School Board Meeting: December 16, 2025

001I'd like to call to order the meeting of the Newport News school board for Tuesday, December 16th, 2025. 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 present to transact the business of the school division. And now I will call on our student representative, Miss Kyla Leggette, to the school board. Our student representative to the school board, Miss Kyla Leggette, to introduce tonight's student guest for the invocation and pledge. We will begin tonight's meeting with the invocation and the flag. the honors are two students from middle school and first Ian will come forward and deliver the follow Jackson who will come forward and deliver the pledge will you please come

002forward and tell us a little bit about yourself before you get started test I'm bias Navaro as you all heard from Miss Leot and Um um I I really enjoy mathematics and things of the sort with direct answers. And um here is my short poem. My name is Ian Bayz. I love the color purple and I also enjoy good short. Life in middle school can be like a storm with no clue of your whereabouts, but in the end you can tough it out. And as Thomas Jefferson has said, I cannot live without books. So I hope that your looks can all be swell with some bread. And I wish your day a well end. Thank you. Ian Jackson, will you please come forward and tell us a little bit about yourself before? Of of course

003I will. Good evening school board members, superintendent, and guests. I am Jackson Lee and I am a sixth grade student at Crittenden Middle School. I enjoy soccer, robotics, and the law. I find the sixth grade interesting because of all the new people I get to meet and the size and the scale compared to elementary school. I I would like to thank you for allowing us to open tonight's meeting. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge 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. You did a wonderful job. Supporting tonight are their family members and school. Please stand to be recognized. The board appreciates the encouragement you have given these students and we

004thank you for bringing them to tonight's meeting. Thank you. And thank you and Jess. Thank you. Thank you very much. The next item on tonight's agenda is school board recognitions. Dr. Mitchell, please join me at the podium. Good evening everyone. That's right. Y'all see y'all ready? Today I have the honor of presenting this evening's recognitions. Newport News Public Schools athletics program enhances the character and physical development of student athletes, preparing them for the future, and instilling in them the value of teamwork, encouraging a standard of healthy living, imparting a desire for success, and developing a sense of fair play and competition. This evening, we have the privilege of recognizing some outstanding student athletes who achieved success during the fall, I'm sorry, the fall athletic season. The student athletes honored this evening have achieved excellence and

005success in their sport through hard work and dedication, practice, team play, and team spirit nurtured by dedicated coaching. During the fall season, three Newport News public school athletic teams and two individual earned regional and state championships. This evening we are recognizing them for their successful season. So, let's get started. Heritage High School boys volleyball team. Give it up y'all. The Heritage High School balls volleyball team earned the 2025 Virginia High School League region 4A boys volleyball championship. Please jo please join us in recognizing the team if you would please come forward and stay up until we take our group photo. And those that I call tonight are with us tonight. Narzir Branshaw, Denairo Dillard, Marcus Doer, Marcus Gums, Stephen Hagar, Cashmere Malik, Tyrell Shelton, Demarcus Stanley, Demarcus Demarez Stanley, head coach Nehemiah Carter. And assistant

006coach Jocelyn Garcia. Congratulations. Joining the team this evening are their friends and families. Heritage athletic director Jamie Plecker couldn't be with us this evening and the Heritage principal Dr. Diron Ford. Would you please stand up and be recognized? Thank you so much for your support. Group. We're going to come up front and get a picture. Next we have the Mench High School Golf Team. Give it up. The Menchville High School golf team captured the 2025 Virginia High School League Region 5B Golf Championship. Please join us in congratulating Thomas Aman, Grayson Bowen, Tanner Jeter, Chase Holloway, Armando Maladando, Connor Manny, Michael Meredino, Lucas Price, Grayson Young, and head coach Scott Moriarty See, they helping helping me out. Appreciate that, fellas. This year marks the Menchville golf team's fourth, let me repeat, fourth straight 5B region championship

007title and their sixth straight state appearance. Give it up for that alone. In addition, Thomas Aman won the 5B regional individual title. It was his fourth region title in a row. Congratulations. Joining the team this evening are their friends and families. Menchville athletic director couldn't be with us this evening, but we have their principal here, Jason. Holla. If you will please stand up and be recognized. We will come together and get a picture. Why don't you guys Congratulations. Finally this evening we have a milestone individual award. The winner of the 2025 Virginia High School League region 5B and state class 5 girls cross country individual championship was Ariana Longden of Warwick High School. Yeah, give it up. Awesome. We would like for Warwick's cross country coaches to join us. Uh, assistant coach Dex Moore is

008here with us this evening. family. Ariana won the state championship with a time of 18 minutes and 52.97 seconds. Yes, girl. On the 5,000 meter Outlands course in Leesburg on November 8th. According to VHSL record book, she is the first athlete from the Peninsula District ever to win the girls state cross country championship. Give it up again. This is an amazing accomplishment and we would like to congratulate Ariana, her coaches and the entire Warwick School community. Great job, my sister girl. Joining Ariana this evening are friends and family. Would you please stand? Uh the athletic director couldn't be with us this evening, but we do have principal Tiffany Thompson. Would you please stand? Thank you so much for your support. Also, we would like to thank our NNPS athletic director, Mr. Barton, who couldn't be

009with us this evening, but we want to say thank you for all of his support and of our athletes and coaches for the entire fall season. Thank you. And we're going to get a picture with you. Well, that concludes our board recognitions. I'm going to turn it back over to our our chairman, Dr. Best. and congratulations again to all of our students. Thank you to our coaches and everyone that supports them. 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 our meeting. advertised. Citizens may submit comments via email up to 30 minutes prior to our meeting time to be included in the official meeting record. For those of you joining us in person,

010the 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 beep will indicate your time is up. As your name is called, please come forward. Reverend Natalie Chamberl. Good evening members of the school board, Dr. Best, and Dr. Mitchell. I'm Reverend Natalie Chamberlain, pastor at Hilton Christian Church in Hilton Village here in Newport News. I'm part of a broad coalition of citizens who have been attending these meetings for about as long as we all can remember. We remain aware that there is no intention of changing policy JBP, but the welfare

011of the LGBTQIA plus community is vitally important to us and so we will continue to be present. Happy Hanukkah, blessed solstice, merry Christmas, happy Quanza, and happy new year. I remind you that our transgender and interex non-binary beloveds have a singular gift. They invite us to witness our broken world through the knowledge that when we lead in truth and love, nothing is beyond transformation. That being said, I pray that the new year brings peace and stability to our nation and to our community. And may our queer family be viewed as the blessing they truly are. Heather Snell. Hello. Hi everyone. Good evening. I'm here tonight to address the expectation that teachers operate the morning's the morning weapons detection station. While I fully support maintaining a safe environment, the responsibilities assigned at the metal detectors go

012well beyond what should reasonably be considered other duties as assigned. Each morning, staff across the district are required to repeatedly lift and handle a high volume of student belongings. Chromebooks, umbrellas, lunch boxes, instruments, water bottles, heavy binders, notebooks, and notebooks on top of notebooks, um, and more. This is not incidental lifting. It is strenuous, repetitive physical labor. In my own case, this repetitive strain resulted in a rotator cuff injury. I reported it, followed every direction given to me, and pursued workers compensation exactly as instructed. I saw the designated workers comp doctor for the school system, attended all required physical therapy sessions, and completed every step. Only after doing so was I informed that my claim was denied because the injury was considered repetitive rather than a one-time single incident, leaving me responsible for the medical

