with the enrollment increases, then we need one and it goes back down again. So, it's a it's an eb and flow on that that I've seen over the years. >> Like Dr. Carol said
011it's typically our PE classes that are those ones that are >> exactly go over. >> But once once again, I would still like if we can reach out to specifically ask the teachers, >> you know, if they have, you know, positives or negatives of feedback from what they are experiencing with the larger classes as well as identifying which ones uh have a parah to help as another adult in the class. >> Sure, I can do that for you. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. Any other questions? If you are following along with us on board docs, I'm going to the next presentation which is employee retention. And I'm going to start on slide five. Let's transition to retention. Lateral moves and new hires. Employee retention refers to YCSD's ability to prevent turnover. Research shows it
012takes one to two years for a new hire to match the productivity of the employee who's left. YCSD monitors overall and new hire retention rates as well as the reasons employees separate from the division. 82% of our operating budget which is approved by the board supports the employee compensation package. This key performance area the KPI is very important because it reflects the efforts of the board support for compensation leading to staff retention. Our retention rate for FY25 was 87% which shows an increase in retention from FY24's 83 retention rate. We believe the contributing factor to our continuous improvement with retention is our efforts in getting feedback from our new hires. Focus groups are held um at all sites twice a year to gather information on how their experiences have been. We're starting those actually this
013week up until the week of Thanksgiving with all new employees. Our staffing department also sends out touchpoint surveys and this is conjunct is in conjunction with the monthly pulse surveys providing data data on how we can improve down to the granular level. For licensed employees, the number of separations have reduced each year when we look at a three-year trend data. For FY25, 97 licensed employees separated. For FY24, 125 licensed employees separated. And for FY23, 144 licensed employees separated. As you can see, employees separating for an alternative employee employment has continued to decline. noticed a slight uptick in the working conditions chart with fewer employees leaving the denominator is lower which does impact the weight of each response. Our efforts to gather data on the YCSD experience and then using that data to make adjustment keeps
014us moving forward in a positive manner. Research shows 47% is the average industry turnover rate for the first three years. When you drill down through research, education turnover rate for the first three years is 39%. For non-licensed employees, FY25 had the lowest number of separations when we look at a three-year trend. In FY25, 167 employees separated. FY24, 219 employees separated. and FY23 172 employees separated. So I'm going to stop in that section before I go on to the next part of my presentation and ask for any questions. >> So would you attribute that that decline because you're asking for more feedback from people and just letting them know that you're you hear them? I think it contributes to it that we ask for feedback through our surveys and then we then take that feedback and
015um show that our employees that we are taking them seriously and we are correcting the things and taking you know their concerns to the next level and correcting it. I also think the retention a lot could be attributed well I don't know how much percentage wise but what was done with special ed extra training that was given >> I'm so glad you brought that up because our special education department and the department of instruction has done the boot camps and they do monthly PD with our special education teachers giving them the support that they need which in turn retains them because they feel supported. >> Yeah. That's a big that we had such a low turnover >> in that we did >> area. So, >> it's working. >> I agree. >> Okay. Have a question
016on on these documents. Um, unless I'm missing something on here, maybe it's on here somewhere else. Is there a way to identify you have the number of how many employees separated but can you put a percentage of the overall listing of like what is 97 you know what is the percentage overall we know it's 90 the number is 97 >> turnover percent >> yes what they have at the bottom of the chart here they have the percentages based on reasons for leaving but I was I was looking to see what the actual percentage was like what uh 144 left in 22 and 23 >> two and what percentage of that of our >> overall >> licensed employees. >> Yeah, >> we'd have to go back and look at total employees each of those years because
017that number fluctuates >> but roughly I 800s. >> Yes, >> is our instructional staff or >> I think it's more closer to nine >> 900. So >> So you're going to be just over 10%. Yeah, I was going to say 10 to 13% about this. >> Well, >> guessing, but it it would be nice to see that just so that we have a comparison of this was the number. This is what was overall. >> Well, but then it's also going to be impacted by the number of military moves that we have in >> but it's it's just still getting getting a picture of overall percentage. >> That's why we include those reasons so that you can see that. I think what's important is the the relative change in that those numbers have been going down.
018>> Yes. >> So to get under 100, we haven't been under 100 in a while. >> That's really really good. >> Yeah. >> So again, we're going to the next section. And if so, if you're following along, we're going to go to slide five under the new hires and lateral moves PowerPoint. Research shows recruiting and retaining highly effective teachers is directly linked to student success. YCSD monitors the number of employees on the teacher salary scale hired annually and their and their average years of experience when hires as well as regional employment trends such as how many of our licensed employees are separating from us to work at other local school divisions and where new hires are coming from. we have seen a slow decline in the experience of our new hires um that they bring
019to us to YCSD. This decrease in the hiring of experienced teachers is related to national data indicating fewer people are entering the teaching profession. FY25, 29 of our new hires came to us from local school divisions and 10 left YCSD for another local school division, which is down from the previous year of 17 left at that left at that time to work at another school division. Every employee who separates from YCSD must complete an exit survey as part of their separation process. As part of this process, employees have an option to select a face-to-face interview with the HR staff, and the information gathered from the survey or interview is used to help guide next steps with retention and employee satisfaction. Here you can see an overview of where our experienced new hires are coming from.
