001Good evening. I would like to call to order the regular meeting of the Newport News School Board on Tuesday, January 20, 2026. On behalf of the members of the school board and Dr. Mitchell, I welcome each of you present this evening and those of you watching on TV and online. A quorum is present to transact the business of the school division. I will now call on Miss Kyla Legette, our student representative to the school board to introduce tonight's student guest for the invocation and pledge. Thank you. We will begin tonight's meeting with the invocation and pledge to the flag. Here to do the honors are two students from Deer Park Elementary School, Ila Phillips and Baron Ham Boore. First, Ila will come forward and deliver the invocation. She will be followed by Baron who will
002come forward and deliver the pledge. Ila, will you please come forward and tell us a little bit about yourself before you get started. Hello. Hello. My name is Leila Phillips and I'm Deer Park Elementary School, fifth grade. I like sketching, drawing, and reading books. As we gather today, let us take a moment to center ourselves on our shared commitment to the students, families, and educators of Newport News public schools. May we be inspired to listen deeply, deliberate wisely, and act with integrity, always keeping the best interestes of our students at the forefront of our decisions. Let us embrace this opportunity to build a stronger more vibrant future for our student for schools together. Thank you so much. Baron, will you please come forward and tell us a little bit about yourself before you begin the
003pledge? My name is Baron Hour. I'm a second grade student at Jer Park Elementary School. I'm thankful my parents Kazan Habour and Shak Jala came tonight to support me. When I grow up, I want to be a lawyer. I'm currently a member of our school's chess club and spend a lot of time working on my swimming skills. My teacher, Miss Brown, inspires me to do my best in all of the subjects. I will represent the pledge of allegiance to you all. And and and I'll say 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 for participating in tonight's meeting. You did a wonderful job. Supporting Leila and Baron tonight are
004their family members and school family. Please stand and be recognized. The board appreciates the encouragement you have given these students and we thank you for bringing them to tonight's meeting. Yes. Thank you. The next item on tonight's agenda is school board recognitions. Dr. Mitchell, please join me at the podium. Students, now it's my turn. Good evening. I have the honor of presenting this evening's recognitions. For an educator, receiving national certification is a symbol of excellence in teaching and professional growth. Newport News Public Schools is pleased to announce that four educators recently met the standard for national certification established by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. These educators will not only strengthen their profession but increase academic achievement and rigor in the classroom. Please join me in congratulating our 2026 National Board Certified Teachers. Give
005it up for them. Chiron Bournes is a pre kindergarten educator at General Stanford Elementary School. She received her certification in generalist early childhood. Aaliyah Dunie. Miss Dunie is a science educator at an achievable dream middle and high school. Miss Dunie earned certification in science early adolescence. Caitlyn Edwards. Miss Edwards is a math educator at an achievable dream middle and high school. She received her certification in mathematics early adolescence. Let's give it up for her. and Lexi Willis. Miss Willis is a science educator at Gilders Middle School. She earned certification in science early adolescence. National Bard certification is the highest credential in the teaching profession. The highest, y'all. The certification process usually takes between 1 and three years to finish. Did you all meet up in groups? Okay. See, that's why they got the highest. Yeah.
006The certification process usually takes, like I said, between one and three years to finish. These educators successfully completed the assessment process by preparing a portfolio of good teaching practices, student work, and multimedia examples. A reflective written component looks at teaching goals, methods, and results. Candidates also have to pass an extensive series of rigorous rigorous written exercises. So to the honores, we are proud to have you in our district. At this time, we would like to recognize the support behind the scenes people who helped make this recognition possible with the family members of these educators. Please stand. Thank you. I would also like to acknowledge the presence of their principles. Jennifer Harish at General Stanford Elementary. stand up. Debbie Hudgens at An achievable dream middle and high school and Roland Noel at Gildersleeve Middle School. I
007would also like to publicly acknowledge and thank WDE Woosley, teacher coach in the department of teaching and learning for his support and guidance for the NBCTS. please stand and thank you very very much. And I would also like to recognize some assistant principles from those schools as well. Would you please stand? So ladies, we're going to come around and take a picture. Thank you. All right. Ensuring that young people are financially literate is paramount to preparing them for future financial success. as you would agree, right? Our next recognition showcases the school division's continued success in this area. Working in support of education or wise is an educational organization dedicated to building financial literacy, fostering business and social entrepreneurship, and preparing students for college and global workplace. The organization's financial literacy program provides high school students
008with financial education and the opportunity to become certified financially literate by successfully passing the wise financial literacy certification test. Tonight we're recognizing eight career and technical education teachers who have been named wise gold star teachers for 2024 2025. They are so named because at least 93% of their students in at least one of their classes successfully passed the wise financial financially literacy test. their present this evening to join us. Please join us in congratulating from Dembi High School, Hope London, who could not be with us tonight, but let's give it up for her. Also from Dembi High School, we have Lisa McAllister. Okay. From Heritage High School, Karen McKenna. among Miss McKenna. Also from Heritage High School, we have Tiffany Smith. And from Menchville High School, we have Stephanie Guney, who also could not be
009with us this evening. From Point Option, Elizabeth Anderson. She with us? Warick High School. Kimberly Grant. Come on, Miss Grant. And from Woodside High School, to Wanda Alistister. Come on, Miss Alistair. Several of these recipients have won this award multiple times. We want to thank you for your continued dedication to working hard with our students to make sure they are certified financially literate. The Virginia standards of learning for economics and personal finance require instruction and economic concepts, economic reasoning, decision making, and problem solving. High school students have to meet a state requirement to complete a one credit economics and personal finance course prior to graduation. With the help of these dedicated educators, their students are the only satisfied a graduation requirement. They earned state and national certification. That looks good on the resume. Congratulations to
010you and your students on this notable achievement. Give it up for them one more time. At this time, we would like to recognize their friends and families who may be with us this evening. If you would please stand as well. Oh, don't be shy. Come on. All right. I would also like to acknowledge the presence of their principles who may be with us this evening. If you would please stand. Dimby High School principal Dr. Adira Strs, stand up for me. Heritage Principal Dr. Dyron Ford, Principal Jason, you know I'm going to do it. Holler from Menchville High School and Dr. Nata Smith from Warick Principal. I'm sorry, point option principal Dr. Nata Smith. Stand up for me. Okay. and war principal Tiffany Thompson. We would also like to um thank Principal Dr. Mary Hardesty. I
011saw her. Yes. We would also like to acknowledge Renardo Branshaw, instructional supervisor for career and technical education for her ongoing support of financial literacy instruction. Thank you very very much. Come around, ladies. We'll get a photo. Y'all give it up for Lisa McAllister. So at this time we're going to take a three minute break for those who would like to leave and again you are welcome to stay and we'll be back in about three minutes. Thank you. Everything. During our regular meeting, we provide time for the public to address the school board. These opportunities are scheduled in the early part of our agenda and towards the end of the meeting. As advertised, citizens may submit comments via email up to 30 minutes prior to our meeting time to be included in the official meeting record.