013costs. This experience illustrates the real physical risks teachers face in this assignment and the lack of meaningful protection when injuries occur. Beyond the physical strain, teachers at the station become the first point of contact should a student bring a weapon to school. We are in effect placed in the position of frontline security personnel. This role requires constant vigilance, situational awareness, and carries a level of emotional and psychological weight that teachers are neither trained nor compensated to manage. These responsibilities are fundamentally different from traditional supervision duties. They are physically demanding, emotionally taxing, and involve risks far outside the scope of a teacher's job description. Adding this daily security role to full instructional work workloads increases the likelihood of injury and burnout and ultimately diminishes our capacity to serve students effectively. I respectfully ask the board to

014formally recognize that operating the weapons detection station is a specialized high-risk assignment. This work should come with additional compensation or be staffed by trained security personnel. Teachers are committed to supporting school safety, but the district must also commit to protecting its employees and ensuring we can continue performing the work we are trained to do, teaching. And I also would like you to support the initiative for collective bargaining this evening as well. Thank you for your time, Miss Mary Boss. Hello. Uh, Mary Voss, an NPS teacher, parent, and graduate, and proud member of the Newport News Education Association. Um, good evening to, uh, chair, Dr. Best, Vice Chair Alger, Superintendent Dr. Mitchell, and the rest of the board. Um, I'd also like to thank members of United Steel Workers who are here tonight in solidarity with

015NEA in support of collective bargaining for public employees. Collective bargaining rights for public school teachers and staff are ultimately about creating the best learning environments for students. When educators and staff have a voice in decisions that affect their classrooms, workloads, and resources, they are better able to focus on teaching and supporting students. Schools are safer and more positive places to learn when educators and staff feel respected, heard, and empowered to raise concerns and help shape solutions. Collective bargaining also strengthens our schools and community by improving teacher and staff retention. Fair pay, sustainable workloads, and transparent working conditions help keep experienced educators in the classroom, providing stability and continuity for our students. Newport News City Council's finance committee, which Dr. Graves and I um had the pleasure of attending earlier this afternoon is currently exploring collective

016bargaining for city workers such as firefighters, police officers, emergency workers, librarians, and more. And they will be making a recommendation to city council soon. The school board should request a line item for funding for collective bargaining for NNPS employees to the city council, which controls um the city's purse, so that the city's finance committee can consider funding for collective bargaining for NNPS employees as well. Our jobs as teachers and caretakers for the city's youth are vitally important, and we deserve to have funding for our labor rights considered concurrently um with our brothers and sisters who work in city employment. VA estimates that imple implementing collective bargaining for NNPS employees would cost about $60,000 in year one and about $18,000 um per year in subsequent years. This is a modest investment that would pay off many

017times over and improve re recruitment and retention of quality teachers and staff amidst the improved working conditions that occur when employees have a true voice on the job. Thank you for supporting NNPS's hardworking teachers and staff by requesting a line item for funding for collective bargaining from city council. Moving on to the topic of sick leave. Thank you to NNPS for soliciting input on a potential sick leave bank. Since there is not sufficient support from employees for a sick leave bank at this time, an effective and much simpler alternative is a sick leave donation program which would greatly benefit employees who are exper experiencing medical crisis. Um, I work with a teacher who is in recovery from cancer and has used all of her sick leave days on maintenance chemotherapy and grieving the death of

018a close family member. And now each day that she has to take off for chemo appointments or for not feeling well after chemo appointments is unpaid. She said that the proposed sick leave bank would not have helped her, but that a sick leave donation policy would. Um, Williamsburg James City County, Hampton City Schools, Virginia Beach schools, Fairfax, and many more have this program. Please consider it. Thank you for your time, Carolyn Jones. Okay, good evening. My name is Carolyn Jones. I am a Newport News resident and an NNPS teacher. You know, I drafted a speech tonight. Um, after hearing the reverend's words a little bit ago, and after reflecting on it for about 15 seconds, I was like, you know what? Like, it's it's a little sarcastic. And honestly, I think it would be justified

019sarcasm um because of how things are going this year. But I'm going to dial it back a little bit, but I'm still going to open with the same story. There's an old story, um, an American story about a little Dutch boy who discovers a hole in a flood wall and plugs it with his finger. He sits there overnight. I guess he thought he couldn't go get help in time to plug the hole in the wall. And then the adults discover him the next morning and applaud him as a hero for doing what he had to do in the cold night to plug that hole and keep the town from flooding. Um, that story increasingly reminds me of teachers. We are asked to plug so many holes. We are expected to have 99 fingers. It feels

020like and I don't really think teachers are going to be able to keep doing that another 10 years. When I last spoke to you in September, I was about to crash out and quit. Now, for context, I'm not fresh out of college. I knew what I was getting into with teaching. I survived school I survived four years in a school division where I was the only ESL teacher split between four schools sometimes running between four schools a day uh covering grades K through 12 and having to keep track of all those schedules. I did that for four years. I am I'm a pretty tough lady. But every demand of this school division expecting teachers to plug so many holes all the time. Whether it's students who straight up refuse to do their work, students who

021won't get off their phone, students who abuse AI, teachers, uh parents who won't answers their phone, teachers, first year teachers who need help and mentorship. Understandably, we're just expected to do everything. Club sponsorship. I had so many nice people asking me to sponsor a club this year and I'm really glad I didn't because the weird demands p placed on unpaid club sponsors is just ridiculous. I really feel like there are people in the school division who don't understand every single demand that is placed on us. And to try to avoid calling out individuals, individual administrators, for example, I'm not going to go into detail here. I had a draft out of immense respect for my colleagues at the building level. I'm not going to go down that road, but I need you to pay attention

022when people reach out to you with deep-seated concerns about whether or not you're going to have a functioning school division in 10 years. I'm afraid you're not because you're going to burn out so many staff. You have to take action even before collective bargaining is on the table. There's no avoiding that you are absolutely running people ragged and we're not going to have time for our own families. We will not sacrifice ourselves for someone else's kids. Thank you. At this time, the board will hear comments regarding school board salary. The board considers this an opportunity to listen to your comments. Please understand that we appreciate and will consider your feedback. We also ask that you comply with our three minute time limit. As you begin your comments, a green light will come on. A yellow

023light signals that you have 30 seconds remaining. A red light and a beep indicates that your time is up. Thank you, Miss Buffalo. Do we have any cards? Be nice to cut it on. I have no cards for the public hearing, Madam Chair. Okay. Well, this concludes our public hearing on school board salary. May I have a motion to close the public hearing? Madame Chair, um I move to close the public hearing. Is there a second? Second. It's been moved and second that we close the public hearing. Hunter Surles Law for Alger Brown for Harris for best for motion passes 70 we will now move on to section three the consent agenda which includes 3.01 minutes from the work session November 18th 2025 3.02 02 minutes from the regular meeting November 18th, 2025. 3.03 financial

024reports including the revenue and expense reports for November 2025. Child nutrition reports 3.04 The personnel report 3.05 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 moved in second to approve the consent agenda. Buffalo. Hunter for. Surles-Law for. Alger for. Brown for. Harris for. Best for. Motion passes 70. Thank you. We will move to section five action items 5.01 proposed FY26 legislative program. Dr. Mitchell. Thank you. Thank you. If you recall, Mr. Pat Finneran who was here with us tonight presented the legislative program to you uh I believe it was last month and so we are asking you to approve that. I know you've had the opportunity to read the legislative information in board docs and as

