001I call to order the regular meeting of the York County School Board for March 25th 2024 I'd like to welcome everyone this evening uh we have quite a bit of important business so we'll get uh started right away and the first thing that's important is we have a special young lady who is going to be uh leading Us in the Pledge of Allegiance and while she comes up I'll read read some information about her Josephine Johnson is a fifth grader at Grafton bethl Elementary School Josephine is a member of our school's anchored for Life Club where she acts as an ambassador to all new students to our school in collaboration with our school counselor she gives our newest Grizzlies tours of the building and welcome kits to support a smooth transition to the school she
002also appears on our Grizzly Morning News show where she is responsible for reading an inspirational quote Josephine organized the club's pet Drive service project where the school is collecting and donating pet supplies to thepca Josephine is always willing to lend a helping hand to her teachers and classmates she is a kind-hearted young lady who consistently models the characteristics of positive Grizzly she is a great big sister and friend with her empathetic and caring personality in her spare time she enjoys swimming crocheting camping with her family and exploring places such as Germany and the Dominican Republic she is actively striving to enhance her speaking and reading ability by reading and listening to books in German she's always busy working on projects and coming up with new ideas Grafton bethl Elementary is pleased to announce her as
003our pledge leader for the month please stand I Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you so much and um let's see we have seniors of the month uh Dr shandor do you want to help with that or okay that's that sounds good uh is brutin are they here yet okay they're they're on their way I think they're caught in traffic so uh we're going to move down to Grafton High School Mr pich well I would like to ask Shad uh bra uh bra boy stand up and please be recognized so and and your family as well so Grafton High School is very proud to name Shad Bri boy uh
004Bri boy as a March senior of the month academically shade sits among the top 10 of the senior class with an impressive 4.34 GPA she has challenged herself by taking numerous Advanced and AP classes not only will Shad graduate in 2024 with numerous honors but her teachers hold her in high regards as a member of the Grafton High School Marching Band Spanish music and National Honor Society shade has been involved in a leader uh leader boat in and out of the classroom she has a served as a second chair for caution in the Grafton High School wind assemble shade also participated in Grafton drama Productions she has taken part in the Grafton High School 10 minutes plays and was in the cast of the Once Upon A matters performing the last fall shade also is
005a member of the Virginia Earth system science Scholars where she was able to spend a week at the NASA Langley planning a hypo hypothetical Mission addressing sea level change shade has been recognized at the ancap awards every year of high school for her for her academical Excellence she also loves giving back to to the community and is a member of the branches of divine Community Church media team where she operates the living the live feed and visuals for her church Sunday Services gron high is a very happy to name shade Bri boy March's senior of the month she empathize epitomizes what what it truly means to be a Clipper and we can wait to see what she does next thank you great [Applause] job thank you so much and congratulations uh I actually have tab
006high school and it's Alyssa Vargas if you could please stand and any of your family with You tab high is proud to announce Alyssa Vargas as our senior of the month for March with an impressive five or excuse me 4.95 91 GPA Alyssa has demonstrated outstanding academic excellence Alyssa serves as the president of girls who code where she spearheads the creation of monthly newsletters that highlight coding she has also organized coding workshops at the Mariners Museum catering to students ages 10 to 14 Alysa has played a major role in expl expanding access to stem education in underserved communities Alysa is also the founder and president of the international language Club she successfully recruited 20 members and actively support students in maintaining their language skills Alyssa is also the president of the research Club where she
007provides valuable guidance to her peers in their research Endeavors Alyssa had the opportunity to collaborate with a computational Linguistics Professor where she verified 400 Behavioral Science papers to ensure program accuracy engaging in another project she developed a vector search engine enabling text and image embeddings grateful for the chance to delve into her field and her passion she looks forward to attending Yale University upon graduation with anticipation for her promising future we congratulate Alysa our tab High School senior of the [Applause] month thank you so much and congratulations uh Mrs Goodwin could you introduce your Kai's senior the month it is mat our our York uh High School senior of the month is Matthew fan um Matthew had a previous engagement with his youth Youth Orchestra and he cannot attend this evening so he will attend
008May's meeting and we will celebrate him at that time that's great thank you very much on that and Mr Schaefer do we have brutin brutin representative here he's on his way he still on his way all right we'll probably we'll probably do it right after ACC for academics that's that sounds good we'll give them some time to come in alrighty then uh the next section is student service Awards uh Mr Richardson yes thank you I have the pleasure of uh introducing the student service award for Grafton bethl Elementary Morgan Kent if Morgan can come forward with Miss [Applause] humble it is with great pleasure that we announce and celebrate the exceptional dedication and service of one of our outstanding fifth grade students Morgan Kent she has consistently gone above and beyond in contributing to our
009school Community embodying the spirit of service leadership and compassion Morgan has demonstrated leadership at Grafton bethl Elementary and serving on the principal Advisory Group and being a positive role model to her peers she shows empathy and compassion towards her classmates teachers and staff during our principal Advisory Group monthly meeting she brings ideas and suggestions on how to make graft and bethl Elementary a positive and nurturing environment for all she is leading the group and creating a presentation proposal to share with our PTA to ask for funds to purchase a floor for our school's GaGa ball pit in their spare time Morgan enjoys running track crocheting and cheering Morgan is a member of the Hampton Roads hurricanes track club and a 2024 AA track and field All-American she is a national silver medalist in the long
010jump and she currently has 11 AA track and field All-American medals she was also awarded The Bu Williams king and queen indoor track and field in her age group Morgan is also active member of a Girl Scout Troop City Hurricanes cheerleading captain and Tri City hurricanes basketball and an active member of Ivy Baptist Church 116 youth ministry please join us and congratulating Morgan Kent as Grafton bethl student service award winner that's great Gaga gag GaGa ball thank you very much thank you for that all learned something tonight uh Mr schaer if you could introduce our next student service award winner okay hey Gabriela hen come on down yeah I've known Gabby since she was a baby and she was in my wife's first grade class and now here she is a senior she's here tonight
011with uh her father Howard Townsen I fourth uh her mother Cara her grandmother Miss Preston and our brother Howard Townsen the fth okay we are honored to recognize Gabriela Townsen as a student a service award winner for brutin high school for her outstanding dedication to service leadership and Community engagement Gabby has demonstrated a genuine commitment to her peers well-being as well as the Improvement of VHS and our community she's an active member of multiple School organizations volunteering through Key Club National Honor Society principal advisory Council Panther achievement leaders just to name a few Gabby's impact on our school culture goes beyond membership and clubs and organizations her determination to make her peer school year memorable resulted in experiences and events which will become part of every Panther's High School experience for years to come she
012has spear spearheaded with unparalleled enthusiasm students faculty basketball that was great and volleyball games 100th day of school senior service day Powderpuff and the senior parking basis Gabby's service to BHS each day serves as a shining example of the positive impact one Panther can have on a school we're immensely proud to present Gabby with his well-deserved recognition for her outstanding contributions to our school Community congratulations [Applause] Gabby thank you and Mr Richardson would you please introduce the community volunteer of the month yes our community our community volunteer of the month comes from graft and bethl Elementary Lee Lincoln she could come forward with Miss [Applause] humble Grafton bethl would like to recognize Lee Lincoln as the volunteer of the month Miss Lincoln is a parent of a first and fourth grader and in collaboration with
013our school counselor Miss Lincoln created the yoga Club each Monday morning the club meets in the gym to start their week week positively Miss Lincoln teaches the students in the club all about the benefits of yoga she teaches our students that the combination of mindful breathing meditation and physical movement in yoga helps activate the relaxation response reducing stress and promoting a sense of calm the yoga Club Fosters a sense of belonging to the school connection contributing to the overall well-being of our students Miss Lincoln is also a member of The Helping Hands group at graft and bethle Elementary each Wednesday a group of parent volunteers meet to to laminate prep and provide support for our teachers and staff Miss Lincoln is also an assistant coach of our school's girl on the Run team as a
014trained coach she uses uses physical activity and dynamic discussions to build social emotional and physical skills while encouraging healthy habits for Life Mrs Lincoln is also currently a graduate student at William and Mary and is studying to be a school counselor when she is not at graft and bethl volunteering she enjoys running teaching yoga coaching soccer and spending time with her family please join us in congratulating Miss Lincoln as Grafton be volunteer [Applause] theight thank you so much and Mr schaer could you please uh introduce the York foundation for public education presentation I'd be happy to I'd like to invite Miss Kathleen Murphy New York foundation for public education member to step forward and assist Dr shandor as he presents gifts to each of our award recipients p uh please come for up front when
015you hear your name called congratulations to Josephine Johnson a fifth grade student from gron Beth Elementary School for reciting the Pledge of Allegiance at tonight's school board meeting we would also like to recognize there you go tonight's student service award recipients Morgan Kent from graft bethon Grafton bethl Elementary School and Gabriela Townsen from brutin high school we also congratulate our seniors of the month and just to note that uh York High Senior of the month Matthew fan will be recognized at May's regular uh board meeting as he was unable to attend tonight but tonight we have sha uh Bray booy from Grafton High School [Applause] school and Alyssa Vargas from tab high school special gifts from cookie text and edible tweet are being presented on behalf of the York foundation for public education in partnership
016with her donor Jean foca of cookie text and edible tweet a Walmart gift card is also being donated by a foundation supporter join me in congratulating all our award recipient [Applause] thank you so much all right uh Dr shandor could you please share some information about tonight's Accent on academics oh sure wonderful y all right Mr schaer if you could introduce Bru and High's senior of the month and we're so glad you were able to make it yes there we go Ryan Den come on down or stand up I'm sorry stand up with your family was calling you out uh and your your family can stand also yeah Will embar Sim along right with you okay there you go congratulations [Applause] yes brutin High School is proud to recognize Ryan d as our March 2024
017student of the month throughout his high school career Ryan has exhibited a desire to P pursue academic Excellence each year he has taken Advanced and or AP level courses while maintaining an above average grade point average his course of steud includes the highest level of course offered at our school this year Ryan continues to maintain rigor as he enrolled in a full schedule of courses to include five a level courses that's as a senior so he's not slacking off his senior year uh in addition to his academic Pursuits and responsibilities Ryan is an active member of our school and local community he is a member of the soccer and cross country teams and was inducted into into the Spanish and math honor societies through his membership in Key Club Ryan Volunteers in the Community he
018juggles all of these responsibilities while working a part-time job at a local restaurant when asked Ryan's teacher commented on Ryan's resiliency and ability to adapt quickly he stands out as a leader in the classroom but is always willing to collaborate with classmates he is somewhat of an enigma as he can be the serious student but also that guy that gets all the students hyped at a school pep rally Ryan is an example of the type of responsible citizen that our school strives to create he he is ambitious determined and sympathetic the needed ingredients to make us make a successful Collegian student and productive citizen congratulations [Applause] Ryan very cool [Applause] and thank you so much and so now Dr shandor with Accent on academics thank you Miss Fairman good evening board members this evening Queens
019Lake Middle School will be presenting information regarding their um the Great American Park project as Queens Lake Middle School continues to focus on integrating reading and writing across the curriculum as well as engaging students through real world applications the goal of this project for his for US History 2 students was to create an amusement park that represents the different regions of the United States and highlight the unique qualities of each region students utilize creativity collaboration critical thinking skills and in-depth inquiry as they progress through this long- range project in history class so I'm going to ask Miss Candace Welch the principal from Queens Lake if she'll please come up and introduce her team good evening and thank you for spotlighting Queens Lake Middle School for this month's Accent on academics I am Candace Welch proud
020principal at Queens Lake and this year we have been very committed to literacy as we recognize the importance for our future ready graduates to have solid foundations in reading and writing one of our schoolwide goals is taking an all Hands-On deck approach by intentionally building in effective reading strategies as well as content related writing opportunities for our students across the curriculum we recognize that the hard work to truly meet the needs of our students has to be done in social studies science math and Encore classes and cannot solely be an effort for our English Department and reading specialist our exceptional staff at Queens lake has risen to the challenge and Mr Brian Cole in particular understood the assignment and will soon share how he incorporates the elements of literacy into his US History 2 classes
021Mr Cole is in his 28th year teaching and is not only an incredibly talented history teacher he also serves as our department head for history is a mentor teacher student connection coach and goes above and beyond to build meaningful relationships with students and engage them in high quality lessons each day a personal passion of his is theme parks and he is actually one of the voices of the Sesame Street Forest of fun at Bush Gardens Williamsburg Mr Cole was able T to tie together our literacy goal his so focus of diverse regions of the United States and his passion for theme parks into an excellent learning opportunity for our students I'm excited for you all to hear from him and for of our outstanding students this evening as they share their perspectives on completing this
022long range Project without further Ado I'd like to hand the presentation over to the outstanding Mr Brian Cole thank you Mrs Welsh as we all know writing is not merely a skill confined to English class it is a key to unlocking a world of comprehension and critical thinking for our students as a former Elementary School teacher I know the importance of writing for our students as a history teacher currently at the secondary level I also know that writing allows our students to explore and understand historical events perspectives and and The Human Experience therefore it is important for me to continue to incorporate writing in my class whether it's creating fabricated stories to learn more about yellow journalism or writing Letters From The Trenches on the Western Front during World War I I try to work
023in writing projects that provide our students with diverse opportunities to engage with the past one of these writing projects involved students working in groups to create sections of a theme park that highlight each region and sign significant City that we were studying here to present their project are Leah Bonnie Lydia and Lucy Welcome to our Park hi my name is Bonnie and I'm going to show you guys the Northeast region of our Park we're all very excited to start this project the first thing we did was choose a team with a maximum of five people then we chose our three regions we brainstorm ideas for the rides and split the work evenly Lucy wrote the paragraphs Lydia designed the maps and Leah and I designed most of the rides and sides an important part of
024the here was riding this paragraph gives an overview of the Northeast region of our park we talk about our four rides and the nine states in the region which are Pennsylvania New Jersey New York Connecticut Rhode Island Massachusetts Vermont New Hampshire and Maine our first ride in the Northeast region was the New York City Big Apple we named the D after the city's nickname the Big Apple next we have the Boston Tea plunge many historical events have happened in Boston one of them was the Boston Tea Party in this ride you are the CR of tea and at the end of the ride you get splashed in the water then we have the Philadelphia skyline this ride lets to experience the famous Skyline on an electrifying roller coaster last but definitely not least is the
025three City Pittsburgh this R highlights the two rivers that form the Ohio River the Pittsburgh river is a lazy river that flows around the entire Northeast region of our Park hi my name is Lydia my role in this group project was to create the maps these maps are separated into NorthEast Southwest and Rocky Mountains I create these Maps using Google and Cana this is the map of the Northwest region includes the Boston Tea plunge the New York Big Apple the Pittsburgh river which is the teal line going all around this region of the park and the skyline of Philadelphia this area includes facilities like parking the ticket booth and restrooms in this region my favorite ride is the New York Big Apple hello my name is Lucy I wrote all the paragraphs introducing each region
026two of the criteria for the project were to inform the guests about how many states there are in that region and to write about each ride for the southwest region there are several States including Arizona New Mexico Oklahoma and Texas as well as rides based on the major cities in these states for the first ride we chose a colorful roller coaster to highlight Santa fe's love for color the next ride was a water plunge to tell tell the story of the Alamo and like bu Gardens Pompei you experience the Battle of the Alamo and as you near the end of the ride you get splashed into a pool of refreshing water to signify that you have made it through the battle and are safe and here we are again at the Southwest map the rides
027in this map are the Santa Fe color coaster and the San Antonio Alamo the facilities here are a snack bar another restroom picnic tables and a first aid station I like the cactus I added hi my name is Leah and I will be presenting the rocky mountain region one of the checklist items that we had to complete was to write a conclusion sentence at the end of the paragraph when you write a paragraph you should always have a sentence that summarizes the major points for each region we had to design an amusement park ride that highlights the significance of cities one of the cities that is located in the Rocky Mountain Reg is Salt Lake City Utah for this city we created a ride that is a paddle boat shaped like a duck you paddling
028through a lake this ride is shaped like a duck because Salt Lake City has lots of birds the next city is Denver Colorado for this ride you're wearing 40 glasses you're portraying a snow skier who is trying to get away from a Yeti that is chasing you we created this ride because Denver is very snowy and who knows maybe contains the here too this is our Rocky Mountain map the rides for this areir include the Salt Lake duckies and the Denver skiers and the yeti I added the statue of the dabbing Yeti for fun the facilities here are another snack bar and restrooms Salt Lake duckies is my favorite ride overall this re this is all our regions combined to make the full Park map this map was definitely the hardest one to create and
029that is our proposal for the Great American Park does anybody have any [Applause] questions who has some questions Mrs Goodwin yes I was just wondering that's amazing it looks like a lot of fun what was your favorite part in creating this park project um my favorite part was probably getting to work like with my friends and my group and also being able to had any ride that we wanted just to create our own like theme park how long did it take you to get uh all this stuff together I mean that's pretty amazing um it took around two weeks I think yeah around two weeks so how do you guys pick your own regions we looked at the Cara and then decided which ones we we we like the best just had a question uh