012For those of you joining us in person, the board considers this an opportunity to listen to your comments. Please understand that we will consider your concerns. We ask that you comply with our three minute time limit. As you begin your comments, a green light will come on. A yellow light signals that you have 30 seconds remaining and a red light and beef indicates that your time is up. As your name is called, please come forward. Reverend Natalie Chamberlain and she will be followed by Miss Key Shandra White Miselle. Good evening, Dr. Best, members of the school board, Dr. Mitchell. I am Reverend Natalie Chamberlain of Hilton Christian Church. I've been here for nearly all of the schoolboard meetings for the last 28 months. Uh members of my congregation have been here with me. There's a
013broad coalition of people who come every month to ask you to change policy. JBP, I have a logger friend back in Oregon who says, "When it's important, you just have to outpatience them." And he didn't use them. We are patient because we know you've been maneuvered in a difficult political situation. That climate has changed and we are asking you to make a commitment tonight to make sure that policy JBP actually protects LGBTQIA students and especially those who are trans. The current regime spews hate at our trans folks on a daily basis. Here, you have the ability to help those trans young people and staff feel safe. Why wouldn't you protect these students when it's in your power to do so? Thank you, Miss Cashand White Miselle. And she will be followed by Miss Carolyn Jones.
014Good evening, board members, superintendent. I'm here to express my concerns in regarding my daughter um my daughter's educational experience at Book Washington Middle School and the ongoing lack of response and resolution from both the school administration and Newport News uh public schools despite my repeated attempts to advocate on her behalf over the past several weeks. in fact dating back to her sixth grade experience at Booerty Washington with uh bullying um has not been adequately addressed by the school. This is equally troubling given Newport News maintains a zero tolerance for bullying. The failure to investigate and document and resolve these incidents has created an unsafe and emotionally harmful learning environment for my child. What is equally concerning is the absence of acknowledgement by the school board itself. As elected and appointed officials entrusted with oversight of
015the district, I expect a minimum level of communication and resolution, if if any, after reaching out multiple times. The lack of response have left me with no clear understanding on how concerns from parents are reviewed, addressed, or escalated in the district. Additionally, I have been attempting to update my daughter's IEP since October of 2025, despite multiple efforts to do so in a timely matter. It has not been done. My concerns further escalate following my daughter's suspension um in regards to a fight that occurred on the last day of school. In this matter, I was provided incorrect information by the assistant principal regarding the appeal process, which directly interfered with my ability to file a proper family appeal, which resulted in nothing being done, me not being heard, and my daughters not being heard. I f
016I firmly believe that had the appeal process been explained correctly and followed appropriately, the full circumstances would have been reviewed and the outcome could and may have been different. The lack of meaningful communication has had a severe and negative impact on my daughter's emotional health, education, educational experience, and the trust in the school system. It is deeply concerning that repeated attempts address to address this issue have gone largely unheard. I am respectfully requesting the following actions be taken by the school board. A review of the peer pro process including the misinformation provided by the school principal. A meeting or a written response outlining how these issues can be addressed in regards to my daughter's rights and well-being. Um, moving forward, my goal is not to My goal is not conflict, but accountability, transparency, and meaningful
017resolutions for every student, especially those with documented disabilities. They deserve to be heard, supported, and treated fairly. I hope the school board will take that into consideration. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Miss Carolyn Jones. And she will be followed by Mr. David Breman. All right, good evening. My name is Carolyn Jones. I am a Newport News resident and a Newport News public schools teacher. I would like to once again speak in support of collective bargaining. And I also want to talk about how much work teachers take home and stay after school to do and how much public education hinges on unpaid overtime. Yes, teachers get two months off in the summer, but at the cost of having our schools slowly draining away more and more of our time and emotional energy each school
018year. There's a saying among teachers that teachers should not be working harder than their students in class. Students need to do the work. Students need to learn. Students need to produce the academic work, right? Uh teachers have received countless reminders to email parents and students with a list of major upcoming assignments. Then as many as a third of the students in each class just don't do some of their major assignments. And then we get observation comments based on whether or not students are engaged and what could we possibly be doing differently to engage students. Teachers generally have probably four or five spreadsheets or pacing guides or other documents we are expected to keep up with at any given time. In addition to grading dozens of student projects and emailing and negotiating with parents, we get
019trained on extra new things and new ideas to try to improve our teaching, we stay after school to tutor students for free or give them the opportunity to make up tests they missed or retake tests, period. Sometimes those students show up, sometimes they don't. We try to check in with the students who are crashing out. Right? I have lost track of how many afterchool parent phone calls I have made the past two weeks alone. Of course, some of those phone calls were to let parents know that their child had once again violated the cell phone policy, which has been in effect for months now, and the kids are still violating it anyway, and we have to do all the leg work related to trying to enforce that. Um, get this, we are also going to
020have a new AI policy added to things later this year. uh details are still forthcoming about that, but the students mess around and pretend they don't understand the cell phone policy. And now we're working on a policy that will allow students to use AI on their assignments in some situations, but not in others. And we expect students and their parents to understand those limits. And we expect teachers to enforce it and explain it over and over and over again. All this despite the fact that students can't keep their cell phones away in class despite the absolute clarity of the state law involved. You want us to engage students to get them to succeed academically. When high school teachers see 120 or more students each week and when so many students won't even put the effort
021to meet us halfway, please stop asking us to spend extra time and energy reinventing the wheel and putting extra effort in for them. It is more exhausting than you know. To quote a millennial proverb, don't set yourself on fire to keep someone else warm. Look at your teacher retention rates and ask how many teachers have burned out and left because your schools demanded that they spend more time and energy on other people's kids than on their own. Those of us planning to have kids soon are carefully considering our own futures. Thank you, Mr. David Breman. And he will be followed by Dr. James Graves. Good evening board members, superintendent and staff. I'm David Bman. He him a Newport News resident here primarily in support of NEA's red for campaign. With opposition at the state level