025I said at this time we would like you to um take action on that proposal. Thank you. May I have a motion? I move to approve the proposed um FY26 legislative program. Would a second? Second. moved and second to approve the legislative program. Are there any questions? Discussion. Miss Buffalo. Call the vote, please. Hunter, for. Surles-Law for. Alger. Aman. for. Brown. for. Harris. for. Best. for. Motion passes. 70. Thank you. We will move to 5.02 FY2627 course proposal. Dr. Mitchell. Thank you. Again, if you recall, Daryl Pancratz came before you um to share some proposed uh new courses. And keeping in mind that the courses are often recommended by our teaching staff, I will acknowledge I recommended the um sign language class near and dear to my heart. Um at this time, we we do

026ask that you uh um take action on those particular courses. There are courses around advancing our students in math and a v variety of other areas. As you recall, he did a presentation and you also have the information in board docs. Thank you. May I have a motion? I move to approve the FY2627 course proposal. Second. It's been moved and second to approve the FY 2627 course proposal. Any questions, comments? Miss Buffalo, call the role, please. Hunter, for. Surles-Law for. Alger. Aman for. Brown for. Harris for. Best for. Motion passes 70. Thank you. We will now move to 5.03 NNPS strategic plan. Dr. Mitchell. Thank you. Miss Tracy Brooks presented to you two months ago the uh draft and NPS new strategic plan. Keeping keeping in mind that this document reflects community stakeholder and stakeholder

027engagement including board workshops, focus groups and surveys. It does provide clear goal statements and success measures that the board can use to govern uh policy and it aligns with policy as well as accountability. So, at this time, we ask that you consider um taking action on the proposed Newport News public school strategic plan. Thank you, Dr. Mitchell. May I have a motion? I move to approve the Newport News strategic plan. Second. It's been moved and seconded to approve the strategic plan. Questions, discussions, comments? Uh, Mr. Brown, just only one uh comment would just be uh I I do think it's a very strong plan and hats off to the team for uh pulling the the plan together. I know a lot of work has gone into it. Uh, one of the things that I, uh,

028was championing to have in the plan was smart goals and smart being specific, measurable, actionable, uh, relevant, timely. And, uh, I thought we got uh, we got close in several areas, but not quite where I wanted to uh, to get in terms of smart goals as as I understand them. And so, uh, that's just my comment. Thank you, Mr. Brown. Mr. more. My comment is just um thank you for all the hard work that did go into our program. Um the plan this year uh the process was very different than it was in past years. It was um guided and the board's work and we were we were encouraged to uh focus on the what and Dr. Mitchell, you and your team are going to be focused on the how and we are very very

029excited to see how um you know it actually comes to pass that our strategic plan is implemented. Thank you, Mr. Slaw. Any other comments? And I too would like to thank the um committee um having an opportunity to participate in all facets from beginning to end. A lot of hard work and thought went into our strategic plan and um I think it's really going to benefit the students in Newport News public school. So I just want to say thank you to everyone that had a hand in it as well. Spok call the role please. Hunter for Surles-Law for Alger. Aman for Brown against Harris for best for. Motion passes 61. Thank you. We will now move to item 5.04, personnel actions. Dr. Mitchell. Thank you. Uh, tonight I would like to recommend Dr. Amy Triggero

030as the assistant principal of Crittenden Middle School. Dr. Triggero has a doctor of education in educational leadership and policy studies from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She currently works as a senior coordinator of school improvement with Norfolk Public Schools, but in the past has had experience as a teacher and as an assistant principal in another district. So, we highly recommend her as an assistant principal for Crittenden Middle School. Thank you. May I have a motion? I move to approve the superintendent's recommendation for Dr. Amy Triggero, assistant principal for Crittenden Middle School. Second. It's been moved and second. Do we have any questions, discussion, comments? Miss Buffalo, call the role, please. Hunter, for. Surles-Law for. Alger, Aman for. Brown for. Harris for. Best for. Motion passes 70. Thank you. We will now move to section

0315.05 05 exercise of purchase option for achieve dream middle and high school improvements. And before we turn it over to Dr. Mitchell, we will have a statement from Miss Aean. Thank you, Dr. Best. Um I, Rebecca S. Aean, a member of the Newport New School Board, do hereby declare, pursuant to section 2.2-3112B2 and section 2.2-3115I, 2-3115 I of the Virginia State and Local Government Conflict of Interest Act that for the schoolboard meeting of December 16, 2025, one, the school board will consider passing a resolution to exercise a purchase option regarding certain improvements at the Achievable Dream Middle and High School the transaction. Two, an Achievable Dream, Inc. is a related party to the transaction and is represented by the law firm of Carne Patterson ME plc of which I am a partner. Three, I do

032not personally represent or provide legal services to ADI. And four, pursuant to sections 2.2-3112B2 and 2.23115i of the Virginia State and Local Government Conflict of Interest Act, I am able to participate in the transaction fairly, objectively, and in the public interest. And I've signed it and we'll file it with the board clerk. Thank you, Miss Aman. Dr. Mitchell, thank you. If you recall many, many years ago, we had Brierfield Elementary School. And Brierfield Elementary School was renovated to become Achievable Dream Secondary. And at that time, there were financial agreements. And at this time, we have the opportunity to purchase the um improvements. And so I would ask that you vote on that tonight so that we can in fact purchase those improvements that were made to Brierfield Elementary School which is now an achievable dream

033secondary. Thank you. May I have a motion? I move to approve the exercise of purchase option for um um achievable dream um high school and elementary I mean I'm sorry middle middle and high school improvements resolution second move and second any comments Mr. Brown. I just asked a question for transparency to the public so that they understand the transaction that we're doing. Um, could we have the superintendent explain just a little bit more what purchasing purchasing the exercise options actually means principally for this this transaction? Thank you, Mr. Brown. And actually, I'm going to rely on our attorney because he understands the language and the lingo. There was a very complex transaction among achievable dream school division and economic development authority in that transaction resulted in um the improvements actually by Achievable Dream to what

034became the Achievable Dream Middle and High School. And those improvements have been financed. The cost has been advertised and at this point the school division has an opportunity to purchase those improvements for $1. And that's the action that would be approved now. And the other thing that is done in this resolution is it allows the superintendent and legal counsel to complete all the necessary paperwork and other transactions and documents that might be required. Okay. Thank you, Mr. W. Any other questions or comments? It's so just to to clarify um the school board Newport News is the owner of Brierfield Elementary School and remains the owner of Brianfield Elementary School. Achieve Dream and remains the uh owner of Achievable Dream Middle High School through this transaction. Yes. Interestingly enough, we owned the building without all the

035improvements. So now we're getting the improvements in our neighbor. Thank you. Any other comments? Miss Buffalo, call the role, please. Hunter, for. Surles-Law, for. Alger, for. Aman, for. Brown, for. Harris, for. Best for. Motion passes 70. Thank you. We will move to section six, reports and information 6.01, new and revised policies. Dr. Mitchell. Thank you, Madam Chair. Tonight, Tracy Brooks will present information. Thank you. Tonight, Tracy Brooks will pres pre present information from the next round of policy review uh within the school board's five-year policy review cycle. This work reflects the board's role in setting clear policy direction while ensuring alignment with law and best practices. Thank you, Miss Brooks. Thank you, Dr. Mitchell. Good evening, madam chairman, vice chairman, members of the board, Dr. Mitchell, it is a pleasure highlights from six new and

036revised policies and procedures with you this evening. Since one of the major roles of the school board is to set the policy direction for the school division, I'm sorry, we are fortunate to have two board members on the policy committee along with principles, administrators, and teacher representative and our school board and school division attorneys. Now, as Dr. Mitchell mentioned this evening we will begin the second round of the chapters to review in year one of our five-year timeline which will focus on two policy chapters facilities planning and support services. I would like to thank chief operations officer Rusty Fairheart and his executive leadership team of Kathy Alexander, Wayade Beverly, Shay Coats, and Wayne Santos for sharing their expertise and guiding the policy committee to complete this important work. Now, the committee began reviewing the 17