020HR implements various strategies annually to ensure we attract and retain the most qualified employees. We continue to offer several ways to gather data from employees. We constantly analyze new hiring trends in order to address hardtofill positions. Based on the data from surveys, we developed an HR toolkit and we put it out to our principles and administrators this past summer at our leadership academy. And this toolkit is a live document hiring managers have access to and includes valuable resources on how to hire effectively, such as a flowchart, strategies for attracting top talent. For example, it offers guidance on how to welcome and onboard new employees into their roles in a way that shows genuine care. And this approach demonstrates that onboarding isn't just a oneanddone process. It's about creating a lasting, supportive experience that sets the
021tone for long-term success and retention. I do want to just highlight real quick something that we have been doing most recently as far as our HR efforts to proactively um go out into our workforce. So last Friday we went out to the V3 executive forum in Richmond and we sent two of our HR representatives out for that and that's an event that celebrates employers and their commitment to veteran hiring. And so we went out there to just um show our support for our veteran employees uh and also try to even recruit some of the veterans to come to YCSD. Also on Friday, we went to the Hampton Roads DoD Skilbridge Expo in Virginia Beach at Oceanana and that is where employees from the service are transitioning out of the military into another career. And so
022we were able to get there and get some also some valuable employees to possibly come to YCSD. On October 28th, we have um the talent advantage strategic planning event at the Hive in Virginia Beach. And so again, that is for our area's HR leaders to go out and um talk to our military families and those military people that are actually again transitioning back into um careers. November 5th, we have a popup job fair from 4 to 6 at Yorktown High School. And November 13th, we have a networking and hiring fair at the Riverview Event Center in Hampton. and that is um sponsored and hosted by our Virginia veterans services. So just some of the efforts that we are doing to help support our military as they transition into um the workforce. >> Does the troops
023to teachers program still exist or does it have a different name or >> No, we we still um troops to teachers operation. Yes, we get a lot of those. And we also do um the operation Socrates and that is for our non-licensed military that want to come in not necessarily for a licensed position but a non-licensed position. We participate in that too. >> Um for the third quarter of f of FY25 um from July to September, we had 14 or four active duty working for us. 14 veterans, seven were female vets and 26 spouses. Um wellness activities also helped encourage our employees through the engagement to stay and our HR department is working collaboratively to prepare. We are all in the HR department, all 11 of us are preparing for the SHERM, which is um
024the Society for Human Resources Management. And we are taking that test and that gained experience through becoming certified, SHERM certified will increase our ability to serve our employees even better. And that is all of the slides from me tonight. I my question is that can you help me understand a little more about the national uh data that you were saying that's influencing the the age of the experience of the new hires that's coming in. >> So we are um so the national data stating that we don't the teachers people just aren't going into the teaching profession. >> So um those that are coming out of college don't have the experience. And so that's where I was trying to relate it to the fact that our new hires are coming to us that need a little
025bit more um support because they're not coming to us with a lot of experience. And also too, we are hiring provisional teachers that aren't coming with the education that we typically have through an education program. They're coming to us with different degrees and they're not coming to us with experience at all. Could you explain that provisional idea the provisional licensing so everybody understands please? >> So I can give you an example of a provisional. So, if you come to us and if you have a a degree in business or finance or something that's not education related, we can look at what you have and we can take your credentials and everyone's different. So, I can't pigeon hole everyone into one spot, but we can take those credentials in your degree and we can allow you
026to take tests and we can give you the supports that you need to get a provisional license to go into a classroom to teach a specific subject or level. And um yes, necessarily they may not have the educational background that we have and the training that we have, but through the instruction department and through many different resources, we support those teachers to be successful in the classroom who aren't our traditional teaching program. >> Do you have a percentage of how many provisional teachers we have and how many >> I had a feeling you'd ask me that, Miss Fairman, tonight. Um, and I didn't add it up, but I can get that for you because it's um, it's increasing >> because in order for us to have teachers in the classroom, we do have to go
027to the provisional route simply because we don't have teachers going into the education field. >> So, as uh, for FY26, we're going to have new hires. Actually, we have 97 new hires compared to 242. So, that's significant decline. Does that mean we're retaining more people? we have less open spaces. >> Correct. Okay. >> So, like Miss Goodman was saying, we're retaining them because of the supports we have in place that we're hearing how we can support you and we're also providing them with the PD to be successful in the classroom, which in turn allows them to want to stay. >> But that's really important to understand that that those career switchers or the few that we can get straight out of school, they're pulling that average number down. We used to average over eight years
028experience. that's gone down three years in a row. So, that's going to require more resources to give the proper uh professional development to make sure that those teachers are teaching to the York standard. >> You find um and I don't need a number percentage. I'm just asking like for your provisional hires >> um when you give them the support and everything you put in place, do you find that they're overall taking off doing well? Most of those provisions >> most of them are doing well. Yeah. Yes, they also are um I think they're they struggle more with the classroom management >> and so that's when our current administrators need to step in and provide those supports. >> It's not a lot as the content itself but it's the management piece and once they get under
029that under control then the world is their oyster pretty much. I mean as far as teaching and getting buyin from kids if you have that management within the classroom. Well, >> and this scenario that we're looking at right now is the best it's going to be. >> Oh, yeah. >> Because uh in the future it's just going to go down as far as the teacher shortage is going to get worse. >> Yeah. >> And uh the provisionals um I think it's probably inverse of what it was six or seven years ago. >> Absolutely. >> You know, >> um I remember there was a time when we didn't really look at hiring provisionals. >> We did not. You're correct. >> Yeah. It used to be it was there were no provisional >> teachers hired. >> And
