001Good evening I'd like to call to order the special meeting of the Newport New School Board for Tuesday Janu I'm sorry June 3rd 2025 on behalf of the members of the school board and the superintendent I welcome each of you watching a quorum is present to transact the business of the school division we will begin tonight's meeting with the pledge to the flag um Mr hunter would you please do us the honors will we all stand to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you Mr hunter we will now move on to section four action items on the agenda this evening we have 4.01 personnel actions so Dr mitchell do you have some presentations for
002us thank you so much Madame Chair tonight I do have five recommendations for appointments I'd like to recommend Miss Megan Almond as the director of elementary school leadership miss Alman has a master's of arts degree in teaching in elementary education from Christopher Newport University she is currently the principal of Hidenwood Elementary School and has approximately 10 years of principal experience right here in Newport News my next recommendation is Miss Rhonda Charmers Harmon as the principal of Richneck Elementary miss Charmers Harmon has a master's of arts degree in education and human development educational leadership and administration from George Washington University she currently serves as the acting principal at Richneck Elementary School and has been in that capacity the majority of this school year additionally I'd like to recommend Miss Sharita Holland as an elementary principal location
003to be determined she has a postmaster certificate in educational leadership and administration for Virginia State University she currently serves in the capacity as an assistant principal at Saunders Elementary School she has been with us approximately 13 years additionally I am recommending Mr maron Mcwain as secondary assistant principal with the location to be determined he has a master's of arts in teaching degree from St at Martins University he currently works as a lead teacher at Woodside High School and my last recommendation this evening is Dr jeremy Riggs as an elementary assistant principal location to be determined dr riggs has a doctor of philosophy in educational policy planning and leadership from the College of William and Mary and he currently works as an administrative assistant at Stony Run Elementary School and previously served as a teacher in
004Williamsburg James City County and that ends all of my recommendations for this evening okay thank you so much at this time may I have a motion to approve the superintendent's personnel recommendations yes madame chair i move to approve the superintendent's personnel recommendations for Miss Megan Almond as director of elementary school leadership Miss Rhonda Chambers Harmon as principal of Richneck Elementary School Miss Sharita Holland as elementary principal location to be determined Mr marlon Mcwain as secondary assistant principal location to be determined and Dr jeremy Riggs as elementary assistant principal location to be determined okay do I have a second second thank you Miss Aman any discussion madame clerk please call the role amon best for brown for harris for hunter for alger for surles law for motion passes 7-0 wonderful well let me be the first
005to welcome these five individuals to the Newport News Public Schools family many of them already members just serving us in different ways and we're very grateful for that so congratulations so we'll move on to uh this is a short meeting you guys we'll move on to item 5.01 comments by the superintendent Dr mitchell thank you so very much Madam Chair i would just like to thank our faculty and staff for all of their hard work and their commitment dedication this year we've accomplished a great deal and could not have done it without you would like to say to all of our students thank you for the hard work and parents thank you for your partnership and collaboration and we are wishing everyone a great summer when the school year ends this is not the message
006that school year well wonderful thank you for that clarity um we will move on to 5.02 comments by the school board I feel like sometimes our times go so late in the evenings and we're not able to spend as much time so if any school board members do have comments at this time I'd like to open uh the floor to be able to do that I can call by name if you wish mr hunter oh wow well thank you Madam Chair I will great things are happening in Newport News public schools uh just a few weeks ago there was a 200 men breakfast and that we had many of our students uh male students with a 3.0 GPA uh had their annual breakfast with the 200 plus men organization which was in Virginia Beach was
007very very nice I want to say congratulations to the teacher of the year award we talked about that last week but the other day we had the temporary staff person's um award I want to thank all of those who won those awards or who were nominated and selected by their particular schools we also attended those students who were um dual enrollment went to their reception which was congratulate them i will see them this weekend as they cross the stage with their stoves on and um we also had the IB program and so those students who were recognized the IB program and dinner congratulations on excelling in your academic and look forward to your next steps and um tomorrow we'll have another relaxation with some more the celebratory stuff and I look forward um one of