037policies and procedures in the facilities planning and development chapter. And in two of the policies, we updated and streamlined the language to provide greater clarity. And now I will share the two policies with you that we revised. Excuse me. My apologies. Our first policy this evening addresses facilities development objectives, which states the school board's commitment to provide fac necessary to sustain high-quality educational programs fairly and equitably for all students. We added the objective to meet the facility needs of the school division and the strategic plan by providing learning environments that support student excellence. Our next policy works to support integrity in the naming of school division facilities and the dedications of portions of those facilities. We expanded the criteria for naming a school or facility in honor of an individual who has made a significant

038contribution to education or to our community. Under the new criteria, the individual must have been deceased for at least 10 years and will be deemed ineligible for naming consideration if information becomes known that negatively affects the individual's reputation or standing in the community. Now, the tenure requirement is based on policy recommendations from a few school divisions in and outside of Virginia, but it is ultimately up to this board to d detine an appropriate time period if you agree with adding this criteria to the policy. The second policy chapter that the policy committee reviewed was on support services which includes plan services, custodial services, nutrition and wellness, assessments and accountability, school safety and security, transportation, technology and warehouse services. We review 50 policies and procedures in those areas and revised 14 documents with changes ranging from

039minor edits and updates to staff position titles to adding text to meet local legal requirements. There were no changes to the child nutrition policies given that they are federally driven for the most part and we make the required changes to those policies as they unfold. So at this time I would like to highlight just two of the policies that we revised. Our current policy on traffic and parking controls includes the vehicles that are allowed on schoolboard property such as those operated by employees, students, families, persons authorized by the school principal, individuals who have a legitimate business at a school in addition to emergency and government vehicles. To align our policy with the city's parking ordinance, we added the provision that also allows the operation of other vehicles on schoolboard property with the consent of a

040property owner, such as those operated by community members and individuals attending sporting events and other programs and activities. Our last policy this evening is on copyright compliance. Since this is a very extensive and complex issue, we are replacing our current policy with a new one requiring all employees to comply with federal copyright compliance laws, regulations, and guidelines. And since our copyright compliance policy addresses the rules regarding protected content and infringement, we are revising it to form the procedures to the new policy. Now, we added text to the procedure that copyright infringement damages may be actual or statutory damages, and we will also continue to update the procedure to address new and emerging content and delivery. I would like to conclude my report this evening with two procedures that we've updated to ensure that our information

041technology environment continues to promote educational excellence, information sharing, and innovative instruction and communication. and our cyber security program procedure. We've added a risk management framework as a process for identifying, assessing, and prioritizing the school division's risks to ensure that safety controls are correctly apply applied to our information technology system. Our technology acceptable use procedure or AUP is being updated to include a section on generative artificial intelligence use or AI and how it will be aligned to the overall mission goals and instructional priorities of the school division. And you will have an opportunity to hear more about this in greater detail in the next presentation coming before you this evening. So, in terms of our next steps, the new and revised policies will come before the school board for action at your January 20th meeting and

042once approved, the new and revised policies and procedures will be posted on our school division websites. So, this concludes my report this evening. Joining me are Mr. Rusty Fairhart, Chief Operations Officer, Mr. Lyn Wallen, our director of legal services. So, at this time, we would be happy to answer your questions and to your suggestions. So, thank you very much for the opportunity, Miss Ama. Um, yes, and I serve on the committee. So, it was for as many policies as we went through, it was a relatively efficient, it was an efficient meeting. We were done much sooner than I anticipated. So, that was great. Um, just one comment and I don't think it's we've had a chance to update it yet, but on the naming facilities, we talked about adding a provision to grandfather in those

043that may have been named for individuals that had not been deceased 10 years, so we're not running around having to rename existing schools. Um, and just to kind of put it out there for general board's consideration, um, I would be fine if we just wanted to do physical features, historical locations, and not consider individuals. But I do think the at least having them, you having passed for a while. So we, you know, consider anything that's come to light is a good decision if we're going to still allow for individual names. I'd be fine either way. But I do want to make sure we grandfather in anyone any school names that may not meet whatever changes we make. Thank you, Miss. Anyone else? I do have a question regarding school naming as well. Can you just

044share with me maybe some of the discussion why the 10 years and that was somewhat of a standard. We looked at other policies in the school divisions and um Mr. Farhart had recommended 10 years that was in some of the policies that we reviewed and it's to give you time to do the research to look into of course to investigate the event individual's names. So school divisions had quite a variety of criteria. Some had 10 years, some had five, some didn't include criteria at all. Some did not allow the names of individuals to be considered. So it was quite a cross-section of criteria. So we started with that the greatest number being 10. So it was 10 and deceased. Correct. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? Thank you. Great. Thank you. Okay, we will now

045move to section 6.02, plan for teaching and learning with artificial intelligence. I'm going to ask Mr. Daryl Pancratz to come to the podium. He will provide a presentation that will outline how we are preparing for responsible use of generative AI in our schools. Our approach is grounded in six guiding principles that Mr. Pancratz I won't take your thunder. I won't list those six even though I planned on it but it is in your presentation. We are doing this in a uh implementation is going to be phased in but I'm going to turn it over to Mr. pancratz as the expert and let him walk us through it. I don't know about the expert, but okay. All right. Well, good evening uh chairwoman Dr. Best, Vice Chair Miss Alger, and Dr. Mitchell and members of the

046board. Tonight, I'm presenting an overview of the Newport News Public Schools artificial intelligence plan, which includes our guiding principles, our professional learning strategy, and how we are preparing students and staff for responsible and innovative use of AI in teaching and learning. As we all know, AI is already a part of our everyday life. From GPS navigation to fraud alerts to automated customer support. For NNPS, AI matters because it supports instructional innovation, increases teacher efficiency, and provides opportunities for more personalized and collaborative learning experiences for staff and students. This work directly aligns with our commitment to ensuring students graduate college, career, and citizen ready. AI is a powerful tool that can for productivity and idea generation, but it is not a replacement for educators, nor can it replace human judgment, context, or expertise. Our approach reinforces

047that teachers remain at the center of instructional decision making. In addition, our district's approach is grounded in safety, equity, academic integrity, and responsible innovation. AI will support instruction, not drive it. and our policies and PD ensure that staff and students are protected, informed, and empowered when using these tools in the classroom. We'll begin with our guiding principles which were created during artificial intelligence trainings which were provided by the Virginia Association of Superintendent and the Virginia Department of Education. NNPS believes that Genai can be a powerful tool when it's used with purpose, responsibility, and transparency. The NNPS NNPS principles reflect the values and expectations for using Gen AI safely, ethically, and effectively. In this section, we'll define each principle and share what it looks like in practice for staff and students. These six guiding principles on

048the screen anchor every AI related decision in Newport News. AI literacy, transparency, access, privacy, human judgement, and academic integrity. They ensure our work remains safe, equitable, and instructionally grounded. Number one is building AI literacy. This begins with our staff. We are equipping teachers with the knowledge and confidence to use AI responsibly and effectively both for instructional planning and for student facing activities through districtwide and school-based professional development. The second guiding principle is to be transparent and accountable. This principle ensures we emphasize honesty in how AI is used in our classrooms. Whenever AI assists in drafting communication or materials, educators and students are expected to disclose that use. This helps maintain trust with families, co-workers, and the community. Number three is protecting privacy and data. Protecting student privacy is a non-negotiable. Staff may never enter personally