030now if we wouldn't have the provisionals, we wouldn't have adults or teachers in the classrooms. >> I think last year I read a statistic that it was the Virginia 60% of the teachers that were hired were provisionals. That's great. >> I would add one more thing that that our school improvement goals include supporting teachers and we also have mentoring for each of those teachers and and just for the record I I started out as a provisional teacher. So >> well and I think a lot of that support is making sure the discipline is enforced in in the classrooms as well as in the overall school itself. want to I I do have a question about going from provisional to licensed. Is there a way that it can be streamlined uh through pressure on the state
031or whatever to make it quicker to get people licensed? >> We do have opportunities. We have something called I teach which right >> they can I have one of those >> they can go through it much more quickly and at their own pace and they can finish in a year. So that's our fastest way rather than the university route, but um the state recognizes the I teach program and um it is like I said much faster. So that's probably the fastest route for anyone that wants to go. >> But what I'm talking about is those that are provisional teachers now. They're trying to get licensed and it takes forever to work through the state bureaucracy to get licensed. >> They've actually been quite respons. >> Yes. lately and so their their turnover is very fast
032as far as answers. So if you were to come to me and give me your coursework and the state turns it over within a week to let us know whether or not they feel that um you have the right courses to move forward. >> Good. >> So they're they're they're faster and we have a connection that we can just call them to >> and so it's been um a great >> better than just a few years ago. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you guys. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Who do we have with next? >> Next is uh we'll hear from Mr. Bill Bowen, chief financial officer. He's going to review data released from the Department of Education on per pupil expenditures. >> Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the
033board, and Dr. Carol. Uh this evening's presentation is an update, annual update on the per pupil expenditures. And this presentation highlights the strategic uh priority of supportive culture. And when we consider a supportive culture in relation to per pup people expenditures, we ask ourselves an essential question. Are our financial resources and supports allocated effectively to ensure our student success? So to fully understand poor pupil's expenditures, it's important first to consider both the source of the data and how the calculation is made. So the code of Virginia requires all school divisions to submit their annual expenditures to the department of education by September 30. So the information we have on the expenditure side is um FY24. This past September 30, we reported our FY25 expenditures um for the per pupil expenditure report. This calculation includes the
034total operation expense operational expenditures such as food service, summer school, and pre kindergarten, but excludes things such as debt service and capital outlay. And this total is then divided by the average daily membership at the end of the school year. Now departments of educa education generates a lot of reports and through those reporting um through those reports they use a lot of different metrics. Uh sometimes it's not pre preschool is not included. Other times um it is um you often hear me talk about March 31st ADM. That's the the the date that we use for funding and the count that we use for funding. However, this is on an endofear ADM. Now, just for um clarity here on that, we did have an FY24 difference between our March 31st ADM and our end of year
035ADM by about 50 students. So, on this slide, um here we see a our per pupil expenditures compared amongst our regional peers using the most recent data available from the Virginia Department of Education. And for FY24, YCSD ranks ninth out of nine in per pupil spending among our among our comparative group. And the range across the divisions is significant with the highest expenditures 19,212 and the lowest at 14,826, a difference of $4,386. Now, last year um this was a similar uh table. News was number one, York County was number nine. Um, however, that difference um between one and nine was only $2,954. A difference of $1,432. So, we saw a significant increase in in some of the schools this past year. And I'll talk a little bit more about that. It's also worth noting that
036the difference between 8th and 9th. Um, this is Williamsburg, James City County, and York County. Um, it's it's $998. And so, when you consider about the number of students, we have 13,000 students and $1,000 that would translate into 13 million additional dollars um to make up that difference. Here on this slide, this is a three-year comparison of expenditure data amongst our comparator group. And you can see here that um what's consistent are a couple things. One, um in years 23 and 24. So the green bar represents 22, the maroon 23, and the orange 24. You can see that there were some significant increases in 23 and 24 amongst many of the school divisions. Um what happened during this time is we saw our one-time money with ESSER funding and then in in 2032 24 we
037saw um state allocation of onetime all-end funding and so it just depends on how this the school divisions allocated those funds for spend. Uh but they seem to be pretty consistent. The other thing that's consistent here is if you look at York County in each of the years, we were the lowest um per pupil expenditure amongst our comparative group. >> I have a quick question. Um >> just because it's nearby, why isn't Picosen listed? >> Um so we've been using the same nine school comparators um since before I I came. Um, so Kosen's never really been part of that comparative group, but I do show them on the next slide. >> Okay, >> they are they have about 21 2200 students. >> Yes. So they're not comparison to our big 13,000 students. >> Yeah. >>
038So this is a statewide comparison of per pupil expenditures. And here you can see um highlighted in yellow are all of the schools in our region 2. And then on the second column you'll see the state average there in green. >> So I just want to point out the board. So our average per pupil expense here we >> fourth the top of the >> so there we are 14,826. How many students are in micosa? >> I'm say about 2,200. >> Okay. And that's their pure per pupil expense. So it's really really good in terms of >> so there there are 131 school divisions here listed and out of 131 YCSD is 109th which put us puts us in the low uh bottom cortile of of all school divisions >> now for figuring this calculation are
039all employee salaries included not just what's dealing with the classroom >> yes ma'am all salaries are included >> it's all operating expens it's all operating expenses minus the debt service and capital. >> Right. I understand. I've just been asked that by constu constituents several times. >> No, you you can tell them that uh that we are in the bottom quarter in the in spending and number one in performance. That's the best way I can see to put it >> and we'll talk about that in the next couple of slides. So board members, as you know that um these ratings were recently released and here's a comparison of the three that we've been working with uh or comparing ourselves to um here now York County as number one and followed by Falls Church and then Arlington.