022recently removed, please take timely action to budget for and approve collective bargaining in order to deliver the improved sustainable working conditions necessary for keeping students transported to school and receiving quality education therein. Relatedly, please also use the current potentially limited time opportunity to revise procedure JBP, permit more decency, dignity, and safety for trans students. And also, thank you for keeping ICE out of schools and I ask that you hold fast to that position in light of the possibility of federal retaliation like Minnesota is currently observing. Thank you. Good evening. Happy new year to everyone. Um, I don't have anything in my my hands to do a speech, but I want to inform you of some things. NNA is requiring a meeting with the Commonwealth attorney, the chief of police, school board, and Dr. Mitchell. And
023the reason why we want this, if you read down to section 8, section D. A lot of our staff members and teachers are getting assaulted and it seems like they're not getting any consequences or any trials or whatever's going on. We had a bus driver got knocked out, sat in the chair, knocked out. He had to go to the hospital. Then he had to go to the magistrate's office and file charges. That should not happen. This section says that if anybody intentionally assault any staff member, they supposed to get 15 days or mandatory two days in jail. Any new news employee, any elementary secondary employee. Also, I've talked to Chief Drew and I've talked to Commonwealth U attorney Jones. Not only do a employee should not be going to to do magistrate office, we think
024they should go right to the com attorney. Just like domestic violence, common attorney picks it up, that's it. Police should not have to ask for videos. It should be automatically given to them. Come with attorney should not have to do anything but take over the case. Just like domestic violence, we have a situation in our schools that when kids intentionally make false accusations against teachers and staff, it's the teacher who bears the burden. It's the teacher who have to lift their reputation back up even when it's false. Nothing happens to the child. The child stays there. This living situations right now that the child is saying wrong information. The teacher got arrested by the cops. The teacher don't have a job anymore. That's all lies. But the child stays in the school. NA going to
025recommend this that that child be removed from that school or that child should be on homebound. We have a teacher who is miserable, several staff who are miserable standing home waiting for CPS to do what they got to do. That's not right. So I look upon you all as leaders of this school system to not only look at that situation, but also look at the situation in reference to when kids are habitual offenders starting trouble in our schools. We should not send them back to the same school, send them somewhere else, to another high school. I think my time is up. I appreciate y'all. Thank you for your thoughts. Thank you for your comments and thoughts this evening. We will now move on to section three, the consent agenda, which includes 3.01 minutes from the
026work session December 16th, 2025. 3.02 02 minutes from the closed meeting December 16, 2025 3.03 minutes from the regular meeting December 16th, 2025 3.04 financial reports including the revenue and expense reports for December 2025 child nutrition reports 3.05 the personnel report 3.06 06 budget transfer. At this time, can we have a motion to approve the consent agenda? I move to approve the consent agenda as presented. Second. It's been second and moved that we approve the consent agenda as presented. Any questions or comments? Miss Buffalo, call the role, please. Alger, Aean, for Brown, for Harris for Hunter. Four. Surls law four. Best four. Motion passes 70. Thank you. We will now move to section four action items 4.01 new and revised policies. Dr. Mitchell. Thank you, Madame Chair. At our December 16th meeting, Miss Tracy Brooks
027highlighted schoolboard policies from the second round of chapters to review in year one of our five-year timeline which focused on two policy chapters. The first was on facilities planning and development and the second chapter addressed support services. These two chapters included over 40 policies that were reviewed or revised by our policy committee and the support services leadership from plant services, custodial services, nutrition and wellness, school safety and security, transportation technology and warehouse services. These policies are provided for your consideration for action this evening. Thank you, Dr. Mitchell. May I have a motion? I move to approve the new and revised policies as presented. Second. It's been moved and second that we approve the policies as presented. Are there any questions? Any comments? Mr. Brown? Yes. Uh Dr. Dr. Best, I'll make a a comment that
028I want to uh thank the superintendent for uh having listened through the the process of these uh more than 40 policies and to the questions that I had and the adjustments that have been made. I think we have a strong set of policies. And what I uh sincerely appreciate about this process that we've gone through, this is now our second cycle going through our policy book. I think we are um very quickly converging on a streamlined set of policies that really fit our school division well and represent the contract with the public that uh that a policy book I believe really should be. And so I appreciate all the work that has gone into this uh and all the progress that we have made uh by going through uh two chapters in this uh in
029this session. And so I thank the superintendent and her team for uh all the work that's gone into this. Thank you, Mr. Brown. Anyone else? Um, I just want to make the statement that uh we have two other board members that are also on the policy uh committee and when we review the policies, we do it thoroughly. I know I I um Miss Aman and I uh do work together in looking through the policies. It takes hours of work. I want you to know especially when you're reviewing 40 plus uh policies. But I also want to uh thank the folks who received the feedback um and and contact us in order to get uh the feedback as well. So thank you. Anyone else? Okay, Miss Buffalo call the role. Alger, Aean, four. Brown, four. Harris,
030four. Hunter, four. Slaw, four. Best four. Motion passes 70. Thank you. We will now move on to 4.02 02 personnel actions. Dr. Mitchell. Thank you, Madame Chair. I would like this evening to recommend Miss Indira Smith as an assistant principal for Saunders Elementary School. We do currently have a vacancy there because the previous person was promoted to principal. Miss Smith has a master of elementary education degree from Virginia Commonwealth University. And she also would be coming to us with experience. She has worked as an assistant principal in Texas and we are excited to make that recommendation for her to join us. Thank you, Dr. Mitchell. May I have a motion? I move to approve the superintendent's personnel recommendations for Indira Smith as the assistant principal of Saunders Elementary School. Second. Okay. The motion has been
031moved and second that we accept Dr. Can you say her name again? And Smith. Andra Smith. It's assistant principal position in Newport News Public Schools. Any questions? Any comments? Miss Buffalo, call the role, please. Alger, four. Aean, four. Brown, four. Harris, four. Hunter, four. Surlaw, four. Best, four. Motion passes 70. Thank you. We will now move to section five reports and information 5.01 communities and schools presentation. Dr. Mitchell. Thank you again, Madame Chair. This evening, we are sharing an update regarding our partnership with Communities and Schools of Hampton Roads. It is an organization that helps address barriers to student success. Communities and Schools works alongside our schools to provide trained site coordinators, strong community partnerships, and individualized supports that connect students and families with critical resources. Tonight, you will see some data demonstrating the impact