049identifiable information into AI tools and may only use district approved platforms. In addition, when AI is being used in the classrooms, students will be supervised at all times. Number four, the next principle is promoting fair access and opportunity. We are committing committed to equitable access to AI tools. This means choosing tools that are appropriate for each grade level and ensuring all students when permitted have opportunities to use AI as part of meaningful learning experiences based upon the grade level of the student. Number five is upholding human creativity and judgment. AI can support planning, communication, and brainstorming, but final decisions always rest with the educator. Human thinking is essential to quality teaching and that remains unchanged. Educators must use professional judgment when using AI in their classrooms. And number six, finally, is preserve academic integrity. Genai

050may be used to enhance instruction and learning, but it must never be used to replace original thought or misrepresent work. Teachers will guide students in using Gen AI appropriately and ensure that all work upholds the standards of academic honesty. This means modeling it, setting expectations, and having them explain when and how used it. For example, students might use Genai to outline their ideas, but the actual writing and thinking is still their original thoughts and products. Teachers will ensure students understand this when they are evaluating students students final products. The introduction of Gen AI impacts teaching and learning and our NNPS guidance for students used is based on the grade level of that student. All NNPS students will have access to AI interactions that are either teacherdriven or embedded in an approved resource. Additionally, as professional

051development happens, high school students will have access to standalone accountbased generative AI tools when permitted by the teacher. So, let's take a look look a little bit closer at what this means in practice. This timeline outs the stages of our roll out. This past fall semester, we focused on building foundational understanding among staff and educating districtwide staff on the guiding principles we just discussed. In the upcoming spring semester, teachers will begin implementing embedded Gen AI tools into their classrooms while also receiving ongoing school-based PD centered around AI implementation. In addition, in the spring semester, we'll be piloting a standalone AI use at a selected high school and will professional development for high school staff to ensure teachers are prepared to implement with clear levels of use. Beyond the spring semester and into next school year,

052all high school students will use standalone AI platforms and we will continue providing ongoing professional development. Because AI will constantly be changing, we will be updating PD needs for staff and students on a regular basis. When preparing for student use, teachers need to be sure to use only approved tools based on their students grade level. For example, elementary and middle school students can use the embedded generative AI in Canva or Adobe. And this may look like generating an image using descriptive language to support writing. Elementary and middle school students will only use teacher embedded AI tools due to age restrictions on having standalone Genai accounts. At the high school level, teachers may use embedded tools just like middle and elementary. And in addition, students will have permission to use approved standalone generative AI tools once

053professional development and training has been completed for both the staff and the students. On the screen, you'll see a list of approved Gen AI tools that can be found in our NNPS AI guide book and on our digital toolbox website. shown on the screen is just a snippet of that list and each of these have been vetted for safety, privacy and instructional relevance in our technology department. This list will be ever changing as new platforms arise and security permissions change on each on each of these. To help support the future use of high school students using Genai standalone platforms in the classroom, we have created a Genai levelsofuse image which you see on the screen. High school Staff will receive professional development during the spring semester of the school year to implement the levels of

054use effectively in their classrooms. Upon completion of staff professional development, teachers will lead trainings for students on the use of this guide in their daily instruction. The levels of use document will allow teachers to have the autonomy to determine the level of AI that a student may use on a specific assignment. If you notice, level one is no AI use. Level two allows for AI assistance such as brainstorming ideas and checking grammar. Level three allows for AI as a partner for students and this would look like using AI to help structure or expand content or generate visual designs. Finally, level four is when AI is essential to their assignment. This would look like AI powered simulations and analyzing data. This image will be distributed so that all high school classrooms will have this as a

055visual reference for daily instruction. Our next steps as a division is for staff to use approved AI tools to streamline work and act as a thought partner. Staff are encouraged to consider leveraging Gen AI with students that is teacher directed or embedded in other tools. Teachers will also take part in the spring professional development plan to better equip in their classrooms. For high school staff, they will attend professional development around the levels of use on standalone AI such as Chat GPT and Gemini. When staff have been trained and our pilot has completed, we will then um train students in the classrooms and begin to implement that on a daily basis. Finally, to help supporting or help support for or help support learning for our staff and community, we've created the following resources which you see

056on the screen. In the top left corner is our AI guide book. Currently, this is a staff only document, but as training progresses, this will become available to the community. The guidebook clearly outlines the NNPS guiding principles and how they apply for staff, students, and families. In addition, on the top right, we have created a site on the NNPS website where community members can access information around artificial intelligence. When the guide book is ready after professional development concludes and all staff and students have been trained, this will also be linked on the NNPS website. In addition, the bottom left and bottom right, we have created a digital toolbox that houses the resource about artificial intelligent for staff as well as professional development site for all staff to increase their knowledge around artificial intelligence. Thank you

057for allowing me to present our plan for generative AI in NPS. I'd like to with the quote on the screen which aligns to our AI plan. Together we can leverage Genai to amplify human creativity, deepen critical thinking thinking, and strengthen connections in our classrooms and across our schools. At this time, I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Yes, ma'am. Con. Um, you mentioned that you're going to teach students how to responsibly use generative AI and I was wondering what grade you would and if that would be incorporated into any curriculums. Absolutely. So, it'll be for all 9th through 12th grade. Uh, once we've or completed our pilot, then we'll roll out to all 9th through 12th. And we haven't identified the exact subject yet, but it will roll out through a specific subject

058from that teacher. Yes. Yes. Well, the questions are many so let me see if I can make them make them fewer. Um, so and part of it is I think of AI how I'm seeing it in my work which is not a deepening but a starting point. You know, if I know Virginia law but someone asked, can I do this in Indiana? I might do a quick chat GPT search to show me where can I go to get the what's it site try to get to the statutes but num say at least 50% of the time what they're saying and what they're citing the sites don't support what they're saying and or they interpreted it wrong. So it's a place to start and then you have to apply your knowledge creativity and problem solving to

059confirm it's correct and analyze and and get your answer. um you know you're talking about embedded AI. So I guess part of my question is or where does you know if you can use it to kind of start research where does that fit into the red yellow green blue you know paradigm versus it almost seemed like it was more of a I've done the research and it's going to help me make my words and paragraphs better you know I almost I almost see it as the flip. No absolutely so if you look at the image on the screen like what we would say then is like a level two or level is exactly what you were just describing, right? And so we're using that to generate knowledge or generate, you know, understanding of things and

060doing the research around it. Um, but again, they would use that to then help shape their work, right, to be able to write it. So, um, this is essentially what the high school training is going to look like for our teachers so they understand exactly what does each level represent and what exactly are we teaching students to do in each of those levels. uh because we do want to make sure that they're using it around idea generation, brainstorming, using those things or hey, you know what? I'm just trying to figure out something that I don't know exactly, right? So I can look at it, but then again, I've still got to process that and actually put it into my original thought. So that's not reliable. Yes. Exactly. Is it reliable? And that's what goes back

061into our guiding principles around academic integrity, making sure that we're actually using reliable sources and reciting those sources, all of those things. And then my second sort of area of question is I don't think it's in here yet. Where will we be as far as teachers using some AI detection tools on if students used AI to create a paper? Because I have fully dictated a um so from client notes and conversations with their accountant a memo just dictating it, ran it through a detector and it came back 90% AI. And I know it was strictly my knowledge and that my client's specific facts. So I'm skeptical of those to say the least, you know. So where is that going to be in what we can do and not do? So and that's actually in in