040Um however, false church allocates about $10,939 more per student than YCSD and Arlington 11,395 per student. And so we to look at that statewide um comparison again. Um however highlighting now the the niche ratings and you can see Arlington and Falls Church falls at at two and three and again we're in the lower quarter of statewide expenditures. >> Do we have any comparison regarding the NAPE scores? Have we been included that in that at all? >> No ma'am. So how do we measure our effecti effectiveness and return on investment? Uh we do this by analyzing our per pupil spending and how that aligns with our academic results and then we compare both of those to the state averages and then to our neighboring divisions. So here is this is our so results in English reading
041and writing. And at the top of of the chart here we see the state average at 74. And then we see York County at ranking number one at a score of 88. And then we see similar information uh data here with the English writing with the state average of 76. York County again number one at 89. And that kind of follows through the rest of the presentation. And here we see um York County again number one exceeding um far exceeding the state averages in both math and science as well as history. So in closing, I just want to just want to add that YCSD continues to demonstrate a strong commitment to student achievement despite operating with one of the lowest per pupil costs in the region as well as uh the Commonwealth, among the lowest
042in the Commonwealth. And as I noted earlier, much of the financial support that we've seen from state and federal agencies here in recent years has come to us as one-time allocations or through grant opportunities. And those grant opportunities have been ESSER funds, all-in funds. Um we recently had a couple of awards with a security grant with um impact aid student with severe uh disabilities. We received some funding for that. We've also applied uh numerous times, about a half a dozen times for school construction funds. However, we haven't been very successful in that arena, but we have been successful in many of our opportunities and it's and it's due to the fact that we have um a very strong grant writer. Dr. Stevenson and her team um our grant accountants are doing a phenomenal job managing
043the process. However, with that process comes a significant finan I mean administrative burden. Um there's applying for it and though we receive many grants, there's many grants that we apply for, we don't receive, but there's significant time invested to gather the information and to apply for those grants. And once we're awarded those funds, the administrative time of monitoring, um requesting reimbursement, uh program reporting and financial reporting, and then through the audits. So while we are very very thankful of the funding that we receive um truly to be effective in long-term planning u for our priorities a more stable and permanent funding source is really what is needed. So we're hoping though through this budget process that we'll see some of the shift from the one-time funding to more permanent permanent funding. Our staff is currently
044working on their FY27 priorities uh for budget and we'll continue to have these conversations as we go through that process. And that concludes my presentation for this evening. Be happy to answer questions. >> Thank you. Board members, I'd like to just revisit two things. So when we talk about that that ex that example with WJCC, and not to pick on anybody, but the math is really easy at a thou a thousand more students. So I I certainly wouldn't say we need to have all 13 million of that, but we we do operate in a constrained environment. There are things that we would like to do that we we just can't because it ends up being an opportunity cost. We have to cut something else in order to have something that we need or want. And
045you saw in the previous uh presentation where we're looking at a trend where we're going to need to give teachers more support. So, it's that type of thing that in order to do that, we might have to give something else up. And so that's something just to remember when we're talking about giving a great uh education for the dollar that you know it's not that just throwing money at things helps but sometimes there are some things that we'd really like to do but we just can't get there >> need to do >> and need to do. And then the other thing Mrs. Fairman to your point on the nape we do need to be careful about the nape because that's a state level measure. We only had I think 30 kids tested on the last
046one. So that can't be representative of our performance. The so is the best way to do that right now. >> Is isn't NAPE just a random sample? Isn't it more of a random? >> Yeah, they'll sample across the state and they'll I think we'll pick Yeah, I think it was one classroom or 30 >> the year before. Last year we had two two schools and 50 students in each school, right? >> But we're still not given um individualized reports, right? We do not receive information as how our school division did. It's really a state provided report and it compares states across the United it's a it's a way to compare progress across the United States really. >> Correct. >> And what the state's trying to do is calibrate the the so test to the NATO
047and that has value. >> Absolutely right. >> Where does Virginia compare on that report? So, um that is where you um you've been hearing about the new changes to the state accountability and the cut scores um and the the thing called the honesty gap. And so that's what they've been trying to do is they're trying to increase the rigor of our standards so that we are more aligned over the years. Um we have seen some declines um in Virginia performance across the other states, the other 49 states and localities. And so um they're trying to adjust that score so that we're a little more rigorous so that we are a little more above what this because we're pretty much like one percentage point like right below the NATE I think the the average where we
048used to be much higher. >> Okay. Yeah. It's my understanding that the NAPE identified that while our SOS were showing the state was doing well in comparison to the other 49 states, what was happening is that the SOS showed we were doing great, but the NAPE was showing we weren't. >> That's the Virginia was near the bottom and actually a few years it was dead last. >> Correct. Well, and and if you remember the presentation I provided >> in August or September, that's that first slide that I talked about how the NAP you saw the decline over time. That's what that's what that's about. Yes. >> Any other questions? Okay. All right. Who's up next? >> All right. Mrs. Goodwin, Mr. Greg Dolac, director of maintenance and facility support will now provide an overview of
049current safety and security procedures. Mr. Darwin. >> Thank you, Dr. Carol. Madame Chair, members of the board, Dr. Carol, I appreciate the opportunity to come tonight to talk about the current safety procedures that are in place for the FY26 school year. I'd like to start off tonight by reviewing some of our current resources that we already have in place. Uh many of these have been in place for multiple years. We'll start off with our badge access system. Every employee in York County is assigned a badge. that badge actually can track their movements in and out of the building. We do not issue exterior door keys to our staff members. So, this is a very secure way to have the perimeter of our buildings uh stay secure. If you lose a badge, that's a simple few