030had you studied the regions before you started this or was the study of the regions while you were doing it or a little of both the unit before this it was we were talking about all the states and the regions and so this was the project to like sum up that unit now I have a question where um where are you going to put this theme park uh probably in the center of the United States where everybody can come in and just see the regions that's really great does anybody else have any comments or questions I want to thank you so much I know when I was teaching um I coordinated a lot I was an English teacher and coordinated with some of the different core subjects to get writing and reading in those subjects
031and it was a lot of fun and I know the students enjoyed that so I think it's wonderful that you're continuing you know to do the same thing for your students absolutely wonderful thank you Mr call just thank you also for doing such a great job appreciate [Applause] you there we go at this time we will shake take take a short recess uh so tonight's award recipients can get some pictures and I know a lot of the students leave uh to be ready for school tomorrow so we will take a short recess thank you we'll now reconvene our business meeting uh Mrs Goodwin would you please introduce our guests for the invocation thank you madam chair um for the invocation this evening we have Pastor Alvin georgees from the mount Peninsula Church who offer the
032invocation Pastor georgees you have read and understand the guidelines for delivering the invocation yes I do thank you yes I have thank you for the opportunity to serve tonight here's my prayer gracious and heavenly father thank you for the time we've have tonight to come together as a team to better our community better our schools and to equip and to empower the Next Generation we ask that everything that is done and said tonight would ultimately please you every decision that is made every plan that is presented let it come into alignment with what you will we pray for every board member that they would have the grace of wisdom and discernment to push this system to a greater level of progress and productivity in your name we pray amen amen thank you very much uh
033we do not have any unfinished business this evening so we will be moving along to our presentations um and the first thing is board member committee updates uh as a board we're going to be sharing information related to our committees that we serve on let's see uh believe let's see district one Mr schaer okay yes I'm I'm the York foundation for public education uh board member uh that is in aligned with them and we had our meeting last month it was very good we talked about the golf tournament that's coming up so anyone that's a golfer uh it's going to be here local uh not out at kisak this year so we'd like to get as many golfers as possible as this is probably our biggest uh fundraiser of the year and I'm going to
034put a plug in a Shameless plug for yfp uh that would like to have more members Okay so so uh if you'd like to be part of an organization that helps not only raise money but administer uh the scholarships and the the different things that they do to support the teachers and students of York County uh yfp is for you um I think that we've had uh a number of people over the years give their heart and soul into it and they put out about $80,000 worth of scholarship ship a year so they do a good job and it's and it's strictly for uh the schools and students and teachers of yourk County School District okay thank you very much uh District Two Mr pich all right I would like to just give an update
035on uh committee that I'm a part of it's the CTE advisory committee which is the Career Technical education advisory committee uh we discussed uh several options and uh we completed review of comprehensive local needs assessment plan uh the review is done every two years uh as part of the annual uh strengthening Career and Technical education for 21st century act uh which includes the Perkins Grant application uh also we reviewed the budget uh priorities for the year uh for the Perkins Grant application that have two requirements which is required expend expenditures and and permissive expenditures uh with required expenditures there is professional development uh support for special populations and a regional program participation uh and for permissive expenditures industry certification exams equipment and instructional resources uh during our uh meeting we had a presentation uh from
036several student groups uh uh especially from the tab High School uh which we get up which where we where we got an update about technology uh education uh they showed us house framing models that they've been building uh they were designed uh the the group of the student they designed a winning tro trophy for the ycsd elementary stem challenge uh was very impressive uh group of uh kids that took upon themselves to build it and actually use the three 3D printer uh to make it uh then we got update on marketing and education uh from different groups uh also we were presented with the unmined aircraft system that we had nine uh students from the tab High School who passed the fa FAA remote pilot certification uh which was great news uh njrc visited the
037US Coast Guard training facility and uh Deca State leadership conference uh we have 19 students that competed 14 students earned proficiency certificates in their events four students qualify for the international career development um uh conference which is going to be next month in California also FBLA Regional Conference 13 students competed and eight students qualify for the state leadership conference so that concludes my report for my committee thank you thank you very much uh District three Mrs Goodwin yes um I am on the GAC committee which is the gifted education advisory committee and we have not met uh this month we will met meet next month then I will have um more updates as well as the health advisory committee which I believe is meeting next month that sounds great thank you very much uh District
038Four Mr Richardson yes I have a committee report for the Hampton Roads education advisory Council for whro uh they will be offering some grants uh and to entities that are in our region and these are all just small grants raising about $3 to $5,000 I think they have about $105,000 worth of of grant money to uh to divvy out uh they also talked about offerings from presentations from the Virginia Opera to students in our area to learn about the Opera uh in addition they will have a new online course offerings in algebra and some other courses um the wh spelling be has already happened but they won't uh actually put it out and broadcast it until April 6th because of other uh spelling bees going on within throughout the state uh so they have a
039certain date that they can't uh televise that so that'll will be televised April 6th at 2 p.m. and all the agenda and reports uh from the meeting are uploaded on board docs thank you thank you very much and um I have for District 5 on March 19th I attended the special education advisory committee meeting and it's usually known as cak so if you see sea that's what it stands for uh it was at the Schoolboard office parents and staff attended in person and some parents attended via video conference to participate in the discussions this committee is a great resource for our special education community and I encourage you all to call the Schoolboard office to get information about attending future meetings as well as volunteering Mrs Hopkins presentation reviewed upcoming Grant funds and how they
040will be spent and the need to fill open committee leadership positions of cak terms ending in June this is your way to get involved to help your child as well as our other students here in white ysd one of the main discussion points uh was a need to improve communication to our entire ycsd Community for seak activities with enough time for families to know about it to be able to participate we had several suggestions from parents on how to do this and the staff will be working on implementing different ways and timing to reach everyone so everyone has an opportunity to attend and participate and one of the important things that was announced um uh very important event is coming on 23 April it will be the return of the Special Olympics little feet meet
041it's for our kindergarten through fifth grade students it will be at tab High School's track from 10:00 a.m. to 1 p.m. we also need High School volunteers to help with the activities that day this event is for the entire ycsd Community to enjoy cheering on our students keep an eye out for emails and school announcements on how to participate as an athlete family or volunteer this event has been missing since the 2020 lockdowns so everyone is really excited to see it return and so keep an eye out on that for more details and that completes my report for the Committees appreciate everybody uh getting that information and passing it along to our citizens uh next on the agenda is we have the 20242 5 annual plan for title 6B Federal funding and Dr shandor could
042you please introduce this yes thank you Miss Fairman Mr termaine Hopkins our director of special education is going to present the 2024 2025 annual plan for title 6B Miss Hopkins thank you Dr shandor good evening Madam chair and Schoolboard members tonight I'm here to share information about the special education annual plan Federal Regulations require local school divisions to submit an application and annual plan for providing special education and related services to students with disabilities annually School divisions submit a Grant application that outlines their use of funding these Grant funds are called title 6B section 611 and section 619 additionally annual plans are required to be reviewed by our school board in addition to our local cak in developing the annual plan my team and I collaborated with a variety of stakeholders on March 6th and
0437th the team met with area private schools and homeschool families that reside within ycsd during this time we shared information about the special education process as well as available resources as Mrs fman said on March 19th we also shared our uh annual plan Proposal with our local cak and gathered feedback so when applying for federal funds School divisions must certify that they will comply with the several requirements outlined in the grant additionally they must address any barriers to Equitable access for students as it relates to special education as shared here there are no barriers to full participation of our students with disabilities and Y CSD strives to ensure Equitable access for all students additional components of the grant include addressing providing students who may be in jail with special education services however there are no
044local or Regional jails within our County to provide students with those Services ycsd must also implement the annual plan that was prepared in 2223 and we are not required to set aside the 15% for coordinated early intervening Services as we are not a School Division that has been identified as having significant disproportionality as it relates to over representation of students with disabilities or students with a particular impairment proportionate set aside is a component of the grant that requires school divisions to set aside funds for students who are parentally placed parentally placed students are those who have been placed in a private school by their families or those who are homeschooled the Virginia Department of Education uses a calculation tool to determine the required set aside amount that ycsd must provide the York County School Division
045is required to set aside $1,192 for parentally placed students in previous years These funds have been used to provide speech language services for those students who may require it the title 6B BR Grant sorry also require Virginia school divisions to maintain a maintenance of effort obligation often referred to asee requires that ycsd spend at least the same amount or greater on special education services as that that was spent through the previous year so as shared earlier their grant funding is divided into two areas title 6B section 611 from for ages 3 to 21 and section 619 for ages 3 to 5 the chart before you illustrates our proposed request of funding for Section 611 in the amount of $2,581 n81 as you can see the majority of these funds are used for employee salary and
046benefits specific allocations of these funds are used for 18.4 special education teachers 34.5 par educators two oral communication facilitators one interpreter one speech pathologist and one special education coach these allocations do not represent ycsd special education Staffing in totality rather it is the specific Al sorry specific specific positions that will be funded through this grant remaining funding for special education does come from our local budget these positions do support preschool through 12th grade special educ ation Services restricted indirect cost represents the administrative costs related to the implementation of our programming and this cost is calculated at 2.6% of the grant totaling $7,795 this chart shows our request for funding for Section 619 which is our early childhood special education grant in the amount of $54,500 as you can see the majority of the funds are
047again used for employees salary and benefits totaling $3,554 for 1.5 pair educator there are materials and supplies in the amount of 9,629 and restricted indirect cost accounting for $1,383 in closing our next steps are to obtain consent for the from the school board as presented in your consent agenda tonight and submit the application to the Virginia Department of Education by May 10th as required at this time I'll take any questions you may have board members do you have any questions I do actually so what you saying now what's been allocated uh what's been asked for allocation in title uh 6B mhm section 611 for 2.5 million that's required by the law but we going to be it's not enough for what we need correct no so typically that is not representative of the entire funding
048to support special education is this enough money is this enough money to support what you guys need so it is to cover the positions that I've shared um in those specific allocations though our local budget does need to take a chunk of um the positions to cover the salary and benefits M Hopkins is the um is this grant renewable I mean is it one yes we apply annually okay yes good yes that's definitely helpful it is any other questions or comments thank you so much Miss Hopkins you're welcome thank you Miss Hopkins you're welcome Dr Andor uh if you would please uh introduce our presenter for the Schoolboard member Alliance policy Services um are the guys by up uh are Tech Guys Jean are they going to pull her up there she is just like
049clockwork all right Miss Vicky Manning the school board member Alliance director will be joining us via Zoom to share information regarding policy Services I have a question is there any way to get it on that screen yep I think uh you just asked you shall receive thank you it Department we definitely appreciate that thank you very much um all right Miss Manning good evening honorable school board members and Dr shandor my name is Vicky Manning and I'm a director with the Schoolboard member Alliance thank you so much for inviting me to present this evening on the topic ofma policy and legislative legislative Services first I'd like to introduce uce you to our organization spma is a 501c3 nonprofit that exists to help provide Schoolboard members with the necessary skills and expertise to govern and make
050informed decisions that positively impact their communities our policy team consists of individuals from diverse backgrounds such as current and former Schoolboard members former teachers administrators and professors attorneys and even an expert in proc as a leader of the policy team I personally have professional experience in both policy and contract development application I also have a master's degree in law with a focus of study on legislation and regulation constitutional law Regulatory Compliance and other courses of study relevant to policy I believe having a team of individuals who bring different viewpoints to policy creation is very important for for example having teachers on the team to provide a voice of how policy will impact the classroom is imperative the SP spma annual policy and legislative packet is provided to our clients in May and it includes sample
051policies related to new or updated legislation that has been adopted by the Virginia General General Assembly a summary of all new legislation related to education that impact school boards even if speciic specific policy changes are not required as I'm sure you know often legislation requires changes by Administration but doesn't necessarily require a specific policy change we will even provide that guidance to you so that you can provide this information to your staff All sample policies that we provide will be Pro will be approved by an attorney for legal sufficiency in addition to the May packet our team will monitor decisions made by the vdoe throughout the year as you know the legislature will often create laws that provide authority to the vooe to create regulations that school boards must then follow throughout the year we
052will monitor any regulations created by the vooe and we will notify our clients and provide guidance and Sample policies if required by the regulation we also have a team member who is designated to monitor Federal legislation and regulation that could impact school boards we will also provide guidance and necessary sample policies as needed throughout the year on federal legislation in advance of this meeting I provided your clerk with some handouts that include a sample a small sample of our policy and legislative packet from last year in total the full packet that we provided last year detailed 36 new laws or legislative changes that impacted schools we received very positive feedback from our members who received this policy and legislative packet they said it was instrumental in helping them to do their jobs as school board
053members to adopt policy and stay informed thank you for your interest in learning more about spma policy services and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have on this topic right board members do you have any questions Mrs Goodwin um Miss Manny I have a few questions the first question I as had is um who reviews and writes the sample policies at the spma so as I mentioned in my presentation it's a team of individuals okay um who have diverse backgrounds um we have uh our team is made up of current and former Schoolboard members teachers administrators procurement experts attorneys and myself and I explained a little bit about about my background we all work together to come up with those sample policies do you have to be a member ofma to utilize the
054policy Services uh no you would contract with us directly as a school board all right thank you I just have a few sure Mr Richardson um so who vets the policies for the legal compliance what what attorney does that uh right now we have a couple of attorneys that we work with it's Josh hler and Daniel Rose Josh hexler you said Josh hler and Daniel Rose if I could interject a question do they have a background in um policy law for yes doing okay board members any other yes I was I still have more questions that was that was actually my next question was there um their background in policy law um so our board attorney tried to we've been trying to figure out what sbma sbma was and more information on it for a
055couple months now uh she attempted to join is she allowed to join as a member to get these sample policies no our organization is only for school board members okay so our board attorney who vets the policies that we get through vsba or anywhere else wouldn't have access to them just through one of us right through you you can certainly share that information with your attorney is there any reason why she couldn't become a member or an attorney Camp right now our um membership is only open to Schoolboard members okay so when we um are there any trainings available to to attorneys or board attorneys on policies or anything like vsba has not currently we only offer training to Schoolboard members and how long have you been offering the policy Services it's I mean it
056was just um uh last year um we gave the policy services to all of our members at no cost but this is our first year that we are charging for them okay and you have a contract that you do to show that right yes we will have a contract yes okay I had uh several constituents expressing that sbma is uh represented as a partisan organization uh are you guys partisan organization or no we are not we are a 501c3 and to date we don't even Lobby um I had also a question regarding uh policy reviews uh in general um I know vsba does not offer the service to review the policies on a local level just on a federal do you guys do uh the Rev use of the policies on local level so we
057can offer some other policy um Pol some other other services outside of our policy Services contract um we recommend that school boards across the state actually um have a policy Review Committee many of our members do that in their local school divisions where you have school board me members who sit on a committee along with your staff members to help create um the policies and review the policies that you have as as you know you're required as a school board to review your policies every five years and so we recommend that you form a policy committee to do that and sbma is more than happy to sit down with you and help you to create that policy committee and equip you to do that on your own thank you so you said um that y'all
058don't Lobby uh you don't have a lobbyist but miss story has been lobbyist in the past that she's no longer Lobby is no longer a lobbyist she's not lobbied for sbma no okay no longer she used to be I mean not for our organization okay I have another question uh Miss Manning it's my understanding under um chapter 7 of Virginia code from reading it um the board is charged with the responsibility really of writing the policy drafting policy approving policy and so forth and so on is that correct in your yes absolutely and that's why we really emphasize the need for a policy Review Committee because it is the role of the school board members um to oversee any policy changes and approvals and it's definitely a best practice um for the board members to
059actually take charge of that and be responsible for it thank you so you're saying Miss uh story doesn't Lobby for vs V uh sbma sbma um but she does Lobby for VPAP org is that correct I can only speak to s spma i I'm in you know I I'm I can't I'm not sure who you referred to there okay all right thank you but Mr Schaefer I think you've been waiting for I'm trying I'm trying to jump in every now and then um uh Miss Manny uh you are you were on Virginia Beach uh school board right so I'm here in my capacity ASB an S spma director I'm not going to speak to any other organizations on I was just asking if you were yes I am okay okay um and can you tell