062conversation still happening right now um with Mr. Santos and technology. You're exactly right. A lot of those are not reliable, right? And you get very high percentages of saying it's AI use when a student may have written the entire paper and then quite the contrary when the student uses it 100% they only use it 30%. Right? So, there's a lot of kind of open window right there still. Um, and we're actually researching into those to see which ones are more reliable, which ones are not, so then we can actually put those into place later on. But honestly, right now, we're just kind of diving into those just because there is such a gap in really well maybe figuring out how to tell students, all right, here's how you can document and track how you did

063it. So if it does pop up, you can say, "Look, here are my notes. Here's how I came up." So you're unfortunately having to prove your case. Absolutely. And that's part of one of the guiding principles when we talk about academic integrity as well. And also them having to site the source. So the APA manual, the seventh edition APA manual actually shows you how to site AI sources now, right? And so that's part of our training for students is if you're going to use it and you're using this to even brainstorm, it now becomes one of your references in your papers. I just want to make sure they're protected. but then also have good tools like in college if they ran into a problem. So every week it seems to change so we're just having

064to update as we keep going to be honest. Yes. And I just wanted to add I I'd like to see and I'm glad you added the parent piece in there to loop our parents in as far as you know gaining knowledge and guiding the students because it's an awful feeling when your kids know more technology. Absolutely. And uh and I think it'd be a great idea and and I imagine at some point we're going to have elementary um level fifth graders. I was just thinking about fifth graders preparing them for middle school and how important that is going to be. Um absolutely. And so, especially with elementary and middle school right now, they'll just have the embedded tools in all of the platforms because um for instance, chat, GPT, Gemini, those all have an age

065restriction of 13. So, we won't be able to allow them to use those. So, it'll constantly be embedded tools, right? Um but our website has kind of general information right now about AI for our community uh members and families. Um, and it has, like I said, once that professional development is done this year and we've trained the teachers, then the entire guide book will go up on the website as well, and it has a whole section for staff, families, and students. And each one is broken down with information for each one of those demographic. So during a lesson, is a teacher allowed, let's say, at a fifth grade in a fifth grade classroom to use AI during that lesson or is that because it's an elementary, so they would be allowed to use an embedded

066tool, right? Such um like school AI for instance um it's very similar to like a cahoot program or something. It sends a code to the student to log in on their computer but it doesn't actually ever have them log into the AI platform. Got it. So the teacher controlling and the teacher controls it AI platform. So yes, the student may be using an AI tool but the teacher directed is what's happening during the whole lesson. Yes. Thank you Mr. Bal. So first I want to say uh Dr. appreciate the presentation. We've been talking about this for uh a little while and what our approach to AI was going to be and that there was a there was a deep need for for policy. Uh I've got a lot of questions also, so I'll try to

067narrow my questions to uh can I get a copy of the AI guide book to to read? Yes. And it's on our internet right now for staff. Okay. Because I think that will that'll probably address a lot of the questions that that I have. Um, and so maybe we'll start there with just reading the guide book and then you you had also mentioned standalone AI. I just want to um get you yeah get your definition of what what does standalone AI mean uh versus any versus another configuration. Absolutely. So just the standalone is what we know as more of like a chat GPT or a Gemini, right? where students can create an account, they can log in as a high school student and do those things whereas the other are embedded tools which are in

068a program that has an AI embedded component is what we have used as the definition. Okay. Okay. And then just uh and I'll I'll reserve some of my you know conclusions or judgments. I'll read the read the AI guide book. One of the concerns that just jumps out is that I know that um OpenAI and other and other companies just in general are offering these um these platforms to educators, but it's under the guise of hooking a generation of customers from a young age and then potentially as well mining the tokens, mining the input from those young customers to know what it is, their likes and dislikes, following their social patterns, studying them etc. So just the in terms of the the cautionary I would um wonder if have we consider have we considered or

069are we considering a closed solution because there are closed solutions where we the division would control what's going into the AI um and then being able to control essentially what the students can get back from the AI because we can limit it to our curriculum and limit their questions to our curriculum. Mr. Brown, you're a step ahead of us but we uh we are right there as well. Mr. Santos and I actually went to the Google for AI conference um in Chicago and got a lot of information around that and Gemini has a much better closed system so we're still in conversations with them as well um before we move forward with any of the other but we're definitely taking that into consideration as we move forward students privacy is the most important when we're

070using okay uh Mr. Brown articulated my what my main concern uh using closed AI is definitely the direction that I would like to see the division go in. Um the embedded is closer to that but it's not it. um things like uh co-pilot on Microsoft Teams and Microsoft packages, they're used for the companies and organizations and then their AI is built strictly for that company or AI or or com company or organization. Um, and I I'm excited to hear that you all went to the Google um conference because Gemini is heading in that direction similar to Copilot for Microsoft. Um, I guess if all the board members can get all four of the documents that you shared, that would be really really helpful. And then, um, Dr. Mitchell, I am looking forward to getting Mr.

071Santos to talk a little bit more about um just how we're going to put it on our servers and um definitely the cyber security piece on it as well. Thank you very very much. So I have a kind of comment maybe a question in here. So, I'm thinking about the training for the staff. And as I was thinking about the training for the staff, I thought about I think it's Miss Jones, it was Miss one of the teachers that came forward and said, we're asking them to do so many things. So, I looked at this as one additional thing, but one part of me said, we actually don't have a choice. We have to do AI. So my question is when you all are putting this together are you thinking about how it's going to

072impact the teacher the one additional thing for the teacher and then um what are some possible problems other divisions I talked with people in other divisions at our conference and some of them are a little further ahead of us as far as AI. what are some of the problems that they're experiencing um with AI? Um can you kind of Absolutely. So the first first answer to your first question um so we're being strategic as possible and making sure that our professional development of our teachers is falling into faculty meetings and things that they would already have. Um and then secondly, we are actually looking at a curriculum now going back and looking at where can we embed those tools so that way it's not a heavy lift with them. um but they will still have

073the flexibility to be able to research on their own and find other things as well in the classroom. So yes, we're trying to take into consideration to not put one more thing on teachers. Uh but you're exactly right. We have to do something. Um and one thing I learned at the uh Google conference that we went to, there's districts that are ahead of us. There's districts behind us. There's districts right where we are. Um and a lot of those districts who were ahead of us and just kind of let students go ahead and use AI now they're having to back up, right? And having to go back and kind of put these principles in place and things like that. So I think we may have waited a little bit, but I think now we have

074a little bit better plan that we're implementing as we keep moving forward. And so there's there's definitely always going to be a speed bump coming up. And that's what I talked about. It seems like AI ever changes every week. Mr. Santos and I have a weekly phone call where we're talking about AI and what we're doing. And so as we have those and we keep talking, then we make those adjustments and keep moving forward. Thank you. Any other comments, questions? Thank you all very much. Um we will now move to 6.03 6.03 03 schoolboard salary discussion. And at this time, I am going to read a resolution resolution of the school board of the city of Newport News declaring its intent to establish a salary increase for its members to become effective on January 1st,

0752027. Whereas Virginia school boards may pay their members an annual salary consistent with the salary procedures and no more than the salary limits as set forth in section 221-32 and 152-1414.6 of the code of Virginia 1950 as amended. And whereas a school board may by passage of a resolution also pay its chair an additional $2,000 a year above the salary paid to other board members pursuant to section 22.1-32 of the code of Virginia 1950 as amended and whereas the school board in the city of Newport News has not increased its members salaries for many years now. Therefore, dear resolved by the school board as follows. That effective January 1st, 2027, the school board for the city of Newport News, Virginia hereby increases its salaries. The chair salary will increase from $17,000 to $27,000 a year