050key strokes from our IT department which can disable that badge and make it useless. Next on the list is the AOE system. Our aphone system is part of our building access control where it allows our front office staff to communicate with potential visitors and we can ascertain the need for them to be there and some cases we can determine if they are safe to let in the school and uh that system think of it as more like a commercial ring camera. We also have our identicate system when that is our visitor management system. So when staff or not staff but rather when visitors come to the building they present their governmentissued ID or driver's license once they do that they are subjected to a 50-st state sex offender search and uh fortunately we do not
051have many that we catch but if we do the sheriff's office and the commonwealth attorney will address those situations and it also not allows us to have them enter the building. Finally, our security camera system. We have built a very robust camera system that's been in place for many years now. So, school staff, building administrators can access the system, as well as IT department members, school security, and also our school resource officers. What I'd like to focus on tonight is the new emergency terminology. Uh this year the school division adopted the I love you guys foundation standard response protocol. I want to make clear though the standard response protocol is very similar to the current procedures and practices that we've been doing for at least 15 years. One of the reasons we decided to go
052with this is because our 911 dispatch center is a regional dispatch center. So they serve city of Picosen, city of Williamsburg, county of York and James City County. those agencies or jurisdictions have also adopted this program. That way, if we have an emergency situation where someone calls 911, the dispatcher doesn't have to try to figure out what county I'm talking to and what school division. So, that helps with consistency. This summer at leadership academy, uh we trained all of the administrative staff and then we branched out in the weeks before school and trained all teaching staff, pair educators, custodians, bus drivers, maintenance uh staff, and then also food um service workers. Then additionally, we went one step further and we had the teachers provide the students with an information session and a video within the
053first week of school. And then finally, we followed up with resources that we provided to the family on our division website and through the division digest. >> Were substitutes given that training? >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Uh so our standard response protocols, there's five actions that we're going to talk about tonight. And if you look at the first three, those go in um I won't say severity, but they rise in um urgency. So we'll start off with hold. Hold is a shortterm action. That's really what I like to say puts a pause on the activity in the building. The most common time we would use this would be for a student or staff member medical emergency. And that allows us to clear the hallways, allows for first responders to gain easy access. They
054don't have to fight through a crowd. And then it also gives the person going through the crisis some dignity. They can keep that private. This, like I said, is not going to be more than 5 to 10 minutes. If the bell would ring in the middle of this, kids stay put, but they can continue teaching. The administrator at the end of the hold will come across the PA system and announce that the hold has been released. So the next action is secure. And as I said earlier, we want common language. Last time or last year and previous years, secure was referred to as a modified lockdown. If you ever heard that term, the nice thing about this is having secure is a totally different word. If you're in a crisis situation and you hear modified
055lockdown and you miss the word modified, that's a totally separate set of actions that you have to take. This eliminates that. It's clearer language. So, what we're looking at for a secure is a situation outside one of our buildings where we don't feel it's safe for students and staff to be outside. More often than not, the sheriff's department is going to notify us through dispatch to say that there's been an activity in the area, criminal activity. We don't have the suspects. We would like everyone to come inside. So when that happens, we are going to possibly limit um staff visitors from leaving the building and coming into the building. Also, the sheriff's department will provide us with a deputy, especially at the elementary level to help deal with the situation. Uh the secondary schools have
056their SRO's and they can start and depending on the urgency, they can follow up with additional deputies. We would expect a secure to last anywhere from 30 minutes to a few hours depending. and we've had secure situations in the past that have lasted several hours. The most urgent situation next is a lockdown. And we're all fairly familiar with what a lockdown is. Uh that's going to be when there is an imminent threat inside the building. Now, in that situation, the school obviously is going to be most aware of that and they will make the initiation to put the school into lockdown. So once that happens, all interior and exterior doors are locked. students and staff go to a safe location and they stay in that location until they are told by the sheriff's department. So,
057in the first two actions that we talked about, hold and secure, the building administrator calls the end to that. But in an actual lockdown, we're looking for the sheriff's department to put an end to that situation or actually call a stop to it. And that could be two ways. One is the threat has, you know, been eliminated and then we can go about our business. The other would be an actual door-to-door visitation by law enforcement to instruct the kids on what to do next. Evacuation is the next step. We're going to talk about two different types of evacuations. Uh there's going to be a safe haven relocation evacuation and then a reunification. So I'm going to talk about safe haven right now. So our setup in the school division is every school has a safe
058haven. For the most part, our safe haven is the high school of the attendant zone. So for example, McGrder Elementary would be Brutin High School. We would do a safe haven evacuation if we had a situation occur where we would not be able to send the kids home. For example, if we lost power, lost water, um had a sewer problem. And a lot of those situations, we may just opt to dismiss early. But if we had a situation where we had a gas leak and we would not be able to put the kids back in the building, the weather wasn't great, we would then revert them to a safe haven location. And then once that happens, support staff from the schoolboard office and then the school staff will work with um transportation and schoolboard office
059to determine do we send the kids home on the bus or are we going to have parents pick up or a combination of both. And then finally, the last action that we will talk about tonight is shelter. So, primarily what we're talking about here is severe weather, tornado, situations like that. Um, we would look at a shelter for also possibly an earthquake situation where we'd want to do that. All right. So, we're going to talk about reunification. We have also uh employed the I love you guys standard reunification method. We did that about four years ago and we actually have set up with community partners in the county four locations for each attendance zone where we would have a reunification location. We don't make those public because we want to keep them as secure as