008the best things about being a school board member that I enjoy the The most fulfilling is watching the students go across the stage no matter what your GPA is the key is that you have a high school diploma and then that high school diploma can take you anywhere you want to go so I look forward to your next steps in your lives students as you said we got a few more days for the seniors and maybe another week for those uh other students but again I look forward to this weekend congratulations and um Godspeed thank you so much i think you shared the sentiments of the whole board does anybody else feel passionate enough to say something else uh Miss Aean did you have your hand raised oh sure and I Mr hunter highlighted a
009lot of wonderful things that have been happening i also had the opportunity to attend the STEM day community STEM day at CNU with my son Robbie and we enjoyed that uh he promptly had us find the Dimby Aviation Academy table with Dr smith to see if there was a drone he could fly again um and we checked out Gildersleeve Stomp Rocket table and Space Camp table lots of wonderful things so if you haven't been next year when it comes around I encourage you to check it out for an hour or so it's a wonderful event and I will look forward to seeing everyone um at the graduations this weekend thanks Mr brown yes I want to say happy graduation as well congratulations class of 2025 very excited about the future that awaits you knowing that
010Newport News Public Schools has prepared you well and that you're going to be very successful um as you metriculate into the workforce or into college or u wherever you may be be headed that you're very well prepared so very excited about the future that awaits you uh for all of the students who are still working I want you to be encouraged that this board we are just as excited um as Mr hunter said the best part of being on the board is seeing you actually walk across the stage so we are just as excited and anticipating seeing you go across the stage in August uh at our summer graduation for all the students who won't be walking this weekend so uh please uh stay encouraged and stay stay with it and we're very much looking
011forward to uh shaking your hands either way uh either this weekend or in August and we look forward to a great school year next year very good either of you have comments um I Yes I'll say a few things um I've been working with um students from Sedgefield who are getting ready to do retakes I want to give them a big shout out they've worked so hard uh and I want to uh applaud everyone across the division uh in terms of helping students out with the retakes and making sure that all hands were on deck uh for the students so they're taking their assessments this week um and we want to make sure that they're taking it under the best condition so thank you to all the leaders who have worked so hard to make
012sure that we are fulfilling the mission and uh and I also look forward to the graduation of uh of 2025 hard to believe um but thank you all and uh and thank you to all the staff that has really done a a great job making sure that we um have seen things through thank you miss Harris uh I concur with all my colleagues here um I did want to uh give condolences um to the family of uh uh Tommy Raymond Senior who was a in a endearingly known to me as coach dad um pillar in the community and huge icon here in the in the uh Newport News area um I will be kind of trying to balancing act with his uh his memorial service that will be this weekend as well um so I
013did want to say on behalf of the of the board um we send our condolences to the family there um also looking forward to my first set of graduations um with more to come hopefully uh to all the students parents administrators um staff uh well done just just well done um highs and lows and es and flows um but definitely but definitely well done thank you so much did you have any comments yes ma'am yes and ditto to what my fellow board members said as well and I would like to extend condolences to the um family of former former school board member u Mr teddy Hicks he was one of my mentors um and he was also a neighbor so we like to just um let his family know we'll keep them in our prayers
014um as well um I'd like to end on a happy note today I had the opportunity to attend the promotion ceremony at Carver Elementary School and my great niece Ashley was one of the promotees and it was just um exciting as I sat there always say that the beginning of the school year and the end of the school year is the most wonderful time of the year and um to see the children the parents the excitement and and learning this thing we call education and I said to myself that's what it's all about that's what it's all about so it was just a pleasure to be a part of their stepping into first grade just like it will be a pleasure to um be a part of the class of 2025 graduation ceremonies this weekend
015so thank you to all the congratulations to the students thank you to the parents and a special thanks to all of the staff that helped us to get them there thank you well I echo what we've got here but I also just want to say I get excited for graduation yes to see the students but also to see the happiness and the pride of the administrators and their instructors or teachers um they're there in their regalia and it is a reminder to the students that they have been taught by the best and for them to be able to see the regalia and know that this is my first regalia but I can make I can do more and it might look like this teacher or this teacher so we're really excited for this weekend you
016probably can tell it is a marathon because we go to each and every one but it is a joy because that's what this position is about so we stand meeting adjourned