076and the remaining board members salaries will increase from 15,000 to $25,000 a year. Number two, that said increases are contingent upon the school board including funding for these salary increases in its fiscal year 2027 annual budget estimates sent to the city council for the city of Newport News Virginia pursuant to section 22.1-92 of the code of Virginia 1950 as amended and the city council subse subsequent appropriation of said funding that this resolution shall be effective from and after its adoption. Terry Best Chair, Tiffany Moore, Buffalo, Clerk of Court. And at this time, I'm going to entertain a motion that we move this item to an action item. I move to move um 6.03 schoolboard salary to action. I second. It's been moved and second that we move schoolboard item 6.03 schoolboard salary to an action

077item. Any questions, discussion? Um just for clarification purposes, part of the reason this is coming up has to do with when a budget is presented to city council for them to then consider for the next fiscal year, which would then be for a year from this coming January. So this is a function of timing that's that it's coming up. Correct. And if I remember rightly back when it was set at 15,000 I've ran a number 2008 um pretty much on par with just inflation in Josh months as best I could tell. If I could add one comment that one of the things that is a little unusual about raising salaries for both city council and school boards is that it's related to elections and the way the code is written uh because there's going to

078be election next year. You have to make your decision to increase salaries this year and make that decision before December 31st. If you don't make the decision before December 31st, you couldn't make another decision until 2028. That's correct. And city council already adjusted theirs this summer. Correct. I think eight years ago. Couple years ago. Any other questions? Miss Buffalo called the role. And could you repeat the motion again? I move to uh move 6.03 03 schoolboard salary to action to read it. Okay, you can call. Okay, this is to move it to action. Hunter to do it. Surles-Law for. Alger for. Aman for. Brown for. Harris for. Best for. Motion carries. Passes 70. Thank you, Miss Buffalo. And at this time, I'll ask for a motion to approve the resolution. I move to approve the

079resolution. Second for the salary increase. For this Okay. For the salary increase. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Second. It's been moved and second that we approve the resolution for the school board salary increase. Any questions, comments? I'll just make the comment that it's been close to 20 years since the school board has received any salary increase or any any increase in in stipen. Cost of living has gone up considerably. The cost of running for school board has gone up. Cost of being on school board and the community demands of uh being a school board member have gone up, but the salaries have not for nearly 20 years. So, thank you, Mr. Brown. Anyone else? Thank you, Miss Buffalo. Call the role, please. Hunter, for. Surles Law, for. Alger, for. Aean, for. Brown, for. Harris, for. Best for.

080Motion passes 70. Thank you. At this time, we'll move on to section 6.04, the attendance report. Board members, you have received a copy of this report. Are there any questions? Thank you. We'll move on to 6.05. 05 the membership report. Board members, you have received a copy of this report. Are there any questions? 6.06 construction reports. Board members, you have received a copy of this report. Are there any questions? Hearing none, we'll move on to item 6.07, comments by the superintendent. Dr. Mitchell. Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to just take a moment to thank our staff, students, and families for all of their hard work, which did result in increased academic results in all content areas as assessed by the standards of the state standards for um learning for assessments uh for last year.

081So, every content area we increased and that is a direct result of the hard work of our staff, our students and our families. And also we we are extremely proud to say not only did we increase in every area, but our on-time graduation rate went up from 93.4% to 97.3%. We're extremely proud of our staff and our students that work so hard to make that happen. Additionally, last year, u we saw a decrease in chronic absenteeism across our school division. uh chronic absenteeism went down by a total of 15.9%. That's awesome. And as you know, we were recognized by the state. Um we are really proud of the hard work that our staff has put in as well as our families who have partnered with us to make that happen. So congratulations to all of

082our staff for all the hard work. Moving on, as you know, we do do our engineering design challenge every year and it was held December 11th at Newsome Park. And this year we had um another partner. We have 444 partners um community partners and now we have 445. Coding our freedom was the theme and our students that are in fifth grade for elementary school work to complete four different STEM roles in the Navy to build and code their way through u challenges in four different phases. K Creek won first place, Sanford Elementary won second place, and General Stanford won third place, and I would like to extend a special thank you to the United States Navy for partnering with us on this design challenge. It was very exciting for our students. And I think this

083is what all of our students are waiting for. All schools and offices and teachers. All schools and offices will be closed. It says from December 19th, but I believe we're in school on the 19th. Yes, we are. We're in school on the 19th. Am I right? At 5 o'clock. At five o'clock. December 19th. At 5 o'clock, we close um through January the 4th for winter break. Monday. One of the things that we do that other divisions are now starting to follow is our teachers will come back January the 5th with a teacher planning date. Parents, do not send your children to school on January the 5th. They stay home. Our teachers come in for a teacher planning day. All students will return to school Tuesday, January the 6th. And I wish everyone a happy and

084very safe holiday season. We do recognize how hard it is to be a teacher. I was a teacher. Um, get some time, try to take some time to, uh, rejuvenate. Um, take care of yourself. I know it is hard, but please know that the hard work that you have put in has shown the results. In region two, people are right now taking notice of Newport News public schools and what our teachers are doing for kids every single day. It is greatly appreciated. That concludes my comments, Madam Chair. Thank you, Dr. Mitchell. We'll now move on to item six, another opportunity to hear from the public. And at this time, we'll hear from Mr. David Breman. Thank you so very much for your patience. Good evening, Super Mitchell, and members of the board. I'm David. He

085him president here in support of red for please write and submit to city council a budget line item or line items of what you anticipate collective bargaining to cost you such as for hiring a negotiator for making compensation for retaining bus drivers keep pace with compensation for recruiting them for more fairly paying out workers compensation and works and for meeting other unmet needs that speakers at public comments here um have raised. I would be upset if I heard that we just don't have the budget if we haven't explicitly asked for any budget. Please also revise procedure JBP soon to support the rights and dignity of trans students by deferring to VHSL for athletic championship eligibility requirements and by allowing chosen names and pronouns without preapproval with at least the casual freedom that nicknames enjoy outside

086of the context for legal Thank you. At this time, we'll move the agenda to matters by the school board. And we'll begin with our student representative. Thank you. Um, a couple weeks ago, I got to attend a student representative workshop hosted by the Virginia School Board Association in Williamsburg. And it was such an enlightening experience. I got to meet so many amazing students from across the state. I think the furthest someone had to drive was five hours. Um, and I just felt so blessed for the opportunity. And I wanted to comment on the fact that I learned some divisions don't host community comments and some uh just don't have them because people don't show up. And I wanted to comment that your time is very valuable and we all appreciate you guys coming to speak

087to us. and I wouldn't have known that if it hadn't been for that experience. So, I'm very blessed that the school board encouraged me to go there and I hope you guys have a wonderful winter break. I know personally it's very hard for me to relax during breaks. Um, but I truly urge you guys to take the time off. Um, so just, you know, take some time to spend the time with your family, your friends, your loved ones. Um, it's not often that we get two weeks to ourselves and I just urge you guys to spend it how you want it instead of how other people dictate you. So, thank you guys so much. Thank you to the other. Yeah, I agree. That was great. All right. Well, so it's it's December, so it's a

088time of the year that I say the same thing I say every year for the last 12 years now. Uh, every year that I've been on the Yeah, this is this year going into year 12. Yeah. Every year that I've been on this board, uh, we have voted for a pay raise for our staff. And this year will be no different. Uh, and so I'm making that making that declaration. We've had our Oh, thank I'm glad some people uh noticed. It's good. Uh, so I think it's it's important. We saw tonight in our uh work session how much fruit that has uh generated for our division meeting that our uh the distance between our steps is now one and a half% which that was not something that we had when I first got onto the