032of this partnership in Newport News, including improved student outcomes. So, with that context, I will turn it over to Dr. Hope Sinclair from Communities and Schools of Hampton Roads to share the impact of this work and the proposed path forward. Thank you so much. And thank you for being here. Absolutely. Thank you all for allowing us to be here. Um I wanted my team to introduce themselves. So as you know, I'm Dr. Hope Sinclair. Good afternoon. I'm Porter. coordinator at high school. Afternoon everyone. So, I have um pamphlets for I didn't know if I was going to need that step stool when he took it away, but I feel good about this. I can identify with that. This is great. Oh, pull it down. See? So understanding the problem. So as you all know many
033students in Newport News and not just Newport News but Hampton Roads they're facing a lot of barriers and these are not the same barriers that we faced when we went to school. These barriers are astronomical as you know. These challenges include things like poverty, food insecurity, um lack of access to mental health services and chronic absenteeism. So that's a lot of what the problems entail. And what we're here to do is help these students overcome these barriers. So whether it's an academic barrier or a non-academic barrier inside or outside of the school, we're trying to help them overcome that. These barriers, as you know, they contribute to low graduation rates, behavioral issues, and of course disengagement from school. So I want to highlight u the impact of poverty just briefly. We all may know how
034poverty adversely impacts student outcomes, student achievement. Um, it contributes to chronic stress. And so, uh, how do we mitigate those type of barriers? The research is profound as it relates to strong trusting relationships with adults. Uh, that there is no factor more significant to mitigate against those challenges like a strong relationship with an adult. Having been a student who has experienced poverty, I went to elementary school from a homeless shelter. I attended all title one schools from elementary all the way through high school. And then I became an educator and I taught for 10 years and became a title one instructional coach. And so my philosophy has never changed about excuse me centering relationships and rapport in the school, in the classroom. And so that's what communities in schools is all about. It's literally about
035surrounding students with a community of support that empowers them to stay in school and achieve in life. And so we have been training our staff for the last 12 months rigorously on that philosophy of it's not programs that change lives, it's really just relationships. And so we train our site coordinators one day a month. We pull them from the school and they get sustained ongoing uh coaching and strategies on how to connect with students. How to create programs for not just the students but also for the families because a second major way to mitigate against these type of fatters is parent and family engagement. And so having worked in the school system, having been a lifelong educator, I really identified with the work of communities and schools, which caused me to want to even work
036for them because I thought to myself, as an educator, how would it benefit me if I had an additional adult who was just as committed to connecting with students and connecting with families, increasing academic achievement, helping them to reduce behavioral issues, and ensuring that they're coming to school. And so we incentivize students, we do all of these things to try to inspire young people and to give them hope that no matter where they start, it doesn't have to be that way uh when they finish. So that's just my time here just sharing about how we really want to rejuvenate some hope with young people and also allow educators to recognize that they too have someone who's doing the work with them. And we can do a little bit more because we can bring community partners
037into the school and we can help uh put on t what we call tier one events which is schoolwide events that uh can help the school move the academic needle, reduce behaviors and reduce attendance issues as a whole. So that's my time here with your appreciation. He forgot to flip a slide, so I'll do it. But what we do inside of the school is we place a site coordinator. So the two individuals in the back, Wiki and um Terion, they are site coordinators in your schools here. Um those site coordinators provide those true wraparound services for students. So overall our success for the 2425 school year out of the 33 schools throughout Hampton Roads that we served 83% of our case managed students improve their attendance behavior academic goal. So each student has a goal
038in one of those areas ABC and 83% of those babies attended uh uh succeeded in that goal. 95% of K11 students were promoted to the next grade level and 95% of our seniors graduated last year. So that's whole students across all 33 schools. Now you might be saying to yourself, the numbers look great to me. They do, too. Um, and if you didn't see it, you can see it now. So the numbers look great, right? But these students are not our top tier students. Some of these students are students who didn't think they could graduate. Some of these students are the students who, you know, they've written themselves off. Their families have technically written them off. So these students are facing a lot of the academic barriers. So the is our program director for Newport
039News and he's going to come up and give the success right here in this city. Good evening again. Um so as you know this um report is a data of accumulation of the 2425 complete school year. And as you can see, we serve 2,739 Newport News students who receive whole school supports. And of that, 205 of those students receive individual integrated student supports. Um, these are basically the students that we case managed. Um, of that 77% of that approved their attendance. Now, as we all know, we're dealing with just more than simple attendance things. Right now, there's a nationwide epidemic against chronic acetism. And as you see, we have two coordinators who are leading the charge um to reduce this and I am pleased to say of these two schools that are present they these
040schools have reduce their chronic absentism numbers which I'm sure you all are aware of um again 93% of our students improve behavior and what we're trying to do we know that a student cannot learn simply um if they're not in the building. So, we're not only just trying to keep the students from be getting suspended, we're trying we're work working individually with these students. We're bringing in community partners who specialize in mental health behaviors to make sure that we don't just um we don't want to placehold these things. We want to make sure we actually get to the why behind these why these students are having these barriers um which cause them to act out. And as we all know um usually attendance is the biggest barrier. Anytime a student is dis time is disrupted,
041usually the behavior is the first thing that shows up. Kids are prideful. They want to they don't want to feel embarrassed because they got behind. But we have the power of a site coordinator working alongside them who can support administrators and teachers to um do remediation or um tutoring, whatever we need to do, or bring in some college tutors to work alongside the reading and the math um instructional specialist. this is what we're doing in the dayto day to help mitigate these numbers. Um and as you see when we do these things 78% of our students are progressing that doesn't mean that the other 22% are not are failed. Some simply may maintain course. What we try to make sure is these students do not decline. We want to make sure that everything that we
042do is intentional because we know these are our future. And when we worked the plan, as you can see again, 99% of K through 11 students in Newport News were promoted. And I'm pleased to pronounce um to announce that again a 100% of our students have graduated who have been alongside a community schools program. And this is only in two and a half years. So, thank you for your time. So, here's the the tall age question. How much how much is it to put a site coordinator such as Wiki or Terrion inside of a school? So, this is a 9.22% increase from last year. So, last year you all provided us with $78,100 per school for a total of 234300 per year. I've talked to the site coordinators till I was blew in the face.