060me uh what happened that you were taking off the committee of Governor yunin okay again I'm here only speak speaking um as my role of sbma okay so you aren't going to answer my question no I'm not okay how many school boards do you represent um I don't know the number of of our membership right now I don't have that in front of us in front of me okay because there's but I'm happy to follow up with you with that information yeah yes I'd like to know because out of 132 School boards I'd like to know uh now do you just do individual members is that what it is or do you do entire yes we just have individual memberships yes so it's it's each one by itself okay um but our policy Services is
061by full School Board yeah okay as and I know that you don't provide legal advice and you do recommend discussing all policy adoptions with the Schoolboard attorney so if that's the case then why why don't we just use a Schoolboard attorney and cut out the middleman so if you want your Schoolboard attorney to do all of the research and all of the new legislation that's coming from um the general assembly the vooe the federal um let you know the Congress um you could certainly do that but that's something that we provide um at I believe a very reasonable cost so but if you want to keep that all inhouse you certainly could do that um just want to interject on that because actually I spent a good bit of time on Friday with Miss Barry
062talking about that because that was kind of one of my questions like why if you have a school board attorney why do you you need that but miss Barry has uh way more uh on her plate than she could reasonably do to sit and write policy uh which is not her role it's not her role to write policy it's actually would be our role to write and develop and then to bring it to her for um to review for the legality school board members role look under Virginia 7 look under the code well that's that's why I'd like to have somewhere that does provide the legal advice for the policies okay to Aid Us in that okay which they don't do Mrs Manning do you do you have um you said you do have attorneys
063that you work with to help with the policy writing are Schoolboard members able to go through the spma uh and ask you know a particular question like that regarding a policy and you know why why the attorneys that are working with you um chose that absolutely if you have any questions about any policies that we've provided to you as I said before attorneys do sign off on them for legal sufficiency and so if you as a school board that's contracted with us have questions about those policies you can absolutely reach out to us and we can get connected with our attorneys um to answer any questions you may have thank you so if um what happens if one of your sample policies that we've adopted as provided is challenged for legal sufficiency do y'all back
064us up in that any protections there um so if you're referring to Insurance protections we don't currently offer that but we would certainly be willing to talk with you about offering that in in a contract it would only be to the um amount that is provided um to you under your contract um but as far as I know um that's never been a concern before in in in the past and any policies that I'm familiar with but it's something that we could definitely uh talk with you about in contract okay and just to clarify the VPAP is an organization that U manages or or oversees or sees who who lobbyists are in Virginia and um Miss Sher story um evidently said she was a lobbyist she will Lobby on education bills Finance bills fo you
065bills and then one pack K12 education that goes on uh but she's representing sbma so just so you're aware of that I evidently you weren't so VPAP draws um from information from outside sources so you may want to go look directly um through the Secretary of Commonwealth to get the primary source okay thank you very much uh Mrs Manning I was um very in-depth and uh greatly appreciate your time and coming tonight uh to present to us great thank you guys so much and and you guys are doing great work up there in York County appreciate you thank you all right can I just ask one other question of our attorney what her opinion is between the two because that was the original plan was her to evaluate the two well this this was the
066presentation I think that would come uh during U during a time of U discuss when it when it comes to discussion after a motion that's fine okay I can do it now or then that's fine that's uh along those lines uh let's see next thing moving up is the uh see sorry just keeping track of all the different notes Here uh this is the public participation at board meetings and I want you to know that tonight we will be following policy and the policy is BD dhk D and what that says um let's see here is uh the chair will impose and I'm reading directly from the policy sheet the chair will impose a time limit of three minutes per speaker uh the chair does not have the discretion to adjust that time you as
067individuals may adjust that time if you decide that you want to use less than three minutes that's up to you but it's no more um than 3 minutes with no more than 30 minutes allocated for the comments of community members and because we have so much to handle tonight uh we are going to hold to the policy of 30 minutes well miss shman I kind of object to that once again I think that we ought to be able to hear all of the people that decided to come out on a Monday night to speak okay I remember couple of years ago when you yourself was at uh that Podium speaking on CRT uh when you were working for Walt zba to make sure that we didn't have it in our classrooms and which we did
068didn't but I had to sit through all that I had to sit through all the covid ones both with mask and without mask so I think it's doing a disservice and not being transparent at all to be able to listen to people M Mr Schaefer we're going to be following policy tonight and we cannot change policy by a simple vote um it puts all of our policies at risk so we're going to be following we can take a we can yeah we can take a vote we can do anything do a motion gentlemen we're out of order no we can take a motion M Mr Richardson it it is at the chair's discretion it is at it's in policy it is at the chair's discre the policy states that so we will be going uh
069what I will do is I will call the first can I ask Miss Barry a question uh excuse me you have not been recognized Mr schaer we need to be moving I'm being bulldozed here I don't really appreciate it no we're following policy Mr schaer Madam chair I think he has a question is all he has yeah I was just asking Miss Barry is this correct we can't make a motion and vote on it to allow people to speak the time limit of 30 minutes ex any extension of that according to our policy is at the discretion of the chair however there is time allotted at the end of the meeting for any of those who did not have an opportunity to talk during that 30 minutes to talk at the end of the meeting
070actually uh Mrs Barry uh what the policy says is community members who do not sign up to address the board prior to the beginning of the business portion of the meeting meeting will be given an opportunity to speak at the end of the board's meeting agenda so those people who have not signed up who maybe have come in late after the business meeting started you will be given an opportunity and it also says such Community member comments made at the end of the board meeting shall be subject to the same conditions and limitations listed herein in other words three minutes maximum per speaker and 30 minutes maximum for that so so what you're saying in that is that your hoping people are going to leave before the end of the meeting that way they won't
071get to talk no not at all then why don't we let them talk now no that's um m i mean we did we did 50 something people last time Mr schaer we need to move on the chair has made the decision answer my question we will we will be lining up according to how these people have signed in uh number one um Gary Porter two Tammy deerberg three Sandra tuminello four Albert tum manelo five denil Francis and if I mispronounce your names I I sincerely apologize um number six Pam puso number seven Jennifer register number eight Alan Kennedy number nine Patty money and number 10 I think it's Carrie Chi we'll do that first and I will be setting um setting the timer so once again if speakers choose to take less than three minutes
072that will allow more people to speak Mr Porter oh also excuse me I need to say this also my mistake um upon recognition by the chair speakers will clearly State their names and York County election District or area of residence prior to commen saying your remarks uh speakers will direct their remarks to the York County School Board uh the chair is responsible for the orderly conduct of the meeting and has discretionary authority to rule a speaker out of order Mr Porter you may begin your time will begin as soon as you do your introduction and state where you are where you live good good evening Madam chair and members of the board my name is Gary Porter I live in District 2 I was personally maligned during the last school board meeting and I'm compelled
073to respond I am not a member of a militia and have never knowingly been part of one I'm frankly getting tired of being falsely branded this way within 12 hours of being falsely branded a militia member at the last meeting ycsd rejected my application for substitute teaching despite Stellar credentials I've consulted with an attorney he agrees I have a cause of action and I am prepared to take legal action against any individual who verbally or through media posts attempts to connect me to a militia but I am still an educated at heart and so let's learn something tonight who is part of a militia every male teacher in ycsd and every male staff member younger than 45 every male student aged 17 or above every male in this room for that matter within that age
074range is a member of the US national militia an organization created by Congress in 1903 and detailed in title 10 section 246 of the US code every one of ycsd teachers staff and students May or female between the ages of 16 and 55 is a member of the Virginia militia as are all the citizens in this room within that age range title 44 of the code of Virginia has the details these are facts not conjecture not my opinion with this knowledge does the word militia become a little less forboding a little less threatening I hope so both of these organizations the national and State militias arken back to a time when the militia was comprised of the whole of the people when danger arose the people came together and dealt with the problem Virginians in
075the age range I mentioned who are not members of the National Guard of Virginia or the Virginia Defense Force yes that's another militia are automatically members of the unorganized militia the governor of Virginia May at any time call up the unorganized militia to quote execute the law suppress riots or insurrections repel Invasion or Aid in any form of disaster where the lives or property of citizens may be imperiled unquote so a a question naturally arises if you are ever called up for militia Duty what skill sets will you have to offer will you respond with sorry I feel like I'm coming down with covid or is this or this is the training I've had these are the skills I have where do I report the next question that naturally follows is where do you expect
076to obtain that training would it be ni would it wouldn't it be nice if we had organization that could just do that just that in case you've just returned from Mars you should probably know that this nation is more divided than at any time in the last 165 years oh and for the record I am not a member of the New England Patriots football team despite my wearing a shirt that bears that logo thank you Mr Porter number two Tammy deerberg good evening Madam chair members of the school board and Dr shandor I live in District 2 I attended the last school board meeting on March 11th and I listened to the Virginia school board association's presentation about membership and services they offer I was disturbed by Mr Rich Richardson's unusually emotional reaction after the
077presentation he tried to force the bo board to take an immediate vote on membership the chair explained there was another company yet to present and that an immediate vote was not appropriate because one it was a work session and two the other companies should be afforded the opportunity to present their membership package Mr Richardson's Behavior not only to the chair but to suggest depriving the school board member Alliance of the opportunity to even present made me very uncomfortable Mr Richardson's role as a board of director within the Virginia school board Virginia School Board Association represents a conflict of interest and precludes him from taking a legitimate vote by not recusing himself Mr Richardson will be voting to financially Advantage a company in which he holds a personal stake and for whom he is serving as
078a representative and promoting in a Statewide effort I'm not confident that Mr Richardson is capable of hearing the school board member Alliance presentation that we had tonight with an open mind for these reasons I urge Mr Richardson to recluse himself from this vote thank you thank you uh number three Sandra tuminello School Board Dr shandor I'm Sandra tanella from District 4 I want to express my frustration and disappointment over the treatment of the newly elected school board members more importantly I need to address the misinformation and rumors that continue to be spread that do great harm to good people and patriotic citizens to begin with there is no militia in Yorktown although according to the code of Virginia all citizens all of us I'm to0 are in the militia automatically and to but to promote
079Comm community support and improve communication between all of the clubs and all the organizations Bob herget a friend of ours talked with numerous churches any churches organizations would that would let him come in and individuals about organizing such a group the York County picosen Community missions group to give residents to give all of us accurate information and support in time of need which we could certainly face in the near future none of the school boards were involved in any of these discussions about this militia it seems that after attempting to have the Schoolboard election recall someone contacted WAVY 10 given the reporter Mr ree false information about Kim Goodwin and Linda Fairman been a part of the militia and that Miss Fairman has sent the local militia cam camera crew to film The Family Life
080parents meeting Mr Richardson I have your quotes saying they were part of a militia group they were part of it it's all on come out on video I've watched it I saw it all and they said oh we were sent here by Miss Fairman and they've got cameras up that's not true I'm the only person who was at that meeting with my little phone out attempting to video I only got a picture of my purse because I didn't even really know how to operate my phone and that was for my own good and for our friends who were not able to attend at this meeting where the information were presented there were very few parents in attendance because it's inconvenient for parents to come out at night to get that type of information you suggested
081that the Board needs mediation and as a trained mediator I can assure you the first step is honesty and open communication and real desire to solve the problems we have three inexperienced board members who bring great knowledge and wisdom to the group and it seems that you might be able to do more to get them established and feel welcome and I just ask you to all ask yourselves what can you do to really make this school board work and for y'all not fight like cats and dogs looking ridiculous to the whole Community it's an embarrassment and you need to act like adults and behave with each other thank Mrs tumelo number four Albert tuminello my name is Albert tuminello and I live in District 4 and I should start out by saying thank you because
082you walked right into my presentation because my purpose here tonight is to recall to you the events of your work session of March the 11th and other ycsd meetings conducted here in this room simply stated I was appalled at the demeanor and the actions of you Mr Richardson Mr schaer and Dr shandor and you exhibited those same actions tonight at this meeting I have sat on many and numerous boards in my lifetime and have chaired some of those same same boards I understand the need for protocols such as Robert's Rules of Order and the necessity for conducting orderly meetings otherwise chaos follows which is exactly what happened on the night of March the 11th and tonight Mrs Fairman was trying to keep the meeting in order and you were trying to overtalk her and then
083accuse her of cutting you off but all she was doing was maintaining the order that you agreed to to the protocols of your demand of Robert's Rules of Order and you know those rules and better is expected and my wife just exhibited that to you and look at your actions and what you're teaching the teachers teaching us look around you're teaching how to protest I guess that's good even the young man here obviously was taught his First Amendment rightous he held up his sign to fire Miss Fairman he was silent and that was good and it's good that you teach that however much more is ex of is expected it's time you put away your personal biases and focus on academics and what's good for all the students of York County and only then and
084then you will be able to stand and hear the words we all want to hear here at the end well done good and faithful servant Matthew 2523 thank you thank you uh number five denil Francis good evening my name is denil Francis District 2 my child niece and nephew are York County students at the last board meeting literacy program decisions were postponed a worthy reason could have been to to examine evidence-based research on literacy outcomes to select the best one however Miss Fairman stated she needed to screen it to assure it had no Dei I have since requested information on the Dei screening process to include the factor analysis CR uh criteria checklist or rubric guidelines that will be utilized my request remains ignored specifically the community deserves to know the Dei criteria so we
085can prepare for impact to our students with disabilities our nonwhite students and our non-Christian students so number one are you seeking to reject content that includes disabilities does that include people using medical equipment or wheelchairs number two will you reject content including neurod Divergent Learners number three what about bilingual or non-english speakers what about people using Comm communication devices or sign language number four what about non-Christian families and holidays number five what about stories referencing ethnicity or skin tone for character development number six what about stories with single parent families children being raised by grandparents or foster adopt homes or other non-traditional homes seven what cultures specifically will you be rejecting due to your perception of Dei I will military culture be rejected will disability and de culture be rejected what about African-American culture Hispanic
086Asian Inuit Pacific Islander or indigenous cultures will you be rejecting them please no students with disabilities and their families fight tirelessly for equity and inclusion in every single part of our life These students often experience disproportionate Prejudice in our community do due to Ill informed perceptions of others so parents of students and disabilities are particularly alarmed and concerned that you have an inaccurate understanding of Dei and its importance and critical relevance to education the disability Community can not allow Decades of Human Rights advocacy to be erased diversity equity and inclusion is the best hope for all of our students please please make the Dei assessment tool public immediately thank you uh number six Pam puso my name is Pam puso I reside in District 4 in the 1980s citizens comments were given five minutes each
087and no limit to the number of speakers the board knew that they had a responsibility to listen to the citizens in the 1990s the time limit was revoked and the board found found it was rare anyone spoke more than four minutes somewhere in the ensuing years the 3 minute time limit was invoked later the number of speakers was limited to 10 in a 30 in the 30 minutes allocated citizens concerns no longer have value to this board your personal time is more important than the potential inconvenience of one late night a month I ask you the 30 minute limit be removed and allow all the people you serve to have a voice next concerning your new invocation policy you state quot whereas legislative prayer has long been understood as compatible with The Establishment Clause Virginia
088school boards have no legislative Authority you do not make laws or ordinances under the invocation procedures number six states the invocation should be directed to the school board and not the members of the audience since this is strictly for the school board please don't waste our time do this prior to the meeting in the room behind the deis in the last meeting the minister invoked Jesus today we were asked to pray which goes against your rules of secularism and not one of you apologized or assured us that it would not be repeated if you insist on some public demonstration of Faith a moment of silence could solve all these problems and make no one uncomfortable next the school board allows Firearms at Schoolboard meetings even though this room is under the exclusive use of the
089school division during the times of these meetings and 18.2 308.15 1 31.1 allows you to lease this room or building from the supervisors for let's say $1 a year on for your predetermined meeting dates and declare them a gun-free zone why especially considering students teachers administrators and at times iate citizens attend these meetings does this board have little concern for their safety the statutes give you permission to ban firearms if you choose not to do so please explain why our lives do not matter in an era of rampant gun violence otherwise please contact the Board of Supervisors and get that lease finalized it is the easy access to Firearms In the Heat of anger or mental distress that result in people dying it can happen here it can happen anywhere lastly I do not support