060possible in the event something happens. The schoolboard office and operations employees are going to staff that center because if you can imagine if we're in a reunification situation that's because something very serious has happened at a building. We don't want to put that stress on the staff and the students. So, we will have people come in to do that. One of the things that we're particularly proud of is we have a reunification trailer that's ready because as I said earlier, our locations are not school sites. So, we have a trailer that is available that has everything that we need that we can run that um operation out of the trailer. Now, reunification. Obviously, families are going to play a big part in our reunification. In some incidents, as we said, students may need to be
061reunified off-site. YCSD, we are working constantly with fire and life safety and the sheriff's department and any other applicable agency to determine when it's safe to reunite. So, one thing we want families to know is these situations take time and we want to make sure that we have all our ducks in a row before we start releasing students to their parents. So families in an emergency situation, we realize this is difficult, but we want them to stay at home until such time that we notify the reunification center is open. We do realize that's going to be very difficult. But if we've looked at past um situations at schools when you have families come to the school where the crisis actually is, you're putting an unneeded burden on law enforcement and fire and life safety. So
062that's actually for the safety of the kids and first responders. We'd like you to stay informed. Please know that the school division will work very hard to keep everyone updated and the best way to do that is through the social media channels and the YCSD app. We'll be able to get those um communications directly. And then finally, be ready. When we make the decision to uh have you come to the reunification center, you're going to need to bring your ID. If for whatever reason you're not going to be able to pick up your child, make sure that the person that's on the pickup list is the person picking up and they'll need to have their ID. Also, we are very concerned with reuniting the right people with the right parents. Talk for a little bit
063about safety drills. Um there are state requirements for our safety drills. Our lockdown drills, we do two during the first 20 days and our kindergarten and preschool students do not participate in those. We do two more in the second semester. And I'd like to pause here and thank the sheriff's department for their continued support in providing us additional deputies to drill with us. So, this does a couple of things. One is it gets the kids used to what might happen in an actual emergency. And then it also gives those deputies an opportunity to get into our buildings and get the layout of the buildings in the event there's an emergency. Obviously, we do fire drills. We do uh one a week during September and then one a month after that. And then we also do
064a tornado and an earthquake drill um yearly. One of the drills that not many people know about and I'd like to take a minute to brag is the Vopec Siri power station drill. So for those of you who don't know at home, Siri power station is a nuclear power plant um in Suriri across the James River. That power plant affects our school division in the Brutin zone because four of our schools are actually in the emergency protective zone. Because of that, we work closely with the Virginia Department of Emergency Management and also FEMA to have plans in place in the event something happens. So YCSD has continually received high praise for our participation in the school specific exercise. We had one uh this past July and uh the gentleman that was the region 3 FEMA
065director attended that and uh went and told uh the fire and life safety crew that that was one of the best ones that he had seen and what they'll do is they'll throw situations at you and you have to respond in real time. Tab High and Grafton Complex serve as shelters for the public. Grafton Complex is going to be our shelter for the Brutin Zone uh students should we have to evacuate. and then tab high would serve as a shelter for the general public. Let's move on to school resource officers and school security officers. So, we've had school resource officers in place for many years now. What we haven't had, it's a little newer to us, our school security officers. Uh we are beginning our third year of school security officers in the division. We
066are beginning our second year with our supervisor of school safety and emergency management, Mr. Kyle Ha. Those of you who may not know, Kyle came to us after 30 years with the York Posen Sheriff's Department. Um, retiring as captain of community, I'm sorry, retiring as captain of uniform patrol. But more importantly before that, he served an extended period of time as captain of community services. It was during that time that Kyle actually developed a lot of the pro procedures and programs that we have in place today. So, we are extremely fortunate to have him. I'd like to say as of right now we are fully staffed and we have an school security officer trainer and that is Mr. Han. So the department of criminal justice requires that school security officers be certified. They have a
067certification program. One of the biggest challenges for us was getting these people trained. They have 60 days within date of hire to be trained. Mr. on taking that course and becoming a trainer has helped us bring those people on and then get them trained as soon as possible. And we've also worked out some agreements with surrounding areas that if they have people they need to train, we'll do some back and forth. And then one of the things we did this year for our school security officers is they are all certified in the Mance system and that is a deescalation system. So we are fortunate that we were able to work with special ed department and get that training for our folks. switch up to 900 megahertz radios. You may have heard us talk before about
068800 megahertz radios. Those are the radios that the sheriff's department, fire department, and there are two in each building. The 900 meghertz radios are another frequency that the schools use. This year, we were fortunate. We purchased 300 uh radios. We reoutfitted the entire school fleet. This allows easier communication during a crisis. Myself, Mr. Horn um senior levels of the community services and the fire and the sheriff's department have those radios so when we arrive on scene we can communicate directly with the principal and any other key staff members that have those radios. Also like to touch on our Valkcon PA system. I'm sure you're aware that we have been installing that system in our schools over the past 5 years. We have just begun the installation of our last school which is Yorkie which we
069hope to have that done around Christmas time or shortly after. The n one of the nicest things about the Valkcom system is the automated safety messaging that it provides. So all of the actions with the I love you guys the whole secure lockdown etc. Those are all programmed into our our PA system. So in the past before this system if we had a lockdown that would require someone in the front office to get on the PA and make an announcement. You can imagine how hard that would be in a stressful situation to do that. Now they can literally press a button or flip a switch and it's an automated message. So they can actually start taking protective measures while the schools being notified. And then it also provides external speakers at all of our buildings.