043And unfortunately, everybody wants more money. We all know that. So, that's why we had to do the 9.2% 2% increase to increase where our personnel numbers are. Now, while that number is not still what these individuals are deserving of, that is higher than where we started. So, locally, we've been around since 2012. And in 2012, our rate was everybody was part-time and we started at 20,000. So, we're lucky to have gotten to where we are over 13 years. But that's because the need is greater. So, this need is of magnitude. So the you all paid 50% of that and our national office through a grant from Balmer Foundation paid the other 50%. And that's been the cost for the past three years. So that is the 78100. So that's previous. Our new cost for the
04426 27 school year is the 85300. So that's the new cost. And I'm going be honest, I didn't want to limit us to three schools. So, I didn't put the total cost of how many schools we'd be in for the upcoming year. I wanted you all to see the effect of our program and say, "Oh, we want you in 10 schools as we pause for that." So, I did not put our total number in that. So, that is 85300 and that can be multiplied. However, if you all know of a grant program and we are writing to the city um to also ask for funing. So, if you all know of other grant programs, we'd be more than happy to write to those programs. We don't want to go into a school district, be there
045for three years, and then leave. We want to be embedded here with you all, alongside you all. We want to be able to help and maintain our position, and be sustainable in each of the schools that we're currently in, as well as the other seven you all might know. Just throwing it out there. So community investment, we do a lot of things with the community. We bring the communities inside of the school. That's a part of our mission. So these are some of the individuals who funded us here in Newport News. Hampton Roads Community Foundation has a um Harry Wall grant that we use to support some of our site coordination on the peninsula. The Peninsula Community Foundation, we are part of the give local opportunity that they do every year in May. Individual donors
046Bayport has allowed us to an intern. So they help us with some interns and they cover the cost of the interns. And then these are some of the other resources that our site coordinators are using inside of schools as well. Our commitment to you all. We are providing those individualized case management services. So as you all remember the talked about the 205 students they served. Our model is that we would serve 5 to 10% of a school population based on size. So if it's over a thousand, we serve 5%. If it's under a thousand, we serve 10%. However, what we learned is that our babies are not getting the intentional supports that they need. They are not getting that oneonone individualized care that they need by our site coordinators. We had site coordinators who were
047literally serving 87 students, 110 students. And based on that 5 to 10% numbers, that's impossible. These babies needed more. So our site coordinator's numbers change to 50 per school and those babies on th those 50 babies get exactly what they need from the site coordinator. That site coordinator also talks to the family. So that means if he or she has a sibling that does not go to one of the schools in our feeder pattern, our site coordinator still helps that baby at another school. So whether we're there or not, the baby that is attached to our students will still get services through what we do. Our goal is to maintain at least 75% of our case managed students performing in the ABC area and then to facilitate at least 85% which you all saw that
048ours was 95% 99 right at Newport News I almost said portion sorry so to facilitate time no ma'am take that so to facilitate on time graduation we also want 85% but here in Newport News we had 99% I'm sorry 100% in totality quality we had 95%. So as you see these numbers are working our three site coordinators that we have and we've been lucky to have the two that sit behind us for the past two years. So these individuals are doing three years these individ individuals are doing a finess fantastic job. So as I pause and take a breath I'll see if you all have any questions that I can answer. But I do want to definitely thank you from the bottom of the Well Dr. Sinclair, before they answer any questions, I will share
049um with uh the board, my bosses that I did call you to say, "Wait a minute." When she gave me the first iteration of this presentation, and it talked about, of course, how barriers prevent students from graduating, that graduation rates are low and dropout rates are high. I said, "Wait a minute, that's not us. We are 97.3% and we are less than 1% dropout rate." Did I not? You did. I just had to put that on the record. We have some other challeng let's let's let's get the verbage right. She did she definitely did. Any questions? I did have a question. The the numbers that were reported out were those based off of case loads of 50 based off of case loads of 5 to 10%. So you talking about this sheet or this sheet
050when you were talking about they were see some of the site coordinators were seeing up to the case. So if we go to this sheet year 23 24 and 2425 those are based off of our 5 to 10% numbers. So our two elementary and middle school those two had 10%. Okay they were less than a thousand actually passage has more than a thousand students. So passage also was 5% just like dimm. So those were 5% of that total student population. That's how many students were served in each one of those schools. And Katherine Johnson was only 10%. Okay. Thank you. I have a quick question. Can you give sort of an example of sort of how maybe a day in the life year in the life you know of a student that might be helped
051sort of we can kind of sink our teeth into what it might be like if they're one of your 50 students in a school and how your work integrates with maybe the family and community engagement specialist at the school and you talk about whole school supports. What does that look like? Yes. Do you mind if I call a site coordinator up to actually give you the the guys didn't raise it, but I'mma raise it for her. Hello. Good evening. Um again I'm Wiki Porter and to answer that question right now I have a student who um they're in Kenny Bento due to homelessness. So I spoke with their mother we had a event on Fridays for absenteeism kids myself and our school psychiat therapist. So right now because we were partner with somebody I partnered