090the board allowing a far right-wing organization to create policy for our schools their ultimate goal is to demolish public schools and go back to a time where only wealthy white males were given a Christian education what do you find so objectionable about the vsba that makes you want to change organizations and I would like to uh speak to an issue that the gentleman spoke to about the unorganized militia women are included because they screwed up and forgot to mention it was males only number seven Jennifer [Applause] register good evening members of the board my name is Jen register and I did prepare a speech but honestly um in being here and wai waiting in line and hearing people waste the 30 minutes that were valuable for parents and people who really have a vested interest
091I am here not to win a political battle this is not politics for me this is my children I have two children a kindergartner we're in it for the long haul she's got quite a stretch this is not politics you should listen to parents the first four speakers that we had have no affiliation to the county to the school division why were here travel I mean oh my God this is the not the Board of Supervisors I am here to secure the best future for my children I would personally I would rather be home with my children right now I also know there are a lot of parents who agree with me a lot of parents that are here and want to speak a lot of parents that want to speak and are not going
092to get the opportunity so I feel quite the burden that I have to be here speaking for all of those parents we also have a number of members here from the NAACP who also I believe wanted to speak as well and they are not going to get that opportunity so those 10 of us that are here in line we have quite the duty when it comes to your votes tonight I believe the vsba is the best option for our school board the sbma regardless of what they said during that presentation I went on their website last week and it said they were a conservative organization I went on it tonight and it says it's nonpartisan that is extremely convenient they are extremely political biased and brand new the founders have made inappropriate racial comments when
093they were serving on their respective School boards this is not a positive direction for our school system it is a political one therefore please do not vote to go the direction of the s BMA I also believe that the literacy program that was selected is a strong one and I 100% Champion A literacy program that mentions Dei in the description please do the important homework and look at the literacy test scores across all our elementary schools then look at them by race our even our elementary schools receiving 10 out of 10 for Equity have as much as a 9% difference between white students and black students for reading test scores at my own Children's School the difference is 28% this is not acceptable and choosing the right literacy program can make a big difference and
094is the right direction thank you very much for your time tonight thank you number eight Mr alen Kennedy number eight Alan Kennedy all right who's I I'll allow this we're using up time who is my name is Patty money okay you're number nine thank you yes I am a resident of District 5 and I have two students in ycsd for my entire life I have had a huge appreciation for teachers my maternal grandmother taught kindergarten in New York City until her retirement I even at 47 years old old can remember the name of every teacher I had from kindergarten to 12th grade I can also remember the names of all of my children's teachers in 2020 we moved to York County like so many people because of the schools during the pandemic I was blown
095away by the teacher by the level of patience and dedication and creativity that my children's teachers showed they really just loved us and massaged us through that difficult time I was on a leave of absence from my job at that time so when I heard about the great shortage in substitute teaching I decided to go ahead and and become a substitute teacher in order to help and support the teachers for the past two years I have been at Grafton Middle School where I have served alternately interchangeably as either the building sub or as a long-term sub I currently get to teach as a long-term sub in CTE in those two years my admiration of teachers has grown exponentially daily I am blown away by the skill creativity dedication and compassion demonstrated by my colleagues and
096my administrators for that very reason I am concerned about the numerous insinuations and even blatant accusations that teachers are indoctrinating students I am incensed by any comments casting negative aspersions on teachers teachers are my heroes both the ones who teach my children at TMS and THS and the ones I work with at GMS yet in our current political climate teachers are feeling threatened and are tentative to speak the truth out of fear of retaliation the decision of the board chair and vice chair to remove themselves from let's talk eliminates the opportunity for teachers to share their concerns and fears in a safe place free of Retribution so board members I ask you what will you do to ensure that your teachers are supported respected and have a safe place Carrie [Applause] Chi good evening board
097members I'm Carrie chi I reside in District 4 and I2 like JY register have little kids at home and I would much rather be there tonight than have to come to repeated board meetings to express these kind of concerns and I do think it is quite a disservice to all the parents who have come here to speak and have their chance to talk you know again it's it's a long night for us right many of us got here you know early just coming right after work so that we would have a chance to speak tonight because we want our voices heard and you know I had there was another speaker that was about the Family Life Education event being an inconvenient time for parents I I would venture to say most of the parents in
098this room are working professionals and so this is the only opportunity we have to engage with the school so I just wanted to put that out there but um what I am really concerned about is this possible switch to the smba um I did write um Miss Goodwin and Miss PC earlier this week and and was you know pleased to have discourse with them on it um but you know the SPM may it was just formed in December 2022 and on the Virginia state Corporation Commission their registered business address is their Treasures home out of Forest Virginia and to me that lends some credibility as to the actual function of this organization um you know JY register mentioned it earlier but as of a couple days ago their website touted themselves as a conservative organization
099absolutely partisan and then as of today they've now cleaned it up to say it's nonpartisan but you know we're not fools here we we understand what's going on you know sher's story um she was had strong backlash in suffix schools when she was on their board due to racist remarks she made on social media and additionally her former colleagues alleged she was known to have acted in a racist manner to African-American students and people of color in school leadership and this is the same kind of story we see even with Vicky Manning who came to speak this evening and who claims that since she has a master's degree in law she has just as much authority to review policies as a lawyer I don't buy that for a minute um you know frankly it'd be
100bad better for ycsa to have either an affiliation neither an affiliation with either organization versus making a switch to the snba you know the concern too with the sbma is that it's affiliated with the Noah Webster Educational Foundation which in turn is affiliated with project 1925 which is a real scary scary um program if you look into it you know with when why do we need this political divisiveness in the school board can we please try to come to some moderate ground so I wish the school board would put aside politics Politics on either side right and just function as a Moder organization focusing on evidencebased support for our schools thank you for listening thank you Mr Alan Kennedy [Applause] good evening um I'm Alan Kennedy and I live in District 1 at 116 steg
101street I'm here because the vice chair said uh on social media I can't say if slaves were happy or not because was not there she later then said that that what asked Can you provide me the research that you have that proves that they were not happy and she references the leftist 1619 project that is based on false facts so tonight I have copies of the 1619 project for each of you because I want you to actually see the facts and Miss Goodwin I invite you to tell me if there are any false facts I would note that a that after our last meeting Miss Goodwin respond responded to a member of our community admitting that she made these comments but her defense was that it was made over three years ago and was a
102response to another person on the thread about claiming to know the State of Mind of a person well I'd invite you to turn to page 104 to understand whether slaves were happy Miss Goodwin I invite you to turn to page 104 which says that talks about slave Patrols and says that by the mid 18th century Virginia had slave patrols and turned them into a militarized law enforcement organization that was primarily engaged in watching catching or beating black slaves and that patrollers enforc slave codes and routinely broke into the homes of enslaved people aggressively searching them in their quarters and subjecting women to sexual violence Miss Goodwin are you ready to apologize for your comments to our Community Miss Goodwin will you renounce your comments where you said that I can't say if slaves were happy
103or not because I was not there I would yield a remainder of my time to Mr Andre Taylor a historian and I would note that you are denying the opportunity to speak to Mrs Barbara Haywood who was number 11 on the list I sit out there for 2 hours and there are 18 people who waited and waited for the opportunity to speak and you are denying them the opportunity to speak Miss F good evening uh Vice chair good Vice chair Goodman my name is Andre Taylor I am in I'm a parent of two students at Seaford Elementary in your District I'm also the African-American historian of history and culture at Colonial Williamsburg and I would also like to say that you were asking if somebody had evidence of slaves being unhappy the Library of Congress
104has something has called the WPA slave narratives that have existed since the early 19th century into the 20th century so if you would like to learn more about if slaves were happy or not I would also like for you to read that and if you have any questions I will give you my information we can have a talk and I can sit down with you and talk to you about the elements of slavery that existed in Virginia that I am very well versed in thank you thank you very much at this time I close the public for participation for comments of citizens at this time we will go to Matters by board members and uh uh I guess we'll we'll follow the same thing of going by uh districts Mr schaer district one first I'd
105like to say everyone that's out there that wants to speak please stay okay uh ladies and gentlemen um see well I had received an email as as the rest of us did uh saying that if we didn't speak up against those uh quotes and those uh ideas that we were condoning it as a board so I want to go on record of saying that that uh Kim I denounce those uh those saying I think you ought to apologize I understand that you renounced them but I think you probably should apologize uh for those statements um I'd like to ask a couple questions of my fellow board members uh Zoran you own a business correct okay if you had employees or Associates that did not answer emails what would you do would have a conversation with
106them and if they still didn't I would have corrective measures corrective measures up to and including what depends on the offense okay but I mean if they blatantly just didn't do it okay or didn't answer phone calls okay um it was uh as far as emails go we as a board need to answer the emails there's only been one email that I have received in five years that I did not respond to that was to me and that was uh from dois stalman that questioned my Integrity in it and I'm sorry I don't have the time to deal with anyone that's questioning my Integrity uh whereas I'm 65 years old I've got a professional history a personal history a church history no I don't need to listen to someone questioning my Integrity um and board
107chair and assistant chair need to answer emails the board chair should be the one to answer emails that are to the whole board okay when we don't that means we're not listening to people it means that we are not uh doing what we're supposed to be doing taking care of our constituents now it might be those that don't don't agree with you I had plenty believe me during Co with masks okay I was even accused sometimes of trying to kill our kids because I wanted to take mask away from them but I still answered it in the spirit of being a public servant and I tried to do it with love I didn't try and do it to rap people or anything else um and with you guys getting off of let's let's talk how
108does that improve the uh transparency um Miss Chi brought up about that teachers were afraid I said that in the second uh work session that we had the reason that teachers don't is because they're afraid of being doxed or or or retaliated against well let's talk gives them the avenue to be able to share things anonymously uh and that's what they really ought to do um of course why did it have to get to that point why do they feel that way why was the rhetoric why is the rhetoric been so terrible that uh they don't feel comfortable coming up to you I mean I go to a school I have no problems I know most of the teachers there for 20 25 years they taught all my kids okay I can go in there
109and they'll tell me what's going on I don't have any problems after I say hello I get it whether it's good bad or indifferent all right uh the Constitution you SW to uphold uh back on January 8th uh it died tonight in this room by denying the rights of people to speak um and having a punitive measure of making them wait until after the the whole meeting it is punitive and it is it's not very becoming of a uh a Schoolboard share and I guess that means that King George was not the only Tyrant that's been in these colonies um and Vick Vicky Manning's quote just to let you know was uh the reason why she's not running for school board for a third term in uh in um in Virginia Beach is that uh
110continuing to educate South Americans is not sustainable that was her quote um uh Sherry uh had similar problems over in uh over in suffk and suffk is not what you would call a uh real liberal area and she was extreme even for them but in closing I would say that thank goodness that I have some of the best schools in your county thank goodness I have the best teachers in your County and in the state we are still number three I don't want us to slip I want to keep our teachers students and parents foremost in our uh in what we do that's what's important thank you thank you Mr schaer Excuse me just District Two Mr [Applause] pich ladies and Gentlemen please have a seat so Mr pich can speak and I believe Mr
111pich has okay sorry thank you so I would like to just say thank you everybody uh that came here tonight and if you are willing to speak later on I'm willing to listen so thank you for that uh I'm going to start off first of all just kind of giving a brief update of what I've been doing as a board member representing my district and my students my teachers uh throughout the time so uh I missed our last meeting so I apologize for that but it was a school actually the business uh trip that I had scheduled in September of last year anyhow so one of the first uh events that I uh attended was the eel family open house at uh Grafton Middle School uh it was for the student with disabilities uh great
112organization great support by the community and the staff uh I thoroughly enjoyed it meeting all the teachers and all the support staff uh even students coming in it was just uh heart to be there as well um I had uh meetings uh on a budget and re zoning with Dr Carol Dr shandor uh we visit uh I had a gsh uh uh grafter High School uh planning schedule night for the high schoolers great turnout again so many students uh great programs it was I do have uh three boys that are going to go actually one of them is already in high school but two of them are coming up next here so they are very interested in some of the programs that's going to be offered uh I did visit uh uh grafter middle school
113and grafter high school so Dr shander thank you for that opportunity it was such a great uh and pleasurable experience uh just meeting the teachers that they working with uh with the students like with the programs that they providing and support it was just amazing uh next I visit uh job jambur uh at the Grafton High School uh that was one of the events that uh Dr R he put actually put together with his staff it was just amazing to see how many great teachers uh wants to work for ycsd uh and it's just like know it's a great pleasure to be part of that uh after that I visited Y which is York River Academy uh just uh met few of the students see their uh progress in their studies uh I got very
114very impressed with the few how much they are dedicated to their Su success and education so it was just amazing um also met with our County Supervisor Sheila n for my district uh me and her we agreed that we're going to be meeting at least once a quarter if not more often just kind of to discuss our uh needs as a school board as school divisions so uh she is encouraged that that uh we are also trying to work on academics for our children uh in our future uh I had one1 Dr shander we discussed uh various topics uh related to the education and academics achievements of our uh children uh I attended the future chef competition at York High School uh that we were uh honored to be invited as the uh actually the
115judges just seeing those kid kids pouring their hearts and uh cooking their middle schoolers and uh they prepared the food from scratch in back kitchen Elementary I'm sorry my bad Elementary even better like uh but delicious food delicious food I really enjoyed it um then um I attended uh Grafton Middle School Virginia Lottery uh winner announcement so one of our students from Grafton Middle School she's submitted her artwork that's going to be uh futured with the Virginia Lottery uh postcard for the teacher appreciation is it is it week or it's a week right yes so for week and she won she won a grant for the art projects uh for art uh program in our school uh it's just a tremendous artwork and you you guys going to see it pretty soon coming in uh
116I attended the open house at the Grafton Middle School for students with disabilities uh again uh there was just mindblowing uh experience with all of our schools providing special ed uh programs presenting to all of us and I got to talk to every single one of them uh like uh Todd he brought his children I met him just amazing amazing kids uh we we need it and I really believe that like special ed kids uh I'm coming from different country where the kids that with special needs don't get treated this way uh and it's uh it kind of like you know makes me happy that I'm here that we do have the support of the community parents uh teachers to provide such a such a thing in my country it's unfortunate that kids like that
117end up uh falling onto the parents burden for the rest of their life and whenever parents are gone you know system is not there in place to catch them and uh it's it's very very paring but uh like like said again I'm so happy to be here that uh America as society that you guys organize as a school board as a community to support those kids uh it just makes my heart really really happy um then uh and finally just kind of like you know the star banquet for our teachers we recognize the teachers of the year uh as Mr Marsh said and actually um uh that's uh Patty Manny we do you have best teachers uh that's what makes our schools our schools the best in the region um and I would like to
118actually ask uh uh the back the our tech support if they can put some of the slides that I have provided that I would like to teach so I don't know yeah we go to the so uh results reading results there you go so Pass rates um I'm a parent I'm a the reason why I ran for the board is like like one of those signs that're saying over there no politics like no I did not want politics in our schools uh and I want to stand by that uh our children deserve better education they deserve really good education we have the best teachers in my opinion in the state and Beyond uh right now how many of you guys know that we are number three in the state by show hands how many of
119you guys know that we're number one in this region exactly we are and that's a fact but as you can see beyond me behind me right here these are the results from the Virginia and the yor County District uh we are in Decline as society and this is why I decided to run as a parent because I know with my children even though they straight A students their education is slipping when I got elected I talked to Dr Skinner and I'm so happy to tell you that her and her staff are working tirelessly to correct this thing and with right help of our community including the board we can change this and we will change it because this is my mission because my children are in in here just like yours as a parent like
120we need to get this academic Improvement they're they're not sitting on their hands it's at their Forefront and they're fighting for it but there is a bigger problem if you see those blue blue lines that's the state of Virginia we are below 70% as Virginians CH change happened 2022 uh when I talked to some of my teachers they told me he like no that's when the so testing for fifth graders stopped and that's when they start seeing decline this is not something that we here can change but this is on the state level so we have to be a voice United voice for our children to promote this change on a state level in Virginia Department of Education and that's why I'm here want to ask you for the support some of our results like
121no I'm not going to go into those the other ones but this is what I'm seeing with my children and I know that you do the same thing they work hard we provide them with the tools we provide them with the support and they still not performing up to standards that we used to have and that's what we have to change to bring them up so again thank you for all of the parents being here listening to me I'm going to give you opportunity to talk to me as well uh because this is what's important and this is why I am here and the to make this academic Improvement for our children so thank you thank you Mr pich uh District three Mrs Goodwin thank you m Fairman um in addition of what Mr pipich