089board. When I first got on the board it was a dream to even think that we could get 1% uh between each step on every pay scale. And we're at one and a half percent uh between each step on every pay scale. We uh are one of the leaders. We're the leading division on the peninsula uh for pay in our um in several areas uh bus drivers being being one of them. And that is a testament to uh the work that this board has done over the last 12 years by doing payraises every single year. And so I just continue to implore this uh this board that we continue that that hard work. It has it has not been easy. We've made uh several sacrifices. It has not been trivial ever. And so I don't

090want that to to go unsaid because we've had to make um difficult and challenging decisions, but it I believe that the results speak for themselves. It's been well worth it. We see our graduation rate is amongst the highest in the state. Again, as has been the case just about every year I've been on this board. So, uh hats off to to everyone for that that hard work and let's let's continue that that fight. Uh I want to say to everybody, merry Christmas and happy holidays. I hope that you do get some time to spend time with your loved ones, but I also hope that you spend money in Newport News so we can get some sales tax dollars so we can pass our budget. All right. All right. So, so please please do that. Don't

091forget when you shop, you know, shop local. All right. Thank you, Mr. Brown, Mr. Earl. Well, thank you. I want to give um kudos. Uh we we've done the kudos from Dr. Mitchell regarding our just our wonderful numbers and being able to tout the praises that we have. But let's bring it to this week. They were amazing uh with the inclement weather. That was I just stayed in touch uh with the team and I was just very pleased that we were able to navigate that and to support teachers. Um teachers, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for your abilities to keep your students engaged. on synchronous and asynchronous uh front. So, that's a that's a huge appreciation that this board has. Um I do like snow days, however. So, the next big snow I'm voting

092for us to now remember we did do a snow day last year. We did last year one last year, but we need a one of that that big snow we just had. the kids were. But um the holidays are coming. Merry Christmas to to everyone. Um I want to make sure too that uh the staff and our community, local community understands that they're part of the Newport News Public Schools story. from our um law enforcement to helping us with students to our city council for helping us figure the money out um to the all the support and community partners who we have who are coming into the schools and working with students um and giving internships. This is our whole story. It's not just about the students of Newport News. This is a community story.

093So, I just want to thank everybody for being part of that story. Thank you, Miss Harris. Yes. Um, quick, I'm going to be very quick. Um, I just wanted to thank um, Discovery STEM for inviting me to read to their students earlier in the month and the family engagement specialists there, the Hope Foundation. They were also doing um, a food distribution drive that I was able to participate in as well. So kudos to Discovery STEM and the work that they're doing there in the Southeast community. Um and also to Richneck Elementary who invited me to their literacy night. Um that was amazing um to sit in their library that they've uh they mapped out so co cozy um for the students to sit down and somewhere on the floor and somewhere in chairs and somewhere

094in strollers um and listen to uh stories read out loud. And I also had the privilege of um sharing the reading spots with New Horizon's early education interns. Um and so we kind of took turns and floated um reading to students. So that was a cool experience. Um and that is all that I have. I do have to shout out um Woodside JV basketball team. I'm missing my son's game right now. So go Woodside. Um Warwick, I love you, but go Woodside. um enjoy your holidays um to all of you and thank you for all the work that you do um for the uh Newport News public schools. And that's all that I have. Thank you, Miss Harris. Mr. Hunter. Thank you, uh Mr. Chairwoman. Great things are happening in Newport News public schools and

095what the city of Newport News would say uh built on breakthroughs and we've broken through another barrier. All right. And so again, we've heard some phenomenal things tonight about how we're advancing the school system. And I want all of our teachers truly and our cafeteria workers and bus drivers and security guards back there and all those other individuals that helped make Newport News the place that it is. I always tell folks that I moved here to Newport News many, many many many years ago. Uh because my wife was an employee here at Newport News and when we were looking for houses in York County and in Hampton, she says absolutely no. Newport News. So my both my girls uh graduated from Newport News public schools. They both are doing very well. But that said, you

096know, be proud, be blessed that you are here. And with teachers, we do hear you. And like Mr. Brown says, we are the elder statesman, as you can see here. Um, we we're we're the book ends of we're the we're the bookends of this um school board. and and I'm going to agree with them tonight that we've given raises every year that I've been on school board. And so we do care about all our employees here. And like you said again, not one system that I know of that we have a incremental 1.5% between every uh salary. I mean that's hard to do. It took us about eight years to do it, but it's done. It's done. So, we have more work to do. Uh, that being said, enjoy your holiday. Merry Christmas. Have a

097prosperous new year. Go News. Right. The same. Sure. Um, I'll echo a lot of the same things. And um you know I think and the raises are important and we want to keep doing those but I think we also all keep in mind there's more to um a a good career and enjoyable career and wanting to be with the news year after year after year. So we are constantly asking is this adding what can we do to um divide divide the labor and make things more doable to spend more times focusing on and with the students. So, um that is in our minds. Um and uh for I know it's temp as as you said the uh it's tempting to get overwhelmed even on even on school breaks. So, you know, hopefully everyone can think

098about is there one thing I can take off my plate? It's okay to say no sometimes to have a little bit of extra peace and rest this break. Um but other than that, just wishing everyone a merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, and happy new year. Thank you, Miss England. Miss Al. All right. Um just everyone has shared basically how I I feel as well. Um want to add to it. January uh big time for general assembly uh legislative priorities are put in place. So it's good to kind of think ahead. Um and one of the things that we definitely will be fighting for is of course pay. Uh making sure that there's proper compensation. Um, also, you know, I remember when I was a teacher, young teacher, uh, we barely got days and we only got

099like one week for Christmas, uh, for holiday break. And to get to is I'm telling you, take advantage. Don't do anything. put everything down and uh do what you need to do to just uh rest, relax, and be with your family and your friends because uh as everybody knows when we come back, we hit the ground running running. And um so that's that's something that I always remind uh people of. So thank you all. And um uh just one last thing uh with what happened in Australia, I you know I made uh a choice to attend the Menorah ceremony um this past week with our um local Jewish community and I just want to wish a happy Hanukkah um merry Christmas and uh and of course a happy Kwanza um recognizing the diversity in our

100community. So thank you so much for all you do. Thank you, Miss Alga. So, I have three short things. I'm going to begin with some of the comments. I'm reflecting on some of the comments my colleagues made. Miss Surles-Law uh said she's going to vote for the next snow day. Well, the truth be told, we don't vote for snow days, but many people don't they don't know that. And I actually was on a cruise in the Atlantic Ocean last week and I was getting texts and emails telling me to please vote for a snow day. So, we don't we don't vote. It's up to Dr. Mitchell and her staff. But so I I want I wanted to clarify that we might be in support of snow days, but we don't vote for snow days. Miss

101Harris, the game tonight. I love Woodside. I truly truly truly truly do. Go Raiders. Anyway, and finally, I want to wish everyone a restful um holiday break. Enjoy your family. And as always, I encourage you um to read, eat some um good food, gain a couple of pounds or two. You know that you I'm gonna give you permission to do that, but just enjoy your break, teachers. Just take a minute and and and know that we appreciate all that you do, but but get some rest as well. And at this time, I'm going to make a motion that we um go into closed session because we have more business to attend to. I move that the school board convene a closed session meeting pursuant to Virginia code section 2.2- uh 3711A of the Virginia Freedom

102of Information Act. The subject of this portion of the session is to discuss uh or consideration of prospective candidates for employment, assignment, appointment, promotion, uh performance, demotion, salaries, disciplining, and um appointees regarding the dismissal of a teacher. Second. Okay, we moved to second. Any questions, discussion? Miss Buffalo, call the role, please. Hunter. Surles Law for, Alger for, Aman for. Brown for. Harris for. Best for. Motion passes 7-0.