052um and reached out to the Urban League for her because an Catherine uh Catholic Charities and they're helping them with the process of a house because she says she lived with a family member. It's like 10 people living there and that's one of the reasons why he can't come to school because either they're going from a hotel or they're actually trying to figure out uh with a family member or something. So, as of now, I am assisting them with Catholic Charities, Thrive Peninsula, and the Urban League to actually assist with housing. And because I've heard that from several of our parents, I've actually used my other hat. We're going to have um Virginia housing class in there to teach parents about home purchase because a lot of parents don't understand that they have the option
053to purchase a home or the steps to go about purchasing the home. So, we're bringing that actually into the schools so that we can give the parents another options when it comes down to that as well. Did that kind of answer your question? Dr. B, how so how do you get a referral and what's like your typical does principal contact you because Yes. So as long as we're in your school, you qualify. Doesn't matter if you have Medicaid. So it's nothing like the TDT program. Anybody inside of any of the schools that we serve, you qualify. So the referral can be a self-referral. Um in some of our elementary schools, our the the babies tell on their friends. So my friend needs you. So that can be a referral and we'll go talk to the
054friend. But every student, a teacher can refer you. Anybody in the school can refer you. But what has to happen is we have to have consent. So parents have to agree to have their babies on our case load. So we do talk to parents. We do have consent forms. They last every three years. So three years. And our hope is always, it's a K12 model. Our hope is to get them in elementary and follow them all the way through graduation. So, a referral can come from anyone at any point. Um, I started out as a site coordinator and the majority of my referrals were because I tried to do something really cool with kids and then the other kids would see it and be like, "Hey, I'm going to do that." And in order for
055them to do it, they had to bring that consent form back. Thank you. One more quick question. Communities and schools, is it a nonprofit? Is it a national and this is have to write chapter. Yes. So we are the local affiliate of a national dropout prevention program and a lot of times not you all a lot of people get confused about dropout because you automatically assume high school. Well we're dropout prevention. It doesn't start in high school as you know starts in elementary when you can't see the board. Somebody doesn't know to take you to go get glasses. Our site coordinators coordinate that service call. Somebody doesn't know that you can't read. our site coordinators will coordinate a tutor. So that's where it starts. So that's why we want to get the baby in elementary,
056follow them in middle as well as high school. So everybody say with me, 10 schools. 10 schools. Thank you all again for your time. If no one else has any questions, thank you. All right, we will now move to section five reports and information 5.02 availability of policy and procedural manual. This announcements, this announcements will serve as the required annual public notice that copies of the school board policies and procedures manual are available to the public and employees in the library of each school in each Newport News public library and online on the policies and procedures website at www.nschools.org/policies. orpolicies and on the NNPS internet. Next, the attendance report. Board members, you have received a copy of the reports. Are there any questions? Hearing none, we'll move on to 5.04. Membership report. Board members, you
057received a copy of the report. Are there any questions? 5.05 construction report. Board members, you've received a copy of this report. Are there any questions? Hearing none. Hearing none, we'll move on to item 5.06, comments by the superintendent. Dr. Mitchell, thank you so much, Madam Chair. I have to say that I am just super excited and giddy with joy to announce that our very own schoolboard representative, Kyla Leget, was selected to participate in the United States Senate Youth Program. So, I want to say just a little bit more about her and we do congratulate Kyla who is a senior at Menchville High School this year. She is one of only two, I'm gonna say it again, one of only two students from the state, the Commonwealth of Virginia chosen by the Virginia Department of Education
058to join Senator Tim Kaine and Senator Mark Warner in representing Virginia during the 64th annual United States Senate Youth Program Washington Week. It will be held March the 7th through the 14th in Washington DC. We are so proud of you. So honored that you will be representing us. And I will say that our communications department put this on Facebook and as of last week we had Robert 61,000 hits on Facebook on your story alone. So thank you for elevating our congratulations to Kyla. Our music students perform chorus, strings, and band concerts at the All City Music Festival on January the 9th at the Ferguson Center at CNU. We had more than 600 students from all schools and all grade levels participate in eight combined ensembles with invited guest conductors. So, we want to congratulate all
059that were involved on this annual citywide public event. Our students represented our school division very very well. And on the calendar, this week wraps up the second quarter of the school year. Can you believe it? The second quarter is going to be over. Time is moving very quickly. And our middle and high school students are taking their exams this week. So I want to remind families that high school students will dismiss half day Wednesday through Friday. And also note that Monday, January the 6th is a teacher and a staff work day and Tuesday, January 27th is a professional development day. Now, we know all of the professional development day is pending the weather if you're watching the weather report. Students do not report to school on Monday and Tuesday. We will welcome all students back
060to school on Wednesday of course pending the weather and that will be the beginning of our first day of the second semester. We are also holding a hiring event that will take place at Ella Fitzgerald on January 31st 9:00 am to noon. We also have a very exciting um conference coming up. It is the Rise Male Empowerment Conference. It will be held February the 7th from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at Heritage High School. Um there's a big turnout this year. We have even more students that are signed up, male students signed up. And the last thing as we are forecasting looking ahead, schools will be closed on um with 12-month employees reporting only, but schools will be closed on President's Day for February 16th. So, I will say that again. 12-month employees, you do