122said I also want to um say that if you're going to stick around around at the end to um voice your comments that again we are here we will listen to them um I'm just going to go into what I've been doing the March activities uh just to give you an idea what's going on or what I've been involved in um of course we had the wonderful future chef competition at York High School I was honored to be able to serve as a judge um of course I know we have very talented youth but uh I was really introduced to the uh their talent in culinary arts and I think we have some really uh a budding future for many of our elementary students in that culinary um culinary arts if that's what they want
123to pursue um when I had to decide on you know the best food or what my decision was it was pretty difficult because everybody did such a really good job uh I also attended a joint chair Vice chair meeting with our Board of Supervisors to set up agenda items for next meeting with the two when the two boards get together and this is really important um as we'll talk about later when we get to rezoning because any way you really slice it most of our schools are are going to be close to capacity we'll have a little bit of margin but not a whole lot so you have to work closely with your Board of Supervisors because they're the ones that approve building in in the county so it's really important that we have that
124partnership so we've had our initial meeting we set those agend agenda items and we'll be meeting as complete boards in the future um one of the highlights of my month was being able to read to uh York Elementary School I've read to three kindergarten classes and that was just a wonderful experience um and I thank Dr Bolam and her team for welcoming into their school and uh and letting me do that I also had a meeting and a tour of our division's transportation department and was able to talk with our transportation director do um Mr rck as well as Dr Carol about efforts to attract and retain our bus drivers as well as what is being done to help with communication when there are bus issues I've heard many people say that you know we've
125got to improve things with Transportation um there's always going to be Kinks but I will say after touring and meeting everybody and talking with Mr Ric that I can tell you that it's on a positive trajectory they are looking for better compensation for our bus drivers um compared to other divisions we're not doing too bad as far as the number of bus drivers that were short uh one of the biggest things that exists is when somebody gets sick how do you fill that slot and while you always have a pool of people to jump in most of the time for your teachers like a substitute you don't have that necessarily for bus drivers so then that presents a little bit of a um a juggling issue but but they're they're very Vigilant of it and
126they're continuing to work on it and that's something that I hold near and dear and will continue to follow up and uh keep you apprised of of what's going on there but I do want to say that I think they're they're doing a really good job and they recognize that there's work to do um the last thing is that I was able to attend the star banquet as well where we recognize our out excuse me our I can't talk outstanding teachers parent Educators and support staff um it was a beautiful event and I was really happy to see that we were celebrating um these teachers I Echo that we do have great teachers in New York County um I was fortunate enough to work in the schools years ago and worked with a lot of
127great teachers then and I know we still have a lot of great teachers now thank you thank you very much District Four Mr Richardson thank you so on uh March the 7th I attended a spring networking Forum in Chester Virginia uh was a great event and nice to network with other school board members uh by attending that uh the children that were in that culinary program prepared the meal for the event and it was at Brighton Community College what turns out uh we were able to get a tour of the college and learn that they helped facilitate the dual enrollment for students in that that area there just much like we do here with uh uh with our Peninsula Community College um the next day I was able to visit some schools in the York
128Zone with the superintendent uh March 12th I had a meeting with Steven ran our district four Board of Supervisors I meet with him monthly uh on March the 14th I attended a presentation of the documentary I WR to read that was held at the vsba office in Charlottesville the event was also attended by the state superintendent who was Dr Coons she was present and uh we spoke about the new literacy initiative in Virginia to help more CH children learn to read that's science-based um I did have a discussion with her and the next day with deputy secretary guidera from the governor's office uh the literacy program is great it's a great program uh science-based and it'll help more children read but it does add more work to our teachers um so I asked if they
129would consider looking at past initiatives and if there was anything that they could take a look at at possibly taking off of our teachers plates as the state is continually adding requirements which adds to their workload and they uh both agreed they would be looking at that the next day I attended the vsba board of directors meeting also in Charlottesville and then on the 21st I attended the uh Stars banquet uh with the other board members here and over the last several weeks um I've been planning the Tidewater Regional Forum art contest that's one of my duties as the Tidewater Regional chair uh the event will be held April 25th at LC norham High School in Portsmouth um so I do want to add that um there's no conflict of interest with me being on
130SBA U vsba board of directors I don't get any pay for that I was purely volunteer so there's no conflict of interest whatsoever um I just want to say that at our first meeting that we had with this board new board organizational meeting the discussion was about uh looking at sbma and I had an open mind I was willing to look I knew nothing about uh sbma uh School Board member Alliance it was the understanding then that our board attorney would compare the two and we make a recommendation but since then it's morphed into now we're getting presentations we're going to make a decision we're going to vote which is fine um um but I I really didn't know anything about them at the time and through my research I've learned a lot more and
131today finally I got some paperwork from sbma that talks about their policy Services the first time I saw it was today um and I probably got it about the same time they updated their website that they're um nonpartisan uh but any event I just want to say that I also have been asked whether I agree or support Miss go when social media statements are post and I for one do not uh I'm disturbed by the recent allegations or those allegations in the past about her um I know of one teacher that's leaving because of the toxic environment that we have here in York County now and that concerns me greatly um Miss Goodwin's public stances uh in these areas have not only hurt the reputation of the school board but have tarnished the good name
132of ycsd and overshadowed the achievement of our students and staff basically to be clear I'm denouncing this behavior of a few of my fellow board members regarding their social media Activity thank you thank you Mr Richardson ladies and [Applause] Gentlemen please have a seat so we can move on we have a lot of business to cover um I have for District 5 and I also with uh Mr pich U attended the recent openhouse for special education students and their families it was held at Grafton Middle School's Atrium and it was absolutely fabulous uh it was a wonderful evening highlighting the different Services provided not only by ycsd but also by our community uh there were lots of Hands-On activities and resource information packet for parents to take home with them uh and peruse and see
133what they needed for their particular fam's uh needs and desires and what they want for their students it it was fabulous um let's see I had a wonderful time meeting a lot of the students as well as their parents uh it was wonderful talking with them and seeing them interact with the different presenters and the presenters they went above and beyond um for their different booths and what they were uh putting out there to share with uh with the families they also shared it with me uh they took great patience in explaining the different parts and why they were doing things a certain way and I really appreciated their time in explaining things um not only to me but to everyone there I learned a lot it was delightful and a fun event and I
134encourage all of our citizens you know the next time you hear uh it's happening go take a look and it's it's absolutely wonderful uh it's a great great event for inclusion so we can see what's going on for all of our different communities uh within ycsd um in addition last weekend I too uh was able to attend the star awards banquet and was very honored to be asked to um give a welcoming remarks and I appreciate that um recognizing these amazing teachers the par Educators and the staff they were selected as being outstanding in their areas and I know they're not the only ones um because when they get selected I know how difficult it is to select just one for each of the schools and in addition to the individual School winners they also
135recognized the districtwide winners as well as the superintendent Awards it was just a wonderful evening um it made me very pleased uh to be here in York County and to actually see some people that I used to teach with when I when I taught here that some of them received the awards and so that was it was wonderful and I'd like to say a special congratulations to all those who received a Star Award this year it was truly truly amazing to see you and you are just amazing Role Models uh for the rest of our community I really appreciate that um I also want to uh say a sincere thank you to the parents and taxpayers who've reached out to me regarding uh the elementary school resoning plans everybody has different opinions about what they
136are and everybody who was commenting on that they were very um detailed in why they like certain things why they didn't like certain things and it's it's really helped uh in order to review those as well as um getting input uh regarding student achievement concerns and so I really appreciate that your observations feedback and input and so thank you very much um moving along uh we're now into financial matters and Mr Schaefer I believe you have the discussion for this yeah this is what you've all waited for yes uh we have claims uh certified for payment for the month of February 2024 uh the first one is for instructional related expenditures of $ 36,700 the majority of that went to amn healthcare Allied $49,800 for contracted speech services we had Liberty Point $29,100 for private
137placement for placement for sped students we had Procare therapy 26,900 for contracted speech langage language Services we also had sunout Staffing $45,100 for contracted speech language Services those were the big ones there technology uh was 13,500 the biggest part of that was 98,000 to CD uh W for 15 Promethean uh interactive boards for the communication support classrooms and 84 Chromebooks for academic tutors okay operational related EXP expenditures total 210,000 uh Dominion was a vast majority of that $163,300 construction related uh expenditures totaled $835,000 uh the largest part of that yay went to um uh Harland construction for sea sea for elementary project 212,000 so that was uh taking care of them the other one was for brutin High's roof replacement yay $342,900 for food service related expenditures total $566,000 and uh that was mostly for
138S sedexo uh for food food service management at $513,000 okay for February revenues uh they increased by more than 6.3 million when compared to last year the increase as a result of the 7% compensation adjustment increase in uh student enrollment and the addition of all-in funding sales tax revenue for February decreased by 1.3 million compared to last year this is a result of change in economic activity for expenditures instructional expenditures for February increased by approximately 5.1 million when compared to last year excuse me the difference can be attributed to the increase in compensation and benefits the spend down of federal Esser funds and the increase of uh fill rates for instructional positions for fiscal uh 24 for revenues and expenditures for uh Food Service local food service Revenue has increased by more than 413,000 when
139compared to last year it's due to the increase in the number of meals served and uh this is for consideration of approval of resolution 24-26 resolution 24-26 requires the board's approval authorizing procurement of more than $50,000 there are 13 items on the uh resolution totaling 4.22 million the details of which can be viewed on board dos Madam chair I now move to approve financial matters as listed thank you uh is there a second second thank you um Mr schaer has moved uh to approve the financial matters as listed seconded by uh Mr pich Mrs Howard could you please um take the vote oh actually is there any discussion regarding that sorry I forgot to ask for that thank you Mrs Howard a motion was made by Mr Schaefer and seconded by Mr pich to approve
140financial matters as listed Mr pich yes Mr schaer yes Mr Richardson yes Mrs Goodwin yes Mrs Fairman yes motion passed 5 to zero thank you very much um moving on to the consent calendar I'll briefly go over the list uh there is approval of personnel actions uh approval of the minutes for the organizational meeting on January 8th special meeting on January 19th regular meeting on January 29th special meeting on February 9th special meeting on February 12th special meeting and work session on February 12th a special meeting on February 14th special meeting on February 22nd a regular meeting on February 26th a special meeting on March 4th special meeting on March 11th work session on March 11th and a special meeting on March 15th uh moving along approval of donations in the amount of $422 45
141approval of the 20242 annual plan for title 6B Federal funding uh approval of a lease agreement between the County School Board of York County Virginia and child evangelism Fellowship of Virginia Inc Peninsula chapter uh are there let's see for that is there a motion to approve the consent calendar I make a motion as as listed Sor as listed a second thank you the uh motion was uh made by Mrs Goodwin uh to approve the consent calendar as listed seconded by mimm uh Mr Richardson sorry about that uh is there any further discussion or anything on that okay okay um Mrs Howard a motion was made by Mrs Goodwin and seconded by Mr Richardson to approve the consent calendar as listed Mr pich yes Mr Schaefer yes Mr Richardson yes Mrs Goodwin yes Mrs Fairman yes
142the motion passed 5 to zero thank you very much uh moving into action items our first one is consideration of approval of a proclamation for month of the military child April 2024 Dr shandor could you please share some information about this yes thank you Miss Fairman I will share some highlights from the proclamation April is the excuse me April is the month of the military child a special month to recognize and pay tribute to military families and their children for the daily sacrifices made and for their commitment courage and unconditional support of our armed forces and Wednesday April 17th is designated as National purple up day for all School personnel and students to wear purple in order in honor of military children in particular the student students of yourk County School Division which has the
143highest concentration of military children in Virginia and the Commonwealth of Virginia is proud to be home to more than 77,000 children whose parents serve in the military inter station in Virginia thank you thank you very much um I'll need a motion as well as a second to approve the proclamation for the month of the military child as April 2024 I move to approve the uh Proclamation for the month of the mil military child for April of 2024 thank you is there a second second I think Mr pich beat you on the second uh Mr Schaefer um made the motion to approve the proclamation for month of the military child as April 2024 was seconded by Mr pich Mrs Howard a motion was made by Mr Schaefer and seconded by Mr pich to approve a proclamation
144declaring April 2024 as month of the military child Mr pich yes Mr schaer yes Mrs Goodwin yes Mr Richardson yes Mrs Fairman yes the motion passed five to zero thank you very much uh moving right along now we have consideration of approval of resolution 24-28 a resolution approving the proposed fiscal year 2025 operating budget and the fiscal year 2024 expected budget Dr shandor could we have your comments on resolution 242 please yes thank you m Fairman again we began the budget process back in October with staff analyzing information and identifying cost reduction efforts as well as identifying prioritized needs we also held um two budget um sessions in order to receive Community feedback a preliminary budget Outlook was presented in December and we updated the board with state and federal funding outlooks in January on
145February 12th um the superintendent's proposed budget uh operating budget was presented the total operating budget presented was $1 192.5 million um when including all funds the total is uh $23.7 million which includes Food Service workman's comp um health and dental and Tech Reserve funds again the focus of um fy2 the fy2 budget is what's best for students and it to make sure it's aligned with our strategic plan Mission Vision core values and priorities so just a a few quick highlights um supportive culture $831,000 uh for Collective commitment $555,000 for highly effective Talent 9 milon UM $235,000 Future Ready graduates um $818,000 safety and operations another 1,800 excuse me $818,000 at your work session on March 10 uh March 11th Mr Bowen updated the board regarding the differences between the governor's proposed budget and the General
146assembly's version um this evening the school board will be considering approving their recommended proposed budget for fy2 which be which will be transmitted to the supervisors for their consideration final budget actions um necessary to present a balanced operating budget be will be presented to the school board once the state and County have completed their budget process finally I want to thank all of our staff members and community members and um staff who have shared their feedback with the superintendent and with our board members thank you you thank you Dr shandor uh at this time I need a motion and a second to approve consideration of approval of a resolution 24-28 a resolution approving the proposed fiscal year 2025 operating budget and the fiscal year 2024 expected budget Madam chair I move approval of resolution 24-28
147a resolution approving the proposed fiscal year 2025 operating budget and the fiscal year 2024 expected budget thank you second yeah Mr schaer seconded thank you very much with that is there any discussion or comment I just had one comment um I just wanted to double check that with this it still means that we can tweak things until everything's finalized correct okay I just wanted to double check um that thank you very much is there any other question also I would like just to say thank you to Mr Bowman for such a hard work on this budget thank you thank you very much uh all right Mrs Howard a motion was made by Mr Richardson and seconded by Mr schaer to approve resolution 2428 a resolution approving the pro proposed fiscal year 2025 operating budget and
148the fiscal year 2024 expected budget Mr pich yes Mr Schaefer yes Mrs Goodwin yes Mr Richardson yes and Mrs Fairman yes the motion passed 5 to zero thank you very much um moving along uh the next is consideration of approval of the revised School attendance Zone lines Dr shandor comments yes thank you Miss Fairman um staff really doesn't have any comments this evening but I have asked Dr Carol to please come to the um Podium um to um help and Aid in any further discussion that the board wishes to have related to the attendance zones okay thank you yep we'll open it up to the board for a discussion we had well we had an opport let let me step back a second I I'll frame this a little better we had an opportunity to
149meet with board members last week we set up a few two on two meetings to have some further discussion with with each of the board members related to each of the proposals I think there were six or seven of those proposals um Dr Carol went um in depth um in detail with each of the board members not only talking about their Zone but the entire um School Division as as some of these recommendations were put out there by our um by our consultant so with that said I'll now turn it over to the board um thank you Dr shander so Dr Carol I was just wondering from my district if you might just present how the rezoning would impact my district just so people out there can see that just a visual um I know
150we've discussed and I just want them to be able to see what that would look like right are you asking under plan e revised or plan e sorry yes I'm asking under revised e revised okay and U so that' be York town in Seaford yes and let see I don't believe there were any revisions to uh Ian in that little pocket of zone so it's just probably yes yeah I know we didn't have any major revisions I just wanted to put up there so could see because we did look at revision so how everything looks for that yeah I apologize I'm not seeing one of the that's okay things here but uh I'm sorry so the the question is how does it look for you as far as Yorktown we are looking at um that
151about 30 students from the uh off installation uh Naval weapons station would then be rerouted to Yorktown Elementary mhm those students also stay in that feeder pattern up into uh into the brutin zone so that's something we want to consider uh also that there's uh apartments and town homes in the Nelson's Grant area and across the street on Eustace Boulevard there's about 70 students there that would be rerouted to Seaford Elementary School now of course with all of these we've recommended that any fifth grade and their siblings be able to stay for one more year thank you Dr Carol I just wanted to uh thank you for that the extra work uh going on in taking um some of the different ideas that different parents and taxpayers had in our different districts saying you know