070In the past we had probably twothirds of our building had external speakers. They will all have external speakers now. The nice thing about that is if we call a secure at a school, the external speakers will notify the people that are outside and let them know that they need to come in immediately. So, I'd like to finish with the additional measures that we do to help provide the safest environment possible. We do annual building inspections. So every year we have an operations team that goes through the building with the principles and we look for maintenance deficiencies, but we also look and try to address any safety issues. Whether or not we have a door that's not operating properly or we have a situation that we feel we can improve that's noted and then we look
071to do that. We do school safety audits in conjunction with the sheriff's department and the school principles. Uh we are very fortunate that our fire department inspects our buildings yearly. They provide a very robust inspection process. And then we work, the maintenance department works with the principal and the school to address any deficiencies. And then finally, one of the new things that we've started doing recently is coordination meetings with the sheriff's department. You've heard me say several times, we enjoy a very robust partnership with the sheriff's department. And these meetings are a great forum to talk about things that we can do and then also a chance to debrief on situations that we've had, you know, so we can talk about how we can be better and how they can be better. >> Those are
072all the slides I have for you tonight. Are there any questions? >> Pretty much I will I will extend a uh praise. I got I I was fortunate enough to um be touring York Middle School in September and um I think it was what was it? Yeah, it was in September and I got to sit in on the uh uh debriefing on the fire drill >> and that was amazing. I mean just to see how on it they were looking at what worked well, what didn't, what do we all of the things, all the te's crossed, eyes dotted. It was very impressive. We are very fortunate that we have that relationship and we we continually I mean there is not a day that goes by that we're not in contact with someone from the fire
073department or the sheriff's department just over operational type things. >> Yeah, it was really well done. So, >> and board members, I'd add a couple of things. Uh you mentioned the the 900 megahertz radios and the Valcom at York High. Both of those we received security grants from the state. So, they were either paid for or subsidized by those grants. And that's from the work from Miss Ste Dr. Stevenson also you mentioned uh the uh the standard response protocol and you know our students aren't just in our schools they're also in other places and New Horizons switched to that process on October 10th they did their training on the 10th so on the 11th they went uh they went active with that so they are doing the same process so I thought that was important
074to raise >> thank you Mike. All right, we'll move on to our next presentation. Dr. Carol, what do we have up next? >> Thank you, Mrs. Goodwin. We will now have Dr. Aaron Butler, director of student services, and Miss Lisa Beasley, coordinator of testing and accountability, discuss a draft for the 2627 student council. Madame Chair, members of the board, and Dr. Carol, thank you for this opportunity this evening to present to you the 2026 27 draft school calendar. Per Virginia code, school divisions are required to develop school calendars with a minimum of 180 instructional days or 990 instructional hours. In addition, school divisions must ensure that there are 140 instructional hours per course for high school credit bearing classes, 560 instructional hours in the four core classes at the middle school level, and 680 instructional
075hours in the four academic disciplines at the elementary school level. Back in 2019, the general assembly amended Virginia Code to allow school divisions who had not previously been able to start school before Labor Day to receive a um a waiver so they could start 14 calendar days before Labor Day. The provision was that the Friday before Labor Day had to be closed for students and for instruction. And so the calendar tonight um does align with all state requirements for the calendar. Just for historical knowledge, when the school division shifted from a pre-LOR day to a I from a post Labor Day to a pre-LOR day schedule, Labor Day fell late in that year and so that minimized the impact on summer schedules. In addition, there also been a reduction in early dismissal days and that
076was from feedback from our families and also from staff particularly when it came to the instructional impact and childcare arrangements with our families. Some of the benefits of shifting our calendar and some of the things that we've done has been we've gained 12 to 15 hours of instruction at every level which equates to two or more instructional days. And so these are some of the change that we have made over the last couple of years when it comes to the calendar. Um back in March, we were able to give a survey out to families and we had a decent representation. We had 2,245 responders and of that 65% were our families here in York County. We had about 18% of our employees and then we have some employees uh who have children in the system
077that was 11% and we had 4% of our students that respond. And we use a variety of methods. We use text messages we're sent out on our school website as well as our school um news newsletters when we were eliciting feedback from our stakeholders. Option A was one of the question we asked if we started two weeks before Labor Day beginning on August the 24th and then we would have an end date of June the 9th. The other option option B was that we would start on August the 31st and we would end on June the 16th. Um, you can see from the results from the feedback survey, 59% of respondents did prefer option A where we would start two weeks before Labor Day beginning on August the 24th and that we would end on
078June the 9th. Because summer is always an impact for our families and students, we we also asked a question about preference. So, we asked if they would prefer 11week summer break with fewer student holidays during the school year. We also asked would they prefer a 10-week summer break with fewer additional student holidays during the year or a 9-week summer holiday with more student holidays spread out throughout the year. And so while there was a little bit of distance when you looked at the survey results, 41% of the respondents did say they preferred a 10-week summer break with fewer additional student holidays during the school year. One of the considerations that the committee has looked at for the past several years has been the impact of winter break. And so there was a strong um desire