061report. Everyone else is at home. So, that concludes my comments, Madam Chair. Thank you, Dr. Mitchell. We will now move to item six, another opportunity to hear from the public. Miss Buffalo, are there any cards? All right. Thank you. And now we will move to the uh matters by school board members and we will begin with Mr. Brown. Okay. Well, then I get to be the first one to say happy new year uh to everyone. Uh we've had some exciting, wonderful things go on in our school division. the US United States Secretary of Education um chose our school division to visit. Out of all school divisions in the state of Virginia, ours was the only one uh that the US Secretary of Education visited for the 250 uh year anniversary of our country in celebration
062of that in her tour of the nation. So that's a distinction that I think we can all be very very proud of. Uh very exciting uh day that she came and she spoke. We also had the governor uh come to uh our school district achievable dream and and speak there as well. So uh great things are happening in Newport News public schools. We've we I think we've had some good discussions in regards to our budget. I'm very excited about the the work that we are doing particularly with the the raises. But I think that what we're seeing now uh over the course of of the last 10 years, what we've done with the raises, I think has put us in a strong strategic position and that we can see the correlation now that we're I
063believe we got the report tonight that we're down to 3% vacancy in terms of our positions. That is a fantastic place to be and I want to thank the rest of the board um for the work that has gone into that because it has not been trivial, has not been easy. We've had to make a lot of hard decisions and sacrifices and we'll make more. um because we're going to do some more raises again this year, right? Like we always talk about. But they but that has paid off because when while the state and the country is in a teacher shortage um that teaching shortage has not had the acute impact on us that it's had in other places and that is um the forward thinking of of the board and I want to appreciate
064the um the the board for thinking in such a forward manner so that we can be in a position to um to negotiate at a time when we are in crisis around the state. So, those are my comments for this evening. Thank you, Mr. Brown. So, we'll go ahead to our other North District representative, Miss Harris. Happy New Year again. Welcome back. Um, just really wanted to um thank everyone uh for being here tonight. And as usual, uh thank you all for your comments and your uh feedback. Um, I wanted to rec take a second to recognize um a young man from Woodside High School. Um, I had the pleasure of attending uh Chum's MLK award uh bank uh breakfast uh this past uh Monday and there was a young man, there were several recipients
065um and there was one from Newport News and his name was Ma Mason Jones and he received a scholarship um to further his education. He is a senior at Woodside High School. So I wanted to publicly recognize him and his achievements. Um, I was also holding it down for Newport News as the only schoolboard member in the room. I was outnumbered, but I held it down because I know you all had invites and were other places. Um, but um but yes, that I did want to say that and it was a wonderful um breakfast. It was a wonderful occasion. Um, several students across across uh uh Virginia were were recognized for their academic achievement um and were given scholarships. Um, also to uh SCLC had an MLK walk and feeding at New Beach Grove um
066that I was able to attend with some of my colleagues here and some of your schoolboard members. Yes. Some of my Yes. My call my school board my peoples um with several of my schoolboard um members uh that were also there and we served uh several families um local families in the area. I did not walk. I did not I did not walk but um um Dr. Best walk um in the cold and in the rain. Um but that was also um a very uh insightful um occasion where a lot of uh community members were able to hear from uh political figures and and we talked about uh standing on the shoulders of our ancestors and really having opportunities and and things along those lines. Um also to uh a day of of service at
067Safe Haven Empowerment Center. I want to thank the students. There were several Newport News public school students that came out to volunteer for that day on and not a day off. Um they collected 20 bags of trash and they serviced um the local area in that community um on Thorncliffe uh in the North District of Newport News. Um and then after we uh shared refreshments and conversation about careers, college readiness, um future aspirations and things along those lines. So very um enriching experience for that. I'm going to speed this up. The 9th annual reup drive and distribution is coming up. Um I want to invite all of the uh listeners, viewers um to come on January 24th. January 24th at Denbigh uh community center. There will be a stuff the trolley. the Newport New City
068Trolley will be there and we'll be stuffing the trolley with all the donations and sponsors of school supplies to help our kids finish out the second year um of of of the of school. And we will be collecting things like notebooks and crayons and um all of the all of the sanitizer and all of the needed um things. And those the distribution will happen at the Newport News Winter Carnival on February 7th. And that is going to be at 401 Oriana, the old Kmart um lot. um that is something that happens every year as well. It's a huge uh community event. Um so hopefully you can um be a part of that. And lastly, I just wanted to thank uh Germaine Walker, who is uh one of the coordinators over at Dembi Community Center, who
069um has opened up an opportunity for students to be able to receive the uh student freedom pass uh through HRT, which is an opportunity that's been around, but um we're really going to try to get the word out within the next upcoming weeks um and out to the schools so that we can have our It's in It's in the schools. Okay. Um, yes. Yes. Um, we were talking about getting more kids to the community centers and to the activities. And so, we've kind of been we've kind of been collaborating and trying to get kids, you know, the ability to to move around the city so that they can get involved and get engaged. Um, and with that, I will thank you guys for a good night. And I'm sorry that was really long. Thank you.