152we like this but we didn't like that part and can we tweak this and can we do part of it here and this and that really helped us um kind of come together on what was going on and so the explanations and working through this process um was fairly easy thanks to uh what you all were putting together and I really appreciated the time that you all took on that well thank you and I if I could one more time thank the members of the stakeholder committee they were incredibly engaged and a pleasure to work with and I I agree with you work towards the Press process Mr on that note could you cover uh the big changes uh which was in my district in the brutin zone of what we plan on do certainly
153so in the last meeting Mr schaer you had asked about looking at a different alternative and we originally had U I'm just going to use the the mouse here the that we had looked at uh plan e had looked at this section right here uh to move up into Waller Mill uh plans b c and d had re reach down a little farther of south of the Parkway and um you had entertained an idea or introduced an idea of leaving those established uh neighborhoods there and looking at where we have a lot of growth in the Marquee Hill area and so we shared this picture with you at that meeting uh we do have U we have looked at that and I've shared it with the board and we've posted it online uh as we
154look at this looks a little Clos and of course the Marquee at Williamsburg is the commercial area here but the Marquee Hills are all the single family homes that have been built out and we do have an apartment building there three apartment buildings that are going to yield 265 units and those look almost done so those are going to start opening up very soon if they haven't already we did uh take a look at what that would mean for um utilization and so you can see uh that uh the top of this uh slide shows you what AB b c d and e were going to yield uh and then we've got what we call a revised plan e down here so we would be at 91 and a qu% uh from a gruder but
155that would take care of about all the U development that is planned in that area I mean I think it's less than 10 that would be left uh it would take the utilization at Waller Mill remember that's factoring in the new portable that we are putting there but it would put it at 79.7% so a a good bit of room there even after we uh move the existing uh students that are coming from the Mary Hill area but it would uh all of the growth in the upper County then would then be funneled uh to to Waller Mill so that's where we're at uh when it comes down to the uh free and reduced lunch levels you see uh the consultant put this together that McGruder would be at 32. 57% and uh Waller Mill
156would be at 35.6 now don't compare that to plan e unless that's something you're considering take it back to fall 2023 so that would be about a 2% lowering of that uh percentage for mcder and for Waller Mill it would go up about a %c so not a lot of fluctuation there so that does give you a very stable uh environment and um and then as far as transportation in the short run uh the Colonial Parkway is under some construction and it's going to be for some time so even though we uh the original plan with the consultant was to surround the parkway because that would be a quick way over towards Waller Mill and would would be closer uh actually in the short term the Marquee Hill would be a better solution in the
157short run are there any other comments or questions or Madam chair I do have two motions I think that may cover um everything that was discussed if you'd like me to make those motions sure Mr Richardson that would be fine thank you so I guess the first motion we'll talk about the um the motion to accept one of the plans and appreciate the stakeholder committee um you know had Parents on it and we listen to our parents too and and a lot of these decisions or I think all these decisions that are made uh covers some of yours Miss Fairman Wood Lake covers some of yours Mr schaer um Miss Goin I think in some of yours I don't believe any of yours are changing Mr zoren so you you slipped right through there on
158that one but it accommodates some in my my district as well so factoring in the recommendations uh we've received from the consultant the stakeholder committee and the input we' received sense of I would move the following except option e revised which is the plan for Waller Mill and McGruder Zone starting in the 2024 25 school year except option e for the Yorktown and Seaford zon starting in the 2024 2025 school year except option e for dare graft and bethl and Coventry minus wanders Pond and the single family homes along the north side of Lakeside between Manders Pond and colana point now pause on the motion right there just to explain that part of it that that includes two houses are just in a little small stretch of roadway on Lakeside Drive and it includes the
159entire wanders Pond subdivision and kind of makes that the line there uh but this part uh that I just described is to delay be delayed until there's adequate parking constructed between D and Seaford Schoolboard office and just a clarification we already have u a lot of issues with parking and this will just compound uh that issue so we're going to try to fix that if we can in addition for part of the motion and Miss Howard I have this written up for you accept option e that includes no changes to Mount Vernon Tab and bethl Manor and furthermore that all moves fifth graders will be grandfathered in the remaining into in in to remain at their schools along with any siblings if their families elect to do so for a period of one school year
160and provide their own transportation all right that's the Elementary uh sample uh that's the uh first motion that's the first motion right that covers all the other the second one kind of covers that little area of uh the weapon station that area up there to bring them from the upper end down to the lower end and I'll cover that in a separate motion it was just too long to Okay add it than one that sounds fine so do do we have a second for the motion that Mr Richardson just read in detail have anything Mr pich seconds that is there any further discussion regarding this portion of the motion hearing no further discussion or questions Mrs Howard a motion was made by Mr Richardson and seconded by Mr pich to approve revised attendance Zone lines
161accept option e revised plan for the Waller Mill and McGruder zones starting with the 2425 school year accept option e for the Yorktown and Seaford Zone starting with the 2425 school year accept o option e for darare graft and bethl and Coventry minus winders Pond and single family homes along the north side of Lake Side Drive between winders Pond and colana point to be delayed until there is adequate parking constructed between D and the Schoolboard office except option e that includes no changes to Mount Vernon Tab and bethl Manor and that for all moves fifth graders will be grandfathered into remain at their schools along with any siblings if their families elect to do so for a period of one school year and provide their own transportation perfect Mr pich yes Mr schaer yes Mrs
162Goodwin yes Mr Richardson yes and Mrs Fairman yes the motion passed 5 to zero thank you so a secondary motion to that Miss Fairman yes thank you Mr Richardson in addition to the proceeding Elementary motion I move that the secondary zoning between brutin and York zones be moved that the York Zone incorporates the streets of Musket Road mortar Loop Lafayette Drive Lebanon Church Road and Washington Drive all Rising K through fourth graders will transfer to Yorktown Elementary School for the 24 or 25 school year Rising fifth graders and their siblings May remain at McGruder Elementary for one year with Transportation provided by the division unless they opt to attend Yorktown Elementary next year Rising sixth graders and all other incoming students as well as any current students that want to opt in will attend the
163appropriate York County York Zone school starting in the 2425 school year all current Rising 7th through 12th graders May remain at Queens Lake middle and brutin high school with Transportation provided by the division until their graduation many of these are military families that are going to be probably filtering out in one to two years right P pcsing out yes um thank you very much uh do we have a second to the motion I'll second it thank you very much the motion has been made by Mr Richardson seconded by Mr schaer is there any further discussion questions or anything all right hearing no further discussion Mrs Howard a motion was made by Mr Richardson and seconded by Mr schaer to approve the secondary zoning line between brutin and York zones be moved so that York Zone
164incorporates the streets of Musket Road mortar Loop Lafayette Drive Lebanon Church Road and Washington Drive all Rising K through fourth grader fourth graders will transfer to Yorktown Elementary School for the 2425 school year Rising fifth grades and fifth graders and their siblings May remain at mcer elementary for one year with Transportation provided by the division unless they opt to attend Yorktown Elementary next year Rising sixth graders and all other incoming students as well as any current students that want to opt in will attend the appropriate York Zone school starting with a 2425 school year all current 7th through 12th graders will remain at Queens Lake middle and brutin high school with Transportation provided by the division until their graduation Mr pich yes Mr schaer yes Mrs Goodwin yes Mr Richardson yes Mrs Fairman yes motion
165pass 5 to zero thank you very much Madam chair if I could I just want to let you know that we'll be working on getting those Communications ready for any affected families and those should go out right after spring break thank you very much thank you Dr Carol greatly appreciate all the detail work that went into that um I know it it wasn't an easy task but you all U did an excellent job on it greatly appreciate it um the next topic is consideration of approval of policy writing services the last meeting we heard the presentation by uh what everybody calls vsba which is the Virginia Schoolboard Association today we heard the presentation from uh sbma which is the school board member Alliance uh the chair will um handle a motion at this time Madam
166chair I'd like to make a motion good at this time that we adopt the Schoolboard member Alliance policy working Services known as spma for their policy writing services for policy writing services thank you is there a second uh the motion has been made by Mrs Goodwin and seconded by Mr pavich um to uh choose the policy writing services or to adopt the policy Rising policy writing services of the Schoolboard member Alliance sbma um is there any discussion at this point yes Madam chair again I have concerns about litigation but um I'd like to defer to our attorney and um get her opinion because that was our original um discussion was to get her to to vet the two and and make a recommendation so I'd just like to hear from her before I vote thank
167you Mrs Barry School members based on the information provided on March 11 2024 by the vsba and tonight by the sbma it would be my recommendation that the school board continue to purchase policy services from vsba as vsba provides complete a complete database of sample policy available at all time for staff all policies are drafted by an attorney which gives me confidence that the statutes regulations and case law have been interpreted correctly and they are fully available and responsive to email and phone requests by staff the school board is required under Virginia code section 22.1 25313 col 7 to maintain up-to-date policies I have concerns regarding spm's lack of a full database of sample policies as well as the legal sufficient of the policy Services through spma as they clearly state in all their literature
168that they do not provide legal advice as Miss Goodwood stated I have a lot of Duties and I rely on a full policy database to enable me to review your policies and policy changes I feel that not having full policy services and database as we have in the past this will impact the school board's ability to meet the requirements of 22.1 25313 col thank you very much uh Mrs Barry um personally I just wanted to put uh information out there so people could know this uh I know the board members Reed this uh for the VBA the policy writing services uh that for one year is $33,750 and in order to have access to that we also have to be a full member as a board of the vsba which is around $112,000 as a
169yearly uh cost almost 13,000 sorry about that thank you um the sbma policy Services cost uh for a year is $2,900 and I believe Mrs Goodwin asked a question during this time that even though individual board members can be members of the sbma um we do not have to be members of sbma in order to utilize and purchase their policy writing services so that gets the financial side out of uh or out so everybody knows that is there any other comment or question Mr schaer uh I would say that you get what you pay for um and that [Applause] uh that it bothers me that they don't have any lawyers on staff uh I think Mrs she said that they' run it out out of a house in Forest oh over there okay and uh
170how many employees does this place have they've been around for a year I don't know I mean I don't think they have the STA that the vsba does um and they won't be there to back us up if a policy is challenged and we could be financially held liable um and which I think would cost a lot more than uh what the prices are that we're talking about here uh not to mention that the leadership both of those leaders I'm sorry are tarnished one is a disgraced uh ex School Board member from suffk the Su school board and everything else and the one that's in Virginia Beach he's not running again because of the comments that she made um so I think that that uh having people of questionable character uh running our policies and
171stuff I don't think is a good idea and I'd just like to make one hang on Mr Rich Mr Excuse me Mr pich so miss Melanie you were talking about uh you not getting full perspective full uh database of the policies uh how often like you know we com in across those policies that you have to use on our like from database I look at policies quite frequently um for instance uh in February there were about 28 updates to policies that vsba put out to their members which we did not get so at this point we probably have 28 policies that have not been updated uh they come out on a monthly basis from vsba um in many cases but it's case law as well so anytime a a case is decided by one of
172the courts in our jurisdiction like the fourth circuit Supreme Court uh we have to make changes to policy and I rely on that database to review any policies that staff want to change or any changes that we need to make to remain compliant right now that database is not available to you correct okay uh now talking about uh Mark you were actually mentioning that they don't have the attorney on staff but I heard that they have two attorneys on staff they are not on staff okay those those those two attorneys are not on staff it's people that they go to okay for I mean for whatever all right uh now challenging the the policies how often does that happen we've always used vsba so we've never had anyone challenge our policies uh however vsba will
173in the contract that they will provide support for for us and uh funding if we are challenged on a policy I think it's worth noting excuse me I think it's worth noting that our chief officers spend a great deal of time in policy when I think about was it policy L I'm sorry policy I that Miss Skinner um completed this past year or last year it was extensive work that Miss Skinner her team and Miss Barry worked on so our chief officers spend um a lot of time with policy it's not just the attorney who spends time with policy it's staff it's not just case law it's um attorney general's opinions um there's there's a lot of other things than just the um what the state changes in their laws that I know um they
174look at and revise um the treasure for that organization is out of a house out of Forest Virginia I think it's up on the other side of Lynchburg the um Miss story she registers the um guess it's called the primary principal the registered office is registered to a condominium in Woodbridge so it's not even at a business site it's at a a resident so I I just have some concerns with with the professionalism of the whole organization right now I mean I know they're trying to start off but they're they're not uh just amiz they're not bat in a thousand here with me not to mention the fact that uh the vsba represents what was it a did they tell us 124 of the 132 School divisions I believe it was so I would like
175to I don't know what the proper protocol is but I'd like to amend maybe amend and and and may has to be two separate motions but I don't see any reason why because I I understand the concerns about something being new and you're trying to dip your toes into something when you've had something that you know you felt secure with but I also don't like the fact that when you use their organization that you're tethered when you use their policy Services excuse me that you're kind of Tethered to that Organization for a $113,000 price tag however with that said I also know that in the membership that Mr Richardson has um involvement at a higher level there so that I don't know that what that would do I would like to see in the future
176perhaps they offer some individual memberships but what I propose is that we use both that way the members some of us are members of it it gives us the chance to try it writing policy to uh to utilize that service and give them a chance to see what they do I mean when you think of the cost of the budget when you think of the budget overall I mean we don't I mean the amount that it costs to join I mean excuse me the amount that it costs for that policy service is really peanuts when when you think of the overall budget and that would give confidence I think to see time to measure and time to see if it's all that we think it is and then you have the vsba uh policy as
177well for those that are using it and it gives us a year to really kind of look at it and evaluate it um Mr Richardson and and Mr Schaefer would be able to see it too even though they're not members they still have access to it and then we can come together later maybe make a better or more informed decision and I think that that would kind of be a a happy medium and appease the majority of people I'm sure I'm not going to appease Everybody by that decision or by that proposal but that's what I feel in my heart at this time would probably be the most workable and uh best solution all right we have we have a motion that's been made in second and on the floor to um accept the sbma
178um membership or not membership excuse me uh the policy writing services uh the person who made that motion has put out the possibility of changing that to um purchase both policy writing services to be able to compare them and utilize both throughout the year to see which one is best for moving forward um is there a second on the amendment that Mrs um good good one has made I'll second that actually all right uh Mr pich has uh seconded that amended to Mrs Goodwin's initial um motion uh that we purchase both is there discussion on that I would just like to ask a question um Miss Barry has a number of responsibilities on her plate earlier as we discussed whether it's contracts human resources student matters um going to the courthouse uh there's just a
179number of things that she does within the organization as well as policy Services if the board chooses to select two different ones you know my question is what is that going to how's that going to work when it lands meaning is and we now going to be reviewing two separate you know policies from two different organizations I just don't know the practicality of how that's going to how that's going to work thank you Dr shandor um I believe that falls into the purview of it's the responsibility of the school board itself to uh be involved with a policy writing services to have a standing committee uh that we would need to set up for um policy review and policy writing that we would then work with um the attorney and we would have both sets
180of policies to uh to take a look at um to then be able to weigh both along the lines would it be fair to say then to give Miss Barry some direction because I mean I'm sure she's going to be torn between she doesn't know what to do um she's listening to both sides would it be fair to say to her continue to do her policy Services as they have been with you doing what you were going to do with the uh sbma and when the new policies come out you can compare them and go well wait a minute can we do this change this change I think that's what the what the plan is okay that that's what I propose I mean you have you have both and you look at them and then
181you see okay you know so she'll continue doing the vsba y'all will continue to look Atma and we'll compare the two and yes because we'll we're going to form a policy committee so that we can really look at that and so that would I think achieve that goal is there any further discussion all right uh we we'll see I believe the the motion is that uh the amended motion uh was that both both um sbma and vsba would be purchased for their policy writing services uh for the school board for the next year um Mrs Howard sorry a motion was made by Mrs Goodwin and seconded by Mr pich to approve the policy writing services purchase of both s spma and vsba Mr pich yes Mr Schaefer yes Mrs Goodwin yes Mr Richardson no Mrs
182Fairman yes the motion passed four to one thank you very much I appreciate that um moving along uh with more I believe the next thing is um regarding School Board structure um let's see consideration of approval of school board structure is there a motion to have any discussion on this uh the reason okay we need we need to have a motion in order to have discussion so you need to make whatever your motion is uh I move that well I mean I got to tell you what it is you got to make a motion you have I I want to make a motion so that uh that uh we have the structure for uh emails being answered that come to the board to be done by the board chair okay they come to each individual
183member we respond and we need to do it in a timely basis now I'll leave the timely basis I would say since many of us work uh that it would be within say a week even though we hold uh our staffs to you know the uh in the schools and all to 48 hours okay but I think 24 24 hours then I think that uh that we should be able to answer those emails from our constituents uh whether it be positive or negative we ought to be able to do that within that time frame all right is there a second to um Mr schaer's motion regarding emails from the board to be did you say within 24 hours Days Seven Days within a week okay thank you I'll second that okay the motion has been