079that we do maintain the two weeks of winter break um that allows families to use that time and also a time for reset for our students and staff. We are part of a larger regional committee and so Mrs. Beasley will talk about that. of making sure that we can align with our regional programs as many of our students do participate in Governor's School of New Horizon and then making sure we had breaks during the year to support well-being for students and for staff. At this time, I'm going to turn the presentation over to Miss Beasley who will go through the metrics and the decision we made for the calendar. >> Thank you, Dr. Butler. So, uh, as Dr. Ventler mentioned uh we do have both a local calendar committee and a regional calendar committee. The
080goal for our division calendar committee. The driving principle is to develop specifically a school calendar which best supports uh student academic success and meets state requirements. On our committee are teachers from all three levels, uh families, members, building administrators as well as our assessment compliance coordinators, school counselors, and then schoolboard office staff. uh that team came together and met once last spring after we had the results of the survey and then met again once this fall. Our regional calendar committee um does include represent uh representatives from Hampton, Newport News, Pakosen, Williamsburg, James City County, Gloucester and New Horizons. Uh we meet several times throughout the year depending on the needs of the um school divisions. Um, and ironically, we actually have a meeting tomorrow where we're going to actually start to think about our 2728
081calendars, if you can believe it or not. So, what this slide does is it compares our current year calendar. So, it compares the calendar of the 2025 2026 school year as compared to the draft calendar for the 2026 2027 school year. I do want to make a note that these are key dates that we have here on the slide, but the full draft calendar for the 2627 school year is available in board docs for our community. So you can see this year we started school on August 25th and the recommendation for next year is that we start school on August 24th. The key change and the key difference between this year's calendar and next year's calendar is that Labor Day. Um so Labor Day this year was on Friday or was on Monday September 1st
082and Labor Day next year is on um September 7th. Um so that is where we see the difference in the calendar and that's why it's a key year where we can make that shift to being 14 days before Labor Day without it having a sign significant impact on the calendar. You can see actually that there's strong consistency then through the rest of the calendar. Thanksgiving break would remain three days. Winter break would remain those two full weeks and three weekends as Dr. Butler mentioned and spring break uh would remain the first full week of April which is something as a region we've consistently done um over the past few years. So, the calendar for the 2627 school year will be on the agenda for approval, not during tonight's meeting, but during the November 24th regular
083session. Um, and at this time, Dr. Butler and I are available for questions. >> Questions? >> I have a question. Uh, I do have one. Uh, and I looked at the overall, and I've brought this up before. Is there any way that we could have, especially since we're coming up on the 250th anniversary, uh, and all of those celebrations for next year, getting Yorktown Day off since that is a school day. >> I know in the past we used to. >> Yeah. So, we did consider it. Um, we um met as a small committee and then um contacted our uh local government officials to see if there would be any events specifically on Yorktown Day to see what the impact might be. They indicated to us that the events were going to mainly uh consist
084the weekend prior to Yorktown Day and that they planned on doing most of the events on Saturday and Sunday. >> Really? Okay. >> So, we wouldn't really need that day off. >> And that was the conversation we had as as we were um making that decision to contact those local officials and see what the impact might be. Um because we did recognize and and the um our calendar committee, it was actually a discussion in our calendar committee about if there was going to be a more significant impact then yes, we did need to look at potentially making that um a student andor staff holiday. >> Yeah. Because I know in the past it's always been actually on Yorktown Day for the parade. Um, I know the ambassador from France and staff come down from Washington
085and I imagine it's probably going to even be bigger this year. So, they're definite that it's going to be over the weekend, not on actual Yorktown Day. >> The feedback we were provided was that it was going to be the weekend, >> which makes sense, I think, because a lot of people just can't take off necessarily for that day. If they're not given that day off, I mean, it would be hard. So, to have it on the weekend, you're going to get more people involved. So that makes sense. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> Okay. Thank you. I think we're up to policy discussion. >> Yes, ma'am. We have uh as you know, we bring a whole policy section to you on a quadrronial basis. And it is now time to review policy
086section C. And so, Miss A, Miss Barry is with us to uh review the proposed changes to policy section C. Madam chair, board members, Dr. Carol, tonight before you as policy se general school administration for discussion. There are 15 restatements. So there's no changes other than anything you know that's a change allowed under the policy and there are three that have revisions. The three that have revisions, we have CBA qualifications and duties for the superintendent and these revisions are due to uh state code and to align with VSBA. The next one is CBG evaluation of superintendent and the changes there are to uh update to be compliant with Virginia code as well as the guidelines for uniform performance standards and evaluation criteria for superintendence that the uh Virginia board of education puts out. The third
087policy is CLA reporting acts of violence and child abuse which is now substance abuse. uh and that is a complete rewrite of the policy and uh we have opted to use the VSBA version to align with the law and I would be open for any questions. >> Anybody have any specific questions? >> Which ones are specific? Like you said not only uh Virginia law but VSBA >> um CBA last two >> and CLA. Thank you. Okay, we good. All right, I think that was our last presentation. All right, thank you for being here this evening, everybody. We'll have a break before our regular board meeting at 7 PM upstairs in the boardroom. This meeting is cherred.