070And we'll move to central district, Miss Wall. Sure. So, um I think the thing that's most prevalent to me right now is this is that time of the year where we're looking at budgets and trying to figure out how to utilize our resources to the best of our abilities. And I just want to thank um Dr. Mitchell and her team and Scarlet. Um the things that you guys are able to really bring forward even though the sessions are long um are so helpful to help give us a picture of all that we need to consider. Um and so we do appreciate your uh tolerating all of our questions. um because it almost seems as the minute you present us with a little bit more, we ask more questions. But I think in the end, we
071are very happy with where we land and that we all are doing this with the effort to do the best we can for our students. And as always, I uh am so excited to get into the schools and be able to just come in and read. So if you get the opportunity to support the community in that way, I really encourage encourage that whether you do it in the schools. Yeah, you do, you know, have to have a background check. Um but you can also do it at your local library and the students really do just love letting you read to them and them get the opportunity to read to you. So thank you. Thank you, Miss Aean. Sure. Um a lot has been said already. Um and I think one of the best things
072Sorry, I think I'm off and to the side. Um, I think one of the best things about our the secretary's visit was we had our schoolboard retreat the same day. So, that visit was a very small part of the day. The longer part of the day was getting together as a board and with Dr. Mitchell and her team and kind of looking at some long long-term ideas and thoughts and planning. So, that was I think really good and should be very beneficial in the long term. And also, thank you to Dr. Mitchell and your team for answering all of our questions during our budget. you know, you're very open to us drilling down and really kind of figuring out how the smaller pieces fit together so we can get a better understanding. So, that was
073I I greatly appreciate that. And keep an eye on the weather. Get yourself and your families prepared. Who knows when we'll be hopefully we'll be heading back Wednesday, but hopefully some of the forecasts are a little overblown, but we'll see. Um, but just stay safe, stay warm. All right. Thank you. And our at large representative, Mr. Hunter. Thank you, madame chair. Um, I usually don't say much, but besides great things are happening in Newport News public schools, but I'm going to talk a little personal about me today. U, last week I had a procedure at Riverside Hospital. I had an overnight stay. And um one of the nurses, I told her I would not mention her last name, but her name was Amy, a graduate from Woodside High School who um then went on to
074Peninsula Community College and then ODU and then she went to Riverside um hospital nursing program around the corner and now she's here um graduate. She was a in the graduating class 2016 from Woodside. But she did such an excellent job in taking care of me for over that night. Uh incredible um beautiful personality and uh great things are happening. When we talk about we don't educate students, this is a prime effect that they're here. She went to school here, stayed here, and now working at one of our superior hospitals at Riverside. and understanding I took care of a school board member uh to the utmost. I gave her a score score from one to 10. I gave her a 15. But uh again, just wanted to I told her I would give her a shout
075out. So Amy, if you're out there, keep doing a great job and thank you very much for representing Newport News Public Schools. All right. Thank you, Mrs. Hunter. All right. That's what it's all about. All right, Miss Alger. Yes. Um so we have um my partner and I over here we went and visited schools and just want to share um some of the exciting things that we got to see and hear. Uh one thing that stood out for me in particular was uh high school teacher uh walking into the classroom seeing her teach science and how excited she was uh because she's in a program um for dual enrollment. And so I asked her, I said, "Can you share with me what that experience is like? What what is that going to do uh in
076the long run?" And so as she was explaining, a lot of our our students, you know, are in the dual enrollment program, the junior and um and seniors, but to make it easier for them, uh teachers are going into this program, which by the way is paid by Newport News Public Schools. that's unheard of, you know, and uh and these teachers are enrolling and partnering in CNU and they're getting their masters and once they're done, they are going to be in these classrooms and helping our students to be duly enrolled or well, I'm sorry, receiving college credits. And so this way when they get ready to go off to college, they've already accumulated um some of those credits. Isn't that amazing? and this is how far we've come as far as education that didn't exist
077and uh growing up and that didn't exist for my children um but it's it's existing for our children today. So I want to thank those teachers who are signing up uh and who are you know um taking advantage of a great opportunity and for our parents who continue to push their children to do better and to excel. So, thank you. And Miss Aldra, if I may jump in and thank Dr. Rogers because he spearheaded that. Worked out all the kinks with the university. He worked with Scarlet and um Daryl. I don't know if Daryl's here. And thank Daryl as well. They put a lot of work into it. That's it. Okay. I'm going to try not to repeat anything anybody said except for Dr. Mitchell. I have to give a shout out to Kyla because
078I'm a night person and my office hours start about nine o'clock at night and they just go on until so but when I have an opportunity I sleep late and then I get up and I read and so that's why I answer emails a little later because that's how I roll. So I I opened up the computer and I saw that you were selected to be the US Senate in the US Senate work and I was reading about the criteria how many people and I screamed I screamed because I was just so excited. I really truly was my mother was like what is wrong and I said mother our school board repres and I proceeded to tell her but I just was not surprised at all. I was I was not surprised. I was just
079happy that your hard work and your passion is being rewarded. And I just think that this is going to be an amazing experience for you. And one day I'm going to be old and somewhere in the nursing home somewhere and I'm going to start take my reading out and I know I'm going to see your name again doing great things. And if I have it in me, I'm going to scream again. So I just want to let you say congratulations and I'm really so proud of you. really really so proud of you. So the second thing I'm not gonna repeat anything else. I had an invitation to go to a holiday celebration that was sponsored by Ivy Baptist Church under the leadership of the uh great and Reverend Kevin Swan and I I posted a
080couple of pictures on social media. Somebody said, "Why is a school board meet? Why are you going to stuff?" Because it was for senior citizens, the senior citizens of the Steuart Garden apartment. And they said, "Why are you going to things for senior citizens? you should be worried about the kids. And I said, what you don't understand is many of those grandparents are actually raising their children. So, and then they're a part of the community and when we see our kids out in the community, if you if they establish relationships with the children, they can say things, hey, don't do that or come over here or help me with this. And so, it's all tied in together. But that was an amazing um event and just keep the invitations coming to board members and we
081want to be a part of things um like that as well. Dr. Mitchell and I and Dr. Rogers had an opportunity to attend the economic development um committee meeting and they reported and we answered questions and we shared some of the wonderful things that were happening in Newport News public schools and we're looking forward to building and partnering because the economic development of the schools they go hand inand you cannot separate them. So something that's very very um important. So that's all. Oh, I'm sorry. See there. See, I'm sorry. Inside joke, Kyla. We saved the best for last. We saved the best for last. Thank you. I'll start off with Sage. Last week, the superintendent student advisory group on education met to discuss several important topics, including new courses that will be offered next year
082and the importance of mental health and being mindful of it. Um, students share their interest in future course offerings and discuss strategies for managing stress during a busy school year. Um, to build on that, I want to thank communities and schools for their hard work. Um, it doesn't go unnoticed and I'm really happy an organization like you in Newport News. Um, to touch on the United States Senate Youth Program, I really want to thank thank the Newport News public schools. When I was just a wee little baby, my parents were trying to figure out where to settle down. I'm so happy that they chose Newport News because it's been a blessing and I've had it's been a privilege to get an education from Newport News and the United States Senate Youth Program wouldn't be possible
083with all the opportunities that I've been given here. So, thank you to everyone. Um, and before I conclude, I would like to wish all of my fellow students the best of luck on their exams as we enter the final stretch of semester 1, which doesn't feel real, but you know, and thank you guys all for coming out and I hope you guys have a great night. Thank you so much. The student rep is supposed to partner with the superintendent, right, as we run the meeting. This young lady is so phenomenal that I literally have been able to We plan together, right, Miss Brooks? But I've been able to just sit back. She commands the room and she runs the meeting better than I ever could. And I just so appreciate being able to watch um
084a leader that is a student to be able to do that. You have been nothing less than amazing to partner with and I appreciate that. And on that note, this meeting is ajourned.