184made and second is there discussion I would just ask for a point of clarity um standard operating procedure for the school divisions that we that our staff members respond within 24 hours even if they do not know the answer they should respond I've I've held our staff accountable for that for almost 10 years so if a staff member in your county doesn't respond until 7 Days Later later as as being modeled by our school board is that going to be okay with the school board if a principal doesn't respond to an email within seven days is that going to be okay no okay um let me if I can understand this this particular motion is regarding the school board not regarding employees school board members are not employees of the School Division and so it's
185two separate things here and that's okay I I could amend it I could amend it to say that we will respond within 24 hours okay and maybe not say hey I've got a research whatever and I'll get back to you I could see that within 24 hours I don't know about you all but like know I'm actually receiving on a business level about 170 to 250 emails a day uh so like know yeah I can tell you you don't really so what I believe that know that's fine but uh 24 hours will not work for me okay wait before we have any more discussion we need a second on the amendment of 24 hours for the motion or I guess a friend a friendly Amendment since it's your Amendment okay all right uh along with
186that any further discussion sorry Mr pivate did you have anything else to say regarding the 24 hours I I see where Mr P is coming from um he runs a business and that's certainly uh commendable with him doing this job as well um I'm kind of torn I think we need to model for our our uh staff and do what they're what we should do what they're required to do uh but I understand when you're busy um and there's probably going to be those times where you can't respond within 24 hours 48 hours would probably be more reasonable but um I'm I'm good with the 24 because um again I think we should model what we're asking our employees to do is there any further discussion on this what are the consequences if we don't
187a slack well we don't have any board norms and protocols so we we really don't know yeah we don't have any code of conduct so we don't know no because whenever I was a parent on the other side I emailed stuff and I didn't get back U you know from step on top of it so like you know you ask me what are the consequence for my employees not answering so you're proposing policy like for us to abide by like not to respond to emails 48 hours so if if I could interject something here uh I believe this actually sounds more like an issue that we can discuss at our Retreat that we're putting together uh that it falls under the collegiality and norms and protocols that we all agreed to that we were going
188to be discussing but if we can if we can handle that there and put it together um that that would that would probably be you know the best choice rather than um make a decision tonight um on this I'm okay with that I think that would be good maybe we could talk more about I mean I can go with the 24-hour but I think that to to zor or sorry Mr pich's uh Point um you know when you do get flooded with a lot of emails and I know sometimes if I'm working all day and then I have a crisis where I'm at the hospital or doing an admission I could be there for quite a while um and that could go all the way into a 24-hour segment so you know I think we
189need to discuss that a little bit more but I understand timely is timely feedback is important I just want to say to all of you guys like you know I will do better to respond to my emails so you have my promise on those things like you know this limits you know really it's really hard in line of duty what I'm doing to respond uh it's just a lot of it going on so like no I will take more time to respond to it so all right I think I think we're ready for um the vote Mrs Howard well um what we what we can do is we can table it to the retreat or we can vote it vote it down knowing that we're going to take it up at the retreat yeah all
190right right uh we'll need a motion to table it to the retreat I make a motion that we table this conversation about uh time to respond for the emails to when we have our Retreat to discuss the norms and protocols do we have a second I'll second all right Mr schaer Seconds um to table uh table to the discussion and decision regarding uh board emails and responses um and it has been seconded Mrs Howard a motion has been made by Mrs Goodwin and seconded by Mr schaer to table the response time to emails directed to the board during the board retreat Mr pich yes Mrs Mr schaer yes Mrs Goodwin yes Mr Richardson yes Mrs Fairman yes motion passed 5 to zero thank you very much uh mve moving right along I believe we're on
191to uh let's see policy discussion actually there was no policy discussion but we are on policy first reading of section L the Education Agency relations regarding that hang on sorry all the papers here and moving along Dr shandor do you have any comments regarding this thank you m thank you we have no changes all righty um thank you very much uh we have no second reading action done at this time we'll take on the report of the superintendent Dr shandor thank you very much um good evening everyone I want to um first off I want to uh thank the following teachers who uh invited me to come read to their students I had a blast um reading to them uh Jenna schrier's class at York toown Elementary School uh Nancy northcot Sarah Durr Stacy Herrick
192um Cynthia ich show all at Seaford and April Dawson at um Tab Elementary School I had a great time reading with those students um also um as the board members mentioned earlier we were judges for the future Chef which is a great opportunity for our students I did want to acknowledge the winner um Paisley hwad She's a fifth grader um Grafton bethl Elementary School really proud of her she made a a shrimp spring roll bowl and what's really NE is her student her all of her um classmates at graft and Beth will get to experience her dish later in the school year in the spring so that's really cool also um Mr pich brought up um we had a student a seventh grader Maria Rose sajun um who won the thank a teacher Virginia Lottery
193art contest we're really proud of her again she's a crafted Middle School um as mentioned earlier again the star banet was Thursday we had an opportunity to recognize all of our outstanding teachers our teachers of the Year our parents educators of the Year our support staff of the year um we have a list of those dedicated employees that can be found on our division website um but we did surprise two people there um Jennifer Jarrett from Grafton High School as she was announced as the spirit of Education winner which was wonderful we surprised her she actually brought her Coral students to the event um had no idea that she was getting award that night so it was wonderful to surprise her and then we have a long-standing member of Team ycsd uh Mr George lint
194Ln he received the superintendence award um if you don't know George he is an outstanding outstanding employee he's been around here a long time no one outworks him I'm not going to say his age on camera um but I can tell you in 10 years we've done a lot of last minute move-ins like Waller Mill and Tab Elementary and D Elementary and Seaford Elementary um so we've had some pretty rough Summers to get school started on time and and I can tell you that that Lynch has been there every step of the way with his team and and many times outworking um all of us so really appreciate him um I want I do want to acknowledge Dr rites and his team in the HR department um for putting on this event um I think
195everyone enjoyed themselves and it was a real special evening for all of our employees I did want to acknowledge a little group of Tab Elementary kindergarten students um who invited me to come to have lunch with them um they humbled me as clearly my rock paper scissors game has passed by um these little kindergarteners took me to school so um really again just a great opportunity to get into the schools I uh had the opportunity to go to D Elementary's career day which was really cool we had a number of local businesses come to share their careers we had a former pro football player there um who was a former brutin High School uh player there uh Brian Randall who played for Virginia Tech and he he also had a stint with the best franchise
196in sports history the Pittsburgh Steelers so it was good to see him there we had a number of our ycsd staff members there in maintenance making buddy benches for the students there as well teaching teaching kids construction was awesome um also we had a powderpuff game at tab high school that I was invited to stood there in the rain uh watched the upper classman win that one um the special education openhouse and resource fair that board members mentioned this evening I wanted to um share that Chaine H Hopkins and her her team and Dr Skinner's team did a great job of putting that together awesome resources for our families um I attended the Big B the distinguished business Affair event at the freight shed last week with um with our County folks um we have
197a lead program that is really for upand cominging leaders in the school Division and we're on about our sixth cohort I want to acknowledge Dr Joy Richardson she's an associate director for special education she came we always have guest speakers come she came and shared um a part of uh some of the work that we do there uh it's called challenging the process she did a great job of of sharing her leadership experiences with them I also attended the chair Vice chair meeting with um Mr ran Miss null Miss fman Miss Goodwin and Mr Bellamy and I think it was very productive discussion about two hours or so I'm looking at um getting the joint meeting started back we generated a lot of topics we'll probably have to cut a lot of those topics but
198we did have very productive discussion um I had some really good walkthroughs um with Mr Richardson in the York Zone and I was able to get up to the brutin zone as well spent spent some really uh quality time at Queens Lake um and that there was one thing that I'll I'll um shoot the board an email tomorrow uh related to the school board retreat um we met at the board the uh planning session for this meeting and the Schoolboard retreat was going to focus on training will be organized by the chair and vice chair um with assistance from the clerk as needed we appreciate superintendent's willingness to help but this particular Retreat will focus on required training and not ad administrative updates so for what I'm understanding from our discussion tonight we're going to
199put board norms and protocols and potentially code of conduct on that agenda so that's good all right thank you very much this concludes the superintendent's report thank you Dr shandor um as a reminder to everyone we will not have a work session in April um so the next time we'll be back here in your call on Monday April 22nd for our regular meeting and uh wish you a very safe and relaxing spring break now uh since this is it uh coming to the end of the agenda once again uh according to policy BD dhk community members who do not sign up to address address the board prior to the beginning of the business portion of the meeting will be given an opportunity to speak at the end of the board's meeting agenda so that would
200be now so if you had not signed up um you can speak now uh it's if it follows the same process it's 3 minutes each uh to a 30 minute Max so those people who had signed up this is not for you according to policy and this is one of those things that when the board starts okay ladies ladies and gentlemen uh the policy that I'm actually ladies and gentlemen I'm going to read the policy directly ladies and gentlemen the policy as it's stated it's right here in the policy handbook community members who do not sign up to address the board prior to the beginning of the business portion of the meeting will be given an opportunity to speak at the end of the board's meeting agenda such Community member comments made at the end
201of the board meeting shall be subject to the same conditions and limitations listed herein ladies and gentlemen Miss Mrs Haywood you are out of [Applause] order excuse Mrs Haywood you are out of or out of order if you could please have a seat and we can try this okay at the discretion of the chair okay excuse me I'm not going to argue if it means that we that I have to call a recess and and we clear the hall that's what we'll do but what what we can do is those who wish to speak who did not sign up please please raise your hand okay if you excuse me if you uh um we're not taking that right now we're in the middle of this if you did not sign up and you wish to
202speak please line up in the center then we can take take those who signed up we'll we'll do this those people and once again you can speak up to 3 minutes at the maximum of 30 minutes we're following policy here ladies and gentlemen I'm sorry it's it's the policy that was read the last time and I'm not going to argue with the audience if you would like if you would like to get in line the next ones after those who had not signed up is is Barbara Haywood Charles Gates Sam Ray Dr Amy Brown Melissa Saba Erica Harris Christy Chamberlain Jim Spencer Tom jet Deb Wesley Todd hogland Randy Eaton Nicole living Keith I think it's har Haron I can't tell Aaron Mna maybe uh Andre Taylor and Samuel Yuri but once again uh 3
203minutes max if you do it if you do it less we will get through more uh up through 30 minutes all right we will we will try this does it say 30 minutes it says 30 minutes in the policy once again the chair will impose a time limit of three minutes it does not give me the discretion to limit it down to one minute to get more people to speak I know the Board of Supervisors has that but our policy this is one of the reasons why the Board needs to review some of these policies to make some adjustments ladies and gentlemen those people speaking out may just be spoiling it for everybody else please stop two other MERS promise to hear us with no more than 30 minutes allocated for the comments of community
204members I'm following policy we're going to start right now uh the first one please and you will need to state your name and your District good evening my name is Diane Smith I am in District 3 Madame chair Mrs Goodwin Mr PC congratulations it's safe to say you have successfully engaged the community and you've put York County in the national news I just wish it was because of the Excellence of our schools not the political hack job that is happening here and I think tonight's One Nights will be one for the books um Mr Schaefer Mr Richardson thank you for speaking for us uh before I came here I was concerned about the sbma after watching the presentation I was terrified um I people move to and live in York County because of the schools
205and I just see that as a disaster waiting to happen so I appreciate Mrs Goodwin your proposal that we at least try both for a while um that is a decent compromise although still a little scary uh to the parents of current students I'd like to challenge the idea that those of us with grown children are not relevant to the conversation um the education of our children is critical not just for the children and their families but to our society um Thomas Jefferson said educate and inform the whole mass of the people they are the only sure Reliance for the preservation of our Liberty I I know that you are desperate for your children and you are worried about the direction of the school board but I am worried too and I'm here to support
206parents but also you know these are the children who are going to be making decisions about um about my retirement and so I want them to be well educated um for the 30 minute time limit um perhaps if you are going to keep that although I suggest you use just discretion to not do that perhaps prioritize the parents with current students so that they can get home and take care of their kids and be heard because they are very relevant um Mr repter I think has left as I was going to tell him as I have tried and tried to oppress upon my daughter you can try to remove it you can try to make it pres private you can pretend it's a misunderstanding but once it's on the internet it never ever goes away
207and I have seen the videos much of York County has seen the videos he needs to find a new approach although I will give him credit for the I'm not in a militia you're in a militia that was fun I like that to close I'll say I graduated from York High School my daughter graduated from tab High School I am hoping not anytime soon but eventually to have children in York County Schools please do not ruin them thank you next in line hi my name is Lindsay Brooks and I am in District 4 and I'm going to give the microphone okay please direct your uh I'm gonna give the microphone to her you're not you can't yield your time just yes I can go ahead and speak Miss Haywood thank you madam chair board members
208Dr shandor I'm in shock with you all tonight that's the only thing I can say uh my name is Barbara Haywood and I reside in the brutin district you probably ask why do I come here again tonight what do I want to accomplish I return this month to again urge you to engage in appropriate leadership training which you need during my 30 years on this board I have served in leadership at the Virginia School Board Association and the National School Board Association I have assisted vsba in training sessions for new board members so I know firsthand the important and timely information presented in leadership training through vsba as a reputable organization offering professional development and training to state boards for over 117 years please use this organization who functions in compliance with Virginia law and
209the code of Virginia for all students to better help you understand this enormous and highly important position that you're in each of you all took an oath not just for a select few but for all students it would be in the best interest if all of you act collectively as we and not individually as I and if you cannot comply with this oath that you raised your hand for you need to step down so I asked I answer my initial question of what I want to accomplish and speaking to you I want you to be the best leader that you can to work on behalf of all of our students this begins with proper training in your duties and responsibilities and you need it this begins with reading the large information binder that the superintendent
210and his staff put together for all new board members your questions in your prior meetings imply that you do not thoroughly that you did not thoroughly read this information and lastly you've talked about a retreat please please do this Retreat you need it please don't lead by a narrow belief or by a select few that you around surround yourself with but lead effectively educated on Schoolboard governance duties and responsibilities that would in turn allow you to effectively lead the School Division if you take advantage of vsba and don't find it to be beneficial then you would have used resources that are available to you to represent this County but I can assure you that you will walk away having a much better perspective on your role so my goal is speaking to you and strongly
211to urge you to engage in governance and Leadership training this is just the beginning of your term please take the opportunity to get it right thank you thank you Miss Heywood next thank you okay next one hello I'm Regina Watson District 5 and I'm yelding my time this gentlemen sir School Board my name is Charles Gates I'm the second VP for the Y JCW NAACP if I was not from this area the first hour of this spectacle I wanted to grab my seatmates hands and sing Kumbaya however as we went on it became apparent that there is an apparent split differences of opinions and the opinions of these in these seats are purposely not being heard we implore you you work for the people of this County I'm not going to tell you what your
212job is I don't know everything you do but what we do know is that you represent every student in this County do so with respect and integrity because we read the post we hear the gossip we watch and listen to the words that are being used not only in this chamber but outside of these walls we hear we see we will be holding those responsible accountable thank you next in [Applause] line my name is Melissa mrio I'm in District 2 and I yield my time to this gentleman good evening my name is Andre Taylor District 3 I would like to start by saying excuses are the tools of the weaken incompetent to build monuments of nothingness those who specialize on them themselves achieve anything other than excuses and that's all I've heard tonight I have
213twin daughters that are in school at Seaford Elementary and I get one excuse of well show me evidence of enslave people being sad and you wouldn't go look and you use rhetoric that is just in that ins insinuates negative stuff 1619 if that's your political stance be it but understand there's more than just that so stop repeating what somebody else said and do your own research that is what I do every single day and then when I hear somebody say that I own a business and I get so many emails and I can't respond guess what I'm in grad school I'm a parent and I work full-time I respond respond to every email within 24 hours if your business is that important to you step aside from this position and go handle your business because
214right now you are failing the students in this school district all right and you said that you so you're you have students that are in this school district that act like it act like you care all right those of us in here that want to be heard we want to be heard now back to you okay you said you don't you so you've never seen information to see if slaves were sad is that correct is that correct so you're not going answer awesome let me educate you tonight because you need to learn okay the slave narratives all right look up Maddie Curtis she was one of 14 children born to her parents the slave owners sold those kids off they were able to retrieve three would that make you sad if somebody took your kids
215from you answer me would it so I see that not only are we not answering questions we're displaying that we're going to be cowardly so how can you lead the Children of the future how can you lead the Future Leaders if you're going to sit there and not answer questions of the parents here of these students Shame Shame thank you next in line toana goson next toana goson and aacp women in the NAACP co-chair I'm yelding my time to Dr yure my name is Sam Yuri I live in District 4 when we filled out our cards we put on the card what topic we wanted to deal with if we put on the card the issue of the sbma we should have been allowed to speak before you took a vote on the sbma my
216understanding because that seems to make sense I'm addressing the pressing issue of the school board member Alliance known as sbma the organization's mission is to promote highquality Schoolboard governance training that emphasizes excellence and education and addresses the distinctive needs of each student this is what their website says it refers to itself as a powerful network of conservative members working collaborative collaboratively to Champion parental rights power comes in numbers they don't have it look up the websites sbma versus the Virginia school board asso iation it looks like and is a JV versus a varsity in terms of comparison I'm known as a somewhat blunt person who does not try to blow smoke up anybody's tail I pride myself as a person who seeks and recognizes truth and I do a lot of fact finding sbma is
217a wolf and sheep's clothing I've talked with full-time lobbyists en Richmond look up their past platform the planks of being pro-school vouchers Pro school choice wanting uh the defunding of public education and you all are all public education servants now I may be using some polarizing remarks so let me break this down in a very real way that the York County Citizens will understand this organization got its impetus during the co pandemic the most important thing is to know that it is fiscally irresponsible to put policy matters in their hands they do not have the legal staff to keep up with the changes needing to be implemented on July 1st now we may not even have the budget finished before we're having to worry about the implementation the vsba does the vsba is a constant
218presence in Richmond during the legislative session they understand the nuances of Virginia's complicated budget process they're already working hard to ensure that the school boards are in compliance to the changes in the code and they adjust it based on the budget can York County afford to not have this kind can your county afford to take this kind of a risk one of the tenants of the sbma is at the 11 16-year Monopoly of educational policy by the vsba most lobbyists highlight the vba's premise to meet all the needs of all the school board members of the state as a former vsba member I can attest to that stick with what works if it's not broken don't fix it last but not least trust experience and expertise that's present right now thank you thank you Mr
219Yuri is there anyone else who wishes to speak at this time all right seeing no further um speakers and having no further business I have a number can I oh yes you may all right thank you uh we we have all of 10 and a half minutes good evening scub members and Dr chander there's no doubt as you can see tonight this been intention since January you may have disagreements especially with the new SC members but let's not lose sight of what is important the success of the students teachers and staff in this District we want to remain number three they deserve focused learning environment free from political agendas that's why I propose we must forward move forward together open communication and collaboration are key let's hear each other's perspectives board members parents teachers and
220staff by working together we can find solution that benefits everyone one our school Community while ensuring our classrooms prioritize education and no political agenda YC ycsd is a strong reputation and together we can keep it that way thank you thank you [Applause] next hi I'm Erica Harris I'm District 4 um Mr Schaefer and Mr Richard Richardson I just wanted to say I I appreciate you so much and thank you for speaking out um I also appreciate that you continue to represent us all every single District you represent us all um so Dr shandor and board members I am here today to voice some concerns and re about recent events I happen to be at the school board office on Friday and noticed that three of the five members were in a meeting in the Next
221Room I also took note when the meeting seemed to continue into the parking lot of the Schoolboard office for quite some time yes we are everywhere we are involved and we are watching I take issue with the lack of representation from two districts in this meeting and took note of the absolute divide in the board it continues outside of this room how can a majority meet and discuss Schoolboard concerns without including two entire districts in advocacy this would be seen as a lack of full participation from the other board members and worthy of a state complaint I would file a complaint on behalf of district one and District 4 I also noticed that when the students presented their projects earlier Mrs Fairman decided to talk about herself and her time teaching but failed to address
222the teacher so I just wanted to public publicly address this thank you for working tirelessly to provide your students with opportunities that are engaging and educational I also notice that the students use technology to enhance their plans which will give them a leg up in the world we live in today I know it is not easy to put these projects together thank you for the time you spent on this project and for creating a classroom culture that is truly special sbma this is a quote does not provide legal advice and does and does recommend discussing all policy adoptions with the Schoolboard attorney this to me itself says we are not liable for anything and we really aren't an official organization that backs ourselves up it's off of the site you asked the students what their
223favorite part of the project was when they finished presenting I want to let you know that mine was the rainbow because it represents everything that you have openly sought to destroy I loved that rainbow thank you thank you next in [Applause] line good evening I'm Dr Amy Brown I'm in District 3 and I'm Number 14 if that matters um since I stood here at the February meeting and asked you to put politics aside and do your jobs I've been waiting to be surprised and have you challenge my expectations boy the arrogance on display tonight I'm just going to skip a chunk there were there was a moment but yeah um Mr pic I do want to say I'm glad to see you actually engaging tonight I saw you ask some substantive questions for the first
224board meeting I've seen that happen other than just to thank you for the presentation so thank you for engaging what I have been seeing is that rather than sincerely working to serve students many of you are grandstanding pushing elbows around rather than serving our students you serve all of the students all of them with their varied and diverse backgrounds their diverse learning needs their non-traditional and traditional families and cultures but when presented with a detailed presentation by Dr Skinner SCA staff about the recommended literacy curriculum there weren't questions about why this is the best curriculum to help my son learn to read it was a concern about Dei diversity is not a foul word and face it your students are diverse your community is diverse whether or not you choose to embrace it someone with
225concerns about inclusion is that who should be sitting on the seat committee I'm not sure inequity I don't even have time I've got less than three minutes it is troubling both in Optics and practice that the vice chair and chair have both chosen to be removed from the let's talk platform Miss Goodman is quoted in the media saying she couldn't keep up with the let's talk emails so she'd prefer people to email her directly okay even my 11-year-old sees the logic in that so why why remove yourself from this platform that is used in multiple School divisions to streamline for constituents like us the questions where maybe we don't know who that question goes to why remove yourself from that is it because it's Anonymous there are people who are afraid to confront you I
226had my picture taken in a restaurant by two strangers who were finishing up a meeting they're both here tonight and one has passed me twice deliberately to to make a comment to me is it a coincidence that they did that right after Mrs Fairman left their meeting I don't know but consider The Company You Keep because they are trying to intimidate thank you very much [Applause] next hi my name is Jim Spencer I live in the brutin district I pay taxes that help support the schools and I do not want my taxes used to fund a culture War we have a great school system in York County already uh you should not be turning it into a political spectacle but that looks like what you intend to do you serve students you don't serve a
227political agenda public service Demands a commitment to all kinds of people all kinds of families all kinds of genders and religions above all you ought to be basing your policies on Truth we've heard a lot here about um about militias I was in the capital on January 6th locked in the upper deck of the house chamber I saw the icious they were trying to break through the door they were breaking the windows okay and they were all driven by a lie and many of you probably they probably somebody sitting up here on the board I hope not who still believe the lies that are being foed out there my point is truth has got to be driving what you do here and you can't use Free Speech as an excuse to dilute the truth or
228to misinform people it's not your job or your right to impose your private beliefs on public school children it simply is not and by embracing intimidation of teachers censorship and denial of History and Science what you do is risk taking a really good exemplary school system and turning it into Political spectacle and I've seen nothing but examples of that all night including up to an including this ridiculous policy that you can't seem to get straight and if it's if it is the policy you ought to be sued and I'm pretty sure would would would not go your way in court but look Public School school boards that teach tolerance alongside of intellectual honesty and curiosity succeed boards that try to to dictate morality deny science rewrite history they eventually fail and I'm going to I
229ask you as a last request never forget who you work for you don't work for conservative or liberal theorists you don't work for politicians or religious leaders you work for students thank you very much is there anybody else hi good evening I'm Tom Jen District Five represent uh resident um I have no prepared remarks tonight I wasn't prepared to make any but after listening through some of the discussion out in the uh in the queue outside I felt compelled to make a few first of all no one's speech has been quelled tonight and this was not an attack on the Constitution that was a ridiculously hyperbolic comment she made everyone has had a chance to speak I don't know exactly what the policy says verbatim I heard what Miss fman read seemed logical I'm not
230sure I followed the logic but it seemed like it had a purpose to it everyone has had a chance to speak no one's speech has been quelled or they have been cut off or their microphone taken away from them so again I I was here last month and I asked everybody to please calm down here address here so to I asked the people that are rep or attending these meetings to please calm down let you all get your footing do your jobs and then if there's something to substant disagree with do so but this has begun since January this these attacks have begun since the first public meeting you had and it's continued month after month after month we're now in the third public uh meeting now nothing has changed and I fear for what
231one I'm I'm surprised of what York county is I didn't think it was this way we are essentially a a reflection of the greater country where we have two camps completely vulcanized in their ideological trenches none of I I dare ask that none of these people would want to have a sub discussion with me about any of these issues and I I would probably be attacked for whatever views I might have I would ask that maybe we just grow a pair and be able to have a conversation about some of this stuff as adults and stop throwing these politically driven sorry uh attacks at one another across the board within the board and within the community we should start talking to each other and stop yelling at each other I support the board thank you
232next in line good even evening my name is Deb Wesley and I am from District district 4 um I am the President of the York Education Association ladies and Gentlemen please be quiet and allow the speaker to speak thank you um I had other comments planned but because of the time limit I they are not pertinent right now um I do appreciate you listening to us all tonight I respectfully request that there is a policy change everybody deserves to be heard if we come here and stand outside in the cold or the heat for 40 minutes before we're even allowed in the building we should be heard and if we didn't have an opportunity to pull our card so that we then were not signed up to speak we should still be heard we came
233to this meeting to be heard and it felt like you wanted to shut everybody down regardless of what we wanted to say so I respectfully asked the board to change your policy and the only other comment I have is for you madam chair I again respectfully request that you refrain from interrupting people up on the dis I have watched you interrupt Mr Richardson Mr schaer and Dr shandor on more than one occasion when you interrupt Mr shandor or Mr Richardson you are interrupting my voice on the board because he is my representative and I don't think that that is what your intent is but that is the way it's coming across and when there's been constant call for deorum and civility that doesn't happen if you are interrupting a person speaking and just to end
234with I'm sure that's not really your intent I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt that you are not shutting people down but you are shutting down my voice when you do that and um that is not the example we want to set for our students so thank you for your time and thank you for listening to all of us speak thank you [Applause] next Mr hugan before you before you begin if I could just say um we're about to be done but we'll go ahead and the last these last four speakers will um speak all right there go thank you I'm Todd Hogan uh from District 3 um school board members and Dr shandor uh I've previously spoken at the school board um about the behavior of the board uh I've gone over the
235functions of your behavior I've also outlined uh behavior intervention plan tonight I come to speak with another topic and that's something that's very important to special Educators like myself and that's communication some people think that communication only happens when words are spoken um I have taught students throughout my 18-year career that were unable or unwilling to verbally respond or to speak at all I find myself in another situation where I'm finding people that are unable or unwilling to communicate this board on February 14th I emailed the entire board some questions those questions were for all board members I received immediate responses from Mr schaer and from Mr Richardson a couple days later Mr pich responded however I then sent on February 23rd an email to Mrs win asking her for for a response she responded
236on the 25th saying that her comments to the or comments by the board would answer most of my questions they did not um again on March 5th I emailed my clarifying questions to Mrs um Goodwin however on March 15th she responded saying that um she gave her comments she's not going to answer my questions and she referred me to you Mrs Fairman with these questions I sent you on March 15th today is March 25th yep just checking um will you commit to participate in mediation within the board members to create a functioning board because right now it's not do you have any evidence of indoctrination of students in ycsd you you campaigned on this and you said it's there but there's no evidence will you will each of you take the opportunity to participate in
237the cultural competency training by vdoe all teachers have to follow that all of us have to do that I think you should do it too your cultural competency is lacking you do not include people that don't look like you or think like you and that's a problem I'm going to leave you with this this is a communication chart if you can't email me just tell me yes or no okay just tell me yes or no will you speak to me as a constituent of District three I've gotten no answers thank you very much and to clarify I will say that all five board members have taken the three online training next please next please thank you for allowing me to speak I support the whole school board but we need your name and your District
238my name is Randy Eaton I'm in district one and I know each and every one of you you know I'm glad that you guys step up I've been in this County since 1979 that's 45 years I've been involved in all kinds of activities and I think it as an insult that people come up here and say that old people can't come up here and speak in front of the board you know I took a trip of brutin high school students to SW bran Germany I sheer on that whole trip I also went and talked to my company and got them to putot the bill for the bus to take us to dullas and back and not only that I took care of all of them that were over there first time they've ever been away
239I I stepped up and did that you know and to have people say you don't have people in school you know on the way back from dullas I told the bus driver to stop and I bought that's when I found out the McDonald's cash registers only went to $75 well we tripped that a couple times but I fed all the kids before I brought them back I've also been involved when brutin had the graduation night so we could get kids away from going to parties and stuff that we headed over the James City County Rec Center and then again I got my plant manager and I got the corporation to kick in the money to finance that so when you look and say that I don't have kids in school I've been paying my state
240local and federal taxes that go back into the school system I have every right to come up up here to speak to this board and I'm getting a little bit tired of people saying that I don't have that right and people like me don't have that right that's kind of like a little bit of discrimination here so anyways I want to thank you all from the bottom my heart for serving it's not an easy job and these people back here are not making it easier so thank you again thank you next in line good evening I'm Nicole living I live in District 3 the actions of the new board members are having a chilling effect on staff and teachers as we're already starting to lose teachers in the district due to the hostile environment that
241you're creating in your crusade to root out non-existent indoctrination the new board members continue to consider courses of action that benefit your agenda instead of the students and District families and staff actions such as the chair and vice chair removing themselves from let's talk and now using a politically motivated farri School Board Association for policy writing an association that was founded by a known disgraced racist and whose representative lied to our faces tonight about being nonpartisan any savings you think you're going to gain from them will be lost in the litigation you're inviting with this challenge in the lost time of your board attorney you incorrectly deflate conflate excuse me you incorrectly conflate CRT and Dei But whichever way you define it I ask you what exactly is it that you are so afraid of
242tonight during the student portion we recognized a highly diverse group of wonderful students and volunteers and as you and all of us applauded and celebrated them did you think about how you prefer that they not see themselves in their own curriculum do you not understand how your preference for sameness and exclusion hurts those students in their families and no one is saying quote old people can't speak we respect our elders and we value their feedback the problem is when you have your retired cronies line up at 2: p.m. to take all the early speaking spots knowing that working people can't get here that early and then cut off comment after letting dozens of us stand out there in line for over an hour when we complained about it during the discussion one of them commented
243come earlier we have jobs I'm sure you hoped that some people would leave and it worked but again what are you afraid of why won't you let parents and concerned community members speak during the regular public comment some of you ran on platforms to remove politics from our schools but you're the ones bringing outside political influence into ycsd oh and one last thing it's not a good look to be viewing profiles on Tik Tok while you're supposed to be in a Schoolboard meeting do better next [Applause] please good evening um my name is Alan Stevens and I representing district one from the brutin area and I came in about an hour and 15 minutes later so thank you for not closing the doors and keeping me out but at the same time too I also
244want to say thank you for allowing sister Haywood who I've known since I was 5 years old who is a founding member of this community and also has represented that board for so many years so I appreciate you even though it took five minutes to allow her to speak which she has earned that time to actually speak and when she spoke she was providing information to you all to come together as one you know I have two daughters I have one that's in high school at brutin one at Queens Lake I pray to God that I'm able to get home tonight to Le Savage and give him a kiss on the forehead to least the time that I have had here and hear the back and forth going it's it doesn't make any sense we
245all are adults here and to backtrack on what the young lady just said and zoron you say that you have your own business and you have employ employees how many employees you'll mind if you answer 11 I've managed 137 employees and I will respond back to the emails because they depend on me as a leader so each one of you all are leaders here so act like leaders stop fighting I commend Mr schaer I commend our superintendent I commend Mr Richardson you know they show their faces throughout the school district and they come and they're dict and they are responsible they treat people with respect and hopefully the three of you all can get a can neack and rub on you all too and it may seem like I have frustration in my voice because
246I'm taking my time where I could be at home eyes are on you all answer the emails stay off social media thank you seeing no further speakers and no further business on the agenda I hereby declare this meeting adjourned thank you